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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Releases

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  • Can Diddy Do It Again?

    First off, will we ever get to call him Sean “Puffy” Combs ever again?

    This coming Tuesday, all girl pop group Danity Kane releases their sophomore album Welcome To The Doll House. It seems like just yesterday when Puffy, I mean Diddy, put the group together through the MTV show, Making The Band. When he whittled down the hopefuls, the result was Shannon, Aundrea, Aubrey, Dawn, and D. Woods. Having many weeks of television is a great marketing opportunity, as millions of people were able to watch the girls blend into a mature girl group. Also, Diddy and company utilized MySpace as a marketing tool better than any professional that I’ve ever seen. As a result, the girls sold over 200,000 units during the first week of release and eventually went platinum.

    Puff Daddy, I mean Diddy, is trying to strike while the iron is hot. Trying to duplicate his success with Danity Kane, Diddy put together an all male R&B group, called Day26, during the fourth iteration of Making The Band. The show was just as much boot camp as it was singing competition, but it worked, and when the latest version of the show featured Danity Kane, Day26, and solo artist Donnie J. all fighting for studio time, my thought was that Diddy done did it again. However, the music landscape has changed even more so than when Danity Kane’s first album was released. MySpace was still the hottest website around.

    If you’ve watched the season, the girls are desperately trying hard to match the success of the first album. The guys are just trying to find their place. Donnie J., who is sort of a mix between Jordan Knight and Justin Timberlake, is simply trying to not get lost in the shuffle.

    The good news is, Day26 looks to have the chops to be a real R&B group. Danity Kane needs a hot single to hit, but I can’t imagine their new album will be that much different from what worked last time. And at this point, who really knows about Donnie J., as we haven’t seen a release date for him yet? But you have to give Diddy props for being one of the hardest working executives in the game. Traditional music marketing isn’t necessarily working as well as it did in the past, and he’s taking chances and being creative in selling his artists. It’s worked once, and we’ll see if it can work three more times.

    Day26’s album drops March 25, 2008 and you can listen to Danity Kane’s new album, Welcome To The Doll House on MTV’s The Leak.

  • New Releases 3/11/08: Snoop, Fat Joe, Rick Ross, "Now 27" and More!!!

    Hey, what do ya know? A pretty decent-sized week for releases!! Sorry for missing out on last week, when Alan Jackson, The Black Crowes and Michael McDonald all released highly anticipated albums. But moving on…
    Remember when Snoop Dogg was just a young pup? Well, Long Beach’s #1 gangsta is releasing his 10th album today. “Ego Trippin’” is preceded by the smash hit “Sensual Seduction”, which finds the D-O-Double G singing T-Pain style over an Eighties-tastic groove (if you haven’t seen the video yet, hit YouTube now)! “Trippin’” features no involvement from Snoop’s longtime mentor Dr. Dre, but is executive produced by New Jack Swing founder Teddy Riley, so there’s a good chance that the results will be more interesting than 2006’s underwhelming “Blue Carpet Treatment”.
    Hip-hop fans will also delight (maybe) in new releases by NYC hardcore stalwart Fat Joe (the album’s called “The Elephant In The Room” and I refuse to make the obvious joke here) and similarly rotund Miami rapper Rick Ross (“Trilla”). Neither is my cup of tea, but hey, both guys sell records, so what do I know?
    With “American Idol” mania in full swing, it was only a matter of time before one of the judges released an album, and today brings the release of “Randy Jackson’s Music Club Vol. 1”. This compilation contains a who’s-who of pop music, from the long-awaited (I’m being sarcastic in case you couldn’t tell) return of Paula Abdul to “Idol” finalists Katharine McPhee and Elliott Yamin to pop royalty like Mariah Carey. Should be an interesting listen.
    “Now That’s What I Call Music” has become a musical institution in the past 10 years or so, and the 27th installment in the series arrives today. It features the latest hits by Rihanna, Chris Brown, Janet Jackson, Taylor Swift and many more. A wise choice if current Top 40 radio is your thing. As a companion piece, “Now That’s What I Call Music-80’s” also arrives today, bringing you classic smashes ranging from “Billie Jean” to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”.

    Also hitting stores today, singer/songwriter Kaki King, 2-disc greatest hits compilations from Barry White and The Cranberries, and the return of mid-Nineties two hit wonders The Presidents of the United States of America!! I’m in if they remake that “Peaches” song!!
    A full list of this week’s new releases can be found here:

  • New Releases: 2/19/08

    There are slow signs that the release schedule is picking up after sleepwalking through January, but this particular week is a week where a couple of artists and bands that are still under the radar are releasing albums. Next week promises a soul diva showoff between Janet Jackson & Erykah Badu, but in the meantime, check out new albums by:

    The Raveonettes: This Danish duo has gotten tons of press notice over the past couple of years, along with their counterpart in female singers, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They don’t do a hell of a lot for me, but I don’t know that I’m hip enough to enjoy them! At any rate, “Lust, Lust, Lust” was released internationally last fall, and finally gets it’s U.S. release for those of you who haven’t yet shelled out cash for the import.

    http://www.theraveonettes.com/

    Mike Doughty: Former lead singer of alt-rock with a twist band Soul Coughing back in the Nineties, formerly named M. Doughty, former columnist for the New York Press, Mr. Doughty’s latest solo effort, “Golden Delicious” arrives today. You know I love me some literate rock stars.

    http://www.mikedoughty.com/

    Allison Moorer: I’m not as familiar with Allison Moorer as I am with her sister, Shelby Lynne. Moorer aparently traffics in more “country” circles, but by all accounts, she’s just as talented. Her new album “Mockingbird”, like Shelby’s recent effort, is a covers album. Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell (two of my favorites) are represented here. I wonder if her husband, Steve Earle, makes an appearance on this album.

    http://www.allisonmoorer.com/

    Also coming out today: a brand new “Kidz Bop” CD for those of you who have kids that haven’t yet graduated to the “High School Musical” phase, new albums from long dormant Brit acts Kula Shaker and Morcheeba and the comeback album you’ve all been waiting for from Seven Mary Three. Woo hoo! Long live bad grunge!!