This month we bring you reviews on Lights, Coldplay and more!
Hey everyone! Hope you all have been well. Hard to believe the last time I was writing the opening to an issue was back in August, now here we are and it's holiday season!
Those of you who are fans of us on facebook or follow us on twitter already know that due to a mixup with our credentials at Warped Tour, we weren't able to bring you our annual Warped Tour Issue this year. We decided that this gave us a good chance to restructure the magazine, as well as give us a better outlook for what we need to do in the future and what we want out of it. After some time off, we are extremely excited to bring you a brand new issue featuring rising star, Lights on the cover, as well as an interview with film making geniuses Filament Features.
I was fortunate enough to catch Lights' concert in Seattle this month after our interview for the magazine and I can't even begin to describe what an experience that was. I was already excited to be back in business after our hiatus, but art and entertainment at it's finest point never fails to remind me why I love what I do. The infectious enthusiasm artists like Lights have for their craft mixed with the energy that a beyond excited crowd can feed an artist always creates something special.
After this issue we are very excited to bring you our end of the year awards issue, make sure to both "like" us on facebook www.facebook.com/lemonademagazine and follow us on twitter _lemonademag, so you can stay posted on everything leading up to the issue. You already have a chance to be a part of the issue as well. On the home page right now is a poll that is open until December 8th that allows you to choose the award for Breakout Indie Artist of 2011.
Thank you all for sticking with us, the future should be a lot of fun here at Lemonade including all different types of entertainment and more people on our team,
See you for the awards issue!
-Brandon Lemons
2011 has been a banner for Los Angeles-based artist Mimi Page. The down tempo-dance-pop singer-songwriter has released two successful EP's, received love from prominent music radio shows around the globe, had music featured on an MTV show, is now being represented by a member of the legendary band Jefferson Starship, and her first full-length album, Breathe Me In , releases in October. Oh yeah, and she has achieved all of this while being unsigned. Page is an artist whose star is about to take off in a serious way.
Brian Palmer: So why don't you tell us a bit about your upcoming release.
Mimi Page: Today is actually a great day to interview me because I just gave an advance copy to all of my Kickstarter donors.
BP: Sweet!
MP: Yeah! Everybody's downloading it now. I'm giving the album to all the press and it's just a really big day for the album. I threw a big fundraiser for this album. I wanted it to be very fan-oriented because I kind of got my start on Myspace, Facebook and the like, but I couldn't release an album by myself because I'm still unsigned. I have a day job, I've been working really hard to just keep affording all the equipment I use to record myself. So I used Kickstarter and had fans donate $5,300 to me to help with the mastering, mixing, studio time and physical copies of the album, so it's a really big day for me to be able to put all of this together and be able to give back to people who support me from the ground up.
So that's today, but the album I'm very proud of. It's a combination of everything I've written since I was 21 years old, and it's my best work. Some I wrote maybe three months ago, some of them are the best songs from my two EP's ( A Lullaby for the Lonely and Love Will Tear Us Apart ), and there are a bunch of new songs too. It's very exciting! I'm unsigned, but I've gotten airplay on Terrestrial Radio by myself and have been licensed to MTV with some of the songs that are on this album. It's very exciting to be able to do all that in this day and age.
BP: Yeah, no doubt. So you've done the whole DIY route up to this point and you're still unsigned, is that intentional or just a lack of opportunities?
MP: Up until this point I guess the right ears have not heard me. There are a lot of indie electronic labels that focus on dance music, and because my genre is so in-between-it's not quite electronic, but it's not quite pop either; it's singer-songwritery, but it's got too much angst and trip-hop things going on-I don't really fit in anywhere. So up until this point I've gotten offers, but I didn't really fit into the indie electronic labels. I released a remix album on a really amazing indie label, Simplify Recordings, but my style doesn't really fit there so I've kind of just been doing it myself.
But this week is a big week for me because I have a really great manager now. He put me on the radio. He's the manager of Jefferson Starship, the legendary 60's band, and he heard my song New on Sirius XM and offered me representation and has me going on tour with Jefferson Starship on the East Coast in October. And through him and I guess a bunch of other people who have heard me on the radio and through blogs, I've gotten a couple offers from UK labels and I'm in talks with some US labels right now. I haven't decided on anything yet, but I am taking that next step. I'm really excited about that because while I love doing it myself, it's hard being a starving artist and one really needs to take it to the next level if you want to make a living doing this.
