As previously reported, Norah Jones will release her fifth studio album, the Danger Mouse-produced Little Broken Hearts, on May 1st via Blue Note/EMI. For a sneak peek of what the duo’s most recent collabo has yielded, Jones has unveiled “Happy Pills”. The track features a bluesy guitar line as filtered through an ’80s pop sensibility, with vocals that are equal parts cooing sex kitten and retro soul songbird. Find the stream below, followed by the album’s tracklist and Jones’ upcoming tour schedule.

Little Broken Hearts Tracklist:
01. Good Morning
02. Say Goodbye
03. Little Broken Hearts
04. She’s 22
05. Take It Back
06. After The Fall
07. 4 Broken Hearts
08. Travelin’ On
09. Out On The Road
10. Happy Pills
11. Miriam
12. All A Dream

Norah Jones 2012 Tour Dates:
03/15 – Austin, TX @ Waterloo Records (SXSW) *
03/15 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s (SXSW) *
03/17 – Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa (SXSW)
05/25 – Paris, FR @ Olympia Theater
05/28 – Amsterdam, NL @ Carre Theater
06/01 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
06/02 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
06/29 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater
07/14 – Lucca, IT @ Lucca Festival
07/16 – Luxembourg City, LU @ Neumunster Abbey
07/17 – Hamburg, DE @ Stadtpark
07/19 – Rattvik, SE @ Dalhalla
07/20 – Molde, NO @ Moldejazz Festival
07/22 – Pori, FI @ Pori Jazz Fest
08/10 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

* = as part of The Little Willies

Norah Jones has penciled in her fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, for a May 1st release via Blue Note/EMI. Spanning 12 tracks, the record was produced and co-written by Jones’ Rome compatriot, super-producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton. Much like Rome’s spaghetti western inspiration, the cover art for Little Broken Hearts (above) is an homage to classic movie posters, particularly the Russ Meyer-directed 1965 film Mudhoney.

Jones will premiere her new album with a performance at this year’s South by Southwest, where she will be backed by her new band. She’ll also play a pair of shows with her country band The Little Willies during the festival. A smattering of other dates are scheduled for the summer, with a more extensive endeavor to be announced shortly. See Jones’ current itinerary, plus the album tracklist, below.

Little Broken Hearts Tracklist:
01. Good Morning
02. Say Goodbye
03. Little Broken Hearts
04. She’s 22
05. Take It Back
06. After The Fall
07. 4 Broken Hearts
08. Travelin’ On
09. Out On The Road
10. Happy Pills
11. Miriam
12. All A Dream

Norah Jones 2012 Tour Dates:
03/15 – Austin, TX @ Waterloo Records (SXSW) *
03/15 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s (SXSW) *
03/17 – Austin, TX @ La Zona Rosa (SXSW)
05/28 – Amsterdam, NL @ Carre Theater
06/01 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
06/02 – London, UK @ Royal Festival Hall
06/29 – Rochester, NY @ Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater
07/14 – Lucca, IT @ Lucca Festival
07/16 – Luxembourg City, LU @ Neumunster Abbey
07/17 – Hamburg, DE @ Stadtpark
07/22 – Pori, FI @ Pori Jazz Fest
08/10 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

* = as part of The Little Willies

Sultry singer Norah Jones has tapped super producer Danger Mouse to produce her upcoming fifth LP, Little Broken Hearts, due out sometime this spring via Blue Note/EMI. The pair wrote and recorded the album at Danger Mouse’s Los Angeles studio last fall after Jones provided vocals for Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s Rome project.

In support of the album, Jones will tour extensively through 2012; stay tuned for those dates as they’re announced. In the meantime, check out “Black” from the aforementioned Rome below.

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi feat. Norah Jones – “Black”:

Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s Rome is as much about the visual as it is about the music, which explains why director Chris Milk is using the project to “underpin” an upcoming film. For a sneak peek at what Milk and collaborator Anthony Francisco Schepperd have planned, the duo directed a music video for the Jack White-featuring track “Two Against One”. The hand-drawn cell animation clip uses stark black and white imagery to tell the story of a hunter and his lifetime or regrets. It’s equal parts bizarre, psychedelic exploration of the human psyche and a cartoon-ish spin on something as emotionally profound as loss. Check it out below (via NPR).

According to Milk, the video serves as a precursor to a live action adaptation of the Rome score he is developing with producers Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine) and Megan Ellison (True Grit). “The music video is essentially the fever dream of the antagonist of the story. It’s mostly his backstory, his life before the tale we see in the movie.”

For a further sneak peek, Google Chrome users can head to www.Ro.me, where they can watch an “interactive lucid dream” of the protagonist. According to Milk, these pieces are “sort of narrative breadcrumbs that lead you to the eventual larger story.”

As always, stay tuned for more on the film as it’s announced.

“People call me a director, but I really think of myself as a sound man.” -David Lynch, quoted in Michael Chion’s David Lynch

David Lynch‘s electro-pop album Crazy Clown Time has left a lot of music fans and critics scratching their heads. But, looking back at the filmmaker’s long history of re-purposing pop music in his films and other work, it’s possible that Crazy Clown Time is one of the least strange moves that the veteran film director, meditation guru, coffee entrepreneur, and amateur weatherman has made in his entire career.

This isn’t intended to be a complete list of David Lynch’s musical ventures, as a number of music videos, Lynch-penned compositions, and other collaborations have been left out. Rather, consider it a smattering of some of Lynch’s strangest, presented in chronological order.

Feature artwork by Cap Blackard.

“In Heaven” from Eraserhead (1977)

Lynch’s history both as a musician and as a feature filmmaker begin here with Eraserhead. Following several mostly animated short films, Lynch received a small grant from the American Film Institute to begin what would become his first full-length movie. Filmed piecemeal from 1971 to 1976, it was met with mixed reactions at festivals, but early championing from famous fans including David Bowie and Charles Bukowski helped Eraserhead become one of the midnight circuit’s most popular movies.

The various musical performances in Lynch’s debut come courtesy of the Lady in the Radiator, a charming, tumor-cheeked woman who appears to Henry in visions at several points in the film. The most famous of these is her performance of “In Heaven” (famously covered by The Pixies), a simple, yet creepy, little song written by Peter Ivers at Lynch’s request. (In another segment, The Lady in the Radiator performs a memorably stomach-turning dance where oversized sperm creatures drop from the ceiling and are squished under her feet.)

Sting’s scantily clad space prince in Dune (1984)

“I met David [Lynch] and I loved him. He’s a madman in sheep’s clothing, and I just felt I had to do the movie because I know he’s going to do something extraordinary.” -Sting in Rolling Stone Magazine #403, September 1983

“I didn’t even like the film, I don’t have a clue what it was about, it was very confusing.” – Sting to The Courier Mail, July 1985

Following the cult success of Eraserhead and the critical acclaim of his Academy Award-nominated Hollywood debut, The Elephant Man, Lynch was pegged to direct a big-budget adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic, Dune. (Lynch had recently declined George Lucas’s offer to direct Return of the Jedi.) Lynch’s grandiose vision for Dune would have resulted in a three-plus-hour film, which the studio cut down to a still-grueling 137 minutes. While more than a few distinct Lynch-isms survived the chopping block, the film that arrived in theaters was a convoluted mess and wound up being a huge commercial and critical flop.

Sting, fresh off the mega-success of The Police’s Synchronicity, appears in the film as the evil heir of the film’s villain, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. Sting appears in just a limited number of scenes, neon orange-coiffed and delightfully hamming it up in one of the film’s most memorable performances despite having to work with some questionable lines and even more questionable costumes.

