"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
Christian Hoard’s “Christian Rock” new music pick this week is Kate Nash’s My Best Friend Is You. The 22-year-old British singer’s 2008 album went platinum in the U.K. and showed off her cockney accent, witty piano pop and general English cheekiness. The new album is more expansive, confident and simply better. Nash is a tuneful hurricane of TMI, flipping between insecurity and chutzpah as she sings about stinky feet and threatens to do bad things to a boyfriend if he makes out with another woman. On one of Hoard’s favorite tracks, “I Just Love You More,” Nash tries out a heavy PJ Harvey vibe. Though she gets compared to Lily Allen, Nash doesn’t make political statements like Allen did on her most recent disc, and seems kookier in general. Hoard argues Best Friend may be the most tuneful album we get from the U.K. this year.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Jeff Beck will release his new album Emotion & Commotion next Tuesday, April 13th, and as an extra incentive to purchase Beck’s first studio album in seven years on iTunes, the digital music service is offering up an exclusive 30-minute interview between Beck and Alice Cooper. The two rock icons talk about a wide range of topics from cars to guitars, but in this RS exclusive excerpt from the chat, they explore the influence of Beck’s other Rock Hall band, the Yardbirds.
“It was something American kids had never heard before. You guys were sending us back our own blues, but we didn’t even know it was ours,” Cooper says of first hearing the Yardbirds during the great wave of the British Invasion. “To this day, I don’t think there’s a record as unique as ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago.’ ”
For much more on the Yardbirds straight from the mouths of Beck and Eric Clapton, be sure to check out the stories below:
Last week, Jakob Dylan dropped by the RS offices to preview tunes from his new disc, Women & Country, a collection of country-roots ballads that address love and American life in times of economic and political uncertainty. He also came prepped with some A-list backup, bringing along singers Neko Case and Kelly Hogan to perform three tunes, including the gorgeous ballad “Nothing but the Whole Wide World” (watch it above).
For Women & Country, Dylan reunited up with producer T Bone Burnett, who produced the Wallflowers’ breakthrough record Bringing Down the Horse in the mid-Nineties. While the laid-back vibe of the disc suggests Dylan was casual about the recording process, the sessions actually took place over one marathon week. “I met up with T Bone while he was finishing up work on the Crazy Heart soundtrack,” says Dylan. “We were just passing around guitars and I played “Nothing” for him — it was the one [new] song I had written. He liked it enough that he said that we should go make another record. I took that as a challenge to get fifteen songs together in six weeks.”
Jakob also revealed that he did spin his new record for his famous father, Bob, and that the feedback was positive. “He likes it, yeah,” says Jakob. “I think everybody would like to sit here and say he thinks their record is great. But, yeah, he’s very supportive.” Keep reading to see two more songs — “Holy Roller for Love” and “They’ve Trapped Us Boys.”
“Holy Rollers For Love”
“They’ve Trapped Us Boys”
[Video: Eric Helton/Matthew Murphy; Editing: Matthew Murphy]
When Erykah Badu stripped down to nothing in the middle of Dallas for her “Window Seat” video, the neo-soul singer not only raised eyebrows of the Dallas PD but also entered the pantheon of great and provocative music videos that push television censors and NSFW to the max. Matt & Kim’s nude run through Times Square for “Lessons Learned,” the clip that inspired Badu, scored the relatively unknown duo the Breakthrough Video prize at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards, proving that while the clip itself might have been too taboo for MTV, showing a little skin goes a long way.
Rolling Stone has collected our favorite boundary-pushing music videos, from Chris Isaak’s rollick on the beach with a topless Helena Christensen in “Wicked Game” above to Girls’ porn-pushing “Lust for Life.”
Below, watch “Window Seat,” “Lessons Learned” plus videos by Blink-182, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears and a video by Madonna that was deemed “Too Hot for TV” back in the day. And for more classic nude moments in music, be sure to visit our Crotch Rock gallery and Getting Naked: Big Names Show Some Skin on the Cover of Rolling Stone.
Nearly 2,000 bands invaded Austin for rock’s annual Mardi Gras SXSW earlier this month, and Rolling Stone was on the scene, bringing you reports from the biggest shows (Stone Temple Pilots, Hole, Muse) and 100 tweets about up-and-comers to watch. RS also hosted our first-ever showcases at the festival — be sure to grab our new issue, out today, for the story behind our pair of shows.
Our cameras were rolling onstage and behind the scenes, capturing some of the most incredible footage of the fest — watch it all right here: Dixie Chicks side project Court Yard Hounds open up about the birth of the band, the Whigs tell the story behind their new album, David Fricke questions Jimmie Dale Gilmore about Austin’s enduring weirdness and talks to John Doe about happiness affecting his art, Jonathan Ringen gets Free Energy to chat about Tom Petty and Dawes to debate their influences. Plus, see Mayer Hawthorne hanging out on the set of our historical photo shoot and talks about Snoop and Smokey Robinson, and catch some of Band of Skulls’ searing live set.
