Yoko Ono rounds up motley crew for CD

By Jim Welte
Published: November 17, 2006 at 08:05:00 AM

Avant-garde queen picks the Flaming Lips, Cat Power, Le Tigre, Polyphonic Spree, Public Enemy's Hank Shocklee, Peaches, and others to remix her songs for new album.

It's safe to say that the bombastic sounds of Public Enemy producer Hank Shocklee and the symphonic pop stylings of the Polyphonic Spree have never graced the same record.

Somehow Yoko Ono seems like just the right person to make that happen.

John Lennon's widow, a longtime purveyor of avant-garde sounds, has rounded up a motley crew of artists for a new remix album, Yes, I'm a Witch, which will hit stores in February. In addition to the aforementioned artists, the list of remixers include the Flaming Lips, Cat Power, DJ Spooky, Peaches, the Sleepy Jackson, Le Tigre, Apples in Stereo, and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, among others.

"Each artist was given her catalog to listen to, and upon selecting a cut, was provided with the vocals and whatever other instrumental elements attracted them from that cut," Ono's label Astralwerks said. "Almost all the artists chose just the vocals. They then produced entirely new musical tracks."

Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne on his contribution: "To be able to play with a track as uncompromising and confrontational as John and Yoko's 'Cambridge 1969' is, for any curious artist, a rare treat. We took Yoko's primal screams and John's moaning feedback and turned them into a kind of Ornette Colemanesque melody...I fear we may have defanged rock's most disturbing performance/art/jam."

Here's the full track list:

1. Hank Shocklee - "Witch Shocktronica Intro"

2. Peaches - "Kiss Kiss Kiss"

3. Shitake Monkey - "O'Oh"

4. Blow Up - "Everyman...Everywoman"

5. Le Tigre - "Sisters O Sisters"

6. Porcupine Tree - "Death Of Samantha"

7. DJ Spooky - "Rising"

8. Apples In Stereo - "No One Can See Me Like You Do"

9. The Brother Brothers - "Yes I'm A Witch"

10. Cat Power - "Revelations"

11. Polyphonic Spree - "You And I"

12. Jason Pierce (Spiritualized) - "Walking On Thin Ice"

13. Antony (Antony And The Johnsons) and Hahn Rowe - "Toy Boat"

14. The Flaming Lips - "Cambridge 1969/2007"

15. The Sleepy Jackson - "I'm Moving On"

16. Hank Shocklee - "Witch Shocktronica Outro"

17. Craig Armstrong - "Shiranakatta (I Didn't Know)"