Archive: October 2009 (51-60 of 164)

Oct 22 2009 11:54 AM ET

Lady Gaga reveals new tour details: 'beautiful, expensive-looking, delicious'

Categories: Divas!, Lady Gaga

Kanye, Shmanye. Lady Gaga has risen from the ashes of Fame Kills (guess it doesn’t?) with plans for her own headlining tour, entitled Monster’s Ball — and kids, she ain’t bluffin’ with her muffin.

As she told Rolling Stone, “Imagine if you could take the sets of an opera, which are very grand and very beautiful, and put them through a pop-electro lens. The design of the show is very, very forward, very, very innovative.”

“The theme of monsters is certainly going to be an influence, as well as the theme of evolution and change. It’s going to be a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you’ve ever been to.”

As for the detritus of Fame Kills? You won’t be seeing it at the Ball. “I’m certainly inspired by what we were doing,” claims la Gaga. “But I made a decision based on integrity not to use any of the things that we had designed together.”

“It just wasn’t the right timing,” she continues. “I don’t want to embellish on it too much, because I want to respect Kanye’s privacy. But we just had our own reasons. We’re real friends, real friends can make decisions like that… It just wasn’t the right time. But who’s to say what will happen in the future?”

According to the New York Times, the tour will kick off November 27 at the Bell Center in Montreal and wrap up January 20 and 21 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Her revised and expanded deluxe re-release of her 2008 debut The Fame, entitled Fame Monster, is due November 23.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

Oct 21 2009 06:19 PM ET
Oct 21 2009 05:38 PM ET

Live at Reading: First official release of Nirvana's unhinged performance!

November 3 marks the first official release of Nirvana’s legendary performance at the UK’s Reading Festival in 1992, riding shotgun on the Nirvana release bandwagon, as their proto-grunge debut Bleach is reissued the same day with a slew of live material from an early, messy show in Portland.

If you’re a Cobain addict, you’ve probably caught clips of the ’92 Reading concert before—it’s the one where Kurt came onstage in a wheelchair at first—but never has the much-bootlegged footage looked so crisp.

Obviously it’s cleaner looking (and sounding), but this DVD offers a ton of new camera angles to what’s been previously seen of Live at Reading, bringing you closer to the onstage guitar shredding in a way that the often-constricted fan footage never did.

To whet your appetite, take a look at Nirvana’s performance of “Blew” at the ’92 festival below, where they invited some guy named Tony onstage to sloppily dance to their performance. Yes, this video is secondhand-quality stuff: you have to wait until November 3 to see how much better it gets.

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ turns 20; goth, how time flies
Elliott Smith, 1969-2003: Gone six years today
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iTunes Original sessions available now
Ben Gibbard acts! Watch the Death Cab for Cutie frontman earn his SAG card

Oct 21 2009 04:00 PM ET

'Glee' Exclusive: Madonna is on board! Is Adam Lambert next?

EW1073CVR_PROMO_UPCAre you sitting down, Gleeks? Well you might want to, because we have some exclusive Glee news that’s positively Madge-ical. EW has learned that Madonna has given Glee the rights to her catalog and that an all-Madonna-music episode is in the works for early next year. The hit series has been building an audience and filling the iTunes charts with its cover songs, and Madonna’s involvement is a testament to how big the show is getting. Also, an amazing Glee cover of a classic Madonna track has the potential to be even bigger than the show’s blockbuster take on “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Quinn totally has to do “Papa Don’t Preach.” And I can completely see Rachel tackling “Material Girl.”

But Madonna might not be the only pop star getting some Glee love. Co-creator Ryan Murphy tells EW that he’s considering approaching American Idol runner up Adam Lambert about appearing on the show (next year, Glee will be paired with Idol on Wednesday nights). Nothing is official yet but Lambert does seem like an ideal choice for Glee.

Which Madonna song do you wanna hear Glee cover, Music Mix-ers? What would you think about Adam Lambert possibly appearing on the show?

For more on Glee, check out EW’s cover story on the Fox phenomenon, on stands this Friday.

