January 2010 Archives

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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out David Guetta talking about his Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 3
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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band feat. Rick Vito talking about their Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 4
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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out Sean Paul, talking about his Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 5
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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out Ledisi talking about her Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 6
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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out Sarah Jarosz, talking about her Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 7
harmonbanner.jpg

The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out Sheri Jones-Moffett, talking about her Grammy experience.

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The 52nd annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles, and Rhapsody was there to mix it up with a few of the nominees, including Weird Al, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Mick Fleetwood and more. Check out Weird Al Yankovic talking about his Grammy experience.

CONTINUE WATCHING Rhapsody's GRAMMY coverage PT. 2

The Grammy's Greatest Misses

grammy_misses_575x225.jpg Nirvana, the Beach Boys and every other band listed in this article are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Click here to sign up for a free trial and see what we’re all about.

The Grammys sometimes present some weird nominations, ranging from the dinosaurish (someone on the nominating committee has a serious Steely Dan fixation) to the simply flabbergasting (James Taylor, Paul McCartney, and Ben Harper all got pop nominations. Last year). And though the awards usually manage to come through and pick a winner most people can agree on, there are those winners that make some fans -- or, you know, the whole country -- collectively go, "Whaaaa?" In honor of the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards coming up this Sunday, we're cataloging some of the biggest misses by the awards show whose job it is to pick the hits.

Almost Christian Artists

xtian_goes_secular_575x225.jpg Jessica, Nick and every other Christian or former Christian artist listed in this article are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Click here to take a free trial and see what we’re all about.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Britney and Justin were Mouseketeers, LeAnn Rimes battled it out on Star Search and Paula Abdul first practiced her moves courtside as a Laker Girl. Meanwhile, other young artists took a detour of another sort on their way to superstardom: through the world of contemporary Christian music.

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Corinne Bailey Rae's new single, "I'd Do It All Again," has been up on Rhapsody for a few weeks now, and it's a real keeper.

The song starts out quiet and acoustic but slowly builds in intensity, with flashes of swirling psychedelic soul.  The lyrics seem to address her confusion and mixed emotions surrounding her late husband's very avoidable demise.

Rae's 2006 debut was a critical and commercial success, and shifted a couple million units in America (which is rare for an artist who sings with a noticeable English accent). Such elders as Al Green -- whose laid-back, slowly building style is an obvious influence -- and Herbie Hancock were impressed and immediately recorded with her.

Her new CD, The Sea, is more sonically varied than her debut was, but it still shines with her patented mix of neo-soul and traditional singer-songwriter pop (which can position her closer to acoustic-guitar-toting males like Bill Withers, Amos Lee and Ben Harper than to flashier talents such as Alicia Keys or Leona Lewis). It was Led Zep that originally inspired CBR to pick up the guitar, and she's covered them, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye.

Before digging into The Sea, take this Rhapsody tour of Rae's earlier recordings. She's done a number of interesting collaborations, cover versions and guest appearances in a very short period of time.
 
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Justin, Nick and every other band listed in this article are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Click here to take a free trial and see what we’re all about.


