new music
Not sure anyone looks at this anymore, but here we go anyway.
1. Flaming Lips, Stardeath, Henry Rollins, Peaches, et al. redo Dark Side of the Moon.
http://pitchfork.com/news/36828-flaming-lips-to-cover-pink-floyds-idark-side-of-the-mooni/
Outrageous, right? Fortunately, unlike Beatles covers, this cover album absolutely does not suck. I'm only on the first listen at this point, but I am extremely impressed by how much the cover is true to the original and yet clearly Flaming Lips. Honestly, while the thousandth listen to Dark Side is still excellent, a new take is very nice. Beethoven's 5, 7, 9, Barber's Adagio, and hundreds of other classical "hits" get re-interpreted and re-published every month it seems. It's only logical that more popular art music begins to follow the same trajectory. I love the full album cover, too. For example, for the millions of Beatles covers out there, I have seen none that have systematically reproduced Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road - the 'suites' or almost 'progressive' records... Leave it to Flaming Lips to do it with the most unlikely cast possible AND get Henry Rollins and Peaches...
On a side-note, Pitchfork let me know that Daft Punk showed up at a Phoenix show in Madison Square Garden. I'm moving to NYC. These things happen in DC and Austin, maybe other places.. but .. New York!
2. Janelle Monae
Get used to it, you like hip-hop / pop / R&B, and you also love music from Atlanta and the surrounding provinces. You love Of Montreal, and you've got mad respect for Outkast, R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Allman Brothers... Now add one to the list. Very appropriately, Janelle Monae's first few releases feature Big Boi (of Outkast) and Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal), and she's touring with Of Montreal. I am confident this is true because I watched them create amazing danceable music while invoking awkward sexual tension together - somewhere between post-modern irony and sycophantic adolescent love-violence ... or schadenfreude (somewhere in the contradictions I get lost).
Metropolis - the Chase Suite EP is a great place to start. It may be useful to know that she takes on a time-travelling android persona, or is an android or an archandroid or something. Anyway, androids aren't allowed to fall in love with humans, and like Sarah Connor, Janelle is here with us today to prevent imminent robot indiscretions. Or something like that. If you're into one-track-at-a-time, pick up her hits first. They are great. No need for snobbery with this one.
You'll find some tracks that sound straight like Madonna, some Lauryn Hill, some Outkast, some Of Montreal, some jazz standards, and overall excessive talent. Her vocal dexterity across vocal range and styles is ridiculous, and the magnitude of energy in her performance is enormous.
It's a bit of a crap-shoot whether she will become a timeless legend with hundreds of cover bands in Japan who sells out Madison Square, or if she'll stick in the "indie" circuit, but no matter - now is the time to go to an Of Montreal and Janelle Monae show. Do it.
Side note: I write so much to make up for and hopefully obviate for others the mild hesitance I exhibited when first listening to Janelle. Her tracks sounded too mild or too poppy for me on first listen. How wrong was I?
3. Zach Miskin, Gene Back, and the Books
Zach's new album is out, with collaborations with some enormous names. The album has a first album feel to it. Some tracks are shockingly excellent, and a few are moderately disappointing, but the net gain for buying this album (it's on Amazon) far exceeds the cost. And, as reported by Michael, Gene is touring with the Books on their The Way Out tour. Damn.
OK I'm tired and need to do some work, so I quit for now. More to come.
1. Flaming Lips, Stardeath, Henry Rollins, Peaches, et al. redo Dark Side of the Moon.
http://pitchfork.com/news/36828-flaming-lips-to-cover-pink-floyds-idark-side-of-the-mooni/
Outrageous, right? Fortunately, unlike Beatles covers, this cover album absolutely does not suck. I'm only on the first listen at this point, but I am extremely impressed by how much the cover is true to the original and yet clearly Flaming Lips. Honestly, while the thousandth listen to Dark Side is still excellent, a new take is very nice. Beethoven's 5, 7, 9, Barber's Adagio, and hundreds of other classical "hits" get re-interpreted and re-published every month it seems. It's only logical that more popular art music begins to follow the same trajectory. I love the full album cover, too. For example, for the millions of Beatles covers out there, I have seen none that have systematically reproduced Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road - the 'suites' or almost 'progressive' records... Leave it to Flaming Lips to do it with the most unlikely cast possible AND get Henry Rollins and Peaches...
On a side-note, Pitchfork let me know that Daft Punk showed up at a Phoenix show in Madison Square Garden. I'm moving to NYC. These things happen in DC and Austin, maybe other places.. but .. New York!
2. Janelle Monae
Get used to it, you like hip-hop / pop / R&B, and you also love music from Atlanta and the surrounding provinces. You love Of Montreal, and you've got mad respect for Outkast, R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Allman Brothers... Now add one to the list. Very appropriately, Janelle Monae's first few releases feature Big Boi (of Outkast) and Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal), and she's touring with Of Montreal. I am confident this is true because I watched them create amazing danceable music while invoking awkward sexual tension together - somewhere between post-modern irony and sycophantic adolescent love-violence ... or schadenfreude (somewhere in the contradictions I get lost).
Metropolis - the Chase Suite EP is a great place to start. It may be useful to know that she takes on a time-travelling android persona, or is an android or an archandroid or something. Anyway, androids aren't allowed to fall in love with humans, and like Sarah Connor, Janelle is here with us today to prevent imminent robot indiscretions. Or something like that. If you're into one-track-at-a-time, pick up her hits first. They are great. No need for snobbery with this one.
You'll find some tracks that sound straight like Madonna, some Lauryn Hill, some Outkast, some Of Montreal, some jazz standards, and overall excessive talent. Her vocal dexterity across vocal range and styles is ridiculous, and the magnitude of energy in her performance is enormous.
It's a bit of a crap-shoot whether she will become a timeless legend with hundreds of cover bands in Japan who sells out Madison Square, or if she'll stick in the "indie" circuit, but no matter - now is the time to go to an Of Montreal and Janelle Monae show. Do it.
Side note: I write so much to make up for and hopefully obviate for others the mild hesitance I exhibited when first listening to Janelle. Her tracks sounded too mild or too poppy for me on first listen. How wrong was I?
3. Zach Miskin, Gene Back, and the Books
Zach's new album is out, with collaborations with some enormous names. The album has a first album feel to it. Some tracks are shockingly excellent, and a few are moderately disappointing, but the net gain for buying this album (it's on Amazon) far exceeds the cost. And, as reported by Michael, Gene is touring with the Books on their The Way Out tour. Damn.
OK I'm tired and need to do some work, so I quit for now. More to come.
posted by FretlessC at 10/25/2010 05:27:00 PM
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