by Bill Pearis

Storm Thorgerson, whose album cover artwork includes Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, has died aged 69, the band's management has confirmed.

A childhood friend of the founding members of the band, he became their designer-in-chief, fashioning a string of eye-catching creations.

Most-famously he designed the prism spreading a spectrum of colour across The Dark Side Of The Moon.

His credits also include albums by Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel and Muse.

His family released a statement saying he died peacefully on Thursday surrounded by family and friends.

"He had been ill for some time with cancer though he had made a remarkable recovery from his stroke in 2003," it said.

"He is survived by his mother Vanji, his son Bill, his wife Barbie Antonis and her two children Adam and Georgia."

Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist Dave Gilmour released a statement in which he said the artworks Thorgerson created for the band had been "an inseparable part of our work". - [BBC]

As one-third of groundbreaking graphic design company Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson helped create some of the most iconic album covers of the '70s and early-'80s (hell, ever), including T-Rex's Electric Warrior, Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Peter Gabriel's third album (the melty one), not to mention most of the art for Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. When that company disolved in 1987, Thorgerson formed Storm Studios and continued working with Pink Floyd, as well as doing covers for Catherine Wheel, Muse, Ween, Audioslave and many more. Rest in peace, Storm.

Most of his work with Hipgnosis can be seen here and a couple video interviews with Storm are below.

Continue reading "Legendary album art designer Storm Thorgerson, RIP"

Massive Attack at Terminal 5 in 2010 (more by Chris La Putt)

Trip hop pioneers Massive Attack have assembled a BBC 6 Mix, where they compiled music that influenced their 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, like Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Gang of Four, Isaac Hayes and more alongside some of their new favorite artists like Burial, Flying Lotus, The Bug vs The Rootsman, Kanye West & Booka Shade, and more (via Daily Swarm). You can download or stream the mix and check out the tracklist below.

Continue reading "Massive Attack compile influences & new favorites on new mix"

This letter, signed by a ton of artists and pictured above, is set to appear in an ad in Billboard:

We are big fans of Pandora. That's why we helped give the company a discount on rates for the past decade.

Pandora is now enjoying phenomenal success as a Wall Street company. Skyrocketing growth in revenues and users. We celebrate that. At the same time, the music community is just now beginning to gain its footing in the new digital world.

Pandora's principal asset is the music.

Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That's not fair, and that's not how partners work together.
Congress has many pressing issues to consider, but this is not one of them. Let's work this out as partners and continue to bring fans the great musical experience they rightly expect.

Pink Floyd, Down, Primus, Dead Kennedys (with our without Jello?), Nas, Alabama, Sheryl Crow and many more big major label names signed this (or someone signed it on their behalf). Check out the full list below, and head to fairpayforartists.com for more information on their point of view..

The issue is that Pandora is supporting the Internet Radio Fairness Act which they say will "help end the long-standing discrimination against internet radio". Artists are mad because that possibly means less money for them, but Pandora and other Internet radio providers argue they can't stay in business the way things are now.

Continue reading "A bunch of artists wrote an open letter to Pandora who support the Internet Radio Fairness Act"

by Bill Pearis

George Michael at the London Olympics Closing Ceremony

While Kate Bush didn't perform in the London Olympics Closing Ceremonies segment that "Running Up That Hill" was used in (that was cut from the U.S. telecast), NBC did cut a few actual live performances from it, including The Who closing out the whole thing with "Baba O'Riley," "See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You" and "My Generation." (Yet they left in Kaiser Chiefs doing "Pinball Wizard"!). The Who was not deemed as important as letting the world see the first episode of some new sitcom. NBC also cut Ray Davies doing Kinks classic "Waterloo Sunset" and Muse who wrote "Survival," the official song for the London Olympics.

What we did get: a Spice Girls reuinon where Posh, Sporty and the rest of them mostly rode around the track in separate Bentleys; Beady Eye doing "Wonderwall" (Noel must've loved that); Annie Lennox doing "Little Bird"; Eric Idle singing Life of Brian's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"; Russell Brand singing "Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and "I Am the Walrus"; current popstars One Direction and Jessie J, the latter of whom also sang "We Will Rock You" with Queen; Fatboy Slim in a giant inflatable octopus; Pet Shop Boys doing "West End Girls," Madness hoarsely performing "Our House"; and Ed Sheeran with Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Genesis' Mike Rutherford for "Wish You Were Here."

The highlight, at least with the crowd I watched it with, was George Michael in his first live performance after a life-threatening bout with pneumonia last year. He still had the moves on "Freedom 90," though it seemed a missed opportunity by the ceremonies producers not to have the iconic video's co-stars Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell come out for it, as they were paraded around in a segment set to Bowie's "Fashion" early in the program. NBC cut (maybe not so unkind) the performance of Michael's new single "White Light" which you can watch the video for below that does feature Moss.

