Topic The Devaluation of Music… Has music been completely devalued by today’s society?
Lou and Kevin answer this question!
Birthday Shout Outs:
1924, Born on this day, Rudy Pompilli, saxophonist with Bill Haley and his Comets, 1955 UK & US No.1 single with 'Rock Around the Clock'. Pompilli died on February 5th 1976.
1935, Born on this day, Bobby Vinton, (1963 US No.1 single & 1990 UK No.2 single 'Blue Velvet', plus 29 other US Top 40 hits).
1939, Born on this day, Dusty Springfield, UK singer who had her first UK hit single in 1963 with ‘I Only Want To Be With You’, which reached No.4, a 1966 UK No.1 & US No.4 single with 'You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’ plus over 15 other UK Top 40 singles. She died on March 3rd 1999.
1947, Born on this day, Gerry Rafferty, UK singer songwriter, Stealers Wheel, (1973 US No.3 & UK No.8 single 'Stuck In The Middle With You', The song was used in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs, during the famous "ear" scene.). Solo, (1978 UK No.3 and US No.2 single 'Baker Street.' Member of late 1960's group The Humblebums with Billy Connolly). Died on 4th Jan 2011 at the age of 63 after suffering a long illness.
1949, Born on this day, Boll 'Sputnick' Spooner, guitar, The Tubes, (1977 UK No.28 single 'White Punks On Dope'. 1983 US No.10 single 'She's A Beauty').
1951, Born on this day, John Bentley, bass, Squeeze, (1979 UK No.2 single 'Up The Junction').
1953, Born on this day, PeterGarrett Australian musician, environmentalist, activist. He became the singer with the Australian rock band Midnight Oil in 1973. In 2010, their album Diesel and Dust ranked No.1 in the book The 100 Best Australian Albums.
1964, Born on this day, Dave Pirner, vocals, guitar, Soul Asylum, (1993 US No.5 and UK No.7 single 'Runaway Train').
1971, Born on this day, Selena Quintanilla-P’rez, best known as Selena, Mexican American singer "the queen of Tejano music.’ Her album Selena Live! won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Album at the 36th Grammy Awards. Yolanda Sald’var the president of her fan club, murdered her on March 31, 1995. Warner Brothers made a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez in 1997.
Music By Loudini Artists: Andy Frasco & the U.N. , Bencoolen, Ash Grunwald
The Afro Manifesto – 21 things I learned about Life from living in a van.
By Andy Frasco
1.Take Risks. If we only live once, then why not?
2. Fall Hard. So we can learn how to pick ourselves up every time we do.
3. Don’t shoot for the stars. Small victories keep the dream alive.
4. Roll with the punches. Some days there will be traffic jams.
5. Take everything in moderation. Don’t die trying to be the last person “standing” at the party every time.
6. Be broke but enjoy it. Happiness is worth the flat tire.. Because once you have it, everyone will probably want to take it from you.
7. Home is where you make it. Remember there’s always someone looking for company to have dinner with.
8. Fast Food. Don’t do it unless it’s a 4am emergency.
9. Get off your phone and see the view. It’s beautiful outside.
10. Drink Water. That sh*t keeps you alive.
11. Take Detours. Don’t let the paths of others scare you to take the road less traveled.
12. Open Your Eyes. You never know what life changing experience you might have at a gas station.
13. If you want something, go out and get it. How do we know what we want if we don’t know what we don’t want?
14. Don’t sleep on dirty pillows. You’ll get pink eye.
15. Disappointment will make you stronger. Giving up will always be the last nail.
16. Sleep. It’s ok to miss one or two after parties.
17. Hug a stranger. 9 times out of 10 they’ll probably be in need of one. (even Alpha-males)
18. Stay Clean. Nobody likes the smell of 4 day old underwear.
19. Wipe away your tears. Feel what life wants you to feel, but know, there will be another day to get it right.
20. Love Something. What’s the point of collecting all these awesome stories if you don’t have anyone to tell them to?
21. Smile. Because even through all of the up and downs and windy roads, life is still better than the alternate. So let’s appreciate what’s left of it
Imagine a band has driven hours through the night to cram their gigantic sign and gigantic sound into your tiny living room. They have never played in your town. They set up on a stage so small that their bass amp cannot fit on it. The bassist does not admit defeat. He plants his amp right next to your stage and dances on top of it all damn night until you're dancing too. The bass player.
