Tuesday, June 30

Jens Lekman Contracts Swine Flu

Quarantined at home in Sweden. Jens Lekman Contracts Swine Flu

Jens Lekman has contracted the H1N1 virus, which you might know as "swine flu". The pop auteur, who got the virus while on tour in South America earlier this month, is recovering back home in Sweden right now. (via Inkiostro)

Lekman revealed his illness on his blog. Apparently, he first started feeling sick on the flight home from Chile. That sounds like a hellish experience, but Lekman seems pretty laid back about the whole thing:

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5-10-15-20: RZA

The Wu-Tang mastermind on Run-DMC, Donny Hathaway, and drugs 5-10-15-20: RZA

Welcome to 5-10-15-20, a new feature in Pitchfork News. In 5-10-15-20, we talk to artists about the music they loved at five-year interval points in their lives. Maybe we'll get a detailed roadmap of how their tastes and passions helped make them who they are. Maybe we'll just learn that they really liked hearing the "Defenders of the Earth" theme song over and over when they were kids. Either way, it'll be fun.

For this edition, we spoke with Wu-Tang Clan abbot RZA, who gave his age as "older than the sun, older than the moon, and older than the stars."

The Stylistics: "Betcha By Golly, Wow"

At that time, I didn't know the name of the song, or what music really was. I didn't really identify who was what or what was what. It was just whoever was on the radio or whatever my big cousins were playing. But I remember that song as a kid. I think it may have been out before I was born or whatever, but I think it was an ongoing song they put on the radio.

Something about that song seems to resonate with me. I think it was just the mourning feeling that it brought. Even though it was a love song and I'm five years old, I'm not in love, the music and the feeling that it had... it had a really right feeling. That's the only song I remember from my childhood. I was down south with my uncles at that time, so my family was separated and all that. But that song just seems to be something that was always in the back of my head. I can remember listening to it driving in my uncle's truck, hearing it on the radio.

Sugarhill Gang: "Rapper's Delight"

When I was 10 years old, I was definitely in tune. When "Rapper's Delight" first came out, I didn't hear it. I was already writing my own little raps and shit. It came out when I was about nine. But I remember a kid in the neighborhood knew I was trying to do little raps of my own, and we used to always walk up to each other and rap to each other. He walked up to me, and he was like this: "After school, I take a dip in the pool, which is really off the wall / I got a color TV so I can see the Knicks play basketball." And I was like, "Oh shit! The boy's good!" I didn't know he stole it from the song. I guess he heard it before I heard it.

Then, when I heard it, I realized that the guy stole the song. That song was a big song for me-- that song and another song called "The Adventures of Super Rhymes" by an artist named Jimmy Spicer. Oh, "Super Rhymes" man, that song! First of all, me, my brothers and my cousins, we would sing the whole "Rapper's Delight" all the way through. Then, the other song, "The Adventures of Super Rhymes"-- yo, to me, that motherfucker killed it. He went through so many different raps through the whole song. It was an adventure, man. I mean, I remember playing that song over and over on my mom's record player, man. Over and over, memorizing the whole song, singing the whole song. I was writing; I had lyrics of my own to help me understand the storytelling of the lyrics. Even "Rapper's Delight", you know, he went to his friend's house to get some food. Or Big Bank Hank talking about he's schooling Superman, coming up to Lois Lane and convincing her to quit Superman. Those lyrics was hard in my head as a little kid. The imagination of those artists helped inspire my imagination.

Run-DMC: "My Adidas"

That shit just made me feel like I was on top of the world, made me want to do anything to get a pair of Adidas. I finally got a pair, one pair, from my older brother. [laughs] I had a used pair. I did everything the record said, baby. [laughs] I was definitely a big Run-DMC fan. I felt like I would, one day, be them, or be as big as them. I was writing lyrics since I was nine years old, so by age 15, I was feeling pretty confident about my talent.