BP: Yeah, absolutely. And that's cool you made that connection with Jefferson Starships manager. When I first heard that you were going to be touring with them my first thought was "How on earth did she manage that?" And then I wondered, "How is that combo going to work since their sounds are so different?" Now I can see how that happened!
MP: Well you know what's fascinating about that? I was shocked myself because they headlined Woodstock. They're legends. They went from Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick to all the transformations over the years, and they're still touring, you know? They've been together for over 40 years. Their original sound was kind of the hippie-I guess what Coachella, Lightning in a Bottle and Burning Man are to my generation, was what Woodstock was to their generation.
So you still have all those fans that want that type of environment and that journey in a live show, so when I opened for them July 8th I was a little nervous because I didn't know how they'd receive the music. But I sold out of all the physical copies of the CD that I brought to the show, and many people said, "Wow, your music really took me somewhere. I connected with your lyrics, with your beats."
BP: Well that's really cool that they've responded so well to it.
MP: Yeah! Having Paul Kantner say "I drink the Mimi Page kool-aid" was pretty amazing (laughs).
BP: Nice! So you mentioned Kickstarter and wanting to take things to the next level, but I want to backtrack for a second. With your first two EP's you did everything pretty much from your own apartment. Was that fun being responsible for everything, or was it ever an arduous process for you?
MP: Well it's actually amazing. I went to school for recording engineering in college and I learned how to build the most modest studio you possibly can in order to produce yourself. More and more these days, producers are working at home using Logic Pro, Pro Tools, having a small audio interface and the main keyboard, so I did a lot of research on my end. I sample a lot of beats, layer, I do all that just in Logic Pro. So to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to schedule studio time and fork over a lot of money to go to a professional setting and to do it at home over a coffee and croissant? It's just amazing.
And I write so much. I can write a song a day, so I try to do that. I have a huge library of demos, so it's not tedious at all. I love it. I love working from home and the fact that, you know, my first two EP's are strictly from my apartment and are radio-quality songs is amazing. I did all this-I even engineered it and mixed it-and its not until this album that I took all my instrumentals and got a professional producer, Warren Huart, to redo my vocals and make them sound as full as possible, that I had any outside party work on this.
BP: That was going to be my next question, actually. How did you bring Warren on and what did he do for this process for you?
MP: I am always very self-conscious of my vocals because I have a small microphone at home and I layer a lot of reverb and delay on it to kind of cover up all the car noise and traffic in the background outside my apartment (laughs). All the fighting and shouting, you know? I'm in Koreatown in L.A. and there's a lot of stuff that goes on outside, so I try to get rid of all that noise. But I wanted to make sure-Ive got fans investing in me, and I've got a demand now where I'm expected to have the best quality I possibly can. I'm good at instrumentals, I can write those no problem, but I wanted to make sure I had the best vocal quality I possibly could.
So I connected with Warren last year through a mutual connection and auditioned for him because at that point I only had a couple songs and I'd never had a live show before. I hadn't really taken full control of my career yet and I thought, "Maybe it will work out". He's so busy working with Aerosmith and all that, but he said "You've got great songs and a great sound, but you need to keep writing. Keep writing songs and keep coming back to me." So when I finally got MTV and I was on The Real World and I charted at #11 on iTunes in electronic music-I beat out some of my favorite artists on that chart!-I was like, "Okay, something needs to happen here. I need to get somebody here who really knows and understands my sound to help take me to the next level."
So I scheduled a meeting with him and I gave him my whole demo of what I wanted the album to sound like, and I said, "You don't have to do that much. Just re-shape my vocals and help me make this sound as great as possible. Put it through analog gear and make it sound as full as possible." So we went in within a week and knocked out all the vocals on the album. I only kept four originals which are This Fire , Gravity , Come What May and New . Those are some of the originals that I performed and mixed from my apartment.
