I found this terrifying album cover while going through the Amazon MP3 site today. I don't think it's supposed to be scary, but something about it makes me feel really, really wrong--in a way that much of the intentionally scary Halloween albums can't touch. Nothing about this says "fun" to me--it's certainly more Gacy than Bozo. Then again, like many other reasonable people, I have a bit of an aversion to clowns. Check out some other scary album cover finds after the jump. Have you found any?
Sometimes you can almost see the stink lines coming off of these collaborations*, but when one of my favorite developing rappers reworks one of my favorite songs of the year, I take the time to listen. Thankfully, Wale's take on Duffy's "Warwick Avenue" works. Head over to XXL to stream it, but since there's some spicy language, you might want to give the kids earmuffs.
After the jump, find the emotional video for the original version of "Warwick Avenue" and a link to Wale's Seinfeld-referencing Mixtape About Nothing, which you can download for free.
As we continue to roll back the clocks, celebrating the best moments of the last 10 years we've been open for business, our thoughts turn to soundtracks. Once for collectors only, soundtracks now stack up high on the charts, an outcome of the popularity of Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and well, Zach Braff. Take the scene in Braff's movie Garden State where Natalie Portman's character utters what is, depending at how you view the world, the most damning or most celebratory thing that can be said about a pop band:
And the rest is history. The Garden State soundtrack went on to dominate charts and year-end lists, sold tens of thousands, increased the audience for the Shins, earned Braff a Grammy, and (if you pretend Hans Zimmer never got his hands on a piano) changed the niche soundtrack section into a mega-selling enterprise.
But, enough about Garden State. Here are my picks for the 10 most-important soundtracks of the last 10 years:
1999: The setting of Rushmore,
the movie about the kid with all the right ambition directed in all the
wrong places, wouldn't be as complete without Wes Anderson's
hand-curated soundtrack that created a new audience for vintage Cat Stevens, the Kinks, and the instrumental works of Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh.
2000:
The soundtrack to the inimitable Lars Von Trier musical Dancer in the Dark--a definite
must-see about a Czech immigrant mother going blind amid a workaday
existence--finds Bjork at her finest. Exuberant, heartbreaking, and at times even
uncharacteristically restrained, her post-industrial Broadway reveries
outperform all expectations of her acting abilities.
2001: Any movie that includes a subplot about a rabid record collector requires an excellent soundtrack. Ghost Worldintroduced many would-be music addicts to undiscovered 1950s Bollywood
gems, New Orleans swing, true Delta blues, and of course the
unforgettable send-up in terrible nu-blues bar band, Blueshammer.
2002: Weaving together the lives of three different women living in different eras, Phillip Glass's driving, haunting compositions for The Hours
perfectly matched the tenuous urgency of Michael Cunningham’s
narrative. It is as plaintive as it is exquisitely sumptuous, memorable
even beyond the construct of the film.
2003: Did people even buy TV soundtracks before The O.C.? This quintessentially sun-dappled soundtrack no doubt set the scene of
many a backyard BBQ well outside the county line of that particularly
fascinating Southern California drama hotbed.
2004:
By this point, filmgoers knew what to expect with a Wes Anderson film:
imaginative plots, hilarious dialogue, Bill Murray, and a soundtrack
that featured the Kinks and Mark Mothersbaugh. Musically, The Life Aquaticwith Steve Zissoustrayed from that formula, adding Brazilian singer Seu Jorge’s bossa nova covers of the best of Bowie's Life on Mars to the mix.
2005:
The first of three soundtracks to the show about some seriously randy
Seattle doctors made more new fans of below-the-radar artists like the Postal Service, Tegan & Sara, and Inara George than all the college radio stations, hipster boosters, and indie music blogs put together.
2006:
Try as you might, you can't not love Jennifer Hudson's rendition of
"You're Gonna Love Me" or nearly period-perfect Berry Gordie-inspired
originals like "Love You I Do." Also, lest we forget, this movie and
soundtrack redeem Eddie Murphy's former pop-music crimes (see: "Party All the Time (My Girl Wants To)."
