On This Day…
1967 – This was the penultimate night of a 16-date UK package tour, on which Pink Floyd joined The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Move, The Nice, The Eire Apparent, The Outer Limits and Amen Corner to play at the City Hall, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Jimi Hendrix was having equipment problems and in his frustration rammed his Gibson Flying V into his speaker cabinets. Like an enormous arrow, the guitar became stuck in the amplifier, which the audience greeted as all was part of the act.
1971 – The Montreux Casino in Switzerland burnt to the ground during a gig by Frank Zappa. The incident is immortalized by Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’. In 1967 the Casino became the venue for the Montreux Jazz Festival, which was the brainchild of music promoter Claude Nobs. On the night of the blaze, Nobs saved several young people who, thinking they would be sheltered from the flames, had hidden in the casino from the blaze. A recording of the outbreak and fire announcement can be found on a Frank Zappa Bootleg album titled Swiss Cheese / Fire.
1976 – Workers at EMI records went on strike, refusing to package The Sex Pistols single ‘Anarchy In The UK.’
1993 – Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer. Zappa recorded many albums with The Mothers Of Invention as well a solo recordings including the 1969 album ‘Hot Rats’ and 1974 album ‘Apostrophe’. Zappa recorded one of the first concept albums, ‘Freak Out’ released in 1966, it was also one of the earliest double albums in rock music (although Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde preceded it by a week). He married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, in 1967, they had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.
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SunnO))) | Kannon
Winning the award for “Oddest use of punctuation in a band name”, the Seattle doom metal duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, known as SunnO))), released their seventh studio album Kannon. Known as a group that tends to bring others in a project from start to finish, this record is exclusively Stephen and Greg, marking the first time they’ve released an ‘independent’ record since 2009’s Monoliths and Dimensions. Additionally, the album itself only clocks in at around 30 minutes – short by their standards – but is still a challenging a rewarding listen even if it doesn’t musically compare to the complexity of their last studio release. If you’re looking to get into Sunn O))), or you have a friend taking you to a drone metal show and you need a place to start, this might be the album to start off with.
Rick Ross | Black Market
How many good (but not great) albums can Rick Ross release? The funny thing is that the “Maybach-formula” works! Still rough, brutish, and blaming all his troubles on his legal department, Rick Ross even gets a little R&B bringing in Cee Lo Green (“Smile Mama, Smile”), John Legend (“Free Enterprise”) and Chris Brown (“Sorry”) to sing for him. He still drinks too much Rose and remains a compelling character.
Coldplay | A Head Full of Dreams
5 years ago there was a very informal study released a few years ago that correlated the sexual promiscuity of people with the kind of music they liked. They found, of course, that Coldplay fans are least inclined to jump into bed after a first date. One of the greatest things about a new Coldplay record is that I get to bring this up. (In case you were wondering, Nirvana fans were the most likely to “do the dirty” on the first date). Like I said, me being able to bring up this study is the best part of new Coldplay records. Unoriginal, boring, uninspired and cringe-worthy – Coldplay have done it again!
