By Hans Fink
It’s been a year of collaborations for DANGER MOUSE; the recent BROKEN BELLS EP Meyrin Fields, co-written and co-produced with James Mercer of THE SHINS; last year’s effort with the BLACK KEYS on the album Brothers; and later this year, the release of a U2 album tentatively titled Songs of Ascent, in which it is hoped Danger Mouse will help the band not suck as much as they have in the last decade. But the collaboration that I most look forward to is this month’s release of his collaboration with film composer Daniele Luppi for a project called ROME. Rounding out the roster on this project, JACK WHITE and NORAH JONES will be handling vocal duties. Rome promises a lamenting soundscape somewhere between a spaghetti Western and a Tarantino flick, fused with a wet, bluesy swagger. Based on the strength of the three songs leaked on the internet—“Rose With a Broken Neck,” “Black” and “Two Against One”—it’s a safe bet Rome is going to be a worthy release, certainly more favorable than the aforementioned U2 thing.
The recently released 30-minute BEASTIE BOYS video “Make Some Noise” a.k.a. “Fight For Your Right Revisited” gives whole new meaning to the term “pissing match” as the younger B-Boys, portrayed by Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogan, take on their future counterparts portrayed by Will Farrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly. Debuting last month on MTV, the ambitious and star-studded narrative features a ridiculous supporting cast of celebrities including Steve Buscemi, Amy Poehler, David Cross, Rainn Wilson and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to name few.
In an unforeseen twist, producer POLOW DA DON has partnered unique talent M.I.A. on a track with professional douche-bag CHRIS BROWN. Honestly, that’s like the time I went to a party and some culinary retard made bacon wrapped water chestnuts as hors d’œuvres. Bacon is basically one of the greatest foods ever and water chestnuts are just nasty little nuggets of shit that will ruin anything they are combined with. This collaboration makes me think of exactly that. Thank you, Polow Da Don, for your heart-felt attempt to save the career of a water chestnut.
And in High-Tech-What-The-Fuck News, this month ALICE COOPER will be headlining the Jägermeister Ice Cold Event in South London . . . from a studio in Hollywood. In what is billed as “U.K.’s first holographic 4-D rock gig,” Cooper and his band, consisting of the surviving original members, will perform a set in real-time in Hollywood and their performance will be projected over the Atlantic in hologram form onto a stage in South London. Giving the event a sense of tangibility, items such as balloons will shower the audience, and during a sequence where “snow” is falling on stage, icy blasts will chill the crowd. Cooper’s first experience with holograms was back in 1973 with the aid of legendary surrealist Salvador Dali. Now, in celebration of the release of his recent box set entitled Old School: 1964-1974, Cooper finds delight in the marriage of past and future. The event is limited to 800 exclusive tickets, which can only be obtained by winning them on Jägermeister’s U.K. Facebook page, and are not available to U.S. fans.
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE will be doing a “reunion” show with MUSE and RISE AGAINST on July 30 in Los Angeles. Or at least, various news sources report this as being a “reunion show.” While this is bound to be an event of extreme excellence, didn’t Rage Against the Machine already do a reunion show? Or maybe a dozen? How long can we milk this “reunion” thing? Honestly, they’ve been “reuniting” since Coachella 2007. They “reunited” again at Rock The Bells . . . and then went overseas to “reunite” some more in Europe and South America. And they reunited in a protest concert against Arizona’s SB1070 law. I think we can honestly stop referring to it as a reunion at this point and acknowledge that Rage Against the Machine is in fact solvent and existent. This of course follows rumors that the band is in fact working on a new album, due to be released later this year. Hopefully the rumors are true, and RATM has a reunion tour in support of the new album. And hopefully they break up again so that they can reunite a few years later. And that concludes my rotten column.
