End of the Month Music Bitchfest - October 2012

Eels

POSTED ON THE OFFICIAL EELS WEB SITE:

10/19/12: Hi.

HE'S NOT DEAD!!!!!
WOOOOOOO!!!!!

And, if that wasn't exciting enough (which it TOTALLY was), on October 22nd, a BRAND NEW EELS ALBUM WAS ANNOUNCED!!!!
It's called Wonderful, Glorious* and is slated for release on February 5th, 2013.
Here is a link to the full album write-up from the official web site.

Below is the cover art and track list.

01  bombs away
02  kinda fuzzy
03  accident prone
04  peach blossom
05  on the ropes
06  the turnaround
07  new alphabet
08  stick together
09  true original
10  open my present
11  you're my friend
12  i am building a shrine
13  wonderful, glorious

I am...SO unutterably happy a.) that E is not dead and b.) that, after his first contact with the outside world in OVER A YEAR, three days later, he drops a track list, cover art and a release date. Boom. THAT, my friends, is how it's fucking done. None of this cryptic, blurry image, "I'm very excited to be working on something I can't tell you about ever and you won't hear for a decade and which might not even be real but would be really cool if it was but anyway it's due out in 2022 for sure maybe unless I have two fucking kids" bullshit.
Fucking boom.
I'll see you in February, E.
I look forward to two singles and a music video before then.
PRAISE JESUS! E IS NOT DEAD!!!!

Aaaaand, speaking of the aforementioned cryptic, blurry, etc. etc. bullshit...


Nine Inch Nails

Something. Is actually. Finally. Happening.
And I'm going to mercilessly criticize it and tear it down because it isn't exactly what I want, when I want it.
Let's do this.

First off, some Trenty Reznory business.

On October 16th, Trent posted the following on his Facebook page:

Some of you may have read that I have begun working with Beats By Dre. For the past year I have indeed been involved with Dre, Jimmy Iovine, Luke Wood, and the rest of the team on a number of very interesting projects that will start to emerge next year. I have been wanting to experiment and focus my energy and creativity in some different directions, and Beats has afforded me that very opportunity. The process has been challenging and fascinating and as much as I'd like to tell you about the things we've dreamed up... I just can't. 

Not yet...

(I can tell you it's probably not what you're expecting!)

Great.
Another nebulous, potentially non-existent thing to look forward to and then ask about in twelve years only to have Reznor smile knowingly and say "soon" to. WHY are you teasing things THIS FAR OUT?! If you have no details to share, fucking keep your god damn mouth shut!! Remember that Year Zero HBO mini-series he was working on? Since 2007? No? THAT'S BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE.

We'll all be long dead before any Nine Inch Nails/Dre collabo drops.
Truth.


And now, here's a little fuckrant I've entitled: How to destroy expectations_ "A fuckrant_"

On October 8th, Zane Lowe's ridiculous show over on BBC 1 debuted a brand new How to destroy angels_** track from their upcoming EP, "An omen EP_"***, entitled, "Keep it together".
While I enjoy the textures and the juxtaposition between the thudding, sludgy bass swamp and Mariqueen's glassy, almost birdlike voice, it reminds me of both "BBB" and "The Believers", and I wish it had kept evolving rather than just repeating the middle of itself.
And that's all I'm saying about the song.****
You can watch what might be the most exciting music video ever for "Keep it together" here.*****
Reznor also had a little phone chat with Lowe, during which Zane practically begging Reznor to reveal anything, which he did not.
But...what could he possibly reveal that we can't intuit from his signing with Columbia?
Now that he is back on a major label, a whole lot of mystery has been removed from HTDA.
When you are independent, you can release a song, video or entire album with, literally, no notice whatsoever.
You update your site with a link, then post on Twitter that "fans should probably head over to whatever.com for a surprise", and I fucking LOVE that freedom. I LOVE being surprised by stuff like that and Reznor LOVES doing it.
But, now he's back on a label...
The biggest downsides I can see that come with signing to a major label, from a fan's perspective, are the time between "this album is done" and "here is the album" and also the rigidity of the release schedule. The release schedule for the new HTDA album, coming in "early 2013", was probably written down and signed  and approved by dozens of people not even tangentially associated with the creation of the band or the music, months ago.
The release cycle officially began a few weeks ago with the announcement of the EP and the official website update.
From this point on, everything is on rails and has a date next to it.

Image #4 (wires and soundboard w/microphone):
to be posted no later than 00:00:00 EST 10/11/12

           Dave Sitek remix of "Keep it together":
    to be posted no later than 15:19:00 EST 10/18/12

    In-studio video clip #2 feat. sound loop B    (w/Mariqueen's fingernails):
    to be posted no later than 00:00:00 EST 11/02/12

Etc.
And, you remember back in July when Reznor said "we are doing a different type of distribution this time so it's taking a bit longer to coordinate stuff"?
Well.
Get ready to have your brains exploded from the backs of your heads.
The day after its debut on BBC 1 and their official website and Pitchfork and YouTube and everything else...one could purchase this song in a format called "mp3" from an Internet store front called Amazon.com...
I'll give you a second to recover, catch your breath and all that.
That's right, Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails/How to destroy angels_/ultra-innovative, bleeding edge music distribution technology fans! The future is...when was Amazon.com founded? 1997? 1995?
The future is 1995!!!!
*sigh*
As I said before: you aren't going to reinvent the wheel of music distribution here, so just get the music to the people that want to hear it.
As much as I enjoy HTDA and NIN and Reznor and all that, I do grasp that this is NOT for everybody. Honestly, who saw one of those clips with the big fuzzy guitar noise or the menacing buzzy thing or the disinterested looking dude playing bass and was like, "this, THIS is what I've been waiting for!!!"?
And, even if they did, they saw it, did some searching on the Internet and then discovered that this cool sound loop is indicative of something not coming out for over a year!
I don't know...Reznor just seems to be fighting himself when it comes to all this release date calenderization.
It's a shitty place for an artist: either you're indie and get all the freedom in the world, including the freedom to have no one hear your music EVER or you lock in with a huge, dying, cash-hemorrhaging record label staffed with people that see you as ink on a spreadsheet but who will get you interviews with the hottest new MTV VJ there is...and you STILL might end up not having anyone listen to your shit!
This is why I only make/release really bad stuff, because, that way, I'll never have to worry about any of this bullshit.

