Sway's Guide To A Great Day In L.A.

22 Jun 2006 09:38:00 EDT

Snoop's "Cali Iz Active" rings in a new era of California love. Who's in the video? How have things changed? What does it all mean? Don't sweat it -- Sway has the inside story.
By

Related Artists

New Releases: Pink, Gorillaz, Flaming Lips, NIN, Now 21, Morrissey, Vines, Bubba Sparxxx & More

04 Apr 2006 06:00:00 EDT

Also due Tuesday are releases by DFA, Islands, Van Hunt, MC Eiht, Massive Attack.
By Kurt Orzeck

Dead Alive: Proving she's got much more than just a pulse, Pink rails against politicians and a culture that breeds bulimia and rampant materialism on her fourth record, I'm Not Dead. The Indigo Girls sing along on "Dear Mr. President," while the singer's father appears on the hidden track "I Have Seen the Rain." Get totally Pink'd with the DualDisc, which has a promo clip and making-of segments for her single "Stupid Girls," plus interview footage and a teaser for her forthcoming "Live in Europe" DVD.

Flaming Tongues Tied: And if you don't think yours will be too, try saying track names like "It Overtakes Me/ The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small ... Do I Stand a Chance?" or "Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung" 10 times fast. If you're looking for a longer kiss from the Lips, pick up the special edition of At War With the Mystics, which is backed with a bonus DVD featuring extra songs, videos and, feeding the outlandish band's surround-sound addiction, select mystical tracks in 5.1 stereo.

He's No Circus Clown: Morrissey looks innocent enough on the cover of his Ringleader of the Tormentors, dressed in a suit, rolling his eyes and playing the violin. But with some unusually lewd lyrics — if "There are explosive kegs between my legs" doesn't make you blush, other lines on the record will — Moz is dirtier than ever this time around. The limited deluxes have a bonus DVD with videos for "You Have Killed Me," "The Youngest Was the Most Loved" and "In the Future When All Is Well," plus additional behind-the-scenes stuff.

A Monkey Chases Its Tail: They've pulled off a virtual tour, have turned themselves into holograms and are even planning a mobile-phone adventure, but first things first, the Gorillaz have a DVD to eke out. The remarkably straightforward "Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House" finds the group running through last year's Demon Days track list with De La Soul and Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays, capping off the affair with the B-side "Hong Kong" and "Latin Simone," from 2001's Gorillaz.

Gorillaz's "Dare" doesn't only appear again this week on Now That's What I Call Music! 21 — Mariah, Chris Brown, Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna also crop up on that set — it also rears its head on The DFA Remixes: Chapter One. The electro-post-punk whizzes pull together that track plus their remixes of Chemical Brothers, Le Tigre, Fischerspooner and Hot Chip tunes for the comp. Chapter Two, due this summer, will feature their touch-ups on songs by N.E.R.D., Goldfrapp and Nine Inch Nails.

Speaking of which, DFA's remix of NIN's "Hand That Feeds" is tucked onto Every Day Is Exactly the Same, a single that's been beefed up to EP status. The set leads off with the title track and has a remix of the same tune by Interpol's Carlos D and Sam Fogarino, but there are two more songs on the set, both of which are presented, er, twofold: the DFA and straight mixes of "Hand That Feeds," plus retreatments of "Only" by El-P and Richard X.

Finding nice company in this wild-eyed pack are trip-hop pioneers and remix junkies Massive Attack, who, like Gorillaz, have also collaborated with Madonna recently. MA take a look back with Collected, and while fans will only find a new single on the standard release, the limited-edition version has a bonus DualDisc granting a trove of previously unissued tracks, rarities and all the collective's videos to date.

Vision Valley, the new album from the very-ape Vines, has no special adornments, and the song titles are light on cheer too: Tracks include "Nothin's Comin', " "Don't Listen to the Radio," "F--- Yeah," "Futuretarded" and "Dope Train."

Last but not least, as smooth as R&B crooner Van Hunt may be, his sophomore effort is called On the Jungle Floor and puts some rock into his repertoire. Songs include "Daredevil, Baby," "Priest or Police" and "The Thrill of This Love."

