Today's headlines...
Tori Amos Forms Anti-Bush Posse By Mutating Into Greek Goddesses (VH1.com)
The Money Shot: "The way to really combat the right wing is to not be subservient to them on any level, particularly when it comes to ideology," she continued. "Therefore, you better offer up another ideology that can combat theirs, and as a preacher's daughter, I understand their ideology inside and out. Frankly, they've all hijacked Jesus and his message. I'm sorry, but 'Love thy neighbor as yourself' is nowhere to be found, especially in our current regime, who, in the name of God, is sending our young men and women to die over there [in the Middle East]."
Do Great Live Bands Need an Album to Tour? (Live Music Blog)
MS: While we here at LMB appreciate any mainstream attention to "touring bands," this 'no album' angle really jumped out at me. Why is it such a big deal that Pearl Jam -- a long-time 'road warrior' live band -- is touring without releasing an album? Why has this "norm" completely perpetuated the mainstream music industry? Can't Pearl Jam just tour because they're a great live band?
It Is Certain (Omaha Weekly Reader)
MS: (Conor) Oberst said there are some political themes woven into the songs on Cassadaga, “But nothing as overt as ‘[When the] President Talks to God,’” he said. “That’s not a song as much as a commercial. I don’t really premeditate what I write about. It just comes out. I’m not going to go out of my way to write about something that doesn’t come naturally, and I won’t shy away from it, either, if another song comes along. After I wrote that song and played it on television, a lot of people rallied around it and wanted me to keep doing it.”
English Lit Majors Need To Rock, Too (TBO.com)
MS: The music isn't the only thing grandiose - there's Meloy's use of language, with obscure words and references peppering his songs. "I think a lot of them are words that, if you read them in a book or short story, you would understand them in context," Meloy says. "I think they stand out a little bit in a pop song. They're cool sounding words and that's the point of writing lyrics," Meloy says," "using language in a heightened, abstracted way to convey emotion or a thought."
Meet the Sondre of music (Boston Herald)
MS: “It’s such a drag when artists become so aware of what they have succeeded in doing, that the rest of their career they spend just reproducing that sound,” said Lerche (pronounced LER-keh) from a tour stop in New Orleans.
“As an artist you have to demand more of yourself sometimes than what your audience does. It would be so stupid if I came out already sounding like my own tribute band. That wouldn’t be very charming at all. It would be embarrassing.”
Original sin (Guardian)
MS: Here's a way to infuriate people by getting them to attempt the impossible: ask them, as BBC6 recently did, to choose the worst cover version of all time. Why is it impossible? There are too many candidates. Listeners eventually voted for Madonna's version of American Pie, but it could have been any one of dozens: Duran Duran's startling attempt at Public Enemy's 911 is a Joke, Gareth Gates' rendition of Suspicious Minds, or the enervated Sugababes/Girls Aloud collaboration for Comic Relief, Walk this Way, which reached No 1 last month. All provoke one question: what were they thinking?
LiveDaily Interview: Robyn Hitchcock (LiveDaily)
MS: "[Peter is] very proud of his success, but he also enjoys traveling around in a little van playing clubs. Bill and Scott, likewise. You got to make a living. You don't have to make five livings. You just do as much as you can. We do whatever gigs. If we were 30 years younger, we might all be sleeping on top of each other in a van driving 200 miles after gigs. We like a certain element of comfort. So we don't necessarily do all the s---ty things we would have done when we were very young. We just play, really. It doesn't sound very exciting, but it is."
Oasis, The Killers to record new version of 'Sgt Pepper' (Yahoo! Music)
MS: The original album was released on June 1, 1967, and to mark the event the big names will all be covering tracks from the record for a BBC2 special to be aired in the U.K. on June 2. Razorlight, James Morrison, the Fratellis, and Travis are among the other acts taking part.
Bruce Springsteen makes surprise appearance in New York (NME.com)
MS: A string of acts performed Springsteen covers throughout the evening, including Badly Drawn Boy, The Hold Steady and Steve Earle, all of whom played to benefit of the Music For Youth programme - an initiative supporting music education for underprivileged children in New York. While on stage, the New Jersey rocker made light of the nostalgic nature of the show, saying "The good news is... I'm not dead yet."
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