NEWS: STARS GET REMIXED

From Pitchfork.

"Since everybody and their mom has a remix album these days, why not Stars? According to the group's label, Arts&Crafts, Do You Trust Your Friends, a "track for track interpretation" of Stars' last album, 2004's Set Yourself on Fire, featuring the interpretive skills of Broken Social Scene, Metric, the Dears, the Elected, and Junior Boys, among others, is due out in the fall.

COMIC BOOK MOVIE/TV NEWS

Awesome.

FIRST, Bryan Singer announced at San Diego Comic Con that he would like to have the next Superman movie out in theaters in 2009.
Superman news story

NEXT, Hans emailed me this morning that the Aquaman TV show that never made it on the CW Network, is now available to buy on iTunes for $1.99. One of the commentors at the bottom said it was very good so take your chances.
Aquaman news story

LAST, Heath Ledger has been officially offered/signed on for the part of The Joker in the next Batman movie set for 2008. Apparently Robin Williams, Paul Bettany and Steve Buscemi was also rumored to be on the shortlist. "Batman will enlist the aid of Police Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent in bringing down the Joker... but not killing him. In the third movie, the Joker would go on trial, scarring Dent in the process."
Batman news story.

Not to mention Spiderman 3 is due out next summer.

DOWNLOAD COLD WAR KIDS 7-20 SHOW

Head over to Cable and Tweed for a review of the July 20th Cold War Kids and Sound Team show PLUS the whole CWK set for download.

Holla.

GIRL TALK

What is being dubbed 'The Party Album of the Year', Girl Talk brings us Night Ripper. One band member only, Gregg but HUNDREDS of tracks split together, Girl Talk is a wild good time. While all I can catch is recognizable snippets here and there, Ben Loves Music after one listen of 'Once Again' has a good ear and was able to catch:
Ciara - my goodies
Ludacris - pimpin' all over the world
(some guitar/piano sample i know but can't id)
Fabolous - breathe
Ying Yang Twins - wait (the whisper song)
The Verve - bittersweet symphony
Slim Thug- i ain't heard of that
N Sync - girlfriend (i THINK)
Oasis - wonderwall
Arrested Development - tennessee
Nina Simone - ooh child

Dag. That is a lot of work - FOR ONE TRACK! Imagine the full album. Check out Girl Talk's myspace page for a few tracks and The Hype Machine or Elbo.ws for more.

Buy it HERE for $10.99, homies!

STEPHEN FRETWELL - Magpie

Take some Springsteen(gravely voiced lyrics), Damien Rice (lamenting love and lovers) and David Gray (some deep, British feelings), and you have a solid Stephen Fretwell.

I first heard him on a February KCRW's Morning Becomes Ecletic with Nic Harcourt. (That show is still available at the KCRW website so be sure to check out the acoustic session). He had a few lovely songs, namely 'Whats That You Say Little Girl' and 'Emily', that caputred my attention and led me to his early 2006 debut, Magpie. Overall, the album is only 12 tracks long but feels like 24. He could have kept the 5 or so gems on here and maybe just kept it at a EP - that is all he had to do to make a great CD.

Definitely worth checking out and it is only $7.99 at Amazon!

More Fretwell at his myspace page.

What's That You Say Little Girl

Rose

Bad Bad You, Bad Bad Me

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL - Dusk and Summer

Oh, Mr. Carabba - what is a fan to do? Gone are the days of Chris strumming to himself at a quiet campfire. Like many other fan reviews I have read, the latest Dashboard Confessional CD, Dusk and Summer, misses it's mark. It starts off and you think, "Sweet. About time that I had another Dashboard CD CD in my hands", but quickly dissolves into a mess. Coming off his 'Vindicated' premier to the general public on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack last summer, Chris must have decided that his new direction of music was simply LOUD, boisterous, rambunctious and unrestrained.

From what I gathered in a SPIN magazine article, Chris/DC took 3 years off of recording and at some point, holed up with uber-producer Daniel Lanois of Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and U2 fame. What the two of them crafted is beyond me. It seems like a typical recording session with them went something like this:
Lanois: "All right, Chris, I need you to go higher on this song."
Chris: "Didn't we just do that on the last song?"
Lanois: "Yes but we need to go higher yet."
Chris: "O.K. AHHHHHHHHHH..."
Lanois "Higher..."
Chris: "AHHHHHHHHHH...(no vocal change noted)"
Lanois: "Higher!"
Chris: "AHHHHHHHH...(still no change)"
Lanois: "YES! THAT'S IT! HIGHER!"
Chris: "AHHHHHHHH...(still, nothing)"

And that is that. What follows are 10, mostly similar songs, packed together to form Dusk and Summer. While credit must be given for the few standouts, 'Secrets in the Telling', 'Rooftops and Invitations, a re-hashed version of 'So Long So Long' with Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows and 'Heaven is Here', the rest of the songs are quite possibly the same, just with a few different notes and words. Honestly, you can't tell much of a difference and if you aren't paying attention, the whole CD will be over before you knew what happened. It took me at least 4 full listens to detect changes between songs and what was actually worth listening to.

