A Bob Dylan tribute album with 76 tracks and a 2012 mind-set

The new  Bob Dylan tribute album, “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International,” which is being released today, salutes both the songwriter and the human rights organization for half a century of their respective work.

But the album itself has been assembled and is being marketed with a very 2012 mind-set.

Veteran record industry executive Jeff Ayeroff, who is leading the charge for the benefit project, with proceeds going to Amnesty International, fully expects that few potential customers will be equally passionate about all 76 tracks by more than 80 artists appearing on the four-CD set.

Artists that participated constitute a diverse aasemblage spanning the pop music spectrum, and a bit beyond it, from young pop hit makers Adele, Miley Cyrus and Kesha to indie rockers the Silversun Pickups and the Belle Brigade to veteran folkies Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, alt-country musicians Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Brett Dennen and the Avett Brothers, mainstream rockers Dave Matthews, Joe Perry and Maroon 5, hard-edged  rock band Queens of the Stone Age, world music acts Ziggy Marley, Mariachi El Bronx and Somalian rapper K’naan and punk bands Bad Religion and Rise Against.
  
"Whatever I’ve learned in the evolution of the album, I know people who pay $20 for this are not going to like every song,” Ayeroff said. “But there are several records inside this album: There’s a country record, there’s an all female record of women interpreting Bob Dylan songs, which is probably the most significant part of the album for me. It shows that Bob speaks with many voices for many people.

“There’s an adult pop record, there’s a peer record, there’s an alternative rock album, and the rock record,” continued Ayeroff, adding that in the iTunes age he anticipates some people who buy the download version will pick and choose which parts of it they pull down.

In addition to the official four-CD version that’s going to all the usual online and physical music retailers, Starbucks has created a two-CD version.

Amnesty International 'Chimes of Freedom' salutes Bob Dylan's music

Bob Dylan gets a broad-spectrum musical salute with the  new four-CD, 75-song multi-artist tribute album “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan: Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International,” being released as part of anniversary efforts for the human rights organization.

Participating arists include Adele, Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend, Patti Smith, Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, My Chemical Romance, Queens of the Stone Age, Sting, Sugarland, Airborne Toxic Event and the Dave Matthews Band.

Dylan was selected as the focus of Amnesty International’s latest project because 2012 also will be the 50th anniversary of the release of his debut album, “Bob Dylan.” The “Chimes of Freedom” album seeks to raise funds for and awareness of the organization that lobbies on behalf of political prisoners and victims of human rights abuses throughout the world.

Kyuss: Rocking hard again

Reborn as Kyuss Lives with its old singer, drummer and bassist, the group of desert rockers reunited after an accidental get together last year. They'll play the Fox Theater on Saturday and the Wiltern in November.

They were just teenagers out in the desert at the end of the 1980s, young dudes looking to make some noise with heavy guitars and heavier attitude. They became a hard-rock band called Kyuss, playing backyards and illegal all-night “generator parties” amid the canyons and sand dunes miles outside of Palm Desert and other nearby towns.

By the time Kyuss broke apart in 1995, the band had earned a dedicated cult following for its four albums of bruising “stoner rock,” despite no hits and little radio airplay. The sound was loud and atmospheric, as loose and formidable as a pile of boulders, and as soon as Kyuss was gone, fans clamored for a reunion.

It's an epic story that now has an unexpected new chapter, with Kyuss' former singer John Garcia, drummer Brant Bjork and bassist Nick Oliveri reconvening (minus guitarist Joshua Homme) as Kyuss Lives. The band has been touring for the last seven months, and plays Saturday at the Fox Theater in Pomona, and Nov. 18 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Any reunion was unlikely, especially once Homme formed Queens of the Stone Age, earning the kind of broad recognition (and record sales) that Kyuss never experienced. Homme always dismissed talk of reuniting his old band, which dissolved when he was 21.

“Kyuss was like a religion to us boys — that's really what we were. I've had people say, ‘I grew up with Kyuss,' and I always think, so did I,” said Homme, 39. “Kyuss had such a beautiful story, I'm always worried how you punctuate the final sentence.”

Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age faces 15 years in prison

Former Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri has been charged with four felonies after a standoff with a SWAT team in Los Angeles last month and now faces 15 years in prison.

Oliveri was arrested July 12 after a fight with his ex-girlfriend escalated into a four-hour standoff with police. The 39-year-old bassist had locked himself and his ex-girlfriend inside his apartment when she was collecting her belongings to move out after he allegedly hit her, according to law officers.

A SWAT team was called, and two hours later, Oliveri allowed his ex-girlfriend to leave, officers said.

After another two hours, Oliveri surrendered to authorities. According to police, after officers searched his home, they found a full-loaded rifle along with cocaine and methamphetamines.

Oliveri is charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm, two counts of possession of a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of resisting, obstructing or delaying a peace officer.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum 15-year prison sentence. Oliveri was fired from Queens of the Stone Age by frontman Josh Homme in 2004.

ALSO:

Queens of the Stone Age's Nick Oliveri arrested after standoff

Inland Empire, Pop & Hiss pays tribute to your danger to pedestrians -- in song

Pop & Hiss music blog

-- Nate Jackson

Photo: Queens of the Stone Age in 2002, from left, Nick Oliveri, Josh Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo. Credit: Los Angeles Times

 

Inland Empire, Pop & Hiss pays tribute to your danger to pedestrians -- in song

The anti-walking news reported today over on L.A. Now about our neighbors in the Inland Empire isn't a shock to those versed in the region's music. Anyone who's spent some time with the work of stoner metal pioneers Kyuss most definitely knows that the Inland Empire isn't all that friendly to pedestrians.

