On This Day…
1964 – After playing the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York, The Beatles headed over to The Delmonico Hotel where they met Bob Dylan for the first time. During their time together, Dylan and mutual friend Al Aronowitz, introduced the group to marijuana.
1970 – In the middle of his four-week engagement at The International Hotel in Las Vegas, a security guard at the hotel received a phone call stating that Elvis would be shot dead during his last show and demanding $50,000 to reveal the identity of the shooter. Later that day a letter arrived that included a photo of Elvis’ face disfigured and a gun pointed at his heart. These threats were taken very seriously and security was beefed up for the remainder of the shows. The performance in question went ahead without incident.
1984 – The Jacksons’ “Victory Tour” broke records for ticket sales after surpassing the 1.1 million mark in two months.
2005 – Rap mogul, Suge Knight, was shot in the leg and admitted to hospital while attending a party hosted by hip hop star Kanye West. Held at a club in Miami, Florida, the party was a celebration of the years MTV Video Music Awards
Also, this week marks the 40th Anniversary of the Bruce Springsteen Album Born To Run, and the 50th anniversary of the Bob Dylan classic Highway 61 Revisited.
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New Music
The Weeknd | Beauty Behind the Madness
This album may just be The Weeknd’s coming out party. As hip hop trends ever towards pop music in content and sensibility The Weeknd blends this almost seamlessly finding the connective tissues between the two and living in these veins. The most interesting fact about this record is that he’s not fundamentally changing who he is and what he’s doing in order to achieve this. Innumerable hooks and amazingly tasteful.
Destroyer | Poison Season
Dan Bejar and Destroyer’s accent to the top of his game is mainly due to his ability to create music that even the most critical ear can enjoy listening to. Drawing on symphonic arrangements, this is an amazingly satisfying record at nearly an hour in length – which makes for, albeit challenging, but rewarding listening. Graceful, beautiful, serene, crafty and immense.
Halsey | Badlands
If anything this may be the first wave of a star bred and raised on internet semi-stardom. While the likes of Justin Beiber were immediately picked up from a viral video, Halsey, the performing alter-ego of Ashley Frangipane is only a few years removed from 18,000 committed YouTube subscribers, and now at 21 has over half a million Instagram and Twitter followers. With such a committed audience, creativity with an audience is no stranger to this artist. Releasing her debut, a industrial sounding, brooding, eletro-pop affair is none but her own. A label doesn’t know what to do with an artist like this – an artist that, really, doesn’t need their help. In her own words, “we are the new Americana/ getting high on legal marijuana” doing things that none of us would ever expected to ever happen.