M.I.A. Stirs Up - What Else - Controversy With New Video (Explicit)

After debuting her latest single, "Born Free", over the weekend, M.I.A. has released an explosive, and incredibly violent, video to go along with the tune.

In the nine minute clip, an L.A. SWAT team systematically invades a slum and beats several innocent people (some nude) all while searching for a young red headed gentleman.

From there he is loaded onto a bus filled with other ginger kids and taken into the middle of the desert where they become human target practice as they run through minefield.

I've posted the video below, but beware it is very violent and may be seen as offensive by some.

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

MGMT Perform SNL - Video

Fresh off their debut atop the Billboard 200 charts for their latest effort Congratulations, MGMT took to the stage on Saturday Night Live to perform "Brian Eno" and "Flash Delirium". Watch both videos below.

Brian Eno

Flash Delirium 

Ebert - "Video Games are not Art"

THAT MARIO'S NO ANGELA LANSBURY!

In a new Journal post, Roger Ebert defends his long implied opinion that video games cannot be art, which means, of course, that Roger Ebert is too busy playing Bingo and being enthralled with Matlock to bother with, I don't know; what's the current Best Game Ever? Anyway, he's strictly speaking from the point of view of the generationally marginalized. His biases as a grey haired person make him incapable of appreciating the subtle nuances of running over roller bladers in Grand Theft Auto, and he's trying to qualify it intellectually.

That's how it feels, right? Even as we begin to qualify that intellectually, delving into our minds after a notably mature understanding of notably great game that might harness all the wisdom and good nature with which Ebert recieved Taxi Driver. It's not the argument we're really concerned with. He just doesn't get it, and, fortunately, we certainly do, and we'll disect art in whichever way necessary to decide that Metal Gear Solid is something beyond mere recreation.

That's how I feel, anyway, and I'm not going to be self-correcting about it, because, honestly, I don't think the argument really is about an argument at all. I do not believe that Roger Ebert is some bitter old man who believes that all video games look like pong and take place on "that intendo box"; I've read his defense and of course it's smart, but then his three and a half star review of xXx wasn't idiotic either. The issue is not that he's dumb or elusively brilliant, about this or anything else; his smarts don't matter, in this case. All that matters in this (now over 3000 comment) debate, is that Roger Ebert has not played a game that has meant something to him, and a lot of people my age have.

In pixels, how like an Angel!

I am not much of a gamer. Like most young men, however, I had my teenaged hay-day with it, the highlight of which took place with a game called Metal Gear Solid. I have dearly loved other games ( I was, for a time, probably the best Tony Hawk 2 player on earth) but I recieved something from MGS. Lines from that game became as pivitol to me, personally, as any I've taken from books or films. The process of playing and replaying it is something I regard as soulful - an excisice in motor skills and problem solving, yes, but an excercise of the spirit, too. This has partly to do, I'm sure, with the game's cinematic appeal, and I'm postive that others have had more pure responses to games for the innate properties of the medium, but I'm not sure I would feel the same way had MGS simply been a film. I could ruminate forever as to why, but we'll just leave it at that.

And the funny thing is that the game's creator would agree with Ebert: games are not art. The gamer's experience, however, can be, and for all the mulling of art's definition one could do in this discussion, I think it's fair to say that when one experiences something personally meaningful that seems bigger than it's formal title, art may not be a terrible stretch in terminology. And if it does push at the traditional boundaries, then why not? What esle is art bloody well about?

Ebert defends that so much of what people are great at, which mean special things to them, are not nor need be construde as art. Michael Jordan does not, for instance, think of basketball as art, so why must I think of MGS as art? Thing is, I don't care what Michael Jordan thinks; someone in his shoes should be allowed to think of their movements on the court as art, just as I should be able to do as a spectator. In the film a River Runs Through it, there's some pretensious examination of fly fishing as art, which doesn't do much for me but I wouldn't fight with for a second. One man might attend karate class as a work out, another might find his truest self there.

It's just that it doesn't matter what outsiders think. It doesn't, because art has never been about thinking. If you do something that means the world to you, simply to do, you're likely to find art a fitting label, if you feel like bothering with one. Which leads to Roger's final point about why gamers feel the need to designate video games as art in the first place. What is it earning them? Nothing, is the answer. No one needs to call their practice art to have it. It's when people say it cannot be art that those areas of ourselves that feel as strongly as they know how, get a little irked. We're not concerned with the precise boundaries of artistic designation; you're saying we don't have what we know we do.

Also, Metal Gear's main character has THE SAME NAME AS ME. What else do you want, Roger?!


By Dave Beauchene 

Review: Hole - Nobody's Daughter

Courtney Love always feels like she has to prove something. You can't really blame here though - she was married to Kurt Cobain after all. Type A personalities don't like living in the shadows, and Cobain still casts a fairly large one to this day. 

