If you thought Brokencyde’s reign of musical terror was so 2008, color yourself mistaken. The screamo crunk kids from New Mexico are just getting started with your children’s not-yet-discerning ears, and they aim to make 2009 their very own via multiple high profile Warped Tour dates, several new videos (some with porn stars!) and even a possible reality show.

Not familiar with the act?  That’s likely because you are over the age of 18 and currently not on crystal meth. Let us get you up to, ahem, speed.

Music writers nationwide were stunned last year ... even shocked into confused adulation upon viewing a cringe-inducing video (“Freaxxx") by a band from Albuquerque known as Brokencyde (for more on the foursome, this piece is a must-read).

"Freaxxx," which we are still unable to post due to lyrical content, united nearly every critic in the country who heard the tune as a probable harbinger of garage band-induced musical bile from the 14-24 set raised on a motley mélange of Lil Jon and Linkin Park.

Unsurprisingly, the band (to be fair, “band” is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as no discernible instruments are played by any member) could care less what others think.  “There’s always gonna be haters,” Michael Montgomery said Wednesday at a video shoot inside the Key Club. “We’re living the dream right now and could care less."

Pop & Hiss will be covering the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., from April 17 to 19. There are more than 120 acts on the bill, but in the next couple of weeks, we'll be selecting some of the best bets -- some on the radar, some flying below.

Who: Busy P

Why you won't be able to wriggle your way out of the sweaty masses during this Paris tastemaker's DJ set: Better known to his friends as Pedro Winter, the dance music impresario helped propagate a dissonant-yet-danceable sound worldwide on his successful Ed Banger Records that marquee act Justice is riding all the way to the bank. And while Winter, who managed Daft Punk for 11 years, may not be the dizzying beatmaker that Mr. Oizo is on the relentless “Lambs Anger,” Busy P has more than a few followers.

Winter's tracks as a producer, such as the rolling, phased-out "Rainbow Man," are now staples of any electro-leaning DJ set. And newer songs, including 2008's "Pedropholia," show promise in advance of a forthcoming full-length. At the very least, his exquisite taste portends an intriguing debut disc, which is slated to drop sometime this year. But still, for Coachella, he'll have to steal some thunder back from the red-hot Institubes crew, two members of which are playing an unofficial Coachella party April 18 in Indio.

Busy P is no stranger to Los Angeles or even Coachella (in a Perry Farrell-esque coup, he played the festival in 2007 and 2008), but count on Winter to unleash loads of energy on April 19 during the day -- with a beat that pulses like Paris la nuit.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo courtesy Biz3

Los Angeles' largest annual dance party just got a little bit bigger.

Promoters of the long-running Electric Daisy Carnival have expanded their updated take on the rave to a two-day affair (June 26-27) to take place once again at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles.

Friday will boast Berlin’s Boyz Noise in a make-up appearance (he was a last-minute no-show last year), in addition to Paul Oakenfold, Eddie Halliwell and ATB. But it’s Saturday that looks like the better of the two nights so far -- with Fatboy Slim, Paul van Dyk, David Guetta, Benny Benassi and Roger Sanchez all on the bill.

Additionally, EDC promoter-founder Pasquale Rotella of Insomniac Events tells Pop & Hiss he has confirmed Sander Van Doorn, Fedde Le Grand, Simian Mobile Disco, LTJ Bukem and Infected Mushroom for the festival, which features five stages, full-size carnival rides and an assortment of art installations. Expect more DJs to be announced in the coming weeks.

Last year's turnout stunned Rotella and his co-promoters, who estimated the crowds to be in excess of 50,000 on June 28, 2008, with fans traveling from as far away as Arizona to make the scene and check out the incredible light show.

Tickets go on sale April 21 for this year's expanded EDC with a yet-to-be determined price. Single day ticket sales will be initially offered online via insomniac.com, with two-day-only tickets for sale by June at the same website and other selected outlets.

--Charlie Amter

Photo of Paul Oakenfold by Lori Shepler/Los Angeles Times

Tonight, “American Idol” continues Motown Week with longtime "Idol" fan and Season 8 coach Smokey Robinson, who will once again appear on the series to show the kids how it's done -- with a brand-new song of his own.

