Music News: A Final Listen To 2008

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

Another year, almost over. At the onset each January, the music fan in me looks ahead, anticipating new whatever intriguing new releases may be on the way. Yet for many reasons, politics took the front seat to pretty much everything in 2008.

Listening to and waxing philosophical on pop just kind of felt insignificant at many points over the past 12 months.

That said, this being my last Towleroad music column of the year, I decided to take a look back at just some random music-related points from 2008: Some that maybe didn't get mention here, some that did. Some perhaps unimportant in the grand scheme, but all of which are off the top of my head on this cold mid-December day:

   Lil Wayne had the best selling album of the year with Tha Carter III, which moved 2.7 copies. The second best-selling was Coldplay's Viva La Vida, which sold 1.9 million. By comparison, the top-selling album of 1998 was the Titanic soundtrack, at 7 million copies.

   I was bummed that I missed catching Aussie dance trio Cut Copy live at every turn. Their latest album In Ghost Colors is pretty groovy, and definitely worth checking out (particularly the track "Lights & Music").

   I did get to see MGMT live at Austin City Limits—which, as I read in Billboard today, was the fifth top-grossing music festival of the year, with $11.7 million in ticket sales. The band was a bit disappointing live. Chalk it up to the Texas heat? Meanwhile, there are two awesome new Pet Shop Boys mixes of MGMT's current single "Kids" out there—the "PSB Abstrakt Mix" and "PSB Synthpop Mix."

   I'm not sure pop really got more perfect than Chris Brown's "Forever" in 2008.

   Albums that will be worth revisiting after December 31: The Ting Tings' We Started Nothing, Robyn's Robyn, Cyndi Lauper's Bring Ya To The Brink and Kylie Minogue's X.

   Ones that were perhaps a bit ahead of their time, or underappreciated: Santogold's Santogold, Keane's Perfect Symmetry and The Killers' Day & Age.

   One import worth snagging: Take That's The Circus. That said, rumor has it the album is getting a U.S. release in 2009.

At $282 in earnings, by year's end Madonna is set to see her Sticky & Sweet tour become the top-grossing jaunt ever for both a female and solo artist.

   It was jarring to see Britney Spears on the cover of Rolling Stone in February for a story titled "Inside An American Tragedy," then nine months later with "Yes She Can: Britney Returns!"  But return she did, scoring her first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 since her 1998 debut single. She also landed her first two back-to-back Top 10 singles ("Womanizer" and "Circus") last week.

   It didn't seem possible for any artist to make an equally-impactful version of "Run" as Snow Patrol's 2004 original, but Leona Lewis somehow came close. Her cover has been the #1 U.K. single for two weeks now, and was just added to U.S. iTunes today.

    In the spring we all pondered whether Katy Perry was offensive with her songs "Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed A Girl." Who knew she had a decent jam like "Hot N Cold" up her sleeve, to boot?

Kevin Cogill cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty to leaking tracks from Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy online over the summer, ahead of the album's November release. He could face a year in prison.

   Whoever can count the amount of times Andy Towle mentioned Lady GaGa gets a gold star.

   Following in the tradition of Sugababes and Girls Aloud, the Saturdays are the next in the line of great British girl groups who may never get proper exposure this side of the pond.

   David Archuleta sure is merry, lively and spirited!

   Finally, if ever there was a starlet deserving of claiming she sufffers from the grand Hollywood malady of "exhaustion," it just might be Rihanna.

A FEW CLIPS FOR THE WEEK:

ELLEN DEGENERES AND BRITNEY SPEARS: Christmas caroling in L.A.

SARA BAREILLES AND INGRID MICHAELSON: "Winter Song," from the compilation Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs.

GIRLS ALOUD: New single "The Loving Kind," co-written by Pet Shop Boys and Xenomania, and officially out in the U.K. next month.

LILY ALLEN: "The Fear," new single (on iTunes now) from her upcoming second album It's Not Me, It's You.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Fall Out Boy's fifth album Folie à Deux, produced by Neal Avron and Pharrell Williams.

