Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (07/04/2009 @ 4:10 pm)
Holly Williams is the epitome of country royalty. Her grandfather established the family name with classic songs like “Hey Good Lookin,’” and her father left his mark on country music forever with the help of a devilish, bad boy image, and undeniable outlaw spirit. With the recent release of her sophomore album, Here With Me, singer/songwriter Holly Williams proves she’s worthy of her family’s notoriety. Not only is Here With Me packed full of potential singles, but it’s authentic, believable, and flawless. The music on Here showcases the full scope of Holly’s talent—both as a singer and a songwriter—as she belts out songs about “Mama” to honky tonkin’ boot stompers like the infectious, “A Love I Think Will Last.” Most impressively, there’s a commanding authority in her storytelling, and life in her lyrics that stretches far beyond her 28 years.
There isn’t a song on Here With Me that doesn’t deserve a moment in the spotlight, but the record shines brightest when Williams sings of heartbreak and hardships. Bittersweet undertones come through on tracks like, “He’s Makin’ A Fool Out Of You,” “Three Days In Bed,” and “Alone.” The rawness that resonates in her vocals conveys an honesty that’s been sadly absent from the sugary country-pop of late, and the appropriate simplicity in her lyrics make the whole thing seem effortless. Other standouts on Here include, “Keep The Change,” and “Without Jesus Here With Me” from which the records title was spawned.
After listening to Here With Me, it becomes abundantly clear that singer/songwriter Holly Williams has country in her blood. Here is the perfect combination of raw emotion, illustrative lyrics, and beautifully composed melodies, creating one of the best female vocal performances country music has heard in years. Where other artists prove to be predictable, Williams keeps listeners entertained cranking out song after song of quality country with a contemporary edge and loads of credibility.
Here With Me would be bet served on a warm summer night, under the light of a full moon, with a side of red wine. It’s a record you can laugh with, cry to, and even learn a few life lessons from along the way. Here With Me should fit nicely into a library filled with soulful singer/songwriters or country sweethearts like Jennifer Nettles, Emily West, or Katie Armiger. Whether or not you’re a country fan, however, Holly Williams and her latest release are definitely worth investigating. You may just fall in love.
Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (06/05/2009 @ 12:06 am)
From the back woods of Sparta, Tennessee come eclectic indie-rockers the Features. Their latest release, Some Kind of Salvation, was recorded without the help of a major label, and boasts a hodgepodge of songs with inventive lyrics and infectious melodies. Opening track “The Drawing Board” sets the tone of the record with a barrage of funky horns, and “The Temporary Blues” makes a statement about that shit job you just can’t stand but really can’t live without. Other standouts on the record include “GMF” - about zombie vegetables that take their non-conformist farmer hostage - and “Wooden Heart,” a post-break up/rebound anthem about putting the shine back on that tarnished but most important blood-pumping organ. On the whole, the record is full of energy. It’s relevant yet different, with audible influences like the Kinks and Elvis Costello. Some King of Salvation is a bit of a departure from the wild psychedelic rock you may expect from the Features, but “Off Track” or not - this foursome is poised to make a bold statement in the world of rock music. (Loose Tooth 2009)
Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (03/28/2009 @ 8:00 am)
One sunny afternoon just north of Nashville, TN, the grit of southern rock fell in love with the energy of funk and the very essence of rock n’ roll. Their love grew and multiplied and a short time later, out of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was born Cage The Elephant.
Brothers Matt and Brad Schultz joined up with a high school friend Jared Champion, and family friend Danielle Tichenor. A few months later Lincoln Parish, an eager young musician, e-mailed the group several times asking to join. Subsequent jam sessions proved successful and Parish joined the group at the ripe old age of fifteen. Cage The Elephant began to conquer the local tour circuit, and after word spread of their high-energy, high-chaos live shows, they signed with Relentless Records. Since then, they’ve been working hard to release their debut album “Cage The Elephant” which dropped in the US June 23, 2008
Since 2007 Cage The Elephant has been touring and living in the UK where their first single, “In One Ear” debuted at number 26 on the Top 40 charts, and their intense live shows have earned them opening spots on tour with Kings of Leon and Queens of The Stone Age.
Now, that their self-titled LP has finally been released in the States, Cage is poised to take control of the American rock scene. The band’s organic melodies channel the likes of The Chili Peppers and outspoken lyrics mock their critics with a raw poignancy reminiscent of Dylan himself. On the opening track “In One Ear” the band claims, “They say that we ain’t got the style/we ain’t got the class/we ain’t got the tunes that’s gonna’ put us on the map” but subsequent tracks like “James Brown” and “Lotus” dispel any such rumors.
