Music Category
Music news and reviews, music videos and tittle tattle, with a lingering look at the past from Anorak. A source for rock, pop, album and live music, new releases, artist interviews and features.
The best photo of Justin Bieber and his fans ever
THIS might well be the best ever photo of Justin Bieber and his fans:
Lady Gaga: The Far East your in photos and disguise
LADY Gaga has been to the Far East. The woman who would have been the white Grace Jones had Madonna not beaten her to it has been in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. In Manila, some Christians say Lady Gaga is the devil incarnate and must be banned for: a) taking Jesus’ name in vain; and/or b) not billing herself as Lady LaLa, thereby helping the ticket bookers handle the phones with minimal confusion. In these photos, look out for the religionists and the fans, some of whom might actually be GaGa blowing her own trumpet, ecumenically speaking…
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South Korean Christians pray during a service as they call for the cancellation of a concert of U.S. pop star Lady Gaga at a church in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 22, 2012. Lady Gaga's April 27 concert in Seoul was banned to over-18s by the Korea Media Rating Board as Gender Equality Ministry considers one of her songs to be performed at the show as "inappropriate" for minors. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Damon Albarn strops out of Blur sessions
BLUR managed to endure where many other Britpop and 90s indie bands faltered. That’s mainly because Blur are considerably better than Shed Seven, Menswear, Echobelly, Molly Halfhead, Strangelove, Powder, Laxton’s Superb, Spirea X, The Mystics, Gay Dad and… the list is almost endless, thanks largely to Britpop being one of the most overrated genres in history.
Either way, Blur (pictured here 1994) got back together and played some shows and everyone cooed over Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn being pals again. Watching Damon and Graham perform together is, ostensibly, porn for thirtysomethings. Everything was (Villa) rosy in the Blur garden again!
WRONG.
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Stars and their vinyl records – photos
VINLY was once the coolest thing around. The famous faces posed with their hit parade, and imported records and cemented their credentials as happening cats and kittens. Here’s a gallery of yesteryear’s idols – Presley, Monroe, Lennon, Hepburn, Nicholson and lots of other people so famous that their surnames are enough to recognise them by – checking out their vinyl…
Spotter: Dangerous Minds and Schallplatten
The history of record buying in a gif
THE history of record buying in a gif shows us how we like to buy music. The trick is guessing what next?
Posted: 18th, May 2012 | In: Music | Comments (2)
RIP hard-working Queen of Disco
SINGER Donna Summer died Thursday morning after battling cancer. The 63-year-old singer known as the “Queen of Disco” shot to fame in the 1970s and was working hard until the end. She was reportedly planning to release a new album.
What’s the biggest rip-off concert you’ve ever been to?
WHAT’S the worst concert you’ve ever been to – the biggest rip-off? We’ll get to R. Kelly and his turning the fans into a dairy herd soon enough. First, a personal story. Anorak once went to see Desmond Decker at the Sir George Robey in Finsbury Park, London. The place was packed with Trojan Skins, Two Tone fans and a few less enlightened hooligans. After almost two hours of waiting for Desmond Decker to appear, the singer shambled out before a now very tanked-up crowd. He sang about half a song badly and then wobbled all over the shop. The highlight of the evening was a friend of mine, who by now so utterly plastered he was almost unable to stand, vomiting onto the stage, a fleck of his chunder hitting Decker on the leg. Decker just swayed on. And then he shuffled off. And that was it.
Marc Campbell tells the story of another short and memorable gig in Austin, Texas, where R. Kelly performed for 75 seconds. Fans paid up to $950 to see the singer perform what amounts to a long yawn.
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Posted: 15th, May 2012 | In: Music | Comments (2)
How to play a vinyl record like a boss
KIDS today have no idea how to play a vinyl LP.
Spotter: biotv
Queen to continue elaborate gravedigging of Freddie Mercury with hologram japes
POOR old Queen. They’ve been at a loss since Freddie Mercury – the only one in the group with a modicum of talent or charisma – went and selfishly died, leaving the group to team up with berks like Ben Elton and Dappy from N-Dubz.
