Devandra Banhart Wakes Up, Shaves Beard, Gets Serious, Signs to Warner, Gets Unserious Again, Releases New Record With Suspiciously Penis-related Cover Art
By Nobodaddy on 08-07-2009
When a band as big as Radiohead signed to XL in late 2007, you just knew that someone had to get kicked out of the club house to make room. “You know who I’ve never really liked on your label?” Johnny Greenwood was heard to casually remark from the back of the XL board room as he toothpicked the caviar out of his perfect teeth with one capable hand and calligraphically penned an untouchable new avant-garde musical score for “stringless-viola trio, ambient South Pole field recordings, manipulated whale song, and coke machine” with the other. “Devandra Banhart.” Sure enough, the very next day, Banhart arrived to work in his avocado-green Pinto only to find that his parking space in the XL lot had been painted over...
Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly how it went down. But like, EVEN STILLZ, the fact remains that Banhart’s follow-up record to 2007’s hot-and-cold running Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (TMT Review) is due this October on a brand spanking new major label: Warner Bros. But if you’re thinking that Banhart’s days of just jamming in his house with his friends and recording whatever goofy nonsense came out are over now that he’s moved on to a bigger label, think again: the vaguely shroom-y, vaguely phallic cover art appears above, and the vaguely Hippie Dippie Weatherman-esque oddly spaced title of the new record is:
What We
Will Be
And there’s no shortage of old cronies this time around either. The album was recorded with A Band of Bees' Paul Butler, and his backing band once again consists of a boat load of buddies, such as Megapuss partner-in-crime Greg Rogove, Little Joy's Rodrigo Amarante, and pals Luckey Remington, Noah Georgeson, and Andy Cabic. Hot dog! Stay tuned for supporting dates, as well as the potential for hilarious major label drama! In the mean time, lets all brace ourselves for having this record thrust in our ears and faces this fall at just about every coffee shop and/or book store that we happen to venture into.
What We
Will Be tracklisting:
1. Can't Help but Smiling
2. Angelika
3. Baby
4. Goin' Back
5. First Song for B
6. Last Song for B
7. Chin Chin & Muck Muck
8. 16th & Valencia Roxy Music
9. Rats
10. Maria Leonza
11. Brindo
12. Meet Me at the Lookout
13. Walilamzi
14. Foolin'
Q: What’s Worse Than Being Known as “The Baby Born at Woodstock”? A: Sitting Through a Six-CD Set of Material from the Original Festival (Note: Alternate Answer “The Baby Born at Woodstock ‘94” Is Also Acceptable)
By David Nadelle on 08-07-2009
As for the headline above, of course I jest. Any festival that has kept television, movie, and documentary directors afloat with easy peasy '60s stock footage choices and kept this guy upper New York state’s most eligible dairy farm bachelor from the festival's end to his death in 1973 can't be that bad. Besides, "The Baby Born at Woodstock" is a misnomer. There were two births at Woodstock. And four miscarriages.
Woodstock is still the most famous of music festivals, and as such it gets its fair shake of kudos and stick for being one of the countercultural iconic events of the 20th century. Both fairly and unfairly pigeon-holed as unwashed hippie nonsense, Woodstock featured a slew of performances that, while dated by time that has since passed, simply made the times. It provides one of the best possible time-capsule reminiscences from an era gone by, and of an era constantly recycled and mined for inspiration, nostalgia, and ridicule. The time is again ripe to reminisce over the festival's music and who else but the historical evaluators at Rhino could revisit it up to the gills? No one, that’s who! On August 18 Rhino will release Woodstock. 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm, a box set containing 77 songs of the best performances from every artist who appeared at the festival in chronological order of appearance. This is all part of Rhino’s 40-year anniversary celebration of the original "3 Days of Peace & Music." Available already are reissues of the Music from the Original Soundtrack and More and Woodstock Two albums which coincided with the re-release of Michael Wadleigh’s epic documentary Woodstock (1970) by Warner Home Video.
