‘Twas a fun day in music news. Lots of bits to choose from, and I’m real proud of the updates we settled on. Here are some other stories that caught my eye…
- Thomas Goetz tries to make the claim, in his new book The Decision Tree, that the Beatles, via 6 degrees of WTF, are responsible for the American healthcare crisis. An engineer at the to-be-eBayed Abbey Road Studios helped rake in so much of that sweet Beatles dough, you see, that EMI funded his little “CT scanner” project. And CT scans are expensive, people! So that’s why I can blame (not really) the Beatles for my medical bills.
- Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth will premiere 3 new compositions in NYC next week, as performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars.
- Yoko Ono (who turned 77 years old minutes ago) and friends Eric Clapton, Gene Ween, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Scissor Sisters, Paul Simon, Bette Midler, and more played a helluva show in Brooklyn the other night.
- MGMT’s second album, Congratulations, is scarily-anticipated at this point (poor kids), and their new album art has upped the ante.
- Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has stepped in as The Rev’s replacement in Avenged Sevenfold after Jimmy Sullivan tragically died at 28 in December.