“In Dreams” from Blue Velvet (1986)

Lynch bounced back from Dune with the smaller, more personal Blue Velvet. A mystery set against the dark underbelly of small-town America, Blue Velvet earned David Lynch his second best director Academy Award nomination and resurrected Dennis Hopper’s career with his turn as Frank Booth, the movie’s unforgettable gas-huffing villain.

Teenage sleuth Jeffrey Beaumont finds himself in way over his head when the dangerously unpredictable Frank Booth takes him along for a wild ride. Frank takes him to the home of his “suave” drug dealer, Ben, who lip-syncs Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” into an electric light. This sends Frank down an emotional roller coaster and prompts one of the most terrifying scenes in the movie.

“Blue Velvet” from Blue Velvet (1986)

Though far less disturbing than Dean Stockwell’s performance of “In Dreams”, Isabella Rosselini’s nightclub performance of Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet” has become one of the film’s most iconic scenes. With her sensual allure and an evening of song, beleaguered nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens pulls the young Jeffrey Beaumont irrevocably into her dark world.

David Lynch initially brought in Angelo Badalamenti to serve as Isabella Rosselini’s voice coach for this scene, but wound up finding one of his most frequent collaborators in the composer. (Badalamenti appears as the piano player in this scene.)

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night (1989)

Rights issues prevented David Lynch from using a This Mortal Coil cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” in Blue Velvet. Unable to find another song that conveyed the same feelings, Lynch penned the lyrics to “Mysteries of Love”, which composer Angelo Badalamenti set to music. Lynch asked for a singer with an “ethereal” voice. Badalamenti suggested Julee Cruise, whom he had met in a theater workshop. The results play in Blue Velvet over a sweetly emotional dancing scene.

David Lynch and Badalamenti were so impressed by “Mysteries of Love” that they signed on to produce Cruise’s debut album, Floating Into the Night. All of the album’s lyrics were penned by Lynch, with music by Badalamenti. The album (which charted on Billboard in 1990) featured several songs that would later appear in Twin Peaks, including “Falling”, a wordless version of which became that series’s theme song.

Industrial Symphony No. 1 (1989)

Following the success of Blue Velvet, The Brooklyn Academy of Music approached David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti to produce a 45-minute stage production to open their New Wave Music Festival. The pair agreed and put the entire show together in just two weeks, creating imagery to pair with several of the songs they’d written for Julee Cruise.

Presented only twice in November of 1989, the original production starred Cruise, as well as Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, with whom Lynch was currently filming Wild at Heart, and Michael J. Anderson, who would go on to fame as the diminutive, backwards-talking Man From Another Place in Twin Peaks.

“Love Me” / “Love Me Tender” from Wild at Heart (1990)

David Lynch juggled a wide variety of projects in the late 1980s, perhaps the quickest to get off the ground being Wild at Heart. Within six months of being given a copy of the Barry Gifford novel that served as the film’s source material, Lynch had wrapped shooting on an adaptation that strongly showed the filmmaker’s bizarre stamp and contained more than a few less-than-subtle allusions to The Wizard of Oz.

Starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as Sailor and Lula, outlaw lovers on the lam from both law enforcement and a contract killer, Wild at Heart calls back to Elvis Presley’s acting career without once actually vocalizing the singer’s name. Nicolas Cage musically breaks into songs made famous by Presley at two points in the movie: first in a version of “Love Me” that Sailor sings to Lula after pummeling a kid senseless in a bar fight and second (and even more bizarrely) in a rendition of “Love Me Tender” that’s sung under the credits.

“Mairzy Doats” from Twin Peaks (1990)

The TV series Twin Peaks, which ran for only two seasons on ABC, would wind up being one of Lynch’s biggest cult successes. Though initially based around the central mystery of who murdered teenager Laura Palmer, the small logging town of Twin Peaks and its many bizarre inhabitants quickly became the star attraction, week after week. Twin Peaks explored the same weird American underbelly seen before in Blue Velvet, but mixed the extremely dark and often supernatural elements with a surreal and twisted sense of humor.

Leland Palmer, father of the murdered Laura, spends much of the first season a grieving mess. His first appearance in season two, however, is a different (and surprising) matter. “Mairzy Doats” was a vintage World War II-era novelty song based around a seemingly meaningless tongue twister that becomes clear when you speak the lyrics slowly.

“Just You And I” from Twin Peaks (1990)

It’s not surprising that two of the strangest musical moments in Twin Peaks come from David Lynch-directed episodes. Early on in season two, James and Donna, friends and classmates of the late Laura Palmer, and her near-identical cousin, Maddie, gather to record a ’50s-style pop song. The song isn’t mentioned before this moment and isn’t referred to again, making the almost-random, three-minute performance one of the most inexplicable, yet surreally sweet, scenes in the show.

David Bowie in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Ratings for Twin Peaks took a serious plummet in the second season, as a move to a Saturday evening time slot and the resolution of the central “Who killed Laura Palmer?” mystery caused viewers to lose interest. Following the show’s cancellation, Lynch announced he’d signed a three-picture deal with French company CIBY that would include a spin-off prequel. The world of Twin Peaks would live on for one more feature film, despite several of the show’s lead actors declining to be involved.

David Bowie, an early fan of Lynch’s Eraserhead, appears in a very brief cameo as a disappearing special agent with a laughably terrible Southern accent. Bowie filmed his role in just a few days while rehearsing for his Tin Machine tour, and only this scene survived into the film’s final cut.

“Sycamore Trees” / “Questions in a World of Blue” from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was a critical and commercial flop in the United States, perhaps because of its near incomprehensibility, particularly to those who hadn’t invested almost 30 hours in the TV show’s many threaded plotlines. To fans of the director, however, it could be seen as his most hallucinatory and surreal film since Eraserhead.

Many of Lynch’s trademarks are quite visible throughout, including his penchant for including on-screen singing. The first is a short appearance by “Little” Jimmy Scott, a jazz vocalist with a distinctively high voice caused by a rare genetic disorder that prevented him from reaching puberty, singing “Sycamore Trees”, a new song by Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti.

The second is an in-film performance by Lynch’s frequent musical collaborator, Julee Cruise, singing the Lynch and Badalamenti composition “Questions in a World of Blue”, which would later appear on her sophomore album, also produced by Lynch.

“The Mr. Peanuts Song” from On the Air (1992)

On the Air was one of two short-lived television shows from David Lynch and his Twin Peaks co-creator, Mark Frost, following the success of that series. Starring several of the smaller-role actors from Twin Peaks in the lead and filmed with much of the same crew, the old-timey throwback to 1950s live variety programming flopped in the ratings with only a handful of episodes making it to air.

While possibly one of the least Lynch-esque projects he’s attached his name to, On the Air played in the same world of innocent nostalgia that was turned on its head in films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Several pieces of music are fit into the show-within-a-show’s variety format, one of the most memorable being “The Mr. Peanuts Song”, sung by one of the show’s leads, coming to the aid of a disgraced puppeteer.

Michael Jackson’s Dangerous teaser (1993)

David Lynch directed the introduction to Michael Jackson’s Dangerous: The Short Films collection, and as far as 90-second pop music commercials go, they don’t get much Lynch-ier than this. Featuring flickering lights, industrial noise, and a dancing dwarf, this little-scene video packs a lot of directorial trademarks into a small amount of time.

This was the only collaboration between the director of The Elephant Man and the rumored purchaser of the Elephant Man’s skeleton.

