Happy Tuesday Mixtapers! Welcome to yet another stunning, flawless, amazing, giving you SAM GOODY REALNESS better than your favorite edition of the Majak Mixtape, where pop culture hides out when it realizes that the rhymthm is, in fact, going to get them. It's Tunesday, one of our favorite days of the week here at the Mixtape as we serve up some new album realness. Today, we're going to be dishing about new albums from The Raveonettes, The Kills, Cold Cave, Mint Condition, Jim Jones as well as Katy Perry's recent foray in "Avatar" land, the YouTube music video that makes us long for Rebecca Black and more. Oh yeah, it's a jam packed edition so we hope you applied your lacefront with Super Glue this morning because we're leaving every one of you bald headed by the time this post is over with. Okay? Okay.
But before we get to all of the tunes, let us do what we do best and:
First up in music tea, Britney Spears is planning to release not one but two versions of the music video for her current single "Till the World Ends" so we can appreciate all her intricate hair-flipping choreography in the uncut manner God intended. In a move that can only be described as setting up Ms. Spears for failure, it was announced that there would be a more centered around an apocalyptic storyline while the other version will have the "unabridged" version of Britney Spears' dance moves according to gossip website JustJared.
We'd be excited if this was 2003, and Britney Spears did dance moves that were more complicated than exercise routines for senior citizens down at the YMCA. But it's not and she won't and the whole thing would just be better if Britney Spears' people hired the people behind "Black Swan" to add CGI her face onto the body of somebody who can actually dance. And maybe they could get around to adding some life behind her eyes too, but we're not quite sure if technology has become that advanced yet.
Also, it's been rumored that she-who-hasn't-met-a-feature-she-wouldn't-turn-down Nicki Minaj is going to be opening for Britney Spears when Ms. Spears goes on the road. We hear that Britney might dub her upcoming tour "My Half-Assed Torpedo of Dancing/Live Vocals Are Not an Option." And while Nicki Minaj is opening for Britney Spears, we hear whispers that Lil Kim recently signed on to open a piece of junk mail.
Elsewhere, taking a page out of the Whoopi Goldberg book of IS YOU SERIOUS WITH THIS, Rosie O'Donnell has taken to her Twitter to defend Chris Brown. O'Donnell assailed the media's treatment of Chris Brown in relation to the way that other stars like Charlie Sheen get a free pass for his bad boy antics. You know, we'll actually give Rosie some points for this since it is sort of ridiculous that Charlie Sheen can do whatever he feels like and seemingly gets away with nary a worry, but Charlie Sheen has also always been a bad boy. Who, other than maybe juvenile delinquents, has ever seen Charlie Sheen has some bright beacon of hope and guidance. Chris Brown, on the other hand, went out of his way to make himself a role model figure. But still, we were going to give Rosie some space on this issue since she did raise some valid points.
That was until she decided to tweet about how she thought "he was a victim too." GURL.BYE. Chris Brown ain't a victim of nothing but of his own bad judgment and a truly suspect dye job. The man ended up selling more in his first week for his current album than Rihanna did for "Loud" so we're thinking he's going to be just fine as long as he stays away from breaking windows and pop star's faces.
In news we're still I CAN'T-ing over, crooner Michael Bublé got married this Saturday and while the ceremony was going on, somebody broke into his house and stole all kinds of crap, going as far as disarming the security cameras and alarms to pull off the burglary. We heard it was most likely the ghost of Frank Sinatra, trying to get his swagger back from Buble.
And that, my lovelies, is the tea for today. Continue reading to get your new music on.
Greetings and salutations my lovely Mixtapers! We're about to serve up some TOWER RECORDS REALNESS as we delve into all the various releases that you should have all up and through your iPod. We simply adore this time of year as artists are putting out great spring albums before the wave of summer releases with everybody trying to vie for the jam of the summer reduces everything to a musical mess of daisy dukes and bikinis on top.
(Sidenote: Can we just talk about Katy Perry's latest video for her song "E.T."? The video itself is like "Born This Way" with half as much pretentiousness as Katy thankfully doesn't spend the first third of the video with a kaleidoscope va-jay-jay, giving birth to a little monster the way that Lady GaGa did. Also, we're always impressed when Katy Perry puts out a music video that doesn't have something shooting of her famous rack. Looking at you "California Gurls" and "Fireworks." It's the closest thing to restraint we're even going to get from the aggressively tacky "Teenage Dream" singer. We're not quite sure why Kanye West is on the track or in the video other than the fact that his ego has its own gravitational pull.)
First album up is the return of The Kills and their awesome album "Blood Pressure." Below, the first single "Satellite" because apparently everybody is giving some ASTRONOMY REALNESS at the moment.
