Pop Music: Gene Stout : Featured Stories
The 2010 Pop Conference, a gathering of music fans, critics, performers and academics, is set for April 15-18 at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
The keynote address April 15 is a roundtable discussion with Nile Rodgers, Joe Henry and Janelle Monae. The ninth annual conference is free and open to the...
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Maybe the Seattle music scene’s huge talent pool could yield a new bassist or keyboardist for Smashing Pumpkins. Is somebody up for this?
The group sent out this statement today:
With the news that the Smashing Pumpkins bassist Ginger Pooley has left the band to raise her new baby with her husband... (more)
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It’s amazing how much excitement a still photograph can convey. Even a photo of a highly kinetic art form like rock ‘n’ roll.
Opening Saturday (Feb. 6) at the Experience Music Project /Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is “Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash.”...
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An all-star cast of Seattle-based musicians are teaming up for “A Hootenanny for Haiti” Sunday at the Showbox at the Market .
The stellar group includes Mike McCready of Pearl Jam , Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses, Loaded ), Star Anna , Gary Westlake, Jeff Rouse, Kim Virant, Mark Pickerel... (more)
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The 2010 Pop Conference, a gathering of music fans, critics, performers and academics, is set for April 15-18 at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
The keynote address April 15 is a roundtable discussion with Nile Rodgers, Joe Henry and Janelle Monae. The ninth annual conference is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is strongly advised because of limited space.
The focus of this year’s conference revolves around “stories of sounds and the machines that make them. From the player piano to Autotune software, pop’s contraptions have constantly reshaped musical history.”
Presentations will include everything from... (more)
more at Music Reviews, Music News, Concert Information - GeneStout.com
Maybe the Seattle music scene’s huge talent pool could yield a new bassist or keyboardist for Smashing Pumpkins. Is somebody up for this?
The group sent out this statement today:
With the news that the Smashing Pumpkins bassist Ginger Pooley has left the band to raise her new baby with her husband... (more)
more at Music Reviews, Music News, Concert Information - GeneStout.com
One of four young Northwest bands — Candysound (Bellingham and Burlington), Great Waves (Sammamish), Hooves and Beak (Seattle) and SEACATS (Kelso) — will become the first-place winner of the 2010 Sound Off! competition Saturday at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum.
Sound Off! has given the local underage music scene a huge boost over the last decade. Previous winners include Dyno Jamz, Schoolyard Heroes, The Lonely H, Dyme Def, The Lonely Forest, Idiot Pilot, Mon Frere, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head and New Faces.
UPDATE:
more at Music Reviews, Music News, Concert Information - GeneStout.com
Just days before he arrives in Seattle for shows Friday and Saturday (March 5-6) at Showbox SoDo, rapper Snoop Dogg has been cleared by a London court in his long-running immigration fight with the British government.
The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, is now... (more)
An all-star cast of Seattle-based musicians are teaming up for “A Hootenanny for Haiti” Sunday at the Showbox at the Market.
The stellar group includes Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses, Loaded), Star Anna, Gary Westlake, Jeff Rouse, Kim Virant, Mark Pickerel... (more)
more at Music Reviews, Music News, Concert Information - GeneStout.com
"Is Tinariwen the greatest band on earth?”
The online magazine Slate posed that question a couple years back, and the latest release by the band from the southern Sahara Desert adds more evidence for the affirmative position.
“Imidiwan: Companions” (World Village), which arrived here in October, brings the “desert rebel rockers,” whose hypnotic, bluesy music had entranced the likes of Carlos Santana and Robert Plant (”I felt this was the music I’d been looking for all my life”), back to their Touareg roots. (more)
Watch a video of Tinariwen with Carlos Santana here at GeneStout.com
Some bands merely grow old, others grow up.
Today’s Bon Jovi, among the premier pop-metal bands of the 1980s, has a depth that wasn’t apparent in its younger days. Once defined by the album “Slippery When Wet,” Bon Jovi is now more socially adept. Or at least more socially conscious. (more)
In the 1970s, Casablanca Records became the symbol of music-industry excess.
