Icon vs. Icon

Them Crooked Vultures - the new supergroup featuring John Paul Jones (Led Leppelin), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Queens of The Stoneage) – have posted a new video entitled “Dave Grohl In Fresh Pots.” Check out the video below!

Back for it’s eighth year, Download Festival was already boasting a powerful lineup before today’s additions. Festival organizers have announced that Aerosmith (with Steven Tyler) and Rage Against The Machine will headline this year’s event along with legendary rockers AC/DC.

The big event is to be held over the weekend of June 11th – 13th at Donington Park, UK and will be also feature Them Crooked Vultures, Deftones, Stone Temple Pilots, Bullet For My Valentine, Megadeth, Motorhead, Wolfmother and Volbeat.

More acts will be announced soon. Further festival details at this location.

After three years of loyal patience, ANDREW W.K. fans can finally experience the ‘lost’ third album from the established party rocker. Previously released in Japan and Korea in 2006, Close Calls With Brick Walls will officially become available in the United States on March 9th, 2010, being released by Steev Mike, as a special two album package (the original Close Calls With Brick Walls on one disc, and an additional CD called Mother of Mankind, containing rare and unreleased material). After the recent release of 55 CADILLAC – a compilation of improvised solo piano compositions – Close Calls With Brick Walls and Mother of Mankind deliver the slamming, inspirational music for which Andrew W.K. is loved, coupled with new sounds and feelings rarely associated with his traditional work.

Close Calls With Brick Walls was recorded in multiple sessions throughout 2004 and 2005, using the full Andrew W.K. touring band for the first time. With a full instrumental band, the new album includes exciting new performances, styles, and rhythms. The lyrics are more complex although still very playful, and Andrew’s voice has grown into something much more distinct and expressive.

The roots of the album and the changes it signals lie in the story behind the unorthodox path Andrew took to fame and, specifically, the dramatic contrast between his early years as part of a free-spirited music scene in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan and the transformation in attitude and image and personality that came about after he had assumed the role of Andrew W.K..

The trademark white t-shirt and jeans he wore in public was also adopted in order to help create an easily-identifiable image. And it worked. Audiences embraced Andrew W.K. as the long-haired, straight-talking, everyman rock icon who oozed positivity and made his fans feel that not only was it OK to be different but that it was OK to be yourself and not feel embarrassed about being awkward or unusual.

In one sense, Close Calls With Brick Walls is the sound of Andrew W.K. reclaiming and embracing aspects of his personality and his music that were obscured and closed off to him by the process of generating an image and a persona that could be sold to the public. The cover of the album even suggests as much. It features an image of Andrew W.K. standing, arms crossed and dressed in his trademark white tee-shirt, in front of a brick wall that is painted a shade of indigo so dark it appears to be swallowing all the light around it. There’s a gleam in his eye and a broad smile pasted across his face. But, oddly, he doesn’t look as if he’s having fun. The entire package seems to pose a conundrum.

Since the initial 2006 release of Close Calls, Andrew’s career has certainly moved in all sorts of surprising directions. He did a lot of things that were unexpected, yet offered little in the way of explanation for behavior that, on one level, seemed quite natural and, on another, entirely unnatural. Instead of promoting and touring the album in the U.S., he went on a lecture tour as an inspirational new-age motivational speaker. He cut his hair. It grew back. He stepped out of his dirty whites and into a tailored suit to model for gentleman’s magazines like Esquire and V-Man, he produced a Grammy-nominated album for reggae artist, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, opened a night club in New York (Santos Party House) and became the host of the Cartoon Network game show, Destroy Build Destroy. He recorded a solo piano album and went on tour with a classical string quartet.

And so the story comes full circle. The world catches up with Andrew W.K. and, in return, he releases Close Calls With Brick Walls, the album that the world was almost denied from hearing by forces beyond his control. But rather than crash into walls that barred his way to make that happen, he broke them down brick by brick and then stepped on through to the other side. And where he goes from here… who knows?

