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Interview with the Chesterfield Kings
Long-standing garage-rock band the Chesterfield Kings promise to tear the stage down with their upcoming performance. Is that HR behind them?
Tokyo Sex Destruction: "Two Years Ago"
Talk about Kickin out the Jams, Spain's most recent calling to MC5 is the radically refined garage rock'n roll explosion Tokyo Sex Destruction. 10 Rock'n roll hits that are filled with all the yeah yeahs and all the syncopated claps and guitar breaks and vocal leads and dance steps and catchy choruses. This album is explosive! Strong Nation of Ulysses/Make Up hybrid politic and style uniformity throughout their lyrics and image. On one hand it generates sounds more like The Sonics or Sly and The Family Stone but with the same political element as bands like International Noise Conspiracy. Ben Swank of Soledad Brothers says live they remind him of the same energy as the Datsuns with their wild shows. All power to the people motherfuckers!
Liars: "Plaster Casts of Everything"
The video for "Plaster Casts of Everything" is directed by Patrick Daughters, who has directed videos for Beck, Feist ,The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon, The Shins, Bright Eyes and more. It was shot on location in Los Angeles and features a cameo by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O.
"Take This Life" is the roll-out single and video from In Flames' wildly anticipated new album, "Come Clarity." The "Take This Life" video was produced and directed by long time In Flames collaborator Patric Ullaeus (for Revolver Film Company) and features the band (Bjorn Gelotte - Guitars, Daniel Svensson - Drums, Peter Iwers - Bass, Jesper Stromblad - Guitars and Anders Friden - Vocals) performing against the backdrop of New York City's Times Square as an evolving storyline unfolds. In addition to his video work with In Flames, Ullaeus is known for directing the Lacuna Coil hit videos "Heaven's a Lie" and "Swamped". In Flames has been one of the leaders of the underground metal movement for over 10 years. With over 1,000,000 records sold worldwide and coming off a successful tour as part of OZZFEST 2005, where they shared the festival's main stage with Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and others, the time is ripe for this Swedish quintet to continue their ascent. The band's recent success, as well as that of their counterparts -- including Killswitch Engage (whom they co-headlined with in 2004), Shadows Fall and Lamb of God -- has paved the wave for metal bands to break through to the mainstream.
LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
It's surprising how long Losing My Edge lingers around, for a dance song. But everyone's silly and shallow and insipid and vain and the more they accept it the less boring records we'll have. This year I made Yeah, which pretty much consists of me saying yeah over and over, to try and erase the expectation that it was gonna be another clever diatribe of lyrics. Etched into the vinyl of Yeah is, "Not as good as Losing My Edge". I always try and help people write the reviews.'
Vintage Computer Festival: The rare, historic, and bizarre
Blow off the dust and get ready to dig through boxes. News.com\222s Kara Tsuboi takes a tour of the biggest garage sale for antique computers, vintage video games, and discarded gadgets--the Vintage Computer Festival at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. And for the first time in decades, the 45-year-old LINC personal computer lights up.
The Streets: "Fit But You Know It"
When "Has It Come To This", the first vinyl offering from The Streets, started to make it's way onto the airwaves in the Summer of 2000, Mike Skinner was a 22 year old rap obsessed kid from Birmingham in the English Midlands who'd spent the past 15 years working toward that moment. Since hearing his brother?s Run DMC and Beastie Boys records at the age of 7, Skinner had been determinedly making and producing his own music, listening and learning from the American pioneers of that genre, honing his own craft in studios in his hometown and in various bands and crews of friends from Birmingham. His early offerings were self-confessedly US influenced. "I was just trying to sound like the music I liked at the time, I just wanted to be Redman or Ice Cube, but I was a white kid from Birmingham. I was sending my stuff out to people but it wasn't anything new so no-one was interested." One of the turning points in Skinners development was the onset of UK Garage, the first identifiably British strand of rap music. "That was a really exciting time. Things were happening in England that had their own following and their own sound and it seemed to make it easier for me and my friends to relate to it. The beats were exciting and sounded new and what people were rapping about didn't seem so distant." This helped to focus Skinner towards a sound and style of his own. Mixing his hip-hop influences with UK Garage sounds, Skinner realized that if there was something lacking in UK hip-hop it was someone who talked about British culture. "I wanted to make something honest and entertaining about the things I knew. As far as I was concerned no-one else was doing that and if I could do that, and do it well, maybe that would be what set me apart" Skinner?s first move was to relocate to London. ("It seemed like more was happening there, I had more chance of getting people's attention."). He decided on the name The Streets because it "sounded good" and pressed up 200 white label vinyl copies of his first offering "Has It Come To This." Locked On, a London based garage label picked up on the track and signed Skinner up. In October 2001, "Has It Come To This" hit the UK Top 20 after months of exposure in clubs, and on pirate and eventually mainstream radio. People were undoubtedly excited about what they were hearing. Yet as most UK Garage-related artists were struggling to get beyond token hit singles and UK hip-hop had still not produced a truly credible success in it's own right, the usual skepticism followed. But didn't last long. The Streets' debut album "Original Pirate Material" was released in the UK in March 2002 and later in the US in October 2003. The reception for the record was phenomenal across the board. The press reaction was unanimous, proclaiming the album as a generational classic, radio played the singles and nearly a million worldwide sales later, it's firmly established as one of the most important and innovative albums of recent times. Over the past two years, Skinner has toured the world with his band, avoided a plethora of award ceremonies (nominated for Brit awards, The Mercury Prize, The Shortlist Award and winning an Ivor Novello songwriting award for Best Contemporary Song) and found critical acclaim not only in the UK, but in Europe, South East Asia and most notably in the US where he became the first UK rapper to make any serious impact. So what next? In May 2004 we'll find out when his hugely anticipated second album "A Grand Don't Come For Free" hits the shelves. Recorded (like Original Pirate Material) in his bedroom studio ("but with better microphones"), the album is a collection of songs linked together by a plots and subplots that whilst still reflecting the typical life of normal young Britain. ?A Grand? shifts the overall focus from the society overviews of "Original Pirate Material" to the more personal, everyday twists of relationships, friendship and just getting by. We won't tell you how good it is. You can find that out for yourselves. For Skinner, it's all in a days work. "I just have to keep making music that sounds fresh and entertains. That's what I want to do. I'm obsessed with that. I'm starting on the next one now..."
