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Rufus Wainwright And Mark Ronson Talk Collaborating On Out Of The Game in VMAN Summer Issue

Posted 4/24/12 3:06 pm EST by in Music


Photo by Maciek Kobielski

Rufus Wainwright is one of music's top Renaissance men. In the last several years, he's (ahem) released several acclaimed albums, written an opera and taken his own multi-octave voice to new heights performing Judy Garland's classic Carnegie Hall concert.

Now, he's back with perhaps his most commercial and radio-friendly album ever, Out of the Game, and tells VMAN in their summer issue that he wanted to make an album meant to be listened to loud with the windows down while cruising in your car. To find that sound, he enlisted on-the-pulse producer Mark Ronson.

"Mark and I had a chance to get to know each other and to really make it about the music," Wainwright says. "It just that kind of visceral, humanistic approach to a song where it has a purpose, i.e. Mark brings the life to a party. I've always wanted that in my work."

Photo by Maciek Kobielski

Check out the full spread, with photos by Maciek Kobielski, in VMAN's summer issue, and get a sneak peek another fantastic pic of Wainwright below. Read More...

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Jimmy Fallon Announces New Comedy Album Featuring Justin Timberlake And Bruce Springsteen

Posted 4/24/12 11:33 am EST by in comedy, Music, Television


Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon has announced he will release his first comedy album since 2002's The Bathroom Wall on June 12. Titled Blow Your Pants Off, the set features guest appearances from many of the top stars who've helped make many of Fallon's best skits from his late night talk show go viral, including Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Paul McCartney and Justin Timberlake.

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Based on that guest list, we're curious if at least part of Fallon's album will be a sort of "best of," featuring his amazing "History Of Rap" medleys with Timberlake or his collaborations with Springsteen, in which Fallon impersonates Neil Young and Springsteen plays a younger, "Born to Run"-era version of himself and the pair sing the most out of character modern pop songs imaginable – so far Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" and LMFAO's "Sexy and I know It."

>> Jimmy Fallon Spoofs 'Downton Abbey'

We've collected some of our favorite of Jimmy's musical moments, including those listed above and one classic from his first album, after the jump. Check 'em out and let us know in the comments below if your excited about his new comedy album! Read More...

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Adele Bests Jason Mraz's U.K. Sales By Just 44 Albums

Posted 4/23/12 2:04 pm EST by in Adele, Charts, Music


By Elizabeth Lancaster

Poor guy!

Forty four may seem like an irrelevant number in individual album sales for heavy hitters like Adele and Jason Mraz, who are accustom to selling millions, but this week that number made all of the difference.

Adele held on to the top spot on the U.K. album chart this week with her record-setting blockbuster 21 by selling just 44 more copies than Mraz's debuting Love is a Four Letter Word.

Love is Mraz's first new release since 2008's smash We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things, which gave the singer the longest running song ever on the Billboard Hot 100, "I'm Yours." In 2010, Mraz won two Grammys for his work on the album, so needless to say the bar has been set high for his follow-up. His first single off the new album, "I Won’t Give Up," peaked at #1 on iTunes after its release in January, and we expect the rest of the album to continue gaining momentum!

Listen to "I Won't Give Up" below:

Have you picked up Jason's Mraz's new album? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below!

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Feistodon Arrives! Listen To 'Black Tongue' and 'A Commotion' Here

Posted 4/20/12 3:42 pm EST by in Covers, Mastodon, Music


Feist

Last week we reported about the unlikely fan friendship between the metalheads of Mastodon and singer-songwriter Feist. The Mastodon crew were smitten with Feist after seeing her perform just two songs on UK talk show "Later with Jools Holland" before they took the stage themselves, and after she heard they were planning to cover one of her songs, she decided to do the same with one of theirs in honor of Record Store Day, which goes down tomorrow (April 21).

Each gave the other complete creative freedom with their respective covers. Feist chose to record a rendition of "Black Tongue" from Mastodon’s latest effort The Hunter and the band took on Feist’s "A Commotion."

