Caw-Caw Music

Archive for March 16th, 2010

Tegan & Sara latest album, “Sainthood,” has opened the door for the two to spend more time writing together.

Though the twin sisters have composed apart from each other during their 12 years as a group, they held a writing session together before hitting the studio for “Sainthood,” and one of their songs, “Paperback Head,” made the cut. “We wrote a bunch of other stuff together as well,” Tegan Quinn tells Billboard.com. “It was pretty late in the process where we’d sort of determined what songs we wanted to record already. We didn’t feel we wrote anything else that challenged those songs.”

Tegan says that the duo found their writing styles were not particularly compatible, with Sara by far the more “meticulous” of the two. But with “Paperback Head” the sisters, who live on opposite sides of their native Canada, discovered they could work together if they weren’t in the same room. “We’ve been sharing files and sending MP3s back and forth and collaborating that way,” she says. “We find it easier. “But I’m glad we did try to sit in a room together and do it so we could see how we each worked. I felt proud we were able to do it without being arrested or killing each other.”

Tegan, who also did some writing for “Sainthood” with AFI bassist Hunter Burgan, her partner in a forthcoming side project, predicts that “there is definitely a project in the future that will just be Tegan & Sara collaborating on songs. I know a lot of people are like, ‘OK, whatever;’ they assumed this whole time we’d been writing together. But I think a record written solely as Tegan & Sara songs would sound very different than anything we’ve done before.”

That project will certainly have to wait until after Tegan & Sara tour in support of “Sainthood.” The duo is on the road in North America through early April, with Australian dates on tape for May. They’ll also be part of this year’s Honda Civic Tour, but they’re particularly excited about being on Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair bill when the festival tour resumes this summer.

With a 2-1 rise for “Telephone,” Lady Gaga and the track’s featured artist Beyoncé have tied the record for most No. 1s since the Nielsen BDS-based radio airplay chart launched in 1992. The pair joins Mariah Carey, who tallied six toppers between 1993 and 2005. Lady Gaga and Beyonce pass Avril Lavigne, Pink, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, each with five No. 1s.

Beyonce first led Pop Songs with “Crazy in Love” in 2003, while Lady Gaga first appeared on the chart just 16 months ago. The latter performer, in fact, has yet to fall short of the survey’s summit, reaching No. 1 on her first six tries:

Title, Chart Date Reached No. 1
“Just Dance,” Jan. 24, 2009 (featuring Colby O’Donis)
“Poker Face,” April 25, 2009
“LoveGame,” July 25, 2009
“Paparazzi,” Nov. 14, 2009
“Bad Romance,” Jan. 16, 2010
“Telephone,” March 27, 2010 (featuring Beyonce)

And, here is a look at Beyonce’s six Pop Songs No. 1s:

Title, Chart Date Reached No. 1
“Crazy in Love,” Aug. 16, 2003 (featuring Jay-Z)
“Baby Boy,” Nov. 8, 2003 (featuring Sean Paul)
“Check On It,” Feb. 11, 2006 (featuring Slim Thug)
“Irreplaceable,” Dec. 30, 2006
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” Feb. 7, 2009
“Telephone,” March 27, 2010, (Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce)

NEW YORK – Sony has reached a deal with Michael Jackson’s estate that could be worth as much as $250 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The report said the deal, coming months after Jackson’s death, is the most lucrative recording contract ever signed. It guarantees the estate at least $200 million, according to the newspaper’s Web site, and involves 10 albums over seven years.

The deal will combine a mix of previously unreleased songs and new packages of familiar ones, according to the report.

Although their styles were very different, early to mid-twentieth century composers George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Leonard Bernstein created the music that, for listeners both in the United States and around the world, came to be identified as an “American sound,” characterized by generous lyricism and emotional directness. Barber, who was born in 1910, and whose centenary was recognized on his birthday, March 9, stands out because he was the only one of the four not to prominently incorporate jazz or other popular American idioms into his style. He was the most introspective of the group, and while his music is often at its most effective when it reflects that quality, he had a broad expressive range, and his music could be whimsically humorous, passionate, or starkly powerful. He had a terrific gift for melody, and much of his music is notable for a sweeping lyricism and Romantic warmth. Even at its gentlest and most modest, Barber’s music has a quiet strength that is evidence of the high level of inspiration, clear vision, and sheer musical skill that mark him as one the 20th century American composers whose work is most likely to endure.