We've had a strong love of The Kills since their debut album "Keep on Your Mean Side," an album whose title quickly became our own mantra for life. With their fuzzy brand of lo-fi rock music, The Kills came out and made a strong first impression on the first album, dodging obvious comparisons to the White Stripes by developing their own unique sound with songs like the rollicking "Cat Claw."
We also enjoyed their second album "No Wow," but we completely fell in head-over-heels love with their third album "Midnight Boom." We weren't the only ones as tracks from the album started appearing all over the soundtracks of films and television shows, particularly the song "URA Fever" found great prominence on "Gossip Girl" when that show was at its zeitgeist peak in its first and second seasons. Our favorite track off The Kills' "Midnight Boom" album was probably "Cheap and Cheerful" because it's not just a song; it's also our requirement when go on escort websites.
Now The Kills are back with a brand new album. We appreciate it greatly that The Kills didn't try to make a "Midnight Boom 2: Lost in New York." While "Midnight Boom" had a slightly wonderful glossy tint a la PJ Harvey's big shiny "Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea," "Blood Pressure" has an intimate, more mellow feel overall. Don't confuse mellow with boring though. The Kills haven't become boring. They just are bludgeoning you with their awesomeness in the same. Alisson Mosshart's vocals really get to shine on this album in interesting ways, like on the track cabaret-ish "The Last Goodbye." We also love "Future Starts Slow," shown below in a live performance from "Live in Session" from BBC.
We interrupt this mixtape to bring you a thirty second preview of Britney Spears' new music video "Till the World Ends."
We'll reserve full judgment for Wednesday, but we're pretty sure that Britney Spears should fire whoever thought it was a great idea to dress her up like she's Samantha Fox.
In other awesome releases, The Raveonettes are back with a brand new album "Raven in the Grave." Below their single "Recharge and Revolt."
We used to be obsessed with The Raveonettes when we were in college, particularly their debut album "Chain Gang of Love." From the the 1950s/1960s homages that permeated the disc's music to the cover that served up some "The Wild Ones" realness, we were truly enamored with everything that The Raveonettes did on the album, particularly their song "Great Love Sound."
We lost touch with the Raveonettes for a period of time but find ourselves back in the throes of love with the release of "Raven in the Grave." Not unlike The Kills' "Blood Pressure," "Raven in the Grave" find the Raveonettes embracing some of the more mellow parts of themselves without sacrificing style or interest in the process. The fundamentals of a good Raveonettes song are still there with the trading back and forth of the guy/girl vocals as well as a strong ear for writing smart hooks. And they still can write an uptempo rock tune that is just brimming with youthful abandon.
But it's the quieter moments like "Forget That You're Young" that allows the band to show off in a different sort of way. Without the bombast, you're left with a truly beautiful, almost ethereal tune that lovingly showcases Sharin Foo's voice.
Next up, rapper Jim Jones has a new album out. We know nothing about except a) we'd probably never drink any Kool-Aid he offered us and b) his girlfriend Chrissy is currently acting a hot mess on VH-1's program "Love and Hip-Hop."
And really isn't that all we need to know at this point? Anyway, Jim Jones has put out an album today and here is some track off of it.
You know what hip-hop videos need more of? Sign language interpreters. But can sign language capture the magic of Auto-Tune? We don't think so.
Also out with a new release is synthpop act Cold Cave and his/their new album "Cherish the Light Years." Below, the single "The Great Pan is Dead."
Next up, Minnesotan R and B group Mint Condition are back for a new album "7. . ." as part of the ever increasing wave of boy bands who are making comebacks of sorts. We'll always love Mint Condition for their tune "Breakin My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)."
And here is their current single "Caught My Eye."
Speaking of boy bands gone all adult, Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block have a new song out called "Don't Turn On the Lights," which we never would if we had to have sex with Backstreet Boys' AJ McLean.
You know what's a damn shame? When your big single sounds like a tune that was rejected by the guys from "Big Time Rush." The thing that we loved about both NKOTB and BSB is that they were groups that had a strong sense of pop melody.
Lastly, we end this mixtape on a big ole video of fail. The YouTube is constantly bringing us new artists to either love or scorn with equal measure. Today we bring you the magic that is Kory Shore and his song "Crying for America." According to his YouTube account, 14-year-old Kory Shore is "aware of current events and has downloaded the Constitution app on his iPhone." He's practically a Rhodes Scholar at this point.
You know what kept this song from being completely amazeballs? "I wonder if we'll all end up/Is my generation out of luck" should have totally been "Is my generation totally fucked." That would have made this art. We're counting down to Kory Shore's inevitable performance on Fox News. You know it's going to happen as Glenn Beck cries in the background.
And with that, we end today's Mixtape. As always, we wish you love, peace and downloads! BRING ON THE DANCE MUSIC!
See you tomorrow Mixtapers!
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