Monday, April 5, 2010

REALLY?????

Last week, rumors swirled around the web about an apparent new track from Jay-Z and Dr. Dre. But since the story dropped close to April 1 and, last we heard, Dre's Detox LP was pushed back to 2011, we figured it was a lame hoax at best.

But according to a NESN interview with Dre and his Interscope boss Jimmy Iovine, the song exists and it's called "Under Pressure" (via You Heard That New). You can watch the chat-- which mostly involves Dre shamelessly plugging his custom Red Sox headphones-- below. (A plea: The world at large should collectively boycott those headphones until Detox actually comes out.)

No word on whether "Under Pressure" is one-off thing, tied to Dre's forever-delayed album, or even when it's supposed to come out, but at least it's not just a figment of rap bloggers' imaginations. The last time these two got together, on Jay's ill-fated Kingdom Come album, we got the woeful "30 Something" and "Lost Ones" along with underrated tracks "Trouble" and "Minority Report", so all bets are off. Also, we're not sure how Dre cozying up to the Red Sox is going to sit with Jay, who kinda likes the Yankees.

Wale My Sweetie

the original...

the video for the "How to Make it in America" theme song





In honor of the BEST new show on TV... heres the theme song!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Indie Review


We are going to try something new on MindLess Souls. Every week or so, we are going to Interview an up and coming Indie artist, post their music on the site. We want to get back in touch with the Indie side of things. Too much commercial bull shit out here, and we at MindLess Souls have always believed that Indie Music was the heart and soul of the industry any way. So our first artist is Privy Terentino. He hails from Raleigh, NC, and recently released a mix-tape titled "Glow Like LeRoy". So... ENJOY.



(here is the Link for "Glow Like LeRoy" http://www.zshare.net/download/74277784259fa77b/)

MindLess Souls- So being a NY transplant, and being in the south, how would you define your style?

Privy- Oh man, I feel as if I have the Best of both worlds you know? As far as appealing to both crowds, and different types of ears to hip hop. My music is really lyrical with a touch of bounce the southern cats can feel as well

MS- What style of music do you prefer? Lyrical, or beat/bass heavy?

Privy-I'm BIG on lyrics and word play, and the ability to create pictures and visuals with your words. Artists like Lupe Fiasco, Wale and J.Cole give the "goosebumps" when they spit because it's so advanced and thought provoking. You also need a dope beat too, but words are more important.

MS-Would that cater to a typical southern Market? Like NC where your at?

Privy- Yes and no. Being in NC is like the gift and the curse. There is no love out here. So many different sounds of music here, but no outlet to showcase it. The radio keeps the same five songs on rotation. It's like the city don't care about you until your a somebody. Some people want to dance, and some people want to hear lyrics.

MS-How does an artist stay "head above water" with that kind of situation?

Privy-It's all about marketing, staying innovative, and branding yourself. You have to think, there's a million other people just as hungry as you, making all different types of music. You have to be "Different", and I know that's cliche, but when your different, people remember your name, that makes them come to you.

MS-You just released "Glow Like LeRoy" tell us about that.

Privy- It's my first solo project apart from the group I been running with. the anticipation if you would say for it was crazy, I didn't know how many people actually supported me until i dropped it. It came out March 28th, and it is a concept mix-tape from the Movie "The Last Dragon". Behind it is LeRoy, and I'm trying to get the GLOW, and become the master, which is my style, and my inner self. Real Deep. lol

MS-How is your music different than others?

Privy-My music is different mainly becasuse my story is different. Coming from poverty, both parents being strung out on dope. This is my way of speaking to people, it's how I sleep at night. This is how I cry.

MS- So, You have a story to tell?

Privy-I have a story to tell, a life to change, and hearts to touch, hence my group, Heartfelt Music, rap is for your ears, music is for your hearts.

MS-So, that's your label?

Privy-It's something i going with a few close friends, that share the same view and passion as me. Great Production, and Engineering too. Vuittion Bond (Producer/Artist) is the Kanye West of NC, especially when it comes to beats.

MS-Can we expect anything from your team in the future?

