But I’ve got just the thing to brighten it up.  She & Him have released the video for their new song “In The Sun.”

You’ve gotta love Zooey’s dance moves.  And the slow-mo hoola hoop pan in is perfect.  Damn, she’s adorable.  Oh, and M. Ward looks like a badass.

Volume Two comes out on March 23rd.

Click here to view the embedded video.

-Sam

Holy cow, seeing AC/DC perform in Australia is a death wish.

The latest report comes from Perth, where a 39 year old man wanted to attend an AC/DC show with his friends but couldn’t afford the tickets.  So he did what any reasonable person would do in that situation; he parked his van outside the club, cranked his favorite AC/DC tunes, and started getting shit-faced.

Around 1 AM, a group of people who knew the men approached.  Somehow a fight broke out.  Who knows, maybe some heated words were exchanged.  Maybe one guy thought Brian Johnson is better than Bon Scott.  Maybe they were arguing whether “High Voltage” is better than “Jailbreak.”  The point is, this whole fracas ended with the van-guy getting stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle.  He was taken to the hospital where his injuries were described as serious (duh).

So all you Aussie AC/DC fans, you might consider wearing some kind of armor to their next show.

-Sam

Now they’ve debuted their new video for the song on YouTube.

Check it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

-Sam

And yet there have been nine studio albums of Hendrix material posthumously released.  In an era where musicians can take upwards of four or five years to release a single album, Hendrix was churning out one a year, with enough unreleased material still in the vault to warrant another release in 2010 – forty years after his death.  That is astounding to me, and it really highlights the intense work ethic that drove him throughout his life in music.

Valleys of Neptune is billed as a “brand-new, completely unreleased studio album,” which may be technically true, but in reality, versions of many of these songs have appeared elsewhere, though usually of lesser quality and not easily accessible.  To most listeners, these tracks will indeed be new.  Valleys was assembled by Experience Hendrix, the estate led by Jimi’s stepsister Janie, and the company deserves credit for not toying with the archived material, but rather presenting it more-or-less how it sounded when it was recorded several decades ago.

Valleys can be considered a kind of follow-up to 1968’s Electric Ladyland.  Most of the songs on this album were recorded in early 1969, when Hendrix was experiencing a lot of turmoil with his bandmates.  The rhythm section changes from song to song, but really, it’s Jimi we’re all here to see (or hear as it may be).

Unsurprisingly, it’s the songs we are most familiar with that come off as the weakest of this bunch, precisely since we’ve already heard their superior versions.  I’m talking about songs like “Stone Free” and “Fire.”  Perhaps most disappointing, though, is Hendrix’s rendition of Cream’s mega-hit “Sunshine Of Your Love.”  He turns it into a seven minute guitar instrumental which stalls out before it ever really gets going.  “Red House” is one exception.  That’s a pretty well-known Hendrix song, and the version here doesn’t disappoint.

Lesser known cuts like the title track and “Hear My Train A Comin’” are the true pleasures of this disc.  The latter of those songs ramps up just like a distant locomotive approaching the station before busting out on arrival.

The beauty of Valleys is that it lets us hear a lot of deep cuts as they sounded at the time of their inception and in better quality than most people have heard.  Would the songs have changed much if Jimi had lived to see them get a proper release?  No one can know for sure.  But it is an intriguing look at the direction his music may have been heading before he died.

There are no standout songs here in the vein of “Foxy Lady” or “All Along the Watchtower,” but Jimi’s coolly transcendent guitar playing is and that’s a pleasure all its own.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Note: Target is selling an exclusive version of this album which includes two bonus tracks – “Slow Version” and “Trash Man”

-Sam

Apparantly he had a cameo in the movie as one of the terrorists (which I also found out through his tweet), so I guess it isn’t surprising he would be contributing to the soundtrack as well. Even though it wasn’t in the soundtrack that was released, Audioslave’s Cochise was used in one of the trailers. Morello wasn’t the only musician to have a cameo in Iron Man. Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah also had a brief cameo (which was cut from the film but is present in the extras) when Tony Starks was introduced to…..Tony Starks a.k.a. Ghostface Killah. All of the Wu-Tang members have multiple aliases and a few of them use some of their favorite comic characters names. I wonder if Ghostface will contribute any work to the soundtrack as well…

Follow Morello on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tmorello

That’s  because, as I’ve mentioned before, Broken Bells sounds strikingly similar to their cartoon counterparts much of the time, but without the wild eccentricity and excitement.  Those comparisons are inevitable since one half of Broken Bells is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who produced Gorillaz’ epic album Demon Days.  The omnipresent analog synths that are Gorillaz’ trademark are present here as well, which usually leaves the singers as the only major difference between the two groups.

But that’s a significant difference.  Whereas Damon Albarn plays off his hushed, melancholic croon in Gorillaz, James Mercer, of the Shins, adds a greater range to the styling of Broken Bells.

