It was a curious feeling hearing of the death of Donna Summer this afternoon. She died quietly of cancer at the age of 63, had been off the radar for two generations – and yet, firing YouTube links round the office, we were a little taken aback by how many of her songs had fired our collective experience.
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Working his way progressively through the alphabet – Ali G, Borat, Bruno – Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest performance art piece sets his sights on something other than ‘little people’s intolerances’, taking aim instead on the leaders of the not so free world. Forgoing the mockumentary format for the scripted, The Dictator can claim sporadic moments of funny, but the ultimate point of the film, the ingredient that would make it as memorable as Borat, is so slow in coming and arrives with such little fanfare that all the vagina jokes in the world can’t help prop up this comedic regime.
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Sacred Cows: an occasional series in which NME writers re-appraise classic albums
Have a look at our leader David Cameron’s Facebook page (where we spend every minute of the live-long day, obviously) and you’ll see him claim his favourite album of all time is Pink Floyd’s prismic prog rock sales Godzilla ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’.
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Pop music TV is in a bit of a state right now. The Voice promised a different take on the standard sob story-soaked talent show, but swiftly went straight back into its X Factor-based comfort zone. Other than that all we’ve got left are uncomfortable interviews with musicians.
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As we scrolled through our 100 Best Songs Of The 1990s, we naturally started thinking about the musical moments from that decade that are better off forgotten.
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Beastie Boys made some of the best music videos of the last 30 years. But Spike Jonze’s ‘Sabotage’ was perhaps their best. A parody of 70s cop shows like Starsky And Hutch, it featured the three MC’s playing hirsute versions of themselves; MCA was Cochese, Mike D was “The Chief” and Ad-Rock was The Rookie. Ingenious parent James Winters has decided to re-create the promo using some his children and nephew, which seems like a fittingly wacky tribute. 
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The news that Noah Abrams is making a ‘buddy movie’ documentary about The Black Keys’ extensive El Camino world tour arrives as a tantalising invitation into their enigmatic world. Wouldn’t we all like to peer into the madness that surrounds a band still caught in the whirlwind of its first major success? Then again…
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Eleven years after his death and punk legend Joey Ramone is still one of the most oft-referenced, highly regarded musical icons of our time. Next week, his second posthumous album ‘…Ya Know?’ gets a release, and to celebrate we’ve dug behind the scenes, talking to the people who knew him best, to learn the real story of the man who changed rock’n’roll forever.
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With the sad passing of Adam Yauch (aka MCA), Beastiemania has struck and last week Billboard magazine in the US reported a 1,235 per cent increase in Beastie Boys album sales. They deserve their props – however belated – but if everyone’s going to rush out and buy their back catalogue we need to agree where to start. So this is how we rank the Beastie Boys’ eight studio albums – but what about you?
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