Cloverfield Score Finally Available!!! Oh Yeah, and that new Coldplay Track

A word to my father regarding his comment on the last entry; lead singer Chris Martin has gone on record saying he is useless with naming things, hence the ridiculous postmodern album cover/title. Remember everyone; this is the same Chris Martin who had a child with Gwenyth Paltrow and named her Apple. Why are we surprised by Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends?

In addition to the Coldplay song, there was one other release that I picked up as soon as I saw it was available this week. I think we all know that I was sold on the movie Cloverfield about 10 minutes after seeing the infamous no-name trailer. The movie came out on DVD last week (don't own it yet; holding out for the FYE/Suncoast Steelbox version, assuming its still available), and this week became available for download via iTunes and Amazon. Also available through iTunes was Michael Giacchino's ****ing brilliant score for it. "Roar!" only played during the end credits, and was truncated at that, but iTunes has the full 12-minute score available now. It's a bit over priced at $1.99 and you have to dig through the store to find it (Apparently iTunes thinks the soundtrack to 27 Dresses is a worthier purchase; do an artist search for Michael Giacchino and it should pop up), but its well worth it.

On to the Coldplay song; The song takes a more straightforward rock approach than previous Coldplay singles. The piano on "Violet Hill" seems more like an accompaniment than a core part of the song. Reports that Chris Martin was dropping the absurd falsetto on Viva la Vida aren't entirely accurate; the verses are certainly in a lower register than, say, "Yellow", but the chorus is still the sweeping high-pitched Coldplay we're used to, complete with slightly dischordant piano banging and guitar crunching (see: "Politik"). If the stories that the rest of the album are going to depart from Coldplay of old are true, then "Violet Hill" will be an excellent lead-in for fans and casual listeners alike.

"Violet Hill" will be available as a free download for a limited time at coldplay.com, and goes on sale digitally next week.

And since I feel bad about nearly going 2 full posts without an MP3, I'll be nice and post "Roar!" since it's already DRM-free.

Michael Giacchino - Roar! (Cloverfield Overture) [iTunes]
(Be advised: file is HUGE. Be patient!)

==TJ==

New Coldplay In T-Minus 13 hours

Earlier today Coldplay announced that their first single in 3 years will be available as a free download on their site at 7:15 AM EDT tomorrow. "Violet Hill" has long been rumored to be the name of the first track from the ridiculously-titled new album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, but todays announcement is the first confirmation of that story. Also released today is the album artwork for Viva la Vida...



Mixed feelings about the album cover, but I kinda get the meaning behind it. Anyway, guess Coldplay is deciding to do whatever it takes to make sure EMI doesn't fuck this one up. Being at best a casual Coldplay fan, I'll pick up the single and let that determine whether I buy the album.

Wait...isn't that how the music industry wants things to be done?!?!?!? Horrors...

Check coldplay.com tomorrow at 7:15 EDT for "Violet Hill". For my readers on the west coast, it'll be up by sunrise for you. For readers abroad, get it on your lunch break. I'll be sure to review it once I've heard it.

==TJ==

Weekend WTF Goes Down Under

If you've never watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords on HBO, don't feel too bad...I've only seen maybe two, and that's two more than a lot of other people. But in celebration of the first American release by "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo", I give you the newest Weekend WTF.

Flight of the Conchords - The Hiphopapotamus vs. the Rhimenocerous [iTunes]
(My version is a full minute longer than the iTunes release for reasons unknown, but enjoy nonetheless)

==TJ==

Some Last.fm Goodness!

In penance for the inconsistency of the past few weeks, I give you a bonus entry for today. Below are my 10 most played artists as indicated by last.fm, and my most played song by each artist. Enjoy!