But Broken Bells is not a rip-off of Gorillaz and deserves to be judged on its own merits.

The album starts off with a bang.  “The High Road” is a perfect pop song, with Mercer singing about the difficulty of making unpopular decisions and the fear that comes with setting out on your own.  That’s followed up by “Vaporize,” for which Burton breaks out an awesome organ to set the beat and then busts out a super-mellow horn interlude near the end.  The lyrical content of “Vaporize” seems like a continuation of “The High Road” – how it’s easier to sit and wait for something good to happen and much harder to take that step that could lead to new beginnings but also new failures.

That fear of experimentation is kept solely to the lyrical content, however.  Broken Bells does a marvelous job of mixing synthetic sounds with organic ones.  Synths and drum machines meld perfectly with acoustic guitars, horns, and piano.  Most importantly, it always feels natural.  And that combination is used to run the full gamut of sounds – from modern electro-pop to folky balladry.  “Your Head Is On Fire” is a dreamy, pastoral tune that could fit right in with Fleet Foxes.

With such a wide range of styles and sounds, it’s perplexing why Broken Bells don’t apply the same open-mindedness to the tempo of the tunes.  By and large, the songs on this album are rather uniform in that regard.  It’s like a friend who is always the same measured mood no matter how much you try to get a rise out of him.  This album is laid-back and chilled-out and it never seems like the band tried to break out of that mold, even for one song.  This pervasive sameness doesn’t detract from the songs’ individual merits but it does make the album less interesting.  Mercer sums it up best in “October,” when he sings, “Don’t run, don’t rush/just flow.”  And that’s exactly what Broken Bells do; they flow – like a peaceful brook.

Broken Bells is an auspicious debut from two very talented musicians, but they’d be wise to emulate more than just the sound of Gorillaz next time and try for that group’s fearlessness as well.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

-Sam

Last week, I was growing a little tired of playing (fantastic) ‘Kezia’ by Protest the Hero on repeat, and looked for the nearest CD to switch into my stereo. Due to my laziness and a recent change of address, that CD was ‘Relationship of Command’. Instantly memories of this fantastic record came flooding back. The summer of 2001, just a few months after my first foray into nu-metal, was dominated by ROC. I’d played the CD so much that it was scratched beyond belief and I was given a new copy that Christmas by my surprisingly hip parents. I remember being at that stage in life where you can’t help but feel frustrated – feeling like an adult but still just a kid – and something about ROC’s raw intensity and hypnotic lyrics helped me feel connected to something at a time when I felt apart from everything. So I immersed myself in its ferocity, its cryptic imagery, its fleeting moments of beauty. And despite my young age, I’d like to think that I really understood the album; and that’s what made it so important to me.

So imagine my relative surprise when, upon placing it once again in my stereo, I found myself re-discovering it all. Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s visceral roars, the twitchy guitars and the off-kilter time changes felt as fresh as they did almost ten years ago. I sat there re-memorising all the lyrics, which still stand out for me as some of the best ever commited to a single collection of songs (read the CD booklet and I’m sure you’ll agree). In a way, it’s all a little disheartening. I mean, I’ve heard only 2 albums since to rival it (those being ‘As the Roots Undo’ by Circle Takes the Square and ‘The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me’ by Brand New). But then again, it leaves me awestruck to think that albums like that can be created by individuals fiercely commited enough to make it happen. Songs like the absolutely blistering ‘Cosmonaut’ and the audio juggernaut ‘Sleepwalk Capsules’ sound as fresh as they ever did, and I have no doubt that if ATD-i were to have released the album for the first time this year, it would have the same impact as it did back at the turn of the decade, and that I’d be sitting there in 2020 writing this very same piece.

What I’m trying to say is that ‘Relationship of Command’ is an album that really should be heard and heard again to be believed and loved. I just thought that now was as good a time as any to make that known. Ten years after its inception I stumble upon it for the first time in some years. I’ve revisited it before, sure, but now I’m going to tell the 7 people who will read this all about it and I hope they all blog about it to the 7 more people who read their blogs. Out of curiosity I checked Amazon, and the album is there for a measley £5. I’m sure you Americans will also find it for about $5 somewhere. Do yourself a favour: if you haven’t heard this album or don’t own it, get out their and buy it. At first it will alienate you (look back through this article: it took me nearly a year to get into it!), but persevere: the rewards will be great.

And that’s an absolutely fitting place for this group of misfits to take up residence since Gorillaz make some of the most genre-melting and unique pop music you’ll hear.  They don’t fit in anywhere but on their own unnatural island somewhere in the middle of the ocean.

It’s just too bad that the album starts off like its inspiration, and by that I mean a big pile of garbage.