But you were ready. You built a tiki bar and filled your floors with beach sand. You carried a pool and hot tubs to the stage. You came to party. Maybe you heard a couple soundcloud links, maybe you saw a couple photos. Something told you tonight was going to be different. By the end of the first set you were dancing your asses off, singing with a sweaty frontman to songs you never knew. His glasses were fogged. By the end of the second set the drummer was standing behind his kit, the guitarist was sitting with his feet dangling off the stage almost touching you, and the sax player deftly squealed above it all.
THIS WAS YOUR FIRST BENCOOLEN CONCERT
Bencoolen has played a huge stage opening for Cold War Kids. Bencoolen has closed a street festival stage in Virginia. Bencoolen was in USA Today. That is a boring list of facts. That does not describe the experience. Maybe a little house party does not have the prestige or acoustics of a huge hall, but there are no shortcuts to meeting you. Whether the band plays for 4000 people again or plays for the capacity of your living room... this narrative is why Bencoolen's music has been called maximalist rock.
When R L Burnside released the album Bothered Mind in 2004, teaming up with hip hop producer Lyrics Born, he showed the world that the blues were not just meant to mutate into rock n roll. The sound of the twelve-bar blues emerged in Africa, as did the beats that would give rise to hip hop and when Burnside combined the two, hundreds of years from their point of origin, it would be a marriage of fate that simply made sense. In Australia, at precisely the same moment, a gent of much younger persuasion surrounded naturally by the hip-hop of his generation and as deeply embedded in the blues as those far beyond his years, made the very same discovery. What Ash unintentionally proved with that parallel step, was possession of a foresight generally gifted to those well beyond his years.
Ash Grunwald, put together his first album, Introducing, leaning heavily on traditional blues but it was his second album I Don’t Believe released in April of 2004, that would change his state of play. It was his first album - of many to come - to graft technology onto the deeply rooted foliage of the Delta swamp.
On the back of his increasingly explosive and unique shows, he released a searing live album Live At The Corner; “When I play live, it has that four on the floor, modern pulse that we get from electronic dance music,” he says. His next studio album in 2007, Give Signs, was even more adventurous, and he took his energetic live show to venues such as London’s renowned The Borderline and Shepherds Bush Empire, and opened for acts as diverse a James Brown, Bo Diddley, Keith Urban, Jack Johnson, Missy Higgins & Pete Muray.
In 2008, after collaborating at a song writing workshop with producer Countbounce (Urthboy, TZU), he and Grunwald teamed up to deliver an album of thumping beats and grooves mixed in with blues jams. The result, Fish Out Of Water, was a genre defying record. Although Grunwald had regularly placed beats in his music, it was often simply a mash-up of DIY electronic beats with his blues tracks placed on top. “I wanted to smash the two together really hard, so that you couldn’t tell which side started it first,” Countbounce says. “More of a soul hip-hop approach. The drums would be sampled. And the feel of a hip-hop rhythm section with his guitars on top.”
Blistering live sets on the festival circuit throughout Australia, Japan, Canada,
America, Europe and the UK, have had critics and fans raving about his unique blend of roots, blues, beats and a whole lotta groove for more than a decade. Nominated five times for Australia’s ARIA Awards, and a swag of award wins including MBAS Blues Performer of the Year 2003 and the AIR Best Independent Blues and Roots Album, and in 2009, taking out a prestigious APRA songwriting award for Blues & Roots Song of the Year.
His album of 2010, Hot Mama Vibes, was nominated for Best Blues &
Roots album by both the Australian Record Industry Association and Australian Independent Record Label Association, and after a sold out national Australian tour, he capped off 2010 supporting Jack Johnson’s Australian tour. His first single from the album, ‘Walking’ received significant radio airplay, and was prominently featured in the Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Limitless’ starring Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper.
