EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Admit it, before Paul Rudd delivered that much celebrated line about Coldplay in Judd Apatow’s 40 Year Old Virgin, you thought it was okay for your friends to listen to Chris Martin and his band of creatively balding men. I was there, working full-time at record stores for every Coldplay release; I know your every Chris Martin-related shame. I, too, kinda sorta celebrated the first Coldplay album for awhile, maybe even the second one a bit, too (albeit pre-Paltrow). Beware, those Sting-loving, world-saving soft rockers appear to be back and ready to return the blows. You can listen to their new single, “Violet Hill,” now at coldplay.com/song.html. While there, be sure to check out the cover art for their new album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. Ease likey. No, Ease, surprisingly, love-y. As for the song … ehh. The Coldplayers worked hard, I will say that; “Violet Hill” is an epic, impressive tune that should satisfy many U2 fans. Viva La Vida will hit shelves on June 17, the same day as the Silver Jews’ strange new album. You know what to do.

The Old 97’s – easily the band Ease has listened to most during the fall seasons of the last decade or so – released an excellent new album, Blame It on Gravity, this week via New West Records. Viva la 97’s! Jason Mraz, Joseph Arthur and Death Cab for Cutie also all released new albums this week. Skip all that emo junk and head straight for the recent reissue of Otis Redding’s Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul, an album as good as, well, anything ever. Next week will see new albums from Islands, Dresden Dolls and Scarlett Johansson. Kidding about that last one. (Actually, we’re not. Let’s pretend it’s a joke.) 

Do you like Eric’s Trip? The Blow? Mirah? Beat Happening? If you just nodded in excitement, check this out: Mount Eerie will release a six-song, 22-minute EP packaged as a 10” LP (complete with a bonus track-filled CD version of the EP and two posters) called Black Wooden Ceiling Opening on May 27. The EP, their first proper release of new material in some time, is also – according to these Mount Eerie/The Microphones loving ears – the best thing Eerie honcho Phil Elverum has done in some time. Overzealous Elverum devotees can get the EP early by ordering it at www.pwelverumandsuns.com, or by paying $5.94 to download the songs at Amazon.com. Those unfamiliar with Elverum’s work will do right by picking up the recently expanded edition of The Microphones’ The Glow, Pt. 2, an album Pitchfork.com rated as their No. 1 release of 2001. Mount Eerie will also release a new book/music project titled Dawn this fall. 

My Morning Jacket recently announced a tour in support of their new album, Evil Urges, set to be released on June 9. Ease isn’t the biggest fan of MMJ’s records (they’re good, sometimes great), but we did see them perform a few years ago. We’re still recovering. These weirdo folk-rockers will play Detroit’s Fillmore on October 4 and the Chicago Theater on October 9 and 10. Bill Callahan will open. Not really, but that’d be awesome. You can listen to a new song online at … you know what, find it yourself. 

Fresh off being ranked No. 2 on Ease Down the Road’s Best Man Ever chart, Tom Waits recently announced a tour in support of Scarlett Johansson’s new album. Yep. Before you rush off to buy your ticket to Waits’ June 28 show at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, check out Waits’ hilarious mock press conference to announce the tour at www.tomwaits.com. Also check out Jim Jarmusch’s Down By Law, starring Waits, if you haven’t yet. 

Also in the news: Beck and producer Danger Mouse supposedly just finished recording an album some are already calling a “new classic”; Ease will be the judge of that. Common, at one time considered to be one of the greatest emcees ever, will release another big-headed pile o’ crap in July. My Bloody Valentine are currently remastering their two classic albums, Isn’t Anything and Loveless, for a planned reissue sometime later this year. NME recently called Radiohead’s OK Computer their “breakthrough album,” in doing so making Ease like The Bends that much more. Oh, and by the way, Ease is so sick of people making a big stink about Loveless; two words: Sonic Youth. The Replacements’ “Treatment Bound” was recently voted Greatest Song Ever by a dinky pool of regular Ease readers, thus locking in its place as the closing track on the forthcoming Ease soundtrack, Written While You’re All Playing Dead in Bed. In related news, Paul Westerberg was voted Best Man Ever by the Ease staff. Six years after first hitting the tabloids, R. Kelly’s Golden Shower trial is finally kicking off and, believe it or not, the famous video will be shown in court. Uncensored. Ever the (assumed) comedian, Kelly plans to film as much of the trial as he can and write a song about it. (We wish that one was a joke.) Apparently Amy Winehouse does drugs and was recently busted while holding some of them on her person. Like, duh. You can now purchase Eef Barzelay’s new solo album, Lose Big, on iTunes for $9.99 – about a month before it’s official release. It good. It quite good. 

Obscure album of the week – Them’s Them: No, not the Van Morrison-fronted band from the 60s, but, rather, the little known experimental hip-hop duo that eventually morphed into Subtle. Released in 2000, Them is full of SP-1200 beats that make DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing sound like a by-the-books record. Here comes the hyperbole: Doseone’s poetic writing on this album is some of the best Ease has heard this decade. If you have a tolerance for experimental hip-hop and like idiosyncratic artists who are too smart for their own good, this like-no-other album is a must-hear. And, if you’re wondering, yes, Morrison did sue these guys, forcing them to change their name to Themselves. 

Current five-disc rotation: The Old 97s’ Blame It on Gravity; Townes Van Zandt’s The Late Great; The Replacements’ Sorry Ma; Otis Redding’s Otis Blue; No Age’s Nouns

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