Even though George Harrison is his father, it’s still striking how much Dhani Harrison resembles the legendary Beatles guitarist. His music, however, is a great departure: Dhani and friend Oli Hecks have released their first album as Thenewno2, which borrows as much from Brian Eno and Massive Attack as it does from his dad’s band. Click below for more on Dhani Harrison, and check out the video for Thenewno2’s “Another John Doe” above.

• Hot Beatle Progeny: Dhani Harrison

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• The 2008 Rolling Stone Hot List

• Album Review: Thenewno2, You Are Here

• Hot Rock Gods in Training: The Answer

By Jim Harrington

Perhaps more so than any other act in rock history, AC/DC has stuck with what works.

The Australian group has evolved barely an iota, even as it’s switched lead singers, during its more than 30 years on the charts. The band found a formula that clicked on its international debut, 1976’s multi-platinum “High Voltage,” and has continued to milk those big guitar riffs and bluesy anthemic choruses to the tune of 200-plus-million records sold worldwide.

Indeed, AC/DC trails only the Beatles on the list of all-time best-selling bands.

The capacity audience that turned out to see AC/DC on Tuesday night at the Oracle Arena in Oakland certainly wasn’t looking for anything new from the band. And, in that regard, AC/DC proved to be a true crowd pleaser.

Sure, the hard-rock quintet _ featuring guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young, vocalist Brian Johnson, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams _ performed new songs from the recently released “Black Ice” album, but they all came across like faceless reworkings of the band’s old tunes.

This “Black Ice World Tour,” set for an encore performance Dec. 4 at Oracle, is the group’s first trek since 2001. Anyone who thinks the band might have found ways to spice up its live act in the last seven years needs to go back and read my opening paragraph again. The show is nearly indistinguishable from past AC/DC outings, and, not coincidentally, it seemed to work for the fans.

The 90-minute performance was a nostalgic thrill ride for some viewers, an in-person introduction for others. The age range spawned from 6 to 60, which illustrated AC/DC’s multi-generational appeal, and it wasn’t hard to spot mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, waving their “devil fists” in unison and sharing a chorus on “Highway to Hell” or “Back in Black.”

The show opened with the new album’s “Rock N Roll Train,” as an AC/DC-decorated locomotive came crashing through the back of the stage, and the crowd eagerly hopped aboard what would amount to an amazingly one-dimensional musical ride.

It would be inaccurate to say that if you’ve heard one AC/DC song, you’ve heard them all. But, if you’ve heard three or four AC/DC tunes, well . . .

The set list was a mix of old favorites, like “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place” and “The Jack,” and “Black Ice” tracks. The new songs, such as “Black Ice” and “War Machine,” were forgettable at best, obnoxious (“Big Jack”) or downright weak (“Anything Goes”) at worst.

No matter which direction AC/DC turned, to skate on “Black Ice” or to hit the classic song book, the band never managed to sound as good as it does on record. Much of that blame rests with Johnson, who, at 61, has a really hard time delivering the throat-tearing blues-rock vocals. He gave it his all, grimacing like he was attempting to pass a stone as fought through some of the more demanding lines, but he just doesn’t have much left in the tank in 2008.

The rhythm section was solid as always, not that many people are likely to be talking about Rudd, Williams and Malcolm Young today. For better or worse, an AC/DC show has always been about Angus.

The lead guitarist was his regular flamboyant self, duck-walking across the front of the stage, running about madly and hogging the spotlight. He also did his usual striptease bit during “The Jack,” which, thankfully, now only goes so far as his boxer shorts.

Young’s grand guitar-solo hurrah came during the main-set closer, “Let There Be Rock,” and it lasted for what seemed like days to this critic. He unveiled all of his regular parlor tricks _ the one-handed solo, playing while spinning on the floor, etc. _ and pretty much underscored how he earned his relatively low ranking (No. 96) on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest guitarists in history.

