Category Archives: Music

John Mayer on Sheryl Crow

Posted on by

John Mayer and Sheryl CrowSheryl Crow and John Mayer recently toured together and during the next-to-last date, John Mayer come onstage during SC’s set, dressed as a bear. The following night, Ms. Crow interrupted his set, wearing a bikini and waving around a baton (I’m pretty sure she was a twirler in high school). Based on this post from Mr. Mayer’s blog (10/12/06), they had a good time:

“Sheryl – I hope you realize, even if for a fleeting moment just once a day, that everything you’ve ever hoped you would be, you are. I’ve never heard you sing a sour note, your record collection could freeze a Lower East Side hipster dead in his tracks and you have one of the hardest to find traits in a musician; you believe that nice isn’t the opposite of bad-ass. Add to that the great people you surround yourself with, and it’s no wonder I walk away from every conversation with you feeling like I expend twice the energy but say half as much as you do.”

Ms. Crow looks pretty good (for any age). There’s no permalink to the specific post on the Mayer blog.

Trent Tomlinson on Stern

Posted on by
Reply

Sirius might be a great satellite radio service but I think their website sucks. My plan was to record Trent Tomlinson’s appearance this morning by streaming the audio from the Sirius website. Couldn’t get their three-day-free-trial to work. Even borrowed a password from a subscriber and couldn’t get that to work. So, unless one of you recorded this, we won’t get to listen. It shouldn’t be this difficult to steal part of the guy’s radio show.

Quick Google search found an amazing website called MarksFriggin.com. It appears this guy posts a detailed description of each day’s show. I’ll add the archive link as soon as he puts it up (tomorrow?) but if you find the show for 7/24/06 and scroll down to 7:30 a.m., you’ll find his account of Trent’s segment. Here’s a portion:

Miss Howard Stern Performs With Trent Tomlinson. 07/24/06. 8:30am
After the break Howard said he was listening to country singer Trent Tomlinson warming up during the break and he was wondering why they were letting Andrea come in to ruin it. He said the song is a little more than country and he’s not sure how he missed the song. He’s not into country music so that’s how he missed it. Trent told Howard about how he came up with the lyrics for his song ”Drunker Than Me.” Howard told the guys to perform the song before Andrea came in since she was probably going to ruin it.

Trent and his band performed the song ”Drunker Than Me” (from the album Country Is My Rock) which is the song that Andrea sang while drunk the last time she was up there at the Stern Show. Howard said he was amazed that Andrea could remember the lyrics to the song because they’re not easy to remember. Trent said he even has trouble with them sometimes.

Howard said that Trent has opened up for bands like Bon Jovi and John Mellencamp so it’s not strictly country fans that he’s performing for. Trent told Howard that one of his guys used to be in The Black Crows but he had a falling out with them. The guys said that he’s talking to the band now but he had to get out back then because they were playing too long for him. They turned into a jam band and would just keep going on and on while playing.

 

Howard spent some time talking to Trent about his career and how his father actually wanted him to be a basketball player. Trent said his father used to play himself so he tried to groom him for the same career. He said now his father is happy with what he does and calls radio stations trying to get them to play his songs.

Kennett’s Tomlinson a Stern fav

Posted on by
1

J-Dub (a foam-at-the-mouth Howard Stern fan) reports that Kennett singer/songwriter Trent Tomlinson gets some mega-exposure on on Stern’s show:

Howard Stern plays one of his tunes frequently. Mrs. Howard Stern, a little drunk vixen, chose Drunker than Me as the tune to sing along to for Howard. They love it so much, that they play it all the time on the show. Good exposure for Trent.

I love the thought of Trent and Sheryl Crow co-writing and performing a song. I gotta believe somebody is already working on that.

God Will Fuck You Up

Posted on by
1

AUDIO: God Will Fuck You Up

Where are the transistor radios?

Posted on by
6

I’ve come across Zing a couple of times this weekend. I gather this little gizmo is still in prototype but it sounds interesting. For lack of a better word, they’re little radios that have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios built in. The radios are used to download music and to upload data about what you are listening to. If you have one of these players, you can do cool things, like see what your friends are listening to, then play samples of those tracks, or buy songs and albums directly from the player. The first Zing-powered players should ship this year, carrying the Sirius brand.

radioAs I read about this I mentally pictured all the people I see listening to iPods. Which begs a question: Why don’t I see anyone walking around with a transistor (do they call them that?) radio? I mean, there are some really great radio programs…are we only listening to them in the car or at the office? Why? If I’m willing to stand in line at Subway with nano earbuds hanging down my face…why not listen to my local radio station?

After all, what could be easier? No iTunes to futz with and sync. Just drop your little transitor radio in your pocket and go. I’m missing something here, aren’t I?

iPod Hi-Fi

Posted on by
Reply

Fill your home with sound, not stereo components. Keep your music collection at your fingertips, not in countless CD cases. Change the way you experience digital music. For $349, iPod Hi-Fi delivers crystal-clear, audiophile-quality sound in a clean, compact design.

Might have to have me one of these. We probably turn our stereo on 3 or 4 times a year. I think I read that Apple has sold 10 million iPods. If 1% of them buy one of these… 100,000 at $350?

Rock and Roll Fantasy

Posted on by
4

So you have great singer/song writers like Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Don Henley and Glen Frey who –as far as I know– aren’t making hit records any more. They’re rich, the royalties are coming in, they worked long and hard…so maybe they’re just taking it easy. Why should they bust their asses writing songs. Because they love writing songs. It was once their passion and I want to believe it still is. So where are the songs?

Let’s suppose in the hip-hop musical world of 2006, nobody wants to hear a song by these old farts. But that doesn’t sound right. I’m betting they’re still writing songs…and there are millions of fans who would love to buy/hear them.

Okay, here’s the fantasy part. Let’s say you’re one of these musical legends and you still noodle around in your home studio, writing and recording songs. Not necessarily ‘hit’ songs, just songs. Stuff you like. Why not put it up on a website, give your fans a little taste, and let us buy them?

I think Janis Ian (if you don’t know, it doesn’t matter) does something like this. And why not. If your music is no longer “commercially viable,” but you still love making it… put it up there. Let us buy it direct. Like I said, it’s a fantasy.

Speaking of music… I would love to hear Sheryl Crow do Me and Bobby McGee. Not the Joplin screamer. More of a ballad treatment maybe. Has she ever performed that song?

Still speaking of music… I kinda like the song Table for One by Liz Phair.

But reaching back it occurs to me
There will always be some kind of crisis for me

Not a good drinking song, but haunting.

If somebody has Doug Howard’s email address, he can probably answer the question above. Play the Kennett card.

End of music research?

Posted on by

Mark Ramsey asks: What’s the point of music research when every listener personalizes his or her music to his or her own tastes? And where’s your NON-music content, Mr. Broadcaster?

He also wants to drop the term “streaming” in favor of “Internet radio.” My only problem with that is where that leaves us verb-wise. Now I typically write/say: We’ll stream the governor’s speech at 7:00 p.m. If what we’re doing here is “Internet radio,” do I say we’ll “broadcast” the speech? It certainly is not a broadcast.

I’m becoming a fan of Mark’s blog. He seems to really know the radio business and has a firm grasp of new media.