"When Lady Gaga was a little girl, she would sing along on her mini plastic tape recorder to Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper hits and get twirled in the air in daddy’s arms to the sounds of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The precocious child would dance around the table at fancy Upper West Side restaurants using the breadsticks as a baton. And, she would innocently greet a new babysitter in nothing but her birthday suit. It’s no wonder that little girl from a good Italian New York family, turned into the exhibitionist, multi-talented singer-songwriter with a flair for theatrics that she is today: Lady Gaga. “I was always an entertainer. I was a ham as a little girl and I’m a ham today,” says Lady Gaga, 23, who made a name for herself on the Lower East Side club scene with the infectious dance-pop party song “Beautiful Dirty Rich,” and wild, theatrical, and often tongue-in-cheek “shock art” performances where Gaga – who designs and makes many of her stage outfits -- would strip down to her hand-crafted hot pants and bikini top, light cans of hairspray on fire, and strike a pose as a disco ball lowered from the ceiling to the orchestral sounds of A Clockwork Orange.
“I always loved rock and pop and theater. When I discovered Queen and David Bowie is when it really came together for me and I realized I could do all three,” says Gaga, who nicked her name from Queen’s song “Radio Gaga” and who cites rock star girlfriends, Peggy Bundy, and Donatella Versace as her fashion icons. “I look at those artists as icons in art. It’s not just about the music. It’s about the performance, the attitude, the look; it’s everything. And, that is where I live as an artist and that is what I want to accomplish.” That goal might seem lofty, but consider the artist: Gaga is the girl who at age 4 learned piano by ear. By age 13, she had written her first piano ballad. At 14, she played open mike nights at clubs such as New York’s the Bitter End by night and was teased for her quirky, eccentric style by her Convent of the Sacred Heart School (the Manhattan private school Nicky and Paris Hilton attended) classmates by day. At age 17, she became was one of 20 kids in the world to get early admission to Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Signed by her 20th birthday and writing songs for other artists (such as the Pussycat Dolls, and has been asked to write for a series of Interscope artists) before her debut album was even released, Lady Gaga has earned the right to reach for the sky.
“My goal as an artist is to funnel a pop record to a world in a very interesting way,” says Gaga, who wrote all of her lyrics, all of her melodies, and played most of the synth work on her album, The Fame (Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/Interscope). “I almost want to trick people into hanging with something that is really cool with a pop song. It’s almost like the spoonful of sugar and I’m the medicine.” Full article available at www.ladygaga.com.
"There’s more than music in Beautiful History, the latest release from Plumb. In fact, that’s true of every recording made by this extraordinary singer/songwriter since she first set foot on a stage or laid her initial tracks in a studio. But on Beautiful History she takes it to a higher level. As always, she reaches out to all who have found inspiration in her songs. Beyond that, these 20 tracks, packaged on two CDs, challenge listeners to move forward by accepting the changes that time can bring while holding close to the things that define who we are.
For Plumb, a.k.a. Tiffany Arbuckle Lee, Beautiful History marks a significant step, artistically and personally. In her early years in the public eye, after she had moved from Atlanta to Nashville and launched her career with a self-titled debut album in 1997, Plumb occupied a distinctive niche: an artist whose passions communicated powerfully whether set to pulsing electronic beats, guitar-driven alternative rock or sweeping orchestral accompaniment. Her artistry was too compelling for any one genre to confine; her unforgettable voice, presence and message embraced all who heard her, whether in concert, in numerous movie soundtracks such as Brokedown Palace, Bruce Almighty, Just Married, Drive Me Crazy and many other high-profile films, or on TV shows ranging from Dawson’s Creek, Felicity, Roswell and ER to commercials, made for TV films or on top of the Billboard dance charts with “In My Arms” in 2007.
