Â
Legendary singer Tony Bennett has slammed his home country of America for not contributing anything other than jazz music to world art and culture. The if I ruled world crooner feels that Europe and Asia offer far more culturally than America does.
Bennett says, “I have travelled around the world to Asia and Europe. They show you what they have contributed to the world. The British show you theatre, the Italians show you music and art, the French show you cooking and painting, and the Germans show you science. “The only thing that the United States, which is still a young country, has contributed culturally to the world is jazz – elongated improvisation. It’s tragic.”
And Bennett feels that Americans don’t even appreciate the impact of jazz in popular culture. He says, “Fifty years from now people will be bowing to Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, just like impressionist painters like Monet, who were starving in their day. The Americans don’t even know what they have come up with.”
No doubt that the indicators are here. A cultural shift needs to happen and hopefully is happening that will bring forth great music and art.
Bob Dylan says modern recordings sound “atrocious,” and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc.
Dylan, who returns with his first recording in five years, “Modern Times,” next Tuesday had this to say:
I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really,” the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
Noting the music industry’s complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, “Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway.”
“You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them,” he added. “There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like … static.”
-BMI Presents Alec Smith who has worked with Raine Maida (Avril Lavigne, Kelly Clarkson), Marc Swersky (Hilary Duff, Joe Cocker, Natalie Cole) among others. Check out the show tonight at Rockwood Music Hall (NYC). For more information contact Karl Rybacki at 646-415-8379 or krybacki@nyc.rr.com.
-Los Angeles based pop/rock band Say No More have signed to Drive Thru Records; legal rep is Ben McLane, Esq .
-Emo indie band Farewell will be showcasing September 1st at The Brewery at 10:00 p.m. Reps from American, Epic, and some indies’ will be attending. For more information contact Lawyer Dan Friedman.
-Next time you read a review for Christine Aguilera you will notice that its all about the voice. You know why it’s all about the voice? because the songs suck. Good voice, songs suck… Not to cut the her out completely, but check out a local choir and I assure you will find an 15 year old girl with a soaring voice, its not that hard. The main ingredient for Christine’s success is “Fashion”.
-Rumors are circulating that The Darkness has been dropped by Atlantic (Coolfer via: The Velvet Rope)
America’s number one country radio station KZLA changed formats on Thursday to beats and dance tunes. Advertisers are more interested in pleasing minorities. Rock and classical music are increasingly being replaced by formats such as pop, hip-hop and talk radio.
The Los Angeles radio market is basically 40% Hispanic, 11% Asian and 8% black, and country fans are about 98% Caucasian,” said Rick Cummings, a top executive at KZLA’s parent company, Emmis Communications Corp.
“I almost threw up, I was so upset,” said longtime KZLA listener and Mission Viejo resident Ruth Rogers, 53. “I think it’s racist. This is becoming a nation of minorities. I’m not going to turn on my radio anymore. Country music promotes patriotism and family values, and they’ve replaced it with something that just promotes money and hate.”
“This is a huge disappointment,” said Gary Borman, a manager representing country superstar Faith Hill, among other artists. “KZLA did a fantastic job building a country music community here, and our artists were proud to contribute to that. If radio executives can focus on urban and Latino listeners, why can’t they focus on white America? This seems like the arbitrary hand of corporate America at work.”
“Los Angeles is our No. 1 sales market in America,” said Bill Bennett, head of Warner Bros. Records Nashville. “If I were Sirius or XM Satellite Radio, I would see this as a major opportunity. We’ll survive. New York hasn’t had a country station in years, and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw still sold out Madison Square Garden. But it’s a real blow.”
This is why radio sucks. It’s never about the consumer, the listener. Its about big companies advertising. This is why people don’t buy new music. Losing another station to Urban? What about the other listeners who don’t want to shake their ass to a disco ball? I certainly don’t want to get jiggy with it. Let’s turn the bad news into good. This gives more reason for consumers to turn to satellite. Although satellite is not quite there yet, it’s better than terrestrial radio. Much better……………….
I have always been a fan of The Cars. Rick Ocasek wrote great pop songs which dominated the charts for over nine years. I remember buying The Cars Heartbeat City and watching the video “Magic” and “Hello Again” on MTV . Its simple guitar-synth oriented rock. But it’s not modern manufactured pop sung by a lounge singer that so many people seemed to have abandoned. It’s much more distinctive with a wall of synthesizers and huge choruses. The Cars are long gone and here we have a new set of wheels hailing from Canada. KOAR welcomes Hello Operator to our short list of Higher Learning artists. Singer/songwriter Mike Condo who started the band states,
“We’ve always been about trying to write the best songs possible. Everything else seems to fall into place when we’re happy with the songs. We’re trying to follow in the footsteps of people like Bowie, Costello, Brian Wilson and of course the Beatles, who all blurred the lines between pop and rock n’ roll. First and foremost those bands wrote great pop songs and in turn they recorded amazing albums that were also interesting and complex. We expect no less in the music we make – songs with longevity and albums with substance”.
Like any unsigned band should do, Hello Operator is playing anywhere and everywhere and has built up a strong local following and put together an exciting live show. Canoe listed them as 1 of 12 bands to watch out for after their exciting performance at Canadian Music Week, and more recently, Hello Operator was listed as a “newsmaker” in Macleans magazine. The London Free Press called the band a “guaranteed breakthrough rock act” and Hello Operator are working hard to live up to the title. They sold us. Managed by Coalition Management. For more information contact Mike Condo.
Newsletter