Hole was the little band that could when it came to grunge music. You never really expected great things from them simply because of who their singer was. "Who is in this band? Her? Really? She can sing?" Sorry Courtney. It's nothing personal, it would've happened to anyone who was boning Cobain in 1991. 

Hole's greatest success came after Cobain's death in 1994. Live Through This and Celebrity Skin each sold over a million copies and garnered much critical acclaim. For all of the baggage Love creates for herself, she had one of the most powerful voices in the 90s and a knack for putting biting guitars with catchy melodies. Yet most people still think of her as someone who likes to piss off Madonna than be a relevant rock star. 

Nobody's Daughter is the band's first effort in 12 years. Yet it's a Hole record in name only. Love is the only original member left leaving much of the music to be played out by a faceless back up group. But I'm sure that's the way she wanted it all along. The only problem is all of the shortcomings here rest squarely on her shoulders. And trust me, there are shortcomings aplenty. 

For one, Love's once powerful she-girl roar is vacant. It's been a rough 45 year existence and her voice simply can't keep up anymore. When she tries to scream in tune, she painfully sounds like Aunt Patty and Selma having a stroke. The rest of the time her vocal chords come and go and she whimpers and whines her way through each and every track. If you can make it through the first 30 seconds of "Someone Else's Bed" without laughing I'll shake your hand. 

The second thing wrong here is the lack of any stand out tunes. While Love wanted so make a stellar comeback record (even bringing in Smashing Pumpkin founder Billy Corgan to co-write some tunes), the result is a stale, unoriginal batch of forgettable song batter. Those looking for a high speed Hole record of yesteryear will have to sit through many slow grooves ("Nobody's Daughter") and sticky ballads ("For Once In Your Life")

Nobody's Daughter sports a portrait of Marie Antoinette on the cover. Her head's been cut off just as it really was during the French Revolution. Only this time Love has decapitated her in her own reflection. Love sees herself as queen of the post grunge era - which she is. Yet that movement died over ten years ago, it's also the same time everyone stopped caring about her. 

Grade: D

Key Track: "Loser Dust"

Dead Weather Smell The "Gasoline"

The Dead Weather have released "Gasoline", the second single from the band's sophomore effort Sea Of Cowards in stores May 11th. Listen to it by clicking here.

Watch the video for the first single, "Die By The Drop", below.

Both songs are what you would expect from a Jack White helmed band. Blues riffs, sludgy guitars and a pissed off attitude. Enjoy.

The "Interactive" Teaching Method

I've never really enjoyed French class, mostly because French teachers tend to employ the "interactive" method of classroom teaching, also known as the "blind terror" approach. How this strategy works, is the professor says something very elaborate in French, and raises their voice at the end of it, thus prompting the student to sweat worse than people in gatorade commercials.

When the on-the spot questioning appears too much for the student to wrap their spinning, panicked brain around, the teacher then decides to help the student by explaining just how easy it actually is, so that everyone in the room can become as aware of their raging stupidity as is possible. This allows the student to escape their prior panic and enter a realm of instinctive terror common to gazelles on the Discovery Channel.

"So I'm saying, 'SNU SNAX BEE TRAPS BELOPPO DOPPO DINGO SAUCE'." The professor guides, unaware that they now sound to the student no more coherant than that song where the singer rhymes people's names with totally made up sounds.

The student stares back at them, now, with a special expression that is at once primal and totally human, an expression that says "DEAR GOD, PLEASE JUST SAY THE ANSWER AND MOVE ON AND I WILL BY YOU A PORSCHE. IF YOU HAVE ANY KINDNESS IN YOUR HEART, JUST SPARE ME SOME SEMBLANCE OF INTELLECTUAL DIGNITY. I AM BEGGING YOU FROM THE VERY DEPTHS OF MY SOUL. PLEASE."

This expression will appear to the professor as follows: "I ALMOST HAVE IT."

"SNU SAX..." They slowly repeat. "So you need to conjugate Snu snax, and we're dealing with the subjunctive, so Snuuu....Snuuu...."

At which point fellow students, shielded from the blinding lights of performance demand, will begin whispering un-intelligable sounds in your direction, making it perfectly clear that everyone knows the answer expect for you.

"Snuuuu..."

"SPaghetti!" Someone hisses.
"Carrot Top!" The girl behind you tries.

"Snuuuu SnaxEEE." The professor finally divulges, at which point the student collapses into a frightened blubber on their desk, having by then learned so much French that their right eye has begun to twitch. The professor will never, ever fathom that the interactive approach is a lot like teaching someone to sing in front of a room full of people while in their underwear. Also, on the screen behind them is footage of the impressions they tried out that one saturday night and meant to erase. 