After the Closing Ceremonies, Blur performed in Hyde Park with New Order, The Specials and Bombay Bicycle Club and we'll have pictures from that show soon.

Video below...

Continue reading "George Michael, The Spice Girls & more played Olympic Closing Ceremony; NBC cut The Who, Ray Davies and Muse "

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Roger Waters brought his The Wall tour to Philly's Citizens Bank Park on Saturday (7/14), after hitting NYC twice earlier this month. Like the other shows, the band played in front of the giant titualar wall, and the show was broken up into two sets, each being a different platter of the double album. The setlist of course, was The Wall in its entirety. The Philly Inquirer write:

Given that The Wall eventually draws a pointed analogy between rock excess and Fascist spectacle, the sprawling, thoroughly immodest production was awash in unintended irony. "In the Flesh" staged a rock concert as Nazi rally, climaxing with Waters machine-gunning the crowd, who heartily cheered their own mock execution. During "Bring the Boys Back Home," the stage behind Waters flooded with images of poverty and famine, climaxing with a photo of what looked like a starving African child; the image was disturbing but also deracinated, torn from its specific time and place to make a statement so broad it verged on generic. Onscreen quotes referenced Kafka and George Orwell, but there was something disconcerting, even grotesque, about the obeisance Waters' own spectacle demanded. With its enveloping surround sound, The Wall made surrender seductive, not the natural endpoint for an evening that began with a speech from Spartacus.

More pictures, videos, and setlist from the Philly are below...

Continue reading "Roger Waters brought 'The Wall' to Philly's Citizens Bank Park (pics, video, setlist)"

photos by Greg Cristman

Roger Waters projected his message stadium-wide, literally, when he brought his new production of "The Wall" to Yankee Stadium on Friday, starting a two-night stand. A white-brick wall, which is both an ideal video screen in concert and the central metaphor of the rock opera he wrote for the 1979 album by Pink Floyd (with additional music by the band's guitarist, David Gilmour), spanned the stadium and towered 40 feet high.

The message Mr. Waters hammered home -- with images including animated regiments of goose-stepping hammers on the march -- was distrust of power and authority in many forms: parents, schools, celebrities, corporations, countries, ideologies. Throughout intermission (as elegiac music played), and at points during the concert, the names and faces of people killed by wars, terrorism and government actions were shown on the wall. Quotations from George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Dwight D. Eisenhower also appeared on it. At one point, animated bombers dropped corporate logos and religious symbols; "Run Like Hell" included a WikiLeaks video from an American helicopter firing on Iraqi journalists. Early in the concert, Mr. Waters decried "all the victims of state terror all over the world," and preached that giving governments, police and soldiers too much power was "a very steep and slippery slope to tyranny. [NY Times]

Roger Waters brought his unbelievable, high-budget, musical-theater performance of The Wall to NYC this past weekend for shows on Friday (7/6) and Saturday (7/7) at Yankee Stadium. Complete with the long video screen wall (and stage) spanning the outfield, costume changes, the pig flying around the stadium, giant puppets of Wall characters like the teacher and mother, pyrotechnics, video of David Gilmour singing parts (and Robbie Wyckoff handling some of the Gilmour parts live), G.E. Smith of the Saturday Night Live band on guitar, and much more, the Wall Live is an over the top spectacle that leaves even the most die-hard capitalists (the ones in the $250 seats), but maybe not all Pink Floyd purists, satisfied.

The shows were part of an ongoing tour, which also hits Philly this week.

More pictures, a video, and setlist (aka the Wall, in order, with an intermission between the two records) from night one, below.

Continue reading "Roger Waters erected 'The Wall' @ Yankee Stadium (twice) -- (night one pics, video, setlist)"

As mentioned, Roger Waters added a 2nd Yankee Stadium show. Here are when tickets go on sale:

Onsale to General Public
Start: Sat, 02/11/12 10:00 AM EST

American Express Presale
Start: Sun, 02/05/12 10:00 AM EST
End: Fri, 02/10/12 10:00 PM EST

NYY Presale
Start: Tue, 02/07/12 09:00 AM EST
End: Fri, 02/10/12 10:00 PM EST

Live Nation Presale
Start: Thu, 02/09/12 11:00 AM EST
End: Fri, 02/10/12 10:00 PM EST

AmEx presale is first and it starts Sunday.

Roger says:

We're thrilled to announce that due to an overwhelming response to the July 6 New York City date at Yankee Stadium, a second The Wall Live show has been added for July 7, 2012.

The RogerWaters.com presale for this show is set to begin on Sunday, February 5. If you'd like to participate, please log into your RogerWaters.com account and update your list of cities. If you don't yet have an account, click here to create one now.

Tickets for the first show went on sale Monday.