Whether drawn by her sound or her sometimes enigmatic image, those who have discovered Plumb tend to develop a deeper identity over time. She sang from the heart about subjects as sensitive as sexual abuse (“Damaged”) and self-injury (“Cut”) – subjects seldom visited beyond the pages of private journals, transformed through music into expressions of love and promises of hope. Those who searched for meaning bonded to Plumb’s message as fervently as those who had found it; the result was to transform her audience into a community, diverse as individuals yet bound by the knowledge that we are all loved and created by God and none of us are ever truly alone.
Plumb reciprocates the trust of her fans with Beautiful History. To put it into context, go back to her previous album, Blink, released shortly after the birth of her second son, Oliver Canon Lee, born just 19 months after his brother Solomon Fury Lee. Intimate and blissful, Blink shared the full range of emotions that come with motherhood. Reviewers discerned from it that Plumb “is supremely happy and content in her circumstances” (Suite101.com) or welcomed it as a modern spin on lullaby albums.
All true, Plumb agrees. “Blink departed from the regular expectation of what a Plumb record would normally sound like. I had a lot of questions like ‘Are you going to do more of an easy-listening sound now?’ The truth is that Blink reflected where I was at the time. I was pregnant with a tiny little one already at home; my head was not into making a rock record. Having children has affected my art – and made it more intentional but it hasn’t taken away the rock artist in me. That’s who I am.”
Beautiful History honors that essence of Plumb. True to its title, the album looks back to landmark recordings from her catalog. Some of them, such as “God Shaped Hole,” were among her biggest singles. Others were album tracks that impacted her fans – or, more personally, Plumb herself – in some special way. “For instance, ‘Stranded’ has never been a single,” she points out. “We’ve never done a video or remix of it. But it’s my most requested song to date. And even though ‘Here With Me’ never had as much commercial success as some of my other songs, it’s been in films and movie trailers and covered by other artists and fans always come back to this one and ask if I’m going to perform it.”
These songs are fresh as well as familiar, having been revisited by Plumb and Matt Bronleewe, her longtime producer, especially for Beautiful History. Some of them are remixes, not widely heard outside of the dance clubs for which they were tailored. And several are brand-new, including “Hang On,” which Plumb had co-written for a documentary film project without any intention of recording it herself. This song, along with the previously unreleased title track, confirms that the full picture of Plumb has become more complex – and therefore more accessible to all whose lives have also deepened with experience. “It was and it wasn’t intentional that both of these new songs ended up being about hope,” Plumb says. “’Hang On’ is about … hanging on. You keep breathing in and out, never knowing if it’s going to stop in three days or 30 years. But when redemption comes, it’ll seem like you just blinked your eyes. And ‘Beautiful History’ is about all the messes we’ve made and the sovereignty of God, who picks you up, brushes you off and says, ‘Begin again.’”
Decisions … crossroads … consequences … These diversions, roadblocks and what seem like dead ends some times can intimidate those who are just starting their journey. Having moved from one phase of life to the next, Plumb testifies throughout Beautiful History that no matter how many shadows darken the highway there is light ahead and a home awaiting all who seek it. Not only that: You can get there without sacrificing the fires that fueled us in our early explorations.
“An interviewer asked me once, ‘How do you balance the facets of your life, being a wife and a mom and a writer and still active in your church and community?’” Plumb says. “I told her, ‘In order to be faithful to any of those roles, I have to be faithful to them all and I can’t do that by myself. I need community to make that happen.’ When I had children, it was tempting to put music on the back burner or even take it off the stove completely, not because I wanted to but because of the responsibilities of motherhood that pull you – and rightfully so. But now I realize that my children’s mom is Plumb. She’s not just Tiffany, although that’s part of her. Lots of mothers put their children even ahead of their marriage and their husbands pay a price for that. Their children pay a price for that. The people they could be influencing with the passions they were created to pursue pay a price for that. We have more to offer than we sometimes give ourselves credit for.”
