Check out another high energy hit from Green Day’s epic 21st Century Breakdown – this time they tribute that natural disaster you can’t help love.

21st Century Breakdown was able to do what most people think is impossible and most bands know will be used as a defining feat in their music careers. It delivered a compilation of songs that shared enough similarities and differences to their whopping predecessor as to sound sincere and appealing.

It’s no small wonder that this song was one that found it’s way into the big wide world through 21st Century Breakdown. It isn’t the first time a rock and roll band has sung about the bittersweet ways of an all American Girl – from David Bowie’s Young American to Counting Crows’ American Girls to Lenny Kravitz’ American Woman, to Kim Basinger’s Kids of America…but Green Day’s got the last one.

The Last of the American girls.

It’s a high energy song with all the guitar rigor you need to let your arms flail in the air as you twist and twirl for every reason that freedom to live has to offer. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to crank up the stereo and take pride in being or loving a natural disaster like the irresistible but always jaded American girl.

From sporting telephone receivers in her hair to solemnly announcing ra-ra-ra on the radio, Lady Gaga now wears her heart on a sleeve for a Spanish man named Alejandro in her newest release.

Hot like Mexico. Trust Lady Gaga to take the simplest lyrics and make them as outstandingly sexy as anything she decides to wear or not wear.

The song begins with violins - slow and lingering – like the unwanted emotions of an ill-fated love affair. And thereafter begins a Lady-like appeal to a Spanish heartthrob in a Gaga accent. You can almost hear her purse her lips with earnestness as she whines to the man for whom the rest of this ballad unfolds, Alejandro, also known as Roberto, and Fernando. In the video clip however, each name entails a different man.

The song is instantaneously recognizable as Gaga work but also takes us back to the old school version of Abba, also known as Ace of Base. The pop beat in the song is one that was popularized by Ace of Base through hits like Don’t Turn Around and Sign.

And the reference to Fernando, is almost like a vocal tribute to the man that broke Abba’s heart and wasn’t supposed to call their names either in their hit single.

Alejandro looks like yet another hit for Gaga although not as exertive as Poker Face, melodically catchy as Just Dance, irresistibly in-your-face as the ra-ra Bad Romance, nor as visually controversial as Telephone.

Listen to this new release on 101.7 TNL Rocks.

The chain reaction of an intriguing video is millions of viewers watching it over and over again. That’s the Rube Goldberg trick that Ok-Go used on the video to ‘This Too Shall Pass’.

One toy truck’s collision is literally a domino effect that can knock-over, spin, swing and drop through two floors of other objects and routes for an entire four minutes. That’s the Rube Goldberg machine that Ok-Go had constructed for their video clip to This Too Shall Pass, taken off the album Of the Blue Color of the Sky.

The clip was filmed in one shot but took about sixty attempts to get one full run with all the components of the machine functioning in chain reaction. Incidentally, a Rube Goldberg machine, named after an American cartoonist and inventor, is famed to be the kind of machine or any system or service that is deliberately engineered to be more complex than necessary to perform a very simple task.

In a recent interview, bassist Tim Nordwind said, that the entire process of filming the video was both exciting as well as frustrating, ‘the frustrating part would be getting half way through and then something doesn’t trigger…and because the setup time took so long once you got about half way through you started to get really excited because you think ‘Oh my God, this thing is working’, and then the paint can doesn’t get triggered to knock off the red trash can and you’re like ‘Oh ****’."

"The machine is really the star of this video so it was really just about making sure that the machine was followable and aesthetically pleasing to watch…then we just dumped ourselves into it and made sure that we could move with it in a pleasing way."

Song Away by Hockey

“See what man has done to the world, see what the world has done to your man.”

Taken off the band’s long awaited debut album, Mind Chaos, the song is bombast of good times with as much quotable moments as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel and as much contemporary energy as MGMT. Probably one of the catchiest songs on the album, the song is characteristic of the band’s sound. It is the refreshing and understated combination of being electro-pop/punk rock cool in the modern way with all the easy dance-ability (in spite of pants that are unflatteringly tight from the waist to the knees) of retro stuff.