Though it's hard (well, hard for grown-ups, anyway) to think of them as separate entities, the Jonas Brothers were once just the siblings of Nick Jonas, whose burgeoning solo career turned into the family trio we all know and love. Thus, the "talented one" taking off on his own with new side project Nick Jonas and the Administration seems inevitable, if somewhat heartbreaking to tweens the world over. His rock-band move on the new Who I Am is also part of a longstanding tradition of seemingly frivolous pop stars suddenly presenting themselves in a more serious light. Herewith, a history of some who've trod this oft-dangerous path before -- both successfully, and not so much.
The Monkees, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967) and Head (1968): The Prefab Four take control of their destiny and explore your psychedelic mind. Hey hey they're the Monkees, and people say they're Moogin' around.
The Osmonds, "Crazy Horses" and "Hold Her Tight" (1972): Donny and his brothers invent Mormon metal, inspiring bands from Aerosmith to KMFDM for years to come. You want Big Love? Well, this is as big as it got.
Bob Geldof, "This Is the World Calling" (1986): From singing about Hitler's girlfriend in partially pajama-clad New Wave goof-punk band the Boomtown Rats to a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in three easy steps. You think it's easy? Try it sometime.
George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990): Okay, so he'd already put waking-you-up-before-you-go-go Wham!dom long behind him, and 1987's Faith earned him some well-deserved respect. But here's where he started to get really pretentious.
Poison and Cinderella and Warrant, various vaguely grungey albums (early '90s): Those mascara days were different times, and now hair-metal bands were ready to dress like real men, play the blues and move far fewer units than back when they actually used to have fun. Then they lost their hair. And went country.
Alanis Morrissette, Jagged Little Pill (1995): Ha ha, you keep forgetting she made those two teenage Canadian dance-pop albums before she started wailing about performing questionable acts in theaters, right? Well, we remember. Even though we're still pretty sure Canadians can't dance.
Vanilla Ice, Hard to Swallow (1998): Yup yup -- stupid people never appreciated the awesome artistry of "Ice Ice Baby," so what do you do, Robbie Van Winkle? Turn into the next Fred Durst, that's what! People will take you seriously for sure now!
Justin Timberlake, Justified (2002): 'NSYNC had Justin like the Jackson 5 had Michael, so it only made sense when the curly-headed cutie went solo. More than just a means of capitalizing on his boy-band fame, J.T. used his solo career (and Timbaland's help) to take off in bolder, more mature directions, and inch ever closer to M.J.'s brand of pop royalty.
Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (2004): To many, Gwen's breakaway from No Doubt simply completed the picture of the band sketched in "Don't Speak": hot female lead singer hogs spotlight. But her solo career has also served to justify that attention, which she gets because she's captivating performing anything from mall-punk ska to show-tune hip-hop.
Jonas, Timberlake and Stefani writeups by Rachel Devitt.
Join Dan and Justin from the Wisconsin indie-rock band Maritime, as they take us on a tour of their favorite spots in Madison, Wisconsin.


Haiti Donate.jpg Since a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, people around the world have mobilized, searching for ways to help this tiny nation in its time of need.

The good news is, you can help. Right now, the biggest need is money -- money to get supplies to people, fly in doctors, set up clinics, clear the rubble, re-establish some basic services. In time, as Haiti rebuilds, there will be a need for goods and services. But right now, money will grease the wheels to keep this massive relief effort going.

The following organizations will evenly split the proceeds from Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief, which will air Friday, January 22 at 8 p.m. on major television networks and websites, including this one. You can donate during the event, or reach out this minute and give directly to the organizations, using the links below.

Hope for Haiti Now Charities
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
Oxfam America
Partners In Health
American Red Cross
UNICEF
United Nations World Food Programme
Yele Haiti Foundation

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David Bowie and every other artist listed here are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we’re all about.

For a long time, the Classic Rock Crate Digger totally loathed David Bowie, particularly his golden period, 1970 to ’77. On so many of his so-called classic albums (Ziggy, Diamond Dogs, Heroes, et al.), he sounds like a glam-rock/New Wave charlatan constantly nicking tricks from far superior artists, including a few personal heroes: Scott Walker, Brian Eno and the perennially overlooked Peter Hammill. If that wasn’t enough, too many of his fans seem to possess a blind devotion that is more than a little annoying. I swear, at least 75% of the fanatics that I’ve met regard the guy as some kind of post-modern genius, the be-all and end-all of everything that's avant garde. Meanwhile, so few of these same people have ever even heard, say, Hammill’s Chameleon in the Shadow of Night or Walker’s Scott 4.

Then something happened. I watched the incredible documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, and it changed my mind. Sort of.

Bowie, in addition to serving as executive producer, is one of the primary interviewees, and the guy really shines. First off, he doesn’t take himself seriously at all (no post-modern baloney dripping from his trap). What we've learned from Velvet Goldmine notwithstanding, he’s a rock 'n' roll fan boy, just like you and me and the little snot down the street snorting crushed Ritalin and cranking the White Stripes. That’s cool. More importantly, Bowie acknowledges the debt he owes the artists who have inspired him through the years. He wants his fans to track down all the cool underground stuff he digs.

Now, I still find his music dull as river rock, and I’ll explain why: in order to sell his art-rock vision to the mainstream, he had to cleanse his influences of their most volatile, and interesting, idiosyncrasies -- not pop enough for the masses, apparently. Yet those are the things I’m most into -- the weird stuff. Oh well. The important thing is that I no longer hate David Bowie. In fact, having a cocktail with him and talking jams sounds like it would be a total blast. Maybe Geraldo can come, too.

