Pause & Play (the music site)

A few months ago, P&P started adding artist comments to individual listings at On the CD Front, under the heading BTW. It has proven to be a big success - with the artists and readers.

Here are just some of the artists - old and new - who have taken the time to talk up their upcoming releases. Check 'em out when you get a chance:

SOUND team
We Five
Mardo
Sara Hickman
Counting Crows
iiO
Alice Peacock
Silversun Pickups
Slow Motion Reign

P&P loves going the extra mile.

For music fans, the passing of an icon is always disheartening. Desmond Dekker was definitely a personal favorite.

The ska legend, who died Thursday (May 25) of an apparent heart attack at age 64, brought the sounds of Jamaica to the world, paving the way for the likes of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and other giants of reggae.

Dekker, with his band The Aces, was the first Jamaican artist to hit the U.S. Top 10, with the infectious "Israelites" (on Uni) - back in the summer of '69.

I can honestly say "Israelites" was the first reggae/ska song I had ever heard. It sounded great on AM radio, even through a tiny Sony transistor. Back then, we didn't know it was reggae; we just knew what we liked, and fortunately, so did radio programmers.

"Honor Your Father and Your Mother," "Rude Boy Train," "Rudie Got Soul" and "007 (Shanty Town)" ... he truly was the King of Ska.

Thank you, Desmond.

Tom Petty's "Highway Companion" is out July 25.

Wardrobe malfunction aside, Janet Jackson is ready to unveil "20 Years Old" on Sept. 26.

Powerman 5000 returns Aug. 1 with "Destroy What You Enjoy."

# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 5:16 PM 0 comments

P&P Picks has been updated, and four new album and song entries have been added to the Vault of Fame.

Of all the pages to stay on top of, Picks is the hardest. Why? It's getting increasingly hard to find truly memorable singles. Commercial radio is unlistenable; Internet radio is good but the sound quality is bad, and satellite radio doesn't fit into the ol' budget.

If it wasn't for iTunes and getting advance CDs from some publicists, Picks wouldn't be worth the bandwidth.

Personally, it's just one of many sad commentaries on the state of the music industry.

Talking to the artists is great (only two out of hundreds and hundreds of interviews have been nasty in all my 20 years of music journalism); independent publicists and record companies are genuinely helpful, and best of all are the readers.

However, over the past two or three years, it's the major labels who have turned unpleasant. They make you beg for promotional copies. Some, not all, don't return e-mails or phone calls. Unless you're Rolling Stone or Billboard, they want nothing to do with you. They get indignant when you post information about an upcoming release before they announce it (even if you're only repeating what's already all over the Internet). Even when you give them the courtesy of asking them to confirm that a CD is coming out, they give terse replies like "We haven't sent out an official announcement yet, so I can neither confirm not deny it."

It wasn't always this way. I used to have lots of friends at the major labels, but nearly all got burned out and have moved on to working solo. The ones that have stayed behind seem like a bitter, unhappy bunch. Perhaps it's another sign that the majors' days are numbered.

Hi, Gerry,

I'm trying to track down the record label Metro Music, which is releasing
an album titled "Western Film Themes: The Essential Album" on June 13, and I'm having no luck at all. Do you know how I might be able to contact them? Sorry for pestering, but I'm at my wit's end trying to get ahold of them. Many thanks; love the site.

- B. Dawson,
New York City

After a little digging around, I came up with important information: Amazon (and all other U.S. retailers) have been listing the label as Metro Music, when in fact it's called Metro Doubles, U.K.-based Union Square Music's low-price double CD label. The poor folks at Metro Music, a music catalog company in Silver Spring, Md., have probably been fielding misplaced phone calls for years.

You can contact Union Square Music here.

BTW, Metro Doubles looks to be a formidable reissues label. Check out their latest batch of releases here. And, as for "Western Film Themes," it has a killer track listing.

Gerry,

This is out of left field, but do you possibly know if any retailers (online or
B&Ms) have actually received the new Bobbie Gentry "Delta Sweete/Local Gentry" CD? If it was delayed, it surely would've been announced by now. Release date (May 16) has never changed since announced, yet it's not on eBay. ... Raven Records' site is down more often than it's up, and they NEVER answer e-mails. ... Current online retailer status on this item varies wildly from "usually ships in 4-8 days" to "backordered (how can a new release be backordered on release day???)" to "in stock" to "ships in 1-2 days" ... crazy ... either it's out or it's not. I ordered a copy online, but have yet to receive an "item shipped" e-mail. Anyway, just wondered if by chance you had any inside info ... hehe ... thanks.

Take Care - Rob

Rob,

Man, I wish I could say I had insider information. But I can't.

First off, booooo to Raven for never answering e-mails. That's no way to run a business, folks.

