Whoa; just how this juicy bit of epic music news managed to escape the mainstream media dragnet is beyond me, but fret not, readers! I’m here to intrepidly report to you — with the candor, clarity, and forthrightness of Mo Rocca and Joel McHale put together — that rigorously minimalist composer/artist Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham (the guitarist/noisenik/composer that the video game series Guitar Hero is based on), have apparently collaborated on, recorded, high-fived about, and ultimately released a giant new album together on the Sub Rosa label! I know, right? The rest of the entertainment industry press really dropped the ball.
The new album, which is available now on the Sub Rosa site in your choice of LP or TRIPLE CD iteration, is entitled YOUUU + MEE = WEEE and features “166 minutes” worth of our boy Charlie P on “piano Bösendorfer, orgue Yamaha and voice,” while Rhys wails away at “trumpet, loop pedal, electric guitar.” It also marks the first actual documented collaboration between these two world-famous dynamos. And in the wake of ol’ Chuck’s previous paradigm-shifting collaboration albums with the likes of Tony Conrad (a janitor at Sub Rosa who was also a secret harmonica virtuoso) and Z’ev (a really-fast rapper from East Chicago), this newest outing would seem to comprise… a trilogy?? Eh, America??? Don’t pretend like you’re not enticed! YOU FUCKING LOVE TRILOGIES.
YOUUU + MEE = WEEE LP tracklisting:
01. First a (23’15)
02. First b (20’30)
YOUUU + MEE = WEEE 3CD tracklisting:
01. First (41’27)
02. Second (60’00)
03. Third (52’35)
• Rhys Chatham: http://www.rhyschatham.net
• Charlemagne Palestine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne_Palestine
• Sub Rosa: http://www.subrosa.net
More about: Charlemagne Palestine, Rhys Chatham
