Marc Hogan

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

2011-12-01T14:52:00.000-06:00

News Article
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

2011-12-01T14:50:00.000-06:00

News Article
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

2011-12-01T14:49:00.000-06:00

News Article
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.

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

2011-11-29T15:49:00.000-06:00

News Article
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

2011-11-28T14:19:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-28T14:18:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-28T14:18:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-28T14:17:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-28T13:51:00.005-06:00

Feature
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?

Of course, the demise of the American record store is a sad song that has become all too familiar. O.G. stalwart Tower Records closed in 2006, follow by another big chain, Virgin Megastore, in 2009. Over the past eight years, at least 3,700 stores that sell recorded music have shut their doors, leaving about 12,400 across the country, according to market research firm Almighty Music Marketing — and that number includes big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target. In the first half of this year, even as overall album sales rose for the first time since 2004, physical album sales continued to decline, a recent Nielsen SoundScan report shows. The music industry’s collapse, the rise of illegal file-sharing along with legal digital downloads, and the ongoing economic slowdown have each played their part.

The digital space, in particular, is one where brick-and-mortar stores probably don’t stand much of a chance. New services such as Google Music and Spotify keep springing up all the time, adding to the competition from old foes like Amazon’s MP3 — which often sells new albums for as little as $3.99 — and Apple’s iTunes. Mega-selling artists such as Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Jay-Z are striking exclusive deals with digital stores like Amazon and iTunes, leaving physical retailers out in the cold. While Other Music, for one, sells digital downloads, results elsewhere aren’t encouraging: The Coalition of Independent Music Stores, a 29-member consortium representing 59 U.S. locations, recently shut down its Think Indie digital store after less than two years, citing lack of business.

Still, all isn’t lost. Independent record store closures have been on the decline since 2008, according to Almighty. Amoeba Records, a three-location California independent record store chain that celebrated its 20th anniversary about a year ago, was founded as a “comprehensive, one-stop music destination for everybody,” co-owner Marc Weinstein has said. But that’s an exception. More often, today’s best record stores are carefully curated, niche-oriented establishments, selling new and used vinyl to a specialized market — which tends to be found in critical mass near large cities or universities.

One example is Grimey’s, an independent record store in Nashville, Tenn. Since opening in 1999, the Music City retailer has seen its sales rise every year except 2008, co-owner Doyle Davis says. Grimey’s offers a carefully selected inventory of records in a town known for supporting music, and it makes an effort to be involved in the community. In-store performances at Grimey’s have ranged from recent breakthrough bands like Phoenix and the Black Keys to heavy rock superstars Metallica. The store also does ticket giveaways and donates gift certificates to local causes. What it doesn’t do is sell much other than music, Doyle says, calling the store “fairly purist.”

The much-heralded resurgence of interest in vinyl records has been a boon to independent record stores, including Grimey’s. Vinyl album sales rose 41 percent in the first six months of 2011 alone, after increasing 14.2 percent throughout 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. Vince Sluzarz, owner of the Cleveland vinyl-pressing plant Gotta Groove Records, recently told the New York Times Magazine that SoundScan figures only account for roughly 15 percent of vinyl sales; when you factor in the many small-scale releases distributed without a bar code, though, it’s unclear how to verify such claims.

Record Store Day, an event founded in 2007 and now taking place at more than 700 independent record stores across the country, certainly hasn’t hurt, drawing customers in with exclusive, limited-edition vinyl releases. Stores celebrate Record Store Day on the third Saturday in April, but this year organizers are holding an additional event on the day after Thanksgiving — Black Friday — with another set of exclusive titles. “A lot of people look at it as a traffic driver,” Doyle says of Record Store Day. “I look at it as a way to increase sales. We had our best day ever this past Record Store Day, by 72 percent over the previous best day we’d ever had. And people camped out!”

So against all odds, is there reason for optimism? Hopeful music lovers do keep opening stores. Excluding mass merchants like Wal-Mart and Target, the number of record store openings has increased each of the past three years, including 62 new independent record stores so far this year, according to Almighty. After Louisville, Ky., indie ear X-tacy closed this fall, Matador Records — the label that’s home to Pavement, Yo La Tengo and the New Pornographers — pointed out in a blog post that the death of the record store has been exaggerated, and used Steady Sounds, in Richmond, Va.; Cyklopx, in Forest Park, Ill.; All Day Records, in Carrboro, N.C.; Co Op 87, in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Saki, in Chicago as examples.

Some existing stores are actually expanding. In Austin, Texas, End of an Ear recently added an 180-square-foot space next-door, co-owner Dan Plunkett said. In Oklahoma City, Guestroom Records is in the midst of opening a third store, located on the ground floor of a music school. In an email, co-owners Travis Searle and Justin Sowers pointed to their independently released offerings: “You’re not going to find many Best Buys that have big Tune-Yards, Dum Dum Girls or Oh Sees displays,” they wrote. Chicago’s Permanent Records recently opened up a second location in Los Angeles.

Permanent moved to the West Coast because co-owners Lance Barresi and Liz Tooley wanted warmer weather, Barresi said. Another believer in curated, smaller-scale stores, he warned that the snobbish attitude immortalized in the movie “High Fidelity” no longer cuts it. But he also acknowledged that owning a record store isn’t exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. “You’re hand-selling unique items to a unique set of people, and that’s the beauty of it,” he explained. “And you’re working for yourself. That’s the extent of the benefits. I don’t have health insurance. I am not high on the income total.”

What’s more, nobody can say for sure how long vinyl sales will continue to increase. And they still represent only a tiny fraction of the overall music market — 1.2 percent of physical album sales last year, according to SoundScan. Athens, Ga., music store Wuxtry, where Michael Stipe famously met his now-former R.E.M. bandmate Peter Buck, has survived — even though another local store, Schoolkids, recently closed. Two new record shops, however, quickly sprung up in its place. Mike Turner, a Wuxtry store manager, said the trick for a record store to survive is knowing its community, noting that sales in recent years keep looking up. But he also raised an interesting question: What if college kids stop thinking it’s cool to buy vinyl — or “vinyls,” as they often put it? “That’s the one scary thing, because vinyl is such a huge help in keeping stores going,” Turner observed.

Whatever happens with vinyl sales in the long term, record stores can probably safely bet on the cult of diehard record collectors for whom an album is a fetish object as much as a source of music. Indie labels, in fact, are already targeting this audience with various deluxe vinyl editions. As one example, the band Okkervil River made its 2011 album “I Am Very Far” as a special box set, encased in wood and accompanied by an individually signed letter from singer-songwriter Will Sheff. “In the age of everybody aiming their music down to the lowest common denominator, record stores can serve as a beacon of audiophilia, and a beacon of beautiful artwork,” Sheff said on the phone from Paris, where Okkervil River recently played a gig. “People who care about music are willing to pay more.”

To be sure, not all record stores that have closed in recent years have done so because they couldn’t afford to stay open. In some cases, store owners just looked at whether or not to renew their lease and decided it was time. That said, the abrupt closure late last month of Louisville, Ky., institution ear X-tacy comes as a bad omen. Honored as one of the best independent record stores across the country by Rolling Stone, SPIN and GQ, owner John Timmons’ store appeared to be doing so many things right, offering plenty of in-stores and a vast vinyl selection in a city that prides itself on being local and weird. The ear X-tacy closing took place just as Criminal Records in Atlanta — another top-15 store nationally — said it might also be forced to close.

Singer-songwriter Jim James of the Louisville band My Morning Jacket, a former clerk at ear X-tacy, posted an eloquent eulogy for the store on his group’s site. More recently, in an email interview, he expressed hope for a new, more community-based store that might sell coffee, jeans, an old stereo or a vintage guitar as well as vinyl — stores that create a need for people to come out and visit them. “The mp3 has done a fantastic job of killing the traditional idea of what a record store used to be … ” he said, with his capitalization and punctuation intact. “but as the cliche goes, and when you think about this subject in broader terms, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger … and i think in a bigger sense we are going to see a new generation of locally based stores and communities pop up in the real world that are stronger and better than ever. it’s just going to take some time.”

James might have been thinking of a store in nearby Lexington, Ky., called Pops Resale, which targets a single demographic with multiple categories of products. According to owner Dan “Pop” Schorr, vinyl is the store’s best-selling department and takes up about half of its 600-square-foot space. Its next-seller is vintage clothing, followed by vintage video games and systems; the store also sells old-school audio gear, vintage toys and other items. “I still have a hard time understanding in smaller cities how some record stores that are just record stores continue to do it,” Schorr said. “What we’ve tried to do is find niches that nobody else bothers with.”

Plenty of record stores carry audio equipment, but according to singer-songwriter John Vanderslice, they could be selling more. There are certainly downsides, ranging from handling returns to dealing with a new set of suppliers, but Vanderslice sees the products as a natural fit, like pipes at a medical marijuana dispensary. “If I were to open a record store, it would be vinyl-only, and it would be paired up with a very cool and working-class-priced audio equipment store, where you’re selling all-in-one devices,” he said. “If I’m intimidated walking into a stereo store, and I own like $700,000 worth of audio equipment, then there’s something wrong with the culture of audio equipment — if it’s paired up with a record, then all of the sudden it’s everyday shit.” Another advantage: The specifics of buying a turntable — determining whether it has the right connections, and so on — makes it one of the few purchases that’s still more easily conducted in person.

Stores with a strong reputation and the right set of circumstances can expand into still other potential revenue sources. Other Music also does music supervision types of work for various brands or businesses, and the store has generated money and publicity by holding live events at the SXSW music conference in Austin the past several years, according to Madell, the co-owner. Still, while those projects came about as a result of running a record store, doing them doesn’t exactly require paying rent on a record store. “It’s hard to envision a turnaround in the way the industry is going that would be in our favor,” he acknowledged.

Shapiro, “The World’s First Perfect Zine” editor, aptly summed up the conundrum. “The way I feel about patronizing record stores,” he wrote in an email, “is probably the way everyone feels about things they know they should be doing but don’t actually do enough: heading to Occupy Wall Street after work, doing the pile of dishes in the sink and sparing their roommates, leftists not shopping at liberal-seeming megachains (Urban Outfitters, Whole Foods) whose owners hold beliefs and donate money to politicians that are inimical to leftism. I’m glad there are people who do these things, and if I had the constitution to do what I believed in 100 percent of the time I would buy all of my music at record stores, but alas … ” Unfortunately for record-store enthusiasts, it’s not a perfect world.

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

2011-11-28T13:44:00.000-06:00

News Article
SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
Link

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

2011-11-28T13:42:00.000-06:00

News Article
SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
Link

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'

2011-11-28T13:23:00.001-06:00

News Article
SPIN.com
November 28, 2011
Link

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?'

2011-11-28T13:07:00.003-06:00

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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

2011-11-23T14:05:00.000-06:00

News Article
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

2011-11-23T14:04:00.001-06:00

News Article
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

2011-11-23T14:03:00.000-06:00

News Article
SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
Link

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

2011-11-23T14:02:00.002-06:00

News Article
SPIN.com
November 23, 2011
Link

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*."

Why I can’t hate Coldplay anymore

2011-10-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

Feature
Salon
October 23, 2011
Link

This past June, in front of tens of thousands of fans at Britain’s annual Glastonbury Festival, Chris Martin balked. About halfway into a new song titled “Us Against the World,” the Coldplay frontman abruptly stopped singing or playing his guitar. “Will, can you do that verse again?” he asked drummer Will Champion with a broad grin. “I fucked that one up … We’re supposed to be professional headliners.” Luckily, they’re supposed to be the sort of professional headliners who also connect with listeners on a human level. They finished the song.

Five albums in, the British band has found an uncanny equilibrium between swooping, arena-ready pop and cheesy, down-to-earth humility. “Mylo Xyloto,” which arrives Tuesday, is the most sonically expansive record yet by Martin, Champion, guitarist Jonny Buckland and bass player Guy Berryman. But it’s also their most focused, without the overblown “anthems for anthems’ sake” of 2005′s “X&Y,” or the inarticulate self-importance of 2008′s “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends,” their first collaboration with Brian Eno (the ambient musician who magicked U2 to multi-platinum status). If Coldplay specialize in creating the illusion of intimacy on an arena scale, then their latest effort succeeds by being bigger and smaller at the same time. Familiarity has bred admiration, however grudging.

Love them or loathe them, Coldplay are indisputably one of the biggest rock bands in the world. They’ve won seven Grammy Awards. “Viva La Vida” was the best-selling 2008 album on the planet. “Paradise” and “Every Teardrop a Waterfall,” the first two singles from “Mylo Xyloto,” had already sold more than a million downloads as of an Oct. 13 profile in the New York Times. “They’ve found a way, identity-wise, to be from everywhere,” John Mayer told SPIN in 2004, “whereas most bands come to America with ‘British’ written all over them.” Glastonbury wasn’t exactly Coldplay’s only festival headlining gig this year. Lollapalooza in Chicago? Fuji Rocks in Japan? Splendour in the Grass in Australia? These guys topped bills everywhere.

