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Danger Mouse Helms The Boards For Norah Jones' Upcoming Little Broken Hearts

Posted 1/24/12 4:09 pm EST by in Music


By Zachary Swickey

We’re not even a full month into 2012 and one of our favorite female voices in music, Norah Jones, has plenty for us to look forward to. Just a few weeks ago, Jones released the second album behind her side-project The Little Willies – a group that focuses on covers from Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Dolly Parton – and now Billboard is reporting that super-producer Danger Mouse will take production duties on her upcoming fifth album, Little Broken Hearts, due for release as early as this spring.

Jones first teamed up with Mouse (aka Brian Burton), who is one of our favorite producers around, for his side-project, "Rome" – a unique collaboration with Italian composer Daniele Luppi, which was inspired by old spaghetti western soundtracks and boasted Jones and renaissance man Jack White as the voices behind the project.

It’s also worth mentioning that Burton can arguably be credited with the meteoric rise of The Black Keys since he’s produced two of their last three efforts (Attack & Release and El Camino).

Apparently the release isn’t too far off either – Jones and Burton have already written all of the material for the album quietly at the producer’s studio in Los Angeles and even handled instrumentation all on their own. While the effort is more of a “partnership” with its producer than past Jones efforts, it will still be considered a solo release for her. Read More...

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Happy Birthday, Danger Mouse

Posted 7/29/11 1:27 pm EST by in Music


Danger Mouse

By Zachary Swickey

Brian Joseph Burton, the man the music world knows and loves as Danger Mouse, turns 34 today, and his many milestones are rather mindboggling. Growing up on the music of Pink Floyd and Portishead, Burton fit right in while living in London, where he moved to make a name for himself as a trip-hop DJ but instead found himself focusing on making hip-hop beats. But it was a moment of true serendipity that led Burton to where he is today.

While cleaning around his apartment and listening to the Beatles’ White Album, Burton came across his a capella copy of Jay-Z’s The Black Album, and inspiration struck. After completing one song successfully and with surprising ease, Burton took to mashing up the entirety of both albums, creating The Grey Album. The result was clearly not exactly legal since it was the music of two separate iconic acts (Burton promptly received a cease and desist letter from EMI), but the mix became a viral sensation and has likely been downloaded millions of times. Burton quickly became a hot-commodity – GQ Magazine named him one of their Men of the Year in 2004, while Entertainment Weekly named The Grey Album their pick for album of the year.

Burton got his next big break when a well-known musician asked him to produce his new group’s follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut album, Gorillaz. We’re talking about Damon Albarn, of course, lead singer of Blur and mastermind behind many other notable projects. Burton would go on to receive a 2005 Grammy nomination for his production work on the finished product, Gorillaz’s Demon Days.

Burton then made a splash in the art world in 2006 when British graffiti artist/prankster Banksy enlisted his services for a special project. Banksy “obtained” 500 copies of socialite Paris Hilton’s debut album and altered the album artwork – including an album sticker that boasts song titles like “Why Am I Famous?” – while Burton swapped the discs with a 40-minute music mix containing various sound bites from Paris herself.

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Gnarls Barkley Is For The Children

Posted 8/3/08 8:07 pm EST by in Festivals, Lollapalooza


Gnarls Barkley
We started the third and final day of Lollapalooza with a toddler-friendly interview with Gnarls Barkley on the steps of the Kidzapalooza stage (in between sets from the Homemade Jamz Blues Band and the Jimmies, of course).

Cee-lo and Danger Mouse spoke about the mind-melting video for "Who's Gonna Save My Soul," and DM's upcoming projects (sorta ... "I've got stuff in the works, but nothing I wanna talk about," he mumbled), but what they really wanted to discuss was the set by they had just witnessed by the aforementioned Homemade Jamz.

In fact, they were so impressed that they brought 9-year-old drummer Taya Perry -- truly the finest mini kit-master in Tupelo, Mississippi -- onto the stage to take part in the interview. Because, after all, Gnarls loves the kids.

(Watch Gnarls after the jump!)
Read More...

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For The Record: Beck, Motley Crue, Michael Jackson & More

Posted 6/12/08 6:29 pm EST by in Beck, For The Record, Lily-Allen, Michael Jackson, motley-crue


Sway· Beck has finally confirmed the release date for his upcoming Danger Mouse-produced album, Modern Guilt. The 10-track LP — featuring the trippy first single, "Chemtrails" — will drop July 8. A release announcing the disc describes it as vacillating between "economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse's shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration." What, no space-age polkas? No drum-machine-assisted cumbias?

· Mötley Crüe shout at ... their former manager. The band has filed a suit against Burt Stein and his companies, alleging that Stein screwed them out of lots of cash.

· It's the battle of the century! Perez Hilton has been saying mean things about Lily Allen, and she's pissed! Go, Lily go!

· Michael Jackson might be coming out with his own clothing line. Blah, blah, blah, designer surgical mask joke.

