And the marketing push around the upcoming Foo Fighters record continues …

First there were the surprise shows where the band played the entire record in its entirety. (Sorry about the Seattle show false alarm)

Then there was the video for “White Limo” featuring Lemmy.

Today comes the release of the first Foo Fighters radio single from the album, “Rope,” which you can listen to above. Rolling Stone calls the song “a hairy-testicled, devil-dicked atomic beast,” which is hilarious hyperbole at its finest.

The new record, Wasting Light, will be released April 12.

Here are a few ideas:

Guns N Roses

Sure “November Rain” practically screams orchestral performance but could you image hearing classical arrangements of “You Could Be Mine,” “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Back off Bitch?” That would be some epically amazing stuff. Added bonus:  If Axl Rose doesn’t want to play ball and allow the songs to be rearranged maybe local Duff McKagan can twist his arm for the SRO.

Guest vocalists: Star Anna, Duff McKagan, Ben Harwood

U2

Say what you will about the band’s current output, but you really can’t touch U2′s back catalog when it comes to modern rock classics. Although I would definitely recommend sticking to the pre-Zooropa material for this one.

Guest vocalists: Josiah Johnson, Cody Votolado, Damien Jurado

Led Zeppelin

I’m kind of surprised the SRO hasn’t tackled Led Zeppelin already. There are enough Jimmy Page wannabes in Seattle to make this a no-brainer when it comes to ticket sales. Plus, who wouldn’t want to hear “Kashmir” done by the SRO?

Guest vocalists: Ann Wilson, Kaylee Cole, Ben Gibbard

Pearl Jam

I have a feeling that a night of Nirvana would simply be too cliche in Seattle, so why not try Pearl Jam instead? There’s a wealth of material to choose from and I’m guessing the Pearl Jam guys would be cool with SRO handling their songs with care.

Guest vocalists: Chris Cornell, Mark Arm, Kristen Ward

Neil Young

Since Canada is our neighbor to the north why not extend some good old fashioned Northwest hospitality to our mayonnaise-loving friends (Seriously, they dip French fries in mayo. Yuck.) by having the SRO tribute the finest musician to ever come out of Canada.

Guest vocalists: Robin Pecknold, Eddie Vedder, Rachel Flotard

Prince

Perhaps no one on this list is more deserving of a tribute than the Purple One. All of his hits were massive (even “Batdance”) and all would sound great with an orchestral treatment (even”Batdance”). The SRO needs to make  this happen.

Guest vocalists: Shawn Smith, Beth Ditto,  John Van Deusen

The sacred cow that is Radiohead being interpreted by an orchestra of 50+ combined with a 20-person choir, six-piece backing band and eight different vocalists playing the role of Thom Yorke seems like a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, to borrow a phrase from the Radiohead catalog, everything was in its right place at the Moore Theatre during the two-hour performance.

The formula for the evening involved the vocalists — Kaylee Cole, Rachel Flotard, Jon Auer, John Van Deusen, Michele Khazak, Noah Gunderson, Jim Antonio and Tom Beecham — each taking three-song chunks of tracks from either OK Computer or The Bends. There were several standout vocal deliveries and it seems unfair to single out specific vocalists because all did quite an admirable job, but the ones that stood out the most were Gunderson’s “Electioneering,” Cole’s “Paranoid Android,” Flotard’s “Street Spirit” and all three of Van Deusen’s songs. Khazak also made quite the impression by lending her bold vocals to “Lukcy” and “The Tourist.”

While it is easy to single out vocal performances the real star of the show was the orchestra itself. Gunderson’s spirited “Electioneering” would have been boring without the punched-up brass and Van Deusen’s admirable take on “Karama Police” wouldn’t have won me over if it wasn’t for the warm string section and its song-ending climax into a beautiful crashing crescendo. The orchestra made the experience seem like I was listening to songs I’ve heard hundreds of times with a set of fresh ears.

There weren’t many miscues or blemishes on the performance. Surprisingly the worst performance came during the encore, which saw Auer fronting the backing band sans orchestra for “Creep.” I couldn’t place exactly why it sounded a bit off while listening from the Moore’s steep balcony, but after I walked out I realized it was so offputting because it was the one song missing the orchestra. The song just fell flat after an evening filled with the theatre-spanning acoustics of an orchestra.