With Very Special Guest: Three artists are in pretty far-out company this week. Unicorns offshoot project Islands recruit the two guys who invented a type of video game music called Mario Paint Music Maker, plus a bass player who hails from Togo and James R. Guthrie, grandson of Woody Guthrie, for their Return to the Sea debut. Folk instrumentalist John McCutcheon has an even more esteemed guest list for his Mightier Than the Sword, roping in a U.S. poet laureate, Pulitzer Prize nominee and National Humanities Medal winner. But jam masters Umphrey's McGee might feature the most badass outside help of all on their Safety in Numbers, even if it only consists of one person: Huey Lewis.

Song Title of the Week:

"Jesus Christ R'n R" from Dir en Grey's Withering to Death

Other notables:

Bubba Sparxxx's The Charm: After being on the down low for the past few years, Bubba's Charm-ed to have shifted over to the Purple Ribbon imprint run by Outkast's Big Boi. And he's hoping for an extra boost in light of featured spots by Ying Yang Twins, Frankie J, Petey Pablo, Sleepy Brown and Killer Mike, plus production by Timbaland, Organized Noize, Big Boi and more.

The Coup's "Best Coup DVD Ever": The unapologetically political Oakland rap assemblage try to get equally radical onscreen, with videos for "Fats Cats & Bigga Fish," "Not Yet Free" and "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night." Filling out the disc are interviews with Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funkstress, plus a bonus film called "Eating Forever: A South African Hip Hop Travelog," shot during the Black August hip-hop tour.

Victory at Sea's All Your Things Are Gone and the New Orleans Social Club's Sing Me Back Home: What do veteran Boston indie-rockers and a handful of New Orleans soul legends have in common? They've both lost their homes in recent months. A fire destroyed Victory at Sea drummer Dave Norton's house, which doubles as the band's recording space. (To make matters worse, their violin player, Taro Hatanaka, has been unable to re-enter the States because of visa problems.) Closer to the equator, Ivan Neville, founding members of the Meters and other bayou greats have formed NOSC as a way to cope with the Katrina devastation. Their cover of John Fogerty's anti-war anthem "Fortunate Son" is especially poignant, while you may have already heard "Sing Me Back Home," which the Neville Brothers recorded in Austin, Texas, six weeks after Katrina.

New Releases:

46 Short - Truth Denied (TKO)
5 Browns - No Boundaries (DualDisc due also available; RCA)
Abysmal Dawn - From Ashes (Crash)
Aereogramme - Seclusion (Sonic Unyon)
All-Stokz - A Bronx Tale (Paperchase/ Warlock)
American Princes - Less and Less (Yep Roc)
Angel Blake - Angel Black (Metal Blade)
Daryl Anger's Republic of Strings - Generation Nation (Compass)
Barnes - The Last Shall Be First (Sugar Water)
Bird Show - Lightning Ghost (Kranky)
Bitter: Sweet - The Mating Game (digipak; Quango)
Blackmore's Night - Village Lanterne (Steamhammer/ SPV)
Blue October - Foiled (enhanced; Universal/ Motown)

Buy Now: Foiled (Universal/ Motown)

Erin Boheme - What Love Is (Concord)
Danielle Bollinger - When the Broken Hearted Love Again (Esntion Silver)
Anouar Brahem - Le Voyage de Sahar (ECM)
Darius Brooks - My Soul (Journey)
Francesco Cafiso Quartet - Happy Time (CAM Jazz)
Caliban - The Undying Darkness (Abacus)

Buy Now: The Undying Darkness (Abacus)

Concretes - In Colour (Astralwerks)
John Corbett - John Corbett (Fun Bone)
Carl Cox - Second Sign (Koch)

Buy Now: Second Sign (Koch)

Guy Davis - Skunkmello (Red House)
Dead to Fall - The Phoenix Throne (Victory)
Bob Delevante - Columbus and the Colossal Mistake (Relay)
Dir en Grey - Withering to Death (with bonus DVD; Warcon)
Dirty Sanchez - Dirty Sanchez (Cleopatra)
DJ Crucial - Test Presses and Dub Plates (F5)
Dmitri From Paris and DJ Muro - Super Disco Friends (Headphone Heroes)
Dog Fashion Disco - Adultery (Rotten)

Buy Now: Adultery (Rotten)

Lila Downs - La Cantina (Narada)
Enablers - Output Negative Space (Neurot)
Evergrey - Monday Morning Apocalypse (Inside Out)
Facedowninsh - NPON (Relapse)
Flaming Lips - At War With the Mystics (special edition with DVD also available; Warner Bros.)
Read:
Related Artists
- P!nk
- Gorillaz
- The Flaming Lips
- Nine Inch Nails
- The Islands