More from EW's Music Mix:
'Glee' Exclusive: Watch the cast cover Avril Lavigne's 'Keep Holding On'
Adam Lambert is working with Lady Gaga: Who benefits more?
Madonna's possible eviction: Would you kick the Material Girl to the curb?
Michael Buble tops the albums chart again; 'New Moon' soundtrack sees strong early sales

Follow us on Twitter @EWMusicMix

Oct 21 2009 03:26 PM ET

Nine Inch Nails' 'Pretty Hate Machine' turns 20; goth, how time flies

What’s big enough news to pull the newly-betrothed Trent Reznor out of his sworn Twitter retirement? The 20th anniversary of Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails’ seminal 1989 release. Terrible truth! You were up above it? Now you’re down in it, NINies.

Said the Rez in his brief return: “Happy birthday, old friend. Pretty Hate Machine turns 20.” Let’s revisit with a little “Head Like a Hole,” shall we?

Bow down before the one you serve, superfans, and nail your Machine memories to the wall below. Then maybe — maybe! — you’re going get what you deserve.

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Elliott Smith, 1969-2003: Gone six years today
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iTunes Original sessions available now
Adam Lambert’s ‘Time for Miracles’ video: Spoiler alert! Not everyone dies in ’2012.’
Michael Buble tops the albums chart again; ‘New Moon’ soundtrack sees strong early sales
Ben Gibbard acts! Watch the Death Cab for Cutie frontman earn his SAG card
Lily Allen abducts Elton John—in her video dreams

Oct 21 2009 03:18 PM ET

Adam Lambert's 'Time for Miracles' video: Spoiler alert! Not everyone dies in '2012.'

What’s this? You thought I was going to go 24 hours without posting a Music Mix item about American Idol‘s beloved eighth-season Kradison trio? Well you thought wrong, Blanche! But I obsess not just for the fanboy fun of it, but because, well, every day (and sometimes twice a day) there’s breaking news coming out of the Kris Allen-Adam Lambert-Allison Iraheta camp. Today’s big to-do: The premiere of Adam Lambert’s “Time for Miracles” video. I know, I know, I’m a little tardy for the party in weighing in — just because I make Real Housewives references doesn’t mean I actually watch that messerie, BTW — but because it’s only been 48 hours since I wrote a 781-word essay/review/tone poem about the full-length track, a little distance seemed necessary. Now, however, without further ado, here are the Top 5 Things That Went Through My Mind While Watching the “Time for Miracles” Video: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 21 2009 01:46 PM ET

Elliott Smith, 1969-2003: Gone six years today

Elliott Smith, the prodigiously gifted singer-songwriter whose fragile, flaying songcraft earned him an intensely devoted following in his short lifetime, died six years ago today at 34. The cause was two apparently self-inflicted knife wounds to the chest, though the L.A. county coroner did not conclusively rule his death a suicide.

Smith’s legacy of seven studio albums, two of them posthumous, is equal to or bigger than many of his gone-too-soon compatriots (Gram Parsons, Nick Drake, Tim and Jeff Buckley). Still, it’s hard not to think about the work — and the life — that his friends, fans and family still miss.

Watch a home-made recording of “Between the Bars,” from his 1997 watershed Either/Or below, and share your favorite memories of Smith, whether it’s his bizarro-world appearance preceding Celine Dion on the Oscars stage to perform Good Will Hunting‘s “Miss Misery,” or hearing “Waltz #2″ or “Angeles” on a dive-bar jukebox or dorm-room stereo for the first time:

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iTunes Original sessions available now
Michael Buble tops the albums chart again; ‘New Moon’ soundtrack sees strong early sales
Ben Gibbard acts! Watch the Death Cab for Cutie frontman earn his SAG card
Lily Allen abducts Elton John—in her video dreams
Regina Spektor at Radio City Music Hall: Concert review

Oct 21 2009 01:13 PM ET

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' iTunes Original sessions available now

Art-rock all-stars Yeah Yeah Yeahs released their iTunes Original sessions yesterday, which includes acoustic versions of their popular songs—clearly, “Maps” has been begging for the official acoustic treatment since 2004—as well as interviews and previously-available studio tracks.

