This summer, get the Jim O’Rourke reissue of I’m Happy and I’m Singing; critics are calling it “as touching as Titanic with more kick-ass action sequences than Crank
By Liz Louche on 04-03-2009
One man. Six tracks. This mid-April, there's only one label with the power to reissue this out-of-print album with a bonus disc. Experience...
Jim O'Rourke in I'm Happy and I'm Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4.
Setting: the past. The years 1997-1999. Jim O'Rourke, solo artist and member of groups like Sonic Youth, Loose Fur, and Gastr del Sol, has just completed recording I'm Happy and I'm Singing on his laptop. The music was hot, and the babes were even hotter, and the cities where the album was recorded -- New York, Osaka, Tokyo, Toronto, and Malmö -- didn't even know what hit 'em. Fastforward to 2009. The album has been out of print for five years. The fans are restless. The music community has only one hope: that of a Editions Mego records reissue.
Starring Vin Diesel and Tara Reid, no other album reissue will have you THIS on the edge of your seat. Coming this mid-April, don't miss the reissue that Roger Ebert declared "a non-stop summer blockbuster of minimalism" and Leonard Maltin called "the best new artwork I've ever seen on a reissue."
I'm Happy and I'm Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 reissue tracklisting:
Disc One:
1. I'm Happy
2. And I'm Singing
3. And a 1, 2, 3, 4
Disc Two
1. Let's Take it Again from the Top
2. Getting the Vapors
3. He Who Laughs
(FYI: Jim O'Rourke is also a comedian.)
Details Revealed for Jim Jarmusch Collaboration with Boris, Sunn O))), and Earth; Spoiler: No New Tracks :(
By Liz Louche on 04-03-2009
Pie and ice cream. Squatters and abandoned warehouses. Coffee and cream. Some things just go together.
Now you can add Jim Jarmusch and Southern Lord to that list. Jarmusch, the visionary filmmaker behind such works as Down By Law, Dead Man, Ghost Dog, Broken Flowers, and Coffee and Cigarettes, has a new flick in the works, and as previously reported (TMT News), the soundtrack leans heavily towards Southern Lord Recordings signees.
Entitled The Limits of Control, the film centers around a "mysterious loner" in modern Spain -- so, you know, it includes at least one scene of a shady business deal going down as the fiery spirit of flamenco dancers accentuates the underlying passion of, oh whatever. There will be flamenco, that's all I'm saying. (There always is in these pictures.) Yes, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton are in it, but no, RZA and Tom Waits are not. But that's okay, really, because this soundtrack is gonna knock your socks off. Or, you know, something a little doomier.
Slated for release on Lakeshore Records, the following current Southern Lords artists and tracks will be included:
Boris - " " aka "Smile" (from the Japanese version of Smile, on Disk Union Records)Boris - "Feedbacker I & IV" (from Feedbacker, on Disk Union Records)
Boris -"Fuzzy Reactor" (from Rainbow, on Disk Union Records)
Boris -"Farewell" (from Pink, on Southern Lord)
Sunn O)))/Boris - "N.L.T." (from Altar, on Southern Lord)
Sunn O)))/Boris - "Blood Swamp" (from Altar, on Southern Lord)
Earth - "Omens and Portents 1: The Driver" (from The Bees Made Honey In The Lions' Skull, on Southern Lord)
The Limits of Control hits theatres June 3, 2009. The soundtrack is scheduled for an April 28, 2009 release.
Beck to Reissue 1994 K Records Release One Foot in the Grave in a Last-Ditch Effort to Pull One Foot of His Career Out of It
By Nobodaddy on 04-03-2009
Remember the ’90s, when gas was $1.09, cell phones were for emergencies, and Beck was BECK? Well, Beck remembers too, and he’s apparently aching to remind us all that he wasn’t always an aging caricature who had to try incredibly hard to make it seem like he, you know, wasn’t trying hard. Back in the ’90s? He just straight-up WASN’T trying hard, and when you listen back to those early amateur moments, it’s clear that he was an expert at it.