A lot of the artists Bowie has championed over the years (Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, T. Rex) are very nearly as famous as he is, nowadays. Nevertheless, I thought it would be cool to give a brief rundown of some of the musicians and records that inspired the, uh, Thin White Duke (always hated that phrase).


Hope for Haiti Now

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Rhapsody is proud to join major television networks and websites in broadcasting Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief. The telethon will feature performances by a superstar lineup that includes Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Taylor Swift, Shakira, Sting, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder and many more. It will be hosted by Wyclef Jean, George Clooney and CNN's Anderson Cooper, and all proceeds from the event will benefit Haitian earthquake relief efforts. See video streaming of excerpts from the concert, and click here to purchase MP3s of the performances for $.99 per song, with proceeds benefiting Haiti relief funds managed by Hope for Haiti Now charities. Enjoy the spectacle, but more importantly, open your wallet and give generously -- lives are at stake.



The Haitian story is more than just about this tragic event. From rara to kompa, the country has a rich musical heritage that has been been influential in the development of Caribbean music and has been largely overlooked by American audiences. We've scoured our extensive musical catalog to provide you an overview of the country's rich artistic legacy. We invite you to look below and dig deeper to explore its people's vibrant music and culture,


Haitian Love Song


Love Song: A
Brief History of Haitian Music
Play!
Donate to Haiti


Donate: Find out how you can help Haiti
Play!
Classic Haitian Music


Discover: Classic Haitian Music
Play!
Gaga Radio


Listen: Haiti Newest Music and Biggest Hits
Play!
Haiti and Beyond


World Picks: The Biggest Hits from Haiti and Beyond
Play!
Gay Pop


Explore: The Music of the Caribbean
Play!
Bobby Charles2.jpgVery sad news: Bobby Charles died on Thursday, January 14, in the morning, apparently. Though an exact cause of death has yet to be determined, the New Orleans composer and singer had been battling health problems for several years.

I love Charles’ music, yet I know very little about the guy. Then again, very few music writers do, outside of my pal Brian J. Barr, who wrote a fantastic profile on him for Oxford American’s 10th Annual Music Issue. Charles, according to the Seattle-based scribe, “kept a death-grip on his privacy and spent his last years in a two-bedroom trailer ‘with a wide deck on it outside Abbeville [Louisiana]. He told me there was a seafood restaurant he frequented near his home where the waitress would already be mixing his Grey Goose martini before he’d even finished parking his car. He ate alone and he lived alone.”

Bobby Charles, an ethnic Cajun, was more or less a major-league talent who didn’t like the spotlight, who didn’t crave fame and fortune -- just a martini and some killer seafood. This means a lot of music fans out there don’t understand his impact, which is considerable. First off, he’s a legend in New Orleans music. If you’re a legend in the city that gave birth to the very idea of an “American sound,” then you’re a pretty big deal just about everywhere else, from New York to Des Moines to ... Seattle. Much like fellow Big Easy great Allen Toussaint, Charles devoted a good chunk of his career to writing songs for others and in the process had a hand in creating several genres including swamp pop, Southern R&B and hell, even rock 'n' roll its bad self. In the 1950s and ’60s, he penned a string of pop standards, namely “But I Do,” which Clarence "Frogman" Henry had a major hit with; "Walking to New Orleans,” the Fats Domino classic, and the Bill Haley No. 1 “See You Later, Alligator,” a song whose title threaded itself into the very fabric of the American lexicon.

Other chestnuts include “The Jealous Kind,” “Why Are People Like That” and the ballad “Tennessee Blues” (a sublime version of which J.D. Crowe & the New South, with a young Keith Whitley on lead vocals, recorded for their 1978 album My Home Ain't In the Hall of Fame).

A Love Song for Haiti

emeline_michel575x225.jpgThe news out of Haiti is bad, to put it mildly. International aid efforts are still only a trickle, hardly enough yet to help hundreds of thousands of people who have no shelter, no water, little food and a lot of death around them. The world is watching obsessively, visions of Katrina and the tsunami not exactly dancing in our heads. Get it right this time, we all seem to be silently imploring the powers that be.

Not that we have that much power. So Rhapsody has decided to pay tribute to this tiny nation the only way we know how -- by celebrating its music. Take a journey with us via our Haitian music sampler, learn about Haiti's musical history after the jump, and while you're at it, please take the time to donate to one of the relief agencies participating in "Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit For Earthquake Relief," which will air Friday, January 22nd on major television networks and websites, including this one. Learn more about the event, watch it and find links to the participating charities here.

