The Stones Exile in France

Ethan Russell has been photographing musicians since the late 1960's.  He followed the Stones for a few years and these photos, along with photos by Dominque Tarle are part of a new exhibit ("Soul Survivors" at La Galerie de L'Instant in Paris) and are included in the documentary film, Stones in Exile, which is available on DVD.  Ethan speaks very eloquently about The Rolling Stones in his Huffington Post piece.   I met Ethan at a Rosanne Cash photo shoot many years ago.

To quote him,  To this day -- especially this day -- I get irritated with photographs that scream (the photographer's head peaking out from behind) "Look At Me! Look at Me!" The value I believe that both Dominque and I were lucky enough to deliver is the experience of letting the viewer be there. 

His photos let the viewer feel like they are peering through a hole in the wall.  Ethan, much like Rosanne Cash is an artist who writes very poetically.  You want to read more. He's let you in on his secret. 

Uncle Floyd's Brother To Lead Conan's Band

Max Weinberg announced he is stepping down as the leader of house band on the new TBS show Conan.  Jimmy Vivino, who has been in the Max Weinberg 7 since Conan O'Brien's first show, will take over the reins.  I always think of Jimmy as Uncle Floyd's brother.  The Uncle Floyd Show was a big part of my college years.  It was made for kids and adults.  Jimmy appeared on the show.

The Vivino Brothers

Singer Eddie Fisher Passes

Eddie My Lifes, My Loves should be required celebrity autobiography reading. His sequel, Been There, Done That is suppose to be more scathing.  Eddie Fisher died on Wednesday at 82. He certainly had his ups and downs.  He rose to fame as the singer of Oh My Pa-Pa. He had the requisite girls swooning over him. He was most famous for his marriages (5 of them), notably to Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Stevens.  He didn't transition to an acting career like most of the singers of his time.  When Elvis hit the scene and rock and roll ruled the airwaves, Eddie's music lost it's place.  He is the father of the talented actress and writer Carrie Fisher. In her recent show, Wishful Drinking, she candidly talked about her parents divorce and her father's marriage to Liz Taylor.  She describes the relationships in the clip below.

Katy Perry Exlied From Sesame Street

In a video that was made for Sesame Street,  Katy Perry runs around with Elmo and sings a kid friendly version of her song Hot N Cold.  People saw the video online and complained about her outfit.  I've seen worse on 4 year-olds in those scary beauty pageants.   She's wearing a gold dress with a mesh top that goes to her neck, where there is a silver bow. It looks like a princess costume or something you might see on an Olympic figure skater.  Apparently this was too much for the viewers, so Sesame Street has decided to pull the video from it's upcoming TV season as well as pull it from YouTube. This of course will bring more attention to it and drive up the views on YouTube.  The video is cute.  I'm partial, but my favorite will always be Elmo and the Lavender Moon.

OK Go Have Gone To The Dogs

Everyone knows OK Go make great videos.  They've topped themselves again with White Knuckles.
The dogs were trained by Lauren Henry and Roland Sonnenburg and their team from Talented Animals.  I can bribe my dog to do a lot of things, but the coordination in a one take video is amazing.  If you pay for a download of the video via the band's website, a portion of the proceeds will go to the ASPCA.  Gizmodo has an article about how the video was made.  Take 72 is what you see in the video.

Here is a glimpse of my dog Dusty watching OK Go's dogs.

Wherever the Music Takes Them

A bunch of great New York musicians get together from time to time to play live.  Mojo Mancini grace the stage at Rockwood on Wednesday 9/22 at 10pm.  This band lets the music take them or take over them.  The band is John Leventhal, Rick DePofi, Shawn Pelton, Brian Mitchell, Conrad Korsch

Chris Blackwell's Island Community

The WSJ has a Q&A with Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records.  Chris was in New York to promote a new book Keep on Running: The Story of Island Records, which is a written and visual history of the label.  Chris has always been thought of as a visionary, but I think his greatest asset is summed up in how he put his label together:

What I was hoping to create was a company where the artists were proud to be on the same label as the other artists that were on the label. So it felt almost like a team or a creative community.

