Tuesday, March 24, 2009
National Skyline Elvis Costello Records With T Bone Burnett, Loves Nashville and Likes Starbucks
Posted by D Patrick Rodgers on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:40 AM
So here's some news that nearly made Jim Ridley pass out in my cubicle: Elvis Costello recently recorded a three-day session with T Bone Burnett at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studio. The fruit of their labors is Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (produced by Burnett and recorded by Mike Piersante), and it will be released June 2 by Hear Music.
According to a terribly smartly written press release, a handful of legendary session players--Jerry Douglas among them--played on the album, and the 7-inch vinyl single "Complicated Shadows" (yes, he re-recorded it) will be released on Independent Record Store Day. That's April 18 for the layman. The vinyl edition of the full album will include two bonus tracks, one of which is an arrangement of Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale." Costello will tour in support of the album in June and August, but the dates haven't been released. That is, except for one.
All pretty sweet news. But then, tucked away at the very bottom of the press release was a little something you just don't really expect to see in an email about Elvis Costello:
Beginning June 2, 'Secret, Profane & Sugarcane' will be available at participating Starbucks company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada...
I knew "Hear Music" sounded familiar. It's Starbucks' record label. Costello now joins Paul McCartney, Carly Simon and James Taylor in the ranks of the java-core legends. Meh. Doesn't really bother me any. For, like a venti toffee nut latte, Costello only gets sweeter with time. Wait...that's not right.
Comments (6)
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Definitely not the best track on "All This Useless Beauty" but, I suppose the subject matter fits a lot of what's going on these days. At any rate, can you ever go wrong with a Burnett/Costello colab?
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If it's not the best track on All This Useless Beauty (my vote for the most underrated Costello album evah), it's in the top three. The tension between the verses and instrumental breaks makes for some of the most exciting music he ever committed to tape. Not sure how that will translate acoustically--cue up the ATUB version and watch me bang my head like Wayne and Garth digging "Bohemian Rhapsody"--but I'm willing to see.
So what is the best song on the record? "You Bowed Down"? "Poor Fractured Atlas"? "It's Time"? "Why Can't a Man Stand Alone"? "The Other End of the Telescope"? Lots of contenders
In my opinion, the best song on that album is a toss up between 'Poor Fractured Atlas', 'Why Can't A Man Stand Alone?', 'All This Useless Beauty' and, 'I Want To Vanish.'
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