Leave it to Spike Jonze to direct one crazy ass video for the Beastie Boys. Watching this action figure video adventure featuring the B-Boys against the Anti B-Boys reminded me of being a kid all over again…
All posts by Brian Mc
Ten Things Mike Doughty Would Like You To Know About His New Album
Mike Doughty has a new album coming out on August 30th called Yes And Also Yes. The man, known for his lead in the now defunct Soul Coughing, continues his quest to entertain the masses one clever song after another.
There is still some time before the album drops, but Doughty wants everyone to know some things about his album. Ten things to be exact:
TEN THINGS MIKE DOUGHTY WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW ABOUT HIS NEW ALBUM…
# 1 “The title, YES AND ALSO YES was the headline of my profile on an online dating site. I improvised it off the top of my head, because they wouldn’t let me post until I wrote a headline. I was unsuccessful at online dating”
# 2 “The first single, “NA NA NOTHING”, was partially stolen from a song written by Nikki Sixx, Dan Wilson (wrote “Closing Time”), and Matt Gerrard (wrote a bunch of tunes in “High School Musical.”) (I got their permission to steal it)”
# 3 “Holiday,” a Christmas song, is a duet with Rosanne Cash. I did a show with her, and she said, onstage, “I feel nervous playing my new songs, because Mike Doughty is here, and he’s such a great songwriter.” That BLEW MY MIND.
# 4 “The song “Into the Un” was written for, and rejected by the Twilight soundtrack. (It’s about goth kids on LSD in a train station)”
# 5 “I recorded it in a studio in Koreatown, Manhattan, from July ’10 to April ’11. Pat Dillett produced. Notable musicians included my trusty factotum Andrew “Scrap” Livingston on bass, and the pianist Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, who basically plays with everybody who’s groovy (Justin Bond, Antony and the Johnsons, Glen Hansard, the National, David Byrne, Yoko Ono). I’m releasing it on my own label, SNACK BAR, through Megaforce. I split with Dave Matthews’ label ATO so I could run my own shop and have more control, business-wise.”
# 6 “I wrote most of the songs at the legendary artists’ colony Yaddo, where Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, and a lot of other all-time giants worked. It was founded by a railroad tycoon’s wife, in her mansion, built in the 1890s. They put up artists for a month or two, feed them in an opulent dining room, and give them space and time to work.”
# 7 “I used a capsule of the antidepressant duloxetine as a percussion instrument on some tracks. I held the tiny pill between my thumb and forefinger, put it close to the mic and shook it so it made a shcka-shcka-shcka! sound.”
# 8 “I wrote a book about my ugly, drug-doing years called THE BOOK OF DRUGS. It’s coming out in 2012 on Da Capo/Perseus.”
# 9 “The song “Makelloser Mann” is in German”
# 10 “I play a Chinese lute (called a zhong ruan) on the song “Telegenic Exes #1”
# 10.5 “…in the liner notes, I say I exclusively wear Paul Smith suits and Sol Moscot eyeglasses, and eat only gummi bears made by Haribo. I did this because I hope they’ll send me free stuff…”
I have yet to hear anything off his new release (and am very curious to hear the duet with Cash), but if it is any thing like his previous releases, I know it is going to rule.
Look for Doughty to be touring this fall in support of his new release. He is even making a stop in Cleveland. Nov. 13th at the Beachland Ballroom. Get your tickets now!
Watch This: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears “Mustang Ranch” Video
Have you even heard of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears yet?
Watch this video they just dropped for “Mustang Ranch” and become a fan already!!!
As if the song was not hilarious enough, the video just makes it that much more entertaining. “Mustang Ranch” is off of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears latest album Scandalous. The album is out now and if you liked that song, boy are you in for a treat.
What? You want another? Sure, why not:
Download This: The Enablers cover T.I.’s “Whatever You Like”
Yeah, I am a couple years late jumping on the bandwagon on this one…
Recently Rob Coe, front-man of The Enablers, emailed me a link to a kick ass T.I. cover that his band did a few years back. I had heard of his Gainsville, Florida, punk act before but for whatever reason never got to check them out.
