April 29, 2009
Mega-retailer Best Buy, which stands as more or less the only big electronics retailer after the death of Circuit City (though who didn’t love those 10% off sales at the end?) is finally coming to terms with the state of the music industry in 2009. All stores will now carry a small selection of albums on vinyl after a successful trial rollout over the last few months. While it’s easy to throw stones at sinful big box stores, I really can’t fault Best Buy for the move, and I really doubt their carrying 200 records is going to put my favorite regional shops (Dimple, Amoeba, Rasputin) out of business. There you have it, as blase a news post as can be.
March 25, 2009
Chicago’s favourite post rock outfit will drop their first new LP in five years on 23 June via Thrill Jockey. It’s called Beacons of Ancestorship. If you only heard their last record, It’s All Around You, this news might not be particularly exciting to you. But Beacons will be their sixth proper LP; the rest of their catalogue is quite something, so don’t write this one off.
January 30, 2009
The lineup for California’s most hallowed music festival is up at long last and here are the NLtS-endorsed highlights:
Friday, 17 April
Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst, Beirut, The Black Keys, Girl Talk, The Hold Steady, A Place to Bury Strangers
Saturday, 18 April
TV on the Radio, Fleet Foxes, Mastodon, Hercules and Love Affair, Calexico, Liars
Sunday, 19 April
My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Okkervil River, Clipse
The big letdowns, aside from Blur or something equally insane (The Smiths, Pavement, Radiohead), are probably Animal Collective and …Trail of Dead. I don’t myself at this festival, though the lineup is much improved from last year’s shitshow. Most of the big-draw acts like TV on the Radio and Fleet Foxes aren’t really the greatest festival bands, though it might be novel to catch Mastodon in a more laid-back venue. It seems unlikely that you’d get your head kicked in at Coachella, unlike on Mastodon’s current tour with Metallica or whatever.
Still, if someone had a massive hard on for My Bloody Valentine or really wanted to see Macca and Moz on the same night, the appeal is obvious.
January 16, 2009
You may remember him as the crazy Brit who just got out of jail. Or you may remember him as the guy who used to date Kate Moss, but then made a public shitshow of their acrimonious split. You almost definitely know him as the Keith Richards of our time (drug use wise). You may even – and this one is a stretch – remember him as the frontman of the Libertines or Babyshambles. Again though, I really feel like I’m grasping with that last one.
Well, no matter how you remember him, he is back. Erstwhile musician and current psycho Pete Doherty is putting out a solo record. And while it may not have a title, it certainly does have everyone at the NME playing “hide the hard-on”. Indeed, in keeping with their tradition of abandoning all personal dignity when reporting about Doherty, the magazine has crowned this album as “the most diverse album Pete has made by a long stretch,” comparing it to “Gorillaz. And The Coral. And The La’s. And Blur. And Bob Dylan.” Uh-huh.
Maybe the Blur comparisons aren’t totally off the mark. Guitarist Graham Coxon and producer Stephen Street (who helmed Blur’s Parklife and The Great Escape) offer their services here. We’ll obviously offer more details on this as they emerge, but right now, the plan is for the record to drop 9 March.
November 4, 2008
Democracy is in your hands, dear reader.
September 18, 2008
I feel ridiculous posting this so far after the fact, but I couldn’t resist. If anyone could pull it off, I suppose it would be Alex Kapranos and Franz Ferdinand. Still waiting of course, gentlemen, on that fabled third record. No pressure.
Oh yeah, and the video is really weird. But the cover itself is what’s important.
August 14, 2008
Apparently the Way to Normal is paved by some strange stones. In an effort to avoid the leak of his third solo album, Folds recorded six alternate versions of songs and had his friends leak them. Many fans were upset and felt “cheated”. But in an interview with Rolling Stone, Folds said that “[in] the end, people got free songs, and we had something to do…”
The real album will drop September 30, and is helmed by Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, The Hives, Modest Mouse).
August 14, 2008
So very recently, we reported here that Radiohead would be scoring the next feature film based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, as well as sprucing up the end credits with a brand spanking new tune. Well, it turns out, according to Yorke and friends, that none of that was true. They won’t be scoring the film at all but rather giving one song, and the song that plays during the end credits won’t be a new one, but rather the much-looped “Reckoner” off the NLtS Album of the Year for 2007, In Rainbows. Sorry to get your hopes up, but it looks like our Radiohead fix won’t come early after all.
August 10, 2008
Oscar winner and 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and soul/funk icon Isaac Hayes was found dead at his Memphis home this morning. He was 65. The Hayes’s unique vocal style and performance image helped him pave the way into the disco era and laid the foundation for the rap revolution that would follow.
Hayes was a self-taught musician. His first stable music-related job was as a session player for Memphis-based Stax Records, receiving piano credits on albums from Otis Redding, among others. Eventually, a songwriting partnership with David Porter led to his writing several hits for other artists, which in turn earned him a record contract. So began a Grammy-studded career which would span decades.
Despite his undeniably musical notoriety, Hayes was perhaps best known for his work as an actor, namely his role as Chef on the hit Comedy Central series South Park. His engagement with that show ended famously and acrimoniously in 2006, when Hayes left the show on account of its satirical portrayal of Scientology, to which Hayes was an adherent.
The Associated Press reports that Hayes was found by his wife at his home this morning, but the cause of death has yet to be reported.
