Radiohead to judge In Rainbows animated video contest
We understand you're disoriented. It has been just over a full month since we reported to you about Radiohead here at Paste! After such a strong tradition of talking your ear off about the band, it seems we've slacked off lately. Time to make it up to you. Here then, at last, is some Radiohead news: Animation site aniBoom is hosting a competition for storyboard or animated music video ideas to accompany In Rainbows. The competition will be judged by none other than the Radioheads themselves, as well as aniBoom and its community (which actually means an audience ranking). "It's... read more
The Black Ghosts to haunt west coast, British countryside
After tearing through three days at SXSW, The Black Ghosts are prepared to haunt the west coast and then return home to play electronica festivals in merry old England. Headliners for the funniest-sounding festival this electro-pop duo will join in the U.K. (Gatecrasher Summer Sound System 2008) include big beat groups The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers as well as trance DJs Paul Van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold. Dates: March 18 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Mezzanine 20 - Seattle, Wash. @ Nectar 21 - Costa Mesa, Calif. @ The Detroit Bar 22 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Echoplex 28... read more
Brett Dennen announces Paste-sponsored tour
Has anyone called Brett Dennen a “red-headed musical sensation?” If not, let me be the first to bestow such a rhetorical honor upon Mr. Dennen. After all, if the shoes fits... Anyway, red-headed musical sensation Brett Dennen had a big year in 2007. He garnered some excellent press coverage and sold out shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. This year, Dennen hits the big(ger) time, as he launches a Paste-sponsored tour on May 1. Mason Jennings and Missy Higgins will be along for the ride, so be sure to catch the entire gang this coming month of... read more
The Raconteurs will Console everyone March 25
The new Raconteurs album, Consolers of the Lonely, will be available everywhere in one week—from local vinyl stores to favorite (legal) digital sources for music. The band will also release a music video for the first single, “Salute Your Solution,” the day of the release. Similar to the approach Radiohead and Trent Reznor took, this new business model only further illustrates the record industry's constant evolution. But with great change comes an opportunity to do things differently. Thus, the Raconteurs seem to be seizing this opportunity to make a somewhat unprecedented move. As previously reported, last August, the band has... read more
Yeah Yeah Yeahs make acting debut with Tiny Masters
Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase – better known as snarling garage band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs – have made their collective acting debut in a new music video for The Tiny Masters of Today. The Tiny Masters are a Brooklyn-based brother-sister duo who turned heads last year after posting several songs on their MySpace page. Fourteen-year-old Ivan (guitar, bass, drums) and 12-year-old Ada (guitar, keyboard, drums) soon had a who’s-who list of music industry admirers, including David Bowie, Kimya Dawson and Jena Malone drummer Russell Simins (who later drummed for the siblings on tour and on their debut... read more
Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool
New Wave avatar's debut gets spiffed up for 30th anniversary read more
Mahjongg: Kontpab
Chicago artniks continue adapting their sound on new opus read more
Bon Iver releases video, gets robbed, extends tour
We make no secret of it here at Paste. We love Bon Iver. And what Bon Iver loves is his fannypack. Or used to love, we should say, since some jerk of a person stole it from him during one of his SXSW showcases this week. CMJ reports that Justin Vernon was robbed Thursday at the Parish Room in Austin, Texas, immediately preceding his set. He lost a handful of cash and quite a bit of I.D. and plastic. He was out of the room, watching Jens Lekman play before him. During NPR's live broadcast of that very performance, he... read more
Songkick offers online 'Battle of the Bands' functionality
Songkick, a site that tracks and recommends live shows, launched its artist-comparison engine Battle of the Bands function last week. The meta-data software compares the popularity of artists at a given time by gauging MySpace listens, friends and profile views, blog mentions and Amazon sales ranks. Line graphs help show how the popularity of two or more artists compare over time. Launching in October 2007, Songkick offered a plug-in that scans your library and suggests a gig to fit your tastes. The London-based site has since moved on to the Last.fm trend of ranking artists by popularity, looking at the... read more
Artist of the Week: Jim White
“Wow, look at that!” Jim White exclaims as a barista at an Atlanta-area coffeehouse uses a late model bagel slicer on White’s poppy seed bagel. Puzzled, the barista turns around and quips, “You don’t get out much, do you?” White pauses for a second, then sighs, “No, you’re right. I don’t...” read more
Asthmatic Kitty releases album for Audiosurf game
In the entertainment industry, people and things are rarely, if ever, content being put into a single creative box. (Case in point: the abundance of actress/model/singers in Hollywood currently that want to direct movies.) Now, the video game and music industry have found another way to join forces, with the collaboration between puzzle/racing/music video game, Audiosurf, and venerable indie label Asthmatic Kitty. Asthmatic Kitty's recently released digital album (specially designed to play within Audiosurf) is available for free on the label's website for download. Free! Music! What could be better? Audiosurf only costs $9.95 online, but beware Mac users: it's... read more
Weezer to release sixth album as early as June
