From Spin: R.E.M. Tap Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith for Next Album By William Goodman R.E.M. have finished their fifteenth studio album, called Collapse Into Now (due in early 2011) — so what can fans expect? According to multi-instrumentalist Mike Mills, a more "expansive" sound than on 2008's Accelerate and some special guests, including Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, and Peaches! "With Accelerate we were trying to make a point by making the songs as short and as fast as possible," Mills tells Spin. "So we wanted this new one to be more expansive. We wanted to put more variety into it and not limit ourselves to any one type of song. There are some really slow, beautiful songs; there are some nice, mid-tempo ones; and then there are three or four rockers." Mills adds that while Accelerate's lyrics were politically-inspired, Collapse Into Now is a "very personal, very human record. Not only to [singer] Michael [stipe], but personal and human in the sense of the narrative of the songs, the protagonists of the songs." The 12-track release — produced by Garret "Jacknife" Lee (Snow Patrol, U2), who plays alongside R.E.M.'s Peter Buck in alt-country supergroup Tired Pony — includes rocker "All the Best," and the album's closing song, "Blue," which features vocals from Patti Smith. A yet-to-be-named song, which Mills promises will feature the word "alligator" in its title, features Peaches on vocals and Smith's longtime collaborator Lenny Kaye on guitar. "It Happened Today" features Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder on vocals. Another, "Walk It Back," was written during studio sessions in New Orleans, the product of the band's new approach to writing and recording. Instead of penning a batch of tunes and tracking them in a marathon session, R.E.M. scheduled sessions in different cities -- Berlin, Nashville, New Orleans -- with breaks between to write and rewrite songs. "It's also fun for us to go to the cities we really love and spend some time," says Mills. After a day's work in the studio, the band would go out to dinner. "It's really important to go out, get great food, shrug off the debris of the day, and just be friends and have a good time. In Berlin you drink beer and eat wurst. In New Orleans you eat Cajun food and drink Sazerac. In Nashville we ate a lot of fried chicken."

Did you ever see Pioneer House, a reality series that aired on PBS several years back? The premise was for the cast to go to Montana and attempt to live as people did in the 1800s. During the very last episode a member of one of the families threw out this question, would people from the 1800s find it just as difficult to adjust to life in the present with fax machines, the internet, cellphones, etc. as the people in the show did adjusting to life as it was in the 1800s? I resisted buying a cellphone or iPod for years for various reasons. After becoming homeless following Hurricane Ophelia in 2005 I had no choice but to buy a cellphone; that is, if I wanted to stay in touch with people and have a way for them to reach me. A couple of years ago a friend gave me an iPod shuffle. It took me a while but finally I started using it and haven't turned back since. While I'm still anti-mp3, I find it much more convenient to travel around with that pocket-sized device as opposed to lugging 100s of CDs with me everywhere I go. I also recently upgraded my phone to better enable me to respond and/or send text messages. For me, it's either adapt and learn the new technology or else be left behind. I'm sure at some point in the future it will all become too much for me and I'll just give up but for now I've found it really has been that hard to learn the new technologies. Back to movies, I watched this last night: I would love to say I recommend this but it really didn't do much for me. Yeah, it had some good music and some funny scenes but overall it failed as a movie. I'm all about learning more about pirate radio but this wasn't the place to start.

I first heard about this band several years back when they did the opening honors for the now defunct Patty Hurst Shifter at King's in Raleigh. After catching Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit at the newly opened Casbah in Durham Friday night I slipped back over to Raleigh in time to catch the last few songs of their set (which included covers of Whole Lotta Love and Stranglehold) at Slim's. The band is Leslie from South Carolina who are also part of this writeup about bands from that state which includes such notables as Band of Horses.

This clip hasn't made it to YouTube yet so there's no way to embed it here but it is on Vimeo: The Love Language "Heart To Tell"

From the Salt Lake Tribune: Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame legend Gregg Allman will release his first solo record in 14 years on January 18. Called Low Country Blues for the coastal Georgia region Allman calls home, the record was produced by T Bone Burnett and features Dr. John on piano, guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, and Burnett's seasoned go-to rhythm section: bassist Dennis Crouch and drummer Jay Bellerose. The track listing for the record is: 1. Floating Bridge (Sleepy John Estes) 2. Little By Little (Junior Wells) 3. Devil Got My Woman (Skip James) 4. I Can't Be Satisfied (Muddy Waters) 5. Blind Man (Bobby Bland) 6. Just Another Rider (Gregg Allman & Warren Haynes) 7. Please Accept My Love (BB King) 8. I Believe I'll Go Back Home (Traditional) 9. Tears Tears Tears (Amos Milburn) 10. My Love is Your Love (Samuel Maghett) 11. Checking On My Baby (Otis Rush) 12. Rolling Stone (Traditional)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYKlM8xMnVM&feature=share

With GPS's, cellphones (texting, calling), etc. we already have enough potential distractions while driving. I understand that the new car stereos will house all of this stuff as a massive storage unit. No CD player and you'll be able to make and accept calls through the unit. Not sure if that will have any impact or not but something has to give. I haven't been to the movies or rented very many movies in the past few years so I have a pretty wide selection to chose from. I started with these two last night:

Scarlett Johansson. It's a shot from the opening sequence of Lost In Translation.

