Photos by G.

Francis Farewell Starlite of Francis and the Lights

When I started hearing the comparisons of Francis and the Lights to Prince, I naturally knew I must see this band immediately.  I’ll be seeing them next week open for MGMT (which I am very excited for), but when I found out they were doing a very hard to get into show at S.O.B.’s in New York, I decided to check them out in advance.  I arrived at S.O.B.’s to be treated to hearing the DJ spinning great tunes including a bunch of Prince protege tracks such as “The Dance Electric” by Andre Cymone, “Sex Shooter” by Apollonia 6, “Be Your Man” by Jesse Johnson and “Player’s Ball” by Mazarati.  That was quite exciting as I’d never heard a lot of those songs in public before.  I’d read a few articles about Francis Farewell Starlite – yes – he’s legally changed his name to that, and every article made him sound difficult and arrogant.  Great! 

 He took the stage about 30 minutes late and so far, the articles were right on.  Then when he started performing, he was absolutely electric!  He’s got the moves of James Brown and Prince, the voice of Jake Shears meets MGMT and a tight band.  It seems that once he started performing, he was the exact opposite of all the things I’d heard.  He talked to the audience, he was appreciative of the thunderous applause and he was dancing all over the place, giving the sold out crowd a great show.  He played every track from his album “It’ll be Better,” and he also played a new song called “Betting on Us.”  A video of that will be coming soon.  He performed mostly in the dark, so the video will reflect that, even though I was in the best spot in the house.  I think his live performance is much stronger than his album, but I think the album is quite good too.  I think we are going to be hearing a lot more from Francis and the Lights, which might just be the funk injection the music industry so desperately needs.  I was invited to the afterpartyand I had an enounter with Francis Farewell Starlite.  Want to know what his favorite Prince song is?  Was he as difficult as everyone says?  Stay tuned to find out.

 Photo by G.

Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun

It’s really hard to write this without sounding ungrateful, so I’ll just try and tell you the facts and you can draw your own conclusions.  After the jump, of course….

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Photo by G.

As long time readers, fans and friends know, I love Prince!  He’s one of the best live performers to ever have graced the stage and his music, whether released or unreleased, is always in high rotation with me.  I’ve stuck by his side through name changes, religious epiphanies, lawsuits against fans and other WTF moments such as his recent “the internet is completely over” comment.  I’ve even supported his music long after working on one of his greatest hits CDs where I was hired because the man allegedly wanted nothing to do with the record, then after completing my work on the project, he pissed all over it and made us go back and take off tracks such as “Erotic City,” and I’ve had to live with reading reviews that say “this album would have been great if only it would have included ‘Erotic City.’”  With that being said, I’ve started to enjoy his new music less and less with each new album.  Not for any of these reasons, but I truly think that his religious ideologies in the Jehovah’s Witness faith have seeped into his music too much, forcing him to sing lyrics to prove that he’s more spiritual than you or I.  Furthermore, I don’t see how a man who once sang “Sexuality is all you’ll ever need,” could possibly believe his own lyrics such as “Accurate knowledge of Christ and the Father will bring the everlasting now,” and I think it shows in his recent output.  I’m all for spirituality, but since neither of us were around to see Jesus, I’d prefer if he separated religious fiction from funk music.  It doesn’t take a scientist to see that religion needs spirituality and not the other way around.  Case closed.

With that being said, see my comments as I listen to his new album “20Ten” for the first time.

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Photo by G.

Prince!

Finally some Prince news that doesn’t involve lawsuits, defunct websites and bitter fans!  Prince has been confirmed to play 3 European festivals this summer and here’s the details:

Prince is set to headline Denmark’s Roskilde festival, which takes place on July 1-4. He will also play Belgium’s Rock Werchter (July 1-4) and France’s Arras Main Square (July 2-4).

Anyone care to guess the setlist in advance?  If you are right, you could build a great career as a psychic.  Tell us your wish list.

Photo by G.  Art by Mr. Brainwash.

Prince's court cases are sounding like a broken record.

2010 is not Prince’s year.  Here’s a brief summary of why it sucks to be Prince in 2010.

- Prince writes a fight song called “Purple and Gold” for the football team the Minnesota Vikings.  The song is regarded by legions of die-hard fans as not just the worst Prince song ever written, but the worst song ever written by any artist.

- A baby wins a lawsuit against Prince.  Last year, a mother posted a video of her baby dancing to the song “Let’s Go Crazy” on Youtube and Prince’s people sued for copyright infringement.  He lost.

