Blog Post
Francophiles Delight!
by Employee 37
Fans of French indie-pop artist Pauline Croze won't want to miss her brand new release, Un Bruit Qui Cour, and if you haven't yet, make sure and check out her self-titled debut album, Pauline Croze. Here's a clip of her performing live.
Blog Post
31st Ann Arbor Folk Festival
by manz
The 31st Ann Arbor Folk Festival takes place at Hill Auditorium on Friday, January 25, and Saturday, January 26. Each night features a different line-up of artists starting at 6:30pm. Ben Folds Five, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin are among the long list of artists performing. All proceeds raised through the festival will benefit Ann Arbor’s The Ark. See The Ark’s website for more details on tickets and performers.
Blog Post
The Johnny Cash T.V. Show
by Beth Manuel
Take a walk down memory lane….or get a glimpse of some amazing footage of the young Bob Dylan as a guest on the Johnny Cash TV Show. The show aired from 1969-1971. There’s an hour and a half of Cash singing with June as well as guest appearances of Neil Young, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and Roy Orbison to name a few. Particularly touching was Cash’s launch of Man in Black as the lyrics are still significant. I can’t think of an artist today who can rally fans from such a wide range of genres, can you?
Blog Post
Top 100 Japanese Albums of 2007!
by Employee 37
Ring in the new year with Oricon! They've just released their complete list of the 100 top selling albums of 2007 in Japan. Check out the top 20, most of which AADL owns, and if you see something else on the full list that we should carry, just let us know, below.
- Mr. Children -- Home
- Koda Kumi -- Black Cherry
- Kobukuro -- All Singles Best
- Avril Lavigne -- The Best Damn Thing ( Yup, she's big in Japan, anyone care to guess why? )
- Ayumi Hamasaki -- A Best 2-White
- Ai Otsuka -- Ai Am Best
- Ayumi Hamasaki -- A Best 2-Black
- Ketsumeishi -- Ketsu no Police No. 5
- Yui -- Can't Buy My Love
- Sukima Switch -- Greatest Hits
- Exile -- Evolution
- Various Artists -- R35 Sweed J-Ballads
- Hideaki Tokunaga -- Evolution 3
- Yuna Ito -- Heart
- Namie Amuro -- Play
- Mr. Children -- B-Side
- GREEEEN -- A Domo, Hajimemashite
- Kinki Kids -- 39
- Zard -- Best Collection
- Takeuchi Mariya -- Denim
>
Full list in English or 日本語.
More J-pop.
Blog Post
Nobody Does Dylan Like… Well, Someone Else
by John J. Madonna
In my many travels I saw a The Byrds compilation titled Byrds Play Dylan. I laughed, pointed it out the chap next to me and said, “Is this an alternate title for Mr. Tambourine Man?” The man walked away. See, The Byrds’ twelve-track debut featured no less than four Dylan covers, including the title track. The stranger I said that to probably didn’t know that, and that’s why he walked away. I’m guessing. Of course, Dylan covers don't stop at The Byrds.
Folks haven’t covered Dylan more than anybody else for no good reason. His imagery-rich, stream of consciousness lyrics sound meaningful (though might occasionally be gibberish.) His early urban folk period has been reluctantly tied to the protest movement of the 60s, and his electric records like “Like A Rolling Stone” seem ubiquitous with the latter half of that decade. On top of all this, the songs have reasonably pliable structures. For example, someone could pick a deep track of John Wesley Harding featuring just C# minor, B, and A with a nice backbeat and shrill harmonica and transform it into a psychedelic masterpiece, ala Jim Hendrix and “All Along The Watchtower.”