GZA/Genius: "Drama"

That song just resonated with me. That was pushing the New York life, the poverty, the crackheads. And the way that GZA was able to tell a story, you know what I mean? I just thought he was the greatest MC in the world. By then, he was on Cold Chillin'.

I always argue with a lot of people. They ask me for my top rappers, and he's always on my list. I mean, the GZA inspired me. And if I inspired a whole generation, they say, through my music production... he might be one of the biggest musical influences I ever had, and I was proud he was being recognized for it.

Raekwon: "Rainy Dayz"

That's a great song. That song really resonated with our struggle-- the music, my production, everything about it. That song is just incredible to me. "Rainy Dayz" and "Glaciers of Ice", those two songs, I mean I just love those songs. I don't want to pat myself on the back, sound stupid and shit. But it just shows you could use samples and sounds to make something crazy like that.

Back then, we had to use two-inch tapes to make music. I wouldn't take a song off the reel until it was done. And that song, it was on the reel longer than almost any song that I've produced. Usually, I could do a song in one day. That song must have sat on the reel for four days, at least. I was making it, coming back and forth, doing it, adding another line this, or adding a vocal. Somebody would come in and sing something for me. Do this, do that, just in the basement of my fucking crib. Turkey burgers. Forget that, man.

Nothing

I don't think I had a favorite song. I think I was depressed. I lost my mom that year.

[Pitchfork: What got you through that?]

Drugs. Go on to the next subject.

Donny Hathaway: "A Song for You"

I felt like that song was my own life. I was finding new love again. I've always been a tough kid, anti-R&B. You know, I kind of kept emotions out. But I'm a man now. I'm a full-grown man. And that song really resonated with my own life, the love I was dealing with, the woman I was dealing with-- who I'm still with to this day. And that song used to bring tears to my eyes. We lost ODB by then. I just felt that it was real emotional.

It's different when a song speaks to you internally. A lot of songs, just internally, I could relate to them with my internal self. But, to have them be internal and external, it's different. It's a whole 'nother chamber.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 30, 2009 at 7 a.m.

Tags: 5-10-15-20, Interview, RZA, Wu-Tang Clan

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Monday, June 29

News in Brief: Mew, the 801, Bobby Bare Jr., Whartscape

-- The new album from Trent Reznor-approved epic rockers Mew, No More Stories..., isn't out until August 25 in the U.S. (August 24 in the UK, and August 17 in Scandinavia), but the Danes are prepping a five-song preview EP featuring two new songs from the record and three fresh B-sides for digital release tomorrow, June 30. You can hear the two album tracks, "Repeaterbeater" and "Introducing Palace Players", over in Forkcast.

-- In 1976, Roxy Music band mates Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno got a bunch of their buddies together and performed a handful of perspective-pushing gigs as the 801. The concerts soon became legendary in certain circles, as did the live albums that accompanied them. And now Manzanera's Expression imprint is readying four 801 live albums-- including standard bearer 801 Live-- for reissue with all sorts of fancy packaging and extras. The re-releases are out August 11.

-- Wily singer-songwriters Bobby Bare Jr. and David Vandervelde release a seven-song covers album dedicated to 1970s soft rockers America and Bread on August 11 to independent record stores via Junket Boy. In case there was any confusion, the EP is called American Bread.

-- Whartscape, the weekend free-for-all put on by Baltimore's Wham City label, is set to go down July 10-12 at various Charm City locales. Acts playing the fest include Dan Deacon, Wolf Eyes, Ponytail, Celebration, Wye Oak, and damn near every B-more band with a semi-free schedule. More info here.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 29, 2009 at 3:50 p.m.

