B Sides for 08/25/2014
Beyonce welcomed MTV and the audience to her world as she built on her VMA legacy with a medley of songs from her visual album "Beyonc�." Always the trailblazer, Beyonce celebrated where she is as an artist today and pulled back the curtain on her family life with poignant images from home movies showing her as a wife and mother. After Beyonce broke Justin Timberlake's 2013 record for the longest VMA performance ever, JAY Z and Blue Ivy unexpectedly joined her on stage for a highly emotional moment as her family presented her with the "Michael Jackson Video Vanguard" Award. Humbled and speaking through tears, Beyonc� thanked God, her daughter, her "beloved," MTV and her fans. She also won the most awards of the evening, taking home Moonmen in three different categories, including "Best Collaboration" for "Drunk in Love" and "Best Video With a Message" for "Pretty Hurts." To accept "Video of the Year," Miley Cyrus shocked the world. She left her twerking ways to the 2013 VMAs and this year, delivered a heartfelt message. A former homeless youth in Los Angeles named Jesse took the stage in her place to accept her award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the U.S. From the side of the stage, Miley teared up watching him make a call to action, directing fans to her Facebook page to join the fight to end youth homelessness. Jesse ended with an emotional quote, "a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is a reality." The 2014 "MTV Video Music Awards" opened with the summer's fiercest female threesome. Ariana Grande kicked it all off by starting an intergalactic dance party with her Zedd-produced hit, "Break Free." Grande emerged from a spaceship before being joined by the Queen of Hip-hop, Nicki Minaj, who hit the stage to unleash "Anaconda" on the world with an eye-popping, rump-shaking performance. Finally, British singer-songwriter Jessie J joined the titillating trio to bring the house down with their smash-hit, "Bang Bang." Nicki returned with a wardrobe malfunction that left her clutching her dress. Rocking to the sounds of an all-female brass section, Taylor Swift literally "shook it off" in her fourth VMA appearance with a fun romp around the stage. Leading a group of tuxedo-clad dancers, she performed her new single "Shake it Off," from her soon-to-be released pop album, "1989." Later when Lorde won for "Best Rock" video, Taylor enthusiastically cheered on her new BFF as Lorde headed for the stage to accept her award. Before introducing "Best Hip-Hop Video," Common asked the VMA audience for a moment of silence to mark the events taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, with some members of the in-house audience responding by spontaneously raising their hands overhead. Introduced by super-fan Kim Kardashian West, British singing sensation and first-time VMA performer Sam Smith mesmerized the audience -- and the Kardashian-Jenner sisters -- as he and his band orchestrated a soulful rendition of his powerful hit ballad "Stay with Me." Several times throughout the evening, Saturday Night Live's Jay Pharoah had the audience rolling with laughter as he performed several comedic bits including spot on impersonations of Kanye West and JAY Z. Multi-platinum global R&B star Usher delivered a funk-filled performance of his single "Give it to You," bringing the audience to their feet and surprising everyone when Nicki Minaj once again returned to join him onstage during their rhythmically charged set. With high pitched screams welcoming them to the stage, Australian pop punk band 5 Seconds of Summer made young girls swoon with their "Video Music Award" debut and serenaded the audience with their recently released song "Amnesia." Before the night was over, this summer's pop phenomenon, Iggy Azalea and her troop of ninja ballerinas took over the stage with choreographed precision. Joined by the ever-seductive Rita Ora, the duo unleashed a dark and futuristic performance of their hit, "Black Widow."
