The Alternative Nation News Report 03.08.09: Late

Posted by Taylor Martin on 03.08.2009

Radiohead vs. Miley, Wayne Coyne vs. Arcade Fire, The Beatles: Rock Band has a release date, Daft Punk scoring Tron sequel, DLC of the Week and the Best Albums of 1995. My baby's got the bends, oh no.



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Yeah, I'm late, so what? I've been going through major writer's block lately and I've been working my ass off for next to nothing at work. But, you don't care about that. You just want news and DLC and Best Albums, don't you?

Selfish bastards.

NEWS TIME!!


News N' Stuff

Sources: Pitchfork, Ultimate-Guitar, Rolling Stone

Apparently, Miley Cyrus is a huge Radiohead fan. She describes the band as the only one she "would cry over" and "they're the reason I love music". Fair enough, Radiohead is a great band and should be heard by as many people as possible. I'm not one of those people that think that Radiohead is "my band" and shouldn't be heard by dude-bro's and trendy Hills-watching college chicks. The more people that hear this band, the better. Anyway, Miley tried to set up a meeting between her and the band at the Grammys, which, unsurprisingly, the band declined. Well, this did not sit well with Miley, who said that she would "ruin them". Is she joking? Probably. Even if she wasn't, what could she do? Yeah, she's got like a bajillon dollars but the fact is she's a 16 year-old girl.

Radiohead also turned down a meeting with Kanye West at the same Grammys. Man, you really have to not give a fuck to turn down Kanye.


In other beef news, The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne stated in an interview that he thinks Arcade Fire are too pretentious. Here's a snippet:

I'm a fan of them on one level, but on another level I get really tired of their pompousness. We've played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit. Whenever I've been around them, I've found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, "Who do they think they are?" I don't know why people put up with it. I wouldn't put up with it. I don't care if it's Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like shit I'd be like, "Fuck you, get outta here."

People treat Arcade Fire like they're the greatest thing ever and they get away with it. Those sort of opinions change my view of their music. They have good tunes, but they're pricks, so fuck 'em. Who does Arcade Fire think they are? I've been around groups. I've been around the Edge from U2 and he's the fucking sweetest guy ever. I was around Justin Timberlake when he was young and he was just a normal, nice, kind person. Anyone can be polite and kind and people who have the privilege and money and attention should understand that. If they don't, then fuck 'em.

Damn. Coyne has done this before but it's never been this incendiary. I'm an Arcade Fire fan, but I'm also a Flaming Lips fan and I think that they are both a little pretentious. Anyway, Arcade Fire leader Win Butler responded to Coyne:

Wow, I can't believe I am actually writing to defend my bands "real" personality. I wish I could not respond to something like this, but the reality is is that people will be asking me questions about it for the next 5 years. I also fear that people will base their opinion of our band on the media quotes of a guy who doesn't even know us.

The only time we have ever shared a stage with the Flaming Lips was our last show on the Funeral tour at a festival in Las Vegas (over 3 years ago)...we arrived the morning of the show from Brazil, slept all day and awoke into some kind of surreal Vegas jet-lag dream in which we were playing after the Flaming Lips...how strange...I was really excited to meet Wayne. Clouds Taste Metallic was a huge record for me, and growing up in the weirdness of Houston, I always imagined Oklahoma City to be in the same universe. I was really nervous to meet him and I felt a little weird that we were playing after them. We traded a little hello, but he was a hard guy to get a read on. Steven Drodz was super nice, and I felt good after talking to him...

So...I am not sure Wayne is the best judge (based on seeing us play at a couple of festivals) if we are righteous, kind and goodhearted people like The Edge and Justin Timberlake (who I am sure he knows intimately as well). I can't imagine a reason why we would have been pompous towards The Flaming Lips, a band we have always loved, on that particular night, all those years ago. Unless I was way more jet-lagged then I remember, I hope I was less of a "prick" then telling Rollingstone that a bunch of people I don't know at all are really assholes.

