Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew…the bizarre LotR-themed “Taters Song” now has its own Flash-y video. Well, I guess it helps pass the time ’til the Extended Edition trailer (which is currently rumored to drop on Friday.) Update: Ok, well, clearly Friday was wrong. The new buzz is at Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend.
Tag: Music
Big Time Vocality.
Dig out the swan costume and get your acapella group back together, ’cause she’s back and stranger than ever. You can preview Medulla, Bjork’s new and completely all-vocal album (not that it sounds like it, thanks to The Roots’ Rahzel) here. So far, “Where is the Line” and “Triumph of a Heart” seem like stand-out tracks.
Missing Manhattan.
“It’s easier to leave than to be left behind…” The boys in Athens (REM, not Michael Phelps) release “Leaving New York”, the first single from Around the Sun, on BBC Radio. (Mirror/Mirror 2.) All in all, I’d say it’s growing on me. One part “Parakeet,” one part “Wrong Child,” maybe a dash of “E-Bow the Letter,” it’s definitely REM jingly-jangly without being as self-consciously imitative as “Imitation of Life,” the first single on the last album. And it’s got a very catchy chorus, particularly when Stipe also comes with the backing vocals (must’ve been Mike Mills’ off day.) At any rate, the rest of the album is listed here. Update: Bowing to the inevitable, the official site is now streaming the full song, if all the previous links go down.
Law will tear us apart.
There’s talk about that Jude Law will play Ian Curtis of Joy Division in a forthcoming biopic. That’s pretty good casting (better, for example, than Ashton Kutcher as Flash Gordon), although after 24 Hour Party People I’m not sure a Curtis biopic is really necessary (but cast Paul Bettany as Bernard Sumner and we’ll be getting somewhere.) Also in the Jude department, the trailer for Mike Nichols’s Closer is now online, and it looks pretty solid, if you can buy that anyone would actually leave Natalie Portman for Julia Roberts.
Born in the USA.
A few days out of date now, but still worth reading: Bruce Springsteen on the need for regime change. “It is through the truthful exercising of the best of human qualities – respect for others, honesty about ourselves, faith in our ideals – that we come to life in God’s eyes. It is how our soul, as a nation and as individuals, is revealed. Our American government has strayed too far from American values. It is time to move forward.”
Solar Powered.
From REM.HQ: “The band officially confirmed today that the new record will be titled Around the Sun…Around the Sun will be released on Warner Bros. Records October 4th (internationally) and October 5th in the United States. The first single will be ‘Leaving New York.'” And, in other R.E.M. news, the band will be part of MoveOn’s Vote For Change Tour, with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Jurassic 5, and many others.
Buck Mills Stipe Rieflin?
R.E.M releases some details about their forthcoming album out in October, which features new drummer Bill Rieflin (formerly of Ministry.) According to Stipe in RS, “‘there’s some stuff on here that’s pretty hard-core, and fairly political.’ The political tracks include a fleshed-out version of the Internet-only release ‘Final Straw,’ which was written prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and ‘I’m Gonna DJ,’ about the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle…[But] R.E.M. dabble in more than just politics, as Stipe characterizes ‘Leaving New York’ as a love song and ‘Wanderlust’ as a pop song.” Sounds grand.
You Tripped at Every Step.
Slate ruminates on whether lovebirds Elvis Costello and Diana Krall are lousy influences on each other. A bit mean, perhaps, but I’ve thought for awhile that a happy Elvis might mean trouble.
Beat Box Bjork/The Beasties Bash Bush.
On her upcoming album Medulla, due out at the end of the summer, Bjork goes acapella (with the aid of The Roots’ Rahzel and Faith No More’s Mike Patton.)
Found while perusing the five star RS review of the all-new (and very old skool) Beastie Boys album, To the Five Boroughs, which is very much both a post-9/11 ode to NYC and a virulently anti-Dubya album (“Put a quarter in your ass, ’cause you played yourself.”) As has been the case since Ill Communication, MCA gets a bit too preachy at times (For example, “We’ve got a president we didn’t elect/The Kyoto treaty he decided to neglect” on “Time to Build,” or “Never again should we use the A-bomb/We need an international ban on/All W.O.M.D’s gone/We need a multilateral disarm.” on “We’ve Got The.”)
Nevertheless, I think the new Beasties project is a success, redeemed by (1) the catchy mid-eighties beats and samples (Check out “Rhyme the Rhyme Well”) and (2) the unleashing of the B’s perennial secret weapon, the King Ad Rock, who seems to be having more fun in the game than the other two guys by miles. (For example, “Yo, what the falafel/You gotta get up awful early to fool Mr. Furley“ on “Oh Word”, or when he channels a mean Smooth B on “Crawl Space.”) You already know by now if the Beasties are your bag, so if you want Licensed to Ill-era beats with Hello Nasty rhymes, To the 5 Boroughs is worth picking up. But, one word of warning from “3 the Hard Way”: “If you sell our CD’s on Canal before we make ’em, then we will have no alternative but to serve you on a platter like Steak-umm“) Hey, don’t say you didn’t know.
All Over You.
“You are able to take an idea and give it form: the idea that Harlem has hands, feet are flaming, lips are cracked and country, hail hammers and skies crack poems.” In a burst of NY Times Dylanania, Jonathan Lethem reviews Dylan’s Vision of Sin, the new tome of poetry criticism by acclaimed Oxford Professor Christopher Ricks, while Lucinda Williams pays her own respects to Robert Zimmerman. And, elsewhere in the music-themed Book Review this week, Time politico and Primary Colors author Joe Klein proclaims his fondness for Wilco.