Bill Pullman’s lunatic jazz saxophone performances in Lost Highway (1997)

“A 21^st Century Noir Horror Film” reads the screenplay for Lost Highway, which Lynch co-scripted with Wild at Heart writer Barry Gifford. After spending several post-Peaks years out of the spotlight directing TV, releasing a book of photography, and in various producer roles, Lost Highway was Lynch’s gritty return to form as a feature filmmaker.

Centered around a jazz saxophonist’s delirious breakdown after the murder of his wife, Lynch uses a wide variety of methods to convey the character’s crumbling mental state. One of the most effective is the frantic and claustrophobic way he films the character’s sax performances (though it may be hard now to watch Bill Pullman’s crazed solo without thinking a bit of Ron Burgundy’s jazz flute in Anchorman).

Marilyn Manson and Twiggy Ramirez as porn stars in Lost Highway (1997)

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor had reached out to Lynch previously to direct one of his music videos but was unable to pin down the filmmaker. Impressing producers with his work on the Natural Born Killers companion soundtrack, Reznor was approached to reprise that musical compiler role for Lost Highway as well as composing a few original pieces of music for the movie. The final result was released on CD in advance of the film’s opening and featured tracks by Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Rammstein, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Soundtrack contributors Marilyn Manson and bandmate Twiggy Ramirez have brief, almost-background cameos as porn stars in a snuff flick that’s viewed by the characters in one of the movie’s skeezier scenes.

“Llorando” in Mulholland Drive (2001)

“The music has to marry with the picture and enhance it. You can’t just lob something in and think it’s going to work, even if it’s one of your all-time favorite songs. The piece of music may have nothing to do with the scene. When it marries, you can feel it.” -David Lynch in his book, Catching the Big Fish

Initially conceived as a TV pilot that was later rejected by ABC executives, Lynch went back and shot additional scenes to turn it into one of his most critically acclaimed feature films, Mulholland Drive. The unusual production history of the film and the open-ended narrative structure, as well as Lynch’s typically surreal style, make viewing the film a hallucinatory and dreamlike feeling.

In all of the scenes listed here, Rebekah Del Rio’s Spanish, a capella performance of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” (retitled “Llorando”) may be the most haunting. Lynch had originally intended to use this song rather than Orbison’s “In Dreams” for Blue Velvet, but used it here instead after hearing Del Rio’s cover. At a critical point in the film, lovers Betty and Rita visit the mysterious and mostly empty Club Silencio. “No hay banda,” a performer announces; there is no band, yet we hear one. Any further description of this scene would be spoiling it for those who haven’t yet experienced it.

BlueBob (2001)

BlueBob is the musical collaboration between David Lynch and musician John Neff, Lynch’s sound engineer on several projects. The duo recorded and released a single self-titled album, a rough and dirty rock disc that had Lynch playing guitar upside down and backwards through a chain of effects pedals that could rival Thurston Moore’s.

A music video was released for “Thank You, Judge”, which featured appearances by Naomi Watts and Eli Roth, as well as both Lynch and Neff.

“Sinnerman”, “Imaginary Girl”, and “Ghost of Love” from Inland Empire (2006)

Shot without a script over the course of more than two years with a stable of Lynch regulars, Inland Empire remains Lynch’s most recent film. Here, for the first time since Wild at Heart, the filmmaker saves the weirdest musical moment for the end credits. The film closes with a Lynch-esque dance number set to Nina Simone’s rendition of “Sinnerman”, including a few of the director’s recurring thumbprints, from the blinking lights to a log-sawing lumberjack.

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David Lynch makes his singing debut (without heavy distortion filters) for the soundtrack of Inland Empire, singing two original songs: “Ghost of Love” and “Imaginary Girl”.

Moby’s “Shot in the Back of the Head” music video (2009)

It doesn’t seem that unusual that electronic artist Moby and David Lynch would be email pen pals. As Moby describes it, he would occasionally send Lynch pieces of music that he thinks he would like. In the case of “Shot in the Back of the Head” from 2009 album Wait for Me, Lynch sent the song back with visuals attached to it.

Lynch’s animated music video interpreted Moby’s song as a surreal narrative involving a love affair between a man and a woman’s severed head.

Dark Night of the Soul (2010)

Dark Night of the Soul was a collaborative album written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse and featured a wide cast of indie rock luminaries in guest appearances, including Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop, Gruff Rhys, Jason Lytle, James Mercer, Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Suzanne Vega, Nina Persson, Vic Chesnutt, and Scott Spillane. It included some of the last recordings by Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous and Vic Chesnutt before their respective suicides.

A limited-edition version of the set came with a book that included more than 100 pages of photos taken by David Lynch. The filmmaker sang in two of the songs, including “Star Eyes”, which is below set to his accompanying photographs.

In closing…

“Sound is almost like a drug. It’s so pure that when it goes in your ears, it instantly does something to you.” -David Lynch

In the end, when put into the context of a long and idiosyncratic career that’s included its fair share of left turns, an electro-pop album from David Lynch really isn’t a surprising move. Popular music has long played such an integral role in Lynch’s creative output that it may just be the logical next step.

Enjoy Crazy Clown Time, and try to have a good day today.

Turns out Bob Odenkirk was right. The Black Keys will release a new LP this year. On December 6th, El Camino, the group’s seventh studio effort hits streets via Nonesuch. As Pitchfork reports, the follow up to last year’s Brothers sees Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney working alongside Danger Mouse once again. And though we’ll have to wait ’til October 26th for new single “Lonely Boy”, the Akron duo has provided a tracklist to admire, which we’ve provided below.

Mark it, folks: El Camino starts cruising December 6th.

El Camino Tracklist
01. Lonely Boy
02. Dead and Gone
03. Gold on the Ceiling
04. Little Black Submarines
05. Money Maker
06. Run Right Back
07. Sister
08. Hell of a Season
09. Stop Stop
10. Nova Baby
11. Mind Eraser

Rome, the spaghetti western-inspired collaborative project of super producer Danger Mouse and composer Daniele Luppi, has now inspired a film. As Variety reports, the duo’s recently released album, which also features the talents of Jack White and Norah Jones, “underpins” a forthcoming film by director Chris Milk. If you recall, Milk was the force behind Rome’s interactive video for “3 Dreams of Black”, in addition to clips for Kanye West, Arcade Fire, and Modest Mouse.

According to Variety, the film centers on a “girl born into a post-apocalyptic world who must survive by her wits while finding moments of simple joy.” The story itself will be based on Alden Bell’s novel The Reapers Saw The Angels. 

There’s no title or release date for the film, but Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Megan Ellison (True Grit) are serving as producers. In a statement, the producers said “Chris Milk is perhaps the most innovative creative voice working in any art form today, and the ‘Rome’ project criss-crosses at least a dozen of them, including music, animation, live performance, film, web, literature, musicvideos, and graphic novels.”

Below, you can watch a making of video for Rome’s Milk-directed clip, “3 Dreams of Black”. The actual video can be viewed here, though you’ll need to be on Google Chrome.

Photo by Max Blau

The Black Keys have been going full throttle since last year’s release of Brothers. Yet in between their non-stop touring and festival whoring, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney found time to write and record a brand new record. According to Spin.com, the end result, which was produced by none other than Danger Mouse, will see light later this year.

In an interview with Spin.com, Auerbach described the LP’s new songs as “the fastest we’ve ever played” and added that the album “doesn’t sound like Brothers. It doesn’t have that open soul feel to it. It’s way more driving and the tempos are really fast.” Auerbach also said that the duo was inspired by bands like The Clash and The Cramps, something which everyone should be A-OK with.

Among the tracks included is the album opener “Lonely Boy”, which Auerbach described as “pretty raw.” Of the track called “Little Black Submarine”, Auberach said, ” it starts just acoustic guitar and vocals, and by the end it sounds like Black Sabbath!”

