Midweek Music News Roundup 01.13.10: The Voice of a Generation

Posted by Lucas Wesley on 01.13.2010

Rest in peace Willie Mitchell, Lady Gaga hits the comics, Yoko Ono is old and celebrating, Tegan and Sara find an odd collaborator, Billy Corgan starts a record label, The T.A.M.I. Show hits DVD and new music from Santigold and Devo, The Knife, Mavis Staples, Black Francis and Roky Erickson. All this and an extended look at the current Tonight Show host saga, as told through music metaphors. No, seriously, this is a music report. Find out how in the Midweek Music News Roundup!

Last week, a concerned commenter took offense to my belief that no one actually liked Relapse. Says Guest(numbers), "What the hell, I guess YOU what everyone thinks?" Well, Guest(numbers), I do what everyone thinks. Wait, what? Additionally, a fan named bobert (I appreciate that you have a name) believes that I am in idiot for the same reason. I don't even know what idiot could refer to in this context, so how can I be inside of it?

Man, marginal antipathy from marginally insulting Eminem. Now I know how Moby feels.

Moving on to this week's news, which is quite plentiful now that the holidays are totally over.



- Indie new wave pop star (there are too many genres in this sentence) Santigold has recently achieved what is certainly the dream of all indie new wave pop stars: working with Devo. Details are a little skimpy, but it's said that she did the production work for them. Should this result in a new Devo album, it would be their first since 1990. It's also notable, though, that Santigold has been working on a new album herself, shooting for a release date this year. The unnamed collaboration could theoretically appear on either album.

- This may be the most multi-faceted news story ever. Bear with me. Swedish electronic group The Knife have recorded new music. That parts easy. But get this - it's the soundtrack to an opera. Odd enough, but then you learn that the opera is based on On the Origin of Species. How is that even possible? I don't know. But nonetheless, it exists, the form of Tomorrow, In a Year. Lesser known acts Mt. Sim and Planningtorock also contributed music, but I guess The Knife were the primary suppliers. For more information (and a download of one of the tracks, which I warn is not like the typical Knife and also the craziest thing ever), visit The Knife's web site. The two disc soundtrack is set for a March 9 release in the US, appearing March 1 around the world.

- That Mavis Staples lady sure seems popular with the legends. First Prince produced an album for her (re: made an album and let her sing on it), then Ry Cooder helped her out a few years ago, and new Jeff Tweedy and Wilco is going to follow suit. Tweedy's very busy this year, but pay attention for when this one drops. It'll probably be a doozy.



- The world sucks sometimes. People just keep dying and it isn't fair. RIP Willie Mitchell, legendary Memphis soul producer and Hi Records label head. Mitchell is best known for his legendary work producing Al Green in the 70s, when the duo created one of the greatest strings of albums ever, with Al Green Gets Next To You, Let's Stay Together, I'm Still in Love With You and Call Me. Though Green's perfect voice lead to the album's sexiness, Mitchell's equally sexy production made it all possible. He will be missed.

- Lady Gaga has right taken over the world of music, dance and whatever MTV is these days, so she's branching out. Starting May 5, Gaga will be appearing in a new comic book series known as Fame. I don't have much to add, other than the fact I can't wait for the Gaga/Batman crossover. Artists such as 50 Cent, Taylor Swift and Posh Spice's husband are also scheduled to appear in future editions of the comic. David Beckham fans: sorry, I had to keep it musical, you know.

- - Yoko Ono tweets like four times a day. It's crazy. She's cramming my twitter feed. This isn't really news I'm just letting people know. Just so there's a little news in this, I'll let you know she and the Plastic Ono Band are going to be holding a special 77th Birthday Party/Show for Yoko in New York City. The show will take place February 16 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This incarnation of the Plastic Ono Band will include such luminaries as Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, Bette Midler and Paul Simon. Should be pretty crazy, though I question how this looks quite like an All-Starr band, if you catch my drift. In related news, Ono is planning a new book: a memoir about her life with John Lennon. She's been putting off such a project for a very long time, fearing that the contents may hurt Cynthia or Julian Lennon. But now, according to Yoko, she'll work on it whenever she finds the time and "will be written in the next five years." So, you know. Those of you that like planning what books you'll buy five or so years in advance. Now is your time to start planning.



- Tegan and Sara did a song with Margaret Cho called "Intervention." I realize that Tegan and Sara are cute Canadian lesbians with a fringe popularity, and thus they want to work with other people with fringe popularity who have fame with the LGBT crowd, but Margaret Cho isn't a cute Canadian lesbian. She's an annoying, loud bisexual. This is not meant to be, girls. However, I will say that in researching this complaint, I learned Margaret is working on an album called Banjovi, which would be an awesome title if meant the way I read it (Ban Bon Jovi), but the fact she worked with Bon Jovi friend and co-writer Desmond Child makes me doubtful about that. This was long for an entry based on a sentence long tweet.

