The-Dream

Grading the iTunes Hits, Again

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 37

On Electrik Red's "So Good," "Drink in My Cup," and, Yes, "We Fuck You"

As we're all in thrall to The-Dream this week, let's check in with his girl group, Electrik Red, who're still threatening to release their debut, How to Be a Lady, Vol. 1 (how many volumes total, do you suppose?), in April. Judging from the video for "So Good," being a lady involves swinging about ... More >>

This Week's Voice: U2, The-Dream, the Pogues, Private Century, Kat Long's New Book, and More

Courtesy Def Jam In this week's Music Section, Rob Harvilla takes U2's new No Line on the Horizon, force quits, and moves to trash. Restart and reboot yourself. Clover Hope on The-Dream's sublime new Love vs. Money. Tad Hendrickson rolls triumphantly forward with The Pogues, eyes as glassed over ... More >>

On Fabolous and The-Dream's "Throw It In the Bag"

We'll say it: There is no better five song stretch in 2009 than the one that comes in the middle of The-Dream's impossibly good Love Vs. Money--"Put It Down," "Sweat It Out," "Take You Home 2 My Mama," "Love Vs. Money," and "Love Vs. Money Part 2." Take the middle three songs from that run and put ... More >>

SUNDAY | 6.1

We'll say it: There is no better five song stretch in 2009 than the one that comes in the middle of The-Dream's impossibly good Love Vs. Money--"Put It Down," "Sweat It Out," "Take You Home 2 My Mama," "Love Vs. Money," and "Love Vs. Money Part 2." Take the middle three songs from that run and put ... More >>

THE TAKEOVER

Time for Summer Jam

The-Dream Danced Just Like You Did the First Time He Heard "Put It Down"

We recommend this video of The-Dream allegedly writing both "My Love" and "Put It Down" over one single late-night stretch primarily for the moment towards the end of the video, time-stamped 1:29am (it's around 7:45 in the clip above), where the entire cast of hangers-on and producers spontaneousl ... More >>

Week in Review: Boom! Woah, What Was That? You Transcend.

In the week we got ourselves a whole new look, we celebrated by staring David Lynch and Kate Moss directly in their awesome, newly expansive faces. This was a bookish week at SOTC: Brian Evenson soundtracked his novel, Last Days, Jonathan Lethem reintroduced L.J. Davis and his walls of mucus in P ... More >>

Week in Review: "Some Magazine, I Don't Know Where It Was."

Sahoko Yui In the week Rush Limbaugh called us "some magazine," we invited our friend Status Ain't Hood back for a day. Oh, and right: Congrats Tom! Interviews: Wavves' Nathan Williams on drugs and the beach, Albert Maysles on HBO's new Grey Gardens, Ian Svenonius on Kanye West and his new band, C ... More >>

Sporadically Vibrant Reports From the R&B Salt Mines with Ciara and Chrisette Michele

New jams for low-riders and supper clubs, respectively

Attention Dream Fanatics: Go Listen to the Electrik Red Record

So How to Be a Lady, Volume 1, the avidly anticipated debut of The-Dream's quantum-sass girl-group, Electrik Red, is still streaming in full on their MySpace as of 1 a.m. (sleep troubled by Roberto Bolaño dismaying Cavs loss). It's out Tuesday. "We Fuck You" is now "W.F.Y." (Probably for the bes ... More >>

Come On, The-Dream: Was "Obsessed" Really the Best Eminem Diss Song You Could Write for Mariah?

