We may be a few months away from Halloween, but someone has already started the terror. Singer Ryan Adams has just released his music video for his latest single, “Gimme Something Good.” Appearing throughout the video and in Adam’s dreams is the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira. His self-titled album will be available for purchase on September 9th. Click here for tour date information.
Take a listen to “No Sleep” below.
It’s new tunes Tuesday and we are gifted with new music videos from Janelle Monáe and Lana Del Rey. Who says you have to release a music video near the same time your single comes out? It’s been almost a year since “Electric Lady” was released, but the public is just now receiving a music video for the track. The video is full of cameos including that of Janella Monáe’s mother, Esperanza Spalding, Estelle, and Kimbra. Check out Monáe’s fun throwback sorority party below.
Lana Del Rey has released the music video for the title track off of her album “Ultraviolence.” Her label must really love her, because her video budgets are almost non existent. The video uses her usual 8mm vintage like effects, which can be matched by downloading an app to your smart phone. The truth is, it actually was entirely filmed with an iPhone. Wearing a wedding gown, she strolls around the venue seeming as if her thoughts are elsewhere. Maybe she wasn’t prepared to “Say Yes to the Dress.”
It has been awhile since OK Go has presented us with one of their creative style music videos. Today they have proved they have long moved on from the days of synchronized dancing on treadmills. In their new music video for, “The Writings On The Wall, the band takes us on a warehouse tour full of optical illusions. The video took approximately 3 weeks to set up and roughly 50 takes to get it just right. Keep in mind it took a whole crew to pull it off, yet they remain hidden until the end. You can expect their new album, “Hungry Ghosts,” to be released this October. Watch the video below to give your eyes some visual entertainment.
Not only is Lana Del Rey’s new album, “Ultraviolence,” currently available for purchase, but today she has released the music video for “Shades Of Cool.” Her music video for her 1st single off the album, “West Coast,” gave us imagery of a lover and herself frolicking about on the beach and then a visual projection of southern California on fire. In the latest video she continues her vintage-hipster projection tactics, including that of fireworks and an American flag. The video finishes up with LSD-like effects combined with glimpses of a mysterious older man. Take a look for yourself and watch the music video below.
The reggae-rock band, Rebelution, is soon to release their newest album, “Count Me In.” Although this album doesn’t officially come out until June 10th, you can listen to it right now! Click here to listen to their album on Pandora, a week before it’s release. You can catch Rebelution on tour this summer starting next week, visit their site for tour dates. Take a listen to their title track below.
Monday Music Injection 4/7/14
5. Eminem: Expect a music video soon for the rapper’s latest single, “Headlights,” featuring Nate Ruess. Eminem posted a photo on instagram of himself and the video’s famous director, Spike Lee.
4. Coldplay: In their newest video for “Magic” Chris Martin has knives thrown at him while attached to a spinning wheel. Is this a metaphor for his divorce with Gwyneth Paltrow? Yikes.
3. SNL: What a great show this weekend. Anna Kendrick killed it as host, adding a “Beauty and the Beast” twist to her opening monologue, and covering Britney Spears and Kesha in a “Little Mermaid” sketch. Musical guest Pharrell also performed his new song, “Marilyn Monroe.”
2. Bieber/Mahone: As I roll my eyes typing this one out, teen girls all over the world are still wiping up the drool from Justin Bieber and Austin Mahone teasing their recent trip to the studio for a secret collaboration.
1. Ed Sheeran: Sounds like the red-bearded English singer/songwriter has embodied Justin Timberlake & Michael Jackson in his new Pharrell produced song, “SING.”
What’s your music fix?
Downtown 2011
Rating: 7/10
An eternal question in the indie industry – keep doggedly pursuing your artistic vision, maybe one defined by jagged bursts of post-punk and a singer whose just as likely to veer into screeching wails as he is a soulful hum, or get your shit together and make something perhaps more palatable for your average rock listener? It’s not too hard to see on what side Mine Is Yours falls – producer Jacquire King, whose behind-the-boards work catapulted Kings of Leon from Southern rock also-rans to multi-platinum lords of radio, is on hand, and singer Nathan Willett is content to focus on “love and relationships” in his lyrical matter. Top 40 listeners have something against hearing about family-ruining alcoholics, I guess. But what the band and King bring to the table now, however, is a refreshing tendency to keep things focused. It’s less a sacrifice to the gods of modern rock radio and more a bushwhacking of the Kids’ frustrating proclivity to fly off the rails on previous albums. Not that there wasn’t something charming about it all on Robbers & Cowards or Loyalty to Loyalty, but Mine Is Yours largely succeeds on keeping the Kids’ songwriting strengths on track.
That songwriting, of course, is what separates Cold War Kids from your Neon Trees or your Saving Abel. From funk-inflected anthems (“Royal Blue”) to U2-esque mammoth rockers with arena aspirations (“Bulldozer”), Cold War Kids always have an outstanding hook on hand. Mine Is Yours never comes off as a chore to listen to, as some of the latter half of their earlier work did. For all their aversion to taking even the slightest of risks, you can’t help but admire the craftsmanship that went into a track like “Out of the Wilderness,” where a gently lilting ballad coalesces into one of Willett’s most fiery performances, buoyed by rolling drums and a bridge that frankly explodes. It’s good that the songs here are so strong, because when it comes to Willett’s lyrics, the MOR banality comes on a bit too strong. For a songwriter who was previously lauded for his ability to weave a tale, lyrics like “bulldozer clear a space for us / let’s rebuild this love on what we were” are embarrassing, ham-fisted platitudes. It adds a bit of an asterisk to fantastic tracks like “Broken Open,” where Willett engages in a conversation with a parking meter, but when the songs lift and soar like they more often than not do here, it’s not hard to be a little forgiving. It just makes it even more of a shame when some of the best lyrics on the record in “Sensitive Kid” are sabotaged by a drum machine funk that is as out of place as it is unbecoming of Mine Is Yours’ general direction.
So there’s a give and take at work on Mine Is Yours, one that fans of their earlier work will either love or hate. That essential dichotomy between staying true to your roots and aiming for more widespread success has been the ruin of many bands, but Cold War Kids really don’t give up too much here. Indeed, songs like hit-single-to-be “Louder Than Ever” and the thunderous climax of closer “Flying Upside Down” reveal a band that has always had the songwriting chops to stand out from their peers, one that perhaps just needed a steadying hand to realize it all over the course of an entire album. Something may have been lost in translation – there’s nothing as immediate as “We Used To Vacation” or as heart wrenching as “Hospital Beds,” and Willett truly seems to have thrown aside any artistic compunctions in his quest to write a lyric any ape could relate to. But Mine Is Yours is a damn good rock record through and through, and for a band to sit down and write eleven tunes that showcase the best of their bluesy, anthemic brand of indie with nary a misstep, well, there’s an accomplishment to be praised.