Common announces The Believer, tour dates
Although he has made his way into Hollywood’s good graces, Common hasn’t forgotten his first love. The lyricist recently announced plans to release a new album in November titled The Believer. As he told MTV news he has been putting pen to pad in between filming and tour dates. Speaking of filming, Common can be seen on the big screen twice this year. First up this April is noir heavyweight James Ellroy’s Street Kings, also starring Keanu Reeves and Chris Evans. And unless you stopped watching TV and movies in the past four months you’ve seen the trailer for comic... read more
Atlas Sound: Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
On his debut... read more
Mary J. Blige gets Bested, tours with Jay-Z
Recently, producer and DJ J. Period announced his plans to honor the Queen of Hip-Hop by releasing a multi volume Best of Mary J. Blige mixtape. What started as a promo for her 2005 Grammy winning album The Breakthrough gathered enough hype to warrant a full release. The record will feature a career spanning retrospective as well as unreleased songs, remixes, interviews and a few all-new songs. And if that wasn’t good enough news for the songstress, Mary J.’s “Heart of the City” tour with the newly ‘un-retired’ Jay-Z has sold out in several cities. Live Nation has reported that... read more
PasteMagazine.com unveils two exclusive music videos
Two new exclusive videos featuring Kaki King and Mike Doughty (not together) are now available on PasteMagazine.com’s Featured Video and You Asked For It blogs. The first video features acclaimed singer-songwriter King in the studio working on her upcoming album Dreaming of Revenge, slated for release March 4. The video follows King as she plucks melodies on her guitar, records with a string quartet and sings the praises of producer Malcolm Burn. The second video features former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty. Doughty performs an acoustic version of “Put It Down” from his new album Golden Delicious and answers some... read more
Otto Penzler [Editor]
The story starts like this: While thumbing through some... read more
Band of the Week: Beach House
Beach House’s otherworldly music is a sly pickpocket of reveries from that delicate time between when your head hits the pillow and you hazily submit to slumber. Although “dream pop” sounds like would what happen if Rainbow Brite got the hankering to... read more
Sean Lennon to score Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead
Sean Lennon is set to participate in the forthcoming film Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead, Billboard.com reports. According to director and writer Jordan Galland, the film is "a vampire comedy involving Shakespeare and the Holy Grail, starring Jake Hoffman [who also has a rather famous father], Devon Aoki, Johnny Ventimiglia, Kris Lemche, Ralph Macchio and Jeremy Sisto, with a cameo from Bijou Phillips." The indie flick (about an off-Broadway production involving not-so-deceased scriptwriters, no less) will feature music scored by John Lennon and Yoko Ono's talented kid. Unlike the film's eponymous Hamlet characters, Lennon has never played a peripheral role... read more
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss extend Raising Sand tour
In an effort to promote their already Gold album Raising Sand a little more, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will play in the U.S. for six days in the month of April. Following a May trek of U.K. and European venues, the Grammy-winning collaboration will tour from New England to the West coast through June and early July. Tickets go on sale March 3. April 19 - Louisville, Ky. @ Palace Theatre 20 - Louisville, Ky. @ Palace Theatre 22 - Knoxville, Tenn. @ Knoxville Civic Coliseum 23 - Chattanooga, Tenn. @ Memorial Auditorium 25 - New Orleans, La. @... read more
Kate Nash preps for North American tour
At long last, Paste darling Kate Nash has made plans to launch a full tour of North America. We like her a lot, and so does the Brit Awards. Just last night she snagged the award for best British female solo artist, against the likes of KT Tunstall, Bat for Lashes, PJ Harvey and Leona Lewis. Only two months into 2008 Nash has already been busy with writing her first children’s book. On Sunday she will start a 15-date tour of Europe before making her way across the pond to support her album, Made of Bricks, which released stateside Jan.... read more
Radiohead to headline two nights of All Points West
