Dragonette - Bodyparts

Toronto's own Dragonette has a brand new album, their third. After you get used to Martina Sorbara's high-pitched wails and breathy whispers -- half-Gwen Stefanni, half-Marilyn Monroe -- this is a massive rock-dance-pop record, with loads of hooks, riffs, beats and melodies. Not everything sounds super fresh but there's enough here to get the party started and then some.

Leaving

The video for the new Pet Shop Boys single is as elegant as the song, in stark black-and-white with echoes of Derek Jarman's "Rent" and "King's Cross".

 

Cover for CD 2, Chris and his weird hoodie. CD 1 can be seen here.

Caxirola

Musician Carlinhos Brown just "invented" a new music instrument to be used during the 2014 World Cup in place of the dreadful vuvuzelas.

Words and Music by Saint Etienne

After the Pet Shop Boys' letdown, fans of pop can find solace and then some in St. Ettiene's latest, a perfect concoction of feel-good pop with just a tinge of nostalgia. The deluxe version with remixes makes it sweeter.

Amon Tobin

The Brazil-born, England-raised and Montreal sometimes-resident electronic musician brought his amazing machine for a second stop in Toronto. And it was indescribable.

The hero of the night, in his space suit.

Hot influence

''I think if you're English, and especially if you're from London, and you're an electronic musician, then [the Pet Shop Boys are] definitely going to have an influence and be an inspiration."

Hot Chip's Felix Martin

Winner is a loser

The PSB announced the new single for Elysium, which so far is a snorefest. After beautiful but barely moving Invisible, they came up with a synth ballad for the Olympic Games, which is as cheesy as it sounds.

Paris in Brazil

Being a DJ just became way uncooler... Paris Hilton is set to launch a new career as a DJ in a music festival in Brazil this summer.

Master of my make-believe

Head still spinning after listening to Santigold's new album. By far the best album of the year.

Muse vs. PSB

Brilliant mashup that creates a whole new "What have I done to deserve this?"out of Muse's "Uprising".

From one mouse to another

Newfound respect for the Toronto DJ and producer Deadmau5 who told Madonna what’s what.

M.D.N.A.

Turns out MDNA isn’t a bad album, it’s just very generic dance pop. But the very best of generic dance pop. The tracks are by a bunch of “hot” producers of the moment, plus collaborators (the new Madonna collaborates a lot) and some ABBA-esque moments. As a result, never has she sounded so contemporary and so ADD. This is a violent, rebellious, religiously dubious and expletive-filled album, but it’s also full of energy and juvenile fun that reinvigorates the queen (as Nicki Minaj calls her on “I don't give a".) Monster uplifting hits throughout.

Neither has she for a long time sounded so grating. There is a lot hard vocals on MDNA and the stretching of Madonna’s nasal proclivities to the max. She seems to yell most verses and her voice sounds as shrill as the songs she’s peddling. There are exceptions of course: "I fucked up" and "Falling free"are quite nice and her singing lessons really pay off.

She’s collaborated with William Orbit again, but there’s no "Ray of light" here, or even a “Substitute for love”. It’s a shame that (Madonna feels that) to stay relevant she needs to “youth-anize” her music and just party, party, party with the kids. After 53 years of being Madonna, it looks like she’s desperately trying to conserve her youth, even if it means devolving her music.

The video for "Girls gone wild" is Madonna at her most iconoclastic and disposable. The video is a collection of phases in the Madonna cannon; it starts with a prayer, it's mostly black and white, Madonna is in full big hair and makeup, it has vogueing, chains, slithering up and down walls and same-sex action with guys in Beyoncé pumps doing Beyoncé steps. What's not to like?

Eric Watson 1955-2012

He was the first one to photograph the Pet Shop Boys. Eric Watson was the visual architect who helped create the classic PSB aesthetics.

 He took the pictures for the covers of “West End girls",  "Opportunities", "Love comes quickly", "Suburbia", "It's a sin", "What have I done to deserve this?", "Rent", "Heart", "It's alright", "So hard", "Jealousy", "DJ culture", "I don't know what you want but I can't give it anymore"  and albums "Please", Behaviour" and “Nightlife”. He also directed many classic PSB videos, including "West End girls", "Suburbia", "Domino dancing" and "Jealousy" as well as the 1991 concert film, "Performance" considered by many to be the Pet Shop Boys’ best concert. He also took pics of other pop stars of the 80s.

On helping create the PSB aesthetics, he said: "We realised there was something about somebody singing and somebody else doing nothing – just looking, then looking away – that adds a hideous tension. It's creepy but also, I suppose, charming. It was only later we realised we'd created a product."

Morrissey rocks Brazil

Rock royalty Steven Morrissey played Rio as part of his Latin American tour. After explosive show in Porto Alegre, the man who created The Smiths will also play in São Paulo.

Meanwhile, another sort of UK royalty was partying it up in Brazil, supposedly launching a major drive to bring tourists to Britain. From the stage at Fundição Progresso, Morrissey yells to his legion of rabid Brazilian fans: "He came to ask you for money. Please don't give it to him."

PSB and A-ha

So A-ha has ended, but Morten Harket keeps on going. The Norwegian band’s lead vocalist is releasing another solo album in April (his fifth), and it contains a new song by the Pet Shop Boys, titled “Listening” (which apparently is a ballad). The bands have never collaborated while A-ha was active, perhaps because Neil and Chris were always peeved at losing the James Bond theme to A-ha in 1987. But you can’t really compare A-ha's "The Living Daylights" to the Boys'…

The Soundmachines

Spinning light as music!

Music City

The Grid declares Toronto a place where "you can hear all the possibilities of the world in one city."

The Beyoncé fly

Australian fly is named Scaptia beyonceae because her golden butt is reminiscent of the singer circa Bootylicious. For real. Now she's fly like a fly.

In my head for 10 years

Released in 2001, Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" was the most played song in the last decade, according to a survey in the UK.

BrazilVital.com

My new site.