With one week to go before the Grammys (at which Justin Vernon may win some big awards, but will not perform, thankyouverymuch ) Bon Iver hit Studio 8H as musical guests for SNL 's Channing Tatum-hosted episode. The band played "Holocene" and my favorite song of last year "Beth/Rest," plus Colin Stetson wore a Liturgy shirt. During Weekend Update, Kristen Wiig impersonated Lana Del Rey, cleverly "apologizing" for her maligned SNL performance last month. Watch Bon Iver and the Update segment below. Read More...
Lana Del Rey does not really need to release an album. Due to the warp speed of the internet she’s had a whole career in a matter of months but it seems that we have already tired of her before Born to Die has actually been heard in full. All this, after two songs: the award nods, the front covers, the broadsheet articles, the endless debate. At least Gaga got to release an actual album before the heavy weight Feminist theorists came a-knockin’... To release an album into this sniping territory is [...]
To put all the waves upon waves of Lana Del Rey backlashes and frontlashes into proper perspective, let's all try a thought experiment: Imagine what might've happened if Fiona Apple, the closest cultural antecedent for LDR's first few singles, had emerged in the blanket-coverage internet age. Superficially, they're ridiculously similar. Both of them land a little too closely to the standards of beauty of their day. (Not to make light of eating disorders, but excessive skinniness was the '90s equivalent to lip injections.) Both are unsteady live presences; remember the noise surrounding Apple's Roseland meltdown? And both made [...]
Damon Albarn, a man who has some experience making music with cartoon characters, has become the latest in a long line of artists who have tried their hand at remixing Lana Del Rey. Like Clams Casino and Woodkid before him, Albarn has put together a version of LDR's " Born To Die ," and his version is bass-heavy and six and a half minutes long. Give it a listen below. Read More...
Lana Del Rey's tidal wave of international buzz (see gallery above) has gotten even taller lately as the release of her insanely anticipated (for better or worse) Born To Die approaches. In just the ten days since we checked in with her latest leaks , the controversial singer signed with a modeling agency, nabbed a BRIT Award nomination, released "Born To Die" for free on iTunes , and lined up appearances on Letterman and Ellen . And while this week she responds to those pesky questions of authenticity in a [...]
Back in the day, when two artists didn't like each other, they'd deal with it in relatively low-profile ways: A snippy backstage comment, or a pointed interview comment. Maybe they'd toss in a lyrical jab, the way Lynyrd Skynyrd did toward Neil Young on "Sweet Home Alabama," but that would be just about it. That's all changed. If, say, the Kurt Cobain/Axl Rose VMA-backstage kerfuffle had happened today, the resounding Twitterpocalypse would have the over-capacity whale showing up for three solid days whenever you tried to reload the site. And every time an artist is even vaguely annoyed at something [...]
The next stop on the Gummys express is Your Top 20 Indie Rock Crushes Of 2011; ten females, ten males, one Gosling. Hit the gallery to check out the winners of this award, truly the people's champions when it comes to crushes. Just outside the fray: EMA and Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner for the ladies, Fleet Foxes' Robin Pecknold, Noah Lennox and Kurt Vile for the fellas. And for the person that voted for '3112 in every single category, we'll relay the (paraphrased) wisdom of an old sage as advice; "Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. [...]
Born To Die 's latest track reveal comes in the form of "Off To The Races," which we first posted in a live incarnation last month . Today LDR's studio version of the track became iTunes UK's Free Single Of The Week. The retailer describes it as "ripped from a pulp novel's pages, describing an impossibly strained relationship flooded with cocktails, tears and regret. The shell casing protecting the combustible mixture is Del Rey's resolve, strengthened by a background of synthetic strings and dark beats." Take a listen below. Read More...
This time of year, things in the musicverse tend to slow way down, and not too many people unveil their music videos. But in the past week, a few of them did anyway. Here are five of those: Read More...
It's here! When LDR first mentioned that the video for " Born To Die " featured a tiger in its cast, she was actually being modest. The clip actually has two tigers, as well as a cathedral, a slo-mo flaming-wreckage shot, and a ton of makeout scenes with the Tommy Lee-looking guy from the topless flag-fluttering video. Watch a lo-def embed from a sketchy Russian site right here . Born To Die is out 1/31 on Interscope .
