“Part of the advantage of being hideously, cripplingly self-conscious is that I feel free to use cliches, rather than feeling compelled to seek out original expression.” (Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty cliched.) The AP talks briefly with Stephin Merritt, the prodigious musical mind behind The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and the Future Bible Heroes.
Category: Music
Uprising.
“‘Cause we’re moving right out of Babylon, and we’re going to our father’s land.” On what would be his 60th birthday, the late, great Bob Marley will be exhumed and reburied in Ethiopia, his “forefather cornerstone” and spiritual home of the Rastafari. Said his widow, Rita Marley, of the move, “How can you give up a continent for an island? He has a right for his remains to be where he would love them to be. This was his mission. Ethiopia is his spiritual resting place.”
He’s Lost Control Again.
The long-rumored Ian Curtis biopic, Control, is now a go, with none other than U2/REM/Depeche Mode rock photographer Anton Corbijn at the helm. I still think it’ll be hard to do this any better than 24 Hour Party People, but at least with Corbijn running the show, it should look nice.
Infinity goes up on trial.
Sent to me by way of All About George, the Washington Post rambles through “Bob Dylan: American Journey 1956-66,” a new exhibit at the EMP in Seattle. Now there’s something for y’all historians out there attending this week’s annual AHA meeting to peruse, should the presentations wear thin and the job hunting grow disconsolate.
You say I let you down.
“It was like being in an Edgar Allan Poe story and you’re just not that person everybody thinks you are, though they call you that all the time.” In his first TV interview in 19 years (60 Minutes this Sunday), Bob Dylan tries once again to shake the burdens of expectation. “‘You’re the prophet. You’re the savior.’ I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No.”
Power and the Passion.
Call him King of the Mountain….via the newly reconstituted JJG, Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett (who suffered a fainting spell over the weekend) was recently elected to the Australian Parliament. I saw the Oils ten years ago during their WOMAD tour with Peter Gabriel, and Garrett was an electric presence, offering what is still far and away the best stage banter I’ve ever heard. (And, whatsmore, it wasn’t canned…I remember him riffing on their Letterman appearance only a few days earlier.) The people of Kingsford Smith are lucky — in this day and age, you could do a lot worse for an elected rep than Garrett.
Toyz in the Hood.
Damn, it feels good to be a scoundrel…By way of the slightly relocated Lots of Co., and because the world demanded it, here’s an amateur Geto Boys video (“Mind Playin’ Tricks on Me”) done with Star Wars figures. As you’d probably expect, some harsh language herein, so keep the sound down in your workplace.
Construction Time Again.
By way of Do You Feel Loved?, Depeche Mode announces they’re beginning work on a new album. I’d love to see the band get out of the “I adore you like a black crucifix” thematic rut they’ve been in for almost two decades now and try to recapture some of their earlier political period (“Everything Counts,” “Monument,” “Get the Balance Right”) But, Martin Gore’s recent work hasn’t been all that promising in that regard.
He liked it raw.
R.I.P. ODB 1969-2004, definitely the strangest of the Wu.
Masters of Fear.
“But there’s one thing I know, though I’m younger than you — Even Jesus would never forgive what you do.” By way of a friend of mine (and in a striking confluence of the music and civil liberties posts earlier today), a high school band in Colorado — Coalition of the Willing — has the Secret Service sicced on them for practicing Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War.” Hmm…I’ve been known to belt that one quite loudly in the occasional times I plug in around here (It’s basically A-minor throughout.) I guess I’d better begin with a disclaimer from now on to assuage the neighbors.