MusicOlogy

RSVP: dc Talk 'Supernatural' Listening Party With Special Guest Kevin Max

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:47:54 -0400

RSVP: dc Talk 'Supernatural' Listening Party With Special Guest Kevin Max:

Revisit dc Talk’s 1993 classic album Supernatural with special guest Kevin Max, who’ll be waxing nostalgic and answering fan questions on Ology.com tonight (April 24) at 9:00pm EST. Hit up the link to tune in!

RSVP For Ology's Duran Duran 'The Wedding Album' Listening Party + Autographed CD Giveaway

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:11:52 -0400

RSVP For Ology's Duran Duran 'The Wedding Album' Listening Party + Autographed CD Giveaway:

http://www.ology.com/post/256105/duran-duran-wedding-album-listening-party-signed-cd-giveaway

Tune into Ology.com tonight (April 18) @ 9:00pm EST to listen to Duran Duran’s classic 1993 album The Wedding Album (celebrating its 20th anniversary this year!) and live chat with other Duran fans for a chance to win a CD copy of A Diamond In The Mind autographed by the entire band! Hit up the link to RSVP and join DuranOlogy to be eligible.

RSVP: The Postal Service 'Give Up' 10th Anniversary Listening Party + Vinyl Giveaway

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:46:44 -0400

RSVP: The Postal Service 'Give Up' 10th Anniversary Listening Party + Vinyl Giveaway:

Tonight (April 11, 2013) at 9:00pm EST, we’ll be listening to The Postal Service’s Give Up in its entirety, hosting a live chat with you guys (the Postal Service fanatics of the world) and giving away one free copy of the new 10th anniversary deluxe edition of Give Up on 3xLP vinyl. Hit up the link and join us later tonight to win!

RSVP: The Knife 'Shaking The Habitual' Listening Party & Vinyl Giveaway

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:34:18 -0400

RSVP: The Knife 'Shaking The Habitual' Listening Party & Vinyl Giveaway:

brettwarner:

Listen to The Knife’s new album Shaking The Habitual (out today) and live chat with other Knife fans for a chance to win a free vinyl copy of the album! Tonight (April 9) at 8:00pm EST exclusively on Ology.com!

Be there! Come say hi :)

Non-Interview: The Weeknd Truly Doesn't Know Where All These Topless Women Keep Coming From

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:23:31 -0500

brettwarner:

The Weeknd appeared almost literally out of nowhere in 2011, releasing a trilogy of lavishly-produced mixtapes (House Of Ballons, Thursday and Echoes Of Silence) that set then-unknown Toronto singer/songwriter Abel Tesfaye’s soulful vocals and viciously nihilistic lyrics to a gloomy soundtrack of somber beats, early post-punk samples and haunting keyboard flourishes. Songs like “Wicked Games” and “High For This” describe a disaffected, gloomy lifestyle spent almost exclusively on clubs, pills, emotional detachment and, above all, an endless pile of faceless, nameless women stacked like dominoes between the sheets. Tesfaye, who turns just 23 later this week, remastered and re-released his three mixtapes as the Trilogy box set last year and is currently hard at work on his official full-length debut.

Though The Weeknd seldom grants interviews, he gracious made no exception with me over the phone last week, declining to discuss his success, the Trilogy mixtapes, his upcoming album and just how closely his real life resembles the bleak outlook of his songs. Check out our non-conversation below.

[Phone rings]

[Groggy] Yeah, hello?

Mr. Tesfaye, thanks so much for not taking the time to talk to me this morning. Can you describe where you are right now?

I’m in a studio apartment I’m renting, it’s next door to the studio where we’re working on the album. I’m making coffee. There’s a handful of girls from last night in the other room, they’ll probably be waking up soon.

That sounds like an exciting way to start the day.

Not really. They’re probably going to be hungry and I don’t know how to cook, like, a proper breakfast and I’m down to my last few boxes of Christmas Crunch. They’ll probably go through one whole box between the four of them. [Sigh] That stuff only comes out, like, once a year, you know?

Who are they? Do you remember where they came from?

Not really. I have a driver I pay to take me home from wherever I wind up. It’s this big Range Rover and usually a few girls spill inside before I can close the door.

Know any of their names?