BP: Wow! That's really cool. You mentioned earlier that you've gotten some notice with MTV and the chart success and all of that, and you're even getting some love from the international music community now as well. Considering that you've been working out of your apartment all this time, how does it feel for all of this neat stuff to be happening?
MP: Well, if it happened overnight I think I would be more in shock, but since I was 18 years old and moved to Hollywood, and I was auditioning for signed bands and different producers, I always knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. I've had three jobs at a time, getting no sleep at all, writing, and then just hustling and sending out emails and demo tapes, so I'm so happy and I feel amazing about this that it's finally happening. But I projected six years ago that this would happen and I knew where I wanted to be. I didn't know how I was going to get there but I knew where I wanted to be so I'm extremely impressed with my work ethic and that I haven't given up on my career thus far. I thought, "Hey, you know, maybe a major label will just scoop me up, I'll get on the radio and things will start happening", but I actually did this all myself. I have connections where I've got radio DJ's who keep playing my music because they love it and because I have a personal connection with them. I've got fans who keep downloading my songs so I can support myself, and I really have sort of reached this audience and had the success that I've had so far by myself. So I think-Im proud of myself that things didn't happen so quickly because I know that I can always work harder to sort of get to the next level.
If you've read Lemonade, you would know that we love our pop music. In a time when it ironically isn't as popular as it should, we look to a new wave of artists to turn the tides once again and bring the genre and it's artists back to the top and open the arms of the public to it once again.
Adam Tyler is one of those artists, we got a chance to talk to him on the day of his debut, full length release, Shattered Ice ...
Hey, how are things going? Did you survive the earthquake over there on the East Coast?
Adam: Yeah, actually didn't even feel it, we had a few things to do today and then after those we had sound check and when we got there everyone was like "oh was everything ok?" and we had no idea what they were talking about.
How is the east coast part of this tour going?
Adam: It's all going amazing! Tonight is my first show on this tour that's hitting most of the major cities around the US. Sound check went great and I honestly am so excited about tonight. It's going to be amazing, I am going to be doing a cover to warm people up and then some songs from the album of course. It just came out today ( Shattered Ice ) and that's a dream come true, so to have that happen on my first day of the tour...yeah it's just been an awesome day.
I was actually listening to the record before our interview. It's so nice to hear real pop music making a comeback. Seems like it's been a while since the glory days of the mid-late 90's. Who has paved the way for you?
Adam: Right now I have been looking towards a lot of Euro artists, I've always been into them since I was a kid. Other artists like Frankmusic and Natalia Kills who are both on Cherry Tree Records and artists like Lady Gaga you know? Britney's new album is amazing as well, I love the production, it's pretty much flawless. From a pop fan like myself, I am just really excited to see the US start to embrace it again, since it ruled the 90's.
What was it like growing up in Missouri?
Adam: I never really got into the local scene in Missouri as far as music goes. Music for me came from a lot of TV, internet and radio, so yeah I never really went out much for music. The internet made it really easy for me to discover new bands and new music.
There is sort of a funny story about your conscience getting you in trouble with immigrations over in Europe, tell us a little about that.
Adam: *laughs* Yeah I had gone to Berklee School of Music in Boston for two semesters and I felt like I had learned a lot, but I needed another opportunity to excel and be where I wanted to be. I had a bunch of interviews and auditions lined up with different managers and groups in England, so I flew over. Once I got there, immigrations asked me why I was there. I was young and honest, so I told them I was going over for some auditions and stuff. Next thing I know they are telling me I need a work VISA, because the auditions could end up in a job. They moved me to a room for several hours and then to a place that felt kind of like a jail to me, I don't know what it was really, but little me was overwhelmed and was like "Whoah! All I want to do is sing, what is happening right now?" . The next day they flew me back.
What are you most proud of with your new album?
Adam: I think as a whole, the album is just something I am really proud of, because I did a demo album prior to Shattered Ice , but I wasn't that involved with it since most of the songs I recorded for it were already written. I wrote all, but one of the tracks for Shattered Ice by myself, which is something new for me, because I had never written on such a serious level before. Writing everything from the melodies to the lyrics and then hearing the reaction from people who have listened to it makes even more impact on me, because there is so much more of me in the album. If I had to pick one track I am most proud of it would be Music Freak , because I did some co-production on that as well.
