Dirty Projectors Announce Fall Tourdates; Longstreth Has Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Blues

by Liz Louche on 08-31-2009

Imagine the surprise and delight on Grandma’s face when she opens that special CD-shaped gift below the Christmas tree this year. Of course, it’s obviously a CD, but which one? Mannheim Steamroller? Trans-Siberian Orchestra? Or… none of the above? Boy will she be impressed when she opens that little package to find none other than THE BRAND NEW BOB DYLAN CHRISTMAS CD!!!! That’s right, just in time for the holidays, the legendary songsman is releasing Christmas in the Heart to spread a little good ol' fashioned holiday cheer among you and yours. Featuring holiday classics like “Winter Wonderland” and “Here Comes Santa Claus,” sales of the album will benefit the United States’ biggest domestic hunger-relief charity, Feeding America, as well as other hunger organizations around the globe. Christmas in the Heart comes out October 13 via Columbia Records.

In other exciting, potentially not real Dylan-related news, the man himself told listeners to his Theme Time Radio Hour that he is in talks to be the voice of a GPS navigator. But don’t take it from me. Take it from Bob!

I am talking to a couple of car companies about being the voice of their GPS system. I think it would be good if you are looking for directions and hear my voice saying something like: “Left at the next street, no a right - you know what? Just go straight.” I probably shouldn’t do it because whichever way I go I always end up at one place: Lonely Avenue.

If this were to happen, I would totally shill out for a GPS device. What could be more soothing than — while in the midst of traffic or being totally lost on a lonely desert highway — to hear the voice of Mr. Dylan? Much more comforting than, say, Henry Rollins or like Nick Cave.

by Shane Mack on 08-26-2009

From Spinner:

Songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who co-wrote many of the classic hits of the girl group era, has died at age 68. According to her niece, Greenwich died of a heart attack at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York, where she had been hospitalized for pneumonia.

Greenwich's songs, mostly written with her then-husband, Jeff Barry, include such '60s girl-pop standards as 'Be My Baby' and ‘Baby I Love You,’ by the Ronettes, 'Da Doo Ron Ron' and ‘Then He Kissed Me,’ by the Crystals, and ‘Leader of the Pack,’ by the Shangri-Las. Her songbook also includes penning ‘Chapel of Love’ for the Dixie Cups and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’ for Ike & Tina Turner.

Greenwich and Barry were part of New York's Brill Building songwriting factory alongside the likes of Neil Diamond, Carole King, Neil Sedaka and Burt Bacharach. The songwriting and onetime married couple had their songs recorded by performers including Tommy James and the Shondells (‘Hanky Panky’), Lesley Gore (‘Maybe I Know,’ ‘The Look of Love’) and Manfred Mann (‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’). Greenwich also had a Top 20 hit of her own with ‘The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget’ under the group name the Raindrops.

- Ellie Greenwich official website
- Ellie Greenwich Wikipedia entry

by Annapocalypse on 08-26-2009

You have to forgive me for that awful headline; my brain has been melted this past week from watching three straight hours of NEW Project Runway episodes. Every time I close my eyes, I hear Heidi Klum say “Auf wiedersehen,” see Tim Gunn dressed in a dapper suit, and cringe at this new contestant’s ridiculous hairstyle.

But before I completely digress, let’s talk about Camera Obscura’s upcoming fall tour: they’re touring. Yup, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Go see them play songs from their latest album, My Maudlin Career (TMT Review), out now on 4AD.

Meanwhile, the next Project Runway episode starts tomorrow. See you on the catwalk.

Dates Obscura:
11.18.09 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
11.19.09 - Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
11.20.09 - Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
11.21.09 - Norfolk, VA - Attucks Theatre
11.22.09 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
11.24.09 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Ballroom
11.25.09 - Rochester, NY - The German House
11.26.09 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix
11.27.09 - Pontiac, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
11.28.09 - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
11.30.09 - Bloomington, IN - Bluebird
12.01.09 - St Louis, MO - Off Broadway
12.02.09 - Oxford, MS - The Lyric Oxford
12.03.09 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club

by Nobodaddy on 08-25-2009

Quick! Your old friends from college are coming over any minute. They all majored in either Accounting, Business, or Nursing, and so they all have real jobs now (you majored in Art History and work part-time in a used book store that your Alderman is constantly threatening to shut down), and they spend their time and money on things that sound... well, “awfully foreign” to you, like “yo-ga,” and “sa-shi-mi,” and something called “health in-sur-ance.” You’ve got nothing to show for yourself. Shit, they’re gonna be here any second. Why did you ever agree to this? You need a status symbol. You need some upper-hand... some cool... some cred... something that says “yeah, I’m into stuff too"... something rare and arcane and abstruse and impenetrable that can effortlessly connote your intellectual, artistic, and cultural superiority. Argg! If only you had some kind of, I don’t know, internet-exclusive The Velvet Underground Singles 1966-69 7 x 7” Vinyl “Rare Mono” Box Set! That’d hit the spot nicely.

Well, you’re in luck, friend. Sundazed Music, on-line purveyor of all things sunny and crackly and reverberant and vintage, is set to release just such a rarified box set from The Velvets on September 15, and is currently taking pre-orders! This dreamy, steamy singles box, honoring those druggie, lovable “New York Beatles” will neatly compile their 7-inch vinyl output in, yum, rare mono versions (Score! Your friends probably don’t even know what "mono" is!). The set features exact reproductions of your favorite VU singles, packaged in a distinctively designed box (naturally), along with rare “vintage” photos and some brand-ass-new liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke (who also penned the acclaimed notes for that other, now toooootally obsolete 1995 Velvets CD box set Peel Slowly and See. Eww, “CDs”...).

The seven singles included in The Velvet Underground Singles 1966–69 comprise the four singles originally released in the U.S. on the Verve and MGM labels, plus an additional pair of singles that were prepared for release but got sidetracked on their way to market and ended up buying some magic beans instead. There’s also a special radio-only promotional single. And these alternate mono versions promise to differ in “significant ways” from the songs' stereo album versions. And hey, at a totally reasonable $39.98 for the whole shebang, you can actually afford the thing, even with your... pathetic... bookstore... job... oh shit! A knock at the door! They’re here!

Complete tracklist:

1. All Tomorrow's Parties b/w I'll Be Your Mirror (Verve VK-10427)
2. Sunday Morning b/w Femme Fatale (Verve VK-10466)
3. White Light/White Heat b/w Here She Comes Now (Verve VK-10560)
4. White Light/White Heat b/w I Heard Her Call My Name (Cancelled single)
5. Temptation Inside Your Heart b/w Stephanie Says (Cancelled single)
6. What Goes On b/w Jesus (MGM K-14057)
7. VU Radio Spot b/w VU Radio Spot 2 (MGM VU-1)