Tagged: frankocean + topstories

The Killers have been confirmed to play at Phoenix Park and have shown some impressive curatorial skills in the process, with MCD announcing support from Bangor cherubs Two Door Cinema Club , indie-disco ingenues Haim and Odd Future wunderkind Frank Ocean as support. The Las Vegas stadium-rockers will headline the gig on Saturday, 13th July, which will be their first Irish date since a couple of arena shows in support of last year's Battle Born . While Two Door Cinema Club recently hit the O2, Dublin and Haim are [...]

About two thirds of the way through last night's endless Grammy ceremony, Justin Timberlake ambled onstage for the second time, this time to flank Recording Academy CEO and inveterate pirate-scolder Neil Portnoy. Timberlake asked a question: "Best Grammys ever?" Then he answered himself: "Best Grammys ever." Well, no, Justin. The idea of a "best" Grammys, or even an "OK" Grammys, is nearly impossible to conceive. As far as I can remember, the best Grammys ever was 1998, when Ol' Dirty Bastard soy bombed Shawn Colvin and Soy Bomb soy bombed Bob Dylan, if only because that was the year that [...]

Throughout the course of my life I have not been what you would call an R&B listener. A brief history of my dabbling: I owned a cassette copy of Boyz II Men's II because who didn't? A year later I nabbed Mariah Carey's Daydream on CD, mesmerized by the tree swing party that was the "Always Be My Baby" video . I bought What's Going On during that formative music geek phase when you plow through any and all "greatest albums of all time" lists (a ritual that blurs the line between the [...]

Two weeks ago, we crowned Fiona Apple with the honor of Stereogum's Top Album Of 2012 . Today, you guys gave your award, the vaunted Best Album Gummy, to another. We could have seen it coming, given this week's Mr. Indie Rock reveal. We also could have seen it coming, given it's been his year all along. He's built a demographic coalition and transcended "genre" on the back of stirring live performances, tremendous talent, and a very brave Tumblr post. (Also: that face.) His is a contemporary epic mining a very modern sort of intimacy. Hails to [...]

GUMMYS WEEK CONTINUES. So we're all on the same page, let's recap the results to date. Your Best Track is Japandroids' "House That Heaven Built," your Best Video is M.I.A. and Romain Gavras's "Bad Girls," your Best New Artist is DIIV. And now, we look inside your hearts. Which, when it comes to dudes, is a fairly fickle thing! Compare to last year , and you'll see almost complete turnover, with only one repeat, in the Mr. Indie Rock results. Your affections have more durability when it comes to ladies, [...]

Here's one of the big ones. Spin remains my favorite music publication of all time, and this year they joined Stereogum under the BUZZMedia umbrella. Spin 's top 50 is appealingly loony and all-over-the-place, and it's the rare list that makes room for stuff like Taylor Swift alongside Chicago footwork compilations and stoner-metal lurches. You'll find the entire top 50 and some stellar writing here . For the top five, check below. Read More...

So this was a ridiculously great week for videos - great enough, even, that G-Dragon released yet another perfectly absurd slice of cartoonish awesomeness , one that would've topped the list either of the past two weeks, and I didn't even list it . I can't lie; it hurts a part of my soul that I've listed a Ben Folds Five video while ignoring a G-Dragon video, but that's the world we're living in this week. There are just too many great ways to waste your time while listening to music and staring at computer screens, and we've [...]

At least one of your Stereogum correspondents is so lame and old that he didn't actually watch last night's VMAs, for like the first time in decades, because he was watching some political convention on some other channel instead. But according to my Twitter feed, the indisputable highlight, unless you're super into One Direction or whatever, came when Frank Ocean sang "Thinkin Bout You," one of the most immediate tracks from Channel Orange . Ocean sat on a stage made to look like a beach bonfire, with only one guitarist accompanying him throughout, and he [...]

Stereogum The perpetual low of getting stuck in Lollapalooza crowds hit rockbottom yesterday, when I found myself packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a crowd of fucked-up festival-heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers fans, and lost teens screaming into cellphones searching for their friends. The sky was growing dark, a massive storm was looming, as thousands and thousands of EDM-lovers inched toward the festival gates all at once. The swarm was growing tighter, closing in, but barely moving, while security staff and police officers yelled at us to evacuate faster. But there [...]

