Spinner
@us

Girl Talk, DJ Spooky and DJ/Rupture Mix Beyond the Mash-Up

Getty Images Nowadays it takes next to no time to craft a sonic collage of your favourite (or least favourite) music. That's rad for any of us who ever wondered what it'd be like if Jay-Z dropped rhymes over the 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' theme with beats by Technotronic and backup vocals from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But the digital ...

Continue reading

@us

Girl Talk Breaks Down New Album 'All Day'

Tim Mosenfelder, Getty Images Gregg Gillis has never been one for patience. Almost immediately after completing work on his new album late last week, Gillis has released 'All Day,' his fifth recording under the guise of Girl Talk. It's available for free -- as of right now -- on his Illegal Art website. With 373 samples in 71 minutes, the new set ...

Continue reading

@us

Michael Franti's Near-Death Experience Inspired Spearhead's 'Sound of Sunshine'

EMI There's nothing like a brush with death to get you thinking about your life. Such was the case for Michael Franti, who already had a formidable rep as one of American music's most thoughtful artists even before the medical crisis that partially inspired his new album. In July of 2009, the San Francisco-based Spearhead frontman -- and ...

Continue reading

@us

'Sounds Like a Revolution' Proves Political Music Is Alive and Protesting

Any music listener too young to have rolled in the mud at Woodstock -- the '69 edition, not the anniversary gatherings that featured Green Day or Limp Bizkit -- has often been reminded that their generation missed out. In the Sixties, young folks were moved to action by protest singers challenging segregationists in the South, warmongers in ...

Continue reading

@us

Rush Doc Gets 'Beyond the Lighted Stage' and Closer to Their Heart

Short of protecting a beaver habitat or taking a bullet for a Mountie, making a documentary about Rush is just about the most honourable thing two Canadians could possibly do. The Banger Films team behind such hard-rocking movies as 'Metal: A Headbanger's Journey,' the Juno Award-winning Iron Maiden concert film 'Flight 666' and the forthcoming ...

Continue reading

@us

Flaming Lips and Pixies Reinvent Album Packaging With Fur and Monsters

For Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the idea of wrapping his band's latest disc in fake fur seemed like a natural thing to do. "Fur seemed perfect for the kind of imagery we associated with this collection of songs," Coyne tells Spinner about a very special edition of 'Embryonic.' "Since we have the freedom to design whatever we want, that ...

Continue reading

@us

Beyond the 'Glee' Club: 10 Musicals It's Cool to Like

The first season of 'Glee' arrives on DVD on Dec. 29, giving viewers another chance to savour the show's savvy mix of comedy, teen melodrama and, of course, musical numbers. Along with the censor-baiting theatrics of Adam Lambert and the sight of Daniel Day-Lewis and Penelope Cruz vamping it up in the new movie 'Nine,' the series' success suggests ...

Continue reading