Arts & Entertainment, The Muse

Collaborations

Ed. note: This is one part of The MUSE’s retrospective of the semester that was and look ahead to the summer that will be.

 

Guided By Voices:

A band like Guided By Voices works on their own schedule. You can’t force genius like Robert Pollard’s. When you record more than 1,300 songs between work with your band of 20 years and a solo career, a hiatus is understandable, almost expected. When GBV announced a reunion of their “classic” lineup in 2010, tickets to the band’s reunion shows around the United States, including one at the Paradise Rock Club last November, sold out within days. As 2011 rolled around, the band announced an arsenal of dates for the New Year, including appearances at the Pitchfork Music Festival, Sasquatch Festival and Hopscotch Fest.

 

Jack White and Danger Mouse:

Jack White is extolled for nearly every musical project he gets near. The White Stripes weren’t the first band to try to blend everything great about music from the 1960s and 70s with an unheard of and unprecedented ferocity, but they may have been the first band to do it right and receive the appreciation they deserve for it. White brought something new to the table with both The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather and has found the time in between projects to found his own record label. It seemed like the next logical step for White was to reconnect with his sister/ex-wife/band mate Meg White for the next White Stripes album. Instead, White announced the break up of The White Stripes and a new project with which he would collaborate with producer Danger Mouse. Putting aside how upset we all are that The White Stripes are no more, White’s collaboration with Danger Mouse is something to find solace in. Besides his work with Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse has produced records for The Black Keys, MF Doom and Beck. The collaboration, entitled Rome, is a spaghetti western inspired album, and will also feature contributions from Norah Jones and Italian composer Daniele Luppi. Rome is due to drop on May 17 via Capitol Records.

 

Them Crooked Vultures:

When Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and formerly “some small band out of the Pacific Northwest” announced that they would collaborate on a side project it came as no surprise, as Grohl has sat behind the kit on the QOTSA album Songs for the Deaf. However, when the two announced that John Paul Johns would step in on bass to complete the trio, Them Crooked Vultures, the project earned the title “supergroup.” The band released their first, self titled, album in 2009, and toured it extensively through 2010, including an appearance at Coachella. Since then Them Crooked Vultures has remained dormant, while Grohl and Homme tour with Foo Fighters and QOTSA respectively. All three members of the band have confirmed in interviews that a second album, set for a late 2011 release, is in the works. This would be just in time for some tour dates toward the end of the year and perhaps even some festival announcements.

 

Pavement:

While Pavement may have ended their long-awaited and highly coveted reunion tour in the fall of 2010 with a four show run in New York’s Central Park, there is a lingering feeling that we may not have seen the last of the band who sparked the conception of the term “indie rock.” A new album may be wishful thinking, but the possibility of seeing Pavement pop up on the bill for a festival come next year doesn’t seem unlikely. The band appeared at 2010 festivals including Roskilde Festival, Coachella, Pitchfork Music Festival and the Primavera Sound Festival. The quintet hit some of the biggest festivals around the world, but they passed up bills such as Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Sasquatch Festival and Lollapalooza. What would we be without wishful thinking?

 

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