Blog: Fusion 45

[Funny. This was originally posted about a year ago. The situation is almost the same a year later. The company that made the purchased moved us into a new building; I moved my family back to our old house. So, a year later everything is still in disarray. Hmmm...there's no straightening-up life, I guess. F45, September 2, 2010] The radio station where I work was sold to another company on Friday. That's fine with me - like I had any say over the matter, anyway, right? [...]

[Funny. This was originally posted about a year ago. The situation is almost the same a year later. The company that made the purchased moved us into a new building; I moved my family back to our old house. So, a year later everything is still in disarray. Hmmm...there's no straightening-up life, I guess. F45, September 2, 2010] The radio station where I work was sold to another company on Friday. That's fine with me - like I had any say over the matter, anyway, right? [...]

Arcade Fire have released a new music video for their song We Used to Wait and, truth be told, it's a little freaky. Directed by Chris Milk, who also did Kanye West 's All Falls Down and Gnarls Barkley 's Gone Daddy Gone , it's truly web-based and interactive. The piece, which apparently works best in Google Chrome begins by asking you to type in the address of your childhood home. From there a bunch of appear in pop-up windows mixed with satellite images of your neighborhood. Weird, [...]

It's time for New Yorkers to gear up for the CMJ Festival. This year, what's arguably the best new music festival on the planet will happen October 19-23 and, as always, all the cool kids be there looking for the next big thing. Among the bands that have been announced for the festival are DeVotchKa , Surfer Blood and Ghostface Killah, as well as Dominique Young Unique , Angus and Julia Stone and Langhorne Slim .

I'd vote for Nowhere Man , personally, but apparently the editors of Rolling Stone have other ideas. According to a recently released list, the number one Beatles song of all-time is the one the BBC once banned its supposed references to drugs: A Day In The Life . Seemingly at a loss for new ideas, the once venerable mag released their list of the Top 100 Beatles to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their Let It Be album. Once again, I'd rather listen to the album [...]

New York City rockers Interpol , whose upcoming album has been leaked on the internet for awhile now, have released a video behind its second single, Barricade . Called "both salacious and kinda sterile," the video features singer Paul Banks' face superimposed on bare bodies, while the rest of the band stands in the desert scrubland. Hmmm. How very U2 , circa 1985. In spite of the leaks, the album will be released on September 7; it'll be around on CD, LP or on a double 12-inch 45 record.

Anyone with a passing interest in reggae has heard of Lee Perry also known as 'Scratch' or 'The Upsetter' but, over the last thirty years, Lee 'Scratch' Perry has become better known as a 'performance artist' rather than a performer, an artist or record producer. Yet Scratch's importance to the history of Jamaican music in particular, and recorded music in general, is second to none. He has made an incredible contribution to the development of reggae as a producer, arranger and writer and was the inspiration [...]

Jason Mraz won't have much trouble coming up with material for his next album. And the next one after that. In an interview with Billboard magazine, the singer/songwriter who hit with I'm Yours back in 2008 says he has plenty to follow-up to his album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things . "I've got two very different-sounding albums," he told the mag. "If I cut all of the material in half, I've got something that's fresh for the summer, ready for people to dance to, and I've got something [...]

Formerly of the Wilson Hospital and all-girl band Back Fish (all girl at the outset, anyway), Katie Goes To Tokyo is actually Katherine Bergstrom . Popular in her home country of Sweden, her current single ( Little Sister ) is getting heavy love in the homeland. It'll be on her second album, My Naked Heart , which rolled out on August 18th. Take a listen here .

Need a little workday diversion while waiting for the 5 o'clock hour to arrive? How about Billboard magazine's suggestion of Lindsay Lohan's Prison Playlist . Along with the usual suspects ( Jailhouse Rock, Jailbreak, Chain Gang ), there's Akon 's Locked Up , System of A Down 's Prison Song and Pearl Jam 's Dead Man (all ready for streaming on those whopping 1-1/23 desktop speakers they gave you). When you're done, take a look at their 50 Best Music Mugshots

Who says old guys sit around the nursing home and do nothing but talk about their ailments? As Neil Young approaches his 65th birthday in November he's busier than ever. As he prepares for another jaunt to the Midwest to join Willie and John at FarmAid, he's announced on his Facebook that he just wrapped up a new album this past weekend. The yet-to-be-named set will be released on September 28 and will come in a variety of flavors including vinyl, CD and iTunes, with a Blu-Ray version and iPhone and iPad app to [...]

