Morrissey poses with feline friend in new PETA campaign

Morrissey has come up with a few reasons off the top of his head to support a new campaign for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The campaign promotes the spaying and neutering animals to prevent animal overpopulation and homelessness.

The former Smiths frontman and longtime vegan has been an outspoken animal rights activists for several years, posing for a PETA stamp a few years back and penning the famed Smiths song “Meat Is Murder.”

Moz issued this statement about the campaign:

“Despite the fact that they’re incredibly intelligent, animals unfortunately haven’t yet worked out how to slip on a rubber, which is why thousands of them are being put to sleep in overcrowded shelters and thousands more are desperately waiting to be adopted.

“Letting cats or dogs have litters is tantamount to shooting shelter animals in the head since it kills their chances of adoption. Please do the right thing and spay or neuter your animals.”

To find out more about PETA and to get involved, click here.

Chad Urmston of Dispatch discusses band’s education initiatives & reunion

By Laura Ferreiro

New England trio Dispatch are gearing up to release their first studio album in 12 years, “Circles Around the Sun,” next month. The band, which is widely considered one of the most successful independent rock bands around, has always been known for tackling political issues and using music as a platform to affect social change. They’re about to embark on an extensive tour of the U.S. to support the album, and will donate $1 from each concert ticket and each album sold to their Amplifying Education (AmpEd) initiative.

“We think there’s a crisis in the education system in this country and we want to get a dialogue going,” singer/guitarist Chad Urmston tells Music for Good. “We’ve been doing service projects before shows and encouraging fans to get involved with in whatever way they can.”

In the past year, AmpEd has engaged more than 500 volunteers in a whopping 4,000 hours of service to improve U.S. schools, collected more than 10,000 books to support New Orleans Recovery School District libraries, and interacted with tens of thousands of fans at its Amplifying Education Non-Profit Village. They’ve also raised more than $250,000 through ticket sales and benefit shows.

“We’re trying to get more info about the education system and why it isn’t where it should be,” Urmston explains. “Why if you’re born in the wrong zip code, you have a 30 percent chance of dropping out before finishing high school.”

Dispatch engages fans by meeting up with them before shows to work on volunteer projects, such as repainting schools, repairing playgrounds and collecting books to donate to schools. “We try to help (our fans) just get their feet wet—volunteering can be intimidating. But if you can get them to walk through the door they can see what’s out there and kind of roll with it.”

What’s more, Dispatch works with other education-focused non-profit organizations like City Year, which unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation. “A little bit of that one-on-one attention that City Year volunteers give creates a transformation that is incredible,” Urmston says. “They do amazing stuff. In some ways the system is kind of broken. They are there playing a crucial role in specific incidences and scenarios, where a kid, if left to his or her own devices in a classroom of 35 kids, would fall through the cracks. They’re there to catch them before they fall.”

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Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros support progressive school with benefit concert

By Hilary Gridley

Plenty of big-name musicians tackle large issues that loom over countries and span continents, but it’s surprisingly rare to find some that give something back to a small community that supported their rise to fame. Enter Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, whose most recent album, “Here,” debuted at #5 on the Billboard charts to much acclaim.

The band recorded “Here,” which Relix Magazine called “an album full of undeniable folk-rock hooks, gospel overtones, infectious lyrics, orchestral swells and a whole lot of love,” in Ojai, California, 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. It may seem strange to make a big deal of the recording location, but anyone familiar with Ojai will recognize the city’s folksy spirituality that permeates the album.

The band certainly recognizes Ojai’s impact on their work. On September 6, they will honor that impact with a special concert at Libbey Bowl to benefit the Ojai Valley Community Nursery School (OVCNS), the only parent-owned and operated cooperative nursery school in the Ojai Valley. Through a combination of certified teachers and parent volunteers, OVCNS nurtures children toward a love of learning and respect to others and the Earth.

Edward Sharpe frontman Alex Ebert noted, “We are really excited to play in Ojai, a place that hosted the making of our last album. What a wonderful thing to be able to give back to this special community with this benefit concert.”

