Contrary to what their psychedelic rock n’ roll music may suggest, Crystal Antlers are actually quite lovely. They are dream boats floating atop a bathtub lake of Budweiser and ice. Sound insane? Well, it’s true! Please find the proof in the puddin’ below, video gold of the Long Beachers visiting our Hotbox and setting sail on a bountiful Bob Dylan “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” cover adventure. But you know what? IT IS NOT ALL OVER NOW. It is only the beginning…

Chances are you’ve had the pleasure of riding in a vehicle outfitted with GPS-assisted voiceover. Chances are they also drove you somewhat crazy! Which is why you choose to read the Tripwire! Jokes. If there’s any truth to be found in those first two sentences, relief of some kind may coming your way. Bob Dylan, owner of the world’s heaviest songbook and menace to North Jersey, is in talks right now to provide voice talents for automotive GPS systems, telling listeners on his XM show, Theme Time Radio Hour.

I am talking to a couple of car companies about being the voice of their GPS system. I think it would be good if you are looking for directions and hear my voice saying something like: “Left at the next street, no a right – you know what? Just go straight.” I probably shouldn’t do it because whichever way I go I always end up at one place: Lonely Avenue.

He probably shouldn’t do it because he’s very difficult to understand. Just a thought. (Twenty Four Bit via The Telegraph)

Rumors have been confirmed regarding a Bob Dylan Christmas album to come out in time for this December 25th. The songs “Must Be Santa,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” have already been recorded at Jackson Browne’s recording studio in Santa Monica, CA. Though Zimmy is no longer in his born-again Christian phase, he apparently remains detached enough from his Jewish heritage to dedicate an album to baby Jesus. He’s not alone in the practice, as one of pop music’s best Christmas albums ever, A Christmas Gift For You, was recorded by fellow Jew and recent jail bait Phil Spector. However, aside from that one, the standards remain pretty damn low in the Christmas album world. (via Billboard)

One would be hard-pressed to find a more American pastime than baseball. Combine the nation’s beloved sport with some American musical all-stars, and you have a recipe for one mind-blowing summer tour. Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp will tour the country through mid-August, hitting ballparks from Pennsylvania to California. The seventh inning stretch will never be the same.

D.X. Ferris at Rolling Stone seemed to like what he saw; read his review here.

Tour dates are as follows:
7/13 Washington, PA at Consol Energy Park
7/14 Allentown, PA at Coca-Cola Park
7/15 New Britain, CT at New Britain Stadium
7/19 Syracuse, NY at Alliance Bank Stadium
7/21 Pawtucket, RI at McCoy Stadium
7/23 Lakewood, NJ at FirstEnergy Park
7/24 Aberdeen, MD at Ripken Stadium
7/25 Norfolk, VA at Harbor Park
7/28 Durham, NC at Durham Bulls Athletic Park
7/29 Sevierville, TN at Smokies Park
8/4 Round Rock, TX at The Dell Diamond
8/5 Corpus Christi, TX at Whataburger Field
8/7 Grand Prairie, TX at QuikTrip Park
8/11 Glendale, AZ at Camelback Ranch
8/12 Las Vegas, NV at Cashman Field
8/14 Fresno, CA at Chukchansi Park
8/15 Stockton, CA at Banner Island Ballpark

Eh, we’ve all done it as a kid. Wrote down our the lyrics to a certain song that spoke to us. Turns out a young Bob Zimmerman — later to be known as Bob Dylan — was doing the same thing when he was 16. The poem titled “Little Buddy” that famed New York auction house Christie’s will be auctioning June 23 is actually a Hank Snow song.

From the Wisconsin State Journal:
Bill Malone, Madison’s esteemed country music historian, was on the phone early Wednesday morning.
“That’s a Hank Snow song,” Malone said. “I’ve been singing it my whole life.”

Bob Dylan, however, did not compose “Little Buddy.” Malone was right. It was written and recorded by Hank Snow, a Canadian-born country artist who sold 70 million records and was best known for his 1950 hit, “I’m Movin’ On.”

Read the full story here.

Well now’s your chance. A poem written by a teenage Bob Dylan about his dead dog, entitled “Little Buddy”, is currently up for auction and is expected to fetch upwards of $15,000.

From Undercover:
Dylan was still going by his given name Bob Zimmerman when he wrote the two-page poem in 1957 during a stay at summer camp in Wisconsin, US.

Read the full story here.

The Strokes‘ Fab Moretti and Nikolai Fraiture are set to reunite on stage on Thursday [May 21] for a tribute concert to Bob Dylan at New York’s Mercury Lounge — which means you’re probably not getting in unless you act fast.

Rolling Stone’s The Smoking Section along with the Mercury Lounge just announced The Dylan Fest 2009. Tickets are currently on sale for $10, and considering the scope of the show vs. the size of the venue, we’re guessing they won’t last long.

The show will be the first time the pair of Strokes have shared a stage since 2006 and are part of a host of musicians set to play. The full line-up [below] along with the message that “rehearsals have been amazing,” was announced on Rolling Stone’s website.

Dylan Fest 2009
Featuring:
Hymns
Adam Green
Grant Maxwell – The Morning Pages
Jody Porter – Fountains Of Wayne
The Pierces
Matt Romano – Little Joy / Albert Hammond Jr. Band
Russell Simins – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion / Men Without Pants
Fab Moretti – The Strokes / Little Joy
Nikolai Fraiture – The Strokes / Nickel Eye
Sammy James Jr. – Mooney Suzuki
The Teenage Prayers

Sadly, once in a while one of my favorite musical artists dies. It doesn’t happen often, let alone one of the most important figures in Rock ‘n’ Roll history.

It affects me in different ways each time, ranging from “Oh, that’s too bad” to the way I feel right now, which is really, really sad. News that Vern Gosdin had passed away from a stroke on April 28 at age 74 — peacefully as I understand it — put me in that place. I am glad to have an actual venue to write an obituary for him because in those rare cases I usually write one anyway, just for my own self-exploration.

I guess the last one was Zevon, with its rather obvious “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” theme, which was how he legitimately had lived in the first place. Too much so, in fact. I am pretty sure some tears welled up when I listened to “Carmelita” that day.

When Wally Tax, the near-destitute lead singer of the [Dutch] Outsiders (not the “Time Won’t Let Me” group, who were from Ohio), who had been riddled with severe health problems and died at age 57 in April of 2005, it literally changed my life. It hadn’t been so easy to write his obituary since most of the details of his life were in Dutch, but instead was restricted to my feelings, which were worsening by the day leading up to a planned tribute webcast wherein all of the members of the original Outsiders played song after song in a three hour event on a stage covered with flowers and ribbons. The song of his which still gives me the gooseflesh, as they say over there, is “You’re Everything On Earth”.

My first web funeral.

As I sat by myself and watched the webcast, I cried like a baby but was happy that a man who had died penniless, in ridiculously acute ill health, and in relative obscurity to be forever damned to the mistaken tethering to frat/psych nuggetry, had in fact received a decent sendoff in his home country, which incidentally is part of my absurdly complex ethnic heritage. Better we don’t get into how I took the deaths of Muddy Waters and Junior Wells. Or Epic Soundtracks. What is it about these deaths that gets to me?

I think it’s “The Voice,” which just so happened to be Vern Gosdin’s nickname — quite an honor in itself, don’t you think? It was also the title of his final album. I think that is the answer for me, which is the intimacy and nuance that we share and share again with the voices that we allow into our homes, cars, pods, heads and ultimately, into our hearts.

Vern Gosdin will have died with his share of accolades in the world of country music — nearly twenty top-10 U.S. country hits, including the chart-topping and hooky “I Can Tell By the Way You Dance (You’re Gonna Love Me Tonight)”. In fact, I don’t think Vern would have liked to go without a nod to the different lyricists he worked with over the years, including the incredible Max D. Barnes, his brother Rex Gosdin or Vernon Reed and a special nod to the music of Albert E. Brumley (”I’ll Fly Away”), but somehow I also feel like he meets or exceeds the threshold of amusing country music lyrics — you know the ones — you play ‘em backwards and you get your house back, your girl back and your dog back. His song titles like “Weekends Were Made For Cheatin’”, “If You’re Going To Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)” and the relatively famous ones like, “No One Calls From Vegas Just To Say Hello” and “This Ain’t My First Rodeo”, gives an insight into the abundance of his obligatory countrified whimsy and yet his range of emotional depth was remarkable. I cannot recommend highly enough his gospel album, entitled “The Gospel Album”. His constant cycle of inveterate cheating and devastating loneliness are somehow a potent, if not untrodden, source of true musical magic.

To be honest, I am not very knowledgeable about such matters but I hope and somehow expect that Vern will someday make the Country Music Hall of Fame (whatever that is).

Smitten though I am with nearly the entirety of his Country output — (be wary of the commercial Chiseled In Stone (the title track was 1988’s CMA Song of the Year), 10 Years of Greatest Hits – Newly Recorded, and I think that if you can even find them, the albums Alone and the Silver Eagle sessions are for fans only) — I came across Vern’s music in the same backhanded way that is not only fairly typical, but which actually illustrates his stature as literally one of the most important figures in U.S. Rock ‘n’ Roll history as well.

A native of Alabama, Vern moved to the LA area in 1961, where he met up with his brother Rex to reunite The Gosdin Brothers, who had performed as a four brother outfit on the radio as teens back in Birmingham in the 50s. Instead, the brothers fell serendipitously into a bluegrass group called the Golden State Boys led by Chris Hillman, later to become a Byrds founding member. It wasn’t long before the group changed its name to The Hillmen and recorded an album under that name in Hollywood around 1963, which already included the involvement of Byrds mentors Jim Dickson and John Delgatto. Different from the pure folk/bluegrass coming from the East Coast or such “progessive bluegrass” acts as The Country Gentlemen — as everyone at that time had cut their teeth on the Harry Smith collection — The Hillmen used a mix of traditional numbers, songs penned by Vern and Rex and also employed the soon-to-become-familiar formula of songwriting source Bob Dylan for their album. It wasn’t long before a threesome of Gene Clark, David Crosby and Roger McGuinn had their serendipitous meeting at the Troubadour, eventually to recruit Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke, all as founding members of The Byrds.

That part, as they say, is Rock ‘n’ Roll history, but there are a few footnotes: The Gosdin Brothers (Vern and Rex) released the sneakily fantastic Sounds of Goodbye album on Capitol in 1968, produced by Jim Dickson and ultra-rich with harmonies, which cracked the country chart at #39.

When Gene Clark, the principal songwriter (aside from Dylan) of the original Byrds line-up, elected to leave the Byrds quite early on in 1966 — due to some vicious internal politics and, ironically, after co-writing “Eight Miles High” (Clark had a fear of flying) — he called on the Gosdins and Hillman amongst a myriad others to help him put his legendary epic solo debut together. Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, released in 1967 is not only a great album (now available as the reissue Echoes with extra material), but is arguably the first evidence of what we now take for granted as West Coast Country Rock.

And thus, as requested in his song “Bury Me In A Jukebox”, we lay to rest Vern Gosdin not just as a Country Music legend but as a significant figure in the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

“Time Stood Still” (”when we said goodbye”).

Set ‘Em Up Joe…

“Some people make candlesticks, I make people sad as hell,” William Fitzsimmons joked with the audience at his show in Louisville, Ky. He didn’t lie — though his soothing voice will hush a noisy crowd, his dark folk songs are post-divorce and desperate for lost love. Between songs, however, Fitzsimmons is gifted at dry wit and deadpan delivery, a master at using humor to soften the edge of his self-deprecating pleading.

A licensed counselor who recorded his first album in grad school, Fitzsimmons knows how to turn his focus inward — his cathartic third album The Sparrow And The Crow says everything a dump-ee thinks and feels after a rocky breakup. Going through the stages of grief, there’s pleading, anger, regret, and a little bit of moving on — mostly on her part.

He wants to help people with his music as he did with his counseling. “I pour myself into this (music) for the sake of maybe bringing a little bit of therapy into that realm,” he said. “I like that the songs can help people a little bit. Music is music and it’s not supposed to be a panacea for people’s wounds, but I think it can help.”

With his first album behind him, he worked as a therapist only for a few months before his music career took off, but long enough to know he loved it. “Just sitting with somebody in their darkest moments and them leaning on you for help was a pretty heavy thing,” he said. “But I miss it because it was rewarding like nothing else was … When you’re actually able to help somebody, or you see them get to a different, better place — that’s a pretty powerful thing.”

“We’re all on borrowed – at least artists are – on borrowed time,” He says of going back to his work in counseling. “I kind of have it in the back of my mind that I’ll return at some point.”

As much as music might have the power to help people, it’s not the same as helping someone one-on-one. “Music is a limited endeavor in terms of what it can do,” Fitzsimmons said. “A lot of people I come across … it seems like they look to me for an all-encompassing heal or something like that, and I don’t think (music is) ever supposed to be that. I worry a little bit about myself and other people if we put too much pressure on it, to try to make it do everything. It’s a really beautiful thing and I’m happy that it’s part of my life and so many other people’s lives, but you know it’s only supposed to be what it is. It’s not supposed to be a medicine or a relationship.”

Remarried now, he says he’s ready to turn his songwriting to happier things, but is unsure that his fans would welcome it. Mentioning the music of Mark Kozelek, he explains, “He’s a really incredible songwriter and singer … no matter what he does it has this kind of inherent sadness to it. But it’s what he does and it’s what he does well and he doesn’t really try to be anything different. I am always going to sound like myself, but I would certainly love to have optimism and tip the scales a little bit.”

In addition to Kozelek, Fitzsimmons is a bona-fide Bon Iver fan, calling For Emma Forever Ago “unbelievable.” His list of favorites include Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and Bob Dylan, though he still listens to the music his mother loved when he was growing up. Artists like Linda Ronstadt and Peter, Paul and Mary, he says, gives him “that Christmas morning feeling.”

Fitzsimmons says his fans can expect more songs, but he’s scrapping everything he’s written on tour. “Everything I write ends up being kind of a glorified b-side of the last record, whether that’s the style or the content, so I end up throwing out probably half an album’s worth of songs just because I think they end up sounding similar to what I was working on before. So I don’t know if these ones will ever see the light of day.“

Fitzsimmons said his ex-wife and Sparrow muse, who is expecting her second child with her new husband, had the opportunity to listen to the album soon after it was recorded, but she “couldn’t get the whole way through it.”

Does she mind that he sings about her every night? “I think the only thing she worried (about was) that it was maybe a bit of a bad choice (for me) to stay in all that indefinitely — singing about it and traveling with these songs in my head. But I think she understands it.”

His voice drops and he adds, “I think one of the more ironic but touching things that she said was when she told me she was bouncing her daughter on her knee to one of the songs on the record and she was kind of humming along with it. It was a … strange, sort of beautiful element. It’s dark in a way but I also thought it said … maybe things are getting better or (that) it’s some sort of a weird reconciliation.”

“Feel a Change Comin’ On”, the previously unreleased track from Bob Dylan’s upcoming release Together Through Life, can now be streamed on the Newsweek website. And if the title doesn’t evoke Obama-motions from you, the next installment of Dylan’s conversations with Bill Flanagan, focusing on President Barrack Obama and World War II, can also be found on the website.

You can read Dylan’s conversation while listening to “Feel A Change Comin’ On” here. Additionally, a new interactive viral tool for Together Through Life has launched on Dylan’s website, featuring the rarity of officially published song lyrics for a Bob Dylan composition as well as cutting-edge functionality and graphics.

Together Through Life, Bob Dylan’s 46th album (yes, you read that correctly), will be released by Columbia Records on April 28.

With the time change and sunshine fast approaching and the prospect of long afternoons on the lawn running into late nights at the local dive becoming more feasible, The Strange Boys arrive just in time to offer up a nice little soundtrack to your inevitably hazy Spring. And Girls Club, the first full-length offering from the Dallas-born, Austin-honed foursome, is equal parts The Kinks, Dylan, The Yardbirds and a little flare of those bluesy 50s Sun Records.

It’s kind of funny how often you might find yourself speaking of the 50s or 60s in relation to a new group and their affectations toward the heyday of pop arrangements, but with The Strange Boys the sense is this is a genuine collection of old souls growing up in the heart of Texas. Muddy Waters shows up on “To Turn A Tune Or Two” while Dave Davies shows up to give you an updated take on Kink Kontroversy’s “I Am Free” on the Boys’ “Then” Or so you might think by the sound of it. These guys have an amazing knack for writing simple rhythm and blues tunes that seem ripped right from your old record compilations. While tearing into “Probation Blues” the group channels the five live Yardbirds, and on “They’re Building The Death Camps” it’s Bringing It All Back Home-era Dylan (Ryan Sambol’s vocals in any other act would probably grate 4 minutes in, but here they ramble poetically Dylan-esque).

It’s hard to sound like you’re giving credit when consistently referencing older acts, so it must be said that And Girls Club, is undoubtedly original material with that tip of the hat to the inspiring 50s and 60s. The highlights are numerous, as with each listen another track has shimmied its way into your heart. “This Girl Taught Me A Dance” is probably the first track that will be at the forefront of your consciousness, with blistering high-end and a moment for each of the four instruments to absolutely shine. Next on your hit list is surely “Heard You Want To Beat Me Up,” a cut that is a modern tale of frightened passive-aggressiveness disguised as a golden oldie. Melody takes its turn at the forefront during “No Way For A Slave To Behave” while “Death And All The Rest” is a front seat to the whiskey soaked and smoky honkytonks of the South. Again, it’s an album of 16 hits, and at a run time of a mere 36 minutes it’s easy to just hit repeat and find a new way to love each track. Two personal favorites are “A Man You’ve Never Known” for its subtle catchiness and lazy hook, and “Poem Party” for the driving interplay between drums (provided by the aptly named Matt Hammer) and bass (easily overlooked low end, Philip Sambol).

The somewhat lo-fi production of And Girls Club gives you that nostalgia-laden warmth of an old vinyl without the frustration of non-automatic repeat, which is a great thing for The Strange Boys. Given the quick run time and the ease of beginning again this new LP will undoubtedly be found spinning through most of the days in your near future.

In The Red Records

It’s difficult for Americans to understand the political and personal strife many in the world are facing today. We witness filtered views of places like Iraq and Afghanistan through highly desensitized news reports, and still can’t imagine what life must be like in these war-torn areas. Now try to imagine a place that is more dangerous than either of these places. A country where pirates still patrol the waters, where children handle AK-47s like toys and unbridled destruction, merciless warlords and ruthless terror are a regular part of everyday life.

That place is Somalia, and aspiring musician and MC K’Naan was raised in the country’s most dangerous region: Wardhiigleey.

Incidentally, Somalia is also “The Nation of Poets,” and K’Naan is the grandson of Haji Mohamed — one of Somalia’s most famous poets. He also the nephew of famed Somali singer Magool, so it’s only natural that the combination of music and poetry would become an outlet for him to tell the stories of his troubled youth and his unique view on life. If hip-hop is the language of the street, there are few MC’s in the world who can compete with the credibility of K’Naan.

But while hip-hop is the section where his latest album, Troubadour (February 24, Octone/A&M), sits on record shelves, it’s far from a traditional hip-hop record. Recorded primarily in Kingston, Jamaica where K’Naan was granted unprecedented access by his friends Stephen and Damian Marley to their father Bob Marley’s original home studio at 56 Hope Road and the legendary Tuff Gong studios, Troubadour blends samples and live instrumentation for a sound that’s both rooted in traditional African melodies. Featuring guest musicians like Damian Marley, Mos Def, Chubb Rock, Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid and even Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, it’s as much a testament to his life as it is the multitude of Western influences he was opened up to in Somalia — everything from Bob Dylan and Fela Kuti to Eric B. & Rakim.

K’Naan now lives in Toronto via New York, after his family received a visa on the last day the U.S. Embassy was in Somalia (the region is so bad, the Embassy is no longer there), and on the heels of Troubador being released, we spoke during his brief stop in New York.

Being from Somalia what’s the culture status like there? You said in your bio that regardless of political climate there you can always find concerts or local theatre, but is there culture coming from outside places like America?
K: No, it’s completely closed up to outside influence. Somalia has always been like that, very careful with culture, very much a little too proud of just their own thing. You’ve got sounds coming from different regions, but the truest thing about Somalia is that the general social discourse is had through poetry. It is the most, if not the most poetic nation in the world. It’s hard to explain to someone who is not from there, but everything from law, to violence, to social scenarios is discussed only through poetry. So it’s like pizza to Italy, poetry to Somalia. Our national dish is poetry.

So does it cross over a lot into music similar to what you do?
For music, yeah. You can’t be a musician in Somalia unless you are a poet.

Listening to it on your record, your cadence seems to be from more of a poetic standpoint than straight hip-hop. Did you take from that and try to implement it in your music vs. trying to be a hip-hop artist like the way we know it here in America?
Well, I didn’t really do either. I just did exactly what is a reflection of me, the most honest thing. There was no conscious effort to ever do anything a certain way. It just came that way, and I was raised as this person who is around poets and around a mixture of some tough streets and some incredibly eloquent poetry. The mix of it is kind of what’s become me.

K’Naan (Featuring Chubb Rock – “ABC’s” (Remix)

Was your grandfather a big influence? Was he alive when you were creating music?
Yes, I wasn’t creating music, but I was young when I was around him and he was revered. I’d walk with him down from his place to our home for lunch and the street would part. He was that kind of character. So, he was an influence but my auntie too was famous. She was an influence as well.

You can’t really pigeon-hole your sound, so I’m wondering if you think that you’re being labeled hip-hop artist for more marketing purposes?
Yeah, it’s convenient, but I don’t know. People will try to do what they do. I’m not really even involved in the naming process, or the categorizing, or the marketing of anything. I keep my music more distant from all of that. But I agree that it isn’t just one thing at all.

The reason I bring it up is because American hip hop became so big because it was the voice of the street and the underprivileged. Or even Jazz or Punk Rock or Blues, it all came from social circumstances. And now with the world getting smaller, from a world perspective our hardships – no matter what they are – are really no comparison to so many other countries and what’s going on. I was wondering if you think that’s going to change the face of hip-hop or whatever it will become? The fact that we’re on a world scale now and we’re going to hear voices coming from Somalia or Arab countries expressing a whole new set or social strife.
Yeah, it’s going to be very interesting for hip-hop. I think there is at least a part of me that is a hip-hop representative voice. I remember like a year ago I was walking around backstage of Rock the Bells, they had like Rage Against The Machine, Nas and the Wu Tang Clan and it was crazy. But I remember just walking by them and this crowd of performers that I used to listen to back in the day and then one of the guys from Wu Tang was like “Yo, that’s the future of hip hop.” And it was interesting because when you try to compare hood just as far as hard scenario, there’s nothing really harder where you can go than where I come from. So hip-hop has a pretty interesting scenario facing it now. Especially with the wide release of my music, it’s like, either you’re going to have to ignore me or you’re really going to have to reassess.

Yeah, and looking back at hip-hop and all those other genres I mentioned is, when their message really started to taper off is when they started to reach a mainstream success level. Presuming your success, do you feel a sense of urgency to bringing it back to the people of Somalia? Have you been back there since you put out records?
No, I’ve been to the area, I’ve been to the region, but you can’t go to Somalia. You can’t go to where I come from.

You can’t go there even as a citizen of the country?
Nobody can go. The U.N. is scared to go. It’s hard to explain. People just have to read about Somalia to understand what I talk about, or understand what I say in my music, because it sounds fantastical. Forbes Magazine a couple of months ago did the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world, and you have Afghanistan third, Iraq was second, and Somalia was one. So, you’ve seen a little bit of Iraq on TV, just imagine what would be more dangerous than that. It is not a place you can up and go and leisurely visit. But my music is heard there.

Do you think about going back there as an artist, to bring your voice back to the people?
Yeah, just because I need it myself. I just need to be among the people. And in fact, I have planned. I was going to go very recently, but whenever I decide to go it becomes more of a life and death situation than anyone else, because I’m pretty well known there too. So it becomes a risk for anyone who chooses to go with me, and that’s a tough decision to make. My mother’s completely against it, but I’m trying to find a way to go.

Do you have family there still?
I’ve got brothers and sister… cousins, aunt, Grandma.

How many languages do you speak on the album?
Just Somali and English. There’s a song I say a word in Swahili and a word in Arab, but those are just a word, I don’t speak them, I just speak Somali and English.

Are you going to try and bring any of the guest musicians into the live performance?
You know what’s crazy? I have a song with Kirk Hammett from Metallica. Ridiculous. He did 17 guitar solos and we had to sift through and choose. Apparently Metallica heard my music and they approved. Because you know Metallica can’t do anything outside of Metallica… so I think this is Kirk Hammett’s first known thing outside of Metallica ever. I feel like that’s an honor. And anyway, he and I are talking back and forth and he wants to come play with me on some shows.

That would be amazing. Maybe you can get him and Damien on the same stage.
Damien is coming because that’s just natural, he’s a friend of mine. We hang out without playing shows.

How did that relationship with the Marley’s come about?
Well, Stephen Marley was being interviewed by somebody and I just happened to be in the room. And they asked him, “you’re friends with K’naan, how did you guys meet?” And he was like, “Through God.” It was one of those things when people just feel a connection musically they really see me as a family to them, akin to the sound their family is known for. Not sound wise in that sense, but what it represents. The spirit of it.

Well, it seems that there is a spiritual connection to what Bob Marley was to Jamaica, at the time it was a place that no one really wanted to go to.
Or knew about. And so in the unveiling of the world that I unveil those guys have connected to it and taken up my thing for themselves and were close in that way. Eventually I became the only artist that Steven Marley ever handed the keys to Bob Marley’s house.

That had to have been pretty incredible. I know it’s not something you can put into words, but you got to touch the organ he used?
We recorded music with the organ; the sound from Exodus and Legend, and the same beats we used for our album. We used his guitar that he had played it a lot. His home, his couch, we just laid around making music, walkomg around in the garden. It was very much like a crazy movie. It was like a weird existence for that time, it was like three months.

That had to be awesome though.
It was. Awesome is a good word for that.

Even if her stage name is not a reference to the Dylan song “Lay, Lady, Lay” Iceland’s bluesiest chanteuse since Emiliana Torrini, Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir — aka Lay Low — sounds like she’s paying homage to it in the lead single from her upcoming album Farewell Good Night’s Sleep.

After topping the Icelandic charts with her 2006 debut Please Don’t Hate Me, the unassuming starlet is back with a new record that continues her forays into traditional blues and country sounds. Recorded at Toe Rag Studios in London with producer Liam Watson (White Stripes), the new record features musicians such as Carwyn Ellis, Ed Turner, Rupert Brown, Matt Radford, Jason Wilson and BJ Cole, and will be released on Nettwerk Productions in the U.S. on May 26.

Lovísa will be here in the U.S. to shoot the music video for the lead single “By and By” — available for download below — in NYC later this month when she is here supporting the aforementioned Emiliana Torrini on her Tripwire presented run of shows.

Lay Low – “By And By”

MP3 Download – “By And By”

Lay Low with Emiliana Torrini
03.28.09 – New York (Hiro Ballroom)
03.29.09 – San Francisco, CA (The Independent)
03.30.09 – Los Angeles, CA (Troubadour)

It may seem like he’s only been showing up in commercials and writing books lately, but Bob Dylan has actually been a very active musician this millennium. And now the follow-up to 2006’s platinum-selling Modern Times has a title and release date.

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album will be released on April 28. Together Though Life (pictured above), produced by Jack Frost, was recorded late last year, prompted by the composition of a new song, “Life Is Hard,” which was written for a forthcoming film by French director Oliver Dahan (La Vie En Rose).

The new album will be the 46th release from Bob Dylan, whose three previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career. Along with Modern Times — which was one of his biggest albums worldwide, selling more than 2.5 million copies and earning two Grammys — the platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while Love and Theft continued Dylan’s Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.

Those three studio albums fell within a ten-year creative span that also included an Oscar and Golden Globe-winning tune, “Things Have Changed”, from the film Wonder Boys in 2001, a worldwide best selling memoir, Chronicles, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List in 2004, a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home in 2005, and several volumes of the best-selling Bootleg Series, which culminated in last year’s highly-acclaimed Tell Tale Signs.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy retains the title of best fan-boy adaptation because rather than doing a faithful recreation of the source material, it faithfully reignited the feelings created by the source material. “I’ve always thought it would be cool if…” feels like the most successful mantra for these kinds of pressure-packed adaptations, and while Watchmen succeeds in several of these instances, it very rarely reaches beyond a lock step rendering of the classic book. The ultimate affect is like watching a concert where the band plays every song from their album, in order, almost exactly the way they recorded it. We all love the album, but we can hear those songs played that way any time. Give us something new.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Alan Moore’s landmark graphic novel “Watchmen” was part of the Class of 1986 which — along with Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” and Art Speigelman’s “Maus” — planted the ‘Comics Aren’t Just For Kids’ flag firmly on the roof of the Daily Planet. An ensemble of odd and tormented superheroes, complete with fetishes, insecurities and plenty of thoughts on human behavior all band together to solve a murder mystery and save the world. Sort of. Trying to sum up what Watchmen is about is like eating soup with a toothpick. It was the first big comic book to take a hard look at the guys and girls in tights and ask, “Why do they do this? And should they?” The success of such “serious” fan-boy projects since then can all be credited to this approach (and the “failure” of less serious projects — I’m looking at you, Star Wars prequels — came about because they felt out of touch with this philosophy). As if adapting a landmark book wasn’t difficult enough on its own, the fact that it’s happening 20+ years later poses the problem of context management: we’ve lived in the wake of “Watchmen” for two decades… so how do you capture that feeling of novelty?

Director Zack Snyder rode his studio-savior cred earned from 300 to wrangle away one of the most hotly sought after comic book properties since comic books. Many have tried to bring the ambitious and influential graphic novel to life on the big screen, taking the story through many different incarnations. Some versions eliminated key characters and scenes, some played up the action more than the character meditations, others — notably Terry Gilliam — proposed a multi-installment PBS special. Some versions updated the story from the alternative reality of 1986 where Nixon is still president to set it in present day America fighting the War on Terror(ism). Snyder is a fan of the book, so he made it his duty to wrestle the material back to its source.

The “get it back in” philosophy may keep away some harsh criticism from the fan-boys, but it proves ultimately counter productive to making a great movie. With this core belief at the center of his vision, Snyder inherently became more protective of material which, while wonderful in the book, does not make a great movie. And when you think about it (and this may be comic book heresy), but would an updating of the context have really been such a bad thing? When “Watchmen” came out in 1986, we were in the Cold War, Nixon was still alive and Vietnam still lingered in the nation’s soul. I guess I’m glad we have moved on, but not for the sake of the story’s impact. How does it benefit a 2009 audience to see a story so actively and “faithfully” out of touch?

Consequently, instead of doubling up scenes or mixing around dialog or any of the other tools a director might employ to adapt a complicated book, Snyder just kind of filmed the book as is. His answer to the hurdles facing the story length seems to be “Make it longer.” Characters deliver more speeches than an Aaron Sorkin production, and while the ideas conveyed are interesting, they’re so blandly presented sometimes you forget the guy talking can manipulate space and time. Which is sort of the point. I guess that’s kind of the “Wow” feeling from the original book, that superheroes could be so meditative and speak about the existence of God and whatnot, but it’s better on the page.

There is, of course, much to be praised in the film, and if you’re a fan of the book you should know they don’t screw things up completely. While character soliloquies may play better in print, the non-linear origins of big blue nudist Dr. Manhattan are masterfully handled. Everyone’s favorite fascist loon Rorschack give the film its juice — no pun intended. Easy standout Jackie Earle Haley got the coolest role and he makes every moment count. I was most hoping they wouldn’t mess up Rorschack’s stint in prison, and I’m happy to report they are nicely handled, combing all the action, excitement and humor from the book. It’s also worth noting that the soundtrack, containing many of “our world’s” songs from Dylan to Hendrix to “99 Luftballoons,” is a masterstroke to give the audience a feeling that while this may not be our world, it is OF our world.

The ultimate question: who should watch Watchmen? I feel like it’s for fan-boys who want to re-live one of their favorite stories in a new medium. But in the case of the general public, one who hasn’t been living with Adam West shows and Silver-Age comics for years immediately preceding, the results will be mixed, and that comes from flat adaptation. When one of the Initiated encounters a newbie to the world of “Watchmen” through this movie, the newbie will probably enjoy themselves but wonder “That was the best graphic novel of all time?” The notes are there, but it’s just not music.

Don’t hate us for putting something together so last minute, it’s still better than chocolates and dead roses right? After all, nothing says “I love you” like just the right song. So we asked our contributors to give us their favorite love-inspired song and why. This could mean a “real” love song, or something ironic and funny — or both. So without further ado, here’s a little love from the Tripwire to you.

