You've seen the cover. Now listen to Pearl Jam's self-titled album at AOL music. Go here to stream.

The band's first release for J Records will be in stores this Tuesday.

Posted by Glenn at 1:12 PM | Link
|Music|

The Ramones released their debut, self-titled album on April 23rd, 1976...30 years ago today. Few albums have such meaning three decades after their release. And three decades later the legacy of the Ramones can still be seen.

This Wednesday, "Too Tough To Die: A Tribute To Johnny Ramone" will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival (and will screen throughout the festival). It's a documentary about a 2004 tribute concert to Johnny Ramones -- just two days before he passed away -- that had performances by Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Henry Rollins and many others. Watch the movie trailer here.

May 25th is the date for Joey Ramones' 55th Birthday Bash concert at Irving Plaza in New York. Richie Ramone, who was the band's drummer from '83 to '87, was been confirmed to make an appearance. The concert, now in its sixth year, is a benefit for the Lymphoma Research Foundation and is organized by Joey's mother, Charlotte Lesher, and his brother, Mickey Leigh.

Posted by Glenn at 1:39 PM | Link
|Music|

Though you wouldn't know it with all the coverage and adulation the Dixie Chicks have got after their public criticism of President Bush, the country trio may have lost some fans. (Though they may have gained some, too. Time will tell if the fans gained are the kind who buy albums and attend concerts.)

The Pensacola News-Journal's Mark O'Brien warns of a chilled reception in that area when the Chicks' next album comes out.

"(Pensacolians) tuned out the Chicks, turned off by their politics and style. Program directors at local stations predict few requests for their music when the Texas trio issue Taking the Long Way in May. That's fine with me, especially because fans still can purchase music the radio doesn't play.

The Chicks exercised their constitutional right to free speech, and fans exercised their constitutional right to stop listening to what was one of country music's brightest, hottest acts."

O'Brien's advice is the same as Aerosmith's two decades ago: Let the music do the talking. It sounds like good advice. Most music fans don't mix politics and music.

Posted by Glenn at 11:20 AM | Link
|Music||Politics|

Following the footsteps of Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow, Michael Bolton will release an album of oldies covers (subscription required) through -- no, not J Records -- Passion Music/Concord Records. The album will be called Bolton Swings Sinatra so that means it will be a collection of Frank Sinatra songs.

Stewart's series of American standards and Manilows recent oldies collection have all been chart toppers. Their success left entry into this market inevitable. And Concord, with its relationship with Starbucks' Hear Music, seems like the perfect place to sell this music.

"What's next?" begs Hits, "Benny Mardones croons Dean Martin?"

Posted by Glenn at 2:24 PM | Link
|Music||Universal Music Group|

Sufjan Stevens is hipper than hip. He's on top of the world. Sometimes Coolfer wonders what would possibly cause him to lose stature.

Praise from Mandy Moore could do the trick. From her iTunes celebrity playlist, for which she selected his song "Chicago":

"I was really taken with this song the first time I heard it. It's really big and sweeping. His whole record has such a unique feel to it. I think it has an almost musical-theatre aspect to it...which is amazing. Very hip

Yeah, that'll work wonders for his cred.

Posted by Glenn at 1:30 PM | Link
|Music|

Members of the media -- and the blogosphere -- can lose their skepticism at the wrong moments. A few days ago Pitchfork admitted that it had been part of a prank and retracted its story that singer-songwriters Sufjan Stevens and Rosie Thomas were going to have a child together. Days before an amateur video taken a Death Cab For Cutie concert started making the Internet rounds...and surprisingly a lot of people bought into it.

For its part, Pitchfork claims it followed procedure and checked the story for accuracy. "We fell for it-- hell," admitted news editor Amy Phillips, "our information came directly from the source (Rosie), was corroborated by a close friend (Denison), and even Sufjan's publicist was being slippery about it." Hey, when it's a conspiracy even a by-the-book news editor can be duped. What can you do?

Then there's the case of the amateur video (watch at YouTube) taken by a fan at a Death Cab For Cutie concert during which a fan calls out for the song "Talking Like Turnstiles" and is so overjoyed when the band starts playing it that he hops on stage. The Tripwire went haywire at the fan and calls him a "big stupid douche." At Stereogum's post only a few called it staged and noticed how well the fan knew the backstage area where he was taken by security.

