by Chris Ryan
Ronnie Dunn found the song's useage both "ironic" and "flattering" (how's that for a bi-partisanship?), but in truth, it was somewhat out of place, both given its place as a bookend to the epic sweep and save-the-world message of U2's "City of Blinding Lights," which served as Obama's intro music, and the decidedly non-Music-City vibe that surrounded the Dem Party gathering. Here's a wrap-up of the convention's musical moments.
by Jen Guyre
Aside from being video game enthusiants and a freakishly talented powerhouse live act, Dragonforce also has an amazing sense of humor.Check out Theart and Leclerq's entertaining views on the new album, their contribution to gaming world, and their hopes for the future.
Song: In My Secret Life
Album: Oceana
Artist: Till Bronner
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: August 29, 2008
Leonard Cohen is a brilliant songwriter but sometimes his luxuriously gruff "voice of God” stops you from really listening to all of his lyrics, the same way you can let a sermon run over you. Here, Till Bronner, a German trumpeter enthralled by Chet and Miles, lets Carla Bruni put her own spin on a modern Cohen classic. The only first lady in modern history who had an affair with Mick Jagger (on record at least), Bruni sinks Cohen’s lyrical nails further into our modern culture when she croaks, “I bite my lip and buy what I’m told.”
San Francisco might have had free acid and Dead concerts back in the '60s, but did it have live webcasts, gigantic inflatable spacemen and hip-hop? Check out highlights from the first Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, August 22-24, 2008, minus the raw burgers, wine lines and miles of walking. We covered the scene from Primus and Sharon Jones to Jack Johnson, Devendra Banhart, Ben Harper and more. The hippie haven of Golden Gate Park may have turned into hipster heaven, but the counterculture spirit still floated through the fog. Peace out indeed, Lupe.
Further Viewing:
Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival Recap [Rhapsody.com]
by Chuck Eddy
Has it really been more than two decades since the sunniest and most fragile amateur indie-pop melodies ever first swept up on American shores from the distant isle of New Zealand -- soon changing the world forever, or well-documented portions of it anyway, if you count back when Pavement originally came out and were being hyped as “America’s first Flying Nun Records-style band”? Yeah, it has. It’s been so long, in fact, that I don’t even know if that kind of music exists down there anymore. Except for Pumice, who totally keeps Flying Nun’s tipsy and off-kilter post-Velvet-Underground sheep-farmer shortwave-static kiwi-folk prettiness alive. And who I shall hereby pay tribute to.
Song: Corazon (You're Not Alone)
Album: Prima J
Artist: Prima J
Selected by: Rachel Devitt
Date: August 28, 2008
Prima J may have debuted on the Bratz soundtrack, but their first album is packed with serious, grown-up girl power, whether they're waxing "chilosa" (their own word for their own fierce independence) or offering a friend real strength and a shoulder to cry on, as on this sweet slow jam.
What's new? What's good? What will you find here that you won't hear
anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the
premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on Rhapsody!
This week:
Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive) Maroon 5, It' Won't Be Soon Before Long (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive) Miley Cyrus, Breakout (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive) Panic at the Disco, Pretty Odd (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive) Lil' Wayne, The Carter III (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive) Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (+ FNMTV Bonus Tracks) (Rhapsody Exclusive)
Some of the biggest and best albums just got bigger and dare we say it ... (yes, we dare) BETTER. The teen pop of Miley and the Jonas Bros, the R&B and hip-hop of Rihanna and Lil' Wayne, and the rock of Maroon 5 and Panic at the Disco have all expanded their waistlines a little. We've added exclusive live tracks to the artists' latest albums, culled from their performances on FNMTV.
by Jen Guyre
When Rhapsody caught up with Slipknot percussionist Chris Fehn (#3) at the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, things were looking up for the infamous metal collective. After nearly three years away, the nine masked members -- Sid Wilson (turnables), Joey Jordison (drums), Paul Gray (bass), Fehn (percussion), Jim Root (guitars), Craig "133" Jones (samples/media), Shawn "Clown" Crahan (percussion), Mick Thomson (guitars) and Corey Taylor (vocals) -- were back out on the touring circuit with two singles dominating the airwaves and a new album in the pipeline. "You always wonder if you’re going to be able to keep up, but we’re a touring band," explains Fehn. "When we’re on the road is when we’re the best."