Currently on AmEx presale, tickets for the Roger Waters: The Wall Live at Yankee Stadium go on public sale on Monday, 1/30, at 10am.

Tickets are on sale now for the pre-party hang at BB King's ("We will be showing "Dark Side Of Oz" on the big screen and have live music and food and drink specials.)"

We're posting some select news stories today,
but please help us in supporting the fight against internet censorship.

The press release reads:

Roger Waters, the co-founder and principal songwriter of the archetypal progressive band Pink Floyd, has announced the return of the historic production of "The Wall" to North America in 2012. His aural and visual masterpiece of alienation and transformation will be performed in-its-entirety featuring a full band and state-of-the-art production. "The Wall" live has played more than 120 shows around the world for more than 1.6 million fans making it one of the most successful tours of 2010 and 2011. Roger Waters will return to New York, bringing the historic production to New York's Bronx landmark, Yankee Stadium, on Friday, July 6. Tickets for "The Wall" 2012 at Yankee Stadium go on sale on Monday, January 30th at 10AM on LiveNation.com.

[As previously announced] The 2012 tour will begin on May 1st in Houston, Texas at the Toyota Center making a 36 show trek throughout North America, including several outdoor stadium performances with state of the art modifications transforming the arena production into magnificent outdoor events. The tour, promoted by Live Nation, includes stadium stops in San Francisco at AT&T Park on May 11th, Vancouver at BC Place on May 26th, Chicago's Wrigley Field on June 8th, Toronto at Rogers Centre on June 23rd and Philadelphia at the Citizens Bank Park on July 14th.

"Thirty years ago when I wrote 'The Wall,' I was a frightened young man," Waters recalls. "In the intervening years it occurred to me that maybe the story of my fear and loss with its concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns: Nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, whatever! All these issues and 'isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life."
...
In addition to Roger Waters (lead vocals, bass), "The Wall" live touring ensemble includes: Snowy White (Guitar), Dave Kilminster (Guitar), GE Smith (Guitar & Bass), Jon Carin (Keyboards), Harry Waters (Hammond Organ), Graham Broad (Drums), Robbie Wyckoff (Vocals), Jon Joyce, Pat Lennon, Mark Lennon and Kipp Lennon (Backing Vocals).

More tour dates HERE (the NYC venue was previously listed as "TBA").

by Klaus Kinski

Roger Waters and The Wall (more)

As a 34 year old living in the best fucking city in the fucking world, I should be overflowing with the zeal and stamina to go out 5 or 6 nights a week and still show up to work on time and kick ass. And yet, that isn't really the case. I am like a big stupid elephant who decides to sit on his keyster in the middle of a circus performance and refuses to move no matter how much cruel the whipping and prodding he is faced with (note: circuses suck) (unbridled animal cruelty) (Occupy Ringling).

The sedentary habits I've developed don't really bother me; I go out and tear it up when it's worth the hassle. But then I get a message yesterday that 68 year old geezer Roger Waters is about to drag The Wall tour all over the US AGAIN in 2012 and am reminded of the words of Lloyd Christmas, "Man, you are one pathetic loser!"

To date, he's played this damned show like 120 times the world around! Sigh. Annnnnnyyywhoozle, The 2012 Wall Tour kicks off in Australia on January 27th for several dates and from there hits New Zealand. Then heads over to South America for a ton of dates and then *BAM* the tour lands in Houston Texas on May 1st, winds it's way across the US until the tour wraps in Philadelphia on July 14th. New York Fuckin' City will be graced with this impossibly expensive monstrosity on July 6th, 2012 at a venue TBD. I wonder what venue in NYC could possibly house such an elaborate show? My guess in Mercury Lounge. The presale begins today.

And hey, McDuck, while you're dusting off your sheckles to buy tickets to this show, which I am guessing will have the good seats in the $300 range, why not spit shine a few more and get the Why Pink Floyd Discovery Edition Boxed Set too?

All tour dates are listed below.

Continue reading "Roger Waters touring The Wall again in 2012 (dates & presale)"

I know you're sick of Radiohead posts, but, well, they keep doing things! (and anyway, more importantly, this post also contains Portishead!). But back to the point.... Radiohead just played two shows at Roseland Ballroom, appeared on SNL, and on The Colbert Report. They're also rumored to play for Occupy Wall Street today at 4 PM, though that might not happen. In addition to all of that, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood will perform on Fallon on Monday (10/3). According to Radiohead At Ease, they'll be performing "Give Up The Ghost."

Speaking of Fallon, his week-long run of Pink Floyd covers (that started with the Shins) continued on Tuesday when Foo Fighters played "In The Flesh" with Roger Waters, on Wednesday when MGMT took on "Lucifer Sam" off of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, with help from Bradford Cox who was dressed as Joey Ramone. Dierks Bentley did "Wish You Were Here" last night (9/29). You can watch all three videos below.

