Over on Ryan Adams' website, the alt-country vet has a fun little piece of news: "We're going to begin pressing ORION -- my most legit METAL record -- on vinyl next week. Have a listen to the song below and let us at PAXAM [Adams' label] know if you'd be interested in purchasing one."

The "legit" qualifier is in there presumably because Ryan has played around with joke metal before, primarily through his goofy web-only Werewolph side project. But the song streaming at Adams' site does indeed sound fairly serious, though it probably tilts more toward messy late-80s Pacific Northwest proto-grunge than toward actual metal. There's no soloing, no bottom-heavy riffage, and no lyrics about dragons, but Adams' scratchy growl/whine is pretty impressive. (The Soundcloud tag seems to indicate that the song is called "Electrosnake", which does push us a little further back into "joke" territory.)

Over on the site, there's also a poll where fans can vote on whether or not they'd buy the record. Whatever our intentions, we should all probably vote "yes," if only because the world's a slightly more interesting place when Adams is pulling unabashedly ridiculous moves like this one.

Click below to hear the stream of that new "metal" song.

For a large version of this poster, click here. Graphics by Erez Avissar

Pitchfork is throwing two big parties in Austin, Texas on March 19 and 20. Come hang with us!

We've once again teamed up with our friends at the Windish Agency to present the fifth annual Pitchfork/Windish Austin Party. The party will go down at Emo's (603 Red River St.) on Friday March 19 from 12 - 6 p.m. It features 12 bands on both the outdoor stage and the Emo's Jr. indoor stage. The party is free and open to the public, but be warned: Lines get long if you don't show up early. Thanks to our friends at Ticketweb for helping out.

Bands playing the Pitchfork/Windish Austin Bash include Neon Indian, Japandroids, Real Estate, Memory Tapes, Surfer Blood, Local Natives, Best Coast, and more.

On Saturday, March 20, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., we'll kick off the first ever official Pitchfork SXSW Showcase at the Scoot Inn (1308 East 4th St.). This is a full-on SXSW show, so badges and wristbands will be free, with a very limited number of tickets possibly available at the door. (Stay tuned to SXSW.com for more info.) The showcase lineup features Titus Andronicus, Sleigh Bells, the Very Best, Bear in Heaven, and more.

Check out the lineups and set times for both shows below. See you in Austin!

The Pitchfork/Windish Austin Bash (Emo's, March 19):

12:00 - Warpaint (Emo's Jr.)
12:30 - Local Natives (Emo's)
1:00 - Javelin (Emo's Jr.)
1:30 - Free Energy (Emo's)
2:00 - Real Estate (Emo's Jr.)
2:30 - Washed Out (Emo's)
3:00 - Dâm-Funk (Emo's Jr.)
3:30 - Best Coast (Emo's)
4:00 - Memory Tapes (Emo's Jr.)
4:30 - Surfer Blood (Emo's)
5:00 - Neon Indian (Emo's Jr.)
5:30 - Japandroids (Emo's)

The Pitchfork SXSW Showcase (The Scoot Inn, March 20):

7:30 - Titus Andronicus
8:15 - The Smith Westerns
9:00 - Here We Go Magic
9:45 - Pictureplane
10:30 - The Very Best
11:15 - Bear in Heaven
12:00 - Freddie Gibbs
12:45 - Sleigh Bells

Notable album covers catch the eye, dribble it around a little, and then snap it back into place, forever skewed. They can be funny, gross, shocking, stunning, or just plain wrong. They can define artists. With Take Cover, we aim to track down the most striking new album covers taking up web space and vinyl bins and get the story behind them.

In this installment, we check in with designer Brent Rollins, who created the incredible packaging for the Freeway/Jake One collaborative album The Stimulus Package. The CD comes packaged in what looks like a gigantic money clip, with lyrics and liner notes printed on what look like dollar bills with Free and Jake's faces on them. Inside, there's also a cardboard wallet, which houses the CD and a download card for an instrumental version of the album.

