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Huey Lewis Soars To New Heights

Well, Huey Lewis' title-track contribution to the Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy Pineapple Express has made its way to the Internet, and like much of the output from that arm of Hollywood, the good idea at its core ("hey, let's have Huey Lewis write a sequel to 'The Power Of Love' with pot jokes!") gets stretched out and beaten so thin that even the memories of liking its early bits go up in smoke. Pros: Like all Huey/News tracks, it does have the requisite sax solo; Lewis still sounds like Lewis. Cons: The saxophone solo and the smoking-up solo probably weren't both necessary; the song on a whole sounds somewhat wan, almost as if it's been beaten down by studio notes dictating what lyrical jokes should be punched up and the exact length of the whole "smoke it if you got it" bit. It's streaming at the soundtrack distributor's MySpace page. (Warning: Click quickly after the song's finished, or you might be subjected to Mike Myers singing Steve Miller.) After the jump, a clip of the song that Rogen and Franco should have probably used in the first place. More »

8:55 AM on Wed Jul 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
294 views, 2 comments

Latest by MayhemintheHood: The song makes me even more stoked on the movie. more »

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The Verve Serve Up A Flashback Lunch

Recently revived Brit band The Verve released its first new piece of post-reunion music, "Love Is Noise," on its MySpace page yesterday; Richard Ashcroft's voice sounds a bit craggier and more world-weary, which plays well off the backup singers who eerily resemble a troop of megaphone-carrying hobbits. Here's the weird thing, though: You'd expect a reunited band's new material to have a sense of nostalgia about it, and "Love Is Noise" does, in fact, have a '90s alt-radio feel. But the music sounds more like dozens of other bands from that era who weren't the Verve (think Sister Hazel et al), and it's simultaneously driving me crazy by making me try to recall a lot of songs of that ilk and making me wonder just what, exactly, the combination of time off and apparent new influences on their forthcoming album (out in August!) will result in. [MySpace]

10:45 AM on Tue Jun 24 2008
By Maura Johnston
134 views, 6 comments

Latest by Dick Laurent is dead.: Tell me when they go back to doing stuff like "Endless Life." more »

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T.I. Adds His Swagger To A Song That Doesn't Really Need It

No offense to Mr. Harris, of course, but Mariah Carey's "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" was pretty OK for summertime consumption the way it was, and this version—which is going to be the official single release, according to word on the e-street—seems somewhat superfluous. Surely there was a song that actually needed some assistance out there that could be transformed into "I'm Real '08" by a few throwaway "heys" in the background and a couple of tossed-off verses? [YouTube]

10:30 AM on Wed Jun 18 2008
By Maura Johnston
33 views, 2 comments

Latest by n/a: Is there a sliders episode about an alternate, better dimension, where T.I. never blew up, and all his records sound like Trap Muzik? more »

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Lloyd Goes To The Bank

I'm happy to note that more people have joined my campaign for Lloyd's Lil Wayne-assisted "Girls Around The World" to be the other official jam of this summer, but the crafty R & B crooner has done me one better, releasing another song in advance of Lessons In Love, which is scheduled for August. The snaking "Money On The Brain" isn't as hooky as "Girls" (and Lloyd's second fiddle, who goes by the name of Bree, seems to have learned her pitch control from old freestyle records), and I think we all know how I feel about materialism-rich imagery in the current economic moment, but dude's falsetto is sounding better and better with each leaked track. [YouTube / Lloyd]

3:00 PM on Tue Jun 17 2008
By Maura Johnston
72 views, 2 comments

Latest by Maura Johnston: @Tauwan: Sigh. Although to be fair (and a little wonky!)... posts without jumps tend to get less traffic. more »

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Voxpop Go Crate-Digging At Rough Trade

This morning I've been enjoying the MySpace offerings of the British outfit Voxpop, whose demo MP3s show a band gliding through various phases of post-C86 NME fillers with all the moxie of an indie disco DJ. The peppy chime of "All The Time" has been helping alleviate today's seemingly endless gray skies, but something tells me that the bulk of the Idolator readership is going to freak out over "Hacienda Motel" (!), which gives off a low-budget Suede vibe. Hey Bernard Butler, now that you're done with the Black Kids, can you maybe give these kids some time in your studio? The songs are there—a fact which, given your previous production entanglement, should come as something of a relief—they're just a bit spare, but I'm sure that your deft touch will allow them to blossom. [MySpace; HT Loudersoft]

12:00 PM on Wed Jun 4 2008
By Maura Johnston
100 views, 1 comment

Latest by loudersoft: Since nobody else has commented yet, I have to say this: I fell for Voxpop right out of the gate. These songs present a most impressive initial impression and I can't help to think they've got many more to more »

