The Saturday Morning Car-Tune News Report 08.29.09: The Story of An Artist

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 08.29.2009

Plenty of new music, including Daniel Johnston, Tegan and Sara, Bob Dylan, Portishead (kind of), Massive Attack, The Who and Scissor Sisters, along with a large mass of new music merchandise, potential films about Jimi Hendrix and Brian Epstein, thoughts on the passing of Ellie Greenwich and a brief essay on the tragedy surrounding artists that just never made it. Read all about it in the Saturday Morning Car-Tune News!

Welcome to the first collegiate edition of the Saturday Morning Car-Tune News! Hopefully nothing is different...I don't notice anything. In other news, I find it somehow appropriate that after last week's article, wherein I decried the medium of rock lists, my Top 5 was accidentally absent from this week's column. But apologies have been made and I was never really upset about that, so there's no worry. I just found it interesting. I hope there's no irony to this week's Star Power, because I fear what it could be. I would also like to mention that this week is an unofficial Daniel Johnston week, with news about him taking up a nice chunk of the news section, and one of his songs serving as this week's subtitle. Lastly, today would be Michael Jackson's 51st birthday. I don't know what to say about it, but I feel it deserves some kind of acknowledgment for some reason. Let's get to that there news.



- A few weeks ago I mentioned the new Daniel Johnston album, Is And Always Was. I mentioned October as the release month, but I didn't have a date. Now we do: October 6. Some brief additional news: the album will continue Johnston's recent glossy, hi-fi sound, and the song "Freedom" is available for you to listen to here. It's what you'd expect, if you were me. The track list apparently also features an updated version of "I Had Lost My Mind," in tradition of the version of "The Beatles" featured on Lost and Found. While I don't mind including little nods like this, and the New York Dolls proved that such a thing can be completely harmless, I become weary of the day he decides to do a full album of "updates." Further I'm saddened by my eventual realization that the album lacks recent live staples "Mean Girls Give Pleasure," "There Is A Sense of Humor Way Beyond Friendship" and "Mask." Especially "Mean Girls," which is just an amazing song. But regardless, for now I continue to celebrate new Danny. Due to their size, I decided to stretch out the album covers, the blue one being the CD cover and the other one being the LP cover.



- In semi-related news, Kurt Cobain is going to follow the trend set by Johnny Cash and Jimi Hendrix, and be computerized from beyond the grave! Why is this related? Why do I, an ardent anti-Nirvana man care? Well, guess what shirt he's wearing. And if you can't do that, just pick four words at random that you think fit.



- Portishead fans, fear not the band's long sabbatical between records. Well, ok, fear a little bit, but this is somewhat hopeful. Geoff Barrow, one third of Portishead (producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter) has formed another band: Beak>. Typing that I knew it'd be hard to tag, and by golly, it was. Anyway, their album is due out October 20. Geoff, usually a perfectionist, set strict deadlines for himself in order to assure that an album would be released as soon as possible. Now here's hoping Beth and Adrian follow suit.



- Massive Attack, long rumored to have been working on an album, are set to release...an EP? What? Well, I guess it'll do. The EP is called Splitting The Atom, due October 5. In grand tradition, the album features guest vocals from Tunde Adebimpe, Martina Topley-Bird, Guy Garvey and frequent collaborator Horace Andy. All for tracks are new, though two are remixes. Hopefully this is just a primer for the upcoming album and not a stopgap. Either way, it will probably be pretty good.

- Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Bobby Darin, Michael Jackson, Hank Williams...Jimi Hendrix?! I can't get much more cryptic, so I'll just come out and explain it for you: Legendary Pictures is attempting to develop a Hendrix biopic, produced by the same man who produced the guitar documentary It Might Get Loud. The hiccup: Hendrix' estate has been firm in their feeling there should not be a Jimi picture. Stay tuned, fans and future fans alike.

