W♥M (Archive)

Christmas 2012

Read More Mariah Carey Part three of We♥Christmas, the hits keeps on coming. Lara picks her least favorite Christmas song, as well as thrown in some of her favorites: Mariah Carey's "O Holy Night". .....

Christmas time is almost here, so I've been getting a lot of xmas emails lately. If you recall, I started writing about Christmas releases in November (that's because they have to get the product in stores for Black Friday).

Anyway, as usual, I get so much Christmas-related music that I can't really mention them all.

MARIAH CAREY
mariahcarey.com/

Lara previously mentioned how her favorite Christmas album was from Mariah Carey.

So, Carey's Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, the follow-up to her 1994 Merry Christmas, was released in 2010. Carey decided to re-release Merry Christmas II You this year - as far as I can see, the track listing is the same as the 2010 version. There doesn't seem to be anything new/different in this new version.

The only thing I can think of the re-issue is for the benefit of the Australian audience… where she is playing a few dates.

01/01/13 Gold Coast, Australia Convention & Expo Centre
01/03/13 Sydney, Australia Allphones Arena

Read More Glee With Season 4 just kicked off last month, here are some of the covers: Adele's "Chasing Pavements", Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Imagine Dragons' "It's Time", The Fray's "Never Say Never", mashup of Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga's .....

GLEE
fox.com/glee

Fans of "Glee" should pick up the new Christmas album, hitting stores today (December 11th). The incredibly popular musical television series selling strong - both on the physical CD and digital downloads.

The new album is entitled, Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 3 and should be in most retail stores (including a massive Target section). The album will contain four new songs, recorded exclusively for this album: "Joy To The World", "Silent Night", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Happy Xmas."

The full track listing for Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Vol. 3 is as follows:

1. Feliz Navidad
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3. Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah
4. White Christmas
5. Jingle Bell Rock
6. The First Noel
7. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
8. Silent Night
9. Joy To The World
10. Happy Xmas

Still can't get enough of Glee? You should pick up Glee: The Music - Season 4 Vol 1, released in November. The thirteen track includes a cover of the popular Psy's "Gangnam Style" song. You can read more about Psy here.

CHRISTMAS IN THE SMOKIES
bluegrasschristmasinsmokies.com

Kicking off tomorrow and continues to December 15th is "Christmas In The Smokies: Bluegrass Festival Announces 2012 Festival."

Bluegrass is not my scene, so looking over their flyer, I didn't really know any of the bands involved. It seems like it's targeted to families and good times.

The Annual Christmas in the Smokies will feature 15 talented artist including: Carolina Road, Your Host Band; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Marty Raybon, Goldwing Express, Ralph Stanley II, Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press, Gary Waldrep Band, Jerry Butler & The Blu-J's, Remington, Ryde, Bluegrass Mountaineers, The Larkins, Reno Tradition, Mountain Faith, Hart Brothers and Bluegrass Gentleman.

General admission is as little $23 for one day. Children under 12 are free. See their website for full price breakdowns.

Event will take place at:

Ramada Inn & Smokey Mountain Convention Center 4010 Parkway
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37863

INVISIBLE CHILDREN HOLIDAY BENEFIT SHOW
invisiblechildren.com

Invisible Children announced their Holiday Benefit show at Los Angeles' Troubadour with help from 89.9 KCRW and Chop Shop Music. The show will take place December 15th.

The main band on the bill is DeVotchKa (with a 7-Piece String Ensemble) with White Arrows, The Colourist, Whispertown and more. Not all the guests have been announced.

The proceeds from this year's show go to Invisible Children's holiday campaign, Come Home For the Holidays, an effort to increase HF radio coverage and defection fliers that will encourage LRA combatants to lay down their weapons and return home.

The first 50 people through the door will receive a limited edition show poster designed by Jon Contino (if you are a later arriver, the posters will also be available for purchase at the show.)

Tickets for the show are $25 and can be purchased at the Troubadour's website.

LEFTOVER CUTIES
leftovercuties.com

Christmas Time Is Here is the new holiday EP from Los Angeles' Leftover Cuties.

The band is currently in the studios recording new music for an upcoming album with producer/engineer Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Macy Gray, SherylCrow) - set to be released in Spring 2013.

You can listen to Christmas Time Is Here on Soundcloud.

Catch Leftover Cuties Live:

12/19 – The Mint – Los Angeles, CA
01/14 – City Winery (with Shelby Lynne) – NY
01/15 – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Record Breakers

Read More Adele Clearly the big winner of the night was Adele, winning six Grammys: Album of the Year (21), Best Pop Record (21), Best Short Form Music Video ("Rolling in the Deep"), Record Of The Year...

Did you survive Black Friday and Thanksgiving? If you did, you may have missed some of this record-breaking news over the last few weeks.

