Cory Graves
Sarah Jaffe Sings An Eminem Hook and This Will Destroy You Sues The I Am Second Campaign.
Earlier this month, the tandem behind The Dividends (read: Dallasites Symbolyc One and Sarah Jaffe) revealed to us that they not only had a new album due out sometime in mid-November, but that they had also worked together to write a track on Eminem's massively anticipated The Marshall Mathers LP 2, which comes out Tuesday, November 5.
According to the official tracklist, which was released by Eminem last week, the duo's “Bad Guy” will be the album's lead track.
With less than a week now until that release date, Has It Leaked? — a website we consider the leading authority on such matters — says the album has yet to hit the web, making it the first hip-hop album in recent memory to have avoided being leaked this close to its actual release date. So, for now, we're just going to have to take Jaffe's word for it when she says that Eminem decided to leave her singing on the track, rather than hire another singer to do her parts, as Jaffe revealed on Facebook yesterday: “I was honored and fortunate enough to write the hook (and thankfully) they kept my vocals for the very first track on his new record.”
Additionally, we've learned that the track also features some additional production by Australian hip-hop producer M-Phazes and Miami-based DJ/producer StreetRunner. Still: Cause for celebration, to be sure.
On the other hand, semi-local post-rock trio This Will Destroy You wasn't doing any celebrating late last week when its members filed a federal lawsuit against e3, the Plano-based company behind that “I Am Second” campaign, for using its songs in their videos, commercials and DVDs without permission. Of course, it's tough to imagine a scenario where the band would have allowed the company to use its songs in the first place. As the Dallas News' Robert Wilonsky points out , although the band's songs have appeared in “Moneyball, World War Z, myriad year-end highlight reels, an episode of CSI: Miami, Olympics and Super Bowl broadcasts and the trailer for The Taking of Pellham 123,” the band told the Dallas Observer back in 2009 that letting companies like e3 use its works wasn't really This Will Destroy You's thing. Per that interview, the band said: “We definitely wouldn't work with certain organizations and things based on religious or political views. But besides that, we're open to licensing to just about anything.”
Moving on, some high-fives are in order for Bucks Burnett, who opened the fifth location of his Cloud 8 Music music store yesterday on his 55th birthday. Whereas Mr. Burnett has made it known that his new space is somewhere in Deep Ellum, he's “not announcing the address or info just yet” because he's decided he wants his new location “to be more of an underground thing.” We do know, however, that yesterday also marked the fifth anniversary of the opening of his first Cloud 8 location inside Dolly Python. That being said, we wonder what the odds are of there being a five somewhere in the address, too. Just saying, that's a whole lot of fives. In any case: Happy hunting.
Much easier to find this week are articles on the interwebs that are straight gushing about the new Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones collaborative project, in which the two unlikely partners have covered The Everly Brothers '58 album of classic country standards Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. Unlike the dozens of other sites where you can find a pre-release stream of the duo's “Long Time Gone,” though, this interview feature on Stereogum gives the fullest back story on how the Green Day frontman and Booker T. Washington graduate wound up working together on an album outside of either of their comfort zones.
Also streaming this week? Midlake's long awaited Antiphon, which is currently being featured in full this week on NPR's First Listen site. There, Bob Boilen calls the band's first effort with guitarist Eric Pulido playing the frontman role, “Midlake's best album in years.” Being that the new disc just so happens to the band's first full-length since 2010's The Courage of Others, though, that much sort of goes without saying.
Lastly, we end this week's news and notes round-up with some somber news: Curtis Heath of Fort Worth band The Theater Fire has been diagnosed with melanoma. Like Bludded Head musician Nevada Hill, who was diagnosed with the disease earlier this summer , Heath is also currently without health insurance. And, like Hill's friends and bandmates, who have been organizing benefit concerts on his behalf to help relieve some of the mounting treatment costs, Heath's brother has organized a benefit show at Lola's Saloon to help bring the bills down some. The show, set for this Sunday, November 3, will feature Fort Worth acts Telegraph Canyon, Mara Lee Miller (who Heath worked with on the Ain't Them Bodies Saints soundtrack this year), Pablo and the Hemphill 7, Henry the Archer and The Apache 5.
Cover photo of The Dividends by Dennis Webb. Got a tip for White Noise? Email us!
