Discount Coupon Network - Online Communities Coupons, Coupon Codes and Discounted Special Offers.

Teens Dance Party (Exclusive Online Edition)
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
No Description

Music From The Scape (Special Longform Online Edition)
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
No Description

The Scent of Russian Dreams - 2008 Online Edition
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
No Description

T.I.: The Rhapsody Interview
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
The King of the South links up with the kings of online music subscription services to cut it up about life, love, loss and Lil' Wayne. You've gulped down his five albums like Kool-Aid in a desert; now get a glimpse at the man behind the dune tunes.

It's You, It's Me
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Kaskade, AKA Ryan Raddon, creates some of the finest House music found anywhere, with plenty of 1970s Soul and snatches of '60s jazz set in the grooves. Each track is completely different, yet the whole disc gels. Also check out the remixes of "I Feel Like," available online only in RHAPSODY.

Bedtime Stories for Pirates
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
If your kid is planning to provide for your future via some kind of piracy (online or otherwise), this album's pretty much required listening. Informational songs on occupational hazards like scurvy abound, punctuated by lots of gratuitous "arrghs" and an uncharacteristically jazzy song detailing the sailing life from the eyes of a shipboard cat.

Rarities And B-Sides
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
This collection of over 100 Pumpkins rarities, live cuts and outtakes is something you'll only find online. There's an incredible amount of great stuff that showcases the band's wide range of rock skills, from the acoustic take on "Mayonnaise" to the early Peel Session for "Siva."

Tulips
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
A love song from London, spun with crisp rhythms and plain talking: "This could be an opportunity if you promise to let it grow," offers Kele Okereke. At launch, vinyl copies of Minotaur Shock's club remix changed hands online for over $50, further elevating this hot quartet's cool factor.

AOL Music DJ Sessions, Mixed By John Digweed
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Always with an eye toward the future, Diggers eschews hard copy and instead only releases his late 2005 mix online. Quality re-works of new classics "Forge" and "Stoppage Time" make this a must-have for the beat-driven progressive house and breaks crowd. Impossible to listen to seated, this release reminds us all why Digweed remains a deity on the dancefloor.

Loney, Noir
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Loney's (lone member) Emil Svanangen was in the habit of churning out his originals on CD-Rs and selling them online before Seattle's Sub Pop requested to be part of the process. Similar to the endearing accents and happy hand claps of fellow Swedes the Shout Out Louds, even despondently titled tracks like "No One Can Win" and "I Am The Odd One" end up sounding positive with a swell of woodwinds and high notes. This indie pop is personal and heartfelt, yet too bouncy and accessible to be trapped in the bedroom.

Demon Days
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Exquisitely relaxed beats power a gentle, multilayered production from Danger Mouse (who got the gig after his Grey Album created a sensation online). Damon Albarn's melancholy vocals circle like a vulture above a youthful soundscape of piano, '80s samples, strings, celebrity cameos, and even a children's choir.

Live At The Metro
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
This live set is a nice respite from the studio gloss of the Ataris' 2003 breakthrough album, with singer Kris Roe sounding angry rather than tortured and the band kicking up a torrent of messy but melodic punk pop. Available only online, at atarisbootleg.com.

CHRISTIAN HOARD
(RS 944, March 18, 2004)

A Boy Named Goo
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
For years now, the Goo Goo Dolls have been compared to the late great Replacements and for good reason. By now, though, these guys deserve to be loved in their own right, and the Lou Giordano-produced "A Boy Named Goo" might be their big breakthrough. If you love the slightly twisted power pop of Weezer and Sugar, you'll want to check out tracks like "Only One" and "Flat Top." This is definitely a "Boy" well worth getting to know.

DAVID WILD (RS Online, July 1995)

Heidi Montag
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Heidi Montag got her start with a pair of popular MTV reality shows, Laguna Beach and The Hills, which opened the door for her wider aspirations as an actress, singer and fashion guru. Montag's burgeoning efforts as a recording artist were overseen by Grammy-studded pop producer David Foster, and several singles were released or leaked online in the final months of 2007.

Colbie Caillat
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Colbie Caillat owes her early success to MySpace, which brought the soulful folk singer and songwriter from Malibu, California to the attention of millions of fans before she'd released a proper debut. When that debut, Coco, came in July 2007, the online buzz helped her become an instant success, and she quickly earned top spots on digital music services and the Billboard charts.

Kate Nash: The Rhapsody Interview
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Who would have thought that Kate Nash would go from selling denim in a London Top Shop to being in Lily Allen's Top Eight MySpace friends in the space of a single year. But the winsome 20-year-old is no overnight sensation: she'd been penning songs for six years before posting her first demos online. Her tenacity and multi-instrumental prowess nabbed her a record deal and a spot as Rhapsody's January 2008 Ones to Watch artist. Listen as she dispenses great advice for all you would-be artists -- that is when she's not swapping girl talk with Rhapsody Editor Stephanie Benson.

50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
To pin down those poet rumors once and for all, I availed myself of my freenet privileges and read his verse online whilst hearkening to its musical realizations off. Don't believe the hype. Mark E. Smith is a carper, a haranguer, a ranter, best comprehended in alienated snatches. But so what? Almost all of these well-culled "songs," which include half a dozen already singled out on 1990's Brixified 458489 A Sides, catch his Hyde Park cadences at their most barbed, annoying, and possibly prophetic, with the groove muscling up after the middle-period keybs go away. Unique, minor, forever eternal. (Grade - A)

Worse Than A Fairy Tale
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
The third release from this barely legal Denver emo sextet is a concept album about a serial killer terrorizing a fictional town called Saylor Lake. Fans are encouraged to figure out who the murderer is, with an almost unheard-of level of hype culminating in some interactive online contest. But Worse Than A Fairy Tale may not need all the hoopla. With seriously impressive guitars, dynamic, spittle-y vocals and frequent codas you'll sing along with, the songs, especially the opener, are far better than the usual "crappy guitars with wimps singing" of most Warped Tour faves.

Charli Baltimore
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
A female rapper with a penchant for boldly confrontational and proudly provocative lyrics, Charli Baltimore first gained attention through her romantic affiliation with Biggie. As the story goes, he encouraged her to develop her rhymes, though his untimely passing nixed any plans for studio collaborations. Nonetheless she was signed to Untertainment, recording an entire album only to have it shelved for nearly two years. Finally available online, her record is a tight blend of thuggish tough-girl showdowns and danceable club jams. The all-star line-up of co-conspirators includes Mobb Deep, Big Pun, Noreaga, Ghostface Killah, and more.

Loney, Dear
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
As the leader (and lone member) of Loney, Dear, multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanangen spent a lot of time in his parents' basement in Jonkoping, Sweden, churning out homemade CDRs -- all recorded with one minidisk microphone on his computer. In this manner, his project sold thousands of CDs online and garnered a little Swedish radio play. In 2006, Seattle's Sub Pop Records caught an overseas gust of Loney's bouncy yet despairing, buzzed-about Scando-pop, and released his fourth (yet first official) album Loney, Noir. While still a one-man-project, Emil is joined onstage by a full band of fellow Swedes to recreate his in-the-bedroom sound, intimate yet full of clarinets, trumpets and happy hand clapping.

Forever the Sickest Kids
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Chipper emo scrubs from Dallas, Forever the Sickest Kids first appeared in 2007 with the online hit song "Hey Brittany." Following the stir made by the song, the band was promptly signed to Universal Motown and took its place among its peers on the Warped Tour. A five-song EP titled Television Off, Party On appeared later that year, and the full-length Underdog Alma Mater turned up in spring 2008. The six-piece band (singer Jonathan Cook, guitarists Marc Stewart and Caleb Turman, bass player Austin Bello, drummer Kyle Burns and keyboardist Kent Garrison)combines the catchy near-toasting vocal style of Barenaked Ladies with some pleasingly crunchy guitars and stagedive-worthy breaks.

The Coup
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
What if Iceberg Slim read Karl Marx? The answer is the Coup. Rapper Boots uses a refined, pimp-style flow to deliver calculated social commentary on a broad spectrum of subjects, from the realities of the ghetto to the corruption of the White House. The Coup drop political game and mack poetry for your mind, all with the goal of overthrowing capitalist society one street corner at a time. The music of this revolution is pure Oakland funk, but the band uses unorthodox instrumentation, including violin and harmonica, and the production is richly orchestrated and complex. In fact, if other rappers ever sampled Coup beats, they would probably find three or four tight hooks in each one. Completing the package is DJ Pam the Funktress, world-renowned for her turntable wizardry. The revolution may not be televised, but you can check it out online.

The Onion Editorial Staff
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
"Kitten Thinks of Nothing But Murder All Day" and "Thick Sweater No Match For Determined Nipples." These are recent headlines from the The Onion, a satirical weekly newspaper that claims to be "American's Finest News Source." The paper first circulated on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 1988 and has seen an increasingly wide readership since going online. The Onion's distinct brand of headline news expanded to include an audio broadcast of "The Onion Radio News" in early 2006, which parodies AP news as read by cartoonist P.S. Mueller posing as Doyle Redland, a journalist who knows two languages, enjoys cooking and lives in Racine, Wisconsin with two black Labs, Freedom and Liberty.

Boom Dot Bust
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
"Everybody has one or two great thoughts and mine was simple--we're all doomed," reveals Nixon soundalike Dr. Guillermo Infermo, who adds a second: "Just because you're surrounded by evil doesn't mean you can't make some money from it." On their dead-in-the-concept Y2K comeback, the grand masters of pothead sound-effect comedy flirted with both canards; here they make fun of them, which doesn't mean they're bullish on America or donating royalties to Earth First! Their signature studio-layered cross-referentiality evokes a time-warped Middle American town on the edge of a tornado preserve where Dumber eventually prevails over Dumb. Before that happy ending they address such excellent paranoid themes as online investment, superglue, and that old reliable, the weather. (Grade: A-)

Revolverlution
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
It was no coincidence that Chuck D and comrades started falling off when Democrats took the White House. But with the Middle East at war, the economy in turmoil and another Bush in the driver's seat, America once again needs its Public Enemy. For "Son of a Bush," a Professor Griff-produced slow jam between grinding metal guitars and what sounds like a car alarm, Chuck spews pissed-off puns, ill alliteration and wrathful rhymes such as "I ain't callin' for no assassination/I'm just sayin', sayin'/Who voted for that asshole of your nation?"

Recalling 1992's Greatest Misses collection, Revolverlution includes three live recordings, four electronica-rock remixes that won an online contest, a pair of old public-service announcements, eight new tracks of varying quality and a few odd bits of feisty filler. The resulting aural rummage sale brings some timely noise while proving D can still deliver lyrical knocks to the deserving.

Grand Archives
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
The Grand Archives frontman Mat Brooke first stumbled into the national spotlight as half the brains behind Band of Horses, a Seattle indie band founded by Brooke and Ben Birdwell that went from blog darlings to Letterman guests in a harmony-drenched heartbeat. Brooke never made the late-night circuit, though; he left Band of Horses as their popularity was peaking in the summer of 2006 to found his own project later that year, first called Archives and, after some time, the Grand Archives. Surrounding himself with other likeminded Seattle musicians including multi-instrumentalist and former Jogger Ron Lewis and co-vocalist Jeff Montano, Brooke and the band went to work on recordings that appeared first on their MySpace page in March 2007. Online indie rock tastemakers at Pitchfork gave it a thumbs up, lauding the Grand Archives' singles and demos and announcing the band's label deal with SubPop in March 2007. Early in 2008, their self-titled debut appeared on SubPop.

Kimya Dawson
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Certainly Kimya Dawson had a steadfast cult following as a solo act and former co-leader of the Moldy Peaches, but when the wide-eyed ramble of "Tire Swing" became the marquee tune on the soundtrack of Juno, her precious one-liners -- such as "Joey never met a bike that he didn't want to ride" -- were introduced to a mainstream audience. As a member of the Moldy Peaches, Dawson was introduced to the New York "anti-folk" in the late '90s. After the group released a handful of increasingly popular records they disbanded in 2004, and Dawson continued writing songs and cultivating a solo career. In the four years following the Moldy Peaches' split, she earned fans through near-constant touring and online journaling. The Juno soundtrack, which featured other songs of hers as well, was released in December 2007 and eventually reached Billboard's top spot. Continuing on the baby track, Dawson released a children's album, Alphabutt, the following year.

Amebix
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Our condolences if this is a band you're just now catching on to: most everything Amebix have done is long out of print and not likely to return. Except for Alternative Tentacles' 1985 release and 2000 re-release of Arise, the works of this legendary Crust band are nearly impossible to come by, except among Profane Existence tape swappers and online-auction gold diggers. Such a shame, too. Amebix are, by some accounts, the first politico Punk act to cross-pollinate their music with the complex structures and thick riffs of heavy metal. Their 1983 debut had an undeniable influence on latter-day Discharge and GBH, and spawned a sizeable litter of imitation acts such as Concrete Sox, Doom and Hiatus. Though Arise isn't a bad place to start, No Sanctuary is a stiffer pour -- it's a mean, edgy crucible of street-tough desperation and disillusionment. Even if their attempt to meld Metal and Punk doesn't work for you, it was one heroic experiment, and you owe yourself a listen.

Sean Kingston
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
One of the newest generation of celebrities to generate buzz before their first single is even released, Sean Kingston (born Kisean Anderson) got his first break on MySpace. The 17-year-old was visiting Dr. Dre's page one day and saw that American producer J.R. Rotem had started a new label and was looking to sign artists. Several instances of online harassment later, Kinsgston had secured an audition with Rotem, who found himself impressed by Kingston's croon and his heartfelt, G-rated lyrics. He signed him on the spot. Kingston's bicultural upbringing informs his sound: born in Miami and raised both there and in Jamaica, the singer is equally versed in mainstream rap and dancehall, though his first hit owes a debt, amazingly, to doo-wop. But Kingston, for all his fresh-faced appearance, isn't without connections: his grandfather was Jamaican producer Jack Ruby. Despite his pedigree, Kingston has seen his share of difficulties as well: his mother and sister were thrown in jail for tax evasion when he was just 14-years-old, leaving the boy temporarily homeless.

Katy Perry
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Katy Perry may or may not actually be gay, but she's certainly made her young career with coy, playful references to sexuality -- her own and her paramours'. The young Californian singer-songwriter first generated a heaping helping of online buzz in 2007 with "Ur So Gay," in which she accuses a disappointing boyfriend who "doesn't even like boys" of being, well, take a guess. Then, in 2008, she shot up the charts with the Sapphic sweet-talker "I Kissed a Girl." Kind of a surprising turn of events for the daughter of two pastors who wasn't allowed to listen to secular music as a kid and got her start in Christian music, releasing a 2001 album under then name Katy Hudson. Or maybe not -- if you believe the old saw about preacher's daughters and once you learn that Perry says her life changed when she discovered Queen as a teenager. By 2004, she'd worked with Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and the Matrix (Avril Lavigne), been signed to Columbia and been hailed by the likes of Blender as the Next Big Thing! But nothing really clicked until she released her debut, One of the Boys, on Capitol in 2008 and got her gay on.

William Shatner
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
While William Shatner's discography may be slight, his impact and influence on popular culture is not. Near the end of his run as Captain Kirk on Star Trek, Shatner recorded a spoken word album of popular songs of the day, including covers of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." Roundly ridiculed as the highest level of camp when it was released, the record struck a chord with fans and at least a few Madison Avenue advertising executives some 20 years later. In the 1990s, Shatner played a spoken word leader of a postmodern band in a series of ironic ads for online travel site Priceline. These ads led to more interest from musicians, including power-pop pianist Ben Folds. In 2004, Shatner returned to the scene with Has Been, a collection of original songs co-written with collaborator Folds. The album contains a nifty cover of Pulp's "Common People," but the strength of the record is Shatner's original songs. He explores his place in the world ("It Hasn't Happened Yet"), his failings as a father ("That's Me Trying") and personal tragedy ("What Have You Done") in a compelling manner.

Daler Mehndi
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
He's made turbans hip, he's brought Sikhs a whole new palette of colors, and he claims to have revolutionized Indipop -- and he's probably right. Daler Mehndi may be one of Indian pop's most controversial characters, thanks to his flashy lifestyle and recent allegations of human trafficking (providing false visas for bribes), but no one can deny that the man has a voice that could scale the Himalayas and a band that could break an 80-year-old out of cardiac arrest. "Bolo Ta Ra Ra" was his breakout hit in 1995, and he's been parked on the charts ever since. Trained in the Patiala gharana, Mehndi learned classical Hindustani music and is trained on the harmonium, among other things. But it was the bhangra of his native Punjab that was to grip the nation and make him a star. Recently he's made waves in the west as online aficionados trade links to his "Tunak Tun Tun" video, and there's even reportedly a church that has sprung up in his honor.

Justice (electro)
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay met in Paris and first made their mark with a 2003 remix of Simian Mobile Disco's "Never Be Alone" (subsequently released as "We Are Your Friends"). Sounding like the crafty, cheeky offspring of Daft Punk, Justice was not surprisingly signed by DP's former manager, Pedro Winter, to his Ed Banger Records imprint. The duo's first single was "Waters Of Nazareth," which went on to be championed by several big names, including 2 Many DJ's and Erol Alkan. Remixing work followed, with Soulwax, Mr. Oizo and Franz Ferdinand (amongst others) asking for the Justice treatment. The mainstream audience became aware of Justice when they won best video for "We Are Your Friends" at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards, a victory that so incensed the rapper Kanye West that he took to the stage to complain about his video losing. Subsequent online furor ensued, so that by the time Justice appeared onstage at the 2007 Coachella Music Festival, they were one of the most hotly anticipated acts. The look of their debut release, 2007's Cross, and their use of a huge cross as part of their stage show, was said to be inspired by Madonna's and George Michael's use of similar imagery during the '90s, as well as being a common heavy metal motif. It should be noted however that the huge Marshall stacks they use on stage are merely props.

Katy Perry
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Katy Perry may or may not actually be gay, but she's certainly made her young career with coy, playful references to sexuality -- her own and her paramours'. The young Californian singer-songwriter first generated a heaping helping of online buzz in 2007 with "Ur So Gay," in which she accuses a disappointing boyfriend who "doesn't even like boys" of being, well, take a guess. Then, in 2008, she shot up the charts with the Sapphic sweet-talker "I Kissed a Girl." Kind of a surprising turn of events for the daughter of two pastors who wasn't allowed to listen to secular music as a kid and got her start in Christian music, releasing a 2001 album under then name Katy Hudson. Or maybe not -- if you believe the old saw about preacher's daughters and once you learn that Perry says her life changed when she discovered Queen as a teenager. By 2004, she'd worked with Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and the Matrix (Avril Lavigne), been signed to Columbia and been hailed by the likes of Blender as the Next Big Thing! But nothing really clicked until she released her debut, One of the Boys, on Capitol in 2008 and got her gay on.

Killing Puritans
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Armand Van Helden's new record is either the most daring and confrontational house record of the century, or it's a cry for help. It may well be both. On Killing Puritans, Van Helden -- who's also one of the world's highest-paid remixers -- ricochets from death-metal disco (the Teutonic romper stomper "Little Black Spiders") to a crazed cyber-salsa house thumper called "Watch Your Back," which features veteran computer-jam freak Herbie Hancock, to the synapse-rattling paradiddle fest "Breakdancers Call," which sounds more like a Beastie Boys instrumental than a dance-club record.

The latter is a key moment: With Killing Puritans, Van Helden means to scramble and then reassemble house music like the Beasties' Paul's Boutique scrambled hip-hop in 1989. Like Paul's Boutique, Puritans initially seems chaotic and arcane, but with repeated dosage it starts to reveal itself as a pugnacious party album. You gotta admire the sheer nerve of this guy, especially on "Koochy," a track that's already enraging online house purists. He introduces the tune with a booty-music lyric ("I want that koochy, and I'll make it squirt," pledges Robo-Helden), then proceeds to scratch to death one of pop music's most famous riffs: Gary Numan's "Cars." But by literally tearing the old New Wave song apart, adding teeny-tiny electro interludes and then phasing key passages into oblivion, Van Helden performs the ultimate B-boy alchemy: taking a stinky old piece of vinyl and making it into a body-rockin' anthem that's as bold and funky as Coolio's hairdo. Killing Puritans may come to be known as the album that launched Gangsta House. (RS 846)

PAT BLASHILL

Vampire Weekend
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
If you listen to much indie rock, Vampire Weekend are probably old news. Thanks to good press and a bunch of songs available online — an early version of this album surfaced in September — the New York quartet became one of 2007's most buzzed-about new bands. They're four ex-Columbia University students with a suave sound that incorporates ska, New Wave and Afro-pop — interesting enough for listeners looking for variation among their buzz bands, though not nearly as interesting as some press would suggest. On their debut, Vampire Weekend mostly earn points the old-fashioned way: by writing likable songs you'll be glad to revisit next month.

For much of the album, Vampire Weekend keep things simple: Songs like "Mansard Roof" are little more than slinky guitar lines, keyboard and string adornments, and caffeinated grooves. Ezra Koenig tosses off sweetly crooned melodies and lyrics that cut nostalgia and romance with a modicum of snark: "Campus" is a vignette about a college infatuation, though Koenig on another song also manages to make a strong hook out of "Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?"

As for the African thing, Vampire Weekend cite the blog Bennloxo.com as a source of current Afro-pop; one assumes that they're also well-acquainted with Graceland. They're smart enough to know there's a political dimension to Columbia kids borrowing from Afro-pop, and their appropriations seem fairly unspecific. Those appropriations are also tucked neatly into VW's sound: "Bryn" rides the kind of triplet-based polyrhythms both India and Africa could claim, but the tune is a love-struck thing Arcade Fire might turn out. Then there's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," the most Afro of the pop tunes here, with a conga groove and register-jumping bass lines. Koenig mentions Benetton. He sings, "This feels so unnatural/Peter Gabriel, too." VW may grow out of this kind of self-consciousness, but the song is warm and well-executed — just like most of their debut.

