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How I Wrote That Song: Dave Grohl / Foo Fighters “I Am A River”

While backstage at The Tonight Show, Dave Grohl talks about how he and the Foo Fighters wrote “I Am A River” and other tracks on their Sonic Highways album.

Ryan Adams on his prolific career and hearing illness

Ménière’s disease, also called endolymphatic hydrops, is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss. The hearing loss comes and goes for some time, alternating between ears, then becomes permanent with no return to normal function. It is named after the French physician Prosper Ménière, who, in an article published in 1861, first reported that vertigo was caused by inner ear disorders.

Ryan Adams recently came back from a two year break from music because Ménière’s disease became so degenerative to him, and needed to undergo therapy to get back on stage to overcome the anxiety the disease caused him. He spoke with CBS about his career, and his hearing illness.

Brian Wilson + Rodriguez Team Up For North American Tour

Music legend Brian Wilson will hit the road this summer with his band, touring to more than 15 U.S. cities.  Wilson will perform songs from his forthcoming Capitol album, No Pier Pressure, as well as top hits and fan favorites spanning his 50-year career with The Beach Boys and as a solo artist. Rodriguez, star of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugarman, will open the concerts with a special set.  Brian will also be joined by former bandmates Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.  Onsale details for all of the shows will soon be announced.

For his 11th solo studio album, No Pier Pressure, Wilson has returned to Capitol Records, his original label home with The Beach Boys.  Available now for preorder, the album will be released April 7 in standard 13-track and deluxe 16-track editions, each in CD and digital formats, as well as a 16-track 2LP edition on 180-gram vinyl. No Pier Pressure’s digital preorder provides an instant download of its lead track, “The Right Time,” featuring vocals by Wilson and Al Jardine, and guitar by David Marks.

In theaters June 5, Roadside Attractions’ Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy presents an unconventional portrait of the music legend. Set against the era-defining catalog of the music, the film intimately examines the personal voyage and ultimate salvation of the icon whose success came at extraordinary personal cost. Directed by Bill Pohlad, starring John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti.  Love & Mercy’s U.S. film festival premiere is confirmed for March 15 at SXSW Film.

Watch the Love & Mercy teaser trailer:

Brian Wilson is one of popular music’s most deeply revered figures, a legendary writer, producer, arranger and performer of some of the most cherished music in pop music history. For more than half a century, fans have marveled at the sheer beauty of the music that springs forth from his imagination into glorious song. Wilson brings this ingenious vision to his own compositions, as well as to those for which he has collaborated, weaving a lush, vibrant tapestry of intricately nuanced vocal harmonies and instrumental arrangements for himself, his bandmates and others.

Wilson began his career as a teenaged founding member of The Beach Boys, who signed with Capitol Records in July 1962 and released their first album, Surfin’ Safari, that same year. The band’s initial surf-rock focus was soon broadened to include other themes, and 1966’s Pet Sounds is universally hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time.  Wilson’s innovative vocal and instrumental arrangements for major hits including “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” and the No. 1 smash “Good Vibrations” made The Beach Boys America’s preeminent band of the 1960s.

Wilson has also achieved great solo success with 10 of his own albums released to date, including his acclaimed 2004 completion of an album he first began recording in the ‘60s, Brian Wilson Presents… SMiLE.  The album earned Wilson his first GRAMMY® for a recording, which was followed by his second GRAMMY® win for producing The Beach Boys’ acclaimed 2011 release, The SMiLE Sessions. With his own band, Wilson has performed major, sold-out SMiLEand Pet Sounds tours in recent years, and with The Beach Boys, he celebrated the iconic band’s 50th anniversary in 2012 with a major international tour and acclaimed studio album, That’s Why God Made The Radio.

Brian Wilson is a Kennedy Center Honors recipient, a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, and a U.K. Music Hall of Fame inductee.  As a member of The Beach Boys, Wilson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and honored with The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Preorder No Pier Pressure:

J Dilla’s “Donuts” Is Next Up For Vinyl Me Please Record Club

Vinyl Me Please is a record club that serves up a classic album from a different artist and label to you each month. As they put it, “albums that aren’t just good, but essential for any record collection.”

