W♥M

The Baseball Project

Tour Dates 07/24 Madison, WI - Warner Park 07/24 Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon 07/25 St Louis, MO - Wood House Concert 07/26 Rock Island, IL - Rock Island Brewing 07/27 Minneapolis, MN - 400 Bar 07/28 Chicago, IL - Wick Park Fest Read More R.E.M. Like many of you from my generation, I wasn't hip to R.E.M. until they had their big hit crossover song, "Losing My Religion"….

I've previously written about the cancellation of the SoundTown Music & Camping Festival. Their loss is your gain! Get a chance to see some of these fine bands at smaller venues:

Friday, July 27
• Dr. Dog at First Avenue
• The Baseball Project at 400 Bar

Saturday, July 28
• The Temper Trap at First Avenue
• Best Coast+Those Darlins at Cedar Cultural Center
• White Denim at 400 Bar
• Black Box Revelation at Triple Rock Social Club

We've basically covered most of these the bands before - the only one I didn't know about is called The Baseball Project.

Apparently this is a sort of "supergroup". Members includes Peter Buck (REM), Scott McCaughey (singer of The Young Fresh Fellows* and The Minus 5**), Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Linda Pitmon (Hazel Motes), and sometime Mike Mills (REM).

If you were wondering, yes, these guys are hardcore baseball fans.

* who got a mention in a They Might Be Giants' song.

** who got a mention in a Momus song… technically they commissioned Momus to write a song about them.

 

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Books

R.E.M. - Radio Song (featuring KRS-One)

R.E.M.

I actually have enough material to write a "Bell, book, and candle", but this would prove to be too much work. Especially because the Candlelight USA compilation CD is mostly metal-type music that I would have to grind through to write about the last piece of the puzzle.

Instead, here's some random books-related music that I've come across lately. As always, look to news.weheartmusic.com for additional information.

KRS-One (official / myspace) just recently released his book, The Gospel Of Hip Hop, and wrap up (haha: rap) his recent book tour. I first came across him, via REM, of all people, with their collaboration "Radio Song".

Any massive fan of hip hop should want to get a copy of this 15-year-in-the-making book for $24.95. That price might seem high, until you realize that the book is a hardcover with over 800 pages.

More details of the book at Powerhouse Books:

The Gospel of Hip Hop: First Instrument, the first book from the I Am Hip Hop imprint set for launch in Spring 2009, is the philosophical masterwork of KRS-One. Set in the format of the Christian Bible, this 600-plus-page opus is a life-guide manual for members of Hip Hop Kulture that combines classic philosophy with faith and practical knowledge for a fascinating, in-depth exploration of Hip Hop as a life path. Known as “The Teacha,” KRS-One developed his unique outlook as a homeless teen in Brooklyn, New York, engaging his philosophy of self-creation to become one of the most respected emcees in Hip Hop history. Respected as Hip Hop’s true steward, KRS-One painstakingly details the development of the culture and the ways in which we, as “Hiphoppas,” can and should preserve its future.

Speaking of books, I think I may have agreed to do some coverage on The Books (official / myspace / twitter) when they arrive here in December 1^st. I actually tried to navigate to their official website to see what they're all about, and I reckon it's too smart for its own good. I guess I just don't have the patience to sit and figure out what to do when all I really wanted is a biography and perhaps links to listen to their music. I suppose that's what myspace is for, however ugly it is, at least you know where to look and what to do.

