The Sailor Jerry Presents concert series sails on, and the most recent addition to its roster has been most excellent Detroit garage stalwarts the Dirtbombs. We nominated the band’s latest album, Party Store, as one of the most underrated of 2011 during a mid-year wrap-up, and our opinion hasn’t changed — if you haven’t heard it, it’s a collection of covers of old Detroit techno tracks reinvented as garage-rock tunes. It’s also a fantastic and original piece of work, and still gets a regular workout on the Flavorpill stereo. Plus, it catalyzed various discussions about other great covers records from over the years, inspiring us to round up ten of our all-time favorites, starting with Party Store itself.
Tomorrow seems to be the biggest release date in living memory — everyone from Alice Cooper to Neon Indian has records coming out — so there’s much pre-release streaming goodness to be found on the Internet at the moment. This has made our regular Monday task — searching the web for the best records to stream for free — a particularly pleasurable one this week. There’s the new album from Grizzly Bear side-project CANT, which is pretty fantastic listening, along with new records from Girls, Tropics, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Tori Amos. All this awaits you after the jump!
We were intrigued to hear the news last week that Radiohead are planning on releasing a series of 12″ remixes of the songs from The King of Limbs, handing over the album tracks to producers like Flying Lotus and Caribou to cut up and reinterpret. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their love of all things electronic, Radiohead have always been enlightened when it comes to having their tracks reworked, so much so that there are a couple of Radiohead remixes out there that arguably improve on the original versions. These got us thinking about other guitar-based or otherwise rock-inflected tracks that have been improved by remixing – they’re surprisingly few and far between, perhaps because writers of rock songs have been loath to let producers deconstruct them over the years. We’ve collected ten of our favorites; additional suggestions are, as ever, welcome.
We’re fascinated by Lady Gaga. But despite her numerous collaborations, leotards and intellectual pursuits, she remains a rather divisive celebrity. There are some major Gaga haters out there — including the newest member of the tribe, Grace Jones. (Not that we’re judging Grace; Gaga totally ripped off her shtick.) But there are plenty of other famous people mouthing off about the pop star who we’re surprised even know her name. After the jump, a roundup of our favorite random disses.
David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s star-studded collaborative concept album about the life of Imelda Marcos may sound strange, but it’s no less stunning for it.
Featuring a staggering list of guest vocalists that includes Santigold, Tori Amos, Nellie McKay, Florence Welch, St. Vincent, Cyndi Lauper, Róisín Murphy, Sia, and Sharon Jones, the double-disc set plays like a stage show minus the stage, telling the story of the former Filipino first lady’s rise and fall — often through lyrics based on her own words.
For the past decade, the fifth graders chorus at PS22, the largest elementary school on Staten Island, have attained internet fame with their covers of modern day pop songs, ranging from the work of Tori Amos to Lady Gaga to The Beatles. Led by multi-instrumentalist Gregg Breinberg, these elementary schoolers sing with feeling and heart, which is evident in their unpredictably soulful renditions. Riding the wave of yesterday’s buzz from The Village Voice, MTV, and Teen Vogue sparked by their new arrangement of Phoenix’s “Listzomania,” we’ve rounded up nine additional favorites from the PS22 back catalog. Weigh in on which one you like the most.
Talking Heads alum David Byrne and dance beat guru Fatboy Slim are finally releasing Here Lies Love, their disco-influenced concept album based on the life of ex-Philippine first lady/shoe-hoarding diva Imelda Marcos and her life-long servant, Estrella Cumpas. If your first reaction is to rub your eyeballs and re-read that last sentence, we felt the same way.
Though, after some thought, we realized that this is just what we’ve come to expect from the awesomely eccentric Byrne. The new-wave hero played a rough draft of the project in a New York City showcase at Carnegie Hall in 2007, receiving decent reviews (it was a rough draft, after all). The original goal was to stage the songs as a musical, and while there have been a couple of theatrical performances with a few different ladies at the helm, the official album release features vocals by 23 artists.
Just six months after the release of her most recent full-length, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, Tori Amos is back with Midwinter Graces, her first holiday album in a career that has spanned two full decades. While the concept may seem a familiar one, Amos’ approach is far from it. Rather than simply put her spin on traditional holiday tunes, the piano woman radically reinvents the standards she takes on, rewriting music, adding and changing lyrics, and making them entirely her own. Supplemented by a number of new originals, the tracks here add up to far more than a Christmastime afterthought — this is an album that can stand up to any of Amos’ studio work, marked by complex arrangements, live orchestral contributions, and even the recording debut of the singer’s nine-year-old daughter, Natashya.
We caught up with Amos during a brief respite at home between tour legs to talk about the new record, her views on religion versus spirituality, and her upcoming musical, The Light Princess. Read our exclusive interview and listen to the new album after the jump.
Considering Chuck Klosterman kicks off his new book of essays, Eating the Dinosaur, with a piece about the inherent lack of truth in interviews, especially his own, it only makes sense to skirt the straight-up Q&A and angle for something the man might not want to lie about. Sure, there’s a risk Klosterman might not take the bait (“I don’t feel it’s my obligation to respond to anything…”), yet 99 times out of 99, he probably will (“still, I provide answers to every question I encounter, even if I don’t know what I should say”). So, instead of asking him to answer questions, per se, and risk a variable truthiness, we thought we’d get a better bead on the word-worker at work if he told us what music he plays while he’s reading and writing.
Tori Amos thinks Lady Gaga is a recession-friendly novelty act with a short shelf life. Vulture thinks that this might be the great summer catfight we’ve all be waiting for, and wants dueling pianos thrown into the mix. Tori made our list of The 50 Essential Women-In-Music Albums. Gaga intrigued us with her architecture-inspired wardrobe choices. We might have to wait for round two to pick sides. How about you? [via BlackBook]
, Tori Amos is back with 
, her first holiday album in a career that has spanned two full decades. While the concept may seem a familiar one, Amos’ approach is far from it. Rather than simply put her spin on traditional holiday tunes, the piano woman radically reinvents the standards she takes on, rewriting music, adding and changing lyrics, and making them entirely her own. Supplemented by a number of new originals, the tracks here add up to far more than a Christmastime afterthought — this is an album that can stand up to any of Amos’ studio work, marked by complex arrangements, live orchestral contributions, and even the recording debut of the singer’s nine-year-old daughter, Natashya.
, with a piece about the inherent lack of truth in interviews, especially his own, it only makes sense to skirt the straight-up Q&A and angle for something the man might not want to lie about. Sure, there’s a risk Klosterman might not take the bait (“I don’t feel it’s my obligation to respond to anything…”), yet 99 times out of 99, he probably will (“still, I provide answers to every question I encounter, even if I don’t know what I should say”). So, instead of asking him to answer questions, per se, and risk a variable truthiness, we thought we’d get a better bead on the word-worker at work if he told us what music he plays while he’s reading and writing.
