Grizzly Bear Multi-Instrumentalist (Isn’t That How You’d Have To Describe Every Member Of Grizzly Bear?) Chris Taylor Releases First Solo Single As CANT, Called “Ghosts;” Stream It Here – Sounds Like Yellow House [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Pavement Drummer Bob Nastovich Says There Will Be No New Material During Next Year’s Reunion Tour; Somehow, Nastovich Manages To Come Off As Apathetic As a 15 Year Old Pavement Fan Circa 1996 [The Quietus]
Watch Sonic Youth’s Gossip Girl Cameo; My Reaction: “OHGODMYEYES I’VEBEENWATCHINGGOSSIPGIRLFORLIKEAMINUTENOW— Phew, Sonic Youth is On” [Videogum]
Broken Social Scene and Stars To Play 2010 Vancouver Olympics; International Musicians Like Wilco (HA!) and Iron & Wine (HAHA!) Also On the Bill – U.S. and Canada Being Independent Nations Realized For First Time; In Canada, Wilco = Exotic [Stereogum]
Watch Grizzly Bear and Beach House’s Victoria Legrand Perform “Two Weeks” Live on Conan; Legrand, Who Usually Causes Me To Become Temporarily Narcaleptic, Sounds Amazing [Pitchfork]
Tom Waits Announces Live Album Documenting Last Year’s “Glitter and Doom” Tour; First Disc: 16 Tracks. Second Disc: An Hour of Edited Together “Between Song” Banter, Which, Knowing Waits, Will Be Incredibly Unsettling; Released November 24 [NME]
Pete Doherty Hospitalized With Breathing Problems; Cancels Irish tour – Coincidentally, Heroin Causes Physical Damage [Prefix]
So You Already Own Some of Elvis’s Hair, But Want To Complete The “King of…” Collection? Well, Have a Single £1,000 Strand of Michael Jackson’s Hair. Elsewhere, I Stalk “King of Country” George Strait Around With a Pair of Scissors, Hoping to Retire Early [Idolator]
Stream Outkast’s (Better?) Hal Big Boi’s “Shine Blockas;” The Uber-Anticipated Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Song of Chico Dusty To Be Released Sometime This Year (Will Detox Be The Only Uber-Anticpated Rap Album Left Standing By the End of 2009? (Yes)) [Gorilla vs. Bear]
compiled by Max Sebela
No More Radiohead Albums? AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH! [The Tripwire]
Watch The Drums New Video for “Let’s Go Surfing,” Look Out For Their Upcoming Shows [Brooklyn Vegan]
C-Murder Convicted of Second-Degree Murder [NME]
Co-Owner of Matador Records Loses House In Fire [Brooklyn Vegan]
Don’t Look A Gift-Horse In The Mouth and For God’s Sake Don’t Punch It!!! Man Arrested For Punching Police Horse After Lollapalooza [Pitchfork]
Watch The Trailer For Tom Waits’ Upcoming Film, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” [Prefix]
And In More Tom Waits News…Anton Corbijn Is Publishing Book Of Tom Waits Portraits [The Tripwire]
If Morrissey Ain’t Making Money Off It, Why Bother? Morrissey Tells Fans Not To Buy Reissues [Rolling Stone]
I Always Secretly Hoped Elton John Would Work With Alice In Chains, Now My Dreams Are Fulfilled [Prefix]
821 Entertainment To Make Hank Williams Biopic [Prefix]
compiled by Erin Sheehy
July 19, 2009
Beck’s Website Goes Big
VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Nearly one month ago, Beck’s web site launched Record Club, a weekly venture in which Beck and friends cover an album’s worth of music. Since then, Beck has added three more sections, further expanding his digital footprint.
Unlike Beck’s former minimalistic approach, his site now has weekly updates in many categories. For starters, Beck created Irrelevant Topics, a weekly interview series, and chose Tom Waits as his first interviewee. In the conversation, topics ranged from Japan’s $700 orange to terrible Frank Sinatra songs: nonchalant talk lacking any real focus. Rather, it’s just two musicians mulling over life in what seems like an additional to chapter to Coffee & Cigarettes.
More on Beck’s Website Goes Big
Tom Waits Chats with Beck About Building Fires Out of Chopsticks [Pitchfork]
Dum Dum Girls Play Woodsist Fest, Immediately Sign to Sub Pop [BrooklynVegan]
Nine Inch Nails Announce Final Shows; Reznor Really Means It This Time [NME]
Black Keys’ Drummer Plays Bass in New Band Called Drummer — Follow That? [Stereogum]
The Dead Weather Album is Streaming Free for a Few More Hours, Before Jack White Takes it Down [SPIN]
Ryan Gosling Ups Indie Cred as Band Dead Man’s Bones Signs to ANTI- [The Tripwire]
compiled by Sean Hallarman
April 23, 2009
Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks | It Happened One Bite
HIDDEN GEM
Somewhere on the border of country, swing, jazz, and folk, lies Dan Hicks. I first heard his album It Happened One Bite in 2001, when I went into a record-nerd frenzy at my local vintage shop. “What haven’t I heard already?” I wondered aloud. Half trying to rip me off, half trying to point me in the right direction, the fat, surly man behind the counter recommended this weird looking record by Dan Hicks, describing it as, well, somewhere on the border of country, swing, jazz, and folk. The cover, looking simultaneously major-label-calculated and gloriously half-assed, depicted Hicks and his Hot Licks as caricatures, running around as though they were on the lam in a Road Runner cartoon. Sight unseen, I shelled out ten or so dollars for this dog-eared piece of vinyl, took it home and put it on.
Good thing.
It Happened One Bite, written and recorded in 1975 as the soundtrack to a Ralph Bakshi cartoon that never got finished, was ultimately released as a stand-alone album in 1978. Opener “Cruisin’,” a two-and-a-half minute Lite FM-like jazz number that briskly and enthusiastically begins the proceedings, sounds like it could have accompanied the unnecessarily long credits at the beginning of any 1970s cartoon. “Crazy ‘Cause He Is,” a frantic, wordy romp, is all twangy guitars and lightning fast lyrics. “Boogaloo Jones” sounds like modern Jonathan Richman crossed with vintage Tom Waits. “Cloud My Sunny Mood” is a 7th chord fantasy, the album’s first chillout track, a languid, jazzy ballad that serves as a sorbet to clear the palate after several upbeat, cluttered numbers. Then it’s right back into the zaniness with “Dizzy Dogs,” a rollicking, kazoo-based instrumental.
More on Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks | It Happened One Bite
