EW’s Music Mix is searching for the Greatest Guilty Pleasure Musical Act of All Time. With 32 seeded contestants (see all the matchups), this tournament is sure to change hearts, minds, and lives for weeks to come. Read/listen to the following, and then cast your vote in the poll after the jump; reader comments will be used in subsequent rounds, so we encourage you to also explain to the group why you chose the way you did. Note: In case of a tie, please select the artist you feel more ashamed to adore. Thank you.
Now, the full cast lineup for DWTS season 9 is official (set your Tivos for September 21st, pasodoblers), and the sheer volume and random-osity of singers on the roster is kind of blowing our minds:
Who else predicts a backstage blowout between Kelly Osbourne and Macy Gray, color-treated hair fluff a-flying? Will Aaron Carter get all “I Want Candy” on AWOL R&B baby-diva Mya? Will anyone sit with Donny Osmond at lunch in the studio caf? Inquiring minds want to know!
But you tell me, Music Mixers — who do you think will take it the furthest this season? And who are your favorite musical contestants of seasons past — tiny pistol Lil’ Kim? Boy-banderz-to-men Joey McIntire (of NKOTB) and Lance Bass (N’Sync?) The whirling Spice dervish that was Mel B?
While you ponder, enjoy this clip of 98 Degrees’ Drew Lachey, the show’s only non soap star/Olympic athlete/Baywatch race-car driver to ever rise all the way to season-champ glory:
EW’s Music Mix is searching for the Greatest Guilty Pleasure Musical Act of All Time. With 32 seeded contestants (see all the matchups), this tournament is sure to change hearts, minds, and lives for weeks to come. Read/listen to the following, and then cast your vote in the poll after the jump; reader comments will be used in subsequent rounds, so we encourage you to also explain to the group why you chose the way you did. Note: In case of a tie, please select the artist you feel more ashamed to adore. Thank you.
“It’s like with oil painting… a friend of mine said, ‘Paint a hundred, see if you’re good at it. After a hundred, maybe you’ll know.’” That’s how Eddie Vedder kicks off this short look inside Backspacer, due September 20th. It’s not their hundredth album — really just their ninth — but as the band pulls into their 20th year of existence, it’s fair to say Pearl Jam has now been painting for a long, long time. Snippets of new tracks surface here: “Got Some,” which they premiered on the first night of Conan’s Tonight Show; “Just Breathe,” a ballad clearly inspired by Vedder’s solo work on the Into the Wild soundtrack; and first single “The Fixer,” which we learn was a Matt Cameron contribution, and whose calf-springing beat just keeps getting better and better. Intercut with loving footage of the band’s Seattle warehouse home — and one sweet John Hughes tribute — this video feels like the infamous PJ shell just creaked open a little bit wider in hopes of letting a few more people in. I’ve heard the whole album and can back them up when they say it’s a tight, concise piece of work. Based on what you’ve heard so far, what do you think, Mixers?
If you marked down any Mariah Carey-related events on your calendar for this month, you’d better hope you used erasable ink. Not only has the release of her upcoming album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, been repeatedly pushed back — from Aug. 25 to Sept. 15, then again to Sept. 29 — but the diva recently postponed several promotional events, including planned appearances on NBC’s Today show, on VH1′s Storytellers, and at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What gives?
“Mariah is working tirelessly on finishing up her album, doing promo for her film Precious and launching a new perfume with Elizabeth Arden,” a rep for Carey’s label told the Music Mix. “Release dates change all the time…It’s really nothing unusual.” The label rep also pointed to a post on the singer’s official site announcing that “we have shifted all of our TV and promo appearances to coincide with the new release date.” Fair enough, I suppose, though that strikes me as slightly circular reasoning. (The promo events were postponed because of the album release delay, which happened because…?) “It’s no big deal,” added another Carey publicist when contacted by the Music Mix, echoing comments made in a recent interview with People. “Everyone seems to think that it’s a big deal, but it’s not. She just wants to fine-tune some things [on the album].”
It’s certainly true that release dates often get changed without prior notice in the music industry. And maybe Carey’s label is just waiting for a single that’s bigger than the decent mid-level hit that “Obsessed” is shaping up to be so far. So what do you think? Why does Carey keep postponing things? And, if you’re a Mariah fan, are you content to keep waiting for Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, or will you start to get impatient at some point?
Stereogum is streaming a new track today from the power-pop foursome’s upcoming seventh album (seventh! wow, I haz an old), and — hip hip – it actually sounds pretty good.