Their myspace lists their last release is in 2006 for Music for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities EP, which the CD version is all sold out. I suppose they have a new album coming out and/or testing new material on their upcoming tour:

11/19 - Waltham, MA Rose Art Museum @ Brandeis University
11/21 - Bellingham, WA Mainstage
11/23 - Los Angeles, CA Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
11/24 - Seattle, WA Triple Door (2 sets, early and late)
11/25 - Vancouver, BC The Clutch
11/26 - Calgary, AB Broken City
11/27 - San Francisco, CA Noe Valley Ministry
11/28 - San Francisco, CA Noe Valley Ministry
11/29 - Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom
11/30 - Madison, WI Majestic Theatre
12/01 - Minneapolis, MN Cedar Cultural Center

Lookbook ♥ Varsity Theater (11/06/09)

Finally, I saw Lookbook (myspace) a few weeks ago, and instantly made Andrew jealous. While Lara tells me that they used to be called Digitata (quote: "I LOVED Digitata"). I did look around, and it looks like Digitata are still around the twin town, Maggie sings in both band. So yeah, it seems they've got a few fans here.

Since Lookbook opened up for Har Mar, whose music is more dancey-type vs the 80s pop synth song... so I'm not really sure if the audience there that night was taken by Maggie & Grant's music. However, I think their music might fit really well with their recent appearance with Solid Gold, who recently played a sold-out First Avenue show.

They've certainly got the buzz by fans of local music here, so there's no doubt that I will eventually run into Lookbook again in the near future.

UPDATE 11/17/09: I receive information on Bam Margera's Book Serious As Dog Dirt - which is out today (Tuesday, November 17^th).  The book is published by MTV Books and retails for $35.  You may know Margera from MTV's Jackass as a professional skateboarder.  More information on bamargera.com and twitter.com.

Serious as Dog Dirt

Bam Margera

Here's what they said:

He’s bared himself on screens big and small, but now, Bam Margera exposes himself as never before. Famous for his fearless, funny as s*** daredevil stunts, he has thrilled and revolted audiences worldwide. Now, for the first time, Bam shares his private writings, never before seen personal photos, drawings, and more in this anarchic auto-collage/travelogue, an honest document of the life he leads and a dynamic testament to his wild imagination. Known for his creative style since becoming a pro skater at thirteen, Bam pulls readers into his chaotic world – the music, the movies, the pranks, the skating, the glory, the pain, and the blood.

 11/17/2009 00:46:50 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

News: Fanfarlo's "Reservoir" for $1, plus REM's Reckoning Deluxe Package

Fanfarlo - Fire Escape Fanfarlo Tour Dates 07/04/09 Wireless Festival London 07/08/09 Vibe Bar London 07/12/09 Loop Festival Brighton 02/25/09 Truck Festival Oxford 08/01/09 Field Day Festival LONDON 08/08/09 Boardmasters Festival Newquay 08/14/09 Summer Sundae Leicester 08/15/09 Bloom Festival  Gloucestershire See Also The Low Anthem http://weheartmus... Celebrating Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (February 12th), The Low Anthem (thelowanthem.com/mys...

FANFARLO
fanfarlo.com ♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo

This band shot straight up my priority list because you only have FOUR more days to get Fanfarlo's Reservoir album for $1 USD. And for your information, I did buy it for $1, via paypal and it was quick, painless, and easy, just the way I like it. The download for the fifteen tracks was quick and comes with the image of their album on the unrestricted MP3s (949 pixels). This is a pretty nice deal because there's actually four extra tracks that's not on the vinyl or CD.

The extra tracks are: "Kist of Whistles", "Hands (demo)", "Drowning Men (acoustic version)" and "Acoemeti". Even if you've already purchased their special edition of Reservoir, these four tracks are definitely worth $0.25 each surely?

Apparently the promotion is doing the group some good as they moved 500 copies of their album as "Record of the Week" from Rough Trade in the UK (in fact, it's completely sold out). As for a release date for the US, I thought I read it wasn't even schedule until September!

Fanfarlo's music reminds me of a trend in UK alt-folk movement of late. As far as I'm concern, we seem to get a lot of that type of music going around these days: Laura Marling, Jay Jay Pistolet, Kill It Kid, etc.

Anyway, I just wanted to quickly get this article up prior to the expiration date of July 4^th, so excuse the lack of detail on examining the album. What I can tell you is that it's folksy. There's clapping, there's clarinets, there's strings. The singing is wimpish, sensitive, and hey, he probably wears glasses. And you know what? Despite all that, it sounds alright!

