Denver's Meese take their name from founding brothers Patrick and Nathan Meese, not from multiple mooses (although I believe technically those are called "moose"). Along with Mike Ayars (guitar) and Ben Halay (drums) -- formerly of rival band For The Holiday -- the brothers have become some of the Mile-High City's favorite local rock stalwarts.
After years of paying their dues as frequent openers for fellow Coloradans The Fray, Meese are on the verge of busting out of their cozy Denver scene and into the big, bad mainstream. Their first major label release, Broadcast, is due out at the end of this month. Armed with a rising tide of irresistible pop gems, like "Tell Me It's Over" and "Next In Line," Broadcast looks like Meese's ticket to the big time. Get to know the band on "The 5," sit back, and watch them rise.
The members of Incubus have no interest in scamming their fans. They love you! They're not the kind of band that re-packages the same old jams and rakes it in with nothing but new cover art. So, when the time came to put together a greatest hits retrospective, they had no interest in going the traditional route.
Instead they "took the opportunity to make it as creative as possible," says Brandon Boyd, in the video below. Incubus' upcoming Monuments & Melodies does come with a standard greatest hits collection. But it also includes a second disc of their favorite rarities, and has an exhaustive online component, which offers access to a monstrous archive of live MP3s.
To make an even bigger deal of this upcoming Incubus inundation, the band hooked up with MTV2 to distribute a series of unseen live performances of some of their biggest hits. Watch "Pardon Me," "Megalomaniac," "Love Hurts" and "Drive," all live, all right here.
Michael Jackson jokes aren't funny anymore. Being cruel to that special little guy is passe and, well, cruel. "The Way You Make Me Feel" is a particularly problematic video.
For one thing, this song rules. It's amazing. I say with no sarcasm, whatsoever, that it basically almost makes The Beatles look bad. Honestly, the same can be said for much of MJ's early catalog. His talent is just astounding. How in the hell did he do it?!?
On the other (gloved) hand, there are a few things about this video that are just too absurd to ignore. For one thing, as an aggressive pursuer of women, Michael Jackson is completely implausible. There is just no believing him.
Secondly, the fact that he seduces this woman by screaming, literally screaming, "ahhhhhh," right in her face, is almost more than I can handle. Could that ever possibly work? Will somebody PLEASE try it and report back? If it works, we'll give you a reality show.
Back to the matter at hand. As flat-out incredible as "The Way You Make Me Feel" is, as a single, the plot line of the video is almost completely indigestible. Michael Jackson just can't be believed as a romantic lead. It's like casting Christopher Mintz-Plasse opposite Angelina Jolie in a Gladiator sequel. Totally impossible. All except for one part. The end. Where the woman finally submits to Michael Jackson's animal advances.
In the perfect climax to 6+ minutes of raw "masculinity," they approach each other tentatively in shadows, sizing each other up, breathing heavily, and then... They hug.
You already know Jason Mraz's new single, "Lucky," by heart. The Colbie Caillat duet has been a hit since it got its first taste of the airwaves in January. The pair celebrated its success with a Saturday Night Live performance, and watched it climb the charts.
But Jason Mraz's "Lucky" story doesn't end there. In anticipation of the release of his Latin American version of We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things., Mraz has re-recorded "Lucky" as "La Suerte," a duet with Spanish lyrics, featuring Mexican singer/actress Ximena Sariñana.
Her name may be new to you, but Sariñana is a Grammy nominee and a telenovela veteran who got her start acting at age 11. Now, Jason Mraz is bringing her beautiful face and voice into the US spotlight. Get your first look at the seductive new video for "Lucky," aka, "La Suerte," premiering today on MTV Tr3s!
+ Watch the original "Lucky" video on Buzzworthy!
It takes DC rapper Wale two hours to get dressed in the morning, because he takes fashion incredibly seriously. "Sneakerhead" doesn't begin to describe him, or the way he pores over denim styles, cuts and washes. This is not a hobby. This is art.
When he's not making masterpieces in the mirror, Wale is obsessing over sports -- real or pixelated. He's only lost at "NBA 2K9" once since he left for tour (he frequently invites people on to the bus for a challenge), and his win count for the year now hovers around 250. He's into sports so deep that, as he'll tell you, if he weren't all wrapped up in music, he'd be working the athlete beat.
But he is all wrapped up in music. Mark Ronson, who's doing everything he can to pull Wale up, describes the rapper as a "cross between Lil Wayne, Lupe Fiasco and Nas."
To find out how this fanatic talent -- the same one that spawned "Chillin," featuring Lady Gaga -- grew out of an early obsession with professional wrestling, watch Wale on "The 5," below. Check the "Chillin" video after the jump, and keep an eye out for Wale's Attention: Deficit, due out later this year.
+ Watch "Chillin'," featuring Lady Gaga, after the jump.
Read more...
