Oh man, it’s almost Labor Day weekend! Which means barbecues, earlier sunsets, and the close of summer in the American mind-set. (Not to mention the ever-closer encroachment of the Video Music Awards! Ack!) So what better time to look back? Feel free to share your favorite musical experiences of the Memorial-To-Labor-Day period in this space, while you are (I hope!) waiting to go outside and enjoy the last crackles of summer. My list—which ranges from shows to finding out bits of news—after the jump.

• Kelly Clarkson at the Great Allentown Fair, duh.
• Paul McCartney at Citi Field, which was made extra-special by me bringing my mom. Because it was her first concert! Ever! (I know!)
• The Roots Picnic, especially when the crowd was spazzing out over Public Enemy’s in-reverse performance of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.
• Mew at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
• Finding out that Annie’s Don’t Stop would be re-released with an awesome new cover and new tracks that I’d never heard.
• Watching my pal Christopher R. Weingarten claim his online-pundit status.
• It wasn’t technically summer, and they were putting on a slightly stale show, but I’m glad I finally got to see GWAR.

There were probably a few more, too. This summer wasn’t that bad!

The biggest summer bummer, after the strange aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death, was definitely finding out how many people would believe that “gullible” wasn’t in the dictionary if some Internet site told them that was the case. C’mon, people. Let’s all try to learn critical thinking skills for back-to-school season, ‘k?

The memory of deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has seen quite a few licensing-related blows over the past couple of years. There were the shoes. And the ash-smoking. And the Cold Case episode. But can any of those things compare to the spectre of America’s No. 1 Raincoats Fan miming Bon Jovi’s monster hit “You Give Love A Bad Name”? The makers of Guitar Hero 5 are apparently hoping that they don’t, and that you’ll channel your outrage over Kurt playing frontman for New Jersey’s favorite hair-shakers, neo-grunge pretenders Bush, and other bands that would never talk shit about corporate magazines into a “curiosity purchase” of their game. A clip of some of his finer moments, after the jump.





OK, I’m not going to lie: Kurt Cobain singing “Sweating Bullets”? Kind of amazing. Is it worth buying Guitar Hero 5–which, remember, will allow you to get the Michael Anthony-free Van Halen game for free—over? Eh, not really.


(Also, as an aside, is Daniel Johnston getting a ton of exposure this week or what?)


[Via RS]
Related: Kurt Cobain And The Bear

The late Michael Jackson’s landmark 1982 album Thriller wasn’t a collection of songs as much as it was an event that upended the pop landscape, and birthed much of what would come in its wake. But in addition to thinking about it as a direct influence on today’s pop stars (i.e. the “I heard ‘Billie Jean’ and knew that I wanted to make music my life” narrative proffered by so many artists in the wake of his passing), one can also think about how the songs themselves were sampled by musicians who came in Jackson’s wake, deconstructed so that they became still-recognizable parts of a greater, slightly updated whole. Six of Thriller‘s musical descendants after the jump. (Thanks to Idolator emeritus Jess Harvell for helping me with some of the brainstorming here.)


6. Aaliyah ft. Slick Rick, “Got To Give It Up” (samples the drumbeat from “Billie Jean” at the beginning)

5. Public Enemy, “911 Is A Joke” (samples Vincent Price’s laugh from “Thriller”)

4. Rihanna, “Don’t Stop The Music”

(This is a bit of a cheat, since the meat of the sample is Manu Dibango’s sampled-by-Michael “Soul Makossa.” But Michael’s “woo-hoo”s, essential to many of his songs, are laced in as well.)


3. Nas, “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” (samples “Human Nature”)



2. Kanye West feat. T-Pain, “Good Life” (samples “P.Y.T.”)

1. SWV, “Right Here / Human Nature” (Samples “Human Nature”)



Michael Jackson [WhoSampled]
The Michael Jackson Sample Map [Ethan Hein]

At Saturday’s Roots Picnic in Philadelphia, Flavor Flav took a moment at the end of Public Enemy’s Roots-and-Antibalas-aided performance of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back to ask the crowd, quite seriously, if we would vote for him for President someday. The “YEAHhhheehhhhhh…” in response sounded like a balloon being slowly de-heliumed, and he quickly abandoned that line of questioning. And yet, I have to wonder: Who would I rather have in a position of authority–the man responsible for unleashing Tiffany Pollard on the world, or a member of the copyfighting, Pirate Bay-sympathetic Pirate Party, which won a European parliamentary seat in elections Sunday after garnering seven percent of the vote from Swedes who went to the polls?