In a post on his website titled "An Apology," Rollins calls much of the outrage over his initial column "well placed" and that the fact that it hurt anyone "disgusts" him. "I am not asking for a break from the caning, take me to the woodshed as much as you see fit," he wrote. "If what I said has caused you to be done with me, I get it." He added: "I am deeply sorry. Down to my marrow. I can't think that means anything to you, but I am. Completely sorry. It is not of my interest to hurt anyone but I know I did." Rollins gained attention for an article published on Thursday (Aug. 21) in which he railed against suicide and said that he "simply cannot understand how any parent could kill themselves." The piece was written partly in response to the suicide of Williams on Aug. 11. "I no longer take this person seriously," Rollins wrote. "I may be able to appreciate what he or she did artistically but it's impossible to feel bad for them. Their life wasn't cut short - it was purposely abandoned. It's hard to feel bad when the person did what they wanted to. It sucks they are gone, of course, but it's the decision they made. I have to respect it and move on." Read the full text of Rollins' apology here.
One of the most influential guitarists of '70s hard rock, he's also the guy who designed KISS's logo, one of the most distinct in rock and roll and, for that matter, popular culture. But he seems as proud of his solo career as he is of anything that he did during his KISS eras (1973-1982, and 1996-2002). And he acts as if he still has something to prove. When he came to the Radio.com offices, he was full-on in promotional mode, talking about his new album Space Invader, and still jazzed from performing the night before on The Tonight Show with the Roots (they jammed on his 1978 hit "New York Groove"). "That was a real treat," he said, noting that he's been friends with Roots guitarist "Captain" Kirk Douglas for years. During the conversation, he discussed his knack for choosing great covers - including "New York Groove" - his new album, his fianc�e, his sobriety and his recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Radio.com: It was cool to watch you play "Back in the New York Groove" on TV with the Roots. When you first covered it did you know you had a hit on your hands? Ace Frehley: You know, I wasn't really too hot on the idea of doing "New York Groove," that idea came from [producer] Eddie Kramer. Who knew it was gonna be my biggest hit? On my new album, Space Invader , the record label came up with the idea for me to do [the Steve Miller Band's] "The Joker." I didn't think it was heavy enough, compared to the rest of the songs on the record. But I did the best I could, I layered a lot of guitars on it, I added a ripping solo. I'm real happy with the end result. You've done a lot of great covers, and they end up sounding like Ace songs: besides "New York Groove" and "The Joker," I'm thinking about the Rolling Stones' "2000 Man" and the Move's "Do Ya." How do you know when a song will be a good fit for you? I don't know man! The guy who co-wrote "Past the Milky Way," the love ballad on this album, he's the guy who came up with the idea for me to do "2000 Man" (which he recorded for the 1981 KISS album Dynasty). He was an engineer working at North Lake Studios in Westchester [New York], where I did a lot of demos back in the KISS days. It's amazing how people sometimes have this sixth sense about what would be a great song for me to do. And I just go along with the party! As for "The Joker," it's not really something that I think I would write, but the opening line ["Some people call me the space cowboy"]� I am the "space cowboy!" A lot more here.
It is the Florida death metal band's first new material in more than five years. The album was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised $60,699 - far exceeding the $10,000 they were originally looking for. The band say: "We don't know how to explain it but we really hit the 'metal nail' on the head with this album. We have been writing and working on the new material for nearly three years and we could not be more excited how these songs have turned out." Check out the album preview here.
Due September 8 (September 9 in North America) and available in a variety of formats, "Live At The Rainbow" presents Queen live over two shows at the famed London venue. The first show, on March 31, 1974, saw Queen perform tracks from their newly-released album, "Queen II." The set features over a dozen tracks never previously released on any official Queen live album. Read more and watch the video clip here.
Lee tells MusicRadar: "I always say, 'Be yourself - everyone else is taken.' Maybe it's part boredom, part thrill seeking, part, 'F***, someone's got to do something new!' Sometimes you operate out of the fear of being the same as somebody else. "I constantly remind myself, 'Well, that's really cool; so-and-so might like this, so-and-so would probably kind of like this - but I want to do it like this.' Just to keep things moving and having everybody thinking about and creating new ideas." More here.
