Ingrid Michaelson’s Be OK is an eclectic collection of songs. Her original tunes stand alongside a ukelele accompanied version of “Over the Rainbow” that many critics count as a standout on this, her latest CD. A collage of previously unreleased songs, covers and live tracks, a portion of the proceeds from Be OK are being donated to Stand Up To Cancer.
Dark Horse: In U.S. politics, a person unexpectedly chosen by a major party as a candidate for public office, especially for the presidency.
Nickelback’s latest CD Dark Horse, produced by the legendary Def Leppard hitmaker Mutt Lange, hits stores November 18th, but after the band’s many hit singles, nobody should be surprised by their success anymore. Their lastest smash single “Gotta Be Somebody” is all over the radio, and a world tour is planned for 2009.
Recently, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin admitted his (not so guilty) fondness for the Canadian rockers to Absolute Radio.
“They take a lot of flak from people who have never done f*** all in their life. And I think they’re great. That is my final word.”
Our final word is that Dark Horse will be another huge chart topper for Nickelback, but do you think it will be as big as their 10 million plus seller All the Right Reasons? Comment and let us know.
Actually, better than just OK NOW. He’s doing great and pleased with the new direction his career has taken.
Best know for his performance at the Oscars of his nominated song “So Close” from the Disney film Enchanted, McLaughlin is grateful for the exposure and ready to cover new ground.
“I love Disney ballads, but I didn’t necessarily connect it to what I do as an artist. But that image of an old-school crooner inspired me,” said McLaughlin.
“I was able to see myself as something different, which helped me open up to try new things on this album. I wasn’t afraid to try on some new looks, either.”
“My philosophy has changed,” he continues. “Now I believe you should get crazy in the studio, explore different sounds, and I love the challenge of recreating the songs in the live setting –that’s the best part.”
Check him out on tour with Delta Goodrem this fall.
Oasis did indeed Dig Out Their Soul for their new CD, and what they discovered is a rejuvenated, albeit still argumentative band.
They just announced a “massive” UK stadium tour for next summer, with Noel Gallagher making some typically modest promises about the upcoming event.
“I think these gigs are easily going to be the biggest gigs of next year if not the decade,” he told the BBC. “These are the concerts that will go down in people’s memories and this is where people will meet future wives. We’re bang up for it.”
Hopefully Oasis is just as excited for their U.S. arena tour with Ryan Adams and the Cardinals opening. Adams, according to Noel Gallagher, is the only person who “nailed” “Wonderwall,” one of Oasis’ biggest hits and one that Noel Gallagher hates to hear brother Liam sing.
“Liam doesn’t sound like he did 10 years ago. Your voice and body change,” he told the Daily Star.
No word yet on whether they’ll collaborate on the smash, but if they do, it will most likely be one of the highlights of this year’s concert season.
Keane’s new album Perfect Symmetry is getting rave reviews, and music fans everywhere should be raving about the sweet deal Amazon.com is offering on this new release.
For a limited time, buy the complete album as a MP3 download from Amazon.com and receive it for only $2.99! This is a bargain for Keane diehards and a safe price for casual fans or the uninitiated to legally check out some new tunes.
Keane is excited about offering such a great deal to their U.S. fans. “We’ve built up a huge live following in America and the first record obviously did incredibly well,” Chaplin told Billboard in a recent interview. “We toured there with the second record and the crowds got bigger, but [the album] didn’t seem to impact as much as the first one. Whether the Americans get this record or not I don’t know, but I hope the openness and poppiness of it will have a big impact.”
Check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think of Keane’s latest:
Hear that? There’s ‘Gossip in the Grain,’ Ray Lamontagne’s latest, and it’s worth listening to, even if it’s only a whisper.
Ray Lamontagne has made three CDs, amassed a loyal following and earned the respect of his peers. His song “Trouble” gained him attention and he has enjoyed success on Triple A radio. His current single “You Are the Best Thing” is rising on the AAA chart. Yet, Lamontagne often performs shows in the half-dark or with his back to his audience. It may be shyness; it may be fear; but mostly it seems Lamontagne feels his music should speak for itself.
