No putzing around this week, let’s just get right down to brass tacks and cover…
Da News
– Okay, so this isn’t music news, per se, but it just BEARS for inclusion into here. It would seem that Matrix co-creator and, by definition, one half of the Wachowski brothers, Larry, is going to be getting a sex change operation. That sound you hear? That’s a million fanboys hearts exploding in joy as they realize that, yes, they will be able to marry one of the Wachowski brothers and not be ‘gay’ and then suddenly realizing what the hell they were thinking and going ‘EWWWWW’. You know, after watching the train wreck that was The Matrix Revolutions, I have to say that I wasn’t really all that surprised, per se for something like this. I mean, how can you top the nonsensical bullshit that was the ‘Matrix trilogy’? I mean, I guess it was either that or suffering carnal knowledge with a French poodle or something. Anyway, moving along to our next story…
– Seems like everyone is getting into the reissue business these days. The latest to join the fray would be British lads The Cure, who will be giving 4 of their records the re-release treatment. Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography will all be released August 17th on Rhino Records. As previously reported here on 411, The Cure will also have a new album coming out in June, their first since 2000’s Bloodflowers. Hopefully there’ll be some extra material or ‘goodies’ tacked onto this, although since The Cure just released a rather comprehensive boxed set earlier this year, I’m willing to bet that we’ll be getting the simple remaster/repackaging bit in lieu of anything ‘good’.
– Some good news/bad news for those of you who are Guided By Voices fans. The good news would be that the band will be releasing a new album, tentatively titled Half Smiles For The Decomposed August 24th. The bad news? Well, it looks like this will be the last you’ll see of Guided By Voices, as the band has announced that their 20 year history as a group will be coming to an end. 47 year old Robert Pollard said at a recent show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom that, ‘you can’t be the Rolling Stones. You’ve gotta quit while you’re releatively handsome.’ As of right now, the band’s last gig will be their customary New Year’s Eve gig in NYC.
– Vans Warped Tour boys, Taking Back Sunday will be releasing their sophomore effort July 27th entitled Where You Want To Be. Now I know screamo or emo or punk or whatever the genre du jour TBS falls into this week isn’t supposed to be music that you find ‘cool’, but they’re one of the few groups out there that are what they are that I can actually tolerate. I don’t know if it’s because they spoofed Fight Club in one of their videos (‘Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)’) or what, but I like ’em, and I’m looking forward to them when they play the Vans Warped Tour.
– In one of the weirder stories this week, although, considering who is involved, I guess it’s not much of a stretch, John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the frontman of the Sex Pistols, selected Justin Timberlake to portray him in an upcoming film that’s based on Lydon’s autobiography. Timberlake apparently agreed to the gig on the condition that the former punk rocker stays away from the set.
Now I know that there will be a whole bunch of Hot Topic Shitheads out there who will be up in arms about this screaming bloody murder about this whole fiasco, and how PUNK TRUELY (sic) IS DEAD! or some such rot, but honestly, what’s the big deal? The Sex Pistols were arguably one of the first ‘boy bands’ to have ever come out and their whole schtick was something that was completely and utterly fabricated hence why it’s so gosh darned appropos to have Mr. N*Sync to be portraying the lead singer of the Sex Pistols. My only request is if we could get that Nick guy who is married to Jessica Simpson to play Sid Vicious and to have Jessica Simpson play Nancy? C’mon, you KNOW you want to see a brain dead, makes-Paris-Hilton-look-like-a-Nobel-Prize-winner idiot like Simpson portray Courtney Love, err, I mean, a useless, talentless, sponge of a druggie hanger-on.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was your requisite Courtney Love JAB of the week. Thank you, thank you!
– In a story that shows the music industry is starting to at least ‘get’ some of this nonsense that’s going on, two companies have gotten together to target what is most likely the BIGGEST demographic in the online file trading war: post secondary students.
Starting this fall, MusicNet and Cflix will be providing a digital music service to a number of selected universities and colleges throughout the US. Aside from providing 700,000 mp3s to users on their new service, called Ctrax, the program will also be providing a number of educational/entertainment related video services to students.
Now, what’s interesting about this is that they’re starting to move towards a subscription based service. Subscriptions will cost $2/month, allowing users access to download ‘packs’ of tracks, which go 10 for $8, 20 for $15, etc. Additionally, full albums will be available for download, ranging anywhere in price from $8 to $12. Now that these fossils are starting to focus on the RIGHT people and are kind of, sort of starting to offer the services I’ve been trumpeting since forever, it gives me hope that the RIAA/whoever haven’t completely lost it. Now, if Ctrax would remove the ‘packs’ or album concept and just up the subscription fee to a higher amount, we might be getting somewhere.
