Johnny Dee

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/interactive/2012/may/19/infomania-jack-white

alternative Looping video from u2 achtung baby covered by Jack White (Stripe)

News from: Zona Musical - Music Forum

Original Post Link http://www.zona-musical.com/postt540467.html

‘I have never had the desire for plastic surgery. All that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?’

When I look in the mirror, I�see a head full of beautiful, greying hair, a�plump, healthy skin and bright eyes. I am still rather young-looking for my age – I’m 71 – and credit my mother’s gift of�beautiful skin and family genes. As well as my mother, I see bits of my dad, and sometimes even traces of the twentysomething girl who sang Walk On By back in 1964.

At a very young age, I was influenced by the style of stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Loretta Young – as soon as I�saw them, I knew those were the�looks I�wanted to emulate.

I love the way I’ve started ageing; the process has a way of changing things inside as well as outside. My voice, for example, has changed somewhat; as I’ve matured, so has it – but in a good way, I think.

I don’t exercise, I drink and I eat what I want. I wish I had a stricter sleep regime but that’s virtually impossible. I am continually flying into various time zones and try to catch up by sleeping on flights.

�I have never had the desire for Botox or plastic surgery. I believe all that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?

• To mark her 50th�anniversary in the music business, Dionne Warwick will be performing across the UK this month and next, including a 28 May show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in support of World Hunger Day.

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News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/may/18/dionne-warwick-what-see-in-mirror

‘I have never had the desire for plastic surgery. All that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?’

When I look in the mirror, I�see a head full of beautiful, greying hair, a�plump, healthy skin and bright eyes. I am still rather young-looking for my age – I’m 71 – and credit my mother’s gift of�beautiful skin and family genes. As well as my mother, I see bits of my dad, and sometimes even traces of the twentysomething girl who sang Walk On By back in 1964.

At a very young age, I was influenced by the style of stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Loretta Young – as soon as I�saw them, I knew those were the�looks I�wanted to emulate.

I love the way I’ve started ageing; the process has a way of changing things inside as well as outside. My voice, for example, has changed somewhat; as I’ve matured, so has it – but in a good way, I think.

I don’t exercise, I drink and I eat what I want. I wish I had a stricter sleep regime but that’s virtually impossible. I am continually flying into various time zones and try to catch up by sleeping on flights.

�I have never had the desire for Botox or plastic surgery. I believe all that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?

• To mark her 50th�anniversary in the music business, Dionne Warwick will be performing across the UK this month and next, including a 28 May show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in support of World Hunger Day.

Pop and rockBeautyguardian.co.uk � 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/may/18/dionne-warwick-what-see-in-mirror

‘I have never had the desire for plastic surgery. All that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?’

When I look in the mirror, I�see a head full of beautiful, greying hair, a�plump, healthy skin and bright eyes. I am still rather young-looking for my age – I’m 71 – and credit my mother’s gift of�beautiful skin and family genes. As well as my mother, I see bits of my dad, and sometimes even traces of the twentysomething girl who sang Walk On By back in 1964.

At a very young age, I was influenced by the style of stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Loretta Young – as soon as I�saw them, I knew those were the�looks I�wanted to emulate.

I love the way I’ve started ageing; the process has a way of changing things inside as well as outside. My voice, for example, has changed somewhat; as I’ve matured, so has it – but in a good way, I think.

I don’t exercise, I drink and I eat what I want. I wish I had a stricter sleep regime but that’s virtually impossible. I am continually flying into various time zones and try to catch up by sleeping on flights.

�I have never had the desire for Botox or plastic surgery. I believe all that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?

• To mark her 50th�anniversary in the music business, Dionne Warwick will be performing across the UK this month and next, including a 28 May show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in support of World Hunger Day.

Pop and rockBeautyguardian.co.uk � 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/may/18/dionne-warwick-what-see-in-mirror

‘I have never had the desire for plastic surgery. All that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?’

When I look in the mirror, I�see a head full of beautiful, greying hair, a�plump, healthy skin and bright eyes. I am still rather young-looking for my age – I’m 71 – and credit my mother’s gift of�beautiful skin and family genes. As well as my mother, I see bits of my dad, and sometimes even traces of the twentysomething girl who sang Walk On By back in 1964.

At a very young age, I was influenced by the style of stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Loretta Young – as soon as I�saw them, I knew those were the�looks I�wanted to emulate.

I love the way I’ve started ageing; the process has a way of changing things inside as well as outside. My voice, for example, has changed somewhat; as I’ve matured, so has it – but in a good way, I think.

I don’t exercise, I drink and I eat what I want. I wish I had a stricter sleep regime but that’s virtually impossible. I am continually flying into various time zones and try to catch up by sleeping on flights.

�I have never had the desire for Botox or plastic surgery. I believe all that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?

• To mark her 50th�anniversary in the music business, Dionne Warwick will be performing across the UK this month and next, including a 28 May show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in support of World Hunger Day.

Pop and rockBeautyguardian.co.uk � 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/may/18/dionne-warwick-what-see-in-mirror

‘I have never had the desire for plastic surgery. All that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?’

When I look in the mirror, I�see a head full of beautiful, greying hair, a�plump, healthy skin and bright eyes. I am still rather young-looking for my age – I’m 71 – and credit my mother’s gift of�beautiful skin and family genes. As well as my mother, I see bits of my dad, and sometimes even traces of the twentysomething girl who sang Walk On By back in 1964.