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Sophie Ellis-Bextor Puts On Her Dancing Shoes

Two new tracks from Sophie Ellis-Bextor's current recording sessions—which were originally supposed to be for an extra track or two to be tacked on to a greatest-hits album, but have since blossomed into a full-on album-planning outing—are currently on her MySpace page, and oh boy are they deliciously icy. The Calvin Harris-produced "Off And On," which has apparently also been shopped to Roisin Murphy, works both the glum and club-ready sides of the fence, with 8-bit arpeggios driving the whole thing; meanwhile, "Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer" sounds like a lost Pet Shop Boys track, complete with big swooshy pre-chorus and drama-fueled string break. Love, love, love. [MySpace via Popjustice]

4:30 PM on Mon Jun 2 2008
By Maura Johnston
253 views, 9 comments

Latest by Mr. Praline: @kisskisskiss: Agreed on the single. The Freemasons have got a great production sensibility. more »

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Cof Cof Liven Up Your Summer Playlist

Your overall opinion on Spanish duo Cof Cof will depend entirely on your tolerance for blippy, tongue-in-cheek dance music. They hover in that often unbearable, sometimes incredibly endearing laptop pop universe, oscillating somewhere between the cleverness and originality of The Blow, the nasty, hedonistic riot that is Gravy Train!!!!, and the sweet charm of Houston's The Mathletes. And their song "Caribbean Boy" is so fun, so downright pleasant, it practically dares you to dislike it. More »

12:00 PM on Mon Jun 2 2008
By Kate Richardson
389 views, 7 comments

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CSS' Creative Path Is Littered With The Corpses Of Bygone Alt-Rock Stars

Those of you who lived through the '90s, when "alternative music" broke and was subsequently broken, may remember the unfortunate cycle endured by a few bands who stormed out of the gate with a strong first single: The song would be inescapable, the album would be mostly decent, and the follow-up would sound like the band in question had all of its edges shaved off by producers, executives, and self-made delusions Apparently the Brazilian glam-punk band CSS, known by many as "that band from the iPod Touch ad" but who I hold near and dear to my ears because of the still-infectious "Alala," is now in stage three of that evolution. More »

10:30 AM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Maura Johnston
604 views, 4 comments

Latest by n/a: I feel like the line between reality and fiction has blurred dangerously when an idolator post makes me weak thinking of my eighth grade crush on Nina Gordon, remembering it more fondly than 90% of my real relationships. more »

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Ida Maria Gets Exclamatory

In the hour or so that has followed since I was first sent this video, which is by the Swedish-by-way-of-Norway singer Ida Maria, I have listened to the tense, frenetic song in the clip three times and ripped through all the songs offered up on her MySpace page twice. (The last part of that equation would have probably taken more time had Universal, her current Norwegian label, not been scrooges about letting entire songs from the records they've put out stream from her embedded player. Booo!) "Oh My God," which is a solo track in the clip but appears in duet form on her MySpace-posted demo, soars because it's simultaneously nervy and nervous, and the jittery video is almost as fist-clenching as the jumpy guitars. More like this, please! [YouTube / MySpace]

1:05 PM on Wed Mar 19 2008
By Maura Johnston
187 views, 5 comments

Latest by Halfwit: @brasstax: "Stella" is a great song, but it's only a few months till Martha and the Vandellas have to drop a legal smackdown: + Watch video more »

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Tut Tut Is Watching Every Move You Make

My knowledge about Kansas City/DC's Tut Tut is scant at best—I found them through WPRB's Facebook page. This sort of stumbling around makes me love the Internet! Tut Tut are firmly rooted in the Elephant 6 aesthetic (this shit never dies, huh?), and frontman/band mastermind Alex Abros' vocals suggest many heavy sessions listening to the Magnetic Fields. The flaws in production keep this from sounding hopelessly devoted to their reference points, as well as retain its own appeal. With that said, when Tut Tut manages to get the mix just right, as in "Pins On Your Purse," the payoff is big—a well-worn groove accented by ukelele and classical guitar plucks, strings as wide and open as the midwestern skies and a catchy chorus that sticks in your head. [Myspace / Facebook / Iron Paw Records]

4:00 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Maria T Sciarrino
62 views, Comment

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Mussels Make Us Happy As A Clam

Yesterday's travels around Austin took me to the back patio of a pizza parlor that was putting on a three-day popfest, and I stuck around long enough to hear a set by the Brooklyn band Mussels, whose chiming, revved-up rock and roll bounced off the baking concrete and made the slowly-heating-up afternoon all the more pleasant. It probably says something about New York's music "scene" that I had to go all the way down to Austin to find a band that wasn't hyped to the gills by the city's blog-equipped cognoscenti that also happened to be actually pretty decent, but I'll save all that cranky thinkpiece-styled stuff for my return to the drizzly early-spring weather of the East Coast. [MySpace]

