No real surprises to report. Beyoncé earned a bundle of Grammys. Lady Gaga delivered a rousing - and surprisingly uncontroversial - duet with Elton John . Taylor Swift also cleaned up, though her number with Stevie Nicks sounded a tad off (as did Slash's guitar solo during T-Pain's performance). Best prop goes to Best Comedy Album winner Steven Colbert , who pulled an iPad out of his jacket during his monologue. And kudos to Kings of Leon for admitting they were a tad drunk while accepting the Grammy [...]
Record of the Year "Halo," Beyoncé "I Gotta Feeling," the Black Eyed Peas "Use Somebody," Kings of Leon "Poker Face," Lady Gaga "You Belong With Me," Taylor Swift Album of the Year "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," Beyoncé; Shondrae "Mr. Bangledesh" Crawford, Ian Dench, D-Town, Toby Gad, Sean "the Pen" Garrett, Amanda Ghost, Jim Jonsin, Beyoncé Knowles, Rico Love, Dave McCracken, Terius "the Dream" Nash, Radio Killa, Stargate, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, Ryan Tedder and Wayne Wilkins, producers "The E.N.D.," the Black Eyed Peas; Apl.de.ap, Jean [...]
i'm getting ready to finish up a 2-week break from work here and it occurred to me that not once in that period did i have the slightest desire to update this blog. i guess i still don't, since all i've got is this lazy post with a bunch of songs that remind me of the ways i have been spending my time.... mostly video games. lots of video games... ratchet and clank future: tools of destruction (ps3) mp3: kid tiger - future umbrella mp3: daft punk [...]
I realize this is a week late - I apologize. It wasn't just to build suspense; I suppose I decided to get a bit of actual relaxation in when I finally started my holidays four days ago. At any rate, let's dip into what autumn brought for albums. September gave us releases from Sondre Lerche, frYars, The Cribs, The Big Pink, Dragonette, Boys Noize, Yo La Tengo, Noah and the Whale, Sliimy, David Sylvian, Jamie T, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, and surprisingly, Prefab Sprout. Wild Beasts broke through with their sophomore album (being contrary, I thought it wasn't as good [...]
The polka-less Grammys shortlist has been been birthed out . Beyonce is leading on the most nominations front, which we think is the music industry's way of telling her she's looking old now. Here - as is now traditional - is the full shortlist. It's bloody long, so if you're not interested in the detail, click here to leap to the bottom . THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF RECORDING ARTS & SCIENCES, INC. Final Nominations List 52nd Annual GRAMMY® Awards For recordings released during the Eligibility Year October 1, 2008 through [...]
The Grammy nominees were announced today. Beyoncé has more nominations than anyone (in a large part thanks to the number of R&B awards), but Lady Gaga racked up a good collection herself. Check out the list of Grammy Award nominations (that we care about) after the jump. For a full list with all those "Best Classical Producer" noms and others like that, visit grammy.com . Record Of The Year Beyoncé - "Halo" The Black Eyed Peas - "I Gotta Feeling" Kings Of Leon - "Use Somebody" Lady Gaga - [...]
This year's obligatory Hallowe'en post comes from Storkboy, my identical twin. I robbed it from an abortive blog he kept years ago that crafts something mystic out of 'we-wuz-in-an-estate-but-wuz-a ware-of-the-country' in a way which I try, but never can. He is a brilliant writer. He is also identifiable as the twin on the right in the photo below. I ate more carrots to make me handsome. Happy Hallowe'en (Or Oíche Samhna as us non-Americans six miles from the place where it was invented sometimes call it)!. [...]
This year's obligatory Hallowe'en post comes from Storkboy, my identical twin. I robbed it from an abortive blog he kept years ago. He is a brilliant writer. He is also identifiable as the twin on the right in the photo below. Happy Hallowe'en! (Or Oiche Samhain as us non-Americans six miles from the place where it was invented sometimes call it). they were dotes growing up It happens every year, and it [...]
Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental full-frontal design specialist Fah Lo Suee and I are heading off to Juno, Alaska, where we'll be hosting a charity fete to pick names for former Governor Sarah Palin 's next kid that would be predictive of the little tyke's future career. In the running at the moment are Tarp (Yankee Stadium groundskeeper), Tripe (Wall Street Journal editorial writer) and Turk (Oily Levantine), although that last one makes no sense to me. In any case, posting by [...]
This is an ever changing and (hopefully) expanding list of some of the songs I have mentioned before in this blog or simply stuff I have found somewhere on the web that I find interesting, but have no time to write about. All files have been found somewhere in cyberspace (and NONE of them have uploaded by me, so I cannot help you with any requests you might have - just keep returning and something new might pop up), so they will be available until the artists, record labels, fans, whatever decide to remove them. Thanks to a few readers, [...]