Frank Chromewaves thinks it "seems just a little too staged to be real" and points to a Philadelphia Daily News article that talks about the band's upcoming DVD, Directions. It includes a bonus track that's a live performance "captured in looney, slapstick fashion by a camera-phone-toting Lance Bangs," says the article.

How should people have known the YouTube clip was staged? Didn't anybody notice the name of the YouTube member who uploaded the video, John10104? That's a zip code for midtown Manhattan, home to many record label offices. As it so happens, that's the zip code for the Atlantic Records offices at 1290 Avenue of the Americas in New York, NY. Those paying attention will know that Death Cab is signed to Atlantic Records. Ahem.

Posted by Glenn at 2:57 PM | Link
|Internet||Marketing||Music||Weblogs||YouTube|

A while back URB magazine started thinning its dance coverage and brought in more hip hop. Then more rock. Now LA joy divisioners She Wants Revenge is on the cover.

But it makes perfect sense...the band is filed under electronic as far as Soundscan is concerned and has been appearing high on the weekly dance chart (not a whole lot of competition). Then again, so is the Mariah Carey remix album, and so is Gorillaz.

Previously on Coolfer:

• How Far Has Dance Music Fallen?
• Studio Distribution Closes Its Doors

Posted by Glenn at 12:40 PM | Link
|Music|

The powers that be at AOL Music and RollingStone.com recently made their lists of artists to watch. AOL Music christined its latest Breakers, a group of up-and-coming artists includes Brit chart-topper Corinne Bailey Rae (pictured left), Cartel, Lost Trailers, Mat Kearney, Young Leek and Wolfmother. AOL can be a huge part of breaking new artists, as big as anything else on the Internet. So naturally labels love it. AOL's blessing is like the Midas touch for a developing artist.

Rolling Stone's list of ten artists to watch. It's a list heavy on pop (Daniel Powter, Matt White) and rock (new-to-the-majors TV on the Radio, Rock Kills Kid, Wolfmother, The Whigs, The Boy Least Likely To). The lone hip hop artists is Papoose, who Rolling Stone calls "New York's hottest hip hop MC." Just last week a hip hop insider told Coolfer Papoose isn't all that great, then added, "I mean, what the hell is a papoose?"

For a good inside peek at Papoose, check out this interview at All Hip Hop. He could be the real deal. Who else but a NYC hip hop star be part of a scene at SOB's?

What do these lists have in common? Both have Interscope hard rock band Wolfmother (pictured right), and both are almost exclusively major label artists. Only Boy Least Likely To, Bonde do Rolo (signed to Mad Decent), The Whigs and Papoose are not signed to a major -- though a major-label deal for Papoose is sure to be signed this year.

Posted by Glenn at 10:57 AM | Link
|Music|

Dare to dream: Yesterday The Minneapolis City Page's Jim Walsh posted a picture of the three surviving original members of the Replacements -- Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars -- and wrote that it was taken while they were in a studio to record a track with super drummer Josh Freese (who has toured as Westerberg's drummer in the past) for the upcoming Replacements box set. That box set does not yet have a firm street date. There is a scheduled date for Bastards of Young: The Best of Replacements, that's coming out on Rhino on May 23rd.

Coolfer's question: Why two drummers? Are they covering Pavement songs, or is Mars playing either guitar or bass?

More Replacements: Troubled Girl Films will show a trailer of its Replacements movie, "Color Me Impressed," at this year's Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco. You can download the trailer here (WM, 4.2 MB).

Update: Billboard.com confirms that the Replacements were in the studio recording a new song for the upcoming box set, Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements, due June 13th on Rhino. The two songs are titled "Message to the Boys" and "Pool & Dive." Freese played drums and Mars, who is going strictly with his art these days, sang backup.

Posted by Glenn at 11:01 AM | Link
|Music|

Delayer. That's a new (to me) word I read about yesterday. It means the same thing as downsize, but downsize is so five hours ago.

Spin magazine went through a delayering yesterday. Gawker called it a "shedding." Two more editors were let go, which adds to the list of editors that have already been asked to box up their belongings.

More importantly, it has a review of the new, must-be-coming-one-of-these-days-if-Chuck-Klosterman-is-reviewing-it Guns N' Roses album. "Chinese Democracy is not the greatest rock album ever made." he wrote. "Oh, it’s certainly awesome, but I don’t think it’s '15 years awesome.'"

