"The Day the Music Died"

Today is the 50th anniversary of the tragic airplane accident that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, also known as "The Day the Music Died." (It also inspired Don McLean to write "American Pie", which itself is the inspiration for Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly", but we digress.) We're going to observe this sad milestone by paying tribute to these two rock and roll pioneers and one radio DJ turned performer, with a few video clips.







And of course:

Hudson, Hill Lip-Synched at Super Bowl

Yes, it's true.

Say what you will about Bruce Springsteen's allegedly pitchy rendition of "Born to Run" at Sunday's football extravaganza, The Boss don't fake it, yo.

Quote of the Week

"Flaming Lips doing the soundtack to a movie about magic mushrooms? That's like doing a documentary on feminine cleansing products and having Fall Out Boy write songs for it."

- Fark.com

New Releases

This week's include:

THE BAD PLUS For All I Care (Heads Up)
BEN KWELLER Changing Horses (ATO)
RONNIE McNEIR [self-titled; 1972] (RCA/Dusty Groove)
GRAHAM NASH Reflections [box set] (Rhino)
THE VON BONDIES Love, Hate and then There's You (Majordomo)

Smells Like Leeds Spirit

It was bound to happen: 15 years after the death of Kurt Cobain (!) and the final throes of the so-called "grunge" era, the sludge is back. In Leeds, England.

But since this pseudo-flannel hype is fueled by the notoriously over-embellishing UK press, the question, as always, is should you believe it? Yes. Partially, anyway.

The Guardian's Dave Simpson is on it:

Dinosaur Pile-Up are at the forefront of what may turn out to be the year's most unlikely musical development: grungy music from in and around Leeds. The original American grunge bands fused rock with a punk aesthetic in a revolt against the "hair metal" bands that had been the dominant form of hard rock over the preceding few years. It seems their Yorkshire successors are also reacting to something: the "New Yorkshire" sound that has dominated guitar music in the north for the last three or four years.

"If you're involved in the music scene in Leeds, you get it rammed down your throat that the Kaiser Chiefs and the Pigeon Detectives are your legacy," says Harry Johns, who fronts the Old Romantic Killer Band, a guitar-drums duo who sound like a grunged-up 60s power trio. "We all love the Cribs because of the punk aesthetic and the stripped-down sounds. But otherwise [New Yorkshire] wasn't for us. We'd meet at parties and say, 'We're not really into this are we?' Then we started bands."

But why grunge bands?

Grunge has been unfashionable for years, but among the twentysomethings who experienced it at a formative age – many weren't long out of pushchairs – it never really went away. "When I used to run a club night I'd always play Smells Like Teen Spirit," admits Russell, the guitarist with Wonderswan, a quintet who shuns surnames but make a beautifully shambolic fuzz-laden racket. "If you talk to people at gigs or in clubs, they've never really gone off that stuff."

"It wasn't a case of, 'Let's start a grunge band,'" says Johns. "It was a case of, 'What records do you listen to? What can we do that's a bit fresher? Rawer and dirtier.'"

Personally, we're quite into the tracks Dinosaur Pile-Up have on their MySpace page. We'd dig The Old Romantic Killer Band a bit more if we weren't so over the bass-less duo thing. But they are pretty cool, regardless.

And the rest? Eh...

[h/t Idolator.]

Springsteen Rocks the Super Bowl

Well, did he? We missed it: We're not football fans; baseball is our thing. (Last year's SB was the first we have ever watched. And that was due to the young lady in our company wanting to watch her New England hometown team. Thankfully, they lost. Unfortunately, so did our libido.)

There's numerous takes on the halftime show here.

What We're Listening To

Mostly individual tracks lately:

THE BEATLES "Fixing a Hole" (Parlophone)
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER "The Endless Enigma (part one)" (Manticore)
ALEX FERREIRA "Rómpase En Caso De Incendio" (self-released)
GENESIS "You Might Recall" (Atlantic)
33 Hz "I Know" (Outlook)

What are YOU listening to?

Stevie Wonder Live DVD

March 10 is the release date for Stevie Wonder's first ever live DVD. Live at Last (Universal/Motown) was filmed in London, during a late September/early October '08 concert run.

The tracklisting is as follows:

Intro / "All Blues"
"As If You Read My Mind"
"Master Blaster (Jammin')"
"Did I Hear You Say You Love Me"
"All I Do"
"Knocks Me Off My Feet"
U.K. Medley: "London Bridge Is Falling Down," "Fool On The Hill," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "Satisfaction"
"People Make The World Go Round"
"Higher Ground"
"Spain"
"Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing"
"Visions"
"Living For The City"
"Part-Time Lover"
"Overjoyed"
"Lately"
"I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life" (performed by Aisha Morris)
"My Cherie Amour"
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)"
"Sir Duke"
"I Wish"
"Isn't She Lovely"
"You Are The Sunshine Of My Life"
"I Just Called To Say I Love You"
"You Are The Only One" (snippet)
"Superstition (So What The Fuss)"
"As"

Are We the Only Ones that Think...

..people have gotten way too addicted to technology, when an established artist gives birth to a child and is blogging/twittering while it happens?

Why PETA Doesn't Get It

(Before we go any further, let's have some full disclosure: a juicy cheeseburger is one of life's simple yet wondrous pleasures, in our book.)

We men are simple creatures. It doesn't take much for us to be content. (According to Chris Rock, it only takes three things to do the trick.) Because of this, Madison Ave. constantly bombard us with ads featuring attractive women, in the hopes that we'll equate owning their product with the possibility of lovely ladies flocking to us. No dice. No Swedish Bikini Team in the world is making us drink any of that swill. (That we are lifelong drinkers of a cola once endorsed by Cindy Crawford and are fans of the '80s supermodel herself, IS A COINCIDENCE. Yes, really.) So the folks at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who are not known for subtlety, decided to go for the Super Bowl crowd with a racy ad [see below], featuring gorgeous ladies in seductive lingerie, cavorting with pumpkins, broccoli, celery, etc. and exhorting us to "Go veg" while bad hair metal plays in the background. The ad was rejected by CBS, the network airing the game, and PETA were said to be surprised. We're more baffled by the organization's cluelessness in this whole matter.

Where to start?

First of all, after the whole Janet Jackson fiasco of a few years back, they had to know CBS would be skittish about this kind of ad. Second, you can try to convince men to consume your version of whatever product they already have a predisposition for. But veggies to a Super Bowl crowd? Put as many hot, scantily clad women as you want in that ad, carnivores are not giving up tangible steaks and burgers for a fantasy chick, no matter how hot. Third--and this is a very personal one that has nothing to do with why the ad didn't air--while we respect the noble intent which fuels PETA, it has been our experience that militant animal lovers hold people in a much lower regard than those they advocate for. It is underscored by this ad, which both objectifies women in the most heavy-handed of ways and shows off their contempt for the intended audience most blatantly. (At least the beer companies are good at it.) This is the equivalent of the equally dumb Carl's Jr ad featuring Paris Hilton, of a few years back. Is that what you were aiming for PETA?

Here's a free tip: we red-blooded, hetero males don't find offense in being considered horn dogs, but no one likes to be thought of as stupid.



UPDATE: It has been suggested to us that perhaps PETA was never interested in getting their over-the-top ad shown during the Super Bowl, but just wanted to reap the benefits of the publicity the situation would bring. Fine. Still, not a great idea.