54 World Turning Years

For a show that has been on the air for 54 years, there is not much fanfare to celebrate such an accomplishment.  The final episode of As The World Turns airs this Friday.  I've been watching this show for a very long time.  My mother watched it after I was born and it's been there ever since. The show has been canceled due to poor ratings. The story lines had become stale and redundant over the past few years and I'm guessing that's what led to the decline in ratings. Of course everything picked up last week with the return of John Dixon and the death of Reid Oliver.

There is  a long list of quality actors that have been both small and big parts of the show:  James Earl Jones, Martin Sheen, Julianne Moore, Steven Webber (Julianne and Steven played girlfriend/boyfriend on the show), Parker Posey,  Jason Biggs, Meg Ryan, Lauryn Hill, Claire Bloom, Farley Granger, Tamara Tunie, Matthew Morrison, John James, Kelly Bishop, Thomas Gibson, Shawn Christian, James McCaffrey,  Swoosie Kurtz, Annie Parisse, Rex Smith,  Zsa Zsa Gabor, Abe Vigoda,  Joyce Van Patten, Jane Powell, Ming-Na, Frank Converse, James Van Der Beek, Robert Vaughn, Imogene Coca, Richard Roundtree, Peter Noone, Andy Williams. Jermaine Jackson with Whitney Houston as one of his backup singers and Tony Bennett.  I'm sure I've left a few people out.

One episode that caught me off guard was the wedding of Betsey and Craig.  At the time Betsey was played by Meg Ryan and Craig by Scott Bryce.  Since I can't find any documentation on it, I hope my memory serves me right. The I Do's are said and then comes the wedding band which was The World's Most Dangerous Band,  Paul Shaffer's original Letterman band.  Will Lee sang the Lionel Richie song Truly. At the time, I found it amusing.  I was a cynical college student, but still watched ATWT.

Here is a website that chronicles the children of Oakdale. 
SoapCentral.com has an extensive database on who's who on the show.  Each character is profiled by who they married, crimes they committed, her/his history and other sordid details. 

I've had Bob, Lisa, Kim, Nancy and Tom around for my entire life.  I will miss the Oakdale crew. 

Stay With Me Jesus

Guster is back with a new album next month.


Stay With Me Jesus from Guster on Vimeo.

Paul, Merle & Oprah

According to Hits, Paul McCartney, Merle Haggard, Jerry Herman, Oprah Winfrey and Bill T Jones will be this year’s Kennedy Center Honors recipients.  The show, which is my favorite awards show, is scheduled for broadcast on December 28th.

The Walkman Is Not Dead Yet

According to a research company in Japan, the Sony Walkman outsold the iPod in the month of August.  This is the first time that has happened since Apple introduced the iPod in 2001.  I don't know anyone who owns a recent Sony Walkman.  They were of mass importance when I was in college, but Sony seemed to lose site of the market and Apple jumped in.

NBC Cluess When It Comes To Securing Music Rights

The Emmys opened with lots of energy.  Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, John Hamm, members of the TV show Glee, etc took a cue from Glee and performed Springsteen's Born To Run.  I can't officially show you the video because NBC is not allowed to use it online.  According to a post in Techdirt, NBC (they aired the awards show) only secured the rights to perform Born To Run in the show, therefore killing any viral spread of the opening through NBC.  Haven't we heard this story before?  In this day and age, how do you not secure online rights. I have no idea why that song was chosen, but it was fun and really got the audience hooked. The excitement waned after that number.  Jimmy Fallon continued to sing.  He was personally annoyed that it wasn't "officially" online.  He told Variety that it could have been worth half a million hits to NBC. He worked hard on it and it's a good commercial for NBC and just pay for the rights.  I tallied what I could find of unofficial postings on YouTube and as of noon I found 411,211 hits.  Guess Fallon was pretty close in his estimate. 

Here is the unofficial video posting:

It's All In A Theme Song

Theme songs are so important, which is why it's hard to see them go by the wayside.  Right now Spike TV is running a Hawaii Five-0 marathon of the original series. The episode airing right now entitled Tiger By The Tail,  guest stars Sal Mineo as a rock star who fakes his own kidnapping. 

