The New Classic: Our Interview With Rumer

Rumer's Seasons Of My Soul is currently a Top 10 album on iTunes and with good reason: she's an extremely talented singer-songwriter whose sound harkens back to the music coming from your family's station wagon's AM Radio in the '70s. She was nice enough to chat with us about hitting #1 on iTunes, her US tour, her influences, her contemporaries, and Katy Perry.

Your album, Seasons Of My Soul, was finally released in the US on January 24th where it soon went to #1 on iTunes.
I know. Isn't it crazy?

How's your week been?
I got a little bit sick early in the week. I had to go see an ear, nose, and throat surgeon because I had problems with my voice and it just turns out that the altitude and everything was just making me really dry. So I was a little bit down in the dumps and then I went to Target and Ian, my manager, said, "Oh no. Your CD's not in the supermarket." I was like, "Oh why?" And he said, "Because it's just on Amazon." And I was like, "Oh."

So I was just a little bit down. I wasn't feeling very well. I couldn't buy my CD in the supermarket. We were playing to thirty, forty people every night and thinking this was like a mountain. And then the next day, for [reaching #1 on iTunes] to happen, was just massively encouraging.

Given your success in the UK, were you surprised to see your album hit #1 on the iTunes chart?
I was. Very surprised. To me, it's still like a niche album, like a jazz album.

You're currently in the middle of a short tour in the US. How's that going?
Oh, it's great. I love it. I love meeting people. I love it because I get to meet everyone after the shows, talk to every single person.

First Look: God Bless America

Man, Bobcat Goldthwait's new flick looks awesome!

Luscious Jackson, "Naked Eye"

From 1996, here Luscious Jackson with "Naked Eye."

Enjoy!

Seven Questions In Heaven With Simon Spire

Simon Spire is a singer-songwriter from New Zealand who will be releasing Four-Letter Words later this year. Today, he's spending Seven Questions In Heaven with us.

Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
I call it self-inquiring indie pop. As a songwriter, I like to use music as a vehicle for investigating the unconscious and our human potential. As a musician and artist, I love contemporary musical settings and I love developing sounds and arrangements in the studio. My music is a combination of these elements.

Who are your musical influences and idols?
I've always been inspired by the introspection and the search to discover life's potential communicated by great singer/songwriters such as Alanis Morissette, John Mayer, and Leonard Cohen, to name a few. I'm always impressed by any artist who succeeds in embodying an authentic vision of humanity and is able to do so in the mainstream. And Radiohead, Steve Vai, Metallica, and Nirvana have always been an influence in their willingness to experiment and to push the boundaries of music and production.

What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
I think the first CD I ever purchased was Cypress Hill's Black Sunday. I remember doing my best to learn the lyrics with my friends, though half the time we had no idea what we were singing about. Which was probably a good thing, given our age.

DVD Review: Queen: Days Of Our Lives

If you're someone who knows the lyrics to every one of their songs or merely just a casual fan of the band, you'll find something to love in Queen: Days Of Our Lives (Eagle Rock Entertainment). Told through present-day interviews, old interviews, and concert footage, the two-hour documentary is divided into two parts: 1970-1980 and 1980 to present day. The first part is a rags-to-riches story of how Queen became one of the world's biggest and most important bands. Except for a few upbeat and positive moments like the triumphant Live Aid performance and the band's final live shows at Wembley Stadium, the second part is a more somber affair as it deals the band falling out of favor with U.S. audiences and front man Freddie Mercury's gradual sickness and death. In addition to the documentary, the DVD also includes three deleted scenes totaling twenty minutes and seven new music videos.

I first became a fan of Queen's music during the time when songs like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Another One Bites The Dust" were popular. Although I went back and devoured their earlier offerings as I grew older, I didn't gain much of the band's history, so this documentary was particularly interesting for me. Some of my favorite parts were:

• the band's early, pre-Mercury days as Smile
• how they pioneered the art of multitracking during the recording of Queen II, and how the 16-track tape turned almost transparent because they had so many overdubs and layers on it
• they talked about hating doing Top Of The Pops, but the appearance caused their album to hit the Top 10
• Mercury making fun of Sid Vicious and how the band considered News Of The World their "punk" album
• Queen working on "Under Pressure" with Bowie (one of the top five songs ever recorded)
• and how MTV banned the video for "I Want To Break Free."

