Band of Horses has not been heard from in quite a while — almost three years to be exact. Their last studio effort, 2007’s Cease to Begin, which was relatively well received. But finally there’s good news from the Band of Horses camp. More »
In the 90s, Swedish pop star Robyn was packaged as a Britney Spears clone and she actually had some moderate success singing those vapid pop songs. But after going on relative hiatus on the international scene, she came back again in 2005 with an amazing pop album that not only reinvigorated her career, it has also made her cool again. More »
Anyone who asks me who I think is the best rapper out there will get the same, consistent answer - Sage Francis. Usually, all I get are blank stares mainly because not a lot of people know about the highly talented slam poet/rapper. Which is a big shame really, because Sage Francis and his rhymes need to be heard. More »
Flying Lotus’ new album Cosmogramma is about to released in a few months, May 4 to be exact, and it looks like the beatmeister is proud of this new offering. More »
In my geek perspective, I’ve always thought of music collaborations between artists as similar to the crossover team-ups of comic book heroes. And in a way it does feel the same. A successful collaboration between artists is uplifting and, dare I say, gives off a vibe of something legendary happening. We’ve seen that in the now-mythical collaboration between Aerosmith and Run DMC or Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. Of course, there are also collaborations that make you go “hmm.”
One such collaboration would be the pairing of Lady Gaga – the current queen of weird – and indiesynth darlings Passion Pit. The collaboration between the two happened with the Passion Pit remixing Lady Gaga’s new single Telephone. Yes, the same Telephone single that also features Beyonce. And no, this is not some bootleg or unauthorized remix. This is an OFFICIAL remix. Talk about a genre-blurring collaboration!
Either Lady Gaga’s got really cool music taste, or The Passion Pit guys sees something in Gaga that I don’t (aside from the theatrical strangeness of course). I do admit that Lady Gaga’s songs are infectious (I sometimes find myself just suddenly singing “p-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face”) so there really must be some kind of mutual admiration thing going on here.
A friend of mine who, like me, is a huge M.I.A. fan informed me more than a year ago that M.I.A. announced in one concert that she is retiring from the music business. Of course, it was news that shocked and disappointed us. M.I.A. is one of those artists that brought something fresh and exciting to music and for her to retire with just two albums under her belt was such a tragedy. I refused to accept the news, however, and thought to myself that either M.I.A. may just have said it as a spur of the moment outburst and will come to rethink her decision soon enough.
And it looks like she did. More »
I am a HUGE Massive Attack fan. I’ve been on board the Massive Attack train from the moment they released their first album, the awesome Blue Lines — and I still contend that Mezzanine is one of the greatest albums ever made.
Now, after dabbling for a few years on soundtracks, Massive Attack has announced that it has finally finished album number five. Entitled Heligoland, the album will be released on February 9. More »
Not much has been heard from Interpol after 2007’s Our Love to Admire. Aside from Interpol vocalist Paul Banks’ Julian Plenti solo project, Carlos D.’s stab at filmmaking and Sam Fogarino’s side project with Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) Magnetic Morning hardly a peep has been heard from the New York-based post punk darlings as a group. More »
I’ve expressed my reservations (okay, disgust) over the involvement of Death Cab for Cutie in the Twilight sequel soundtrack. But I did hear rumblings that the soundtrack had quite a formidable lineup so a little part of me is hoping that Death Cab did make the right decision after all. More »
September 9 and has come and gone. And finally, the remastered versions of The Beatles‘ catalog has been released.
My recession-hit pockets can only afford to buy five albums right now — Revolver, The White Album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road. But let me tell you these are all worth the price. More »
