Today's Pick

Well, honestly I just found out this great CD and found myself entertained throughout whole CD and its fantastic and I love all of 12 tracks by heart, have to say this is one of the best ever! Believe it or not, Owl City is a state of mind, not a place, like a bird-lover's destination, nor is even a band. It's only one man, Adam Young, a 23-year-old from Minnesota who is influences are disco and European electronic music and started making music on PC in his parents' basement from early 2007. 1980s synthpop and New Wave music is also heard in Owl City's sound. I've quickly become a fan of Owl City now. So you'll just have to believe me when I say that this is the band you have been waiting for.
What started out as a project in the basement with a mike and synthesizer turned into a self-recorded and released EP and eventually a deal with the Universal label, which issued his major label debut (his sophomore album), "Ocean Eyes" in July 14(digital), and September 1(physical). Owl City's dreamy synth-pop soon became an online phenomenon. The synthpop artist Young's songs have been played almost 48 million times on the Owl City MySpace page. Now MySpace users apparently love his music, which has millions of listens. As of yesterday, the up-and-coming artist Young's Owl City album ranked No. 14 on iTunes, sandwiched between Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Black Eyed Peas. The lead song "Fireflies" was an instant success and chosen as the Single of the Week by iTunes. This led to a huge success as the song was downloaded over 650,000 times and helped the album peak at #2 on the store. The building on the cover is the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
The album "Ocean Eyes" features guest vocals by Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen, and is a collection of every thing he can do well, and synth pop gems that will delight the most hardened and discerning of musical fanatics. Like new urban contemporaries lights, Young's music is primarily synth based, dreamy and atmospheric, and MySpace into the most breathtaking aural waterfall. There’s no doubt that the album is all very cutesy and sugary in it’s lyrically content. All in all, the album is a success with catchy hooks, great loops and some serious harmonizing. It is the perfect summer album, but it’s doubtful the songs will remain on playlists for longer than that because this album only finds the happy in life. The video for "Fireflies" directed by Steve Hoover, features Young playing the song on his synthesizer in a toy-filled bedroom, where most of the toys come to life.

After months of nightmares, arguments and chauffeured drives around Hollywood, Tokio Hotel, the German pop rock band, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing, finally gave fans a first full taste of the band's much-anticipated forthcoming LP, "Humanoid" album, the follow-up to their 2007 debut Scream, and premiering the video for the lead single, the soaring "Automatic," produced by David Josh, on their Website late Thursday, and will be released digitally on September 22, while the album “Humanoid” is scheduled to be released across the US on October 6, and understandably, the boys from the Germany’s hottest musical export are already preparing to take over the music scene here with their new tracks. Until that happens, though, fans here will have to make due with the new video for their first single "Automatic".
The music video was directed by Craig Wessels and filmed over three days in the desert of South Africa. The plot of brand-new sci-fi themed video is a simple legendary tale, all kinds of epic, featuring the band racing across windswept plains in classic muscle cars, just like the message of the song. It shows the band members driving cars and performing on a stage in the desert, while a sub-plot deals with with computer generated "Transformers 4" inspired robots. "Automatic" is the most moving robot story since Wall-E.

The film "State of Play" comes to us on DVD/Blu-Ray today. From director Kevin Macdonald of "The Last King of Scotland" and his committee of screenwriters have, like newsroom rewrite aces, based on the critically acclaimed BBC miniseries of the same name, "State of Play." The plot of the six-hour serial has been condensed to fit two hours, and shifting locales from London to U.S. capital. The film was released in North America on April 17.
Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast, including Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams & Helen Mirren in the blistering political thriller about deception, manipulation and corruption. When a street smart D.C. reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe), an old-school-style journalist is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming U.S. Congressman (Affleck), who's also his best friend, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nation's power structures. In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no one's integrity, love or life is safe.
Political thrillers are most effective when they deal with an issue that resonates with their audiences. It can be difficult to produce them in a timely matter because news happens constantly, and seemingly weekly, the world is on to the next story of corruption or injustice.
With this tense thriller "State of Play," the universal themes of greed and amoral politicians, it brings together gripping performances, riveting suspense and is "sophisticated, intelligent and powerful". It feels a little familiar as far as paranoid political thrillers go, but it's so nicely executed—well written, compelling and rich—with a stellar set of actors that it's easy to get engrossed in the story, and the current American political climate fits nicely with the story. The drama features terrific performances from its stars as well. The special extras for DVD include deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes making-of featurette.

Following up his acclaimed legal thriller "Michael Clayton" and "Bourne" movies, writer/director Tony Gilroy takes a vacation with the deceptively lightweight "Duplicity," is supposedly one of the smartest screenwriters we've got. The film was released on March 20, and it's DVD/Blu-ray with featuring commentary will be available today.
The allure of this romance caper, Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as two sexy spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war between rival manufacturers, they'll put everything on the line to remain one double-cross ahead in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse.
Carol Hemphill & Kent Tentschert Merriam-Webster defines the word, "duplicity," as "contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action," and Gilroy must love these contradictions. The ways in which the paranoid pair interact are complicated, and any clear description would introduce spoilers. Suffice it to say that this witty thriller-cum-romance explores the seductive power of the almighty dollar. It’s that great Julia and Owen chemistry dancing through Gilroy’s clever dialogue that makes this a crowd-pleaser.
"Duplicity" is well-crafted, smart, and often funny, but it’s mostly more cerebral than visceral and features far too many plot twists. As silly as the convoluted plot turns out to be, the movie is about the journey, not the destination. All moves, countermoves and double crosses keep you guessing until the finale.

"Fallin' For You" is the first single from Colbie Caillat's upcoming sophomore album "Breakthrough" set for August 25 release. The pop-ballad song was released today in the US. Colbie explained to Elle that the song is "about falling for a guy I was friends with. We went out on a date and I realized that there was no one else in the room. The room was silent, and I was on this high from it the next day and wrote this song."
Colbie debuted in 2007 with "Coco", which included hit singles "Bubbly", "Realize", and "The Little Things"; She recorded a cover of the song "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid for Disney's DisneyMania vol.6 CD in May 2008; and also released a song and video for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics called "Somethin' Special" in August 2008.
"Fallin' For You" is honestly a very simple and mellow song. It really is quite relaxing, and follows well from the strength her other hits like "Bubbly" and her recent duet "Lucky" with Jason Mraz have score. I am very eager to see if Colbie's next record can shine just as well as she can sparkle. When it has came down it, there are honestly very few singers right now that simply touch you in the heart, that aren't all about gimmicks or fancy gloss, just a simple voice of the soul. Colbie has honestly has been one of those few. Since she broke out a couple of years ago with "Coco", she has really made great strides as a singer/songwriter.

Hinder is an American rock band from Oklahoma since 2001 by drummer Cody Hanson, guitarist Joe Garvey, and singer Austin Winkler. "Better than Me" is the 4th single released from Hinder's debut album, "Extreme Behavior", which released today in US.
The music video for the song starts with the band playing in a dark room, and goes to scenes of a young couple. I also like Hinder's breakthrough single, "Lips of an Angel", which contains in same album, and soared to #1 on the pop charts in 2006.
Please check Hinder's Official Website, MySpace, Facebook, and Fan Club for more details.