The Wrecking Crew were a group of Studio Musicians in Los Angeles in the 60s who played on hits for the “Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers and [...]]]> What is the Wrecking Crew?

The Wrecking Crew were a group of Studio Musicians in Los Angeles in the 60s who played on hits for the “Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Mamas and Papas, Tijuana Brass, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Rivers and were Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. The amount of work that they were involved in was tremendous.

They were also involved in groups that I like to call, The Milli Vanilli’s of the day. A producer would get the guys in and lay down some instrumental tracks. If it became a hit, they would record an album and put a group together to go on the road. This happened many times with groups like the Marketts, Routers, and T-Bones. The next day they would do the same thing and call it another name. Same musicians, but different group Name.

At the time the record industry was primarily in New York, London and Detroit in the late 50′s and early 60s. Then there was a surge towards the mid-60s that pushed the recording to the west Coast. So these musicians were recording around the clock for a good 8 years. It’s hey day for this group was in 1967 when the charts turned to the west. [read the complete story here]

http://wreckingcrew.tv/
https://www.facebook.com/WreckingCrewFilm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrecking_Crew_(music)

Friday http://open.spotify.com/user/sonofhal/playlist/1qZLqYCD1QZVWHCWqtVRSI Saturday http://open.spotify.com/user/sonofhal/playlist/3mmLZqxWt1di1EGRaaybIS Sunday http://open.spotify.com/user/sonofhal/playlist/4cMlbB5SZxc5pzNyCVyWD4

Unrelated to Coachella but here is my whopper of a playlist, “Alternapop’s Alternative/Indie Super List” with over 1000 songs: http://open.spotify.com/user/alternapop/playlist/7pVK6MsM6V8MFnZURLlx7Z

SPC ECO (pronounced Space Echo) are a British-American shoegazing band, formed in 2007. The band consists of former Curve member Dean Garcia (bass, drums, guitar and programming), Rose Berlin (vocals) and Joey Levenson (guitar). When performing live, the band consists of Garcia on bass, Berlin on vocals, HKG on guitar, Debbie [...]]]>

SPC ECO (pronounced Space Echo) are a British-American shoegazing band, formed in 2007. The band consists of former Curve member Dean Garcia (bass, drums, guitar and programming), Rose Berlin (vocals) and Joey Levenson (guitar). When performing live, the band consists of Garcia on bass, Berlin on vocals, HKG on guitar, Debbie Smith on guitar and Monti on drums. In 2011 the group was signed to XD Records.

“Next week (this week) he’s scheduled to return to New York to unveil Spotify’s new platform in front of his first-ever press conference—a platform that he admits still isn’t ready for a public debut.”

I’m been playing with the Spotify app beta for a while now [...]]]> Forbes.com has a long article on Spotify’s Daniel Ek.

“Next week (this week) he’s scheduled to return to New York to unveil Spotify’s new platform in front of his first-ever press conference—a platform that he admits still isn’t ready for a public debut.”

I’m been playing with the Spotify app beta for a while now and there isn’t much there. If you don’t know much about music and don’t have time or the desire to find new music there are playlist by popular sources. (Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Guardian, Fuse) Also one app that somewhat mimics turntable.fm, called Soundrop, although it’s far from perfect and suffers the same problem top 40 radio stations suffer from… repetition and lack of depth. You can’t ‘thumb down’ songs and lots of bands get played to death.

Will they unveil something for the more experienced and adventurous music fan?

Highlights

Friday: The Black Keys, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Mazzy Star, Explosions in the Sky, M83, The Rapture, The Horrors, Yuck, The Black Angels

Saturday: Radiohead, Bon Iver, The Shins, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Miike Snow, Andrew Bird, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, St. Vincent, Kasabian, Buzzcocks, The Big Pink, The Vaccines, We Were Promised [...]]]>

Highlights

Friday:
The Black Keys, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Mazzy Star, Explosions in the Sky, M83, The Rapture, The Horrors, Yuck, The Black Angels

Saturday:
Radiohead, Bon Iver, The Shins, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Miike Snow, Andrew Bird, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, St. Vincent, Kasabian, Buzzcocks, The Big Pink, The Vaccines, We Were Promised Jetpacks

Sunday:
Beirut, Real Estate, Wild Beasts, Gardens & Villa

Sunday seems pretty light to me. I’d love to see Goldenvoice add The Stone Roses.

It’ll be interesting to check out at least.  I’m sure Google has the talent and cash to give this a serious run but the execution is pretty important.  There is a fine line between being too simple for the masses, who only have 500 songs total, and the small percentage who have 50,000 songs. [...]]]> http://www.fastcompany.com//1799610/google-music-geeks-try-to-show-they-love-music-more-than-algorithms

It’ll be interesting to check out at least.  I’m sure Google has the talent and cash to give this a serious run but the execution is pretty important.  There is a fine line between being too simple for the masses, who only have 500 songs total, and the small percentage who have 50,000 songs.  Suggesting music for the former is easy… for the latter, not so much.

I like Spotify and use it from time to time but it doesn’t yet ‘wow’ me.  I’ve yet to find a service that does. Pandora’s suggestions for me are too repetitive or just wrong.

Last.fm, Slacker, Mog, Rdio… they all are trying but seem to be missing something that’ll push them past the competition and to the mountain top with their current iterations.

I’ve had ideas for my dream music product for years and don’t see the space changing all that much to really incorporate all the bits that would make it off-the-charts engaging. Maybe all the music tech companies are taking the Netflix approach and dumbing down the GUI to not confuse the average consumer. Maybe “dumbing down” is the wrong description… ‘incredibly simplified’ may be more appropriate. There are ways around this though.

