PUNCHING ABOVE MY WEIGHT

I've been doing interviews for a column in Global Rhythm which, until now, has consisted of folks answering the same questions every month - a standard format into which we slot one unlucky volunteer after another. I decided that was boring (and most of the people we asked to do it thought it sounded boring, apparently, because we got way more refusals than acceptances). So I decided to do two things: 1) broaden the scope beyond "world music people" and 2) tailor each month's questions to that month's subject. You know, like a real interview. Last week, I sat down for an hour with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and this morning I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Christopher Hitchens.

The conversation with Sakamoto was utterly fascinating. He's a smart, funny guy who's almost as hyper-productive as Bill Laswell (the first person I interviewed for the column since starting here) and who totally disregards the traditional division between high art and crass commercialism - he recently composed a ringtone for a cell-phone company, though I forget which one. We talked about globalism, whether technology and high-speed information transfer is good or bad for native cultures, and lots of other subjects.

Hitchens was just as interesting. I disagree with him on Iraq, but I told him in advance I wasn't going to bring that up. I wanted to interview Christopher Hitchens the world traveler and literary critic, and that's what I got. We talked religion (he's against it, for those who don't know, and is currently working on a book that will remind everyone who may have forgotten just how strongly against it he is), literature, and music (just a little). And he told me a very funny story about asking Suge Knight to pose for a picture with his (Hitchens') teenaged son.

Other folks I'm trying to track down: Gustavo Santaolalla, Chris Hedges, Ousmane Sembene, and William Vollmann. Sembene and Santaolalla seem the most likely at this point.

OLBERMANN

Keith Olbermann is my favorite TV journalist. I'll go further - Keith Olbermann is the only TV journalist currently on the air who doesn't make me weep for humanity on a regular basis. (I want Hillary Clinton to announce unequivocally that she's not going to run for President, in the hope that the news will cause Tim Russert and Chris Matthews to hold hands and run off the roof of NBC headquarters in a suicide pact.)

Anyway, Saturday night, Olbermann was interviewed by the Man Without Qualities himself, Brian Lamb, on C-SPAN's Q&A program. I missed it, and I bet you did, too. Here's the transcript.

DIRTY HIPPIE!

I've started publishing CD reviews in Relix. I don't think their stuff is online, so here is everything I contribute to the upcoming April/May 06 issue (Zappa cover):

PEARLS AND BRASS
The Indian Tower Drag City
The power trio is rock's platonic ideal, stripping the music to guitar, bass and drums and excising preening, non-instrumentalist frontmen. ZZ Top, Grand Funk Railroad and the James Gang worked like hard boppers, transcending the blues they revered. Pearls and Brass labors mightily, but falls short. Heavy isn't just about loud guitars, which they've got; it's mostly about rhythm, which they ain't got. Drummer Josh Martin flails like a headbanger, never swinging half as hard as Don Brewer, never mind Frank Beard. The mix disappoints, too: Randy Huth's got gnarled riffs aplenty, but his guitar and Joel Winter's bass are a muddy wall, not separate and complementary, GF style. Steady gigging and better engineering, respectively, can fix each of these problems. Better luck next time.

VERNON REID & MASQUE
Other True Self Favored Nations
Living Colour forced adventurous rock fans to swallow hard and ignore Corey Glover's hambone post-soul vocals if they wanted to feast on Vernon Reid's Robert-Fripp-meets-Greg-Ginn riffage. This brainy, assured instrumental album is the long-awaited payoff for their sacrifice. Covers of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" and Radiohead's "The National Anthem" find Reid pushing vocal melodies through masochistic amps; deeper in he takes on Tony Williams' "Wildlife," eulogizing the jazz-rock pioneer in shades of blue flame. The originals are the real keepers, though: among others, "Flatbush and Church Revisited" lays gritty hard-rock snarl over a convincing reggae rhythm from the always airtight backing band and the stomping "Mind of My Mind" could be an outtake from his old band's underrated Time's Up...

WHAT, NO "BOB GEORGE"?

Got the new Ultimate Prince compilation in the mail today. I'm hardly a huge Prince fan, but even for me, in no sense does this live up to its title. Here's the track listing...

Disc 1
I Wanna Be Your Lover
Uptown
Controversy
1999
Delirious
When Doves Cry
I Would Die 4 U
Purple Rain
Sign O' The Times
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Alphabet St.
Diamonds And Pearls
Gett Off
Money Don't Matter 2 Night
7
Nothing Compares 2 U
My Name Is Prince

Disc 2
Let's Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix)
Little Red Corvette (Dance Remix)
Let's Work (Dance Remix)
Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix)
She's Always In My Hair (12" Version)
Raspberry Beret (12" Version)
Kiss (Extended Version)
U Got The Look (Long Look)
Hot Thing (Extended Remix)
Thieves In The Temple (Remix)
Cream (N.P.G. Mix)

Now, I know no legit Prince best-of is gonna include "Le Grind," "Cindy C" or "Bob George," but there's so many other songs ("Sexy MF," "Housequake," the regular version of "Kiss," "It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night," "Baby I'm A Star")I'd rather have seen on here, and these remixes are just crap. I wish they'd just remaster the back catalog - then I could buy a really great-sounding CD of Sign 'O' The Times and one of the Black Album, and be done with the guy once and for all. At least this was free.

I THINK I JUST SOILED MYSELF

Slayer to tour U.S. with Mastodon, Lamb of God, Children of Bodom.

Oh, and Emperor are doing two nights in NYC in July.

In non-pants-shittingly-great news, I wrote about Bleeding Through for the Cleveland Scene this week.