“Citizens have understood that it’s time to pull the fist out of the pocket and that you can make a difference,” Rick Falkvinge, leader and founder of the party, told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, after the result of the elections were revealed. “We don’t accept to be bugged by the government. People start to understand that the government is not always good.”


The Pirate Party is focused on three main goals: “to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected.”


The party was founded in 2006, and that year gained only 0.63 percent of the votes in Swedish parliamentary elections. But since then it has attracted members during the debate on several controversial laws that authorize monitoring of electronic communications and that make it easier to police file sharing on the Internet.


It is now Sweden’s third biggest party by membership. Its ranks swelled when four men were sentenced to prison in the high-profile Pirate Bay case in April. People use Web sites like The Pirate Bay to transfer movies and music, a practice that has drawn the ire–and the lawyers–of Hollywood studios and the recording industry.

Ah, the “government is not always good” argument from someone who… wants to be in government. It’s like when lawmakers who get paid by taxpayers complain about government spending, then vote themselves raises, you know? Anyway, I did come up with a slogan for Flav’s (perhaps inevitable / inevitably VH1-documented) run: “Flavor Flav For President: Because We’ve Had Worse Ideas.” Catchy! Also, true, as evidenced by the above blockquote.


Ahoy! Pirate Party gets berth in European Parliament [CNet]

Tomorrow I’ll be tripping down to Philadelphia to attend The Roots Picnic, an all-day affair masterminded by Jimmy Fallon’s sidemen (haha, jk guys) and featuring two sets by the band; TV On The Radio, Santigold, and Antibalas are also on the bill. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the day’s festivities will be the start-to-finish performance of Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back–yes, they’ve done it before, but this time, the musical duties will be handled by the Roots and Antibalas. This and the impending relaunch of Unplugged have made me wonder: What albums most deserve a live re-imagining, whether it’s the transformation of samples into band arrangements or the classic Unplugged treatment? I’ve actually been mulling over this question all day, and can’t think of anything off the top of my head–unless Freestyle’s Greatest Beats, Volume One counts. (It should!) After the jump, a few musical experts offer their suggestions. Please feel free to expand further, and if you’re going to the picnic, come say hello!


Christopher R. Weingarten, Public Enemy sample expert / brevity exerciser: “Kylie.” (No specifics, although I would love to hear “2 Hearts” blown out by a big band.)


Lucas Jensen, IMterviewer: “I generally don’t like that stuff, unplugged for the sake of, BUT I imagine that The Queen Is Dead would be great.”


Amy Phillips, Pitchfork news editor: “Maybe Madonna’s Like A Prayer”


Dan Gibson, All My Children blogger: “Paul’s Boutique, although that doesn’t make much sense logistically. I also would have really liked to hear Aquemini straight through with a band.”


Tyler Coates, man about the Internet: “Maybe some of Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia albums, but performed with the full band he has now.”


The Roots Picnic [okayplayer.com]

Now that the Carolina Hurricanes have been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, Merge Records impresario Mac McCaughan has moved on from chronicling the ‘Canes’ efforts to talking about the music that arenas employ to get fans in prime freak-out mode. In 2006, he brought some albums put out by his label down to the Hurricane home base, RBC Center, in hopes of breaking through what he called its “particularly stultifying mix of Top 40 / Classic rock / Emo (? i don’t know what to call some of the songs on there) / Sports Disco,” and it worked, at least a bit; “Punch Me Harder” got played during the 2006 NHL Finals, which–coincidence?–the Hurricanes won. Anyway, McCaughan has provided his own suggested playlist for hockey arenas to the local paper, and man, is it so much better than the nu-metal and snipped bits of Eurodance that I’m used to at my sporting events. A few selections:

Mastodon, “Crusher Destroyer”



AC/DC, “If You Want Blood”

Public Enemy, “Welcome To The Terrordome”

Rolling Stones, “Rip This Joint”



And, of course, “I Wanna Destroy You” by the Soft Boys. The whole list is certainly worth looking over, and perhaps adding to; McCaughan was too modest to include any Superchunk songs on his list, but hey, “Punch Me Harder” worked in the past. I’m just saying!

