Prince at the Super Bowl
It’s official. The NFL has locked down Prince as this year’s halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl in Miami (Feb. 4th). In one year’s time, Prince will have appeared on American Idol, set up a regular gig in Vegas, and performed at the Super Bowl. Not something I could have predicted.
Thanks to Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction”, I guess Prince will probably keep his ass-less pants in a Minneapolis closet. Not that he would ever shock on that level again. The raunchy Prince is a thing of the past. “Sexuality”, one of his great early songs from 1981’s Controversy, is being performed these days as “Spirituality”. And I’m not kidding. But that’s not to imply that the man can’t rock and funk the shit out of a place. He can still do that like no other. But
damndang, sometimes I miss Prince “I sincerely wanna fu-k the taste out of your mouth” Rogers Nelson.Ah well, I’ll be watching. Here’s the commercial…
New Johnny Cash Releases and a Giveaway too
On October 31st, Mercury/UM released Johnny Cash in Ireland, an hour long concert DVD of a 1993 performance at the Olympia Theater in Dublin. He is joined by his wife June, the Carter Family,and Kris Kristofferson. If you’re a Cash fan, then you probably want to have this.
the approximately one-hour-long concert showcases Cash singing many of his greatest hits–“I Walk The Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Get Rhythm,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky,” “Daddy Sang Bass” and “Ring Of Fire” plus “I Still Miss Someone.”
He also sings with wife June Carter Cash (their classic duet “Jackson”), son John Carter Cash (“No Use In Treatin’ Me This Way”), Kris Kristofferson (“Big River” and “Long Black Veil”), and The Carter Family, who perform their own gems too–“Keep On The Sunny Side,” “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” and “Wabash Cannonball.” In addition, John Carter Cash solos Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and Irish popster Sandy Kelly joins Cash, Kristofferson and The Carter Family on “Forty Shades Of Green,” the Johnny Cash-penned tribute to Ireland.
So who wants this DVD as an early Christmas present? Look at me, December 11th, I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping, and here I am giving away a DVD on my site. Ah priorities…
GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment below. I’ll randomly choose a winner in a few days, and get the DVD shipped off to the winner before Christmas.
UPDATE: We gotta winner! See here.
Another cool recent release is Johnny Cash – At San Quentin: Legacy Edition. It contains the full show from San Quentin Prison and a 1969 documentary of the event.
Here’s a promo for the boxed set….
Johnny Cash: I Walk the Line (Audio stream: WMP, Quicktime, Real) – live in San Quentin (“man you in the wrong place to bend over, don’t you know it? Get up from there with that camera!”)
Buy Johnny Cash In Ireland – 1993
Buy Johnny Cash – At San Quentin: Legacy EditionSunday Video: Cibo Matto
On MTV’s Oddville show from the mid 90’s. Notice a wigged Sean Lennon…
Coast of Malabar
I had this one on an old mix CD I recently pulled out. It’s nice to unearth a gem like this once in a while. You don’t get better than a Ry Cooder traditional ballad with the Chieftains backing him up. Beeyoootiful….
From The Long Black Veil (1995)
Koop Island Blues
I heard this on Radio Paradise yesterday, and was instantly forced into stress-free relaxation mode. Koop is a group from Stockholm, Sweden, led by Magnus Zingmark and Oscar Simonsson. They’ve got some very cool jazz and swing vibes going on. As it’s put in their bio: “the swing of the 1930s, the exoticism of forgotten orchestras and entertainers performing on late 40s yacht cruises to Jamaica.”
They have Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano singing on a few tracks on their latest album, Koop Island, including this song. Her voice just puts me in a nice place.
Koop:
Koop Island Blues(mp3)Buy Koop Island (only available as an import in the US).
Watch a short YouTube clip of Koop with Yukimi Nagano.
Selections from Baby Ickmusic
My seven month old daughter has mastered the art of the “walker”, as we call it. You know, the little wheeled seats you can plop your infant in so they can scramble around the house with wild abandon. My daughter’s getting pretty good: 360’s, circling the kitchen island at lightning speeds, and now selecting music for you, the Ickmusic reader.
