Oh Lou, you’re such a… wag. Hot on the heels of putting his, er, difficult, Metal Machine Music onto the concert stage, Lou Reed has a high frequency—literally—concert event planned in Australia with partner Laurie Anderson: a concert for canines…

From the NME:

Lou Reed and his partner, experimental musician Laurie Anderson, will be putting on a concert exclusively for dogs as part of Sydney’s Vivid LIVE festival on June 5.

The high-frequency ‘Music For Dogs’ gig will take place on Sydney Opera House’s northern boardwalk at 10am (EST). The show will be 20-minutes long due to the canine audience’s short attention span and will be inaudible to the humans present.

“Taking the idea of the apparently inaudible dog whistle to new artistic heights, our canine friends will be treated to a glorious cacophony of sound, while all we will hear is the lapping of the water on the harbour,” festival chiefs wrote on the event’s official website, Vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com

I have personally seen Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson walking their cute little dog many times in the West Village—I lived a half-block away from them for many years—so I think it’s pretty safe to assume that they are “dog people.” What would really be impressive, though, is if they did at least one show where no humans were present, just the pooches.

Thank you Chris Campion of Berlin, Germany!

 
Calling it “flawless,” and “rife with sci-fi paranoia and doomed futures,” Popmatters today celebrates the reissuing of Devo‘s Duty Now for the Future.  I love that ‘79 album dearly, but looking back at that era now, I can still remember the absolute, utter contempt some of my fellow Angelenos reigned down upon Akron’s spud boys.

Being a time when authenticity seemed prized beyond all other attributes, it’s not hard to see why.  Devo had uniforms, a mythology, tightly orchestrated playing.  But Gabba Gabba Hey, so did these guys.  And whatever doubts I had about the band were quickly and forever banished by this. 

So, here we are today.  With authenticity no longer a concern, like, at all, are we not better poised, err, evolved, for Devo’s return?  And, more importantly, will the world switch with them from Whip It red to Winter Olympic blue? 
 

 
Devo’s upcoming album, its first in 20 years, comes out June 15th.  And perhaps mocking, perhaps embracing, this focus-grouped-to-death time of ours, the band’s calling it, Something For Everybody:

Though the 12 songs on Something for Everybody are built on Devo’s signature mechanized swing, the recording and presentation of the album saw the band experimenting with an entirely new approach.  Greg Scholl was brought in to serve as COO for Devo, Inc., and—working with the advertising agency Mother LA—conducted a series of studies through the Club Devo site to help the band with its creative decisions, from color selection to song mixes.

“We decided to actively seek comment and criticism from outside people and use that as a tool, rather than shunning or ignoring it,” says Gerald Casale.  “Our experiences participating in secondary creativity—things like corporate consensus building, focus groups—make you appreciate the connection that an artist has to society.”

An amusing “touch test” for Something For Everybody follows below:

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds: Devolympics, Jerkin’ backwards and forwards with Devo

 
Excellent videos for LAFMS stalwarts The Doo-Dooettes, Tom Recchion and David Toop by NYC artist Jonathon Rosen.

These videos evolved out of the copious material that was generated for live performances with the great musician/composer Tom Recchion. Working as a live mix video-instrumentalist with music as evocatively visual as this, was (and is) for me, a matter of letting the video elements self-assemble themselves. In other words, rather than force a narrative, as much as possible I strive to be a conduit - using the sound as my guide, and let the visuals tell me what they want to be.

 
Doo-Dooettes, Loop Rendered (excerpt).
Music by the Doo-Dooettes from the CD Think Space on Organ of Corti.
Remixed and reconfigured by Tom Recchion.
Video animation & editing: Jonathon Rosen.
 

Apartment Thunder.
Music from David Toop’s CD Black Chamber (Sub Rosa).
Musicians: David Toop, Tom Recchion.
Animation / Editing / Direction: Jonathon Rosen

The King of Woolworths is the musical alterego of Mancunian Jon Brooks, who makes reprocessed tributes to 1960s BBC soundtracks. This is good shit. Here’s a BBC interview with him:

The King Of Woolworths is Jon Brooks, a man inspired by the soundtracks of 60s and 70s film and television like Get Carter, The Sweeney and the music of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. “It was always my dream to work for them,” he says. “Just that kind of experimentation. I like that attitude where anything went. You could use guitar or trumpet but the way you treated it was something else, and they created some really amazing sounds.”

L’Illustration Musicale is his second album, the follow up to 2001’s sampledelic soundtrack Ming Star. “Ming Star was me and a load of samples, whereas there are no samples on this album, it’s just a load of loops and stuff.” The new LP also features Jon’s first work with vocalists, including tracks with Dot Allison who has previously added vocal flushes to Death In Vegas and Emma Pollack from indie rockers The Delgados. She features on Nuada, 60s sugary pop soul inspired by the film The Wicker Man. “It was a very different thing to do for Emma, but I kind of had an idea it might work.”