One thing’s for certain: “Yakety Sax” also needs to be handy at arenas. Why, just look at what it adds to Carlos Zambrano’s Gatorade-machine-killing rampage from yesterday!

Arena music: One man’s opinion [Talking Points]

It seems like during this springtime run-up to the summer festival season, there have been fewer lineup withdrawals from the big outdoor-music extravaganzas (with the exception of Winehouse) and more somewhat to very welcome additions. In that sunburned spirit, we present a wrapup of this week’s additions to Bonnaroo, the Pitchfork Music Festival, and the Calgary Stampede.

• Bonnaroo attendees are the big winner this week, although I suppose the validity of that statement depends on your feelings about alternative comedy. The Tennessee festival added a stack of artists including Public Enemy, Ani DiFranco, Janelle Monae, Amadou & Mariam, Passion Pit, and the underrated metal act Shadows Fall. Also, there will be an air-conditioned tent with seating, which might be enough good news to sell a few more tickets. Inside that tent: comedic acts, including Jimmy Fallon, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, some sort of Daily Show presentation, and Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter. In other Bonnaroo news, I just started spelling the festival’s name correctly on the first try this week. No more doubling of the r’s, then going back to correct for me! [Bonnaroo]

• Information about the Pitchfork Music Festival is being leaked slowly, for some reason. We know the lineup for “the people you used to like playing songs from albums you might still own” show on Friday, and a few of the main festival acts, but that’s about it. According to the Chicago Tribune (but not, as far as I can tell, Pitchfork itself), the Flaming Lips will close the fest on Sunday, with the setlist also chosen by ticket buyers via the web. If those planning to attend would consider stuffing the ballot box for “Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now)”, I’d really appreciate it. [Chicago Tribune]

• Kelly Clarkson, in what is apparently her only Canadian appearance this year, will perform at super-rodeo the Calgary Stampede with George Strait, Kenny Chesney, and Taylor Swift. I don’t know how many readers we have in Alberta, but that’s a pretty solid lineup of acts for a Canadian version of a state fair. [Calgary Herald]

Good morning! Maura is… Actually, I have no idea why Maura has temporarily abandoned her post. (My guess is she’s already chasing Bloody Marys with Xanax in preparation for SXSW, but choose your own adventure.) After a seasonally affected lost weekend spent wrestling with Mega Man 9 and pining for sunlight, I’ve been once again handed the keys to this crazy thing, at least until Wednesday at the close of business. Be gentle with me if I’m occasionally off my blog game. (Also: I am no longer connected to the Idolator tip line, so if you have breaking news or naked photos of Bun E. Carlos, please send to jessATidolatorDOTcom with the usual stuff removed/replaced.) All of your Idolator faves will be pitching in as per usual, so don’t fret. And as you sip coffee and stare down the work week, here is really, truly, incredibly quiet tour bus footage of Anthrax and Chuck D doing “Bring the Noise” in an unplugged chill-out style. I have a feeling this would actually be kinda bad-ass in a different setting — i.e., one where you can actually hear Chuck. [Blabbermouth]

From the “get the morgue and embalm the goner” department: World’s greatest hypeman and reality TV superstar Flavor Flav has just signed on to host a scary half-hour of TV called Nite Tales, which creator Deon Taylor describes as: “Tales From the Crypt meets The Twilight Zone, with Flav playing a role similar to Crypt’s Cryptkeeper.” Wait, can I start that post over again as if I was the Cryptkeeper? Ahem… World’s gravest hypeman and reality TV superscare Flavor Flav has just signed on to ghost a scary half-hour of TV… that was harder than it looks.

Anyway, we’re going to watch the living hell out of this show because nothing scares Flav. He lived in a house with girls who shit on the floor, which is way scarier than some lame haunted house. I’d take a thousand ghosts rattling their chains and being annoying over stepping on a mystery turd.

Here’s the trailer for the movie that was on BET last Halloween. Via BooooTube—shit, I’m doing it again!