Of course, Coldplay’s hugeness goes way beyond records and shows. Martin is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The two have been asked to be godparents to Beyonce and Jay-Z’s unborn child. Dutch filmmaker Anton Corbijn, whose resumes includes music videos for U2′s “One” and Nirvana’s “Heart Shaped Box,” along with such movies as “The American” and “Control,” will direct a live Web broadcast of Coldplay’s live concert performance in Madrid on Wednesday. Willie Nelson covered the band’s 2002 “The Scientist” for a Chipotle charity ad. As of this month, their songs are even available for the video game franchise Rock Band.

Success attracts haters. In 2005, New York Times pop music critic Jon Pareles called Coldplay “the most insufferable band of the decade.” U2′s Bono has called Martin a “wanker” and a “cretin”; he later apologized. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke once dismissed Coldplay as “lifestyle music.” More recently, Portishead’s Geoff Barrow has said his least favorite thing about playing European festivals is going on next to Coldplay, “with their water cannons or fucking fireworks or whatever the fuck it is. Come on.” German electronic musician Apparat has said of anyone who compares his new album to Coldplay, “I think they should fuck off.” Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo once choked on kale salad laughing at the band’s expense. Joe Satriani, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, and an American band called Creaky Boards have all accused them of plagiarism.

Coldplay disarm their critics with self-deprecation. Martin praised Bono, saying U2 are in “a way different league.” A virgin until age 22, he knew what he was saying when called his feelings toward Radiohead “like unrequited love.” On “The Colbert Report,” Martin joked that the “million” in their more than 50 million total albums sold is a typo (discussing the U2 dispute, his voice cracked like a schoolboy’s). More than once in recent interviews, Martin has told a story about not being recognized by a taxi driver who was telling him that the guy from Coldplay lived in his neighborhood. “We know our lyrics are a bit shit,” Martin has said.

Paltrow, with whom Martin has two children, is the biggest indication of Coldplay’s rock-star status, but the band doesn’t flaunt her role, either. Martin effectively bans questions about his wife from interviews, though he has also compared marrying her to “winning the lottery.” Paltrow not long ago tweeted, “Who do I have to bang around here to get an advance copy of the Coldplay album?” She has expressed sympathy for Martin’s situation, though, saying: “He makes music for his fans, and he doesn’t want people to conjure a lame famous couple when they’re getting into his music. I get it.” Sheesh, can’t a guy even be resentful of rockers who marry movie stars anymore?

To be sure, Coldplay’s exaggerated modesty isn’t always appealing. The New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones once called Martin’s apologies “increasingly suspect.” A Salon writer previously likened Martin to former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and in fact the entire British upper class, which apparently adopts a self-effacing tone as a way of “slumming it.” Of course, there’s such a thing as false humility. Good luck distinguishing brilliant acting from sincere expression, though.

Either way, Coldplay’s charm offensive appears to be having its effects. Take longtime Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher, who once described the likes of Coldplay as “bland, faceless fucking trainee police officers.” Referring to Coldplay’s 2000 breakthrough hit, he recently told Pitchfork, “When I heard ‘Yellow’ for the first time, I immediately picked up the guitar and went, ‘Fucking bastards, why didn’t I write that?’” Who’s the bigger wimp, the guy who writes a sappy song or the other guy who refuses to admit he loves it?

Critical reception of Coldplay has been thawing a bit, too. (Beloved Swedish pop singer Robyn’s killer cover of “Mylo Xyloto’s” initially panned lead single, “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall,” hasn’t hurt much, either.) Just in time, too. “Mylo Xyloto” could easily go down as Coldplay’s best album. It’s definitely where they best balance their obvious desire for artistic respect with their undeniable ability to write songs that throngs of people want to chant along. This time, they don’t do it by making choices that telegraph their seriousness or ambition, though there’s an over-arching love story that they wisely keep pretty loose. Instead, Coldplay may well succeed at becoming the world’s biggest rock band by redefining what it means to be a “rock” band altogether.

Originally conceived as two separate albums, and with a title Martin is coy about explaining, “Mylo Xyloto” oscillates between synthesized Top 40 sheen and hand-played acoustic vulnerability. In other words, it takes the Coldplay aesthetic — “equal parts epic and endearing,” as SPIN’s Chris Martins (no relation) put it this summer at Lollapalooza — and realizes it more vividly than ever before. Their optimistic anthems, packed with wordless hooks, have grown bigger by getting more inclusive, taking on tinges of rave and R&B (of which Rihanna’s guest spot on breakup song “Princess of China” isn’t even the best example). Their small, spare moments are all the more affecting for it, likely to catch more than a few skeptical listeners off guard.

It’s not that Coldplay have given up on competing for artistic cachet. Quite the opposite, given how obsessively Martin focuses in the New York Times piece on what Bruce Springsteen and U2 did at similar points in their careers. They’re just integrating their influences less obtrusively now. “Paradise” grafts the hip-swiveling, hook-stuttering sensibility of The-Dream onto keyboards that recall the early Blur song “Sing.” The strobe-lit pulse of “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” suggests Underworld’s “Born Slippy” and that brief British moment in the 1990s when rave became appealing to jocks. “Charlie Brown,” the best song here, evokes the cathartic rush of Arcade Fire; “Hurts Like Heaven” makes LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” sound cheerful. Stadium-troubadour finale “Up With the Birds” quotes Leonard Cohen.

Coldplay’s former peers, bands like Keane, Travis, Starsailor, Aqualung and Embrace, are either gone or many leagues below them now. Remember how those first two albums used to remind everybody of “Radiohead lite,” but now they only sound like Coldplay? In a few years, when other rock bands sound like this, we won’t compare them to any of their apparent influences: We’ll compare them to “Mylo Xyloto.”

That said, if “Mylo Xyloto” distills Coldplay’s essence almost perfectly into a 14-track pop album — Martin has often said it could be the band’s last — then it also carries with it some of Coldplay’s essential faults. The lyrics are often vague at best, trite at worst (“Life goes on, it gets so heavy”). The wordless hooks, though so ideal for reaching audiences in non-English-speaking markets, start to feel manipulative; the songwriting workmanlike enough, behind the pristine production, that it’s hard to imagine many successful covers. “Don’t Let It Break Your Heart” may be inoffensive, but it’s also utterly forgettable. Oh yeah, and three of the tracks are essentially just extended introductions to the songs after them. In a time of diminishing expectations, Coldplay fulfill every one.

Coldplay are too good at a certain mode of big-tent uplift to hate them anymore, and yet, for all of their famous self-deprecation, one of Martin’s recent comments rings a little too true. “How I really feel is, we don’t make it for us,” he has said. “We don’t make it to sell millions, we don’t make it to answer critics. We make it so that if you’re in a store and you buy our record, or a ticket — like a good sandwich — you go, ‘That’s good!’ That’s all it is.” And maybe that’s why it is so hard to get worked up over Coldplay’s shiny blandness: They aren’t even holding themselves to a higher standard than Jared from Subway.

Foo Fighters Protest Hate-Filled Church Group

2011-10-03T21:28:00.001-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 19, 2011
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A religious group known for picketing U.S. soldiers' funerals got a taste of its own medicine on Friday afternoon. The Foo Fighters stood atop a flatbed before their Kansas City show that night and sardonically treated the protesters from Westboro Baptist Church to a live performance, in a counter-protest of the Topeka, KS-based church's anti-gay views. (via NBC Action News)

Dressed in trucker costumes from their recent "Hot Buns" video, the band members hit back at the protesters with a message of tolerance and American pride. "Land of the free, home of the brave," frontman Dave Grohl declared at the end of the song, in an exaggerated drawl. "I don't care if you're black or white or purple or green, whether you're Pennsylvanian or Transylvanian, Lady Gaga or Lady Antebellum. It takes all kinds."

The Foo Fighters posted additional video of the counter-protest on their website, receiving more than 400,000 views over the weekend. The band kicked off a 27-date North American tour earlier last week in St. Paul, MN, in support of latest studio album Wasting Light. The "Hot Buns" song itself is a twangy country spoof with goofy lyrics about "hot man muffins," in the grand faux-trucker tradition of mid-1990s Blur B-side "Rednecks."

In addition to military funerals, the Westboro church has also picketed funerals of well-known figures, such as that of Elizabeth Edwards, the late wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards. Missouri and other states have passed laws trying to limit the church's protests, but have been repeatedly overruled by the Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.

WATCH: Foo Fighters, "Keep It Clean (Hot Buns)"

New ODB Box Set Includes Food Stamp Replica

2011-10-03T21:26:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
Link

Wu-Tang Clan fans can now walk around with their own Ol' Dirty Bastard food stamp card. ODB's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, is returning as a box set on November 22 via boutique imprint Get On Down, the label has announced.

The box set will included a remastered version of the late Wu-Tang member's gold-selling 1995 solo debut album, plus a 12-track bonus disc featuring various remixes, a cappellas, and instrumentals. The reissue also comes with a poster, additional artwork, extensive liner notes, and a billfold wallet, where buyers can display a laminated reproduction of the ODB food stamp card depicted in the album's cover art, according to Get On Down.

You can pre-order ODB's Return to the Chambers: The Dirty Version Wallet Box Set at UndergroundHipHop.com. Get On Down promises more information on its website.

According to Okayplayer, which reportedly got its hands on the box set, the tracklist features previously 12"-only tracks such as "Brooklyn Zoo (Lord Digga Remix)."

ODB's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

WATCH: Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Brooklyn Zoo (Lord Digga Remix)"

WATCH: Ol' Dirty Bastard getting his food stamps

Interscope Records Entangled in U.S. Drug Probe

2011-10-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
Link

Interscope Records -- a major label with a roster that includes U2, Eminem, and Lady Gaga -- has found itself caught up in a year-long federal drug-trafficking investigation. According to documents first reported in The Smoking Gun, Department of Justice prosecutors say members of a cocaine ring used the label's Los Angeles-area offices to transfer packages containing drugs and cash.

Prosecutors included the allegations in a letter laying out evidence against Czar Entertainment CEO James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, a music-industry manager whose clients include Interscope rapper the Game. Rosemond, who was indicted in June on felony drug-trafficking charges, is reportedly being held in custody. His lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told The Wall Street Journal he hadn't gone over the Sept. 12 letter, which prosecutors filed in federal court in Brooklyn, NY.

The letter says prosecutors were turning over, among other evidence, 65 pages of shipping records from Rock-It Cargo, a freight forwarding company that handles music tours and other live events. In the letter, prosecutor Todd Kaminsky points out that the records were "specifically referencing pickups and deliveries at...Interscope Records" and a New York City recording studio.

The letter contains no allegations that Interscope employees had any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged drug transfers. A spokesman for corporate parent Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group had no immediate comment for the Journal.
According to the reports, prosecutors say Rosemond's organization sent hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Los Angeles to New York in road cases for musical equipment, and the cases would go back filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in vacuum-sealed $20 bills.

Left unclear in the letter was how prosecutors think Rosemond and his associates got access to the Interscope facilities to pick up and unload the shipments, the Journal notes.

The Smoking Gun reports that the shipping records have also implicated a road manager for the Game. The L.A. rapper recently released his fourth LP, The R.E.D. Album.

Arctic Monkeys' Drummer Stars in NSFW Video

2011-10-03T21:22:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
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Ultramagnetic MCs famously offered to "Give the Drummer Some" -- and that's exactly what Arctic Monkeys have done in their video for the title track off the British rockers' fourth album, Suck It and See.

In the clip, drummer Matt Helders stars as a musclebound biker dude who has a tempestuous relationship with his scantily (and sometimes un-) clad girlfriend. They take to the open road, make out atop the Union Jack, wield guns, and more, while Alex Turner intones his finely wrought, quintessentially English lyrics on this jangling, patient tune. "That's not a skirt, girl, that's a sawn-off shotgun / And I can only hope you've got it aimed at me," he sings.

The song that SPIN's review said "may be the loveliest thing they've ever recorded," doesn't clear up much about the album's title -- supposedly British slang meaning you should try something to find out what happens.

There's brief semi-nudity and a handcuff-wielding sex scene, so be warned if your workplace frowns on that sort of thing. The video was directed by Focus Creeps, whose previous work includes videos for Neon Indian, Morning Benders, and Girls.

The SPIN July cover subjects will release "Suck It and See" as a U.K. single on October 31, backed by new song "Evil Twin." The band kicks off three U.S. co-headlining shows with TV on the Radio later this month, followed by their own North American headlining tour. Check out the tour dates here.

And to see this lovely tune in a completely different light, watch Alex Turner's unplugged take on "Suck It and See," filmed at SPIN's cover shoot, here.

