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MacDailyNews reader Chad reports having received an email from Yahoo! that the Yahoo! Music Store will be closing. Here it is verbatim: The Yahoo! Music Store Will Be Closing; Important Information About Backing Up Your Music Files Greetings, The Yahoo! Music Store, along with the ability to purchase and download single songs and albums, will no longer be available as of September 30, 2008. Songs and albums that were purchased through the Yahoo! Music Unlimited Store are protected by a digital rights management system that requires a valid license key before they can be played on your computer. After the...

Remember back in May when media gushed and fawned over a huge crowd in Portland, Oregon -- supposedly gathered to hear the words of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama -- but chose not to report the free concert given before his speech? Well, it has been learned that before the presumptive Democrat nominee spoke to a crowd in Berlin Thursday, two popular German acts -- reggae artist Patrice and rock band Reamonn -- entertained the gathering audience. Will media report this tonight, or just gush and fawn over the huge crowd again?

Remember back in May when media gushed and fawned over a huge crowd in Portland, Oregon -- supposedly gathered to hear the words of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama -- but chose not to report the free concert given before his speech? Well, it has been learned that before the presumptive Democrat nominee spoke to a crowd in Berlin Thursday, two popular German acts -- reggae artist Patrice and rock band Reamonn -- entertained the gathering audience. Will media report this tonight, or just gush and fawn over the huge crowd again? While you ponder, here's what was reported by...

BARLETTA, Italy -- Collecting music written in internment camps before and during World War II may n ot occur to everyone but that has been Francesco Lotoro's quest since 1991. "To allow the musicians to continue to work was also a way to control them better," said the 44-year-old Italian Jew. "At Auschwitz, there were seven orchestras." Lotoro has amassed some 4,000 pieces, all composed between March 1933, when the Nazis' Dachau death camp was opened soon after Hitler won absolute power, and the end of World War II in 1945. But while much is from Nazi camps, Lotoro's collection...

Ben Affleck, Kanye West, Scarlett Johansson among Denver-bound starsBY JO PIAZZA DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, July 20th 2008, 1:07 AM The stars will come out to see Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination. Denver is about to become Tinseltown - for a week. A-list Hollywood hotshots and music industry titans are set to descend on the Rocky Mountain city for next month's Democratic National Convention, where political rock star Barack Obama will officially claim the party's crown. "We are expecting lots of people to be here, big names, small names and everyday American names," convention spokesman Damon Jones said....

After 40 years and 1,500 concerts, Joe Queenan is finally ready to say the unsayable: new classical music is absolute torture - and its fans have no reason to be so smug. During a radio interview between acts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a famous singer recently said she could not understand why audiences were so reluctant to listen to new music, given that they were more than ready to attend sporting events whose outcome was uncertain. It was a daft analogy. Having spent most of the last century writing music few people were expected to understand, much...

This Day in Music - July 18 2005 - Funeral services for Luther Vandross are held at New York's Riverside Church. The artist died July 1 at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, N.J., two years after suffering a serious stroke. He is 54. 2003 - Barry White, the R&B crooner renowned for his deep, erotic baritone, dies at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he had been undergoing dialysis after suffering a stroke in May. He is 58. 2001 - Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard is sentenced in a Queens, N.Y., courtroom to two to four...

Banks owed money by convicted boy band mogul Lou Pearlman will be the last of his creditors to get anything if he pays back the $300 million he swindled out of investors and financial institutions, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp said after ordering Pearlman to pay the full $300 million in restitution to his victims that small-time investors would be given preference as creditors. Ten banks who lent him money, including American Bank of St. Paul, Bank of America and First International Bank and Trust, "are going to be paid after," Sharp said....

Today in music history...1996, Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was charged with drug possession after the death of the bands keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin in his New York Hotel room.1988, Michael Jackson arrived in the UK for his first ever-solo appearances. He performed a total of eight nights to 794,000 people.1986, Simply Red scored their first US No.1 single with 'Holding Back The Years'1969, One hit wonders Zager and Evans started a six week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'In The Year 2525, (Exordium And Terminus)'1969, Elvis Presley was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone...