Queen: Days Of Our Lives is an entertaining and interesting look at Queen. If you're desiring dirt or sordid details, you'll have to look somewhere else. If you're wanting a great history of the band lovingly told by the band's three surviving members as they fondly remember Mercury and their golden age, Queen: Days Of Our Lives is for you.



Queen: Days Of Our Lives will be released on January 31st, 2012.

Naked Eyes, "Always Something There To Remind Me"

From 1983, here's Naked Eyes with "Always Something There To Remind Me."

Enjoy!

Icon For A Reason: Our Interview With David Cassidy

I got the rare chance to talk with a truly iconic figure this week, David Cassidy! Most of us remember his role in The Partridge Family fondly, and David Cassidy continued his long, successful career writing, producing, acting, and of course, singing. In fact, he just released a new single, "UFO (U Fine One)" on iTunes, and he paired up with Cree8 Group to feature the song on a new iPhone game called iSlinky Squashin' Martians. Talk about nostalgia!

Today David dishes (and I mean, dishes!) with me about the '80s, the beginnings of his career, his kids, and life in the industry.

Hi David, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great, thanks. Now what type of site is Culture Brats?

Well, Culture Brats, we're a pop culture site. We're all kids of the '80s, so we basically cover pop culture items from the '80s to today. We do some things that we grew up with; we do some current stuff, and mainly we try to support artists.
That's a beautiful thing. I did have a hit in the '80s that people in the U.S. don't know or remember, it was actually in the top charts in the U.K. and all over Europe and Australia. I wrote it with a great writer/producer, Alan Tarney. We worked and lived in the U.K. for about eight months out of the year in '84. And then I did a tour there in '85, and it was great. I really enjoyed it.

I'm still proud of the record. In fact, a little known fact, it was George Michael who I began working with and co-producing some stuff with and actually sang background on it, and he did a great job. He's a terrific artist. At the time, he was just leaving Wham! It was right before his first solo album got gigantic and I enjoyed working with him.

Book Review: The Hunger Pains

I am a big fan of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. There's a lot of hype surrounding the big movie adaptation coming out in a couple months, and judging from the trailers, it's going to be great. But Collins's dystopian novel is filled with action and enough teen angst and love triangles to keep adults and teens turning the pages.

And of course, as with anything that's immensely popular, leave it to The Harvard Lampoon to make fun of it. Really, you haven't made it big until your work is made into a parody. First, they took on Twilight with their own version, Nightlight. And then there was Bored Of The Rings, a funny take of Lord Of The Rings. And their latest comedic creation, The Hunger Pains (Simon & Schuster), is sure to make all you Hunger Games fans crack up.

Before I even cracked the book, I was already laughing at The Hunger Pains' caricature of all the characters from the original.

The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen
The Hunger Pains: Kantkiss Neverclean

The Hunger Games: Peeta Mellark
The Hunger Pains: Pita Malarkey

The Hunger Games: Gale Hawthorne
The Hunger Pains: Carol Handsomestein

The Hunger Pains follows the same basic story of the original, with the country divided into districts and ruled by the authoritarian government known as The Capital. They hold the Hunger Games, an event that involves throwing a bunch of kids into an arena in order to kill each other until only one remains.

Katkiss and Pita come from District 12, which is the telemarketing district. Fans of The Hunger Games will easily recognize many of the events, people, and places the Harvard Lampoon is poking fun of. But it's obvious this book is targeting all that teen melodrama prevalent in Young Adult Literature these days.

For example, my favorite quote from this book: "In the back of my mind, I wonder who my heart will belong to in the end. Will it be Carol, with his perfect body and unparalleled hunting skills? Or Pita, with his giant head and flabby stomach? It's a tough call."

Obviously, Kantkiss isn't very smart. When she sees Badge Underwear wearing a pin that says, "THE CAPITAL SUCKS," she wonders if it means anything.

If you loved The Hunger Games, you will certainly have a lot of fun with The Hunger Pains. You can grab your own copy February 7th.

Ferris, You've Returned?

An intriguing thing popped up on the internet:



What does it mean? The long rumored Ferris Bueller 2? A tease for some sort of commercial campaign? A viral marketing stunt gone awesome?

I guess we'll have to wait another few weeks to find out.

Fun., "Carry On"

Man, I can't wait for this album to come out next month!

From 2012, here's Fun. with "Carry On."

Enjoy!