The New Now

  • Cash Money Records is primarily known as the home of multi-platinum superstar MC Lil Wayne, but that's all starting to change. Last year the label branched out by scoring a hit with Kevin Rudolf's "Let It Rock." Although that tune featured a guest spot by Weezy, it was decidedly pop-rock leaning and virtually void of any hip-hop vibe, save for Wayne's presence. Around the same time that "Let It Rock" was omnipresent on pop radio, Cash Money announced the signing of Jay Sean, a British R&B singer of Indian descent born Kamaljit Singh Jhooti. While Sean scored hits in the U.K. as early as 2003, he's just starting to make inroads in the U.S. with the single "Down," featuring none other than Lil Wayne. It's in the top 20 of iTunes top pop songs chart. Check it out below.

    Down

    Sean announced his signing to Cash Money at the U.K.'s prestigious MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards, where he was nominated against Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, Taio Cruz, and Sway as the Best U.K. Male, and Usher, Chris

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  • One of the problems with so-called indie rock is often artists who are grouped under that banner are too concerned with being cool and/or are afraid to completely rock out for the fear that they'll lose their hip standing and might come off sounding too much like the classic rockers that their parents like. The Hold Steady have no such concerns, nor fears. Those mere facts make them one of the coolest bands on the planet. Check out this exclusive live performance of "Sequestered In Memphis" from the band's fourth and most recent album, Stay Positive, for proof. (And, feel free to right click and select "save as" on the audio links below each performance to add these exclusive live performances to your digital library).

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    Sequestered In Memphis

    The Hold Steady are based in Brooklyn, New York, also known as East Coast hipster central, yet part of the reason-as singer/guitarist Craig Finn and lead guitarist Tad Kubler note in our exclusive interview-they stand

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  • It's nice to feel validated and that's the way we over at The New Now feel about the recently announced Mercury Prize nominees. The award, established in 1992 by the British Phonographic Industry and British Association of Record Dealers as an alternative to the more conservative Brit Awards, honors the best album from the U.K. and Ireland on an annual basis. This year's noms include two acts that have been featured in exclusive Yahoo! Music performances and interviews--Bat For Lashes and Glasvegas--for their Two Suns and self-titled album, respectively. You can take a look back at those performances by clicking through the links in their names.

    Also nominated were previous subjects of this blog La Roux for her self-titled effort, Florence & the Machine for Lungs, and the Horrors for Primary Colours. Click through each artists name for a look back at those entries. But rather than merely retrace our own footsteps, we're going to use this entry to look at the other seven Mercury Prize

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  • After my post about Phoenix playing Saturday Night Live, a colleague contacted me and advised me that indie rock and sports don't mix. I kind of shrugged it off at the time, because I think the concept of "indie rock" as a genre is kind of bogus, and if really exists, would French dance-rockers Phoenix--a band whose recent Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix I'm absolutely digging--even be considered indie?

    Whatever the case, if you define "indie rock" as a rock act that releases music itself or on an independent label, you probably can't get any more indie that the Baseball Project, a band whose members paved the way for so-called "indie rock" before the so-called genre even existed. While individually its members are experienced enough to be called seasoned veterans and possibly even take the field at an old-timers game, together the Baseball Project is a relatively new act. The band--consisting of Steve Wynn (the Dream Syndicate), Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5, and R.E.M.),

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  • In this day and age when everyone seems to be oversharing every bit of personal information on social networks and every move they make via Twitter, it's refreshing to stumble upon an artist that's keeping some things to himself. Rather than making the big reveal a daily process, Cass McCombs is still reveling in mystery four albums into his career. This much is known about McCombs. He was born in Concord, California, but by the time he was 23, he sold his instruments and records, and split for the East Coast trying to escape. "I was just sick of life," he once said. Although he had ditched his gear, McCombs did end up performing at open mic nights New York City. But don't attach too much meaning to the locale from which McCombs sprang from, nor any of his stops along the way. "I can't stand it when people market themselves as being from a region, like drawing '212' on your forehead," he told Vice magazine.

    That said, McCombs once sang, "So I got a job cleaning toilets at a nightclub

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  • Some time ago I caught a commercial for Universal Studios, which was pleasant enough visually for a TV ad, but had a killer soundtrack that stuck in my head for days because of its familiarity. It was a song that I had heard before and liked, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out who it was. This was before I had the ultra-cool Shazam app on my iPhone and the section of the song featured in the ad had no lyrics to search on the web, just a cool opening guitar riff, grooving drum-and-bass rhythm, a countdown and then a wordless male-female "ooo ooo ooo" chorus. I filed it away in the back of my mind until one day, due to a happy coincidence, my iPod shuffled through some 25,000 tracks and landed on that tune. It was "Stay Entertained," a track by Brooklyn, New York-based post-punk foursome stellastarr*. I hate to give Universal Studios a free ad here, but for purposes of this blog, here's the commercial, complete with the stellar stellastarr* soundtrack, followed by a stream of

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News for You

  • Attorney: Donald Trump lied on stand

    CHICAGO (AP) — The attorney for an 87-year-old woman who accuses Donald Trump of cheating her in a skyscraper condo deal told Chicago jurors on Wednesday that he was personally repulsed by the "Apprentice" star whom he said lied on the witness stand.

  • Restaurant learns online reviews can make or break

    SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — It was the customer service disaster heard around the Internet.

  • Debbie Reynolds: We all knew Liberace was gay

    BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In the new film "Behind the Candelabra," veteran entertainer Debbie Reynolds has just three major scenes to flesh out one of the most complicated figures in piano-playing showman Liberace's life: his loving but sometimes manipulative mother Frances.

  • The new consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony

    NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft is the last of the three big video game console makers to unveil its latest gaming system. The unveiling comes nearly eight years after the Xbox 360 went on sale. It follows last fall's debut of Nintendo's Wii U and a preview in February of the upcoming PlayStation 4 from Sony.

  • Singer Kellie Pickler named new 'Dancing' champ

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kellie Pickler came into the final "Dancing With the Stars" episode in second place but finished in first.

  • Douglas, Damon dramatize a steamy showbiz affair

    NEW YORK (AP) — The idea of Michael Douglas playing Liberace might seem nearly as outrageous as Liberace himself.

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