The Enablers actually are made up of other bands you may have hear about. Rob Coe is from Fay Wray and their bassist was in some band called Dashboard Confessional. They sound familiar…
The cover of “Whatever You Like”, originally written by the currently incarcerated rap star T.I., is brilliant. I have listened to it over and over and just can not get enough of it. One might be fooled upon hearing it not thinking it is a cover. Here, check it out for yourself:
The Enablers - Whatever You LikeThis cover does sound more like Lucero, but the rest of The Enablers is more like a Social D, Husker Du sound with a little Springsteen vocals added to the mix. Not as fast and furious when it comes to the punk sound, but not exactly to be considered rock.
Here are a couple other songs I found online if you want to hear some of their original material. I know I am digging it.
The Enablers – “Drink Beer”
The Enablers – “Tomorrow”
I am going to be searching for their material online. I believe there is an EP out there waiting for me to purchase. This is stuff I need to have in my vinyl collection. I am not sure how active they are these days but I know Rob Coe did play the Suburban Home Records anniversary show last summer.
I guess there is only one way to find out… Let’s see if Rob wants to do an interview. Stay turned.
Album Review: Rival Sons – Pressure & Time
I don’t know if I can speak for all of you out there on this memory of mine, but I remember once when I was a kid I was flipping through my father’s LP collection. His collection consisted mostly of late 60s and 70s bands, bands considered “classic rock” these days. Still new to the game called music, I had no idea who all these bands were and was ever so curious to familiarize myself with them.
I marveled at the pictures at first, some more than others thanks to scantily clad women gracing the covers, and soon was just playing record after record teaching myself what to like and what to disregard. There were gems that I found in those stacks of records that pretty much kick started my love for music. I bring up this story because I swear that the new Rival Sons album, Pressure & Time, that I just listened to easily could have been one of those records that I pulled out from the stack, listened to, and said “woah.”
Hailing from Los Angeles, Rival Sons are a modern day classic rock band, all talent and no gimmicks at all. The foursome has been around since 2008 and released their sophomore album Pressure & Time on Earache Records. At times the band sounds like a cross between classic rock like Led Zeppelin but also hints towards a modern White Stripes/Jack White feel. The collection of genres makes for a great sound that has been seemingly dismissed these days in the music world when it comes to new bands.
As soon as “All Over The Road” started, I found myself almost in shock to hear what I was listening to. “Pressure and Time” won me over after I listened to it. I adored the whole song start to finish. Just check out the video below and see if you agree. I can see the ladies already swooning over “Only One” once it hits their ears. Reminding me of a Black Crows song, it was a sly cut to listen to with nice keyboard and heavy bass guitar playing.
“Get Mine” was a straight up jam with an ever so addicting funky bass riff that was met up some classic guitar playing. “Burn Down Los Angeles” was just bad ass. The drumming, the bass, the guitars, and the signing all together kept your head rocking and toughened up your skin. “Save Me” had a fun start with a little classic guitar and bass exchange and then was smothered with a nice helping of soul. Throughout it reminded me of a Sweet song, not like “dude, it was sweet”, but like the band Sweet…never mind. (additionally this song has been featured on a Jeremiah Weed commercial). The lighter flicking, body swaying, arena destined “Face Of Light” closed out the album.
Pressure & Time seemed to just breeze past me while listening to. At 30-minutes, I really would have loved to heard more, a lot more. I really was not expecting Rival Sons to sound the way they did. I was told that they “rocked” but that is an understatement. This band must have gone back in time and hung out with the legends to sound this great. The lead singer looks like the lovechild of Jim Morrison and sounds like Jack White as well as Robert Plant. The band dresses to impress and supposedly puts on some of the best like shows (still yet to be determined by this guy). Apparently they have shared the stage with bands like Kiss and Judas Priest already in their short career. Not too shabby boys.
If you like your rock classic and have been looking for something new to check out and just sink your teeth into, look no further. Rival Sons have arrived and I am pretty sure all the folk out there who rocked out in the 70s, perhaps even your parents, are going approve.