BBC reviewed the new record saying, “’In One Ear’ is a definite two fingers up at the music industry (”I’m an antisocial anarchist who sounds like so and so… Rock ‘n roll is dead I should have stayed at school”).” The story behind the lyric is, no doubt, one of the many things that draw fans to Cage’s live shows and helps to make the track so phenomenal.
Cage The Elephant continues the record with tracks like the fan-favorite “Tiny Little Robots” which channels “the kind of guitar playing that The Hives would appreciate,” (Contactmusic.com)and finishes everything off with the distinct, “Soil To The Sun,” a track that proves Cage is in it to win it with their haphazard enthusiastic rock.
While DrownedInSound.com called Cage The Elephant, “Kings of Leon 2.0.” nothing could be farther from the truth. While it’s true Cage shares geographical origins with Kings, the overall intensity and passion found in Cage songs such as “Back Stabbin’ Betty” and “Back Against The Wall” put the two bands in completely different categories; Cage is pure rock, while Kings have a distinct indie-edge.
Opinions aside, Cage The Elephant have made it clear that they are here to rock, and with their debut record, courtesy of Relentless, they’re not about to let anyone forget the fact. Online music source, Mirror.Co.UK described Cage’s magic perfectly saying, “[Cage] moves in demented unison, hits you with the force of a hurricane and doesn’t forget to drop killer riffs and top tunes.” Their energy smacks the listener in the face from the very first beat and keeps him coming back for more track after track.
Check out Cage The Elephant on iTunes, or sample some tunes for free on the band’s MySpace here.
Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (03/26/2009 @ 8:00 am)
Canadian rock duo USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) brought their high energy rock to RedGorilla Music Fest Wednesday, complete with techno inspired beats and homemade smoothies (they made them on stage), giving everyone a taste of what it would be like if Nirvana went to a rave.
It’s true there are thousands, probably millions of independent bands in the US alone. They record in their basements or garages, tour on meager merch sales, and survive purely on adrenaline. Most of them will never make a dent in the mainstream rock market, but every now and then a band comes along that possesses enough talent and drive (the combination is key) to take them straight to the top. Case and point: USS.
You may not be familiar with USS yet, but these guys have been enjoying great success in Canada thanks to heavy radio rotation and a never-ending desire to create something completely unique. With the help of their trusty MacBooks, USS has been creating Nirvana inspired indie-rock laced with infectious beats and energy to boot, for years. Now, with intuition to guide them, USS is embarking on the ride of their life: the release of their upcoming album, and an exciting tour to follow.
USS’s set at RedGorilla Music Festival last Wednesday was an experience in and of itself. Their energy, above everything else was intense. They ran around stage shouting lyrics in perfect harmony, and spitting energy with their wicked rhymes. To top off the night, USS took the audience on a strangely entertaining ride when they proceeded to make homemade smoothies on stage, while singing. Ash would sing a line, pick up a banana, rub it all over his face and then sing another line. He’d do some more rubbing and then place the banana into the blender and pick up a strawberry. After some more singing and eccentric expressions, he would rub the strawberry all over his face, sing some more and then throw it into the blender with the other fruits. The set ended with the two drinking the smoothies and acting surprised as to how they wound up with smoothies in their hands. It was borderline train wreck, but it was brilliant, and the music was so spot on live it was incredibly entertaining. I laughed my head off, danced my heart out, and still have their melodies stuck in my head. USS puts on such a great set it’s a wonder they haven’t been around longer.
For USS, the journey to the top of the Canadian charts was surprisingly organic. It began with Ash’s desire for something he had never heard before. After swapping his electric guitar for a new MacBook—the first computer he had ever used in his life, mind you—Ashley Boo-Schultz paired up with pal and turntable master the Human Kebab. The evolution of the duo’s thoughts and desires came to fruition in the bass-heavy sound that can be heard on the band’s new record Questamation that is currently on iTunes, and will hit stores soon.
Interestingly enough USS has recorded, produced, marketed, promoted, and distributed their music without any help from a label. They’ve also been fortunate enough to grow a significant following without falling victim to mainstream media, bypassing the hoops of fire most new artists are forced to jump through to secure radio play. Instead, USS’s music has spoken for itself. The synth-pop and grunge-inspired rock that defines them has risen above the masses of indie music as some of the freshest, most promising tunes on the radio. Here’s to USS and their incredibly unique brand of indie-rock. If you missed this band at RedGorilla you should be ashamed of yourself. Trust me—you want to get to know USS, they’re coming your way. It’s only a matter of time before they’re dominating radio and tour circuit here in the states, and when they do all I can say is “I told you so!”
Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (03/19/2009 @ 8:00 am)
Straight from Norway comes the indie-pop sensation Maria Siversten. This quirky 24 year old loves to drink, speaks her mind, and is the proud owner of her very own psychological disorder–synaesthesia, a sensory condition that makes her see colors and shapes when she hears tones or sounds. Her lyrics are blunt, simple, and to the point in a twisted web-of-a-way that often leaves you wondering what her songs are about, but the overall effect is garge-style-scuzz-rock that’ll have you dancing around the room, remote control-microphone in hand.
For the most part Ida’s debut Fortress Round My Heart (RCA) has been well received, earning her a spot on Blender’s 1001 Downloads: Top 144 Songs of 2008. (She came in at number 109.) Rolling Stone Magazine called Fortress “warm and tuneful” but also warned listeners that Ida could ”go easier on the drunken confessionals.” There’s no doubt about the fact that her record is soaked with the remnants of some heavy drinking, but it does make for some interesting tunes.
Unfortunately for Ida Maria, not everyone’s a fan of her spunk-infused pop. DrownedInSound.com wrote:
While her vocal enthusiasm is commendable…there’s not enough bite to Ida Maria’s zesty jump-around-the-room pop-rock for it to really impress. Fortress Round My Heart drags its heels more often than it kicks them, leaving its makers’ explosions of endearing energy exposed as the rarest ingredient in the Norwegian singer’s writing…
After a brief description of her touring history, DrownedInSound.com goes on to say:
The object, according to the artist…was to create a record of ten short, sharp, perfect tracks; pop music that hits hard, that you can dance and drink and go crazy to. There are moments of decently sassy pop-rock here, songs that you can just about see someone singing along to…But these moments are few and far between, and are exclusively the tracks featuring a vaguely vibrant BPM count. When she eases off the gas Ida Maria’s wheels begin to fall off; when she’s careening along to the point of near control-loss, Fortress is a fun, undemanding listen.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say her record is an “undemanding listen” but there are times when you find yourself wondering what exactly you are listening to. NME.com wrote about a few of those moments saying:
The deranged booty call that is ‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ makes sex sound like a desperate pagan ritual. ‘Oh My God’ makes boozing sound less like a fun past-time than, well, a desperate pagan ritual. By the time things turn to God, on ‘Stella’, He’s having sex with the titular character while, drunk…
Overall, Scandinavian grunge-princess Ida Maria’s unusual blend of sassy melodies and self-deprecating lyrics isn’t half-bad. If you like a little dirt in your pop music you should definitely check out her debut Fortress Round My Heart on iTunes, or drop by her MySpace for a free preview.
Posted by Alexzandra Hackford (03/17/2009 @ 8:00 am)
From Volcom Entertainment comes the six-piece indie-rock outfit the Riverboat Gamblers.Their fourth studio album Underneath The Owl hit stores last Tuesday and has been creating quite a buzz, thanks to their unique punk-inspired sound.
Hailing from Austin, TX the Riverboat Gamblers bring the energetic spirit of the Lone Star State to rock ‘n roll with intense choruses and surprisingly heartfelt lyrics.Their sound is the perfect mix of Rise Against and the Foo Fighters; just poppy enough to get stuck in your head, but sill hard enough to get your blood pumpin’.
Their latest record is the perfect combination of infectious hooks and heavy guitars.In a recent review Spin.com wrote:
It’s weird to think that these Texas upstarts are largely relegated to the fringes of pop — what they do is so basic, so elemental, it’s hard to even come up with a modifier to place in front of “rock.”
It’s true that the normal definition of “pop” is nowhere to be found on Owl but there is a definite influence that shines brightly through their punk/rock façade. Snobsmusic.com described Riverboat Gamberls’ sound perfectly, saying:
Much like Against Me!, Riverboat Gamblers make fast paced punk with all the hooks you could ask for…and they manage to do it without a whiff of bubblegum.
The music isn’t the only thing that has critics raving; the Riverboat Gamblers put on one hell of a show.In fact, in this month’s issue of RollingStone David Fricke wrote:
If there was a Purple Heart for punk-rock performance, Mike Weibe of raging Texans the Riverboat Gamblers would have a chestful.He’s a singer who always brings the show to you—surfing on hands, swinging from rafters and spinning around pillars—and he has the scars, abused muscles and mended bones to prove it.