Rollins is part of the ego trip collective, which produced the beloved 90s hip-hop zine ego trip and later went on to produce pieces of greatness like ego trip's Book of Rap Lists and the VH1 reality competition "The (White) Rapper Show". Rollins also designed things like the Boyz N the Hood movie logo and Mos Def and Talib Kweli's Black Star album.

Our interview is below, as is a video showcasing the Stimulus Plan packaging.

Pitchfork: Did you have any contact with Freeway and Jake One about how this would look, or was this all your idea?

Brent Rollins: It was pretty much my idea. I thought it would be better for me to try to come up with some ideas first. I felt like the title is so easy to play off of, so it wasn't really that difficult. The money thing is the first thing that springs to mind, even though money is definitely a cliché in hip-hop. It was more like starting with a cliché idea and just pushing it to its logical conclusion. It's kind of like the Cheech and Chong Big Bambu vinyl. If you've ever seen that, it looks like a giant bamboo rolling paper stack. What else are you going to do?

Pitchfork: Was it fun coming up with all this stuff and seeing if it would work?

BR: Well, you know what's funny? It almost didn't happen the way it actually happened. There was two sort of separate but sort of related ideas that got submitted, and we melded the two ideas together. It was either going to be money wrapped with just a band, or it was going to be a wallet. But even if we just did money with a band, it still needed something to hold the CD. The trick was how to fit something smaller and put it on the outside. You need to cover up the wallet. It just kind of came together over time. Skye [Rossi, from the Rhymesayers label] was able to help visualize a lot of this stuff. I'm the guy who is so used to dealing with labels who don't want to spend money. Initially, they were afraid that it would cost a lot of money, so I would keep suggesting these ideas that seemed a little easier to do, and he just kept on saying, "Lets do this. Its not going to cost that much more."

Pitchfork: Is something with this kind of packaging a lot more expensive for the label to manufacture?

BR: Apparently, it's not that much more expensive. When I would throw stuff at Skye, he never really balked. Even when I went to the manufacturer to have meetings with them, they would say it wouldn't cost that much more. It just became an issue of weighing the value of this. What's the benefit of doing one thing as opposed to another? I used to love the the old vinyl packaging, like the Led Zeppelin stuff and Bob Marley's Catch a Fire and Big Bambu. All of those packages were made pre-music video-era, so all the money that used to go to packaging went to music videos, and I think that it became the default way to market music. It just seems ironic that people watch music videos less and less, and they keep spending money on music videos, when really the money should have perhaps gone to the packaging. You can have something to have, as a fan. You always like to have some sort of artifact from the artist that you like. 

Pitchfork: It seems like in a time when CDs aren't really selling, labels should be doing stuff like this to just give people an incentive to own it.

BR: Rhymesayers understands it-- as far as the hip-hop world, particularly. Stones Throw understands it. Quannum understands it. Mo' Wax, back in the 90s, understood it. I went to Other Music the other day. I hardly go into Manhattan anymore. Most record stores are closed down. Kim's closed. As those places are closed down, I'm stuck at home. I have no real reason to go out unless I'm going to a show or something. I hadn't actually bought a CD in a long time because that stuff is usually given to me. But at Other Music, I bought Edan's Echo Party. It came in a foil booklet, and I enjoyed just that fact-- to actually have something. I was at the counter like, "Wow, I'm buying a CD." [laughs] On the train home, I'm opening the CD booklet, excited about going home and listening to it. That's an experience I haven't done in a minute. It was pretty cool. The hip-hop audience has been short-changed in that area. With hip-hop, it was always this money-first mentality-- not really trying to give an experience to the audience, some sort of permanence to the music.

Pitchfork: Have you heard any response back from Freeway about this album's design?

BR: I've heard he was excited about it. He had even scanned his driver's license to be included in the thing. We ended up not using it because the image didn't look right, but the fact that he wanted to contribute to the process, it was pretty cool. I haven't talked to him directly, but I saw a video interview with him as he's opening up this CD, and he was going, "This was made by my man Brent Rollins". It's just funny to hear Freeway saying my name.

