Author: "DaytonOConnor"

Azealia Banks has kept mum in the past about some potential collaborations with some of pop’s heaviest hitters despite some heavy teases. So how do you get a burgeoning star like Banks to spill the beans? Have the interview in another country! I mean, it’s not like everything is recorded and uploaded to the internet for everyone to see these days, right?

Brazil’s Mix TV got a couple of heavy scoops when they spoke with the 20 year old rapper and got right down to brass tacks. So you worked with Kanye West right? What was it like making music with Lady Gaga?

Woah gorgeous Brazilian interviewer, don’t you think you’re being a little forward? Weren’t those collabs just rumors and conjecture?

Continue reading ‘Azealia Banks Dishes On Gaga And Kanye Collaborations, Gets Subtitled In Brazilian Interview’

Did you know that the internet can be used as a forum for intelligent discussion and as a platform for discovery? It’s true!

PSY’s “Gangnam Style” is a viral smash, the likes of which has never been seen before. It’s been viewed hunderds of millions of times (north of 550 million at press time). It’s already got the Guiness World record for being the most liked video of all time. But it doesn’t look like that’s the only record the video is going to smash.

The good nerds over at ChannelMeter have access to reams of proprietary Youtube data on popular channels and videos. On Friday, the company posted a piece to their industry analysis blog Inside ChannelMeter that stated, according to their projections,”Gangnam Style” would be the first video to break the billion view barrier.

That the clip is already on its way to being the most watched video on Youtube is already a foregone conclusion; ChannelMeter bets that “Gangnam Style” will pass Justin Bieber’s “Baby” on or before November 21st. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Continue reading ‘FACT: PSY’s “Gangnam Style” Will Be The First Video With A Billion Views’

Has it really been ten years since the release of Give Up, the debut album from electronic duo The Postal Service? Not quite, but it will be in about five months. Wow, I’m getting old.

So when can nostalgics and fans of fey indie rock/electronic music expect a followup from the group comprised of Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello aka Dntel? Probably not for a long time, if ever.

In a recent interview with Spinner, Gibbard stressed that while he enjoyed composing and creating with Tamborello as The Postal Service, the whole electronic music production thing just isn’t his bag, man.

Continue reading ‘Is The Postal Service Going To Deliver Another Album Any Time Soon? Don’t “Hold Your Breath,” Says Gibbard’

It’s not easy being brutal. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into playing hard—you have to rock if you want to roll in OurStage’s Metal Channel. But it takes more than musical chops to make it in the metal. After all, a band might have all the talent and drive in the world but they can’t shred without strings! Fortunately, Ernie Ball is here to help. One band in the Metal Channel will win a free supply of strings in the “Ernie Ball Metal Competition”! Which band that’ll be is up to you. So haul your ass over to the Metal Channel and get judging, folks! Time is running out and these metal heads need your help! The competition ends on October 31st.

We remember the days when the big music video reigned supreme. They used to be marketing tools without compare; there was no better way of cementing the image and character of an act than a big budget music video and a daring, creative, or iconic production was equivalent to buying one’s way onto the playlists of the major cable music channels.

But that era is long gone. People just don’t make videos like they used to, for two big reasons. One, the decreased fortunes of the music industry at large. Two, we live in the era of democratic technology. Anyone can be a director! The pros and cons there are obvious. Joe Filmmaker over here tries to make something on the fly for his band. Cheap, quick, and easy. And chances are it’s not going to connect with a large audience. No, the competition that creative types face on the Internet make it impossible to rise above the rabble without a compelling product. But this is a sword with two edges. Do you think you would’ve heard of PSY’s über-anthem “Gangnam Style” without the game-changing visual accompaniment? Maybe. But the clip holds up impressively without the audio to go with it. Continue reading ‘Music Videos: Going From Budget Sucks To Revenue Streams’

So what’s the deal with metal bands and bus accidents lately? And what’s the deal with airline food?

Shadows Fall and God Forbid were the butt of some cosmic joke yesterday when the tour bus that the two groups were sharing caught fire after a show in Lexington, Kentucky.

This most recent metal band bus-related incident comes on the heels of Baroness’ harrowing bus crash and Between The Buried And Me’s scary sounding bus issues (another engine fire, though that time while the bus was en route to the next tour stop and the bands were asleep onboard!) and subsequent light hearted reaction to said issues. (“Dadgum flame come shootin out. Peeewwww eeehhhhh sometin’ stank.”)

Continue reading ‘Shadows Fall And God Forbid’s Tour Bus Catches Fire’

The British tabloids are abuzz today with word that pop starlet Rihanna would be receiving a £5 million, or over $8 million USD, pay day for turning on the lights.

Now these aren’t ordinary lights. It’s not as though the Barbadian singer is getting paid every time she flicks the lights off when she leaves a room! Though it begs the question what kind of residuals dimmer switches bring in.

No, RiRi is getting the big bucks to turn on the holiday lights at Westfield Stratford City, a shopping complex in East London and one of the largest such complexes in the European Union. Granted, she’s also performing a concert as part of the lighting ceremony, but who cares about that!

Continue reading ‘Is Rihanna Getting Millions For Flicking A Light Switch?’

I hope you all had a G.O.O.D. Cruel Summer. It’s time to head back to Cruel School, just in time for Cruel Fall. And it’ll be Cruel Winter before you know it.

Q-Tip, one of the more sage members of Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music clique, dished some heavy information in an interview with HipHopSince1987, a blog whose name is self explanatory. Like his ancestry; the title for Q-Tip’s upcoming fourth solo record, The Last Zulu, was inspired by his discovery of his South African Zulu lineage thanks to a birthday DNA test courtesy of his manager. Forensic genealogy, now that’s a thoughtful gift idea.

But Q-Tip, real name Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, wasn’t done talking records.

Continue reading ‘Watch Q-Tip Talk New Solo Album, Heritage, And Tease “Cruel Winter” Details’

It’s probably good to be Abel Tesfaye, frontman of much hyped R&B act The Weeknd. Though you wouldn’t be able to tell that from his dour lyrics about his philandering ways, trifling women, and copious drug use.

But Abel, you’ve got a lot going for you! After all, we inch ever closer to the release of your group’s first full length, Trilogy, the compilation album that features remastered versions of your band’s previous mixtape releases House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, along with some new material. And that album trailer for Trilogy that came out last week was pretty snazzy too!

Oh and that new video you just put out yesterday is really great too! Yes, really! Yeah, the super atmospheric black and white one that The Weeknd just did for “Wicked Games” that can be seen after the jump.

Continue reading ‘The Weeknd Give “Wicked Games” A Visual Treatment Ahead Of ‘Trilogy’ Release’

Kids these days.

Chicago rapper Chief Keef has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since he broke into the mainstream. His ascension mythos is well documented, having recorded the music video for “I Don’t Like” in his grandmother’s house while Keef (real name: Keith Cozart), was under house arrest. Though Keef’s star has risen considerably since then, his penchant for transgressive behavior hasn’t been diminished.

There’s the asinine but forgivable instagram photos of Keef and a paramour engaging in… relations. There were the regrettable and reprehensible tweets that came from Keef’s account following the shooting death of fellow Chicago rapper Lil Jojo. In his defense Keef alleged that he had been hacked and that the incident has changed his outlook on how he uses the micro-blogging service.

But the most recent episode in the Chief Keef saga may have the deepest and most lasting repercussions for him and his rap career and could potentially result in the rapper’s incarceration.

Continue reading ‘Chief Keef Might Have Violated His Probation In Pitchfork Gun Range Interview’