This is old news, but new to me so I thought I’d post it. Click here and here for some history on this ‘unfinished’ track (including a transcription of the lyrics). This will make your day and slightly freak you out at the same time. Item 1 is the beautiful and spectral original Lennon demo, complete with tape hiss:
Item 2, I believe, is a fan-produced overdubbed version that fills in the blanks using sources from other Beatles songs, and is actually quite gorgeous:
1/29/08
Lost Beatles Song ‘Now And Then’
1/28/08
Top 10 Under-rated Records Of 2007
2007 was a pretty good year for music, but it was hard to pin down why. Hip hop was down, the music industry was way down, dance music staged a sly comeback, garage rockers gave us a breather from all that next-big-thing hype (Kings Of Leon, wherefore art thou yo?), singer-songwriters were still kinda boring, and indie rock chugged along sheepishly as indie rock does. Daft Punk brought it live, Radiohead and Jay-Z just plain brought it. Bangs gave way to beardos as Misshapes and Motherfucker closed and neo-hippy blog rock flourished, at least on a few URLs.
It felt like a year on the verge, a year in transition. No defining trends or dominant styles were being shoved at us by the media or record store clerks. Nothing to die for, but nothing to get mad about either. It was kinda refreshing actually. Maybe this is what the longtail is all about: wild genre diversity with no one winning the arms race. Everyone blissfully niching along in their own bubble of taste, hermetically bracketed by earbuds, blogging, downloading, going out, staying in.
LCD Soundsystem turned out to be the crit pick of the year (check the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll here), which leads us to paraphrase David Lee Roth's quip about Elvis Costello: critics like James Murphy because critics are like James Murphy, aka slightly-too-old-for-the-scene jaded white guys with record collections the size of Cassiopeia (and there’s nothing wrong with that, mind you). A krautrock comedy record? Why the F not?
And with that, here’s my Top 10 Under-rated Records Of 2007 (artist names link to myspace). Some of this stuff is good in the ‘good’ sense, others good in the JR Taylor/Armond White school of ‘you gotta be shittin' me’ sense, aka we’re venturing into territory from which few rock crits return alive: smooth jazz anyone? How about goth rock? Are you still with me? Good. Onwards then..
- The Jai-Alai Savant Flight Of The Bass Delegate (GSL) So epic. So dub. So criminally ignored. So unpronounceable.
- Dälek Abandoned Language (Ipecac) Hip hop served with an extra helping of murk and gnarl and snarl, like Jonny Greenwood invading an El-P record with a demon choir.
- The Holloways So This Is Great Britain? (TVT) So this is what it means to be young and rocking and into girls. Nothing new, just amazingly great.
- Anjani Blue Alert (Sony Legacy) Leonard Cohen's babe is hotter than yours. And she can sing too.
- Yelle Pop Up (EMI France) Sun-brite confections covered in a shiny Tecktonik sheen, all finger snaps, pep rally chants and high-end. They said Madonna was fluff too, y'know.
- Little Brother Get Back (Abb) Songs about disappointment, heartbreak, rejection, low sales figures, growth, maturity and perseverance. Plus party jams.
- My Teenage Stride Ears Like Golden Bats (Becalmed) Like a C86 breeze borne on the wings of the JAMC and New Zealand pop. Jangle on Brooklynites. See my review in Cokemachineglow here.
- Duran Duran Red Carpet Massacre (Epic) Their best since Notorious. The aural equivalent of popping champagne in a limo full of models. Plus Timbaland does more with two notes than most folks do with yadda yadda etc.
- Kelly Sweet We Are One (Razor & Tie) A calgon-take-me-away bubblebath of perfectly calibrated E-Z listening. Norah Jones has abs of steel compared to this. If I told you Celine Dion’s producer had something to do with this, would you still talk to me?
- HIM Venus Doom (Sire) For those of you with mascara running down your cheeks because you can't wait for the next Gerard Way missive, just shut up and listen to this record. Seriously. Finnish goth metal is the new Belgian New Beat. Plus track 7 sounds like Mark Lanegan.
UPDATE: an expanded version of this post will be published in the upcoming Skyscraper Magazine.
Nabokov's last/lost masterpiece?
David Bowie Funnies
Ziggy-era Bowie on 'Flight Of The Conchords':
Ch-ch-ch-changes Political Mash-up:
1/27/08
Went to see Beckett Shorts a few weeks ago at The New York Theatre Workshop and found everything about it pretty invigorating. Starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and directed by Mabou Mines founder JoAnne Akalaitis, the evening featured an omnibus of four short plays by Samuel Beckett. The set design was appropriately minimal, cleansing the mind's palette with floor-to-ceiling Venetian blinds and a carpet of white powder. The blinds allowed props to fly in and out from all directions like literalized deus ex machina. Ghostly video monitors and diaphanous scrims were deployed with understated precision. The plays themselves seemed at once fragmentary and complete, tempering despair with flashes of humor and humanism. Arranged chronologically, these works invited us to trace a trajectory from pure movement (Act Without Words I) to near stasis (Eh Joe), with intimations of suicide and violence nipping at the edges of the action.
