So far, or so I say:
Ladies and gentleman, for anyone who has ever contemplated suicide (this author being one of them), I present to you Three Days Grace's "Never Too Late," a track that potently tackles the subject not only musically and lyrically, but visually as well:
That's no easy feat for anyone.
Kudos to 3DG for having the gusto and the creativity to nail it.
"Big Wheel" comin' at ya right here, courtesy of Yahoo Music. The track is the lead single off Tori Amos' upcoming album, "American Doll Posse," due May 1. Hey lookie here, Amazon has a special edition available for pre-order, but is that as cool as iTunes, which has set up a special ticket pre-sale if you pre-order the album through them? I'll leave that for you to decide, but since it's Tori, how could you go wrong?
Because amidst all the pain and suffering we could all use some love and affection:
Music: "All The Same" by Sick Puppies
So give a free hug to someone who needs it today (and even those who don't, or claim they don't, because honestly, who couldn't use a hug?).
You can (Extra! Extra!) read all about it [Can Juan Mann make a difference?] on Wikipedia. And if you're feeling really inspired, join the movement! Sometimes making the world a better place is as simple as an outstretched arm and an open heart.
MTV continues to get it. Their latest move that doesn't suck; a battle of the freshest up-and-coming music vids out there. The prize? Bragging rights and the opportunity to introduce the video on MTV. This week's competition sees Evanescence's "Sweet Sacrifice," pitted against Lil Mama's,"Lip Gloss," versus Linkin Park's much anticipated "What I've Done." Who will come out on top of this powerhouse brouhaha? Will disappearing vapors outlast the presumed mother of hundreds of potential children (Lil Kim, Lil Flip, Lil Romeo), or will this all be decided at the park? You decide!
Round one already saw Shiny Toy Guns come away victorious over the likes of Maroon 5 and Snoop Dogg. And while the reward of 15 minutes of fame on MTV is still a little too TRLesque for my taste, this is still good (Internet) Music Television. And as the battlefield continues to heat up, all I can really say is - IT'S ON.
Who will get served next week?
Jamie Kennedy rapping with Bob Saget. Just some great fun and actually it is a pretty good rap.
Up this week we have a 70's classic remixed, an elementary school mantra totally reinvented (by legos no less), a punk legend's cameo amongst (not so adorable) teddy bears in NYC, and our featured video courtesy of Strata showcases some spiffy art while telling a dark story.
The Academy Is - We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands
The Vincent Black Shadow - Metro
Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd - Proper Education
Jamie Kennedy featuring Stu Stone - Circle Circle Dot Dot
Teddybears - Punkrocker featuring Iggy Pop
K-OS - Sunday Morning
And this week's featured video: Strata - Cocaine (We're All Going to Hell)
The inside scoop on OK Go's video for "Here It Goes".
Lead singer Damian Kulash's sister, a ballroom dancer, created the routine. "We hurled ourselves at the machines, and they chewed us up from head to toe," Kulash says. "No broken bones, but we were scraped and bruised at the end." After eight days and 20 takes, the three-minute-long video was perfected, and the musicians felt as sore as marathoners. And slightly victorious, too. "The one thing I could get for free right now is a treadmill," Kulash says.
runnersworld.com
Here are a collection of recent music videos which I think are worth a shout out.
Incubus offers some clever animated fare, Rise Against make a statement (as per usual) about where your goods are really coming from, and Patent Pending bring the silly punk humor.
This is but a taste of what you'll find below (all links point to YouTube). Want to add your own? Drop us a line in the comments.
The Fratellis - Flathead
Incubus - Dig
Klaxons - Golden Skans
Rise Against - Prayer of the Refugee
Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
Patent Pending - This Can't Happen Again
And this spotlight's featured video - Penny on the Train Tracks by Ben Kweller. Enjoy!
MTV2 proudly presents a stripped-down, intimate performance from Jonathan Davis and company featuring special guests Amy Lee (on "Freak On A Leash") and Robert Smith of The Cure (on "Make Me Bad/In Between Days"). Other highlights include a cover of Radiohead's pre-weird era "Creep" and orchestrations by music producer Richard Gibbs. Some of the instrumentation featured in said orchestra consists of trombone, cello, glass harmonica, choir bells, and Japanese taiko drums. Be on the lookout for the television debut of the big night this Friday on MTV2. Korn MTV Unplugged hits shelves on March 6.
Listen/Watch/Share this unique experience by a band not known for their inviting warmth.
