Obsessive “Donnie Darko”-philes (or, we suppose, fans of “Southland Tales” too) who keep up with writer/director Richard Kelly’s blog saw this little update on production of his new Cameron Diaz-James Marsden nail-biter “The Box“:
“The last few months have been an amazing time for us on the editing of
‘The Box.’ We’re starting to work with a very famous band who is honoring us with
being the first filmmakers they’ve ever scored a film with. Hopefully there will be an announcement soon about who it is!”
If you’re inclined to trust the website of noted producer whiz Markus Dravs (which we are), that band is none other than Canada’s favorite apocalypse-minded hurdy-gurdy purveyors, Arcade Fire. It would be the first film collaboration for the band, and odds are fairly high that Win Butler’s less-than-optimistic worldview (and Eli Sunday-inspired wardrobe) will be a prefect fit for Kelly’s affection for prophetic outsiders.
If you don’t read Monitor Mix, the National Public Radio blog by Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, you should start now. Today’s item has a touch of scintillating news, if anything regarding the penultimate jam band the Grateful Dead, defunct but forever-rolling-away-the-dew in some mushroom patch or another, can be described as scintillating.
According to Brownstein, who posted a mix of songs today featuring the Small Faces and Television, the Grateful Dead refused to give her one of its tunes for posting “unless we promised to do a piece on them on All Things Considered. In addition, we would need to run a feature on The Dead on the site that they would write for us.”
She continues to rant, good-naturedly: “Here’s a sentence I’ve never written: Someone needs to take a bong hit and chill out. Just a simple ‘no thanks’ would have sufficed. Are The Dead really in need of publicity?”
Good question. We’re used to such tricks from publicists who want to promote some starlet clinging to the bottom of the B-list in exchange for five minutes with Clooney, but this, from the Grateful Dead? Phil Lesh and friends have never shied away from making a buck, but hustling NPR for stories seems rather desperate. Isn’t that preaching to the choir anyway?
Brownstein does not identify the song she wanted (update: she asked for “Friend of the Devil”) but here’s betting it wasn’t one of the biggies. For “Uncle John’s Band,” what would the price be? A lunch with foreign correspondent Corey Flintoff? For “Sugar Magnolia,” perhaps a morning hike with “All Things Considered” host Robert Siegel? For “Truckin’,” it seems no less than a skiing trip to the Alps with Terry Gross and Ira Glass, holding hands with the remaining Dead members as they cut through powdery slopes, could be accepted.
Anyway, we tease the Dead, as Bill Maher would say. We have not heard the band’s side of the story yet. A call to longtime publicist and official biographer Dennis McNally reveals that he “knows nothing about it.” We’ve put in a few other calls, so stay tuned.
UPDATE: Browstein, in the last hour or so, posted this clarification on the blog. Although she doesn’t identify the label, Rhino Records manages the band’s intellectual property: “The Grateful Dead were not involved with the decision regarding the requested track. It was the band’s label who would not give permission for the track to be used in its entirety. The label also suggested that it might be easier to get permission if we did a piece on the band on All Things Considered and on the NPR website.”
Legendary Bay Area rock band Metallica has just announced a special concert benefiting Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist Flea’s Silverlake Conservatory of Music, taking place Wednesday, May 14, at the 2,200-person-capacity Wiltern in Los Angeles. Tickets for the gig go on sale tomorrow (Sunday) at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster and will set you back $200 (plus handling fees) — an arguably small price to pay to see the metal gods in such an intimate setting.
Metallica will headline the show, with Scars on Broadway (featuring members of System of a Down), opening.
VIP packages at $500 are also available; these will include a gift bag and admission to the after-party. For more information on how to purchase VIP tickets for the event, contract Jennifer Rey at the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.
Update: As of Monday at 12:30 p.m., $200 tickets are still available for the show via Ticketmaster’s website.
– Charlie Amter
Photo of frontman James Hetfield in 2003 by Stefano Paltera / For the Times
Sweden has been pumping out great underground rock ‘n’ roll for quite some time now, including guitar noodlers the Hellacopters, garage punk experimentalists Regulations and hardcore purists Amdi Petersen’s Arme, not to mention its most high-profile punk rock export, the crowd-pleasing Hives.