Awesome or not, there will be a demand for the album. People want Axl. GNR's greatest hits comp is now north of two million units and still selling.

Posted by Glenn at 11:46 AM | Link
|Music|

• Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics will be released in June by RCA. Five of the songs were produced by Gangstarr's DJ Premier and are steeped in jazz and blues. (Billboard.com)
• Kings of Leon, who are due to break out huge, are back in the studio this week to record their third album. (NME.com)
• Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend are in the studio but not working on any timetable. "It will come out when it is ready." The band will tour Europe this summer, and Daltry is involved with a biopic on Keith Moon. (Billboard.com)
• 50 Cent, who was told to delay his album last summer by Eminem, says he'll have a new album out in July. (Hip Hop Galaxy)
• Audioslave's Revolations is due out in June. (Album Vote)
• The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2, a four-CD box set that collects the first four U.S. version Beatles albums, will be released on April 11th. The four albums in the set will be Rubber Soul, Help!, The Early Beatles and Beatles IV. (LA Times)
• Pastor Troy will release Stay True on April 18th via 845 Entertainment. Here's an MP3 download of the song "Police Can't Break It Up."
• DJ Shadow's next album may be out this summer. His website has audio and video streams for the new song "3 Freaks" featuring Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk. (Billboard.com)
• Keane's The Iron Sea, the follow up to Hopes and Fears, will be out June 12th. (Album Vote)
• Celly Cel's Slaps, Straps and Basebat Hats is due out April 4th. (Top40 Charts)
• Kylie Minogue is reportedly working on a new album. (Yahoo Music UK)
• Macy Gray's upcoming album, Big, will have guests Justin Timberlake, Will.I.Am of Black Eyed Peas, Natalie Cole, Outkast, White Leaf and Sleepy Brown. (FMBQ)
• Deicide is working on an album that's due to be released on Earace on June 6th. (Blabbermouth)

Posted by Glenn at 10:11 AM | Link
|Music|

Dance music is really sucking wind these days. Case in point: The Killers will headline this year's Ultra Music Festival in Miami. Other rock acts on the bill: Hot Hot Heat, Hard-Fi and The Prodigy (OK, the Prodigy are between rock and dance).

Rock and roll just doesn't want much to do with dance music. As Danceblogga pointed out, this year's three-day Lollapalooza bill is almost completely dance-free: Only Thievery Corporation will be flying the dance music flag in Chicago.

Posted by Glenn at 3:24 PM | Link
|Music|

(On the left is the pre-release, secretive album cover. On the left is the final artwork as seen at Amazon.com. Let's keep that one under wraps, shall we?)

There's some discussion -- or derision, rather -- over at Stereogum concerning the cover of the upcoming Pearl Jam album on J Records. Some say worst album cover ever. On the bright side, it's perfect for a Chevys or Chipotle cross-branding promotion.

Posted by Glenn at 11:10 AM | Link
|Music||Sony BMG|

After all those government dollars spent trying to breaking British music in the States is was obvious they'd be watching how their newly crowned kings, the Arctic Monkeys, are being embraced over here.

As the BBC reported yesterday, they ain't. "US reluctant to heed Monkeys hype" goes the headline. The article collects all the bad things said about the band from these articles:

• Oakland Tribune: "THAT'S IT? ... None of the tunes were memorable and the hooks weren't strong enough to catch a goldfish. The performance was sloppy in spots and there were some technical difficulties. I'd like to believe that it was an off-night for the band, but I have no evidence to support that hypothesis."
• Variety: They "have a long way to go. ... But with so many quick to compare the Arctic Monkeys to the Stones, Kinks, Who and other classic British bands, it's worth remembering that one thing that set those bands apart from the Pretty Things, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and nameless other acts who arrived in the States on a wave of press hype was that they were as brilliant onstage as in the studio."
• The Hollywood Reporter: The show was "not the messianic exercise it was impossibly built up to be" - but still "felt like the real thing."
• The Miami Herald on the band's SNL performances: "The teen rockers revealed a lack of seasoning."

(In all fairness, the Monkey's SNL performance wasn't as ridiculed as that by emo stars Fall Out Boy, which has sold over two million albums in this country.)

Back at home, The Telegraph sees it differently. "America goes ape for the Monkeys," announces the headline. Down in the article it calls the band's 55-minute set "pretty much the one they've perfected over the past few months."