You mentioned you were going to kick the tour off with a cover song tonight. Which songs do you like covering the most?
Adam: On the tour I am going to be opening up with Britney Spears' Hold It Against Me . I feel that since I am a new artist and it would be hard for everyone to know all of my new music that it would be best to include a cover into my show.
You have done quite a few collaborations. Who have been your favorite artists to work with?
Adam: I am a huge fan of collaborations, just because you get to experience stuff you would probably never have gotten to experience on your own. The experiences I have had collaborating with other artists have been amazing. I have done a few with UK duo, Electrovamp which was really cool, because I had already listened to their work prior to working with them, so doing a collaboration with someone who was already on my iPod was surreal.
For all things Adam Tyler visit www.myspace.com/adamtylermusic
I would ask you all if you remember a few years ago, when a young girl from Toronto, Ontario released a bouncy synth-pop record called The Listening ? However that would be a stupid question based on the beyond maximum capacity crowd that filled El Corazon after my interview with said girl on a mild autumn evening in the Emerald City of Seattle, WA.
The adorable and infectiously enthusiastic girl we are talking about is of course...Lights.
Since The Listening , Lights has shown us she can mix in different flavors all the while keeping with the formula we love so much. Last year she released an acoustic EP (Five Stars from Lemonade) and this year she released her second full length album, Siberia . During our interview we got a chance to talk a little about Siberia as well as her current North American Tour, check out what she had to say.
Being part Canadian, I am very happy to say you are the first Canadian artist Lemonade has had on the cover.
Lights: No way! That is so cool, thank you so much!
How has the tour been so far?
Lights: It's been really awesome. We've been out for about a month now I guess and it doesn't feel like that long. We are starting to get a little tired, but it hasn't felt grueling. It's just been so good to have all the new material and be able to change it up a bit, since I had been playing the same stuff for years. Plus the new stuff-after years of touring your subconscious naturally gravitates to wanting to make stuff that will be received worldwide. These songs are so much fun to play and seeing so many people show up is a really great to be honest *laughs* as opposed to less people.
It's incredible how diehard your fans have become. Just today I posted you were going to be on the cover and I received tweets like "What!? You're interviewing her!? Give her a hug for me, tell her I said Hi!" etc.
Lights: Awwww!
All your fans obviously really love you, but what have you felt has been the reception on the new material from your early fans?
Lights: It's been great, I was aware going into it that this new album was a little different in contrast to my first stuff, but it was important to me that I made a record that was me regardless of what expectations were out there of myself, put out there by myself or by anyone else. Because of that I was prepared for some adversity from hardcore fans you
know? We released Everybody Breaks a Glass as sort of a teaser track and I was like "palms are sweaty, so nervous, I am so proud of this album, but what's the reaction going to be?" and people seemed to be all for it, all for the change and all for me staying in the cusp of my art. I've been really blessed with it, I didn't expect it to be received as well as it did.
I remember reviewing your acoustic EP a year or so after I had first heard The Listening and thinking "Why doesn't she do more of this? This is so good!". Fast forward to me listening to Siberia and I was thinking "Ok I now know why she does what she does!". You've added some dub step, as well as some hip hop even. Tell us a bit about that.
Lights: Well it wasn't necessarily because I wanted the album to have a rap part, it was because I really wanted Shad to be on it! He is an AMAZING rapper and his natural delivery, his humility and the way he approaches things, he doesn't say things that he doesn't mean. I just respect his work a lot and I have for a long time. He's been kind of a common acquaintance through our friend Rob Dyer who runs Skate 4 Cancer ( www.skate4cancer.com ), a charity that I am involved with. He introduced us actually, so when we wrote the song Flux and Flow- which I love, I feel like it really represents the record with this mixture of soft and hard-but anyway when the bridge came around I was like "ok I really want Shad on this". We called him up, he's from Vancouver and we were making the record in Toronto, so we did the whole thing long distance through email. It was really awesome.
That IS awesome. It's definitely one of my favorite tracks on the record and you're right, his delivery is so good.
