Sia - The Girl You Lost To Cocaine

I love Sia so much that I'm afraid I won't be able to find the words to describe her music and make you want to discover this Australian artist born in 1975 who released her 3rd solo album early in 2008...

Drink To Get Drunk (on her first LP Healing Is Difficult) was a club hit thanks to its haunting yet efficient remix by Different Gear. But Sia is mostly known for her numerous collaborations with British duet Zero7.

Sia Furler then met success with Breathe Me heard during the last sequence of the final episode of the amazing show Six Feet Under... The album Colour The Small One (2004) is a true masterpiece.

For Some People Have Real Problems, her 3rd installment, I was at first a little doubtful with the surprising artwork, and with the extracts I had heard that (for some reason) thought sounded a little cheap. Plus, the diffusion of the CD in France was very uncoordinated (we had to wait a whole year before the Fnac displayed a non-import version)...



Finally I decided to purchase it... and I'm completely overwhelmed. Between the vibrant blues of Death By Chocolate, the perfectly distillated emotion of Beautiful Calm Driving, the melancholic energy of Buttons or the sour optimism of The Girl You Lost To Cocaine (the crazy video below), I'm totally conquered!

Sia - The Girl You Lost To Cocaine


As often, Sia's single is already remixed, this time by Stonebridge, and the track can be found on many club compilations...

Découvrez Sia!

Visit Sia's official site: by clicking here!

Ultimate Obam'art (+ Madonna)

Obama's beaming face, the title of a 90s' catchy anthem, flashy colors? It's simply a t-shirt sold during Madonna's American leg of the Sticky & Sweet Tour. It would probably have sold well among European fans too. You can still get it from the official merch site!

Talking about Madonna, here's a video of the intro during the Paris show. The film is titled "Sweet Machine" along with the whole theme of the show and the diva's latest album. The video was produced by British studio Rockstar, after original drawings by Eugene Riecansky. Veneno Inc is the firm responsible for the video installation of the show.



One last Madonna info? Her outfits... They leaked on the Internet a little before the tour began and I was in awe with this brilliant pink and black bohème-inspired piece of clothing by Givenchy. A hit on stage!

OK I'll stop about Madonna for now ;)

Broadway Baby #02: Cheyenne Jackson, from United 93 to Xanadu

You might have already seen Cheyenne Jackson in United 93, he was playing the role of a heroic young man who attacks the terrorist in order to avoid a catastrophe...


Not very famous yet on the big screen, this actor is more used to Broadway scenes. Cheyenne Jackson has starred in many leading roles in very different musicals!


Exemples? Rocky, the beefy naked creature of the famous Rocky Horror Show that I actually saw on stage on Broadway (maybe it was Jackson this night?) Radames in the fabulous Aida by Elton John and Tim Rice and finally in... Xanadu, the adaptation of this cinematographic 80's UFO on roller skates with Olivia Newton-John.

His official website, right here.

New Tahiti 80 album

Tahiti 80's first single, "Heartbeat"


This small band from Rennes, France, is already releasing its fourth album (many more EPs in between). The first one, released in 1999, had caught my ear with the perfect "Heartbeat".

"Big Day", first single of the album Fosbury (2005)


After a short 2 year hyatus during which Xavier Boyer was working on a solo project (Axe Riverboy), the original lineup is back.

"1,000 Times", one of my favorite Tahiti 80 songs, on the album "Wallpaper For The Soul", the most electronic opus to date, in 2002

The new album, Activity Center, is just out. Its more rocky sounds still capture the etheral and fun spirit of Tahiti 80.

"Changes", with a rather cool video (2005)


Their official website, click here.
For their MySpace, it's here.

Pete Burns, the Ultimate Queer Diva

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Broadway Baby #01 : Nick Adams, from Broadway to Boxers!

Nick Adams, full package. This young Broadway actor, seen in Chicago (picture above), The Pirate Queen and at the moment in the revival of A Chorus Line has just signed a contract with the underwear brand 2(x)ist.

This boy knows his assets, both vocally and physically... Let's hope he'll have a long and successful career in theaters and in magazines alike!

Nova - Le Grand Mix

Young & Rubicam developped a very nice campaign for Radio Nova's "Le Grand Mix". Ten different visuals exist, by ten artists illustrating the music styles of the radio; funk, rap, rock, electronica but also Cuban music or blues...

Enlarge them with a click, you can also watch the 8 mini-clips by clicking here!

New Annie Album!!

It's not the first time I'm talking about fabulous Annie.

Here's a fantastic news about her, she has a new album coming out September 2008!

The video to "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me", produced by Richard X is already on the air...



Forbidden goodie (don't tell anyone): the remix by the excelent British trio Soul Seekerz

Bring Ya To The Brink!

