Prince hips me to Janelle Monáe

August 20th, 2008 by Pete

(Photo from Nastassia A. Davis’s Flickr photostream.)

There’s lots of ways to hear about a new artist. Find a cool blog posting. Hear it on the radio. Have a friend tell you about it. Or in this case, have one of your favorite artists wait outside of the Viper Room for the artist’s gig to end so he can talk to her.

Prince drove down the hill to the Sunset Strip last night to meet with Atlanta-based, futuristic R&B singer Janelle Monáe after her gig. E Online found it newsworthy enough to write about it, and I apparently find it newsworthy enough to repeat it here. It’s just that I often wonder what my purple friend is up to. The man still doesn’t have a functional official web site, which is stupefying to me. For all the fuss he makes about people posting his images, songs, and videos on the internet, you’d think that he would have something to offer us. But nope, still zilch on the internet front.

But on to Janelle. The music is unique, fresh, funky, and you can hear influences from Prince to Outkast to smooth singers like Shirley Bassey (she sang some of the James Bond themes). Janelle was recently signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, which is okay as long as he keeps his paws off. I don’t feel like hearing his “yeah”s and “uh”s in her songs.

Janelle’s well on her way to establishing herself as the next best thing on the scene. As usual, I’m a little behind. So thanks Mr. Nelson for swinging by the Viper Room last night. I owe you. No, not actual money. Man, that Prince… always looking for a payday!

Janelle Monáe - Sincerely, Jane (mp3)

Buy her new EP, Metropolis: the Chase Suite:

Sites: Official | MySpace

Posted in Prince, R&B | 7 Comments »

New Wendy & Lisa: Balloon

July 26th, 2008 by Pete

Prince may have dropped Wendy & Lisa from the band back in the 80’s, but the ladies certainly never hung it up and called it a day. They’ve released a number of well received albums over the years, and contributed to film and television scores (e.g. Heroes).

Late this week, Wendy & Lisa announced a new album, White Flags of Winter Chimneys. Along with the news comes the lead track available for download on their website and their MySpace. The song is called “Balloon”, an atmospheric, gently haunting tune. Check out the stream here, then go over to W&L’s place to download.

Wendy & Lisa - “Balloon”

Wendy & Lisa Links: Official Site | MySpace

Posted in Pop, Prince, Rock | 6 Comments »

The Time in Vegas: Go to the Flamingo, do The Bird

June 27th, 2008 by Pete

Taking a cue from their old boss, Morris Day and the boys have taken up a residency at a Las Vegas hotel/casino to kick out the jams for a couple of months. Last year, Prince took over the Rio for a few months of very well received shows at his makeshift club, 3121 (complete with his own “jazz cuisine” restaurant).

Well it’s 2008, and after getting back together to jam with Rihanna at the Grammys earlier this year, the boys are ready for more. Starting last Tuesday, and running through August 2nd, the “classic” Time lineup (sorry, St. Paul Peterson) will be performing a series of shows at the Flamingo Hotel/Casino in Vegas.  We’re talkin’ Morris Day, his sidekick Jerome Benton, Jesse Johnson, über-producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Monte Moir, and Jellybean Johnson.

Check out this AP article for an interview with the boys. Might be worth a weekend getaway this summer. Who can babysit?

Posted in Prince | 6 Comments »

Prince continues to make friends, says “No Way, Norway!”

June 25th, 2008 by Pete

Our purple friend is at it again. This time, his sights are set on Norway’s C+C Records, who organized a tribute box set made up of 50 artists doing covers of Prince tunes. Tip # 1, C+C Records: next time, don’t contact Prince’s people to try to send him a free copy. Odds are he won’t say “Thanks.”….

In a rare defense of the purple one, how wise is it really to put together a box set of Prince tunes without making any legal arrangements at all? Even if you are giving it away for free?

Eliot at Wired’s Listening Post blog has the story:

Fifty artists who recorded Prince covers in honor of his purpleness’s 50th birthday on June 7 have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star, whose lawyers demand that all copies of the tribute, which had reached number eight on Norway’s album charts and received several popular reviews by the Norwegian press, be destroyed.

It’s perfectly legal to record and sell cover songs of someone else’s material, so long as you pay the compulsory licensing fee of about ten cents per song. To sell their five-disc set of 81 Prince cover songs, they would have to remit around $8 per unit sold to Prince under a compulsory mechanical license.

However, Norway’s C+C Records distributed 5,000 of the box sets for free earlier this month, and claim that no one made any money from the giveaway. As a result, they didn’t think they owed Prince anything except maybe a free copy.

C+C Records owner and Prince fan Christer Falck contacted the purple one’s people to try to send one to Prince, and that’s when the trouble began [bold text by Ickmusic], according to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet (now offline, via Daily Swarm), one of many publications to post positive reviews of the collection.

For now, all 81 songs can be previewed for free on C+C Records‘ website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form.

When this giveaway first began, there were 5,000 copies of this compilation in circulation. Thanks to Prince’s lawsuit and the publicity it will generate, we expect that number to balloon significantly in the coming weeks.

Posted in Prince, Roots Rock | 5 Comments »

By the Truckload!