The 69-year-old will debut “You’re the One for Me,” a duet with Joss Stone from his forthcoming record, "Time Flies When You're Having Fun," which is tentatively scheduled to drop in May.

“I first met Joss in England when she was about 15,” Robinson said by phone today. “She’s just incredible, and her voice is so powerful.”

The former Miracles member said the two recorded the tune together in New York last year. And Stone isn’t the only guest Robinson has slated to appear on his forthcoming disc either. The “Tears of a Clown” singer has lined up India.Arie and Carlos Santana to appear on other tracks.

“I had a few people in mind for this project,” said Robinson, who added that he had been slowly putting together original songs (and a version of Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why”) for the record over the last three years.

So who would Robinson like to see take “Idol” this year? Could it be Adam Lambert, to whom he gave a standing ovation for the contestant's shockingly elegant take on "Tracks of My Tears"?

“Oh man,” Robinson laughed. “After mentoring these kids, I am so glad I don’t have to be the one to choose.... They are all so talented.”

-- Charlie Amter

Robinson performs “You’re the One for Me” tonight on “American Idol" at 8 p.m.

Photo: Fox

Calvin Harris, the Scottish singer-producer who is known for his quirky, catchy and wry singles such as "Acceptable in the 80s," has canceled his remaining U.S. and Canadian tour dates due to a "viral and chest infection that hasn't shown any sign of improving," according to his management. The 25-year-old managed to play only the very beginning of the teaser tour, and will not make upcoming DJ dates in Chicago, Toronto or Miami, where he had planned to play a high-profile gig tonight at the annual Winter Music Conference confab (not that any of the clubs he was set to play at have updated their websites to reflect that fact, or anything). The still-sick musician recently called it a "disastrous U.S. tour attempt" on his Twitter account.

The bad luck will make it harder for Harris to pick up new U.S. fans, which is too bad; the up-and-coming producer has cooked up what may well end up being the summer anthem for dance music aficionados with his latest offering, the surprisingly club-friendly and seriously good "I'm Not Alone." 

Along with the release of a new video, "I'm Not Alone" has been gaining momentum worldwide since Pete Tong started playing the pop-tinged track earlier this year on his BBC radio show. Harris' first single off his forthcoming sophomore set for Sony/BMG boasts a melancholy minor-key rock intro and recalls "Technique"-era New Order, the Pet Shop Boys and maybe even some recent Underworld, yet its main hook is straight out of a trance fan's dream. Accordingly, top trance spinners such as Tiësto are raving about "Alone," which may end up becoming the rare track that both pop fans and house heads adore. Expect other influential DJs to also jump on the tune now that  Deadmau5 has done a remix (and even some not-so-influential types from Miami to Madrid to follow suit this spring after the official digital release in early April).

His 2007 full-length, "I Created Disco," received mixed reviews in 2007.  But if the rest of Harris' forthcoming disc is anything as good as "I'm Not Alone," critics may have to take the budding beatmaker a bit more seriously.

-- Charlie Amter 

Ladies and gentleman, Jimmy Chamberlin has left the building. According to a press release, the longtime Smashing Pumpkins drummer has “left the group.” Chamberlin joined the Pumpkins in the late 1980s and played on every release save 1998's "Adore." For those keeping track at home, the Smashing Pumpkins are now down to just one original member: chief songwriter and driving creative force  Billy Corgan. Per the same release, Corgan will “continue to write and record as Smashing Pumpkins with plans to head into the studio this spring.” No reason was given for Chamberlin's departure.

The Los Angeles Times' Randy Lewis spent time with Corgan and Chamberlin in December, when the band taped an episode of "The Chris Isaak Hour" in Hollywood.  According to Lewis, the two were getting along well and Chamberlin talked about those who would buy tickets for the group's concerts and then bad-mouth them. "A lot of people just need something to hate," Chamberlin told Lewis, "and they seem to have found it in us."