(Last.fm says these stats were updated today, but do not account for my iPod has played in the last 2 days or what I'm listening to now, but they should still be pretty accurate)

1. Foo Fighters (378 plays)
Long Road to Ruin [iTunes]

2. Linkin Park (306)
Bleed it Out [iTunes]

3. Pearl Jam (288)
Wishlist [iTunes]

4. The Beatles (274)
Here Comes the Sun

5. Dashboard Confessional (253)
Rooftops and Invitations [iTunes]

6. Jimmy Eat World (187)
Chase This Light [iTunes]

7. Radiohead (183)
Creep

8. Nine Inch Nails (140)
Capital G [iTunes]

9. Snow Patrol (115)
Hands Open [iTunes]
(Actually a tie between this and "Set Fire to the Third Bar", but this one was played more recently)

10. Green Day (108)
Wake Me Up When September Ends [iTunes]

I'm gonna do this every once in awhile when the numbers change drastically.

==TJ==

Stuff From All Over

New speculation around the previously blogged-about NIN song "Discipline" suggests it might be the first single from the forthcoming sequel to 2007's Year Zero. It would make some level of sense, based on the overall mood of the song and it would give meaning to the cryptic "two weeks!" blog. But for Year Zero II to come out this close to Ghosts seems a bit defeating; unless "Discipline" explodes in the coming weeks, I think people will be tired of NIN and the Year Zero sequel will be a tad overkill-ish. That's probably just me though.

Side note: Thanks to everyone who's gone and looked at my ringtones on Myxertones in the last week. I've only been active on the site for a week, but already the 14 ringtones I've made have rung up 260 downloads. Hope you enjoy 'em, and I'm happy to indulge any requests.

Matt over at Addicted to Vinyl pointed me in the direction of this little doozy from Chris Cornell from the 1998 film version of Great Expectations. Reason #4,623 why I love the man.

Chris Cornell - Sunshower

Back later.

==TJ==

24 Hours Later...

The NIN track didn't go live until 2AM last night, so that coupled with real life means I'm only blogging about it now.

First things first: Can we all agree that by now Trent Reznor has out-Radioheaded Radiohead? Granted, Reznor had the advantage of seeing where Thom Yorke went wrong, but still...across the board from his announcement of free agency to this new single, Nine Inch Nails has succeeded where Radiohead didn't. NIN released the same product digitally and physically with Ghosts (The digital In Rainbows was a crappy bitrate version in the hopes that people would buy the eventual CD), has kept fans informed better, and has been overall less pretentious about it. Nine Inch Nails also had the YouTube and remix markets locked in before Radiohead could even look twice. So history will probably remember Radiohead for firing the first shot, but the prize goes to Trent Reznor for being the first to get it right.

On to the song: "Discipline" opens with an intro most reminiscent of With Teeth, which makes sense since this was written to be a single. The lyrics and chorus are much edgier and lend themselves more to something left off Year Zero. The drums and piano here are the most memorable things in the song. Lyrically its not awful, just on par with previous stuff. On principle "Discipline" is going to explode onto the Alternative charts, but with no album behind it (yet?), don't expect it to linger. Unless Trent's cryptic message of "two weeks" means there's more where "Discipline" came from.

"Discipline" is available for free at nin.com. Go give NIN's website some traffic and download it on your own.

==TJ==

Thom Yorke Is Full Of Shit

Amidst all the pro-Earth hubbub America is facing this week, NBC announced that this week would be green week, and they'd be doing all sorts of events in support of green week. At the same time, Radiohead was scheduled to make an appearance on Leno tonight in support of In Rainbows.

Until last week when Thom Yorke announced it would instead be sending Leno a taped performance to play during the show. A band rep said the rationale for this was as follows:

Recorded live in London, Radiohead's performance of "House of Cards," represents an ongoing effort by the socially conscious band to act in the greenest manner possible. By opting to record this exclusive performance rather than fly over for a one-off appearance, the band - as frontman Thom Yorke notes in the introduction to their performance - avoided leaving a carbon footprint equivalent to driving one's car for a solid year.

Bullshit. I would be far more likely to accept this reasoning and be OK with Radiohead's laziness were it not for this video. And this one. This one too. Suffice it to say, we have enough videos of Radiohead performing live from the last six months. Thom Yorke might have told Leno to go YouTube the band and help save the environment by avoiding having the video mailed. Moments like this make me frustrated with my newfound liking for Radiohead.

I hope they accidentally send the wrong video and everyone watching Leno tonight hears a live version of "Creep". That's right...I said it.

