Seems as though the reported on-going collaboration (presumably four songs in at the studio) between David Byrne and Annie Clark aka St. Vincent has got Annie listening to some of David's old pals.
Back in 1981, The Night Owl's college roommate came home with a new album from the neighborhood independent record store, indicating that he had bought it because of a quick listen on the store's turntable. (Maybe Nick Hornby happened to be there as well, using this incident as a basis for his famous vignette in High Fidelity.) Well, I couldn't just ignore the guy, given he had unearthed Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane's Rough Mix only a month earlier. So I grabbed the LP cover from him while he placed 33 1/3 on the record player and dropped the stylus on the vinyl.
I scanned the multicolored photo on the front and back. Brian Eno. Yeah, the guy from Roxy Music who quit before they really made their mark. The English studio wizard who had worked with Bowie. Here Come The Warm Jets. Oh yeah, that record he put out before the ambient music thing pulled him away from rock.
The song titles didn't exactly invite you in as a listener: "The Paw-Paw Negro Blowtorch"; "Baby's On Fire"; and "Dead Finks Don't Talk" among the ten tracks.
But damned if I didn't sit next to the Advent speakers for the next 40 minutes totally taken in by the melodies and production. Later research revealed original rave reviews from Lester Bangs ("Incredible") and Robert Christgau ("Grade 'A' . . . The idea of this record -- top of the pops from quasi-Dadaist British synth wizard -- may put you off, but the actuality is quite engaging in a Velvet Underground kind of way"). I've been a true disciple of the album ever since, and with recent reissues, Here Come The Warm Jets still resonates with new generations.
And so it is with St. Vincent, who now gives us a wonderful cover of "Some of Them Are Old." We invite you to compare, contrast and enjoy both her version and the original.
TNOP UK correspondent Miles Gallagher reports that the new Brian Eno album, Small Craft On A Milk Sea, will be released here in the States next Tuesday 2 November. The enigmatic Eno has been on a creative roll as of late, collaborating with David Byrne on the fine Everything That Happens Will Happen Today and producing U2's No Line On The Horizon. This set of originals, assisted by Jim Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, is said to have been inspired by some of his favorite motion pictures. Pretty Much Amazing is streaming two of the new titles, "Horse" and "Emerald and Stone." And you can go to the NPR site to listen to the whole album.
The Guardian reports that the new Bryan Ferry album, titled Olympia, will drop on 25 October, with first single "You Can Dance" scheduled for release on 9 August. The record will consist of all originals, save cover versions of Traffic's "No Face, No Name, No Number" and Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren."
The collaborators revealed thus far for Olympia are in the all-star catagory: Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Nile Rodgers (Chic), Mani (Primal Scream) and Scissor Sisters.
But the real interest revolves around Ferry's first collaboration since 1973's For Your Pleasure with former Roxy Music mates Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay (Eno wasn't involved in the other Roxy-labelled records subsequent, including the seminal Avalon). The songs involving the four apparently are the remnants of a reunion attempt that was shelved. As Ferry told The Times of London back in November, "We worked together for a few days, weeks maybe, and I decided I didn't really want to do a Roxy thing."
Roxy Music headlines the Lovebox Festival in Victoria Park, London this Saturday, 17 July and the sold-out Bestival on the Isle of Wight on 11 September. In addition, here are the other dates on the abbreviated Roxy Music tour schedule: 31 July - Japan - Fuji Rock 8 August - Belgium - Lokerse 27 August - Holland - Lots Festival 29 August - Paris - Rock En Seine 1 September - Bonn - Solarworld 3 September - Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Republic of Ireland - Electric Picnic
And MOJO now reports that dates have been set for a short UK tour in January and February 2011: Newcastle Arena (January 25) Glasgow Clyde Auditorium (27) Glasgow Clyde Auditorium (28) Manchester MEN Arena (30) Birmingham LG Arena (31) Nottingham Arena (February 2) London O2 Arena (7)
If your bus from downtown doesn't stop until 82nd Street uptown, TNOP's got some news to keep you company and while away the time . . . A double CD of a 1966 Otis Redding show at Hollywood's Whisky-A-Go-Go, Otis Redding - Live On The Sunset Strip, was released this week. Pop & Hiss brings us a great story on the gigs, taped over four nights, using a noted eye-witness as its main source: Ry Cooder, who was playing guitar at the time for the warm-up act, Taj Mahal. "It was unbelievable," recalled Cooder. "He'd get up, stomp his foot, wave his arm, grab a microphone and sing with such searing intensity, I thought, this man's going to have a heart attack if he keeps this up. He's not going to make it. But it was good -- a great R&B show, the likes of which I'd never seen."
Step right up! Mr. Tom Waits edits the 200th issue of Mojo, on newstands in the UK soon. Wait a couple of weeks for it to show at your favorite bookstore in the US. Features in the July edition include Waits' interview of Harry Belafonte, a 15-song CD selected and sequenced by the singer and the magazine's guide to all of the Waits album catalog.