As you may recall, Eminem kicked off his press tour for Relapse by claiming that he had urinated on Mariah Carey, back when they were dating. She also makes a cameo or two on the actual album, in amongst the Kim Kardashian and Sarah Palin references. Her pint-sized husband, Nick Cannon, eventually ... More >>

Here We Have a Photo of Electrik Red With Duct Tape Over Their Mouths, If Such a Thing Interests You

Papermag.com passes along word of the NO H8 campaign, a celebrity protest of California's risible, gay-marriage-squashing Proposition 8 -- the movement seems to consist of lush photos of semi-luminaries (Ashley & Pete, Tara Reid, Mark Hoppus, Taylor Dayne (!!!)) with their mouths taped shut and "N ... More >>

Week in Review: I've Never Seen So Many Sick Weirdos Gathered in One Place

Rebecca Smeyne In the week one of us had to publicly defend himself against the crime of using the phrase "Fey Highwayman," we watched with amusement as close SOTC affiliate Christopher R. Weingarten became a viral video poster boy for the death of music criticism. Poetic choice of t-shirts, Chris! ... More >>

The-Dream Announces Retirement, Which Better Not Come to Pass, We're Serious, Somebody Do Something

Loathe as we are to get pulled into retirement announcements on Twitter, for which someone will someday, maybe even today, make an excellent and Diggable list, this particular turn of events cannot happen, The-Dream having made what is easily the best album of the year, and a really good one befo ... More >>

R. Kelly's "Number One" Is About What You're Assuming It's About

Yahoo! Music--now exclusively premiering sexually suggestive male/female duet videos! We're not entirely sold on R. Kelly and Keri Hilson's "Number One"--it's like "#1 Fan," (which isn't old yet at all!), but not quite as good. Still: Kells and The-Dream are in an white-knuckle race to see who can ... More >>

News Roundup: Ryan Adams, Raekwon, The-Dream

​--The onetime musician Ryan Adams, whose next new book of poetry, Hello Sunshine, just landed on top of his last one, Infinity Blues, at SOTC HQ, is taking his act to the Awl, where he'll be reviewing video games. Ahem: "Playing Gorf is like getting wasted, or what I remember about getting wa ... More >>

In Praise Of The Whitney Houston Oprah-Interview Soundboard

Rich Juzwiak's FourFour blog is required reading for any number of reasons: his absolute command of subjects ranging from horror movies, The-Dream, or America's Next Top Model chief among them. But mostly it's the animated GIFs. Nobody on earth is doing better work in this regard. We have already ... More >>

Huh? Barbra Streisand Is #1

​Streisand, who sold 180,000 copies of Love Is the Answer this past week, solidifies her lead as the female act with the most #1s all time, according to Billboard. But the truly satisfying news belongs to Paramore: the band's third record, Brand New Eyes, sold 175,000 copies to claim the secon ... More >>

'Power 105.1 FM's Powerhouse'

​Streisand, who sold 180,000 copies of Love Is the Answer this past week, solidifies her lead as the female act with the most #1s all time, according to Billboard. But the truly satisfying news belongs to Paramore: the band's third record, Brand New Eyes, sold 175,000 copies to claim the secon ... More >>

Week in Review: Humming and Ready to Take Us On a Golden Ride Way Out Somewhere in the Yonder

​In the week we learned to our deep and lasting dismay what a Gummibar is, we counted down the worst songs of the '00s with the newly relocated F2K crew--peruse if you dare but do not blame us when you come in contact with something like "I Am Your Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)," or are ina ... More >>

Robin Thicke

​In the week we learned to our deep and lasting dismay what a Gummibar is, we counted down the worst songs of the '00s with the newly relocated F2K crew--peruse if you dare but do not blame us when you come in contact with something like "I Am Your Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)," or are ina ... More >>

Week in Review: Bros4Life

Not even the 15th worst record this decade. Have a good weekend!​In the week our F2K crew quantitatively decided that though Nickleback and Gym Class Heroes are bad, William Hung and Hinder were a whole lot worse, we continued to count down the worst songs of the '00s. That Santana song keepin ... More >>

Week in Review: Pull a Monster Out of Your Soul

Goodbye to all that, I guess. Photo of These Are Powers by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week our F2K crew got within three wretched singles of revealing all 50 worst songs of the decade, we learned what giant, raging purple erections in cargo shorts would say if they could speak. (Probably something ... More >>

Kanye Is Back in the Studio, World: "LET US SOAK IN POSITIVE FORCES AND LOOK DOWN ON UPON THOSE WHO MASQUERADE AS TRUTH TELLERS"

​The-Dream can make a song worthy of Sam Cooke in less than 37 minutes, but no one but Kanye can make the creative process seem like slaying dragons and free jumping off of high cliffs and generally marshalling the forces of good against the forces of evil. To wit:

The-Dream Syndicate

Lovers of r&b already love him. Time to wake up everyone else.

