MUSIC NEWS: Dan Black, VV Brown, Discovery, Basement Jaxx, The Beatles, Mariah Carey, Calvin Harris

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop-culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

NEW ARTISTS TO WATCH AND FREE DOWNLOADS

We’re going out on a limb here, but we'll say it: For summer 2009 — Black is the new black. Dan Black, that is, singer of the defunct U.K. alt-rock group The Servant and now a proud solo performer in his own right.

Out now in the U.K., Black’s debut, ((un)) — that’s French for “one” — was culled together via laptop technology and good old-fashioned studio know-how in his adopted home of Paris, and the results are splendide indeed. Black careens from polyrhythmic dance floor anthems (“Yours,” “Pump My Pumps”) to stately mid-tempo ballads like “Ecstasy” with ease.

Whether it’s the Passion Pit remix of the Rihanna and Notorious B.I.G.-cribbing single “Symphonies” or the tribal drums of album track “I Love Life” — both available here as FREE DOWNLOADS — everyone needs some Black in their collection.

Who says that Black and Brown don’t go together? VV Brown’s another U.K. artist, and her spirited neo-pop’s a great complement to Black’s laptop hip-hop. She’s a Blondie-style lover of the rock and roll verities. Her early singles — “Crying Blood,” “LEAVE!,” and “Shark in the Water” — blend doo-wop, new wave and punk sprightliness for a fresh take on pop’s rich history. She even incorporates her own multi-tracked Destiny’s Child-type harmonies into the girl-group homage “Crazy Amazing” — a tune we can only hope is a future hit in the U.S. Brown’s long awaited debut, Travelling Like the Light, is out now.

Back in the U.S., Discovery — the first official side project of both Vampire Weekend (keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij) and Ra Ra Riot (vocalist Wes Miles) — gets all electro up in here on their debut LP (available now). It’s a playfully experimental mix of synths and harmonies — like Grizzly Bear discovering disco — with a slowed-down, AutoTune’d-up take on The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back." 

"Orange Shirt," a billowy soufflé of morning-after guilt and elation, is available here as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

MUSIC NEWS

Basement Jaxx have completed work on their fifth album, "Scars," due in October. The eclectic and impressive roster of guest vocalists on the album includes Sam Sparro, Santigold, Yoko Ono and Eli "Paperboy" Reed.

Get ready for a barrage of publicity on The Beatles, as their catalog is re-issued September 9. To make sure the die-hard fans are worked into a lather, Apple Corps. is releasing the Box of Vision to store all the CDs. In addition to being a fancy storage unit, the box will include a 200-page LP-size book featuring comprehensive album artwork.

Mariah Carey's video for "Obsessed" will premiere tomorrow night on "America's Got Talent" (NBC, 9/8c).

Triple-threat Calvin Harris (electronic musician, singer/songwriter, producer) not only has a new album out in the U.K. next month, but he's also going to be working with both Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry on new tracks we'll hear from them in '10.

Madonna and, um, the Thompson Twins? Live Aid was 24 years ago today...relive the memories.

TODAY'S NEW RELEASES

Is it any surprise the smartest movie of the summer has the best soundtrack? (500) Days of Summer — Music from the Motion Picture features old classics by Regina Spektor, The Smiths and more, with some future classics from The Temper Trap and Carla Bruni.

Fresh from his acoustic triumph on YouTube with Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” Daughtry roughs up his sweet mainstream rock sound even more on his sophomore album Leave This Town.

We want to know what Jack White’s taking that lets him handle three full-time bands. The Dead Weather, his latest, featuring that scary little minx Alison Mosshart from The Kills, finally releases Horehound.

Give it up for all the openly gay heavy metal rock stars...all one of them, that is: Rob Halford and Judas Priest release their live A Touch of Evil today.

Also released:  Joe — Signature; David Bowie — VH1 Storytellers; Chico DeBarge — Addiction; Crosby Loggins — Time to Move; The Dandy Warhols — The Dandy Warhols Are Sound; The Most Serene Republic — And the Ever Expanding Universe

MUSIC VIDEOS

The Rumble Strips: “Not the Only Person”
The oddly chipper Charlie Waller — lead singer of this English quintet — gets followed by hoodlums down a blind alley before things get supernaturally weird in this upbeat tune from their forthcoming, Mark Ronson-produced Welcome to the Walk Alone.

