Tuesday, October 26

New Release: Fergus & Geronimo: Unlearn

New Release: Fergus & Geronimo: <i>Unlearn</i>

Artist: Fergus & Geronimo
Album: Unlearn
Release Date: January 18
Label: Hardly Art

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5-10-15-20: TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek

The TVOTR/Maximum Balloon man on Bad Brains, Aphex Twin, and more.

Photo by Nick Walker

Welcome to 5-10-15-20, where we talk to artists about the music they loved at five-year interval points in their lives. Maybe we'll get a detailed roadmap of how their tastes and passions helped make them who they are. Maybe we'll just learn that they really liked hearing the "Scooby-Doo" theme song over and over when they were kids. Either way, it'll be fun.

For this edition, we spoke with TV on the Radio producer and guitarist Dave Sitek, 38. The self-titled album from his new dance-pop solo project, Maximum Balloon, is out now on DGC/Interscope.

Various Artists: Free to Be... You and Me Soundtrack

My mom worked for public education, and one summer she brought home Free to Be... You and Me. It was a children's movie with all these different people that you wouldn't expect making songs, like Carol Channing, Alan Alda, and the football player Rosie Grier. And there's a really crazy song with Michael Jackson called "When We Grow Up"-- it's like [singing] "When I grow up will I be pretty? Will I be big and strong?" [Watch it here.] It's just really hilarious to see a teenage Michael Jackson talking about growing up and being big and strong. It was pretty far out.

Pitchfork: It seems like a lot of kids' movies from that era are kinda druggy.

That's because all our parents were high as shit. [laughs] Though my parents were definitely not high as shit.

Blondie: Parallel Lines

My aunt Paula has been a cool influence on me since I was a kid. She snuck out of the house and saw Jimi Hendrix in the 60s, and she was really into Talking Heads and Blondie. Around this age is when I was first exposed to more than just the usual music; my aunt saved me from a bad case of the "Money for Nothing"s.

Parallel Lines was the first vinyl album I owned. I was confused about the song "Fade Away and Radiate" because I didn't know what a synthesizer was and I couldn't figure out what was making that sound. It made no sense to me. And I was obsessed with the fact that she said "ass" on a record. That was just totally bananas. I played that part over and over because I couldn't believe an adult would sing it on a record and I could just play it in my room.

Pitchfork: Would your parents get mad if they heard you listening to a record with cursing?

Oh no. My mom has a doctorate in child psychology so she was pretty good about letting me and my brothers explore things. They weren't big on censorship; they were more like, "Why do you like this?" So much so that they let me start a hardcore band and practice in our house when I was 14.

Bad Brains: Bad Brains

My brother Jason and I went through a metal phase-- stuff like Ozzy [Osbourne] and Def Leppard-- that probably lasted about a month. And then we heard Bad Brains and Minor Threat.

There was a kid in our neighborhood who was always in trouble and I remember his parents went on a rampage and threw a bunch of his records out of his bedroom window. My brother and I were just like, "Records are coming from the sky!" And one of the records we picked up was Bad Brains. We started listening to it and it didn't make any sense, but it was so exciting.

My brother and I wanted to crack the code-- we weren't listening just to spaz out or kill our parents or drink blood or whatever people were saying that music was telling us to do. We wanted to know how it was made, and we were always asking questions about it and we would sit down at the piano and try to figure it out.

Around this time I started playing guitar in a band called the Belligerents, and we practiced in my house and we were terrible. Then I joined this band called Blind Ambition, and we started playing real shows. I'd tell my parents I was going to my friend's house, but I'd really be going to D.C.

Pitchfork: Were you heavy into all aspects of the hardcore scene?

I felt like an outsider even then because the attributes of that music that were most attractive to me were probably the least popular to others. I could care less about the skins versus punks shit. I didn't really care if you had a German import of a certain record. I liked the idea that anyone could start a band and anyone could put on a show; I wound up renting out a barn and putting on shows when I was 16. I was into the more unifying aspect of it.

But I gravitated towards a lot of the anti-power, anti-establishment stuff. My father's job basically became invisible for a while because he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency during the Reagan years. When I heard the Dead Kennedys that was the first time I identified with something lyrically. Like: "Punch the clock because you won't punch your boss." I lost interest in that scene because it was a unifying rebel music that became a way of life with its own rules.

