RIB Notes: Yet Another Shakey Update

Random notes that I read about either on Stereogum, Idolator, other music blogs or, as usual, in Jimmy McDonough's Neil Young bio, Shakey.

Wilco's album cover for Sky Blue Sky, due May 15, which I really dig, looks like this:


I still have not listened to a single one of the leaked tracks, and I do not plan on listening until the day the album comes out and I own it. I am hoping Geoff G. will lend his expertise on all things Wilco to RIB in the coming days. So far I've read: it has too many guitar solos, it's too 70's pop-sounding, it's freakin' awesome, it's fuckin' awful, it's quiet, it's loud, it's better than A Ghost is Born, and it's worse than A Ghost is Born.



Figurines' album cover for Skeleton, a record that finished 9th on RIB's Top 10 Albums of 2006, looks like this:


The band's new video, for Back in the Day, offers its own take on the album cover, and ends by showing you how the funky five-eyed character might have ended up in his final, immortalized pose. Another excellent track from an album that not enough people own:





Apparently, when I was a kid and my world hadn't yet begun revolving around MTV, Neil Young released a video that was a real slap-in-the-face to corporate rock. The 1988 clip, for "This Note's For You", pokes fun at product placement and pop stars like Michael Jackson and ends with Neil holding a soda can with the words "SPONSORED BY NOBODY" affixed to it. MTV wouldn't play it at first but eventually caved when it became clear they were making fools of themselves by refusing to play a video whose point about the network's own greed hit a bit too close to home. Later, MTV would give it their Video of the Year award:





And, finally, Joanna Newsom is releasing a new EP on April 24, much to my delight and the chagrin of every single other person I know. In case you're wondering, I haven't seen the album cover yet, but every track starts with the letter C - the new one, "Colleen", plus new versions of "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" and "Cosmia" - and it's called "Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band". Gotta love it. (Okay, I realize you probably don't.)