Whatever Games I Play

The RNRHF just released a bunch of clips from this year’s induction ceremony. As you bastards may or may not remember, I don’t give two shits about that ridiculous institution, but it did give us this performance. The Cure still sounds amazing live, and Robert Smith is promising a new Cure album this year.

The clip below is included only for his good-natured sarcasm, which made me laugh. I’m sure she meant well …

New Spoon

New single from Everything Hits At Once: The Best of Spoon, coming July 26th.

Check it, yo.

Replacements At A Turning Point

Here’s a great 32-year-old article from SPIN’s archives, from around the time that I was getting into them. (Yes, I was late to the party and had to work my way back through the Twin/Tone albums.) The band had just parted ways with manager Pete Jesperson, fired lead guitarist Bob Stinson, and released one of their best albums, Pleased To Meet Me. Recorded right here in Memphis!

“When we started,” [Westerberg] says, pausing to sip from a midmorning Schmidt, “we definitely had a fear of success. We had a fear of everything. We were all very paranoid, and I think that goes hand in hand with the excessive drinking thing. We’d get drunk because we were basically scared shitless, and that snowballed into image. Now we’re a little more assured of what we’re doing. We’re not positive which way we’re going, but we think we know what mistakes lie ahead, and we’re trying to sidestep ‘em.”

Full article here.

Any Good Thing They Ever Sold They Stole

New Titus Andronicus, from the album An Obelisk. Out today!

They’re taking an old religion, fitting it with a different name
Now we’re cutting our own incisions and inserting their hurting pain
It’s another innocent victim shivering in the frigid cold
They’re making a dirty fortune selling something that’s barely working
An inferior version of rock and roll
Or whatever else ever has touched your soul
Call it what you will — there’s a billion of them they sold
They’re taking credit that they’re not earning
Any good thing they ever sold they stole

Oh yeah

They’re making a television different than the old one was
A limited deluxe edition, it’s a superior version of
Of the previous week’s installment, but ain’t it all the same? (Pretty much)
Yet I comfort myself at night with transmission by satellite
It’s like a good enough facsimile of real love
I guess I got a habit same as everyone else does
We’re all banging down doors, trying to grab that stuff
But we never should have left it up to the judge
That passed the bill that illegalized us
They illegalized us

Oh yeah

The inferior version, it isn’t really rock and roll
It’s but a shallow imitation — it doesn’t really get ya goin’
And there ain’t no good explanation why it’s flying off the shelves
It’s a sorry situation — entire world’s going to hell
But I in no way blame myself
Though I helped those bastards to sell that inferior version we love so well
An inferior version of rock and roll
An inferior version of rock and roll
They’re making a dirty fortune off an inferior version of rock and roll

Whoa yeah