There are only a few days left to grab a free iTunes download of Amy Winehouse's second single "You Know I’m No Good" from her new album Back To Black (to be released March 20th in the US via Universal Republic ). Featured as single of the week on the site, the groovy funker is only a taster of what Amy has to offer America in the months to come. With her debut and sophomore albums already top selling UK favorites, waves of her to-die-for vocals...

This week Waxploitation launched its 3rd Annual Auction For Darfur , a charity to benefit an area of western Sudan under mass siege and slaughter. The musically diverse record label will be auctioning off a wide range of artist albums on eBay with proceeds going to the Save Darfur Coalition and Human Rights Watch . The Save Darfur Coalition reports, "It has...

The 27th annual British Record Industry Trust (BRIT) Awards nominees have just been announced. A music industry sponsored institution that has more recently favored the views of the public, the BRIT awards has fewer categories than most ceremonies, focusing mainly on the year’s most popular British and international artists. Contrary to what that may mean to some, several Giant Step favorites are heavily featured with outstanding chances of winning. In the British category,...

Last Friday, Sheridan Square Entertainment , owner of V2 North America , axed the label in order to shift focus to digitally distributed media. Consequently, V2, a giant in the American independent label world and home to Moby , the White Stripes , and the Raconteurs , laid off all 35 of its employees, including president Andy Gershon. Keeping afloat with modern times, Sheridan Square is hoping to capitalize on the internet download market. A possible merger...

Y'all ready for a Lily Allen digest? Unless you have been living under a rock these past few months, you already know that British sensation Lily Allen is causing a major stir in the US. Not only is Allen is recognized across the boards as an artist to watch in outlets such as The New York Times, Vibe, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and The Los Angeles Times , she also ranked #1 on Blender ’s list of “25 Reasons to Love ’07” and #1 in URB ’s Future Music...

Just announced: Gnarls Barkley will perform live for the 49th Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In addition to garnering 5 nominations this year as Gnarls Barkley, the two members as solo artists are no strangers to this prestigious event: Danger Mouse won a Grammy for his productions while vocalist Cee-Lo Green has received 5 nominations in past years. The event will be...

Finnish-born New York resident and long time favorite of ours, Janita just released a new video for the second track off of her widely acclaimed Seasons Of Life . Shot in classic faded black and white, bossa-tinged "I Miss You" ’s visuals can be enjoyed below. Janita - "I Miss You" Video

Original Organized Konfusion member, Pharoahe Monch has a new LP ready to fire early this year entitled Desire ( Rifkind records). After recording an unreleased sophomore album and battling his way out of a contract with Geffen , eight years after his debut Internal Affairs Monche has finally finished his 2nd proper full-length. "On a creative and business level, I've never been this excited," Monche exclaimed. "I've had the time to work...

“We want to reinvent the phone,” Steve Jobs stated. We won’t know if Apple will accomplish its goal until the iPhone’s release in June, but a momentary perusal of its list of features will blind you to every other phone on the market. It does everything you might expect from a normal mobile phone: it calls, it texts, it takes pictures and it checks voicemail. However, these basic features operate in a fundamentally different fashion. The user controls the...

Sublabel of Blue Note , Narada Jazz has created a media player for two of their artists' newly released albums, Bees + Things + Flowers by Incognito and The Best Of Down To The Bone . Both LPs come highly recommended from us, so be sure and check out their player here .