Lights: I know, I was like "you're gonna kill this!" and he did.
You mention the record being a mixture of soft and hard and I think that really describes your use of dub step on Siberia . It's really unique, because you have that hard dub step sound, yet it still has your softness. Did you feel pressured at all to include dub step with all the dub step that is out right now?
Lights: Not really, I remember at the time thinking that I really loved the elements of dub step, but it wasn't at the peak that it is now. Basically it was all triggered by one night, I was at a DJ night in Montreal and I just loved the way that it made me feel, because it's a new sound that is kind of a combination of a bunch of different genres. I feel like it has elements of metal, hip-hop and electronic in there. I was really inspired by it, I think the elements I was moved by were the grit of this bass, you know this multi-layer bass, a heavy beat that's really slow and not a whole lot of anything else. It's really cool you can capture so much energy in such a slow beat. I felt like it was a progression in electronic and in music and I don't feel it will disappear. Dub step may fade a bit as a genre, but I don't think these elements will ever go away.
Were heading into the end of the year awards issue here at Lemonade. Who's been inspiring you the most this year?
Lights: Does it have to be music? *laughs*
No go ahead with whatever you got!
Lights: Well with this record, probably a few of the key inspirations for it were some heavier electro stuff like Crystal Castles and also the melodic properties of artists like Bon Iver in the sense that he just calms it down and you can capture a moment. You can incorporate that into a heavier song too, like with Everybody Breaks a Glass , you can have those quieter moments and then contrast them with a heavier moment. In terms of something that isn't musical....the entire time I was making this record I had this book by an artist named Clyde Caldwell, he does fantasy art for like Magic The Gathering and Heavy Metal , so his work is of these kind of dark, sci-fi/fantasy girls and I just loved this book, I brought it with me every single day we made the record. It really helped get me to another world, so there was a huge artistic influence there.
This is your last stop in the USA here in Seattle. Now you head to Canada. What are you most looking forward to getting back to your home country?
Lights: Tim Hortons *laughs* . The venues in Canada. I have been up there longer obviously and the fan base has been bubbling there a little longer, so the crowds are really lively. Not to say the crowds in the US haven't been, they've been insane actually, this tour has been mind blowing. It's just a totally different thing going into Canada. In much of the US people don't hear you on the radio all the time like they do in Canada. They know of you because they heard about you word of mouth or they found you on the internet. It's a different balance and it's nice to take each of them in moderation.
Last question, given my Canadian heritage and your being a citizen, which hockey team are you cheering for?
Lights: It's so tough! I am geographically split, my family lives out west and I lived out west for a while, all my friends who live out west are Canucks fans, but in Toronto, because I live there.....you can't not say youre a Leafs fan! I don't follow it as closely as some people, but ahh its so hard to pick, but based on my geographical situation I would have to say the Leafs.
I understand..even if I am a Canucks fan
Lights: I wish we could like both, I mean it's like saying you have to like Star Wars or Star Trek better.
Well which side are you on there?
Lights: You don't have to pick either! That's the thing!
Pick up you copy of Serbia, now available wherever music is sold.
Whether it's music videos, short films or feature films, there is a good chance the gang at Filament Features will be taking over soon. With a mixture of strong character driven storylines and beautifully artistic attention to detail, Filament Features is headed down what feels like a very good road.
We got a chance to talk to them this past summer about the many projects they have been a part of so far, as well as the ones they have brewing.
Give us a little info on your first full-length feature film you're a part of, Crooked Arrows.
Charlie: Crooked Arrows is an independent feature film, the first full-length lacrosse film to be made in the U.S. It's been a grass roots movement trying to get this thing off the ground, but they brought in a few, really key people ; Producer - J. Todd Harris ( Kids Are Alright ) came on board to join our other producer Mitchell Peck ( Priest ). We also had key people join us early on, because they believed in the cause, such as our casting director, Rene Haynes ( Eclipse ) and our sports coordinator, Mark Robert Ellis ( Hoosiers, Field of Dreams, Miracle ). They've gained a lot of momentum and have a lot of sponsors coming on now like Reebok as well.
