MGMT, Fat Joe, Josh Ritter Video
MGMT, Fat Joe, Josh Ritter Video Transcript
[ Music ] ^M00:00:05
>> Hey, welcome to Crossfade TV, I'm Peter Gavin and these are our picks taken straight from our site music.download.com. My pick this week is MGMT, otherwise known as Management. And they have a new album out called Oracular Spectacular. ^M00:00:19 [ Music ] ^M00:00:25
>> There are some catchy party tracks on this album like Electric Feel, but other songs like Weekend War show off their unique songwriting style. To me they're like a cross between Two Gallants and David Bowie. I really think these guys are gonna blow up soon. ^M00:00:37 [ Music ] ^M00:00:46
>> They're on tour in the U.S. and Europe this winter. And they'll also be playing the Coachella Music Festival in April, which by the way we have a free Coachella Playlist currently on music.download.com. And to check out Management, just search for MGMT.
>> Hey, everybody, this is Mike Tao and for my first pick of the year I'm gonna go with Fat Joe, who's set to release his new album The Elephant in the Room very shortly. ^M00:01:07 [ Music ] ^M00:01:12
>> Now, whether he is making hip hop classics with his affiliated crews DITC, Terror Squad or on a solo tip, Fat Joe knows how to make a hit record. Now the lead single I Won't Tell features R&B singer J. Holiday and it sounds like it will be another hit with the ladies. ^M00:01:26 [ Music ] ^M00:01:32
>> Now the release date hasn't been confirmed yet, but expect the Elephant in the Room to be another Fat Joe classic when it drops later this year.
>> Hey, this is Kurt Wolff, from my pick this week is Idaho singer songwriter Josh Ritter. His latest album is titled The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter and we've got a great track from another side, it's called Mind's Eye. ^M00:01:49 [ Music ] ^M00:01:55
>> Ritter's lyrics are as clever and cracky as [inaudible] and Bob Dylan to [inaudible] compared sometimes, but he also got an effort catching melodies, which at times remind me of Spoon. ^M00:02:04 [ Music ] ^M00:02:08
>> The album actually came out in 2007. I got a little lost in the shuffle, but lately it's been really grabbing me. So, I think it's totally worth revisiting. Note that along with Mind's Eye we also have a full album stream of Ritter's previous album it's called The Animal Years. So, if smart pop song writing is your things there should be plenty to get you started. ^M00:02:25 [ Music ]
Related Videos
Keyshia Cole, John Ralston, Shout Out Louds
This week on Crossfade TV, the Download Music crew takes a listen to new releases from R&B powerhouse Keyshia Cole, singer-songwriter John Ralston, and Swedish indie-pop band the Shout Out Louds.
Charlie Brown, Sufjan Stevens, Merle Haggard
It's holiday week on Crossfade TV, as the crew listens to old favorites from Vince Guraldi ("A Charlie Brown Christmas"), new treats courtesy of prolific singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens ("Song for Christmas"), and a reissue of a 1973 honky-tonk holiday gem from Merle Haggard ("Hag's Christmas").
The CNET Download.com crew shares its picks of this week's new music. The songs are all available to download for free at music.download.com.
Hailing from the small town of Moscow, Idaho, Josh Ritter?s songs are a rare gift of natural, intuitive beauty. Born in the late ?70s to two neuroscientists, Josh bought his first guitar from the local K-MART after hearing the Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash classic ?Girl From The North Country.? He began Oberlin College with the intent to follow in his parent?s scientist footsteps, but instead, discovered songwriting and the music of artists like Gillian Welch, Townes Van Zandt, and Leonard Cohen. He graduated and then moved east for its close proximity to historic folk clubs like Club Passim in Boston. On a shoestring budget he recorded his critically acclaimed break through album Golden Age of Radio in 2001 at various tiny, one-room studios on the East Coast. In the fall of that year, Josh pressed up several thousand copies of Golden Age, which quickly sold and funded more touring. A copy found it?s way into the hands of Jim Olsen and Signature Sounds Recordings, and the record was released nationally in the US in January 2002. Critics called the modest album ?stunning,? ?elegant,? and ?damn near perfect,? landing Josh in the pages of Details, the New York Times, and Maxim. ?Come and Find Me,? the modest anthem of Golden Age, was featured over the end-credits of HBO?s uber-hip series Six Feet Under, and several successful tours followed. Meanwhile, at a Boston open mic that spring, Josh met Glen Hansard, the lead singer of The Frames. Hansard invited him to open a string of shows for the band in Ireland. Josh?s career took flight in Ireland, buoyed by the single ?Me & Jiggs,? which entered the Irish Top 40 and helped gain Josh full blown cult status, complete with sold-out headline