Apparently the Julia Roberts character in the original Pretty Woman book was a much older, wizened, lady of LA. The production team changed her age to attract audience sympathies and mucho box office dinero..

Anyway, before I get into a feminist or age-inappropriate discussion about what this says about our culture, let’s listen to the electro offering from Brooklyn outfit Bear in Heaven. The video (smartypants) is heavily inspired by Julia Roberts and Pretty Woman..

Missy Elliott! Soundtrack to my high school days. Or more precisely, my after-school high school days. Every time I stand in line at Duane read scanning the covers of gossip magazine I half expect Missy to turn up Jennifer Hudson style: half the size and twice the grooming, declaring her new passion for delivering vegan pet food to the people (oh sorry, that’s Ellen and Portia).

Anyway, I can let go of those fears because Missy is back and fresh as ever. Along with Nas (YES), Ice Cube (DOUBLE YES), and Bones Thugs and Harmony (can I get a HELL YES?), she will be on the stage at this year’s Rock The Bells Festival. Hitting New Jersey on September 1-2, 2012.

The new (only available at Starbucks, sad face) track from the Magnetic Zeros is really good. I was trying to find the words to tell you why you should listen to lead vocalist, all-round troubadour Alex Ebert, but why bother, when Wikipedia says it so much better than I ever could?

“After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house with his lifelong friend Nicholas Raymond Kellen, and joining a 12-step program for addiction, Ebert began work on a book about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe.According to Ebert, Sharpe “was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind…but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love.” Ebert later met singer Jade Castrinos outside a downtown Los Angeles cafe. In the summer of 2009, Ebert, Castrinos, and a group of musicians toured the country by bus as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.”

The rest, as they say, is footprints in the sand..

Forget buying a t-shirt with your favourite ever band’s name across the chest next time you see them live. That’s SOOOOOOOO 2011. English belle Lucy Rose’s merchandise stand features her own tea blend – Builder Grey (two parts English breakfast tea, one part Earl Grey) –alongside jars of her own-recipe rhubarb-and-ginger preserve.

Young, confident, optimistic, talented.

That’s quite an accolade, from a very respectable source too: the UK’s Guardian newspaper describes North London boy Kiwanuka as an “unreconstructed soul man”. Whatever that means.

This boy is only going to get better.

As I will be camping in Vermont this weekend, I decided to look up famous bands from the fair state. Something local to eat my pancakes and maple syrup to. However it turns out Phish might be the only famous band to have ever come from Vermont, although the Vermont Symphony Orchestra was the first state-funded orchestra in the nation, founded in 1934. Now that’s rock’n'roll.

A friend of mine recently played with Nneka in Europe, and recommended I check her out. The Nigerian-American hiphop singer is huge in Nigeria, famous in Germany, and…if only for the time being, almost unknown in the USA.

Refreshing, jumping, drumming,perfect for summer loving.

Well, nameless to me at least. Music heads on the West Coast have been filling their blogs with thumbs up over recent shows by Mazzy Star, the duo responsible for this famous little ditty.

Personally, I’m a bigger fan of this, their first new material in 15 years, released last fall. A full album is hitting the electronic shelves this summer, according to Brooklyn Vegan.

When my magic carpet finally gets home from the mechanics, this will surely be the soundtrack to a summer of floating over New York. In the meantime, I’ll settle for Wills Earl Beal live at The Echo tomorrow night, May 2nd.

If you haven’t heard the hype, read up here on the drawing, singing, one man army.

…sings White Blush, aka Carol Rhyu.  A beautifully dreamy cotton wool ball of a single with surprisingly fierce lyrics