J Dilla’s Donuts (Stones Throw, 2006) is their album for March 2015, available to their existing members and anyone who signs up to the service before March 3, 2015. They’re offering a unique edition of the Donuts double LP: 180g clear vinyl and a gatefold sleeve designed by Jeff Jank with photos by Andrew Gura and liner notes by Jordan Ferguson. There are four variations on the LP center labels, and each record is stamp-numbered. The record also comes with a 12×12″ original art print by Rotterdam illustrator Ready2Rumble.

VMP works on an invitation basis. Request here: VINYLMEPLEASE.COM/DONUTS

“With J Dilla passing just 3 days after the release of ‘Donuts’ … this album isn’t just a critical piece of hip hop history, it’s the final masterpiece of an artist who’s influence stretched from Kanye to Questlove. In partnering with Stones Throw we’ve put together a package that we think members will not only be blown away by, but pays homage to one of the greats.” – The VMP Team

Here’s What Artists Reportedly Made At Woodstock ’69

The list below shows a set of figures that the artists have reportedly earned for performing at the Woodstock ’69 festival. The times were different and the festival did take place over 45 years ago, but these earnings still might strike you as somewhat minuscule given the classic artist stature of many of them, and the fact that The Grateful Dead today are commanding a few thousand dollars per ticket for a reunion tour this summer on the secondary market.

Tickets for the three-day event cost $18 in advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to $120.00 and $150.00 in 2014).

6908-woodstock-ad

Jimi Hendrix – $18,000
Blood, Sweat and Tears – $15,000
Joan Baez – $10,000
Creedence Clearwater Revival – $10,000
The Band – $7,500
Janis Joplin – $7,500
Jefferson Airplane – $7,500
Sly and the Family Stone – $7,000
Canned Heat – $6,500
The Who – $6,250
Richie Havens – $6,000
Arlo Guthrie – $5,000
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – $5,000
Ravi Shankar – $4,500
Johnny Winter – $3,750
Ten Years After – $3,250
Country Joe and the Fish – $2,500
Grateful Dead – $2,500
The Incredible String Band – $2,250
Mountain – $2,000
Tim Hardin – $2,000
Joe Cocker – $1,375
Sweetwater – $1,250
John B. Sebastian – $1,000
Melanie – $750
Santana – $750
Sha Na Na – $700
Keef Hartley – $500
Quill – $375

Greatest press release ever!

Rhino sent a press release draft to The Replacements. This is what they got back.
Studio albums boxed set is out April 14 and tour starts April 9.

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See The Replacements live here:
Apr 09 Paramount Theatre Seattle, WA
Apr 10 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
Apr 13 Masonic San Francisco, CA
Apr 15 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
Apr 16 Hollywood Palladium Los Angeles, CA
Apr 19 The Fillmore Denver, CO
Apr 29 The Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL
Apr 30 The Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL
May 02 Eagles Ballroom Milwaukee, WI
May 03 The Fillmore Detroit, MI
May 05 Stage AE Pittsburgh, PA
May 06 LC Pavilion Columbus, OH
May 08 Echostage Washington, DC
May 09 Festival Pier Philadelphia, PA
May 28 Primavera Sound Barcelona, Spain
May 30 Paradiso Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jun 02 Roundhouse London, United Kingdom
Jun 03 Roundhouse London, United Kingdom
Jun 05 Primavera Sound Porto, Portugal

Get Ready To Boogie On Down With These Spiders Dancing To The YMCA

Throw your hands in the air, and wave them like you just don’t care.

That One Moment In ‘Home Alone’ That Explains EVERYTHING

Did you ever watch the movie ‘Home Alone’ and wonder out loud or on social media how come when the McCallisters get to the airport, and the gate attendant counts their tickets, that number of tickets is exactly equal to the number of family members present? Where was Kevin’s ticket? Did the McCallisters forget to book Kevin’s ticket? Did they do it on purpose? Did they really not want him to go in the first place?

In the beginning of the movie, when Kevin spills his milk, and everyone gets all upset, watch what his dad throws away while cleaning up…

A-HA!

H/T Distractify

This magic trick is aDOORable

Magician Rahat is very simple, but also extremely clever. He previously set up a single door standing in the middle of the park, and has it close by remote control. What happens next might, in the words of one surprised man, will make you think of ‘the black holes my wife was talking about.’

Watch the first four minutes of Conan O’Brien in Cuba

After 53 long years, America has started to lift the economic blockade on Cuba. Conan O’Brien was one of the first people on television to jump on the opportunity, and made a special in the island country.

Watch the first four minutes of Conan O’Brien’s one-man mission to meet the Cuban people and make some friends.