Regardless of why Chamberlin decided to walk away, the larger question now becomes this: Can there be a Smashing Pumpkins without Chamberlin?  His distinctive, powerful and damn-near perfect drumming helped define the band; arguably more than former member James Iha or original bassist D’arcy Wretzky.

But without Chamberlin, can you really call any forthcoming record a Smashing Pumpkins release?  Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis wondered earlier this week "what's going on in Billy's head," a question many have been attempting to answer lately.  Sure, it's his band, but at a certain point, Corgan must know that older fans retain a strong connection to the original lineup. 

I, for one, wouldn't mind another Corgan solo record (his 2005 solo release, "The Future Embrace," is underrated), as long as it is billed as such. As much as I like the new band, especially Jeff Schroeder's guitar work, to continue on as Smashing Pumpkins without Chamberlin seems wrong somehow. Count on a heated weekend of discussion over at smashingpumpkins.com (some fans are already incredulous, others despondent).

Cry, complain and discuss in the comments below.

*Update/correction: Jim DeRogatis was incorrectly spelled as Jim DeRegatis in an earlier version of this post.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Big in Japan just isn’t big enough for at least two Asian singers in 2009. Hikaru Utada (pictured) and Boa, two of Tokyo’s top-selling artists, are releasing English language CDs this month in an attempt to win over American pop and R&B fans. 

For decades, Japanese music managers and American record labels have tried to crack the lucrative stateside market with top-selling artists, including Seiko Matsuda in the 1980s and Toshi Kubota in the 1990s. Each time, the endeavor invariably fails; last year, Universal didn’t even bother releasing an English-language record from one if its rising R&B stars, Ai, despite the fact that the singer was born in L.A., is fluent in English and can belt like Beyoncé.

While Boa and Utada are certainly not the first artists to dream of “making it” in the West, Utada’s “This Is the One” and Boa’s self-titled “The First Album” represent a potential watershed moment for Asian pop stars in America: Both offerings arguably surpass previous crossover attempts from the land of the rising sun. 

Los Angeles-based record producer Joey Carbone, who has worked in Japan with singers such as Yuki Koyanagi and Crystal Kay, stated in an e-mail that "both records are good...Boa is a great dancer and a good singer. Utada is a very good singer and a great songwriter."

Kun Gao, CEO of San Francisco-based anime-centric website Crunchyroll.com, agrees that both are a cut above the usual Japanese exports.

“Both Boa and Utada are very popular, not only with world-wide audiences but also have extremely loyal and rapidly growing U.S. fans,” he said.

But the performers have their work cut out for them. “When Japanese and Korean singers have tried to have a hit in the U.S.," Carbone said, "they have changed their look and sound to try to appeal to the U.S. market, and it hasn't come across as real."

Boa and Utata are stars in Japan and beyond -- Boa is actually Korean and maintains a good-sized fan base in her native country, although her career is more prosperous in Tokyo, where she currently lives. Utada has sold more than 50 million records in Japan, and it looks as if “This Is the One” is yet another hit; she currently has the second top-selling download in Japan, according to iTunes, for her the first single, "Come Back to Me," off her all-English disc, which debuts here digitally March 24 (and physically May 12).

But winning over hearts in the Heartland won’t be easy for Utada; mainstream U.S. pop fans who listen to Top 40 radio stations such as KIIS-FM (102.7) are typically reluctant to embrace foreign stars they aren't used to seeing on Perezhilton.com or in the pages of Us Weekly, with notable English and Canadian exceptions.

However, Utada sees herself as more American than Japanese.

“I grew up in New York,” she said from Island Records’ Manhattan office earlier this week. “In Japan, I’m seen as a bit of a foreigner, but in America, I get comments like ‘Your English is so good.’ So in both places I’m a bit of an outsider, but I think that comes out in my music, and everyone feels like an outsider on some level. If people can connect with me there, that would be great.”

Although Utada’s been down this road before with another English language release aimed at U.S. listeners (2004’s “Exodus,” which sold fewer than 60,000 copies, according to Soundscan), this time the bilingual multi-instrumentalist seems to have found her true voice with a more focused effort.

