Victoria Abraham defines one up and coming artist each week so you can impress your friends with your musical brilliance. This week, she tackles Fiona Apple, a lovely singer from New York.
Okay, so technically Fiona Apple isn’t a new artist. She is an artist who blew up on the scene in the mid 90s and early 2000s and then disappeared. But her comeback has been so memorable and massive that I must feature her in this week’s column. Plus her new album has the best title ever: The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do.
Origins: Manhattan, New York
Full name: Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart
Known for: Fiona is known for her trademark piano sound and unique contralto voice.
Used in a sentence: Fiona’s lyrics express raw emotion so deeply, they can make even a rock feel something.
File next to: Florence and the Machine, Billie Holiday
Download now: “Every Single Night”
Five fun facts:
1. Fiona got her start in music when she gave her demo tape to a friend who babysat for music publicist Kathryn Schenker, who then passed it on to Sony Music.
2. Her debut album was certified three times platinum.
I’m going to be completely honest right now, about 30 seconds into the video I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor. This 5-year-old probably has more talent than I’ll ever have in my entire life (how sad). Oh and just when you think he’s done, he starts right back up again!
Who knows, maybe we’ll see a classical album from this little guy very soon.
This spectacular piano version of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” is brought to us by ThePianoGuys, who cram around a single Yamaha grand piano and make the song sound unrecognizable. We love One Direction’s upbeat version but this unbelievable cover really shows how one instrument can be used in so many ways. The five guys take turns pounding the keys, rapping on the side like a drum and playing the strings like a violin.
The idea came to them a couple months ago when they were all sitting around a piano, banging out a beat. They decided to create an arrangement and after going through a few song possibilities they landed on “What Makes You Beautiful.”
“We thought about the ramifications of taking on a teenybopper boy band tune as five middle-aged married guys who are desperately holding on to their hairlines,” they wrote on YouTube. “One of us even has a son older than the guys in One Direction (we won’t say who) : – ) BUT you know us — we love a good challenge!”
The guys filmed it at 2:30 in the morning and played until sunrise. We’re definitely hitting replay on this one. What do you think of it?
Kuha’o has been playing the piano since he was 3 years old and has been blind since infancy. Now, he’s 15 and can play most songs after hearing them just once.
The video editor wanted to see what would happen if Kuha’o heard dubstep song “Cracks” by Freestylers and the result is unbelievable!
Watch it below:
It’s been so long since we’ve heard a good Regina Spektor song — 2009 to be exact — but she’s finally back with “All the Rowboats” from her forthcoming album “What We Saw From The Cheap Seats.”
The song gives life to rowboats that are trapped in masterpiece oil paintings, trying to escape : “Masterpieces serving maximum sentences, It’s their own fault for being timeless.” Spektor wrote the song herself and the piano score gives me something else to look forward to. I was so obsessed with Regina Spektor’s songs in university I bought the piano sheet music so I could indulge in it myself. The song is slightly dark but thoughtful, nothing less than I’d expect from her.
In the meantime, you can buy the song online today and start a countdown for the album’s release date, May 12.
Supervillain. World record holder. Piano Dueler. Piano Virtuoso. Rapper. Gonzales is obviously more than just a musician. His musical output went from alt-rock to electronica to rap to piano improvisations to 70′s throwback pop, and his next album is a collaboration with Boyz Noize. Obviously, this is a fellow you should be learning about. Check out his challenge to Andrew W.K. here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBfkh_Dstg And you can see the final round of the duel (you can decide if he cheated) here: http://vimeo.com/6944245
A British school that lost all of its musical instruments in a 2007 flood has received a big helping hand from Coldplay.
The super group have purchased a $6,000 Kemble piano for St David’s School, a primary school in Moreton-in-Marsh.
After a neighbour told bassist Guy Berryman about the school’s plight, the band sprung into action.
“It is fantastic,” head teacher Bob Forster told BBC News. “I was impressed they cared enough to want to help. Music is important to St David’s and gives huge pleasure to people inside and out of the school.”
The children of the school have sent a thank you letter to the band, and will send photos of themselves with the piano.
Sing us a song, you’re the piano man’s ? daughter?
Alexa Ray Joel, daughter of singer Billy Joel and model Christy Brinkley, has decided she wants to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a singer, the Toronto Star reports today.
There’s only one problem ? she doesn’t have a record deal yet.
However, the Star says she has embarked on her career with money and support from her parents, and her MySpace page, which has become very popular. She has begun touring to get the word out
Joel will hit the Hard Rock Caf? tomorrow in Toronto to perform some of her songs.