The NY Times reports on the importance of the theme song to draw in younger viewers to the new reworking of the series to air in September.

Mr. Schweitzer explained why so much of the campaign was centered on the theme music, written by Morton Stevens, a CBS executive, and popularized by the instrumental group the Ventures.

Research by CBS found that “70 percent of people over 35 were familiar with ‘Hawaii Five-0,’ while 70 percent of people under 35 were not,” Mr. Schweitzer said. “But of the people not familiar, they knew the song.”

“When we asked what was the expectation for a remake,” he added, “people said, ‘I want to see the crime-fighting, I want to see Hawaii, and play me the song.’ ”

The song was written by Morton Stevens, who was the director of music for CBS West Coast.  It was most famously performed by The Ventures.  But perhaps the greatest and most overlooked version is by Sammy Davis Jr with a new title, You Can Count On Me.    It's groovy. 

Episodes of the original can also be watching on cbs.comhttp://www.cbs.com/classics/hawaii_five_0/video/. 

And the Emmy Goes To....

Another Emmy show is upon us on Sunday.  There continues to be quality television on cable and the networks seem to have slipped in a few last season.  Sons of Anarchy is conspicuously missing.  The show is well acted and the plots are engrossing.  It's The Shield meets the Sopranos.  Dexter could not have been better and newcomer Modern Family is hilarious.  I think both those shows deserve to win in their respective categories:  best drama and best comedy.

Unfortunately the New Adventures of Old Christine has been canceled, but Julie Louis-Dreyfus deserves the nod for best actress in a comedy. She plays Christine as both deplorable and endearing. She is also one of the few actresses over 30 who hasn't altered her face, making her portrayal that much more believable.  Steve Carell is too good in the office. He's believable also, which is scary. I never thought anyone could fill Ricky Gervais shoes from the original, but Steve has done it.  He hasn't aped Ricky, just twisted the role. He makes me uncomfortable and I laugh.  Matthew Morrison is also up for his role in Glee. I saw him in South Pacific and he was wonderful.  Someone I have a hard time thinking of Glee as a comedy, even a black one.

Tough competition for  best actor and actress in a drama.  Kyle Chandler as the understated and tormented coach on Friday Night Lights is superb.  I would have given him the statue, but Michael C Hall was outstanding as Dexter.  His duel all season with John Lithgow had me riveted.  It was one of the best seasons of a series I have ever seen.  It just kept getting better and so does Hall.    I love Kyra Sedgwick's Deputy Chief Johnson on the Closer. She's given life to the TV cop.  Connie Britton as the embattled school principal on Friday Night Lights  plays it so comfortably.  Her y'alls make me forget she's an actress playing a role.  She deserves the shout out.

Plaids, Glasses, Beards and a Nod to Madonna

Just look at any music website such as Pitchfork and you'll notice if you haven't already there is a style trend in rock.  The look doesn't differ much and it probably doesn't cost much. Gone are the days of hiring a stylist to get just the right look.  Here's the formula:  One or two guys are usually in plaid, one  definitely has glasses. There is a token skinny guy.  75% of the time, someone will have a beard.   The woman either looks ill or is in some select piece of garb that Madonna would have worn circa 1980's. 

Freelance Whales are the whole package. 

The Futureheads have everything but the girl:  plaid, facial hair, glasses. 

Megafaun:  A bearded hat trick and a dog. 

The Hold Steady do not have plaid in this photo, but lead singer does wear it on stage. It should also be noted that Craig Finn went 3 for 3 on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. 

Esben and The Witch.  Prints and plaids are interchangeable. 

Conversations with Tom Petty

 Most things that I worry about / Never Happen Anyway

- from Crawling Back To You

The book Conversations with Tom Petty was published in 2005, but I was compelled to read it after seeing his recent performance at the Garden. Every musician should have a Conversations with .... book. It's a nice piece of history and a look into the writing mind of an immensely talented musician/songwriter.   The title says it all. This book is solely a Q and A .  The author Paul Zollo, spoke with Tom on different occasions over a long period of time.

