Among the crop of new local music offerings this week is an unlikely collaboration between Yoko Ono and the critically acclaimed young Oakland performer tUnE-yArDs (aka one-woman band Merrill Garbus) in a release called tUnE-yArDs as YOKO.
Ono, still a passionate lover of new music, was turned on to tUnE-yArDs in 2010 and invited the act to perform at a Plastic Ono Band show in Los Angeles later that year. Garbus covered Ono's 1972 song "We're All Water" and has now recorded it for this benefit single.
The song is paired with an old Plastic Ono Band outtake called "Warrior Woman" that has been remixed by tUnE-yArDs for this release. The song will also appear on the second edition of Ono's Yes, I'm A Witch remix album later this year.
There are just 1000 copies of the 10-inch record, each containing an etching designed by Ono on the B-Side. Proceeds from the sale of the record as well as digital downloads will be donated to the Sandy relief efforts of Rockaway Waterfront Alliance.
Forty-six years separate these two women in their May-December musical romance, but their love of music is eerily compatible.