At a very young age, I was influenced by the style of stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne and Loretta Young – as soon as I�saw them, I knew those were the�looks I�wanted to emulate.

I love the way I’ve started ageing; the process has a way of changing things inside as well as outside. My voice, for example, has changed somewhat; as I’ve matured, so has it – but in a good way, I think.

I don’t exercise, I drink and I eat what I want. I wish I had a stricter sleep regime but that’s virtually impossible. I am continually flying into various time zones and try to catch up by sleeping on flights.

�I have never had the desire for Botox or plastic surgery. I believe all that I am is the way God planned it, and who am I to think I can improve on what he did?

• To mark her 50th�anniversary in the music business, Dionne Warwick will be performing across the UK this month and next, including a 28 May show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in support of World Hunger Day.

Pop and rockBeautyguardian.co.uk � 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2012/may/18/dionne-warwick-what-see-in-mirror

Gold becomes third album to break 5m barrier after Queen’s Greatest Hits and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Swedish group Abba have become the third act to sell 5 million copies of an album in the UK.

They join the Beatles and Queen, after their greatest hits album Gold pushed through the barrier this week. The album was released in October 1992 and has continued to sell consistently.

Only Queen’s Greatest Hits and the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band have achieved five million sales, according to the Official Charts Company which compiled the data.

Abba scored nine number one singles after making their chart debut in 1974 with the Eurovision song contest winner Waterloo.

AbbaThe BeatlesPop and rockguardian.co.uk � 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/18/abba-beatles-queen-sales-league

Listen to 34 new tracks from around the world, as chosen by the Guardian and other bloggers in the Music Alliance Pact

Click the play button to listen to individual songs, right click on the song title to download an MP3, or grab a zip file of the whole 34-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Prietto Viaja Al Cosmos Con Mariano – Ey, Esa No Es Forma De Decir Adiós

PVACCM is a psychedelic rock duo (Mariano, drums and vocals; Prietto, guitar and vocals) from Buenos Aires. Their first recordings were kind of lo-fi experiments but in the past couple of years they’ve developed a unique sound with melodies and lyrics that grow on you in a melancholic way. This track is their rendition of Leonard Cohen’s classic tune Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye and features on their last album, a 28-song double record that you can purchase from Bandcamp.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
Mile Me Deaf – Wild At Heart

Mile Me Deaf is one of the other bands Killed By 9V Batteries’ Wolfgang Möstl plays in. And although side-projects – such an unfair name for a 500+ songs oeuvre – are usually a space for weird shit your band mates didn’t agree to, their first album Eat Skull, and especially the first single Wild At Heart, is surprisingly free of noise and distortion. Instead, it creates the last-day-of-summer-holidays feeling you know from Girls and Beach House.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Leonardo Marques – Linha Do Trem

Nostalgic melodies are the hallmark of Dia e Noite No Mesmo Céu, the debut album of Leonardo Marques. His songs recall a bucolic scenery, romantic and lonely, as we can hear on Linha Do Trem. Leonardo recorded all instruments on his solo work (except drums) in a homely, intimate setting. His music is likely to appeal to fans of Elliott Smith, Clube Da Esquina and Jon Brion.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
The Rest – Always On My Mind

The story of The Rest’s new album, SEESAW, will be one of legend. First, their dear friend and producer Dan Achen passed away suddenly just as they started recording. Then, a month away from finishing the record, a hard-drive glitch deleted everything they’d done so far. It took a black box recovery team six months to retrieve it. Now, more than a year later, it’s here. And it’s stunning. The beautifully hazy Always On My Mind just hints at SEESAW’s orchestral brilliance.

CHILE: Super 45
Daniel Klauser – Simply Swag

If we had to put all our money on one name from the Chilean dance scene, it would definitively be Daniel Klauser. The young producer skillfully brings together elements from 90s house, ghetto-style hip hop and tribal music, and has so far gathered a considerable amount of positive reviews from local and international media. This track open his Simply Swag EP, which you can download for free from Diamante Records.

CHINA: Wooozy
Snapline – Sustaining

Beijing-based trio Snapline just released their second album Phenomena through Maybe Mars Records. Their music puts a contemporary Beijing spin on the sounds and ideas produced by the noise and minimalist musicians of the 70s and 80s, especially focusing on the New York scene of that period. They also explore the dark, industrial music coming out of England during that period, especially from bands such as Joy Division and The Cure.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
Like Some Cat From Japan – Johnny Ramone

Like Some Cat From Japan (LSCFJ) take their name from a line in one of David Bowie’s masterpieces, Ziggy Stardust. This electro group from Bogotá have a dance-punk sound that is perfect for the sweaty throng of a nightclub and dancing from dark until dawn.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
SLOWOLF – See U In My Dreams

This summer Andreas Asingh, one third of lauded electro-pop outfit SMALL, will release his debut as SLOWOLF. Not much is known about the project but he says that black metal, hip hop and dream pop will unite, perhaps for the first time, on the album which will also feature a chorus written by a seven-year-old boy and Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan. Here’s the excellent first single See U In My Dreams, a Music Alliance Pact exclusive download.