tours, late-night TV appearances, and his very own cover band in Cork. Josh ran the gamut at the Irish Hot Press Reader?s Poll Awards, landing in the Top 5 for Best International Folk Act, International Male Songwriter, and International Male Singer, putting him in the company of Springsteen, David Gray, and Johnny Cash. Josh would spend much of 2002 splitting his time between the US and Ireland, sharing bills with such eclectic artists as Beth Orton, Liz Phair, Damien Rice, and Joan Baez, as well as a celebrated appearance at the 2002 Newport Folk Festival. In the process, he garnered impressive acclaim not only for Golden Age of Radio but also for his richly textured and intimately engaging live shows. Publications like The Village Voice, The Washington Post, and The Irish Times scrambled to describe what made Josh?s music so ?stunning.? Sold-out shows in New York, Boston, and Dublin, as well as a trip to the Sundance Film Festival kicked off 2003 in style. In February of that year, rested, refreshed, and more than ready to make a new record, Josh entered Black Box studios in rural France with his touring band and Irish producer David Odlum (the Frames, Gemma Hayes) to record Hello Starling. Recorded and mixed in only 14 days in an old dairy barn in the French countryside, the thick stone walls, high ceilings, and vintage gear (much of it Curtis Mayfield?s old equipment), made for a record which sounds conversational and honest and shimmers with a new-found confidence. The 11 songs on Starling retain the feel and flow of another era; these are catch-tunes and earnest lullabies that rekindle the warm glow of a young Springsteen or Leonard Cohen in both their literacy and honest enthusiasm. ?Kathleen,? a summer anthem about waiting around a party to drive a girl home, is a live favorite; ?Rainslicker? moves and sways with all the dust-stained imagery of the Clientele; and the show-stopping beauty of ?Baby That?s Not All? suggests an artist at the peak of his new-found powers. The legendary Joan Baez recently recorded ?Wings,? the haunting ballad at the center of Starling, for inclusion on her new album, placing Josh alongside artists such as Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, and Natalie Merchant. Additionally, Norah Jones nominated Hello Starling for the 2004 Shortlist Music Prize and his song ?Kathleen? won the 2004 Boston Music Award for Song of the Year. During 2004, Josh spent the spring on a U.K. tour that was followed by appearances at summer festivals, including the Cambridge Folk Festival (alongside Gillian Welch) and the V Festival (with The Strokes and the Pixies). In Ireland, Josh played his biggest show to date there, headlining one night of the Heineken Green Energy Festival. In October of 2004, Josh signed with V2 Records. V2 plans to release Hello Starling this February. This fall, Josh toured with Sarah Harmer in Canada. In December, Josh will play a series of East Coast performances. In the spring of 2005, Josh plans to enter the studio again to record another album for V2.
Nada Surf, Tommy Guerrero, Nicolay & Kay
This week on Crossfade TV, the Download Music crew checks out indie-pop vets Nada Surf, skateboard star-turned-groove master Tommy Guerrero, and Holland/Houston hip-hop duo Nicolay & Kay.
Billy Joe Shaver, Little Brother, Dirty Projectors
Texas country outlaw Billy Joe Shaver, North Carolina hip-hop group Little Brother, and the Black Flag-inspired Dirty Projectors are the Download Music crew's picks this week on Crossfade TV.
Nina Simone, UFO!, Sun Kil Moon
This week on Crossfade TV, the Download Music crew checks out a cool set of unreleased recordings and interviews from Nina Simone, new songs from electronic artist UFO!, and the new album from Mark Kozelek's band Sun Kil Moon.
Devendra Banhart, Iron & Wine, Percee P
The Download Music crew, working under the brand new name of "Crossfade TV," gives you the lowdown on new albums from fast-rapping hip-hop icon Percee P and former folkies Devendra Banhart and Iron & Wine.
Home-recorded songs can feel incomplete whilst being as tantalizingly indicative as the sketches before a painting. The outlines, though interesting in their own respect, are not as satisfying as the finished version. Grizzly Bear, however, have approached song writing as a craft to master from their very first album, Horn of Plenty onwards. Enamored by how a song "reads", they were fully present from prologue to denouement even though singer/songwriter Edward Droste recorded them by himself in his Brooklyn bedroom. Fuelled by a bout of post-relationship inspiration, those first songs celebrated the creative liberation of the ProTools era. They explored the depths of break-ups through crystal-clear tones, field sounds and woozy, complex harmonies.
Guerilla Radio: "Rise of the Sun"
This is Guerilla Radio's video to the song "Rise of the Sun." The song and the demo can also be downloaded on music.download.com.
