mr. Macca does it weird, Lana Del Rey makes and appearance and my obsession with Jack White continues….

We have now seen some releases, hype and serious discussions come up online, on the airwaves and among our offices. What’s up?

Paul McCartney (or Mr. Macca, if you will) went jazzy on us. Kisses On The Bottom is McCartney’s fifteenth studio album. (15!) Out on Hear Music February 7th, only two of the fourteen tracks are his own originals. You can stream it from NPR.

We’ve heard more from Sleigh Bells. Their two tracks ‘The Comeback Kid’ and ‘Born to Lose’ are unlike their first release Treats from 2010. Out on Mom + Pop on February 21st, Reign of Terror is something I hope won’t let me down. In the beginning Treats was something I tried to like for so long. Now it’s a go-to soundtrack for any sort of fun. I can’t imagine living without it. My distaste for the two newest tracks (and video for ‘Comeback Kid’) has me let down. Trying not to judge until it’s release – or eventual leak.

Certainly not third on everyone’s minds, although it almost should be, is Lana Del Rey’s release. Having heard ‘Video Games’ countless times on satellite radio, every music blog on the internet and having seen it be added to AAA radio in few places, I am sick of it. Born To Die on Interscope is a masterpiece of discussion, branding, intimidation, sickness and annoyance to many. Thoughts are seriously aflutter. I was looking forward to hearing the rest of the record, but as it got more and more boring I found myself among the many confused. Luckily there is so much out there on her that we can all soak it up together. Sasha Frere-Jones of the New Yorker said it best, well, because he is the best. Even shouting out Hipster Runoff, Frere-Jones is prose and news. “A lot has happened to Grant in four years, most of it on the Internet, which is both her albatross and her instrument.” New York Magazine did an ‘Anatomy of a Backlash’. It’s soothing in it’s title and explanation of the phenom.  You can find her New York Times review and Pitchfork’s: after reporting her ‘best new track’ last year and providing nonstop chatter, they gave her a 5.5.  You can watch her recent performance on Letterman at Stereogum. Last but never least, Ann Powers of NPR’s The Record provided a nice insight as to pop stardom and female presence in music.

The Grammys are next Sunday, February 12th airing on CBS. (Do people still watch those?)  And in other big box news, Sirius XM announced that Bruce Springsteen will be playing the Apollo in Harlem to celebrate their 10th anniversary. There are 21 million and counting subscribers and I’m sure it will be a fight to the death for Bruce fans for those 1506 seats.

 

There have been recent releases from Cloud Nothings, the Big Pink, Leonard Cohen and returning champs, Elbow. Last but NEVER LEAST….the long awaited Jack White solo debut, Blunderbuss, on his Third Man Records/XL out April 23rd. You can stream it over at Beats Per Minute. April can’t come soon enough. He’ll tour. He has to, right? Oh wait. He’s headlining the Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington State on Memorial Day Weekend (along with Bon Iver and Beck.) Jack White is the sexiest man in music, in my grand opinion, and I will not miss that. White is also the hardest rocking, concept thrilling guitarist, vinyl enthusiast and majorist player in rock music. If you have nothing nice to say about him I don’t want to hear it. GO PUNK.