Warmth of the Sun Giveaway

May 20th, 2007 by Pete

This Tuesday, Epic will release ‘The Warmth of the Sun’, a retrospective of three decades of Beach Boys music chosen by the Boys themselves - yes, even Brian Wilson (along with Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, and Mike Love). To complement the release, there’s an 11-part series of free podcasts filled with interviews and quality Beach Boys tuneage being released over 11 weeks. You can subscribe to them in iTunes.

So naturally, it’s time for another Ickmusic give-it-away! A comment below puts you in the running. Pretty simple, hey? As always, points for originality. And extra points to anyone who can throw Brian Wilson and “warmth of the sun” into a limerick.

The Warmth Of The Sun (CD and Digital Album)
1. All Summer Long (new stereo mix)
2. Catch A Wave
3. Hawaii
4. Little Honda
5. 409
6. It’s OK
7. You’re So Good To Me (new stereo mix)
8. Then I Kissed Her (new stereo mix)
9. Kiss Me, Baby
10. Please Let Me Wonder (new stereo mix)
11. Let Him Run Wild (new stereo mix)
12. The Little Girl I Once Knew
13. Wendy (new stereo mix)
14. Disney Girls (1957)
15. Forever
16. Friends
17. Break Away
18. Why Do Fools Fall In Love
19. Surf’s Up
20. Feel Flows
21. All This Is That
22. ‘Til I Die
23. Sail On, Sailor
24. Cool, Cool Water
25. Don’t Go Near The Water
26. California Saga (On My Way To Sunny Californ-i-a)
27. California Dreamin’
28. The Warmth Of The Sun

Buy The Warmth of the Sun

Subscribe to the Podcast Series.

Check out the Beach Boys Official Site.

Posted in Giveaway, Oldies, Pop | 14 Comments »

On the Sly - an Ickmusic Giveaway

April 30th, 2007 by Pete

Photo credit: SBMG Archives

“Black, white, Puerto Rican everybody just a freakin,’ good times were rollin…” - Prince “Uptown”

Prince sang these lyrics on his 1980 album, ‘Dirty Mind.’ He practiced what he preached with his backing band from the very beginning. Surrounding himself with black folks, white folks, male, female. But it was nothing new. More than a dozen years earlier in San Francisco, Sylvester Stewart, aka Sly Stone, had assembled a band of much the same makeup. In 1967, Sly put together the now legendary Family Stone: Fred Stewart (guitar, vocals), Larry Graham, Jr. (bass, vocals), Greg Errico (drums), Jerry Martini (saxophone), and Rosie Stone (piano), and Cynthia Robinson (trumpet).

Their mixture of funky, psychedelic, rock & soul shook up the Bay Area, at a time when bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were doing some serious mind blowing of their own. Oh, to be a young person living in Haight-Ashbury in the late 60’s. Loord have mercy… Kaboom! goes the brain.

Sly and the Family Stone were signed to CBS’s Epic Records in 1967 by one Clive Davis. Between ‘67 and ‘74, they released seven groundbreaking albums which would go on to influence countless numbers of performers down the road, including our boy Prince. In fact, if you think about it, what band has been more influential overall on Prince? Larry Graham, after all, is the reason Prince won’t curse anymore, and the reason he changed “Sexuality” to “Spirituality”. Yep, Larry’s the one that turned Prince on to life as a Jehovah’s Witness. No birthday for you!

So Sly’s breakthrough album was 1969’s ‘Stand’, which included such funkalicious staples as “I Wanna Take You Higher”, “Sing a Simple Song”, and “Everyday People.” As the idealism and flower power of the 60’s ended, Sly pretty much lost himself in addictions to drugs, particularly cocaine and PCP. The man reportedly used to carry around a violin case full of drugs everywhere he went.

Sly pretty much dropped off the map as the seventies came to a close, and has struggled with addiction ever since. He popped up to help The Time’s Jesse Johnson on Jesse’s second album, ‘Shockadelica’, singing on “Crazay” in 1986. Since then, he was pretty quiet until 2006’s Grammy Awards, when he popped up on stage looking about 10 different types of cuckoo. I think he’s stil making an effort to clean up and get back on stage. I think I heard he showed up at a Vegas gig recently? There’s a great place to kick your addicitions…

So all seven of these albums (listed below) were reissued by Epic/Legacy in early April. I got my hands on ‘Stand!’, and for some reason, I’m going to give it away to one of you fine folks. This reissue has five bonus tracks: three mono singles and two previously unreleased bonus tracks.