Now watch me freak it in Korean. Bishop Lamont ft. Xzibit-"Hallelujah" I'd bet against The Reformation ever emerging from the Aftermath morass. But it really doesn't matter when Carson's finest can craft Gospel Brunch bangers over Dre beats better than anything off Relapse. Bishop's pet peeve is the cult of swagger, which makes sense, considering dude's a no-frills, hard-head. Swagger means [...]
Just because it's only July doesn't mean it's too early for us to pass judgment on 2009's song and album offerings. Below, discover not only our favorite music of the year, but also Amazon MP3 customers' favorite songs of the year. We voted with our opinions-- they voted with their wallets. Please hit the comments to let us know where we got it right and/or tell us what morons we are for leaving off your favorite album. Editors' Picks: The Best Albums of 2009, So Far 1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's [...]
Just a few of the many reactions to Michael Jackson's passing from the music-critic world : • Joe Gross : "When Elvis Presley died, the great rock critic Lester Bangs wrote, 'I can guarantee you one thing — we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis.' Bangs died in April 1982. He didn't live long enough to see all of us agree on Michael Jackson." • Rich Juzwiak : "I think for everyone who's upset about Michael's death for whatever reason-guilt, regret, a general sense [...]
Rodriguez Appears at El Rey on Saturday Strong week for shows. Unfortunately a lot of them happen on Saturday (and I can't go to any shows on Saturday). Monday 6/22/09 [Pick of the Night] Dinosaur Jr . / Earthless @ Troubadour ($30) – Not sold out yet - the steep price must have scared some people away. [Recommended] Elvis Costello @ Amoeba Records (Free) – 8:00 PM show. I have a feeling this might get crowded… [Recommended] Wilco / [...]
May is usually a dry spell on today's live rock calendar. In between the breakout festivals of South by Southwest and Coachella, and with the summer festival circuit approaching, May is usually the month for established acts to fill out holes in their touring schedules, for up-and-coming acts to plant seeds of interest before a summer breakout, and for rock journalists to focus on Billy Corgan and Kanye West gossip for another month or so. That being said, I was not expecting all that much out Marnie Stern and Tera Melos' set at the Bell House in Brooklyn on Sunday; [...]
Spin Magazine has a Q & A with Mickey Hart, drummer for The Grateful Dead: The Dead played a few gigs to support Obama's campaign. But this is the first full-on tour since 2004. Why now? Quite a few reasons. We hammered out our differences, politically, musically, socially, and we realized that the Obama gigs were kind of a catalyst. It brought us together in a musical situation and not in a business sense. The business was what confused everybody. We lost our center, and everything became very strange. There was a [...]
Freehiphopnow.com is on a mission to create awareness about more female artists and general contributors to the culture, so for this next Q&A we interviewed one of the hardest working women in New York City, Tasty Keish, co-host of WBAI 99.5 FM's, ' Rise Up Radio ' and her own online lifestyles, music and entertainment show,'Taste Of The Town'. What is your fascination with radio, with being a media personality? Are those things truly your passion? My fascination....with radio... I guess it's from when I was little and it [...]
Alejandro Escovedo: Introduction Art Brut: Art Brut vs. Satan (Downtown) Allen Toussaint: The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch) Asher Roth: Asleep in the Bread Aisle (Universal Motown) The Atomic Bitchwax: Tab 4 (Tee Pee) Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: How Big Can You Get?: A Tribute to Cab Calloway (Vanguard) Black Label Society: Skullage Black Math Horseman: Wyllt (Tee Pee) Booker T: Potato Hole (Anti-) Brakes: Touchdown (Fat Cat) [...]
[T]hey have always managed to mirror the zeitgeist while retaining their cultural independence. The above excerpt is taken from Michael Bracewell's book, When Surface Was Depth , and it is a reference to Pet Shop Boys. Last week, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe released their tenth studio album, the Xenomania-produced Yes , and I'm convinced that the above statement still holds true. In fact, I'm nodding my head emphatically. There is a chronic self-awareness to what Pet Shop Boys do and it's paired with off-hand social commentary neatly packed into pithy couplets. In his [...]
The Radio Dept. have been active since 1995 and in that time have released two albums, countless EPs, gone through numerous lineup changes and experienced a roller coaster of hype due to their inclusion on the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette . Their new found fame was not met with outrageous antics or even touring, but with a prolific amount of recordings and one of the most buzzed about albums of 2009, the upcoming Clinging to a Scheme . I got a rare interview with the band and we spoke about their influences, production practices, and their [...]
Cover That Don't Suck
Reuse Recycle Remix - February 8
This Week's Other Releases
the replacements’ sire era demos