Barack Obama graces the cover of Rolling Stone magazine for the second time in the campaign. After the first cover he got, I didn’t think it was possible to give him a more worshipful picture, but they have done so. In the first cover, they create the look of a mythical figure, no doubt the hero of their dreams. In the later cover, it’s as if Obama is too divine to even have words placed around him. Like it would be profane to sully a page containing his visage with normal language. Orthodox Jews won’t write the name “God,” believing...

nearly hemorrhaged when Lil’ Wayne approached the microphone at the 2008 BET Awards saying, “I am nothing without God, baby! I just want to say thank God, thank my family and thank Universal.” What god is he thanking? Does he worship some ancient god named “Misogyny?” There is a serious disconnect in the hip hop community that allows rappers to evoke the name of God in thanks while producing music that celebrates evil.

I was drinking at a bar the other night with an ex-Marine named Patrick. We were talking about music while getting our asses kicked at darts by a girl who looked a hell of a lot like Sarah Chalke from Scrubs (she’s the blonde one who’s really hot, but in an über-dorky way). Patrick spent some time in Iraq before being honorably discharged from the Marine Corps, and now he’s in college, studying sound engineering and growing his hair out. His goal is to become a roadie. “All I want to do is make the music I love even better,”...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, July 7, 2008 – He has the fast-flowing lips of a rap artist whose lyrics don’t stumble. His songs tell stories instead of just describing hanging emotions. He rhymes with passion and recites his own words as if he were creating them on the spot. Army Master Sgt. Isaac Alexis of Houston performs “We Gotta Go,” a song about soldiers leaving their homes to serve in Iraq, during an open-mic night at Camp Liberty, Iraq, June 8, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Michel Sauret, Multinational Division Center  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “You know, I...

My Dragonfly And Me If I could be a Dragon Fly and wing my way through the sky I would never be shy just me and my Dragon Fly! By moonlight we ride the wind chase the comets tail for fun by day we would hide from the sun our fragile wings would come undone On darkest nights we would use fireflies as our guide we would dip and we would glide through the heavens open wide and scatter diamonds in the night sky my Dragon Fly and me... And we would wing past our lovers silent in the...

LONDON (Reuters) - A film enthusiast has discovered a long lost interview with The Beatles from 1964 which has not been broadcast since. Richard Jeffs came across 64 canisters of film stored in a damp garage in South London, and when he started to go through them he stumbled across a piece of pop history. The conversation with Scottish television dates from April 30, 1964, according to the BBC, which played excerpts from the nine-and-a-half minute interview on the radio on Tuesday. It came shortly after the Fab Four's trip to the United States during which they were besieged by...

A request for assistance from all you patriot FReepers. My daughter will be the featured singer on one of our local TV morning programs this coming Friday, the 4th. She'll be accompanying herself on the acoustic guitar and perhaps the piano, depending on the songs selected. I would greatly appreciate your suggestions as to current/recent patriotic song titles for her to consider singing that have come out since the Iraq war, and that may fit the occasion to pay honor and gratitude to our men and women serving in our armed forces. Thanks for your help. - OB1

Alexander Stoddart unravels the relationship between art and politics ___ The great British philosopher Brian Magee, writing about Richard Wagner’s political life, points out that it is wrong to think of the Sage of Bayreuth moving to the Right in his later life. Magee’s proposal is compelling; Wagner leaves left-wing politics precisely as men who are maturing leave politics generally. They drift in middle age towards the static wasteland of metaphysics, and this is observed by those still remaining in politics as a move towards the Opposition, since they still cannot think of anything outside the political sphere. It appears...

Viana do Castelo, June 29 (Lusa) - A German citizen arrested in Lisbon by the Judicial Police for alleged paedophilia lived for two decades in Vila Nova de Cerveira, which was viewed as benemérito and has even been bestowed with the Medal of Merit of the county. "Na altura [1994], estávamos longe de imaginar que esse cidadão [Ulrich Schulz] pudesse vir a ser indiciado pelo crime de pedofilia, tanto assim que a decisão de lhe atribuir a medalha de mérito mereceu a aprovação unânime do Executivo", disse, à Lusa, o presidente da Câmara de Vila Nova de Cerveira. "At the...

It is Sunday and I am in the mood to probe the interest at FR for one of America's all time greatest artists and more specifically, classical composers: Charles Ives. I learned about him via composer, lyricist, and Brian Wilson collaborator Van Dyke Parks (also a true American original). And my love has, since it began in 1990 or thereabouts, never diminished). I have all of his recorded works and would not want to single out one masterpiece, they're all great, with the possible exception of the First Symphony (mainly because there's still too much Schumann and Brahms in there,...

The Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama showcased his diverse musical taste, ranging from Bob Dylan to Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen, after revealing the playlist on his iPod. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, to be published this Friday, the Illinois senator said he had "pretty eclectic tastes". The list of bands reads like the acts at a summer music festival, with the Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow and Ludacris all in the mix.

The "Musicians Who Turn 50", "Musicians Who Turn 60", "Favorite Drummer" and "Favorite Guitarist" were such hit threads on FR, I've decided to do this one. Who is your favorite SONGWRITING DUO? We all know that Lennon-McCartney were amazing together and possibly the best songwriting duo ever. They might be mentioned several times on this thread. If you choose John & Paul, be specific about which song and lyric(s).

...Governments from Los Angeles to Scotland may not much like President Hugo Chavez's brand of Cuba-inspired socialism but they will soon try to replicate Venezuela's achievements on their own streets... ...About 200 children gather for four hours of music and choral practice six days a week in what Venezuelans simply call "The System." "The orchestra is my family, nothing has ever grabbed me like this before," said Francisco Henriques, 14, practicing trombone on the roof of his hillside home, accompanied by his cat, Trumpet. "Music is everything I have ever wished for." As well as instilling discipline and self-esteem, the...

If you're in the Austin/Ft. Hood area and have no plans for July 4th weekend, I'm putting on a SUPPORT THE TROOPS punk rock/rockabilly show to raise funds for care packages to our troops. All American Pinups, booze, music, pre '64 classic cars.... Raffles and Giveaways! July 4th in Austin at The Hole In The Wall and July 5th in Harker Heights/Ft. Hood at The Music Vault

Amy Winehouse could struggle to catch her breath and hit high notes as a result of suffering emphysema, a lung expert has said. The singer's father spoke out at the weekend about his worries that Winehouse could lose her life unless she kicks her drug habit. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Mitch Winehouse said his daughter - who was rushed to hospital recently after collapsing - had developed the chronic lung disease emphysema, possibly brought on by smoking crack cocaine.

....Every May 24 for the last 35 years Mr. Majaw, 61, and one of India’s original rock ’n’ roll bards, has held a homespun celebration of Mr. Dylan’s birth. This year’s version was held in All Saints Hall, next to the church of the same name. Mr. Majaw pranced around the auditorium singing, “Everybody must get stoned.” Two schoolgirls, who described their repertory as mostly Mariah Carey, sang “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” in two-part harmony, having learned it two days before. A poet, Sonny Khyriem, stood up and read a paean: “The voice bathed with protests/Mingled with human rights/Becomes an...

I am really curious on this one. I became a fan in 1975, with 'Born To Run', and was dazzled by the force, power, Spector-like grandeur. It was the epitome of 'Americana' for me. I saw him live three times, last in 1987. However, my fandom abated around 1990 or so, but I kept following what he did. Uneven albums, band changes, divorce, a new and happy marriage. Like any other artist, he has his shortcomings, one of these being a tendency towards bombast, pathos, a bit too much of 'grandeur'. But I think he does have his heart in...

Video: I Got a Crush... on Obama This is a hoot. I think it about says it all.

Today in music history...2004, organisers at a Paul McCartney gig hired three jets to spray dry ice into the clouds so it wouldn’t rain during the concert. The gig in Petersburg, Russia, was McCartney’s 3,000 concert appearance.2000, The Ronettes were awarded $2.6 million in “back earnings” from Phil Spector. New York judge Paula Omansky ruled that the legendary producer had cheated them out of royalties.1992, Mariah Carey scored her sixth US No.1 single with 'I'll Be There'. The song was also a US No.1 for The Jackson Five in 1970. 1986, Acts appearing at the fourth annual 'Prince's Trust Rock...

I am not really into the music scene of today, as I believe that everything that is touted as 'new' or 'the next big thing' always ends up being something somebody else already did. I have lately found myself digging back into music that really was innovative and ground-breaking. A lot of which was done before I was even around (I am 30). For example, Steely Dan, King Crimson, Yes, David Bowie... I have always been fascinated by Frank Zappa, as he is basically universally thought of as a musical genius, but just have never really dove into his musical...

Ok, so I'm surfing my XM Radio channels and I hear the most amazing thing: "Ring of Fire," sung by Johnny Cash . . . in Spanish ("Anillo de Fuego"). Then I look at the scanner to see what channel I'm on---I thought I picked "Classic Rock"---and indeed, I'm on the right channel. It's the "Bob Dylan Show," where he hosts a show with his personal favorites. Ok, this sounds interesting. Dylan (I'm sure you can here his voice here) then says, "In any language, we don't want to end up in that ring of fire. That leads me to...