Since Freddie shrugged off his mortal coil, Brian May has decided to trade himself as a Diet Slash, appearing anywhere that needs a guitar solo, as well as being chief clog wearer and star-gazer because… well… he can’t offer the world anything else, other than looking exactly like Anita Dobson. Roger Taylor meanwhile is a drummer and, apart from Phil Collins and Don Henley, drummers don’t ever have a career beyond drumming.
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Lana Del Rey sings in Lindsay Lohan’s mouth – gifs
WHEN Lizzy Grant failed to make it pop, her managers, stylists and money men recreated her as internet sensation Lana Del Rey. And Lana Del Ray is a big star. The stage persona works. And then she sang on Saturday Night Live. And it was like Lizzy Grant had never gone away. She sang. And she danced. Well, less danced than swayed like a lazy eye. And one bight spark set about creating a chronicle of her dance moves. The best are here. And they are brilliant:
Spotters: nursejack, incendiare,chandler-dances-on-t,selinakylesansweringmachine,houseofthedevil,govthookr,
Hey Ya? Hey Joe? OutKast’s André 3000 to play Jimi Hendrix
LOOKING out at the world, there’s not many people who have matched Jimi Hendrix’s joy of raiding the dressing-up box and living life as a pop star peacock, with wild hair, irresistible hips and effectively looking like they’ve just dropped in from Planet Funk.
After Jimi came Parliament with George and Bootsy, then Rick James and Prince and more recently, Andre 3000 who is a man who likes to play with sound just as much as a pair of stacked heels and floor-length fluorescent coat. With that, it makes perfect sense that the OutKast harlequin should be given the nod to play Hendrix in a new biopic.
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Posted: 8th, May 2012 | In: Music | Comment (1)
When Top of The Pops had the tunes and the girls
BRING back Top of The Pops. And bring back those Tops of The Pops albums, the discs that featured all the top sounds dressed in a sexually provocative woman.
The Top of The Pops albums began life in 1968. Alan Crawford approached Pickwick Records with his idea for an album of 12 hot songs played by session musicians and people who sounded like the stars. The idea was to pump out a disc every 6 to eight weeks. If listening to the hottest sounds priced at a discount on your home stereo was not enough, consumers were further seduced by the cover art, which always featured a studio portrait of an up-and-coming model. The “Best Of” the year albums featured a model on a poster and calendar.
Pickwick’s MD Monty Lewis told the art team to create a cover that “could be seen from the other side of Victoria Station”. It was simple and effective marketing, aided by the fact that the BBC had not protected its brand – Pickwick could legally call its albums Top of The Pops.
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Posted: 8th, May 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
Coldplay’s Beastie Boys tribute to Adam Yauch is plain terrible
WHAT’S that awful humming noise? Is it Chris Martin trying to drive out the tinnitus in his ears with another drippy melody?* Here’s Chris and the Coldplay ensemble paying trubite to Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boy who died this week.
Tributes are great, aren’t they. They show the world that the living loved the dead star and understood them. In this case, however, they show the world that a great protest song by a band that made you smile and go nuts is no longer a great protest song when Coldplay get hold of it. It becomes a novelty records that just makes you wish you were watching the Beastie Boys.
Sad.
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Adam Yauch tribute – the Beastie Boys Puppets (featuring Frank Sidebottom)
RIP Adam Yauch, the Beastie Boys’ MCA. He sang the protest song of our youth: you gotta fight for your right to partyyyyyyy.
Another dearly departed singer pays tribute. Take it away, Frank Sidebottom:
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Record of the day – The Beatles and Jesus Christ
RECORD of the day – The Beatles and Jesus Christ. Yeah, not Jesus Christ and The Beatles. John Lennon was right about the Fab Four being Bigger then JC.
If only Floyd Hazen were here to inject some “interesting comments”…
Posted: 2nd, May 2012 | In: Music | Comment (1)
John Peel: The Space salutes the tastes of a man in cut-off denim shorts
JOHN Peel, the deceased BBC Radio 1 DJ, had a massive collection of 25,000 vinyl records. The John Peel Centre, in Stowmarket, has created The Space, a project that aims to recreate Peel’s studio and archive. The centre is releasing the names of those deemed good enough to have made it into the collection 100 at a time.
The idea is that Peel had great taste and will bring new music to the masses – songs like Mike Absalom’s Save The Last Gherkin For Me (1968).