If the live act has perfected, the band is truly in trouble. Coolfer caught the Monkey's first NYC show and thought it was great, but also felt they have a long, long way to go and do have the potential to get there.

Posted by Glenn at 3:13 PM | Link
|Indies||Music|

It's been a few years since a boy band made much of a dent on the US charts or got a rise out of the country's pop culture meter. No matter. The female fans described in this Guardian article on British singer-songwriter James Blunt have all the, well, fanaticism of of young teen girl in 1988 with New Kids of the Block Posters on their bedroom walls.

The difference is that these women are older. They're professionals. And they just Tivo'd Blunt on Oprah. That single daytime TV appearance did what MySpace can't seem to do: Push an album up the album chart in a single, qauntifiable leap. Back to Bedlam rose 142% to #2 from #9 last week. Wow!

To see the Cult of Blunt in action, read some posts at his site's message board. Does he smoke? (Some say yes, some say no.) Some people thinks he drinks a lot. And some fans think he's fit and looks better without his beard.

Posted by Glenn at 9:34 AM | Link
|Music||Warner Music Group|

A fitting continuation to Coolfer's posts about the Arctic Monkeys? Only if you're getting tired of the band and the coverage. Watch the video for "Monkeys" that, well, talks about being sick of hearing about the Arctic Monkeys.

Posted by Glenn at 12:10 PM | Link
|Music|

• Dixie Chicks' Taking the Long Way will be released on May 23rd. Taking part in the recording were Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell (Heartbreakers), Pete Yorn and Gary Lourdis (Jayhawks). (PR Newswire)

• Sonic Youth's next album to be released on June 13th. (RollingStone.com)

• International superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold will release his next album, A Lively Mind, via Maverick Records on April 11th. Guests will include Pharrell Williams, Grandmaster Flash and actress Brittany Murphy. (Billboard)

• The upcoming album by Brazilian-born artist Cibelle will be released by Crammed Discs in April. It will feature guest appearances by Seu Jorge, Devendra Banhart and Mike Lindsay (Tunng).

• Frank Black will release Fastman/Raiderman, a double CD, on June 20th. (Punknews.org)

• For its eighth studio album, Primal Scream is going back to the raw, blues rock sound that marked what most would consider to be the low point of its career. The yet-to-be-named album is due out June 5th. (NME.com)

• Tool will release 10,000 Days on May 2nd through Volcano. (Billboard.com)

• Linkin Park reveals some details about its next album on its website. The band will work with Rick Rubin on the album and has "about 40-50" ideas its working on right now. (Blabbermouth)

• Grandaddy's next V2 album, Just Like the Fambly Cat, will be released on May 9th.

Posted by Glenn at 1:58 PM | Link
|Music|

It's not often the Wall Street Journel covers independent music, so when it does Coolfer takes notice. Yesterday the WSJ had an article titled "London's Calling But U.S. Fans Aren't Picking Up." (No hyperlink, Coolfer subscribes to the paper edition.) Even though the British government has been taking steps to help its artists break in the United States, sales are only a fraction of their potential -- if potential is measured by UK success and incessant hype that comes from the bands' homeland.

The focal point of the Ethan Smith's article is the Arctic Monkeys, whose debut album sold 10% in the States what it sold in its first week of release at home. (To further put that into perspective, the U.S. has a population nearly five times that of the U.K.)

Why the difficulty winning over us Yanks? Smith has some thoughts.

"Arctic Monkeys faces a problem that has dogged a string of promosing rock bands in recent years--especially those from England. One after another, British acts awash in homeland success like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and the Darkness have hit American shores riding a global wave of hype, thanks largely to the Internet. But in most cases, the rabid critical enthusiasm in the States is followed by indifference from radio programmers, modest sales and a slow fade from view--in time to make way for the next Next Big Thing from across the pond."

The modest success to date of the Arctic Monkeys in America says two things to Coolfer. One, labels need to strike while the iron is hot. Buzz, especially when gained through the Internet, is often fleeting. The longer the wait for an official release, the lower sales will be. (Conversely, rushing an album's release presents its own set of problems, so the trick is to find and/or manipulate that sweet spot where public excitement overlaps with label readiness.) Smith points to this problem and says some fans may have downloaded the tracks while waiting for the domestic release. Coolfer believes it's more an issue of withering attention spans -- the band's songs were downloaded in the UK before the album was released, so the downloading argument doesn't hold water.

