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Zero Time by Tonto's  Expanding Head Band
Zero Time by Tonto's Expanding Head Band
1971 | Electronic
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Tonto's Expanding Head Band were very early synth adopters. Tonto was an acronym for The Original New Timbral Orchestra which was a reference to what they worked on: the biggest polyphonic analogue synth in the world. Tonto was almost like a cockpit of synths arranged in a horseshoe shape. When they played it, they were inside the machine. Zero Time was hugely influential, most notably on Stevie Wonder who heard it, freaked out and asked them to produce his records. They ended up doing Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale. They also did a load of Isley Brothers records, including 3 + 3. Zero Time borders on New Age in a way. I'd never really heard music like this before – totally instrumental, the whole record composed on synths. I saw them live when they played at the Big Chill festival in 2006. I hadn't known they were playing [a line-up consisting of the band's Malcolm Cecil and his son, DJ Moonpup, with a portable version of Tonto performed]. It was amazing, even if it was a bit odd because they interspersed songs with educational stuff, little bits of interviews with Stevie Wonder and other people they'd worked with. It worked though – what a show!"

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Motown: The Musical
Motown: The Musical
2013 | Musical
10
9.0 (2 Ratings)
Show Rating
I loved this musical. My auntie who I went with said she didn't like the actor who played Berry Gordy (on our night, the main actor was sick so they used the understudy) she said he didn't sing the songs right. But as someone who is too young to have known Motown in its golden years, this was the best I could get. And it really was the best. All the songs are covers so i knew a lot of them and could sing along. And the actors who played the singers were so fantastic! Stevie Wonder was the spitting double of the real deal and it honestly could have been the real Diana Ross singing.... so believable! They even did this cute little bit were they let the audience sing. They picked some lady who was a bit shy but turned out to be amazing! And some over confident young fellow who is lucky we were too polite to laugh at his futile attempt at Stop In The Name Of Love...

Overall, fantastic play! Up there in my top 5 for sure!
  
Van Halen by Van Halen
Van Halen by Van Halen
1978 | Rock
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"If you're thinking I don't seem like a big Van Halen guy, then you'd be right. I liked parts of what they did, but what this is really about is a moment in 2017. Whenever Spoon play, we'll go through the same process in the build-up to stage time. The clock is ticking, we're sipping tequila and we're blasting music, turning it up a little louder with each track. The tour manager comes in, tells us we've got five minutes, and then it's time to pick one last song before we go on. For a while, this was it. It got us going! It was Alex (Fischel) who picked it, I think. It's sort of a David Lee Roth mission statement; all those fucked up lyrics, ""my love is rotten to the core,"" and ""you're semi-good looking."" We've had other pump-up songs - it was 'I Wish' by Stevie Wonder for a while - but this is one of those ones that makes you appreciate the art of the riff. You have to write a lot of them before you land on one this good. It's pure '70S rock and roll. I feel like we need some more of that nowadays."

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Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder
Someday at Christmas by Stevie Wonder
1967 | Rhythm And Blues
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This was also in the same house, and the second song that made me cry was on this album. I think it may have been 'Bedtime For Toys': it was a song about how some children didn't get any toys, and made me really sad that actually some children didn't get any toys at Christmas. It seems quite silly now, but it had that effect. Also, his version of 'Ave Maria'. It's an amazing album. It's not a particularly known album though. I had lunch years ago with Nona Hendryx and Vicki Wickham. They're very knowledgeable about Motown, as Vicki had produced Ready Steady Go! and was instrumental in bringing over the Motown sound - and even still calls him 'Little Stevie Wonder' - and they weren't even aware of the album. It just reminds me of a time when I was playing other people's records. My dad was a big country & western fan into Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. There were also six or seven albums by Yma Sumac, which were very bizarre and had amazing covers, and I would think ""who is this?"". I think he may have got them through Reader's Digest or something. They were quite exotic things. And also there were singles like The Monkees' 'Daydream Believer' and 'Everlasting Love' by The Love Affair and '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay' by Otis Redding. These were already there in the house, and it wasn't until..."

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Johnny Marr recommended Super Hits by The Four Tops in Music (curated)

 
Super Hits by The Four Tops
Super Hits by The Four Tops
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"""If I want to pick my favourite records then I have to pick something from Motown. When you have that kind of catalogue it can be hard pinpoint one act. In my case, it would have to be the Four Tops and therefore I have to pick a greatest hits album. I never had a problem considering the Four Tops as a band. As a little kid they were omnipresent if you were glued to the radio as I was. They were a constant fixture year-in, year-out. They would release incredible songs like 'It's The Same Old Song' or 'Reach Out I'll Be There'. On this album you get to line up all of these songs back-to-back as a complete body of work, or even like a single live performance. You can hear a darkness and, dare I say it, a rocking spirit that you won't get from The Supremes or from Smokey Robinson or even Stevie Wonder, mostly due to the presence of Levi Stubbs' voice. In addition, the music had to match his voice and his range of emotion that you wouldn't even get on a Marvin Gaye record. Not only were the songs powerful, but the arrangements and instrumentation and the performances meant that, as far as I am concerned, Four Tops rock like Led Zeppelin. What more do you need? It is a collection of incredible tunes. I bought this record when it came out and all my mates thought I was either really, really old-fashioned or a freak. I knew I wasn't old-fashioned but what was the alternative? The Boomtown fucking Rats?"""

