BOSTON — The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the love it/hate it chorus of "Sweet Caroline": the experience of a Sox home game is as much aural as visual. And some of us will always now associate the Dropkick Murphys with an Irish-dancing, World Series–winning closing pitcher. We go behind the Green Monster to meet the people who make the musical magic happen: DJ TJ Connelly and organist Josh Kantor.

BOSTON — Photographer Rob Shanahan has captured powerful images of music legends including Elton John, Barry Manilow, Sting, and many more. He's been Ringo Starr’s personal photographer since 2005.

He started playing the drums at the age of 10 and got his first camera 2 years later. From there, Shanahan fell in love not only with pictures but with the music of his subjects. Now, he's released a book, "Volume 1," showcasing some of his never-before-seen favorites. Emily Rooney sat down with a man who's had a front-row seat to fame. Some of those stories are in the slideshow above.

 
BOSTON — Do you remember Friday nights at the Museum of Science in high school and college? Laser lights, special effects and Pink Floyd and Zeppelin. This summer it's back — but with a local band and a 21st-century touch. 
 
"The technology is video projection, but like video projection on steroids," said David Rabkin, director of the Museum of Science planetarium.
 
To be exact, it isn't actually a laser show.
 
"It's all digital video, there's no lasers involved," he explained. "The range of colors and the detail and the motion that we can do now, there's just no comparison. It's a completely different media."
 
Using the same 3-D digital animation software that engineers at Pixar use, the Museum of Science staff have animated an album's worth of '70s-style rock music by the band Ghosts of Jupiter.
 
The result is a trippy movement through space, the human body and whirling geometric shapes. At times it can even induce a little vertigo.
 
The show is purely entertainment, Rabkin said, in keeping with the previous, popular laser shows.
 
"It was sort of this cultural icon, and I think sort of a rite of passage is a good way to think about it. Sort of a touchpoint in Boston," he said.
 
Rabkin called this the most technologically advanced digital theater in New England, thanks to a $9 million renovation that was completed last year and funded through the Charles Hayden Foundation and private donations.
 
And he was eager to point out that the museum isn't just for children. The new animation and other planetarium shows are attracting lots of adults, including Ghosts of Jupiter guitarist Johnny Trama.
 
"When I first came to town I think I was here every weekend. That's why this is like really cool," Trama said. "Back then it was just a couple of squiggly lines in the dark. Now it's — I mean, you're literally flying through space. It's pretty cool."
 
 
"The Ghosts of Jupiter: Music Experience" opens June 22 at the Museum of Science.

May 23, 2012

BOSTON — Despite the Supreme Court's decision not to hear his appeal, a former Boston University student facing a $675,000 fine for downloading and sharing 31 songs via the online file-sharing network Kazaa has vowed to continue his fight against the group of record companies suing him.

While free downloads mean lost revenue for musicians, Joel Tenenbaum said that many recording artists had no problem with online file sharing. "Music fans love the artists," he said, adding that the lyricist for the Grateful Dead testified at his trial that "familiarity, not scarcity, creates value." 

"The music business will never cease to exist in some form because it does what humans fundamentally need to do, which is share art," Tenenbaum added.

The case is currently before U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel, who will decide whether to impose the penalty, ask the Recording Industry Association of America whether it will accept less money from Tenenbaum or order a new trial. 

The playlist

Tenenbaum faces the $675,000 penalty for illegally downloading 31 songs. You've probably heard some of them yourself. Perhaps you even own them ... one way or another. Here they are, legally and for free on Grooveshark.

Aerosmith — Pink; Water Song/Janie's Got a Gun
Beastie Boys — (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)
Beck — Loser
Blink-182 — Adam's Song
Deftones — Be Quiet and Drive
Eminem — Cleaning out My Closet; Drug Ballad; My Name Is
The Fugees — Killing Me Softly
Goo Goo Dolls — Iris
Green Day — Minority; Nice Guys Finish Last; When I Come Around
Incubus — New Skin; Pardon Me
Limp Bizkit — Rearranged; Leech
Linkin Park — Crawling
Monster Magnet — Look to Your Orb for the Warning
Nine Inch Nails — The Perfect Drug
Nirvana — Come As You Are; Heart-Shaped Box
OutKast — Rosa Parks; Wheelz of Steel
Rage Against the Machine — Guerrilla Radio
The Ramones — The KKK Took My Baby Away
Red Hot Chili Peppers — By the Way; Californication; My Friends
Smashing Pumpkins — Bullet with Butterfly Wings

List source: Wikipedia.
 

BOSTON — Over the decades, the venerable vinyl LP has been threatened by cassette and eight-track tapes. It was nearly killed off when compact discs crowded the music stores, and the mighty mp3 was supposed to deliver the definitive, digital blow. But nothing has been able to stop this whirling wonder. Record sales have been going up — last year they were up by 36 percent. Now it looks like the LP is here to stay. In this digital age, who can can resist the tactile pleasure of placing the needle on that first track? And the snap, crackle and pop that comes with spinning a well-worn, deeply loved disc? 

John Damroth of Planet Records in Cambridge and WGBH's own Mike Wilkins joined Callie Crossley to play some favorite tunes and try to explain the appeal of vinyl today.  

From the afternoon's set list. (Mike Wilkins/WGBH)

LISTEN: SONGS PLAYED DURING THE SHOW
 
Charles Mingus / Solo Dancer
Willie Colón & Ruben Blades / Tiburon
WAR / Cisco Kid
Major Lance / The Monkey Time
Rip Chords / She Thinks I Still Care
-----
Aretha Franklin / Rock Steady
Pavement / Stereo
Tommy Flanagan / Overseas
Arthur Prysock / This Is My Beloved
The Fresh & Onlys / Summer of Love
-----
Earth, Wind & Fire / Got to Get You into My Life
Cream / White Room
Isaac Hayes / Theme from "Shaft"  

Wilkins credited "the ability to include the visual arts along with the audio arts." When he asks his friends what attracts them to records, "One of the big things that everybody says, first thing was the cover art — it was just giant-sized, beautiful," he said.

Closeup of the turntable. (Abbie Ruzicka/WGBH)

Damroth agreed. "Records mean more than just music: It's the cover, it's the experience of holding it and turning it over and reading it and putting it on the player, listening to it, in your comfortable chair," he said. "It is a very different experience."

Ali Nikseresht on Facebook noted the creative possibilities inherent in the format: "I miss the two distinct music arcs you get on old vinyl. A good band could often end side 1 as if it was the end of the album and understood how to use that palate cleanse to its full potential when starting side 2."

And the love's not limited to the baby boom generation. Robert Hertig, a senior at Northeastern, won the university's Prototype Grant in March to create a high-quality but low-cost turntable. "A lot of people my age have their own little record collections," he said. His own is heavy on LCD Soundsystem, Pavement, the Fresh & Onlys and other bands that are releasing vinyl records now.

Long may they play.

Uke Springsteen - "Atlantic City" from Johnny Anguish on Vimeo.