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Showing posts from December, 2012

Third Man Records vinyl exclusives, Part 14

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Last week I received the fourteenth set of exclusive vinyl items offered to platinum members of Third Man Records’ Vault service. For those who are unaware, Third Man Records is the label owned by Jack White, who is the leader of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, and is now a solo artist as well. The Vault service promises to deliver exclusive vinyl-only records (one full-length album and one 7” single) to its platinum members every three months. According to the postal service, my package was sent on December 13th. I received it on the 17th. This fourteenth set of items contains a live double-LP by Jack White, and a 7-inch single containing three demos of songs which turned up in finished form on White’s 2012 solo debut Blunderbuss , which reached the #1 spot on the Billboard album chart and on some critics’ year-end lists. The third item in this package is a picture book by Alison Mosshart, singer from the Dead Weather and the Kills, titled Shark Infested S

Notes on Sandy and Shankar

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The day before this post was written was 12/12/12, the day a major all-star benefit concert was held at New York's Madison Square Garden to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Sandy. It was an amazing night. The Rolling Stones performed! The Who performed! Eric Clapton performed! Billy Joel came out of retirement! (Not that he ever really retired from performing). Baby boomer icons performed alongside heroes of Generation X. Bruce Springsteen sang two duets with Jon Bon Jovi. Roger Waters shared the stage with Eddie Vedder. And, most unpredictably of all, Paul McCartney stood in for the late Kurt Cobain as part of a Nirvana reunion! There was one unexpected pairing of Generation X and Y, when REM's Michael Stipe joined Coldplay's Chris Martin on stage for a performance of "Losing My Religion". And, unfortunately, there was also an overlong set from the egomaniacal Kanye West, who stuck out like a sore thumb. The big news was the Nirvana reunion. Nirvana surviv