One of them, the redhead, I thought she said her name was “Ashley” or “Ack-Eee” or something like that, but it turned out she was just vomiting into her mouth a little.

Read more exclusively on Ology.com…

A Non-Interview exclusive!

Report: Here’s What Happened To t.A.T.u. After You Stopped...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:42:35 -0500

Report: Here’s What Happened To t.A.T.u. After You Stopped Caring
by Brett Warner

Don’t ask me why faux-lesbian Russian duo t.A.T.u.’s “All The Things She Said” was running through my head all this week… and don’t read too much into the fact that I own both the English and Russian versions of their debut album 200 km/h In The Wrong Lane… or that their calculated-bordering-on-creepy schoolgirl lesbian image (neither Lena Katina nor Julia Volkova are actually gay, it turns out… big shock) coincided a little too conveniently with my burgeoning sexual sensibilities during the awkward summer of 2002.

Read more…

“The Return of The Thin White Duke: Why 2013 Needed David...

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:29:12 -0500

“The Return of The Thin White Duke: Why 2013 Needed David Bowie”
by Brett Warner, Music Editor

A pop culture icon usually has to die before he or she can see the sort of internet explosion that greeted this morning’s news that, after a clean decade away from the music industry he once perennially redefined, David Bowie would return with at least one more new album: the Tony Visconti-produced The New Day, out March 12 here in the U.S. Amidst the furor that followed—equal parts relief, excitement and reverence—it hardly even seemed to matter what the album (his first since 2003’s Reality, also produced by Visconti) would sound like or whether it could possibly quench ten years’ worth of “Will he? Won’t he?” anticipation; until now, the world didn’t know whether there would ever be another David Bowie album. Had we known going in that Reality would be the swan song, we’d surely have looked and listened to it differently. But we didn’t know, because nothing has ever been… or probably ever will be… certain when it comes to David Bowie.

Read more…

Check out Ology.com’s list of the Top 25 songs they...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:02:22 -0500

Check out Ology.com’s list of the Top 25 songs they didn’t hate in 2012 and see if your favorites made the cut!

Was 2012 a pretty great year for music… or did it...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:27:51 -0500

Was 2012 a pretty great year for music… or did it completely blow? Check out Ology.com’s lists of the Top 10 things that SUCKED and ROCKED about music this year!

Ology’s Top 40 Favorite Albums Of 2012: Nos. 31-20 Did any...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:48:43 -0500

Ology’s Top 40 Favorite Albums Of 2012: Nos. 31-20

Did any of your favorite records of the year make Part 2 of our year-end countdown! Find out and let us know today on Ology.com!

Ology’s Top 40 Favorite Albums of 2012: Nos. 40-31 Find...

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:06:10 -0500

Ology’s Top 40 Favorite Albums of 2012: Nos. 40-31

Find out where your favorite records ranked in Part 1 of our year-end list!

Coldplay are about to begin work on their next studio album. So...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:11:06 -0500

Coldplay are about to begin work on their next studio album. So what can we expect to hear on Chris Martin & Co.’s follow-up to last year’s Mylo Xyloto? Our music editor Brett Warner weighs in. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra will perform...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:08:29 -0500

Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra will perform Prince’s Purple Rain in full this New Year’s Eve at New York City’s Terminal 5… but what about next year??

Our music editor has a few ideas re: which classic album Amanda & Co. should tackle next. Check it out!

brettwarner: Did #SKYFALL make the cut? Check out Ology’s list...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:33:35 -0500

brettwarner:

Did #SKYFALL make the cut? Check out Ology’s list (with video!) of the 10 greatest scenes in James Bond film history.

Peanut Gallery: Prince’s Purple Rain Vs. Sign O The...

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:37:12 -0400

Peanut Gallery: Prince’s Purple Rain Vs. Sign O The Times

Hi friends, welcome to Peanut Gallery. Every Wednesday here at MusicOlogy, we’ll be presenting two classic albums from the same iconic band or artist and asking you… the smart, savvy, blindingly attractive Ology readers… to debate amongst yourselves over which record reigns supreme. Individual songs, concepts, music videos, lyrics, album artwork—everything’s on the table here, folks. Give us your best argument in the comments section below. We’ll announce the winner at the beginning of next week’s Peanut Gallery face-off.

