In an announcement that surprised nobody, Capitol/EMI and OK Go revealed their separation yesterday and today, OK Go unveiled their own label, named Paracadute. Last month, Damian Kulash, the band’s frontman, wrote a spirited editorial in the New York Times bemoaning EMI’s policy of not allowing certain music videos to be embedded by third party hosts. Kulash is a smart guy and was able to connect his band’s influence in the popularity of YouTube four years ago and the subsequent institutionalizing of the medium by corporate labels. While it would have been interesting if perhaps beneficial to see Kulash and his band fight the machine from within, it was probably (understandably) intolerable. By taking the walk offer from EMI, OK Go is now able to promote their new album (Capitol has seemed somewhat uninterested in this – the band had outside promotion in place already) and their elaborate video for “This Too Shall Pass.”
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Here’s the deal, Bloc Party has done the official remix for Tunng’s new track “Hustle,” but YOU can do a better one. The band is holding a contest for remixes of the track with the winner featured on the band’s next single. Other prizes listed below. You can check out your competition 
Keane will release a new collection of material this spring. Night Train will be an eight track “album” of songs the band wrote while on tour for their previous release, Perfect Symmetry. The collection includes live fave “My Shadow” as well as two collabos with K’naan – “Stop for a Minute” and “Looking Back” – making this release a 25% K’naan guest drop. While it’s to be accompanied by a North American tour, the length is a little curious. Granted, previous Keane LPs have maxxed out at 11 tracks, but when has 8 been enough for an entire album? We should consider the success of their US labelmate Lady Gaga, whose eight-song-long release The Fame Monster (mostly sold packaged with her full-length debut) has not only been a big seller, but a way to keep the artist in the spot without having to wait for even more material. In this sense, Gaga and Keane are exploring the newly revived territory between EP and LP lengths – possibly the future of recorded music and a bit of salvation for the record industry. Night Train drops May 11. Tour dates tba!
Chilly Gonzales is jealous, apparently. He wants what Beyoncé and Daft Punk have… namely their songs, but also possibly their audience. He brings their works together on Pianist Envy, his new mixtape, is really an eight song compilation of other people’s tunes assaulted by Gonzales’s piano. Last night, Gonzales did his penultimate piano-talking show at Joe’s in Pub in NYC. He concludes the residency next Thursday with Princess Superstar. Opening Envy with J-Kwon’s “Tipsy” and bringing it home with “Single Ladies,” Gonzales is clearly having fun here. He even takes a moment to riff on his critics of his work pre-Solo Piano (his breakout album of 2004). There’s even a clip of Mariah Carey’s drunk Palm Springs film festival awards speech. The most interesting are clips of the artists own ruminations on his career and work. The whole thing comes across like eavesdropping on a conversation with someone you hardly know. You can hear The comp is a free download from Gonzales’ site 
Somehow, Metric has found their 2009 album, Fantasies, on the Billboard 200 album charts. After the recent success of the album’s third single, “Gold Guns Girls,” the album has entered the Top 200 at 162. Kind of remarkable given that this is the band’s third album and the band isn’t even on tour. They will be shortly (dates below). The band has also provided the Mike Shinoda remix of “Gold” for 