But since then, the title of their highly anticipated fourth full-length, All Hope Is Gone, has proven to be a bit of a bad omen. After Jordinson recently broke his ankle -- and with Wilson already nursing two broken heels in a wheelchair -- Slipknot had to cancel all of their European tour dates. However, according to Fehn, nothing can break this Iowa-born heavy metal machine. "Things are going to happen ... but the best part of being
human is you can pick yourself up, dust off, and make it better."
Song: Closed Captioned Slang
Album: Ancestor
Artist: TK Webb and the Visions
Selected by: Justin Farrar
Date: August 27, 2008
It's about time a modern hard-rock band builds from Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green era - Then Play On and stuff like that. "Closed Captioned Slang" comes studded with attitude, from the fuzzy, rusted out guitars to the lyrics, which are far smarter than what most heavy dudes croak about.
On the night of July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata left a bar in Seattle and walked home. But before she could reach her house that night, Zapata was beaten, raped and murdered on a deserted Seattle street. She was 27 years old.
Zapata was lead singer for Seattle punk band the Gits. The group had formed in the mid-1980s at Ohio's now-defunct Antioch College, a liberal bastion that drew an assortment of freaks and DIY misfits to its halls. (Antioch became famous in the '90s for its policy on sexual relations between students, which required consent every step of the way.) Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Zapata was reputedly a distant relative of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. She was also, despite her shyness as a child, a remarkable singer and an uninhibited performer.
by Chuck Eddy
Southern rock, as properly defined in pre-3 Doors Down days, still exists on the country charts (Montgomery Gentry, Kid Rock) and occasionally even rock charts (Kid Rock again), and sometimes, people now even vastly overrate it (Drive-by Truckers, My Morning Jacket, Mudcrutch). But where it mostly survives is where it always has - local roadhouses, where working men drink too much, and perhaps throw a punch or whiskey bottle or two when the mood suits them. Listening to Lucas McCain’s New Horizon and Hank Davison Band’s Hard Way, one suspects the artists in question to be familiar with such habitats.
Song: Sweet Marie
Album: Red Devil Dawn
Artist: Crooked Fingers
Selected by: Tim Quirk
Date: August 26, 2008
Years before Rick Rubin embraced Neil Diamond, ex-Archers of Loaf frontman Eric Bachman was doing his bit to rehabilitate Diamond’s image by singing exactly like him in an outfit called Crooked Fingers. Bachman makes a more convincing drunk bastard than the aviator-wearing showman ever did, but singing about sparkling wine and throwing in a mariachi band are totally Diamond moves.
by Chuck Eddy
I’m not the first person to point out that Jonas Brothers and New Kids on the Block have stuff in common. I was going to be the first, but then Dave DiMartino went and revealed on his Yahoo blog last week that both ensembles are “male, human, English-speaking, preferred largely by a young female audience, fantastic entertainers, and equally enjoyable in their upbeat video romps! Similarly, were they both to be mysteriously teleported into deep space, they would -- as air-breathers -- instantly suffocate!” He left out something, though - namely, that both groups have halfway decent melodic rock ballads called “Tonight”! And that therefore, even as we speak, moms and daughters across the nation are fighting over which one is better!
Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.
Despite my undying love for techno, there are some mornings I just can't bring myself to stare another 4/4 beat in the face. Especially on days like this one, in Barcelona, when a sticky, Mediterranean pall hangs over everything like a soggy lead blanket. Fortunately, the new Stereolab album, Chemical Chords, has woven a magical pillow around my head, protecting me from oonce-oonce shockwaves. Full of short pop gems far more condensed than the band's Krautrock-trance jams of yore, the record makes for the perfect escape. (It feels a little like returning to a place that, as a child, struck you as enormous and baffling and spangled with sequins. Now, as an adult, it's still just as glittery, but the proportions have shrunk.) There's still plenty of strangeness on the album: in "One Finger Symphony," side-winding horn blasts echo the Ethiopian jazz of the Ethiopiques series. In that spirit, then, here are three suggestions for gooey electronic-pop goodness.
Song: Why Do These Parties Always End the Same Way?
Album: A Love Extreme
Artist: Benji Hughes
Selected by: Nate Cavalieri
Date: August 25, 2008
Benji Hughes' stone-faced sense of humor shades A Love Extreme darkly, even though the sweeping synths and bubbling beats keep things from getting too dour. Benji, we dunno why they all end the same way either -- we're just happy you made it.
