Lloyd Sits Down With James Lipton
This past Monday night Bravo aired its most recent episode of the 13-time Emmy-nominated series Inside The Actors Studio, with special guest Golden Globe nominated and renowned actor John Cusack. Host James Lipton asks the quite private actor about growing up in Chicago, his long-time friendship with Entourage star Jeremy Piven, and why he almost didn't take the role of Lloyd Dobler in the 1989 hit Say Anything. Sorry we missed it. If you did too, check the Bravo website for future airings.
12/05/2007
New Breeders LP Set for Spring '08
Pixies bassist and head Breeder Kim Deal in VenusZine:
Pixies bassist and head Breeder Kim Deal in VenusZine:
"The new Breeders record is scheduled to be released in April 2008. There are 13 songs. Mando Lopez is still on bass, Jose Medeles on drums, Kelley Deal, my evil twin, on guitar and vocals, and I'm playing guitar and vocals.
The songs are just songs. But for instance, one song Kelley and I did live. She played stand-up bass and I played acoustic guitar while we sang. Steve Albini taped it live like that. Yet another song has Kelley playing bass and Mando playing rhythm guitar. I'm playing the lead and Kelley and I are singing throughout. On song has Mando playing a lead guitar which Albini then backward masked. One song has three, count 'em, three basses on it..."
Stay tuned.
A Fond Look Back: The Webb Brothers
THE WEBB BROTHERS
Maroon
[Warner Bros-2000]
Sons of legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb ("MacArthur Park", "Wichita Lineman", "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"), Jimmy and Christiaan—who have since added younger brother Justin to the mix—played the Chicago club circuit extensively before going the same route as Jimi Hendrix, Chrissie Hynde and The Strokes: conquer Britain first, then return home as heroes. While things did go rather smoothly in the U.K. (a deal with WEA International; a slot at the Reading festival; hooking up with producer Stephen Street of Smiths and Blur fame), the homeland has not been as kind to the Webb siblings: here in the U.S. they remain virtual unknowns with this full-length release long having languished as a record store bargain bin staple.
The critically lauded Maroon is undeserving of such neglect, for among other things, its catchy, sophisticated pop occasionally suggests a cross between Ben Folds and latter day Flaming Lips (especially on the last third of the album). Lyrically, the Webb Brothers have a finely developed taste for the bittersweet: the hauntingly beautiful "All The Cocaine In The World" takes a "God Only Knows"-type motif and marries it to such musings as "All the cocaine in the world / can’t bring back the girl" (which incidentally, are the song’s entire lyrics). Other highlights include the shoulda-been-a-hit "I Can't Believe You're Gone"; "Are You Happy Now?" and "Marooned".
Engaging and rewarding, Maroon may be just one more in a long line of hidden gems out there, but its dreadful commercial fate does not diminish its power and beauty one bit. Hands down, this is one of our favorites from the current decade. Or any other, for that matter.
[Maroon album cover courtesy of allmusic.com]
12/04/2007
Quote Of The Day
"[Playing live is] what I really love to do. I’m not of a mind to record anymore. There’s no point. Making a record requires me to take all the money that the label advances me and give it to other people—musicians, producers and studio owners—and then I spend six months doing the record company’s job for them because they won’t pay anybody anymore to do the things they used to do like promote and market. Why would I do that when I could be working for myself, opening for Bob Dylan?
Anyway, in terms of recorded music the pact’s been broken –the personal connection between the artist and the listener. MP3 has dismantled the intended shape of an album. And then everything is leaked, everything is stolen. So I play live, it happens in the moment, if I do a new song I might never play it again, and if you’re not there you fuckin’ miss it… "
- Elvis Costello, Mojo magazine, Dec. 2007
We're just going backwards, people...
Anyway, in terms of recorded music the pact’s been broken –the personal connection between the artist and the listener. MP3 has dismantled the intended shape of an album. And then everything is leaked, everything is stolen. So I play live, it happens in the moment, if I do a new song I might never play it again, and if you’re not there you fuckin’ miss it… "
- Elvis Costello, Mojo magazine, Dec. 2007
We're just going backwards, people...
New Releases
This week there's a bunch of reissues out there just in time for gift giving. Among them:
DAVID BOWIE The David Bowie Box [Box Set] (Sony)
JAMES BROWN The Singles, Vol. 4: 1966-1967 (Hip-O Select)
NICK DRAKE Fruit Tree [3CD/1DVD] (Fontana/Island)
N.W.A Straight Outta Compton [20th Anniversary Edition] (Priority)
THE TEARDROP EXPLODES Peel Sessions Plus (Mercury)
This week there's a bunch of reissues out there just in time for gift giving. Among them:
DAVID BOWIE The David Bowie Box [Box Set] (Sony)
JAMES BROWN The Singles, Vol. 4: 1966-1967 (Hip-O Select)
NICK DRAKE Fruit Tree [3CD/1DVD] (Fontana/Island)
N.W.A Straight Outta Compton [20th Anniversary Edition] (Priority)
THE TEARDROP EXPLODES Peel Sessions Plus (Mercury)
12/03/2007
Morrissey Sues NME For Defamation
Moz and the New Music Express are at it again. This time the former Smiths frontman is seeking legal action after he was criticized by the music magazine for allegedly stating in an interview with the publication that he would not return to England because it had lost its identity due to higher immigration levels unlike Germany or Sweden. (After a stint in Los Angeles, Morrissey currently resides in Italy.) He later clarified his statement maintaining that it wasn't immigration but expense and pressure that keep him from moving back to the UK.
