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14 Sep 2009 02:42

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Music: Kanye West didn’t learn anything from that “South Park” episode

  • We have no clue where the heck Kanye West came from, but there he is, completely ruining Taylor Swift’s shining moment. We hope the next time Kanye wins an award, Taylor Swift steals the mic from him and reps Hannah Montana.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 21:04

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Music: We heard this rumor on Twitter that the VMAs were on MTV tonight

Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

12 Sep 2009 16:11

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Music: Saturday Mixtape: Os Mutantes, or why Brazilian music freaking rocks



Welcome back, insanely progressive Brazilian musical icons. We wanted to commemorate Os Mutantes' first album in 33 years, Haih Or Amortecedor, by looking back a little at music of their homeland. Warning: Four of these five songs are in Portuguese, but rule anyway.
  • 1. The females in the Tropicalia movement, including Os Mutantes’ Rita Lee (later a famous solo artist in her own right) and Gal Costa, had this wonderful way of blending their voices into the productions around them perfectly. On Costa’s “Lost in the Paradise,” there’s just as much quiet storm-style R&B as traditional Brazilian elements.
    2. “Telcar” is Os Mutantes’ first single from the new album. What’s surprising about it is that even though it clearly has modern, non-experimental production values (and only features one member of the original band), it still feels of another era in the best way possible.
    3. Caetano Veloso is one of Brazillian music’s greatest songwriters with a reach starting with Tropicalia and far into Brazilian popular music. He’s written hundreds of Brazilian standards, including “Soy Loco Por Tí, América.”
    4. The English lyrics to “Chuckberry Fields Forever,” a Gilberto Gil song performed by late-70s Brazilian supergroup Doces Barbaros, tell of how rock had a permanent impact on traditional Brazilian music. The music acts as evidence.
    5. Despite the fact that that this is a Giberto Gil/Caetano Veloso ditty, “Bat Macumba” is likely more known to American audiences for the Os Mutantes version, which played centerpiece to the band’s 1999 David Byrne compilation and is one of the band’s best-known songs. It loses little in Gil’s version.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Sep 2009 11:00

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Music: Beatles hater? Oversaturated with Beatles? You’re not alone.

One Beatles hater says their music is “either childlike and simple or rather leaden and pompous – one or the other all the time.” Kill him! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Sep 2009 10:25

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Music: Snoop Dogg is top cat at an iconic hip-hop label imprint

  • Priority Records just made him top priority. Everybody loves Snoop Dogg, right? (Well, besides the dogg thing, but today he’s an honorary cat.) Well, Priority Records, a gangsta rap label which released classic West Coast hip-hop from the likes of NWA, Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Westside Connection, is making him creative chairman of the label. Just in time for their 25th anniversary, Priority will put him in charge of a series of releases to commemorate the label’s history. Not bad, Niggarachi. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Sep 2009 10:17

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Music: Alejandro Fernández: Proof Sony doesn’t respect musicians’ rights

  • He gave them seven albums. They compiled an eighth against his wishes. Mexican pop star Alejandro Fernández found himself on the wrong side of music industry sketchiness recently when his former label, decided to release an album without him, which would effectively force Fernández – who is about to release two albums on his new label, Universal Music – to compete against himself. After a court battle, Mexican authorities intervened and seized recordings from Sony Music’s Mexico office to prevent the release. Even so, the move was incredibly sketchy on Sony’s part. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Sep 2009 02:42

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Music: Pitchfork spews forth a torrent of Beatles reissue love

  • 5,390 words on the Beatles’ reissues were published today – and they’re not even done yet! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

05 Sep 2009 16:08

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Music: Our Saturday Mixtape decade-in-review continues with 2001’s best

  • 1. Rufus Wainwright came out of the gate strong, and maybe lost a little steam after the second album, but “Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk” definitely isn’t the point where he lost the plot.
    2. Quiet wasn’t the new loud, but the sorta-movement created a couple of pretty solid bands between Kings of Convenience and Turin Brakes, whose “Emergency 72” holds up well considering its current lack of musical context.
    3. Britt Daniel of Spoon made a compelling argument for “The Fitted Shirt,” a style that’s evolved from the days of “ma’am and yes sir” to the style of choice for the male on the prowl. In the process, he made a very compelling argument for Spoon.
    4. It’s interesting how a band known for its guitar-shredding, the White Stripes, first hit mainstream consciousness with “Hotel Yorba,” a three-chord acoustic guitar ditty. No worry; they’d quickly become one of the decade’s biggest bands.
    5. Two years after Dntel’s “This is the Dream of Evan and Chan” came out, the ideas of this song were further explored with the uber-popular (and woefully neglected) Postal Service. And it’s obvious why. Jimmy Tamborello’s glitches and Ben Gibbard’s vocals made perhaps the best argument ever for indie-plus-IDM.source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Sep 2009 10:51

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Music: Snoop Dogg is using a new name on his next record

  • Niggarachi no, really guys source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Sep 2009 23:29

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Music: The Revenge of the Revenge of Roxanne Shanté’s Revenge



Nothing like unsubstantiated claims to brighten an evening. Roxanne Shanté, above, was a hip-hop icon before hip hop had its big mainstream breakthrough. Everyone forgot about her for a good twenty years, until this New York Daily News story broke, claiming that Warner Music paid for her to get a doctorate at Cornell. Problem is, it's not true.
  • The lies As reported by the New York Daily News (which will have an interesting retraction to write), the hip-hop icon (who scored her one-hit wonder at 14) had a clause in her contract saying they would pay for her education for life. She fought hard to get the label to pay for her education, eventually earning a doctorate at Cornell in 2001. She’s now a “hip-hop” psychologist. source
  • The lies As reported by the New York Daily News (which will have an interesting retraction to write), the hip-hop icon (who scored her one-hit wonder at 14) had a clause in her contract saying they would pay for her education for life. She fought hard to get the label to pay for her education, eventually earning a doctorate at Cornell in 2001. She’s now a “hip-hop” psychologist.
  • The truth According to Slate, Warner never had a contract with Shanté. School records say that she went to Marymount Manhattan College, but never graduated. She admitted to Slate that she never got a Ph.D. from Cornell or elsewhere. She doesn’t have a license to practice psychology. And Warner says the Daily News never tried to contact them, like the story says. source
  • The lies As reported by the New York Daily News (which will have an interesting retraction to write), the hip-hop icon (who scored her one-hit wonder at 14) had a clause in her contract saying they would pay for her education for life. She fought hard to get the label to pay for her education, eventually earning a doctorate at Cornell in 2001. She’s now a “hip-hop” psychologist.
  • The truth According to Slate, Warner never had a contract with Shanté. School records say that she went to Marymount Manhattan College, but never graduated. She admitted to Slate that she never got a Ph.D. from Cornell or elsewhere. She doesn’t have a license to practice psychology. And Warner says the Daily News never tried to contact them, like the story says.
  • Slate’s dirty work Ben Sheffner put together an article for Slate that ranks up there with anything The Smoking Gun has put together in recent memory. It’s just devastating. The way he dissected the Daily News’ article is admirable. The paper only quoted two sources in the article – Shanté and hip-hop Russell Simmons. Protip: When a story’s this good, fact-check your sources. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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