MGMT will also perform at The Guggenheim on November 10 and 11 as part of the 2011 Guggenheim International Gala. The 11/10 show is a private party, but the 11/11 show is a public event. Tickets go on sale Friday (10/14) with a member presale starting Thursday (10/13).

Portishead, who plays and curated ATP NJ this weekend, will appear on Fallon on Wednesday (10/5), two days after Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood do. Portishead play their second of two sold out shows at Hammerstein Ballroom the same night.

Fallon videos below...

Continue reading "more Pink Floyd covers on Fallon (videos), Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood & Portishead next week, MGMT @ the Guggenheim"

The Shins at Bowery Ballroom (via wonderboymusic)

Mercer's trademark widow's peak was a welcome site as the band immediately launched into two classics; "Caring Is Creepy"... and "Australia" from 2007's Wincing The Night Away. The audience seemed strangely cognizant of Mercer's path as a musician, treating his troubles with departing band members and his elongated Broken Bells hiatus as forgettable. I mean, this guy wrote a song that was played at Heath Leger's funeral! He's a legend!

The newer tracks were met with stifled cheers, but cheers nonetheless... "New Slang" was slightly warped to allow for an electric guitar and a synthesized tambourine, a departure from the original's very organic feel, the words still sting as sharply as they did ten years ago. The surroundings may change, but the core is still compelling. -[BaebleMusic]

The Shins played Bowery Ballroom on Sunday night (9/25) with Faces on Film, a very tiny show compared to The Shins' previous outings at Terminal 5. The band, who played new material and old, dipped into waaay older material when they covered David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and Pink Floyd's "Breathe". The latter cover was played again on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night (9/26) as part of Pink Floyd week (which continues tonight). If you missed either show, live vicariously through the videos below.

As discussed, if you somehow don't own every Pink Floyd album (or want another copy), the band is reissuing material which hits record stores today.

Video from Jimmy Fallon and Bowery Ballroom, and the NYC show setlist, below...

Continue reading "The Shins covered Pink Floyd @ Bowery Ballroom & on Fallon (videos & setlist)"

by Klaus Kinski

I might be one of the most obsessive Pink Floyd fans who ever lived, and I say that as more of an embarrassing confession than as a statement of pride. I have written about them and their related projects and tours a coupla times now, but every time there is Pink Floyd related news bouncing around the atmosphere I can't help but feel somewhat annoyed at the fact that everything they do is such an obvious and grotesque cash grab. I mean, I still love their records and will be buried with them but, Jesus Christ guys, you use your back catalog like a wet towel, wringing out re-releases and "Best ofs" while expecting us to empty our wallets.

And this pattern started early. I mean, in 1970 EMI released a Best Of record, despite Pink Floyd only having two albums under their belt. Then, BAM, in 1971 another greatest hits record, Relics, hit the shelves and yet the ink on their third album (Atom Heart Mother) had barely dried. 1974 rolled around and saw the re-release of Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets as a double album called A Nice Pair. That same year, ANOTHER greatest hits record hit the shelves, this time entitled Masters of Rock. In 1981, which would have been the perfect year for a retrospective album considering the body of work they had behind them by then, they released A Collection of Great Dance Songs, which is a supremely anemic and vapid attempt at a greatest hits record. Then between 1992 and now, we were given the Shine On 9 CD Boxed Set (1992), The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 30th Anniversary edition (1997), 1967 The First Three Singles (1997), Wish You Were Here 25th Anniversary Edition (2000), Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001), Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary SACD Edition (2003), The Final Cut re-release (2004), The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 40th Anniversary edition (2007), and the 14 disc Oh By The Way (2007). Add to that the massive amount of singles, EPs, 7"s, 45s, and other redundancies and you have a veritable shit load of items culled from very few actual sources. Talk about milking it, am I right?

Now we find ourselves in the final quarter of 2011. 2012 is around the corner and Roger Waters and David Gilmour are buddies again, Rick Wright and Syd Barrett RIP, the world economy is in the shitter... what better time to embark on an exhaustive and multi-tiered Pink Floyd re-issue campaign! Starting on September 26th, 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI are orchestrating a re-issue campaign:

encompassing CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, SACD, an array of digital formats, viral marketing, iPhone Apps and a brand-new single-album 'Best Of' collection.

The legendary band, who are still one of the most successful and iconic artists of all time, recently signed an agreement with EMI which has allowed the development of a multi-format programme of packages, many containing archive material that has been collated during an extensive process between EMI and Pink Floyd for a range of media formats.

The aptly titled WHY? PINK FLOYD re-release project is almost preposterous in scope. And by everything you read up until this point, I bet you think I am poo-pooing this project. In a certain sense, I am. I mean, all of these studio albums have been reissued more than once. How many copies of Dark Side do I really need? Certainly this aspect of the campaign interests me very little (if at all). It's the stuff deeper in the guts of this thing that has me dorking myself to death. Here's a breakdown of how they've got these sets organized.

DISCOVERY EDITIONS and BOX SET (Available 9/27/11)
This release is broken into two tiers. The first tier Discovery Edition is all 14 studio albums remastered from the ground up, all available for purchase individually. The second tier Discovery Edition is a box set that features all 14 records and a 60-page booklet housed as one massive package (hehehe).

EXPERIENCE EDITIONS
The Experience Editions are more modest and seem to be the most appealing to me. Available for individual purchase will be Wish You Were Here (11/8/11), Dark Side of the Moon (9/27/11), and The Wall (2/28/12) ONLY . These sets will include a newly remastered album CD, a CD containing additional material pertaining to the album, and an expanded (and pretty beautiful) CD booklet.

IMMERSION EDITIONS
The Immersion Editions serve to separate the nerds from the super nerds. Available for individual purchase will be Wish You Were Here (11/8/11), Dark Side of the Moon (9/27/11), and The Wall (2/28/12) ONLY. Lavishly packaged in a sturdy 29cm square box, the sets contain remastered, previously unreleased and audio-visual material, plus much additional content - reproduced memorabilia, brand new graphics, art prints, collectors' items, lavish booklets and several more CDs remastered as 5.1, Quadrophinic, Stereo, etc... it's a doozie!

BEST OF
The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot In The Door (11/8/11). An expanded and remastered greatest hits album. As far as this remaster campaign goes, this CD is the equivalent of Wayne and Garth standing in front of the green screen in Wayne's World I saying "I'm in Delaware."

VINYL EDITIONS
The Vinyl Editions are records dude. Available for individual purchase will be Wish You Were Here (11/8/11), Dark Side of the Moon (9/27/11), and The Wall (2/28/12) ONLY. Features the 2011 remastered version on 180 gram heavyweight Vinyl. Original packaging including stickers and posters plus free 320kbps download and exclusive new poster.

So while some of this stuff is a rehash, I am still very stoked about some of these releases. So stoked in fact that I am going to give two lucky BV readers a shirt, a poster, and a newly remastered 2 CD set of Dark Side of the Moon, just for reading this far! Directions on how to enter the contest are below!

And you know who else is stoked about this new remaster campaign? Funnyman Jimmy Fallon, that's who! Each episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon from September 26th through September 30th (a whole week!) will be dedicated to Pink Floyd. From what I've heard the schedule is as follows:

- Monday 9/26 - The Shins perform Breathe from Dark Side of the Moon. Nick Mason will be the interviewed.
- Tuesday 9/27 - Roger Waters will join Foo Fighters will perform In the Flesh from The Wall. Waters will also be interviewed.
- Wednesday 9/28 - MGMT will perform early Floyd classic Lucifer Sam.
- Thursday 9/29 - Dierks Bentley will perform Wish You Were Here.
- Friday 9/30 - Pearl Jam (!) will do Mother from The Wall.

Fallon airs at 12:30am on NBC.

In other old geezers from awesome classic rock bands news... don't forget that tonight at Nassau Coliseum The Who's Roger Daltrey performs the rock opera Tommy in its entirety as well as other Who classic cuts. Tickets are still available and, I swear to Cod, if I had a car, I'd be all over that shit. Fiddle about.

Continue reading "Pink Floyd probably breaks record release record, gets people covering them on Fallon for a week"

Marnie Stern at Santos Party House (more by Andrew St. Clair)

Marnie Stern and No Joy, who coincidentally shared a bill at one of the BrooklynVegan day parties during CMJ, are heading out on a North American tour together in September. The dates haven't been announced yet but a few of them have been revealed, including September 29 at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Tickets for the NYC show are on sale now.

Marnie and No Joy both have some other upcoming dates this summer too. Though they won't be at the same show, they'll both be in Chicago on July 8, when Marnie Stern hosts a guitar clinic before she opens for the Flaming Lips at Aragon Ballroom. No Joy play the Empty Bottle that night.

Speaking of the Flaming Lips, they played multiple shows last weekend in Atlantic City

"On June 23rd and 24th The Flaming Lips played in Atlantic City - including on the latter night their new arrangement of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety with highlights from The Wizard of Oz. The next day they were scheduled to travel seven hours northwest to play in Rochester, New York. That show however - a late addition to The Flaming Lips Peace and Punk Rock Summer Tour - was postponed. Its promoters needed more time, so Wayne flew to his home state Oklahoma - where he is shooting a role in a new movie with Melanie Griffith." [psych explorations]

Some videos from AC are below. The Flaming Lips play TWO NYC area dates this month, both with Weezer and Yeasayer.

All tour dates and some other videos too, below...

