2013 Mini-Album Reviews Part One: Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae, and Lorde

Posted on November 28, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Lady Gaga ARTPOP Cover
Editor’s Introduction: What a year 2013 has been! Between releasing “Run in Circles” with Vestron Vulture [link], the “Contagion EP” [link], being called The Future of Electronica in Sykomindz Magazine [link], moving into the city of Pittsburgh, and a million other undertakings that will be reflected upon in this blog’s yearly wrap-up article, the blog has taken quite a backseat. In hopes to catch up before the year’s end, there will be several super-articles compiling all that has been missed in the last 12 months.

This particular article features several mini-reviews of records released this year. We featured catch-up articles like this in July, and will stop at nothing until all of the interesting releases have been reflected upon. Let’s get started…

ARTPOP by Lady Gaga

Arguably the world’s biggest pop star since she burst onto the scene a mere seven years ago, Lady Gaga set out to reverse-Andy Warhol the music industry and demonstrate that the genre of pop can be both art and pop.

Embracing technology, the record can be housed within an almost completely vacant downloadable iPhone app that only allows its user to create preset gif-files. Promising Gaga TV and something called Trakstar in the future, the application seems to be a waste, but what about the album? You’re shunned if you listen to it through laptop speakers, but ARTPOP‘s sound is so bastardized that it’s seemingly created for the low-end generation of sound. Sitting at an average level of 5dB of dynamic range, Stefani Germanotta’s fourth full length release is as ear fatiguing as it is an exhausting declaration of pretentious meanings through wearisome, over-sexualized lyrical content.

The record’s lethargic title track is similar in composition to Selena Gomez’s superior 2012 “Love You Like a Love Song,” but the biggest offender is the continuation in deceptively utilizing a rhythmic derivative of Madonna’s “Holiday” bass-line and interpolating it into “Fashion!”. We saw this happen with the “Born This Way” versus “Express Yourself” debacle and it seems as though the doppelganger sonics are sustaining themselves on the follow up as well. If the rip-offs and poor mastering techniques aren’t enough, there’s audible distortion heard throughout the clothing oriented song and all over ARTPOP as a whole. Where “Dope” and “Gypsy” could easily be beautiful ballads to disrupt the dance-oriented project, they’re over-compressed instead, with piano and vocals clashing so abruptly in the mix, above a prominent noise floor, that they become grating and lose all possibility of connecting emotion.

If you can look past the poor engineering, ARTPOP does get it right when it comes to vocal delivery and layered electronic charm. “Arua,” the opener and feature in Machete Kills picks up where “Americano” from Born This Way (our review here) left off, sliding right in for a western Lana Del Rey meets pop-star glory and “Sexxx Dreams” combines Janet Jackson-isms and cult-classic “Spectacular” by 3LW member Kiely Williams into an outer-worldly dramatization that confesses “and I lay in bed, I touch myself, and think of you.”

The most complete and comprehensive song on this Lady Gaga spectacular is easily given to the prodigal-producer Madeon song “Mary Jane Holland,” which speaks to a post-dubstep sound-scape, pulling in 21st century synth-pop perfection and a theatrical breakdown in which Gaga proclaims “I know that Mom and Dad think I’m a mess, but it’s alright because I am rich as piss.” We know, Gaga. We know.

Also worth checking out are the compositions for “Venus,” “G.U.Y.,” and “Donatella”.

While ARTPOP reportedly cost an upward of $25 million in promotional funds and may have potentially laid off an unconfirmed fifty Interscope Records employees, it’s a dud that has few and far between moments of sparkling musical content. Where the record thrives most is ironically outside of the notes and into the mind of Ms. Germanotta, who continues to display her relentless amounts of creativity through Jeff Koons, Marina Abramovic, and Robert Wilson affiliations; as well as her outstanding vocal and live performance talent.

