5.31.11
4:05 pm
A month hath passed....let us bitch.
First off, my top five:
Nine Inch Nails
And here I was expecting to have nothing for you.
Instead, I have a very tiny bit of something.
Almost nothing, but still, technically, something.
Like...how many grains of sand do you need before you can call it a pile?
That kind of thing.
And it isn't even Nine Inch Nails news, technically.
Anyway, enough backing and filling.
Some European types Twittered on Friday or Saturday that, before the Hangover Part 2, there was a "red band"* teaser for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which featured a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" with vocals by Karen O. (of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and music (apparently) by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It has since been confirmed by Reznor that it was, in fact, Reznor and Ross. Over the past three days, this "leaked" teaser** has racked up approximately 1.3 million views on You Tube, spurring a response from Reznor along the lines of "thanks for the excellent reaction, the U.S. "green band" trailer is hitting this week with sound specifically engineered for theaters, so enjoy".
Only that nerd would design a teaser's sound specifically for theaters.
God bless you, Nine Inch Nail...
The song itself harkens back to Saul Williams' cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" which, for lack of a better term, is a Nine Inch Nailsy version of the original U2 track.
It's darker, heavier and scarier.
The Led Zep cover has the signature NIN electronic sound, including heavy, processed guitar, fuzz and sonic distortion.
I've never been a fan of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and this track really changes nothing. I will say that her vocals laid over Reznor and Ross' rearrangement make this song so much more sinister than the original, matching perfectly with the tone of the teaser and, from what I've read about the FIncher remake, the film itself.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which has been given the tag line, "The feel bad movie of Christmas", is slated for release in the U.S. at the end of December, so, if the release schedule of the Social Network score was any indication, there should be a 5-track preview EP (or something along those lines) popping up some time in the next few months (or some time around then) and the full score release (most likely in multiple formats) some time in November (or early December).
Again, this is all based entirely on how Reznor and the movie company do things, but Reznor has always been an advocate of the "first taste is free" method of music distribution, so, yeah.
Here's hoping they give Dragon Tattoo the same 5.1 treatment as they gave Social Network.
Here's also hoping the music for this film actually fits the film.
No word yet on new Nine Inch Nails or new How To Destroy Angels, but, according to Reznor, they will be mixing the HTDA "this summer", so that narrows it down to the next three months...unless he changes his god damn mind and scraps the whole thing.
Fucking nerd.
Fucking new-husband-newer-father-busy-with-his-own-personal-life-and-not-my-own-entertainment nerd.
Oh, and there was one tiny other thing...
In April, Robbie Robertson's "How To Become Clairvoyant" was released and Reznor was accredited for "additional ambience" (or something like that) on the instrumental track "Madame X".
The track features Robertson's warm, acoustic guitar laid over Reznor's unsettling, stammering violins, so reminiscent of "Hand Covers Bruise" from the Social Network score that it might even be the same sound file, and is not worth the price of the album.
But, whatever.
At least it's something.
Something that is almost nothing.
Which is better than...
Cake
Nothing.
Touring.
Snarking.
Same mumbles of doing a new album this year, but (and with any other band this would be hyperbole), they might just be saying this to fuck with me.
They Might Be Giants
No new tracks except for one, "Fellowship of Hell", when Flansburgh releases as a podcast a few weeks ago. It's the most interesting thing from the album sessions thus far and he says it will not be on the album so...yeah.
Thanks?
Asshole?
TMBG released half of their tour dates for the first leg of their Join Us tour, starting at the end of July, with much more to come.
The new album, "Join Us", is still slated for a July 19th release.
Eels
Starting their "Tremendous Dynamite" tour tomorrow with some warm up shows in California.
The El Ray or the Galaxy?
I wouldn't be surprised if there were a new song or two debuted on this tour, but, then again, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't.
E still has that pass I issued him on behalf of all Eels fans last month.
It expires when I get antsy and begin to jones for new Eels music.
Looking forward to what covers they'll be playing though, as they've done on, literally, every tour to date.
Highlights include "If I Was Your Girlfriend" from their first tour, "Get Ur Freak On" from their Bus Driving, Band Rocking tour and "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" from the Eels With Strings tour.
Eels always puts on a great show, even if it's not the great show you were expecting or even wanting.
I'd highly recommend people get out there to see them.
Beck
The Beck-produced Thurston Moore album, "Demolished Thoughts", came out recently and, while you can completely tell that Beck produced it, it doesn't really do much for me.
