There is a new sheriff in town. As of now, Battlefield Earth is but a deputy alongside Gigli and Little Nicky. The new worst film in the history of the world is Across the Universe. Call me a sensationalist; I don’t care, this movie sucks – A Tour De Manure.
Like any self-respecting music fan, I creamed in my pants when I heard about the release of a new coming-of-age story in the late 60s set entirely to the music of the Beatles. I mean, what could go wrong. This sounds like a recipe for a masterpiece. Let’s fire up the bong and head to the theater right? WRONG.
In all my haste and excitement, I overlooked one very important detail. The movie is not set to the music of the Beatles, but rather the movie is entirely comprised of the actors and actresses performing the music of the Beatles. In other words, it’s a musical. Read on for more of Rupert’s rant about Across The Universe…
It seems that the folks at Ticketmaster aren’t going to let Live Nation get away with starting their own ticketing service. According to Billboard, Ticketmaster is teaming up with Cablevision to purchase 49% of AEG Live, the second largest promoter in the world. We’ll see how Live Nation likes a taste of their own medicine. Regardless of the increase in competition for the giants, we’re sure concert goers will still wind up with the short end of the stick. As usual.
Here’s the last batch of links we’ll dump on you this week:
Finally, the lineup for the soundtrack to NBC’s Heroes seems pretty damn good to us. Besides the fitting title track from David Bowie, the album also features killer tracks from a slew of artists including Wilco, Nada Surf and My Morning Jacket.
If you’re one of those people who just needs to have a bigger music collection then all your friends, we’ve got quite the opportunity for you. The world’s undisputed largest collection of recorded music is now on sale via EBay. A three million dollar opening bid gives you the chance to buy three million records and 300,000 CDs. Have fun importing all of those bad boys into iTunes.
Here are some links to help you fight the mid-week blues:
Finally, Mike Gordon sat-in with Melvin Sparks at Nectar’s this weekend. Read on for two incredibly funky clips…
Dean Ween continues to provide outrageously brown content on his NING blog. Just yesterday Deaner shared some amazing shots from his photo collection. Where else can you see photos of Deaner with 1980 U.S. Hockey Coach Herb Brooks, or a head shot from the girl on the Chocolate & Cheese cover? Keep up the good work Deaner – the world needs more celebrity blogs that don’t suck.
Let’s start the final day of the week off with a fresh batch of links:
Finally, the Daily Swarm clued us in on a terrific list detailing 10 Examples of Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music. We Believe Cher is totally to blame for this horrible fad, so we’re shocked that song didn’t make the list.
Pre-Ed Sullivan even: “Fifteen previously unreleased Beatles tracks recorded live in 1962 have been acquired by Fuego Entertainment, a production company which plans to release them in conjunction with the Echo Vista Group. The new tracks mark the first time the classic Beatles lineup was captured live on tape, shortly after Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as the band’s drummer.” [via CMJ]
You walk into the Paul Robeson Theater, a former church tucked away in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene, and the first thing that springs to mind is the timeless middle-school assembly. Should we say no to drugs, or to crime, or is someone about to raise a little more awareness about The AIDS? Are the 8th grade elections coming up? Four-day school weeks, motherfucker, promise me!
So you take your seat next to a lovely blonde and wait for the band that’s scheduled to play this hidden gem. They come out, they begin to tune, and instantly your drawn to the awesome acoustics of the small auditorium. The music bounces off the walls and the band immediately sounds the best they’ve ever been. Then it hits you: This may be the coolest venue you’ve never heard of, and you want everyone you’ve ever fancied to play on that stage…post-haste.
American Babies took that stage at 10:30 last night, part of the Paul Robeson Concert Series that’s begun to bring more rock acts to this underutilized venue. I’ve seen the Babies — Tom Hamilton and Scott Metzger on guitar, Jim Hamilton on bass and Sir Joe Russo at the kit — more times this year than any other band, and last night may have been their finest show of 2007. Read on…
The world wide supernet buzzed with the news that Wu-Tang Clan had been the first band to attain legal permission to sample The Beatles. But that beepbeepbeeping sound you hear is the Wu backtracking from their claim.
The band has since posted this message on its MySpace blog:
The statement that we made yesterday was incorrect and we apologize for any confusion it may have caused. We DID NOT sample the Beatles, i repeat, we DID NOT sample the Beatles, rather we did an INTERPOLATION of the classic George Harrison composition ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps.’ In a historic collaboration, Dhani Harrison, son of George, through his friendship with the RZA, played guitar on the song and he himself helped secure the REUSE LICENSE. Also appearing on the song are John Frusciante, guitar player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Erykah Badu singing the chorus.
So there you have it…sorta. The whole situation is fairly confusing, which was probably the goal when the Wu made the claim in the first place. Composition samples and master samples, who the fuck cares? Just take a listen to the track courtesy of loud.com and see whether you like it. If you or if you don’t, does any of it really matter? It’s the fucking Wu-Tang Clan, not Iran’s nucular program. My takeaway from this is that I need to read the Wu’s MySpace blog more often…
The Last Waltz, No Direction Home, Comes A Time…now Marty will produce a documentary about the life and times of George Harrison: “Pic will cover Harrison’s Beatles career and later years that included a successful solo music career as well as a foray as a movie mogul when he backed Handmade Films and made pics such as Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Time Bandits. Scorsese…will also focus closely on the Eastern spiritual pursuits that were central to Harrison’s life.” [Variety]
When The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, they entered the studio intent on making an album that couldn’t be reproduced live. Forty years after the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Fab Faux flawlessly recreated the legendary “unrecreateable” album at the Beacon Theater on Saturday.
From the time Del Shannon covered From Me To You in 1963, artists have been trying to re-interpret the work of The Beatles. What made The Fab Faux’s performance standout is that these guys believe in the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”: They played nearly every song exactly like the originals.
Since there were double-tracked vocals on Getting Better, there were two members of the band singing the same exact melody. Since Within You Without You features two different percussive instruments, so two members of the band played percussive instruments. While some cover bands don’t strive for accuracy, The Fab Faux have built their reputation on playing the songs exactly as The Beatles had recorded them. Read on after the jump for much more…
It’s time to fire up the Random Jamband Festival Lineup Generator once again: Umphrey’s McGee, Little Feat, Perpetual Groove and Rose Hill Drive have been tabbed to headline the Bear Creek Music Festival in Quincy, Florida on the weekend of November 16th - 18th. Tickets are on sale now for $70, but will increase to $85 this Sunday. This is great news, because I just saying to Ace, “You know what we need many more of? Festivals!” At this rate, within two years every weekend on the calendar will have a giant throwdown somewhere.
If we missed anything you deem oh-so-newsworthy, fee free to give us a shout by leaving a comment below…it’s considered cool to leave comments.
