My Poproks

The Danger Mouse produced 5th album by The Black Keys is sure to have plenty of hints that the Hip Hop DJ turned Gnarls Barkley superstar worked on their record. The first single off of Attack & Release (a record that Rolling Stone has already called “Timeless”), “Strange Times,” starts off relatively simple. Loud rock guitars and Jack White flavored vocals (kinda tastes like peppermint, as you’d imagine) bang in the track. But by the end of the 3:11 jaunt, it’s more dominated by the kinds of creepy sonic soundplay that can be heard on St. Elsewhere.

Attack & Release hits the internetsss (or CD stores, in some cases) on April 1.

Listen: “Strange Times” by The Black Keys
Quicktime|Real Player|Windows Media

Via ‘Ye’s blog. I garauntee this will entertain you for 30 seconds. Enjoy.

I’m exaggerating. Barely.

Last night’s NME Shockwave Awards were hardly shocking. The big winners of the night were Arctic Monkeys, Arctic Monkeys, and uhh…Arctic Monkeys. One shocking award was the Best Solo Artist, which went to quirky singer-songwriter Kate Nash (who was so sure Amy Winehouse would win, she didn’t even write a speech).

All of the winners below:

Best British Band: Arctic Monkeys
Best International Band: The Killers
Best Solo Artist: Kate Nash
Best New Band: The Enemy
Best Live Band: Muse
Best Album: Klaxons, Myths Of The Near Future
Best Track: Arctic Monkeys, ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’
Best Video: Arctic Monkeys, ‘Teddy Picker’
Best Music DVD: Nirvana, Unplugged In New York
Best Live Event: Carling Weekend: Reading And Leeds Festivals
Best TV Show: The Mighty Boosh
Best Radio Show: Zane Lowe (Radio 1)
Best Film: Control
Best Web Site: Facebook
Best Venue: Wembley Stadium
Hero Of The Year: Pete Doherty
Villain Of The Year: George Bush
Best Dressed: Noel Fielding
Worst Dressed: Amy Winehouse
Worst Album: Britney Spears, Blackout
Worst Band: The Hoosiers
Sexiest Man: Noel Fielding
Sexiest Woman: Kylie Minogue
Godlike Genius: Manic Street Preachers
Philip Hall Radar Award: Glasvegas
John Peel Award for Musical Innovation: Radiohead
Best Dancefloor Filler: The Wombats ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’
Best Album Artwork: The Good The Bad And The Queen
Best Band Blog: Radiohead
Best Music Blog: The Modern Age

New official video for The Roots “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction),” directed by Rik Cordero (Jay-Z, Consequence, Memphis Bleek), from their album Rising Down (due 4/29). Make your girl wear her heels in the air…

Via Jay’s myspace…

“Due to an overwhelming demand from the pre-sale, a second show at MSG on 5/7/08 has been added!!! The exclusive fan pre-sale begins tomorrow at 10am EST on 3/27!

Tickets sold out for the 1st show, so don’t sleep on the pre-sale this time!

Click here for tickets!  http://www.musictoday.com/redirect/bounce.asp?cid=28698″

That is all. Nitey nite.

Gnarls Barkley, my favorite pop collab of all times, will be premiering their new video for the single “Run” on VH1 & MTV tomorrow, according to this post on their blog and this post on VH1’s blog. Gnarls’ new record, The Odd Couple, drops April 8 (woohoo). As soon as it is embed ready, it will be here. Oh yes, it will be here. Some photos? Why, yes.

When are they going to release this video? Heath Ledger directed and starred in his own little Nick Drake video for his rare track, “Black Eyed Dog.” It seems like everyone’s been talking about this video since Ledger’s death, but no one seems to have a friggin’ copy! This special from Australia talks about the video and shows a few clips, and I am even more intrigued than before. Thanks Stereogum.

Since Moby has finished up his new record, Last Night (due out April 1), he has some time to catch up on his really strange bug drawings (looks like they were done on Windows’ Paint). Yesterday, he put up some new “drawings” on his site, which are really…umm, strange.

Don’t forget about the free DJ mix, and the album’s first single, “Alice” video…here. And the second single? Already? “Disco Lies,” here. That’s a funky chicken.

Thanks to Gillmore Boy for posting this video of Mos Def performing his song, “Your Feets Too Big,” recorded for Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Remind at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. I figured since white people like Mos Def, I’d repost (it’s true, I do like Mos Def).

As I mentioned yesterday, Pharrell and Chad Hugo played with Kenna last night on Letterman…and here it is. The internetssss rocks. “Say Goodbye to Love” is on Kenna’s new record, Make Sure They See My Face.