The dour Sisyphean slapstick Act Without Words I found a solo Baryshnikov investing his tasks with a physical vigor and grace that nearly one-upped the hopelessness of the situation. Act Without Words II was pointedly rote and schematic, a slow motion existential Looney Tunes Moebius Strip of a silent film punctuated by the mock urgency of Philip Glass’ music. The only dialogue-driven piece, Rough For Theatre I featured a spastic-fantastic Bill Camp as a crippled hobo trading barbs with Baryshnikov as a blind hobo. In typical Beckett fashion, madcap hijinks ensue, ziggurats of inspired nonsense are built and demolished before our eyes and ears.
An adaptation of the teleplay Eh Joe finished off the night by perversely squeezing Baryshnikov into a state of rabid stillness. Via video projection, the actor’s iconic face filled the room in massive close-up while a not-quite-disembodied voice spun a tale of human frailty that was disarmingly hot blooded, yet tightly controlled. Unlike the other plays, Eh Joe was set almost entirely within the interior landscape of the psyche. The choice to depict the voice on stage as a flesh and blood woman was both distracting and bold, forcing the audience to divide their attentions, yet making legible what Beckett left out. I left the theater in a rare state of elation.
Here are some reviews in the NY Times and Variety.
1/26/08
The Return of Sebastien Tellier
French pop eccentric Sebastian Tellier is back with a new song 'Divine'. It is indeed, all bubblegum harmonies and computer love, with a killer breakdown. Tellier toured a few years ago with Air and is signed to their label Record Makers. Also worth a gander: the video for the Italo-styling 'Sexual Sportswear'. Night vision glasses, alas, not included.
1/23/08
Trailerama!
Item 1: Speed Racer, new from the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix, Bound). It's like Paul Verhoeven directing the inside of a candy cane!
Item 2: Teeth. This post-grad paper writes itself:
Item 3: The Forbidden Kingdom. Jet Li. Jackie Chan. Two Legends. Together At Last. Why am I bored?
1/22/08
Ron Murphy RIP
Filter 27 has a piece on the passing of Ron Murphy, a vinyl mastering engineer instrumental in shaping the sound of Detroit techno. Read it here.
Coachella 2008 line-up announced
Disappointing that MBV aren't making it, but this is still the greatest show on earth if you're a music fan. Check www.coachella.com for more info.
1/19/08
NYTimes on the origin of the fortune cookie
You know you want to know. Click on
the pic. (hint: it ain't from China)
1/18/08
Cloverfield Fever
Alright, so I broke down and hitched myself to this juggernaut of a hype wagon. Haven't seen the movie, may not see it anytime soon, but, dang, this trailer is watchable. Sometimes, you just gotta break down and go with the flow. Happy weekend.
1/17/08
the sheer undeniable brute force of consensus: Idolator Pop Critics Poll posted
The critical masses have spoke, see the results here. 452 ballots collected from music writers around the world. Plus a nice essay from Michelangelo Matos where he likens The National and Burial to 'actual, physical wallpaper'. I'll post some stray thoughts on this 'the year in music' hoo-hah in few days, plus Substantula's First Annual Top 10 Most Under-Rated Records of 2007 (two words people: Duran F*cking Duran). In the meantime, check my Idolator ballot here, and wake me when the Pazz & Jop hits the streets. zzz....and apropos of whatever, here's Amy Winehouse doing her slurred, glossolalia, drop-dead brilliant-in-sick-way, wordless version of 'Back To Black' on the MTV Europe Music Awards. And here's that tasteless site on predicting her death.
1/16/08
Mini Clash Reunion
Here's Topper Headon and Mick Jones on stage for the first time in 25 years, playing 'Should I Stay Or Should I Go'. This capped off a recent UK gig by Jones' new band Carbon/Silicon, which also features Tony James of Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Props to Consequence Of Sound for posting this. Fun fact: Headon wrote the music for The Clash's biggest hit 'Rock The Casbah'. Full disclosure: I work for Carbon/Silicon's US label. Hooray.
2,000 Year Old Space God
Bill Maher stares down the barrel of the religious right on 'Late Night With Conan O’Brien' with this tightrope-walking, atheistic rant-o-rama that manages to be at once brave, funny and cringe-worthy.
1/15/08
Hip Hop Gentrification
The New York Times has an article on how 'the birthplace of hip hop' is being threatened by gentrification. The building in question is 1520 Sedgwick Ave in the Bronx, where DJ Kool Herc threw his first parties back in the day (1973...now that's old skool!)
1/14/08
1/13/08
So this is it. The wind in the trees. A lost gum wrapper. A few days of stubble. The outside world screaming life, joy, death and glory. The glow from the screen vs. the glow from the window. Welcome to the jungle. Yes, we've got fun and games.
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