By Dave Beauchene

Wolfmother Lose Another Guitarist

Dave Atkins, guitarist for Australian band Wolfmother, has quit marking the third member to leave the band in as many years.

The original line up, which scored a hit with "Woman", changed in 2008 leaving vocalist/guitarist Andrew Stockdale as the sole remaining original member.

The band issued the following statement:

"Well, after two years of good service to Wolfmother, Dave Atkins has decided to leave the band to spend much-needed time at home with his family. Dave has had a great experience touring and recording with the band, though in time, it’s proven to be too exhausting and taxing on his home life. Dave gives his blessings to the band and may well still be around for future recordings. All is good between the band, everyone is cool, this is more of a life change decision for Dave."

Wolfmother's latest album, Cosmic Egg, is in stores now. Read The Hanging Tree review here.

Gorillaz Rock Stephen Colbert

Fresh off their headlining gig at Coachella on Sunday, Gorillaz visited the Colbert Report to perform their current single "Stylo", and to have a nice discussion about cartoon groupies.

Damon Albarn brought along soul legend Bobby Womack, bassist Paul Simon and Mick Jones of The Clash. Watch the performance and the interview - including a nice cameo from "bassist Murdoc Niccols".

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Gorillaz - Stylo
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Gorillaz
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

M.I.A. Releases "Born Free", Confirms New Album

When she's not spouting at the mouth about her puzzlement over Lady Gaga and her disdain for Twilight, M.I.A. is hard at work putting the finishing touches on her as-yet-untitled album due for release June 29.

The first leaked song "There's Space For Ol Dat I See" debuted in January (listen below). Her latest tune, "Born Free" has just hit the web for you listening pleasure below.

While "Ol Dat I See" was a spacious, trippy and melodic affair, "Born Free" is a loud punk tune with electronic flourishes. Just imagine an even more abrasive LCD Soundsystem.

"Born Free"

M.I.A. - Born FreebyTheProphetBlog

"There's Space For Ol Dat I See"

The Black Eyed Peas Are Prostitutes In Denial

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, millions of subscribers and magazine rack browsers are told that The Black Eyed Peas are the single greatest reason to be excited about the current state of modern music. Just think about that, more than any other act, music device or concert tour, this collection of four numb skulls are supposed to get everyone excited about music in the 21st century.

Que the sound of everyone laughing behind Rolling Stone's back. 

The Great "Standing Perfectly In Pose" Hope

In the article, which mainly focuses on Peas front man will.i.am, we're told about the band's blueprint for world domination: easily accessible tunes, a message of unity and the Pea's diverse band members themselves. All is fine right? The Beatles wrote catchy songs with broad appeal and told us all to "Come Together" didn't they? Surely we wouldn't begrudge The Black Eyed Peas of their success would we?

But halfway through the article, something goes horribly wrong and my once apathetic disdain for their music grew into an aneurysm that almost gave me a stroke.

It all starts when the topic of the band licensing their tunes for use in commercials begs the question - Do The Black Eyed Peas write songs or jingles? Either answer is legitimate of course. I can't imagine anyone looking to this band for profound meaning in their songs. "I've Gotta Feeling" , as well as their entire catalog is made for dancing and mellowing out, not deep meditation.

But will.i.am decided to avoid the question entirely.

"Since the 1960's, it's been a taboo for bands to fuck with brands, like they should only sell music. But music was never the prodcut. When you played in a bar, music drew people in to sell a ticket and drinks. The first music industry was published, because they sold sheet music. Beethoven? Verdi? They were selling aggregation, the ability to bring people to a concert hall."

Let me translate what he just said.

"We write jingles obviously."

And there's nothing wrong with that. It makes perfect sense given today's popular musical trends. Nothing is ever meant to last or stick with you. Top 40 radio is pure sugar coated gloss - ear candy that goes in one ear and out the other. The Black Eyed Peas fit well with the "jingle" crowd along with Ke$ha (do I really have to put a $ in her name?) and Justin Bieber.

But will.i.am's ambitions are too big for his simplistic musical aesthetic. But don't tell him his music is "simple"

Regarding "Boom Boom Pow": "It has one note. It ways 'boom' 168 times. The structure has three beats in one song. It's not lyrics - it's audio patterns, structure, architecture. Lots of people say, 'Black Eyed Peas shit is simple' and I'll be like, 'No, fool, it's the most complex shit you ever could fathom, that's the reason it works everywhere around the planet."

Let me translate again.

"I want to be more than a jingle writer, so I'm simply going to bullshit my way through an interview to show how avant-garde and edgy I am. Yet deep down inside I'm just a money hungry performer who is too ashamed to admit it."