Privy-Vuttion Bond has a mix-tape titled "Gladiator Armonie", I'm working on my second joint, "HeartBreak Hotel", and my dude Young Free got "The Best things in Life are Free" dropping on 4/20. So, we busy over here. lol

MS- The Scene is relatively unknown. shit, a lot of people don't know J.Cole is from Fayetteville! What's the hold up?

Privy- The Scene is still unknown, As far as J.Cole, he's building slowly, but steady. As far as the hold up, the state, it is full of players, they just need a captain. Everyone is putting on for they selves, instead of being an actual movement, like Miami, or the DMV(DC, Maryland, Virginia) or Atlanta.

MS- So what can we expect from you in the next few months?

Privy-I'm a keep working. The mixtape is fresh out, so that means a lot of promo. I have a few shows coming up, so I am happy about that. I'm starting to work on my new joint "Heartbreak Hotel", and i am shooting a video for my song "D.O.W.N" in May, and I'm also going back to NY to see if I can maket back home.

MS- Last question. Your working on your first album, who's executive producting it? what label are you on? Who are the guest appearances?

Privy- I would be signed to Roc Nation, or G.O.O.D. Music, Kanye would executive produce it, along with some assistance from my man Vuitton Bond. I would love to work with Kid Cudi, Young Jeezy, Pharell, Chris Martin, and Mika Means.

We posted the link for to download Privy Terentino's "Glow Like LeRoy" (It's worth it too! Trust me!)

Wolf Parade Bitch!





Wolf Parade is BACK! I read an interview they did with pitchfork, and decided to post it. enjoy. (tour dates after the jump)Wolf Parade are back. Late last year, the members of the Montreal band took a break from their various other bands (Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs, Swan Lake, Moonface) and reconvened to work on their third album, which is titled Expo 86.

The follow-up to 2008's At Mount Zoomer is due for a late June or early July release on Sub Pop. We recently chatted with co-leader Dan Boeckner about the new album; he also calls it "more focused" than At Mount Zoomer and "definitely the most fun I've had recording a Wolf Parade record." Check out our interview below.

Also below: Wolf Parade's spring and summer tour dates, including a full North American trek.

Pitchfork: Is the new album finished?

Dan Boeckner: I think we have one or two more songs to mix, and then it's done. This record was definitely the most fun I've had recording a Wolf Parade record, ever. It got done really quickly, which felt nice.

Pitchfork: You did most of the songs live to tape. So were you all playing in a room together?

DB: Yeah, as much as possible. There's hardly any overdubs on this record. The vocals were tracked separately from the music, but almost all of it was recorded live to tape with very minimal overdubs. Any overdubs were just us going back in and fixing any mistakes that we made while we were playing it live.

Pitchfork: In an Exclaim interview, you said that it could turn out to be a double album.

DB: Yeah. We started writing in late October or early November, and we ended up writing about 15 songs . We tracked all of them. So we got about 80 minutes of music to work into a product, basically [laughs], into something. At this point, I don't know whether it'll be a double album. I'd really love to just release a single album and then, later on, an extended EP. But we're still trying to figure out what format to put all the stuff out in. We want to release it all. I don't feel that any of the songs are ugly cousins or duds. [laughs]

Pitchfork: Do you have a title for the album yet?

DB: The title for the record, as far as we know now, is-- unless we get sued for using it-- Expo 86.

Expo 86 was a World's Fair that happened in Vancouver in 1986. It's been this thing we all talked about as a band. We all grew up in British Columbia, and we were all at Expo, which lasted about three or four days. It's a weird little thought experiment-- basically, we were all young children at the same big event. I remember Expo 86 was as big as the Olympics were this year in Vancouver. They completely reorganized part of the downtown core, and they built this giant geodesic dome called "Science World". Now it looks completely, totally dated and a product of its time. They built monuments, built rides. It was something I don't think we're going to see in Canada ever again because World's Fairs have fallen out of favor, at least for the Western World.

Pitchfork: Do you have any particular memories of going to Expo 86?

DB: I remember going to the German Pavilion, which was totally terrifying. Each country had a pavilion showing off their prime exports or a little bit of the culture, and the German Pavilion was this super austere, really cold Bauhaus-style minimalist building. It freaked me out as a child.