If you like John Peel, you will look at the collection. If you don’t like John Peel or know who he was, you may need more persuading to follow the tastes of man who sported a beard and cut off denim shorts…
Posted: 1st, May 2012 | In: Music | Comment (1)
The Smiths to reform aka Morrissey’s mortgage payments must be getting tight
THERE is a rumour that never goes out. That’s right, it is that time again to talk about the reforming of The Smiths. Apparently, the furiously overrated band are going to put aside their differences and return to the stage this Autumn. If The Stone Roses can do it, then why can’t Morrissey & Co?
Looking at the hatchet buried by Ian Brown and John Squire, it appears that everyone is willing Morrissey and Marr to do the same, and apparently, they’ve found ‘common ground’ with each other. Or, as everyone else calls it, ‘money’.
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Posted: 26th, April 2012 | In: Music | Comments (15)
Unseen Beatles photos up for sale – the Olympics Years
WANT to buy some unseen photos of The Beatles? One photo is of an in-flight meal for the Fab Four’s trip to The Bahamas for filming of ‘HELP!’ next their autographs. The menus, one of which has the bands name misspelled, are set to be auctioned next month at Omega Auctions in Stockport. Other photos were aken as the group filmed A Hard Day’s Night in March 1964 at the Scala Theatre in London. Sadly, the photos of John Lennon eating curds and whey in a 1954 production of rhymes are missing. Also missing are pictures of the Fab Four in their 4×400 metres trials for Team GB at the 1968 Olympics, a happening to be celebrated at the London Games of 2012, in which four randomly selected Liverpudlians will be invited to spend day in London for a live televised debate about which of them is more closely related to Ringo Starr…
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The Kitten Covers (2)
TUMBLR Site of the Day: more from The Kitten Covers is a great collection of kittens in the mode of classic pop and rocks album covers: Blondie, Leonard Cohen, Saturday Night Fever, Beastie Boys, Dr Dre, Peter Tosh, The Doors, Grace Jones, Dolly Parton and Marvin Gaye… First Part is here.
Valentina Monetta: The Social Network Song – the worst Eurovision song ever?
SONG of the Day is the 2012 Eurovision entry from San Marino, as sung by Valentina Monetta. The Social Network Song is so utterly awful it looks like a parody, a skit from Tracey Ullman. “Do you want to come to my house, and click me with your mouse”….
It might win.
Posted: 20th, April 2012 | In: Music | Comment (1)
Song of The Day – Too Much Too Young
IT’S raining. We’re feeling nostalgic and in the mood to dance like we’re at the school disco. It’s the Specials. Lace up your heavy boots and get ready to stomp…
The 10 best rapper ghetto birthday cakes
EVERYONE loves a cake on their birthday. Until someone invents a cake you can smoke, these are the 10 best rapper cakes ever:
RIP Jim Marshall – turn the hymns up to 11
JIM Marshall has died. He’s the man who created Marshall Amplification – the famous “Marshall stack” sound prop.
Slash, oncs of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash offerd a tweet that was, oddly , not all in LOUD CAPITAL LETTERS:
“The news of Jim Marshall passing is deeply saddening. R & R will never be the same w/out him. But, his amps will live on FOREVER!”
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Music | Comment (1)
The Smiths and the death of Princess Diana
WHAT do The Smiths mean to you? To the Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University, for a show about the band:
A raft of art projects under the banner ‘The Gospel According To’ start next week with a major new exhibition showcasing how influential The Smiths have been in European arts and culture. The Part 1 will include video installations of contemporary artists Lucienne Cole tap-dancing to Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, Lars Laumann explaining a conspiracy theory that Smiths classic The Queen Is Dead foretold Princess Diana’s demise, and Andrew Bracey’s animation of a bear dancing to This Charming Man.
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Posted: 5th, April 2012 | In: Music | Comments (9)
In photos – Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund at Carnegie Hall
THE Revlon Concert for the Rainforest Fund at Carnegie Hall featured Elton John, Jennifer Hudson, Bruno Mars, Channing Tatum, Sting, Meryl Streep and Jenna Dewan showed us how. Nothing says ‘Save the Planet’ like jetting into New York for a show… PS – what’s Elton John up to with that suppository?
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