Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestrasse 68 (Nettwerk Records)

Get your Friday Facial from Glorious Noise in the new series, Faces Don't Lie: Expressive Record Reviews with Dylan Burr.

See Dylan's reaction after the jump...

Continue reading "Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestrasse 68" »

MP3: The Mountain Goats - "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" (Aesop Rock remix)

Be sure to check out the very cool Sketch Theatre video for it, too.

As is typical in today's parlance, "remix" here implies Aesop Rock taking the a cappella vocal track, and using an entirely new instrumental track and tacking on an additional rap verse. The original version appears on the Mountain Goats latest, Heretic Pride, and it's the best song on the album. This remix pales in comparison, but it's worth hearing.

eMusic: The Mountain Goats, Aesop Rock.

Continue reading "The Mountain Goats - Lovecraft in Brooklyn (Aesop Rock remix)" »

MP3: Dandy Warhols - "The World The People Together (Come On)" from Earth To The Dandy Warhols.

According to their freshly relaunched web site, on May 19, 2008, you will be able to buy and download the whole album as part of their new subscription service that will include "exclusive digital audio content for one (Earth) year, including NEW b-sides and live tracks."

Since Capitol dumped them, they're free to do whatever they want. It'll be interesting to see what else they come up with.

The Associated Press reporter is obviously not aware of the whole Neil Young Archives saga. For one thing, it's being referred to as Neil Young's "archive" (singular, lower-case, etc.). Nevertheless, there's some interesting info in the report. Neil Young to release archive on Blu-ray discs:

The first installment of Young's archive will cover the years 1963 to 1972 and will be released as a 10-disc set this fall on Reprise/Warner Bros. Records.

Young said the archives will be released chronologically and include some previously unreleased songs, videos, handwritten manuscripts and other memorabilia, in addition to the high-resolution audio that Blu-ray technology is known for.

Fans can download more content like songs, photos and tour information directly to the Blu-ray discs as the content becomes available. [...]

Earlier technology didn't offer the ability to browse archive material while listening to songs in high-resolution audio, Young noted.

"Previous technology required unacceptable quality compromises," he said in a statement. "I am glad we waited and got it right."

This was hinted at before. But this sounds pretty cool... potentially. Of course, it's still vaporware. But at least it's gotta be better than that fucking Toast project. Jeez.

So maybe now I'll have to start thinking about getting a Playstation 3 instead of an Xbox 360. It won't be just to play Rock Band anymore...

Jake and I became friends by dint of our mutual affinity for the Beatles. We've even attended a couple Beatlefests (now called The Fest for Beatles Fans—a TERRIBLE name) and had our picture taken with a cardboard stand-up of the Fabs. Needless to say, we've seen a LOT of pictures of the Beatles over the years. From the countless coffee table books to the occasional unearthing of new images on the Web, we've seen thousands.

But this is the coolest yet (click for higher-resolution):

Unfortunately, we can't find any info on when or where this shot was taken but it's sparked a conversation via Instant Messenger. Peek in on our talk and post your own theories on the origins of this photo or links to your own favorites after the jump...

Continue reading "Beatles From Above" »

Lou Reed once again proves that he's a bitchy old queen. (As if we needed any more evidence.) When an audience member at the Tribeca Film Festival asked Reed what he thought of Lester Bangs' claim that Berlin was "the most depressed album ever made," the humorless has-been rudely dismissed the question ("What does that have to do with anything?") and feigned ignorance ("Who is Lester Bangs?"). Bangs biographer Jim DeRogatis calls him out:

Hey, Lou: You know who Lester Bangs was. The last time I interviewed you, when you were hyping your rewriting of Poe for "The Raven," you asked me to mail you a copy of his biography, and you spoke quite warmly of him. The Catskill comedian shtick really gets old sometimes.

You know, Lester Bangs hasn't produced anything good for over 25 years, but, unlike Lou Reed, at least Bangs has a decent excuse: he's dead. Fuck Lou Reed.

Continue reading "Jim DeRogatis vs. Lou Reed vs. Lester Bangs" »

The title's not a call to action but a statement of fact: Pete's free today, having served 29 days of a 14-week jail sentence for breaking probation. And from the sounds of it, prison life has it's ups and downs when you're Pete Doherty.

"I got trouble from the start, from the inmates and the guards, mainly shouting at night really," Pete told the NME. "Some people were saying 'Keep your head down', the other half were saying 'Keep your chin up'. So I was a bit like a nodding dog – I didn't know whether to keep my chin up or keep my head down. It was 18-day early release – I can't complain really."

Doherty also claims to have been drug free during his time in the Joint.

"I managed to stay clean. I got my certificate. I was going to Sellotape it to the wall, but they wouldn't give me any Sellotape," he said. "Did I take heroin inside? Complete rubbish."

Still, Pete's upbeat. "It could have been a lot worse."