And don't forget to sign up for your free trial if you haven't already ... because Rhapsody subscribers have access to all this great music, all the time.

Simon Says No Longer

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Joining the ranks of such illustrious names as Berry Gordy, Phil Spector and Moammar Kadafi (he managed the Chi-Lites), music mogul Simon Cowell has built an empire for himself based almost entirely on the fact that he is a jerk -- a smug, smarmy, pompous, insolent British jerk (actually, one of the 100 worst, according to one poll) whose only talent is for actually being all of those things. And the best part is -- we love him for it! We love watching him dole out his snide, cutting remarks to hopeful contestants whose big dream is to entertain the masses with the music of their hearts -- screw them! More than anything else, it's Simon that makes American Idol worth watching. He's the mountain standing in the way of performers and their dreams, the one that's close to impossible to surmount and that makes reaching the top that much sweeter. So what are we gonna do now that the dude's announced his exit from the show in 2010? Confronted with this harrowing reality, we compiled a list of possible replacements, names that bring to the table a special mix of Simon's rare gifts, as well as a few of their own.
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Ke$ha and all the other girl next doors -- past, present and future -- are yours to listen to and share whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.

You may have heard of a little smash hit that's been crowding the airwaves lately called "Tik-Tok." On one hand, the song is an ode to the kind of debaucherous, decadent partying many of us have never experienced: a kind of aural Girls Gone Wild or The Simple Life. On the other, however, unlike her equally wild contemporaries such as Lady Gaga, who revel in and exacerbate their freaky-deaky alien-ness, there's something accessible, suburban, maybe even all-American about Ke$ha. Her predilections for brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack aside, Ke$ha somehow still manages to come off like the kind of girl many of us might know, maybe even the kind of girl many of us could actually be -- you know, if we had Paris Hilton's number in our cell or the nerve to break into Prince's house. She is, in short, a type of girl next door, albeit a kind of G.N.D. 2.0 -- an all-American sweetheart for the post-"... Baby One More Time," post-"I Kissed a Girl" era in which the girls you grew up with aren't always sugar and spice and everything nice (not that they ever were) and are, quite frankly, maybe a little sick of being so good. Ke$ha's ability to balance extreme brazenness with accessibility got us thinking about how the image of the girl next door has changed over the decades of pop music history. We present to you the stages of evolution of the G.N.D., from Annette Funicello to The Girls Next Door. (And for a playlist of all the artists here, check out our The Girl Next Door through the Ages playlist!)

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Owl City, Postal Service, Brokencyde and every other band listed in this article are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we’re all about.



Owl City’s Adam Young may be only 23 years old, but he’s already beginning to look old-fashioned. The Billboard-topping artist, who was still living in his parents’ basement when he began recording music, established the foundations of his fan base via MySpace. (Remember MySpace?) Modeled on the sparkly electro-pop of the Postal Service, Owl City might even be considered a kind of retro undertaking. OK, it’s a stretch, but just think: the Postal Service’s lone album came out in 2003. That’s eons ago, in Internet years. In any case, Owl City’s blend of electronic production, emo songwriting and Web 2.0 community-building signaled a major aesthetic shift for the American underage set, reuniting punks with synths and bringing together the whole Hot Topic Nation under a cheerfully post-everything umbrella.

Now, nipping at Young’s heels comes a slew of musicians raised on the diversified diet that substitutes for monoculture these days: dance pop, emo, crunk, trance. Some of them, like Owl City, stick mainly to a twinkly sort of shtick you might call “tweemo”; others take pages from Lil Jon and Insane Clown Posse. But no matter whether they come across as shrinking violets or smirking violent offenders, they love their synths and their Auto-Tune. Whether you call it emotronica, crunk-punk or crabcore, it’s a crazy new world of American synth-pop, one that even Suicide surely never imagined. Check out a playlist, and read on for a who’s who in the bleeps ‘n’ bangs scene.




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Sade is yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.

Sade is one of the biggest recording stars in the world (more than 50 million CDs sold) and has the rare distinction of being beloved equally across every  continent on the planet (she's like a tabloid-free Michael Jackson or a mysterious and blessedly mum Madonna).

Sade's music appeals to Park Avenue divorcees, inner city parents trying to do right by their kids and millions in the developing world who are dealing with daily survival. The woman herself was born Helen Folasade Adu; Sade is actually the name of her band. But, darn if Sade hasn't become a popular name in black America.