I personally am excited for Crooked Arrows , because living close to the border we get to know sports like lacrosse when a lot of other people may not pay much attention to it around much of the country. Why was the decision made to make a movie about a sport that doesn't have quite the following as others do in this country?
Charlie: You mention being excited and excitement is really the reason, that's what gotten this thing off the ground. Even though it's a smaller group of fans, they're excited and it's the fastest growing sport in the U.S., so that's where they've gained their momentum and that's where we've come in to create media content that we've been blasting out into the Universe to get everyone excited. It's sort of a Mighty Ducks type story. Since lacrosse is a Native American sport, they're trying to bring it back to that.
Brandon Routh ( Superman ) plays the lead role (Coach Logan) in the film, how was he brought on board?
Charlie: Mitchell Peck and J. Todd Harris sat down with him and it actually was a pretty easy snag, once they got in touch with him, he got really excited about the role.
You guys work on a variety of different projects, what are you most excited about right now?
Charlie: Were pretty excited about the success of The Big Bang (RockMafia), it has over nine million hits on you tube. DJ just directed a new music video; do you want to talk a little about that DJ?
DJ: Yeah they're a new band called Maere and the song is called Amen, these were guys who we'd actually worked with in the past, they worked in the art department on some projects. We started talking about their music and how it's really cinematic. One of the songs spoke to me pretty deeply and I immediately had images going through my head for it. Shortly after we started discussing ideas for a music video and what it would take. We started that venture about a year ago, knowing that these guys really did JUST get started and they just now finally signed to a small label. It took a while to get the funding for the project, but we finally finished up in April (2011). It was a five-day shoot up in Northern California and it's not just a normal music video, there's a story to it and I think that's something we like to incorporate when we can. It actually stars Shannon and it has a very other worldly, alternate universe feel to it. The song is based on religious institutions and the oppression that comes with them.
When does the video come out?
DJ: The album comes out in August (2011) and we're going to try to pair the video with the release. (*Video was pushed to an 11/11/11 release date and is now available to watch on the Lemonade TV section of our website)
As you said, Shannon has the lead role in the video; I know I for one recognized her face pretty quickly. Where may people have seen you before Shannon?
Shannon: *laughs* Yes, I have done my fair share of TV, some may remember me as Lindsay from The O.C ., but yeah I really loved working on that music video. It was an opportunity to infuse character without dialogue and that was a real challenge. It was a movement piece and it was really all about incorporating the characters journey into the body and that was the big instrument I had, my body was my tool. It was an amazing experience for me; its not something I would get to do in TV very often.
Charlie: Shannon and I continue to act in our own lives, that's where both of us come from originally, I started acting 20 years ago as an 11 year old kid. You start to wonder after a while "what's the green pasture of this industry?" you know? You want to work around people you love and making work that you think is important, but it's not all that often that you get to do that, or at least one of the two doesn't happen. You start to do enough of these independent projects and films and it starts to become clear that you can do some of these things yourself.
What does the future hold for you guys?
Charlie: Well we hope to keep developing this relationship with Crooked Arrows , we've been doing promotional work with them for quite some time and now we're discussing what sort of production role we will play. We have a number of feature scripts in various stages of development as well.
Shannon: Our focus at Filament Features is to create character driven films. We want to get away from these films where you are really there for the spectacle of it, but not touched by it in any way. We really want there to be a connection with our audience and the story, so that's what we aim for with our characters. We want to give the audience a chance to feel something and I think that's been somewhat lost in cinema these days.
DJ: One of our projects, Grave Dawn is a prime example of what Shannon is describing and in that it found a balance; Grave Dawn is about the character. It's about the main character's journey, but we were also able to incorporate two action scenes in it and some large-scale spectacle-like stuff, but it's the character driving those scenes. Also it was a film done for very little money; it was a communal belief that made it a reality. Some days there were a hundred people on set, none of them getting paid mind you. They were all there, because they believed in a vision, in a story that needed to be told.
Charlie: I think the music video for The Big Bang is another example. Here we had a music video with multiple shooting locations, a rooftop party with $4 million+ worth of cars at it and a car collision, the action scenes supported the story and the characters drove the story rather than the other way around and we were able to make the video for under $25,000.
