Midweek Music News Roundup 1.6.10: M-M-M-Mixtape Evolution

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 01.06.2010

Thom Yorke works with Philip Glass, Garfunkel and Oates sweep the nation (of Taiwan), Eminem and Elton John collaborate on rehab, Soundgarden become knights or something, more new Michael Jackson, Elvis Costello is the devil, Kanye West looks to the future and we take an in depth look at the value of mix tapes. All that and more on this thrilling edition of the Midweek Music News Roundup!

There's still not that much news, but there's certainly more than there was last week. So I hope you enjoy it.

- Thom Yorke, Philip Glass and Damien Rice are finally teaming up! Well, maybe it wasn't so inevitable. Regardless, they'll be combining forces to score a documentary about Tibet titled When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun. Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember the sun being swallowed by a dragon. Regardless, more information can be found here.



- Ready for a world-changing announcement? Garfunkel and Oates, indie comedy folk duo of adorable ladies that I report about far too often, are the number one subscribed to YouTube channel in Taiwan. I like to think it's because I'm hugely popular over there, too, though we've never quite gotten proof of that. Garfunkel and Oates and I gotta work together for the greater good. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is me meeting Garfunkel and Oates.

- A final farewell for the year: rest in peace Rowland S. Howard, lead guitarist for the influential Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party. Though the band is now best known for launching the career of Nick Cave, Howard's guitar created the wall of death sound that Nick was screaming through, and helped create his early persona. He died December 30, succumbing to a long battle with liver cancer. He was 50. He will be missed.

- Let's face it. No one really liked Eminem's Relapse, and if they say they did they just can't get over the fact that their favorite rapper sucks now. But someone really didn't like the relapse - Sir Elton John. Well, he didn't like the actual drug-using relapse, but I guess it's all splitting hairs. Anyway, old Reg seems to be trying to help Em fight the battle with addiction in every way he can. The details as to how are a bit skimpy, but I can imagine duets, hugs and polka dot suits are high on the methodology list.



- According to Chris Cornell, and I'm going word for word here, "Knights of the Soundtable ride again!" What he means is that Soundgarden are reuniting, at some indeterminate point in the future. Honestly, I don't care, since I never liked Cornell or Soundgarden. However, "Knights of the Soundtable" is the lamest thing I've ever read, so I had to report on it. This is your beacon of awesome hard rock, kids. Think about that.

- Legendary singer-songwriter Van Morrison would like you to know that not only does he not have a wife named Gigi (his real wife is named Michelle), but also that she has not given birth to his third child. Apparently a hacker got into his web site and announced that both of those facts were true and some major news sites picked up on it. Might I point out that I did not report on it, being a beacon of fact checking. And also I didn't think it was interesting enough to report. But the retraction, oh boy...those get my interest engine revving.

- Another post-mortem Michael Jackson snippet has materialized. This time it appears to be a duet with Lenny Kravitz, titled "Another Day," not to be confused with the Paul McCartney song. It's pretty modern hip hop R&B type stuff. I like it, especially the rock explosion part. But why is it that all of Michael's recently discovered songs are collaborations? I just find it odd. Anyway, and perhaps more importantly, Sony is fighting to get the song removed and Kravitz is saying that the version online is incomplete and unmixed. So if you want to hear it, be quick about it.

- What is it with awesome musicians playing the Devil these days? First Tom Waits in that Parsnips movie, now Elvis Costello. Along with Neko Case, Costello will be joining the Stephen King/John Mellencamp musical collaboration "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County." Costello, as I alluded, will be playing a satanic character. Case will merely be playing a lady named Anna. Also involved are Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, and many, many more. Super producer T-Bone Burnett is looking to create a triple CD out of the performances. This could all end up pretty cool.



- Kanye West is reporting that he's back in the studio, presumably working on a follow up to 808s & Heartbreak. Says Kanye, he doesn't wanted to follow the path of diminishing returns that he's seen so many rappers take before him. Instead, he wishes to follow the paths of "true poets" Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone (not a poet), who he claims only got better with time. Then he went on to a rambling blog post about true artistry versus blind consumerism, ending with a hearty "NOW I'LL FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE THAT RHYME LOL." And when he does, we'll have his fifth classic in our hands. I joke, but I truly can't wait. It's time to see if he can be the best artist of this generation of the next decade, too.

- About five years ago, David Bowie went on A Reality Tour, and coming January 26, he intends to share that with the world. Well, I mean, he already did with a DVD, but now he intends to share it in CD form. Which is nice of him. But maybe this is a bit cooler: a contest is being held in conjunction with Record Store Day (April 17 is just around the corner, I guess), and the prize is an Airline Twin Tone guitar, autographed by David himself. The interested can enter here.

Star Power

So I totally lost track of what day it was, as happens over breaks from school and work. It all just blends together, you know? But this means I didn't realize that it was Tuesday and thus my column was due in a day until pretty close to the deadlines. So this might be quick.