2007: Comprising Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, the Swell Season starred in Once--both
the movie and the soundtrack--and became one of music's true-life fairy
tales when the two unknown, unsung talents took home a Best Song
Oscar for "Falling Slowly."
2008:
Looking back, it's hard to tell what was more surprising: the success
of the little indie movie about a plucky pregnant teen who says the
darnedest things, or K-records artist Kimya Dawson's becoming an overnight sensation (we’re talking Moldy Peaches reuniting on TV’s The View).
I love toys, which is why I was excited to find this great collection of 20 album covers recreated in Lego over at The Toy Zone, and just had to share. It's a bit heavy on the Beatles, but the Norah Jones, Belle & Sebastian, and Aphex Twin album cover interpretations are spot-on. There are also covers from Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, Muse, the Strokes, Nirvana, and plenty more. What album covers do you think should be given the toy treatment?
Tonight’s UFC card at Chicago’s Allstate Arena is topped by Brazil’s indomitable Anderson Silva, defending his Middleweight title against Québécois Patrick Cote.
My predictions, with due consideration to each fighter's previously-used entrance theme music.
“Tim 4 Sum Aksion” by Redman (Anderson Silva) vs. “Voix de Fait” by Manu Militari (Patrick Cote)
Silva is one of the best in the world. Cote is Canadian. Anything can happen.
Prediction: Cote enters with surprise, new, English-language theme. Silva sticks with Redman. Cote makes a very strong showing but is TKO round two.
“This is why I’m Hot” by MIMs (Josh Koscheck ) vs. “Big Sh*t Poppin” by T.I. (Thiago Alves)
Koscheck has stepped in after a cancellation, making this anybody's fight. Both are well-rounded fighters but Koscheck is weirder than Alves, giving him a slight advantage.
Prediction: Koscheck enters with a new, custom theme song. Alves counters with “Swagga Like Us.” Koscheck wins by decision.
“Wait” by Earshot (Sean Sherk) vs. “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor (Tyson Griffin)
Sherk, who is 11 years older and can listen to whatever he damn well pleases, at least attempts to keep up with what the kids are listening to.
Prediction: Sherk comes armed with Rise Against’s “Re-Education (Through Labor).” Griffin is flummoxed because he was going to use that song. Griffin forced to fall back on “Eye Of The Tiger” and loses by submission at the end of round one.
Top 10 Title Belt MMA Entrance Themes
1. “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” by AC/DC 2. “Superfly” by Curtis Mayfield 3. “Seven Nation Army” by White Stripes 4. “Iron Fist” by Motorhead 5. “The Fightin’ Side of Me” by Merle Haggard 6. “Enter Sandman” by Metallica 7. “Don’t Sweat The Technique” by Eric B. and Rakim 8. “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley 9. “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider 10. “My War” by Black Flag
Top 10 “leave it in the locker room” MMA Entrance Themes
1. “Break Stuff” by Limp Bizkit 2. “The Wild Boys” by Duran Duran 3. “Chariots of Fire” by Vangelis 4. “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins 5. “Jesus Walks” by Kanye West 6. “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Punk 7. “Flat on the Floor” by Nickelback 8. “Beat It” by Michael Jackson 9. anything by Survivor 10. “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.
With the whole country’s attention turned toward the November 4th election, many musicians are speaking up and singing out in an attempt to encourage political awareness and involvement amongst their fans. One of the most moving “Rock the Vote” videos of them all is Christina Aguilera’s a cappella rendition of “America the Beautiful” sung lullaby style to her infant baby.
A loosely slung term encompassing a sub-strain of hip-hop made largely by and for educated white folks, "nerdcore" is gaining in popularity. Ostensibly coined by one MC Frontalot, whose lyrical skills are humbly displayed in the video below, nerdcore often amounts to novelty music, but it sure can be fun for a single listen:
Though he would probably eschew the association, my favorite nerdcore rapper is MC Paul Barman. An underrated, and often X-rated, rapper whose deep vocabulary and almost total lack of rhythm have become calling cards, Barman is nothing if not enthusiastic, and he specializes in long, cascading lines like the following personal favorite: "My dandy voice makes the most anti-choice grannies panties moist."
