We've Been Had: The Enduring Wisdom of Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne
Give Back The Key To My Heart (Album Version) - Uncle Tupelo It's just as well. Despite the title, Anodyne is the sound of a band coming apart at the seams. Co-founders Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, friends since their teens, very publicly grapple with their growing creative and personal differences, first dreading, then denying, then realizing they're insurmountable. Uncle Tupelo broke up in May 1994, eight months after Anodyne's release. They only held on that long to give their fans one final tour.
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Nerd Alert: Trailer for "The Beatles: Rock Band" Debuts
The visuals in the trailer are faithful to the boys from Liverpool, down to every detail. We were astonished at how close the designers got the avatars to look like the actual Fab Four. The game chronicles the band as it crawls out of obscurity in the Cavern Club, changes the world on the Ed Sullivan Show, gets trippy in the late '60s, and finally closes out with the band on top of the Apple building in 1969. Throughout you will hear snippets rarely heard from in-studio recording sessions, adding to the game's already heavy nerd cachet.
Pi Studios, a Houston-run videogame production shop, is actually developing the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 2 components for "The Beatles: Rock Band", set to hit stores on September 9. The production house has helped produce many of the "Call of Duty" games, but it seems its main job is to produce expansion packs for the extremely popular "Rock Band" series, such as November's AC/DC edition.
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Oh, Christ: Original Limp Bizkit Lineup to Reunite
Because things aren't already bad enough out there right now, the original lineup of crotch-rocking mooks Limp Bizkit annouced today they are reuniting. Here, according to a joint statement by the band's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, is their reasoning:
"We decided we were more disgusted and bored with the state of heavy popular music than we were with each other."
Well, thanks for that, guys. Here's the catch: So far the band is only booked at festivals in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, places apparently so starved for music that even Limp Bizkit sounds like a good idea. The release made no mention of any U.S. dates, and let's just hope it stays that way. Bet the new Live Nation Ticketmaster can't wait to try to sell this one.
Once he finished throwing up in his mouth a little, Rocks Off polled his writers for a modified round of "Who Would You Rather?": What would you rather do or see than witness the reunited Limp Bizkit in concert?
Personally, Rocks Off would rather have intimate relations with whichever groupie was the impetus for Kings of Leon's "Sex on Fire." See what else our staff would rather do/see than this unholy abomination after the jump.
Things That Make Us Feel Old: The Year 1989
"Hey Ladies"
As another year begins, record labels start unleashing commemorative editions of classic albums to take advantage of anniversaries of release dates and more importantly, yo' money. We already got wind of the impending Pearl Jam reissues a few weeks back. Now we get word that the Beastie Boys polished up their sampling-as-art opus Paul's Boutique for re-release on January 27.
The new edition of the 1989 classic was lovingly remastered by the Beasties, and will include expanded artwork and a code to download the band's track-by-track commentary for each song. Hopefully they can clue us in as how they managed to put at least half a dozen samples on each track alone, with no repeats.
It's hard to believe that Paul's Boutique is now almost legal drinking age. This album brought us the Dust Brothers and, thanks to the "Hey Ladies" video, the early-'90s '70s revival. The hyper-sampling paved the way for guys like Gregg Gillis' Girl Talk to sample like beat-crazy meth heads.
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"Every Day Is Like Sunday"
If you haven't read "Songs from the Heart of a Marketing Plan," Jon Pareles' essay outlining how, basically, the only way for artists to sell their music these days is by licensing it to sell something else, in yesterday's New York Times, go ahead and check it out. Rocks Off detects a faint whiff of Boomer "It's about the music, maaan" sanctimony, but Pareles seems ultimately reconciled to this new market-driven musical climate, and admits many of his favorite songs from 2008 have already been licensed by one if not several companies.
Rocks Off has no problem whatsoever with musicians "selling out" to finance future endeavors, reach a broader audience or simply put food on the table. Music may be a passion, an art and a calling, but it's also a job, and its makers deserve compensation for their efforts. Besides, not being an especially big blog junkie, TV commercials and the like are how he found out about bands like Iron & Wine and the Postal Service.
Still, he had barely put down the Arts & Leisure section Sunday afternoon when he came across a hilarious example of how clueless some companies can be when choosing which songs with which to identify themselves: The NFL Network has adopted Morrissey's "Every Day Is Like Sunday" as its theme song for the upcoming playoff campaign.
Let that sink in just a bit.
Things That Make Us Feel Old: Pearl Jam Reissuing Ten Next Year
In an announcement that will make many people's beards turn instantly gray, Pearl Jam is planning a re-release campaign in advance of the band's twentieth anniversary in 2011. The band's 1991 debut Ten is the first to get the treatment, due March 24.
Yeah, that's right. Pearl Jam is almost 20. Eddie Vedder and the gang have been in our lives for two decades of Who-worshipping, flannel-waving, grunge-fathering rock. Ten still stands as the band's definitive statement; the singles - which you can still hear about once an hour on "New Rock Alternative" the Buzz - have more than stood the test of time.





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