Iggy - Gimme Danger (and Sparkle)

The other day someone sent me a track from this mysterious new disk, Dark Night of the Soul. In case you haven’t heard (and again, if I know, there’s no reason you shouldn’t), this is a collaboration between Mark Linkous, the main Sparklehorse, and Danger Mouse, most generally know as half of Gnarls Barkley.

The “mysterious” thing about this disk is that it may never see the light of day. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse recruited a vast array of singers for this album: Julian Casablancas, Frank Black, Suzanne Vega, and Iggy Pop to name just a few. Director David Lynch was also supposed to have contributed a “visual narrative” for the music in the form of a 100-page booklet. Just the concept gave the album incredible potential.

Then came the inevitable trouble with the record label: Last week, in a post on its Web site, NPR reported that only the booklet may be officially released: “‘Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI’ the book of photographs will ‘now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’’”

Apparently, EMI has inexplicably put the kibosh on releasing this disk anytime in the foreseeable future. Rolling Stone speculated the dispute may stem back to Danger Mouse’s Grey Album, the 2004 Jay-Z / Beatles mash-up. The magazine said EMI, which controls the rights to the Beatles’ recordings, was extremely unhappy about that unauthorized disk.

NPR has streamed the album in its entirety since last week. You can also go to the official Dark Night of the Soul Web site to order the limited edition book. In the meantime, here’s Iggy’s contribution.

Pain.mp3

Labels: electronic, new stuff, punk

posted by aikin @ 10:26 PM