Plus, I was definitely a Class-A, USDA-prime-choice dork. And you couldn't be as nerdy as me and get anywhere in that world [laughs]. It started with having thick, black glasses when I perfectly had the option to get wire rims; I've worn the same glasses pretty much my whole life. I think I tried on the hardcore scene's outfits maybe once, and then I just figured I'd stick to Hawaiian shirts. And that wasn't the extent of my nerd-dom. I also sang in a barber shop quartet called Heart of Maryland Chorus, which was part of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, also known as SPEBSQSA. My dad was in it and I just saw that he was having fun so I was like, "This is the most uncool thing I can do, let me jump into it!" I was doing it while I was in a hardcore band, but I never told anyone in my band I was doing it.

Pharoah Sanders: Karma

That's when I really started branching out into the more far-out stuff. There was a jazz station in D.C. that doesn't exist anymore called WPFW, and I was driving a truck down a highway and the Pharoah Sanders song "The Creator Has a Master Plan" came on and it's like 32 minutes and 47 seconds long. I couldn't get my head around the fact that it was all the same song. I had to pull over and wait for the song to end so they could tell me who it was. So then I'm late for my landscaping job and I took a bunch of heat for it. But that song was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard.

I didn't go to college, so I was just working for the man. And I had a home studio. By 20, I'd been in three bands and already made music where I played the drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards myself. I was calling studios and asking what a Quadraverb was and shit-- I got in trouble for calling England to find out how Lush made their guitar sounds. I just cold-called them. A lot of people were so floored by the fact that this teenager was calling and asking about this equipment. But I'm not a big equipment guy; I think that people are a little bit shocked by that. I really don't care about gear in general. I care about people and their intentions to make music-- it doesn't matter what equipment you have.

Aphex Twin: Drukqs

Aphex Twin pretty much changed the whole game for me. That was the impetus of me getting an MPC-60 and an SP-808-- the idea that you could use anything as an instrument just blew my mind. I remember sampling drinking glasses, which I actually did again two days ago [laughs]. I would take robotic motors and just plug them into batteries and record them and then slow it down so you could hear the percussive part of the sound.

When I listen to music, I'm always worried about compression and that kind of corny shit. I spent more time at the library than anyone my age when I was a kid. I was just in the listening booth thinking, "What the hell is this?" I'm jealous of how a lot of people don't think about how music is made when they listen to it. I think if that curtain came off of the wizard, they'd realize it was just some old dick and the music would lose some of its magic.

Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell: El Corazón

TV on the Radio started by then, and I was definitely listening to a lot of afrobeat and horn-oriented stuff. I picked up the saxophone so I was getting back to Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell. I really was fixated on El Corazón especially in my apartment in New York.

I moved to Brooklyn in my late twenties and, at the time, Williamsburg was a lot like Baltimore. It was busted. There was shit everywhere. There was a pretty major cocaine war going on. It was pretty dangerous. Tunde [Adebimpe] and I lived on the South side and someone got decapitated out front of our place. That's how fucked up it was.

I was selling paintings on the street and living like a crazy person so it was a lot of fun. And the rent was super cheap. If you had problems with your rent you just threw a rent party and whatever bands were in the neighborhood would play at your place. It was really exciting. Then the property value started creeping up and people were more afraid to lose their lease so they didn't want to throw parties as much.

We recorded the Young Liars EP in my bedroom over two weeks. The only reason we did it was because I had to figure out how to use ProTools because I was about to start producing the Liars record [They Were Wrong, So We Drowned] and I had no idea how to use ProTools. But I had no intention of ever being in a band again. I'm a behind-the-scenes guy. I've got a face for radio.

So we passed the EP around to our friends and they were like, "Hey, you guys might have accidentally made something that people would like." Then Touch & Go heard it and wanted to put it out. I told them: "That would be a giant mistake [laughs]. We're not really a band." And there's varying degrees of that same feeling to this day-- we're a band who's practiced maybe 20 times in eight years, which pretty much sums it all up.