But why stop there? MTV2, in a generous double shot of new album streams, offers up the Finger Eleven effort "Them vs. You vs. Me," including the video for lead single "Paralyzer". MTV refers to this new work as dance rock (territory usually reserved for the likes of Arctic Monkeys or Franz Ferdinand), which would be an unusual but intriguing turn for the Canadian hard rockers. Judge for yourself here.
And since we're all about threesomes here at AtD (hey, who isn't?), why not rock out your day just a little bit more with the music video for Modest Mouse's "Dashboard". The first single from their highly anticipated new record, "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank," the video was directed by Motion Theory (Matisyahu, Beck, Velvet Revolver) and the scene shows a drunken argument involving sailors. Modest Mouse's new album drops March 20.
Piano rockers The Fray are ready to melt your hearts while also inciting you to dance. What else could you expect from their newly announced summer tour featuring Ok Go? Well that's the first leg of it anyway. You second leggers will get to be treated to the docile sounds of Gomez and Eisley, while the third leg will see Meese and an act TBD join Isaac Slade and co.
There is no doubt things are going brilliantly for the Denver-based quartet. Among their recent highlights include double platinum certification for "How to Save A Life," and as if that weren't enough, the LP has become the number 1 selling digital album of all time, having just passed Coldplay's "X&Y." Check TheFray.Net for more.
And for your aural and visual pleasure, here are some Fray goodies to spoil yourselves with:
Acoustic Performance On Stripped (features a cover of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby")
Live@VH1 Acoustic
AOL Sessions
Network Live: The Fray In Concert
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention OK Go, recent Grammy winners for best short-form music video, but then again was there really ever any doubt about this? You can actually hear lead singer Damian Kulash's full acceptance speech by going here.
Finally, finally (really) the ever inventive visual minimalists in OK Go bring you their latest creation, this time for "Do What You Want (Wallpaper Version)". For those of you who have come to love the band's straightforward, quirky, and highly danceable style, you'll love this:
OK Go - "Do What You Want (Wallpaper Version)"
Now I've talked on this site before about the genius which is Danger Mouse a.k.a. one half of Gnarls Barkley (in addition to his many other endeavors). I thought it also deserved to be mentioned, however, how crafty and imaginative the videos for all of the Gnarls singles have been. "Crazy" won the Carl Jung Award in our 2006 music video awards competition, "Gone Daddy Gone" is perhaps the wildest use of insects in recent music video memory, and their latest is a pure gem:
Hey, isn't that Dennis Hopper as Milton Pawley? Because I dare say it is.
Check out all of Gnarls' A+ videos (in Quicktime format) on their official site.
And musical videographers, take notes! These guys haven't missed the beat yet.
MTV is premiering the brand new video for TV On the Radio's "Province" on MTV Overdrive. The Brooklyn natives, who have garnered all kinds of praise for their latest set, "Return to Cookie Mountain," can also be seen performing “Dirty Whirl,” “Dreams” and “Province” live from “Celebrate Brooklyn” HERE. Don't miss it.
Why not take a few minutes to see what's fat, hot, and popping fresh from your favorite digital space and mine - The Internets? Here we go:
- MTV2 has the premiere of the new video from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - False Pretense. MTV2 is also dropping 3 tracks from the imminent Bloc Party release "A Weekend in the City," even though two of the tracks you've probably heard before ("I Still Remember," "The Prayer"). But the third one is (actually) new at least - "Hunting for Witches".
- Borders is spotlighting The Shins (who isn't these days) and they've got some goodies, including keyboardist Marty Crandall giving his top fives on everything from indie rock albums to dinner guests. Also on the site is a brief history of Sub Pop records, the renowned independent label which is home to The Shins, among many others.
- iTunes has some killer exclusives up right now, such as The Decemberists' Apple Store SoHo performance from November, which sports 3 tracks from their latest album, "The Crane Wife." Meanwhile, Keane rocked out at the Apple Store in London for this exclusive semi-acoustic EP.
Now, not to cuddle Apple like our favorite stuffed animal from the age of two, you know the one that you just couldn't let go of no matter what, I mean the freakin' world could end and you would still be holding onto this thing...but damn I'm a sucker for the iPod ads. What can I say? They're clever, creative, bright, and shiny all rolled into one! And even better, they feature some primo songs. From Jet to Wolfmother and now onto The Fratellis. "Flathead," from their critically acclaimed "Costello Music" LP, provides the beats behind the frenetic, karate dancing silhouettes in the two newest iPod commercials, playing extensively on TV as well as apple.com. And stay tuned, because we'll have a full rundown on this emerging act, sure to be one of the biggest bands of '07!