On the shambolic back-porch rocker “If You Are Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To” Rivers Cuomo and co. sound positively jaunty — if not a little/lot bit like Conor Oberst‘s more recent, upbeat work with the Mystic Valley Band.
To us, it seems like a happy return to form after a disappointing-ish sixth outing, their 2008 self-titled release (a.k.a. the Red Album). But you be the judge; listen below and tell us if you’re left wanting — or wondering:
It’s our fourth week direct-delivering exclusives from French DJ star David Guetta’s upcoming album, One Love (click here to stream the songs from weeks une, deux, and trois) on the Music Mix, and while we’ve had you seeing Stateside stars — guests Akon, will.i.am, and Kelly Rowland among them — this track brings a Grammy winner from across the pond: Estelle.
On One Love‘s title track, the smoky-voiced Brit and fan of “American Boy”s issues an international dancefloor summons; listen below:
In other (untwisted?) words: “These Are My Twisted Words” is definitely a real Radiohead song, and it’s definitely ready for the public to hear. (You can stream the leaked version below if you don’t feel like downloading the high-quality MP3.) A five-and-a-half-minute tune that opens with three minutes of ominous vocal-free krautrock, it’s one of the strangest things Radiohead has released in years. As a serious Radiohead fan with a taste for the weird and unconventional in music, I couldn’t be happier. But what about all those other rumors surrounding “These Are My Twisted Words”? Read more tea-leaf parsing after the jump.
If my desert island discs were made up just of music by acts who had worked with Jim Dickinson then I really wouldn’t complain. Never heard of the guy? Don’t feel bad. The Memphis-based session musician and producer, who died yesterday at the age of 67, was hardly a household name and released only a handful of solo albums, none of which were exactly blockbuster hits (though his 1972 solo debut, Dixie Fried, is a terrific collection of idiosyncratic blues whose title nicely summed up this larger-than-life character.) That doesn’t stop Dickinson being a legend, particularly to the many stars of several generations who benefited from his musicianship and his production skills.
This is a man who worked with Sam & Dave and Green On Red; with Bob DylanandMudhoney; Aretha Franklin and Big Star. Not impressed yet? Then, it is also worth mentioning that Dickinson played piano on the classic Rolling Stones lament “Wild Horses” (because, so legend has it, the band’s regular pianist, Ian Stewart, refused to play minor chords) and produced the Replacements’ great Pleased To Meet Me album. Meanwhile, the strength of the Dickinson musical genes is evident in the careers of his sons, and North Mississippi Allstars members, Luther and Cody.
Below, you can find a tiny sample of his work, including Bob Dylan’s epic track “Highlands,” on which Dickinson played keyboards. If the clips make you want to find out more, then check out his Zebra Ranch website. Amongst the material to be found there is a quote from producer Daniel Lanois in which he recalls how Dylan once told him, “If you’ve got Dickinson, you don’t need anybody else.” Sadly, the option of “getting Dickinson” has now disappeared, and the world of music is much poorer and less colorful for it.
I have to admit, in this usually fair and balanced-ish space that we call EW Exclusive-ville (it’s Margaritaville-adjacent), that I very much enjoy Canadian indie-kook collagists the Hidden Cameras on my own time.
“Boys of Melody” bobs up regularly in my iTunes top 25; I like their take on “Music Is My Boyfriend” much better than Sky Sweetnam’s (honestly, I didn’t even know hers existed until I YouTubed it and saw it was approximately 98347 times more popular. But I stand by my opinion!).
Now there’s a new HC record due, Origin: Orphan, this September, and those of you who haven’t yet seen the delightfully odd video for first single “In the Na” — or even those who have — should listen to another album track, “Walk On,” below:
Am I the only one hearing serious shades of David Essex’s minor-key 1973 masterpiece “Rock On” here? (Yes, the one covered by Def Leppard in 2006, and turned into a number-one hit by soap star Michael Damian in 1989.)
It’s like the song got squeezed through some woozy sonic juicer, and I like it, blue jean baby queen. But you tell me, Music Mixers — would you run to “Walk,” and Origin too?
If you marked down any Mariah Carey-related events on your calendar for this month, you’d better hope you used erasable ink. Not only has the release of her upcoming album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, been 
It’s our fourth week direct-delivering exclusives from French DJ star David Guetta’s upcoming album, 
I have to admit, in this usually fair and balanced-ish space that we call EW Exclusive-ville (it’s 