[Flavor Flav's latest fright fest: 'Nite Tales'...the series! [Popwatch]
Nite Tailes Trailer [YouTube]

Forget all that talk about whether Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is the best album of 2009. The real competition—the Worst Music-Related Article Of 2009 That Somehow Still Managed To Earn A Paycheck In This Completely Devastated Writing Economy—has already been sewn up, thanks to the new “conservatives can be cool and comment on pop culture too, man” blog Big Hollywood. Congratulations, Fox News pundit Greg Gutfeld: Your recently horked-up “Conservatives Rock” is not only headlined by perhaps the worst verb ever to use atop a music-related story, the underlying conceit is about as dumb as, well, a story entitled “Conservatives Rock” might ever hope to be.

See, you know all those scary left-wing rockers who loyal conservatives are normally afraid of? They’re actually sons of Goldwater! Just look:

NIRVANA. “Nevermind” is nothing but a celebration of free markets (”Smells like Teen Spirit” being an anthem about owning something as simple as deodorant). And the truth is – that adorable baby on the cover chasing the dollar is now in his late teens – a healthy testament to a system of monetary reward based on hard work and achievement. “If only Kurt Cobain had chased the almighty dollar instead of the dragon, he’d be alive today,” Steve Albini might have said, if he wasn’t so busy reading Hayek.

Stupid joke + references no one will get + conservative buzzwords = Hilarity! God, why don’t I think of this when I’m trying to figure out ideas for posts? Or at least sprinkle in a little more casual misogyny?

THE DIXIE CHICKS. Without question, the most ardent supporters of the policies of George W. Bush, they boldly released a romantic tribute to the man, called “Cowboy Take Me Away” – knowing it would reduce them to playing small venues. When they followed that up with “Wide Open Spaces,” a sexually-charged song describing how their bodies felt after making love to the commander in chief, perhaps it was “too much information.” Sometimes, certain things are better left unsaid, ladies.

Chicks, am I right? They can only sing about getting off! Lol, Greg, call me!

Of course, the real belly laughs are brought when Public Enemy comes into play:

PUBLIC ENEMY. Talk about guts: their song “911 is a Joke” served as an indictment of the left, or more precisely those who refused to take the attacks on the World Trade Center seriously. Indeed, they saw 911 as “a joke,” and Public Enemy took them to task for it. I am amazed at Chuck D’s bravery in releasing something that would make him so unpopular among the rap denizens of the upper west side. But he did. And my “kangol” is off to him.

Get it? No hip-hop fans live on the Upper West Side! Also “Kangol” is in quotes, because it’s a hat that white dudes who host aimless late-night shows don’t wear!

The post-post-post-post-post-ironic stance taken by Gutfeld is unfunny enough on its own, but when you add in the comprehension-challenged peanut gallery, the whole enterprise just becomes downright depressing:

Julie – January 6th, 2009 at 10:41 am

I THINK YOU ARE MISTAKEN ABOUT THE ROCKERS ON THIS LIST BEING CONSERVATIVE. MOST OF THEM ARE EXTREMELY LIBERAL

Oh, Internet. You give… and then you give me this.

Conservatives Rock! [Big Hollywood; HT Cameron Macdonald]

As part of Idolator’s continuing effort to geekily analyze every music chart known to man, we present a new edition of Project X, in which Michaelangelo Matos breaks down top-ten lists from every genre imaginable. After the jump, he sits through VH1′s latest TV-based listicle, 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs, and finds a few poignant moments among the MC Hammer jokes:

Last week, when I wrote about listicles, I forgot a non-print, but still big and obvious, agent of the format’s spread: cable television. The televised countdown goes back to the ’50s, when longstanding radio favorite Your Hit Parade counted down the Top 7 or Top 10 (depending on the season) songs of the week, as performed by an in-house band and singers. Then rock and roll happened, and bye-bye house bands. This begat the record hop (e.g. American Bandstand and Soul Train and, in the U.K., Top of the Pops), followed by video, which just before MTV led to the syndicated America’s Top 10 and Solid Gold, each using different chart data and methodology to deliver the week’s Top 10. MTV did some of that, too. It also spawned VH1, which started out MOR but soon found its footing when it adopted a campier, retro approach, becoming Nick at Nite to MTV’s Nickelodeon. Which mean, wouldn’t you know, tons and tons of countdowns of the all-time Top 100 thisses or thats.

