Play | The Rhapsody Editorial Music Blog

From left: Mike Mogis, M. Ward, Jim James, Conor Oberst

The concept of the supergroup is older than fishing -- literally! Jesus and his Disciples were certainly a supergroup, and we're pretty sure Jesus invented fishing. Yes, bands of preternaturally talented brothers (and sisters) have been joining forces for millennia. With this week's debut from Monsters of Folk -- a supergroup comprised of Mike Mogis, M. Ward, My Morning Jacket's Jim James and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst -- we thought we'd reflect upon some of our favorite supergroups of years past. Was the whole greater than the sum of the parts? Read on to find out, and don't forget: if you dig supergroups, regular groups or anything in between, Rhapsody has you covered. Take a free spin to see what unlimited, unfettered music access tastes like (surprisingly unlike chicken, we think you'll be pleased to discover).

On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds.

ARTIST: Mika RECORD: Purple Rain

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Lemmy on the Beatles and more in the rest of our On the Record series.

Bat For Lashes

La Roux

Jay-Z

Animal Collective

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Gary also gave us a list of his other top picks. Enjoy by clicking below.

You have to give DFA credit for not resting on their laurels. The label's a figurehead of this decade's indie-dance scene, with an almost unnervingly astute sense for the nuances of 21st-century cool. And yet, aside from certain hallmarks of the DFA style -- ropy bass lines, disaffected vocals, judicious use of cowbell -- they have yet to settle into a pattern. (Black Meteoric Star's psychedelic, home-soldered acid house isn't exactly par for the indie course.)

Their habit of reaching outside their own scene when commissioning remixes is equally commendable. In addition to marquis names like Soulwax and Franz Ferdinand, DFA also tap artists -- like Carl Craig, Baby Ford and Luomo -- who resonate with house and techno die-hards, but have little foothold in American indie circles. It's not just a question of credibility; the stream of new input keeps DFA's mutable sound continually refreshed.

A stellar new collection of remixes of LCD Soundsystem's 45:33, James Murphy's Nike-sponsored album from 2006, is a case in point. Theo Parrish, Prins Thomas, Runaway, Trus'Me, Prince Language, Padded Cell, Pilooski and Riley Reinhold all take the ball and run as far as they can, touching down everywhere from Detroit downbeat to Norwegian disco. Read on for a rundown of the parties involved, with recommendations for further listening from each.

 

Few boxers have been as incredible or as consistent as Floyd Mayweather. As an amatuer in the mid-'90s, he was a Golden Gloves winner and a Olympic medalist. Since going pro in 1996, he has fought 39 fights and won every one of them. He has won six different boxing championships in five different weight classes. ESPN named him one of the 50 Greatest Boxers of all time, while The Ring magazine pegged him the best boxer, pound for pound, three years straight. On September 19th, he's coming out of retirement to fight Juan Manuel Márquez in one of the most highly anticipated fights of the year.

Recently, Mayweather took time out of his rigorous schedule to discuss one of his favorite topics: the music he loves. Here, he explains the reasons for the songs he has picked for his ring walks (we've included the name of his opponent for each). Be sure to check out the fight Saturday night on HBO PPV, and also sign up for your free Rhapsody trial membership so that you can listen to all these artists as much as you want (no restrictions, and it's all perfectly legal).

I’m no Perez Hilton, or even a young Joan Rivers for that matter, but I think I’ve spotted a pop trend -- albeit a minor one. It dawned on me when I recently stumbled across the video for Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat's “Lucky.” (Nine months behind schedule, I know.) It was the same day I read about Break Up, the new album from Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson. I'm talking about this whole he/she retro-pop duo thingy. I’m calling it a trend because I can name four additional examples. There’s She & Him (M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel); Wilco and Feist; Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell; and Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs. Without sounding too reductive, all these acts are variations on a theme: take a little Lee and Nancy and some Serge and Brigitte and filter them through a modern alt-pop sensibility (with a dash of Americana thrown in for good measure, of course).

On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds.

ARTIST: Gary Go RECORD: Dark Side Of The Moon

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Lemmy on the Beatles and more in the rest of our On the Record series.

Bat For Lashes

La Roux

Jay-Z

Animal Collective

---

Gary also gave us a list of his other top picks. Enjoy by clicking below.

On the Record is a video series where rock stars gush about their favorite records -- in exactly 45 seconds.

ARTIST: Bat For Lashes RECORD: The Virgin Suicides

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Lemmy on the Beatles and more in the rest of our On the Record series.

