Music

Who in Your Life Introduces You to New Music?

These years I dread listening to new music. Well, I guess dread is not he right word. It’s just that it seems like I have so little time for listening to music these days that I can barely find time for new stuff. So when I find a new song that I really like or even a song that is from years ago but I am listening to for the first, I dread the fact that I can’t just stop at that one song from the band/duo/artist because if I liked that song so much then there must be so many songs from the same artist that I will like a lot.

That is a dilemma. I don’t have time and/or energy to discover new bands anymore. I am 41 now and I haven’t been into listening to new music for the past 4-5 years. I like what I have and I can barely listen to all of my current mp3 collection – infact my rather neglected collection as I usually just play music on Youtube with music videos or live versions of these songs. You also find just the audio of the songs or even whole albums worth of just audio on Youtube which makes it easy for you to listen to stuff while you do other things online – like Facebook or blog.

No one really introduces me to new music these days. I am part of 2-3 music related groups on Facebook that share music videos and stuff online and from time to time I have been surprised by how much I like a new song or band and that is great. But music has become much of a downer for me as more and more crappy pop and rap artists rule the roost and people just don’t want to learn to play instruments anymore.

Prompt from The Learning Network at The New York Times

Gregg Allman, the singer, musician and songwriter who played an essential role in the invention of Southern rock, has died at the age of 69. Allman’s rep confirmed to Rolling Stone that the artist died Saturday afternoon. Allman “passed away peacefully at his home in Savannah, Georgia,” a statement on the singer’s website read Saturday. “Gregg struggled with many health issues over the past several years. During that time, Gregg considered being on the road playing music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans, essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up and kept him going during the toughest of times.” He is best known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. He was born and spent much of his childhood in Nashville, Tennessee, before relocating to Daytona Beach, Florida. He and his brother, Duane Allman, developed an interest in music in their teens, and began performing in the Allman Joys in the mid-1960s. In 1967, they relocated to Los Angeles and were renamed the Hour Glass, releasing two albums for Liberty Records. In 1969, he and Duane regrouped to form the Allman Brothers Band, which settled in Macon, Georgia.

The Allman Brothers Band began to reach mainstream success by the early 1970s, with their live album At Fillmore East representing a commercial and artistic breakthrough. Shortly thereafter, Duane was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1971. The following year, the band’s bassist, Berry Oakley was also killed in a motorcycle accident very close to the location of Duane’s wreck. Their 1973 album Brothers and Sisters became their biggest hit, and Allman pursued a solo career afterward, releasing his debut album, Laid Back the same year. Internal turmoil took over the group, leading to a 1975 breakup. Allman was married to pop star Cher for the rest of the decade, while he continued his solo career with the Gregg Allman Band. After a brief Allman Brothers reunion and a decade of little activity, he reached an unexpected peak with the hit single “I’m No Angel” in 1987. After two more solo albums, the Allman Brothers reformed for a third and final time in 1989, and continued performing until 2014. He released his most recent solo album, Low Country Blues, in 2011, and his next, Southern Blood, is set to be released in 2017.

For his work in music, Allman was referred to as a Southern rock pioneer[1] and received numerous awards, including several Grammys; he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. His distinctive voice placed him in 70th place in the Rolling Stone list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time”.[2] Allman released an autobiography, My Cross to Bear, in 2012. In 2016, Allman was forced to cancel his summer tour due to unspecified “serious health problems.” After briefly returning to the stage – Allman’s last concert was at his 2016 Laid Back Festival in Atlanta – and scheduling a winter tour, Allman again canceled the dates, citing a vocal injury. Allman’s partners included Shelley Kay Winters, Janice Blair, Cher, Julie Bindas, Ganielle J. P. Galiana, and Stacey Fountain and had 5 children.

Chris Cornell (born Christopher John Boyle; July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter and rhythm guitarist for Seattle rock band Soundgarden and as lead vocalist and songwriter for the group Audioslave. He was also known for his numerous solo works and soundtrack contributions since 1991, and as founder and frontman for Temple of the Dog, the one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood.

Cornell was known for his role as one of the architects of the 1990s grunge movement, for his extensive catalog as a songwriter and for his near four octave vocal range as well as his powerful vocal belting technique. He released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), Higher Truth (2015) and the live album Songbook (2011). Cornell received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his song “The Keeper” which appeared in the film Machine Gun Preacher and co-wrote and performed the theme song to the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006), “You Know My Name“. He was voted “Rock’s Greatest Singer” by readers of Guitar World, ranked 4th in the list of “Heavy Metal’s All-Time Top 100 Vocalists” by Hit Parader, 9th in the list of “Best Lead Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone, and 12th in MTV’s “22 Greatest Voices in Music”.

