Photo: Time Life Pictures/Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images

In an article for the Seattle Weekly titled “How I Met Dave Grohl, the Biggest Guy in Rock and Roll,” former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic waxes poetic about the musical prowess and undying dedication of his former bandmate, Dave Grohl.

Describing his first interaction with Grohl, Novoselic reminisces: “I remember going to the airport and picking this dude up. He was easygoing–just like some guy named Paul McCartney told the Times. He brought up his drum set–a yellow TAMA with a 26″ kick. The man understood John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) and Dale Crover (the Melvins), and this kick proved it. We wasted no time and rehearsed the next day. I knew Dave was coming, so beforehand I’d found a rehearsal place in Tacoma’s north end.

“It was a productive session, but the next night Kurt and I just messed around at practice for some reason. We all left together, and I could feel that Dave was a little distressed. That shows his serious work ethic. Don’t get me wrong, Nirvana had a good work ethic, but perhaps Dave was feeling a little remorse at that moment for betting it all on these two guys from Washington.”

Those two guys, he goes on to explain, ultimately pulled through, and the group became the Nirvana that we know and still miss today. Novoselic concludes, “For me, the years 1990 to 1994 seem like 10 years. So much went on, and of course so much went wrong. But life went on after Nirvana. I love the Foo Fighters. Dave kept that work ethic and focus, and that’s why he’s the greatest rock musician in the world today.”

An e-mail from the folks at Baeblemusic (great name, by the way (sincerely)) just slipped into our inbox a few minutes ago with some great video footage of two Tripwire favorites Wavves and Port O’Brien doing business. While we’re not calling Mr. Nathan Williams a Kurt Cobain by any means, we’ve said earlier that the transition his Wavves project is making from drummer to Zach Hill is a lot like the difference one could hear in Nirvana’s recordings back when they subbed in Dave Grohl for Chad Channing. Below is some video of Hill and Williams plowing through “So Bored.” Again, the former never overpowers the song itself and instead gives Williams a fancy new (rhythmic) jetpack. Watch the full show here. Speaking of Nirvana, Port O’Brien’s got a great new record that features a great new song whose title looks like it came straight from the Nevermind lyricbook: “My Will Is Good.” Check out a acoustic/nakey version below, cop a download of the Bodega Girls remix we posted a little while ago here.

There’s been a lot of fuss lately about the whole Kurt Cobain Guitar Hero avatar. And while we understand some people’s hearts are in the right places on this one, the more the whole thing blows up the more it kind of bums us out. But the one medium where the man can live on forever on his own terms is certainly his music. So the news that the first preview from Sub Pop’s deluxe Bleach re-release was ready was a welcome change of pace from the Courtney Love versus Guitar Hero/Dave Grohl/the whole world legacy debate. And this remastered version of “About A Girl” hits you smack over the head with a reminder of why that legacy is worth protecting in the first place.

Nirvana, About A Girl (Remastered)

MP3 Download

Nathan Williams, professional massage and distortion enthusiast behind SoCal grunge duo Wavves, stopped by the Daytrotter studios recently with new drummer/wild beast Zach Hill. Together they recorded some fare both old (relatively speaking) and new, clawing into Wavvves’ “To The Dregs” as well as the fresher “Hula Hoop” and “Horse Sholes.” You can definitely hear the jolt that Hill’s provided since hopping on board, the difference analogous to say, Nirvana with Chad Channing on drums and Nirvana with Dave Grohl on drums. Listen for yourself here.

As we mentioned a few months back, Universal is releasing a slick CD/DVD miracle package of Nirvana’s legendary performance at the Reading Festival in 1992. You know, the one where Kurt was wheeled out in a wheelchair and oh yeah, the one some deemed the set heard ’round the world. Amazon’s got a preview clippet of the Seattle trio clawing their way through “School,” a Bleach highlight you’ll be able to hear in all its remastered glory come November 3, when Sub Pop will re-issue that beast of an album. This is terrifying in the very best way.

Usually a twentieth anniversary means you and your spouse head to Bermuda or your company honors you with a gold watch. If it’s a birthday, and you live in the States, you get jack shit but another year of waiting before you can legally purchase 40 oz. malt liquor at your favorite corner store. If you’re a certain band from a certain coffee-loving city in the Pacific Northwest, it means you get a deluxe, remastered, reissue of your first album, ya know, the one before that dude from Foo Fighters joined. (That dude rules!)

The folks at Sub Pop understand milestones, and so the label is set to flesh out Nirvana’s classic debut Bleach with a boat load of extra features and cool shit that Courtney Love may or may not have a problem with, depending on what day it is. More importantly, the kingpin label has made “Scoff,” an unreleased song recorded live at Portland’s Pine Street Theatre on February 9th, 1990, available for free download. The show also features Nirvana fan favorite “Love Buzz” and a cover of the Vaseline’s “Molly’s Lips.” Check “Scoff” below, then check out this absurd three part interview Canadian music journalist, and interviewer extraordinaire, Nardwuar did with Kurt, Kris and Courtney in 1991. Nothing says grunge like pizza and cigarettes.

Nirvana, Scoff (Live @ Pine Street Theater, Portland, OR)

MP3 Download

Despite Courtney Love’s protestations via Twitter that she had no idea that Kurt Cobain’s likeness would be used in the latest edition of Guitar Hero, much less playing other people’s songs, Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig revealed to NME.com that Kurt Cobain’s estate has “cashed the check” after signing a contract that allowed for a Cobain avatar in the game. He went on to suggest that Love was fully aware of the contract that she agreed to and had accepted the money offered: “I do know that there’s absolutely a contract and we know that the cheque has been cashed,” he told NME.COM. “I can only deal with the facts. It’s very clear what the terms are.”

Love took to Twitter to respond to Rosensweig’s comments, stating: “Call me and tell me what cheque and for how much. You liquidate Kurt and you tell me I’ve cashed a cheque? We didn’t get a cent,” she wrote. “Now Mr Activision if you want to fix that I’d very much appreciate it. You’ve humiliated me and my daughter. People think we did ‘Guitar Hero 5′ for money when in fact we got not one cent. My understanding was you would pay me personally as I stated.”

Rosensweig was apologetic when it came to Cobain’s former bandmates Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic’s objections to Cobain’s avatar and its ability to play songs other than those of Nirvana, but claimed that the real dispute should be between Love and the former Nirvana members. “We care about the artists more than anyone else and we would like to make artists happy in every circumstance,” he said. “I’m disappointed in this case that there seems to be confusion between the band and the estate.”

But he is. And ya know who’s pissed off about it? Bon Jovi. Yeah, Jon Bon Jovi. And while the one day future Governor of New Jersey (one can always dream) is speaking out against the inclusion, he isn’t really mad that Cobain’s in the game, as much he is the fact that virtual Cobain sucks at singing “You Give Love A Bad Name.” Quoted Bon Jovi, “To hear someone else’s voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don’t know. It sounds a little forced.” Sort of like Bon Jovi’s movie career.

With Courtney Love having used Twitter to foment her rage (or smear her tracks,) Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic issued a joint statement late yesterday in regards to their former bandmate’s likeness being used so excessively in the newest installment of the Guitar Hero franchise. Below:

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.
While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.

Meanwhile, Activision issued the following statement:

Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero® 5.

Apparently, we’re not the only ones who are/were slightly offended by the presence of a Bon Jovi and Bush-fronting Kurt Cobain on the latest installment of Guitar Hero: Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, demonstrated her dissatisfaction with the appropriation of her husband’s license via Twitter yesterday.

Her wrath was initially incurred by journalist Everett True, who blamed Love and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl for the Guitar Hero fiasco on his blog, calling them ”Fucking corporate cock-sucking memory-destroying fret-wanking MTV-supporting fame-chasing money-grabbing grave-turning publicity-loving vacuous spoiled jaded cunting rock whores.” He mentioned Love’s Twitter ID while linking to his post on Twitter, inspiring the following series of tweets from Ms. Love:

when did @everetttrue get bitter, i own my rage but im not yet bitter, and if you think for one second from the lunchbox and now this..NO

the goddammed Lunchbox was it for me i get crucified over Converse shoes i didnt approve and stood it, then spy a lunchbox and nowGHERO?NO!!

btw @everetttrue Jack fucking White your personal god is doing Ghero, do you think they told me that this mfucking avatar’s(badenuff)”featur

yeah Jack WHite,Dylan,Petty,Kings of Leon, i dragged my ass and never signed of on the avatar, let alone this fucking”feature”i have NO say

correction i do have say, theres been 4 breaches of a very strict contract, eg i was forced by lying bankerlawyers to sell some publishing,

wich forces me to lose some power, the loser bully who put money in the bank commissioned illegally a child and then stole every pennydid it

and @everetttrue he did it in breach of contract if you had listened to my ranting raving “bizarre”etc youd see that i speak only the truth

Sigh.

For those of you that are either up on your grunge or old enough to remember what it was like to see Nirvana destroy a stage, their 1992 performance at the Reading Festival was watershed. There’s some gilded YouTubage of Cobain doing his wheelchair-and-hospital thing out there right now, but a few weeks after the band’s Bleach re-issue hits shelves, the Reading show will also be getting deluxe treatments. DVD. LP. CD. No word on Blu-Ray yet. Dudes, they played “School” and “Negative Creep” and oh man, is this going to be awesome to watch on your tee-vee.

Nirvana Live At Reading DVD:

1. Breed
2. Drain You
3. Aneurysm
4. School
5. Sliver
6. In Bloom
7. Come As You Are
8. Lithium
9. About A Girl
10. Tourette’s
11. Polly
12. Lounge Act
13. Smells Like Teen Spirit
14. On A Plain
15. Negative Creep
16. Been A Son
17. All Apologies
18. Blew
19. Dumb
20. Stay Away
21. Spank Thru
22. Love Buzz
23. The Money Will Roll Right In
24. D-7
25. Territorial Pissing

Nirvana Live At Reading CD:

1. Breed
2. Drain You
3. Aneurysm
4. School
5. Sliver
6. In Bloom
7. Come As You Are
8. Lithium
9. About A Girl
10. Tourette’s
11. Polly
12. Lounge Act
13. Smells Like Teen Spirit
14. On A Plain
15. Negative Creep
16. Been A Son
17. All Apologies
18. Blew
19. Dumb
20. Stay Away
21. Spank Thru
22. The Money Will Roll Right In
23. D-7
24. Territorial Pissing

When Kurt Cobain signed with Sub Pop over a decade and a half ago and together they released the definitive rock album of the 90s, he was probably thinking locally. The money probably helped a bit, but ultimately dude was thinking “I really just want to be at a label that’s going to enter into a joint-venture with the largest shoe corporation in the world!” Alright, so maybe this wasn’t the direction Kurt or co-founder Bruce Pavitt saw the label going, but all kidding aside these things look kind of sweet. And hey, skateboarders listen to early Shins albums too. After all, what good does it do to be half-owned by Warner Brothers if you can’t get a skate shoe or two out of the deal. Sure, the two SP logos are a bit excessive. Sure, generic statement about indie rock being officially over and nothing being sacred anymore. We live in hard times. Cash is cash, folks.

(Via: Hypebeast via Daily Swarm)

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s debut album, Sub Pop will re-issue Bleach on November 3. The reissue will include a never-before-released live performance and special packaging; a double-LP package will be available on 180g white vinyl, as the first run of Bleach’s vinyl release was also on white vinyl. Both formats will be available for pre-order at subpop.com prior to the scheduled release date.

Bleach was originally released in June of 1989 and initially sold 40,000 copies. The success of Nirvana’s sophomore album, Nevermind, prompted further interest in the band’s debut album, and Bleach went on to sell 1.7 million copies in the United States. The 20th anniversary edition was re-mastered from the original tapes in a session guided by original producer Jack Endino.

The reissue will include an unreleased live recording of an entire show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon, which took place on February 9, 1990. The setlist included “Love Buzz,” “About A Girl,” and a cover of the Vaselines’ “Molly’s Lips.” The performance has also been remixed by Endino. Additionally, a 48-page CD/16-page LP booklet featuring unreleased photos of the band will be included in the deluxe edition.

Tracklisting is as follows:

1. “Blew”
2. “Floyd the Barber”
3. “About a Girl”
4. “School”
5. “Love Buzz”
6. “Paper Cuts”
7. “Negative Creep”
8. “Scoff”
9. “Swap Meet”
10. “Mr. Moustache”
11. “Sifting”
12. “Big Cheese”
13. “Downer”

Live at Pine Street Theatre
1. “Intro”
2. “School”
3. “Floyd the Barber”
4. “Dive”
5. “Love Buzz”
6. “Spank Thru”
7. “Molly’s Lips”
8. “Sappy”
9. “Scoff”
10. “About a Girl”
11. “Been a Son”
12. “Blew”

With the exception of games that are either a) un-fun or b) just have nothing to do with jams, we’ve tried to keep current on all things video game-related. Today brings more news on the next installment of the Guitar Hero franchise, a game that promises to be a black hole/joy ride of behemoth proportions. The White Stripes and Elton John will be making their GH5 debuts, both “Blue Orchid” and ” Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting),” respectively, to be included amongst the fray. Also on the docket now is the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” as well as Sonic Youth’s Rather Ripped burner “Incinerate.” But the coup de grace remains an unreleased live recording of Nirvana’s “Lithium.” (via RS)

Here’s a complete list of the new additions:

Attack! Attack! UK – “You And Me”
Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
The Duke Spirit – “Send A Little Love Token”
Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
Face To Face – “Disconnected”
Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss A Beat”
Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”
Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
Nirvana – “Lithium (Live)”
The Police – “So Lonely”
Rammstein – “Du Hast”
The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”
Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
Sublime – “What I Got”
The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”

Being a long jaded follower of many musical genres, it’s hard for me to be leveled by a new live band; rare is the evil smile on my face or the slow climb of a shiver up my crooked spinal column. Since I’ve become a “professional” music critic as opposed to just another wiseass amateur arguing about music with anyone within earshot, few acts have issued a response in my mind higher than “they’re ok.”

Within the first seconds of The Factory Workers opening slot for two bands that are now erased from my memory, the long absent grin glued itself to my face and the warm electric shock of a supercharged amp rattling across the concrete floor straight through the top of my skull…. Holy Skipping Moses! “Yes Virginia, rock ‘n’ roll does exist!”

The Factory Workers (Al Amador and Justin Brooks) were something explosive. Prior to our interview an hour before the show at Lawrence, Kansas’ The Replay Lounge, I honestly knew very little to nothing about them; just the home recorded songs on their MySpace page and a shared appreciation on the blues. Even in those songs I could hear the lingering beast, a wicked two headed monster ready to fry amplifiers and devour drum kits. During the course of their all too short thirty minute vaporizing set, I became thoroughly convinced that I, along with a decent size Friday night crowd at The Replay Lounge, had just witnessed a giant step forward in Blues Evolutionary Theory.

But the blues rock duo from Kansas City, Missouri are more than just a blues band; they incorporate the sounds of The Black Keys, Son House, the punk rock brutality of Mudhoney and sprinkle in the laid back slyness of Lightnin’ Hopkins. On top of that they add in moments of electric blues like those made famous by 1960’s groups Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer to create a rattle both wholly familiar and entirely their own. It is a music in lock step with their working class name. “I would drive by this factory everyday on my way to work or class and think, I bet those people are working really hard,” lead singer and guitarist Alheim “Al” Amador told me. “I want to work as hard at my music as those people in the factory are working at their job. I wanted to be respected like I respect them.”

The blues have been a part of American music culture for generations. Long before Robert Johnson had hellhounds on his trail, before Willie Dixon was your “Backdoor Man”, years before Leadbelly was singing of murder in the pines, hell, even before there was an America there was the blues. The blues are a human reaction to the hardships of life not a exclusively American reaction. The Factory Workers prove that.

What makes the band’s cohesiveness and blistering live set even more astonishing is the fact that they’ve only been playing for two years and this was to be their first show ever in a proper venue. As Amador tells it, “We started playing in the garage and the basement just having fun. We thought it sounded pretty solid for a two-piece, so we decided to play some shows just to try it out,” A exchange student from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Amador came to the states at 17. Justin Brooks, the group’s drummer is squarely Midwestern. “I was born in Springfield, Missouri, moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, graduated high school there, went to Kansas City for college, met Al and there you have The Factory Workers.”

I spoke to the duo shortly after they finished setting up their gear. It was the perfect Lawrence spring night for a show; nice temperature, nicer looking college girls in shorts strolling by, a Lyle Lovett-fashion-obsessed street musician playing for money nearby and pizza furnished by one of the guys’ girlfriends… It was the calm before the proverbial storm.

People usually work their way up to the blues. What did you listen to on your way there?
Al: When I was younger I listened to a lot of Credence, stuff like that; my dad was a big fan of rock music.

Justin: For me, it was Nirvana.

A: Yeah, Nirvana definitely. As I got older I started playing guitar to Nirvana, but that was back home in Mexico. When I came to the States, I started digging into different stuff; Junior Kimborough, Robert Lee Burnside… You know, all the people that were doing the rawer, Memphis style stuff. I just picked it up from there. I just try to make a collage of everything.

What about you? You’re being awfully quiet.
J: Oh, sorry. [laughs] I’d say some of my big inspirations as a drummer are probably Buddy Mills from Band of Gypsys, I kinda started listening to him when I started playing music with Al and really got into it. I really like Abe Cuddingham of the deftones a lot and Dave Grohl.

Al, Who’s your all-time favor guitar player? Remember, I’m looking for a “right answer.”
J: Steve Vai!

A: Yeah, right! [laughs] I couldn’t really tell. I don’t focus on one player, ya know.

J: Al, I’d probably say Burnside.

A: Yeah, Burnside is pretty awesome. I guess I’d have to go with that.

So, how do you feel about your first record? Is it an EP?
A: Yeah, it’s pretty much an EP.

J: It was our first time working with real recording equipment and not just a laptop.

What was the studio experience like for you guys?
J: It was good. We got to play at the same time together instead of laying down our parts at different times, which was great. Since it’s blues and pretty raw we just laid it down together; it turned out really well, Josh (Thomas, of High Diving Ponies) recorded and mixed it.

What was it like working with Josh?
J: Oh, it was great man.

A: He’s very relaxed and will tell you like it is; he’s straight forward but cool about it, ya know? No BS, really an awesome guy to work with. Josh has been around the scene for a long time so he knows what’s going on.

What’s the scene in K.C. like for a band like The Factory Workers? Are they on board or do you not really give a shit?
A: I don’t really care, I just really like playing live, we haven’t been doing it for too long but it’s definitely a lot of fun.

How long have you been playing together? Do you know the exact date?
J: It was April 16, two years ago.

How did you discover each other as musicians? Did you know some of the same people?
A: I would see Justin hanging with the hipsters at school and I thought “Man, I just wanna punch that guy.”

J: It’s true, He really did hate me.

A: But then we meet through a common friend at a birthday party and we hit it off from there. I was like, “Hey, you play drums? You wanna hang out and play music?”

J: Once we started jamming it just clicked. I had never played drums before but he stuck it out for 6 months or a year for me to pick it up. Now I think we have something really solid. I don’t have any formal training but I’d like to get some someday.

Who is the main songwriter in the band or do you share the work?
J: No, he writes them all. I don’t write a single thing. [laughs]

A: The songs are old ones I’ve had for a long time and some come on the spot. But yeah, I do most of the songwriting. He just beats the shit out of it.

What’s the EP going to be called?
A: I think we’re just going with The Factory Workers.

When is the album going to be “officially” released?
J: We just finished the final edit so it’s out now.

A: With some more time and a few more songs maybe we can add to it and release a full album.

How long have you two been playing together?
A: A couple years; We started to get some momentum going, had shows booked than I fell and broke my collarbone and we had to sit for like three months so that slowed us way down. It’s hard to play guitar with a broken collarbone, ya know.

Last question, you both play in High Diving Ponies with Josh Thomas. What’s it like splitting time between HDP and The Factory Workers?
J: It’s cool but it’s two completely different style.

A: I play bass in HDP. It’s taught me a lot because I do bass a lot when I’m strumming cords with The Factory Workers.

J: I’d say we’ve seen a lot of improvement in each others playing since we started doing both. There’s a bit more aggression in Josh’s songs so it give me an excuse to go crazy on the drums.

A: I’m pretty mellow when I play the bass, I stick to one bass line. With The Factory Workers it’s more freestyle. The main part of the song always remains the same but there is room to dance up and down the song.

Discussing music with Al and Justin and witnessing their annihilating set at The Replay Lounge further cemented in me the feeling that the blues, and rock for that matter, are part of the same universal language. It is not English, Spanish, Arabic or Pig Latin. It is language with no barrier. It’s words and an alphabet that we all can understand.

With the closing notes still bouncing off of the pinball machines, I gladly gave the guys $5 to replenish their thirsty gas tank. As I headed out the door, the smile returned to my face and a thought popped into my ringing head:

“If they are this great live after just a few shows, then how killer are they going to be a year from now?”

As rock bands go, Arizona’s Meat Puppets have never been what one would classify as normal. At their calmest you could say that their approach to music is unorthodox and at their wildest well, they are flat out, full-speed-ahead weird.

Since forming in Paradise Valley, Arizona in early 1980, the band has released seminal albums, including the SST classic Meat Puppets 2, created their own style of punk rock by combining psychedelic rock (and tons of actual hallucinogens), country music and the off beat vocal delivery of twin brothers Cris and Curt Kirkwood, to make a sound solidly that of the brothers Meat.

The sound the Kirkwoods fostered was not embraced by the mainstream, the one exception being 1994’s Too High To Die, but it was borrowed from and built upon by some of the most influential bands of my generation including Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Nada Surf, the Replacements to name just a few. The band’s latest album, Sewn Together [Megaforce] is exactly that, a sewn together tapestry of all the influences and substances that morphed into the creature that is The Meat Puppets.

The album’s title track is a singsong campfire distortion touched country rock gem that would make Gram Parsons and his Flying Burrito Brothers proud. That is just one of the pop infused gems to be found on the album ironically released by metal gods Metallica’s first label residence.

“Blanket of Weeds” is a harmonized tune with a distortion jam filling out it’s midsection; “Sapphire” shows that the at times stellar band Concrete Blonde may have been Puppets followers as well. “Go to Your Head” has a feeling that yes, in fact, Michael Stipe stole his voice from Cris Kirkwood and Peter, Bill and Mike pilfered their best ideas from the bluegrass lovin’ Arizona punks.

But longtime fans don’t be fooled by the rock conformity. Oh no, there are some moments that we’ve come to know, love and attribute to an acid consumption on par with Hendrix. The most likely suspect of this and the perhaps the best song on Sewn Together is the whistle lead, “The Monkey and The Snake”. Strange lyrics abound here: “This is the story of the monkey and the snake/the monkey hit that sucker with a rake/snake bit the monkey and the hand/now the monkey’s singin’ in a band.” And believe it or not it gets weirder from there. Drum solos, flange guitar, mandolin and funky bass are in full force here.

To put it simply, Sewn Together is a beautifully strange album that proves the Meat Puppets are still relevant and have much to offer the world of “indie” rock.

The point of the many comparisons to other bands in this review is not do to a lack of imagination on my part; or is it to imply that The Meat Puppets have reached the end of their creative rope after twenty-nine years. That couldn’t be further from the truth; it is merely to show the influence that band has had on Alternative music. Without the Meat Puppets, alternative as we know it would have an entirely different sound or may not exist at all.

Thank you Jesus for the Kirkwood brothers. Sewn Together is one of the top five best albums I’ve heard so far this year and more importantly, it is yet another step in The Meat Puppets’ journey of greatness.

It’s only been a few weeks since The Killers’ Brandon Flowers declared that Kurt Cobain ruined rock’n'roll, but he’s back at it again, and this time Nirvana isn’t the only band in his sights. He’d also like to take this opportunity to talk trash about Led Zeppelin. Because hey, if you can be a famous singer you can at least be a famous douche bag.

Flowers told NME.com that they’re planning on using their upcoming North American tour to amp up their American audience to be on par with their fans across the pond. But in order to do that, he said, the band will have to overcome some “prejudices” of the American listening public first.

“We’ve been embraced in Britain in a way that I’ll never understand, and it’s such a wonderful thing,” he declared. “But over here [in America], people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed [to grow].”

“It doesn’t matter how many great songs we write or how many great shows we play. But we’re slowly chipping away at it. With this last album ['Day And Age'], there’s been a noticeable shift but we’re still nowhere near where we are in Europe.”

There are plenty of amusing things about this, but we’ll stick with these: 1. Led Zeppelin are British, and 2. Since when did someone liking Nirvana or Led Zep keep them from liking new music? Well, if it’s good new music, that is.

Manchester Orchestra’s sophomore album Mean Everything to Nothing is an exhilarating live rock assault chock full of evocatively raw lyrics and heavy guitar driven melodies sung with dramatic punk rock urgency. It’s a loud; in your face album produced in an unrefined bare-bone style that gives the album an authentic live rock band feel.

Manchester Orchestra immediately kicks the album in to high gear with “The Only One”, a blistering 2-minute 39-second opener which sets the energy precedent and flows seamlessly into the dramatic rise and fall of “Shake it Out!”. Another raw urgent rock number that has lead singer Andy Hull emotively barking the chorus of “You Gotta Shake it out! Shake it out! You gotta break it down.” Hulls cathartic shriek is bursting with angst creating an enthralling emotional loud/soft dynamic to the song. The next track, “I’ve Got Friends”, is undoubtedly the catchiest song on the album with a larger than life anthemic orchestration equipped with booming guitar riffs, full band sing-a-longs, melodic piano and a fist pounding chorus “I’ve got Friends in all the right places, I know what they want and I know that they want me to stay!” It’s a killer rock song that is a well-balanced assault with a lyrically beautiful edge.

The pacing of this album is almost ruthless as each and every song bleeds in to one another leaving no time to rest. By the time “I’ve Got Friends” flows in to “Pride” I was a little exhausted. “Pride” is a slow burning number that builds into a rhythmic anthem that I found a little too over the top for my taste. Thankfully, Hull and the band lets up a little bit on the dramatics for the second half of the album starting with “In My Teeth” — a grunge influenced tune that reminds me of Nirvana at their peak. Another change of pace occurs with “I Can Feel a Hot One”, which is a beautiful song that replaces the guitar assault with piano and cello forcing Andy Hull’s impressive lyrical storytelling ability to the forefront.

Mean Everything to Nothing is a great listen from start to finish. I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child was an amazing debut album, but Manchester Orchestra has managed to produce a sophomore album that is even more expansive in scope and sound than it’s predecessor and reflects a band that has really come in to their own.

Favorite Gentlemen/Canvasback Music

You may not know Red Fang by name, but if you’ve been near the internets recently, you’ve probably seen the video for their debut single “Prehistoric Dog”. It’s ‘gone viral’ as the kids say, and rightfully so: it’s easily one of the best videos of the last five years. Incorporating host of visual delights, including excessive beer consumption, live action role playing, creative recycling and Monty Python-esque gore, you owe it to yourself to seek it out immediately. In fact, the video is so good that you might be distracted from the fact that Red Fang are much more than an awesome video. That would be doing the four Portland natives a great disservice, as a trip through the self-titled Red Fang debut will assert quite definitively that they are nothing less than a full-on four-piece Metal onslaught.

It’s a good time to be in a metal band. Mastodon and The Sword are nabbing Grammy nominations while classic acts like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest draw the same huge numbers they did in their 80s heydays. Even more notably, the crowds are comprised of increasingly larger numbers of young fans with their parents. Who says metal doesn’t promote good family values?

Like The Sword, Red Fang owe more to the Black Sabbath or Motorhead end of the spectrum. There’s some heavy cowbell and ride action going on here, and it’s not even close to being ironic. Red Fang aren’t a one trick pony, either. On tracks like “Sharks”, they change tempos at will, and before you know it, you’re pretty much helpless to avoid flailing around like you’re a dozen beers in at a Melvins show. It’s not normally in my nature, but by the middle of said song, I was very glad that I live alone. By the end, I was pretty sure there were good reasons for that status. In my defense, the song is named “Sharks” and metal rules of conduct mandate a certain level on enthusiasm.

For a four-piece, Red Fang make a hell of a lot of a racket. There are times when they get almost Nirvana with it, due in no small part to drummer John Sherman’s non-stop pummeling. This guy hits hard, whether it’s on the swaggering “Good To Die” or in slower, sludgy parts like the ones on “Humans Remain Human Remains” that come close to the Melvins side of the Nirvana sound. Perhaps maybe a bit too much: the chorus hook and its similarity to “Heart Shaped Box” may very well precipitate a call from Ms. Love, especially given her recent squandering of her ill-gotten gains. Musical similarities aside, the vocals are hardly warmed over Creed-ified Kurdt Vedderisms. Props also have to be given to singer/guitarist David Sullivan. Here is a man with some pipes on him. He’s equally comfortable with a gritty rasp or a grungy yowl and adds the final piece to the headbanging awesomeness that is Red Fang. There’s a pronounced animal theme here, but lest you think they are a one trick pony, rest assured that the themes of fire, destruction, thunder and human remains are also addressed. Such things are comfortable in their familiarity.

All of the metal planets have aligned on Red Fang. If you consider yourself a fan of heavy music, it would be impossible for you to not like this record. Each track has a barbarian swagger that doesn’t ignore the fact that while we are basically evolved apes, we’re not dumb apes. Check the average Red Fang crowd maybe four beers into their set and tell me you don’t see evidence of Darwinism. Red Fang the band will definitely appeal to your primal side, but Red Fang the record shows that you can bang your head and still think with it.

There for a blessed moment we had bands that didn’t seem to care about image:  Black Flag, Husker Du, The Descendents, Beat Happening, Nirvana.  Yes, they all had an image but it didn’t seem as contrived as say, Vampire Weekend, The Shins or any number of “indie” bands playing the festival circuit this summer.
 
That is why it was so refreshing when I received a CD from the Wichita, Kansas-based band Black Gasoline.  No, they weren’t extremely original but the influences that ring through on their album, She Gave Us Magic, all mix well to create a 1970s heavy music lover’s equivalent of a giant hash brownie. This is indeed stoner rock. And what is wrong with that?
 
The band’s love of classic rock is entirely in your face.  They create a sound that is as thick as sludge and meddles into a sound that is reminiscent of Van Halen, The Who, and recent champions of the sound, Queens of The Stone Age.  Taking their name from a 1940s barely refined type of homemade fuel, the band (Bryan Seely on vocals, Paul DeCeglie on guitar, Larry Donaldson on keyboards, Kendall Newby on drums and Scott Mackey on bass) seem ready to make their namesake proud; using driving guitars, pounding drums and bowel loosing bass lines as accelerants, they’ll set the Midwest on fire.

I “spoke” with the band via MySpace.
 
When did Black gasoline come together?
 It’s been about four years now.
 
What music has had the biggest impact on you as a group? She Gave Us Magic sounds very rooted in 1970s rock to me…
I think we have stylistically gravitated to the feel of 70s hard rock, but I don’t think you could call that a genre or even say that that would make us any easier to explain if you did. I do think it would be correct in that during the 70s you saw bands like Deep Purple or Black Sabbath make increasingly diverse, ambitious and dynamic albums, so I hope that’s what you mean. But as we’ve continued developing and finding our artistic voice, we’ve moved towards a genre that really didn’t exist, in that most of your 70s era bands only made one or two heavy psych albums, a piece which was usually peppered with a lot of R&B and blues, whereas we’ve been attempting to make a career out of that era’s accidents instead of the easy “heavy metal” outs.

As far as what’s been getting our goat lately, and I hate to answer this for everyone else, but the last few years worth of Swedish hard rock like The Hellacopters, Graveyard, Baby Woodrose, Dungen, and Witchcraft are absolutely awesome. Black Mountain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, High on Fire, The Flaming Lips, Midlake, and Dead Meadow are some American bands we’ve been into. Not surprisingly, a lot of oldies are in rotation: The Pretty Things, Grand Funk Railroad, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, E.L.O, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, The Who, Queen, The Byrds, The Beatles. In the Ipod era, it’s almost more difficult to convey the logic of musical influence because after a point, and this is more likely for a musician, it gets almost more scholastic than it should be on the surface, because it is, after all, just pop music.
 
Is She Gave Us Magic your first full-length record?
 Yes it is, but we are more than half-way into a new record that will either make us or break us. I’m always appreciative of any interest in us, but it’s hard not to have more interest in the future than the past. So keep an eye on us; we’re hoping for summer or fall.
 
Is the process of songwriting a group effort or does one member take the reins more often?
I think one of our greatest strengths is our creative process. By the time a riff or a melody is filtered through the band as a whole, the original idea is, in many cases, unrecognizable. Without the collective input of all five of us, it just wouldn’t be the same.
 
Is there much of a rock scene around Wichita?
It ebbs and flows. I don’t want to be unfair to a core group of people that really do work hard to ensure that there’s always some sort of scene, but sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s more like really loud fashioned. Like most American cities there’s a faction that is birthed from corporate radio and guitar stores which will always be shit, but there’s an underground that has no set sound but has been very interesting, for instance Wichita spawned Manilla Road, Split Lip Rayfield, so wrap your head around that!
 

What do you think of the current trend of bands becoming famous and getting signed to deals strictly from internet buzz?
It’s great if you don’t mind being famous and working a day job.
 
Do you think that it takes away from a band if they don’t have to tour the country and build their own fan base?
They certainly won’t be that cohesive. Making an ambitious record is not that hard in this day and age. Having taste is another matter, but neither will matter if you can’t pull it off live. You might have to play after us, and we won’t make it easy for you.
 
I saw your band play a club in Lawrence, Kansas, a few years ago and your energy was explosive. How do you stoke that fire every night?
Blood, sweat, practice, need for attention, energy drinks… Mostly practice, and all that energy that a good crowd reflects back to you.
 
With “indie rock” being the big thing as of this moment, do you think heavier bands like Black Gasoline suffer?
Do you mean any worse than it already has? Personally I think it’s great for a band like us; it makes us even more different. If we’re back to back with a really trendy indie band, we look like Viking plunderers when the reality is that, compared to modern metal bands, we’re not really that heavy, just louder. With music the way it is now we’re a mystery, and, personally, I think it works in our favor. Styles change, a few years ago it was that rap rock thing. How smart does that Limp Bizkit guy look now?
 
How is the tour in support of Magic going?
We’re still promoting it and selling it, but at this point, we’re really revving up to the next record.
 
What’s been the biggest crowd you’ve play for to date?
Probably The Riverfest in Wichita with fellow local luminaries Split Lip Rayfield. I think that was two or three thousand people.
 
What is your inspiration for songs like say, “Lady Iron Wing” and “The Boy That Destroyed The World”?
 
“Lady Iron Wing” starts off sounding like it’s another “dangerous chick” song, like Motley Crue’s “Looks that Kill or Deep Purple’s “Lady Double Dealer”,etc. but as the song moves along the listener hopefully” discovers that “The Lady” is actually a world war II bomber and as for “boy” your guess is as good as mine.
 
Do you think a band having an “image” is important at all?
That’s an interesting question in that we’re aware that our image is an absolute lack of image, which has its own hipster appeal. It’s interesting in that we are aware BG has this burnout image, but it’s not something that we think about because we would rather shop at thrift stores and have bad ass equipment then waste too much time really dwelling on it. If there’s any method to our image, it’s that so long as nothing dates you, your on the right track.

Their song writing chops may have been over looked until Kurt Cobain gave The Vaselines some much needed praise and recognition back in the 90s (yeah, remember the days of MTV Unplugged?). But Sub Pop is dusting off some of the band’s best work, remastering it and will be releasing The Vaselines’ complete collection as a deluxe CD and LP set early this May.

Sub Pop originally released the compilation of the band’s entire music collection in 1992 with The Way of The Vaselines: A Complete History, but on May 5 the label will be reissuing the compilation as a two CD and LP set that will include 17 new song, according to Fact Magazine [via The Daily Swarm]. The new compilation, Enter The Vaselines, will have new mixes, unreleased demos, and live recordings from the band. 

The Vaselines formed in 1986, and though they only released two EPs and one full album, the band was able to influence the likes of Kurt Cobain, who is quoted saying The Vaselines were his “most favorite songwriters in the world.” Nirvana covered several of the band’s songs, including “Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam” and “Molly Lips”, which helped land the Scottish band some much needed recognition. The Vaselines broke up in 1990, but have been performing live on and off since 2006.

If speaking ill of the dead is taboo, where do we land on speaking ill of dead legendary rock stars? Brandon Flowers is about to find out, as comments The Killers‘ lead singer made about the grunge movement and its revered leader, Kurt Cobain, were published today and are already making waves across the web.

Today’s NME Daily Gossip found this little gem in UK tabloid The Daily Star: “I don’t mean it in a bad way, but I think Kurt Cobain and grunge took the fun out of rock ’n roll,” Flowers said. “Everything’s changing, though, and it’s starting to become a lot more playful and brighter.”

To add insult to injury, Flowers’ comments come almost 15 years to the day after Cobain’s tragic suicide — he took his own life April 5, 1994. Flowers also took some time out from his busy schedule to slag off Americans in general: “Everywhere but America our new album Day & Age has grabbed people. Review wise, Sam’s Town got slapped around but did really well in America. We’re learning that they like the guitar Killers, whereas you guys in the UK and the rest of the world have got this more melodic pop-orientated album. Kings Of Leon filled that guitar spot nicely in America but they don’t have a song like ‘Human’.”

Funny, aren’t Kings Of Leon bigger in the UK too?

Metallica, the bay-area giants that legitimized “thrash metal” with albums like Kill ‘Em All, Master of Puppets, …And Justice For All and “The Black Album” were welcomed into the hallowed confines of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4, 2009.

Their inclusion, though absolutely deserving in every conceivable way, poses a wider question to my ever curious mind: Will the inclusion of now two “metal” acts, (Black Sabbath being the other. Let’s face it, Led Zeppelin and The Who don’t count as metal.) clear the way for other metal and proto-metal acts?

The governing body of “The Hall” is still skittish when inductions are concerned. The Hall has inducted piano music lightweight Floyd Cramer, but has passed up The Stooges. They’ve welcomed jazz “rockers” Steely Dan and the doo-wop group The Moonglows, but took forever to induct The Ramones and The Talking Heads. So, what would make you think The Hall will get heavier anytime soon?

There are several bands that fall into the metal, punk, thrash and hardcore categories that are entirely deserving of the honor of induction. Here is a list of bands that are eligible and in my mind, should be included. Bare with me, it’s a short list.

Motorhead: Without Lemmy Kilmister and the boys, the genre of thrash (and Metallica) probably would never have existed. Their album, Ace of Spades, is a benchmark of lawn killing volume and speed.

Megadeth: Dave Mustaine, former member of Metallica, focused all his aggression and hatred into classic ear splitting albums such as Rust in Peace, Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, Countdown to Extinction and Killing is My Business and Business is Good. And as an added bonus, the band takes it’s name for the loss of lives from a nuclear detonation. Now that’s Metal.

MC5: The Detroit based house band for the Black panther Party was the first to “Kick Out The Jams”. Their explosive shows, incendiary guitar work of Fred “Sonic” Smith and Wayne Kramer and controversial political stances helped set the stage for both punk and metal.

The Stooges: Again, another band that helped in the invention of metal and punk. For god sake, listen to Raw Power and tell me Iggy Pop and his Ann Arbor, Michigan brethren don’t belong.

Black Flag: No they aren’t metal, but hardcore punk arose from the “forbidden beat” created by metal and more precisely, Motorhead. Black Flag gave birth to thousands of punk and thrash bands either by groups attempting to copy their sound or by guitarist Greg Ginn’s indie record label SST.

The Melvins: Masters of sludge and drone, no Melvins equals no Nirvana. No Nirvana equals none of the good bands and some of the bad (I’m talking to you, Bush and Candlebox) that appeared in the 1990’s wake of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

Judas Priest: Rob Halford is the King of the 1980’s wave of British Metal. British Steel is an album for the ages.

And there is just a taste of the metal, thrash, hardcore and punk bands that have shaped the musical landscape over the past 30+ years that are up for induction. They have all, either directly or indirectly, changed the public’s perception of what is great, what is groundbreaking, what is acceptable and what is not. And in the process have warped my brain for the better.

I must extend my congratulations to Metallica. They truly are one of the greats of this or any other time. Who knows, maybe next year someone from my list will be asked into The Hall, but my bet is that the voters will probably go with The Carpenters instead. Man, could they wail!

Many musicians try different sounds, vibes and configurations before hitting on one that seems to ring true. Josh Thomas had been through a couple of different bands prior to landing on the post-shoe gaze freak-out that is Kansas City’s High Diving Ponies.

There was Bodisartha, the Nirvana/Mudhoney alterna-grunge band that released two albums. Then came The Spidermums, a band the released a few EPs and got a mention in Pitchfork for their cover of The Amps’ “Bragging Party” that appeared on a compilation with Deerhunter. “Pitchfork is always looking for a reason to write about Deerhunter so I guess that’s how I wound up on there.”

But with High Diving Ponies, Josh says he wants to go in a entirely different direction. That’s one of the reasons his previous band is no more. “Bodisartha was too heavily associated with the Nirvana and the music I was making wasn’t fitting into that mold anymore. I just wanted to do something different.” Hence, High Diving Ponies.

The band pieced together with members of KC bluescore band The Factory Workers (Justin Brooks on drums and Al Amador on bass) along with friends Steve Williams on cello and Kyle Pugh on guitar. Although Thomas said he had the songs written before putting together the band, High Diving Ponies is not a one-man band. “We’ve come up with a lot just fucking around at practice. These guys bring out things I would have never thought of. The next record will be a totally collaborative effort.”