When I think of complex beats, in fact complex anything, The Black Eyed Peas are one of the last things I would ever think of. If will.i.am and company make "the most complex shit you ever could fathom", then Nickelabck are a musical Stephen Hawking in Mozart's body with the rock n roll brilliance of John Lennon.

Will.i.am is too afraid to admit that he's just the flavor of the week. He's good at concocting catchy beats that are fun to dance to, but he wants so desperately to be more than that. The Peas essentially keep finding a fun way to do a really dumb thing. He wants his career's work to stand for something like The Rolling Stones', Nirvana's or Radiohead's catalogs do for them.

But if his music really is as profound as he says it is, why must he insist on proving it to us?

Cool As Ice: A Picture Of Cultural Insanity

Pictured above: Coolest Guy Ever.

"Cool as Ice" is almost as awesome as you'd hope it would be. That is unless you've never heard of "Cool as Ice" and therefor never created such soaring expectations. In that case, "Cool as Ice" is the Vanilla Ice movie. Yeah, remember Vanilla Ice? Well they made a movie specifically for him and it's called "Cool as Ice". Surely you must see the profound possibilties in that.

And, normally they don't turn out quite like we'd hope. Remember "Snakes on a Plane"? Also, remember how it was funnier before it came out? And, surely, a film called "Hot Tub Time Machine" must be wonderfully stupid rather than just bad. "Cool as Ice", however, actually is what you'd expect a Vanilla Ice movie to be. For instance, it's opening credit sequence is a dance-party music video and it lasts, oh, 23 minutes.

Maybe not that long, but it certainly goes on much longer than feels normal, Ice rapping an entire song, plus six or seven verses. Then they leave the dance party, Ice and his friends, and...go motorcycle riding. Apparently they have no home, and simply roam the country side in search of dance parties to star in. They must; when one of their bikes breaks down, they are forced to stay with the zany old couple who are fixing it. Here Ice kills time by busting fresh dance moves in the drive way.

This comes after the introduction of the love interest, however. What happens is, Ice is cruising along and spots a girl riding a horse conveniently near a roadside fence. Like any reasonable person, he decides to jump the fence and frighten the horse into bucking the girl 40 feet across the lawn. Thus their magical journey into romance begins. In a grand stroke of luck, she happens to live across the street from the people fixing Ice's homeboy's bike, something Ice takes adantage of immediately by coming over to hit on her while her boyfriend looks on sort of disapprovingly.

"Hey Kat," he says, leaving her yard once more. "Word of advice. Time to ditch the zero, and get with the hero." Only human, Kat is enormously charmed by this.

Unfortunately, Kat's dad...like...owes money or something, and so two crime-oriented looking fellows enter-film as antagonists. They threaten that they must be paid by the next day at the current time, or else. Apparently everyone forgets this ever happened; the bad guys simply park outside of their house for pretty much the rest of the movie. I don't understand what purpose it serves, as they don't stop anyone from coming or going, and no one is un-aware of who they are, but they seem intent on the process. 

Anyway, the point is that Vanilla Ice is cool. Really. That's what the movie is "about". That is it's soul and greater purpose: Vanilla Ice is really, really, really cool. He's so cool that his hair probably grows into that elaborate style on its own. So cool he can make even girl's little brothers fall in love with him; Kat's sibling's first words at seeing Ice at his front door: "...Wow!..." It's like he's met all four Ninja Turtles and the Ghost Busters at once, in one person. I don't blame him. In 1991, if I had discovered Vanilla Ice on my front steps, I would have probably swallowed my own tongue. Lats face it, cool has gotten a lot quieter in recent years. Back in the day, if you were cool, people could tell from 16 blocks away.

And if you want to look at Cool as Ice as more than just a preposterous movie - if you want to understand it, I think it can be seen as a portrait of the cultural insanity that would ingender that kind of facination. This is the image that is "Vanilla Ice" put to the test, forced to endure as a narrative, and the cracks in concevability are just fantastic. The whole film may very well take place within the mind of the little brother character, who is at one point allowed to rid on the back of Ice's bike and lend a high flying bird toward Kat's jerk boyfriend, sitting at a stop sign with a nose bandage due to Ice's fresh karate skills. If anyone's dreams come true in "Cool as Ice" it's the little brother's. 

Exactly what I pictured falling in love as when I was 8.

All guys in my age group know the scene at the end of Turtles 2 where Vanilla Ice spontaneously comes up with the Ninja Rap, due, of course, to the sudden presence of four human-sized turtles (how else would one respond in such a situation?). I promise you this has nothing on "Cool as Ice". It is one of the most enjoyably stupid movies I've ever seen, partially because I was part of the culture it rides down in flames. When the film takes 7 minutes to play out Ice's retracted-from-the-world motorcycle montage, I am amazed as a film viewer, but oddly comfortable. To my inner child, it's a great scene. He and the little brother would have been great friends.