Radiohead definitely was the centerpiece of the evening but the real MVP of the show was bandleader and bassist Scott Teske and his team of composers who wrote orchestral arrangements for all of the songs  from scratch since no orchestral arrangements previously existed. It was quite an undertaking and the SRO pulled it off unbelievable well. Hopefully there will be some sort of encore performance next year because the Seattle Rock Orchestra’s treatment of these songs deserve more than a one-off concert.

Taking part in the Shinjuku-themed event (more on that in a minute) will be Junkie XL, Truckasauras and Mad Rad. Hey, if you’re going to have a party why not invite the city’s best party rap group to perform?

Now about that Shinjuku stuff. Shinjuku is a graphic novel by Mink, a L.A.-based writer who is a NFTN supporter. Mink wanted to do something in Seattle to support NFTN so the idea for a Shinjuku-themed show was hatched. I haven’t read the book but I am told as part of the festivities Neumos will be transformed into the club Poppies, which plays a prominent role in Shinjuku and that there will be wall projections, costumed character models, contests and more. It will definitely be an interesting and unique way to kick off this year’s Noise for the Needy Festivities

The release, which will be another EP, is titled Timeless and will feature Sabzi’s remix of Grynch’s breakthrough hit “My Volvo,” a song Grynch will likely never escape. You can listen to the title track off the release over at DJ Booth and you can download the Sabzi remix of “My Volvo” over here for free.

He helped forge one of the greatest guitar-driven indie bands of the Alternative Nation, and then after leaving Dinosaur Jr due to tensions with Dinosaur songwriter J Mascis he continued his career with Sebadoh and created a string of influential cult albums in III, Bakesale and Harmacy.  The latter two albums are getting the deluxe reissue treatment starting with Bakesale on April 4. The album will contain 25 bonus tracks and Sebadoh is launching a tour, which lands at Neumos Saturday night ($15, 9 p.m.), to support the release.

“I had a really good time making that record. It was a good time for me personally,” Barlow said about Bakesale during a phone interview from his California home. ”The songs are really airtight. They are perfectly short and I was really in a good spot writing lyrics. It was a very, very direct writing process and I can hear that when I listen to that album.”

Harmcy on the other hand is a bit of a different story for Barlow. The record continues the classic Sebadoh lo-fi sound and is still considered one of the band’s best records by fans but the tumultuous circumstances surrounding its release after Bakesale’s success impacted Barlow.

“There were just a lot expectations around that record. We had a lot of pressure early on to … step up and make a full-bodied rock album,” Barlow said.

“We had so much attention around us at that time. We were on the covers of magazines, there was an article in Rolling Stone. There were just a lot of expectations to sell a lot and the album really didn’t sell. By not selling a lot we became this failure within the record company and the insiders  and it was really hard for me to wake up to reality because everything leading up to that with Bakesale, we really were just kind of cruising. We were just playing the music and not concerned with that sort of record label stuff and Harmacy is sort of where all that shit caught up to me and it effects how I look back on that time.”

The lackluster response to the album led Barlow down the cliched rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of drugs and depression.

“It’s totally like a VH1 sort of thing. I even started doing drugs back then too. I was snorting speed and drinking hard alcohol. During Harmacy all of that stuff just sort of happened and it was really heartbreaking,” he said.

In 2007 Sebadoh performed a string of reunion shows after not playing together for nearly a decade but Sebadoh didn’t play a lot of material from the Bakesale and Harmacy sessions. So what should fans expect as party of the Bakesale/Harmacy tour?

“I’m not sure. We’re just playing songs from those two records but there aren’t really any rules about it,” said Barlow. “We are going to try to focus on that style from that period. We kind of turned into almost this sort of straightforward pop-punk band back then. I’m anxious to revisit that to see what kind of power we can infuse into that music now that we’re a bit older and wiser.”

Barlow said he is ready to fill the demand for classic Sebadoh now that the band members are older and wiser and have learned from their past mistakes.

“The idea of things being revisited and rediscovered, like Bakesale, isn’t hard for me to believe. To me it’s not that extraordinary for things to be rediscovered. Every twenty years or some somebody digs a shovel into the ground and digs up old dirt and this time it’s Bakesale. We’re just brushing the dust off and breaking it out again because that’s what music fans will do and we’re a band for music fans,” he said.

With a tour underway and reissues being made available to rekindle interest in Sebadoh and possibly introduce the band to a younger audience, will there be a new album and a full-fledged comeback similar to what happened with Dinosaur Jr?

