Combine the ideas of all music enthusiasts, record executives, and stoned couch surfers and there are some combinations that still cannot be predicted. Some, like the Thom Yorke / Flea / Nigel Godrich combo Atoms for Peace, are actually decent, while others, like the short-lived Metallica / Lou Reed project LuLu, were doomed from the start.
The newest addition to the list of oddities is a collaboration between longtime hip-hop heroes The Roots and new-wave poster boy Elvis Costello, titled Wise Up Ghost and slated to be released on September 17 by legendary jazz label Blue Note Records.
In describing the record, Costello offers mysteriously terse statements, describing the record as “the shortest distance between here and there.” Questlove, drummer for The Roots, goes into further detail, saying, “It’s a moody, brooding affair. … I went stark and dark on the music; Elvis went ham on some ole Ezra Pound shit.”
And for the record, anyone going “ham” on anything is probably something to look forward to.