Iggy Pop applies for work

Iggy Pop wanted to work with Josh Homme, so he, erm, sent him stuff:

"I was looking to make high-quality, non-band solo work, where you really put both feet into it," he said. "I’d been skirting around it: doing an album in French, or a soundtrack, or a reunion band album. I wanted to find the best and he’s the best. I sent him a dossier on me by FedEx: written form, no email. I sent him three essays I’d written on my sex life about specific people. I also sent him an interview I did with an eminent critic here in New York about his concerns about my career."

I'm not Homme's biggest fan, but even I recognise he probably wouldn't have needed an Iggy Pop primer to decide if he wanted to work with him. Homme would be unlikely to have got a note about working with Iggy Pop and needed to fire up Wikipedia.

Maybe that's wasn't what Pop was going for. Maybe he thought Homme needed persuasion and would have been on the phone screaming "okay, no more details about what you put into whose butthole. I'll work with you, just stop sending the stuff..."

Martyn Ware: The National Trust

Martyn Ware out of Heaven 17 et al has been collaborating with The National Trust on a sea-themed artwork. It's easier to explore than explain, so go have a look and a poke about.

Embed and breakfast man: Garbage

Garbage have teamed up with Brian Aubert out of Silversun Pickups for their Record Store Day single. This is it:


Record Store Day is an annual event where rare records are hidden in shops for people to hunt down; the winners get to sell them on eBay at huge profits.

Listen with No Rock: XCX/Ora together at, erm, last

I'm not totally convinced that Rita Ora brings anything to a Charli XCX single that wasn't already there, but for what it's worth... here's what happens when they collaborate:

Bookmarks: Elastica & Mark E Smith

The AV Club remembers that time Elastica and Mark E Smith worked together:

It’s a corker of a tune, with Frischmann spitting some abstract fatalism about there being no way out and “last chances,” which resonate even more knowing that Elastica would break up shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Smith barks about breaking through “glass barriers/class barriers,” which could possibly be read as commentary on Elastica being held down by a boys’ club music scene that saw it as irredeemable. Or, maybe it just sounded good.

Mercury-Jackson duet blown by Bubbles

Why did that Michael Jackson - Freddie Mercury duet never get finished?

Mercury didn't want to be produced by a chimp:

They were supposed to cut “There Must Be More To Life Than This,” but Mercury couldn’t handle The King of Pop’s weird attachment to his primate pal, The Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

“‘I’m not performing with a f–king chimp sitting next to me each night,’” Mercury exploded, veteran show business journalist David Wigg will write in a book, The Mail reported.

Wigg went on to write: “Freddie got very angry because Michael made Bubbles sit between them and would turn to the chimp between takes and ask, `Don’t you think that was lovely?’ or, `Do you think we should do that again?’

After a few days of this, Freddie just exploded. He phoned his manager and told him to `get me out of this zoo.’ Freddie then flew back to London, leaving the track musically unfinished.”

Got to be honest, it sounds a bit like Bubbles was a yes-chimp.

By the time Mercury turned up to work with Jackson, it was pretty clear that Michael wasn't like other boys, so I suppose it's more surprising that Mercury agreed to the recording session at all.

On the other hand, if he lasted for a "few days" of Bubbles overseeing the desk, there's two questions:

One: Did Mercury keep thinking 'well, maybe he's just taking time to find his monkey feet and might start being a useful member of the team' for those few days?

Two: A few days? How long did it take to knock out a crummy duet single?

Embed and breakfast man: Sia

Fancy watching Sia do a song with the New York Gay Men's Choir? Let us help you with that:

Prokofiev, Sir Mix-A-Lot collaborate

Not Sergei Prokofiev, of course - he's dead - but his grandson, Gabriel, who is also a composer. And THE Sir Mix-A-Lot. They came together at the request of the Seattle Symphony, in order to do an orchestral version of Baby Got Back:

Not, perhaps, the greatest sentiment to tempt young (let's be honest, middle-aged) people to the orchestra ("hey! Everyone can enjoy classical music, although if you're a woman you might find the transportation of some of the shitty stuff hip hop does into the orchestra a bit of a turn-off.) But an interesting collaboration.

NME Awards 2014: On the other hand...

While that last post and list of winners suggests the NME Awards had all the attractiveness of pork chops poorly cooked six weeks past expiration dates, they did at least provide an excuse for this to happen:



Yes, that's Metronomy with Mutya Keisha Siobhan doing Love Letters last night. It doesn't quite hang together as well as you might have hoped, but it's nice it happened at all.

Miley Cyrus is on tour

That she kissed Katy Perry [warning: shit website where videos autoplay] comes as no surprise.

But... bringing on the Flaming Lips and doing Yoshimi twice?