What is “one word, starts with a T, ends with an R and contains 12 letters”? That would be the title of the potential first single from Weezer’s sixth album, according to a post on the band's message board via frontman Rivers Cuomo. The post goes on to state, “the album is meaty, crunchy and melodic like a good Weezer album should be.” As reported in November, the band stated on its website that “Weezer fans [will] truly have something to look forward to.” This highly anticipated follow up to 2005’s Make Believe should fill a void that long-time fans... read more
India.Arie to star in Broadway revival
India.Arie will be starring in the first Broadway revival of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, Billboard.com reports. For Colored Girls... debuted on Broadway in 1976 and ran for two years. Ntozake Shange wrote and starred in the play, which follows seven women of color as they share their life stories. The play won an Obie Award in 1974 and was nominated for Best Play at the 1977 Tony Awards. The revival has attracted a top-notch production team, including director Shirley Jo Finney, Tony-winning choreographer Hinton Battle and producer Whoopi Goldberg. Previews will begin in... read more
David Cross and Bob Odenkirk to work on HBO sitcom
Late Friday evening, Alvin and the Chipmunks star David Cross made a big announcement on the website he shares with his Mr. Show co-creator, Bob Odenkirk—after 10 years apart (artistically speaking), the comedic geniuses will reunite this spring to film a pilot for HBO. Not that the two men haven't been busy during their alone time. Cross released a couple of comedy albums on Sub Pop, stole innumerable scenes as Tobias Fünke on Fox's similarly cult-worshipped and soon-to-be-feature-filmified Arrested Development and portrayed "Anna Nicole Smith's" "lawyer" on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, while Odenkirk directed a few underappreciated movies and,... read more
Coldplay, NIN, Tom Petty, Jay-Z, more to play Pemberton
Music festivals are growing and reproducing at a frightening pace. Just recently, we’ve heard about Outside Lands, Dickson Street and Roxbury. Well, get ready to further complicate your summer-travel plans, as we bring you the latest installment of The Summer of Many Awesome Musical To-Do's: Pemberton Festival 2008. The name might be less exciting than, say, Langerado, but the aptly titled event, which is located in scenic Pemberton, British Columbia, is ready to blow your mind with its array of sweet sounds and commitment to environmental sustainability (hydro-electric energy, carpooling initiatives, farmer’s markets). And what constitutes those sweet sounds? Well,... read more
Sheryl Crow to collaborate with Fleetwood Mac
During a recent AOL Sessions performance, Sheryl Crow revealed plans for a future collaboration with Fleetwood Mac, reports Entertainment Weekly. Crow said that she and Fleetwood Mac members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham “definitely have plans for collaborating in the future.” She did not specify whether these plans included recording, touring, or any new material, but stated that fans would likely hear the results sometime next year. Crow, who recently started touring in support of her new album Detours, would be filling a void left by Fleetwood Mac keyboardist/singer Christine McVie, who retired from the road in 1998. The remaining... read more
Kimya Dawson to release children's album in August
During her Wednesday night show at SXSW, Kimya Dawson announced that her forthcoming children’s album, Alphabutt, is set to be released by K Records sometime this August. Now that the Moldy Peach has tackled the aches of adolescence for the Juno soundtrack, the songstress will move on to a more rewarding stage of life—namely, childhood. Employing a cast of wide-eyed, three-foot-tall wonders for backup singers, Dawson reports on her LiveJournal that they just finished recording the album at the end of February. Click below to watch an impromptu performance of the title track, with an oh-so-very-Kimya-Dawson rundown of the 26... read more
Lou Reed tours, is funny
"I have a B.A. in dope—and a Ph.D. in soul," said Velvet Underground alum Lou Reed during his keynote address at SXSW on Thursday morning. But that's not all he said. Another gem: “Punk in the old days meant a coward. I meant punk—aggressive steel street action. That’s what I meant, and there they were, like a lot of these bands last night. All that young guy stuff? That’s punk. No one did that, and now it exists, and it will forever, because where else are we going to put it? It’s there or jail.” If you want to catch... read more
Comedy Central's fall lineup to include animated Snoop Dogg
Unlike many cable TV stations that claim to focus on a topic via their name (MTV, we're looking at you), Comedy Central actually does, more than occasionally, have comedy on it. Not only that, but the station once known primarily for Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Dr. Katz has, in years since, become home to a multitude of witty, culturally relevant programming. Really, where would the world be without Jon Stewart, purveyor of nightly news to an entire generation? Brian Williams, we hardly know ye. This week, Comedy Central announced its new shows for the 2008-2009 season, which star everyone... read more
Art Brut and EMI part ways
"Dearest Internet," writes Barnaby Fudge on ArtBrut.org.uk, "It looks like our much loved adventurers just couldn't work it out with EMI after all. That's right, after staying up well into the night talking it over, they have both decided it best if they see other people." Fudge then goes on to use a bunch of other jokes about amicable breakups, lightly but effectively communicating the main point here: another band has split from EMI. It's not that surprising, based on recent events concerning these two parties. In February, EMI apparently released a digital single without informing the band or its... read more
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