As a closing note, the main point that I am offended by in this whole thing is for Wayne to say we treat our audience like shit...

At times like these I am comforted by knowing that even though Wayne slammed Beck all those years ago, he seems like a really nice guy to me. I guess everyone has a different idea of what being pompous means.

Butler comes out looking like the better man in this, but the fact remains that both bands are pretentious as fuck. But Wayne Coyne's diss was funny so I'll take his side.


Quickies!

- Remember that Beatles game that was being developed by Harmonix? Well, it finally has a title and release date. The Beatles: Rock Band will hit shelves on September 9th.

- Recently reunited Faith No More have revealed their first summer tour dates. They will be co-headlining the UK's Download Festival in June followed by the Hurricane and Southside Festivals in Germany later this summer.

- French electronic duo Daft Punk has been call upon to score the new Tron movie, TR2N, which is set for a 2011 release.


DLC of the Week

Rock Band:

The Offspring
"All I Want"
"The Kids Aren't Alright"

The Offspring are one of the most inconsistent bands out there, but luckily these songs are a couple of the good ones. Recommended.

R.E.M.
"Losing My Religion"

Highly recommended.

Richard Thompson
"The Way That It Shows"

One of the all-time greatest guitarists comes to Rock Band. Recommended.

Guitar Hero:

Rise Against
"Death Blossoms"
"Audience of One"
"Ready to Fall"

Rise Against are one of the best modern rock bands around today. Recommended.


The Greatest Albums of My Life

The Best Albums of 1995

Honorable Mentions: Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, Björk - Post, Faith No More - King for a Day…Fool for a Lifetime, Green Day - Insomniac, White Zombie - Astro Creep: 2000, No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom, Sonic Youth - Washing Machine, Fugazi - Red Medicine

3. The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: Although the recording sessions for Siamese Dream threatened the band's future, the album was an enormous success and cemented the Pumpkins as a major force in alternative rock. The band sought to eliminate the tensions that dominated the recording sessions for Siamese Dream and tried to work as a cohesive unit. The plan worked and there were no major problems in recording. Mellon Collie is an ambitious album and includes a wider array of instrumentation such as piano, drum loops, a live orchestra, and even MIDI. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Chart, an unusual feat considering it was a double album that cost over $20. This was the peak of the Pumpkins' popularity as the band slowly fell apart over the next five years.

Recommended tracks: "Tonight, Tonight", "1979", "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "Muzzle"



2. Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters: Recorded almost entirely by Dave Grohl (Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs plays a guitar part on "X-Static"), this is my favorite Foo Fighters album. Full of catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, Foo Fighters is essentially a demo. In fact, that's exactly what it is. It was supposed to be a demo, but high interest among the record labels resulted in a professional mix for the demo and it was eventually released in its known form. It still has some Nirvana influence, albeit a little lighter and more poppy, but there are some pretty aggressive songs on this album, especially toward the end of the record. Grohl would eventually put a real band together and the rest, as they say, is history.

Recommended tracks: "Big Me", "This is a Call", "I'll Stick Around", "Alone + Easy Target"

Foo Fighters - Big Me



1. Radiohead - The Bends: The Bends marks the first in a series of turning points for the band. Pablo Honey was (and let's be honest here) painfully average. There were flashes of brilliance (the guitar crunch in "Creep", "Blow Out") but who could've guessed that the same band would come back two years later and record one of the greatest alternative albums of the 90s? Full of hard rockers ("Just", "The Bends, "My Iron Lung") and softer tunes ("High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Street Spirit") The Bends arguably spawned a whole new sound: falsetto vocals with churning guitars in the background. This sound would inspire bands like Coldplay and Keane and Radiohead later said that they distanced themselves from this sound because of the bands that they influenced. This is not Radiohead's best album but it is a great achievement from a band that was initially written off as a one-hit wonder.

Recommended tracks: "Fake Plastic Trees", "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", "Just", "The Bends"




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Be back next week. On time. Maybe.

Bye forever.