• Eminem is writing a memoir. It’s coming out in the fall
• Jack Johnson is still #1 on the Billboards
• Britney Spears is pregnant. Again
• Amy Winehouse is on drugs…again

As you may have gathered, us folks at My Poproks (AKA, Moi), are big, unashamed, old school lovers of Coldplay. Since “Yellow” premiered on WLIR many moons ago (when WLIR still existed), this band has had my Brit-pop lovin’ heart (Brit-pop is not dead, Liam, it’s just different). One of my most prized CD’s in my collection is still my Clocks Japanese EP with 5 bonus tracks (with “Crests of Waves,” one of their best bsides).

The band’s upcoming untitled 4th album is due sometime in May. Nothing has really been confirmed, other than the fact that the members of the band are not dead, Brian Eno is producing, and the music is going to be “different.”

Thanks to our friends (and frickin’ BRAGGERS) over at Rolling Stone, they got to listen in on 9 of the possible (you’re killin’ me) tracks for the upcoming record, which they proceeded to brag about on Rock Daily. Below is Evan Serpick’s mini-review of the songs.

“Violet Hill”: One of the strongest of the new songs, the band is considering giving it away as a special promotion in coming weeks and then leaving it off the album. Opening with a jagged distorted guitar riff, the song announces a new template: The stalking, bluesy beat fits nicely with Martin’s earthy vocals and plaintive lyrics: “If you love me, won’t you let me know?”

“42″: The fact that the band is considering this song as the album’s first real single underlines how far they’re willing to a stray from their formula: It’s an elaborate three-part piece, with swirling pianos, strings and beat loops that build to an uptempo climax, with some seriously stoner lyrics: “Those who are dead are not dead/They’re just living in my head.”

“Yes”: Here, Martin’s vocals take center stage like never before: Sounding more aggressive and strong than ever, they sit on top of an irresistible North African string-and-tablas arrangement and ache more convincingly than all the lilting falsetto in the world: “If you’d only, if you’d only say ‘Yes’/I’m just so tired of this loneliness.” It’s the band’s freshest song since “Parachutes.”

“Death and All His Friends”: A straight-up rock tune with a riff that sounds ripped from the Doobie Brothers, piano, and, in the last section, flute.

“Cemetaries of London”: Notice the thematic pattern emerging from the title and lyrics? This one, with an electro loop and hand claps, doesn’t sound as glum as its title portends.

“Life in Technicolor”: Acoustic-guitar driven and jangly, this is one of the few tracks that seems built from the Coldplay template of songs like “Don’t Panic,” only a bit more, well, panicked: “Baby it’s a violent world,” Martin sings.

“Chinese Sleep Chant”: Opening with a jagged guitar riff, the song quickly settles into a propulsive dance-track loop with low-mixed, angelic vocals.

“Strawberry Swing”: This is one of several potential album cuts with Afro-pop and high-life influences: Here, distortion-free finger-picked guitars which sound straight out of Mali mix with a heavy bassline and psychedelic synths. “My Mum comes from Zimbabwe, so I spent a lot of time there,” says Martin. “I used to work in a studio where people played that.”

“Reign of Love”: A lovely layered composition of piano, bass and organ that backs fairytale lyrics.

-Thanks, I guess. I’ll take whatever I can get.

First single off of Mariah’s E=MC² (no, seriously). Hey does anyone remember when Mariah Carey went crazy? I do.

Um…

• British rock band, The Delays, apologized for causing the Earthquake last night in the UK, and subsequently became the most awesome badasses ever
• Kenna is performing tonight on Letterman with N.E.R.D.
• Beastie Boys say they are back in the studio, making music and sandwiches
• Vampire effin’ Weekend got sick from all the hype and cancelled two UK shows, but added others to their tour
• Air’s debut album, Moon Safari, is getting a re-release via Virgin/Astralwerks for its 10th Anniversary

The New York Times covered Danger Mouse’s studio in Los Angeles, and put a slideshow of some of the pictures on their site. The comments mention that Brian Burton/Danger Mouse likes to change workspaces every 5 or 6 months, because being unsettled relaxes him.

Heima (the documentary film set around Sigur Ros’ 2006 tour, and their homelane, Iceland) was released last year, followed by some screenings/acoustic performances by the band. The film was directed by Canadian director Dean DeBlois (who is, oddly enough, a writer for Disney).

I recently came across a post on the band’s myspace that their fans have arranged sceenings of the film all over the world for the upcoming months (just had one in New York on Saturday night that I [almost] went to), despite the fact that it’s been out on DVD since December. A bunch of European dates were posted, with a “bunch more” coming soon. I’d reference some Sigur Ros lyrics here, but it wouldn’t have the same effect in Icelandic/Sigur Ros made-up language.

