Watch She & Him, Das Racist, and Jimmy Cliff Hit Late-Night TV

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SPIN.com
November 29, 2011
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'Twas the season on late-night TV last night, though given that it isn't even December yet, exactly which season isn't entirely clear.

On The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the indie-folk duo She & Him — whose quaintly dulcet music really needs to stop being used to smear the word twee by association — sang a song from new holiday album A Very She & Him Christmas. Both recently single actress-singer Zooey Deschanel and finger-picking guitarist M. Ward were decked out as if for a holiday party, against a very yuletide-appropriate backdrop of Christmas trees and stockings hung by the chimney with care. Their delicate rendition of "The Christmas Waltz" (y'know, the one about "this song of mine, in three-quarter time") won't erase the most famous version, sung by Frank Sinatra. But you already know whether or not you'll want to spin it at your own seasonal gatherings, don't you? (Via the Audio Perv.)

When it came to smart-ass New York hip-hop outfit Das Racist's appearance on Conan, you could be forgiven for thinking it was Halloween again. Joined by additional percussionists, a neat upgrade from their DJ-backed touring sets, the guys performed Relax video selection "Michael Jackson". Though sadly forced to censor the song's signature "I'm fucking great at rapping" boast, DR pulled out plenty of stops in their TV debut: a ridiculous wig, a Nirvana T-shirt, and, of course, a revivified Michael Jackson. Consider the whole thing a late-November treat. Or trick? No, just tricking you guys, it was actually a treat. (Tweeted the group: "Cover of Spin. Conan OBrien tomorrow. No manager. No label. Third World Family. Greedhead Music. OTK. FSS. #QUEENS.")

Meanwhile, over on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, TV watchers might've found themselves thinking of warmer times, or at least warmer climes. Reggae icon Jimmy Cliff was on hand, giving a stirring rendition of his classic "The Harder They Come," backed by recent controversy-generators the Roots. With a backwards baseball cap and unbelievable silver jacket, Cliff still looked — and sounded — like a true Hall of Famer. He also sang inequality-themed jam "World Upside Down," as a Web exclusive — hey, Miley Cyrus, maybe you'll be feeling this one?

Herman Cain's Board Service Emerges as Campaign Issue

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November 28, 2011
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Nabors Industries Sued Over $100M Termination Payment

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November 28, 2011
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Hewlett-Packard Appoints Activist Whitworth to Board

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November 28, 2011
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James Murdoch Leaves a Board; Randy Michaels Recoups on Resignation

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November 28, 2011
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In an iTunes age, do we need the record store?

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Salon
November 20, 2011
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On Wednesday night, hundreds of people passed through the doors of Other Music, one of New York City’s last remaining record stores. Yes, there was free booze. But the young, plugged-in crowd came to celebrate, not necessarily to buy. “The World’s First Perfect Zine,” a new print publication from the author of a well-known blog devoted to reviews of album reviews, was holding a release party. Along with a contribution by the novelist Tao Lin, the zine includes writing by members of the groups Vampire Weekend, Das Racist and jj, among others.

In what could be an intriguing — or depressing — glimpse into the future of record stores, all those extra bodies in the room didn’t necessarily translate into extra business. “There was a remarkably low number of kids who came in there and said, ‘I haven’t seen this, I’ll pick it up,’” observed Other Music co-owner Josh Madell, a day after the event. The zine’s editor, pseudonymous Pitchfork Reviews Reviews blogger David Shapiro, didn’t dispute the point. “Part of the reason was that the store was so packed that browsing for CDs and records wasn’t really physically possible,” he explained, in an email response to questions. “But beyond that, of course, people don’t really buy records that much anymore — especially people in a small, hyper-Internet-savvy subset of young New Yorkers.”

The episode neatly illustrates a fundamental paradox facing record store owners in 2011. Many music fans romanticize the record store as a source of both hard-to-find culture and local community. “It was a library and a clubhouse,” as director Cameron Crowe, one of the ultimate nostalgists, told the authors of the 2009 book “Record Store Days.” At the same time, however, record stores are just that — stores — and ever-fewer consumers are choosing to buy the little pieces of plastic they sell. For record stores overall, then, the outlook appears bleak. “As an institution, it had its function,” said Alexander Weheliye, a professor of English and African-American studies at Northwestern University. But the survivors aren’t going away. They’re simply changing their tune, becoming smaller and more focused. Time will tell whether that’s enough — for some, continued existence may require a whole new arrangement.

“A record store nowadays can’t just sell records. That’s the first step to failure,” said Ben Blackwell, a longtime record collector who handles manufacture and distribution of vinyl at Jack White’s label, Third Man Records. “Record stores need to put on events. They need to host live shows. They need to do listening parties. You have to have an active way with which to communicate to your buyers. You need a mailing list, you need a Twitter account, you need Facebook pages. All this stuff that wasn’t around 10 years ago when record stores were seemingly doing fine is what you need to employ to stay in the race.” But what happens when, like at Other Music, even cool events aren’t enough?

