Monday, June 30, 2014

What are the best selling albums of all time?

Take a wild guess what the best selling album of all time is…

If you guessed Michael Jackson's Thriller, you nailed it, with well over 40 million albums sold worldwide.  While the King of Pop may be an obvious choice to top this list, there are a lot of artists who downright shocked me with their presence in the pantheon of best sellers.

By the way, the word 'album' is key there because this isn’t just individual songs, and these days, artists and labels tend to push individual songs as hits.  Here I list all top sellers with at least 20 million, with my commentary after the charts.  These sales numbers are straight from Wikipedia.com and cover both certified sales and claimed sales, which usually are fairly close.


It's MJ and no one else is even close, though I do see a lot of classic rock albums selling like hot cakes.  I never knew the Bee Gees were THE big thing, and Whitney Houston killed it with the top selling movie soundtrack of all time!

Stepping down to the 30-39 million range, I can't believe Shania Twain's Come On Over sold almost as much as Thriller (claimed.)  Alanis Morissette is a huge surprise, too.  The Beatles are logical choices for the list, but considering their longevity, I thought they'd be higher - but there is a huge discrepancy between certified and claimed sales for them.  Titanic rings the bell again for movie soundtracks.  Michael Jackson shows up again twice, and finally we see Guns N' Roses representing at 21.3 million certified sales for Appetite for Destruction, a great album!


Wow - where to begin?  I thought Bob Marley, with 25 million sales, would be higher considering that is THE album that introduced reggae to the international community and has been around for 30+ years.  The BackStreet Boys cashed in HUGE a couple times.  Brittany Spears and the Spice Girls go to show that sales have nothing to do with talent.  Who exactly are these 24 million Linkin Park fans that bought albums?  Is it the same 23 million who (allegedly) purchased Ace of Base an album?  Surprising that Madonna is only on there once and it was for Ray of Light.  And there are only two albums to make this list from the rap genre - Eminem (we could have guessed that) but also TLC!  Pour one out for Left Eye!

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Thursday, June 26, 2014

10 Punk rock songs to play if you're an alien who just landed on earth.

Punk rock! It's all about turning the volume up (to 11!) giving the middle finger to the system, and expressing your most primal teenage angst. So it got me to thinking…if you happened to be an alien who's space ship just touched down on earth and you wanted an introduction to punk rock with the top 10 songs to get started, what would your play list look like? Since this is such a likely scenario, (obviously) I prepared my top 10 punk rock playlist. I tried to take the best artists and songs that gave a proper representation of the musical art form. Oh, and in the spirit of breaking all the rules, my top 10 list has 11 songs! Now click on the songs to hear them on YouTube and take me to your leader!  


1. The Clash


2. Ramones


3. Sex Pistols

(or we can easily go with God Save the Queen.)


4. Dead Kennedys


5. Iggy Pop and the Stooges


6. Rancid
Olympia, Wa
(thanks to Craig, "Junior Bong" for this one)


7. Green Day


8. Violent Femmes


9.The Only Ones



10. The Buzzcocks


11. Dead Milkmen
Punk Rock Girl

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How'd we do?  Any suggestions?  What else would be in your top 10?  

Monday, June 23, 2014

OutsideLands, San Francisco's premier music festival, is right around the corner.

San Francisco does everything with its own let-your-freak-flag-fly spin, and music is no different.  So music aficionados in the Bay Area are gearing up for OutsideLands once again, this time August 8-10 in Golden Gate Park.  Started in 2008 with 60 bands playing in the Polo Fields, it’s grown to one of the biggest and most successful music festivals in the country with anywhere form 50,000 to 100,000 concert goers per day.  

I had the pleasure of attending last year’s OutsideLands for the first time and it was off the chain.  Not only was the vibe mellow and funky in true San Francisco fashion, but also the music was incredible.  Some of my favs included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Emeli Sande, Jurrasic 5, and my new music hero, Willie Nelson.

This year's lineup is full of can't-miss talent.  Insanely, VIP and General Admission tickets are already sold out for all three days.  But you’ll see tix popping up online as private parties start shuffling them, especially for individual days.

To check out photos of last year’s festival:  http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/gallery/

For general news and info:  http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/news/

FRIDAY, AUGUST 8TH
KANYE WEST
ARCTIC MONKEYS
DISCLOSURE
TEGAN & SARA
TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND
CHROMEO
KACEY MUSGRAVES
GROUPLOVE
NICKI BLUHM AND THE GRAMBLERS
PHOSPHORESCENT
RUN THE JEWELS (EL-P & KILLER MIKE)
HOLY GHOST!
WARPAINT
TYPHOON
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS
BLEACHERS
THE SOUL REBELS
BEAR HANDS
MIKAL CRONIN
NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE
AER
NIGHT TERRORS OF 1927
RAYLAND BAXTER

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9TH
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
ATMOSPHERE
DUCK SAUCE
HAIM
CAPITAL CITIES
LOCAL NATIVES
JOHN BUTLER TRIO
TYCHO
THE KOOKS
SBTRKT
DEER TICK
DUM DUM GIRLS
CHRISTOPHER OWENS
BIG FREEDIA
JAGWAR MA
VANCE JOY
VALERIE JUNE
FINISH TICKET
THE DISTRICTS
TRAILS AND WAYS
NOCONA

SUNDAY, AUGUST 10TH
THE KILLERS
TIËSTO
THE FLAMING LIPS
RAY LAMONTAGNE
SPOON
CUT COPY
BEN HOWARD
LYKKE LI
CHVRCHES
PAOLO NUTINI
BOYS NOIZE
JENNY LEWIS
FLUME
LUCIUS
GOLD PANDA
WOODS
GARDENS & VILLA
WATSKY
GIVERS
IMELDA MAY
THE BROTHERS COMATOSE
COURTNEY BARNETT
JONATHAN WILSON
TUMBLEWEED WANDERERS

Saturday, June 21, 2014

The songs of the World Cup!