Fricke goes on to rave about Owl’s “high-velocity bundles of sanded-fuzz guitars and bloodlust-rah-rah choruses.”There’s really nothing negative to say about this band.Their sound is polished, infectious, and straight-up rockin’.They’re currently on a nationwide tour complete with a few opening shows for Super-Punk stars Rise Against and Rancid.Check out Riverboat Gamblers’ MySpace for a complete list of tour dates and shows near you.
Erin McCarley was born in Dallas and cultivated her music career in San Diego, but she now resides in Nashville, home of country music and great songwriters. And right now, she is fitting in as one of the top pop artists on Music City. McCarley was on the Ten out of Tenn compilation recently and her debut album, Love, Save The Empty, on Universal Republic, comes out in early 2009 (January 6 to be exact). Folks, you need to keep an eye on Miss McCarley, because not only does she know how to craft infectious pop, but she delivers it with a humble charm and with a compelling voice. Here are a couple of samples courtesy of the label:
Most of the time, the Man About MySpace is at your service to find great new bands for the sampling. Today’s blog, however, offers a tip of the cap to a phenomenal fan site, Neville Tracks.
See, few families in America have put out solid music output for as many decades as the Nevilles, starting with keyboardist Art in the 1950s when New Orleans R&B was a national phenomenon. One could argue for Clan Cole (Nat & Natalie) or the Jacksons or (most legimiately) the Nevilles’ New Orleanian colleagues the Marsalises (patron Ellis teaches at Tulane and still records, and sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason have all released good and sometimes great recordings for the better part of 30 years), but the Nevilles pop up everywhere, from the pop to the soul to the rock to the world music charts.
And there’s not just the brothers Art, Aaron, Cyril and Charles. There’s Aaron’s son Ivan, a veteran who played with Keith Richards and the Stones, a member of the current Neville Brothers band, and leader of the edgy funk band Dumpstaphunk. There’s Charmaine, Charles’ daughter, whose jazzy world-beat club act is a party wherever it alights.
If you enjoy the Bros., try dipping into the next generation.
But wait, there’s more: Art’s group The Meters added a great Big Easy vibe to straight up funk and whose early-’70s records set the blueprint for the Neville Brothers sound as well as a thousand jam-band acolytes. The Meters’ grooves, today, still sound fresh and creative. Can’t say that about a lot of the dinosaurs from funk’s heyday, enjoyable as they are to spin.
Neville Tracks does its best to track the family’s in-print recordings as well as tour dates. Not an easy job after Katrina forced scattered the family throughout several states. But they persist, and so do the superfans who power this MySpace.
I first met Johnny Lingo off a Craigslist ad. No, not that kind of Craigslist ad: I bought a great vintage Wurlitzer 200A (think Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say”) keyboard from him, which I picked up at a Providence, RI recording studio where he was hanging out.
Lingo took me around the studio and graciously demo’d all the wild and fantastic keyboards there (they had a goshdarned Mellotron!) and gave me an EP of his former band, the Lingo. They’d built some regional notoriety playing upbeat, harmonious pop–including a funny little tune about how Johnny likes your friends better than you.
Now, the keyboardist’s struck out on his own, and released an album earlier this year. Driven by the same pop ethos, Lingo influences include 1970s disco (see “Step Outside”) and 1980s alterna-pop (”Fallen Angel”), but for the most part it’s a noveau mixing of a lot of stuff. Frenetic and melodious–and a good listen.
While we don’t ever like to make blanket statements that cast Billy Joel in a positive light, one thing he sang rings true: You can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine (or a blog) so don’t take our word for it: Sample four cuts on his MySpace, and if you like it, pony up the five bucks for a download.
The new Springsteen record is out, and it’s underwhelming. While I wonder sometimes what’s wrong with me–a lot of my Bullz-Eye colleagues love this record–it sounds as if The Boss is more like The Middle Manager: 30 years ago, in songs like “Rosalita” and “Born To Run,” Springsteen and the band would gather steam like a double-tractor-trailer huffing through the Berkshires on I-90 up the mountain, cresting at the top with a cathartic pause, and just over the top, Rosie, the record company just gave me a big adva-a-a-ance! Ooooaahhhh! The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive!
