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B Sides for 08/28/2014



Queen Perform Another One Bites The Dust With Lady Gaga
(Radio.com) Usually when two giant tours cross paths, the phrase "two ships in the night" is employed, as often those tours are both working on the rare moments they happen to be in the same major city at the same time.

But on rare occasions, as happened this week (Aug. 27) in Sydney, Australia, those giant tours meet and create something special. The new incarnation of Queen, featuring Adam Lambert in lieu of deceased frontman Freddy Mercury, played the first of two nights in the Australian cities Allphones Arena, and were joined on "Another One Bites the Dust" by none other than the ARTPOP queen herself, Lady Gaga.

Wearing a giant Brian May-like afro wig adorned with appropriate crowns, Lambert easily out-sings the diva, but she provides the song with some flare that the band's re-imagining just couldn't pull off alone.

Lady Gaga's artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball plays Sydney on August 30, and Rolling Stone notes that Gaga and Queen/Lambert have a long history, with Gaga co-writing "Fever" for Lambert's debut solo LP and Queen guitarist Brian May contributing his legendary skills to the single, "Yo� and I."

Check out video here.

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Johnny Winter's Duet With Billy Gibbons Goes Online
(The Blues Megaforce Records have released the late Johnny Winter's collaboration with ZZ Top icon Billy Gibbons. Where Can You Be appears on Winter's posthumous album Step Back, due for release next week.

The veteran bluesman passed away on tour in July aged 70. Before his death Gibbons said: "When Johnny picks up a guitar you never know quite what's going to come at you - but whatever it is, it's going to be good."

Can't Hold Out (Talk To Me Baby) featuring Ben Harper was revealed last week. The Blues Magazine pays tribute to Winter in the latest edition, on sale now. Check out the new duet here.

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Dillinger Escape Plan Team Up With Jarren Benton For New Song
(TeamRock Radio) The Dillinger Escape Plan have collaborated with rapper Jarren Benton on a new track that is entitled Rage and was recorded at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Rage is the latest track that has been recorded as part of the Converse Cons EP series, which brings together artists who might not otherwise cross paths musically.

Last month, Dillinger guitarist Ben Weinman launched a new website called Party Smasher Inc which encourages musicians, photographers, illustrators and designers to share ideas and encourage innovation.

Check out the new song here.

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Prong Release Remove, Separate Self Video
(Classic Rock) Metal veterans Prong have released a video for their new single Remove, Separate Self. The track is from the band's album Ruining Lives, which launched in April this year via SPV/Steamhammer.

Prong frontman Tommy Victor says: "The song and video are distinctively Prong, with a soul-searching and apocalyptic vibe. The single and video will correspond with our US and Canadian tour starting on September 10."

Two versions of Remove, Separate Self will be released digitally on September 12: the album version and a mix by Trivium's Matt Heafy. A 7-inch single will follow on October 24.

Heafy says: Sometimes mixes do it right, but I wanted to take a completely different approach to what people think a remix is in the first place."

Watch the video here.

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Skeletonwitch Release Creepy Unending, Everliving Video
(Classic Rock) Skeletonwitch have released a video for their track Unending, Everliving. The song is taken from the band's 2013 album Serpents Unleashed and the video was created with the help of Cleveland-based Turnstyle Films.

Guitarist Nate Garnette - who got to spray singer Chance Garnette with cold water during the shoot - says: "This video was a hell of a lot of fun to shoot and is saturated with fake blood as well as torture.

"My favourite part was getting to hose off a bloody-ass Chance with freezing cold water. I normally would have got beaten up for that, so it was a nice treat."

Watch the video here.

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Obituary Streaming New Song Visions In My Head
(TeamRock Radio) Florida death metallers Obituary have made the track Visions In My Head available to stream. It's taken from upcoming album Inked In Blood, which was created via a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised $60,699 - far more than the original $10,000 the band were looking for.

They say in a statement: "We always knew our fans were some of the most devoted fans on the planet and they proved it by stepping up, being a part of something new and supporting us with our Kickstarter campaign."

The band head out on a US tour with Carcass, Exhumed and Noisem in late October. Inked In Blood will be released via Relapse Records on October 28th in North American and the 27th in the UK. Listen to the new song here.

