The Flaming Lips Set Release Date for Christmas on Mars DVD, Reveal Soundtrack Details; Also Sarah Palin $700 Billion Bailout Dancing With the Stars Drudge Report Pornography
By Mike McHugh on Sep 26 2008
Greetings, loyal TMT readers, and salutations to you as well, Google searchers, who I nefariously hoodwinked onto this website with the second half of my headline! Being the honest and objective journalist that I normally am, I do not take much pleasure in deceiving the public into reading a story they likely care little about. But this is no ordinary story, my friends. Nope, this is the big one, a delicious hunk of newsy nutrition that deserves to sit on the same shelf as any monumental Congressional money-giving party. That’s right, friends, The Flaming Lips’ sci-fi opus Christmas on Mars has a SOLID release date!
After years of dreaming and scheming and filming and teasing and baking, those luscious Lips have stuck to their promise (TMT News) and announced that the DVD version of Christmas on Mars will be jettisoned to earth by mothership Warner Brothers November 11, just in time for Christmas. Or Halloween, or Thanksgiving, or Boxing Day for that matter. According to Billboard, the DVD includes bonus interviews with the band, outtakes, behind the scenes footage, and optional Russian subtitles. As a dude who studied Russian for four painful years in high school, I can tell you that reading that language is no piece of Козёл, which unfortunately means “goat.” Sorry, it was the only word I could remember besides “thank you” and “crayon.” That language is insane.
Besides the Cyrillic subtitling shenanigans, the movie’s soundtrack is also available in a separate bundle with the DVD. If the movie’s trailer hasn’t sold you already, chances are song titles like "In Excelsior Vaginalistic" or "The Gleaming Armament Of Marching Genitalia" should conjure enough unsettling mental images to convince you to send your hard-earned clams to Wayne Coyne (TMT Interview) and company for what is sure to be, if nothing else, the most daring cinematic exploration of red planet yuletide since 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Christmas on Mars soundtrack tracklisting:
1. Once Beyond Hopelessness
2. The Distance Between Mars And The Earth -- Part One
3. The Horrors Of Isolation: The Celestial Dissolve, Triumphant Hallucination, Light Being Absorbed
4. In Excelsior Vaginalistic
5. Your Spaceship Comes From Within
6. Suicide And Extraordinary Mistakes
7. The Distance Between Mars And The Earth -- Part Two
8. The Secret Of Immortality: This Strange Feeling, This Impossible World
9. The Gleaming Armament Of Marching Genitalia
10. The Distress Signals Of Celestial Objects
11. Space Bible With Volume Lumps
12. Once Beyond Hopelessness
War Child Charity Announces Benefit Covers Album, Hold Steady to Actually Cover The Boss Instead of Just Ripping Him Off Like Crazy
By Nobodaddy on Sep 25 2008
War Child, an award-winning charity that provides humanitarian assistance to war-affected children in some of the worlds most devastated regions, aren’t screwing around here. Their new benefit album Heroes is grabbing some of the biggest names in all of Baby Boomdom in an effort to open your heart, open your wallet, and, for god sakes, help these damn kids!
But hold on, Gorilla vs. Bear readers, this ain’t just your daddy’s hippie comp. In a twist that has M. Night Shyamalan jealous (a.k.a. “your daddy’s director”), the good people at War Child have asked these music legends (including Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Brian Wilson, and The Clash) to “select one of the classic tracks from their own songwriting canon and nominate an artist from the next generation (i.e. younger artists, not Star Trek) to create a modern reworking of that classic song.” In some circles, this process is known as, umm, “covering,” but hey, come on, they worked really hard on this press release!
"I have been supporting War Child since 1995,” McCartney said (unlike that John Lennon guy, right Paul?). “Their work with children in war zones saves lives and their work with those who take decisions that help them to do something about it saves even more lives... the breadth of talent on this project is amazing; it's great that so many people gave their time, energy and support to this initiative. I urge everyone to support War Child."
Set for release via EMI's Astralwerks label November 25, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this torch-passing, old-via-young album will be contributed to, duh, War Child’s efforts, cleverly mirroring the intrinsic aims of War Child's efforts in war zones across the world -- to place faith in the next generation (again, not Star Trek). "We are enormously proud to be involved with a project that encompasses such musical depth, socio-economic scope and global significance," said Glenn Mendlinger, GM over at Astralwerks. "It is our sincerest hope that this is the first of many new efforts by the music community to raise awareness of the plight of children throughout the world.”
The full track listing will be announced soon, but Heroes already boasts some pretty hefty star-power, including:
- Beck covering Bob Dylan’s "Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat”
- Duffy covering Sir Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”
- Rufus Wainwright covering a medley of two tracks from Brian Wilson’s SMiLE
- The Kooks covering The Kinks' "Victoria"
- Hot Chip covering Joy Division’s "Transmission"
- The Hold Steady covering Bruce Springsteen’s "Atlantic City"
To read more about War Child’s great cause, children’s rights, and additional ways to get involved, click here and here. And while you’re there, you can ask them where the heck the Bowie cover is!
