Beck - Planned Obsolescence #4: Hello There

No. 4: Hello There by planned_obsolescence

Featuring:
John Cale- Hello There
Daniel Johnston- Hi, How Are You?
Indian Jewelry- Hello Africa
The Cars- Hello Again
Mu- Hello Bored Biz Man
Conway Twitty- Hello Darlin'
Loretta Lynn- Hello Darlin'
Jean-Jacques Perrey- Hello Dolly
Ricardo Villalobos- Hello Halo
!!!- Hello Is This Thing On?
Juicy Lucy- Hello L.A. Bye Bye Birmingham
Neil Young & Comrie Smith - Hello Lonely Woman
Paul McCartney & Wings- Hello, How Do You Like The Lyrics
Junior Senior- Hello
J Dilla aka Jay Dee- Hi
Karen O. & Squeak E. Clean- Hello Tomorrow
Super Furry Animals- Hello Sunshine
The Doors- Hello To The Cities
Stephen Stills- Hello, I've Returned
The White Stripes- Hello Operator
Ginuwine - Hello
Harum- Hello
Willie Nelson- Hello Walls
The Doors- Hello, I Love You
The Carter Family- Hello Stranger
James Taylor- Hello Old Friend
Kate Bush- Hello Earth
Ernest Tubb- Let's Say Goodbye Like We Said Hello

Philip Glass - Dead Things

I've been playing classical music on Pandora as I labor through homework problems. It was just background music, until this came on and stopped me.

Philip Glass - Dead Things (mp3)

From The Hours (Score)

7 Worlds Collide for Doctors Without Borders

7 WORLDS COLLIDE'S THE SUN CAME OUT TO BE RELEASED
SEPTEMBER 29 VIA SONY MUSIC

BAND FEATURES MEMBERS OF CROWDED HOUSE, RADIOHEAD, WILCO, THE SMITHS, KT TUNSTALL AMONG MANY OTHERS

The first 7 Worlds Collide album, a collection of amazing musical talents from across the globe in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières, was a unique live performance experience, fusing the varied talents of a stellar cast across a range of cover versions to create a series of shows that culminated in the live album of the same name. Seven years after that project, instigator Neil Finn has upped the ante with the new 7 Worlds Collide project, The Sun Came Out, a double album of original songs created and recorded by many of the original cast alongside notable new additions in an intense three weeks in his native New Zealand. This time the beneficiaries of this album will be Oxfam, as well as music lovers worldwide.

Familiar faces from the original album abound, Johnny Marr, Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway of Radiohead but this album, first and foremost presents the listener with new songs rather than interpretations of old favourites. The Sun Came Out also features a whole host of new guest talents such as KT Tunstall and Wilco and heart stopping firsts, including Phil Selway's songwriting and vocal debut as well as dream collaborations such as those between Johnny Marr and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy; and KT Tunstall and Neil Finn .

At the heart of the record is Neil Finn. His enthusiasm and drive persuaded the likes of celebrated producer Jim Scott, Lisa Germano, Johnny Marr and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone, John Stirratt and Glenn Kotche (amongst others) to spend their Christmas holiday in New Zealand and even interrupted KT Tunstall's honeymoon in the process.

With families welcome, the studio became a constant whirl of creativity and energy throughout the three weeks allocated to create the record. Johnny Marr returned from a run on the beach with the basis of 'Too Blue', where Jeff Tweedy was waiting to add his talents; KT Tunstall stopped Neil retiring to his bed to complete 'Hazel Black'; a wandering Johnny Marr added a chorus melody to Liam Finn's 'Red Wine Bottle'; Ed O'Brien fashioned 'Bodhisattva Blues' from a Tibetan chant. In this atmosphere, anything was possible and Neil's wife Sharon found herself laying down her debut vocal on 'Little By Little' whilst Phil Selway also took his vocal bow and unveiled a hitherto unknown songwriting talent with his solo turn 'The Ties That Bind Us' in one take.

From Neil's original doubts over the idea, "I thought, what is this? Is it just an ego thing," came a double album of astounding collaborations for the listener and amazing memories for all those concerned in the recording. At the center of it all stands Neil Finn, too humble to take the glory himself, it is left to KT Tunstall to give the credit due to the man who made this happen: "It's Neil. It all comes from him. There's something about him that made everyone open up creatively."

Jeremy Hobbs, Director of Oxfam International said: "7 Worlds Collide is a great project. I hope The Sun Came Out is a huge success. Not just because it's a unique musical experience but because each CD sold will make a difference -- raising money to fund Oxfam's work to fight poverty."