ENGLAND: The Guardian Music Blog
Sarah Young – Ajambo Si

Sarah Young, noted the Guardian’s New Band of the Day writer, is the queen of moombahton, the genre that fuses Dutch house and reggaeton, soca and dancehall. If anyone is going to cross over and “do a Katy B”, as such a manoeuvre is becoming known, it’s this 22-year-old graduate of the Academy of Contemporary Music turned DJ, producer and all-round moom-bassador. Ajambo Si, the opening track on her new EP, features Lioness and Slick Don and is based on a kuduro rhythm, but to the NBotD writer it sounded “like dubstep meets dancehall or Caribbean grime, like Dizzee if he went to St Lucia on holiday and never came back”.

FINLAND: Glue
All Will Be Quiet – The First Day Pt. 2

Post-rock band All Will Be Quiet releases its debut album On The First Day this month. It is a concept record about the collapse and rebirth of society with an optimistic view on the how the future will be for mankind. Equally ambitious is The First Day Pt. 2, a grandiose and cinematic instrumental song that opens the second part of the album.

FRANCE: Yet You’re Fired
Birkii – Holy War

Birkii brought us the joyful pop song Shade Of Doubt last year on the great Kitsuné Parisien compilation, and then appeared in many mixes and playlists, including Edwin van Cleef’s April mixtape. Now she’s back with Holy War, a catchy synth-pop song from Kitsuné Parisien II that will also be on her debut EP out on June 4, with remixes from Equateur, Pol Rax, Pegase (last month’s MAP artist) and Zemaria.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
Christian Loeffler – Eleven (feat. Mohna)

There are many subtle things in Christian Loeffler’s debut A Forest which make his music very contemporary – there is swishing, there is rustling, there is clacking, there is tinging. In the pleasantly moody track Eleven, Mohna, singer of former MAP band Me Succeeds, adds another level to Loeffler’s calm but vivid opus.

ICELAND: Rjóminn
The Lovely Lion – Into The Forest

Representing the new wave of Icelandic folk-pop revival, The Lovely Lion are ones to watch for the future. Though this young and extremely talented band have only recorded a handful of songs and are still unsigned, their unique approach to songwriting and polished sound is sure to grab the attention of music lovers everywhere.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
AAS – Bonaparte

Raw, lo-fi, angry dark punk from Medan with added passion about world history which leads us to a song about Napoleon Bonaparte.

IRELAND: Nialler9
Not Squares – Fall Far

Northern Irish electro punks Not Squares have ditched the ultra high-energy in favour of a more restrained dancefloor synth-pop sound for their new single. While Fall Far’s new direction can be compared to the kind of stuff coming out on the Kitsuné label, it must be said that this is a very good look and a surprising one for the band. The best Irish song released in April bar none.

ITALY: Polaroid
The Mojomatics – You Are The Reason For My Trouble

You Are The Reason For My Trouble is the fourth album by The Mojomatics, one the best and coolest garage rock bands around Italy and Europe. The duo from Venice brings into their sound echoes of Rolling Stones, Kinks and Dylan, but what I deeply love about their songs and concerts is their tireless energy.

JAPAN: Make Believe Melodies
Wallflower – Cure Your Heart

Indie-pop music never left Japan, as bands trying to sound twee have been popping up since the C86 tape dropped. Yet this year has seen a boom in jangly rock groups, with Osaka outfit Wallflower being one of the catchiest. They take cues from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and even opened for that American band when they came to Japan earlier this year. This song shows they learned well from The Pains, as they nail dreamy indie-pop yearning in just over three minutes.

MALTA: Stagedive Malta
Stolen Creep – Throw Your Heart To The Sea

Stolen Creep is the brainchild of childhood friends Marie Borg Alden (guitars, vocals) and Rebecca Theuma (drums). The band has had many different members, recently settling into the current line-up of Marie, Rebecca and Katryna Storace (guitars, vocals). Following a busy year of writing, rewriting and rehearsals, they chose their favourite songs and retreated to record their first EP, Throw Your Heart To The Sea.

MEXICO: Red Bull Panamérika
Andy Mountains – Hoy Me Gusta Mi Peinado

The title of this song, translated into English, is “Today, I Like My Hair”. With the naive viewpoint of early college students, this Mexico City quintet portrait everyday existential nuances with an optimism only an iPod advertisement would reach. But don’t classify Andy Mountains as cheap, feelgood jingle-makers. Their sound thrives in high-brow references that go from Animal Collective to the minimalism of La Monte Young. Give this tune a try and have a good hair day!

PERU: SoTB
Audioley – Same Old

Audioley is a new project by Francois Peglau and Jules Drade, two Peruvian musicians based in London. Audioley started as an experiment, with the duo meeting one night every week to make a song a day. First single Same Old is feelgood electronic pop and comes with a curious and funny video.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
T(h)ree – Starlight

T(h)ree was featured in MAP in February 2011. T(h)ree is not a band but a project which brings together musicians/bands from Portugal and, for this second volume, Philippines and Singapore. In the featured track, we have Stealing Orchestra (Portugal), Maze (Portugal) and The Analog Girl (Singapore) playing together.

PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico Indie
Harry Rag – Tiny Painting

Harry Rag is the solo project of Kristian Prieto (Coleco, Alegría Rampante), who wanted to figure out just how many sounds and moods he could generate with his acoustic guitar. Prieto has released seven ‘web albums’ under the Harry Rag name, all recorded in his bedroom straight to a four-track, each one expanding on his guitar experiments and polishing up his sound. Tiny Painting is a great recent example of his prowess as a young musician and is taken from his latest album, The Ghastly Adventures Of Ghost Goat.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
Jazzadezz – Fairy

Jazzadezz is a dream pop/new wave band formed by Alin Zabrauteanu (synths, guitar, production) and Dezdemona Mihaescu (vocals). For their 2010 debut album Inimani Mal, Calin Torsan (Domnisoara Pogany and NU & Apa Neagră) joined the band playing clarinet, recorder and caval. In 2012, another two members were added, Alex Stanciu on guitar (also in Domnisoara Pogany) and drummer Eduard Gabia, a renowned choreographer and contemporary artist. The second album, Panta Rhei, was released last month and experiments in new areas such as ambient, post-rock and trip-hop.

RUSSIA: Big Echo
2muchachos – Striwi Kri4at

Striwi Kri4at is a beautiful instrumental piece from romantic dream pop band 2muchachos, who released their Vesnywki!! EP last month, a perfect soundtrack for spring.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Julia And The Doogans – Down The Line

Julia Doogan has everything you’d want from a pop singer – a genuinely distinguishable voice, a breakable heart, just the right amount of melancholy, and lyrics that are honest but not mushy. MAP exclusive free download Down The Line is taken from Julia And The Doogans’ achingly graceful new five-track Diamonds EP (buy on Bandcamp), and shows off the talents of Julia and her lush band to near perfection.

SINGAPORE: I’m Waking Up To…
Sze Kiat – Once In A While

No man is an island, yet one gets the sense that the musical ideas that transpire in Sze Kiat’s mind were born from the stillness of time. There’s an unhurried approach to his songwriting and an intimacy that evokes a strain that could only come from a sort of crying out from some terrifying or forsaken place. Featuring traditional Chinese stringed instruments such as the erhu and the zhongruan, the sparse instrumentation serves as the background to Sze Kiat’s simple yet emotive lyrics.

SOUTH AFRICA: Musical Mover & Shaker!
Nate Maingard – The Open Space

Nate Maingard is an indie-folk singer-songwriter from Cape Town whose music often brings the likes of Damien Rice, Coldplay and Jack Johnson to mind. His voice has been compared to Thom Yorke and Ben Gibbard, and his easy style and sense of melody shine through on The Open Space with a passionate undertone throughout.

SOUTH KOREA: Korean Indie
E9 – My Little Flutter

E9, short for Edward Nine, wish to combine the pureness of Edward Scissorhands with the rampage of Nine Inch Nails. Their sound is influenced by groups like Placebo and Muse, while their lyrics tell fairy tales. The band has been around for several years and are preparing to release their first EP. My Little Flutter is a perfect sample of E9′s mixture of grunge, punk and Britpop with electronic sounds.

SPAIN: Musikorner
Boreals – Luciérnagas

Boreals are probably younger than any of you beloved MAP readers but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing. And what they do is deliver a fine mixture of cosmic post-rock (clearly influenced by Explosions In The Sky) embellished with clouds of synths that makes their sound epic and heart-touching, just as post-rock should. Luciérnagas, one of their most atmospheric tracks, is taken from their second EP, Grecia, released through Barcelona-based label Irregular, home of former MAP acts Lasers and The Suicide Of Western Culture.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
Skatan – Control

The new record from Skatan is out on May 23 and is called Seven Trees. The first single, Control, features a little more eclectic instrumentation than in the past and Simone Andersson Wingfors’ voice is less processed and more immediate, resulting in a song that hits all the right chords.

SWITZERLAND: 78s
Baba Shrimps – Angel

This five-piece from Zurich play impulsive pop music with a blend of country and rock. Baba Shrimps will release a new record at the end of 2012, but to shorten the waiting time they have dropped a live version of a new, unreleased song called Angel.

TURKEY: WEARTBEAT
Solardip – Leap Of Faith

With their French electro/indie-influenced sound, Solardip is one of the few live acts of their genre in the country. In a short time, these three Istanbul youngsters have attracted a big audience. Debut album Future Now came out in March through Remoov Records after the release of the spectacular single and sexy video of Dance Like Wolves.

UNITED STATES: I Guess I’m Floating
Nicole Miglis – Stay Small

There’s no hiding my affection for Gainesville’s Hundred Waters, one of 2012′s best new bands. Just as bewilderingly complete, elegant and worth exploring is the solo work of their frontwoman, Nicole Miglis. Stay Small is from her debut self-titled EP, which you can download for free here.

VENEZUELA: Música y Más
Ulises Hadjis – Donde Va

Ulises Hadjis is a young artist from Maracaibo. Despite his fledgling career, he already has two albums and a Latin Grammy as a music producer to his name. His second record, Cosas Perdidas, was released last month. In his own words, it is “an honest collection of songs” and shows more maturity in his lyrics and compositions than its predecessor, Presente.

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/may/18/music-alliance-pact-may

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2012/may/18/week-music-in-pictures

Jon Ronson

News from: Music: Pop and rock | guardian.co.uk

Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/video/2012/may/18/jon-ronson-viral-video-tuesday

What we saw on the internet this week

Guardianmusic.tumblr.com is the place where our writers post songs, videos, pictures and other music-related odds and ends they come across during their web trawling.