– SoCal ‘rockers’ Lit have put the finishing touches on their latest release. In other news, no one gives a shit.
– In news that should garner some attention/caring, though, dearly departed Elliott Smith’s final recording, From The Basement To The Hill, are to be making their way out onto the market for a tenative fall release. Additionally, Smith’s recording equipment is being sold off by his family, who are also the ones that are organizing the release of From The Basement To The Hill. Additionally, pianist Ben Folds has finished recording a tribute song to the singer/songwriter who apparently committed suicide late last year. Apparently a coronoer’s investigation was unable to determine if Smith’s stab wounds were self inflicted or not, and speculation begins to circulate as to whether he did indeed commit suicide or if he was murdered, with a police investigation still ongoing. See, all you Cobain fanboys? The police actually do their job when it’s warranted.
– Tom Waits, the vocalist who sometimes is confused with the Cookie Monster, is in the studio busy at work on a new album, which has the working title, Real Gone. Talking about the album, Waits said, “I’m feeling good about it all. There are songs about politics, rats, war, hangings, dancing, automobiles, pirates, farms, the carnival and sinning, Mama, liquor, trains and death. In other words, the same old dirty business”. Waits is another guy that I’d have to recommend to you kids out there, although I daresay he is a VERY accquired taste. Pick up some of his older albums if you’re interested. Additionally, it looks as though Primus frontman Les Claypool will be doing some bass duties on Real Gone, so keep your eyes peeled for this once it finally drops later this year.
– The RIAA used another 477 file sharers earlier this week, bumping the grand total of users who have been sued under their new ‘John Doe’ plan of attack up to about 2000. I would just like to extend the offer to all of you Americans who have to put up with this bullshit (as well as an idiot in the White House, but this isn’t an Eric S. column so I’ll refrain from the political talk) to come up to Canada where downloading, as of right now, isn’t illegal. Good beer! Beautiful scenery and weather (for 3 months a year)! Free and legal downloading! Whoo!
– In related p2p news, there’s apparently a little upstart Russian group that is offering mp3s per the penny. The site, allofmp3.com, offers downloads in the format of your choice for a penny per megabyte. To give you an idea as to how this works, a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, downloaded 968 mp3s for about $50, while the same amount of mp3s works out to close to a grand using iTunes, and around the $800 mark if you use Wal-Mart’s White Trash Download Service. It all apparently checks out to be legal, however I should note that I myself do not personally endorse this website, so, caveat empor, all you people out there who want to try this site out.
Anti-Pop: Claire Fontaine, You Seem To Bring The Best Out Of Me…
– Jeff’s on time this week, beating me to the e-mail punch, so I can plug his column this time around. In it, he talks about the real Cubs and his love for Menudo.
– A-Cam talks of his diaper woes, is finally able to clear my good name in regards to that nasty 50 Cent incident, but doesn’t drop a single mention of the return of his FAVORITE writer on 411. By that, I mean Warren Woo. So, taking a page out of Scott Keith’s book, I give it ****3/4 this week, although with A-Cam, you could have him writing about broomsticks and he’d still carry it to a decent column. Possible COTY Candidate, as well.
– Mathan has another edumacational column up dissecting women in Hip Hop. As always, Mathan’s stuff is worth a gander, so check it out while you’re at it.
Unfortunately, that does it for the column plugs this week. Not enough time, yadda, yadda.
Sound Advice
Okay, so last week I promise you all a DOUBLE DOSE of Canadian Content, considering I skimped out last week like a bad patron avoiding a large bill. So, this week will be providing you with a double serving of Canadian music, stuff that I hope you all will get into and wrap your heads around, and….*gasp* might even LIKE.
First up is an entrant that features members from a previous Sound Advice, and is a group that also opened for Tool way, way back in the day. They’re also a now-defunct group, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying them anyways. Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, I bring you the infamous Dead Surf Kiss, also known as DSK.
DSK got their start out in Vancouver in the late 80s, doing a punk/hardcore dealie as Dead Surf Kiss. The original lead singer of the group left the band, and it was a one Mr. Blair Dobson that hooked up with the outfit and reformed themselves under the name DSK in 1992. Having only one release to their credit, 1996’s Exploder, DSK were a brief, volatile little spot on the Canadian music landscape and earned quite the cult following in their brief stay together as a group, including the aforementioned opening nod for Tool during their Undertow (from what I’ve been able to decipher from Internet scuttlebutt), as well as a rather notorious incident when the band was performing in Vancouver.
