TOMORROW ON OUTQ: 120 MINUTES, REDUX

I recently posted about the return of the 120 Minutes franchise to MTV.  Tomorrow on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick, I'll be talking about the return of the show, as well as some of the artists who used to appear on the show who have new music out. Radiohead's King Of Limbs, PJ Harvey's Let England Shake,  R.E.M.'s Collapse Into Now, former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft's United Nations Of Sound and The Twilight Singers' Dynamite Steps (the band is led by former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli). I may also get to The Kills, the band featuring Alison Mosshart from The Dead Weather, who weren't around for the 120 Minutes era, but were recently featured on the newly launched 120 Seconds.

RADIOHEAD - KING OF LIMBS

Every Radiohead album seems to be nothing short of an event, or an occasion among music fans. Even their last one, In Rainbows, which they released just days after announcing it, had tons of hype despite the fact that they cut down the lead time to the album's release (the whole "pay what you want" thing and the cavalier announcement really only added to the excitement).

The King Of Limbs seemed to come out of nowhere.  I actually thought that the next thing we'd hear from Thom Yorke would be another solo album, with his band Atoms For Peace. And in some ways, this feels like a very Thom Yorke-centric record. I know everyone in the band is really into electronic music, but I can't help but wonder how much fun it is to be a guitarist, bassist or even drummer in the band sometimes. Much of this album would fit in more on SiriusXM Chill than SiriusXMU (SiriusXM's indie rock channel).

Like the last few Radiohead albums, it takes a few listens to get.  That's almost part of the deal when you pick up a Radiohead album. Like The Velvet Underground or Joy Division, they reward repeated listens, and they become a part of your life. But how does this one hold up?  I haven't had it long enough.  I know lots of people love "Codex," and I do too. They are definitely avoiding going back to being too much of a guitar band after In Rainbows, which sort of pointed in that direction. There's lots of electronic sounding beats and rhythms, but it's not a dance album.  Although I wonder if the band kept their commitment to being weird and different, but also wanted to dance, how cool of an album could they make?

King Of Limbs is cool, very trippy, but cool. It's a short album and feels a bit incomplete. I'm curious how'll they'll play this live, if they even decide to tour. Still, I'd recommend it and say it's worth the time to get to know it.

MOJO TURNS 200, TOM WAITS EDITS

I'm a bit behind on this, but you should look for the latest issue of Mojo, it's the 200th issue, and to celebrate, they let Tom Waits edit. And why not? Tom interviews Hank Williams III in the issue, and Joe Henry interviews Harry Belafonte. There's also lots of historical features from the magazine's history, including stories on the making of Nirvana's In Utero (the magazine's first "album of the month") and Radiohead 's OK Computer. My favorite was the story behind Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind, where many of the players on the album (but not Dylan, nor producer Daniel Lanois) give the behind-the-scenes story of the album. It seemed like Dylan didn't like Lanois' ideas, and neither did most of the musicians, but the tension between Bob and Lanois led to a classic album (as it did years earlier when they did Oh Mercy together).

Anyway, as always, a great read.

THOM YORKE'S OTHER BAND IS CALLED ATOMS FOR PEACE

In September, I wrote about Thom Yorke's sideproject. Up until now, he's been calling the band "?????" Well, he just wrote on Radiohead's "Dead Air Space" that they are going to be called Atoms For Peace. They are doing a bunch of gigs (which will be impossible to get tickets for) and then Coachella. He didn't mention doing any new music with them, but I know he is working on a Radiohead record, and of course Flea is working on a new Red Hot Chili Peppers record.

THOM YORKE DISSES PETER GABRIEL DISSES GENESIS

I've written about Peter Gabriel's upcoming album, Scratch My Back, where he covers songs by other artists.  He's also hoping to put together an album of those same artists covering his songs.  That may not happen: the NME reports that he's worried that Thom Yorke may not be digging his version of Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)." That's got to sting: he's always seemed a bit obsessed with having cred among younger rockers. 

On the other hand, he's always been very cavalier about the band where he got his start: Genesis. The AP reports that he won't be at the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's a bummer: I could understand his not wanting to perform. He has talked about his one reunion with the band in the '80s: they didn't really rehearse, and apparently it wasn't really that good. But I think it would be have been cool for his former bandmates, and the fans, for him to at least show up.

