Beastie Boys give "Paul's Boutique" a makeover

Sun, 01/11/2009 10:03 AM  |  Lifestyle

Welcome back to Underground Hum, my brave little sailors. *Tis once again time to hop into our little geek submarine and dive head first into an ocean of totally cool music news. As always, thanks for the feedback.

www.beastieboys.com

This will be my last issue as your captain of this ship for the next few weeks, but the ever capable and just plain cool Ari Ernesto P. will be taking over the bridge while I'm gone.

Now, let's get cracking with this week's Reverb.

REVERB

International

The Beastie Boys' seminal hip-hop LP Paul's Boutique is set to get the 20th Anniversary release treatment. A new Paul's set has been rumored for months, and the trio have now confirmed the news on www.beastieboys.com, announcing a forthcoming, remastered version.

Amazon.com has had the album listed as a January 27 release for some time now, promising that it will feature "EXTRA TRACKS" -- and you know they mean it, since it's in all-caps.

The Insound.com sales listing for this release claims it will have track-by-track commentary, * la a DVD. That makes sense now, since the group is collecting email addresses and looks set to first announce details to its fans.

According to The Ann Arbor News, Ron Asheton, guitarist for influential outfit The Stooges was found dead on January 6, 2009 in his home on the Michigan town's west side. Asheton's personal assistant contacted police the previous night after attempts to reach him repeatedly failed.

Police found his body on his living room couch; he appeared to have died several days prior. No causes have been reported yet, but police don't suspect foul play. Asheton was 60 years old. With his brother, Scott on drums, Asheton was one of the four founding members of the Stooges, staying with the band throughout its highly influential initial seven-year run, from 1967 to 1974.

On Raw Power, the band's third album, he gave up the guitarist spot to new member James Williamson, switching instead to bass. After the band's breakup, Asheton did time with bands like Destroy All Monsters and New Race.

Asheton reunited with the Stooges in 2003, first appearing on Iggy Pop's Skull Ring and then on the much-bashed 2007 reunion album The Weirdness.

Asheton's influence on music cannot be overstated. The man defined every aspect of the punk rock guitar sound.

Meanwhile, Norwegian downtempo duo R*yksopp issued their first proper album since The Understanding almost four years ago, but their about to pick up the pace. On their website, Torbjorn Brundtland and Svein Berge announced that Junior, their third album, will come out on March 23. This announcement is good news, as the duo were quick to announce: "Every once in a while we surface to share our music and shed some light in an otherwise bleak reality. And that time is soon upon us, Ladies & Gents."

This time around, they've summoned a whole army of Scandinavian pop-goddess as collaborators: Robyn, Lykke Li, Anneli Drecker, the Knife's Karin Dreijer. Drecker and Dreijer have both laced tracks in the past, Dreijer on "What Else Is There" and Drecker on "Sparks"; Robyn and Lykke Li are both new to the group. The list of names means this album has a pretty good chance of being quite amazing.

The first single, "Happy Up Here", is out March 9. The duo are also offering a new, non-album song, "Happy Birthday", for free download at www.royksopp.com.

Underground Hum's Random Weekly Top 5

Since this is my last issue of UH for the next few weeks, I thought a "goodbye" theme would be appropriate for this week's Top 5. Worry not, there's no Air Supply on the list.

If I ever include Air Supply on any of my lists, please slap me.

Top 5 Songs About Goodbyes

1. Jeff Buckley -- "Last Goodbye": It's a song about a permanent departure, sung by the late great Jeff Buckley. Enough said. 2. Elvis Costello -- "Last Boat Leaving": One of the most depressing songs ever to come from EC, methinks. It tells the story of a father having to leave his son and family to find hope that might not exist in a new land far from home. 3. The Moldy Peaches -- "The Goodbye Song": Simple, like anything by The Moldy Peaches, but nice. A pleasant little ditty about goodbyes told in unison from the point of view of the one leaving and the one left behind. 4. The Smashing Pumpkins -- "Farewell and Goodnight": Granted, it's more of a lullaby, but it's still a beautiful little parting song. 5. Mary Chapin Carpenter -- "Fare Thee Well": a solemnly gorgeous and moving piece about leaving with a very rootsy feel to it.

That about does it for this week's Underground Hum. Be good to Ari now, children!

If you have any questions, suggestions, praises, and curses just send us a note to undergroundhum@yahoo.com

For all of you bands or artists out there, let us know if you have a gig coming up so we can include it in future editions of reverb. Be sure to include the name of the event you're playing, what other acts are billed, time, place, date, and entry fee if any.

See y'all soon!

Paul F. Agusta

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