Random 10 for October 27, 2008
1. Rio En Medio, “Umbrella.” This is not a Rihanna cover, but the work of Brooklyn freak-folk singer Danielle Stech-Homsy, who plays a mean ukelele and looks super-cute in tribal furs. From the just-released “Frontier” disc.
2. Crowded House, “You Are the Only One To Make Me Cry.”
3. Art Brut, “Emily Kane.”
4. Ratatat, “Tacobel Canon.”
5. The Bird and the Bee, “Polite Dance Song.” Whenever I see this video, I feel like I just got Scotchgarded (see No. 10).
6. Love and Rockets, “Ball of Confusion.”
7. The Rakes, “The World Was a Mess But His Hair Was Perfect.”
8. The Decemberists, “Think About Me.”
9. Faultline, “Where Is My Boy?”
10. Ween, “All My Love.” Yes, Gener gets after the Led Zeppelin ballad with surprising reverence. No fart jokes or anything.
Video of the Day: Scott Weiland, “Paralysis”
As exasperating as Weiland can be, this is at least a markedly different direction from Velvet Revolver. Which is like being praised for taking a markedly different direction from being a heroin addi– aw, forget it.
Random 10 for October 23, 2008
1. Weezer, “Troublemaker.” It looks like Rivers has been spending a little too much time in the Inland Empire.
2. Tomoyasu Hotei, “Battle Without Honor or Humanity.”
3. Jim Noir, “All Right.”
4. Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor, “You Don’t Know Me.” Tim and Eric! Awesome show, Ben, great job.
5. The Roots, “Sacrifice.”
6. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, “Global A Go-Go.”
7. Mates of State, “Blue and Gold Print.”
8. CSS, “Believe Achieve.”
9. Goldfrapp, “Road to Somewhere.”
10. Yelle, “Je Veux Te Voir.” Ah, the saucy comedic stylings of the French. Hats of to Yelle for the fetching use of a shirt as a dress.
Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness!
It’s never too late — aw, hell yes it is.
Wow kids, the end of the world is nigh:
Best Buy and Geffen Records announced that one of the most highly anticipated albums of all time, Guns N’ Roses‘ Chinese Democracy, will be available beginning Nov. 23 at Best Buy and BestBuy.com on CD, vinyl, and digital downloads. The title track, the first single from the album, was released to radio today, October 22. Chinese Democracy is the first album of new material from one of rock’s most influential bands since the 1991 simultaneous releases of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II.
“The release of Chinese Democracy marks a historic moment in rock n’ roll,” said co-managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould. “We’re launching with a monumental campaign developed by Gary Arnold and the Best Buy team that matches the groundbreaking sound of the album itself. Guns N’ Roses fans have every reason to celebrate, for this is only the beginning.”
“Chinese Democracy is one of the most highly anticipated albums in music history, and Best Buy is thrilled to deliver this explosive and previously elusive release to Guns N’ Roses fans. Longtime fans will be rewarded for their patience and loyalty to this great band, while a new generation of fans will be blown away,” said Gary Arnold, Senior Entertainment Officer for Best Buy. “Axl Rose is one of the most dynamic and gifted writers and performers in modern music. Best Buy is excited to work with Axl to make the release of Chinese Democracy THE musical event of 2008!”
“Guns N’ Roses is THE premier American rock band,” commented Steve Berman, President, Sales and Marketing, Interscope Geffen A&M Records. “Partnering with Gary and everyone at Best Buy to release one of rock’s most anticipated and legendary albums is truly a moment in music history. We’re thrilled to be able to announce that Chinese Democracy is coming, it’s coming this year, and it’s coming to Best Buy.”
Produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo, the album, which will be released on Black Frog/Geffen Records, includes 14 tracks. “Shackler’s Revenge” debuted September 14 through the Rock Band 2 videogame and “If The World” can be heard in the film ‘Body Of Lies,” which premiered on October 11.
Chinese Democracy is being released in three formats: CD, Vinyl LP (with a free digital download of the tracks), and as a digital album. Pre-orders at www.BestBuy.com/chinesedemocracy begin today.
So, it’s actually happening — now you can find out if the official version of “Better” is, erm, better than what you’ve had on your iPod for the past, oh, four years or so.
No pressure, Axl. No pressure.
Random 10 for October 22, 2008
1. The Flaming Lips, “Waitin’ For a Superman.” Wayne’s greatest and most personal song is accompanied by a deeply emotional video, most of which was shot within one mile of my house. A classic — part of the Staticblog canon.
2. Lindsey Buckingham, “Show You How.”
3. Electric Light Orchestra, “Mr. Blue Sky.”
4. Brookville, “Beautiful View.”
5. The School, “Let It Slip.” A Norwegian ultra-twee band with prominent girl group echoes. The band released its latest disc last month, Destructive Sounds.
6. Dean and Britta, “Indian Summer.”
7. Nina Simone, “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead).”
8. The Rosebuds, “Blue Bird.”
9. Goldfrapp, “Eat Yourself.”
10. Utopia, “Crybaby.” This is one terrible video: some claptrap about a scientist finding a — duh! — utopian community where people wear modified togas and argue while playing some vague geometrically diverse card game. They should have just kept the performance clip running on the one TV they have in Rundgren’s civilization. I do have to say that Willie Wilcox had the most ridiculous and amazing drum kit ever. As for the song, it’s the kind of arena rock that makes you grudgingly give arena rock its props, but by 1984, Utopia would have had to play a wee arena.
