[via bang]

The Ting Tings are to work with Jay-Z on their new album.

The ‘That’s Not My Name’ duo have signed to the rap superstar’s record label, Roc Nation, in the US and he is reportedly set to give their career a huge boost by helping with them on their second album.

A source told Britain’s Daily Star newspaper: “Jay is hoping to lend his production skills to some of the new material.

“The Staccato rhythmic style of The Ting Tings sits well with what he does best, so that was the attraction.

“Jay can make them one of the biggest British bands in America.”

While the duo are thrilled with their deal, they are unlikely to be happy with the amount of time they will have to spend in America.

The group – made up of singer and guitarist Katie White and drummer and programmer Jules de Martino – recently said despite their huge success, they have been homesick since they started touring the world in support of their debut album ‘We Started Nothing’ in May 2008.

Katie said: “We’ve seen the world. God, we’ve seen it about five times. We were even flying over Siberia the other day, from the aeroplane there was just not one sign of life, not one tree, nothing. It was amazing.

“Japan, Hong Kong were great. America’s good, we do long tours there and you know, there’s some amazing cities there, but you’re driving for so long just to get to the next city.”

Jay-Z has also signed British girl group Sugababes to Roc Nation in the US.

(C) BANG Media International

The Ting Tings Collaborate With Jay-Z is a post from: wax&wires

Members Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell produced the album at Electric Lady in New York. You can catch them stateside towards the end of November and early December. After that, they’ll be supporting Muse on the UK branch of “The Resistance” tour, sure to give them some great exposure to a fanbase likely to love their sound.

If you live in San Diego, there are some plans in the works to have them spin a quick set at M-Theory Records in Hillcrest before their Casbah show on November 21st too, in case you want to check that out.

Anyway, let me know what you think! You can get their album below at Amazon, and your local record shop probably has it stocked too, as 4AD has pretty solid distro.

The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love

Wax Pick: The Big Pink – A Brief History Of Love is a post from: wax&wires

I have no idea why these guys aren’t bigger than they are. Amusement Parks on Fire is a UK band bringing back the shoegaze. They’ve toured all over Europe and the US, and are currently on the road in support of this new EP.

If you’re into My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins or Silversun Pickups, be sure to give this band a go. You might hear a tinge of Sigur Ros as well; they even tracked one of their albums at the Icelandic Bands’ swimming pool of a studio.

I got their first self-titled album from back in 2005, and it’s everything I wanted it to be; walls of noisy guitar, raw vocals, and cradling a nostalgia that few genres capture so well. Young Fight, the new EP, picks up where the LP left off, but takes a much more melodic and slightly softer road in. It’s more thought out, orchestrated well, and sonically just a better mix. It is still very much the same band, but with a more mature and developed sound; almost like witnessing a different personality of the same person. I suppose you could say they traded the raw for the beautiful.

Amusement Parks On Fire – Young Fight

Wax Pick: Amusement Parks On Fire – Young Fight is a post from: wax&wires

So here’s a new song, called ‘These Are My Twisted Words’.We’ve been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished.

We’re pretty proud of it.

There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts. Hope you like it.

Download the audio here or torrent here.

Jonny

DOWNLOAD: New Radiohead Track is a post from: wax&wires

In this episode:
- Performance Rights Organizations (BMI vs. ASCAP vs…)
- Aqualung
- Parallel and Two-Stage Compression

Read up on PROs: ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.
You can check out the third-party companies like Taxi and CD Baby too, which can help you distribute your music, or land it in TV, film and radio.

I couldn’t find a place to download Aqualung’s album, Memory Man, legally online. Here’s a link to buy it on Amazon for just a couple bucks; you can also check out sound clips on there to scope it out:

Aqualung – Memory Man

I would love your feedback (good or bad!), just shoot me an email: tim@waxandwires.com.

wax&wires tv – Episode 004 is a post from: wax&wires

Absolution is their best album to date, in my opinion, chock full of catchy hooks and ear candy; perfectly incorporating their electronic/dance influences without losing their rock roots.

For those of you that don’t already have it, which is not too likely to be many, give it a go. You’ll have guitar riffs to be practicing for days to come.

Muse – Absolution

Wax Pick: Muse – Absolution is a post from: wax&wires

Kosten crosses several genre lines, mixing breakbeat electronic with the raw emotion found in more traditional pop music. It doesn’t hurt to have Chris Martin, Michael Stipe, and Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips) contributing either. Though the album doesn’t really congeal as a whole for me, it has enough good single tracks on it to warrant a pick up.

My favorite track is easily the single, Where Is My Boy, which has garnered all the attention for featuring Chris Martin.

Faultline – Your Love Means Everything

Wax Pick: Faultline – Your Love Means Everything is a post from: wax&wires

Khan was influenced by such artists as Steve Reich and Susan Hiller while earning her degree in music and visual arts. Her experimental work from those days manifests itself as sheer artistry in her current project, Bat For Lashes. Up for two Brit Awards in 2008, Best Breakthrough Act and Best Solo Female, Khan walked away from the show without an award, but with quite a bit of gained notoriety and hard earned credibility amongst successful peers-turned-fans like Thom Yorke and M.I.A.

