trill
daily dos
thu 1/8/2009
Fall Out Boy bassist and frontman Pete Wentz: "It's semi-frustrating when your name actually becomes a synonym for douche bag."
Akon, Common, Fall Out Boy, Keyshia Cole and Kevin Rudolf
the music press
mon 1/5/2009
- Senegalese-American singer-rapper Akon returns with Freedom, an album filled with "extremely breezy, Caribbean-tinged songs that are less hip-hop than lucid pop," according to The Boston Globe. "[H]is best songs [are] light, expertly constructed and just a touch insipid," writes The New York Times. Rolling Stone calls Freedom "pure melodrama about love and love lost, delivered in a hooting style over synth-swamped beats that are closer to early Peter Gabriel than to 2008 hip-hop."
- Rapper and actor Common drops Universal Mind Control, his eighth album. Spin magazine loves its retro sound: "While we're used to Common in the role of poetic prophet or self-righteous rhyme slayer, Universal Mind Control is primarily a rhythmic celebration, paying tribute to Afrika Bambaataa and Jonzun Crew jams." The Los Angeles Times applauds his new direction: "Common tries to break away, taking on a harder, naughtier persona and dipping his typically dusty grooves in executive producer Pharrell's cold chemical wash. For part of the album, the techno gambit blows fresh air into Common's paisley pondering."
- American pop-punkers Fall Out Boy release their fifth album, Folie à Deux (Madness For Two). "For all the negatives said, written or blogged about Fall Out Boy (and trust us, there are a lot), it's damn near impossible to fault the Chicago-born band for their creativity, ingenuity and willingness to try just about anything," gushes Alternative Press. The Onion's AV Club gives the album an "A" while underscoring that the band is overshadowed by bassist Pete Wentz's tabloid escapades: "While the adulation of millions of kids has made the Chicago quartet a platinum-selling arena act, the group inspires equally passionate disdain from non-fans, who made 'Wentz' slang for 'douche.'"
- California R&B singer-songwriter Keyshia Cole is back with a new hairdo and a new album, A New Me. USA Today calls it "sexier [and] more playful," featuring "much less pain than on previous works." Entertainment Weekly thinks she's "chosen an odd way to escape" the Mary J. Blige comparisons, since Cole "turns her focus from heartbreak to happiness only a few years after Blige promised she was done with drama." Allmusic digs the change of pace: "Cole pushes herself into new territory and becomes a more versatile songwriter and vocalist in convincing, frequently thrilling, fashion."
- Miami based producer and rocker Kevin Rudolf releases In The City, an album that "cribs tricks from both rap and rock 'n' roll, not in the pursuit of a bastardized Limp Bizkit-type hybrid, but with the intention to produce a crossover rock record with modern hip-hop tools," according to the BBC. Despite the album's flaws, hip hop webzine Rap Reviews enjoys Rudolf's Cash Money Records debut: "In the City offers good production, excellent melodies, and – of course – the same song, ideas, and kinds of guest appearances many times over. Still, I'd recommend it as a blueprint for potential."
twelve twelve
daily dos
fri 12/12/2008
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz are shopping around pictures of their new baby, Bronx Mowgli. But no one's interested.
safe and sound
daily dos
fri 4/11/2008
Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz and pop singer Ashlee Simpson have confirmed they are engaged.
thnxkbye
daily dos
mon 3/31/2008
Fall Out Boy have cancelled their trip to Antarctica due to bad weather. The emo band hoped to break a world record for playing on every continent. (via Idolator)
see, blocked
daily dos
thu 3/20/2008
Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz tells Us Magazine he once tried to kill himself.
sweet toof
daily dos
wed 10/31/2007
Fall Out Boy frontman Pete Wentz broke his ankle at a music festival in New Orleans. (via People Magazine)
My Chemical Romance vs. Fall Out Boy
versus
wed 8/8/2007
| names | Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Ray Toro, Gerard Way. | Andy Hurley, Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman, Pete Wentz. |
| hometown | Jersey City, New Jersey. | Chicago, Illinois. |
| formed in | 2001. | 2001. |
| style | Emo-leaning pop-rock. | Emo-heavy pop-punk. |
| the look | Hot Topic neo-goth. | Urban Outfitters "hipster" chic. |
| produced by | Rob Cavallo (Green Day), Howard Benson (Hoobastank). | Babyface, Butch Walker (Avril Lavigne), Patrick Stump. |
| influences | Queen, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Thursday, Iron Maiden. | Green Day, The Get Up Kids, AFI, The Cure, The Descendents. |
| breakthrough single | I'm Not Okay (I Promise). | Sugar, We're Goin' Down. |
| young poets | "Forget about the dirty looks, the photographs your boyfriend took, you said you'd read me like a book, but the pages all are torn and frayed!" | "Oh don't mind me, I'm watching you two from the closet, wishing to be the friction in your jeans, isn’t it messed up how I’m just dying to be him." |
| BFF's | Linkin Park, Taking Back Sunday, Placebo. | Panic! At The Disco, Gym Class Heroes, Kanye West. |
| haters | Marilyn Manson: "I'm embarrassed to be me because these people are doing a really sad, pitiful, shallow version of what I've done." | Brandon Flowers of The Killers: "You don't realize what you could be getting yourselves into, with Fall Out Boy, and what kind of impact it could have in a way that you don't really want." |
| most recent release | The Black Parade. | Infinity on High. |
| the critics | All Music Guide: “They're still a modern emo-punk band, which means for all the emotion poured out by their ever-earnest lead singer, there's little grit in their sound.” | Rolling Stone: "[T]hanks to a lot of taut grooves and dense hooks, these Chicago kids' near-emo is always kind of charming." |
| MySpace = emo | 1,181,504 friends on official MySpace. | 1,965,658 friends on official MySpace. |
| best video moment | Pandering to teens in the movie trailer-themed I'm Not Okay. | Monkeying around – literally – on Thnks fr th Mmrs. |
out of the inbox
daily dos
tue 8/7/2007
Akon covers Fall Out Boy's "The Take Over, The Break's Over." (via Paper Thin Walls)
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