Song: St-Viateur
Album: Lost Together
Artist: Fred Everything
Selected by: Justin Farrar
Date: August 22, 2008
Deep-house vet turns early '80s funky. This is Chic-inspired house party music. Move the coffee table.
by Chris Ryan
Lauded underground producer/emcee/Erykah Badu-romancer Jay Electronica has added another skill set to has resume: budding documentary filmmaker (or at the very least, accomplished video blogger). Jay has been keeping up with the Joneses, or rather the Meths, Reds, Ghosts and Tribes on this summer's Rock the Bells tour, contributing video diaries to Okayplayer's website. Check out the above slice of life, featuring one of the tour's best live acts, De La Soul.
by Chuck Eddy 
Song: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Album: Prelude
Artist: Deodato
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: August 21, 2008
Things were still freaky enough in 1973 that this funkdafied,
nine-minute jazz-rock reading of Richard Strauss' classical theme went
to No. 2 on the pop charts. Though no fault of Deodato's, this
eventually led to Walter Murphy's disco hit "A Fifth of Beethoven."
Like the robots that inspired his $70,000, double-sided Transformers chain, there’s more than meets the eye with Yung Berg. Initially, it’d have been easy to dismiss the 22-year-old Chicago rapper, nee Christian Ward, as another flash in the pan after he came out of nowhere (although he was signed by DMX at 15) in 2007 with the club smash “Sexy Lady.” But since then, Berg has collaborated with Ray J on the top five hit “Sexy Can I,” written songs for Ciara, Diddy and Cassie, and dropped “The Business,” a steadily climbing heater featuring his own artist Casha. Rhapsody grabbed some time with Berg while in
by Lauren Tabak
There was a long time when I was hatin' on L.A. I guess if you're not from here (here being San Francisco), you don't know about this invisible line somewhere just above
by Chuck Eddy
Soul and blues always come in and out of country music fashion (just ask Jimmie Rodgers and Charlie Rich or Barbara Mandrell or K.T. Oslin), and over the past few years - from Brooks & Dunn to LeAnn Rimes, Jon Nicholson to Chely Wright, Kentucky Headhunters to Rissi Palmer -- they’ve been back on the upswing. “American Radio,” the not especially soulful current hit by Nashville softies Carolina Rain, even cites “Purple Rain” and Barry White as possible inspirations. But new releases by onetime teen-country hopeful Rebecca Lynn Howard and new sister trio Carter’s Chord sound like they mean it.
Song: Black Bubblegum
Album: Ire Works
Artist: Dillinger Escape Plan
Selected by: Jen Guyre
Date: August 20, 2008
Grindcore master craftsmen Dillinger Escape Plan’s flirtation with pop sensibilities on “Black Bubblegum” makes for a catchy exercise in offbeat time signatures, experimental elements and never-ending Mike Patton comparisons.
by Jen Guyre
For Christian metalcore mainstays Norma Jean (vocalist Cory Brandan, guitarists Scottie Henry and Chris Day, bassist Jake Schultz and drummer Chris Raines), reinvention is not so much a planned process as it is a spontaneous one -- and some would say the key to survival in a scene currently overrun with mimicry. Their latest effort The Anti-Mother, featuring production by Ross Robinson [Korn, Blood Brothers, At the Drive-In], songwriting by Chino Moreno of the Deftones, guest vocals from Cover Reber of Saosin and a collaboration with Page Hamilton of Helmet, shows the Atlanta-based band moving toward a mature sound and experimental vibe.
"We never really want to set a sound for ourselves [because] we never know what it’s gonna be like until we’re done – it just sort of happens," says Henry. Rhapsody caught up with Henry on the Warped Tour to find out more about what went into the making of the new album.
What's new? What's good? What will you find here that you won't hear
anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the
premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on Rhapsody!
This week:
Death Cab For Cutie, KFOG Private Concert (Rhapsody Exclusive)
On this exclusive EP, Death Cab For Cutie get all hush-hush (even
more than usual) with five acoustic takes on some of the finer songs from
their last two albums.
Delta Spirit, Ode to Sunshine (Rhapsody Premiere, Exclusive)
This newish San Diego band plays an intoxicating brand of soul-rock that
calls to mind everyone from the Strokes to Dexy's Midnight Runners to
Traffic.
Backyard Tire Fire, The Places We Lived (Rhapsody Premiere)
No Depression-style country played with a deft and subtle touch. Backyard Tire Fire spin yarns about the heartbreak found in everyday life.