Continue reading "Getting Arctic Monkeyed To Death" »

Posted by Glenn at 5:33 PM | Link
|Indies||Music||Music Industry|

As an ammendment to Coolfer's mention yesterday of the argument between KRS-One and journalist Adisa Banjoko, let me point you to a post at ProHipHop that links to more audio clips of the heated roundtable discussion. It wasn't just an argument between KRS-One and Banjoko, it was a heated exchange between KRS-One and seemingly everyone in the room over hip hop's culture, history, future and leadership. His comments show he doesn't respect hip hop leaders and thinkers who don't come from the street, and he goes to great lengths to talk about his resume and talk down at those in the room who weren't "there from day one."

• Clip 1 ("If 50 Cent and G-Unit was here, and they said "I am hip hop," half of y'all wouldn't have a fucking thing to say to them because they'd put a gun to your back. Now you got somebody like KRS, who's been philosophizing about hip hop from day one -- I get this kind of disrespect?)
• Clip 2 ("You can't go to college and then say you're hip hop. That don't fly. ... You better be a b-boy, an emcee, a graffiti writer, a DJ or a beatboxer and you can call yourself hip hop. Other than that you're writing about hip hop. You ain't hip hop. You better master these elements before you start critiquing them. How you going to critique something you ain't even doing?")
• Clip 3 ("I am not an artist or a theorist. I am the living embodiment of what you're discussing. To put yourself on the level of someone who has perfected the culture is inaccurate and illogical and it's counterproductive to the movement. Now when I leave here I gotta go lead real people with real families, real economic issues, people going to jail.")

Also, read ProHipHop's previous post on the matter.

Posted by Glenn at 12:37 PM | Link
|Music|

Coolfer readers may have noticed a lack of Pete Doherty updates. It has been a while since Coolfer has mentioned anything about Doherty's drug abuse, jail stints or famous ex-girlfriend. There was one mention, a few weeks back, that Paris Hilton considers Doherty to be her greatest influence. (That was a rare Paris Hilton post.) Doherty's media coverage in this country is completely out of proportion with his success here (not much) and his influence on American music (next to none). Anglophile, NME-reading newspaper editors have been fooled into thinking Doherty has earned our attention.

Without purposely doing so, Coolfer has formed what could be called a Doherty Rule, which probably came to being as a result of a backlash against the constant media coverage given to America's version of Doherty, Courtney Love.

The Doherty Rule states that no artist should get more press mentions than he has written songs. The NY Times is especially smitten by Doherty.

The Doherty Rule states that the American media should not bother covering a troubled British rock star who is an unknown in America. For comparitive purposes, just know Paris Hilton should easily eclipse Doherty's American sales total.

Above all, the Doherty Rule states that an artist's' music is more important than his or her arrest record. Thanks, Courtney, for making that painfully obvious.

Coolfer will not post about Pete Doherty until he does something meaningful, cracks the Billboard Top 200 or dies, whichever comes first.

Posted by Glenn at 8:57 AM | Link
|Music|

The London Tube Map was recently reworked by The Guardian wtih names of legendary musical artists and bands in the place of each station.

It acts as a family tree to chart music history and also shows how different genres merge to create a band or style of music. In one spot, a line branches off from The Byrds and continues to REM, Husker Du and the final stop, Nirvana. Another line starts with Ray Charles and runs through a series of greats -- Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin -- before crossing two pop/rock lines at a Basement Jaxx stop. The Specials are at the intersection of reggae, pop and rock lines.

(Thanks to FoC Brady for the link.)

Posted by Glenn at 10:47 PM | Link
|Music|

Toronto's indie music collectives are the focus of a NY Times Magazine article by Alissa Quart titled, "Guided by (Many, Many) Voices." For followers of Broken Social Scene, the article's focal point, the lengthy piece is a must-read. But there are other aspects of the piece that will be of interest to those in the music industry, and even to those who appreciate a communal, anti-corporate approach to business. Labels such as Constellation and Arts & Crafts are shown as ideal-minded businesses that reject the trappings and ethics of major labels. Says Arts & Crafts' Jeffrey Remedios, who had worked at a major prior to founding the label, "I named it Arts & Crafts as I was trying to show that we mixed art and commerce, and that commerce was going to hold up its end of the promise. I had witnessed the machine. I wanted to rebel well." Author Michael Barclay calls it a distinctively Canadian approach. "It's textbook Canadian identity politics — the expression of individual will through community."