Calvin Harris: “Ready for the Weekend”
The Scottish electro-wizard who told us what was “Acceptable in the 80s” is now “Ready for the Weekend” with a clip that uses the red London Underground circle as a looking-glass. Like a Target commercial gone wild.

Dirty Projectors: “Stillness Is the Move”
From their latest release Bitte Orca, these Brooklyn bohemians marry Middle Eastern atonality to the soul-stirring femme vocals of Amber Coffman on this naturalistic clip featuring llamas, wolves and lovely ladies in blue couture burkas.

Sally Shapiro: “Love in July”
Shapiro continues her merger of Italo Disco and Swedish pop smarts with this breezy synth-blast accompanied by the digitally-enhanced deep-sea journey of a pale blue animated whale. From her forthcoming album Miracle.

Rufus Wainwright Reveals New Opera, New Beard

The opera that Rufus Wainwright has been working on for some time now recently debuted in Manchester, UK.

Wrote the NYT: "There are inspired touches and disarmingly beautiful passages in this mysterious, stylistically eclectic work. With a libretto in French by Mr. Wainwright and Bernadette Colomine, 'Prima Donna' depicts a turning point in the life of a prematurely retired opera singer, a day when she confronts the demons that drove her from the stage and finds new resolve. But Mr. Wainwright’s score and his attitude toward the drama often seem muddled, as if he were relying too much on his keen musical and theatrical instincts lest he overthink and impede his imagination."

The BBC recently broadcast a documentary on Wainwright, his family, and the making of the opera, which you can watch, in six parts, AFTER THE JUMP...

Brit Boyband Singer Duncan James: 'I'm Bisexual'

Duncan James, an actor and singer in the British boyband Blue, tells the UK's News of the World that he is bisexual:

"I've been in loving relationships with men as well as women - and I'm not ashamed. "But even though I fancy men, I still fancy WOMEN too. Am I gay? Am I straight? Am I bi? That's why I was so frightened about talking. Now, in my early 30s, I know who I am and I'm proud of who I am. I don't want to hide anymore. I don't feel I should launch a big comeback with Blue hiding this - I don't want to go back to the time in the band when I felt I had to keep certain things quiet. I want to be OUT and say I've had relationships with men as well as women...I thought there might be weirdness but there wasn't. All of the boys accepted it. We were perceived as lads who went around and slept with women but on the inside we had a lot of love for each other. We always hugged and kissed each other...When you're a young band trying to be successful, there's a lot of pressure on you to be clean-cut and accessible to your female fans...I know most gay guys think, 'Bi Now, Gay Later' and maybe one day the thought of being with a woman won't work for me. But likewise, maybe the thought of being with a guy might be the same. I might want to settle down with a girl to have a family lifestyle. That appeals to me too. Mainly I just want to be happy. I want to be in a long-term relationship and, most importantly, be in love."

"Sooner or Later", a video by Duncan James, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: It's Jackson By a Nose, Heteroflexibility & Meloni's Top Guns

Another actor makes weird comments about on-screen kissing...a dozen years after the fact.

Soap star Michael Muhney (also from Veronica Mars) talks "heteroflexibility" with AfterElton.

Was Canada's Federal Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy punished for approving a fund that provided $400,000 to Toronto's pride festivities?

Rapamycin, an antibiotic, shows signs of delaying the aging process.

It's safe to say that John Micklow (pictured) might not have the sexiest name for a male model, but he's in the right line of work.

Metrosexual manual Details wonders if straight men will take to wearing male engagement rings. Marriage is sacred, but must it also be so precious?

Come Together: Madonna's new single "Celebrate" from her career-spanning hits package Celebration will hit airwaves July 28.

Miami Social, Bravo's latest reality show, debuts Tuesday, July 14, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, featuring two out men. One is HuffingtonPost blogger Michael Cohen, who will be launching Style Lab, a sort of fashion/style version of MySpace in the fall, and the other is Ariel Stein, who I hear you might not love to hate so much as just hate.