J.J. Grey & Mofro, Orange Blossoms (Rhapsody Premiere)
Firey
blues-rock from the Florida panhandle. J.J. Grey & Mofro concoct a
sticky, syrupy sweet mix of Southern rock and soul.
Song: Chicago Zoo
Album: Black Mags
Artist: Cool Kids
Selected by: Toshi Kondo
Date: August 19, 2008
Chicago’s Cool Kids blend a futuristic electronic sound with a gritty retro feel. Sans gratuitousness, they capture the essence of their city, deftly tossing around gang references and lines about fly fishing.
Can you do a Yurchenko two-and-a-half, an Onodi, a Tkatchev, a Gienger, a Pak salto, a Stalder shoot, a triple full -- wait, let’s make this easier -- can you do a cartwheel? We know you’ve been practicing your best “stick-it” moment since watching the one-two winning punch of gymnasts Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson in Beijing. But how about saving yourself a trip to the hospital and impress your friends with some Olympic trivia that has nothing to do with Michael Phelps, or um, Michael Phelps.
Song: Boots of Spanish Leather
Album: Spirit
Artist: Dervish
Selected by: Sarah Bardeen
Date: August 18, 2008
Bob Dylan made it famous, but Irish folksters Dervish give "Spanish Boots" new life. The song reels and pitches like a ship at sea, while Kathy Jordan's voice spins the song's lyrical pathos into a delicate golden thread.
by Jen Guyre
(Photo by Christina Keller)
On a hot Saturday afternoon in
Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.
Autumn's approach means the arrival of some of the year's most anticipated albums. For fans of contemporary disco, next week is the week as Lindstrom's new album, Where You Go I Go Too, finally arrives. Released on Smalltown Supersound -- the Norwegian label that's home to acts like Bjørn Torske, 120 Days, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Tussle, Jazzkammer, Jaga Jazzist et al -- Where You Go is by far the most "avant" of Lindstrom's recordings so far. The opening track is almost a half-hour long, and another runs to almost 16 minutes. (In fact, there are only three songs on the whole album.) Beyond that, the record is far less stereotypically "disco" than most of Lindstrom's work until now: gone are the oonce-oonce beats and the randy handclaps, and in their place are chugging arpeggios that construct great, arcing forms that feel almost architectural in nature. Influenced by synth addicts like Manuel Gottsching and Jan Hammer, it's sprawling, ambitious and, not to put too fine a point on it, breathtaking. To tide you over 'til next week, then, here are three of Lindstrom's best jams to date.
Song: A Gentle Sound (Demo)
Album: Listen On: The Best of the Railway Children
Artist: Railway Children
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: August 15, 2008
While the Smiths had the highest "great song" ratio of just about any English indie pop band during the '80s, the Railway Children released a few gentle gems of their own. Lead singer-songwriter Gary Newby also revisited his 1987 song with an equally lovely acoustic ballad version on the album Gentle Sound in 2005.
by Jen Guyre
Of all the mammoth metal tours vying to fill an absent Ozzfest's spot this summer, none is more likely to dominate than the first annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. Organized by the same folks responsible for the Warped Tour, Mayhem features a well-stocked lineup of mainstays and underground heroes: Slipknot, Disturbed, Mastodon, Dragonforce, Machine Head, Red Chord, 36 Crazyfists, Underoath, Airbourne, Walls of Jericho and more. Plus, there's even a little X-Games action thrown into the mix. Not bad for an inaugural run, huh? Enjoy this Rhapsody photo gallery, Barrage of Bedlam, a blow-by-blow account of all the fest highlights as it hit New York on August 6.
More Rhapsody.com Photo Galleries:
Symphony of Destruction: The 10th Annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival
Album Cover Smackdown
Tangled Up in Hues: Excellence in Rock Portraiture
The hip-hop world buzzed yesterday about the revelation from Olympic gold medalist/new national icon Michael Phelps listens to Lil’ Wayne before his swim meets. (The admission comes just before the minute mark in the above video.) But, really, this is only surprising for those of us who expected Phelps to sustain himself on binaural transmissions via his aqua-men overlords. After all, who doesn’t listen to Lil’ Wayne in 2008? Barack does. When I visited my 83-year-old grandmother last month, I caught her singing “A Milli” while knitting an afghan and sipping Ovaltine. The only thing strange here is that our new pop laureate is a syrup-addled rat-boy whose lyrics read like hydrogen-jukebox stream of consciousness meets Richard Pryor in the V.I.P. room of Magic City. After spending the '90s sweating alien invasion, it’s as if we’ve collectively said, “Screw it, bring on the martians.” But I digress. It’s nice to know that Phelps is a little like us, and more importantly, we’re all a little like Mike.
