Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Feistodon is a 7-inch vinyl single which was released exclusively for Record Store Day 2012, limited to 5000 copies. It’s an unlikely collaboration of sorts between the Canadian adult-alternative singer-songwriter (Leslie) Feist and the Atlanta-based sludge-metal band Mastodon. One side of the single contains a cover by Mastodon of a song from Feist’s 2011 album Metals , and the other side contains a cover by Feist of a song from Mastodon’s 2011 album The Hunter . These two artists make strange bedfellows, to be sure. They met in October 2011 when both of them performed on an episode of the BBC talk show Later…With Jools Holland . Mastodon’s subsequent plan to cover Feist’s “A Commotion” led to the idea for this very intriguing Record Store Day item. Each artist covered the other’s song their own way, with no input from each other. The surprising thing about Mastodon’s cover of Feist’s “A Commotion” is that it makes a lot of sense. Their sludge-metal interpretation of the song’s rep...

In his eternal quest to find new and imaginative ways to produce and distribute vinyl records, the irrepressible Jack White recently distributed a 1,000-copy limited edition flexi-disc by way of helium balloons. You read that right. White's label Third Man Records printed 1,000 copies of a flexi-disc containing his song "Freedom at 21", one of the tracks from his debut solo album Blunderbuss (which will be released this Tuesday, April 24th). The flexi-discs were attached to blue helium balloons that were released into the air from the Third Man Records lot in Nashville on April 1st, leaving them to land where they may. Only a few copies have been accounted for (see details at the Third Man site ). However, at least one of the flexi-discs has been sold on eBay for an astonishing amount of money. Here is what the Third Man site has to say about it: On April 17th, an eBay auction for a copy of Third Man’s balloon-launched “Freedom at 21” flexi-disc realized a price of $4...

It has come to my attention that the short-lived mid-‘80’s trio Phantom, Rocker & Slick have reunited to play live shows, and the U.K. label Rock Candy is set to reissue their self-titled 1985 album Phantom, Rocker & Slick on April 17th. To the best of my knowledge, this will be the first time the album was ever available on CD. This trio was originally formed during the temporary breakup of the Stray Cats, the band that singlehandedly spearheaded an early-‘80’s rockabilly revival in the U.K. and the U.S. While the Stray Cats’ singer/guitarist Brian Setzer began his solo career (several years before the formation of his successful swing orchestra), bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom joined forces with Earl Slick, sometime guitarist for David Bowie, to record two albums in the mid-‘80’s. Lee Rocker was the trio’s frontman, and was a less colorful singer than Setzer. On the self-titled Phantom, Rocker & Slick album from 1985, the trio does not entirely abandon ...