The group split in 1992 and reformed 18 years later with original members Warrel Dane, Lenny Rutledge, Jim Sheppard and Dave Budbill joined by Brad Hull for the new recording. And the band say they are delighted with the finished product. They tell Get Your Rock Out: "There's always things you wish you could go back and fix, but we're really happy with the way it's turned out. You always want a little more time or one more day or one more shot at that solo but eventually you have to call it a day." Checkout the new song here.
Pete Townshend wrote the line, and Roger Daltrey sang it: "I can go anywhere for something new." But in the '70s, the members of the Who were having a hard time going anywhere without being recognized by their legion of fans. Townshend's own tale topped Daltrey's: he went all the way to India. "It's a different place, it's a great place," he said. "It's as nice as the Long Island Sound, in it's way!" "And at least, at least I'm alone." But not, as it turned out, unknown or unnoticed. After checking in to his hotel in Bombay, he tried to get some sleep. "Some guy comes in and says, 'Hello, are you not Peter Townshend? Peter Townshend of the Who?' "'Yes, I'm Peter Townshend of the Who�'" As it turned out, his music resonated in India - at least with this fan - in the same way it did in England and the U.S. "'The Who are the most wonderful, wonderful music! They reflect the feeling on the streets of Bombay!'" Townshend concluded, "You can't go anywhere!" Watch it here.
Finally, Averre presented the riff to Doug Fieger, The Knack's other guitarist, as well as the band's singer and principal songwriter. Fieger liked it, but his search for lyrical inspiration initially eluded him. When inspiration did finally hit� it did so like a thunderbolt. Sharona Alperin was a 17-year-old high school bombshell when the 25-year-old Fieger was introduced to her by his then-girlfriend. Fieger went back to the apartment he and his girlfriend shared and wrote "My Sharona," in part, to woo Alperin. Fieger told Sound on Sound, "At the same time The Knack started, I met a little girl named Sharona, whom I fell in love with. When I would think about Sharona, Berton's riff came to mind. So, Berton and I got together and worked out a structure and a melody and the words." Alperin was indeed wooed by Fieger's musical charms, accompanying the band to the studio for the recording. The two would go on to date for four years and were even engaged to be married before eventually breaking up. But the real-life Sharona's inspiration was enough to push the tune into commercial heaven (her smokin' photo on the single cover didn't hurt sales either!). The song hit #1 in the U.S. on this date in 1979 and stayed there for five weeks. In 2008, when Billboard released its 100 All-Time Top Songs, "My Sharona" came in at #75. More here..
"Salsa Tequila" started as an idea about making a comedy song with the saxophone in it, but since a song with just the saxophone would be "just one of the 60 million songs with a saxophone in it" we decided to add more of the classic summer song ingredients like an up tempo dancy beat, the accordion and so on. When the beat was done and lyrics came into play, I went on YouTube to get some vocal references and quickly realized that the artists that made most of the huge summer saxophone/accordion songs were Spanish and had Spanish lyrics. That sparked the idea of having Spanish lyrics on top of what was already a huge pot of summer song gumbo. The first problem with that idea though is that I don't speak any Spanish, and neither do most Norwegians, so even if I spent 2 weeks writing a love song or whatever in Spanish, Norwegians wouldn't get 95% of the song. The "Gasolina" song by Daddy Yankee was a real big hit in Norway when it came out, but literally no one knew any other word in the song except for "Gasolina", so they would mumble the entire song and then scream GASOLIIINA! when that word came in the chorus. So that sparked the idea of doing lyrics that were 100% Spanish words; drinks, foods, artists, actors and so on that people knew, had heard about and could sing along to. Me and one of my buddies have had this inside joke with the voice on the "Guacamole Jalapeno" part (kinda sounds like a guy almost crapping his pants) for years, and that's the first thing that made us laugh until we got tears in our eyes, and made us think "ok, this actually sounds really funny". So then we recorded the vocals for the entire song, made the lyric video in my buddy Galvan's room, and put it out hoping to get like 10,000 views during the summer months. Then it took on a life of it's own on the internet� Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here and learn more about the Anders here!
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