A documentary on Patti Smith, the highly-influential "Godmother of punk," will debut on PBS on Dec. 30. Filmed by fashion photographer turned filmmaker Steven Sebring over the course of 11 years, 'Patti Smith: Dream of Life' will air on the performer's 63rd birthday as part of the series 'POV.'
At the outset of the project, which started around the release of 1996's 'Gone Again,' Smith says she wasn't in favor of the idea. "To me the idea seems sort of conceited," she told the New York Times. "I felt, even though I was 50 years old at the time, too young to do a documentary. I hadn't done enough work yet to merit a documentary."
But after being trailed by a camera for 10-plus years, Smith -- who will commemorate the broadcast with a three night run at New York's Bowery Ballroom on Dec. 29 – 31 -- got used to the idea. The film, which first debuted at Sundance in 2008 where it won a cinematography award, isn't only performance-based. It chronicles Smith's move back to New York from Detroit and her return to performing and recording to support herself and her children after the death of her husband.
Concert footage from appearances in Israel, Japan and Washington is balanced by Smith's candid storytelling. "My own personal hope is just that people get some sense that I have more dimensions than is sometimes reported," Smith said. "Sometimes all people know about you is, No. 1, your work, but through the media they often will be given one aspect of a human being."
"I'm happy for people to get a more humanistic view," she continued. "I have a really great life. I've had, for me, really great tragedy in my life. I still mourn my people that I lost. I miss my husband. But I've had great opportunities in my life."
Portishead - Chase The Tear from Mintonfilm on Vimeo.
Caleb Does Season 2 - Episode 2: Insensitive Much? from Rusty Screw Productions on Vimeo.
With six albums, four Grammys, and critical and commercial success, Erykah Badu is a familiar figure in the music industry. She certainly seemed comfortable with the press as she recently stood before a room full of critics, musicians, and record label executives. Dressed in rain boots, sweat pants and a grungy long-sleeve thermal top, Badu gave the assembled listeners a preview of her coming album, “New Amerykah Part II (Return of the Ankh),” due out Feb. 23.
The sound of the 11-track long “New Amerykah Part II” is a throwback to her 1997 debut, “Baduizm,” with a more acoustic feel than the digital one she favored on her last album, 2008’s “New Amerykah Part 1: 4th World War.” The topics too, are a stark contrast to her last release. “’New Amerykah Part 1′ was me looking at what was going around me politically, socially,” Badu said. “['New Amerykah Part II'] was looking at what was going on inside of me and other women.” Badu’s personal life since her last release has had some dramatic changes, including the birth of a baby girl in February of this year.
“New Amerykah part II” features long-time collaborator ?uestlove of the Roots, who plays all the drums on the album, and Roots keyboardist James Poyser. One of the album’s standout tracks, “Out of My Mind Just In Time (Undercover-Over-Lover)” is a bare-bones duet between Badu and Poyser.
One of Badu’s newest songs, “Jump Up in The Air,” isn’t on the album. It will be released to major music Web sites and feature different versions with ten different rappers, with each rapper’s collaboration released one at a time. While Badu did not reveal all ten of her musical partners, she did say that one version will feature one of the most popular rappers in the world right now: Lil Wayne.
With the 2010 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival scheduled to get underway a little less than five months from now, we are finally starting to get an idea of what the lineup will look like.
According to a source with knowledge of the festival’s plans, Muse will serve as a headliner for the Indio, CA event, set to take place from April 16-18. This will mark the British outfit’s first appearance at Coachella since 2004 and will come amidst what will likely be a summer chock-full of tour dates in support of the band’s most recent effort, The Resistance.
A separate source confirms that both Hot Chip and The xx will make room in their recently announced U.S. tour and also appear. These latest additions join Devo, Craze & Klever, and As Tall As Lions, all of which have been previously confirmed by other Internet outlets.
Keeping the fun going, Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, The Avett Brothers, and Pavement are all heavily rumored, while Tegan & Sara, Spacemen 3, Pretty Lights, Cornelious, and Imogen Heap are among the others currently appearing on our Coachella Outlook page.
Interpol haven't released a new album since 2007's middling Our Love to Admire. Since then, the members of the band have been pretty busy with extracurricular activities: singer Paul Banks' solo project Julian Plenti, bassist Carlos D's short film, drummer Sam Fogarino's band with Swervedriver's Adam Franklin, Magnetic Morning.
Now, Fogarino tells Paste that the snappily dressed NYC brooders spent spring 2009 recording a new album, which is due for release via Capitol early next year. According to Fogarino, the new LP will recall Interpol's debut album Turn on the Bright Lights, Pitchfork's #20 album of the decade.
The band recorded the album at New York's Electric Lady studio, and they've focused on returning to the stuff that people loved about the band in the first place. Fogarino says, "The new record falls back towards the first. In trying to move forward, there was an unspoken realization that you can't let go of your sonic-defining tag. There was an effort in Daniel [Kessler]'s guitar tone; he rediscovered it playing in his loft space for a year without anybody. The quality of that tone, played in a big room, is just beautiful. It creates an atmosphere ... That big wash of reverb? It's back."
Fogarino also tells Paste that the band doesn't have any illusions about the relative wackness of Our Love to Admire: "[The album] was not our most cohesive moment … It was when reality kicked in as to where we were and where we were never going back to." Perspective!
Sade have announced that they will release their first album in ten years, Soldier of Love, on February 10 next year.
Sade’s last album Lovers Rock sold almost four million copies in the States when it was released back in 2000, and ended up taking home the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album.
Trip hop pioneers Massive Attack will release a new album, titled Heligoland, on February 8. The album will feature guest vocals from Damon Albarn, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and Elbow’s Guy Garvey, along with Martina Topley-Bird and Hope Sandoval.
