On This Day..
1961 – Bob Dylan achieved his dream of meeting his idol Woody Guthrie when Guthrie was on weekend release from hospital where he was being treated for Huntington’s Chorea. Dylan told him; ‘I was a Woody Guthrie jukebox’. Guthrie gave Dylan a card which said: ‘I ain’t dead yet’.
1979 – 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others when she fired from her house across the street onto the entrance of San Diego’s Grover Cleveland Elementary School. Spencer fired the shot’s from a .22-caliber rifle her father had given her for Christmas. When asked why she did it, she answered ‘I don’t like Mondays.’ The Boomtown Rats went on to write and recorded a song based on the event.
2001 – A New York based data company issued a chart listing sales of posthumous albums. The idea came about after radio stations wanted to distinguish between proper recordings when the artists were alive and CD’s released after they died. Mike Shalett founder of SoundScan said there was only one problem. What to call the chart. The Top 5 chart had The Doors at No. 5, Eva Cassidy at 4, Jimi Hendrix at 3, Bob Marley at 2 and 2Pac at No. 1.
2010 – Sly Stone filed a $50-million legal claim against his former manager, alleging fraud and 20 years of stolen royalties. The 66-year-old funk musician of the 1970s group Sly and the Family Stone, claimed in the Los Angeles Superior Court that Jerry Goldstein diverted millions in royalties to fund a lavish lifestyle.
2015 – Taylor Swift was seeking to trademark phrases including “this sick beat” and “we never go out of style”, in the United States. If granted, the trademark would stop others from using her lyrics on items such as t-shirts, stickers and bags. Other phrases she wants to protect included “nice to meet you, where you been” and “party like it’s 1989”.
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Brand New Music
MONEY | Suicide Songs
Staying with you long after it’s done, the sound that the UK band MONEY creates on Suicide Songs is delicate yet vast. Completely resplendent, the trio builds in their sophomore release with an album that focuses on a theme of impending hopelessness. This is a haunting, screaming and tuneful release is filled with layers of dancing, swirling strings, organic brass sections and celestial vocals. It almost seems like we shouldn’t be listening to this – it sounds like a personal transformation that someone took when they’ve faced death face-to-face.
Sia | This is Acting
When a lot of your career is dedicated to subverting the mainstream – you better be pretty experimental in your offerings. Unfortunately, a lot of this feels like a giant B-side. While 2014’s 1000 Forms of Fear brought an insanely honest experiment in mainstream pop, This is Acting seems less than extraordinary. It’s hard not to sound cynical about this, but this body of work simply doesn’t stand up to my expectations.
Rihanna | ANTI
After being pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back some more – TIDAL finally botched the ‘exclusive’ release of Rihanna’s eighth studio release. The album itself, however, leaves the listener with a sense of joylessness. There’s a complete lack of vision here. Murky and completely bereft of anything resembling fun, it seems like Rihanna just released a record because, you know, she had too. ‘Back in the day’ artists like Van Morrison, Lou Reed , Neil Young and David Bowie would do things known as ‘contractual obligation records’, cause they had to – they owed their labels one more release before they could move on. ANTI reminds me a lot of this and I can’t help but think that this LP is not something Rihanna wanted to have seen the light of day. I only hope she can refocus and find a new, fresh vision for future releases.
Listen to Work (Feat. Drake) via TIDAL
