Check out this video interview and performance with violinist David Garrett that Rolling Stone recently posted. He discusses his methods for transforming songs like Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” into a string rendition:
“Of course you kind of try to stay true to the core of the essence of the original but try to go as far as possible away, especially when you have an instrument that is not typically for rock and roll music.”
Garrett goes on to prove that while the violin may not make an appearance at most Metallica concerts, the instrument can still rock just as hard.
“I always considered the violin quite close to the guitar.”
His new album Rock Symphonies features covers of songs like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Guns n’ Roses’ “November Rain,” Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”
A new music-video series over at avclub.com which featuring awesome bands playing awesome covers. The website has everything from The Swell Season performing Neutral Milk Hotel to Rise Against covering Nirvana.
Indie label Manimal has announced the preorder for the upcoming David Bowie tribute album, titled Repitition. The double CD package is available for preorder at the label’s site. The tribute was originally to feature Radiohead and MGMT, but that turned out to be just rumors. The album was originally scheduled for a May release, but it’s now been pushed back to September 6th.
There’s a Wiki page set up that is boasting a track list, but of course that was prior to MGMT claiming they weren’t involved. This is the third in a series of tribute albums the LA-based record label has put together, the other two being Madonna and the Cure.
Track listing originally announced below (it may not be 100% correct), however the label announced that there are some bonus tracks not included in the listing:
CD1:
01. Exitmusic – “Space Oddity”
02. Duran Duran – “Boys Keep Swinging”
03. Megapuss (Devendra Banhart) – “Sound + Vision” (en espanol)
04. Warpaint – “Ashes to Ashes”
05. Charlift – “Always Crashing in the Same Car”
06. A Place to Bury Strangers – “Suffragette City”
07. All Leather – “Fame”
08. We Are The World – “Afraid of Americans”
09. Carla Bruni – “Absolute Beginners”
10. VOICEsVOICEs – “Heroes”
11. Corridor – “Be My Wife”
12. Vivian Girls – “John, I’m Only Dancing”
13. Lights – “World Falls Down”
14. Keren Ann – “Life on Mars”
15. Genuflex – “Soul Love”
16. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes – “Memory of a Free Festival”
CD 2:
01. TBA
02. Aska & Bobby Evans (feat. Moon & Moon) – “African Night Flight”
03. Tearist – “Repetition”
04. The Polyamorous Affair – “Theme From Cat People”
05. Halloween Swim Team – “Look Back in Anger”
06. Jessica 6 – “I’m Deranged”
07. Rainbow Arabia – “Quicksand”
08. Swahili Blonde (feat. John Frusciante) – “Red Money”
09. Aquaserge – “The Superman”
10. Sister Crayon – “The Bewlay Brothers”
11. Lewis & Clarke – “Changes”
12. Mechanical Bride – “Sound + Vision”
13. Zaza – “It Ain’t Easy”
14. Ariana Delawari – “Ziggy Stardust”
15. Mick Karn – “Ashes to Ashes”
16. Xu Xu Fang – “China Girl”
In recent years a lot of great bands have done the orchestral thing and decided to play some shows backed by a symphony orchestra. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s a bit ridiculous. But when did all this start?
The first rock concerts backed by an orchestra are recorded as happening when Deep Purple did some shows in 1969 supporting their third album, Concerto for Group and Orchestra. There’s a video of them doing it again years later below in commemoration, though with a different score, as the original had been lost.
Since then, bands like Metallica and Portishead have done orchestral live albums. Even Aerosmith got into the act by doing an MTV Music Awards performance in a symphonic style.
Recently, a lot of indie bands have been jumping on the bandwagon and performing with orchestras. The Brooklyn Art Museum (BAM) started a concert series a couple years ago with local bands such as Grizzly Bear doing symphonic shows. This lead to a lot of indie bands putting together such shows, like the Decemberists booking a whole tour with a backing orchestra.
Often times, bands will do one-stop shows with an orchestra. Joanna Newsom did some shows with an orchestra on a couple stops off her 2008. Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallet did similar shows on his most recent tour. It seems as if musicians aren’t afraid to be artists anymore, meaning a symphony can now be heard while drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Here are some videos of recent instances.
Decemberists
Final Fantasy (Owen Pallet)
Grizzly Bear
My Morning Jacket
Joanna Newsom
Radiohead
Portishead
Metallica
Aerosmith
Deep Purple and Ronnie James Dio (RIP)
An old Pink Floyd video of a one time performance (1/3)
Since the Damon Albarn-helmed cartoon band Gorillaz reappeared with the album Plastic Beach, they’ve been populating their website with unique playable games. The most recent one “Escape to Plastic Beach: Chapter 3” features a bit of hang gliding and music from the band’s new album. A few of these games are actually downloadable from the iTunes app store for iPod touches and iPhones.
Yes, I spent probably 20 minutes playing through these games, which also include some of the older games from the band’s older material. I highly recommend the Russels Cookie Eating game.
Gorillaz have always been about putting out a lot of content, and their site is filled with videos and audio from their albums. For a full list of the available games check out http://gorillaz.com/g-player/games
Also, the Gorillaz just announced a US Tour!