Hear Adele's Full 'Live at the Royal Albert Hall'

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SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
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How good was Adele's 2011? So good the British singer-songwriter gets an Andre 3000 shout-out on one of the year's biggest hip-hop releases, Drake's Take Care. On Tuesday, Adele caps off her remarkable run with the release of concert CD/DVD Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Hear the whole thing below (via The Guardian).

Adele's sophomore album, 21, has been the year's biggest seller by far, with more than 4 million copies snatched up in the United States alone. Throat problems requiring laser surgery on the 23-year-old soul belter's golden vocal cords have sadly prevented U.S. fans from seeing Adele perform her sleeper smash on tour, so this stark, emotion-packed set is the closest most of us will get for a while. Tear-jerking No. 1 single "Someone Like You"? It's here. Brutal blues-pop kiss-off "Rolling in the Deep"? Of course. A cover of Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me"? Pure gravy.

OK, sure, the stream below is audio only. But given this strong singer's unadorned, all-about-the-music approach — the contrast between her and the gaudier pop stars at MTV's Video Music Awards this summer could hardly have been starker — we're clearly getting the part she wants us to focus on, anyway. Love hurts:

Fugazi Ready Massive Online Live Archive

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SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
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Fugazi's obsessive focus is the stuff of do-it-yourself music legend. Led by Dischord Records founder Ian MacKaye, formerly of hugely influential Washington, D.C., hardcore band Minor Threat, the taut, dub-inflected post-punk outfit kept its admission prices low — and, somewhat more controversially, its crowds safe for those who'd prefer not to mosh — from 1987 until an indefinite hiatus that began at the end of 2002. A similar compulsive drive, it turns out, led the band to amass a cache of its own live shows on a scale more typical of jam bands like the Grateful Dead or Phish.

On Thursday, Dischord will put online the first batch from a hoard of more than 800 live Fugazi performances the band taped over the years, the New York Times reports, picking up on a story that was first reported in April. "As with a lot of collections, once we had a couple hundred tapes, we just continued to amass them," MacKaye is quoted as saying about the Fugazi Live Series. "Why stop? We'd already gotten this far."

The same question could be asked of Fugazi, who released their last album together, The Argument, way back in 2001. In a recent interview with the Onion's A.V. Club, Fugazi bass player Joe Lally hinted at a possible reunion, calling the band's swan song "a great record that we should try and top." We wait (and wait and wait)...

Don't jet without reading Andrew Beaujon's incredible history of Dischord Records from SPIN's May 2003 issue, "Out of Step With the World":

Watch Florence Cover Drake, the Weeknd's First Video, and Beyonce's 'Dance for You'

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SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
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Televised performances by Nickelback, Enrique Iglesias (featuring Pitbull), and Lady Gaga weren't the only offerings over the long Turkey Day weekend. Thanks to the glory of the internet, music listeners could also check out options as varied as Florence and the Machine covering Drake, the first officially official video from the Weeknd, and another fresh clip from Beyoncé.

"This is pretty exciting, 'cause it's sung by one of my fave — well, two of my favorite art... — well, three, actually," laughed Florence Welch, introducing Florence and the Machine's rendition of the title track from Drake's second LP Take Care. "Three of my absolute favorite artists." Make that four: In addition to vocals by Drake and guest singer Rihanna, the original track also features the xx maestro Jamie xx's remix of "I'll Take Care of You" by (wait for it) Gil Scott Heron. Welch's performance is wonderfully intense, if without quite the wrinkled idiosyncrasies of Drake or the blank mystery of Rihanna. Her backing of strings, piano, and atmospheric guitars neatly approximates the album track's moody grandeur for the BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge setting (via Disco Naivete).

The high-concept sci-fi footage for the Weeknd's "The Knowing," from this year's marvelous House of Balloons mixtape, isn't the first professional-looking video to pop up from the self-consciously shadowy Canadian R&B phantom/phenom; nicely polished clips have also emerged for the same mixtape's "What You Need" (since removed from YouTube) and follow-up Thursday "The Birds (Part 1)." It is, however, the first to be truly official, and it's appropriately vast, involving time-traveling and, well, see for yourself. French filmmaker Mikael Colombu, whose previous work includes visuals for Cee Lo Green, Janelle Monáe, and Bilal, offers up a sumptuously weird look for a sumptuously weird slow jam (via Pitchfork).