The complete tracklisting and credits for the 2-CD set is below:

Disc 1

1. Too Blue - (Johnny Marr/Jeff Tweedy) - Johnny Marr and Neil Finn vocals
Elroy Finn & Glenn Kotche (drums), Phil Selway (percussion), John Stirratt (stand-up bass), Johnny Marr & Ed O'Brien (guitars), Pat Sansone (piano), Nile Marr & Neil Finn (acoustic guitars), and Lisa Germano (violins)

2. You Never Know - (Jeff Tweedy) - Jeff vocals
Jeff Tweedy (acoustic & electric guitars), Glenn Kotche (drums), Pat Sansone (acoustic 12 string guitar & piano), John Stirratt (bass), Neil Finn (Wurlitzer piano, fuzz guitar), Liam Finn (additional fuzz guitar), Nels Cline (electric/slide guitar), and Mikael Jorgensen (organ/synth)

3. Little By Little - (Sharon Finn/Neil Finn) - Neil and Sharon vocals
Glenn Kotche (drums & percussion), Liam Finn (additional drums), Sharon Finn (bass), and Neil Finn (guitars, Chamberlin, Jupiter 8, marimba)

4. Learn To Crawl - (Ed O'Brien/Johnny Marr/Liam Finn/Neil Finn) - Neil and Liam vocals
Glenn Kotche (drums), Ed O'Brien, Johnny Marr, Pat Sansone (acoustic guitar arpeggio), Neil Finn (bass), Pat Sansone (background harmonies), Jeff Tweedy (disembodied voice), and Lisa Germano (violin)

5. Black Silk Ribbon - (KT Tunstall/Bic Runga) - KT and Bic vocals
Luke Bullen (drums, thigh slap), KT Tunstall & Bic Runga (acoustic guitars), Sebastian Steinberg (stand up & bowed bass), and Lisa Germano (violin)

6. Girl, Make Your Own Mind Up - (Don McGlashan) - Don vocals
Don McGlashan (guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), Ed O'Brien (electric guitar atmosphere), John Stirratt (bass), Ivy Rossiter (backing vocal), and Jeff Tweedy (electric guitar solo)

7. Run In The Dust - (Johnny Marr) - Johnny vocals
Phil Selway (drums), Sebastian Steinberg (bass), Johnny Marr (guitar), Ed O'Brien (electric guitar), Pat Sansone (Hammond organ), Jeff Tweedy (harmonica), Neil Finn, Lisa Germano, and Pat Sansone (harmonies)

8. Red Wine Bottle - (Liam Finn/Chris Garland/Johnny Marr) - Liam vocals
Glenn Kotche (drums), John Stirratt (bass), Liam Finn (acoustic guitars, guitar loops and solo, Hammond mash), Neil Finn (Hammond flourish), Johnny Marr (electric guitar), Eliza Jane Barnes & Cecilia Herbert (harmonies)

9. The Ties That Bind Us - (Phil Selway) - Phil vocals
Phil Selway (acoustic guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums, percussion), Pat Sansone (acoustic guitar, celeste), Sebastian Steinberg (standup & bowed bass), Lisa Germano (violin & whisper), Don McGlashan (euphium, flugelhorn), and Jeff Tweedy (additional arrangement)

10. Reptile - (Lisa Germano) - Lisa vocals
Lisa Germano (electric guitar, Theremin), Sebastian Steinberg (bass), Spencer Tweedy (drums), Glenn Kotche (toys and robots drumming), Pat Sansone (12 string guitar), Neil Finn (xylophone), Sonny Marr, Nile Marr, Sam Tweedy, Jeff Tweedy, Louise Callaghan, Emma Scott, Pearl McGlashan, mae Moreno, Sharon Finn, Julia Connolly, Sebastian Steinberg, and Milla (humans & dogs singing background vocals)

11. Bodhisattva Blues - (Ed O'Brien/Liam Finn) - Ed and Neil Finn vocals
Ed O'Brien (electric guitar), Elroy Finn (drums), Liam Finn (guitar), Neil Finn (Wurlizer piano, bass), Jeff Tweedy (guitar solo, vocal response & scream), and Johnny Marr (guitar solo)

12. What Could Have Been - (Jeff Tweedy) - Jeff vocals
Glenn Kotche (drums, percussion), Jeff Tweedy (acoustic guitar), John Stirratt (bass), Neil Finn (vibes, electric guitar, harmony), and Pat Sansone (piano, Wurlitzer organ)

Disc 2

1. All Comedians Suffer - (Neil Finn) - Neil vocals
Glenn Kotche (drums), Neil Finn (electric guitar), Pat Sansone (acoustic guitar), Liam Finn (bass, electric guitar, harmonies), and Jeff Tweedy (chorus fuzz, electric guitar solo)

