On This Day…
1966 The Beatles were hard at work at Abbey Road studios on their future classic album, Revolver, specifically recording overdubs for McCartney’s “Got to Get You Into My Life” and Lennon’s forward thinking, “Tomorrow Never Knows”.
1981 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their first tour ever outside of North America with their first date in Hamburg, Germany. The tour would go on to take the band to nine other countries.
1985 George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, better known as Wham!, became the first western Pop group to ever perform live in China as they played in Beijing at a workers gymnasium.
1994 Hole front-woman Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson get arrested on drug and theft charges just 5 days before they release their early 90’s landmark album, Live Through This. Unfortunately things get much worse. Love’s husband, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, had gone missing following his escape from a Treatment Facility in Los Angeles. It would be only a matter of hours from Love’s arrest that Cobain’s body was discovered in the upstairs of the greenhouse at their Seattle home, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
2015 The original 16-page draft for Don McLean’s classic song, “American Pie” went up on the auction block at Christie’s in New York. Although it was expected to fetch as much as $1.5m, it sells for $1.2m. McLean would go on to say that writing the song was “a mystical trip into his past.”
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Father John Misty | Pure Comedy
Josh Tillman takes a pretty good stab at explaining 2017 North American culture with his latest release (and wisely titled), Pure Comedy. Lyrically FJM is sharper as ever, which is key because, as here when you have a 13 track album running close to 80 minutes, they have to be good. Tillman knows this so lines like, “These L.A. phonies and their bullshit bands / That sound like dollar signs and Amy Grant / So reads the pull quote from my last cover piece / Entitled “The Oldest Man in Folk Rock Speaks,” work to his advantage. Musically there is an expansiveness this time around, both in sonics and in space that he hadn’t previously elevated to this level. Fans will definitely find lots to enjoy here, while the haters will equally have plenty to dislike.
The New Pornographers | Whiteout Conditions
It’s been 3 years since we last heard from the Carl Newman-led Power Pop band, the New Pornographers, and it’s a welcome return on Whiteout Conditions, the band’s seventh album in 17 years. Things have changed this time around though – this is the band’s first release without both drummer Kurt Dahle, as well as song-contributor Dan Bejar (who’s apparently working on another Destroyer album.) Fortunately the album doesn’t suffer for it as it’s a great collection of songs, loaded with hooks and melodies that will be hard to shake. Fans who may have dropped off around the last few albums will definitely want to check out Whiteout Conditions, as it ranks among the band’s best.
Future Islands | The Far Field
Future Islands hit it big with their last album, in large part due to that memorable performance on Letterman. Now back with their first album since then, the iron is hot, and fortunately the band deliver. Although there doesn’t seem to be a huge shift in their sound here, that’s no problem. The band sound more refined than ever, with their trademark warm, smooth running, hook-y synth-pop, of course fueled by Sam Herring’s passionate vocals. To call it “almost middle of the road” would be a disservice, that said, this is Music that’s very easy to listen to and enjoy.