For those of you who were perhaps a little disappointed when the news of Coachella's line-up broke exactly a month ago, sort of shrugged your shoulders and said "meh" when you heard about SXSW's gargantuan musical line-up, and missed out buying Radiohead ticket this past weekend because you forgot they went on sale Saturday morning, well, here is a bit of good news to ease your troubled mind. An announcement was posted last night on URB magazine's website, which announced that everyone's favorite British band (and no, we don't mean Oasis) will be appearing at All Points West, the East... read more
The Counterfeiters
On the silver screen, it’s not unusual for master criminals to receive... read more
Vantage Point
You might be surprised to learn that a stout... read more
Outkast's Andre 3000 turns fashion guru
Maybe he's a neighbor, crusty uncle or a local store owner, but we all know someone like him: the staunch, anti-rap reactionary. He's learned all about the menace of hip-hop culture from Bill O'Reilly, and damned if he'll let any of that boombox-blasting, graffiti-spraying delinquency infiltrate his pristine suburban community. When he's not railing against rap music's lyrical filth or its noisy beats, he's penning a diatribe to the local paper about hip-hop's abominable style of dress. "Young men wearing their pants about their ankles! What's this world coming to, anyway?" Perhaps we should introduce this esteemed defender of public... read more
Ray Davies: Working Man's Cafe
Ray Davies once pined for the way love used to be... read more
Pixies’ Joey Santiago teams up with Nike
Joey Santiago of the Pixies has hooked up with Nike to compose the music for an upcoming documentary that the company is producing. The film will involved football, but not the one played in the states with pigskin. While the pairing might seem a little odd to some, Santiago is no stranger to the world of commercial scores. He has done work for shows like Weeds and Undeclared, as well as films like Crime and Punishment in Suburbia. Santiago’s most recent project, Nike Presents: Blood, Sweat and Tears: Football in the Rough will be released in installments via NikeFootball.com. Nike... read more
The Mountain Goats: Heretic Pride
The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle is a... read more
American Music Club tours, ushers in The Golden Age
With ninth LP The Golden Age out this week on Merge Records, American Music Club will keep bounding through Europe on dates scheduled throughout the rest of February and March. Early spring will see the rockers back in the U.S., with a cross-country tour kicking off in their hometown of San Francisco on April 2. Tour stops include: February 20 - Gijon, Spain @ Acapulco (casino) 21 - Madrid, Spain @ In-Somni Festival - Caracol 22 - Bilbao, Spain @ In-Somni Festival - Kafe Antzokia 23 - Barcelona, Spain @ In-Somni Festival - Apolo 24 - Bielefeld, Germany @ Forum... read more
Bill Maher and Ben Stein facing off with religious docs
With an election on the horizon, films in 2008 seem weirdly apolitical when compared with 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11. That's only at first glance, though, as it seems that two different documentaries later this year will adopt a religious theme in extremely different ways. Arriving in April, the first of these films will be Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Stein's film focuses on scientists who have been fired or silenced due to religious beliefs or support of intelligent design. Check out the trailer below: Hitting the U.S. in limited release in June (though releasing in France in April), Bill Maher... read more
Under house arrest, T.I. making progress on Paper Trail
Somewhere in Georgia's Henry County, tucked away in his home with a 24 hour GPS system monitoring his every move, lives an (allegedly) unarmed and sober rapper named T.I. (née Clifford Harris Jr.). The 27-year-old was recently arrested when cops found him (allegedly) in possession of three machine guns, two silencers and three other firearms that were in the car he was driving and six additional firearms which were found in his home. Harris managed to get himself out of jail last October on $3 million bond. And according to a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the rapper also known... read more
Indie retailers to celebrate Record Store Day on April 19
Goodie bags? Freebies? Music? Special events of some other as-yet-unspecified kind? Supporting local business? Sign us up! Saturday, April 19, 2008 will be a celebration of the vinyl, plastic and paper variety at your local independent music store. According to RecordStoreDay.com, "On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally." Many respected artists have already stamped the event with their approval. Among them was Paul McCartney, who said, "There’s nothing as glamorous to me as... 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…
The 20 Best Live Acts of the…
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
David Bazan - Hard To Be
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
