Video Of The Week: All Angels

As many of you probably know by now, Prince was found dead this morning at his estate/studios, likely the result of a life-long use of opiates. He was nothing short of a musical genius, a terrific songwriter who could master the guitar like maybe ten people per decade can.

Not all of his songs were great, because he did release a lot of his output in the god-awful 1980s and he had a knack for releasing records that were too long or too many in too short a time frame, but all told, in my opinion, judging by his 35 years or so of releasing music, he still has more good (and great) songs than, say, Neil Young.

And although he was the very first artist to sell music online in 1997, he did a complete 180 shortly after and even took out his catalogue from such sites as YouTube, which is one of the reasons why I will feature one of his finest compositions from the 80s, Nothing Compares 2 U, in the form of this cover by All Angels:

All Angels are a British vocal group whose range goes from classical to opera to pop. It consists of Daisy Chute, Rachel Fabri, Melanie Nakhla and Charlotte Ritchie - and formerly Laura Wright. The song can be found on their 2007 release Into Paradise, which also includes versions of Coldplay's The Scientist and Simon & Garfunkle's The Sound Of Silence.

His Name Is Prince, And He's An Asshole

Prince was on Jimmy Fallon (the show) recently and was his usual, boombastic, spectacular, moody self, performing two numbers and shredding an intense solo, and then...

After unleashing a blistering solo on Bambi he did a guitar virtuoso’s version of dropping the mic before walking off stage, throwing his guitar up into the air and letting it crash to the ground. Just one problem: the axe wasn’t his. The Gear Page points out the guitar was a gorgeous 1961 Epiphone Crestwood that belongs to Captain Kirk Douglas of Fallon’s house band The Roots. Apparently when Prince arrived for rehearsal he admired the guitar and asked to borrow it for the performance. Douglas agreed, and then Prince wrecked it at the end of “Bambi.”

Yeah, he destroyed someone else's guitar, and this one in particular belonging to a well-respected musician with a reputation for being one of the sweetest guys on the hip-hop/jazz/pop/rock circuit.

But wait, there's more!

The worst part? Douglas apparently asked Prince to sign it for him, and Prince said no.

Now that's diva!

Video Of The (Last) Week: Julian Casablancas

Singer and primary songwriter of New York ''2000s garage-rock pioneers'' The Strokes, Julian Casablancas released a solo record in the first week of November, 2009; while many were expecting a full-on rock record, those who'd heard a few Strokes' demos from singles or bootlegs knew there would be a chance that keyboards would be an integral part of the record, seeing as how Casablancas, the son NYC Elite Management agency boss John Casablancas, has a tendency to write all of his band's complex harmonies on keys before transposing the arrangements to guitar with the rest of the band.

However, I'm sure no one expected a full-on 80s-style record. It's usually not my type of sound, but this one, I feel, is actually listenable. The video reflects how the record sounds, what with the outdated fonts, Prince-like ''girl'' band, cheap colouring effects and whatnot...

I actually saw this video for the first time on Thursday and immediately thought ''this is it, the video for this week!'' but was too busy to take the time to sit in front of a computer and get it done - so many things to do this weekend, including my mom's birthday.

So here it is.




Fun trivia: Julian is actually three weeks older than I am (he was born on August 23rd, 1978). So, in three weeks' time, he's managed to release a solo record and 3 band records more than me. Talk about being productive in a short time span!