Now, after struggling to release her last record, Because I Love It, and losing her Columbia record deal, R&B baby-diva Amerie has bounced back with a new contract at Island Def Jam, and a new album, InLove and War, due this August.
Check the official video for first single "Why R U," which debuted last night on BET's 106 & Park, and tell us if this is the 'Rie 'Rie comeback you've been waiting for. (Also, enjoy her impressively wide-ranging twitters on Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and the Hubble Telescope live feed):
Adam Lambert finally confirms his sexuality in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Yes, it turns out the American Idol contestant is gay. The issue hits stands this week, but RollingStone.com already has some excerpts up. “I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay,” Lambert says in the interview, adding, "I’m proud of my sexuality…I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.” Just don't call him a poster boy, Lambert urges in the piece: "I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.”
What do you think, Music Mixers? Is anyone out there remotely surprised by this news? And what do you make of the snake-enhanced RS cover photograph?
Most deliberately funny songs, especially from movies, are criminally underappreciated (South Park's "Blame Canada" lost at the Oscars to the earnest Phil Collins tune "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan.)
Maybe I'm an easy sell, but put a funny guy in front of a piano singing about something entirely ridiculous, and it feels like comedic and musical gold (Jason Segel's ingenious "Dracula's Lament" from Forgetting Sarah Marshall sees frequent rotation on my iPod.) So I was all but giddy when Ed Helms took to the piano for "Stu's Song (What Do Tigers Dream Of?)" in this weekend's mega-successfulThe Hangover to croon about…the tiger they kidnapped from Mike Tyson and were about to drug in order to return it.
Naturally. Nevermind the fact that it's hilariously absurd (sample lyrics: "Don't you worry your pretty striped head/We're gonna get you back to Tyson/And your cozy tiger bed") it's also unexpectedly melodic. The Office fans have always known Helms could carry a tune (he has serenaded both Pam and Angela), but nothing quite like this. Both "Stu's Song" and Zach Galifianakis' deliriously goofy "Three Best Friends" appear on The Hangover soundtrack.
While you have to buy the entire album to get Helms' ode on iTunes, it's honestly worth it (try to keep it together when he sings "Then we're gonna find our best friend Doug/And then we're gonna give him a best-friend hug.") I can't think of a song so far this year that better encapsulates what the movie is about, nor one that garners such a positive reaction from audiences.
What did you think, MusicMixers? Is "Stu's Song" worthy of Oscar gold to you? Or were you too busy laughing to even hear it all? Watch the video below (yet another glorious, albeit, spoiler-filled trailer) to give it a listen.
Confirmed country superstar Brad Paisley is back this summer with his seventh album, American Saturday Night (due June 30th), and with lead single “Then” already No. 1 on the charts, we rang him up for a chat. Fun fact: Did you know the guy who wrote “Online” doesn’t understand Facebook? “I don’t actually know anything about much of that,” he admits. “I need to learn more about it, especially if I’m gonna sing about it. Here I am, making all these claims in a song, and I guess I’m a fraud.” Say it ain’t so, Brad!
Entertainment Weekly: If there are two sides to your music — jokey songs like “Ticks,” or heartfelt songs like “Waitin’ on a Woman” — this album seems to lean heavy on the heart side.
Brad Paisley: There’s this alleged Chinese curse that says, “May you live in interesting times.” Which I always thought was a wish for someone, until I found out it’s actually a curse. And I can see why, to some degree. I guess uninteresting times are preferable. It’s uneventful, and everyone’s just peaceful and happy. It’s something, living right now. I find a lot of hope in it. I think everybody’s got one eye with angst on the problems in our country and society, but their other eye is on all this hope of things getting better. And it felt wrong to be singing “Online” or “Ticks.” It felt meaningless. I couldn’t do that with all my heart right now, in these times. I just had so much I wanted to say. There’s a couple light things, you always need a couple. But even a light song like [title track] “American Saturday Night” — it’s a different take on patriotism, really. In the times I’ve visited Italy, it’s great, I love it, two weeks of Italian food. But by the end of it, I’m ready for enchiladas — and good luck. You’re not gonna find ‘em. Only in America do you have this melting pot, this amazing melting pot that somehow we make work, for the most part. I’m just trying to keep one eye on our times, and the other eye on the weekend.
