Rarebird's Rock and Roll Nest

Contactmusic.com reports that Coca-Cola is going to air a commercial in the U.K., one time only, that features a song written by Jack White of the White Stripes. The song is called "Love Is The Truth", and the commercial is 100 seconds long. White wrote the song specifically for the brand. White has said that the reason he always dresses in red, white, and black is that he has had an obsession with Coke since he was a child, and that those colors are reminiscent of a bottle of Coke. Life would be dull without characters like Jack, wouldn't it? Anyway, Coca-Cola does not plan to air the commercial in the U.S., but it can be seen "for a limited time" at the company's U.K. website. 9/13/16 Update: Ten years later, an acoustic mix of the song was released on Jack White's 2016 album Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 .

Under the Covers, Vol. 1 is the title of a new CD by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, on which the pair collaborates on 15 covers of songs from the '60's. In case you hadn't noticed, it is not the first time the two have worked together. Both of them were members of Ming Tea, the backing band for Austin Powers. They co-wrote the songs "BBC" (from the first AP movie) and "Daddy Wasn't There" (from the third one) with Mike Myers. On this CD, the pair worked with some of the musicians who have played on Sweet's albums (i.e. Richard Lloyd, Greg Leisz, Ric Menck) and (on two songs) Van Dyke Parks. The songs include well-known selections from the Beatles, Beach Boys, Who, and Neil Young, as well as cult classics from the Velvet Underground, Love, and the Marmalade. Both singers are in good voice throughout, and their genuine love for the material makes it very enjoyable. Some of the high points: Sweet nails the Beach Boys' "Warmth Of The Sun...

A new Cheap Trick studio album titled Rockford (named after the band's Illinois hometown) is going to be released on June 6th. Here is the press release from Big 3 Records: http://www.big3entertainment.com/viewnews.php?id=194 If I'm not mistaken, producer Linda Perry is the former lead singer of 4 Non Blondes ("What's Up"), and it seems she also had a hand in the songwriting. CT bassist Tom Petersson is hailing this album as "by far our best work yet". Maybe he shouldn't build hopes up too much; it's hard to imagine an album being better "by far" than their late-'70's albums. I have heard three of the tracks: "Welcome To The World", the single "Perfect Stranger", and "Come On Come On Come On". They do sound promising. Very pleasant retro-'80's power pop. FYI, "Come On Come On Come On" is not a remake of their early song "Come On Come On". I wish they'd give it a diffe...

I've recently added reviews to three of my site's pages. On the Lou Reed page, I've added reviews of Street Hassle (1978) and American Poet (2001): http://rarebird9.net/reed.html On the Ten Years After page, I've added a review of their 2005 2-CD live album Roadworks : http://rarebird9.net/tya.html And on the Byrds page, I've added a review of Byrd Parts 2 , a 2003 release on the Australian Raven label. It's the second in an apparently ongoing series of CDs that collect various Byrds-related recordings: http://rarebird9.net/byrds.html

Yes, I watched The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night, to see the New Cars perform at the end. What do I think? Uhh...I don't know. They performed the Cars classic "Good Times Roll". Instrumentally, they sounded fine. But Todd Rundgren's lead vocals? I wasn't feeling it. I won't condemn the man for one performance of one song, but Rundgren is no Ric Ocasek, and no Ben Orr, either. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad Rundgren did not do an overt imitation of Ocasek. I have memories of the reformed Doors performing on Leno's show three years ago, with Ian Astbury doing an obvious and embarrassing imitation of Jim Morrison. Considering that, I do respect Rundgren for performing the Cars song his own way. But his way of singing the song did not appeal to me. I'm beginning to think I was probably right the first time: the Cars ain't the Cars without Ocasek or Orr. When I heard that Rundgren was taking on the frontman role, I thought maybe I was wron...

Kasim Sulton, the bass player for the New Cars, previously played bass in Todd Rundgren's Utopia. He will reportedly sing the lead vocal on the Cars hit ballad "Drive", which was originally sung by the late Benjamin Orr, while Rundgren will handle vocal duties on the rest of the songs. Besides his time in Utopia, Sulton has a long history as a session bassist. He was briefly a member of Joan Jett's Blackhearts in the late-'80's, during Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You" period. He has also often played with Meat Loaf; in fact, he did session work on Meat's mega-seller Bat Out Of Hell , which Rundgren produced. Kasim has also recorded two proper solo albums, twenty years apart, in 1982 and 2002. (That's not including 1998's The Basement Tapes , a collection of demos that Sulton recorded over many years). His 1982 solo debut Kasim is out of print. That album featured enthusiastic power pop similar to that of Utopia, without Rundgren...

Yes, the Cars are back...sort of. A new version of the band has been launched, featuring original guitarist Elliot Easton and original keyboardist Greg Hawkes. The band's founder Ric Ocasek is not on board. Instead, the New Cars (apparently their official name) will be fronted by none other than Todd Rundgren. This could be interesting; Rundgren is quite an eccentric character and an accomplished musician/producer in his own right, although his career output has been about as inconsistent as can be. The replacement for original bassist Benjamin Orr (who succumbed to cancer in 2000) is session bassist extraordinaire Kasim Sulton, who was a member of Rundgren's band Utopia. Tubes drummer Prairie Prince appears to be the drummer for the New Cars, although it isn't clear if he will be in that position full time. The New Cars reportedly recorded a live album in January, which will also include three new studio tracks. Next Tuesday, March 14th, they will formally announce their p...

First off...I did purchase the Velvet Underground DVD Velvet Redux: Live MCMXCIII when it was released late last month. It was worth the wait. It contains performances from the band's 1993 reunion tour in Europe. The original four members are here (Lou Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, and the late Sterling Morrison), and their warts-and-all performances of 15 songs are something to see and hear. This definitely shows that tour in a better light than the 2-CD set Live MCMXCIII, where Reed's vocals made it sound as though he was trying to destroy the great songs he created. When watching Velvet Redux , we can see that Reed put energy into the performances, which may be what makes the difference. It's interesting to watch a lengthy instrumental duel between Reed and Cale during "Hey Mr. Rain", and also to see Cale taking part in several songs that he was not originally involved with. This is most likely the only Velvet Underground performance DVD we're going to ...