December 1, 2009
IN THE TUBE: What the Hell Was Broadcast Over Thanksgiving?
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.
More on IN THE TUBE: What the Hell Was Broadcast Over Thanksgiving?
The Second Annual Beatles Complete Ukulele Festival Will Take Place on December 5 and 6 in Williamsburg; Every Beatles Song Will Be Played on the Ukulele…And All Money Goes to Yoko Ono (Last Year, It Went to Warren Buffet); All Reading This Ought Be As Confused As I Am [Jezebel Music]
Stream a Re-Recording of Wavvves Cut “To the Dregs,” and a New Wavves Song “Horse Sholes” – Have an Existential Crisis Over the Fact that You Don’t Really Hate Wavves Anymore, As Zach Hill Brings Much-Needed Chops to the Project; Feel Dejected; Claim to Hate Wavves Anyway [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Brooklyn Over-Hyped But Endlessly Catchy Dance-Pop Duo MGMT Title Upcoming LP Congratulations, As In: Congratulations, MGMT, You’ve Succeeded in Making a Typically Boring Album Title [Pitchfork]
Watch The Flaming Lips Cover Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse;” You Decide What’s More Entertaining: The Cover, or Wayne Coyne’s Self-Absorbed, Convinced-He’s-Funny Babbling [Stereogum]
Cash Money Records Says Lil Wayne Will Release Two Albums Before The End of 2009; The Rebirth, The Much-Delayed Weezy-Goes-Rock Album, and Tha Carter 4, The Follow-Up to Wayne’s Lauded 2008 Offering…My Guess: Neither Will Come Out and I Just Wasted Time Writing These Sentences [Pitchfork]
Beyonce Cancels a Show in Malaysia Due to Malaysia’s Islamic Conservative Party’s Concerns That She Might Promote “Western Sexy Performances;” I’m Outraged Over Use of the Word “Might” in That Sentence. All The Woman Does is Western Sexy Performances [Billboard]
U2 Frontman Bono Believes President Obama is Having Difficult Time, Realizes the Harsh Reactions Obama Faced When Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Doesn’t Know No One Gives a Shit About His Political Opinions, and Just Wants Him to Sing “With or Without You” In Front of Some Starving Kids [Idolator]
Watch Spike Jonze’s New Short Film Starring Kanye West, We Were Once a Fairytale; Features Kanye Being Hilariously Douche-y, Getting Really Drunk, And Then Vomiting Rose Petals With This Little Monster…So It’s Just Like the Real Kanye [NME]
No Age, Rain Machine (TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone), Mew, and Jay Reatard All Opening for Pixies Doolittle Shows; Universal Agreement Made That This Concert Will Be “Very Good” (Alternatively, “Beyond Satisfactory”) [CMJ]
compiled by Max Sebela
Either Diplo and Switch are Making a Pointed Critique of Mainstream Nightlife, or They Are Just Really Excited for Halloween. Watch New Cartoon Zombie Major Lazer Video Here [Pitchfork]
For An Even Weirder Partially Animated Music Video, Watch Ida Maria Featuring Iggy Pop on “Oh My God.” Oh My God Is Right. This Shit Is Weird. [PopMatters]
No Age Designed A Vegan Skate Shoe. Very California. Oh Yeah, They’re In New York Next Week, Too. [The Tripwire]
Listen To New Song From Dum Dum Girls/Zoo Music Side Project Woven Bones [Stereogum]
Milkin’ It: Pixies Releasing Dolittle Shows as Live Albums…Ten Minutes After Show’s Are Over! [NME]
Listen To New Devendra Banhart “Wallilamdzi” [Stereogum]
Listen to Snippets Of New Moon Soundtrack. Not Sure How Much We Care…But Have Heard Good Things About Thom Yorke Track [Stereogum]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
Pixies Confirm Dates For U.S. Doolittle Tour!!! [Tiny Mix Tapes]
The Mountain Goats Get All Biblical On Us With “Genesis 3:23” [Prefix]
Check Out Schedule For Wavves’ Massive Fall Tour [Pitchfork]
Sidewalk Café’s Antifolk Festival Coming Up (Aug 7 – 16) Featuring, Among Others, Our Favorite G Train Busker! [Brooklyn Vegan]
Fiery Furnaces Cover Fiery Furnaces, and So Can You [Pitchfork]
“Todd P Goes To Austin” Documentary Premiers At The Delancey Tonight [FREEwilliamsburg]
Former Panic! At The Disco Members Get a Name (The Young Veins), a Myspace, and a Single, “Change,” Therefore Officially Exist [Idolator]
Monsters of Folk NYC Tickets Now On Presale [Brooklyn Vegan]
Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys Binges On Sugar, “Goes Mental” In Order to Write Song for Kids’ TV Show “Yo Gabba Gabba” [NME]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
Billy Corgan Debuts New Song and New 19-Year-Old Drummer At Sky Saxon Tribute [Pitchfork]
Groundbreaking Choreographer Merce Cunningham Dies [Brooklyn Vegan]
New Tour, New Album For Islands [The Tripwire]
Okay, Forget That Business About The College Dropout. Kanye West Performs at Foundation Concert, Hopes to Combat High Dropout Rates [Stereogum]
Charles Manson Looking to Collaborate With Fellow Inmate Phil Spector. Stop Me Before I Write Something Tasteless Like “Deadly Duo!” [Prefix]
Frank Black Shoots Down Rumors of New Pixies Material [Prefix]
Glastonbury 2010 Ticket Registration Open Already [NME]
Loincloths Are So Cool. Watch Motel Motel’s New Video For Proof [FREEwilliamsburg]
SPIN Lists Their Picks For 20 Best Albums of 2009…So Far [SPIN]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
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
July 17, 2008
“Doolittle” meets Rock Band on June 24
On June 24, Black Francis’ reach extended to virtual gamers in more than 3 million living rooms around the world. The Pixies’ classic Doolittle received Xbox 360 treatment on when the entire record was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the video game Rock Band.
Rock Band allows up to four players to compete in a simulated concert experience. Depending on the song, the instruments include a microphone, guitar, bass and drums. In other words, players can become Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago or David Lovering without the always-touring-together tension.
Following in the suit of the Cars’ self-titled LP and Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance, Doolittle is the third album released for Rock Band in its entirety.
Other than Wave of Mutilation, which was already included in Rock Band, the 14 Doolittle tracks will be available for download from the Xbox Live Marketplace for $18.99 or $1.99 per track.
Doolittle became available for PS3’s version of Rock Band on June 26.
by Ben Benson
