This week Nine Inch Nails announced that David Lynch is directing the video for their latest single, "Came Back Haunted" off of their forthcoming new album, Hesitation Marks. The last time the two guys worked together was when they teamed up for 1997's Lost Highway soundtrack.
Who's excited to see this collaboration?!
A new single from M.I.A"Bring the Noize" was finally released on Monday!
Interscope is still playing the waiting game with no news of a possible release date for her new album, Matangi which has been shelved for months but you can download "Bring the Noize" for free dollars!
I can hardly wait for the rest of the new album to be brought, can you?!
Two major announcements from a couple oldies but goodies doing new things this day and age: Pink Floyd is now on Spotify and The Rolling Stones catalogue is now on iTunes!
It doesn't feel like it's been 20 years since Liz Phair's gritty sexy post-punk garage girl rock album Exile in Guyville started a musical revelation does it? Saturday June 21st marked the 20th year anniversary of the release of Guyville and whether you like where Phair's sound has gone since then there is no denying that it is an effing solid timeless album: then, now and for the next twenty (+) years.
Bad girl Courtney Love granted bad-ass Jay-Z permission to use lyrics from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
Apparently, Mr. Rap Mogul used the lyrics in his forthcoming album Magna Carta Holy Grail (due out on the 4th of July) without asking. When Mrs. Cobain got the news of this usage she gave the go ahead. I'm gonna guess that Francis Bean will not be the only one upset about this...
Z and Love are currently on their own, separate tours.
Pieces of music news I picked up this week. Did you pick up any pieces?
Days before headling Saturday night at Bonaroo Mumford and Sons unexpectly postponed three shows Tuesday through Thursday after the band's bassist, Ted Dwayne recieved medical emergency treatment for a brain clot on the surface of his brain.
Ted Dwayne pictured 3rd from left.
Rather than find a replacement for the remainder of their Tour, Mumford and Sons announced the cancelation of their scheduled performances at both Bonnaroo and Telluride Festivals along with their show in Kansas.
Along with dedicating his impoptu replacement performance to Mum and Sons fellow folk-guitarist Jack Jonson also wrote and performed a brand new song about Bonaroo appropreitly titled, "Bonaroo" at Bonaroon on Saturday.
"We want to dedicate this whole set to Ted Dwyane and all of Mumford & Sons"
"I wish we could all be here playing music together right now." - Jack Jonson
Ted is reportedly out of surgery and on the mend and we are all very glad to hear that!
God speed on a your recovery Ted!
The Walgreens store brand, Nice! has a new product!
The playful packaging of the chain's line of (even more) affordable products always catches my eye, most times igniting my ravenous sweet tooth in the snack isle. As I meandered around a Walgreens store one afternoon just killing some time Nice! struck yet again! This time with a snack I had never seen nor heard of....Cupcake Minis?!?!
A cupcake craving craze started stirring inside me...I know what mini cupcakes are but what is a cupcake mini?!
Upon closer inspection the front of the bright box, I confirmed that this was indeed some type of cupcake goody. Seeing that I am always shopping on a budget plus way over due for a cupcake review this was not a hard sell!
Nice one Nice!
Honestly, in the whirlwind of making my purchase I didn't read the description of what I bought and I thought that these were simply White Chocolate chips with rainbow confetti sprinkles.
Surprise!
As soon as I opened the box I saw that what was inside was more than that!
The Cupcake Minis immediately reminded me of Cookie Dough Bites even though I don't think I have ever eaten those.
The morsels are indeed tiny pieces of white cake coated with a "white frosting" covered in rainbow confetti sprinkles. I say "white Frosting" in quotations because it's firmer than regular frosting, (obviously for packaging reasons). It isn't white chocolate but it's not exactly frosting...it's a form of frosting. Neither cake flavor or frosting flavor is disclosed on the box; rather, both are listed as white which I associate with being vanilla (what will Walgreen's market "chocolate" Cupcake Minis as?!)
