The British Are Coming
Gang of Four, Brett Anderson, and new music from Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong.
Former Suede front-man Brett Anderson has dropped some hints as to the direction of the follow-up to last year's sublime sef- titled debut. Via his Myspace he said, "The record will be approached and recorded unlike any I have ever made before and will hopefully sound completely different too. There will be just two musicians: myself on piano and guitar. The songs will be recorded as complete live takes with no click tracks and just a minimum number of over-dubs." So in other words, expect further exploration into Mr...
Posted by Joe Roth on May 14, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Your Listening Pleasure
Swedish pop takes over YLP with Peter Moren, El Perro Del Mar and Lykke Li.
There's something about contemporary Swedish pop music that's just a little bit different from the way the rest of the world approaches the genre. No, I'm not talking about ABBA; rather, I'm referring to the new wave of Swedish musicians drawing from all aspects of the last 40 years of English-language popular music to write their own gorgeous songs...
Posted by Jason Prechtel on May 09, 2008 @ 12:00 am
The British Are Coming
The Cure , Ting Tings, and new music from Johnny Flynn.
Starting this month, the Cure will release a new single on the 13th of each month leading up to the release of their 13th studio album on Sept 13. Very clever of that Robert Smith, eh? Let's hope he doesn't jinx the success of what is sure to be an interesting double album, featuring the return of seminal guitarist Porl Thompson. Keep your ears open for first single "The Only One."
A heavenly choir of angels sang in praise and joy as the UK's favorite junkie wreck was released from prison yesterday...
Posted by Joe Roth on May 07, 2008 @ 12:00 am
We've Got You Covered
The Postal Service covers the delightful Phil Collins.
In his post-Genesis days and before the gang in South Park held a sled race down a hill that bore his name, Phil Collins recorded a song for the soundtrack of the movie Against All Odds. The film itself isn’t notable aside from the fact that it stars Jeff Bridges and James Woods. However, the song featuring the film’s name went on to reach the top spot on multiple charts, and the music video was the #1 video on MTV for multiple weeks in 1984...
Posted by Cory Roop on May 06, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Your Listening Pleasure
She & Him, The Miracles, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits.
For this edition of Your Listening Pleasure, I'm going to try something new. Instead of describing three recently released, but unrelated songs, I will compare two or three with a commonality that I feel goes to the heart of something significant in how music relates to our culture at large. This week, I am going to compare the recent musical output of Zooey Deschanel (She & Him) and Scarlett Johannson. Both are notable young, white and attractive Hollywood actresses, are backed by artists with loads of indie-cred (M...
Posted by Jason Prechtel on May 05, 2008 @ 12:00 am