The Poetry and Music of War By Yervand Kochar Being the first modern war, the American Civil War was, in a sense, the last romantic one. In spite of having highly distinct political and economic motivations, the war was essentially about something different. It was about a lifestyle changing, a whole Southern micro-civilization transforming. As a result, the spring of slavery, which was moving the Southern mechanism, popped out of the machine. Emotions suppressed, expressions silenced, flowed out of the plantation soil and the sound accompanying liberation was that of the first uniquely American music: the Negro spiritual. “Spirituals were...

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ALICIA KEYS Just in case you didn't know it, Alicia Keys has informed us that Gangsta Rap was invented, apparently by white people, to get black people to kill each other. Also ... just in case you were aware of the bi-coastal feud between Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. ... that was a plot by the government and the media "to stop another great black leader from emerging."

Some times people have bad hair days, but not Amy Winehouse! She has adventures with her hair every day. This time she went for the Marge Simpson look with her raised hair. She only forgot to color it in blue.

People Who Can't Carry A Tune Either Don't Know Or Don't Care, Study Shows ScienceDaily (Jun. 15, 2008) — Acoustical analyses of people belting out "Jingle Bells," "Brother John" and a Polish birthday song, "Sto Lat" reveal that most people sing in tune and in time, even without musical training. Moreover, two distinct "phenotypes", or recognizable forms, of impaired singing exist that are linked to perceptual abilities. Establishing this linkage is helpful for designing a music education curriculum. Dr. Simone Dalla Bella and colleagues from the University of Finance and Management in Warsaw, Poland, set out to evaluate the proficiency...

'POP star Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees has boosted the Sunday Express Honour The Bomber Boys crusade by organising a fund-raising concert next month. Thousands of readers have already backed our demands for a memorial to the forgotten heroes of RAF Bomber Command. Now Robin, who strongly believes the Second World War veterans have been poorly treated by successive governments, has stepped in with plans for a concert that will help fund the mem­orial in London – the first to commem­orate the 55,000 who died. Robin has never performed solo in Britain before, and his decision to do so...

Bruce and the Band, Because the Night, live.

A Cook County jury on Friday acquitted R&B superstar R. Kelly of child pornography charges, marking the end of a high-profile trial rich in courtroom drama and celebrity intrigue. The 41-year-old singer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, long denied charges that he videotaped himself engaging in a variety of sex acts with his then-underage goddaughter. Authorities said the female in the video could have been as young as 13 at the time. The jury of nine men and three women deliberated for 7 ½ hours before finding Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts. As the verdicts kept coming...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Vinny Appice, Anita Baker, Jello Biafra, Andrea Bocelli, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shaun Cassidy, Darby Crash, Randy DeBarge, Bruce Dickinson, Thomas Dolby, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Siobhan Fahey, Neil Finn, Bela Fleck, Martin Fry, Lisa Germano, Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Tony James, Joan Jett, Al Jourgensen, Nik Kershaw, Sammy Kershaw, Limahl, Madonna, Bird McIntyre, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Alannah Miles, Gary Numan, Michael Penn, Vicki Peterson, Prince, Stacey Q, Will Sergeant, Nikki Sixx, David Sylvian, Toyah, Tanya Tucker, Paul Weller, Jane Wiedlin, Jah Wobble.

There was black, there was white, and then there was black and white: jazz and rock and electric blues and stuff so new you couldn’t categorize it. All along, there was wondrous pandemonium, fevered mingling, one tribe swapping their pretty beads and shiny mirrors for the pelts and dried fish of another. For that we should be grateful, or at least resigned, because American culture has one great theme—race—and one great art form—pop music—and the two will always be inseparable. Race and pop music will always be the twin helices of America’s cultural DNA, or so I would like to...