Throughout the album, the Roy Budd-influenced instrumentals are cut up with Scott Walker-tinged pop. “I love pop music as well, especially 60s and 70s pop, and I wanted to get an essence of that,” he says. “I didn’t want to do the same thing again. I didn’t want the album to sound like the last one.”

(The King of Woolworths)

(Kings of Woolworths: Ming Star)

(You may recognize the song below as the source for Coil’s “Wraiths and Strays.”)

 
Speaking of doing interesting things with tape and tape recorders, here are a few engaging examples of art based on the nearly dead medium. Few are the recording purists who remain loyal to the magnetic stuff but Its tactile plasticity sure works well in these contexts.
 

 
(below) Christian Marclay‘s “The Beatles” (1989): Recorded music of the Beatles on crocheted magnetic tape. Oh how I love this, so many layers of meaning. Plus it’s just screaming to be worked over the by the analogue tape glove !

Signal to Noise
Anis Haron
thx Robert Chrysler !

 
An amazing Eno-era live version of the For Your Pleasure LP classic that I’d never seen before. And our man Brian is a delight here, heavily treating Manzanera‘s epic guitar solo by rhythmically altering the VSO on the tape decks he’s running the guitar through. Good shit ! Ferry is also in ultra-fine form, though he seriously muffs the lyric at 3:16, it’s kind of endearing. Jah bless a You-tube !
 

 
gracias Jeff Copas !

Feel the New Jack litmus test that is P. M. DAWN, truly the greatest maestros of early 1990s adult contemporary radio smooth christvibe rubdown radio what ever put on some baggy pants and rocked beads all over everything in what I suppose may have been the world’s only attempt at mainstream acid house-y R&B with a Christian flavor and music videos that looked like out-takes from “Benny & Joon.” Only the TRULY RIGHTEOUS can vibe to this shit. If you don’t understand, you never will, and I’m not going to bother explaining, but if your sense of humor is wide enough to take this in, then truly are ye among the blessed.

(The Best of P.M. Dawn)

 
Go visit Animated Albums to see more, um, animated albums! .
 
Thanks Marc Campbell!

Amazing find by io9. Stan “The Man” Griffin, who writes science fiction horror books about abortions (?!?!) (sample tag line from his book “Summoned: The Novel”: “The fear of being stung is more fearful than ever.”) has recorded what is perhaps the greatest version of the Spider-Man song ever done. No, seriously.

Meet Stan The Man Griffin, scifi author and fedora aficionado. He wrote “Spider-Dance Spider-Man Theme Song,” a smooooth remix of Peter Parker’s angsty existence. With lyrics like “You hear something from above / He has spider-blood,” this song = insta-sex.

First off, it’s worth mentioning that Stan The Man Griffin has a book coming out, Summoned The Novel, which tackles the foremost issues of today. In fact, the book’s very cover tantalizes us with mysterious epigrams - “The fear of being stung is more fearful than ever” and “If you could imagine where these creartures [sic] come from.” Other than the naked dragonfly Da Vinci man, I’m pretty sure we figured out where horses come from. Maybe Stan The Man takes an Insane Clown Posse approach when it comes to equestrianism.

The Most Erotic Rendition Of The Spider-Man Theme Ever Performed (io9)

(Download Spider-Dance Here)

(Note: For extra fun, play this song and scroll down to listen while looking at the animated GIF in the “TRIPPY VIDEO FROM GERMAN SCI-FI FILM ‘IM STAUB DER STERNE’ (1976)” post. BONUS FUN!)

 
Why does there seem to be some sort of cultural amnesia about the pre-disco era music of the Bee Gees? In America at least, most people do not seem to be aware of all of the absolutely amazing music made by the Brothers Gibb before Saturday Night Fever. The Bee Gees started having hit records in Australia in 1967. By 1968 they were #1 in the charts the world over and getting compared to the Beatles. They had tons of amazing songs. I’d easily grab a Bee Gees box set for a desert island stay, but I’d prefer one that was half pre-disco ear and half after. I’m partial to all eras of the Bee Gees, even the more recent material is fantastic.

Barry Gibb is a musical genius. If all you know about the Bee Gees is Stayin’ Alive and You Should Be Dancin’, there are some really classic Barry Gibb songs for you still to discover. Just listen to him sing the plaintive love song Words below. How awesome is this clip?
 

 
Click here to listen to the incredible song the Bee Gees wrote and produced for Barbara Streisand, Woman in Love. I had not heard this song in years and it was on the radio the other day. Overwhelming! Everything about this song is pop perfection! She holds a note for twelve seconds. Twelve seconds!