OK Go
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
OK Go are four guys from Chicago who write songs that don't seem to have much deep meaning yet are jam-packed with whiz kid hooks. They might appear as a fun-loving college band without serious intentions, but that's not exactly true. They were signed to a major label right after forming in 1998. They've had hit singles played on the radio ("Get Over It" from their debut) but to their credit, they don't engage in pretentious rock star posing (except for their recent tongue-in-cheek pimped out fashion sense) going so far as to make fun of themselves by learning a complicated 1980s-era dance routine (choreographed by a band member's sister) for the sake of their live show. This resulted in a fall-on-the-floor hysterical music video for "A Million Ways," which was recorded in a suburban backyard. It was never intended for public release, but like the Tommy Lee and Pamela video, it caught on in an online whirl, and they were forced to release it as their next single. But despite all signs indicating that they are carefree funsters, OK Go are also NPR-loving brainiacs and perfectionists who compose scores for underground indie flicks and worked closely with producer Tore (Franz Ferdinand) Johansson on their sophomore album recording scores of songs, only to abandon many of them when they didn't seem worthy of release. OK Go just make it look like they're effortlessly churning out power pop when in truth they work hard and relentlessly -- even moving to Los Angeles to help further their prodigious career goals.

Chuck D
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
One of hip-hop's most commanding and instantly recognizable voices, Chuck D has influenced an entire generation of fans and artists alike. Hailing from Long Island, he found fame as the frontman for Public Enemy, a group known for their revolutionary, pro-black/anti-government lyricism and groundbreaking production. Though often demonized by the media, PE's fiery rhymes and unique stage show (featuring their military-style dancers/bodyguards the S1W's) won them millions of fans across the globe. They released four classic albums between '1987 and '91, during the height of hip-hop's conscious and Afrocentic movement (acts like X-Clan, Brand Nubian, Paris, etc). Unfortunately, hip-hop's ever-changing musical climate, the rise of Gangsta Rap, and personal issues within the group all took their toll, and despite several more albums throughout the '90s (their latest Revolverlution dropped in 2002), PE lost their once majestic stature in the rap game. Chuck D has stayed very active however, working on a wide range of projects, including a solo album, Autobiography of Mistachuck, released in '96. He also fronts a hard rock band (Confrontation Camp), helps run two websites/online labels (Rapstation.com and SlamJamz.com), writes for various press outlets, and also hits the lecture circuit. In spite of PE's lack of recent commercial success, Chuck D remains one of hip-hop's most important, active, and well-respected figures.

Vampire Weekend
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
If you listen to much indie rock, Vampire Weekend are probably old news. Thanks to good press and a bunch of songs available online — an early version of this album surfaced in September — the New York quartet became one of 2007's most buzzed-about new bands. They're four ex-Columbia University students with a suave sound that incorporates ska, New Wave and Afro-pop — interesting enough for listeners looking for variation among their buzz bands, though not nearly as interesting as some press would suggest. On their debut, Vampire Weekend mostly earn points the old-fashioned way: by writing likable songs you'll be glad to revisit next month.

For much of the album, Vampire Weekend keep things simple: Songs like "Mansard Roof" are little more than slinky guitar lines, keyboard and string adornments, and caffeinated grooves. Ezra Koenig tosses off sweetly crooned melodies and lyrics that cut nostalgia and romance with a modicum of snark: "Campus" is a vignette about a college infatuation, though Koenig on another song also manages to make a strong hook out of "Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?"

As for the African thing, Vampire Weekend cite the blog Bennloxo.com as a source of current Afro-pop; one assumes that they're also well-acquainted with Graceland. They're smart enough to know there's a political dimension to Columbia kids borrowing from Afro-pop, and their appropriations seem fairly unspecific. Those appropriations are also tucked neatly into VW's sound: "Bryn" rides the kind of triplet-based polyrhythms both India and Africa could claim, but the tune is a love-struck thing Arcade Fire might turn out. Then there's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," the most Afro of the pop tunes here, with a conga groove and register-jumping bass lines. Koenig mentions Benetton. He sings, "This feels so unnatural/Peter Gabriel, too." VW may grow out of this kind of self-consciousness, but the song is warm and well-executed — just like most of their debut.

Extraordinary Machine
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Few albums will be released this year with a more tortured back story than Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine. The singer-pianist's third album was finished in May 2003 with producer Jon Brion but rejected by Apple's Sony Music bosses (according to Brion) because it lacked potential hit singles. Fans petitioned for its release, and earlier this year eleven songs from the Brion sessions were leaked online. At the same time, Apple was reworking nine of those same songs with producers Brian Kehew and Mike Elizondo -- the latter of whom is the multi-instrumentalist who co-wrote hip-hop anthems such as 50 Cent's "In Da Club," Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" and Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair." (Ironically enough, rock guy Brion went on to produce a large chunk of Kanye West's Late Registration, playing a role similar to Elizondo's on Dr. Dre's records.) Brion has distanced himself from the leaked Extraordinary Machine tracks, claiming that several were altered from what he and Apple recorded.

So what's the end result of all this? One doozy of a breakup album. Apple wrote much of Extraordinary Machine in the wake of her split from Paul Thomas Anderson, writer and director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia. The combination of this experience and just plain maturity -- Apple released 1996's Tidal and 1999's When the Pawn . . . when she was eighteen and twenty-two, respectively -- have helped to make Machine Apple's strongest and most detailed batch of songs yet.

The finished album opens and closes with two untouched cuts from the Brion sessions: the quirky title track and the equally ornate "Waltz (Better Than Fine)"; both feature the string-laden orchestrations, arcane instrumentation and unconventional rhythms the producer has brought to his work with Rufus Wainwright and Badly Drawn Boy. Between these songs are newly recorded, radically reworked versions of other Brion tracks plus one brand-new tune, "Parting Gift." Elizondo and Kehew set Apple's smoky voice and expressive piano in simple settings that support her wry wordplay just as a hip-hop track leaves space for an MC. "Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)" -- known on the Web as "Used to Love Him" -- features a snappy looped beat that wouldn't be out of place in an Eminem tune. Elizondo and Kehew give the tracks energy with woodwinds, brass, guitars and swinging live drums courtesy of heavy hitters Abe Laboriel Jr. and ?uestlove of the Roots. Hard-core fans will recognize much of "O' Sailor" -- a repetitive, almost "Hey Jude"-like highlight -- from the earlier Brion version, until the final stanza, where Elizondo and Kehew have Apple take a sad song and make it better; she shifts to a higher register and brings the bittersweet tune home in harmony.

Lyrically, Apple has never been as clever, as angered or as anguished. On the menacing "Red Red Red," she compares trying to get to the hidden heart of a secretive lover with mining f

Take Off Your Pants And Jacket
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
You can dismiss Blink-182 as cartoons if you like. They're certainly not going to stop you. They even call their new album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket: Say it out loud, let your inner eighth-grader savor the cadence of the phrase. It sums up Blink-182's wiseass brat-punk ethos almost as well as their recent live album, The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back), which featured the butt-stupidest stage banter since Kiss' Alive! (Mark: "You can leave now and beat the traffic!" Tom: "Or you can stay and beat your meat!" - and they get paid for this, ladies and gentlemen.) But this is rock & roll, where cartoons can get away with exposing emotional truths blocked to more portentous characters, and behind their doofy grins Blink-182 have plenty to say about the secret life of boys. Too funny for even the most uptight ideologue to dismiss as simps, these guys feel free to sing about their girl troubles without hiding behind either hipster irony or macho hostility. When they meet girls tougher than they are, which is usually, they're not threatened - just terrified and attracted and amused and, if they're lucky, quick-witted enough to sing "Please Take Me Home" before she moves on to someone else.

Take Off Your Pants is Blink-182's fifth studio album, and like all the others, it improves on the last one. They don't mess around much outside their tessitura - they like to keep everything light, fast and punchy. Even before the vocals, you can always tell it's Blink-182 and not, say, Green Day or the Offspring or Foo Fighters, all of whom sound sluggish in comparison. Their understandably underhyped musical chops are one of the reasons Blink ride high where so many similar guitar bands have fizzled. But another is that they're rock & roll boys who aren't scared to sing to, for and about rock & roll girls. They might have harpooned teen pop in their genius "All the Small Things" video, but the actual song was pure puppy love, with a "na-na-na-na" chorus ringing out like some lost Crystals or Shirelles oldie. They bare their painfully adolescent fragility, confusion and vulnerability, without playing coy about their pathetic sex drives or their moronic sense of humor. For teenage females who want to know what they're up against, Blink-182 are as educational as Jackass while bravely (and uncommercially) refusing to spoil the joke with the bully-boy whining that passes for raging against the machine these days.

On Take Off Your Pants, they continue their roll: happy songs about girls they like, sad songs about girls who don't like them, serious songs about divorce, dysfunction and the end of the world, plus one really funny song that goes, "I'll never talk to you again/Unless your dad will suck me off" and ends in forty-two seconds flat. The only false moments are the arty metal breakdowns like the horrendously titled "Online Song," which might work live but sounds strained and pompous on record, as arty meta

Endless Wire
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
When Roger Daltrey sang "My Generation" at the second of the Who's New York shows in September, the line that jumped out at me was not the infamous "Hope I die before I get old" but the "fuck you" upfront -- "People try and put us down/Just because we get around."

The Who now playing that song every night are only half the legend that recorded it forty-one years ago: Daltrey and guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend, plus a strong, attuned crew of juniors. But the Two are more of a Who in fight and rapport than anything I've seen live under the name since the 1979 tour with drummer Kenney Jones, the year after Keith Moon's death. And in Endless Wire, the first Who album of new songs since 1982's It's Hard, Daltrey and Townshend have made a record as brazen in its way and right for its day as The Who Sell Out and Tommy were in theirs.Daltrey's voice is deeper and darker now, even in total roar -- you can hear the extent to which he has punished it in long service to Townshend's songs. And it must be said: Bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002, is sorely missed here. His stoic baritone and ghoulish lyric wit were reliable black-humor relief on Who albums, especially when Townshend was at his most conceptual and argumentative.

But this is the only Who left, and at times on Endless Wire, Townshend wields it like an avenging sword. In his liner notes, Townshend says he wrote "A Man in a Purple Dress" after seeing Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. Yet it is easier to hear, in the song's stark '63-Dylan bite, the public rush to judgment after Townshend's 2003 arrest for viewing child pornography online. (The charge was dropped.) "You are all the same, gilded and absurd," Daltrey sings with the same growling rage with which he defended his bandmate at the time. "Black Widow's Eyes" is literally about a love that kills, inspired by the fatal terrorist siege of a Russian school in 2005. "I fell right in love with you/As the blood came blowing through," Daltrey confesses, in Townshend's words, as the guitarist hits snarling power chords against Zak Starkey's neo-Moon-ish drumrolls and shrapnel-like cymbal spray. The closest thing to a good laugh on the album is "God Speaks of Marty Robbins," in which Townshend, alone on vocals and guitar, dares to play Him on the eve of creation, looking forward to finishing the job so He can listen to his favorite country singer.

Musically, Endless Wire sounds more like a reinvigorated Who when it sounds least like the thunder-and-lightning band of Who's Next. Townshend revisits the synthesizer vertigo of "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the opening song, "Fragments," and a later reprise. But the element of hypnotic surprise is gone. More effective is the mix of guitars -- Townshend's treble stabs over a focused bed of strum -- in "Mike Post Theme" and "Black Widow's Eyes." The result is like the home demos on Townshend's

Say Anything
Available at RealNetworks - Music - News - Sports - Media Player for only $ 0.00 (USD)
Say Anything revolves around lead singer, guitarist and sole songwriter Max Bemis. He formed the band with drummer Coby Linder (the only other constant member) while they were still attending high school in Los Angeles. In 2000, they self-released two EPs (Junior Varsity and Menorah, Majorah) as well as their debut LP (Baseball), all filled with songs awash punk pop that recalled the best parts of Weezer and Blink-182. They were immediately set upon by major labels, but they chose to sign with the Toledo, Ohio-based Doghouse Records, if only for the artistic freedom that being with an independent label would give them. Bemis dropped out of college to write and record this first record for Doghouse, which was a concept album about a "neurotic punk rocker" based on wholly on his life. However, at this stage of their career, the musician became increasingly subject to mood swings, far beyond the usual range of emo. Somewhere in the process of steering his ambitious punk-pop musical along with playing all the instruments (minus the drums), Bemis suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. A setback for the band indeed, but a step in the right direction for the auteur, who was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and received the help and support he needed in the midst of his personal (and public) soap opera. The erratic creation of this concept album finally stabilized with the help of producers Tim O'Heir (All-American Rejects, Dinosaur Jr.) and Stephen Trask (who wrote the songs for and produced Hedwig and the Angry Inch) who stepped in to help Bemis complete his vision. Say AnythingÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂIs A Real Boy was finally released on Doghouse in 2004. Despite a few more setbacks involving ignored medication resulting in cancelled tours, Say Anything accepted an offer from J Records to reissue a remastered version of the disc in 2006 as Say Anything...Is A Real Boy (along with a bonus disc of spiffed-up demos originally recorded for an AIDS benefit EP that was leaked online). Say Anything now appears stable in terms of consistent lineup and tour schedule, but Max Bemis admits that he continues to walk a tightrope of passionate emotions -- a manic state of mental health that seems to contribute to the highly charged confessional songwriting -- but expresses cautious optimism on the band's website, telling fans: "so far, so good."

Categories of Coupons

Discount Coupon Network - Discount Coupons & Coupon Codes

Compare Entertainment Stores: Find the best deals on: Online Communities

Coupons by Type

Holiday Searches

Special Discounts and Closeouts on Select Items and Hot Products