Radiohead’s main set in Newark last night ended with Thom Yorke fairly storming off stage after they screwed up “Idioteque” for the second night in a row. Technical difficulties! Even the greatest bands have them. Then Thom came back and sang “How to Disappear Completely,” a shiveringly beautiful song about feeling stressed out on tour, and it was kind of perfect. Other highlights: The best live “Kid A” I’ve ever seen, “Pyramid Song,” unexpected live killer “Myxomatosis,” the explosive second half of “The Daily Mail,” lots more. Check the setlist. This was a good one.
It’s just a crosswalk: a few stripes of white paint on a quiet stretch of suburban asphalt. But meaning has a way of seeping into otherwise mundane places over time, and the pedestrian crossing outside Abbey Road Studios was crowded with excited Beatles fans when we stopped by on our last afternoon in London. There were dozens, young and old, smiling and laughing and inconveniencing local motorists by posing for photos in the middle of the street. I like that there’s not much to see once you get there, no signpost or museum. The only thing drawing all those people to that spot was our shared love for some old records that were made nearby.
(Source: Flickr / fellowette)
Pictures of car radios taken while good music was playing, Hans-Peter Feldmann, 2004.
Maybe my favorite thing we saw today at a very clever exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery.
Paul and Linda McCartney’s RAM was always one of my favorite old LPs to pluck from my parents’ record collection growing up. Later, when I read about the reviews it had gotten back in 1971 (including Jon Landau’s legendarily vicious pan in RS), I remember being baffled. How could an album with so many sweet melodies and gorgeous arrangements, so rich in sunshine and love, be so hated? Critics eventually came around, and now most seem to agree that RAM rules. I did my part with a short take on a lovely new box set reissue of the album. Now, off for a leisurely stroll through Hampstead Heath, which is about as close to the heart of the country as one can get in London.
There’s something incredible about seeing Shawn Carter cough up a lung for Marcy as 20,000 young Britons scream along. Tonight was the fourth of five shows Jay-Z and Kanye booked at the O2 Arena, and they were in superb form. The crowd went absolutely nuts (not least when Ye made his little Wills and Kate joke four times in a row). Still more proof that hip-hop is universal, and these guys in particular are intercontinental superstars. Later this week they’re playing Zurich. The Swiss kids will probably know all the words, too.
Standing in the airport, I am waiting for a plane
Goin’ east to London, want to be back there again
“Get to You” is one of the Byrds’ loveliest ballads, and it’s been in my head all day as Sarah and I pack for a much-needed London holiday of our own. Related listening: the Byrds’ earlier classic “Eight Miles High,” of Montreal’s “My British Tour Diary.”
I spoke with NBC Nightly News (above) and CBS’ The Insider (not online yet) about Donna Summer’s sizable legacy. Her loss was sad and unexpected, but the near-universal outpouring of love for her music yesterday felt like a final victory over all the cranks and bigots who have ever tried to deny disco.
This week, RS subscribers are getting a special BIG ISSUE in the mail. Metallica is on the cover, looking really big. Inside are all kinds of stories, including one I wrote about Sleigh Bells. Reporting this was a total blast.
Update: Read it here.
I wrote about musicians who are adding their voices to the new wave of Occupy actions this spring. My story – with quotes from Tom Morello, David Crosby, Jackson Browne and Occupy This Album organizer Jason Samel – is in the latest issue of RS, with Peter Dinklage on the cover. It ran next to our obit for Adam Yauch, which felt apropos: Even as we mourn a great activist artist, others carry on the fight.
One year ago, Rufus Wainwright was very excited about the album he’d just started recording with Mark Ronson in New York: “We’ve been in for three days, and I already look 20 years younger,” he told me. “I have to start looking around for motorcycle outfits or something, I feel so damn cool!” Those sessions led to his new LP, Out of the Game, my favorite thing Rufus has done in years. And last night at BAM, Sarah and I learned that these songs are even more fun live. More on the show here.
Update: Don’t miss Dave Rawkblog’s thoughts on the new album.
A new report shows that the NYPD subjected over 168,000 African-American men between the ages of 14 and 24 to “stop and frisk” searches last year. That’s about 10,000 more searches than the total number of young black men in that age range living in New York. I’d expect a statistic like this to appall most reasonable people – but not, apparently, New York’s deputy mayor (and sometime music blogger) Howard Wolfson, who tweeted today that politicians who oppose stop and frisk seek “a race to the left and a return to high crime.” Huh? I traded a few tweets with Wolfson on this subject; I’ll leave it to you to decide who’s on sounder ground here.
A lot of my favorite new music lately seems to be about how awesome it is to live in California: Kendrick Lamar’s “The Recipe,” Best Coast’s “The Only Place”… Either I’m having an identity crisis or these are just really great tunes. Whatever the case, I love the new Best Coast album, whose cover art features a friendly brown bear hugging a map of the Golden State. Listen to it at NPR while you read my review and I look up airfares.
CBS This Morning interviewed me briefly about the late, great Adam Yauch (or, as they spelled it, “Adam Yaunch”). Yesterday’s news still doesn’t feel totally real, does it? Too soon, too sad.
Coolest sign we saw at the May 1 General Strike today. (via fellowette)