Between tracks, Karen O and her bandmates share stories about gestating the songs spotlighted here. Discussing the fabulously kitschy video for “Heads Will Roll,” O says the band knew they wanted some sort of “glam rock murder” theme and, “Because we were in London, I thought why not throw a werewolf in there?” Warren Zevon is smiling somewhere. If you haven’t seen it before, check out “Heads Will Roll” here:

Overall, this iTunes session is the kind of thing you would be delighted to hear on NPR, but probably not something you want to fork over $10 for unless you’re a die-hard YYYs fan. Then again, you could just grab the exclusive acoustic tracks for a reasonable $5.25 (thanks to Pitchfork for figuring out that math).

Anyone planning on picking this one up? Have you bought any iTunes Originals before—past entries have come from R.E.M., Fiona Apple and The Flaming Lips—and if so, do the songs make regular appearances on your playlists?

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Ben Gibbard acts! Watch the Death Cab for Cutie frontman earn his SAG card
Rihanna’s dark, daring new single: ‘Russian Roulette’
Lily Allen abducts Elton John—in her video dreams
Regina Spektor at Radio City Music Hall: Concert review

Oct 21 2009 12:32 PM ET

Michael Buble tops the albums chart again; 'New Moon' soundtrack sees strong early sales

Is there any pop-culture entity that’s hotter right now than The Twilight Saga: New Moon? Ladies and gents, there is, and his name is Michael Bublé. The Canadian crooner topped the Billboard 200 albums chart last week with just three days’ sales. This week Bublé has done it again, extending his stay at No. 1 after shifting another 203,000 units in his first full week on shelves, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That means a No. 2 finish for the New Moon soundtrack, which bows with 115,000 copies sold. But wait! To be fair, the soundtrack was was only on sale for three days of last week after its rush release. Selling 115,000 copies in that compressed period is actually pretty impressive — slightly less than the first Twilight soundtrack sold in its entire first week last year. I hope this heralds many more thousands of teen vampire fanatics who will be listening to Grizzly Bear and St. Vincent by Halloween. (Even so, Bublé sold 17,000 more copies than New Moon in his three-day frame the previous week. Just saying.)

READ FULL STORY »

Oct 21 2009 12:10 PM ET

Bayou Country Superfest vs. Stagecoach: Which country music festival will scoot your boots?

Because what the world needs now is one more giant music festival, the makers of New Orleans JazzFest will host the inaugural Bayou Country Superfest this coming Memorial Day at LSU’s Tiger Stadium. And hoo boy, what a two-day lineup they announced today: Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Brooks & Dunn, Kellie Pickler, Jason Aldean, Jake Owen, Justin Moore, Gloriana, David Nail… and oh yeah, some dude named Kenny Chesney, who I could have sworn was taking the year off.

Meanwhile, a little over a month before this auspiciously giant event, the fine folks at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival — a.k.a. country Coachella — have their own stellar two-day slate in Indio, Calif.: Urban, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn (they’re on that farewell lap), Sugarland, and Billy Currington.

OMG HOW TO CHOOSE.

Well. If you’re a regular visitor to Coronaville, the chance to see Chesney rock one of the biggest stadiums on the planet might be enough to draw you to Louisiana. But for me, the decision gets made by Stagecoach’s undercard participants: Merle Haggard, the Oak Ridge Boys, Jamey Johnson, the excitingly odd Avett Brothers, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Mary Gauthier as of now, with more surely to come as the date draws closer. On the other hand, I do like that David Nail.

What do you think, Mixers? Who’s excited for Bayou Country Superfest? Who’s stickin’ with Stagecoach? And can we actually miss Kenny if he never goes away?

More from EW’s Music Mix:
Rihanna’s dark, daring new single: Hear ‘Russian Roulette’ now
Adam Lambert is working with Lady Gaga: Who benefits more?
Rihanna reveals Rated R album, “Russian Roulette” single plans

Lily Allen abducts Elton John — in her video dreams

Photo Credit: Gerry Maceda/Retna

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