German melodic death metal/metalcore/metal (depending on the album you’re listening to) band, Deadlock, have released a video for the song “Virus Jones.” The song is taken from their upcoming album, Bizarro World, which is scheduled to be released on March 15th through Lifeforce Records.
Bizarro World is a continuation of the band’s push towards a mainstream sound. While the metalcore and death metal elements are still present, they’ve been injected with a strong pop influence. This has lead to some of the band’s strongest choruses to date, but the music itself isn’t nearly as powerful as it was in the past. Overall, Deadlock are only asking their fans to accept the ongoing transition that has been in progress since the band’s inception – a slow evolution towards an equal blend of soaring pop melodies and powerful metallic riffs combined with the divergent styles of Johannes Prem’s growls and Sabine Weniger’s powerful clean singing.
— “Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.”
It may already be six weeks into 2011, but we’re not going to let that stop us from giving the users of SputnikMusic a voice. Between now and the end of the month you can go here to vote for your favorite albums of 2010. Just make sure you read the rules before voting.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 15 , 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
An Aesthetic Anaesthetic – Ghosts in the Red Wilderness (Bandcamp)
Armageddon Dildos – Untergrund (ALFA-MATRIX)
A Skylit Drive – Identity on Fire (Fearless Records)
Asobi Seksu – Fluorescence (Polyvinyl Records)
Awol One & Factor – The Landmark (Fake Four)
Lisa Batiashvili – Echoes of Time (Deutsche Grammophon)
Beans – End It All (Anticon) Bright Eyes – The People’s Key(Saddle Creek) — Adam Thomas
Brown Recluse – Evening Tapestry (Slumberland Records)
Chixdiggit! – Safeways Here We Come (Fat Wreck Chords)
Close To Home – Never Back Down (Razor & Tie)
Common Man Down – Self Addiction [EP] (Bit Riot Records)
Cowboy Junkies – Demons (Razor & Tie)
Darkest Era – Last Caress of Light (Metal Blade)
DC the Midi Alien – Avengers Airwaves (Brick Records)
The Dears – Degeneration Street (Dangerbird Spain)
Death – Sound of Perseverance [Reissue] (Relapse)
Deicide –…
The Strokes broke the Internet earlier today when they released the first single from their upcoming album Angles on their website, which still isn’t functioning quite as it should. Because I’m a generous and loving person, thought I’d upload it for your listening pleasures here. “Under Cover of Darkness” finds the Strokes seemingly trying to recapture some of that Is This It magic, complete with bouncy guitar chords and Julian Casablancas’ ever-present cold. Angles is slated for release on March 21.
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Who says you can’t remix a classic? Sputnik favorite Pretty Lights certainly doesn’t seem to give a damn, as his newly released, uh, 2010 Unreleased Remixes EP, which you can download in all its seven-song glory here. “Time” might be my favorite, but check out his Steve Miller Band and Kanye remixes for some more electro glory.
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Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 08 , 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Tao of the Dead(SUPERBALL MUSIC) — Rudy Klapper
Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT (DEAD OCEANS)
David Arkenstone – Ambient World (Domo Records)
Nicole Atkins – Mondo Amore (Razor & Tie)
Belphegor – Blood Magick Necromance {USA} (Nuclear Blast) James Blake – James Blake(Universal Republic)
Tion Bukue – Nome De Plume (Bandcamp)
Covenant – Modern Ruin (Metropolis Records)
Crowbar – Sever The Wicked Hand (Entertainment One Music) Cut Copy – Zonoscope(Modular Records) — Rudy Klapper
Dave Dub/Sutter Cain Gang – Mind Police (M9 Entertainment)
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew LIVE (Sony Legacy)
Edge of Dawn – Stage Fright [EP] (Metropolis Records)
Kurt Elling – The Gate (Concord Records)
Esben & The Witch – Violet Cries (Matador Records)
Joe Farrell – Penny Arcade (101 DISTRIBUTION) Fen – Epoch(Code666) Goldenboy – Sleepwalker(Eenie Meenie Records)
Hell Rell and J.R. Writer – Gun Clap (Siccness.net)
Helrunar – Sol I – Der Dorn Im Nebel (Prophecy)
Hocico – Tiempos de Furia (Metropolis Records) In Every Breath – Awakening [EP] (Band Camp)
Late Night Alumni – Haunted [Digital Only] (Ultra Records)
LBC Crew – Haven’t You Heard (Wideawake…
Dan Mangan’s Nice, Nice, Very Nice was shortlisted for last year’s Polaris Prize. Unfortunately, it didn’t win, Karkwa (who?) did with Les Chemins de Verre, beating out Mangan and other big names like Broken Social Scene, Caribou, Shad, Tegan and Sara and the Sadies.