This song is clearly going to be the anthem for summer – which in Sri Lanka feels like its already here with the new year holidays already taking us into a reverie of lazy days and apparently if Hockey has their way, disco light nights.

Mountain Man by the Crash Kings – the new keys to rock and roll!

Ever heard of rock and roll without a guitar? Tried a clavinet instead? A clavinet is a keyboard with guitar strings. Klavinet plus bass plus drums is no longer the hints for what makes a jazz trio – it is the way the Crash Kings make rock and roll. Even the kind of rock and roll that guitar gods like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath did. That’s the way the L.A. based trio made Mountain Man the number 1 song on Alternative Radio Charts.

Currently on tour with the Jet, the band’s hot new single is the kind that TNL just can’t get enough of!

On the unique sound and use of what is effectively a piano to replace a guitar, vocalist Tom Beliveau said, “people aren't used to hearing a pianist rock out thick chords. The piano can sound bigger than two guitars at times and my bass is distorted enough to get as heavy as Jason's feet and hands. Also we added a whammy bar hot rodded clavinet that Tony stumbled upon which is basically a guitar inside (strings & pickups) that plays like a piano. No guitar needed.”

The chain reaction of an intriguing video is millions of viewers watching it over and over again. That’s the Rube Goldberg trick that Ok-Go used on the video to ‘This Too Shall Pass’.

One toy truck’s collision is literally a domino effect that can knock-over, spin, swing and drop through two floors of other objects and routes for an entire four minutes. That’s the Rube Goldberg machine that Ok-Go had constructed for their video clip to This Too Shall Pass, taken off the album Of the Blue Color of the Sky.

The clip was filmed in one shot but took about sixty attempts to get one full run with all the components of the machine functioning in chain reaction. Incidentally, a Rube Goldberg machine, named after an American cartoonist and inventor, is famed to be the kind of machine or any system or service that is deliberately engineered to be more complex than necessary to perform a very simple task.

In a recent interview, bassist Tim Nordwind said, that the entire process of filming the video was both exciting as well as frustrating, ‘the frustrating part would be getting half way through and then something doesn’t trigger…and because the setup time took so long once you got about half way through you started to get really excited because you think ‘Oh my God, this thing is working’, and then the paint can doesn’t get triggered to knock off the red trash can and you’re like ‘Oh ****’."

"The machine is really the star of this video so it was really just about making sure that the machine was followable and aesthetically pleasing to watch…then we just dumped ourselves into it and made sure that we could move with it in a pleasing way."

Song Away by Hockey

“See what man has done to the world, see what the world has done to your man.”

Taken off the band’s long awaited debut album, Mind Chaos, the song is bombast of good times with as much quotable moments as Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel and as much contemporary energy as MGMT. Probably one of the catchiest songs on the album, the song is characteristic of the band’s sound. It is the refreshing and understated combination of being electro-pop/punk rock cool in the modern way with all the easy dance-ability (in spite of pants that are unflatteringly tight from the waist to the knees) of retro stuff.

This song is clearly going to be the anthem for summer – which in Sri Lanka feels like its already here with the new year holidays already taking us into a reverie of lazy days and apparently if Hockey has their way, disco light nights.

Mountain Man by the Crash Kings – the new keys to rock and roll!

Ever heard of rock and roll without a guitar? Tried a clavinet instead? A clavinet is a keyboard with guitar strings. Klavinet plus bass plus drums is no longer the hints for what makes a jazz trio – it is the way the Crash Kings make rock and roll. Even the kind of rock and roll that guitar gods like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath did. That’s the way the L.A. based trio made Mountain Man the number 1 song on Alternative Radio Charts.

Currently on tour with the Jet, the band’s hot new single is the kind that TNL just can’t get enough of!