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For The Record: Beck, Brian Wilson, Janet Jackson & More

Posted 5/20/08 11:10 am EST by in For The Record


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· Beck has released one of the new songs from his upcoming album with Danger Mouse. It’s called “Chemtrails,” and it’s trippy.

· Brian Wilson will play some North American dates this summer, leading up to the release of a new album in September.

· Janet Jackson’s set to tour this fall for the first time in seven years.

· Poor Danny Noriega. First, he was booted off "Idol,” then he had to call to get tickets to the show’s finale -- only to find it was sold out.

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For The Record: Metallica, Cee-Lo, Tila Tequila & More

Posted 5/13/08 10:46 am EST by in For The Record


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· Metallica are going to let fans watch them mix their upcoming album.

· Danger Mouse isn’t the only one busy working on side gigs: Cee-Lo is hooking up with Jack Black to cover the 1974 classic “Kung Fu Fighting.”

· Tila Tequila doesn’t have a lot of secrets, but if there are any left, she might spill them in her upcoming self-help book, “Hooking Up With Tila Tequila.” That's right -- self-help.

· “America’s Most Wanted” has nabbed its 1000th fugitive.

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The Official Word on Beck's New Album: We So Told You So

Posted 5/7/08 12:57 pm EST by in Music, New Music Update


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We hate to say we told you so...but, well, we told you so (or rather, our sources told us so and we told you, but, you know...whatever).

On Monday, we got the exclusive scoop that Beck is planning on releasing a below-the-radar album sometime in the "next 4-6 weeks" -- one produced by Danger Mouse and featuring appearances from a handful of talent, including Cat Power. And while neither Beck's publicist nor his label would confirm the news, we felt confident in our sources and went with it anyway -- just like in "All the President's Men!"

The story got picked up by the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and Perez Hilton, but it wasn't until today that we got the official word -- or, rather, official press release -- that Mr. Hansen would, in fact, be releasing an album.

"Beck has recorded a new album, produced with Brain 'Danger Mouse' Burton, to be released this summer," the release read. "The as-yet-untitled album contains 10 new songs,...a tightly assembled group...that range in lyrical tone from introspection and social commentary to off-the-cuff wordplay and lighthearted humor...Musically, the album's ten tracks vacillate between economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism."

Which is all a very longwinded way of saying "MTV Was Right." Now never doubt us again.

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Beck Set to Release New Album, Stat!

Posted 5/5/08 3:24 pm EST by in Music, New Music Update


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Though neither his publicist nor his label would confirm any of it, MTV News has spoken to several individuals close to Beck, and they all tell us that he's gearing up to release a brand new album in the very near future -- think the next 4-6 weeks -- through the Universal Music Group.

And that's not all -- we've also heard that said album will be produced by Danger Mouse and feature collaborations with a host of artists, including Cat Power.

Our amazing sources also say that fans can expect an official announcement about the album veeerrrry soon.

In the meantime, Beck is busy lining up appearances at various European summer festivals, in addition to a handful of shows on the West Coast in late August.

Anyway, don't say we didn't warn you...

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Danger Mouse Producing Beck, About 100 Others

Posted 3/6/08 9:21 pm EST by in For The Record


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So we here in the Newsroom have been fans of Danger Mouse for a while, even back to his days doing bedroom beats under the name Pelican City. It's one of the reasons why we were the first to report on the Grey Album and and the subsequent legal furor. (Wow, we are really feeling ourselves right now!)

Anyway, dude has an amazing ear and an amazing willingness to work with a variety of musical styles and, as it turns out, an amazing capacity to shoulder a workload. From a recent interview with Danger Mouse in Harp Magazine (via Urb.com), this is the list of projects he's currently engaged in, you know, in ADDITION to that other little thing he does, Gnarls Barkley:

As soon as he finished Gnarls Barkley’s multi-platinum 2006 debut St. Elsewhere, Danger Mouse began or continued working on projects with the following list of artists: The Black Keys (Attack & Release, available in April); Ike Turner (passed away in December; single may appear in near future); Beck (album in early stages of production); The Good, The Bad and The Queen (came out January of 2007); Sparklehorse (Dangerhorse, featuring Mark Linkous as well as the Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Stephen Malkmus, Gruff from Super Furry Animals, Vic Chesnutt, Frank Black, Susan Vega and more, should be available sometime in ‘08); Tricky’s gal pal Martina Topley-Bird (The Blue God, due this summer); The Shortwave Set (Replica Sun Machine, tentatively slated for May); and MF Doom (album may appear).

Our own Matt Elias, who visited with Gnarls in our interview with them this week, says that Danger Mouse admitted he had to turn away some projects in the course of working on the new Gnarls album, The Odd Couple. So who knows what from the above list is still in play anymore. We'll find out for you. Dude is still pretty busy!

Also, just for kicks, here's a video of Danger Mouse & Jemini (Brooklyn Kids, whatup?!), featuring Cee-Lo, the first time DM and Cee-Lo ever worked together.

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