Details like the album’s title, tracklist, and exact release date are still forthcoming, but maybe you can catch a new song when the Keys do some more festival whoring in the weeks and months ahead. Their upcoming tour itinerary is posted below.

The Black Keys 2011 Tour Dates:
08/06 – Kansas City, KS @ Kanrocksas
08/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival
09/10 – Columbia, MD @ Virgin Mobile FreeFest
09/24 – Atlanta, GA @ Music Midtown

Even as his work manages to avoid classification, just about anything with Danger Mouse’s name in the production credits shares a singular, idiosyncratic vision, a compelling midpoint between retro nostalgia and hyper-futurism perhaps best captured on his much-lauded 2004 mash-up, the Grey Album, which saw him seamlessly combine the Beatles’ White Album instrumentals with Jay-Z’s Black Album a capella tracks. Burton’s love of Italian film scores is well-documented; his Gnarls Barkley outfit’s ubiquitous smash hit “Crazy” samples liberally from the soundtrack to a 1968 spaghetti western, Viva! Django, while many of the groups other tracks (like the Odd Couple‘s “Surprise”) rely heavily on the genre’s typically sweeping strings, choir sections, and steady percussion.

Enter noted Italian film score composer/arranger/producer Daniele Luppi, whose lengthy rap-sheet includes collaborations with Broken Bells, John Legend, Mike Patton and work on the Sex and the City movie. Luppi and his arrangements figure heavily into Burton’s aforementioned fixation on spaghetti western soundtracks (he also conducted strings on both Gnarls Barkley records). Together, the two spent several years rounding up the legendary orchestra and choir who recorded on some of the genre’s most seminal albums: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West. Recorded in the same hallowed studio where those albums and many more were cut decades ago, Rome manages to somehow toe the fine line between a reverently vintage soundtrack and a sprawling, post-modern Western concept album. But with its sweeping choral and orchestral parts, interludes and evocative instrumental pieces rendered in widescreen, much of the record ends up sounding more like a movie soundtrack without the sort of visual accompaniment that often makes even the best film scores even better.

Enter Jack White and Norah Jones to fill in said gap. Each of the two voice a nameless character on three songs a piece (think: Clint Eastwood’s lead role as the Man with No Name in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Half-crooning over the psychedelic twang of “The Rose with a Broken Neck” and carrying the splendid album closer “The World” through to its strutting conclusion, White plays the lead with archetypal cowboy swagger. Even on the limp, schizophrenic “Two Against One”, the icon seems more comfortable than he has in a while, reveling in the dimmed spotlight. Jones is a revelation, lending a hushed, sultry air to the moody overtones of “Problem Queen” and “Black” and finally proving to be much more than just a pretty voice. While she might at first seem an odd choice for the part alongside musicians as renowned as Danger Mouse and Jack White, Jones certainly holds her own on Rome, often stealing the show completely, as she does on the tense, steamy number “Season’s Trees”.

Perhaps the best thing about Rome is how open-ended it is. Is Danger Mouse shopping his soundtracking skills to Hollywood studios? Will this splendid production, orchestra and all, hit the road for an extensive tour? For all of its glorious string flourishes, vivid visual allusions, and bursts of choral splendor, the best parts of Rome are truly left to the imagination. While it easily could’ve been little more than a tribute to a (regrettably) bygone Golden Age in cinema or a soundtrack to an imaginary movie, Rome succeeds at much more: It’s a fantastic album in its own right.

Remember Arcade Fire’s interactive video for “We Used to Wait”? Well, Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi took a similar approach for “3 Dreams of Black” from their collaborative album, Rome. The interactive video was directed by Chris Milk and created by the smarty pants at Google using Google Chrome’s WebGL technology. Consequently, you’ll need Google Chrome to view it… or navigate through the three dream worlds that color the clip.

As an issued press release explains, “The worlds are experienced as 2D drawings and animations, interspersed with interactive 3D sequences in which the viewer becomes an active participant, guiding their own journey through the unfolding narrative. Participants can even create their own virtual artifacts — the best of which will then be integrated into the experience and become a part of other users’ dreams.” In other words, click here and have fun.

Rome hits stores  May 17th via Capitol Records. Stream it now.

After hearing samples that were intermittently dropped over the last few months, NPR is letting the whole story of Rome unfold with a full stream of the sonic brainchild of Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi. Featuring the vocal stylings of Jack White and Norah Jones, the LP sees the two producers combine the sounds of their star singers with the musicians who formerly made up Ennio Morricone’s orchestra to create an album that pays homage to Italian films of the ’60s and ’70s. The 15-track effort can be heard here. Rome is scheduled to hit stores May 17th via Capitol Records.

Despite his legendary status and constant output, it’s necessary every now and then that Jack White does something especially memorable to remind us that even a Mecca like Nashville, TN recognizes him as a musical force of nature. This time around, said reminder comes in the track “The Rose With The Broken Neck”, off Danger Mouse/Daniele Luppi Rome album. Violent poetic imagery aside, the song offers a dreamy ambiance to listeners as White delivers some especially trippy and pained vocals (which is saying a lot for a whacked-out musical deity like Señor White.) Check out the track below via Some Kind Of Awesome.

Rome is now scheduled to hit stores May 17th via Capitol Records. You can hear another White-featuring track in the form of “Two Against One” here.

Rome Tracklist:
01. Theme Of Rome
02. The Rose With The Broken Neck
03. Morning Fog (interlude)
04. Season’s Trees
05. Her Hollow Ways (interlude)
06. Roman Blue
07. Two Against One
08. The Gambling Priest
09. The World (interlude)
10. Black
11. The Matador Has Fallen
12. Morning Fog
13. Problem Queen
14. Her Hollow Ways
15. The World

Ah, supergroups. As anticipation mounts for the dynamite collaboration between Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and Italian composer Daniele Luppi, fans keep receiving more and more goodies to tide them over until the duo’s Rome project hits streets on May 1st. Last month, the Jack White-sporting single “Two Against One” surfaced, and this morning (via Some Kind of Awesome), everyone’s ears can warm up to the midnight lounge crooner, “Black”.

As the B-side to the Record Store Day exclusive single for “Two Against One”, this one finds celebrated vocalist Norah Jones wading through some silky undertones, all with the signature finesse of Brian Burton’s knack for ’60s-sounding production. It’s not sweeping, but just under that. You’ll want a glass of wine, that’s for sure. Oh, it’s only noon? Didn’t see that. Oops. Regardless, enjoy this slowly.

Fans can pick up Rome starting May 1st (via Capitol Records). Pre-order? Also, depending on your region, you can check out a special trailer featuring the music.

Bad news: Radiohead’s Record Store Day 12″ is limited to just the United Kingdom. Good news: Jack White still exists. Yes, fresh off the reveal of his Rolling Record Store, White and his Nashville-based Third Man Records have detailed their plans for Record Store Day 2011.

Per BuyTheseRecords.com, the biggest highlight comes in the form of reissues for The White Stripes’ first two singles, “Let’s Shake Hands” and “Lafayette Blues”. Both singles were originally released in 1998, with the former backed by a cover of Marlene Dietrich’s “Look Me Over Closely” and the latter featuring “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” as the b-side. The limited-edition RSD reissues will be pressed on red/black swirled vinyl.

Third Man Records will also release a 7″ single featuring the first official taste of White and Norah Jones’ contribution to Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s Rome project. The release will consist of two album tracks: “Two Against One” and Black”.