Further Listening: Michael Phelps' Rhapsody Playlist
Song: Toll Road
Album: Astrological Straits
Artist: Zach Hill
Selected by: Justin Farrar
Date: August 14, 2008
Zach Hill drums like a Chernobyl-mutated octopus, creating one of the most complex grooves ever recorded. At least that’s how it sounds. Even better are all the nifty little pop hooks. Who knew a combination of prog rock and spazz noise could be as candy coated as this? Amazing!
by Chris Ryan
In 1994, AZ made a decisively nihilistic splash on the hip-hop scene with his infamous hook on Nas' "Life's a B*tch." With early classics like Doe or Die and underrated recent releases like A.W.O.L.,
the emcee's emcee and New York legend has created a rare thing in hip-hop: a constantly
evolving, always consistent body of work. We talked with AZ about his
new collaboration with the mixtape DJ, Absolut, the state of
independent hip-hop and some of his classic cuts.
by Chuck Eddy
Song: Burn
Album: Crime
Artist: Against Me!
Selected by: Tim Quirk
Date: August 13, 2008
With nary a distortion pedal in sight (indeed, with little instrumentation beyond some fiercely strummed acoustic guitars and beleaguered drums), Tom Gabel still manages to out-punk your average tattooed media darling. The insane tempo helps (you have no idea what he’s howling about till he slows down near the end and you can make out, “It’ll burn, burn, burn/ Like they did to the anarchists … like the history they stole from us”), but mostly it’s just the unmistakable sense that his righteous indignation is real.
Despite their sporadic releases and refusal to cleave to one genre, Plastilina Mosh has become known as a major influence on the Latin alternative scene. In the 1990s, they were part of the first wave of rock bands to emerge from Monterrey, Mexico, an industrial city some critics have dubbed the Seattle of Mexico. They innovatively fused rock, hip-hop and electronica in ways that are still influencing newer bands like Kinky. Their standing was only cemented when they recently signed with Nacional Records, home to alternative heroes like Manu Chao and Nortec Collective. We caught up with lead singer Jonaz Gonzalez a week after All U Need Is Mosh dropped. He waxed eloquent on video games (loves them), his favorite bands (many), and who would win a fight to the death -- Plastilina Mosh or new Latin alt sensation Ximena Sariñana, who sings on their new release (guess who wins).
by Chuck Eddy
Earlier this year here, I included David Banner on my definitive list of 50 musical artists who’d gotten worse with every subsequent album they made, for their entire careers. The post clearly had some oversights on it - how I neglected to include the Replacements is beyond me, and it’s a total crime that the Flaming Lips were left off the “25 bands who peaked with their debut EP” roster. And now I have to eat my words about Banner, too, seeing how I'm pretty sure his new The Greatest Story Ever Told is a whole lot better than 2005’s Certified.
What's new? What's good? What will you find here that you won't hear
anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the
premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on Rhapsody!
This week:
Clipse, Rhapsody Originals (Rhapsody Exclusive)
On this exclusive live EP, Clipse perform three songs from their critically adored Hell Hath No Fury, lighting up the Austin, Texas, stage with tales of the highs and lows of the drug game.
Stereolab, Chemical Chords (Rhapsody Premiere)
With their ninth studio album, the analog-synth wielding, Krautrock-rocking, French-language-singing Marxists revise their well-worn, much-loved template with some of their best songs in years.
Ha Ha Tonka, Rhapsody Originals (Rhapsody Exclusive)
This Missouri outfit are making a name for themselves as a rowdy barroom indie rock band. On this exclusive live EP, they kick out the jams (well, four of 'em) from their debut album, Buckle in the Bible Belt.
Alex Woodard, Alex Woodard (Rhapsody Premiere)
Tried and true American folk-rock in the vein of Mellencamp, Petty and Dylan. Alex Woodard ties his literate, narrative-driven lyrics to a jet-engine rhythm.