Sounds serious, right? But in the midst of an album filled with shadowy musing, Lamontagne manages to inject some white light– or should we say white stripes– into the proceedings. “Meg White,” a song for the famed White Stripes drummer, is a lovely surprise. Rolling Stone wrote about the unlikely pairing here.
Lamontagne (with Leona Ness opening) is on tour now.
In stores today, Sarah McLachlan’s greatest hits CD Closer celebrates her 20 years in the music business, and in two new songs, including her single “U Want Me 2,” mourns the death of her eleven year marriage to her drummer Ashwin Sood.
“…Most of my songs I’ve written about after the fact as opposed to being in them (in the moment). I’ve always felt I needed a little bit of objectivity before I could see things clearly,” McLachlan told Canoe - Jam! Music. “With the two recent songs, I sort of bucked that trend and have gone into how I feel and I’m going to write about it right now.”
A reissue of what is arguably her most-beloved album Fumbling Towards Ecstacy came out earlier this year as well, and McLachlan looks forward to making more new music in the days ahead, although she doesn’t expect the tunes to come quickly, as she’s the mother of two small children to whom she’s devoted.
“I’m going to work at a pace that makes sense for me — that I can still be the mother that I want to be,” she explained to Canoe-Jam!. It’s wonderful to be able to make that choice, to feel okay and be financially stable.”
Are you looking forward to more new music from Sarah McLachlan? Comment and let us know.
Promises, promises. FIrst Dr. Pepper said they would give a free can of the soft drink to everyone, and we mean everyone, if Guns N’ Roses long awaited Chinese Democracy saw the light of day in 2008. Now that it looks like there’s finally a real release date, Dr. Pepper reps aren’t talking. Maybe they’re still holding out hope that this time will be a rumor like all the rest.
Considering that Best Buy has announced an exclusive on the mysterious disc, which is estimated to be the most expensive album in the history of recording due to the too numerous to mention difficulties (Axl throwing CDs of prospective producers out the window and running over them with his car, building a chicken coop for guitarist Buckethead to play in, etc.), we’re thinking that this time it might really happen.
Our hunch is supported by the fact that 2 of the songs from the CD are featured in prominent projects: “Shackler’s Revenge” in Rock Band 2 and “If the World” in the new film Body of Lies starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.
So mark your calendars for Sunday (yep, not the usual Tuesday) November 23rd and take a drive over to Best Buy. Be sure to come thirsty, in case Dr. Pepper honors their promise.
If there’s no Chinese Democracy when you get there, will you have an Appetite For Destruction, or have you had your fill of G N’ R Lies over the years until your interest is just an ‘Illusion’? Comment and let us know.
Darius Rucker’s move to country may seem surprising to some, but the Hootie and the Blowfish singer says that if you didn’t hear it coming, you just weren’t listening.
“The people that are really freaking out are people that haven’t really listened to any Hootie records but [1994’s] Cracked Rear View,” Rucker told the Star-Telegram in a recent interview. “We had so much country influence in our music on our last four records; I think people that’ve heard those records aren’t surprised.”
What may surprise skeptics is that Rucker’s Learn to Live is the number one album on Billboard’s Country Album Chart this week, and his song “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It,” is at the top of the Country Singles chart too.
Do you think Rucker will have a long lasting career in Country, or will he be back to the Blowfish soon? Comment and let us know.
The songs on Jack’s Mannequin’s sophomore CD The Glass Passenger explore fragililty in many ways. Whether a love is leaving for college “at the turn of autumn” or a young man is dealing with his own mortality, as in the song “Caves”:
Beat my body like a rag doll
you stuck the needles in my hip
Said ‘we’re not gonna lie
Son, you just might die
Get you on that morphine drip, drip’
It’s no surprise that Andrew McMahon, leader of Jack’s Mannequin, would delve into such subjects. In 2005, McMahon was diagnosed with leukemia, and thanks to stem cell transplants and encouragement from fans and friends, he survived, and now thrives on the chance to share his music with the world.
Fans are responding fervently to the songs on The Glass Passenger on MySpace, calling it “beautiful and genius and perfect,” and saying that McMahon’s music “knows the curves to my soul.”
McMahon will be riding with The Glass Passenger and opener Eric Hutchinson on tour this fall.