Though they are not really little pieces of cupcake they are tasty and fun to eat! Their bite-sized-ness make them easily snack able and I found as I happily snacked away it was like eating a never ending cupcake top! Ok, it ended when the box was empty but you know what I mean!
As to be expected Walgreens Cupcake Minis do definitely carry that manufactured taste and that's not necessarily a bad thing! You know that you're getting what you pay for when you shop Nice!
With that said I had bought them in such a haste that I don't remember the price but I can tell you that I know that Walgreen's Cupcake Mini's are cheaper than an "average" cupcake.
In my opinion they should be called Cupcake Bites rather than Cupcake Minis because they are bites. Plus, Cupcake Minis is too close to Mini Cupcakes and these are not mini cupcakes. The too names are too close in comparison, it could be confusing. And...White flavor?
Cupcake Minis are a fun creative tasty take on cupcakes. There aren't many cupcake snacks out there making these perfect for when you're on the go and are craving a cupcake. Plus, you can totally share them with friends and that is always Nice!
By 10:00 the place was packed and the Canadian indie, rock band had the show underway with one of their more bubbly catchy tracks, "Enter Through The Sun". Before continuing on with what was sure to be more off of their recently released EP, Wake All My Youth lead singer took a moment to introduce the band "What's up everyone? We're Young Empires from Toronto."
During the world rhythm infused indie anthem-ish, "Rain of Gold", my good friend and plus one to the show that night who wasn't familiar with Young Empires told me that she liked them, she liked the band. My friend is a huge fan of The Killers, so if you're not familiar with Young Empires that should be a good insight to what they sound like.
Some of the synthy-ness on "Glory of the Night,"was lost on stage but acted as a good transition into, "Earth Plates Are Shifting," following the trend of slowing the tempo of the show down just a tad without ceasing the fun being had. For an indie show/crowd/venue I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of movement through out the crowd which has a tendency to be somewhat minimal with SF show goers.
Right when we got to the show that night I had mentioned to my friend that the guitarist was not the guitarist I remember seeing last year. Sure enough before playing what I'd say is their most well known song, "White Doves" lead singer Matthew introduced the new bandmate: "This is Randall our new guitar player. He's been with us for....how long? Four weeks? About 4 weeks. He's from South Africa but he loOoOves America."
Photo by: Nikki DeMartini
A playful arrogance exuded from the stage throughout Young Empires set and you could see and feel that they were happy to be there. "This has been a great experience. Last time we played in San Francisco we played at a place down the street and blew the power like three times, it was really shitty!" the lead singer shared. It's true. They did blow the power like three times at The Parkside but that night the sound was just fine at Bottom of the Hill. And on that note Young Empires ended their set with energetic dance track "We don't Sleep Tonight."
We stuck around to see what the Generationals are all about and they're good in their own regard but my friend and I both said that we enjoyed Young Empires a bunch more.
Go see for yourself! Catch Young Empires on tour!
On June 4th the forecoming album from electroclash rockers CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) Planta was advanced on Pitchfork! Listen and watch the stream which also includes images of their shenanigans on and off the road.
CSS & MS MR are giving Bay Area fans two chances to be a part of the fun;playing two shows at two different venues in SF! June 16th they'll be at The Independent and June 17th they're at The Great American Music Hall!
If you're not in the Bay you catch these acts throughout the states as they continue to tour this summer.
Planta is offically out June 11th and you can pre-order it today!
On the 6th Nine Inch Nails debuted the first song "Came Back Haunted" off of their highly anticipated ninth album which is slated to be released September 3rd.
If you like what you hear on the Nine Inch Nails Soundcloud, pre-order Hesitation Marks today and get hooked up with a free down load of the song!
Are you surprised or not surprised that the glam fashion rock mogul mama carries a tote from her own line L.A.M.B and spritzes her own Harajuku Lovers scents?