Continue reading "Marnie Stern going on tour w/ No Joy, opening for the Flaming Lips (who played 'Dark Side' in AC, didn't play Rochester)"

by Klaus Kinski,

believe...

As a rabid Roger Waters and Pink Floyd fan, I am in a very weird place right now with regards to that fact. Roger has been on what seems like a 200 date tour of The Wall. He did two shows at Madison Square Garden on October 5th and 6th and has a third show lined up at the same venue exactly a month later on November 6th (tickets still on sale). But before he reunites with the asbestos laden MSG, he is charged with the task of tearing down the wall at the Izod Center tonight (November 3rd) and tomorrow (November 4th). There's no way to describe how badly I want to see this show. I have friends from other states who have gone and have reported back unanimously that I absolutely have to see this show. Yet I am incapable, mentally and financially, of coughing up a whopping $277 for the experience especially when Waters himself pretentiously stated:

There is enough of everything in THE WORLD for us all to have enough to eat, to be warm and dry and to have a colour TV and a car. WE are taught to FEAR that if WE share what WE have with THEM, WE won't have anything left for US.

Sure, while there MAY BE enough of everything in THE WORLD for us all to have enough to eat (me), to be warm and dry (me) and to have a colour TV (me) and a car (not me), there clearly isn't enough of everything in the world for us all to have something as simple as a ticket to see Roger Waters in concert. So while some of you New Yorkers / New Jersians have three opportunities to see the Roger Waters Wall spectacle, some of us will have to be content with our TVs and food. And hey, you never know... one of these three dates MIGHT JUST be the one where David Gilmour makes the live appearance that has been promised to happen on one night during the tour.

On a somewhat related note, it seems that seeing a cover band has become a pretty accepted means of seeing your favorite band without actually seeing your favorite band or paying what you'd have to pay to see your favorite band. I am not talking about bar bands; I am talking about cover bands as BIG BUSINESS (not the band). Last night The Australian Pink Floyd Show hit the Gramercy Theater in NYC. The place was PACKED with people who paid $45 to see a band play songs they didn't write. And they were good. Remember how at the beginning of this post I said that I was in a very weird place right now with regards to Pink Floyd and Roger Waters? The APF show contributed to this. The devil on one shoulder was cursing the fact that these dudes are making a living playing music they didn't write. The angel on the other shoulder kept whispering into my ear "Dag yo, this is kind of awesome."

The pictures in this post were taken at various stops on the current Roger Waters Wall tour, and they continue below...

Continue reading "Roger Waters is back in the area, Aussie Pink Floyd played last night (pics, dates & stuff) "

So here's what happened. Last year, 'The Hoping Foundation' a charity that supports Palestinian refugee kids, (www.hopingfoundation.org) put on a fund raiser at Ronnie Scott's Club in London, the idea of which was to raise money by auctioning karaoke performances by various celebrities. David was there as a supporter and was moved to perform an impromptu rendition of George Gershwin's 'Summertime?' which he performed aided and abetted by supermodel Kate Moss.

In the wake of that evening, someone, I think it was David himself, came up with this 'Wouldn't it be funny', idea. What if he (David that is) were to sing the old Teddy Bears song 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' with me (Roger that is), what with us having been so famously at each other's throats for years and years. Get it!!!! Anyway he E-mailed me with this suggestion and I loved it, so then it was just a question of juggling dates and deciding to do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Comfortably Numb' to round out our little set. Or so I thought, until he sent me a number of very musical and eloquent demos of how we could do the song in two-part harmony. I listened with a sinking heart, knowing that David, with his superior vocal skills, could sing either part standing on his head, whilst I would have to search for a different key and then struggle through hours and hours of routining a performance that lay way outside my vocal comfort zone. To my eternal shame I bottled out and told Dave I would happily do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'C. Numb', but that 'To Know him is to Love him' was beyond me.

Some weeks passed with David cajoling me from time to time, telling me how easy it would be, but I clung resolutely to my fear of failure until one day he made one final entreaty. I quote "If you do 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I'll come and do 'C. Numb' on one of your Wall shows". Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather. How fucking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn't, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear. And so explaining that I would probably be shite, but if he didn't mind I didn't, I agreed and the rest is history. We did it, and it was fucking great. End of story. Or possibly beginning.

Roger

PS. Just heard from David, he will decide in due course which gig he wants to do, it will be a surprise!

That apparently means that one show on the Roger Waters "Wall" tour will get the golden David Gilmour ticket. Six of those shows are in the NYC-area.

Flaming Lips @ Bonnaroo 2010 (The J Train)

"It's not a Bonnaroo set without a wild-card cover version. The Flaming Lips and an allied group, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, played the entirety of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" with no deference at all. With fuzztone bass and wah-wah guitars, a garage-rock kick and non-portentous vocals, it went lurching toward Flaming Lips' disheveled version of madness rather than Pink Floyd's majestic one.