“I think we have it in mind but I don’t know,” said Barlow. “With Dinosaur it’s easier to make stuff happen because there is so much money involved. We have record labels that give us money and we can afford to create music … But when it comes to Sebadoh and my own things we are much more basic. We don’t have a lot of wiggle room financially so we have to keep things realistic and pragmatic.”

So how does this compilation of live recordings from the band’s 1996 West Coast tour sound? On first listen it sounds pretty dang good. I’ll write a full review of the record as it gets closer to the album’s March 22 release date.

For now here are a few observations about the record:

• It’s tough to tell it’s a live record on a lot of songs because crowd noise is at a minimal, which is a good thing. The way the chosen recordings were mixed really showcases the band’s abilities.
• The two covers — “Helter Skelter” and “Search and Destroy” — couldn’t be more different from one another. The latter is a slowed-down version of the Beatles classic only distinguishable because of its lyrics and the former is a more faithful adaptation of the Stooges track.
• Each member of the band gets his equal due with guitar, bass and drum solos spread throughout the album. Chris Cornell gets his moment during a solo version of “Black Hole Sun,” which surprisingly is one of the album’s stronger tracks which is saying a lot because this record really is a tour de force of Soundgarden material.
• “Slaves and Bulldozers” never sounded so brutal, and that’s a very good thing. The nine-minute-plus version is Soundgarden at its best. Other standouts include a incendiary “Rusty Cage” which Cornell dedicates to Johnny Cash, a fast and furious “Ty Cobb” and the excellent “Nothing to Say.”
• The tracklist displays the band’s range with a good mix of older, heavier Soundgarden and newer, more pop-friendly Soundgarden. It would’ve been nice to see more older material like “Flower” or “Gun” represented but “Burden in My Hand” and “Dusty” make for nice transitions out of the hard and heavy Soundgarden and they mix well with the rest of the record.
• You can tell at this point in their careers the members of Soundgarden were a well-oiled machine. There are few flaws upon initial listening and while every member of the band seems to contribute equally the star of the show is Chris Cornell’s amazing pipes. It’s great to have an official live document of Cornell’s vocal acrobatics.
• The few flaws come in the form of the aforementioned shortage of vintage Soundgarden and a few tempo changes and slight rearrangements on some songs. Since there aren’t many live recordings of the band out there many of the group’s fans that didn’t see them live in the 90s might not appreciate some of the finer nuances of a live recording since they’re only familiar with the recorded material.
• It much more of a vital purchase for fans of 90s Seattle music than  Pearl Jam’s Live on Ten Legs

So here they are:

h/t Consequence of Sound

Sasquatch 2011 Lineup from World Famous on Vimeo.

The lineup for the 2011 Sasquatch! Music Festival has finally been announced and I’m not sure how I feel about the names on the list of bands that are coming to the Gorge. I’m pretty sure that’s a good thing.

It’s no secret that I’m a Sasquatch! fanboy. I actually consider myself the festival’s ultimate fan and its biggest critic. Sasquatch! combines one of my favorite places (the Gorge Amphitheatre) with one of my favorite things (music festivals) and I’m the only person I know — aside from Adam Zacks, who I met for the first time last night — who has been to every Sasquatch!. So you can imagine that I had pretty high hopes for what last night’s lineup announcement would hold and while I am disappointed at the lack of starpower on the bill, I will say I am very impressed with the talent coming to eastern Washington Memorial Day weekend.

For Sasquatch!’s tenth year Adam Zacks definitely followed last year’s formula of booking a full day’s worth of solid bands without banking on big-name headliners to sell tickets. It’s a smart move and it will likely pay off in the form of the festival’s first four-day sellout. The lineup’s established acts read like a greatest hits of Sasquatch!’s past (Rodrigo y Gabriella, Cold War Kids, the Thermals). There are plenty of locals who aren’t big names that are going to get some great exposure (Macklemore, Young Evils, The Globes), a few reunion acts (DFA 1979, Archers of Loaf) and plenty of up-and-coming acts (Beach House, Wavves, Sleigh Bells, Twin Shadow). This combination of acts gives the lineup a feeling of familiarity, excitement and discovery and makes the festival an excellent gateway drug for being turned on to new music.

