Friday, November 20, 2009 We are creeping, quite quickly actually in to the looming holiday season and the studios are sort of coughing up the small game in lieu of the enormous money makers to come. Of course, this is the weekend of Twilight, so perhaps I'm just talking out of my ass, but this feels like the calm before the storm. An animated flick from the creators of Shrek, a slightly chintzy looking sports flick, and of course Bela and Edward - consider me non-plussed. It's the limited films I'm interested in this [...]

KISS has been covered by hundreds of artists in different languages from all over the world on dozens of tribute albums. The short list: The Smelly Tongues, Garth Brooks , Freddie Frehley, The Melvins, Metallkvartetten, Anthrax, The Hard-Ons , Lenny Kravitz, Motörhead , Aced Out, The Lemonheads, Scooter , Pansy Division, Nashville Pussy , Megadeth, Skin Yard, Pantera , Iced Earth, The Replacements , Clean Cut Plan & the Mobile Whorehouse, Metallica , Ace In the Pole, Maki Nomiya , Skid Row, Hayseed [...]
Here it is, the final portion of our chill sesh with Jeffrey Lewis in October sportin' quite the history lesson. Thank you to Jeff and his brother and Schwervon! for being so accommodating and sweet. At the end of the video you can hear Jeff's brother in the other room recording vocals on some way new and unheard tracks that we can't even comprehend right now.
The wait is over. After the infamous kiss between the two on the Soul Train Awards 2009 stage, Toni Braxton and her (maybe more than) label mate Trey Songz have premiered the video for their hot collaboration, on the track "Yesterday" . The song is the lead single from Miss Braxton comeback album, "Pulse" , due out on February 2, 2010. --- Cela faisait maintenant trois longues années que la plastique sculpturale de Toni Braxton ne s'était pas affichée dans un vidéo clip. Depuis le Mondial de Foot 2006 pour [...]

One of my personal most anticipated release of the upcoming new year is definitely Spoon 's " Transference ". We've talked a bit about the new Spoon record in the past, more exactly about the few Transference tracks that have already been played live on the band's last tour. It now seems people will get the chance to have a first hand account of the new Spoon sooner than one may think, as in the following months the band will be touring through out the U.S. and Europe in support of Transference, which, by the way, will [...]

Spoon has a new album coming out soon ( Transference ) and they've already started plotting out a path to support it. Here are the first tour dates of the tour and if you don't see your city on the list I'm sure you'll get hit on the second announce. No band only plays 11 dates to support an album. Spoon: 12-03 Kansas City, MO - Midland Theatre 12-04 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre # 12-11 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom * 12-12 La [...]

Interview with Rhymesayers artist Toki Wright – recorded live at The Metro in Chicago, Illinois on November 18 th , 2009. The Fresh Air Tour featuring Brother Ali, Evidence, Toki Wright and BK-One. Being a fan of hip-hop for some time now I have seen quite a few hip-hop shows and have met quite a few artists. I can't enough how true and respectful and giving the artists on the Fresh Air Tour are. This was easily one of the best hip-hop shows I have seen in my life. A total party from start to [...]

Hitting the U.S. and Europe in coming months Spoon's next album, Transference, is due January 25 in Europe via Anti- and January 26 in North America via Merge. And in the coming months, lucky folks in the U.S. and Europe will get a chance to hear Spoon play some of these songs live. Spoon's catalog of spiky new wave jams is already pretty huge, and they've always been totally smooth and on-point onstage, so you're pretty much guaranteed a good night out if you hit up one of these shows. All dates are below. [...]

The other night, Chelsea Handler joked to Justin Bieber that she would help him knock John Mayer out of the way in this week's album sales race. However, judging by Billboard 's early estimates, it'll take a lot more than the E! host's quips to slay Mayer's Battle Studies . Here's how industry mag Billboard sees things panning out, sales-wise, by the time final numbers start rolling in for this week's top releases: * John Mayer, Battle Studies (275,000 to 300,000 copies) * Casting Crowns, [...]

Photo: Autumn DeWilde Have you seen Spoon live? They're crisp, like say, a delicious pastry. They are absolutely not one of those bands who anyone could ever accuse of "studio magic" because their sets beautifully recreate these little jams they have come close to perfecting over the last decade of making indie rock. Well, they're doing it all over again with Transference this January 26, and surrounding that release date with some live shows. One date is even with Jay Reatard, which is sort of like an experiment on what happens when organized sound [...]

Leona Lewis Leona Lewis ' 'Happy' didn't manage to storm the UK charts a la 'Bleeding Love', so it'll be interesting to see how her American fans take to the song. Here she is performing 'Echo''s lead single on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Click here to view the embedded video.
HAPPY live on the Tonight Show
Leona Lewis performed "Happy" on the Tonight Show with Conan O Brien. Check it out below: Buy Leona Lewis on iTunes, Amazon MP3, or on CD.
The latest Sankeys & Disco Electronica residents Lewis Keykay & Andy Cain have had numerous individual releases on labels including Manchester Underground Music, T-Freq Digital, Moov Records, Sheeva, Raw Trax and Red Recordings. Now they have combined forces as DEFAULT.A whole new project on top of their individual work as both DJs and Producers, Lewis and Andy are trying to not conform to
The vocals take centre-stage on Lewis' second record.

[Infiné] ( buy vinyl ) (buy mp3s tk) The original of Clara Moto's "Silently" was not exactly slept on upon it's release, but then it didn't quite receive the praise it was rightfully due. The producer, aided by the vocal talents of Austrian singer Mumi, created an unforgettable techno pop song near the end of last year that weaved bitter and sweet into a filigree of danceable moment. The groove of the backing track would be enough to sway a steadfast, stock-still trainspotter on its own but the vocal exemplifies it [...]

Has any Los Angeles band been more productive this decade than Rilo Kiley ? Probably not if you count solo projects its members have undertaken. Let's see: four albums by the Silver Lake quartet itself, two by singer Jenny Lewis (one with the Watson Twins), two by guitarist Blake Sennett fronting the Elected , one by bassist Pierre de Reeder ... and now, coming right after the first of the year, the solo turn by drummer Jason Boesel , "Hustler's Son" (Team Love Records). Boesel, of course, has a long resume, having drummed [...]

I' m bewitched, bothered and bewildered, with a very strong emphasis on bewildered . I feel so out of the loop. I'm looking at Billboard 's new Hot 100 and wondering, where did the superstars go? Suddenly, the charts are dominated by total strangers? Most of the Top 10 songs are by acts no one had heard of a few months ago: Owl City (above, second, No. 2), Jason DeRulo (above, top, No. 3), Iyaz (No. 4), Jay Sean (No. 7) and Ke$ha (above, third, No. 10). Lady Gaga (No. 9), Lady Antebellum (No. 5, no relation) and [...]

This month Chasing the Moon featured singer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Taylor . A northern California native, Steve has been living in Oakland for the past several years and has recently been popping up at all our favorite San Francisco venues. Steve is joined by Andrew Maguire on vibraphone and returning guests the Patzner brothers - Anton, Lewis and Graham. Chasing the Moon releases new episodes about once a month. To be notified of future episodes you can subscribe to their podcast either through iTunes or with [...]