Having already revealed Your Top 10 Tracks and Your Top 10 Music Videos , next box to be punched on the Gummys ' advent calendar is the Top 10 New Acts Of 2011 category, and, unlike the Grammys, Stereogum's readers did a nice job of representing 20112s singular breakout artists. And, based on post count, we were pleasantly surprised with who ended up on top. Check out the results after the jump. Read More...
Today we begin rolling out the results of this year's Gummy Awards : The only set of lists which are perfectly impervious to comment section backlash as they are voted upon by you, the esteemed Shut Up, Dude / Monsters' Ball electorate. Up first is 20112s Top 10 Tracks. The results may shock you! And they may not! It depends on how you voted, really. In any event, the ten-track spread fairly reflects the guitar/pop/rap/Del Rey year we had. Here we go: Read More...
Set to be one of the most talked about artists in the annual scrabble to predict the next big thing (expect to see her near the top of the BBC Sound of 2012 poll), Lana Del Rey releases her debut album Born To Die on January 28th, with the title track emerging as a single the week before. The track, plus a video of sorts, has appeared online and we think it sounds pretty good. If you liked 'Video Games' there is more to love here and maybe, just maybe, she looks set to override the [...]
Wherever it is you fall on the LDR internet-sympathy spectrum - be it "with great cosmetic enhancement comes great responsibility," or Chris Crocker-styled LEAVE LANA ALONE, or its comment-section counterpart LEAVE ME ALONE, LANA - we can all stipulate that Lizzy Wright is enjoying the shit out of all this. Case in point: this "Official Audio" video for the (quite good) LP title track in which she is topless and embracing a tattooed dude in front of a rippling American flag, which is itself a placeholder for the real video that stars an actual tiger [...]
Lana Del Rey kicked off her UK tour at Manchester's Ruby Lounge earlier tonight and finally via the magic of YouTube we get to hear her sing a new tune that's not "Video Games" or "Blue Jeans" (though she played those too). "Off To The Races" was the final song of the short set. The much discussed " Next Big Thing " and Wonderland cover girl is currently prepping a full length for release on Interscope next year. Take a look/listen to the new song (and those other two) below. [...]
Last week, internet fight-starter Lana Del Rey performed on the British TV show Later With Jools Holland . And Girls frontman Christopher Owens, another songwriter who translates classic 20th-century American-pop sounds through his own drugged-up and idiosyncratic vision, wasn't too happy about it. As Pitchfork points out , Owens posted this on Twitter: "I've been asking to play on Jools Holland for years to no avail & now that fool invites Lana Del Rey instead. Yo, you fucked up Jools." But hold on! Before we throw Owens into the teeming mass of [...]
Hey, something else to fight about! Lana Del Rey, the internet's most divisive artist, showed up on the last episode of the British show Later With Jools Holland to sing " Video Games ." With a pianist and a string section backing her up, LDR actually looked nervous in public for the first time since she stopped being Lizzy Grant. Watch it below. Read More...
For a young woman at the centre of an Internet storm, Lana Del Rey (aka Lizzy Grant) seems to have remarkable composure. Certainly not many of us would be able to keep as cool a head if confronted with a few months that have seen her gone from feted to despised (read Jim Carroll's excellent take on the subject here ) as those who at first championed her turned when they discovered she was not quite as new an artist as they believed her to be. The initial attention, however, came thanks to her brilliant 'Video Games' [...]
Last year, right around the time summer turned to fall, we at Stereogum published our list of the 40 best new bands of the year . The idea of a "new" band is a pretty nebulous one, since many of the kids we listed were probably planning out their musical ventures in their basements since they were 11, but these were all artists who started to make a dent in our collective consciousness last year. This year, we've got another crop of 40 new artists who deserve your attention. So here we go again. A few clarifications [...]
Stereogum
State Magazine
Download: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Can’t Hold Us (Major Lazer Remix)
Who is BANKS?
Edwarde Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros // Better Days [Download]
Cantanti famosi apparsi nei Simpson: da Lady Gaga agli U2
