To read more Behind The Grooves, go to http://behindthegrooves.tumblr.com.

Born on this day: June 17, 1943 - Singer, songwriter, producer and musician Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, NY). Happy 70th Birthday, Barry!

 

On this day in music history: June 17, 1978 - "Shadow Dancing" by Andy Gibb hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. Written by Barry, Robin, Maurice, and Andy Gibb, it is the third consecutive chart topper for the singer and songwriter from The Isle of Man, UK. While his debut single "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and the accompanying album Flowing Rivers are steadily climbing the charts in the US and abroad, singer Andy Gibb, with the assistance of his older brothers The Bee Gees will begin work on his second album. All four brothers will collaborate on the Shadow Dancing album while The Bee Gees are filming Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in L.A. in mid-1977. Recording will begin at Wally Heider Studios in Los Angeles with overdubs and final mixing completed at Criteria Studios in Miami. Released as a single in April of 1978, it will quickly become a smash. Entering the Hot 100 at #69 on April 15, 1978, it will rise to the top of the chart nine weeks later. Gibb, at only twenty years old, will become the first solo artist in history to have his first three singles reach #1 in the US, achieving this feat in just 11 months. "Shadow Dancing" is certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA, selling over 2.5 million copies in the US alone, and will be ranked at the top single of 1978 by Billboard Magazine.
 

Amoeba Music is very proud to announce the Converse Represent free concert series in San Francisco. The five-day concert series celebrates musical diversity and will feature a mix of established and up-and-coming artists.

The series kicks-off June 23rd with over 20 artists performing throughout the week, including performances by Hot Chip, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Quicksand, Mastodon, Suicidal Tendencies, Rocket From The Crypt, Blackalicious, DIIV, Deltron 3030, Metz, and many more. The five day series will lead up to the grand opening of the Converse San Francisco retail store on June 28th!

HOW TO GET TICKETS:
Music fans can register today for a chance to win tickets to attend one of the five Converse Represent shows. Submissions to win tickets closes June 18th at noon (PST) and winning ticket holders will be notified by email. To register for a chance to win tickets visit conversemusic.tumblr.com/represent!

May 1959: Seven years before Silver Lake's Black Cat Riot and ten before New York's Stonewall riots, a group of drag queens and hustlers clashed with LAPD officers at Cooper’s Doughnuts, usually considered to be the first gay uprising in modern history.




Before nearby Broadway arose as Los Angeles's premier theater district (around the 1920s), most of the nickelodeons and theaters were along Main Street -- two blocks east. In the 1930s and '40s, Downtown declined when Jews -- shunned from the downtown protestant establishment, moved their residences, businesses and investments to Hollywood, Midtown, and the Westside.

In the 1950s, the mainstream view was that Downtown was dead. The reality was rather different. Bunker Hill continued to bustle with life. Thousands of the city's poor continued to sleep on the streets and in residential hotels around Skid Row and the Historic Core. Latinos turned Broadway into a busy shopping street and foreign cinema scene. Gays and other "subversives" found a degree of refuge in "seedy" city center. 

As previewed here on the Amoeblog over the weekend famed former Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney visited the Bay Area to team up with his band Tenth Planet,which features members of Negativland, MX80, The Mutants, Neung Phak, Crack:WAR, and Le Flange du Mal, to play two select NorCal shows: Friday, June 14th at The Lab in San Francisco and the following night at The Layover in Oakland. I was among the lucky ones to make it to the latter, Saturday, June 15th, intimate setting East Bay concert which by all accounts, including Mooney's himself, was the better of the two Bay Area exclusives. For the early show, which was scheduled to start at 8pm sharp and had to be over by 9pm (it ran til 9:15pm with an encore) to make room for the regularly scheduled Shockwave DJs night (Tim Diesel and Max Kane), Mooney was supported by the tight four piece The Tenth Planet - including Amoeba Music co-owner Marc Weinstein on drums.

"I've been playing with Malcolm in various forms for 20 years now and this current band is perhaps the tightest most inspired lineup. It was a fantastic show," said Weinstein of the tight, supercharged set that included both new tracks and reworkings of such Can classics as the crowd pleasing "Yoo Doo Right," "Outside My Door," and "She Brings The Rain." Immediately following the show and before he rushed off to get a few hours of  sleep before heading to SFO by 5am I had an opportunity to chat with Malcolm Mooney for a few minutes on Franklin Street right outside the downtown Oakland Layover club. That short dim street light lit video clip (below), that includes a few words from Marc Weinstein, has Mooney talking about the latest Tenth Planet lineup, the Lab versus the Layover shows, and comparisons between making music and painting - Mooney's other artistic passion.

Amoeba has entered into a partnership with L.A.’s Moheak Radio to provide the Amoeba Song of the Week every week for a recorded segment to air on Moheak’s online radio station.

This week it’s The National’s “Graceless,” from the new National album, Trouble Will Find Me. The song is a prime example of how The National have upped the energy on their new album, as a steady post-punk groove charges along relentlessly, allowing a bleak piano line and bowing guitar to set the tone for Matt Beringer’s deeply intoned voice to paint a vivid image of self-doubt. A perfectly blended concoction of grit and class, “Graceless” is anything but.

A bit about Amoeba’s Song of the Week: Every week we’ll provide a song hand-selected by our own staff to Moheak Radio for a recorded segment that will run four times a day (at around 8 a.m., 1 p.m., 5:45 p.m. and once overnight). Besides hearing what our expert staff is into, you’ll get the chance to win prizes from Amoeba Music. The giveaways will happen once a week with announcements at least once every four hours leading up to the giveaway, which will take place on Moheak’s Facebook page. Check it out, support local/online radio and win some prizes along the way.