It turns out Talib Kweli has been busy lately, at least in terms of reunions. First, he teamed up with Black Star co-rapper, Mos Def, for a track called "History" off of Def's latest album, The Ecstatic. They've since made a cool black and white video. But what people may be more excited (in that quantitative way, at least), is that Talib is also teaming up with Reflection Eternal partner, Hi-Tek, for a new album called Revolutions Per Minute, coming to stores near you in February. But first the duo released The RE:Union, a mix tape mixed by Statik Selektah. Thus, this week's Star Power will be about my thoughts on the concept of the mix tape in general. I haven't heard this particular mix tape yet, having become aware of it yesterday.



I'm actually going to just come right out and say it. Nine times out of ten, I just don't like mix tapes. They feel like throwaways desperately attempting to gasp at relevance. I understand that in a young rapper's career, it's necessary. In fact, I would say that one time out of ten were I do like a mix tape, it's because it's a young rapper's first one. I completely understand that logic and I appreciate the attempt at getting music out there. However, when someone like Kanye West releases four mix tapes a year (he did - LVs & Autotune 1-4), I don't understand. In Kanye's case, it was primarily singles and songs he'd worked on for or with other artists, plus a whole lot of filler that didn't make any albums for obvious reasons. I suppose I appreciate that he isn't greedy and demanding all his work be paid for at full price, but I don't understand why it needs to be out there in the first place.

On that note, I'll mention a tape Kanye released last year: Sky High. It was a remix project. At first I didn't like it because I listened to it all at once, but after giving it time I realized the sum of its parts overrode the whole. But the point remains that I also don't understand why a mix tape of remixes would be released. Admittedly, this is the first time I've known this to happen, but I have seen remixes pop up on other mix tapes, and I typically don't get it. I like a good remix now and then, especially when dancing, but when you throw a bunch of remixes together and you try to listen to them while sitting at your computer, which I think with the advent of iTunes is how a lot of people listen to music, it doesn't really work. I will note, however, that there is a difference between DJ mixes, meant for continual club play, and a remix album. DJ mixes are significantly more worthwhile.



There are some pros of mix tapes, though. The biggest positive I can think of is the lack of copyright laws. On one of Wale's mix tapes (100 Miles and Running), he rapped over "Smile" by Lily Allen and "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, without having to forego royalties and rights to the original artists. Granted, Mark Ronson was on board, so I imagine at least "Rehab" wouldn't have been a problem, but it was an easier task for him regardless. On a larger scale, Rhymefest released his Man in the Mirror mix tape in 2008, featuring him rapping over a cavalcade of Michael Jackson songs, which otherwise would have been financially impossible. The tape was pretty great, too.

And of course, I mentioned earlier (in a derogatory sense) the big pro of mix tapes. It manages to keep artists in the spot light in one way or another without the financial and promotional problems related to releasing an album. Lil Wayne was known as a mix tape master, and it wasn't rare to see mix tapes being responsible for his success. This might be the subconscious reason I hate mix tapes. But I jest. Point is, they can work for people and I don't mean to be so negative.

I think I'm mostly just upset that I've never heard a mix tape as good as an official release, and I'm expecting too much from people. Most of these things are free, I should be happy with them. Or maybe I'm upset that I was tricked into buying what was essentially GZA's greatest hits package being told it was a new mix tape. You gotta be careful with these things.

As a postscript, I would like to point out that I would be remiss not to mention the other kind of mix tape. The kind you make for that special lady or fellow to show them you care. Or the kind you make for your friend who wants to get into that crazy stuff you listen to. Sometimes it's called a compilation tape or a play list, but mix tape is also an acceptable term. Rob Gordon already broke down all the important steps of that kind of mix tape, and it's another thing entirely. But when there's a High Fidelity reference to be made, as God as my witness, I shall always make it! So there.

Farewell Song

1986, the year Paul Simon popularized African music. The world is weird sometimes. But don't see that as a negative - Graceland will get it's due praise in a minute. But first, the breakdown of other great releases of '86: Big Black unleashed the sonic assault of Atomizer, Elvis Costello offered two strong albums, New Order continued to be the most consistent band of the 80s with great singles and a good album, Prince held a Parade in his own honor, R.E.M. kept up their strong great album per year schedule, and The Smiths and Sonic Youth both released legendary albums. Song of the year is a real tough one because there were at least two songs released in 1986 that I could easily argue as the greatest song of all time. In fact, as some may recall, the original title of this column was based on a song released this year! But for whatever reason, at this exact moment, I'm not going to give it to "Expressway." Instead, I'm going with Elvis Costello's six minute masterpiece, which strays from his usual power style, instead going for a look into insanity and obsession. The song of 1986 is "I Want You."



And like I said, I'd get in to Graceland in a minute. Well, it's been a minute. Part of me wants to complain about whitey stealing from the black man here, if only because I actually have heard people imply that Paul Simon invented African music based on this album. But damn it, there's just no denying music this incredibly good. It doesn't matter if you like mainstream pop, gangsta rap, the blackest of black metal, the most hardcore punk, classic rock, crazy guitars...whatever. You will like Graceland. It's that unrelenting. It's not the greatest of all time, but it might be the most likable.

And that does it for this week. I wonder how often I've written that sentence. Huh. Odd. Well, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I hope to see you next week for another Midweek Music News Roundup!