Leave it to M.I.A. to shoot 2010′s final parting volley in the musical war for hearts and minds.
On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2010, M.I.A. graced her fans with Vicki Leekx, a free, 36 minute, polemic-fueled mixtape banger. She enlists Diplo, Switch, Blaqstarr and all of the usual suspects and co-collaborators for production. And while Vicki Leekx isn’t as much of an art-damaged dragonslayer as her previous full length, /\/\ /\ Y /\, Vicki Leekx shows M.I.A. has been busy (on top of being a mom and newlywed wife) chopping, pasting, mashing-up…and keeping up…with current events.
Happy 2011!
This is a public service announcement: M.I.A.'s Vicki Leekx mixtape is a straight-up banger!
Oh, to be as industrious as Damon Albarn. The guy and his band Gorillaz released “The Fall”, a rock-solid album today that is available to stream for free (and free to download for fan club members).
And for additional one-upsmanship, he didn’t build a million dollar studio on his tour-bus and record this in the lap of modern studio luxury. Albarn recorded the entire 15 track album on his iPad.
Check the details below from his website:
All tracks written and performed by Gorillaz using the iPad and additional instruments: Korg Vocoder, Ukelele, Microkorg, Omnichord, Moog Voyager, Melodica, Guitar, Piano, Korg Monotron. Except track 13 written and performed by Gorillaz and Bobby Womack. Recorded between Montreal and Vancouver over 32 days on the Gorillaz North American Tour 2010
The Speak It Mountains
Recorded in Denver on 24th October
Stream and forest recorded in Santa Fe on 25th October by Mike Smith
Aspen Forest
Recorded in Santa Fe on 25th October and in Vancouver on 3rd November
Additional Bass: Paul Simonon
Additional Qanun: James R Grippo
Bobby In Phoenix
Recorded in Phoenix on 26th October
Vocals and Guitar: Bobby Womack
California And The Slipping Of The Sun
Recorded in Oakland on 30th October
Train station announcement recorded at LA Train Station. Additional conversation with: Darren ‘Smoggy’ Evans, Mick Jones, Jamie Hewlett and Tanyel Vahdettin.
If web 3.0 will be all about curation, you’ll notice BlackSwanSongs.com has been getting its start on web 3.0 with our last several entries.
Creative entries and analytical blog posts have given way to the curation of videos as BlackSwanSongs brings not one, but two bands to life right here in little ol’ Austin, TX: Norushi Minx and Paraguay.
Most of the stuff on PitchforkTV does not sync up with the taste of BlackSwanSongs, but an acoustic performance from Mac MacCaughan and Jim Wilbur of Chapel Hill, N.C.’s venerable indie rock band, Superchunk, is must-see BlackSwanSongs TV.
Curation, curation, curation: in the future when everyone has Google TV, AppleTV (or something similar), you’ll be able to come to the main page of BlackSwanSongs.com and just watch – or listen – to the tunes and videos we’ve assembled especially for people with immaculately cool taste.
“To achieve democracy we need to create a network, not just in our country but around the world,” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday after her release from seven years of house arrest. “I will try to do that. If you do nothing you get nothing.”
I typically keep this space politics free, but Suu Kyi transcends politics. She is not only the mother of Burma, she is all of our mothers. As she calls for us to create a network around the world, blackswansongs shall answer her call.
The Pixies have been very generous with the free downloads lately, pumping them out in steady succession on their now official website.
We’re all still waiting for Pixies to re-enter the recording studio and cut an album worth of tracks as cool as Kim Deal’s brilliant throwaway, Bam Thwok, but I’m not holding my breath.
I’ve really been slacking in recent updates, but reading about Clyde Stubblefield today made me realize that it was time to get writing again.
You know Clyde Stubblefield. You are already familiar with his essence. His drum beat from James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” alone has been sampled more than 200 times in popular songs. The syncopation between his left hand snare hits and his kick drum pioneered the sound that would become known as funk. Stubblefield’s drumming style is the prototype for both funk and hip-hop.
And because the music business sucks, Clyde never saw a penny from his sampled beat. While that is a whole other discussion, it’s pertinent now because Clyde is sick, and anyone that loves music and/or anyone that has ever felt transcendental freedom from his funky-ass beats should come together to help Clyde out with his medical bills.
In July 2009, Stubblefield suffered kidney failure and began weekly dialysis treatment.
Stubblefield is still working playing every Monday evening in Madison, WI, but his medical bills are ridiculous.
