Following last week’s news that OK Computer is 10 years old, Paxtonland posted this recent photo of Spencer Elden, (i.e., the swimming baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind), who will turn 18 next year. That’s right - the swimming baby will be old enough to vote.

What’s Elden been up to? In 2001, he re-created the album shot for Rolling Stone and two years later appeared on the cover of cEvin Key’s The Dragon Experience. Last September, Elden expressed interest to NME in meeting up with the remaining Nirvana members and told the magazine, “Nevermind is fifteen years old now, but you still hear the singles being played on the radio and it just doesn’t sound dated. Most bands around today can’t even get near to what Nirvana did on that album, and I’ll always be happy to be a part of it.”

Here’s a lullabye rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for Elden.

MP3: Rockabye Baby! - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

June Enhanced

Because Black Music Month is celebrated in June, Hypeful wanted to acknowledge the important and continuing contributions black artists have made to American music and beyond. Like the June tribute to gay musicians, we would like to showcase some tunes by just some of the black artists we enjoy.

Recognizing that there have been so many talented black musicians who’ve influenced Hypeful’s favorite music from across genres, we’re unable to share a comprehensive collection of MP3s that features every important musician. So, in narrowing our criteria of who to share, Hypeful decided to showcase 10 tracks by some of the current black musicians we dig primarily from rock music.

While you enjoy the tracks, check out this article about the 25 most important events in Black Music History.

MP3s:
Bloc Party - “Banquet”
The Dears - “Lost In The Plot”
Gnarls Barkley - “Smiley Faces”
Solomon Burke - “Don’t Give Up On Me”
Tracy Chapman - “Change”
Seu Jorge - “Don’t”
Stephen Marley - “Inna Di Red (Feat. Ben Harper)”
The Noisettes - “Don’t Give Up”
Prince - “Fury”
TV On the Radio - “Wolf Like Me”

Electronic duo Microfilm have covered Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago” for their new single and given it a synth-pop treatment. After including three different remixes of “Chicago” on The Avalanche and recently stretching his own musical boundaries, Soof would approve of Microfilm’s minimalist techno take on his sweeping song. Hypeful is digging the track, too - the guys have processed it through their unique electro sound and kept the joy of the original. You can stream “Chicago” on Microfilm’s MySpace page and the single is available for purchase on iTunes backed with a new b-side, “Ralf & Florian” (an homage to the dynamic duo who wrote electronic music into the history books).

STREAM: Microfilm - “Chicago”

Four new albums are on the Hypeful new release radar today. The Beastie Boys return in two unconventional forms today - releasing their “post-punk instrumental” album (The Mix-Up) and the Adam Yauch-produced Build a Nation. As for the other two artists, let’s just say Hypeful would love to see a Ryan Adams & Kelly Clarkson duet. Adams is prolific and Clarkson ain’t above Jack Daniels-inspired performances - it can only be a matter of time before this dream duo becomes a reality, right?

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
MP3: “Everybody Knows”
STREAM: Entire Album

Bad Brains - Build a Nation
MP3: “Jah People Make the World Go Round”
STREAM: Entire Album

Beastie Boys - The Mix-Up
MP3: “The Rat Cage”
STREAM: Entire Album

Kelly Clarkson - My December
MP3: “Never Again”
STREAM: Entire Album