Your weekend's about to get lit up, four hours early. Grammy-nominee mami Amerie just dropped her new burner, "Why R U?," it's an all-attitude R&B firebomb. In other words, get your neck loose because that thing's about to be poppin' all over the place.
The first single to surface from her upcoming August release, Love and War, Amerie's "Why R U?" brings enough heat to carry us all the way through summer.
I tell you what, if the rest of Love and War hits this hard, they're gonna have to change August's name to Amerie.
What is this, bring your kid to work day? Tiny Masters Of Today are the second teenage band to pop up on Buzzworthy today and I am loving it. Who decided that weathered old junkies were supposed be in charge of rock 'n roll, anyway? Those dudes go to bed at 10. These dudes (specifically brother/sister duo Ivan and Ada, and friend Jackson Pollis*) stay up all night freaking out about things like how insane it would've been to see The Stooges. OK, I'm projecting, it's unfair. But it's not totally unfounded.
I read this Facebook status update this morning that's stuck with me all day: "Just watched Almost Famous and was reminded of how fun it is to love a band that much." Sure, old folks (read: twenty-somethings) love music, too. But I really do believe that nobody falls in love with the world -- especially the consumable world -- as deeply or intensely as 14-year-olds. Everything is new. And for the first time, it kind of looks like yours.
What better explanation is there for the level of commitment and sincerity in Tiny Masters Of Today's swagger? And what better explanation for the freshness and recklessness of their careless sound?
Again, I hate to dwell on age, because Tiny Masters Of Today sound just as legit as any gang of disillusioned 35-year-olds. They've more than held their own on collaborations with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kimya Dawson, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the B-52s. David Bowie called them geniuses. Now they're back to blow all those middle-agers away again with a new blah-punk ballad called "Pop Chart." The video is below. Quit reading and watch it already.
* thanks ashlonie!
+ Amazing interview with Ada of Tiny Masters Of Today
Who saw It's On With Alexa Chung yesterday? Everybody here sure did. It's kind of getting to be this crazy phenomenon at the office. Every day at noon, the nail-biting, hair-pulling and obscenities (not to mention the "work") stop and Alexa's stylie little face beams out from every single cubicle TV. This probably sounds like some hackneyed sales pitch, but I swear it's true!
Yesterday, when she showed all those internet clips of people falling and nailing their crotches on pylons, etc, etc, you could hear people shouting "OOF!" all down the hall. Even the old guys were cracking up! Anyway, just thought you might like to know about that. I've never seen such an uproar around here.
I chimed in on the yelling (the uhhh... Chung Chatter? :-/) yesterday when Phoenix showed up to play "1901." Did you notice who the drummer was?! Dude. Trick question. It was not a drummer at all. It was a ghetto-blaster! Man are the French cool.
It was interesting to hear that big gussied-up single all stripped-down and acoustic. The "Eh-eh-eh-eh-eh" bit has a totally different vibe without all the airy production. But I digress. The point is, what a performance! Watch as those mega-talented Frenchies do their thing for Alexa Chung in the sci-fi talking-picture-rectangle below. Just hit play. Easy.
(Credit: Phil Knott)
Care Bears On Fire's brand-new "Everybody Else" video is a scrolling vintage collage that looks kinda like a lost level of Contra. You remember Contra, don't you? More importantly, "Everybody Else" is the quintessential snot-nosed girl-punk anthem, from its snarling "1,2,3,4" count-off to its tattle-tale chorus.
Sophie (vox, guitar), Izzy (drums) and Jena (bass) started Care Bears On Fire four years ago. When they were in 5th grade. Are you doing the math? Now, on the brink of high school, they've become some of the most prominent players in what Spin Magazine calls the "New York kid-core scene."
The thing is -- and this is true of any uncommonly young band worth listening to -- they don't sound like kids. They sound like seasoned bad-asses putting new spit on old Joan Jett. Lighting off The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" for a new generation. Check out the sweet-looking video for "Everybody Else," right here.
Esser is a tough dude to Google. Lucky for us, he has posted this introduction on a site called Bebo:
Esser is a person not a band. I use a computer machine and some instruments to make popular songs. Most of my songs are in the key of E.
I have also put together that Esser is from London and wears his hair like the Slim Jim mascot. What I already knew is that Esser knows how to make the club get crunk. His designer blend of house, two-step, rock and outsider-easy-listening (which amounts roughly to a whimsical mix of Phoenix meets The Streets) has got the whole London underground on lock. He's also in the midst of his first U.S. tour, an abbreviated trip with stops in New York, L.A., San Francisco and Chicago.
To fuel the fire he ignited with his debut LP, Braveface, Esser now sporadically drops solid gold mixtapes for free on his website. (You can sign up for his feed RIGHT HERE.) I highly recommend that you do that if you expect to be entertaining anytime this summer. All you gotta to do to set a party off, is pop in an Esser mixtape and watch it burn.
