14
Mar
2006
· While Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Pink Floyd eternally captivate new waves of fans as they pass through the fondue pot of college mind expansion, this week Akron, Ohio's Devo is aggressively zeroing in on the blooming third eye of pre-teens.
After more than a thousand young wannabes were auditioned, three boys and two girls ages 10 to 13 were chosen to create Devo 2.0. Twelve Devo classics, from "Whip It" to "Uncontrollable Urge," were re-recorded with these young performers, resulting in DEV2.O on the Disney Sound Records imprint. These kids in flowerpot hats really know how to rock that "Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth" beat, with superior material for the text-messaging generation in "Freedom of Choice" and "Boy U Want." A 90-minute bonus DVD features interviews with the band's original founders, 11 videos from the new band, and a cool photo gallery.
· More bizarre but satisfying reinterpretations have just been released from the sister Vitamin and Secret Life of Records labels. Eleven Radiohead tracks go under the production knife of I'm Not the Only Record for You: A Dub Tribute to Radiohead, smoking down the essence of songs including "Everything in the Right Place" and "Subterranean Homesick Alien" into dramatic, slow-motion reggae churns. While all the tracks on that disc are performed and produced by the one-man dub army of Enrico Cacace, The Indie Translations of The White Stripes is a various-artists affair, with a dozen hipsters carving out their own style from Soda & His Million Dollar Band's roaring-'20s groove of "St. James Infirmary Blues" to the Long Goners' trash-can beat of "My Doorbell."
Television Alert:
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno hosts Rob Zombie tonight, and Herb Alpert with Ozomatli on Thursday; The Late Show with David Letterman features Jenny Lewis on Tuesday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien welcomes Billy Bragg this evening overnight and Steve Winwood on Monday overnight; Last Call with Carson Daly sits down with Aimee Mann this evening overnight and the Beastie Boys on Friday overnight; and Austin City Limits presents Guided by Voices and Modest Mouse this weekend.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, March 21:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
Animal Collective - "Grass" (Fat Cat) new CD/DVD single
Richard Ashcroft - Keys to the World (Virgin) highly recommended, majestic return of the former Verve mystic in this third solo album
Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (SubPop) featuring former members of Carissa
Gus Black - Autumn Days (Cheap Lullaby) sunrise acoustic melodies from this whisper-tender singer/songwriter
Black 47 - Bittersweet Sixteen (Gadfly) 16-track anthology featuring the band's cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and a Vietnam/Iraq war trilogy of songs
The Black Crowes - Freak 'n' Roll ... Into the Fog (Eagle Rock) DVD filmed last fall at the group's five-night stand at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, featuring an acoustic run at "She Talks to Angels" and a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down"
The Black Swans - Sex Brain (Bwatue Records) hauntingly beautiful five-track CD EP of deep, dark Americana gothic from the Columbus, Ohio, heartland, channeling Leonard Cohen at Tom Waits' funeral
Blight - Detroit: The Dream Is Dead - The Collected Works of a Midwest Hardcore Band 1982 (Touch & Go) side project of The Meatmen's Tesco Vee
Blueground Undergrass - Faces (Landslide) featuring guest Bruce Hampton and a cover of Jerry Garcia's "Black Muddy River"
Bossanova - Hey, Sugar (Teenbeat) with guests Kurt Dahle of New Pornographers and Josh Wells of Black Mountain
Sugar Pie DeSanto - Refined Sugar (Jasman) featuring the 70-year-old blues singer's cover of Big Mama Thorton's "Black Rat"
Flin Flon - Dixie (Teenbeat) third album from these former members of Unrest, Cold Cold Hearts, and True Love Always
Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun (Virgin) new two-CD set featuring his song "Black Rain," in response to hurricane Katrina
Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders - Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders (Thrive) solo debut from the Foo Fighters drummer
Karate High School - Arcade Rock (EVO/Universal) strongly influenced by video-game music
Frank Lenz - Vilelenz & Thieves (Hidden Agenda) my pick of the week is this collection of dreamy ballads and playful acoustic wit that brings a smile in the vein of Cake, the Lemonheads, Brian Wilson, and Neil Young
Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions (Astralwerks) sophisticated Norwegian cocktail cool that features amazing covers of Elvis Costello's "Human Hands" and Prefab Sprout's "Nightingales," exclusively on the stateside issue
The Liars - Drums Not Dead (Mute) reportedly featuring a bonus DVD with three separate videos for each song on the album
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA (Drag City) new from Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche of Wilco with Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth, featuring a clever CD booklet featuring artwork by Tomoo Gokita
Love Equals Death - Nightmerica (Fat Wreck) blitzkrieg pogo punk in the spirit of The Dickies, featuring former members of Loose Change and Tsunami Bomb
Ashley MacIsaac - Pride (Koch) trading in his fiddle for bad-boy rock guitars and testosterone-fueled riffs
Mates of State - Bring It Back (Barsuk) new from Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner
MC Lars - The Graduate (Nettwerk) post-punk laptop rap with guest Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, boasting his "musical SparksNotes" run at Herman Melville's Moby Dick
Glen Phillips - Abulum (Silverline) DualDisc reissue of this first solo album from the Toad the Wet Sprocket founder in 2001
Placebo - Meds (Astralwerks) also available with a limited-edition bonus disc featuring demos, a documentary by Ewen Bremner, a video of "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" with The Cure, and backstage footage from Live 8
Prince - 3121 (Universal) with guest Maceo Parker
Quasi - When the Going Gets Dark (Touch & Go)
Josh Rouse - Subtitulo (Bedroom Classics/Nettwerk) also available on LP vinyl with different cover art
Röyksopp - Röyksopp's Night Out (Astralwerks) live CD EP featuring a cover of Queens of the Stone Age's "Go with the Flow"
The Sainte Catherines - Dancing for Decadence (Fat Wreck) from Montreal, Canada
The Sounds - Dying to Say This to You (New Line) featuring the piano ballad "Night After Night" and production by James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne
Sparks - Hello Young Lovers (In the Red) all new from brothers Ron and Russell Mael in this vocally thrilling, theatrical romp that's a cross between Queen's Night at the Opera and Disney's Fantasia
Wax Tailor - "Que Sera" (Decon) 12-inch single sampling Doris Day and Alfred Hitchcock film dialogue
Keller Williams - Grass (SciFidelity) with flat-picking guitarist Larry Keel; two covers sound like fun: Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In the Wall" and a blending of two Tom Petty tunes in "Mary Jane's Last Breakdown"
Yakuza - Samsara (Prosthetic) brutal Chicago metal opus, spastically tumbling across the grit of the grinder's wheel
· More bizarre but satisfying reinterpretations have just been released from the sister Vitamin and Secret Life of Records labels. Eleven Radiohead tracks go under the production knife of I'm Not the Only Record for You: A Dub Tribute to Radiohead, smoking down the essence of songs including "Everything in the Right Place" and "Subterranean Homesick Alien" into dramatic, slow-motion reggae churns. While all the tracks on that disc are performed and produced by the one-man dub army of Enrico Cacace, The Indie Translations of The White Stripes is a various-artists affair, with a dozen hipsters carving out their own style from Soda & His Million Dollar Band's roaring-'20s groove of "St. James Infirmary Blues" to the Long Goners' trash-can beat of "My Doorbell."