Wavves

La Roux

Jay-Z

Animal Collective

Google the phrase "Kanye West is an *sshole" and you get over 81,000 returns. Compare that with, say, “Hitler is an *sshole" (about 58K) or “Kanye is a genius” (around 25K), and you should get a fairly accurate -- if not exactly scientific -- picture of how the public at large now feels about Mr. West. But, you know, this is as much our fault as his. After Katrina devastated Louisiana in 2005, we all applauded West’s “courage” and “honesty” when he publicly decried the government's handling of the crisis. But his outrage has devolved from criticizing a derelict President to going after noticeably softer targets, and though the entertainer claims to always be speaking from his heart, some wonder if the impulses don’t originate somewhere inside his massively bloated, Henny-soaked head. His “performance” at the 2009 VMAs, where he bum-rushed the stage and managed to steal the glory from both Beyonce and Taylor Swift, was just the latest in a long line of outbursts, tantrums and bizarre behavior. Here we present you with Kanye West’s most embarrassing moments.

She's been "Like a Bird," Folklore-ic and a "Promiscuous" girl to Timbaland's promiscuous beats. Yes, Nelly Furtado sure likes to keep us guessing. With album No. 4, she's upped the experimental ante, expanding her already-significant advances into the Latin world with the entirely Spanish-language Mi Plan, out today. The divine Ms. F is almost as famous for her diverse collaborations and influences as she is for her own musical promiscuity -- or, perhaps more accurately, the two are overlapping for this gregarious artist/music-lover. In other words, she has great taste. So we're super-excited that she put together a fabulous playlist of her current favorite songs, many of them by artists she duets with on Mi Plan. While in New York doing press for the release of the album, she sat down with Rhapsody to discuss what it was like to work with everyone from Latin alt-rocker Julieta Venegas to bachata king Juan Luis Guerra, as well as Mi Plan and her future plans (hint: you'll never guess who she wants to work with next!).

First off, welcome to the first installment of my new column, Classic Rock Crate Digger. Like the dashboard of a vintage Saab, my mission statement is simple and to the point: dive into Rhapsody’s insanely bottomless catalog and explore all the nooks and crannies of that hairy, sweaty behemoth known as classic rock. You see, I love rock 'n' roll from the 1970s, but I’m so sick and tired of the same 40 songs my local DJ has been regurgitating for the last 35 years. Call me crazy, but there’s way more to classic rock than “Free Bird,” “More Than a Feeling” and “The Joker.” For example, just about anybody who worships riff-a-rific hard rock has cranked a little Free, those skinny, blues-rock Brits who sculpted one of the most titanic grooves ever know to man: “All Right Now.” Yet how many out there have dug into sprawling discography of The Groundhogs, who -- in my humble opinion, at least -- rock as hard as Free and Mountain and Grand Funk Railroad COMBINED? Unfortunately, the Groundhogs never scored a hit here in the States, so they're relatively unknown outside select circles. But just about any longhair between the ages of 18 and 65, regardless of his/her classic rock IQ, would absolutely flip for the band’s 1971 magnum opus, Thank Christ for the Bomb.

Basically, I want to help expand the horizons of the average classic rock fan by offering him or her sounds that feel familiar yet new. I want to take Zep fanatics and turn them on to Terry Reid (or maybe even the second Cactus record). I want to explain to Floyd freaks why I dig Obscured by Clouds more than its successor, Dark Side of the Moon.

And you know what? Rhapsody is just perfect for this kind of exploration. Sure, I sound like a corporate shill, but think about it: our service allows all of us to transcend the tyranny of America's classic rock DJs. No longer will we be beholden to their limited and antiquated playlists. We can roam as freely as we want.

Now time for the twin lead...

They've sold a million records and are 10-time Dove Award nominees. So what were the sisters best known as Barlow Girl doing the week before the release of their new album, Love & War? Babysitting. That's right, as they prepped for an appearance at Universal Studios' Rock the Universe and a fall tour with longtime friends Superchick, they spent a week looking after their brother's four children while he and his wife enjoyed a Hawaiian getaway. Fortunately, Rebecca, Lauren and Alyssa Barlow were able to take time out from their young charges long enough to talk to Rhapsody about the new record. And be sure to browse our Christian Music homepage, where you can find, listen, collect and share high-quality audio of all of your favorite Christian artist. Click here for your free trial membership!

Greetings weary Internet travelers! If you're reading this it means you've stumbled across Rhapsody's very special live-blogging of the 2009 VMAs. Yes, you read that right, live blogging, as in we watch the celebrity circus so you don't have to! So sit back, relax, put on some music -- ahem -- talk to your loved ones, and enjoy our blow-by-blow coverage this year's hullabaloo. Please to be meeting your correspondents:

Rachel Devitt: As Rhapsody's official Pop Editor, Ms. Devitt is up on the latest gossip, fashion, flubs and faux pauxs of the celebrity elite and not so elite.

