February 2010 Archives

Welcome to another edition of Classic Rock Crate Digger, a (near) weekly column wherein Rhapsody nerd Justin Farrar wanders the never-ending maze that is our catalog in search of classic rock's forgotten gems. If you're new 'round these parts, then also check out the Crate Digger's archives.

Over the last two weeks the Classic Rock Crate Digger has been obsessing over The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, arguably the apex of the Genesis discography. I've always appreciated Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, but it hasn't been until the last couple years that The Lamb's sheer brilliance has revealed itself to me. It isn't just prog; it's a way-ahead-of-its-time art-pop album every bit as futuristic as David Bowie's Heroes, Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and the Walker Brothers' Nite Flights. We're talking 100% avant rock, 1970s-style.

But here's the catch: the Crate Digger, believe it or not, doesn't know early Genesis nearly well enough to write about them. Oh sure, I know and totally dig the basics, but this is prog we're talking about. It's complex and arty and difficult. Any critique worth a damn needs to come from a hardcore fanatic who knows the band's discography inside and out. Fortunately, I know two fanatics: Bob and Dave Kane. I grew up with the Brothers Kane in a place called Lyncourt, a miniscule speck of barely-middle-class houses and a china factory, rubbing shoulders with the city of Syracuse in central New York. Dave and Bob, a pair of seriously precocious preteens and gifted musicians to boot, were anything but average. When just about every other kid in the 'hood was lapping up Top 40 fare from Casey Kasem, they were honing their chops and diving mind-first into old-school progressive rock, particularly the mighty Genesis. Hell, they were too busy Selling England by the Pound to even notice Madonna's skimpy white lace.

Well, then again …

Bomb the Bass, Dan Black and every other artist mentioned here are yours to groove 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.

Like Punxsutawney Phil, electronic music moves out of its dark, clubland burrow on a trio of albums that explore pop songwriting and daylight-friendly vibes. Bomb the Bass' Tim Simenon gets some help from co-producer Gui Boratto and a host of vocalists on the shimmering Back to Light; London's Dan Black fashions a new kind of bedroom Britpop fueled by hip-hop beats and a laptopper's insouciance; and Memory Tapes' Seek Magic explores chillwave's dizziest frequencies. Read on for reviews of those records and more, plus a playlist of key tracks.

The music of NewWorldSon and countless other Christian artists is yours to enjoy 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. 

Carolina Chocolate Drops

A vast catalog of blues, string-band and bluegrass is yours to enjoy 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.

A few weeks ago, two significant albums released. One was Classic Appalachian Blues from Smithsonian Folkways — vintage recordings of the blues — and the other was the Carolina Chocolate Drops' brand-new Genuine Negro Jig. One spoke to what is often thought of as African American music: the blues. The other still makes folks scratch their heads: young African Americans making string-band music. Really?

Trippy guitar-shred master and throaty howler Matt Pike has led Oakland's High on Fire since its formation 1998, and before that he played guitar in a band called Sleep. All of which pretty much makes him the lead architect of modern doom metal, a collection of hallowed moves and ancient riffage that has influenced heavy music far and wide. This is a man who rarely wears a shirt, and he plays that way. With the release of High on Fire's latest, Snakes for the Divine, we decided to dust off a decade's worth of memories and set them to the task of informing you, our valued reader, what makes this band so epic. Rock on.

	Review: High on Fire's Snakes of the Divine		High on Fire and the invention of stoner metal
	Dive headfirst into Dopesmoker.		Bang thy head to this epic playlist.

The music of High on Fire and Sleep is 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.

[Editor's Note: Being a respectable, upstanding music service, Rhapsody's editorial policy prohibits the use of colloquialisms having to do with drugs, drug use, drug experiences, etc. We have therefore lightly censored the following, attempting to keep the general thrust of opinions and events intact. We trust you understand.]

While he's known today as the frontman for critical and popular metal heroes High on Fire, guitar god Matt Pike first gained recognition in the mid-'90s as a member of seminal stoner metal trio Sleep. The definitive Sabbath-obsessed [marijuana enthusiasts] not only perfected the trudging, psychedelic super metal of the stoner-rock "movement" they predated (Kyuss, Fu Manchu, etc), they coined the term "stoner rock" itself in an interview. And Sleep's Holy Mountain certainly defines the aesthetic, from the previously unheard-of levels of Iommi-ness in the album's beginning seconds (stoner-metal classic hit "Dragonaut") to the [confusing to parents] graffiti-art starburst cover art and accompanying photo of the band members obscured by a giant cloud of [some variety of] smoke on the back.

The legends surrounding Sleep are many. There are three really good ones: first, the band started out as a quartet comprised of Pike, bassist/songwriter Al Cisneros, drummer Chris Haikus, and one Justin Marler handling second guitar duties. After recording their first album, Volume I, Marler quit the band to go become a monk. Metal guitar player turns monk? This is weird.

Secondly, people still refer to these custom-made enormous green tube amps Sleep played through back in the day. To explain, there's this company that makes amps called Orange, 'cause the amps are orange, but Sleep's amps were "green" — get it? Classic! No word on whether they played 420 guitars.

Now the last great legend involves the band getting signed to a major label and then promptly getting kicked off said label when they submitted a 68-minute, nearly instrumental track of unspeakable heaviness as their first single and refused to budge when the label was like, "Uh, you can't do this." As the story goes, during the early '90s, when Fu Manchu's logo rock was selling lots of units to hipsters, the people at London Records decided to sign Sleep, in the hopes of cashing in on the stoner-rock wave. When asked for a single, Cisneros, Pike and Haikus delivered "Dopesmoker," an hour-plus epic that featured such endlessly brilliant lyrics as "Bong in hand/ Drop out of life/ Follow the smoke/ To the riff-filled land" and related the tale of a people called "The Weedian" and their journey to Nazareth in a space caravan to find the "Smoke Covenant," or maybe just to score. Anyway, this is so far beyond even the peyote visions of Kyuss, one can only marvel at Sleep's utter coolness, whether you smoke pot or not. [OK, that was tough. We weren't sure what to do with that. Please just don't do anything stupid and then tell your parents we put you onto it. Seriously.] Unfortunately, the legal imbroglio that ensued eventually torpedoed the band, and Cisneros, Pike and Haikus all fell silent for a few years.

In 1998, however, Pike formed High on Fire in Oakland, Calif., and in 2000 delivered a debut album, The Art of Self Defense, that — thanks largely to the one-two punch of opening songs "Baghdad" and "10,000 Years" — more than lived up to the almost-incalculable expectations that arose the minute people heard "the guitarist from Sleep has a new band!" From there, High on Fire has steadily remained the de facto leaders of the new era of stoner metal, playing a version of the genre that is stripped down, faster paced and flat-out meaner in all respects than nearly anyone else's in these salad days of extreme metal.

The music of Sleep can be 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.

Sleep's "Dopesmoker" figures into what is definitely the best, loudest, most heaviest vinyl record moment of my life (or close to it, anyway). After years of going to see Matt Pike gleefully grinding his teeth with one foot on the monitor, raining spark-showers of hot licks on our heads with High on Fire (I was at a show once where the "rock-type" people I came with actually scurried off and left because they couldn't handle the air-rippling volume), two friends and I decided to listen to "Dopesmoker" the way we imagined the dudes who made it would have wanted. That means that during a party at my house, me, my buddy Adam and my roommate Selena isolated ourselves from the group, went in my room, turned off the lights and played "Dopesmoker" all the way through, with the volume up so loud there was actually a breeze coming out of my speakers. I know this because I had my face pressed against one for all of side three. The experience was, uh, transcendent.