Sade has somehow maintained her spot at the top of the pop charts even though she puts out new product only a little more frequently than J.D. Salinger. Her last studio album came out in 2000 -- a decade ago. She pops up once every 10 years or so and puts a very good album out and then goes on an extended world tour ... then fades away again.

Dean Wareham turned me on to the concept of "the fox and the hedgehog." Basically, artists who do one thing but do it very well (whether Degas or the Ramones) are hedgehogs. Artists (like Picasso and McCartney) who can do many different things very well are foxes.

Sade is one elegant, strikingly beautiful hedgehog. She has real talent, including the insight to understand her limitations and work within them. Her albums change (slightly) with the times,  but they never sound like anything but pure Sade. They don't need to sound like anything else.

Her fine new single, "Solder of Love" (listen to it now, if you haven't already), encapsulates the Sade style perfectly. Her music is often spare and minimalistic, with minor key shifts or tempo changes causing major emotional impact. People notice the sound and the style, but she is also an ace songwriter and lyricist who know how to put together a simple but cutting, highly memorable line. The opening lyric to "Soldier" is "I've lost the use of my heart." Ouch. Thematically, Sade albums dip into quick moments of happiness, but "Soldier" follows the trajectory of most of her tunes -- it paints an emotional portrait of someone who has been beaten down by the world but will somehow find the strength to survive.
 
Keep reading to take a look back at Sade's catalog. 

R.I.P. Teddy Pendergrass

teddy_pendergrass.575x225jpg.jpgTeddy Pendergrass, one of the finest soul singers of his generation, has passed away.

Pendergrass was a Philly drummer with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes when the star-making Gamble & Huff songwriting/production team noticed his backing vocals. They quickly made him leader singer of the group, much to the chagrin of a certain Mr. Melvin.

Pendergrass' ultra masculine, smokey vocals turned such Philly soul wonders as "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost" and "Bad Luck" into classics that are still widely heard today. An old Blue Notes hit, "Wake Up Everybody" was even reborn as a protest song during the 2000s. Like Pendergrass' best work, the song hadn't aged a day.

Teddy's star shone even brighter when he went solo. His single finest outing may just be "Love TKO," a blistering torch song with a relentless groove and a peerless Pendergrass vocal. The song is so sublime that millions were rumored to have ended relationships just so they could have the tune work its healing magic on them.

Pendergrass was enjoying a long string of platinum albums, hit singles and sold-out "ladies only" concerts when a 1982 car accident left him paralyzed. Pendergrass soon made a successful recording comeback and his typically sensual "You're My Choice Tonight" should have won the Oscar for best song for the Alan Rudolph cult movie Choose Me.

Teddy Pendergrass also worked tirelessly on behalf of others with spinal chord injuries and charitable work became his primary focus when he retired from music in 2006. He passed away from complications due to colon cancer surgery on January 13th, 2010.

Go here to listen to a stellar collection of Teddy Pendergrass hits on Rhapsody. Also, check out this swank TV appearance and see Pendergrass work his magic in front of a disco dancing audience. 
 

R.I.P. Jay Reatard

jay_reatard575x225.jpg Jay Reatard was the archetypal punk rocker: ridiculously talented, prolific, smart, totally weird, nihilistic, paranoid, tortured -- qualities worthy of worship balanced with traits most of us shamefully try to hide instead of embrace. Sadly, the multi-talented musician, born Jimmy Lee Lindsey, Jr., passed away on Wednesday, January 13, 2010, at the young age of 29.

An ace guitarist and singer-songwriter, Lindsey helped boost the garage rock scene in his hometown of Memphis, where he began recording at the tender age of 15. His first project was the Reatards (initially just him playing guitar, singing and adding his own DIY percussion). He went on to record and play with numerous local artists and bands -- Lost Sounds, Final Solutions, Nervous Patterns, among others. He eventually released his first solo record, Blood Visions, in 2006, before signing to indie label juggernaut Matador Records. He most recently released Watch Me Fall in early 2009.

Lindsey may not have been a household name, but he was a powerful force in the indie and rock worlds. Blood-soaked album covers, fist-fight-inducing performances, song titles like "Greed, Money, Useless Children" -- these were all sly diversions to keep the faint-of-heart away. But those who dared to listen, watch and revel in his talents got every bit of who he was: the good, the bad, the fun, the defiant, the gifted. Now that's punk rock.

