music

Chris Knight's avatar

It’s none other than Grandpa Jones and his lovely wife Ramona doing something truly amazing with a whole bunch of cowbells…




Dare I do it? Dare I?!?

I can’t resist…

more cowbell, cowbells, christopher walken, saturday night live, the bruce dickinson, blue oyster cult, dont fear the reaper
“I gotta fever!  And the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!”

 If you don’t know who Grandpa Jones was, you need some educatin’ in the worst way!  Louis Marshall Jones was a longtime fixture on country music radio and the Grand Ol’ Opry.  He picked up his stage name when he worked at WBZ in Boston and was playfully called “Grandpa” because he was so cranky in the mornings.  Jones decided to make an act of it.  That was 1935 and Jones was “Grandpa Jones” all the way up to his passing in 1998.  He’s long been regarded as one of the greatest banjo players ever.

And he even played cowbell!  And more of it! 🙂...

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News breaking now out of Star Wars Celebration Europe that John Williams will be returning to the galaxy far, far away and composing the score for Star Wars Episode VII.

John Williams.  Because when you get the band back together,
you positively can NOT do it without this guy.

In a pre-recorded video for the folks attending Celebration Europe, Williams said that he was “looking forward to drawing on some of his original themes and adding new material”, according to IGN’s report.

New Star Wars music composed by the master himself.  “This will be a day long remembered…”

Thanks to good friend of this blog Drew McOmber for the heads-up!...

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Musical parody pioneer “Weird Al” Yankovic is working right now on his next album.  And he’s not planning on making another.

Yankovic confirmed it with journalist John J. Moser of The Morning Call in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania…

There’s no question about it, parody singer “Weird Al” Yankovic says.

A world where virtually everyone has access to YouTube or other Internet video sites, and far more immediately than he does with physical CDs – and a world where music comes and goes with ephemeral popularity , his job has become far harder.

In fact, it’s so difficult that Yankovic, who plays Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 4, says his next album is likely to be his last.

“I have one more album on my contract, and I’m looking forward to doing more digital distribution,” Yankovic says in a call last week from his Los Angeles home. “Cause

...
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Chris Knight's avatar

It happened Monday but I’m just now hearing the sad word about the death of Ray Manzarek: founding member of The Doors and one of the greatest keyboardists ever.

There are going to be a lot of memorials to Manzarek and his talent, but I thought I’d share this one that “Weird Al” Yankovic posted on his YouTube channel.  It’s from 2009, when Yankovic was producing his song “Craigslist” (a style parody homage to The Doors and Jim Morrison).  Manzarek himself played keyboard for the song, giving it an authenticity that he alone could deliver…




Thoughts and prayers going out to his family....

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I’m writing this on Friday afternoon.  It was on Wednesday night that Kristen, Chad, Marissa and I saw “Weird Al” Yankovic and his band in concert as part of his Alpocalypse 2013 tour!  I’m still coming down from the high and I think everyone else is too (especially Marissa who was bouncing off the walls so hard during class at school yesterday that she reportedly had to be sedated with Valium).  And after seeing Al live for the seventh time I have to say: this was easily the best show I’ve seen him perform yet!  Weird Al and his band were positivalutely ablaze with energy and sheer fun.  They were electrified and enthused as I’ve never seen any performers in a live concert!  This is a man who obviously loves his work and that comes across very well.  I’ve also never seen an audience so “into it” as they ...

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Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3, Harmonix, video games, music games, American Pie, Don McLean, Deep Purple, Highway StarToday is a bittersweet occasion in the annals of video game history: Harmonix is releasing the final downloadable content for its Rock Band series.

Since the first Rock Band came out in late 2007 the studio had promised new songs weekly for downloadable purchase and play.  It kept that promise for 281 consecutive weeks: far, far longer than most players probably expected.  Maybe even longer than it has been profitable.  Hard to find that kind of reliability in any modern industry, much less the video game one.

Fittingly, the last tune that players can get for Rock Band is Don McLean’s 1971 classic “American Pie”.  And were I the sort I’d be drinking whiskey and rye…

I only played Rock Band and Rock Band 2, and I have to agree with what Brett Makedonski has beautifully written on Destructoid: this series had an immense impact on ...

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Hey gang, hope y’all are having a Happy Easter!  It’s also my
birthday, muhahahahaha!!  So along with my girlfriend Kristen being here
to celebrate, we had the return of Doctor Who last night, and then tonight it’s the season finale of The Walking Dead and the season premiere of Game of Thrones.  Have the stars aligned for this geek, or what?! 🙂

(And
then there’s the positvalutely ginormous hollow chocolate Easter bunny
that she got from me this morning.  Still can’t compare to the Doctor
Who Yahtzee she gave me: at last a TARDIS toy of my very own!!)

Anyhoo,
this being Easter, the day which we remember the life of Jesus Christ
and the sacrifice He made to set us free from the bondages of this
fallen realm so that we may have the life abundant, I felt led to share
something special with y’all…

Bethany Myers, Christian music, He's Alive, singer, songwriter, piano, pianist

I have been ...

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EeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEYYYEEEEEAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH…!!!!!!!

This is not cool, AMC. Not cool at all.

A little while ago my beating heart be stilled when I read that the first soundtrack album of AMC’s megakewl series The Walking Dead is set to be released on March 19th!

I know, right? Happy-dance time. Because there has been a massive demand for a soundtrack CD from this show for ages. It’s at least more than a year overdue.

What have we wanted all this time? Nothing less than The Walking Dead‘s orchestral score. A bona-fide album of all the major pieces that Bear McCreary has composed for this show. EVERY bit of the music that has been most-desired on a quality album, going back to Season 1.

So are we getting that on March 19th?

LIKE HELL WE ARE!!

Lemme put it this way: I don’t possibly see how The Walking Dead: AMC Original Soundtrack ...

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Massive spoilers in this video, ‘cuz it covers everything from the start of the first season on up to the third year’s mid-season finale.

If you’re caught up on The Walking Dead, you still won’t be ready for the abundawundawesomeness of Jonathan Wong‘s video. He’s masterfully edited together clips from The Walking Dead and set it to Adele’s hit song “Skyfall”, the theme from the latest James Bond movie.

If you only watch one YouTube video this week, watch this one. If you only watch ten, watch this one ten times!

AMC oughtta hire Jonathan, this vid is so dang cool!!...

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