So basically the Polaris Prize is kind of a crock, but if you’re from Canada you probably knew that already. But if you’re from Canada and don’t know Dan Mangan, well, you’re kind of a crock, too.
Maybe Nice, Nice, Very Nice isn’t the best album on last year’s short-list, but fuck if it isn’t close to it. “Robots Need Love Too,” the album’s second single, is a lot of fun, but as fun as “Robots” is, it’s nothing compared to the album’s third single.
“Sold” is everything that makes Dan Mangan stand out in an increasingly oversaturated market of quirky folk pop—namely, it’s really good. The track adds a bit of Barenaked Ladies into one of Mangan’s twangiest songs, and it’s all nicely carried by his somehow gruff-yet-boyish vocals.
And the video’s kind of cool, too. So watch it—and listen to the song—here. Pretty please?
Sometimes history is hard, you guys. I mean big history. Like, Hegelian sized history. History that spans across entire civilizations and generations. It’s hard for us because sometimes that historical meta-narrative is forever just out of each. There are moments, though, when we are thrown a little bone by the gods; we are given a fragment in time that simply defines a generation, nay, an entire civilization. Roman antiquity had Caligula naming his horse as his consul, Early Modern Europe had the Defenestration of Prague, The Victorian Period… was just depressing, and the 1990’s had Sockem Boppers with arguably the greatest commercial jingle of all time.
But what about our generation? Where’s our summarizing event? Sure, some might argue it’s Radiohead’s Kid A in long, pretentious, essayist reviews. Others might even claim this war, or that war, or the internet, or other such fads. I will not mince words: these are all horribly inaccurate. I know these suggestions are inaccurate because I myself have seen the very moment that defines our generation.
It has a little bit of everything: fat men breakdancing, rastlin’, grown men in silly costumes, historical inaccuracy, hypnosis, hillbillies, borderline mental deficiency, music that isn’t even from our generation, overzealous commentators. In so many words, this is our generation in a nutshell. A glorious, glorious nutshell.
Roland Barthes theorized that there are two types of text: the text of pleasure and the text of bliss. The text of pleasure is simply that which washes over you in an aesthetically pleasing manner; the text of bliss, however, forces you to question your very…
This weekend is a bumper one for fans of egg-chasing on both sides of the Atlantic.
For the Yanks among us, Sunday night is the big day on the football calendar (of which more later in the weekend). But for we Europeans of the oval ball persuasion, the first weekend in February ushers in the beginning of the Six Nations rugby union championships, fought every year between England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and, since 2000, Italy. It hasn’t got the popularity of real football (and by “real football” I mean Gaelic football, of course), but it is a unique event on the sporting calendar here since the demise of soccer’s Home Nations Championship.
As 2011 is a World Cup year, the championship comes packaged with an extra bite this year. As with the round-ball game, the English have taken it upon themselves to set aside the pessimism of the past three years, disregard all form and logic to install themselves as favourites to win everything in sight. It’s a lovable trait that only the English seem to possess and,with the tournament due to kick off in just under half an hour with England facing arch-rivals Wales in Cardiff, it’ll be interesting to see just how long it lasts.
For the time-being, we’ll have to make do with a comparison of the two countries’ respective singing prowess. Rugby is the closest thing Wales has to a national sport, but singing is not very far behind, and Katherine Jenkins’ regular appearance at the…
It all started as a joke; a suggestion on Twitter that people should go out and send “Pow”, arguably grime’s premier posse cut (and certainly its most famous), to the top of the Christmas charts in the UK. Lethal Bizzle – the man who enjoyed top billing on the original track – couldn’t have predicted the reaction to his comment, but at least he was smart enough to harness its power and set about recording an updated version straight away.
Problem is, he rushed it.
