Crib Notes

For today’s Roll Call we call out Elijah Jones from The Constellations.

Describe yourself in 3 words?
Anti American Idol (but pro Velvet Teddy Bear).

Who — dead or alive — would you most like to meet?
George W. Bush so I could give him a purple nurple, or at least a wet willy.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Pete Wentz, and any man, not living in Alaska, who wears furry boots.

What song do you wish you had written?
“I Don’t Want to Grow Up” by Tom Waits.

Elvis Costello, or Elvis Presley?
In a fight to the death, the King obviously, he knows Kung Fu.

LP, CD or MP3?
Cassettes don’t scratch or skip, and you can’t illegally download them.

If you could start one trend what would it be?
Bring back the bar room sing-a-long, but not “O Danny Boy” more like “Love in Your Mouth” by Kilo Ali.

If you could end one trend what would it be?
The recession.

With whom would you like to play spin the bottle with?
Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, and that chick from Hanson. MmmBop.

“Felicia mp3″

The Constellations play Sloppy Seconds at MJQ/the Drunken Unicorn on Sat., April 11. Free. 9 p.m. 736 Ponce de leon Ave.

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Merriweather Post Pavilion

This week Criminal Records announced that the store will host a New Year’s Day listening party for Animal Collective’s forthcoming album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, due Jan. 6th on vinyl and Jan. 20th on CD. The album was recorded at Oxford, Mississippi’s Sweet Tea Recording Studio with Atlanta’s very own Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, All the Saints, Constellations) at the helm and is being released by Domino.

The listening party starts at 4 p.m. on Thurs., Jan. 1st. According to Criminal’s website the store will be open from noon ’til 6 p.m. or so on New Year’s Day and will be offering greens, black-eyed peas and hopefully a few other good luck foods to foster high hopes for the upcoming year.

in the meantime Criminal’s free weekly Beer Thirty concerts continue every Saturday afternoon. Thus far the schedule includes:

Dec. 13th — The Features at 4 p.m.
Jan. 3rd @ — Electric Cycles (formerly El Capitan) at 4 p.m.
Jan. 17th — Batata Doce at 4 p.m.
Feb. 7th — Young Antiques at 4 p.m.

Bands or DJs interested in performing can contact Shannon@criminal.com for details and availability.

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Janelle Monae is one of 19 Georgia-affiliated acts to get a Grammy nod

51st Annual Grammy Award Nominees Affiliated with Georgia (list courtesy The Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter)

Shaffer Smith/Ne-Yo (6)
Born in Arkansas, Raised in Las Vegas; Wikipedia

• Album of the Year: Year of the Gentleman
• Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: “Closer”
• Best Male R&B Vocal Performance: “Miss Independent”
• Best R&B Song: “Miss Independent”
• Best Contemporary R&B Album: Year of the Gentleman
• Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical: “Closer”

John Mayer (5)
From Connecticut, Resided in Atlanta; Wikipedia

• Best Male Pop Vocal Performance: “Say”
• Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals: “Lesson Learned”
• Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance: “Gravity”
• Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media: “Say” (From The Bucket List)
• Best Long Form Music Video: Where The Light Is — Live In Los Angeles

T.I./Clifford Harris (4)
Born/Raised in the Bankhead section of Atlanta; Wikipedia

• Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group: “Swagga Like Us”
• Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group: “Wish You Would”
• Best Rap Song: “Swagga Like Us”
• Best Rap Album: Paper Trail

Trisha Yearwood (3)
Born in Monticello, Ga.; Wikipedia

• Best Female Country Vocal Performance: “This Is Me You’re Talking To”
• Best Country Collaboration With Vocals: “Let The Wind Chase You”
• Best Country Album: Heaven, Heartache And The Power Of Love

T-Pain (3)
Born/Raised in Tallahassee, Fla., Resides in Atlanta; http://www.t-pain.net/biography

• Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Low”
• Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: “Got Money”
• Best Rap Song: “Low”

Gnarls Barkley (3)
Group’s origin is in Atlanta; Wikipedia

• Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: “Going On”
• Best Alternative Music Album: The Odd Couple
• Best Short Form Music Video: “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”

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Here’s Gnarls Barkley video for the new song, “Mystery Man,” which will be included on the new EP dropping next Tuesday, Nov. 11. It will also contain four versions of “Whose Gonna Save My Soul” and a live take of “Neighbors” recorded at the 40 Watt in Athens, according to Billboard.

