Today Spoon released the Got Nuffin EP, which marks the band’s first release of new material since 2007’s excellent Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I digg the lo-fi guitar and the snare drum on the single “Got Nuffin". The 3-song EP is available through Merge Records, click here to order.
Hear both the highlights "Got Nuffin'" and "Stroke Their Brains" courtesy of Pop Tarts Suck Toasted
Red is the sophmore album from Norwegian Dance-punk duo Datarock.
Their blog describes their sound as 'retrofuturism', which seems appropriate as they manage to drag the sounds of the '80s into the future. The band profess that all the instruments used to make the album were made before 1983.
Kyle Andrews debut Find Love, Let Go sounded like a really good college demo, but with his new album Real Blasty Andrews sound is fully realized. The songwriting has matured (and is more playful) and the electronic touches are much more pulsating.
Real Blasty is all energetic pop, drenched in kicking drum beats, keyboards, and just about anything else he can pull out of his computer making Real Blasty hard not to like.
A Camp is the solo side project of Nina Persson, vocalist for the Swedish indie/pop band The Cardigans.
The new album Colonia was produced by Persson (with hubby and film composer) Nathan Larson and features appearances from ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, Joan As Policewoman and Guided By Voices drummer Kevin March.
Warner Brothers has debuted the first trailer on AOL for Richard Kelly's (Donnie Darko) The Box and stars: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella. This is a story is about a box with a button that when pressed makes the owner wealthy but causes some other harm somewhere in the world.
The Box is both written and directed by Richard Kelly and is based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button, Button", which was also adapted in a "Twilight Zone" episode. Look for it in theaters October 30th.
The Watchmen Director's Cut will be hitting shelves on July 21st!
The film will be re-released in theaters in just four selected cities (the weekend before Comic-Con), Los Angeles and New York, Dallas and Minneapolis for one screening only. The Directors Cut will have 27 minutes of extra violence and sexiness.
I get not having a major re-release, but four screens...that's ridiculous?
I heard this band on Morning Becomes Eclectic the other day and I've had their brand new Self-titled album on constant rotation ever since!
The Swedish trio have produced songs for the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, and Kylie Minogue, but now they step into the spotlight with their debut album that is chalk full of pop perfection.
Above is a clip of Scott Hutchison frontman of Frightened Rabbit performing a brand new song!
Previously mentioned...
Scotland the new Sweden? Well, I don't know, but there are some (relatively new) great indie-rock bands coming out of Scotland...my absolutely favorite being Frightened Rabbit. I don't know why I didn't feel compelled to mention them earlier, seeing as this was probably the last album that I truly went nuts over!
What I love most about Frightened Rabbit is that they bring the most confrontational lyrics I've heard since The Mountain Goats. They've also gained comparisons (musically) to Idlewild, Counting Crows and Death Cab.
Frontman Scott Hutchison sings about how "You must be a masochist to love a modern leper on his last leg" on "Modern Leper" and how “You won't find love in a hole/ It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm” on "Keep Yourself Warm". Both of these songs, as well as the two I'm posting below, are from their last album Midnight Organ Fight, do yourself a favor and pick it up.
This South Korean film is the latest from Chan-wook Park (director of the cult-classic Old Boy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). The plot revolves around a priest, who is the subject of a medical experiment which turns him into...you guessed it...a vampire.
Park recently picked up the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for this vampire love story (*just an fyi the red band trailer below is pretty graphic). Thirst gets a limited release on July 31st.
View the Red Band Trailer (Courtesy of IGN) Right Here
In this dark comedy Paul Giamatti (playing himself) decides to lighten his load by having his soul extracted and put on ice. When he decides a soul-less existence isn't for him a mishap leads to his essence being shipped to Russia, where he must track it down. Parts of this film remind me of Being John Malkovich and others of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Cold Souls also stars: Emily Watson, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, and Lauren Ambrose. Look for it in limited release on August 7th.
Save our CEOs! Overture Films has debuted the trailer for the new documentary from Michael Moore. This is just a teaser trailer...no footage yet, sorry.
Love him or hate him, this is a creative way to introduce the concept for this doc and play with the audience. In fact, a few theaters in NY, LA, Chicago, and DC will have an "interactive" portion where ushers bring out bins to collect money in the audience. That's sticking it to Wall Street!!!
Overture Films and Paramount Vantage have announced that Moore’s new documentary will be released domestically on October 2nd.
Horror comedies are always hard to do. There's Shaun of the Dead or Return of the Living Dead..or more recently Sam Raimi's (oh Evil Dead...there's another one) Drag Me To Hell, which was less entertaining than the others but had it's moments.
There are way more straight to DVD movies that fail to frighten or conjure up laughs. This humorous look at the zombie apocalypse stars: Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin and Bill Murray. Look for this one in theaters on Ocotober 9th.
