Neil Young Recording New Album With Crazy Horse

Neil Young is recording a new album with Crazy Horse, according to a post on Young’s fansite Thrasher’s Wheat – and now confirmed by Rolling Stone: ”It’s looking good,” a representative for Young says. According to the fansite report, Young shared the news over the weekend at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, at an event with Jonathan Demme to promote their new movie Journeys. The audience “erupted in applause” when Young said that he was working with Crazy Horse again. Multiple fans subsequently posted on Crazy Horse drummer Ralph Molina’s Facebook wall to ask if the news was true. His response: “Yes!”   Read more...

Exclusive Preview of Upcoming Paul McCartney Album!!!

It takes about 10 seconds — and a glance at the album’s title — to recognize that Kisses on the Bottom (out Feb. 7) is not going to rank among the major recorded works of Paul McCartney’s life. A collection dominated by breezily paced standards, it announces itself as a good-natured trifle with its album-opening cover of “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” In addition to containing the line which gives Kisses on the Bottom its goofy title (in the tamest possible context, of course), the track is awash in the trappings of light vocal jazz: Instruments aren’t so much played as brushed against as unassumingly as possible.

Click here to get an advance listen of the whole album.

The Boss is Back on March 6

Marking his 17th studio album, ‘Wrecking Ball’ features 11 new Springsteen recordings and was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen and executive producer Jon Landau. 

 Said long-time manager Jon Landau, “Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can’t hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative of recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on ‘Wrecking Ball.’”

 A special edition of ‘Wrecking Ball’ including two bonus tracks and exclusive artwork and photography is also available. Reserve your copy now at Bridland!   Read more...

Birdland Featured in Goldmine Magazine

Our friends at Goldmine Magazine did a terrific article on us. We’ve reprinted here and if you’d ilk dot see the original, you can read it here.

You’ve gotta love a record store that loves music as much as Birdland Records does. The shop was named for Charlie “The Bird” Parker, and it helped to spread the “Norfolk Sound” throughout the nation. If that didn’t win you over already, the store’s philosophy should do the trick.

What was your first job?
Barry Friedman: Starting in 1968 when I was 14, on weekends, I used to help my father with the record store.
  Read more...

2012 Album Preview: This Year’s Best Bets

From Madonna to Prince Royce and from Tim McGraw to Timbaland and far beyond, Billboard spotlights which rock, hip-hop, Latin, country, indie and pop artists and albums to watch for in the year ahead. Who will reign supreme in 2012? Here are dozens of contenders we’ve got our eyes on.

2012′s Biggest Debuts

Meet 17 New Artists Whose Time is Now

Sales have leveled out, but artists can kick-star careers with a click. It’s a good time to be new. Meet 17 acts whose debut albums will win your ears in 2012.

Lana Del Rey, “Born To Die” track by track

It seems everyone has an opinion on recent Billboard cover girl Lana Del Rey. Now that her hotly anticipated debut “Born To Die” has widely leaked, expect the still-unproven live singer to elicit a whole new wave of ”she’s not that bad on record!” defenses all over the Internet in the days leading up to the album’s official release on Tuesday (Jan. 31).

So: is it any good? Well, at 15 tracks, it’s as puffy as the singer’s oft-debated lips. Many of the songs tread the same lyrical territory (good girl falls for bad boy, or vice versa; variations on lines like “kiss me on my open mouth” and “take your body downtown” are used throughout), and the noir production from hip-hop vets like Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Jay-Z) and Emile Haynie (Lil Wayne, Eminem) starts to sound stale on late-album cuts “Million Dollar Man” and “Lolita.”

Read the track-by-track review in Billboard.

HEAVY DUTY SUPERHEAVY

Here’s a first glimpse of SuperHeavy, the new, all-star group featuring Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman. The band’s first single, “Miracle Worker,” can be streamed here. The full album comes out next month.

18TH AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL PRESENTS GREAT AMERICAN BANDS

The 18^th Annual Verizon Wireless American Music Festival will feature three great American headline bands on the  5^th Street Main Stage, on one of America’s great beaches. The Festival will be held between Sept. 2-4.

Stone Temple Pilots will be the featured band beginning at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 2.  With more than 40 million records sold, STP has remained one of the world’s most popular bands for 20 years. They have had eight No. 1 hits and 16 Top 10 records.  VH1 ranks the band at 40^th on its list of All-Time Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.  STP also won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1994, the same year they won Best New Artists in the American Music Awards.  Tickets are $15 advance, $20 day of show.   Read more...

BIRDLAND IN-STORE APPEARANCE, JULY1

Come to Birdland and meet the band