Alan Lomax: Popular Songbook

There's a bunch of really nerdy websites that I'd check out with people doing field recordings of geese flying over their house-- I was more fascinated by that than I was about most music that was coming out. I definitely have the desire to produce something more experimental, I think that's in the cards. I'm turning into an old fart. When I'm not working I tend to not really listen to music too much. The harder I work and the more tracks I have and the more equipment that is running, the more I respect Alan Lomax with a field recorder, going to a place and not interfering.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on October 26, 2010 at 8 a.m.

Tags: TV on the Radio, Dave Sitek, Maximum Balloon, 5-10-15-20, Interviews, Bad Brains, Blondie, Pharoah Sanders, Aphex Twin, Allen Lomax,

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Video: Diplo: "U Don't Like Me" [ft. Lil Jon]

It's a video game showdown, dubstep style

Diplo's got a dubstep compliation, Blow Your Head Volume 1: Diplo Presents Dubstep, out November 2 via his Mad Decent imprint. The comp includes a broken-beat banger with Lil Jon, "U Don't Like Me", and said banger has an immensely entertaining video to go with it. In the clip, surprisingly true-to-life (if still a little low-rent) video game versions of the DJ and the crunk capo go head to head in various situations, including dancing, fighting, and fighting underwater. Chickens are thrown, golf clubs are wielded, and someone gets eaten by a huge animal at the end (wait for it!). It's a lot of fun to watch. Check it out below, or over at Pitchfork.tv.

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New Release: Jesu: Heart Ache & Dethroned

New Release: Jesu: <i>Heart Ache & Dethroned</i>

Artist: Jesu
Album: Heart Ache & Dethroned
Release Date: November 16
Label: Hydra Head

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Monday, October 25

Dan Deacon's Wham City Plans Comedy Tour

Indie rock fans mostly know Baltimore's absurdist art/music collective Wham City as the incubator behind one Dan Deacon. But Baltimore people also know the Wham City people for pulling all sorts of pranky hijinks-- like the time they turned Jurassic Park into a low-budget stage play. And in the months ahead, the world will come to know the giddy Wham City sense of humor, as the collective is getting set to embark on a comedy tour.

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Swizz Beatz Launches Free MP3 Series Monster Mondays

On his Twitter, Kanye West announced today that frequent collaborator and fellow super-producer Swizz Beatz (better known to tabloid readers as Alicia Keys' husband) is launching Monster Mondays, a series of free weekly mp3s, no doubt inspired by Kanye's own G.O.O.D. Fridays. The first track in that series, the stripped-down Estelle collaboration "DJ Play the Beat", is up for download now.

Swizz has been a regular on Kanye's G.O.O.D. Fridays series, and he also produced the most recent entry, "Don't Look Down". Seems pretty likely that Kanye will return some of those favors at some point.

Posted by Tom Breihan on October 25, 2010 at 11:40 a.m.

Tags: Swizz Beatz, Estelle, Collaboration, Audio,

**Beasties Reveal Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 Details**

Turns out they look a lot like the Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1 details.

Beasties Reveal <i>Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2</i> Details

Last week, the Beastie Boys announced that their forthcoming album would be called Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 and that the original Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1 (which was supposed to come out in September 2009 but was delayed by MCA's cancer diagnosis) was "indefinitely delayed." But now we have the Pt. 2 tracklist-- and it's almost identical to the Pt. 1 tracklist.

In a statement, MCA wrote: "Strange but true, the final sequence for Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 works best with all its songs replaced by the 16 tracks we originally had lined up in pretty much the same order we had them in for Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1. So we've come full circle." Who says these guys don't have a sense of humor anymore?

Only one song ("Bundt Cake") from the original tracklist didn't make it onto Pt. 2. All the rest, including tracks with Nas and Santigold, are still there. Check it out below-- Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 is due out in the Spring on Capitol:

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R.I.P. Reggae Legend Gregory Isaacs

Reggae legend Gregory Isaacs died of lung cancer this morning at his home in London at the age of 59. Isaacs pioneered the slinky, seductive reggae subgenre lovers rock, and he left behind a endless string of international hits that spanned the 1970s and 1980s. Though he never shied away from political material, he's better known for the love songs he delivered in a ridiculously smooth tenor, the kind of voice that brought to mind Marvin Gaye.

