Michael Kaeshammer is a Canadian piano maestro. I recently saw Michael perform at a holiday concert and I was impressed. What do you think?

http://www.kaeshammer.com/

                                                         Image from Rock School official website

Looking for a good New Year’s resolution?  Consider listening to Rock School this year (and catching up on the last four and a half years of the show as well).  Rock School is a radio show on KSLU, 90.9 FM, which is the campus radio station at Southeastern Louisiana University.  The show, which broadcasts a new episode each week, features Dr. Joe Burns, a Communication professor at the university, and Chad P., a radio announcer and alumnus of the university.  For each episode, Chad and Joe offer a playlist of songs revolving around a theme, interspersing the music with interesting stories and information about the songs, the artsts, and the relationships between the songs/artists and the show’s theme, much of which comes from the hosts’ combined years of experience working in radio as well as Burns’ academic study of music and culture.

For more on Rock School, check out their website, which features info about the show and links for downloading past episodes.

The Monkees hit number one three times in their career.  The first time was “Last Train to Clarksville” and the third time was “Daydream Believer.”  The second time was exactly 45 years ago today, when the band hit the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart with the biggest hit of their career, “I’m A Believer,” which would go on to spend seven weeks at the top.

DJ Earworm gives us the mashup “United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom)” a tribute to 2011. DJ Earworm says, “2011 gave us songs of regret and anger, pride and perseverance, and lots of fire. When someone’s taken everything from you, what do you do?” Download the song here. Happy New Year!

Rdio is a music service that rivals Pandora. Choose what you want to play and listen as much as you want. No ads. You do have to purchase a subscription to actually listen to it on your smart phone just like Spotify. However from your laptop, you can listen to full albums and stream playlists.

Thanks to Joel Cheesman for the lead!

Find out more information about Rdio

The original Van Halen crew plus Wolf minus Michael Anthony are rumored to release a new record coming in February 2012. Today on their website, Van Halen announced details of their 2012 Tour.

Their latest album has been described by Mark Tremonti from Creed as a throwback to old style Van Halen. The rumor is the band decided to go back and revisit old material for a source of inspiration. Does this mean that Michael Anthony should have writing credits on the new album?

If you’re not old enough to remember it when it was on the radio, you likely know the song “Brand New Key” from its appearance in commercials, like this one.  The song was the only number one hit for New York-born singer-songwriter Melanie, and it hit the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for a three-week run exactly 40 years ago today.  “Brand New Key” was one of six top 40 hits for Melanie, all coming in the early 1970s, which included one other top ten hit:  “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” which peaked at number 6 in 1970.

Melanie (or Melanie Safka by her full name) is still touring, and you can find out more about her, including tour dates, at her website.

Best known for his 1999 international mega-hit “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” San Juan, Puerto Rico-born singer Ricky Martin turns 40 years old today.  In addition to “Livin’ la Vida Loca,” which spent five weeks at the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart, Martin hit the top 40 with four more songs between 1999 and 2001, including “She’s All I Ever Had,” “Shake Your Bon-Bon,” “She Bangs,” and “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely.”

As a DJ, there are just some songs that always invoke a physical reaction and pack your dance floor; one of those is “Kiss” by Price. The other day I realized that bass pumping, guitar driven tune is twenty-five years old. Kiss was one of several #1 hits of Prince’s career.

I often wonder when Prince changed his name to a symbol if that was the moment he jumped the shark. You always had to refer to him as the artist formerly known as Prince. How do you type that symbol into Google or iTunes?

What is your favorite Prince song?

Prince – Kiss by cdipre

I know a number of folks who absolutely can’t stand Nickelback.  And, so, to remind them of a day that I’m sure they rue, exactly 10 years ago today the Canadian band hit the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for the only time in their career when “How You Remind Me” climbed to the number one position.  The song, which was the first song by the band to chart, would spend four weeks on top, and it would go on to be radio’s most-played song for the decade of the 2000s.