The winner will be selected from the comments using a secret, proprietary formula. Or by having my one year old point to the screen. Or whichever one thoroughly entertains me. Or… you get the idea. No rhyme or reason really. Good luck! And check out some of these tracks and reissues.

Sly & the Family Stone Streamage - comin’ at ya in Real format! Keepin’ it real! Kaboom!

Stand!

Everyday People (single version)

Stand! Track List

(Epic/Legacy 82876 75912 2, originally issued April 1969, as Epic 26456)

1. Stand! (3rd single, R&B #14, Hot 100 #22) • 2. Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey • 3. I Want To Take You Higher (4th single, R&B #24, Hot 100 #60/1969, Hot 100 #38/1970) • 4. Somebody’s Watching You • 5. Sing A Simple Song (2nd single, R&B 28, Hot 100 #89) • 6. Everyday People (1st single, Hot 100 #1, R&B #1) • 7. Sex Machine • 8. You Can Make It If You Try • Bonus tracks: 9. Stand! (single version, mono) • 10. I Want To Take You Higher (single version, mono) • 11. You Can Make It If You Try (unissued/cancelled single version, mono) • 12. Soul Clappin’ II (previously unreleased) • 13. My Brain (Zig-Zag) (instrumental track, previously unreleased). Produced by Sly Stone.

Note: All tracks recorded 1969, except: tracks 5, 8, 11 recorded 1968.

Buy it:

Sly & the Family Stone’s Official Site

The Reissues:

• A WHOLE NEW THING (1967)
• DANCE TO THE MUSIC (1968)
• LIFE (1968)
• STAND! (1969)
• THERE’S A RIOT GOIN’ ON (1971)
• FRESH (1973)
• SMALL TALK (1974)

Posted in Funk, Giveaway | 16 Comments »

A Johnny n’ Jesus Giveaway

March 19th, 2007 by Pete

On March 6th, Johnny Cash - Ultimate Gospel was released on Columbia/Legacy. 24 tracks of Johnny’s favorite gospel tunes, including three previously unreleased tracks. Whether you love you some Jesus, or you love Johnny Cash, or both, leave a comment below, and you may just win the CD….

Buy Johnny Cash Ultimate Gospel

Full Tune Stream-age:

• How Great Thou Art: Quicktime | Real Player | WMP
• Amazing Grace: QT | RP | WMP
• (There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (for me): QT | RP | WMP

Posted in Giveaway, Gospel | 15 Comments »

Dead at the Cow Palace Contest

January 27th, 2007 by Pete

If you didn’t win this in Hidden Track’s recent contest (they took the best post title, “A Dead Giveaway”), here’s a chance to pick up Rhino’s recent release of the Grateful Dead’s New Year’s Eve 1976 show at the Cow Palace. It’s a triple CD set, it’s 180 minutes of Dead in their prime goodness, and I think you should have it. There’s a listening party right here, and you can also check out and buy the CD here.

Leaving a comment below enters you in the contest, and I’ll pick a winner early in the coming week. Because it’s late Saturday morning, and I’m high on 2 cups of coffee and cold medicine, let’s get creative. Whoever comes up with the best Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia related haiku wins the set.

About Haiku: “Haiku is an unrhymed, syllabic form adapted from the Japanese: three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. Because it is so brief, a haiku is necessarily imagistic, concrete & pithy, capturing a single moment in a very few words.”

so good luck people
this is a lot of music
eat asparagus

February 2nd Update: We gotta winner: Boyhowdy! See here for details.

Posted in Giveaway, Jam, Miscellaneous | 13 Comments »

New Johnny Cash Releases and a Giveaway too

December 11th, 2006 by Pete

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 Edition

Posted in Country, Giveaway | 18 Comments »

A Black Crowes Giveaway

October 23rd, 2006 by Pete

It’s high time for another Ickmusic giveaway! Yow!! The promotional gods have bequeathed upon me some cool goodies. Rhino has struck again with 2 cool Black Crowes releases. Here’s a snippet from the press release:

LOS ANGELES – Twice The Black Crowes have recorded albums that were never officially released: Tall in 1993 and Band in 1997. While a few songs from these lost albums were rerecorded and released on studio albums, many have emerged only through the band’s legendary live shows. The Black Crowes recently went into the vault, collecting the best moments from those abandoned sessions for a special treat for their longtime fans. Titled THE LOST CROWES, it is a two-disc set of unreleased music that has been remixed for its public debut on Rhino….

