Archive: April 2009 (51-60 of 171)

Apr 22 2009 02:28 PM ET

Passion Pit: The next big indie-rock breakout band?

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Passion Pit have released a trippy-cool new video for "The Reeling," confirming what I have long suspected: the electro-rock quintet are poised to be one of the year’s big indie breakouts. Lead singer Michael Angelakos’ near-falsetto could draw comparisons to MGMT, for better or for worse. I say better. People who liked OracularSpectacular should find plenty to like in both "The Reeling" and"Sleepyhead," two tracks that will appear on the group’s forthcoming album Manners, due May 19.

Passion Pit’s Chunk of Change EP created some fervent chatter in the blogosphere when it was released last year. Internet hype or not, I haven’t been this jazzed about a band in ages. And as much as I enjoy the catchy exuberance of "Sleepyhead," their new song "The Reeling" is much more sophisticated. The way all the differentelements of the song — the vocals, synths, samples, bass, drums, and more — coalesce proves they’ve already streamlined their sound, but have still maintained the most crucialelement: a killer hook. Oh, and that keyboard bit toward the endabsolutely slays me. (That’s a good thing!) Peter Bjorn and John’s "Nothingto Worry About" can step aside, I’ve found my new go-to electro-jam. Watch the videos for bothtunes below and decide: will indie darlings Passion Pit be one of 2009′s big breakoutbands?

Passion Pit: "The Reeling"

Passion Pit: "Sleepyhead"

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: What was their best late night performance this week?
Adam Schlesinger on Tinted Windows, Stephen Colbert and…the Jonas Brothers!
Dirty Projectors’ ‘Stillness Is the Move’: Download it for free
Best Indie Rock Albums of All Time: Battle of the lists!
Grizzly Bear’s ‘Cheerleader’: Exclusive new track

Apr 22 2009 01:46 PM ET

Nas and Damian Marley on their 'Distant Relatives' collaboration

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Damianmarleynas_lNas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley recorded one excellent single together, "Road to Zion," in 2005. As much as I enjoyed hearing the N.Y. rap legend and the reggae scion play off each other’s styles on that track, though, I never guessed that they would be following it up four years later with a full collaborative album, Distant Relatives, tentatively set for release this June. Turns out, neither did they.

"I didn’t really plan this," Nas told me when I reached him by phone recently. "It just feels right." In a separate conversation, Marley explained that the idea for Distant Relatives originated last year with his management: "The idea was for us to do an EP based on Africa, using one or two tracks that didn’t make my album, likewise one or two tracks that didn’t make his album. Once we started working on the music, though, everyone was so excited that we decided to make this a full-out album." Click through to the jump for more details on how Distant Relatives is shaping up.

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Apr 21 2009 09:51 PM ET

Susan Boyle? Miley Cyrus? Amy Winehouse? Tell us who should be on VH1's new 'Divas'

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Mileycryrussusanboyle_lStrap on your tiaras! Earlier today, VH1 announced that their much-missed Divas show will return on September 17th. Moreover, the channel is giving fans the opportunity to write in and suggest who they want to see on the show, and which two performers they think would make the perfect "Diva Duet." Here at the Music Mix we think Lady GaGa, Fergie, Estelle, and Duffy would make some rather fierce additions. As for "Diva Duet," how about pitting Miley Cyrus against Susan Boyle? Now that’s what we call having your demographic bases covered. But our biggest brainwave? Get Amy Winehouse’s agent on the phone, pronto. What would the troubled Brit soulstress actually do? Who cares! She can just stand around backstage and stub her "fags" out in Miley’s mineral water. She’d still be probably the most entertaining thing about the whole shebang.

What are your thoughts, Music Mixers? Who do you want to see perform at this year’s Divas?