Add Poppets to the list, a lo-fi, drum machine-based duo that consists of former Heartattacks front man Magnus Andersson and his girlfriend, Lina. Over the course of four tight, catchy tunes, the fearless pair serves up a stripped-down, pop punk landscape that is definitely one of the best releases yet from Sacramento’s primo Plastic Idol Records. With another seven-inch available on Austria’s Bachelor Records and a forthcoming one slated for San Francisco’s Bubbledumb Records, Poppets are one hard-working band. Reward them for their efforts by picking up a copy of the latest EP – after all, only 300 copies were pressed.
All right, we get why Tom Waits passed us by (he’s a third city kind of man) but Coldplay, so far, ain’t coming here. Today, the British post-ballad balladeers announced their North American tour for “Viva La Vida,” their new album due June 17. This is in addition to the free shows June 16 at Brixton Academy in London and June 23 at Madison Square Garden. The contest is still open for winning tickets to those blow-outs; in the meantime, we LA folk without enough Jet Blue or Virgin miles will sit here twiddling our thumbs. Keep checking for updates — something tells me Chris Martin will be here, if only to pick up some cupcakes for Gwynie at Joan’s on Third.
–Margaret Wappler
Listen: “Violet Hill” on the band’s website; “Viva La Vida” is an exclusive on iTunes, available with pre-purchase of the album. Read more about “Violet Hill” and “Viva La Vida” at Extended Play.
A quick stroll through the rapper-blog gantlet reveals a few things we already knew: Kanye West has been keeping up with his Dwell subscription and Prodigy’s latest prison blog for Vibe Magazine is just slathered in awesome. In this installment, we learn what really happened to the Sphinx! After the jump: ironic yuppie Dixie cups, cubist fish tanks and demonic owls.
Proving the adage that old pop stars don’t ever really retire (they just fade away until the time is right for a comeback), iconic soul-R&B diva Tina Turner has announced that she will return to the road for the first time in eight years. The 68-year-old Grammy-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee will embark on a North American tour scheduled to reach Staples Center on Oct. 13 (tickets on sale Monday).
In 2000, Turner, one of the most dynamic performers of her generation, played a farewell world tour marking the end of her career as a live performer. But her part in a well-received duet at this year’s Grammys lured the singer back to the touring circuit.
“After performing with Beyoncé at the Grammy Awards, the response was overwhelming,” Turner said in a statement. “Everywhere I went people were asking me when I was going back on tour. So after a lot of thought and planning, I can answer the only way I know how: See you in Kansas City, where we’ll kick the tour off!”
– Chris Lee
Photo of Turner at the Grammys by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times
Rarely has a debut album sounded so fresh and endearing — without your suspecting the writer copped somebody’s songbook — as the Morning Benders’ “Talking Through Tin Cans.”
The Berkeley-based quartet metes out three-minute dollops of youthful pining as if love songs were something they just sprang on the Internet. “We’re just looking to do something that sounds authentic,” says frontman Chris Chu, an unabashed fan of classic pop who, at 21, appears years away from his first encounter with a razor. “Most of the music I look back on [fondly] has an honest emotion.”
The Benders’ formula of scratchy-but-tasteful guitars, agile melodies and wizened-not-whiny sentiment evolved as if by fate. Chu, a Santa Monica native (in fact, three of the four Benders have SoCal roots), “picked up a friend’s guitar when I was home sick from school one day and started playing,” he says.
Off he went to Cal, where he eventually found Joe Ferrell (guitars, keyboards), Julian Harmon (drums) and, now, Tim Or (who has replaced original bassist David Perales). “After I moved up to Berkeley, I just started writing songs — yeah, I had some girl troubles, but I had some good things happen too,” Chu says. “All the songs are kind of a snapshot of what was going on at the time.”
And to gauge from Chu’s enthusiasm, the album, released this week by fledgling label +1 Records, is just the start. “We love playing music, and so far everything about it is exactly how I wanted it to be,” he says. “We want to make another album already.”
||| Live: The Morning Benders play their album-release show Thursday night at the Echo (free to those who buy the album at Virgin Megastore or at the label’s website). (They will also be back in L.A. on May 19, opening for the Kooks at the Wiltern.)
||| Watch: The Morning Benders’ new video for “Boarded Doors” is the brainchild of Daniel Stessen, creative director of the L.A. art-film-music collective People Food. Given Chu’s boyish looks, it’s, um, a perfect fit.
