music

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Elvis Presley's Strangest Concert

Based on the pandemonium Elvis Presley had generated the last two times he played Jacksonville, Florida, Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, booked him for six shows over two days in August of 1956. All six shows would be at the Florida Theater, a medium-sized venue that held about 2,200 people. The 21-year-old Elvis was quickly becoming a national celebrity based on the riots he had stirred up in places like Jacksonville. A few months earlier, after his Jacksonville performances, which included his... READ ON

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The Insidious Cost of Ringtone Piracy

I've covered the brouhaha over laws like SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA. But in this five-minute TED Talk, Rob Reid brilliantly explains what I had been missing all along: Copyright Math™. By going through a series of claims by entertainment industry shills Copyright Mathematicians™, Reid reveals the shockingly absurd "truth" about media piracy: according to current US law, a typical iPod can hold $8 billion in stolen songs. This talk is fun, smart, and just a tad reductive. Can you spare five... READ ON

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Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" Was Written by Shel Silverstein

© Chris Hoffmann/dpa/Corbis / © Jeff Albertson/CORBIS In February 1969, Johnny Cash had a party at his house in Hendersonville, TN. As the evening went on, the party turned into a guitar pull, with some of Johnny's friends trying out their latest songs. "Bob Dylan sang 'Lay Lady Lay,'" recalled Cash. "Kris Kristofferson sang 'Me and Bobby McGee.' Joni Mitchell sang 'Both Sides Now.' Graham Nash sang 'Marrakesh Express.' And Shel Silverstein sang 'A Boy Named Sue.'" Cash loved Silverstein's tune and... READ ON

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From Sonic Youth's Guitars to LA Tubas: 4 Famous Stolen Instruments

1. Sonic Youth’s... READ ON

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11 Album Covers Re-imagined with Clipart

The album cover meme is bound to jump the shark soon. In the meantime, there's a fun tumblr called Clipart Covers. On the blog, they say "Classic (and not so classic) Album Covers in Clipart and Comic Sans." Below are my 11 favorites but there are dozens more, so be sure to check them out. Oh, and the one that isn't titled on the actual cover is In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk... READ ON

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The Late Movies: PS22 Kids Sing the Hits

The Public School 22 Chorus is a delight -- a choir of fifth graders who sing their hearts out. With a new group every school year, you get to see tons of talent coming from one school in Staten Island, New York. Below, I've rounded up some of my favorite songs performed by the group. Listen up, folks: this is what public school arts education can do. "Somebody That I Used to Know" (Gotye) Featuring Kahlil on lead vocals. Apparently Gotye posted about this cover, calling PS22 "the... READ ON

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11 Items in Van Halen's Contract Rider (Including No Brown M&Ms)

Van Halen is back! Featuring David Lee Roth and three Van Halens, the band has reunited for a North American tour, and their new record was released just three days ago. So I thought I'd take a look back at the band's infamous early-1980s tour rider*, the document that specified no brown M&Ms, among many other things. First a historical note: the "no brown M&Ms" thing was actually a business strategy (this has been discussed on This American Life and confirmed by David Lee Roth). The... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Jonathan Coulton's "Artificial Heart"

Jonathan Coulton is an internet treasure: he makes heartfelt, fun, and often funny music -- most of which is available in some legitimately free form online. And he's a geek like us (he worked in technology for years before quitting to pursue his Modest Rockstar dreams). His latest is Artificial Heart (also available direct from Joco in MP3 format), an album produced by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. He released official videos for many of the songs on the record; I present them in order of... READ ON

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The Late Movies: My New Favorite Band, The Milk Carton Kids

I came across a band (well, two guys) and I think you should listen to them; they're sort of a mixture of Simon & Garfunkel, the Jayhawks, and Gillian Welch -- in other words, somewhere in the modern folk/Americana genre, or "two dudes and two acoustic guitars." I saw them open for Over the Rhine in November (where, to be frank, they outshone the headliner), then again on their own tour a few weeks back; these boys are on a seemingly endless tour (they're averaging something like a show every 2-3 days... READ ON

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Lectures for a New Year: Philip Glass Performs "Mad Rush"

In 1979, Philip Glass wrote a solo piano piece called "Mad Rush" (a piece of "indefinite length") in honor of the 14th Dalai Lama's visit to North America. I find the piece very moving -- there's something simultaneously contemplative and urgent about the music. I listen to it a lot while writing, in its 13-minute version from Glass's album Solo Piano -- the whole album is terrific, and nerds may recognize one piece from its appearance on Battlestar Galactica (apparently Kara Thrace's dad was Philip... READ ON