50 Cent Posts New Track, Boasts, Types 'LOL'

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SPIN.com
November 29, 2011
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It's been a second since rapper 50 Cent actually, you know, rapped. The actor, author, and G-Unit leader picks up where he left off on "Stop Crying," the first track to surface from his upcoming Big 10 mixtape (via Illroots). And that's OK.

Fiddy's last album, 2009's Before I Self Destruct, saw him teaming up with then-hot collaborators. While the eerily squiggling synth-rap production here isn't as obviously au courant, it's a logical progression — no more, no less. Fiddy's guttural, menacing boasts, meanwhile, are pretty typical gangsta-rap mixtape fodder. Curtis wisely keeps them out of the way, so you can chant along as he warns us to "get it through your bloodclot head" and not get too distracted each time he lazily rhymes "crying" with "dying" ("no lying"!).

Just in time for the 10-year anniversary of 50 Cent's still-great 2002 mixtape, 50 Cent Is the Future, the new Big 10 mixtape "is gonna be crazy better then most albums this year," he tweeted (via Vulture), adding, "trust me lol."

Sonic Youth's Future Still Unclear

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SPIN.com
November 29, 2011
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The outlook for Sonic Youth's future is no brighter following a fascinating Rolling Stone interview with guitarist Lee Ranaldo. "I'm feeling optimistic about the future no matter what happens at this point," Ranaldo said. Unfortunately, the question was about "the future of the band" — a phrase Ranaldo drops from his answer, which could be telling or could just be a coincidence, but either way doesn't sound entirely optimistic. Especially not for anyone still hoping for a follow-up to 2009's The Eternal, or at least more SY live shows.

Ranaldo went on to say, "I mean, every band runs its course. We've been together way longer than any of us ever imagined would happen and it's been for the most part an incredibly pleasurable ride. There's still a lot of stuff we're going to continue to do. There's tons and tons of archival projects and things like that that are still going on, so there are so many ways in which we are tied to each other for the future both musically and in other ways. I'm just happy right now to let the future take its course and I guess I'm kind of thankful that I've got this other project that kind of came about on its own."

That "other project" is Ranaldo's first proper solo album, Between the Times and the Tides due on March 20, 2012, via Matador. "Over the last couple years Sonic Youth has slowed down markedly, just because we've all been working on our own projects," Ranaldo told Rolling Stone, "and I guess I was just starting to feel a little bit antsy or something." As previously reported, Sonic Youth's lead couple Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon are going their separate ways after 21 years of marriage; Moore released his third solo album, the Beck-produced Demolished Thoughts, earlier this year.

Look at Moore and Gordon's relationship in pictures here, and check out SPIN's examination of their relationship in song here.

The Killers Go Country, Kind Of, for Holiday Single

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SPIN.com
November 29, 2011
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What do you give the band that's done everything, at least when it comes to annual holiday singles? Cowboy hats, of course! Every year around this time, Las Vegas pomp-rockers the Killers release a new single benefiting AIDS-fighting charity RED. And every year, they come up with something suitably grandiose: 2008's collaboration with Elton John and Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant, 2009's Spanish-flavored team-up with Wild Light and Mariachi El Bronx, or last year's It's a Wonderful Life-themed video directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess, to name a few examples.

This year, the Killers have gone country-western — relatively speaking, anyway. They've reunited for a new holiday single that fan communities are alternately calling "Cowboy Christmas" or "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball," with a digital release apparently due on Thursday, according to the blog Arjan Writes. Hear an unofficial stream here, via the Audio Perv.


The Killers' latest effort is a whimsically upbeat, shuffling tune, with plenty of local color (the Truckee River, Carson City, bighorns "a-grazin' "), and enough of a country tinge to have more than a few fans of even the Killers' synthier material itching to don their cowboy boots. Lots of chiming, holiday-friendly instrumentation, too. A drinking song? "Woo!" cries frontman Brandon Flowers, like an old ranch hand, or just a Wild West pop star having a ton of fun. Think of it as "Fairytale of Old Nevada," perhaps. Fa la-la-la-la, and a do-si-do.