Music News

Radiohead album update

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke has given an update on their new album - and joked that sessions are going so badly the band are "washed up".

Writing to fans on the band's official website, Yorke said the sessions have been "great fun", and that small shows next year will definitely happen.

He said: "It is the end of our two week session. We're splitting up its all shit. We're washed up. Finished. Only kidding. It was fun. Some of it has been really great fun. And there were moments that stick in my head when I went 'TUNE!' 'TUNE!'"

Guitarist Ed O Brien added: "Friday night... the end of a two week session. Riffs and fragments of the songs going round my head. It's been great. It's always difficult to judge right now but I think we may have got 'Bodysnatchers'.

"Had a couple of sticky days at the beginning of the week but saw it through. On a roll now. Lots of stuff to be done yet, but so far so good. The studio is fab, its so good to play in and listen. You know what works and what doesn't."

The band have also revealed gigs are planned for next year. The follow-up to 2003's 'Hail To The Thief' is scheduled for release then too.

http://www.music-news.com/ShowNews.asp?nItemID=8141

A-HA:

3 1/2 years after the release of 'Lifelines', A-Ha are back with their 8th studio album and a scheduled European tour. The new album will be released in Europe on Nov 4th and will be preceded by the single 'Celice' to be released on Oct 10th. New single Celice is an uptempo song with an intriguing development of the unique A-Ha sound. The maxi CD version includes the Radio Cut, the Paul Van Dyk Radio edit plus a live version of the song recorded at Frognerparken, as well as the video of the single plus the B-Side The Summers Of Our Youth.

Tracklisting (single Celice):

1.Celice (Radio Cut)
2.Celice (Live At Frognerparken)
3.Celice (Paul Van Dyk Radio Edit)
4.The summers of our youth
5.Celice (Video)

Tracklisting (album Analogue):

1. Celice
2. Don't Do Me Any Favours
3. Cozy Prison
4. Analogue
5. Birthright
6. Holyground
7. Over The Treetops
8. Halfway Through The Tour
9. A Fine Blue Line
10. Keeper Of The Flame
11. Make It Soon
12. White Dwarf
13. The Summers Of Our Youth

http://www.musicfolio.com/

and see the 'adult' version of a-ha's video, 'Celice', at this music site:
http://www.itsatrap.com/

Go to News 10/18/05 for the direct link to video, or in search box, type in "a-ha", and one of several links will be for video.

Mark Kozelek Talks Modest Mouse

Amy Phillips reports:

Mark Kozelek loves him some Modest Mouse. He loves 'em so much he went and recorded a whole album of their songs. It's called Tiny Cities and it's coming out on the Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon mastermind's own label, Caldo Verde, on November 1.

...the story behind the story. Kozelek stumbled upon Modest Mouse by accident a few years ago. "I actually went to see the Shins when they were opening for Modest Mouse," he told Pitchfork last week. "It was like Godzilla stepped on Bambi or something when Modest Mouse came out. It was just amazing. You know, I'm not too
often blown away by anything."

He said that he was impressed with the band's dynamic, and it reminded him of his former group, Red House Painters, with their tight on-stage chemistry. But he was particularly taken with Issac Brock's "presence." "An average song has fifty words and this guy had like a thousand. There's a lot going on there. He was just really loose and just sort of let it out. I think as an artist, you sense when something is going on that's real. It's like the guy was possessed or something."

Slowly, the Mouse began to seep into his life. "Sun Kil Moon was doing some tours, and just for fun we added 'Dramamine' and 'Never Ending Math Equation' into the set. We just kind of improvised it."

But as he grew to master the songs, he became attached to the idea of treating Modest Mouse with the same full-disc coverage he'd given AC/DC on 2001's What's Next to the Moon.

