Several weeks ago—pre-Obama, pre-Rahm, pre-(potentially)Hillary, pre-Change.gov—RCRD LBL debuted a stream of Mos Def's new single, and, at the time, it did nothing to alleviate our anxiety over the politrickery going down around this country. In fact, we found ourselves spewing all kinds of wacky conspiracy theories that day, probably in no small part inspired by Mos. But now that we've settled ourselves a little bit, this song has taken on a new purpose: It's our new theme song for complaining specifically about New York's budget deficit! YAY!
Just when we were quelling our excitement over the news that former FADER coverstar Pete Doherty is recording his new solo album with Blur's Graham Coxon comes news that Pete Doherty has purchased new uniforms for his local football club the Queen's Head Rangers for £500. The uniforms will have a picture of Doherty's face on them, and he is also rumored to fancy a position on the team, most likely as leading scorer (bah-dum-bum). Doherty's made his love for First Division middlers Queen's Park Rangers well known over the years and hopes the new uniforms and his face will inspire the pub team to success. His face inspires us to quit smoking, drinking and going to jail, but we're Americans. After the jump, two videos: the first of Pete scoring in a celebrity match last year before stealing an injured fans chips, and the second of Pete in the studio with Coxon. Pete Doherty's solo album is due next summer.
We filled you in on Beach House's "Used To Be" 7", then the Baltimore duo headed down to a beach (complete with waterfalls) to perform it. At first glance I thought Victoria and Alex raised the conceptual arc a notch by shooting the "Used To Be"'s Matt Amato-directed video in -- yes -- a beach house (or at least a beach-side hotel), but alas: It was shot in a desert outside L.A. and features the sharp-dressed band waiting around, contemplating themselves, and generally feeling the tug of time.
Mr. Simon continued being awesome with a stop over at Stephen Colbert's place last night. Paul was on hand to promote his new book Lyrics 1964-2008, a title which Colbert deemed utterly unpoetic (his suggestion: Word Salad Jazzmatron). Simon's stay spanned two segments. The first had Stephen ask Simon to defend some of his hippie-era lyrics, explain what exactly Julio was doing down by the schoolyard, and why Paul needed to walk out on Cecilia to wash his face. ("Well it was the '60s so I don't remember.") After wits were traded, Paul performed "American Tune," with the stars of the flag and the city skyline hanging behind him. Utterly poetic.
The longtime jazz trio Bad Plus (no, not Bad Pus) are releasing a new album For All I Care in a couple months. It includes the trio's first recordings with a vocalist: Wendy Lewis adds her voice to the bass, drums, and piano. The band explains that the approach and the recording were inspired partly by the 1963 collaborative work of John Coltrane and vocalist Johnny Hartman.
Coltrane's quartet had already developed a group language, and then they enlisted this incredible singer without changing the language of the band," says King. "In that same sense, this is still very much a Bad Plus record. We just happen to have a great singer singing the songs with us.
Except Coltraine never got around to covering the Flaming Lips' " Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."
Hot Chip's Al Doyle, who has played as part of James Murphy's band LCD Soundsystem, has made a clarification about an interview he recently gave, suggesting that the collective may have disbanded.
Mark Kozelek's removed both his Sun Kil Moon and his earlier Red House Painters moniker for The Finally LP, a collection of ten covers including Low's "Lazy," Stephen Sondhiem's "Send In The Clowns," Will Oldham's "New Partner," and this week's 'Gum Drop, Hüsker Dü's "Celebrated Summer." Many of the songs originally showed up on compilations, but his take on the New Day Rising classic was previously unreleased until it debuted today. We asked Kozelek for this thoughts on the original and his version. Read his words and take a listen Bob Mould's here.
Illa J's Yancey Boys is a low key affair featuring previously unreleased beats from his older brother, the late J Dilla. Most of the beats come from '95-'98, when The Pharcyde released the Dilla-produced Labcabincalifornia, which also happens to be our favorite Dilla era. Illa J is not going to blow anyone away with lyrically lyrical tongue twisters, but he has put together a fond memory of his brother while imbuing it with his own sense of individuality. FADER Number 58—aka the issue with Kanye West and No Age on the covers—will be on stands next week, and Illa J is part of its stellar Gen F lineup. Until that issue hits newsstands and the internet, listen to "Strugglin'" from Yancey Boys, which is available right now.
Recently you had a mixed reaction to AYWKUBTTOD's soaring, piano-lined "Inland Sea," from the Texan rockers' forthcoming Festival Thyme EP. Another track's up for grabs at RCRD LBL, "Bells Of Creation." Conrad says it's inspired by School Of Seven Bells, and Mormons. One is more obvious than the other.
"Bells Of Creation" comes from the Festival Thyme EP, and also appears on the band's as-yet-untitled full-length, out in early '09 on their Richter Scale label.
Ryan's unadulterated idolization of the Gallaghers is rubbing off on him in all the wrong ways. Unless you're a hot beef-craving blogger (nullus?) who scours the web for this sort of stuff, in which case nevermind, Ryan you're doing great. Actually reader Danielle did the scouring for us this time, pointing to Ryan's "Is This It?" feature for the Guardian where the estimable British publication poses existential lyrical questions ("Where's your head at?", "Who got da funk", etc.) and asks for freely associated answers. So Ryan, "What's the frequency, Kenneth?":
![Miley Cyrus - Time Of Our Lives (with lyrics download link) [HQ].mp4](http://img.youtube.com/vi/-VNJ6vm_qJs/default.jpg "Informacion video::<table><tr><td width='30%' valign='top'>Título</td><td width='1%' valign='top'>:</td><td width='89%'>Miley Cyrus - Time Of Our Lives (with lyrics download link) [HQ].mp4</td></tr><tr><td>Visitas</td><td>:</td><td>339</td></tr><tr><td>Votos</td><td>:</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Clasificacion</td><td>:</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Descargas</td><td>:</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Agregado por</td><td>:</td><td>admin</td></tr><tr><td>Fecha</td><td>:</td><td>2010-01-29 12:05:04</td></tr></table>")