The band will be in demand come September after returning from back-to-back nearly sold-out tours in the U.S. and Europe. Tickets are now available for the OVCNS show here.

Can’t make it? You can get involved with Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros in an entirely different way by creating a music video from any song on their album, “Here.” Submit your video here by August 31 and you could win up to $5000.

Drum legends Neil Peart and Jim Keltner share wisdom with aspiring drummers

L-R Doane Perry, Jim Keltner, Neil Peart & Don Lombardi Photo: Dan Grody

By Laura Ferreiro

The best way to learn a craft is to hang out with the masters. That’s the premise behind the Los Angeles Music Academy’s Drummer’s Reality Camp, where aspiring drummers of all ages get the chance to learn directly from renowned drummers during four days of intense instruction, clinics and concerts each year.

At a roundtable discussion during this year’s camp, Neil Peart of Rush, legendary session drummer Jim Keltner (who has played with three of the four Beatles, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and Neil Young, among others), and Doane Perry of Jethro Tull examined the attributes of good drumming and the importance of going beyond drumming to master songwriting, penning lyrics and playing other instruments. Don Lombardi, president of DW Drums and chief executive of drumming instruction website DrumChannel.com, led the discussion, which took place at the Drum Channel’s Oxnard soundstage.

“I look at a drum set and it’s like a large playground for me,” Keltner told the enthusiastic audience, which included drummers as young as 12 and renowned sticksmen Gil Sharone and Uli Frost.

Peart, who’s not only known as one of the best drummers in the world but also writes all of Rush’s lyrics, said that he sees several parallels between playing drums and writing lyrics. “I started writing lyrics early on,” Peart said. “Words are as rhythmic as drum phrasing.” Peart is also a renowned author who has published several books. But he admitted that he didn’t feel confident enough to publically share his prose writing for nearly two decades. “I bought a typewriter in Little Rock, Arkansas and spent the next 20 years writing before I published anything,” he admits.

All three drummers agreed that inspiration can be found in the unlikeliest of places, ranging from listening to Guns N’ Roses to classical music, as well as things completely unrelated to music. “I got turned on to Stravinsky at a very young age,” Keltner said. “We’d sit around and absorb ‘The Rite of Spring’ and say, ‘How does a mind make that happen?”  Continue Reading →

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Jack Johnson to headline Farm Aid 2012

By Hilary Gridley

Despite America’s rich heritage as an agrarian republic, farmers continue to struggle. Fortunately, influential musicians remain allies to the families that feed the country. In 1987, soon after Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young launched the first Farm Aid benefit concert, Congress passed the Agricultural Credit Act to help protect family farms from foreclosure.

Since then, the Farm Aid organization has continued to grow, raising money for struggling farmers as well as providing those impacted by natural disasters with food, financial help, legal advice and psychological assistance. This year, Mellencamp, Nelson, and Young return with Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson and other artists at Hersheypark Stadium in Pennsylvania.

Nelson, who now serves as president of Farm Aid, noted just how relevant family farmers’ struggle is in a time already darkened by income disparity in America, saying, “Farm Aid brings…Main Street values to transform the Wall Street-controlled farm and food system. The Farm Aid concert is our chance to shine a spotlight on the independent family farmers who are essential to the well-being of our country.”

Farm Aid 2012’s lineup also includes Dave Matthews Band guitarist Tim Reynolds California rock bands ALO, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and Pegi Young and the Survivors, fronted by Neil Young’s wife and former backup singer.

The funds raised from ticket sales will go toward promoting food from family farms fostering connections between farmers and consumers by getting family farm food in urban grocery stores, restaurants and schools; running the crisis hotline 1-800-FARM-AID and the Farmer Resource Network; and working to promote fair farm policies regarding topics like factory farms and genetically modified organisms.

Tickets go on sale Friday, July 13 at 10 a.m. ET. You can grab them here. Still need convincing? Check out videos from past Farm Aid concerts here.

