03
Sep
2008
With election frenzy in the air, the Standard Recording Company of Indianapolis has compiled a three-CD set with a new song about each of the 43 presidents. Due next week, 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies was written and nourished by members of Above the Orange Trees and Nice Monster recording as Of Great & Mortal Men, aided by stars including Rosie Thomas, the Radar Bros., Califone, Alan Sparhawk of Low, Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters, Bill Callahan of Smog, Vince DiFiore of Cake, and James Jackson Toth of Wooden Wand. Song titles include "Lyndon B. Johnson: Ladybird Take Me Home," "William J. Clinton: The Mighty Lion Will Not Roar Again," and "Herbert Hoover: Woe Is a Spoon-Shaped Heart."
Public-radio tastemaker KCRW from Santa Monica, California, is back with its sixth collection of live performances from its studios.
Dust off that old turntable and coax it back to life with a yearlong feeding courtesy of Sub Pop Records, reviving its legendary Sub Pop Singles Club this week. Out of commission since its original operation from 1988 to 1993 and its run from 1998 through 2002, the return celebrates the label's 20th anniversary. Offering a one-year subscription of 12 seven-inch singles delivered to your doorstep each month, the series kicks off with Om, with The Notwist, Blues Control, Black Lips, Black Mountain, Unnatural Helpers, and Tyvek warming up. Each pressing will be limited to 1,500 copies, each with a special coupon code for free downloads of the song's MP3.
This coming Tuesday, one of dance/hip-hop's most recognizable imprints gets squished through a modern-day Play-Doh Pumper Number Nine with thick, slick, funky results. Back in the day, spotting the tasty Delicious Vinyl logo in a DJ's crate of 12-inch singles was a sign of good things to come, with a stable of artists that ranged from Masta Ace and Born Jamericans to Fatlip and Def Jef. Still kickin' up dust since 1987, the label has concocted a 15-track remix/tribute CD, RMXXOLOGY, after Peaches let the owners know she'd like to take a swipe at Tone Loc's infectious hit "Wild Thing." Highlights include Hot Chip's new imagination of The Pharcyde's "Passin' Me by" and Pink Enemy working the groove of The Brand New Heavies' "Never Stop." A RMXXOLOGY Volume 2 is in the works with influences revealed by Spank Rock, Bass Over Babylon, and DJ Medhi, as well as a worldwide tour.
The covers caravan comes to town next week, as a bumper crop of new spins on old classics comes to record-store shelves. Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart is back with a 30-piece orchestra on Surfdog Records' The Dave Stewart Songbook, Vol. 1. Also available in a two-LP edition, the two-CD collection features new interpretations of his own "Would I Lie to You," "Sweet Dreams," and "Here Comes the Rain Again," rubbing up against an odd mix of Bon Jovi's "Midnight in Chelsea," Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More," and No Doubt's "Underneath It All." Other artists getting his lush touch include Bob Geldof, Sarah McLachlan, Bryan Ferry, and Celine Dion.
Special guests abound on two new CDs and a seven-inch single from a blues legend, a former pop superstar, and a one-hit Scottish songwriter. On tour now with George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Buddy Guy has just released Skin Deep on the Silvertone Records imprint. Featuring songs "Smell the Funk" and "Lyin' Like a Dog," the Chicago blues powerhouse is joined by Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, and Robert Randolph.
Right up there with such perfect-moment masterpieces as Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes, Mazzy Star's She Hangs Brightly, Suzanne Vega's self-tiled album from 1985, and Milla Jovovich's critically underrated The Divine Comedy from 1994, this coming Tuesday's first glimpse at a 21-year-old Choctaw native is as powerful, immediate, and gripping as it comes. With a voice like Billie Holiday's trippin' kid sister raised on T.Rex demos and Radiohead ballads, Samantha Crain's The Confiscation: A Musical Novella is a stunning introduction to a refreshing, metaphysical artist that demands attention. There must be something special about the mothering Oklahoma creek water that produces so many amazing singers/songwriters, from Woody Guthrie to the Flaming Lips. Tastefully packaged in a cardboard Digipak that mimics an old family photo album, the five-song EP is on the hip, old-timey Ramseur Records imprint - the perfect home for her national debut, also releasing the long awaited Second Gleam from the Avett Brothers next week.
Chronicle Books has just issued three fantastic new rock-and-roll books, aimed at teen and pre-teen girls who wanna rock, inspired graphic artists, and anyone who's bowed down at the sexy "graphic-ication" of rock-and-roll poster girls. Featuring a foreword by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and contributions by Beth Ditto of Gossip, Hilken Mancini of Fuzzy, and Sarah Dougher of the SG's, Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is an amazing companion to the not-for-profit Portland, Oregon, "summer camp" that began in 2001. Playfully illustrated and smartly empowering, the nearly 200 pages can take a young girl from rock dreams to putting out a CD and going on tour, holding hands through picking an instrument, writing your first song, forming a band, and booking an all-ages show.