Thus, the sadly overwrought Beck of 2009 plans to capitalize big-time on his devil-may-care debut with the reissue of his 1994 slacker-folk album One Foot in the Grave on April 14th, with reportedly 16 additional songs tacked onto the original tracklist. Although this out-of-print beauty (which was recorded before — but released after — Beck’s breakthrough major label debut Mellow Gold) was originally released on K Records, it looks as though Interscope Records will handle the reissue.
The news of the reissue first appeared in Japanese paper Daily Yomiuri, which interviewed Beck before his Japanese tour this month. “Well, it’s been out of print for a few years, so it’s something we’ve been planning, but I knew that we had these extra tracks. I’ve actually been working on this for the past two or three years,” Beck tried hard to not try hard to tell the paper. “[On] the original tapes there were an extra maybe 30 songs that weren’t on the record and I picked the best… and added them on there, so it’s got about a little over a dozen extra tracks that no one’s heard before.” So there you have it: the best of the worst of the slacker’s expertly unhappy-proletarian junk folk... wait, what?
Anyway, in addition to the original One Foot, the three-song It’s All In Your Mind EP (that’s the original, not the Sea Change version, son) is also reportedly included, as is a batch of unreleased songs that have appeared only on bootlegs and/or songs that have only previously existed in Beck-lore but never heard (”Teenage Wastebucket,” “Piss On the Door”). So this whole is pretty exciting/confusing/meaningful/sad/awesome/ineffectual/essential, basically, depending on your point of view. Hey, kind of like how Beck himself is at this point!
No More Nothing: 2009’s First Quarter Passes with No New Platinum Albums
By Mike McHugh on 04-03-2009
In an age when corporate treasure holds are ever diminishing, music executives may now join their banking brethren in bereaving the loss of another piece of self-indulgent booty: the platinum record. Since no albums released in 2009’s first three months got even close to the one million mark, the RIAA won’t be doling out a single platinum record so far this year. In fact, only 39 releases sold more than 25,000 units in their opening week. Ouch.
The lack of platinum releases stands as a pale reflection of the sorry state of CD sales in general, which have dropped 20.3% from this time last year. While dwindling CD sales are nothing new by this point, labels now have to deal with store closings by credit-crunch ravaged retailers like Circuit City (RIP), Virgin Megatore, and Borders. Coupled with the ever increasing digital market (both legal and ehhh not so legal), I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that music industry may be in a bit of trouble. And as long as I’m making wacky theories, I don’t think newspapers are doing that great, either.
Jens Lekman to Tour West Coast, Most Likely to Swoon, Croon, and Force Women into Pre-Marital Cahoots
By Emceegreg on 04-02-2009
Ever since my virgin ears heard "All That She Wants" by Ace of Base playing eloquently on Casey Kasem's "Long Distance Dedication," I knew that Swedish music was on the rise and that ABBA, I mean Europe, had found their successors. Oh, how naïve I was.
More than a decade later, after a tirade of meaningless music fads and that one song by The Cardigans that was on the Romeo & Juliet soundtrack, Sweden's own Jens Lekman has taken center stage to win back the hearts of people who thought the Swedes went sour. Lekman has showed us that sounding similar to Kermit the frog is something sexual and intriguing, and after two delightful wingdings of recorded material, he will tour the unappreciated West Coast of the United States.
There's no word yet on whether this small tour will be with a full band or not, but you can bet your knickers it'll be appropriately intimate and Swedish. Opening for Lekman will be comedian Tig Notaro (Last Comic Standing 4, Sarah Silverman Show). Sounds tastier than ketchup on spaghetti!
Tourdates:
05.26.09 - San Diego, CA - The Loft
05.27.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05.28.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05.29.09 - Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
05.30.09 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Art Center
06.01.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of the Hill
06.02.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of the Hill
06.03.09 - Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
06.04.09 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
06.05.09 - Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
06.06.09 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
06.07.09 - Vancouver, WA - Richards on Richards
