Besides being super cool, Beck also makes some good music. Look no further than 2001's Sea Change to hear one of the greatest break up albums ever recorded. Nowadays Beck likes to hang out in his huge studio, and have marathon recording sessions with some of his best friends. (aka other super cool, musician weirdos like himself) Beck chooses a hodge podge of his buddies for each session. When everyone gets to the studio, they decide on a classic album to re-record. So far they have done Leonard Cohen's "Songs of Leonard Cohen," Skip Spence's "Oar," Velvet Underground's "Velvet Underground & Nico," and INXS's "Kick." Beck has brought in a diverse array of musicians including members of Wilco, MGMT, St. Vincent, Liars, Os Mutantes, Devendra Banhart, Nigel Godrich, Giovanni Ribisi, Feist, Jamie Lidell, and a multitude of others.
Watch MGMT and Devendra rock out Leonard Cohen's "Teachers." The bass sounds mmm...mmm...good
This summer two veteran rock bands will be hitting the road for some majorly huge shows. This time though the savvy vets are taking some well know indie rock bands with them, putting a little artistry and maybe even some street cred into their tour. These shows will prove beneficial for all involved. The young 'uns are going to be playing sold out arenas for the first time in their careers, and the seniors citizen bands will gain some exposure to younger fans (who probably had no idea these old guys influenced some of their favorites).
U2 will be taking the dark, reverbed sound of Interpol out on a few summer dates. Here they are.
06-27 Minneapolis, MN - TCF Bank Stadium
06-30 East Lansing, MI - Spartan Stadium
07-03 Toronto, Ontario - Rogers Centre
07-06 Chicago, IL - Soldier Field
07-09 Miami, FL - Land Shark Stadium
07-12 Philadelphia, PA - Lincoln Financial Field
05-03 Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
05-04 St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
05-06 Columbus, OH - Nationwide Arena
05-07 Noblesville, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center
05-09 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
05-10 Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena
05-13 Bristow, VA - Jiffy Lube Live
05-15 Hartford, CT - XL Center
05-17 Boston, MA - TD Garden
05-21 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
Josh Homme has always been an innovator. When he was a teenager he formed Kyuss, the seminal stoner rock band. Not only did the band pioneer a sound, but their live shows established them as legends of the
underground. They played in isolated parts of the California desert and the band would run
their equipment entirely off generators. The combination of original music presented in an original way never resulted in commercial success. However, they have been highly inspirational for scores of underground metal bands, and the band's influence is still held in high regards today.
After Kyuss disbanded, Homme started his own project Queens of the Stone Age. Homme has been the only constant member through five studio albums and a wide array of sounds. Starting off as a riff rock band in the late 90's, Queens of the Stone Age has evolved into a band that pushes the limits of mainstream rock music. Their latest album, 2007's Era Vulgaris, is an unique and captivating album. The guitars are sparse, but somehow sound huge. The drums are mechanical, but somehow groove. The album is simple and complex at the same time, and took Queens to a whole new level of weird.
Era Vulgaris features songs with huge hooks revolving around repeating guitar riffs and odd vocal melodies. The drums are electronic sounding at times, but focus on snare and kick drum grooves that encourage head nodding and body moving. The sparse use of toms and cymbals make the drums sound more like a beat machine than a live drummer, but somehow it only adds to the groovy nature of the record. The vocals are densely layered with harmonies and backgrounds, and the guitars make the most of effects and feedback to give the album a truly distinctive sound. An odd album for sure, but without being weird just for the sake of eccentricity. The album is a puzzle made of many complicated pieces to show a simple picture. Era Vulgaris is like a coloring book comprised of fine art.
Josh Homme, a self-diagnosed musical schizophrenic, not only breaks new ground with his group Queens of the Stone Age, but also stays busy with a wide variety of projects. His group The Eagles of Death Metal have released 3 albums in the last 6 years and in his newest group Them Crooked Vultures he is joined by rock legends Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones, and Alain Johannes. Homme also runs his own studio Rancho de la Luna in the California desert. There he has recorded and released 10 volumes of “The Desert Sessions," impromptu writing and recording sessions featuring other well known musicians. 2009 also saw Homme producing music other than his own for the first time, the Arctic Monkeys wonderfully bizarre 3rd album Humbug. A true musical polyglot, there seems to be no instrument or piece of music that Josh Homme can't totally rock out.
Sonic Youth has always dabbled with the eccentric qualities of recorded music. However, they have spent the last few years putting out music with strong pop tendencies, focusing on arrangement and hooks. Last year Sonic Youth returned to creating music that was interesting, intense, and certainly weird.
Sonic Youth has had many different phases in their long career, but they have always remained original and inspiring to legions of musicians. They spent the 80's playing very noisy, wild, and pretty much out of tune rock music. The 90's saw the band become a little more aggressive, but they still crafted long winding songs layered with guitar feedback and echoed vocals (they even started to tune their guitars a little more) Then unsurprisingly Sonic Youth shifted their sound again in the 2000's.
