Dizzee Rascal's Maths to hit U.S. in April
Although Dizzee Rascal's third album, Maths+English, has been available for several months online, the CD and digital formats of the 2007 Mercury Music Prize winner will be making their way stateside April 29, with the help of Definitive Jux. Those who have already downloaded the U.K. version of the album take note: this version not only includes all 14 original tracks, which feature British music mainstays Lily Allen and Alex Turner (of Arctic Monkeys), but also includes two new studio tracks, as well as a remix of the song "Where's Da G's," by former Company Flow MC El-P. But Dizzee... read more
Danger Mouse to work with (almost) everyone in 2008
Danger Mouse has seemingly made it his goal to embarrass every other producer in 2008 based on work ethic alone. NME reports that he is soon to be collaborating with the legendary Van Dyke Parks and Martina Topely-Bird, in addition to starting on a new Gnarls Barkley album (look for more on this in Paste's April issue). This comes after wrapping up The Shortwave Set’s album, Replica Sun Machine, and The Black Keys’ Attack & Release. It was while working on Replica Sun Machine that Danger decided to record an album with Parks, who was adding his touch to the... read more
Morning State hits the road, re-records debut
The members of Morning State will be hitting the road in February to play a handful of shows before locking themselves in the studio to re-record their debut album. It seems the Atlanta rockers are finally back on track after an unpredictable year of highs and lows in 2007. The band signed to a new label last fall and recorded its debut album. Next, the band headed to New York City’s CMJ Music Marathon to perform with the likes of the Black Kids and Peter and Bjorn (of Peter Bjorn and John) and was warmly received by attending fans and... read more
Paste's Avett Brothers tour watch: Day 247
Considering that they're our pseudo-progeny, it should come as no surprise that we at Paste are constantly keeping tabs on the Avett Brothers. Restraining orders be damned! It's imperative that these impressionable young men not fall in with the wrong crowd - you know, those wholesome types. So every time the Avetts dispatch a tour update, we're there to let you know. Regular Paste news junkies might recall a TRL-style Avetts tour item that ran last month with fresh show dates included. Alas, we didn't list every single venue that the folk-stomping trio would be demolishing this spring. So, for... read more
Get Smart trailer (ft. Steve Carell) hits YouTube, is bilingual
Earlier this week, a fellow known only as Kravis17 uploaded the latest in a series of most likely illegal (as opposed to barely legal) movie trailers to his YouTube account. Featuring Steve Carrell, Dwayne “No Longer The Rock” Johnson, Anne “The Girl Who Turned Down Knocked Up” Hathaway, Alan “Steve Carell’s Co-Star In Little Miss Sunshine” Arkin and Ken "The Naked Guy From Borat" Davitian, the most recent trailer is for a film titled Agente 88. And if it sounds a suspiciously like the Get Smart movie that’s coming out this June… ...well, that’s because it is the Get Smart... read more
Guitar Hero III and Rock Band face off in marketplace
If the executives at Hasbro had thought to put Simon's colored buttons on the neck of a guitar, they would surely have enough money by now to build a toy store on the outer rings of Saturn. In the mere two years since its debut, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold a mind-pretzling 14 million units in North America, which amounts to over a billion dollars in revenue (and that's not counting the money they've made from selling five million downloadable tracks for Guitar Hero III). Question: How many more times will I use the suffix "-illion" in this news... read more
Lightspeed Champion announces North American jaunt
If anything, Lightspeed Champion doesn’t hold back. Case in point would be his last-minute UK release party for Falling Off the Lavender Bridge, where instead of tracks from the album, Devonte Hynes opted to play indie favorites with a few of his musician friends. The album will be released Stateside Feb. 5. “Late Monday night I decided that maybe I did want an album launch,” Hynes wrote on his blog. “I called my friend Matty who runs the club White Heat, and asked if the next night I could play on the bill under the name of Pun Lovin' Criminals.... read more
Rambo
“Heroes never die. They just reload,” reads one of the advertisements... read more
Shortlist Music Prize presents top 10 finalists
Shortlisty, swing my way! If you're experiencing year-end-list withdrawal now that January's almost over, the Los Angeles-based Shortlist Organization has just the panacea—the 10 finalists for the 2007 Shortlist Music Prize, whittled down from the 54 long-listed nominees announced in December. 2007 Shortlist Music Prize Top Ten: Arcade Fire Burial Feist Justice LCD Soundsystem M.I.A. Spoon Stars Wilco Working for a Nuclear Free City The Shortlist, which began in 2001, is more or less the American equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, a 15-year-old British institution that was recently renamed the Nationwide Mercury Prize in honor of the cash money... read more
Mountain Goats proudly release album, head out on tour
For the Mountain Goats fan who has everything: the group’s new album, Heretic Pride, debuts Feb. 19 on 4AD, and lead singer John Darnielle’s 33 1/3 book on the Black Sabbath album Master of Reality will be available on April 15. You shouldn’t be special enough to have either one yet, though you can download a track from Pride ("Sax Rohmer #1"), or request a sample from the book at sabbathsampler@yahoo.com (hat tip, Pitchfork). According to the book description, "John Darnielle describes Master of Reality in the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy being held in an adolescent psychiatric center in... read more