And by Kob I mean unplugged. Korn will be featured in the next installment of the MTV series "MTV Unplugged". The show was recorded December 9, 2006 at MTV's Times Square studios, will be broadcasted online on MTV.com on February 24, 2007, and on television in America, Europe and Asia on March 2, 2007. The "Unplugged" CD will be released on March 6 in the U.S. The first single off the CD will be "Freak On A Leash," featuring Evanescence singer Amy Lee. See the performance below:
You want a track listing, I'll give you a track listing:
01. Thoughtless
02. Blind
03. Hollow Life
04. Freak On A Leash (feat. Amy Lee)
05. Falling Away
06. Creep (RADIOHEAD cover)
07. Love Song
08. Got The Life
09. Twisted Transistor
10. Dirty
11. Coming Undone
12. Make Me Bad/In Between Days (feat. Robert Smith of The Cure)
13. No One's There
14. Throw Me Away
Win Butler and Co. just cannot seem to stay out of the news these days, pesky buggers that they are. First Stereogum reports on another leaked track from the cultishly anticipated "Neon Bible." This time it's "My Body Is A Cage," and the 'gum was kind enough to provide lyrics to interested early listeners.
Next up is one from the comments and simply states, "The video for black wave/bad vibrations is at youtube. http://youtube.com/watch?v=1LZ9z71ErWA." Unfortunately, the poster is anonymous so I can't give them any more credit than that (stand up and be lauded!) But hey, it's great to see someone come out from the woodwork, so welcome, please stay, make yourself at home, and for anyone else out there, don't be a stranger now, ya'hear? Also, be sure and check out the video!
Finally, as RS points out, Arcade Fire tickets are selling like hotcakes (during a hotcake shortage). These things last even shorter than your average celebrity fling. All of this on the heels of selling out their 5 NYC church dates within minutes. Can this train be stopped?
Whoops, I lied. More AF tidbits. The Neon Bible website the band setup for the album's release is now accessible from arcadefire.com. Go there for the lovable weirdness and some goodies. Finally the album is now available for preorder in CD, Deluxe CD, and Vinyl. The Deluxe version includes two 32-page flip books designed by the band, and the Vinyl comes with a coupon for a free MP3 download of "Neon Bible"! Also you can peep the album artwork.
Thanks to some easy to come by 'inside information' in the form of publicly available email alerts, I just found out about MTV2's The Drop. The deal is, they give you 3 new songs by a different artist every week and sweeten the deal with artist info and music videos. This week's feature is the epic U.K. band Muse, while past weeks have featured the likes of Switchfoot, Incubus, and Shiny Toy Guns.
Listen to, "Map of the Problematique," "Starlight," and "Knights of Cydonia," and check out the videos for the latter 2 over at The Drop right now.
Bloc Party is coming stateside. Billboard reports that the U.K. buzz band has unveiled the following North American tour dates:
March 11: Seattle (Paramount Theatre)Billboard also reports that opening acts will be rotated among The Strokes' Albert Hammond, Jr., Final Fantasy, Sebastian Grangier, The Like and Smoosh.
March 12: Vancouver (Orpheum Theatre)
March 13: Portland, Ore. (Crystal Ballroom)
March 15: Austin, Texas (South by Southwest)
March 17: San Francisco (Concourse Exhibition)
March 19-20: Los Angeles (Wiltern Theatre)
March 23: Chicago (Congress Theatre)
March 24: Detroit (Royal Oak Theatre)
March 25: Toronto (Kool Haus)
March 27: Montreal (Metropolis)
March 28: Boston (Orpheum Theatre)
March 30-31: New York (United Palace Theatre)
"A Weekend in the City," particularly on its back half, is dominated by slower, richly textured songs that stretch into pop/rock territory.The article mentions the aforementioned headlining March U.S. tour and also confirms 3 more domestic visits before the end of 2007.
"It's got everything that makes a Coldplay song, plus more," bassist Gordon Moakes says of the band's more introspective material. "It has a lush sound without being too syrupy."
It also features much more direct vocals from frontman Kele Okereke, who makes a big leap as a songwriter and lyricist on this loose song cycle that thematically mirrors its title.
"I wanted to make something that could be more easily understood, without dumbing it down," Okereke says.
Just music.
Edwin Star's "War"! My pick for the greatest anti-war song ever.
Neil Young's great "Keep on Rocking in the Free World".
Ft. Minor "Where'd You Go". A music video with some thoughts on the home life of a solider's family.
Bruce Spingsteen - "Mrs McGrath"
"Mad World" by Gary Jules.
"People Have the Power" by Patti Smith.
"My Immortal" by Evanescence as a tribute to our men abroad.
"Imagine" by John Lennon.