In the headliners department Wilco, the Decemberists and my beloved Flaming Lips aren’t really the types of bands that make me want to take a 150-mile roadtrip to the Gorge. The other headliners, Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie are local staples who both headlined Bumbershoot recently and they don’t even come close to matching the Foo Fighters, the festival’s biggest name, in the starpower department. I’ve seen all of those bands multiple times and I know they will deliver excellent sets (if Isaac Brock is sober) but I was expecting some names with a bit more oomph mainly because for no reason at all I thought this would be the year Sasquatch! pulls out all the stops and becomes the destination fest of destination fest.

Sasquatch! has always been ahead of the curve, which means I’m pretty spoiled when it comes to getting to see some of modern music’s biggest pop stars before they become massive, arena-packing acts. Cases and points: Modest Mouse, Kanye West, Arcade Fire and the Pixes all played the mainstage in 2005 and the year prior the Black Keys headlined the second stage in front of a crowd of less than 500 because the Postal Service was on  the main stage at the same time. Then there was 2009 when Kings of Leon played an impressive headlining set (which made me a fan) during what I believe was their first major U.S. festival headlining set.

Fast forward to modern day and Kanye and Arcade Fire are headlining Coachella six years after their afternoon Sasquatch! sets and KOL is headlining another day and of course you probably won’t be seeing the Black Keys headline a second stage anywhere. Sure 2005 was  back in the good old days when going to Sasquatch! only meant a one-day trip to the Gorge, but the festival is a much different machine now and it’s definitely for the better.

Sasquatch! has grown organically without  much corporate entanglements (aside from Live Nation’s promotion of the event and operation of the venue) and this has allowed it to keep its identity and reach its core audience, which is something that is reflected well in this year’s lineup. Expanding to four days is a logical move even if it makes covering the festival a laborious chore (wait, why am I complaining about covering a music festival?) and the addition of comedy and dance acts makes the festival a well-rounded experience that is well worth the $80 per day ticket price.

What I’m trying to say is that even though I wasn’t floored by the lineup announcement last night, Sasquatch! is definitely going to be one of the best music festivals of the year. You want to know why? Because Sasquacth! isn’t booked for people like me who get media access to the festival and might even sound a bit spoiled/jaded by making a fuss over the selection for headliners. Sasquatch! is booked for people like you — music fans who read multiple music blogs daily, get excited about consuming new music and don’t care if you’ve seen a band one, or one hundred times — and I think you are going to have a great time this Memorial Day weekend at the Gorge.

Photo by Danny Clink

Soundgarden will release its first live album, titled “Live on I5,” March 22.

The 17-track record features recordings of songs from the band’s 1996 West Coast tour. The tracklist includes four songs from the band’s Dec.  18, 1996 Mercer Arena show in Seattle as well as Chris Cornell performing “Black Hole Sun” solo and covers of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and the Stooges “Search & Destroy.”

The tour was the first time the band recorded its live shows and the band rented a mobile 24-track machine/truck and recorded the gigs on two-inch tape. The band had intended to release the recordings as a live record soon after the tour, but they disbanded and the tapes were left in the closet of Studio X in Seattle (now called Bad Animals) to gather dust until now.

The band has had little activity since reuniting in 2010, playing only three reunion concerts and releasing a greatest-hits boxed set that included only one previously unreleased studio recording. Live on I5 looks to be a worthwhile purchase for anyone looking to add to their Soundgarden collection, however it is disappointing that something like this wasn’t included in the Telephantasm box set since it was meant to be a career-spanning retrospective and a live album would’ve given fans who already own all of Soundgarden’s recordings a reason to drop money on the release. There is no word on whether the band plans to tour in 2011.

Live on I5 tracklist:

1. Spoonman

2. Searching With My Good Eye Closed

3. Let Me Drown

Tracks 1-3: Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996

4. Head Down

Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996

5. Outshined

Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996

6. Rusty Cage

Recorded live at Pacific National Exhibition Forum, Vancouver, BC, Canada – December 7, 1996

7. Burden In My Hand

Recorded live at Salem Armory, Salem, OR – December 8, 1996

8. Helter Skelter

9. Boot Camp

Tracks 8 and 9: Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996

10. Nothing To Say

Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996

11. Slaves And Bulldozers

12. Dusty

13. Fell On Black Days

Tracks 11-13: Recorded live at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA – December 5, 1996

14. Search And Destroy

Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996

15. Ty Cobb

Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996

16. Black Hole Sun

Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996

17. Jesus Christ Pose

Recorded live at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA – December 5, 1996