Prefix

Sade: "Soldier of Love" (Live on The Today Show) (Video)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:33:30 -0500

Sade's hitting the promotional circuit to push her new record, Soldier of Love, that dropped today. This morning she and her band took to the Today Show to perform the album's first single and title-track. The performance is actually engrossing enough for what is a rather ghostly, sometimes eerie track that's propelled by militaristic drums and chugging synths and guitars. From what I've seen the album is getting favorable reviews thus far and, apparently, she's hitting BET tonight to perform on 106 & Park. She's really covering her bases, I guess.

The Golden Filter: "Hide Me"

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:29:57 -0500

"Hide Me" is a track that's been floating around in demo form for a while, but now The Golden Filter have let the polished version leak to promote their upcoming full-length, Voluspa. Sometimes, when the finished version of a track gets out so long after we've all been bumping the demo, it's disappointing to hear the edges sanded smooth, and the caul removed from the body, but luckily this isn't one of those cases. A streamlined finish is one of those things that really complements the Golden Filter's aesthetic.

Voluspa is out April 26 on Brille. Listen to "Hide Me" at Gorilla vs. Bear.

Joanna Newsom: "Kingfisher"

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:35:04 -0500

The slow trickle of material from Joanna Newsom's new album continues with the delicate 9+ minute track "Kingfisher," over on Drag City's website. They've also let slip a tracklisting for Have One On Me, which clocks the triple CD/Vinyl release at over two hours of music in 18 tracks. What the tracklisting doesn't mention is that half of the tracks are John Cage-inspired compositions where the listener will just sit in silence, searching for harp sounds that will never come. [GVSB]

Listen to "Kingfisher" here.

Have One on Me:

Easy 6:04
Have One On Me 11:02
’81 3:52
Good Intentions Paving Company 7:02
No Provenance 6:25
Baby Birch 9:30
On A Good Day 1:49
You and Me, Bess 7:13
In California 8:42
Jackrabbits 4:23
Go Long 8:03
Occident 5:31
Soft As Chalk 6:29
Esme 7:56
Autumn 8:02
Ribbon Bows 6:11
Kingfisher 9:11
Does Not Suffice 6:45

Marco Polo, Ruste Juxx: "Rearview"

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:23:42 -0500

"Rearview" is the first official leak from Marco Polo and Ruste Juxx's upcoming The eXXecution album. And, hot damn, this makes me want to go out and do things I'd probably end up in jail for, something I can't help but feel after listening to a lot of Duck Down Records' output actually. But I digress. If the rest of The eXXecution plays out like this track, it looks like we have another solid grimy NYC album on our hands. Marco Polo succeeded in doing so last year with Torae, so it only makes sense for him to repeat in 2010 with Ruste Juxx.

The eXXecution drops March 23 and you can stream "Rearview" at 2DopeBoyz.

David Bowie: NASA Planning David Bowie-Themed Mission, Reports The Onion

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:03:54 -0500

I know that The Onion is among the Stuff White People Like to talk about, but the editors of the satirical newspaper have done it again: Here's a link to the latest story about Science & Technology, which details a David Bowie-themed N.A.S.A. mission called Starman. This isn't as hilarious as the "Pitchfork gives music a 6.8" story, but the last paragraph gave me a solid belly laugh. The mission will surely be genre-defying.

Beach House: Various Songs (Love On The Alternate Side) (Videos)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:55:00 -0500

Sorry guys; I was only able to go a scant four days without writing about Beach House. Here's the band performing on the Alternate Side recently, running through "Walk In the Park," "Better Times" and "Zebra." This seems like it was recorded very early in the morning since the band looks only an hour removed from bed time. But the songs are just as stunning. [P4K]

Beach House's excellent Teen Dream is out now.

Gaggle: "Like Flies" (Video)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:49:36 -0500

London group Gaggle were recently tipped by the NME as a musical group that "will change music" this decade, which is pretty effusive praise for a group of shouty Londoners who seem like they're trying to sound as close as possible to the Jonestown cult. Gaggle have just released a video for "Like Flies," a song that sounds industrial, but is mostly just voices. This kind of seems like an alt Fanta commercial, but with more screaming. I'm not even sure how to feel about this. You tell me. [P4K]

Men at Work: Men At Work's Colin Hay Responds To Plagiarism Case

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:38:54 -0500

A few days after being found guilty of plagiarizing "Kookaburra," Men At Work's Colin Hay has issued a statement regarding his position, which unsurprisingly, takes the position of "we didn't steal anything."

When Men At Work released the song Down Under through CBS Records, (now Sony Music), in 1982, it became extremely successful. It was and continues to be, played literally millions of times all over the world, and it is no surprise that in over twenty years, no one noticed the reference to Kookaburra. There are reasons for this. It was inadvertent, naive, unconscious, and by the time Men At Work recorded the song, it had become unrecognizable. It is also unrecognizable for many reasons. Kookaburra is written as a round in a major key, and the Men At Work version of Down Under is played with a reggae influenced “feel” in a minor key. This difference alone creates a completely different listening experience. The two bars in question had become part of a four bar flute part, thereby unconsciously creating a new musical “sentence” harmonically, and in so doing, completely changed the musical context of the line in question, and became part of the instrumentation of Men At Work’s arrangement of Down Under.

The whole statement is wicked long, and it discusses turning songs into mathematical formulas, since that's essentially what happened in order for Men at Work to be found guilty. Go here to read it. I think Hay should be issuing statements apologizing for rhyming "man from Brussels" with "muscles."

Frank Sinatra: Message To Karaoke Singers: Don't Do "My Way" Because You Will Get Shanked

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:27:00 -0500

There was an absolutely bonkers story in the New York Times this weekend about how there's been a rash of karaoke murders involving Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in the Philippines. Apparently, if you get up and sing it in a Philippine bar, your liable to get your face stomped in, shanked, or at worst, buried. Seriously. The story is about how people who do karaoke in the Philippines have stopped doing "My Way," even though that's the song they'd all like to sing. But they don't out of fear of making someone mad enough to kill them. The craziest part is that no one can explain why the beatings, etc. are occurring; it just seems like people are nuts about Frank Sinatra over there. Go here to read the story.

Kid Cudi: 'How To Make It In America' Episode One, Featuring Kid Cudi (Video)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:14:53 -0500

In advance of its premiere this weekend, HBO has put up the first episode of How To Make It In America on YouTube. You probably don't care that it stars the female lead from Knight's Tale or the fourth male lead from American Pie, but it does star Kid Cudi, the semi-famous rapper. I can't really follow what's happening here. Apparently young people in New York just always have art shows for Ziggy from The Wire? And they get stuff to sell from the docks? And the owner of Boogie Nights will break your arm if you don't pay back the loan you took to make your skateboarding line? This shit is bananas. [NahRight]