I thought for a second this might be an entire album about weekends.
[laughs] “Brad Paisley Sings The Many Weekend Moods of Brad Paisley!”
More from Paisley after the jump, including tour news, the perils of childproofing a log cabin, being in Times Square on Election Night, and what he thinks is the most important song he’s ever put to tape…
I recently got the kind of email that my 14-year-old self, who dreamt of becoming a pop culture writer someday, would've lost her mind over. It said, simply: "Heard you're a fan of Fall Out Boy … Do you want to come to a private, live performance in a half-hour?"
Okay, my 14-year-old self wouldn't have dreamed it exactly like that, since that was, ahem, around the time the Fall Out boys were toddlers, but sub in The Bangles and you get the idea. Word on the street is, in fact, accurate: I do loooove myself some FOB.
A 34-year-old woman, I will happily don a hoodie and Converse and unabashedly bring the median age up a decade (okay, two) at an FOB show. I will spend embarrassing amounts of time analyzing their wordplay-obsessed ("The best part of believe is the lie"!), metaphor-heavy ("I love you in the same way there's a chapel in a hospital"!), oh-so-emo ("I'm in love with my own sin"!) lyrics with my 24-year-old sister — with whom I got hooked on them back when they were just emerging from our hometown of Chicago.
I don't really care to debate the merits of their music (I just think it's awesome, so deal with it). Here's what I do know: I like that listening to them in my iPod makes even a trip to Trader Joe's feel epic. I like words, especially ones I can imagine doodling in my notebook during class and feeling super-deep. I like to like stuff from Chicago. I like to like stuff with my sister. I like hoodies. That magical email asking if I was a fan unleashed all this like in me, and suddenly I was driven by the kind of single-minded excitement that used to fuel me for months — months! — while anticipating an upcoming concert in my teens, whether it was The Bangles or Cyndi Lauper or Depeche Mode or New Kids on the Block.
And the experience totally lived up to the (mere half-hour of) hype in this case: Patrick Stump sang, like, 50 feet from me. Not only that, but the band indulged in gobs of for-fans-only talk about their music, like how they come up with their absurdly referenc-y song titles, to why they quoted their own lyrics from other songs in numbers like "What a Catch, Donnie," which they performed along with "America's Suitehearts," "Thnks fr th Mmrs," "I Don’t Care," "Grand Theft Autumn," and more … I know, I know, totally dorky. ("Sugar I'm Going Down" clip embedded below, luckily without any crowd shots that could include me swooning.) The entire broadcast airs on Sirius XM's Artist Confidential on the Hits 1 channel and 20 on 20 at 9 p.m. tonight EST, and will be rebroadcast at noon Tuesday, midnight Wednesday, 3 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. Saturday. Or you can get info here.) I loved every minute, and I loved loving it without analyzing it — the way that we, as cynical adults, start to do more and more as we grow up. (And don't get me started on the level of analysis my job requires — which, much as I enjoy it, can distract you from the joy that got you there.
So now that you've been subjected to this unapologetically impassioned outburst, I ask you, Music Mixers: Which bands or artists get you going like a teenager? (Who makes you feel like this Twilight fan girl?)
Proto-grunge icons Alice In Chains announced today that they have just signed a deal with EMI's Virgin Records, and are readying a new studio album for release this September — more than seven years after the death of frontman Layne Staley, and 14 since their last record, 1995's self-titled Alice in Chains.
Taking Staley's spot is guitarist/vocalist William DuVall, who officially joined original members Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney and longtime bassist Mike Inez (he replaced Mike Starr in 1993) in 2006, shortly after the band reunited at a benefit for victims of the tsunami in Indonesia. DuVall, a veteran of Atlanta's hardcore punk scene, has known Cantrell for years and hit the road with AIC in 2007 — they toured Europe and the States with fellow reconstituted alt-stars Velvet Revolver.
What do you think, readers — is it Alice without Staley, a man possessed of one of the most distinctive voices in modern rock, or should they leave the band's legacy where it lays? We've seen bands who've lost frontmen both thrive (AC/DC,TNT both with Bon Scott and without) and flounder (did anyone ask for another slice of Blind Melon after Shannoon Hoon passed away?); on which side will this one fall?
