On This Day…
1980 – After seeing U2 play at Dublin’s National Boxing Stadium in front of 2,400 people; Rob Partridge and Bill Stewart from Island Records in the UK offered the band a recording contract.
1997 – American songwriter Ben Raleigh died in a fire in his kitchen after setting fire to his bath robe while cooking. He co-wrote ‘Scooby Doo Where Are You’ and ‘Tell Laura I Love Her.’
2009 – A 10-minute version of The Beatles ‘Revolution 1’ was leaked onto the internet, giving fans a never-before-heard listen of what The White Album sessions must have been like. Only two copies of the take were made when the song was completed on June 4th, 1968. One copy left the studio with Lennon that day and the other remained behind. It was unclear which copy appeared on the bootleg, nor how anyone acquired it.
2011 – It was announced that Queen’s We Will Rock You was still the most-played song at US sporting events, according to a new survey from BMI, the royalty-distribution service. According to its data, based off of MLB, NFL and NHL games in 2009-2010, We Will Rock You was the No.1 song overall, as well as for the NFL specifically.
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Brand New Music
Mothers | When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired
You’re not going to find anything as sparse, emotional or poetic this side of Joanna Newsom. Atypically unsettling, the music on this debut LP is as therapeutic as indie-folk is ever going to it. Grabbing you with each and every tone from Kristine Leschper (lead vox). The words of this record are educational, but not presumptuous; poetic, but not snobby. Lines like “We lived unloved in unmade beds/ You wore me like a necklace/ You closed me like a locket” seem like they were taken from someones letters found in a forgotten desk somewhere. The instrumentals remain just as impactful as the backing band rises and falls to meet the intensity of the vocal performance and lyricism.
Pinkshinyultrablast | Grandfeathered
Sometimes shoegaze can just be really fun to listen to. I know it seems like a bit of an oxymoron, but Pinkshinyultrablast is bringing forth something that is incredibly beautiful, and yeah, really fun. Building on a base of already impressive sounds created with their 2015s Everything Else Matters, this new one sees the band looking outwards and developing a sound all their own.
School of Seven Bells | SVIIB
How School of Seven Bells even managed to finish this record is a feat in itself. After Alejandra Deheza’s twin, Claudia, left the group in 2012, founding member Benjamin Curtis was diagnosed with lymphoma and died the following year. All that aside, the results of this last swan song is an emotional roller coaster. It’s the kind of LP that hits you right in feels. Warm, brilliant and still incredibly ambitious, SVIIB is a very, very good pop record.