Zach Hill to Set out on Solo Tour Performing 30+-Minute “Necromancer” – IF HE FEELS LIKE IT
By Mango Starr on Sep 25 2008
If I know anything about Zach Hill -- the smellier half of Hella -- it's that he marches most decidedly to the beat of a different drummer. (Which is ironic since he's a drummer himself.) Don't believe me? One day when we were doing yardwork, I was, like, "Hey, can you help me carry this mulch?" Zach responds: "No way, man. I'm an individual. I do what I want." I says, "I just need help for one second, then you can go back to what you were doing. We gotta get this shit done by 5 PM, buddy." He says, "Hey, I'll do what I want. I don't work for nobody but myself. I'm not going to sacrifice my individual choice not to help you, just so that we can get done with this shit by 5 PM."
We ended up staying until 7 PM because he was so insistent on following his own path. Sure, I was angry at the time, but I sure do respect him now since he's presumably buds with Mike Patton -- which is why I'm happy to report that Zach Hill is set to embark on his own tour, playing his own music. Boy, he's the same ol' Zach Hill from the mulch fields! Having released Astrological Straits last month on Ipecac, Hill will go against the grain once again and tour in support of one song. And it's not even one of the songs on the album proper! Instead, it's the track "Necromancer," a 30+-minute composition that comprised the entirety of the bonus disc, one that features Hill, Marnie Stern, and Brooklyn-based pianist Marco Benevento going nuts.
Maybe you'll see Zach at these shows. But maybe not. We'll see what he decides:
Bang On A Can Throw An Office Party Featuring… Themselves
By Mario Speedwagon on Sep 25 2008
If it were my office having a festival, it would consist of a bunch of our fake bands that have not yet been realized — my boss’ rapper name is Hyper Billy (...yes, hyperbole) and one of my co-workers has the idea for a band called the Creedles (Beatles songs in the style of Creed). To be honest, none of my coworkers, or myself, are very musically talented (Although one of them insists on singing loudly quite often... like in my car, while drunk. Alanis Morissette. ‘Nuf said.).
Luckily, the staffers at Bang On A Can got talent and are having a festival featuring their staff’s bands. Bands include “nouveau-bluegrass” band M Shanghai String Band, “avant-skronk” Babe The Blue Ox, the “neo-indie-classicism” sounds of Get Him Eat Him, “baroque-noir” Melomane, and the “boogie-down anarchronism-funk” of Riot of 1866 Brass Band. I don’t know what the fuck any of those genre descriptions mean.
The show is on Thursday, October 2 at recently opened Bell House in Brooklyn. It’s $10 and gets jumpin’ around 8 PM. Here is the schedule:
- Get Him Eat Him, featuring Bang on a Can’s Marketing Manager, Matt Lemay (singer/songwriter/guitarist)
- Babe The Blue Ox, featuring Bang on a Can’s Director of Development, Tim Thomas (guitarist/singer/songwriter)
- M Shanghai String Band, featuring Bang on a Can’s Program Director, Philippa Thompson (violinist/singer/songwriter)
- Melomane, featuring Bang on a Can’s Executive Director, Kenny Savelson (drummer/percussionist/bookie)
- Riot of 1866 Brass Band, featuring Bang on a Can’s Project Manager, Jeremy Thal (French horn)
Punk’s Not Dead – Thanks to New HD Blu-Ray Technology!!! Sex Pistols to Release Live DVD
By Liz Louche on Sep 25 2008
At last, you can relive, in the comfort of your own home, the historic Sex Pistols kinda reunion of 2007! Imagine, a time before Sarah Palin, a time after Sid Vicious. Although it may seem like a distant and mythical time, you can now experience the wonders of 2007 and the Pistols' November reunion shows at Brixton Academy in London without a time travel machine or a Kubla Khan level of opium usage. How is this mighty wonder possible, you ask? Why, through the magic of Rhino Records, of course!
Within a matter of weeks, and just in time to introduce annoying neighborhood trick-or-treaters to the loud, fast, no-holds-barred world of late-’70s punk rock, There'll Always Be an England will be released October 14 in the U.S. The DVD will feature not only concert footage, but over an hour's worth of bonus material, including a Julien Temple-directed segment titled The Knowledge, which -- buyers beware -- is not a follow-up to this summer's star-studded ode to the 1990s, The Wackness (TMT Review). But even though you won't be able to see more hard-hitting dramedy from the likes of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ben Kingsley, you will be able to see each of the remaining members of the reunited Pistols -- namely Johnny Rotten, Glen Matlock, Paul Cook and Steve Jones -- doing the "this is a bar where I used to kick it, but now it's a Tesco" tour of their past London haunts.
In addition to There'll Always Be an England, Rhino will also be reissuing Never Mind the Bollocks on 180-gram vinyl, also on October 14.
Tracklisting:
