Music Review: Kimya Dawson kids CD for adults too

Kimya Dawson and Friends, "Alphabutt" (Almost Gold/Columbia)

Kimya Dawson came of age on the soundtrack for the hit pic "Juno." Now she translates her minimalist, coffee-shop style to a children's album, "Alphabutt" and it's no surprise it works.

But the question remains: Who is this album for? Children, or their too-hip parents?

The songs themselves are short, cutely crafted and in all likelihood unlike anything you've got in the playing rotation for your 3-year-old. These songs explore hairy armpits, student loans, world hunger and the alphabet knowing with the help of potty-room lyrics and alliteration.

The album begins with the fun ditty "Little Monster Babies," a 1 second, 27 arcsecond ode to fun levels of demolition the toddlers can bring in to the home earlier they swoon out.

The

Katy Perry Retains UK Number One

Katy Perry is celebrating her second week at the top of the UK singles charts, with her hit song I Kissed A Girl.

Perry unbroken the likes of Kid Rock and The Script and their singles 'Summertime' (number 2) and 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' (numeral 3) severally, off the number 1 position.

Speaking of The Script, the Irish band too topped the album charts with their debut long-player today.

The top ten this week (August 17) looks like this:

1. Katy Perry - 'I Kissed A Girl'

2. Kid Rock -'All Summer Long'

3. The Script - 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'

4. The Verve - 'Love Is Noise'

5. Dizzee Rascal featuring Calvin Harris - 'Dance Wiv Me'

6. Rihanna - 'Disturbia'

7. Madcon - 'Beggin''

8. Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown - 'No Air'

9. Noah And The Whale - '5 Years Time'

10. Coldplay - 'Viva La Vida'

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Penelope Cruz hot and fragile on the set of 'Broken Embraces': Photos

Penelope Cruz filming for her new film Los abrazos rotos on the beach of Canary Islands in Lanzarote in Spain on 3 June, 2008. Photo Credit: PR Photos

July 26, 2008 () - Penelope Cruz looked hot and enticing, if fragile, amidst the sand and edward Durell Stone on the beach at location in the Canary Islands in Lanzarote, Spain, filming for Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos) in June 2008.

Produced and directed by Pedro Almodovar the film stars Penelope Cruz, Blanca Portillo and Lluis Homar.

Cruz plays a struggling actress from Spain in the new thriller that started filming in May.

Pedro explained his new send off saying, "(it's a) four-way tale of 'amour fou' (crazy sexual love), shot in the style of '50s American plastic film noir at its most hard-boiled."

Set in the '90s and present day, Abrazos will shuffle stylistic references to films such as Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place and Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful with signature Almodovar themes: "Fate, the mystery of creation, guilty conscience, unscrupulous exponent, the interminable search of fathers for sons, and sons for fathers."

This is Cruz's third plastic film with the Oscar winning director Pedro, after Live Flesh (1997) and Volver (2006).

The $15 trillion budget celluloid is co-produced by Pedro's producer brother Agustin Almodovar. It is expected to release on March 20, 2009.

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All in a daze work for Amy

WHAT a difference a day makes in the life of AMY WINEHOUSE.

She looked almost innocent before flying to her Saturday night Glastonbury
gig.



But last night she was back at her London clinic after a shambolic gig that
included punching a fan in the face as she left the stage to sing.
To see the pics from Glastonbury, click on the slideshow below.
She had begun confident but got forgetful, slurry and angry – making
me wonder if there was something in the drink she was sipping.

As she rambled between songs, spat and called KANYE WEST rude names,
the crowd turned on her.

Last night festival boss MICHAEL EAVIS said of Amy’s punch: “The
man deserved it. He grabbed Amy’s breasts as she went past.”
And Amy’s spokesman said: “One person misbehaving did
nothing to spoil a great couple of days.”

But another fan, in the front row, said it was a GIRL who was hit,
after trying to give the singer a high-five.




Avon and Somerset Police received no complaints and last night said there
would be no investigation.

Meanwhile backstage, where Bizarre were the only journalists, WHITE STRIPES rocker
JACK WHITE raved: “Amy’s a treasure, the JANIS
JOPLIN of our generation. The crowd don’t appreciate her.”
Also there were Amy’s pals REMI NICOLE and KELLY OSBOURNE.
But mates feared the stress of Glasto could get Amy back on drugs after two
weeks of detox.
Judging from her antics, it seems their fears may be realised.

Ved Buens Ende

   
Artist: Ved Buens Ende

   Genre(s): 
Metal
   

---

Discography:


   
 [1997] Those Who Caress The Pale

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 10


   
 Written In Waters

   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 9


   
 Those Who Caress The Pale

   Year: 1995   
Tracks: 6

---

One of the many bands involving multi-instrumentalist Carl-Michael Elde, Norway's Ved Buens Ende (whose describe around translates to "beyond the obeisance" or "beyond the rainbow") were an experimental black alloy band whose reasoned cadaver heavily distinct and strange days after their last recording. Their elan blended aspects of supposed post-rock (especially in footing of the guitar playacting) together with eerie crooning vocals and jazz-influenced drumming and bass part playing, resulting in a reasoned that was as much low-key and mysterious as it was aggressive or emphatic. Along with drummer/lead vocalist Elde -- wHO has as well gone by the refer Czral and played in the groups Dodheimsgard, Aura Noir, Cadaver Inc., and Virus, among others -- the group's lineup included guitar player Vicotnik (aka Aggressor and Mr. Fixit and, at one time or some other, as well a member of Dodheimsgard and Aura Noir) as well as bassist Skoll (aka Hugh Stephen James Mingay, likewise of Ulver and Arcturus). Following a demo, entitled Those Who Caress the Pale, Ved Buens Ende sign-language to the British Misanthropy tag, on which they released their first (and only if) full-length record album, Written in Waters, in 1995. Those Who Caress the Pale was later released in 1997 with a couple of fillip tracks added on. However, despite rumors circulating in the later '90s that the group would get endorse in concert to record some other album, zilch of all time materialized (perchance because the musicians were so interfering with their other projects). By the early 2000s, Elde had proclaimed the geological formation of a unexampled band, Virus, which he aforesaid would mark a continuation of his work with Ved Buens Ende.





The Police, The Kooks, Feeder to close Isle Of Wight Festival

Nas Readies Untitled Album

Nas [ tickets ] is set to release his untitled new album July 15 on Def Jam Recordings. The set, which follows-up Nas' Def Jam debut, "Hip-Hop Is Dead," is the artist's ninth album. Nas said in a statement, "I want my fans to know that creatively and lyrically, they can expect the same content and the same messages. It's that important. The streets have been waiting for this for a long time. The people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it."Nas enlisted several producers to work on the new album, which he first planned to title "N---er". Its first official single, "Hero," was produced by Polow Da Don. Other producers on the new release include DJ Green Lantern, DJ Toomp, Stargate, Cool & Dre, Jay Electronica, Stic.Man of Dead Prez, and 2008 Grammy producer of the year Mark Ronson; the Ronson-produced cut, "Fried Chicken," features guest artist Busta Rhymes.

Sharon Stone - Stone Persona Non Grata In Shanghai

An apology by Sharon Stone about remarks she made about the recent disastrous earthquake
in China being the result of "bad karma" because of Beijing's policies toward Tibet
has failed to molify Chinese officials, who said today (Wednesday) that she is not w
elcome to attend this year's Shanghai International Film Festival. A spokeswoman
for the festival said that Stone, who was photographed on the red carpet in Shanghai
last year, said that it had sent Stone a letter protesting her remarks.

04/06/2008

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This Et Al, Figure Eight EP Review

This Et Al

Figure Eight EP

EP Review



Having been away for what seems like a lifetime (but is actually only a little over twelve months), it's a welcome return for Leeds' unsung heroes This Et Al.



Possibly the most difficult band to fit into any kind of stereotypical, genre-centric pigeonhole of recent times, the 'Figure Eight EP' once again confounds and confuses in equal measures across its four tracks. If prizes were given out for consistently challenging their audience, This Et Al would surely be in pole position every time, as each song here takes on a whole new identity of its own, the sole recognisable factor on the first three at least being singer Wu's distinctive falsetto.



What this means of course is that the musical trajectory is ever-changing, from the title track's neo-classical Muse-like waltz, through the all-out rock bluster of 'Medicine Hammer' to the ambient shoegaze of 'Ice Age'.



