News portal

We weighed in early and positively on the Hold Steady’s Stay Positive. Since then, we’ve had more time to soak-up the lyrics, figure out interconnections, and chart continuing threads from earlier albums. At the end of the day, in the midst of this close listening, “Constructive Summer” remains a personal favorite, but “Yeah Sapphire” and “Magazines” have moved way up in the rankings, as have “Lord, I’m Discouraged” and “Slapped Actress.” (The title track, i.e. the best nostalgia track in recent memory, goes without saying.) Part of our investigation included reading your Premature Evaluation comments, which was kinda like doing research at a Hold Steady-themed library. That said — props in their proper place — those of you who haven’t heard the album in full can now stream the entire thing at the band’s MySpace (thanks for the tip, Kim) and join in the discussion. Stay Positive (and the Hold Steady in general) are largely about community, scenes, people digging in and interacting in both good and bad ways, so take a listen and get thematic.

In a New York Times piece from this weekend called “Frustration and Fury: Take It. It’s Free.,” Jon Pareles visits Trent Reznor’s place “on the outskirts of Beverly Hills,” where there’s an ever-expanding kitchen renovation in the works; in fact, it turns out the only “neat and dust-free” room in the house is the studio where Reznor’s been recording his recent material, Ghost I-IV and The Slip. It’s another article about the shifting music industry, artists leaving their labels, etc., but Reznor’s candor turns it into something more interesting. Presenting the NIN brain-trust as “an old-school rocker who is devoted to the album as a creative unit,” but who has “reinvented himself as a digital-era adept,” Reznor talks candidly about giving away the music for free (”Aside from any kind of monetization of it, I’m glad to know that a million people have it on their iPods,” re: The Slip), NiggyTardust! (”I don’t know how you could look at this as a failure”), his own freedom from a label (”It was bittersweet”) and his general self-doubt (”I don’t even know why I’m saying this in an interview situation, but I always feel like I’m not good enough for some reason…”).

For his part, Pareles details the newer records well for folks who haven’t heard about them: We get the content and the stories around them (how long they took to make, Reznor’s philosophies behind them). We also find out Reznor’s collaborating with Tarantino producer Lawrence Bender on a cable TV series about Year Zero, among other things, and that Mr. Trent will soon have more free goodies: The software he created to “distribute digital files, assemble databases and connect easily with other applications.” (”We’ve spent the money to make it,” Mr. Reznor said. “Take it.”). Fascinating in a fly-on-the-wall sense are the descriptions of the home studio (”It has burgundy brocade curtains over red velvet drapes over plywood-lined walls,” etc) and Reznor’s conflicted thoughts on everything I’ve cataloged up to this point. As he tells Pareles, “I don’t agree that it should be free, but it is free, and you can either accept it or you can put your head in the sand.” He says more, too (”I know how old I am,” he said. “I’m not trying to fool anybody”), and comes off like a really good guy in the process. Some excerpts:

So far Rook’s standout track is “Rooks,” which mixes ex-Okkervil Riverer Jonathan Meiburg’s melancholic, bookish tendencies into a tight, elegant nugget. “Leviathan, Bound,” which follows “Rooks” on the album, also follows in the general stylistic path as its predecessor, though it’s more fragile, less robust, and lacks as strong an initial hook. Give it time, though, figure out the hunter/hunted vignette/storyline, let the strings and glock do their thing, and you’ll discovered the tug.

New York had a Raconteur parade this past week: three sold out nights at the much maligned Terminal 5 in Manhattan, two-song performance on the much beloved Conan O’Brien show at 30 Rock. The New York Times sent a critic to T5 who, along with noting that room’s sight/sound issues but generally giving props to the band, had this to say about Jack:

hey kids! of course i’m anxiously awaiting (like many of you) the release of the sure-fire summer blockbuster smash hit the dark knight (releasing july 18th) the follow-up film to 2005’s batman begins and reunites incredibly talented director christopher nolan (i was so freakin’ obsessed with memento back in the day) and super hottie christian bale who dons the bat suit once again - last time kat(i)e holmes played love interest ‘rachel dawes’ and since she’s all off busy being (programmed) mrs. tom cruise - her part was passed off this time around to maggie gyllenhaal (who i do generally like but sometimes she’s a bit boring…) although it’s going to be a drop odd & disturbing to see heath ledger up on the big screen again playing ‘the joker’ - his untimely passing was such a damn shame - it’s still hard to believe he’s really gone! the film’s promotion has been kicking for quite some time now and it’s just going to grow exponentially as the july release date draws near - case in point - the latest body by milk ad is featuring mr. bale as batman rockin’ a milk moustache! popbytes over & out for now…xxoo

others reload. batman refuels. research suggests that milk’s unique mix of nutrients can help athletes recover after exercise. and its protein can help build muscle. so train hard and drink lowfat or fat free milk, because the batmobile isn’t the only thing that needs to refuel.

Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like.

Best of 1999. Too soon? Maybe. But 9 years in music is a long time no matter how you cut it, especially when it stretches back to the pre-blog era. So, you ask, who took home the (not so) coveted 1999 Q Award? Short answer: Travis. Long answer: also Travis. Look, I don’t have any problem with the Stereophonics beating out Suede for Best Performance (although I maybe perhaps do have a problem with the Stereophonics in general), but can you believe Basement Jaxx won Best New Act? What a joke. Gay Dad was robbed! The moral: as with most lists involving Gay Dad, it’s best not to take the results too seriously.

The Top 50 list is underwhelming on first glance, but looks more solid upon closer review. I don’t think of 1999 as a particularly memorable year for music, but then you see Midnite Vultures next to Blur’s 13, Terror Twilight, The Soft Bulletin, Summerteeth, and TLC’s Fanmail (I don’t want no scrubs!), and the Top 50 starts to look like a list of “last batch of CDs you actually purchased before the Napster apocalypse/liberation.” Good times.

Pants were optional at last night’s New York x New York indie rock trivia event, NY Mag’s first of the year and latest in a series that’s included karaoke with Michael Showalter and of Montreal, dinner with Man Man, and an art auction with Zach Galifianakis and Band Of Horses. Zach was again master of ceremonies and one-liners. Les Savy Fav were masters of costume changes. Trivia came in mutliple rounds, titled “’90s Indie Rock,” “NYC Indie Rock,” and “Round Three.” They weren’t hard. (”Which baby-faced band of Columbia grads recently played Satuday Night Live?,” identify this album cover, etc.) There was also a highly unfortunate final round of “Kanye Or Nay,” in which we were asked to perform the indie rock task of determining whether recited lyrics belonged to Kanye. Or, nay. That aside, Zach did a good job, being generally Galifianakis-y and showing off his “marijuana Santa Claus” coif:

Yeah not “Feat.” Lindsay Lohan in a way that’ll do much for her artistic cred. You actually get the sense, from the quick shot scene and her visible irritation, that Chad and Pharrell actually caught her with cam in hand on her way back from powdering her nose at a club. Don’t ask us how they managed to get her to sign a waiver, but put it this way: popping up in a video about “all the girls standing in the line at the bathroom” with 100 dollar bills (look at you! achoo) the same month as taking a turn for the wholesome with image rehab via Ugly Betty guest starring stint is like Britney celebrating her How I Met Your Mother quasi-buzz in a stoned YouTube with K-Fed relapse. But Lohan factors into just a sec of the video — the rest is a more general strain of hipster Olympics. (Autostart warning, n.e.r.d.s.)

As you now know, Hilary Duff has gone blonde - and how pretty she is!
Since I cannot direcly post all the new photos here for photo copyright reasons, I’ll simply take a fun "link walk" through them, where each link takes you directly to a high resolution image of Hilary. So, let’s see what Hilary’s […]

We continue in Hilary Duff’s Video Podcast mini-series entitled "Ask Hilary". In this series, fans get to ask Hilary a question that she’ll then respond to in a video podcast.
Hilary Duff Video Podcast #67
This question is about what venue is Hilary’s favorite to play. Hilary says that she travels a lot and may not […]