Nothing But Tupac

In this clip from the movie Nothing But Trouble, starring Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, and Demi Moore, Digital Underground, featuring a very young Tupac Shakur, perform the funky "Same Song". The story behind Tupac's stint with the group, taken from alleyezonme.com:

In August of 1988, Shakur's stepfather Mutulu was sentenced to sixty years in prison for armed robbery after being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for several years.

Shakur soon moved in with a neighbor [in Marin City, CA] and started selling drugs on the street, but also made friends who helped spark his interest in rap music. One of these was Ray Luv, and with a mutual friend named DJ Dize (Dizz-ee), they started a rap group called Strictly Dope. Their recordings were later released in 2001 under the name Tupac Shakur: The Lost Tapes. Their neighborhood performances brought Tupac enough acclaim to land an audition with Shock G of Digital Underground.

In 1990, Shakur joined as a roadie and dancer for Digital Underground. His early lyrics were unremarkable, and he was viewed ambivalently for his tendency to act like a diva and for his occasionally violent personality. On a song for the Nothing But Trouble movie soundtrack, Same Song, Tupac was given his first opportunity to rap on a big-time record. In the song, Shock G leads into Tupac's verse by advising Shakur to "Go ahead and rock this."

This Is Just A Tribute

I'm not really sure what to make of this most recent tribute to John Lennon's music. I realize that this is for charity and that the producers are targeting the largest audience possible, and I do not blame them for that at all, but for the sake of musical argument only, I've provided some analysis after the tracklist.

Instant Karma track listing:

Disc One:
U2 -- "Instant Karma"
R.E.M. -- "#9 Dream"
Christina Aguilera -- "Mother"
Aerosmith -- "Give Peace A Chance"
Lenny Kravitz -- "Cold Turkey"
Los Lonely Boys -- "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night"
Corinne Bailey Rae -- "I'm Losing You"
Jakob Dylan featuring Dhani Harrison -- "Gimme Some Truth"
Jackson Browne -- "Oh My Love"
Big & Rich -- "Nobody Told Me"

Disc Two:
Green Day -- "Working Class Hero"
Black Eyed Peas -- "Power to the People"
Jack Johnson -- "Imagine"
Snow Patrol -- "Isolation"
Matisyahu -- "Watching the Wheels"
Ben Harper -- "Beautiful Boy"
The Postal Service -- "Grow Old With Me"
Jaguares -- "Gimme Some Truth"
Avril Lavigne -- "Imagine"
The Flaming Lips -- "(Just Like) Starting Over"
Regina Spektor -- "Real Love"

My Analysis:
1. Christina Aguilera - Huh?
2. Big and Rich - Really?
3. Black Eyed Peas - Come On.
4. Avril Lavigne covering the immortal "Imagine"! Someone should be arrested for this and put in a cell with Mark David Chapman.

Read the full article here, which explains the cause that this album supports.

Additionally, according to an article on Starpulse:

However acts like Duran Duran, Ozzy Osbourne and Willie Nelson all missed the cut. In total, album organizers had 50 Lennon renditions to work with. The 30 acts who missed out on an album place will feature as digital downloads via online retailers.

Please provide Your Analysis...

"The Grateful Dead - Anthem to Beauty"

"At several points, members and collaborators of the band are drawn to tears."

I can't wait to check this out tonight (Tuesday) at 9:00 PM EST on VH1 Classic.

PLOT DESCRIPTION
This documentary explores the crags and crevices of one of rock & roll's most revered and enduring bands, The Grateful Dead. With their studio albums often overlooked in the fervor of the live show, this film is a wonderful introduction to the real everyday workman-like attitude of the Dead. Filmed after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, Anthem to Beauty is an endearing retrospective of the band. Mixing clips of live performances, home movies, and modern interviews and commentary from Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh the viewer becomes privy to the genuine emotion that was invested into being The Grateful Dead. At several points, members and collaborators of the band are drawn to tears. Even though this documentary revolves mostly around the making of the Dead's fifth album American Beauty, the insight and raw emotion that jump from the screen is enough to touch the most hardened critic of the band and blow away the most dedicated fan. ~ Ed Atkinson, All Movie Guide

XMiracle

As a proud subscriber of XM satellite radio, I encourage you to read and enjoy these stats on the "positive" 1Q2007 that the company experienced. No MBA required.

