Dashboard Confessional performing REM's Automatic for the Peoplein its entirety. That idea is so brilliant that I can't believe it actually happened.
For the seven or eight people who actually have MTV2, the concert, originally performed last November, will debut on March 8 at 5pm Pacific. Here are some pictures.
Now if we could get Carabba to do Plastic Ono Band... Bren9:56 PM Mixin' It Up
You probably havent heard it, but youve read about it - it seems like every music magazine on the planet is talking about DJ Danger Mouse's The Grey Album. If not, a quick primer: a British dance producer has taken the music from The Beatle's white album, and vocal tracks from Jay-Z's The Black Album, and mixed them together. Since its illegal sampling from not one, but two, albums, you cant find it in stores, but in this wonderful world we live in, you can find it on the internet with a modicum of effort.
I had resisted checking it out, because the concept didnt interest - im neither a Jay-Z or Beatles fan, and most "mash-ups" are nothing more than novelties. But I got a great review from a friend and decided to check it out, and now Im ashamed I didnt get into this earlier.
The Grey Album is GREAT - an absolutely masterful piece of work that is dense enough to classify as an all-new album. Far beyond a mash-up, DJ Danger Mouse has reconfigured the music to match seamlessly with Jay-Z's vocals. Im ashamed to admit Im not enough of a Beatle's fan to know recognize ANY of the music on this album (despite what Ive read, I doubt the drums are reconfigured from the white album), but I doubt this is how either album could have ever intended to be used. Track's like "Encore" or "Change Clothes" use acoustic guitar and clavinova, respectively, to supply a solid backing to Jay-Z's vocals better than what I could imagine being on the original album. Its not the old fashioned ripping of riffs, a la 80's rap, but a reconfiguring of original material to sound fresh, resulting in one of the best albums that will be released this year. That is, if it's officially released ever... Andy J7:28 PM
Thursday, February 19, 2004
An interesting story that suggests a stronger correlation between image and sales than I would have suspected.
Ageing post-punk band The Alarm have scored a top 30 UK chart hit - with a stunt disguising themselves as an unknown younger group.
Recording under the pseudonym The Poppyfields, they are at number 28 after selling more than 4,000 copies of their 1970s-style punk single 45RPM.
In its accompanying video The Alarm are replaced by teenage Chester rockers The Wayriders who mime along to the song.
Singer Mike Peters said it was done to prove how much image affected sales.
I've always been of the mind that if a song did poorly on the radio, that had more to do with the nature and character of the song than with the image of the musician(s). You can hear the song here and judge for yourself whether it would be a hit if everybody knew the band that had recorded it had formed in the mid-'70's. Paul3:48 PM
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Let's get down to Incubusiness
I'm a pretty big Incubus fan, I must admit. I think of all the major turntable-ish, rap-metal-ish hard rock bands out there, they're the band with the greatest potential for transcendence. 2001's Morning View, poopoo'd by some as a sellout, was in my view a big step forward for them, as that power-packed, yet touching and intricate album showed that they had mastered the art of dynamic tension in rock music: Get out your copy and listen to the unexpected mixes found in the prechorus of "Nice to Know You", the mildly-distorted verses of "Circles" and the turntable-powered breakdown of "Blood on the Ground".
Their latest effort is the energetic A Crow Left of the Murder..., available for $9.99 at Best Buy! Or so I've heard.
This is a pretty lengthy record for a band that gets the amount of pop-rock airplay as they do. That length comes not from sheer quantity of songs, but from some very patient choices by the band. There are a number of jams on A Crow that result from decisions to meditate on a striking musical passage, and expand on it, particularly in the magnificent Rush-meets-RHCP jam from "Pistola".
Singer Brandon Boyd -- yes, a prettyboy -- is all over the album, begging to impress. He does so in two ways: One, by holding a variety of very high notes perhaps only to prove he can ("Made For TV Movie"), and two, by making unexpected word choices, like appendages, megalomaniac (the title of the kickin' first single), meander, amalgamation, and girl. Sometimes his hyperconscious lyrical tendencies fall flat, or seem a bit adolescent ("Talk Show on Mute"), but they hit more than they miss.
The album gets around a 7 in my book, because some of the songs, while well-intentioned, don't draw me in musically, and there is a sense that hooks have been occasionally relegated in favor of increased complexity ("Sick Sad Little World"). Also, the steamy-wet "Southern Girl" is as gooey as molasses, dipped in syrup, dipped in Uncle Kracker.
For a good time, though, check out "Megalomaniac", "Agoraphobia", "Pistola", "Zee Deveel", "Made For TV Movie" and "Smile Lines".
For another perspective, here's a review by friend, student and former music critic Alex Charlow, who recommends the bonus DVD that comes with some editions of the album. Bren2:17 PM
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Oh well, whatever, nevermind
You'll all be disappointed to know that former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic has decided against running for lieutenant governor of Washington.
His reason? He would have been running against an incumbent from his own party.
"I found out firsthand that it's really considered bad form to run against an incumbent of your own party," Novoselic said Thursday.
That, and he'd be about three times as tall as Governor Locke, his immediate superior. Bren5:41 PM
The top-of-the-line iPod music player from Apple Computer can hold four solid weeks of music. But what if you just want a little peace and quiet? As it turns out, Apple sells that too - sounds of silence for 99 cents.
Steve Halberstadt of Raleigh, N.C., made such a purchase last week after discovering that Apple's iTunes store, the Web's leading downloadable music outlet, had added "The Whitey Album," a 1995 release by Ciccone Youth, a jokey side project of the rock band Sonic Youth. The album's second track album, "Silence," consists of 63 seconds of exactly that. (The band has said, with tongue in cheek, that the track is a version of John Cage's famous silent composition "4'33"," only speeded up.)
After checking out the 30-second preview, which "seemed to be very representative of the rest of the song," Mr. Halberstadt said he could not help but make the purchase.
He described it as "the best 99 cents I've ever spent'' in an e-mail message last week to Jack Miller, the editor in chief of the news and gossip Web site As the Apple Turns (www.appleturns.com).
CNN wants to know if the Beatles are still relevant. (this poll will probably be gone in a matter of hours, so hurry!)
UPDATE: Final results were something like 65% Yes, 35% No.
Are the Beatles still relevant today? Of course they are! We all remember that time in 1966, during the English Premier League Championship Match, when George Harrison performed with Nancy Sinatra during the intermission, and he suddenly... Bren8:15 PM
Upcoming Album Releases:
Ani DiFranco - January 20
The Coral - January 27
Moby - February 3
Jonny Greenwood - February 24
The Hives - February 2004
Melissa auf der Maur - February 2004
Garbage - Early 2004
The Vines - Early 2004
The Who - Spring 2004
Wilco - Spring 2004
Beck - Summer 2004
Ben Folds - 2004
Chemical Brothers - 2004
Eels - 2004
Interpol - 2004
PJ Harvey - 2004
Queens Of The Stone Age - 2004
R.E.M. - 2004
U2 - 2004
Coldplay - Late 2004
Paul McCartney - Late 2004
Oasis - Late 2004