Her latest thing is to stop by my CD racks in the morning, select one CD, and place it on her little table on the walker. Obviously, I see it as a sign that she is itching to contribute to her pop’s music blog. So tonight, her first two selections…
The first CD she picked was Cloudcuckooland, by the Lightning Seeds. This 1990 album’s biggest hit was “Pure”. If you don’t think you know it, I bet it’ll sound familiar to a lot of you. Great song, nice catchy electronic pop. The Lightning Seeds were originally a one man outfit. It was the brainchild of Ian Broudie (born in Liverpool, England).
The Lightning Seeds:
Pure(mp3) – from CloudcuckoolandI once read that the name ‘Lightning Seeds’ comes from Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”: “the thunder drowns out what the lightning sees”. Ian liked the sounds of that, morphed it into ‘Lightning Seeds’, and the rest is history.
My daughter’s second pick was a Stone Roses CD single for “Fool’s Gold”. They broke big out of Manchester, England in the late 80’s. The founding members were vocalist Ian Brown and guitarist John Squire.
So it’s clear to me that my 7 month old daughter was focusing on late 80’s / early 90’s British music, containing founding members with the name Ian. Brilliant!
Speaking of brilliant, I have always believed this song to be just that: a brilliant 10 minutes of trippy Manchester funkitude.
The Stone Roses:
Fool”s Gold(mp3) – buy The Very Best of the Stone Roses.Ok, one little picture of my little one. Can’t resist…
Stephan Crump’s Rosetta Trio
There’s a multitude of music sent my way, and I sure wish this was my day job so I had the time to listen to everything, and give these artists the time and attention they deserve. So I try to listen to all I can. After all, one of the great things about music is there’s always more to discover.
One of those discoveries came recently, as I heard a track by Stephan Crump’s Rosetta Trio. Stephan plays electric and acoustic bass, and is part of the NYC progressive jazz scene. Among his many projects, he is a member of the Vijay Iyer quartet, singer/songwriter’s Jen Chapin’s band, and also has collaborated with Gregg Bendian in Gregg’s Mahavishnu Project. For you regular readers, you heard Gregg’s name in my recent Nels Cline interview. Nels and Gregg collaborated on an album. Stephan’s web site even mentions that he has worked in some way, shape or form with Bruce Springsteen. I will be seeking more info on that little nugget.
So the Rosetta Trio is billed as an all-string progressive jazz ensemble of upright bass with acoustic and electric guitars. Their MySpace site has a few songs streaming. Here’s one of them. I love the vibe. I guess I just love hearing how different people manipulate their instruments in different ways, and these guys are laying it down in a very unique style. It’s jazz, but it’s not. There’s something inventive and fresh going on.
Stephan Crump’s Rosetta Trio:
Tag(mp3) – from the new album, Rosetta. Pick it up on CDBaby or iTunes.Visit Stephan Crump’s web site.
Visit his MySpace page.So Long Greg Wiggle
Those of you who aren’t mothers and fathers of young children may not feel the impact of this development, but it’s genuinely sad news to hear that Greg Page, aka Greg the Yellow Wiggle, has left the Wiggles due to a chronic condition known as orthostatic intolerance…
Put simply, it means that when Greg stands up, his heart does not compensate for the change in posture by pumping more blood around his body for it to function properly. A similar problem occurs when there is a change in the environment such as a warm room or hot weather.
This condition is causing problems with his walking, balance, speech and coordination. It relates to the proper functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which is the way the human body regulates things we don’t consciously have to think about such as heart beat and temperature regulation. [from this press release on the Wiggles web site]
It bums me out. There are a multitude of children’s television programs, and most of them can be quite grating on an adult’s nerves, but the Wiggles is something different. That’s one I’ve enjoyed over the last few years as a new father. Good music and very likable guys. I took my daughter to a Wiggles concert this past spring, and I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it almost as much as her.
Greg will be replaced by Sam Moran, who has been an understudy for the Wiggles for nine years. We’ll still watch, but there will always be a void.
Wiggles Trivia: Former Split Enz and Crowded House drummer Paul Hester played a recurring Wiggles role as “Paul the Cook”. He’s the guy you saw singing “Fruit Salad”. He sadly committed suicide in 2005. Bummer post, I know! Sheesh…
Computer Blue Debut at First Avenue
I was getting my Prince fix on tonight, and came across some amazing footage from 1983. A very kind soul, godar1990, has posted some tunes from a gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis, a gig where Prince debuted tunes from ‘Purple Rain’.
Check this out… if you want to explore others from this show, click here. Thank you godar, and thank you YouTube!!! I guess this may be filed under ‘Enjoy it While it Lasts’…