The Case For 1971 As Rock's Greatest Year

Never a Dull Moment 1971 - the Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth

What do Van Morrison's "Domino," the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" have in common? All of them were recorded or became hits in 1971 — the year music journalist David Hepworth insists is the best year in rock 'n' roll history.

Bands Tell Us About the Worst Places They've Crashed While Touring

I've interviewed musicians since I was a teenager, and in that time, I've learned two main lessons. The first lesson is that playing in a band is the greatest job in the world. For months at a time you and your friends get to travel from place to place sharing your art and ideas with audiences who are excited to see you play. The second lesson is that playing in a band is the worst job in the world. For months at a time you're away from your family and loved ones, performing songs you poured your heart into for minuscule crowds that are only there for the beer.

There are a lot of highs and lows for touring musicians. Anyone who has spent time on the road can tell you that one of the biggest concerns is figuring out where they're going to spend the night post concert. Recently I sat down with a handful of bands and asked about the worst place they've ever slept.

Converse Made a Sneaker With a Wah Guitar Pedal Built Right In

Converse’s Chuck Taylor All Stars and music have always gone hand and… well, foot and shoe. A good pair of Chucks can last a performer through hundreds of stage shows. Now, Converse has debuted a new type of shoe that not only fits the rock and roll lifestyle, but actually serves a purpose beyond looking fly.

Georgia's Lonesome Country Star

There can be few country music singers quite as lonesome as Shota Adamashvili. He is the only one in Georgia - not the American state, the country which lies on the border of Europe and Asia. With his cowboy hat and boots and pretty convincing Southern accent, many who come to see him play mistake Shota for an American. But he has never been to the U.S.A, and he taught himself English by listening to country music.

Important Anniversary in Music: LP Turns 68

Before June 21, 1948, if you wanted to listen to recorded music that was more than a few minutes long, your only option was the radio. The format of choice back then was the 78-rpm record, which could hold about five minutes per side. This was an improvement over the wax cylinder, which could play for two minutes.

And then, behold, 68 years ago today, Columbia Records announced the LP, or "long-playing record." The 12-inch disc spun at 33 1/3 rpm and could hold more than 20 minutes per side. This was a banner day for classical and jazz lovers, and would prove exceedingly important for concept albums and rock operas a couple of decades later.

Global music industry professionals to share insights on indie music opportunities at 2016 Golden Melody Festival

As the Golden Melody Awards & Festival is just around the corner, music industry professionals are also welcome to join in the festivities as the festival once again invites industry professionals to a three-day conference chock-full of talks on technology, ideas and cross-industry collaboration.
The three days of talks will take place between the 22nd and 24th of June, and will be at Taipei’s Humble House.

One of the talks will be given on opportunities for Independent (Indie) Music, a sector which has been experiencing much change and potential of late.

The festival has brought together five prominent global industry professionals as panelists for this particular talk, including Taiwan’s own Pochang Wu; founder of iNDIEVOX and lead singer of band ECHO who will be leading the proceedings.

Other panelists include global music industry representatives from the America Association of Independent Music (Jennifer Masset), Sounds Australia (Millie Millgate), The Orchard (Priyanka Dewan), and Modern Sky Entertainment (Shen Lihui).

Bringing together professionals who have made prominent contributions to independent music be they from the United States, Australia, Taiwan, China or Singapore, this talk is one you should definitely keep an eye on if you’re attending the festivities this year.

For more information, please visit the official site: http://gma.tavis.tw/GM27/GMF/default_en.asp

Koh, Jocelle. "Global Music Industry Professionals to Share Insights on Indie Music Opportunities at 2016 Golden Melody Festival." Hello Asia. Accessed June 21, 2016. http://www.helloasia.com.au/news/global-music-industry-professionals-to-share-insights-on-indie-music-opportunities-at-2016-golden-melody-festival/. 

Visit the Indie Vinyl Press Where No Order Is Too Small (Like, Even Just One)

The 38-year-old guitarist-turned-lather Wesley Wolfe runs the boutique vinyl pressing company Tangible Formats. His prices for custom jobs are far less than what the record-pressing giants charge. His minimum runs are small too—customers can order ten or five copies of their album, or even just a single record. Wolfe's workspace is small and efficient, and he uses a limited selection of gear to lay digital files to good old reliable wax.

