Monday, January 08, 2007

Kelly Clarkson Goes Punk?

Minutemen/Stooges bassist Mike Watt will play on Clarkson's new album.

Move over, Chris Daughtry -- you may be American Idol's top rocker for now, but season one winner Kelly Clarkson is hot on your heels. Continuing her evolution from pop princess to bonafide rock chick, Clarkson is beefing up the sound on her forthcoming third album by recruiting a real ringer -- legendary punk bassist Mike Watt, who started his career with the influential Minutemen and more recently has taken up bass duties with reformed punk pioneers The Stooges.

Talking with Billboard magazine, Watt confessed that he showed up at the studio knowing little about Clarkson and her accomplishments. "I heard that Kelly won some game show, but I was really impressed how she sang her ass off," Watt said. "I ended up playing on six of the songs.... [The producer] let me try all kinds of stuff like fuzz bass, fills and solos.... It was intense."

Watt's focus is now back on the Iggy Pop-fronted Stooges, who release their first new album in more than 30 years, The Weirdness, on March 30th. But, he says, "I'm really glad I had the experience [with Kelly] -- it was trippy and everyone gave me much respect."

Alan McGhee Blog: My top tips for 2007


My predictions include the most uniquely talented American musician since Kurt Cobain and the latest screamo-touting MySpace success story.

1. Viking Moses
The most uniquely talented American musician since Kurt Cobain. He played down my club Death Disco in November and it was the best gig anybody has played there since we started - and that includes The Hives, The Libertines, The Killers, Kasabian, Razorlight and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Brendon is an absolute genius, and one of the best musicians I have ever released.

2. Glasvegas
Best Scottish band since the Mary Chain. I've no idea if the English will ever get it. I first spotted them at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, third on the bill, which is where I first spotted Noel and Liam. They have a great manager who I love, otherwise I would have applied for the gig a long time ago.

3. The Revelations
They're a three-piece London girl band. They were on Mercury and for whatever reason it never worked out, but they'll have a hit single in February. I DJ for them at their club once a month. We're mates but they deserve to be on the list as they are a great pop group, like Abba meets Phil Spector. They could be huge.

4. The Sessions

I found them bottom of the bill at Death Disco so have put them in the studio with Paul Tipler to record a single for their own label. They sound like a punky Curtis Mayfield circa '74. Maybe it's punk funk - all I know is that they are again unique and brilliant and the guitarist Taz is the bastard offspring of Santana and John Squire. I love them.

5. The Peth
Imagine the Mary Chain doing Cold Turkey - they're that good. The singer is a character and the drummer is a legend. They're Welsh and they rock like motherfuckers.

6. Once
I found them in LA with Tim Burgess. Sami, the singer, works as a DJ at a hotel that I stay at and we became mates and after a bit he gave me his CD. God knows if the UK will get this one. They've just been signed by Noiselab for South America.

7. Suicide Dogz
My kid Dan has played me this and I just can't see it not blowing up in the UK. He DJs and again is brilliant but better still, he's the producer who's about to happen.

8. The Horrors
You're not supposed to like them if you're over drinking age, but I love them - again, my kid has bullied them into my life. They remind me of The Cramps which can only be good.

9. Cherrystones
Now all I do is fund Poptones it's lovely to just be objective. This and Viking Moses are the best things my colleague Paul has signed to the label. The album is brilliant. He's the bollocks.

10. Enter Shikari
Again, my kid turned me on to them; then I did a radio show with Tony Wilson who is in love with them. They're massive on MySpace and can sell out the Astoria without a deal. I am told it's screamo, whatever the fuck that means, but I'm getting to like it. They will be massive this year.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Starlight Mints "Drowaton"ยด[iTunes Link]


Just what do they put in the water in Oklahoma? Like hometown heroes The Flaming Lips, The Starlight Mints continue to push their agenda for sweeping orchestral psych-rock, lyrical mumbo-jumbo, and eye-boggling cover art involving really big balls on their third album. Oddly enough, they sound less like Wayne Coyne and company than early progenitors of the oddball pop genre such as the Beatles and The Kinks. Not a second of Drowaton ("not a word" backwards, although we have no idea why) is sacrificed to silence as every crevice is stuffed with an odd tambourine, flugelhorn, or blast of vintage piano. Ultimately, however, this a guitar record, as best evidenced in more discriminatingly produced cuts such as "Eyes of the Night" and the nearly sincere "What's Inside of Me."


Their love of archetypal pop and AM radio has provided, over the course of two acclaimed albums, a rock-solid foundation for a whole bunch of inspired unusualness, all baked to perfection under the hot Oklahoman sun. Their unique brand of instrumentally complex, surrealistically worded pop contains a blend of classic string arrangements, cheeky boyish vocals, catchy melody, and ornate surrealism. You might call it bubblegum psych. Church bells, horns, piano, violin, tambourine, triangle, synths, and sound effects complement the usual suspects of guitar, bass, and drums to paint a broad sonic palate.

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