All four sides add up to over 60 minutes of music, and the first eight are no more than a guitar, bass and drum converging on a single, droned mantra. It's hypnotic induction via bass-tones. By the time Al Cisneros begins his guttural chant-singing at 8:24, people could have told us we were chickens and we would have believed them. We sat through all four sides of blistering volume (with the exception of a brief and temporary comedown 40 minutes in) without a single word passing between us — no "this is cool"s or anything dumb like that. And when someone opened the door and the light from the hallway came in and the final crushing moments of the last song faded, it really did feel like we had just returned from outer space. Heavy.

Since my neighbor practically attacked me with a chainsaw the next day, I wouldn't suggest trying this at home, but if you do want to re-create it, the key thing is the total darkness. Creepy.

Snakes for the Divine, Death Is This Communion and every other album mentioned in this post 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.

High on Fire's fifth album, Snakes for the Divine, features all the tundra-galloping riffs and Matt Pike-battlefield-shouting that fans of this truly badass band have come to expect. But last album Death Is This Communion went in a psychedelic direction, and the band's earlier records fed stoner rock anabolic steroids and sent it to the weight room. Snakes, on the other hand, combines the machine-gun spray of classic thrash with rapid changes in direction, neck-snapping stops and starts, and even the Maiden-friendly overdubbed guitar leads of fantasy metal, making for an album that is practically neo-Viking metal.

From the ribboning open of the titular first track, Pike, longtime drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz (formerly of Zeke) charge through an obstacle course of eight epically structured, six-minute-plus songs, seemingly taking their cues from Bathory's berserker metal masterpiece "Shores in Flames," albeit with state-of-the-art production values. That means Pike screams bloody hell over endlessly thick, mercilessly fast-paced chuggering and the nonstop pound of a telepathic rhythm section. Matz and Kensel, for their part, form a battery every bit as powerful as when underground metal linchpin Joe Preston was in the band and they delivered HoF 2005 high point, Blessed Black Wings.

While Snakes for the Divine is steeped in the chunkity-chunk of classic Bathory and a cross-pollination of doom and thrash metal that is all HoF's own, "Bastard Samurai" bears the marks of the psychedelia of days past, with phased guitars and a space caravan-worthy bassline that echoes Sleep's Holy Mountain. Also of note are "Frost Hammer" and "Holy Flames of the Firespitter," two songs that not only feature a barbaric horde singing backup but prove Pike can still write totally awesome titles. According to a Spin interview with the dude, the song "Snakes for the Divine" is about the mingling of human DNA with, uh, alien reptiles that created the Earth or something. But the important thing is that the album kicks ass. So Pike's not penning thunderous yeti poems here but you know ... still a weirdo. And the ass-kicking, let's not forget the ass-kicking.

Keith Jarrett, Horace Silver and every other artist mentioned here 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.

We've had plenty of rain here on the West Coast and the rest of the nation seems mired in snowfall. Thankfully, there is good, warm news ahead: the spring season of SFJAZZ is starting up again.

One of the things I love about Rhapsody is being able to instantly play music by an artist that I am about to go see in concert. Take the SFJAZZ Festival, for instance.

I've been going to see SFJAZZ events since I moved to San Francisco over a decade ago. Far from a local event, it is truly international in scope, with the London Observer singling it out as "the No. 1 jazz festival in the world." A survey of other news sources stateside are a little less grand: they just dub it the best jazz festival in America.

If you want to discover why SFJAZZ is held in such high esteem, just listen to this playlist of artists appearing at the festival during the next couple of weeks. You read that correctly: the next couple of weeks. They have so many incredible artists that I'll have to do another post on who is appearing after that.

Billie Holiday, Etta James and every other artist mentioned here 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.

Every so often (maybe even as often as once or twice a year), some publication or program or blog or something puts out one of those "Best Female ..."/"Women in ..." pieces. You know, "The Best Female Emcees" or "Women in Rock" or whatever. And every time one of those pieces comes out, some debate ensues (at least among music nerds. And politics nerds. And especially feminist nerds) about the value of such pieces, which can often feel gratuitously gender-segregated, patriarchally patronizing — or both. It's an important debate: on one hand, it is, frankly, both telling and just silly to (have to) have these girls-only contests. What should happen is that more women should be included in the broader (ahem), allegedly gender-inclusive listicles, instead of the paltry few who get mixed into the inevitable boys' clubs of the Best Rock Guitarists or whatever. On the other hand, the reality is that they aren't, and music (and all too often, music writing) is a boys' club. Music histories, like all histories, are subjective, coming from (and often reinforcing) very particular points of view. The point is that, however frustrating and unfair and just tired the motivations, it is sometimes — OK, often — still very necessary to highlight women's far-too-frequently overlooked contributions to music.

The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z and every other artist mentioned here 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.

Chuck D once memorably called hip-hop culture "the black CNN." Clearly, those days are over. The internationalist perspective of Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions and other heroes of the so-called "golden age of hip-hop" has given way to the fame seekers of the present day. If the guiding words of that era were KRS-One's declaration that "You Must Learn," then the catchphrase for today's would-be Horatio Algers is the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy" couplet: "I blew up like you thought I would/ Same crib, same number, same hood, it's all good."

February is Black History Month, and Rhapsody would like to recognize and honor the immensely rich cultural contributions of African Americans musicians. From Louis Armstrong to Jay Electronica, African Americans have helped define popular music in this country. Click below for an overview of those accomplishments as well as blog posts on the political and cultural significance of the diva; hip-hop and black identity in the 21st century; and black music at the margins of African American culture. We also have playlists highlighting the music of New Orleans as well as a selection of civil rights anthems. Of course, nearly every artist and band mentioned in this article are yours to rock out to whenever and however you want with your Rhapsody subscription. Be sure to sign up for a free trial and see what we’re all about.

	Listen to a selection of the most influential black American music		Learn about the influence of hip-hop on modern black identity
	Hear the Music of New Orleans		Pop History, as told by its fiercest divas
	Black Dialogue: History through Blues and Modern Soul		Listen to the most inspirational black anthems

These economically challenged times, well, suck. Businesses and consumers need to work together to help our country get back on its financial feet. With that in mind, the good folks here at Rhapsody would like to offer you, the kind consumer, 10 amazing country albums for cheap -- real cheap. We've got discounts on some of the best names in the business. How do cheap mp3s from Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Reba McEntire, Tracy Byrd and Chris LeDoux sound? We've got all of those artists and more. You will find all of these for $6.99 or less; just click the yellow cart button to buy them.

Over the last couple weeks we here at Rhapsody HQ have been talking about our favorite covers albums. And whenever we start obsessing over a particular kind of record or even a genre we do what we always do: tally a list! Of course, the list below is by no means definitive, but after much discussion we managed to put together a collection of 20 records that does a great job of covering our editors' diverse interests: glam, Tuvan throat singing, indie pop, jazz-funk, honky-tonk, pop metal, progressive rock, contemporary country, baroque pop, Americana etc. There's something here for everyone, so do dig in.

Don't forget: Every artist mentioned below, from Macca to Elvis Costello to Rush, is 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.