The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae

Moving on to a different Jane, Janelle Monae dropped the follow-up to her 2010 debut LP The ArchAndroid in early September. This particular record follows the imaginative and conceptual Suite installments of which closely follow an android named Cindy Mayweather as she attempts to identify herself as a public citizen capable of love and emotion, just as humans.

Mass praise for Monae has come from Prince over the years and while he hasn’t been well known for collaborations outside of his own work, a not-so-surprising green light for a feature from the legend himself was given and the final result comes in the form of “Givin Em What They Love,” the first proper track from the sophomore release. It’s a rhythmically minimal and funked piece of music, full of “I am…” proclamations in the verses (accompanied with various stereo vocal delays) and quite possibly one of the strongest pieces in Janelle’s discography to date.

Following in collaborations is the Erykah Badu featured “Q.U.E.E.N.” (here is our full coverage on this bootylicious track) and a head-bobbing title-track that features Solange Knowles and recalls the mid-90’s Pop/R&B landscape, most notably incorporating a twist on a line from an early Britney Spears record with the repeated “shock me one good time” moment in the bridge.

Perhaps the most notable moment between creative forces is the team up between Janelle and Miguel on the seductively smooth and promotional single “Primetime”. It’s a boundary pushing number purely because of it’s strong roots in the genre of Rhythm and Blues, which is a genre that’s been fading from general releases for quite some time now. In fact, what makes The Electric Lady such a special record is its fearlessness to conquer multiple disintegrating genres, embellishing them under an umbrella of modern urban pop. The strongest moment of pop force on the record comes from “Dance Apocalyptic,” and while it’s catchy melodic structure made it a no-brainer in terms of receiving full music video treatment, elements of the aforementioned musical describers still gorgeously run rampant through the composition.

A sociological commentary on the oppressed in the world disguised under Cindy Mayweather has been what Janelle Monae has been best at crafting since the beginning of her career. The Electric Lady is no exception in prolonging this subliminal fight and its fusion of eccentric, eclectic influences and musings water this 2013 release into being one of the most enterprising releases in R&B in the last few years.

Lorde
Pure Heroine by Lorde

Any record that starts out with the first line on the first song as “don’t you think that it’s boring how people talk?” and somehow ends the last line on the last song as “People are talking, let ’em talk” is bound to have great content and well-crafted introspection inside of it. What’s unexpected is not that Pure Heroine is a debut record by a major label artist, but that Lorde released this record as a sixteen year old who originally crossed her fingers and hoped her art would resonate with its listeners.

What happens inside of this young lady’s first record is absolute magic. Hand-crafted along side fellow New Zealand resident Joel Little and co-produced with Ella Yelich-O’Connor, Lorde essentially finds a creative niche within the realm of the self-proclaimed late-night driving productions found on Drake discs and expands upon it using smartly programmed electronic instruments and outstanding lyrical content that focuses so specifically on the peripheral upper-class from an outsider standpoint that it’s social commentary pours out through the easily instant melodies. “Royals” presents the most prestigious example at confronting a mundane culture, while remaining vague enough for accessibility. The lead single is the perfectly teetered line that placed her as the first female to have cracked the Billboard alternative charts since Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” and in the same month be absurdly called racist by the some of the more unseasoned bloggers.

Almost always brooding in the instrumental front, the occasional down-pitching of vocals, heard on “Tennis Court” and “Gory and Blood” respectively cater to the overall mood. In regards to overall engineering presentation, Pure Heroine stands at an average dynamic range of 7dB, but it’s smart use of equalization and soft techniques during the initial mixing process leads the Lorde project to be more listenable than most other records that suffer the same sort of squashed mastering.

In a world full of fluffy, popped out teenage superstars like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, One Direction, etcetera, Lorde is the antidote to what the mainstream cross-genre world needs. While it’s normal for these sorts of artists to come in and fade out into a more tight-knit scene, it’s our hope that Lorde continues to flourish in what she does – creating some of the most socially profound, but simplified songwriting the current generation has been subjected to through her work thus far.

Start to finish: Pure Heroine is a perfect album.