Watch: Arctic Monkeys, "Suck It and See"

Moby, New Order's Peter Hook Play Joy Division

2011-10-03T21:19:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
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An ongoing feud between co-founding members of two hugely influential British bands-- Joy Division and New Order-- has taken a new turn. Peter Hook, who played bass in both groups, held a Joy Division tribute show this week in Los Angeles, just days after New Order said they would play a set of concerts without him. Longtime Joy Division fan Moby jumped on the stage to join Hook and his current band, the Light; via Slicing Up Eyeballs and YouTube user kalavinka1, watch fan-made videos showing their performances of "Transmission" and "A Means to an End" below.

Earlier this month, New Order announced plans to play a pair of benefit shows in Europe without Hook, who left the band amid highly public in-fighting in 2007. Hook issued a statement September 9 about the two New Order gigs, saying, "Everyone knows that New Order without Peter Hook is like Queen without Freddie Mercury, U2 without the Edge."

Hook's live tribute to Closer, Joy Division's second and final album before the death of singer Ian Curtis, was already long planned before the New Order news. It follows his nine-date tour last year revisiting Joy Division's 1979 debut LP, Unknown Pleasures, which he's also scheduled to perform tonight at L.A. venue the El Rey. According to SPIN's review of one of the 2010 Unknown Pleasure shows, Hook and the Light bring machine-like precision to the performances, eschewing bells and whistles while at times turning these often-funereal songs into celebrations.

Though Hook criticizes his former bandmates for touring as New Order without him, he has also taken some guff from fans for playing Joy Division songs without the rest of the group. "The criticism has been aimed at me, saying I'm cashing in on Joy Division and Ian Curtis," Hook told SPIN last year. "But it took 30 years to cash in. So does that count? Usually you cash in after waiting 30 minutes."

At the Music Box in L.A. on Wednesday night, Hook and the Light played Closer in its entirety, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "It's been an interesting week," Hook is quoted as saying. Along with Moby, Jane Addiction's Perry Farrell also joined Hook on stage. Farrell sang "Isolation," while Moby sang on "Colony," "A Means to an End," and an encore performance of non-Closer single "Transmission."

WATCH: Peter Hook and the Light (feat. Moby), "Transmission"

WATCH: Peter Hook and the Light (feat. Moby), "A Means to an End"

WATCH: Peter Hook and the Light (feat. Perry Farrell), "Isolation"

Stills, Broken Social Members Form Eight and a Half

2011-10-03T21:17:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
Link

In April, the Stills announced they were splitting up, after three albums that saw the Canadian rockers gradually move from post-punk revivalism to a looser, rootsier approach. In the wake of the breakup, former members Dave Hamelin and Liam O'Neil have teamed up with Broken Social Scene drummer Justin Peroff for a new band called Eight and a Half. Check out their first song here.

Hamelin sang, wrote songs, and played drums and guitars for the Stills, and O'Neil provided keyboard, percussion, and backing vocals, so a spin-off isn't exactly a stretch for them. Still, new track "Scissors" does represent a bit of a change for the trio, who now share a name with the acclaimed 1963 film by director Federico Fellini. Lush and layered, the song is moody, synth-based pop, with a galloping drum beat beneath wounded vocals that plead for someone to "hold me, like an old friend ... like an omen."

As Canada's Exclaim reports, Eight and a Half have an album on the way in 2012 via Arts & Crafts. The self-produced collection is reportedly being mixed by Metric producer John O'Mahony. "It's very synth-driven, but not in a 2007 electro way," Broken Social Scene's Peroff told Exclaim. "It's pretty heavy."

Hear It: Eight and a Half, "Scissors"

Thom Yorke Debuts Glitchy Solo Track on Radio

2011-10-03T21:14:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 16, 2011
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A mix by Thom Yorke aired on British radio station XFM, and it featured a first glimpse of a new solo track by the Radiohead frontman called "The Twist." Hear it now over at OneThirtyBPM, or check out the entire mix below. Click the play button, and Thom's song will stream first.

Yorke's "MoneyBack mix" appeared on British radio DJ and music journalist Mary Anne Hobbs' "Music Response" program. The 25-minute compilation mostly consists of fairly opaque, dub-inflected electronic blips and beats, including Yorke's own remix of a track by forward-thinking U.K. composers John Matthias and Nick Ryan. Music by Modeselektor, with whom Yorke recently collaborated.

The mix also includes a pair of remixes of tracks from Radiohead's The King of Limbs. By London producer Blawan and fellow knob-twiddler Thriller Houseghost, the reworkings are set to appear on the band's forthcoming remix collection, TKOL RMX 1234567, due out October 11.

Meanwhile, as Consequence of Sound points out, the drumbeat has begun to have Radiohead play at next year's Coachella. In fact, according to music trade publication Hits Daily Double, event organizers already booked Radiohead and No Doubt as headliners for the 2012 festival, and are "very close to finalizing a deal" with the Rolling Stones. The report has yet to be independently confirmed.

Hear It: Thom Yorke, "MoneyBack mix"

New Splashy Dance Clips From Cut Copy, SBTRKT

2011-10-03T21:09:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 15, 2011
Link

New videos from two of electronic pop's big hopes make for a study in contrasts. Australian dance-rockers Cut Copy beam their dismembered heads to a planet of the apes in the elaborately conceived, effects-wielding clip for their "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution," from this year's Zonoscope. Masked London beatmaker SBTRKT, meanwhile, keeps it relatively simple, letting guest vocalist Roses Gabor stay in the foreground in the clean, no-frills video for his self-titled debut's "Pharaohs."

Cut Copy's members show up in pieces in the "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" video: heads singing without torsos, forearms playing the drums without the rest of the arm, and so on. It's hard to say what the lithe synth-pop song has to do with all these body parts winding up in the clutches of highly intelligent apes in monk garb -- "We're on the path to eternity," frontman Dan Whitford sings on the chorus, perhaps providing a clue -- but there's plenty to watch, as the computer effects set the stage for a full-on ape-man concert.

The clip for SBTRKT's "Pharaohs" is no less sharply executed, but despite the SPIN "Breaking Out" subject's forward-thinking productions, the approach here is of a more streamlined variety. SBTRKT can occasionally be glimpsed in the background behind his African-style mask, but the focus is -- literally -- on Gabor, who dances and sings in a shadowy room filled with cameras. "I need me a golden crown," she coos atop SBTRKT's rubbery electro-R&B, in this fitting follow-up to his Little Dragon-featuring hit "Wildfire."

WATCH: Cut Copy, "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution"

WATCH: SBTRKT (feat. Roses Gabor), "Pharaohs"

Hear MGMT's Trippy Bauhaus Cover

2011-10-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 15, 2011
Link

MGMT have covered goth icons Bauhaus for the psychedelic rockers' entry in the LateNightTales compilation series. Hear the East Coast band's spaced-out take on The Sky's Gone Out slow-burner "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" below (via Pitchfork).

This one's for the fans who preferred MGMT's zonked-out sophomore album, Congratulations, to synth-toting 2008 breakthrough Oracular Spectacular. Bauhaus' 1982 original already had plenty of neo-hippie tendencies, whatever the band's spooky image -- airy acoustic plucks, impressionistic lyrics, anti-industrial theme -- and MGMT go even more warped and pastoral with their trippy, effects-heavy take.

LateNightTales is a U.K. compilation series that asks artists to curate their own mixes. Previous contributors have included the Flaming Lips, Belle & Sebastian, Air, Four Tet, and Snow Patrol. MGMT's installment, which features tracks from the likes of the Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, and Suicide, is available for streaming here; check out the tracklist below.

Hear It: MGMT, "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything"

MGMT's LateNightTales tracklist,
1. Disco Inferno, "Can't See Through It"
2. The Great Society, "Love You Girl"
3. Suicide, "Cheree"
4. Television Personalities, "Stop and Smell the Roses"
5. The Velvet Underground, "Ocean"
6. Felt, "Red Indians"
7. Julian Cope, "Laughing Boy"
8. Durutti Column, "For Belgium Friends"
9. Charlie Feathers, "Mound of Clay"
10. Mark Fry, "For Wilde"
11. MGMT, "All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" (Bauhaus Cover)
12. Cheval Sombre, "Troubled Mind"
13. Dave Bixby, "Drug Song"
14. The Jacobites, "Hearts Are Like Flowers"
15. The Chills, "Pink Frost"
16. Martin Rev, "Sparks"
17 The Wake, "Melancholy Man"
18. Spacemen 3, "Lord Can You Hear Me?"
19. Pauline Anna Strom, "Morning Splendor"
20. Paul Morley, "Lost for Words Part 2"

Reports Shed Light on DJ Mehdi Death

2011-10-03T21:03:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 15, 2011
Link

As artists continue to pay their respects to DJ Mehdi, more facts are coming to the surface about the French electro producer's death Tuesday at age 34.

Born Mehdi Favéris-Essadi, the genre-crossing beatmaker was fatally injured after a skylight in his Paris apartment's Plexiglas floor broke into pieces, sending Mehdi and three friends on a drop of seven meters (about 23 feet), MTV reports, citing French magazine Liberation Next. No further details have emerged on the three friends, who were reportedly hospitalized, too. MTV also points out a report in French newspaper France Soir saying Mehdi was hosting a birthday party for friend DJ Riton. The two recorded together as Carte Blanche.

As Billboard notes, Riton reassured fans via Twitter. "Just want everyone to know that we were all laughing our asses off 1/2 second before the accident and simon alegia and louise are all well," he wrote.

Mehdi's label, Ed Banger, reportedly issued a brief statement confirming Mehdi's death. "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our friend DJ Mehdi," they said, according to multiple reports. "Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones." The label's website and all social media outlets have gone to black.

From the world of hip-hop and from the world of electronic music, from the United States and from Europe, condolences for Mehdi continued to roll in. Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo pushed back a Dallas gig to travel to Paris, Billboard reports. "I have no words," fellow Canadian producerA-Trak wrote on Twitter. "My heart is completely shattered. Not this." Among other artists paying Mehdi tribute were Drake, Kid Sister, Miike Snow, Murs, and RJD2.

You can download Mehdi's Tunisian Summer Mix here, via Discobelle, which has the tracklist, and check out some of his videos below.

WATCH: DJ Mehdi, "Signature" (Thomas Bangalter Edit)

WATCH: DJ Mehdi (feat. Chromeo), "I Am Somebody

WATCH: Carte Blanche (feat. Kid Sister), "Do! Do! Do!"

Download Pretty Lights' Soul-Tinged Banger

2011-10-03T21:00:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 15, 2011
Link

The temperature may be dropping, the days starting to get shorter, but Pretty Lights is extending that summer feeling a bit longer into September. The Colorado electronic musician has posted a free, high-quality download of his just-released single, "I Know the Truth," which he debuted live at Bonnaroo back in those halcyon days of June. Get it at Pretty Lights' website in an exchange for an e-mail address.

The latest from Fort Collins-based Derek Vincent Smith is a blippy dubstep track with hints of '60s soul represents a new approach for the sample-happy beatmaker. Recalling the production methods used on trip-hop innovators Portishead's 1997 self-titled album, Smith pressed analog recordings of his own studio session to vinyl, then sampled that to create the single.

"It's my first attempt at producing in a new style I like to call analog electronica," the Pretty Lights maestro says in a news release. "It's modern electronic music production created with an approach based on techniques from 40-50 years ago."

Pretty Lights is also in the midst of a U.S. tour that will stop by Austin City Limits Music Festival tomorrow. Check out the tour dates below, and watch the video for "Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin," which samples seven Zep tunes and refracts them through Pretty Lights' big-beat electronic style. Read SPIN's review of Pretty Lights' Lollapalooza set here.

WATCH: Pretty Lights, "Pretty Lights vs. Led Zeppelin"

Pretty Lights Tour Dates:

9/15, Austin, TX (Austin Music Hall) #

9/16, Austin, TX (Austin City Limits Music Festival)

9/17, New Orleans, LA (The Sugar Mill)

9/20, Asheville, NC (Thomas Wolfe Auditorium)

9/21, Charlottesville, VA (Telos Wireless Pavilion)

9/22, Binghamtom, NY (Events Center)

9/23, Boston, MA (Bank of America Pavilion)

9/24, Philadelphia, PA (Popped! Festival @ FDR Park)

9/25, Lewiston, ME (The Colisee)

9/27, Burlington, VT (Burlington Memorial Auditorium)

9/28, Wallingford, CT (The Dome at Oakdale)

9/29, Silver Spring, MD (The Fillmore D.C.)

