José González will be releasing the In Our Nature Remixes EP (Digital Only) on Earth Day, April 22nd via Mute Records. The EP features tracks from the In Our Nature LP, remixed by the likes of Todd Terje, Penchenga Nord, Beatfanatic, and Landberg & Skogehall. What’s more is that on May 6th, González will be releasing a digital single that will include a cover of Massive Attack's massively popular to cover song, “Teardrop” as well as will include the b-side...
It took bassist Eric Avery fourteen years to detox from Jane’s Addiction and compose himself after Deconstruction, but with Help Wanted he has returned whole, hearty and reinvigorated. As it turns out, turning down all those Jane’s reunions was the ideal course; Avery’s new solo album bears no marks of the bassist’s prior work and instead starts fresh to create his own vision. What Avery has always maintained is his affection for such electronic acts as New Order and those...
I have a confession to make. I have Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on my iPod. I bought it off iTunes. I saw her sing it on Saturday Night Live, and my first reaction was "Oh, American Idol! Puke!" Then, about halfway through, I caught some of the words and quickly fell in love with it. (In case you somehow haven't heard it, she's singing about trashing her boyfriend's pickup while he's in the bar picking up some floozy. It's...
When Weezer released Weezer in 1993, and Weezer in 2001, it’s about time they announced a new album, Weezer on June 24, 2008, on DGC/Interscope. The good thing for us is that this album has a new color, so like a crazy cult, we’ll all refer to this one as “The Red Album.” This is all a big ploy to pay homage to the primary colors since Blue and Green have already been used—let’s hope they don’t release White anytime...
The nature of mainstream pop (call it new rock, punk, alternative, garage or indie, they’re all pop forms) doesn’t leave much space for moodiness. Critical mass for the genre where honestly emotionally distraught acts are concerned is maybe 0.3 percent—including acts like Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Depeche Mode and Mike Patton—which means that the track is set and narrow and new bands attempting to break into the club are regularly met with suspicion. You have to pay your dues and,...
It’s not fair for me to write this review. I’ve listened to this album more times than a grown man should. Read: my opinion is very biased. That disclaimer aside, I can see how Attack & Release might pose a few problems for some of the more loyal Black Keys fans, as out go the messy noises of the guitar and drums so prevalent on their first four albums and in comes a more polished, Mississippi blues sound. Taking their...
Entering Slim's and seeing a stage full of synthesizers, sequencers, laptops and robotic cameras, I became very excited. After my metal youth, I discovered and fell in love with electronic music, and although I was much more into industrial, noise and "power electronics," I had—and still do have—a soft spot for ANY music that involves the twiddling of knobs. Having lost touch with Meat Beat Manifesto and what Jack Dangers and his crew have been doing since the Subliminal Sandwich...
In their prime (1967–1970), Fairport Convention helped give folk-rock in the U.K. its own identity. Along with the works of Bert Jansch and Pentangle, Shirley Collins and Davy Graham, Fairport Convention created an individualistic strain of music that drew from traditional folk but had a modern quality that drew accolades not just from the folk purists, but from the hippies in the underground. Their mixture of harmonies and instrumentation on albums like What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and...
Something had to give. Nine years ago, Moby set precedents within the music industry and re-examined the way that the public consumed music when he licensed Play (an excellent record certainly, but most of his are and are also doomed to flop) to any advertiser interested; thus thrusting the album into the public’s face no matter where it turned. It worked of course—Play still holds the record for the best-selling title in the DJ’s catalogue. Recognizing that there might be...
Everyone's in search of the fountain of youth these days. We're desperate to keep time standing still and desperate to avoid wrinkles. Whatever happened to aging gracefully? I don't know about you, but I think Madonna at 49 is the hottest thing ever, and she's only going to get older. They don't call it MILF for nothing, ya' know. Alright, Allison Goldfrapp certainly isn't the Material Girl but let's face it, she's definitely part of the over-21 club. Known for...