Because There Can Never Be Enough Trent Reznor News

By TK & Felicia | Music | April 6, 2009 |

By TK & Felicia | Music | April 6, 2009 |

Quick PajibaCon East business: I’m starting an email list, so if you’re going, please send me a message here. On to the news!

In cool alt-country news, The Jayhawks are reuniting for a couple of summer shows this year. Band mainstays Gary Louris and Mark Olson will be getting together with the other members for the Primavira Sound ‘09 Festival in Barcelona (crap!) and the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis (double crap!) later this year. But don’t give up hope - they’re supposedly going to do a fuller tour in 2010. Meanwhile, Olson and Louris are doing a short acoustic-only tour this month as well.
—TK

In more summer festival news, a sneak-peek for Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival was released last week. Acts for the Labor Day festival include Sheryl Crow, Modest Mouse, De La Soul and Katy Perry. I understand festivals like this need to have a wide array of musical acts to appease the public, but Sheryl Crow? Really? The fact that she shares a bill with De La Soul makes my blood boil.
—Felicia

So, not to get all political, but Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)? One of the cooler senators around (fact - I interned for Feingold in college. Awesome experience). In addition to being a juggernaut for the campaign finance movement and an all-around solid guy, he’s also got pretty good taste in music. How do I know? Because he’s releasing a series of video blogs about his favorite artists, many of which he learned about by taking constituent suggestions. Seriously. His first pick? Bon Iver, who won Pajiba’s favorite albums of 2009 poll. Check him out here - he even links to Iver’s MySpace page. He also has good things to say about some local artists.
—TK

Speaking of Sheryl Crow…Trent Reznor released an April Fools’ Day website promoting his false new album, Strobelight, produced by Timbaland. Check out track four, aptly named “Pussygrinder” featuring Crow. The website contains hilarious track listings and even comes equipped with its own douchey background music. The joke site comes in response to Chris Cornell’s very unfortunate and very real new album, Scream, which was produced by Timbaland. Reznor has been a vocal hater of the album, calling it “embarrassing.” Very much agreed, sir.

Lauryn Hill, who I absolutely adore, is coming back to the stage. She’ll perform at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival. Shit. That’s in Switzerland, isn’t it. Crap again! Hill, who hasn’t performed since 2007 and hasn’t released an album in the 10 years (!) since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill came out, has also been rumored to be working on an album since 2004. Damn, girl — get moving! We miss you!

Minneapolis announced the line-up for their premier summer concert Rock the Garden last week. The Decemberists will be headlining along with Calexico, Yeasayer and Solid Gold, who we featured here. The outdoor show is put on by The Walker Art Center/Sculpture Gardens in conjuction with Minneapolis Public Radio station The Current. Hopefully this year I’ll stay sober enough to actually remember being there. Oh fuck, who am I kidding?
—Felicia

Because I never pass up an opportunity to blather on about Atmosphere, here’s their latest video for “Glass House”:

Because we can never have enough Nine Inch Nails-related news, Josh Freese (second from the left), touring drummer for NIN (as well as a member of Devo, The Vandals and A Perfect Circle — jeez, busy much?) just released his second solo album, entitle Since 1972. That’s interesting news, but not as interesting as this: There are a variety of pricing options through his website: $7 gets you the digital download, $15 gets you the CD/DVD combination, $50 gets you the above plus a thank-you phone call and a t-shirt. It doesn’t stop there: $2,500 gets you, among other things, three items from his closet and the opportunity to “Change diapers and make bottles with me for an afternoon (preferably AFTER the lunch buffet at the Strip club).” Finally, $75,000 gets you: the album, shirt, you get to go on tour with him, he’ll make an EP about your life story, you get to take mushrooms with him and “cruise Hollywood in Danny from TOOL’s Lamborgini OR we play “quarters” and then hop on the Ouija board for a while”, and a flying trapeze lesson with Freese… among other bizarre things.

In other news, I now love Josh Freese.
—TK

Lest ye forget, here’s your Monday Afternoon Playlist.

Felicia: This week I am listening to Metric’s new album Fantasies. Since their album Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? is on my top ten favorite albums of all time list, it’s hard for me to accept any of their new stuff as spectacular as that. It’s like comparing the one that got away to anyone that enters your life afterwards. They never really measure up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good album but it’s just not the same. Aside from the current single “Help I’m Alive,” I am digging “Stadium Love.”

Sean: I’ve been listening to (rather, trying to listen to) a lot of Thirsty Merc this week. I discovered this Australian retro-rock band thanks to Pandora, and, like many foreign bands, it’s turned out to be a major goddamn frustration finding their music. It’s a shame. At heart, they’re a straight-up rock band, but from what I’ve been able to hear, they’re fairly deft at moving between radio-friendly pop-rock, moving ballads and old-style party rock, throwing in a few quick-paced and snarky tracks for good measure. “I Wish Somebody Would Build A Bridge (So I Can Get Over Myself)” is a solid example. I really wish Grooveshark had “In The Summertime,” but this one will do. It seems that I could buy their CDs from Amazon Marketplace, but the U.S. iTunes store doesn’t sell their albums, and I can’t find anywhere else to buy them digitally. Can any Aussie Pajibans possibly help me out somehow? Or AmeriJibans who can tell me how stupid I am and provide a link?

TK: I cannot stop listening to the 6-track EP for the upcoming NIN|JA tour, mainly because of the tantalizing two tracks by Street Sweeper. The band, comprised of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Boots Riley of The Coup, is chock full of nasty guitar riffs and powerful, anthemic hip hop. It’s a thing of beauty. This track, “The Oath” is particularly juicy.

Jez: Angry Samoans, “My Old Man’s A Fatso” - For some reason I had to listen to this the other day when it popped into my head. My 7-year old son is starting to become more rebellious, which is to be expected, and I have to admit that I’d be a bit disappointed if he just took what we handed to him, but this song made me realize that I’ve become the old man in this song. “My old man’s a fatso, he’s got a bathtub for a mouth/My old man’s a fatso, but you know that he owns this house!” The Queers’ version is in the playlist…

ShepRitz: Cursive- “Excerpts from Various Notes Strewn About the Bedroom of April Conolly”. A friend got me into Cursive, via a mix-cd years ago. And I fell in love with this song, listening to it over and over. Tim Kasher’s vocals, (always emotional), never put forth such a dramatic up, down and all around tense display as he does on this track. The thick, dark cello provides the perfect backdrop for the story about a relationship’s end. The intense vocal melody, as well as the Dismemberment Plan-like start/stopping time changes draw and carry the listener’s attention along with every note.

In order, the top five album sales from last week:

1. Now That’s What I Call Music 30. (author note: Fucking THIRTY?!?!)


2. Hannah Montana: The Movie - OST


3. Twilight - OST


4. Keri Hilson - In A Perfect World


5. Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted