According to his official website, wily old Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson is preparing to finally stores. There's just one catch: It's an all-new recording! Surprise, Beach Boys fans!
You all are suckers, who suck. Yes, defying reports in late February that Wilson would compile the original tapes from the Beach Boys' well-documented 1966 and 1967 sessions into a cohesive, definitive LP version at last, Wilson's pulled the old switcharoo and decided instead to re-record all of the material. Smile has been something of a fantasy for Beach Boys fans since its recording, with countless bootlegs in circulation, speculated tracklists, and not a few books published recounting its legacy.
Over the years, it has often been rumored that Wilson would finally issue a completed version, but as release dates came and went, so did hope that the album would ever exist as anything but a jumbled series of studio outtakes. Yet, like the current Pixies reunion that most imagined would never happen, Wilson November in preparation for the re-recording, which inspired the two to create a few scraps of new material with which Wilson could tie the songs together on tour. After premiering the final piece at London's Royal Festival Fall last February, Wilson entered Los Angeles' Sunset Sound studio, where he remains to this day, toiling away to finish the record in time for its newly scheduled September 28th release via Nonesuch Records.
Here's hoping these sessions go better than the last. Wilson has also scheduled another bunch of Smile performances for Europe this summer, to take place after he completes his new sessions. The dates kick off July 13th at The Hague in Holland, and run through early August, when the tour comes to an end at Sweden's The Cirkus.
In there somewhere, he's got four goddamn nights planned again for the Royal Festival Hall in London, which should promptly sell out. A U.S.
tour is rumored to be announced near Smile's release, but at press time, nothing has been Underground hip-hop icon Sage Francis, the only MC ever to rap, "I go to Fugazi shows requesting Minor Threat songs," had a serious scare this month. According to recent post on the official webboard of Non Prophets, his collaborative project with DJ Joe Beats, Francis reported that he'd recently been plagued by throat problems, and upon finally seeing a doctor, was told that his vocal cords were severely damaged. "The doctor entered the room and shot some Novocain into my nose that went down my throat," Francis stated.
"He left. I went numb. He came back.
Shoved a metal scope into my left nostril that reached into my throat. He looked into it and poked around for about 10 seconds. Pulled it out, turned around and said, 'This is not good.
'" "This is not good?" Apparently, real doctors have been watching too many E.R.
reruns and phasing out the "hmmmmm's" and "okaaaay's" in favor of Noah Wiley's oafish, "Well, Ms. Smith, I'm afraid you're fucked." But the visit didn't stop there: Sage's throat specialist explained that Francis had sprouted polyps on each vocal cord, and that, due to excessive straining, he had even developed a nodule on top of one of the polyps-- a rare condition.
"Polyps can usually be cured with lots of rest to your voice," the doctor reportedly told him, "but nodules can only be removed with surgery. Surgery will cause a distinguishable change to your voice. Without taking care of these things right now you risk losing The physician then laid down the law, instructing Francis not to utter a single, solitary word for the next swelling.
But fortunately, two weeks and a great, lasting silence later, it appears his doctor was just being super dramatic, and possibly a little mean: "He said that I've had an amazing recovery," Francis proudly reported yesterday morning. "No need for surgery. I just have to take better care of myself.
.. Vocal exercises.
No more smoking crack...
Thanks for all your throat prayers." Yeah, so much for that "nodules can only be removed with surgery" bit. SMACK.
Francis may now resume work on his forthcoming Epitaph Records debut, which was promised an early-to-mid-2004 release by the label last year. "It's half recorded already," said the depolyp'd vocalist, who spent his quiet time reworking some of the record's lyrics. Luden's cough drops may be sent to Francis c/o Epitaph
Donald Duck snags tight chain wallet, white belt at Orlando thrift mart File under "things that make you go hmmm.
.." According to a recent report in New Musical Express, the next Queens of the Stone Age album, which the band will begin recording at the end of this month, is set to feature an unlikely collaboration.
Now, musical crossovers are pretty much the norm in hip-hop, but in rock, they're a bit more rare and fraught with peril. When Thom Yorke sang on P.J.
Harvey's record? That was pretty sweet. Or, remember when Anthrax and Public Enemy laid down "Bring the Noise"?
Tight! Rumor has it that Outkast's Andre 3000 may link up with Jack White, which sounds cool in theory, but which I fear would, in praxis, leave us all sucking the mop. So it is with trembling hands Click "refresh" as many times as you want, partner; it's going to read the same.
QOTSA frontman Josh Homme recently announced the improbable pairing during an interview with ABC News Radio, and added that he's "completely serious," dispelling any notion that this is a John Vanderslice-patented, buzz-generating hoax. I mean, why would he lie? A story like this could only garner the new record preliminary write-ups in rags across the nation eager for a "quirky" story to break the monotony, and boost curious pre-order sales immeasurably!
When asked how he convinced the Disney Marching Band to play on a peyote-soaked metal record, Homme reportedly replied, "I slept with Goofy." I don't know, folks, are we buying this? In the interest of shining the cleansing fire of investigative journalism on this story, I recently went on a fact-finding mission to The Magic Kingdom, equipped with a Vespa from the Pitchfork company fleet and Schreiber's Platinum Indie Cred-it Card, which, it turns out, is accepted ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOWHERE.
All it's worth jack shit. Trust me; I've tried: "Hey, I'm hungry, I think I'll make a nice Indie Cred sandwich." "Excuse me, my Vespa is out of gas.
Do you accept Indie Cred as a method of payment?" So while I was unable to actually enter The Happiest Place on Earth and dig up the dirt, I did manage to bandoliers at the Disney gates a Pitchfork namedrop. Or so I thought.
They ushered me into a Port-A-John where the head cheese supposedly waited, and proceeded to beat me unmercifully for upwards of an hour, outsiders." But hey, um, big ups to the twins, Susie and Hunter! Please don't hit me with those sharp sticks any more; I believe in magic, I do, I do.
..
McCaughan's thugs stake out Mark E.
Smith's London flat for next kidnapping So, it would seem that Merge Records is well on their way toward completing their five-year plan to quietly scoop up every possible prominent indie artist on the market. Oh, you can say I'm being paranoid, but really-- Spoon, Destroyer, American Music Club, Buzzcocks, The Clean? And that's just the short list.
So maybe there's nothing sinister behind it all, but if you're the suspicious type, this should chill you to the bone-- now they've got Lou Barlow. Should you perhaps be unaware of who that is, let us run it down for you: Dinosaur pretty much the entire 1990s, he's actually been pretty quiet as of the last few years, releasing one album of assorted ephemera under the Sentridoh moniker, and one full-length as The New Folk Implosion, both in 2003. But now that he's back in full swing, Barlow will reportedly make his Merge debut with a solo EP to be released October 12th, with a full-length solo album scheduled for early 2005.
In addition, Billboard reports that Merge is planning to reissue the first three Dinosaur Jr. albums-- Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me and Bug-- late this year or early next. We're already rockin' the old Converse Ryan Schreiber and Micah C.
Harding report: Just prior to the great Pixies reunion, Frank Black had been at work compiling a two-disc set called through the end of 2004, the release has been put on the backburner. Though originally scheduled for a spring release, SpinArt Records, the label slated to release Frank Black Francis, have been unable to pin Black down on a definite street date, and suspect that the record could be delayed until with all new arrangements, with help from an experimental duo known as Two Pale Boys.
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