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Music News: Bob Dylan archive opens in Oklahoma

The entrance to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla., where a Bob Dylan archive is kept at the Helmerich Center for American Research
The entrance to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla., where a Bob Dylan archive is kept at the Helmerich Center for American Researchvia Gilcrease Museum on Facebook

by Jay Gabler

March 28, 2017

A massive archive sold by Bob Dylan to the University of Tulsa is now open for approved scholars to access. The archive is partially cataloged in a 39-page document listing materials ranging from alternate song lyrics to Keith Richards faxes. Much of the archive remains to be cataloged in detail.

The archive is currently housed at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. The university and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which co-manage the archive, are accepting design proposals for a planned Bob Dylan Center to display selected items. (Rolling Stone)

In other Dylan news, "a handwritten ode to Wisconsin — with references to Milwaukee, Madison and Wauwatosa — penned by a 20-year-old Bob Dylan will be auctioned in Los Angeles on Thursday," reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The lyrics were written shortly after Dylan arrived in New York after moving from the Midwest, where the Minnesota native spent summer vacations in Wisconsin.

N.W.A. and NPR both added to National Recording Registry

This year's additions to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry — chosen "because of their cultural, artistic and historical importance to American society and the nation's audio heritage" — include recordings from both N.W.A. (Straight Outta Compton) and NPR (the first episode of All Things Considered, from 1971). Also among the 25 recordings added to the registry are "Over the Rainbow," sung by Minnesota native Judy Garland; two recordings of NAACP anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing"; and albums by David Bowie (never mind that The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is a British, not American, album) and Talking Heads.

Remembering Clem Curtis

Trinidad-born singer Clem Curtis has died at age 76; no cause of death has been given by his family. Curtis was best-known as the original lead singer of U.K. pop vocal group the Foundations, which had a string of hits in the late 1960s. Curtis sang on tracks including "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Back on My Feet Again." He left the group in 1968, and the Foundations' 1969 hit "Build Me Up Buttercup" was sung by replacement frontman Colin Young. (Billboard)

Frances Bean defaces herself

Frances Bean Cobain is the face of a new ad campaign from Marc Jacobs, and over the weekend she defaced her own image on one of the campaign's billboards, adding a mask-like visage and spray-painting WITCH WITCH SHE'S A WITCH. Was it all part of the campaign? Well, she tagged Marc Jacobs in a series of Instagrams chronicling the defacing, so you do the math. (NME)

LCD Soundsystem announce NYC residency

The new venue Brooklyn Steel has a pretty solid lineup for its first week of shows: LCD Soundsystem play opening night, followed by LCD Soundsystem. The next three acts to play the venue will be LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem, and LCD Soundsystem for the win. The five-show, six-night residency (they're taking Sunday off) is going down from April 6-11. (Pitchfork)

New Coltrane doc trailer

There's a new trailer for Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Story. The documentary, narrated by Denzel Washington reading Coltrane's own words, features Common, Kamasi Washington, Carlos Santana, Wynton Marsalis, Bill Clinton, Sonny Rollins, and Cornel West. It opens April 14 in New York, with a national release to follow. (Pitchfork)

Papa Roach eat roaches (well, bugs)

Turn-of-the-century hitmakers Papa Roach are having a viral moment. A joke that their song "Last Resort" was heard blasting from Paul Ryan’s car after Republicans' failure to pass health care legislation delighted liberals last Friday, and now there's a new video in which the band members eat bugs.

The video, made with the food and drink website First We Feast, is part of the lead-up to the band's forthcoming album Crooked Teeth. (Billboard)