That's perhaps a little more surprising. And probably doing as much to take the shine off the Flaming Lips as her tired 'look at me' Perry kissage undermines bisexuality everywhere.

Morrissey, Cliff and Tom Bloody Jones: The Men Of A Certain Age tour

The news that Morrissey has announced dates with Tom Jones and Cliff Richard isn't really as surprising as people seem to think.

First, if we've learned anything from the last couple of years, it's that Morrissey's great strength is announcing gigs; he's less good at turning up to play them. On that basis, why not book extraordinary names? It's frankly more surprising that he's not publishing bills with Princess Grace, that main dude from The Lego Movie and Nostradamus.

Secondly, we all know how stung Morrissey is when people suggest he's a little bit racist. How better to prove your credentials as embracing everyone than by sharing the stage with Cliff Richard (born in India) and Tom Jones (who has orange skin)?

More generously, Mozzer has never hidden his affection for British culture of the early 60s and, if you put a piece of paper over both Jones' and Richard's cvs to cover off anything post-punk, you've got two titans. On that basis, the plan is no more unlikely than Morrissey's work with Sandie Shaw or his eulogy for Kenneth Williams.

Perhaps slightly less generously, if you then take the piece of paper off the cvs, you have careers which start out astonishingly edgy - Tom doing first-person songs about murder and incarcerated criminals; Cliff being inspected by authorities to see if that nasty Elvis had somehow infected England - which somehow mutated into a conservative, mundane slop of game shows, Christmas songs and shirtless calendars and tours to a fanbase slowly moving from 'pickled in aspic' to 'preserved with embalming fluid'. Morrissey might recognise something there.

More interesting is whats in it for the two older singers. Jones, clearly, is eyeing up the next series of The Voice, given that this year it's proving an opportunity for him to have a quiet nap in a comfy seat; a date with Morrissey will top-up his list of names to drop.

Cliff, for his part, cheerfully announced that he was doing it because it's a larger audience than he could usually manage in the US:

Richard also said the chances of him playing to 15,000 people in New York were “pretty well nil” without the support of Morrissey, but stated he was determined to make his one-hour set the best he possibly could: “I’m just going to make it really difficult for Morrissey to follow me.”

The dates take place in June, which means we're expecting Morrissey to contract lassa fever sometime around the end of May.

Taylor Swift experiences invasion

Last night was the first night of Taylor Swift's Red tour in the UK.

It was all spoiled though, when a shambling idiot appeared on stage.

And as if Ed Sheeran coming on to do an duet wasn't bad enough there was a stage invasion by someone from the audience.

(Thank you. You may now choose from 'Seinfeldian slap bass riff' or the traditional 'boom-tish drum effect'.)

The stage invader handed Swift a note - believed to read "we love you, but in god's name don't inflict any more Ed Sheeran on us, please" - before being removed by security.

Someone in the crowd took a photo of it, and luckily Kevin Cummins didn't turn up to make them delete the picture:

Taylor Swift Fan On Stage To Give Note - http://t.co/WHtYN837Qd pic.twitter.com/GLlhHqZD3h

— OCEANUP (@OCEANUP) February 2, 2014

This was always going to happen

You knew it would happen sooner or later. It doesn't make it any easier.

Madonna turns up, tries desperately to elbow her way into Miley Cyrus narrative.

Onlookers said "it's just like that time she sucked every last ounce of joy out of Britney Spears."

Miley Cyrus fans commented "who's the old lady? Is she like Alma Cogan or someone?"

The Daily Star has something to say about Lily Allen

POP star Lily Allen says she could not work with Damon Albarn because she found him “too irritating”.

The 28-year-old singer spilled the beans on the pair’s doomed collaboration attempt in 2008.

Damon, 45, had said at the time: “She’s a talented kid but it was just a bad idea.”

Given that that's the entire Daily Star story, is it fair to describe two words as "spilling the beans"?

Also: if you're not expecting 2008-period Damon Albarn to be irritating, you've not really prepared, have you?

Vicky Cryer: Is it a supergroup?

Does Vicky Cryer count as a supergroup?

It's got Killers bassist Mark Stoermer, Muse drummer Dominic Howard, ex-Jamiroquai bassist Nick Fyffe and ex-Mars Volta drummer Dave Elitch and New York Dolls singer David Johanssen involved, which makes it supergroupy.

But it's mostly about Louis XIV's Jason Hill, which makes it feel more like a side-project where the session guys are more storied than the heart.

Apparently there's a record due out in a matter of days. In the meantime... there's this:

1993 all over again: 3 - Leftfield/Lydon

3. Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up

The stand out track from the album Now Thats What I Call Music 26, and part of the reason why Lydon can just about get away with playing the pantomime dame.