"It's a wet dream to have Mastodon take one of my songs and put it into their massive machine," Feist said of the mutual cover lovefest. Meanwhile, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher told Rolling Stone, "We didn't tell her what to do, and she didn't tell us what to do. 'A Commotion' just kind of stuck out to me. I could hear the opening riff, a single A-note."

Well, that opening riff has arrived. Both artists dropped their covers today ahead of the annual record store-supporting holiday. Listen after the jump and let us know what you think in the comments below! Read More...

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Best Dad Ever Cries Because His Daughter Got to Meet One Direction

Posted 4/20/12 9:43 am EST by in boy bands, Music


Awe!

While most dads probably only know One Direction as that noise they pound on their daughter's bedroom doors demanding they turn down, one man in Australia totally gets what it's like to be obsessed with a boy band and set out to help make his teenage daughter's dream come true by meeting OneD.

Perhaps the best part of it all though is that he got a little weepy when everything worked out for his little girl. (We know!)

Anthony Lee and his daughter Catie tried everything, according to the Huffington Post, to meet One Direction in person – "every competition, you name it, we've done it," Lee told Australia's "Today." But alas, nothing seemed to be working out.

So imagine how happy they were when they were one of just a handful of people who caught the entire band leaving a photo shoot. Lee explained that he teared up because Catie was so happy. "Just seeing her happy because she tried so hard," he said. "She tried so hard for everything."

(And because their story has won so much attention, "Today" gave them tickets to One Direction's next concert … which caused a whole other crying display.)

Check out the happiness below.



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Kraftwerk Close Museum Of Modern Art Retrospective With Career-Spanning Set

Posted 4/18/12 11:52 am EST by in Music


By Christopher Smith

NEW YORK – Groundbreaking German greats Kraftwerk closed out their epic, eight-night "Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8" at the Museum of Modern Art Tuesday night (April 17) in New York City. The sprawling and ambitious series focused on a different album from the electronica pioneers each night (alongside a healthy dose of other staples), with the final show focusing on 2003's "Tour de France Soundtracks."

Tuesday's crowd was ready to make the most of the band's rare appearance and was surprisingly energetic throughout the "Tour de France" portion of the set culminating with the tremendous and sprawling La Forme.

But that was just the beginning, as Kraftwerk launched into a series of staple tunes from throughout their career – this was a retrospective, after all. Autobahn, Radioactivity and Trans-Euope Express had the crowd entranced and were just a few songs from a set that closely mirrored that of the band's 2005 live album, Minimum Maximun.

Much of the imagery was also carried over from the band's 2004 tour, updated in spectacular looking 3D for the special occasion.

The band closed the night and ended the retrospective with their anthemic Musique Non-Stop and while the quartet may have rocked metallic-looking suits recalling the false visions of the future that came so decidedly from the '70s and '80s, the sound is anything but dated. The sonic future they envisioned and foreshadowed and dreamed of turned out to be not so far off.

Check out two more images from the show below! Read More...

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Johnny Depp And Natalie Portman Slammed For Using Incorrect Sign Language In Paul McCartney's 'My Valentine' Video

Posted 4/18/12 10:56 am EST by in Movies, Music, Video


Well, at least we can assume that everyone involved had the best intentions.

Paul McCartney directed the video for his latest single and based on pure aesthetics and originality, it's a lovely clip. Shot in black and white, "My Valentine" features Oscar winner Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp, star of one of our most anticipated summer movies, "Dark Shadows," emoting heavily while using sign language to perform the song's lyrics.

So that's cool and interesting and Depp and Portman really do have two of the most compelling faces in the world. But as Spinner reports, they maybe didn't have their signing down quite as well as they should have when the cameras were rolling.

Deaf music fans, including the British Deaf Association, have pointed out that at one point in the clip Depp signs the word "enemy" while attempting "valentine," and later both he and Portman make a mildly embarrassing error, signing the word "tampon" instead of the word "appear."

A spokesperson for the Association said, "The sign for tampon does seem to come up from both Johnny and Natalie, which causes some confusion, especially as American and British sign languages are different."