The perpetual low of getting stuck in Lollapalooza crowds hit rockbottom yesterday, when I found myself packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a crowd of fucked-up festival-heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers fans, and lost teens screaming into cellphones searching for their friends. The sky was growing dark, a massive storm was looming, as thousands and thousands of EDM-lovers inched toward the festival gates all at once. The swarm was growing tighter, closing in, but barely moving, while security staff and police officers yelled at us to evacuate faster. But there was seemingly nowhere to go. Was I standing in alt-bro hell? [...]

Though Frank Ocean has performed in New York before, those shows were lesser moments, by design; to date, he's appeared on stage with Odd Future and performed a lone solo show at Bowery Ballroom in November . The Bowery show, to be sure, radiated signs of the talent promised by Nostalgia, Ultra , but it also seemed a little bit like a dress rehearsal; after all, since Ocean was submerged for so many years, he owed it to himself to try to figure out the live performance, and you know, maybe get in some on-stage [...]

Stereogum Though Frank Ocean has performed in New York before, those shows were lesser moments, by design; to date, he's appeared on stage with Odd Future and performed a lone solo show at Bowery Ballroom in November . The Bowery show, to be sure, radiated signs of the talent promised by Nostalgia, Ultra , but it also seemed a little bit like a dress rehearsal; after all, since Ocean was submerged for so many years, he owed it to himself to try to figure out the [...]

After a year of headlines – releasing his Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape for free online, temporarily getting in the bad books of Def Jam executives and releasing a statement on his sexuality – Frank Ocean has at last concocted up a superbly introspective and infectiously dynamic debut. While the soul singer’s viral news on his sexuality could have been seen as a mere publicity stunt, the lyrical merit, the thematic structure and the new-school soul brilliance adds a tasteful sustenance to the album and overlooks all doubt. Channel Orange may well portray [...]

Let's get this out of the way first: Last week, when Frank Ocean wrote plainly and beautifully about a past relationship , one with someone who shared his gender, it was an act of absolute bravery and inspiration, and a watershed moment for a rap universe that has, in this respect at least, inched toward enlightenment more slowly than the rest of the world. Just about everyone acknowledges this. But, in various shady corners of the internet, I've seen speculation that Ocean's coming-out moment came so close to his album-release date for more cynical reasons. And I don't think [...]

Stereogum Let's get this out of the way first: Last week, when Frank Ocean wrote plainly and beautifully about a past relationship , one with someone who shared his gender, it was an act of absolute bravery and inspiration, and a watershed moment for a rap universe that has, in this respect at least, inched toward enlightenment more slowly than the rest of the world. Just about everyone acknowledges this. But, in various shady corners of the internet, I've seen speculation that Ocean's coming-out moment came so [...]

Ever since Jimmy Fallon tweeted about a " big announcement " regarding Frank Ocean's forthcoming Channel Orange earlier today - Ocean is scheduled to perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in a little over an hour - we suspected that we might be hearing the music a little sooner than later. Even with those suspicions, it's still a pretty huge surprise that the entirety of Channel Orange , one of the year's most anticipated releases, hit the web a week early (via i Tunes ). Everyone seemed to [...]

Stereogum Ever since Jimmy Fallon tweeted about a " big announcement " regarding Frank Ocean's forthcoming Channel Orange earlier today - Ocean is scheduled to perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in a little over an hour - we suspected that we might be hearing the music a little sooner than later. Even with those suspicions, it's still a pretty huge surprise that the entirety of Channel Orange , one of the year's most anticipated releases, hit [...]

Stereogum "The best song wasn't the single..." is something of a mantra here, a quotable bit in a week where Frank Ocean has been particularly quotable. The ascendant R&B star turned folk hero follows up this week's well circulated, poetic, brave must-read missive with a cut from his forthcoming LP Channel Orange . It's called "Sweet Life," it is a buttery funk jam for taking pills by pools, and it's a download here: Read More... [...]

In a post on his Tumblr, Frank Ocean, the buttery-genius R&B singer from the Odd Future crew, has essentially come out of the closet, revealing that he's gay or maybe bisexual. He never says anything as plain as "I'm gay," but he does open up, telling a story about falling in love with a man: Read More...

Stereogum In a post on his Tumblr, Frank Ocean, the buttery-genius R&B singer from the Odd Future crew, has essentially come out of the closet, revealing that he's gay or maybe bisexual. He never says anything as plain as "I'm gay," but he does open up, telling a story about falling in love with a man: Read More... [...]