Volume Two:

01 Thieves
02 In the Sun [ft. Tilly and the Wall]
03 Don't Look Back
04 Ridin' in My Car (NRBQ cover)
05 Lingering Still
06 Me and You
07 Gonna Get Along Without You Now (Skeeter Davis cover)
08 Home
09 I'm Gonna Make It Better
10 Sing
11 Over It Over Again
12 Brand New Shoes
13 If You Can't Sleep

Posted by Ryan Dombal on December 8, 2009 at 12:35 p.m.

Tags: Album, M. Ward, New Releases, She & Him, Zooey Deschanel

On his Twitter, Diplo mentions some of the people involved in the remix mixtape: Memory Tapes, Flying Lotus, Zomby, Brodinsky, Stenchman, Douster, Mumdance, and Bird Peterson. Flying Lotus's remix of Gucci's "Photoshoot" appears on the new ATL RMX mixtape from Adult Swim and Beaterator, While Zomby has previously tackled Gucci's "Pillz".

At the moment, Gucci is in prison. Last month, he started serving a 12-month sentence for probation violation. Diplo's Mad Decent Records has teamed up with Gucci's 1017 Brick Squad label to release a "Free Gucci" t-shirt (pictured above). That shirt has already inspired a backlash in the form of a parody "Fuck Diplo" shirt from Brooklyn resident Matt Gardner. The internet moves fast!

Here's what Diplo has to say about Gucci in a statement: "Gucci Mane is an underdog and a divisive artist. I thought it would be cool to have a bunch of kids and weirdos do some mixes of his songs; we all are fans and we are from different scenes. Gucci is a rapper that doesn't try and be anything he is not; he's straight up. Maybe it's ironic and all, but I'm just a fan and have been since day one. Gucci Mane is the cool uncle I never had even though I'm pretty sure I am older than him."

Diplo has also described the forthcoming M.I.A. album, which he's working on, as "Gucci Mane meets Animal Collective."

Below, you can stream and download Diplo's remix of Gucci's "Danger's Not a Stranger", which mashes Gucci up with Mariah Carey's feather-light 1991 ballad "Can't Let Go". (Via Mad Decent)

MP3:> Gucci Mane: "Danger's Not a Stranger (Diplo Remix)"

Posted by Tom Breihan on December 8, 2009 at 12:25 p.m.

Tags: Audio, Diplo, Fasion, Gucci Mane, mixtape, Remix

Its been a full day and a half since the terrifying bus accident that hurt Rivers and his assistant Sarah, and everyone in the weezer camp is very grateful for the outpouring of concern and support that has happened since the news broke. Thank you for all your kind thoughts!

The update: Sarah went home today with the rest of the band keeping an eye on her on the flight, starting what will surely be a frustrating and painful 3-4 weeks of recovery. We all wish her the speediest of healing. She's a very tough girl, we know she can do it. Meanwhile in the hospital, Rivers has had a much better day than yesterday. He went from being barely able to talk and open his eyes yesterday to partially sitting up, talking clearly, reading books and checking the internet, plus his color and energy seemed much brighter. And then finally in the evening he was given some good news.

To back up a bit, Rivers' internal injuries included both a small cut on his spleen and a small puncture in his lung. An internal cut needs to be carefully monitored to see if it is healing up or not. The lung puncture was small so the lung did not fully collapse, and thus no surgery was needed for that, but it also has to be monitored carefully to avoid fluid build up. Today the doctor announced that Rivers blood pressure had stabilized, meaning the spleen was no longer leaking - it was on the mend. And his lung seemed to be gaining strength and holding up, meaning it too looks like it will mend itself with time. All this is great news so far. Plus he was given the go ahead to eat some real food again - a very positive sign!

Tomorrow the doctor says it will be time to see if Rivers can stand up again. If that goes well and his vital signs remain stable and improving, he will get to go home pretty soon! Wish him well - your positive energy and thoughts are working so far!

Now we come to the mystery of Rivers' right leg. He was totally unable to move it after the accident, but doctors were mystified as there were no broken bones and no signs of impact on it. Today after a day of icing and compression, he was able to wiggle his toes again. And he remembered a small detail - he recalled that that same foot was sort of hurting late the night before as he went to bed in the bus - after the Toronto show. That got me thinking...