The crowd members, however, ate it up. They don’t want their guitar hero to change, nor do they want their favorite band to evolve.

Judging by this show, neither is likely to happen any time soon.

Set list:
1. “Rock N Roll Train”
2. “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be”
3. “Back in Black”
4. “Big Jack”
5. “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”
6. “Thunderstruck”
7. “Black Ice”
8. “The Jack”
9. “Hells Bells”
10. “Shoot to Thrill”
11. “War Machine”
12. “Anything Goes”
13. “You Shook Me All Night Long”
14. “TNT”
15. “Whole Lotta Rosie”
16. “Let There Be Rock”
Encore:
17. “Highway to Hell”
18. “For Those About to Rock”

AC/DC in concert; The Answer opens
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 4
Where: Oracle Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland
Tickets: $94.50, 925-685-8497, 415-421-8497, 510-625-8497, www.apeconcerts.com

Bonus video:

Last summer one the band's founding members, Pamela Morgan, led the group in a 25th anniversary party at the Writer's Festival at Woody Point in Bonne Bay Newfoundland, the former Orange Lodge -- the building itself had just turned 100.

Band alumni Kelly Russell, Dave Panting, Phil Dinn, Frank Maher and George Morgan were there, and  the concert also served as a Duff tribute featuring an all star guest list including Daniel Payne, Sylvia Tyson, Ron Hynes and Ellen Power.

You can hear the music that was played that night this night, Wednesday evening, on Canada Live (8 p.m.).

Please keep reading for the rest of the day's broadcast highlights:

Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) TBA

Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) A "Tempo Live" with the final concert of the CBC Radio Orchestra, before taking on the new name of the National Broadcast Orchestra. Conductor Alain Trudel leads this vibrant orchestra in a performance of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Also, just after 11:00, Camille Saint-Saens' 3rd Violin Concerto, performed by Phillipe Graffin and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) Drive says "Happy 60th Birthday Ozzy Osbourne!" with a double birthday shot for the man that includes The Beatles and Emm Gryner.

Tonic (6 p.m.) Tim Tam continues his week long guest hosting gig with some "mumbles, scat and nonsense lyrics," and a spotlight on American songwriter Johnny Mercer.

Canada Live (8 p.m.) [See Top Of Post] Additionally, Concert 2: Newfoundland singer songwriters Anne Devine and Craig Young, performing inside the walls of her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's Concert 3: Jazz pianist and composer Bill Brennan and friends.

The Signal (10 p.m.) Using everything from running water to styrofoam to recordings of brain waves, the Quebec collective Sonde (sorry, could not find a proper website, but that link will at least give you some info...) spent the late seventies and early eighties sculpting sound through installations and electroacoustic improvisation. Now, a new CD collects their material for the first time since 1978, and Laurie samples it tonight.

Nightstream (1:00 a.m./1:30 NT) Laurel MacDonald; Newton Faulkner; Mychael Danna

Barry McGuire about “California Dreamin’” :

“Well, it was my track. It was going to be my next single release. And when they were doing my backup vocals, they started doing a counterpoint with (sings) "all the leaves are brown, and the sky was grey," well that all came together on my recording session. And they heard it and thought, "that's the sound. That's what we want, that counterpoint thing." Then John asked me if they could release "California Dreamin'" as their first single, and I said, "Hey, you wrote the tune. Do whatever you want." So they did. They took my voice off, and put Denny's voice on, and they had that flute player guy come in and [he] did a toodle-toodle in the middle of the song. And it was a monster hit for them.”

It's 1963, and New York City is having a particularly dismal winter, at least as far as Californian Michelle Phillips can tell. She and John Phillips are living together, in their first year of marriage. He's 28, she's just 19. It's John's habit to walk around the apartment at night with his guitar, working out tunes. One morning -- early, before the sun is up -- he wakes Michelle and asks for her help finishing a song.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
I've been for a walk on a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
California dreamin', on such a winter's day.