The Black Crowes released its first home video, WHO KILLED THAT BIRD OUT ON YOUR WINDOW SILL, in 1992 while touring for the band’s sophomore album. Rhino Home Video will release a remastered and expanded version of the video on DVD that features live performances, interviews, backstage and studio footage, videos from the group’s first two albums, and additional bonus features. [read the full Press Release doc]

You can check out this Crowes eCard to listen to some tracks off the CD’s, check out the track listing, and buy the CD and/or the DVD. The handful of tracks I’ve heard (”A Conspiracy”, “p.25 London”) make me not want to give away the CD, but give it away I will!

Ah, but there is a caveat. You must work for your winnings. Here’s the question to ponder: Chris Robinson, lead singer of the Crowes, recently broke it off with actress Kate Hudson after several years of marriage. The rumor mill has it that she got a little too friendly with actor Owen Wilson on the set of their latest movie. So the scenario is this… it’s a late Saturday night in a smoky L.A. bar, and Owen is wrapping up a game of pool. In walks Chris, who shuffles up to the bar, orders a shot of whiskey and a bottle of beer. He sees Owen across the bar and starts to amble over. Lo and behold, Owen’s playing pool with Kurt Russell, Chris’s former daddy in law.

Words are exchanged, and before you know it, Russell and Wilson jump Chris like two vicious street hoods. Slash (formerly of Guns n Roses) sees what’s happening, and jumps in to help Chris.

Oh, it’s on now. Chris Robinson and Slash are squaring off in a barroom brawl with Owen Wilson and Kurt Russell. Magic question: who wins the fight? Leave a comment below. Any details, like instruments used, special kung-fu moves, etc. are welcome. My favorite will win the CD, DVD, and collector’s edition Black Crowes matchbox.

Buy the CD, The Lost Crowes

Buy the DVD, Who Killed That Bird Out On Your Window Sill

“Jealous Again” Video
“Remedy” Video
“She Talks to Angels” Video

The Black Crowes Official Web Site

Posted in Giveaway, Rock | 11 Comments »

Bruce wraps it up with the greatest of Ease

June 27th, 2006 by Pete

Well, Sunday night wrapped up the Seeger Sessions U.S. tour with a rousing performance at Holmdel, NJ’s PNC Bank Arts Center (wrapping up a two night stand there). A highlight of the show was the closer, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze”, which was played only once prior at one of the Asbury Park rehearsal shows. So the tour ends, but worry not, folkmeisters, the tour is rumored to be resuming in the fall over across the pond.

Bruce Springsteen & the Seeger Sessions Band: The Man on the Flying Trapeze (mp3) - Live, June 25, 2006 at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey

AN ICKMUSIC GIVEAWAY! To celebrate these last few weeks of Bruce and the band barnstorming across Europe and the U.S., I’d like to offer three Boss fans (or future Boss fans) the full final show on CD (actually, three CD’s). At the end of the day Thursday, I’ll pick 3 winners from the Comments section. Make sure you leave your email address when you leave a comment. As it says next to the Email Address field, it’s not published, so no worries.

The set list from Sunday night was: American Land/John Henry/O Mary Don’t You Weep/Old Dan Tucker/Atlantic City/Long Black Veil/Jesse James/Long Time Comin’/Erie Canal/My Oklahoma Home/If I Should Fall Behind/Mrs. McGrath/Devils & Dust/How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?/Jacob’s Ladder/We Shall Overcome/Open All Night/Pay Me My Money Down
Encore: My City of Ruins/Ramrod/You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)/When the Saints Go Marching In/The Man on the Flying Trapeze
================
June 29 UPDATE - THE WINNERS!: Well, after reading all the great comments, I decided to choose 5 winners instead of the 3 I mentioned. Indeed, “I wish I was Mr. Gates”, so I could treat you all to the show, but I am most definitely not Mr. Gates. Good news for everybody though: all 26 folks who left comments will be getting a downloadable treat or two in their Inbox very soon.

So the winners are: Eric, Kay in the U.K., Joe (fellow music blogger), “No Luck” Chuck (now known as Lucky Chuck), and Steven. Congrats you five!

*** For those who are still interested in getting a hold of the show, it can be done.

Posted in Folk, Giveaway, The Boss | 28 Comments »