Pat Peterman – “I Love The Way You Do Your Thing”

As the editor, I get free reign, so I’m picking a soul song from a relatively obscure compilation out of Birmingham Alabama. Released by The Rabbit Factory, there are plenty of love songs that pull at the heart strings on The Birmingham Sound: The Soul Of Neal Hemphill Vol, 1, but I decided to go with an upbeat number that was the song that first made me take note of this collection of songs. Pat Peterman’s “I Love The Way You Do Your Thing” might be the least-southern soul track on the comp, but I certainly love the way she does her thing. –Derek Evers

Patrick Swayze – “Shes Like The Wind”

Like Master Po guided Caine, Patrick Swayze has always been a guru to me. It started with Road House, wherein I learned to be nice until it was time not to be nice, but as I grew older, I realized that He had been there for me well before then, as his She’s Like The Wind soundtracked my ascension to manhood. On Valentine’s Day, even. Dancer, actor and singer, too!!?! Obviously, Swayze is a man with insight to offer a man looking to make his mark in this world. I’m no hoofer, but the Dirty Dancing that took place to said bit of treacle did make that Valentine’s Day much more significant. When you’re fumbling around in a borrowed bed in the time-honored Upstate NY fashion, perhaps emboldened by a warm Budweiser or two, it’s hard not to feel like Johnny Castle. At least until your parents pick you up. –Rob Browning

Ocotillo – “Let Me Love You” (Mario cover)

If a gentleman is trying to win the affections of a lady from an unworthy cad and the promise is uttered “every night, doin’ you right,” well heck, that’s my kind of love song. Ocotillo’s cover of “Let Me Love You” glides along over rolling “Obvious Child” drums and even though I don’t technically know what “You’re a dime plus ninety-nine, it’s a shame you don’t even know what you’re worth” means, I’m pretty sure I appreciate the sentiment. Synths straight from Phil Collins and velvet vocals perfectly gliding over drums that refuse to stop come together to create one of the most damn sexy songs you can drop on your girl for V-day. –Christen Thomas

Jeff Buckley – “Hallelujah”

There are many songs about love in the rock/pop pantheon: “All You Need is Love”, “Love Song” “He Hit Me (It felt Like a Kiss)”, but few are as great or haunting as Jeff Buckley’s phenomenal cover of the Leonard Cohen classic “Hallelujah”. Whereas Cohen’s original version has a beautiful fierceness brought on by his serious, heavy voice, Jeff’s soft vocal on the other hand is something teetering on ethereal and otherworldly. When he delivers the line “I’ve seen the flag on the marble arch/but love is not a victory march/it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah!” you hear a young man that fully grasps the meaning of the song and the fickle nature of love and the world. The saddest part of the story is that Jeff only recorded one studio album Grace. The title is fitting and eerie; he was destined to not walk long on the Earth but within the words and music of “Hallelujah” Buckley gave all that cared to listen one of the greatest cover songs of all time. And he found grace. Amen. –Danny Phillips

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – “Under The Hedge”

Understated but always versatile in meaning, Ted Leo has always had a way with words. This is my favorite of his songs, one that I read as a very simple nod to the complicated thing that is love and the remarkable ways in which it tends to unfold. It captures me by “but I still love you, you see?” and has me totally floored by love, language, and music by “I ran like a rabbit from your rifles.” It’s beautiful without ever being sentimental — a rare and genuine accomplishment. As a bonus, it’s so catchy you’re bound to love it long after your inevitable breakup. –Sarah Flynn

The Smiths – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”

Never has a story about a death wish been as delightful as this upbeat 80’s classic. “There is a Light…” is also a subtle love song. It’s about the time in all of our lives where things aren’t going so great, but we have the joy of love to keep us alive. Or rather, it’s the moment when you are with your love; the emotion you feel, you’d be happy to die right then and there. Death could come by being crushed by a double-decker bus or a ten ton truck. It doesn’t matter how horribly you are killed, as long as you are killed together. You don’t want to go home, you want to die horribly with your lover because it’s best to die with joy in your heart. It’s so romantically goth. –Meiyee Apple

Paramore – “That’s What You Get”

Dear Harmonix,
There is a band that no credible music critic likes, a band that is made for record execs that wanted another Avril, a band that caters to pre-teens. This band is Paramore. However, what you have done with this song, by putting it in Rock Band 2, has made fans out of all of us? The lyrics that we warble into the toy microphone speak of how love is painful, and asks “Why do we like to hurt so much?” While all I ask is “Why do we love playing fake guitar to this song so much?” So thank you, Harmonix, for allowing us single folks to have fun on this Valentines Day. A day that was meant for lovers can now be a day where single people nationwide can get together to play your game and become one. That’s what we get. Love, Meiyee Apple

Radiohead – “Where I End And You Begin”

Perhaps it’s just the mysterious demeanor behind Thom Yorke’s heart-piercing vocals, or the ironically disturbing idea of eating someone alive for the sake of love, but Radiohead’s “Where I End and You Begin” is a Valentine’s Day must-listen-to for those sad sappy suckers out there who can’t quite get a grip on the woes of love gone awry. We’re not saying you should sit down and drown your love-life-sorrows with a box of chocolates (or for some of us out there, a bottle of whiskey), and the dejected-Radiohead blues, but the cynic romanticism surrounding the lyrically driven dirge will give you something else to think about on Valentine’s Day when you’re tired of watching lovebirds swoon over silly Hallmark nonsense, or at least, that’s what this writer will be doing. –Brianne Sullivan

The La’s – “There She Goes”

