Modest Mouse's New "King Rat" Video, Directed by Heath Ledger, is Released

Besides being an actor, the late Heath Ledger also directed several music videos, and his last one was released today. Ledger's six-minute video for Modest Mouse's song "King Rat" made its debut today exclusively on MySpace Video. (Embedding the video was disabled, but I've put a screen cap above and you can view the video at the link.)

Although the animated video features fish and other sea creatures piloting a fishing boat, which seems like standard cartoon fare, the video takes a dark turn as we see the "fishermen" hunting for (and killing) humans. (Which may explain why the video has a positive rating of only 25%.) It's said that the video reflects Ledger's interest in the issue of illegal commercial whaling, which is a controversial issue in the late actor's native Australia.

A press release says that Ledger had proposed the idea for the video in 2007, according to a blog post at SeattlePI.com. The video was unfinished at the time of his death, but was completed by a company that Ledger had worked with, in honor of the actor.

The release also said that, in keeping with Ledger's interests in protecting ocean life, proceeds from sales of the first month of the video's iTunes sales will go to an international marine wildlife organization.

All Points West: Sunday is Soggy But Now OPEN!

After a four-hour delay due to steady rain in the NY metro area, the All Points West Festival is now open for its third and final day.

Around 3:10 p.m. Liberty Event, the company that produces All Points West, sent a message from its Twitter account (@libertyevent) saying, "Doors are OPEN at #APW #AllPointsWest. A break in the skies."

Turns out that was premature, though; it seems the gates didn't actually open until almost an hour later. All Points West sent a message from its Twitter account about 4:10 reading, “THE DOORS ARE OPEN! Let the games BEGIN! RE-TWEET like craaazzyyyyyy!!!!!!”

No word yet on how this will affect the schedule. Sunday's show was to begin at Noon and headliners Coldplay were to take the stage at 9:35, with other bands going on later at the other stages. Another factor is that this is Sunday and many people will be going to their 9-to-5 jobs the next day.

Oh, and just to complicate things more, rain is forecast for tonight.

Festival Updates: from Newport Folk and All Points West

The 50-year-old Newport Folk Festival and the sophomore edition of the All Points West Festival in NJ are heading into their final day. APW experienced rain off and on during Friday, but the show went on. Saturday was sunny and rain free, but as the New York Times and other attendees reported, the fields were quite muddy.

Tomorrow's All Points West schedule features headliners Coldplay, along with MGMT, Echo and the Bunnymen, Mogwai, Elbow, and L.A.'s Silversun Pickups, among others.

The Newport Folk Festival seems to have been rain free, and I was able to listen to portions of some of the sets through NPR's live streaming, including the Avett Brothers and Fleet Foxes. They will be doing live audio tomorrow as well, and they say that all of the concerts will be archived online for later listening.

Here is the Newport Folk Festival live streaming schedule for Sunday:

11:30 a.m. Josh Ritter
12:30 p.m. Campbell Brothers
1:35 p.m. Neko Case
2:55 p.m. Arlo Guthrie
4:15 p.m. Joan Baez
6 p.m. Pete & Tao Seeger & friends with special guest Judy Collins

Download Free Music Samplers for Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals

The Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festivals are among the biggest celebrations of these music genres, and the folks at NPR Music are offering a free MP3 sampler of 12 songs for each of them. This is a good way to get up to speed on some of the musicians who are playing at this year's festivals and hear some of their tunes for free.

You can download the free Newport Folk Festival and Newport Jazz Festival samplers at this site, and see what tunes are included in each collection. Among the songs in the Folk Festival sampler:

• "I and Love and You" by The Avett Brothers from I and Love and You
  
• "I Keep Faith" by Billy Bragg from Mr. Love & Justice
  
• "Easy" by Deer Tick from Born on Flag Day
  
• "Chains, Chains, Chains" by Elvis Perkins in Dearland from Elvis Perkins in Dearland
  
• "Mykonos" by Fleet Foxes from the Sun Giant EP
  
• "Look at Miss Ohio" by Gillian Welch from Soul Journey
  
• "Belated Promise Ring" by Iron & Wine from Around the Well
  
• "God Is God" by Joan Baez from Day After Tomorrow

As usual, NPR Music will be covering the Newport Folk Festival (which is celebrating 50 years) with live broadcasts and Webcasts, and will also be checking on on the Newport Jazz Festival. Check these sites for details and schedules.

Also, check out FolkAlley's list of the 100 most essential folk songs, and stream them on your computer.

Last Days for July's Amazon.com 50 MP3 Albums for $5 Each

Each month Amazon.com offers a selection of 50 MP3 albums for $5 each, and as you've probably noticed from the calendar, July is almost over.

As usual, the 50 span a range of musical genres and time periods. I picked up Bob Mould's new Life And Times album. Among the other titles you can find for five bucks for the next few days:

• alt and indie rock including Grand Duchy (with Frank Black), Interpol, Matt & Kim, Meat Pupets, Coldplay, and Gomez;
  
• classic rock such as Billy Joel, Aerosmith, the Beach Boys, Heart, and David Bowie;
  
• soul and R&B including Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, and L.T.D.

I miss not having the liner notes with info on who's playing what instruments, who sang on which tracks, lyrics, etc., but you can't beat the price. And if this Apple/record label project to offer digital albums with liner notes and other features pans out, as I mentioned yesterday, that may no longer be a problem.

Apple Looking to Save the Album with Tablet, iTunes Extras

Apple, the company that has sped the downfall of the CD by becoming the top (legal) provider of recorded music, is now said to be making moves to save the album format.

As originally reported in the Financial Times and explained here on All Things Digital, Apple is planning to release a long-awaited tablet computer before the holidays, bigger than an iPod touch but smaller than a MacBook, that is being "prepped to launch alongside a next-generation digital album format Apple is cooking up with the four largest recording companies, one designed to gin up sales of CD-length music."

The Financial Times mentions a September release for the Apple tablet (the same time that the company usually refreshes its iPod lineup), and suggests that the tablet will have a 10-inch screen. It also says that Apple has been working on the project, codenamed "Cocktail," with the four major record labels.

All Things Digital calls the project a "new music format that will gather songs, photos, lyrics sheets, video clips and liner notes into a sort of interactive booklet."

BusinessInsider.com notes that, "The main idea is to get people spending $10-20 at a time on iTunes--on a multimedia-bundled album--instead of $1-2 on one or two single-song downloads." The site notes that the concept will not really bring a lot more money to Apple, but could be a boon for the music labels that partner with the computer maker.

Will these kind of extras encourage people to buy albums instead individual tracks? Would they get you to buy an album? As a guy who grew up with the album format (going all the way back to vinyl LPs, in fact), I've always liked the idea of a cohesive group of tunes, so I buy albums anyway (unless I find during sampling that there are only one or two good tracks on it).

It will be interesting to see if this project, assuming it comes off as predicted, will nudge other music consumers to do the same.