Arts Briefs

Bloc Party tries not to suck

Shocking news from the U.K. came across the channel last week as music-rag NME broke that Blur-inspired rockers, Bloc Party, had kicked out lead singer Kele Okerke. But as a lot of things published by NME, it turns out the story was false and the band will continue with Okerke once he wraps up work on his current electronica solo outfit. This is still bad news for fans of the band, being that the group hasn’t released anything good since their debut in 2005, and will likely continue on their path to redundancy. Still, that first album was pretty good.

Lou Reed and Metallica release first single

For those out of the loop, 80s thrash metal titans Metallica have teamed up with Velvet Underground captain Lou Reed to create a new album together. As you can imagine, it doesn’t sound very good, as evidenced by their first single, “Lulu”, which was released this past week and posted to Pitchfork.com. Listening to the track, it’s hard to imagine it isn’t a joke; but, as we can all remember from the Napster debacle of the late 90s, Metallica isn’t a band that really has much of a sense of humour.

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco admits he is a dad, and also rocks

Alt-country god Jeff Tweedy talked with Men’s Journal recently and discussed lazy critics describing his music as “Dad-rock”, realizing that what they’re really trying to say is that he plays rock music and is a father, rather than speaking negatively of his music. Tweedy and his band Wilco released their new self-released album, The Whole Love, this past week, and it certainly does rock, but not because he is dad.

Jamie Oliver reaches #1

It wouldn’t be the food issue without some food news, and The Guardian has reported that food crusader Jamie Oliver is expected to reach number one atop sales this Christmas with his new cookbook, Jamie’s Great Britain. Although not as handsome and charming as his Naked Chef days, Oliver continues to revolutionize the world of British cuisine, whether through crusading for change in England’s cafeterias, or creating recipes for my mum. Thanks for all the tasty eats, Jamie!