The “Amen break” is one of music’s most beloved and essential samples, ranking up there with “Funky Drummer” and “Think (About It)” as the most used breaks in hip-hop, dance and rock. Snatched from the Winstons’ 1969 track “Amen, Brother,” the sample has appeared at various speeds in the music of N.W.A, Nine… Source: RollingStone Link: 'Amen Break' […]

Ellie Goulding topped the British music singles chart for the third week running on Sunday, the Official Charts Company said, with her track "Love Me Like You Do" breaking the all-time audio streaming record. The song, which appears in the "Fifty Shades of Grey" movie, was streamed 2.6 million times over the last seven days, […]

Rush are celebrating their 40th anniversary with a gift to fans dubbed “12 Months of Rush,” with the prog-rock trio offering up a vinyl reissue of an album culled from the band’s Mercury Records catalog in chronological order every month in 2015. Following January’s Fly by Night and February’s Caress of… Source: RollingStone Link: Rush Reveal […]

Trumpeter Clark Terry, a jazz legend who in his seven decades as a musician and bandleader collaborated with artists ranging from Quincy Jones and Duke Ellington to Charles Mingus and Count Basie, passed away Saturday following complications from a long battle with diabetes. He was 94. For his contributions to jazz… Source: RollingStone Link: Jazz Great […]

Online vendors are flooded with shirts memorializing rockers like Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse, with much of that clothing produced without the authorization of the artists’ estate. However, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision could change all that after the court sided with Bob Marley’s heirs… Source: RollingStone Link: Bob Marley's […]

Following a month of eclectic pairings for “Mash Up Mondays,” Jimmy Kimmel Live! will cap off the series with a performance of “Regulate” by rapper Warren G and saxophonist Kenny G. The debut of “Kenny and Warren G,” as Kimmel has dubbed them, performing the west coast rap classic originally by Warren G… Source: RollingStone Link: Kenny […]

The mysterious cover of Joy Division’s 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures – a black-and-white visualization of pulsar data that looked like digital mountain peaks – is the subject of a new, in-depth Scientific American article. The magazine traced the origins of the “computer-generated illustration” to its first publication around 1970. A few… Source: RollingStone Link: Joy […]

Metallica’s James Hetfield has faced his battles with addiction. In 2001, the singer entered rehab during the recording of the heavy metal band’s St. Anger to combat against “alcohol and other addictions”; Hetfield’s struggles at the time were documented in the film Some Kind of Monster. Since kicking his habits,… Source: RollingStone Link: Metallica's James […]

There’s a certain romance that surrounds the Mavericks. Maybe it’s their Latin-tinged party sound. Maybe it’s Raul Malo’s enveloping tenor. Or maybe it’s just because somewhere right now, babies are no doubt being made to their music. Whatever the reason, the Miami-born, Nashville-based group is arguably the Last Great Romantic… Source: RollingStone Link: The Mavericks […]

Few rock & roll bands have been so transformed, so immediately, by a new voice. Even fewer are ready – and open – to such extreme renewal. Founded in late 1965 in a San Francisco just at the dawn of its own socio-chemical metamorphosis, Big Brother and the Holding Company… Source: RollingStone Link: Fricke's Picks […]