Update: The Guardian has video of Pete waiting for his manager to pick him up.

Dirty Pretty Things news after the jump...

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These free, full album streams are available from AOL's Spinner through Sunday, May 11, so listen while you can. Try before you buy.

• Neil Diamond, 'Home Before Dark'
• The Last Shadow Puppets, 'The Age of the Understatement'
• Dizzee Rascal, 'Math + English'
• Matmos, 'Supreme Ballroom'
• Santogold, 'Santogold'
• No Age, 'Nouns'

More full album streams after the jump... And, as always, let us know if you hear anything good!

Continue reading "Full Album Streams: Diamond, Puppets, Dizzee, etc." »

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti)

Coming off the wonderful return to dirtyass rock of Grinderman, Nick Cave resumes his work with the Bad Seeds with an album more akin to the raucous nature of that aforementioned project. The difference is that Ginderman sounded like a man kicking out some guttural mid-life crisis, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! sounds like a man baptized again on the alter of seedy six strings.

Marginally more restrained than Grinderman, Cave has instead focused on placing the negative energy in his words instead of merely turning up the amps. Placed against other performer's mid-career work, one is hard pressed to find a reference point as consistently great as Lazarus.

And when you're able to, you suddenly discover the kind of company that Nick Cave is in with. By now, it's time to start realizing that he's rubbing shoulders with people like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and there's no better moment to start diving into his wide body of work than with this, an impeccably written and perfectly arranged statement from a man who's delivering some of the best material of an already remarkable career.

Continue reading "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" »

Dennis Wilson's solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue, out of print since a crappy 1991 CD version, is being reissued on June 17 as a two-disc legacy edition with 24 unreleased bonus tracks (plus "All Alone" which was included on the Endless Harmony soundtrack). This is exciting news for Beach Boys fans and MOJO readers, as Pacific Ocean Blue is widely considered a lost classic and "the best solo album ever released by a Beach Boy."

One weird thing about the reissue is that it contains one song ("Holy Man") with a newly recorded vocal track by Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. Buddyhead talked to reissue producer Gregg Jakobson about how this came about:

Taylor was in town, a fan of Dennis's. He's also a family friend and interestingly enough has the same gravely, whisky, smokers voice as Den. They sound very much alike. We were in the studio mixing the Holy Man track, Taylor comes down to the studio, we hammer out a lyric, Taylor sings it. Perfect! It was meant to be. Destiny.

Buddyhead adds that Hawkins is also "a bearded surfing drummer just like Dennis." So there you have it.

Official site: Pacific Ocean Blue. Pre-order from Amazon. Buddyhead has a couple mp3s and videos. Full press release after the jump...

Continue reading "Dennis Wilson's "Pacific Ocean Blue" finally reissued" »

Peter Morén - The Last Tycoon (Quarterstick)

Let's get this straight right off the bat – there's no whistling.

As a matter of fact, there's little of anything resembling Peter Bjorn & John's trademark sound in frontman Peter Morén's solo album The Last Tycoon. Except Peter's voice.

Not that I was hoping for a Writer's Block duplicate. The opposite, actually – the attempt to switch sides faster than Anne Heche from the sound that made him semi-famous is the most commendable thing about the album. It tries.

Continue reading "The Glorious Noise interview with Peter Moren: The Last Tycoon" »

Bands catch a lot of flack these days for making half-baked, inarticulate political statements. It's always fun to poke fun at dopey rock stars, I guess, but I just read a great quote in MOJO by Brian Jones from January, 1967:

"Our real followers have moved on with us, and they are questioning some of the basic immoralities which are tolerated in present-day society — the War in Vietnam, the persecution of homosexuals, the illegality of abortion and drug taking. All these things are immoral. We are making our own statement. Others are making more intellectual ones."

We shouldn't expect musicians to make air-tight political arguments. Leave that to the activists and intellectuals. But it's great that they make their own statements, whether overtly political or not. There are many ways to subvert the system.

Kind of funny (and by funny I mean extremely disappointing) that 40 years after Brian Jones said that, we're still basically fighting against those exact same immoralities...

Hanne Hukkelberg - Rykestrasse 68

Get your Friday Facial from Glorious Noise in the new series, Faces Don't Lie: Expressive Record Reviews with Dylan Burr.

Beatles From Above

Help us identify an unusual photo of the Beatles. We can't figure out where, when, or by whom it was taken.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

An impeccably written and perfectly arranged statement from a man who's delivering some of the best material of an already remarkable career.

The Glorious Noise interview with Peter Moren: The Last Tycoon

We talk to Peter Moren about his new album, The Last Tycoon, and what it means to be known as "Peter from Peter Bjorn and John."

Virgin Passages - Distance

Virgin Passages - Distance (Fire) Get your Friday Facial from Glorious Noise in our series, Faces Don't Lie: Expressive Record Reviews with Dylan Burr.