The one the channel ran last week actually had me a little bit excited, in part because I had no real idea how it would shake out: 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs, which ran in five installments. Maybe I would have figured the outcome had I allowed myself to guess, but between having absolutely no time to myself lately and wanting to keep my responses fresh, I watched all of it cold.

VH1’s 10 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs (as aired Friday, October 3)
1. Public Enemy, “Fight the Power” (Def Jam, 1989)
2. Sugarhill Gang, “Rapper’s Delight” (Sugarhill, 1979)
3. Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Doggy Dogg, “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang” (Death Row, 1993)
4. Run-D.M.C., “Walk This Way” (Profile, 1986)
5. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5, “The Message” (Sugarhill, 1982)
6. N.W.A., “Straight Outta Compton” (Ruthless, 1988)
7. The Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy” (Bad Boy, 1994)
8. Snoop Doggy Dogg, “Gin and Juice” (Death Row, 1993)
9. Salt-n-Pepa, “Push It” (Next Plateau, 1986)
10. Kurtis Blow, “The Breaks” (Mercury, 1980)

(You can find the entire list at Stereogum.)

That’s a Top 10 I would never have guessed–“The Breaks” at No. 10? “Push It” at No. 9?—and yet, reading it, I’m not surprised at all. Of course Public Enemy is No. 1: watching in order, I kept expecting “911 Is Joke” to pop up somewhere on the chart’s bottom half. That was the big one on MTV, right? That seemed to determine a few selections: No. 6, with its Symbolic Video; No. 38, Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which makes every part of my body cringe; and No. 25, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” whose talking-head segments seemed the most genuinely strained, as opposed to I-can’t-think-of-anything-to-say-help times 20 strained.

My guesses for the Top 10 mostly took place as the show reached the 30s. That’s one pleasure of this sort of thing: you get to play along. The game was tipped at the top of the final episode when its first selection, Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx’s “Gold Digger,” prompted the arrival of Chuck D, almost nowhere to be seen in four prior episodes despite his obvious place as one of the most historically attuned rap pros. Surely he could be quotable about Hammer–whom Chuck D has always paid respect to in interviews–and his old tour-mates the Beastie Boys. Their entry–No. 27, “Hold It Now, Hit It”–was not a big hit at the time but has remained an enduring cult favorite, something the producers clearly did a lot of to balance out all that MTV.

Me, I’d wondered if the Beasties might not appear on the second episode, when 3rd Bass and House of Pain placed 70th (“Pop Goes the Weasel”) and 66th (“Jump Around”), respectively. If that sounds overly cynical, I’ll just say I figured they might make the list twice, along with others of their golden-era Def Jam ilk and maybe Jay-Z. (“Hard Knock Life” at No. 11?! Not “Big Pimpin’” or “99 Problems” or even “Izzo”? Come on!) The first episode made me especially suspicious of the way the numbers were running. The list was advertised as having been voted for by viewers, who must have been voting in very controlled patterns to place together three consecutive house/disco-inflected jams: Jungle Brothers’ “What ‘U’ Waitin’ ‘4’,” Wyclef Jean ft. Refugee All Stars’, “We Tryin’ to Stay Alive,” and Heavy D. & the Boyz’ “Now That We’ve Found Love,” Nos. 88 to 86. Come on, guys.

Aside from the usual wan jokes and “hey, I know the words of this very popular chorus too!” talking-head stuff, the clips and artist bios were rather more endearing here than on most of VH1’s 100-best-whatever fare. And more poignant: if you’re looking for a drinking game, wait till VH1 runs this as a marathon and swallow one shot for each time announcer Fab 5 Freddy mentions “the hip-hop nostalgia circuit.” You don’t even have to know the list to figure out who’s on it: Sir Mix-a-Lot (No. 17, “Baby Got Back”); Young MC (No. 47, “Bust a Move”); Tone-Loc (No. 39, “Wild Thing”); Arrested Development (No. 78, “Tennessee”); P.M. Dawn (No. 81, “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss”); Digital Underground (No. 29, “The Humpty Dance”); and 2 Live Crew (No. 83, “Me So Horny”), for starters.