Occasionally, Barman steps out the gutter to effect a kind of public service, as in this rhyming instructional video about the sign-language alphabet (note: almost totally kid-friendly, though you may want to cough during "s"):
Self-styled MC/DJ/CEO/VIP
Princess Superstar has her nerdcore moments, too. To wit, "Bad Babysitter":
More to follow in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, memorize the sign-language alphabet. Class dismissed.
We're already nearing the close of 2008, which means nerds and obsessives like yours truly are thinking about what we're going to include on our year-end best-of lists. While my list of top songs isn't yet ready for public consumption, I thought I'd share some songs that will likely make my final cut, but haven't really been widespread hits. The playlist below includes some of my favorite underexposed 2008 gems:
None of these folks are wildly obscure, but you can hear more from these artists at their respective MySpace pages, which I've handily linked after the jump.
If you are someone who likes to peer behind the curtain whenever possible, this post is for you. And no I’m not talking about viewing nudie rock stars or any such thing, I’m referring to a growing number of online stops that give you a glimpse of your favorite musicians doing what they do “au natural,” without the trappings. It seems that in this tech-heavy musical era people are craving some aural art sans amplification, sound effects, stage lights, screaming fans, and even (gasp!) editing.
Whether it’s Brian Wilson and his band singing in 4 part harmony from the back of a moving taxi, or Annie Clark of St. Vincent laying on a bed singing "Marry Me" into an empty hotel room, the wide-spread attempt to recapture the essence of music-making is a trend that continues to gain momentum. It’s also, quite frankly, one that I dig. How about you? Do you like a good behind-the-scenes peek at your heroes or do you wish they would put their stage clothes back on and resume their rightful place behind the mic?
Here are a few of the best reality music sites…careful, you could spend hours here:
One of my favorite bands in the world, the ridiculously talented identical twin duo Tegan & Sara, played the latest single off last year's brilliant album, The Con, on Letterman this week. It's called "Call It Off," and it's a tearjerker. Here's the Letterman performance, and underneath is the music video for the song, which was released last month:
Tegan & Sara are embarking on their last round of touring for The Con. I hope they come by Seattle, if they do, you better believe I'll be there.
As music lists go, author Tom Moon's 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die is pretty much the mother lode. And if you hang around music journalists, or music junkies of any stripe, you might expect the writer of such a list to be of the sort who likes to bludgeon you over the head with the encyclopedic breadth of his or her knowledge, before impaling you with his or her tastes. Which is why a conversation with Moon is such a welcome surprise. To wit:
Why it's significant: Argentinian siren Juana Molina is a master of blissfully hypnotic soundscapes. Her 5th full-length release,Un Día, showcases her ability to layer and loop acoustic guitar, synthesizer, percussion, and Rioplantese Spanish vocals, resulting in her signature blend of beautiful noise.
Juana Molina transitioned from actress (in a popular Argentinian weekly series in the '80s), to a veritable one woman symphony in the latter half of the '90s. After initially
crafting her songs in the traditional sense (verse, chorus, verse), she became restless and began experimenting with her own style: the artful weaving of electronic and organic sounds into loosely cohesive sonic poems. Molina is mesmerized by the sounds of daily life (hear her wax poetic about the elevator in her grandmother's apartment building.) On her fourth, release, Son, she incorporated the sounds of birds, crickets, and dogs into her songs; she claims to be inspired by their arhythmic call and response exchanges.
Molina's songs are more akin to an abstract painting, where interpretation is left to the listener, then say, a photograph, where the facts are spelled out for you. As such, I truly encourage you to listen to a sample. As she muses in her first song on Un Dia':
“Un día voy a cantar las canciones sin letra y cada uno podrá imaginar si hablo de amor, de desilusión, banalidades o sobre platón.”
(Or, in English) “One day I will sing the songs with no lyrics and everyone can imagine for themselves if it’s about love, disappointment, banalities or about Plato.”
