Steven Tyler’s Metal Mahalo
Watch your back, Joe Perry. Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler made a guest appearance at Hawaiian musician Uncle Willie K‘s 54th birthday bash at Migrant Restaurant at Wailea Beach Marriott Resort & Spa in Maui. Tyler, 66, who owns a house on Maui’s Makena Beach, jumped onstage with the birthday boy (born William Kahaiali’i) saying, “Move over, buddy. This ain’t no solo gig.” Settling in behind the keyboard, Tyler saluted his friend, who has played with Santana and Prince throughout a 30-plus-year career. “Happy birthday to you. Here’s to hell: May we have as much fun there as we had getting there,” Tyler said, before playing “Walk This Way” and “Dream On,” on which Uncle Willie K played Perry’s guitar parts on an amplified ukulele. Tyler has played with Uncle Willie K before, and Migrant manager Melanie Wicker says they have a “deep love and appreciation for each other.”
Badu Sings And Spins
Grammy Award-winning musician Erykah Badu, also known as DJ Lo Down Loretta Brown, spun a last-minute set at Terra Gallery in San Francisco on Oct. 17 after her sold-out show with Childish Gambino at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, Calif. She played hip-hop and R&B classics by Dr. Dre, Lauryn Hill, Pharrell Williams, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. One witness says Badu occasionally sang to the tracks she played and, at one point, left her turntable to sing among fans in the crowd.
Erykah Badu Makes $3.60 Singing on NYC Streets
Dawes In The Raw
American folk band Dawes workshopped potential songs for its new album during a small West Coast club tour in October. Its producer, guitarist and longtime Gillian Welch collaborator Dave Rawlings, took notes from the audience at every show and occasionally jammed with the band. At the Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma, Calif., on Oct. 14, frontman Taylor Goldsmith told the crowd that the reason the band was performing “is because we’re about to work on a new album. We figured the best thing to do would be for us to … get used to [songs] on a stage before we record them.”
Mudhoney’s Response to Turning 25? Shrug
Damian Kulash: I Love You, Mudhoney
OK Go frontman Damian Kulash bonded with Japanese choreographer Airman over Mudhoney while making the band’s latest music video for its single, “I Won’t Let You Down.” During the shoot, which took place over a month in an abandoned shopping mall outside of Tokyo, Kulash and Airman, learned of their mutual love for ’90s grunge music. After the OK Go singer mentioned that he had worn through several vinyl copies of his Mudhoney records in high school. Airman showed his collection of more than 4,000 vintage t-shirts, mostly from that era, to the band. And when the video wrapped, the choreographer presented the band with vintage Mudhoney, and another grunge great, Tad, t-shirts from his collection.
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An edited version of this story appeared in the Nov. 1 issue of Billboard.