Norah Jones got a film career boost when it was announced that My Blueberry Nights, which is the first English language film from Wong Kar-Wai, will open the 60th Cannes Film Festival. According to IMDB, Jones stars as "A young woman [who] takes a soul-searching journey across America to resolve her questions about love while encountering a series of offbeat characters along the way." Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Ed Harris and Rachel Weisz are also in the film.

Speaking of films, Cary Brothers, a Zach Braff favorite, has a new record coming out. Who You Are will hit stores May 29th and Cary kicks off a tour in support of the record in late April. You can dates here. Check out some Cary Brothers tracks below.

Cary Brothers Mp3s: Ride & Who You Are

Since we're on kind of a film theme, I've been overlooking this Snow Patrol video from the new Spiderman movie that has been sitting in my in box for a couple days. If you haven't seen it yet, check out "Signal Fire" here. The soundtrack is out May 1st and is said to contain 14 original tracks from The Walkmen, Wolfmother, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, Jet, The Killers and if you can do math, obviously a few more, including actor Jason Schwartzman performing as "Coconut Records."

O.A.R. announced details of their upcoming new album, "Live From Madison Square Garden." The two-CD set is a live recording from January 2007 and will hit stores on June 5th. Catch a preview of the disc here. As expected, the band will be touring extensively this spring and throughout the summer.

XM Radio has extended it's relationship with Bob Dylan for another season. Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" where he plays songs related to a theme - hence the name - wrapped the first season yesterday and will return in September. In case you've missed, XM will air a "Theme Time Radio Hour" marathon during Memorial Day weekend, broadcasting every episode from the first season, beginning May 26 at 6 p.m. ET on The Village (XM 15).

Labels: Bob Dylan, Cary Brothers, Mp3s, Norah Jones, OAR, Snow Patrol

Check out Gym Class Heroes on AOL Music Sessions Undercover. They perform acoustic versions of 'Cupid's Chokehold' and 'The Queen And I' from the As Cruel As School Children record as well as putting their own spin on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Under The Bridge.'

Mat Kearney is hitting the road as part of the VH1 "You Oughta Know" Tour. Mat will be joined by The Feeling and Rocco DeLuca and the Burden. The tour kicks off in March in Denver. Not to be outdone, MTV has Lily Allen headlining its "Discover and Download" tour.

If you're in NYC you should check out the Kerri Black's singer/songwriter showcase this Thursday January 25, 2007 at Mo Pitkins 34 Ave A. Kerry's bill includes Lin McEwan, Gregory Paul and Dave Doobin. The kicks off at 8:45.

Snow Patrol drummer's Jonny Quinn broken his arm while snow boarding. Yes, quite ironic. Quinn's injury will not side line the band. The rest of the Patrol will continue to tour with a replacement drummer. NME reports that ex-Therapy drummer Graham Hopkins will fill in.

Matt Russell will release his debut for Apology Records, Climbing, on February 6th. LocalBuzz says "Russell has an evocative, emotional voice that can deliver the raw power of stripped-down Springsteen one moment and the gruff, melancholic intimacy of Tom Waits the next." Listen to the title track here.

Amy Winehouse, who recently kicked off a US tour, continues to make label execs happy. She's #1 in the UK (two weeks in a row) and according to Island Records has now shipped over 500k albums. Amy has also been nominated for Best Album and Best Female Vocalist for the Brit Awards. Check out mp3s for "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good." YouTube has the video for Rehab here.

If you're going to write a song called "Punkrocker," there aren't too many better choices than to get Iggy Pop to sing it. That's exactly what Sweden's Teddybears did. Check out the video for Punkrocker here.

Pagoda is set to release their self-titled album on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label on Feb 27th. You can listen to their energetic "Lesson Learned" here.

Angels & Airwaves are working on their new record. They'll do some recording in Tom DeLonge's Macbeth recording studios. The band will also play an Earth Day concert at the school that wins the mtvU GE "ecomagination challenge."

In other green band news, O.A.R. has partnered with the Clif GreenNotes campaign to promote environmental awareness during the course of the band's Winter Tour with Gomez. Both bands are trying to "green up" their act by using biodiesel to fuel their tour buses, offsetting the tour's CO2 emissions through the purchase of clean, renewable wind energy credits, minimizing the idling of tour buses and staying at hotels identified as more sustainable.

Roger Waters contributes a track to the soundtrack for The Last Mimzy. The tune "Hello (I Love You)" features guest appearances by drummer Steve Gadd (Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Steely Dan), guitarist Gerry Leonard (music director/guitarist for David Bowie), with Waters on bass and vocals. The Last Mimzy's 6-year-old star Rhiannon Leigh Wryn also appears on the track, singing along with Waters on the chorus.

Labels: Amy Winehouse, Gym Class Heroes, Mat Kearney, OAR, Roger Waters, Snow Patrol

By:David Schultz

You only get one opportunity to play your first show at Madison Square Garden. This axiom appeared to be in the mind of Of A Revolution's lead singer Marc Roberge as he took a moment near the close of O.A.R.'s MSG debut to look out into the sold-out crowd and reflect on how far his band has come since forming in 1998 at the Ohio State University. While clearly humbled by the platform from which he could speak, Roberge offered genuine appreciation to O.A.R.'s wildly appreciative and vocal fans and figuratively tweaked his nose at naysayers who thought his band couldn't reach this level of popularity. Concluding a 2½ show, which mixed songs from Stories Of A Stranger, their recent release, with long-time live favorites like "Black Rock" and "About Mr. Brown," O.A.R. left their remarkably young fans reeling with thoughts that they have seen the best show of their lives.

On stage, O.A.R. does nothing outstanding. Guitarist Richard On and bassist Benji Gershman display competency but fail to provide any type of virtuosity or extraordinary proficiency that merit further discussion. Likewise, drummer Chris Culos adequately keeps the beat but doesn't offer any notable fills or ruffles. Saxophonist Jerry DePizzo brings something different to O.A.R.'s sound and his style brings to mind Leroi Moore's contributions to the Dave Matthews Band. While O.A.R. doesn't inspire flowery prose, they also don't deserve to be disparaged as they put on an exceptionally entertaining show. Much of the credit for this has to go to songwriter, lead singer, rhythm guitarist Mark Roberge. An unassuming yet engaging and entertaining frontman, Roberge confidently occupies center stage, belting out his solidly arranged songs with amiable charm. Although On and DiPizzo are given opportunities to solo, the band is at their best with Roberge drawing attention up front, removing the focus from the capable but unremarkable band.

The success of their recent album, Stories Of A Stranger, has propelled them from the college circuit into top 40 radio airplay and an appearance on MTV's Total Request Live. However, O.A.R.'s latest success has not come without a price. The release of Stories Of A Stranger, which tones down the band's reggae inclinations in favor of a slicker, mainstream sound, has divided the O.A.R. faithful into loudly opinionated camps. While one group of fans applauds O.A.R.'s desire to reach a larger audience, viewing the new album as a benchmark in the evolution of the band, another sect decries the whole project with the musical uber-insult "sellout."

While O.A.R. can draw a line in the sand amidst their own fans, they can also draw one between the generations. If the Garden audience represents their base demographic, O.A.R.'s core fanbase consists primarily of high school and college students. A large number of O.A.R.'s songs, especially their older tunes, are essentially reggae-style calypso tunes that borrow heavily from Bob Marley and the Wailers. In the case of their set closer "Missing Pieces," O.A.R.'s blatant lift of Marley’s "Lively Up Yourself" will be instantly recognizable to older fans. Younger fans don't seem to notice the similarity or, if they do, don't care. Another example of the generation gap came during Roberge's quiet performance of Stranger's "Dakota." Introducing the song as one written for John Lennon, Roberge's song imagines what would have happened had Lennon walked by the Dakota on December 8th a quarter century ago. The song lacks any true insight or understanding of the complexities of Lennon's persona. Given that Roberge was an infant when Lennon was murdered, it's hard to scathingly criticize his honest expression, no matter how earnestly misguided. Likewise, it would be overly cynical to fault the majority of fans for emoting openly during the song as most of them weren't even born when Lennon died, essentially making him a historical figure. However, since "Dakota" honored Lennon, younger fans instinctively flipped open the cell phones (the 21st century version of raising lighters overhead) in homage to the deceased Beatle. While the sentiment shouldn't be diminished, those with actual memories of Lennon will find the entire spectacle extraordinarily trite.

Kicking off his own tour in support of the March release of his first studio album Youth, Matisyahu opened the show with a stunning reggae set. For those not in the know, Matisyahu is a budding reggae singer who just happens to be a Hassidic Jew and has caused more audio-visual musical dysphasia since MTV first broadcast Snow's "Informer" video. According to his bio, Matisyahu (nee Matthew Miller) found solace in the respective mysticisms of Bob Marley and Hassidic Judaism, achieving a sense of spiritual peace he could not find elsewhere. With his traditional Hassidic appearance, his mere presence on stage is surreal. When he unleashes reggae chants worthy of the most native Jamaican, your jaw drops. Matisyahu's opening set provided a nice segue to O.A.R.'s reggae tinged tunes. Even moreso, O.A.R. used the calypso beat fueling "Program Director," Roberge's plea for radio airplay, as an excuse to bring Matisyahu back out to freestyle a bit of his own song "Jerusalem."

Of A Revolution have ways to go before they become a household name. However, the strides they have made forward, even at the risk of alienating their fans, resemble those made by the Dave Matthews Band early in their career. Although many DMB fans grumbled and moaned that some of the tracks on Under The Table and Dreaming were a compromise for airplay, the band seemed to have survived. Regardless of any criticism leveled at the band, a Madison Square Garden sellout would indicate the band's doing something right. Even more telling, come the end of their signature song "That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker," Roberge had the crowd chanting gleefully along with the name check near the close of the song. It's one thing to get a crowd to come see you, quite different when you get them to chant your name.

Labels: OAR