Tags: Bobby Bare Jr., David Vandervelde, EP, Festival, Mew, Reissue, The 801, Whartscape

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T.V. Eye: June 29 - July 4

Live music on T.V. this week:

Monday, June 29:

PBS: Tavis Smiley: A tribute to Michael Jackson
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Roots (house band) (rerun)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Steve Earle (rerun)
NBC: Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien: Green Day (rerun)

Tuesday, June 30:

NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band) (rerun)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Charles Hamilton (rerun)

Wednesday, July 1:

NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Little Boots (rerun)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: The Roots (house band) (rerun)

Thursday, July 2:

ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Phoenix, David Cross (rerun)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: PJ Harvey and John Parish (rerun)
NBC: Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien: Neko Case (rerun)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Asher Roth, the Roots (house band) (rerun)

Friday, July 3:

NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: N.A.S.A. (rerun)
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Rick Ross with Magazeen (rerun)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Keane, the Roots (house band) (rerun)

Saturday, July 4:

NBC: Saturday Night Live: Ludacris and T-Pain (rerun)

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 29, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.

Tags: TV Eye

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Listen to an Unreleased Billy Corgan/Sky Saxon Song, "Choose to Choose Love"

Before garage rocking cult hero and Seeds singer Sky Saxon passed away last Thursday, he wrote and recorded a duet with friend and fellow psychedelic thinker Billy Corgan called "Choose to Choose Love". And now the hippie jam-- featuring Corgan on backup vocals-- is currently available on a new Facebook page dedicated to the late artist. You can read the lyrics here.

In a recent blog post, Corgan had this to say about Saxon: "Sky lived everyday with the concept of LOVE as his guide, and he walked the talk. He was a spiritual warrior who would tell me that Yahowha knew the beauty of our hearts, and that musicians were the living prophets of the world."

Posted by Ryan Dombal on June 29, 2009 at 2:40 p.m.

Tags: Audio, Billy Corgan, Collaboration, Sky Saxon

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New Release: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band: Between My Head and the Sky

New Release: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band: <i>Between My Head and the Sky</i>

Artist: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band
Album: Between My Head and the Sky
Release Date: September 22
Label: Chimera Music

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**Pixies to Celebrate Doolittle on Tour**

Pixies to Celebrate <i>Doolittle</i> on Tour

Homepage photo by Renaud Monfourny

As previously reported, the Pixies will drop their outrageously lavish Minotaur box set this fall. The set will collect all the band's studio albums and include all sorts of sumptuous artwork, but it won't squeeze in any bonus tracks or even a remastering job. The implication, it seems, is that the Pixies' albums are sacred.

And now NME reports and the band's reps confirm that the Pixies will continue to celebrate one of those albums, 1989's Doolittle, when they tour Europe in October. At these shows, the band will play every song from Doolittle, along with all the associated B-sides. And you know what that means: "Debaser", "Here Comes Your Man", "La La Love You", "Gouge Away". Doolittle turns 20 this year, after all. It's almost old enough to buy beer!

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Video: Kanye West: "Street Lights"

Over on his blog, Kanye West has posted Javier Longobardo's video for the 808s and Heartbreak electro-shoegaze lament "Streetlights". It looks like one of those pastel 80s beach-party T-shirts come to computer-animated life.

Considering that "Streetlights" is one of the most woozily cinematic tracks Kanye's ever composed, this could've been, uh, better. On the same day that big brother Jay-Z drops a video where he's hustling Harvey Keitel at poker and making jumpshots over Lebron James, this one doesn't quite hold up. Not everything has to look like Akira, Kanye!

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 29, 2009 at 12:50 p.m.

Tags: Kanye West, video

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MGMT, Karen O Guest on Flaming Lips LP

This is just getting better and better. MGMT, Karen O Guest on Flaming Lips LP

So we've got that potentially amazing girl-with-beard cover (still unconfirmed). Lots of talk about how this is going to be the Lips' return to weird. And now we get news that both MGMT and Karen O are set to make very special appearances on the Flaming Lips' upcoming double album, Embryonic, according to an interview with Wayne Coyne himself on Swiss website Die Klangschau.

"We have MGMT doing a song with us and we have Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing a couple songs with us," said the Wayner. "For the Karen O tracks, I just called her up in her hotel room and we just did it right over the telephone. It's pretty absurd." (Insert "phoning it in" joke here.)

