Pages tagged “ben sollee”

[Above: White Rabbits]

Mugison
Hometown: Ísafjörður, Iceland
Album: Mugiboogie
Why He's Worth Watching: Mugison likely embodies the person Led Zeppelin envisioned when writing “Immigrant Song.” One moment, this man from the land of the ice and snow is sounding the hammer of the gods, alternating between an infernal howl (much like Robert Plant’s) and a guttural heavy-metal groan, the next, he’s crooning to twanging guitar over eerie strings. He’s a shape-shifter and a funnyman, and Mugiboogie builds on his four previous genre-transcending works.  
For Fans Of: Tom Waits, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Led Zeppelin
Acceptance Speech: “When I was 14 years old, I was voted the best-looking guy in school, but after the ceremony I found out that some of the girls in the school were running a campaign behind my back. The campaign was called ‘Vote the Freak.’ I also found out they did this to piss off the guy who’d won it three years in a row—they had some unfinished business with him. Is this something similar?”
Mugison on MySpace

Update: Listen to the track here.

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“You’re letting me down,” sings Ben Sollee on “Dear Kanye,” a song released on his MySpace  page yesterday. Bringing the fire, Sollee reprimands the Great Ye for forgetting that “No one needs a light show/ Just good flows,” and further for wasting his potential to inspire youth by instead blogging “commercials / For stuff [they]’ll never need.”

It was a busy week at Paste. Several Paste staffers returned from Sasquatch, we welcomed Ben Sollee by the office for a performance, celebrated two upcoming arrivals into the Paste family with a double shower, said hello to a brand new crop of interns, and oh yeah, I started a blog. Here's a little round-up of what was going on at PasteMagazine.com this week:

Rainn Wilson video from Sasquatch
Rainn Wilson goes toe-to-toe (at least that's how I hope it was) with our own Jason Killingsworth, complaining that his favorite band The National has gotten all uppity since their album landed #1 on Paste's Best of 2007 list.

New CD Releases
Reviews of new album from Fleet Foxes, Sam Phillips and Martha Wainwright.

Film of the week - Kung Fu Panda
Continuing my kids' theme this week, I took my young 'uns to a screening of Kung Fu Panda. Read the review here.

The Hold Steady Production Diary
In the lead up to one of our most anticipated albums of the year, Hold Steady producer John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Jay Farrar) shares with us the making of Stay Positive.

Click above to watch a live at Paste performance of "How to See the Sunrise" from Ben Sollee's new album Learning to Bend, out June 10th on SonaBLAST! Records.

Related Links:
High Gravity: Questions for Sam Phillips, Conor Oberst, Ben Sollee
Ben Sollee on Myspace
Review: Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet - s/t

I've got three interviews scheduled for today. First up at 11a.m. is Ben Sollee, one of the best new singer/songwriters I've heard this year. He's a cellist, who plays with The Sparrow Quartet, along with Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn and Casey Driessen. They're headed to Beijing this summer to play some gigs around the Olympic Games. He's also got his first solo album, Learning To Bend, coming out a week from today.