War on Pop's Friday Short List: Brian Wilson, Modest Mouse, Beulah's Miles Kurosky

Brian Wilson to Complete Unfinished George Gershwin
(http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily)

Troubled Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson belongs on any list of the most important musicians of the 20th century. So does composer/songwriter George Gershwin. So the news that the two are coming together for a collaboration is pretty impressive. (No, it's not an in-person collaboration; Gershwin died in 1937, five years before Wilson was born.)

Today, the L.A. Times reports that Gershwin's estate has authorized Wilson to complete unfinished songs that Gershwin left behind when he died. According to the Times, Wilson "plans to finish and record at least two such pieces on an album of Gershwin music he hopes to release next year."

Wilson told the Times that he's "thrilled to death" at the chance to work on Gershwin's music: "I'm proud to be able to do it. Hopefully I'll be able to do them justice."

Gershwin's great-nephew and estate trustee Todd Gershwin claims that Gershwin left behind "several dozen" fragments in various stages of completion. Wilson's not yet sure what he'll do with all these pieces: "I can't decipher the verse from the chorus from the bridge, so I'm going to try to insert some new music into them. I might even write some music for an introduction."

Gershwin's estate might also use some of these uncompleted fragments on a tribute album they're planning to release next year, spearheaded by producer Phil Ramone.

Posted by Tom Breihan on October 8, 2009 at 12:05 p.m.

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Modest Mouse - "Whale Song"
(via http://www.pitchfork.com)

Here it is: Yet another awesome Modest Mouse video. This one is for "The Whale Song", from the No One's First and You're Next EP.

Director Nando Costa made the six-minute opus with assistance from the Portland production company Bent Image Lab. The effects-crammed video follows what happens after Isaac Brock uses a medieval-looking weaving contraption to conjure images of giant snails, disembowelments, and plants that play the drums. It's an epically weird piece of work, and it could turn out to be Modest Mouse's very own "Black Hole Sun".

Check out an accompanying video at http://pitchfork.com/news/36488-video-modest-mouse-whale-song/

Former Beulah Frontman Miles Kurosky Prepares Debut Solo Album

(http://www.pitchfork.com)

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Photo by Brandon Showers

Around the turn of the decade, the San Francisco indie pop crew Beulah cranked out ornate, catchy Beach Boys pastiches, generating themselves some serious buzz in the process. But after releasing beloved albums like 1999's When Your Heartstrings Break and 2001's The Coast Is Never Clear, Beulah broke up in 2004, and we haven't heard much from the band's principals since.

Well, former Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky has signed with the Shout! Factory subsidiary Majordomo, home to the Airborne Toxic Event, the Von Bondies, and Earlimart. And he's just finished work on a solo album, which is set for a March 2010 release. A U.S. tour will follow.

In a press release, Kurosky said, "Shout! Factory made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Needless to say, I've never been happier to find the head of a horse between my sheets. I'm very excited to be part of the 'family.'"

Posted by Tom Breihan on October 7, 2009 at 2:15 p.m.