2. Duxton Blues - (Glenn Richards) - Glenn vocals
Glenn Richards (guitar), Liam Finn (drums, guitar & vocal loops), Johnny Marr (electric guitar), Sebastian Steinberg (bass), Bic Runga & Neil Finn (background vocals)

3. Hazel Black - (KT Tunstall/Neil Finn) - KT and Neil vocals
KT Tunstall (acoustic guitar, handclaps, background vocals), Luke Bullen (drums, handclaps), John Stirratt (bass), Johnny Marr & Pat Sansone (electric guitars), Neil Finn (piano, harmony), Glenn Kotche (handclaps), Sonny Marr & Bic Runga (back-
ground vocals)

4. Riding The Wave - (Tim Finn) - Tim vocals
Tim Finn (piano), Elroy Finn (drums), Neil Finn (acoustic guitar, slide guitar, harmony), Liam Finn (harmonies), Sebastian Steinberg (bass), Johnny Marr (electric guitar), and Pat Sansone (Hammond organ)

5. The Witching Hour - (Phil Selway) - Phil vocals
Phil Selway (acoustic guitar), Bic Runga & KT Tunstall (background vocals), Lisa Germano (violin), and Jeff Tweedy (Optigan organ, piano)

6. Over And Done - (John Stirratt) - John vocals
John Stirratt (guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), Pat Sansone (bass, piano), Don McGlashan (Euphonium, Flugelhorn), and Neil Finn & Pat Sansone (harmonies)

7. A Change Of Heart - (Bic Runga/Dan Wilson) - Bic vocals
Bic Runga (acoustic guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), John Stirratt (bass), Neil Finn (piano), Pat Sansone (Hammond organ), and Don McGlashan (humming)

8. Don't Forget Me - (Pat Sansone) - Pat vocals
Pat Sansone (guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), John Stirratt (bass), and Johnny Marr (electric guitar)

9. Long Time Gone - (Don McGlashan) - Don vocals
Don McGlashan (guitar), Phil Selway (drums), Pat Sansone (bass), Ed O'Brien (electric guitar), and Johnny Marr (12 string & 6 string acoustic guitars, backing vocals)

10. The Cobbler - (Elroy Finn) - Elroy vocals
Elroy Finn (guitar), Lisa Germano (violin), and Sebastian Steinberg (bowed bass)

11. 3 Worlds Collide - (Glenn Kotche/Phil Selway/Neil Baldock)
Glenn Kotche & Phil Selway (drums, percussion)

12. The Water - (Sebastian Steinberg) - Sebastian vocals
Sebastian Steinberg (guitars, bass), Neil Finn (piano), Glenn Kotche (drums), and Johnny Marr (ghost guitar)

Produced by Jim Scott and Neil Finn, additional production Neil Baldock

About Oxfam America
Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in more than 100 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. We are an affiliate of Oxfam International.

www.oxfamamerica.org

(Big Hassle Media)

Ramona Falls - Russia

The first time I played this Ramona Falls' Intuit, it brought back a mood that I haven't felt since the first time I listened to Menomena's Friend And Foe. It was like some days when you step outside, and as you're walking you're overcome with a sense of general familiarity, you've had this sensation before, at some time and place in the past. I felt this, without even knowing that Ramona Falls is a project of Menomena's Brent Knopf. Ramona Falls and Menomena share several things - those eerie keyboard atmospheres, the within-song starts and stutters, and a palpable sense of drama.

The strange thing that happened here, though, is that I love Menomena, and did not expect to like Ramona Falls even more. Here's the fourth track from Intuit, which starts as a gently strummed folk song, enhanced with lush layers of plucked strings, and then an abrupt interruption of percussion, bass, and high-octave piano pulses, which is overcome by a rush of electricity, a breathtaking climax, built by a sonic wave swelling underneath you, rising with a hurricane of momentum, and at the height of it, it's pulled out from under you, gone, just like that, leaving you falling off, and wanting more. It's kind of like a first kiss.

Ramona Falls - Russia (mp3)

Intuit,, out August 18th on Barsuk.

Ramona Falls, by the way, is a real waterfall in Oregon:

Beck - Chemtrails (Acoustic)

Jessica Dobson (Deep Sea Diver) and Beck have a dream-state voice-meld in an abstract plane that you don't get in the album version.

Modern Guilt Acoustic "Chem Trails" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

William Shatner Reads Sarah Palin Farewell Speech as Spoken Word.

First, go shake yourself a martini. Then watch.

Philly Soul Girls

Rare, sweet fingersnapping girl group soul, from Philly Soul Girls, Vol. 1 I don't think there was a Vol. 2.