“Pow 2011” is still pretty good – P Money, Wiley, and Ghetts absolutely kill their verses – but it’s not hard to listen to it and think about how much better it could have been. Kano completely fluffs his bars (and takes 16 to everybody else’s 8 too), JME’s attempts at singing are just awkward, and Chipmunk brags about having written “Oopsy Daisy” – trust me son, that’s the kind of thing you should be letting people forget. Most worryingly, it just feels like, for the most part, everybody is trying to upstage all the other MCs on the track – Face, especially, taints his own verse by doing this, as do JME, Chipmunk, and Kano, and even Lethal B’s chorus, noticeably more aggressive than the original, just sounds like he’s trying to shout over the crowd. As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, it’s even been revealed that some MCs were denied a spot on the track because they took too…
After three long, agonizing years of stark Robin Pecknold demos and hit-or-miss J. Tillman solo albums, Fleet Foxes as a whole finally return with their announcement of a new album, Helplessness Blues and stream of the album’s title track, which hints at an album that sticks to the sound that brought Fleet Foxes to their indie stardom in the first place. Part “Ragged Wood” and part “Mykonos”, the song divides evenly into two sections: a pastoral acoustic section and a more grandiose rock section. The song’s weakest point is the transition between these two sections because, frankly, there isn’t one. The acoustic strumming slows a bit, and the second section enters with the bluntness of a sledgehammer. The mixing between these two sections is pretty awful, so hopefully, Helplessness Blues won’t have these same issues throughout the album, considering the brilliant production that characterized the group’s self-titled debut.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of February 01 , 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence(Relapse Records) — Jared Ponton
Amplifier – The Octopus (Self-Released) Chase and Status – No More Idols(Mercury Records)
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow (101 DISTRIBUTION)
Steve Cole – Moonlight (Artistry Music)
The Dirtbombs – Party Store (In the Red Records)
Aretha Franklin – The Great American Songbook (Arista) Thomas Giles – Pulse (Metal Blade) The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts(Memphis Industries) — Robin Smith
Paul Hardcastle – Desire (TRIPPIN & RHYTHM)
Dave Hause – Resolutions ( Paper + Plastick Records)
Hercules and Love Affair – Blue Songs (Moshi Moshi Music)
The Insane Warrior (RJD2) – We are the Doorways (RJ’s Electrical Connections)
The JaneDear Girls – The JaneDear Girls (Reprise) Lazarus A.D. – Black Rivers Flow(Metal Blade Records)
Bobby Long – A Winter Tale (ATO Records)
David Lowery – The Palace Guards (429 Records)
Manowar – Battle Hymns MMXI – Battle Hymns 2011 (MAGIC CIRCLE MUSIC)
Bob Marley – Live Forever: The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh PA [2 CDs] (TUFF GONG/UMGD)
Ricky Martin – Musica + Alma + Sexo (Sony U.S. Latin)
Matisyahu – Live at Stubb’s Vol.II (RED GENERAL CATALOG)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Go Down Under (Fat Wreck Chords)
North Mississippi Allstars…
British film composer John Barry died of a heart attack on Sunday aged 77.
Barry was best known as the creator of the music for the James Bond film, including the famous Bond Theme, although he was the recipient of no fewer than five Academy Awards: two for Born Free (best original score and bestoriginal song) and best original score for Dancing with Wolves, Out of Africa and the Lion in Winter. Other notable scores and soundtracks included Midnight Cowboy, Goldfinger and From Russia with Love.
Barry is survived by four children and three ex-wives.
Eisley’s first album in almost four years is about to be released through Equal Vision Records on March 1st. The album is called The Valley, and this song “Ambulance” is taken from it.
The Valley was recorded at Rosewood Studios in their hometown of Tyler, Texas, with producer/engineers Gary Leach and Austin Deptula (LeAnn Rimes), and mixed by Andy Freeman at Bay Area Tone in San Francisco. The album’s title refers to the emotional turmoil that the DuPree sisters, who front Eisley, experienced as they crafted their third album: Sherri enduring a failed marriage; Chauntelle, a broken engagement; and Stacy, a painful breakup. The only relationship that ended on their terms was the split with Warner Bros. Records, the label that released their first two albums and several EPs. Promising to bring listeners through the band’s darkest and most trying times, “The Valley” reveals their strength, patience and perseverance. On tracks like “Smarter” and “Sad,” there’s a musical aggression and emotional urgency that transports you to the moment they were written, laying bare the open wound of the broken heart. And the chilling album closer, “Ambulance,” is an icy snapshot of the very moment of betrayal and abandonment. Elsewhere, there’s a stately solace in the hopeful “Kind” and whimsical “Mr. Moon,” and buoyant string arrangements decorate opener “The Valley” and “Watch It Die.”
Brazil is a pretty lax place.You can get away with a lot of things most of the time: looting, mugging, rape, murder… even mullets are allowable. You can even form a four-piece rock band to play outdated mid-tempo rock at what appears to be some sort of outdoor festival for people who have no room for a proper stage.
But Lord help you if you screw up the guitar solo while the singer is backstage combing over his bald patch. You have been warned.
Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of January 25 , 2011. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.
German melodic death metal/metalcore/metal (depending on the album you’re listening to) band, Deadlock, have released a video for the song “Virus Jones.” The song is taken from their upcoming album, Bizarro World, which is scheduled to be released on March 15th through Lifeforce Records.
