Tag: "Fleetwood Mac"

Paramore are still grinding away at the promotional efforts for their recently released self-titled album. Between radio appearances, in-stores, meet-and-greets, and touring, the group barely has a moment to themselves these days. That’s okay, of course, because sometimes you have to sacrifice privacy when you have the number one album in the country. A price, yes, but a relatively small one in the big picture of life.

Recently, Paramore debuted a cover of Fleetwood Mac‘s “Landslide” while performing acoustically as part of a radio appearance. The station thought to capture the set on camera, and now we can all enjoy footage from the performance, courtesy of YouTube. You can view the cover, as well as a performing of “In The Morning,” below. Continue reading ‘Paramore Cover Fleetwood Mac Acoustic’

Philly-based indie rock outfit Free Energy have been bringing classic rock riffs back since the mid 2000s, when three-fifths of their members were part of Minnesota hometown heroes Hockey Night. With Love Sign, the band’s follow-up to their 2010 release Stuck on Nothing, Free Energy is channeling a whole new decade to expand on their ’70s sound. We talked to lead singer Paul Sprangers about the ’80s influences on the new album, his affinity for certain recurring phrases in his lyrics, and what makes the idea of rebellion so appealing.

OS:  How did the band approach writing the new material compared to Stuck on Nothing?

Paul Sprangers: Scott and I demoed songs together, like the last record, but this time we were able to bring the songs to the band, work on arrangements, then re-demo, sometimes repeating and refining the process many times. Then the songs would undergo more arranging with John Agnello so we were able to spend more time refining the songs and letting them ferment. We also had a clearer vision of the production aesthetic going in, partly because of our experience working with James, and also because we had been listening to so much mid-80s music in the last 5 years. INXS, Def Leppard, Peter Gabriel, AC/DC, The Bangles, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Ocean. John Agnello worked on the first Outfield record, and a Cyndi Lauper record, so those were two huge sonic reference points. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Free Energy Talk Irony, Romance, Rebellion’

When describing Christmas in the Sand, Colbie Caillat expressed the desire to make an album for those who don’t live in cold areas and can’t relate to songs about classic wintertime clichés like snow, chilly weather, and huddling around the fireplace. While the album does maintain a generally sunny disposition, it can’t help but feature standards like “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and original lyrics in Caillat’s contributions such as “It’s not Christmas / If the snow don’t fall.” Even though Christmas in the Sand is meant to be a Christmas album for those who spend most of their time in the sun or on the beach, it still seems obligated to retread the same ground as past holiday releases.  Of course, listeners instinctively understand this, but it is worth noting how Caillat’s motivation for recording the album and the way in which that motivation plays out, at times, incongruously with the original intent, highlights the difficulty inherent in recording a type of album that in its very nature defies innovation. Continue reading ‘Review: Colbie Caillat’s ‘Christmas In The Sand’’

• Morgan Spurlock, how you’ve fallen.
• Have fun with Nirvana in Europe.
• Bruce wants you!
• Shine bright like a seapunk.
• Duff McKagan missed a golden marketing opportunity.
• Stevie Nicks doesn’t understand books.

There’s not a lot you can do to take back saying you want to murder someone, but Stevie Nicks is sure going to try.

After the entire Nicki Minaj Vs. Mariah Carey debacle a week ago, Nicks was quoted as saying that if she had been in Carey’s shoes she would have, “walked over to Nicki and strangled her to death right there.” Nicks went on to say, “I would have killed her in front of all those people and had to go to jail for it.”

It’s hard to back peddle out of that kind of threat, but after an immediate backlash, Nicks did her best by issuing an official apology. You can read her apology after the jump. Continue reading ‘Stevie Nicks Apologizes To Nicki Minaj For Strangling Comment’

• Makes us want to cry “Judas!”
• The “Rumours” are true.
• Wearing spinning machinery on your body is generally a bad idea.
• No coral, no cry.
• Come on, Luke Bryan.
• Would Oscar Peterson do this to you, Finesse?

Within the upper echelon of “heartland rock,” at this late date, it all boils down to a crucial question: Springsteen or Petty? The third member of the Holy Trinity, Bob Seger, more or less took himself out of the game over the last couple of decades, while John Mellencamp’s never really been much more than a dim reflection of the others to begin with, so at this juncture—with all the aforementioned Americana rockers having reached sexagenarian status—it’s basically about Bruce and Tom.

Even the members of roots-rock royalty are only ever as good as their bands, be they E Street, Silver Bullet, or Heartbreakers, and there’s no better measure of a great band’s prowess than the mark they make in concert. So the ultimate proving ground in the recording realm becomes not the studio album but the live anthology. But we’re not talking about your standard-issue live album here—both Petty and Springsteen have released those. No, a grand-scale summary of the concert repertoire is what’s really required to take the artistic temperature of an act in this arena (pun only partially intended).

