Warmth of the Sun Giveaway
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 SunCheck out the Beach Boys Official Site.
Happy Mom’s Day, now listen to George Michael
A Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, including my beautiful wife and amazing mother, Myra. My own mom gave me the year off, as she’s currently traveling across England’s Lake District – on foot. She has my dad – the hiking fiend – to thank for that. My crazy pops hiked the John Muir Trail by himself, for crying out loud. My dad the sixty-something has a way of making this thirty- something feel very very lazy.
So I did the obligatory “mother” search in iTunes to see what I could post on this fine day, but nothing jumped out. I don’t think “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother” fits the occasion.
So instead, I’ll go with random stream of consciousness. I guess it’s the recent George Michael coverage. His older albums, especially ‘Faith‘ and ‘Listen Without Prejudice‘, really hold up to the test of time, in my opinion. This tune from ‘Listen‘ proves my point…
George Michael: Waiting for the Day
Photo credit: England’s Lake District taken by Nicolas Masse. See his Flickr site.
The Future is Now
Hey, it’s my first post from my sweet new iMac! I tell you, there’s a lot of different little habits I need to break and re-acquire. Right clicking, for example. You don’t get the ol’ right click menu in Mac. But this thing is awesome. My poor family…
Starting off the Mac era, we go into the future. I was sitting in a Flagstaff, AZ bar several years ago (the Flagstaff Brewing Company, to be exact), and they were playing this cool David Byrne show. On came a familiar tune, and lo and behold, Byrne was covering Prince’s “The Future”, the opening track on his 1989 soundtrack to Batman. I’ve been trying to track it down since, and thanks to Zack on my Prince forum, I found it!
So take a listen. Then, take a listen to a pretty decent remix of Prince’s version.
David Byrne:
The Future(mp3)Prince:
The Future(mp3) – remixFriday Flashback: Richard Marx
The CD single of Richard Marx‘s “Hazard” was the latest disc my 1 year old grabbed out of my CD rack.
It prompted me to toss it in the CD drive and have a good listen. Early 90’s cheese? To some. But in my oh so humble opinion, still a good song. Nice tune, nice melody, nice singin’.
It holds up!
Richard Marx: Hazard
Buy: Rush Street (1991)
Elisa: Oooh This I Need
If there’s music with Prince’s fingerprints on it, there’s a good chance I have it (well, I never did buy Good Question). This includes Prince’s work with Elisa Fiorillo. He produced about half of her 1989 album, I Am. Elisa also shows up on Prince’s “Partyman” 12″ extended single, she’s the sexy voice in “Love Machine” off the Graffiti Bridge soundtrack, and she sings on two songs from Diamonds and Pearls: “Daddy Pop” and “Walk”.
These days, Elisa lives in Las Vegas, where she’s still in the music business, working on a jazz album. You can catch up with her on her site and her MySpace page.
Regarding Prince, this is what she has to say about him on her MySpace: “And I would also love to get back in touch with Prince again! Now that he is in Vegas and I live here…I would love to reconnect and possibly play at his new club 3121! I would love for him to hear my new album “Labor Of Love”. I think he would dig it! HA!”
You heard her Prince, bring Elisa up on stage for a couple!
Elisa Fiorillo:
Oooh, This I Need(mp3) – from I AmAmy Winehouse’s Rehab: No- No – No
Though this song has been featured about a bazillion times on other music blogs, it’s possible some of you fine folks have not heard it. I just heard it last week for the first time. British singer Amy Winehouse lives quite a public personal life, but gawd can this girl sing.
Amy Winehouse:
Rehab(mp3) – from Back to Black (U.S. release is March 12)Watch the video for Rehab | and a live in-studio performance
Amy’s Official Site | MySpace
Whatever Happened to Andre Cymone?
February 2014 Update: The Stone – The Return of Andre Cymone
Andre Cymone, to you non-Prince freaks, was Prince’s childhood buddy and the first bassist in Prince’s touring band (before they were known as the Revolution). He left in 1981 to pursue a solo career, which didn’t pan out the way he probably wanted. He released three solo albums: Livin’ in the New Wave (1982), Survivin’ in the 80’s (1983), and AC (1985). AC contained his biggest hit, “The Dance Electric”, written and produced by Prince.
Andre found later success by producing hit albums for Pebbles, Adam Ant, and Jody Watley (whom he was married to). Over the years, I’ve wondered whatever happened to the guy. I did a YouTube search tonight, and found a treasure trove of live Andre Cymone footage posted by his drummer (John “Bam Bam” Morgan) from his 1984 tour. In one of the comments, he mentions about Andre: “Last I heard, Andre was living in N.Y. trying his hand at some kind of tv or movie scripts.”
All three of his albums are out of print, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. I have my three vinyl albums nestled safely in their plastic covers, along with any Prince-related records of that era. Vanity’s ‘Wild Animal’? Got it. So come on people, help me track Andre Cymone down. Enough is enough. The Andre Cymone ‘Ickmusic Interview’ needs to happen!
Sept. 20, 2011 Update:
Andre performed at a North Minneapolis Family Day event on August 27th. Here he is on bass with a band that includes former Revolution drummer Bobby Z.