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Cee-Lo and DangerMouse certainly proved to be The Odd Couple last night on Gnarls Barkley’s return home to Atlanta for a performance at the Variety Playhouse.

For most of the show, Cee-Lo resembled a fired-up storefront preacher mixed with a little bit of a Hell’s Angel as he quickly peeled out of his shiny turquoise tuxedo jacket and black shirt to reveal a black wife-beater, tattooed arms and chest, and a thick gold chain with a cross that dangled down to his pot belly — to which I overheard Jodine of Jodine’s Corner respond, “Big Sexy’s in the building!”

Though he didn’t dance (”This floor is slippery — I was going to show y’all some of my moves.”), he’d half do a little herky jerky thing with his arms every once in awhile then throw them up in the air in a way that reminded me of the little church lady who used to catch the Holy Ghost on the front pew every Sunday.

Meanwhile, Danger Mouse looked like some crazed but concentrated concert pianist as he hunched his back over the keyboard and played ever so slightly. The only thing missing was a candelabra and a black cat.

For the encore, Cee-Lo returned to the stage wearing black shades and smoking a cigarette. Paired with his bald head and gold chain, it immediately conjured up the image of Isaac Hayes, circa his Hot Buttered Soul era. And when DangerMouse sat down at the synthesizer, he began to play two notes in a fashion that almost mimicked Hayes’ classic eight-minute monologue on his remake of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.”

Instead, Gnarls Barkley launched into “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” — a song Cee-Lo told CL in last week’s feature that he originally wrote to mourn James Brown’s death. The lyrics were a perfect ode to the recently deceased Isaac Hayes last night.

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By Ben Westhoff

Ten years from now — or whenever it is we finally come up with a name for the decade we’re currently living in (my vote is for “the aughts”) — no musical act will better epitomize the sound of the times than Gnarls Barkley.

With the duo’s predilection for genre hopping (hip-hop, R&B, indie rock, gospel), ability to concoct a monster single (”Crazy”), and penchant for promoting itself with pop culture imagery (The Big Lebowski, Napoleon Dynamite), it’s surely the most zeitgeist-capturing act around.

Essentially composed of a rapper who sings (Atlanta native Cee-Lo Green) and a mashup specialist who makes breathtakingly original beats (Atlanta/Athens native Danger Mouse), the pair somehow creates touching, soulful music. Buried beneath their technology, gimmicks and nerdy references lie universal truths that seem to reach people in different ways.

Take “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” a weepy lament off the group’s sophomore album, The Odd Couple. Green says the song was written in memory of James Brown, but for the recently released video, he wanted something to convey the theme of heartache in general terms. So in the Chris Milk-directed video, a girl breaks up with her boyfriend at a diner. He then proceeds to cut open his chest with a butter knife, pull out his heart and place it on a saucer. The dripping organ then rises and begins to sing Cee-Lo’s woeful lyrics into a stalk of broccoli.

Read the rest of this article here.

(Photo courtesy Jeremy & Claire Weiss)

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It’s official. Danger Mouse and Cee-lo are a couple of geniuses. Or retards.

Check out the new Gnarls Barkley video for “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” the two co-directed with Chris Milk (Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky,” “Jesus Walks”). It’s pretty heartless.

After releasing two previous videos from The Odd Couple to little fanfare, “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul” has video-of-the-year written all over it. But maybe I’m just being a fan.

Is it just me, or is this the best video you’ve seen in several years?