Song: Walk on By
Album: Hot Buttered Soul
Artist: Isaac Hayes
Selected by: Sam Chennault
Date: August 12, 2008
Few songs in the American catalog are as powerful as Isaac Hayes' '69 epic "Walk on By." From the yearning tension of the introductory strings to the hypnotic swirl of the rhythm section, the song seems to evoke the full spectrum of human emotion. The lyrics are all the more fragile due to Hayes' powerful baritone. Like Hayes himself, this song is without peer.
For over a decade, Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli has delivered a steady stream of sharp, thought-provoking albums and mixtapes. He scored his greatest chart success with 2007’s Eardrum, which he released on his own Blacksmith Records. We sat down with Talib to discuss Internet leaks, the state of hip-hop and what he hopes to achieve with his label.
by Chuck Eddy
Isaac Hayes never could say goodbye. And if few of us anticipated that the Black Moses would finally cross over to the other side -- on Sunday, as has been widely reported, his wife discovered his body next to a still-running treadmill in their suburban Memphis home, and he was pronounced dead an hour later -- maybe it's because he always gave the impression that he could last forever. In fact, that was the main point of some of his best music.
Song: We Made Our Way, We Amtrakked
Album: I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke and Laura
Artist: Pas/Cal
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: August 11, 2008
You know Amtrak has serious image problems when even crazy-high gas prices aren’t helping drive North Americans to trains. Pas/Cal, the retro-grooved Detriot indie-pop band, come to the rescue by spinning such an adventurous train yarn that Amtrak ridership of the Michigan-Toronto corridor is bound to spike any minute now.
Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.
You know what's been strange about this season? There hasn't been a monster hit from Alter Ego, nor from its more visible member Roman Flügel. (His partner, Jörn Elling Wuttke, keeps a much lower solo profile.) For a while there, the Frankfurt musicians set the tone for the summer: in 2004, with Alter Ego's bruising "Rocker," and then again in 2005 with Flügel's "Geht's Noch?" After kitting out "Rocker" with remixes from the likes of dub-stepper Plasticman, Eric Prydz and more, Alter Ego returned at the end of 2007 with Why Not?!, a cheeky slab of aggro electro-techno, but none of that album's singles managed to take off in quite the same way. This spring, Alter Ego released What's Next?!, a collection of remixes from the last LP. The title seems to suggest a certain degree of top-of-their-game anxiety, which might be warranted: even reworks from such hot properties as Supermayer, Joakim, Modeselektor and Carl Craig haven't generated much interest in the record. What's next might just be a return to the underground values that have always dominated Flügel's labels Klang, Ongaku and Playhouse. The truth is, Flügel's and Alter Ego's hits have always felt like flukes. Instead of waiting for another chart-topper, here's some back catalog to check out.
John Legend and Estelle thread pop’s past with its future. Over the past five years, Legend has emerged as one of pop’s most talented and popular young stars. His refined take on neo-soul borrows as much from the classic pop of Burt Bacharach as it does the '70s soul boogie of Stevie Wonder, and hits “Save Room” and “Ordinary People” are sweet lovers' lullabies that will haunt Valentines Day for years to come. Given the elegance and versatility of his music, it’s little surprise that the first signee to his fledgling HomeSchool label is the talented and eclectic U.K. emcee/chanteuse Estelle. Originally hailed as the Brit's answer to Lauryn Hill, Estelle stepped out of that shadow this year with her critically acclaimed stateside debut, Shine. With contributions from Wyclef, Cee-Lo, Kanye and John Legend, the album is smart, polished and fun. After linking up for a chat with her and Legend, it’s obvious that Estelle’s music mirrors her personality.
by Chris Ryan
Things Bono has on Google News Alert: "economic justice," "world bank," "Africa," "Brian Eno Oblique Strategies Cards Ebay Auction," "peace," "war," "Prada," and evidently, "David Fricke's Rolling Stone review of U2's 1980 debut album Boy." And when the last one of those flew across his reader the other day, he exercised his sacred human rights. He took to the comments section of the Rolling Stone website and let it be known what he knew about the recording of said album and what he thought of Fricke's take.
Song: La Verdad
Album: La Verdad
Artist: Locos Por Juana
Selected by: Rachel Devitt
Date: August 8, 2008
Most of this track is just your "standard" Afro-Cuban pan-Latin dub-rock (ha!). But when the electro-Andean-flute sample with a kind of hip-hop santeria beat kicks in about 55 seconds in, you'll know Locos Por Juana is really onto something.