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The xx Release Statement Regarding Unauthorized Use of “Intro” in Anti-Gay Organization Advert

Posted on November 27, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

the xxThe xx have released a statement regarding their song “Intro” being used in an advertisement by U ime obitelji, a Croatian organization against same sex marriage.

It protectively reads:
“It has come to our attention that our music has been used without our permission in a promotional advert by the Croatian organisation “U ime obitelji”. We wish to state that we didn’t, and would never, approve the use of our music by this organisation. To be clear, we unconditionally support the equal right to marriage regardless of sexuality.
xx The xx”

Unfortunately, this organization (whose name translates The Name of the Family) has garnered enough signatures in a recent petition to force a referendum on an equal marriage ban.

The upside? The advertisement has since been taken down.

The xx are releasing their self-titled debut and sophomore Coexist on multiple 7-inch vinyl as a collectable box sets & are available for pre-order here.

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Kraftwerk Announces Residency at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles

Posted on November 26, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Kraftwerk The Catalogue 12345678
The pioneering, legendary Kraftwerk have been quite busy lately. A few months following an announcement in June that the gang have been recording the follow up to 2003’s Tour De France projects, a residency inside of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles California has been confirmed as planned, set, and ready to go for 2014.

Are you ready for the best part? The band will be playing eight albums over a span of four days – two shows each day. This is in continuation of their stunning The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 shows.

Autobahn (1974), 7:30 p.m. March 18
Radio-Activity (1975), 10:30 p.m. March 18
Trans-Europe Express (1977), 7:30 p.m. March 19
The Man-Machine (1978), 10:30 p.m. March 19
Computer World (1981), 7:30 p.m. March 20
Techno Pop (1986), 10:30 p.m. March 20
The Mix (1991), 7:30 p.m. March 21
Tour de France (2003), 10:30 p.m. March 21

This is part of LA Phil’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival and features 3D visuals and projections. More information, including ticket info can be found here.

We need a rendezvous, so sign us up to see Computer Love!

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Album Review: M.I.A. – Matangi

Posted on November 17, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

MIA-Matangi
After a slew of delayed release dates, a controversial plan to drop the fourth record by  M.I.A. on the Tamil New Year fizzled out like the rest of them. In addition to a $1.5 million lawsuit from the NFL and a public custody battle, the follow up to 2010’s legislative /\/\ /\ Y /\ record was determined too positive by record executives, then shelved until it was darkened up a bit. In the same period of time, Maya Arulpragasam’s career ironically took a turn toward extreme acclaim by winning institutional awards and mass praise for the Romain Gavras directed “Bad Girls” music video, on top of an honorary Super bowl Half-Time performance and two spotlight features alongside Madonna on MDNA. No surprised faces were had when the outspoken musician flipped the boiling pot by threatening Interscope with a leak of the record.

While a head-to-head battle between artist and label is as common as rain in Cherrapunji, it’s the end result of the conflict over an album now named and released as Matangi that’s most surprising. “I don’t know what that means,” Arulpragasam shot. “Maybe they said that because it didn’t sound like EDM or dubstep. But after that, I handed them the same version of the album. I added intros and outros, but the songs were pretty much the same.”

The final version of Matangi, finally released on November 1st, 2013, demonstrates a confrontational, scatterbrained interpolation of worldly influences that entwine themselves to sociologically positive implications, individualism, a political standpoint that punctures as much as it converses, and the grabbing give-no-fucks swagger that attaches itself to Maya’s persona and art. Continuing through the streamline of titling records after family members, this fourth studio effort is a varied self-titled release as well as an inspirational reference to the Hindu Goddess affiliated with music and learning.