Also, as holder of the “Most Covered” status, Dylan ends up having his fair share of “out there” covers. The library owns a reggae tribute to Mr. Dylan called Is It Rolling, Bob? Vol. 1 (with no mention as to the whereabouts of subsequent volumes.). Toots Hibbert alone makes the compilation worthwhile with his rendition of “Maggie’s Farm.” On the other end though, Sizzla did a preposterous version of “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” which changed the Dylan’s original energetic pace to a slow reggae beat and altered the lyrics (with the first line oh so cleverly changed to “Johnny’s in the basement smokin’ up the medicine.")
If you can’t stand the way Bob Dylan sings, but you love to hear him talk, be sure to check out plenty of artists have done covers of him. His 30th Anniversary Concert (or as Neil Young dubbed it, “Bobfest”) in fact features all Dylan songs as done by some of his closest comrades like George Harrison, The Band, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds,) and a backing band of G.E. Smith, (sans the late Al Jackson Jr.,) and Jim Keltner. The man himself only takes the stage for the last few songs. Also, the recently released soundtrack to the new Dylan biopic "I'm Not There" also contains plenty of covers. I'm number twenty-eight on the holdlist, so I can't really attest to its quality yet.
Blog Post
Do you know Zooglobble?
by battlem
Zooglobble is the blog brainchild of Stefan Shepherd, children's music enthusiast--"Kids and family music news and reviews - Kids music worth sharing." It contains reviews of new releases in the children's music industry, help selecting age-appropriate music for your child, information about trends in children's music, and blog entries about specific musicians.
Mr. Shepherd can be heard occasionally on NPR's All Things Considered, and he is a regular contributor to Wired magazine.
If you are looking for your next family foot-tappin', hand-clappin' selection, check out Zooglobble!
Blog Post
Detroit Classic Rock Radio: A Plea For Sanity
by John J. Madonna
If you asked me six years ago if I liked Bob Seger, I’d’ve said, “I don’t know who that is.” If you asked me four years ago if I liked Bob Seger I’d’ve say, “Yeah, he’s okay. I got Stranger In Town for fifty cents; it was worth it.” If you asked me right now if I liked Bob Seger, I’d say, “Are you kidding? Every disc jockey in Detroit spends their days fawning over him, his “musical influence,” and playing ev'ry cut off of Live Bullet! Just because he’s from Michigan, I have to love him? No, thank you.” Then I’d probably find a cardboard cutout of Bob Seger, just so I could punch it in the face. I routinely bring three wherever I go. You got to have backups.
Part of me will always be a snotty teenager that will, when too many folk pour adorations on something, automatically hate it more and more. I do not set out to tarnish the good Bob Seger name. Fact is, he made some good records. Springing out of the lively late 60s/early 70s Detroit rock scene, he helped establish Michigan as a great Rock and Roll state… though we might've got more help from Peter Wolf, Magic Dick, J. Geils, and everyone else in… oh, man I am completely spacing on their band’s name. And Bob Seger can proudly boast he had the perseverance to do what few else have done: achieve mainstream success at age 30.
That being said… being from Michigan does not magically make his records any better. “Old Time Rock and Roll” is not a brilliant song. In fact, the more I hear it, the more I doubt if it’s even a good song. His ballads can tend on mushy; his blue-eyed soul can tend to whitewashed soul; and “Turn The Page?” More like “Turn Off The Radio.” Am I right? Am I right? I’m right.
Detroit radio, and I'm looking at you CSX, give Bob Seger his due. No more, though. It does the man no good trying to make him out as better than he was. Thank you and good night.
Blog Post
All Right Boys, This Is It: Over The Hill, Conclusion
by John J. Madonna
The Police had the highest grossing tour of ’07. In a (distant) second: Phil-Collins-Genesis. How did these guys manage to have successful tours while a lot of their contemporaries are relegated to running the nostalgia circuit? The successful tours have always had the buzz surrounding them. It could be a band long-thought irreconcilable reforms. Cream made it back together? How cool is that? Others simply have legend status, like when Paul McCartney dusts off the old Höfner and hits the road.