Finally, White’s wife, Karen Elson, will see the release of a 7″ single featuring a cover of Lou Reed’s “Vicious” b/w an original number entitled “In Trouble With The Lord”. The clear vinyl single will be limited to 1,000 copies.

Record Store Day Music’s most insane holiday takes place April 16th, 2011. For more information on participating venues, click here.

Exactly one year after The Shins’ James Mercer and super producer Danger Mouse unveiled the debut full length from their Broken Bells collaboration, the duo returns for a second go-around with the release of a four-track EP. Available March 29th (via Columbia Records), Meyrin Fields will feature two previously unreleased tracks — “Windows” and “Heartless Empire” — as well as “An Easy Life” and the title track, both of which are currently available in digital formats.

The EP will be issued in vinyl, CD, softpack, and digital formats and pre-orders are now ongoing via the band’s website.

This just happened: Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs won Album of the Year at the 53rd Annual Grammys.

We’re still in shock, mostly because Lady Antebellum won everything else and Win Butler’s crew were denied the more minor, Alternative Album of the Year. But yeah, it did happen, and well, sometimes you just have to let Kanye do the talking: “#Arcade fire!!!!!!!!!! There is hope!!! I feel like we all won when something like this happens! FUCKING AWESOME!”

Other notable winners included The Black Keys, who beat out Arcade Fire for both Alternative Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals. The White Stripes (R.I.P.) were denied Best Long Form Music Video, but their Under Great White Northern Lights documentary did take home Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package. Also, Neil Young won his second-ever Grammy for “Best Rock Song”, Them Crooked Vultures scored “Best Hard Rock Performance”, and Danger Mouse earned Best Producer.

Below, you can find all the noteworthy winners (they’re in bold).

Record of the Year

Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”

B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ On You”

Eminem ft. Rihanna – “Love The Way You Lie”

Cee-Lo Green – “Fuck You”

Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – “Empire State Of Mind”

Album of the Year

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Eminem – Recovery

Lady Antebellum – Need You Now

Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster

Katy Perry – Teenage Dream

Song of the Year

Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”

Ray Lamontagne – “Beg Steal Or Borrow”

Cee-Lo Green – “Fuck You”

Eminem ft. Rihanna – “Love The Way You Lie”

Miranda Lambert – “The House That Built Me”

Best New Artist

Esperanza Spalding

Justin Bieber

Drake

Florence and the Machine

Mumford & Sons

Best Electronic/Dance Album

La Roux – La Roux

BT – These Hopeful Machines

The Chemical Brothers – Further

Goldfrapp – Head First

Groove Armada – Black Light

Best Rock Song

Neil Young – “Angry World”

Mumford & Sons – “Little Lion Man”

Kings of Leon – “Radioactive”

Muse – “Resistance”

The Black Keys – “Tighten Up”

Best Hard Rock Performance

Them Crooked Vultures – “New Fang”

Alice in Chains – “A Looking In View”

Ozzy Osbourne – “Let Me Hear You Scream”

Soundgarden – “Black Rain”

Stone Temple Pilots – “Between The Lines”

Best Alternative Album

The Black Keys – Brothers

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Band of Horses – Infinite Arms

Broken Bells – Broken Bells

Vampire Weekend – Contra

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

The Black Keys – “Tighten Up”

Arcade Fire – “Ready to Start”

Jeff Beck & Joss Stone – “I Put a Spell on You”

Kings Of Leon – “Radioactive”

Muse – “Resistance”

Best Rock Album

Muse – The Resistance

Jeff Beck – Emotion & Commotion

Pearl Jam – Backspacer

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Mojo

Neil Young – Le Noise

Best R&B Album

John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up!

Raheem DeVaughn – The Love & War Masterpeace

Fantasia – Back to Me

Jaheim – Another Round

Monica – Still Standing

Best Rap Song

Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – “Empire State Of Mind”

Eminem ft. Rihanna – “Love The Way You Lie”

Eminem – “Not Afraid”

B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ On You”

Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz – “On To The Next One”

Best Rap Album

Eminem – Recovery

B.o.B. – The Adventures Of Bobby Ray

Drake – Thank Me Later

Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3

The Roots – How I Got Over

Best Spoken Word Album

Jon Stewart - The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents Earth

Craig Ferguson – American On Purpose

Sarah Silverman – The Bedwetter

Michael J. Fox – A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Future…

Carol Burnett – This Time Together: Laughter And Reflection

Best Comedy Album

Lewis Black – Stark Raving Black

Margaret Cho – Cho Dependent

Flight Of The Conchords – I Told You I Was Freaky

Kathy Griffin – Kathy Griffin Does The Bible Belt

Robin Williams – Weapons Of Self Destruction

Best Recording Package

The Black Keys – Brothers

Oh No Ono – Eggs

Anaïs Mitchell – Hadestown

Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be

Chip Taylor – Yonkers NY

Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package

The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights

Pixies – Minotaur

Various Artists – Story Island

Various Artists – Light: On The South Side

Voormann & Friends – A Sideman’s Journey

Producer of the Year

Danger Mouse (Broken Bells, (The Black Keys)

Rob Cavallo (Paramore)

Dr. Luke (Ke$ha)

RedOne (Lady Gaga)

The Smeezingtons (Cee-Lo, Bruno Mars)

Best Short Form Music Video

Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”

The Johnny Cash Project – “Ain’t No Grave”

Gorillaz – “Stylo”

Cee-Lo – “Fuck You”

Eminem & Rihanna – “Love The Way You Lie”

Best Long Form Music Video

The Doors – When You’re Strange

Blur – No Distance Left To Run

Rush – Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage

Arif Mardin – The Greatest Ears In Town: The Arif Mardin Story

The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights

The White Stripes might be no more, but Jack White’s never-ending barrage of side-projects — which probably shouldn’t be considered side-projects anymore — are still going strong. One of White’s latest endeavors comes in the form of the male vocals for Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi’s joint project, Rome. At Antiquiet, you can stream the album track “Two Against One”, which is totally kick-ass and makes us even more upset that candy cane stripes are no longer in fashion.

Rome is due for release March 1st May 3rd via Capitol Records, according to Amazon.com.
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Rome Tracklist:
01. Theme Of Rome
02. The Rose With The Broken Neck
03. Morning Fog (interlude)
04. Season’s Trees
05. Her Hollow Ways (interlude)
06. Roman Blue
07. Two Against One
08. The Gambling Priest
09. The World (interlude)
10. Black
11. The Matador Has Fallen
12. Morning Fog
13. Problem Queen
14. Her Hollow Ways
15. The World

Along with being super talented, Cee-Lo Green is actually a funny guy (how else do you explain his duet with Gwyneth Paltrow? Zing!) If you needed more proof of the size of his funny bone, then check out the track “The Ol’ Sauseej”, a send-up of Broken Bells‘ “The Ghost Inside” the Lady Killer dropped last night on Twitter (via Some Kind Of Awesome). Green, who is also in a little band called Gnarls Barkley with Broken Bells’ Danger Mouse, clealry loves parody… not to mention copious amounts of sausage. If Green’s sausage has gotten inside of you (wait a second…), then check it out below or download the track here.

Fan website @u2 has discovered a listing for a new U2 album on the German version of Amazon.com. While there’s almost no information included (the title is displayed as “New Album 2011″), a release date for May 27th does accompany the listing. The band has yet to confirm the date, but it does match up with what U2′s manager, Paul McGuiness, said in an interview to New Zealand website stuff.co.nz last November: “We are trying very hard to use this time in New Zealand and Australia to finish an album that will be released in the spring… It’s not so much recording as editing and polishing up lyrics and trying to getting it done by the date it needs to be delivered to the record company for release in May. It’s sounding great: lots of hits.”