9:45 AM on Fri Mar 14 2008
By Maura Johnston
151 views, Comment

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Kirsten Ketsjer Is A Rock Band, Not A Person In A Rock Band

The Danish trio Kirsten Ketsjer The Rock Band—named, I was told, after a friend of the band who was in no way affiliated with its music—play nervy indie rock that a friend compared to their sorta-countrymen 18th Dye^*. Which is music to my ears—and a very apt analogy, although Kirsten Ketsjer's music gets a little more frenzied and experimental at times, with singer/drummer Anja Jacobsen caterwauling so hard during one epic song's freakout that I thought she was going to propel herself off her drum kit's stool and out into the club's side lot, leaving broken glass and gorgeous guitar arpeggios trailing behind her. [MySpace / Yoyooyoy] More »

6:29 AM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
129 views, 3 comments

Latest by Penny Royalty: Their album that came out last year, "Fffooo K Tsssch" (note: I may be spelling it wrong), is just terrific. more »

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Diving Onto Torche's "Grenades"

When I was asked to guest-blog, I was truly upset that the gig wouldn't be like "Weird Al" Yankovic hosting AL-TV in 1988 and I could just play Utopia videos all day. Luckily one of the bestest rock bands around dropped a new track on their MySpace page, thus barely meeting the vaguest, most minimal of requirements for a "news peg"! More »

3:30 PM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Christopher Weingarten
231 views, 2 comments

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The Futureheads Engage In Some Controlled Chaos

British spaz-punks The Futureheads have posted a new song to their MySpace page, and I definitely think it needs to be released from the confines of its embedded player to be properly appreciated; it's one of those tracks that needs to be listened to repeatedly in order to get it. See, "The Beginning Of The Twist" starts off sounding so straightforward as to be almost kinda glammy, but as things move along an advancing horde of background singers almost menacingly harmonizes its way to the song's forefront. Given that the Futureheads' greatest strengths are always brought to the fore when the members indulge their reform-school glee club urges, that chaotic chorale actually serves as a backwards complement to the song's restrained opening, so anyone within listening range can hear the band limbering up for whatever "twist" is being referred to in the title, whether it's the dance or a plot kink. [MySpace via A to Z]

3:45 PM on Fri Jan 25 2008
By Maura Johnston
116 views, Comment

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Los Planetas Sneak Into Your Galaxy

I've been in Spain a little over a week now and already I've talked to some drunk Madrileños in a bar about Nick Cave and pestered a local for recommendations. She gave me a list of Spanish bands, and so far my favorite is Los Planetas, a stoner pop band in the vein of Yo La Tengo who've been around since the mid-'90s. Last night during a stint of Idolator Pop '07 data entry I happily listened to the songs on their MySpace page several times through, soaking up the '90s college radio aesthetic. More »

5:56 PM on Tue Jan 15 2008
By Kate Richardson
287 views, 2 comments

Latest by nerdlinger: This post totally takes me back. I studied abroad in Madrid in the spring of '96, and I remember discovering "Que Puedo Hacer" (the best Lemonheads song Evan Dando never wrote...in Spanish) and Los Planetas, and what a wonderful thing more »

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Lil' Mama Demolishes Everyone In Her Path

"Everyone needs T-Pain, Maura. Haven't you figured that out?" Jess asked me when I griped about the new Lil Mama single, which features T-Pain and Chris Brown, to him. And I can see his point in a way; Lil Mama's follow-up single to "Lip Gloss," the not-bad-at-all "G-Slide (Tour Bus)," was one of those songs that managed to hit only in the alternate pop universe of TRL, and her album's been pushed back so much, she probably won't be very lil by the time it comes out. So starpower can only help her career. But! More »

1:30 PM on Fri Jan 11 2008
By mjohnston
412 views, 5 comments

Latest by jasonelias: I was out by the "Janet Jack" line. more »

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The Best Mousse-Shilling Song You'll Hear All Day

Recently spotted on MTV2: an ad with a soundtrack that absolutely leapt out at me, in large part because it sounded as if it had been concocted by some cunning songwriter who'd heard Lionel Vinyl's mash-up of Jet and Girls Aloud^* and decided to rework its formula—bratty, girly vocals, glammy guitars—into a song of its own. I actually rewound the ad five or six times just to pick out the lyrics, in the name of "research." More »

12:05 PM on Thu Oct 18 2007
By mjohnston
254 views, 1 comment

Latest by KinetiQ: Yeah, whenever I feel all "me horny, you sexual object" two of my friends and I grab someone and drag them around by their feet. You've gotta corner em in the bathroom first though. It's totally never creepy. To quoth the more »

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