Pharrell Channels Cee Lo Green For “Happy”: Hear His ‘Despicable Me 2′ Track

May 21st, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Pharrell dialed into smooth ’70s disco with Daft Punk on two Random Access Memories tracks, “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance.” But for his new solo track, “Happy,” Mr. Williams digs back a little bit further, to the ’60s. The result is a soulful, catchy little jaunt reminiscent of Cee Lo Green‘s recent work – all handclaps and singalongs and retro pop simplicity.

“Happy” is off the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, which Pharrell co-produced with composer Heitor Pereira (Pharrell also helmed the music for the first film). Coincidentally, the super-producer teams up with Cee Lo on another one of the movie’s tracks. But you can hear the peppy solo cut below. More »

Pop Goes The World: Globetrot With Oh Land, Margaret Berger, Katy Tiz, Lancelot & Kate Boy

May 21st, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Ahoy! Let’s go around the world, shall we? As per usual in this week’s round-up of Pop Goes the World, I’ve lassoed some Scandinavians (no surprise there) — the lovely Oh Land from Denmark, Eurovision contestant Margaret Berger (spoiler alert: she didn’t win; spoiler alert 2: she’s amazing) and Swedish alt-popsters Kate Boy — as well as the ultra-hip Sinead Harnett (via the UK) and an Australian DJ named Lancelot who’s positively royal.

Passports out? Cool. Let’s do it.

Diplo Clarifies His Thoughts On Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Via Lengthy Facebook Letter

May 21st, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Last week, Diplo posted a string of tweets offering up his unflattering thoughts on Daft Punk‘s Random Access Memories. We felt they were pretty entertaining, even though they were lightly jabbing an album which we enjoyed quite a lot. Daft Punk diehards didn’t find the comments so funny, though, and apparently stormed Diplo’s Twitter and Facebook to the point that the DJ-producer felt the need to respond.

Today (May 21), Diplo posted a letter clarifying his thoughts on RAM. ”My all time favorite daft punk song was ‘make love’ from the last album, not the bangers that you might expect but the subtlety of that record was amazing and i love the production on it[...] the new album i do like a lot as well.. my favorite song being doing it right with panda bear i think its my favorite tune of the year so far. i quite like the album .. my twitters were sarcastic.”

Diplo’s main issue with the album, then, was the cheesy, good vibin’ image of L.A. that it conjures. “I don’t want music that represents excessive blissed out easy listening. I grew up being forced to listen to hotel california[...] And Im also not into the white bearded rich malibu palm tree los angeles that it paints.. LA is great because its real and gritty so that just turned me off[...] this album was obviously for people that enjoy breazy walks with their pets and smoking cigarettes in malibu.. I do not.”

Head below to see more select quotes from the letter, and for Diplo’s subsequent tweet telling people not to read it. More »

Jonas Brothers To Perform At Miss USA Pageant, Nick Jonas To Co-Host

May 21st, 2013 // 1 Comment

We’re not gonna pretend like we know the difference between Miss USA and Miss America, but now we have a handy device to distinguish the two (for this year, at least): Miss USA is the one that will have a Jonas Brothers performance. The JoBros will try to get all the contestants at this year’s Miss USA pageant to put their pom poms down on June 16, and Nick Jonas is co-hosting the whole broadcast with Giuliana Rancic.

This performance comes about a month before the Bros head on a national tour, which should feature more new material from their forthcoming album. Head below to see their tweets with the Miss USA announcements. More »

Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum & Keith Urban Added To 2013 CMT Music Awards Roster

May 21st, 2013 // Leave a Comment

Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum and Keith Urban have joined the roster of country superstars performing at this year’s CMT Music Awards. Underwood adds this to her list of upcoming marquee TV appearances (The Sound of Music special and the Sunday Night Football theme song, both for NBC), while Lady Antebellum was recently seen performing on The Voice.

Darius Rucker, Florida Georgia Line, George Strait and Jason Aldean are confirmed to perform as well. In addition to his set, Aldean is sharing hosting duties with actress Kristen BellPreviously announced performers for the Nashville ceremony include Taylor Swift, Hunter HayesLittle Big TownLuke Bryan and the Pistol Annies. More »

Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’: Review Revue

May 21st, 2013 // Leave a Comment
Daft Punk's Videos
daft punk music video one more time prime time of your life around the world
The duo's five most groundbreaking clips. Read More »
7 French House Acts
justice daft punk air french bands house music
Daft Punk aren't the only beat-makers from France. Read More »
DP's Best Samples
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We list the best Daft Punk samples in rap songs. Read More »
Diplo vs. Daft Punk
daft punk diplo beef
Diplo trashes the new album on Twitter. Read More »

In our own review of Daft Punk‘s much-hyped and uber-buzzed-about fourth album, we noted that “Random Access Memories is many things: a gamble, a Genesis scroll of Daft Punk’s musical DNA, a mesmerizing summation of their career to this point and a dynamic jumping-off point for the next phase of their creative evolution. Oh, and also, it’s fun.” And for the most part, online critics seem to agree that by abandoning the use of samples and digital technology this time around, the arbiters of French electro-pop have presented us with sonic, cerebral journey through time that is as thrilling as it is ambitious.

Head below for our roundup of what the Internet at large had to say about Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. More »

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