The Current Music Blog: September 6, 2007 Archive

The Stream 09/06/07

Posted at 8:56 AM on September 6, 2007 by Barb Abney

New Morrissey-based musical in the works.

New Marc Bolan releases.

The Pipettes announce North America tour dates.

Today In Music History:
1944 - Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) was born.
1948 - Claydes Smith (Kool & The Gang) was born.
1970 - Jimi Hendrix played his last live performance in Germany.
1971 - Delores O’Riordan (The Cranberries) was born.
1974 - The 101 All Stars (featuring Joe Strummer) made their debut in London.
1974 - Nina Persson (The Cardigans) was born.
1997 - Elton John recorded a new version of 'Candle In The Wind' after performing the song live at Diana Princess of Wales funeral. The track has gone on to become the biggest selling UK single of all time.

Live On Air Blogging 09/06/07

Posted at 9:23 AM on September 6, 2007 by Barb Abney

Tunes On The Telly Tonight:
Kings Of Leon on Leno
Patti Scialfa on Conan
Manchester Orchestra on Letterman
Lyrics Born on Jimmy Kimmel

10:40 a.m. Nick Lowe
Will be making a guest appearance on Prarie Home Companion later this month.
More info.

10:35 a.m. Imperial Teen
The Hair, The TV, The Baby And The Band is in stores now.
They'll be playing First Avenue on October 5th.
More band info here.

10:20 a.m. The New Pornographers
Challengers is in stores now.
They'll be appearing at First Avenue along with Emma Pollack and Benjy Ferree on October 16th.

10:10 a.m. Song Of The Day Info - Pinback
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Pinback with the tune "From Nothing To Nowhere" from their forthcoming new album, Autumn of the Seraphs which will be in stores next Tuesday. There's still time to preorder the disk (complete with bonus material) on their official site.
They'll be playing The Varsity Theater on October 17th.

10:00 a.m. The Flaming Lips
They'll be playing The Myth Sunday night.
Here's Mary's chat with Wayne Coyne at last year's State Fair.

9:55 a.m. The Aliens
They'll be playing The Varsity Theater on September 26th.
Get all of their dates and learn more about them here.

9:50 a.m. Manchester Orchestra
They're playing at The Varsity on November 7th along with Annuals.
More info.

9:35 a.m. Gogol Bordello
Super Taranta is available now.
They'll be playing First Avenue on Thursday November 1st.
Their site.

9:15 a.m. The National
They're playing at The Fine Line on September 20th.
They did an in-studio back in September, 2005.
More National stuff..

"My 3 Songs" for Thursday

Posted at 1:49 PM on September 6, 2007 by Steve Seel

"I'm in summer love" says Suzy Hart of Minneapolis, "and these songs are the sign of the times."

1) Cold War Kids, "Hair Down"
2) Mylo, "In My Arms"
3) The White Stripes, "I'm Slowly Turning Into You"

The Sandinista! "Project" - Side 6

Posted at 11:24 PM on September 6, 2007 by Mac Wilson (1 Comments)

And so this big, bloated monster of an album comes to an end. What a ride it was! But first, I suppose I'd better write about the oft-maligned (at least by me) Side 6.

"Version City" -- A bizarre little shuffle, this self-referential number compares the musicians' musical journey with a train ride. Is it really so far from the truth? Maybe it's just a reminder for us to stay on board during the final leg of the journey, which takes us to the strangest material yet...
"Living in Fame" -- Dub remix of "If Music Could Talk", featuring Mikey Dread on vocals this time around. Take some time to think about the logistics of not just tacking the remix onto the package, but making them part of the album proper. Consider the new Spoon album, which was released in some places with a bonus disc of outtakes and remixes -- how would that affect the band's original artistic statement if that was officially the second disc?
"Silicone on Sapphire" -- You know, I actually like this backing better than the somewhat flat instrumental track for the original "Washington Bullets". If the Clash had used this as the backing track, we'd be talking about "Washington Bullets" as an absolute, unimpeachable Clash classic on par with "Straight to Hell". Instead, I guess we'll have to settle for the stellar lyrics of the original and the fantastic musical bed of "Silicone on Sapphire". There's got to be some mashup artist who's taken this task on.
"Version Pardner" -- Maybe I was a little too hard on the original "Junco Partner", but the remix really is quite dull. Sorry.
"Career Opportunities" -- One of the best non-sequitirs in the history of rock. Going from a series of spacey dub remixes into....music boxes and little kids singing a song from the band's debut?!? Personally, I think this version is absolute genius. The poor little kids sum up the sheer absurdity inherent at the song's core: although it is inevitable, job-hunting is a completely ridiculous process. During my final semester of college, this was the only song that encapsulated all the frustrations of figuring out what to do next. This is the definitive version of the song. And even better, it fills the album's "Revolution 9" spot; it truly is the most bizarre thing on the record, so it just has to go in that penultimate spot.
"Shepherds Delight" -- All the other side-closers are pretty good, so it's a surprise that the album fades away with such a whimper. Maybe the band was too exhausted to record anything else, so they got together with Mikey and just cranked out a little instrumental to round things off to an even 36 songs. I don't know.

Wow. I can honestly say that I appreciate the album more than I ever have before. Now comes the tough part: distilling the album into a single-album lengthed 12 songs. This could be tough...maybe I'll put it up to a vote amongst the commenters. The songs with the most votes make the final cut! (as long as you don't all stuff the ballot box with votes for "Mensforth Hill", because that would be kinda ridiculous.)

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