Founded by the magnetic Neil Bogart (with co-founder and cousin Larry Harris), Casablanca introduced such over-the-top superstars as the fire-breathing KISS and the dance-inducing Donna Summer and the Village People. Fueling the madness of Casablanca’s heyday were loads of money, cocaine, weed, booze, sex and Quaaludes. (more)
At the new, 14,000-square-foot Hard Rock Cafe Seattle, 116 Pike St., most of the musical artifacts have strong Seattle connections. And for fans of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and other Seattle bands of the ’90s, the Emerald City store could become a kind of grunge mecca.
There are few artifacts from the Northwest’s early rock ‘n’ roll years — The Sonics, Kingsmen (”Louie, Louie”), Wailers and the like. But signs throughout the restaurant suggest that the chain plans to add more memorabilia as time goes by. A few Jini Dellaccio photos would be great.
One of the toughest acts to pull off in rock ‘n’ roll is replacing an iconic, charismatic lead singer.
After Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002, the band’s future was in serious doubt.
Now, nearly eight years after Staley’s death, singer-guitarist William DuVall of the band Comes With the Fall, has effectively made Alice in Chains whole again. (more)
It’s amazing how much excitement a still photograph can convey. Even a photo of a highly kinetic art form like rock ‘n’ roll.
Opening Saturday (Feb. 6) at the Experience Music Project /Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is “Taking Aim: Unforgettable Rock ‘n’ Roll Photographs Selected by Graham Nash.”
That would be the Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame. And the Hollies.
Nash was guest curator of the exhibit of 98 photographs of such iconic artists as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Sid Vicious, Jimi Hendrix, Ice-T, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.
Read the full story here at GeneStout.com
Related:
Graham Nash and Seattle artist Ginny Ruffner collaborate on a sculpture displayed at EMP
Elton John and Billy Joel turned KeyArena into the city’s biggest piano bar last night, serving up more than 30 classic songs in a double-shot cocktail of musical nostalgia dubbed “Face 2 Face.”
Though the superstar piano duo has performed this same basic show countless times over the last two decades, it’s still a great value with more than three hours of hit songs, from John’s “Rocket Man” and “Philadelphia Freedom” to Joel’s “Angry Young Man”‘ and “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.”
John and Joel can be forgiven for not being quite as energetic as they were when the dueling-piano show made its debut in the mid-’90s. But the musical superstars (who return to KeyArena Saturday) still have a strong on-stage chemistry that easily ignited the capacity crowd at the Key...
Queensryche’s 2009 album, “American Soldier,” was an intense, hard-hitting record — and one of the band’s most ambitious. It explored the emotional and physical impact of war through the real-life stories of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It’s very sobering when you put yourself in someone else’s shoes,” says singer-musician Geoff Tate. But with the approach of Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day, the Northwest rock band known for its thought-provoking lyrics and soaring, progressive-metal sound is exploring its lighter side with “Queensryche Cabaret” — billed as “the first adults-only rock show” — while on a break from recording its next album.
The flamboyant production, which makes its debut Thursday and Friday (Feb. 4-5) at Snoqualmie Casino, is an interactive, Cirque du Soleil-style show combining music and cabaret, including go-go and burlesque dancers, drag queens, jugglers, a trapeze artist and a contortionist....
The Grammys might not have “put a ring on it” Sunday night, but by bestowing Beyonce with some serious precious metal — six trophies to add to the seven she had previously won — the voters behind music’s biggest honor showed they’re ready for a special lifetime commitment. With apologies to the Kings of Leon’s winning “Use Somebody,” this trophy haul really was the record of the year — the most awards given to a female solo performer on one night.
With that kind of statement, Grammy voters will now try to hand her an award every time she releases a piece of music. It has been this way in the past with others they have loved dearly: Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Alison Krauss, U2. The latter — with their own record, 22 awards for a group — proved how the Grammys’ love can fade along with sales. They went home empty-handed Sunday after their latest album underperformed on the charts.
Read more here at GeneStout.com
Herb Alpert could easily have capitalized on his legacy of helping to create the soundtrack of the American ’60s by hitting the casino, state fair and symphony pops circuit with a reconstituted Tijuana Brass and a “then I had a hit with. . ." show.
Or, at age 74, he could have enjoyed a leisurely retirement doing nothing, living off the financial rewards of co-founding, building and selling one of the most successful independent labels in the business – A&M Records.
