Even though an opening slot on U2’s American tour never panned out this summer for Interpol due to Bono injuring his back, the band picked up the pieces with its own tour and was able to put the final touches on its fourth long player. The self-titled disc on Matador finds the New Yorkers exploring multiple layers of brooding alternative rock, loaded with plenty of epic momentum swells.

-Andy Argyrakis

Issue

12”/LP:  The Black Keys 12” “Tighten Up”/”Howling for You”; The Black Keys, Brothers LP.

Relevence:  Brothers has been a strong vinyl seller for Edge Distribution, Cleveland, holding steady in their top ten for the last two months.  It makes sense, as vinyl is the perfect format for The Black Keys’ blissful blend of punk swagger, sonic backwater blues, and 60s soul.  Even surface noise (the snaps and pops on dusty records) adds to the throwback ambience of this group.Does the 12” sound better the album cut?:  It should, according to Matt Earley of Gotta Groove Records, a vinyl record pressing plant in Cleveland.  The more groove space for the needle pickup,  Earley holds, the more accurate the “fingerprint” that reproduces the sound source.

 (The reader is referred to a past post, where this writer questions why The Roots How I Got Over—a 40+ minute release–was relegated to a single LP release.  Because so much sound was crammed on the vinyl, the sound quality was not optimal.)

The “Tighten Up”/”Howling for You” comparison proves Earley right.  Both 12” and LP versions of “Tighten Up” sound great on vinyl, but the performances on the 12” sound stronger, clearer.  Dan Auerbach’s vocals and puttering guitar are crispier, while the drum rolls and bass lines sound stronger, more stalwart in the mix.

On both versions of “Howling For You,” the guitar gloriously reverbs—perfect for vinyl.  But on the 12” Auerbach’s enunciation is more detailed, as the vocals–“throw the ball/to the stick/swing and miss/the catcher’s mitt/strike two”–sound closer.

 If you love a song and its available on 12,” the purchase may be worth it.

After opening up with the group’s working class Canadian origins, fans find out it was a small rock radio station in Cleveland that wound up breaking the band in America. Though it would be awhile before the band found widespread Stateside acclaim, early albums like 1976’s conceptual *2112* confirmed the band’s commitment to crafting music on its own terms and never at the expense of record company influence. Even though the trio stuck to its guns in the subsequent years, the guys do admit straying a bit from the hard rock plot throughout the 1980s given the prominent inclusion of keyboards, but from the 1990s through now, Rush made a conscious decision to return to its progressive roots.

Aside from the players breaking down every album, there are plenty of insightful interviews with Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Gene Simmons (Kiss), all of whom sing their praises and add tidbits about each important period. A bonus disc is chock full of rare performances, fan interviews and random footage (like dinner with the guys at a hunting lodge), but it’s exactly the kind of meat die-hards will sink their teeth into, while also painting a clearer picture of just how Rush wound up trailing only the Beatles and Stones for the most consecutive gold and platinum albums in the history of music thus far.

-Andy Argyrakis

Recorded in Lanois’ Los Angeles home, “Le Noise” features Young on acoustic and electric guitar with no backing band or overdubs. “Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him,” says Lanois, adding that the pair had “taken the acoustic guitar to a new level.”

“Le Noise” will be issued as a standard CD, vinyl, digital download, and as a deluxe CD/DVD set. The DVD portion, which showcases Young performing each of the album’s eight songs, will also be released as a Blu-Ray in November.

Here is the tracklist for “Le Noise”:

Walk With Me
Sign of Love
Rescue Me
Love And War
Angry World
Hitchhiker
Peaceful Valley Blvd.
Rumblin’

From Billboard 9/1/10

http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/neil-young-announces-new-album-le-noise-1004112260.story

and Leon Russell have issued the first single from their forthcoming collaborative album, “The Union,” due Oct. 19 on Decca Records. Titled “If It Wasn’t For Bad,” the song features vocals from both musical legends as well as John on piano.

Produced by T-Bone Burnett, “The Union” is John and Russell’s first collaboration since 1970. In July, John said the album was an attempt to move away from pop music and “be mature” with his work, and that he hopes the disc brings more exposure to Russell’s solo recording career.

Elton John Teams With Leon Russell For ‘Mature’ New Album

The pair also worked with songwriter Bernie Taupin and brought in Neil Young and Brian Wilson to guest on the album. John said he plans to tour with Russell next year as well.