Gorillaz Tour Dates:
10-03 – Montreal, Quebec – Bell Centre
10-05 – Wallingford, CT – Oakdale Theatre
10-06 – Boston, MA – Agganis Arena
10-08 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
10-10 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center
10-11 – Fairfax, VA – Patriot Center
10-13 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
10-14 – Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre
10-16 – Chicago, IL – UIC Pavilion
10-17 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
10-19 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
10-20 – Dallas, TX – Verizon Theatre
10-22 – Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center
10-24 – Denver, CO – Wells Fargo Theatre
10-26 – Phoenix, AZ – Dodge Theatre
10-27 – Los Angeles, CA – Gibson Amphitheatre
10-30 – Oakland, CA – Oracle Arena
11-02 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena
11-03 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena
11-11 – Dublin, Ireland – O2 Arena
11-12 – Manchester, England – Evening News Arena
11-14 – London, England – O2 Arena
11-15 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
11-17 – Birmingham, England – NIA
11-18 – Brighton, England – Centre
11-21 – Berlin, Germany – Velodrom
11-23 – Paris, France – Zenith
11-25 – Antwerp, Belgium – Lotto
12-06 – Perth, Australia – Burswood Dome
12-08 – Adelaide, Australia – Entertainment Centre
12-11 – Melbourne, Australia – Rod Laver
12-16 – Sydney, Australia – Entertainment Centre
12-19 – Brisbane, Australia – Entertainment Centre
12-21 – Auckland, New Zealand – Vector Arena
For the past few months, Levi’s has sponsored a series of sessions that find modern artists doing covers of bands who influenced their sound. These tracks are available as free downloads each month on their website.
The bands range from She & Him doing Rick Nelson’s “Fools Rush In”, to the Shins doing Squeeze’s “Good Bye Girl.” New artists are being added almost every week, with the latest being Ryan Bingham doing James Roosevelt’s “That’s How Strong My Love Is.” Each track page offers fans a bit of info on the artist and their take on the song they covered.
Other artists include NAS, the Swell Season, Dirty Projectors, Colbie Caillat, Bomba Estereo, Jason Mraz, Raphael Saadiq, Passion Pit, John Legend and the Roots, and the Kills.
The Vitamin String Quartet Master Series presents the critically acclaimed Velvet Undergound & Nico album. Known for unabashedly diving into riské and dark subject matters, the album with Andy Warhol’s yellow banana gave birth to some of rock’s greatest songs of all time. We dare you to go deeper into the music through the VSQ’s complex string arrangements where violin, viola and cello take you on a journey that is beautifully parallel to the experiences you originally get from songs such as “Heroin” and “I’m Waiting For the Man.”
Tracklist:
Heroin (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
The Black Angel’s Death Song (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
Femme Fatale (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
Sunday Morning (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
European Son (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
All Tomorrow’s Parties (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
There She Goes Again (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
I’m Waiting for the Man (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
Venus in Furs (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
I’ll Be Your Mirror (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
Run, Run, Run (originally performed by The Velvet Underground and Nico)
We’re excited to announce our newest marvel, VSQ Performs Lady Gaga. Not only is it featured on the iTunes Music homepage as “New and Noteworthy,” but it already has 24 fanatastic reviews from fans! Check us out and let us know what you think…
Tool/Puscifer frontman Maynard James Keenan and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, recently collaborated on a cover of Elton John’s iconic track “Rocket Man” for the film The Heart Is a Drum Machine. This new film, which was released in March of this year, poses the question: “Why do people create and listen to music?” Drozd backs up Keenan’s vocals and assists with instrumental aspects of the recording. In my humble opinion, the track is quite good and may be one of the better covers Keenan has sung on, including the well-meaning, but shaky, A Perfect Circle cover album Emotive. Although the cover song end up in the final cut, Keenan is featured throughout the film along with a wide range of guests like Jason Schwartzman, Kurt Loder, Nic Harcourt, Juliette Lewis, and Elijah Wood.
In addition to this film, Moog filmmakers Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenk also made up the team that produced a documentary called Blood Into Wine: The Arizona Stronghold about Keenan’s winery, Caduceus Cellars. The film which had a limited release earlier this year also featured an array of guests, such as Patton Oswalt, Milla Jovovich, and more.
In the midst of touring with Them Crooked Vultures and writing new material for Queens of the Stone Age, among other projects, Josh Homme has decided to revive his record label Rekords Rekords. He has already decided on a bunch of future releases as well it seems.
A new Desert Sessions album, that will have a box set of all the recordings from the infamous recordings, will be released. Also, a solo album from QOTSA guitarist Alain Johannes is slated for arrival on shelves. Homme even has plans for DVDs and books as well.
When speaking on the revival to Rolling Stone, he said, “I want to make Rekords Rekords like the Wolfman Jack of releasing stuff. You listened to him for his taste. I want to build up a trust with the audience. Our slogan is ‘Where the “Shit” Hits the Fan’ — with the ’shit’ in quotes.”
His label, which has been around in several forms since 1997, has recently joined forces with Los Angeles-based indie label Dangerbird for a series of releases, including Johannes’ solo outing. The labels will also put out the debut album from LA-based Mini Mansions, which features QOTSA bassist Mikey “Shoes” Shuman.
When commenting on this partnership, Homme noted, “”The reason I went [to Dangerbird] in the first place was because they’re about getting things done — ’nuff said. There’s no reason to wait or belabor the point about releasing records. This is the time to focus on the consistency of your art.”
For more information on future releases visit the label’s site at www.rekordsrekords.com.