Beautiful History, then, is a pivotal album on Plumb’s ongoing adventure. The intensity of her first works, the blossoming insight and tenderness of Blink, and her hope of the new songs find communion on this album, where wisdom speaks to the tune of shimmering, slashing guitar and the tempo of pounding rhythms. Equally important, the point is made that there’s much more to come, not just from this singular artist but in all that awaits each of us, three days or 30 years ahead and beyond as well. “I’m not here to be 19 again,” she affirms. “I know there are people who follow the dark and hopefully redemptive side of me and some who follow the mom side of me, but no matter what, I don’t want to alienate any of them. This is who I am. I’m back and ready to go.”
Beautiful History is being written even now. In so many ways, the story is just beginning. " Article source: Plumb on MySpace.
"Rune started his DJ career in 93.Having spent 4 years playing drums in various funk bands, the basic skills of beatmixing and cutting, came to him easily. Before releasing his first EP in 95, he spent three years producing hiphop tunes for local talents. Being fed up with blunt smoking lazy rappers that never showed up on time for sessions, he decided to work alone and this led to house music. While having a natural flair for music that makes people move and doing really good from the beginning, it was in 2002 with the Artificial Funk single “Together” that people outside Denmark started taking notice of what is now the brightest star on the Danish house scene.After the success of “Together”, Rune’s next outing became one of the Ibiza 2003 season defining tracks, in the shape of the haunting sax driven classic, “Calabria”.
Even in 2008 the track is still creating chart mayhem, as the covers won’t seem to end. Alex Gaudino - Destination Calabria, landed at top 4 in the UK single charts. Runes own version Enur - Calabria, also created mayhem across Europe in the summer of 2007 ending up with topping the American airplay chart in the beginning of 2008. A new updated version of Calabria has already been adopted by The Swedish House Mafia and more and is looking to be one of the big hits for the 2008 Ibiza season." Article source: www.last.fm.
Awakenings Festival - 10 Year Anniversary at Spaarnwoude
"Amsterdam's seminal Awakenings festival celebrates the 10 year anniversary of its conception this year with a line up that it's fair to say, is simply breathtaking. Even by Awakenings high standards, they've really surpassed themselves here. A predominantly techno affair, the action kicks off on the 26th June at 10.30am and goes all day until 11pm, meaning Holland's capital city will doubtlessly play host to an array of epic after-parties for those left standing. Divided in to six arenas, simply called A, V, W, X, Y and Z, Awakenings patrons are left with an array of enviable choices. Such is the strength of the line up however, that inevitably, there'll be someone you'll miss.
The V and W line ups are both open air affairs. The V arena features techno of the tougher variety with Swede Adam Beyer, Spaniard Alex Under and an always worth catching Collabs session by Speedy J and Chris Liebing. Our tip however, is to catch Bart Skils and Anton Pieete - two Amsterdam natives who will be sure to want to impress on home turf.
That said, the W area is most likely to draw the biggest crowd. Reminiscent of an amazingly strong 'Cocoon at Amnesia' line up, it'll feature sets from Ar:pi:ar's Raresh, live sets from both Reboot and Tobias Lutzenkirchen, as well as appearances from Loco Dice, Luciano and Minus kingpin Richie Hawtin.
The X arena is another techno oriented stage. This time indoors, it'll once more cater to those who like their techno with added attitude, playing host to a number of old schoolers such as Ben Sims, Surgeon and Steve Rachmad. It's the Y arena however, which really has us excited. As if attendees weren't already spoilt for choice, here you'll catch Berghain residents Len Faki, Marcel Dettman and Ben Klock. An impressive trio in their own right, they'll be flanked by Jeff Mills and a special live performance from arguably the world's most impressive and constantly innovative Dj, Gallic deck charmer, Mr.Laurent Garnier.
The lowlands odd fascination with harder than hard 140 bpm techno brings the likes of Dj Rush, Pet Duo and Macro Remus to the Z arena. This kind of stuff is not for the feint hearted however, so consider yourself warned. Followers of lush electronica and smooth house grooves will be keen to check out Gui Boratto, James Holden, Mathias Kaden and Osunlade in the A area.