From Billboard 9/1/10

http://www.billboard.com/news#/news/elton-john-and-leon-russell-release-first-1004112450.story

Ever since SKoA pointed us to the page this morning, it’s been crawling as eager fans devour that sweet, sweet bandwidth, so bookmark the page now for when things pick up over there and enjoy the entire film on YouTube or a few choice clips through the link below:

http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/1044545603/radiohead-and-fans-team-up-for-free-live-film

From TwentyFourBit 8/31/10

From Pitchfork 9/1/10

http://pitchfork.com/news/39929-hear-tis-eight-minute-rick-ross-collab/

Last year, Dirty Projectors made a leap forward with Bitte Orca, Pitchfork’s second-favorite album of the year. And on September 28, that LP will get something of a victory lap when Domino releases a double-disc expanded version of the album, featuring rare material.The expanded Bitte Orca features the original album on one disc. On the second, there’s a live acoustic performance from the New York record store Other Music, as well as vinyl-only B-sides from the “Stillness Is the Move” and “Ascending Melody” singles and this cover of Bob Dylan’s “As I Went Out One Morning” (UPDATE: The cover that appears on the expanded edition is new and unreleased). We’ve got the tracklist below.

Over the next few months, the band will play a ton of shows, including a Madison Square Garden date with Phoenix and Wavves. Check the schedule below the tracklisting.

Bitte Orca (Expanded Edition):

CD1:

01 Cannibal Resource
02 Temecula Sunrise
03 The Bride
04 Stillness Is the Move
05 Two Doves
06 Useful Chamber
07 No Intention
08 Remade Horizon
09 Fluorescent Half Dome

CD2:

01 Fluorescent Half Dome (Live at Other Music)
02 Temecula Sunrise (Live at Other Music)
03 Two Doves (Live at Other Music)
04 Cannibal Resource (Live at Other Music)
05 No Intention (Live at Other Music)
06 Ascending Melody
07 Emblem of The World
09 Bitte Bitte Orca
10 Stillness Is the Move (Lucky Dragons Remix)
11 As I Went Out One Morning

Dirty Projectors:

09-07 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club *
09-08 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero *
09-11 New York, NY – Terminal 5 *
09-13 Boston, MA – Wilbur Theater *
09-14 Montreal, Quebec – Le National ^
09-15 Toronto, Ontario – Opera House ^
09-17 Chicago, IL – Metro ^
09-18 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre ^
09-19 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue ^
09-23 Pomona, CA – Glass House #
09-24 Los Angeles, CA – Wiltern #
09-25 San Francisco, CA – Fillmore #
09-28 Portland, OR – Aladdin #
09-29 Portland, OR – Aladdin #
09-30 Seattle, WA – Showbox #
10-05 Durham, NC – Page Auditorium
10-20 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden %
11-06 Austin, TX – Fun Fun Fun Fest
12-07 London, England – Koko
12-10 Minehead, England – ATP Festival

* with Owen Pallett
^ with Happy Birthday
# with Dominique Young Unique
% with Phoenix, Wavves

TVOTR have been on hiatus since last year, and Sitek — who has produced the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Thee Oh See’s and Scarlett Johansson’s solo album Anywhere I Lay My Head — doesn’t know when they’ll reconvene. “We’re the lousiest band with plans you’ll ever see,” he explains.”So if we said we’re going to start on this day, then we automatically jinx it. [We'll play] whenever we’re all around each other.” Sitek took an easy-going approach to Maximum Balloon as well, prepping for recording sessions by inviting friends to his L.A. studio and spinning music by the B-52′s, Mobb Deep and Aphex Twin.

We asked Sitek about three standout Maximum Balloon tracks:

“Tiger,” featuring Aku: Sitek was in a New York studio eighteen months ago producing a “cornball” artist he won’t name when he began experimenting with a propulsive rhythm, funk guitar, and fuzzy synth. Sitek called his friend Aku, singer for the Brooklyn psych-rockers Dragons of Zynth, and they spent the rest of the day recording vocals. The track, which plays in the video above, went viral when Daisy Lowe, Gavin Rossdale’s model daughter, stripped to the track in a video shoot for Esquire. “She heard it and then called me and was like, ‘I hope you don’t mind I used the song for a video I did. I’m dancing around in my underwear.’ I was like, ‘okay.’”