Here’s our top five Tumblr posts from the past week.

1. No Doubt in the studio

Gwen Stefani and co kick off a series of webisodes with “the recording of the track Push & Shove, a collaboration between No Doubt, producers Major Lazer and Jamaican artist Busy Signal”.

Sounds … interesting.

2. The Independent Label Market’s playlist

Independent Label Market, taking place in London’s Spitalfields this weekend, sees the bosses of various independent record labels manning stalls to flog their wares directly to the punters. Here’s a playlist put together to promote the event.

3. The kids do Sabotage

What better way to pay tribute to Adam Yauch than by dressing your kids up as 70s cops and getting them to re-enact the video for Beastie Boys’ Sabotage?

4. Dictator Tunes

Get down with the despots at Dictator Tunes, a website detailing the music loved by the world’s most reviled men.

When he isn’t overseeing the murder of his own people, Bashar al-Assad likes to boogie on down to Right Said Fred and Chris Brown with his pretty UK-educated wife Emma.

Osama bin Laden kept a Sudanese poet as a sex slave, and made her dance to Van Halen and the B-52s hit Rock Lobster. “Dance like a Caucasoid girl!” he would say.

Robert Mugabe digs “the perenially wholesome” Cliff Richard (his words, not ours).

See the site here.

5. Ice Choir – Teletrips

This is the new song by a side project from Kurt Feldman of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, drawn to our attention by Jeffrey James who writes to say:

IS HE SERIOUS? He’s trying to bring back the worst of the 80s?

… Why am i thinking about Johnny Hates Jazz all of a sudden?

But what do you think of it?

• Seen any good links, videos, songs or pictures you think deserve a wider audience? Send them to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk with the subject line “Tumblr”. If we use it and you’d like a credit, include your name, Twitter name or web address.

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/may/18/top-5-music-links-week

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/video/2012/may/18/donna-summer-tribute-disco-video

Pop critic Jon Savage and producer Ewan Pearson on the majesty of Donna Summer’s finest 3 minutes and 47 seconds

Pop critic Jon Savage

A cinematic drone comes in fast from silence, quickly overtaken by two synthesised rhythm tracks that will go in and out of phase for the next lifetime. On top, Donna Summer soars and swoops as she tackles the minimal lyric: “It’s so good [x five], “Heaven knows” [x five], “I feel love” [x five]. The words are so functional that her voice becomes another instrument, almost another machine, but then there is the real heart of the song: “Fallin’ free, fallin’ free, fallin’ free …”

I Feel Love was and remains an astonishing achievement: a futuristic record that still sounds fantastic 35 years on. Within its modulations and pulses, it achieves the perfect state of grace that is the ambition of every dance record: it obliterates the tyranny of the clock – the everyday world of work, responsibility, money – and creates its own time, a moment of pleasure, ecstasy and motion that seems infinitely expandable, if not eternal.

Back in 1977, I Feel Love was a radical breakthrough, and was designed as such. It was started as a cut for I Remember Yesterday, an album that producer Giorgio Moroder originally planned as a mini-tour through dance music history: a Dixieland number here, a Tamla number there. To complete the project, he needed what NME called a “next-disco sound”.

“I had already had experience with the original Moog synthesisers,” Moroder told NME in December 1978, “so I contacted this guy who owned one of the large early models. It was all quite natural and normal for me. I simply instructed him about what programmings I needed. I didn’t even think to notice that for the large audience this was perhaps a very new sound.”

I Feel Love was quickly remixed and, extended to eight minutes on a 12in, made an immediate impact. As Vince Aletti wrote in his 13 August 1977 column for Record World, “perhaps the most significant development in disco sound this year is the success of totally synthesised music. Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express was the breakthrough record.” Name-checking Space (whose all-synth Magic Fly was a huge UK hit in late summer 1977), Aletti observed that Kraftwerk’s “impact was immediately underlined by Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, which took the synthesiser rhythm and compressed and intensified it so it was both more physically exciting – like stepping into a tangle of high-voltage wires – and more commercial”.

I Feel Love went to No 1 in the UK during the high summer of 1977, and stayed there for four weeks – filling dance floors everywhere, because it’s so good so good to dance to. Like David Bowie’s Low and Heroes, and Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express, it was also the secret vice of those punks who were already tiring of sped-up pub rock, and it sowed the seeds for the next generation of UK electronica.

It didn’t chart as high in the States – No 6 – but it became an all-time gay classic, a totem of the pre-Aids era (“Fallin free, fallin’ free, fallin’ free”). That iconic status was reaffirmed by (Sylvester producer) Patrick Cowley’s monumental 15-and-three-quarter-minute remix, which really does go on for ever and ever without trashing – even enhancing – the concept of the original.

I’m guessing many of you will have heard I Feel Love pumped out loud, will have felt moved to dance, and will have felt time stop, the instant prolonged. Something of that feeling attaches itself to the record wherever it’s heard, and it never gets dulled by repetition – or endless imitation. I must have heard I Feel Love a thousand times and it still takes my breath away: it’s one of the great records of the 20th century, and the name on the label is Donna Summer.

Record producer and DJ Ewan Pearson

I was only a child when Donna Summer released I Feel Love, that gargantuan behemoth of a record. But the sound of I Feel Love – that motorik, arpeggiated bassline – was the sound of my favourite dance records before dance music became Dance Music, and lots of my remixes have gone back to that kind of bassline.