All in all, it's a pretty epic line up then, featuring an impressive majority of the worlds most renowned techno purveyors. The good news, is that tickets will set you back a more than reasonable €50. The bad news of course, is that it's already sold out. Beg, borrow, steal or get your ass on to eBay asap. If you're in the vicinity, you'd simply be a fool to miss it." Article source: www.ibiza-voice.com.
"Alexandru Enache, better known by his stage name AlexUnder Base, is a very talented romanian DJ born in Constanta, in 1984.As a new comer he started from scratch in a small club, Club Five in 2002, but it didn’t take too long until he made himselfknow and got invited to mix in one of the most popular clubs at that time, “Club Primo”. For a while he was a resident DJ in Primo,mixing mostly house music. Shortly after that a new club opened, Club Oxford in 2003, and he moved a step higher, he started touplift and perfect his skills. The mixes are based on electro-house but his knowledge made possible a fusion between different styles,combining it with electro-funk, groove, minimal and tech. In 2006, AlexUnder Base, invested his income in perfecting the mixingplatform with some top of the line DJ equipment.
Little by little he got invited to mix on some Radio Live shows, he got himselfknown in clubs around the country by mixing in the major cities in Romania. In 2008, the deep house music style made a blast and AlexUnder Base got on the sound wave and started his offensive against house minimal, but his journey didn’t stopped here, he startedworking on his own tracks featuring various artists: AlexUnder Base Feat. Frissco - Privacy [ROTON Music] AlexUnder Base Feat. MiReLa - Feelings [ROTON Music] AlexUnder Base - 'What The Fuck It Is [Original Mix] Lucian BARBULESCU & AlexUnder Base - 'Keeps Me Stronger'[Original Mix] AlexUnder Base - 'Storm' [original Mix] CASSIUS - The Sound Of Violence [AlexUnder Base Remix] CDR Alexunder Base is a DJ full of surprises and craziness for you party animals out there, stay tuned and you’ll enjoy your time!" Article source: AlexUnder Base on MySpace.
"Pioneer’s new Rekord Box software delivers the goods…
Rekord Box is Pioneer’s digital answer to the vinyl cases that DJs used to lug around. In the fabulous old days of records, there would be a certain amount of prep that needed to be done in order for the DJ to rock up and blow away the crowd with their box of delights. Now, Mr DJ wouldn’t turn up at the club with his/her entire record collection because that would just be silly, and how many little helpers would be needed to cart all that around?
Instead, DJs would go through their collection picking out the tunes that would be appropriate for the night and arrange them either into set order, or mark up specific notes about the tracks, like ‘great vox’ or ‘big breakdown’, right down to BPM and key. With all this info and correct tunes chosen, they’d pack them into two or three ubiquitous record boxes, turn up to the gig and rock the discothèque. Pioneer have adopted this ideology — why would a digital DJ turn up to a gig with his entire hard drive of tunes, (potentially thousands of tracks) and then just hope that everything is sorted out, ready to play? In steps Rekord Box, a music management software application for preparation of a DJ’s digital music library.
Familiar
Developed in conjunction with Mixvibes, who have been in the digital DJing game for 10 years, Rekord Box mimics the visual look of the Mixvibes cross browser window, and should be familiar for anyone that is au fait with the Mixvibes Cross DVS software. It’s split into two main areas. At the top is the player window, and at the bottom is the browser window. The player window is designed to look like a CDJ player with play, cue, transport buttons, hot cue, loop and the track waveform display info all present and correct. The bottom section, or browser area, contains the main track library information labelled ‘collection’, and there is another, smaller navigation window to the left, which allows extra windows to be opened up in the main browser area. It also allows the user to choose which window becomes the main focal point in the browser section.
The collection window shows all the tracks that would make up a DJ’s collection in Title, Artist, Album and BPM order. There is quite a choice for the user to arrange tracks in any alphabetised manner. There is also a search window for quick searching.