Radiohead - House of Cards [iTunes]

I will be back later tonight once Trent Reznor officially posts the new single. I didn't know about this story till about 30 minutes ago, so if you want info go to NIN's site or Idolator's piece here.

==TJ==

Weekend WTF: VLM Enjoys a Cold One Now and Then...

Here at Arcadia we're seeing the first evidence of springtime, and thus the end of the year. Trees are in bloom, classes are being held outside, and students are spending more and more time on Beaver Beach (that's what we call the soccer field when it's warm out and people are tanning on it). It's just after the cold of winter leaves, and just before the stress of finals kicks into overdrive. Which in the world of college students, means one more great ritual comes into the limelight...


...Partying.


That's not to say parties don't happen anyway the rest of the year, people are just a bit more shameless about it now. Perhaps it's meant to be some last hurrah with college buddies before the summer. Regardless, in the interest of honoring the great college parties (of which there have been 5 or 6 that I know in the last 48 hours), a novelty song from a few years ago, with video to boot



Coors Light - Wingman
(for some reason SaveFile won't let me upload, so this is via YSI)

Back again in the near future.

==TJ==

VLM ventures into the realm of Ringtones

Thanks to some help from friends, I found a place where I can create ringtones that I can send to my phone without all the hassle that usually comes with doing so. I've already mentioned what a racket legal ringtone purchases are ($2.50 per clip for me, when I can buy the whole %$&#ing song for $0.99). Myxertones works with just about every carrier, and allows you to make ringtones from MP3 files on your computer with relative ease. Sending them costs about as much as a picture message ($1.99 for me...your phone needs to be able to send picture messages) and Myxertones Terms of Use policy appears to be a formality, since searching nearly any band will get you what you want. I've linked to my artist page, again a formality so people can see the ringtones I created.

I don't know how long this will last, since it is still possible that Myxertones will shut me down, but it's been kinda fun for the last few days, so enjoy the ones I've already made, and if you have a request, let me know.

VivaLaMainstream on Myxertones

Till then, enjoy some beautiful weather (especially for those on the east coast), and have a free MP3 to celebrate the joyous sunshine.

Collective Soul - Hollywood [iTunes]

==TJ==

Heard Here First: Carolina Liar

I promise a return to more regular updates after this week.

I doubt most of my readers watch The Hills on MTV...I don't either. But if anyone reading watched the episode from this past Monday, this song was played somewhere near the end I think

Carolina Liar - I'm Not Over




To be honest I know very little about the band; someone on their management team emailed me with links to this song and "Show Me What I'm Looking For". I'm pretty impressed with the music. Someone I talked to compared it to The Strokes, but I think it's got more energy than that. I love the melody and the guitar riff in the chorus. Both of the above mentioned tracks are available on iTunes right now, and Carolina Liar's debut album Coming to Terms drops June 3rd.

Carolina Liar - I'm Not Over [iTunes]
Carolina Liar on MySpace

==TJ==

Corrections: 1) I don't know why every video I post appears twice, but I think I just fixed it.
2) Due to positive response from TV and radio, Coming to Terms' release date is now being released May 20th. You can also pre-order it on iTunes.

The 3 Doors Down Single That Isn't...Really

It's been a long time since a song has been able to give me chills after repeated listens, but for the last few weeks I've had one song that has given me goosebumps after every single play. "Citizen Soldier" is an unofficial single released by 3 Doors Down after its successful use in a National Guard commercial/music video (said video is below). I usually scoff when bands release singles that are blatantly patriotic, since its usually just a big marketing ploy to score a hit on country rock stations. "Citizen Soldier" is way different in my mind. For one, there's nothing country about this track. This is the hardest song I've heard the band do since "Kryptonite". It's also much more subtle; there are no mentions of the war in the song or the video, it's more of a tribute to the individual, not the cause or the institution. And in that sense, 3 Doors Down REALLY succeeds.