During the Toronto show, Rivers pulled an act of Raditude that may have been the real culprit - after the Kids/Pokerface performance, during which he appeared up in the ACC's bleachers in a blonde wig, he was supposed to return to the stage via a particular set of stairs to the floor level. But during the song, lots of fans ran over to the closed seating area and danced around Rivers as he sang. Once the song was over, security had a hard time getting the people to return to their seats, and Rivers made his way down to the edge of the seats on an unplanned route, trying to get back to the stage as quickly as possible. When he got to the end, there were no stairs, and with the lights low for song changeover, he couldn't tell he was about 6 feet off the floor level. I was directly below him and reached up hoping he'd grab my hand but in the darkness he couldn't see me, and he launched over the railing onto the floor 6 feet below. He landed good and finished the show with no apparent injury, but I strongly suspect that his Raditude took him through the show, only to reveal that he had sprained his ankle later on.

Another mystery has been solved as well, which was how did Rivers get his injuries when he apparently didn't hit anything? He recalled not bouncing off of anything, but there was one detail he didn't realize - that the bus dropped 8-10 feet into the ditch. He said it felt like he never left his mattress - but the mattress was not tied down, and clearly was not where it should have been when the EMTs found him - it must have taken flight when the bus suddenly dropped, with Rivers riding it face down! Rivers injuries to his back and side mean he must have struck the bus's ceiling, possibly hitting a light fixture or other irregular shape. In the pitch darkness of his back lounge during sleep time, he would not have seen that he was actually airborne for a second - the mattress and Rivers remaining level as the bus around him dropped away - and must not have felt whatever struck him in his side and back due to the shock of the situation.

There is another part of the story that we pieced together later on as well. Rivers' bus was being followed about a quarter mile back by the Jack's Mannequin bus. Their bus driver witnessed the accident, and immediately called who he thought was Rivers' bus driver. But right before this tour started, the man who was supposed to be Rivers bus driver had to excuse himself to go to the hospital and was thus replaced by Johnny Cox, the driver who did his best to keep the bus upright during the crash. Jack's Mannequin's driver hadn't learned that yet. So the original driver, resting at home after his own hospital stay, got this early morning call asking if he was ok, but at first had no idea it was in reference to the crash! The drivers quickly sorted out the confusion and soon everybody was getting the needed calls to return to the scene of the crash, including the highway patrol and 911. Kudos to all the tour drivers, whether they were actually driving or not! Their brotherhood and devotion to safety has solved many a problem and turned a lot of bad road situations around.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on December 8, 2009 at 11:30 a.m.

Tags: Rivers Cuomo, Weezer

The Big Pink and A Place to Bury Strangers:

03-10 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
03-12 Seattle, WA - Neumos
03-13 Vancouver, British Columbia - Venue
03-14 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
03-18 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
03-19 Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall
03-20 Chicago, IL - Metro
03-22 Newport, KY - Southgate House
03-23 Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
03-24 Toronto, Ontario - Mod Club
03-26 Montreal, Quebec - Cabaret du Musee
03-27 Boston, MA - Paradise
03-28 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's
03-30 New York, NY - Webster Hall
03-31 Philadelphia, PA - TLA
04-01 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
04-02 Chapel Hill, NC - Cats Cradle
04-03 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
04-05 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder
04-07 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live Studio
04-08 Austin, TX - Parish
04-09 Dallas, TX - Granada
04-10 Lawrence, KS - Bottleneck
04-11 Denver, CO - Bluebird
04-12 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
04-14 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
04-15 San Diego, CA - Casbah

The Big Pink:

12-16 London, England - Brixton Academy (XFM Winter Wonderland)
01-21 Rennes, France - Antipode
01-22 Lyon, France - Marche Gare
01-23 Laax, Switzerland - Riders Club
01-24 Milan, Italy - Tunnel Club
01-25 Vienna, Austria - Arena
01-26 Munich, Germany - 59-1
01-28 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
01-29 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
02-04 Newcastle, England - Academy
02-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
02-06 Manchester, England - Academy
02-07 Leeds, England - Academy
02-09 Nottingham, England - Rock City
02-10 Norwich, England - UEA
02-11 Birmingham, England - Academy
02-13 Cardiff, Wales - University
02-14 Bristol, England - Academy
02-15 Brighton, England - Dome
02-16 Bournemouth, England - Academy
02-18 Portsmouth, England - Pyramids Centre
02-19 Cambridge, England - Corn Exchange
02-20 London, England - Brixton Academy
03-02 Perth, Australia - Amplifier Capitol
03-04 Brisbane, Australia - Hi-Fi
03-05 Melbourne, Australia - Billboard
03-06 Melbourne, Australia - Golden Plains Festival
03-07 Sydney, Australia - Metro

A Place to Bury Strangers:

12-08 Athens, Greece - Rodeo Live Club
12-09 Athens, Greece - Rodeo Live Club
12-10 Madrid, Spain - Sala Caracol
12-11 Barcelona, Spain - Bikini Club ^
12-12 Barcelona, Spain - LA2
12-15 London, England - Barfly
02-11 Sydney, Australia - Oxford Arts Factory
02-12 Melbourne, Australia - The Corner

^ with Retribution Gospel Choir

Posted by Tom Breihan on December 8, 2009 at 11 a.m.

Tags: A Place to Bury Strangers, The Big Pink, Tours

According to Sitek, the as-yet-unnamed tape is due in February and will feature "all original music and guest MCs," who will be named soon.

According to Raaaaaaaandy, "All your punkass needs to know right now is: 1. Y'all ain't ready. 2. Motherfuckers need to know. 3. Get yo' shit."

To see Raaaaaaaandy in action, go to Laughyourdickoff.com. To read our recent interview with Ansari about his favorite music, click here.

In related news, Aziz's stand-up special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, airs January 17 on Comedy Central, and the network will release it on CD/LP and DVD January 19.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on December 8, 2009 at 10:05 a.m.

Tags: Awesome, Aziz Ansari, Dave Sitek, mixtape

MP3:> Liars: "Scissor"

Posted by Ryan Dombal on December 8, 2009 at 9:45 a.m.

Tags: Audio, Liars

Charles Penrose: "The Laughing Policeman"

It's a really really old song. It's very English. I think it's a novelty record. Actually, the song has got this quite daunting laughing in it. You know how when you're a kid, you kind of just think music comes from space? You don't even know it's music? The first time I heard it, it was actually coming from a radio behind a box of cornflakes, and I thought, "That box of cornflakes is really evil."



Frankie Valli: "Grease"

The Grease soundtrack was massive. I don't know how big it was in America, but it was unbelievable here. When I got into hip-hop, I realized that "Grease" had a break in it, a breakbeat. So when I was a DJ, I got two copies of it, and I started cutting it up. It was just mental to be cutting up two copies of the track you knew so well when you were eight or something. I think De La Soul sampled it on "A Roller Skating Jam Named 'Saturdays'".

The first time I heard the song would be at a village disco. Disco hooked on really late in England. I would've been with my family. When you live in a really small community, you have a harvest festival or something like that. And there was a guy who lived in the village called Uncle Brian. He was a DJ, and he used to do parties and weddings and engagement parties and retirement parties. He had decks and stuff. He used to do puppet shows and film shows. Any time there was anything that came on in the village, there was a disco, like a dance.



MC Shan: "Marley Marl Scratch"

When I first heard this, I was most probably breakdancing with the breakdance crew, and some kid stuck it on the blaster. You know, just fucking out. [laughs] It's just energy, just proper energy. I was breakdancing pretty young. It was really weird. I went on holiday, and I met this kid from London. He was into robotic dancing, which was kind of popular. And then robotics turned into breakdancing and body-popping. It was kind of an extension of that. I can remember doing robotic dancing when I was 11... I can remember climbing over a wall or being a robot or something. And it went on from there.

When you're at school discos, there are always people doing weird rock'n'roll dancing. They always ended up spinning on their back or something. So it was kind of a development from that, really. But as a hip-hop movement or understanding, there was a gap in the middle of it before it was all tied together with graffiti art and urban kids, before it actually worked out what the hell it was.