Here We Go Chris Cornell-You Know My Name The Cranberries-Bosnia The Cure-This Is a Lie Chris Rea-On The Beach Coldplay-Trouble Carole King-It's Too Late Chic-I Want our Love The Christians-Forgotten Town Counting Crows-Colorblind Cliff Richard-The Day I met Marie

Today In Music History - June 06 2006 - Billy Preston, the exuberant keyboardist who landed dream gigs with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and enjoyed his own series of hit singles, including "Outta Space" and "Nothing From Nothing," dies at the age of 59. 2006 - Jazzman Hilton Ruiz has dies from complications following an accident in New Orleans. Ruiz had turned 54 barely a week earlier. 2002 - Founding Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby succumbs to AIDS after an eight-year battle with the disease. Crosby, who co-wrote many of the pop-metal band's best-known songs, is 42. 2001 -...

The Democratic National Convention has its own orchestra: 22 studio musicians, most all of whom have played for Hollywood film scores. Over the next few days and nights, the musicians will help create the convention's soundtrack: Background music to set up the main action; songs and tunes to set the mood. "Music can bring a tear to your eye. It can make you jump out of your seat and applaud, and that's why we're here," said Harold Wheeler, the convention's music director and conductor of the orchestra. Convention music won't just play to emotions. It will play politics. Democratic planners...

English progressive rock act Yes has canceled its upcoming 26-city North American amphitheater and area tour, citing its founding vocalist Jon Anderson's recent health problems. "In the wake of my recent respiratory attack, doctors have advised me to spend the coming months resting and recovering," Anderson said in a statement. "I'd like everyone know how deeply disappointed I am by this turn of events." Anderson was admitted to a hospital last month after suffering from an asthma attack. Doctors have diagnosed the singer with acute respiratory failure, and have suggested he rest for at least six months. Ticket refunds will...

Bo Diddley has died...details upcoming

My Dragon Fly and Me If I could be a Dragon Fly and wing my way through the sky I would never be shy just me and my Dragon Fly! By moonlight we ride the wind chase the comets tail for fun by day we would hide from the sun our fragile wings would come undone On darkest nights we would use fireflies as our guide we would dip and we would glide through the heavens open wide and scatter diamonds in the night sky my Dragon Fly and me... And we would wing past our lovers silent in...

Mexico: the danger of 'drug ballads'  Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/06/2008       In the past two years, 15 mexican musicians have been murdered. Their crime: to fall foul of the country's drug barons. Ioan Grillo reports It was three in the morning and the Mexican group Banda Guasavena were driving back from a concert at a cockfighting festival, just over the border from Texas. The audience had been even more rapturous than usual and Fausto Castro-Elizalde, the band's horn player, recalls them chatting happily about the evening.   Grupo Cartel de Sinaloa pose in a cemetery full of extravagant...

A former Gainesville radio personality, Elvis Presley backup singer and emcee at Lanierland Music Park in Cumming has died. Hugh Jarrett was the bass singer for Elvis Presley’s back up quartet, the Jordanaires from 1954 to 1958. Hugh’s voice can be heard on over 50 of Elvis’ recordings including the $10 million seller Don’t Be Cruel. During part of his career, when rock 'n' roll was in its heyday, Jarrett was a radio disc jockey, known as "Big Hugh Baby." That was when he was heard virtually coast-to-coast on WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee, and when he worked for WPLO in...

Yannick Bigard, who has been line dancing for four years, told Sud Ouest, her local daily: “I couldn't imagine going without the costume or at least the boots and the hat. I spend my time imagining new choreographies.” Mr Chauveau said the trend illustrated France's “complicated and ambiguous” relationship with the United States. “We love American magic and the American dream,” he said. “But we hate Americans when we confront the hard reality of their behaviour throughout the world. We go for the cowboy hats but not George Bush.” In a peculiarly Gallic approach to the phenomenon, French civil servants...

France brings line dancing craze under state control They turn out in their hundreds in Stetsons and boots as hits such as the Crazy Foot Mambo and the Cowboy Strut echo around their village halls. They are drawn by a love of American culture - although definitely not American politics - and a passion for line dancing, which enables them to swing but avoid all human contact. Now country and western has become so big in France that the country's bureaucrats have decided to bring the craze under state control. The French administration has moved to create an official country...

Today in music history...2007, a leaked copy of the new White Stripes album ‘Icky Thump’ was played completely on Chicago's radio station Q101-WKQX. Jack White personally called the US radio station from Spain, where he was touring, to voice his displeasure.2004, Madonna was forced to pay out £250,000 in a lawsuit after copying ideas by the late French erotic photographer Guy Burton. Madonna had admitted that the video for her song ‘Hollywood’ was inspired by Burton. 1992, The Black Crowes went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion'1988, Leonard Cohen played the first...