Anyway.
The new How to destroy angels_ EP, "An omen EP_"****** is set for release no later than 00:00:00 11/13/12.
Make sure to check it out, or they won't shift any units and the grandad robots will powder their eggs into chicken baskets what?


Beck

Beck did a remix (although this is so much more than a remix) of Philip Glass' "NYC: 73-78" which "includes snippets from more than 20 Glass songs, which (he) cut together and re-imagined". It's over 20 minutes long and it's one of the reasons I still haven't written this space case motherfucker off. You can check it out here. It's pretty amazing.

And, he announced recently that artists "known and unknown" would be recording the twenty songs off his new "album", Song Reader.
Not him though.
Never him.


They Might Be Giants

Nothing on the music front (unless you count the fact that I got the two superspecialexclusive IFC vinyls converted to .wavs...and I do. With their next vinyl mailing thrown in alongside the 2011 and other 2012 musical offerings, there's actually going to be about an albums worth of completely original TMBG music for those in the IFC. Worth. The money.), but there has been some movement on the Pizza Front.
Which is a thing.
I just made up.
So, do any of you recall that I shot, directed and starred in a They Might Be Giants video for their song "Can't Keep Johnny Down"?
Of course you don't. Neither did fucking John Hodgman.
Hang on.
*breath*
Okay, so They Might Be Giants put up a contest to make your own video for their new single. The grand prize winner would receive a thousand dollars and a pizza from John Hodgman, as he was to be the sole judge of said contest. Long story short, I was chosen by Hodgman as one of the runners up ("Best Use of Polaroids") and I was to receive a free t-shirt from TMBG and a free pizza from John Hodgman. The contest ended in July of 2011. I have yet to receive my pizza. I've tweeted Hodgman and he told me to e-mail him. I emailed him and he never responded. I e-mailed him again, and he continued to not respond. Jump forward to about a week ago.
I figure, since they thought up the contest and, as a member of the IFC, I have direct access to them, that I should take the matter upstairs, as it were.
So, I explained the situation to Flans and asked if he could do anything.
Guys, I didn't expect anything.
Flans asks me the address of the pizza place and what day I want the pizza.
I told him around 8 pm on Saturday night..
And it did not happen.
I blame both Hodgman and Hurricane Sandy.
But the hurricane is over, Hodgman, and I want my fucking pizza.



In more Trent Reznor related news*******, he, Atticus Ross and Alessandro Cortini remixed a track by Ladytron wannabes, Telepathe, as a favor to Dave Sitek (of TV On The Radio) who is starting his own label, Federal Prism.
I feel bad for Telepathe because everyone is going to check out the TR/AR/AC remix of "Destroyer", then check out their album (coming early next year) and then ignore the album and go back to the remix, wishing all the while that Reznor had produced it.
SO bittersweet...
The Sitek remix (which might serve as the album version, I'm not sure) is pretty good, but Reznor and friends' mix is outstanding, starting off kind of annoying with metallic blips backing up the bland vocals, and then evolving into something that Telepathe will never be on their own.
Anyone who has heard and enjoyed the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo score will dig this version a lot.
I'll keep an ear out for their upcoming stuff but don't be surprised if I never refer to these girls again.
Sorry.
Also, you misspelled "telepath".
Or "telepathy".

Marilyn Manson has a new video out for "Hey, Cruel World" that is sort of an ad for his tour I suppose?
It's a lot of live footage and close ups of him sticking his fingers in his mouth which, hopefully, he washed before this shoot because I honestly can't think of anything dirtier than Marilyn Manson's hands. Nothing really interesting going on, but there are some cool masks.

Next, the brand new tweaker album, Call The Time Eternity, came out on the 23rd.
You can read the review of this disappointing release here.

And, finally, thanks to Christina, I have been listening to Maximum Balloon, an collaboration between TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek and a bunch of folks, including Little Dragon and the rest of TVOTR. There is a lot of really great stuff on there, like "Tiger", which has the energy and boogie of a Prince song, "The Lesson" which is melodic, dark and hot, and "Apartment Wrestling", which must have been recorded during/right before the Love This Giant sessions, because it's SO David Byrne from Love This Giant that...aw man it's awesome. It came out in 2010 and somehow we missed it until just now, but we're happy to have it in our ears.

And, totally finally for real, I picked up the Philip Glass remix album (Rework) where that cool Beck thing is from, just today, October 31st, so I may or may not have something to say about that next month.
I don't really know much about Glass except for the fact that he likes notes to go up and down fast and frequently, so this could be an enlightening and confusing experience for me.
And.
That's it.





* Which has to be good because naming it as such opens it up for a lot of mockery if it isn't.

** Again, that's "How to destroy angels_", not "How To Destroy Angels". Because capitalizing all the letters at the beginning of each of the words in your band name and not have underscores is decidedly UN-indie. Make a note, assholes.

*** Ugh, fucking get over yourselves.


**** I can feel both your surprise and relief. You're welcome.

***** Slightly more exciting music video here.

****** Already done with this weird spelling/typeface bullshit...

******* One song and one remix?! This is a motherfucking avalanche of Trent Reznor!!!!