Wayne Coyne, to stir up the crowd, claimed there was actual money inside some of the balloons released during "Money." Who knows?"
[NY Times]

You can listen to the Flaming Lips' 2-set performance in NPR's archive. People have also posted it for download.

Tickets are on sale at 11am for the upcoming Flaming Lips show at Terminal 5.

More pictures, various videos, and the setlist from Bonnaroo, below...

Continue reading "Flaming Lips played Dark Side of the Moon @ Bonnaroo (pics, video, setlist, download, stream), NYC show on sale today"

Tickets are on sale for all Roger Waters dates including two shows at MSG, two shows at Nassau Coliseum, and two shows at the Izod Center (it was one at each of them).

photos by Chris La Putt

"Holy shit. If I had only one band to choose to see in concert it would be The Flaming Lips. Best concert I've ever been to, no contest. Friendly people, which makes sense: Flaming Lips fans are some of the friendliest people I know.

Words cannot do this concert justice. The music, the atmosphere, the smoke, the GIANT balloons filled with confetti that would POP in an explosion of rectangular colored shreds of paper, the dense cloud of pot - so thick you couldn't even smell the person next to you sparking up. And oh, the visuals, the fantastical videos they had, drippy gooey egg yolks, and naked dancing ladies, and naked drum-hitting ladies, and naked ladies dancing on the beach, and laughter, and love, and everything all around. I'm still glowing from the show." [Hilary]

In other words, just your average Flaming Lips show at Wellmont Theater in NJ last night. More pictures, the setlist of video of the band performing a Pink Floyd cover with opener Stardeath and White Dwarfs during the encore (they'll play Dark Side of the Moon in full again at Bonnaroo), below...

Continue reading "The Flaming Lips @ Wellmont Theater in NJ - pics & setlist"

I recently came across this quote of mine from 22 years ago:

"What it comes down to for me is this: Will the technologies of communication in our culture, serve to enlighten us and help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?"

I believe this is still a supremely relevant question and the jury is out. There is a lot of commercial clutter on the net, and a lot of propaganda, but I have a sense that just beneath the surface understanding is gaining ground. We just have to keep blogging, keep twittering, keep communicating, keep sharing ideas.

30 Years ago when I wrote The Wall I was a frightened young man. Well not that young, I was 36 years old.

It took me a long time to get over my fears. Anyway, in the intervening years it has occurred to me that maybe the story of my fear and loss with it's concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns.: Nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, Whatever! All these issues and 'isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life.

This new production of The Wall is an attempt to draw some comparisons, to illuminate our current predicament, and is dedicated to all the innocent lost in the intervening years.

In some quarters, among the chattering classes, there exists a cynical view that human beings as a collective are incapable of developing more 'humane' ie, kinder, more generous, more cooperative, more empathetic relationships with one another.

I disagree.

In my view it is too early in our story to leap to such a conclusion, we are after all a very young species.

I believe we have at least a chance to aspire to something better than the dog eat dog ritual slaughter that is our current response to our institutionalized fear of each other.

I feel it is my responsibility as an artist to express my, albeit guarded, optimism, and encourage others to do the same. To quote the great man, " You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

- Roger Waters, 2010

As promised, tour dates below...

Continue reading "Roger Waters performing 'The Wall' - 2010 Tour Dates (MSG)"

by Klaus Kinski

To say I have an eclectic taste in music would be a gross understatement, and I think that sentiment applies to most people these days. But the one band that has remained at the top of my musical heap has been Pink Floyd. Starting in about 1990, I would buy any Pink Floyd related item I could get my hands on. I would spend entire weekends going to every record store in Boston and Cambridge, buying anything and everything I could find. Then eBay opened up a global Pink Floyd market to me and I spiraled out of control. Financial necessity forced me to liquidate a large portion of my collection a few years back and I don't buy any more stuff, but I've still got many prized Floyd items as well as all kinds of CDs, bootlegs, and other rare recorded material. I also still avidly follow anything pertaining to Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Rick Wright and, more than anything, Roger Waters.

By far, my favorite member of Pink Floyd is Roger Waters. As far as I'm concerned, when Roger Waters left Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd ceased to legitimately exist as Pink Floyd. Of course, I bought Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell when they were released. And how could any self-respecting pothead Masshole miss The Division Bell tour when it came to Foxboro Stadium? But those albums didn't FEEL like Pink Floyd, and I think Roger was being too polite when he called Momentary Lapse of Reason "a pretty fair forgery." In addition, while David Gilmour and Rick Wright solo records are just plain cheesy and self-indulgent (and don't get me started on Nick Mason's wtf-inducing record Fictitious Sports), Roger was always trying to create a larger musical narrative. As a matter of fact, the political and social commentary of Amused To Death is probably more relevant now than it was in 1992.