Donna Summer was there at the start of Euro disco, and it’s a familiar story to us in dance music: American artist becomes famous in Europe before it happens at home. She’s an example of that weird connection between continents that dance music makes – she was a fluent German speaker. And she’s remembered because, unlike a lot of the people who sang on the big Euro disco records, she looked like a star and she became a star in her own right: she was a star in a field that’s often accused of not having any. And she was creative in her own right, too: she wrote the lyric to Love to Love You Baby, and gave it to Giorgio Moroder to turn into a full disco song.

She had a huge number of influential dance records – Love to Love You Baby, Our Love, Last Dance. Of course, I Feel Love overshadows everything. The Patrick Cowley megamix might be the greatest remix of all time: JD Twitch of Optimo says it’s a record that has got him out of all sorts of trouble, though we didn’t know if anyone had ever dared play the full 15 minutes of it. It’s easy to underestimate it now; it’s like Blade Runner – whenever you show that to someone younger, they’re not impressed because it looks so familiar. Well, yes – that’s because Blade Runner invented our idea of the future. It’s the same with I Feel Love.

I’ve bemoaned many times that whenever guitar bands get popular again there’s a sigh of relief, as if we’re back to the way things should be. But dance music is ubiquitous, and I Feel Love is a reminder of its heritage. It’s one of the greatest records ever and it will be always be remembered.

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/may/18/donna-summer-i-feel-love

James Fearnely, accordion player for the Pogues, has a new book out called Here Comes Everybody – an account of the friendships, bust-ups, highs and dramatic lows of a treasured and often misunderstood band. He talks to Michael Hann about life on the road with Shane MacGowan.

Singles Club this week features Richard Burton reading Under Milk Wood over some King Tubby. We’re also rating tunes by Wizkid and Om.

When New Zealand expat Willy Moon discovered – much to his surprise – that there was music before the Beatles, his new sound was born. He fell in love with the music of the 1950s and set about blending it with electronics – and some very natty suits. He came in to talk to Alexis Petridis.

Thanks for listening – and do leave your thoughts below.

Kieran YatesMichael HannAlexis PetridisPascal Wyse

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/audio/2012/may/18/music-weekly-podcast-pogues

Catch up with the last seven days in the world of music

Donna Summer

Donna Summer dies of cancer aged 63

Donna Summer obituary

Five classic Donna Summer songs

Stars pay tribute to disco diva – video

Donna Summer’s disco was as radical as punk

A classic interview with Donna Summer, first published in Rolling Stone in 1976

In other news

Adele, PJ Harvey and Ed Sheeran triumph at Ivor Novello awards

Chuck Brown, “Godfather of go-go”, dies aged 75

Legendary bass player Donald “Duck” Dunn found dead in Tokyo at age 70

PJ Harvey contributes two new songs to Mark Cousins documentary

Lady Gaga denied permit for Indonesia concert after religious protests

Jay-Z to headline and curate his own Made in America festival

On the blog

Multiculturalism is what makes British music great

Pop’s long players: sometimes extra length makes all the difference

What do you think of David Cameron’s taste in music?

Pop at the pictures: Teenage flicks

Blog jam: HOWL

Readers recommend: songs about addresses

Things to watch and listen to

Live session: Watch Damon Albarn playing music from Dr Dee

I’ll Be Your Mirror festival – download and listen to an exclusive mixtape

Gaz Coombes – Here Come the Bombs: exclusive album stream

New music: Rumer – A Man Needs a Maid (live at Rivoli Ballroom)

Old music: Jay-Z – Dead Presidents II

Further reading

Willie Nelson interview: “If we made marijuana legal, we’d save lives”

The Maccabees: last of the great indie guitar bands?

Which songs deserve to compete in our own Euro 2012 of football music?

Take five: John Fordham’s month in jazz

New Band of the Day Live

Following two much enjoyed gigs in London and three rammed shows in Brighton as part of the Great Escape festival, the Guardian is staging another New Band of the Day night.

Once again, the show at the Barfly in Camden, north London, on 14 June has been put together with the assistance of Paul Lester, writer of the daily (of course) New Band of the Day column on guardian.co.uk/music.

See here for information on the lineup, and for how to get tickets.

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/18/sleeve-notes-donna-summer

Unlike modern stars, Summer never courted a gay audience but her transcendental disco was perfectly in tune with gay culture

Earlier this year rumours began to spread that Donna Summer was in negotiation to take the Sunday headlining spot at the summer music festival, Lovebox. The potential signing was symbolic. Sunday at Lovebox is “gay day”. Donna Summer’s relationship with her fulsome gay fan-base had been fractious ever since there had been rumours of ill-advised comments about the Aids crisis – comments, it should be said, that she denied ever having made.

In 2012, some 30 years later, the time seemed right for any forgiving or forgetting between the two. The possibility of her doing it to a cherry-picked soundtrack of her unimpeachable back catalogue in an east London park, in front of 10,000+ giddy local homosexuals still in thrall to her talent (if not necessarily her PR technique) felt like redemption.

Like her pop stardom, Summer’s early gay iconography was not something she hankered after. It was something she was presented with. She didn’t craft her ripe talent to a specific audience. It found her on account of it. In a post-Madonna pop universe it seems almost unthinkable that such a thing could happen, but Donna Summer was an accidental icon.

