Artist: Dubphonic
Genre(s):
Dance
Discography:
Back to Mine
Year:
Tracks: 1
Friday 27 June 2008
Thursday 19 June 2008
LiveDaily Song of the Day: Albert Hammond, Jr. - "GfC"
Today's Song of the Day is by Albert Hammond, Jr. [ tickets ] The featured cut is "GfC," which appears on his forthcoming July release, "Como Te Llama?"
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Alison Pill Is an Unconvincing Ugly Girl in ‘Reasons to Be Pretty’
Photo: WireImage
If Alison Pill is supposed to be the ugly girl in Neil LaBute's new play, reasons to be pretty, is there really any reason for the rest of us to even try? When director Terry Kinney sent her the script, she told us at last night's opening-night party, "I read it and I went, Oh, thanks a lot, Terry. Great, I'm the ugly chick." That wasn't the first time that a role made her a little self-conscious about her looks, though; Pill told us that on the set of Dan in Real Life, the makeup artist put Whitestrips on her teeth without a word. "I thought it was normal until I asked the rest of the cast, and they said, 'No, I have no idea what you're talking about.' It was horrifying. I just kept thinking, Oh well, I guess my teeth are horrible to look at. Eventually I did it on my own at home." Now, in her role as the so-called ugly girl, Pill says she's been receiving not only great reviews — including a flat-out rave in this morning's Times — but lots of people coming up to her and reassuring her that she is, in fact, very pretty. "It goes to the heart of everyone's insecurities, including my own, and they're easy lines to say because Neil has written a girl who has the same questions that every woman has of how they're perceived by the outside world," she said. "So I mean, I didn't actually say to [Kinney], 'So you think I'm ugly?' I just kind of avoided that question." —Nina Mandell
If Alison Pill is supposed to be the ugly girl in Neil LaBute's new play, reasons to be pretty, is there really any reason for the rest of us to even try? When director Terry Kinney sent her the script, she told us at last night's opening-night party, "I read it and I went, Oh, thanks a lot, Terry. Great, I'm the ugly chick." That wasn't the first time that a role made her a little self-conscious about her looks, though; Pill told us that on the set of Dan in Real Life, the makeup artist put Whitestrips on her teeth without a word. "I thought it was normal until I asked the rest of the cast, and they said, 'No, I have no idea what you're talking about.' It was horrifying. I just kept thinking, Oh well, I guess my teeth are horrible to look at. Eventually I did it on my own at home." Now, in her role as the so-called ugly girl, Pill says she's been receiving not only great reviews — including a flat-out rave in this morning's Times — but lots of people coming up to her and reassuring her that she is, in fact, very pretty. "It goes to the heart of everyone's insecurities, including my own, and they're easy lines to say because Neil has written a girl who has the same questions that every woman has of how they're perceived by the outside world," she said. "So I mean, I didn't actually say to [Kinney], 'So you think I'm ugly?' I just kind of avoided that question." —Nina Mandell
Thursday 5 June 2008
Pop review: The Charlatans / Academy, Sheffield
The Charlatans have survived innumerable changes in their 20-year history, and singer Tim Burgess's haircut is as drastic as any of them. Wearing a skintight black suit, his latest barnet looks like a cross between a black Beatle bowl cut and a Louise Brooks 1920s bob. "Is it a hat?" one baffled lady ponders, and the bizarre black creation does indeed resemble a beret made of hair.
The barnet is even more incongruous, given the band's latest musical shift. After recent years steeped in classic rock, they've finally given into Burgess's teenage New Order obsession, which informs the new album, You Cross My Path. Initially given away as a free download, it may be their best effort and the band seem justifiably proud, shunning their greatest hits in favour of the exhilarating, dark-edged pop of Mis-takes and melancholy anthem This Is the End. However, gradually the two-hour set reflects the spectrum of their career: a psychedelic Sproston Green, an urgent Weirdo, a rousing One to Another, a jagged, edgy How High, and an awkward Judas, from Burgess's curious falsetto period.
Although the now LA-based Burgess looks like an impostor in his own band, it's almost beautiful to watch him as - arms flapping around - the 41-year-old commands the crowd like an orchestral conductor. During a glorious double whammy of headrushing recent single Oh! Vanity and classic The Only One I Know, it is all too much for one girl, who rushes the stage and is rewarded with a dance with Burgess. For a few moments, they remain deep in conversation. Maybe she is asking, "Where did you get that haircut?"!
· At Hyde Park, London, on June 28 (details: www.hydeparkcalling.co.uk).
See Also
Tuesday 3 June 2008
Lees adds star quality to drama school
Veteran Kiwi actor Nathaniel Lees, who has starred in The Matrix movies, Sione's Wedding and has appeared regularly on television, is now teaching star-struck drama students in Wellington.
