Archive for January, 2010
New Gorillaz Album Nearing Completion
Gorillaz are set to release a new album called Plastic Beach in March, and the cartoon band’s bassist, Murdoc, has taken to Twitter to let us know how it’s coming along:
Album almost finished. Drinks being mastered. Isolation kicking in. Bucket of Propofol to help me sleep. Happy 2010!!!
and…
Urrp!! Just finished mixing new Gorillaz track with er….‘My ARSE’!. Sounds pretty good…Can’t wait to play it.
So it seems like Murdoc, 2D, Noodle, and Russel have things running right on schedule. Plastic Beach will be the group’s first proper studio album since 2005’s electro-pop smorgasbord Demon Days.
-Sam
Detox Delayed Until 2011
We’re going to have to wait a bit longer for Dr. Dre’s new album, Detox.
Dre has told Slam Online that he’s too busy with other artist’s music to release his own. He went on to inform Slam Online that we’ll probably hear something in a year or so.
So, Detox in 2011? Part of me is over Dre in the same sense that I’m over Eminem and even over Snoop. Sure, they can produce, but everything else they throw out there has just been, well, blah.
Detox would be Dr. Dre’s first release since 1999’s album, 2001. Dre previewed some of his new material in a commercial for Dr Pepper. I’m pretty sure I yawned during that commercial.
High On Fire Debut New Song
Matt Pike, the perpetually shirtless leader of Oakland metallers High On Fire, has called his band’s new song “an icy death lullaby.”
Um, yes please. Sign me up for one of those.
The song I’m referring to is “Frost Hammer,” and it’s the first song to be released from the band’s upcoming album Snakes For The Divine which will be released on February 23rd.
Stereogum has the song streaming on their site, so go check it out.
“Frost Hammer” is pretty standard High On Fire fare – killer stoner metal riffs, propulsive drumming, and Pike’s, shall we say, unique vocals. Truth be told, Pike’s Lemmy-ish voice either turns you off immediately or it simply blends into the churning metal he and his bandmates are creating to back it up. And there is definitely quality metal to be heard here.
The song warms up with Pike furiously growling about mythological icy landscapes before slowing the tempo down to let you catch your breath. But that rest is merely temporary. Sending the song out in an icy blast is Pike screeching “Frost Hammer!” before unloading a sick guitar solo. This song certainly has me intrigued about how the rest of the album will shape up.
-Sam
New M.I.A. Song/Video
M.I.A. has a new album due out this summer – the follow-up to her groundbreaking sophomore effort Kala.
Today, she released a new song via Twitter called “There’s Space For Ol Dat I See.” It’s unknown at this point whether the song will appear on the new album, but there’s probably a good chance that it will.
Check it out:
M.I.A. – There’s Space For Ol Dat I See
Like a lot of her music, I wasn’t crazy about it at first, but it definitely grew on me. The song is a departure from the frenetic club-ready beats and world influences of Kala, choosing instead a more laid-back spacey electronic beat. The song tapers off with a Nine Inch Nails-like keyboard glitch-fest. But the biggest difference between this song and the Kala set is that M.I.A. shifts away from predominantly rapping in order to feature her singing – and it’s not bad. In fact, M.I.A. told Rolling Stone that she plans to do more singing on the new disc.
So give it a listen, and let everyone know what you think in the comments.
-Sam
Jay Reatard Dead
From Goner Records:
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our good friend Jay Reatard. Jay died in his sleep last night. We will pass along information about funeral arrangements when they are made public.
Jay Lindsey, better known as Jay Reatard, sprung out of the Memphis garage rock scene with his 2006 solo album, Blood Visions, after starting out in the late 90s as part of a band called the Reatards. Last year, he released Watch Me Fall.
From Matador Records:
We are devastated by the death of Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., aka Jay Reatard. Jay was as full of life as anyone we’ve ever met, and responsible for so many memorable moments as a person and artist. We’re honored to have known and worked with him, and we will miss him terribly.
He was 29.
Today’s Quickies
StreetLevel has Hip-Hop’s Most Controversial Album Covers which includes blurbs about, among many others, 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be, Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP and Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’ Put Yo Hood Up.