The thing is, this song would simultaneously be a great and terrible single. It would be great for the band, since the press it would get would send the song skyrocketing up the charts. The problem is it would polarize too much that I almost think you'd get a reverse-Dixie Chicks situation. This time, the overly cynical anti-war folk would be blind to what the song REALLY says and radio stations in big liberal areas would try to limit its play. That's a real shame, since for the first time, I think we've written a song about soldiers that doesn't take a definite stand on any conflict. Kudos to 3 Doors Down for writing a brilliant track, a song 100 times better than "It's Not My Time", the single they currently have on the radio.



3 Doors Down - Citizen Soldier [iTunes]

3 Doors Down's self-titled album drops May 20th.

==TJ==

Playing Catch-Up Part II

One thing I forgot to mention in the last post:

After attending Arcadia's Woodstock Concert (yeah, I know its unoriginal...give it a rest people), I can safely say that the members of Head Automatica, up to and including their lead singer, are all friggin' dipshits. A couple of friends of mine were liaisons for the band in the green room before they went on, and apparently they had this delusion that they were somehow still a legitimate punk band and could complain about the food provided them. Someone forgot to tell them that hardcore punk stopped being cool shortly after they put out their last album. When they finally got on stage, the lead singer (I'm too lazy to look up his name) kept making those smartass "this is kinda cool...I guess" comments about playing in a school gym at 5 in the afternoon on a pretty nice day (note that a thunderstorm the night before made the ground too wet to safely put up a stage on the soccer field, hence it was indoors). I would estimate that the band talked about as much as they played in their 65-minute set, prompting me on at least one occasion to shout wholeheartedly, if not a bit cliched "SHUT UP AND PLAY".

That, and the band's music is at best average. But of course people liked it anyway, since Head Automatica is pretty much the biggest name Arcadia's gotten in a few years. Regardless, mark me down as wholly unimpressed. Quick Step John opened, and were as amazing as I remembered seeing them in the past (check my piece on them here). Didn't get to see the other two bands on account of a show of my own in the theatre.

Quick Step John - Up On A Satellite [iTunes]

More fun in a bit, once I think of it.

==TJ==

Playing Catch-Up

Shame on me for not posting for a full week. More shame upon me for it being April 14th and having only posted 5 times this month. I promise a flurry of posts in the coming days.

I listened to the Accidental Demos last week, and I think the general consensus has been pretty accurate. Nothing earth-shattering, except for the potential hit in "With A Little Bit of Luck", but certainly at least on par with the rest of My December. If these tracks got cut off the album by Clive Davis, then he deserves to be punched in the face.

And for the record, I did do as I promised and deleted the demos from my computer upon listening to them.

Follow-ups to 2 stories I've posted previously:
-Last week Green Day confirmed that they were indeed The Foxboro Hot Tubs, the garage band act whose EP has circulated around the internet since late December. Cynics were quick to point out that this confirmation followed an announcement of a FHT album dropping at the end of the month, as well as first single "Mother Mary" dropping off the charts. Both of those may be true, but I don't care. It's still good music, and a great ploy by Green Day to kill time before the new album.

(Also note some other famous side projects: Beck's Mutations, The Postal Service, and oh yeah...The Foo Fighters [the first album was planned as a one-shot)

-In the 8th inning of the Mets home opener last week, Shea Stadium honored the fans write-in campaign and played "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. A rep later claimed that this was not the final selection, and that the official pick would be determined by fan response to other finalist tracks (the poll, he says, was to weed out the bad choices, thus implying there was a good choice). Reports suggest that the odds of a future RickRolling at Shea are slim, but alas, twas fun while it lasted.

I'll be back in a bit, just wanted to get a post up before doomsday.

==TJ==

Same Name, Different Tune

No, I haven't listened to the Kelly Clarkson Accidental Demos (that's what I'm calling them from now on). Been busy with real life, and getting my hands on a bunch of Linkin Park rarities (all the Fan Club CDs showed up online not long ago), so I've been tied up.

I do have things to write about this week, among them the not-so-surprising Lollapalloza lineup (Have you done something newsworthy in the last 8 months? You're in!), the Accidental Demos, REM's new album (once I get another listen or two or six), and other stuff, but tech has fried my brain. So I post a cliched, yet always fun post. Songs that have the same name, but are different songs.

