On This Day..
1956 Elvis Presley’s double sided hit “Don’t Be Cruel / Hound Dog” was released. The single went to No.1 on the US chart, where it stayed for 11 weeks – a record that would not be broken until 1992’s Boyz II Men hit “End of the Road”.
1964 The Beatles started recording their fourth album (‘Beatles For Sale’, not yet titled), at EMI studios in London, England.
1966 At a press conference held at The Astor Towers Hotel in Chicago, John Lennon apologized for his remarks that The Beatles were ‘more popular than Jesus’. Lennon told reporters “Look, I wasn’t saying The Beatles are better than God or Jesus, I said ‘Beatles’ because it’s easy for me to talk about The Beatles. I could have said ‘TV’ or ‘Cinema’, ‘Motorcars’ or anything popular and would have got away with it’”.
1969 350 special guests were invited to see Motown Records new signings The Jackson Five play at The Daisy Club in Beverly Hills, California.
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Brand New Music
Downtown Boys | Cost of Living
It’s difficult to listen to this album track-by-track. Cost of Living is much more palatable as a singular unit. Listening to each track doesn’t pack the same punch as the album as a whole. In addition, the Downtown Boys seem determined to be the ‘band the world needs right now’ by delivering a brand of punk rock that tries to save the world. Stylistically Cost of Living relies on steadier, cleaner arrangements filled with drums, bass and the signature tenor saxophone, leaves ample space for lead vocalist, front-woman Victoria Ruiz to command a loud and clear performance.
Kesha | Rainbow
Sometimes Kesha falls into her old trappings of cliché on her newest effort Rainbow, the first since her very public assault allegations against her former producer, but the album does do it’s artist justice as it successfully profiles the woman who lurked behind the Ke$ha for so many years. The result of the her experiences and the work to bring herself out from behind the curtain of her alter-ego, is a revelation. Previously her efforts had been a beige dumpster of bland electro-pop, but no longer. Rainbow offers a wider spectrum of approaches that brings greater depth to her still very visible sassy attitude.
Oneohtrix Point Never | Good Time
Whenever a movie score is released as a (sort of) stand alone album it struggles from being, you know, a movie score. Something that is only half of the piece of art (the other half being the movie itself). However, the Good Time OST highlights every single track as each one stands on it’s own. Overall it’s a great addition to Oneohtrix’s discography, and if it wasn’t an OST, could arguably be the response to the call of Garden of Delete.
