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Team Gotye makes a stop at another major pop station, 92.3 NOW, where the singer is led to a recording suite to tape drops (“Hey, this is Gotye and you’re listening to Cannon’s Countdown, with Nick Cannon!”). Between takes, he makes small talk with a producer named Will. “What do you guys play besides me?” he asks.
“You know, your Rihannas, your Calvin Harrises, your Chris Browns – it’s a dance dance world,” Will says. “We’ve actually been playing this remix of your song. A DJ called Mike D threw some drums on it. It sounds awesome.” Gotye smiles, but his brow furrows and he stiffens up. “I don’t think that’s an official remix,” he says. The radio guy, caught off-guard, doesn’t immediately reply. “I love that,” Gotye adds. “‘We like your song so much, we threw some drums on it!’” He excuses himself to confer with his label rep, who assures him they’ll get to the bottom of it. Gotye returns to crank out the remaining drops. “Best of luck to you,” Will says when he’s done.
Next, Gotye’s due at the soundcheck for his sold-out concert at Webster Hall, an East Village ballroom with a capacity of 1,400. Months ago, Gotye’s people booked him on a small-club tour. Now they’re scrambling to add dates and scale up venues; he played Saturday Night Live. As Gotye climbs back into the SUV, Dave tells him they’ll send a cease-and-desist to the station about the remix, if necessary. Gotye doesn’t seem angry so much as irked. “It’s so funny,” he says. “‘It’s great how different your song sounds. Now let’s homogenize it for our playlist!’”
Inside Gotye’s Weirdo Aussie Pop That’s Invading Your Radio | Music News | Rolling Stone
Pink Martini and Storm Large!
On Thursday night my family went to Playhouse Square in Cleveland to see a performance by Pink Martini and Storm Large. It was the best decision we’ve ever made.
Pink Martini is an Oregon-based jazz/Latin ensemble fronted by a fantastic pianist named Thomas Lauderdale. The group’s lead vocalist, China Forbes, is currently on the mend from vocal cord surgery, and so the tour is instead featuring Oregon-based singer Storm Large. We were familiar with much of her work but not anything from Pink Martini. We learned very soon into the show that Pink Martini has some incredible songs of its own, and Storm added a superb icing on the cake.
For a taste of Pink Martini’s work, I recommend this complement of pieces about a guy cheating on his wife: “And Then You’re Gone,” sung by the wife (Forbes); followed by “But Now I’m Back,” sung by, of all people, NPR correspondent Ari Shapiro. To hear how they sound with Storm Large, check out her rendition of “Amado Mio,” “Brasil,” and - my favorite - “Splendor in the Grass.”
One of the event staffers told us Pink Martini will be back in Cleveland next year. This is kinda rude, but I kinda hope China Forbes is still on leave. She just doesn’t compare to the perfection of Storm Large.
Also, this was the first time I’d been inside Playhouse Square in four years, and the recent renovations are fabulous. Tonight set a benchmark for best night of my summer.
Top Forty radio was invented by Todd Storz and Bill Stewart, the operator and program director, respectively, of KOWH, an AM station in Omaha, Nebraska, in the early fifties. Like most music programmers of the day, Storz and Stewart provided a little something for everyone. As Marc Fisher writes in his book “Something in the Air” (2007), “The gospel in radio in those days was that no tune ought to be repeated within twenty-four hours of its broadcast—surely listeners would resent having to hear the same song twice in one day.” The eureka moment, as Ben Fong-Torres describes it in “The Hits Just Keep on Coming” (1998), occurred in a restaurant across from the station, where Storz and Stewart would often wait for Storz’s girlfriend, a waitress, to get off work. They noticed that even though the waitresses listened to the same handful of songs on the jukebox all day long, played by different customers, when the place finally cleared out and the staff had the jukebox to themselves they played the very same songs. The men asked the waitresses to identify the most popular tunes on the jukebox, and they went back to the station and started playing them, in heavy rotation. Ratings soared.
There’s no good way of saying that we have had some unfortunate luck. Last night our van was broken into just outside of Washington, DC and most of our equipment has been stolen. To our dismay, we have no choice but to drop out of the upcoming Philadelphia and Boston shows with Washed Out. We are asking for donations to help buy/rent equipment so we can get back on our feet for New York and continue on the rest of the tour. We hate to ask but we suffered a huge loss and anything would really help. Thanks to everyone for your support and I hope to see you all very soon.Sincerely,
Denise
Donate here.
FULL LIST OF STOLEN GEAR:
(Please let us know if you see any of this online in the Washington area!)
Custom black Pedaltrain PT-1 flight case:
Pedaltrain pedalboard
Empress Compressor
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr
Paul Cochrane Timmy Overdrive
Empress Multidrive
Boss PS-6 Harmonist
Strymon Timeline Delay
Strymon blueSky Reverberator
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+
Cables etc.
Red Flight Case:
Roland SP-555 Sampler
Stereo Memory Man w/Hazerai Delay
Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb
Shure SM 58 Microphone
Three power supplies
Cables etc.
Silver Flight Case:
Novation Nocturne Midi Controller
Macbook
Cables etc
Black Dream Cymbal Bag:
Alchemy by Istanbul 22” sweet series ride cymbal
Avedis Zildjian 16” crash cymbal
Sabian B20 18” ride cymbal
Set of vintage unknown/unmarked hihat cymbals
Extras:
Gateway laptop
Projector/DVD player for live visuals
Just another reason why I hate that so many people pirate their music. Indie bands don’t even make enough money to replace their equipment! Unbelievable.