For Morning Edition, as part of the Present at the Creation series, NPR's Susan Stamberg explores the history of one of pop music's most memorable songs. "California Dreamin'" was about longing for another place, and it left a legacy strong enough to cement a place for its performers, the Mamas and the Papas, in the pantheon of popular music history.

"The words 'California dreamin' kept going through my mind," John Phillips recalled in an interview before his death. "I stared working on some chords for the song. And I went through more chord progressions and things that fit the melancholy of the song."

Michelle remembers waking up to John asking for her help. He didn't like writing alone. In this case, her homesickness had provided the initial inspiration, and after they put their heads together, life in the city informed more of the lyrics. A few days earlier, Michelle says, she had wanted to visit St. Patrick's Cathedral. "I just loved going into churches. And that's where we got the lyric for the second verse."

Stopped in to a church I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray
You know the preacher liked the cold, he knows I'm going to stay
California dreamin', on such a winter's day.

The song wasn't destined for immediate glory. At the time, John and Michelle Phillips were in a folk group called the New Journeymen with banjo player Marshall Brickman (who would later write screenplays -- and win an Academy Award -- with Woody Allen). When Brickman left the group, the couple brought in Denny Doherty, of the Halifax Three and the Mugwumps, to sing with them. Doherty, in turn, introduced the Phillips to Cass Elliot while on a trip to the Virgin Islands. Won over by Elliot's impressive voice, the four bonded and moved to Los Angeles to form the Mamas and the Papas.

The foursome got its first big break when singer Barry McGuire, who was working on an album for Dunhill Records, introduced them to Lou Adler, producer and head of the record company. Adler listened to the group sing and was blown away. He still remembers that first encounter.

“Denny Doherty remembers it this way: “Cass calls up McGuire who's got Eve of Destruction on the charts, a huge hit, and is in the middle of recording another album. He comes over to the apartment, gives a listen; ‘Yeah, man sure, you guys sound really good. Look why don't you come down and sing for my producer Lou Adler.’ So, there we are at Western Recorders, Lou Adler in the booth. We sing him California Dreamin' and this voice comes out of talkback: ‘You got any more?’ Got any more! Sure we got more! We sang him everything we had. We sang him ‘Straight Shooter,’ ‘Monday, Monday,’ ‘Go Where You Want To Go.’ And this voice from the booth just kept asking for more. ‘What else you got? What else you got?’ Finally Cass says: ‘That's all we got. What do you think?’ And he says: ‘I think we can do business.’” Barry adds, “Lou heard them sing, and he thought Michelle was cute. That was his main comment after hearing them sing: ‘Who’s the blonde?’ But he did like their sound and they sang backup on my second album for me. They told me that that’s where they actually found their counterpoint. That’s when their sound really came together, singing backup for me."

"I actually thought that must have been how George Martin felt after he heard the Beatles," Adler says. At the time, they may not have looked like a conventional pop group: Cass Elliot was known almost as much for her size as her voice, and in Adler's memory the Mamas and Papas were "very dirty and funky and had probably been in those clothes for quite a while." Neither did they skew toward any particular genre of pop, drawing influence from their folk and rock backgrounds in equal measure, with intricate vocal arrangements as the most prominent feature.

It was this sound, and the songs -- including the now two-year-old "California Dreamin'," that convinced Adler of their potential.

Thrilled over the opportunity to record, the group offered "California Dreamin'" to McGuire as thanks for the connection to Adler. The song went onto his album This Precious Time, with the Mamas and the Papas singing background vocals.

Barry says that while they were recording his version, “it just really came together for them, and John asked me if they could release it as their first single rather than my second one, and I said, ‘Sure, John, it's your tune, man, you wrote it.’ So, they just took my voice off of it, put Denny's voice on it and put a flute on.

