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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

music-news-from-breakups-to-the-lastest-buzz

  • New Releases 1/5/10: J5, Kanye and More!!

    Welcome to January, folks. The flood of releases has slowed to a trickle, but it hasn’t totally died off. Here are a few of the releases attracting people to stores or their local DSPs this week.

    Ke$ha “Animal”-True story. I don’t recall having EVER heard Ke$ha’s “Tic Toc”, despite the fact that it’s been the #1 record in the country for the past two weeks and recently broke a record for most legal downloads in a week. So in order to not seem totally out of touch, I’m listening to the song in the background while I type this. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get through this whole thing. Granted, I come into this prejudiced: strike 1 for Ke$ha is that she sang the chorus of Flo-Rida’s obnoxious “Right Round”. Strike 2 is that she has a stupid-ass dollar sign instead of an “S” in her name.

    Sorry, I just had to turn that off-it’s terrible. Give me Robyn. Give me Lady GaGa. Hell, I’d even take Fergie over this crap!! No wonder people talk so much shit about pop music these days. Anyway, for those of you who would be interested in this (and God help you if you are), her debut album comes out today. Watch it become a huge hit.

    Katharine McPhee “Unbroken”: Show of hands-how many of you remember Katharine McPhee? She’s the chick that placed second to Taylor Hicks (and beat out Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry) on American Idol back in 2006. Of course, she wound up selling the least out of the four. This is probably because she gave off the vibe of a mature jazz/standards diva on the show and then wound up doing a complete 180 and making a Beyonce record. Still, one must admire the fact that she still has a major label contract (with legendary jazz label Verve, at that!). Her sophomore release will probably be a little more in line with what we heard from her on “Idol”.

    Kanye West “Storytellers”: Is Kanye’s career over? This CD/DVD won’t tell us the answer because it was recorded at the beginning of 2009, a good nine months before Taylor-gate. I’m not sure what the purpose is of releasing this, since there was a point in time when it came on every half-hour on VH-1 and VH-1 Soul, but for those interested in hearing Kanye’s slightly unhinged ramblings, this one’s for you. Me, I’ll just wait until the next studio album.

    (By the way-I don’t think Kanye’s career is over. You think the average Kanye West fan gives a fuck about Taylor Swift?)

    Jackson 5/Michael Jackson: Reissue Campaign: The Jackson onslaught continues. Universal has remastered and re-released every Motown-era Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo album, with the exception of the first two, “Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5” and “ABC”, which are still available in a two-fer package. Vinyl junkies can also rejoice, because these reissues are also available on wax. And if you know how difficult it is to find vinyl copies of some of these albums, you’ll truly appreciate the re-release. Personally, I’ll be picking up a few of these to fill a couple of holes in my collection.

    Anyway, that should be more than enough to satisfy you music junkies. Get a full list of this week’s releases here.

  • First Listen (Kinda): New MJ

    My major prediction for 2010? TONS upon TONS of unreleased Michael Jackson music is going to hit the internet and the airwaves. The first example of this is “Another Day”, a song that’s leaked all over the interwebs. It represents a collaboration between Michael and rock star Lenny Kravitz. Lenny acknowledged working with Michael at one point, and honestly speaking, it would have been cool to see what the two could have done together.

    If the song itself sounds familiar, that might be because after Michael decided against using it, Lenny kept it for himself and released it on his album “Baptism”, renaming the song “Storm” and adding a verse by Jay-Z. It was probably the only worthwhile thing on that entire damn album.

    “Storm” wasn’t a particularly big hit, so it’s definitely feasible that the MJ version can be released and be huge. Michael definitely sounds like he was giving his all on the track vocally. Stay tuned. I’m sure there’ll be much more to come.

  • SonicClash News Break: Soundgarden Reunites

    Break out your flannel shirts, ladies and gentlemen, ’cause Soundgarden is back. One of the seminal bands of the grunge era, Soundgarden may not have sold as many records as, say, Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but their influence can’t be denied. Not to mention the fact that they produced Chris Cornell, who, despite his propensity for making not-so-good solo records, is the best rock singer of his generation.

    The band will be hitting a few festivals in 2010, but they’re trying to figure out tour routing, since drummer Matt Cameron is now also Pearl Jam’s drummer-and THAT band will be touring this year as well. A Soundgarden/Pearl Jam double bill sounds good to me. Add in the new Alice in Chains and I think fans of early Nineties hard rock will all simultaneously cream their pants.

    My initial thought was that this reunion was a reaction to the critical and commercial slaughtering that Cornell’s last solo album, the Timbaland-helmed “Scream” received last year. However, Cornell was discussing a Soundgarden B-sides release and a potential box set in Rolling Stone magazine last summer before “Scream”‘s release. So you skeptics can quiet down.

    Me? I’m excited. I caught the Soundgarden train late in their career, but was immediately taken by Cornell’s voice and definitely feel like he needs a whole lot of LOUD in order to maximize the use of that voice. Having 2010 start with news like this hints that this might be a better year for music than last year was.