Those songs rushed downhill after their orgasmic middles, barely holding the road banging through joyous, precarious musical curves at unsafe speeds. But Bruce and Clarence always got us home safely.
Nowadays, Springsteen’s music sounds nice, the chords are pleasant, the sax still wails, but he hasn’t slammed it into overdrive for a couple decades.
His new songs contain stories, still, but mundane as your next door neighbor couple’s arguments (”Think about the future, baby, none of this has happened yet”) and not life-altering, on the edge stuff like leaving your wife and kids in Baltimore, jack, or “Mister State Trooper,” that was intense.
Don’t get me wrong, this aging “Springsteen 2.0″ is still better than anything John Cafferty, Bonnie Jovie, Southside Johnny or the Brooklyn-born Eddie Money ever put out, even in their heyday. He knows songcraft. And he knows his limitations and works within them to create good tuneage.
Maybe I’m just an old fart who’s living back in 1984, looking for an adrenaline shot that doesn’t exist. At any rate, it sent me on a MySpace Music hunt for a younger Jersey throwback, one that might be picking up the torch for us Springsteen fans who want a little more of the rough-and-tumble back.
It’s still elusive.
In the meanwhile, however, the search did turn up a freaking great band to check out called Wiser Time (pictured below).
These Black Crowes clones (they’re named after a Crowes song) pack some serious electric-slide punch into their original songs, and in the typical New Jersey rock style, do not aspire to bookish heights of rock intelligence. Amen, brother, we could all use a little less heavy thinking and a little more git-ar distortion. With a side order of slide.
Peter Hook—or “Hooky” as he’s known by dear fans—ye olde ancient bassist for New Order (or as of late last spring, shall we say the “defunct New Order”) has been annoying old fans with a dispute over who gets to use the band name. Or more to the point, if his old mates can use the name after Hooky picked up his bass and decided to go play in another sandbox. Ho-hum.
Hooky’s a lot better off playing his bass and spearheading musical groups than he is with the social grace, apparently, because his new project, Freebass, is absolutely awesome. And where can you sneak a listen to the preview cut “I Envy Us?” His MySpace, natch, the same online outlet where he also threatened to sue the other New Order members if they continued on without him and kept the band name (yet also says at his MySpace that he’s “open to negotiation,” whatever that means).
The shy boy? Or the coy boy?
We love you either way.
At any rate, the core members of Freebass comprise Hook, ex-Smiths bassist Andy Rourke and ex-Stone Roses/Primal Scream bassist Mani. Get the name? Freebass. Caution: If you think it’s cool, don’t even try copping the name, because one would guess his attorneys are watching for that sort of thing.
Lead vocalists allegedly in the running include Charlatans’ Tim Burgess and the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown, says Pitchfork. Add that to an awesome post-Madchester garage-pop Big Beat retro sound, and at least on paper it looks pretty freakin’ awesome.
Ahhh, the joys of fuzzed-out garage punk. Guys paying homage to 1980s postpunk retro maniacs like Mudhoney who themselves were paying homage to 1960s do-it-yourselfers like the Sonics. While such a swirling mishmash of influences might sound complicated, it’s really not. Think lo-tech. Think basic rock. Think pre-Sgt. Pepper.
It’s rock, unvarnished, and it’s awesome. Energetic hard-bashed drums, guitar with distortion turned to “11,” little if any keyboards, and no production values whatsoever. Think “Dirty Water” by the Standells. Think “Baby Please Don’t Go” by the Amboy Dukes. Think “Smells Like Teen Spirit” playing over a not-quite-tuned-in AM radio station.
It adds up to The Ultra Twist, an Italian punk band not quite a year old, who features all of the above, and a little (OK, a lot) of punk attitude.
The only high-tech digital artifacts detectable in the Ultra Twist’s Tracks–at least at MySpace sampling rates–is the deliberately added vinyl-like hiss and pop at the beginnings of the tracks. It’s a cheap trick, but hey, it shows the world where their priorities are, somewhere far south of Nelly Furtado’s quality control standards. And it’s good.
Warning: Flag-waving Amur-kans aren’t necessarily going to agree with all their sentiments–although, scratch that: Polls indicate that even staunch patriots are parting ways with our president, and the band’s anti-Bush rant is classic punk: An instrumental punctuated by three words. Albeit three incendiary words, to some folks.
Most punk fans would find it hard to disagree with The Ultra Twist’s main anthem, “No Beer No Fun,” so the band offers an opportunity for us to all set politics aside and mosh until our noses bleed, and our sinuses are finally cleared of all that Furtado. Anyway, dig the tunes and no, don’t adjust your speakers–it’s supposed to sound that nasty.
