Today In Rock History

April 25th . . . 1918 - Legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald is born in Newport News, VA . . . 1923 - Blues guitarist Albert King is born . . . 1933 - Jerry Leiber is born in Baltimore. With Mike Stoller, he’s written witty rock hits like “Yakety Yak” and “Jailhouse Rock” . . . 1945 - Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba is born in Gothenburg, Sweden . . . 1945 - Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is born this day . . . 1950 - Steve Ferrone, drummer with the Average White Band and Eric Clapton, is born in Brighton, England . . . 1956 - Elvis Presley reaches top of US chart with Heartbreak Hotel, his first No. 1 . . . 1961 - Elvis Presley makes his last stage appearance for nearly eight years at Bloch Arena in Hawaii . . . 1964 - The Beatles have an amazing 14 singles on the American chart . . . 1967 - The Beatles perform “All You Need Is Love” during a global satellite broadcast . . . 1974 - Jim Morrison’s widow, Pam, dies in Hollywood at the age of 27. Police suspect heroin use may have played a part in her death . . . 1977 - Elvis Presley makes his last-known recordings during a live concert at the Saginaw (Mich.) Civic Center . . . 1981 - Wings break up after Denny Laine leaves the band. Paul McCartney says he will carry on as a solo artist . . . 1987 - Crowded House had their biggest U.S. hit when “Don’t Dream It’s Over” peaked at #2; U2 replace Beastie Boys at top of US LP chart with The Joshua Tree . . . 1990 - The Fender Stratocaster on which Jimi Hendrix played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock sells at a London auction for $295,000 . . . 1994 - The Eagles played the first of two shows where they recorded their ‘Hell Freezes Over’ album . . . 1994 - A judge sentences Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz to 200 hours’ community service after he beats up a TV cameraman during River Phoenix’s funeral . . . 1994 - A judge determines that Michael Bolton’s “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” sounds a little too similar to the Isley Brothers’ “Love Is a Wonderful Thing.” Ya think? . . . 1997 - Warren Haynes and Allen Woody quit the Allman Brothers Band to tend to their careers as Gov’t Mule . . . 1999 - Funk star Roger Troutman, 47, dies in a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, after being shot several times . . . 2000 - Eric Clapton is reunited on a TV stage in London with his former Derek & the Dominos keyboard player Bobby Whitlock, for their first performance together in 29 years . . . 2002 - Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the effervescent, sometimes volatile rapping member of the Grammy-winning R&B trio TLC, is killed in a car crash in Honduras . . . 2003 - The late jazz great Nina Simone is laid to rest in Carry-Le-Rouet, France . . . 2004 - Piano man Billy Joel drives his car into a house in Long Island. Nobody is seriously injured. It’s his third car crash in two years . . . 2007 - American singer Bobby “Boris” Pickett died of leukemia at the age of 69. He scored the Halloween anthem ‘The Monster Mash’ in 1962 . . .

Friday, November 26, 2010

Breaking Ryan Adams News!! New Album Out 12/14...!

Thanks to our NYC correspondent, Miss Erin, for sharing this breaking news over Thanksgiving dinner!!

Listen: Ryan Adams releases 'Destroyer' in advance of 'Cardinals' set

By Katie Hasty - Double-disc 'Cardinals III/IV' gets a December release

Friday, Nov 19, 2010 8:17 PM

Aside from that "Sci-Fi metal" concept record "Orion," things have been fairly quiet on the solo Ryan Adams front. He helped out Norah Jones on a track, and the same with Weezer.

Ring the bell, now, though. The rocker and folker (and not-so-secret metal and rap lover) has assigned a Dec. 14 release date to "III/IV," an double-album of material recorded with his previous band the Cardinals during their 2007 "Easy Tiger" sessions, to be out via Adams' own PAX AM label. And, according to a release, it's a "concept rock opera about the '80s, ninjas, cigarettes, sex and pizza." Well, whatever.

As an enduring Adams fan -- through the jams and the firings and the podcasts and poetry and hiatuses and boring-as-hell last studio effort (sorry) -- I'm ready to try out whatever Adams wants to throw at the wall, to see what sticks.

One of these is "Destroyers," which is not on the "III/IV" tracklist (below) but is at least a taste of things to come, perhaps. A little trippy, a little soft-rock and totally imperfect, it's a decent tune that sounds somewhat unfinished... but I dig. Some of the songwriter's best material is when he sounds vulnerable and feral, and that's the MO here. And forget click-track: this is what comes out of d*cking around in the studio comfortably for a while.

There will be limited releases of red and blue vinyl and CDs of "III/IV," and the tracks will also be up for sale digitally.

Listen here:

Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - "Destroyers" (uploaded by thesteamengine)

Here is the tracklist for "III/IV":

III:
Breakdown Into The Resolve
Dear Candy
Wasteland
Ultraviolet Light
Stop Playing With My Heart
Lovely And Blue
Happy Birthday
Kisses Start Wars
The Crystal Skull
Users

IV:
No
Numbers
Gracie
Icebreaker
Sewers at the Bottom of the Wishing Well
Typecast
Star Wars
My Favorite Song
P.S.
Death And Rats
Kill The Light