XM Satellite Radio has announced its results for the first quarter of 2007, and the company says that revenue jumped 27 percent year-over-year to $264 million, compared to $208 million in the first quarter of 2006. XM's first quarter net loss narrowed to $122 million, representing an 18 percent improvement compared to 2006. Furthermore, XM ended the first quarter of the year with more than 7.9 million subscribers and just recently surpassed the 8 million mark. It recorded gross subscriber additions of 868 thousand and net subscriber additions of 285 thousand in the first quarter.

"During the quarter, we improved our retail performance, experienced strong OEM gross additions, extended our distribution agreements with Toyota and Honda, enhanced our customer service, maintained our churn rate at approximately 1.8 percent for the third consecutive quarter and strengthened key financial metrics for our business," said XM CEO Hugh Panero. "These results were driven by the operational initiatives we put in place over the last several quarters."

Read the rest here.

DL

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

AM Gold rockers America are back with a new album and a massive set of tour dates that take them through April 2008. Principal group members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell comprise the backbone of the reunited band. They are the writers of some of the best soft-rock acoustic tunes ever created in 'Horse With No Name', 'Ventura Highway', 'Sister Goldenhair', 'Lonely People', and 'Tin Man'. I would have loved to have caught America on their summer tour, but they're sharing the bill with perennial summer tourers Chicago. Unless Peter Cetera is on board, I'm not going to see Chicago.

Interestingly, Ryan Adams and James Iha participated in the recording of the band's new album. How's that for some hipster cred? I had the pleasure of scaring the crap out of Mr. Iha, with my knowledge of his work on this disc, when my friend Erik cornered him outside an East Village eatery and then called me over to say hello. After unleashing this little known fact to James about his recent work with America, he must have been thinking about ringing the stalker alarm. Full disclosure: It was one of the weakest handshakes I have ever experienced.

This clip features America's performance on Letterman from 1/15/07, with Ryan Adams and Ben Kweller in tow.

Return of the Rage

Rage Against The Machine came back from the dead last night to close the final day of this year's Coachella Festival. There are a few low quality clips on on YouTube already. This was the best of the bunch. I can't claim to be a huge RATM fan, but I know the hits and they're great high energy tracks.

From here, Rage have three announced dates on this 'short-lived-for-now' reunion tour as part of the stellar Rock The Bells hip-hop festival.

That lineup includes:
Wu-Tang Clan
Rage Against The Machine
Nas
Cypress Hill
the Roots
Public Enemy
Mos Def
Sage Francis
EPMD
Jedi Mind Tricks
Immortal Technique

The dates are:

Sat 07/28/07 @ Randall's Island, New York, NY
Sat 08/11/07 @ the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, CA
Sat 08/18/07 @ the Covey Cove Parking Lot in San Francisco, CA

Also, there are some additional artists that will make appearances at one or more stops:

MF Doom
FELT
Hieroglyphics
Living Legends
Blackalicious
the Coup
Murs
Brother Ali
Cage
Mr. Lif
Grouch & Eligh
Hangar 18
Bluepring
Lucky I AM

That's How You Blog A Festival

Uncut writer Allan Jones provides his observations and thoughts from yesterday, Day 3, at the Coachella festival. He equally praises and rubbishes the acts from the final day, all the while entertaining with his commentary.

Stumbling onto site today someone told me that it was 107 degrees yesterday but it’s only 105 today. So that’s alright then. What’s that sound, floating across the polo grounds? Lush, harmonised, laid back, Californian… yes, it must be The Feeling from, er, Lowestoft or wherever the heck. Anyway, they do Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ as I order my first beer of the day so it can’t all be bad.