ADELE
adele.tv

First up is Adele's 21 album has sold over 25 million records worldwide (10 million in the U.S. alone!).

According to the press announcement, Adele is the only European female artist in history to earn this "Diamond Certification", as certified by the RIAA.

"What an incredible honour," Adele exclaimed, "a huge, huge thank you to my American fans for embracing this record on such a massive level."

Fans hoping to hear new material will have satiate themselves with Adele's latest single, "Skyfall", which is featured in the 007 James Bond movie of the same name, and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

It's been a pretty amazing ride for Adele; it seems only yesterday that I saw her at an intimate show.

Looking forward to 23 or 24, Adele!

Read More Psy Hey so why am I buying into this? This K-pop YouTube sensation that is essentially the new "Chocolate Rain"? Well, however long PSY's rise to stardom is, this meme doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon...

PSY
psypark.com

You know we like Psy, check out the review on Psy's album 6甲 (Six Rules).

It is still pretty amazing that for a non-"pretty boy" Korean singer rode his phantom horse to the top of the charts with virtually NO RADIO AIRPLAY. What drove the madness? His video for "Gangnam Style"! It's crazy how popular it became in late August, and by early September that the video was an internet hit.

In fact, it was announced that Psy's "Gangnam Style" recently toppled Justin Beiber's "Baby" video for the most viewed on YouTube with over 840 million views. WOW.

Anyway, even Madonna is a fan, who recently had Psy appeared on her live concert with Madonna getting in on the horse dance.

All those video watchers also bought Psy's single, and I'm happy to report that the RIAA certified "Gangnam Style" as double platinum (which means in excess of 2 million copies sold.) He doesn't even have a physical CD in stores, that's all thanks to digital downloads! If you want to get your hands on the physical single, you have to import it!

Like I previously said, I think this may be a one-hit wonder… but I'm hoping it's not. I'd like to see Psy do more than "Gangnam Style", because eventually people will get bored of it. Also, I hope he goes on tour now, while he's still hot. I've seen footage online, his shows looks amazing.

ONE DIRECTION
onedirectionmusic.com

One Direction became Cosmopolitan's first all male cover in its 40 year history. Some may jokingly suggest there aren't any "men" on the cover.

"We loved the shoot with Cosmopolitan. What an honour to be the first ever male cover of such a prestigious magazine!," said One Direction's Liam Payne.

You can check out more behind the scenes over at cosmopolitan.co.uk.

In other One Direction news:

One Direction is #1 in the U.S. with over half a million units sold. Their album is #1 in 32 countries (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Singapore), selling over one million in one week. Fifteen million teenage girls can't be wrong.

Anyway, look for the boy band to be on a world tour this Spring 2013. Their tour will be documented in an upcoming 3D concert film, pending release August 23rd, 2013, by Morgan Spurlock from "Super Size Me." Who knew he was a fan?

Also, the band joined the Z!NG Revolution with a brand new collection of specially designed skins from the premiere pop culture vinyl skin company. I have something similar for my iPod, it's basically vinyl stickers (that is easily removable) to cover your iPhone or iPad, etc. Anyway, these skins will be exclusive to the Z!NG store in New York until the end of the year. More details and images of Harry, Zayn, Liam, Niall, and Louise, on zingrevolution.com.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

PSY 6甲 (Six Rules), Pt. 1 Review

Read More PSY Last month, my brother was telling me about this PSY guy with his music video "Gangnam Style". I didn't think much of it, except I started seeing a ton of parodies...

Hey so why am I buying into this? This K-pop YouTube sensation that is essentially the new "Chocolate Rain"? Well, however long PSY's rise to stardom is, this meme doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. His album, which from what I can decipher, is called "Number 6, Part 1". It's mostly in Korean, with a few American words here and there.

It's difficult to actually listen to music that I cannot understand. Here is what's amazing about PSY's music: you don't need to know what he's saying. Pop music is universal and even if he was speaking gibberish this music is totally listenable.

PSY 6甲 (Six Rules), Pt. 1 EP includes the hit single, "Gangnam Style." Even if it's a novelty song, the rest of the album has some catchy beats and American hooks.

PSY Coasters!

Check out the cool packaging as well. It looks like a sardine can. It has PSY as a Merman, and it comes with sparkly coasters of some sort.

I must say I love the art direction that PSY has taken; it reminds me of Adventure Time. On the back of these cards, it has lyrics (but in Korean).

Are you on the band wagon yet? Personally I cannot get enough of this guy. Unlike other pop acts around the world, PSY isn't sexualized and he doesn't take himself too seriously. PSY has that one thing that translates. That, Sir, is humor; the guy is funny.