Though much of the article is about the economics of communal music-making, what's missing from the article was any mention of the government support Canadian artists and labels receive. How has Broken Social Scene's "art-nerd vows" for its communal model been subsidized and made possible by the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record (FACTOR)? Money for touring, videos, marketing and recording are often provided by FACTOR. Quart missed the opportunity to ask how -- if at all -- grant money helps shape the socialist business model and attitudes that were the focal point of the article. Coolfer's best, completely non-judgemental guess: It's easier to be anti-corporate when you're on the dole. (For example, many of the bands in the article -- such as Feist, Broken Social Scene, Metric and Stars -- received international tour grants in September of 2005.) Perhaps American politicians would feel differently about how they support music if they saw the success of Toronto's vibrant, creative music scene?

(Image of Broken Social Scene by Simon Law, via Flickr)

Posted by Glenn at 9:18 PM | Link
|Indies||Music|

A few weeks ago Coolfer ran across an animated clip set to the music of Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Going Down"...and then I ran across two more that set the unintelligable lyrics to stick-figure animation. Looks like the emo generation is just as confused about its latest anthem as a previous generation was about the lyrics in "Louie Louie," and it's fun to see them guess.

Here are three videos for the song. I like the top one the best.

Posted by Glenn at 2:02 PM | Link
|Music|

Test Icicles, a bratty trio from London that come to the public through Domino Recordings, will break up after five upcoming UK shows. Their debut full-length, For Screening Purposes Only, was just released domestically on January 24th.

A statement in the Pitchfork article doesn't explicitly say the band is over. Rather it gives a non-committal statement of indefinite hiatus that recalls how Pavement called it quits. "There are currently no plans to make another album or tour beyond this," it concludes. (Given the band's obtuse sense of humor, Coolfer wouldn't be surprised if this is all a prank.)

Some of the headlines of news reports read like the band wrote them: "Test Icicles Goes Balls Up" (CMJ), "Nuts! Test Icicles Disband" (Spin), "Test Icicles Have Meltdown" (MP3.com).

Let's eulogize the band by watching videos for the songs "Catch It," "Dancing on Pegs," and "Circle Square Triangle." And/or stream the new album at Rhapsody.

Posted by Glenn at 8:22 PM | Link
|Indies||Music|

Music gossip hound Roger Friedman reports that the former manager for The Killers is suing the band for a nice chunk of change -- $16 million -- for breach of contract. Braden Merrick, who was a rep for Warner Bros (which passed on the band) claimed he found the band playing in a Las Vegas club, polished them, signed the band to a deal and got them signed to Island/Def Jam.

Friedman thinks Merrick stands a good chance in court.

"Back in October 2004, Flowers—-the group’s leader—-told pollstar.org, an industry website—'Braden was a rep for Warner Bros. and he was just looking for bands. Las Vegas was in his territory, so he was checking out LVlocalmusicscene.com,' Flowers said. 'He wanted to sign us to Warner Bros. initially. He got us some showcases, and they didn't want us. He stayed with us and ended up being our manager until we got a record deal, and he's still here.'"

Posted by Glenn at 8:47 AM | Link
|Music|

Paris Hilton says Pete Doherty is her greatest influence. Be warned, the press leading up to her upcoming album is going to be frequent and ferocious. But as with many things in pop music, America will criticise, chatise and bemoan while being completely unable to look away. We're a bunch of rubberneckers, which explains why highbrow music snobs watch "American Idol." Pop criticism, ostensibly. That same love for pop criticism will keep Paris Hilton's music in headlines. Bloggers will eat it up, from the gossip blogs to the pop culture blogs to the music blogs.

And with that out of the way, here's some more info on the album (which doesn't have a public release date yet but May and June have been mentioned in the press). In The Observer Blog at The Guardian, Caspar Llewellyn Smith insists "there really are a couple of decent tunes" on the album, which is always possible when one "has been able to hire some of the biggest guns in the business." Sounds like Paris could replace Kelly Clarkson as the hipster's guilty pleasure of choice.

Those big guns include super-producer Scott Storch (pictured above, who said "the stuff is surprising" and "totally amazing"), ex-Go Go Jane Wiedlin (who said Paris "takes direction well and has no attitude whatsoever") and Le Tigre.