Either/Or, Episode 10: Pundits
In Either/Or, we take two people in similar pursuits, and you choose between them. It can be based on any criteria: professional ability, personality, intellectual prowess, physical pulchritude, or who you’d want backing you up in a knife fight. It really doesn’t matter: just choose Either/Or.
Either Michelle Bernard of the Independent Women’s Forum…
Or Ana Marie Cox of Time.com and RADAR.
Either Chris Cillizza of washingtonpost.com…
Or Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker.
DVD Review: “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten”
Rating: 92
The leader of The Clash was a fully self-invented man, and as Julian Temple’s exhilarating documentary “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten” illustrates, the punk who was born John Mellor spent nearly the last 20 years of his life not knowing what to do with his invention. Strummer was a charismatic idealist, and when he died in 2002 of a congenital heart condition, rock music lost one of its most important guiding lights.
Temple (“The Great Rock and Roll Swindle”) employs an unusual device for his background interviews, shooting friends and colleagues seated around campfires with no one identified by onscreen titles. We see people who knew him when he was a hippie squatter who called himself “Woody,” and we also see bandmate Mick Jones and well-known friends such as Bono, but Temple equalizes them all in this setting — one that makes total sense in the end. Furthermore, Temple compiles footage of The Clash playing “White Riot” and “I’m So Bored With the U.S.A.” that make a lot of modern punk bands sound like Norah Jones.
After The Clash disintegrated without dignity in 1986, Strummer spent many years adrift, working on occasional soundtracks for Alex Cox films and recording only sporadically. He finally regained his love for performing in the late ‘90s and found joy in creating community, but for his millions of fans, Strummer’s time in the wilderness was lost time — time when he could have been exploring new rhythms and shouting in his signature bark about the world’s stupidities. “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten” makes that loss feel even greater.
Music Review: Nikka Costa, “Pebble to a Pearl”
Rating: 83
Seven years ago, Nikka Costa’s career looked certain to go supernova — her song “Like a Feather” was everywhere and her style had one foot in classic funk and another in sci-fi future soul. But then she fell prey to industry whims and was forced to re-record much of her 2005 disc, “Can’tneverdidnothin’,” to little commercial effect. Now, a retrenched Costa is deep in a classic groove with “Pebble to a Pearl,” her first disc for the revitalized Stax label, and her new home has the siren bursting with hot buttered soul.
With the exception of the clear ‘60s echoes in opening track “Stuck to You,” “Pebble to a Pearl” could play convincingly as a 1974 artifact — Stevie Wonder’s “Fulfillingness’ First Finale” figures forcefully. She can slide from the simmering funk of “Keep Pushin’” into sexy Southern R&B ballads such as “Love to Love You Less” and Johnny Guitar Watson’s “Loving You” with slippery ease.
But the masterstroke of “Pebble to a Pearl” has to be “Bullets in the Sky,” an achingly gorgeous psychedelic soul ballad, in which Costa and producer/husband Justin Stanley concoct a mournful beauty from martial drums, Jason Falkner’s subtle guitars and falsetto backup vocals from Jamie Lidell. Costa has delivered her best album by staying true to the soul she loves, and she’s got the pipes and vision to carry on Stax’ classic traditions.
Oops, She Did It Again
Britney’s back, bitches.
No, really.
Her latest single, “Womanizer,” has jumped to the topof the U.S. charts, making an unprecedented leap from No. 96 to No. 1, the sort of volatility that can make Hank Paulson break out in a cold sweat. It marks Britney’s first No. 1 single since “Baby, One More Time.”
Why?
Methinks it has something to do with an accompanying music video (hat tip to What Would Tyler Durden Do?) that could put hair on a cue ball.
Click here for Britney finally back in lapdance form.
My, oh, my. Just turn down the volume and prepare to be mesmerized.
– Chase
Random 10 for Oct. 21, 2008
1. The Kinks, “Do It Again”
2. Reverend Horton Heat, “Bales of Cocaine”
A bit of coke-addled gospel from the good Reverend Horton Heat.
3. Muddy Waters, “They Call Me Muddy Waters”
4. Van Morrison, “Sweet Thing”
5. Buddy Knox, “Party Doll”
6. The Psychedelic Furs, “Love My Way”Watch more IFILM videos on AOL Video
Whatever happened to the Furs’ Richard Butler? His sour, pinched vocals were among the most distinctive of the Eighties. “Love My Way,” from the group’s 1982 album Forever Now, is mesmerizing and romantic, truly one for the ages.
7. Sonny & Cher, “It’s the Little Things”
8. Bongwater, “What If?”
9. The Four Tops, “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever”
10. The Scissor Sisters, “Take Your Mama Out”
This 2004 song from the Scissor Sisters is among the best Elton John songs that Elton John never did. Here, the New York-based outfit performs at the ‘05 Brit Awards.
– Chase
