
New Music Report: Prince and Neil Young, Plus Zac Brown BandIn this week’s New Music Report, Rolling Stone contributing editor Christian Hoard takes us in-depth into the Reviews section of the new, Lil Wayne-fronted issue of RS. Prince’s three-disc Target exclusive, featuring LOtUSFLOW3R, MPLSoUND and protégée Bria Valente’s Elixer, is in the spotlight, with the Purple Rain great releasing a package that is “excessive and uneven, of course, but it’s also intermittently brilliant and a real bargain.” (Target is selling the collection for only $11.98.) At it’s best, the songs sound like 1999 or Controversy B sides, but at its worst, especially in the case of Valente’s Elixer, the tracks are just “generic pop ballads.” Hoard also discusses Neil Young’s Fork in the Road, a concept album dedicated to the LincVolt electric hybrid automobile that’s also about “American myth, governmental betrayal and how rust still never sleeps.” While comparative to previous Young thematic exercises like Trans and This Note’s For You, Will Hermes writes in his three-star review that Fork “most resembles Living With War — the rock album recast as blog rant, less about aesthetic craft than about spitting out what needs to be said this minute.” Finally, the Zac Brown Band recently stopped by the Smoking Section to talk the about the recording process, how reggae influences their music and their next two or three albums the band has already recorded. A nominee for the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Artist, the Zac Brown came to the Rolling Stone studios to perform a handful of songs, including their single “Chicken Fried” and a cover of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia.” For the whole New Music Report, check the video above.
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Publicado: 2009-04-01 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Videos, New Music Report
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Neko Case Kicks Off Tour With Bawdy, Ferocious Austin GigPhoto: Miller/FilmMagic “Welcome to the first night of our tour, which is fucking terrifying,” said alt-country siren Neko Case, the orange-flecked acoustic guitar in her hands a match for her fiery locks. She and her five bandmates, including a female backup singer with whom she traded potty-mouth banter, kicked off their 34-date U.S. tour last night at Stubb’s in Austin not with a song from their critically lauded new album, Middle Cyclone, but with “Maybe Sparrow” from 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. It was likely a nod to opener Shearwater, a majestic local rock band fronted by part-time ornithologist Jonathan Meiburg, whom Case said her group had a “music crush” on. But as soon as Case gave that love she took it away, with a ferocious rendition of “People Got a Lotta Nerve,” wherein she sang, “I’m a man man man, man man man eater/But still you’re surprised prised prised when I eat ya.” Talk about a case study in a Case song. The insatiable animal fetish. The long-distance vocal runs. The subtle outro trills. No wonder her prey was duped. (Read our recent Neko Case feature, Neko Case’s Animal Instincts .) Case said she and the band had been rehearsing in Austin for a spell leading up to the show. “We’ve been eating fried food for days and feel ready to rock America,” she said, adding, “and Canada,” as if not to forget the north-of-the-border fans she’s accumulated from her days in the New Pornographers. It was one of many pre-song admissions Case made throughout a set split fairly evenly between Cyclone and Fox Confessor, in favor of T Bone Burnett-meets-Something Wicked This Way Comes atmospherics, and yielding of an appreciation for the natural world. She said “The Pharaohs” was about her first love, a “Burt Reynolds unicorn” (yes, you read that correctly). She also said this was the first time she’d played “I’m an Animal” live. “I’m gonna fuck it up,” she said. Well, she didn’t. Not even close. Related Stories: • Neko Case’s Animal Instincts • Neko Ca
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Publicado: 2009-04-01 Proveedor: Rolling Stone Etiquetas: Rock News, Live Shows
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