Well, look who just cracked the Top 20. Just six months ago, few outside of hip-hop heads who stumbled across the artist’s MySpace page or blog had heard of the up-and-coming rapper. Now, thanks to a seemingly unstoppable single (“I Love College”), savvy marketing from Scooter Braun and maybe even the fact that the 23-year-old's pals helped take down a madman on an airplane earlier this year, Asher Roth somehow has made music fans forget all about Eminem’s comeback this year.

“I didn’t know 'I Love College' was gonna be ‘the one,’" Roth said, somewhat sheepishly, from Atlanta earlier this month.

The charismatic college dropout (he was an elementary education major at West Chester University in Pennsylvania) is connecting with teens and twentysomethings on campuses nationwide this spring, thanks in no small part to his laid-back, laconic delivery and lightweight lyrical content. (Checked the news lately? It's all about escapism on radio in 2009).

“I was mostly there for the experience,” Roth said of his college years. “Everybody partied there... I didn’t do the fraternity stuff, though.”

Roth got his start rapping over other people’s beats and selling mixtapes for $5 when he was a senior in high school. "We just used to download beats off the Internet and we thought we were cool.” 

This year, his circle of friends aren’t the only ones who think he’s cool: “I Love College” is now one of the most downloaded songs in the country with sales in excess of 350,000 paid downloads. A quick glance at his Myspace page reveals that he is a tireless networker intent on proving himself to other rappers, haters be damned. 

So how did the average-looking, average-sounding white rapper manage to sneak his way into the Top 20 this week?

Sweden might be best known in America as the place where stylish and deceptively easy-to-assemble furniture is manufactured. But a handful of DJs from the Scandinavian country are attempting to change the perception -- among music fans, anyway -- about what their country has been producing better than anyone else. (Hint: It's house music.)

Last year, Swedish DJ and producer Axwell turned in one of the most energetic live sets I've seen in years at the Avalon as his countrymen (and women) swarmed the dance floor, where oversized Swedish flags waved  among the house-heads.

This month, the same club on Vine Street hosts no fewer than three spinners from Sweden, including the Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello & Sebastian Ingrosso. And before the House Mafia hits Hollywood on the 21st, up-and-comer John Dahlbäck twists and tweaks beats at the Avalon this Saturday night in his Los Angeles debut.

Though Sweden's long had a history in the pop world of producing big hits with commanding synth-based hooks, over the last five years or so, a new generation of house-music DJs has left its mark all over Europe and South America (mainstream American music fans, naturally, are the last to get hip to the trend). Eric Prydz, a former member of the Swedish House Mafia, scored a massive club smash (and crossover pop hit, with the tune going to the top of the charts in countries such as England and Germany) in 2004 with "Call on Me." The track still receives play in clubs from Miami to Munich nightly and is based on, of all things, a sample of Steve Winwood's 1982 hit "Valerie." Call it perhaps the most unlikely house hit of the decade -- but it never fails to get bodies on the dance floor every time it's played. 

As we ease into a new decade, it looks as if ascendant DJ and house music producer John Dahlbäck might be the next breakout star out of Stockholm. Tracks such as "Blink" (seen in the video above) and, in particular, "Hustle Up" exemplify the producer's knack for locking down tight grooves and adding just enough unexpected twists to keep fans of intelligent electro-house on their toes. See how Swedish House Mafia members support one another in this clip, which features Ingrosso and Axwell dropping "Hustle Up" during a 2007 appearance.

We fired off a few questions to Dahlbäck by e-mail earlier this week in anticipation of his opening set for Sander Kleinenberg on Saturday at the Avalon. His answers after the jump.

Coachella festival producers Goldenvoice are beefing up the dance offerings this year with a few notable additions to the 2009 lineup. The Chemical Brothers, Etienne De Crecy and the Orb are all now confirmed as late additions.

Additionally, Devendra Banhart and Murder City Devils will join the three-day annual fete in the desert next month.  The Chemical Brothers appearance is a DJ set only, meaning they will be playing other material besides their own catalog of dance-floor staples in a more casual performance devoid of all the bells and whistles.

