Fresh Track: Beach Day “Love Is Strange” (Mickey & Sylvia Cover)
In 1956, “Love Is Strange” was a Top 20 hit for little-known R&B duo Mickey Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool. The pair went on to cut a string of moderately successful singles, before parting ways in the early 1960s. Each achieved their share of solo success with Baker working as a session guitarist and Vanderpool establishing a solo career before founding her own record label. “Love Is Strange” was a go-to cover for a variety of artists throughout the 60s, with versions from Buddy Holly, Betty Everett & Jerry Butler, The Everly Brothers and more.
Yesterday, Hollywood, FL surf pop trio Beach Day released their take on the classic. Beach Day’s version of love is strange is drenched in reverb, adding to the Phil Spector Wall of Sound vibe that the band appears to be driving toward. The song falls in line nicely with Beach Day’s pair of 7″ releases on Kanine Records from earlier this year. Listen and download the track for free below.
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Written by Rob Peoni
Turntable.fm Announces Winter Festival
The various chat rooms of digital listening lounge Turntable.fm will play host to several dozen musical guests throughout the month of December. Each weekday, a different artists will be on hand to chat and play tunes with fans in one of the site’s rooms. A tentative schedule has been announced, along with the lineup listed in the picture above (click on the image to view full-size). The lineup is eclectic, with appearances planned from everyone from Work Drugs to Umphrey’s McGee. An unlimited number of users will be able to listen and observe, however only the first 200 fans to enter the room will be able to chat directly with the band.
The experiment is the first for the social music platform. Turntable.fm unveiled a suite of updates last month. Billy Chasen, the site’s CEO and co-founder, told Mashable that the updates were designed to allow the rooms to host much larger volumes of users. Obviously these updates were necessary to accommodate the type of response that the site is hoping to see from initiatives like the winter festival.
The start-up has experienced its share of ups and downs since its launch last year. Turntable wowed the tech community by attracting 140,000 users in its first month and 400,000 after two. Since then, interest has waned. Chasen now claims a user base of more than 1.2 million with hopes that opportunities to reach large digital audiences will pay dividends in the future.
Connect with Turntable.fm via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni
Video: Whistle Peak “Wings Won’t Behave”
One of our first posts of the year was a Band to Watch feature on Louisville’s Whistle Peak. The write-up came in advance of the band’s February release of its sophomore LP Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls. Lead single “Wings Won’t Behave” was the LP’s stand-out track. The song picked up where “Gold Teeth” had left off on the band’s 2008 self-titled debut. It’s another sleepy, pop tune that proves irresistible. Yesterday, Whistle Peak shared the video for “Wings Won’t Behave.” Watch it below and grab your copy of Half Asleep Upon Echo Falls from Karate Body Records.
Connect with Whistle Peak via Facebook | Twitter
Written by Rob Peoni
Thought on Tracks 