Dig into Jay Reatard's catalog on Rhapsody, including exclusive live cuts of his performance at Rhapsody Rocks NYC in 2008.

2010_alt_indie575x225.jpg Ignore the naysayers, 2009 was a great year in indie rock. Since it's a new year and a new decade, we're going to keep that optimistic spirit afloat as we take a look into the future and gather excitement for our most anticipated albums. There are plenty of rumored releases for the year (Radiohead?! Arcade Fire?!), so we've decided to focus on the first quarter. Kicking off 2010 is the much ballyhooed release of Vampire Weekend's sophomore album, Contra. Here are 10 more to get giddy about. (And if you're really getting antsy, listen to our playlist featuring singles from many of these upcoming albums.)

And, of course, you can listen to these as soon as they come out with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about. 

2010_country575x225.jpg In the frenzy of year-end features, where albums naturally get put under the microscope, one thing became perfectly clear: although there were plenty of great singles on country radio in 2009, many of those songs were from albums released in 2008.

With music, things tend to go in cycles. If last year was a "zig" for the country format, this year is already shaping up to be a "zag," with many A-list artists -- and some interesting newcomers -- due to release new albums. Here are a few of the ones we're looking forward to the most.

And, of course, you can listen to these as soon as they come out with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.

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OK, yes, 2009 was a big year for pop powerhouses. But 2010 says, "Oh yeah? I'll see your Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Black Eyed Peas, and raise you first-name-basis divas like Christina, Amy, Janet, Missy and Usher." Throw in a little Katy Perry, Scissor Sisters and Kelis, and this year is looking fabulous and fierce. You know, if they actually manage to make these rumors realities. Cross your fingers with us as we count down the most anticipated pop albums of 2010 -- including the wildest rumors and up-and-comers to watch.

And, of course, you can listen to these as soon as they come out with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.

Attention Hip-Hop Writers

party-bullshit-mode-2.jpg Do you live, sleep and breathe hip-hop and aren’t afraid to voice your opinion on the subject? Rhapsody is looking for a handful of hip-hop experts to lead our new blog community. Your opinions (and knowledge) will be projected to Rhapsody’s hundreds of thousands of subscribers -- it’s a great chance to get exposure on one of the biggest stages available. And of course, we’ll provide all the technical assistance you need. If you’re interested, send two writing samples and a list of your top 10 albums from the previous year to schennault@rhapsody.com.
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Contra is yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.

Maybe it's just because they're already so far removed from their Ivy League days, but acclaimed Anglophile Afrophiles Vampire Weekend have a bit of writer's block on their inevitably chart-scaling second album, Contra. Oxford commas and New England commutes apparently don't cut it anymore once you're an indie-rock star, so you have to look for random rhymes for "horchata" instead. Which isn't to suggest they're not still obsessed with privilege. There's a very long song called "Diplomat's Son" that incongruously opens with an M.I.A. sample, and "California English" says something about "private schools" -- it's just harder to tell if they have anything clever to say about the topic.

V.W. have been singled out from the start as archetypes of the industry's accelerated hype cycle -- famous on the basis of just a couple of MySpace songs, months before the release of their first album. So it's less shocking that the sophomore slump would hit them than that they managed a fairly enjoyable debut in the first place. And it's not like Contra is a rehash; the title is a politically confused if presumably ironic reference to Sandinista!, the Clash's over-the-top-eclectic coffee-table triple LP from 1981, and the V.W.s do seem to broaden their own rhythmic palate across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, in their own prim way. "Holiday" sounds like Haircut 100 doing some jaunty ska oompah; there's something vaguely zoukish about "California English"; "Cousins," the single and least twee track, opens with a hard James Brown vamp that Pigbag might've bleated out in the '80s. Evidently they've been listening to Latin music, too. But mostly there's a sort of stiffened punk-funk clank not far from what was coming out of Brooklyn's more bohemian neighborhoods from bands like the Rapture and Radio 4 at the previous decade's outset. Which might be useful on hipster dancefloors if Vampire grooves didn't have a mysterious tendency to clumsily disentregrate almost as soon as they're established.
They get praised for putting "space" in their music, probably because of the plinky-plonky xylophones and fancy-pantsy string orchestrations. Which are cute, sometimes. But the melodies aren't there like before, and inevitably Contra's charming numbers are the ones kept short and speedy; when the band slows down and stretches out -- frequently so Ezra Koenig can pirouette two-syllables words into ten -- they're a snooze. Obviously the hiccuping and yelping, just like all the upper-crust affectations, are part of the concept. But even rich boys need hooks, right?