Fannie and the Varcells - Inside Of Me (mp3)
Cindy Scott and the Persianettes - What Are You Doin' To Me (mp3)

Grease, $2.99

It's the third best selling "album" of all time, behind Thriller and Dark Side of the Moon, so you probably already have it. Still, Amazon.com is offering Greaseas an mp3 album for less than 3 bucks, today only.

Beck.com: Jacuzzi Dissertations in Beige.

"This week's mix was made by guest Brian Lebarton of international keyboard fame."

No. 3: Jacuzzi Dissertations In Beige by planned_obsolescence

contents:
Buraka Som Sistema
Peter, Bjorn and John
The Juan MacLean
Ruth
Matthew Dear
Studio
Dear Nora & Casiotone
The Pharcyde
Suicide

from beck.com/planned_obsolescence

Sonic Youth, Live on The Current

Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo played three songs for Minnesota Public Radio's The Current yesterday. You haven't heard the songs like this - it's just the two of them, no percussion, one acoustic and one electric, but it still scorches and sounds larger than the music. Like this:

Sonic Youth - Poison Arrow (Live on The Current, 7-22-2009)(mp3)

The interview, which includes discussions of singing alone vs. together, lyrics, and the cereal box 45, is fantastic.

Black Lips - Drugs (first cut)

Atlanta bubblegum-garage rockers The Black Lips recently fired up their email machine to find a fan-made video for 200 Million Thousand stand-out “Drugs” awaiting them. Like the unsolicited clip for Good Bad Not Evil’s “Bad Kids” -- a sly vid that juxtaposed images from The Troubles in Northern Ireland with a bouncing-ball onscreen display of the song’s anarchic lyrics -- “Drugs” finds footage from cautionary 70’s Health Class videos playing behind the band’s celebration of youthful hedonism. The Lips gave an eager NME the chance to run the clip early last week. Somehow they already considered it controversial. Guess that’s just par for the course with these guys.

...

In other news, The Hood Internet recently posted a stellar reworking of GZA-assisted Lips single “Drop I Hold.” However, Genuis is absent from this version, in which the Chicago-based mashup artists append Cole’s caterwauling rap with quality Pharoahe Monch verses from “The Mayor.” And finally, the band’s Filter-sponsored remix contest for “Drop” is currently underway. Remember: submission deadline is August 7th.

(from press release)

Bored Stiff.

Hey, kids! Summer is going to drag on for another miserable month. Thirty more days of your forehead sweating all over itself in front of hot fry grease as you toil away at the fast food joint where you wear a uniform that hasn't breathed since February, as those zits cultivate in that gooey forehead grease-sweat cocktail. Thirty summer nights driving around thinking of everything but the future, or maybe thinking about the future, which is a big hazy cloud of whatever in the distance, somewhere beyond the ceiling that you can't see past. But for now the future is tomorrow, and tomorrow you will hand a middle manager his lunch, while thinking "Dude. Every day? This is killing you," knowing that the burger is going to be cold and limp by the time he bites into it, and you will visualize the solidified grease depositing directly into a rare nook in his arteries. Your job is to serve mediocrity. You will then go home and play video games, killing something with superhuman efficiency with your weapon of choice, but the blood and gore does not fulfill, because you're not really saving anything. If you're feeling social, you will txt ur friends. To top it all off, someone will complain that you don't have a good attitude. Someone expects you to smile. But about the only thing that makes you smile is your tunes.

Sharon Tate's Baby - Bored Stiff (mp3)

From We Went And Recorded It Anyway

The Road To Twatt

from an Altsounds.com email.

Beck With Record Club - Run, Run, Run (Velvet Underground)

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Run Run Run" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Serena Ryder - Racing In The Street (Springsteen)

Have you seen this? Serena Ryder sings like she means it, and more impressively, like she gets it.

Tori Amos on KCRW

Tori Amos played an in-studio set on Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday. Check it out:



This version of Silent All These Years arrests me:

Tori Amos - Silent All These Years (Live KCRW 7-16-2009)(mp3)

Download a lossless audio torrent of the entire show here.

And a bonus: Amazon.com has Tori Amos' new album, Abnormally Attracted To Sin, for only $2.99, today only!

Costantines, live on CBC Radio 3

Live Constanties, from Phog Phest, at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.

Costantines - Hard Feelings (Live)(mp3)

Listen to more CBC Sessions from Phog Phest here.

The Dead Weather - Live at the 9:30 Club

On Tuesday, The Dead Weather played a blistering show at the 9:30 Club, and NPR webcasted the event. You can still stream the concert, as well as the entire Horehound album, on the NPR Live Concerts page, but it might be a while before the concert podcast is available for download.