No word on what these featured players are doing on the record, exactly, but I'm hoping for screams, yelps, and squiggles. You can listen to the whole interview here.

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Wavves' Nathan Williams Speaks About Barcelona Meltdown, Future Plans

"I can't fuck up once? If people think that I'm not going to fuck up, there's no reason to even come and watch me." Wavves' Nathan Williams Speaks About Barcelona Meltdown, Future Plans

Last month, Nathan Williams, the force behind the San Diego noise-pop entity Wavves, played a self-destructive mess of a set at Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival. As Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber described here, he made fun of the crowd, scrapped with his drummer, and dodged bottles, all before soundmen finally shut off his mic. In the process, Williams set off a frenzy fed by posting and then removing an apology on his own blog, wherein he admitted to taking a cocktail of Ecstasy, Valium, and Xanax before coming on stage.

In the aftermath of the meltdown, Williams cancelled his European tour and returned home. Now, he is breaking his silence, talking for the first time about the Barcelona set and its aftermath, working with Hella drummer Zach Hill, and what the future holds for Wavves.

Pitchfork: I hear you have new band. Who's in it?

Nathan Williams: I don't have a new band. It's kind of hard to explain, so at this point, I can't really answer that. I've practiced with a bunch of different people. I'm going to be playing and recording some shows with Zach Hill coming up, but I don't know what the future has in store yet exactly.

Pitchfork: Are you in contact with [drummer] Ryan Ulsh at all?

NW: Yeah, I am. I actually just talked to him.

Pitchfork: There's no beef there?

NW: No, he's playing shows with me at Pitchfork and at the next couple of shows I'm playing.

Pitchfork: Are you playing it with just him?

NW: Yeah, at this point I think so.

Pitchfork: Do you want to talk about what happened in Barcelona?

NW: I don't really know what went on. It started the same as any other day. We were just hanging out. The set wasn't until like 2:30, 2:45. We had gotten there late, so we didn't get to soundcheck. So when we actually got up to start playing, we had to just kind of sound check for the first ten minutes. I don't really honestly remember playing the set. I actually talked to my mom the next morning, and she asked me how it went. I said, "Good, I think." But yeah, I don't know, I guess I just got way too fucked up. That was basically the story. It was never anything except just a couple of bad decisions, and I don't know. It is what it is.

Pitchfork: Why did you cancel the European tour after that?

NW: The tour was canceled after that because a number of things. Me and Ryan were really not getting along, and that was mainly it, but that sort of stuff is kind of something I'd prefer not to get into. We just weren't getting along at the time. That was the main reason that it all went down. But it wasn't really Ryan's fault; it was kind of my fault.

Pitchfork: But you're cool with each other now?

NW: Yeah, it's just weird. I feel like people forget sometimes that I've only been doing Wavves live for four months, and it's picked up to this point so quickly. I never expected to have this type of exposure, and I never expected to be doing these things. I think maybe it all hit me, and it's just kind of a lot to process so quickly. I don't know.

Pitchfork: Would you say you're still enjoying doing it?

NW: Yeah. In the end, the whole reason I left, I guess, was because it got to a point where it became so stressful and there were so many people whispering in my ear. It just got so big so quickly. I think maybe I realized it, and it freaked me out a little bit. Obviously, I handled it in the worst way possible, but it was just... I don't know. It's weird because it's kind of like a personal thing, and then these business-y things are all kind of tangled in it. It's weird to say when it is fun and when it isn't fun. And if it isn't fun, I guess I shouldn't really be doing it anymore. But I do love doing it, and it is fun. But with every good, there is a bad part of it.

Pitchfork: If you had your way, would you prefer to be playing warehouse parties instead of big festivals?

NW: Yeah! But then again, it's not that I don't want to play festivals or do stuff like that. It's just, I think, the realization of how big it is maybe overwhelmed me, and I needed to take a step back and see what was in front of me and try and figure it out. Also, I was extremely fucked up and made a series of really bad decisions.

