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Here's a great photo of Micky with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5. Buck and McCaughey co-wrote the title track of The Monkees' forthcoming holiday album, Christmas Party. On a personal note, I'm a longtime fan of R.E.M. and am thrilled that Peter is working with The Monkees. Scott is also closely aligned with R.E.M. as he was an auxiliary musician in the studio and on stage with the group from 1994 until their their breakup in 2011. Scott's band The Minus 5 released Of Monkees and Men in 2016, described as "an imaginative tribute to the Monkees’ legacy in music and popular culture."  (Photo courtesy of Micky Dolenz's Facebook page) Target will carry an exclusive bonus tracks edition of The Monkees' forthcoming holiday album, Christmas Party, beginning on October 19 (a week after the release of the standard edition). Target's compact disc will feature two additional songs: 1) "Ríu Chíu" (group version as heard on the 1967 "Christmas Show" episode with improved audio from its previous CD appearance on the 2007 deluxe edition of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.) 2) "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" (the one-off 1976 Christmas single recorded by Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork and produced by Chip Douglas - this will mark its first official appearance on a Monkees album)  Thank you very much to John Hughes of Rhino Records for providing The Monkees Live Almanac with an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek in the studio when Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) joined Micky Dolenz to record the tracks "Christmas Party" and "Jesus Christ" for the upcoming Monkees holiday album, Christmas Party. John is the executive producer of this latest Monkees project. Left to right are guitarist Jody Porter, producer Adam Schlesinger, John Hughes, Mark Pinkus (President, Rhino Records), Micky Dolenz, drummer Brian Young, Peter Buck, and Scott McCaughey:  (Photo courtesy of John Hughes)  (Album cover art by Michael Allred) Two years after the triumph of Good Times!, The Monkees are set to release Christmas Party, their first-ever collection of holiday music. The album, produced by Adam Schlesinger (who also oversaw Good Times!), will feature newly recorded versions of classic Christmas songs including "Silver Bells," "The Christmas Song," and "Wonderful Christmastime" along with new songs written for the group by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo ("What Would Santa Do"), Andy Partridge of XTC ("Unwrap You At Christmas"), R.E.M.'s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5 ("Christmas Party"), and Schlesinger with novelist Michael Chabon ("House of Broken Gingerbread"). The Monkees will also cover Wizzard's yuletide classic "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" and Big Star's "Jesus Christ." Christmas Party includes new vocals by Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, plus the late Davy Jones’ voice - taken from vintage recordings - also appears on two songs. It will be available for purchase and download on October 12. Along with producer Schlesinger, Cuomo and Partridge are returning to the Monkees fold as they were the songwriters responsible for the two lead singles from Good Times!, "She Makes Me Laugh" and "You Bring the Summer." Two of Michael Nesmith's sons also acted as co-producers (Christian on "The Christmas Song" and Jonathan on "Snowfall"). Davy's tracks on Christmas Party were originally recorded years ago with former Monkees producer Chip Douglas. Schlesinger worked with the master tapes as given to him by Douglas, creating new instrumentation around Davy's vocals. Target will carry an exclusive bonus tracks edition of Christmas Party on October 19 (a week after the release of the standard edition), featuring two additional songs: "Ríu Chíu" (group version as heard on the 1967 "Christmas Show" episode with improved audio from its previous CD appearance on the 2007 deluxe edition of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.) "Christmas Is My Time Of Year" (the 1976 Christmas single recorded by Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork and produced by Chip Douglas - this will mark its first official appearance on a Monkees album) Here is the official track listing of Christmas Party, and you can listen to the LP's executive producer John Hughes (of Rhino Records) and Monkees archivist Andrew Sandoval breakdown each song on the latest episode of Zilch. "Unwrap You At Christmas" (Lead vocal: Micky) "What Would Santa Do" (Lead vocal: Micky) "Mele Kalikimaka" (Lead vocal: Davy) "House Of Broken Gingerbread" (Lead vocal: Micky) "The Christmas Song" (Lead vocal: Michael) "Christmas Party" (Lead vocal: Micky) "Jesus Christ" (Lead vocal: Micky) "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day" (Lead vocal: Micky) "Silver Bells" (Lead vocal: Davy) "Wonderful Christmastime" (Lead vocal: Micky) "Snowfall" (Lead vocal: Michael) "Angels We Have Heard On High" (Lead vocal: Peter) "Merry Christmas, Baby" (Lead vocal: Micky) The first single, set for an October release, will be Andy Partridge's "Unwrap You At Christmas," and a lyric video will be produced to promote the track. A vinyl edition of Christmas Party is in the works, but will not be available until early 2019. Stay tuned to The Monkees Live Almanac for all the latest news and information surrounding Christmas Party and more! Last week, The Boston Globe, while interviewing Michael