Pitchfork: [Freeway voice] Brent Rah-lins.

BR: [laughs] Yeah, exactly. If I'd play that video in front of the guys from ego trip, we'd all be falling out on the floor. I know Free gets asked about it a lot, which is probably starting to get on his nerves a little [laughs]. It's cool to see people get excited about design, and it's beyond just an album cover. It's the idea of the whole package. People want something to get excited about, man.  Music is so dead, in a lot of ways. There is a lot of good music, but there is a lot of creativity missing in certain things. People just want to get excited. I want to get excited.

Pitchfork: Are any there more plans for ego trip? Any TV shows or books or anything?

BR: Right now, we've just been held up trying to get our website together. It's tough because there are so many music sites and blogs, and its kind of like, "How can we still do things that are still us and keep people interested?" I've just been working with the web program and getting it together. It'll be a slow launch and build-up, but we just want to re-establish ourselves and our voice. In a weird way, it's like going back to the basics, going back to when it was a zine. Blogs are electronic zines. For people who care about our take on things, it'll be a place for that. It'll have some archive material as well, to provide some degree of reference. Chairman Mao in particular is a real old-school information junkie. The internet is such a free-for-all if you want certain information. There's still some use for the older stuff. There are still people who care about particular artists and interviews. And if we're lucky, one day people might be able to see "The (White) Rapper Show", our pilot episode.

Pitchfork: It would be amazing if that ever came out on DVD.

BR: We're actually kind of pissed of about that. It should have been on DVD, or it should have been out on iTunes or something. If it ever does come out, it will be cool because it is such a cult favorite. It's a weird thing; even among people who produce reality shows, they were like, "That was the best show we've ever seen." So maybe there is a bigger audience for that. I don't know. VH1 needs to get off their ass. [laughs] We really want to revisit them, the cast from "The (White) Rapper Show". To me, this is an opportunity that VH1 didn't take, as far as like...

Pitchfork: "The (White) Rapper Show" reunion show?

BR: Yeah. Look, man. "The (White) Rapper Show" was "Jersey Shore" before "Jersey Shore", as far as white kids being ethnically white. You don't see that. I have no problem with the kids on "Jersey Shore" [laughs]. I don't take them for every white person. At the same time, they're interesting. They're kind of textural people. I think the "(White) Rapper Show" cast was textural as well. I think that's why people responded to them. One of these days, we have to put this pilot out. The pilot was equally funny. We had to do a pilot to sell the concept.

Pitchfork: What was the pilot?

BR: It was the same premise. We cast people. Because they participated in the pilot, they couldn't be on "The (White) Rapper Show". But there's a couple of people who were hysterical. I want to just start talking about the pilot just to get people interested. Its a lost episode. One of these days, maybe we'll figure out some way to do it.

• Watch Lady Gaga, Beyoncé’s “Telephone”
• Abba Won’t Reunite for Hall of Fame
• Phil Spector Appeals Murder Conviction
• Rank the Best Long Music Videos Ever
• American Idol Names Top 12
• Man Arrested for Threatening Elton John
• News Ticker: The Clash, Metallica
• Conan O’Brien Announces Bonnaroo, Tour
• Pearl Jam Plot May Tour Dates
• Corgan on Mayer’s Career-Destruction
• Idol to Tackle Rolling Stones Songs
• Pink Floyd Halt Single-Song Downloads
• Strokes Confirm Lollapalooza Slot
• Actor Corey Haim Dead at 38
• Kate Nash Talks My Best Friend Is You
• OK Go Split With EMI, Form New Label
• Faith No More Announce East Coast Show
• U2’s Spider-Man Loses Evan Rachel Wood
• Watch Exclusive New Runaways Clip
• Beastie Boys Delay Hot Sauce to Late 2010
• Exclusive Premiere: Yeasayer’s “O.N.E.”
• MGMT Unveil New Song “Flash Delirium”
• Win a Trip to See STP at SXSW!
• T.I. Announces Return With “I’m Back”
• Foo Fighters Team With Vig For Heavy Disc
• Win the White Stripes’ Box Set