Posted by Glenn at 1:01 PM | Link
|Music|

For a band with a lead singer that makes women swoon, maybe it's just coincidence that everything's coming into allignment on Valentine's Day. Elefant's The Black Magic Show (via Kemado/Hollywood) was released at iTunes today (well ahead of the CD's release date of April 18th...let's see if it gets the ball rolling), Pitchfork gave it a 3.7 (out of ten) today and this evening the four-piece band starts a tour with BRMC. That Pitchfork review sure dissed the album (and made a good argument) though the albums' target audience -- the kind of mainstream listeners Hollywood sold a million or so Fastball albums to -- has probably never heard of Pitchfork. Coolfer is intersted in seeing how Kemado's stab at bigger success works out. It's always a crapshoot, even with a ladies' man in the band.

And, as Coolfer has pointed out before, Kemado/Hollywood are giving away MP3s of album tracks ahead of the release date. Here's "Lolita" (MP3). The Black Magic Show website -- yes, an entire website for an album -- has a media player with audio and video streams.

Posted by Glenn at 8:59 PM | Link
|Music|

Two signs that The Fugees' return is imminent: A free performance in Los Angeles and posters on 6th Avenue in Manhattan (pictured). The advertising is for Verizon's new VCast mobile music store, which is streaming clips of the concert as well as past Fugees concerts. The first single, "Take It Easy" (iTunes link) is already available at online stores, but subsequent singles will be available only at VCast.

A Fugees concert in LA -- at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine -- kicked of Grammy week. From all reports it was a great show, though, as Rolling Stone noted, they were a bit rusty. MTV.com on which Lauren Hill showed up: "The Hill onstage last night was definitely L. Boogie: The Lauryn who, years ago, was not only one of music's most captivating singers but also one its most dynamic lyricists, standing right behind the likes of Jay-Z and Nas as one of the best MCs of the then-new millennium."

The group has reportedly been working on an album for months and at one point it had a 12/27/05 tentative release date.

Posted by Glenn at 8:39 AM | Link
|Music|

A music article in the most unlikely of places is always a pleasant surprise, so reading "That's Good Enough for Me: Cookie Monsters of death-metal music" in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) was like a vacation from normal music writing. If published by a metal magazine, the article wouldn't have had the same journalistic curiosity.

Jim Fusilli wrote about Cookie Monster singing in death metal music, the style of growling that characterizes a particularly morbid and punishing music. The nonprofit behind Sesame Street claims not to know of the term, and original Cookie Monster voice Frank Oz said he's never heard of it. Fusilli captured the essense of the vocal style in this paragraph:

"The term is considered derogatory by some metal fans, but it's an apt description. Issued like machine-gun fire, death-metal vocals are low, guttural and aggressive, with no subtlety, no melody and very little modulation. But unlike the garbled sound emanating from the lovable and occasionally frenetic Cookie Monster, death-metal vocals seem to come from a dark spot in a troubled soul, as if they were the narrator's voice on a tour of Dante's seventh circle of hell."

Monte Conner of Roadrunner Records had good advice on how to attain the Cookie Monster style. "It's got to be really, really guttural. It should sound like they're gargling glass." But Angela Gussow of Arch Enemy (pictured) insists the sound originates in the abdomen. "If you use the right abdomen muscles, you get a lot of power."

A few years ago Will York wrote a piece about Cookie Monster vocals for the SF Bay Guardian. He explains the genres that use the style of singing (only death metal and grindcore) and that the type of growl is a good indication of the subgenre. As for why so many bands use the style he wrote, "For most, it's a mixture of several factors: habit, time-honored tradition, unoriginality, and necessity, in varying degrees."

Posted by Glenn at 9:22 AM | Link
|Music||Music Criticism/Writing|

A popular term among bloggers is jump the shark, which refers to an overreaching attempt for popularity. Coolfer rarely -- if ever -- uses the term, but it's the thing that comes to mind when reading about and hearing tracks from the new album by Brazilian music great Sergio Mendes.

With his new album, Timeless, has Sergio jumped the shark? Only time and consumers will tell, because anything short of incredible success will mark this project as a failure. Sales and a connection with younger generations is obviously the point here. The casting of the album's guests is from a page out of Carlos Santana's "How To Get Back In the Top 10" playbook: guests include Justin Timberlake, Erykah Badu, India.Arie, John Legend, Will.I.Am (who was the album's producer) and Q-Tip.