Four years after his death, Ali Farka Toure remains a towering musical figure. He was Africa's John Lee Hooker and Robert Johnson rolled into one, with a bit of Alan Lomax thrown in for good measure. A phenomenally original guitarist, he was also a polyglot who used his fluency in seven languages to spend decades collecting folk songs from Mali's vast array of ethnic groups. (He also created, in the process, a little thing we now call desert blues.) Any new album from this man is an event, and this week sees the release of what may prove to be his final masterpiece: Ali & Toumani.

Hot City, Julio Bashmore and every other artist mentioned here are yours to enjoy 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.

Various, Elevator Music
With dubstep giving way to "future garage" and "U.K. funky," bass music is mutating faster than language can keep up. Drawing from house, hip-hop and electronica, its beats are changing shape at a wicked pace; no wonder everyone from Rihanna to Ke$ha is tapping underground producers for a dab of bass-heavy cred.

The first in a new series from London's Fabric nightclub, Elevator Music surveys the jagged edges of the dance-music spectrum, a shifting field where jacking house, pummeling techno and broken dubstep variants are evolving at a frenetic pace. Don't let the title fool you: this compilation is anything but easy listening.

Scattered in with the heavy-hitters (rave kings Caspa & Rusko, dubstep-techno crossover Martyn, Planet Mu's irrepressible beat fanatic Starkey) is a host of up-and-comers like Hot City and Mosca, who are twisting the forms of U.K. garage back toward its roots in Chicago and New York house music. Borrowing syncopated percussion from Caribbean soca and generally favoring a broken, lurching feel, much of this is loosely related to the polyglot genre known as "funky," though the selections here — like the Hyperdub label's forays into funky — have a darker vibe than the style is generally known for.

Even if none of the above means anything to you — and sometimes it feels like you need a second home in the blogosphere just to keep up with this stuff — the rude beats and imaginative synth work are plenty immediate on their own. This is visceral, thrilling stuff.

Since half the fun of a compilation like this is using it as a stepping-stone to discovering new artists and new labels, I've created an extensive playlist interlacing tracks from Elevator Music with other tunes by the record's featured artists, along with still more related material. Check out the playlist here, and read on to learn more about some of the principal players.

Hot City
Testing the limits of time and geography, London's Hot City makes tunes that sound like dead ringers for the tracky, jacking house music that came out of Chicago and New York in the early '90s. Between the bashing 909 snares, canned string vamps and Todd Edwards-style vocal cutups, it may be a pastiche of bygone styles, but that doesn't make these sweaty club jams any less visceral. Further listening: Ike Release VS Hot City EP.

Julio Bashmore
Bristol's Julio Bashmore calls his music "an awkward mix of house, disco and dubstep." He may have the ingredients correct, but the results are far more elegant than he lets on, with synthetic bongos and tight drum programming laying out a trim, robotic funk with ample crossover appeal. (No wonder he's signed to Claude VonStroke's Dirtybird label.) Further listening: Julio Bashmore EP.

Untold
Cofounder of the advanced dubstep label Hemlock Recordings, Untold (Jack Dunning) is the maker of some of the slinkiest beats ever to grace a nightclub; his bass often feels like a solid mass, and he counterbalances it with arrays of spindly percussion, staccato synths and clipped vocal samples, giving his tracks the suspended motion of a Calder mobile. (Bizarre factoid: Untold recently remixed Ke$ha for a U.K.-only edition of "Tik Tok.") Further listening: "Test Signal" from ~scape's Round Black Ghosts compilation.

Octa Push
Lisbon's Octa Push only have a couple of records out, but they've already remixed Buraka Som Sistema featuring M.I.A.'s "Sound of Kuduro," and they count Thom Yorke among their fans. On their Elevator Music contribution, "Doctor Bayard," buzzy synth bass underpins rattling, polyrhythmic drum programming suggestive of a kind of acid house Afrobeat; stranger still is the way they turned sampled coughing into a kind of percussion instrument. Further listening: Debruit, "Let's Post Funk (feat. Om'Mas Keith)."

Shortstuff and Brackles
Between their collaborations and solo joints, the U.K.'s Shortstuff and Brackles have racked up records on some of the leading labels in left-field bass music: Ramp Recordings, Peverelist's Punch Drunk, Apple Pips and Planet Mu, among others. Here, Shortstuff's "Behave" resolutely refuses to do just that, with synth lines that hopscotch all over a rhythmic grid chalked in wild, angry strokes; the duo's "Melvin Blue" mellows out with airy vocal samples, chest-massaging bass and a nimble, 2-stepping groove. Further listening: Brackles, LHC and Rawkus EPs.

Mosca
I've only heard three tracks by Mosca so far, including "Gold Bricks, I See You," which appears here. But on that slim evidence alone I'm ready to suspect that he's a talent to watch out for this year. "Gold Bricks" rides an easygoing 2-step beat knitted together from bleeps, metallic pings, unvarnished drum machines and dozens of pointillistic vocal shots; its cadence bends wickedly at the knees, moving with a kind of scattershot precision. From his EP, "Square One" and "Nike" are even better. The former arrays zigzagging synths over a loping, tambourine-driven groove and sculpts weird shapes out of helium-filled vocals; the latter is a dazzling, 10-minute tour de force that begins with knuckle-dragging electro-dub before seamlessly morphing into a kind of rollicking, dub-techno/soca fusion. Roska, Julio Bashmore and L-Vis 1990 all contribute excellent mixes, as well. Further listening: Square One EP.

Martyn
The Dutch DJ and producer Martyn has gone in a few short years from making limber drum 'n' bass to lithe drum 'n' bass with a heavy dose of Detroit techno; "Friedrichstrasse" finds him digging into the guts of his grooves to draw out hidden melodies played out on tuned toms and plinking keys. Further listening: "Yet," from Tectonics' Tectonic Plates Vol. 2.

Vista
I know virtually nothing about Vista, but "Elixir" — a flicker of stuttering drum samples and kaleidoscoping chord stabs — makes me want to find out more. Like Joy Orbison, his take on dubstep and dub techno has an unusual lightness of step for either genre. Further listening: "Tek 9/Ukodus/Clientelle."

Om Unit
Bobbing along at less than 96 beats per minute, Om Unit's "Encoded" feels closer in spirit to the slow-motion disco of Mark E or the Revenge than anything from the dubstep spectrum; it follows a housey 4/4 throb, but everything between the kick drums is all slack collapse. Further listening: "Lightgrids/Lavender."

Starkey
Philadelphia's "street bass" king, Starkey, usually goes for the jugular, with video-game bleeps tracking the jabs and feints of bare-knuckled beats. But "Black Monolith" finds him unusually subdued, with mournful synth leads raining down over a rushing 4/4 rhythm and a buzzing, viscous bass rush; it wouldn't sound out of place as the climax in a Michael Mann film. Further listening: his Planet Mu album Ephemeral Exhibits; the recent single "Knob Twiddler."

Joe Cuba, Tito Puente and every other artist mentioned 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.

African American and Latin American musical influences had been commingling at least since Dizzy Gillespie hired Havana conga drummer Chano Pozo in the late '40s, and have continued to do so ever since — through fairly recent genres like reggaeton and urban bachata, for instance. But no other such hybrid has ever sounded as unhinged as the Latin boogaloo music that exploded out of New York City's outer boroughs and Spanish Harlem through the mid- to late '60s — in fact, in a decade of crazed garage rock and cold-sweating funk (both of which boogaloo absorbed), this may well have been America's wildest dance music of all. An excellent new Joe Cuba compilation on Fania, El Alcalde Del Barrio, is only the latest evidence.

Ritchie Valens, the Hold Steady and every other artist mentioned here 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.

