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Black Kids' Major-Label Debut Get Slammed By Pitchfork (Shocker) -- What Do They Think?

Posted 7/24/08 4:58 pm EST by in Black Kids, New Music Update

By Christopher "CJ" Smith

So the talk of the blog world this week is Black Kids — the band from Jacksonville, Florida, that is.

They've been hyped up for what seems like an eternity in the blog-world (which means since last October), when their debut EP captured the imagination of many Cure fans. We caught up with them at the CMJ Music Marathon last October to get the skinny on their sound — and, of course, the hype.

But a lot has changed since then — mainly stemming from the release of their major-label debut this week. Rather predictably, the response has not been as kind this go-round. While receiving favorable reviews from many outlets like Filter, Spin and Rolling Stone, the big news came from indie-reckoner Pitchfork, which arguably set off the buzz on the band's EP with an overwhelmingly positive review.
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Want More Portland Music? You're In Luck

Posted 7/18/08 4:03 pm EST by in New Music Update

By Matt Harper

If you've been keeping up with our Newsroom blog this week, you might have noticed a disproportionate amount of Pacific Northwest representation. Well, it's no accident, I assure you. A small crew of producers (including myself) trekked out to Portland, Oregon, not so long ago and came back with a bevy of great material.

But when doing a piece like this, you inevitably run into the problem of who to include and who to exclude. Sometimes the decision is easy — there were a lot of acts we reached out to that were on tour or out of town for whatever reason — but generally making the call was a tough one. We inevitably had to leave some people out who we felt should've been represented (ideally though, the piece will encourage people to seek out new music ... not just in Portland, but also in their own hometown).

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The French Pop Invasion Continues: M83, The Teenagers Revisited

Posted 7/17/08 7:36 pm EST by in Gossip Girl, M83, New Music Update, the-teenagers

If you're just catching on to the existence of a new wave of French pop — made up of acts like Daft Punk, Justice, M83 and the Teenagers — you may have missed our earlier stories on these American-culture-loving musicians. Our resident Francophile John Norris talked to the filthy-mouthed Teenagers (while they noshed on hot dogs) on the set of "Gossip Girl" back in May. And in June, he talked to M83's Anthony Gonzalez about the influence John Hughes' '80s teen classics had on his heavily synthesized sound.

After the jump, find out why these hip Europeans are avoiding the path of Serg Gainsbourg and singing in our decidedly less-romantic tongue.
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Portland's Eat Skull Invite Us To Their Basement, Where Lo-Fi Is Getting A Dirty Name

Posted 7/17/08 5:18 pm EST by in eat-skull, lo-fi, New Music Update, Video

By Christopher "CJ" Smith

As our coverage if the Portland music scene continues (check out yesterday's piece on the Thermals here), we admit: A lot of the reason we wanted to head out West was to talk to Eat Skull — to spend time in the awesomely dirty basement where they record and hit a house party they were playing. (There's no better place to see a band like Eat Skull than in someone's basement!)

We've been a fan of their lo-fi sound for a bit. We wanted to include them in our piece on lo-fi punk but just couldn't hook it up in time for that. (We did try to make up for it by including them in our accompanying muxtape.)

Eat Skull are lo-fi, but they also are crafting a sound that Tom Lax from Siltbreeze (Eat Skull's label) has helped coin as "sh--gaze" (technically the term came from Pink Reason frontman Kevin Debroux, jokingly describing fellow lo-fi act Pschedelic Horsesh--'s sound). The term has blown up so much that it was even featured in NME and the June issue of Spin. Not shockingly, the rest of the "scene" is filled out by other Siltbreeze bands, like Tyvek and Pink Reason, as well as former Siltbreezer's Times New Viking.
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Portland Profile: The Thermals' Upcoming Album Heats Up

Posted 7/16/08 3:01 pm EST by in New Music Update, Video

By CJ Smith

Our expansive ode to Portland's music scene is now available on MTVNews.com, but there's still so much more we have to offer from our trek to the great Northwest. For the next week, we're going to be offering up profiles on the plethora of bands included in our Portland piece — from seasoned veterans to young acts on the brink of stardom. Be sure to keep checking back for all things Portland.

We're gonna start big with a Portland staple: the Thermals.

Their 2006 opus, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, is one of our favorite rock records of the past few years, so when we heard the duo were hard at work on their fourth record, Now We Can See, we made a beeline straight to their small warehouse practice space in Portland (down the hall from Stephen Malkmus'), where they told us they are intent on continuing the hi-fi sound they began to mine with their last release. And with John Congleton on producing duties — known for his work with Explosions in the Sky and the Polyphonic Spree — they're in good hands if they want an epic sound.

From the sounds of things, the new record is still a ways off from release (late 2008/ early 2009 on a still TBD label). So for now, check out this live lo-fi take of some stuff they've been working on. Two great new cuts: 100 percent Thermals, 100 percent rock.

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Nas Releases 'Black President': New Song About Barack Obama

Posted 6/5/08 10:37 am EST by in Campaign '08, New Music Update

Obama, holla! Eventually Barack Obama will have to initiate a dialogue with the hip-hop community. I was with LL Cool J earlier this week and he told me about a new record he's made concerning the presidential climate. And on Wednesday, my dude Green Lantern hit me off with a brand-new record from Nas called "Black President." In the song, Esco speaks directly to Obama and gives him his outlook and expectations on what changes we need as a country. I'm loving Nas' audacity right now! How bold are you to directly address the man that has a 50/50 chance of being the commander-in-chief? Hip-hop with substance is hip-hop at its essence — hip-hop at its best.