Something about the music she fashioned during disco’s supremacy – its poise, gravity and open sex content – touched a mass gay chord at gut level. When Diana Ross sang “I’m Coming Out” or “I Want Muscles” she did it with a sleek wink. She was sensationally market savvy. When Grace Jones recorded an album of growling show tunes to a disco score, its gay intent could not have been more succinct. When Donna Summer breathily intoned her climactic songbook, however, she did it under the tutorship of a hot-blooded heterosexual producer and his faithfully married lyricist in a sterile Munich hit factory. Neither Summer nor Giorgio Moroder nor Pete Belotte were children of the night. They were simply blessed with a divine ability to intuit how 3am under a mirror-ball in a Metropolitan gay nightclub ought to sound, at its most sublime and transcendental. I Feel Love is still it.

Little touches that traced Summer’s career breakout – Beverley’s campy, chiffon singalong to Love to Love You Baby in Abigail’s Party, the crisp guitar run of Hot Stuff that seemed to ridicule traditional rock posturing, the propulsive refrain “Toot, toot, beep, beep” – gave her a strange knowing, all the more poignant for not being designed for the gay market it touched hardest.

In the current pop climate, accessing a gay fanbase is seen as the first notch on the bedpost of future success. Just as junior hairdressers were back in Donna Summer’s imperial heyday, aspiring pop singers are now routinely instructed by their handlers that this isn’t the business for them if they have a problem with gay people. All the finest female solo artists of the last decade have been handed a copy of Grace Jones’ One Man Show and the mesmerising 80s Vogue documentary Paris Is Burning on their first day at diva school, both stone-cold gay classics.

Donna’s most obvious modern emotional successor Beyoncé – a beautiful, shy southern church girl with an uncanny ability to follow the rhythm of music and turn it into an approximation of pure sex – had to work hard to earn her righteous gay audience, including a spell under a drag-ish alter ego Sasha Fierce and a superb tribute to Summer herself, segueing one of her first hits Naughty Girl into Love to Love You Baby.

The great irony of Donna Summer’s career is that when she left Casablanca records, where she had fashioned peerless gay disco music with the assistance of straight men, she was signed by the most ostentatious gay man in showbusiness, David Geffen. Under this most secular of patrons she returned her most spiritual work. It is almost impossible not to look back at Donna’s incredible commercial and creative peaks as a motivational speech in how to do everything the wrong way round. Yet in this last accidental icon and her topsy turvy career something alchemical happened.

Gay men adored her. We continue to. Any potentially received betrayal that had occurred during her aggressive early 80s “god period” was felt only harder because we cared. Perhaps one aspect of her legacy, quite aside from the sensational music she made, will be this. Understanding gay culture, at its trashiest and most moving, is now required cultural reading for any pop performer with a keen eye on longevity. If it takes a fancy to you, the gay circuit will reward you again and again. None of these pre-fame lessons were at Summer’s disposal. It was the 70s, a time before huge attitudinal shifts in racism, sexism and homophobia. Some little part of the latter probably happened because of her unfortunate fall from the pedestal of gay idolatry. In some peculiarly moving way she actually opened a door. Rest in peace.

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The Guardian is staging another gig with the help of our new bands expert Paul Lester – so here’s what to expect …

Following two much enjoyed gigs in London and three rammed shows in Brighton as part of the Great Escape festival, the Guardian is staging another New Band of the Day night.

Once again, the show at the Barfly in Camden, north London, on 14 June has been put together with the assistance of Paul Lester, writer of the daily (of course) New Band of the Day column on guardian.co.uk/music.

The bill features the following, with the headliner tbc.

Digits

Digits is Alt Altman, a Toronto native who’s now living between London and Berlin combining electronic and analogue music stylings into pleasant laidback electro jams. In fact, he was Paul Lester’s 1,264th New Band of the Day – and Paul called his recent album, Death and Desire, “a near classic of mournful electronica”.

MS MR

An enigmatic New York duo who described their music as “Tumblr glitch pop”, who will be playing their second-ever UK show.

The Hall of Mirrors

New Band of the Day No 1,254, and hailed therein for sounding “as old-fashioned as they are deeply unfashionable”, with singer Jessica Winter’s “masochistic reveries and cloyingly pretty nightmares” apparently “enchanting”.

Bobby Tank

London-based “maximalist” producer Bobby Tank says he has been influenced by dubstep and not glitch pop, but “glitch hop”. Paul made him his 1,259th New Band of the Day, noting that “if you like minimal techno, or indeed minimal anything, you should probably alight here”.

• Tickets are now available and you can book them here.

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Don’t Let Me Die is reportedly dedicated to the singer’s ex-wife, who died three months ago

Bobby Brown’s new album will include a tribute to Whitney Houston. “I’m trying to find the strength to move on,” he sings on Don’t Let Me Die. “Searching the streets, tryin’ to find you a clone.”

No one would ever accuse Brown, who was married to Houston from 1992 to 2007, of having good taste. But he has surpassed himself on Don’t Let Me Die, which he premiered on TV this week. “I guess I fucked up pretty bad,” he sings. “I’m holding on to these memories/ It’s the only way I’ll survive … I didn’t realise that every breath I took was from you/ You were my air.”

