"So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." JFK, June 10, 1963.
Natalie Mering who performs as Weyes Blood, released this statement along with the video.
Good day everyone,
Here is a video for my song “Wild Time” that was shot on 16mm pre-Pandemic, then edited together during isolation. Felt like the right time to let this video out into the world, seeing as we’re all getting saddled down by some pretty grim realities. This song is about yearning for wildness and Mother Nature in a time of chaos. It’s for sensitive people who worry about the fate of humanity and feel powerless to do anything about it.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking apocalyptic thoughts and realizing that won’t get you anywhere. What if the world has always been ending? What if the sprawl of our cities are just as wild as the forests? What if climate change and the destruction of our natural habitat is a reflection of the nature within us, however sublimely horrifying and hard to understand? We’re animals, we play out a very precarious drama of life, and we grasp for what’s left of the protective womb—but maybe the notion that we’re somehow separated from her is an illusion. Maybe it is, truly, a wild time to be alive. Maybe getting in touch with that as a culture and society would avert the worst case scenarios of ecological crisis and existential dread.
If you’ve gotten this far, wow, thank you for actually taking the time to read this. In other news, as you may have assumed, I am canceling all of my headline shows for 2020, but I’m beginning to work on my next album that will come out in 2021—a different time, when hopefully we can see each other face to face once again.
Waxahatchee (aka Katie Crutchfield) released Saint Cloudin March via Merge Records. In the wake of her postponed spring tour, Waxahatchee has announced a series of livestreams that will take her through her entire discography. A full schedule and rundown is below. Tickets $15 per show and $50 for the entire series.
Katie had this to say about the shows:
I’m announcing a run of five livestreams where I play all five of my albums in their entirety. This idea was born as a way to help support my band and crew through this time where we’ve had to cancel and move shows, thus causing a huge financial burden. I’m also donating a portion of the ticket sales to indie promoters around the country who have been so warm and hospitable to me over the years but are now facing a huge strain on their business.
I’ve wanted to go back into my catalog and play some of the deep cuts for a while, and this seems like a perfect way for me to do it. Join us every Monday in June.
The important Primavera Festival, held annually in Barcelona, Spain, announced they were postponing their 2020 festival, but that many of the artists that had been scheduled for 2020 would perform at the festival in 2021... including Pavement, a band with a cult following that broke up in 1999.
Pavement had a hugely successful reunion tour in 2010 and had been rumored to be reuniting for a new tour.
In addition to the Primavera Festival, it is believed Pavement will play several venues and festivals in North America and Europe throughout 2021.
Here's a video of Pavement's two great guitarists Stephen Malkmus and Spiral Stairs doing "Summer Babe" we shot a few years back:
I've always loved this song, written by Nick Lowe and popularized by Elvis Costello.
Sharon and Josh do an awesome version.
What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding? No one's been able to answer that question satisfactorily...
Here's a video I shot in Oakland a few years back featuring Josh playing with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones as Them Crooked Vultures; truly a supergroup:
The Band, Frances Quinlan, Damon Albarn, The 1975, Chuck Prophet, Norah Jones, The Neverly Boys, Jeff Rosenstock, Wilco, Bob Dylan, Sharon Van Etten, Josh Homme, Queens Of The Stone Age, Phoebe Bridgers, Fontaines D.C., Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, The Clash, The Jam, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, David Bowie, Manassas, The Talking Heads, Jesus Christ Superstar.
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MOVIES/TV/VIDEOS
Once Were Brothers (2020): Music Documentary, directed by Martin Scorsese, based on Robbie Robertson's memoir Testimony. This is Robbie's version of the story of The Band, and it's well-worth seeing, as long as you know that in advance. Great footage of Dylan, Woodstock, etc...Still, it does make you wonder why the only other surviving Band member, Garth Hudson, does not appear in any current day footage to discuss the past.
The Plot Against America (2020): HBO (6-Episode Miniseries)
The Plot Against America is based on a 2004 book by the late Philip Roth, which you really should read. If you do, you'll find that the book, like this mini-series, offers a number of chilling echoes of our current Trumpian creep towards totalitarianism in a reimagined 1940's America, where aviator hero and Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh wins the presidency... in part by targeting Jews as a nefarious population, which leads to tragic consequences (naturally). The always wonderful John Turturro stars, with excellent turns by Winona Ryder, Anthony Boyle, Zoe Kazan, and Caleb Malis.
Damon Albarn performing Gorillaz "Aries' on "Jimmy Kimmel Live":
ALBUMS The 1975Notes On A Conditional Form. Top-notch album. Sure to be a hit. I like "People" and the cameo from Greta on the song "The 1975".
Chuck ProphetThe Land That Time Forgot. He writes new songs, like "Marathon", that sound like covers of forgotten classics.
Norah JonesPick Me Up Off The Floor. Norah's been doing Corona Concerts online which are really great! The Neverly Boys Dark Side Of Everything. "Never Come Down" is a stand-out track.
Jeff RosenstockNo Dream. Great new album! Check it out!
SINGLES Wilco "Tell Your Friends". Cool, new single, available on Bandcamp for $1, a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen:
Bob Dylan"False Prophet". Summer tour cancelled due to Corona... but a new album coming out and no more Sinatra!
Sharon Van Etten"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding?" (feat Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age). The Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello mega-classic gets a nice treatment here by this unlikely, but totes legit duo. P.S. Nick Lowe makes a cameo in the video.
Phoebe Bridgers"I See You". Phoebe continues to build excitement for her forthcoming sophomore release Punisher with this new single.
Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, The Clash, The Jam, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, David Bowie, Manassas, The Talking Heads, Jesus Christ Superstar.
@JimCarrey: 90,0000 in the US, over 40,000 in the UK. Highest death tolls in the covid world. Half of those deaths...preventable. REDRUM! REDRUM!! REDRUM!!!
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco appeared on Colbert singing "Jesus, Etc." Wilco has a new single on Bandcamp "Tell Your Friends" for $1 as a fundraiser for World Central Kitchen.
Aiden Gillen, who we loved to hate as "Littlefinger" in Game Of Thrones, stars in a new video of a song by the Irish band Fontaines D.C. The song is called "A Hero's Death", which is also the title of the band's sophomore album (coming out July 31, 2020 on Partisan). The band's breakthrough single on their first album from last year was "Big":
ARCHIVAL
Fred Neil (all), Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler collaboration Neck And Neck (1990), CSNY "Horses Through A Rainstorm" (1969 Deju Vu outtake by Terry Reid).
HEAVY ROTATION
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Waxahatchee, Fiona Apple, Stephen Malkmus
Check out Carla's new collection of her collaborations "Have Harmony, Will Travel 2" feat such artists as Gene Clark, Stephen McCarthy, Timothy B. Schmit, Peter Noone, Terry Reid, and Percy Sledge.
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Tony Allen, Fela's drummer, a true pioneer in blending African and Western music. He later played with Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur) in both The Good, The Bad, & The Queen (which featured The Clash's Paul Simonon on bass) and in Rocket Juice and The Moon (who put out a 2012 album feat Flea on bass).
Allen played percussion on this newly-released Gorillaz track "How Far?" (above)... ... and at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1978 (below), Allen played with Fela and The Cream's Ginger Baker:
Damon Albarn provided the vocals and Tony Allen the percussion on 2014's "Go Back", which appeared on Allen's Film Of Life album...