Mike McGuirk: As Rhapsody's heavy rock, blues, comedy, new age and Thai-strip-club-music editor, Mr. McGuirk knows close to nothing about the MTV harem. This is gonna be great! On your marks, get set, blog!

Sometime around 8:00 P.M. Eastern...

Rachel: Hey Mike. Are you there?
Mike: hello Rachel, I'm here.
Rachel: How are you?
Mike: Ready to rock.
Rachel: Ha
Mike: I am. Just gotta get my nephew to turn off ESPN.
Rachel: Well, I am quite possibly the only person in Chicago watching this. Everyone else in town is watching the bears game.
Mike: What is this dance thing?
Rachel: America's Best Dance Crew. Anything with Mario Lopez has got to be good. I mean AC Slater. OK, I guess here we go for real.
Mike: I really can't wait to see how many awards eyehategod wins.
Rachel: And here's Green Day. Green Day just got asked what they're wearing. Haha.
Rachel: Oh such a dumb Michael Phelps pot joke. Hi, 5 months ago! Now we're going to some person named Justine. Who just said "tweet it up!" Oh no.
Mike: I wanna play a game where we do a shot every time they mention Twitter
Rachel: Too much twitter makes the baby go blind

Country music fans were shocked recently when, after 20 years of making hits together, Brooks & Dunn announced they have decided to call it a day. Dates have yet to be announced for the 2010 farewell tour, dubbed The Last Rodeo, but the two have confirmed they will part ways at the end of it.

After struggling as solo artists, Louisiana-born Kix Brooks and Texas-born Ronnie Dunn joined forces in 1990 at the behest of music-label executive Tim DuBois. To everyone's surprise, the combination worked, and in 1991 Brooks & Dunn hit the charts for the first time with their debut album, Brand New Man. It didn't take long for the two to become the biggest-selling duo in country music history. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Brooks & Dunn have sold 22.3 million albums in the United States.

The twosome have topped the U.S. country singles chart 20 times with tunes such as "Only in America," which was famously used by both the 2008 Democratic and 2004 Republican campaigns; "My Maria," which was Billboard's No. 1 Country Music Single of the Year in 1996; and "The Long Goodbye," which was later covered by Irish pop star Ronan Keating.

Brooks & Dunn's phenomenal success has set a high bar in the world of country music, and they will be sorely missed. Their new two-disc set, #1s ... and Then Some, ensures Brooks & Dunn will go out in a blaze of glory as it includes a career-encompassing 23 No. 1 singles and fan favorites, as well as current radio hits "Indian Summer" and "Honky Tonk Stomp." This expansive collection will certainly cement the duo's place in music history -- as well in the hearts of country music fans.

We couldn't let the release of the dynamic duo's swan song pass without honoring them on Rhapsody: consider this playlist a tip of the ol' ten-gallon hat to Brooks & Dunn.

El Guincho (photo: Oliver Faig)

This week's column has no explicit theme, but there might be an implicit one: all five of these albums explore what happens when you combine traditional acoustic and electric instruments with electronic processing and production. Three of them make heavy use of vocals. Four are new, another is a decade old, and one of them sounds way older -- in a good way.

El Guincho, "Antillas" remixes: EP1 and EP2

El Guincho's music is so full of energy and ideas, it's often hard to believe that it's the work of a single artist: listening to his 2008 debut, Alegranza, feels like standing on a hilltop equidistant from three or four different stages at a world music fest, with soca, Afropop, tropicalia and psychedelic rock swirling in the air and shifting with the winds. Now the Spanish musician has reissued "Antillas," one of the album's standout tracks, to a diverse crew of remixers who take his ideas even farther afield. Most of them stay true to the sunny-day spirit of the original, homing in on Highlife-inspired guitars and delirious, Animal Collective-styled chants. Spank Rock's XXXchange comes up with a dazzling slab of Technicolor exuberance in the spirit of DFA or Carl Craig. Norway's Prins Thomas, a master of hypnotic disco, seems to have come across a few of the helium-fueled balloons that once floated above the floor of David Mancuso's Loft; full of bluegrass guitar and manic hand claps, it's as unstoppable as a five-year-old's birthday party. Cee, of Germany's dub outfit Al-Haca, takes the opposite approach, layering atonal voices over quavering bass and stripped-down percussion halfway between dubstep and the bleakest techno: it's "Antillas" all right, but as heard from the other end of a black hole.

 

Song:  Poker Face
Album: The Fame
Artist:   Lady Gaga

Newcomer Lady Gaga is a VMA favorite this year with multiple nominations for "Poker Face": Best Female Video, Best New Artist, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year. Catch the show on MTV on Sept. 13.