  
Making vinyl records is complex and labor-intensive. It requires a small army of technicians, a chain of skilled subcontractors, and lots of heavy machinery. The process is neither cheap nor fast. Short runs? Forget it. Record factories have minimum orders. The going rate is 250 LPs for $2,000. And that’s if they can fit you in—typical wait times are around three months.
There is an alternative. Founded by musician Wesley Wolfe, Tangible Formats is a one-man record plant where no order is too small, turnaround time is three weeks, and the prices are indie-friendly. Local bands that peddle hot wax to their fans, international DJs who want to scratch their EDM tracks, juke box collectors who crave rare Blue Note 45s, the lovesick Romeo who wants his marriage proposal recorded after the fade-out on “our song.” This is the small but loyal clientele that Mr. Wolfe’s lathe-to-turntable movement caters to in today’s increasingly fragmented music ecosystem.

The World's First Tattooing Prosthetic Arm!

Twenty two years after losing his lower right arm as a child, French tattoo artist JC Sheitan Tenet has become the first person in the world to be fitted with a modified prosthetic arm that can double as his tattoo gun.

A&R Legend John Kalodner Talks Aerosmith and Why Rock Won't Reach the Masses Again

Legendary A&R man John Kalodner, center, and a few friends. Courtesy John Kalodner

A Whitesnake medallion is the only memento John Kalodner kept from his remarkable A&R career.  He keeps it in front of the desk and computer in his airy Hollywood Hills home, commemorating Whitesnake’s self-titled 1987 album, which featured the band’s epic pop-metal hits “Here I Go Again” and “Still of the Night.” It sold more than 8 million copies. Kalodner did A&R for it, which means he helped develop the band's sound and vision, as he also did for the post-rehab Aerosmith LPs that sold a bazillion copies during the 1980s and '90s. At one time or another, Kalodner also played a major role in the careers of AC/DC, Phil Collins, Cher, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel and even Jimmy Page. 

During his own 30-plus year career in the music business, which began in Atlantic Records' publicity department in 1974, Kalodner was awarded a literal pile of platinum and gold records. But he parted ways with those awards. “You know, I have memories of all of them, I have pictures of all of them, and they might do good for somebody so I found a collector in Arizona, and he was willing to pay me, like, six figures,” Kalodner says. He donated funds raised from selling his memorabilia to the City of Hope cancer and research center, he says.

The Ultimate 80s Rock Documentary 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot' Will Never Die

We are now exactly as far removed in time from the 1986 release of Heavy Metal Parking Lot as its sleeveless truants and zebra-print daytrippers were from Elvis Presley's gyrations on The Milton Berle Show. In other words, the world's greatest 16-minute documentary about Judas Priest fandom currently stands at the precise midpoint—almost to the day—of the filmed history of rock 'n' roll.

HMPL is one of the VHS era's unassailable cult classics, although it's hard to know what that term means since the creation of YouTube and the evergreen availability of nearly everything. The thrill of discovering a copy in a friend's tape collection or at a rare DC-area screening is gone. That the film continues to reward viewers in its freely available .MP4 incarnation is a testament to its weird goodness, its good weirdness, and the unscripted enthusiasm of its stars: a Chaucerian succession of hilarious caterwauling youths. It's hard to imagine a less cynical group of people. The underage beer-guzzling is as quaint today as the lines of pristine Mustangs and Firebirds or the public displays of devotion to Judas Priest, a devotion that remained unshaken and sincere even after the definitive anti-hagiography that was 1984's This Is Spinal Tap.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot from Jeff Krulik on Vimeo.

Music Before Surgery Means Patients Need Less Sedation

 

Research suggests that relaxing music before going under the knife could reduce the amount of sedation needed Credit: Getty

Soothing music before surgery helps patients relax and need less sedation, a study found.

Just a quarter of an hour of jazz, classical and piano music before an eye operation was enough to reduce anxiety about the surgery carried out while the patient is awake.

A pilot study by the Paris-based Cochin University Hospital used music specifically composed to ease anxiety and found those who listened to it were more relaxed than others, up to an hour afterwards.

40 Years Ago Today, Punk Music Was Born in Australia

The song that changed music.

June 12, 1976, is a seminal moment not just in Australian music, but for the sound of the world in decades to come.

Forty years ago today, Kenyan-born Chris Bailey, German-born Ed Kuepper, and Ivor Hay, three teenage schoolmates living in Brisbane, headed into a Window Studios in Brisbane’s West End to record their debut single.

