Now that, Paperbag Records, the Toronto label that could has passed its wool-and-copper anniversary, they’ve got a whole crazy album up for free download on their website, featuring a roster that includes Woodhands, Slim Twig and Little Girls doing their thang with oddball covers. Peep the tracklist:CFCF - How Bizarre (OMC cover)Winter Gloves - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)Woodhands - Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant cover)Sally Shapiro - Dying in Africa (Nicolas Makelberge cover)You Say Party! We Say Die! - Falling Out (Rikk Agnew cover)Josh Reichmann - Daniel (Bat For Lashes cover)Laura Barrett - Gamma Ray (Beck cover)Rock Plaza Central - I Want You (Bob Dylan cover)The Acorn - Strange Animal (Gowan cover)Little Girls - Heinz (Artery cover)Slim Twig - Behold A Lady (OutKast cover)Under Byen - Du er min øjesten (Peter Malberg cover)While Woodhands' “Electric Avenue” cover is positively industrial, Slim Twig’s take on OutKast’s “Behold A Lady” seems like something that would come out of Andre 3000’s brain. Download the mix at Paper Bag HQ. CLIPSE, PHARRELL AND CAM’RON HEAD TO “POPEYE”S In tribute to everyone’s favourite Halal resto, Clipse, Pharrell and Cam’ron record a truly gangsta video for their new single “Popeye’s (Popular Demand).” Basically it functions like a lost episode of The Wire, if Avon Barksdale ever had a flair for words.
STEVE ALBINI SPEAKS! The Daily Swarm’s got a loooong interview with mega producer Steve Albini (i.e. one of the most influential figures in indie-rock), concerning all the quirks of his production process, his attitude towards artists and his post-Nirvana battle with Geffen. It’s a very thorough conversation, and that notoriously caustic Albini attitude shines through in every quote. According to Purple Hill’s Owen Marchildon — whose former band, From Fiction, once recorded with Albini — everyone at Albini’s studio has to work in mechanics jumpsuits. While work uniforms are not discussed in the interview, here’s a teaser on Albini's attitude towards production:As an engineer, the only people I’m concerned about are the other people in the room, the band members. I mean literally everyone else in the world can go fuck themselves.I honestly don’t care at all what some abstract listening audience would say about listening to a record. They’re not in the band. They’re not there helping us make the record right now.Occasionally someone in a band, when they are in quandary about what to do, they’ll say “what will people think when they hear this?” My response is generally, “fuck ‘em.” They’re not here right now. If they mattered if they really cared they would be here helping us make the record. If you guess what those people would say, you are going to be wrong because there is no unified opinion in the outside world.Mad existential, no?
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