Idolator

Tickets go on sale this weekend for Van Morrison's two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in early November, and while a show by an aging star of the '60s isn't usually news around here, when the artist in question is doing the "play your critically acclaimed album front to back" and that album happens Astral Weeks (my favorite of all time) and the performance features Jay Berliner and Richard Davis from the studio band, I'm going to be a little excited. More »

About a year ago, I came across this Van Morrison performance while dinking around on YouTube. I hadn't thought about or listened to Morrison in a long time, but I suddenly got an acute craving. This lean (keyboards-bass-drums, plus Van on occasional sax) version of "Warm Love" was filmed for German television about 1974, apparently with very little rehearsal. Since then, it's disappeared from YouTube, and I've only been able to find it via the Italian site Italian site Libero Video. (You know, Italy, the country hundreds of bootleg albums were "imported" from in the '80s and '90s.) The downside: the sound and video are waaaaay out of synch. Still, if you want you can listen to it on its own—it's a killer performance—and amuse yourself by watching Van and his splendid sunglasses and wardrobe do their downer-charisma thing on you. [Libero via Truveo] More »

So: Something tangentially music-related happened on The Sopranos last night. However, we do not want to give it away, as we are not that dickardly. So please, if you didn't see it, go and re-read that Pete Nice item again; and if you did catch it, meet us after the click-through... More »

While the fallout from the EMI shuffle/merger has yet to fully reveal itself, we've noticed a trend in recent releases under the imprint, one which certainly smells of on-the-cheap repackaging and dubious canon creation. The past few months have seen career-spanning compilations for the likes of Roxette and the forgotten Jacksons (Freddie and Luscious), a dismal collection of glassy-eyed covers from Diana Ross, and the reissue of the not-quite-essential Romeo & Juliet soundtrack, re-shilled as the "10th Anniversary Edition." One of the more interesting to come our way, however, was Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits, a 19-track package that would work nicely for those casual fans who don't already own the 1990 Polydor Greatest Hits collection, much of which reappears here. We are, however, happy to see the Last Waltz version of "Caravan" is included, although we certainly would have lobbied for the inclusion of a bonus fold-out poster of Van in action (pictured). More »