"You Are a Tourist" music video from the band's upcoming album CODES and KEYS due May 31st. According to DCFC's website, "'You Are a Tourist' music video [was] the first ever LIVE, scripted, one-take music video broadcast to the world as it was filmed."
Clockwise: Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna
Sure, Japan is a richer and much more politically stable country than Haiti. Nevertheless, American celebrities are making millions of dollars hawking their CDs, movies, clothing and cosmetic lines in the Japanese market. The lack of response from the celebrity community in Japan's time of need is highly disappointing. After the Japanese have helped make American celebrities international superstars, it's now time to give back to those in need. Over 9,000 deaths have been confirmed, and death tolls are likely to top 18,000. Additionally, the country is still being affected by tremors and an unstable nuclear plant.
Fortunately, Universal Music is working with some of pop's biggest artists to create a digital album in which all proceeds will go towards the Japanese Red Cross. So far, it has been confirmed that Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj will be in the album. Other rumored musicians include Lady Gaga, U2 and Bon Jovi. Hopefully, this is just the start to other music projects aimed at helping victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
Rebecca Black and Pato
By now, you've probably seen eighth-grader Rebecca Black's viral video "Friday." If you haven't you can view it here. While the video has been seen over 30 million times, the majority of viewers have bashed the video, writing comments like, "this. is. bad. The WORST song I've ever heard" and "if this is what is considered music i want to shoot myself." Unfortunately, the aforementioned comments are pretty tame compared to what other viewers are saying. While I agree that "Friday" isn't the best song out there, I also feel that there is an incredibly strong force behind Rebecca Black in the form of independent record label, Ark Music Factory.
Ark's been quick to cash in on Rebecca Black ever since "Friday" went viral. In the past week Black's appeared on Good Morning America in a five-minute segment titled "Worst Song Ever?", garnered a spot on iTunes top 100 downloads list and organized a mini-tour across America. While there may be few sincere Rebecca Black fans, this hasn't prevented Ark from making presumably thousands of dollars off of her. And they're not only making money from Black; other Ark artists have received hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube since "Friday" blew up all over the internet. For instance, fellow Ark artist Alana Lee's "Butterflies" music video had about a quarter of a million views last week; now, it has nearly two and a half million.
After poking around Ark's YouTube channel and website, I found that Ark's mission is to, "Make it possible for emerging independent artists from a variety of popular genres to be discovered, defined, and delivered, to advance in their chosen career and be successful." However, Ark's artists are all preteen and teen girls that fall primarily within the pop music genre... and, they all pretty much sound alike. At least, lyrically speaking, the content of Ark's artists is mainly about having crushes on boys and partying on the weekends. (As if middle school students really party.)
By scanning Ark's online sites, I had hoped to find out who the black rapper was in all of Ark's music videos (affectionately named "Fat Usher" by some bloggers). I was curious as to what a 30-something-year-old rapper was doing in all of these teen girls' videos. In all honesty, I found it a little, errr, creepy. Unfortunately, I never got an answer, except that the guy's name is Pato. But, today when I checked Ark's site I saw a post which announced that an exclusive Ark interview would be coming to YouTube. To my relief, the first question that would be answered is "Who is the black guy in all the videos?" WIN! The informational video is set to air this Friday, March 25th. I'll be posting it on DYNAMIC as soon as it airs, just in case any of you are also wondering who Fat Usher really is.
Clockwise: Starfucker, Fleet Foxes, Typhoon, Ivan & Alyosha, Adele
Obviously, it's been awhile since I've updated this site. For the one or two people who check this page regularly and for the handful of folks who stumble upon this site, I'm sorry. Mainly, I've been busy with other work and haven't been keeping up with what's new in the music world. BUT, now that I'm on a short break from work and back in Seattle, I've had a chance to catch up on some new music and music news. To my surprise, a lot has happened in the music world since I last checked in. Noah and the Whale released a new album earlier this month, Fleet Foxes have released a song from their upcoming album Helplessness Blues and one of my favorite bands, The Nextdoor Neighbors disbanded.
Fortunately, I've also had the opportunity to listen to the hundreds of NPR All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts podcasts that have gone un-played in my iTunes library over the past several months. In these podcasts I've found some gems from old and new bands alike. Here are some of my favorites:
Starfucker, "Julius"
Electronic
Fleet Foxes, "Helplessness Blues"
Folk
Typhoon, "Honest Truth" (3:40 mark)
Indie-pop
Ivan & Aloysha, Tiny Desk Concert
Folk-indie-pop
Adele, "Rumor Has It"
Pop
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