It didn’t take long for Brooklyn’s MGMT to make the jump from playing shows as goofs in college to touring with Of Montreal and signing to Columbia Records. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wygarden make up the electro-rock duo that aren’t afraid to flaunt their wide range of influences, from classic rock to disco. We spoke with Goldwasser about touring, recording and why they don’t want to be called “psychedelic.”
by Chuck Eddy
George Strait and Randy Travis were both handed permanent positions on country’s list of immortals years ago, but I’ve never quite bought it. They both have undeniably handsome voices, sure, and there’s no gainsaying their greatest moments - Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning” and “The Cowboy Rides Away” (heck, all of Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind), and Travis’ Old 8 x 10. What they’ve always lacked is personalities - compare, say, fellow ‘80s “neo-traditionalist” John Anderson, who started out right around the same time, and has been by far the more interesting artist (with 10 times the vocal distinction), for a quarter-century now. But where the other two guys are allowed to rest on their laurels forever, Nashville acts as if Anderson is, like, this weird uncle.
Song: Come Out
Album: Early Works
Artist: Steve Reich
Selected by: Justin Farrar
Date: August 7, 2008
In 1966, New York minimalist Steve Reich looped a sound bite from a television news interview with a child from Harlem, and in the process, created a chunk of electronic funk that predates krautrock, Funkadelic, fusion-era Miles and of course, hip-hop. “Come Out” is both brilliant and deeply hypnotic. Crank it.
by Chris Ryan
Jesse McCartney -- a.k.a. the white Justin Timberlake -- recently spent some of his free time over at the Yahoo Pepsi Smash studio and recorded a live sesh, and we've got the live video to prove it. Above, J-Mac performs his The-Dream-penned smash hit "Leavin'" with a band featuring a rhythm section that look scooped straight out of the DJ Khaled WE THE BEST Traveling Revue and some backup singers plucked out of an AP English classroom at Exeter. Enjoy the vid, and read more musings that flirt with logic here, in our dissection of The-Dream's oeuvre.
Further Viewing:
Jesse McCartney's Yahoo!/Pepsi Smash Performance
Further Reading:
Who Is Nikki? [PLAY]
by Chuck Eddy
Alejandro Escovedo’s albums now come with a myth attached - the 57-year-old roots-rock journeyman nearly succumbed to hepatitis C a half-decade ago, after all. No doubt his hard-luck backstory helps explain why the alt-country purists at No Depression absurdly chose him as the Artist of the Decade for the ‘90s. And where his 2006 The Boxing Mirror mostly sounded like mood music ready for a romantic indie movie about the desert, complete with noirish scene-setting not quite worthy of Stan Ridgway and guitars occasionally bunching up for dramatic effect, his new Real Animal is more sharply defined bar rock. Fortunately, glam-happy Tony Visconti produced the thing.
by Jen Guyre
Dayton, Ohio, pop-punks
Song: Creep
Album: Crazysexycool
Artist: TLC
Selected by: Angela Bruno
Date: August 6, 2008
If you're feeling sinister – or hosting a silk-pajama jam -- this is your song. T-Boz, Left Eye and Chili show no remorse as they rationalize their way through this tale of infidelity. A woman's got to do what a woman's got to do. Moral of the story: don't sleep.
Harken yonder ear towards the Northwestern horizon, to where the teen spirit's roar has been replaced by the meditative classic strains of iron and of wine, of horses and of...foxes. Listen closely: it's the sound of a new Sub Pop-blessed vibe, and Lord knows we hear it too. Thus for this latest installment of "John Norris Interviews...," we sent our very own man with a microphone to confront Summer '08's most celebrated purveyors of the Seattle pastoral folk-pop scene, Fleet Foxes. John talks to singer-songwriter Robin Pecknold and his merry band of harmony-and-soul providers about their baby steps out of the coffee-and-Grunge capital, about their recent leap into the indie-rock limelight and their inspirations. Don't wanna hear the chatter? Fast forward to the third part of the video to check out an exclusive acoustic performance of "White Winter Hymnal."
Further Reading:
"The Most Unlikely Breakout Band of the Year" [MTV News]
Further Viewing:
More "John Norris Interviews ..." [PLAY]
What's new? What's good? What will you find here that you won't hear anywhere else this week? Sit back, relax and click through to the premieres, the originals and the exclusives available only on Rhapsody! This week:
Janelle Monae, Metropolis (Rhapsody Premiere)
With pipes like Shirley Bassey and a decidedly Ziggy Stardust-way of looking at things, Janelle Monae bursts on to the scene with this bizarre-but-funky concept record about an alien/robot in love with a human.
