Based off my last post, it looks like I hit the nail on the head. The Payment Plan goes on sale this Thursday (5/17) at 10am, and concludes the following Thursday (5/24) at 10pm. I still think they’re doing it earlier this year, because they’re banking on it selling out—or a majority of it—during this process. They’re looking for another record sell-out. The general on-sale, which will likely have less of an allotment of tickets, goes on-sale sometime early next year. The dates, like I thought, are April 12-14 for the First Weekend, and April 19-21 for the Second Weekend.

I guess, since all that’s out of the way, it’s time to start speculating who is going to play next years Coachella, right? (Too soon?) I feel like we’re going to get another Brit-Pop reunion performance this year. No, not the Smiths. We all know that’s not happening. I’m going with the Stone Roses. They kick off their Reunion Tour next month in Europe, and will more than likely, head out to the states at the tail end of this year, or beginning of next year.

Other possibilities: Beach House. Their new record Bloom is—shocker!—as solid as Teen Dream. If memory serves me right, I feel like they’ve only played the tents before, so this would be the perfect opportunity for them to step up to the Outdoor or Main Stage. Fiona Apple, perhaps? She’s back, and with a vengeance. I mean, have you heard those songs? Beautiful stuff. Her new record—first one in 7 years—comes out next month, and is one of the most anticipated albums of the year. And not just by me. Other than that, I’m not quite sure who else it could be.

Of course, like I said before, this is pure speculation on my part. We won’t find any of this stuff out until the end of this year.

On Friday, the folks over at Coachella, posted this photo on all their Social Media Outlets—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (etc). As you can tell, there isn’t much to gather from it other than Monday at 10am something related to the festival is being announced. It may be big, or it may be minor. I’m not sure which one of these two it may turn out to be, but this is my take on it.

My friends think I’m crazy, but I honestly believe that it’s the start of the Payment Plan. They did it for that week in June last year, and since this year was such a success sales-wise—practically selling out during the week long pre-sale, and taking less than an hour  or two to fully sell-out during the actual on-sale months later—I figure they’re doing it earlier this year. Hell, I think they may be banking on it selling out this year via the Payment Plan alone.

Other possibilities being thrown around: Another week? I doubt that. I mean, that would just be absurd. Three weekends of Coachella and one of Stagecoach? No, that’s just pushing it. And, in a way, devaluing the experience of it. The announcement of next years Coachella dates? Ehh, I doubt it. They wouldn’t make a big, albeit cryptic, stink about it for this. The dates you can figure out on your own just by looking at the calendar; first weekend 12, 13, and 14. Second weekend, a week later, would be 19, 20, and 21.

This, of course, is all speculation on my part. I guess we’ll have to wait until Monday for something more concrete.

I have to admit, I can’t remember the last time I became this enthralled with an R.Kelly song. No, seriously, I can’t. If I were to throw out a guess, I’d say it was probably, a good fifteen years ago the last time that that happened. I mean, “Trapped in the Closet” felt more like a joke to me than a legitimate song, so I passed on that. But this song, “Feelin’ Single,” wow! I was hooked within the first minute or so of its classic soulful sound. A sound that, according to what I’ve read about Write Me Back—the album from which this song comes from—is influenced by the sounds of Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass, and Michael Jackson. Which, if you’re asking me, are some quality artists to be influenced by.

Write Me Back is out on June 26, with another album entitled, Black Panties coming out after the latter’s release. And, if you can’t tell what Black Panties is going to sound like based off the title alone, then don’t worry. It’s, according to R.Kelly, the new 12 Play—the classic album from the early nineties that gave us songs like, “Your Body’s Callin’,” “Bump N’ Grind,” “Homie, Lover, Friend” and “It Seems Like Your Ready.” In other words, R.Kelly is saying it’s a classic.

Whether or not that turns out to be true remains to be seen. However, one thing is for certain, I’m going to have a hard time trying not to play this song over and over again until then.

Well, it looks like the rumor may be true; Beach House have a new record coming out and it’s called Bloom. It’s hitting stores in May and last night, the band, posted what may be a track off of it. The song is called “Myth” and it’s what you’ve come to expect from the Baltimore duo; dreamy, and hypnotic indie-pop. I’m looking forward to hearing the rest. Check it out below.

[MP3] Beach House — Myth

Bloom is, allegedly, out May 15 via Sup Pop.

In all seriousness, has there ever been an artist that has gone through the amount of hype and backlash that Lana Del Rey has gone through in such a short amount of time? I don’t know about you but, I can’t recall anyone that has had such a polarizing affect on listeners. And the thing is, judging from her album Born to Die, I doubt the backlash will die down anytime soon. And here’s why: Born to Die is bad. Like really bad.

Out of the fifteen songs, the only two that are salvageable are the singles “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans.” Which to me, isn’t saying a lot, because honestly, I don’t think they’re all that great. They’re okay at best. The rest of the songs sound like an attempt at recreating—and failing to do so—the “likability” of the aforementioned two. It also doesn’t help that, throughout the fifteen(!) songs on the album, Del Rey, sounds confused; Almost schizophrenic like, trying out personas and singing styles as the album progresses. And, ultimately, failing to find what she’s looking for.

That is, the answers to the questions: Who is Lana Del Rey? and What is her sound? My guess is we’ll never know. I’m sure after this album, without a shadow of doubt tanks, she’ll adopt another moniker or persona for her third album and proceed to suck even more.

