Crib Notes

A few days ago, R.E.M. announced its new album, Accelerate. It’s the band’s first disc of original material in more than three years and is scheduled to hit shelves April 1.

For a while, the big news surrounding its release was that founding drummer Bill Berry would return for R.E.M.’s tour. Paste magazine reported that rumor; but then it subsequently retracted it. However, fans can look forward to music that is considerably more lively than the sonorous sound of past efforts. Here’s what Michael Stipe told British culture magazine Uncut — which was excerpted on a Billboard.com news item:

“I feel like there’s a confidence in the material, and a communication between the three of us that hasn’t been there for some time,” frontman Michael Stipe told Uncut. “We didn’t talk to each other for a couple of records — as friends or as bandmates. And we reached a point before this LP where we just sat down at a table and hashed it out.”

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The music industry is going ape shit over Keri Hilson, the young songwriter who absolutely set off Timbaland’s electro-urban “The Way I Are” hit. This month, she’s featured on the cover of the Fader. (She’s the woman on the left; the lady on the right is the equally awesome Brooklyn artist Santogold.) And although no one has heard her upcoming album, In a Perfect World, many expect it to be as fabulous as “The Way I Are.”

The 25-year-old Hilson got her start as a member of Atlanta songwriting crew the Clutch (more on the Clutch very soon). Here’s what MTV.com wrote about her in a news story July 2, 2007:

While on deck for her solo turn, Hilson has been writing prolifically. Either on her own or as part of the five-person songwriting/production team the Clutch, Hilson has penned tunes for Britney Spears, the Pussycat Dolls, Diddy, Ciara, Usher, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Ruben Studdard, Ludacris (”Runaway Love”) and Omarion (”Ice Box”).

“The Clutch is a new thing, it’s still a baby,” she said. “We are responsible for some major hits: ‘Ice Box,’ ‘Take Me as I Am,’ ‘The Way I Are,’ so many. ‘Anonymous’ by Bobby Valentino, a whole bunch of new artists. Beyoncé … the Clutch is everywhere. Co-writing makes it a lot faster, and you’re more open to other ideas. It opens you up creatively. Everyone brings more color to a certain situation, to a certain song, [which] makes it a lot easier. Sometimes we take it section by section or line by line — it’s fun either way. Work is play for us.”

Meanwhile, the Fader story calls Hilson part of Timbaland’s “Black Pop 2.0″ movement — with 1.0 being the Missy Elliott/Aaliyah/Ginuwine explosion of the late ’90s.

Hilson is a black princess from the upwardly mobile mindstate of Atlanta, and her dad is a real estate mogul who happens to own the subdivision where Akon lives. By her own description, a straight R&B chick more likely to be listening to Groove Theory or Babyface than anything current, her soul nevertheless has a futurist musical and emotional timbre; that computer love thing that connects her with Danja and makes her sound like a logical progression of Timbaland’s urban new wave.

You can download a free PDF copy of the Fader at TheFader.com.

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FIRESTARTER: Ree De La Vega

(photo by Hannibal M.)

If you don’t know Ree De La Vega, you’re probably old. Or lame. Or way more insignificant than she is among Atlanta’s late-night set.

Then again, starting this post out with that kind of lead is only asking for flak — the kind the cool chick/BangBang party promoter received in megadoses several months ago after we featured her in Real Life Top Five.

The title said it all: “Keys to being an Atlanta ‘it’ girl.” That was followed by Ree’s five tips for living the fab life (“Flash your tits at least once a month”), conveyed in a tone that sounded about as pretentious as Kimora Lee Simmons.

What happened after that is anyone’s guess. Somehow a clusterfuck of those who hate, love and don’t know who the hell Ree is began a virtual message board, posting any and everything randomly associated with Atlanta’s nightlife scene, including Ree’s involvement (or non-involvement) with it, and the kind of career advice only a mother(fucker) would give. (more…)

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Happy New Year! I just got back from a much-needed vacation, so I didn’t get a chance to share my favorite albums of 2007. So here’s my very rough list of several standouts. It’s a small sampling of the 200-300 albums I listened to — and that might be a conservative estimate. See you in ’08.

