Like freeze dried prophets walking out across the pollution-hardened Thames, the British duo of Dan Le Sac (DJ, effects – aka Dan Stephens) and Scroobious Pip (words – aka David Meads) want to tell us that we've lost our way. Aware of the challenge of raising cerebral matters with a dumbed down audience, it's an impassioned message that they're prepared to cloak – in a move Trojans will be familiar with – in the disguise of clattering Brit-hop.

Instead of a sandwich board in a rat-infested strip mall, their 2007 debut single "Thou Shalt Not Kill" recontemporised Moses' original precepts, creating a street pulpit from which to set out the laws according to their own nu-hippy belief systems; the cockney enclave of Stanford-Le-Hope became their Mount Sinai.

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MГ¶tley CrГјe have announced fans can view one of their concerts for free online. The gig, taking place next week (August 1), is part of their sold out US tour. The LA group will take to the stage at 9.30pm (PST) at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas. Tickets to watch the show live online are free of charge, but very limited, and are available from Deeprockdrive.com. MГ¶tley CrГјe’s new album ‘Saints Of Los Angeles’ is out in the UK on September 1.
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Imagine the most evil creature that ever existed, a villain who commits atrocity after atrocity, who has scarred the world and each and every creature in it, a scoundrel so heinous he makes Heath Ledger’s anarchist Joker look like Mother Teresa. Now imagine that you like him.

Director Scott Derrickson says that when you see his upcoming adaptation of “Paradise Lost,” the epic 17th-century poem by John Milton about the Fall of Man, you won’t be able to help but have sympathy for its bad guy: the devil.

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Quick: Name the best male soul singers of all time.

These virtuosos come to mind immediately: Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Donnie Hathaway, and other names. Although all these artists exemplify the best of soul music, one name appears less frequently and deserves more attention: Bill Withers.

Although Withers had a string of hits in the 70s and made a comeback in the early 80s with “Just the Two of Us,” a duet with Grover Washington, Jr., only three of his songs still receive frequent airplay: the latter song, “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Use Me.” Of course these songs ably withstand the test of time; much of his best material resides in album cuts and less-frequently played singles.

(More about ‘Bill Withers’ Live at Carnegie Hall Treats Listeners to Deeply Personal Songwriting and Performing’…)

“Let go of the old ones/We’ve got some new ones,” sings Scott McMicken on “The Old Days,” a woozy parlor-room piano-rock reverie. The Philadelphia band’s albums have always sounded like they should be filed alongside “old ones” like the Band, the Beach Boys, the Beatles and the Bonzo Dog Band, but Fate feels less like a straight tribute to Dr. Dog’s elders and more like a finely tuned collage. “The Breeze” begins as a trembling folkie ballad for acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica, then trippy multitracked vocal harmonies ride in on a reggae-lite bass line. “Army of Ancients” is a gospel-flavored power ballad that nods to John Lennon and declares, “I’ll skip the sermon and stick to the booze!” The pleasantly apocalyptic “100 Years” crossbreeds a weathered Workingman’s Dead levity with a Sgt.
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You gotta hand it to Sergio Mendes. The ageless Latin musical star has flourished for more than four decades, and even though he has plenty of ability himself, he's been helped along the way by his unerring ability to choose some interesting musical partners. For his latest album, Encanto, now out on the Concord label, he embraces the practice with a vengeance and it might be his most eclectic album ever, although 2006's Timeless began the process. Rapper will.i.am produced both albums, and on this effort he's enlisted the aid of fellow Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie, but there's more going on here than hip-hop.
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Notoriously outspoken American hip hop mogul Kanye West has definitely polarised the opinion of punters for Godskitchen’s forthcoming UK festival Global Gathering. The event, which takes place across Friday July 25th and Saturday July 26th at Long Martson Airfield near Straford Upon Avon, features eight stages on the first day and nine on the second, with a ridiculously diverse range of artists set to appear. As the festival’s headliner it is understandable Kanye would be given preferential treatment when it comes to set times and staging, however he’s once again raised the ire of ticket purchasers following the announcement he’ll be the sole performer on the Main Stage next Friday. Yep, that’s r
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Anya Singleton, The Other Side

Anya Singleton's first full-length album goes a long way towards fulfilling the promise of her earlier EP, Not Easy To Forget. The jazzy sound of that disc has evolved here into a more up-front soul sound with a bigger beat, epitomized by the insistent opening track, "Don't Tell Me." When I first played on the song it brought to mind the shock to the system I felt when I first heard Dana Glover's "Rain."

The slinky but unsentimental R&B thrum of "Small Disasters" and the airy "Simple" further show the subtle songwriting skills of Singleton and her two co-writers.

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"Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason." –Albert Camus

The irony of using this quote as a prelude to a review of Dropkick Murphy's The Meanest of Times is, I hope, apparent. The quote itself is even more analysis than The Meanest of Times can bear.

Sometimes you just need to listen. A lemon is yellow; now squeeze it and move on.

Which brings me — and it's about time — to the band itself, a group that surely needs no analysis.

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As revealed on ITM earlier this week, up to 30 revellers partying at the Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, Russia, were hospitalised after giant lasers damaged their retinas following staging problems. Local newspaper Kommersant said torrential storms prompted festival organisers to erect giant marquees over the dancefloor which led to the outdoor lasers being inadvertently trained on the crowd. “They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them,” an eye specialist told the newspaper. “Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80%, and regaining it is already impossible,” he added. A story
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