Jay-Z x Kanye West x Rihanna = "Run This Town"

I already wrote a whole post about this song and then my browser crashed, so in the interest of my own laziness, I will be brief. If my calculations are correct, this fresh new track that just leaked from Jay-Z's highly anticipated The Blueprint 3 (scheduled for release on September 11, 2009) is mere weeks away from being massively overplayed on radio stations across the country. Luckily, "Run This Town" is good enough to warrant it. I wouldn't expect anything less from a collaboration of three of the biggest names in the music industry. In short: talent cubed equals sick jams. Don't be late, download the track now.

New Muse - "United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage"

My view of Muse from Lollapalooza 07. Getting this close was a long and sweaty journey.

Everyone's favorite Radiohead wannabes are back and just as bombastic than ever. Muse just leaked a brand new track curiously titled "United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage" and it precedes their forthcoming fifth (fifthcoming?) album The Resistance due out September 14th. The track, which is not the albums first single, characteristically clocks in at almost six minutes and is bookended with a little tickling of the ivories. A listens through and although it sounds suspiciously like a Queen song, I'm excited about getting new material from a band who has been relatively silent since 2006's dazzling epic Black Holes & Revelations. Keep your eyes peeled for the albums first single "Uprising" which is set to be released a week before the album on September 7th. Dowload "United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage" here thanks to pma.

RIP Bright Eyes (Not Conor Oberst, Just Bright Eyes)

We'll always have I'm Wide Awake It's Morning...and that other album that came out that day

Sad story friends...Conor Oberst is disbanding Bright Eyes. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, he said "It does feel like it needs to stop at some point. I'd like to clean it up, lock the door, say goodbye" in regards to his long time musical pseudonym. It was a long, beautiful and usually heartbroken journey, and although I am sad to see the end of Bright Eyes, I respect his desire to distance himself from a musical project he started at the age of 15. Rumor has it that he is in the midst of recording his final Bright Eyes album and that it will be released some time next year. In related news, Oberst has teamed up with My Morning Jacket's singer/guitarist Jim James and bad-ass-indie-mother-folker M. Ward for a new project aptly titled Monsters of Folk. Their debut album is due September 22 and you can download the single "Say Please" if you to the bands website. In order to do so, you will first have to say 'please'. It sounds like a bad joke, but its really what you have to do to get the track.

TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone aka Rain Machine "Give Blood"

My internet has been out for the past few weeks. It turns out, blogging is extremely difficult without internet. But now that I've got smooth and delicious high speed on tap, it's time to get back to work. I give you "Give Blood", the first song to be released from Rain Machine, otherwise known as Kyp Malone of TV On The Radio fame. The self titled Rain Machine debut is due out September 22. For better or for worse, this song falls victim of the classic solo project conundrum. "Give Blood" sounds pretty much like a stripped down version TVOTR, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Malone's signature falsetto is instantly recognizable, and with all its similarities to his band's sound I can only wonder what this would have been like if it was a TVOTR track. But whatever doubts I have are easily overcome by the raw power of this mans beard.

Download the mp3 here.

thx 2 p4k

I've Got Good News and Bad News...

Space Rabbits. I never thought I'd live to see the day.

The good news is that brilliant indie singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens is releasing an album on October 6. Yaaaaay!! It's been over four years since good ol' Suf-Jan introduced the latest installment in his mythical '50 States Project'. The plan was epic: record an album representing each of this here countries 50 states, beginning with the 2003 release Greetings From Michigan and (as it would seem) ending in 2005 with Come On Feel The Illinoise! That was pretty much the last we'd heard of The Project, though the past few years haven't been entirely devoid of new releases; both The Avalanche - Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album (2006) and Songs For Christmas box set had plenty of quality material. But lets be real B-Sides and Christmas albums ain't jack shit compared to a real-life-honest-to-god-new-full-length-LP.

This brings me to the bad news: the album Stevens is releasing this fall is not a real-life-honest-to-god-new-full-length-LP. It's called Run Rabbit Run and it is a string quartet retelling of Stevens' 2001 release Enjoy Your Rabbit. It ought to be interesting, if nothing else. Its interesting to note that the idea was originallly concieve by Bryce Dessner, guitarist of The National. For more info and historical context for Run Rabbit Run check this out. Hopefully, October 6 gets here fast, so that way a Sufjan can release a 'real' new album already.

Walk Man, Walk!

So this is a little different from my usual content but it meets two of my criteria for sharing internet produced content: it has to do with music, and its fucking hysterical. So the basic premise is this, give an iPod savvy 13 year old kid a 30 year old Sony Walkman to use as his portable music player for one week and see what happens. Needless to say, hilarity ensues. You can read the article for yourself here. Highlights include (and I quote):

"It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape."

"To make the music play, you push the large play button. It engages with a satisfying clunk, unlike the finger tip tap for the iPod."

Its a funny and satisfying little read. Check it out.