9/30, Columbus, OH (The LC Pavilion)

10/1, Detroit, MI (The Fillmore Detroit)

10/4, Pittsburgh, PA (Stage AE)

10/5, South Bend, IN (Morris Center)

10/6, Dekalb, IL (NIU Convocation Center)

10/7, Milwaukee, WI (Eagles Ballroom)

10/8, St. Paul, MN (Myth)

10/9, Des Moines, IA (Val Air Ballroom)

10/11, Oxford, MS (Lyric Theatre)

10/12, Oxford, MS (Lyric Theatre)

10/13, Tuscaloosa, AL (Tuscaloosa Amphitheater)%

10/14, Alpharetta, GA (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)*

10/15, Alpharetta, GA (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre)*

10/27, Lincoln, NE (Pershing Center)

10/28, Tulsa, OK (The Brady Theater)

10/29, Little Rock, AR (Verizon Arena)

10/31, Nashville, TN (Nashville Municipal Auditorium)

# w/ Nas opening

* w/ co-headlining with Bassnectar

% benefit for Tuscaloosa Disaster Relief Fund

Jay-Z Goes Hard on J. Cole's "Mr. Nice Watch"

2011-10-03T20:58:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 15, 2011
Link

Jay-Z has been all about collaborations lately. First he teamed up with Kanye West for their chart-topping album Watch the Throne; then came news at the MTV Video Music Awards that he and Beyoncé were expecting a baby. Now Jay has added a supremely scornful verse to a new track by North Carolina rapper J. Cole, who previously appeared on Hova's own 2009 LP, The Blueprint 3. Hear it here, via Consequence of Sound.

"Mr. Nice Watch," from Cole's long-delayed debut album, is dubstep-tinged electro-rap built around a pun on expensive male wrist jewelery: "If we ever go broke, then time is all we got," Cole sings on the chorus, his plainspoken half-croon more T.I. than, say, Drake. Jay balances the track with some needed arrogance, giving his Roc Nation signee a breathless, foul-mouthed verse with some fittingly Southern references to college football. "No Mr. Nice Guy, hello Mr. Nice Watch," Jay exhorts, paraphrasing Cole.

Cole's Cole World: The Sideline Story, due out September 27 via Roc Nation/Columbia, has been in the works for some time. After getting the nod to rap on Hova's own "A Star Is Born," Cole landed on SPIN's list of albums that matter most -- for the winter of 2010-11 -- for his then-untitled debut LP. Check out SPIN's review of J. Cole's 2010 mixtape Friday Night Lights.

Hear It: J. Cole (feat. Jay-Z), "Mr. Nice Watch"

Florence and the Machine Share Second New Song

2011-10-03T20:57:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 14, 2011
Link

Powerhouse British vocalist Florence Welch and her band the Machine, one of SPIN's 2010 Artists of the Year, have offered up a second taste of their second album, which follows last year's Lungs. Check out "Shake It Out" here.

Florence and the Machine, "Shake It Out"

In keeping with previously unveiled track "What the Water Gave Me," the four-and-a-half-minute song is swelling, gospel-flavored pop, with churchy organ and pounding drums setting a cathartic scene for Welch's fiery singing. "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back," she roars. "So shake him off!"

Florence and the Machine have also provided details on their new album. According to iTunes UK, the LP will be called Ceremonials, and it will be out in Britain on October 31, which typically means a U.S. release a day later.

As previously reported, the band worked on the album at London's famed Abbey Road Studios with producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Bloc Party). Epworth was also behind the boards on Lungs' "Cosmic Love" and "Blinding." The full Ceremonials tracklist is below.
Ceremonials tracklist:

1. Only If for Night

2. Shake It Out

3. What The Water Gave Me

4. Never Let Me Go

5. Breaking Down

6. Lover to Lover

7. No Light No Light

8. Seven Devils

9. Heartline

10. Spectrum

11. All This and Heaven Too

12. Leave My Body

Lil Wayne: GOP Is "Never Going to Like Us"

2011-10-03T20:55:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 14, 2011
Link

While he didn't exactly pull a Kanye West, and say that the Republican party doesn't care about black people, Lil Wayne took the current crop of Republican presidential candidates to task in an interview with VIBE.

"You learn from what the right wing is doing and you take something from it," Wayne told VIBE. "I feel like as a people the most we can do is better ourselves and learn. Then look at yourself and ask 'Am I the person they’re talking about or am I not?' You have to make the most of who you are because the Republicans are never going to like us."

The rapper also said that while taking the president to task over the economy may be fair, the intensity of conservative outrage has less to do with policies than with Obama's race. "I don't think I have to say that for everybody to know that," Wayne told VIBE.

Wayne vaulted to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart last week for his album Tha Carter IV. His first-week sales of 964,000 copies were the year's second-biggest, behind behind Lady Gaga's 1.1 million for Born This Way.

WATCH: Lil Wayne, "How to Love"

FREE ALBUM: Lil B Posts New 21-Song Mixtape

2011-10-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 14, 2011
Link

Lil B isn't slowing down. Without warning, the ever-prolific rapper has released a new mixtape, Black Flame. Hear it below, and download it free over at DatPiff.

Internet downloads like this one have helped Lil B generate an obsessive cult following, making him one of the most closely watched figures in hip-hop. He was previously best known as a member of San Francisco Bay Area skate-rap outfit the Pack, who scored a 2006 hit with shoe ode "Vans." Read Brandon Soderberg's article on the MC, from SPIN's July 2011 Success Issue, here.

Lil B's current 21-song offering follows closely on the heels of a 12-track mixtape the self-proclaimed Based God put on the Web last month, I Forgive You; in fact, the two releases even share some songs. On July 16, the rapper dropped his hotly debated album, I'm Gay (I'm Happy).

Lil B commented on the latest release, in all-caps fashion, on his bustling Twitter feed. "NEW LIL B MIXTAPE 'BLACK FLAME' WORLD WIDE TRENDING TOPIC," he wrote. "ITS A CLASSSSICC COLLECT THIS RARE HISTORY."

Black Flame features more of the Based God's spaced-out, free-associative rhymes, over instrumentals that range from the laid-back piano of "Ms Woman" to the heavily distorted clamor of "Bitch Fuck With Me."

Hear It: Lil B, Black Flame (download here)

Girls Bring "Honey Bunny," "My Ma" to 'Fallon'

2011-10-03T20:50:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 14, 2011
Link

Girls made their TV debut last night, and the San Francisco band that Late Night With Jimmy Fallon viewers saw was anything but lo-fi. Supported by not only an additional guitarist and drummer, but also three shimmying back-up singers, the core duo of frontman Christopher Owens and bassist-producer JR White performed "Honey Bunny," from their just-released sophomore album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. As an online exclusive, Girls also played the album's "My Ma." Watch them both below, via the Audio Perv and Matador Records' Matablog.

Live as on the record, "Honey Bunny" sets a galloping, surf-rock groove to lyrics that may not be as sweet as they seem: "I need a woman who loves me me me," Owens murmurs. "My Ma," meanwhile, is a swaying, lighter-aloft indie-pop power ballad, with slide guitar and more loneliness.

On Friday, Girls will play what Matador bills as "the first-ever nationwide in-store." Specifically, the band is set to give an in-store performance at Nashville record store Grimey's that will also be streaming live on the websites of more record stores than you can shake a stick at. A limited-edition Girls vinyl release will come out later this year, only at stores participating in this event.

WATCH: Girls, "Honey Bunny"

WATCH: Girls, "My Ma

LISTEN: Girls, Father, Son, Holy Ghost

Watch Amy Winehouse's Duet With Tony Bennett

2011-10-03T20:48:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 14, 2011
Link

Amy Winehouse would have been 28 years old today. On the late singer's birthday, Columbia Records is releasing her duet with Tony Bennett performing jazz standard "Body and Soul," which her website calls "the final recording" Winehouse made before she was found dead in London on July 23. Video of Winehouse and Bennett's studio session -- a clip of which played during last month's MTV VMAs -- has been released. Watch it below.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation, which also launched today, will receive all proceeds from the single (available for purchase on iTunes). The charity, set up by Winehouse's family and friends, will aid organizations that support vulnerable youth, such as those with addiction problems, the singer's father told the Associated Press.

The "Body And Soul" video shows Bennett and Winehouse in the studio, with Winehouse swaying and smiling in the iconic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" crooner's direction. She looks up to skies after her first verse, as the two continue to exchange buttery, smoothly quavering vocals on the song, originally written in 1930. "I gladly surrender myself to you," they sing, backed by piano and strings.

A separate interview clip on the foundation's website shows Winehouse discussing her duet with Bennett -- "Can I call him Tone?" she asks.

The two recorded "Body and Soul" for Bennett's Duets II LP, out September 20. Other guests on the release include Lady Gaga, John Mayer, Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, and Willie Nelson.

Watch It: Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett, "Body and Soul"

UBS Board in the Hot Seat as CEO Resigns

2011-10-03T20:42:00.003-05:00

News Analysis
Agenda
September 26, 2011
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Board Pay at Midsize Companies; Will CEO Comp Rise Again?

2011-10-03T20:42:00.000-05:00

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September 26, 2011
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New CEO at HP; Green Light for Cincinnati Bell Suit ...

2011-10-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

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September 26, 2011
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Survey Finds Gaps in Boards’ IT Security

2011-10-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

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Agenda
September 26, 2011
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The Lawsuit Against News Corp. Expands to Espionage

2011-09-28T20:42:00.000-05:00

News Analysis
Agenda
September 19, 2011
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Afscme Seeks Indie Chair at Goldman; Disclosing Political ...

2011-09-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

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September 19, 2011
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Dodd-Frank Gives Birth to Cottage Industry

2011-09-28T20:39:00.002-05:00

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September 19, 2011
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Skeptical Women Directors; Geography and Board ...

2011-09-28T20:38:00.002-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Goldman Pays Bosses, Not Investors: Lawyer

2011-09-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Annual Meetings Get Shorter; ISS Rebukes Ralcorp; CFOs ...

2011-09-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Yahoo Board Draws Scrutiny in CEO’s Firing

2011-09-28T20:33:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Murdoch Scion Declines Bonus; Board Reshuffles

2011-09-28T20:32:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Breaking Out: SBTRKT

2011-09-13T17:19:00.001-05:00

Feature
SPIN
October 2011
Link

For someone who wants to stay hidden, SBTRKT (pronounced "subtract") has a hard time staying in the shadows. The mask-wearing DJ-producer won't confirm his real name (reportedly Aaron Jerome), age, or talk about his musical background, but he has shared a stage with Drake, been tapped for remixes by Radiohead and Mark Ronson, and will be headlining a U.S. tour that launches this month. A little  secrecy, it seems, can go a long way.

"SBTRKT is essentially about getting away from the idea that you have to talk about your music to show what it's about," explains the London resident. "For me, it was more about creating music and letting it work on its own merits -- not having to go out and say, 'I am the person behind  this, this is where I was born, and  this is why I make what I do.' "

Good thing his music speaks for  itself. SBTRKT's eponymous Young Turks debut puts a sleek pop slant on dubstep, garage, and 2-step. Closer to the futuristic singer-songwriter music of fellow Brit James Blake than straight-up club fare, the album leans hard on the airy croon of U.K. soul singer Sampha, who also joins in for his boss' free-flowing shows, during which the masked man pounds a drum kit. "It can all go wrong," admits SBTRKT about embracing the unpredictability of playing live, "but it can all go right as well." Like when Drake joined the band for a Toronto performance. ("He just came and jammed," says SBTRKT.) The cameo wasn't wholly surprising -- Drake had remixed SBTRKT's moody "Wildfire," which features a feathery vocal assist from Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano.

More often, SBTRKT is the one  doing the remixing. Last year he  reworked Tinie Tempah's U.K. No. 1  single "Pass Out" and Ronson's "Bang Bang Bang." This past summer, he did the same to "Lotus Flower," from Radiohead's recent The King of Limbs, after Thom Yorke heard his music on BBC  radio. Cultivating such a high-profile fan base may put a crimp in SBTRKT's plan to remain anonymous, but it's the stuff of fantasy nonetheless -- which is appropriate for his chosen genre. "As a basic thing," he says, "electronic music is not based on some personal life story. The majority is this imaginary universe of sound." These days, though, reality is looking pretty good.

The Drums - Portamento

2011-09-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

Album Reviews
SPIN
October 2011
Link
7/10

With a foppish yodel and a jaunty guitar shuffle, this Brooklyn band's self-titled 2010 debut LP slotted easily alongside descendants of the Smiths and the Strokes. Maybe too easily. Guitarist Adam Kessler's exit makes room for a more overtly expansive approach on the Drums' just as solid sophomore outing, with chopped-up vocals, burbling synths, and cooing harmonies that should place them firmly in the sophisticated-yet-naive pop tradition of Saint Etienne or Swedish labels Service, Sincerely Yours, and Labrador. The Drums was as sunny as new romance, though; emotionally conflicted and at times misanthropic, Portamento is about finding out that only love can break your heart.

Toro Y Moi - Freaking Out EP

2011-09-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

Album Review
Pitchfork
September 12, 2011
Link
8.0

Now that there's little choice but to treat chillwave as an actual genre, it's at risk of the same kind of restrictive codification that's strangled so many of its predecessors. The word has come to mean a specific style-- glowing electronic pop that calls to mind faded photographs. But what initially drew comparisons between such groups as Washed Out, Neon Indian, and Memory Tapes wasn't such an easily identifiable set of musical signifiers. As with most category names that stick, chillwave was a feeling.

