Tag: adult swim

NEWS ROUNDUP: Warped Tour, Bowie in Brooklyn & More

  • Warped Tour’s Goodbye

    It’s the end of an era for pop-punks, emo kids, and sk8er bois – Warped Tour just announced their final cross-country lineup and it’s going to be a very grand finale! The show will hit the road for virtually the whole summer; kicking off on June 21st in California and ending on August 5th in Florida. Warped veterans Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, Simple Plan, the Used, and All Time Low are along for the ride with more than fifty other artists. In a public letter, tour founder Kevin Lyon reflected on the history of Warped since its start in 1995 and what the future holds for the venture.

    “I have been a very lucky person to have traveled across the country and sometimes around the world as one of the founders and producers of the Vans Warped Tour. Today, with many mixed feelings, I am here to announce that next year will be the final, full cross-country run of the Vans Warped Tour. I sit here reflecting on the tour’s incredible history, what the final run means for our community, and look forward to what’s to come as we commemorate the tour’s historic 25th anniversary in 2019.” – Kevin Lyon

    See the tour dates here.

  • Bowie in Brooklyn

    After a five-year run around the world, sprawling and comprehensive art exhibition David Bowie Is will make its final stop at the Brooklyn Museum. Running March 2nd through July 15th, the show mines Bowie history for a mind-blowing display of thousands of music artifacts, drawings, props, videos, and, of course, costumes, some of which have never been seen before. There’s also a framed photo of Little Richard that Bowie was rumored to have carried to every recording session. The show is organized by time and cycles through the many different phases of the Thin White Duke’s career, starting with his early life as David Jones and ending with the making of Blackstar. It’s no accident that the traveling exhibition has its finale in Brooklyn; the legendary musician called NYC home for many years. Exhibition organizers have pulled out all the stops for this one, so whether you are a music lover or art addict, David Bowie Is cannot be missed.

    Get details here.

  • Other Highlights

    Changes are afoot in the music industry! On Wednesday, Spotify went public on Wall Street, despite the fact that the company lost $1.5 billion dollars last year. Also on Wednesday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was elected to the Country Music Association’s philanthropy board, but by Thursday, he had resigned due to outcry. That night, Lorde started off her North American tour with a bang – she performed an unreleased song as well as a cover of Frank Ocean’s “Solo.” En Vogue made the Billboard Top 10 for the first time in twenty years with the Ne-yo penned track, “Rocket.” The Kills released a video for a cover of the Saul Williams song, “List of Demands (Reparations).” Jack White gives us “Over And Over And Over,” another unveiling from his next record, this one originally written thirteen years ago for The White Stripes. NPR has got the first play of David Byrne’s upcoming album – you can stream “American Utopia” on their site now. The record’s official release is today. Yo La Tengo has released “For You Too,” the latest from their March 16th album, There’s a Riot Going On. Dinosaur Jr. give us “Hold Unknown” via Adult Swim’s Singles Series. After teasing their reunion with “Octagon Octagon,” Kool Keith, Dan the Automator, and DJ Qbert release “Area 54.” The awkwardly-titled Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation is their first album as hip-hop supergroup Dr. Octagon in 22 years. Lastly, in case you forgot – Dolly Parton is a saint! This week she visited the Library of Congress to celebrate the delivery of the 100 millionth book by her nonprofit, the Imagination Library. The music legend founded Imagination Library in 1995; since then, it has mailed a book to more than a million young children every month.

 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Giorgio Moroder “From Here to Eternity”

giorgio

In honor of legendary super-producer Giorgio Moroder’s first solo track in 22 years (thanks to the fabulous Adult Swim series, no less), we put on our finest polyester pants and creepiest pornstaches to revisit his seminal 1977 album From Here to Eternity.

His third solo EP and arguably most famous, it’s a bonafide Euro-disco behemoth that continues to invoke a sense of neon dance floors and Back to the Future-worthy whiplash. Filled with ass-shaking syncopation, distinct four-on-the-floor beats and soaring robo-vocals, it pioneered a futuristic club experience that can still squeeze out a couple of head-bobbers within our bro step-obsessed world.

Powered by a seemingly unstoppable digital drum machine accented by heavenly sopranos and pumping synth lines, From Here to Eternity is an ethereal album for the space-age exotic. Laying the groundwork for modern dance music, as everything from house to juke has its roots in Moroder’s pioneering sound, this banger changed the way people perceived pop forever.

And there’s a good reason for its immense influence. From the glimmering title track to the squelching closer, it’s packed with more electronic flutes and banging bass beats than you’d ever imagine a hypnotic half-hour disc could contain. Born from the same technology bequeathed to Kraftwerk in the late 70s, Moroder just let the man-machine keep its soul with his experimental brand of emotional, movement-inducing pop.

Joyous in its very essence and forever pigeonholed as the go-to music for cheesy celebration, his beats are programmed to exaggerate a sense of fullness, sexuality and voluptuous. All of which is just further proof of his impressive knack for creating something out of nothing. Because when you think about it, assembling an entire synthesized orchestra from a completely artificial assortment of pipes, percussion and bass lines is quite the accomplishment. And it’s not exactly like the dude had Garageband either.

What’s even more remarkable though is how catchy his hodge-podge of instrument samples actually turns out to be. It should be messy, but instead it’s a constant one-two punch of disco hit after disco hit, as we’re constantly floating back and forth from the pulsating highway drone of “Utopia Me Giorgio” to the ho-hum digi-drum of “I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone.” In short, it’s perfect pop.

And for what it lacks in poetical brilliance, it makes up for in pure bump factor. Because while lyrics mostly consist of the track title repeated over and over again by robocoder vocals, it sure makes for great background music at the very least. After all, “Too Hot To Handle” with its bouncing wob and angelic affirmations is optimal strut-your-stuff music. Take it from me.