Pazz & Jop Bonus #1: The Wonderful World Of Needle

​So Pazz & Jop 2009 is finally up, with lots of fine essays (dig Chuck Eddy's especially), comments, and statistical ephemera to sift through. Congratulations are in order to Jay-Z, Animal Collective, and Voice house stats guru/savior Glenn McDonald, because without him none of this would've b ... More >>

New The-Dream Single: "Love King," Which Is Alright

​Critics in our most recent Pazz & Jop poll were more enthusiastic about The-Dream's Love vs. Money than any of the other thousand odd LPs that made the 2009 list; the record received the most points per ballot by a wide margin, though a vast contingent of indie voters cosigned the LP to a und ... More >>

Video: How To Dress Well, "Decisions"

The visual accompaniment to the audio we posted last week. Himanshu goes with "Maxwell on Xanax-esque"; Tom Krell, How To Dress Well's sole constant member, says keep the rap and R&B comparisons coming--The-Dream, Kanye, Wayne, he'll take it. Love how much care these dudes take with their entire a ... More >>

Counting the Studs on The-Dream's Bedazzled Leather Jacket in the Video for "Love King"

Just kidding! We would never do something like that. Plus that jacket is more studs than leather, it's so extensively bedazzled, and we have other things to do today. Or do we? Anyway, behold, the hilariously literal video for The-Dream's "Love King," the first single of the album of the same name ... More >>

New The-Dream, Featuring T.I.: "Fall in Love Again"

Leave it to The-Dream to make us impatient for the end of a T.I. verse. What works great on a T.I. album--"Like I Do," anyone?--isn't exactly what we want for Love King, the new Dream LP for which this record is presumably intended. The-Dream, who has written a hit for pretty much everyone in the ... More >>

New The-Dream, Featuring T.I.: "Make Up Bag"

For the clicking spine of this particular production, let's take it back to "Hater," the sublime iTunes extra from The-Dream's Love vs. Money. "Hater" and Dream's latest, "Make Up Bag," have the same muffled snap to them, though like most of the newer Dream stuff we've heard so far, the pure-id em ... More >>

The-Dream Watch 2010 Continues: "Champagne," Featuring Diddy

Think we've finally figured out how to listen to the 2010 edition of The-Dream: just relax. Let The-Dream wash over you. No pining for Love vs. Money-era trips inside an extremely peculiar loverman's brain. No craving bygone bonkers thunderclap post-Timbaland production. Only chirping synths and c ... More >>

This Week's Voice: The-Dream, Miley Cyrus, the Great Dancehall Freeze Out, Jazz Consumer Guide, and More

Courtesy Def-Jam Records In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla marvels at the brilliant stupidity of r&b lothario The-Dream. Theon Weber examines the calculated rebellion of Miley Cyrus. Jesse Serwer reports on the Great Dancehall Freeze-Out of 2010, during which many of Jamaica's biggest act ... More >>

The-Dream Sold 58,000 Copies of Love King

​The-Dream's Love King--by our own Rob Harvilla's estimation, the r&b auteur's "third-straight deliriously triumphant solo album"--debuts at #4 on the Billboard charts this week, selling 58,000 copies of a record that's about a third as good as last year's Love Vs. Money (which, whaddya know, ... More >>

Here's Your Siren Festival 2010 Hourly Schedule

​ Not that there's not other things to talk about (The-Dream!), but we figure this is essential to your Saturday plan of attack. I might suggest that if SOTC were in charge Ted Leo would be both headlining and playing his own special commemorative stage, but this'll all work out just fine, I ... More >>

Week in Review: What Your Kids Will Learn

Not again! Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week we mostly spent anticipating tomorrow's Siren Festival, we talked at length with headliner Ted Leo, celebrated at a pre-party with Monotonix, and looked back at nine years worth of past triumphs. See you there, hopefully?