Although the ballad does not mention Houston by name, there is little question of who it is about. “Been about a month since you been gone,” he sings. “Don’t let me die, girl.”

Over the last few years, Houston spoke about her relationship with Brown, describing it as “emotionally abusive”. But her ex-husband has denied having any role in Houston’s drug use, or the circumstances leading to her death. “I’m not the one that got Whitney on drugs, at all,” he told the Today show last month. “I’m not the reason she’s gone.” Despite a recent arrest for drink driving, Brown claims to have been “off narcotics” since 2005.

Don’t Let Me Die will appear on Brown’s first solo album in 14 years, The Masterpiece, due on 5 June.

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/18/bobby-brown-whitney-houston-tribute

Madonna and Elton John among those to pay tribute to artist who enjoyed string of hits including disco anthem I Feel Love

Donna Summer, the singer who perhaps more than any other defined the disco era, has died aged 63 of cancer.

Stars of the film and music industry paid tribute to the influential singer, whose tracks included I Feel Love and Hot Stuff.

The actor Liza Minelli said: “When you lose a friend you feel like they are gone forever … that is not true with my dear friend Donna. She was a queen, the Queen of disco, and we will be dancing to her music forever. My thoughts and prayers are with her family always.”

In a message posted on Facebook, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran praised her legacy and in particular the influence of one track. “For me, there is no doubt that her song I Feel Love had a dramatic effect on modern music. It was certainly a key influence on my work with Duran Duran.” Along with producer Giorgio Moroder, she pioneered the use of electronic sequencers in dance music, Rhodes said. “Today that sound seems so familiar, but in 1977 it was a brave new frontier. It’s extremely rare that you hear one song that completely changes the way you perceive music. I Feel Love achieved that.”

Sir Elton John released a statement calling for broader recognition for the singer. “Her records sound as good today as they ever did,” he said. “That she has never been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame is a total disgrace, especially when I see the second-rate talent that has been inducted. She is a great friend to me and to the Elton John Aids Foundation and I will miss her greatly.” Kylie Minogue described her as “one of my earliest musical inspirations”.

Born LaDonna Adrian Gaines, Summer broke into the music business in her early 20s as a backing singer for Three Dog Night. Her first hit, Love to Love You Baby, reached the No 2 spot on the Billboard charts in 1976. The string of hit singles that followed – Could It Be Magic, Last Dance, Hot Stuff and, most notably, I Feel Love – revolutionised 1970s disco.

In an era of disco superstars that included Gloria Gaynor, the Bee Gees and the Village People, Summer stood out for a soulful delivery that expanded her appeal beyond the dancefloor. She scored her greatest successes with anthems of self-reliance and personal strength, her voice equally capable of fragility and defiant power. In the early 1980s, experiments with synthesizers and electronic drums carried Summer to new success. Her 1983 hit She Works Hard for the Money demonstrated that the queen of disco did not need a mirrorball to work her magic.

Summer’s acting career included a role in Thank God It’s Friday (1978), for which she performed her hit Last Dance. That song won Summer her first Grammy.

The singer Dionne Warwick expressed her sadness at losing a great performer and “dear friend”. Warwick said in a statement: “My heart goes out to her husband and her children. Prayers will be said to keep them strong.”

Madonna tweeted “rest in peace”, and linked to a video of herself performing a song inspired by Summer’s I Feel Love.

Summer had been living in Englewood, Florida. She had three daughters and four grandchildren. Her family released a statement saying they were “at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy”.

While Summer’s songs became gay anthems, her relationship with the gay community became strained when she became a born-again Christian. There was controversy when she was accused of making anti-gay comments in relation to the Aids epidemic; Summer allegedly said the disease was divine punishment for immoral behaviour. Summer denied making the comments, but was the target of a boycott. She later called the incident a “terrible misunderstanding” and asked for forgiveness.

Even as disco went out of vogue, her tracks remained a fixture in dance clubs. The depth of Summer’s stamp on the zeitgeist was illustrated in a Republican presidential debate earlier this year, when candidate Herman Cain quoted her in his closing statement. “A poet once said, ‘Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it’s never easy when there’s so much on the line’.” The words are from The Power of One, which Summer recorded as the theme song for Pokémon: The Movie 2000.

I Feel Love changed everything

This record is unquestionably one of the most important records in the history of music as we know it today.

It was released in 1977, which is a year that’s supposed to be so important for punk, but along with Kraftwerk, it was this record that really changed everything.

The idea that dance music is about funk and about the groove was stripped away, and instead came something very robotic, this machine-like sound.

For a whole generation – for bands like the Human League – it was so important, and its influence on house music and techno and everything else that followed is immense.

I was asked to produce a record by a young pop star recently and the brief I was given was: “Make it sound like I Feel Love.”

The record was produced by Georgio Moroder, and really it was his vision. But Summer had a background in musicals – she took a role in Hair – and she had that amazing ability to lose herself on her records.

She played the part incredibly, so there’s no sense in which her contribution can be discounted. With that voice, you could never say she was just a vessel.

There are several other classic Donna Summer tunes: listen to the album Bad Girls, for instance. That still gets played, and tracks from it sampled and re-edited in clubs. Sure, she also made some bad records, and there were moments of controversy in her life – but after everything else, what does that matter? Joe Goddard

Joe Goddard is a member of Hot Chip

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Original Post Link http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/17/donna-summer-death-tributes-dance