Fun fact: Janusz Kaminsky did the cinematography for "Cool as Ice", about two years before he shot "Schindler's List". I hold to it: the film is Art.


By Dave Beauchene

Review: LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

(Click Here To Stream The Whole Album)

When Eminem claimed "No body listens to techno" he was only half right. On its own, it can be a tedious, if not insipid, bore. Yet when paired in moderation with other genres it can act as a "musical spice" if you will - adding flourishes here and there and giving a much needed face lift to a flat performance. 

Or in the case of LCD Soundsystem, it can be turned into a playground for experimentalism. Mixing and matching punk, electronica, new wave and (gulp) disco into a ready made batch of upbeat dance tunes, the band, spear headed by James Murphy, sounds like the best parts of Moby put alongside the most tamed eccentricities of The Talking Heads (if there is such a thing). 

This Is Happening is the band's third album, and first since 2007's acclaimed Sound Of Silver. While Murphy's always been somewhat of a spastic vocalist, in the vein of Isaac Brock, it was never really about what he had to say or how he said it. Instead the mechanical groove often overshadowed its creator. "North American Scum" showed what could happen if both music and meaning came together for this band, and Murphy knew it

By starting out with a dead panned whisper on the album's opener "Dance Yrself Clean" Murphy shows the listener he's determined to remain at the helm of his own monster. "Walking up to me expecting words / It happens all the time" he sings with a sigh of depression. Murphy shows what he's best at a third of the way into the song as his familiar synthesized sensibilities wash over you in a haze of fuzz induced ecstasy. 

Musically there isn't much here to deviate this record from any of LCD Soundsystem's previous efforts. Systematic buildups of (surprisingly live) drums, subtle bass, effects that swirl, swish and serenade abound from track to track. Yet the only, and quite significant, step of maturation is Murphy's new found joy of truly singing. While his yips and yelps always fit the controlled abrasiveness he concocted, here he finds a place for his voice to act as the real instrument that it is.

"I Can Change" is a straight forward tune at first listen, but Murphy's falsetto gives it a dynamic feel that has yet to be heard in any song he's yet made. "I can change if it helps you fall in love" he pleads to an faceless cutie. Keep trying to make growing as a musician look so effortless and the ladies will line up in no time (like they already don't).

However since this is almost a carbon copy of his other albums, This Is Happening suffers from the same pitfalls as the band's earlier work. The album is a very front loaded affair. All the best ideas and instant payoffs come in the first 25 minutes. "You Wanted A Hit", a nine minute jam, teases the label as well as a few fair weather fans. "You wanted a hit, well I don't do hits" he says with a tongue in cheek smile. It's all in fun and games, except for the dull two minute introduction that plagues the song. 

The newly discovered vocal talent disappears by the end as well. "Pow Pow" is a toss off diddy where he simply talks his way through the beat. Just imagine a poor man's "Boom Boom Pow" and you'll get where I'm coming from. Just add a reference to Michael Musto and you're set to press the skip button.

Yet the greatest achievement here is not letting the bottom fall out of the bag. With the pressure to follow up the success of Sound of Silver as immense as it was, Murphy actually does a modest job of making you dance once again. Though it might be pure ear candy for the indie kids, This Is Happening, while not raising the bar, meets its predecessor right where it left off. 

Grade: B

Key Tracks: "I Can Change", "All I Want", "Dance Yrself Clean"

Eminem Kills "Relapse 2", Announces "Recovery" For June

Slim Shady confirmed on his Twitter today that there was no Relapse 2, Eminem's former in the works effort. Instead a new album Recovery will be released on June 22nd.

“I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year,” Eminem said today in a statement. “But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title.”


Eminem promised the now defunct Relapse 2 last year when his comeback disc Relapse hit stores. Initially scheduled for a Christmas 2009 release, the Holidays came and went with only a re-released Relapse complete with a handful of new tracks.

No single and no track listing has been released.

Them Crooked Vultures Play Kimmel, Plan Tour - Video

Them Crooked Vultures return for a stateside tour next week starting with a headlining gig at Coachella. The band also played Jimmy Kimmel Live last night to promote their upcoming shows. Watch performances of "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "Gunman" below as well as confirmed dates.