The La’s Lee Maver’s greatest and simplest song is still considered an epic moment in British music. Even though he went on to suffer one of the greatest bouts of writer’s block, if that was the price he had to pay just to write this song, it was all worth while. As the rumor circulated that the track was actually about heroin and not a girl, the tune’s legend has grown even more, and the rumor only adds to its
power. Not only does it add complexity to one of the most simply structured songs, it also throws it into the pantheon of great ambiguous love songs like “Golden Brown,” “Brown Sugar,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Beetlebum.” And let’s face it, when it comes to love, the best kind is a bit intoxicating, dangerous and painfully addictive. It’s hard to come by a better metaphor than that. –Miguel Banuelos

Swervedriver – “Duel”

It’s not an obvious choice — its not dripping with saccharine sweetness like “God Only Knows” or “My Sharona” — but when you are 16 years old and confused as hell about girls, sometimes there’s only music to help you through it. To me, this song was the epitome of everything that was cool in the world; tattered leather jackets, sun-scorched expanses of pavement and an unstoppable rock ‘n’ roll juggernaut with guitars set to “kill.” It’s connection to ‘love’ is more in the form of escapism, in imagining, even for a few moments, that your not just another awkward 16 year old kid, but instead, a globe-conquering badass that has women all figured out. Because, let’s face it, nobody is really all that cool at that age, whether we think we are or not. — Jason Jackowiak

Black Joe Lewis – “Bitch, I Love You”

Austin’s Joe Lewis juxtaposed track of love is nothing you or I haven’t felt before. It’s love without explanation, it’s tortured and it’s frustrating. There are late nights and there are wrongdoings. There are arguments and professions of outright violence. All of these sentiments are expressed in the classiest of ways, through good old blues. Midway through the song when Lewis straight talks his woman through curses and threats for making him blue, it’s not so much pre-meditated domestic violence as it is a man complaining to his peers, bitching about everything this woman is putting him through. But, at the end of the track when he meets his lady again, the true feelings come out despite all the wrongdoings. Bitch, I love you. –Kyle Rother

Type O Negative – “Love You To Death”

Nothing says white trash romance like Type O Negative — I mean that in the most respectful and endearing way. No matter how many times Peter Steele croons this tune, it always feels like the first, bloody time. Sensual, sexual, even sadistic at times, this track unravels the brutal vulnerability of lust, love and emotional servitude. This song vividly reminds me of the power behind the carnal force of sexual attraction, as well as the murderous weapon it can be. The words “am I good enough, for you” resonate to anyone who has experienced betrayal and affirms how quickly we can begin to question our own worth when things don’t go according to plan. With sweeping keys, signature Type O distortion and kill yourself vocals, “Love You To Death” is the perfect soundtrack to a romantic night of box wine, Fredericks of Hollywood lingerie, fist fights and hours of dirty make up sex. –Zeena Koda

Tin Hat Trio – “Empire of Light”

“Empire of Light” may be the saddest, sweetest love song I have ever heard. Written by Mark Orton in memoriam of his wife Lauren, who drowned tragically in 2003. I find it difficult to listen to this composition without tears in my eyes, and could not imagine crafting a more beautiful and somber melody in the wake of such an incredible loss. The poetry in this song is more inspiring and honest than anything I could say about it. Orton has committed an eternal eulogy to music. An everlasting hymnal for the love he and his wife shared in life, after death, and in his dreams. “Quiet as a photograph. Knowing you would cry for me. Now you’re watching over me, endlessly. I’ll be dreaming… of you.” –Andrew St. Aubin

Bob Dylan – “Lay Lady Lay”

I remember the first time I heard this song. I was with my mom, we were running errands somewhere when I was a kid. We’d pulled into the parking lot of wherever we were going, and the song had just come on the radio. My mom stopped the car, turned up the volume and told me this was one of her favorite songs. We sat in silence, listening, until it was done, and something in this song ever since then has held the same magic that it did for me that day. “Whatever colors you have in your mind/I’ll show them to you/And you’ll see them shine.” Doesn’t get much better than that. I have a deep and rapturous love for Bob Dylan anyway, but you have to respect someone who can write a song about gettin’ it on on top of a big brass bed and make it sound romantic and wistful. Plus, this song (and all of Nashville Skyline) are proof to any naysayers that Mr. Dylan can definitely carry a tune. And he didn’t even need a bucket. –P. Elizabeth Cawein

James Brown – “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”

There’s nothing more chivalrous than the Godfather of Soul himself declaring for the entirety of Mankind the fact that no matter what he has done, out of all the accomplishments and failures, it would mean nothing if not for Woman. As Mr. Brown says, man made cars, roads, boats, trains; man made toys for baby girls and baby boys, and man made money to buy even more from other men. Some might think it a pre-feminist movement or an old world thought for this to be a “man’s world”, but it still holds true that this world would be nothing for a man without a woman or a girl. –Kyle Rother

New Kids On The Block – “Please Don’t Go Girl”

I have a lot to thank New Kids On The Block for. Not only was it my first introduction into the madness of fan obsession (which I would later helm and put in effect for Radiohead), Joey McIntyre is also responsible for being the formative reference for my future crushes. Any dude with blue eyes and a great smile now makes my heart go a-flutter. But most importantly, “Please Don’t Go Girl” was the first love song I ever heard as a wee young Jenz in 1988. It fit a generation of young love that was both innocent and realistic, Joey singing to his ‘best friend’ “Please don’t go girl/You would ruin my whole world.” The video also includes all five Kids singing in an abandoned warehouse, roaming the streets of a metropolitan city, and then ending at an amusement park. Sweet. Last month I got “You’re my love within” from this song tattooed on my inner left forearm — true love is forever, indeed. –JENZ