The volatile Dobson made some rather rude remarks about the Sex Pistols, calling them ‘a bunch of 40 year old diaper wearing poseurs.’ Funnily enough, the Sex Pistols were in attendance that night and were going to take issue with the DSK boys…until the group tore through their set and impressed the hell out of them. Enough so, that the Sex Pistols asked DSK to show them around town the next day.
The group also had their tune, ‘Targets’ become the theme song for Muchmusic’s Indie Spotlight segment, a semi-regular on Canada’s music station that would showcase up and coming independent Canadian artists. Group members Dave Genn and Rick ‘Rock’ Priske eventually ended up leaving the fold and joined previous-Sound Advice inductee Matt Good in his Band. From there, the group played a couple of shows before finally calling it quits. Another album, called Imploder was recorded, but the material was never officially released. However, mp3s of the album can be found on the Internet, as Dobson decided to release them online a couple of years ago.
Since I never got the chance to see DSK perform live, I couldn’t tell you what they sounded like, and since they’re defunct now, you won’t be getting a chance to find for yourself. However, I do have a copy of Exploder and I recommend you pick it up. The riffs, created by Dave Genn, are quite catchy, and Dobson’s sarcastic lyrics are hilarious. Absolutely worth checking out, in my opinion and hey, that’s the only one that really matters, right?
Recommended tracks for your perusal would be:
– Targets
– Units
– Cementhead
You can check out a little bit more on Divine Industries website, where you can also pick up Exploder if it strikes your fancy.
Next up on the recommendation list would be a band that hails from my own hometown of Calgary, and also happen to fall into the ‘punk rock’ category. Local boys Knucklehead are a group that’s been around for quite awhile now, and are continuing to build a name for themselves. Formed in 1994, the group has earned the opening slot for bands such as the Misfits, Propaghandi, Swingin’ Utters, and the Suicide Machines, as well as a couple of stints on the Warped Tour local stage, if I’m not mistaken. The group initially started off as a three piece with Clayton MacNeill doing guitar duties, Matt Young on bass, and Kyle Hegel handling both drumming and singing duties, although the group eventually blossomed out to a four piece, adding James Gamble as a second guitarist and Eric Jablonski as a replacement drummer so that Hegel could get out from behind the kit.
The group has maintained a rather simplistic formula for their material that just so happens to, um, work. The oi/singalong punk sound that they bring is nothing that you haven’t heard in any number of bars littered from here to Moncton, New Brunswick, but Knucklehead seem to raise above their initial sound and bring a sort of ferocity to their set that you can’t find with all of the other ‘also-rans’ that are out there. A favorite of mine from them, ‘Another Neurotic Episode’, from the album of the same name, happens to sample One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and has some rather well written lyrics. The rest of their material is quite smart as well, and the band has continued to evolve into a more politically aware group, as shown with the material on their latest full length release, Voice Among Us, which focuses heavily on their socio-political views. Again, this is nothing that hasn’t been done before in punk rock circles, but Knucklehead just happen to be a little bit better at it than everyone else out there.
Recommended tunes for you check out would be:
– Little Boots
– Fits Of Depression
– Right Cross
– Kids Are Allright (no, that’s NOT a Who cover)
– Shotdown, 1989
Other artists featured in Sound Advice: Matthew Good, Joel Kroeker, The Dears.
If you’d like to see an artist or group featured in Sound Advice, you can contact me on MSN Messenger or e-mail me at trevor411music@hotmail.com or get me on AIM as flinch311.
The End Is The Beginning Is The End
Well, nothing all that HUGE coming out this week, although there are a couple of goodies if you’re interested. Top of the list would be the release of David Cross’ new one, It’s Not Funny. You might remember him as being that Mr. Show guy, and if you haven’t heard of either David Cross or Mr. Show, well, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Cross is one of the funnier comedians out there who’s in the same vein as Bill Hicks, so he’s worth checking out.
As well, the Pixies, a group that I, um, sort of like, have a new best of coming out, entitled Wave Of Mutilation. There’s a DVD that’s out right now that’s pretty good, as well, which features all of their videos as well as some live footage and other stuff.
Ween has a live CD/DVD coming out, Live In Chicago. Angelique Kidjo, an artist I plugged either last week or the week before, has Oyaya! out on Tuesday, and then there’s a huge Rolling Stones box set, featuring the re-release of their singles from 1963-65. That would’ve been right around the time when Keith Richards was doing alot of drugs.
Other than that, not that much else to check out this week. Hope you all had a kick-ass weekend. As usual, Melchor’s got you covered for Monday, so check him out in 24 hours time or so.