Jennifer O'Connor, Here With Me (Rhapsody Premiere)
Brooklyn-based alt-country siren presents a polished version of the urban rock'n'twang sound. Here With Me features buoyant numbers full of tasteful playing and gorgeous harmonies that float for miles.
Various Box-Sets (Rhapsody MP3 Deal)
So, a few weeks ago, we here at Rhapsody inadvertantly ran a heavily discounted box-set promotion (your friendly neighborhood message board may have made note of it). At first we said, "ooops;" but it worked out so well, we decided to do it again, on purpose. So for a limited-time only, we want to offer you MP3 box-sets from the likes of Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Bob Marley, Black Sabbath, and Thelonious Monk, at a great big discount. It's not like we're giving it away - but its close.
Song: Surrender Your Sons
Album: The Anti-Mother
Artist: Norma Jean
Selected by: Jen Guyre
Date: August 5, 2008
Christian metalcore mainstays Norma Jean collaborated with Chino Moreno of the Deftones to write this song, and tapped both him and Cove Reber of Saosin for vocals. How did that come about? Norma Jean would leave Chino and company gifts at the nightclubs they played. They finally met up and found that the admiration was mutual.
Hip-hop has become a global phenomenon, but the popularity of U.S. superstars such as Nas and 50 Cent tends to drown out the flows of lesser-known artists from countries like Senegal and France. Nomadic Wax, a small New York-based label, is trying to rectify this, giving emcees from around the globe a platform to start making waves of their own, while giving the rest of us a chance to listen in.
by Chuck Eddy
Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III sold well over a milli in its first week, and it’s been out nearly a month. And in the current stupid climate, that makes it almost ancient history by now. If you’re inclined to ever have an opinion about the thing, chances are you already have one and yours is worth as much as mine—maybe more. What took me so long is that, sometime in the past two years, having a Lil Wayne opinion changed from something fun into just another music-critic obligation; all those biz-bucking unofficial releases - which I realize have some great songs, but which I have neither the time nor money nor energy to keep up with - didn’t help. And now Tha Carter III seems destined to wind up Weezy’s most overrated album for the same reason 2002’s 500 Degreez is his most underrated album - because of how much they sold, or didn’t.
Song: Same Ol' Story
Album: Bring Ya to the Brink
Artist: Cyndi Lauper
Selected by: Rachel Devitt
Date: August 4, 2008
Madonna may have the behind of a 20-year-old, but when it comes to
dance-floor divadom, Cyndi could kick it any day of the week. Cyndi Lauper follows up her True Colors tour with an album full of "family"-friendly tracks like this fierce club banger.
by Angela Bruno
When Lil' Wayne inevitably drops "Comfortable," featuring Babyface -- because it's great and because the way things are going, he's on track to release every song on Tha Carter III as a single -- freak-nasty rapper Khia's destiny will be re-shaped ... for probably all of two weeks. Thanks to Weezy's lyric on the track, "Your back, your neck/ Funny how that song hasn't got old yet -- to us," Khia's 2002 way, way TMI anthem "My Neck, My Back," which got old to everybody who could not suppress their gag reflex pretty much immediately, will, says my crystal ball, probably enjoy a few spins in 2008 for the sake of nostalgic/irony.
Concentric Pleasures is a blog column dedicated to the best in electronic singles: house, techno, their cousins and offspring. Named in honor of vinyl's grooves, it's a weekly roundup of new releases and back-catalog finds.
Last month, New Yorker pop critic Sasha Frere-Jones lamented that there's not yet a notable "song of the summer" (or as NY Mag explained it, a new "Umbrella"). Back in May, I had suggested a few tracks to him that I suspected would be big on dance floors this summer. The sad truth of the matter is that I've barely been clubbing in the past few months. But the positions of these tracks on DJ charts and in sales rankings suggest that all of these tunes are getting big play—as though you couldn't figure that out from their sonics alone.
Song: A Family Affair
Album: And Don't The Kids Just Love It
Artist: Television Personalities
Selected by: Justin Farrar
Date: August 1, 2008
“A Family Affair” is the kind of simple melody that popped up on early ’60s radio about 20 times a day. But here, it turns desperate. Reverb masks Dan Treacy’s every word until the very end when he mumbles, "I telephoned you today, but all that I got was the answering machine/ Please help me ..."
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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