Plastic Beach starts off harmlessly enough with a minute-long and rather unnecessary orchestral intro before segueing into the second track which is basically another intro track, only this time we get to hear Snoop Dogg phoning in some of the laziest rhymes he’s done as he welcomes everyone to the fictional island.  With track three, “White Flag,” we finally get a real song.  Unfortunately, it’s downright annoying and easily the worst song on the album.  It features two British rappers, Bashy and Kano, who sound like two amateur freestylers struggling to come up with something clever to say over a lousy beat.

That’s over eight minutes of at best useless and at worst annoying music to start off the record.  When you dig a hole that deep, it’s damn near impossible to get out.  But Damon Albarn finally shows up on track four, and all is well with the world again.

It’s clear that Gorillaz are a much better group when Albarn’s vocals are present, whether they’re leading the way (”Rhinestone Eyes”) or just accenting a guest (”Superfast Jellyfish”).  When the group essentially becomes little more than a production crew for guest rappers, the quality noticeably drops.  I think that’s because Albarn’s ghostly, near-comatose voice creates a perfect juxtaposition of melancholy versus the bouncy, spaced-out synths.

With Albarn finally in the fold vocally, the music really hits its stride.  “Stylo” immediately locks into a funky, authoritative beat with Mos Def and Albarn trading verses until R&B and soul legend Bobby Womack erupts like a preacher reaching for the rafters.  De La Soul keep the tempo high on “Superfast Jellyfish” which bemoans the way our hectic schedules and freezer-based technologies have turned home-cooked breakfast into three-minute microwave meals – and we’re too oblivious to know the difference, or care.

And that apathy towards the consequences of our decisions is the bedrock for much of the thematic elements of the record.  We hear about “radioactive seas,” “chemical loads,” and “Styrofoam deep sea landfills.”  The Gorillaz crew has taken notice of our disposable culture, but instead of adding to the heap of trash, they’ve made it their home.  Plastic and synthetic waste is a recurring idea in many of these songs, perfectly encapsulated in Lou Reed’s hilariously genius delivery of the line, “Well me, I like plastics and digital foils.”  He sounds like a drug-addled, spaced-out shop teacher who inhaled a few too many burning plastics fumes.

It’s not all environment all the time though.  There are some sweetly sad love songs on here too.  “On Melancholy Hill” is a wistful dream that a girl might settle for you – “where you can’t get what you want/but you can get me.”

Plastic Beach lacks a lot of the infectious dance grooves that permeated their last album, the classic Demon Days, and it’s a little too bloated for its own good.  But when it hits its stride, it really doesn’t look back.  You’ll have fun listening to the music and then you’ll be frightened when you realize the Plastic Beach is more real than just a cartoon fantasy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

-Sam

Main support came from Fanfarlo, who are one of the country’s best-kept secrets. Mixing the whimsy of Arcade Fire with the delicate ease of Noah and the Whale, the band strum, yelp, bash and toot their way through a short but sweet set of enjoyable indie-folk. Their soaring harmonies and instrumental wizardry captures the attention of an increasingly impatient audience, and in the end the band come away having impressed just about everyone  in the room. Get hold of their records now, they’re well worth the investment.

Mumford & Sons hit the stage backed by subtle lighting; creeping into the title-track of their debut album ‘Sigh No More’. In inauspicious opening indeed, but one that ultimately proves fruitful and indicative of the band’s growing confidence in bigger venues. Overall, tonight’s performance is nothing short of brilliant. The band are clearly having a riot throughout, with grins as wide as Australia plastered across their faces as they soar through a set comprised mostly of material from their debut; peppered with a couple of new (and impressive) tracks for good measure. With Laura Marling currently holed-up working on her new record, Mumford & Sons have really emerged as the country’s top folk band; combining traditional banjo-seasoned barnstorming with a pop sensibility not present in most bands with ten times their experience. Highlights include the toe-tapping ho-down of ‘Roll Away Your Stone’ and the timid ‘Timshel’, complete with affecting, close harmonies. The lads seem genuinely flattered by the interest this particular tour has garnered for them, and on the evidence of this show, they’re making the most of it. 

I found myself thinking about folk music in the UK on the way back home after the show, and I can’t help but have high hopes for the musical future. With acts such as Laura Marling, Emmy the Great, Lightspeed Champion and those reviewed here, there’s ample evidence to suggest that British folk is thriving. The dent that some of these acts have made in the mainstream is extremely impressive, and all this talent leaves me comfortable in the knowledge that no matter how infuriating popular music can be, there’s always bands around doing it right.

With the courtroom packed and a crowd growing and growing outside, Lil’ Wayne was offered the chance to make a statement. Instead, he declined while shaking his head.

While leaving the courtroom, fans showed signs of support for the multiplatinum rapper. Fans wore shirts, “Free Weezy!” and voiced their concerns for the artist. “Keep your head up, Weezy,” stated one of the fans.

With some good behavior, Weezy could be out of prison in eight months.