• Paul Weller, Hit Parade (Yep Roc)
• Lily Allen, Alright, Still (Capitol)
• Deerhunter, Cryptograms (Kranky)
• Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Fill the Heart Shaped Cup (Alpha Pup)
• El-P, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (Definitive Jux)
• Lifesavas, Gutterfly: The Original Soundtrack (Quannum)
• Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc)
• Battles, Mirrored (Warp)
• Feist, The Reminder (Cherry Tree/Interscope)
• The Cat Empire (Velour)
• Von Sudenfed, Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino)
• Simian Mobile Disco, Attack Decay Sustain Release (Interscope)
• Yesterdays Universe, Prepare for a New Yesterday (Volume One) (Stones Throw)
• Panda Bear, Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
• Lavender Diamond, Imagine Our Love (Matador)
• Anthony Hamilton, Southern Comfort (Merovingian)
• Lawrence, Lowlights from the Past and Future (Mule)
• Amy Winehouse, Back to Black (Universal Republic)
• Digitalism, Idealism (Astralwerks)
• Rob Crow, Living Well (Temporary Residence)
• Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation (reissue) (Geffen)
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen (Virgin)
• Caribou, Andorra (Merge)
• The Rurals, The Grass Is Always Greener (Peng!)
• Booka Shade, DJ-Kicks (!K7)
• Prefuse 73, Preparations (Warp)
• Little Brother, Getback (ABB)
• PJ Harvey, White Chalk (Island)
• Shape of Broad Minds, Craft of the Lost Art (Lex)
• Henrik Schwarz, Live (!K7)
• M.I.A., Kala (Interscope)
• Dimlite, This Is Embracing (Sonar Kollektiv)
• Beans, Thorns (Adored & Exploited)
• Black Lips, Good Bad Not Evil (Vice)
• The Field, From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)
• Panacea, The Scenic Route (Glow-in-the-Dark)
• Habersham, Outside the Box EP (Audio Therapy)
• Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! (self-released)
• Supermayer, Save the World (Kompakt)
• Talib Kweli and Madlib, Liberation (Blacksmith)
• Ellen Allien, Time Out Presents the Other Side Berlin (Deaf Dumb & Blind)
• Meshell Ndegeocello, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams (Universal)
• Prodigy, Return of the Mac (Koch)
• Pattie Blingh and the Akebulan 5, Sagala (Ramp)

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The bloggers and press snubbed Jermaine Dupri, and he snubbed them back by making it nearly impossible for working press to get into his much-hyped Jackson 5 New Year’s Eve reunion party at his suburban Atlanta club, Studio 72.

The certified hit-maker Jermaine Dupri has never gotten the industry respect he feels he deserves. When urban superproducers are mentioned, his name rarely comes up. And when it does, it always runs a distant second to guys such as Dr. Dre, Timbaland and Diddy. As a result, J.D. has developed a bit of a Napoleon complex.

When CL called (after sending several unanswered e-mails) Studio 72 manager Solo, he said Dupri wasn’t planning on giving up any press passes. He went on to mention something to the effect of Dupri being the only person big enough to pull something this huge off in Atlanta.

And for the record, he did pull it off. Dupri deserves major kudos for that. But if he really wanted the nonbelievers to eat their words, he should’ve opened the party up to more press. Hate to sound all self-righteous here, but J.D., you could’ve really used us on this one.

Check out the grainy YouTube footage above to see Jackson brothers Tito, Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon in the minutes leading up to the countdown. While the crowd ogles them as if they’re fish at the Georgia Aquarium, the brothers awkwardly stand in place looking like they haven’t been on a stage together since the Victory tour. Janet was also in the house, playing it cool, though she isn’t seen on the video.

And Michael Jackson is believed to have been absent, though there were reported sightings of him around town. Maybe he decided showing up at the club wouldn’t be worth his time once he realized there wouldn’t be any photo op.

Believe me, dude didn’t become the Thriller without knowing how to work the media. MTV can vouch for that.

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