The navigation buttons are on the left, and at the bottom of this panel is the info button. When a track is highlighted, hitting this button brings up the info menu. This is where more details can be accessed or inputted about the track itself and can be filled in to quite a detailed degree, with spaces for the genre, name of album, artist, year, BPM, label and extra comments. The colour of the track can also be selected here. This is another aid for the DJ to colour group a selection of tracks for easy identification. And just like in the good ole days of proper records, track artwork can also be viewed. The bridge window opens up access to the iTunes library and playlists, and the look is identical. Tracks can then be dragged and dropped into the main collection window, analysed by Rekord Box, and then prepared with hot cues, loops and more.
Live and direct
Importing tracks from other media into the main collection window is as simple as using the import function in the file dropdown menu. Here, a single track, folder or playlist can be imported into Rekord Box. Moving tracks around onto a harddrive, USB stick, or any other storage media is pretty straightforward, too, as tracks can be dragged and dropped from one medium into another. This can be accessed via the device button, and allows DJs to move tracks out of the collection library, and onto the storage medium that will be taken to the club. The programme can also be hooked up directly into the CDJ2000, via the pro DJ link, and tracks can be accessed directly from the computer, with up to four CDJ players being connected at the same time.
The player window allows for more detailed preparation and manipulation of tracks. hot cue points, beat grid and loop points can be pre-programmed and edited specifically to each track. Extra cue and loop information can also be stored in the memory banks and then recalled using the call buttons on the CDJ player.
The main display shows track waveform and full track-time display. In the track time display area, the audio can be auditioned anywhere within the waveform. It works just like the new needle search feature on the CDJ2000. This is also where BPM information and track timing is displayed. The waveform display underneath this can be expanded or shrunk, just as in audio editing programs like Peak and Soundforge, so that more of the track waveform can be seen in precise detail. The audio can also be “scrubbed” backwards and forwards, just like it was a piece of vinyl.
Pioneer haven’t gone out to reinvent the wheel, but what they are trying to do with their new CDJ range and Rekord Box music management software is give the DJ multiple choices and alternatives as to how they approach preparation and performing, incorporating new technology and options that are on hand and available to use. At the moment, Rekord Box is only available for those who have purchased either a CDJ900 or the CDJ2000, but if it becomes available to the masses, it will allow all DJs to play a set just like they did when 1210s ruled the world." Article source: www.djmag.com.
"“My ultimate goal is to be one of the best female entertainers ever, like those I watched growing up,” says Ciara with a glowing confidence. “You have to always be ahead of what you do and reach ahead and push yourself forward to be better.”
Her highly anticipated third album, Fantasy Ride is a testament to her growth. As evidenced in the sensual videos for the Polow Da Don-crafted hit, first single, “Never Ever” (with Young Jeezy) and the second smash single, “Love Sex Magic,” with Justin Timberlake (who also co-produced the track), she is boldly demonstrating her womanhood and sexuality without apology. “I am taking my fans on a virtual fantasy ride through music and my life. I have changed since my last album, but it’s essentially the same Ciara, but with added elements and spice,” she says of the new album, most of which she co-wrote and co-executive-produced. “Look at the first two singles. They both are extensions of who I am and yet so different. ‘Never Ever’ is very warm and ‘Love Sex Magic’ is aggressive. Both are sides of me and there is so much more to share. It’s all a part of the Fantasy Ride.” Boasting an impressive array of hit makers— including label-mate Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo, Missy Elliot, Danja, Dr. Luke, Tricky Stewart and The Dream—Fantasy Ride mixes Ciara’s trademark R&B and hip-hop thunder with a seducing dash of clever pop. From the alluring “Ciara To The Stage,” a love letter to her fans, to “Tell Me What Your Name Is” a hard-hitting song with with electro-snaps against a grand orchestral backdrop produced by Dr. Luke (Britney Spears, P!nk)— Ciara covers a broad spectrum of genres and attitudes on Fantasy Ride. All genres including opera: “High Price,” finds Ciara releasing operatic-like verses over a hard-edged rhythm. The song also reunites Ciara with Ludacris, the duo first collaborated on her first album with the #1 hit “Oh.” Her swagger is infinite on “Like a Surgeon,” a high-powered, ‘90s R&B-flavored single also produced by Stewart and The Dream. “‘Like A Surgeon’ is pure attitude,” she says with a smile.