To be fair, sign is a very subtle-but-specific language and even the slightest changes in motion and/or facial expression can dramatically alter the meaning of something. The organization laments that McCartney did not use actual deaf performers for the clip, but is effusive with praise, regardless of the minor problems, for McCartney, Depp and Portman for "highlighting the use of sign language" in what the org sees as "more a poetic expression" than a sign lesson.

Check the video out after the jump! Read More...

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Check Out Skrillex And Kaskade's New Clip For 'Lick It' (Video)

Posted 4/17/12 2:47 pm EST by in dance, Music, Video


Skrillex Kaskade

We have a soft spot for EDM in the MTV Newsroom (see below), so we were super excited that two of our favorites, Grammy-winning phenom Skrillex and Kaskade, have teamed up to produce a killer video for their collab track "Lick It" from Kaskade's red hot (but definitely way cool) album Fire & Ice.

The clip comes courtesy of our good pals at MTV Buzzworthy, who premiered the clip earlier today.

Related:
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In the video, a freaked out rave refugee covering her blood-squirting ears searches for a little assistance out in a rural frozen wasteland. Through some tricky backwards photography, we see our heroine to find her salvation.

Want to know what it is? Check the video out after the jump! Read More...

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Butch Vig Reveals Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic Studio Get Together

Posted 4/16/12 1:50 pm EST by in Music, Tweet Beat


Dave

By Zachary Swickey

Time and time again Twitter casually drops music news gems in our lap, and this time it concerns Dave Grohl being in the studio with some old chums: original Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and producer Butch Vig.

The three music icons are said to be working on Grohl’s in-the-works documentary on Sound City Studios – the place where Nirvana recorded their worshipped breakthrough effort Nevermind. And for those who don’t recall, Vig is the man responsible for producing that album and making Cobain’s guitar sound not only intelligible, but totally freaking awesome.

Vig let news slip of the little get-together on his Twitter account, writing, “The last 24 hours have been surreal! Had a great gig at the El Rey last night, and spent today recording with Dave, Krist and special guest!”

Unfortunately, we have no word on just who this “guest” might be. The trio also got together not very long ago when they all worked on the last Foo Fighter’s album, 2011’s Wasting Light, which was produced by Vig and featured Novoselic (who contributed bass and accordion on “I Should Have Known"). The Foo Fighters are also expected to begin work on their upcoming eighth studio album later this year.

Also, Vig is taking a break from being a production powerhouse to get back to his musical roots with his act Garbage. The band has reformed and is set to release Not Your Kind of People on May 14. The album will mark their first release since the 2005's Bleed Like Me.

Novoselic on the other hand has dabbled very little in music since the demise of Nirvana. His focus has been on US politics in recent years, leading to a book “Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy.”

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Jack White Recruits Gary Oldman To Direct NYC Concert That Will Stream Online

Posted 4/16/12 11:41 am EST by in Movies, Music


Jack White

By Zachary Swickey

Jack White has been rather busy lately preparing for the release of his first proper solo album, Blunderbuss, on April 24, and his newest endeavor will be streaming a concert live online, which will be directed by legendary actor Gary Oldman (of all people).

The program is going to be the first episode of the third season of the “Unstaged” series put on by American Express, which pairs top music artists with world renowned filmmakers. Oldman will be filming White’s much anticipated concert at Webster Hall in New York City on April 27 (9 p.m. EST), which will be broadcast on VEVO.

The concert will be an album release show of sorts since Blunderbuss will finally hit stores just a few days before the performance.

The “Unstaged” series from American Express has been a huge hit online. The live series has attracted more than 70 million streams with past performances from Coldplay, the Arcade Fire, Mary J. Blige and Duran Duran among others.

Oldman is best known to the masses as Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan's "Batman" films but is an acting legend, having starred in "Leon," "Sid and Nancy," "True Romance," "Air Force One" and countless other films. He even picked up a Best Actor Oscar nomination this year for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”

Luckily for White, the actor has some directing experience – he lensed the well-received indie “Nil by Mouth” in 1997.

Oldman will return as Gordon for the third installment of Nolan’s Batman saga, “The Dark Knight Rises,” which hits theaters (and will likely shatter box office records) on July 20.

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