Tobacco’s first solo album, Fucked Up Friends, was called by Rolling Stone “one of the year’s best stoner-rock records – only it’s powered by synths, hip-hop beats and vocoders instead of guitars.

On May 25, Tobacco released his latest record, Meat Maniac, featuring two songs supported by Beck:  Fresh Hex and Grape Aerosmith. The two have never met, instead exchanging parts for songs via email.

Yesterday, Tobacco released a new Alan Cordell-directed video for Grape Aerosmith.

Tobacco – Grape Aerosmith (feat. Beck) Official Video from Allen Cordell on Vimeo.

TOUR DATES:

Thursday, Sept. 9 – Washington, DC @ DC9 w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Friday, Sept. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Saturday, Sept. 11 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Thursday, Sept. 16 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Friday, Sept. 17 – South, VT @ Higher Ground w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Saturday, Sept. 18 – Boston, MA @ Middle East w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Thursday, Sept. 23 – Toledo, OH @ Mickey Finn’s w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Friday, Sept. 24 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Saturday, Sept. 25 – Kalamazoo, MI @ The Strutt w/ Junk Culture, Dreamend
Wednesday, Sept. 29 – Greensboro, NC @ Artisika on UNCG Campus w/ Dreamend
Thursday, Sept. 30 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 w/ Dreamend
Friday, Oct. 1 – Knoxville, TN @ Square Room w/ Dreamend
Saturday, Oct. 2 – Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street w/ Dreamend

Though Barber is based in Winnipeg songs:illinois naturally likes his song Chicago, a tune “about a guy more in love with the northern prairie winds than he is with this girl from Chicago.”

Here’s a limited time sample of Mr. Barber’s music.

Chicago

Nineteen ninety-two was the Hawks’ Hollywood Town Hall era, the third of the band’s seven total albums and I was splitting time between college in Syracuse and a girlfriend in Ithaca.

We were pretty poor — college bills, part-time jobs, waiting tables — but we were generally pretty relaxed, hanging out with the dogs on the farm, spending weekends skiing on the cheap and listening to WICB on the radio.

Olson’s new solo record, Many Colored Kite, came out yesterday and there’s a tour on the way. It’ll be an acoustic affair starting 8/27 with Olsen supported by multi-instrumentalist (and girlfriend) Ingunn Ringvold, who co-wrote two of the songs on the album.

About the record, Paste Magazine said: “Many Colored Kite finds Olson fusing his ‘desert country’ sound with classic and 60′s British folk tropes for an album buoyed by harmonies from Ingunn Ringvold…opening track Little Bird of Freedom features vocals from Jolie Holland…Vashti Bunyan lends her talents to No Time to Live Without Her, a song that celebrates love.”

The Dallas Observer referred to Olson as “a songwriter of unique vision…” and Popmatters called Many Colored Kite “unpretentious but not un-ambitious–daring to be almost embarrassingly forthright and earnest.”

Olsen’s label, Ryko, has released a free download of the first single, Bluebell Song.

Bluebell Song

Joan was in my hometown to play a show and I snagged a ride with the girl who was charged with picking her up at the airport, thinking I might grab an impromptu interview. As we took the 30 minute drive to her hotel room, I started asking her some questions from the passenger’s seat as she sat in the back with her manager, smoking a joint.

For some reason I have long since forgotten, I asked her something about Jethro Tull. Her answer, though, I remember clearly: “I hate Jethro Tull and I hate his f****** flute”.

At that point, her manager said: “OK, buddy, the interview is over…”.

Pretty funny. Here are the best three songs by Jethro Tull.

Jethro Tull – Living In The Past
Jethro Tull – Locomotive Breath
Jethro Tull – Teacher

Holding Back The Years deserves to make this list simply because it was so different from what was happening at the time and it introduced Hucknall’s voice to the world. SR’s take on If You Don’t Know Me By Now may not improve hugely on the original, but the timbre of Hucknall’s improvisations certainly give it weight. Stars is a bit on the disco tip but it’s a purely executed piece of pop.

These are the 3 best songs by Simply Red.

Simply Red – Holding Back The Years
Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me By Now
Simply Red – Stars

Written to the epitome of pop simplicity (I-III-IV-VI in EM, repeated to death) and appropriately covered by the Sex Pistols, this song was actually recorded previously by Paul Revere and The Raiders.?

The rapper of the moment continued her assault on the pop star of the moment in a recent interview in Time Out London.

“[Winfrey] made this huge speech at the ball praising Lady Gaga about how she is helping Americans to be the best of themselves,” so says M.I.A. “There’s millions of other Americans who represent that for me. Is [it] about numbers? About how much you’re selling? Is it truly about the journey? Because [Lady Gaga's] journey isn’t that difficult: to go from the f—ing Upper East Side to a f—ing performing arts school and onto a stage at the museum of f—ing wherever. That journey’s about four miles.”

M.I.A.’s apparent dissatisfaction with the Great O is apparently the result of a slight (perceived or otherwise) from O to M at this year’s Metro Ball in NYC.

“Oprah seemed like she was giving me the cold shoulder,” she told TOL. “She was with [David Bowie's wife] Iman. Iman was always dancing with me, hugging and kissing me, but Oprah seemed really pissed off with me.”

No word back yet from O or Ga (or the Miss Congeniality Department of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame).

The vibe is lound and hot and beautiful. People who aren’t purposely swapping bodily fluids in the darkened corners of the room are swapping sweat on the dance floor, bumping and grinding against each other to the sounds of soul, R&B and afro-beat.

That’s all you need to know about Asiko Rock Band, one of a dozen bands featured on the new Lagos Disco Inferno album, certified the best of the month by Vice Magazine.

Listen to this snippet of the song Everybody Get Down and then get down to Amazon to buy a digital download or to Academy Records mailorder to purchase.

Props to Voodoo Funk for the heads-up on this collection. Go buy one of their snazzy T-shirts. Sadly, the girl doesn’t come with the shirt.

everybodygetdown

I’m not a good reviewer — though I’ve made a few bucks pretending to be — so I won’t wax philosophic about how His Name Is Alive’s Warn Defever blends this influence with that attitude.

I find this song disturbing in a pleasant sort of way and I can’t really sing along with it. These kinds of songs always have their place in my library, in between Tom Petty and John Cage.

As noted on their label’s website, Dream Rememberer is from HNIA’s newest full-length album, The Eclipse.

“Originally released as one the ten CDs in the recent limited edition ceramic box set also named The Eclipse,” the site says, “this is the stand alone and main new album from His Name Is Alive. The Eclipse collects eleven brand new songs including the new free single Dream Remember.

The album features Warn Defever and vocalist Andy FM, with contributions from Steve Sparks on drums and Jeen Cook playing violin. The album was produced at UFO Factory in downtown Detroit.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the history of His Name Is Alive, it’s the handle that Defever initiated 25 years ago while in high school, when he began recording music on a four-track with singer Angie Carozzo.

Starting in the early 90s, HNIA won fans as part of the 4AD stable, which yielded variable results both artistically and commercially. When 4AD was bought by Beggars Banquet and HNIA sales stumbled further, the label dropped the band in 2002.

Since that time, Defever has started his own Silver Mountain Media Group, the imprint through which he distributes HNIA as well as other projects.

Dream Rememberer was a giveaway from the band so feel free to download it here.

Their website is here.
Their MySpace is here.