Gnarls Barkley recently announced an Atlanta performance w/special guest Janelle Monae. $25/advance. $27.50/day of show. 8:30 p.m. Mon., Aug. 11. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. www.variety-playhouse.com.

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Gnarls Barkley performed on SNL this weekend. Athens staple and Elephant 6 associate Heather McIntosh (of Athens group the Instruments) played bass. McIntosh also plays cello on the new Gnarls Barkley album, The Odd Couple.

To see a full video of Gnarls Barkley performing the song, “Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)” click here.

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Mainstream media’s reaction to Gnarls Barkley’s second CD, The Odd Couple, has been rather, well, odd — in a way that’s so typical of the times. Without a first single to match the hysteria of the iPod smash “Crazy” from the duo’s debut St. Elsewhere, the follow-up hasn’t garnered half as much attention — or album sales.

But Sunday’s New York Times ran a good story on the Georgia boys and their stunning sophomore release, featuring Danger Mouse’s dark, hypnotic palette of ’60s rock references and Cee-lo’s surreal songwriting.

Generation iPod might not get it yet, but history will prove that this album is actually an improvement upon the first.

Hopefully Gnarls Barkley won’t wait for the world to catch up.

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When MTV started up over 25 years ago, it stood for “Music Television”; maybe “Mom-approved Television” would be more appropriate now.

Reports hit the Internet Wednesday that the network had banned the video for the new Gnarls Barkley single “Run” because viewing its strobe effects might cause epileptic seizures. The network responded today, however, calling such reports erroneous:

According to an MTV spokesperson, MTV’s international channel, MTV U.K., initially rejected the video but has accepted a revised version. Additionally, the clip was already scheduled to premiere on MTV’s “TRL” on Thursday and is set to go into rotation on Monday.

To read the network’s side of the story, click here.

The Odd Couple, Gnarls Barkley’s sophomore release, has also leaked on the Internet. Unfortunately, we can’t provide a link to that. It’s due in stores April 8.

Justin Timberlake makes a cameo appearance in the video. In case you haven’t seen it, we’re reposting below.

Disclaimer: Creative Loafing is not responsible for any epileptic episodes that may result from the repetitive viewing of this video. In other words, don’t blame us if you have a seizure.

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Yesterday, Gnarls Barkley continued teasing the bloggerati with bits about its upcoming album. First, Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse leaked a new song, “Run,” that replicates the late ’60s soul-pop of St. Elsewhere’s “Smiley Faces.” It’s all over the Web, and I found it here.

The duo also revealed the name of the album: The Odd Couple. Billboard.com reports that the two are still in the studio finishing the album, but promise to have it ready for the audience’s inspection in April.

The new Gnarls Barkley album anchors a busy year for former Atlantan Danger Mouse, ending a relatively quiet 2007 in which he only produced Damon Albarn’s project The Good, the Bad & the Queen (which I initially found boring, but the album grew on me). He has finished producing retro-blues duo the Black Keys’ Attack & Release, which drops April 1; is completing a long-delayed album with former Tricky muse Martina Topley-Bird’s The Blue God for this summer; and has worked on British indie-pop band the Shortwave Set’s Replica Sun Machine. None of it is Gorillaz, of course, but it will do.

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Yesterday, Rolling Stone magazine’s Rock & Roll Daily blog posted an item about the upcoming Gnarls Barkley album. While I’m skeptical the album will be ready by April — Billboard magazine made a similar announcement last July — I’m heartened to read that someone outside of Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse’s camp has actually heard some completed songs.

The new Gnarls Barkley disc won’t be released until April, but we got the chance to hear a few new cuts early. The verdict: Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse have produced another album of super-catchy tunes that veer between retro-soul shakedowns, tricked-out psychedelic rock and trunk-rattling hip-hop.

So maybe the follow-up to St. Elsewhere will actually come out this year. Personally, I’m waiting to see if Cee-Lo will ever release any product on his Radiculture Records label.

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