“Communion,” featuring Karen O: Sitek invited the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman to dinner just as the album was wrapping. “I was like, ‘You know, everyone else is on this record. If you’re not, that’s kind of lame,’” he recalls. Karen O chose this smoky, stomping club number, where she demands, “Give me that beat / Show your love.” “You get all of the Karen worlds in one song,” Sitek says. “You get that real immediate presence, softer voice, and then you get the banshee” at the end of the track.

“Apartment Wrestling,” featuring David Byrne: Sitek took a friend’s advice and called Byrne, a hero of Sitek’s, who quickly agreed to add vocals from New York. “He was like ‘What do you think of this?’ I¹m like, ‘Why do you even care what I think? You’re David Byrne!’” Sitek says, adding, “There’s no hiding behind effects with him. You just put him front and center and, oh my God …”

Maximum Balloon Track Listing

1. Groove Me, feat. Theophilus London

2. Young Love, feat. Katrina Ford

3. Absence of Light, feat. Tunde Adebimpe (Hear this song at the Fader)

4. If You Return, feat. Little Dragon

5. Shakedown, feat. Kyp Malone

6. Communion, feat. Karen O

7. Tiger, feat. Aku

8. The Lesson, feat. Holly Miranda

9. Apartment Wrestling, feat. David Byrne

10. Pink Bricks, feat. Ambrosia Parsley

From Rolling Stone 8/30/10

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/196742

Photos: John & Yoko: A New York Love Story

In Iceland, Ono will also present LennonOno Grant for Peace awards to four recipients — authors Michael Pollan and Alice Walker, public health advocate Barbara Kowalcyk, and documentary filmmaker Josh Fox — whose work is “based on their courage and commitment to peace, truth, and human rights.” She’ll then give a special Plastic Ono Band performance with a lineup that will include her son Sean. “A tribute concert for John given by Sean and I that evening will be the icing on the cake!” says Ono.

The Imagine Peace Tower fulfills, in a way, an old wish of Lennon’s. “I was inspired to conceive of a light tower in 1965, which was printed in ‘Sales List’” her 1965 Fluxus artwork “and appeared in my book Grapefruit,” Ono explains. “John picked this up and invited me over to his Kenwood mansion, asking if I could build the light tower in his garden. Of course, I had to tell him the conceptual nature of the work, and that I didn’t know how to make it into a physical object! Nearly 42 years after this dialogue between me and John, Imagine Peace Tower was built in Iceland and has become a physical reality.”

Lennon fans will get their own tangible objects in the form of upgraded reissues of his solo albums (from Plastic Ono Band through Milk and Honey) along with a single-disc compilation and a boxed set. The Gimme Some Truth box is particularly enticing: a bonus disc includes previously unreleased home recordings of songs from 1970’s volcanic Plastic Ono Band (“God,” “I Found Out,” “Mother,” “Love”) along with other tracks from his subsequent records. Also included: a “Stripped Down” version of Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1980 album Double Fantasy, in which Ono and producer Jack Douglas peeled away the original album’s production to reveal its basic tracks. “You feel like you’re in the presence of John interacting with Yoko and the players,” Douglas tells Rolling Stone. “It’s the same with Yoko’s songs. The dialogue between the two of them becomes even more obvious. There are a couple of songs that never sounded like duets but do now, like ‘Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him.’”

According to Douglas, tracks like “I’m Losing You” and “Watching the Wheels” benefited in particular from the makeover. “When you hear them raw, those are two of the jewels,” he says. ”’Watching the Wheels’ becomes this song with barely any accompaniment. ‘I’m Losing You’ was meant to be like this.” One of Ono’s tracks, “Yes, I’m Your Angel,” now includes a lead guitar part that was later replaced by horns. “It sounds like Brian May now!” says Douglas. “Amazing three-part harmony guitar lines backing up the song — very cool.”

Douglas found himself, to his surprise, reconfiguring the album in the same room where Double Fantasy had been cut — a Sony studio that once housed the legendary Record Plant. “They said, ‘Mr. Douglas, we have to tell you something — the very room that you’ll be doing your transfers in is rumored to be the last room where you and John worked together,’” he says. “I thought, ‘This is so strange.’ I started this project in the very same room in which I left it.”

From Rolling Stone 8/31/10

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/197144