Formerly Indepedent Artist Reviews

The tragedy of Michael Jackson, Sky Saxon R.I.P.

Written by Joe Viglione

Thursday, 25 June 2009 14:26

SKY SAXON IS DEAD! The pioneering lead singer of The Seeds passed away on the same days as Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, a day after Ed McMahon http://www.q13fox.com/entertainment/sns-ap-us-obit-saxon,0,5324748.story Sky was scheduled to be interviewed for Gemmzine; a number of our colleagues live in Austin, where Saxon passed away, and Helanie Saad had put us in touch with Sky. R.I.P. His Seeds and solo records were reviewed on Allmusic.com by yours truly, the editor. An overview of his catalog will be put together for Gemmzine this weekend. Here's my review of Red Planet on AMG http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:d9fyxqusldde Red Planet CD by Sky Saxon on GEMM http://www1.gemm.com/ddc/search.pl?&disp_ad_format_mode=0&artist=SAXON%2CSKY&price_above=.001&&title=RED+PLANET&price_above=.001& R.I.P. Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson Michael Jackson was rushed to the hospital on Thursday, June 25, 2009 and as shocking as it seems, he appears to have passed away. Playing now at 6:46 PM EDT is the "Billie Jean" home demo from "Thriller: Special Edition" - it's fantastic, an exploration of the creative side of the artist building this classic track. The keyboards are spooky, the guitar as exquisite as on the final mix. It's a wonderful listening experience. 6:30 PM EDT More breaking news on Michael as it becomes available MSNBC says 3:26 PM Eastern time ambulances went to the home Jackson was renting. 6:22 PM MSNBC stated that L.A. Times confirmed the death (Published in TMZ, Drudge Report, OK Magazine, etc) and 6:30 PM NBC Not happy with the attacks on Michael Jackson on Facebook and some blogs ...let's be civil...it is a shock. There's an impressive body of work starting with the Jackson 5 into the Quincy Jones era that will be viewed for art's sake. Let's appreciate the music. Those early hits and the latter day hits have never been truly seen as one comprehensive library of good music. With his passing people will view the entire scope of the effect his music had on our culture. Gemmzine pays tribute to the greatness of Michael Jackson's talent with an overview of these albums. Born Michael Joseph Jackson on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana Passed away on June 25, 2009. THRILLER - three versions! The original 1982 "Thriller" album was re-released in 2001 as Thriller "Special Edition" and a different "25th Anniversary Edition" in 2007. Thriller Special Edition http://www1.gemm.com/item/JACKSON-c-MICHAEL/THRILLER-p-SPECIAL-p-EDITION/GML664818104/ 5 copies from 12.88 http://www1.gemm.com/ddc/search.pl?&disp_ad_format_mode=0&artist=JACKSON%2CMICHAEL&price_above=.001&&title=THRILLER+SPECIAL+EDITION&price_above=.001& NANCY FOSTER ESSAYS ON MICHAEL JACKSON MICHAEL JACKSON:THRILLER REVISITED By Nancy "Neon" Foster THRILLER ,released by Epic in November 1982 is reported to be the best selling album of all time with 45 million worldwide sales. It garnered 7 Top Ten US singles and 8 Grammy Awards. While some bands and fans got behind the "It's Rock;Disco sucks" banner , the following THRILLER review appeared in my NYC fanzine, GROOVE ASSOCIATES. I never thought that disco was a threat to rock 'n' roll. I was and still am a firm believer in the idea