There's no better example of the genre's catholic origins than Toro Y Moi mastermind Chaz Bundick. Last year's Causers of This established Toro Y Moi as one of the mini-scene's leading figures, with the post-crash economic reality of lead single "Blessa" ("I found a job, I do it fine/ Not what I want, but still I try") aligning the album with Neon Indian's "Deadbeat Summer" and Washed Out's High Times-- and Bundick's full-length debut had a warmly nostalgic electro-R&B aesthetic, to boot. But by then he had already released 2009's Body Angles tape, which, yeah, presaged Causers with synthy closer "Timed Pleasure", but mostly emphasized scuzzy guitars. And Bundick has said he actually recorded this year's garage-pop "Leave Everywhere" single in 2006. In the meantime, he's given us straight-up dance (his Les Sins project) and an album that expands on the atmospheric funk of Causers using a lusher, more organic instrumental palette (this year's Underneath the Pine).

The definition of chillwave may have to expand yet again. Memory Tapes' solid if disappointing follow-up to 2009's zeitgeist-capturing Seek Magic had more in common than with the sound of this Internet-born subset, but Bundick, along with Neon Indian and Washed Out, continues to embody its spirit, which was always more body-oriented than detractors would care to admit. With the Freaking Out EP, Bundick moves from vaguely funky 1980s-tinged makeout jams to more explicitly funky 80s-tinged dancefloor jams-- think Chromeo. The change isn't as successful as his best work, but it still makes for a plenty rewarding between-albums EP.

Advance mp3 "Saturday Love"-- a cover of a 1985 Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis production for R&B singers Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal-- is the highlight here, with its sweetly catchy days-of-the-week hook, tinkling two-finger piano, and thwacking neo-new jack swing drum programming. Yearning, bass-limber opener "All Alone" and finger-snapping dance finale "I Can Get Love" even share the strobe-like keyboards present on much of Causers-- the last song has that post-Dilla crackle, too. And "Sweet" applies the chopped up vocals and hazy incandescence of that album to further 80s-style R&B. "Take it easy," Bundick soothes on the title track, another uptempo floor-filler. "Don't worry anymore... Calm down." I mean, how much more chillwave can you get, right?

Gaga, Usher, U2 Duo to Play Clinton Tribute Show

2011-09-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
Link

The nonprofit run by former President Bill Clinton is celebrating its 10th anniversary in a big way. Lady Gaga and Usher will perform at the October 15 concert, the William J. Clinton Foundation said this morning. U2's the Edge and Bono are also set to perform as an acoustic duo at the event, which takes place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and will stream live via Yahoo!. The foundation says it will announce other performers later.

"A Decade of Difference: A Concert Celebrating 10 Years of the William J. Clinton Foundation" is intended to build exposure for the foundation's work, Clinton says in news release announcing the event. "In the past decade, commitments to my Clinton Global Initiative have improved the lives of more than 300 million people around the world," the former president says. "We've lowered the cost of AIDS and HIV treatment, combated climate change, strengthened economies, increased access to education and healthcare, [and] provided financing and mentoring for small businesses."

Acoustic performances by U2's the Edge and Bono are a relatively uncommon occurrence. The two recently collaborated without drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bass player Adam Clayton to write songs for the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Check out the pair's acoustic performance of All That You Can't Leave Behind's "Stuck in a Moment" on Late Show With David Letterman below.

WATCH: U2's Bono and the Edge, "Stuck in a Moment"

Bradford Cox Fronts Black Lips As Joey Ramone

2011-09-13T16:27:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
Link

Halloween is six weeks off, but don't tell Deerhunter and Atlas Sound frontman Bradford Cox. He posed as Joey Ramone during the Black Lips' show Saturday night, complete with long black wig and black leather jacket. Watch their performance below (via Pitchfork and ifilmbands).

Playing at Southern Comfort Lounge in Conley, GA, Cox joined the Lips for a cover of Bobby Freeman oldie "Do You Wanna Dance?". Of course, they did the song the Ramones' way.

Cox's costumed appearance wasn't a total surprise. As Pitchfork points out, the Atlanta musician commandeered the Black Lips' Twitter feed earlier that same day, at one point typing, "There are rumors of a resurrected ghost making a guest appearance at tonight's show."

As usual, Cox has plenty of other projects in the works. His latest Atlas Sound album, Parallax, is due out November 8 -- hear first taste "Terra Incognita" here. As for Deerhunter, the noise-streaked art-rockers recently covered Georgia alt-rock icons Pylon in the midst of a recently concluded summer tour.

Watch: The Black Lips (feat. Bradford Cox), "Do You Wanna Dance?"

French Electro Producer DJ Mehdi Dead at 34

2011-09-13T16:21:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
Link

French electro producer DJ Mehdi has died, Consequence of Sound reports.

Born Mehdi Favéris-Essadi, the 34-year-old reportedly died due to "an accident," though further details remain unclear.

Known for massive electro-house productions, Mehdi released solo work as part of the Paris collective Ed Banger, and he collaborated with Chromeo and Justice's Xavider de Rosnay, as well as fellow French producers Riton, Cassius, and Busy P.

On Twitter, DJ Cut Killer was apparently the first to make news of Mehdi's death public. Writing in French, the Moroccan-born DJ said, "DJ Mehdi !!! There are no words to tell you the sorrow which I feel… A friend goes from there… Rest in peace fréro."

Other artists responding to Mehdi's death include Drake, Chromeo, Kid Sister, Miike Snow, Murs, and RJD2, who adds: "He had a great spirit about him. One of the nicest guys I've ever met."

See the video for Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter's rework of Mehdi's "Signatune," from 2007 album Lucky Boy at Night, below.

WATCH: DJ Mehdi: "Signatune" (Thomas Bangalter Edit)

LISTEN: Cool Mixes From Jamie xx

2011-09-13T16:18:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
Link

Jamie xx has put his stamp on enough new music in the past few weeks to take up most of your morning. On August 27, the xx producer/percussionist and Gil Scott-Heron remixer spun a two-hour BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix, which you can check out here. This week, he's back with a 30-minute mix of house and garage for FACT magazine, which you can download here.

Did we say "morning"? The FACT mix is actually better suited for late-night listening, and it features mostly moody, tranquil tracks-- including alternate takes on a couple of previous Jamie xx remixes. The BBC mix closes with a preview of Jamie xx's remix for Radiohead's The King of Limbs track "Bloom," which is set to show up on Radiohead remix compilation TKOL RMX 1234567 when it arrives October 11.

Earlier this year, Jamie xx added a tinge of futuristic calypso on his import-only 12" single "Far Nearer," issued in the U.K. via the Numbers label. He also anticipated the ongoing chart success of Adele with his club-ready "Rolling in the Deep" remix.

Around this time last year, the xx won Britain's Mercury Prize for their slinky, smoldering self-titled debut.

Hear It: Jamie xx's FACT mix FACT's site or at Soundcloud

Hear It: Jamie xx's BBC Essential mix

St. Vincent to Sing for HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'

2011-09-13T16:17:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 13, 2011
Link

On the same day St. Vincent mastermind Annie Clark releases her brand-new album, Strange Mercy, comes word SPIN's September Style Issue cover subject will also be trying her hand at some much older music. Clark has added her name to the ranks of singers recording songs from the 1910s and 1920s for HBO's Boardwalk Empire, according to Billboard. She joins Justin Townes Earle, the Moldy Peaches' Adam Green, and New York Dolls' David Johansen in contributing tracks to the show's second season, which premieres Sept. 25.

St. Vincent's Clark, in Los Angeles to perform for radio station KCRW and Amoeba Records, and Earle were set to go into the studio for Boardwalk Empire this week. That means they just missed the cut for the show's first soundtrack, which drops today via Elektra. Boardwalk Empire Volume 1 : Music From The HBO Original Series features Regina Spektor, Loudon Wainwright III, and Nellie McKay, along with the show's house band, Vince Giordana and the Nighthawks, putting their spin on songs made popular during the overlap between ragtime, improvised jazz, vaudeville, and Broadway show tunes.

Clark recently extended her covers repertoire to include a number by another sometimes old-timey singer-songwriter, Tom Waits. Watch her stripped-down performance of Waits' "Tango Till They're Sore" here.

St. Vincent is hitting the road this fall on a U.S. tour behind Strange Mercy this September -- see dates here. Read SPIN's cover story from our September Style Issue here, or check out a review of St. Vincent's first New York performance of Strange Mercy here.

More 'Siamese'-Era Pumpkins Music Surfaces

2011-09-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 12, 2011
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Billy Corgan's online record club is already proving to be a treasure trove for Smashing Pumpkins fans. Corgan launched the service recently by offering up an early version of Pumpkins' 1992 track "Drown" and a two-track demo of "Geek U.S.A.", both for the price of an e-mail address. Over the weekend, fan blog Hipsters United found another unreleased Siamese Dream-era take hidden on the Pumpkins website.

Titled "Barb Wire," the rough track resembles little-known Smashing Pumpkins cut "Tulips" with the vocals submerged even lower in the mix. It's one of the band's heavier songs, with distorted guitar in the foreground even on the "Tulips" version. Here, the guitar sounds somewhat less heavily processed, with wailing mini-solos between verses. Check it out below.

Corgan, who announced the record club in an August 20 YouTube video, has promised "so much more free stuff" on the way. He has also said a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Oceania, will probably come out in November, and the band will debut new songs on a fall tour that starts October 5 in Los Angeles.

Hear It: Smashing Pumpkins, "Barb Wire"

Radiohead's Greenwood Plays With Aphex Twin

2011-09-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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At the turn of the millennium, Radiohead and Aphex Twin were each separately responsible for helping drag alternative-rock fans kicking and screaming into the world of electronic music. In the early 1960s, Krzysztof Penderecki composed experimental pieces that made use of harsh, jostling dissonance, eventually making him a popular soundtrack choice for directors of ominous movies. Over the weekend, the three came together, as the Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood, Aphex Twin maestro Richard D. James, and Penderecki himself took the stage in the Polish composer's home country, reinterpreting his early work with help from an orchestra -- watch footage below.

On Friday, Greenwood premiered his "48 Responses to Polymorphia," a piece inspired by Penderecki's 1961 "Polymorphia." On Saturday, Aphex Twin unveiled his remix of Penderecki's 1960 "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" along with his own "Polymorphia" reworking, titled "Polymorphia Reloaded." The performances took place as part of the European Culture Congress in Wroclaw, Poland.

A meeting between Radiohead and Aphex Twin -- even separated by the space of an evening -- was hardly foreordained. As Consequence of Sound points out, Aphex Twin's James once told the now-defunt Kludge Magazine, "I wouldn't play with them [Radiohead] since I don't like them."

Penderecki may not be a household name for many rock fans, but he is an avant-garde luminary. As the New Yorker music critic Alex Ross notes in his book The Rest Is Noise, Penderecki was part of a wave of Eastern European composers who rose to prominence with a musical approach known as sonorism. As Ross tells it, government officials only tolerated the "shrieking cluster chords, sputtering streams of pizzicato, [and] siren-like glissandos" of "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" after Penderecki gave it that politically acceptable title. The piece was originally called "8'37"" and it appeared in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of The Shining.

In other Radiohead news, Thom Yorke's latest collaborations with German elecronic duo Modeselektor recently hit the web. Aphex Twin heads to Krakow on September 17 to take part in the Sacrum Profanum festival's Reich 75 concert, where he will join Television's Tom Verlaine, Portishead's Adrian Utley, Goldfrapp's Will Gregory, and others to honor composer Steve Reich.

WATCH: Jonny Greenwood, "48 Responses to Polymorphia"

WATCH: Aphex Twin, "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (Remix)"

WATCH: Aphex Twin, "Polymorphia Reloaded"

Drake Posts Three New Tracks, Joined by Waka, Ross

2011-09-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Drake's records suggest late nights at the club. The Canadian rapper-singer's blog, however, suggests he spent the wee hours of Saturday night in front of his computer, uploading three new tracks: "Club Paradise," the Rick Ross-featuring "Free Spirit," and a remix of Waka Flocka Flame's "Round of Applause."

"Club Paradise" and "Free Spirit" are both produced by 40, aka Noah Shebib, who has also worked on songs by Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Trey Songz in addition to Drake's Thank Me Later. On "Club Paradise," Drake returns to a familiar topic -- feeling out of place in the fast-money circuit -- as 40 supplies woozy slow-motion backing. "Free Spirit" adds hip-hop muscle to a horn-kissed Sade sample, as Ross and Drake exchange macho boasts (Drizzy: "Tat my fucking name on you so I know it's real").

