Bob Seger will make a rare prime time TV appearance tonight on NBC's The Voice. Do you watch this show at all? Seger will perform with the Swon Brothers, who are competing in the show. Only 3 contestants remain, and other stars on tonight's episode include One Republic and Hunter Hayes.
The Swon Brothers performed "Turn The Page" last week and it became a top 10 iTunes download for the week. It was with that song that the relationship between Seger and the show started, and they invited him to appear. The classic rocker is off the road after a spring tour that brought him to Tacoma in March.
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Foreigner's Mick Jones and Lou Gramm will be honored tonight as inductees into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame. They will perform as well as accept the awards. For Jones and Gramm, this will be their first performance together in 10 years. Gramm says, "I think that night is gonna be very special and I don't see any need to mend any fences. I think our relationship is a careful friendly."
Elton John and Bernie Taupin are expected to both attend, as they are being honored as well. Sting and Billy Joel will present, among others at the New York City ceremony. And if you're looking, there is no physical hall of fame. It currently only exists online.
Ten time Grammy winner Carlos Santana has teamed up with his son for a song supporting the Pave The Way Project, an organization that promotes healthy teen relationships. Salvador Santana, like his father, is a talented instrumentalist who joined the Pave The Way team in creating a song targeted at spreading a positive message to teens. (Read: it's a pop song.) The elder Santana can be heard in the background wailing on guitar.
The Pave The Way Project focuses on building teens' self image and self worth in relationships, in hopes to reduce teen domestic violence. You can read more about it here >>
Not that it's surprising, but Richie Furay thinks the world has seen the last of Buffalo Springfield. After the postponed 2011 tour that turned into the canceled 2012 tour, Furay says that's it.
He says, "It's just typical of the way things unfolded with the Springfields way back in the '60s. Not much has changed. We were all looking forward to doing it, and it didn't happen. I was kind of stuck out there as the spokesman –- if anything happened again I would take a look at how far out there I'm going to go as a spokesman. I don't think it ever will again now, but I'll never say never."
Furay, Stephen Stills and Neil Young reconnected in 2010 and toyed with "getting the band back together," but it didn't pan out since Neil Young didn't want to tour for the rest of his life (as he put it.) He's now on tour with Crazy Horse and has been for about a year, so...
We are so excited for today's debut of The Mountain's Zero Emission Studios, thanks to Walker's Renton Subaru. What does Zero Emission mean, exactly? Well, we are now powering our studios with the newest kinds of renewable energies, through Seattle City Light's "Green Up" program. We're investing in power that won't pollute and won't run out.
Each week, I write about different ways to be better to the Earth through easy home remedies or community organizations - part of our 1THING initiative. This is especially cool, though, since powering a radio station takes a lot of, well, power. By using clean, renewable energy, we are doing 1 (more) THING towards sustainability.
Do you usually watch The Colbert Report? If not, you may want to set the DVR on Wednesday night, since Paul McCartney will be on a special one-hour episode of the show.
Stephen Colbert hosts musicians now and again on his show, even though its topics are mostly political. Radiohead, for example, did a special hour-long episode two years ago. McCartney's been a guest on the show before, but as never performed. Wednesday's show will feature an interview and performance, and I'm sure some of Colbert's trademark ribbing.
It's Friday afternoon (yay!). Have your weekend plans come together yet? If you're looking to get out and try something different, here are some of the fun things going on around the sound this weekend!
-The Rat City Rollergirls are back at it at Key Arena. Saturday night, there are two bouts. First, at 5:30, Rat City Rain of Terror vs. Montréal Roller Derby Sexpos and then, the main event, Rat City All Stars vs. London Rollergirls London Brawling. Yes, rollergirls from across the pond! This is a big match for the All Stars and if you've never been to a derby bout, it's so much fun! Talk about a unique Saturday night. More info >>
-It's nice to see the sun in June, so take advantage and get outside. Sunday is the ShoreRun 5K/10K to benefit Fred Hutch. Walk or run the 5K and enjoy the scenery along the Lake Washington shore from Ferdinand Park to Madison Park. Registration is available the morning of, too. More info >>
-The Sounders are back at it against division rival the Vancouver Whitecaps. Kickoff is 7:30 on Saturday night from CenturyLink, or you can watch it on NBCSports. More info >>
Jim Morrison may be the Lizard King, but there's now a big lizard that shares a name with Morrison. Jason Head, a University of Nebraska researcher, coined the lizard fossils he found in Myanmar recently, the Barbaturex Morrisoni. Yes, unfortunately, like its namesake, the lizard is extinct, though was guessed to be about 6 feet long and 60 pounds.