Television Alert:
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno hosts Rob Zombie tonight, and Herb Alpert with Ozomatli on Thursday; The Late Show with David Letterman features Jenny Lewis on Tuesday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien welcomes Billy Bragg this evening overnight and Steve Winwood on Monday overnight; Last Call with Carson Daly sits down with Aimee Mann this evening overnight and the Beastie Boys on Friday overnight; and Austin City Limits presents Guided by Voices and Modest Mouse this weekend.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, March 21:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
Animal Collective - "Grass" (Fat Cat) new CD/DVD single
Richard Ashcroft - Keys to the World (Virgin) highly recommended, majestic return of the former Verve mystic in this third solo album
Band of Horses - Everything All the Time (SubPop) featuring former members of Carissa
Gus Black - Autumn Days (Cheap Lullaby) sunrise acoustic melodies from this whisper-tender singer/songwriter
Black 47 - Bittersweet Sixteen (Gadfly) 16-track anthology featuring the band's cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and a Vietnam/Iraq war trilogy of songs
The Black Crowes - Freak 'n' Roll ... Into the Fog (Eagle Rock) DVD filmed last fall at the group's five-night stand at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, featuring an acoustic run at "She Talks to Angels" and a cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down"
The Black Swans - Sex Brain (Bwatue Records) hauntingly beautiful five-track CD EP of deep, dark Americana gothic from the Columbus, Ohio, heartland, channeling Leonard Cohen at Tom Waits' funeral
Blight - Detroit: The Dream Is Dead - The Collected Works of a Midwest Hardcore Band 1982 (Touch & Go) side project of The Meatmen's Tesco Vee
Blueground Undergrass - Faces (Landslide) featuring guest Bruce Hampton and a cover of Jerry Garcia's "Black Muddy River"
Bossanova - Hey, Sugar (Teenbeat) with guests Kurt Dahle of New Pornographers and Josh Wells of Black Mountain
Sugar Pie DeSanto - Refined Sugar (Jasman) featuring the 70-year-old blues singer's cover of Big Mama Thorton's "Black Rat"
Flin Flon - Dixie (Teenbeat) third album from these former members of Unrest, Cold Cold Hearts, and True Love Always
Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun (Virgin) new two-CD set featuring his song "Black Rain," in response to hurricane Katrina
Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders - Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders (Thrive) solo debut from the Foo Fighters drummer
Karate High School - Arcade Rock (EVO/Universal) strongly influenced by video-game music
Frank Lenz - Vilelenz & Thieves (Hidden Agenda) my pick of the week is this collection of dreamy ballads and playful acoustic wit that brings a smile in the vein of Cake, the Lemonheads, Brian Wilson, and Neil Young
Sondre Lerche & The Faces Down Quartet - Duper Sessions (Astralwerks) sophisticated Norwegian cocktail cool that features amazing covers of Elvis Costello's "Human Hands" and Prefab Sprout's "Nightingales," exclusively on the stateside issue
The Liars - Drums Not Dead (Mute) reportedly featuring a bonus DVD with three separate videos for each song on the album
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA (Drag City) new from Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche of Wilco with Jim O'Rourke of Sonic Youth, featuring a clever CD booklet featuring artwork by Tomoo Gokita
Love Equals Death - Nightmerica (Fat Wreck) blitzkrieg pogo punk in the spirit of The Dickies, featuring former members of Loose Change and Tsunami Bomb
Ashley MacIsaac - Pride (Koch) trading in his fiddle for bad-boy rock guitars and testosterone-fueled riffs
Mates of State - Bring It Back (Barsuk) new from Jason Hammel and Kori Gardner
MC Lars - The Graduate (Nettwerk) post-punk laptop rap with guest Jaret Reddick of Bowling for Soup, boasting his "musical SparksNotes" run at Herman Melville's Moby Dick
Glen Phillips - Abulum (Silverline) DualDisc reissue of this first solo album from the Toad the Wet Sprocket founder in 2001
Placebo - Meds (Astralwerks) also available with a limited-edition bonus disc featuring demos, a documentary by Ewen Bremner, a video of "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep" with The Cure, and backstage footage from Live 8
Prince - 3121 (Universal) with guest Maceo Parker
Quasi - When the Going Gets Dark (Touch & Go)
Josh Rouse - Subtitulo (Bedroom Classics/Nettwerk) also available on LP vinyl with different cover art
Röyksopp - Röyksopp's Night Out (Astralwerks) live CD EP featuring a cover of Queens of the Stone Age's "Go with the Flow"
The Sainte Catherines - Dancing for Decadence (Fat Wreck) from Montreal, Canada
The Sounds - Dying to Say This to You (New Line) featuring the piano ballad "Night After Night" and production by James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne
Sparks - Hello Young Lovers (In the Red) all new from brothers Ron and Russell Mael in this vocally thrilling, theatrical romp that's a cross between Queen's Night at the Opera and Disney's Fantasia
Wax Tailor - "Que Sera" (Decon) 12-inch single sampling Doris Day and Alfred Hitchcock film dialogue
Keller Williams - Grass (SciFidelity) with flat-picking guitarist Larry Keel; two covers sound like fun: Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In the Wall" and a blending of two Tom Petty tunes in "Mary Jane's Last Breakdown"
Yakuza - Samsara (Prosthetic) brutal Chicago metal opus, spastically tumbling across the grit of the grinder's wheel