- Billy Corgan has created a new record label. Not that big a deal in today's million record label world. What is interesting is the roster of artists he's apparently signed. The big names of yesteryear include The Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock and a weird reunited version of The Germs, featuring actor Shane West in the Darby Crash position. He had the experience, you see, because he played Crash in a movie. Apparently the label will be releasing tracks recorded by the new Germs, but written by Crash with guitarist Pat Smear before his death. Just in case any Pumpkins fans fear this story went a little long without any Corgan news, remember that Teargarden by Kaleidyscope is still happening, and quoth Corgan a new song should hit the Internet in a few weeks. And finally, Corgan's old side project Starchildren is also signed to the label. Starchildren was originally created to cover a Joy Division song, but, again I quote, "get ready for something new?" Corgan fans stay tuned. Note: not all news comes from Corgan himself, some parts are the words of label co-runner Kerry Brown.

- The legendary rock concert The T.A.M.I. Show (Teen Age Music International) will finally be coming to DVD. The famous concert included performances from James Brown, Chuck Berry, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Miracles and Marvin Gaye. So yeah, it was kinda big. Historians rejoice on March 23.

- If his release schedule is any indication, Black Francis likes those fans of his. In addition to NonStopErotick, in stores soon, Francis has already reentered the studio as half of Grand Duchy, the band he formed with his wife. They've already begun work on a follow up to last year's Petite Fours, tentatively titled Let The People Speak. In addition, b-sides are being recorded for the aforementioned NSE, ensuring lots of new music from the Francis camp.



- With the help of Okkerkill River, legendary psychedelic musician Roky Erickson is going to be recording his first album in 14 years. Called True Love Casts Out All Evil, the album is due April 20. The album is a mix of new songs, older songs written throughout his life, and songs recorded at the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where Erickson spent some time in the 70s after a drug related arrest. I can't help but notice how the title parallels the equally disturbed Daniel Johnston, not to mention the whole working with established musicians thing. But that's hardly a bad thing. Fans of Roky or just interesting music should take note.

Star Power

Okay, so this week, I didn't so much as forget that it was Tuesday, but rather I had continual bouts of "man, I should really write that column now," without ever following through. It just appears that I'm running out of news I find interesting. Granted, the original ethos of Star Power was destroyed as early as the fourth week, when I went from writing histories of indie and collaborations in music to the fact that Lady Gaga wears spandex. But still, I like to give a good, interesting one now and again, and it's hard to do that these days for whatever reason. Nonetheless, I attempt to help you out, so here's the best I can do. I can't help but feel like I've done something similar to this, but it's relevant again, so whatever.


Tell me you can't draw a parallel to an eccentric rock front man.

Originally I was going to do a metaphorical piece about Yellow Submarine being remade, now that some actors have been named (Cary Elwes and three guys you've never heard of). Instead, inspiration struck, and I'm going to do a metaphorical piece about the whole debacle with The Tonight Show. I don't really need to explain that, but I'll explain the metaphor: changing lead singers and seeing how the band can continue on. Obviously, lots and lots of bands have changed lead singers with varying results, so I'll only manage to touch on a few, but the point is that a major change can cause a great deal of reactions in and out of the band (or television network), and there's no telling how the audience will react. It's rare that it leads to complete and utter idiotic panic, as is happening at NBC, wherein everyone gets screwed over, but...then again, sometimes it does.

I can't give you the first time a band switched its lead singer. This isn't something I can really know. I could do lots of research and still be unsure. But historically I've chosen to start with Pink Floyd, as they are the first I have anything to say about. As the well-known story goes, Pink Floyd was primarily the work of Syd Barrett. Though his compatriots helped him out in many ways, it was by and large Syd's band, as he wrote the majority of the songs over the first few singles and first album. Then he did a lot of acid and went crazy, which was the trend in those days. But it necessitated his removal from the band, and Roger Waters took over. This worked as a dual edged sword for Pink Floyd. On one hand, they became one of the most popular bands of all time and released one of music's most enduring classics, Dark Side of the Moon. On the other hand, they became really, really boring. So maybe that isn't a double-edged sword and just a personal complaint, but hey - it's important to me and this is my column. Regardless, point is, things worked out for them.

This next one is a bit more complicated than that. Though Pink Floyd's story caused the band to change singers and styles, it was a rather natural change in style. From a psychedelic pop kind of song to a slower progressive rock, it almost makes sense in a way, especially considering the styles of the time. The next band went from a blues-rock band to adult contemporary pop. Not exactly a change you make over night. The great blues band was Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, lead by, you guessed it, Peter Green. Vocalist and lead guitarist, Green had a great influence on the band. However, after several albums, Green started doing too much acid and being too insane to lead his group. You may begin to notice a pattern here. Vocals were split for a while, but as the band continued forward, wife of guitarist John McVie (aka Mac), Christine McVie, began to sing backup for the group. I admit a bit of ignorance on the Fleetwood Mac story, and I'm only willing to do so much research, but the point is that eventually, the McVie's met a nice young couple colloquially known as Buckingham Nicks. Eventually, the groups combined, and released the album Fleetwood Mac. It was highly successful. One album later, with their new lead vocalist (Nicks, though McVie and Buckingham also sang lead on occasion), they released Rumours. One of the best selling albums of all time. Another pattern you may notice, at least for a while.