Head is a big Doors fan (shocker!), and picked the name Barbaturex Morrisoni based on its head's beard-like bottom and Morrison's nickname and fascination with the species. The two never roamed the earth together, as the fossil is about 40 million years old.
Lest you think the guys from Led Zeppelin are bored without a Zep reunion (still not happening), think again. Both John Paul Jones and Robert Plant are busy with awesome projects this summer.
JPJ recently discussed the opera project he's working on, based on The Ghost Sonata, saying he was drawn to it because, "It's unlike anything else. It's the emotion, the passion." While it's a slowgoing project, it's his main focus for a while. When asked (again) about a 2014 LZ reunion, he said, "2014′s full of opera for me at the moment." Read more >>
As for Robert Plant, his new project the Sensational Spaceshifters is keeping him busy right now. The band lets Plant take charge again, instead of sharing the vocal duties as he was in Band of Joy. He says, "It's proven to be a great passport for fun and power… I don't have to be so concerned about making sure I am in harmony with anyone else since I'm mostly singing alone this time. I won't have to worry about Patty [Griffin] glaring at me when I f— up this time!" You can catch them on July 6th at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Read more >>
You could win tickets to see that Robert Plant show! Make sure to Join The Club >>
Each year on June 5th, the United Nations Environment Programme hosts World Environment Day. This year's theme is Think*Eat*Save, encouraging all of us to think about our "food footprint." The global program not only reminds those of us who are fortunate to have food not to waste it, but also educates developing countries about ways to preserve food.
From their website:
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.
Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year's theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.
Some of the ways we can help reduce our food footprint are things you might do already - buying local and buying organic. Local foods don't have to travel as far, lessening their footprint from fuel and packaging. Organic foods do not use the chemicals that can hurt our environment.
Have you considered your food footprint ever? What did you do to reduce it?
Do you have a special ice cream concoction that reminds you of Seattle? Ben & Jerry's wants to know about it. They've teamed with Theo Chocolate and Caffe Vita to create a Seattle flavor. You can help vote for the components here >>
Voting ends September 1st. Other cities getting personalized flavors are Washington, D.C., NYC, Portland and San Francisco.
Get ready, Sting fans. This fall, he'll release Last Ship, the album that shares a name with the musical he's been working on. It will be the first album of original material since 2003. Some of the songs will also appear in the musical, which is about the English shipbuilding industry in the 1980s, but there are songs that are exclusive to the record.
The songs on "The Last Ship" were written to advance the play's plot, and so they hew to story-telling needs. The title song is a waltz-time folk tune, heavy with Christian imagery and told in a Northern English dialect. It freights the launching of the last ship from the yard with spiritual significance. Another song, "And Yet," is a jazzy funk number, sung from the point of view of a sailor arriving in his home port and wondering about a woman he left behind. "Dead Man's Boots," meanwhile, is a tense dialogue between a father who works in the shipyard and a son who wants to do something else with his life.
The album's release is set for September 24th. The musical is expected on Broadway in 2014.
Congrats to the Seattle Public Library, who are waiting for the official word on the longest book domino chain. The library and 2 college students teamed up last week to launch the summer reading program with pizzazz. Watch the awesome book dominoes fall here:
Oh, get ready. The new Sammy Hagar record, reportedly called Sammy and Friends, will feature a surprising cover song. Not surprising because of the song itself, no, it's been covered many times over. Surprising in that I can't imagine Sammy Hagar ever listening to this band or song or ever thinking, "yes, covering this, that's a good idea."
But according to Chad Smith, Sammy Hagar is covering Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" on the new album. I'll let that soak in.
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The album sounds promising, however, featuring Hagar buddies Michael Anthony, Chad Smith and Neal Schon, among others. Maybe I'm being too hard on the Depeche Mode cover. I'll judge when I hear it.
