Another track from the forthcoming Yeah Yeah Yeahs record It’s Blitz has made its way onto the Internet. Again, pretty dance floor friendly. Maybe trio finally got sick of seeing their friends scoring dance-floor bangers (though that did all go down about five years ago). Still Karen O would make a wicked disco-diva. And hey, does anybody know what happened to that solo record she apparently had in the can? Wasn’t that supposed to come out two years ago? Well whatever the case, eat your heart out Diana Ross.
If the video link is dead (which will probably happen in about five minutes), you can stream it here.
Last night Ben Folds played an excellent set at the Kool Haus here in Toronto. He and his four piece band delivered a slew of stuff from his latest record Way To Normalincluding a pair of the leaked fake trackswhile mixing in a lot of old favourites like “Alice Childress,” “Philosophy,” “Annie Waits” and a phenomenal version of “Army.” Having never seen Folds back in his heyday with The Five, I was obviously stoked. Good times had by all.
During the set, Ben took a minute to discuss some controversy that had been stirred up earlier in the day. While on Laurie Brown’s CBC Radio 2 show, he described Do Make Say Think/Broken Social Scene member Charles Spearin‘s new record The Happiness Projectas “bad spa music.” Someone claiming to be Torq Campbell from Stars, and using Stars myspace page then wrote a blog post calling folds a MOR has-been, a hipster and an asshole all for just not digging a record. Folds wanted to clear things up last night, explaining that he actually meant the “bad spa music” quip as a compliment and that he actually quite liked the Charles Spearin track Brown played. Further he said that anyone whose writing on blogs about the debacle should (and yes, I do see the irony in me writing about this) “write a politician or something.” He made no mention of Campbell specifically though he did cite the pitchfork post about the blog post.
Anyway, to further complicate matters, today Campbell issued a statement explaining that he never wrote the original blog post and that Stars myspace page had been hacked. They’ve since changed the password he says.
So to recap, Folds never insulted anybody and Campbell didn’t write an angry rant about the non-insult. If anything came of this it’s that a whole lot of people now know who Charles Spearin is. You can get a good sense of the whole debacle by reading the P4K post here.
Holy snick-snack-skadoodliak kids. YYYs finally dropped the first single from their forthcoming (and as far as I’m concerned eagerly anticipated) record It’s Blitz. It’s got a cool electro-vibe without sounding like every other dance-punk band out there and of course it’s got Karen O wailing away. What it doesn’t have is much guitar which will no doubt further piss of those who fell in love with Nick Zinner’s wicked-spastic guitar playing on Fever to Tell and were disappointed with how reigned in he was on Show Your Bones. And hey, I would certainly count myself as one of those people. But I was also soooo impressed by the level of songwriting on the YYYs last record that I was willing to let the guitar thing slide – if Zinner himself can, then why can’t the rest of us? Anyway, the fan vid from youtube has been removed, so if you want to hear “Zero” you can check out the group’s myspace.
Did you see the Grammy’s? Lame, I know. Still we got that killer performance of “Swagger Like Us” with the most pregnant woman in the world and this “don’t even try to be as good as us cause you will fail miserably” performance of In Rainbows opener “15 Step” from Thom York and Johnny Greenwood. To avoid listening to Gwyneth Paltrow skip ahead to the 57 second mark. See it again for the first time.
Thom Yorke, Johnny Greenwood and the USC Marching band – “15 Step”
Well, the Grammy’s may blow but at least it brought Blink 182 back together for the first time in four years. The trio announced rather unenthusiastically tonight that they are going to be making music together again. I guess +44 and Angels and Airwaves rather lackluster success or Travis’ brush with death really made them focus on what’s important – making a shit load of money.
Still, their tune “Dammit” basically soundtracked my last three years of high school and Enema of the State was blasting out of every other dorm room in my first year at UVic so I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the pop-punkers. Glad to have you back kids.
As I’ve previously mentioned on this blog, the new U2 track “Get On Your Boots” blows. But during U2′s rather drab Grammy performance tonight (which despite mega-efforts is turning out to be the usual snore fest), it was pointed out to me that the verses from No Line On the Horizon‘s lead single bear a striking resemblance in rhythm and tone to Bob Dylan‘s immortal “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Of course, Dylan did it better. Dig it…
U2 – “Get On Your Boots”
The future needs a big kiss
Winds blows with a twist
Never seen a moon like this
Can you see it too?
