Midweek Music News Roundup 11.18.09: Unplugged

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 11.18.2009

New music from Beck, Tom Waits, The Magnetic Fields, new media about the lives of Robert Johnson and Fela Kuti, indie rockers in jeopardy (but just a few, and it's rather specific), new tours from Oasis minus Noel and The Magnetic Fields (again), and a look into MTV Unplugged. Catch it here on the Midweek Music News Roundup.

After like three weeks of hate mail because I dissed a-Ha, I have no grand statement to enter with this week. Oh well.



- The third edition of Beck's Record Club series is about to get started, and it's bound to be an indie hit. Hinted at a while ago, this is Beck's take on Skip Spence's cult favorite, Oar. Featured on the recordings with Beck will be Wilco, Jamie Lidell and Feist, likely amongst other surprises. Track one is up and all I can say is: more Oar.

- The Who are going to the SuperBowl! Following recent old timers such as Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones and Prince, The Who will be the next legendary act to play the SuperBowl half time show. Some are complaining that the SuperBowl needs to update its act. I say after Petty, anything's a step in the right direction. The Who will surely rock to the end.

- It's never too late to cash in on a dead musician. It's been reported that more than a few film companies are looking in to the possibility of releasing a film about the life of Robert Johnson. This could actually be pretty great if they heavily play up the thing about him selling his soul.



- Dan Deacon is having some horrendous back problems lately and has had to cancel shows. An energetic live performance can do that to a guy. Word is, he's got acute sciatica. As someone with back problems myself (but not acute sciatica), I can say I wish him well.

- It's hard out there for indie rockers. The King Khan & BBQ Show, who recently released the good-not-great album Invisible Girl (featuring the great, great, great track, "Anala") were recently forced to miss a few shows. Because the band and their tour manager were arrested. The band are now out on bail, but as of Friday, the manager was still being charged with driving with a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance (allegedly mushrooms). Since Friday the band has all been released and are working towards powering through with the tour.

- What the hell, three stories in a row? Grizzly Bear were in a crazy bus accident. Everyone appears ok and the tour will not be affected. However, reading that "the bus and trailer were hit and rendered immovable. The trailer was wrecked and the bus engine split," is not exactly a pretty image. Glad to hear it all ended well, though.

- Liam Gallagher is getting ready to tour. Based on his comments, it's hard to say if it'll be a full-blown solo tour or him, Gem and Andy. I always thought Gem would stay on Noel's side, but it seems like that's where the lines have been drawn. However, even if Liam goes with the rest of the artists formerly known as Oasis, Liam says that name is as good as dead for now.


Where's my money, bit--I mean, State of California.

- TMZ is purporting that Dr. Dre is owed $132.98 by the State of California. This story is pretty brief and questionable, and sources are hard to find. Not to mention it's TMZ, who no one trusts to begin with. But the idea is pretty funny, so I'm purporting it, too. Get yo' money, Dre!

- Tom Waits, perhaps in a way prepping the soon to be released Glitter and Doom, is also releasing a vinyl version of Orphans. As fans will recall, Orphans was 56 tracks and three discs long. But that just isn't enough for Tom. On vinyl, there will be six bonus tracks, in addition to those other 56, making the set a technical septuple album. The set will come out December 8, with the aforementioned Glitter and Doom set for November 24. In other Tom Waits news, he recently wished via twitter that his gravestone read "I told you I was sick." The man is a legend.

- Last week I mentioned the new album, this week the new tour. The Magnetic Fields are hitting the road. I either forgot to mention or didn't then know that the new album will feature sounds resembling "late 1960s/early 70s orchestral and psychedelic folk." So you can bet the tour will, too. Also featured will be some of the very nontraditional instruments used on the record. No electric instruments were used, so they had to improvise. With tree leaves. For real. Guest musicians on the album (and maybe the tour) include tuba player Johnny Blood, violinist Ida Pearle and legendary children's author Lemony Snickett. For real.

- All those fake rock stars get movies. Real legends get plays. Soon to hit Broadway, produced by the likes of Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinket-Smith, Fela! will be a play about the life of legendary afro-beat performer Fela Kuti. It'll hit the stage November 23.

Star Power

Every now and then in music, there is a fantastic missed opportunity. Sometimes it almost hits its highest point, but there's always potential for more. In this case, I speak of MTV Unplugged. With the release of Katy Perry's take on that particular stage, I'm lead to think about the history of the show, and what could have been. In fact, since Perry may re-popularize the medium yet (though Bon Jovi tried two years ago and failed), this may be a look at what still could be.

Of course, MTV Unplugged was just an outlet. Unplugged music existed well before that. The entire genre of folk music was unplugged, not to mention music before electricity. But with the proliferation of electric guitars, and people like Jimi Hendrix creating the myth that electric guitars are somehow cooler than acoustic guitars, the concept of recording and performing unplugged became less and less cool. However, the occasional concert, such as The Secret Policeman's Ball (and, of course, The Secret Policeman's Other Ball) revealed brilliant acoustic performances by electric rockers Pete Townshend, Sting, Bob Geldof and Phil Collins, to name a few. However, it was the success of MTV Unplugged that gave a certain mainstream consistency to such performances.



