PMA | Pretty Much Amazing

Danger Mouse dropped off this 170 song (!!) summer playlist over at New York Magazine’s Vulture blog. Find the entire thing below, from A to Z. (more…)

(more…)

Vinyl giveaway details at the end of the review.
Broken Bells
Broken Bells
Columbia Records
out March 9th
85/100
[Rating Scale]

Rate Broken Bells

There will be lots of reviews that compare Broken Bells, Danger Mouse’s project with The Shins’ James Mercer, to Gnarls Barkely, his project with Cee-Lo Green. Let’s get this out of the way early: both Broken Bells and Gnarls Barkley pair Danger Mouse with an iconic singer, and both bands have two-word names. That’s it. The similarities end there. This is a completely different animal.

There are, however, facile comparisons to Mercer’s earlier work. Eyes closed, this is a Shins album. There’s no use pretending that Broken Bells is a larger experimental step away from Wincing The Night Away than that record was from its predecessor, Chutes Too Narrow. Or than Chutes was from debut Oh, Inverted World. On each successive album, The Shins morphed and grew, managing to strike the same chord with fans despite playing in different keys. In that vein – and because The Shins are so closely tied to Mercer’s voice and vice versa – the line between that band and Broken Bells is a blurry one at best.

Which isn’t – to be clear – a knock against the album. At all. A quality album from one of the most successful indie musicians in the past decade is nothing at all to sneer at. Nor is it a knock against Danger Mouse – billed here under his given name, Brian Burton. Although Burton’s contributions are less immediately identifiable here than on previous collaborations, that may well serve as a testament to his adaptability. He has seamlessly integrated himself into a sonic world that is heavy on melody and light on beats, donning a new hat before you even noticed that he took off the old one. (more…)

The video for the new James Mercer (The Shins) and Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) collaboration, Broken Bells. Broken Bells’ self-titled, full-length debut is out March 9th on Sony. Download the track here.

Artwork by Adam Sarpalius

As 2009, and the decade come to a close, PMA will be looking back at our favorite songs of the last ten years. We will update a list with 75 empty slots until we reach that song that changed everything. You can keep track of this list by keeping an eye on this page. We make these lists in hopes that you guys will chime in the comments and share your favorite musical moments of the noughties.

Off the Godfather of Bootleg/Mixtape hits, The Grey Album, “99 Problems”, fusing the worlds that surround Jay-Z and the Beatles, DJ Danger Mouse’s complex put-and-paste job overshadows the Rick Rubin-produced original.

You can hear Danger Mouse’s painstaking precision on “99 Problems”. He plays to Jay-Z’s strengths as a rapper and lyricist, while still giving a respectful nod to Rick Rubin’s already-genius production work, with the “Helter Skelter” loop featured on the track. Passed the novelty and shock of the entire project lies a true piece of hip-hop pop art.

(more…)