The remix of Waka Flocka's "Round of Applause" finds Drake rapping over some stuttering menace from producer Lex Luger, whose brand of monolithic blare has been everywhere lately. Drake explained on his blog: "First Lex Luger beat I ever got to rap on...feel like I got seat B60 on Southwest...everybody has gone in before me...but we made it happen!" As Luger stretches his ominous sound into strip-club fodder, Drake joins Waka Flocka with a verse about throwing bills.

The links originally posted on Drake's blog have been taken down, but you can still hear the tracks below. Drake's second album, Take Care, arrives October 24, and you can also check out the video for the brooding "Marvin's Room."

Hear It:: Drake, "Club Paradise

  
Hear It:: Drake (feat. Rick Ross), "Free Spirit"

  
Hear It:: Waka Flocka Flame (feat. Drake), "Round of Applause (Remix)"

Winehouse Died From Detox-Related Seizure: Father

2011-09-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Amy Winehouse's father says he thinks a seizure connected to alcohol detoxification caused the singer's unexpected death in London on July 23. "Everything Amy did, she did to excess," Mitch Winehouse said Friday in a taping of a new Anderson Cooper talk show, according to the Associated Press. "She drank to excess and did detox to excess."

The "Rehab" singer had been suffering seizures and losing consciousness during an effort to fight her alcoholism without medical assistance, her father said on Anderson's syndicated show, which is set to premiere Monday. The elder Winehouse is quoted as saying "the periods of abstinence were becoming longer, and the periods of drinking were becoming shorter. It was heading in the right direction."

Toxicology reports showed there was alcohol in the singer's system at the time of her death but did not conclusively indicate whether this was a contributing factor. No illegal drugs were present in her system, Winehouse's family said in an August 23 statement announcing the test results.

Mitch Winehouse said he learned about his daughter's death by phone, the AP reports. He was in New York, and when he heard the emotion in a security guard's voice on the other end of the call, he says he immediately asked, "Is she dead?"

The singer's father wiped away tears as Cooper's show played old video footage of her, according to the AP. "When she wasn't drinking," Mitch Winehouse reportedly said, "she was absolutely on top of the world."

Separately, British singer and songwriter Joss Stone has told the Wall Street Journal she has imagined putting together a supergroup to honor Amy Winehouse. Though she hasn't taken any steps toward doing so, she says the U.K. singers she has in mind include Adele, KT Tunstall, Corinne Bailey Rae, and 15-year-old artist Birdy.

"It would be great to put out a song, or even a five-track release," Stone told the WSJ, which points out she has an album on the way this month from SuperHeavy, her supergroup with Mick Jagger, A.R. Rahman, Damian Marley, and Dave Stewart.

Hear Coldplay's Lush Single; Rihanna Guests on LP

2011-09-13T16:10:00.000-05:00

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September 12, 2011
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Coldplay has released a lavish new single, "Paradise," the same day the British rockers revealed the tracklist for their upcoming fifth album, Mylo Xyloto. Hear the song and see the song lineup below.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin says in a press release the band started writing their new album after listening to Blur's "Sing," which appears on the U.K. version of the Damon Albarn-led British popsters' 1991 debut album Leisure (U.S. fans could hear it on the Trainspotting film soundtrack). And in fact, "Paradise" is built around slowly rotating orchestration that quite a bit resembles the early Blur track's hypnotic chords.

Martin steps back out in front on the more traditionally stately, piano-driven verses, but the swooning, impressionistic hook again recalls some of that influential Albarn group's art-school leanings. Martin sings about a woman dreaming of, well, paradise, and the music suggests that feeling of breathless exhilaration; one lyric also refers back to previous Mylo Xyloto offering "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall."

A download of "Paradise" is available starting today for fans who pre-order Mylo Xyloto from the iTunes Store. Coldplay has also unveiled the tracklist for the album, set for U.S. release on October 24, and the big surprise is that pop star Rihanna sings on the track "Princess of China." Brian Eno, who took the helm of 2008's Viva la Vida, here is credited with "enoxification and additional composition," while previous Coldplay collaborators Markus Dravs, Daniel Green, and Rik Simpson add production assistance.

Hear It: Coldplay, "Paradise"

Mylo Xyloto tracklist:

1. Mylo Xyloto

2. Hurts Like Heaven

3. Paradise

4. Charlie Brown

5. Us Against The World

6. M.M.I.X.

7. Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall

8. Major Minus

9. U.F.O.

10. Princess of China (feat. Rihanna)

11. Up In Flames

12. A Hopeful Transmission

13. Don't Let It Break Your Heart

14. Up With The Birds

Odd Future TV Show Gets Green Light

2011-09-11T17:57:00.001-05:00

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September 9, 2011
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In a little more than a year, the members of Los Angeles hip-hop crew Odd Future have gone from posting their mixtapes for free online to sharing a stage with Will Ferrell at the MTV Video Music Awards. Now they're carving out their own space on television.

Shortly after Tyler, the Creator's VMA win for Best New Artist, Adult Swim has announced it has picked up the group's 15-minute live action show, Loiter Squad. According to the youth-oriented Turner network, which shares space with the Cartoon Network, the series will consist of sketches, man on the street segments, and pranks. The show will also feature Odd Future's music.

Loiter Squad's producers, Dickhouse Entertainment, know a thing or two about pranks: The Hollywood production partnership of Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine, and Spike Jonze created MTV's Jackass. Adult Swim's Nick Weidenfeld serves as an executive producer, along with Tremaine, Shanna Zablow, Dimitry Elyashkevich, and Lance Bangs.

Odd Future's multimedia ventures do not discriminate. The group's Golf Wang book, out in November, is set to detail their adventures at home and on the road.

Separately, Odd Future leader Tyler joined Clipse's Pusha T onstage earlier this week at New York City's Bowery Hotel to perform their collaboration "Trouble on My Mind," and ILLROOTS captured video. And not too long ago, a 10-minute Odd Future documentary hit the web titled A Day in Ladera: OFWGKTA. Check them both out below.

WATCH: Pusha T [feat. Tyler, the Creator], "Trouble on My Mind"

WATCH: A Day in Ladera: OFWGKTA

Das Racist Drop Clever "Michael Jackson" Clip

2011-09-11T17:56:00.001-05:00

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September 9, 2011
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One thing, among many, that separates Das Racist from comedy-rap outfits like the Lonely Island: The Brooklyn trio understands that humor is already one of the many things that hip-hop can do. You don't parody rappers from Snoop Dogg and Ludacris to Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj; you compete with them. DR has offered up the first video from their new album Relax, out Tuesday, and it's in a similar joking-but-not spirit.

"I'm fuckin' great at rapping," Himanshu Suri declares on the song, the previously leaked "Michael Jackson." While DR's Suri, Victor Vazquez, and Ashok Kondabolu spout references to old TV shows, other rappers, and even their own novelty breakthrough "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" ("Whaaaat?"), the visuals -- by Weird Days, who've helmed clips by Delorean and the Black Lips -- allude to the Last Supper, a Harold and Kumar-style terrorism interrogation, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, and even Animal Collective's Panda Bear.

As Stereogum points out, the closing face-morph sequence -- itself a nod to Jackson's 1991 "Black or White" video -- also features a whole host of guests, including El-P, Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, and many others.

Das Racist haven't only been working on their own tracks. The hip-hop act recently remixed TV on the Radio's "Caffeinated Consciousness," adding their own Power Rangers-invoking rhymes.

WATCH: Das Racist, "Michael Jackson"

Pearl Jam Debut New Tune, Rock 'Fallon'

2011-09-11T17:55:00.001-05:00

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September 9, 2011
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What do you say when your rock band has just celebrated its 20th anniversary? If you're Pearl Jam, you say "Olé." Days after Eddie Vedder & co. held a massive, star-studded birthday bash in Alpine Valley, WI, the band offered up this refreshingly raw, frenzied burst. Download the MP3 at Pearl Jam's website, or watch the band play the song on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon below.

Pearl Jam covered the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" at Alpine Valley, and "Olé" has a similar off-the-rails recklessness. As the band careens along at top speed, Vedder spits the lyrics with rabid ferocity. So much rabid ferocity, in fact, you might not even notice the underlying political frustration: Vedder "ain't got words" for all the trouble he's seen. No words, that is, but "¡Olé!"

Last night Pearl Jam stopped by Fallon to rock late-night viewers from their slumber, as Anthrax had the night before. Dressed in flannel (!), a guitar-less Vedder rasped and screamed his way through the new song with the kind of showmanship Pearl Jam's huge concert following facilitates; especially dig the way he yelps about "knuckleheads."

It was a Pearl Jam kind of show. Cameron Crowe talked with Fallon about the director's upcoming PJ20 documentary. And Vedder joined the Roots to back Fallon on a "protest song" about last year's BP oil spill, titled -- yes -- "Balls in Your Mouth." Tar balls, people.

WATCH: Pearl Jam, "Olé"

WATCH: Jimmy Fallon, Eddie Vedder, and the Roots, "Balls in Your Mouth"

WATCH: Cameron Crowe interview, part one

WATCH: Cameron Crowe interview, part two

Paramore Goes "Renegade" on Scorching New Tune

2011-09-11T17:54:00.001-05:00

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September 9, 2011
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Paramore debuted a new song at a show earlier this week, one of their first new tunes since since founding members Josh and Zac Farro left last December, and on it the Franklin, TN, band's frontwoman howls intensely about an escape that never comes.

As EW notes, the live premiere came as Paramore commemorated the 15th birthday of their record label, Fueled by Ramen, at New York City's Terminal 5. "Renegade" maintains the aggression of this summer's "Monster" -- lines like "We are just past tense" could even be references to her estranged former bandmates.

The current lineup's furious pop-punk backing makes way for a chiming, reflective bridge, and in video of the performance, the all-ages crowd seizes the moment to clap along. That's when Williams lets loose her most raucous cry yet: "I'll keep RUNNNNNINNG!"

Wearing a leopard-print tank top beneath her unmistakable red hair, Williams gave this fiery new tune a distinctly mild-mannered introduction. "This next song, we have never, ever, ever played before," she said. "And sometimes this happens and it goes wrong. I just need you guys to have fun anyways. This song we will be putting online for you to have as soon as soon as possible, as soon as we can -- we're working on it. It's called 'Renegade.'"

According to EW, Williams mentioned that Paramore would be playing no other shows in 2010, potentially clearing the way for the band to record its fourth album in time for a release next year.

WATCH: Paramore: "Renegade"

Thom Yorke's Modeselektor Collaborations Leak

2011-09-11T17:52:00.001-05:00

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September 9, 2011
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Last month, Modeselektor offered up 45-second preview streams of two tracks they recorded with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. Set to appear on the German electronic duo's third album, Monkeytown, the full tracks have now made their ways into the hands of Seattle radio station 107.7 The End. Hear them here.

As previously reported, Yorke's latest glitchy collaborations with Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary resemble his contribution to 2007's "The White Flash," from the Berlin DJ/production pair's Happy Birthday!. Of the two tracks, "Shipwreck" is the more conventionally song-like. "Oh shit, I am sinking," Yorke moans elegantly atop bleeps, hums, and galloping beats. Meanwhile, "This" chops up and mangles the Radiohead frontman's lofty croon, its busy electronics at once gothic and futuristic -- save this one for your Halloween party.

To hear the entire album, stay tuned to SPIN.com, where Monkeytown will be streaming September 16. The proper full-length hits the United States on October 4 via Modeselektor's own Monkeytown label. Anti-Pop Consortium and Busdriver also guest.

In other Yorke news, he appears in Radiohead's hour-long episode of From the Basement, as the band plays two new tracks alongside cuts from The King of Limbs. What's more, a 2-CD collection of remixes from The King of Limbs, titled TKOL RMX 1234567, is due out October 11 on the band's tbd records imprint. You can already hear reworkings by Four Tet, Lone, and Pearson Sound Scavenger.

Battles Hit the Mall With Gary Numan in Clever Video

2011-09-11T17:51:00.001-05:00

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September 8, 2011
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Brooklyn rock futurists Battles play their instruments like machines. British synth-pop pioneer Gary Numan became famous for playing machines like instruments. "My Machines," from the stellar Battles LP Gloss Drop, brings the two together, and now it has an unnerving video.

Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who work together under the name Daniels, the clip shows Numan and Battles performing as a man's attempt to push past people on an escalator leads to harrowing consequences -- well, harrowing in escalator terms, anyway. "Listen to the sound of my life," Numan sings, his tone barely human. Battles' assault of otherworldly keyboards, rigidly methodical drumming, and crunching bass imbues the shopping mall misadventure with cinematic drama.

The Creators Project, the Intel-backed arts concern, collaborated with Warp in pairing the musicians with Daniels. The filmmaking duo, who here make a man appear to fall down an up-moving escalator, are also responsible for Chromeo's, ahem, immaculately conceived "When the Night Falls" video.

Like Battles themselves, the clip is forward-thinking yet accessible. "Our music doesn't make many compromises, but we take it into a venue that's larger than people expect," guitarist Ian Williams told SPIN earlier this year. "That's the thrill of Battles, the transgressive element."