Justin Timberlake co-produced “G is For Girl (A-Z)” and once again their combination is blistering. “I found out that Justin wanted to work with me just as much as I wanted to work with him,” says Ciara. “He is so talented and humble.” “Pucker Up” is a prickly party jam that finds Ciara taking the reins (“Everybody riding shotgun/ Scared to play the drivers seat/ Got the pedal to the metal/Going super light-speed/ I am far too gone”) and the Missy Elliot assisted, dance-floor, fire-starter “Work!” will cause commotion from house parties to house balls. “Lover’s Thing,” a silky duet with The Dream, switches gears with its new millennial Atlantic Starr vibe. “Keep Dancing on Me” (produced by Tricky Stewart and The Dream) is a late summer confection and has all of the makings of a classic with its romantic, laidback swing. “I Don’t Remember” (co-written with Ne-Yo) is a techno-lite “morning after” blur.
Ciara Princess Harris is an Austin, Texas-born self-described army brat who lived in Germany and California before settling in Atlanta, Georgia. The ambitious, self-starter scored a publishing deal when she was barely out of high-school. After a brief stint in a girl group, she ventured out on her own and teamed with noted producers Jazze Pha and Lil Jon, resulting in the # 1 hit, “Goodies” and the 3.5 million-selling worldwide debut effort of the same name. The album also produced two other #1 singles, “1,2 Step” with Missy Elliot and “Oh” with Ludacris. Other successful collaborations include the Top 5 hits “Lose Control” with Elliot (from her album The Cookbook) — for which the two won a Grammy for “Best Short Form Video”— and “Like You” with Bow Wow (from his album Wanted). She also enjoyed a Top 10 hit with “So What” with southern hip-hop duo Field Mob. Her sophomore effort, Ciara: The Evolution, which sold 1.7 million albums worldwide, continued the hit parade yielding the #1 single, “Promise” and the Top 10 smashes, “Like A Boy” and “Can’t Leave 'Em Alone” with 50 Cent. In addition to winning a Grammy in 2006, she’s received three other Grammy nominations so far and has won a litany of awards, including a World Music Award for “Best Selling Female R&B Artist”, two MTV Video Music Awards, two BET Awards, a Soul Train “Entertainer of the Year Award,” a VIBE award and five esteemed ASCAP Songwriting Awards. She has toured with superstar Gwen Stefani and is slated to tour this summer with label-mate Britney Spears on the pop superstar’s Circus Tour in Europe.
Infused with the ambition and drive she has possessed since she was a child, Ciara is also a burgeoning entrepreneur. Recently, she established a talent agency, UDT (Universal Dance Talent), which books jobs and establishes careers for up and coming dancers. “The ultimate goal is to have a dance school with a studio. The coolest thing is giving people an opportunity,” she states. “Some of the dancers taught me things in high school and now I have brought them along with me.”
Fantasy Ride’s packaging unfolds into a comic book, designed by Marvel Comics artist Bernard Chang and it introduces the world to Ciara’s stronger side she refers to as, “Super C.” “She represents the inner strength and drive that helps me overcome obstacles. My entire life I have had people tell me that I cannot be something and it has not been easy. The Super C in me turns the negative into a positive. This side of me helps me do that and persevere,” she explains.
“Whether it’s dealing with business, my creativity or my personal life, I have to be strong. When you fight and have faith that’s the superhero in you. Super C makes me stronger, enables me to walk with faith and be fearless. She is not an alter-ego, she is who I am,” the singer explains. “Superheroes don’t have to do extraordinary things. I feel like there is a super hero in all of us.”