I could listen to musicians talk for hours about collaborations, recording and touring.  Tom covers all of this.  His most amusing stories seem to involve Dave Stewart  (who is now writing and working with Stevie Nicks).  Apparently somewhat of a character, he hooks up with Tom because Tom recommended him as a songwriter to a producer. Neither had previously met each other.  Dave takes a liking to Encino, CA and buys a house up the street from Tom.  He installs a studio. They write Don't Come Around Here No More. Dave envisions the video:  he will sit atop a mushroom playing a sitar.  That video is now legend. Another collaborator he cherishes is Jeff Lynne as producer and writer. 

Tom truly enjoys being in the presence of other musicians.  He has nothing but praise and admiration for fellow Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench.  As he says, they can play anything.  After seeing them last month, I believe it.  He's worked with George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and the list goes on.   One of his heroes, Carl Wilson, also happens to be one of of mine.  Growing up, Petty really liked his guitar playing and of course that magic voice. 

I finally got insight into something that stuck me as unusual.  Tom Petty songs are not covered very often.  He's probably one of the best songwriters of the past 30 years and yet hardly anyone records his songs.  In Tom's words, people that play his songs "don't get the voicings of the chords right. And the voicings are what it's all about."  His songs, as straight forward as they seem, might not be that easy to perform. 

Unlike a lot of performers, Tom said he writes best when he's happy. He wants to know how you can write a good song when you're miserable. The last thing he wants to do is write when he's down.  Since the interviews in the book took place over time, there is some repetition of stories. I think an edit would have helped the book flow better. It does not take away from the book.   If you want to explore the work of Tom Petty, read this.

F**K YOU, OOO OOO OOO

I think every blog, tech or music site has mentioned this song by Cee Lo Green in the past few days.  I jump on the bandwagon!  It's the end of the summer.  The guy no longer has the girl. The music is upbeat.  The message unmistakable.  We've all thought it, if we haven't said it.

Ted Nugent is Spot On

From Bob Lefsetz

And finally, I asked Ted about the music business, what did he think of that?

He said in 1975, the musicians loved the music.  The promotion man at the label loved the music.  The President of the label loved the music.  The retailer loved the music.  The deejay loved the music.  The people loved the music.  Now, NO ONE LOVES THE MUSIC!

RATTLE ON!

It's The Rattles record release day.  The Rattles are a band of animals from the swamps of NJ.  This project has been a labor of love for me for the past two years. I am more than excited to see the music available to everyone and the fun and colorful website up.   I will disclose that I am the music supervisor for the project.  I hired the songwriters, musicians and producers to do the music.  It so happens they are two extremely talented people.  I will be interviewing them in a few weeks. The Rattles debut album is Rattle On. 

The Rattles Band wear their music references on their sleeves.  Wavy Lane which you can download for free from the band's website immediately reminded me of one of music's unsung heroes, Mike Nesmith.  He wrote and sang those great Monkees songs Papa Gene's Blues and The Girl I Knew Somewhere.  Different Drum was a hit for Linda Ronstadt.  The innocent and endearing 1-2-3 Count On Me is the sleeper track.  It's sung by Kitty, the band's female drummer.  "Her" voice is so refreshingly charming.  R-A-T-T-L-E-S is the foot stomping, air punching nod to punk and pop:  a little Pump It Up and a little Saturday Night.  Shipwreck In The Sky and Lucky Sam's Banana Stand are both playful and catchy. When you listen to Rattle On, you can't help but think of the other "animal bands",  the already mentioned Monkees, The Byrds and The Beatles. 

Take a listen and I'm sure one of the songs will be stuck in your head, in a good way.  Play it for your kids.  Play it for yourself.

Warner Music is Tracking You!

A piece in Hypebot alerts us to a lawsuit filed in federal court contended that Warner Bros Records website, among other  well-known media properties, including Disney and their music site Playlist.com, have been secretly tracking online users, as well as children, by installing ‘Flash cookies’ on their computers, which quicky respawn after their deletion.

Didn't anyone learn anything from the Sony/DRM debacle?  Would be curious to know how many people actually visit the Warner Bros Records site.