Secondly, I've ordered imports in the past and, like you're experiencing, it took weeks to receive them. I think they ship 'em on a slow boat to China and then military transport to Antarctica and by bus north through South and Central America (just kidding). It does take forever.

If you don't receive it soon, you should send an e-mail to Amazon's customer service. At the very least, they should be able to tell you whether it's been shipped or not.

Go to this page to contact customer service by e-mail or by phone.

Lemme know if you find out anything. Nobody should be denied their Bobbie Gentry.

Several readers have pointed out that for the second straight week the formatting of P&P's weekly CD-release e-mails are funky. I'm receiving the e-mails loud and clear via my Mac's Safari browser; not sure why some other people aren't. I'm having my tech guy look into it, and hopefully we can get this resolved quickly. Till then, you can find this week's releases here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Reader D. Black writes:

"Not so well known but perhaps worthy of a mention, Ian Nelson, saxophonist, brother of Bill Nelson (Be Bop Deluxe). Ian played frequently with Bill in his post-Be Bop Deluxe work, most notably the Red Noise albums/band."

Thanx, D.B.

For the uninitiated, P&P keeps track of music-related obituaries on the What's New page. Is this morbid? Hardly. When someone the stature of Wilson Pickett, Lou Rawls, Buck Owens or Gene Pitney dies, it's big news. But, more often than not, there are artists who weren't huge-sellers, but they nevertheless left their imprint on fans (i.e., The Go-Betweens' Grant McLennan and Barry and William Cowsill). Many readers have said that they learned of those deaths from P&P's R.I.P. listing. For that reason alone, it's worthy of the extra effort to compile it.

OutKast's "Idlewild" soundtrack is slated for Aug. 22, three days ahead of their movie of the same name.

Pet Shop Boys' "Fundamental," out in the U.K. on May 22, has a stateside release date: June 27, via Rhino.

# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 4:59 PM 0 comments

Christina Aguilera's "Back to Basics" album is scheduled for an Aug. 15 release.

Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield makes his solo debut with the album "The Great Western," out July 24 in the U.K.

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# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 11:51 AM 0 comments

And now for something a little personal ... our fab four felines: Binky, JJ, Meow and Chelsea. (The view is from inside the porch looking outside, hence the screening.)

Dexter writes:

"Thanks for the great website! Keep up the great work!

"A couple of things:

"1) The page that lists the releases for May 9, 2006 has a header still reads May 2, 2006.

"2) You have links at the bottom of the each week's page for "Past 2005 Releases" & "Past 2004 Releases"...but there is no way to access Past 2006 Releases...unless you navigate to the end of 2005 & start forward....which is a bit of a pain."

The page that Dexter is referring to is On The CD Front, and indeed he is correct. And the changes have been made.

I'm very anal about P&P ... very anal. Did I mention that I'm very anal about it? But with any one-man show, mistakes can slip through every now and then. And it's always appreciated when a reader points out that something that gets by my attention. If you see something amiss, don't hesitate to lemme know.

On the left side of this page, you'll see a new link: Contact P&P. Pretty self-explanatory. Sure hope it helps cut down on the huge amount of junk e-mails. What can I say, I'm a dreamer.

Neil Young's "Living With War" will be in retail stores on Monday, May 8. Click here:

Obsession song of the day: "Suddenly I See," KT Tunstall. She's beyond comparisons, really. She's a true talent in her own right ... in a class by herself. Do yourself a favor, check out her "Eye to the Telescope" album (Relentless/Virgin). It was just certified gold in the U.S., but you'd never know it - radio certainly hasn't caught on to her. It's purely on word-of-mouth and her recent performances on talk shows.

This just in ... no rappers were shot to death today. More later as news warrants.

# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 12:19 PM 0 comments

Can we go a whole day without a rapper getting shot to death?

Obsession song of the day: It's an oldie-but-goodie - Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion." I'm old enough to remember when it was a hit, but it's funny how whenever I hear it now, it reminds me more of the opening scene of "Dazed and Confused." I have a sister who is 18 years younger than me, and she declared a few years ago, " 'Dazed and Confused' is my favorite movie of all-time. I wish I had grown up in the '70s. Was it really that fun?" I could only laugh ... but, now, looking back, the '70s weren't all that bad.

# posted by Gerry Galipault/Pause & Play @ 2:03 PM 0 comments

Four more albums and songs have been added to our Vault of Fame list.

Readers often ask, "How do you go about selecting entries for the Vault?" Easy ... I just listen to my iPod. Seriously. If a song (or album) strikes me enough to put it on my iPod and turn up the volume each time, it's Vault-worthy, IMHO.

How could you not have fun picking your all-time favorite albums and songs? It's one of the most enjoyable things I do at P&P ... even despite all the second-guessing from some readers.