Frequency
Fleet Foxes
Genre: Indie Folk
Website: www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes
“With the new music, we decided to put an emphasis on harmony, simple three- and four-part block harmony. The songs would be simple as well, songs about our friends and family, history, nature, and the things around us in the Pacific Northwest.”
As if Seattle couldn’t pop out one more Indie folk/pop/rock band, they’ve given us Fleet Foxes. Robin Pecknold and Skye Skjelset are the original founding members of the five person group who were later joined by Joshua Tillman, Casey Wescott and Christian Wargo. The group has been together for over a year and a half now. With a quick rise to the top this year, the band had a breakthrough and is now being recognized as an anticipated musical attraction for this upcoming year.
Rolling Stone gave their debut album four stars and compared the group to the Beach Boys, Animal Collective and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Pitchfork gave Fleet Foxes a 9.0 out of 10.0 and even the Guardian awarded the album a full five stars and declared it “a landmark in American music, an instant classic.” There are guitars, bass, drums, an electric piano, sometimes a cello or string of chimes, but no true lead singer in the band. They are certain this gives them the edge they need in an industry as unpredictable as the music business.
Discography:
Fleet Foxes (2008)
Diddy will guest star on two episodes of CSI: Miami set to air February 9th and 16th of next year. According to an interview with MTV, The Bad Boy music mogul called up CBS, expressed his interest in appearing on the show and received a call “25 hours later” notifying him that he’d gotten the part.
Despite the obvious advantages of his high profile celebrity, Diddy was grateful for the opportunity to act on the show, saying that he felt “blessed to have this opportunity.” Although his acting creds are less well known, Diddy has starred in several films, including a TV version of the stage drama A Raisin in the Sun.
Sufjan Stevens is keeping up his annual Christmas album tradition with the completion of Volume 8, subtitled Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas Infinity Voyage. The holiday album features traditional tunes, such as “Do You See What I See?” along with original compositions.
Stevens passes his Christmas albums out to family and friends and, as of yet, has no plans to release this volume. The first 5 volumes were released by Asthmatic Kitty as a box set in 2006.
The indie darling is a maestro of vocal harmonies and winsome banjo melodies and his first five Christmas compilations were apple pie sweet. Head over to the Asthmatic Kitty website to hear music from past Sufjan Stevens Christmas albums.
Fireball Ministry
Genre: Rock, Metal
Website: www.fireballministry.com
“There are no tricks with us. What you see is what you get.” – James Rota (lead vocals, guitar)
The members of hard rock trio Fireball Ministry - Emily J. Burton, James A. Rota, and Helen Storer - christened themselves with religious titles (bishop, reverend, and sister, respectively) in keeping with their band name, and issued their debut album, Ou Est La Rock? in 1999 on Bong Load Records. By 2001, Storer left the band and John Oreshneck (drums) and Janis Tanaka (bass) joined the group just in time for the recording of FMEP. A deal with Nuclear Blast surfaced by 2002. The Second Great Awakening, which was produced by Grammy Award-winning Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, System of a Down), marked Fireball Ministry's second album in 2003. If you have never heard of these guys, Google them. You will discover that this is undeniably a super talented group with an authentic rock sound that the music industry needs more of.
Discography:
Ou Est la Rock? (1999)
Second Great Awakening (2003)
Their Rock Is Not Our Rock (2005)
U2's upcoming album, "No Line on the Horizon," will be available in five different versions, the fanciest of which costs a bold $96 on Amazon.com. The set is due March 2 internationally and will be released the following day in North America.
Blowing away the typical CD and double vinyl package, "Horizon" will be offered in three additional limited editions.
The digi-pack version, which well sell for $35.98, has the CD in a cardboard folded sleeve with a 36-page booklet, a fold-out poster and "a new film from Anton Corbijn featuring the music of U2," the latter of which is available as a download.
The first ever Pick Up The Phone Tour, which aims to raise awareness of suicide prevention and mental health issues, will visit several college campuses beginning in April. A list of dates will be announced. On the bill will be Alkaline Trio, Anberlin and Single File.
Pick Up the Phone was created through partnership between To Write Love on Her Arms, Postsecret.com and 1-800 SUICIDE. A mental health fair will be on site at each venue offering topic-specific resources.
"Suicide is a very permanent solution to what may be a temporary problem and it feels great to be a part of something that is purely there to help people in times of desperation," says Alklaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba. "If one life is saved because of the hotline than I consider it a success and we're very proud to in any way be a part of something so positive."
You will be able to catch live performances from the tour online at Synclive.com
On Saturday, December 20th, Time Warner Music pulled all of its music that was featured on the infamous video streaming website YouTube. The reason behind this move apparently was because of negotiations regarding payments made with Google’s video website reaching a stalemate. Time Warner's decision will affect its recordings as well as the songs it owns through Warner/Chappell Music.
"We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists' content to the site," Warner said in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide."
If you didn't already know, Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester will be releasing an album this spring. Details have not yet been released, but Meester revealed a little bit more about her debut album to US Magazine. The actress, who plays Blair Waldorf, has been hard at work on the album which will be released next spring.
Some fans might be suprised by Leighton's multiple talents, but she has always been involved in the music scene. She even had a singing part in the film Drive-Thru. She says the debut album will be “edgy, like electro-pop,” a mix between Gwen Stefani and MIA and something “you can dance to.” We hope Meester is as big a success in the studio as she is on the small screen!
U2, everyone’s favorite Irish rock band (aside from The Cranberries, of course), is ready to release its new album No Line on the Horizon on March 3, 2009. This is will be the 12th studio album and the 1st full length release since the 5 times platinum winning album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. That record also got them their second Grammy for Album of the Year, their first being for the 1987 hit The Joshua Tree. The contributors for production of the new album are Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Steve Lillywhite. There are no specifics set on touring yet; the quartet hasn’t toured since Vertigo in 2005 which ran for a year