- Speaking of which...that list again, ...Brian Epstein?! Though not technically a musician himself, he certainly has a huge impact on music as the primary manager for The Beatles from 1961 to his 1967 death. I think George Martin has a good stake to the claim, but no less a source than Paul McCartney says that if there was indeed a "Fifth Beatle," it was Brian. Some go so far as to partially credit his death with the band's dissolution. The producer will be Dave Permut, the writer Tony Gittelson, the title A Day in the Life. This could be cool, but I have a feeling the focus will be overly Beatles.



- So, that Bob Dylan Christmas album...it's got a name and release date. Christmas in the Heart, coming October 13. I think that's a little early, but I don't purport to fully understand Christmas marketing. The cool part: Dylan will be donating all proceeds from this album to Feeding America, a not-for-profit group with a relatively obvious goal, so I won't explain it. Apparently, he'll also be donating the vast majority of all of his future proceeds to the organization. Still no release date, but I'm sure it'll be pretty funny.

- Michael Jackson didn't overdose...he was murdered! ...in the form of a overdose of medication he asked for! Look, don't get me wrong, it's a tragedy and the guy that gave him the shot could have refused and everything, but this isn't murder. Involuntary manslaughter as best. That ends the legal portion of this week's article.

- I feel like I reported this already, but as often happens, more information comes up after the initial announcement, which is when I would have posted it, so here's the rest. Tegan and Sara's next album, Sainthood, is coming October 27. If I said all that before, the alleged album cover is below. The track list was also announced, but I never understand the interest in them if there's no guest stars or really notable tracks. Not to say I'm un-excited, but...I don't know. The real new news: there will be a (possibly small) tour following the album, starting with a few late October dates in select major cities. Hopefully more will be announced later.



- In a move that will have people who heard Endless Wire saying "we won't be fooled again," The Who have announced they are working on new material. The next album will be a musical/rock opera similar in style to Tommy or Quadrophenia, and is to be called Floss. However, there is question to whether the songs will first appear recorded or on stage, as Townshend is shooting for a 2011 premiere, but a 2010 release date. The question becomes whether or not the band are planning to use the same songs

- Insound, an online music merchandise site, has started its "Classic 10" series. Well, maybe it's not a series. I don't know what to call it. Whatever it is, it features merchandising for Richard Hell, Galaxie 500, The Magnetic Fields, Feelies, Beat Happening and many more. The artwork was designed by Mike Perry, and can be bought on a shirt, tote bag or poster. Can't say I understand all of it, but some of the designs and all of the bands are pretty great, so I'll promote it, sure.

- Beck web site update: the Videotheque section contains all videos for Mellow Gold, the music section features lyrics and audio clips for all albums between Mellow Gold and Modern Guilt, and the merchandise section contains some nifty Mellow Gold wear. There's also apparently a fancy new newsletter, which I will update you on next week for I just subscribed. All that and more at his website. Also, check out the European Son cover, which officially ends the first album in the Record Club series.



- I've been falling behind on the death announcements, which I guess is a good thing. But oh well, here we go again. Ellie Greenwich, co-credit on countless Brill Building pop songs throughout the 60s and a frequent collaborator of Phil Spector, has died of a heart attack at the age of 68. To name just a few of her greatest songs: "Be My Baby," "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," "Chapel of Love," "Baby, I Love You," "Leader of the Pack" and "River Deep - Mountain High." Though never hugely in the spotlight, her legend has firmly been made thanks to these spectacular songs, and she will be missed.

- Scissor Sisters have a new record along the way, and based on what Jake Shears has told Popjustice, it seems to be pretty much done. The band has decided to wait until March to release the album for marketing reasons. Words and terms used to describe the record include "night time," "supersexual," "sleazy," "epic" and "elevating." That all seems about right, as long as nighttime is implying everybody disco dancing night time, and not alone in a ditch covered in vomit night time. Not that I've ever experienced the latter, but it's not an image that evokes the Scissor Sisters to me.

Star Power

This week is an interesting topic, since there's not much I can say in terms of examples here. It's more a sad reality. Something that a lot of you amateur guitarists don't want to hear. Well, maybe not you, you have good taste as evidenced by reading this. But there are such guitarists that would do anything but accept this. Some people just suck at music. I learned this while pondering my new job as Music Director at my college radio station. Though I have a whole department to help me, it's ultimately my job to decide whether or not something's good enough to be played on the radio. And a lot of it just isn't.