In this context, one might suggest that Springsteen made a crucial mistake by playing his hand too soon, releasing the three-disc box set Live/1975-85 in 1986, even though he couldn’t have known how many subsequent years of concert triumphs he’d be excluding from the collection. But to call a spade a spade, Bruce’s biggest blunder in our little imaginary competition was in valuing strength over subtlety. They don’t call him The Boss for nothing—Springsteen’s sound has always been about larger-than-life statements delivered with an almost Wagnerian grandeur. As he’s the master of the mode, it’s often thrilling, but it also precludes the possibilities inherent in a lower-key lean, especially live, and that’s where The Heartbreakers come into the picture.

Where the inspirations for the E Street approach come from Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound productions and Roy Orbison’s pathos-ridden rock operettas, the comparatively laconic Petty and his Gainesville gang were modeled more after the supple, sinuous feel of the famed Southern soul sessionmen of Muscle Shoals, AL, the minimalist R&B grooves of Booker T. & The M.G.’s, and the laid-back country funk of J.J. Cale. Those are the roots The Heartbreakers bring to bear while breathing life into Petty’s tunes, but while there’s nary an ounce of flash or bombast to be found anywhere near a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert, there’s no shortage of soulful fire and pure rock & roll energy either. With characteristic caginess, Tom waited another quarter-century after Bruce to bring out his big live box set, simply dubbed The Live Anthology, released at the tail end of 2009. In its deluxe version, it took five CDs, two DVDs, a Blu-Ray disc, and a wealth of graphic-oriented extras to tell its tale of a band with three decades-plus of tasteful-but-torrid road-rocking behind them.

Continue reading ‘Riffs, Rants and Rumors: How Tom Trumped Bruce on ‘Live Anthology’’

Delta Rae has been making big moves recently. Scratch that. Huge moves. After inking a deal with Sire Records, the Durham, NC six-piece are ready to bring their harmony-heavy Americana sound to the masses. They’ll be releasing their debut album Carry the Fire on Tuesday, June 19. If you can’t wait until then, you can stream the record in its entirety over at Rolling Stone.

As if that weren’t enough for an up-and-coming band, Delta Rae also recently covered Fleetwood Mac’s classic “The Chain” for Billboard’s “Under Cover” program and will be performing at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles the Monday night before their album release. That show will kick off a packed summer of national tour dates for the group. Phew. We’re getting tired just writing about all they’re up to. Go Delta Rae.

Bob Welch has died of an apparent suicide at the age of 66.

His wife Wendy reportedly confirmed, via Bart Herbison of the Nashville Songwriters Association, that he had serious health issues and a recent spinal surgery. Speculation is that he did not wish to become a burden to her.

Welch was guitarist and singer for Fleetwood Mac between 1971 and ’74. Though the band did not achieve superstar status until the 1976 release of their smash LP Rumors, they had formed a decade earlier as a blues band around renowned guitarist Peter Green, but with only drummer Mick Fleetwood remaining a constant member through the peak of the band’s career. (Bassist John McVie joined shortly after the formation, and the band name derives from a combination of his and Fleetwood’s names.) Members rotated in and out, but in his autobiography, Mick Fleetwood credits the arrival of Bob Welch as the factor that prevented the dissolution of Fleetwood Mac. The enormity of their later success has unfortunately eclipsed the importance of Welsh’s contributions, but he brought a smooth tunefulness to the group that enabled their transition from English blues to commercial pop. He recorded the Mac albums Future Games, Bare Trees, and Heroes Are Hard To Find.

Welch left the band in 1974 and had some success as a solo artist, with his song “Ebony Eyes” reaching the Billboard Top 20.

Though Welch felt in later years that he had been forgotten even by the band, Stevie Nicks reacted strongly to the news of his passing.

“The death of Bob Welch is devastating … I had many great times with him after Lindsey and I joined Fleetwood Mac. He was an amazing guitar player — he was funny, sweet — and he was smart. I am so very sorry for his family and for the family of Fleetwood Mac — so, so sad …”

Assessing his career in 2003, he told the Nashville Tennessean: ”I just wanted to play guitar in a good band. I wanted to make the music I love. I wanted to travel the world and have adventures.”

A success by any fair estimation. RIP Bob Welch.

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters is set to helm a documentary about the famed Sound City Studios located in Van Nyus, California.

As reported by Variety, Grohl was inspired to make the film after purchasing a 1972 Neve 8028 recording console from the studio, when they closed for commercial use in May of last year. The console is known for legendary sound quality and was the workhorse on albums by everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Tom Petty, Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, and Metallica. Grohl himself recorded Nirvana‘s 1991 revolutionary album Nevermind at the star studded studio.

“Sound City is a film about America’s greatest unsung recording studio,” Grohl said. “Deep in California’s sun-burnt San Fernando Valley, it was the birthplace of legend. It was witness to history.”

The documentary will focus on the albums recorded there through interviews with the artists and producers, as well as featured performances, and a discussion on the human element of music in such a digital age. Still no word on a release date, but we’re hoping it’s because they are taking their time mixing the audio on that gorgeous Neve board that Grohl has laying around.