Some recordings of Woodstock appearances have become the stuff of legend (Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, The Who's killer Abbie Hoffman-bashing set, um, Sha Na Na) or damned near inescapable for any flashback victim, while many more have never been released or appreciated fully (Quill, Bert Sommer, Incredible String Band). The Rhino package set offers a "considerable amount of ancillary material sprinkled throughout the discs -- stage announcements, lysergic babble, the sounds of rain, a cameo appearance by Abbie Hoffman, and the graciousness of Max Yasgur's address to the crowd heard for the first time in its entirety" -- and setlists reflect the definite order of the performances that went down in Bethel, NY, a source of conflicting opinion and frustration in the past. Housing six CDs, Woodstock. 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur’s Farm is the most definitive audio document of the "aquarian exposition" of August 17-19, 1969 yet produced.
Here are the tracks and helpful asterisk legend. Blame the hippies. Especially if they have typically bonkers names like "Wavy Gravy" or "Chip Monck." Breathe deep but don’t take the green acid. Or was it the brown acid that was bad? Best not to take any acid, flower children…
Disc 1:
1. Richie Havens - "Handsome Johnny"
2. Richie Havens - "Freedom (Motherless Child)"
3. John Morris - "Choppity Choppity"
4. Sweetwater - "Look Out"
5. Sweetwater - "Two Worlds" *
6. Bert Sommer - "Jennifer" *
7. Bert Sommer - "And When It's Over" *
8. Bert Sommer - "Smile" ‹ Bert Sommer *
9. John Morris - "There Goes Marilyn!"
10. Tim Hardin - "Hang On to a Dream" *
11. Tim Hardin - "Simple Song of Freedom" *
12. John Morris - "Flat Blue Acid"
13. Ravi Shankar - "Raga Puriya-Dhanashri/Gat In Sawarital" *
14. Melanie - "Momma Momma" *
15. Melanie - "Beautiful People"
16. Melanie - "Birthday of the Sun"
17. Arlo Guthrie - "Coming into Los Angeles" ***
18. Arlo Guthrie - "Wheel of Fortune" *
19. Arlo Guthrie - "Every Hand in the Land" *
20. John Morris - "All You Funny People"
Disc 2:
1. Joan Baez - "Joe Hill"
2. Joan Baez - "Sweet Sir Galahad"
3. Joan Baez - "Hickory Wind"*
4. Joan Baez w/ Jeffrey Shurtleff - "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man"
5. John Morris - "Bring Scully His Asthma Pills"
6. John Morris "Insulin" & Quill Intro
7. Quill - "They Live the Life" *
8. Quill - "That's How I Eat" *
9. Chip Monck - "I Understand Your Wife Is Having a Baby"
10. Country Joe McDonald - "Donovan's Reef" *
11. Country Joe McDonald - "The 'Fish' Cheer"/"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag"
12. Santana - "Persuasion"
13. Santana - "Soul Sacrifice"
14. John B. Sebastian - "How Have You Been"
15. John B. Sebastian - "Rainbows All Over Your Blues"
16. John B. Sebastian - "I Had a Dream"
17. Incredible String Band - "The Letter" *
18. Incredible String Band - "When You Find Out Who You Are" *
19. Chip Monck - "She Is Lost"
Disc 3:
1. Chip Monck - "We're in Pretty Good Shape"
2. Canned Heat - "Going Up the Country"
3. Canned Heat - "Woodstock Boogie" **
4. Chip Monck - "The Brown Acid Is Not Specifically Too Good"
5. Mountain - "Blood of the Sun" ***
6. Mountain - "Theme for an Imaginary Western" ***
7. Mountain - "For Yasgur's Farm" *
8. Chip Monck - "For Those of You Who Have Partaken of the Green Acid"
9. Jerry Garcia & Country Joe McDonald - "Green Acid Advice"
10. Grateful Dead - "Dark Star" *
11. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Green River"
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Bad Moon Rising" *
13. Creedence Clearwater Revival - "I Put a Spell on You"
Disc 4:
1. Janis Joplin - "Work Me, Lord"
2. Janis Joplin - "Ball and Chain"
3. Sly & The Family Stone - Medley: "Dance to the Music"/"Music Lover"/"I Want to Take You Higher"
