Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we search through our record collection in search of a lost gem.
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Future Pilot AKA is the ever-changing musical vehicle of ex-BMX Bandit/Soup Dragon Sushil K. Dade, and Secrets From the Clockhouse, coming out next week on Creeping Bent Records, is his latest attempt at trans-cultural pop. As on previous efforts Tiny Waves, Mighty Sea and Vs. a Galaxy of Sound, Dade pulls his gigantic Rolodex from his garage with a tractor, and enlists a stunning cast of collaborators for Secrets: Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, the Go-Betweens' Robert Forster and Grant McLennan (RIP), Damo Suzuki from Can, and ex-Minuteman Mike Watt. As if that guestlist weren't enough, the organ-laced ska of "Eyes of Love" is enhanced with the vocals of fellow Glaswegians Stuart Murdoch and Sarah Martin of Belle and Sebastian. Moore and Gordon are responsible for the certain-to-be-divisive cover of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War," although we're not sure who plays the "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" saxophone part:
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Despite constant listens, we're unable to come up with a fitting genre classification for Jean-Claude Vannier's 1972 opus L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches (translation: The Child Assassin of the Flies), which finally saw reissue last year on Finders Keepers. Demented orchestral prog? Conceptual carnival space-pop? Did we mention that Vannier arranged Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson?
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Here at the flophouse, we can't stop unpacking the layers of irony in VH1's Ego Trip's (White) Rapper Show. We are pleased to see the program progressing according to our plan: 100 Proof and G-Child were certainly a fun pair to watch (especially G-Child's little b-boy dance—how cute!), but Serch and Prince Paul recognized their dearth of talent and reclaimed their green Converse. After the jump, we handicap the remaining six white rappers, and give odds on those destined to receive the Gas Face:
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We get roughly 37 e-mails per week from struggling, unknown indie bands with some RIYL-ish "if you like Wilco, you'll like us" in the first paragraph. To date, not one single band has actually come through on this promise. But Merge has managed to find and sign the LA quintet The Broken West, one of the few existing bands able to summon the best moments of Being There and Summerteeth. Their debut, I Can't Go On, I'll Go On, has been on near-constant repeat for the last month or so, and we've yet to tire of its endless optimism and omnipresent pop signposts. Album opener "On the Bubble" blends effervescent Spectorisms with handclaps and sunny falsettos, and the screaming, Revolver-like lead-break of "Brass Ring" only temporarily interrupts the song's pitch-perfect dBs pastiche:
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Equal parts Wonder Showzen, South Park and Pee-Wee's Playhouse, The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuted last night on Comedy Central, takes place entirely within Silverman's extended adolescence, where poo jokes abound and cough syrup gets you drunk. We've been unable to extract its theme music from our heads this morning, and we were able to extract an mp3 of the song from our DVR. We're convinced that these 39 seconds represent a compressed version of both the show and Silverman's comedic M.O., which has caused more than a few after-school scraps, so we figured we'd throw the whole thing to a vote:
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More than a few eyebrows went up after the NFL announced Prince as the halftime performer for Super Bowl XLI—not just because it's been merely three years since Janet's little friend said hi to the TV people, but because most of the billion-plus viewing audience is probably expecting some form of actual royalty to hit the stage, instead of the guy who once sang "People call me rude, I wish we were all nude." Idolator was lucky enough to snag an internal memo between the NFL and CBS in which clueless-yet-inventive entertainment coordinators and PR flacks attempted to concoct some alternative options for the Purple One's performance. After the jump, see the highlights.
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Welcome to another edition of "Please Release Me," in which your Idolators request—nay beg—that an out-of-print, delayed or held-up-in-customs album be issued Stateside:
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Above The Law was one of the earliest signees to Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, and its second full-length, Black Mafia Life, is quintessential post-Chronic West Coast rap: It has gleefully misogynstic (and, like N.W.A., darkly cartoonish) lyrics incorporate copious references to pimping, drugs, murder, and money; sinuous synth lines; and nary a second independent of a '70s/early-'80s funk sample. DJ Total K-Oss makes sure to incorporate more than enough Parliament/Funkadelic influences (matching Cold 187-Um's Bootsy timbre), starting with the album's first track, "Never Missin' a Beat." The song is a two-parter, opening with a looped quote from Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow before giving way to the "Atomic Dog"-biting first cousin of Snoop Dogg's "Who Am I (What's My Name)". Later, "G's and Macaronies" lifts the important parts of T.S. Monk's "Bon Bon Vie" in service of BML's most infectious track:
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While the fallout from the EMI shuffle/merger has yet to fully reveal itself, we've noticed a trend in recent releases under the imprint, one which certainly smells of on-the-cheap repackaging and dubious canon creation. The past few months have seen career-spanning compilations for the likes of Roxette and the forgotten Jacksons (Freddie and Luscious), a dismal collection of glassy-eyed covers from Diana Ross, and the reissue of the not-quite-essential Romeo & Juliet soundtrack, re-shilled as the "10th Anniversary Edition." One of the more interesting to come our way, however, was Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits, a 19-track package that would work nicely for those casual fans who don't already own the 1990 Polydor Greatest Hits collection, much of which reappears here. We are, however, happy to see the Last Waltz version of "Caravan" is included, although we certainly would have lobbied for the inclusion of a bonus fold-out poster of Van in action (pictured).
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