It’s the old school, though, that got to me. (“Old school” has acquired too many meanings for its own good, so let me state clearly that I’m talking about artists who preceded Run-D.M.C.) Spoonie Gee (No. 65, “Love Rap”) walking around New York, head shaved, with a splendid orange-and-brown button-down, or J.J. Fad (No. 72, “Supersonic”) reminiscing about their younger selves, were somehow more poignant than their constantly touring descendants. And of course the Funky 4 + 1, creators of No. 41 (see what they did there?), “That’s the Joint,” still my favorite single of all time. Knowing that Sha Rock, the group’s female MC, does hip-hop bus tours–as does Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers (No. 77, “Cold Crush Brothers at the Dixie”)–makes me want to do something touristy for once in my life. And hearing the group discuss their disappointment at never having made an album gave a little gravity to a show that needed it.

Every month Robert Christgau publishes the Consumer Guide for MSN Music, and every month he chooses a handful of songs off albums he otherwise isn’t interested in, labeling them “Choice Cuts.” (This month those honors go to a couple of Rough Guide collections, two Jason Mraz discs, and George Stanford.) That type of sorting through the stacks is something all critics do a little of, at least: certainly the MP3 makes it easier to do so than ever. So tell us–which albums so far this year have you found only a couple of remarkable songs on, and which ones are they? My own short list is after the jump.

The Black Angels, “The Return” (from Directions to See a Ghost, Light in the Attic). Since the Black Angels are the kind of neo-psychedelic band that sounds good when you first put them on but increasingly pointless over the length of an album, they’re kind of tailor-made for the designation.

9th Wonder and Buckshot ft. Swan, “Be Cool!” (from The Formula, Duck Down). The album tended to slide out of earshot for me, but 9th Wonder’s cut-up soul track always caught my attention.

Midnight Juggernauts, “Road to Recovery” (from Dystopia, Astralwerks) . The album’s mostly turgid, but this Justice-y disco track shines.

Zombie Zombie, “Psychic Harmonia 2″ (from A Land for Renegades, Versatile); Black Devil Disco Club, “For Hoped” (from Eight Oh Eight, Lo); Eliot Lipp, “Beyond the City” (from The Outside, Mush). Uneven electronic-dance albums are a dime a dozen, but these three each has at least one gem worth snatching: driving Italo-electro from Zombie Zombie, laid-back Italo-disco from Black Devil, shimmering electro-electro from Lipp.

Jay-Z vs. Public Enemy, “Roc Boys (THOSE MFs Remix)” (from Classic Gangster, mixtape). Findable from the usual places, most of this A-B matchup of the most recent Jay-Z album and vintage hip-hop tracks doesn’t usually go beyond its source material. This track, pairing the album’s greatest song and the squallingest parts of Nation of Millions, is the exception that proves the rule.

Please tell us yours in the comments.

Flavor Of Love, the spinoff of a spinoff of The Surreal Life, now with its own spinoff with a spinoff, may not have done much for the legacy of Public Enemy, but it does seem to have given Flavor Flav’s thespian career a boost. Flav will star in MyNetworkTV’s Under One Roof, premiering April 16. The show concerns Calvester, an ex-con with nine children who took a rap for his nerdy brother Winston years earlier. Winston is now a real estate developer in Beverly Hills, and Calvester’s flock is moving into his mansion! Boing! Guess which character Flav plays? Honestly, I’m just impressed they didn’t name this Black & Blacker. [YouTube via Notes From A Different Kitchen]

I had a pretty good time at last year’s Pitchfork Music Festival–it had a solid lineup, cheap water, and gorgeous weather–and the initial announcement for this year’s festival, which is taking place July 18-20, is making me excited to head back to Chicago this summer. Vampire Weekend’s presence ensures that there will be a ton of heated arguments by the beer stalls; Animal Collective’s participation will probably not satiate Jim DeRogatis’ wariness over Pitchfork’s similarities to Rolling Stone, so we’ll be treated to another year of seeing him sitting around the press area with a surly look; and most importantly, Public Enemy is performing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back in its entirety as part of the festival’s annual “Don’t Look Back” series. Full list of announced artists after the jump.