In a separate interview with Australian newspaper The Age, Bono mentioned that the band’s Danger Mouse-produced project would most likely be the band’s next release. “We have about 12 songs with him,” he said. “At the moment that looks like the album we will put out next because it’s just happening so easily.”

The band’s representation has not yet responded to our requests for comment.

P.S. – Don’t forget to book your flight to Moncton.

They’ve got to earn those Grammy votes somehow. Unfortunately, it wasn’t with our 38th favorite song of 2010.

A little over a month ago, we introduced you to Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse’s newest/oldest project, a collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi entitled Rome. We also said we’d let you know when a release date was revealed. Thanks to Direct Current Music, we can follow through on that promise: The Capitol Records release is set for March 1st.

Conceived before anyone had even imagined saying “Gnarls Barkley”, and taking some five years of work, the record was inspired by Burton and Luppi’s shared love of the soundtracks for the spaghetti westerns and Clint Eastwood films of the 1960s. To sweeten the deal, they brought in Jack White and Norah Jones as featured vocalists. Frequent readers will know we’ve given you a listen to some track previews that establish the album’s moody vibe. The promo image to the right arouses further interest, revealing that visual direction was handled by Chris Milk, the man recently behind some brilliant Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash videos.

Burton is also currently producing U2’s next release. Keep your eyes out for more information on that, and keep that March 1st date in mind. If the history associated with Danger Mouse is any indication, 2011 is going to see some pretty excellent listening.

Update: Per TwentyFourBit, we also have the tracklist and a press photo, which you can check out above.

Rome Tracklist:
01. Theme Of Rome
02. The Rose With The Broken Neck
03. Morning Fog (interlude)
04. Season’s Trees
05. Her Hollow Ways (interlude)
06. Roman Blue
07. Two Against One
08. The Gambling Priest
09. The World (interlude)
10. Black
11. The Matador Has Fallen
12. Morning Fog
13. Problem Queen
14. Her Hollow Ways
15. The World

Earlier this week we mentioned Rome, the latest project from super producer Danger Mouse and Italian composer Daniele Luppi. If you don’t know what I’m talking about and/or don’t feel like clicking that link, here’s the Cliff Notes version: the two aforementioned gentlemen teamed up to create an album inspired by Italian spaghetti western soundtracks, with Jack White and Norah Jones being the featured vocalists. Anyhow, a few hours ago, Danger Mouse and Luppi hit NPR’s All Songs Considered to preview their project and courtesy of Some Kind of Awesome, you can stream snippets of the album tracks played during the appearance below. The clip is only four minutes in length, but you’ll be able to hear both White and Jones and, yes, it’s pretty great.

As he’s proven time and time again, Brian Burton — aka super producer Danger Mouse — has the capacity to handle multiple mega projects at once. So even though he’s currently producing U2′s next studio album, that hasn’t stopped the New York native from collaborating with Italian composer Daniele Luppi on a new project called Rome. Spoiler: Jack White is a featured contributor.

Speaking of their collaboration in an interview with The Guardian, Burton and Luppi revealed that the project — which was inspired by 1960′s Italian spaghetti western soundtracks — has been in the works for nearly five years. It was recorded during three separate sessions in Rome, with the two men incorporating not just vintage instruments (upright bass) but also some of the musicians behind those aforementioned soundtracks.

Oh yeah, and then there’s that part about Jack White.

Explained Danger Mouse: “For the lead vocalists, I definitely wanted a man and a woman. The female vocal needed to be soft, not polarizing. But the male needed to have a bit more angst to it. I played some of the music for Jack White when I was on tour shortly after doing the first session, just to show him what I was doing, because at the time everyone thought I was just a hip-hop guy, or whatever. He liked it, but at the time I wasn’t even thinking of using him – you know, it’s Jack White. But in the end, I thought, he’s really into it – why not? We all understood that if it didn’t work, it didn’t work. But he tried it in different voices – a high voice, a low voice, and I thought, why don’t we leave them all in? And it sounded great. There’s a bunch of his vocals on “Rose With the Broken Neck”, and it doesn’t always sound like him – sometimes you’re like, is that Jack or not?” The Guardian reports that Norah Jones will also be featured.

Danger Mouse then added that the end result reflects “love, death, happiness – the visceral connection of man and women.” He went on to say, “It’s a dark vibe, melancholic, a little foggy… I get a lot of offers to do film soundtracks and I’ve never said yes, because no one has heard this yet, and I think some people still think of me as a hip-hop producer. But this is what I would actually do, if I were to make a soundtrack. I’m really happy it’s out.”

An exact release date for the project is still forthcoming, but we’ll let you know. In the meantime, be sure to catch one of the album’s collaborators — Mr. Jack White — on Conan later tonight.

From Bob Dylan rapping with Kurtis Blow, to Ozzy Osbourn and Miss Piggy covering Steppenwolf, and last year’s WTF winner Grizzly Bear and Michael McDonald, seemingly incongruous musicians have always shacked up with one another for some reason or another. Sometimes it’s been for a quick cash grab, or a peace offering, or in memorium, and often it can be cringe-worthy. With the bad ones, either you can smell the falsehood, or you just left wondering “why?” or worse, “who cares?”

But something seems to be in the air in 2010, and diametrical opposites are joining forces to create works that are interesting, challenging, engaging, original, and overall successes. It’s like wrapping chocolate in bacon: you wouldn’t think they’d go together, but — tried and tested — they do. Sure, there have been some clunkers this year (imagine drinking orange juice after you brush your teeth), but here we take a look at some of the chocolate bacon delights that have come out in 2010.

Jeff Tweedy + Mavis Staples

Two weeks ago on 30 Rock, Queen Latifa’s character quipped that NBC was “more white than a Wilco concert.” I watch a lot of NBC and have been to three Wilco concerts and you can’t really argue with her. The Godmother of Soul and Stax Records legend Mavis Staples has a musical disposition that might be classified as “way more black” than Wilco, But both embody slices of good ol’ American pie, and Jeff Tweedy‘s production on Staples’ latest You Are Not Alone is a great example of two artists who share a similar vision from different backgrounds.

Wilco is roots rock, but Staples brings offers us some different roots that we indie kids may too often ignore. CoS’s Evan Minsker accurately summed up the album by saying “It’s warm. It’s hopeful. It’s American.” Finally, a good kind of perfect harmony.

Broken Bells

I wonder what Zach Braff and Natalie Portman’s characters from Garden State are doing right now. My guess is riding around in that broke-ass motorcycle and listening to Broken Bells. In fact, if you could dilute that soundtrack down to its essence, it would be an electronic Shins, which is exactly what James Mercer and Danger Mouse produced with their collaboration. Danger Mouse (born Brian Burton) mostly works within the hip hop genre, producing most notably the underground hit The Grey Album, Demon Days, or as a member of Gnarls Barkley. But his work with The Shins’ front man James Mercer represents a shift in his focus and together they produced an absolutely serviceable album with just the right amount of groove mixed in with Mercer’s melancholic indie sound.

I don’t believe it was the revelatory album that they (we (I?)) were hoping for, but it’s a nice bon mot that sees two heavyweights from indie and hip hop come together and simply work well. Favoring ease over complexity, Broken Bells feels like an album of solid remixes, though hopefully the collaboration inspires more hip hop producers to work with indie darlings. DJ Shadow/Ezra Koenig anyone?

Kanye West + Justin Vernon

So Kanye West is no stranger to odd collaborations. From Jamie Foxx to Justin Beiber to samples from the most cobwebbed corners of music, the man works like a genius movie director by culling the most out of the tools he has.

