Beck Interviews Tom Waits, Covers Velvet Underground and Goes Internet Crazy

In updating his web site and giving it a very lo-tech feel, ever the strange one Beck has begun a series called Record Club where he and other musicians cover famous albums, one song at a time. The current album covered is The Velvet Underground and Nico and comes complete with some pretty fuzzed out videos. Check them out here and look for updates Thursday evenings.  Beck also appears to have gotten the DJ bug and has started a weekly series entitled Planned Obsolescence (wacky titles, ho!) where either Beck or a guest DJ spins some of the music they are digging that week. In keeping with the odd names, the first one is called Autobahn Hologram.

In addition to the Record Club and the DJ project, Beck has put up a free format interview, aptly named Irrelevant Topics,with gravely voiced troubadour Tom Waits where the two discuss hard hitting topics like California, Oscar Meyer Weinermobiles and best of lists. It’s a bit random but it’s impressive that Beck even got Waits to sit down for an interview. Beck has plans to sit down with other musicians, filmmakers and artists in the coming weeks and have these loose, conversation like interviews.

Heres a taste:

TW: You see the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile?

BH: I’ve seen it parked.

TW: They used to pass out little whistles that were about two inches long and it had three notes available. (Laughs.) Whittier lore.

BH: I was born in the McArthur park area.

TW: You remember when they drained McArthur Park, the lake?

BH: I do, yeah…

TW: They found unbelievable things: Cars, human bones, weaponry.

BH: They should have done an exhibit.

TW: I don’t know why they didn’t. I thought that’s why they drained it.

BH: I’d always heard that when they drained the Echo Park Lake they found an amateur submarine.

TW: Oh, my God.

Part one is here and look for part two next week. One request to Beck, bring on some audio of this interview.

So Long Ohio and Kansas

I know it seems as if I’m overbearing you with Phish news but their website has just put up a little graphic which you can check out here. As you can read above, it says save the date and lists the Halloween weekend. Why Idaho, Oklahoma and West Virginia deflate after a minute or so, I’m not too sure about that. But rumor has it that the festival will be located at the Coachella grounds.

Update:

The darkened states apparently represent locations where the festival is not going to happen. Each day a new graphic appears to wipe out the states. Today’s was a horde of red ants wiping out North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The states now out of the running are New Hampshire, Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma, West Virginia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Another Update:

Today a ship came up and grappling hooked my home state of Ohio and Kansas from the running.

(Via LiveMusicBlog)

-Colin

Another one bites the dust

While I’ve never been a reader of Vibe Magazine, it is sad to see another publication shutdown. According to the NYT, the hip-hip focused magazine would immediately suspend production Tuesday. Vibe now joins the ranks of Blender, which folded last year and in my opinion will not really be missed, and the great Alt-country magazine No Depression. Last month the jazz focused Jazz Times suspended publication and is being sold off to a different owner.  Other magazines are hurting as well with Conde Nast cutting Portfolio and Rolling Stone shifting to an alternative design format after years of retaining the same tabloid format.

But the suspension of Vibe creates a vacuum in the hip-hop/R & B magazine world that only leaves The Source to fill. With troubles of its own, Source remains the last man standing in an unrepresented genre in print. While their are blogs and online pubs to fill the space, hip-hop needs its representation in the print world. I’m no fan of the magazines (Source, Vibe) themselves but rock already has itself firmly in print, hurting most definitely but still standing. I don’t really know where the magazine world is heading but if Vibe is any sign, there will be more to come.

Serving up some hot, fresh Flaming Lips news

Pitchfork hopes this is the cover of Embryonic. So do we.

Revered Oklahoma psych-rockers The Flaming Lips are set to commence a US tour with Stardeath and White Dwarfs on July 19th at Pitchfork Music Festival in support of their new double album entitled Embryonic. With some collaborations with MGMT and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it should be one hell of a mind melter. The Lips have also included with each ticket purchase a code for a bootleg of the attending show and a six song EP containing ‘Convinced of the Hex,’ ‘The Impulse’ and ‘Silver Trembling Hands’ off their new disk and three B-sides handpicked by the group. Just one note: Let’s hope they retool their live show for Embryonic. While their shows are definitely an experience in themselves, they’ve been getting a little stale and repetitive in the past four years.

Embryonic is due out sometime this fall.

Tour Dates:

07-19 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
07-28 Moore Park, Australia – Hordern Pavilion
07-29 West Melbourne, Australia – Festival Hall
08-15 Del Mar, CA – Del Mar Race Track Infield
08-17 Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theater
08-18 Pomona, CA – Fox Theater
08-20 Portland, OR – Edgefield Amphitheater
08-21 Seattle, WA – Marymoor Amphitheater
08-23 Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheater
08-26 Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheater
08-28 Washington, DC – Merriweather Post Pavilion
08-29 Philadelphia, PA – Festival Pier
08-30 Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion

Listen to a funky, little interview from a German blog with Wayne Coyne here.

Second Lining for Mike

More photos available on Flickr.

The hot, surging masses swayed up St. Bernard Avenue, into the heart of the Seventh Ward, all for a king.

While I’ve never been a so-called fan of Michael Jackson, I will admit that his career casts a heavy shadow over modern pop. Excluding his time in the Jackson 5, Thriller and Billie Jean, he really hasn’t been my cup of tea. Personally, my first recollection of the ‘King of Pop’ was around four years old with his 1991 music video for ‘Black or White.’ The melding faces and cheese ball graphics, which a advertising designer that I know from LA recently pointed out has become the benchmark of what not to do with graphics, caught my childhood mind and I was captivated.  After that, nothing. Yes, I enjoyed his songs when they came on the radio or when ‘Thriller’ would be dug out for Halloween.

But my avoidance of all things Jackson wasn’t going to stop me from Second Lining for his influence. It was my first and it was beautiful.

Only in New Orleans as they say. But it’s true.

This mix of people poured out of their homes into the barbecue air to show their respect to a forgotten man, a man who held sway over many of their childhoods. Wearing shirts normally fitted for fallen sons, emblazoned with the youthful face of the ‘Off The Wall’ era Jackson. The shimmying group danced their hearts out, grabbing onto poles and hopping onto bus stops. Songs broke out in impromptu fashion as the life of their hero drifted away. Rebirth Brass Band pushed out hit after hit into the heavy air and the Revolution Social Aid & Pleasure Club marched on.

For a minute, life was good in the glow of Michael Jackson.

And as the brass began to fade and the parade dispersed, the sky opened up and began to weep.

-Colin

Here’s a video from the Gambit’s Alejandro de los Rios

Wilco, Conan and Jeff Tweedy in a Red Suit

Update: NBC took down the video. Here’s the song from youtube.

Wilco went on Conan Wednesday and performed the jaunting song “You Never Know” off their new album Wilco (The Album). The cut is a little more country than jazz, so maybe they’re taking a step back from the pure jazz licks of Nels Cline of “Sky Blue Sky.” Decent performance from them at Bonnaroo that highlighted the new tracks but I’ve said this before; Wilco is a theater/indoor venue band, not a festival band. If you want to go see Wilco, go to a Wilco show, not a festival.

Wilco (The Album) is out June 30

-Colin

May I now introduce Hurricane Chris to the Louisiana Legislature

Shreveport hip hop artist Hurricane Chris was honored on the floor of the Louisiana Legislature. He also sang a song about Halle Berry. Hilarious, thats all I can say.