Ben Folds used to awesome. In concert, he still is, a consummate entertainer, and MySpace-aware fans point to his October 2006 live MySpace concert–requests only, the site’s first such event of its kind–chronicled on the Live at MySpace DVD as evidence of that.
But on the studio recording side, many of his fans are right to feel his songwriting has become almost too serious, his lyrics too jaded, to bear. Gone is the insouciance of the Ben Folds Five of the 1990s, the light drama of “Emaline,” the innocently poignant “Brick,” the simple chords . . . the subtle aspects of Folds that are gone and replaced–at least for the moment–with heavy-handed songs like “Bastard” and “You to Thank,” two back-to-back cuts on Songs for Silverman that sound like classic Folds pop but are so bitter and whiny that they just leave one cold.
Tim Halperin
Enter Tim Halperin, a TCU student and Folds devotee.
In between classes and other pressing needs that hamper the fun of dorm-dwellers (like having a television too small to read the score of the football game he and his pals are watching, chronicled in his “Life in the Dorm Room,”) this guy records whimsical piano-pop loaded with the delicious chordal curlicues we Folds fans love to hear.
These low-budget productions mean that his voice, piano, and songwriting skill must carry the day in cuts like “Nice to be Free” and “Mary.” They aren’t encumbered by effects and rich sonic backgrounds behind which the singer-songwriter can hide. It’s just his voice, his piano, and very basic backing tracks. Halperin’s vocals and piano playing stand up to the test.
And perhaps that is what is missing from Folds’ layered, heavily produced studio creations of today: That low-budget innocence of his 20s. Halperin’s stuff, while perfectly original in its own right, recalls the Naked Baby Photos era of the Five. Go give him a spin, and if you want his cuts on your iPod, go to his Garage Band page and download away. He claims he’ll let us know when a CD’s coming out; we’ll hold him to that.
Welcome to the first of a series of blog posts featuring great stuff spotted on MySpace Music. It can be good, bad, and ugly. Or, as we’re about to explain, worse.
The NFL’s investigating whether or not Pac-Man’s shield logo infringes on league trademarks.
Poor Pac-Man Jones. He goes on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel to share his side of the story–translated loosely, in a few words, “I am not really remembering what Mr. Commissioner Goodell told me about keeping my nose clean. What was it he told me, again?”–and yet he just can’t seem to hold on to the headlines to save his life, because Mike Vick’s antihero PR machine is outflanking him at every turn.
But he persists.
Following in the steps of pro sports miscreants-cum-rappers Jim “Punky QB” McMahon, Allen Iverson, and Ron Artest, Pac-Man’s livin’ da streetz life with his National Street League rap label, a collaboration (coll-abortion?) with producer/henchman Spoaty. The raps are about–you guessed it–spending lots of money. “I spent a hundred grand all in one night!” they sing on the almost completely mindless “Yah Nah Mean.”
Just like Pac-Man allegedly did in Vegas last winter after the NBA All-Star game, when the most notorious of his myriad suspicious activities went down. Witnesses claim Pac-Man took nearly that much money into a strip club and was “making it rain,” euphemism for throwing dollar bills around.
Anyway, maybe if you’re a big rap fan and someone like Pac-Man is singing about poppin’ rubber bands off bundles of $100 bills, he comes across with some sort of street cred. Unlike a lot of rappers setting their stories to a rump-thumping beat, you know for sure that Pac-Man’s living his. The music doesn’t sound very good to us, but give Pac-Man some time. If he pops a few more rubber bands and buys some serious studio time, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson prove that throwing the best technology at a recording really can help make a big hit, no matter what you’re starting out with. Of course, if he’s making records, that means he’s not working. And if he’s not working, the Titans certainly aren’t passing out more rubber-banded bundles of Benjamins.
Russian-born Regina Spektor makes quirky, piano-driven music for the hipster set. She scored a minor hit this year with “Fidelity” from Begin to Hope, her fourth full-length release, but her catalog features several great songs. Where possible, I included links to a live performance or the proper video for each song (hosted by YouTube). I also included links to iTunes and/or Amazon for convenient purchase. Let’s get to know Regina Spektor.
“Fidelity” – Begin to Hope
This song is insanely catchy, from the lovely melody to the creative chorus. It’s one of the few of her songs that doesn’t feature the piano, but it works nonetheless. iTunes | Amazon