Last year The Getty called this Fridays Off the 405, this year however the FREE outdoor music series is labeled Saturdays Off the 405! This mix of some emerging bands & DJ sets also includes free parking at the Getty Center on Saturdays after 5pm!
Kicking off the series this saturday (June 20th) is The Brooklyn trio Chairlift. Other acts include: Mas Exitos, Cut Chemist, The Dodos with more to be announced! The performances take place in the Museum Courtyard from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The first few saturday performances have been listed with saturday September 26th and Saturday October 24th artists still to be announced.
Saturday, June 20th: Chairlift w/ DJs Frosty and Ale
Saturday, July 11th: Mas Exitos featuring DJs Chico Sonido, Lengua, Hoseh, Ganas, and Enorbito
Saturday, July 25th: Cut Chemist w/ We Are The World
Saturday, August 8th: The Dodos w/ DJ Turquoise Temple
Lissy Trullie lays own some highly infectious Strokes-y dance-rock, ahwile back I received their Self Taught Learner EP in my inbox (dig the hot cover above)! Now I have a link to a Lissy Trullie interview on ABC News' Amplified!
Watch the interview of Lissy Trullie on ABC News' Amplified Right Here
Here's the video for the lead off track "Boy Boy" from the self titled EP. The video features James Dean and Richard Davalos from Strangeways, which you may recognize as a cover for an album from The Smiths...
You can stream Regina Spektor's new album Far right now!
A couple of weeks ago I pointed you towards the new Regina Spektor tunes "Laughing With" and "Blue Lips" from her forthcoming album Far, which is slated for a June 23rd release (See Here)!
Below are some viral videos captured by long-time friend, photographer, filmmaker, visual designer Adria Petty. The first three, for songs "Dance Anthem of the 80's," "Laughing With" and "Eet".
Last week Franz Ferdinand released Blood, an album of nine dub re-workings of tracks from their latest album Tonight, co-produced by Dan Carey a.k.a. Mr. Dan, whose roots in dub mixing goes back to his time as an apprentice engineer for the likes of Mad Professor and Lee "Scratch" Perry. Originally released as part of the early deluxe editions of Tonight, this new separate version includes an addition track, the dubbed-up version of "Dream Again," entitled "Be Afraid."
The iTunes version of Blood includes three new remixes of their latest hit single, "No You Girls" from legend Vince Clarke (Yaz/Erasure/Depeche Mode), The Juan MacLean (DFA) and Trentemøller.
Have a listen to the radio edit of Trentemøller's remix of "No You Girls"...
Swedish italo-disco artist Sally Shapiro and Paper Bag Records announced the release for Sally's anticipated follow-up to Disco Romance, titled My Guilty Pleasure, coming out on August 25th.
The album is described by Sally and producer Johan Agebjörn as "a bit more poppy and varied" than the debut, taking influences from genres like trance, cosmic disco, acid, ambient and jazz while still having 80's disco as its base, and definitely keeping the romantic feel of Disco Romance. "It will hopefully make you fall in love with the person sitting next to you on the bus," says Sally.
Sally will first be releasing her single, "Miracle," on Paper Bag Records in North America on June 16th.
I recently got a track from Ezra Bang and Hot Machine in my inbox. This is a Hannah Holland remix for their forthcoming single“Pussy Got 9 Lives”.
Lead singer Ezra is a New York born, London based artist/ producer. His first release with his band was a limited 7" titled Gesundheit Zeitgeist on Liverpool's cult label Hi Fi Records (Ladytron, Pop Levi) which quickly soldout.
Dave Eggers The Wild Things is available for pre-order on Amazon.com, the script is loosely based on the Maurice Sendak story, and co-written with Spike Jonze for the forthcoming movie!
Here's the synopsis:
The Wild Things is about the confusions of a boy, Max, making his way in a world he can't control. His father is gone, his mother is spending time with a younger boyfriend, his sister is becoming a teenager and no longer has interest in him. At the same time, Max finds himself capable of startling acts of wildness: he wears a wolf suit, bites his mom, and can't always control his outbursts. During a fight at home, Max flees and runs away into the woods. He finds a boat there, jumps in, and ends up on the open sea, destination unknown. He lands on the island of the Wild Things, and soon he becomes their king. But things get complicated when Max realizes that the Wild Things want as much from him as he wants from them. Funny, dark, and alive, The Wild Things is a timeless and time-tested tale for all ages. Where The Wild Things Are will release in theaters nationwide October 16th.
The trailer for Martin Scorsese's forthcoming film Shutter Island recently popped up online!
Marty Scorsese's Shutter Island trailer is over on Apple right now (available in several different formats) and it sorta looks like a ghost story or a psychological thriller at least.
Based on the Dennis Lehane's (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone) novel Shutter Island stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as a couple of U.S. Marshals who travel to the remote Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of a murderess/patient at the island's strange loony bin where, naturally, a guy like Ben Kingsley runs the show. The film is slated for an Oct. 2nd release.
Below is the first installment of three trailers for Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s forthcoming novel The Strain, which is out now.
Synopsis:
A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold.
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing . . .
So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city—a city that includes his wife and son—before it is too late.
Hot Gossip is an Italian trio started out in the back streets of Milan with a collective aim of playing blistering rock n roll. The band entered the studio in August last year to record their sophmore album titled You Look Faster When You Are Young, which marks a step forward in the band’s evolution, both in terms of songwriting and execution. You Look Faster When You Are Young will release on July 27th via Ghostly Records.
Andrew Barber is the impresario behind Chicago hip-hop shop Fake Shore Drive. The site released it's first free mixtape last month. It is hosted by The Cool Kids and features cuts from: Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Rhymefest, and many more.
I pretty much would just download GLC feat. Kanye West-”Flight School” and Lupe Fiasco-”Fire” (which you could download courtesy of Passion of the Weiss), Rhymefest-"Exodus 5.1", and The Cool Kids-"Popcorn" (which you can download Right Here)
Or feel free to download the entire mixtape Right Here
The Sweden/US trio Thieves Like Us released their new EP titled Really Like To See You Again via Shelflife Records yesterday. Here's the title track from that EP...
Wes Miles (frontman for Ra Ra Riot) and Rostam Batmanglij (keyboardist for Vampire Weekend) have teamed up to form an indie pop group called Discovery. They recently put a couple of tracks up on their site to stream, and have now added two more!
Yes, I've posted about this before, but I've got some exclusive clips to pass along!
This Sam Mendes film (written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida) opened in select theaters (in NY and LA) last week. As of yet there's no nationwide release date yet, but the film has been getting pretty good word of mouth so I'm hoping it will be coming to a theater near me soon!
This film is about a couple who are expecting their first child and decide to travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. The film stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph in the lead roles and I gotta admit it all looks a little Juno-like, but this is definitely a thirty-somethings coming of age story. Rounding out the cast are: Jeff Daniels, Carmen Ejogo, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Allison Janney, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Catherine O’Hara, and Paul Schneider.
I recently received a three track album sampler from So Many Dynamos forthcoming album The Loud Wars!
So Many Dynamos' album The Loud Wars officially releases tomorrow (June 9th). The album was produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie and I've got three songs: "Artifacts of Sound", "Glaciers", and my fav "New Bones" to pass along. The band will be touring with Maps and Atlases in June.
I recently received word that Alejandro Jodorowsky's latest project titled King Shot will begin shooting this October!
Jodorowsky is the director of such cosmically trippy films as El Topo and Holy Mountain that were only recently released in region 1 DVD format after years of legal wrangling with his former partner Allen Klein of ABKCO films.
King Shot is a so-called "metaphysical spaghetti western" starring Marilyn Manson, Asia Argento, Nick Nolte, Udo Kier, and Alejandro's son Adan Jodorowsky (who was also in his father's film Santa Sangre). Nolte and David Lynch (!!!) are executive producers. Lynch's Absurda production company will be the worldwide sales rep.
Here's the trippy Trailer for El Topo...
Here's the (even more bizarre) Trailer for Holy Mountain...
Order the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky Right Here
Scotland the new Sweden? Well, I don't know, but there are some (relatively new) great indie-rock bands coming out of Scotland...my favorite being Frightened Rabbit. I don't know why I didn't feel compelled to mention them earlier, seeing as this was probably the last album that I truly went nuts over!
What I love most about Frightened Rabbit is that they bring the most confrontational lyrics I've heard since The Mountain Goats. They've also gained comparisons (musically) to Idlewild, Counting Crows and Death Cab.
Frontman Scott Hutchison sings about how "You must be a masochist to love a modern leper on his last leg" on "Modern Leper" and how “You won't find love in a hole/ It takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm” on "Keep Yourself Warm". Both of these songs, as well as the two I'm posting below, are from their last album Midnight Organ Fight, do yourself a favor and pick it up.
The Weinstein Company recently debuted the trailer for The Road, the highly anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel!
After reading the novel I had a hard time believing that this somber story could be brought to the big screen, but this looks much better than I thought it would. I have a feeling this will be one of the most highly anticipated non-summer films this year. The Road stars: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, and Guy Pearce and will release in theaters on October 16th.
I recently received a three track album sampler from Placebo's forthcoming album Battle For The Sun!
This sampler includes The first single "For What It's Worth", the title track "Battle For The Sun" and the standout "Ashtray Heart". This is the band's first album since 2006's Meds, and was recorded over three months by producer Dave Bottrill in his Toronto studio (chosen by the band largely because of his work with Tool) and mixed in London by Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails). The album officially releases on June 8th.