Talk of another Sunny Day Real Estate reunion (this time featuring original bassist Nate Mendel) has been confirmed apparently. You can read the scoop over at Idolator.com, where they provide October dates for the two shows scheduled thus far. And then look through the comments, where someone has noticed that oddly one of those dates isn’t listed on Ticketmaster’s page and is instead replaced by a date in Atlanta. So, in other words….yeah, expect this all to possibly change. But good news nonetheless for fans. Now let’s get Texas is the Reason, Mineral, and Sense Field on the opening bill and we’ll have us a gay old time…
Just don’t invite Paramore:
UPDATE: Billboard has some quotes from Enigk on the reunion along with the full list of dates. Click here to have a read.
It’s Friday, you’re in love. Good. But have you heard the new Mars Volta album Octahedron? Well, it was streaming over at the band’s MySpace page but now all you get are tracks “Since We’ve Been Wrong” and “Cotopaxi.” That’s too bad because listening to it I got the sense that Octahedron might be the most relaxed album the Mars Volta have ever recorded and that this isn’t really a bad thing at all. Because if any band is in danger of becoming boring by actually doing toomuch it’s the Mars Volta. At any rate, the album drops next Tuesday so we can all listen to it (again) then. Yep yep.
What else is going on this week? Well, Rolling Stone has Fred Durst talking about the misunderstanding of Limp Bizkit and word that Courtney Love is making another Hole record. And if that weren’t enough garbage for your DeLorean they’ve also got the scoop on the new record by none other than Living Colour. I always thought Time’s Up was a pretty good album that seem to unfairly fade into oblivion because it didn’t have a “Cult of Personality” sized single. Is that crazy? Let’s ask Arsenio:
How much does that sound like a Jane’s Addiction tune??? I’ve never been crazy about that song, but take the vocals up an octave and wow – total Jane’s. But then would Little Richard come do Arsenio with Jane’s? Probably not. So eat it, Navarro.
Moving on, I think the big news out of the indie world this week is this project this “Record Club” project that Beck has launched. Pitchfork can tell you all about it or you can hit up Beck’s site for the unfiltered details, but the long and short of it is that he’s enlisting friends to record a cover of an entire album just in one day and then release the results on a weekly basis. The first album selected is the great The Velvet Underground & Nico and here’s how opener “Sunday Morning” turned out:
Not bad, right? And, yes, that is Giovanni Ribisi on xylophone or whatever. But my initial excitement for this has now turned to guilt and minor disappointment. Because when I stopped to think about I realized this: isn’t it sad that the most exciting music news of the week has nothing whatsoever to do with actual new music? Isn’t this no different from those who get excited about seeing Phish cover Purple Rain or Dark Side of the Moon backwardsor whatever it is they do instead of playing actual Phish music? (For the record, I’ve never seen or listened to Phish so I don’t really know what I’m talking about but what I always seem to hear from people who do go to Phish concerts is how awesome their cover of _______ was, so that’s where I’m coming from.) I mean, I’m not immune from getting excited about hearing a good cover and I realize that at the end of the day it’s all extremely harmless. It’s not like Beck is charging me to watch that video. But still…it’s worth questioning right? Somebody had to ask it. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if instead of being excited about a cover of “Sunday Morning” we could get that excited about a new song that was every bit as good, simple, and lovely as the one from 1967? That’s forty-two years folks…
Food for thought. Enjoy the weekend. More next week…
While not playing in one of the many summer festivals that will dot these United States the newly reuinted Faith No More are set to hit the stage tonight (Friday) at the Download Festival in England. And guess what? You can watch their set live right on your fancy pants computer. By my poorly performed math, Donnington’s five hours ahead of EST which means you’ll want to visit this link at 4pm (or 1pm PST) to see the stream. Unless you want to see the also newly reunited Limp Bizkit, in which case you’ll want to tune in at 12:45pm and also very seriously, seriously question your own tastes in music.
But anyway, Rolling Stone’s got a review of Faith No More’s first show from the Brixton Academy which you can read by clicking here and to see even more clips from the event just head over to MetalSucks by clicking here. Want to know what it was like to be there in the middle of the crowd with a shaky HD camera, long arms, and a penchant for twirling? Well, then search no further:
Hey. Been a week or so and plenty to talk about, so let’s get right to it. For starters, if you didn’t catch the VH1 airing of the new Iron Maiden documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666, then fret not because it hit the streets for purchase on Tuesday and you can buy the DVD, Blu-Ray, CD, or Vinyl right here. Obviously, if you have a Blu-Ray player I’d advise going that route as it looked quite good in HD just on cable and also it’s only 15 bucks right now through amazon. Overall, the documentary’s pretty good but the real gem is easily the performance footage. While I was kind of hoping for a little more depth in some of the interviews (and simply more interviews with fans in the countries visited), there’s absolutely nothing disappointing about Maiden’s performance on stage. They sound so good and put on such a good show that the video’s really not a bad next-best-thing for those of us who live nowhere near the select venues the band hit on this infamous tour. And seeing a young fan in India say “Up the Irons” while waiting in line or seeing another fan in Honduras (I think) just break down and cry after the show’s over is really surprisingly moving. Especially living in America it’s hard to get a sense of just how big a band like Iron Maiden – who get virtually no press whatsoever here – are in the rest of the world. And as singer Bruce Dickinson points out in the film, seeing their audience isn’t like looking at the same dudes who were there back in ‘83. Yeah, those guys might be there but they’re surrounded by masses of younger fans. Kids dig Iron Maiden again. And that can only lead to good things.