Somehow I missed diligent.me’s 2009 retrospective. Cosign on the favorite single!
NME has Courtney Love defending herself from using ’Hole’ name for her new album. Former band members are not on the album.
Fugees’ members, Pras and Wyclef, are heading to Haiti to help with the relief. Both are urging for others to follow suit.
MSNBC writes that American Idol, once again, has started strong. Yawn.
People has Jessica Simpson making music, laughter with Billy Corgan. And I just threw up in my mouth quite a bit.
System of a Down to end hiatus?!
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.” ~Almost Famous
Greetings, everyone.
My name is Sam and this is my first post here on Suds on Bleeker. It’s a true pleasure to join the team that is being assembled here, and I look forward to sharing with you my views on what’s new in the world of music. And, more importantly, I look forward to getting to know all of you and hearing about what new music is really rocking your world at the moment. So sign up for an account if you haven’t yet and let’s start talking.
With my first post, I’d like to talk about some potential news that means a lot to me: System of a Down might be getting close to ending their hiatus which has been going on since 2006.
You see, I’m a metalhead first and foremost and I can largely trace my “musical DNA,” so to speak, back to Toxicity – that fantastic, beautiful, enduring piece of heavy music. That was one of the main albums that really ignited my passion for heavy music and opened so many new channels of discovery. Suffice to say, my musical leanings owe a lot to System of a Down.
So it was to my surprise that SOAD’s bassist, Shavo Odadjian (he of the epic goatee), posted on Twitter today the following cryptic message: “Are u guys ready for System???”
Hell yes, I am ready for System.
Of course, no one is really certain yet what that Tweet actually portends. It could mean that SOAD is making preparations for a new album (best case scenario), or it could mean that they are simply going to play a few European festivals in the near future. Maybe it won’t mean any of that, and this was all a big tease. Of course, any new plans for the band would probably require singer Serj Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian to put their respective side projects on the back burner for the time being. But as any SOAD fan will tell you, one new System album is infinitely better than two new Serj/Daron solo albums. So let’s make this thing happen, boys. Heavy metal misses you.
-Sam
Iced Earth is one of the world’s greatest and most internationally recognized American metal bands. For decades, they have held high rankings on the charts all over Europe, South America and Asia. The founder and lead song writer of Iced Earth, Jon Schaffer, has just released a side project entitled Sons of Liberty.
This album by Sons of Liberty is called “Brush-fires of the Mind” and is available for a free download on www.Sons-of-Liberty.net. One could also listen to all the tracks right on the website, as well as read along with the lyrics of each track.
Schaffer states that this side project has nothing to do with Iced Earth. Sons of Liberty represents his own views on where the world is heading and the music was written solely by him.
Jon Schaffer, whose previous musical themes and lyrics represent a true patriot of these United States of America, is attempting to awaken the nation and the world by spreading the word of the injustices that are committed by the most powerful people on the planet.
Schaffer urges all people to research the topics that are discussed on the website and the messages that are personified in the songs. Jon has made the album free to everyone because he feels that every citizen of every country of the world has the right to know about the things mentioned on the album.
On the website, one can find links to documentaries that Jon has viewed and books that Jon has read in order to learn as much as possible about the subjects he speaks about in the nine songs of “Brush-fires of the Mind”.
Home page: www.Sons-of-Liberty.net
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sonsoflibertymusic
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/meettheshackles
New Jimi Album
“Look man, you can listen to Jimi, but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference man. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him.”
As we relived the discussion between Sidney Deane and Billy Hoyle in White Men Can’t Jump, we learned about an upcoming Jimi Hendrix album featuring a slew of unreleased studio material.
The new Jimi Hendrix album is slated to be released on March 8th, 2010. It will be titled, “Valleys of Neptune.”
The album will hold some new renditions of previous Jimi tracks, but we’ll also see some covers thrown in there, too. We’ll hear Jimi’s cover of ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ by Cream and ‘Bleeding Heart’ by Elmore James.
The track-listing can be found after the jump. continue reading
The debut album of the once unknown church singer from Scotland, Susan Boyle, ranks at number one on the Billboard charts.
“I Dreamed A Dream” has been on the Top 200 list for six weeks now, and it has peaked at the #1 spot.