Incredulous as it may sound, the Jayhawks believe their new project, July 10’s XOXO, is themost collaborative album the quartet has made in its 35-year history.All four bandmates—original members Gary Louris and Marc Perlman, and long-timersKaren Grotberg and Tim O’Reagan—contributed songwriting and lead vocals.“I have felt for years that during the course of a [live] set, people— including myself—would like to hear Karen and Tim singing more and me less,” Louris tells Billboard via email,regarding the impetus for the all-hands approach. “Secondly I had come off writing andrecording a solo record and had not spent as much time writing for a Jayhawks record as istypical. So the stars aligned and here we are. Making the record sound cohesive was themost challenging part.”

The band recorded the Sham/Thirty Tigers release at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls,Minn., and Flowers Studio in their native Minneapolis. "Our budget usually allows for about2 weeks of studio time,” Perlman says. “We try to have the arrangements and structuredecided on before we go in. The way we work the writer of each song leads the process forthat song. So different writers mean different dynamics but that had no effect on how longit took to make the record.”

XOXO contains the jangly, guitar-driven, instantly catchy tunes the band is renowned forand they wouldn’t have it any other way. “If you hear a Jayhawks song played by othermusicians, no matter how note for note it is or how exact the harmonies are to the original,it will never sound like the way me, Gary, Tim and Karen play it,” Perlman says. “Conversely,when we cover a song, no matter how note for note we play it it sounds like me, Gary, Timand Karen.”

That welcoming, identifiable sound is especially evident on “Dogtown Days,” the video forwhich premieres below. “‘Dogtown’ is a song that's been around for awhile,” says O’Reagan.“We talked about using it on an earlier record and I think we did it at a show once. I hadlyrics floating around from some earlier more somber versions, then at some point thestompy drums happened then the obnoxious downstroke guitars and it got fun andenergetic. So it became a fun song, that's really sad and bitter. It's about a real time in mylife and about a real person, who if they ever hear it probably won't know it's about them.”

Though it doesn’t look like it, the Philip Harder-directed video was filmed with socialdistancing in effect, as the friends in the 1972 Gremlin shot their scenes separately. There’sa little more time-traveling involved, including vintage footage of the band in 1985, shot byHarder and Rick Fuller at a soundcheck at 7th St. Entry in Minneapolis.

Grotberg, who has been with the band since 1995 says the band remains as inspired as ever,especially when it comes to playing live. “Aging doesn’t seem to have affected our curiosity or our individual desires to explore new musical avenues,” she says. “We continue to createnew material and even venture out of our comfort zones, all the while maintaining ourJayhawks sound. Also, we have an amazing and loyal fan base. When we participate in thatfull-circle interaction from stage to fans and back again, the energy grows and so does the fun.

About that playing live, like many acts, the Jayhawks had their concert dates postponedbecause of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are eager to get back on the road— whenever ithappens. “We are hoping in the fall as we have a number of shows scheduled, but morelikely it will not be until 2021,” O’Reagan says. “It is tough not being able to play but I don'tthink we want to push it. Hopefully people will be comfortable seeing music sometime soon,and we can get back to work.”

CREDITS: Billboard Magazine - Melinda Newman

The 40th anniversary of Canadian rock heroes Rush’s Permanent Waves album is beingmarked with the premiere of a new official conceptual video for one of their trademarktracks from the set, ‘The Spirit of Radio.’

Reflecting the song, the clip offers nostalgic acknowledgement of the magic and spirit of theFM radio format. It celebrates the role played by pioneering disc jockeys in bringing musicinto people’s homes. It’s also an affectionate nod towards the Rock and Roll Hall of Fameinductees’ much-loved drummer Neil Peart, who died in January at the age of 67.

‘The Spirit of Radio’ was the first single from the Permanent Waves album, the seventhstudio set by Rush. The LP, which signaled a new direction for the Canadian band, went onto reach No. 4 in the US, and was certified platinum both there and in Canada. The albumreached No. 3 in the UK, going gold.

One of the “songs that shaped rock and roll”‘The Spirit of Radio’ was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs ThatShaped Rock and Roll. It provided Rush with a major breakthrough into the internationalsingles market, reaching No. 13 in the UK. It peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 andwas among the five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in2010. Their other tracks to be so recognition were ‘Limelight,’ ‘Closer to the Heart,’ ‘TomSawyer’ and ‘Subdivisions.’

