January Music News Round-up

Just a collection of news articles related to music I read this month.

First up is this article from the Sydney Morning Herald about the resurgence of vinyl. I've talked a few times about vinyl on this blog and I think it's no surprise to all the other vinyl hoarders like myself that the attraction of it far outweigh it's minuses.

This second article is about the best viral music videos of 2008 including, you guessed it, ANJ's Gorbachev tribute. There's a few more surprising finds in there, definitely worth a look at.

Third is an article from the New York Times about the state of Hip Hop in China. Why is it that almost always, the best and most meaningful Hip Hop is born in situations of adversity?

Marina & The Diamonds - Obsession

Marina & The Diamonds, "Obsessions" from Neon Gold Records on Vimeo.

Marina & The Diamond's first single "Obsessions" is being released this February (Valentine's Day to be exact) on Neon Gold records. The first 50 people who order one will get one that's signed by Marina herself! I'm feeling this pop single, it's a bit like Tori Amos and Kate Bush redone for the the millennium and Marina's luscious husky voice is oh so sexy.

Click here to go Neon Gold's online store.

The Wangcaster

We all knew guitars were a bit of a phallic symbol but big props to Doug Rowell for bringing brutal honesty to this hand carved guitar body and headstock. This guitar has balls! I love it.

First seen over at Disgrasian.

Goh Nakamura and Big Phony playing Live this January 30th

Just a shout out to the blog readers in the San Fran area, Goh Nakamura and Big Phony who I have talked about in past entries (here and here) will be playing a 2 live sets back to back - one with a band and another unplugged and acoustic. Check out the flyer for more details or visit Goh's or Bigphony's homepage.

Click here to go to Goh Nakamura's homepage.

Click here to go to Bigphony's Myspace page.

Hikaru Utada - Come Back to Me

If you don't happen to know who Hikaru is, she's a Japanese pop singer who was raised in New York. She was a popstar in Japan with a huge following who tried a few years ago to cross over to the States but, unfortunately for her, her first English language album was largely overlooked and quickly forgotten. Perhaps it was the somewhat nonsensical lyrics (and not in a Pixies cool nonsensical way) such as " You're easy-breezy, I'm Japanesy" that really killed it. Seriously, what the hell was she thinking? Anyway, Hikaru's made a new English language album and it's set to be released soon. The first single "Come back to me" is available for previewing at her Myspace page.

Click here to go to Hikaru's Myspace page.

My thoughts on it are that I'm not too impressed. It sounds alot like Akon's "Sorry, Blame it on me". Maybe because the chords are similar. In any event, I think Akon did it first and did it better.

Connections part 3 Chris Isaak and His Infernal Majesty

Chris Isaak first hit it big when songs from his first album were featured in David Lynch's Blue Velvet but "Wicked Game" is by far his most memorable music legacy (incidentally, also featured in another David Lynch production albeit as an instrumental). The clip too, shot in black and white and featuring Chris and supermodel Helena Christensen rolling around on a beach was an instant classic too, later being voted number 1 in MTV's Sexiest Video Ever countdown. This was all back in 1991.



Seven years later, Finnish tongue in cheek love metal band, His Infernal Majesty widely known both for the heartagram logo as well as their acronym HIM, recorded their palm muted metal inspired tribute by listening to a tape copy of David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" soundtrack and thus this new version was born. I'm pretty impressed with HIM's vocalist Ville Valo's vocals (sorry, I just had to write that). Just like there being no good covers of Morrisey songs, Chris Isaak's emotionally charged vocals are nigh impossible to recreate with the same amount of intensity and feeling but I feel Ville did a great job of getting close. Great vocals and a great metal intepretation of the original make for a great cover. It doesn't surpass the original but instead adds a new twist on an old favourite.

Welcome to 2009

I'm slowly recovering from New Year's eve and I hope everybody else's head is feeling a bit better now that it's evening on the first day of the new year here in Perth, Western Australia.

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I'm going back to University for a post graduate course. The bad news is that, while writing a blog entry everyday for 3 months was a fun and educational experience, I don't think I'll be able to devote quite so much time to the blog this year as study will be my main focus. Anyway, hope everybody is enjoying themselves while the year is still fresh. Take it easy and don't drink too much.