WATCH: Battles [feat. Gary Numan], "My Machines"

Anthrax Unleash Brutal New Song on 'Fallon'

2011-09-11T17:49:00.000-05:00

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September 8, 2011
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Folks who may have fallen asleep last night while watching Late Night With Jimmy Fallon were undoubtedly jarred into consciousness by a powerful dose of metal when Anthrax hit the NBC late-night show, in support of the thrash-metal icons' new album, Worship Music, which arrives September 13 via Megaforce. Check out their performances below (via Blabbermouth).

On the air, Anthrax tore into "The Devil You Know," from the upcoming LP, the band's first studio release in eight years. With crunching start-stop riffs, pummeling drums, and mosh-worthy instrumental interludes, the song did indeed sound a bit like the devil Anthrax fans have worshipped for, oh, a couple of decades now. A slight touch of maturity in the voice of singer Joey Belladonna, who rejoins Anthrax for his first full-length since 1990, does undercut the aggression somewhat. (When the censors bleep his rage-filled lyrics, though, you won't notice.)

Anthrax also played "Caught in a Mosh," from 1987 breakthrough Among the Living, a performance that appeared as an online-exclusive on the show's website. The band members are grinning broadly as the song starts; it's a speed-crazed blast, and that's what Anthrax appear to be having, too.

Anthrax were in New York ahead of their Big 4 show with Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth, which will turn Yankee Stadium into a house of metal on September 14. "It's nervous excitement, like when you're a kid and it's a week away from Christmas and you can't sleep," Anthrax's Scott Ian told SPIN ahead of the first Big 4 show this spring in Indio, CA; read our review of the 50,000-strong event. According to Blabbermouth, Anthrax will also play at New York's Best Buy Theater on September 12, calling themselves Satan's Lounge Band.

WATCH: Anthrax: "The Devil You Know"

WATCH: Anthrax: "Caught in a Mosh"

Alison Mosshart Sings Louis Armstrong on 'Anarchy'

2011-09-11T17:47:00.000-05:00

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September 8, 2011
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FX biker drama Sons of Anarchy kicked off its fourth season this week, and the episode ended with a violent montage set to "What a Wonderful World." Louis Armstrong originally recorded the song in 1968, and Hawaiian musician Israel Kamakawiwoʻol more recently revived it. On the show, the sunny classic played underneath that montage as an eerie, bare-bones remake by belter Alison Mosshart, of the Kills and the Dead Weather. Check it out below.

Mosshart may be better known for stormy, threatening rockers, but her "What a Wonderful World" is relatively restrained. She delivers a straight, lightly scuffed vocal, swathed in vaguely ominous echoes. The Forest Rangers -- the band led by Sons of Anarchy music supervisor Bob Thiele -- lends solemn acoustic backing.

According to EW, the story behind this cover goes far beyond brutal motorcycle gangs: Thiele's father actually co-wrote the song. "There was a part of me that was a little nervous about besmirching Bob Thiele Sr.'s memory with having a montage [of] kill sequences while his song played," show creator Kurt Sutter told the website. "But Bob Thiele Jr. was thrilled and took the challenge completely made it work." Mosshart reportedly laid down the vocal from a studio in Ireland.

Mosshart has been on something of a cruise down memory lane lately. Before "What a Wonderful World," she recently joined Kills bandmate Jamie Hince for a cover of Marilyn Monroe's "One Silver Dollar." Just last month, though, she was back to her more familiar tricks, performing howling blues-punk stomper "Future Starts Slow" with the Kills on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Hear It: Alison Mosshart and the Forest Rangers, "What a Wonderful World"

Hear Kathleen Edwards' Song With Bon Iver

2011-09-11T17:46:00.000-05:00

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September 8, 2011
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Kathleen Edwards crafted one of 2008's quieter pleasures, the affecting folk-country album Asking for Flowers, which featured twangy standouts like "I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory" and "Oil Man's War." Now that the Canadian singer-songwriter is working with Bon Iver maestro Justin Vernon (who also happens to be her boyfriend), she has a prime opportunity to get more of the critical acclaim she has already long deserved. Vernon produces and sings backing vocals on new song "Wapusk." Hear it here.

From a 7" single due September 26 on Rounder Records, "Wapusk" is as tranquil and icy-bright as its inspiration. Wapusk, as Edwards explains in a press release, is "a remote and barren spot located in northern Manitoba, where many polar bears spend their summers denning and resting on the banks of Hudson Bay." The guitar-slinging folkie returned there in summer 2010 as part of Canada's National Parks Project. Her tribute to the place is slow-paced and nicely layered, with acoustic guitars, sighing fiddles, and a sense of quiet awe.

Vernon's vocals are little more than a faint glow in the distance, but with his production involvement comes a more electronic aspect to Edward's sound. That can be heard on flip side "Change the Sheets," which you can check out here. From the same upcoming 7" as "Wapusk," the track will eventually appear on new album Voyageur, out January 2012. "Change the sheets, and then change me," Edwards sings on a bewitching song with a hint of Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac in its sparkling polish and pulsing bass line.

"Wapusk" isn't Vernon's only recent collaboration. Check out his track with U.K. electronic producer James Blake.

Fleet Foxes' Pecknold Debuts Haunting New Song

2011-09-11T17:45:00.000-05:00

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September 8, 2011
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Fleet Foxes just wrapped up a two-night homecoming stand at the Paramount in Seattle. At both shows singer-guitarist Robin Pecknold took to the stage alone with an acoustic guitar to perform a new song. According to 107.7 The End, it's called "I Let You." Watch videos of each night's renditions below.

As The Seattle Times reports, Pecknold introduced the song with references to local all-ages venues in the city he recently said he wasleaving behind for Portland, OR. "Part of this song takes place at the Paradox, and part of it takes place at the Old Fire House," he's quoted as saying.

"I Let You" is a delicate, haunting folk-pop ballad, and true to its title, it works best if you let it patiently wash over you. As with much of the band's gorgeous 2011 album Helplessness Blues, the dulcet tune and spare arrangement bring to mind the best work of Simon & Garfunkel decades earlier. Pecknold's voice is as golden as ever, as he reflects about an old flame, backed only by his own somber finger-picking. The scene: an August night, "after the band had played."

Fleet Foxes are in the midst of a U.S. tour that will last until October. In November, the harmony-loving folk-rockers will trek overseas to Europe, part of a jaunt that by January 2012 will bring the band to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Watch SPIN's in-studio look at Fleet Foxes.

Hear: Fleet Foxes: "I Let You" (September 6, 2011, 107.7 The End)

WATCH: Fleet Foxes, "I Let You"

Ryan Adams Unveils New Album's Title Track

2011-09-11T17:43:00.000-05:00

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September 7, 2011
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Ryan Adams unveiled a live, in-studio performance video for the title track off his 13th album Ashes & Fire, out October 11. The clip was posted over at the album's Amazon pre-order listing and spotted by TwentyFourBit. Check it out below.

In this stripped-down version, shot in a retro, VHS-camcorder style, "Ashes & Fire" harks back to the wrenching barroom intimacy of 2000's Heartbreaker, Adams' solo debut after leaving the alt-country band Whiskeytown. His voice creaks over waltzing strums of acoustic guitar, as he vividly juxtaposes the rural beauty of a woman whose skin smells "like black cherries" with urban grit like the "bums on the Bowery." In recent live performances, the song gains drums and weeping keyboards.

Another Ashes & Fire track, the similarly rootsy "Lucky Now," has also hit the web. Tom Petty and Heartbreakers' keyboardist Benmont Tench joins Adams on that track. Surprisingly, neither song sounds all that different from Adams' recent Iron Maiden cover.

Tench isn't alone among stars appearing on the album. As SPIN has reported, Norah Jones sings on three songs, and production comes from Glyn Jones, a veteran of albums by the Who, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles.

WATCH: Ryan Adams: "Ashes & Fire"

Lil Wayne's 'Carter IV' Sells 964K, Tops Charts

2011-09-11T17:41:00.000-05:00

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September 7, 2011
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Lil Wayne has once again put up big numbers on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The rapper nabbed the No. 1 spot this week for his album Tha Carter IV, selling 964,000 copies, according to Billboard. It's the second-biggest first-week sales for an album this year -- behind Lady Gaga's 1.1 million for Born This Way, but ahead of Jay-Z and Kanye West's 436,000 for Watch the Throne.

Wayne has two previous chart-topping albums, 2008's Tha Carter III and last year's I Am Not a Human Being.

Take into account Gaga's first-week discount pricing, and Wayne's sales figures look even more impressive. According to Billboard, Gaga sold an estimated 440,000 downloads for 99 cents each, during a two-day sale by Amazon's MP3 store. Tha Carter IV's sales of almost a million copies came without such pricing.

On the download front, Wayne can also claim a milestone. Yes, Tha Carter IV's first-week digital sales of 362,000 trail Gaga's 662,000, the year's most. But sources told Billboard that Wayne's album set a new iTunes single-week sales record by a wide margin, moving around 345,000 copies. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that means Wayne dethroned Watch the Throne -- an album that was only available on iTunes for its four days of release. SoundScan does not share retailer-specific numbers.

The debut capped a solid month for hip-hop album sales. Right behind Tha Carter IV was West Coast rapper Game's The R.E.D. Album, which sold nearly 100,000 copies.

In other Wayne-related developments, Detail -- producer of The Carter IV hit "How to Love" -- told MTV News that Enrique Iglesias plans to record a Spanish cover of the song. "Enrique changed a couple of words to make it work for what he does, and it was a great situation," Detail said. "It was a great opportunity for two worlds to come together."

Jeff Tweedy Plays Black Eyed Peas Medley

2011-09-11T17:39:00.000-05:00

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September 7, 2011
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Jeff Tweedy played acoustic versions of two Black Eyed Peas songs and recited the lyrics to another last night at Chicago venue the Hideout, Time Out Chicago reports. Watch him cover "I Gotta Feeling" below.

The leader for Windy City rockers Wilco was appearing at the release party of a new book by Dan Sinker, The Fucking Epic Quest of @MayorEmanuel. During now-Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign, Sinker ran an uproarious fake Twitter feed dedicated to the candidate's famously obscene outbursts. As Time Out Chicago observes, @MayorEmanuel posted a series of tweets calling for Tweedy to cover Black Eyed Peas at a campaign event. "People love that shit," the fake Emanuel reasoned.

The mayor of Chicago's profane Twitter alter ego is still fictitious, but Tweedy performing the tunes made famous by Will.i.am, Fergie, and the rest of their pop troupe? That's now very real. Tweedy played acoustic guitar and sang on versions of "I Gotta Feeling" and "Rock That Body." He also gave a spoken-word reading of the lyrics to "My Humps."

"This has been very challenging," Tweedy said at the event. "I really overestimated myself or underestimated the Black Eyed Peas. I honestly have no idea which, but it's really not my skill set."

When Tweedy isn't giving his renditions of pop hits, he's been busy introducing songs from Wilco's upcoming album, The Whole Love, due Sept. 27. An acoustic performance of new song "Dawned on Me" surfaced last month, following folk-pop burst "I Might" earlier this summer.

Watch: Jeff Tweedy, "I Gotta Feeling"

LISTEN: Blink-182 Leak Bittersweet New Song

2011-09-11T17:38:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 7, 2011
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The first time Blink-182 revealed a new song this summer, it had taken eight years. Now the MP3s are arriving as fast and furious as the Southern California band's melodic brand of pop-punk. Blink has unveiled "After Midnight," the latest taste of their fall album, Neighborhoods. Check it out below.

Hear It: Blink-182: "After Midnight"

As KROQ reports, Blink posted an online game yesterday that allows winners to download the new song for free, and while their server eventually reportedly ground to a halt, it's now active again. Consequence of Sound also grabbed the MP3.

Blessedly, "After Midnight" has nothing to do with the laid-back J.J. Cale boogie of the same title, made famous in the 1970s by Eric Clapton. Instead, it's a bittersweet midtempo rocker, and the most contemplative of the new songs Blink has unveiled so far. "These nights go on and on," goes the chorus, perfect for bored teenagers shouting outside car windows. Think less "What's My Age Again?," more "Dammit," only mellow enough for a world where Jimmy Eat World already had hits.

In July, Blink returned with "Up All Night," the first new song since their self-titled 2003 album. "Heart's All Gone," which showed a different aspect of the band's style, came not long after. "We've all learned a lot in our respective careers during that eight-year hiatus and it wouldn't be genuine or sincere to not bring it in," guitarist-vocalist Tom DeLonge told SPIN last month. "So I think you hear all of it. If you look at the two songs we've released, everything fits between those two compositions."

Blink are currently on tour with My Chemical Romance, who just switched drummers. Read our review of their tour opener in Holmdel, NJ.

