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Straight to Video
Rock Art Rock
PJ Harvey
SXSW, Austin TX
March 21, 2009
By Brian Birzer "The PJ Harvey photos I took on Saturday night, March 21st, in a lot of ways were the payoff for the week of chaos that was SXSW 2009..."
Chhom Nimol from Dengue Fever
(and her dress collection)
Austin, TX
April 27, 2009
By Brian Birzer "Chhom Nimol is the singer of Los Angeles based Dengue Fever..."
Raymond Pettibon
Santa Monica, CA
March 1, 2009
By Brian Birzer "I met Raymond Pettibon at the Rock Paper Scissors show in Santa Monica on May 1st of last year..."
Scott Weiland
Austin, TX
January 16, 2009
By Brian Birzer "I took an assignment from Rolling Stone to cover the opening night of Scott Weiland's solo tour a the beginning of 2009..."
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What Goes On
Free Morrissey, Os Mutantes Songs to Promote Latino Census Participation
[Via Future of Music Coalition]
By the year 2050, it is projected that the Latino population in the US will triple, and represent nearly 30% of the entire US population. Already Latinos are the largest minority in the US, playing a major role in virtually every aspect of American life, and yet despite the Bill Richardsons, Oscar de la Rentas, J-Los and Hector Tobars of this world, they are continually underestimated, misunderstood and marginalized.
Part of this problem stems from a deep-seated mutual distrust between Latino immigrant families and the US government. Whether as an individual undocumented immigrant or an American-born member of a family in which other members — one’s parent’s, perhaps — are undocumented, there’s a real fear that participation with any agency or organization, public or private, that asks for background information, could result in deportation. Recent surveys indicate that a majority of Latinos share this fear, which only makes it harder for both the immigrant and US-born Latino communities to receive the vital services they require. And with information gathered by workplaces, medical facilities, even high schools actually resulting in deportations, who can they trust?
Voto Latino, that’s who! Voto Latino is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded by actress Rosario Dawson (above, in case you happened not to have glanced that way already) dedicated to overcoming these fears, and to increasing voter turnout and political involvement particularly among American Latino youth, which is the fastest growing minority youth group in the US. (According to the Pew Hispanic Center, one in five schoolchildren, and one in four newborns, is Hispanic.) Voto Latino has launched the “Be Counted, Represent!” Census Initiative, offering 25 free songs to anyone (but hopefully Latino youth) who pledges to participate in the 2010 census…
Afternoon Mood Elevator: The Go-Betweens, “Bye Bye Pride”
A most perfect pop song we hope you haven’t mostly forgotten.
Jamie Lidell’s New Record Features Beck and Many Others
[Via Pitchfork]If you aren’t familiar with Jamie Lidell, you should check out 2008’s Jim, a polished piece of studio perfected soul that puts the English producer on par with some of the best crooners of the day. Lidell has a new record on its way to release via Warp on May 18th, and this one seems full of expectation, in part due to the cast of guests appearing on the album.
The new record, Compass, will boast contributions from the likes of Beck (with whom Lidell work on his neat Records Club project) and Feist (with whom Lidell worked with on The Reminder). Compass will also feature Chris Taylor, Chris Bear, and Daniel Rossen (all from Grizzly Bear) Wilco’s Pat Sansone, Nikka Costa (who sang on leading Jim track, “Another Day”), Beck’s keyboardist Brian LeBarton, and Chilly Gonzales.
Riot Gear!: Internet Radio and the Sound Salvation
Remember how the internet was supposed to be a magic bullet to good bands passed over by major labels? It was the promise of direct distribution, control over your fate, and best of all, no jerk in a suit telling you how to rock and how to roll. Depending on the web tools you use, that still holds true unless revenue is your measuring stick. Suddenly lame looking MySpace is still a viable option, though it is in decline. Facebook lacks proper music-related tools but musicians are finding ways to make it happen, using sites like Reverb Nation, which tie in okay to the Facebook universe. But what about radio?We lost terrestrial radio to corporate Clear Channel and their stupid Aerosmith fetish. Satellite Radio is an option, but don’t expect to break there if you are a new band. Internet radio—makes total sense—has an indie edge and a feel for the new and emerging generations of both listeners and musicians. In the land of internet radio, Europe’s Spotify is quite hot, and for good reason—it is like iTunes, only the songs stream from a server instead of your hard drive. That means songs are on demand and free (with ads, which you make go away for a few quid). On demand tune-age is something Slacker and Pandora and most of the others lack unless you go to the contaminated waters of peer-to-peer. Spotify is gearing up to launch in the States, and it will be big, no doubt. read more
The Who Played the Superbowl
Music was a big ol’ part of that big ol’ football game. The commercials for the NFL featured Arcade Fire’s song “Wake Up”, and then there was Grizzly Bear’s song “Two Weeks” for a Volkswagen ad. There was Kiss with some midgets for Dr. Pepper, Kia’s Sorrento was bolstered by the sounds of the Heavy and Yo Gaba Gaba, and Cheap Trick soundtracked a commercial for Audi. I think there was also a White Stripes cover being played during an ad for the military? I can’t be sure… was kind of dozing off at that point. The point is, people love music, and more specifically indie rock… apparently even football fans. Yay?