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend [iTunes]
Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend [iTunes]

Daniel Powter - Bad Day [iTunes]
Fuel - Bad Day [iTunes]

Green Day - Warning [iTunes]
Incubus - Warning [iTunes]

Alter Bridge - Open Your Eyes [iTunes]
Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes [iTunes]

I have tons more, but those are my favorites. I know there are a bunch more, but its taking an unusual amount of time to upload stuff tonight. There might be a part 2 to this soon.

==TJ==

Kelly Clarkson Demos Leak; Chaos Ensues

Last week Luis at PMA got his hands on what were allegedly some demo tracks from the in-progress Kelly Clarkson album (not being written by Clarkson, sadly; looks like Clive Davis won out). 4 tracks, the origin of which is anywhere from being in Clarkson's personal collection to semi-official releases, found their way into Luis's hands and subsequently onto PMA, starting a full-blown comment war between the blog, the hardcore "crazy Clarkson" fans, and everyone else who felt like typing something out. The site ultimately took them down, but not before a militant commenter uploaded them himself and passed out the link.

I'm rather torn on this story. My respect for record labels is in a constant decline, so if these belong to the record label and got leaked, tough shit on them. The conspiracy theorist in me tends to believe that record labels intentionally leak some of this stuff because they know that the bloggers are right about it generating (usually) positive hype. So that explains why I generally don't have much issue picking up on leaks, especially if i know I'll be buying the music upon its release.

But many sites (including PMA and Billboard) are reporting that these demos were snagged from Clarkson herself, the work of some hacker. That's a whole new ballgame. Now we ARE looking at a story where someone stole directly from an artist; not from a multimillion dollar label that claims to be looking out for said artist. That's not much different from someone taking a saved blog post from my hard drive and claiming it as their own. For that reason, I'm NOT posting the Clarkson demos. I will admit to having them on my hard drive, mostly out of sheer curiosity. I also plan to delete them upon hearing them. Turns out that Aben Eubanks, a friend and colleague of Clarkson has asked for their removal, but the label itself has said nothing. Given the war that went on over My December, I can't say I'm surprised.

I may or may not post my opinions of the demos after I hear them. That's to come later this week. Just thought this was a story that needed to be posted.

4 New Kelly Clarkson Demos [PMA]
To Do List: Talk About Kelly Clarkson... [PMA]
Clarkson Hopes Fans 'Like' Leaked Demos [Billboard]

==TJ==

Weekend WTF: Shea Stadium (and VLM) To Get RickRolled??

Dear Major League Baseball Stadiums,

Look, I get it. Allowing fans to vote on what songs play during certain parts of a game is a way to let fans be more involved with their baseball team and feel like its more interactive...all that nice "we're in control" stuff. But for God's sake, can we please come up with some GOOD tracks for us to vote on? Both the Nationals and my beloved Mets are holding polls of this nature, and in both cases, the song options are just plain awful. The Mets pretty much resemble your local oldies station, for better and (mostly) for worse:

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline (Way to steal from Fenway, boys)
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl (Been there, done that)
Billy Joel - Movin' Out (Have we forgotten that Joel is a lifelong Yankees fan?)
Wilson Pickett - Land of 1000 Dances (I'll take cliches for 500, Alex)

Among others. So leave it to a couple of web dorks who double as Mets fans to suggest a better option. At this time there is a write-in campaign for everyone's favorite YouTube prank: Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". Now I'm pretty new to the RickRoll phenomenon (the best ones I've seen involve a Star Wars Rune Goldberg and a promise of a Cloverfield trailer dating back to September), so it's still kinda funny to me, though I see why others would hate it. But given how out of touch the folks at Shea seem to be about music, I'm happily casting my vote for "Never Gonna Give You Up". Updates on this story if/when I find them.

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up [iTunes]


PS: Guns N Roses finally gives pre-order info about Chinese Democracy to iTunes:
Pre-order Chinese Democracy here


(Oh, C'mon, like you DIDN'T see that coming...)

==TJ==

And By Later Today I Meant...

