I’m a little late on this, but on April 12th, famed jazz drummer Steve Reid passed away at the age of 66 after a long fight with cancer. I am by no means a jazz aficionado, but the genre is one that I think even if people aren’t experts of, everyone can agree is one of the most vital and important developments in American history, much less musical history. Reid played with the big classic names of the genre like Miles Davis, but he has also been long known for his collaborations with several different legends both of the past and present, including afro-beat master Fela Kuti, soul and R&B staple James Brown, and electronica artist extraordinaire Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. The latter was his most recent collaboration, and it led to a solid relationship with the respected indie behemoth Domino Records, which released his last proper Steve Reid Ensemble album Daxaar in 2007. Aside from the namedropping notoriety the man had accrued throughout his years, the reason he became the staple he was in all of these scenes was his fearless energy behind the kit. His style has varied over the years between experimental and classical, but it’s always been fervent and buoyant, whether it was during a free jazz epic amongst the crew of Sun Ra, or creating some of the most infectious beats as a session drummer for Motown Records back in the day. The New York musician will be sorely missed, even if some of us (points at self) are realizing his greatness a bit too late. Read the official press release from Domino via Brooklyn Vegan.
-Chris Polley
Bloggers, myself included, love to mess with washed-up musicians who were never particularly good to begin with and who cling to their fame with their dying breath. But when these same people deal with all-too-real medical issues, the messing around gets put on hold, and for good reason. So it is with Poison singer and VH1 celebreality star Bret Michaels, who this weekend was rushed to intensive care after suffering a brain hemorrhage. The singer had complained of massive headaches and an examination found bleeding in his brain stem. He is currently listed in critical condition. We may not be the biggest Bret Michael fans here at AudioSuede, but this is serious business, and we wish the singer a full recovery.
-Christian Hagen
The always defiant psych-pop act MGMT debuted at 2 on the Billboard 100 last week with their second album Congratulations. The indie and hipster community has had a up-in-arms/with-arms-open-wide attitude about MGMT’s apparently difficult second album. Congratulations sold 66,000 records last week, which suggest that the singles “Kids” and “Time to Pretend” from the debut were indeed mainstream crossover hits. MGMT rose to popularity at the same exact time Vampire Weekend blew up in the first quarter of 2008. I remember being at a hipster bar in Richmond, VA in January of that year when I first heard MGMT out in the real world instead the blogosphere. Within 7 months, they became a band everyone seemed to love, especially urban yuppies and bobos. I tried to see MGMT play at the Pitchfork Music Festival that year, but it was too crowded with bros and trixies to get close. The gestation period for mainstream coolness had dropped to only a matter of months, but what coolness giveth, coolness takes away. MGMT’s Congradulations can be seen as a statement against their own popularity and coolness. MGMT didn’t play “Kids” at Coachella last weekend, and they may never play it again. MGMT started as two dudes going on stage in attempt to try to piss-off and annoy the audience as much as possible. They are performance artists, not rock stars, but it is still strange that a band whose first single made fun of becoming a popular indie band became a popular indie band. Now they have the number two album in America, behind a 16-year-old Canadian pop star. As MGMT said it themselves, “We’re fated to pretend.”
-Daniel Wipert
In “Awesome Upcoming Release” news, hip-hop drum king and all-around awesome guy ?uestlove confirmed some details about the upcoming Roots album How I Got Over and the early word is exciting. For one thing, experi-folk singer Joanna Newsom will be doing vocal dubs on The Roots’ version (or sampling, it’s unclear) of her song “The Book of Right On,” while Jim James will be helping the band do a version of Monsters of Folk’s “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)” which apparently The Roots helped the latter band perform on Jimmy Fallon. Elsewhere, director Chris Malloy, of the new documentary 180° South, has recruited a wonderful group of musicians to create the soundtrack for the film, including Mason Jennings, Jack Johnson, and a collaborative effort between James Mercer (of The Shins and Broken Bells) and Isaac Brock (of Modest Mouse). In addition, Brock has taken the lion’s share of the disc space on the soundtrack with a series of new tracks he’s recorded under the name Ugly Casanova, a moniker he hasn’t used since 2002. Should we get our hands on either of these releases (no word on whether the soundtrack will be released separately or not), we’ll most certainly let the readers know!
-Christian Hagen
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Here are the albums up for OMD review this week:
Friday, April 30 – Archie Bronson Outfit, Coconut and MGMT, Congratulations
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Our weekly playlist will be posted once Grooveshark quits being stupid, which will hopefully be any time now. Thanks for your patience, and check back later to see what we play!