From jambands.com: A Tribute to Neil Young at Carnegie Hall City Winery/Knitting Factory founder Michael Dorf’s next tribute concert will honor the music of Neil Young. The performance will take place at New York’s Carnegie Hall on February 10, featuring 20 artists covering Young’s music. 100% of the net proceeds from this event benefit the following charities: Fixing Instruments for Kids in Schools, Church Street School for Music & Art, The Pinwheel Project, Music Unites, The American Symphony Orchestra and Young Audiences New York. Dorf’s previous concerts have honored Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M. and others.

The first time I saw Neil in concert was on the Trans Tour. The first half was just him, an acoustic and a harmonica. The second half was the Trans set. It was quite bizarre but also ahead of it's time. As I'm sure you will recall, Neil was sued by his label (Geffen) at the time for making "uncharacteristic and uncommercial music" which included Trans, Everybody's Rockin' (with the Shocking Pinks) and Old Ways. I admire Neil greatly because, like Dylan, he does what he wants and doesn't care what the general public (or record labels) think. Also, like Dylan, he's released a lot of pure crap but when he's on, he's capable of knockin' it out of the ballpark. Like any truly great artist, it would be impossible for him to be "on" all of the time, that's why we love him.

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit w/ Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter at the Casbah in Durham tomorrow night. It's my first trip to the newly opened Casbah so I'm really looking forward to it. I saw Jason a while back and it was good but his sets haven't changed a whole lot over the years. I'm hoping he's starting to break in some new material on the road this time out. That would be nice.

Gentleman Jesse & His Men w/Last Year's Men and the Barreracudas at King's Barcade in Raleigh last night. Missed Last Year's Men but have seen them before. They're all just teenagers but they know their way around a good garage/punk rock song. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a crowd so it'll be a wonder if Gentleman Jesse ever ventures up this way from Atlanta again. Be sure to see them if you ever get a chance, especially if you're a fan of high energy power pop.

Just curious. As I previously mentioned in this thread, his work can be hit or miss. I always make it a point to at least sample a few tracks from his newest albums whether it be via a YouTube clip or something on his website. I'm certainly intrigued by Le Noise but it hasn't been enough to compel me to fork over the cash for it just yet. On the other hand, I haven't missed any of his archival releases (save for the Archives, Vol. 1 boxset). That's a bit pricey and is apparently rather redundant. I always understood it would be mostly unreleased stuff but evidently it's not.

I remember hearing their cover of R.E.M.'s "It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" on a Detroit, MI radio station (The River?) eons ago but I can't say I was ever all that fond of it. What's their other stuff like? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OENjixZd_Oo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wFpvRMIIEM

On the Beach was finally released on CD and for good reason. I loved when Neil sat in with R.E.M. at one of the Bridge School benefits and they covered Ambulance Blues. What's your take on Neil's more recent output?

Watched recent episodes of Letterman, Two And A Half Men and The Simpsons last night, all through my computer via the programs' respective websites. The price of cable is through the roof so these days I just pay for a broadband internet connection and watch everything through my computer. $35 a month sure beats the hell out of $70 a month or whatever is they're gouging folks for these days.

Which makes me wonder why there was never a similar outrage over the use of CB radios back in the 70s. My guess is, it requires more attention when holding a cellphone conversation. So much so, that the person(s) involved in the conversation become so immersed in it as to become completely oblivious to everything else going on around them. The bigger question is, how on earth will the laws against cellphone use ever be enforced? There's no question that it's out of hand. I see people swerving, running stoplights, etc. all of the time. It's fucking scary.

Nickelback doesn't even enter the picture when considering Canada's greatest musical exports especially when you have folks like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to contend with. As for Pamela Anderson, the photo below is proof positive that she should have left well enough alone when it came to plastic surgery. She looked fine to start with. Now, she's looks like a fucking mutant. Someone may find that attractive but I sure as hell don't.

I enjoyed the movie for whatever that's worth as it wasn't really your typical popcorn munchin' kind of a flick. Though I can't say I really sympathise with him, I found Zuckerberg to be a very sad character seeking acceptance through Facebook. Nothing really to do with the movie at all but it's nice to remember what it was like before the internet and how we used to spend our time then. I can't count the number of times a day I see people glued to their phones. Not answering calls but constantly checking them, for what, I'm not sure but is it really that important to pull your phone out of your pocket during the middle of a conversation just to check messages? Not long ago I met up with a college friend that I hadn't seen since, well, college. During our meetup he must have logged onto FB at least six or seven times. Someone I hadn't seen in nearly 30 years and our face to face meeting is usurped by the availability of the internet. That's beyond fucked up and a chief reason why I prefer to spend less and less time online these days and get back to how I spent my time pre-internet. Unless your job is somehow tied into it (and who's isn't these days?), I don't think it's a necessity. If it is, someone's priorities have become horribly, horribly screwed up.