DJ Killa E
Keeping them guessing: After releasing a pair of unusual videos, LeAnn Rimes has a new album due in October.
The youthful Chicago genre known as juke music is inching closer to the mainstream. The duo Dude ’n Nem has a rising hit with “Watch My Feet” (TVT), and the actress and singer Keke Palmer (from “Akeelah and the Bee”) has released a juked-out R&B single called “Footworkin’ ” (Atlantic). But if you really want a feel for the genre, log on to the addictive networking site imeem.com and feast upon the beats and remixes of DJ Killa E, who knows his way around the genre’s essentials: rippling electronic kick drums and toms, disorienting sped-up vocals and — above all — ludicrously fast tempos. And if you think this stuff is too fast for flashy dance moves, just check out the flabbergasting videos.
LeAnn Rimes
Her Web site, leannrimesworld.com, is counting down the days until Oct. 9, when she is scheduled to release her new album, “Family” (Curb). But if some fans don’t quite know what to expect, it’s not their fault. Ms. Rimes, who has been a country star since she was 14, spent this summer puzzling longtime fans with a pair of videos. There was “Ready for a Miracle,” her frenetic (and quite tiresome) version of a gospel song from the soundtrack of “Evan Almighty.” And then there was “Nothin’ Better to Do,” the glorious first single from “Family”: She wraps her big voice around a rousing story-song, chronicling a day in the life of a young woman out to raise some hell. And the video adds another twist: It’s set in a 1930s-era women’s prison, and Ms. Rimes’s fellow inmates are also her backup dancers. Whatever this is, let’s have some more of it.
Young Bleed
This mumbly rapper from Baton Rouge, La., made his debut a decade ago, as a member of Master P’s No Limit crew. After a brief moment in the hip-hop spotlight (remember “How You Do Dat”?), Young Bleed went back underground, where has remained; this hip-hop veteran endures as a regional star, beloved for the way his lackadaisical drawl camouflages neatly packed syllables. His new album is “Once Upon a Time in Amedica” (Da’Tention Home/West Coast Mafia), a mixed bag that works best when the music echoes Young Bleed’s laid-back, down-home rhymes. “Tumble’n’ Down” is a breezy statement of purpose, and “Top Back” is a slow-rolling collaboration with 8 Ball, from Memphis. But for newcomers the real revelation will be “Bac’ Road Mississippi,” which has a languid guitar line that puts him in a nostalgic mood: “Young son, the baby of the blues, man/Sittin’ on the porch with my folks, in new shoes, man.” This album isn’t what people usually mean when they talk about indie rap. But it should be.
Manchester Orchestra
“Sweet Jesus, I swear that I love you.” So murmurs Andy Hull, lead singer of this emerging band from Atlanta, and it’s hard to tell whether he’s praying or swearing. The song is “Now That You’re Home,” and it comes from the band’s breakthrough album, “I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child,” which was released last year on the band’s own label, Favorite Gentlemen, and rereleased this summer with help from the band’s new label, Columbia. In that sense it’s one of this year’s best emo albums (though the members probably hate the term; who doesn’t?), and in it you can hear the influence of R.E.M. and a generation of indie rockers. But there’s something pleasantly inscrutable about Mr. Hull, whether he’s delivering a spiteful rant (“Alice and Interiors”) or serenading someone. Many of these songs revolve around questions of faith, which only makes them sound more audacious. This is a fundamentally immodest album: music to swoon to.
‘Year of the Pig’
That’s the name of a monstrous new 18-minute song by a neo-hardcore band from Toronto. And the name of the band? Well, suffice it to say that if newspaper coverage were a priority, the members might have called themselves Messed Up instead. You can find “Year of the Pig” on iTunes and elsewhere. The 1980s Portland, Ore., band Poison Idea is an obvious influence, although Poison Idea wasn’t known for composing multipart epics about sexism and serial killing and the meat industry. In any case, this is an unreasonably stubborn song, building momentum slowly as the guest singer Jennifer Castle murmurs the lyrics (“Pigs at the trough show no fear”) and Pink Eye, the band’s lead singer, roars them (“Pigs at the trough getting fat!”). The band trudges slowly along for six minutes, then builds momentum, then lurches forward, riding a relatively sleek groove as Pink Eye declaims the words (“Ashamed of the pig in our head/Ashamed, so we kill ’em instead”) as the band stretches up and surges forward and, finally, collapses in a heap. This is the second installment in a series inspired by the Chinese zodiac; with any luck, “Year of the Rat” is up next.