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Sing (2016)
Sing (2016)
2016 | Animation, Comedy, Musical
The team that brought us “Despicable Me” and “Minions”‘- Illumination Entertainment, brings us the animated musical “SING”.

Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey), has achieved his childhood dream of owning a theater. Business have become bleak, the once grand Moon Theater is in disrepair. With the bank ready to repo the property, in a stroke of desperation, Buster comes up with the idea that a singing competition would be the solution. Aided by his trusty assistant, Miss Crawley, Buster begins the audition to find the next big star.

The audition brings out all creatures great and small; from Meena, the shy elephant with the gift of song (voiced by the exceptionally talented Tori Kelly) to Mike, the mouse (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) a crooner who is out for himself. The rag-tag bunch includes Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), the stay at home mom who feels like she has lost who she was, paired with Gunther (voiced by Nick Kroll) the dancer with the greatest self image ever. Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) the dedicated son who does not want to go into the family business with his dad, who instead wants to sing. Rounding out the performers is Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) the timid girl that breaks out into an angst-y rocker that just wants to play her music.

The story is cute and charming with some laugh-snort moments. We are given glimpses into the lives of each performer, providing us with the background on what motivates each to be in the competition. We also get some history of Buddy, how he came to own the theater, his best friend Eddie (voiced by John C. Reilly) and Eddie’s Grandmother (Older Nana – voiced by Jennifer Saunders, Younger Nana – voiced by Jennifer Hudson). The last third is the best part of the film. We finally see each performance where we were only given little glimpses prior. There are some surprising performances. I had no idea that Taron Egerton, who plays Johnny, the silverback(The Kingsmen, Eddie the Eagle) sings so beautifully. The highlight for me is when Tori Kelly (Meena) sings the Stevie Wonder tune “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing.” Her rendition lives on still as my earworm.

I was pleasantly surprised by the film, I definitely did not expect it to be quite as enjoyable. It’s not “Despicable Me” or” Minions”, it is a fun family movie that is worth watching that has laughs for the adults as well.
  
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Rick Astley recommended Crowded House by Crowded House in Music (curated)

 
Crowded House by Crowded House
Crowded House by Crowded House
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The moment I got into Crowded House, I was on tour – actually I went to see a Stevie Wonder gig in Wembley and I was like 'the guy doing the sound is brilliant.' And I thought it would be incredible if I could get him to do sound for me [which he did]. Anyway, I was at his desk one afternoon and he was playing Crowded House. I think he bought the cd for me and I just played the album and thought 'oh my God.' It was very different but very odd, there are some odd songs on there, especially as they were coming out of Split Enz as well who I knew a little about. So, I just grew to love it. I met my now wife as she used to work for EMI and had been doing promo for Crowded House's gigs in Denmark and what have you and had also been at Montreux – she was a mad fan as well. And 'Don't Dream' Is Our song, [shows me his wedding ring] – we have some of the lyrics inscribed here. I've had the pleasure – or the embarrassment – to tell Neil Finn this once. I saw him in a café in LA. And I thought 'do not, under any circumstances, tell him about ring' and before I knew it, I was going over telling him about the ring. I couldn't stop myself! By this time, I had seen them twenty times. But I was just there, in front of him going 'ummm..ehhh…ah fuck it!' But he was really polite and gentle and spoke about our mutual friend who used to be my musical director but was also producing Neil's album. How did he even know who I was?! I've seen Crowded House in so many different style of venues. I drove to Bristol to see them at the Bierkellar and so there was only three of them - there was no sign of Tim Finn… have you seen them live? No? Ah, fucking hell! They're amazing. I saw them at Hammersmith Odeon at one point and their drummer needed a piss mid-gig. So Neil Finn just started noodling and they ran around and swapped instruments and just started playing this nonsense song they made up on the spot. I just thought 'what is going on'! Every time I've seen them, they just make shit up. And I love that about them. Because they can be also so sincere about a lyric or a song they're gonna play. But where was I? Oh yeah, Bristol. Tim and Neil had just had a big bust-up. Tim had had enough. So that was quite a weird night. One of my favourite bands in terms of the music they make but also, as a live band, they're hard to beat."

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