The World Cup is off to a fantastic start, with plenty of upsets, fallen powerhouse teams, and the United States still alive to advance.  And the fans are having more fun than every, thanks to the music that accompanies the celebration.  Music takes an even bigger role in the spirit of the World Cup this year because it's in Brazil, home to Samba and some of the best musicians and dancing in the world!  So here is your guide to the songs of the World Cup:  

Official World Cup anthem:

English, Spanish, and Portugese
By Carlos Santana, Wyclef, Avicii, and Alexandre Pires

Official song:

English, Spanish, and Portugese
By Pitbull with Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte

Official mascot song:

Portugese
By Arlindo Cruz

Official fan anthem:

English, Portugese, and Spanish
By Shakira and Carlinhos Brown

Other popular songs affiliated with the World Cup this year:

Hearts Upon Our Sleeves by 5 Seconds Of Summer  featuring Scott Mills

Another Star by Stevie Wonder

All Night by Swedish DJ Icona Pop


Wisin featuring Ricky Martin & Jennifer Lopez

Friday, June 20, 2014

10 Artists we wish we saw in concert when they were still alive.




Have you ever heard the tragic news that one of your favorite rockstars just passed away, and instantly said, "Damn, I wish I saw them in concert at least one time!"  Me, too.  So here is our list of modern, contemporary (within the last 20-25 years or so) artists who passed away that we wished we saw live.  They are in no particular order, but I'd love to hear how you rank them, or who else you would have liked to see!  Feel free to comment or email us!

Kurt Cobain
Nirvana’s leading man rose to meteoric music fame and brought Seattle’s grunge sound with him, but wasn’t long for this world.  He committed suicide with a shotgun (though there are still theories that Courtney Love had something to do with it,) on April 5, 1994.  We only wish we could have seen Kurt Cobain in concert before then, like in the eerily-transcendent MTV Unplugged concerts or Nirvana’s brain-shaking high-energy shows.

James Brown
The Godfather of Soul entertained audiences and electrified America with a new brand of funk music during a remarkable 6-decade career.  He left his mark on R&B, soul, funk, hip-hop, and even blues music, and equally became a pop culture icon.  Unfortunately, James Joseph Brown succumbed to congestive heart failure and pneumonia in 1996, so if you haven’t got down with yo bad self at one of his live shows, it’s too late.

Stevie Ray Vaughan
One of the best blues guitarists (or guitarists from any genre!) of all time, Stevie rose to the top of the music mountain in a very 7-year career before dying in a helicopter crash on August 27, 1990 at only 35-years old.  He won countless awards and is still celebrated posthumously, but how insane would it be if we got to see him play in a little Texas roadhouse bar one night before he passed?

Bradley Nowell
The front man of Long Beach, California’s surf, skate, and ska band, Sublime, died of a heroin overdose in 1996. But the early days in the LBC where Sublime was playing live at backyard barbecues, college bars and music festivals (including with Gwen Stefani as their little sis/protégée,) must have been epic!

Michael Jackson
There was none greater than the King of Pop, redefining music as an art form like no one before him.  Since he was a little kid performing with the Jackson 5 to Thriller (still the best selling album of all time,) to his later music, we would have loved to catch a show (despite the astronomical ticket prices) before he died in 2009 under the care of his physician that eventually led to manslaughter charges.

Jerry Garica
The Dead, dude!  If you never caught a show, a carnival of psychedelic hippydom, then you missed out on one of the only bands to make almost their entire living off live performing, as opposed to studio albums.  The fatherly figure of the Grateful Dead and the hippy-music movement played with the Dead his entire career, from 1965 until his death in 1995.

Notorious B.I.G.
Biggie Smalls blew up on the rap scene with Ready to Die in 1994, and then rewrote the rap game rap like no one before him or probably since.  His early concerts on the black college circuit and New York City underground with Puff Daddy as a promoter are legendary.  On March 9, 1997, the title of his first album became prescient as he was gunned down in Los Angeles.

Amy Winehouse
Love her or hate her, the diminutive British singer was the perfect rock star archetype – going on historic drinking and partying binges – and paid for it with her life.  Her album, Back to Black, won five Grammys, and we would have loved to see her perform live before her death in 2011.

Whitney Houston
Sometimes we remember the sad images of Whitney later in her career, strung out on drugs and entangled in an abusive relationship with husband Bobby Brown, but don’t forget that Whitney is the most awarded female act of all time.  Her early songs were soulful and exuded joy and she was unsurpassed as a pure vocalist before her death in 2012.

2Pac
The West Coast’s answer to B.I.G., Tupac Shakur reached rap-prophet status and a reputation as one of the most talented all-around entertainers in show business.  Before he was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996, 2Pac started his career performing as an MC and dancer with Digital Underground before branching out on his own and becoming one of the top selling rappers of all time. 

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