But when news came that Yeezy flew Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon to Hawaii to lay down some vocals, that about sealed the deal as the oddest cross-pollinating collaboration for Ye. The Wisconsin-bred folk singer laid down some distorted vocals that bookended the Kanye/Jay-Z/Niki Minaj banger “Monster” and he will also appear on Ye’s forthcoming My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in some form or another. Now if Vernon can get Kanye to produce the next Bon Iver album, that’s when things are really going to fly off the handle.

“Monster” (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, & Bon Iver)

Neil Young + Daniel Lanois

As we get older, we have to see the doctor more often. Gums recede, all that benzedrine abuse finally catches up with you, and turns out those freckles aren’t just “kisses from God.” The one doctor aging folk artists seem to turn to is Daniel Lanois – Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Emmy, Lou Harris, and now Neil Young stepped into Lanois’ office. Where once there were 8 tracks, now there are 128 and super digitalized.

It’s not like this is Young’s first step into electric land, but Lanois’ aura of reverb and gloss don’t seem congruent to Young’s barren blues. But one listen to Le Noise and you hear a match in these two. It’s like Crazy Horse meets U2 — there’s distortion and noise, there’s Young’s stark voice with reverb, and it works so well. Some may say that Lanois is just smoke and mirrors hiding Young’s age, but one listen and you’ll see that Young’s songwriting is still spot on. “Hitchhiker” is one hell of a song.

Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach

Collaborations can create some rough stuff, we know, but sometimes it’s the single key to success. If your song is labeled as a crossover hit, then you can just ride that song all the way to Top 40 Radio/The Grammys/college dorms/casual conversations with your mother. Remember when you first heard “Clint Eastwood” almost 10 years ago? That song had crossover written all over it. Deltron, Blur, those four low-Hz bass hits, and something about some cartoons.

Now, Gorillaz have transmogrified from cartoons to something quite real in Plastic Beach, one of 2010′s most versatile and promising albums. At the group’s creative core is still Damon Albarn, but a buck-shot of guests appear on the record, each one expanding on already diverse universe the album creates. From more obvious collaborations like De La Soul and Gruff Rhys to, well, Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, Snoop Dogg, Paul Simonon and Mick Jones, Bobby Womack, etc… You’d think it was some benefit for some impoverished country, but no, it’s just consortium of legends contributing the The World of Plastic Beach. And when the majority of them show up and play it live? It’s unbelievable.

Runners Up:

Ben Folds + Nick Hornby

Ben Folds has got his fans, and he ain’t losing them. I’m not sure if he’s gaining new ones at this point, but we all have a little place in our hearts for him somewhere, I’m sure. His collaboration with author/screenwriter Nick Hornby on his Lonely Avenue is confusing, since at this point in Folds’ career, I am more interested in watching him try to grow as a songwriter. But his nerdiness and lightheartedness may never leave him, and that’s wonderful, so why not get the guy that wrote High Fedilety to write the lyrics for your album. For a Ben Folds jam, it feels off-kilter, but there are some nice moments. Folds’ knack for a quick and catchy melody married with Honrby’s wry humor is just innocuous enough to listen to once or twice.

Thom Yorke + Flying Lotus

When you think about it, this isn’t strange one bit. But then when you think about it a little more, you wonder: why Thom Yorke? Who called who? Getting Yorke on your album is like getting Kanye: guarnteed hype and buzz. Of course, when you listen to the Flying Lotus track “…And The World Laughs With You”, Yorke’s processed voice loops around à la “Kid A” and before you know it, the song is over. Cool, I guess, but for Cosmogramma and its density, that one floats right on the surface. I mean, Ravi Coltrane is on the album, wouldn’t you rather listen to him? No? Ok, I understand.

Bethany Cosentino + Weezer

Details are scarce, but Paste tells a tale of twitter flirting turned collaboration between Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino and Weezer linchpin Rivers Cuomo. The song is “kind of a duet” — apparently “duet” now a subjective term — and Cosentino offered this quote about the team-up: “When we were writing lyrics, he didn’t look at me like, ’That’s really cheesy,’ like some people might. He was like, ‘Oh that’s cool.’ I was like, ‘Finally, somebody gets it.’ It took Rivers Cuomo to make me feel confident that someone else understands.” No details on when we’ll hear this, but my bets that it’s going to be worthwhile. Trust me, it beats Weezer’s collaboration with Hurley.

The track initially appeared back in April and was stuck with the title “Float” by fans. No longer shrouded in mystery, the newly-titled song will be released today as a digital 45 on iTunes as the b-side to “The Ghost Inside”. A lot catchier than some of the offerings from their self-titled debut, “Meyrin Fields” sits on the border between frantic pop-rock and haunting electro burner. It’s a huge roundhouse kick of life and head-nod-ability from a band that a lot of people thought were kinda bland.  Well, shove this in your pipe and smoke it.

You can currently stream the track on the band’s MySpace. While 2011 may leave you begging for more BB, you can also finish out this year with a few tour dates in Ohio, Minnesota, and Oregon. As always, stay tuned for more news as it’s announced.

Broken Bells 2010 Tour Dates:
12/03 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
12/06 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
12/09 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom (KNRK show)

New York’s annual CMJ Music Marathon more or less took over the lives of much of the music industry. And though much of our staff were among those attendees, covering the festivities, braving copious amounts of buzz bands, hipsters, industry insiders, and PBR, somehow we managed to write about a lot of other stuff this week too.

That said, this recap hardly does these past few days justice. Below you’ll find a generous sampling of recent happenings in the music world.

– Daft Punk performed for the first time in three years.

– Ari Up, lead vocalist of iconic punk group The Slits, passed away. She was 48 years old.

– Beastie Boys detailed their new LP.

– Red Hot Chili Peppers revealed some big plans for 2011.

– Thom Yorke will collaborate with other luminaries for a charity “silent single.”

– We compared album cover art . Whose did you think was better? Nicki Minaj or Kid Cudi?

– The “incredible” new Willow Smith video dropped.

– The HullabaLOU Music Festival is no more.

– An early White Stripes single sold for more than the price of a small car.

– Sufjan Stevens and Lil Wayne topped the charts.

– Joanna Newsom denied the rumor of a Simpsons appearance.

– Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard played a Playoff game.

– U2 announced a collaboration with Danger Mouse.

– Crystal Castles posted tour dates. And lots of them.

– Kings of Leon offered “dick bands” some advice.

– CBGBs went on sale. Any takers?

– The Cars will reunite for a new studio LP.

– Kanye West demanded an “instant replay clock.”

– Die Antwoord finally put out a proper debut. Winston Robbins reviewed it.

– Weezer released their “odds and ends” collection titled Death to False Metal. Get Michael Roffman’s take on it here.

– Interpol inspired ”sing-alongs” at their recent gig  in Pomona, CA. Philip Cosores was there.

– We hosted a kick-off party at CMJ we affectionately called Conflict of Interest. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry because Joe Marvilli did. We also have a video recap!

– Cosores also found time this week to take a look at music in films in a piece titled, appropriately enough, “From Dylan to Daft Punk: A History of Pop Music at the Movies.”

– E.N. May got the “skinny” on MoogFest.

– Harry Painter and Ted Maider took on Treasure Island.

In an interview Australian-based publication The Age, Bono revealed that the band’s next album, the follow-up to 2008′s No Line on the Horizon, will be produced by Brian Burton, who is best known by his moniker, Danger Mouse.

“We have about 12 songs with him,” Bono said. “At the moment that looks like the album we will put out next because it’s just happening so easily.”