The Killers' third annual Product Red AIDS charity single "Joseph, Better You Than Me," also featuring Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant on vocals.

Keyshia Cole's third album A Different Me.

Holiday songs by Lady GaGa ("Christmas Tree"), Slim ("This Christmas") and Lady Antebellum ("Baby, It's Cold Outside").

New singles from Leona Lewis ("Run"), Bruce Springsteen ("The Wrestler") and R. Kelly ("I Believe").

News: Robyn, 'Ex-Gays', Jack Spade, AXM, Madonna, Atlantic

Palin as President.

British gay mag AXM goes web-only.

ABC News on oral sex and throat cancer: "Men are 35 percent more likely than women to develop HPV-related oral cancer, according to the study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. But both men and women are susceptible. While scientists don't know yet how sexual orientation factors into the equation, they know the No. 1 risk factor is a high number of sexual partners."

Madonna lashes out at "emotionally retarded" Guy Ritchie at concert.

Trial underway for "gay gang" accused of spreading HIV at sex orgies: "The three accused, all HIV-positive, are charged with drugging gay men at sex orgies, raping them, and injecting them with blood contaminated with HIV. They are aged 39, 49 and 50. The three, including a nurse, are accused of intentionally spreading the deadly virus at sex parties they promoted on the Internet. They face charges of aggravated assault, rape, and illegal possession of drugs and face up to 21 years in jail."

Justin Timberlake looking for a hole.

GOP congressman Tom Davis jokes about pro-Obama voter suppression.

Pentagram on their redesign of The Atlantic: "In the end, the redesign team came back to a nameplate that was an adaptation of a design that had appeared on the magazine for more than 35 years in the mid 20th century...The designers weren’t tempted by its nostalgic characteristics; rather, they were struck by how it managed to look both contemporary and timeless. Based on the 18th century typeface Bodoni, it featured an italic A that was distinctive and perfectly captured the idiosyncratic character of the magazine."

Killings and hate crime trigger public meeting in Portland, Maine.

Bamboo Nation: An Open Letter to My Gay Friend; or Gay Marriage Is Not About Marriage. "I've been looking over our online chat transcript from last night to see if I was overreacting when I decided to abruptly end our conversation. With the benefit of hindsight, I can say that I acted rationally and, in addition, I am deeply disappointed in you."

Florida Governor Charlie Crist: GOP may be exaggerating voter fraud in Florida. "Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday that he has confidence in Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who says there's only been a scattering of isolated incidents. Crist said in the closing days of any campaign 'there are some who sort of enjoy chaos.' There may be more of that going on than fraud, he said."

She Is: Beyoncé to release double> album.

London Times article on "ex-gays" which Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out says is one of the best he's read: "Ridgecrest Retreat is a white, antiseptic blot in the blue-green Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. Masquerading as one of the hundreds of 'homosexual strugglers' who visit the Exodus campus, I arrived here after registering online for six days of evangelism psychotherapy."

Robyn goes "Cobrastyle".

Accessory brand Jack Spade to launch men's fashion line: "The Claiborne-owned brother label to the $90 million Kate Spade brand has also tapped former Paul Smith and Original Penguin alum Cuan Hanly as its new vice-president and general manager. Hanly, who has been on board for four weeks, is charged with spearheading the new men’s collection and enhancing Jack Spade’s retail plans. First on Hanly’s to-do list has been the creation of a capsule collection of men’s outerwear, shirts and sweaters for spring 2009."

Top Ten Kristen Wiig moments on SNL.

Michael Lucas and his partner Richard Winger to be married.

Is the T-Mobile G1 an iPhone killer?

Music News: ...Everyone Is Gay

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

"Teenage angst has paid off well. Now I'm bored and old." So begins Nirvana's third and final album, 1993's In Utero—the opening lines of "Serve The Servants."

Nirvana. Not the most gay topic of discussion, nor the gayest of music to bring up. So why bring it up at all?

This week is actually the eve of my first year doing a pop music column on Towleroad.