2010_anticipated_575x225.jpg This time every year there are always a slew of albums that are eagerly anticipated by music fans. Some turn out to be classics, some turn out to be duds, and some are never released at all. Here we've assembled what we think are the most promising prospective releases for 2010, broken out by genres. In the comments field, let us know your expectations for them, and whether there are some albums that you're looking forward to that aren't on this list.

And, of course, you can listen to these as soon as they come out with your Rhapsody subscription. Take a free trial and see what we're all about.    

Elvis75.jpg Elvis Presley was born January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Miss.

Happy 75th birthday, Elvis!

There is a fine new box set commemorating his entire recording career. Here is my Rhapsody review.

Elvis 75: Good Rockin' Tonight

This four-disc set celebrates the genius of Elvis Presley and illustrates how alive and relevant his music still is. It kicks off with a rare gem from 1953, followed by more songs from that decade, all of which crackle with the sound of revolution. The rest, which includes rockers, ballads, movie themes, concert cuts, novelties and gospel numbers, is not to be missed. Starting with 1968's "If I Can Dream" (his pained reaction to the MLK assassination), a new openness in Elvis appears, and the bruised but brilliant 1970s recordings showcase him working at new emotional heights. Elvis had it until the end -- here's hoping he's finally at peace.

It says something that week after week, month after month, Elvis is one of the most played artists in Rhapsody. I still get the same thrill from his brilliant rockabilly sides like "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" that I got as a Beatles-, Stones- and Stevie Wonder-loving tyke. When the punk thing came along, artists like Robert Gordon and the Clash were still reaching back to Elvis. Now, as an adult, I can understand and truly appreciate the shaky Elvis who put his heart and soul into tunes like "Walk a Mile in My Shoes," "Never Been to Spain" and "Bridge over Troubled Water." 

We've heard so many sad stories (and rumors) about Elvis' substance-abuse problems and his sad final years that most people don't know how freaking awesome he was up until his final breath.

If you want to see the King in action, I'd go directly to his 1968 TV special, Elvis, and this '70s concert film. Contrary to revisionist history, Elvis was as based in country music and Dean Martin as he was in R&B, but if you look at his amazing live performances they have the same kind of sweat-dripping "give the audience every ounce of yourself" showmanship that James Brown, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding excelled at.

Elvis may have been one cool hombre but he was also one hot mother. When he finished a performance, people would wonder how he could give any more the next night. 

And that is just one thing that was so special about Elvis Presley. In the studio or on stage, he reached a sort of transcendent happiness by making other people happy. We could use a little more of that in this world.

Let's say it one more time: happy birthday, Elvis!




Jimmy+Wayne.jpg It's always gratifying when you see a celebrity or public person put their money where their mouth is; so often people say one thing yet do another. When Rhapsody heard that country star Jimmy Wayne was going to walk from Tennessee to Arizona in the dead of winter, we wondered which way the chips were going to fall. But a week into his journey, and with constant Twitter updates illuminating his path, it's clear to see that Wayne is walking a most righteous walk.

On New Year's Day, Jimmy Wayne launched his "Meet Me Halfway" campaign to raise awareness of and funds for organizations that help homeless youth. On that day, the singer headed out of Nashville on a trek that will eventually land him in Phoenix, Ariz., and into the comforting arms of HomeBase Youth Services, a Phoenix-based organization founded in 1991 to address the growing needs of at-risk and homeless youth ages 21 and younger. At age 18, many youth "age out" of the foster care or juvenile justice systems without the necessary life skills to live independently; as a result, they often end up homeless and on the streets.

2010_hiphop_575x225.jpgWith a few very notable exceptions, 2009 was kind of a wash. But, you know, here we are in 2010, and it looks like there are a few releases with real potential. Of course, some of these will inevitably be disappointing, and a couple will probably not even come out, but January is always a time to dream and these albums have us excited. Be sure to let us know what albums you're looking forward to in the comments section.

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Chillwave, glo-fi, "hypnagogic pop": in a year that many critics agree didn't provide much in the way of musical innovation, the main novelty in indie circles flew under names that sounded awesome but meant … well, what the hell did they mean, exactly?