Pick of the bunch though is the closing '(The Tale Of) Frosty Jackson' which sees This Et Al dipping their toes in more experimental waters, creating an instrumental passage that is more cinematic montage than post-rock excess, and hopefully something that paves the way for future excursions into similar territories.



A timely comeback for a ridiculously underrated, yet ultimately influential band.



7/10



Dom Gourlay

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Idol touts talent gains

Another season of Canadian Idol starts tomorrow and the talk among insiders is this will be the most talented group yet.

Canadian Idol executive producer John Brunton says this year�s group is the strongest the singing competition has ever seen.

Sure, we�ve heard this before, but Brunton says he can�t stress how true this fact really is this year.

�It will sound like it�s a clich� that this is the best season of talent we�ve ever had � and everybody will say, �Well, you say that every year, don�t you?�� Brunton tells Metro. �I haven�t said that every year, and I think one of our strongest overall years of talent was Season 2 with Kalan (Porter) and Jacob (Hoggard) and Theresa (Sokyrka).�

This year�s auditions drew musicians from places such as Los Angeles and London, England. These are people who have been gaining enough success to get them gigs and allow them to get their names known in the music industry.

�These were not the types of people who would normally turn out for our show in the early years, but (it�s) the credibility and also the fact that it�s so difficult to get a record deal these days,� says Brunton. �We�ve cut a good 50 people that in previous seasons may have made the top 22 ... we really have an interesting group and for a whole bunch of different reasons.�

Canadian Idol judge Jake Gold echoes Brunton�s opinions regarding this year�s competitors.

�The problem is that every time we say it�s better than the year before, people go, �Yeah, you�re supposed to say that,�� says Gold. �But the reality is on an overall basis, it�s like miles above any other year. It�s not just, �Oh it�s better,� it�s like a whole other level of better.�

The challenge though came down to the final day where Gold and fellow judges Farley Flex, Sass Jordan and Zack Werner chose the top 22 this year.

�We actually sat down and said, �How can we actually, in good conscience, send this person home?� and it was that difficult,� he says. �There�s an overall confidence among them that we�ve never seen before. This level of knowing who they are and the fact that they�re very sure of themselves.�

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Saimir Pirgu

   
Artist: Saimir Pirgu

   Genre(s): 
Vocal
   

---

Discography:


   
 Sempre Libera

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 16

---

 

Ireland's Dustin The Turkey fails to make Eurovision final

Ireland will not be competing at the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday (May 24) after its entrant, a turkey puppet named Dustin, got knocked out at the semi-final stage yesterday (May 20).

The likes of Greece, Romania, Norway and Azerbaijan qualified from the heat to proceed to the final, but the unfortunate puppet will now have to head back to Ireland without the chance to represent his country, reports BBC News.

Dustin - a fixture on Irish television - sang 'Irelande Douze Pointe' at the heat in Serbia. He had previously released six albums of material.

Keith Mills of the Irish Eurovision website said: "It was a three-minute joke that wasn't especially funny, didn't work for an international audience and looked very messy on screen."

Special-effects Wizard Winston Dies At 62

Stan Winston, the special-effects wizard, whose work was seen in such films as The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and, most recently, Iron Man, died Sunday of multiple myeloma at age 62 at his home in Malibu, CA, his company, Stan Winston Studio, said Monday. In a statement, Steven Spielberg said, "My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, 'Nothing is impossible.'"


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Shepherd Devastated About Clinton News

Actress Cybill Shepherd is devastated Hillary Clinton has pulled out of the U.S. presidential race and fought back tears when she spoke about the news item on TV. Shepherd was promoting her upcoming guest spot on U.S. sitcom Samantha Who on TV show Extra when the news of Clinton dropping out of the race broke. A fervent Clinton supporter, an obviously distraught Shepherd said, "I love Hillary Clinton. She's a great woman. I believe she would make one of the best presidents in American history. All kudos to Hillary Clinton. "I'd go to the ends of the earth for her." But the actress has no qualms about supporting the Democrat who will now stand alone as the party's presidential candidate: "If Barack Obama gets the nomination, when he does, I'll go to the ends of the earth to have him nominated as well. But, Hillary Clinton has a special place in my heart."


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