Song of the Great Kataklysm

Books of Rotter, book of Rotter.

Bob Dylan Does LL Cool J (featuring Stephen Merchant)

Lou Reed: I Geek Art

Thanks Philco Brothers.

Shaq Curates an Art Exhibition

From New York mag:

"[Shaq is] curating “Size DOES Matter,” an exhibition opening February 19 at the Flag Art Foundation in Chelsea. Shaq made 66 selections for the show—which features works ranging from the ginormous (Andreas Gursky’s billboard-size photograph Madonna I) to the microscopic (a Shaq portrait by Willard Wigan)—out of over 200 images that founder Glenn Fuhrman and director Stephanie Roach showed him over dinner after a game.

How did you make your choices?
Art is a process of delivering or arranging elements that appeal to the emotions of a person looking at it. It’s what you feel. I picked those things because they were beautiful. The thing about size—if it’s big or small you have to look at it. Because I’m so big you have to look at me. I think of myself as a monument. But sometimes I like to feel small.

Do you ever get time to visit museums?
I used to go a lot with my kids. Donald Trump is a great friend, and he has four or five Picassos on his plane. And that’s where I would look at them. One time, I was at a museum and tried touching a Picasso. You break it, you buy it, they said. I was told it would cost $2 million.

There is a lot of information to process here. But the thing I keep wondering is why it took me so long to embrace the Shaq Daddy. Maybe because he's Irish?

Gretchen Bleiler AT&T Commercial: "Perfect Day"

Why not "Satellite of Love"?

Camper Van Beethoven: Sponsor a Song

From techdirt:

American rock band Camper Van Beethoven is traveling to South by SouthWest this year without the support of a record label, so in order to raise funds, they're selling off the right to choose the songs that go on to their setlist for the 2 shows that they're going to play. The first 35 fans to pony up $102 get:

* A Santa Cruz Roller Derby Girl will walk/skate across the stage carrying a placard announcing your sponsorship of the song, within full view of the audience or cameras, to have the moment captured on film or video for all of eternity!

* You can have up to 4 names or one business on each placard.

Go here if you're interested in sponsoring and learning why they're doing this.

Devo Goes Corporate

Devo is back, but with a new look and plan:

Casale and Mothersbaugh only hint at the group's new look, but corporate America appears to be the primary target of its social satire.

"We're playing ball with corporate society," Casale said.

The band has re-signed with Warner Brothers Records and hired an ad agency to help shape its image, he said.

"The idea was that Devo was going to turn around their reputation for being hermetically sealed and not playing ball with society," Casale said.

Instead of being an art band targeting a niche following, Devo is now using focus groups to choose which songs to include on its next CD and what clothes to wear onstage, he said.

"We want to know what you think," Casale said. "Just like CNN says 'What do you think?' We want to know."

"There's color studies going on, different costumes being shown to people, different mixes of songs, and we're letting people kind of direct us toward a final product," he said.

The goal is for Devo to "penetrate every nook and cranny of our technologically advanced pop culture in the coming year," a recent news release said. "With an arsenal of new songs, videos, fashions, apps, toys, games, live performances and more, we will reach out to create something for everybody."

What do I think? I think it's Advanced.

"All the Animals" Now a Children's Book

I missed this:

Bob Dylan’s Slow Train Coming track “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” will serve as inspiration for a children’s book bearing the same name, TwentyFourBit reports. According to artist Jim Arnosky, Dylan approved the song title for use in the project, which will feature drawings inspired by Dylan’s lyrics. A CD featuring “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” will accompany the book. “From the first time I heard it, the lyrics created pictures in my mind of a land of primeval beauty,” Arnosky said in a press release. “I thought this vision would make a dream of a book, and I asked for Bob Dylan’s permission to make this dream come true. Happily, he said yes.” The song title itself references a line from Genesis 2:20, and appears on Dylan’s first Christian-influenced album Slow Train Coming, the first of three faith-based albums following Dylan’s conversion as a born again Christian.

Allowing other people to use your work (or let your work inspire other people's work in an official capacity) is Advanced. Especially in this case.

Metal Machine Music: Lou Reed Wins Again

After 35 years, Metal Machine Music is finally being understood and enjoyed (NY Times):

A real-time, chamber-music performance of an inhumanly generated composition: that was Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” as played by the Fireworks Ensemble at Miller Theater on Friday night. Mr. Reed recorded his 1975 album “Metal Machine Music” (RCA) by leaning guitars against amplifiers, cranking them up until the feedback screamed, playing melodies amid the sonic melee and layering and manipulating the results, including changing the tape speed of some parts. Then he chose four segments for 16-minute LP sides. It sounded like a riot in a shortwave radio factory: a fusillade of sustained, pulsating and scurrying electronic tones that adds up to a hyperactive drone, as consonant as the overtone series. It was proudly anticommercial and defiantly arty. It was Minimalistic process music at rock volume, an impersonal wall of sound. Now, 35 years later, it also sounds unexpectedly merry.

I'm guessing this means Mistrial will finally make sense in 2025 or so.

Faber Wants Morrissey Memoir, Posts an Open Letter

From the Guardian (don't you ever read the Guardian, Neil?):

A Faber editor has written an open letter to Morrissey pleading with the singer to bring his "much-rumoured memoir to the House of Eliot".

Lee Brackstone, editorial director at Faber, wrote that it would be "the fulfilment of my most pressing and persistent publishing dream" if Morrissey were to pick Faber as the publisher of his autobiography. The singer and former frontman of the Smiths revealed in late 2008 that he would be writing his memoirs in order to "[set] the record straight", and in November an essay from his forthcoming autobiography was published in The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art, entitled "The Bleak Moor Lies".

