Blog: Spinner.com

Filed under: News , New Music , New Releases Javiera Estrada Haroula Rose 's new track "So Easy" strikes an interesting balance between sunny pop and a tradition of darker rock 'n' roll in the Elliott Smith vein. Utilizing unexpected chord changes, plinking piano lines, hot Beatles -esque guitar licks and smart orchestral arrangements, Haroula and co. have created a true gem. "I co-wrote the song 'So Easy' with Jonny [...]

Filed under: News , R.I.P. YouTube KINGSTON, Jamaica - Lloyd Brevett , a renowned double bassist who helped carry ska music from Jamaica to the world as a founding member of the hugely influential band The Skatalites , died Thursday at age 80. Family spokeswoman and close friend Maxine Stowe said Brevett died shortly before dawn at a Kingston hospital where he was being treated for seizures and complications from a [...]

Filed under: News BAUER-GRIFFIN The funny thing about Courtney Love is that her never-ending saga of embarrassing public statements is often punctuated by clear-headed and lucid observations that belie the singer's tempestuous nature. This is most recently demonstrated by her chastisement of her own twitter feed, which has been the source of a lot of controversy as of late. So, despite losing the rights to Kurt Cobain's public image, Love has decided to [...]

Filed under: Video of the Day Artist: Brass Tax Video: "Man With the Tooth" Highlight: "It's better than a poke in the eye," vocalist Jada Wagensomer tells Spinner. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , Q + A Lynn Goldsmith Two weeks ago, singer-songwriter Carly Simon received the ASCAP Founders Award, which is among the most prestigious honors that the organization gives to songwriters and composers who have made pioneering contributions to music. As ASCAP describes it, "Each recipient is a musical innovator who possesses a unique style of creative genius that will enrich generations to come." Past recipients include Paul McCartney [...]

Filed under: News , Video , Exclusive , RPM Mark Metcalfe, Getty She's the reigning queen of electro dance smut, but the Toronto ex-pat known to musical perverts around the world as Peaches is hoping to conquer another genre -- opera. When Spinner caught up with Peaches at Lollapalooza Brazil she explained that she's about to start a proper opera in Berlin called L'Orfeo . [...]

Filed under: News , RPM , News Today, Oh Boy! Getty Images for MONTBLANC Rufus Wainwright once met Bea Arthur at a party, and the result is one of the funniest things you'll read today. [ Village Voice ] Leonard Cohen , coming to a North American city near you! [ Pitchfork ] Spin starts their "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list with Skrillex . Yes, [...]

Filed under: News , RPM , News Today, Oh Boy! , New Music , New Releases AP Photo, Matt Sayles Bad news music fans! To celebrate the 25th anniversary or Michael Jackson 's Bad , Pepsi has enlisted Skrillex , Diplo and A-Trak to remix songs from the King of Pop's 1987 classic . Insert Skrillex hair/Michael Jackson hair fire joke here. Terrible. [ Billboard [...]

Filed under: News , Television Kevin Mazur, WireImage NEW YORK - Mick Jagger will test his comic chops later this month as host of the "Saturday Night Live" season finale . The Rolling Stones frontman has been a musical guest twice before on the long-running NBC show, and the network said Thursday he will perform musically on the May 19 finale . But he has never been host before, [...]

Filed under: News , I Fought the Law Getty While fans will be happy knowing they are days from seeing reissues of My Bloody Valentine 's classic shoegazer albums Isn't Anything and Loveless , guitarist Kevin Shields says getting to this point was anything but easy. In a recent interview with Pitchfork , Shields says Sony Music was basically hiding the master tapes from him and [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , New Releases Douglas Mason, Getty Images Though we lost Levon Helm , recent weeks have shown that his music is still alive as ever. We've heard " The Weight " more times in the last month that we probably had in the previous several years combined, and we are all better for it. Today, we are graced with new music from the legendary Helm, [...]

Filed under: News , Video , New Music Twitter.com Soundgarden has just unveiled their video for "Live to Rise," their contribution to Avengers Assemble , the 13-song compilation inspired by the film Marvel's The Avengers . It's the grunge heroes' first all-new song in 15 years. The song's driving guitar riff and Chris Cornell 's soaring vocals sound they could have been lifted off one of their classic [...]

Filed under: In House Gino DePinto, AOL In House is AOL Music's series in which we welcome artists into our offices to play some music, chat with our staffers and, generally, just hang out. For our latest visit, Spinner sat down with Brooklyn's own Oberhofer to chat about their newest album Time Capsules II , working with Steve Lillywhite and their predilection for vowel sounds. Brad Oberhofer [...]

Filed under: News , Video , New Music Press Here Kasabian had a watershed two weeks at Coachella 's first-ever extended festival in Indio, Calif. The British band indulged in some traditional rock 'n' roll excess, and their experience is best related by guitarst Serge Pizzorno, as excerpted below. "California was insane a week of madness: Boozing and laughing, dancing and tearing it up. We tore it up," Pizzorno tells Spinner. [...]

Filed under: Video , New Music , New Releases We Are Solid Gold The music video for the Hairs new song "Satan Says" is genuinely weird. It starts out alternating between sped-up, stop-motion and kaleidoscopic images before stopping long enough on the image of a deer, complete with a dialogue cloud saying, "Your pain is boring." Is this what Satan would say? Is Satan that sort of weird-looking deer? So many questions. "The idea [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News Kevin Mazur, WireImage Bruce Springsteen has been paying tribute to his late bandmates Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici at every stop on his "Wrecking Ball tour," and last night in New Jersey, he honored another fallen legend, Levon Helm . During the requests portion of the show, Springsteen and the E Street Band treated the Newark crowd to a rendition of [...]

Filed under: Video of the Day Artist: Molice Video: "Please Please Pris" Highlight: Check out the latest video from Japanese indie band Molice. [...]

Filed under: Monthly Mixtape Flickr *The following is a dramatic interpretation of Spinner's Monthly Mixtape for April.* Int. Night - A New York City Apartment For fear of the Mayan Apocalypse, Cameron has been hiding in his bunker for 30 days, living off of a steady diet of cheeseburgers and Surge. BOOM. There is a clatter. He awakes from a deep slumber. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , New Music Martin Sanmiguel New York noise pop band Cults are looking to make a dance record for their follow-up to last year's self-titled debut, but singer Madeline Follin doesn't recall how that came about. "I really have no idea," Follin tells Spinner. "I think it was just a product of being on the road and what [singer/guitarist Brian Oblivion's] been listening to lately." [...]

Filed under: News , Video , Exclusive Dave Bennett, Getty Neither Chris Martin nor any other member of the band Coldplay will be participating as athletes at the 2012 Olympics being held in London, England this summer. "Us doing the hurdles? That's not true," Martin says in an exclusive video interview courtesy of ET Canada . The hurdles line is Martin's coy way of [...]