by BBG

Ken Russell with model Twiggy

Ken Russell, the director behind the Oscar-winning Women in Love has died aged 84. Russell died on Sunday in his sleep, according to his friend, the arts writer Norman Lebrecht.

Known for a flamboyant style developed during his early career in television, Russell's films mixed high and low culture with rare deftness and often courted high controversy. The Devils ... a religious drama that featured an infamous scene between Oliver Reed and Venessa Redgrave sexualising the crucifixion - was initially rejected by Warner Brothers. It will be released in its entirety in March next year, 42 years after it was made, when it will form part of the British Board of Film Classification's centenary celebrations.

Women in Love, released in 1969, became notorious for its nude male wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, while Tommy, his starry version of The Who's rock opera, was his biggest commercial success, beginning as a stage musical before being reimagined for the screen in 1976. But Russell fell out of the limelight in recent years, as some of his funding dried up and his proposed projects became ever more eclectic. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on the fifth edition of Celebrity Big Brother, before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant Jade Goody. -[The Guardian]

Continue reading "Director Ken Russell, R.I.P."

by BBG

The Who is one of my favorite classic rock bands of all time, so I definitely had some mixed emotions when I saw that Roger Daltrey will hit the road to play The Who classic Tommy in its entirety along with selected "Who classics". Though he has blessed the tour, there will be no Pete Townshend, the brain behind Tommy. Pete has been replaced by Simon Townshend, his brother, who will play guitar alongside Frank Simes (guitar), Scott Deavours (drums), Jon Button (bass), and Loren Gold (keyboards).

Commenting on the tour, Pete Townshend says, "Great to see Roger performing TOMMY with his band in 2011. I will be there in spirit. Roger has my complete and most loving support. Roger is touring his unique concert version of TOMMY using his faithful presentation of the original work as the backbone for a set of wider material. It is wonderful to hear the way Roger and his new band re-interpret the old Who songs."

All tour dates and some video of The Who performing Tommy in its entirety with Pete Townsend and John Entwhistle is below.

Continue reading "Roger Daltrey taking 'Tommy' on the road (Pete approves) --- 2011 Tour Dates"

by Ryan Barkan

Tracy Morgan & Stevie Wonder (picture via Hipster Runoff)

Super Bowl XLIV (44) took place Sunday night in Florida between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints semi-upset the Colts to win the big game for the first time in the franchise's history. This post is a special edition of the long lost "Week In Music Licensing" post and as such, that's the last you will hear about the game. Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, many videos and more below...

Continue reading "music & commercials of Super Bowl XLIV (Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, The Who, Mini Kiss, The Heavy & more) "

Yeasayer @ Hudson River Park in 2009 (more by Bao Nguyen)

tonight in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB Theatre
* Chicha Libre @ Barbes
* Them Crooked Vultures @ Roseland Ballroom
* Yeasayer, Light Asylum, Bobo @ Bowery Ballroom
* Les Paul Guitar Tribute w/ Vernon Reid @ Iridium
* Reverend Vince Anderson & His Love Choir @ Union Pool
* Dinosaur Bones, My Pet Dragon, Otterclean @ The Cameo Gallery
* Horse's Mouth, Your Nature, Blast Off, The Wailing Wall @ Death By Audio
* Knight School, Diehard, Family Portrait, Golden City @ The Studio at Webster Hall
* Unsound Festival: Anticipate Showcase w/ Sawako, Ezekiel Honig, Alexander Kaline @ Littlefield
* Destry, Mean Creek, The Narrative, Borrowed Eyes & The Blood Red Road @ Knitting Factory Brooklyn

The Unsound Festival continues.

Yeasayer kick off a two-night run of NYC record release shows tonight. Their much larger tour kicks off in April with openers like Javelin and Sleigh Bells.

Them Crooked Vultures play a show at Roseland Ballroom tonight. On Saturday they appeared on Saturday Night Live. Videos from that show below...

The Who played the Superbowl Halftime show on Sunday. Videos from that below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

tonight in NYC
* Superbowl
* Hannibal Buress @ Knitting Factory
* K-Holes, Golden Triangle, Family Trees @ Union Pool
* Bauder/Cymerman/Evans/Wooley Amplified Quartet @ The Stone
* Willy Mason, Colin Ruel, Tony the Bookie @ Bruar Falls
* Orleans/Gunn, Samara Lubelski, Pete Nolan, Helen Rush @ Zebulon
* Graffiti Monsters, Sweet Bulbs, Betray, Genuine Imitations @ Death By Audio

NYC Music venue related Superbowl options include Mercury Lounge, The Bell House, and Brooklyn Bowl.