Ciara is ready for the world to join her on her journey. “Goodies was the crawl. Ciara: The Evolution was the walk. Now, I am running,” she says. “Fantasy Ride delves deeper and shows a lot more of me. I am here to make it clear about what I do. Everything now is high-powered and intense. I am going full force.”" Article source: www.ciaraworld.com.
"In reproducing a phonograph record, the aim is to take out of the groove exactly the intelligence that was pressed into them. And the wiggles in the groove are meaningless in themselves. They have to induce exactly the right physical motion in a stylus before they make sense---which means that they must move under the stylus at the right speed and that the stylus itself must track the groove accurately, wigwagging as the wiggles demand. A turntable spins the grooves; a tone arm holds pickup and stylus in place. What we want from the turntable sounds simple, but it isn't. In the first place, there are three speeds: 78.26 rpm for the old-fashioned standard shellac records, 45 rpm for the little seven-inchers with the big center holes, and 331/3 rpm for long-playing discs. The speed must be exact in every case. If the turntable is slow, the pitch drops; if fast, the pitch rises.
Moreover, the speed must be exact at every instant of playing. A turntable that alternately slows down and speeds up will ruin musical enjoyment even though its average in each rotation is an exact 78.26, 45 or 33 1/3 rpm. The phenomenon produced is called "wow," a very expressive word denoting the alternating rise and fall of musical pitch which results from fluctuations in turntable speed. When these fluctuations are rapid, the term is "flutter."
HOW TURNTABLES WORK
The ordinary shaded-pole motor, which runs your electric drill or power saw, is no good for such precision work because any variation in the voltage of your house current will change its speed. Most turntables use a specially designed "induction" motor which is fairly stable in feed, though extreme changes in line voltage may disturb it (look for a tag stating its requirements: "95-130 volts" means disaster-proof). Even this isn't absolutely steady. The 60-cycle alternation of AC electric supply, however, is invariable (an electric clock practically never goes wrong), and thus a "synchronous" motor, which decides its speed by the frequency of alternating current, can keep a constant rpm unless a complete power failure occurs. It also eliminated the dangers of turntable rumble and extruded "hum." Getting this constant speed of the motor up to the turntable (in three different varieties) takes considerable ingenuity. Today's best and most expensive turntables use one of five methods to translate motor speed into turntable rotation.
A turntable does not become a record player until you add a tone arm, which must be separately purchased and mounted. Like the custom turntable, the separate tone arm solves a multitude of problems. You will recall that the cutting stylus rides across the record on a bar from circumference to spindle, following a true radial path always at right angles to the line of motion of the groove. For accurate reproduction, the playback cartridge, too, should always point straight down the groove, so to speak. But we bold the playback stylus in a tone arm, which pivots, making a curved rather than a straight track across the record. In a really bad tone arm, the playback stylus will sometimes be off as much as 10 or 15 degrees. The message of the wiggles is distorted, and the record wears unevenly and more quickly, as does the stylus itself. This is known as "tracking error." " Full article available at www.djsociety.org.
Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video has a new star in Heather Cassils, the lesbian prisoner that locked lips with the eccentric singer. Cassils was handpicked by Gaga to play the role of her prison yard girlfriend and Out.com chatted with her to find out how she ended up in the 10-minute internet phenomenon. In the new interview, Cassils dishes on the epic "Telephone" video, kissing Gaga, queer women in the media and gender roles.
Out: What was Gaga like on set?
Heather Cassils: She was extremely professional and very, very funny. After we did the [kissing] shot, she screamed across the yard to me, "I think you got me pregnant!" [Laughs] She was also very present and real. She took the time to ask people what they did for a living and who they were and where they were from. She was a very genuine, grounded person.
OK -- let's get to the juicy stuff: What was the kiss like?
