On the turntable this Sunday...There Goes Rhymin' Simon

There Goes Rhymin' Simon is the third solo studio album by American musician Paul Simon rush-released on May 5, 1973. It contains songs covering several styles and genres, such as gospel ("Loves Me Like a Rock") and dixieland ("Take Me to the Mardi Gras"). It received two nominations at the Grammy Awards of 1974, including Best Male Pop Vocal performance and Album of the Year. It was ranked #267 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

As foreshadowed by the feel-good lead single "Kodachrome" (which reached #2 on the Billboard charts, blocked by Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round in Circles"), There Goes Rhymin' Simon proved to be a bigger hit than its predecessor, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart (kept off the top spot by George Harrison's Living in the Material World), and #1 on Cashbox Magazine for one week on June 30, 1973.^[4] In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at #4. Subsequent singles were also the #2 single "Loves Me Like a Rock" (knocked-off by Cher's "Half-Breed", but reaching #1 on Cashbox on September 29, 1973), and the Top 40 hit "American Tune". Also "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" was released in the UK reaching the Top 20.

The song "Kodachrome" is named after the Kodak film of the same name. Kodak required the album to note that Kodachrome is atrademark of Kodak. The song was not released as a single in Britain, where it could not be played on BBC radio due to its trademarked name. The song "Was a Sunny Day" has an interesting reference to early rock and roll in the line "She called him Speedo but his Christian name was Mr. Earl" which echos the chorus from the 1955 song from The Cadillacs "Speedo", with "others call him Speedo but his real name is Mr. Earl", their lead singer, Earl "Speedo" Carroll.

Chris Robinson Brotherhood set to release debut studio album

Article republished from JamBase

"We really feel these records set the stage for another full year, where we'll see how far we can go with it. We already feel successful because we have the freedom to do what we want. And it's always cosmic. The times demand it." -- CHRIS ROBINSON

In 2011, after more than 20 years of intense gigging and recording, Chris Robinson set off to shape something new, a fresh rock mythology, a breathing kaleidoscopic thing stuffed with chooglin' soul, bedrock boogie and shuffling wisdom birthed in intimate clubs and amongst the tall trees of the Golden State and eventually taken nationwide as the Chris Robinson Brotherhood evolved. What began as an experiment without expectations turned into a 118-show journey for Robinson (lead vocals, guitar), Neal Casal (guitar, vocals), Adam MacDougall (keys, vocals), George Sluppick (drums) and Mark Dutton (bass, vocals) that surprised these seasoned pros as music of unshakeable solidity and exuberant reach poured out of them, a New Cosmic California sound with tendrils reaching to the original Fillmore West, Topanga Canyon and outwards towards far horizons.

The music of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood finds its fruition on their studio debut album Big Moon Ritual, due out June 5 via Silver Arrow/Megaforce Records, to be followed by companion album The Magic Door in September. A CRB tour will be announced shortly.

"Thom and I have wanted to work together for a long time," says Robinson about the album's producer Thom Monahan. "We talked about it at a show in Los Angeles and I told him as we stood behind George's drums, 'This is it (gesturing at stage gear). We're not bringing anything else with us into the studio. This is what brought us here this year, so this is exactly what this is gonna be. We didn't even change strings from the last Cali run [laughs]."

"This music is unashamedly what we're into," says ROBINSON, who cites Neu!, Melanie, Flatt & Scruggs, Mel Tillis and Morton Subotnick as regulars in their van listening. "It's not a psych band because you have a Prince Valiant haircut and wear Beatle boots. It's psych because that's where our heads are. We want to make music that blossoms. We want to make music that sounds cosmic."

For a full year, the CRB road tested their ideas, and in the process turned into an empathetic, limber congregation of talents, something different than any of their previous work with the likes of Phil Lesh & Friends, Ryan Adams & The Cardinals and JJ Grey & Mofro. By the time of their sold-out four-night run at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall last December, the Brotherhood were fully switched-on. This is the band that entered Sunset Sound in Los Angeles in January 2012, setting up shop in Studio B and coming out the other side of a six-day session with 27 different songs with 97 takes, most of it captured straight off-the-floor with only minor enhancements after the fact.

"Part of the master plan was not to do anything besides touring the wheels off the thing for the first go-around, and it worked for us and allowed us to figure out who we were," says Robinson. "One of the best things about the lack of a proper music business is if you have an idea, you can do something. If everybody is on the same page, and it's not about the dough on the table, and it's really about something you believe in, then you can get there.

"It's about being boutique," continues ROBINSON. "If before you wanted to have a million people hear what you do, now we're making music the right way for the right people. When we got to these cool sonic spaces we took advantage of them. It was totally the most radical recording session I’ve ever done, especially in terms of aesthetics."

Chris Robinson Brotherhood Tour Dates :: Chris Robinson Brotherhood News

http://www.chrisrobinsonbrotherhood.com

Knox Cash Mob today at The Disc Exchange

Knox County has planned another Knox Cash Mob this afternoon at one of our favorite record shops in Knoxville, the Disc Exchange.   