Though the first performances took place in 1989 with Squeeze, Syd Straw and Elliot Easton (Squeeze and who?), it wasn't until 1991 when Paul McCartney took the stage that it really took off as a medium. After Paul, Mariah Carey, R.E.M., The Cure, Eric Clapton, Peal Jam and countless other major acts started to go unplugged. Then of course, Nirvana was the big, big, big one, just because it proved Kurt could scream, but all of these acts helped the mystique and fame of Unplugged grow. Of these acts, I would argue the most successful to the medium were Eric Clapton and Nirvana. I say this as someone who often stands in opposition to both artists. However, I acknowledge that Unplugged really allowed them to reinvent their songs. Previously electric guitar legends who knew the power of noise, on Unplugged they toned things down, to learn the power of beauty, and both benefited for it. Clapton won the Grammy for Album of the Year and Nirvana made the one song of theirs that I can say deserves their legend (Where Did You Sleep Last Night/In The Pines/Black Girl).

Now a legendary medium, further legends such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young would take the stage. Kiss famously reunited with their original lineup. At the height of their fame, Oasis, minus Liam (a fantastic move), performed one of my favorite Unplugged performances. Artists known primarily for their work in rap and R&B gave famous genre defying performances, namely Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Babyface, LL Cool J and Lauryn Hill. Additionally, though I'm saying this somewhat anachronistically, I would be remiss not to mention the performances by Björk. Always demanding some level of creativity, Björk, as always, was perhaps most creative. Watch videos of her Unplugged set and see just how many instruments are on stage on a given time. For One Day alone, there are at least twenty. At the same time, though, I must acknowledge is the solo harp performance of Like Someone In Love that provides the most impact. And she did it all wearing a pretty yellow dress.

An offshoot of the Unplugged format, VH1 offered Storytellers. Recently, Storytellers has also received a certain mainstream attention resurgence, with a popular Kanye West performance and the re-release of David Bowie's 1999 performance. Some argue Storytellers was more intimate, because artists told stories along with their acoustic songs (duh). I argue that the only artist to provide interesting stories was Tom Waits, and they were all lies, so what was the point there? Regardless, the medium was still powerful and popular, providing strong showings on both major music networks.

So why aren't either shows successful anymore?



One argument would be that the networks weren't getting popular enough artists. That can't be true. Look at the artists I just rattled off. Sure, not all are legends, but you have people like Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi and Kanye West, and those are the most recent ones! Popularity was not the case. Perhaps the public doesn't care. Well, that may be so, and we can certainly blame the new MTV generation for valuing reality shows over actual music for that. However, music fans still care. I remember not long ago, MTVU aired the Nirvana Unplugged. As I walked up and down the dorms of my art school college, nine out of ten televisions were tuning in to Kurt's wailing, over ten years later. If you get a good enough band, people will still tune in. I hope.

Perhaps it was in the performances, then? Kanye's Storytellers was rather pedestrian for the best artist of this generation of this decade. Jay-Z's Unplugged didn't really work, if I can offer my opinion on the matter. Bon Jovi's sounded like Bon Jovi. But does that really defeat the power of a medium? Bad albums are released all the times, but are people not buying albums anymore? ...okay, bad example. Regardless, Lady Gaga did her Cherrytree Sessions acoustic EP, and that was just lovely. Either way, I still hope that if we get a good enough artist willing to do an Unplugged, it could be popular and reinvigorate the medium. Will Katy Perry be the one? I doubt it. It might take a legend to do that. Maybe it's because I'm writing this while listening to Purple Rain. Maybe it's because he's the greatest of all times. Maybe it's just because he could. But I think I know just the guy.



Please, MTV. Please, Prince. Perform Unplugged. It could be the greatest musical television special of all times. I promise.

Farewell Song

Last week, the album of the year (1978) was This Year's Model. That was the album that created Elvis Costello. Sure, he had one before that, and it was great, but that doesn't sound like Elvis Costello. This Year's Model does. However, it failed to have that definitive song. No Action and Radio, Radio came close, for sure, but they weren't overwhelming statements, like I Want To Hold You Hand or Satisfaction. Things like that take a record or two. Therefore it's not really amazing that the quintessential Elvis Costello song came on his third album. What is amazing is that he didn't write it. However, ask nine out of ten people, and they won't know that. Written by Costello's producer of choice and a legendary songwriter in his own right, Nick Lowe, the quintessential Elvis Costello song is "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" I bring this up, of course, because it is also the best song of 1979.



The best album of 1979 is the definition of late period entry. It came so late in the year that the best album of 1979 is oft considered the best album of the 1980's. Figure that one out. Redefining genres, possibly even the concept of genres in the first place, this album is considered not only the best of it's year, or the next decade, but it's oft considered one of the greatest album of all times. It's one of those albums that everyone knows, lead by a song of the same name that, no, really, everyone knows. The album of 1979 is London Calling, by the only band that matters, The Clash.

That wraps things up for this week. I still can't believe that nothing inflammatory happened last week. It really makes the fade out hard. Oh well. Hope to see you next week for another thrilling edition of the Midweek Music News Roundup!