Portishead pictures from Rolling Stone

Interns’ Picks: Top Albums and Singles of 2008

You’ve read Rolling Stone’s lists of the top albums and singles of the year — but how did the folks who work at RS rank their personal favorites? Here’s how our army of interns ranked the year’s best: Albums of the Year Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes The Black Keys - Attack & Release Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend Beck - Modern Guilt Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Conor Oberst My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges MGMT - Oracular Spectacular Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends The Hold Steady - Stay Positive Portishead - Third Singles of the Year Fleet Foxes - “White Winter Hymnal” Santogold - “LES Artists” Cat Power - “I Believe In Your” The Black Keys - “Strange Times” Kings of Leon - “Sex on Fire” Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - “Souled Out!!!” Kanye West - “Heartless” Jenny Lewis - “Acid Tongue” Bon Iver - “Skinny Love” Britney Spears - “Womanizer”

Published: 2008-12-24 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

News Ticker: Madonna, Matador Records, Portishead, Prince

Madonna will make her new album Hard Candy downloadable to European owners of Vodafone cell phones a week before the album is due to hit stores on April 29th. The Material Girl, who in the past has shunned iTunes, will be the first artist to release their album via cell phone before the actual release date. No plans have been made yet for a similar release in the U.S. Matador Records have posted their Spring ‘08 Intended Play sampler for free download. The sampler features cuts from Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Cat Power, the New Pornographers and more. Check out the video for Portishead’s “Machine Gun,” the first single from the band’s upcoming and long-awaited third album Third. The video is the band’s first in nine years. The LA Times revealed, and then retracted, a report that Prince will perform at this year’s Coachella festival during the April 25th weekend. Festival organizers said those reports were “absolutely not true.”

Published: 2008-03-19 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup, Madonna

Mick Jagger Releases Rarities, Miles Davis Box Set on the Way, Bruce Springsteen Guests on Patti Scialfa’s LP

After finally exhausting every possible permutation of greatest hits packages for The Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger will unfurl The Very Best of Mick Jagger, a collection of his best solo work, on October 2. The set will feature three unreleased songs, among them “Too Many Cooks,” which was produced by John Lennon, and two covers including his duet with David Bowie on “Dancing in the Street.” Portishead has tapped into the instigating powers of MySpace to attack Mark Ronson, accusing the producer of turning “decent songs into funky supermarket muzak.” They might have a point. Listen to The Cult’s new single “Dirty Little Rock Star” from their forthcoming album Born Into This, the band’s first album since 2001. The complete sessions from Miles Davis’ On the Corner album will be released in a six-disc box set. Bruce Springsteen and various other E Streeters will guest on the Boss’s wife Patti Scialfa’s upcoming third solo album. Photo: Greenway/Getty

Published: 2007-08-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

“Solid Air” Singer-Songwriter John Martyn Dead at 60

Photo: Hussein/Getty British singer-songwriter John Martyn, best known for his 1973 album Solid Air, died today, January 29th, at the age of 60. A note on Martyn’s official Website reads, “With heavy heart and an unbearable sense of loss we must announce that John died this morning.” No cause of death was provided. In a career than spanned four decades Martyn worked with artists including Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Steve Winwood, the Band’s Levon Helm and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. But it was Solid Air that earned him most acclaim. In 2006, Martyn played the album in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow’s Parties Don’t Look Back series. The title track “Solid Air” is reportedly a tribute to Pink Moon singer-songwriter Nick Drake, a good friend of Martyn’s who died of an overdose 18 months after Solid Air’s release. Martyn’s final studio album, 2004’s On the Cobbles, features contributions from Paul Weller, Mavis Staples and the Verve’s Nick McCabe. Martyn has been credited in the past for influencing artists like U2, Portishead and Clapton, who covered Martyn’s “May You Never,” Phil Collins, who played drums on Martyn’s 1980 album Grace and Danger and produced his 1981 Glorious Fool, told the BBC, “John’s passing is terribly, terribly sad. I had worked with and known him since the late 1970s and he was a great friend. He was uncompromising, which made him infuriating to some people, but he was unique and we’ll never see the likes of him again. I loved him dearly and will miss him very much.” David Gilmour’s Twitter also made note of Martyn’s passing, saying “Sorry to hear - and say - that John Martyn passed away this morning.”

