Wilco: The Album

While the official release isn''t until June 30, Wilco's latest effort is streaming on their website here.

Wilco: The Album is rather low-key, acoustic fare along the lines of Sky Blue Sky, their most recent release, but perhaps is an even more relaxed, soothing work. It certainly is a far cry from the reverb and feedback as seen in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or, to a lesser extent, in A Ghost in Born. Not quite the best work by Tweedy and company, but pleasing to the ear, nonetheless. Music that is seemingly perfect for a lazy sunday drive in rolling, rural terrain.

The cover, oddly featuring a Bactrian camel, was taken at a well-known German restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Your Disco Needs You

So, after a career spanning three decades (22 years to be exact), 60 million albums sold, breast cancer survial, and (more importantly) starring in the feature film version of Street Fighter and escaping unscathed, you'd think it's about time for an international superstar to, I don't know, do her first US tour right?

So now you can buy Kylie bed sheets, smell like Kylie by wearing her perfume, AND see Kylie in one of her (originally six) now eight concert dates in North America.

See her official website for details on tickets . . . which are mostly sold out after pre-sale.
http://www.kylie.com/home

In the meantime, please enjoy some non-traditional Kylie.

Lady Gaga & Lily Allen in Concert

Over the past week, I had the honor of seeing two quite amazing (yet strikingly different) pop acts in concert: Lady Gaga (April 9th, Center Stage) and Lily Allen (Apr 15th, Variety). While both were very entertaining in their own light, I want to focus on their opening acts as I believe both of these bands have great potential.

White Tie Affair: Hailing from Chicago, the band opening for Lady Gaga was pop/electronica at its finest. Candle (Sick and Tired) was the highlight of their show as it was the one song most people in the audience had actually heard before.

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head: From Seattle, their rock/electronica style complemented Lily Allen quite nicely. Much like Lily Allen is more rock than the dance-pop Lady Gaga, NPSH has much more of an indie rock sound than the dance-oriented White Tie Affair.

Different as Lady Gaga and Lily Allen are, I think it should be noted that both ended their shows with a nod to Britney Spears. Lady Gaga took to the stage for her finale wearing a cop-hat and short shorts almost identical to Britney Spears' live concert finale costume for Womanizer whereas Lily Allen closed out her show performing the song.

You're gonna make mistakes, you're young.

Metric has a new album (Fantasies) coming out in a couple of weeks, and this is their second single off of it. It is called Gimme Sympathy, and it has been playing in my head for the past couple of weeks.
I can say the new album is rockin', I have had it for half a month now and haven't been able to stop listening to it. A review will be up soon!

The Hardest Working Girls in Showbiz

This month, British Girl-group, the Saturdays, have announced some rather exciting news. The release of "Just Can't Get Enough" saw the girls achieve their highest-ranking yet on the Top 40 in the UK (coming in at number 2). But what's more exciting is that they've just recently announced new tour dates for their upcoming 'Work' tour. The tour begins June 5th to coincide with the release of their fifth single, "Work." Right, and you're going to infiltrate the US when?

For the official tour dates and ticket information: http://www.thesaturdays.co.uk/live.php

Comic Relief: Red Nose Day

Since 1985, Comic Relief has raised over 600 million GBP to donate to help eradicate poverty in Africa. This year, the telethon for Red Nose Day broke its own record by raising nearly 68 million GBP in a single day. Every year of the event, a special charity single is recorded by a mainstream artist to help raise funds. To honor the great achievement this charity has accomplished this year, I thought it would be interesting to look at a lower budget music video from the charity's humble beginnings (Bananarama's "Help!") and compare it to how far the charity has come with its most recent single (The Saturdays' cover of "Just Can't Get Enough.")





For more information, or to make a donation, please visit: http://www.rednoseday.com/

SXSW Band Du Jour