"Dance for You," from the deluxe edition of Beyoncé's 4, is a sort of strip-club jam set, as with the rest of the album, in the context of a triumphantly monogamous relationship. Though the bluesy guitar and smoky organ wouldn't be out of place on a track by the Weeknd, it's not exactly worth plunking down another 32 bucks for. The video follows pretty literally from the song's theme, with Mrs. Jay-Z grinding sensuously in a superfluous film-noir setting; "Wanna show you how much you got your girl feelin' good," she purrs. The private detective appears to approve. (via Consequence of Sound)

Courtney Love to Simon Cowell: 'Want Some Nirvana Songs?'

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SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
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A campaign is underway pitting Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" against whoever wins The X Factor for Britain's coveted "Christmas No. 1" single. But what if U.K. music fans didn't have to choose? That seemingly far-fetched idea moved one step closer to the realm of the somewhat-plausible on November 24, when Courtney Love offered up a Nirvana song to the U.K. TV talent show.

In a tweet to The X Factor producer Simon Cowell, the Hole frontwoman appeared to suggest her late husband Kurt Cobain's songs as material for Janet Devlin, a contestant on the show. Love wrote: "@SimonCowell you want some Nirvana songs? @JanetJealousy is from same town as Kurt? I have the perfect idea for that, call me babe." (Cobain's ancestry traces back to a village in Ireland near Devlin's hometown, according to Digitalspy.co.uk.)

Don't hold your breath. London tabloid The Sun reports that The X Factor's producers were "stunned" by Love's offer, given not only the usual difficulty of clearing songs for the show but also Love's notoriously tight rein over Nirvana's songs, which she has controlled since Cobain's tragic 1994 suicide. And Love doesn't look to be letting The X Factor pick and choose from Nirvana's hits: In a tweet on November 26, she singled out Nevermind's "In Bloom," a song that could be interpreted as taking aim at casual listeners such as those in a TV show audience. She wrote: "@JanetJealousy @simoncowell i know it when i see it, but id want to have a hand in it, in bloom is the song, nothing else."

The Twitter exchange comes after a pair of recent Love rants involving her Nirvana income. After lambasting former Nirvana drummer (and current Foo Fighters frontman) Dave Grohl during a Hole set earlier this month in Brazil, she doubled down during a post-show interview: "I own Nirvana with my daughter [Frances Bean]. Because of tax reasons I have to give that money to my sister, Kim Cobain, and [Kurt's mother] Wendy Cobain. Dave makes five million a show ... why the fuck, then, does he have a Nirvana Inc. credit card and I don't?" Hey, Simon Cowell seems like a pretty successful music businessman — maybe she should ask him? Before something like this happens again.

Busta Rhymes Extends Rebound on Kendrick Lamar's 'Rigamortus' Remix

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SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
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Woo hah! Busta Rhymes has got 2011 pretty much in check. Two decades after his debut album with former group Leaders of the New School, and a decade removed from his most recent platinum-selling album (2001's Genesis), the fast-talking rapper has had a remarkable year. Busta's lyrically nimble guest appearance alongside Lil Wayne on Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now" helped make for one of 2011's most ubiquitous — and undeniable — radio hits. Busta's new Cash Money deal, revealed last week at the launch of Google Music, puts him in a position to benefit from the success of younger labelmates like Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Drake.

Now to cap off Busta's big year comes a long-teased remix of a track by one of the rap world's most gifted up-and-comers, current SPIN story subject Kendrick Lamar (via Fader). On the smoothly jazz-boho "Rigamortis (Remix)," originally from Lamar's excellent 2011 album Section.80, outsider and veteran pile up verses that are deft and tongue-twisting, but never virtuosic merely for the sake of virtuosity. "I'm spittin'," rasps Busta, "you should be happy." Amen.

A Short History of Big Boi's Kate Bush Obsession

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SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
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Big Boi's recent praise for Kate Bush's new album 50 Words for Snow has been making the rounds lately, and with good reason. "The album, to me, is just very somber and very chill," the OutKast MC memorably told Rolling Stone. "Knowing her music and being a fan, it's very, very deep Kate Bush for me. It's concentrated. It's raw emotion. It's almost like a scene from her diary — she seems to be in love like a motherfucker. Really, really, really in love."