The Who are performing during the Superbowl halftime show.

In a melding of the quintessential British band and the most American of events, the Who will deliver about 12 minutes of glory Sunday (February 7) at the halftime show for Super Bowl XLIV on CBS. The band is the latest in a line of mostly boomer-oriented A-list rock stars to play the spectacle, among them Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Prince, the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney.

But those acts had something to promote -- be it a new album or an upcoming tour. Outside of a greatest-hits album released in December and at least one upcoming high-profile performance, the Who doesn't have much to announce at the moment. "Totally original, as usual," Roger Daltrey says with a laugh.

"We've got an event (planned) for a charity that I'm a patron of, but that's about it. I know Pete (Townshend is) working on material. It's not that we're never going to work again -- it's just at the moment there's nothing in the pipeline." [Reuters]

The Soft Pack played a record release show at Cake Shop at midnight Friday night. Video from the show below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday? (Superbowl) "

Sondre Lerche @ MHOW in September (more by Tim Griffin)

Sondre Lerche will be one of the many acts at the now-sold-out Bell House Haiti Benefit tonight (1/27). Sondre goes on tour after that with opener JBM. JBM is NYC songwriter Jesse Marchant, who's now signed to Partisan Records. The label will release his debut Not Even in July on April 13th. For some JBM right now, check out his recently-posted Daytrotter Session.

The pair travel the US for all of February - they'll play a NY-area show at Maxwell's on Saturday, March 6th. Tickets are on sale

Sondre is also scheduled to be at the Michael Dorf-produced Music of the Who show at Carnegie Hall on March 2nd. That show includes a lot of big names and City Winery regulars. They include Living Colour, Robyn Hitchcock, Matt Nathanson, Sondre Lerche, Postelles, Bettye LaVette, Mose Allison, The Smithereens, Gaslight Anthem, Bob Mould (of Hüsker Dü), Fab Faux, Asaf Avidan, Willie Nile, Vanessa Carlton, Rich Pagano, Nicole Atkins and Steven Bernstein & The Music Unites Choir. Tickets are on sale.

Finally, Sondre Lerche plays NYC's City Winery on Tuesday, March 23rd. Tickets are on sale. All dates below...

Continue reading "Sondre Lerche playing City Winery, Who Tribute @ Carnegie, NJ & touring (dates) w/ JBM (who is on Partisan Records) "

Waterloo Park on Sunday (more)

The Who will perform at Superbowl XLIV, marking the British band's first performance in North America since 2008.

According to a report on SI.com, the Sports Illustrated website, the veteran band will take the stage during the halftime show of the 2010 National Football League championship game, scheduled for February 7 in Miami.

The NFL has yet to officially confirm the report, saying, "When we have something to announce, we'll announce it."

During a recent stop on his "Use It or Lose It" solo tour, frontman Roger Daltrey told Billboard.com that he and bandmate/composer Pete Townshend were working on new material for the Who's followup to 2006's "Endless Wire."[Reuters/Billboard]

Roger Daltrey's 'Use It or Lose It' Tour - his first solo tour since '85

Daltrey will be joined onstage by a longtime collaborator, guitarist/backup singer Simon Townshend, and a stellar crew of American players, including guitarist/musical director Frank Simes, keyboardist Loren Gold, bassist Jon Button and drummer Scott Devours.

Promising a healthy serving of Who songs ("but they'll be my versions of them"), solo material - including some songs he's never played live - and covers that pay tribute to his influences and admired contemporaries. Although he prefers to keep his set lists a surprise, it's no secret that Daltrey has over the years performed songs by the likes of Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Queen, among others, alongside favorites from his Who and solo catalogs.

The tour also includes four Jersey stops. Tickets to his November 17th show at Red Bank's Count Basie Theater are on sale now. The show at Montclair's Wellmont Theatre (November 11th) goes on presale August 19th. And his pair of Atlantic City dates (November 13th and 14th) go on presale September 2nd. All tour dates are below...