Hip-hop was pretty much all I listened to. I used to play drums in rock bands, but I didn't really like it. It was just a way to play the drums, really. I used to listen to Mike Callan on Capital Radio, and we used to get tapes from people. It would be the coolest stuff, or what you consider to be cool at the time-- Run-DMC and that early stuff.



Gang Starr: Daily Operation

I wrote [Portishead's debut album] Dummy when I was 21. DJ Premier is my hero, my DJ hero. He wasn't really about technique; he was just about soul. He's the DJ with the most soul in the world. It's unbelievable; he really does play an instrument. I consider the other guys who do it to be great, but they're like Steve Vai; it's about technicality. Whereas with Premier, it's just about soul.

I'm sure there's a hell of a lot of other records that did it for me; I'm missing out on Public Enemy and all that stuff. But mostly at that time, it was Daily Operation. I would have heard stuff from the album on the radio, like "Take It Personal". But tunes like "2 Deep" would be ones for me. I would say that on a musical level rather than on an MC level. Because I think Guru is an amazing MC, but compared to Rakim or Nas or something...

I've never been a vocal or lyrical person. I've always been a musical person. I wasn't really even into straight up hip-hop, where people use the same beat and just rap over it. I wasn't into the stuff that's just boring, where they're looping "Funky Drummer" and just rapping over it. But there are just endless amounts of it, really, from people like Chubb Rock.

I was working for Neneh Cherry, writing beats for her at the time. [Cherry worked with Gang Starr on Homebrew opener "Sassy".] The guy who engineered and produced it for Neneh died recently-- this guy Jonny Dollar. He was massively influential in the whole sound of Bristol and onwards, really. He co-wrote and produced the first Massive Attack record. But I was there. I was like a kid, working in the studio. I never got to meet Gang Starr, though. I asked Premier for a remix of a Portishead song really early on, but it was just going to be so fucking expensive. [Laughs]



Wu-Tang Clan: "C.R.E.A.M."

[Pitchfork: Did you ever think that RZA was doing something similar to what you were doing at all?]

More likely, I was trying to rip him off. [Laughs] I just liked the aesthetic of it, the way that he was with samples. He hugely inspired me. It's just uncompromising, really. That's why I would have liked to [include Public Enemy's] "Rebel Without a Pause". It's got exactly the same thing. You get guitar music, and it tries to write a chorus for the radio... Then you get something like "C.R.E.A.M.", and you just go, "That is what it is." You know what I mean? It's like living art. I mean, obviously it's made for commercial success because Wu-Tang were successful. But it's its purest kind.

There's a tune called "Elysium", on our second album, which is pretty much a straight up Wu loop. But what's really funny is that he's actually sampled one of our tunes. That's what's been kind of mental about the whole hip-hop thing. It's gone completely 'round the corner. It's just weird, because hip-hop guys are phoning me up going, "Do you want to work on…" But I have yet to do it. 

I've got a terrible story. We curated ATP, and GZA did Liquid Swords. It was GZA and somebody else who raps on the album. This is just what I'm like; I can remember tunes, but I don't know people's names. I introduced this other guy as GZA to everyone, and he said, "No, I'm not him." It was really embarrassing. I did meet Chuck D. He came and joined us in a Spanish festival and dropped some lyrics over the top of "Machine Gun". Right then, I was like, "I could quite easily retire from music".



Can: Ege Bamyasi

Ege Bamyasi is just an unbelievable record. Can had an amazing ethic of music. I suppose I was just looking for something outside of everything I'd been involved in, and that was it. It was just it, everything about it.

I had gone through a divorce, and I was just really unhappy. I gave up music for four or five years. I was involved in the outskirts of music, but I didn't want to write any, had no real ideas. I had had enough of sampling stuff. I had absolutely no direction.

And that record just triggered a whole new part of my life. I found a way to fulfill my craving. I had no idea how music was made like that because I hadn't come from an industrial German mid-class system. But I think Can didn't grow up with the arts, and a lot of music comes from that. It was difficult for me to adapt to the freedom of breaking away from records and loops while still maintaining a groove that was interesting. And that led into the next record [Third], the start of the shaping of it.

