The wait is over. The new album from Guns N' Roses, Chinese Democracy, has arrived. The album, which features 14 brand new songs from Axl and company, has garnered rave reviews and is easily the most anticipated release of the year.

Track listing:

1. Chinese Democracy

2. Shackler's Revenge

3. Better

4. Street Of Dreams

5. If The World

6. There Was A Time

7. Catcher In The Rye

8. Scrapped

9. Riad N' The Bedouins

10. Sorry

11. I.R.S.

12. Madagascar

13. This I Love

14. Prostitute

Author: Guns N' Roses
Audio CD: 
Company: Geffen Records  (2008)
List Price: 
Amazon Price: $8.99
Used Price: $8.99

Dear Science,

Tunde Adebimpe-Vocals Kyp Malone- Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synths David Andrew Sitek-Programming, Guitars, Samples, Bass, Synths Gerard A Smith- Bass, Organ, Synths, Samples, Rhodes Jaleel Bunton-Drums, Guitars, Rhodes, Organ, Synths, Bass, Programming

"A lot of bands have something to say," explains TV On The Radio producer/multi-instrumentalist David Sitek. "We have something to ask."

Indeed. Good luck finding easy answers in TVOTR's ever-evolving soundscapes, though, whether we're talking about their new disc, Dear Science (DGC/Interscope) or the band's early days. When guitarist/vocalist Kyp Malone joined, he didn't even get what Sitek and vocalist Tunde Adebimpe were going for on their self-released 2002 debut, OK Calculator.

"Aspects of OK Calculator are genius," says Malone, "but it isn't as laser-focused as Young Liars." Neither were Adebimpe and Sitek's early live sets, boundless and brash bits of performance art that Malone remembers as "an open mic/karaoke night gone awry. I could hear songs peeking through it all but it wasn't really my thing."

Boy did that change in 2003, as Young Liars became Malone's favorite CD-R (he'd often play it for the latte sippers at a local coffee shop) and the group's first Touch & Go release. An immediate favorite among critics, the EP nailed Sitek's goal of sounding like a "grand four-track thing," from the epic, evocative balladry of "Blind" to the spectral pop trails of "Staring At the Sun." To make things even more interesting, Malone dropped his skepticism and joined the group full-time before Young Liars' official release, with drummer Jaleel Bunton and bassist Gerard Smith rounding out the band's rhythm section soon after.

"We had a gig in Iceland where we needed a full band so we asked the two best guitar players we knew, Gerard and Jaleel, to play drums and bass," explains Sitek, laughing. "It's absurd that Kyp and I are even holding a guitar when Jaleel and Gerard are f**king bananas at playing it."

While that may be true, TV On The Radio's loose approach to songwriting, recording and performing leaves an incredible amount of room for instrument-swapping and role reversals. Rather than rely on a stringent and stale guitars/bass/drums/vocals setup, the quintet often brings home-demoed sketches to the studio along with the attitude that a track needs to go through everyone's filter before it becomes a fully formed song.

"Music is the most flexible medium in the world for me," explains Sitek, the beat conductor responsible for distilling the band's tracks down to a living, breathing composition that's never cloying or cumbersome. "There is no shortage of ideas; the hard part is not following each whim."

As much as he tries to keep a record sounding lean, Sitek is quick to admit, "It takes most bands an album to get to a high track count. I can go from 4 to 96 in a day, without question. I'm track hungry, really. A lot of stuff isn't even an instrument."

The densest a TVOTR disc ever got was their third LP, 2006's Return to Cookie Mountain, a collection of songs you need to scale with hi-def headphones to truly appreciate. Sitek went a little lighter on the multi-tracking with this Dear Science, but not by much. The album's opener, "Halfway Home," is vintage TVOTR, for instance--a rich, speaker-swallowing canvas of careening beats, buzzing riffs (or are those synths?) and bloodletting vocals. Things get strange from that point on, however, as mirror balls spin (a dare-we-say-danceable "Crying," the helicopter hook of "Golden Age") and Adebimpe attacks "Dancing Choose" like a mic-wielding battle rapper.

And then there are the glimmers of drum & bass ("Shout Me Out"), drunken horn sections ("Red Dress," one of several songs to feature members of Antibalas), and carefully-plucked film score strings ("Stork & Owl") that spice up what's clearly TVOTR's most challenging effort yet. Not challenging in the sense of being a rough listen--challenging in terms of rewriting the group's supposed gloomy, stormy aesthetics.

"You know how people always say that comedians are some of the saddest people in the world?" asks Adebimpe. "Well, the opposite is true, too. As heavy as some of the songs get, the joking around that goes around between the five of us gets out of control sometimes."

"If people are listening to us because we're dark and brooding, great," adds Sitek, "But I think there's a greater percentage looking for us to do something different with every album. Some of the darkest songs on Dear Science are the more upbeat ones. Like 'Crying' is f**king heavy, dude."

If you' still toss on such beautifully-damaged tracks as "Dreams" and "Ambulance" when times get tough, don't worry--TV On The Radio still goes for the jugular in the melancholic and moody department. In fact, some of Dear Science sounds downright menacing. Take "DLZ": a fang-baring "f**k you" to the idea of death being "your last chance to do anything" according to Adebimpe, it's some of most frightening, and affecting, music in the TVOTR canon. "Stork & Owl" is much more muted in its mix of skittering beats, wilting strings and gorgeous, multi-tracked harmonies but good luck putting on a happy face after succumbing to its postmodern soul soundtrack.