Pitchfork: How does the album title interact with the album itself?

DB: Honestly, it doesn't really. I don't think there's any relation to the significance of the album title with the song content.

Pitchfork: How does this album sound different from the last two?

DB: It's a lot more focused than the last one. There's a lot more energy on it, and it's hard for me to even relate it back to Apologies [to the Queen Mary] because that album seems like a long time ago. I don't know if it's a blend of the last two records; it's definitely different from both of them. There's a lot more uptempo stuff on it than there was in the last record. But it's really dense. All the songs and arrangements are really, really dense. And it sounds like a band playing live. Parts of it are pretty noisy, too, which I'm pretty happy with. I really liked making the last record, and I felt like it was a good snapshot of where the band was at at the time we recorded those songs. But I think this one is a little more faithful to the main aesthetic behind Wolf Parade.

Pitchfork: How would you describe that aesthetic?

DB: Maximalism-- like, a kind of wall of counterpoint. There's a lot of melodies going on within the songs. Not just the vocal melodies, but there's an underpinning of drums. At any given time, there's five or six counter-melodies running against each other, with the vocals kind of fighting for supremacy. I mean, if we have a sound, I think that's it.

Pitchfork: Since you all have so many different projects going on, do you write together while you're touring or working with your respective bands?

DB: No, we don't write together when we're working on other projects. Spencer and I don't really generally get together and write while we're working on different projects. We just block timelines for writing for Wolf Parade. I was really, really happy with the writing process for this one. It moved along quickly. Every day in November and early December, we'd come into the studio, and Spencer would be like, "Here's something that might be a song." We rehearsed hours and hours a day to turn these songs into something. Some of them were more easy, and some of them took a little longer. This is the first record we've done with Dante [DeCaro] writing at point of conception for the songs, so that was really interesting. Arlen [Thompson], Spencer, and I always write the stuff together. Pretty much everything but the lyrics is a collaborative effort. So to have one more person in the mix that we hadn't worked with at the writing stage-- it was pretty cool. [Exclaim reports that keyboardist Hadji Bakara is no longer in the band, and is at the University of Chicago getting his doctorate in English literature. -- Ed.]

Pitchfork: Last week, you guested with Spoon at Radio City. How'd that feel?

DB: It felt great, actually. I've been a fan of that band since I was in high school. I bought the Telephono record, and I just adored that band. I'd already listened to all the Pixies and the Modern Lovers stuff. I just listened to the shit out of those records, and then this Spoon record came along. It was one more record I could listen to in this really specific canon of music. I've been a massive fan of that band.

Over the last couple years, I've become friends with Britt [Daniel]. He asked me to come down and play with them, and it was a pretty big honor. Deerhunter played, and they were fantastic. Eleanor from the Fiery Furnaces was there. Being part of that show felt like a major coup for indie rock, you know? The fact that Spoon could sell out Radio City Music Hall without a massive FM radio presence felt like a major coup. I know they're a huge band and everything, but ostensibly they're an underground band. The fact that all those people would sit and watch Deerhunter, whose set veered between really catchy and super challenging wild noise stuff-- that those people would sit and accept that was like this is a really positive thing. Spoon, Deerhunter, and the Fiery Furnaces are all very uncompromising in their own ways. That kind of restored my faith in music a little bit. It was an honor.

Pitchfork: Did your faith need restoring?

DB: Sometimes it does. I'll go through phases where I don't pay attention to what's happening in modern music, especially if I'm writing for Wolf Parade. I don't listen to other bands while I'm writing for an album. It's just this really self-focused, self-contained thing. But sometimes I'll pick up Spin, and occasionally it really depresses me. I totally love [Spoon's] Transference. I think it's a fantastic record, but objectively Transference is a difficult record for people who like them for their catchier singles. They're touring on that record and they doubled the venue capacity in New York, which is something really cool. I have a lot of respect for those guys, and that's something I kind of aspire to with Wolf Parade-- not necessarily playing at that exact venue or anything. But just the idea that if you just keep doing exactly what you want to do, playing the music that makes you happy without trying to predict what your audience wants or pander to this preconceived idea of what your audience is, what they want to hear from you, then you can actually have some kind of longevity in your career. That's exciting.