Dates:

• 4/14 - Los Angeles, CA (Club Nokia)
• 4/16 - Indio, CA (Coachella)
• 4/17 - Las Vegas, NV (The Joint)
• 4/19 - Denver, CO (Filmore)
• 5/11 - Quebec (Pavillion De La Jeunesse)
• 5/12 - Montreal (Cepsum)
• 5/13 - Ottawa (Scotia Place)
• 5/15 - Toronto (Air Canada Center)
• 5/16 - Windsor (Colosseum At Caesars)
• 5/17 - Indianapolis, IN (The Egyptian Room)
• 5/18 - Chicago, IL (Aragon)

Band Of Horses Debut "Laredo"

Band Of Horses will release their third album, Infinite Arms, on May 18th. But you can hear the newest track "Laredo" below.

A low key affair, the song doesn't deviate too much from what you've come to expect from them: floating guitar riffs, atmospheric vocals and images sombre scenery.

  

Beatles Forgiven By Vatican

The Catholic Church has officially forgiven the Beatles more than four decades after John Lennon made his infamous statement in which he said the fab four were more popular than Jesus.


The official newspaper of the Vatican, 'L 'Osservatore Romano', ran a feature on the front page which read:

"It's true they took drugs, lived life to excess because of their success, even said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages that were possibly even Satanic. 

They may not have been the best example for the youth of the day but they were by no means the worse. Their beautiful melodies changed music and continue to give pleasure.  

"Thirteen albums changed the history of popular music and there is little else to add ... The Beatles were the most famous and acclaimed band in the world'. 

Drummer Ringo Starr reacted to the news with a shrug of his shoulder.

"Didn't the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic -- and they've still forgiven us? I think the Vatican, they've got more to talk about than the Beatles," Starr told CNN.

Watch Lennon's apology for his comments below. 

Malcolm McClaren Dies at 64

Malcolm McClaren,  former manager of The Sex Pistols and The New York Dolls, has passed away after a bout with cancer. He was 64 years old.

McClaren, more than anyone in the 70s, gave the punk genre a purpose, direction and a look. A fashion designer who guided a bunch of British misfits into rock n roll history, McClaren directed The Sex Pistols from the gutter to the top of the charts with their banned single "God Save The Queen" (listen below).

Punk is a term that has been watered down by MTV and Warped Tour. Now it means wearing Guy-Liner and skinny jeans. 35 years ago it meant not giving a shit about anything. Period. Why else would Iggy Pop carve his chest with a broken bottle? Why would Sid Vicious murder his girlfriend and then off himself in a massive heroin overdose? Because they didn't give a shit and neither did McClaren.

Rest well sir.

Interview on "Enough Rope" in 2006

"God Save The Queen"

M.I.A. Tells "Twilight", Lady Gaga Where To Stick It

In the newest issue of NME, M.I.A. reveals her decision to turn down the Twilight soundtrack, as well as her thoughts on Lady Gaga.

"They asked me, luckily Jimmy (Iovine, head of M.I.A.'s label Interscope) had beef with the Twilight people, so he stepped in and told them to fuck off."

It makes sense really. M.I.A. only deals with pot movies (her breakthrough single "Paper Planes" was featured in 2008's Pineapple Express)


The new age pop icon also had some words in regard to Lady Gaga. "People say we're similar, that we both mix all these things in the pot and spit them out differently, but she spits it out exactly the same. None of her music's reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is. She models herself on Grace Jones (Jefferson Airplane) and Madonna, but the music sounds like 20-year-old Ibiza disco, you know? She's not progressive, but she's a good mimic. She sounds more like me than I fucking do!"

M.I.A. is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on her latest album due in June. Here the first leaked single "There's Space For Ol Dat I See" below.

Kanye West Preps New Album, Faces Lawsuit

Kanye West can't go three months without staying out of the spotlight. But he likes it that way and so do we.

According to a report from Billboard, Kanye is held up in his Hawaiian home and recording studio putting the finishing touches on his latest album currently titled Good Ass Job. The album, rumored to be released in June, will be the rapper's first effort since 2008's sombre 808s and Heartbreak. 


Some of the guest rappers on the record will be Q-Tio-p, RZA of the Wu-Tan Clang and Pete Rock.

News of Kanye's progress in the studio comes with pending legal drama as well.

Suge Knight, infamous hip-hop bad guy and Death Row records founder, has successfully scheduled a December court date with West stemming from a 2005 incident were Knight was shot in the leg at a party hosted by West. Knight is seeking $1 million in damages.

Skeptics have said this is a final effort by Knight, who filed for bankruptcy in 2006, to escape his financial situation.

Philosophy - killing more brain cells than a brain cell seeking misile.

When I started in college I figured I might be pretty good at philosophy. This was, I realize now, entirely stupid. I am OK at the odd abstract thought, but never to the dizzying, looping, insane heights of actual philosophers, who use what I will refer to as thousand point words, nine times a sentence. See, there are 1 and 2 point words, like, say, bike. If I put bike in a sentence, there's only so many things it could mean (for instatce, it could mean bike) and therefor only so hard you have to think to incorporate bike into a sentence.

