Guitar hero and studio innovator Les Paul has diead at age 94.
John Hughes Passes
Writer, director, producer, and music aficionado John Hughes passed away yesterday. As a true child of the 80′s (my very first actual memories are in 1980), his movies are part of my own cultural makeup. Music was always a big part of any Hughes film, so here’s my John Hughes mini-mix to celebrate:
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Oingo Boingo – Weird Science
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – If You Leave
Simple Minds – Dont Forget About me
Yello – Oh Yeah
Little Rockers
Earlier this week, a YouTube video of 5 year-old Wesley playing his cover of Johnny Chash’s Folsom Prison Blues. Moments later, the meme had expanded to this list of 10 youths playing various rock covers (well, 9 covers, and one helluva jam). My favorite has to be the drummer:
MCA Announces Cancer Diagnosis on You Tube
MCA announced via YouTube yesterday that he’s been diagnosed with cancer of his salivary gland. Joined in what appears to be an impromptu video by Ad-Rock announcing the cancellation of all tour dates, and the postponement of their album release. The good news is that the cancer is localized, and MCA should be fine after medical treatment.
Best wishes to Adam Yauch and the Beasties during what will hopefully become just a tiny footnote in their Wikipedia pages.
Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 was due in stores September 15th.
Pandora Lives
Pandora seems to have saved from an incertain future by a recent resolution to the two year-old debate over Internet radio fees. The new agreement sees Pandora paying either 25% of it’s US revenue to SoundExchange (the nnnn of the US recording industry) or a greatly reduced plays-per-user rate – whichever is higher. Overall, it’s a win-win for both sides.
High-volume users (those who listen to over 40 hours a month) would end up paying just $0.99 to continue listening unlimited for the rest of the month- a paltry sum if you’re already using the service that much anyway.
Get more details of the Pandora deal at Tech Crunch.
Personally, I only rarely use Pandora, but am happy for its existance. It exposes so many to new music, much of it from indie artists. My new Palm Pre has a Pandora app on it, maybe I’ll start using it now.