PETER GABRIEL'S SCRATCH MY BACK DUE 2/15

A running joke among Peter Gabriel and his fans is that, when people ask when his new album is coming out, he says "By Christmas," adding that he won't the year that that Christmas is that he's referring to. So I was suprised that, after writing about his upcoming album Scratch My Back, and that it was coming out in the spring of 2010, it is actually coming out earlier.  His website says that it is due out on February 15, and they are taking pre-orders. The album is all orchestral (meaning no guitar or drums) covers. The album features David Bowie's "Heroes," Paul Simon's "The Boy In The Bubble," Talking Heads' "Listening Wind," Lou Reed's "The Power Of The Heart," Arcade Fire's "My Body Is A Cage," Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going To Rain Today," Neil Young's "Philadelphia," Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out,)" as well as songs by Elbow, Bon Iver, The Magnetic Fields and Regina Spektor.

It looks like Peter is doing some European orchestra shows for the album, but no U.S. dates yet. I've also heard that he wants to produce an album called I'll Scratch Yours, where all the artists who he covers return the favor. I doubt Neil Young would do that, and I don't imagine Talking Heads will reunite to record a Peter Gabriel cover, but you never know!

One month after Scratch My Back comes out, Peter and his former bandmates of Genesis will be getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15. I doubt Peter will perform, and keyboardist Tony Banks has said he'll be happy just to be there and enjoy the night, (plus Phil Collins is injured and probably can't play drums), but I hope he shows up.

BEST OF THE '00s: RADIOHEAD

OK, I'm with the critics on this one. There's some things that bug me about Radiohead: singer Thom Yorke's pretentiousness mainly. He whines too much, "we're not 'rock'" as if "rock" is a dirty word. He seems incapable of enjoying himself. To quote Larry Flick, Thom have a Yoo-Hoo. You make Michael Stipe look like Jim Carey.


And yet, the band's music is so adventurous I respect it, and some of it is so undeniably great. Kid A was really a daring album, I don't love all of it, but it definitely had some great moments. For all their "we're not a guitar band, we want to experiment, blah blah blah" songs like "Knives Out" and "Optimistic" would be great no matter what instrument you play it on.

I have to admit, I mainly slept on Amnesiac, and definitely didn't pay Hail To The Thief much mind.  I wanted to love Hail, as it was a direct attack on bush II, but the thing is, if you are going to make a rebellious record like that, you should make it accessible. Wouldn't it be cooler there was a huge anthem like "Just" or "Airbag" that bashed an evil administration?  A left field album that ultra-liberals stroke their chins to, it just doesn't have the same effect. If you're going to rage against the machine, as it were, then rage. 

Back to the music: In Rainbows is probably my favorite Radiohead album of the decade, and the music got sort of overshadowed by the delivery of it. Yeah, the announced it eight days before it came out, let fans choose thier own price, put it out on their own, etc. and that was all great. (I actually didn't think that they thought out their plan as well as, say, Trent Reznor did for the last few Nine Inch Nails records), but the fact is, it was a great record.

I'm curious to hear what Thom Yorke does next: I guess he may be working with Flea on a new project, which I think would be great for him.  But it will be interesting (in theory) to hear where Radiohead goes next.

More Best Of The '00s: Bob Dylan
Willie Nelson
Aimee Mann
Jeff Tweedy
David Johansen
Levon Helm
The Beatles
Jim James
U2
Steve Earle
Ben Harper
Alicia Keys
Norah Jones
Trent Reznor

FLEA PLAYING WITH BRYAN FERRY

Apparently, Flea is going to be playing on Bryan Ferry's next album, which will also include Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Of course, Flea recently played in Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's backing band on a few shows, and supposedly they will be working together next year on a new Thom album and tour. (Flea also plays on Slash's upcoming album.)

More than any of this stuff, I'm looking forward to a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, which hopefully will come out next year. The Peppers are performing at the Neil Young tribute concert in January, and will probably also perform if they get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which they should).

I'm not a big Ferry fan, but wasn't he supposed to be doing a new album with Roxy Music? I remember reading that he took a break to do a solo album made up of Dylan covers, and then he toured for that, now he's making another solo album. I guess the Roxy Music reunion is over.