Over on the nostalgia circuit, I saw Styx with their new bassman, a twenty-something amidst fifty-somethings, whose lone song contribution to their new album sounded like a cut from a Good Charlotte record. I saw The Guess Who. Touting only the original drummer this show was terrible. After Blood Sweat and Tears opened, The Guess Who invited everyone on the lawn at Pine Knob to join them in the pavilion…after which, only two-thirds of the pavilion’s seats were empty.
Part of this seems so arbitrary. When The Guess Who announced they’re going to play a new song, everyone goes to the bathroom, but when Bob Dylan breaks into “Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum,” people cheer. I’m not equating a new GW song with a new Dylan song in quality, but no one even gave it a chance. In fact, of all the concerts I’ve seen, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen are maybe the only artists whose fans will readily listen to the new material. Everywhere else new material is summarily dismissed.
I can see why Bruce Springsteen can have consistently successful tours, what with being the greatest live show ever, but…The Police? Synchronicity made it pretty big, but how does one big album translate into the highest grossing tour of ‘07? And Phil-Collins-Genesis had popularity, but it’s not as if Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins had a long-standing feud, yet the promotions of the concerts made it seem like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. To both of these bands, credit, they broke up on a high note as opposed to releasing turkey after turkey until they decided to call it quits. If you ask me, success at any stage of an artist’s career is a crapshoot. Of course, we must never forget monetary success does not equal artistic success. The third best concert I’ve ever seen (after Bob and TMBG) was Blue Öyster Cult with a new drummer and bassist and no new album to go along with their tour.
Blog Post
All Right Boys, This Is It: Over The Hill
by John J. Madonna
The Eagles reuniting means Hell has frozen over, but reuniting proves Hell exists. Of course, looking at the current trend, it seems any successful band whose golden years have since passed is putting aside old daemons, boning up on the oldies, maybe cranking out some newies and hitting the road on tour. This summer we saw Genesis and The Police. In recent years Cream and Queen have made even more improbably tours. “Classic” artists have also been releasing loads of new records. All of these endeavours have had [be polite, John… mixed results.
Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, and others like them have been able to churn out the best albums of their careers three decades removed from their commercial prominence. How wonderful! Musicians still have moving songs to write and important things to say. What a testament to popular music to see musicians going not for the quick cash-in, but working because music is their job. On the other hand, Journey, Styx, Def Leppard, The Eagles, and others like them have churned out albums attempting to recapture the magic of their heydays, met only with indifference by critics and fans.
What separates a Modern Times a The Rising or an A Bigger Bang from a new… bad record? Granted, the Stones and Dylan both were giants in their day, and though they had a string of… bad records, they’ve proven their past brilliance not a fluke. Some of the bands that haven’t seen the rave reviews of their contemporaries, Journey and Styx for example, might have big successes in their day, but have either lost key members of their groups, or simply didn’t have the timeless appeal of some of the other guys. (For the record, I love Journey and Styx, but their new records are just… not super good.)
And what separates a wildly successful tour from the feared nostalgia tour? To be sure—uh, wait. To paraphrase Seinfeld, sometimes, I’m watching a TV show and I notice it’s 8:55, but the show isn’t even close to wrapping up the story and sure enough, it ends with a “To Be Continued.” Well… to be continued.
Blog Post
Let yourself give in to "Temptation"
by Maxine
Or should I say The Temptations who will be interviewed on stage and performing at Washtenaw Community College's Towsley Auditorium this Friday, December 14. This legendary Motown vocal quartet's current lineup features original member Otis Williams along with Bruce Williamson, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, and Joe Herndon. The group just released the CD Back to Front, a collection of soul classics ranging from Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up" and Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'" to the Staple Singers' "Respect Yourself." Unfortunately, tickets are sold out but you can view a simulcast. Call 973-3450 for more information. To re-familiarize yourself with some of their work and take a nostalgia trip to Motown, check out some of the Temptations' cd's at the Library.