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Deerhunter’s Album Leaks, MTV News Collectively Freaks Out

Posted 6/3/08 5:09 pm EST by in Music, New Music Update

Deerhunter

As you know by now, most of the MTV News crew was out in LA all last week for an obscure awards show. So when word spread like email wildfire that the new Deerhunter album had leaked online, many of News' indie collective were frustrated beyond belief that they had to actually “produce live TV” rather than rush to their laptops and download that luminous sonic jewel. (Seriously, Bradford Cox inspires a kind of embarrassing level of musical worship on the 29th floor. And Brooklyn.)

So in the competition to be the first among us to listen to Microcastle (it's not even supposed to be out for months!!), the winner was…Jim Cantiello. His thoughts?

Jim: It rules. Such a neat direction for the band to go in. [Ed: FYI, Jim has patented a neo-hipster use of the word "neat."] Where the "Intro" on Cryptograms is a build-up of mood, the Microcastle intro explodes with melody, a clever signal of what's to come. The influence of 50's pop is much more on the forefront of this record (what with the "Earth Angel"-esque strumming on the album's closer), but they've still kept their signature Deerhunterisms in place. (The vocal loops, doom-and-gloom lyrics, and cathartic releases are all in there -- you just have to listen closely for them.) I'm bummed that "Calvary Scars" isn't the six-plus-minute, boppable version they played at CMJ, but the truncated version works really well as part of the mid-LP suite. All in all, I think it's an awesomely focused and mature offering -- the perfect album for them to put out at this point in their career. Go, Deerhunter!

Have you heard the album yet?

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs Throw Down in the Studio, Inspired By 'Fuzzy Soft Muses aka Kittens'

Posted 6/3/08 1:00 pm EST by in Music, New Music Update

KarenO

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs –- a band we truly, deeply love -– recently dropped a teaser on their MySpace blog about their new album. Under the heading “Smells Like Record 3,” the kids reveal that they’ve become road rats, trying out new, anti-urban locales to get the right creative vibe going. Also, they admit that “fuzzy soft muses aka kittens” have long played a pivotal role in their music-making process… Read More...

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LL Cool J Takes Us Around Hollis, Talks Gold Chains, Obama & 'Hottest MCs' List

Posted 5/29/08 11:58 am EST by in Behind The Scenes, Interview, MTV News, Music, New Music Update

llcoolj

This in from production manager Adam Stewart, who shot with LL Cool J in Hollis, Queens, yesterday:

LL took us to the rock in Hollis where he used to hang out and where a music video of his was shot. Once people got word he was there, they started flocking to us -- dozens of fans interrupted our interview several times for a chance to snap a picture with LL and shake his hand. At one point, a city bus stopped, and kids tried to jump out of it just to meet him. Then we headed to his friend’s barber shop, Heads Up Barber Shop on Linden Boulevard (in the pic above).

Our talk with LL was all over the place…

He talked to us about changes in the hip-hop lifestyle –- how he claims that he brought champagne and gold chains to rap in ’88, because that was the life he lived. (He remembered arguing with Jam Master Jay about who had the bigger chains!) He believes the people weren't ready for that yet, and it took another eight or nine years before that style came back.

LL turned to politics and told us he’s convinced Barack Obama can take the general election, even though there are still pockets of racism in the US. LL also gave a shout-out to Hillary Clinton, saying he has plenty of respect for her, and he’s glad his own daughter has had the chance to see a woman run for president. "Americans have the ability to makes things happen,” he said. “It’s not easy to make it happen, but it can -- I'm from Queens.”

From the campaign to his music, LL said, “I'm not keeping up with the game, I'm winning! I'm ahead with the delegates, I'm ahead with the popular vote!" He wasn’t upset that he wasn’t included in MTV News’ latest “Hottest MCs in the Game” list, saying that it’s based mainly on chart positions and what people are talking about in the moment. "I could go outside and light an old lady on fire, and suddenly I'm the hottest rapper," he joked. “Next year, I'll be on the list."

Check back with MTVNews.com in the coming weeks for more from our talk with LL Cool J.

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Does Josiah Leming Have What It Takes to Break Through?

Posted 5/28/08 4:26 pm EST by in American Idol, Music, New Music Update


“American Idol” reject Josiah Leming confirmed long-swirling rumors earlier this week that he had signed to Warner Bros. Records, home to artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty, and (not for much longer) Madonna. But even before recording the first earnest vocal, Josiah (not to mention the major label cutting his checks) is facing one of the double-edged realities of reality TV: millions of people, it turns out, have already decided that they either love him or hate him.

Reacting to comments Leming made to MTV News about “Idol” during an exclusive studio visit in Los Angeles last week –- “glorified karaoke,” he called it –- one reader accused the 19-year-old high school dropout of sounding “jealous and petty,” while another sneered “this kid effin’ sucks.” Others see Josiah, recipient of the most talked about early-round pink-slip in “Idol” history, a bit differently. “Amazing,” says an admirer, touting the Tennessee-born troubadour’s songwriting ability as “unmatched by any other contemporary artist…a legend in the making.”

The lightning rod attracting all this attention, both good and bad, tells MTV News that he’s already written all the songs for his upcoming debut album, and completed the arrangements. But when we asked him to take a seat at the piano and play for us, Josiah chose to preview a track so new it didn’t make the cut. It’s an intensely personal song inspired by his mother’s ongoing battle with terminal cancer.

So check out the clip above and tell us: what do you think of Josiah’s musical chops?

You can also see an earlier performance Josiah gave MTV News, after the jump. Read More...

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