just because...

So it's been four years since Imogen Heap released a cd, and the upcoming album Ellipse (due out late in August) is sure to bring joy to millions of twenty-somethings, who defined their adolescence with the soundtracks from Garden State and The O.C.: Volume I-V. On Friday, she released the first single from the album, "First Train Home." I'm tempted to say it's just more of the same old, same old, but you can't judge a book by it's cover, so maybe you can't judge an album by it's first single too?

22 video

It's Not Me, It's You was Lily Allen's sophomore album, released on February 10 in the US. While it didn't particularly offer much more sophistication musically, lyrically it's a lot more much mature. By mature, I mean it accurately reflects concerns of someone who has recently turned 24, as opposed to 21, when she released her first album. Anyway, the video for the fourth single off the album, "22" was released this weekend. It's worth a look.

monster mash

Ok, so here's something not too music-related, but there's a new web series, called Cinemash, broadcast by MSN, which entails various celebrities from television, movies, and music re-enacting classic movie scenes. The first release stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as "Sid and Nancy." It's disturbing how good it is... really, after awhile the cross-dressing isn't even noticeable. If it was meant to be funny, then it's completely wasted on me, because I found it almost as disturbing as the real Sid and Nancy. Check it out here.

The upcoming bits for Cinemash include Cheech & Chong, the stars of Reno 911!, and Common. Should be hilarious stuff. If you're interested, the upcoming schedule is online at zune.

'cause it's an experiment, experiment with me

Ok, so here I am, starting something I hope will bear semblance to a music blog. I've contemplated this for a good few months now and finally decided to give it a shot. It's probably going to be centered around new indie music--electronic, folk, and otherwise. But make no mistake, I am easily distracted and rather eclectic. It's possible that random tidbits on Black Eyed Peas and Miley Cyrus may make their way into my posts, along with other commentary on pop culture. But hey--that's fine! It's my blog... I do what I want.

Be that as it may, there's some real stuff to get to... Zooey Deschanel is kind of an obsession of mine, and She & Him (her retro-indie duo with M. Ward) has really turned out some impressive stuff. Their first album, Volume One, was released last year, their second album--appropriately titled, Volume Two--is due out some time this year, and they've appeared a various music festival in between. Most recently, they've produced a track for the movie 500 Days of Summer, which just premiered in LA last week. She & Him covered the ever-iconic Smiths song "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want," with surprising success. Once you get over cliche of the song appearing in yet another movie soundtrack, Zooey's haunting vocals and folky instrumentals by M. Ward really pay tribute to Morrissey very nicely.

You can listen to it below
[Via Stereogum, for full article, click here]

I'm obviously a big fan of this track, but the whole soundtrack seems pretty decent, and I'm honestly peeing myself waiting for the film. It's getting a lot of comparisons to Garden State (Pitchfork), but that's not really a bad thing in my book. It's not ashamed to be a romantic comedy, so critics who crave all which is experimental, avant garde are going to snub it. But it premiered at Sundance in January, so I'm thinking it's got just the right amount of indie flavor for my tastes.

Here's the the official trailer from YouTube: