Tag: Music
U.S. Customs to Amy Winehouse: No, No, No*
by Eva Holland | 02.08.08 | 12:39 PM ET
Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse has been denied an American visa for this weekend’s Grammy Awards, reports the CBC. Winehouse, who is two weeks into her latest rehab stint, will be up for six awards at Sunday’s ceremony, including Album of the Year—but for this year at least, she won’t go, go, go.
*Update, Monday, Feb. 11: Winehouse got last-minute approval to travel to the U.S. but performed live via satellite from London—at 3:41 a.m. local time. Here’s video:
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Man Behind the Bells of Notre Dame
by Michael Yessis | 02.08.08 | 10:57 AM ET
Iconic Hollywood Tower Records Building Faces Wrecking Ball
by Jim Benning | 01.30.08 | 11:40 AM ET
Photo by Alan Light via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
We recently noted the end of the rock ‘n’ roll balconies at Hollywood’s Hyatt “Riot House”—the very balconies where Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant once declared, “I’m a golden god!” Clearly, nothing is sacred in Hollywood.
Tom Petty’s Los Angeles, from a Travelodge to a Long Day in Reseda
by Jim Benning | 01.17.08 | 11:59 AM ET
Photo by SykoSam via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Living in Southern California, which features prominently in so many pop songs, it’s hard not to develop a soundtrack that reverberates through your head. For me, sweet and melancholy Tom Petty songs are a big part of that. I can’t drive along Mullholland, or on the 101 through the Valley, for example, without hearing “Free Fallin” (“I wanna glide down over Mulholland”) or those lines about the “long day living in Reseda,” with the “freeway running through the yard.” In fact, passing through Reseda, against my better judgment, I always find myself keeping my eye out for that sad house by the freeway.
Jackson on my Mind
by Eva Holland | 01.15.08 | 11:06 AM ET
Photo by dbking via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Speaking of how confusing geography can be, I’ve been planning a big road trip in the South in March, and I’m hoping to hit some major music history landmarks along the way. Memphis is a no-brainer, but I’d like to see some lesser-known sites too, and even places where there may not be anything concrete to see, but where the name still means something to me. I thought Jackson could be one of those places—you know, the Jackson town that Johnny Cash and June Carter sing about?
Love Letter to a Joni Mitchell Road Song
by Jim Benning | 12.19.07 | 11:46 AM ET
In Slate, Ron Rosenbaum celebrates binge-listening to Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia,” from her “Hejira” album. “It’s not just a love song: It’s a road song, it’s a motel song, it’s a Southwestern desert song, it’s a disappearance and death song,” he writes. It’s a lovely piece. I go through Joni Mitchell “Blue” jags from time to time—the song and the album of the same name—so I can relate. Lately, on runs in my neighborhood, I’ve been binge-listening to “Hard Sun” from Eddie Vedder’s “Into the Wild” soundtrack. I expect that to pass soon. Here’s a great YouTube video of Mitchell playing “Amelia” circa 1983:
‘Beatles’ Ashram’ in India to Become Eco-Hotel, School
by Michael Yessis | 12.19.07 | 10:32 AM ET
Travelers have been making pilgrimages to Rishikesh, India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, aka the “Beatles’ ashram,” ever since the Fab Four landed there in the late ‘60s to study Transcendental Meditation and write some songs, including “Revolution” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Soon, though, the rundown 15-acre campus may become a home and school for street children, as well as a 10-room “eco hotel” where visitors “could volunteer to work with the children or simply relax in the same ashram where John Lennon searched for the meaning of life and George Harrison worked to perfect his sitar playing,” according to the Washington Post.
The Art of the Holiday Jingles Road Trip
by Joanna Kakissis | 12.18.07 | 4:27 PM ET
NPR’s Stephen Thompson recently drove 1,000 miles to see his family for Thanksgiving and, en route, listened to hours and hours of Christmas music, both cool and corny. Think Eileen Ivers and Carnie Wilson, Josh Groban and Michael Bolton, and even “A Twismas Story” by the late country crooner Conway Twitty. Would I be a loser if the idea of Mr. Thompson’s roadtrip soundtrack made me weepy with jealousy?
R.I.P. Ike Turner
by Eva Holland | 12.13.07 | 10:37 AM ET
Whatever you may think of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Ike Turner, who died yesterday at age 76, his contributions to music—and specifically to road music—were enormous. Ike and Tina’s cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary, which Ike arranged along with drummer Soko Richardson, has got to be one of the greatest road songs (okay, river songs) of all time.
Related on World Hum:
* Rock Stars in Hotels: ‘Whatever Happened to the Good Old Days?’