Announcing the arrival of Icarus, "the first magazine devoted to gay-themed speculative fiction and writing—from fantasy to horror to science fiction, and all the weird tales that fall between the cracks." The first issue features stories by Jameson Currier, Jeff Mann, Tom Cardamone and Joel D. Lane, interviews with Dan Stone and Peter Grahame and poetry by Lawrence M. Schoen.

A frighteningly detailed portrait of the late Michael Jackson taken for Q Magazine's August 2009 cover reveals the netting of his wig, salt-and-pepper stubble, the most surgically tortured nose since Ann Miller and a telltale gauntness. How could people around him not have feared the worst?

No-Brainer: Jackson's family will not bury him until the L.A. coroner is done with his brain, which they're still examining. Also of note, his sister La Toya was the family member who signed his death certificate. (She infamously agreed her brother may have been guilty of molestation charges, but later recanted, saying an abusive husband had driven her to say it.)

A lawyer who prosecuted an infamous 1983 gay-bashing case in Ireland (the unrepentant perps were convicted but a judge decided nothing would be served by jailing them) passes away.

Swami Baba Ramdev has filed suit in India to reverse the decriminalization of homosexuality, which he terms a "disease" that "can be treated by yoga, pranayama (breathing exercises) and other meditation techniques."

Christopher Meloni—have guns, will travel.

MUSIC NEWS: Fritz Helder & The Phantoms, Jay Brannan, En Vogue, Alison Moyet, Florence + The Machine

MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop-culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

NEW ARTIST TO WATCH AND FREE DOWNLOAD

Toronto electro quartet Fritz Helder & The Phantoms are obsessed with fashion on their cheekily-titled debut Greatest Hits. These sartorial synth-masters wax eloquent on electronic odes to Karl Lagerfeld (“Lagerfeld Lady”) and the pleasures of the runway (“You Ain’t Vogue”). They’re not above a shady put down or two (our favorite’s the deadpan bitch-slap on “Making A Scene”: “That Prada clutch, girl, that’s so last season”). And evidently they like their sex like they like their music: mechanical (“Sex Robot”).

In other words, Nelly Furtado’s first signing to her boutique label is a deeply shallow gang of dance-happy goofballs. They go by the names Fritz Helder (vocals and keytar!), Pastel Supernova (vocals), Diego Superstar (beats/keyboards) and Silk Helder (guitar), and they dress in couture duds that make Scissor Sisters look like grunge-era rockers. 

Check out the Dragonette remix of “Lagerfeld Lady” here.

NEW RELEASES

Gay pin-up folkie/Shortbus star Jay Brannan's In Living Cover — a cover-laden follow-up to last year’s confessional debut goddamned — features gorgeous takes on Joni Mitchell’s seminal love song “All I Want,” The Cranberries’ war-torn “Zombie,” and a handful of striking originals.

Florence + The Machine live up to the overseas hype and then some with the release of their debut Lungs (available digitally only in the U.S.). Backed by a rotating collection of collaborators, Florence shows she’s the new Björk, the new Kate Bush, the new Siouxsie Sioux. In other words, a true original.

Modern soul’s pre-eminent “baby maker” — the seductive neo-soul man Maxwell — disappeared for eight years. But he’s back with a hot new coif and a handful of slinky come-ons with BLACKsummers’night, the first release in a planned trilogy.

Chris Garneau’s a sexy out singer-songwriter in the Sufjan Stevens/Jeff Buckley mold — his breathtaking high, clear voice is beauty incarnate, his songs delicate and tough, and his second release, El Radio, as majestic and steeped in Americana as Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes.

Also released:  The Donnas — Greatest Hits, Volume 16; Stellastarr* — Civilized; LMFAO — Party Rock; Against Me! — The Original Cowboy; Berlin — All the Way In; Cass McCombs — Catacombs; Bowerbirds — Upper Air.

MUSIC NEWS

En Vogue, one of the biggest-selling female groups of all time, marked their 20th anniversary with a live reunion performance this past weekend with the original members. A new album is planned for later this year and a reality TV show is under consideration.

