"I felt like a dagger went right through my heart. It hurt so much," Satriani says. "The second I heard it, I knew it was [my own] If I Could Fly."

As it turned out, Satriani wasn't the only one who noticed the similarity between If I Could Fly and Viva La Vida.

"Almost immediately, from the minute their song came out, my e-mail box flooded with people going, 'Have you heard this song by Coldplay? They ripped you off man.' I mean, I couldn't tell you how many e-mails I received.

"Everybody noticed the similarities between the songs. It's pretty obvious. It's as simple as that - when you listen to a song and you say, 'Wow, that's a real rip-off.'"

What makes the situation especially painful for Satriani is that If I Could Fly isn't just any song. It's a composition he'd been laboring over for well over 10 years before he recorded it.

"I started writing it on the Flying In A Blue Dream tour back in 1990. But because of the way I write, sometimes songs take a while, as this one did. In 2003 I started demoing it in earnest. I played it on the acoustic guitar on a demo so I could sing the melody, then I demoed it on electric to get the sound. And the performance turned out to be so spontaneous, so right and so emotional, that it wound up being a keeper."

..."That was the intent all along," he says. "It was a love letter to my wife, Rubina - a simple, direct expression of feeling.

"That's what really hurts about this whole thing. That I spent so long writing the song, thinking about it, loving it, nursing it, and then finally recording it and standing on stages the world over playing it - and then somebody comes along and plays the exact same song and calls it their own."

"Coldplay didn't want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away." Joe Satriani... [the interview continues @ Music Radar]

Continue reading "Joe Satriani on Coldplay: 'felt like a dagger.through my heart'"

Girl Talk @ Terminal 5 Sunday (more by Mike Lerner)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Steely Dan @ the Wellmont Theater
* Girl Talk, Prefuse 73 & Bad Brilliance @ Terminal 5
* Secret Machines & Dragons of Zynth @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* SpaceKamp & Joe and the Flying Spoons @ Black Betty
* Peter & The Wolf, Tall Firs & The Isles @ The Studio @ Webster Hall
* Brightblack Morning Light, Fursaxa & Zomes @ Southpaw
* Subtle, Zach Hill & Pattern is Movement @ Knitting Factory
* Centro-Matic & South San Gabriel @ The Bell House
* Grand Buffet & many others (Girl Talk afterparty) @ Santos Party House

Kirk Hammet of Metallica was born today in 1962.

Al Cisneros speaks again.

Secret Machines play Music Hall tonight. An ex-member of the Secret Machines plays Mercury Lounge in December.

Bill points out that SpaceKamp (playing Black Betty tonight) is also Adam Green's backing band.

As promised, Adam Green performed with Lissy Trullie at Santos Party House last night. Videos below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

Kirk Hammett of Metallica & My Morning Jacket @ Bonnaroo 2008

Bonnaroo resides on farmland about 65 miles southeast of Nashville, with campgrounds adjoining the festival site. It draws people who arrive for a long weekend, often with hippie wardrobes and mud boots for Bonnaroo's nearly inevitable rain.

Fans stood through an intermittent deluge as My Morning Jacket, a band from Louisville that pushes pealing, surging Southern rock toward soul and psychedelia, played a three-hour set in Saturday's wee hours. "It feels awesome to be bathed in beautiful golden rain," said the band's leader, Jim James. [NY Times]

Continue reading "My Morning Jacket @ Bonnaroo - pics, 3-hour setlist, rain, Kirk Hammett of Metallica & Zach Galifianakis"

Tegan & Sara keep going and going and going (it's a good thing). Tickets go on pre-sale tomorrow for April and May shows that include May 12th at Terminal 5 in NYC. I don't want to go into the bigger venue rant here, but I really don't think they should be playing a venue that large - they'll feel so far away. Good for them though I guess, and I'm sure it will sell out. Regular sale starts Friday at noon. All dates below....

Continue reading "Tegan & Sara - more 2008 Tour Dates, presale"