On May 11 2012, Ash Grunwald released to the world his most internal album to date. Trouble’s Door, found life in the fiery breath of injustice; the frustration of severe political and environmental mismanagement ‘It's some of my most personal songwriting,’ Ash confesses. ‘I had just done a benefit gig to stop coal seam gas mining. There were other issues going on at the time, you can take your pick really, and it occurred to me that our system just doesn't work. We are experiencing the result of rampant unchecked capitalism.’
The music of Trouble’s Door traverses many a tale as well; the blues propelled by driving dancefloor rhythms, buoyed by hip hop beats and slammed by the dubstep crunch. Naturally. The record also featuring the body-shakingly successful single ‘Longtime’ which would end up scoring Ash and his co-writer Colin Reily, an APRA award for Blues and Roots Work of the Year.
At the same time that Ash was picking up that commendation from his industry peers, he was in the middle of a collaboration that would have him (rock n) rolling about inside a whirly wind of commercial interest. He was asked to perform live on Triple M Breakfast in Melbourne, then Sydney…and then on Channel 7’s ratings winning program, The Morning Show. Ash’s immense credibility as a blues musician crossing the rich hearth and stepping into the expansive world of mainstream success, when he combined some undiluted rock n roll, a famous song and some incredible and rather prolific players. Teaming up with Scott Owen and Andy Strachan from The Living End, Ash released a ripping cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ (which was meant to serve only as a beacon for Ash’s upcoming national tour) but ‘Crazy’ had a different mind. Developing a life well beyond the borders of a loyal fanbase, Crazy made it’s way out into commercial radio land, and took Ash with it. Within 6 days of his first appearance on Triple M, Ash along with Scott and Andy, had laid down his 7th studio album; the rock monster GARGANTUA was born.
Comprised of two new and original tracks (involving CSG, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a take-no prisioners attitude), three vastly different cover songs and a handful of utterly off the hook reworkings of some of Ash’s biggest tracks, Gargantua documents the findings of an unplanned experiment in altered methodology:
Ash Grunwald + Scott Owen and Andy Strachan = GARGANTUA.
In 2015 Grunwald continues with his commitment to evolve and to doing so with more mindfulness than ever before. Taking off from the same co-creation ethos of Guargantua, Ash brought in Ian Perez keyboardist for Wolfmother and Pete Wilkins, former drummer for Blue King Brown to work on his brand new, forthcoming album NOW. The effortlessly gifted pair built the launch pad for Ash’s detonative sonic boom, enabling him to explore the lose-yourself-sounds of psychedelic blues using synth rather than stringed bass. Keeping it old-school, the gents jammed it out live, forming a wall of sound as abundant in clout as it is in groove. Standing behind the richness and warmth of the old Neve desk was famed American Record Producer Nick DiDia: who’s philosophy sits firmly in the power of performance and whose name is most commonly strung together in the same sentence as Springsteen’s. Having worked closely also beside Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Powderfinger and many other legends, what Nick brought to Ash, above all else, was an intense focus on the structure of a great song.
The result is an album with immense force; strongly political, rumbling from the depths of internal rage. It is sonic thunder that wears all the suffering and the anger of the blues but does not forget for a beat that if you don’t get up sometimes and shake that shit off, if you don’t take a moment to look across the dancefloor and lose yourself in that boy meets girl moment, your heart’ll harden and you’ll lose sight of all the beauty you’re fighting for. NOW is due out in 2015.
Having well and truly conquered his homeland with endless touring resulting in a reputation of not-to-be-missed rocking live shows, Ash has shrunk the world with familiarity, making the entire globe his home. NZ, the UK, sold-out tours in Canada and a pioneering trip of America in 2014 with Xavier Rudd; every show, every tour continuing to feed the ravenous beast of Ash’s unparalleled creativity and his unbridled spirit of diversity.
13 years since the release of that first blues record and hundreds of thousands of arses shaken since, Ash welcomes you as always to strive toward life’s greatest mission amongst the chaos and the challenges – the presence of good times, the energy for action and the possession of a happy heart.
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