Love Hope Strength uses music to fight cancer at all levels

Mike Peters, cancer survivor and co-founder of Love Hope Strength

By Michael Tedder

Alarm frontman Mike Peters has never been one to think small. This is, after all, a musician whose first major hit was called “68 Guns.”  The official legend of the cancer research foundation Love Hope Strength, which Peters co-founded, goes that when Peters was receiving cancer treatment in Wales, he would always look out of his hospital window and see a mountaintop. He told his doctors that when he had recovered, he would perform on that mountaintop to raise money for cancer research.

Peters later founded Love Hope Strength in 2007 with Texas-based live music promoter James Chippendale. Since then, the foundation has organized a number of ambitious events, including treks to Machu Picchu, Kilimanjaro and Mount Fuji that featured musicians like G. Love and Donavan Frankenreiter hiking up some of the world’s tallest mountains alongside cancer survivors and supporters, and then performing for the volunteers. “Some people love music, and some people love adventure and a challenge, and we’ve all these passions and put them all in to one crazy foundation,” Shannon Foley Henn, Executive Director of Love Hope Strength, tells Music for Good.

Love Hope Strength has helped raise money to fund a mobile cancer unit in Peru and purchased the first mammogram and radiation machines for Nepal. The foundation tends to think big, but its directors realize that not everyone can take a few weeks off to travel across the world. Which is why their upcoming event Colorado Rocks will take place at the more accessible location of Vail Mountain on the weekend of July 14. G. Love, Brett Dennen, Cy Curnin of The Fixx and Miles Zuniga of Fastball and young musicians from the School of Rock will hike alongside fans and then perform an acoustic show. There’s still time to register to participate.

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Coldplay, Yoko Ono and artists around the world support campaign for effective arms trade

By Hilary Gridley

It’s hard to believe that some countries may have a tougher time acquiring bananas than bullets, but that’s the state of the current global weapons market, valued at more than $60 billion a year. The UN gathered in New York yesterday to begin treaty negotiations to address this issue, and while the victims of the lax ammunition regulations largely go unspoken for, prominent supporters of Oxfam and Amnesty International are using their musical stardom to give them a voice.

The group of celebrities, which includes such heavy hitters as Coldplay, Yoko Ono and singer/songwriter Annie Lennox, sent a letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon urging governments to forge a strong and effective treaty to protect citizens around the world by preventing the flow of arms to irresponsible users. They join other notable actors and artists such as Scarlett Johansson and Kiera Knightly in showing their support for Amnesty International and Oxfam’s human rights work.

The letter highlights the sad state of current weapons regulation, noting, “Every year an average of two bullets for every person on this planet is produced. With so few global rules governing the arms trade, no one really knows where all those bullets will end up – or whose lives they will tear apart. Under the current system, there are less global controls on the sales of ammunition and guns than on bananas and bottled water. It’s a ridiculous situation.” Continue Reading →

Bands and babes for Billabong benefit on the streets of NY…in LA

By Laura Ferreiro

It’s not often that Los Angelenos get the chance to hang out on the steps of a brownstone in the shadow of the Empire State Building without first hopping on a plane, but they can do this and much more at a benefit concert on the New York backlot of Paramount Studios in Hollywood next month.

Billabong‘s sixth annual Design For Humanity will take place in L.A.’s version of New York on July 25. The benefit brings together an exciting array of bands including roots rock revivalists The Lumineers, anthemic Welsh rockers The Joy Formidable, Las Vegas indie rock quartet Imagine Dragons, and exciting up-and-comers Walk the Moon, who know how to rock a key-tar and bust out impressive dance moves.

In addition to musical performances, benefit-goers will get a sneak preview of the Billabong Spring 2013 collection during a runway show as part of the music-fashion-art block party sponsored by the clothing company. There will also be a Design For Humanity art auction, where original works of art by several notable artists will be sold during a silent auction.

A whopping 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales, product purchases and the art auction will be donated to the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, a new foundation committed to creating a more sustainable and healthful food supply and raising awareness concerning food issues. The non-profit, which was established by Chipotle Mexican Grill to further its philanthropic efforts, accomplishes this by supporting family farmers and their communities, educators and programs that teach young people about food issues, and offering support to ranchers and farmers who are working to develop more sustainable practices.