PJ Harvey Wins U.K. Mercury Prize for Second Time

2011-09-11T17:36:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 7, 2011
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PJ Harvey picked up Britain's Barclaycard Mercury Prize last night for her war-torn album Let England Shake. The honor makes Harvey the first two-time winner in the history of the prize, according to Reuters.

Harvey previously won the award in 2001 for her fifth studio album, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. This year she topped a short list of 11 other nominees, including pop siren Adele, post-dubstep poster boy James Blake, grime MC Tinie Tempah, and fellow past Mercury Prize winners Elbow.

During her acceptance speech, Harvey drew a connection between Let England Shake and the attacks of 9/11, which prevented her from traveling to London to receive the award a decade ago. "When I last won I was in Washington, D.C., watching the Pentagon burn from my hotel window," she said, as quoted by London's Independent. "So much has happened since then. I wanted to make something meaningful and to make something that would last."

A panel of musicians and other industry representatives has awarded the Mercury Prize to their choice for the year's best album by a British or Irish artist since 1992. Past winners include the xx, the Arctic Monkeys, and Franz Ferdinand, along with Antony and the Johnsons.

Harvey talked with SPIN earlier this year about the theme of war on Let England Shake. "The way we treat one another as individuals and nations is incredibly distressing," she said. "It prompts anger and despair in me, of course, but I'm still hopeful for the capacity to change. We have to be, don't we?"

Record Store Day Co-Founder to Close Record Store

2011-09-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 6, 2011
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Atlanta's Criminal Records commemorates its 20th anniversary this week, but there's not much cause for celebration. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, founder and owner Eric Levin plans to shutter the store unless new investors or potential fund-raising efforts emerge to help keep it afloat. Artists who have played in-store shows at the iconic spot include Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Gossip, Janelle Monáe, Def Jux's El-P and Mr. Lif, and Deerhunter, among many others; watch their performances below.

As co-founder of Record Store Day, an annual event that drew participation from more than 1,000 stores worldwide this past April in its fourth year, Levin acknowledges the symbolic importance of his decision. But he emphasizes that Criminal is hurting financially for very specific business-related reasons, not because of any failings specific to record stores in general. "We bit off more than we could chew and we got too big," Levin told SPIN.

As the Journal-Constitution story points out, Levin's store in Atlanta's Little Five Points neighborhood sells new and used CDs, vinyl records, comic books, and graphic novels, along with DVDs, magazines, art, candy, and T-shirts. Criminal moved from a 2,500-square-foot location to a 6,000-square-foot store in 2008 -- just in time for the Wall Street meltdown. The relocation reportedly tripled the store's overhead. Weather didn't help; an ice storm this January reportedly cost the store $14,000. Hosting free live music carries its own costs. And Levin's expenses also include offering his employees health insurance.

Criminal isn't going down without a fight. "OK, y'all, please hold off on the RIPs and the farewells," Criminal said via Twitter on Tuesday afternoon. "We're not dead and gone yet. We are going to try and #SaveCriminalRecords." Levin mentions that several artists have gotten in touch, offering to help; Manchester Orchestra hopes to release one of their in-store performances as a way to generate revenue for the troubled store. A Facebook page, Save Criminal Records Atlanta, already has more than 2,000 "likes."

In the meantime, Levin has set Nov. 1 for himself as a deadline to "pay the man or leave." Levin told SPIN that while that is the day his first debt payment is due -- "and it's a large one" -- he's looking at ways of making money to keep the store open past that deadline. A liquidation sale is one possibility.

Levin first opened Criminal in what is now a coffee shop, reaping a windfall selling comic books after a nearby comics shop shut its doors. The Journal-Constitution reports that more than 250 subscribers now come to Criminal each week to pick up comics they order through the store. Levin made his first move to a larger space in 2004; he saw his next relocation, in 2008, as only logical. "We were doing everything we were supposed to do -- grow," he told the Atlanta newspaper.

In addition to co-founding Record Store Day, Levin also serves as president of the Alliance of Independent Media Stores. He reportedly opened his first record store, Secret Service, in Florida when he was only 19. After an obscure law led to his arrest by the actual Secret Service, a local television news reporter joked, "What's he going to call it next? 'Criminal Records?'" The name stuck, but now Levin once again finds himself at the mercy of forces that may be beyond his control.

WATCH: Yeah Yeah Yeahs: "Hyperballad" (Björk cover; live in 2006 at Criminal Records)

WATCH: The Gossip: "Yr Mangled Heart" (live in 2006 at Criminal Records)

WATCH: Janelle Monáe: "Violet Stars Happy Hunting" (live in 2007 at Criminal Records)

WATCH: Mr. Lif & El-P: "Freestyle" (with RJD2 on turntables; live in 2002 at Criminal Records)

WATCH: Deerhunter: "Hazel Street" (live in 2007 at Criminal Records)

LISTEN: Noel Gallagher's New Solo Song

2011-09-11T17:32:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 6, 2011
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In the Britpop '90s, Noel Gallagher was a staunch advocate of New Labour. On Labor Day, while U.S. fans were celebrating a holiday, the former Oasis guitarist and singer was hard at work unveiling another new solo song. Hear "AKA...What a Life" here.

The hypnotic, piano-centered groove-rocker is set to appear on Gallagher's debut solo full-length, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. The album will be available in the U.K. on October 17, with a U.S. release to follow on November 8.

When Gallagher revealed the new album's tracklist, he described "AKA...What a Life" as the first song on the record that features guitar. "There are echoes of Oasis, but there's no guitar until the sixth song," he said of the album at the time.

Gallagher recorded Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds with Oasis producer David Sardy. First single "The Death of You and Me" and album track "If I Had a Gun..." are also available online.

Meanwhile, Noel's brother Liam Gallagher has been touring with new band Beady Eye. The two led Oasis together for seven albums after forming in 1991, then parted ways two years ago after a fight backstage in Paris. "He'd been acting like an old granny throughout the tour and he felt that I'd been a dick," Liam told SPIN earlier in 2011. "We came to blows and that was the end of it."

Hear It: Noel Gallagher: "AKA...What a Life"

WATCH: Feist Debuts Five Songs Live

2011-09-11T17:28:00.001-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 6, 2011
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Fans in the Los Angeles area who paid attention to their Twitter feeds ahead of the holiday weekend got a sneak preview of Feist's new album Metals, arriving October 4. The Canadian singer-songwriter debuted new songs in unannounced show Friday night at the Del Monte Townhouse in Venice, CA. The blog Rock Is a Girl's Best Friend posted videos from the performance, which you can watch below.

As Rock Is a Girl's Best Friend points out, Feist first hinted at the venue for this "secret" performance in a Twitter message. "Anyone in Los Angeles will probably have a good time tonight if they can find this place by 10pm..." she wrote, followed by a photo of the Townhouse's glowing sign.

The surprise performance featured the the breezy, sumptuous "How Come You Never Go There," plus other Metals songs "Woe Be," "A Commotion," "Graveyard," and "Bittersweet Melodies." As Consequence of Sound observes, Feist is backed live by Vermont folkies Mountain Man.

In July, SPIN caught a first listen to the new Feist album. Pegging "Woe Be" as a highlight, we compared the song to Carole King and Leonard Cohen alike: "If any track has the potential to break big like [2007 album The Reminder's] '1234', it's this one."

WATCH: Feist, "How Come You Never Go There"

WATCH: Feist, "Woe Be"

WATCH: Feist, "A Commotion"

WATCH: Feist: "Graveyard"

WATCH: Feist: "Bittersweet Melodies"

My Chemical Romance Fire Drummer for 'Stealing'

2011-09-11T17:21:00.000-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 6, 2011
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My Chemical Romance has fired drummer Michael Pedicone from the band over an alleged theft, the New Jersey rockers announced on their website.

Pedicone "was caught red handed stealing from the band and confessed to police after our show last night in Auburn, Washington," guitarist Frank Iero wrote. "We are heartbroken and sick to our stomachs over this entire situation." As The New York Times' Arts Beat blog points out, what exactly Pedicone stands accused of stealing remains unclear. The band said it has no plans to press charges.

Pedicone was MCR's third drummer, joining the group late last year after the band parted ways with previous drummer Bob Bryar. "What happened is more complicated than it sounds but I did make a mistake," Pedicone responded on Twitter. "It was never my intention to hurt this band or all of you...It was an error in judgment based on a whole other situation that's way deeper but this does not define me." Original drummer Matt Pelissier left in 2004.

As of MCR's show Saturday in Utah, the band had already replaced Pedicone with Dead Country's Jarrod Alexander, MTV reports. The band has yet to reveal whether Alexander will replace Pedicone permanently or only on tour. Alexander's former bands include Death by Stereo and Suicide File.

MCR is currently on a tour with pop-punk vets Blink-182 that runs into October. "Blink is one of the bands we've looked up to and always respected. There are a lot of similarities in how we came up," MCR bassist Mikey Way recently told SPIN. "We both came out of scenes that we didn't really fit in, but we all came into our own and did our own thing." MCR kicked off the tour with a set that was heavy on older material.

Billie Joe Armstrong Kicked Off Airplane

2011-09-11T17:19:00.001-05:00

News Article
SPIN.com
September 6, 2011
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Not everybody was sitting pretty over the holiday weekend. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong says wearing his pants too low kept him off his Southwest Airlines flight.

Armstrong aired his frustration in a Twitter message. "Just got kicked off a southwest flight because my pants sagged too low!" he wrote Thursday night. "What the fuck? No joke!"

As ABC reports, the singer for the San Francisco Bay Area pop-punk band was boarding a plane from Oakland to Burbank, CA, when a flight attendant came up and said to pull up his pants. According to an ABC producer who was on the flight, Armstrong at first brushed off the request, saying, "Don't you have better things to worry about than that?" After the flight attendant reiterated her instruction and warned Armstrong he could be kicked off the plane, Armstrong reportedly said, "I'm just trying to get to my fucking seat." At that point, Armstrong and a traveling companion were given the boot.

Southwest Airlines quickly replied to Armstrong's Twitter complaint with its own message. "Very sorry for your experience tonight, someone from our Customer Relations Team will reach out to you to get more details," the company said.

Armstrong ultimately opted to take the next flight, Southwest later told ABC. "As soon as we became aware of what had happened, we reached out to apologize for this customer's experience," a Southwest representative said. "He elected to take the next flight. We followed up with this customer and involved employees to get more details and, in our latest conversations, understand from the customer the situation was resolved to his satisfaction."

Last month, Green Day treated fans in Costa Mesa, CA, to one of the band's smallest club gigs in years. The set included 15 new songs, two of which resourceful fans managed to capture on video despite strict security for the event. Hear acoustic ballad "Amy" (a likely Amy Winehouse tribute) and riotous punk tune "Last Gang in Town" here.

Covers That Beat the Originals

2011-09-11T17:13:00.001-05:00

Feature

eMusic
July 27, 2011
Link

Grace Jones, “Walking in the Rain” (Flash and the Pan)
Grace Jones called her 1981-82 world tour “A One Man Show.” That sly nod to her androgynous appearance and multi-faceted persona was rarely more appropriate than on this opening cut from 1981′s Nightclubbing. For her post-disco breakout album, Jones returned to the ace rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, plus another set of covers (Iggy Pop, Brian Ferry) as impeccably chic as the ones on 1980′s Warm Leatherette. And then there was “Walking in the Rain.” Applying a slick dub-funk makeover to not the Ronettes, not Love Unlimited, not even old Johnny Ray, but Australian new-wavers Flash and the Pan, Jones speaks the words, “Feeling like a woman/ Looking like a man,” and they’re transformed. She forgets to add, “Sounding fabulous.”

Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude” (The Beatles)
Before “Hey Jude,” Duane Allman was an occasional session man so obscure the credits list him as David Allman. Afterward, he was a full-time Muscle Shoals mainstay, recording with the likes of Aretha Franklin; by the end of 1969, the Allman Brothers Band was playing New York’s legendary Fillmore East. Allman’s career-launching solo is a big part of this cover’s appeal, but equally important is Pickett’s stirring vocal, peaking with a raspy howl that makes Paul McCartney’s screaming original sound like his inside voice. Take a British pop song, change it into soul, change that into guitar-blazing Southern rock — and make it better.

Saint Etienne, “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (Neil Young)
If it’s true Neil Young wrote “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” for Graham Nash — who’d recently broken up with Joni Mitchell — then it’s no wonder someone else would make the tender folk-rock ballad their own. On Saint Etienne’s 1990 debut single, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs turn the slowly waltzing original into a 4/4 dance-pop number driven by splashy piano, dub bass, and early singer Moira Lambert, whose fragile delivery has an innocence that eventual replacement Sarah Cracknell’s knowing sophistication could never quite share. “I was always thinking/ Games that I was playing,” Lambert repeats. If you want her, she’ll be in the club.

courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc., © 2011 eMusic.com

SEC Claws Back $1.4M From Ex-Beazer CFO

2011-09-11T17:06:00.003-05:00