Wolf Parade:

04-03 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Paragon Theatre *
04-04 Fredericton, New Brunswick - The Market *
04-06 Kingston, Ontario - Ale House *
04-07 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Theatre *
05-06 Pecs, Hungary - Europe Mania Festival
05-07 Krems an der Donau, Austria - Donau Festival
05-08 Leipzig, Germany - Pop Up Festival
05-09 Prague, Czech Republic - Matrix
05-11 Salzburg, Austria - Rockhouse
05-12 Bologna, Italy - Lokomotiv
05-13 Torino, Italy - Spazio 211
05-16 Brussels, Belgium - Le Botanique
05-17 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
05-19 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
05-20 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
05-21 Manchester, England - Club Academy
05-22 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli
05-25 Lubijana, Slovenia - Menza Pri Koritu
05-26 Zagreb, Croatia - Teatar & TD
05-27 Milan, Italy - Salumeria della Musica
05-28 Gallen, Switzerland - Palace
05-29 Dudingen, Switzerland - Bad Bonn
05-31 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
07-08 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
07-09 Montreal, Quebec - Le National
07-11 Portland, ME - Port City Music Hall
07-12 Boston, MA - House of Blues
07-13 New York, NY - Terminal 5
07-15 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
07-16 Newport, KY - Southgate House
07-18 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
07-19 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Garrick Center
07-21 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Louis (University of Saskatoon Campus)
07-22 Calgary, Alberta - Republik
07-23 Edmonton, Alberta - The Starlight Room
07-25 Vancouver, British Columbia - Vogue Theatre
07-26 Seattle, WA - Showbox
07-27 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
07-29 Santa Cruz, CA - Catalyst Club
07-30 Oakland, CA - The Fox
07-31 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
09-15 London, England - The Forum

* with We Are Wolves

Erykah Badu Album Review (courtesy of Rollingstone)


Erykah Badu's husky drawl is one of pop music's most compelling sounds. She's also R&B's most dedicated bohemian eccentric, as she proves once more on New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. Her last album, 2008's New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, was an electronica-based departure from the neo-soul warmth that made her a star. Part Two revives Badu's romantic side, and at its best it places her on a sun-splashed day in 1972: On the gorgeous "Window Seat," her supremely mellow voice is awash in jazzy Fender Rhodes keyboards and loping funk-soul grooves.

Problem is, Badu seems so taken by hazy texture — and so determined to play the weirdo — that she's neglected to write many actual songs. In "Love," a female voice intones, "There are only two emotions that human beings experience: fear and love," over a squiggly sound collage. Later, an instrumental number places tinkling harp arpeggios against drifting keyboard textures. That song's title? "Incense."

Part Two is most powerful when Badu goes for straight feeling: In "Out My Mind Just in Time (Part 1) (Undercover Over-Lover)," she stops in the cabaret, singing a torch song with some real feeling behind it. It's what New Amerykah Part Two needs: more angst, fewer ankhs.

Bol(from xxxlmag.com) Post about the Jae Millz/Freshmen 10' beef

I was in a grocery store the other day, debating whether to buy a pack of light bulbs or live in semi-darkness for a while to save money + the environment, when I figured I’d take a look at the magazine rack, even though I never buy magazines.

Every now and again, I’ll see an article in The Atlantic that looks like it might be interesting enough to read for free when I get home; and I notice the covers of women’s magazines are often more exciting to me than actual pr0n - probably because they have such high standards for their cover girls. A solid three-fourths of all women under a certain age, if they’re naked, are at least good for a semi-, as evidenced by my history tab in Firefox, but then you see a picture of someone who’s genuinely special, like Candice Swanepoel, and you wonder why you even bother with that shit.

Can you tell it’s a Friday afternoon?

I’d already been aware that J. Cole - in a development that’s arguably even more indefensible than OJ da Juice Man appearing on the cover of XXL twice, in the same year, even - is currently on the cover of both The Source and XXL. (Trust me, you don’t want to know what’s on the cover of the new issue of Vibe.) A few weeks ago, when I heard on Twitter that J. Cole got the cover of The Source, by himself, I quipped that Jay-Z bought it for him. Which, as far as I know isn’t actually (technically) true - though I suppose it could be. You’ll recall that the first issue of The Source under this current regime had a set of covers featuring hip-hop legends. One of them was Queen Latifah, who just so happens to have a financial stake in the magazine.