Continue reading "The Who's Roger Daltrey going on a solo tour (dates) "

Soul diva Bettye LaVette is back in NYC for a show this Sunday at Blender Theater with John Hammond. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.

Betty recently performed a tribute to Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey at the Kennedy Center Honors. Video, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Bettye LaVette - 2009 tour dates, Kennedy Honors Who video "

Love it or hate it, licensing songs seems to be the new reality for "indie" bands (or any bands) looking to make money and gain exposure. As an avid music fan and Senior Director of Advertising & Video Games at Primary Wave Music Publishing, Ryan Barkan makes sure to stay on top of news related to artists getting their songs in ads, on TV, in movies, in video games and just about anywhere else a band would get paid to put a song. As someone who never pays attention to any of that, I thought the site could use a weekly column to identify who sold out this week help fill in what I'm missing (think M.I.A. in the Pineapple Express commercial, Nick & Norah, Santogold shilling Bud Light, Chairlift & CSS for Apple, etc..). For that...please welcome Ryan (who also goes by the blog and photographer name "Fresh Bread")....

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by Ryan Barkan

Microsoft's Halo 3 video game commercial was so amazing that it won the Grand Prix (i.e. best of show) at this past year's Cannes Advertising Awards, in June, in the "Film" ad category. The spot, titled "Believe", was created by San Francisco advertising agency T.A.G. and featured the dramatically delicate "Raindrop Prelude No 15" by Chopin against a violent and disturbing war scene.

Another huge 2008 release for Microsoft is the upcoming sequel to the game Gears of War, creatively called....wait for it...Gears Of War 2 (available November 7th exclusively on Xbox360). What works once should work again right? T.A.G. thought so and took the same approach with the music as they did with the "Believe" spot, juxtaposing the hard war visuals against a beautiful song, but this time with a more contemporary artist, Devotchka. The beautiful song they used by the Colorado band is called "How It Ends" and the trailer will debut on network television this Sunday, November 2, during NFL Sunday Night Football. You can also watch it right now. The video for that, and of the full version of "Believe", are below.

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Other Notable Licensing News:

The Walmart-exclusive AC/DC edition of Rock Band is out November 2nd and now MTV/Harmonix have announced a Beatles video game that will be based on the "Rock Band" engine, but not branded "Rock Band". "The Best Of The Who" edition of Rock Band was released in July as DLC (downloadable content).

Hypebeast has the info on a new line of Miles Davis-inspired T-shirts by urban boutique and shoe company, Supreme.

Flaming Lips, the B-52's, BB King and others were commissioned by NBC to create their own interpretation of the network's classic "Chime In"...

You may not know that the notes to NBC's famous chimes are G, E, and C, but chances are you'd recognize the Peacock jingle in an instant. With that in mind, executives at the network decided to have some fun with their famous chimes and launched a national campaign calling for a 21st century reinvention of the 75-year-old television staple. [Hollywood Insider]

What do Friendly Fires, The Duke Spirit, The Submarines, The Black Keys, Black Kids, The Virgins, and Robyn have in common? They've all had songs featured in an episode of Gossip Girl this month.

What about Lykke Li, Passion Pit and The Kooks? Well, as you may have read earlier, they'll all be appearing in future episodes of Gossip Girl/OC-creator Josh Schwartz's new "music-themed scripted web series" Rockville, CA.

I really dig the new spot for the Google Android Phone. The commercial features a song by The Black Angels called "Black Grease" - not sure if it'll convince me to switch from the iPhone but it's a nice placement nonetheless. Video below...

Continue reading "It's Not Selling Out Anymore -- This Week in Music Licensing"

Continue reading "The Who - 2008 Tour Dates"

Pete Doherty

Kate Moss

"This weekend saw the Glastonbury Festival taking place but it also saw one of the wettest weekends that we’ve seen recently - it was p*ssing down quite a lot of the time. The result was that the Glastonbury site at Pilton, Somerset once again turned into a bit of a quagmire with ankle deep mud in many places. That however didn’t stop about 170,000 people enjoying all the music and other events on offer on the various stages throughout the site and there was something for everyone from all the latest hot bands to long-established acts like The Who – headliners on Sunday night." [Sonic State]

Continue reading "pictures from Glastonbury 2007 - it was wet & muddy"