One question I keep coming back to is this: what really constitutes "gay music"? Scissor Sisters, Ari Gold, Elton John, Sam Sparro, Darren Hayes, Pet Shop Boys, The Feeling, George Michael and Andy Bell are mainstream gay artists or groups with gay members—all of which we've talked about here on Towleroad—but is the actual music those folks create gay?

As well, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, The Killers, Britney Spears, Sally Shapiro, Mariah Carey, LCD Soundsystem, Robyn, Kylie Minogue, Frankmusic, Sugababes, Cyndi Lauper, Spice Girls, Girls Aloud and Saint Etienne are music artists who have somewhat of a "gay appeal," though what does that really mean?

Is country music gay enough? Did Mika ever come out? Does Hip hop speak to us? When all was said and done, was Hard Candy any good?

And where do Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Duffy, Fall Out Boy, Santogold and Smashing Pumpkins fit in?

The truth is, I don't have the foggiest idea. What I do know is that pop music is subjective. And while I can't answer the question on what gay music truly is, I can say that no two people will probably every see completely eye to eye when it comes to individual taste.

But that's okay. Life would be pretty dull otherwise.

Over the past year, I've pondered my own psychological state after listing to Mariah's "Touch My Body," posed the question to you on whether Katy Perry is truly offensive, let nostalgia get the best of me over the re-release of Michael Jackson's Thriller and offered up Robyn scolding her godchildren in Swedish over the phone from Stockholm here on Towleroad—all in the name of delivering pop music news to the online masses from one guy's gay perspective.

Something about pop, whether it be one song, one artist or a single bar or note, can reach into the heart and send the imagination soaring, or hurtling back to a certain time and place.

Which brings us back to the original topic at hand. This past week NPR ran an interesting "All Things Considered" feature on 17-year-old Los Angeles native Spencer Elden (pictured right), who you may remember best as the baby swimming after the dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album.

Admittedly, I'm a longtime Nirvana fan from the time when I was 17 myself and Nevermind hit like a grenade. So it's a bit surreal to catch up on what this kid's been up to.

Given that Elden appeared sans clothing on the cover, it's amusing to read him looking back: "Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis. So that's kinda cool. I'm just a normal kid living it up and doing the best I can while I'm here."

As for teenage angst paying off well, he notes that his father was given $200 for letting his son be photographed for the seminal, 26-million-selling record's artwork.

I guess it should be noted that, judging from his comments about "worrying about stupid girls," Spencer is apparently straight—a fact which inevitably calls to mind the opening of "All Apologies," the last track on Nirvana's final album:

"What else should I say? Everyone is gay?"

THE WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Josh Kelley's Backwoods. (You know, the guy married to Katherine Heigl.)

British trip hop act UNKLE's End Titles... Stories For Film.

Remixes of Natasha Bedingfield's current hit, "Pocketful Of Sunshine".

The self-titled debut album from alt rock band Scars On Broadway.

Hot Chip's iTunes-only Live:Berlin Festival EP.

New singles from Lindsay Buckingham ("Did You Miss Me"), Jonas Brothers ("Tonight"), T-Pain ("Can't Believe It") and Hinder ("Use Me").

Music News: So What Do You Think Of Hard Candy? Plus Coldplay, Glastonbury, Amy Winehouse, Robyn, Portishead

Photo courtesy Pud at Madonnalicious.

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.

I'm going way out on a limb and assuming there might be some Madonna fans amongst the readers of Towleroad. So in honor of the release today of Madge's 11th studio album, Hard Candy, lets turn it over to you guys -- what are your thoughts of the album? Did you celebrate with a big bag of Jolly Ranchers or wallpaper your bedroom with 100 copies of the vinyl? Wish she woulda been a little more Material Matron and a little less Hooker Of Dorian Gray with the cover art? Let us know what you think!

Live outside the U.S. and not able to jet over to Madonna's gig at New York's Roseland Ballroom tomorrow night? Vodafone is making the show available for free to customers in 14 different countries. Says the company's global chief marketing officer, “Vodafone's strategy is to offer different music flavours and innovative formats allowing customers to experience music on their mobile in any way they wish."