I don't really have much to say or time to say if I did. But, I'm pissed at the f'ing around that Echoes In The Wind has taken over the past several weeks, trumped by the demise of Frisian's Other Favorites (seemingly for the same reason) that I'm posting out of solidarity. Screw 'em...post on! Rickie Lee Jones - Danny's All-Star Joint Rickie Lee Jones - Satellites Rickie Lee Jones - Woody And Dutch On A Slow Train To Peking [...]

I don't really have much to say or time to say if I did. But, I'm pissed at the f'ing around that Echoes In The Wind has taken over the past several weeks, trumped by the demise of Frisian's Other Favorites (seemingly for the same reason) that I'm posting out of solidarity. Screw 'em...post on! Rickie Lee Jones - Danny's All-Star Joint Rickie Lee Jones - Satellites Rickie Lee Jones - Woody And Dutch On A Slow Train To Peking [...]

I'm Having Fun Now is the debut album from the duo called Jenny and Johnny , also known as uber-sexy Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend, Johnathan Rice. The two have been co-mingling fluids (er, songs) for some time now, appearing together live and working together in LA on demo tracks. The two packed up the station wagon and headed to Nebraska to record the album this past winter and were promptly snowbound for the whole of five weeks. How romantic! And slushy! How stupid! Read my lips: Nebraska in [...]

Delbert McClinton cut his chops in the late 1950's as a guitarist and harp player for the Straitjackets ; they were the house band at Jack's Place in Forth Worth. Along with playing their own Monday night shows, the Straitjackets supported the blues artists who passed through town (guys like Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy Reed ). After cutting a few local singles and playing harmonica on Bruce Channel's 1962 hit, Hey Baby , McClinton took off for L.A. [...]

We never thought we'd be asking this but...what do Lady Gaga and Iron Maiden have in common? Well, beside those sexy electric brassieres both Bruce Dickinson and Gaga like to sport on stage*, they also share space on the UK Top 10. The Maiden's new album, The Final Frontier , joining the likes of Gaga, Eminem and Arcade Fire on the list of what's hot. It debuted at Number 1, hopscotching over releases by the likes of the Hoosiers , the Saturdays , Isobel [...]

My friend Steve Pringle, a blues DJ here in Portland-town, has been singing the praises of J.J. Grey And Mofro since I met him a year ago. Well, he doesn't actually sing his praises; he talks them (though I have seen Pringle do a mighty version of Mustang Sally ). J.J. and company have a new album, Georgia Warhorse , releasing next week on Alligator and all the cool kids are looking forward to it. In the meantime, a little mini-doc on JJ below:

Brooklyn-based of Malaysian descent, Zee Avi is a sweet girl, an unusual singer and an interesting musician. Signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records, she released her first record last year. This remix EP, One More Time With Colors , was recently dropped on iTunes. It features remixes of Is This The End , The Story and Just You and Me . Just You and Me was recently featured in a short film, Oliver Peoples , starring Elijah Wood and Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson ('cuz licensing is [...]

Paste Magazine Albums of The Decade #24 From Dusted Magazine In Jonathan Franzen's overrated best-seller The Corrections , there exists a sophisticated computer program that can identify patterns in someone's favorite music and synthesize the data into new music that is guaranteed to satisfy. Only fiction? It seems that The Shins have gained access to this magical machine, and they keep pushing my buttons, over and over and over again. The Albuquerque foursome [...]

Paste Magazine Albums of The Decade #25 As incongruous sights go, it was up there with seeing Kasabian doing Swan Lake. In 2000, when the relatively unknown Sigur Rós played All Tomorrow's Parties, I saw the four unearthly Icelandic pixies gaze through the dilapidated doorway of Camber Sands' number one greasy spoon. They looked bewildered, and melted away, refusing to cross the threshold. It's an appropriate metaphor for their career thus far: proffering four albums of uncompromising, reverb-drenched, atmospheric soundscapes comprised [...]