Ashlee Simpson, Bittersweet World
Ashlee Simpson's third album Bittersweet World is the product of more than a year in the studio and collaboration with some heavyweight producers including the omnipresent Timbaland and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes.
Previously known more for headlines – the infamous Saturday Night Live lip-synching fiasco and relationship with Fallout Boy rocker Pete Wentz – than her music, Ashlee's latest project deserves recognition as a credible threat to the work of Britney, Pink and Avril.
Personally speaking, Ashlee's matured since albums one and two, which nevertheless both went multi-platinum and hit the US number one spot. Indeed, she recently married Wentz in an Alice In Wonderland themed ceremony, and is rumoured to be expecting their first child.
Musically she has now come to terms with her market, and has even learned to celebrate it, lyrically proclaiming herself a mischievous "Sunday school girl" and "Little Miss Perfect". The aim was to make a party record of fun songs, and she's certainly achieved that, though the result is a relatively immature product.
The album's collaborators add gravitas. Timbaland stays mostly behind the scenes but pops up on the funky, Missy Elliott-esque Murder. Santogold's Santi White co-wrote Outta My Head alongside Kenna, while Plain White T's singer Tom Higgenson duets with Simpson on single choice, Little Miss Obsessive. This pop-rock power ballad is the album's standout success and deserves to take Ashlee to the forefront of female pop.
No Time For Tears is a stylish lament and the album's one ballad, Never Dream Alone, is perfectly produced to tug at your heartstrings. Yet even on this vocally-focused track, Ashlee's lung power fails to dazzle.
On strong songs she's reminiscent of Britney and Kelly Clarkson, but too often she relies on talk-singing and shouty choruses. She can obviously hold a tune – she is the youngest person ever to play lead role Roxie in Chicago - it's just a shame she never really tests herself. This album will deservedly shunt her into the spotlight, but time will tell whether Ashlee can come through with the vocal power to match her true potential.
See Also
Zooey Deschanel and M Ward plot US tour
M Ward and actress/singer Zooey Deschanel have announced the dates of a North American tour this summer.
The duo, known as She And Him, are set to kick off their tour in Toronto on July 23.
They'll then play shows in cities including Philadelphia, New York, Nashville and Chicago before wrapping things up at Washington DC's V Fest on August 10.
She And Him are supporting their recent debut album, 'Volume One'.
The tour dates are:
Toronto, ONT Opera House (July 23)
Northampton, MA Academy of Music (24)
Philadelphia, PA Trocadero (25)
New York, NY Terminal 5 (26)
Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle (28)
Atlanta, GA Varsity Playhouse (29)
Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge (30)
Asheville, NC Orange Peel (31)
Newport, RI Newport Folk Festival (August 2)
Chicago, IL Park West (5)
Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (7)
Madison, WI Barrymore (8)
Washington, DC V Fest (10)
--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.
Jun 7, 2008 at Joiners, Southampton -
Jun 8, 2008 at Freebutt, Brighton -
More NME tickets
The duo, known as She And Him, are set to kick off their tour in Toronto on July 23.
They'll then play shows in cities including Philadelphia, New York, Nashville and Chicago before wrapping things up at Washington DC's V Fest on August 10.
She And Him are supporting their recent debut album, 'Volume One'.
The tour dates are:
Toronto, ONT Opera House (July 23)
Northampton, MA Academy of Music (24)
Philadelphia, PA Trocadero (25)
New York, NY Terminal 5 (26)
Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle (28)
Atlanta, GA Varsity Playhouse (29)
Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge (30)
Asheville, NC Orange Peel (31)
Newport, RI Newport Folk Festival (August 2)
Chicago, IL Park West (5)
Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (7)
Madison, WI Barrymore (8)
Washington, DC V Fest (10)
--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.
Jun 7, 2008 at Joiners, Southampton -
Jun 8, 2008 at Freebutt, Brighton -
More NME tickets
Neil Aspinall - a story worth telling
The title “The Fifth Beatle” has been conferred on various individuals for
over 40 years. Brian Epstein and George Martin had solid claims to it, Pete
Best and Stuart Sutcliffe, one time band members, also had claims. But Neil
Aspinall, whose name few music fans know and even fewer would have
recognised in the street, had one of the strongest claims of all.
In their heyday in the sixties The Beatles had what their biographer Hunter
Davies called “paid mates”. There were two of them, Neil Aspinall and Mal
Evans, and they acted variously as roadies, assistants, drivers, gofers and,
yes, paid mates. Aspinall went back the furthest. He was at school at the
Liverpool Institute with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. And he survived
the longest, Evans dying in strange circumstances in a police shoot out in
America in 1976.
