Meet the ‘Yellow Submarine’ Beatles

Looks like director Robert Zemeckis has found his fab four actors for that new version of “Yellow Submarine.”

Dean Lennox Kelly (TV’s “Collision”) will be John; Peter Serafinowicz (”Shaun of the Dead”) will play Paul; Cary Elwes (”The Princess Bride”) is doing George; and Adam Campbell (”Date Movie”) has the Ringo part.

The Beatles imitators the Fab Four will be used for musical performances featuring the band, the Hollywood Reporter said. The acting deals for the new “Yellow Submarine” are “in negotiations,” THR reported, trade talk for pretty much done.

Director Zemeckis reportedly has approached both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr about participating in the film, to be shot in 3D using motion-capture.

The director and co-producers Walt DIsney Pictures have rights to the 16 original Beatles recordings, which should bring a windfall for fans: more surround-sound mixes of Beatles songs. Let’s hope the results are at least as good as the 5.1 take on the title song from the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” project of 1999.

The movie “Yellow Submarine” hasn’t been treated all that well over the years, with the DVD version currently out of print. No major restoration has been undertaken, despite the opportunity to greatly update the sound.

George Dunning, who worked on the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon series, directed the original film. It was released in 1968 to the delight of a stoned generation. Any top 10 of psychedelic movies would include the animated feature, which was surprisingly strange and included obvious drug references.

The original “Yellow Submarine” album finally was rereleased last September along with the rest of the Beatles catalog.

Zemeckis, understandably, is taking heat for his decision to fool with the classic Beatles animated film (made in 1968 without much help from the Beatles). (You have to ask: Does anyone really need to see an “improved” Blue Meanie?) The director’s CGI-laden films using the performance-capture process include the Jim Carrey “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express.”

Strawberry Alarm Clock on Corgan label

The sound you are about to hear is the Strawberry Alarm Clock, still ticking after 40-some years.

The psychedelic-era hitmakers (”Incense and Peppermints”) are back in the music media with the announcement that they’ll be recording for the new label from Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.

Keyboardist and singer Mark Weitz told Psychedelic Sight that the band is getting back to its 1960s roots, “trying to do what our fans like. … We’re picking up where we left off, but with a modern sound.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock, which charted at least five singles in the 1960s, produced a more melodic strain of rock than the era’s similarly named acid rockers. But the group still retains a connection to the dazed days:

“We take listeners on trips in the form of songs — and gently let them down again,” Weitz said. “We create songs that put you in a different place.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s new material is being recorded at Smashing Pumpkins producer Kerry Brown’s studio in L.A. and is in “the demo process.”

Weitz performed with Corgan at last summer’s L.A. tribute to the late Sky Saxon, and went on to tour with that nine-member band, called Spirits in the Sky. The Strawberry Alarm Clock is penciled in to perform “Mr. Farmer” on the upcoming Saxon tribute album.

Along with recording new music, the SAC is working on a project that combines material cooked up in recent years as well “revisited and rerecorded” versions of their 1960s songs.

Based on a sampling from Weitz’s stash CD, it’s impressive stuff, not easy to pin down stylistically. While the songs are all originals, you’ll hear passages that bring to mind the Who, the Beach Boys, XTC, the Beatles, prog rock and, yes, some old-school psychedelia.

“Everything we do we try to ‘Clock it up’ — our signature sound of catching the ear while doing something you wouldn’t expect,” Weitz said. “Our songs never sound the same — every one is its own entity.”

Original members remaining in the band are Weitz and George Bunnell (pictured above right) as well as Howie Anderson. They’re all writing new songs for the group, as is percussionist Randy Seol.

Steve Bartek (Oingo Boingo), who played on the first SAC album in 1967, had evolved into a longtime band member but recently pulled back due to his workload with Danny Elfman’s film music. “Steve will always be involved with the band on some level,” Weitz said. He anticipates a heavier keyboard sound for the SAC given its personnel shifts.

Other groups connected with the Corgan-Brown label are the Electric Prunes, the Germs (fronted by the guy from the biopic) and Fancy Space People.

Brown said in introducing the label: “We are very excited to be collaborating with amazing artists that have made a huge impact on the underground music world. … From the psychedelic garage rock of the 60’s and the punk rock insanity of the 70’s and 80’s to the post-punk Pleiadian power-pop that is now.”

The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s catalog albums are handled by MCA. Check out the Strawberry Alarm Clock website.

Furthur adventures of the Grateful Dead family

Bob Weir and Phil Lesh’s Furthur project is getting on down the road on its first U.S. tour.

The new band is warming up with an eight-night stand in Mill Valley, California. The shows are called “Live Rehearsal Sessions” and, no, you can’t get a ticket. The band even asks that the ticketless stay away from the town and the two venues.

The Furthur winter tour officially begins Feb. 5 in Miami and is scheduled to end March 8 in Portland, Oregon.

The band consists of Weir (guitar, vocals), Lesh (bass), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards), John Kadlecik (guitar), Jay Lane (percussion), and Joe Russo (drums). The musicians have ties to the family of Grateful Dead-related acts such as Dark Star Orchestra and RatDog.

Furthur debuted in September with a three-night stand in Oakland, Calif. They played New Year’s shows in San Francisco, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

The set list looks familiar to Deadheads, of course. Songs so far include “Touch of Grey,” “Eyes of the World,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Brokedown Palace,” “Ship of Fools,” “Truckin’” and “Turn on Your Lovelight.”

Here’s a swatch of the Furthur New Year’s Eve show review by Garrin Benfield on JamBase:

This is a living, breathing band capable of rocking, spacing, and generating some serious psychedelic boogie. … The first half of the first set on New Year’s Eve felt like an old school Dead show, when songs were not all necessarily connected by long segues. … (The next set) was, with just a few exceptions, a gorgeously drippy psychedelic excursion through “Cassidy,” “The Wheel,” “Dark Star” and perhaps most notably, Pink Floyd’s “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon.”

Digital downloads and CDs of the tour already are available via the Furthur band’s website.

Mill Valley was selected, apparently, so the band could stay home, rehearse during the day, play the shows at night and sleep in their own beds. The small town, however, is having issues with the inevitable Deadhead hangers-on. The Marin Independent Journal reports: “Some see this as an economic windfall, bringing glamour and excitement to Mill Valley. Others complain that unsavory Deadheads without tickets have been trashing their downtown.” Weir and Lesh had asked fans without tickets not to show up, saying they wanted to continue to be able to play similar shows in small venues.

Furthur is named for the 1939 school bus owned by Ken Kesey and used in the ’60s as psychedelic transport for the trippy writer and his extended family, the Merry Pranksters. At one point, the Beat era heavyweight Neal Cassady was the bus driver. The story was well told in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

Here is the Furthur tour schedule:

February 2010
5th: Miami — Bayfront Park Amphitheatre
6th: Orlando — Hard Rock Live
8th: Atlanta — The Tabernacle
9th: Asheville, N.C. — Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
10th: Charlotte, N.C. — Bojangles Coliseum
12th: Hampton, Va. — Hampton Coliseum
13th: Fairfax, Va. — Patriot Center
14th: Ithaca, N.Y. — Barton Hall
15th: Bethlehem, Pa. — Stabler Arena
17th: Buffalo, N.Y. — Shea Performing Arts Center
18th: Manchester, N.H. –Verizon Wireless Arena
19th: Amherst, Mass. — Mullins Center
20th: Utica, N.Y. — Utica Auditorium
22nd: Newark, Del. — Bob Carpenter Center
23rd, 24th: New York — Radio City Music Hall
26th: Uncasville, Ct. — Mohegan Sun Arena
27th: Atlantic City, N.J. — Trump Taj Mahal

March
2nd, 3rd: Chicago — Auditorium Theatre
8th: Portland, Oregon –Portland Memorial Coliseum

RatDog and the Dark Star Orchestra also have booked shows for the first half of the year.

‘New’ Hendrix album among 2010 rereleases?

A “new” Jimi Hendrix album of unreleased studio material could be in the wings for this year.

The widely distributed report came from London columnist Gordon Smith, whose online post mostly consists of a rehash of what’s already known about the Hendrix estate’s plans for the 40th year after the guitarist’s death.

“Incredibly, I’ve heard there is a new album in the works made up of unreleased studio material,” Smith wrote Jan. 6.

What’s known is that “definitive deluxe editions” of Jimi Hendrix’s classic albums will be released this by Sony Music Entertainment, according to the record label and the psychedelic guitarist’s estate.

The project also will include “never before heard studio recordings, alternate versions of classics, one of a kind ‘live and in concert’ performances and more.”

Sony’s “Legacy Recordings,” its catalog division, has done outstanding work on many of the ’60s and ’70s rock classics.

The core classic Hendrix albums — “Are You Experienced?” “Axis: Bold as Love” and “Electric Ladyland” — were last remastered and rereleased in 1997. “Band of Gypsys” resurfaced in 1998. These albums as well as some of the mountain of posthumous releases will be part of the 2010 campaign (those produced by the Hendrix family via the Experience Hendrix organization).

All music from the Hendrix reissues will be available digitally, according to the original Sony and Hendrix Experience press release of August 2009.

The Hendrix campaign comes a year after the long-overdue rerelease of the Beatles catalog.