Today’s Music News: Bill Murray sings Bob Dylan
by Staff
October 07, 2014
In the upcoming film St. Vincent (no relation to Annie Clark), Bill Murray smokes and sings along with Bob Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm." The whole movie comes out this Friday, but you can see what's certain to be the best part right now. (Billboard) Dylan is our artist of the month; watch for Andrea Swensson's capsule review of Blood On the Tracks (the album this song appears on) next Tuesday.
The beef between Sun Kil Moon and the War on Drugs has gone to the next level as Sun Kil Moon—a.k.a. Mark Kozelek—has delivered on his promise to publish a song dissing the War on Drugs. The seven-minute song, with a name you can click over to NME to read (you can hear the track there too), expands on the complaints Kozelek filed onstage last month at the Ottawa Folk Fest when sound from the War on Drugs' set started bleeding over to Kozelek's stage. Kozelek is framing the one-sided feud as good-natured, inviting the War on Drugs to have "a laugh with me onstage." The War on Drugs have thus far declined to accept that invitation.
Live Nation is in talks to buy a majority share in C3 Presents. America's largest independent music promoter, C3 Presents is responsible for events including Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits Festival. As the New York Times notes, "Acquiring C3 would let Live Nation expand its already extensive festival portfolio, particularly when it comes to rock."
Haim's artistic debt to Fleetwood Mac has been widely mentioned, and now the three Haim sisters have participated in a joint interview with Stevie Nicks. As part of the New York Times interview, the four performed "Rhiannon," a hit written by Nicks for Fleetwood Mac's self-titled 1975 album. (Pitchfork)
Sunday night in Brooklyn, Usher joined the Afghan Whigs for a performance of his 2012 hit "Climax." The R&B superstar and the indie rockers may seem like strange bedfellows, but they previously performed together last year at SXSW. (Billboard)
B.B. King has canceled the remaining eight performances of his current tour, citing dehydration and exhaustion. It's hard to blame the blues legend: he's 89 years old. (Billboard)
The xx's label Young Turks is publicly accusing Hugo Boss of plagiarizing the group's song "Intro" for a sunglasses ad. (Rolling Stone)
One night on Letterman isn't enough for the Foo Fighters, who will perform on the show every night next week. They'll play covers of music from the cities that inspired their upcoming album Sonic Highways. (Billboard)
Hannah Ford of Prince's group 3RDEYEGIRL talked with Rolling Stone about the appearance by Kendrick Lamar during the band's brief album-release set at Paisley Park. Unsurprisingly, things were pretty loose.
What's the bigger headline in this story: that OK Go's Damian Kulash and Tim Nordwind were interviewed on the Santa Monica Pier's Ferris wheel—or that it was produced and released through Myspace? As a presenting partner of the Twilight Concert Series at the Santa Monica Pier, Myspace released a number of Ferris wheel interviews, including one with the guys from OK Go.
New Beyoncé video, featuring Nicki Minaj. 'Nuff said. (Billboard)
Charli XCX, who's gone from indie darling to megastar on the strength of her creative collaboration with Iggy Azalea on "Fancy," released a new song that she says was inspired by the Ramones. "London Queen" will appear on Charli XCX's forthcoming album Sucker. (Billboard)
Inspired by successful crowdfunding campaigns to attract bands to play in given cities, Londoner Craig Mandall has launched a crowdfunding campaign to do exactly the opposite: he wants to prevent Nickelback from playing in his city. (Consequence of Sound)