But Alpert has never exhibited much taste for nostalgia, especially for his own career. The extent of his reliving the TJB days has been authorizing and overseeing the reissue of some of the group’s records (as well as one solo effort) on CD.
That’s not to say he withdrew from the scene.
Alpert was back in Seattle this week for a two-night, sold-out stand at Jazz Alley, the first of which firmly demonstrated that yes, this is a different sound for Herb Alpert, and yes, he is a jazz musician.
Seattle’s new Hard Rock Cafe at 116 Pike St. will sport this replica of a Fender Mustang guitar, which was modeled after the axe Kurt Cobain played in the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The eye-popping sign was installed Sunday (Jan. 25) at the new location, which could open as early as Feb. 10. (more)
more at Music Reviews, Music News, Concert Information - GeneStout.com
Singer Jemina Pearl may have found her Shangri-la.
The Nashville native (now a Brooklyn, New York resident) is on her second tour in support of the recent album “Break It Up” (Universal/ Ecstatic Peace). Released last October, the album has been getting a spate of great reviews.
Mickey Mouse is now a rock star?
Apparently there’s nothing Mickey Mouse about it.
The famous cartoon character takes the stage in the “Disney Live! Rockin’ Road Show” appearing at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at ShoWare Center in Kent; and at the same times Sunday, Jan. 31, at Comcast Arena in Everett.
Mr. Mouse and all his cartoon pals — Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Cinderella and Tigger, as well as Buzz and Woody from “Toy Story” — are featured in the family entertainment extravaganza combining song, dance and comedy.
The Hard Rock Cafe is looking for a few good rock stars.
Make that bussers, servers, bartenders, etc.
When have you last heard the phrase “Now Hiring”?
In advance of opening its first Seattle location, the Florida-based chain is holding a job fair from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Jan. 11-16 at the 415 Westlake Building on Westlake Avenue North. (more at GeneStout.com here)
I received a tip two weeks ago from a trustworthy music-industry source that Soundgarden was planning a reunion and, cautiously, tweeted the news.
I’m delighted that the famous Seattle grunge band is indeed getting back together and may play such festivals as... (more)
Fans are gearing up for what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday on Friday, Jan. 8.
The Elvis Presley Birthday Celebration 2010 is Jan. 7-10 in Memphis, Tenn. Tickets can be purchased online at the official Presley Web site.
Here in Seattle, the 13th annual Elvis Invitationals are taking place at Club Motor on First Avenue South. (more)
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons recently displayed his latest hot rod at the 18th annual Mooneyes Hot Rod and Custom Show in Yokohama, Japan, the biggest car show of its kind in Asia.
Dubbed The Mexican Blackbird, Gibbons’ over-the-top ride is a 1958 Ford Thunderbird named after a ZZ Top song from the band’s 1975 album, “Fandango!”
By the way, ZZ Top celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. (see car and read more)
Seattle rock band Queensryche, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Duff McKagan’s Loaded were the musical guests for “KISW Salutes the Shield,” a benefit for the Lakewood Police Independent Guild last Saturday (Dec. 19) at the Snoqualmie Casino.
The event sponsored by KISW, 99.9 FM, raised more than $70,000 for the LPIG’s charitable fund in the wake of the shootings of Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards in an ambush at a Lakewood coffee shop Nov. 29.
The event also paid tribute to Seattle Police officer Timothy Brenton, killed Oct. 31 in another ambush. (more)
If a traditional production of “Nutcracker” is too straight-laced for you, consider “Land of the Sweets: The Burlesque Nutcracker,” a spectacle that offers “a perfect mix of singing, acrobatics, glamour and smutty jokes,” says co-creator Jasper McCann.
The 1930s-style burlesque interpretation of the holiday classic by McCann and Lily Verlaine has been so popular that the troupe decided to stay in its hometown of Seattle this season rather than tour, despite a successful run in Chicago last year.
Seattle singer-guitarist Rachel Flotard is en route to Laos to deliver aid to local school children in need of a paved floor in their muddy classroom, as well as school and medical supplies.
Flotard and her band, Visqueen, have had a winning year with the hit album, “Message to Garcia.” Critics across the country have been piling on praise. Read my interview... (more)