Adler convinced the group to record a version of their own, and in the fall of 1965 it was released as their first single. But it was hardly the immediate breakthrough they must have hoped for. "California Dreamin'" went nowhere in L.A., receiving only sporadic airplay. Michelle Phillips remembers that it took a radio station in Boston to break the song nationwide. And though the song never made it to No. 1, it stayed on the charts for 17 weeks.

The Mamas and the Papas released their debut album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, in 1966. They enjoyed a good deal of commercial and critical popularity, getting involved in events such as the Monterey Pop festival, which John Phillips co-produced. But the success was short-lived, partly due to the volatile atmosphere created by drug use and the intense interpersonal relationships within the band, and in 1968 the group split up. All four eventually released solo albums, but none ever achieved the level of success of their anthem to homesickness.

Story behind this photo: The Mamas and The Papas were in the studio with Barry McGuire, singing backup on a song for one of Barry's albums (Barry thinks the song was probably "Hang On Sloopy"). While they were recording the song, a guy named John Antler came into the recording booth. With him was the new Miss Teen USA, whom Antler was escorting to various places. Mr. Antler began tapping Lou on the shoulder, trying to shout over the music to get Adler's attention, saying, "Antler! John Antler!" Lou couldn't really hear what the guy was saying, and thought that he was mispronouncing Lou's name. So Lou shouts back at the guy, "It's Adler! Lou Adler!" Then the song ended and the guy shook Lou's hand and said, "Antler. John Antler." Lou got on the intercom and told Barry and The Mamas and The Papas what had just taken place, and they all cracked up. It was at that very moment that someone took the photo seen above.

So here are the songs they recorded with Barry McGuire

Love, Peace and Understanding

Progressive radio can sometimes intrigue your mind and make you look for bands that you have never heard before. Find the Time from PRESTO BALLET was that track that stirred my interest and led me to Peace Among the Ruins . Peace in this album is however disturbed from time to time with heavy prog tunes and hard rockin’ guitars, mainly introduced by Kurdt Vanderhoof; I was surprised to see his name in the line-up of this debut, as he is well-known for his heavy/thrash speedy riffs in one of the most cult bands of the 80’s heavy/thrash genre, Metal Church. The sound of Presto Ballet generally escapes this attitude, balancing between 70’s progressive rock and classic rock.

The extensive use of hammond brings URIAH HEEP to mind, while other classic influences such as DEEP PURPLE and STYX are evident. Overall, the music can be described as modern 70’s prog rock borrowing many elements from heavy prog and, at times, prog metal. Recent examples of similar music are, in my humble opinion, SPOCK’S BEARD and PROTO-KAW. The title track is a powerful opening, filled with complex rhythms and flourishing with keyboards. The vocals on The Fringes , though 70’s sounding, can be compared to STYX and AYREON’s recent efforts, proving once again the variance in influences. Seasons is the least interesting track on the record with obvious NEAL MORSE elements.

The simplicity of Find the Time is the standing point from where this album starts to get more interesting: a slow, melodic track, with acoustic guitars and catchy vocals and keyboards, that evolves in a prog-rock classic towards the end. Speed of Time is an ode to UFO and DEP PURPLE classic rock with a touch of complexity, similar to the title track. On the contrary, more 60’s sounds in the vein of THE MOODY BLUES and BEATLES appear in Sunshine which moves away from the approach of the previous tracks… but only for a while as Slave kicks in with heavy, dark tunes from the days of Metal Church, filtered through a more prog rock/metal baseline – clearly an enjoyable straightforward rock track. The album ends with a pleasant 70’s American ballad, amongst the weakest moments on this record.

