Music

Smile

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Brian Wilson’s long-lost album Smile is now available in iTunes Music Store. Pretty weird stuff – it comes close to 70s progressive rock. Definitely ahead of its time. If you’re expecting a Beach Boys album, you’ll be disappointed.

Yahoo! News – Singer Cat Stevens Denied U.S. Entry, Flight Diverted

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The former pop singer Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, was denied entry to the United States and his flight from London was diverted to Maine, after his name turned up on a watch list, a U.S. transportation security official said.

This shows the stupidity of the ‘no fly list’ and current security practices. It should be a matter of judgment and discretion rather than blindly following a list. Despite Islam’s views and statements, he is no danger to the flight or this country.

Islam recently performed his hit “Wild World” with Peter Gabriel at the 46664 concert in South Africa.

Good & bad news

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Loreena McKennitt has released remastered versions of all of her albums plus a DVD. She also plans to release an album of new material in late 2005.

And now the bad news: Enya isn’t releasing a new album, despite rumors to the contrary.

RIP Johnny Ramone

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Via Metafilter: Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of famed New York punk band “The Ramones” has died at age 55. His publicist says he died in his sleep yesterday in Los Angeles, after battling prostate cancer for five years. Just this weekend, a tribute concert and cancer research fund-raiser was held in LA, to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary.

Ramone co-founded “The Ramones” in 1974 and the band quickly became a sensation. The Ramones were one of the original American punk rock bands, and sadly they never achieved the success of their imitators.

Johnny is the third member of the band to die, following Dee Dee & Joey Ramone.

Ernie Ball & Donald Leslie (RIP)

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stringsleslieVia Boing Boing Blog: It’s a sad week in music instrument history. First, the death of Donald Leslie, who invented the Leslie Rotating Speaker, which gave Hammond organs their trademark sound. And yesterday, pioneer guitar string maker Ernie Ball gave up the ghost at just 74. Ernie Ball’s strings are as ubiquitous in rock and roll as Fender guitars. According to the Associated Press, Ball developed his first strings in 1962 after “complaints from customers (at his guitar shop) that they couldn’t find lighter-gauge, flexible strings for their rock ‘n’ roll instruments.” Shortly after, the Slinkys were born. And, well, the guitar solo has never been the same. Link (Thanks, Vann)

The honorary revolutionaries

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Interesting article about rappers in Senegal (via metafilter):

We’re not like the Americans, whose texts are just insults and abuse,’ many rappers assure me. ‘It’s not a question of money, weapons, sports cars, or beautiful women either. Senegalese rap, it’s the street speaking. We are journalists, reporters of everyday life.’ Others consider themselves teachers or educators of the masses who did not receive any schooling. The question is: who were their own teachers? Yes, they can read and write, but they barely finished grade school. Few are interested in secondary school training. The school uniforms are expensive, not to mention the writing materials, school bags, and copybooks. Besides, what’s the use of all the boring stuff they’re trying to teach you there?

DirecTV Rocks

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I love DirecTV since I got it a few weeks ago. I get DVD-quality video and sound from it since I connected the settop box to my TV’s S-video input instead of using the antenna connection as it was originally installed.

One channel I like is Link TV (channel 375). They often show World Music videos and last night they had a nice show about Baaba Maal. Tonight they have a show about Youssou N’dour.