The Wrens (That “Legendary” Jersey Emo-Punk Band Who Have Managed Legendary Status By Only Releasing Three Records Over 20 Years) To Play 2002’s The Meadowlands From Start to Finish; Elsewhere, The Wrens Probably Aren’t Releasing Anything Until Like 2016 [Brooklyn Vegan]
As Much As I Don’t Like 50 Cent, The Album Cover to Before I Self Destruct Is Fucking Awesome, and Makes a Good Case For 50 Taking Up Arnold’s Role in the Next Train Wreck Terminator Sequel [Idolator]
Watch Bruce Springsteen Debut New Song, “Wrecking Ball” At Giants Stadium; Going Against All Odds, Springsteen Surprises Fans By Writing a Song About Life in New Jersey….WHAAAAA? [Spin]
Fatboy Slim Announces Sideproject With David Byrne, Martha Wainwright, and…Cyndi Lauper?; Here Lies Love (Apparenty A Concept Album About Former First Lady of the Phillipines…To Whom None of the Above Most Likely Have Any Connection, Especially Lauper) Released Sometime in 2010 [NME]
Stream Another New Devendra Banhart Song, “Angelika;” Sounds Like a Donovan Song, Suddenly Overtaken By Buena Vista Social Club, Which is Not As Awesome As It Sounds; What Will We Be Released October 27 [Pitchfork]
Kanye West’s and Lady’s Gaga’s Fame Kills Tour MAY Be Cancelled ALLEGEDLY Due to RUMORS that Kanye POSSIBLY Is Checking Into Rehab For HYPOTHETICAL Alcoholism; In Other News, This Is An Unsubstantiated Rumor [Prefix]
The Compact Disc Celebrates Its 27th Birthday; Like Many 27 Year Olds, The CD Will Be Mourning Its Seemingly Imminent Death By Looking At More Youthful Versions of Itself Online (Hopefully Via Lala…What a Great Service) [Idolator]
Stream Animal Collective’s Remix of Phoenix’s “Love Like a Sunset” – Tribal, Glitchy, Airy; How Does Animal Collective Manage To Make Every Song They Remix Sound Like ANY Animal Collective Song? [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch New Black Lips Video For 200 Million Thousand Cut “Let It Grow;” Starts Pretty Normal, Buffalo 66 Style…Ends With a Lot of Aliens, And Slightly Necrophilia-Centric Images [Stereogum]
The Hold Steady’s Franz Nicolay To Release a Collection of Short Stories, Entitled Complicated Gardening Techniques In January; I Make Vow To Report Any Hold Steady News No Matter How Seemingly Insignificant [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
September 7, 2009
Happy Labor Day From JM.Com
We’re back up and running after a week of down time, and, contrary to the supposed meaning of Labor Day, have been working all day to make some changes to the site. We’ve got a new toolbar up and running (ain’t it pretty?), and will be adding new features, editorials, and reviews throughout this week. Get psyched – it’s only going to get better.
Normally, we’d cap the day off with Daily News Picks, our ever-topical, ever-witty, often infuriating list of music news headlines. But given the holiday (and, admittedly, that there is no music news on Labor Day, except the Arctic Monkeys were recently struck by lightning), we decided to make a quick playlist, celebrating all things Labor Day.
1) Jackson Browne: “Take It Easy” Okay, so this song was more famously recorded by a band with a certain ornithological name. But Jackson Browne wrote it for them. And anyway, Browne’s rendition is more convincing, authentic, and grassroots. This is a music blog – fuck The Eagles.
2) Bruce Springsteen: “The Wrestler” The Boss’s best song of the last decade, brimming with exhaustion, sweat, and the regret that follows from any nine to five. Feel free to sub in any song by Springsteen. They’re all about the same stuff.
3) Kool Moe Dee: “I Go To Work” Let’s go back to a simpler time: 1989: when hip-hop still had a resemblance to the Super Bowl Shuffle. Kool Moe Dee wrote a song free of violence, misogyny, and culture clash, in favor of concluding a basic truth: everybody, does indeed, go to work.
4) The Arcade Fire: “Intervention” Get it? “WORKING for the church while your family dies”? See what I did there?
5) Sam Cooke: “Chain Gang” The ultimate song about work – sure, anyone born after 1985 really can’t be sure what a “chain” is, and why a “gang” needs to work on it. But with a chorus of grunting men, you know that chain is probably a lot harder than your cushy job.