Nesmith, hinted that a Monkees Christmas album was forthcoming, even mentioning two songs that Nez had recorded for the project: The surviving Monkees, Nesmith, Dolenz, and Peter Tork — Davy Jones died of a heart attack in 2012 — recorded a well-received comeback album, “Good Times!,” in 2016. True to form, Nesmith was not enthralled when the band asked him to take part in a follow-up, a Christmas album. But he relented, cutting two songs for the upcoming release, covers of “The Christmas Song” and “Snowfall,” the weird seasonal standard written by Claude Thornhill. Speculation surrounding new Monkees recordings has abounded since June 2017 when Fountains of Wayne guitarist Jody Porter, who played on the 2016 Monkees album Good Times! (which was produced by his bandmate Adam Schlesinger), commented on Facebook that he would soon be in Los Angeles to work on a new Monkees LP. Even before that, Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, the legendary new wave group responsible for songs like "Tempted and "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), told Iain Lee on his UK radio show that he was writing songs for another Monkees album. And now, Amazon has a listing for Christmas Party, set to be released by Rhino Records on October 12, 2018. Another website, Mascom, shows the album with the following track list (and low resolution artwork), advertising "new songs written by Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), Andy Partridge (XTC), and Peter Buck (REM)":
Stay tuned to The Monkees Live Almanac for all of the latest about this upcoming release!
Sponsored by Brown University, CS4RI, USCMS Collaboration, IEEE Superconductivity and Harvard University, with collaborating support of Bryant University, Citizens Bank, and CERN’s USCMS and USATLAS experiment.
The event celebrates the intersections between science and the arts. We invite kids and adults of all ages to participate in the free, hands-on activities and discover science in our daily lives. For one exciting day, famous scientists team up with musicians, programmers, artists, and chefs to explore the wonders of science. Do not miss Musician Micky Dolenz from the legendary band The Monkees and meet the researchers working with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva.
A little-known fact about Micky Dolenz of the legendary band The Monkees is that in addition to being a very talented musician he has a wealth of other skills. An expert carpenter and well-versed in Renaissance history, he is also a lifelong fan of particle physics. Don Lincoln will be talking to Micky about his love of science and how it’s never too late to go back to college.
Thanks a lot to David Marcone for passing along this YouTube find to the Live Almanac! Click the image below to watch the fantastic music video for "You Bring the Summer," produced by Jonathan Nesmith and Susan Holloway:  Thanks to John McCutcheon of Monkee45s.net for sharing the set list from the FNB Redux show at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on September 8:
The surviving Monkees, Nesmith, Dolenz, and Peter Tork — Davy Jones died of a heart attack in 2012 — recorded a well-received comeback album, “Good Times!,” in 2016. True to form, Nesmith was not enthralled when the band asked him to take part in a follow-up, a Christmas album. But he relented, cutting two songs for the upcoming release, covers of “The Christmas Song” and “Snowfall,” the weird seasonal standard written by Claude Thornhill. Speculation surrounding new Monkees recordings has abounded since June 2017 when Fountains of Wayne guitarist Jody Porter, who played on the 2016 Monkees album Good Times! (which was produced by his bandmate Adam Schlesinger), commented on Facebook that he would soon be in Los Angeles to work on a new Monkees LP.
Even before that, Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, the legendary new wave group responsible for songs like "Tempted and "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), told Iain Lee on his UK radio show that he was writing songs for another Monkees album. Be sure to stay tuned to The Monkees Live Almanac for further updates, which should be coming shortly! 
Sponsored by the official Davy Jones Facebook page on the 52nd Anniversary of the debut of The Monkees on NBC, Global Monkees Day has been a resounding success! Be sure to check in for special merchandise offers, rare pictures, fan art and memories, video messages from the likes of Ami Dolenz, Gary Strobl, Rich Dart, Rodney Bingenheimer, and Talia Jones Roston, and much, much more!
Thanks a lot to the fantastic Written In Our Hearts Facebook page for allowing the Live Almanac to share this rare photo of Peter, Davy, and Micky rehearsing for their appearance on the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards. If you haven't stopped by Written In Our Hearts, be sure to follow their page!  The trio performed "Daydream Believer" and "I'm a Believer" on the September 5, 1986 telecast while The Monkees were experiencing a newfound success during their 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour: And check out this commercial for the encore presentation of the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards that featured The Monkees: In the photograph below, The Monkees pose with Don Kirshner, Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, and Lester Sill during filming of the first season of The Monkees television series:   (Photo likely by Henry Diltz)  |
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