Other clips:
The Sleepy Jackson
Luke Steele. If that isn’t a name destined for show biz, I don’t know what is. Luke is the main man in The Sleepy Jackson from Perth, Australia, one of the most isolated big cities on God’s green earth (The most, maybe?). He’s a man of many instruments influenced by George Harrison, Walt Disney, and Woody Guthrie. Since ’99, he has released two full albums, 2006’s Personality (One Was a Spider, One Was a Bird), and 2003’s Lovers, which this song comes from.
The Sleepy Jackson:
Rain Falls for Wind(mp3) – from Lovers.Here’s The Sleepy Jackson Official Site | MySpace
Site Note: So I just added this feature that allows people to see a preview of a web site just by hovering your mouse over a link. Pretty cool in my opinion. I showed my buddy Jim at work, and he looked at me like I was crazy, and said, “Dude, uh, Safari 2.0?!!”. I guess Safari on Macintosh has this as an option in their browser. Mac snob.
But anyways, I think it’s cool. What do you think? Your results will determine whether it stays or goes. Does it annoy the crap out of you? Or are you okay with it? Do tell. No comments mean you indeed do not give 2 shits either way, and I’m OK with that.
Flip, Pinto, and the Dead
Time to promote!
Here are a few goodies sent my way, completely and utterly unrelated to eachother.
Lil Flip’s New Video: Yes, this man looks like he would very much like to eat your children. But that’s just Lil’ Flip. I won’t pretend to know a thing about Lil Flip. I only know him as one the many “Lil”s in the hip-hop world. And after reading about him on Wikipedia, I now know that he’s had running feuds with Paul Wall, Hump, T.I., and Slim Thug. He’s Houston bred and he was discovered by DJ Screw. You got that? ‘Cause there’s gonna be a quiz.
Lyf Jennings joins Lil’ Flip here for this new video from Flip’s forthcoming album. Oh cool, I can say this now… it drops in March. See? I still got it. Anyway, I still like to catch up with what’s going on in hip-hop these days. Of course I’m one of those mid to late thirty somethings that spent their formative years listening to the pioneers: Run DMC, Eric B. & Rakim, Whodini, Public Enemy, etc. etc., and no hip-hop will ever top that stuff for me. But yeah, it’s good to check in every now and then. And this isn’t bad. I like the message and the flow.
But I do like Paul Wall better. Sorry Flip (I’ll check more of your stuff out, I can’t judge you on one song).
Lil Flip Feat. Lyf Jennings: Ghetto Mindstate (YouTube)
PINTO! Andreas is the man. He’s in a Swedish band called Pinto, and he emails me from time to time with his latest stuff. In fact, I’m motivated to post their latest tune simply based on the subject line of his latest email: “Oh Lord Jesus Christ it is that guy from Pinto again!” And to describe Pinto’s latest, he puts it this way….
Let me put this simple. We has either made an awesome hit song or a really annoying two minute track that reminds you of Hooters (and sadly I’m talking about the band). Hopefully it is the first. I really hate Hooters (the band that is).
Awesome.
Pinto: Talk to Me Now (mp3)
Listen:
[audio:talk_to_me_now.mp3]
You can download a thousand Swedish meatballs worth of tunes over at their web site. Go Pinto go!
Grateful Dead’s Live at The Cow Palace, New Year’s Eve, 1976 On January 23rd, Rhino will be releasing a classic Dead show from New Year’s Eve 1976. I’ve got a copy on the way for a sweet upcoming giveaway, so stay tuned.
While we’re waiting for the 23rd, check out this cool e-Card to listen to some tunes. You can follow links there to order the CD.
Clickit.
How to Unravel a Good Thing: Gary Glitter and Kramer
I was listening to Joan Jett’s radio show on Sirius’ Underground Garage (the brainchild of E Street’s Little Steven). She kicked off the show by spinning an old Gary Glitter tune. This tune comes from 1973’s Touch Me, Glitter’s second release. The album’s biggest hit was “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, which reached number two on the UK charts in January of ’73, and was later covered by Miss Jett in the early 80’s. Another hit on the album was the song I heard this past weekend, “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again”.
As many or most of you know, Mr. Glitter hasn’t fared too well over the last couple of decades. He was busted for child porn in the UK in the late 90’s, and is now rockin’ and rollin’ away the days in a Vietnamese prison, after being convicted early this year of “obscene acts” with two Vietnamese girls.
So it’s unfortunate that listening to Glitter’s music now immediately makes you think of his misdeeds later in life. It’s a shame that he’s permanently scarred the accomplishments of a successful music career.
And now, of course, thanks to Michael Richards’ idiotic and hate-filled rant at a recent stand-up gig, he’s helped mar every future episode of Seinfeld I’ll ever watch. The “Seinfeld Curse” has even managed to reach back in time and foul up all of those brilliantly funny episodes. Oh, they’ll still be as hilarious as they’ve always been, but I’ll always see Kramer and think “Ah! Racist idiot!”
Well played, Gary Glitter and “Kramer”, well played!
Gary Glitter:
Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again(mp3) – from Touch Me, available on The Ultimate Gary Glitter | eMusic has it too.I defy you to watch Gary Glitter sing “Another Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas”, and not think of Gary as a “slimy, sinister git”, as one of the YouTube commenters puts it. But who knows, maybe Gary will be “rockin” your “stockin!”