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Jack White, Eddie Vedder, and Paul Simon Epic Pic at Mariners Game
(Radio.com) Talk about a traffic jam in VIP hospitality at Seattle's Safeco Field. On Wednesday (August 27), for a game between MLB wild card hopefuls, the Seattle Mariners, and the worst team in the American League, the Texas Rangers, three of rock and roll's biggest names all showed up and took a picture together: Jack White, Eddie Vedder, and Paul Simon.

As pointed out by Consequence of Sound, White just finished off a pair of shows at Seattle's Paramount Theatre, which Vedder (a Seattle local) attended to see White dedicate "Steady as She Goes" to him. The pair seem to have traded tops for the picture, with Detroit native White rocking a Mariners shirt while famous Seattle resident Vedder sports a Detroit Tigers jersey. White points at Vedder in the pic, while Vedder lets us know he likes surfing with his traditional shaka "hang loose" hand display.

As for why songwriting legend Paul Simon was there, it likely wasn't to root on the Rangers, as that would be foolish for anyone at this point outside of diehard fans and people with the last name Bush. Perhaps the three are considering a new rock super-group? That's a show we'd pay good money to see.

Read more and see the photo here.

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Robert Plant ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Video Goes Online
(hennemusic) Robert Plant has taken the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to help raise awareness and funds for ALS research. The Led Zeppelin singer had two ice buckets poured over his head while passing the challenge on to Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Elton John and Peter Gabriel.

Plant will release his new album, "lullaby and...The Ceaseless Roar", on September 5 in Europe, September 8 in the UK and September 9 in North America.

The rocker will perform at the iTunes Festival in London on September 8 before introducing the new music to North America on a 7-date theatre tour that begins in New York on September 25.

Watch Plant's Ice Bucket Challenge here.

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Semisonic Looks Back At Closing Time
(Radio.com) For the latest edition of Single Again, Radio.com spoke to Dan Wilson of Semisonic about the band's massive 1998 hit "Closing Time," which went to #1 on the Modern Rock chart and received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song. Wilson's currently an in-demand songwriter for the likes of Adele, Taylor Swift, Spoon and countless others, and he's just released a new solo album, Love Without Fear.

You admitted pretty early on that "Closing Time" was about expecting a child. Did a lot of people guess that? No, no, nobody guessed it. That experience was interesting because I thought the double meaning would be really fun for people. I thought people would get that it was about getting thrown out of the bar at the end of the night, but also getting thrown out of the womb at the beginning of your life. And I thought that was a fun pairing of meetings. But nobody got the double meaning because the bar image was so strong that it overpowered the other. So it taught me you can't be too clever.

Do you ever wish you let the mystery simmer longer? No. It's interesting, I think the song has such a huge life of its own that I can tell a dozen different stories about what it means and I don't really think it will really affect how people perceive the song. It's wonderful how that song is bigger than�any of us who were involved in it.

Has anyone given you a really wild interpretation of it? There was a time when I was getting a lot of interpretations in emails from people. One of the popular ones was it was about dying. I always thought that was fascinating because it was the furthest thing from my mind when I wrote it. I have this theory that the listener's interpretation is always better and smarter than the songwriter's interpretation. So it's best to let the listeners have their own interpretation. And I guess the reason I feel free to tell people what "Closing Time" is about is they've had plenty of time to hear it now, they already have their own ideas. I'm not gonna screw it up for them.

A lot more here.

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Christopher Whitehall Discusses The Griswolds Quick Rise To Fame
(Radio.com) As one would imagine, The Griswolds are both excited and frightened as they approached today, the launch date for Be Impressive, their very first full-length album.

In the midst of what they're calling the "never-ending tour," the Eighties-adoring Australian foursome find themselves with radio spins increasing daily and concert seats selling out faster than they'd ever imagined. It's all fairly remarkable for a band that has only been playing together for two years.

Although the band has a hundred or more blogs to thank for their early buzz, the real fireworks began when Aussie radio station Triple J labeled them their Unearthed Featured Artist, landing them a spot on the 2012 Parklife Festival lineup with Passion Pit and Tame Impala.

