Jack Black discovers his country music DNA on father-in-law’s album

NEW YORK, Jan 2 — Jack Black may have been schooled in rock, but now he’d like to sing at the Grand Ole Opry with his wife’s family — who recently turned him on to bluegrass music.

The actor-musician energetically sings the traditional tune “Old Joe Clark” with his father-in-law Charlie Haden on Haden’s Grammy-nominated CD “Rambling Boy”.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect because I haven’t recorded or really sung any old songs like that before, bluegrass style, but it came very naturally and I cranked it out in two takes,” said Black, who grew up in the Los Angeles area.

“There was something in the music that I think struck a chord in my DNA. I think I’ve got some hillbilly in my roots. ... I’m already practising my square dancing if we play the Grand Ole Opry.”

Black, who recently starred in “Tropic Thunder” and the animated “Kung Fu Panda”, landed the last-minute supporting role when his father-in-law brought the nearly finished mix to their home so he could hear his daughter, Tanya, sing on her own and as part of the Haden Triplets, with sisters Rachel and Petra.

“Tanya’s very shy and doesn’t think she can sing, so I wanted Jack to hear, especially, how beautifully she sings ‘He’s Gone Away’, which I really had to do some talking to get her to sing,” said Charlie Haden, the eminent modern jazz bassist.

Haden brought his current family together to perform some of the old-style country songs he once sang with his parents and siblings in the popular Haden Family band in the 1930s and ‘40s.

“Old Joe Clark” was originally intended to be an instrumental, but Black felt it was “a great jam” and asked his father-in-law if there were any lyrics. Haden hastily arranged a studio session so his son-in-law could add a vocal track.

“Even though I was already married to Tanya and we had kids, when I was invited to be on the Haden family album, I finally felt like I was truly part of the family,” said Black, speaking by cell phone with his wife from their car outside a Los Angeles restaurant. “I’ve always loved Tanya’s family. The whole family has always been kind of a magical source of mystery.”

Black is a self-declared “ham” whose upcoming Judd Apatow/Harold Ramis biblical times comedy, “The Year One”, co-starring Michael Cera is slated for summer release. His wife, a cellist and visual artist, describes herself as “more of a hermit” and recently completed an animated short with music by her sister Petra for the Nick Jr children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

But on the album, Tanya and her sisters — with their tightly blended harmonies on the Carter Family’s “Single Girl, Married Girl” and other songs — really stand out among a line-up that features such vocal stars as Vince Gill, Elvis Costello, Dan Tyminski, Ricky Skaggs and Rosanne Cash.

“We’ll just start singing a song and we’ll naturally fall into certain harmonies,” said Tanya Haden. “When we were little we would spend the night at our grandparents’ house on our mom’s side, which was really fun for us because we’d share a room and sing in harmony before we went to bed.”

The triplets and brother Josh — all of whom have been involved in the indie rock scene — were largely raised by their mother, Ellen Haden, a therapist, after her parents divorced. Tanya says her mother — whose parents both played classical music in the Los Angeles Mandolin Orchestra — helped influence their musical bent along with her more well-known father.

Haden and Black first met at a private high school in Santa Monica, California, but went their separate ways. She jokes that she was “a groupie” who would show up at concerts by his comedy-rock band Tenacious D. He says he was “kind of stalking” her by turning up at Haden Triplet performances. They met up again three years ago when Tenacious D was playing at a mutual friend’s surprise birthday and got married in March 2006.

“Rambling Boy” includes an excerpt from a 1939 Haden Family radio show with 22-month-old Little Cowboy Charlie yodelling on a gospel tune. Black and Haden say the oldest of their two sons, 2-year-old Sam, is already showing he’s inherited the family musical DNA after being exposed to everything from Weezer’s danceable “Surf Wax America” to Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite”.

“Our son is already yodelling better than my father,” said Tanya Haden. “He already has his own taste in music. He’ll hear something and do his own rendition and we’ll try to sing along with him and he’ll tell us to shut up.” — AP

‘Spore’ designer spills on explicit creatures

LOS ANGELES, Aug 26 — Will Wright is not offended by the explicit monsters some folks have created using his evolution simulator, no matter which private parts they may resemble. In fact, Wright said he’s been impressed with the indecent beasts spawned by a slimmed-down edition of “Spore”, his much-anticipated but difficult-to-describe game.

“When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected,” the prolific video game designer said. “Some of it’s really good for what they were shooting for. It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others.”

That means “Spore” — due out on Sept 7 for Windows PC and Mac — will allow players to ban such critters from inhabiting their user-generated universes. Of course, there’s much more to Wright’s eight-years-in-the-making game than “Spore”-nography made with the “Spore Creature Creator”, a standalone character editor released in advance of the full game.

Creating life forms from scratch is only a piece of the final game, which allows players to go from squirming singled-cell organism to fully fledged space-dwelling civilisation. Published by Electronic Arts and developed by Wright’s Emeryville, California based studio Maxis, “Spore” takes a microscopic look at players’ choices and their repercussions.

Unlike Wright’s people simulator “The Sims”, which went on to become the best-selling PC game of all time, the ever-changing gameplay in the five levels of “Spore” fluctuates based on decisions made by the user about their species, such as choosing to become a carnivore over a herbivore or deciding to destroy other creatures instead of socialising with them.

“You can play through the entire game without killing anything,” said Wright. “It’s very challenging but, it’s also very beneficial. When the game initialises the relationships of other creatures or tribes or civilisations for the next level, many of those relationships have to do with how aggressive those creatures perceive you to be.”

When Wright speaks about “Spore”, he refers to it as a brand, not just a game or franchise. It's a business lesson the 48-year-old designer and Maxis co-founder learned after releasing “The Sims” in 2000, a game which revolutionised the industry, spawning multiple expansion packs and a sequel. A third edition of “The Sims” is currently in development.

“‘The Sims’ felt like we tripped into it,” said Wright. “We weren’t thinking of ‘The Sims’ as a brand. We were thinking of it as an offbeat computer game. With ‘Spore’, we had the confidence that the players would always exceed our expectations if we gave them more creative control. From day one, we’ve been thinking about ‘Spore’ as a brand.”

While “Spore” can be played offline, part of the experience includes the ability to share the creatures, buildings and vehicles formulated with “Spore” online. Players can comment, post videos and download copies of other users’ inventions from the “Sporepedia” and use them in their own game. Wright believes “Spore” can go even further than that.

“‘Spore’ is an intersection between science and creativity,” he said. “You can apply that to almost any format. I don’t want to limit ‘Spore’ to just games. There’s a lot of other activities including books, movies, TV or whatever you can imagine that we could take it in if we think of it as a brand. What that could look like is yet to be determined.”

Along with the PC and Mac versions of the game, EA will release “Spore Creatures” for the portable Nintendo DS system and “Spore Origins” for mobile devices, such as the iPhone. The compact games will focus on individual aspects of ‘Spore”. Wright said future console editions are a possibility but wouldn’t simply be clones of the computer versions.

“‘Spore’ on almost any platform is going to be different and tied to the unique aspects of that platform,” said Wright. “Sitting in front of a console is very different from sitting in front of a PC. Whether you’re using a mouse or a PS3 controller or a Wii wand, that right off the bat is arguing for a somewhat different design.”

Wright also isn’t ruling out the idea of crafting a sequel to “Spore”, although it’s difficult to envision what one could do after conquering the universe in the first game. Wright insists he has no premeditated ideas about what another “Spore” game would entail. Much like the creatures and civilisations in “Spore”, he wants to leave that up to gamers.

“I don’t think we could design a sequel to ‘Spore’ until the fans showed us what they like,” said Wright. “I think there’s going to be a fair amount of learning over the next few months. What’s important for me is what sort of stories the players are using the game to tell. Games that have the longest legs are the ones with the most narrative density.” — AP

Spears not slated to perform on MTV video awards

LOS ANGELES, Aug 27 — Britney Spears won't perform on this year's MTV Video Music Awards, according to her manager.

"Contrary to media reports, Britney was never slated to perform on this year's VMAs," Larry Rudolph, Spears' manager at Jive Records, said in a statement. "She's in the middle of recording her next album, which is going amazingly well, and her focus remains on the studio."

Spears' "Gimme More" comeback performance during last year's VMAs was one of the most-talked-about moments of 2007. The tabloid queen is currently appearing in spots promoting this year's ceremony.

In June, MTV Networks Music Group President Van Toffler said the network wasn't ruling out giving viewers another dose of Spears at the VMAs. MTV later confirmed they were in talks to have Spears appear in some capacity.

The rebounding pop queen is nominated for video of the year for "Piece of Me".

This VMAs will air live on Sept 7 from Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles. Previously announced award show performers include Kid Rock, Lil Wayne, Pink, Rihanna, Paramore, TI and the Jonas Brothers. — AP