'But this feels so unnatural, Peter Gabriel too'

The man is keeping busy. Some of us have heard him working with Hot Chip with his quaint interpretation of 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa'. I'm sure the boys in Vampire Weekend were flattered. He's selling out major city tour dates and tweeting up a storm. But, with all of this, he's wrapped up in the studio and ready to put out a new record. Finally, I might add.

Peter Gabriel (the birthday boy today) is about to release Scratch My Back in a couple of days. It's a covers album with some very adventurous selections. I had the pleasure of previewing a few of the tracks off the record. It's certainly a direction I didn't expect him to venture into. Am I surprised to see him covering Radiohead and Regina Spektor? I think so. But, I really can't wait to listen to them. The Magnetic Fields cover is probably the same one he released years back on the Shall We Dance? soundtrack. I'd really like to hear his renditions of David Bowie's 'Heroes' and Neil Young's 'Philadelphia'. But I was blown away with his version of 'My Body Is A Cage' by Arcade Fire, and was, moreover, excited at his choice of doing 'Flume' by Bon Iver.

My Body Is A Cage (Arcade Fire cover) - Peter Gabriel
Flume (Bon Iver cover) - Peter Gabriel

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Speaking of Thom Yorke and company, Stereogum reports that Radiohead may just have finished up a new album. See story here.

'What is this that stands before me... ?'

Heavy metal turned 40 today (and Mats Sundin turned 39). Yep, Feb. 13th 1970 saw the release of Black Sabbath's self-titled debut. That means that if you were age 20 when this album came out and got really into it and stayed a 'metalhead' all the way through, you'd be a 60-year-old metalhead today. Let's hear it for 60-year-old metalheads!

I swear I finally bought the record a few years back in a dollar bin, but I've seemed to have misplaced it. I'm kind of curious where all of my misplaced CDs go. I've managed to do a pretty good job of getting anything I lend out back. My 'Out-List' is growing smaller and smaller. Not that I had lent Black Sabbath out to anyone, in my memory.

Listening to the first track has me a little nostalgic. I remember back in high school when my friend Mitch told me that Electric Funeral (off of Paranoid) was the greatest fucking thing ever. And, ten years ago, when Primus did that cover of N.I.B. for the Nativity In Black tribute album. Or, watching the Behind the Music on Ozzy. I also seem to vaguely remember me as a child making my oldest brother laugh headbanging to Iron Man.

Switch it up a bit. So many great memories of playing NHL '98 over at Matt's trailer and schooling his ass with the Maple Leafs. The Mogilny-Sundin combo was pretty fierce. I have since declared Mats Sundin as my all-time favorite hockey player. The brother was so lethal in overtime. I remember that one commercial he did where he checked that kid into the window. And, the McDonald's commercial with Wayne Gretzky.

Anyway, we have a few other birthdays to share for February 13th.

Here are a few:

Feist is 34 today!

• I Feel It All

Robbie Williams, 36. (Not that we care.)

• Millennium

Henry Rollins turns 49!

• TV Party - Black Flag

Peter Gabriel, happy 60th!

• Excuse Me
  

Tennessee Ernie Ford, you would have been 91 today!

• Sixteen Tons