that a great song or in the case of THRILLER - a great album transcends genre. Moreover the new wave formula became its own downfall. As new wave became slicker, more bound by formula, more commercial, so called disco became more solid, more funky, and more soulful. One of the members of Bow Wow Wow said that the only good thing about new wave / romantic synth groups is that they spawned stuff like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Afrika Bambataa and the Soul Sonic Force, etc.. Although the blue eyed soul of Soft Cell, Culture Club, and so on was fun, it couldn't really compare with an old Smokey Robinson and the Miracles album or what was then a new Michael Jackson album -THRILLER. FROM GROOVE ASSOCIATES PREMIER ISSUE,1982:MICHAEL JACKSON:THRILLER - This is like a greatest hits album. The album is a masterpiece of composition,performance, and production by two musical genui- Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. Eventhough I think the McCartney duet is hardly the most exciting cut on THRILLER, Michael Jackson is such a rare talent that he envigorates this song which would generally be too slick and perfect for my tastes. It is amazing that Michael was able to collaborate so successfully with such disparate influences from Paul McCartney to Eddie Van Halen to Vincent Price. THRILLER despite these varied influences is a congruent work of art that is pure Michael Jackson. The opener "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" ,written by Jackson himself is my favorite. This has definitely crossed over to the Latin dance clubs. In fact, this song doesn't sound right on a home system. This song and the album as a whole deserve a monster sound system, a mammoth dance floor, and hundreds of sweatin', writhin" bodies to do it justice-like NYC's Roxy on a hot Friday night. This song THROBS with a sensual, primordial pulsebeat. The Latin ending is the perfect finale! "Baby Be Mine" is more SWEET SOUL MUSIC with a beautiful, loving vocal treatment right down to the yelps. The pacing of the music and the cadence of the falling words is dynamic. "Thriller" is another hit complete with howls and a Vincent Price rap. While "Beat It" would generally be too metallic for my tastes, Jackson's amazing vocal could redeem anything. "Billie Jean" is another brilliant dance hit, this one about a paternity suit. "Human Nature" is soft, sweet, and relatively low key. "PYT" picks things up again with a hot, funky workout. "The Lady In My Life" is a Stylistics type slow dance number. (NANCY NEON, GROOVE ASSOCIATES #1,1982) The single of the season has to be "Candy Girl" by New Edition from Roxbury, MA. They are as close to the Jacksons, as we will get. This single sounds- so great back-to-back with a Jacksons classic like "The Love You Save". Thanks to the club of the month, the Roxy for making Friday nights fab fun! I haven't forgotten the SOUL SONIC FORCE either. Their night at the Roxy was one of the best nights ever!(NANCY NEON, GROOVE ASSOCIATES,#1,1982) Surprise! Surprise! That was NOT Michael Jackson dancing at the GRANDMASTER FLASH show at the Peppermint Lounge show. The very flexible young man was Laine Lassiter from Chapel Hill, NC. Lassi-ter is on SUGAR HILL records. Paul Weller of the Jam and Style Council told your truly "I really like a lot of the stuff coming out of NYC like SUGAR HILL . (NANCY NEON, GROOVE ASSOCIATES #1,1982)