For more information visit www.andrewwk.com.

On Tuesday (January 19), organizers of the the 11th annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival revealed the lineup for this year’s big event. Jay-Z, Muse and Gorillaz will headline the concert, which is planned for April 16-18th in Indio, California. Tickets for the 2010 edition of Coachella go on sale Friday (January 22) at 10 a.m. through the fest’s official site, with a three-day pass costing $269.

Check out the rest of the lineup below:

The full lineup for the 2010 Coachella festival, according to concert promoter Goldenvoice:

Friday, April 16, 2010:
Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Deadmau5, Public Image Limited, the Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Benny Benassi, Fever Ray, Grace Jones, She & Him, Erol Alkan, the Avett Brothers, Calle 13, the Whitest Boy Alive, the Cribs, La Roux, Yeasayer, Lucero, DJ Lance Rock, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Proxy, Ra Ra Riot, Deer Tick, Wolfgang Gartner, Aeroplane, Iglu & Hartly, Sleigh Bells, P.O.S., Baroness, Hockey, Little Dragon, White Rabbits, Wale, Kate Miller-Heidke, As Tall as Lions, Jets Overhead, Alana Grace, Pablo Hassan.

Saturday, April 17, 2010:
Muse, Faith No More, Tiësto, MGMT, David Guetta, the Dead Weather, Hot Chip, Devo, Coheed and Cambria, Kaskade, 2Many DJ’s, Major Lazer, Dirty Projectors, Gossip, Z-Trip, the xx, John Waters, Les Claypool, the Raveonettes, Mew, Sia, Camera Obscura, Tokyo Police Club, Porcupine Tree, Old Crow Medicine Show, Aterciopelados, Bassnectar, Frightened Rabbit, Dirty South, Flying Lotus, Corinne Bailey Rae, Pretty Lights, Shooter Jennings, RX Bandits, the Almighty Defenders, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, Craze & Klever, Zoe, the Temper Trap, Portugal. The Man, Band of Skulls, Girls, Beach House, Steel Train, Frank Turner.

Sunday, April 18, 2010:
Gorillaz, Pavement, Thom Yorke, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul, Julian Casablancas, Plastikman, Gary Numan, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, MUTEMATH, Deerhunter, Infected Mushroom, Club 75, Matt & Kim, the Big Pink, Gil Scott-Heron, King Khan and the Shrines, Florence and the Machine, Yann Tiersen, Little Boots, Miike Snow, Talvin Singh, Ceu, B.o.B., Babasonicos, Owen Pallett, the Glitch Mob, Mayer Hawthorne, Local Natives, Rusko, the Middle East, Hadouken!, the Soft Pack, Kevin Devine, Paparazzi, Delphic, One EskimO.

Andrew W.K. has posted a statement on his website in which he denies being given an “identity” by his management. The New York rocker addressed critics who he said have accused him of being a “victim of mind-control” since his 2001 debut album ‘I Get Wet’. In an unedited personal statement (also available on his website), Andrew has stated the following in response to the claims made against him:

“Since 2001, I have been accused of being part of a conspiracy in which I knowingly entered into a contract with creative directors called Steev Mike, who proceeded to invent a new identity for me to perform under. I’m here to say this is simply not true and a gross exaggeration of easily explainable and common-place music industry practices. Of course I work with people who choose not to include their whole names or real names in the credits, or who aren’t on stage with me during my shows – but taking advice and guidance from other people doesn’t mean I’m a victim of mind-control. That’s like science fiction! Andrew W.K. is about partying and doing what you want! We want fun, and that really is what I am about.