Starting with a bang and spelled out in caps, the Switch produced title-track wastes no time in designing an aggressive stereo oriented, loop based percussion section for M.I.A. to center her diversified vocals upon. Cleverly comprised of low-bass tones and doubled kick sounds, the track stays heavy in the lower frequencies, allowing the artist’s antagonistic vocal assault to play through delayed effects and massive, doubled-pitch manipulation accents. Amongst the ground working of “MATANGI,” a frantically distributed cultural drum line rages and varies through the transforming song structure. “It’s so simple, go to the floor,” she demands, before interrogating, “Do you want more? Do you want more? Do you know what I got in store?” As left and right as the the chorus may be, it’s nothing compared to the contrasts bestowed upon the listener in the verses. In fact, the entire first verse finds itself packing named country upon named country into nothing but a shout-out that ends simply by asking them to do the dance (this is very “Internacional” by Brazilian Girls). Afterward, the hip-pop & trap inspired composition rises with hostility by commenting on false idol worship (“I’m ice cream, you’re sorbet,” / “if you’re gonna be me, you need a manifesto. If you ain’t got one, you better get one presto”) and blatantly attacking mainstream status (“started from the bottom, but Drake gets all the credit”).

Later in Matangi, Drake finds himself backed into a corner with opposition to his You Only Live Once motto, on the reincarnation and karma-oriented song “Y.A.L.A.” (You Always Live Always). Considering the unsigned YMCMB affiliate The Weeknd pops up twice on this record, it’s quite possible that jabs toward the Take Care crossover artist is referenced as a general example toward a tired culture as opposed to blunt cage rattle. Regardless, M.I.A. insures the listener that “bombs go off when I enter the building,” and Dutch production team The Partysquad brings hard hitting, repetitive saw-synthesizer lines and a wonderful hall reverberated post-chorus section that uses pitched down vocals to create it’s main melodic line.

MIA_Matangi_Promo
Known to throw traditional mixing techniques down the drain (reference), there’s distortion throughout the entirety of Matangi that’s most likely intentional. While grating to the ears of an industry professional, the imperfections throughout M.I.A. records lend themselves toward a rougher, more sonically political feel, than what they would be in a most polished version. Being said, there is an offender that seems to be a bit left-field in the truculent mixing and mastering process. The optimistic Doc McKinney oriented “Lights” track, specifically through the opening loops, fills itself with ear vexation. Once the full chorus and actual structural sections of the song begin, the track advances greatly, but any break in the song brings distortion that seemingly strays from the light, spiritual oriented subject all together.

What is attention grabbing in the best way possible is “aTENTion”. In the same vein as Kala’s “XR2,” a 90’s minimal dance beat lends itself to a foreground for Arulpragasam to present an experimental voice to. Tooting her blatant horn, she’s “running through the streets causing TENTsion” and insuring the political undertones of the tent emphasis match reaction to playful lines such as “There’s 36 champers in my Wu TENT”. It’s mixed wonderfully, downplayed for throwback vibes to flourish, all the while indiscriminately pointing out what is vaguely imporTENT. (While the caps lock in this paragraph may be difficult to understand, its context becomes clear when listening to the song itself). It is several songs later, during “Boom Skit,” where Maya directs specific deliberation toward subjects of her own life and the media portrayal of celebrity in terms of stereotypes.

There’s a thorough write up we did here on “Bad Girls”.  In the same sub-genre of similar lyrical specimens as “Bad Girls”, there are a few tracks that guide their way into lighter, more pop oriented song craft. “Exodus/Sexodus,” and “Know It Ain’t Right” steer toward more generalized lyrics than the hard hitting battery Matangi is comprised of. It’s a different side to M.I.A. than what is spread throughout her catalog of music, but, stays gloomy and tiger-cuttingly ready to explode at any moment.

It’s “Only 1 U” that best displays the joyous mood Matangi sometimes falls upon in that it’s rough, loop heavy, blazing with electric shocks, and creatively stuttered in boxing ring like orientation, allowing a jumbled repetition of the word “ding” to be met at the end of it’s phrase with a bell. Dissimilar is the pushed “Come Walk With Me,” that combines traditional pop structures, with conjectural mixing techniques (including phased guitar plucks and multiple vocal take cut and pasting).