Rock 'n' roll evolved out of blues and country, largely musics of Southern Protestants. But by the late '50s and early '60s, Mexican-Americans like Ritchie Valens and Italian-Americans like Dion DiMucci entered the picture, and eventually even Irish kids like, uh, Gilbert O'Sullivan got into the game. By the '80s, with parochial school heroes Bruce Springsteen and Madonna at the top the charts, all seven sacraments were rocking. To honor Ash Wednesday (or Miercoles De Ceniza, as the great '90s Mexican rock band Caifanes call it), here's a liturgy of canonization-worthy songs, from artists baptized and otherwise. Hope you didn't give up music for Lent!

Strangely, none of the tracks on our playlist come from what official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano just this week named history's Top 10 Pop Albums, in a surprisingly tongue-in-cheek article delivered just in time for Italy's annual San Remo festival. Those 10, for what it's worth, would be the Beatles' Revolver, David Crosby's If I Only Could Remember My Name (!?), Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Fleetwood Mac's somewhat 6th-Commandment-flaunting Rumours, Donald Fagen's The Nightfly (JFK nostalgia!), Michael Jackson's Thriller, Paul Simon's Graceland, U2's Achtung, Baby (its title perhaps a reference to Pope Benedict XVI's controversial childhood in Germany), Oasis' What's the Story (Morning Glory)? and Santana's Supernatural. None of which seem particularly Catholic themselves, oddly enough. Though it's true that, on earlier records, Simon did sing about a radical priest getting him and Julio released after whatever they were smoking down by the schoolyard, and U2's Bono was known to quote the Great Doxology, "Gloria In Excelsis Deo".

Perhaps it's understandable, not living in Brooklyn and all, that the Holy See's resident music critics never heard Separation Sunday, the Hold Steady's classic catechism-class concept album from five years back; a shame, though, given Craig Finn's status as a regular churchgoer even while on tour. ("Cathedrals make for good sightseeing destinations," he told Mojo once.) And okay, Jim Carroll Band's Catholic Boy never made much radio headway beyond "People Who Died." But why no Goth, the most flagelatingly Latin-mass-like rock genre ever? And what about the guilt-ridden "It's a Sin" by the Pet Shop Boys? A huge hit throughout Europe in 1987 (No. 3 in Italy!), and the album it's from, Actually, is often considered their best. As for Billy Joel's The Stranger, featuring both "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and possibly the most canonical Catholic-rock song ever in "Only the Good Die Young" (unless the three men Don McLean admired most in "American Pie" count), what can be said? Dear Vatican newspaper: That stained-glass window you're hiding behind never lets in the sun.

Pantha Du Prince, the Juan MacLean and every other act mentioned in this article are yours to jam 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.

Last week I checked in on some of the bigger electronic releases of early 2010; this week I want to talk about some of the records that slip under the radar but are every bit as deserving of mention, promising plenty of surprises. Animal Collective's Panda Bear turns up on moody minimal techno from Berlin's Pantha Du Prince. L.A.'s hip-hop mainstay Stones Throw indulges a fetish for bleak, bleepy New Wave. Lukas Ligeti (the son of modernist composer Gyorgy Ligeti) continues his exploration of African music with his multinational ensemble Burkina Electric, while Ninja Tune's Jaga Jazzist stretch acid-jazz fusion to the breaking point. And if it's dancing you're after, your next house-party playlist isn't complete without four incredible new remixes of the Juan MacLean, taking the DFA housemeister into the peak hour and beyond.

Taylor Swift, David Bowie and every other band mentioned 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.

So Cyndi Lauper and Lady Gaga have teamed up with MAC cosmetics to promote HIV/AIDS awareness among young women. It's a great cause, of course, and we can't think of two representatives more fabulously suited to be its spokespersons. Just as exciting, however, was the two eccentric icons' declaration of their own mutual admiration for and friendship with each other during their recent Good Morning America appearance. That's right: Lauper and Gaga are totally BFFs. Which is pretty much the best thing we've ever heard EVER (no, really). This made-in-heaven star camaraderie got us thinking about pop's other BFFs: real, true friendships that extend beyond the occasional joint tour or publicity appearance. It's these kinds of relationships that make artists human for us -- and, if we're lucky, can result in some flat-out fabulous collaborations.

In these trying economic times, businesses and consumers alike need to work together to help our pathetic country get back on its financial feet. With that in mind, the good folks here at Rhapsody would like to offer you, the kind consumer, 25 totally wicked-awesome classic rock albums for cheap — real cheap. And by classic rock we're talking about anything that came out in the rock arena between, say, 1968 and 1984, before the ubiquitous and dreaded '80s drum sound (think a tin can beaten with a stick) became accepted as the norm. Anyway folks, we have Dr. John's stellar debut record here, Gris-Gris, every good C.C.R. record (my personal fave is Willy and the Poor Boys), a pair of Bruce's finest albums, the legendary Blue Cheer acid rock fusillade Vincebus Eruptum and many more. The list could go on but we know what these days of the short attention span mean all too well — and anyway, it's more fun to just scroll down through the list, so go nuts. Oh and if you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for a subscription to our modestly priced (for Black Oak Arkansas fans anyway) little service.