Really we try to be all about community and loving who you work around each day for each project.
For more on Filament Features visit www.filamentfeatures.com
Guess what time of year it is again? Yes that's right, that time of year when people want to go on sleigh rides together and boyfriends go broke at jewelery stores and girlfriends....get new jewelery. Well anyway, if going broke isn't your thing, we can't promise music will keep your holiday fling going on strong through the new year, but we can promise that we are right and that you should listen to us.
This month we bring you reviews on the hottest music out of England and Canada and some of the newest out of the states...Happy Holidays!
You have your people who love Coldplay and your people who hate Coldplay. They are just one of those bands that bring one of the two feelings out of someone so strongly and there rarely seems to be a middle ground.
I for one am on the side of loving Coldplay. I have loved them since Yellow and pretty much been thrilled with everything they have released since. Even when X&Y was a bit of a let down, I still find myself going to back and not only listening to it frequently now, but really loving it.
There are a few strange things about Mylo Xyloto . I remember hearing word that this was going to be a more stripped down album for them, a little more Strawberry String or Green Eyes and a little less Speed of Sound or Viva La Vida . That is certainly not the case. Also although it was highly anticipated, I don't remember ever feeling quite as manic waiting for it as I did Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends . In fact Mylo Xyloto is a really hard album to rate and even harder album to rank in terms of Coldplay excellence. When it all comes down to it though, it took me a while to want to take it out of my car stereo.
The album starts off with the ELO-esque Hurts Like Heaven which really becomes more and more enjoyable each time you hear it. It's a side of Coldplay you don't hear often, so it's a nice change of pace. From there the album turns to it's already massively popular second single, Paradise and I will say even.a few Coldplay haters have actually told me "you know I actually kind of like this one" who would have thought right? Anyway after the very enjoyable Charlie Brown , Chris and the gang do take it back a notch and strip down for yet another Coldplay gem, Us Against The World , every time I listen to the album, this is easily the song I wait for. When I first saw there was a duet with Rihanna ( Princess of China ), I was very skeptical, as I think most fans were. Not only did it seem a bit odd, but Coldplay rarely if ever does collaborations. However my doubts were erased when I heard the song, although very different (even Chris admits that) for them, it fits perfectly.
I have heard the whole album is based on a couple and the whole thing is a story including the title characters meeting through a gang called "The Lost Boy" and to be honest, I didn't know this listening to it the first time and I didn't need to. Those ideas seem to be a dime a dozen these days and are mostly unnecessary in my opinion....just write good songs people! However Coldplay does do just that, they write amazing songs and in Mylo Xyloto you even get to see more love songs and breakup songs, which is kind of cool from Coldplay, in some ways it even takes you "back to the start" a bit (oh yeah I went there). I think it goes without saying, this is another solid album from one of the best bands of our time.
2011 has been a pretty memorable year for unsigned artist Mimi Page. She has opened for Jefferson Starship, had music licensed to various MTV shows, charted at #11 on iTunes electronic dance charts, been featured on Sirius XM shows and received love from the national and international dance communities, and she released two critically-acclaimed EPs ( Lullaby for the Lonely and Love Will Tear Us Apart ). There are many reasons why Page is getting so much attention-her breathy and ethereal vocals are heavenly, her content is varied and her music covers a broad range of piano pop, electronica, trip hop, down tempo and similar sub genres-and her latest release, Breathe Me In , could be her big break.
Page gives a commanding performance throughout, whether she is barely speaking or singing in whispers or letting her voice reach for the heavens. This Fire is a five-alarm fire of seduction, while New is a piano driven ballad about her getting hopelessly lost in someones eyes that is as vulnerable in its content as it is in her sometimes trembling voice. My Vanilla Sky channels a slightly sped up version of Massive Attack with its rhythms while Pages vocals call out to you like a mythical Siren, and she does more of the same on Come What May , which is possibly the purest pop number on this album.
Musically, the album wanders into many genres with grace. The title track delivers an uncommon dance rhythm tinged with Asian influences that will have you desperate to figure out a good way to dance to it, while the darktronica beats of Black Valentine will have you gazing into the same seedy darkness that the songs subjects face. Gravity is rhythmic, almost hypnotic down tempo music and Phenomenon has some of the New Agey qualities of an Enya track.