If you’re a Rock Band gamer then you should also look out for a special Iron Maiden set list available for download that ties in with the documentary. It’s got all the classics and a few live ones (including “Hallowed Be Thy Name”) thrown in as well. For more info, click here. In related news, Van Halen is getting their own version of the Guitar Hero game. While this sounds pretty great in theory, don’t expect Sammy Hagar or Michael Anthony (or for that matter, Gary Cherone) to make an appearance because just like in life, they’ve pretty much been erased from the picture. So it would seem you’ll only be getting the Roth era tracks to jam out to and, yes, Eddie’s son Wolfgang will be digitized for bass duties. That’s all good and well, but apparently you can play as the band circa 1984 and while Eddie, Alex, and Diamond Dave will be made to look like their former selves, young Wolfie will still be there on bass, still looking like he does right this very second. This, of course, begs the question: are you freaking serious? I’m not enough of a Van Halen nut to buy this game in the first place, but if I were I would no doubt feel more than a little shame knowing that the Halen brothers are trying to both profit off their history and rewrite it at the same time. Not cool. Haven’t they learned anything from George Lucas??? Sigh. Read more here.
Have you seen Mastodon’s new video for “Oblivion”? If not, click here and take a look. I think that’s probably their best video to date. Either that or “Seabeast.” In unrelated but undeniably funny news, have you seen the Bret Michaels Tony Awards incident? Don’t worry, I promise it won’t make you want to rip your own soul out the way Rock of Love does:
When Doogie Howser busts your chops and your name isn’t Vinnie Delpino you know you’ve done something dumb. And speaking of dumb, Billy Corgan has reportedly found the new drummer of Smashing Pumpkins and he reportedly is all of nineteen years old. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t judge prematurely but how can this not end badly??? Read more here.
In other news, the Beastie Boys announced a surprise and extremely rare gig at a less than 1,000 occupancy club right here in Asheville, N.C. where yours truly lives. Tickets went on sale, I made a valiant attempt, and naturally came up empty handed. Sold out in ten minutes. I was disappointed for a while and then life continued. Oh well. Here are the Boys recently on the Jimmy Fallon show playing with house band The Roots:
I hope those that get in have a good time. And, also, I hate all 1,000 of you…Anyway, a friend recently made me aware of yet another side project from singer Mark Lanegan called The Soulsavers. Actually, reading now it seems that Lanegan isn’t actually in the band but merely provided vocals on eight of the ten songs on 2007’s It’s Not How You Fall, It’s How You Land. Whatever the case, this song “Revival,” has been stuck in my head because it’s awesome. May it be stuck in yours too after this:
I swear, Lanegan has made the guest appearance an art form. P. Diddy would be jealous (remember when he was in every single hip-hop or R&B single that came out for a while there?). Anyway, that’s all for now. Maybe more this week, but if not I’ll see you the next…
Hi there. So…would you believe that this marks the 200th post here at ye olde Holepuncher? Seems kind of crazy. Granted, there are several posts like last Friday’s about Lady GaGa that have less substance than an ant fart, but still…200 is a lot. For example, I probably haven’t done 200 push ups in my entire life. And I can promise you’ve I’ve never counted to two hundred, even when sorting pennies. But here we are at this magical number. Together. Can you feel the goosebumps or is it just me? You’re right, it’s probably just me, which is why I’d also like to announce that I will very likely make Holepuncher a weekly or bi-weekly endeavor in the near future. Hopefully doing so will make for slightly more compelling reading and also ensure my enthusiasm for doing this doesn’t wane quite so easily. At any rate, what I’m really trying to say is thank you for reading. If you’ve read all 200 posts or only 20 isn’t really important. I enjoy doing this mainly as a way to wake my brain up, but it certainly is nice having an audience as well.
Moving on, it appears the list of musicians featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 videogame has surfaced and there are some real winners. Aside from having what is maybe the best song ever recorded (“Under Pressure” by Queen + Bowie), they’ve also scored what I believe is the first videogame appearance by My Morning Jacket and TV on the Radio. They haven’t announced the song list yet, but either way that’s pretty cool. Also totally amazing: the inclusion of Sunny Day Real Estate. Really, most of you reading this probably were Sunny Day fans with me in college and at that time could you possibly have imagined seeing a Sunny Day song on something as big as this game? I know there was that Batman Forever soundtrack, but nobody really cared about that. Being on Guitar Hero 5 though could at long last expose them to an entirely new and entirely deserved audience. I can’t decide which song I hope it is – “Seven” would obviously make for a good challenge and God help whoever draws vocal duties on whatever song it is, but my bet is that it will either be “In Circles” or something off The Rising Tide.
Another surprise inclusion is that of the late Elliott Smith and as such I’d like to give him some love today. Here’s a cool little short film that features a couple live tunes:
Perhaps the highlight of my brief stint as a teacher while in grad school was exposing some of my students to Elliott Smith. If for no other reason that that I can’t help but feel I’ve done a service to the youth of this country. Hopefully they took the torch and ran with it. Anyway, enjoy the day. More this week…
