Since its inception in 2012, Today’s Mixtape Festival has been one of our favorite fests to look forward to each year. For this week’s Tuesday Ten, here are the ten bands playing this year who we think you can’t afford to miss.
There are tons of amazing bands playing this year who you don’t need to be told to check out, but to make sure you also find some of the lesser-known gems on the lineup, here are ten up-and-coming artists we think your SBSW experience wouldn’t be complete without in this week’s Tuesday Ten.
Atlanta’s O’Brother have been building their name the past few years on tours with the likes of Thrice, Circa Survive, and Moving Mountains, but with a powerful new album – August’s Disillusion – and two months on the road as first-time headliners, the band is undoubtedly taking things to a new level in 2013. idobi editor Eleanor Grace sat down with vocalist/guitarist Tanner Merritt and drummer Michael Martens to talk about the new record, how life on the road as headliners is treating them, finding hope in disillusion, and more. You guys have been on the road for about a… Read more »
The scope of a yearlong download promotion planned between Pepsi and Amazon, Billboard has learned, is among several developments forcing further consideration by Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to follow EMI and Universal Music Group’s lead in distributing music in the MP3 format. News of the Pepsi promotion, which is expected to be announced Feb. 3 during the Super Bowl, coincides with an ultimatum from Wal-Mart asking major labels to supply walmart.com with their music in MP3, sources say. Labels, meanwhile, say they have been watching the success of an MP3 test UMG began in August;… Read more »
Every day, the roughly one million people who visit the iTunes Store home page are presented with several dozen albums, TV shows and movie downloads to consider buying — out of the four million such goods the Apple site offers. This prime promotion is analogous to a CD being displayed at the checkout stands of all 940 Best Buy stores or featured on the front page of Target’s ad circular. How do bands get these boosts? Who decides whether Arcade Fire is plugged at the top of the iTunes site — or whether Nickelback gets no mention? Apple has jettisoned… Read more »
Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” led the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts for an eighth consecutive week Thursday, but barely edged the new single from Fall Out Boy. The pop punk band’s “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s An Arms Race” debuted at No. 2 thanks to 162,000 digital downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This is the highest bow for a band since radio-only titles joined the chart in December 1998. The last group to start as well or better was Aerosmith, who debuted at No. 1 under prior Hot 100 rules with “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” in September 1998. In… Read more »
You can’t get the question right. You’re fumbling for the right words but all you can hear are the lyrics to “Age of Consent” over and over and over again in your brain… It’s almost too easy to toss the word “influential” in front of a band to hype up its place in the pop-music pantheon. Few acts deserve it, and the word is so damn relative. But the culture mill spits out thousands of new bands each year and inevitably even the most wanly creative gets the “influential” stamp if it can hang in there long enough. So, then… Read more »
Avril Lavigne joins music’s most exclusive club with her May 25th Arista/RCA release UNDER MY SKIN debuting at #1 on Billboard’s US album chart. UNDER MY SKIN also debuted at #1 in Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada, Spain, Ireland, Thailand, Korea and Hong Kong! UNDER MY SKIN is the follow-up to Avril’s 2002 debut album “Let Go,” which sold 15 million copies worldwide. The album has generated tremendous media excitement starting with Avril’s appearance as musical guest on the May 8th broadcast of Saturday Night Live. She went on to perform on “The Today Show” outdoor summer concert… Read more »
Arista recording artist Wakefield hit the road opening for All-American Rejects starting May 4th in Portland, Oregon. Two days later on May 6th, Wakefield’s debut album, American Made, will officially arrive in stores, it was announced today by Antonio “L.A.” Reid, President and CEO, Arista Records. Set to impact at radio on May 19th at modern rock, “Say You Will,” is described as a love song inspired by the movie Scream. “Get your heart broken a few times and the tragedy begins to unfold,” says Ryan the band’s frontman. The video for “Say You Will” was directed by Marc Webb,… Read more »
In a year fraught with political turmoil, turbulence and insecurity, music fans turned to their favorite songs to take them away from many of their problems and help them come to terms with others that were impossible to escape. Whether it was Eminem rapping, “Lose yourself in the music,” or Bruce Springsteen singing, “Come on up for the rising/ Come on up, lay your hands in mine,” the messages of unity were universal. At the 45th annual Grammy Awards, held Sunday (February 23) at New York’s Madison Square Garden, apolitical hedonists and social activists alike rallied together to celebrate the… Read more »