Bono also confirmed previous reports that U2 is working on two other albums. One is a club record that will feature Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne, Black Eyed Peas rapper Will.I.Am, and French superstar David Guetta. The band is also considering the possibility of recording and releasing the songs they wrote for the forthcoming Spider-Man musical.

The news comes just a week after U2 manager Paul McGuinness told The Irish Times that he believes a new album will be released as soon as this Spring.

“I would expect a new U2 album sooner than anybody thinks,” he said. “I would guess early 2011, before the next leg of the American tour, which starts in May.”

More details as they become available. In the meantime, peep U2′s upcoming tour dates below — now with openers! They might be playing Glastonbury 2011, too.

First, Mercer’s current outfit, Broken Bells, performed a live set and among the songs tackled was a rendition of the Sparklehorse-penned, Mercer-featuring Dark Night of the Soul track “Insane Lullaby”. The song has been performed live by the band of late, but, according to KCRW, it was the first time the group ever performed the track on the radio. So check out the high-res debut below.

And if that weren’t enough, Mercer also used the radio appearance to confirm he has not only been working on new Shins material between tours with Broken Bells, but that a studio is now being set up to record said material. The Shins frontman gave no indication as to when the record could be unveiled, but did note it will probably be his next release.

In the meantime, you can pick up a physical copy of Dark Night of the Soul when it sees release on July 13th.

Recently, friends and I discussed exactly who the actual hip-hop pioneers were. Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Chuck D, the recently deceased Guru, 2pac, Biggie and Snoop Dogg changed the way we listened to hip-hop over the course of its existence. MF Doom has brought forth new elements to the game, with little to no airplay, yet any rap fan with half a brain has some idea of who he is. After all, the guy did have his on shoe on the market (I believe they were clear). When we began talking about who is changing rap today, some people mentioned Lil’ Wayne, but a majority of us argued MF Doom is a modern day rap prophet. My childhood best friend simply stated this to support his argument, “On the song ‘Kookies,’ Doom says, ‘Don’t mess with the Ritz bits/wheat thins/saltine triscuits.’” And that right there says it all.

MF Doom is a different breed of MC, in a time where mainstream hip-hop is all about money, cars, purple drink, bling, obnoxious and ugly dudes saying “Yeah!” really loud, and worst of all, modern sampling (let’s just say my lunch came up when I heard that “Let’s Go” song sampling Ozzy). MF Doom is constantly in character as the man behind the metal mask. While most rappers portray the image of gangsters with a bad rep (50 Cent), businessman-like geniuses (Kanye West), or fucked up idiots (everybody else), MF Doom is the super villain, with a Dr. Doom metal mask that he even wears in press release photos. Most notable would be a shot of him and Madlib smoking a blunt together, with the mask on. He’s not a gangster, or a drug dealer, he’s a god damn comic book character. He raps about things in the most intelligent form of metaphors and cultural references, all over (mostly self-produced) beats which feature samples from old monster movies, classical, jazz and sound as gritty as the streets that made him. MF Doom is either the hero, or the anti-hero, of modern day rap.

Consider some of the following information when debating on whether or not the statement above is true. MF Doom was originally Zev Love X, a member of the underground sensation K.M.D. (Kausing Much Damage). While K.M.D. vanished into obscurity before they had the chance to ever break through, they made two amazing albums. Alongside Doom in this group was his brother, DJ Subroc, along with frequent appearances from Rodan and Onyx. The albums Mr. Hood and Black Bastards hold more weight now than ever imaginable. Black Bastards is easily one of my favorite hip-hop records ever, containing classic Doom tracks like “What a Niggy Know”, “Smoking that Shit”, and “Constipated Monkey”. MF Doom was still a skinny, little dude with a voice that sounded more like Dres of Black Sheep, rather than the gruff voice we are used to now.

So, what happened? K.M.D. had so much potential with their wit and production, but fate intervened too soon. Unfortunately, DJ Subroc aka Dingilizwe Dumile, was hit by a car in 1993, bringing K.M.D. to an end. MF Doom took to a life of anonymity, wandering the streets of Manhattan, just trying to live one day at a time. In 1997, he began rapping again, and his rhymes were fiercer than ever. He was now brandishing a metal mask, creating his first, personal masterpiece Operation: Doomsday, and collaborating with a group called the Monsta Island Czars on their album Escape from Monsta Island!. Operation: Doomsday went on to become an underground classic, with its raw-style production, rough flows, and spectacular comic book imagery; it set a whole new precedent for modern hip-hop. Nobody, and I mean nobody, was making hip-hop records like this in 1999.

For the next decade, MF Doom would make a collection of several records in a very short amount of time. He made many solo records, under numerous different aliases. Under the name King Geedorah, he made one of his finest records, Take Me to Your Leader. Tracks like “Fazers”, “Fast Lane”, and “No Snakes Alive”, are as evil and diabolical as the real King Geedorah. He also made records under the moniker Viktor Vaughn from 2003-2004, while also doing MF Doom records as well such as MM Food, an album that is entirely about eating, and Born Like This. Not to mention his multiple instrumental records, known as Special Herbs, where he named himself Metal Fingers. Here, one can see why Doom’s knowledge of sampling and production is impeccable.

On top of his solo work, MF Doom has collaborated with some of the finest producers and musicians of the modern age. In 2004, MF Doom made an album sampling multiple moments from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim with Danger Mouse. The project was entitled Danger Doom, and the album was The Mouse and the Mask, which featured appearances from Ghostface and Talib Kweli, as well as a Tarantino-sampled beat on “Old School” (I wanted this to be a beat as soon as I saw Kill Bill Vol. 1). Then, came his collaboration with Madlib, which was my personal favorite, Madvillian. The beats on this record were flawless, with Madlib and Doom’s bizarre sense of jazz, sampling, instrumentation and beneath-the-streets rhyming. Quasimoto appeared on a couple tracks, most notably, “America’s Most Blunted”, but the album contains so many gems, that it could easily be known as a hip-hop classic.

MF Doom has been everywhere in the hip-hop game. He continues to prosper so well because he has created his own real-life comic book super villain, and that’s what hip-hop is all about, maintaining the personality you project within your songs. MF Doom has no problem doing that, because he knows exactly who he is. In the recent season of Breaking Bad, character Jesse Pinkman talks about the first step to living is to know exactly who you are and he says, “I know who I am. I’m the bad guy.” MF Doom knows exactly who he is; he’s the ultra-intelligent super villain to modern day rap, here to blow up the projects, and our minds simultaneously. This is why he’s doing better than Lil’ Wayne. This is why he’s the top MC of modern day rap. This is why MF Doom is a fucking icon.

In addition to being the official unveiling, the release also means one last posthumous hurrah for Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous, who committed suicide last month. His family issued the following statement:

Mark felt that it was an honor to be able to collaborate with so many of the artists on this record. His time and dedication to this project was immense and his hopes for its release are finally being realized. We are glad that people will now be able to hear these songs and know the beautiful gift that Mark shared with all of us through his music.

Danger Mouse assured that Linkous was well aware of the album’s eventual release. He said, “I told Mark that we’d worked things out with EMI back in January and he was very happy that the album was finally going to be released this year. Mark meant a great deal to a lot of people and I’m grateful to have made music with him and to be a part of his legacy.”

For the album, Danger Mouse and Linkous also made music with several cream-of-the-crop rock frontmen: Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop, and Danger Mouse’s Broken Bells partner James Mercer. Included in the package will be original photos from director David Lynch.

The LP will be dedicated to the late singer-songwriter Vic Chestnutt, who died last December and is also featured on the album.