News Roundup:3/10/2010
-Wed, Mar 10, 2010
British R&B vocalist Taio Cruz has set the record for the largest jump to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by an act with its first charting single. Cruz’ song, “Break Your Heart” featuring rapper Ludacris jumped from 53 to 1. The record previously belonged to Kelly Clarkson’s American Idol song “A Moment Like [...]
New Sounds from Club 8
Up until now, every record the Swedish indie pop duo Club 8 has made has followed roughly the same basic template. Starting with 1996’s Nouvelle on through to 2007’s excellent The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming, they’ve made quiet, melancholy pop wrapped in soft synths, gentle guitars and very precise arrangements. With the exception of [...]
News Roundup: 3/9/2010
-Tue, Mar 09, 2010
Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, opens this evening at the Adelphi Theatre in London. Set in 1907, ten years after the original story’s conclusion, the show finds the Phantom working in New York City as a successful Coney Island magician. After building a new opera house, he [...]
Samuel Barber, 1910 – 1981
March 9 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of American composer Samuel Barber. Barber’s melodically generous and lyrical, romantic music has been in and out of favor with academicians and critics as musical fashions have changed, but it has never been out of fashion with the public. While he is especially remembered for his [...]
Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
-Mon, Mar 08, 2010
Gorillaz began as a lark but turned serious once it became Damon Albarn’s primary creative outlet following the slow dissolve of Blur. Delivered five years after the delicate whimsical melancholy of 2005’s Demon Days, Plastic Beach is an explicit sequel to its predecessor, its story line roughly picking up in the dystopian future where the [...]
News Roundup: 3/8/2010
R.I.P. Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, who committed suicide on Saturday at age 47. Linkous’ family released a statement, saying “We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There’s a heaven and there’s a star for you.” Linkous’ four Sparklehorse [...]
Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune
After 40 years, a number of ill-conceived posthumous albums, and countless bootlegs, one would almost have to be skeptical of a new album billed as “12 previously unreleased studio recordings — almost 60 minutes of unheard Jimi Hendrix!” The good news is that Valleys of Neptune largely delivers on that promise. Even hardcore collectors will [...]
Full Moon
Keith Moon’s 1975 solo album Two Sides of the Moon has been described as “the most expensive karaoke album in history,” and even as that, it was a colossal failure, the perfect expression of drunken self indulgence, and it was so fascinatingly bad that it has assumed a certain cult status. But make no mistake, [...]
News Roundup: 3/5/2010
-Fri, Mar 05, 2010
Ron Banks, a founding member and falsetto vocalist for R&B/soul group the Dramatics, died yesterday at the age of 58. Banks had performed with the Dramatics throughout their 48-year career, which included a Top 10 single — 1972’s “In the Rain” — and a guest appearance on Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle. [Freep.com] Speaking of Snoop, the Doggfather [...]
News Roundup: 3/4/2010
-Thu, Mar 04, 2010
For the second week in a row, the Black Eyed Peas topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Imma Be.” In other chart news, Young Money’s “BedRock” took the runner-up spot and Rihanna moved 15 places to number eight with “Rude Boy,” making her the female artist with the most Hot 100 Top 10s since the [...]