Nonviolent vibes were a thing you could hold in your hand--and more important, put on your turntable--with this seminal Chicago soul group, now getting a rerelease on Quannum. Pieces offer both the warm vocals of the guy groups and a billowing early funk that prefaces EWF.
Though she resides in New York, Laura Cantrell has genuine Nashville roots and a classic country heritage, which comes across clearly through her warm, rootsy recordings. On her travel-themed '08 covers collection "Trains and Boats and Planes," she blends her penchant for purebred honky-tonk with new takes on pop, folk, and country forget-me-nots, including New Order's "Love Vigilantes."
The notion of the actress-turned-singer has been rightly skewered, but leave your skepticism at the door with Zooey Deschanel. In this new collab with scene prince M. Ward, she channels classic torch and jazz chanteuses in an indie pop framework. The results are sweet and affecting.
The white-hot DJ is as democratic about genre as he'd have you believe (the same guy who tears up clubs helped nudge Bloc Party to stardom). What really links his stuff is the immensity of its scale. As though by sheer force of beats, Aoki slays indie kids and hip-hop heads in the same strokes.
On Crossfade TV this week, the Download Music crew checks out a cool new set of previously unreleased recordings and interviews from the late jazz/blues/gospel/soul artist Nina Simone called Protest Anthology; a few new songs from electronic artist UFO! (not to be confused with the Brits who brought you the classic-rock staple "Too Hot Too Handle"); and the brand-new album from Sun Kil Moon, the name Mark Kozelek seems to be sticking with (after long-ago retiring his previous band name, Red House Painters).
Crossfade TV is a collaboration between Download Music and CNET TV.
Trip-hop heroes Portishead have linked up with Current TV for an exclusive 40-minute broadcast performance on April 11, 2008. The show includes eight songs from their highly anticipated new album, Third, and will air multiple times on the television channel (see showtimes below) over the following week. Fans without cable can stream it online from Current TV's Web site. The album hits stores in the U.S. on April 29.
For those who like their music one tasty bite at a time, you can listen to Third's first single, "Machine Gun" , right here on Download Music. … Read more
On CD, indie rock's style skews deprecation over veneration, which, of course, is nothing like going to the show. The lead Decemberist's newest is a welcome change of tone. "Colin Meloy Sings Live!" adds to the short canon of indie live LPs with a set that's at once fiery, folkish, and whimsical.
Jello Biafra likes short songs, but there's an undeniable pleasure in long songs. "Hey Jude" (7:11) was groundbreaking at the time, especially for a 45rpm single, but it's really a typical three-minute Beatles song with a four-minute outro. To me, the first true rock epic was Pink Floyd's 1971 opus "Echoes" (23:25). Unlike their 1970 record-breaker, "Atom Heart Mother" (23:44), which was four instrumental sections stitched together into a single track, "Echoes" was a real unified song with a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure--along with a really long … Read more
The CD may be on its way out, but music and concert DVDs are doing just fine, thank you very much! Late last year I wrote a feature for Home Entertainment magazine running down some of my favorite music DVDs of all time. They were all "live" recordings--there wasn't a single MTV style "music video" in the bunch. This is an abridged version of the article, check the Home Entertainment website to check out the complete article. Oh, and I've added a few DVDs that didn't make the article.
Led Zeppelin
With a … Read more
Britain's second generation of post-punk is no longer a new and thrilling thing; the trade-off may come as it gets smarter and more refined. These Oxford lads make sinewy vocals stick with rhythmic punctuations as fine as their town's native comma--a good thing, no matter what Vampire Weekend says.
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