Check out these mp3s of the best on the album and the Dashboard Confessional myspace page for more.

If you really are compelled, do buy it.

LINKS REMOVED AT REQUEST OF RECORD LABEL
Secrets in the Telling
So Long So Long
Heaven Is Here

JOANNA

I don't know who Joanna is, where you can find more on her or what her other music sounds like, but I am a Dashboard Confessional fan and she covered the hit 'Screaming Infidelities' and it sounds nice. I have heard mumbo jumbo about how this takes on a whole different perspective hearing it from a girls mouth but, really... is this Oprah?

Stream it here or here.

OH NO! OH MY! on WOXY

*photo credit: WOXY Flickr set

Fans of previously posted Oh No! Oh My! will want to head over to You Ain't No Picasso. YANP made the trek to Cincinnati with the band for a WOXY Lounge Act and have the entire live set up for download. Rock it.

More Oh No! Oh My! at their Myspace page and you can buy ON!OM!'s debut album at Insound for $10.99.

Listen to more WOXY Lounge Acts HERE.

NEWS: Snippet of new Killers song released

Are we supposed to be thankful for this :40 second clip? I mean, really.

Does anyone else agree that it has been a year too long since they should have released their sophomore album instead of having the label put out like, 3 different packages of 'Hot Fuss'?

For :40 seconds of fun with audio, click here.

Also, from what I have seen of him lately, lead singer Brandon Flowers is rocking some queer cowpoke look. I will see if I can find that picture.

***ADDENDUM*** - numerous sources have full streams of the track ' '. Like So Much Silence. I agree with everyone - this song is not part of what Brandonw Flowers has deemed One of the best albums of the past 20 years".

NEW DAVID HASSELHOFF!!!

That's right, it's Hofficial... your favorite cult icon wants to take you home! The one and only David Hasselhoff of "Bay Watch" and "Knight Rider" fame returns with a cover of the 1975 classic 'Jump In My Car' and its a doozy.

Recorded in Sydney last year with the legendary Harry Vanda (AC/DC, The Angels), the Ted Mulry Gang tune has been re-vamped with full Hoff gusto and this music video promises to rock the socks off all his Hofficial fans. Watch it, enjoy it, share it on Google Video, courtesy of Sony BMG Australia.

Want more? If you live in Australia, you can buy the track on iTunes Australia.

Use the links below to view the video.
'Jump In My Car' on Google Video
Hoff's official SONY BMG site

DUE PROPS

I hate, HATE HATE HATE "Follow Me" by Unkle Crackerand most other things by him. Remember that horrible, HORRIBLE cover version of "Drift Away" he did? I think Dobie Gray> just about rolled out of his grave on that one. Isn't he supposed to be some kind of ruffian? Why does he make such estrogen filled music?

A SONG ACTUALLY DESERVING THEIR DUE PROPS, I think, is “Starry Eyed Surprise” (by Paul Oakenfold ft Shifty Shellshock of Crazy Town). It was underrated and didn’t get it’s fair share of attention. That should have been a 2002 summer hit. Now is it is in some mildly lame Diet Coke commerical.

Starry Eyed Surprise

NEWS: LATEST FROM THE INTERPOL CAMP - still together...working

Via Interpol's Site

"Hello everyone. Seeing that the website has lain furlough for a while, we felt that we owed you an update. And we’d imagine that in the absence of official emissions misinformation is rampant. So here it is:

Things are good. Gettin’ some rest... gettin' some sun. We did break up – four times - but that’s all behind us now. Carlos got a dog. His name is Gaius. Italian greyhound – looks like Carlos. Also, I think I’m moving to Jersey City; because that’s where the action is really at. Whoever the people on MySpace are, they’re not us.

In all seriousness, we’re hard at work on the writing of album three. We’ve been at it for six months - in case you heard we were on hiatus. We’re all very excited about it and think that you will be too. Having yet to record, we can only say that Release will come sometime next year.

As far as the website, check back for further developments and updates. And thanks for standing by. We have you all in our hearts and little pulsating musical minds. We can't offer much of a preview at present, but I can tell you we’ve got one gem in the works entitled "The Heinrich Maneuver." And another that was called "Pawn Shop." But that's called something else now.

Thank you for being with us. And we truly look forward to sharing with you our newest.

Interpol

So...I guess that's good.

The...Lamest...Trailer...........EVER

Seriously. Seriously? This is all that Michael Bay (the great, bad filmmaker of Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, etc.) can offer us? You've got be kidding me.

If interested, click on the link below to see a "trailer" for the upcoming Transformers move due out next July 4th. Yawn. It is lame unless you consider a potential shadow from a Transformer to be interesting.

Transformers trailer and official site

BETTER YET, check out the links below for some homemade, fan created, legit Transformer action.

HERE, and HERE and THIS TOO, I guess.