U2 had to cancel as the headliner at the massive Glastonbury Festival on opening night, 25 June. But The Guardian reports that Gorillaz have stepped into the breach. Speaking on behalf of 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel Hobbs, Damon Albern said, "it was us or The Beatles, and they split up years ago."
The Cute Beatle visits The White House next week, feted by a number of noted musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jack White and Emmylou Harris. Click Track gives us a Macca song wish list. TNOP agrees wholeheartedly that "We Can Work It Out" is the hands-down choice for The Wonderous One.
OK. So you are in your cap and gown at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and thinking what boring commencement speaker am I going to have to suffer through? And out walks . . . Patti Smith! And she not only is funny, entertaining, name-dropping and emotional, but sings a couple of songs too! And how can't you love this send-off into the world: "be happy, take care of your teeth, always let your conscience be your guide. well, i wish you god and good luck." The Awl gives great video and The Smoking Bop Gun provides the transcript.
TNOP UK music correspondent and all-around bon vivant Miles Gallagher has been talking up Rock Island, Illinois singer-songwriter Lissie Maurus over the past couple of weeks. Now a great new video of a live performance with Ellie Goulding at the Brighton Great Escape has surfaced. Enjoy Lissie's composition "Everywhere I Go" (via TwentyFour Bit).
Here's a great excuse to escape to a great city: NXNE takes place 14-20 June in Toronto. Billed as "650 Bands - 7 Days - 40 Films - 50 Venues" the festival music headliners include Iggy & The Stooges, De La Soul and The Ravonettes and screens Don Letts' documentary on the late Joe Strummer.
To coincide with the 1974 release of Brian Eno's Here Come The Warm Jets (which, by the way, contained the classic track "The Paw-Paw Negro Blow Torch"), a pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde was sent by NME to interview the ex-Roxy Music chameleon. He answered the door to his London flat in a red satin kimono and black satin dress pants. Ah, those were the days . . .
Well, our stop's coming up. Before we step off into the hustle and bustle of the big city, slip on your earbuds and listen to Stevie Wonder sing maybe the best Beatles' cover ever.
In 2008, David Byrne & Brian Eno released one of the year's most critically praised albums, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Byrne - but not Eno - undertook a lengthy tour in support of the CD, highlighting his body of work with the ex-Roxy Music/producer extraordinaire as well as Talking Heads compositions.
Now a documentary of the tour preparation and live dates entitled Ride, Rise, Roar, directed by David Hillman Curtis, is to premiere in Austin at the SXSW Festival in March. The trailer for the film can be viewed here; behind the scenes stuff and Eno himself seem to be a part of it all. The inevitable echoes of Stop Making Sense will most likely fill many articles about the new documentary, but given Byrne's talent for expressing himself in various media it will be surprising if this movie is simply a drab chronicling of the tour. After all, he's already weighed in with an entertaining yarn on time spent on his two-wheeler in between various whistle stops.
With this news, TNOP has an excuse to play its Best Song of 2008:
Not far from the South Bank of the River Liffey in the Docklands section of Dublin, Republic of Ireland is a block of buildings chock full of graffiti tags located on a small street named Windmill Lane. [Our own TNOP correspondent Celtic Ray is seen strolling the area above.] A two-story building, now boarded up, was in fact the site of many great moments in rock 'n roll.
Windmill Lane Studios was opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson, who designated himself as company director and head engineer. Traditional Irish music and film scores (performed by as many as an 80-piece orchestra) were recorded initially at the facility. Even though the Irish rock scene had started to bloom around this time, groups like Thin Lizzy, The Boomtown Rats and The Undertones all went overseas to record their records.
Then came producer Steve Lillywhite and his production in 1980 of U2's first album, Boy: "We recorded at a place called Windmill Lane in Dublin. It was great for traditional Irish music but no Irish rock band had recorded there. . .So the studio crew were very surprised when I decided I wanted to record the drums out in the hallway by the receptionist, as there was this wonderful clattery sound I wanted to get. But that meant we couldn't record until the evening, because this girl was sat answering the phones all day. . .It was all pretty slapdash, But funnily enough, it's not unlike how the band still records."
U2 would go on to record October as well as the seminal War with Lillywhite at Windmill Lane. Portions of The Unforgettable Fire and one of the best selling albums of all-time, The Joshua Tree, helmed by producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, were also recorded in studio two.
The studios expanded in the 1980s and until its closing in 2006, Windmill Lane hosted a number of rock's luminaries, including R.E.M., Van Morrison (Back On Top), The Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello (Spike), Kate Bush (Hounds of Love) and The Waterboys (Fisherman's Blues).
After moving to a new facility in Ringsend, Dublin (and retaining the same name), the boarded up Windmill Lane studio became a place for an on-going fan homage to U2. In addition to our original photos above, you can check out these shots as well.
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