Thomas sights My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Vivian Girls, Boo and Boo Too and The Beatles as music favorites that lead to the creation of HDP and a sound he affectionately calls “danger pop.” It is a swirling dream of effects, acoustic/electric guitars and vocals that sound like they were recorded in a room a thousand years wide. Traditional song craft, melody and structure stand hand in hand with anarchy and chaos. The three songs on the band’s MySpace page (“Muppets”, “Meatheads” and “I Smell Like Smoke”) are a step in the right, unsettling direction.

An album is in the works but Josh is taking his time with the release. “Hopefully it will be out this summer,” he said. “We’re almost done recording it but I want to sit on it a month and then go back and listen to it and make sure we still think it sounds right. There’s no rush to release it.” When it is released it will be on Circle View/Chomp Womp. And he will go the old school route: it will be DIY cds with spray painted covers — and if they can get the plates done cheap enough, Josh says he’d like to do vinyl, a limited run of about 300.

Though he considers him part of the “Chomp Womp Family”, a collective made up of Kansas City/ Lawrence, Kansas bands Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk (previously featured in Notes From Middle America), Rooftop Vigilantes and many others, he stops short at calling himself part of the KC music community. “It’s not really a good scene,” he said. “There are no good radio stations, no good zines but there are some good venues. Maybe it is a good scene. I don’t know, I’m not part of it. I’m doing my own thing.”

If doing his own thing consists of surrounding himself with great musicians making strange, dreamy, at times violent and always thought-provoking music, it’s ok if he’s not part of a conventional scene. He knows what he wants to do, he’s good at it and that’s scene enough.

High Diving Ponies – “Muppets”

Many musicians try different sounds, vibes and configurations before hitting on one that seems to ring true. Josh Thomas had been through a couple of different bands prior to landing on the post-shoe gaze freak-out that is Kansas City’s High Diving Ponies.

There was Bodisartha, the Nirvana/Mudhoney alterna-grunge band that released two albums. Then came The Spidermums, a band the released a few EPs and got a mention in Pitchfork for their cover of The Amps’ “Bragging Party” that appeared on a compilation with Deerhunter. “Pitchfork is always looking for a reason to write about Deerhunter so I guess that’s how I wound up on there.”

But with High Diving Ponies, Josh says he wants to go in a entirely different direction. That’s one of the reasons his previous band is no more. “Bodisartha was too heavily associated with the Nirvana and the music I was making wasn’t fitting into that mold anymore. I just wanted to do something different.” Hence, High Diving Ponies.

The band pieced together with members of KC bluescore band The Factory Workers (Justin Brooks on drums and Al Amador on bass) along with friends Steve Williams on cello and Kyle Pugh on guitar. Although Thomas said he had the songs written before putting together the band, High Diving Ponies is not a one-man band. “We’ve come up with a lot just fucking around at practice. These guys bring out things I would have never thought of. The next record will be a totally collaborative effort.”

Thomas sights My Bloody Valentine, The Flaming Lips, Vivian Girls, Boo and Boo Too and The Beatles as music favorites that lead to the creation of HDP and a sound he affectionately calls “danger pop.” It is a swirling dream of effects, acoustic/electric guitars and vocals that sound like they were recorded in a room a thousand years wide. Traditional song craft, melody and structure stand hand in hand with anarchy and chaos. The three songs on the band’s MySpace page (“Muppets”, “Meatheads” and “I Smell Like Smoke”) are a step in the right, unsettling direction.

An album is in the works but Josh is taking his time with the release. “Hopefully it will be out this summer,” he said. “We’re almost done recording it but I want to sit on it a month and then go back and listen to it and make sure we still think it sounds right. There’s no rush to release it.” When it is released it will be on Circle View/Chomp Womp. And he will go the old school route: it will be DIY cds with spray painted covers — and if they can get the plates done cheap enough, Josh says he’d like to do vinyl, a limited run of about 300.

Though he considers him part of the “Chomp Womp Family”, a collective made up of Kansas City/ Lawrence, Kansas bands Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk (previously featured in Notes From Middle America), Rooftop Vigilantes and many others, he stops short at calling himself part of the KC music community. “It’s not really a good scene,” he said. “There are no good radio stations, no good zines but there are some good venues. Maybe it is a good scene. I don’t know, I’m not part of it. I’m doing my own thing.”

If doing his own thing consists of surrounding himself with great musicians making strange, dreamy, at times violent and always thought-provoking music, it’s ok if he’s not part of a conventional scene. He knows what he wants to do, he’s good at it and that’s scene enough.

High Diving Ponies – “Muppets”

Ever since the collective frenzy we all worked ourselves into worrying what was going to happen to the world when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000, New Years have become cause for worry and constant concern. Now as that fateful date approaches again, we find ourselves asking — what horrors does 2009 hold? Luckily, former Sleater-Kinney guitarist and writer/blogger Carrie Brownstein has the answers for us via an extremely informative psychic/astrological reading.

Brownstein’s music and culture blog for NPR, Monitor Mix, featured a video interview this week with Andy Gehrz, an astrologer and pyschic who offered up her predictions on what kind of havoc 2009 would wreak on the music world. Other than the fact that this kind of stuff is just funny, because she seems to really believe what she’s saying, Andy seems to think some pretty serious business is going to go down in the next 12 months.

Among other things, Pitchfork is going to buy Rolling Stone, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco will have a mid-life crisis, Arcade Fire is apparently going synth, and The Shins have some sort of cultural responsibility to live out that involves finding lesser-known bands and taking them on tour. Very noble. Beth Ditto and some unnamed girl from Georgia with a lot of tattoos will both enjoy lots of success, and in case you were wondering, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is some breed of super Taurus.

But probably the most shocking predicition Andy made — she said other stuff about Lil Wayne getting a DUI and Kanye West making a political statement, but we said shocking — was when she suggested that Kris Novoselic and Dave Grohl will reunite Nirvana with a rotating cast of lead singers. As a tribute. Uh huh.

Check out the video for more very important predictions about The Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Vampire Weekend and others. And maybe it’s just us, but there is something quite entertaining about a 30-something, red-headed, glasses-wearing, white, female astrologer saying, “I have something to say about Lil Wayne.”

Andy Gehrz, Astrological Detective
Monitor Mix