More on the Music Mix:
Today in covers: The Fray takes on Kanye’s "Heartless"
Susan Boyle: America, what’s your problem?
Eminem’s ‘Relapse’ cover art: What do you think?
‘Hannah Montana’ holds six spots on the Billboard Hot 100

Apr 21 2009 07:16 PM ET

Today in covers: The Fray takes on Kanye's "Heartless"

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Kanyethefray_lWhen Kanye West got confessional on last year’s minimalist cri de coeur 808s and Hearbreak, it showed us a side of the Louis Vuitton Don we hadn’t seen before: vulnerable, angsty, vocodered.

Now, piano-rock balladeers the Fray have gone and matched him on the first two, if not the third: Their cover of his beseeching single "Heartless" (sample lyric: "How could you be so / cold as the winter wind when it breeze yo") is Vulnerable Angst Squared — singer Isaac Slade’s desperate, breathy pleas sound like the last gasp of someone with fatal emotional angina.

In the giant hall of mirrors that is the internet, Kanye himself has already posted the mp3 on his blog, which means he presumably approves, and the song is actually available today on iTunes. You can also stream it here, and tell us what you think: Coldest story ever told, or hot like fire?

More on the Music Mix:
Sugarland covers Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex on Fire’
Eminem’s ‘Relapse’ cover art: What do you think?
Asher Roth: Are you ready for a suburban rap star?

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Apr 21 2009 06:40 PM ET

Extended Play: Meg & Dia

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Meg&Dia_l

Welcome to Extended Play, a weekly feature here on the Music Mix wherein our intrepid staffers review albums and album-related products that didn’t fit into the magazine. Think of it as "bonus materials." That works for DVD sales all the time. Don’t forget to stream the "Download This" selections while you’re reading the reviews, for a true cross-platform multimedia extravaganza!

This week: Meg & Dia, Here, Here and Here.
READ FULL STORY »

Apr 21 2009 06:10 PM ET

Eminem's 'Relapse' cover art: What do you think?

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Eminem_relapse_lWe’re getting closer and closer to Eminem’s big May 19 Relapse, and the sneak peeks keep on coming. Today the album’s cover art was revealed to the world over at Nah Right. As you can see, it’s a composite image of Marshall Mathers’ face made out of various pills, featuring an Rx label that reads "Prescribed by Dr. Dre." (Glad to hear that he’s still covered by Mr. Mathers’ health plan!) I’d be remiss not to note the eerie resemblance between this visual and the Eminem-in-M&M’s objet d’art that Ripley’s Believe it or Not! purchased last fall. Coincidence? You decide. Anyway, how do you like the Relapse cover art?

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Asher Roth: Are you ready for a suburban rap star?
The Clipse and Kanye West’s "Kinda Like a Big Deal": Hear it here
Eminem to play the MTV Movie Awards: Will you be watching?
Eminem’s "We Made You" video: Snap judgment

Apr 21 2009 06:04 PM ET

The Pixies' 'Minotaur' box sets: Will you buy 'em?

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Unless and until the Pixies’ on-again/off-again reunion leads to any more new recordings, fans will have to content themselves with listening to the four awesome albums (and one awesome EP) that the alt-rock pioneers released between 1987 and 1991. At least we’ll have a new way to enjoy that catalog this June 15, when the Pixies release a comprehensive box set titled Minotaur. For $175, they’ll give you the Come On Pilgrim EP, Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, and Trompe le Monde, all with newly expanded artwork, plus a book and a DVD with a 1991 concert and all of the band’s videos. For $450, serious collectors can purchase a limited edition that includes all that as well as the five releases on audiophile-quality vinyl, a bigger book, more artwork, a Giclee print, and so on.

Both options sound very nice — though I’ll admit the prices feel a little steep for something that doesn’t involve any remastering or (so far) any confirmed bonus tracks. Still, visuals were such a critical part of those Pixies albums that it would be a mistake to underestimate how cool the new art could be. What do you say? Will you consider shelling out for either edition of Minotaur, or are you happy with that scratched-up CD you bought in 1990?

More from EW’s Music Mix:
What was the 1980s’ best year for music?
Will you buy the new Beatles remasters?
Neil Young Archives: They’re really coming this summer

Apr 21 2009 05:27 PM ET

Happy Birthday, Robert Smith! The Cure frontman turns 50

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Call it a semicentennial, a quinquagenary — or just give thanks to Maybelline for half a century of blackest-black eyeliner: Today, British goth-rock legend Robert Smith joins Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson in the Holy Crap, They’re 50! Club.