Last Updated on Friday, 26 June 2009 17:19

RANDOM GEMM!

Written by Joe Viglione

Friday, 02 October 2009 19:25

What is RANDOM GEMM? It is just putting something out-of-the ordinary in the search engine and finding product you wouldn't see otherwise "E.B. Skinner" brings up this page http://www1.gemm.com/c/search.pl?field=BOOKS&wild=EB+Skinner&Go!.x=9&Go!.y=8&Go!=Search&picklang=%2Fc%2Fsearch.pl%3Flang%3DEN%26clickflag%3D1%26

Craig Fenton's Rare records on GEMM

Rare Records on Gemm - an interview with Craig Fenton

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 18 October 2009 14:23

Rare Records on Gemm - an interview with Craig Fenton Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarerecordsongemm Remember to click on highlighted names and album/CD covers to go into Gemm.com itself and find product Gemm prides itself in having some of the most collectible music available on the internet, possibly in the entire world! If you are looking for the Jimi Hendrix Puppet Cover of "Band Of Gypsys" - puppets of the musicians on the album cover instead of the usual , available in Japan and Australia, find it on Gemm. Or how about the ultra-rare Band Of Gypsys 2 with seven songs, not six, and all different? This was a pressing error by Capitol Records and was taken off of the market, much like the original version of The Rolling Stones HOT ROCKS which had the ultra rare Brown Sugar including slide guitar, most likely from Eric Clapton. Now sometimes a record label doesn't have to be in error for a rarity to slip through. John & Yoko mixed "Instant Karma" and rush-released it in England before Phil Spector's mix was pressed and published as the definitive version, and Melanie Safka's terrific "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)" which was Top 10 (#6) May of 1970 (and seemed like it was #1 in Boston for 5 or 6 weeks, a huge hit here) has a much longer version on her The Four Sides of Melanie album...click on this link to find it on Gemm. It's a delight. And one of the earliest collector's items was the long 9 minute version of "Bluebird" by the Buffalo Springfield only found on their greatest hits package entitled Buffalo Springfield (Collection), not the 1st album by the group which sports the same title. The 4:28 minute version is on their first Greatest Hits lp. Of course there are MANY many re-workings of hits, as Melanie did here, a folky Acoustic Blue rendition of her previous hits. But this article is mainly focused on the juicy rarities that are from mistakes the record labelsmade...the Hendrix, Blind Faith, Nektar, Gentle Giant, Janis Joplin rarities that were never meant to see the light of day! Band of Gypsy's Puppet Cover(first 3 images including picture disc),traditional cover and Band of Gypsys 2 Read more about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood's Blind Faith on Gemm here: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Gemmzine spoke to musicologist / rarities expert Craig Fenton about these issues back in March of 2009 as well as in October of 2009. GEMMZINE: Craig, do you remember when the group Heart left Mushroom Records for Portrait/CBS? Craig Fenton: On vinyl the original Heart LP Magazine (Mushroom) had a different mix than the original release, pulled off of the market. GEMMZINE (Joe V) YES! I purchased the "picture disc" to get that original release. I think Heart was just being difficult at the time that their old label that launched them started competing with their new company. Wikipedia has a good saga about the battles over the original Magazine lp and the product that followed as does SharedMusic.net: GEMMZINE: Craig, you're also a big Gentle Giant fan - and you told me about a GG rarity before. Craig Fenton: On Gentle Giant's 2nd album, Acquiring The Taste, had some CD mixes which have an error on the title track: The Gentle Giant Comp: Edge Of Twilight has a corrected and proper version of Acquiring The Taste. Most notably, this set is the only CD release containing a correct recording of Acquiring The Taste without the defective "bend". GEMMZINE: And what about Nektar? Craig Fenton: Nektar Remember The Future: the mastering to CD was done using the quadraphonic mix. (For those of you under the age of 40, quad was a brief fling with 4-speaker-surround-sound.) The engineer failed to realize this and only used two of the four channels. So huge swaths of Roye Albrighton's remarkable guitar-istry sound like they are occurring in a room down the hall. Particularly tragic because this album has the most magical guitar arpeggios I've ever heard in rock music. Unbelievable that the engineer didn't even notice; unbelievable that this has been common knowledge for over half a decade and the label still hasn't been shamed into correcting it. Original Wrong CD Mix (Latest with bonus) HOT ROCKS ABKCO RECORDS ORIGINAL PRESSING As Bruce Eder says in his AMG review "Bruce Eder writes: There are also some anomalies in Hot Rocks' history for the collector -- the very first pressings included an outtake of "Brown Sugar" featuring Eric Clapton that was promptly replaced; and the original European CD version, issued as two separate discs on the Decca label, was also different from its American counterpart, featuring a version of "Satisfaction" mastered in stereo and putting the guitars on separate channels for the first time" Read more here: The cool thing about "More Hot Rocks: Big Hits and Fazed Cookies" is that it contains a longer "We Love You" and the Jimmy Miller production of "Child of The Moon" which is exquisite ABKCO Rolling Stones SACD Stereo About Craig Fenton Author Craig Fenton's Take Me To A Circus Tent and Have You Seen The Stars Tonite (Jefferson Starship Flight Manual 1974-78 & J.S. The Next Generation 1992-2007) are available on Gemm.com Craig Fenton:http://craigtheairplaneman.wordpress.com/ Send this story around by giving your friends this link:http://tinyurl.com/rarerecordsongemm Previous Craig Fenton article:http://tinyurl.com/jessebarishinterview For more Rare Records on Gemmzine check out: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Band of Gypsys PUPPET COVER Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/festivalexpresswoodstock Please fly the above link around. To find great Woodstock, Joplin and Festival Express product in GEMM.com just click on the photos or highlighted names RARE JANIS JOPLIN Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarejanisjoplin Remember to click on album or cd covers to go deep within GEMM to find these rarities Direct link to this page is here: http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/rarejanisjoplin Remember to click on album or cd covers to go deep within GEMM to find these rarities Direct link here: http://tinyurl.com/festivalexpresswoodstock Read more about Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood's Blind Faith on Gemm here:http://tinyurl.com/blindfaithbandofgypsys Please fly the above link around. To find great Woodstock, Joplin and Festival Express product in GEMM.com just click on the photos or highlighted names