During the '80s and '90s Moz was accused of racism due to ambiguous lyrics in the songs "Bengali in Platforms", "National Front Disco" and "Asian Rut", as well as his 1992 performance at London's Finsbury Park [see above] in which he draped himself in the Union Jack—commonly associated with nationalism and the British far right—and used a photograph of two female skinheads as a backdrop. After this performance the NME stated Moz had "left himself in a position where accusations that he's toying with far-right/fascist imagery, and even of racism itself, can no longer just be laughed off with a knowing quip".
On the other hand, the singer's defenders bring up his—predominantly Mexican—Latino following which he has embraced wholeheartedly; his criticism of the rise Austrian far-right politician Jörg Haider and his signing in 2004 of the explicitly anti-fascist Unite Against Fascism statement, are also cited. As for this new fracas, Morrissey's lawyers are already pursuing legal action against the NME for defamation. The magazine has declined to print a retraction or apology.
[NME cover courtesy of Wikipedia.]
The Shortest Ten Minutes: "Three Days"
[Starting with John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things", this series of random postings will be about songs around the 10-minute mark in length that we highly enjoy. Thus, the title for the postings.]
One night in 1988, while listening to the radio in the wee hours, we heard what we unmistakably thought sounded like Jane's Addiction, that band we'd read so much about and were more than curious about finally listening to. We were right: it was their signature tune "Jane Says" and even though this mostly acoustic song did not resemble the art/funk metal that characterizes most of their recorded output, it got us hooked and then some.
As we became enamored with both Nothing's Shocking (Warner Bros-1988) and Ritual de lo Habitual (Warner Bros-1990), the one aspect of the band's various and ear-grabbing sonic details that most impressed us was how Dave Navarro's alternately textured and fiery, virtuoso guitar playing seemed to be the missing link between the Robert Smith/David Ash contingent and the Eddie Van Halens of the world of rock guitar. In a way, we found it to be a kind of continuation of Jimi Hendrix's futuristic approach to both the instrument and the music.
And the best example of this is Ritual's "Three Days" (10:48), a prog-rock influenced masterpiece about a love triangle, that shows off Navarro at his very best. (Check out the 2-minute, six-string fireworks starting at the 4:43 mark and later at 9:37.) Our boundless appreciation for this song is such that quite a few times we've spent more than three days listening to it non-stop. Indeed.
(Kudos to bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins, for their playing throughout, especially the former for the hypnotic bassline that anchors the song's first of three parts.)
[Ritual de lo Habitual cover courtesy of Wikipedia.]
The Glamour [sigh, whine] of Heartbreak or History Lesson Pt.3 (apologies to The Minutemen)
Time to clarify things, boys and girls: Emo is short for emocore, a contraction of emotional hardcore. The idea behind it was to combine aggressive music (hardcore) with soaring, anthemic melodies and introspective, well-written lyrics. (Hence the emotional part). Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate—1992-95, reformed in 97, broke up in 2001—in our humble opinion, best defines and is the sub-genre's most important latter-day band. (No mention of emo would be complete without early pioneers Fugazi and its frontman Ian MacKaye's Washington DC-based Dischord label, which chronicled the music's nascent scene. The All Music Guide has more on the subject.)
Like punk, emo has become a big deal in the last few years. But something funny happened on the way to the bank: Imagine if the history of rock music—particularly punk—were revised and rewritten, with The Ramones and The Sex Pistols excised from the canon and replaced with Blink 182 instead. This is the parallel that can be drawn to current emo. SDRE is rarely brought up these days—let alone Rites of Spring or the aforementioned Fugazi—despite an absence of little over 5 years past; meanwhile third rate, watered-down posers get to be pseudo avatars. You could say that emo went form being The Cure-on-steroids to Air Supply with distorted-guitars, spiky hairdos, and some of the whiniest, lamest lyrical content heard in recent times. And no, we're not talking about Joan of Arc or Jets to Brazil; more like fratboy favorites Jimmy Eat World and that small army of makeup covered wusses that have unfurled the emo banner as their own. Jeez.
Like punk, emo has become a big deal in the last few years. But something funny happened on the way to the bank: Imagine if the history of rock music—particularly punk—were revised and rewritten, with The Ramones and The Sex Pistols excised from the canon and replaced with Blink 182 instead. This is the parallel that can be drawn to current emo. SDRE is rarely brought up these days—let alone Rites of Spring or the aforementioned Fugazi—despite an absence of little over 5 years past; meanwhile third rate, watered-down posers get to be pseudo avatars. You could say that emo went form being The Cure-on-steroids to Air Supply with distorted-guitars, spiky hairdos, and some of the whiniest, lamest lyrical content heard in recent times. And no, we're not talking about Joan of Arc or Jets to Brazil; more like fratboy favorites Jimmy Eat World and that small army of makeup covered wusses that have unfurled the emo banner as their own. Jeez.
Miss Teen South Carolina 2007 Is A Genius
Yes, Caitlin "U.S. Americans" Upton is a candidate for NASA rocket scientist recruitment compared to 21 year-old American Idol finalist and country music singer Kellie Pickler, for whom branding with the saying "dumber than dirt" should inspire us all to apologize to dust bunnies and their kin everywhere. (This is the same girl US Weekly magazine called Kellie: The Next Jessica Simpson, due to her "sweet Southern style and ditzy demeanor". Ouch. (By the way, Upton recently signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency and stands to make some $30K/day from modeling assignments. Atheists: we don't share your views but we understand. Yes, we understand.)
Here's the sad, sad proof of Pickler's ignorance:
Here's the sad, sad proof of Pickler's ignorance:
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