- Revelations Perfume & Cosmetics is about to sue Prince for not properly promoting his new fragrance “3121.”  It was recently ruled that the suit is legitimate and fraud charges against the singer are to be filed.

- A bootleg called “Box O’ Chocolates” containing some of Prince’s best loved unreleased songs leaks for free in near-perfect sound quality.  The purple one has let these unreleased gems rot away in a vault instead of letting people hear them and now if he decides to dust off these tracks, his die-hard fans already have them in sound quality that is very close to an official release.  All of the songs were recorded in “the golden age” of Prince during the period of 1984 – 1987.  The tracks include “Wonderful Ass,” “Girl O’ My Dreams,” “We Can Funk,” “A Place In Heaven,” “All Day, All Night,” “Data Bank,” and “Witness 4 The Prosecution.”

- Prince’s short lived fan site Lotusflow3r is not continuing for a second year.  Fans were charged $77 for a 1-year membership.  It was rumored that 8 albums worth of unreleased material would be available for download on this site, rare videos would be offered and fans would get priority access to concert tickets.  It turns out that Prince only played in Los Angeles, Monte Carlo, Minnesota and Paris during this time, so if you did not live in or visit those cities, access to pre-sale concert tickets was for naught.  The members received a free download of his triple album set that was for sale at Target for a much cheaper price of $11.99, a handful of streaming (and not downloadable videos) consisting primarily of videos that his die-hard fans have had for years, and a few (but not all of the members) received a free T-shirt.  What fans also received was finding out exclusive Prince news on other sites long before he posted the information to paying customers.

- Prince gives a new song called “Cause and Effect” to a Minneapolis radio station.  A 15-second teaser consisting of an electrifying guitar solo leaks a few days prior leaving fans totally disappointed when the rest of the song turns out to sound nothing like the teaser, but instead like a really bad cover version of a Prince song.

- Prince is forced to pay an Irish promoter nearly $3 million for canceling a 2008 concert in Ireland at the last minute after over 55,000 tickets had already been sold.

- Prince owes the state of Minnesota a figure somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000 in unpaid property taxes and authorities are reporting this is not the first time they’ve had to chase Prince for the money.

According2g, here’s what Prince should do: 

- Treat your fans better.  In the digital age, even legends are quickly forgotten.

- Before you record another note, go back and listen to some of your old stuff to remember what it sounds like to make an amazing track.

- Quit suing fans.  It just makes you look like an asshole.

- Pay your taxes.

- Release some live DVDs from past tours to appease die-hard fans and introduce your wonderful world to legions of new fans.

- Dust off some of the stuff in your legendary vault.  What is the point of recording a song a day for the last 30 years if nobody is going to be able to hear any of it?

- Do not succumb to peer pressure and work with “it” producers, though a duet every now and again might be fun.

- Follow through with the promises you make.  Your word is the law.  If you can’t deliver the content, why bother teasing fans?

- Read According2g.com every day (just thought I’d throw that one in for good measure).

Come back Prince, music needs you!!!

Photos by G.

A rare glimpse of Prince smiling on 6/16/06 in New York

I was digging through the G photo archives today and when I found the above photo, I realized that it’s very rare to catch a glimpse of the Purple one smiling.  However, when you are posing for G, how could you not bust a grin?  The above and below photos were taken on June 16, 2006 when Prince was on Good Morning America.  He performed “Get On The Boat” (with Sheila E.), “Redhead Stepchild” (with Tamar) and a verseless version of “Let’s Go Crazy.”  I was lucky enough to be in the front row to watch my purple idol perform, and I loved every second of it.  After the jump, see an exclusive photo of Prince giving the “O” face.  I hope the purple police do not come after me for posting these photos, because I mean only love and I own all of his albums and have bought tickets to see him in concert no less than 50 times (and every single time was life changing!)

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Photos by G.  Art by Mr. Brainwash.

Eye No!

Minneapolis radio station The Current will be debuting a new Prince song on 2/26/10 at 7 am.  The song is called “Cause and Effect” and it’s reported that the song will not suck anywhere nearly as bad as his last offering “Purple and Gold.”

The pictures above and below are from Mr. Brainwash’s current New York exhibit Icons.  The art was made entirely out of pieces of broken records.  There is no confirmation that Brainwash shattered all of the Purple One’s output in the 2000s to make these fantastic pieces.

My name is Prince and I'm an Icon!