Not that I have anything against J. Cole. I’ve heard a couple of his songs on Sirius, and I genuinely kinda liked them. And Noz can’t stand the guy, which lets you know he might actually be worth a shit. I’m more concerned with who would buy a magazine with J. Cole on the cover. I know who he is, but my job, such as it is, involves sitting around in my underwear listening to rap music. What about people whose names aren’t on some sort of government list?

The only thing I can think is that rap magazines must be at the point where they can put pretty much anything on the cover, and it’s not gonna sell any worse than it would have otherwise. A few years ago, you could put Lil Wayne on the cover every three months and legions of mouth breathers would run out and cop it, probably because they were too high to realize they already had more or less the exact same magazine at home, but Lil Wayne somehow managed to smoke up his ability to even make those damn shit/toilet metaphors - and now he’s in jail. Gucci Mane was supposed to be his replacement, but he was never really as popular as Noz would have you believe, and now he’s in jail too.

Now might actually be the best time to be an up and coming rapper, as long as you’re cool with not making very much money. But you can have as much media coverage as you want. If you’re aligned with the right TIs, you can probably get on the cover of one of these Freshman 10 issues of XXL, or you could probably even get on the cover of The Source by yourself - just like Biggie Smalls! Or if all else, you could probably just shame and browbeat your way into some coverage. Drake and Nicki Minaj, whom no one other than Remy Ma had heard of in the fall of 2008, got all butthurt over not being selected for last year’s Freshman 10 cover, and now they’ve got the cover of XXL to themselves.

Bum-ass rappers like Jae Millz and Vado must realize it’s open season on these magazine covers. The old excuse, that you had to be someone people actually heard of, is obviously no longer valid. The other day, Jae Millz went on one of these radio shows that, counterintuitively, seem to only exist on YouTube, and complained that Vado, whom you’d have to still read Nah Right to be familiar with, wasn’t a member of this year’s Freshman 10 - and you have to wonder if Millz really went down the list of this year’s Freshman and decided that Vado was just as good as any of them, or if he thought this might be a good way to get Vado on the cover. Probably the latter, right? Didn’t he say he had even heard of some of them? Cam’ron, who was going to bring Jae Millz out at that Freshman 10 concert, before Millz was arrested, probably put him up to it. Cam’ron’s smart like that. He’s one of the few black people who watch Curb Your Enthusiasm. Him and Bun B.

Cam’ron and Vado were added to that Freshman 10 concert at the last minute, presumably because not enough people were interested in seeing Donnis, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Vado turns up on the cover of XXL somewhere down the line, perhaps along with Cam’ron, if he can’t come up with a song anyone likes. Jae Millz, even though he’s apparently cool with Cam’ron and Vado, won’t be able to join them, since technically he’s still Lil Wayne’s weed carrier. He might have to wait until Lil Wayne gets out, to appear in some sort of Young Money group cover. That is, unless he can somehow convince Lil Wayne to enter into an NBA-style trade agreement with Cam’ron. Millz could go carry for Cam’ron, in exchange for one of the non-Vado guys from the U.N. Maybe two, since I doubt any of you can name any of them without checking the world’s most accurate encyclopedia.

I’m sure Jae Millz has his fingers crossed. Even though he claimed to be pissed that Vado didn’t make the cover, you can tell he’s really just pissed that he’s way too old to be a member of the Freshman 10. Otherwise, why even run the risk of having them all pissed at you? Or maybe he just figured it wasn’t much of a risk. Yesterday, I saw where they asked J. Cole to comment on what Jae Millz said, and he was mad reasonable and diplomatic about it. Um, what part of hip-hop is that? I checked Wikipedia, and it says he went to school on an academic scholarship and graduated magna cum laude. They’d better hurry up and have him do something ignorant, before people find out. A random nobody on the cover of a rap magazine is one thing. Someone kids should actually look up to is just pain unheard of.

Jay-Z Documentary