Then there are thousand point words, which may deliver you in any one of a billion directions, depending on every precise nuance of your brain at the moment, words like Modernity. No one actually knows exactly what modernity is, or when it started, or if it even happened, but it shows up in sentences like this:

"The angular re-substantiation of dilute Platonism donates that which having no driven basis in the underpinnings of neo-renaissance ideological rhetoric, distributes a kind of sub-modern deliberation which may imply the factors of post modernity." I tried to make that sound complicated by randomizing every next word, and it still reads easier than, for instance, Martin Heidegger:

"The present of presence consists in the fact that it brings what is present each in its own way to presence. In accordance with the actual kind of presence, the ground has the character of grounding as the ontic causation of the real, as the transcendental making possible of the objectivity of objects, as the dialectical mediation of the movement of the absolute Spirit and of the historical process of production, as the will to power positing values."

Which all means that either Martin Heidegger is one of the smartest people on the planet, or a man who wakes up laughing daily for the mountains of chaos he's paid to pile into his word processor, which is slightly easier to imagine. I can see Mitch and his best friend, rolling side by side in his office right now. "The present of PRESENCE! You can't send that out!" "You gotta keep reading! It gets WAY better!"

Seriously though, I'm sure there actually IS something to that collection of 100, 500, and 10,000 point words, but I'll never understand it. For a while, this was OK. I could get by alright on enthusiasm and the occasional exterior insight, but I was never an intellectual venturer. My point was to always bring whatever I had read to some kind of relative conclusion, even if it meant compressing its wisdom severely. I also have a knack for pop-culture, especially movie based analogies of material. These are charming enough, but sometimes I fear I end up saying more about, for instance, Cast Away, than I do about whichever koot I'd spent the previous evening skimming.

Last class I believe I jumped the shark. It was my first discussion lead of the semester, and I was nervous, so anything I could turn into something I could easily expound on was jotted down on notes. For instance, I explained how revolutions were like, you know, Avatar, cause it appears that James Cameron just came up with something entirely new, but in fact it was based on prior conventions re-seen at a new level, which then prompts everyone to believe that 3D alone is the same thing as a revolution, and "Alice in Wonderland", I mean, what the hell? Right?

I'll barely make it out before I'm totally discovered, I think. I'll survive my philosophy minor with an A-, maybe a B+, and then I'll never have to struggle to relate Marcuse to Ninja Turtles 2 ever again. It will all be in the past, and I will be in the present...of presence. Ohhhhh, yeah, I see: it's just like in Cool Runnings.

By Dave Beauchene

Big Boi Releases "Shutterbugg"

Big Boi, half of iconic hip hop duo OutKast, has released the latest single from his oft-delayed solo project Sir Luscious Left Foot: Son Of Chico Dusty, "Shutterbugg".

A thick, syrupy jam that reeks of southern hip hop, the track is glittered with synths and soulful backing vocals. Oh and don't forget auto-tune...

Now that Big Boi has settled his label drama, expect the album to hit stores this summer. As for when a new OutKast record will be released? Rumors point to sometime next year.

Dr. Dre: "Detox Coming This Year"

The last time Dr. Dre had a solo album out, 1999's 2001, Bill Clinton was still president and people still bought CDs.

Now after years of empty promises and unsurprising delays, his third effort, Detox, last scheduled for release Christmas of 2008, will be released sometime this year.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Dre broke the news himself while promoting his new "Beats by Dre" headphones.

Watch the video below.

Lallapalooza Lineup Announced

After months of speculation, and a week of slowly revealing acts through a "Wheel of Fortune" like puzzle, Lollapalooza has announced the full line up for this year's festival including headliners Soundgarden, Green Day and Lady Gaga.

For the full list of bands click here. Lollapalooza will be held August 6-8 in Chicago's Grant Park.

Review: Coheed And Cambria - Year Of The Black Rainbow

Coheed And Cambria rode into town on a prog rock pony while sporting some of the most awesomely cliche metal hair you've ever seen. Armed with epic guitar riffs, shifting time signatures and a story line so twisted and pointlessly complex that only vocalist Claudio Sanchez understands what he's singing about, the band hit their peak with 2005's Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1 From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness and their  untoppable single "Welcome Home".

Since then Coheed have wandered the barren wasteland called follow up success. 2007's No World For Tomorrow was a watered down affair caught in limbo between straight forward radio rock complete with big guitars and a set of songs that harked back to their purest prog effort in 2003's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3.