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

Lady Gaga upped the ante for supersized music videos last night with her Tarantino homage “Telephone,” which co-stars Beyoncé in a homoerotic rampage of capitalistic ultra-violence. Gaga’s been down this road before — “Paparazzi” was an eight-minute cinematic epic — but Michael Jackson truly pioneered the long music video with “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Ghosts,” “Black or White” and “Smooth Criminal.” Rolling Stone’s readers and editors compiled a list of the 50 Best Songs Over Seven Minutes Long a few years ago, but haven’t tracked down the best lengthy music videos yet. The Grammys honor Best Long Form Music Video, but the category really is meant for filmed shorts. So let’s start the nominating right here — check out clips by Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, MC Hammer (yes, really) and the Black Eyed Peas’ recent entry to the field after the jump.

Metallica – “One” (length: 7:42)

Guns n’ Roses – “November Rain” (length: 9:08)

MC Hammer – “Here Comes The Hammer” (length: 8:40)

Black Eyed Peas – “Imma Be Rocking That Body” (length: 10:21)

Michael Jackson – “Bad” (length: 8:55)

Michael Jackson – “Black or White” (length: 11)

MP3:> Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Round and Round"

Many of today's lo-fi bedroom popsters claim L.A. iconoclast Ariel Pink as an influence. Late last year, Ariel Pink and his band Haunted Graffiti signed to 4AD. Now they've introduced the world to "Round and Round", a song from their forthcoming 4AD debut. And surprise! Pink now sounds like he's recording in a professional studio.

4AD will release "Round and Round" as a limited 7" single and digital download on April 26, with "Mistaken Wedding" as its B-side. That's the adorable cover art above. You can also hear the new Ariel Pink track "Menopause Man" on 4AD's Record Store Day compilation EP.

Photo: Spellman/WireImage

Elton John has a famous fan in Lady Gaga, but not everyone appreciates the awesome power of “Tiny Dancer.” A Georgia man was arrested Wednesday for making terrorist threats against Sir Elton. Last month Neal Horsley, 65, posted a YouTube video of himself standing in front of the singer’s Atlanta apartment complex holding a large red sign that said “Elton John Must Die.” Horsley was upset about a Parade magazine interview in which John said he thought Jesus was a “compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.”

“We’re here today to remind Elton John that he has to die,” Horsley says in the video. “What Elton John has done is desecrated the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ.” He goes on to use homophobic slurs and quote scripture.

This isn’t the first time Horsley — who has a surprisingly thorough Wikipedia page — has raised eyebrows. A militant anti-abortionist, he started a Website in the late 1990s that listed the names and addresses of doctors who performed abortions. Two years ago, Horsley founded the Creator’s Rights Party in Georgia and claims to be a candidate for the 2010 governor’s race. According to the AP, he kicked off his campaign wearing a placard showing a picture of an aborted fetus. The state ethics committee, meanwhile, has no record of his campaign.

Horsley’s bail is set at $40,000. Elton John’s publicist confirmed that the singer has an apartment in Atlanta, but wouldn’t tell the AP anything more.

Mostly-instrumental dance-rockers and festival mainstays Holy Fuck have a new album all loaded up and ready to go. On May 11, Young Turks/XL will release Latin, the band's follow-up to 2007's LP.

The band announced the album's imminent release yesterday via the deeply sketchy internet chat service Chatroulette. Supposedly first single "Latin America" is streaming on Chatroulette today, if you can find it. When I tried just now, the service randomly paired me up with some dude jerking off. I seriously almost barfed. So be prepared for that to happen if you really need to hear the song. (It will be released as an mp3 next week.)