Maybe I’m just like the Jack Black character Barry?  I did read High Fidelity when it came out in ’95.  It was suggested to me by another obsessed music fan on an old listserve for an under-appreciated British band.

Mar 28 Philadelphia, Union Transfer Mar 29 Boston, Brighton Music Hall Mar 30 Washington DC, Rock and Roll Hotel Mar 31 New York City, Bowery Ballroom Apr 2 Cleveland, Grog Shop Apr 3 Chicago, Bottom Lounge Apr 4 Seattle, Neumo’s Apr 5 Portland, Doug Fir Lounge Apr 6 San [...]]]> SWERVEDRIVER US TOUR DATES FOR 2012

Mar 28 Philadelphia, Union Transfer
Mar 29 Boston, Brighton Music Hall
Mar 30 Washington DC, Rock and Roll Hotel
Mar 31 New York City, Bowery Ballroom
Apr 2 Cleveland, Grog Shop
Apr 3 Chicago, Bottom Lounge
Apr 4 Seattle, Neumo’s
Apr 5 Portland, Doug Fir Lounge
Apr 6 San Francisco, Slim’s
Apr 7 Los Angeles, Key Club

This will be somewhat nostalgic for me because my first Swervedriver show was at Slim’s in the 90s.  Also I need to wipe the memory of the terrible sound at LA’s Echoplex.

ANNOUNCING NOISE POP 20

Noise Pop turns 20 this year. Where did the time go? We can hardly believe it ourselves. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate in style and as such have put together a fantastic collection of bands. There’ll be plenty more additions to come, but for now you can [...]]]> http://2012.noisepop.com/announcing-noise-pop-20/

ANNOUNCING NOISE POP 20

Noise Pop turns 20 this year. Where did the time go? We can hardly believe it ourselves. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate in style and as such have put together a fantastic collection of bands. There’ll be plenty more additions to come, but for now you can get excited about indie mainstays such as Built to Spill, Archers of Loaf (played NP in 1997!), Cursive (played NP in 2001!) and Imperial Teen (played NP in 1999!). We’ve also included some genre-bending acts to the lineup including: Die Antwoord, Budos Band and Grimes. Check out the first leg of the lineup here.

More bands will be announced soon, along with more information about our Film Series, Pop Up Shop, the return of Culture Club and much more. In the meantime browse around the site: buy your Early Bird Badges NOW (they are in limited supply and include entrance to the Die Antwoord show) start to create your schedule, check out the history page and see all the bands who’ve played Noise Pop over our 20 year span. And of course, before we leave you to wander into our 20th anniversary site we’d like to thank Shepard Fairey for lending his talents to this year’s artwork.

confirmed performers

Jawbone JAMBOX (Black Diamond)

I decided to try out this highly rated bluetooth speaker for my iPad and iPhone and was shocked at its ease of use, sound quality, small footprint, portability and long battery life. I liked the choice of colors which makes these small speakers standout and easy to spot. When I [...]]]>

Jawbone JAMBOX (Black Diamond)

I decided to try out this highly rated bluetooth speaker for my iPad and iPhone and was shocked at its ease of use, sound quality, small footprint, portability and long battery life. I liked the choice of colors which makes these small speakers standout and easy to spot. When I first opened the package, I was pleased that the company included several high quality cords including both short and long micro USB cords for recharging and computer synching, charge adapter, and a tangle-free audio cord for non-bluetooth sources. You can create an account on the Jawbone MyTALK site to download voice profiles and apps. In pairing mode, it easily connected with my iPad and iPhone. I tested the iPad first with Netflix, Pandora, Hulu+, Air Video Server, and iTunes.

Considering that the speaker is only the size of 2 stacked Wii controllers, the sound was surprisingly strong, clear, full-bodied, and free of hisses or pops that I have experienced with other bluetooth speakers and maintained the bluetooth connection without a single drop.

I ran Pandora and tested the speakerphone function which worked nicely. You can program a quickdial number that can be immediately dialed by pushing the round button on the top when paired with a phone. You can download apps for voice commands which I didn’t try since I rarely ever use, but the transmission and receiving sound quality is quite good.

There’s no need to bring any cords which is the real advantage of using this speaker for true convenient portability. A full day with great tunes and the speaker lasted the entire day using only 50% of the battery life.

I researched all of the bluetooth speakers currently available, and this stands out by far. The Bose Soundwave is grossly overpriced, as is all Bose products, and you’ll be pleased by the quality of sound this little sucker puts out. It’s not audiophile quality but nothing is that is this size, including anything by Bose or Monster.

Jawbox has released a 2.1 firmware update to introduce LiveAudio, quoted from their website:

“JAMBOX is the only speaker in the world that gets smarter every time you plug it in. Just sync it with MyTALK, Jawbone’s industry-first online platform to download apps, software upgrades, and the latest features – including LiveAudio™, an immersive three-dimensional listening experience. Jambox’s integrated intelligence allows you to personalize it to your specific preferences. No other speaker on the planet is intelligent and updateable – but then again, nothing else is quite like JAMBOX.”

“This immersive, three-dimensional listening experience brings incredible depth, detail, and unprecedented spatial realism to everything from mp3s to special binaural recordings. It’s like hearing your favorite music and audio content for the first time — the way it was meant to be heard.”

While “meant to be heard” is OBVIOUS marketing fluff (as is the same statement by Monster and their terrible ‘Beats by Dre’ line, “as the artist intended”) LiveAudio at least is a feature you can disable.

Jawbone JAMBOX (Black Diamond)