Leftfield's manager, Lisa Horan, reveals that the track was passed over by a major label:

John was on East West at the time, which meant they had to have first choice on the single. Luckily for us, they turned it down. I've still got a letter from the A&R man which says, "Thanks for coming to us with this project', but...". We were after a £25,000 advance and he didn't think it was worth it. So we ended up being able to put it out on Hard Hands."

The 'burn Hollywood burn' hook was unfortunately timed, as the record coincided with fires in Los Angeles. Paul King - by now well into his second career as MTV presenter - seemed convinced that the band had deliberately written the song to mock those who lost property in the inferno. Paul King always was an idiot.



[Part of 1993 all over again]
[Buy Leftism]

Michael Buble: Me And My Spoon

Really? Does the world really need a Michael Buble/Reese Witherspoon duet?

"By all accounts it would be true," he said of working with Witherspoon. "I just really am a big fan, and so myself and my camp, we wanted to do this with her, and we were thrilled that she was excited about it too."

Buble's camp made him want to work with Reese?

Let's leave that open goal there, shall we?

Gordon in the morning: The sum of its parts

Come! Together! Woah a woahaaa! Come Together!

Gordon's got a scoopy scoop this morning. Muse. The Killers. Together at last:

Meet the Millers: Killers hint at Muse collaboration

The idea of just one overblown work from acts who have long since passed a point where their level of invention could match the scale of their acoustic footprint is thrilling - get over double disappointment in one go.

Hang on, though, Gordon. Is there really a "hint", or have you merely raised the idea of working together and got a polite reply?

THE KILLERS frontman BRANDON FLOWERS reckons there’s a good chance of a collaboration with MUSE.

A good chance? Really?

He said: “We’ve become good friends with Muse. We get along so well, so I’d never rule out working together. We would be trying to outdo each other. It would be spectacular, the choruses would be huge.”

I don't actually see either a hint or a claim there's a good chance this could happen; it's about half a step up from 'there's no law of physics which would make it physically impossible for us to work together'.

Gordon in the morning: The rage of GaGa

Apparently on BBC Breakfast yesterday, Calvin Harris mentioned that he'd been asked to work with Lady GaGa, but had said 'no'.

GaGa wasn't happy, as Gordon copies off her Twitterstream:

Gaga took to the social networking site to write: “Seems to be trendy lately to talk s*** about lady gaga when your albums/singles drop.

“Y’all should live off your own hustle.

“Never even emailed you @calvinharris I guess it’s hard to believe I write + produce my music.

“Cuz I’m a woman I don’t know about EDM right?”

Gordon helpfully points out that EDM is electronic dance music, lest his readers wonder why GaGa might be talking about Early Day Motions.

Interesting attack line for GaGa to somehow read sexism in Harris' comments, which I don't think was there in the first place.

But we should respect her for writing and producing her own stuff and not needing any help from other people. Harris should be ashamed for suggesting otherwise. Where would he have got the idea otherwise?

Obviously, on Born This Way the album she shares a writing credit with Fernando Garibay. But pretty much it's just her.

Well, her and Fernando Garibay and Jeppe Laursen. And DJ White Shadow.

GaGa, Fernando Garibay, Jeppe Laursen and DJ White Shadow. Writing together, but with no further assistance. If you don't count Garibay, RedOne and Cheche Alara.

Okay, okay, so maybe she doesn't write alone. But she's producer, right? She produces herself. With only the merest additional work by DJ Snake, DJ White Shadow, Fernando Garibay, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Jeppe Laursen, RedOne and Clinton Sparks.

Why on earth would Calvin Harris believe that she might collaborate?

Turns out, though, that Harris was approached behind GaGa's back. Gordon again:

Calvin then replied to Gaga: “No, your label emailed me.

“I always make sure I say I’m a fan when asked about it, I apologise if I offended u, wasn’t the intention.”

GaGa accepted the apology, although seemed not to realise it was then her turn to say sorry.

Meanwhile, Gordon himself has taken to Twitter:

Apologies for spelling @sallyhumphreys name wrongly on Twitter and in the paper. Super talented theatre producer and future Mrs Ronnie Wood

— Gordon Smart (@gordonsmart) October 30, 2012

Getting the name wrong. Despite all that studious fact-checking he told Leveson about.

Cher Lloyd has a dream

ContactMusic reports:

Cher Lloyd wants to duet with Nicki Minaj because she admires her ''guts''.

And we're using "guts" in the old-fashioned sense meaning of "actual fan base", aren't we?

'I've always said from day one that the person I'd love to collaborate with would be Nicki Minaj. Just for the pure reason that I think she has so much guts and does what she wants and obviously says what she wants, and I love her.''

It's not clear what Cher thinks she'd be bringing to this collaboration, although I understand her Nandos card is one stamp away from a free half-chicken, so it's not like she'd be turning up empty-handed.