If you do understand Spanish, you may find her lyrics nonsensical. But don't be deterred by the nebula. I bet if you venture to give Un Díaa spin, you'll wake up in a pleasant trance 50-odd minutes later. And you'll be better off for the journey.
Though it's definitely a catchy song, I doubt many people would remember A-ha's "Take On Me" if it weren't for its innovative-for-the-'80s half-animated/half-live action video. Recently, some evil genius took a crack at rewriting "Take on Me," crafting the lyrics as a running commentary describing exactly what's happening in the song's iconic video. The results are hilarious. Behold:
Why it’s significant: Because all 15 tight tracks on the hip-hop supergroup’s debut album will work your head and shake your hips, reminding you why you fell for beats and rhymes like these so many years ago. The album is a virtual “who’s who” of independent hip-hop featuring Lateef the Truth Speaker (Latryx), The Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), and producer Headnodic, with special appearances by other heavy-hitters like DJ Shadow, Mr. Lif, Damian "JR Gong” Marley, and MF Doom.
One listen through this bad boy and it becomes clear to me that hip-hop is alive and well. You may ask how I could have ever wondered in the first place, but the truth is it has been quite a while since I’ve heard a well-balanced, experimental hip-hop record like Tribe Called Quest, the Pharcyde and De La Soul used to make. From the first track on Droppin’ Science Fiction, The Mighty Underdogs have my head bobbin’ and my shoulders rockin’. When track 2 calls out “Ladies! Fellas! Everybody! Come on, throw your hands in the air!” the beats are so compelling it’s all I can do not to throw ‘em up right here at my computer.
But as much as I love a good party record that moves the body, this particular album has a depth that also moves the mind. Track 3, “So Sad,” featuring Julian and Damian Marley, addresses the harsh realities facing those stuck in lives of poverty. The song sets a somber tone that leads seamlessly into “Gun Fight” (featuring MF Doom), which likens street fighting in our gun-toting generation to the madness of the wild west. Though heavy subject matter peppers the whole album, the master craftsmen behind it know how to educate and celebrate with equal skill. Tracks 5 and 7, “Ill Vacation” and “Laughing at You,” are just a few of the celebratory tracks perfectly sequenced to balance the scales and bring humor to the beat-driven conversation.
From Aesop Rock and Mr. Lif, to Dizzee Rascal and Del the Funky Homosapien, New York’s Def Jux Records has been home to a lot of strong hip-hop over the years. But The Mighty Underdogs have made an album that will no doubt turn the spotlight to the label again, and may well start a revival amongst hip-hop fans like myself who were starting to fear the genre was nothing more than a long lost love.
Judee Sill was one of those artists that most casual music fans have never heard of, and it's really, truly a shame. Sighting influences as diverse as "Bach, Pythagoras and Ray Charles," Sill was one of the earliest progenitors of what became known as the "Laurel Canyon" sound--West coast folk-leaning female singer/songwriter/performers emerging from the early-'70s, popularized by artists like Joni Mitchell and Carole King. Sill was first--she was the first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum record label, and like Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, her tragic story and music are the stuff that legends are made of.
Sill was a troubled soul who battled heroin addiction, served time in jail, and professed to have dabbled in prostitution to keep up her drug habit before cleaning up and becoming one of the greatest unsung folk songwriters of her day. She's an artist still beloved by other musicians and songwriters who toured with Graham Nash, wrote songs for the Turtles, and has been covered by Warren Zevon and the Hollies, among others.
While she saw some initial success with her single, "Jesus Was A Cross Maker," her ego started to get in the way. She refused to be an opening act, and couldn't generate enough interest to justify a headlining tour, and after a spat with Geffen, was dropped from Asylum. Following a series of unfortunate car accidents, Sill was left with horrific back pain requiring surgery, and doctors refused to prescribe her morphine because of her past addictions. Judee returned to heroin in an effort to manage her pain and quickly disappeared off the map--so far and fast that some of her closest friends assumed she had died as early as 1975, however, it wasn't until 1979 that she passed away from an overdose.
