Sometimes life may seem like a movie but in the case of Graham Parker, who recently reunited his old band The Rumour after three plus decades, life literally is a movie, or actually two movies - a documentary and a feature film. Those two new Graham Parker movies are the Gramaglia Brothers' documentary Don't Ask Me Questions and the Judd Apatow feature film, This is 40 starring Paul Rudd, that opens this week. The Apatow film, which has been described as a spinoff of Apatow's 2007 hit comedy Knocked Up, heavily features the legendary British pub rock/new wave band who kicked ass musically from '75 to '81 when they broke up prematurely but amicably. The recent reunion of Parker and the Rumour can be credited to the documentary which led indirectly to the Rumour's five accomplished musicians (guitarists Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont, keyboardist Bob Andrews, drummer Steve Goulding, and bassist Andrew Bodnar) all rejoining their former frontman last year to record the new album Three Chords Good on Primary Wave Records which arrived in Amoeba last month. Shortly after the band reunited last year, in a perfect act of synchronicity, film director Judd Apatow (a longtime fan of Parker) approached the singer to invite him to make an appearance in his next film project This Is 40. Parker agreed and brought in the Rumour too into the film project (see above featurette).

Another year over, a new begun - well almost - so it is time to look back at 2012 in hip-hop, which in my opinion has been a really incredible year especially in terms of indie releases. I will focus primarily on indie releases in this first of a two-part hip-hop 2012 retrospective. Indeed 2012 was a great year for the genre with a wide and rich variety of hip-hop being made by artists from all over, including some incredibly well-made videos - all done on tight budgets.  Year-end lists are by their very nature subjective and this one is certainly no exception. Like all year end "best of" lists, it is wide open to change and alterations (additions or deletions) at a moment's notice. Odds are I wont even agree with my own picks this time next month since my tastes are constantly changing and since there is just so much good music that I am constantly catching up on.

However with that said if I had to pick one hip-hop song based on pure catchiness of both production and lyrics, a song that grabs me as much today as when I first heard it eight months ago, it would be MaLLy & The Sundance Kid's "Shine" (video above) from their 2012 album The Last Great….

Latest material from Outkast.  More commercially friendly than Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Song of Chico Dusty, but the Big Boi talent's still there. Features A$AP Rocky, Kid Cudi, Killer Mike, and multiple collaborations with Little Dragon (!)


2) The Game Jesus Piece (DGC/Interscope)

New one from ex Dr. Dre protege. Questionable rapping in my opinion (seems like he's style biting whoever guests on each song...?), but Game picks good beats and ropes in a lot of huge names to guest on his songs, including Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, 2 Chainz, and a cool verse from Pusha T.

Tonight Dan Deacon will make his national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC at 11:35pm when he will do a live version of "True Thrush" off his current album America on  Domino Records that arrived in Amoeba Music a few months back. Above is the entertainingly fun official video for the song which was the first single off the album. Meanwhile below is one of the very first live television clips seen of the artist when he made a bizarre performance (by local morning news TV show standards) on NBC affiliate WSAV Savannah's Coastal Sunrise morning show back in 2006. That was a solo set but an ensemble will join Deacon on tonight's Jimmy Kimmel Live! set.

Known for involving audiences in his shows, tonight will be no exception when the electronic artist will be incorporating the recently launched smartphone app that he has been using in concerts lately whereby audience members' phones become an interactive part of the light show. See the video down below for more about this unique interactive app, and pick up Dan Deacon's America on CD and/or on LP from Amoeba.

    

In case you missed the live stream of last night's big 12-12-12 Sandy Relief Benefit concert from Madison Square Garden in New York City that benefited the Robin Hood Relief Fund to continue their aid to the victims of Sandy, above care of Fuse TV is the non US encore / replay stream of the concert highlights.  Included are Billy Joel (yes his set included the classic "New York State of Mind") Alicia Keys, (the only woman performer of the night), Michael Stipe (last minute surprise performer), Chris Martin (who joked about been one fourth of Coldplay since it was well past boy band One Direction's bedtime)  Bruce Springsteen (whose set suffered sound issues), The Who,  Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney (whose late set, with the surviving members of Nirvana, included rousing renditions of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" and "I've Got A Feeling"), Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, and The Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, in addition to some sound issues during the show, about halfway through the event the 12-12-12 website crashed and the phone lines got so overworked that they could not connect. Consequently many folks could not get through to donate. However anyone can now via the info in above video or directly via the Robin Hood Relief Fund website.