We also covered “Bring The Noize” at length here, upon its release. While the album version eliminates the Janis Joplin interpolation, it’s still holds a triumphant spotlight in terms of intensely political content, hard hitting sonics, and one hell of a music video.

In all, the semi-self titled Matangi marries into the sonic vernacular of Maya Arulpragasam’s catalog immaculately. It’s brash, autobiographical, biographical, honest, full of face-off engagement, and an unapologetic explanation of the world as M.I.A. sees it, has seen it, and will continue to see it. Whether the Goddess of music and learning affected the musician as much as she says she did is up for debate (see this FACT article), but it’s clear that even when something of positive influence comes into play on an album by this Sri Lankan, it’s going to come across just the way we like it: badass and tough.


Purchase Matangi with a bonus track from Amazon MP3 [physical here], over at iTunes, or pre-order the vinyl

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The Return of Lily Allen! “Hard Out Here” Song & Video Premieres

Posted on November 13, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Lily Allen Hard Out HereIT’S HARD OUT HERE FOR A BITCH, BUT LILY ALLEN IS BACK!

Lily’s version of [“Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane] is both a warm welcome back to the music world (we hear there’s a new album with some feminist vibes in the works) and a hope from us that it will reign as Christmas number one this year on the UK singles charts. – 2020k only a few days ago.

“We’re never had it so good, uh huh we’re out of the woods. And if you can’t detect the sarcasm, you’ve misunderstood.”

There’s no news on an album title or release date. Details to come. Enjoy the social commentary on the misogynistic approach to music this year in the video and debut single off of Lily Allen’s upcoming third record.

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Lily Allen Covers “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane on Her First Solo Track since 2009

Posted on November 10, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Lily Allen Somewhere Only We Know
Lily Allen has teamed up with John Lewis to offer her first solo track in four years – a cover of Keane’s prestigious 2004 hit “Somewhere Only We Know,” recorded for the London based department store chain’s 2013 Christmas advertisement.

While originally, Lily mentioned that she abandoned plans for renegotiating her record contract and had no plans to make another album, it seemed to be only a matter of time to have her back after her pop ups over recent T-pain and P!nk hits (don’t get us started on how over-compressed “5 O’Clock” is – we quickly digress).

This cover marks the true end of Allen’s four year hiatus from the music industry.

In regards to the song’s composition, Lily Allen’s version of “Somewhere Only We Know” reinvents the original by giving it a snowy, stripped down, and linear feel to the song. This re-working gives a holiday vibe to the song without compromising emotional intent and lends itself to the month of December in the way “Just For Now” by Imogen Heap does; by evoking specific feelings without blatantly incorporating jungle bells and ho-ho-ho’s.

At the forefront of the song, like all Lily tracks, are her vocals. Beyond a good amount of compression, the  vocal layers remain untouched in terms of effects. A bit of reverberation thrives, specifically during the adlib portion of the song before the final chorus, but there’s not much beyond it.

In a world of sterile music, the live strings and simplified layers of “Somewhere Only We Know” is brilliant. What makes this cover stand out even more is the piano tracks recording. While some Keane enthusiasts may be agitated by the more sixteenth-note oriented piano melody, the actual recording method used allows for the wonderful mechanics of the piano playing to be heard.

How The Telegraph even thought of mentioning the Keane classic as a “forgotten indie ballad” let alone citing the advert as “the backdrop of an Animals of Farthing Wood Christmas special” (have they seen the forest-filled original video?) is beyond anyone’s imagination. “Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I’m getting tired and I need someone to rely on” is a goosebump moment for any version of this song and Keane’s hit finds itself one of the more heartbreaking, honest, and beautiful classic tracks released during the Coldplay oriented rock takeover of the early 2000’s.

Lily’s version of this song is both a warm welcome back to the music world (we hear there’s a new album with some feminist vibes in the works) and a hope from us that it will reign as Christmas number one this year on the UK singles charts.