Night is falling everywhere
Rockets at the fun fair
Satan loves a bomb scare
But he won’t scare you
Hey, sexy boots
Get on your boots, yeah
You free me from the dark dream
Candy floss ice cream
All our kids are screaming
But the ghosts aren’t real
Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real
Bob Dylan – “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
Johny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It’s somethin’ you did
God knows when
But you’re doin’ it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin’ for a new friend
The man in the coon-skip cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten.
Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin’ that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone’s tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the DA
Look out kid
Don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don’t try, ‘No Doz’
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows.
Get sick, get well
Hang around an ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin’ to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write Braille
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you failed
Look out kid
You’re gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin’ for a new fool
Don’t follow leaders
Watch the parkin’ meters.
After their massive triumph with Back in Black in 1980, and For Those About to Rock We Salute You the following year, AC/DC had to deal with what every other dinosaur rock band of the 80s struggled with – trying to remain relevant in the music video age. Do you ever wonder why most of the Aussie rockers music videos are variations on the five peice playing a big stadium show? These clips, all from theFly on the Wall home video should shed some light. Come to think of it, something about this whole thing reminds me of Guitar Hero – minus the animated fly.
“Fly on the Wall”
“Danger”
“Sink the Pink”
“Stand Up”
“Shake Your Foundations”
After ditching the concept video from it’s repetoire for years, the band returned with this rather ridiculous clip for “Stiff Upper Lip” in 2000. From the album of the same name, the boys just couldn’t resist carrying the innuendo and double entendres into visual form hosing down the fans from their “stiff upper lip.”
What’s up with all the hate on for the Boss’s Super Bowl Performance. I thought it was spot on given the event he was playing.
Was it a bit cheesy? Yeah. Was is as the Guardian noted it “pure showbiz?” Of course. But what the hell do people expect? It was the SUPER BOWL – did you really think he was gonna get up their and do some stripped down acoustic set consisting of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and “Atlantic City” or maybe some diatribe on the state of the economy (in which case he could have just played “The River“).
What Springsteen did was entertain the bajillion or so fans that had tuned into the game cause they like football and wanted to spend some time with their buddies. They didn’t come for a lecture about how their overeaching lifestyle has ruined America and the world. Springsteen could do that if he wanted – God knows the guys got an arsenal of tunes that would do the job – but that would just be slapping his audience and the millions tuning in who weren’t his audience in the face. Instead he did what he’s done his whole career giving an inspired if somewhat rehearsed (and pre-taped) performance. Did you really think the E Street Band got so tight by figuring it out onstage as they went along?
If anything else we finally found a new website to replace our (my) obsession with this old (but still good) one.
I’ve never understood Metric‘s appeal – to me they’ve always sounded like a cheap imitation of about another dozen bands. I saw them open for Hot Hot Heat five years ago and wasn’t really that impressed with the exception of their tune “Dead Disco.” I’d put them out of my mind until the hype started and “Combat Baby” was all over the radio. I bought their Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? record and I still wasn’t impressed. I think it has something to do with Emily Haines’ “I don’t give a fuck” vocals and the stilted production the group uses on its records – despite their success the albums still sound like they were recorded by amateurs in their parents bedrooms and I don’t mean that in a good way. Anyway in my opinion (because I haven’t shared enough of that already) this is one of the best tracks they’ve put out. Take that for what it’s worth…
Vancouver’s Fan Death the new side project from Dandi of Dandi Wind fame. The elctro-rapping duo lay down old school rhymes over some of the best Harold Faltermeyer hooks the German musician never layed down. Personally I prefer Fan Death to Dandi Wind, though I’ve never seen either live (I’ve been told that’s where Dandi shines). According to my friend in Vancouver, they’ve got quite the industry buzz on at the moment. Fan Death are playing a show down at Sneaky Dees here in Toronto Friday, February 6 with very cool local trio Parallels. Check it out…
Last night 
Holy snick-snack-skadoodliak kids. YYYs finally dropped the first single from their forthcoming (and as far as I’m concerned eagerly anticipated) record 
What’s up with all the hate on for the Boss’s Super Bowl Performance. I thought it was spot on given the event he was playing.
Stalk me!