THOM YORKE NEEDS A YOO-HOO

Larry Flick graciously lets me stop by his morning show on SIRIUS XM OutQ every Wednesday morning to make my weekly "rock report," as he has named it. When we were recently discussing the reissue of R.E.M.'s classic Reckoning, he kind of went off on a tirade about Michael Stipe, and how he takes himself too seriously, and he needs a Yoo-Hoo. You know who else needs one? Thom Yorke of Radiohead. I like Radiohead a lot, but they aren't one of my favorites, and I'm not nearly as crazy about them as their huge legion of fans. But Thom Yorke needs to complain less. He's been saying that Radiohead can't do another full album because it would "kill" them or something like that. Bitch, please. Nothing else needs to be said about that. But Radiohead do have a cool new song, "These Are My Twisted Words," which they are offering as a free download.

33 1/3's "CHOSEN ELEVEN"

I've written a bit about the 33 1/3 series of books before -- I was totally moved by the edition on Black Sabbath's Master Of Reality -- and they've just announced the next eleven books they will be putting out. Congratulations to everyone whose idea was picked. I may try to submit something next time.

Some great albums will be featured: Portishead's Dummy, Johnny Cash's American Recordings (which Bob Dylan just ripped in his recent Rolling Stone interview, but whatever, they were awesome), Television's Marquee Moon, Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville, AC/DC's Highway To Hell, Radiohead's Kid A and The Rolling Stones' Some Girls (one of my favorites by them, it's the first album with Ron Wood as a real member of the band).

THE GRAMMYS: "NOT A BAD WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY NIGHT"

It's the easiest thing in the world to complain that the Grammy Awards is a boring show. But I tend to like it, and I think this year's show was really well done. For the most part.

I was glad that Al Green performed, but I wish he got to do something from his new album, which got a bunch of nominations and won him two Grammys tonight. I like Justin Timberlake, but it would have been more appropriate for Al to have been backed by ?uestlove and the guys who played on his album, and maybe performed with Anthony Hamilton and John Legend. That said, I liked his performance. It turns out that it was a last minute addition to the show: two performances were cancelled: Chris Brown and Rihanna both pulled out the show right before it started. You can read about that all over the web at this point.

On a similar note, if Neil Diamond's new album is so great, why didn't he perform a new song instead of "Sweet Caroline." That was cheesy as hell, I don't know if a new song would have been any better though.

I don't listen to Carrie Underwood that much, but I liked her performance, and ditto for Taylor Swift (whose performance would have been better without Miley Cyrus). And how could you not be moved by Jennifer Hudson's performance. The Jonas Brothers looked a bit out of their league with Stevie Wonder. It was sort of cute that he played with them, though. U2 was great as always, that goes without saying. Kid Rock was good, I like that "All Summer Long" song. Am I the only person who never heard that Katy Perry song? I never did; it was pretty good. It sounds like her biggest influences are Gwen Stefani and P!nk.

I loved the Four Tops tribute with Jamie Foxx, Ne-Yo, Smokey Robinson and Top Duke Fakir. The Bo Diddley tribute with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Keith Urban was a bit messy.

Hip-Hop provided some of the best moments of the night: the "Swagga Like Us" performance with Jay-Z, T.I., Lil' Wayne, Kanye West and a very pregnant M.I.A. (who may have been lip-synching); T.I.'s performance with Justin Timberlake was great, and so was Lil' Wayne's. I didn't like Kanye and Estelle's as much, and Jay-Z joining Coldplay onstage was a bit goofy.

I liked seeing Paul McCartney, but again, "I Saw Her Standing There"? I think he should have done a new song. It was fun to see Dave Grohl playing drums for him though. Radiohead 's performance was interesting, and probably confusing to most of the crowd. Was the whole band there, or was it just Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood and the huge marching band?

My favorite performance was Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' medley of "Rich Woman" and "Gone Gone Gone," and I was glad to see them go five for five, winning all of their nominations, including Record and Album Of The Year. I loved Robert's comment that in the "old days," being at the Grammys would have seemed like "selling out," but "It's not a bad way to spend a Sunday night." I'm sure there's going to be a lot of bitching about "old" artists beating out the likes of Lil Wayne and Coldplay, and that the album wasn't as ubiquitous in the culture. Whatever: it was a mature but totally credible album that didn't pander that was released on an indie label. It deserved all the accolades it won (it also won a Grammy last year) and more. That's my final word!

