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Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Mark Mothersbaugh Edition
Mark Mothersbaugh was a student at Kent State University when the infamous shootings took place. That event had a profound effect on Mark, his brother and the Casale brothers when they formed Devo. The band patented a brand of herky-jerky post-Beefheart rock, leavened with a great hook making ability, and then embraced synthesizers and played pop songs that often added social commentary and bits of subversiveness. The nerdy looking Mothersbaugh was a great frontman for the band, and is a surprisingly underrated vocalist, with an elastic and rangy voice (and he also plays Booji Boy!). He still sounds great whenever Devo reconvenes, and when they don’t, he composes award winning scores for Wes Anderson movies and various television shows. Let’s pay tribute to Mark by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Eric Burdon Edition
For whatever reason, The Animals seem to have been shunted aside when talking about the British Invasion, relegated to a couple of songs on the oldies stations. But The Animals were much more than that. Perhaps they didn’t have one legendary album, but they had many great singles and were one of the bluesiest bands of the era. And keying the band was the old soul of Eric Burdon. To be in his early-20s and still unleash the anguished vocal on the band’s classic take of “House of the Rising Sun” is pretty darned amazing, and that’s just one of his great vocal performances. Burdon progressed as time went on, exploring psychedelia with a later edition of the band, and then teaming up with War, jump starting their career, and waxing the classic “Spill The Wine”. Let’s pay birthday tribute to Burdon by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Sharon Jones Edition
Let’s give a shout out to a soul shouter who is at the forefront of reviving classic R & B sounds. Sharon Jones was far from an overnight success, doing backing vocals on records in the ’70s, while keeping people and things safe, as a security guard for an armored car company and a corrections officer as the notorious Rikers Island. It wasn’t until she the late ’90s that she began to grab some attention, and in the new century, she released the first album on the Daptone Records label, with, of course, The Dap-Tones. Jones’s story is a testament to both her talent and perseverance. And she is still making great records and playing great shows. Let’s pay tribute to Sharon by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Kate Pierson Edition
She is half of one of the great vocal duos in rock history. She has duetted with Iggy Pop, backed up R.E.M. and worn some of the bitchingest thrift store threads ever. And Kate Pierson has been a major attraction of one of the ultimate party bands, The B-52’s. No one could have predicted that a group playing parties in Athens, Georgia would not just come up with an indelible dance rock classic in “Rock Lobster” but would eventually conquer the charts with “Roam”. No matter where their music has taken them on record, they have never failed to get people dancing at their concerts. Let’s pay tribute to the great Kate by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Rubbed in Dirt, Dipped in Sugar writesHow Records Are Made
Before we start, I must admit that capturing live sound into the grooves of a durable plastic disc that can withstand thousands of playbacks is still a mind-blowing concept to me.
Over the years, I’ve participated in virtually every aspect of this process, from recording live sessions, to running a record label, organizing and archiving masters, and of course collecting records, yet the details of this process still amaze me.
This short article is meant to shed some light on the mechanics of this transformative process and help illuminate the way that songs find a new home in the bumps and folds of melted and pressed shards of vinyl shrapnel.