Perry Farrell dropped by the Smoking Section office to play us Ultra Payloaded, the first album from his new outfit, Satellite Party. Farrell filled us in on the concept behind the record: A group of artists, musicians and environmentalists called the Solutionists try to heal the world . . . by partying! Their mantra — “Just try to stop us, we’re going to love” — is sung by Jim Morrison on “Woman in the Window,” a song-poem the Lizard King recorded shortly before his death that Farrell uncovered and rearranged for the disc. Guests include Flea and John Frusciante (who lock up on “Hard Life Easy”), Fergie, New Order bassist Peter Hook and a thirty-piece orchestra. It’s definitely far out, but it’s Farrell’s strongest body of work since Ritual, and this summer, he says, he’ll become a Solutionist himself. “We’ll take the show on the road,” he says. “We’re gonna live the myth.”
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It was the Smoking Section’s extreme pleasure to chat up living legend Mavis Staples about her new album, We’ll Never Turn Back, due out in April. Forty years ago, killing on cuts like “I’ll Take You There” and (our favorite) “We’ll Get Over,” Mavis and the Staple Singers were the pied pipers of the civil rights movement. Now, she says, citing the Katrina disaster and a certain comedian’s n-word tirade, “We need to change again more than ever.” With the help of producer Ry Cooder, as well as Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Freedom Singers, Ms. Staples laid down twelve “freedom” songs — such as a haunting update of “Eyes on the Prize” — interjecting memories of the uplifting messages of peace and perseverance that she learned firsthand from Martin Luther King Jr. “I love these tracks,” she says. “I want them to remind people how far we have to go.” Let’s go, people!
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“It’s a pretty interesting experiment,” says Harper Simon. “I can’t wait to see what happens.” He’s talking about his ten-day trip to Nashville, where he recorded twenty-two tracks with legendary producer Bob Johnston — who worked back in the day with Harper’s dad on Simon and Garfunkel’s early albums. They wrangled players such as pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins and multi-instrumentalist Charlie McCoy (both of whom raged on Blonde on Blonde), as well as Elvis alums Mike Leach and Gene Christman. “Even if you don’t know their names, you know their sound,” says Harper, who will enlist friends like Sean Lennon, Adam Green and Inara George to add another sonic dimension to the basic tracks. Also, during downtime in the studio, the Nashville cats shared mind-blowing stories about the good old days for a documentary project. “It’s like Buena Vista Social Club,” says Harper. “Except it’s not Cuban guys, it’s about fuckin’ American rock & roll.”