"It's just like a kid in a candy store with his lyrics," he said. The lyrics are just so colorful. It was incredibly easy to make the record." Kozelek financed the recording himself, working casually and on the sly. "I didn't really talk about it while I was making the record, in case I didn't want to release it, I didn't want
anybody hassling me about it. So I just kind of kept it a secret and when it was done I sequenced it and I thought, 'this is good,' and I played it for a few people and they were like 'this is great.'"

Modest Mouse fans might be a bit surprised by Tiny Cities, however. Every song has been thoroughly Kozelek-ized. When asked about changing the tracks' distinctive melodies, he replied, "That's what I do. I've done it since the very first cover I ever did, 'The Star Spangled Banner' [on 1993's Red House Painters II]. When I cover
songs, I think very much outside of the box. I just saw Thumbsucker the other day, and Elliott Smith was doing a Cat Stevens song exactly like Cat Stevens, and it was incredibly boring. I get into the guts of a song and completely twist things up and turn it around and make it my own."

In other words, Kozelek has turned Isaac Brock's twisted millennial meanderings into his trademark brand of pastoral melancholy. "If you listen to a song like "Exit Does Not Exist", those words are coming out like an automatic weapon," he said. "It's really, really fast.

It's beautiful, but it's something that, if you're not into Modest Mouse, it's just going to go right by. I've slowed them down, and there's enough space in there that you can really hear what's going on. It becomes my own colors, you know?"

Hear your own colors in this here tracklist:

01 Exit Does Not Exist
02 Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
03 Neverending Math Equation
04 Space Travel Is Boring
05 Dramamine
06 Jesus Christ Was an Only Child
07 Four Fingered Fisherman
08 Grey Ice Water
09 Convenient Parking
10 Trucker's Atlas
11 Ocean Breathes Salty

As for Kozelek's plans after the record comes out... well, he doesn't have any. "I'm really true to my instincts and you just don't know from day to day what's going to happen. That's the nice thing about art. It's just so wide open. You don't really know what's going to happen."

The only thing that's definitely going to happen is Kozelek's solo gig at Conway Hall in London on November 25, at which he'll be playing Red House Painters songs in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his former record label, 4AD. "Maybe when the snow
melts I'll get out in the spring as something to do. A few more acoustic shows or something. I think it's possible I might put a band together for a half a dozen shows."

Since we live in a world where everything seems possible and nothing is what it seems, let's speculate on future Kozelek covers projects while we wait for him to make some concrete decisions. How about Real Love: Mark Kozelek Takes on Mary J. Blige? Or Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me: Mark Kozelek Sings the Best of the
Presidents of the United States of America?

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-10/11.shtml#markkozelek

Exclusive: Cat Power Album Details Revealed

Ryan Dombal and Amy Phillips report:

We thought it wasn't possible, but Cat Power just keeps getting sexier. Chan Marshall's forthcoming album, The Greatest, (due January 26 on Matador), continues the trend of her guest turn on Handsome Boy Modeling School's "I've Been Thinking", turning the indie rock chanteuse into a simmering Southern diva. Listen to her purr and just try not to want to make babies.

As previously reported, The Greatest was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with a murderer's row of veteran session musicians, including members of the Hi and Stax Records house bands. The record is steeped in the R&B and country traditions, with lots of horns and thick, smoky grooves. The title track sounds like an outtake from Dusty in Memphis, "Islands" and "Empty Shell" are future honky tonk jukebox staples, while "Could We" is upbeat funk. "Living Proof" should be covered by Shelby Lynne or Van Morrison. "Willie" is a condensed version of the song "Willie
Deadwilder" from her Speaking for Trees CD/DVD.

In other words, this album smells like incense, barbecue, and sweat. Get naked to this tracklist (which is, ahem, subject to change, apparently):

01 The Greatest
02 Could We
03 Lived in Bars
04 Islands
05 After It All
06 The Moon
07 Living Proof
08 Empty Shell
09 Willie
10 Where Is My Love
11 Hate
12 Love & Communication

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-10/10.shtml