Sam Mendes helming Dave Eggers film
While Sam Mendes is still finishing up Revolutionary Road, his next project has already been announced in Variety. This is a nice change of pace for Mendes, who has released only two films since his stunning debut (1999's American Beauty). Better still, his next film was written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vindela Vida. Originally titled This Must Be the Place, the film will focus on a couple's search for a place to settle down and raise a family. Unlike Mendes' previous films, the movie appears to be a lighthearted comedy. The film will also have a relatively small... read more
Phil Ramone to host/narrate recorded music series
RECORDING: The History of Recorded Music—a documentary currently under production by LRSMedia—will soon explore the history of music from Thomas Edison’s phonograph cylinders to Steve Jobs’ iPod. To narrate this eight-part series, LRS enlisted Phil Ramone, a producer for various well-known artists including Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Elton John. Ramone will join fellow music industry veterans Larry Rosen and Ramsey Lewis in an in-depth analysis of the technological advances that have revolutionized how audiences approach popular artists. Delighted to sign on to the project, Ramone said in a statement, "(The) story of American music and the story of music... read more
Portishead preps Third, tours
It's been an exhilarating week for Portishead fans far and wide, and in particular for those located on the West coast of the United States, the island of Great Britain, and on the great continent of Europe. Not only were we able to recently report that Portishead will be headlining the mystical festival of Coachella, but yesterday Portishead announced via its blog that more show dates have been confirmed in its home country and on the Continent, and that the band's third full-length studio album, appropriately titled Third, will be released on April 14. Not much has been heard from... read more
NBC leaves pilots behind, aims for new strategy
Partially a response to the writers’ strike that has brought Hollywood to a screeching halt over the past 11 weeks, NBC has announced that it will be producing a very limited number of pilots this season, if any at all. "I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that's what's happened here," Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal, told the Financial Times. Curtailing this process is estimated to save the network about $50 million a year, according to the New York Times. The average... read more
New Orleans Jazz Fest announces 2008 lineup, schedule
[Above: Galactic performs at 2007's Jazz Fest] For the first time since 2005, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is returning to its full 7-day schedule, April 25-27 and May 1-4. Heavyweight leaders of the freshly-announced lineup include...(deep breath)...Stevie Wonder (Paste's #14 Best Living Songwriter), Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, Santana, Sheryl Crow, Widespread Panic, The Neville Brothers, John Prine, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, Randy Newman, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Raconteurs, Maze feat. Frankie Beverly, O.A.R., Galactic, Tower of Power, Cowboy Mouth, Bettye LaVette, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dirty Dozen Brass Band,... read more
The Price is Right for primetime, Drew Carey
The Writers Guild of America Strike has led networks into dealing with the quickly disappearing television viewership in some interesting ways. Dexter is about to hit network television, the brawn versus brawn classic American Gladiators is back, and some late night shows are airing once again sans writers. But unexpectedly, as Variety reports, CBS has decided to air The Price Is Right (complete with new host, Drew Carey) during primetime hours. The Price is Right is no stranger to evening airings considering CBS first put the iconic program up against The Cosby Show and Family Ties in 1986. It has... read more
4 To Watch: The Whigs
"Rock is probably as unpopular as it’s ever been right now—I can’t really see a small band like us really getting involved in any roller-coaster ride, but ya never know.” Modest talk from Parker Gispert, lead singer of one of the more hotly touted bands of the moment, The Whigs... read more
4 To Watch: Lightspeed Champion
Dev Hynes, a.k.a. Lightspeed Champion, has suffered from stomach ulcers since the age of 15, so he really should avoid stress. And yet stress always seems to find him... read more
4 To Watch: The Bridges
In the past, AAA (Adult Album Alternative) has too often stood for: middle-aged adult who eats at Ruby Tuesday and TiVos Everybody Loves Raymond; uninteresting, frequently sucky album; and decidedly unalternative, even anti-alternative. But Oxford, Ala.’s The Bridges—along with bands like The Magic Numbers and The Weepies—are doing their best to re-invigorate the genre... read more
4 To Watch: Doug Burr
"I’ve always loved old fashioned phrases and wording. Especially in poetry and music.” Doug Burr, fresh in from pulling his two-year old son around their back yard in a wagon, is dissecting the bones of his exceptional sophomore release, On Promenade... read more
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