If you are not confused by the number of different influences thus far, I certainly am… There are some excellent ideas on this album, but also some weak moments. Without doubt, the musicianship is at high levels and the style is an interesting 70’s retro sound with a few innovative elements from all aspects of prog. I will drain out all of my strictness here as I am expecting more from this group of skilled musicians in the near future…

by aapatsos


PRESTO BALLET Music Online:
recommended progarchives.com worldwide prog rock stores

• GEMM, Vinyl Records & CDs Rare Albums (Out of Print and Imports)
• AMAZON, find cheap, used and new stuff with the marketplace
• eBay, used or new | bid or buy now

iTunes has revealed its top-selling albums and songs for 2008. While Lil Wayne and Tha Carter 3 will likely finish the year as the Soundscan champ, Coldplay were the victors of iTunes’ sales chart as Viva La Vida ranked #1. Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through The Static and the Juno soundtrack rounded out the top three, with TC3 securing the four spot. Over on the songs chart, Leona Lewis’ breakout “Bleeding Love” captured the bestseller prize, coming ahead of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” Flo.Rida’s “Low” took three, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” four and Rihanna managed to place two songs in the top 10 as “Disturbia” ranked five and “Don’t Stop The Music” finished 10th. While iTunes remains the top digital music provider, it’s evidently still not the go-to place for hip-hop music, with Flo.Rida and Lil Wayne the lone representatives appearing on either charts’ Top 10.

iTunes Best Selling Albums of 2008

1. Coldplay, Viva la Vida
2. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through the Static
3. Various Artists, Juno (Music from the Motion Picture)
4. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
5. Sara Bareilles, Little Voice
6. Various Artists, Once (Music from the Motion Picture)
7. Jason Mraz, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.
8. OneRepublic, Dreaming Out Loud
9. Various Artists, Across the Universe (Music from the Motion
Picture)
10. Leona Lewis, Spirit

iTunes Best Selling Songs of 2008

1. “Bleeding Love,” Leona Lewis
2. “Viva la Vida,” Coldplay
3. “Low (feat. T-Pain),” Flo.Rida
4. “I Kissed a Girl,” Katy Perry
5. “Disturbia,” Rihanna
6. “Lollipop,” Lil Wayne & Static Major
7. “No Air,” Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
8. “Pocketful of Sunshine,” Natasha Bedingfield
9. “Love Song,” Sara Bareilles
10. “Don’t Stop the Music,” Rihanna

Related Stories:

• Atlantic Records Reports Digital Sales Trump Physical CDs

• Beatles to iTunes “Stalled,” Says McCartney

• Album Review: Coldplay, Viva La Vida

So what was Christmas like forty years ago? What musical gifts did you get (or give) in December 1968? Let’s see…I was a freshman in high school, 15 years old and really excited about the music and groups I was listening to that year.

The Beatles had just released the white album, so that was the big one. But there were so many other phenomenal albums and artists that debuted that year, or were just releasing their second records. In 1968 it was LP’s baby, the long players were king then. The world revolved at 33 and 1/3 RPM for most of us deeply into the music revolution that was unfolding around us.

“Born To Be Wild” was Steppenwolf’s first hit single, and it was a monster for me. I sat-in on drums for a friend of mine’s garage band at a VFW dance, and when we played that song, it changed the world for me. Suddenly I was cool instead of a nerdy geek because I could play drums, and the bad kids stopped pushing me around. That’s when I became a Steppenwolf fan, and stepped aboard their “Magic Carpet Ride.”

What else happened in December 1968? Police confiscated 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Two Virgins album at Newark Airport, saying that the cover was pornographic. Detective Sgt. Pilcher busted John and Yoko for drugs at Ringo’s flat in London, after busting the Rolling Stones. This detective was on a roll, you might say, by busting all the high profile musicians in and around London. Even Donovan got busted that year. I guess that’s why he was “Mellow Yellow.”

There’s so much more that went down that year, we’ll just have to tune in for our next post about Christmas 1968.

What do you remember?

By John W. Whitehead
12/1/2008

"You gotta remember, establishment, it's just a name for evil. The monster doesn't care whether it kills all the students or whether there's a revolution. It's not thinking logically, it's out of control." -- John Lennon (1969)