For this album, the band locked its once-rotating lineup down to the the four core dudes who make up the touring band. Band member Graham Walsh engineered Latin, and the band mixed it themselves along with a murderer's row of outside producers: former Broken Social Scene member/producer Dave Newfeld, Paul "Phones" Epworth, Girls Against Boys' Eli Janney, and Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash producer D. Sardy.

American Idol eliminated its final four semifinal contestants last night, removing any chances of another Idol hero named Lambert breaking out this season — or of original songstress Lilly Scott getting a chance to bring her quirky style to the Top 12 stage. Scott, the blond-haired multi-instrumentalist who shouted out her Moog synth and performed an interesting take on the Beatles’ “Fixing a Hole” during the Top 24 rounds, was voted off along with Alex Lambert (who didn’t take the news well, to put it mildly), dramatic crooner Todrick Hall and earnest 19-year-old Katelyn Epperly. Watch Scott’s “A Change is Gonna Come” above.
Photo: Becker/FOX
That means the Top 12 singers — who will be tackling songs by the Rolling Stones — include Aaron Kelly, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Crystal Bowersox, Didi Benami, Katie Stevens, Lacey Brown, Lee Dewyze, Michael Lynche, Paige Miles, Siobhan Magnus and Tim Urban.

The Rock Daily favorites: Siobhan Magnus, who turned out three fascinating and powerhouse performances during the semifinals (of Aretha Franklin’s “Think,” Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun”), and Crystal Bowersox, whose gritty blues vibe finally gelled on her cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason.”

Bowersox:

Magnus:

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

At Monday night’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, one half of Abba will dance, jive and have the time of their lives while being honored by a roomful of the biggest names in music. The other two will be at home.

Fans hoping the Swedish pop masters would turn out a sparkling rendition of “Dancing Queen” — something they haven’t done since 1982 — will instead be serenaded by Faith Hill. It’s possible, though, that Abba’s Benny Andersson will perform. “If someone asks me to, yeah, I will,” he told Billboard.com. “I’ll see if I can play something from the old catalog.” Andersson will be attending the ceremony with ex-wife Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad). His songwriting partner Bjorn Ulvaeus can’t go because of a family event and Agnetha Faltskog “doesn’t like to fly,” Andersson told the USA Today.

Check out all of Rolling Stone’s Hall of Fame coverage.

In December, Andersson told Rolling Stone that he was shocked Abba received a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nod. “I didn’t think this would happen, because we were a pop band, not a rock band,” he said. “Being a foreigner from the North Pole, this feels really good.” Though he wasn’t certain, even then he predicted the group — which formed in 1970 — would not reunite. “The people who are really fond of Abba for what we did, I think we are doing them a favor by not going out. We all feel the same. It’s been too long of a time.”

See all of the Hall of Fame’s inductees.

Genesis, the Hollies, Jimmy Cliff and the Stooges will also be inducted into the Rock Hall on Monday night, but only the Stooges will perform. As Rolling Stone reported, Chris Isaak, Ronnie Spector, Adam Levine and Fefe Dobson are among the guest performers. Rolling Stone will have complete coverage from Monday night’s ceremony in New York, so stick with us for photos, interviews and more.

Related Stories:

• Chris Isaak, Faith Hill, Maroon 5 to Perform at Rock Hall Induction
• Billie Joe Armstrong, Phish’s Anastasio, Wyclef Jean to Honor Rock Hall of Fame Inductees
• Peter Gabriel Won’t Attend Genesis’ Rock Hall Induction

Modern indie rock generally treats emotion as something that should be guarded or disguised. The Monitor does not subscribe to this viewpoint. Loosely based on the U.S. Civil War, it may be one of the most absurd album concepts ever, invoking the battle that caused Abraham Lincoln to claim, "I am now the most miserable man living," to illustrate the sound and fury of suburban Jersey life in a shattered economy. Echoing the fatalistic fuck-all of early Replacements, the cathartic singalong gutter-punk of vintage Pogues, and the brutalist thrashing of east-coast hardcore, The Monitor is a 65-minute endorsement of angst and opposition as the best way to present combustible sorrow: Light it with footlights, throw a giant shadow against the back wall, and rock the fuck out of it.