This week, we’re pitting Prince’s two biggest albums, Purple Rain and Sign O The Times, against each other.

Vote for your favorite right here!

Here’s 10 (More) Reasons To Celebrate Duran Duran...

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:31:20 -0400

Here’s 10 (More) Reasons To Celebrate Duran Duran Appreciation Day

“How amazing to be celebrating another Duran Duran Appreciation Day!” writes Duran Duran bassist John Taylor today, marking this year’s Duran Duran Appreciation Day, a day that: 1.) Definitely actually exists… Google it, and 2.) Has been on this author’s calendar since… well, last year’s Duran Duran Appreciation Day. “Last night, on stage in Saratoga,” he continues, “I was looking out into the crowd thinking how lucky we are, to have the fans we have. Your extraordinary enthusiasm has given us so much energy this year, brought us back from the brink, almost, last summer, to a far, far better place than we have been in for years.”

Check out our 10 favorite things about Duran Duran and download 2 special gifts from the band right here…

Report: Will Muse’s Dubsteppy “The 2nd Law –...

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 11:53:14 -0400

Report: Will Muse’s Dubsteppy “The 2nd Law – Unsustainable” Drive You Clinically Insane?

Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking… Muse has embedded some sort of sub-frequency sound element into new song “The 2^nd Law – Unsustainable” that, quite literally, drivers listeners insane. Mental. Mushy-brained… cuckoo for Coca Puffs. What else might explain the intense, incensed response to a four-minute piece of music that, objectively speaking, sounds like a sloppy cut and paste job of unused John Williams film music and Tom Morello sound checks? I’ve heard admitted non-Muse fans rail at end about how awful this is. Does that make any sense? Why, if you don’t even like a band, would you waste time and energy talking shitabout them? Is that a real thing that happens? It’s unprecedented!

Read more…

Song Review: Amanda Palmer Rummages Reagan-Era Pop On “The...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:47:09 -0400

Song Review: Amanda Palmer Rummages Reagan-Era Pop On “The Killing Type”

To her immense credit, there hasn’t been much “same as it ever was” sentiment surrounding Amanda Palmer’s new album Theatre Is Evil (out September 11). Her first full-length album with new backing band The Grand Theft Orchestra and first with producer John Congleton, the album has also been a pioneering success story for its immense turnout on Kickstarter, where fans and curious onlookers alike turned out in droves to help support the album’s mastering, mixing, packaging and promotion, bypassing the influence and interference of a major label system. It’s also, ultimately, perhaps her first solo endeavor to make a clean aesthetic break from the theatrical, piano-based “punk cabaret” sound she helped cultivate.

Download a free copy of new song “The Killing Type” and check out our first-reaction review…

Record Rewind: The Kills - No Wow (2005) Sex punk garage blues...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:19:16 -0400

Record Rewind: The Kills - No Wow (2005)

Sex punk garage blues duo The Kills took their already raw, handmade sound to tighter, meaner and darker places on their second album, 2005’s No Wow. From ominous opening drum sputter of the title track through the bleak piano stomp of “Ticket Man,” the album is an unforgiving, focused and relentless surge of Jamie “Hote” Hince’s honed electric guitar chaos, bubbling like a poison potion beneath Alison “VV” Mosshart’s breathy, dangerous tales of late night hook-ups, back alley deals, cigarette burns and alcohol soaked daydreams. The duo’s breakthrough, 2008’s Midnight Boom, would later pull their pop tendencies to the surface, somewhat unfairly overshadowing the unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll grrr of this album, arguably their purest (and certainly their leanest/meanest) album to date.

Read more…

The Gap Still Exists, Has Its Own Unknown Pleasures Rip-Off...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:54:34 -0400

The Gap Still Exists, Has Its Own Unknown Pleasures Rip-Off T-Shirt Design

Because taking business cues from Disney has always been a good idea, has-been clothing retailer The Gap has teamed up with actually pretty cool (at least I thought so, I can’t keep up with you kids) online t-shirt design community Threadless to release “Shadowplay” (see above), the latest shirt design to casually rip off Peter Saville’s iconic artwork for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album sleeve.

Read more…