Cornell was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and attended Christ the King Catholic elementary school,^[9] and Shorewood High School. Before becoming a successful musician, he worked at a seafood wholesaler and was a sous-chef at a restaurant named Ray’s Boathouse. Soundgarden was formed in 1984 by Cornell, Thayil and Yamamoto with Cornell originally on drums and vocals. Soundgarden signed to Sub Pop, releasing the Screaming Life EP in 1987 and the Fopp EP in 1988 (a combination of the two was issued as Screaming Life/Fopp in 1990). Though the band was being courted by major labels, in 1988 they signed to SST Records to release their debut album, Ultramega OK (198, for which they earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance in 1990. The band subsequently signed with A&M Records, becoming the first grunge band to sign to a major label. In 1989, the band released their second effort, and their first for a major label, Louder Than Love. Following the release of Louder Than Love, Yamamoto left the band to finish his master’s degree in physical chemistry at Western Washington University. He was replaced by former Nirvana guitarist Jason Everman. Everman was fired following Soundgarden’s tour supporting Louder Than Love. In 1990, the band was joined by a new bassist, Ben Shepherd.

Along with Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam, Soundgarden became one of the most successful bands from Seattle’s emerging grunge scene in the early 1990s. With Shepherd, the new line-up recorded Badmotorfinger in 1991. Superunknown became the band’s breakthrough album. Upon its release in March 1994, Superunknown debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.^[18] The album launched several successful singles, including “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”, and granted Soundgarden international recognition. The band’s fifth album was 1996’s self-produced Down on the Upside. The album spawned several singles, including “Pretty Noose”, “Burden in My Hand”, and “Blow Up the Outside World”. The album was notably less heavy than the group’s preceding albums, and marked a further departure from the band’s grunge roots. However, tensions within the group arose during the sessions, with Thayil and Cornell reportedly clashing over Cornell’s desire to shift away from the heavy guitar riffing that had become the band’s trademark.

Due to tensions within the band, reportedly due to internal strife over its creative direction, Soundgarden announced it was disbanding on April 9, 1997. In 1998, Cornell began working on material for a solo album on which he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven. The album, titled Euphoria Morning, was released on September 21, 1999. On June 5, 2007, Cornell released his second solo album, Carry On, produced by Steve Lillywhite. It debuted at number 17 on the American Billboard charts. Audioslave was formed after Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine and the remaining members were searching for another vocalist. Their debut album, Audioslave, released in November 2002, spawned hits such as “Cochise”, “Like a Stone” and “Show Me How to Live”, and has reached triple platinum status in the United States. Audioslave’s second album, Out of Exile, was released in May 2005 and debuted at number one on the U.S. charts. The album has since gone on to achieve platinum status. In early 2006 the band returned, recording their third album as they had written most of the material during the tour. The band released the album, titled Revelations, in September 2006.

On February 15, 2007, Cornell officially announced his departure from Audioslave, stating that “Due to irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences. He reformed Soundgarden with Thayyil, Sheppard & Cameron (who is also the drummer for Pearl Jam). Their sixth album, King Animal, was released in November 2012 to largely positive reviews. Cornell was married to Susan Silver, the manager of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. They had a daughter, Lillian Jean, born in June 2000. He and Silver divorced in 2004. He was married to Vicky Karayiannis,^[113] a Paris-based American publicist of Greek heritage. The union produced a daughter, Toni, born in September 2004, and a son, Christopher Nicholas, born in December 2005. He has fought a long battle with alcohol abuse and has been sober for a while. On May 18, 2017, Cornell died suddenly in Detroit after performing at a show with Soundgarden according to his representative, Brian Bumbery. The cause of death is currently unknown.

Update : his death was ruled as suicide by hanging.

Pop star George Michael has died at the age of 53 due to heart failure. The English songwriter who sold tens of millions of albums as a member of the duo Wham! and on his own, was found dead on Sunday at his home in Goring in Oxfordshire, England. George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in East Finchley, London, on June 25, 1963, the son of a Greek Cypriot restaurateur and an English dancer. In 1979, he and a schoolmate, Andrew Ridgeley, played together for the first time in a ska band called the Executive. That didn’t last, but they continued to make music together — nearly all of it composed and sung by Mr. Michael — and began releasing singles as Wham!

Michael was one of pop’s reigning stars in the 1980s and ’90s — first as a handsome, smiling teen-pop idol making lighthearted singles like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” with Wham!, then arriving as a grown-up pop sex symbol with his 1987 album “Faith.” Michael wrote supple evergreen ballads, like “Careless Whisper” and “Father Figure,” as well as buoyant dance tracks like “Freedom ’90” and “I Want Your Sex.” For much of his career, including his best-selling albums “Faith” and “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1,” he was also his own producer and studio backup band. Much of his music drew on R&B, old and new, but his melodic gift extended across genres. He won a Grammy Award in 1988 for “I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me),” a duet with Aretha Franklin, and “Faith” won the Grammy for album of the year. In Britain, he was showered with awards, and in 2004, Britain’s Radio Academy said he had been the most-played performer on British radio from 1984 to 2004.

In 1998, Mr. Michael came out as gay after being arrested on charges of lewd conduct in a men’s room in Beverly Hills, Calif. He had long lent his name and music to support AIDS prevention and gay rights. During interviews in later years, he described himself as bisexual, and said that hiding his sexuality had made him feel “fraudulent.” He also described long struggles with depression. During the 2000s, Mr. Michael’s output slowed; his last studio album of new songs was “Patience” in 2004. In later years he put out individual songs as free downloads, encouraging listeners to contribute to charity. But in 2006, 25 years into his career, he could still headline stadiums worldwide.