Watch the €7 million advert below and click here to stream the song in its entirety

Purchase “Somewhere Only We Know” by Lily Allen [iTunes EU // iTunes US]

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Concert Review: 10/11/2013 Pearl Jam – Consol Energy Center

Posted on October 22, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Pearl Jam Live 2013 Eddie Vedder Consol Energy Center
An extensive seven years had gone by since one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, Pearl Jam, last set eyes on the Steel City. Checking a calendar throws fans back into June 23rd, 2006 at Mellon Arena, an arena that’s since been demolished. Ironically, mere days before the release of their tenth studio album Lightning Bolt, Eddie Vedder and Company made a stop at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center, the arena of which replaced Mellon, to kick off their 2013 North American tour in support of both an album and a long waited return.

While Pearl Jam certainly isn’t the sort of act to neglect their live audience, Pittsburgh’s vibe for the evening was littered with embracing anticipation. Outside of any big arena show, every individual is met with at least one legitimate ticket scalper, seven more illegitimate ticket scalpers, bootleg T-shirt sellers, and unaffiliated drivers who kick themselves for not checking the daily traffic report. These different pockets scattered through the parameter of the arena on a cloudy October 11th, 2013 afternoon, but were sparse compared to the abundance of twinkles within pedestrian’s eyes as they awaited to whisk past security and enter into the sold out show.

Once situated, the lights eventually dimmed and a boisterous collective began while the opening notes to a live debut of “Pendulum” lifted off. No stranger to having bottles of wine on stage, this opening night was no exception as lead vocalist Eddie Vedder walked out with what he revealed toward the middle of the show to be a bottle with Franco Harris (of the Pittsburgh Steelers) and the Italian Flag. A little research leads you to Engine House 25 in Lawrenceville & the Clemente Museum, where it’s thought to have been visited by member(s) of Pearl Jam while spending a few days around the city.

As 2020k has stated, Pittsburgh loves its city and its sports, so if you’re a musican and happen to mention either; good standings come your way. Not only was the wine reference present, but Jason Grilli of the Pirates made an appearance on stage during the first of two encores, to spend some playful time with his good friends during the song “Whipping”.

Pearl Jam Band Live 2013 Consol Energy Center
Throughout the evening, a slew of first-time-Live-Lightning-Bolt tracks came to life, including “Infallible,” “Let the Records Play,” “Yellow Moon,” and an extremely heartfelt “Sirens,” which was dedicated to a journalist who’d interviewed the band once, and passed away (the family of the journalist was in attendance at the show). The thing about Pearl Jam is that even though the setlist was heavily with new material, back catalog favorites such as “Daughter,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” “Better Man,” and “Alive” roared just as relevant as they were when originally released – this sort of mix is expected due to the band’s noble way of coming up with re-inventive set lists each night before a show.

Speaking of Ten songs, during “Porch,” see-through light bulb fixtures that had glittered the stage all through the show descended for the band to rock out to. They pushed them, threw them around, even knocking over room-microphones as a means of electric fun and games.

On the contrary to this light-hearted side was a political “Unemployable” off their self-titled eighth album, which especially resonated as an introduction to the song stated that the title of it was wished upon everyone in congress (in reaction to the 2013 government shutdown).

Obviously known to the mood, Vedder took several moments in between songs to express his happiness to be back in the area, as well as his promise not to neglect in the future. At one speech segment, the lead singer expressed his apprehension for the evening. Would Pittsburgh be up for the show after all these years? Motivation, he said, came from Bruce Springsteen, who assured the band via phone that the Eastern based area would be outstanding.

Pearl Jam’s display of talent is forever endless, forever perfection, and forever perfected, so there was no reason the concert wouldn’t have sold out and no reason why the crowd wouldn’t be positively insane over these guys. They spoke in class, struck the venue with lightning, and infected every ear with over three hours of material and no signs of letting up until the house lights came on during a Neil Young cover of “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.” Obviously not unintentional on the venue’s part, guitarist Mike McCready gave Stone Gossard a confused look, the band powered through the song while the lights remained getting brighter. After, one lone closing song remained, “Yellow Bedletter”.