Alison Moyet, whose solo tour was unfortunately cut short last year in the U.S. (presumably due to poor ticket sales), has announced a tour, "25 Years Revisited," in the U.K. this fall. A comprehensive "Best of Alison Moyet" collection will be released there in October, with a deluxe edition to include live versions of her classic songs.

  Record labels have finally reached an agreement with online radio sites, such as Pandora, on the licensing fee for the use of their music. For two years each side battled the other, as the online radio sites charged that the high royalty fees being assessed would put them out of business.

And we thought $1.29 per song was a lot: A Minnesota woman, ordered to pay $1.92 million for illegally sharing copyright-protected music, is seeking a reduction in damages she owes. In a retrial of a 2007 case, she has been charged $80,000 each for 24 songs she shared, which her lawyer argues is "grossly excessive." The Recording Industry Association of America no longer files such lawsuits.

MUSIC VIDEOS

LeToya: "She Ain't Got"
It’s been a good year for the former members of Destiny’s Child — Beyoncé continued her world domination; Kelly Rowland filled dance floors with “When Love Takes Over;” and now LeToya Luckett roars back into the spotlight with this club-thumping face-off with an unfaithful lover. From forthcoming album Lady Love, out August 25.

Rye Rye ftrg. M.I.A.: "Bang" (AUDIO NSFW)
The young Baltimorean rapper Ryeisha "Rye Rye" Berrain is the first signing to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. label; the mentor brings her playful exoticism to her protégé’s crunk-infused homage to ghetto-licious street dancing. Her debut drops later this year.

Franz Ferdinand: “Can't Stop Feeling”
These louche Scots make like the Four Stooges in this playful cause-and-effect clip for a dubby, synthy highlight from this year’s change-of-pace Tonight.

Madonna: "Sticky & Sweet Tour" DVD trailer
Captured on tour in Buenos Aires, this DVD trailer reminds us that there’s nothing Ms. Ciccone cannot do, from double-dutch jump-roping to an Evita sing-a-long, it’s a kaleidoscopic trip through the history of our greatest living pop star. DVD due this fall; date TBA.

Interview with Out Boy-Bander Nathaniel Flatt

Nathaniel Flatt. Photo by Keith Munyan.

Boy bands are successful because they're formulaic, giving fans the archetypes they want—you've got the cute one, the dangerous one, the young one.

Well, how about the gay one?

Twenty-seven-year-old Nathaniel Flatt is not a household name, and you can be excused if you have not yet heard of his boy band V Factory since their single "Love Struck" is just now making an impact at pop radio ahead of a projected summer album release on Warner Bros. Records. What makes him remarkable, aside from his obvious good looks and musicality, is that he's the first member of a U.S boy band to be out from the beginning of his career.

Lance Bass made a huge splash when he came out as gay three years ago on the cover of People after *NSYNC had disbanded, but he'd been beaten to the punch overseas—both Stephen Gately of Boyzone and Mark Feehily of Westlife, Irish boybands with enormous international followings, had come out while their groups were actively recording and touring.

But still, no American boy band has started out with an openly gay member. In talking with Nathaniel about his life and his approach to the media, it became apparent that simply being honest has helped him avoid a lot of uncomfortable situations, kept him proud of who he is and, interestingly, has made the act of coming out itself feel almost an afterthought.

The aim of pop music, in particular teen pop music, is usually to sell, sell, sell, leading to strict rules about the content and length of songs and the appearance and behavior of performers. But for Flatt, his sexual identity is "a part of me just like my arm is so I can't deny it." Being out is not a marketing ploy or a way to head off an impending tabloid story, but a simple matter of authenticity. And haven't explosions of authenticity  from within the clichés of the pop world led to some memorable artists?

It's anyone's guess whether V Factory will join their ranks, but they're on their way, sharing a manager with Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical fame and with former teen idol Tommy Page as their A&R at Warner Bros. (his "I'll Be Your Everything" went to #1 in 1990).

As for Flatt, it sounds like he's already where he needs to be.

Matthew Rettenmund's full interview with Nathaniel Flatt after the jump...