Odds & ends
Here’s a few random things that I’ve found interesting lately in the music world:
Ûž Local Colorado music writer/longtime Pearl Jam fan Stephen Saint has written about an excellent little piece of forgotten Southern California history involving himself and Eddie Vedder. “Eddie’s Secret Show: A Pearl Jam Memoir“ remembers shows that Saint’s band (Club of Rome) played with Eddie and Bad Radio back in the early ’90s. Coming from California myself, I loved a lot of the little references: he mentions the hotel in San Diego where I met the band in ’95 (The Catamaran), and discusses the 1997 secret show at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA that I attended (and, um, paid the same $200 that Eddie cites). So I found it to be fascinating & recommended reading.
Ûž If you were in a metal band, what would your name be? Here are some suggestions for me from the Metal Band Name Generator: Cryptic Winter, Weeping Gates, Thy Castle, Carpathian Blood.
Right on.
Ûž Stereogum has the new Audioslave “Original Fire“ in streaming format. I agree that it seems neither original nor fiery. But speaking of my man Chris Cornell, I was listening to “Outshined” (Soundgarden) last night at the gym and THAT is some good stuff that I have let slide for far too long.
Ûž Vibrating panties at a Flaming Lips concert near you – coming soon! (sheesh, no pun intended). It’s nice to know in this jaded, cold world that someone still cares about their fans.
Ûž According to a completely unofficial source (a blog comment from “Kev in St. Louis”), here is some Counting Crows potential new album news: “Look for a new album sometime in the Spring of 2007. Tentative title is Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings. Part rocking guitar stuff and part soft acoustic stuff. Rumor is that they have re-recorded “Suffocate” – that was a song on their demo cd.” Take that for what you will (and thank you Kev).
Ûž I wrote about The Kooks a few weeks ago (and still think that Mason Jennings cover is fantastic) – I read yesterday that their debut album Inside In/Inside Out will be getting an American release on the Astralwerks label in October.
Ûž FRIDAY MORNING MASHUPS:
Some Velvet Blog has two fun ones if you fancy the seamless blending of your favorite tracks into one song:
“Imagine Wild Music” (John Lennon “Imagine”; Lou Reed “Walk On The Wild Seed”; G Love – “Blues Music”)
“Wicked Music (For A Norwegian Film)” – Chris Issak “Wicked Game”; Radiohead “Exit Music”; The Beatles “Norwegian Wood”
And I have one for you as well, the two biggest blog favorites of the last few months, all rolled up into one hip-shaking little package:
Crazy, As She Goes – Raconteurs vs. Gnarls Barkley, mixed by The Legion of Doom
Name: Heather Browne
I wanted to provided some back up for my counting crows news.
20.06.06 New Counting Crows: One Part Rock, One Part Country
A little bit county and a little bit rock’n'roll is how Counting Crows guitarist Dan Vickrey describes the band’s upcoming fifth studio release to Billboard.com. No release date has been penciled in yet for the follow-up to 2002′s “Hard Candy.” “The idea at the moment is to have kind of a rocking side and then an acoustic-y, maybe country-ish side,” Vickrey says. “We got the first half done in May in New York, so half of it is pretty strong and done. And now we’re going to work on the second half, the country tunes, during the tour.” That tour is a co-headlining jaunt with the Goo Goo Dolls, which opens tomorrow (June 21) in Ridgefield, Wash. As for the already recorded material, Vickrey says the band called upon frontman/lyricist Adam Duritz to “sift through a lot of the ideas that we had in the past.” New song titles include “Come Around,” “Hanging Tree” and “Suffocate.” The latter track pre-dates the band’s 1996 sophomore album “Recovering the Satellites,” which appropriately is also the stylistic direction Vickrey sees the band headed. The upcoming album also reunited the Crows with “Satellites” producer Gil Norton. “I think it’s a lot more rocking,” Vickrey says of the new album. “If you take the most rocking song from our previous records, it’s an album of that. It’s a little heavier. It has that same sound as ‘Recovering,’ kind of a live feel for me and a live sound — very guitar oriented.” To bridge the gap between the new set’s release, the Crows today released the live album “New Amsterdam — Live at Heineken Music Hall,” which was recorded during the band’s 2003 European tour and features the new track “Hazy.”
Despite the fact the Counting Crows will be celebrating 15 years together this summer, Vickrey is optimistic the outfit’s new material bodes well for its future. “I think we still have good music in us,” Vickrey said. “Listening to the new songs, it’s like ‘Yeah, this is something we’ve never done before.’ I can hear it and go, ‘Wow, that doesn’t sound like us. We have more to say”
7-18-06 Adam announced the ‘tentative’ title for the new album last night during the Mandalay Bay concert on The Beach. Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings is an album about “sins and regrets” he told the crowd; the first part of the album is the “sins” and will be louder, the second part is the “regrets” and will be more accoustic. He also said it won’t likely be a double album because we now have the technology to fit so much onto a single disc.
First half of the album was recorded in May, next half won’t be recorded until Fall after their tour is over.
Kevinstl
kevinstl — July 14, 2006 @ 8:52 am
Fabulous Kevin! Thank you for that additional background. I guess I could have done the Google research myself, huh?
Gracias.
heather — July 14, 2006 @ 9:02 am
That “Crazy, As She Goes” mash-up totally blows. Hard. Just saying.
Dainon — July 14, 2006 @ 2:35 pm
Aww…I think it’s kinda fun.
heather — July 14, 2006 @ 4:22 pm
Except for maybe that rap in the middle. That’s pretty unenjoyable.
heather — July 14, 2006 @ 5:15 pm
Hi,
If you are getting this, it means I have corrected my blogroling.com links and you should be showing up again. Sorry for the delay — but had to start over w/ new password,etc.
jg
Satisfied '75 — July 15, 2006 @ 1:55 pm