4. Abbie Hoffman - "The Politics of the Situation"
5. The Who - "Amazing Journey" *
6. The Who - "Pinball Wizard" *
7. Abbie Hoffman vs. Pete Townshend
8. The Who - "We're Not Gonna Take It" **
9. Jefferson Airplane - "The Other Side of This Life" *
10. Jefferson Airplane - "Somebody to Love"
11. Jefferson Airplane - "Won't You Try"/ "Saturday Afternoon"
12. Grace Slick - "We Got a Whole Lot of Orange"
13. Jefferson Airplane - "Volunteers"
14. Wavy Gravy - "Breakfast in Bed for 400,000"
15. John Morris - "It Just Keeps Goin'"
16. Max Yasgur Speaks
Disc 5:
1. Joe Cocker - "Feelin' Alright" *
2. Joe Cocker - "Let's Go Get Stoned"
3. Joe Cocker - "With a Little Help from My Friends"
4. The Rainstorm
5. Country Joe & The Fish - "Rock & Soul Music"
6. Country Joe & The Fish - "Love" *
7. Country Joe & The Fish - "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" *
8. Country Joe & The Fish - "Summer Dresses" *
9. Country Joe & The Fish - "Silver and Gold" *
10. Country Joe & The Fish - "Rock & Soul Music" (Reprise) *
11. Johnny Winter - "Leland Mississippi Blues" *
12. Johnny Winter - "Mean Town Blues"
13. Blood Sweat & Tears - "You've Made Me So Very Happy" *
Disc 6:
1. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"
2. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Guinnevere"
3. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "Marrakesh Express"
4. Crosby, Stills, & Nash - "4 + 20"
5. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - "Sea of Madness"
6. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - "Wooden Ships"
7. The Butterfield Blues Band - "No Amount of Loving" *
8. The Butterfield Blues Band - "Love March"
9. The Butterfield Blues Band - "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"
10. Sha Na Na - "Get a Job" *
11. Sha Na Na - "At the Hop"
12. Sha Na Na - "Get a Job" (Reprise) *
13. Jimi Hendrix - "The Star Spangled Banner"/"Purple Haze"/"Woodstock Improvisation"
14. Chip Monck - "Woodstock Farewell"
* previously unissued (never before released)
** previously unissued full-length version (previously released on a Woodstock title in edited form)
*** previously unissued Woodstock recording (presenting the actual Woodstock performances here for the first time)
Liberty Spikes, Power Chords, Studded Belts, Oh My! Hey Chicagoans, Riot Fest Is Here with Screeching Weasel, NOFX, and The Dead Milkmen
By Annapocalypse on 08-07-2009
There is isn’t enough punk rock on Tiny Mix Tapes. And I’m not talking about whatever “lo-fi” flavor of the week is claiming that they totally grew up on a diet of Black Flag. I’m thinking more along the lines of those classic bands that carried our anarchistic teenaged hearts through the 80s and 90s. Too busy listening to Wavves to know what I’m talking about? Get a crash course at Chicago’s Riot Fest, taking place October 7-11 at these Chicago venues: Congress Theater, Subterranean, The Metro, The Beat Kitchen, Double Door, and The Cobra Lounge.
The lineup is as follows: Screeching Weasel, NOFX, Alkaline Trio, Naked Raygun, Cock Sparrer, Murder City Devils, Butthole Surfers, The Dead Milkmen, 88 Fingers Louie, Rights of The Accused, Riverboat Gamblers, Pegboy, No Empathy, Youth Brigade, Teenage Bottlerocket, Lower Class Brats, Teen Idols, Off with Their Heads, Wax, Strike Anywhere, The Arrivals, The Aggrolites, Shot Baker, Flatfoot 56, Fear City, The Frankl Project, The House That Gloria Vanderbilt, Crime in Stereo, Polar Bear Club, Ruiner, Anxiety High, and others to be announced soon.
Tickets are on sale now, but five-day passes are sold out. Click here to purchase three-day passes and individual show tickets. You can also view the schedule right here. What’s that? You don’t live in Chicago? Well, don’t worry; Riot Fest West is taking over the West Coast from November 12-14. Stay tuned for more details. Up the punx!