This isn't something we like to admit. The main reason is because musicians, or at least the so-called serious ones, really want to make it. But they suck. There's an episode of Freaks and Geeks called "I'm With The Band" where Nick Andopolis must come to terms with the fact he'll never make it as a musician. And what does he do to the person who tells him he sucks? Yell at her and claim she isn't supporting him. Then he starts stalking her, but that's a different story, I guess. The point is, occasionally we refuse to tell someone the truth because we fear that they will hate us for it. I know that my reaction to a bad CD isn't calling up the person who sent it me and telling them to give up, it's ignoring it until it goes away. However, it just so happens that it's hard to make a dream go away.

Perhaps what's even worse is musicians who don't suck, but just can't make it. Sometimes it's bad marketing, sometimes its bad luck. For as many bad CDs I've listened to and hated, there's probably a good one I haven't heard of. This is obviously multiplied by all the other music directors of the world. And surely those CDs got played somewhere, but the right person or people didn't hear it to make it a real hit. To quote The Kids in the Hall, everyone almost makes it. Or, as the original line went, The Georgia Satellites almost made it. Anvil are still cranking it out thirty some years later, and even with a highly acclaimed documentary, I would argue they still haven't made it. It's a tough world.

All we need to do to see how hard it can be to make it is look at how long it took certain things to become mainstream. Modest Mouse was around since 1996, but it wasn't until eight years later when "Float On" caught on that they really "made it," so to speak. Sure, they had their fan base, but on the mass level, no one knew or cared. Just the other day I was reading Rolling Stone's "breaking music," Portugal. The Man. This is just after the band's fourth album. Maybe it's just me, but the term "breaking" implies brand new and fresh, not groups and people that are essentially veterans.


Who are these women and how are they better than Elvis Costello? Read on!

Now let's say a few words about the nonsense that is the Grammy Award for "Best New Music." What do A Taste of Honey and Hootie & The Blowfish have in common? They've both won Best New Music within a year of their debut, and no one cares about them today. When The Beatles aren't nominated for your new music award until 1965, by which point they had four or five albums out, you should revise the system. But instead, they kept the same miserable idea for over forty years. However, both points remain. It can take a while to break into the mainstream (or at least critical acceptance, I suppose), and that even when you think you made it, you didn't. People forget. You aren't that good.

Now, don't get me wrong. I kind of touched on this earlier, but I want to make it clear. The fact that you didn't make it doesn't mean you aren't good. The greatest guitarist in the world is probably some Portuguese woman who never leaves her house who no one will ever hear. However, some people just suck. And the point today is just to get people to recognize that not everyone makes it.

I realize this week's Star Power was kind of short, but hey, there was actually news this week, so I got to be quick and philosophical or something.

Farewell Song

They called it the summer of love, they did. Of course, being so lovely and idiosyncratic, neither my pick for the song nor album of the year really represents that. The song of the year is perhaps the prettiest folk ballad of all time, by one of my all time favorite singers. Reportedly, when John Lennon first heard the album featuring this song, the artist's first major album, he loved it so much he listened to it for two days straight, followed by calling him and offering praise. Paul McCartney was soon to do the same. Though he expressed some sadness that he received no phone call from George or Ringo two days later, there's nary a better complement than half of the biggest group in the world taking time out to tell you you're great. That great man is Harry Nilsson, and that great album is his "official" debut, Pandemonium Shadow Show. That isn't the album of the year, but it does contain the song of the year: "Without Her."

The album of the year is oft considered one of the all time most influential. Interesting side note, my top are essentially by the same people. The number one is The Velvet Underground & Nico, and the number two is Nico's solo Chelsea Girl.

And there you have it, folks! I hope college hasn't marred my abilities, and you all still love me. If you do, prove it by joining us next week on the Saturday Morning Car-Tune News!