Bat For Lashes has been compared to other female contemporaries like Bjork and Fiona Apple, and while sure to please their fans, Khan has more than cut a mould of her own.

Bat For Lashes will be releasing a new album, Two Suns, this Tuesday. You can hear the single, Daniel, here.

Bat For Lashes – Fur And Gold

Wax Pick: Bat For Lashes – Fur And Gold is a post from: wax&wires

On 2nd April 2009 Keane will make history with the world’s first ever live webcast in 3D. The band will record the live session at London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios, the home of The Beatles’ historic first ever satellite broadcast, and will feature live mixed graphics from world-renowned digital artists D-Fuse.

“We believe that the tradition of rock’n'roll is to always innovate, to bring new ideas and concepts into music. We are therefore incredibly excited about the prospect of being the first band to beam our music live in 3D over the internet. Over the last couple of years, our website has become a hive of artistic creativity for us and our fans. On April 2nd at 8pm (UK time), hundreds of thousands of those fans will be able don their 3D glasses and watch us play some songs from our new record, Perfect Symmetry. We will be broadcasting from Abbey Road, scene of the first ever live satellite broadcast – The Beatles ‘All You Need Is Love’ – and we hope that this will become a similarly powerful new way for music to connect people all over the world.” (Tom, Tim and Richard)

3D glasses are available from the brand new keanemusic.com shop with the 7-inch of the new single Better Than This, which is out on 16th March. (We’re also hoping to show you how to make your own 3D glasses.)

The audio from the gig will also be simultaneously broadcast live on-air on newly launched national station Absolute Radio. The show will then be available to watch on-demand via km.com afterward.

While a great idea to try and drum up some incentive to buy their new 7″, if it’s anything like the whole Chuck-in-3D thing after the SuperBowl this year, I’ll likely end up ditching my glasses to save myself a headache. That episode was terrible, and the colors were all distorted, with the glasses on. I would rather see something shot well, with vibrant colors in HD, than something that looks terrible, but pops out at me (which actually kind of makes it worse…)! The problem there is that if it’s not 3D, they can’t market it like they’re currently doing, so I guess kudos to Keane for taking advantage of the new technology to support their album sales. The bands that do the best are the ones that jump on new tech first, be it MySpace, Twitter, Facebook… or 3D live streaming.

Keane Live 3D Webcast Should Help Album Sales is a post from: wax&wires

Lily Allen returns with a new album today, It’s Not Me, It’s You, hoping to follow up on the success of her throwback hit, Alright, Still.

In a questionable move, Lily chose not to work with producer Mark Ronson again for It’s Not Me, It’s You. Let’s not forget that Ronson was named “Producer Of The Year – Non Classical” at the 2008 Grammy Awards, I’m sure at least in small part due to his work with Lily, as well as having produced Amy Winehouse. All that accreditation led to Ronson’s winning of Producer of the Year, as well as two additional Grammy’s for “Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Vocal Album” for his work on Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black. Lily also sang a Kaiser Chief’s cover of “Oh My God” on Ronson’s own album Version (seriously one of my favorite albums of the past year or two).

So why do you walk away from one of the hottest producers around? When asked, Lily said that she wanted to move in a new direction because, “I did a retro thing last time, and since I did that, a lot of other people did it too. I wanted to separate myself from the group and move forward.”

Under pressure from her label, Lily tried to work with several writers and producers on It’s Not Me, It’s You, but efforts proved unsuccessful. She returned to Greg Kurstin, who had written three songs for Alright, Still. Kurstin produced the new album. Lily was quoted as having said, “We decided to try and make bigger sounding, more ethereal songs, real songs… I wanted to work with one person from start to finish to make it one body of work. I wanted it to feel like it had some sort of integrity. I think I’ve grown up a bit as a person and I hope it reflects that.”

I’m a huge and unashamed fanboy of Kurstin, mostly for his work with The Bird And The Bee, so I was sold on this album from first hearing that he had his hands all over it. I actually dig the album’s tones and textures too. It’s a nice departure from the retro ska-influenced sound we’re used to hearing from Lily. It’s on sale at Amazon on it’s release day for just $3.99, check it out.

Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

Wax Pick: Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You is a post from: wax&wires

The Verve’s Urban Hymns is on sale at Amazon today for $1.99. This was the album that really propelled them into the spotlight with Bittersweet Symphony, one of the most epic and well known songs of our generation. Richard Ashcroft has been hailed as one of the most prolific songwriters of our time, learn why for $1.99.

The Verve – Urban Hymns

Wax Pick: The Verve – Urban Hymns is a post from: wax&wires

I’ve really enjoyed this album this year. A lot of my friends can’t stand her voice, but I love the vibe.

The whole album is $5 on Amazon right now.

Duffy – Rockferry

Wax Pick: Duffy – Rockferry is a post from: wax&wires

Bloc Party’s latest album Intimacy is on sale for $5 at Amazon right now. While I’m not normally a huge fan of theirs, there’s some cool production and vibe on a few of the tracks like Mercury.

Wax Pick: Bloc Party – Intimacy is a post from: wax&wires