Is Amy Winehouse recording the new Bond theme for November's Quantum Of Solace? "She has been doing some work in the studio, but [the Bond theme] is speculation, basically," says her label's spokesperson. "It would be lovely, but there's nothing to confirm at this stage."

Saturday Night Live alum Cheri Oteri's father, Gaetano Thomas Oteri, was killed over the weekend, and his roommate, country songwriter Richard William Fagan, has been charged with the murder: "...the roommates had an alcohol-infused brawl around 9 p.m. Saturday night and Fagan allegedly cut Oteri, his music associate and publisher, with a 4- to 6-inch long Colt pocketknife. Police spokesman Don Aaron said Oteri died from a significant laceration to the wrist. Fagan is best known for penning the No. 1 songs 'Be My Baby Tonight' and 'Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)' for John Michael Montgomery."

Coldplay have unveiled the cover art (pictured right) for fourth album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, due out June 18. Today the band's new single, "Violet Hill," was made available as a free download from Coldplay's official site. The track will be free for one week before its official release to online digital music stores.

Mel B. denies rumors the Spice Girls will play Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party in London this summer, as she's far too busy modeling underwear and recording a solo album.

With Coachella over, all guitars (and Jay-Z) point toward Glastonbury.

In February I interviewed Robyn for Towleroad, and today her full self-titled album finally sees its American release. In a final nod to Madonna, below is the video for Robyn's current U.K. single, "Who's That Girl."

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Third, the long-awaited third album from Bristol trip-hoppers Portishead, who performed at Coachella over the weekend. It's now been 11 years since their last full-length set of original material.

Shine, from 28-year-old London singer Estelle. The album features the single "American Boy," a duet with Kanye West that recently spent a month on top of the U.K. chart.

The Roots' Rising Down, featuring guest appearances by Mos Def, Common and Talib Kweli.

Santogold's self-titled debut. The Philadelphia-based artist topped numerous music mag's "ones to watch" lists last year.

Lyfe Jennings' third album, Lyfe Change.

Nine Lives, a new solo offering from Steve Winwood which also features Eric Clapton on the song "Dirty City." Winwood turns 60 in May.

Music News: Exclusive Robyn Podcast Interview, Plus Perez Hilton, Goldfrapp, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Today Andy and I have something a bit different for you in the form of an audio interview with Robyn. Speaking with the Swedish pop singer, who was in Stockholm when she called, was just as I expected it to be: amusing, informative and even a bit surreal; as you'll hear, her godchildren were in the background playing the entire time, and at one point Robyn breaks from our conversation to yell at them in Swedish when they begin fighting! She also goes into great detail on how forming Konichiwa Records three years ago -- her own label to distribute her latest album -- led to the kind of success she never predicted.

The past twelve months alone have seen Robyn blow up online. Here in the States, for instance, she did three shows earlier this month and was taken aback at how her audiences knew all the words to the songs. (Robyn's self-titled album isn't out here till April 29. It'll be her first U.S. release since 1997's Robyn Is Here.)

Currently you can grab Robyn's digital single "With Every Heartbeat" and The Rakamonie EP. As well, she's featured on the "Fyre Department Remix" of Snoop Dogg's current hit, "Sexual Eruption."

As a bit of a side note, toward the end of the interview, I asked Robyn about two particular songs on her forthcoming album. It may seem like like she's being contradictory, since for the first song, "Be Mine!", she says she doesn't write about personal things that happen in her everyday life and for the second, "Bum Like You," she mentions that it was inspired by a relationship she'd had -- but with "Be Mine!" she was referring to a specific scenario in the song's bridge being fictional.

Robbie Daw Interviews Robyn

Maybe the geeks truly shall inherit! Here's a 45-second clip of Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" video, which co-stars 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer and was directed by Brett Ratner.