Published: 2009-01-29 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News

Single Minded: Emmylou Harris, Martha Wainwright and More

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more. Emmylou Harris, “Hold On” [MySpace] No flashing lights, no pop crossovers, just Emmylou doing what she does best: curling her smoky alto around dry chords and singing of sorrow and longing. Lil Wayne, “A Milli” [MySpace] The gauntlet has been thrown, Axl! After months of rescheduling, re-recording and about 750 different mixtapes named “The Leak” or “The Drought,” the year’s most anticipated hip-hop album is upon us. Meaning for that the next six months, indie rock bloggers are going to have nothing to write about. Martha Wainwright, “Comin Tonight” [MySpace] Is it just us, or does this family kind of remind you of the Tenenbaums? Or the Glass family in those Salinger books? Does the Wainwright’s pet terrier have a record coming out? Did they record it with Van Dyke Parks? This scorcher from sister Martha proves her worthy of her family’s heavy mantle. Flying Lotus, “Roberta Flack ft. Dolly” [MySpace] Now this is more like it: anyone who wishes the new Portishead sounded more like old Portishead should be mailing Flying Lotus $15 before they finish this sentence. Dark beats and druggy vocals — simply sublime. My Morning Jacket, “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream” [MySpace] All good beardos unite: MMJ broker a treaty between Radiohead and the Band on their latest. “I know it sounds confusing, but it makes a lot of sense,” Jim James sings on this one. You’re telling us. [Photo: Getty]

Published: 2008-06-10 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Single Minded

Single Minded: The Roots, New Pornographers, Foxboro Hot Tubs and More

Every Tuesday Single Minded highlights new tracks hitting stores (or the Web) this week. On Fridays, come back for rarities, remixes, mash-ups and more. The Roots ft. Patrick Stump, “Birthday Girl” [Axed Track] We know, this leaked a while ago. But let’s take one last run through this track, just excised from the Roots’ forthcoming album, before it vanishes into history’s dustbin forever. Meanwhile in New Jersey, Gerard Way wonders why Common has suddenly stopped returning his calls. Various Artists, “Remix Sunday” [Mixtape] Nonstop dance party featuring amped-up remixes of the Streets, 50 Cent, Michael Jackson and Portishead. Sadly, they are not all on the same song. Blu & Exile, “Blue Collar Worker” [Video] In case you haven’t figured it out, Single Minded has a fetish for a very particular sound of hip-hop. We wait anxiously for the day when the world will embrace the brilliance of Blu & Exile. In the meantime, enjoy this video like it’s your own little secret. The New Pornographers, Live on National Public Radio [Live] Once again, hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going to fund pornography. Foxboro Hot Tubs, “The Pedestrian” [Internet Single] New single from California’s Foxboro Hot Tubs, a band that sounds and looks and behaves suspiciously like Green Day. Not that we’re making any allegations. We’re just saying. They sound an awful lot like Green Day. It’s almost as if this were some sort of Green Day side project or something.

Published: 2008-03-28 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Single Minded, Rock Daily

News Ticker: Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Portishead

Photo: Getty Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini has left the band to concentrate on his own projects. “It’s been exactly four years since I joined Nine Inch Nails and the time has come for me to move onto new things,” Cortini said. Trent Reznor told the crowd at their Las Vegas concert this weekend that they’ll continue on as a four-piece. Oasis’ “Wonderwall” and, strangely, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” among the biggest vote-getters in a recent U.K. poll of songs that mothers sing to their babies as lullabies. “We were really surprised to find that mums would rather sing modern pop tunes than traditional lullabies,” said a spokesperson for the study. Even though it took 11 years for Portishead to release Third, the wait for the band’s next disc won’t be nearly as long as the band has already settled on what direction to take. “When everyone’s had a bit of a break, I think we’re just going to plough onto it,” Geoff Barrow said about going back into the studio.