Divine Fits appeared on Conan earlier this week to premiere a medley of two new songs from their double A-side single “Chained to Love” b/w “Ain’t That the Way.”
Both songs will be released physically on a 12-inch vinyl double-A side single on July 23 but you can get digital copies now!
Celebrate Some Girls 35th anniversary on Sunday June 9th by giving this Stones record a spin!
Above is the original art work but did you know that there are THREE versions of the album's cover art?
Dragonette, the dance-charged pop-rock trio from Toronto have been rockin' and poppin' since droppin' Bodyparts last September with a slew of funked-up remixes and fun music videos.
So what's left for them to do?
Tour of course!
After touring with Major Lazor in March they hit the road with The Presets for a handful of fun fueled shows! A couple of weeks back I jumped at the chance to see Dragonette and The Presets
co-headline at The Fox Theater in Oakland!
I love a good co-headlining show because both bands get the same amount of time on stage and in most cases fans don't know what band on the bill will play first. This surprise party started off with Dragonette!
Three words came to mind as soon as I arrived:
white (Miss Dragonette herself, Martina Sorbara was wearing all white). hot (though not as well known as they should be the band was on fire as they lit up the stage).pop
(this pop, rocks and her outfit sure popped on stage!).
Then I quickly noticed how easy it was to find my way front and center on the floor because it was...empty. The fans who were there completely enjoyed this rare-occurrence, myself included, but I did wonder how the bands felt about this.
Maybe it was a little ambitious for these two bands to book a show at this venue?
"Pick Up The Phone" off of 2009's "Fixin' to Thrill" was at the top of Dragonette's set-list followed by a new songs, "Riot" and "Live in this City" "The Right Woman." The sound at The Fox Theater is always so good and the fact that it wasn't packed didn't change this.
Martina managed her time on stage really well. Her playful exchanges with with Kurtz and Stouffer durring each song made watching them even more enjoyable while her interaction with the crowd didn't cease. Wheather she was behind her mic, getting fans to fist pump with her (yes, there was a bunch of fist pumping going on) or getting down low, literally reaching out on the edge of the stage she did it all with a smile on her face and it was all done while she sang.
Dragonette is an upbeat band. Period.
Her smiling happy face made me of Kim from one of my favorite pop-optomistic bands, Matt and Kim; I have never seen Kim with out a smile on her face and throughout Dragonette's set Martina's smile never left her face. Plus, both these litttle ladies have some smokin' guns and they both play instruments!
Last summer's sensational single "Hello" came a little later in the Dragonette set and I couldn't tell if the lead singer lady was lipsyncing or if she was just letting the crowd fill in a lot of it .Or was this one of the concicences of preforming a cover song live? I still don't know but I do know it was fun, even I sang along!
Before playing the last single released off of their latest album "Bodyparts" Martina geared fans up by saying this about it: "We have a funny song we're gonna play...it's such a mess (laughs) it's called Giddy Up" which I thought was a funny introduction. Moreover it was charasmatic that Dragonette is able to laugh at themseleves and live no less!
SET LIST
Pick Up The Phone
Riot
Live in this City
Right Woman
Animale (Don Diablo cover)
My Legs
Ghost
Untouchable
Run Run Run
Hello (Martin Solveig & Dragonette cover)
Let It Go
Giddy Up
I Get Around
Fixin To Thrill
Before they partied on, Dragonette mentioned that it was their last night on tour with The Presets and the sentiment in that short yet sweet statement was just that, short and sweet while foreshadowing that their set was coming end.
Dragonette ended the night on a high note with the dancey track "Fixin to Thrill" and as the song got going Dragonette bid a final farewell to their time on the road with The Presets who were taking the stage next.
When the music stopped the floor cleared out and a small part of me felt bad for the bands in a way but then you know what? Both Dragonette and The Presets were performing to people who were there to see them giving both bands a chance to connect with and see their (repsective) fans.
Pictures say a thousand words so here's photo re-cap of The Presets set!
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