Page's album is a winner because it does many things very well rather than the same thing over and over. Her vocals are entrancing, the music plays host to an ocean of moods and sensibilities, and the lyrics are catchy or thought-provoking when necessary ( Jigsaw is probably the best example of her writing process). Page is still flying under the radar, but that may not be the case for too much longer. There's no time like the present to check her out, and no better album to start with than Breathe Me In . -Brian Palmer
Sometimes you just hear something so brilliant you can't help but marvel at it. Indie soul roots rocker Heatherlyn's debut release, Storydwelling , is one of those albums. Apart from the clever and multi-dimensional album title, the record shines because it seamlessly combines positive messages with groovy rhythms to demonstrate that you can get your point across to your listeners and still have a good time. Storydwelling is a pleasure to listen to even when you're being challenged to be the change you want to see in the world around you, and that's saying something.
Heatherlyn's music has a very earthy feel to it, like it is meant to be the musical accompaniment to a roadtrip across America by foot, by kayak and any number of atypical modes of travel. The spoken word Modernity was inspired by a trip she took to Tanzania and conversations she had with someone who thought their life would be better with some of today's modern conveniences, Jack Riddle is taken from conversations one of her friends had with a man by this name in the Appalachian Mountains, and Home With You Continues was based at least in part on time that she and her husband spent with others in a tent city in Seattle. Some of the tracks lumber along in a groovy, casual sort of way ( When I Dream ), others veer into Americana territory ( Be the Love ), and tracks like Youve Gotta Move sound like a Spiritual that has been Souled and Bluesed up, but all the while it feels like there is much to linger on, many details to catch. This record is anything but disposable.
Storydwelling takes its cue from the idea of listening to other people and engaging not only in your own story-in other words, actively living it instead of just existing from day to day-but also from the importance of immersing yourself in the stories and lives of others. Love, peace, understanding and many other similar notions pop up throughout, and Heatherlyn guides you along like a soulful prophet looking for the next place to reveal the truth that has been given to her.
The rich sounds and production help Storydwelling shine like a diamond, the content-despite being uncomfortable at times in its questions and demands-is done in a thought-provoking, non-judgmental sort of way, and Heatherlyn herself is a powerful singer in her own right. This is one of 2011's diamonds in the rough. -Brian Palmer
It seems like just yesterday Lights was streaming her online comic book inspired series about a keytar-wielding heroine and was bringing her brand new upbeat synth-pop melodies to our ears. It seems like just yesterday she was that girl who you thought was pretty cool and amusing and pretty amusing as well, but the question is... did you think that girl would become a superstar?
I would like to say I did and truth is I did think she would be a star, I just don't think I expected the growth and brilliance Lights has achieved with Siberia to happen so quickly. Where The Listening was fun, Siberia is dynamic, where The Listening was bouncy, Siberia is deep, where Lights was someone fun to listen to, she is now someone you MUST listen to.
Siberia is a journey from start to finish and not to sound corny, but it surprises you track after track. In an electro world full of uninspiring artists like Dev and LMFAO, thank God for artists like Lights! I for one love the world of synth-rock and synth-pop, but I can't take the complete lack of lyricists that seem to carry the torch for both of the genres. That is where Lights excels throughout all of Serbia, proving that in every song, she isn't just a good writer, she is one hell of a songwriter! She also brings us several dub step inspired tracks as well as a couple collaborations with Vancouver rapper, Shad. Standout tracks include, Flux and Flow (feat. Shad), the lighter (or cell phone these days) worthy Banner , Where The Fence is Low and perhaps one of Lights best tracks to date, Cactus in the Valley (both the original version and acoustic version are amazing). There isn't one bad track..I swear.
This album is a shock in so many ways and all of them good. I think many people including myself were anticipating this album, but didn't know what to expect and I can certainly tell you I never would have guessed that the bouncy, comic book girl from Toronto, Ontario was going to release what should be considered a classic in its genre for years to come. Siberia isn't just a five star album, it's an album you have to have.