Published: 2008-12-16 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Morning News Roundup

News Ticker: Aerosmith/Guitar Hero, Usher, R.Kelly, Portishead

Aerosmith will get their own installment of the Guitar Hero franchise in June. The pairing marks the first time the series has dedicated an entire game to one band, and also marks the first time a video game has been built around Aerosmith since 1994 arcade-shooter Revolution X. After Usher expressed confusion about why unmastered versions of songs from his new album kept leaking onto the internet, one of the album’s producers, Polow Da Don, admitted to spreading the tracks. The reason why R. Kelly’s publicist quit representing the artist: Kelly “crossed the line with my daughter,” says George Daniels, the publicist’s husband. Thankfully for Kelly, the daughter was twenty-one at the time. Portishead’s new album Third, their first album since 1998’s live PNYC, now has a tracklist and a release date: April 28th.

Published: 2008-02-15 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Afternoon News Roundup

My Bloody Valentine’s Coachella Absence Explained

When the Coachella line-up was announced last month, many questioned the absence of the much-rumored My Bloody Valentine reunion. Whispers of MBV frontman Kevin Shields negotiating with Coachella date back to August 2007, but instead the festival announced Jack Johnson, Portishead and Roger Waters as the headliners. So why were they left off the bill? Coachella founder Paul Tollett tells NME, “I was hanging out with Kevin (Shields) over at the Led Zeppelin (reunion concert in December), and he said it was just too early. Coachella’s in April and I don’t think they’ll be ready yet.” This is a band that’s been inactive for eighteen years; you’d think they’d find ample time to practice. My Bloody Valentine does have a trio of European dates scheduled for later in the summer, and Tollett promises “Don’t worry. They’ll come to America.”

Published: 2008-02-15 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Festivals

Rewind: The Week in Rock Daily

Radiohead magically appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone this week, and Rock Daily brought you a photo gallery tracking the band’s fifteen-year history and a look at the band’s musical and literary influences. Roger Waters, Portishead and Jack Johnson were named Coachella headliners; the New Jersey-based Vinelands festival bit the dust after Coachella’s promoters announced their own Jersey fest, All Points West. After the Writers Guild announced they won’t picket February 10th’s Grammy Awards, Rihanna, Mary J. Blige and Carrie Underwood were added to the show’s lineup of performers. Everyone who was anyone descended on Utah for the Sundance Film Festival: RS brought frequent updates from our own Peter Travers, a photo gallery of rockers on the scene and a report of the real This Is Spinal Tap: Anvil! The True Story of Anvil. Peter Travers also said farewell to Heath Ledger, who passed away this week at the age of twenty-eight in his New York apartment. We looked back at Ledger’s 2006 Rolling Stone cover story and examined his apparent Nick Drake obsession.

Published: 2008-01-25 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Rewind

Single Minded: Robyn, Portishead, The Roots and More

Robyn, “Who’s That Girl” [Full Album Stream] The new Madonna record is also out today, but we figure you know a lot about that already. Instead, try this track from Robyn, who’s referred to as the Madonna of Sweden. Coincidentally, this track is called “Who’s That Girl.” Can a mock crucifixion on a particleboard, assemble-it-yourself cross and a starring role in Desperately Seeking Sven be far behind? Portishead, “Machine Gun” [MySpace] The title does not deceive: Portishead’s return is angry, threatening and violent, full of tight bursts of sound and long, terrified wails. “Machine Gun” is theoretically the album’s single, but if there’s a radio station that will play this, please send us the call letters immediately Robert Forster, “Pandanus” [Yep Roc] Two years after the death of his songwriting partner Grant McLennan, one half of the greatest band that ever was returns with a bright, hopeful solo record that honors the memory of his friend. Estelle, “American Boy” [Live on Letterman] We’re cheating with this one, but only because this live version is so good. Breathless and soulful and speedy, it would be played at every wedding in the country, if wedding DJs all simultaneously got struck by a giant cinder block and realized that KC & the Sunshine Band are terrible and that nobody, nobody likes doing the macarena. The Roots, “Rising Up” [Official Site] On this cut from the excellent-as-usual new Roots record, Chrisette Michelle complains, “The radio’s been playing the same song all day long.” If only that song was this one, she’d have nothing to complain about.