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother (Live)(mp3)

The Dead Weather - Treat Me Like Your Mother

Black Francis on The Current

However we pine for our Pixies, we always have Frank Black/Black Francis. He was recently on MPR's The Current, where he played things like this.

Anyone else planning on catching the Doolittle tour?




Black Francis - Velouria (Pixies)(Live on The Current, 7-10-2009)(mp3)

Dinosaur Jr. - Just Like Heaven (The Cure)

Watch Dinosaur Jr. perform The Cure's Just Like Heaven on Playboy.com (no worries - it's a nudity-free page). No, I did not find this whilst websurfing.

The Uncovered series will feature new videos, exclusively created for Playboy.com, on the second Monday of each month for 10 consecutive months. Featured musicians include Black Lips, A Camp, The Dears, Drive-By Truckers, Phosphorescent and more.

The complete lineup, which will be available August 1, will include the following exclusive covers:
A Camp (Nina Persson of The Cardigans) performing “Psycho” by Leon Payne
Murray Lightburn of The Dears performing “Doctor Blind” by Emily Haines of Metric
Dinosaur Jr. performing “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure
Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers performing “Range War” by Todd Rundgren

- Playboy.com press release

Sonic Youth 9:30 Club mp3 broadcast is up.

Sonic Youth, live at the 9:30 Club, 7 July 09 (mp3 podcast) - via NPR.org.

Stream the concert here.

Sonic Youth, Death Valley 69, 9:30 Club.

The Eternal.

Das Mitch went to the Sonic Youth show at the the 9:30 Club last night as the rest of us followed along on NPR's online broadcast. He took the shot above with his cell phone. Kim looks ghostly and ethereal, and that looks like some sort of torn-open blood portal behind her. Forget the piper. I'm following the rock specter, the phantom of dissonance.

Here are two mp3s from that performance, in all their stream-ripped glory.
Sonic Youth - Death Valley 69 (live)
Sonic Youth - Anti-Orgasm (live)

The Do.

The Do.

What do you do when your influences are "Bela Bartok, BECK, Jimi Hendrix, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Nico, Igor Stravinsky, Kiss The Change, Bird, The Last Poets, Coltrane, Bjork, Monte, Muddy Waters, Mingus, Eminem, The WuTangClan, Lauryn Hill, Betty Davis, Queen, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Art Pepper, Frank Zappa, Young marble giants, Duke Ellington, The White Stripes , Peaches, Michael Jackson, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith..."? Perhaps a better question is, what don't you do?

Behold the range of The Do.

The Do - Tammie (mp3)

A Song About A Girl Who Went Shopping

...and also about obsession.



The Mr. T Experience - A Song About A Girl Who Went Shopping (mp3)

From The Mr. T Experience's Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood(1989).

R.E.M. - Reckoning (Deluxe)

R.E.M.'s debut album, Murmur, was Rolling Stone's 8th best album of the 80's, just behind Michael Jackson's Thriller, and was RS's best album of 1983. No wonder its Deluxe Edition release was so highly anticipated last year, and with its rousing live bonus disc, it earned a 10.0 on the notoriously stingy Pitchfork. Their sophomore record, Reckoning, was released as double disc Deluxe Edition last week, quiet as a murmur. If not Murmur's equivalent (Pitchfork will probably give this deluxe treatment a nine-point-something), Reckoning was still critically acclaimed, with the Washington Post declaring that the songwriting even exceeded that on Murmur, and its release was an affirmation that the band was far from a fluke. Some of R.E.M.'s most endearing and enduring songs are on Reckoning, including So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry), which was their first performance on national television, on Letterman, prior to the release of the album (see the video below), and (Don't Go Back To) Rockville, Mike Mills' plea to girlfriend Ingrid Schorr, of Rockville, Maryland.

As good as the early studio albums were, R.E.M. fans know that if you haven't seen them live, you don't know R.E.M. The second disc in Reckoning Deluxe is a live show from the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, in 1984, broadcast on Chicago radio station WXRT. Like the extra disc accompanying Murmur Deluxe, it's a revelation of the band in action in its earliest years. This is a live version of the second song on Reckoning.

R.E.M. - 7 Chinese Brothers (Live, Chicago, 1984)(mp3)



*update, 11:32 AM 7-2-2009: Fluxblog has the Deluxe disc version of Letter Never Sent, and a good paragraph about it. Also, Pitchfork's review just went up today. I was wrong. The reviewer gave Reckoning a 10.0, and flirted with calling it R.E.M.'s "best" album.

White Rabbits on The Current, 6-29-2009