Greg Lake, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who helped propel prog rock into the mainstream as a member of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and King Crimson, died Tuesday. His installment loans poor credit manager told the BBC he had recently had “a long and stubborn battle with cancer”; the news comes nine months after the death of his bandmate, Keith Emerson. He was 69. As a lyricist and vocalist, Lake helped define prog rock’s flair for introspection with a dash of fantasy. He sang with clarity and confidence, making his voice a singular force among his and his fellow musicians’ experimentation. Whether playing bass or guitar, as he often did with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, he wrote in a way that allowed for his bandmates to build vast, intricate soundscapes. He was a skillful player whose guitar playing, in particular, added depth to some of ELP’s grand classical experiments, such as their rock interpretation of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Greg Lake was born in Bournemouth, England short term loans for students uk on November 10th, 1947. He befriended eventual King Crimson leader Robert Fripp, who played guitar and lived nearby, and sought out opportunities to play music. In 1967, he joined the Gods, a group that had previously featured Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, but Lake left before they recorded their debut LP. The seeds of King Crimson were also formed in 1967 and Lake joined in 1968. The group played its first concert the following April and Lake sang lead vocals and played bass on their debut, 1969’s groundbreaking In the Court of the Crimson King – which Pete Townshend called “an uncanny masterpiece,” according to The Guardian – and its follow-up, 1970’s In the Wake of Poseidon. While on tour with King Crimson, Lake befriended Emerson, then a keyboardist of their tourmates the Nice. The two musicians had similar musical aesthetics and formed a new group, recruiting Palmer, who had played with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Atomic Rooster, to join them. The trio considered bringing a full-time guitarist into the fold – Lake was pulling double duty on bass and guitar – but, according to the book Legends of Rock Guitar, the only musician they all agreed could keep up with them was Jimi Hendrix and their acrynomic name would then become “HELP.”

Emerson, Lake and Palmer made their live debut in 1970, releasing their self-titled debut that same year. They were an near-instant hit. Each of the albums they put out in the Seventies – including their landmark Brain Salad Surgery – went gold in the U.S., and several charted in the Top 10 of Billboard’s album chart. The ambitious Tarkus, their second album – a deft and grandiose fusion of classical and rock – was a Number One album in the U.K. in 1971. Lake served as sole producer for most of the group’s works, which sold more than 48 million albums, according to the BBC. Their live performances featured light shows and theatrics, including the parading of their “Tarkus” mascot, and their highest-charting album in the U.S. was the live outing, Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends – Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The group recorded the album in Anaheim, California in 1974; its title referencing lyrics in the Brain Salad Surgery track “Karn Evil 9.”

At the peak of ELP’s success in 1975, Lake put out a solo single, “I unsecured payday loan Believe in Father Christmas,” which was a Number Two hit in the U.K. behind “Bohemian Rhapsody.” After the trio disbanded in 1979, Lake launched a solo career and, in 1981, issued a star-studded self-titled LP, which featured performances by guitarists Gary Moore and Steve Lukather, drummer Jeff Porcaro and saxophonist Clarence Clemons. It made it up to Number 63 on the U.S. chart and its follow-up, 1983’s Manoeuvers, which also featured Moore, did not make the Top 200. Subsequently, Emerson and Lake regrouped in the mid-Eighties, but with drummer Cozy Powell instead of Palmer, who was playing with Asia. Their sole LP, Emerson, Lake and Powell, was a hit, making it up to Number 23 in the U.S. Palmer came back, and the original trio continued through much of the Nineties, with a reunion in 2010. He released a final solo album, Ride the Tiger, in 2015. In 2001, Lake toured as a member of the seventh incarnation of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In 2003, Lake played the bass on The Who song “Real Good Looking Boy”. The group’s usual bassist, Pino Palladino, was set to do it but he was touring during the time of recording, so Lake was asked instead.

In 2005, Lake toured Germany and the UK with his assembled group, the Greg Lake Band, which included David Arch on keyboards, Florian Opahle on guitar, Trevor Barry on bass, and Brett Morgan on drums. In 2006, Lake played as a member of the supergroup The RD Crusaders in aid for charity. Lake performed “Karn Evil 9” with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at several shows. In 2010, Lake and Emerson completed an acoustic world tour, performing ELP songs. The tour got off at a bad start following a backstage altercation between the two, but “we completed the tour and it was very happy. We actually ended up enjoying ourselves”. In July 2010, Lake joined Emerson and Palmer for a one-off gig from Emerson, Lake & Palmer at the High Voltage Festival in Victoria Park, London, to commemorate the band’s fortieth anniversary. Lake continued to tour solo in the 2010s. His Songs of a Lifetime Tour began in 2012 which featured songs of his career and those by his favourite artists, including Elvis Presley and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. The tour ended in November of that year.