March 14th, 2010 by admin
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Catapulted from obscurity to Internet insta-success in 2006, the barely post-teen quartet Arctic Monkeys squealed and kicked their way onto the UK pop scene. Their debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”, went No. 1 there and was hyperbolically named the fifth-best British album ever in an NME poll. The Monkeys were believably cynical, irresistibly literate lads, and their second album didn’t stray far from the first. But for “Humbug”, the band teams with an unlikely sage: Queens Of The Stone Age boss Josh Homme, who produced half of the album. It’s an intriguing match, since Homme is a man’s man, and the boyish Monkeys are pasty, pimply, and prone to whiny discomfort. Lead-off track “My Propeller” is the first surprise, with singer Alex Turner moaning like a Nick Cave in training.
by Mark Emge
March 14th, 2010 by admin
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Guitarist Ben Harper is that rare talent able to not only vacation in the worlds of gospel, soul, folk, and even reggae, but also to meld them gracefully together on both album and stage. Yet sometimes you just want him to rock, and, at long last, he’s assembled a new band dedicated to just that. The bare-knuckled “Lay There And Hate Me” is a head-on collision between soul and rock, a grittier, angrier side of Harper that shines through the Relentless7’s first disc together, “White Lies For Dark Times”.
by Mark Emge
March 14th, 2010 by admin
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Born in Milan, the artist Vasco Rossi calls “the Italian John Lennon” grew up on The Beatles, The Police, and native touring acts like Battisti. In fact, it was an encounter with Massimo Luca, guitarist for Battisti, who helped get Gianluca Grignani his Polygram deal in 1994. Grigs’ first single was “La Mia Storia Tra Le Dita”, and the next year he stormed the Sanremo Festival’s new artist category with “Destinazione Paradiso”, the title cut of his first album. It was also then that rumors began of the singer’s chemical appetites. In ‘98 Gianluca saw his audience grow with “Campi Di Popcorn”, an album co-produced by Jay Healy (John Mellencamp, Patti Smith). Although now married and a father, Giancarlo still has a knack for getting himself into trouble. The single “Sei Sempre Stata Mia” is off his latest disc, “Romantico Rock Show”.
by Mark Emge
March 14th, 2010 by admin
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Born in Reinbek, Helmut Günter von Fritz’s great-granduncle, the baron Titten von Fritz, was trampled to death by a wild boar during a game hunt, leaving Helmut a 300 millions of deutschemarks fortune. Helmut arrived in Paris and lived the high life, but his dissolute existence only resulted in a profound boredom, which was finally relieved when he met DJ Laurent Konrad, who suggests writing a song about…oh, bollocks. “Helmut Fritz” is Éric Greff, a Frenchman who created his character’s phony back story for the song “Ça M’énerve”. That single topped the French charts, so the Jerry Lewis of house music returns with “Ça Gère”.
by Mark Emge
March 14th, 2010 by admin
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Born in Florence, singer Irene Grandi spent her young-adult years in bands that traversed the local club scene, not striking out as a solo artist until ‘92 when she hooked up with songwriter Telonio. The song “Un Motivo Maledetto” caught the ear of the CGD label, and soon Grandi had a 1994 self-titled release featuring songs by Eros Ramazzotti (”Sposati Subito”) and Jovanotti (”T.V.B.”) on the way–after the requisite stop at the Sanremo Festival, of course. The best-of compilation “Irene Grandi.Hits” dropped ‘07, and she sang “La Cometa Di Halley” as a contestant once again at the recent 60th edition of Sanremo.
by Mark Emge
March 13th, 2010 by admin
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Only two years after Simon Cowell’s “X Factor” star-making machine churned out the Whitney Houston clone Leona Lewis, it gave us Alexandra Burke–a Leona Lewis clone! But Burke is totally different than Lewis. For one, the back cover of Burke’s debut disc, “Overcome”, features a picture of La Burke flashing her bum cheeks, which we really can’t see Lewis doing. She’s also been given a higher percentage of uptempo tunes. But then there’s “The Silence”, a gargantuan power ballad bridging the godless void between Bonnie Tyler and Beyoncé. It’s the kind of song that–well, that Leona Lewis would love (and probably passed on).
by Mark Emge
March 13th, 2010 by admin
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A 32-year-old French singer, actress, and model with many months of experience in each of these distinctive careers, Angie Be started solfeggio at 6 and saxophone at the age of 8. After puberty, however, being stuck behind a sax was out of the question. Combining her passions for music, travel, sport, and body waxing, Angie “toiled” in the world of modelling from 16 onward. And since she has a pair of great, big aspirations, she also acted in both TV and films not only in France, but also in USA, Italy, Germany. Be’s exploits in front of the camera led her people to see what better suited her talents, and they found French DJ RLS, resulting in the single “Soundwaves”.
by Mark Emge
March 13th, 2010 by admin
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“It’s about letting go,” explains Brit newcomer Ellie Goulding of her new single, “Starry Eyed”. “As opposed to all the depressing things I write about, I decided to write something about the joining together of people in some kind of euphoric state.” Although Goulding’s debut LP, “Lights”, was just released, the singer-songwriter has big expectations to live up to. Based on an introductory EP and a few features, Ellie topped last year’s BBC Sound Of 2010 poll. She’s off to a good start with “Starry Eyed”, which manages to be folky, poppy, and dancey at the same time. “Because I’m essentially a pop artist, I wanted to write a song that everyone can relate to.”
by Mark Emge
March 13th, 2010 by admin
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London-born Stephen Manderson started rapping at the late age of 18, but he took to MCing quickly. And although there are likely brothas in Compton and Queens who would beg to differ, Professor Green won over 100 battles on his way to claiming his status as the worlds second-best MC in the 2008 Power Summit 50K in the Bahamas, losing out to favourite Jin in the final after trouncing loads of Americans. Prof Green also spent 13 months hosting the Radio 1 show “In New DJs We Trust”, but now he’s busy finishing up the “Lecture #2″ album, his first for Virgin.
by Mark Emge
March 13th, 2010 by admin
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For fans of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Queens Of The Stone Age, the supergroup album “Them Crooked Vultures” was almost too good to be true. Then they went on tour! And it doesn’t sound like they’re finished. Drummer Dave Grohl says the trio is already working on a second album that will be “more powerful than the first”. And when asked about the futures of Foo Fighters and QOTSA, John Paul Jones replied that they will get their frontmen back–”eventually”. “Mind Eraser, No Chaser” should be the dictionary entries for both “syncopation” and “testictacular”.
by Mark Emge
