British Electronica Duo Goldfrapp Announce New Album, Head First, Released March 23; I Finally Ask the Question: What the Hell Kind of a Last Name is Goldfrapp? Was Your Father a Particularly Luxurious Starbucks? [NME]

Super Hip Blog Gorilla vs. Bear Releases Super Hip List of the Super-est, Hippest Albums to Come Out in 2009; Raekwon’s Fantastic Only Built For Cuban Linx Pt. II Claims the Number One Spot, White Denim Claims Number Two; Elsewhere, GvsB, Seriously? Still Sticking With Polaroids AND Still Repping White Denim? You Are Swiftly Becoming the First Aging Hipster Blog…At Least You Can Keep Your Ray-Bans On as You Go Old and Blind [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Dischord-Necessities Shudder to Think’s Frontman Craig Wedren Posts Entirety of Lost 1995 Solo Album The Spanish Amnesian; Stream It Here [Pitchfork]

Watch the Video for “¡Happy Birthday, Guadalupe!” A Christmas Song From the Killers, Who Will Be Donating All Profits to (RED), An AIDS Relief Fund; From the Mariachi Instrumentation to Brandon Flowers Shouting “My Mexican Angel!” Everything About this Song is Baffling [Spin]

Liam Gallagher May Continue Recording Under Name Oasis, Even With the Departure of Principle Oasis Songwriter Noel Gallagher…My Question: Why in the Hell Would You Want to Continue Being Associated With the Trainwreck that Has Been the Last Fourteen Years of Oasis? [NME]

Stream New Song From Owen Pallett, AKA Final Fantasy, “Lewis Takes Action;” Meanwhile, Lewis’s Idea of Taking Acting Must Be Angularly (And, Admittedly Pleasantly) Noodling For Three Minutes; Heartland Released January 12 [Pitchfork]

I’m Self-Conscious of My Smell, But Still Want to Prove I Really REALLY Like Thriller; I Know, I’ll Get a Scent Modeled After the DNA of Michael Jackson, That’ll Really Draw in the Err…Ladies; Elsewhere, Who Else is Surprised That Any of Michael Jackson’s DNA was Found in a Piece of His Hair? That Man Was Ostensibly a Stretch Armstrong [Idolator]

Watch Video For Small Black’s “Despicable Dogs,” Which Makes Predominant Use of the Aging Surfer Motif Present in Movies Like Lords of Dogtown, or, for the Tween Crowd, Johnny Tsunami; Hey, Why Not Read About the Filming of the Video In Our Interview With Josh Kolenik [Prefix]

compiled by Max Sebela

Stream “Bad Design,” A New Single From San Francisco’s The Mantles, Which Sounds Like Joe Strummer Moonlighting as the Hungover Frontman For An Early, Drunk Version of Green Day [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Watch New York’s Own Ezra Furman and the Harpoons Cover Daniel Johnston’s “Walking the Cow” – Appearance of Band Eerily Similar to Early Look of the Shins; Possibly Same Band [Spin]

Vampire Weekend Prep New Single From Upcoming LP Contra; “Cousins,” (Which Hopefully Will Slant Rhyme “Cousins,” With “Cuff-Links”) Released November 17 [Pitchfork]

Former Oasis Co-Frontman Noel Gallagher Confirms Plan to Pursue Career as Solo Musician After Oasis’s Split; Doesn’t Confirm Whether or Not His Music Will Be Tolerable; Confirms He Has Only Thought About Himself For Last Six Months, Therefore Confirming My Suspicions That Noel Gallagher is Shitty Person [NME]

German Nu-Metal Band Rammstein (Most Popularly Known For The Fist-Pumping Confusion of “Du Has”) Release Most Explicit “Special Edition” Album Packaging Of All Time, Including Five “Pleasure Tools” Modeled After The Band Members’ Err…Rams-stein [Idolator]

Billy Corgan to Control Fighting Doll Version of Himself, and Attempt to Take Down Doll Robert Smith; Smashing Pumpkins Hope That Doll Corgan Take Control of Smashing Pumpkins, As Even an Inanimate Doll Would Be More Respectable Than Billy Corgan Himself [Pitchfork]

Public Enemy Has Raised Over $50,000 From Fans to Record Next Album; Chuck D Heard To Intelligently Say Something About “Taking Power Back” From Recording Companies; Meanwhile, Flava Flav Exploiting Himself For Lacking a High School Education [NME]

compiled by Max Sebela

DAILY NEWS PICKS

The Commodores Reunite With Lionel Richie At Essence Fest [Billboard]

Former Manager of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Allen Klein Passes Away [NME]

“California Family Claims to See Michael Jackson’s Face in Tree” — No Joke Can Make That Headline Funnier [CBS13]

Foo Fighters Debut New Song At Obama’s USO 4th of July Party…Obama Pleased, But Really Wanted to Hear Grohl Cover “Tiny Dancer” [Spin]

Twilight Sad Tour U.S. With Frightened Rabbit – Fans Work Hard on Their Scottish Accents for Sing Alongs [Tripwire]

Radiohead Manager Brian Message Launches Polyphonic Records; Allows Artists to Keep Copyrights [NME]

Jack White Sets Up Subscription Service Through His Record Label; Cryptically Called “The Vault” [Spin]

Dinosaur Jr.’s/Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow to Release Goodnight Unknown October 6 [Pitchfork]

Listen to New Air Track, “Do the Joy” Now! It’s Robotic! Hypnotic! Dreamy! It Sounds Exactly Like Air! [Prefix]

Oasis’ Noel Gallagher Really Loves Drugs [Prefix]

compiled by Max Sebela

This is a creation myth. At the dawn of New Wave, when Simon Cowell was still in his public schoolboy’s knee breeches, a bunch of bands appeared on the scene wearing their utter strangeness and lack of professionalism like a power tie. A few years earlier, American and British punk had appeared, giving the finger to polished stadium musicians. “The Ramones respect us because we can tune our guitars,” the sour leader of The Reivers complained. But the kids were all hopped up and liked the Ramones, even though they didn’t sing – they yelled. And Elvis Costello, Tom Verlaine, and Graham Parker – early New Wavers – hiccupped and growled their way through angry anti-love songs, songs about buildings, food, and sundry kookiness. From New Wave most of the pop styles that populate our universe today were born. Virtually all New Wave bands, from Depeche Mode  and The Cure to Joy Division / New Order, went in a pop direction as they grew to stadium-level popularity. Then they were widely imitated. From punk came the wall-of-sound guitars and screamers now loosely gathered in a headbanger’s ball: thrash, hardcore, death metal etc.

Enter Simon Cowell. Noel Gallagher, who was no public schoolboy, used some Beatles chords and his brother’s Johnny Lydon whine to become familiar to millions. He complained that the show Popstar, a phenomenon in merry old England, had ruined music. These shows and similar shows about fashion or cooking are about perfectionism and uncompromising standards. They’re about facing your fears, making the grade through hard work, through believing that you can do better than you thought you could – or tearfully accepting your failure while vowing to never give up.
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