Every time I watch his video, I have a grin ear to ear. How many artists can make you laugh without speaking your language? How many artist can create a song that is catchy and isn't even in your native tongue?

PSY 6甲 (Six Rules), Pt. 1 was released on CD and download in South Korea on July 25th, 2010. Due to overwhelming demands, YG Entertainment offered downloads only in the US market as of September 6th, 2012.

PSY CD Packaging

jimi ♥ www.psypark.com

ACRNYMS: PSY, PVT, DFA, BBC

PSY STYLE
psypark.com

Last month, my brother was telling me about this PSY guy with his music video "Gangnam Style". I didn't think much of it, except I started seeing a ton of parodies on the music video when I started watching loads of YouTube videos on my PS3. Personally, I think the best one is the "Gundam Style" with Gundam heads (I believe YouTube has banned the video as I write this.)

Since then, "Gangnam Style" got over 100 million views, which is safe to say, the most views for a K-pop song. Hot off his success, he's signed to Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun and has agreed to appear on the MTV Video Music Awards on Thursday.

Expect the horse dance to become a party favorite, but is this a one-trick pony? Will "Gangnam Style" end up like a one-hit wonder?

PIVOT PIVAT
pvtpvt.net

Originally called Pivot, this Sydney band decided to be known as PVT because of legal claims from an American band of the same name.

The band will be releasing a yet-to-be-titled new album on the Brooklyn label Felte. Since there's no cover artwork or title, the cover you see is from their previous album, Church With No Magic. Anyway, you can get a sneak peek at "Shivers" via Soundcloud:

In late September, PVT will be heading out on tour with Menomena, a band that we previously mentioned.

09/26 San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club* 09/27 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey* 09/28 San Diego, CA – Casbah* 09/29 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom* 10/02 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater* 10/03 Austin, TX – Parish* 10/04 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s* 10/05 New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks* 10/06 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade* 10/09 Washington, DC – Black Cat* 10/10 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer* 10/11 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom* 10/12 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg* 10/13 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall* 10/16 Montreal, QC – La Sala Rossa* 10/17 Toronto, ON – Horseshoe Tavern* 10/18 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom* 10/19 Chicago, IL – Metro* 10/20 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock* 10/23 Boise, ID – Neurolux* 10/25 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore*

10/26 Seattle, WA – Showbox at the Market* 11/03 Nantes, FRANCE - Le Stereolux+ 11/04 Lyon, FRANCE - Le Transbordeur+ 11/05 Bordeaux, FRANCE - Le Rocher de Palmer+ 11/07 Toulouse, FRANCE - Le Bikini+ 11/08 Milan, ITALY - Alcatraz+ 11/11 Hamburg, GERMANY - Docks+ 11/12 Stuttgart, GERMANY - Theatrehaus+ 11/13 Dresden, GERMANY - Eventwerk+ 11/15 Munich, GERMANY - Tonhalle+ 11/18 Copenhagen, DENMARK - Vega+ 11/19 Stockholm, SWEDEN - Munich Brewery+ 11/20 Oslo, NORWAY - Rockafeller+ 12/06 Adelaide, SA - Adelaide Ent Centre^ 12/08 Melbourne, VIC - Sidney Myer Music Bowl^ 12/12 Brisbane, QLD - Riverstage^ 12/14 Sydney, NSW - Sydney Ent Centre^ * w/ Menomena + w/ Bloc Party ^ w/ Gotye

MARS FROM ABOVE
sinkane.tumblr.com

DFA (Death From Above) announced that they've signed Sinkane. His debut album, Mars, will be out October 23rd, 2012. You can check out "Jeeper Creeper" via soundcloud:

Sinkane is the multi-dimensional music project from Ahmad Gallab. If you saw Of Montreal, Caribou, or Yeasayer, you may have noticed that Gallab is in their touring band.

The name, Sinkane, is a weird homage to Kanye West, who sang "I want to give us 'Us Free' like Cinqué" (referencing to Joseph Cinqué, leader of the Amistad Rebellion.) Gallab misheard this as "Sinkane."

Look for Sinkane's Mars on DFA. If you're in the UK, the album will be out on City Slang.

BRITPOP GLEE?
bbc.co.uk

"Shout to the Top" is a new BBC Radio 2 production about a fictional all-female band to air on September 25th. The star of the program, Shane Richie, described the musical drama as "Glee for an older audience."

Music Weekly described the program as a "'Britpop Glee", because creator Jeff Smith was quoted to say, "Attempts like Britannia High didn’t quite get it right. Ours is grittier [than that] but is still a British take on Glee, for an older audience."

Britpop fans will notice that "Shout to the Top" is co written by ex-Sleeper's Louise Wener and former The Farm's drummer Roy Boulter.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M