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September 9, 2008
ZUNE - do you really care???
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/09/new-zunes-and-n.html
Microsoft today unveiled its fall line up of Zunes ($249 for the 120 gigabyte model; $199 for the 16 gigabyte model and $149 for the 8 gig flash model) and a bunch of new features, such as the ability to buy music if you hear a song on the Zune's FM receiver and search wirelessly for new music.
And yes, Microsoft is introducing a Pandora-like algorithm that gives you music recommendations and channels from scanning your music library. The service will create channels for you as well, based on what you listen to and what others similar to you like.
But the thing that intrigued me comes with the Zune free PC software download. It's a program called "Mixview."
The service creates a visual map of artists' influences, similar acts, bands they influence and the libraries of the top listeners of the artists. In other words, this could settle epic battles among friends and spouses, some whom like to lord their music knowledge over others who didn't happen to see the Clash live four times. I plan to consult Mixview as soon as it is available (next week) to see if it agrees with my contention that the Montreal band Arcade Fire has genetic links to David Bowie and to Prefab Sprout, an indie band from the 1980s.
From Billboard / RETAILING
HMV Sales On The Rise
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i34d901a64c3dcda2cf246097adc2a582
HMV Group announced 1.3% growth in total sales for the 18 weeks ending Aug. 30, in the first trading update of its current financial year.
"In what is a tough consumer environment, the solid start made by the Group to the new financial year means that our plans are in line with the board's expectations," said CEO Simon Fox in a statement issued to coincide with the Group’s Annual General Meeting In London today.
From Billboard
Amazon unleashes new music site
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i5fa92d82fb6b38e5c7eda99d79d9b0ea
Amazon.com has quietly unveiled a Wikipedia-like music information site called SoundUnwound. The adjunct to its online commerce system allows fans to edit band profiles, album and song information and other music related news and updates.
‘Just a closer walk’ with Preacher Jack
By Joe Viglione / recordreview2001@yahoo.com Fri Sep 05, 2008, 12:14 PM EDT
For those who love the unique piano sound heard on the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise/Sydney Pollack movie “The Firm,” the hard-working piano man from Malden offers that style of ivory tickling and so much more.
“Preacher Jack” (a.k.a. Jack Coughlin), commands the stage like an evangelist explaining his “religion” of rock and blues with a raw, distinctive voice that cuts through better than Jimmy Swaggart or Jerry Falwell could ever hope to — probably because when The Preacher dives in to “Just A Closer Walk With Thee,” resplendent in Gospel overtones and backing vocalists, you believe him — and understand he believes in what he’S singing and playing.
The Malden Observer caught a performance by Jack on May 8, 2008 at Club Bohemia, the downstairs of the Cantab Lounge in Central Square, Cambridge. Photos and more text at this link:
Press release from Harriet Shock
http://www.richbroradio.com/
"I just got an email from someone I hadn't heard from in over 30 years.
Rich Robbins. He is a D.J. and music programmer who programmed major top forty
stations in the seventies. He has created an Internet Oldies station called
richbroradio.com and it is wildly popular. He just emailed me that he found
my first album, "Hollywood Town" and that he's playing my version of "Ain't
No Way To Treat A Lady" from it on his station. You might get a kick out of
hearing it, if you've only heard the Helen Reddy version or my more recent
"Lady Suite."
Here's how you hear his station:
Rich explains:
"log onto http://www.richbroradio.com/ ... click ENTER
then, on the "t-bird" page, click Listen Live Broadband
and the stream should come up in your speakers ..
Platinum songwriter Harriet Schock recording virtual album!
For fans of the woman who penned the love theme to Berry Gordy's Last Dragon along with the "Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady", the Top Ten hit for Helen Reddy
which also hit #1, Adult Contemporary in August of 1975, the news of a new album being recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles is welcome news indeed. Basic tracks have been recorded with Nashville musicians and produced in Tennessee while Schock records her vocals in L.A. Give a listen to "When You Were Mine", part of these sessions, presently playing on Harriet's MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/harrietschock
By DAVID THORPE
The Apple invitation is being analyzed and deciphered -- a fuchsia-colored man jumping with white iPod headphones. One point to anyone who guessed it would be music-related.
Most likely, the Cupertino, Calif., company will unveil a refreshed line of iPods at the Sept. 9 gathering. Maybe a few bands or musicians will perform, since the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts theater in San Francisco. Some speculate Apple could announce that the Beatles catalog will join iTunes.