• The Pitchfork Music Festival and All Tomorrow’s Parties present “Don’t Look Back” featuring PUBLIC ENEMY performing “It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back”
• ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
• SPIRITUALIZED
• !!!
• M. WARD
• BORIS
• VAMPIRE WEEKEND
• DIZZEE RASCAL
• NO AGE
• ATLAS SOUND
• FLEET FOXES
• EXTRA GOLDEN
• EL GUINCHO

Public Enemy will be performing It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back in its entirety this May as part of the “Don’t Look Back” concert series, and I’m already checking Travelocity for cheap flights to London, even though I know my heart’s gonna break the minute Flav walks out on stage in that damn viking helmet. [Gigwise]

Now that Jay-Z is out at Def Jam and once again purportedly making eyes at Steve Jobs, Public Enemy frontman and early Internet adopter Chuck D has declared his intentions to seek Jay’s throne high-backed office chair, regardless of the fact that Def Jam has made no overtures towards him regarding the position. And, yeah we’re not sure why anyone would want to take a job as the head of a giant record label at this point in the industry’s history, but Chuck’s always been something of a “fixer”, whether it’s racist governments or creatively and financially stagnating business models. Perhaps as a way to prove to the suits that he’s given the label’s future some thought, he’s drafted a list outlining the changes he’d make beyond “release anything else we can from Rihanna’s album as a single, immediately.”

1) Being ahead of the technology curve; preparing for a thinned out industry; and managing budget efficient acts is very noteworthy of my resume which is simple. I told these cats the online revolution was coming and they needed big adjustments. They relied on lawyers, courts, and accountants only to now look upward at Apple, etc.
2) Their cost factors didn’t fit the times, I come from a world where the $50,000 investments resulted into 6 – 7 figures. Now it’s a business where 7 figures are invested to make 6.
3) I would run it like sports. These artists would be busting their tails on tour and on the stage to gain a fan. They would be coached on how to do their thing right. Braintrust will be high, and subcontracting to the right contributors will be comparable of the efficiency of these labels like Jazz and catalog departments. You cannot have people working, that haven’t the slightest clue of what they are in the middle of.
4) Any criminal mindedness in artistry, and management would have sit this one out, go their own way. It’s like bad apples the long run ain’t got nothing to do with entertainment. You can’t mix the stage and off stage parodies.

So, in summary, Chuck wants to reverse all of the bad decisions the Def Jam has made over the last decade regard digital sales, dramatically scale back the label’s budget, become a Berry Gordy-style figure grooming his artists for success, re-staff for efficiency’s sake, and forcibly clean up the moral lapses of the label’s roster. Suddenly toppling the whole racist government thing seems that much easier.

Chuck D Of Public Enemy Wants Def Jam Presidency [AllHipHop]

A clip of Snoop Dogg performing on Flavor Flav’s Comedy Central roast–which airs in a couple of weeks, and has on its bill both Carrot Top and Jimmy Kimmel–has been floating around today, and it makes reference to sleeping with Brigitte Nielsen and Flav’s resemblance to a blunt.

It actually took me a couple of hours to watch the clip because, as a friend noted, “He is Channel Zero.” (He also included a sad-face emoticon, but those don’t translate well outside the IM window.) And once I did watch, I realized that I’m going to be at a Public Enemy show this weekend, and it’ll be hard for me to get the images from Flavor Of Love out of my head during the performance. To compare: I did have a few flashbacks to Rock Of Love during Poison’s show the other night–particularly during “Fallen Angel,” the lyrical content of which likely doubles as the backstory of half that show’s contestants–but somehow it didn’t seem like too much of a bummer, probably because Poison’s music didn’t have as many “important” aspirations. Or maybe it’s only because two episodes of Rock of Love have aired so far, as opposed to four different reality series centered around Bret Michaels.

Ugh, I’m reading this over, and I feel like I’m coming off like a fuddy-duddy, or at least someone who can’t laugh at things. I don’t think I’m either–although I did prefer Charm School to either of the Flavor of Love iterations–and I know Flavor Flav wasn’t the political fulcrum of Public Enemy, but is it wrong to be sort of appalled by his transformation into a go-to punchline whose name can’t even get spelled correctly in copyedited publications? And is this what every musician who achieves some modicum of celebrity, then gets sent to the dust heap of faded stars, has to look forward to?

Video: Snoop Roasts Flavor Flav [Nah Right]