Here it is. The lineup for the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (in short, Coachella). And depending on who you ask, it’s either insanely good or insanely bad. Since this is my blog and all, I’m going with good. Even though, some of the names—or their placement—have me a little perplexed.

There’s the headliners: The Black Keys, Radiohead, and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg. Aside from Radiohead, the other two come as a surprise to me. Of all the rumors that I heard in person or read throughout the internet, none of them pointed to those two. Sure the Black Keys had a massively successful 2011, and their newest album El Camino is solid and they deserve the headlining spot but, I thought that was going to happen in a year or two from now. As for Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, well, that one is just surprising. Dr. Dre’s (long-time) impending album Detox has become the Chinese Democracy of Hip-Hop (in other words, a running joke) and well, Snoop in my opinion, hasn’t released anything of caliber since his Death Row days. Here’s to hoping it’s a massive Death Row-era greatest-hits set.

The Reunions: This is the part where my head exploded (figuratively speaking of course). And here’s why: Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, Pulp, Refused, Mazzy Star, fIREHOSE, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, AND At the Drive-In! I mean, wow. As far as reunions go, this years Coachella line-up borders on epic.

Earlier I mentioned that some of the names—or their placement—have me a little perplexed because in fact, they do. For example: the Hives. Their last album came out in 2007(!), and yet, there they are. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Hives. I’ve seen them several times with my friend Jorge—who’s a big fan. However, as far as I know, they’re still working on album and who knows if when it comes out anyone is going to be interested in it.  Also, the Buzzcocks should have been higher up (because of their legacy) and Atari Teenage Riot, well that’s just going to be insane.

Which brings me to my plan for the weekend. Every year, I devise (or attempt to devise) a plan of action, a plan of attack. See band X for 15 minutes, go check out DJ Y for the remaining 10 minutes of his/her set. However, this year, I’m taking a different approach. This year I plan to focus on bands/DJ’s that I have never seen before. Of course, the exception to this plan being Radiohead and maybe the Black Keys. Hopefully, because of this my schedule would look a little less hectic. At least I hope. Fingers crossed.

So, are you going? If so, who are you excited to see?

I have to admit, I haven’t listened to a Shins album in a long time. So when I got word that a new Shins song was making the rounds I was…well, a little disinterested. However, I decided to give it a listen and I can’t say that I was blown away. Actually, I can’t say that I was disappointed either. Let me put it this way. I don’t hate it but, I’m not loving it either. Perhaps after several listens it will grow on me. As far as its sound: The song is quite frankly, as the title suggests, a simple song. It’s pretty much what you’d expect—and have gotten—from Mercer; a mid-tempo tune with a catchy chorus.

Point of Morrow is out on 3/20 via Columbia/Aural Apothecary. And is available for pre-order if you’re so inclined to do so.

The Shins: Facebook, Site, Soundcloud, Twitter

I had a whole set of reviews for these albums, but for some reason they’ve disappeared from my queue here on the site. So, with that in mind, I decided to keep this year-end list simple; here’s a list of fifteen albums—in alphabetical order—that I spent way too much time listening to.

Austra- Feel It Break
Big K.R.I.T.- Return of 4EVA
Destroyer- Kaputt
Frank Ocean- Nostalgia/Ultra
Gang Gang Dance- Eye Contact
Kate Bush- 50 Words for Snow
Lykke Li- Wounded Rhymes
Modeselektor- Monkeytown
PJ Harvey- Let England Shake
Radiohead- King of Limbs
The Roots- Undun
The Weeknd- House of Balloons
Wild Flag- Wild Flag
Wye Oak- Civilian
Young Galaxy- Shapeshifting

Yesterday, in an effort to generate more traffic/interest (hopefully!) to this site, I started a Tumblr. And today, it saw its first post; Rihanna’s song “We Found Love” (Feat. Calvin Harris). I have to say, I didn’t expect to like a Rihanna song as much as I liked this one. A lot of its appeal, at least to me, lies in the production of DJ/Producer Calvin Harris.

The Electronica number he constructed strikes the perfect balance between Ready For the Club and Ready For Top-40 Radio without sounding completely cheesy or completely overwrought. The other component that works in this song is the interplay between it and Rihanna’s voice. Harris manages to not overpower Rihanna’s voice entirely with the songs beat. Instead it pulsates slightly beneath it allowing Rihanna’s message of love found-and-lost to be loud and clear.

In short, this song is pretty damn catchy. Real Talk!

Talk That Talk is out 11/21, but “We Found Love” is available now, as a single, on iTunes.

In the past few days, I’ve played Ceremonials—the new album from Florence + the Machine—an unhealthy amount of times. Perhaps even more unhealthy is the amount of times that I’ve played “Shake it Out.” You see, as of late I’ve been feeling mentally exhausted. This is, more than likely, caused by the amount of stuff I’ve had on my mind lately; stuff that I won’t sit here and bore you with.

The point is: “Shake it Out” struck a nerve, and in some way, its message makes me feel a little better. In particular, this line in the chorus(?); “…it’s hard to dance with a devil on your back, so shake him off.” Now, in my head, the devil means the amount of stuff/bullshit that I’ve had on my mind lately. Granted, I’m sure, Florence had a different devil in mind. But, because of the aforementioned, it has become my go-to-song for whenever I feel like I need to clear my head, or as Florence says, “shake it out!”

That’s the video for “Shake it Out” above. Ceremonials, Florence + the Machine’s stellar sophomore album, is available tomorrow. Pick it up!