Will it succeed? One reason it could very well succeed is its label, Concord Records/Starbucks Hear Music, the same label that put Ray Charles back atop the charts, Timeless is going to greatly benefit from sales in Starbucks stores just as Charles did. (Read this MSN Money article about Starbucks and Charles' Genius Loves Company.)

And because he's serious about courting youth, Sergio has a MySpace page and a February 8th listening party at APT, one of Manhattan's more hip music clubs.

Posted by Glenn at 9:06 AM | Link
|Music|

• Rhapsody subscribers, here's a playlist with 36 tracks from 18 of last Tuesday's new releases (including His Name is Alive, Il Divo, UB40, Tha Alkaholics, Audio Bullys, Cat Power, Fivespeed, Saint Etienne, Rosanne Cash, P.O.D., Yellowcard, Film School and Robert Pollard).

• The Rambler Blog has a long (long, long) list of music-related deaths in 2005. Well known names are on the list (Lou Rawls, Link Wray, Robert Moog) but more relatively known ones such composer Robert Wright, Chet Helms (Janis Joplin' promoter), and Afgani pop star Nasrat Parsa.

• The NY Times' Deborah Sontag writes about Korean pop star Rain, who has two upcoming shows at Madison Square Garden. Rain says he would like to see an Asian pop star make it in America, so he's practicing his English, studying the culture and preparing an English-language album.

• MP3.com has an interview with David Pakman, CEO of online music store eMusic. It's a good, revealing discussion of eMusic's place in the online market. Pakman is very optimistic on the company's future. "We want to be at millions of subscribers and we want to sell more independent music in the world than anyone else," he said. "And I think we're very close to that." Later, he commented on eMusic's lack of DRM. "We'll continue to be no-DRM, not for philosophical reasons but only for practical, compatibility reasons. And if that whole practical, compatibility thing got sorted out, if you could sell DRM-protected music that was interoperable everywhere and that wasn't sort of penalizing customers for buying music digitally, we would do that."

Posted by Glenn at 3:03 PM | Link
|Music||Online Stores/Services|

Soul legend Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack yesterday. There have been a lot of obituaries and articles to commemorate the singer. Geoff Boucher's obit for the LA Times is a good overview of the man, musically and otherwise. So is Jeff Leeds' piece for the NY Times.

People are commemorating Pickett by buying his music. At Amazon.com Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits shot to #39 from #2,266 in one day. The soundtrack to "The Commitments," which helped introduce Pickett's music to a new generation, climbed to #651 from #2,245.

More information can be found at AllMusic's biography and discography, and at his Wikipedia entry.

Posted by Glenn at 8:59 AM | Link
|Music|

Coolfer noticed something about the top selling albums at Amazon.com the other day. Many titles have a relation to the big or small screeen. Looks like older music buyers tend to attain familiarity with music through television and movies. Here are the titles from a recent Amazon.com top 25 that have a connection to television or the big screen.

1. Brokeback Mountain: Soundtrack
3. Il Divo: Ancora. The band is signed to Simon Cowell's Syco, and it appeared on "Oprah" before the release of its self-titled debut last year. TV appearancs, not radio, has been the instrument for its success.
6. Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison. Johnny Cash titles are enjoying a good run because of the movie I Walk The Line.
8. Walk the Line: Soundtrack
11. Memoirs of a Geisha: Soundtrack
14. Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway. Made famous by the television show "American Idol"
16. Carry Underwood: Some Hearts. Another "American Idol" connection
17. Johnny Cash: The Essential Johnny Cash. The movie connection.
18. Celtic Women: Celtic Women. The group's popularity comes in a big part from exposure at PBS.
20. Michael Buble: It's Time (Reprise) PBS has showed his "Caught In The Act."
23. Wicked: Broadway Cast Recording (Decca) Since this is a Broadway musical and not a movie it almost doesn't belong on the list. Since people watch it while seated I'll include it.
24. Jamie Foxx: Unpredicable. He's been on both the big screen and the small screen.

When Starbucks got into music retail a big reason was because its older customers don't always have good resources to discover new music (something about jobs, families, busy lives, etc). This list doesn't confirm that people will buy whatever you put in front of them, but it does show that some older consumers become familiar with new music through other forms of entertainment -- television and radio. The huge audiences for these mediums obviously have an impact that more fragmented print and Internet sources radio can't match.

Posted by Glenn at 4:29 PM | Link
|Music|