IN THE TUBE
For some reason the blogosphere was rich with a certain phenomenon this last week: videos of bizarre, ridiculous, and sometimes baffling cover songs. There was that clip of seminal jam band Phish doing a live cover of TV On The Radio’s “Golden Age” in Albany, turning a decent four-minute song into a boring ten-minute song (but not turning too many heads, because, besides the fact that this cover makes no sense, who really cares about Phish?)

There was that uncomfortable video of tabloid ruffian and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty (accidentally?) singing the Nazi-era German national anthem to a German audience (who greeted the song with a mix of cheers, boos and FUCK YOU’s).

And then there were the videos of some older looking band doing half-hearted live covers of Pixies songs on the The Tonight Show and Late Night.
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The Flaming Lips Are Covering Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon On New Year’s Eve in Oklahoma City…Guests Expected to Appear at the Show: The Flaming Lips’ Families, and NBA Star Kevin Durant, Possibly the Only Current Residents of Oklahoma City [Pitchfork]

Stream First Track From Ted Leo’s Upcoming LP The Brutalist Bricks, “Even Heroes Have to Die,” Which Features a 15-Second “Oh-Oh” Breakdown; Bricks Due Out March 9, Just in Time to Influence All Kinds of Spring Teenage Love/Angst [Brooklyn Vegan]

Stream a Bunch of Tracks From Dubbed-Out San Francisco Electroheads oOoOO Which Are Equal in Overall Hotness, and Kind of Sounds the Way the Now Defunct Misshapes Parties Looked [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Watch (Washed Up?) Jam Band Phish Cover (Washed Up?) Indie Band TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age;” Feel Confused, then Slightly Outraged, then Wonder How Anyone Could Feel Anything But Indifferent Curiosity Towards This [Spin]

Stream New RJD2 Track, “Games You Can Win,” Which, Sadly, Sucks as Much as Anything RJ Has Done Over the Last Couple Years – Oversaturated, Boring Electropop; The Colossus is Released January 19, and Hopefully Will Be Better Than This Pile [Pitchfork]

Stream New Spoon Single, “Written in Reverse,” Which is Officially Released Tomorrow. The Song Is Super Bluesy, Frustatingly Faux British, and Actually Pretty Good (I Have Never Said this of a Spoon Song; Transference Released January 19 [NPR]

Watch Libertines/Babyshambles Frontman Pete Doherty Accidentally Sing the Nazi-era German National Anthem, Which, As I Don’t Speak German, Is Not Nearly as Funny as It Should Be [NME]

Blur Frontman Damon Albarn Announces New Gorillaz Album Plastic Beach, Which Will Feature Contributions From Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed (?), Mos Def (!) and, Most Excitedly, Bobby Womack; Elsewhere, If You Want to Feel At All Sexy Today, Click that Bobby Womack Link [Spin]

compiled by Max Sebela

MUSICIANS ON MUSIC
Musicians On Music is a weekly feature in which we feature exactly that: musicians, both local and national, writing about music, the industry, other people’s music, or whatever they feel like writing. This week we feature Helen Buyniski, who toured the summer festivals with the Mickey Western Band and Lady Circus’s The Rusted Gun Saloon. Here, as the festival season ends, she details what that was like.

How do you prepare for a week spent under the stars, surrounded by Phish fans, mud, and eco-friendly bio-degradable plastic cups? You don’t. You buy a tent at the last minute and ignore reality until you’re under the fluorescent interrogation lights of a 24-hour WalMart in a Tennessee surburb at 4 a.m., five minutes away from the festival gates. You glance at the camping supplies piled miles high in the aisles, hike for what feels like hours to the bathroom in the back of the store. You come out and realize that despite your loathing of the great outdoors, you will be spending the next week sleeping in a tent.

In June, the Mickey Western Band and Lady Circus were invited to bring our show,“The Rusted Gun Saloon,” to the eighth-annual Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The Mickey Western Band supplied our dark gypsy-folk rock as the soundtrack to the Circus’ performance: a play of aerial acts, stilt- and fire-dances, beds of nails, displays of public drunkenness, and, of course, murder. Perfect for Bonnaroo, a festival characterized by its “peaceful vibe,” recurring appearances by jam band members, and general inescapable hippie associations.

The Mickey Western Band opened Thursday afternoon on the Solar Stage, an environmentally-friendly venue situated inside “Planet Roo.” Roo was the festival’s uber-green eco-enclave, anchored by a massive papier-mache hand grasping a wire globe and emerging from the earth like the avenging zombie limb of a PMS-ing Mother Nature. In keeping with the “green” theme, I wore a clump of silk roses in my hair, but following a sudden cloudburst two songs into our set, these and everything else on stage were soaked. I was able to shelter most of my equipment from the rain and avoid frying myself and my amp, but a wet-stringed violin sounds like cats being tortured and I couldn’t wait to stop playing. The rain confused Mickey so much he played one song twice, but the circus ladies in the audience kept the spectators dancing and watching even as the dance floor turned to mud. Several rounds of applause later, I ran offstage to try to dry off my violin with a number of other wet things. Success!
More on Musicians On Music | Helen Buyniski at Bonnaroo