Last Updated on Monday, 19 October 2009 18:50

Vol 1 #1 November 2009 Newsletter to 800,000 Gemm Fans

Written by Joe Viglione

Monday, 19 October 2009 06:03

GEMM Customer Newsletter Vol. 1, #1 Welcome to the 1st collectors-item edition of the GEMM Customer newsletter, where we provide news about the evolving GEMM platform, useful how-to's, and links to featured articles and info from GEMM Magazine. GEMMZINE EDITOR SPEAKS! Exploring GEMM through the articles in GEMMZINE Welcome to the evolving Gemm newsletter. As we have 4/5ths of a million e mails (perhaps even closing in on a million!) the newsletter is mailed out incrementally. That means when November 29th,2009 rolls around and the BEATexpo is a thing of the past, that article on the newsletter will change into something new. So each GEMMLetter will have its own identity, kinda sort of! This first issue of the new GEMM BUYERS LETTER will help enhance your GEMM buying experience. GEMM is more than just music, we have Children's books, a Dave Matthews autographed guitar , components, dust covers for turntables, pro speakers and other components. GEMM has all sorts of memoriabilia as well as magazines AND TONS AND TONS OF SUPPLIES FOR YOUR RECORD COLLECTING and other music needs from DVD cases to phonograph needles to jewelry to mobile phones, record jackets, record cleaner, blank cassettes, microphones and more! GEMM.com is more than just music!, though music is one of our specialties. * * * * * FIND TREASURES ON GEMM! What this newsletter will help our customers with is exploring the GEMM site so that you'll be able to find the treasures you are looking for...and other unknown nuggets...while learning about the music/books/films and other collectibles you are looking for. GENRES In the coming months Gemm Magazine http://www.gemmzine.com will be identifying musical genres - Northern Soul, Reggae, Psychedelia, Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, Sunshine Pop etc. etc. NEWSFLASH Our Newsflash is updated many times during the week, sometimes daily. By checking out Gemmzine you'll see how the products we are selling correspond with the news by just clicking on an image. When there was a run on Michael Jackson product this past summer, GEMM had more Jackson material in stock than the brick and mortar stores, because we have tens of thousands of sellers with an emphasis on the hard-to-find items, and lots and lots of the general merchandise CDs, DVDs, books, etc. found in the traditional retail outlets. GEMM SHOULD BE THE FIRST PLACE YOU LOOK WHEN RETAILERS DON'T HAVE WHAT YOU WANT IN STOCK! Parts of the GEMM MAGAZINE will be merging onto the main GEMM.com site. The magazine only opened in February and we are working on the layout, the content and more. The important part of GEMMZINE for Gemm buyers, old and new, is the amazing dexterity with which you can find items just by clicking on the highlighted name or image. GEMM.com has SO MUCH information packed into the main site we wanted to develop a fun and efficient way for you to do searches, and what better way than to READ about your favorite artists while you are looking for a favorite album like Every Picture Tells A Story by Rod Stewart on cassette, CD or vinyl or a rarity like Jimi Hendrix's rare Puppet Cover red vinyl edition of his Band of Gypsys GEMM.com has so much music, so many books, tons of DVDs from tens of thousands of retailers. One of our more popular articles is the interview series with our sellers. Johnny Goggles from the United Kingdom is interviewed in this issue. Previous interviews from our seller's newsletter can be found on Gemmzine itself by logging on to the GEMM INTERVIEWS Bob Richert of GULCHER RECORDS, Mark from STOOPID REKORDS, Drew Miller from OMNIUM RECORDS are previous interviews and can be found on the Gemmzine site. If you'd like to write for GEMMZINE contact me. We are always looking for people hip to the products available on Gemm. Joe Viglione Editor, GEMMZINE, GEMMLETTER 10 AM October 19, 2009