However, the football fan support for the Who’s performance during the halftime show was somewhat unexpected… at parts, the entire stadium sang along to the more well-known lyrics of their chosen medley that featured “Pinball Wizard”, that “teenage wasteland” song, “Who Are You?”, “See Me, Feel Me”, and “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
On the whole, my reaction of the performance went like this: Roger Daltrey… mmm, not so much; Pete Townshend… yes, please! The divide that is the range of their talents was never more apparent than right there in the middle of a football field filled with a flashing show, crazy lasers, and pyrotechnics. Daltrey’s good looks now fleeting and his voice a constant strain, it was pretty brutal to get through his performance (although, to be honest, Carrie Underwood’s rendition of the “The Star-Spangled Banner”… oof.) Townshend, on the other hand, windmilled up a storm, sang with relative ease, and moved around on stage with his guitar better than some 19 year olds I see these days. I wish that guy was my uncle.
As far as medley’s go, I suppose you got to just give the people want they want… the hits. But I kept thinking (for selfish reasons) how awesome it would’ve been if they wouldn’t just done “A Quick One While He’s Away”, which has varying parts and could somewhat function as a medley. (That or I’ll look for almost any opportunity to make people watch this video of them performing the song from the Rolling Stone’s Rock and Roll Circus.)
After the jump, if you were one of those people that did something else during the Superbowl, the videos of the Who’s performance is there for you to watch. read more
LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy’s First Film Score
[Via Clash Music]Here’s something to tide you over ’til we get the next LCD Soundsystem record… the one that James Murphy claims will be their best yet (but also possibly their last). The rumors have been circulating for a while now, but it’s been confirmed that Murphy is indeed scoring his first ever soundtrack to the forthcoming Noah Baumbach film, which stars Ben Stiller and Rhys Ifans. The film, called Greenberg, features a soundtrack comprised of music by various artists, including Steve Miller Band, Nite Jewel, and Duran Duran, but it’s Murphy’s touch that really crafts the film’s sonic accompaniment, as he’s contributed 11 tracks to the score.
The movie is set to come out on March 26th. Check out an LCD Soundsystem video after the jump.
The Bronx Still Loves Cousin Brucie
Friday night I found myself cruising the semi-mean streets of the Bronx’s Throggs Neck area with a few cronies killing time before a house party we were due to attend in nearby White Plains. We were flipping through terrestrial radio stations in the car when we happened upon 101.1 WCBS-FM, the tri-state area’s venerable oldies station that was also the bane of my pre-teen existence.
“This station’s good, but they used to be so much better,” said my twenty-something friend Rex. “They used to play more doo wop an’ 1950s shit.”
“Man,” I replied with a heavy sigh. “My father used to torture me with CBS-FM when we’d drive out to Long Island to see my grandparents in the ’80s. He’d blast it as loud as it could go, unrelentingly. I could always hear it over my walkman. Fuckin’ Cousin Brucie…”
“Yo, don’t talk shit about Cousin Brucie!” Rex snapped, catching me off guard. “Cousin Brucie is the shit, man!”
“What’s wrong with you?” came a slow, derisive voice from the back seat. “How can you hate on Cousin Brucie?”
Finally, Vampire Weekend Covers Rancid
by: James Greene Jr.
I was just thinking to myself the other day, “Gee, when the heck is Vampire Weekend going to cover a hot 1995 MTV street punk jam?” If you’ve ever wondered what “Ruby Soho” would sound like after being wrapped in a sweater vest and taken out to the Hamptons, here you go. Slick your mohawk back, throw on some khakis, and jam to this sucker as you putter your yacht around the bay. Smashing, Buffy!
by: James Greene Jr.
published: February 8, 2010
in column: What Goes On
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