Still, Antwan "Big Boi" Patton's deep feeling for Bush's music shouldn't come as a surprise. As Rolling Stone notes, the rapper has been a fan of the idiosyncratic British singer-songwriter since his uncle turned him on to her records when Big Boi was only in middle school. In fact, Daddy Sax's ongoing admiration for the singer behind such classic songs as "Hounds of Love" and "Running Up That Hill" is well documented. Below, some examples from the past:

• Deeper Than the Page of a Book, Let Me Look: In the March 2001 issue of SPIN, Big Boi said, "Kate Bush — I go deep into her music."
• Back in the Day When I Was Younger, Hunger: According to 2004 book Hey Ya! The Unauthorized Biography of OutKast, Big Boi said that after his uncle introduced him to Bush's music, it affected him so much he couldn't put it into words, so, "I'd sit and think and play her records for hours."
• Girl, I Hardly Know You, But You've Got Your Very Own Ringtone: In 2004, London's Observer Music Monthly reported that Big Boi's ringtone was "Babooshka," from Bush's 1980 album Never for Ever. "Kate Bush is my favorite artist of all time," he's quoted as saying.
• Tryna Find You, Where Are You Now: In July 2010, Big Boi told the British GQ about his efforts to get in touch with Bush: "I've been trying for some years now. She's like a kinda recluse. She lives somewhere in a castle around here and plays some sort of oversized piano like the Phantom of the Opera! You can hear music come out the windows! I'm looking for her, know what I'm saying? That's my dream collaboration for sure."
• Do You Wanna Bump and Slump With Us: Also in July 2010, asked with whom he would like to collaborate, Big Boi told British magazine Flavour: "Kate Bush. I've been trying to get Kate Bush for the last seven years and now I'm come over here to camp out for a month just to find her. Kate Bush is definitely my dream U.K. collaboration."
• Sweeter Than a Plate of Yams With Extra Syrup: Around the same time, Big Boi reportedly elaborated to Britain's Live From Studio Five TV show: "I want to work with Kate Bush... That's, like, my dream collaboration, most definitely. Just the realness of her music, the stories behind the songs as well as the production, how things kind of evolve as the song progresses ... She's a very creative artist, producer and writer. She's like my top favorite next to Bob Marley ... Kate Bush is number one on the list."
• Old School Players to New School Fools: In September 2010, Boi told the Los Angeles Times about his uncle hipping him to Bush's music: "[She] became my favorite artist of all time. Her and Bob Marley would tie for first. I used to listen to 'The Kick Inside' and 'Wuthering Heights' and 'This Woman's Work' and just admiring the style of music she was making, from the production side of it to the lyrics … It was kind of mind-blowing. I was like OK, I wanted to be like her."

Lady Gaga Is Totally Feeling the Holiday Spirit

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SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
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It's a Thanksgiving miracle. Lady Gaga is ringing in the holiday season in particularly grand fashion, from the world of luxury retail to network TV to products that people too poor for couture can also buy. Ah, what a truly magical season to be an iconic brand!

The pop star has just opened Gaga's Workshop, a colorful, high-concept display taking up an entire floor of luxury retailer Barneys New York. Admirably, 25 percent of sales from this exhibition will go toward her anti-bullying charity, the Born This Way Foundation. Then again, this also means people who can afford the high-end prices will able to stop worrying about those dirty Occupy Wall Street hippies and once again go to sleep feeling good about themselves — so in other words, Gaga saved Christmas.

As for the 99 percent, we can enjoy our holiday dose of the Mother Monster, too. Any fans still hankering for more music after Nickelback's scheduled NFL halftime show can gorge themselves on a good old-fashioned Thanksgiving TV special. A Very Gaga Thanksgiving airs Thursday night on ABC, and it's directed by Gaga herself. For an extra-magical burst of corporate synergy, you can watch ABC's Good Morning America interview with the singer: "This is a real Christmas moment for me, because this is my first custom Chanel," she explains, obviously quoting Tiny Tim's famous speech from A Christmas Carol.

If you're wondering when you'll be able to buy the music from this special, well, you're also in luck! Gaga has packed four songs from the show into an EP titled A Very Gaga Holiday, available on iTunes now and elsewhere starting on Saturday. Check out Gaga's jazzy rendition of "White Christmas" below, featuring a random extra verse about a snowman, and be sure to avoid any unpleasant mental comparisons with A Charlie Brown Christmas:

New Nicki Minaj Album 'Roman Reloaded' Due February 14

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SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
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Nicki Minaj is welcoming her nasty Roman Zolanski alter ego for another record, and the official release date is just around the corner. In a tweet on Tuesday, the Harajuku Barbie herself said, "Pink Friday : ROMAN RELOADED will be released on Valentines Day, 2012. Heeeee's baaaacccckkkkk." That might appear to suggest an expanded deluxe edition rather than a proper sophomore LP, but the February 14, 2012 target lines up neatly with Cash Money boss Birdman's just-revealed plans for a follow-up album "in the first quarter" of next year. Besides, the original Pink Friday already has a deluxe edition: That's where fans could first hear radio smash "Super Bass" (watch the video again below). So, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, in time for your romantic Valentine's Day evening — it's just too bad "Roman's Revenge" was already taken.

Update: Minaj confirmed the album is all new with a tweet reading, " 'Pink Friday: ROMAN RELAODED' | Valentines Day| 2012 | Not a Re-Release | ALL new tracks | YMCMB | *salutes the nation*."