Speculation that the Chemical Brothers would return to the festival (they last performed at Coachella in 2005) reached a fever pitch earlier this year when television spots featuring the band's "Block Rockin' Beats" started airing on local cable television. Message boards on the official Coachella site lit up accordingly with rumors that the band would return to Indio, along with, of course, plenty of riffing from fans that the TV spots might imply that ticket sales were slow.

Coachella head Paul Tollett confirmed the additions today to a new magazine that Goldenvoice is sponsoring dubbed coachelladigital.com.

-- Charlie Amter

Ed Simons, left, and Tom Rowlands from the Chemical Brothers. Picture courtesy Astralwerks

Forget purple -- Prince’s favorite colors are likely to be red and white this spring.

The musician has selected Target as the sole retail outlet for his three-disc album, which is set to be released March 29 at the big box retailer's nearly 1,700 outlets nationwide, and online at target.com.

The offering will come as a three-disc bundle: two original studio albums -- "LOtUSFLOW3R" and "MPLSoUND" -- and a third disc by Prince’s latest protégé, Bria Valente (Prince also contributed music to Valente's debut).

The entire collection will retail for just $11.98.

Prince first revealed he was in talks with a “major retailer” earlier this year during a chat with The Times’ Ann Powers. Some had speculated that he might go with Best Buy for the exclusive, but the “Purple Rain” purveyor must have seen something he liked in Target’s proposal. Both Target and Best Buy share something in common with the multi-instrumentalist: roots in Minnesota. 

Retail exclusives were major news in 2008. Best Buy gained headlines for its exclusive for Guns & Roses’ anticipated “Chinese Democracy” release, and AC/DC had one of the year's top-selling rock albums in "Black Ice," a Wal-Mart exclusive. Not to be left out, Target handled Christina Aguilera’s greatest hits package in 2008.

It’s not yet known if Target will get behind Prince’s triple threat the same way it did with Aguilera last year, when it ran an aggressive television campaign for “Keeps Gettin’ Better: A Decade of Hits."

Regardless, Prince may not need commercials to sell his new material: He appears to be in the mood to gig lately (the artist has played two shows in the last week or so in the Los Angeles area).  Could a tour be in the works?

Expect hints of music from all three discs to possibly leak in the coming weeks at Prince's developing website, Lotusflow3r.com.

-- Charlie Amter

Photo of Prince at Coachella last year by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times

Earlier this month, I experienced a surreal evening at the Standard Hotel in West Hollywood. Sure, you say, pretty much any night inside what used to be one of the hippest hotels on the Sunset Strip might be described as surreal, but bear with me.

The less-hair-having half of former chart-topping English duo Tears for Fears, Curt Smith, played two sets of music inside the lobby of the Standard -- free. Oblivious guests walked by on their way to the pool, unaware of the pedigree of the English guy singing nearby. Fewer than 40 fans were in attendance (the room itself, the hotel’s wicker-furniture-laden Cactus Lounge, holds just about the same number). Smith has been in residency at the Standard for a few weeks now, performing every Wednesday, and hotel reps recently announced that they are extending the run all through March.

"I'm doing the residency because I enjoy performing," said Smith via e-mail earlier this week.  "It's intentionally an intimate show, in keeping with the nature of my solo record. Not having a cover charge means that people who only know me from Tears for Fears and aren't familiar with my solo work might take a chance and check it out."

Fans drove in from as far as Azusa to see Smith the night I was there, hoping no doubt to hear a little "Head Over Heels" or perhaps even "Mad World." And Smith, though oddly shy for a man who has performed in front of countless fans during the course of his career, was happy to oblige. He sang "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" in a semi-acoustic setting (with Doug Petty on keyboards and Charlton Pettus handling guitar/backing vocals duty), and performed songs such as “Aeroplane” from his solo record of the same name.

"My daughters prefer Tears for Fears songs as they're more upbeat and generic," Smith said. "Dad's songs are 'a little too sad' for them, which just means that they're harder to understand."

What's not hard to understand is Smith's enduring appeal for his small but devoted fan base. Tears for Fears remain a criminally underrated band that you seldom hear about these days from the current crop of British bands, acts that were clearly influenced by them (we're looking in your general direction, Coldplay).