The track that they seem to like is "Luna", but I didn't like it as much as "Fire Escape".

Reservoir will be the best $1 you've spent this summer. Go for it.

PS, the cover artwork is creepy.  It reminds me of A Tale of Two Sisters.

R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville

R.E.M.
remhq.com ♥ myspace.com/rem

I know I've already reviewed Reckoning: Deluxe Edition, but we finally got the actual product in house. So think of this as the packaging review.

1 comment

I have long suggested to musicians that music fans like myself still prefer to actually own a physical product. Compared to the endless amount of jewel case albums, it's definitely worth it to make your CDs more attractive and unique. Case in point: those awesome 2-disc "Deluxe Packages". I've previously praised Deluxe Editions for that very reason.

To start off, the clear plastic sleeve are interchangeable with other Deluxe series. The liner notes unfolds to reveal a poster of the album artwork. On the reverse are credits, random "aged" photographs, and a long introduction written by Tony Fletcher. The Fletcher article basically sums up R.E.M.'s first few years up touring for Reckonining. It also document the craziness of how songs were basically thrown together. Recordings were produced in very short amount of time with the rhythm section (Mike Mills & Bill Berry) catching on quickly as a result of being marching band partners and understanding each other's works.

Basically songs were recorded because "either you got it, or you didn't.".

The article is also printed in tiny, tiny, font, and I suspect only hardcore R.E.M. fans will likely read it. Bring a magnifying glass.

As expected and predicted, the package is very similar to Murmur. See picture of that previous package. You can pick up Reckoning Deluxe Edition at most places, like Best Buy - but amazon has it cheapest ($17.99).

MISCELLANEOUS
news.weheartmusic.com ♥ myspace.com/weheartmusik

What's on my radar? Here's a few that we've recently receive - that looks interesting. I'm especially drawn to Italy's Father Murphy (I think of Peter Murphy for some reason!) and K Records' The Pine Hill Haints. I heart K (so does Kurt Cobain). They recently signed up on twitter and I followed them immediately.... even though as of this writing they haven't exactly "tweated".

Father Murphy - And He Told Us to Turn to the Sun (8/4/09)

Aly Tardos - Things Worth Keeping (8/3/09)

The Pine Hill Haints - To Win or to Lose (7/7/09)

Elizabeth & the Catapult - Taller Children (2009)

Brokencyde - I'm not a Fan but the Kids Like it (2009)

 06/30/2009 20:53:58 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

R.E.M. - Murmur (Deluxe Edition)

 11/26/2008 00:38:42  ♥ written by vu ()

REM - Radio Free Europe REM Discography [1983] Murmur [1984] Reckoning [1985] Fables of the Reconstruction [1986] Lifes Rich Pageant [1987] Document [1988] Green [1991] Out of Time [1992] Automatic for the People [1994] Monster [1996] New Adventures in Hi-Fi [1998] Up [2001] Reveal [2004] Around the Sun [2008] Accelerate Read More Universal's Deluxe Editions http://weheartmus... In 2001, Universal Music started re-releasing landmark albums in their Deluxe Editions. These re...

One of the most important albums, R.E.M.'s Murmur was re-released yesterday as a Deluxe Edition by Universal Records. What sets this release apart from the original 1983 release and the "IRS Vintage Years Edition" from 1993 is obviously the packaging and bonus second disc, featuring a rare entire live concert from Larry's Hideaway in Toronto, Canada (July 9, 1983).

The live tracks sound excellent with no evidence of it being a bootleg (e.g. no loud/talkative audience or fuzzy cassette recordings). No way, this audio sounds like it was recorded from the soundboard and features most of the songs from Murmur done live but with some then b-sides and one amazing cover rendition of The Velvet Underground's "There She Goes Again".