Cyndi Lauper is back with a dance album! Yay! After vague folk and retro tentatives, Cyndi Lauper goes back to her first love with ol'fashioned well produced dance music. The crème of European electro producers accepted Miss Lauper's invitation: The Scumfrog, Basement Jaxx, Digital Dog, Axwell, but also Dragonette and New York based Richard Morel.


An upbeat album that seriously rejuvenate Lauper's sound, even if the singer still signs the lyrics. Perfect timing for the release during the Pride month. We know how Cyndi Lauper has been deeply connected to the gay community since the 1980s with her statements: her True Colors tour reunited many great gay and lesbian artists for charity concerts across the US.

"Into The Nightlife", the album's second single

Cyd Charisse (1922-2008)

The extraordinary dancer Gene Kelly had chosen for the legendary final ballet scene "Broadway Melody" of Singin' In The Rain died yesterday at age 86, in Los Angeles.
The 50 films Cyd Charisse leaves behind, many musicals from the MGM golden age, still remain a wonderful homage to the now deceased star.

Big Art Group

© Katya Valentini

Caden Manson/Big Art Group is a New-York company of performers created in 1999. They use the media language and mix their performances to create new culturally transgressive pieces. Since its beginning, the band has been touring in the US and internationally, they produced 5 main plays among which are "Real Time Film" with "Shelf Life", "Flicker" and "House of No More".

As far as I am concerned, I ran into a performance of "Cinema Fury: The Imitation" by chance during the EXIT08 festival at the Créteil Art Center in April 2008. I had never witnessed anything like that. An incredible mix of musical, theatrical and video performances. A hardly intelligible storylilne on 4 screens facing each others, dismanteled and almost osbcene bodies (swollen lips, dangling tongues, outrageous dubbing), the use of sadistic carnival-inspired props (wigs, liquids), 2 dancers on crack in dresses that could have be stolen from Cher, a platinum-blonde singer in black lace whose body was 95 per covered in tatoos, a guitar player who wouldn't leave his Manson Halloween costume... In a nutshell: a true UFO hovering on Créteil for an hour of visual and sonic delirium perfectly masterized with inventive, sensitive, crazy and subversive artists. Leading them, Justin Bond, the extraordinarily facinating androgyne actor from the duet Kiki & Herb, also seen in Shortbus. We're torn between the crafty universe of Michel Gondry and the gorey burlesque art of Paul McCarthy... When the underground New York scence settles in France!

Big Art Group's MySpace: click here
Website: click here
Justin Bond's MySpace: click here

Nordic Pop!!

Perez Hilton is not only an expert in trash tabloid news, he's also a talent discovere! I totally agree with his latest infatuation: the Swedish singer Lykke Li (here is her single). She was noticed last year with the excellent "Little Bit". This time, she's back with an album everyone talks about.

Lykke Li - "I'm Good, I'm Gone"



Her website: click here
Her MySpace: click here


Annie, is back with a very anticipated album. "Anniemals", her debut album in 2004 was very promising (extracts down here) and heralded a cool pop career. Already nicknamed the Scandinavian Kylie, Annie can pull different tricks, she mixes, a cd's even already been released!


Annie - "Chewing Gum"



Annie - "Heartbeat"



Her MySpace : click here
Her website (work in progress) : click here

Madonna: "on a cover of *all* magazines"

As usual, Madonna doesn't go halfway and when she promotes her new album, the press goes along with her. She was on the cover of the British music magazines Q. More surprisingly, she's also on the cover of a special ecology issue of Vanity Fair, the US magazine founded in 1913.

She's also on the covers of 3 international editions of Elle: US, UK and... France of course!



Interview (created in 1969 by Andy Warhol) was the first this year to talk about the diva's new album and introduced a new picture from the Steven Klein photoshoot (also used for the cover of Hard Candy, to be released on April 29, 2008).

Finally, in France, Madonna can also be seen on the cover Figaro Madame for their fashion issue.

Cocoon

A wonderfully naive video, a perfect male-female vocal harmony, effective cute guitars, two little French guys, an Internet buzz, the French music magazine "Les Inrocks" catches that sound, a few summer festivals and there we are! Almost a consecration for Cocoon.


"On My Way"


Mark Daumail (22, vocals and guitars) and Morgane Imbeaux (19, vocals and keyboards) embark us to their colorful universe with genious compositions. The band almost reinvents French folk music with a perfectly balanced album: between optimism and melancholy (with all their tracks from 2006).

"Vultures"

Their label's site "Sober & Gentle", their MySpace.

PS: thanks to Pascal for helping me discover Cocoon. Too bad I didn't follow you to the Lieu FMR, I would've loved to see them live... hopefully next time?