I saw Roger in 1999, twice in 2000, and twice in 2007 when he was touring Dark Side of the Moon. What's his next move? On Monday April 12th, 2010 at 2:00pm EST [editor's note: which is less than an hour from the time this is being posted, though Klaus actually wrote this last week], Roger Waters will be formally announcing a 2010 tour (update: NOW ANNOUNCED) of his epic masterpiece The Wall on his newly designed official website roger-waters.com. For years there has been speculation that this tour would happen eventually, and then a few months ago Roger's official website went from having Roger Waters content to simply having a Sony Logo on it. I had a feeling then that a redesign was in the works, and that the redesign would no doubt unveil some pretty awesome news.

In the meantime, if you DO want to see a pretty decent forgery of Pink Floyd, check out The Machine on Saturday June 19th on their Rocks Off Boat Cruise. I mean, they're no Australian Pink Floyd, but they're still good!

UPDATE: Dates announced.

Klaus hopes he doesn't sound like this guy....

Continue reading "Roger Waters about to announce a 'Wall' tour "

"Struggling music group EMI faces being taken over by its bankers after failing to clinch a deal to sell the North American distribution rights for its artists to Universal Music Group or Sony Music... The collapse of talks leaves EMI battling to raise 120 million pounds by mid-June to meet its commitments on loans from U.S. bank Citigroup... Adding to the company's woes, Pink Floyd successfully sued the company for selling individual tracks digitally and Chief Executive Elio Leoni-Sceti quit the group last month after just 18 months in the job." [AP]

Continue reading "EMI not doing so well (& can't sell individual Pink Floyd songs)"

Fischerspooner @ MoMA in November (more by Ryan Muir)

Fischerspooner will be playing a live show at Irving Plaza in NYC on New Year's Eve. Tickets are on sale. They also have a pair of DJ dates scheduled in Europe.

Speaking of New Year's Eve, shows for the night are coming together. Some NYC NYE events we've mentioned before include Patti Smith's multi-night run at Bowery Ballroom (sold out), Dean & Britta then The Felice Brothers at Southpaw, Antibalas at Knitting Factory, The Obits & Eli "Paperboy" Reed at The Bell House, Roky Erikson at Maxwell's, Clutch at Starland Ballroom, and The Detroit Cobras & The A-Bones then Titus Andronicus at Mercury Lounge.

Some we haven't mentioned include Lee Burridge at Santos Party House (tickets), Trouble & Bass at Europa (flyer below), Alice Smith at Joe's Pub (tickets), and Chuck Berry (who replaced the Dan Band) at BB King's (tickets - early and late). Tons of jam-friendly options this year: Soulive at Music Hall of Williamsburg, The Word at Terminal 5, Gov't Mule at the Beacon, The Disco Biscuits at Nokia Theatre, and most importantly, Mariah Carey at Madison Square Garden.

Phish have a four-night run in Miami.

For other out of town shows, The Black Keys and Kurt Vile play Chicago, where Jesus Lizard are also doing multiple nights and Jens Lekman is at the Empty Bottle (for three nights in a row actually). Girl Talk also plays Chicago that night- a sold out show at The Congress Theater. Crystal Castles are at Logan Square Auditorium. (Chicago wins)

Guns n Roses cover band Mr. Brownstone are playing Boston.

Pink Floyd cover band The Flaming Lips will be in Oklahama City's Cox Center, where they'll perform Dark Side of the Moon in full at midnight. They'll be assisted by OK's Stardeath and White Dwarfs. Flaming Lips are also reportedly planning an iTunes-only release of their own version of the album.

What else?

The Flaming Lips flyer, other flyers, and all Fischerspooner tour dates, below...

Continue reading "New Year's Eve options in NYC include Fischerspooner ++ Flaming Lips performing 'Dark Side of the Moon' in Oklahoma "

Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, & Richard Wright

today in NYC & NJ
* Les Paul @ Iridium
* Ron Sexsmith @ Maxwell's
* Glacial at (le) poisson rouge
* Andrew WK @ Santos Party House
* Tommie Sunshine @ Gramercy Theatre
* Trouble & Minsk @ Knitting Factory
* Human Highway and Becky Stark @ Cake Shop
* Laura Marling & Johnny Flynn @ Bowery Ballroom
* The Jim Campilongo Electric Trio @ Living Room
* Amazing Baby, Sian Alice Group & A Place to Bury Strangers @ MHOW

Win entry to Tuesday's Cool Kids / Matt & Kim show.

Ron Sexsmith is playing Bowery Ballroom on Tuesday.

Jay-Z has a show coming up in Jersey with Lil Wayne who sounded horrible on SNL Saturday night. Tina Fey's Sarah Palin was more of a highlight.

Q-Tip has a free show coming up.

Wellmont Theatre tickets went on sale.

What else?