THE TIME 100

Since I'm writing about magazine issues, I remembered that I've been meaning to write about Time magazine's recent issue dedicated to the 100 most influencial people in the world today. I recently mentioned this in a post about Peter Gabriel.

Of course, I was glad to see Bruce Springsteen included. It's too bad that his latest classic album, Magic, hasn't recieved the acclaim that, say, The Rising did back in 2002. But it shows him to be as relevent as ever. Sean Penn wrote a pretty cool essay about the man for the issue: back in the day Bruce wrote "Dead Man Walking" for Sean's film of the same name, and Sean actually directed a video for "Highway Patrolman" or "State Trooper."

Other people I was glad to see: The Dalai Lama (I wish he was even more influencial, the world would be a better place), Barack Obama, Peter Gabriel (not as an entertainer, but as a "pioneer"), The Coen Brothers, George Clooney and Chris Rock. I was surprised that Radiohead was included in the "Builders and Titans" section but good for them, and that Mariah Carey was included. Sorry, not to hate, but I was just surprised by that. I guess she's proven that she has an enduring career, I gotta give her credit for that. And even if I don't, millions of others do. There were lots of inspiring stories about people who I'd never heard of, like Randy Pausch, a guy with cancer and limited time left to live - so he's been giving lectures about following your dreams and having fun. And Oscar Pistorius, a double leg amputee who is a world class sprinter. A GREAT read, you should check it out.

RADIOHEAD LET YOU GET "NUDE"

It's interesting to watch the way Radiohead, long one of the most innovative rock groups, have been getting innovative with the way they interact with their fans.  They are selling the individual instrumental tracks (guitar, bass, etc.) to "Nude," one of the songs from In Rainbows, allowing fans to make their own remixes. There's even a part of Radiohead's website where you can upload your version for other fans to hear (and comment on). I love this kind of thing: I know that R.E.M. are inviting fans to sort of "remix" their video for "Supernatural Superserious" (find out more here) and Trent Reznor is asking fans to create their own videos for the songs from the Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts. (Learn more about that here). I give these artists and their respective "teams" a lot of credit for coming up with new ways to engage fans.  Fifteen years ago, the only way fans could reach out to artists would be to send them a letter. The response would usually be an order form, to buy the band's t-shirts or something. Whatever else may have changed in music for better or worse, as far as artist/fan interaction, we've come a long way. 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Where have I been? I haven't been able to decide exactly what are my favorite songs and albums of the year, and what order they go in. At the end of every year, I put this self-imposed pressure on myself to come up with my list of the best music from said year - mainly just to make a good iTunes mix (or before that, to make a few mix tapes). Now that I have *a blog*, I have a place to share my list.

But I'm still working on it. There are a few last minute entires. I already wrote about Public Enemy's album, but I just checked out new albums by Radiohead, (ex?)indie rockers Rilo Kiley and Levon Helm (the former drummer/singer/mandolin player from The Band).

I didn't download Radiohead's In Rainbows when it was offered on their website for the bargain price of "name your own price." This is kind of lame, but I felt it was too inconvienent to go to a new site, enter my info (I would have paid for it), and plus, I have the rest of their albums on CD, so I wanted this one also. Plus, CDs have better sound than mp3s and Radiohead is the type of band where this is important, plus they always have interesting album art. And I try to go to a store that sells CDs once a week if I can. Easier just to get the CD.


I have to say, putting aside the hype of the release - the fact that they announced that it was coming out ten days before it was released, you could name your own price, there was no record label involved, etc. - it is a really good record. Could many other artists pull off a release like this? Probably, but only pretty big bands. This record was actually worth the hype.
Levon Helm's record is also really good. A friend of mine who has great taste in music said it was his favorite album of the year, so I went to iTunes and "completed" the album (I had already bought a few tracks). It's like a great Band album, and probably better than some of their last ones (and better than both of the ones that they did after the reunited sans-Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel).


I also completed my Rilo Kiley album at iTunes. I was never super into them, but when I heard "Silver Lining" a few months ago, I was knocked out by what a great pop song it was, and then ditto for "Close Call." I hear that this album has pissed off their indie fans. Whatever: it's probably the best thing they ever did. Don't hate, appreciate.


I've also been rediscovering Norah Jones' latest, Not Too Late, which came out earlier this year. But I think I'm at my cut-off point for listening to 2007 albums. I want to have my list up this week, so be on the lookout!