DCMusic

James Gaffigan started a tour on the 7th of November. The stand-up comedian kicked off with the trek with a performance in San Francisco. Over the course of two months, Gaffigan is slated to host seventeen shows in eight cities.
The forty two year old Jim Gaffigan has a characteristic deadpan humor and sarcasm in his comedy routine. Gaffigan’s better known roles in television include ‘Comedy Central Presents’ and ‘My Boys’. ‘Beyond the Pale’ happens to be his latest album and incorporates jokes related to eating and being lazy - his favorite genre of jokes. Audiences will definitely love his act.

(Read the full post Jim Gaffigan 2008 Tour Started…)

A sure sign that Christmas is approaching is the sudden proliferation of coffee table books on the market. As sure as holly and mistletoe, each book publisher can be counted on to have one, if not two, of these extravagances available at this time of year. With subject matter ranging from antique farm implements to celebrity photo spreads, the coffee table book is usually long on glossy photos and short on text, hence the name "coffee table book"; its meant to be ostentatiously placed on your coffee table for bored family and friends to leaf through when they have nothing better to do during holiday visits. For the most part I consider these books a waste of space and money.
(Read the full post Book Review: The Clash by The Clash (Strummer, Jones, Simonon, & Headon)…)

When American jazz came to Europe in the 1920s it inspired a new form of nightclub performance. Cabaret was a mixture of live theatre, burlesque, and musical revue with featured vocalists. If you've ever seen The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich or Cabaret with Liza Minelli, you have a good idea of the kind of cabaret performances seen during the period. Those who sang in cabarets were encouraged to sing in as suggestive a manner as possible, drawing on the inherent sensuality in jazz and blues. Perhaps because cabaret performances were driven in part by the desperation of the times - an attempt to cram as much fun as possible into the short period of time before the inevitable war - they mostly did not survive World War II.
(Read the full post Music Review: Margot Blanche - Pages In My Diary…)

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke has spoken about the fight he had with Sex Pistols’ John Lydon in July, describing the punk veteran as “the devil”. Okereke alleged that a member of Lydon’s entourage racially abused him at the Summercase festival in Spain. The alleged abuse was followed by a fight between Lydon and his entourage and Okereke, who was backed up by members of Foals and Kaiser Chiefs. The Bloc Party man has since slammed Lydon. “I have only one thing to say about that man – John Lydon is the devil in my eyes,” he told The Sun. Speaking about the fight, he said: “I really wanted to, like, whip his face off. I was lucky I had lots of people around me who were calming me down.
(Read the full post Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke: ‘Sex Pistols’ John Lydon is the devil’…)

Announced for the Big Day Out last month, and locked in for sideshows in Sydney and Brisbane – presented by inthemix! – earlier this week, The Prodigy have now unveiled details of their hotly anticipated new album Invaders Must Die, which is slated for release in Australia on February 28, 2009. The album is the pioneering UK electronica outfits fifth studio LP, and will be their first on their new independent label Take Me To The Hospital. To date The Prodigy have sold in excess of 16 million albums throughout their extensive career, and their previous albums have spawned a litany of seminal and genre defining singles, including Outer Space, Firestarter and Smack My Bitch Up.
(Read the full post International News: The Prodigy announce new album…)

2008 NME Cool List featured gallery It’s the magazine we all love to hate, but you can’t deny UK rag NME’s influence on the music scene worldwide. Their reputation for hyping up the next big thing (before promptly spitting them out a few months/weeks/days later) is second to none, and as a result the announcement of their annual top 50 �?Cool List’ is met with keen interest. They revealed the 2008 list this week, and as to be expected it features some of the hottest hype acts of the year, and also an inordinate number of dance/electronic and hip hop artists. Topping the bill; Alice Glass of mysterious Canadian electro fiends Crystal Castles, closely followed by Jay-Z who is riding high after his headline set at Glastonbury a few months back.
(Read the full post International News: NME announce their 2008 Cool List…)

Violator is a somewhat famous album released in 1990 by synth-pop band Depeche Mode. It is fairly unique for an album that has enjoyed so much mainstream success. Even eighteen years after its release, it still sounds fresh. This is part of what makes the album so memorable. Good music lasts.

But more than its longevity, Violator is also very groovy and fun. From the first notes of “World in My Eyes,” I was hooked by the Depeche Mode's catchy synth-pop beats. The song didn’t really stick out to me at first, but with more rotations, I couldn’t get enough of it. Depeche Mode’s sound is amazingly unique for a band so mainstream.

(Read the full post Music Review: Depeche Mode - Violator…)

My Morning Jacket recently announced plans for a tour starting this December in Chicago. The rock band will launch a comprehensive tour which moves from the US to New Zealand and Australia, before coming to a grand finish in Japan. The tour is being used as a launch pad to promote the band’s fifth album - ‘Evil Urges’.

(Read the full post My Morning Jacket 2008/2009 Tour Announced…)

Rolf Harris has recorded his trademark wobble board for the soundtrack to the forthcoming Hollywood film ‘Australia’, which stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The Australian musician/artist’s contribution will soundtrack both the opening credits and a fight scene in the film, directed by Baz Luhrmann, reports BBC News. Harris pioneered the use of the wobble board in 1959 after noticing the intriguing sound a piece of hardboard made when wobbled. It went on to become his trademark instrument. Speaking about his appearance on the ‘Australia’ soundtrack, he said, “I was told they wanted the iconic sound of the wobble board.
(Read the full post Rolf Harris to soundtrack Nicole Kidman film ‘Australia’…)

UK indie darlings Franz Ferdinand are gearing up for the release of their third album in January, and to get the ball rolling they’ve kicked off a competition for bedroom producers everywhere to remix their first single, Ulysses. The remix project is happening in conjunction with Beatport, and rather than the band simply offering up the individual parts of the single they’ve instead proffered �?remix stems’ only, which they hope will lead to radically different takes on the song. “[We] want to be surprised by the geniuses out there that no one has heard of yet,” said frontman Alex Kapranos. The winning remix will be decided on by the Beatport community and it’ll get an official release through Franz Ferdinand’s label Domino Records as well as 500€.
(Read the full post International News: Remix Franz Ferdinand’s new single…)