Tracklisting is as follows:
01 Pray For Rain
02 Babel
03 Splitting The Atom
04 Girl I Love You
05 Psyche
06 Flat Of The Blade
07 Paradise Circus
08 Rush Minute
09 Saturday Come Slow
10 Atlas Air
In case you thought you wouldn’t be satisfied with the extra hour of Tom Waits’ banter from his upcoming live album, fret no more. Now Tom’s Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is being reinvented as a limited edition seven-LP vinyl with six new tracks. The album, which classicly highlights Waits’ bizarrely wonderful form of storytelling, came out December 8, and also includes rare gems like Waits covering the likes of The Ramones and Fats Waller. Plainly stated, if you’re gearing up for a long winter, this collection added on top of the Glitter and Doom live album should be enough Tom Waits material to get you through. And that’s never a bad thing.
New She & Him LP to Feature Darker Darks, Brighter Brights, no Ben Gibbard
For those folks who didn't think Paste was totally daft for naming She & Him's Volume One the best album of 2008, we've got good news for you: Volume Two is on the way. (For those of you who still consider us spineless drivel-mongers for the same, well, carry on with your Monday.)
The new album was recorded in Portland and Los Angeles over the past year-and-a-half, and will feature all-new original material penned by actress/chanteuse Zooey Deschanel and produced by M. Ward. "I think that the dark shades that were on the last record are maybe a little bit darker on the new record, and the brighter shades on the last record are a little bit brighter on the new record," Ward tells Paste. "I think that people are going to hear more contrasts, which is always something that I shoot for in the studio."
Volume One was essentially recorded in a vacuum free of outside pressure and expectations, an atmosphere that the duo tried to recreate for Volume Two. "I think we approached the second record organically, the same as we did for the first record," Deschanel tells Paste. "But the songs are different so the record is different. We had a bit more time and resources so we were able to work a little deeper."
After almost two years of balancing She & Him recording sessions and nationwide touring with their other endeavors (like Ward's solo work and side-projects including Monsters of Folk, and Deschanel's recent roles in movies including 500 Days of Summer) the two are still finding new reasons to be excited about their once-seemingly-unlikely musical partnership.
"Zooey writes pretty often and she doesn't need any sort of encouragement," Ward says. "What I wanted to do was to show more dimensions to Zooey's writing, and I'm excited for people to hear the record because I think it's going to continue to show the strength of her writing."
"I learned that Matt can become a virtuoso of any stringed instrument he picks up, which is tremendously unfair to the rest of us mortals," Deschanel notes. "It's great to work with Matt because he is always true to himself, and working with him over an extended period confirms this time and again."
An official release date for Volume Two hasn't been set, but we're told to expect it in the spring. For the curious, we do know that Deschanel's new husband, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, will not appear on the album. (If you feel the need to weep, might we suggest doing so to the tune of the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack?)
For more on the new record, check out Paste's December/January issue, hitting newsstands in December.
Icelanta @ Scoot Inn. Dec12th from Orion Garcia on Vimeo.
You should probably put on your seatbelt.
No one wears seatbelts in Philly.
Yeah well they give tickets for that here.
You’d never get a seatbelt ticket in Philly. Ever.
So we were talking about people sending you weird MySpace messages. What’s the oddest thing you’ve been sent?
It’s just gross you know, sometimes they write really mean things, and sometimes they write really nice things. It runs the gamut. One guy wrote, “I’d put it in your ass.” He wrote it on a photo, and I was like “Spam!” and deleted him.
That sounds like fun. So what did you get into last night?
I had an in-store appearance at Amoeba Records. I wore this weird shiny black windbreaker jumpsuit, that I tucked into my underwear to make it look like a leotard diaper, and then this black sleeveless cape thing with a hood. They were totally different lines, but made of the same material so it was really lucky, and it looked really good. And then I just wore some combat boots.
What are your favorite songs to play in live situations like that?
“Make it Take It” and “Leaving You Behind” with Lykke Li. I had a lot of fun making those songs, but it always switches. Like for club shows I like to do more rap, otherwise I’m down for some singing.
And how was the turnout at Amoeba?
Yeah! Ohmygod I was like, ‘No one’s gonna go! What if nobody comes?!’ It’s totally like I’m having a party and no one’s gonna show. But there was a ton of kids, and they were all really really cute.
Do you ever have lecherous, Ron Jeremy-looking dudes showing up at your shows and wanting to buy your underwear, or purchase you some milk, or anything like that?
Well there was this one older gentleman, he must’ve been grandfather age, and he was talking to me for a minute. He waited in line to get an autograph and had me sign his CD. And he was just kind of like staring at me, like he didn’t want to walk away, and then he finally stammers, ‘Uh, uh, ehhh, well, umm, oh, well I must admit, it is true — you are, uh, very good looking.’ And I was like, ‘Thanks – You too!’ and I just winked, and then we ushered him outta there. Alright dude. He was pretty sweet tho. I haven’t had anyone be too gross.
Maybe people just feel safe doing that from across the interwebs.
Yeah, when they’re on the internet it’s safe, it’s easy. Everyone’s a lot bigger and badder when they’re sitting home on their computer screen. But nobody…I mean, I wish somebody would say some of that mean shit they write about me on the internet to my face; they wouldn’t fucking dare. Cause I would be like, ‘What?!’ I would go off I’d get so crazy! And also like I said, everyone’s just bigger and badder on the internet.
![Skream at Barcelona [Mad Classy's one yr anniversary]](http://phizness.com/madclassy/oneyranniversary.jpg){kind=link}