2002's Murray Street, 2004's Sonic Nurse, and 2006's Rather Ripped are all records that showed progression and development, but they were comprised of songs that were soft-spoken and more easily digestible. Rather Ripped was the culmination of the pop rebirth of Sonic Youth, featuring songs under 4 minutes in length and strong pop arrangements. It was almost unbelievable that this great noise band was also capable of writing great pop songs. However, a lot of fans were still itching for the strange that Sonic Youth had done so well in the past.
After a three year recording break, the band came back with The Eternal. While not as odd as some of their 80's material, this album definitely marked a transition for the band. It should come as no surprise that this was their first independent release in 20 years. The band felt a sense of freedom after leaving Geffen Records, and they were able to craft a jagged, intricate record. The Eternal is aggressive, unique, and definitely worth an attentive listen. It features pounding drums, dissonant guitar melodies, intrusive vocals, and as always with Sonic Youth a perfect blend of recording effects and organic tones.
The mark of a great band is being able to progress and diverge from the expected path. Sonic Youth has never sold a million records, but they have established themselves as one of the most unique, inspirational, and just plain cool bands of the past 30 years, and for some reason I just don't think they are near done.
Arctic Monkeys have certainly had a unique career. Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, went to #1 on the British charts by the time the young lads had barely reached maturity. Their next album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, debuted at #1 on the charts and the ten songs on the album occupied the top ten spots of the British Singles Chart. Such successes are not easily followed, and it was hard to guess just what would come next.
Fortunately, instead of trying to manufacture record sales through a recreation of their previous sound, the band enlisted the help of Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures frontman Josh Homme. They packed up and headed to Homme's Rancho De La Luna Studio in Joshua Tree, California. It turns out spending a couple months in the desert does wonders for your music.
The album is a downright creepy batch of songs. Its full of eerie guitar and vocal effects, but still contains the intriguing lyrics and melodies that have become the band's trademark. Songs such as “Dangerous Animals” and “Dance Little Liar” interweave drum hooks and guitar lines that leave you excited, but also looking over your shoulder, as the ominous sounds build up suspense without ever really reaching a climax.
This album might not sell as well as their previous releases, but I strongly recommend giving Humbug a good listen. The band have reached the next level in artistry, and their continued progression is a mark of a great band.
U2 has established themselves as a truly legendary rock band. Rarely do bands achieve their amount of success. This is probably due to the fact that they reinvent themselves every few years, and they constantly search for new ways to engage their audience. Their newest tour, the U2 360 tour, is true to their form. I was lucky enough to catch this tour in Atlanta, GA on October 6, 2009. It would have been enough for me to go watch these living legends just play their songs, but U2 cares too much about their fans to ever do that. They made sure to pull out all the stops for this new tour.
The stage and lighting is unlike anything you could imagine. First the stage was placed towards the center so audiences on all sides could see the action, hence the 360 moniker. The setup above the stage was completely insane. It loomed overhead like some sort of four-legged alien spider craft. The stage itself had bridges that swung around, allowing the band to walk over the crowd onto an outer catwalk. Bono said the purpose of the stage was to get closer to their fans, and it worked. The crowd on the ground was loving it, and even though I was sitting in the balcony section, the huge amount of energy coming from the stage was hard to miss. As if all this was not enough to take in, the lights above the stage were even more incredible. There was a huge cylindrical structure that was comprised of hundreds of smaller lights. These lights were pieced together and worked as a huge screen to either show video or interesting lighting effects. This cylinder would expand and contract throughout the show, and at one point expanded so much, the lights seem to engulf the entire stage and contain the band within the cylinder. This was surely a sight to be seen!
Even though the stage and lighting were grandiose, the songs themselves still shone through beautifully. Something about U2's music is extremely powerful and moving. As they played about 20 songs over the course of two hours, the time flew by as they took the crowd through peaks and valleys of sound and dynamics. The Edge was all over the place with his soundscapes, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton provided an unwavering rhythm, and of course Bono had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Bono did talk a bit between songs, but he never got carried away with his political agendas. He payed homage to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before their song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” but this was appropriate as we were in the Reverend's home state. Also, the song “Walk On” was particularly moving because the band dedicated it to Aung San Suu Kyi, the imprisoned political leader of former Burma now Myanmar. The graphics they played on their light screens were great for telling her story as the band played the song. Other highlights included a remix of “I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight” and the encore performance of the classic song “One.”
This show was really, really great. The songs were amazing, the band was captivating, and the hundreds of people working in the stage crew built one of the most incredible setups of all time. If all bands put as much care and love into their concerts, we as fans would be ridiculously lucky.
Besides being super cool, 
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This summer two veteran rock bands will be hitting the road for some majorly huge shows. This time though the savvy vets are taking some well know indie rock bands with them, putting a little artistry and maybe even some street cred into their tour. These shows will prove beneficial for all involved. The young 'uns are going to be playing sold out arenas for the first time in their careers, and the seniors citizen bands will gain some exposure to younger fans (who probably had no idea these old guys influenced some of their favorites).
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