Year of the Black Rainbow is the band's most polished, accessible and low key effort yet.. A concept album that serves as a prequel to their debut record, a stand out single is painfully absent here. When no one understands what you'e emoting about, it's in your best interest to give the listener a choice cut to sink their teeth in to. Instead Rainbow works more as a collection of well intentioned, if not well executed, plot segments as opposed to songs.

Produced by Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails) and Joe Barresi (Queens Of The Stone Age), Coheed make an earnest effort to construct their tunes around a solid melody rather than sprawling arrangements. This both helps and hurts the band. "When Skeletons Live" is the closest attempt at catchy and off beat coming together in a cohesive unit. Sanchez's high register is tamed to a certain extent finding a niche inside the topsy turvy guitar licks the song is made of.

"The Broken" and "Here We Are Juggernaut" are other stand outs as well. The latter finds a nice industrial fuzz part giving the song a hint of paranoia that Sanchez uses to great effect. Sure it may not meet your standards of yesteryear, but Sanchez admits it himself when he sings "Nothing matters anymore".

Yet the band's efforts to grow up and become (gulp) mainstream weigh the whole album down. Songs like "Far" and "Pearl of the Stars" come off as genuine and a total borefest at the same time. Imagine the worst parts of Angels & Airwaves trying to mesh with the experimental moments of Pink Floyd... yeah.

Black Rainbow is a modest improvement over its predecessor, yet Coheed's desire to expand their sound while cherry picking their favorite parts of not-so-long ago don't settle well. They want to grow up with their audience before their audience out grows them. They had better get busy - they won't wait much longer.

Grade: C

Key Tracks: "The Broken" "Here We Are Juggernaut" "When Skeletons Live"

Colbert Report Vs. The Daily Show

I forget the last time I watched The Daily Show, but it was a while ago. I had watched it, even by then, for a long time. I'd watched it since before there was a live studio audience. I watched it when Killborne was on. It was part of my after school routine, and almost always had a laugh or two in store. Stewart was a pretty funny guy, and the show's correspondents were almost always excellent (Colbert and Carrel got their starts there). Then, one day, I noticed that the show just wasn't funny anymore.

For one thing, it had become entirely politically oriented now. Back in the day, you could count on some entertainment jabs - a lot of which were sorely needed. It was all Bush (and McCain and Kerry and Rice and Cheney) and the audience didn't laugh as much as they seemed to break into applause and cheering. And why not? The United States was fairly anxious about many things political. The Daily Show answered the call to make jokes where jokes were now most needed.

But after a while it just didn't seem to be about the jokes anymore. Oh, there were jokes on display, yes, but not in the traditional sense. The point was not to make you laugh so much as it was to say what any number of left pundits were saying, in a round about way. The Daily Show no longer seemed anxiously humorous, but intently antagonistic. It stood for something now, and the audience had understood that, and Stewart knew it. You could see that he knew it.

You still can. The audience is always, always 100% on Stewart's side, not ready to be entertained so much as they are ready to rally. They know what the game is, and anytime the host comes even relatively close to a criticism of the right, they roar and applaud. Somewhere way in the back, they laugh a little. Stewart once went on cross-fire and attacked it for being a fake debate show. Daily has become a fake comedy show. Stewart knows his audience is dieing to cheer for his every jab, and yet appears to believe we don't. It gets tedius. It breeds lazy comedy (count how many times in a week Stewart performs mock-urban response to something).

So it's funny that the man who was born of Stewart's show and has blown right by him in popularity has remained so funny. Everyone loves Colbert. Everyone, and the man still writes tons of jokes. Are a lot of them aimed at the right? Sure; Colbert is on the left and his humor is going to be biased a bit, but the thing is that it's still funny. It channel's our sense of absurdity, not our sense of rhetoric. It allows, if anything, for us to be united in laughter, even if we return to our opinions shortly after. It's a really good show.

And it's such a bigger effort that Daily. Everything about it is more ambitious. The segments change. Gags that might sustain whole weeks of a lesser program are one off's on Colbert - fitting the purpose at hand. It has a heart and a mind and it genuinely means well. Colbert himself filmed a number of shows from Iraq last year as form of entertainment for the troops. He shaved his head. He's on the left, but he's not blinded by it, and that's important.

Stewart has, to be fair, jabbed at Obama now and then. He is not the left's answer to Glenn Beck and he can often seem a decent guy. His address to the Daily Show audience after September 11th was flooring and sincere. But he's getting on. He and the show seem comfortable in what they know and all too proud that they know it. I don't tune in, not because I disagree with their platforms, but because I know exactly what I'll be getting, every time. I don't know what will be on Colbert tonight, but it'll be energetic, inventive, and most of all funny. With all the bias in this world, we need all the funny we can get.


By Dave Beauchene