Upcoming in L.A.
Speaking of Stessen, he and his People Food cohorts (including the Gray Kid) will perform Saturday night at downtown’s Redwood Bar. … Local psych-poppers the Parson Red Heads celebrate the release of their new EP, “Owl & Timber,” with a show Friday at Spaceland. … And Saturday at Spaceland, Sky Parade marks the release of its new EP, ”High on Desire,” with a show supporting impressive U.K. newcomers Air Traffic. … The Donnas’ 15th anniversary show Friday at the Viper Room is sold out — as is Saturday’s show at the Troubadour featuring the Duke Spirit, whose new album, “Neptune,” measures up as one of the most solid rock records so far this year. … Electro-poppers Casxio just released a free four-song digital EP (go to their website for the goods) and have a show tonight at UC Riverside (and May 15 at the Continental Room in Fullerton). … With its second EP, “Bloomsbury,” just out, Princeton plays a support slot for Le Switch’s residency on Monday at the Echo. … And it’s a big night in store Monday at Indie 103.1’s weekly shindig at the Viper Room — Everest (its debut “Ghost Notes” just out) and Film School are on the bill.
Those of you hip to colleague Charlie Amter’s blog on the subject already know the big news this week: Shoegaze legend My Bloody Valentine is once again a going concern and coming to the Santa Monica Civic for a two-night stand Oct. 1-2. Tickets go on sale Friday and all I can say is good luck on that one. You may need it.
There’s a bit more news in the not-so-recent reunion pile.
A Tribe Called Quest will headline Rock the Bells at the Glen Helen Pavilion on Aug. 9 along with Nas, De La Soul and the Pharcyde. Tickets for the hip-hop juggernaut go on sale Saturday.
And Cinderella and Warrant will co-headline a show at the Gibson Amphitheatre on July 4 of all days. Frankly I’m not sure that these bands actually broke up, but their longstanding irrelevance is just as good as a hiatus. Tickets for their aerosol metal fest go on sale Friday. Of course, real metalheads may want to hold out for the Metal Masters Tour with Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament, which stops at the Glen Helen Pavilion on Aug. 30, or perhaps even the Scorpions concert with Sammy Hagar & the Wabos at the Pacific Amphitheatre on Aug. 3; Tickets go on sale Saturday for both.
And in more noteworthy nostalgia, Hippiefest — with the awesome Jack Bruce of Cream, Eric Burdon & the Animals, the Turtles and whatever’s left of Badfinger — will be coming to the Greek Theatre on July 16, while the Zombies and Jefferson Starship will be teaming up for a show at the Grove of Anaheim on July 17; get tickets to both of these love fests on Saturday.
In other absolutely non-reunion-related news, a few cool indie rock shows were announced: The Fratellis at Key Club on June 15 (on sale Monday); Chromeo at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theatre on July 30 (tickets Saturday); the Black Keys at House of Blues Anaheim on Aug. 25 (on sale? now?); and Hot Hot Heat at the Roxy on June 27 and the 88 and Ima Robot who will play the Roxy on June 28 (on sale now).
So who’s the winner? I’ve got to give it to the Hollywood Bowl, which just announced a slew of noteworthy shows including: Gilberto Gil and Devendra Banhart on June 29; Feist on July 20; Diana Ross July 25-26; Gnarls Barkley with Youssou N’Dour and Deerhoof on July 27; Donna Summer Aug. 22-23; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with Spiritualized on Sept. 17; and Beck with Spoon and MGMT on Sept. 20.
-Liam Gowing
Photo of Spoon’s Britt Daniel by Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
“I’m Not There” hits DVD shelves today and, in keeping with the film’s theme of the “many faces of Bob Dylan,” we offer you one of the more unexpected performances in the prodigious YouTube archive of Zimmy’s stagework: Dylan perfoming “Hava Nagila” with Harry Dean Stanton. Really. We’re not joking.
And is it just us, or does the Spokesman for a Generation look eerily like a brunet Harpo Marx in this clip?
Some “Hava Nagila” trivia: Julie Andrews, Twisted Sister, Anthrax, Dick Dale and Harry Belafonte are some of the unexpected folks who have recorded the song or pinched its melody.
