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The Ringo 2012 Review

I have not always been a fan of Ringo Starr. Of all the Beatles, I liked him the least — for me it was always John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and then finally Ringo. Yet between the two Beatles that are with us now (those being Paul and Ringo), I actually prefer Ringo a bit even though Paul does so much to promote vegetarianism. When I listen to McCartney’s newer music I don’t quite feel the same enthusiasm as I did with his earlier work, both with The Beatles and with The Wings. I was therefore intrigued when I saw that Ringo was coming out with a new album, and that its title was a tribute to one of his best selling solo albums — Ringo. I am happy to report that it is a strong album, albeit short — I will get to that.

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The Blues Album that Roared: Warren Haynes Band Live at the Moody Theatre

I am crazy wild about Warren Haynes.  He’s a SuperGenius guitarist and composer and performer and he’s one of the greatest guys in the world.  How do I know the character of the man?  I follow his career.  I watch his interviews.  You can’t hide from his goodness.  Mean people try to mask who they really are and they are never successful.  Good people are open and welcoming and unpretentious.  Warren Haynes is one of the good guys.  Warren has a new Blues album that dropped this week — Warren Haynes Band Live at the Moody Theatre — and it is a rip-your-throat-out Blues album that is packed with a ferocious, and pleasing, energy.

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The Jack White Blunderbuss Review

Jack White’s first solo album, Blunderbuss, dropped today — and thanks to iTunes streaming the album for free the past week — I’ve been able to immerse myself in the music from start to finish many times a day.  The album is a fascination.  It’s ’70s Rock?  Alternative Pop?  Blues?  Ragtime?  Yes, Blunderbuss is all that and more.

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The Death of Levon Helm is the Beginning of the End of the Dylan Era

Levon Helm died yesterday in New York City of throat cancer. He was 71. Levon was a tremendous talent and an outstanding drummer. Few people understand the engine that drives any sort of live performance music is the rhythm — and in modern music, that means a live drummer. Without a proper human metronome keeping the entire band on track and in sync, the entire song falls apart. If you have a terrible drummer, the job of keeping the energy of the music moving forward falls to the bass player. If both drummer and bass player are inept, you do not have a band. Levon Helm was, The Band:

Helm, the drummer and singer who brought an urgent beat and a genuine Arkansas twang to some of The Band’s best-known songs and helped turn a bunch of musicians known mostly as Bob Dylan’s backup group into one of rock’s most legendary acts, has died. He was 71.

Helm, who was found to have throat cancer in 1998, died Thursday afternoon of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said Lucy Sabini of Vanguard Records. On Tuesday, a message on his website said he was in the final stages of cancer.

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Spotify Apparently Does Not Need Your Money

When one thinks about the history of music distribution and consumption over the years it is a fascinating one. For the majority of the history of music the only way that one could hear music was to either have access to some kind of musical instrument (even if that instrument was the voice) or to be physically present for the playing of music. Recorded music came in the form of sheet music that was sold in stores and eventually wax cylinders that contained the beautiful music fans so longed to hear in the privacy of their own home. Skip ahead to the different formats of music and how many times The Beatles discography has been made available (quite a few) and we land on the present moment, where warehouses full of music can sit nicely on a few terabytes of hard drive space.

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Björk and Biophilia on the iPad

The iconic Björk released a new album — Biophilia — for the iPad and it is a magical experience to interact with her music with your ears and fingers and eyes.  This is how music is meant to be experienced.  You can touch the tones.  You can manipulate rhythm and melody — and everything still remains innately Björk — but your unique involvement in changing the music through experimentation cannot be denied:

For Biophilia, she’d originally envisioned a musical house — like a museum, she’s said — wherein people could roam from room to room, with each interactive space designated to a different song. Later, she envisioned an IMAX film experience with visionary filmmaker Michel Gondry. When both of those ideas fell through, Björk commissioned an iPad app with which users can manipulate her music with various games, remix it and further understand the scientific and musical principles behind each song. It’s a lot like her idea for the musical house, but in a digital environment. It’s also just the kind of bonkers vision that Björk would be drawn to, and if it all works, it ought to be ingenious and tons of fun.

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The Guitar World Magazine for iPad Review

Yesterday, I reviewed the UK-centric Guitarist Magazine for the iPad and today, I’m here to review its American sister-friend, Guitar World Magazine.  Both publications are produced by the same company and, unfortunately both Guitarist and Guitar World suffer the same, awful, interface fate as iPad Newsstand subscriptions.

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