Published: 2008-04-29 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Single Minded

Coachella Day Two: Portishead, Death Cab, M.I.A., Malkmus, Kraftwerk

Saturday’s late-afternoon primetime sets began just before 5 p.m. at the Outdoor Theatre, where Stephen Malkmus was holding court with the Jicks. After joking about the environmental crisis, he half-heartedly crooned Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” adding, “I would have played that if I was over there,” gesturing towards the slightly larger Main Stage. After doodling one of his many lengthy solos during “Elmo Demo” (from the band’s new Real Emotional Trash), Malkmus, outfitted in a giant floppy hat, told the crowd, “That was one was for me. It felt so good to say something so stupid.” Informing the crowd the next track, “Hopscotch Willie,” was actually for them, the band broke into an extended desert jam, with power drummer Janet Weiss playing so integral a role, Malkmus spent the majority of the show turned sideways to partially face her. “These guys are so fucking good, I can’t believe I get to front this shit,” the former Pavement leader concluded. As the mid-day heat finally started to abate, strains of Death Cab for Cutie’s “The New Year” rang out across the Coachella field. Singer-guitarist Ben Gibbard rocked back and forth on his heels in front of several thousands fans at the Main Stage as his band debuted tracks from their new album Narrow Stairs (including winding, dark single “I Will Possess Your Heart” and “Long Division”), which sounded even broodier rubbing up against poppier older favorites like “We Laugh Indoors” and “The Sound of Settling.” Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis carries some glam with her in the form of passionate torch songs and fine threads. Over at the Outdoor Theatre she sang the tortured “I Never” with the lyrics “I’m only a woman of flesh and bone/and I wept much, we all do,” as guitarist Blake Sennett plucked out a romantic Fifties pop melody.

Published: 2008-04-27 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Coachella

Coachella 2008 Preview, Plus the 2008 Festival Guide

Tomorrow marks the launch of the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the annual three-day sojourn into the desert for some of the biggest names in rock. This year’s eclectic lineup features highly-anticipated performances from the Raconteurs, Prince, Roger Waters, Jack Johnson, Portishead, My Morning Jacket and dozens of others. Hit the jump for each day’s can’t-miss sets, and check out Rolling Stone’s ongiong coverage of Coachella 2008, featuring reviews, interviews and guest bloggers live from the desert, and for the rest of the info on all of this summer’s biggest and best festivals from around the country, check out the 2008 RollingStone.com Festival Guide. • The 2008 RollingStone.com Festival Guide • 2008 Coachella Festival Coverage Friday • Jack Johnson: The laid-back surf rocker has a knack for creating collective euphoria at festivals. • The Breeders: Songs from Mountain Battles should sound stunning in the open air. • Santogold: The buzzworthy MC’s eclectic mix of sounds will keep crowds moving. • The Raconteurs: Jack White’s big, groovy side project is just hitting its live stride. Saturday • Prince: It’s a rare chance to see the Purple One in a festival setting. • Portishead: It’ll be a while before the group tours properly, and their low-key tunes will add some melancholy to the desert evening. • Stephen Malkmus: Malkmus has become something of a guitar hero as of late. • M.I.A.: Every day needs a little dancing and danger to shake things up. Sunday • My Morning Jacket: The best live band in the business will unleash Evil Urges in the desert heat. • Roger Waters: The Pink Floyd legend will aid anybody interested in chemical alteration at the festival. • Duffy: This could be the singer’s great coming out party, a la Amy Winehouse in ‘06. • Justice: Finish off the festival by sweating out the

Published: 2008-04-24 Provider: Rolling Stone Keywords: Rock News, Festivals, Coachella