Singer Christopher Whitehall phoned Radio.com from the road in North Carolina to talk about the new release, their love of Chevy Chase and an unexpected make-out session that almost ruined a concert.

Radio.com: What were you doing in 2012 before the band formed? Chris Whitehall: At that point we were in other bands and we had day jobs. We spent a lot of time writing songs for the first EP. We were working pretty normal 9-5 jobs.

What type of jobs did everyone have? Lachlan was a landscaper, Dan worked at an agency, Tim was at KPMG, and I was a cabinet-maker.

What was the moment like when you all got in a room and decided you were quitting your jobs? It was probably the moment we first went overseas and realized and we were gonna be there like nine months. At that point we were like, well, there's no way we can sustain working any more so that's it.

Did anyone have cold feet or did everyone jump in? We pretty much all just jumped in with both feet and yeah, it has been difficult. It's been a very hard transition. Now that the band is working harder than ever and we're touring more than ever, we're still growing as a band. There's still a lot of work to be done.

The band has had quite a bit of success on the internet, what has the radio exposure done for you? Ahh, that's been amazing. We're playing shows now, packed with kids that know our songs which is the greatest feeling. I think that's the key thing that we noticed. We noticed on a day-to-day basis because of radio. But with our album coming out, everything's going up. Our social networks are growing, our sales are growing, shows are getting more numbers, it's pretty surreal.

Have you received a review where you wanted to punch the writer? One of our very first gigs that we did we got absolutely massacred. [laughs] Some writer was in the audience and there was only about thirty or forty people at the show� and we put on a terrible show. We were probably drunk and sloppy and talking to our friends who were in the audience from the stage. They called the review, "The Way The Griswolds Broke the Five Golden Rules." I remember reading that. But it was more like a learning curve. We were shocked. But it kind of taught us what not to do at gigs, which is actually a really good thing.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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Singled Out: Rory Partin's Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
Rory Partin tells us about the song "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" from his new self-titled album that features late music legend Jimmy C Newman and some of the last surviving members of legendary big bands like Tommy Dorsey, Bobby Darin. Here is the story:

It's been a pretty crazy process recording my latest CD. It's my second album, but my first self-titled, and really my debut as an artist. I decided to self-title it "Rory Partin" because this album expresses many of my musical influences growing up, and touches on my roots as an artist. Last September we (me, my wife, and my PR firm) had the idea for me to record a new project. A new album was certainly long overdue, but we didn't have the money to record one. Given the fact that my big band has 18 people in it, and I like to take everyone in the studio together and record all the tracks as a band, we just couldn't afford it. But we decided to take a big leap of faith. We booked the session and band for October 21, 2013 in Nashville, TN, my birthday! We were on the hook now, and had to get the money to pay for it. We needed at least $20,000. So we decided to do an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign. We launched the campaign in early October. And I gotta be honest, I was disappointed that we didn't have better response online. Those who gave were amazing! And I am SO thankful for every one of them. Still, I was let down that more didn't choose to get involved. But, as time went on, we discovered that our largest donors wanted to give outside of the online campaign. And all in all we raised enough to move forward, and had people still giving after the official "campaign" had ended! We always had enough to take the next step in the process when we got to it. And then, the huge, unbelievable, undeserved occurred�

It was October 2013, just days after my recording session with my big band. My wife and I, and my in-laws, were all backstage at the Grand Ole Opry with my friends Reggie and Ladye Love Smith. Ladye was singing backup for the different artists that night, and was able to get us in. What a great night! We were meeting legends, and current stars - watching them perform, getting our pictures with them - basically hobnobbing (yes, it's a word). The lights on stage were bright, and the outfits were often brighter. Yet backstage in the wings it was dark, and my eyes were having trouble adjusting and seeing clearly. But I knew that Jimmy C Newman had just finished singing "Jambalaya," a song I've known and sung as far back as I can remember, and I could tell he was making his way off stage in my direction. People were pawing at him, and trying to get a moment with him. But he was steadily and politely moving past people, determined to get past the crowd and into his dressing room. My hope of meeting him was evaporating as I watched his determination to get through the throng. I didn't want to be a bother. But an idea had been planted in my head by Ladye Love and her husband Reggie, "You should ask Jimmy C Newman to sing on your new project," they said. "He's from south Louisiana too. You could have him sing on 'Jambalaya!'" (Which was one of the tracks I had recorded a few days earlier.) "Oh, yeah�fat chance that will happen," I thought to myself. "Jimmy C Newman is in the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, AND the Cajun Music Hall of Fame, and he sings pretty much every week on the Opry. Why would he be interested in singing on my album?" But this was my one chance; I had to make a decisive move. So as Jimmy passed near me, and Ladye Love reached out, hoping to get his attention and introduce me, I rang out in Cajun French, "Comment �a va, cher!?" He stopped dead in his tracks, looked around to see who had spoken to him in Cajun, saw me grinning, and started rattling off in Cajun. It was loud backstage, and I could hardly hear a word he was saying. But he was smiling, so I knew that whatever it was, it was good! We tried to converse in French for a time, but with the noise and my rusty French it was a challenge. That's when I thought I heard him invite my wife and I to come and hang with he and his accordion player, and dear friend, Bessyl Duhon in his dressing room. What??? Did I hear that right? I took a chance, "Uh�of course! We would love to hang with you in your dressing room!" Either he was too polite to embarrass a fellow south Louisiana, Cajun boy, or I had heard right. Either way, it was on! We sat in his dressing room and talked about south Louisiana, family, and the song "Jambalaya." That's when he took out his guitar and we sang a bit of the song, and he told me the history of how it had come to be written. I pressed my good luck. I told him I was recording a new project, and was currently in the process of tracking vocals. Then I dropped the bomb, "I would love for you to sing 'Jambalaya' with me on my new project if you would be willing and interested." He didn't even hesitate, "Sure. If you would like for me to, I'll help you out however I can." Say what??? Jimmy C Newman said "YES!" Woohoo!! The celebration began!

Between both our schedules, and Jimmy's health, it was difficult finding a day that worked for both of us. And the process of getting me and Jimmy in the studio together took until late February of this year, 2014. But once we settled on a day, I purchased a ticket to Nashville, booked some time in my friend's studio and headed east. I had mentioned to Jimmy that it would be fun if he would sing a verse of "Jambalaya" in Cajun French. But he responded that he didn't have a verse in Cajun, and that direct translations don't work very well. So I told him English would be great, whatever he was willing to do would be fantastic. Then several days later he called me, and in the excited voice of someone who still loves what they do, he left me a voice-mail, which I'm thankful to still have. "Hey, Rory! I hope you're doing okay. This is Jimmy C Newman, in Murfreesboro, TN. I'm looking forward to seeing you Monday; and I wanted to let you know I just wrote a second verse to 'Jambalaya' in French that I really like, and I hope you do to! So I look forward to talking to you!" He's been singing "Jambalaya" longer than I've been alive, without a verse in French. But he took the time to write one to sing on my project. What a wonderful gift!

Jimmy drove well over an hour to get to the studio in west Nashville. And being the wonderful, giving man that he was, called while en route to ask if he could invite a friend, Paul Gregoire, who plays Cajun accordion to come to the session. He said once I met Paul, a fellow south Louisiana Cajun, I might also want to put him on the track. He was right! We ended up tracking Paul on Cajun accordion that day, as well. And as it turns out, Paul is a fantastic guy, with whom I am continuing to build a friendship. The conversations in the room kept switching back and forth between Cajun and English, and through all the fun, we ended up getting a fantastic recording.

In my humble opinion, this version of "Jambalaya" is probably the best version of the song ever recorded. And the thanks goes to many people: Tim McMillen, my SW Louisiana friend, and the arranger who took my vision of what I wanted the arrangement to be, and was able to put it on paper; the amazing musicians in my band who took the notes on the page, and made truly great music out of them. And last, but certainly not least, Jimmy C Newman, who gave to the track his amazing talent, and one of a kind personality. He added a spark that set fire to the entire recording. And though Jimmy is now gone from this world to a better place, his fire still burns bright here below. What a privilege I have to work with such amazing people and musicians. I am truly thankful and blessed. Sing on Jimmy! AHH EEEE!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

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