Sunn O))), Silver Apples, Jaylib: Champion Sound

With Sunn O))), I just love the absoluteness of it. At 35, I'd set up Invada Records. I'd signed Gonga, a heavy riff rock kind of band. It would be a toss-up between Sunn O))) and Silver Apples. I didn't really discover Silver Apples until the guy I run the label with played them for me. I think Silver Apples have been more inspirational, but then I'd say that it's a two-horse race on that one. I can't make up my mind at all.

With music, I've kind of been absorbed. Because of the success of Portishead, I feel like I've been misinformed and led to believe that I should know what I'm talking about in the industry. Everything became industry-based. Both those bands, I would say, were part of the impact back then. It's just absolutely amazing music that just lives as art. And how important it is to me to hear music like that and twist my brain into realizing that that's where I come from, even though I struggle.

The Jaylib record is absolutely massive in my head. I think that for 35, it's Sunn O))), Silver Apples, and Madlib together; they're all equal billings. The Jaylib record is one of the most brilliant hip-hop records I've ever heard; I think it's an absolute classic. I think Madlib is the Frank Zappa of hip-hop. He's limited in terms of his sampling, but I think he's developed a new line of hip-hop. And he's always done it, but it's just hit people's psyche now. He has been doing that for fucking years.

I'm not artistic in that sense that I struggle with more difficulty than I would with [for example] straight-up pub-rock. I feel like I've kind of got a slight punk ethic toward popular music, but I'm not out there, do you know what I mean? I'm not like some crazy artist or something. I don't know. So when I hear music like that, it really does something for me. Portishead wears its influences on its sleeve and hopefully brings something new to it.

Posted by Tom Breihan on December 8, 2009 at 8 a.m.

Tags: 5-10-15-20, Beak>, Geoff Barrow, Portishead

Air:

12-07 Tallinn, Estonia - Rock Café    
12-08 Riga, Latvia - Dream Factory    
12-09 Vilnius, Lithuania - Vilnius Theatre Arena    
12-10 Warsaw, Poland - Arena Ursynow 
12-12 Prague, Czech Republic - Sasazu    
12-13 Budapest, Hungary - Petofi Czarnok    
12-14 Ljubljana, Slovenia - Hala Tivoli    
01-08 Nantes, France - Le Lieu Unique    
01-09 Saint Lo, France - Le Normandy    
01-11 Paris, France - Casino de Paris    
01-12 Paris, France - Casino de Paris    
01-16 Lisbon, Portugal - Lisbon Coliseum    
01-17 Madrid, Spain - La Riviera    
01-19 Murcia, Spain - Auditorium
01-21 Milan, Italy - Maggazzini Generali    
01-22 Bologna, Italy - Estragon Club    
01-23 Rome, Italy - Auditorium    
01-25 Stuttgart, Germany - Theaterhaus    
01-26 Leipzig, Germany - Haus Auensee    
01-27 Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
01-29 Cologne, Germany - Palladium    
01-30 Munich - Tonhalle
02-01 Mainz - Phoenixhalle    
02-03 Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus    
02-04 Strasbourg, France - La Laiterie    
02-05 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique    
02-06 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso    
02-08 Luxembourg, Luxembourg - Den Atelier    
02-10 Belgrade, Serbia - Guitar Art Festival    
02-11 Bucharest, Romania - Sala Polivalenta    
02-23 Dublin, Ireland - Olympia Theatre    
02-26 London, England - Roundhouse    
03-13 Miami, FL - Fillmore *
03-14 Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live *
03-15 Atlanta, GA - Centerstage *
03-17 Washington DC - 9:30 Club *
03-18 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory *
03-19 New York, NY - Terminal 5 *
03-20 Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center *
03-22 Montreal, Quebec - Metropolis *
03-23 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre *
03-24 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre *
03-26 Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre *
03-27 San Diego, CA - 4th & B *
03-28 Los Angeles, CA - Walt Disney Concert Hall *

* with AM

Posted by Ryan Dombal on December 7, 2009 at 4:40 p.m.

Tags: Air, Tours