Happy Labor Day. Daily News Picks returns tomorrow.
by Max Sebela
Bob Dylan Picked Up By Police While Wandering Into A Jersey Front Yard, Mistaken For Vagrant; ABC Makes Unreported Conjecture That Dylan May Have Been Looking For The House Where Springsteen Wrote Born To Run [ABC News]
Radiohead Officially Releases “These Are My Twisted Words” As Free, High Quality MP3 Download; But What About WallofIce.Com? (Every Time You Hit That Link, Thom Yorke Cries) [Dead Air Space]
Watch Pulp Fiction Director Quentin Tarantino Talk Inglourious Basterds Soundtrack/Explain How He Picks a Good “Rape Scene” Song [Spin]
Brooklyn’s Dirty Projectors Announce Temecula Sunrise EP With Two Unreleased Songs; Released September 28 [Domino]
Weezer Announces Single “(If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To;” Premiers August 25 (But If You Look Hard Enough, You May Be Able To Stream It Early) [Stereogum]
San Diego’s Wavves Releases Another Zach Hill Collaboration, “Hula Hoop;” It’s Not As Good As This One, But Hill Looks Like He’s In A Hilarious Amount of Pain When He’s Drumming [Wavves Blog]
Memphis Session Musician Legend Jim Dickinson Passes Away [Pitchfork]
Stream Brooklyn’s Woods/Vivian Girls Side Project The Babies’ First Tracks: “All Things Come to Pass” and “Meet Me in the City” [Myspace]
L.A. Noise Band HEALTH Announces Most Awesome Contest Ever…Seriously, Buy Their Album – You Can Win A Bag of Their Cat’s Hair, Or Conference Prank Call A Prominent Indie Rocker [Prefix]
Stream Epic New Lightning Bolt Song, “Colossus;” Earthly Delights Released October 13 [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
Psych-Rockers Dr. Dog Signs to ANTI-; Announce Tour, New LP in 2010 [Brooklyn Vegan]
Swedish Twee-Cutie El Perro Del Mar Announces Third Album, Love Is Not Pop; Released October 20 [Brooklyn Vegan]
The Perfect Gift For That Friend Who Has Everything: MC Hammer’s Parachute Pants Are Being Auctioned Off [Idolator]
Echo and the Bunnymen Tour, Announce New Album The Fountain; Released October 12 [NME]
David Byrne Calls Out U2 For The High Cost of Their New Stage…In Their Defense, U2 Really Thought They Were Finally Going To Own Their Own Claw Game, And Just Ran With It [Spin]
Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke Says Bloc Party May Never Record Another Album; After 2008’s Intimacy, I Say Good Call [NME]
Pearl Jam Has Scattered Pieces of Their New Album’s Artwork, Backspacer, Around The Internet; Artwork Not Worth A Scavenger Hunt, Nor Really Worth Viewing [Stereogum]
Bruce Springsteen To Play Entirety of the Legendary Born To Run In Chicago On September 20 – Everyone Way Psyched [Prefix]
Marilyn Manson Threatens To Kill All Music Journalists Who Publish Falsities About Him. In Related News, Marilyn Manson Actually Found To Be Over 4,000 Years Old (I Dare You, Marilyn) [NME]
Deerhunter Frontman Bradford Cox’s Solo Project Atlas Sound Announce Tour With Broadcast; New Atlas Sound LP, Logos, Released October 20 [Stereogum]
compiled by Max Sebela
Chinese Democracy Leaker Sentenced to Probation and House Arrest…Axl Rose Remains Unscathed For the Crime That Was Chinese Democracy [Billboard]
The Killers Make Video For Day & Age Track “Goodnight, Travel Well” To Raise Sex Trafficking Awareness…PSA Music Videos Have Come A Long Way Since This [Spin]
Free Music Listening Service/Music Genome Project, Pandora, Avoids Bankruptcy [The Tripwire]
Polyphonic Spree Does Shows For Southern Comfort; Dinosaur Jr. Makes Videos For Playboy (Man, I Wish That Was Exactly What It Sounds Like) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Bruce Springsteen Extends His US Tour; Two More New York Dates Added [Spin]
TMZ (Read: Unreliable) Reports That LAPD Is Treating Michael Jackson’s Death As Homicide [NME]
Stream Thom Yorke’s Cover of Mark Mulcahy’s “All For the Best,” Off the Recently Top Dog-ed Mulcahy Tribute Ciao, My Shining Star [Stereogum]
Where Do The Babies Come From? You See Son, When An All Male Lo-Fi Brooklyn Band (Woods) Loves An All-Female Lo-Fi Brooklyn Band (Vivian Girls)… [Pitchfork]
Stream Brazilian Psych-Rock Legends Os Mutantes “Teclar,” Their First Single In Nearly 30 Years [Pitchfork]
D.C.’s Shudder To Think Announce Live Album, Live From Home; Released September 15 [The Tripwire]
compiled by Max Sebela
July 3, 2009
Happy 4th of July From JezebelMusic.com!