I know I promised this all-Cornell related post on Wednesday, but when you're a college student balancing classes, rehearsals for a show, and the general real life that comes with being a 19-year old college student, in the words of one Lewis Rothschild, "assume that all plans are soft until you receive confirmation from me thirty minutes beforehand."

[For everyone who gets the movie reference, yes, I do say it with a great deal of charm. For the rest of you, see this movie...now.]

On to the Cornell post. Let me first say that I think Chris Cornell is one of the best lead singers of my lifetime. Not the greatest frontman in the world, but from Temple of the Dog to Soundgarden to Audioslave, I defy you to find a guy with a better and more disctinctive set of pipes than Chris Cornell. I'm even gonna go out on a limb and say that both of his solo albums are excellent. I like what little I've heard of Euphoria Morning, and I will till the day I die think that Carry On was indefensibly unappreciated last year. Both albums were given a raw deal by the Soundgarden/Audioslave fans that didn't want to hear Cornell reach out beyond the grunge sound they were familiar with. But the fact remains Cornell is too versatile to stay put, hence the multitude of directions you hear on Carry On.

Last entry I posted a video of American Idol David Cook doing his take on Cornell's version of "Billie Jean". As with what happened to Chris Daughtry after he did Live's version of "I Walk the Line", Cook took crap for allegedly trying to pass Cornell's coffeehouse version off as his own take on the track. Cornell surprisingly lept to Cook's defense, noting that Ryan Seacrest billed it as the Chris Cornell version, and wished Cook best of luck in the rest of the show. Regardless, Cornell's version of Billie Jean saw a spike on the iTunes charts in the last week.

Last week also saw the first news about Cornell's third solo album. Not a whole lot, primarily an announcement that it was being recorded, but the fascinating thing here is that Cornell noted that most of the album was being produced by none other than Timbaland. I know for a fact that all the Audioslave fans just spit blood. I love the idea. There's always been a bit of a dancey texture to Cornell's singing (Audioslavers, listen to "Original Fire" again), a feel that was present on Carry On, but never fully fleshed out. With Timbaland behind the knobs for the next album, it may just work out after all. Cornell also announced that he would be joining Linkin Park on the next iteration of Projekt Revolution this summer. Again, brilliant. That tour is coming to the Tweeter ...*sigh* Susquehanna Bank Center outside Philly on July 19th. Only problem is that my roommate and I agreed that the Foo Fighters would top our list of bands to see. But at the same time, LP and Chris Cornell on the same bill is almost too good to let pass. Someone make this choice easier for me...please.

Cornell and Audioslave mp3s below. Enjoy.

Audioslave - Original Fire [iTunes]
Chris Cornell - Ghosts [iTunes]

==TJ==

Weiland Slashed from Velvet Revolver

I was originally going to devote this entry to all the press Chris Cornell has gotten in the last week after a certain American Idol performance, but Idolator and WMMR picked up this story late yesterday and its more relevant. After a very public battle online and in concert between the members of Velvet Revolver/Guns N Roses and singer Scott Weiland, the band and its management yesterday announced that Scott Weiland was no longer a member of the supergroup. So says Slash:

"This band is all about its fans and its music and Scott Weiland isn't 100% committed to either...Among other things, his increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on."

The on-stage behavior in question is Weiland's statement at a recent concert that this would be the band's last tour. Those remarks sparked a battle between Weiland, Slash and bassist Duff McKagan, as well as some nasty statements about ego and jealousy from drummer Matt Sorum. Slash has promised that Velvet Revolver will continue with a new lead singer, preferably one that doesn't go into rehab every 14 months.

Anyone worried about where Weiland will get his next meal/heroin fix can rest easy. A short time ago Weiland's original band Stone Temple Pilots announced it was reuniting and will be playing a number of dates this year. Based on the number of canceled VR dates because of Weilands problems, all tickets for all STP shows will not go on sale until one hour before the show so as to verify Weiland will actually be there.

Memo to American Idol contestant David Cook; VLM humbly recommends tanking this season and auditioning for the Velvet Revolver vacancy.

(Video below is Cook's performance of Chris Cornell's take on "Billie Jean"...more on Cornell later today)

Velvet Revolver - The Last Fight [iTunes]

==TJ==