Granted, the Cure itself is only 33, but it’s always felt as if the prodigiously talented Smith sprang from the womb with his sad-bat semaphores already intact — those kohl-rimmed eyes! those pinky-red lips! that wild halo of Edward Scissorhands hair! — just as it’s hard to imagine a world without "Just Like Heaven" or "Lovesong."

To honor the recent Coachella headliners, do tell us your own favorite Cure memories; mine involves an early-’90s road trip, a wobbly old tape deck, and a mom who was cool enough to introduce me to the band by putting "Close to Me" on repeat repeat repeat. (I was 13, and I thought "Kokomo" was a really good song. It was like a very special episode of Intervention, if Aruba-Jamaica-ooh-I-wanna-take-ya was the drug.)

Or just enjoy this interview from 1985, in which a painfully self-effacing, possibly hungover and relatively makeup-less Smith somehow still manages to be utterly charming:

More on the Music Mix:
Coachella ’09 Sunday: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cure battle for supremacy
Lollapalooza lineup announced: What year is it, again?
What was the 1980s’ best year for music?

Apr 21 2009 04:46 PM ET

Asher Roth: Are you ready for a suburban rap star?

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Asherroth_lTo say that Asher Roth doesn’t fit the typical profile for an up-and-coming rapper is an understatement. A proud Pennsylvania suburbanite, Roth decided to give music a shot only after studying elementary education at a teacher’s college for two years. "I’ve got beef with the educational system," he told me when we met up at SXSW last month. "The reason why I got into the rap thing is because mainly, I was like,’Okay, I can teach 25 kids in a classroom and do lesson plans all thetime, or I could write my own lesson plans to teach a million kids.’" Though Roth is far from the first rapper to come from a suburban background or attend a university, not many artists will flaunt those facts so willingly. He even named his breakout single "I Love College"!

Of course, "I Love College" is more of a meatheaded party anthem than an enlightening lesson plan — perhaps not so far outside rap’s mainstream after all. But Roth told me that he didn’t want that self-described "novelty song" to define him going forward. And now that his full-length debut, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, has arrived in stores this week, the world can get a better idea of what Roth’s musical vision sounds like. Love him or hate him, the guy’s certainly got a unique take on where rap is headed. So let’s hear it: Are you planning on picking up Asleep in the Bread Aisle? What do you make of the whole Roth phenomenon?

More from EW’s Music Mix:
The Clipse and Kanye West’s "Kinda Like a Big Deal": Hear it here
The Streets’ "I Love My Phone": Download the Brit wit’s ode to communication technology for free
EW’s 50 Most Heartbreaking Songs of All Time

Apr 21 2009 03:51 PM ET

Michael Jackson: Too frail to pull off his London run?

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Jacko_lAnyone who followed Michael Jackson’s trial will remember how weak and delicate he seemed, and last summer he was photographed being pushed around in a wheelchair. Now a report on The Wrap.com is raising questions about the superstar’s ability to complete his 50-date concert series at London’s O2 Arena this summer. The website quotes a source close to the Jackson family as saying that the Thriller star "gets sleepy, tired" and now weighs a mere 135 pounds. Accompanying the piece is a recent picture of Jackson in which he does look especially fragile and thin. However, the article also quotes World Music Awards producer, and Jackson friend, Gary Pudney saying that the singer is "healthy and rehearsing in Los Angeles."

What do you think, Music Mixers? Can Jackson actually pull off this long run of shows?

More on Michael Jackson:
Michael Jackson’s auction called off
Michael Jackson announces dates: And so we face the ‘final curtain’
Michael Jackson announces ‘This Is It’ concerts in London

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Lollapalooza lineup announced: What year is it, again?
What was the 1980s’ best year for music?
Bob Dylan’s new video promotes gangs, art photography

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