Rhapsody sat down with the Los Angeles duo J*DaVeY (Jack Davey & Brook D'Leau) to talk about their new EP Boudoir Synema, the upcoming Warner record New Designer Drug, pop music and the show that got them banned from Yoshi's for life. Classic Rock Crate Digger: The Guitar Gods of Understatement and Tasteful Restraint By Justin Farrar February 15, 2010 1:05 PM 30 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Welcome to another edition of Classic Rock Crate Digger, a (near) weekly column wherein Rhapsody nerd Justin Farrar wanders the never-ending maze that is our catalog in search of classic rock's forgotten gems. If you're new 'round these parts, then also check out the Crate Digger's archives. For the most part, the accepted guitar gods of classic rock are dudes who shredded, wailed and shredded some more. Understatement and tasteful restraint were never options for the likes of Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield, Santana, John Cipollina, Alvin Lee and Duane Allman. However awesome, they would always let it rip, and that's just how it had to be. Even Slowhand, during his "I just heard Music from Big Pink and it blew my mind" phase (i.e. Derek and the Dominos), played a lot of notes and had a knack for filling space with too many needlessly complex blues licks. The reason why classic rock fans champion the show-off is simple: folks like flash. It's the same in baseball. Fans revere the swaggering power-hitter, who often strikes out more than any other player on the team, over the trusty hitter who parlays singles and doubles into a .330 batting average season after season. Tony Gwynn, I'm looking at you. There do exist guitarists who have been embraced for the notes they didn't play. The Band's Robbie Robertson is one. Of course, he was once all about six-string shenanigans as well, that is until he started listening to Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the MGs. Not to jump off topic, but this brings up an interesting point: from whom did rock 'n' roll contract this thirst for overplaying? I'm no roots-music historian, but it certainly didn't come from rhythm & blues (Ike Turner excluded) or country. These genres have always preferred solid rhythm chops and economical solos. That leaves electric blues and (interestingly enough) bluegrass, both of which are traditions notorious for producing pickers who refuse to let a good song get in the way of their long and winding noodles. Outside an obvious pick like Robertson, who is else in classic rock mastered the unheralded art of restraint? Well, below are 10 badasses whom I believe fit the bill quite nicely. And as you're about to find out, understatement and tasteful restraint come in myriad shapes and sizes, from moody blues rock to thunder metal to psychedelic funk. While reading, check out my Guitar Gods of Understatement and Tasteful Restraint playlist. Continue reading Classic Rock Crate Digger: The Guitar Gods of Understatement and Tasteful Restraint. Dave Matthews Comes Alive! By Sam Chennault February 15, 2010 10:59 AM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks With Live in Las Vegas, Dave Matthews returns to his comfort zone. Fans love the way Matthews reworks his music in the live setting. It's something he does as a part of the Dave Matthews Band and when he plays acoustic sets with longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds. On Live in Vegas, recorded at Planet Hollywood's Theater for the Performing Arts, the pair really outdoes itself. These aren't so much songs as open-ended meditations full of throaty howls and heady jams. For those who dig Matthews' ballads: no worries. There's a swell version of "Grace Is Gone." Listen to the great new live album right here, or get the back story on Virginia's finest below. Listen to Dave's back catalog right here. LIVE: Check out a playlist of Dave Matthews Band's hits live! LOOK: Browse through Rhapsody and Rolling Stone's photo gallery of DMB through the years. LEARN: Flip through the great LPs in our Dave Matthew's album guide. ROCK THE RADIO! Listen to Dave and more on Jam And Beyond channel. PLAYLIST! Hear the hits and only the hits on the Best of Dave Matthews playlist. All the President's Jams By Sarah Bardeen February 14, 2010 2:55 PM 13 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks We all knew music was gonna be big in the Obama administration. After all, Will.I.Am almost single-handedly secured the youth vote in 2008 with that "Yes We Can" video. Then the First Couple had Beyonce serenading them at the inaugural ball, a kind of insane prom fantasy writ large. And they make no secret of their passionate love for Stevie Wonder. Obama even shared his iPod with Rolling Stone during the campaign, though it turns out he wasn't the first candidate to do it. (Bush had that distinction: 250 songs on a 10,000 capacity gadget. What does it mean?) Half the country fell back in their seats, saying to themselves, "He's got Jay-Z on his iPod too?" It made you feel like you could maybe ... maybe have a beer with the guy. Continue reading All the President's Jams. Coup De Stereo: James Bond Rules Pt.1 By Nick Dedina February 13, 2010 10:12 PM 5 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks John Barry, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and every other artist 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. James Bond and injustice are inextricably linked in my head. My older brother was allowed to stay up and watch televised Bond movies (during the Sean Connery era) while I was forced to go to bed. I would quietly hide and catch the completely awesome intros before I was spotted and carted off to my room. I would then press my head against the wall, listening in to try to figure out what the heck was going on. Finally, when I was around 7 or 8, my mother took us to see The Spy Who Loved Me. At the time, it was probably the greatest thing I had ever seen. Better than War & Peace, Remembrance of Things Past and Madame Bovary all mixed together. Only with cartoon violence, mod clothes, Bond girls and neat gadgets. After this, my enthusiasm for all things secret agent changed my draconian curfew, and I was allowed to catch up on all the past Bond movies. Now, Rhapsody has allowed me to go back and discover a couple of other things I loved about the Bond films -- the music and the theme songs. Since hard times have us often retreating back to happy memories, here is the first installment of my tour of every Bond theme and a few of the scores. John Barry wrote the template for the music and themes used in the Bond movies, and his style is widely emulated to this day. Continue reading Coup De Stereo: James Bond Rules Pt.1. Classic Rock Crate Digger: Carlos, man, what happened? By Justin Farrar February 13, 2010 9:18 PM 4 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Welcome to another edition of Classic Rock Crate Digger, a (near) weekly column wherein Rhapsody nerd Justin Farrar wanders the never-ending maze that is our catalog in search of classic rock's forgotten gems. If you're new 'round these parts, then also check out the Crate Digger's archives. There are more than a few folks out there, believe it or not, who think the great Carlos Santana is nothing more than some hot-licks geezer who occasionally plays guitar behind Michelle Branch and Rob “Smooth” Thomas. It's sad. Though I dig the guy, he only has himself to blame. Back in 1999, Santana apparently decided he wanted to be a pop star again at any cost. On Supernatural, as well as its carbon-copy successor, Shaman, the Latin legend went cookie-cutter on us by jumping in bed with a who’s who of Billboard pop tarts. In addition to Thomas and Branch, the albums featured cameos by Dave Matthews, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray and (for some odd reason) Everlast. The results? A slew of Grammys, millions of records sold and the fame he so obviously craved. Of course, Santana reduced his signature guitar style into a parody of itself, but hey, at least he gets to polish all those little gold statuettes lining his marble mantle. Continue reading Classic Rock Crate Digger: Carlos, man, what happened?. Staying Alive in Christian Music By Wendy Lee Nentwig February 10, 2010 1:25 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Amy Grant, Steven Curtis Chapman and every other artist mentioned 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. Nashville is littered with former Christian artists who had high hopes but never made it beyond that first album. You’ll find them working at local churches, selling real estate or waiting tables. Then there are those acts that didn’t just find success, they managed to make it last for a decade or more, proving that when it comes to career longevity in the music industry, necessity is the mother of reinvention. Toby Mac (aka Toby McKeehan) is a prime example. The overalls-clad college student first hit it big as one-third of dc Talk, along with bandmates Michael Tait and Kevin Max. Formed in 1988, they became Liberty University’s most famous alums as their double-platinum Jesus Freak album redefined the Christian music industry, adding some much-needed funk. They took home four Grammys before deciding to take a break in 2000. All three pursued solo careers as well as other interests, from launching a label to writing and publishing poetry. Toby Mac has seen great success with each of his solo albums -- Momentum, Welcome to Diverse City, Portable Sounds. The single "ShowStopper" from Toby’s brand-new release, Tonight, is being used by the NFL Network and featured during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Grammy love has continued as well, with six solo nods and one win so far. Continue reading Staying Alive in Christian Music. Country Romance: Stars Share Romantic Moments for Valentine's Day By Linda Ryan February 10, 2010 12:53 PM 7 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Waxing romantic: Jessica Harp and Blake Shelton Jewel, Colt Ford, and every other artist mentioned 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. There's nothing like Valentine's Day to celebrate the love of your life. But what constitutes romance? One man's idea of romance might be a tractor pull, and another's might be a candlelit dinner at an overpriced, hard-to-get-into restaurant. Just because you're famous doesn't mean you have an "in" when it comes to romance, although we have to say, this group of country artists has some impressive stories guaranteed to pull on the ol' heartstrings, as you'll read below. And if you need some music to get your honey in a romantic mood, some these stars also shared their most romantic songs. Continue reading Country Romance: Stars Share Romantic Moments for Valentine's Day. Coup De Stereo: Could've Been a Contender By Nick Dedina February 9, 2010 3:23 PM 1 Comment | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Ryan Bingham, Randy Newman and every other artist 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 Oscar nominations just came out. Exciting stuff. Since Rhapsody deals with music, I'm gonna bypass who got nominated for Best Editing or Best Cinematography and go straight to the Best Song nominations. Now, most everyone I know makes fun of Oscar-winning songs. I can even include myself in the list of everyone I know. But since Rhapsody lets you easily access pretty much any song whenever you want, I've been able to listen to Oscar-winning songs from many decades past -- both the bad and the good. Guess what? I've found that there are some real keepers on the list. Burt Bacharach's "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," Dylan's "Things Have Changed," Mercer/Mancini's "Moon River" and Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" have all made my life better. Very recently, the Swell Season (pictured above) deservedly won for "Falling Slowly," and they  gave a lovely speech during which they didn't thank an endless parade of lawyers, producers and agents (aka the Three Horsemen of the Hollywood Apocalypse). That's how the Oscars are supposed to work.  This year, it's a good sign that the weak theme from Avatar has no chance of winning (it didn't even get nominated). On the other hand, Paul McCartney was nominated a few years back for a throwaway effort, while his lovely movie song from this year was completely ignored by the Academy. (And really, you could have given the statue to "Live and Let Die" back in the '70s, for Pete's sake.) Still, you can't say that the Academy just wants to nominate old guys like Randy Newman every year. Continue reading Coup De Stereo: Could've Been a Contender . single-phile: Hot New Single-Name Soul-Pop Singles By Rachel Devitt February 9, 2010 11:55 AM 3 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Beyonce, Fantasia and every other band mentioned 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. A clutch of hot new singles by some of R&B's hottest artists (we're talking one-name-only caliber, people) would light a fire under any dull, drab midwinter week. But this particular group seems to kind of span the gamut of the last decade or so of soul-pop. Think of them almost like a map of what R&B divadom can mean in this contemporary era, from classic torch-song covers to fallen Idols to '90s comeback kids. OK, enough with the vague references. Let's break it down. Beyonce: Fever Sure, it's been recorded a million times in a million different ways, but come on, there's always room for one more rendition of "Fever." And there's pretty much definitely room for anything the reigning queen of pop and R&B wants to do, ever. Case in point: this recording, which is also the soundtrack for B's new fragrance, Heat (which, knowing Beyonce, will also probably be wildly successful). It doesn't show off her killer pipes as much as her usual, more melismatic material, but we definitely won't turn our nose up at the diva purring over something low and slow. Usher: "There Goes My Baby" The former boy wonder and club banger kingpin seems to have grown up in a major way in the last couple of years as he's dealt with his mama drama and divorce. His forthcoming sixth album sounds like it's going to be all about one of the emotions R&B deals with best: heartbreak. He's already signed the "Papers," and now on this third single, he manages to sound both sweetly seductive and wistfully reminiscent. As he croons "There goes my baby," we'd swear there are tears in that falsetto. We don't wish Usher any pain, of course, but this newfound maturity suits him. Fantasia: "Even Angels" Speaking of heartbreak, Fantasia's new single is steeped in it, albeit more of the getting-my-life-back-on-track, no-more-drama variety. My goodness, we do love a good diva comeback story, and the former American Idol is certainly poised for one. In the last couple years, she's gone from putting out a fabulous sophomore album that didn't live up to its potential to facing fans' ire for cancelling The Color Purple dates due to vocal problems to winding up broke due to taking care of her family (and, uh, her shopping problem). And she does wear her heart on her sleeve on this new single -- but somehow, despite the emotional lyrics, the track just falls a little flat. It's as if in the process of pouring her guts out, she accidentally dumped out some of the sass we love her for, too. Fantasia, if you really want no more drama, you've gotta go full out Mary J. Monica: "Everything to Me" And speaking of comebacks, this queen of '90s R&B could sure use one. The girl who once informed Brandy that "The Boy Is Mine" just kind of got swept out of the limelight by the bigger, brighter, chicer stars of 2000s R&B and pop. This new track from her upcoming (and aptly titled) sixth album Still Standing shows off the attributes that made Monica successful in her heyday: deliciously dramatic lyrics; a bold and classically gospel-tinged performance style; and those big, powerhouse vocals. But it also feels just a wee bit dated, like something from her heyday. K. Michelle: "Fallin" And finally, speaking of that bright, chic, sleek new brand of R&B stardom, meet K. Michelle. OK, so she's not quite a single name, but we'd wager this up-and-coming artist is going to do major things -- and she hasn't even released her debut yet. So far, she's made a fan of R. Kelly, announced that she's a "Self Made" chick and duetted with Missy (on the fabulous "Fakin' It"). And now she even makes surviving a broken heart sound powerful and oh-so-good. Love the juxtaposition of her strong voice, gut-wrenching lyrics about feeling like she's broken, and the rolling, tumbling drumbeats. Q&A: The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band ft. Rick Vito By Lauren Tabak February 9, 2010 11:23 AM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks The 2010 Grammys were a splendid time. We here at Rhapsody HQ headed down to Los Angeles for the event, where we had the opportunity to interview one cool pop star after another. The coolest of them all just might’ve been Mick Fleetwood, whose album Blue Again, recorded with guitarist Rick Vito, was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album. Wait a minute. Did you say Mick Fleetwood? The blues? That’s right. Long before “Rhiannon” and Stevie Nicks’ sexy-witch dance, the legendary drummer served time backing some of the great musicians in the British blues scene, including John Mayall. In fact, the Mac actually started life as a hardcore electric blues band, featuring Peter Green, mercurial guitarist and No. 1 rival of Eric Clapton. So yeah, Mick has kind of come full circle as of late. We were lucky enough to sit down with both Mick and Rick, who gave us the scoop on Blue Again -- plus lots more on the blues, Peter Green and the long, tangled history of Fleetwood Mac. Do check it out. No Ordinary Love: A Rhapsody Valentine's Day Special By Sam Chennault February 9, 2010 9:59 AM 1 Comment | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks If you're like us, you have a love/hate relationship with Valentine's Day. It's great when you're in a stable and strong relationship, but pure hell when you're alone or things are on the rocks. That's why Rhapsody is celebrating Valentine's Day with a little something for the lovers and the haters. If you're snuggling up with something warm this year, check out the list of our 25 Favorite Romantic Albums, discounted 20% for this week only. If you're flying solo, plug into Love Bites: The Anti-Valentine's Playlist, where you'll get your fill of disillusionment, bitterness and romantic recrimination. Elsewhere, we have playlists about chocolate, lovers in need of a restraining order, wedding songs and everything else you might want, whether you love or hate Cupid's day. As a Rhapsody member, you can listen to all this music anytime and anywhere, whether on your computer, your stereo or your iPhone. Not a Rhapsody subscriber? Sign up for a free 14-day trial. Discounted MP3s of our 25 Favorite Romantic Albums, from Sade to Van Morrison Nick Jonas reveals his favorite V-Day album Romance is in the air as Rhapsody looks at pop's Best Wedding Day Songs Listen to songs that will satisfy your sweet tooth with Chocolate: The Playlist For Better and Worse: Songs of Marriage and Divorce Country Love: Country Musicians Talk About Their Greatest Romances Love Bites: The Anti-Valentine's Playlist Obsess Much? Songs for the Overeager Lover Coup De Stereo: Gil Scott-Heron Returns By Nick Dedina February 8, 2010 6:14 PM 2 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Gil Scott-Heron, Bob Dylan and every other artist mentioned 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. During the second half of the 1980s, the term "alternative music" started getting tossed around a lot. I guess it was supposed to mean music that was the alternative to the mainstream. If that was the case, then every era has its alternative artists: Woody Guthrie, Miles Davis, Talking Heads, Public Enemy, etc. One of the true alternative musicians of the 1970s and '80s was Gil Scott-Heron. He was a writer who got into music, mixing song and spoken-word pieces with jazz and soul. He was accepted by both communities and enjoyed Top 10 jazz and R&B chart positions without really getting played much on mainstream radio. That said, a couple of great Scott-Heron tunes ended up on the airwaves: "The Bottle," "Johannesburg" and "Angel Dust" spring to mind. I first saw Scott-Heron on a Saturday Night Live rerun sometime in the late 1970s. Back then, the guest host would pick the musical act, and Richard Pryor picked Scott-Heron. A couple of years later, my brother started bringing home his records, and I got into them, too. At his worst, Scott-Heron could be pretty preachy (think of Chris Rock's revolutionary Nat X character) but he was usually at his best. One of his most open numbers, "A Lovely Day," is universal and cut off from current events; I often think of it when I'm out walking the dog on a quiet morning. Continue reading Coup De Stereo: Gil Scott-Heron Returns. Discounted Valentine's Day Albums By Sam Chennault February 8, 2010 5:45 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks As the trusty Beatles reminded us, you can't buy love. It's a charming sentiment that's particularly palatable in our current economic state, but spending nothing on your sweetie pie -- or, worse yet, he/she spending nothing on you -- can make for an awkward Valentine's Day. We're here to help you and your wallet out. Rhapsody's editors have sifted through our seemingly endless trough of tunes to pick out a wide assortment of albums -- both naughty and nice -- stamped and approved by Cupid himself. And we've slashed each album's price by 20%. Unlike chocolate or roses, our MP3s never go bad. Get 'em while they're hot, sizzling and, uh, cheap. Also, be sure to check back regularly for more upcoming Rhapsody deals and discounts. Continue reading Discounted Valentine's Day Albums. Concentric Pleasures: Massive Attack, Hot Chip and More By Philip Sherburne February 7, 2010 10:38 AM 1 Comment | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Hot Chip, Massive Attack 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 new year gets off to a rousing start with a wave of new albums from across the electronic-music spectrum. Downtempo veterans Massive Attack, returning from a seven-year absence, are the elder statesmen of the bunch, and while Heligoland may not break much new ground, the smart collaborations and production help them hold their own. Far bolder is a pair of albums from two artists quickly becoming standard-bearers for left-of-center pop music. Hot Chip ease into a kind of gangly maturity with One Life Stand, while the Knife deliver their most avant-garde statement yet with Tomorrow, In a Year, the score to a Danish opera about the life of Charles Darwin. (Who else but Scandinavians would come up with that?) Charting a different path under the noonday moon, Norwegian disco duo Lindstrom and Christabelle treat us to icy, Italo-inspired electronic funk with their expansive Real Life Is No Cool. And Four Tet delivers his strongest solo effort yet with There Is Love in You, a delicious distillation of his interests in psychedelia and dance music. Read on for full reviews plus links to hear all these albums and more on Rhapsody. Continue reading Concentric Pleasures: Massive Attack, Hot Chip and More. Soundtreks: Meet Nneka, Naija Pop's Top Ambassador By Sarah Bardeen February 5, 2010 2:14 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Nneka and every other artist mentioned 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. Nigeria's a pretty fascinating country. It has a massive poverty rate (somewhere in the range of 70%), nearly nonexistent rural infrastructure, and an oil-rich delta that multinational corporations have been busily plundering for decades, at no discernible benefit (and often at considerable detriment) to the Nigerian people. On the other hand, Nigerians are not among the happiest people on earth ... they are the happiest people on earth. By a long shot. And the country boasts a massive film industry, a huge proportion of the continent's recording studios and the lion's share of its artists. The music scene in Nigeria is so vast and ever-changing that it's essentially impossible to keep up -- from a distance -- with what's going on there. But in recent years that flood of music has begun to escape Nigeria's borders. Last year the Paris-raised Nigerian singer-songwriter Asa generated some buzz with her catchy tune "Jailer." And this year a pint-sized, model-gorgeous German-Nigerian singer named Nneka (pronounced "Nay-ka") is finally making waves on this side of the pond, after setting European hearts aflame for the past few years. Her accomplishments, to date: an appearance on David Letterman, a show review by Times music critic Jon Pareles, and blog interest that's nearing high tide. Why Nneka? Why now? Maybe the better question is, why not? Americans love hearing foreigners do our music better than we do (otherwise the Rolling Stones wouldn't have made it past album one), and hip-hop and R&B claim African parentage, anyhow. Nigeria has been powerfully influenced by American music for decades: in the 1970s, Fela Kuti's love of American jazz and funk helped birth Afrobeat. Young Nigerian musicians these days listen to everything, from Kuti to the Fugees and back again. Hip-hop and R&B have become the lingua franca for an entire generation. What makes Nneka of particular interest is, quite simply, her talent. She didn't write songs until she moved to Germany for university and found herself stunned by the cultural differences she encountered. (She grew up in Warri, a small town in Delta State.) That experience fed into a wider examination of the striking imbalances between the so-called first and third worlds, and, somewhere in that period of awakening, her songwriting was born. And what songwriting. A torrent of words seems to pour forth from her, sharp and dazzling and slotting effortlessly into that other pillar of her growing success, DJ Farhot's production. She has studied assiduously at the feet of Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, then one-upped them, managing to sound like the gorgeous-girl-next-door (a la Hill) while slinging razor-sharp social criticism (a la Badu). And she does it well, ultimately sounding like nobody but herself. She's not alone. While Nneka's currently the most polished and talented of a crop of Nigerian hip-hop and R&B artists (call it Naija pop; "Naija" is slang for Nigerian), she's truly just one in a crowded field of domestic and expat Nigerian musicians. We've put together a playlist of some of the best Naija pop available in Rhapsody -- check it out here, or go spin Nneka's excellent U.S. debut, Concrete Jungle, immediately. If you find yourself intrigued by the nation that could spawn such globe-dominating talent, dig deeper -- we've compiled a list of albums for your listening pleasure below. Further Listening Fela Kuti: The Best of the Black President Various Artists: Nigeria 70 -- Lagos Jump Various Artists: Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria Various Artists: Nigeria Disco Funk Special: The Sound of the Underground Lagos Dancefloor 1974-79 King Sunny Ade: E Dide (Get Up) Lagbaja: Africano ...The Mother of Groove IK Dairo: I Remember Ebenezer Obey: Juju Jubilation Afro-Pop Radio Nick Jonas vs. the Box By Lauren Tabak February 5, 2010 1:48 PM 64 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Nick Jonas was nice enough to take a moment from his busy touring schedule with his new band Nick Jonas and the Administration to answer a few of your questions for Rhapsody's newest video series,"The Box." Does Nick believe in Aliens? Watch Deerhunter Interview Watch Field Trip Smashing Pumpkins Watch The Box vs. Lady Gaga Watch White Denim tour Austin Couples Therapy: Classic Marriage and Divorce Albums By Chuck Eddy February 4, 2010 10:24 AM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye and every other artist mentioned 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. Just like regular people, great musical artists sometimes get married. And just like those of regular people -- maybe even more so, given that we're talking about stressed-out celebrities in the spotlight -- those marriages sometimes fall apart. But unlike everybody else, musicians still have songs to write, which occasionally means listeners get an uncomfortable front-row seat for both the stars' wedded bliss and its potentially messy aftermath. The albums below are historical landmarks of that phenomenon -- and just maybe, object lessons on how (or how not) to get along with your funny (or bloody) valentine. George Jones and Tammy Wynette: 16 Biggest HIts (released 1999, recorded 1971-1980) Doesn't have his "The Grand Tour" or her "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," both essential texts on the subject matter. But it does chronicle the ill-fated early '70s marriage of country's most classic couple -- a pair of old sneakers, they called themselves. Not the jet set, the old Chevrolet set. Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks (1975) Separated from his wife, Sara, at the time, Dylan makes the album he's been trying to top ever since (some say he has; they're crazy), loaded with some of rock's angriest, most cracked and devastating breakup songs. He's never admitted they're autobiographical; if you're going through what his protagonists are going through, you won't mind. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (1977) In which the bassist and keyboardist-vocalist split up after being married eight years, and the guitarist-vocalist and other vocalist can't figure out whether they want to be together or not, and the drummer finds out his wife's running around on him, and lines start criss-crossing, and it all winds up in the lyrics. California soft rock never sounded truer, or sold more. Marvin Gaye: Here My Dear (1978) The Motown Metal Machine Music, almost: a 70-minute double album of long, droning funk, mainly about how bad it was being married to Berry Gordy's older sister Anna, initiated primarily to cover alimony and child support -- while wondering why attorney fees are part of the deal. Ashford and Simpson: The Very Best Of (released 2002, recorded 1973-1984) Solid as a rock: they met at a Baptist church in Harlem and started working together as a songwriting team in 1964; composed a few big Motown hits; wed in 1974; and now live on Manhattan's Upper West Side. If you've been together as long as they have, and can answer "Is It Still Good to Ya" affirmatively, kudos. X: Wild Gift (1981) Bohemians with Catholic confession-booth tendencies, fighting and fondling and watching their love pass out on the couch while choosing to live on next to nothing in L.A.'s seedy early '80s punk underbelly, John Doe and Exene Cervenka were desperate and not quite used to it. Their marriage lasted five years -- from 1980 to 1985. This may have been the high point. Richard and Linda Thompson: Shoot Out the Lights (1982) Married a decade, schooled in Sufi mysticism, and facing a bitter end, the Fairport Convention alumnus guitar genius and his seemingly passive-aggressive British folksinger spouse slide down back streets, walk on high wires, face the wall of death, and consider pushing each other off. When they toured to support the record, minor physical altercations were not uncommon. Womack & Womack: Love Wars (1983) Sam Cooke's daughter and Bobby Womack's brother -- the soul couple who wrote "Love T.K.O." for Teddy Pendergrass -- send out all-points bulletins about mutual distrust. The title of the blues-haunted single "Baby I'm Scared of You" says more than you might want to know. Though reportedly, their marriage survived -- long enough to record several years later, in Africa with their kids. Fumbles, Forward Passes and 6-Foot Subs: Superbowl XLIV By Mike McGuirk February 2, 2010 9:16 PM 19 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks The Blues Brothers, Shania Twain 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. Superbowl Sunday is the most American of unofficial holidays -- almost nobody misses the game -- and as such, it's a day that's rife with traditions, from the requisite overeating of seven-layer dip to the explosion of violence that punctuates so many fourth quarters/Brett Favre game-ending picks. The tradition of the halftime show, however, trumps them all. An orgy of corporate-sponsored "enchantment" whose historical high-water marks include both accidentally-on-purpose nudity and George Burns and Mickey Rooney (take that, Oscars), the halftime show is as American as a supersized apple pie ordered from behind the wheel of a gas-guzzling Hummer. And so, what follows is a list of the halftime show's "best" moments through the years. Continue reading Fumbles, Forward Passes and 6-Foot Subs: Superbowl XLIV. Classic Rock Crate Digger: Rediscovering East-West and Super Session By Justin Farrar February 1, 2010 10:48 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Mike Bloomfield and nearly 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. There are those who actually believe young’ns no longer appreciate the rock. Well, the Classic Rock Crate Digger is here to tell you that's all hogwash. My generation -- as well as those following us -- know more about the history of bell-bottomed boogie, first-wave classic rock, heady prog and vintage psych-jams than the original dirties who created the sweaty stuff. Over the last 10 years just about every obscure stoner-nug recorded between 1968 and '73 has been reissued -- multiple times in many instances. What's more, my generation’s desire to rediscover these lost jammers extends well beyond the Occidental world. What we’ve come to learn through our tireless excavation is that longhairs with guitars thrived in just about every country dotting great Gaia herself. Continue reading Classic Rock Crate Digger: Rediscovering East-West and Super Session. Frank's World: Lady Daze -- Sinatra Digs Billie Holiday By Nick Dedina February 1, 2010 10:13 PM 3 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and every other musician 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. Welcome back to Frank's World, where I get to bore complete strangers by waxing rhapsodic about the vast Sinatra universe. Frank Sinatra never hid his admiration for Lady Day. He once even went so far to say, "It is Billie Holiday, whom I first heard in 52nd Street clubs in the1930s , who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence.” On the surface, Holiday sounds much closer to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith then Sinatra does to her. But, its not at the surface where her influence lies. After all, Frank studied many artists, came up with his own sound and then kept developing and refining his style over the next few decades. Much like Louis Armstrong, Holiday intertwined music, melody and language in a such a natural way that they become indistinguishable from each other. It's easy to see why Armstrong is the father of not just jazz, but of popular music in general. Armstrong made sure to put on a great, entertaining show and dazzle listeners with his amazing musical abilities. With Holiday, people forgot they were at a performance -- they thought they were hearing her emotions, directly from her heart. Listeners still think they are hearing her life distilled into song. Continue reading Frank's World: Lady Daze -- Sinatra Digs Billie Holiday. Rhapsody Discount: Spoon - Transference By Stephanie Benson February 1, 2010 9:15 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Spoon had a pretty incredible '00s (seriously, four great albums). So for their first release in a new decade -- also their first self-produced effort -- Transference is just what the title promises: a transferring of all that the band has learned and defined into a sound that is as familiar as it is fresh. Slight piano bumps, soft hi-hat hits, lo-fi guitar, the occasional echo, and the rare fuzz effect ebb and flow with the same patience and ease as Britt Daniel's coos. This is Spoon as you know and love them: minimalist, smart, catchy, always playing it cool. Since we've been digging Transference, we've decided to put it on sale in our MP3 store for just $5.99 this week. That's like the cost of a, um, serving spoon? BUY IT HERE FOR $5.99. Christian Music in the Mainstream By Wendy Lee Nentwig February 1, 2010 8:41 PM 10 Comments | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks Bob Dylan, U2 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. In the early ‘70s, rebellious Christian rocker Larry Norman posed the question “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” The track caused a bit of a stir in what was then a fledgling Christian music industry as Norman professed a love for rock music and Jesus. Today, the debate is less about the sound and more about what a song says. What makes a song or an artist “Christian”? If you’re on a Christian label, are you limited to only singing about God, and if you’re on a mainstream label are you allowed to venture into hallowed territory? While there are currently a number of Christian music labels releasing a steady stream of rock, punk, pop, country and more, plenty of spiritually charged songs originate from mainstream sources, too. What follows are just a few of those favorites created outside the confines of the Christian labels. Continue reading Christian Music in the Mainstream. Nick Jonas x Michael Buble By Lauren Tabak February 1, 2010 12:09 PM | PERMALINK | No TrackBacks On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds. In this special edition, we asked Nick Jonas to talk about the album he thinks everyone should be listening to this Valentine's Day. Rhapsody subscribers can listen to Michael Buble, Nick Jonas and millions of other artists whenever and however they want. Click here to sign up for a free Rhapsody trial subscription and see what we're all about. ARTIST: Nick Jonas & the Administration RECORD: It's Time More videos you might like:. « January 2010 | Main Index | Archives | March 2010 » Rhapsody's Album Guides Rhapsody's Favorite Covers Albums Over the last couple weeks we here at Rhapsody HQ...More Monthly Archives Select One... 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