Tomorrow marks the 233rd birthday of our United States – which means music news takes a much needed rest to drink beer, grill meat, and blow stuff up in honor of a bunch of dudes getting together and signing shit.
So, in lieu of Daily News Picks, we at JezebelMusic.com want to offer up some soundtrack picks for your barbeques, picnics, beach parties, box socials, sock hops, three day benders, anti-democratic Socialist rallies, quilt shows, whatever floats your independent boat. Here they are:
Bruce Springsteen: “Born in the USA” Hell yeah America! Yeah! The boss loves America, pop open some Keystone! You know this song is about post-Vietnam disillusionment, right? Yeah, disillusionment with not bein’ free! Yeah! Sigh.
Michael McDonald: “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” Oh man, I LOVE Stevie Wo—oh…wait…oh…oh god.
Piebald: “American Hearts” This band/song is horrifyingly bad. But the chorus just reaffirms that we are apparently part of “it.” And being included feels awesome!
Ludacris: The entirety of Chicken-n-Beer Note: only awesome if you are actually preparing poultry while drinking beer.
Animal Collective: “Fireworks” Hey guys, get it…we are watching fireworks and the song’s called “Fireworks.” Isn’t that so awesome…like, it’s not about fireworks, but that’s its name….ha-…no?…you see what I did there? Anyone? Guys?
Third Eye Blind: “Semi-Charmed Life” Seriously, I’ve never met anyone who did not know every single word to this song. And for some inexplicable reason no one really feels bad about that. So, I guess…everyone sings-along!
And finally…
The Hold Steady: “Atlantic City” This is the American music at its purest – The Hold Steady, with collars bluer than their Levis covering Springsteen, the most American man ever born (yeah, even you Alexander Hamilton, the national bank was a flawed economic implementation). Plus they add a bomb ass solo. If you do not enjoy this song, you are a Communist.
by Max Sebela
Janet Jackson and Michael’s Brothers May Do Tribute Tour [Billboard]
Historic Lower East Side Punk Collective “ABC No Rio” Gets a Ton of Government Money! Wait…Isn’t That Not Punk? [NYTimes]
Erykah Badu and the Roots Lay Down Quick Cover of Jackson’s “I Wanna Be Where You Are”; Stream It! [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Jay Z Debuts Official “Death of Auto-Tune” Video; Co-Starring LeBron James and Harvey Keitel Getting Hova-ed [Spin]
Pixies To Play All of Seminal Album Doolittle on Tour…Pixies Fans “Gone to Heaven” [NME]
Springsteen Opens With Clash’s “London Calling” At Glastonbury Festival [NME]
Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon to Release Between My Head and the Sky as Plastic Ono Band [Pitchfork]
Slayer Announces Typically-Bad-Ass-Named Album World Painted Blood [Billboard]
MGMT and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O Guest on Flaming Lips’ Upcoming Embryonic [Pitchfork]
Stream Scotland’s Twlight Sad’s New Single “I Became a Prostitute” [MySpace]
Neil Young and Paul McCartney Play Sgt. Pepper’s “A Day in the Life” at Glastonbury [The Tripwire]
San Francisco’s Recently In the Tube-d Girls Sign to Matador [Tiny Mix Tapes]
compiled by Max Sebela
Beastie Boys’ Eighth Studio Album, Hot Sauce, Drops Sept. 15 [Billboard]
Bjork Streams Album of Alternate Live Takes on NPR, Screens Film at SVA Tonight [Tripwire]
Opening Cinematic from “The Beatles: Rock Band” Game Revealed [Rolling Stone]
Black Lips and King Khan & BBQ Show Team Up as Almighty Defenders; Album Out In September [Prefix]
Old Folks Trash Wilco and Praise Yo La Tengo’s “Humpin’ Music” [Pitchfork]
Honey Hush! (And Check Out the Lineup for the Coney Island Rockabilly Festival) [Brooklyn Vegan]
Hey You Record Collectors, Pavement Vinyl Reissue Out Today [Tiny Mix Tapes]
Hey You Digital Collectors, Factory Records Digital Box Set Released on iTunes [Pitchfork]
Who’s The Boss? Ticketmaster or Bruce Springsteen? [Prefix]
Former Wilco Member Jay Bennett Died of Overdose [Rolling Stone]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