The music -- made by bands with evocative names like Neon Indian, Memory Cassette and Washed Out -- sounds much like you would expect something called "glo-fi" to sound: luminous and lysergic, grounded in '80s pop, but with echo, reverb and fuzzed-out harmonies trumping songwriting and lyrical expression. (Imagine the soundtrack to Ghostbusters gone avant-garde.)

Like so many fly-by-night styles, I'm not sure that is a "real" subgenre; the music is too variable, the layers of influence (shoegaze, ambient, lo-fi, electro-funk, house, '60s pop) too porous to build anything durable or even particularly coherent. A wide gulf separates Ganglians' noisy garage pop and Pictureplane's bedroom rave. Many of the acts associated with the fad might bristle at their inclusion, in fact. But it's precisely that unstable quality that makes the phenomenon so interesting. It's less a genre than a meme: call it hashtag music, with a slew of acts all repping for an unmistakably woozy kind of effect, without necessarily agreeing on how to get there.

There are plenty of precedents, of course, from Dan Deacon's last few years of loony tunes to the mid-'00s "folktronica" of Four Tet and Caribou, and all the way back to the beginning of the decade, with the Avalanches' Since I Left You, a high-water mark of super-saturated sampledelia.

And there are even more outliers, artists whose music bears some relation to the queasy roller-coaster rush this stuff induces but tilts more in the direction of ambient drone, freak-folk or other strains of in-betweenness: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Grouper, White Rainbow, Lucky Dragons, Animal Collective, even polychromatic post-dubstepper Joy Orbison -- the list goes on and on.

But I don't think we have to commit ourselves to a strict definition of glo-fi and chillwave (or even keep using those terms for too much longer) to agree that a whole lot of indie acts and bedroom producers are currently drinking from the same punchbowl -- and that the combined results add up to something that's way more interesting than mere microgenre hype.

Read on for a handy cheat-sheet of artists associated with the phenomenon, broken out into stylistic subsets, and check out a three-hour playlist of their muddled sounds. As always, you can listen to the playlist and all the albums mentioned here (plus about 6 million more) by simply signing up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription.


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If you're up on all the latest tech news, then you've already heard of Google's brand new Nexus One phone, the latest in its Android line. Now, Rhapsody is pleased to announce the launch of a public beta program for our new Android app, which allows you to stream all 8 million songs in Rhapsody's catalog while at the same time calling your mother and responding to your mother's new Tweet. If you own a Droid, G1 or any other Android device, you are invited to visit us on our Facebook page to register to be a part of the beta test group. Non-Rhapsody subscribers are also eligible and will have the opportunity to try Rhapsody at no cost for seven days. Thank you for helping us create a premium mobile music experience!
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Before the holiday music explosion happened at Rhapsody, the new Rhino box set Sinatra: New York was hovering at the No. 2 spot on our Jazz & Vocal charts for a few weeks. The set chronicles a series of live shows that Frank Sinatra did in Manhattan over the decades.

Who doesn't walk the byways of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx (stay out of this, Staten Island; everybody is too busy driving to walk your byways!) and hear the sophisticated, yet streetwise, sounds of Frank Sinatra?

Frank's shimmering reading of "Autumn in New York" may even cut deeper than Billie Holiday's, and his hit version of "New York, New York" put some pride back in a city that was experiencing tough times at the dawn of the 1980s. Of course, N.Y.C. bounced back after this song hit the charts.

SinatraBoxNYC.jpgThe box set is a must-have for Sinatra fans and — like Claudia Cardinale — it is very nicely put together. The set includes a fantastic DVD of a complete 1980 concert, and if I have one complaint, it's that this show should also have been included as a CD; after all, people listen to music more often than they watch it. Here's my short Rhapsody Review:

Frank Sinatra was from New Jersey and spent the bulk of his career in L.A., yet he is inextricably linked to Manhattan's glamour and grit. This box set highlights N.Y.C. concert appearances across five decades. The short 1950s and '60s sets include a reunion with Frank's old boss Tommy Dorsey and a "thank you" concert to workers at the United Nations. There are also complete 1970s, '80s and '90s concerts from the vocalist's years as a touring juggernaut. There are many gems, including an exquisite revisit of "This Love of Mine," an extended ballad medley from '74 and a jazz rip through "Pennies from Heaven." Included is a fantastic DVD of a complete 1980 Carnegie Hall concert performance that should also have been included in CD form; it may be the single finest complete concert in the set.




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