Judee Sill's legacy is left in two gorgeous, lush, and honest studio albums, Judee Sill and Heart Food, along with a collection of songs called Dreams Come True, posthumously collected and mastered by legendary producer and former member of Sonic Youth, Jim O'Rourke. Of these, I think Heart Food is really her masterwork (though fans would surely disagree as both her studio albums are nearly perfect), especially due to songs like "The Kiss," who's mathematical and classical influences are as clear as her talent. After years of being nearly impossible to find, Sill's catalog was reissued by Rhino in 2005.
Here's a live performance of a humbled Judee Sill performing "The Kiss" on The Old Grey Whistle Test program, which used to air in the UK:
According to the Wired Listening Post, audiences across the Atlantic are on the verge of voting venerable "Together Forever" hitmaker Rick Astley the Best Act Ever at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Read more about this shocking news over here.
Why it’s significant: Brooklyn rock foursome Parts & Labor aim high, sometimes quite literally. The band’s fourth album, Receivers, in fact opens with an epically sad elegy to an unspecified number of suicidal satellites. “We watch together / tracking weather / barely tethered from below / We hover high an open eye.” Cursed to a terminally repetitive existence, bored in orbit, they finally turn tail and hurl themselves--wings, “welded skeletons,” and all -- into the sun. At the song’s propulsive climax, “the cities merge / the lights converge / the buzzing blurs into a single sigh.”
The story alone enchants. Meanwhile, the instruments burn intense musical fuel, piling layer upon layer of guitar, keyboard, drums, and billowing vocal harmonies atop a muscular quarter-note pulse rendered at relentless tempo. All -- it should be noted -- rockets forth at top volume. The final two of the song’s minutes decompose the original theme, sounding every bit like a wordless, sonic passion play in which its heroes fall in ecstasy toward the unalterable gravity of their destinies.
“Satellites” may be the most grandiose opening salvo from an indie-rock album in years.
Not that it’s totally unprecedented. Core members Dan Friel (keyboards, vocals) and BJ Warshaw (bass, vocals) already traded in gargantuan noise and imaginative songwriting on the notable Stay Afraid(2006) and Mapmakers (2007). And as avid music fans know, once in a while a band releases an album so gravid and beautiful that it unlocks the feeling that you always knew they always had it in them. It’s a delusion, of course, but in hindsight, it’s easy to say. Radiohead fans felt this way about OK Computer.
Regardless, newly armed with guitarist Sarah Lipstate and drummer Joseph Wong, Parts & Labor have at last begun flirting with genius. “Satellites” gives way to the immediately accessible “Nowheres Nigh.” The song's jovial chord progression buttresses a skyscraping arrangement that builds throughout, and despite the shambling morbidity of the song’s imagery -- “gas stations flutter / constellating in the night .. gestating clutter / under sky polluting lights” -- the melodies and harmonies fall with utter familiarity. All the while, the arrangement grows continually thicker, and the song becomes a towering lament with strange, sing-along potential long before the ironic ambush, an uplifting key change made almost instinctually recognizable by countless pop songs of the last half-century.
In this twisted reconfiguring of popularly recognizable musical elements, Parts & Labor let shine the rock populism that distinguishes this masterpiece from its merely suggestive predecessors. To hammer home the point, the band solicited 10-second audio samples from friends and fans, asking them to record responses to open-ended, rainy-day questions like “What's your favorite or least favorite sound?” and “Where are you going, or where have you been?” In thanks, Receivers uses all the submissions, not least to construct the wandering interludes that bridge each successive song.
True, there are feral aspects: frequently indulgent codas, Friel’s voice (“Mount Misery,” “Wedding in a Wasteland”), and bagpipes (“Little Ones”). Each of the album’s eight songs drill through merciless decibel levels, draw filthy lyrical landscapes, and apologize for nothing. Yet ultimately, Parts & Labor offer an equal share of nirvana in return.
Why it’s significant: Brooklyn rock foursome Parts & Labor aim high, sometimes quite literally. The band’s fourth album, 