Billabong started Design For Humanity six years ago so the international surfwear company’s marketing, art and design teams could come together to give back to non-profits that strive to make a positive impact on the community.

Tickets start at just $30. Grab yours here.

Joanna Newsom and Philip Glass team up to save Bay Area library

Joanna Newsom

Philip Glass

By Hilary Gridley

Once a place to silently search through deep stacks for dusty books, libraries have evolved into exciting and dynamic spaces in recent years. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Henry Miller Library, which serves as a performance and workshop space for artists, musicians, students and writers in addition to its more traditional role of housing literary volumes. The library provides a tremendous service to the art-centric Bay Area, so when it needed help staying afloat, the musical community rushed to its rescue in a huge way.

Philip Glass, perhaps the most influential living composer, and celebrated harpist and indie songstress Joanna Newsom will take the stage together on Monday to raise money for the library. Executive Director Magnus Toren sparked the collaboration after federally mandated health and safety requirements forced him to put a hold on the very popular performances held at the library, which included such big names as singer/songwriter Marianne Faithfull and experimental musician Laurie Anderson. A friend of Glass and Newsom, Toren convinced the duo to help him ensure the long-term survival of the library with a once-in-a-lifetime benefit concert.

Glass’ oeuvre is extensive, to say the least — he has composed more than 20 operas, 10 symphonies, solo concertos for a wide range of instruments, music for several theater productions and a wide range of film soundtracks. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his work on film scores, and has collaborated with such heavy hitters as Paul Simon, Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Cohen.

Newsom’s unique harp and other instrumental and vocal stylings have made her a prominent figure in the independent music scene. Her songs have been covered by such indie stars as The Decembrists and M. Ward, and her fans include MGMT and Jeff Mangum. Most recently, she contributed vocals to the soundtrack for “The Muppets.”

Monday’s concert, organized by local promoter (((folkYEAH!))) will take place at The Warfield in San Francisco and will also include violinist Tim Fain, a longtime friend of Glass’s. If the magnitude of the event seems like it outweighs the scale of the library, fear not: it is an indication of things to come. In his open letter to friends of library, Executive Director Toren says, “Yet it is precisely the nature of [the renovation’s] challenge that speaks to the incredible support we’ve enjoyed throughout the years: we’ve outgrown our facilities, and it’s simply time for the next chapter – one that is sustainable, compliant, and will improve the experience for every bewildered or starry-eyed visitor who steps through our gates.”

You can become a Friend of the Henry Miller Library and support the music the space here.

 

Bono honors Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at Dublin concert

Bono presents Aung San Suu Kyi with Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience award at the Electric Burma concert. Photo: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

By Hilary Gridley

Planning a birthday celebration for Aung San Suu Kyi may sound like a daunting task, but if there’s anyone fit to welcome the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate to Ireland on her first trip to Europe after 24 years of intermittent house arrest, it’s Bono. Together with Amnesty International, the U2 frontman celebrated the civil rights leader’s 67th birthday at Electric Burma, the first concert she has attended in her honor outside Burma.

Last night’s celebrations included performances from such singer/activists as Bono, Damien Rice, Bob Geldof and Lupe Fiasco, and an opening presentation from Ireland’s Riverdance troupe. Bono and Rice played songs they had written in honor of Suu Kyi during her imprisonment, “Walk On” and “Unplayed Piano.” The cast came together during many portions of the night, delivering such apt favorites as Bob Marley’s “Get Up Stand Up” and Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”

Other musical performers included  Grammy-winning Beninoise singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo, French-Romanian violinist Sarah Nemtanu, Tibetan singer-songwriter and exile Yungchen Lhamo, and the Dublin Gospel Choir. Nobel Literature Laureate Seamus Heaney was also on hand, and Geldof and actors Vanessa Redgrave and Saoirse Ronan read his work.

Suu Kyi received Amnesty International’s highest accolade, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, in 2009. However, she was unable to accept it until this event. The award, given to “individuals who demonstrate exceptional leadership in the fight to protect human rights,” was inspired by Heaney’s poem, “From the Republic of Conscience.” Continue Reading →