Like many of you from my generation, I wasn't hip to R.E.M. until they had their big hit crossover song, "Losing My Religion" (which incidentally, Out of Time was re-issued by Warner in 2005 to include an extra DVD-audio 5.1 mix of the album) but quickly went to the stores to pick up their back catalog. I bought it all, eventually, starting with Green (for "Orange Crush" and "Stand") to their first album, Murmur.

To be honest, between all the R.E.M. CDs, the one that was worn the most was Eponymous, which was a compilation of odds and hits and my least favorite was Dead Letter Office which seems kind of broken. I even joined their fanclub, which I think was also called "Dead Letter Office." That was a long time ago, that was in the days when people still mailed each other mixtapes.

So, anyway, I picked up Murmur rather late, in the early 90s, when they had started re-issuing most, if not all, of the vinyl releases on "compact discs." I guess, at the time, if you'll remember that I had been impressed with Out of Time, listening to Murmur didn't speak to me.

I've always thought that their big hit for this album, "Radio Free Europe," was sort of a protest song about Europe's tight control over the radio airwaves (despite that I keep reading that the song has "unintelligible lyrics"). I mean, I have no idea what they are talking about:

Raving station, beside yourself
Keep me out of country in the word
Deal the porch is leading us absurd.
Push that, push that, push that to the hull
That this isn't nothing at all.

Straight off the boat, where to go?
Calling on in transit, calling on in transit
Radio free Europe

Speaking of lyrics, I love some of the lyrics to "Talk About The Passion": "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world". Although I didn't quite catch the rest of the lyrics - but apparently this contains some French  "combien du temps?" (How much time?)

As I previously mentioned, this was an important album; you have to remember this was in 1983 and this relatively unknown band was doing what is known now as alternative indie rock which was very strange. All the music preceding this was utilizing synthesizers and trying to basically sound like Gary Numan or Duran Duran. Not that this was a bad time for music, it was just that this REM's style of alternative music was a breath of fresh air.

REM-Murmur Deluxe

If you're not familiar with Universal's Deluxe Edition series, I have previously written about them, so please check them out. The Deluxe Edition series have been very popular with collectors and have a few copycat series spawned by other record companies - but I would reckon Universal since they came on the scene first.

One minor complaint I should mention about Murmur is that the lyric booklet is a fold-out poster of the album artwork with a few essays written by people involved with the album (well most of them anyway). I am not a fan of the layout, which is kind of a cut and paste style that looks amateurish. I realized this is "the look" they were going for, but I just like things to not look messy, you know? And unlike some previous Deluxe Edition releases, the printed item is pretty bare bones with just a couple of photographs of the band by Sandra Phipps, circa 1983. However, Michael Stipe never looked more serious than in these photos.

REM

What's important is that the remastered tracks, lead by Dana Smart, sound even better than my original IRS album! I even tried to listen to the original CD and, on my headphones, I can tell that the Deluxe Edition's audio is clearer and better than the original CD I have. I don't think I can go back to listening my original copy, sorry!

If you're an R.E.M. fan, you should definitely do yourself a favor and pick up the Deluxe Edition. The album is available at all record stores.

Bonus: Here are some of my favorite R.E.M. songs:

R.E.M. - Driver 8

R.E.M - The One I Love

R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

R.E.M-Losing My Religion

R.E.M.-Stand

Links: www.remhq.com myspace.com/rem

Julee Cruise - It's The End Of The World As We Know It...

Julee Cruise - It's The End of the World As We Know It...

Julee Cruise

Artist: Website: Collaborators:

Julee Cruise www.juleecruise.net David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti

This is an R.E.M. cover, obviously. It's much slower, but it's definitely interesting.

You may remember Julee Cruise from Twin Peaks (the television show and soundtracks).

I ended up buying the cassette tapes for the Twin Peaks show and her album, "Floating into the Night".

There's some really sweet-sounding songs on that album.