March 22nd's Music Overloaded Hot Spot Vspot

by B Condon 3:28 PM

Looks like spring has sprung and sprung a leak, cue umbrellas and singing all songs that involve umbrellas (Rhianna, Dressy Bessy, etc.). Anyway, my Vspot bookmark folder is overflowing with stereogum articles and people should know about the things that make me oh so excited!

Smashing Into a Renewal

Only 8 episodes in and with the strange power of holding me back from multitasking in staring at the screen, NBC finally renews Smash for twelve more episodes according to tvline.com. YAY. Enough said. And what about Bernadette Peters singing "Everything's Comin' Up Roses" this week? Oh dear lord, I felt like I was having a stroke of multiple voguegasms. Bernadette still has it. 

Sharon van Etten Continues to get Bigger...

...And closer to Iowa City with the release of her single and kaleidoscopic music video of Tramp/Life of His Own. Did I fail to mention Sharon actually has this amazing smile that melted my knee caps in the video? Regardless, she is still rocking the music scene... albeit subtly. Did I mention she was also on Conan O'Brien crooning the huge hit? Next Friday cannot come any sooner. 

Leonard Music Video

Life of His Own 

Get Ready, 'Cos CALLmeKAT is back

From one sexily vocal stringed woman to another, the woman who has epitomized Britney Spears covers for the rest of eternity for me, Katerine Ottersen is back with a 5-track album "Where the River Turns Black" with heavy synthy music much like her first album "Fall Down." I have strong hopes for her to mold another cover song, but a girl can always dream. "Where the River Turns Black" comes out officially March 26th. 

Joanna Newsom Releases "Instrumental 1999"

Barely with a title but with so much beauty in the first sparse notes of Newsom's harp, the instrumental has one thing critically missing and that's her angelic voice, pre-surgery although. No matter, if you want a great free download, it's here at stereogum.

From "Pop Goes the World" to "Perfect World"

Beth Ditto is my plus-sized hero, well next to Nikki Blonsky but Blonsky has never posed nude before. So what is our ballsy front-woman to The Gossip doing these days, besides raking in extra cash from selling "Heavy Cross" to Dior, which Charlize Theron struts down the cat-walk to? Well, it looks like recording and making new LP "A Joyful Noise" with Brian Heggins from Xenomania. Again, it's all here at stereogum. every last 80s-inspired  note of the great single.

Bon Iver's S. Carey is Still Trucking with Solo Work

Justin Vernon may be grooming the next Bon Iver album and beard he attained from writing the last album, but it looks like the Eau Claire native will be putting out a new EP, Hoyas at a yet determined date later this spring. But by the sound of the first single "Two Angles" which is very inspired from Vernon, this sounds what the otherworld must sound like. 

Dark Shadows Preview - Win or Fail?

Jury's still out considering Dark Shadows movie, although I had so much hope for it, documented in "October 20th's "Shut Up It's Not That Cold Out" Hot Spot Vspot" with great hope of the writing done by Seth Grahame-Smith, Tim Burton's sense of space and mise en scene with Depp's presence to top it all off. So what happened? In the trailer it looks like a typical spin of all those TV-series turned into movies, "Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Brady Bunch" which is a commentary on how society has changed. Why would anyone want to watch this? Um, take another watch of the preview, Eva Green's cleavage of course! Despite my adoration for the four people involved (Burton, Depp, Green and Bonham-Carter), I know no one should judge until watching the whole thing but you have to wonder, is adaptation so difficult that you have to put it into that "TV characters in the modern day" format?