Posting the open letter on Faber's company blog, Brackstone wrote that "forlorn as this hope may be, I can only fantasise that at least you might read my letter through and consider the pleasures and prestige of being an author at Faber, the last great family-owned independent publishing house in the western hemisphere".

And so on. Basically, I just like the picture they ran with the story (above).

"I Slept With Joey Ramone"

The LA Times has a review of a new "family memoir" about Joey Ramone with the provocative title listed above. It's actually more of a synopsis, beginning with...

It's hard to remember a time when the Ramones were not, well, the Ramones. But Mickey Leigh can. Not only was he the band's first roadie and sang on their first record, he was Joey's little brother. In "I Slept With Joey Ramone" -- co-written with veteran music journalist Legs McNeil -- he traces the arc of the band's success, and his brother's role in it, in a way no one else could.

Nothing too exciting in the article, but the book could be good. Legs McNeil contributed, for what it's worth.

Val Kilmer in "MacGruber," Coming April 23

See the trailer here.

Prince Gets Inspired by the Vikings

From Fox:

Prince has released a new song about the Minnesota Vikings, inspired by a big win over the Dallas Cowboys and days ahead of the NFC Championship game in New Orleans.

“I saw the future,” said Prince.

Prince was in attendance for the Vikings 34-3 win. He said he went home night after the Cowboys game and wrote the song, "Purple and Gold," which he says came easy and fast.

"Purple Pride" was given exclusively to FOX 9's Robyne Robinson on Thursday. The Vikings love it and put the song on their website Friday afternoon.

Bob Dylan's Great Version of "Jokerman" on Late Night

I love how chaotic this performance is, complete with search for the proper harmonica. I also like how little it has to do with the version on the record. Just great all the way around.

Donald Fagen on Jean Shepherd and A Christmas Story

Nice little thing on Jean Shepherd by Donald Fagen in Slate. Shepherd was responsible for the stories that make up A Christmas Story. Here's a peak under the lampshade:

If you know Jean Shepherd's name, it's probably in connection with the now-classic film A Christmas Story, which is based on a couple of stories in his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. He also does the compelling voice-over narration. On Christmas, TBS will continue its tradition of presenting a 24-hour Christmas Story marathon. There are annual fan conventions devoted to the film—released 25 years ago this Thanksgiving—and the original location in Cleveland has been turned into a museum. But long before A Christmas Story was made, Shepherd did a nightly radio broadcast on WOR out of Manhattan that enthralled a generation of alienated young people within range of the station's powerful transmitter. Including me: I was a spy for Jean Shepherd.

In the late '50s, while Lenny Bruce was beginning his climb to holy infamy in jazz clubs on the West Coast, Shepherd's all-night monologues on WOR had already gained him an intensely loyal cult of listeners. Unlike Bruce's provocative nightclub act, which had its origins in the "schpritz" of the Catskills comics, Shepherd's improvised routines were more in the tradition of Midwestern storytellers like Mark Twain, but with a contemporary urban twist: say, Mark Twain after he'd been dating Elaine May for a year and a half. Where Bruce's antics made headlines, Shepherd, with his warm, charismatic voice and folksy style, could perform his most subversive routines with the bosses in the WOR front office and the FCC being none the wiser. At least most of the time.

Read the whole thing if you've got a few minutes.

Father Christmas, Give Me a Kinks Reunion

From 101.5 WQUT Tri-Cities Classic Rock:

Ray Davies has expressed interest in teaming up with brother and Kinks co-founder Dave Davies on a new project from their long-standing rock band.

Though they haven't worked together as bandmates since 1996, Ray said that a reunion was contingent upon Dave's recovery after a 2004 stroke, and whether or not he was able to play music again.

"I suggested he do some low-key shows to see how well he can play. If we're going to play together again, we can't hit the road straight away with a big-time announcement," Ray said in an interview with News of the World.

"But, if Dave feels good about it and there's good new material that we can write, it'll happen," Ray added.

Additionally, Ray said that the project could include other musical contributors as well, such as a certain New Jersey songwriting legend.

"Bruce Springsteen has expressed an interest" in the project," Ray said.

Bruce Springsteen will not be a part of this project. The Advanced are always saying that things like this will happen, but they never do. I do hope Dave can come back though.

Lou Reed's iPhone App: Lou Zoom

Lou Reed has a new iPhone app, and though it has nothing to do with music, your grandfather might enjoy it:

With Lou Zoom, your contacts have never been this beautiful—or this huge and legible! Each name in your contact list expands to the full width of the display, making them easier to select, and allowing you to read you contact info without squinting. No pinching, no panning around—just your contacts, clearer. Dramatically set in Helvetica Neue type, this contemporary take on classic Modernist design turns heads as quickly as it dials phone numbers.

This is one of the most subtly Advanced moves I've ever seen. (Thanks, Michael, for the tip)

Paul Shaffer's Cher Impression - "O Holy Night"

Because it's Christmas time.

Bob Dylan "Must Be Santa" and LIttle Drummer Boy Videos

I'm late on this, but the video for Bob Dylan's "Must Be Santa" is one of the most Advanced things you'll ever see. What is up with the Advanced and wigs?

And now Little Drummer Boy is out.

For an interview with the director, go here.

Pixies to Play What You Tweet on Jimmy Fallon Show

From thetripwire.com:

The Pixies are currently in the throes of the North American leg of their Doolittle tour, a wormhole of a trek we’ve been quick to spill much digi-ink over in these parts recently. Via an e-mail from the band’s publicist, we’ve just learned that the band will sandwich in an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next week when they come to New York for four sold-out nights at Hammerstein Ballroom.

I like this. (Too much facebook!) The picture for the article is not quite up to date, though.