* Manu Chao: Catching up With the ‘Traveling Man’
Photo: AP
Rock Stars in Hotels: ‘Whatever Happened to the Good Old Days?’
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.29.07 | 12:21 PM ET
Trashing a hotel room like a wild animal is so 1990s. Today’s rock stars want the same things many of us want in a hotel—clean and quiet rooms without intruding housekeepers, high-speed Internet access, an in-hotel gym and maybe some San Pellegrino in the mini-bar, writes David Browne in The New York Times. “These guys want to go back to their rooms and have peace and quiet,” Jennifer Chiara, a travel agent who works with musicians, tells Browne. “Gone are the days of people riding a motorcycle down the hallway.”
The Songstress of Kunming
by Jeffrey Tayler | 11.07.07 | 12:48 PM ET
In the southern Chinese city, an unexpected concert prompts Jeffrey Tayler to wonder about the passage of time and the fate of history
Karaoke + Cab Ride = Cabaraoke
by Michael Yessis | 11.07.07 | 12:12 PM ET
This has to be the most entertaining way to get around Kansas City. A cab company called Cabaraoke has outfitted its vehicles with karaoke machines and toy musical instruments, allowing passengers to air guitar and belt out songs while they get around town. Even better: Cabaraoke records the performances and uploads the videos to YouTube. The performances are, like most karaoke performances, generally pretty bad but relentlessly entertaining. Like this version of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville”:
David Byrne Goes to Graceland
by Michael Yessis | 10.10.07 | 7:01 AM ET
And beyond. Last month David Byrne and his daughter Malu spent a week driving from New York to Los Angeles, a road trip he chronicled with terrific detail and insight on his Web site. The former Talking Heads leader slept at Holiday Inns and Best Westerns, stayed at Dollywood until it closed for the night, digressed about ads for plastic surgeons in a Tennessee tabloid, ate Texas steak and made a pilgrimage to Graceland to visit another musician known for his eccentric choice in suits.
From Sufjan to ‘Nashville Skyline’: Two Takes on a Road Trip Soundtrack
by Eva Holland | 09.26.07 | 8:52 AM ET
And the Kerouac anniversary celebration lingers. In honor of the 50th birthday of “On the Road,” the Guardian’s Laura Barton put together a 50-song list of must-listen road trip tracks, one for each American state. It’s an eclectic selection—everyone from Sufjan Stevens to Aerosmith to Loretta Lynn is represented—and it’s stirring up a lot of (mostly civilized) debate on the story’s comment pages. I can’t see how she skipped over “Georgia On My Mind” or “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” but for the most part I was impressed by the list’s range and creativity. Perry Como’s “Delaware”? Who knew?
Mexican Rockers Maná Make Los Angeles Arena History
by Jim Benning | 09.20.07 | 8:19 AM ET
Manu Chao: Catching Up With the ‘Travelling Man’
by Ben Keene | 08.30.07 | 11:57 AM ET
Although its Sept. 4 release date narrowly misses an opportunity to be played on thousands of North American stereos over the approaching holiday weekend, Manu Chao‘s forthcoming album, La Radiolina, already has the attention of music journalists in the U.S. and Europe. Writing in The New Yorker, in a story headlined Travelling Man, Sasha Frere-Jones describes the fourth release by the Latin artist as his “most direct yet, presenting him as a sincere man motivated equally by affection and quiet fury,” emphasizing the populist nature of Chao’s polyglot pop. We’ve already given away our feelings about Chao: We recently named him one of our Seven Wonders of the Shrinking Planet.
30 Years After Elvis’s Death, Graceland Set For $250 Million Makeover
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.07 | 11:26 AM ET
Or, as the groan-inducing headline in the Los Angeles Times reads, Graceland About to Get All Shook Up. According to the AP, CKX Inc., the company that controls Elvis Presley’s name and image as well as Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, plans a new visitors center, a convention hotel and a museum with high-tech displays. “As great as it is,” CKX Chairman Robert F.X. Sillerman said of Graceland, “it can be so much better.” The project will take approximately three years.
The Return of the Sea Chantey
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.07 | 10:31 AM ET
U.S. State Department’s New Cultural Ambassadors: Ozomatli
by Jim Benning | 08.02.07 | 2:05 PM ET
Heading…
How to Sing Karaoke in Japan
by Karin Ling | 08.02.07 | 10:15 AM ET
The Land of the Rising Sun gave the world the late-night sing-along. But in its birthplace, there's more to karaoke than butchering anime theme songs in crowded bars. Karin Ling explains.