June 10th, 2008 by Michael

Joining in the celebration of the 50th year of our favorite pasta maven, Coverville just released episode 471: The Prince Cover Story III featuring 46 minutes of funk from the likes of Living Colour, Stina Nordenstam and Kid Creole. You can get it via iTunes or just click here.

Posted in Prince | No Comments »

Prince’s Big Weekend in SoCal (Coachella, Leno)

April 27th, 2008 by Pete

Looks like our boy Prince had one his best weekends in a while - since last year’s Super Bowl Sunday at least. Friday night he debuted a new chicken scratch funker called “Turn Me Loose” on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (vid below). And last night, as Saturday’s Coachella headliner, what does he go and do? Brings out Morris for “Jungle Love” and “The Bird”; brings out Shelia E. for “The Glamorous Life”; and debuts a live cover of - get this - Radiohead’s “Creep”! Wha-wha-whaaat?

I hope the DAT recorders were rolling (don’t tell the purple one!)…

Set List (thanks T.):
The Bird (performed by Morris Day) /
Jungle Love (performed by Morris Day) /
Glamorous Life (performed by Sheila E.) /
Instrumental Jam /
1999 /
I Feel For U /
Controversy (with snippet of “Housequake”) /
Little Red Corvette /
Musicology /
Cream /
U Got the Look /
Shh /
Anotherloverholenyohead /
Creep (Radiohead cover) /
The Arms of an Angel (Sarah McLachlan cover performed by backup singers) /
7 –> Come Together (Beatles Cover) /
Purple Rain /
Let’s Go Crazy

Posted in Prince | 5 Comments »

Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day!

April 9th, 2008 by Michael

Is it merely coincidence that today is also the day that was selected to announce that His Royal Badness will be joining the (frankly) lackluster line up of this year’s Coachella Festival? Don’t get me wrong, I’d be stoked to spend a day baking in the middle of the desert but I don’t see shelling out the coin to travel across the country. That said, when will Prince finally put aside his hatred of the East Coast long enough to return for a show or two?

Posted in Prince | 6 Comments »

Blind, Sexy Dancers, Peaches and Lap Lap

March 12th, 2008 by Pete

I saw the Blind Boys of Alabama open for Tom Petty many years back. I wish I was at the Knitting Factory in LA a few nights ago to catch the purple one jumping on stage to jam with them on “I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord”.

So a few years ago, British electronic duo 7 Hurtz hooked up with Bitch Lap Lap and Peaches for a version of Prince’s “Sexy Dancer”. Bitch Lap Lap? That’s indie queen Leslie Feist. I guess she used to lurk on stage at Peaches shows back in the day and called herself Bitch Lap Lap (they lived together in Toronto for a spell). I did not know that until tonight. You see, I was doing some exhaustive research trying to figure out who was acting out the Brenda part to Peaches’ Apollonia in the song (the banter mimics an inter-song segue on the Apollonia 6 album. Pre-”Ooo She She Wa Wa” to be exact. Yes, I am a 37 year old married father of two, and I know that.). I searched 7 Hurtz’s MySpace page and the only picture of a female I could find was this one…

After another minute of research, I discovered that the mystery voice was Feist. I hope you don’t mind, though, that I intend to picture the young lady above when listening to this version. In fact, I’ll picture her in both roles…. as twins. Antennaed twins.

The song appears on an album of Prince covers called ‘Controversy: A Tribute to Prince‘. It’s got some interesting versions from some artists I’d never heard of (except for D’Angelo, who does “She’s Always in My Hair”): Blue States, Stina Nordenstam, Kode Nine and Space Ape, to name a few. A reggae version of “Girls & Boys”? This album’s got it.

So give it a listen. Picture the antennaed twins, and go with them to Prince’s house.

7 Hurtz w/ Peaches & Bitch Lap Lap - Sexy Dancer (mp3)

Buy: Controversy: A Tribute to Prince (UK Amazon)

Links: Peaches.com | 7 Hurtz | Feist

Posted in Electronic, Prince | 2 Comments »

Prince and the Boss: Nominations at Tonight’s Grammys

February 10th, 2008 by Pete

Here are the categories where Bruce and Prince are nominated tonight. [Source: Grammy.com]

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Prince, The Boss | No Comments »

The Time + Rihanna = Jungle Umbrella Love? - Watch the Grammys

January 25th, 2008 by Pete

Here’s a newsworthy item for a Prince geek like me… According to this Billboard article, Rihanna will be joined by none other than the Time for a performance at next weekend’s Grammys.

I’ll be adding my sometimes snide, sometimes cynical, but honest commentary all night in year 2 of my live blogging of the Grammys. Believe me, it works better than barking mean-spirited comments to my wife all night!

There should be some blog-worthy moments, especially if Amy Winehouse shows up. They tried to make her go to rehab and she said Yes Yes Yes - this time around. But she’s expected to be there for the ceremony.

Here’s Morris, Terry, Jimmy, Jesse and the boys throwin’ down on American Bandstand back in ‘82-’83 with “777-9311″ (quality = shiteous, but fun nonetheless):

Posted in Miscellaneous, Prince | 6 Comments »