We revisit and rank the 50 best hits from the year 1995, plus interview artists like Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Monica, Kylie Minogue, Seal, Saint Etienne, Ace Of Base and more in the process. More »
Yesterday’s cheeky Jarvis Cocker soundbite about the possibility of Pulp reforming for next year’s Glastonbury Festival sounded pretty much like a “we’re not playing” blow-off to these ears, but apparently other people didn’t pick up the nuance, running with “OMG PULP REUNION” stories as fast as their content-management systems would let them. So Jarvis has released a statement denying and decrying those rumors, and this time, he’s playing it 100% straightforward: More »
File this under quotes that I wish had more detail about their inflection: Jarvis Cocker gave the following soundbite to the UK celebrity rag People: “Glastonbury means an awful lot to me, I would love to play there again. We’ve talked about it, there we go, there’ll be a band reunion.” Now, uh, not to rain on parades here, but I have many questions about this quote! For starters, who is the “we” that had this conversation? Is Jarvis referring to the members of the band, or himself and the reporter? And as a follow-up, is that “there we go, there’ll be a band reunion” a revelation that the Glastonbury organizers have already done their cash-waving in the general direction of the split-up Britpop superstars, or a cheeky acknowledgement of how the UK’s gossip-page sausage gets made? I know what side my suspicions reside on… and hey, the NME‘s lede reworks Jarvis’ quote into “Jarvis Cocker has said that Pulp are ‘coming back,’ ” even though those two words appear nowhere in the 26 words quoted by People. Oh well, at least now I have an excuse to post a video, right? Let’s all meet up in the year 2000 (and ten), after the jump! More »
Kelly Clarkson had her turn in the New York Times‘ “Playlist” chair yesterday, and the results were, well, mixed. Weezer’s red album got a shoutout, as did the Irish band The Script, who Clarkson described as–eek!–“OneRepublic meets rap.” Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. Aw, Kelly. Listen. In honor of you being my favorite American Idol (and having one of my favorite albums of the year) (well, except for all those songs by the OneRepublic guy, which are just plodding and terrible and tuneless and ugh), I decided to craft a mix CD for you. Because girl, there is there is so much music out there that you would love–and that would probably love you back! More »
The three-disc Britpop-of-the-’90s compilation Common People–named after the Pulp song, of course–comes out in June, and it will come packaged with liner notes written by Pitchfork contributor / Saint Etienne member Bob Stanley. While the track listing does have more than its share of gems, the absence of feuding NME titans Blur and Oasis will no doubt cause lots of message-board handwringing, perhaps even more than the presence of Gay Dad. Get ready to argue over what songs were missed by checking out the full tracklisting after the jump! More »
Between this Monday’s release of the latest covers-stuffed War Child charity album—which includes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ take on “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker” and Lily Allen‘s drowsy reworking of “Straight To Hell”—and the “what are your favorite cover songs” meme going around Facebook lately, I figured it would be fun to have us all share some of our favorite reworkings of popular songs. A few of mine after the jump, presented with minimal comment because after a week of scandals and Grammys and people not being dead I am wiped out. Feel free to share yours! The newer the better!