Like many other reggae stars of his generation, Isaacs got his start on the Jamaican talent show circuit as a teenager. He went on to release "Another Heartbreak", a duet with Winston Sinclair, in 1968, and then to join the vocal trio the Concords. But Isaacs' career didn't take off until the Concords broke up in 1970 and he went solo, launching his own record store and label African Museum.

Isaacs first hit with 1973's self-produced "My Only Lover", a very early example of lovers rock. In the years that followed, Isaacs cranked out new material at an insane clip, landing a ton of Jamaican hits in the process. He also appeared in the cult-fave 1978 reggae film Rockers, making a cameo as a locksmith and later performing his song "Slave Master". Eventually, he signed an international deal with the Virgin subsidiary Frontline, then moved onto the Island sub-label Mango when that deal ended.

In 1982, Isaacs scored his biggest-ever hit with the classic seduction jam "Night Nurse". Around the time the song was taking off, though, Isaacs had to serve a six-month prison sentence in Jamaica for unlicensed gun possession. During the 1980s, Isaacs adapted beautifully to reggae's digital revolution, continuing to score with iconic tracks like "Rumours". Throughout that decade, however, he also faced many arrests and battled drug problems.

Isaacs continued to tour and record in the 1990s. In 2007, news circulated that Isaacs' crack problems had led him to lose all his teeth. That gruesome image aside, it's pretty incredible to think about how long Isaacs was able to stay relevant even as he battled demons like these.

Below, check out some videos of the man at work.

"Night Nurse", live at Reggae Sunsplash 1983:

"Tune In", live on "Rootsman" in 1978:

Isaacs in Rockers:

"My Only Lover":

"Rumours":

Posted by Tom Breihan on October 25, 2010 at 11 a.m.

Tags: Gregory Isaacs, Obituary, Video,

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Video: The Books: "I Didn't Know That"

Golf, golf, and an exploding car in the sample-pop outfit's new clip

Just as sound collage alchemists the Books' music is loaded with clever samples and obscure curios, their videos are frequently made up of the same formula as well, including the clip for "I Didn't Know That", from the Books' latest album, The Way Out. Put together by Books member Nick Zammuto, the video takes what looks to be footage from an instructional film on playing golf and juxtaposes it rhythmically with the music, adding some flashy font effects and interspersing some exploding-car footage as well. Check out the clip below, or over at Pitchfork.tv.

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Kanye West and Jay-Z Planning Joint Album

West is also considering a Broadway play and a Saturday morning cartoon.

Photo by Alexander Stein

In August, Kanye Tweeted about an upcoming collaboration EP with Jay-Z called Watch the Throne. And on a live webcast Saturday night after the premiere of his Runaway film, he told MTV's Sway that the joint release has been upgraded to a full album. "We [already] did five songs, a few of 'em were out there and then I put 'em on my album-- sorry Jay!" he said playfully. West went onto say the two plan to record in the south of France soon, before joking: "I'll probably be done with the album in like a day or whatever."

That's just one of many new projects West touched on in the interview. He's also thinking about creating an upcoming Broadway companion to Runaway along with a "Saturday morning cartoon" that follows the characters in the movie. He also name-checked some of his favorite rock bands including Phoenix, Nine Inch Nails, Pink Floyd, and TV on the Radio, said his next tour will be "very hip-hop," and mentioned that the final versions of already-released t racks from his forthcoming My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy are noticeably different than their G.O.O.D. Friday counterparts. The whole interview is definitely worth watching, even if MTV annoyingly chopped it up into painfully small segments on their site.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on October 25, 2010 at 10:35 a.m.

Tags: Kanye West, Jay-Z, New Releases,

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Tuesday, October 26

New Release: Fergus & Geronimo: Unlearn

5-10-15-20: TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek

Video: Diplo: "U Don't Like Me" [ft. Lil Jon]

New Release: Jesu: Heart Ache & Dethroned

Monday, October 25

Dan Deacon's Wham City Plans Comedy Tour

Swizz Beatz Launches Free MP3 Series Monster Mondays

**Beasties Reveal Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 Details**

R.I.P. Reggae Legend Gregory Isaacs

Video: The Books: "I Didn't Know That"

Kanye West and Jay-Z Planning Joint Album

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Iron & Wine Ready New Single for Black Friday

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