Interview with a Divorce Attorney: Just How Badly Did The-Dream Treat Christina Milian?

​Today, TMZ took a valuable couple minutes off of the Lindsay Lohan beat to procure the divorce papers served by The-Dream to his pregnant, deserted wife, Christina Milian. The major revelation? That the pop star filed for divorce nine days prior to the birth of the couple's first child. (TMZ ... More >>

How to Dress Well

​Today, TMZ took a valuable couple minutes off of the Lindsay Lohan beat to procure the divorce papers served by The-Dream to his pregnant, deserted wife, Christina Milian. The major revelation? That the pop star filed for divorce nine days prior to the birth of the couple's first child. (TMZ ... More >>

Top Ten Songs Named "Fuck You" Or The Immediate Equivalent

​On Friday Cee-Lo debuted a delightful new song with the simplest, most uncouth title possible: "Fuck You." It immediately joined the upper echelons of a surprisingly crowded genre -- from 50 Cent to Pharoahe Monch, the Avengers to Pussy Galore, Lil Kim to Atmosphere, there are lots of songs n ... More >>

Download Rockapella -- Yes, That Rockapella -- Covering Vampire Weekend's "A-Punk"

​Well this is just delightful. Rockapella, everyone's favorite Carmen Sandiego-locating vocal crew, are evidently still in business, and aim to remain there by covering "relevant" alt. artists like our good friends Vampire Weekend, who sonically traverse the globe in a flippant, maddening mann ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Death To Chris Brown

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! America's preeminent lady-beater weeps. Photo via Word Up!& ... More >>

Rob Harvilla's Top 10 Singles of 2010

​Not every great song this year was released by Katy Perry. From a snarling avant-electro NPR lecture to a haunted-house posse cut to a ludicrously profane viral sensation, here are 10 examples. "Teenage Dream" might still be better than all of these, though. Better get this started before I c ... More >>

Zach Baron's Top 10 Albums of 2010

Guess who? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Alright, let's do this, before I change my mind. With apologies to The-Dream, Sleigh Bells, Ted Leo, Kylesa, Swans, Zola Jesus, Marnie Stern, and all other vestiges of my punk rock past, and especially you Nicki Minaj, who missed both of my lists this year. ... More >>

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Stats II: Calculating Enthuasiasm, Hipness, Metalism, And, Uh, Kvltosis

Time to learn about this album​Pazz & Jop's album chart is officially ranked by points: Each voter has 100 to hand out, with no album receiving more than 30 or less than 5. There are, of course, a bunch of ways to turn that mass of music data into revealing lists. Here are four of them.

Guess The Extraterrestrial Pop Star!

Katy Perry used "E.T." as the perfect opportunity to dress up in flowy-costumes and to float through space, before falling in love with a nice robot boy before they walk off into the sunset. There're kaleidoscope-effects, Kanye West, and cuts to National Geographic-style clips of animals going at i ... More >>

The-Dream Revisits His Own Legacy On 1977

​ On Monday at midnight, The-Dream defied the wishes of his label Def Jam and posted a free, 11-track album at the website of his own label (and Def Jam imprint) Radio Killa Records. However, he had already made his defense mechanism available two days earlier, when he—seemingly out of t ... More >>

Q&A: C. Spencer Yeh On Self-Definition, The Perils Of Sequencing, And Going Semi-Indie

​Tonight, the prolix, improvisation-happy Ohioan C. Spencer Yeh will play a set with cellist Okkyung Lee and pianist Magda Mayas at the Knitting Factory. And while there's no way to predict what his set might sound like, it's a fair bet that it'll differ from the two shows he played last week ... More >>