There's no shortage of good music across the country, from Bumbershoot and DMB, to Made In America Fest in Philly. If you're like me, you're staying local and not trekking to the east coast. Fortunately, technology makes it easy to bring that music a little bit closer. The entire Made In America fest will be streamed, so if you want to see Pearl Jam live on Sunday night, you can stream it right here >>
Whether or not you're heading to The Gorge to see Dave Matthews Band this weekend, the excitement over DMB's new album is growing. Listen to the man himself talk about Away From The World - from working with Steve Lillywhite again to the process behind crafting the songs on the album.
We'll have more about the album after the holiday weekend!
While Sarah McLachlan hasn't put out new music this year, she has worked with Heart on a song for their new album, started to plan a music festival in her native Vancouver and now is penning the score for a stage production of King Kong.
King Kong: The Musical is expected to premiere in June in Melbourne, Australia. The cast will include actors, singers, dancers and puppeteers who will work with state-of-the-art animatronic technology. While there's no plan for a Broadway run yet, producers are hoping for sometime next winter.
This is one for the books - Gregg Allman, Joe Walsh, John Mayer and My Morning Jacket are just some of the artists involved in the Levon Helms tribute show in October.
Love For Levon is October 3rd at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. Kind of a shlep from Seattle, so hopefully they'll stream the show live or put out a DVD of the performance. Also planning to perform are Ray LaMontagne, Marc Cohn, Patty Griffin, Warren Haynes, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, Jorma Kaukonen, Lucinda Williams and The Levon Helm Band. Quite the line-up!
All the proceeds will help to pay the mortgage on Helms' house and studio, as it was his hope that the studio would continue to contribute to the music world.
Just in time for the holiday shopping season (I jest, kind of), The Beatles are lending their image to the game of Scrabble. The board will have Anthology edition art work, cool black wood letter tiles, special Help! cards and more. You even get bonus points for using Beatles-related words. With the number of songs they've written... don't you think pretty much any word could be argued as Beatles-related? Save fro "blog," and "internet," it seems. That also includes band member names... since when can you use proper nouns in Scrabble? Sounds like The Beatles have made their own rules...
The game will be about $30 and comes out next month.
Here at The Mountain, we are always looking for easy ways to be more eco-friendly, which is why we have the 1THING blog to share those easy tips with you. I LOVE today's find. Are you getting ready to send the kids back to school by buying new lunchbags, sandwich bags, plastic containers and more? Maybe you should think about a bento box.
I have friends who are mommy bloggers and a few of them have sung the praises of the bento box lunch trend for kids. It's more eco-friendly because you don't use plastic baggies, more visually appealing and (hopefully) more fun to eat. Have you tried this technique? I'm thinking about trying it for myself!
It's National Radio Day, so it seems appropriate that Popular Mechanics has listed the radio as the #2 gadget that has changed the world, behind the smart phone. Can't argue that. Here's the rest of the top 10:
10) The Lightbulb
9) The Alarm Clock
8) The Phonograph
7) The Telephone
6) Portable Air Conditioning Units
5) The Personal Computer
4) Hypodermic Needle
3) TV
2) Radio
1) Mobile/Smartphone
I'm a huge fan of Joy Williams' and John Paul White's harmonies. I'm a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm." This version from The Civil Wars is a different take on the song, but not without that haunting quality.
Though blue jeans may be from natural cotton, it takes a lot of water and chemicals to make the denim we wear everyday (even more if you wear the stressed / faded / pre-worn looking jeans). A Swedish company is trying to change that. They've created a new technology for dyeing jeans that, if used world wide, could save 2.8 billion gallons of water a year, while preventing a significant release of chemicals into wastewater and using less energy. Cool!
Do you ever wish that your cell phone would emit a scent? A nice aroma to follow wherever you go? No? Me either. But that isn't stopping Samsung from trying to make it reality.
Newly released patents show that Samsung has plans to create a cell phone with an aromatic sponge that emits a perfume. There are a few ways this could work, with the battery warming the sponge, or a current through the circuitry.
Not sure this is a necessary function, but it looks like Samsung has been trying to make this work for a few years now. Practical applications? Freshening up for a late dinner after a long day at work would be a bit easier, I guess, if you had your favorite scent right there in your phone. Otherwise... I'm not quite sure. What would you do with a scented phone?
This week's 1THING tip hits close to home - my actual home - because there are piles of laundry just waiting to be washed. And while my communal laundry room may not always be conducive to some of these tips, your laundry room might be! I especially like the tip about using white vinegar, grapefruit seed extract or lavender as a disinfectant. Seems like I learn a new use for vinegar every week!
Today in 1994, Lisa Loeb made history has the first unsigned artist to reach #1 on the chart, with her song "Stay (I Missed You)." Take a minute to remember how great the Reality Bites soundtrack was. So good, right? This song was a highlight, though. And is still in my karaoke repetoire. Seems like a good enough excuse for a video flashback!