Auto-Tune, the pitch-correcting software that makes B-list celebs sound like singers and T-Pain sound like himself, is generally a love it/hate it kind of thing. Jay-Z hates it. He made that very clear this weekend by dropping a single titled "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" that's already igniting some fierce debate among fans. Stream the controversial cut below (some NSFW language), then click through to the jump to read my snap-judgment take and let us know what you think.
If MGMT hooked up with George Michael (the singer, not Michael Cera), the result would probably be something like Australian indie pop duo Empire of the Sun. In other words, these lads from down under are freaking odd, but in a good way. If Leighton Meester is a fan, how weird could they be?
Well, very. But still, the strangeness is mostly contained to their glittery glam-rock look (androgynous lead singer Luke Steele's look is part-Mr. Incredible, part drag queen). Their music, in actuality, is fairly innocuous — airy 80's-inspired pop buoyed by falsetto-aided vocals and sing-a-long power choruses.
The band is apparently kind of a big deal in its homeland. They might be too kooky to catch on in the States, but their debut disc, Walking On a Dream, is truly filled with some crazy-catchy, mid-tempo jams, including "We Are the People," the title track and their latest single, "Standing on the Shore." Watch the latter's brand-new video below: Come for the extravagant headgear and faux-couture costumes that rival even Lady GaGa, stay for the pack of uh, half-human swordfish babes.
What do you think, Music Mixers? Are you digging the retro-y vibe ofEmpire of the Sun? And do spangly artists like them, MGMT, Of Montreal andperhaps even Adam Lambert (he isn't called Glambert for nothing) earn extra respect points for their out-there fashion choices? Watch below and weigh in.
Congratulations, people who talk throughout entiremovies, you have company! Ittook hard work and determination, but the folks who spend 80% of a concert ontheir Blackberrys telling the world via Twitter, Facebook and/or email just how awesome the concert theyare at (but not actually paying attention to) is!
OK, so they don't exactly ruinthe experience the way a movie chatter can, but it sure is aggravating. Mylatest brush with this trend reached its peak of annoyance when a concertthat most hardcore fans would have walked to the ends of the Earth for, wasinfiltrated by gaggles of showgoers who spent the majority of the set with theirheads down, tap, tap, tapping away at their beloved technology.
All I wanted to do was askthem why they were there in the first place. Doesn't it defeat the purpose of aconcert altogether to ignore the music and do something you do all day,every day? Same goes for you, girls who pose for pictures the whole time!Facebook does not need more photographic evidence that you were at the JohnMayer concert and had "soOoOo many Jell-O shots!"
Am I totallyoff-base here, Music Mixers or does this annoy the bejeezus out of you, too?What's your biggest concert annoyance? Is it the guy who still, without fail,thinks it's funny to shout "Free Bird," or the girl next to you tryingto sing along to a song she clearly doesn't know the words to?
Now, Billboard.com is reporting that a label called Canadian Money Entertainment (not affiliated with Wayne's Young Money label, despite the name) has taken songs from his most recent mixtape, So Far Gone, to cobble together an album they dubbed The Girls Love Drake and released May 28th to iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazon.
And plenty of people were fooled; the album would have landed the #1 spot on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart if it had been not been disqualified because of its murky legal status.
Drake's manager Al Branch sent acease-and-desist notice to the retailer after discovering it on iTunes, telling Billboard, "This is a straight bootleg, a scandal. We are behind promotingrecords at radio, but haven't sold it. iTunes' position is that they are a store andthey stock everything. They have a waiver and as long as peoplesign it and are responsible for the product they submit, then theygo for it."
Canadian Money founder Peter Greenwood counters that Girls is just an album they had been promoting on the undergroundscene for the last six months: "Breaking him in the states along withother Toronto artists has always been our goal. Drake is ourhometown hero." Branch, unswayed, says they still plan to sue.
What do you think, Mixers? Does Greenwood have a leg to stand on? Is Drake worth the crazy amount of media attention? Or is he a still-unproven talent most famous for reportedly holding Rihanna's umbrella ella ella?