On the unique sound and use of what is effectively a piano to replace a guitar, vocalist Tom Beliveau said, “people aren't used to hearing a pianist rock out thick chords. The piano can sound bigger than two guitars at times and my bass is distorted enough to get as heavy as Jason's feet and hands. Also we added a whammy bar hot rodded clavinet that Tony stumbled upon which is basically a guitar inside (strings & pickups) that plays like a piano. No guitar needed.”

College mates make music for vegetarian vampires? Band of Skulls release new song for soundtrack to New Moon

Sometimes you find your calling in college, other times you find a reason to form a band. Two lead singers and three song writers were found in Russell Marsden, Matt Hayward and Emma Richardson, as they formed the band Band of Skulls, formerly known as Fleeing New York.

The band are set to release their debut album, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, which features their latest release, Friends. The song was featured on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

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The first lady of dance music rescued from jail by queen B- the new release from Lady Gaga and Beyonce airs on TNL.

What does it take to be an icon? You need to make an impression – but not just the kind of impression that flaunts your natural talents, but the kind of impression that banners your audacity. Whether it’s exceptional humanitarian commitments or unprecedented and outrageous entertainment styles, if you want to be iconic, you have to have…yes that kind of male anatomy.

And Lady Gaga, who was literally thought to have that kind of anatomical constitution, definitely carries the banner for outstanding stage performances, wardrobe choices and music composition.

And the first lady of dance music, has now formed a ra-ra-romance with the queen B of R and B in Telephone.

The video clip to the song is like a mini movie with Gaga sporting anything from as little as yellow tape to a bustier of the American flag, to wearing cans as curlers. Gaga is rescued from jail by Beyonce in Kill Bill style.

The song is the second release taken off the album Fame Monster. In an interview with MTV News, Lady GaGa said that the song is about her “fear of suffocation.” The phone in the song apparently isn’t just a reference to a physical phone, but also symbolic of the voice inside her head telling her to keep working harder and harder. “That’s my fear — that the phone’s ringing and my head’s ringing,” she explained. “Whether it’s a telephone or it’s just the thoughts in your head, that’s another fear.”

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Ashcroft-ism in sport mode, ready to run the town? Check out the newest release from Richard Ashcroft.

It’s almost like a relationship with Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen – either forgiving and loving or hating and splitting. Nick McCabe and Richard Ashcroft – the first split dates back to 1995 after the release of The Verve’s second album, A Northern Soul when Ashcroft disbanded the group after McCabe’s departure, and the second was in April 1999, when once again the band called it quits after McCabe bailed on U.S. and European tour for Urban Hymns, which spawned the band’s defining moment, the release of Bittersweet Symphony. Eight years later, after Simon Tong (initial replacement for McCabe) worked with Damon Albarn in Blur and Gorillaz, and later formed a band called The Shining with Simon Jones and Pete Salisbury toured with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club before opening a drum shop, the Verve reunited with the promise of the release of their first album in almost a decade.

The album was called Forth and spelt hits like Love is Noise and Rather Be.

It’s been a bittersweet symphony at least for frontman Richard Ashcroft – as one band splits, yet another emerges that still manages to get him on the airwaves as a hit maker.

United Nations of Sound is Ashcroft’s latest project, formed early this year. The band is set to release their debut album by the end of March, and which has been tentatively titled as Redemption. As a taste of the kind of music Ashcroft fans can expect, the band released the song Are You Ready.

If you’re wondering where the fighting spirit in the song comes from – it’s really not Ashcroft throwing music punches at McCabe or even pumping himself up to be the soccer player with many passports he is depicted to be in the video – instead it could be because when you got Jay-Z, Kanye and Rihanna running towns you cant help carry the revolution into the nasal wails and wrist-splitting woes that apparently even drugs cant fix, of Ashcroft-ism. No ID who masterminded Run This Town, worked on the production of this new release from Ashcroft.

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