Roger O'Donnell, long known as the man behind the keys for legendary bands like the Cure and earlier for The Psychedelic Furs, steps out on his own with his beautiful new album The Truth in Me. A collection of songs composed and recorded using a single instrument, the Moog Voyager. An instrument with it's own cult following, the Moog is generally not known for the very warm and undeniably human sounds that become immediately apparent upon listening to this fascinating work. Always an artist of unique vision, Roger O'Donnell's playing and songwriting can be found on era defining records and he has performed on some of the biggest tours and festivals all over the world. His contributions have always had an amazing influence on the bands he played and wrote with. Following the inclusion of his song "Another Year Away" on the soundtrack for the Moog Documentary, Roger was encouraged by one of the film's producers to do an entire album orchestrated with a Moog Voyager. Since Roger had enjoyed working with the Voyager on the soundtrack, the idea appealed to him: "My initial idea (for the soundtrack) was to try and write a song and record it using only a Moog and that's what happened. I knew from my early days that I could orchestrate using mono analogue synths so in a way I was revisiting my roots." "Definitely not a concept album, more of an album concept, it was a re-visiting of my early days of composing using limited instrumentation. Consciously un-compromised or commercial, it's a mainly instrumental journey through my musical influences and where I am now (vocalist Erin Lang sings 3 songs). I was also inspired by Bjork's use of a single instrument, the voice, on her record Medulla. I found the Voyager really easy to work with and thought that maybe I had found my own voice and could do something that was entirely original. Finally, music that I am satisfied with and that satisfies me, The Truth In Me says what I have been trying to say for a long time." The Truth In Me has inspired a number of musicians to join Roger in his exploration. Remixes have already been done of a number of the album's tracks by such luminaries as Jimmy Tamborello of The Postal Service/Dntel/Figurine, Kieran Hebden of FourTet, The Notwist/Console, and Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf. Roger O'Donnell will be touring the US through the Fall of '06 and beyond with an appearance at this years CMJ festival in New York. "...a collection of songs that shows the sensuous and moody side of the Voyager." Electronic Musician
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: "Me and Mia"
Ted Leo is a unique artist for these times. He provides a near perfect combination of politics, art, punk values and humor in his songwriting and the combination is resonating with people all over the world. Having toiled for years in the punk underground with both his former band Chisel and his solo effort Ted Leo/Pharmacists, 2004 is definitely the year Ted Leo is primed to break out into the mainstream. In February 2003, Lookout Records released the critically acclaimed "Hearts Of Oak," a gem of a record that received accolades from Spin, Rolling Stone, Magnet, the New York Times, MTV. Touring and promotion in support of "Hearts" was massive and included 5 US tours, a run in Japan and the UK and an appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." A brief respite from touring was required mid-way through his second US run, when his vocal chords became enflamed due to the rigorous schedule of radio station visits, in store performances and nightly gigs. Ted began a new regimen of vocal warm ups, fewer shows in a row and a dram less Irish Whisky and found his voice to be stronger than ever. In early 2004, in between some short tours, Ted began to write his fourth solo album. Motivated to keep pushing himself as a songwriter, performer and cultural critic, he shut himself in the basement of his childhood home in New Jersey and began to write. The songs that resulted in "Shake The Sheets" are fresh, smart, and passionate. Producer Chris Shaw proved to be the perfect partner for Ted and his sonic vision for the album. Well known for his work in producing the last 2 Bob Dylan albums, Shaw has also worked on many other diverse projects, from Dashboard Confessional, to Bell Biv De Voe to the classic Public Enemy album, "It Takes a Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back." A perfect combination for Ted! Ted Leo is an artist who is well poised for a career with no limits. He will continue to write pop rock gems and work hard on the road to connect with his fans who continue to grow with him as he connects with more and more people. Do not be surprised if in 25 years you are dusting off your album jackets and along with Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe, Paul Weller you throw on Ted Leo to change your mood for the day.
'Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny' trailer
In Venice Beach, naive midwesterner JB (Black) bonds with local slacker KG (Glass), and they form the rock band Tenacious D.