The whole idea of the cash mob is to drive people to spend money at local businesses, more specifically, those affected by the Henley Bridge closure. 

"After a very successful cash mob at Emery's 5 & 10, I am happy to announce that the second cash mob will benefit two businesses: the Disc Exchange and Wee Care Shoppe on Chapman Highway," Mayor Burchett said. "The Disc Exchange and Wee Care are two great local businesses, and I hope everyone will come out to support them this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m."

The Disc Exchange is located at 2615 Chapman Highway right next door to the Wee Care Shoppe located at 2537 Chapman Highway.

In addition to new and used CDs, the Disc Exchange also carries a wide variety of new and used vinyl records, DVDs, apparel, collectibles and many other items.

 

Anyone interested in keeping up with the latest Knox Cash Mob activity can follow @KnoxCashMob on Twitter and "like" the Knox Cash Mob page on Facebook.

Bono, Coldplay, Eddie Vedder Contribute Unreleased Songs to New Compilation

By Steve Baltin, Rolling Stone

Model Christy Turlington Burns is teaming with Starbucks to release Every Mother Counts 2012, the second album to benefit the organization she founded of the same name. Every Mother Counts is an awareness and mobilization campaign to reduce the maternal mortality rate on a global scale.

The new collection, available at Starbucks exclusively from May 1st to May 29th to celebrate Mother's Day, features a slew of A-list acts, including David Bowie, Sting, Faith Hill and Lauryn Hill. In addition, there are several previously unreleased tracks, highlighted by Coldplay's acoustic "Yellow," Bono and the Edge's acoustic "Original of the Species," Eddie Vedder's "Skipping" and husband-and-wife team Paul Simon and Edie Brickell teaming on "Pretty Day."

In all, 13 of the 19 songs are previously unheard. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, Alanis Morissette, Patti Smith, Beck, the Dave Matthews Band and more contribute to the collection.

"I went to friends first, as I did with the first CD," Turlington Burns tells Rolling Stone. "Bono and Chris Martin were great supporters of the project the first time around, and when I knew I wanted to include men on this album they were obvious choices. They are also both fathers to daughters. Others, such as Patti Smith and Rita Wilson, I've known for a long time, and some, like Edie Brickell and Paul Simon, I only met briefly but was a huge admirer. I generally wanted a diverse group of artists who were parents, or in the case of Edward Sharpe, who will be soon. We wanted to reach a broad audience on this issue with this particular project and with a range of perspectives."

The full track listing for the CD is as follows. Songs with an asterisk indicate previously unheard tracks.

Bono and the Edge "Original of the Species" (acoustic) *

Eddie Vedder " Skipping" *

Paul Simon and Edie Brickell "Pretty Day" *

Faith Hill "Wish for You"

Sade "The Sweetest Gift"

Lauryn Hill "I Remember"

Rita Wilson "Baby I'm Yours" *

Diana Krall "Don't Fence Me In" *

Seal "Secret"

Dave Matthews Band "Sister" (live) *

Sting "Fragilidad"

Alanis Morissette "Magical Child" *

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros "Mother" *

David Bowie "Everyone Says 'Hi'"

Cedella Marley "Get Up Stand Up" *

Beck "Corrina, Corrina" *

Rufus Wainwright "Instead of the Dead" *

Patti Smith "Somalia" *

Coldplay "Yellow" (acoustic) *

Cokesbury's 2nd Annual Songwriter's Night

Cokesbury Church is hosting their 2nd Annual Songwriter’s Night this Sunday, March 11th.

Music director, Paul Jones, has received several song submissions and is excited about what he's heard so far, so Sunday night is shaping up to be a great evening of music.

Please join us this Sunday, March 11th at Epworth Hall (the North Campus of Cokesbury Church in Knoxville, TN) at 6:00 p.m. for an unforgettable evening of original music.

In case you missed it....Jack White on SNL

Jack White's two-song performance as musical guest on this weekend’s "Saturday Night Live" gave us all another glimpse of just how talented and versatile the former White Stripes front man truly is. 

He’s traded in the signature red and white for a black and white suit, and the all-female six-piece band that backed him on "Love Interruption" was so tight that you hope that this will be his touring band (and that he'll start yet another post-White Stripes duo project with Autolux drummer Carla Azar, whose drumming was nothing short of phenomenal).

The SNL performance further proved why Jack White remains a man among boys in the world of rock music, assured in his own voice, in his entire aesthetic, dedicated to creating rock 'n' roll with  guitars, bass, drums and whatever else strikes his fancy.

The second performance, "Sixteen Saltines," is another classic Jack White garage rocker with a monster riff, booming drum-and-organ call-and-response, a floor full of guitar effects pedals, a weird psychedelic bridge and the kind of rock urgency that only a select few, if any, can deliver. The song featured an entirely different band, all males, with instrumentation including violin and mandolin -- though they were hard to decipher from the guitar tantrum.

Both songs are taken from his forthcoming solo album Blunderbuss, which comes out April 24 through his Third Man Records label.  If you are like me, you will be counting down the days until Blunderbuss is released.  In the meantime, at least we have these two new tracks to enjoy.