"It's like Bukowski once said, 'I write all of this stuff to get away from it,'" explains Adebimpe, who struggled with the deaths of a friend and family member during the making of Dear Science. "Writing is a meditation, an exercise to put away all these painful things.'"

And that's ultimately what TV On The Radio still hopes to do with its music--they're still looking to connect, to make people feel something, anything no matter how up or down a song's arrangement is.

"I grew up listening to Joy Division, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cure, the Smiths and the Swans," says Malone. "Some of that qualifies as 'goth' but it didn't make me depressed to listen to that music despite what my parents assumed. It didn't add to my 'angst' as a teenager. I simply identitfied with something in the music.

"It made me feel less alone, you know?" he continues. "If I could be that for someone else, that would make me happy. It'd be a real form of success for me."

Atists:  TV on the Radio
LP Record: 
Company: DGC/Interscope  (2008-09-23)
List Price: $15.98
Amazon Price: $15.98

Includes exclusive bonus track, "Breathe Tonight"! Produced by Grammy winning Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Kid Rock), David Cook is a quality album full with radio hits. Cook co-wrote 9 songs from his debut, along with songwriters like Chris Cornell, Brian Howes & Cathy Dennis. The 1st single "Light On" was co-written by one of rock music's most influential innovators, Chris Cornell, lead singer and songwriter for Soundgarden and Audioslave, and acclaimed producer / songwriter Brian Howes, who has worked with superstar rock bands such as Hinder and Puddle of Mudd.

Track listing

1. Declaration

2. Heroes

3. Light On

4. Come Back to Me

5. Life on the Moon

6. Bar-ba-sol

7. Mr. Sensitive

8. Lie

9. I Did it for You

10. Avalanche

11. Permanent

12. A Daily AntheM

13. The Time Of My Life

Bonus track:

14. Breathe Tonight

Author: David Cook
Audio CD:  Extra tracks
Company: RCA  (2008)
List Price: 
Amazon Price: $24.99
Used Price: $10.00

Groove to the beat of your own rhythm with this 1 GB USB MP3 Player Headset! Its USB interface makes it simple to plug into a USB port and download MP3 files, plus, you can even use the FZ-5588 as a USB flash disk. The comfortable behind-the-head design makes for a smooth and easy listening experience! Dial in the perfect sound for your ears with its five preset EQ! With an up to 8 hours of battery playtime you will have plenty of time to dance, run, workout or walk while you listen to music! General Features: Behind-the-head headset style 1 GB capacity USB interface Plays MP3 files Five (5) Preset EQ Lithium battery charged directly by PC via USB connector Battery playtime between 7 to 8 hours after fully charged MP3 Data Flow Rate: 32 Kbps - 384 Kbps Output Frequency Range: 20 Hz to 20 KHz MP3 Harmony Wave Distortion: < 0.5% Upload/Download Speed rate: about 2.7 Mbps Plug and Play Regulatory Approvals: FCC CE Requirements: Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP Available USB port CD-ROM drive Package Includes: FZ-5588 1 GB USB MP3 Player Headset USB cable Driver CD (on 3-inch CD) User Manual

:  Headset with built-in MP3 Player, 1GB Built-in Flash Memory, 5 Preset Equalizer Modes, Built-in Rechargeable Battery can be Charged Directly by PC Through USB Connector, Play-time is Between 7 to 8 Hours After Full Charge
Company: Osprey-Talon 
List Price: 
Amazon Price: $26.99

Enjoy legal MP3 recording from the Webcast Music Server made possible with X-OOM MP3 Radio Recorder for iPod. Webcast is a webbased radio streaming server. It is widely used by a lot of people so you can freely listen to your favourite music. You can choose between more than 6.000 different stations with nearly all kind of music. X-OOM MP3 Radio Recorder for iPod records those streams to mp3, wav or ogg-vorbis, so you can record up to 20 streams of your favourite tracks legally at one time! Record up to 400 Songs as MP3 in one hour

CD-ROM:  CD-ROMMore than 6.000 Radio-Stations available, Record internet radio and download it automatically onto your iPod, Professional Audio-Editor, Save directly onto your iPod, Portable on USB-Memory Stick
Company: Global Marketing Partners  (2006-11-21)
List Price: $29.99
Amazon Price: $25.09

Replay Music is a revolutionary new way to capture online music as individual MP3 files. Just play music from your favorite online radio station or streaming music service, and every song is saved on your PC as a high quality MP3 file, automatically tagged with the artist, song title, album and genre, and perfectly separated into individual tracks. You can even burn songs directly to CDs. It's a great way to discover new music! What's Different about Replay Music? Unlike other recorders which just work with a few ShoutCast stations, Replay Music is the only product that works with high quality online radio stations and streaming jukebox services. Order today!

:  Captures streaming music into high quality MP3 files., Splits recordings precisely and accurately into separate tracks., Automatically tags songs with title, artist, album and genre information., Records from LP's and cassette tapes too., What a great way to discover new music!
Company: Applian Technologies Inc. 
List Price: $29.95
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