UMe/Mercury/Anthem recently released an expanded edition of Permanent Waves. It’savailable in four distinct configurations, including the Super Deluxe Edition, a two-CDDeluxe Edition, a three-LP Deluxe Edition and a Deluxe Digital Edition.

The new video for ‘The Spirit Of Radio’ also celebrates a significant anniversary in thehistory of broadcasting itself. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the firstentertainment radio broadcast from the XWA studio in Montreal, and the first licensedbroadcasting station in the United States.

Credits: By Paul Sexton - https://www.udiscovermusic.com/

The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards is the ultimate rock star who wrote the bookon top shelf shenanigans. This anecdote, however, of when he nearly burnt downthe Playboy Mansion, could well be the ultimate Keith Richards story.

The incident in question took place in 1972, a time whilst the Rolling Stoneswere on their infamous tour of North America that saw the group cause a barrageof chaos night after night in each passing town they set foot in.

The Stones performed three shows in Chicago at the International Amphitheatreand, given their arrival, where else would the hippest rock act on the planet laytheir head at night apart from Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion?

In his legendary autobiography, Life, which was released in 2010, Richards cameclean about the scandalous stay party house and explained how he nearly madethe whole mansion erupt into flames “[Saxophonist] Bobby [Keys] and I playedit a little far when we set fire to the bathroom,” he explained. “Well, we didn’t,the dope did. Not our fault. Bobby and I were just sitting in the john, comfortable,nice john, sitting on the floor, and we’ve got the doc’s bag and we’re just smorgas bording.”

Richards then disclosed further detail: “‘I wonder what these do?’ Bong. And ata certain point… talk about hazy, or foggy, Bobby says, ‘It’s smoky in here.’ AndI’m looking at Bobby and can’t see him. And the drapes are smoldering away;everything was just about to go off big-time… There was a thumping on the door,waiters and guys in black suits bringing buckets of water. They get the door openand we’re sitting on the floor, our pupils very pinned. I said, ‘We could have done that ourselves. How dare you burst in on our private affair?’

gain with Q Magazine in 2016:“There’s all these bunnies all over the place–don’t throw that lot in front of the Stones, you know. We had a tour doctor weused to love to raid. We’d get him stoned and take his bag.“Bobby and I stashed ourselves in this john and were trying everything from thedoctor’s bag. Somewhere a fire started. There’s bells ringing and people runningdown the corridor. As we left the bathroom, it burst into flames.”

The house would luckily be unscathed and, fortunately, there were no casualtiesat the hands of Richards. However, as the Stones man noted in his biography, itwouldn’t be long before Heffner would relocate the property to Los Angeles. Was the extreme relocation to the other side of America Heffner’s polite way ofstopping Richards from wreaking havoc the next time he would be in Chicago?Almost certainly not, but it’s a comical picture

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/

Eminem, the iconic rapper, songwriter and record producer, has created a list of theseventeen rappers he considers to be the greatest of all time. Marshall Mathers, the ‘RapGod’ himself who is considered by many to be the greatest of all time, responded to a fanwho was creating a YouTube video and asked: “Who is the greatest rapper of all time.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Eminem actually replied. “For me, in no particular order… Toss upbetween wayne, pac, royce, jay, redman, treach, g. rap, biggie & king crook…. [sic],”he tweeted. He also went on to add: “Plus redman, LL, nas, joyner, kendrick, cole, andre,rakim, kane…[sic].” This, of course, is not the first time Eminem has referenced some of his contemporaries and, in the years gone by, he has often cited some of the icons of the genre aspart of his own music.

Famously, as part of his 2002 song ‘Till I Collapse’, Mathers raps: “I got a list, here’s the order of my list that it’s in/ It goes, Reggie, Jay-Z, Tupac and Biggie/ Andre from Outkast,Jada, Kurupt, Nas and then me.” Somewhat surprisingly though, Eminem failed to include the likes of Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, 50 Cent or any members of the pioneering group Wu-Tang Clang.

Elsewhere, despite being the major figure in the breaking of racial barriers when it comes to white rappers, Eminem failed to include any in his list. It has also been noted that the rapper decided against including any female musicians as part of the selection.

Lil Wayne
2Pac
Royce da 5’9″
Jay-Z
Redman
Treach
Kool G Rap
Notorious B.I.G.
Kxng Crooked.
LL Cool J
Nas
Joyner Lucas
Kendrick Lamar
J. Cole
Andre 3000
Rakim
Big Daddy Kane

CREDITS: Lee Thomas-Mason - https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/