Pictured: An album that made lots and lots and lots of money.
Not pictured: Peter Green.

Another band things worked out for is AC/DC. After years with Bon Scott, AC/DC was riding the success train to hell rather contentedly. However, Bon Scott liked vomiting in his sleep, which is never a habit one should form. It rarely ends well. Like in so many other rock and roll cases, this lead to Scott's death, and again in the great pantheon of rock, a new lead singer was needed. And again, it lead to nothing but success - AC/DC's next album, first with new singer Brian Johnson, was Back in Black. This has actually sold more than Dark Side and Rumours and remains one of the highest selling albums of all times.

However, it's not always a grand success commercially. Sometimes fans just like it a lot more. For this example, we can look at Iron Maiden or Black Flag. While both were by and large popular bands amongst their scene, it wasn't until Bruce Dickinson and Henry Rollins (respectively) took over the microphone that they reached the peak of their success. While these bands are the ones I point to because they helped define a certain sound of music (Iron Maiden are more or less the band you talk about when talking about British heavy metal, and it's been said that you can pretend to know everything about hardcore punk simply by listening to Damaged, and though I haven't tested this theory, I feel like you could go pretty far on it). However, it can be seen in plenty of other of bands as well - Faith No More weren't particularly legendary until Mike Patton took over, Big Star became a completely different band when Alex Chilton went to co-lead singer to sole lead singer, the Replacements never would have mattered had Paul Westerberg not kicked out the man known by 'Mats fans as "that other guy," there's no saying what would have happened to The Magnetic Fields if Stephin Merritt never took over...the list goes on.

Of course, I may have been looking at this the wrong way, or at least wording it the wrong way. These lead singers all took some level of a leadership role, or at least were highly involved with the songwriting process. Therefore, I'll mention at least one case of someone who wasn't necessarily lead singer who mattered just as much, if not way more: Brian Wilson. Yes, he sang lead as much as the others, but I wouldn't call him the lead singer. But when he left, I think there's no denying it killed The Beach Boys. Granted, they worked very well for a while without him. Throughout the 70s they work mostly without Brian as the leader, and produced some fantastic albums. But when they really, completely lost Brian, and he went on to his own world, they produced some of the worst albums of all time. In this case, a leadership change killed everything.



We can also look at modern examples such as The New Cars (with Todd Rundgren replacing Ric Ocasek) or Queen + Paul Rodgers and see that a new singer can really kill a band, commercially and critically. In the New Cars example, well, how many people even knew about that? And I don't think I need to explain the pitfalls of Queen + Paul Rodgers. I think this point comes down to what was so succinctly explained in a Kids in the Hall sketch. When Kevin tells Bruce that the Doors will reunite with Iggy Pop as their singer, Bruce refuses to acknowledge them as the Doors, because someone told them it the Doors would never reunite. You wanna know who told him? "Jim FUCKING Morrison told me, that's who!"

Ultimately, I don't know what it is that makes a band work or fail after they get a different singer. As we can see with Black Sabbath, it often fluctuates, and opinions can differ. But I think the big metaphorical point I'm trying to make to NBC is that it often takes time. You can't wait six months, or one album, and decide "experiment over." Sometimes it happened and that one album or those six months lead to the biggest thing ever. But other times it took years to find an audience and hit pay dirt. I understand in TV, you can't exactly wait ten years. But you probably can wait at least one.

Farewell Song

I've been off the best song coming from the best album pattern for a little while now (re: one week). Well, so much for that, because we're on 1987. A fair number of legendary albums were released in 1987: Paid in Full, Songs About Fucking, Document and Pleased To Meet Me. Not to mention debuts from The Vaselines and Public Enemy, the last album by The Smiths, the follow up to the most successful album of all time, and some brilliant singles. But it was the greatest and most talented artist of the past few generations that wins all the awards for 1987. Unleashing one of the fullest, most brilliant albums of all time, Prince was the man. I could pick any number of songs as his best of the year, but for whatever reason the one that wins out is "Starfish and Coffee." Prince continues to battle youtube, so there's no video.

And I suppose it's really no surprise that the album of the year is Sign O' The Times. I don't have much else to say anyway.

That does it for this week, men, women and children. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and I'm sorry for the naughty words. Blame Steve Albini and Bruce McCulloch. Join us again next week for another piece of the thrilling web space I call the Midweek Music News Roundup!