Monsters of Folk is the rather awesomely-named project currently occupying the time of all your favorite shaggy troubadours (the official roster: Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket's Jim James, M. Ward and jack-of-all-trades Mike Mogis), and despite their insistence to the contrary — modesty and scruffiness do go hand-in-hand, after all — they are 100 percent a "supergroup."
We can understand why the Monsters would object to being saddled with the title. After all, while the idea of a supergroup may seem pretty sweet ("Dude, it'll be like an All-Star team ... but a band!"), it turns out that the overwhelming number of them are actually pretty lousy (GTR? Zwan? The Firm?), the end result of poor planning and even poorer ego management.
Luckily, the Monsters are not terrible, as evidenced by their self-titled debut, which is due on September 22. Over 15 well-worn, strummy tracks (festooned with the occasional electro burble) they explore folk-y topics like religion, politics and — of course — life on the open road, the latter of which is especially fitting, considering they're gearing up to tour the U.S. and Europe later this year.
And, of course, we told them this, which is why they finally agreed to not only talk about some of history's greatest supergroups, but to rate them as well. So watch the Monsters weigh in on acts like Damn Yankees (let's just say Oberst isn't the biggest fan) and the Traveling Wilburys, plus non-musical supergroups like the Justice League and the 1992 USA Men's National Basketball team (aka "The Dream Team"). You'll be shocked to hear how much James actually knows about hoops.
It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: We've got just two days to go before the start of another weekend, and the latest albums sales figures are in. Unfortunately, this week's SoundScan report's kind of a snoozer, but there is a new #1 album to laud.
After five weeks of slowly climbing up Billboard's top 200, the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack has finally reached the top, bumping Sugarland's Love on the Inside from #1 to #3, on the strength of nearly 130,700 scans (the country duo sold 91,400 units). The soundtrack actually sold more copies last week (around 137,800), but thanks to generally sluggish sales, the set moves from #3 to #1 on next week's chart. Wedged in between "Mamma Mia!" and Sugarland, we find "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus' LP Breakout, which, after three weeks in stores, continues to generate impressive scans, this week adding another 102,400 units to its tally; all told, that offering has sold exactly 636,800 copies.
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Yesterday I got the chance to sit down with one of my favorite musicians on the planet, Conor Oberst.
The setting was a Mexican restaurant in the East Village, about halfway between his house and mine -- though admittedly it was a pretty obvious location choice. You see, earlier this year, Mexico was the place where the nomadic Oberst holed up with a bunch of pals to work on his first solo album in many years, a self-titled release due out August 5th. And yes, he sees a big difference between a solo record and a Bright Eyes record, something he explained in our nearly hour-long conversation.
Conor was in great spirits, and in addition to the new album -- which is more spare and stripped down than last year’s terrific Cassadaga -- we also talked about California (he likes it, I don’t), relationships (not his forte), his aversion to hospitals, and, of course, politics. O, as you might have heard, is a big supporter of O.
So check back with MTVNews.com in the coming weeks for all that -- plus a track-by-track rundown of the entire album...
Conor Oberst, the man behind Bright Eyes' avant-Americana, is getting ready to release his first solo album in thirteen years, on August 4th. The album was recorded in Mexico this past January and February, in an impromptu studio assembled in Tepoztlan, a town known (um, as Merge Records' release tells us) for Aztec vibes and extraterrestrial activity.
The sessions were produced by Conor and cohort Andy LeMaster, and recorded by some friends calling themselves the Mystic Valley Band. (Actually, we should have seen this coming, considering the billing of this fest.)
Oh, and actually, it looks as if most of the album's tracks already can be found, in some version, online. Go out and buy it anyway, people!
While the album title hasn't officially been announced [Update: It's self-titled], you can check out the complete track list for the album after the jump. Read more...