One thing the announcement apparently won't be about: a digital music subscription service. Music-industry sources say such a service, which Apple has been discussing for a while, isn't going anywhere at the moment.
http://www.wirenh.com/Music/Alan_Chase%27s_Jazz_Universe/Jay_Geils%3B_Meredith_D%27Ambrosio_200808213084.html
The Wire quotes MBM Editor/Publisher Joe Viglione in article
Jay Geils; Meredith D'Ambrosio
Written by Alan Chase
Thursday, 21 August 2008
“Some of the first music I heard as a kid in the late ’40’s … was by Benny Goodman,” Geils told the All Music Guide’s Joe Viglione.
Geils formed the J. Geils Blues Band, a group he described to Viglione as “this kinda little acoustic folk blues group.” The group evolved into the J. Geils Band with vocalist Peter Wolf and moved into rock ’n’ roll history.
LEGENDARY ARTISTS TO RELEASE NEW ALBUMS
60s legends and session men as prolific as ever
EXTREME ON TOUR
Boston area band backing their new Saudades de Rock
Gary Cherone and Extreme have had an amazing journey that is worthy of study. From their early days as The Dream and CBS TV creating a band/TV show entitled DREAMS that got the group to sell their name and re-emerge as Extreme, to the signing with
A & M, the hit "More Than Words", performing with Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi at the Freddie Mercury tribute, joining
Van Halen to, curiously, naming his side project "Tribe Of Judah" instead of just blitzing the world as "Cherone".
Extreme can set a good example to pave the way for the rock of the future by selling a few million of these. We'll keep tabs on the progress of Saudades de Rock.
MORE CENSORSHIP ON ACCESS TV
PUBLIC ACCESS TV HOST in Marlborough, Mass. banned from the airwaves:
MARLBOROUGH - Professional wrestler Chris "The Skunk" Antal routinely scorns public officials' decisions, derides snooty suburbanites, and offends entire countries on his cable access program. He once desecrated the flag of Brazil.
But Mayor Nancy Stevens recently delivered a body blow of her own. She and members of the Marlborough Cable Trust recently voted Pro Wrestling Monthly off the air. The reason: Antal lost video camera equipment he borrowed from the station.
http://www.sellaband.com/squidly-diddly/?name=squidly%20diddly&sort=progress
Squidly Diddly is a Boston band that evolved from the ashes of Slow Children and Boys Say Go.
The dudes in Slow Children are honorable members of the Varulven Catalog.
Check out http://www.sellaband.com
How will this affect musicians and music media?
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSWEN771820080901?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&rpc=23&sp=true
Google Chrome is designed to make it easier and faster to browse the Web, by offering enhanced address-bar features and other elements that are very different from those on other browsers. The product will be open-sourced, meaning others can modify the code, according to the report.
Google has been working on the product for about two years, but work became more serious when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 7, the Journal said.
MOZILLA - FIREFOX
Mozilla pushes out second Firefox 3.1 alpha
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/08/mozilla_second_firefox_alpha_shiretoko/
Mozilla has released the second alpha of Firefox 3.1 a week after Google unveiled its shiny new browser, Chrome.
The latest advance version of the Mozilla Foundation’s upcoming browser is codenamed “Shiretoko”, and is intended for trailblazing software developers and testers only.
Classic CD Review -
Carole King's PEARLS
Janis Joplin released "Pearl" and Carole King followed 10 years later with PEARLS. Both discs are true pearls and fantastic albums. I found this review I wrote for AllMusic.com on Google's http://www.froogle.com/ site - full review on this link:
Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King is the set the artist's longtime fans craved when Tapestry made her more than a household name. On her Writer album, pre-Tapestry, she gave listeners "Up on the Roof"; with Music, the Tapestry follow-up, listeners got "Some Kind of Wonderful"; and on her pre-solo work with the City, the Lou Adler-produced Now That Everything's Been Said, there were three familiar tunes that are re-recorded for Pearls, those being the Blood, Sweat & Tears hit "That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)," "I Wasn't Born to Follow," which the Byrds covered, and "Snow Queen," which Blood, Sweat & Tears, the Tokens, and the Association all recorded. Both songwriters, Goffin with his excellent It Ain't Exactly Entertainment, and King with just about every album she made between Tapestry and Pearls, refused to capitalize on their earlier efforts. They, and their fans, are not the better for it. From 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September," King's first hit, to the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," hearing a superstar sing her original songs that fans know and love is something very important. Her version of "Oh No, Not My Baby" is right up there with the classics by Rod Stewart and Maxine Brown, and at the risk of being redundant, it must be said again: this album deserves its place right next to Tapestry. [JVC Victor's 2007 CD reissue included one bonus track.] ~ Joe Viglione,
posted by vrtv @ 6:02 PM
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