I think we did several takes -- to be honest, it was a little bit of a blur because it happened so quickly. On the first, take her cigarette sunglasses were steaming a little bit, but by the third or fourth take we were both inhaling a lot of secondhand smoke [Laughs]. It was kind of intense. And it just kind of happened naturally because she didn't really give me explicit instructions to kiss her -- it just felt like a natural thing to do. In fact, I sniffed her like a kind of aggressive beast. And as we got closer, she actually put her tongue in my mouth. She just went for it. [Laughs] It was really good.
Tell me about your feelings about depictions of queer women in popular culture.
I've been in shoots before, and I've worked with other artists, and there's this thing where they try to femme anybody up -- especially when it's mainstream media. And there's this expectation that you're either going to fit on one end of the spectrum or the other, so I really appreciated that I literally showed up on set and was allowed to go just as I am. My body is a complete construction. I feel there's a lot of pressure, even in the queer world, to go trans or whatever and take these real extremes, and I don't really think there's anything wrong with that, but I do think there's a lot you can do with your own body.
Right. I think it's important to have people who complicate our notions of gender -- whether they be playing with butch/femme or consider themselves gender queer or just don't fit into the gay/straight/bi/trans spectrum so neatly -- because we still have a long way to go with our understanding of gender and sexuality, even in the queer community.
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. One thing I like about Lady Gaga is that strange rumor about whether or not she has a penis. I'd like the same rumor to circulate about me. [Laughs] The not knowing and the suspension of disbelief and what that does to people -- it starts with the body, but it can translate into all kinds of other important things." Source & Full Interview available at www.out.com.
"REM played their first concert in Athens, Georgia, USA, on 19 April 1980. Their line-up consisted of four drop-outs from the University of Georgia; Michael Stipe (b. 4 January 1960, Decatur, Georgia, USA; vocals), Peter Buck (b. 6 December 1956, Berkeley, California, USA; guitar), Mike Mills (b. 17 December 1958, Orange County, California, USA; bass) and Bill Berry (b. 31 July 1958, Duluth, Minnesota, USA; drums). Without the charisma of Stipe and his eccentric onstage behaviour, hurling himself about with abandon in-between mumbling into the microphone, they could easily have been overlooked as just another bar band, relying on the harmonious guitar sound of the Byrds for their inspiration. Acquiring a healthy following among the college fraternity in their hometown, it was not long before they entered the studio to record their debut single, "Radio Free Europe", to be released independently on Hibtone Records. This was greeted with considerable praise by critics who conceded that the band amounted to more than the sum of their influences. Their country/folk sound was contradicted by a driving bassline and an urgency that put the listener more in mind of the Who in their early mod phase. Add to this the distinctive voice of Stipe and his inaudible, perhaps even non-existent, lyrics, and REM sounded quite unlike any other band in the USA in the post-punk era of the early 80s.
Newly signed to I.R.S. Records, they gained further favourable notices for August 1982's mini-album, Chronic Town, produced by Mitch Easter. Their eagerly awaited full-length debut arrived in April 1983. With production duties handled by Easter and Don Dixon, Murmur surpassed all expectations, and was eventually made Album Of The Year by Rolling Stone magazine. As in the USA, the band earned a devoted cult following in Europe, largely comprised of college students. Reckoning appeared the following year and was permeated by a reckless spontaneity that had been missing from their earlier work. Recorded in only 12 days, the tracks varied in mood from frustration, as on "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)", to the tongue-in-cheek sing along "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville'. The songs were accessible enough but, as would be the case for most of the 80s, the singles culled from REM"s albums were generally deemed uncommercial by mainstream radio programmers. However, their cult reputation benefited from a series of flop singles on both sides of the Atlantic. Although received enthusiastically by critics, the Joe Boyd-produced Fables Of The Reconstruction was a stark, morose album that mirrored a period of despondency within the band. Peter Buck summed it up in the 90s - "If we were to record those songs again, they would be very different"." Full article available at http://www.bandbiographies.com.
