Morning Music Notes – Return of PHM
Hopefully you’ve been able to manage the hours of free time that you suddenly had since PeteHatesMusic was down while we switched web hosts this weekend (and Monday). Things still aren’t 100% re-arranged, but it’s good enough for us to give you some content. Apologies for some news and posts we missed – we’ll hit you with the important stuff throughout the day today.
Danger Mouse to Try and Save U2
Danger Mouse is a British cartoon series about a super hero mouse that is a secret agent. In the music world, Danger Mouse is Brian Burton, and like the cartoon, he elevates and rescues things – notably, music careers. The latest one he is hoping to reinvigorate is U2. It turns out the rumours are true – Danger Mouse is working on the new U2 album (via Billboard).
In an interview, bassist Adam Clayton said “We very much want to have a record out by the end of the year, September, October, November; that kind of time. We’re working with Danger Mouse, who’s a smart guy. He’s on it; he’s excited. It’s a great team and feels very liberating at the moment — anything goes. We have an abundance of riches; we could make three or four different records and justify that to ourselves, but to make the best record you can, you have to steer away from the ones you can make easily. We’re really trying to get into territory that we’re not comfortable in, if that makes sense.”
Danger Mouse has recently worked with Portugal. The Man and The Black Keys, as well as previous work with Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, and Broken Bells.
LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy Wants to Make Music Again
James Murphy famously retired his band, LCD Soundsystem, by playing a final gig at Madison Square Gardens and making a documentary out of it. Since then, he has been helping Arcade Fire with production work on their new album. He’s now told Rolling Stone that he wants to make some music of his own (via Gigwise).
“I’m scoring some stuff: a couple of films, a play. It’s tough to say. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m trying to do. And there’s this NYC Subway project that I’m working on, music for the subways. I’m ready to do it, I just need to find a way in. It’s not easy.”
I think having a musician score original subway music might make fans a little less disappointed when they miss their subway.
This Could Get Messy: Scott Weiland Sues Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots dominated parts of the 1990s, led by singer Scott Weiland. As he bounced around from rehab and joined Velvet Revolver, his old band didn’t do much. Weiland wore out his welcome in Velvet Revolver, and was welcomed back by STP. He has worn out his welcome yet again, and was surprisingly replaced at a gig with Linkin Park man Chester Bennington. The band also sued Weiland, claiming he sabotaged a 20th anniversary tour for STP to do his own solo tour. Weiland hasn’t taken too kindly to these recent events and has filed a $7 million lawsuit (via MTV). Can we PLEASE make a reality show out of this?
Part of Weiland’s legal action reads “How do you expel a man from a band that he started, named, sang every lead on every song, wrote the lyrics, and was the face of for twenty years, and then try to grab the name and goodwill for yourselves. You don’t, but three of the instrumentalists from the band ‘Stone Temple Pilots’ tried … Without Weiland, the band ceases to be the same musical group that millions of fans recognize and love.”
If Weiland wins, which he won’t, it might set some kind of precedent for band’s using new names when members leave. The Rolling Stones have been using robots for Keith Richards for decades, and no lawsuit just yet.
OK Go are At It Again
I don’t think OK Go know how to make an unoriginal video. You’ve obviously seen the treadmill video. You might have also seen the Rube Goldberg Machine video. There are a few other cool ones too. The latest one is in conjunction with NPR and their office move.
Explaining the concept of the video, NPR said “Earlier this year, we needed to figure out the best possible way to move my Tiny Desk from NPR’s old headquarters to our new facility just north of the US Capitol. We wanted to go out with a bang and arrive at our new space in style, so our thoughts naturally turned to a catchy pop band we love: OK Go”
As the band plays many, many versions of their song (223 times to be exact), it is filmed and edited to play out as one version across the office move. I think NPR never wants to hear from OK Go again. Check out OK Go and their track for All is Not Lost.
OK Go – All is Not Lost