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen "Wrecking Ball" (LA Times)

It's not necessarily a bad thing that “Wrecking Ball,” Bruce Springsteen's first studio album in three years, sees the 62-year-old artist updating his sound. 


He's done it before, though not with as much apparent intent as on studio album No. 17, which often seems like a direct response to the music of Canadian indie rockers Arcade Fire. After all, it's important for a boss to pay attention to the ideas of the upstarts in middle management from time to time. Inspiration often needs an external boost, and at some point an artist must acknowledge that the inheritors are now guiding the conversation.


But Springsteen doesn't always get it right on “Wrecking Ball,” a record that, more than anything he's done in a decade, sees him addressing Big Picture themes about America, war, the economy, provincialism and revolution. 


Whether he's channeling Montreal's finest, his own New Jersey heart, Southern gospel, Irish folk music, New York rap (yes, there's a 16-bar rap — very ill-advised — on “Rocky Ground”) or Southern twang, the Boss is pumped up and full of anthemic energy.


Produced by Ron Aniello (Jars of Clay, Barenaked Ladies, Candlebox), “Wrecking Ball” is a big record in every sense of the word: It's Springsteen with a large band and cruising on musical growth hormones, filled with muscle and bellowing out phrases loudly: “Shackled and drawn!” he sings on a song of the same name. “Death to my hometown!” goes another. On the title track, Springsteen, manifesting his Jersey roots, challenges anyone listening to “C'mon take your best shot / Let me see what you got / Bring on your wrecking ball.”
This is a change of pace. For the last decade, Springsteen — since his 2002 album with the E Street Band, “The Rising” — has been examining his gentler side: The first notes on his last album, the middling “Working on a Dream,” came via a string section, and throughout that record the Boss seemed content using his inside voice and a hefty helping of piano. 
“Magic,” from 2007, had some rockers, but they too felt designed for dining room listening in comparison to “Wrecking Ball.” The 2006 hootenanny that was “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” was a backyard campfire album.  “Wrecking Ball,” by contrast, sees Springsteen out in the virtual great wild, where screams resonate and nobody's gonna tell you to shut up.


Chances are this raised voice is the result of the election cycle. Bruce, though unwilling to take specific political sides (he alludes to right and wrong way more than he does right and left), refers to the state of America in nearly every song and understands more than anyone else that political music made in election years tends to reverberate louder. Romance is the furthest thing from his mind on “Wrecking Ball” — unless it's in service of some sort of grift, as on “Easy Money.”


That few are going to talk back to the Boss isn't always a good thing. After so much output, the songwriter has certain themes he falls back on, and a few of them here border on self-parody. “Jack of All Trades” is a Springsteen period piece about a blue-collar man and bankers who grow fat; “Easy Money” features yet another Springsteen woman in a red dress and relies on a “honey,” “money” “sunny” rhyme scheme that you can see coming from a mile a way. He rhymes “hat” with “cat.” 


The lyrical angle of “You Got It” sounds strikingly similar to Def Leppard's '80s hard-rock anthem “Armageddon It.” And Springsteen may owe Tom Waits a writing credit — or at least a rib-eye dinner — for “Shackled and Drawn,” which seems ripped from his more experimental peer's playbook.


All this adaptation isn't on the surface a bad thing; in fact, his citations are in the liner notes, naming five songs as inspiration, including funk vocalist Lyn Collins' James Brown-produced song “Me and My Baby Got a Good Thing Going,” Curtis Mayfield's “People Get Ready” and 1950s gospel field recordings directed by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. He employs the sound of an AK-47 firing, and even swipes a chunk of Johnny Cash's “Ring of Fire” for the album's closer, “We Are Alive.” But as evidenced by that song, he doesn't always pull it off. 


The propulsive energy of Arcade Fire, whose “Keep the Car Runnin'” Springsteen has covered live, drives much of “Wrecking Ball,” though. The band has long cited Springsteen as an influence, but the tables have turned: You can hear it in the violin sprint — and in Springsteen and wife/backing vocalist Patti Scialfa's call-and-response — on the title track. You can hear it in the bonus cut “American Land,” which also conjures the spirit of post-punk Irish band the Pogues. And you can hear it most obviously on “We Take Care of Our Own,” the first single.


Granted, no one creates in a vacuum, and all enduring artists have thematic obsessions: Walt Whitman addressed the same ideas and words over and over again in the course of his life, and with each turn he refined his own universal message for a new year and mind-frame. Woody Guthrie and Ma Rainey had ideas they repeatedly turned to over the course of their lives, and taken as a whole each of these artists by the end of their careers had created singular bodies of work.


Ditto Springsteen — though his days as an artist whose new work inspires young minds seem to be in the past. While you're likely to find youth citing “Darkness on the Edge of Town” or “Nebraska” as touchstones, it's far less likely that in two decades they'll be discussing “Wrecking Ball” that way. It'll be considered a late-period record that saw him in good, not great, voice.

Bruce Springsteen
"Wrecking Ball"
Columbia Records
Two-and-a-half stars

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

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