1826
This is something Brendan Kennedy hipped me to.

First off, what a wonderful phrase, “long dark night of the soul.” Lit majors, enlighten me: where did that come from? I know great dance nights have made a great moniker by stripping an article. Would anybody show up besides me if 24SevenCities committed to a “Dark Night of Soul”? Anyway, I’ve caught myself rationalizing my own misbehavior with the original phrase when another, phantom, sober voice has spoken up and said to me:

“There is nothing profound or poetic going on right now! You’re just drinking too much and sleeping too little! Come on, George, you have work in 8 hours! Please put this dark night of the soul business to sleep along with your pretty little head!”

So some legitimate genii seem to be doing justice to the Dark Night of the Soul moniker. Namely, David Lynch, Danger Mouse, and a guy from Sparklehorse. Check out the story on NPR.

We’ve got David Lynch on the photos, Dangermouse and Sparklehorse on the music, a host of names to be revealed on the collaboration. I’ma gonna liveblog this btich! It may never be released but NPR may still be streaming, so we’ll see what happens with this wonderful weirdo project.

I’m going to take a break to tell folks I’m liveblogging through all of my expansive internet resources. That’s just myspace because I’m a luddite, but I encourage all of you to facebook, twitter, and schmalmalbam it. It might take me a little longer to get started because my shuffle just delivered General Public’s “Tenderness” to me. Wasn’t that a pretty perfect pop song?

Anyway, comment, interact, let me know yr out there. We are liveblogging now. This is real time internet truth!

ps I reserve the right to edit this later to make myself look better.

1842
Flaming Lips “Revenge”

Wayne Coyne has one of those voices that really compensates for a lack of technical virtuosity with an endless well of soul (Bowie was another technically substandard vocalist who became a rock legend and indispensable singer). It doesn’t hurt that his band lays down such epic soundscapes. They’re bleeding and voyaging just as hard as he is, and that’s why they’re important.

They’re not afraid of darkness, either. The new Oklahoma state song, “Do You Realize?” from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is basically a list of depressing facts, yet is one of the most uplifting pop songs of this decade. They would drift away into hippy drivel if not for their taste for sonic adventure and titillation and fearlessness of the dark side.

They lounge on their darker side here, ending up on a re-iteration of the old revenge theme, you know, how violence begets violence and it becomes an unstoppable vicious cycle. The music, once again, is wonderful. This is downbeat Flaming Lips, and is a pleasure to listen to.

1902
Gruff Rhys “Just War”

I admit I never bothered to investigate Super Furry Animals, the great ambitious indie rock heroes of Wales. I did, however, rate Stainless Style, the concept album about the life of DeLorean by Neon Neon, a collaboration between SFA lead singer Gruff Rhys and abstract hip hop composer Boom Bip, as my favorite new album of 2008. Really, it’s amazing, and you should check it out. This effort by Rhys confirms to me that I should check out his old band.

This one hits on some of the tasty ’60s pop notes that Danger Mouse hit on the under-rated Gnarls Barkely second album The Odd Couple. Despite (because of) his hip hop background, he is probably one of the best sunshine pop producers working now.

Where Coyne pointed out the futitlity of the revenge impulse, it grows broader here now to ruefully discuss war. There is a tone here of resigned sugar, tasting sweet but reminding us that violent conflict does not resolve itself neatly, but only perpetuates more violent conflict.

1917
Jason Lytle “Jaykub”

I don’t know too much about Sparklehorse, but I’ve got to say that the guy from Sparklehorse is a great collaborator for Danger Mouse. Mouse has proven himself apt at bottling that ’60s producer vibe and shaking itself up with post-hip hop psychedelia, but for a strange internet project this thing is really, really good. I didn’t know who Jason Lytle was, and that made me unfairly worried about this track, but the symphonic scope of this ballad and the sonic mastery embellishing it convinced me otherwise. This is a great first three tracks for a rueful modern album, so cop it while you can.

Turns out Jason Lytle is the dude from Grandaddy. He sounds great on this track, in fact better than I’ve ever heard his band sound.

1932
Announcement from the press office of George Booker, aka Prinse Georje, G Dub, George Romero, Professor Books, Booker etc.:
Liveblogging deferred to a date TBA.