I usually don’t use the word beautiful to describe a trailer, but yeah…in case you haven’t seen:

Dates and info after the jump…

(more…)

If My Poproks had done the Top 10 Coolest Reunions of 2007, The Verve would have been #2 (Police, sorry).

The drugs don’t work, and I know I’ll see your face again! And what a face it is! Richard Ashcroft and his Brit-pop cohorts (otherwise known as The Verve) are still in the process of making their big comeback. Their 14 minute epic, “The Thaw Session” was made available on their website about 4 months ago, with no follow-up announcement of a record release date or US label (sort of for June, but not really). Unfortunately, the band is on EMI, which as we know, is not really a positive now-a-days.

Their manager, Jazz Summers, had this to say to Billboard: “This is a very special band, with four incredibly talented people. “They made three great albums before. And they’re going to make another great album now. There’s a bit of magic when the four of them come together.”

The point is, they’ve recently added a couple of dates to go alone with their big headlining slot at this year’s Coachella in April and UK festival dates, doing a show in Vegas and two at the WaMu Theater at MSG. See you there. So far, only the Toronto and Vegas dates have ticket info (Vegas onsale Saturday).

Verve US and International dates thus far:

4/25 - Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
4/26 - Las Vegas, NV @ the Pearl Concert Theatre
4/28 - New York, NY @ WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden
4/29 - New York, NY @ WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden
5/01 – Toronto, ON @ Ricoh Coliseum
5/31 – Landgraaf, NET @ Pinkpop Festival
7/12 – Kildare, Ireland @ Oxygen Festival
7/13 – Kildare, Ireland @ Oxegen Festival
6/29 – Glastonbury, England @ the Glastonbury Festival
7/11 – Balado, Scotland @ T in the Park Festival

I’ve heard a lot of “Hey Ya” covers in the past year/couple of years? (wow, that went fast). For the most part, they’ve just been random dude with acoustic guitars videos on Myspace.

But, Obadiah Parker, an unsigned band from Arizona, made a big splash on the internet with this live version of the song (lead singer Matt Weddle, random guy with acoustic guitar) back in 2006, and got a bagillion hits on Youtube. Since I didn’t have a blog in 2006, and just randomly came across the band on my myspace friend’s list, I think it is worth posting 2 years later.

There’s just something about this folky version of the song that chills to the bone, and it was actually featured on the Howard Stern show about a month ago. It was also named one of the Best 2007 Folk Songs by iTunes. You can get the band’s 11 track live album, including the “Hey Ya” cover, at their official store.

Even more so, it showed what a truly effing amazing song Outkast’s Andre 3000 had written.

Jay-Z’s myspace blog from Friday claims that if you buy a ticket for any show on the Heart of the City Tour, you can go here to vote for any Jay-Z song that you want to hear at your show.

You can register here to join his fan community, which will allow you to order presale tickets for the tour.

And “Added bonus:
· The first 10 purchasers in each market will win an autographed copy of ‘American Gangster.’”

Of all the hype machines in the music world today, it’s been argued that NME is the absolute worst. 10 years from now, I wonder if they’ll regret putting the Arctic Monkeys at #5 on their Best British Albums Ever list. I’m not letting that go anytime soon (and yes, I just linked that rant again). NME can be fun, though. How else would you get to hear The Kaiser Chiefs covering The Klaxons? You wouldn’t!

The new issue of the British music mag (on sale today) is a “Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 Souvenir Box Set,” that comes with a CD of British acts doing ‘rare and exclusive covers.’ Included on the compilation are Bloc Party doing Nelly Furtado’s “Say it Right,” and Manic Street Preachers adding to the “Umbrella” cover collection. You can go here to stream 3 of the tracks on NME’s site (one of which is Lightspeed Champion doing Amy Winehouse’s “Black to Black”).

Full Track listing:
1. Manic Street Preachers ‘Umbrella’
2. Futureheads ‘Picture Of Dorian Gray’
3. Lightspeed Champion ‘Back To Black’
4. CSS ‘Knife’
5. The Cribs ‘Modern Way’
6. Kaiser Chiefs ‘Golden Skans (Live at Radio One)’
7. The Kooks ‘Young Folks’
8. Does It Offend You Yeah! ‘Whip It (Live)’
9. Kate Nash ‘Men’s Needs’
10. My Chemical Romance ‘Song 2 (Live at Radio One)’
11. Get Cape. Wear Cape.Fly. ‘D.A.N.C.E.’
12. The Wombats ‘Bleeding Love (Live)’
13. Bloc Party ‘Say It Right (Live at Radio One)’
14. Ting Tings ‘Anyway I Can’