Pitchfork: What have you been doing since Barcelona?

NW: I've been playing with a couple of different people. Me and Zach have been practicing because we're going to do a record together. I was in L.A. for a while with him playing. Other than that, I just did the same thing I always did: sitting in my room, hanging out. I recorded a little bit by myself. That's basically it.

Pitchfork: When you said you are doing a record with Zach Hill, do you mean a full-length?

NW: Yeah, well, I don't know exactly yet. We were just at first kind of fucking around and having fun. I don't know we are going to record a record. I don't know if it's going to be Wavves or if it's going to be something else, but we're going to get together and do something.

Pitchfork: Are you surprised at all at the reaction that the Barcelona set has gotten?

NW: Yeah, I am, actually. I honestly do think it was just... I don't know. It's weird because I can't defend myself because I don't really remember the night. I obviously fucked up. But I can't fuck up once? If people think that I'm not going to fuck up, there's no reason to even come and watch me.

Even before Barcelona, there were shows just like that, where it was just a mess and it fucking sucked. But it was to like 25 people in Little Rock, Arkansas or something. I don't really know what to say, but the fact of the matter is that I'm not really that good. I wouldn't say that I'm really like a guitar guy or anything like that. I can get by on the stuff that I play. I like writing and playing the songs. If people think that I'm not going to fuck up, then they're wrong. And if they think this is like the last time I'm going to fuck up, they're wrong too. Because I'm young. I'm kinda stupid. I'm human.

Pitchfork: It's kind of a Lindsay Lohan thing where you get more famous for going out drunk than for making Mean Girls.

NW: Well, yeah. It's like the fucking indie TMZ or something. It's like all that I've done now up to this point is condensed into YouTube video that shows me soundchecking. I thought it was blown out of proportion.

Pitchfork: Do you feel like you've been depicted unfairly?

NW: I watched the video, and all I can talk about is what I've watched from the video because I don't really remember playing. So I can't really defend myself. I'm sure it was a disaster show, but I don't know. I don't really care. In the end, that sort of stuff is out of control. I did what I did, and people kind of love to watch you fall. I feel like that is part of it as well. But in the end, it's not so upsetting as it is crazy to me that it turned into such a huge deal. [In] this day and age where information and video can be transferred so quickly on the internet, people can write about it right away, and it all just happens so fast. People have instant access to it, so there's not escaping it.

Pitchfork: Did you ever consider doing Wavves as something where you just recorded and didn't play live?

NW: In the beginning, that's all it was. And everything happened so fast. Ryan came out to play drums a month before I started touring, or a month before we started touring. And then until the day of Barcelona, we were just touring nonstop. So we practiced for three weeks, me and Ryan, and then we went on tour nonstop, so there was never really any time for me to like transfer the songs from recordings to how they would pan out live. And I still haven't had the chance to do that. It was just kind of: "OK, this is how the songs go. Let's just go play them and have fun." And that's when it was the most fun. It just got kind of... I don't know what it got.

Pitchfork: Are you looking forward to getting back onstage?

NW: Yeah, actually, I am. It's such a big deal because people have made it such a big deal and because of this whole media thing. It's what I wanted to do in the first place. It's what I like doing, so as long as I'm having fun and I remember the reason that I'm doing this, then that's kind of it.

Pitchfork: You are playing our festival next month. How are you feeling going into that?

NW: I don't know. I feel OK. I feel good.

Pitchfork: What else are you working on right now?

NW: I'm recording a couple of new songs. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with them yet. But time will tell. I have to play these shows, and then I have like a seven-week U.S. tour shortly after then. Hopefully shortly after that, I can go back to Europe and do those dates that I was supposed to do. At this point, this little break has been cool because I did get to record, which in the first place is what I really love to do. But yeah, I'm excited to get back out.

Posted by Tom Breihan on June 29, 2009 at 10 a.m.

Tags: Interview, Wavves

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