Then again, I've never really gotten Sonic Youth so the fact that I don't really enjoy the lead singers solo effort is my bad, I suppose.
It has a few great moments, but not enough to require repeat listening, at least in my case.
Some of it sounds like Moore trying for the same feel that Beck's "Sea Change" had, although that might just be Beck's hand on the knobs.
Whatever the case, Beck hasn't announced anything since the release of "Demolished Thoughts", so take what you will from that.
Whether he has nothing in the pipeline (doubtful, based on statements made by him regarding a whole album just waiting for release) or he's just waiting for Moore's album to gain some distance before taking over the spotlight with his own new project.
Nothing really solid with any of the other aforementioned bands.
Both Mansons have been quiet, except for Marilyn's erratic, overly artsy, "I'm about to change the way people think about thinking about things...FOREVER" photo blog posts. St. Vincent is still, supposedly, working on her new solo album and her collaboration with David Byrne.
Two additions to last month's Bitchfest: Tori Amos and Tweaker.
Tori Amos has announced a new album dropping in September. It's called "Night of The Huntress" and her write up of it sounds amazing:
"It's a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years. I have used the structure of a song cycle to tell an ongoing, modern story. The protagonist is a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship. In the course of one night she goes through an initiation of sorts that leads her to reinvent herself allowing the listener to follow her on a journey to explore complex musical and emotional subject matter. One of the main themes explored on this album is the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us."
Problem with Tori is, while a lot of her concepts and visions for her albums are great, she hasn't really had a great album in a while.
I had actually lost hope until she put out "American Doll Posse" a few years back, an ambitious and complex work told from the perspectives of several different women, each with a unique voice and role in the album. While it worked well and marked, at least to some extent, the return of Tori making interesting, fiery music to go along with her interesting, fiery concepts, she lost me with her sub-par follow ups, "Abnormally Addicted To Sin" and "Midwinter Graces".
So, while this could be an incredible album...I'm going to wait until I actually hear some of it to get my hopes up.
Call me a rebel...I've heard it before.
And, as for Tweaker, the man behind the madness, ex-NIN drummer, Chris Vrenna has been wasting his time programming and touring with Marilyn Mason for the past...shit, five plus years?
Wow.
Talk about your time sinks...
Vrenna has some amazing drum and programming skills and it was crushing to see them completely wasted on Manson's most recent turd, "The High End of Low". There was one interesting song on the album. It was called "15" and if Vrenna didn't have EVERYTHING to do with the unique sound of it, I'll eat both my legs.
Tweaker was his solo project he launched in 2001.
It was mostly soundscapes created by Vrenna with the occasional guest singer (Will Oldham of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think, Robert Smith of The Cure, Hamilton Leithauser of the Walkmen and a host of others).
He's put out two albums thus far ("The Attraction To All Things Uncertain" and "2 a.m. wakeup call"), both which have some really great sounds on them and, as of November, 2010, the official Tweaker page has had the note "tweaker returns in 2011" posted.
Chris...it's June.
You have six months.
Please, if that awful Marilyn Manson has hurt you, tell someone, let a policeman know and we can have him put away for a long, long time.
It's NOT YOUR FAULT.
But, anyway, highly anticipating that one as well.
And just today, Alessandro Cortini, ex-keyboardist for Nine Inch Nails, put up information about his second release as SONOIO, entitled "Red". His plan, which he explained in a recent interview, is to release three works, somewhere between the length of an EP and a full album, in a year. The first, "Blue", had a few very strong pieces on it, but I wouldn't say he was breaking any new ground in the world of electronic music. If you pre-order "Red", you receive the first four tracks, some demos and an HD video. The album itself comes out June 20th.
I've downloaded the pre-order stuff but have yet to listen it. I'm hoping the titles are more than just design choices. I'd like for "Red" to serve as a counterpoint to "Blue"'s more or less mellow, droney vibe. It would be interesting to hear Cortini rip some shit up.
Musically, of course.
If it's worth remembering***, I'll mention it.
I believe I'm all bitched out...for now.
I'll return to this in a month, hopefully with a cornucopia of music news.
Sweet, sweet esoteric music news.
*As opposed to the "green band" teaser/trailer, which is appropriate for all ages.
**The trailer was "bootlegged" but the dubious fake bad quality of said bootleg had lead some people to question just how bootlegged it really is.
*** That choice of words was very clever because on SONOIO "Blue", there's a song called "Not Worth Remembering". I'm very clever.
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