Current Music Blog

A parade of guest stars Current TV hosts have been asked to count down their favorite content from the network, and Sergio Cilli (of the White Hot Top 5) named several of Current Music’s finest, including:

• The Dodos Blogotheque (Extended Version)
• Behind The Shins
• Flaming Lips Santa Claus
• Fleet Foxes – Sun Giant + White Winter Hymnal – La Blogotheque Take Away Show

Personally I’m fond of Sergio’s list of Crappy Alternative videos, because no matter how many of these bands may be my not-so-guilty pleasures (except Boys Like Girls, they just suck), his punchlines are right on.

Thanks Serg!

See his full list here at the Current.com blog.

Today on Current Music:

+ Have you noticed the music section of your local newsstand getting smaller?  It is.  Take a look this Slate article on the death of print music journalism, and maybe go buy a magazine.

+ Check out this video of ever-bearded songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, a.k.a. E from the Eels in the studio recording his new track “Fresh Blood” from the album “Hombre Lobo.”

+ To no one’s surprise, the Pixies will be on tour again, this time celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Doolittle.

+ The Flaming Lips released a new track from their upcoming album Embryonic, entitled “Silver Trembling Hands.” The EP will be available for a free digital download to anyone who buys tickets to their upcoming tour.

Got more great music stories for Current? Submit them here and be sure to tag with the artist name for consideration to be featured!

—Jimmy Risolo

Today on Current Music:

+ If you were planning to attend the Treasure Island Festival in San Francisco and thought, gee, it would be awesome if The Decemberists played the entirety of their new album there, then your luck is the best luck. Set to the second night during the two-day, October festival, The Decemberists recently announced that they intend to play through all the songs from “The Hazards of Love.” No word on whether they intend to use the opportunity to release some sort of live album, but maybe some dedicated YouTube enthusiasts will at least document the whole thing for those of us who don’t have it as good as the person who wished this into existence.

+ After disappearing from music altogether in 1999, the ex-bassist of the Smashing Pumpkins, D’Arcy Wretkzky, recently called into a Chicago radio station to prove that she’s still kicking 10 years later. Thank goodness!

+ Courtney Love says she’s releasing a solo album under the name Hole, confusing the other former band members, Melissa Auf dar Maur and Eric Erlandson, who claim that Courtney signed a contract when the band broke up, relinquishing all rights to the name.

+ Lastly, but also importantly, be careful when you post music, bloggers! You could end up like Kevin Cogill: sentenced for leaking a Guns ‘N Roses album. Wait, never mind, the punishment is just more time at home where you can just get back on the internet.

Got more great music stories for Current? Submit them here and be sure to tag Music for consideration to be featured!

—Chanelle Johnson

Amanda Palmer at an intimate secret show organized using Twitter and documented by Current Music for our upcoming half-hour music series. She tells the story behind her song “Dear Old House That I Grew Up In,” a rare and unreleased track she peformed on ukelele instead of her usual keyboards, while sitting on the floor — like storytime, she said — with fans gathered around.

Read more about our social experiment with Amanda here. (And don’t miss her name-check of Miley Cyrus, much to the delight of the audience, about halfway through.)

Sometimes in an interview you want a Frost/Nixon approach. Other times you want quick and to the point. Three question interviews by Current Music’s senior producer Alex Simmons are for the non Frost/Nixon times.

Today’s 3? subject is prodigious Memphis punk singer/songwriter Jay Reatard.

MTV has a new scripted reality show created by producer Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) called $5 Cover. It is shot in Memphis with local musicians playing themselves. Do you think the artists MTV picked are a good representation of the Memphis music scene?
Memphis doesn’t sound like or look like or act like the characters in this ummm…short film series. Well at least not the one I have been part of for 20 years or so.

What is up with your new album?
Flew up to NYC and finished it last week. Don’t have too many details for you other than that the songs are longer and there are fewer of them than on previous LP’s I have been involved in. As far as what it is mostly about, it is about your friends wanting to see you fail from the sidelines.

When I say the name Phil Collins, what do you think of first?
I saw a trailer recently for some film with Mike Tyson air drumming “In The Air Tonight.” Shit was pretty hilarious. [Trailer is for The Hangover, Tyson is at the end]

Jay will be touring the states for a good bit of June and July. Go see him when he is in your town. Read more about Jay at Current.com.