Slide over, Clive. Proving that Perez Hilton (aka, Mario Lavandeira) just might be the queen of all media after all, the New York Times reports the following: "Mr. Lavandeira has been negotiating a deal that would provide him with his own imprint at Warner Brothers Records, a division of the music giant Warner Music Group, he said. This was confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made. The talks are preliminary, and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Brothers, these people said."

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:

Discipline, the tenth studio album from Janet Jackson, and her first since joining the Island Def Jam label after a string of low-selling releases with Virgin.

Seventh Tree from Goldfrapp. It's a bit of a departure from their past up-tempo, dancier releases. Also available on iTunes is a remix EP for the album's first single, "A&E."

Dolly Parton's Backwoods Barbie, the title track of which is set to be used in the score for next year's 9 To 5 Broadway musical.

Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, which hopefully isn't overshadowed by the brouhaha over her latest hairstyle.

Music News: Kylie Hops Into Robyn's Box, Plus Leona Lewis, R.E.M., Yahoo Music, Cat Power, NKOTB, Shelby Lynne

Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own pop music site called Chart Rigger.

Either these two pop dames are trying to give us déjà vu, or they're both just really into boxes. Kylie Minogue's new video for "In My Arms" (below, left) made its way online yesterday, and it bears more than a passing resemblance to Robyn's video for "Handle Me" (right) from last fall.

Of course, all these years later, it's worth revisiting what might be the silent inspiration for both clips.

While "In My Arms" is Minogue's second single off X throughout most of Europe, the U.K. and Australia will get "Wow" instead. Videos for both "In My Arms" and "Wow" were shot while Kylie was recently in Los Angeles by director Melina Matsoukas. The U.S. version of X is tentatively scheduled for a March release on Capitol Records.

Meanwhile, two EPs from Robyn were made available stateside yesterday -- the five-track Rakomonie EP and the single package for her U.K. chart-topper, "With Every Heartbeat." Robyn's full-length album from Cherrytree/Interscope will drop in April. The singer is doing three sold-out club performances next week in New York, San Francisco and L.A.

Along with Madonna, Mariah and Gnarls Barkley, successful U.K. belter Leona Lewis to throw her hat into the crowded ring of April album releases.

R.E.M. shoots their new video in New York at "the best sex shop [they've] ever been in."

Despite the company's current woes -- or perhaps in spite of them -- Yahoo Music to offer non-digital rights managed (DRM) songs by the end of the year.

Music sales are dismal all over, but Cat Power (pictured right) scores her best week ever with newly-released album Jukebox.

With an updated website boasting past achievements and playing a schmaltzy new ballad, is the latest musical reunion... New Kids On The Block? Group member Danny Wood initially denied it on his MySpace blog, but has since written: "Hi to all the New Kids On The Block fans, I wanted to clarify since my first post this morning regarding the NKOTB reunion. I loved being a part of the group, and have always thought 'maybe someday we'll get back together' – you just never know when your someday will come. I can guarantee all the fans that if this reunion were to happen, they would hear about it first on www.NKOTB.com."

"Glass-smashing garage punk and genre-mashing pop. Weed-infused hip-hop and Ivy League-schooled geek rock." Get to know Spin's Who's Next In '08. (In particular, Duffy and The Wombats already have huge buzz overseas, Santogold seems just crazy enough to crossover and Margot And The Nuclear So And So's really dig cello.)

Girls just wanna have fun: Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Cole, Bonnie Raitt and Bette Midler to be award presenters at the Feb. 10 Grammys.

... and baby makes four for Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:

Grammy-winner Shelby Lynne's album of Dusty Springfield covers, Just A Little Lovin'.

Stage diva Sarah Brightman's first album in five years, Symphony, which features guest vocalists Fernando Lima, Paul Stanley of KISS (!!) and Andrea Bocelli.

Rent and Wicked star Idina Menzel's foray into pop, I Stand.

A remix EP of the Thom Yorke songs "Atoms For Peace" and "Black Swan."

New singles from Estelle (the slightly electro "American Boy"), Spin artist to watch Santogold ("Creator/L.E.S. Artists") and Making The Band vixens Danity Kane ("Damaged").