Who’s mooching? Cameron Diaz, Tommy Lee, Paris Hilton and Courtney Love (day three girl, what on earth took you so long?). No sign of my new mate Danny so I head over to check out Grizzly Bear in the smallest tent here, the Gobi. The Bear are, I guess, post rock. Which means they’re the band Thom Yorke and Michael Stipe would like to be in if they didn’t have bills to pay.

Read the rest.

All a Blur

Ever since spending an extended amount of time in London in the late 90's, I've been a fan of Blur. I haven't delved too much deeper than their greatest hits, but it's an excellent set of songs that provide a look into British life at that time. As a bigger fan of Oasis, I'm very much aware of the very public media-fueled battle between the Gallagher Brothers and Blur at the height of the Britpop movement. With Damon Albarn now having reached unexpected superstar status with the mega-selling Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad, and The Queen, a reunited Blur could be the band's first opportunity to really get noticed here in the States.

British rockers Blur will finally decide this year if they will reunite or split. The Parklife chart-toppers, who went focused on solo projects after guitarist Graham Coxon acrimoniously left the group in 2002, will reform to record some trial songs this August.

Bassist Alex James says, "We're all heading into the studio together this summer. Graham's coming too. We're gonna see if we've still got it. If not, I think we'll just call it a day."

The song that introduced me to this band, released in February 1999 in the UK, while I was living there, was Tender. It is the first track on their sixth album 13. The single reached #2 in the UK singles chart - kept off #1 by Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time".

Blur_-_Tender.mp3

Van Zant: Southern Words to Live By

On May 10, 2005 Johnny and Donnie Van Zant released a country album called Get Right With The Man which featured the hit single "Help Somebody". I don't remember when I first heard the tune by the brothers of late Skynyrd vocalist Ronnie, but it was on the radio one morning, and I liked it right away. Its not the best song musically and certainly falls short of classic Lynyrd Skynyrnd, but it maintains the lyrical honesty that I loved Skynyrd for. Along the lines of "Simple Man," "On the Hunt," and "All I Can Do Is Write About It," the song has lyrics that serve as advice coming from someone who has lived long and hard enough to have words to share with the rest of us. I just watched the video on CMT, and listening to the words again, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Jason Isbell-penned tune "Outfit" by the Drive By Truckers, which is another tune with southern words that we all should live by.

Van Zant
Help Somebody
Get Right With the Man
2005



Just some of the advice provided by the lyrics of this song:
1. "You don't need nothin' if you can't make it with your own two hands"
2. "The devil dreams on an idle horse"
3. "Don't get too high on a bottle, and get right with the man."
4. "Stick to your guns if you believe in something, no matter what, cause it's better to be hated for who you are than beloved for who you're not."
5. "Never tell a joke that ain't that funny more than once"

Read the full lyrics here.

Basement Tapes Mini-Tour: By the Time We Get to Woodstock

The entire Weightstaff is going on a roadtrip. Where are you going to be on June 28th and June 30th? Our first stop is seeing Levon Helm and his Midnight Ramble cats playing down under the stars in Central Park as part of the Summerstage lineup on 6/28. If you didn't catch Levon at the Beacon for what has ended up in my "shows of a lifetime - 5 gold star" category, you must not actually like music if you miss this second chance.

Next stop is Bethel, NY on 6/30 to catch Bob Dylan finally play the Woodstock concert site! This show is at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a 16,800 capacity amphitheater on the exact same hallowed ground of the original festival. This place is supposed to be beautiful. I can already feel the mystique and pleasure of seeing Bob walking out on stage with the ghosts of Hendrix, Joplin, Jerry, Danko, and Manuel flying around. If there truly is a higher being, somewhat local resident Levon Helm with grace us with his presence.

Who's comin with us?

Did you know: Bob Dylan was in negotiations to play the original Woodstock, however he had to pull out as his son was taken ill. He also was unhappy about the number of the hippies piling up outside his house near the originally planned site. He would go on to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival two weeks later (Wikipedia).

Check out: A great site which discusses the location of the Woodstock festival (actually 50 miles from the town of Woodstock), Bob Dylan's significance to the area, and the road the promoters took to secure the site.