It always felt awkward to Jamie Lidell, trying to capture his huge, thumping techno-soul ideas in a cramped British flat. After years of what he calls “flaccid bedroom recording,” worrying about neighbors and “tiptoeing around like a bloody idiot,” the singer moved to Nashville, Tenn. He conceived his new, self-titled fifth album (featuring synth-based R&B standouts such as “Big Love” and “Why_Ya_Why”) in a house in a part of the city populated by hard-partying college kids, who never complained about the sound.
Why move to Nashville?
Read More
British protest singer Billy Bragg doesn’t rattle easily, although he admits to having a crazy time after singing a duet of Bob Dylan’s “If Not For You” with Olivia Newton-John on a BBC TV variety show, then returning to his posh London hotel — where Justin Bieber also was staying.
Read More
After being shot down by judges on “The X Factor” last year for being too “cabaret,” San Francisco singer and songwriter Jason Brock is back on track doing what he loves best: performing his very own lounge act.
Starting Saturday at Martuni’s, his show includes all-new material about life after his experience on the hit reality show, and after moving on from exes.
“I hope none of my ex-boyfriends will show up,” Brock says. “That would be really awkward if that happened,” he adds with a laugh.
Read More
Beirut-born artist Mika didn’t go looking for a major movie role. It found him.
After his multiplatinum 2007 debut, “Life in Cartoon Motion,” made him an international pop sensation, the photogenic, Freddie Mercury-voiced singer began traveling in increasingly lofty social circles.
One night, he was dining with his good friend Christian Louboutin, who had been designing stage shoes for him, and seated at their table was famed French actress Fanny Ardant.
Read More
Ghostly International recording artist Shigeto joins labelmates such as Com Truise and Dauwd for a rare, thrilling night of tastemaker electronic music Friday at 1015 Folsom.
The Detroit-based Zach Saginaw, who grew up with influences including Motown, jazz, hip-hop and techno, mixes them with inviting, melodic, vividly textured electronic music production, accompanied by live drums.
Read More
In mid-1970s London, the Sex Pistols had anger as a motivator, punk rock as a movement and the Malcolm McLaren-Vivienne Westwood boutique SEX as a hipster hangout. Copenhagen claims a modern equivalent: The Joy Division-urgent punk quartet Iceage, which leads a wave of teen and 20-something malcontent outfits dubbed “the new way of Danish f*** you”; the scene revolves around the Posh Isolation record label and store. Members play in multiple bands, says Iceage drummer Dan Kjaer Nielsen, 21, who’s also in Sejr. But it’s not punk rock, per se, he clarifies.
Read More
Carly Ritter is proud to be listed on the Internet Movie Data Base, just like her father, the late comedic actor John Ritter, although she says it’s a fluke. One entry refers to a crawl-on cameo for a film about parenting; others were for appearances in two recent shorts, “Slice” and “Monsieur Balloons.”
“Those were just friends asking me to play little roles, so I don’t know how well I did for them,” she says. “I didn’t get that gift from my family — my brothers are both amazing, and my little sister has it, definitely. But I think it might’ve missed me somehow.”
Read More
Charlotte Church hopes her fans got the memo: She’s no longer the classical child prodigy whose 1998 “Voice of an Angel” debut sold more than 10 million copies.
Now 27, the Welsh diva and mother of two and her guitarist boyfriend Jonny Powell have created a new two-EP anthology, “One & Two,” in her garage studio.
She believed so much in the gothic sound on the self-produced, 4AD-lush tracks (such as “Glitterbombed” and “Beautiful Wreck”) she launched her own imprint, Alligator Wine, to release them. She designed the spooky cover art, too.
Read More
The first track of Patti LuPone’s new album, “Far Away Places,” is called “Gypsy in My Soul,” and the Broadway star, who opens this week at Live at the Rrazz, has lived the role in both upper- and lower-case versions.
Read More
Renowned rapper Snoop Dogg recently visited Jamaica, immersed himself in Rastafarian culture, recorded a reggae album called “Reincarnated” with producers Diplo and Major Lazer, and redubbed himself Snoop Lion in the process. But he reassures longtime fans that it’s not permanent. “Snoop Lion is the moniker that I will use when I make reggae music,” says the artist, whose raspy, weed-weathered voice perfectly fits the genre.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/17541/17541?page=5&type%25255Bstory%25255D=story&quicktabs_1=0&quicktabs_6=0