He has provided the beat to the soundtrack of our lives. It’s time for us all to say thank you.
You can donate through ChipIn and you can see Stubblefield in action below:
Had to post this beautiful song after an inspirational recording session earlier today with our band Norushi Minx. Now that I’m thinking about mixes and references for beautifully dreamy guitars, this sublime piece comes to mind. The Cocteau Twins created dream pop perfection too beautiful for the hoi polloi to even comprehend.
One of BlackSwanSongs.com all-time favorite artists, Adam Franklin (Swervedriver, Magnetic Morning) continues his prolific run with a new Adam Franklin and the Bolts of Melody album entitled I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years which will be released June 29, 2010, on Second Motion Records.
You can hear an acoustic version below of a beautiful track from the upcoming album entitled “Yesterday Has Gone Forever.” The melancholy lyrics and atypical pop song structure are just the type of soul-penetrating solipsistic poesy that make rainy days feel that much more lonesome. As Mick Jagger once said to John Lennon, “It’s a blues, John. It’s a blues.”
And if you can’t wait until June 29, 2010 to listen, you can hear a sample of the entire album right now on Amazon.com.
Get ready to pull up the calendar section on your iPhone/smartphone. On September 14, one of BlackSwanSongs’ favorite bands, Superchunk, will release Majesty Shredding on CD, LP and digital download. The band have announced summer festival dates and September east coast dates with west coast dates to be announced soon. Superchunk will also perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Monday, September 20, their first television appearance since 1994. (Let’s pray they announce an Austin show!)
The press release on the Merge Records site reveals:
Having cleared the deck of odds and sods with last year’s Leaves in the Gutter EP, Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan set about to write a batch of songs that would capture the spirit of the band’s live shows. From 1997’s Indoor Living through 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up, Superchunk had written most of their records together, building their songs through collaborative writing and rehearsal. But, in an effort not to overthink their new material (and because drummer Jon Wurster lives a couple hundred miles away from the rest of the band), Superchunk approached Majesty Shredding the same way they approached their early records: McCaughan provided skeletal demos to his bandmates, who in turn fleshed out the songs during a brief period of rehearsal and recording.
This sense of purpose is enhanced by the presence of Scott Solter, an engineer and producer (The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, St. Vincent) known for coaxing exceptional performances out of the artists he works with. Majesty Shredding is a powerful document of Superchunk as a band, augmented as needed with well-placed harmonies, keyboards, and guitar overdubs (and some backing vocals courtesy of the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle).
Since releasing their first 7-inch in 1989, Superchunk has run the gamut of milestone albums: early punk rock stompers, polished mid-career masterpieces, and lush, adventurous curveballs. Conventional wisdom holds that a band two decades into its career can only rehash or reinvent, but with Majesty Shredding, Superchunk has done something entirely different. Neither a return nor a departure, Majesty Shredding telescopes two decades into 41 indelible, action-packed minutes. It is the sound of youthful exuberance fine-tuned with grown-up confidence. And it may very well be Superchunk’s best record yet.
Superchunk also recently drank the social media Kool-Aid too; check out their twitter.
Track Listing:
1. Digging for Something
2. My Gap Feels Weird
3. Rosemarie
4. Crossed Wires
5. Slow Drip
6. Fractures in Plaster
7. Learned to Surf
8. Winter Games
9. Rope Light
10. Hot Tubes
11. Everything at Once
Superchunk tour dates:
6/19 Denver, CO – Westword Music Festival
6/20 Chicago, IL – Taste of Randolph Street Festival w/The Love Language
7/24 Omaha, NE – MAHA Music Festival
9/17 Washington, DC- 930 Club
9/18 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
9/19 Brooklyn, NY- Music Hall of Williamsburg
9/20 New York, NY – Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
9/21 Boston, MA- Royale
9/22 Philadelphia, PA- Trocadero
BlackSwanSongs.com had the extreme honor of attending two Sixteen Deluxe reunion shows, as well as interviewing them for a short feature in the Austin American-Statesman. Easily the best band to emerge from Austin during the 1990s, Sixteen Deluxe had the potential to be a label’s prestige act. Warner Brothers signed them after a small bidding war. But I personally didn’t feel like Warner Brothers properly promoted the release, “Emits Showers of Sparks” during those dark days just prior to mass Internet adoption.
If you enjoy My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Swervedriver and other noise pop/space rock bands, please seek out Sixteen Deluxe and their music. Then convince your friends that are music supervisors to use their music in films.