Forget the cartoon characters. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's animated misfits have always been mainly interesting as a concept, and on much of the third Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, it feels like Albarn and co. are ditching the idea of writing pop songs a cartoon band might front anyway. The one-time Blur frontman has transcended some of the post-modern artifice of this project, and created the group's most affecting and uniquely inviting album. Joke's over, Gorillaz are real.

For a band known for switching gears from track to track and album to album, Sisterworld is the most thoroughly Liars-sounding record so far. It has the rhythmic insistence of Drum's Not Dead, the sleepwalking chants of They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, and the straightforward songwriting of Liars, often sounding like a streamlined update on the latter. The narrowed range brings increased depth, and it's intriguing to hear Liars focus on detail and texture rather than stylistic schizophrenia. It turns out refinement suits them as nicely as reinvention.

Working with producers including Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer, vocalist Gonjasufi has created a fascinating slab of hallucinogenic head-nod music. Unlike the digital bleeps and squelches of SoCal contemporaries FlyLo and Nosaj Thing, however, Gaslamp Killer and Gonjasufi draw from their hip-hop background to create an LP that could as easily fit on the Stones Throw roster as well as it does IDM-centric Warp. The beats knock, but for every moment of b-boy-friendly atmosphere, there's another moment-- or a simultaneous one-- that makes like 21st century acid rock.

Tue, Mar 02 2010 09:55 PST

Tue, Feb 23 2010 12:36 PST

The full-length follow-up to Ys is no less ambitious, but this 3xLP set also has some of the most inviting and accessible songs of Newsom's career. While songs here evoke moments of Ys and Milk-Eyed and Newsom's harp is still the dominant musical focus, it's striking how much Have One on Me feels like its own thing. Not a progression, exactly, more of a deepening. The highlights are spread out evenly, and Newsom couldn't have sequenced the record any better. The best songs here feel more like conversations rather than artworks to be hung on the wall and admired from several paces away. Newsom seems to sing from somewhere deep inside of them, and her earthy presence has a way of drawing you in, bringing you closer to her music than you've been before.

Wed, Feb 17 2010 08:25 PST

Thu, Feb 11 2010 08:00 PST

Mon, Feb 08 2010 06:24 PST

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-198713314/bonamassa-feedback-letter-editor.html
June 1, 2009... Great piece on Joe Bonamassa. I've been a fan for the last seven years, and the dude has never let me down in his shows, tonally or inspirationally. This piece brings front and center just how aware he is of his gear, his tone, his approach, and the importance of delivering a quality...Read more

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-198713313/letter-month-feedback-letter.html
June 1, 2009... Joe Bonamassa--Working Class Hero? Only if you consider the Bushes and Kennedys part of the working class. Geez, his stage setup alone is worth more than my cars. His recording setup is worth more than my house. He's got great taste in equipment, but nothing I'm likely to be able to afford in...Read more

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-198713312/noize-editor-selfishness-american.html
June 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SO THE SMUG AIG SUITS FELT THEY deserved bonuses for such "stellar" performance that us taxpayers had to bail their asses out of financial ruin. Bravo. This is the kind of detached, me-me-me arrogance that thrives in a society where bling, power, and oversized...Read more

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-198713315/legends-among-us-feedback.html
June 1, 2009... Thank you for featuring two of my favorite guitarists: Joe Bonamassa and Joe Louis Walker. As I read the latest issue, I couldn't help think how fortunate we all are to be able to see B.B. King and Buddy Guy live. There are so few of these great bluesmen left. To think that Joe Bonamassa and...Read more

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-198713316/brad-rap-feedback-letter.html
June 1, 2009... Not that Brad Paisley needs me or anyone else to defend him, but geez, give it a rest already. Mr. Paisley was obviously just being funny--and entertaining--during an interview. He's an entertainer, in addition to being an all-around guitar virtuoso, songwriter, singer, etc. He was making a...Read more