After all, when one titles songs such as "100°" and "Black Widow," it's probably best to keep the car windows rolled up as one traverses through the band's ol' stamping grounds.

So while Kyuss has long since splintered off into Queens of the Stone Age, pictured above, and a host of other desert rockers -- a reformed Kyuss Lives!, minus the Queens' Josh Homme, has been making the rounds overseas -- the lessons about the Inland Empire in some of the band's music can still hold true today. Sample, for instance, "(Beginning of What's About to Happen) Hwy 74." First, note the reference to a paved highway over a walkway, and the imagery conjured by the lyrics doesn't exactly feel pro-hitchhiker:

In the middle of the highway / As you ride down the road / Just get that feeling / It's all so black and bald / And then there's my face

So is it any wonder that this is what our pals at L.A. Now reported?

The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area is one of the most dangerous places for pedestrians in the nation, according to a new report released Tuesday.

That area had 938 pedestrian fatalities between 2000 and 2009, according to the report, titled “Dangerous by Design” from the organization Transportation for America.

Researchers used a “pedestrian danger index” for each large metro area that measures the “rate of pedestrian deaths relative to the amount of walking in that area,”  the report said.

No wonder, then, that this is the sound that came out of the region:

Cigar box guitar revolution: 'It's like folk music turned inside out'

 
A quarter-century ago, when cigar-box guitar enthusiast Pat MacDonald was half of the Austin, Texas, alternative pop-rock duo Timbuk3, the singer, songwriter and instrumentalist’s moment in the pop spotlight came with the group’s breezy, wisecracking hit single “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.”

Now relocated to Wisconsin and rendering his name now as pat mAcdonald, the musician’s recent past, present and foreseeable musical future no longer revolves around a pair of Ray Bans, but around his beloved Lowebow cigar box guitar.

For mAcdonald and many others in the growing community of cigar box guitar players, makers and  listeners -- including the high-profile likes of Johnny Depp, Steve Miller, Jack White, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme -- this throwback to primal instruments akin to those once played by blues musicians in poor rural communities offers an irresistible sense of liberation. 

Eagles of Death Metal at Spaceland on Monday? Forget it. Most likely.

Earlier this week, Pop & Hiss told you of a strong rumor that the Eagles of Death Metal would perform at Spaceland on Monday, appearing to help celebrate the final night of a residency from Eagles of Death Metal pals Sweethead. That latter, of course, features Queens of the Stone Age regular Troy Van Leeuwen.

But late on Friday, the following bad news was sent to the Pop & Hiss HQ via the comments section from the band's management:  

"Unfortunately EODM had to pull off the bill and will not be performing Monday night. But the other bands are and they are all equally amazing!"

It has been confirmed that the comment did originate from the band's management at Dangerbird. While it does validate that the Eagles of Death Metal were indeed intending to appear, there were no further details available.

The Eagles of Death Metal appearance was hyped by Sweethead on the act's Twitter, and there are plenty of Eagles and Queens of the Stone Age friends on the bill, so some surprises are not to be counted out. Yet Pop & Hiss is now being assured that the Eagles of Death Metal will no longer be one of them. 

--Todd Martens

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Rumor: Eagles of Death Metal to nest at Spaceland on Monday [UPDATED]

Word is that Spaceland will get a major Palm Desert infusion on Monday. Pop & Hiss has it on good authority that the hard rockers the Eagles of Death Metal will help celebrate the final night of Sweethead's free residency, performing the closing set of the evening. 

UPDATE [MAY 21, 6:15 P.M.]: The following bad news was sent to the Pop & Hiss HQ via the comments section from the band's management: "Unfortunately EODM had to pull off the bill and will not be performing Monday night. But the other bands are and they are all equally amazing!" While it has been confirmed that the comment did indeed come from the band's management at Dangerbird, there were no further details available.

Sweethead, of course, is the band from Queens of the Stone Age regular Troy Van Leeuwen, an act that takes a more sultry and vampy course than the desert-scorched rock of Queens. That slant comes courtesy of arresting frontwoman Serrina Sims. Sweethead's "The Great Disruptors" is embedded above. 

Eagles of Death Metal has been doing the surprise gig thing of late, so this is not totally unexpected. They recently performed as a two-piece in Toronto, but Jesse Hughes and Dave Catching should be backed by a full band at Spaceland. 

As of Thursday morning, Pop & Hiss is still being told that Josh Homme will indeed be performing with the band on Monday. Homme has been on tour with Them Crooked Vultures of late, but a look at the Spaceland bill reveals that Alain Johannes is also slated to appear -- another Queens vet and a member of the Vultures. 

But wait, there's more! Trippy pop band Hello=Fire is unbilled but expected to appear. Hello=Fire is the solo project of Dean Fertita, another name that's familiar to Queens fans. Fertita is also a member of the Dead Weather. Producer/Raconteurs member Brendan Benson is expected to join him. Last but not least, Mini Mansions, led by Michael Shuman, another member of -- you guessed it -- Queens is officially announced as appearing.  

Based on the number of Queens family members announced on the bill, Pop & Hiss feels confident in publicizing this rumor, but if things change, we'll give an update. 

-- Todd Martens

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Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.

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