Aspinall went pretty much everywhere with The Beatles, always just out of
camera shot when pictures were taken, always just away from the platform at
the Fab Four press conferences. In 1961 he even became romantically involved
with the mother of the then Beatles drummer Pete Best and fathered a child
with her, though she was 20 years his senior.
After the band broke up he went back to his first love of accountancy and was
chosen by The Beatles to run their company, Apple. There were two reasons
for this. First, he proved to be a very good accountant. Perhaps as
importantly in the bitter aftermath of The Beatles’ break-up, he was the
only person that all four trusted.
As chief executive of Apple, his financial skills must have surprised even The
Beatles. He helped to multiply their fortunes many times over, with
initiatives such as the successful court case with Apple computers over use
of the name. His cautious protectiveness of the group’s interests did not
always help the fans – the Beatles were late entrants on to the CD market,
for example. But, equally, he never allowed the brand to be compromised
through such things as use of the music for adverts.
I met Aspinall in the 1990s at the time of the release of the Anthology
albums of Beatles’ alternative takes and unreleased tracks. I asked him why
he had never until that point had any visible presence or spoken to the
media. He replied that The Beatles had so much to say, what was the point of
someone like him stepping into the limelight?
Maybe. But, for all the innumerable biographies of the biggest group in
popular music history, this was the one person who knew them since they were
all teenagers and also knew the secrets of their business empire. His would
have been a story worth hearing.
See Also
Emily The Strange Headed To The Big Screen
Cult character Emily the Strange is headed to big screen, with a feature film in development that plans to reveal her back story and the origins of her four cats.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed the news after speaking with the president of Dark Horse Entertainment, Mike Richardson, who said, "Emily herself is a very appealing little girl, there's an edge to her. There is something very alluring to her image; people see it and respond to it immediately."
Emily the Strange was designed in the early 1990's by skateboarder Rob Reger, who is still the creative director of the brand, and features on everything from t-shirts, handbags and her own comic book.
The movie concept has no studio backing as yet, and THR reports that there has been no decision on whether the movie will be "live-action, animation or a combination of the two." A decision on the lead actress has yet to be made.
NEXT: Ashlee Simpson-Wentz: The Dog Ate My Tour
Photo courtesy of Cosmic Debris.
I don't want Charlie's sperm, Denise says
Denise Richards claims an alleged email from her to Charlie Sheen's fiancee Brooke Mueller asking for a sperm donation from him is "not legitimate".
Legendary Rock Radio Station 'WNEW' Finds New Life On-Air, Online And On-Demand
The Past Meets The Present When The Formidable WNEW Returns Featuring
Unparalleled 30-Year Archive Of Historic Interviews And Live Performances
By Rock Immortals Presented In A Contemporary Musical Context
Listeners To 'Staff' The Station And Its Website As Hosts And Contributors
Social Networking Component Available Through CBS Corporation's Last.fm;
Site To Host Station's Custom Group And Provide Audience Access To Its Free
On-Demand Music Service
NEW YORK, April 14 -- Today marks a milestone in rock 'n
roll history as celebrated rock station WNEW marks its triumphant return
on-air (102.7 HD 2 in New York) and online (http://www.wnew.com). The legendary
station has been reborn for the passionate rock music fan in the spirit of
WNEW-FM's commitment to exposing the best new artists.
Completely updated to reflect its historical influence on today's
contemporary rock scene, the revolutionary new WNEW.com features recordings
from the dawn of the album era in the late 60s and early 70s through today,
as well as music from the most promising emerging artists yet to be
discovered by the masses. Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Spoon, and Vampire
Weekend will be among those featured along with the likes of REM, Foo
Fighters, The White Stripes, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.
In addition, thousands of hours of archival interviews by former WNEW
hosts Scott Muni, Dave Herman, and Richard Neer, among others, with such
artists as John Lennon, The Who, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie will be
integrated hourly throughout the station's on-air and online programming.
Also finding a home on WNEW.com's lineup will be exclusive live
performances from artists who contributed to the station's storied history.
The modernized WNEW.com will also offer the listening audience a
complete interactive and social networking experience through the station's
website (http://www.wnew.com) and CBS Corporation's Last.fm (http://www.last.fm). Using
these two online portals, fans can listen on demand, share feedback about
the former and current station, join dedicated groups, meet fellow WNEW
listeners and become a part of the station's "staff." Staff members will
have the opportunity to program and participate in the presentation of the
station and its website through a series of on-air and online initiatives
including blogs, concert reviews, music forums, and artist profiles.
At the helm of this ambitious project is Norm Winer, CBS RADIO Vice
President of Adult Rock Programming, and, for more than 25 years, the
award-winning Program Director of the landmark WXRT in Chicago. He said,
"As a music fan and radio geek who grew up in Brooklyn listening to the
original WNEW, I'm excited to help recapture the spirit and philosophy of
progressive radio, using tools we never dreamed of back in the early days.