These lies have unfortunately been with me since my career started – critics were saying I had to be a fake puppet for the record industry because I appeared over night. These simple untrue allegations have grown over the years to the point now where I have to defend myself. I have done many interviews and talks where I have explained the nature of how I got into music, and I admitted that I did work with people. But people have still taken what I said and tried to call me a liar and a fake. What alarms me most about these accusations is that they remind me of witch trials: The kind of people who accuse me of being a talking head for some secret conspiracy to corrupt people’s morals are the same people who claim MTV and Cartoon Network are owned by secret rulers of the world out to poison kid’s brains, or that pop stars like Beyonce or Lady Gaga are part of some occult society, or that companies like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, or Hollywood are secretly promoting hidden plans. Or that the President of the USA is just a figure head and reading a script given to him by a secret world power. Come on!

We’re working in a business where there are different ends and different means. No one controlled Frank Sinatra or told him how to sing. No secret group of managers has been telling someone like Jay-Z what to do or how to look. And no one tells me what to do, except me and the people who believe in me. I am a real person who thinks for himself and am not the victim of anyone or group of people trying to influence my career or life. I take responsibility for everything in my life, including who I work for and what happens to me because of it. Just because a person has mentors or advisers doesn’t mean they don’t have their own brain and soul. And just because I work with other people who advise me doesn’t mean that I am a puppet for an evil cult or a have some sort of master plan. I make party music – plain and simple. In fact, it is me who is the innocent victim of a conspiracy of critics and haters who don’t believe in the power of music and pure true fun. It is us artists who are the victims. It’s crazy that still today, brand new artists like Lady Gaga have already been dealing with the same sort of paranoid allegations that I’ve has been dealing with since 2001. It just doesn’t stop! We are not puppets, we are human beings.

Musicians are not acting, we are real people. We are not part of a conspiracy! It’s really intense when people are telling you who you are, so I’m going to tell them who THEY are! On behalf of all musicians, the entertainment industry, and everyone else who’s ever been falsely accused, YOU ARE NOT HURTING US AND YOU ARE NOT STOPPING THIS. The party will continue! We will endure! It has become too common for musical artists and performers to be labeled as part of some global scam to control the world, or that we’re puppets for a larger agenda designed to hurt people. That’s why I’m speaking out and loudly declaring: I am not evil and neither are any of my other fellow members of showbusiness. We are here to bring fun and light into the world, not doubt and darkness. I have been accused of having people design my image, tell me what to say in interviews, design my clothes, the way I look and talk, and of course my music. It’s true I do work with people, but not to accomplish anything bad, just the basics that any person does in this business and with this opportunity to live out my dreams.

I have always admitted that I worked with people and I have confessed that time and time again, even if the critics twisted what I said. I did this hoping it would quiet people up and put an end to all the speculation and exaggeration. I was never an actor and the partnerships I made with friends, family, and the companies I’ve worked with have all been to promote entertainment, excitement, and fun – to give people something fun to focus on and to occupy our thoughts, instead of a bunch of fear or negativity.

I will always keep my focus where it matters most:

1) On being grateful for the incredible people who believe in the feeling I work to create

2) And on that magical feeling itself: BEING ALIVE!

Long live music and long live life. PARTY HARD!”

- Andrew W.K.

Them Crooked Vultures - the new supergroup featuring John Paul Jones (Led Leppelin), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme (Queens of The Stoneage) – have posted a live version of their song ‘Elephants’ on YouTube. Check it out below!

The band played an intense December 8, 2009 concert at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany was professionally filmed by WDR’s (German public TV) series “Rockpalast” and was premiered on December 15.

The entire 97-minute concert can be viewed at this location >

The band’s setlist was as follows:

01. [Introduction]
02. No One Loves Me and Neither Do I
03. Dead End Friends
04. Scumbag Blues
05. Elephants
06. Highway 1
07. New Fang
08. Gunman
09. Bandoliers
10. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
11. Caligulove
12. Interlude With Ludes
13. Spinning In Daffodils
14. Reptiles
15. Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up
16. [Interview]

Source: Them Crooked Vultures, Blabbermouth.net