The name of the song was “(I’m) Stranded”. The B side was “No Time” and Mark Moffatt was the producer. The name of the band was The Saints and, inspired in part by Iggy Pop and the Stooges, they already had a reputation around Brisbane for fast, hard live gigs that led to arrests and shut downs by the police.

Stranded was partly a cry against everything that was wrong with Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Queensland at the time, but it was also the launch of a new movement in popular music.

Down Range Country: Music Made in Afghanistan

Two soldiers make music while on deployment in Afghanistan.

Music Lover's Dream: Summer At Ski Resorts

With its purpose-built pavilion, posh lawn picnics, and totally free admission, the annual Sun Valley Symphony has been one of the town’s biggest events for more than 30 seasons. Photo: Sun Valley Resort

In an ongoing effort to become true year-round destinations, ski resorts have increasingly embraced golf, mountain biking, hiking, adventure sports and culinary events. But they are finding out that one of the biggest appeals to travelers is the sound of music.
America’s top ski resorts, which tend to be full of luxury hotels, great restaurants, shopping and outdoor activities, also offer an incredible lineup of music, from classical to jazz, bluegrass, rock, and contemporary. Many of these destinations are also “off season” bargains in summer.

Sun Valley, ID: America’s very first destination ski resort also has one of the most well-established musical events, the Sun Valley Symphony, celebrating 31 seasons as the largest privately funded, free-admission symphony in America. A summer tradition (June-August), the symphony attracts locals and visitors alike who picnic on the lawn with Champagne and extravagant hampers. There are also 1,600-seats inside the beautiful purpose built pavilion. This season’s highlight is Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” reimagined in a grand production using immense and elaborate puppets to bring the ballet to life (August 1).

Brian Johnson Finds Hearing Loss Solution

Former AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson may be on the road back to better hearing with a revolutionary new device.

It all started when Stephen Ambrose reached out to Johnson via a YouTube video.

PUP Turns Gnarled And Bloody Into High Punk Art

The early rough cut had X-ray callbacks to all the videos. We had X-rays of the busted bones, Zach’s broken wrist, the cut hand from “Guilt Trip,” Stefan having cymbals in his back from “Reservoir,” and his broken arm from doing the inverted Jesus pose and falling into the crowd in “Dark Days."
The idea was they’d been on this tour for however long and they’re broken and battered, emotionally and physically — and they really were. There’s that one X-ray of Stefan’s real throat. The story of the video is a slightly more gnarly version of the very real life PUP story. We literally shot a video where they set each other on fire, soaked in blood, and were physically trying to kill each other. I don’t have a clue what we can do [to top this video] next.

-- Juno nominated filmmaker Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux describes making PUP's new video, "If This Tour Doesn't Kill You, I Will" -- Fader

Soure, External. "PUP Turns Gnarled And Bloody Into High Punk Art." FYI Music News. June 03, 2016. Accessed June 06, 2016. http://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2016/06/03/pup-turns-gnarled-and-bloody-high-punk-art.

New documentary chronicles teen metal sensation "Unlocking The Truth"

Breaking A Monster is a music documentary that follows the rise of African American teen heavy metal sensation Unlocking The Truth. Watch as filmmaker Luke Meyer catches the band's fascinating coming-of-age story as they go from playing a combination of heavy metal and speed punk in Times Square to entering a $1.7 million record deal. Check out the new theatrical trailer for the movie below!

Curious About The In's and Out's Of A Vinyl Record Manufacturer? Well then, Check Out Furnace Record Pressing

The Who's Roger Daltrey: 'There's No Music Industry Anymore. Why Would We Make an Album?'

 Fans waiting for a new Who album, prepare to be disappointed…

In a new interview, frontman Roger Daltrey has stated that he and Pete Townshend have discussed making a new record, but the current state of the music industry makes it unlikely that they'll ever work on the project. Speaking with Rolling Stone (via Team Rock), the singer stated:

"We've talked about it, but it's not going to be easy. There's no record industry anymore. Why would I make a record?

Continental kicks off their tour in support of their latest album, "Home on the Range"

 

Friday , June 3rd, Continental will be kicking off their U.S. tour in support of their latest album, "Home on the Range"!

Look for more dates to be added, and get the album June 10th!

The Stradivarius Guitar

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of stringed instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant and greatest artisan in this field.

The only playable Stradivarius guitar left in the world is "The Sabionari," made by Antonio Stradivari in 1697. Here is a video of Rolf Lislevand performing with the last known Stradivarius guitar in use.