Afterward, both the crowed and the band parted ways; seemingly gracious and in-awe of one another in the welcoming in of a back and forth participation banter of music and adoration that surrounded itself through the night.


Lightning Bolt was released October 15th, 2013 (vinyl, CD, digital download). Tour information can be found at Pearljam.com. All 31 songs played during the Consol Energy Center date are up over at Setlist.fm.

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The Imperial NYC Roseland Ballroom Closes its Doors in April 2014

Posted on October 18, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Roseland madonna

Extremely sad news has come about in the world of United States concert venues today, as New York City’s historic Roseland Ballroom has announced that it will be shutting down in April 2014, cited by an internal email to Billboard.com today. As of right now, this is breaking news and there is no official statement to the public.

Originally held for all-white ballroom dancing in the 20’s, Roseland quickly changed its attitude to more jazz oriented artists, welcoming African Americans, eventually growing and captivating hearts around the globe with it’s ability for intriguing a wide variety of artist’s and charming concert goers. Fiona Apple had her infamous “break down” there during the Tidal days, Beyonce held 4 intimate nights at the venue in 2011 to promote her record 4, Nirvana took their music to the 3,500 seat venue, Madonna (pictured above, photo from justjared.com) and the list goes on and on…

Sharing a memory from Roseland; my only one – I saw Erykah Badu while she was under fire for her risque music video for “Window Seat” from New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh. Janelle Monae opened the show and since Badu was late, the audience received two DJ performances from ?uestlove, who took the attendees through a “History of Hip-Hop.” At one point in the show, Badu gave a musical queue to start the sociological video on the screens behind her as she began an ironic, and quite sexy cover of “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zap & Roger.

After the performance? The Queen of neo-soul turned around to face the video, eventually turning around – giggling.

We’ll miss you, Roseland.

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Robert “3D” Del Naja Releases Limited Battle Box 002; “3D on Jupiter”

Posted on October 17, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Battle Box 002 Massive Attack Robert Del Naja
Robert Del  Naja from Massive Attack continues his Battle Box series with “Battle Box 002” – released as a limited 300 copy vinyl and titled “3D on Jupiter”.

Battle Box 001 was released late last year and is still available. Massiveattack.ie reported that Del Naja has also reissued 001 with limited edition screen printed artwork by Paul Insect.

Dej Naja speaking on the song, “In 2007 I went to the Congo with Africa Express. I was lucky to hang out and listen to some pretty amazing musicians, Jupiter among them. This track is built with an unknown modular synth from Munich, a Moog and a Vermona drum machine, with help from Euan Dickinson and Tim Goldsworthy. And mixes by Bruno Ellingham. I wanted to mirror the energy and message in the song without complicating it. The b-side is a more relaxed and melodic using a Prophet 5 and a jupiter 8.”

You can stream both songs on the Battle Box Soundcloud, then head on over to The Vinyl Factory and purchase a copy before they’re all snatched up!

All vinyl copies will be individually numbered and feature artwork & label art by Paul Insect.

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Cults Release Sophomore Album Entitled “Static” & “High Road” Music Video

Posted on October 15, 2013 by 2020k | RJ Kozain

Cults Static
Static by Cults has been released to the public!

There’s still an NPR stream of the album up over here.

To celebrate and start the promotional train for their sophomore release, the duo created a music video to go along with the dazzlingly-honest “High Road”. It’s quite the psychedelic car ride, complete with a goosebump-worthy free fall segment at the minimal break in the song.

2020k recommends the vinyl, as their self-titled debut sounds immaculate and clear on wax. Why Go Outside with your Nokia Lumia* when you can listen to Cults instead?

Click here to see our excitement for “High Road” and here to read our review on Cults’ opening set at a Passion Pit show in Pittsburgh, PA.

*I was not paid to type this, I just love screaming “EEEEEYIEYIYEIIYEI I really wanna goooooo out” when this commercial comes on the televsion…cause I know what’s good.
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