With the foundation of a timeless and totally one-of-a-kind archive, we
will provide rock devotees of all generations the chance to hear incredible
moments from our collective past and enable them to connect the dots to
rock's most compelling artists of the present and future."
Special programming on the influential station will include:
-- Interview With an Icon: showcases classic extended on-air interviews
with rock legends from WNEW-FM;
-- Live From the Archives: vintage performances from rock's most prominent
artists. In addition to the vaults of WNEW-FM, the station will have
access to the recorded treasures of many of CBS RADIO's prominent radio
stations such as WBCN in Boston, and WXRT in Chicago;
-- Emerging and Amazing: the station will regularly debut music from
rising artists and those whose names are not yet known to the listening
audience;
Launched as a free-form progressive rock station on Oct. 31, 1967,
WNEW-FM is considered the first station of its kind in the nation. It
quickly went on to become both an institution and a piece of radio history
for which it is remembered today. The station rocked New York City for
three decades breaking some of the biggest artists of all time, including
David Bowie, Elton John, and The Talking Heads. To many who grew up in the
60s and 70s, WNEW-FM remains to this day the embodiment of the times,
turmoil and tunes of those eras in New York City.
Unparalleled 30-Year Archive Of Historic Interviews And Live Performances
By Rock Immortals Presented In A Contemporary Musical Context
Listeners To 'Staff' The Station And Its Website As Hosts And Contributors
Social Networking Component Available Through CBS Corporation's Last.fm;
Site To Host Station's Custom Group And Provide Audience Access To Its Free
On-Demand Music Service
NEW YORK, April 14 -- Today marks a milestone in rock 'n
roll history as celebrated rock station WNEW marks its triumphant return
on-air (102.7 HD 2 in New York) and online (http://www.wnew.com). The legendary
station has been reborn for the passionate rock music fan in the spirit of
WNEW-FM's commitment to exposing the best new artists.
Completely updated to reflect its historical influence on today's
contemporary rock scene, the revolutionary new WNEW.com features recordings
from the dawn of the album era in the late 60s and early 70s through today,
as well as music from the most promising emerging artists yet to be
discovered by the masses. Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Spoon, and Vampire
Weekend will be among those featured along with the likes of REM, Foo
Fighters, The White Stripes, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.
In addition, thousands of hours of archival interviews by former WNEW
hosts Scott Muni, Dave Herman, and Richard Neer, among others, with such
artists as John Lennon, The Who, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie will be
integrated hourly throughout the station's on-air and online programming.
Also finding a home on WNEW.com's lineup will be exclusive live
performances from artists who contributed to the station's storied history.
The modernized WNEW.com will also offer the listening audience a
complete interactive and social networking experience through the station's
website (http://www.wnew.com) and CBS Corporation's Last.fm (http://www.last.fm). Using
these two online portals, fans can listen on demand, share feedback about
the former and current station, join dedicated groups, meet fellow WNEW
listeners and become a part of the station's "staff." Staff members will
have the opportunity to program and participate in the presentation of the
station and its website through a series of on-air and online initiatives
including blogs, concert reviews, music forums, and artist profiles.
At the helm of this ambitious project is Norm Winer, CBS RADIO Vice
President of Adult Rock Programming, and, for more than 25 years, the
award-winning Program Director of the landmark WXRT in Chicago. He said,
"As a music fan and radio geek who grew up in Brooklyn listening to the
original WNEW, I'm excited to help recapture the spirit and philosophy of
progressive radio, using tools we never dreamed of back in the early days.
With the foundation of a timeless and totally one-of-a-kind archive, we
will provide rock devotees of all generations the chance to hear incredible
moments from our collective past and enable them to connect the dots to
rock's most compelling artists of the present and future."
Special programming on the influential station will include:
-- Interview With an Icon: showcases classic extended on-air interviews
with rock legends from WNEW-FM;
-- Live From the Archives: vintage performances from rock's most prominent
artists. In addition to the vaults of WNEW-FM, the station will have
access to the recorded treasures of many of CBS RADIO's prominent radio
stations such as WBCN in Boston, and WXRT in Chicago;
-- Emerging and Amazing: the station will regularly debut music from
rising artists and those whose names are not yet known to the listening
audience;
Launched as a free-form progressive rock station on Oct. 31, 1967,
WNEW-FM is considered the first station of its kind in the nation. It
quickly went on to become both an institution and a piece of radio history
for which it is remembered today. The station rocked New York City for
three decades breaking some of the biggest artists of all time, including
David Bowie, Elton John, and The Talking Heads. To many who grew up in the
60s and 70s, WNEW-FM remains to this day the embodiment of the times,
turmoil and tunes of those eras in New York City.
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