During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, EW.com wanted to find out what music is inspiring US athletes. So we asked a variety of Olympic competitors what song (or playlist of songs) they’ll be grooving to before they compete. We’ll run these throughout the Games. Good luck, Team USA!
Elena Hight, Halfpipe Snowboarder (on NBC today)
“Just Dance” by Lady Gaga
“When I wake up tired and sore, this is the perfect song to put on to get me moving.”
Photo Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, EW.com wanted to find out what music is inspiring US athletes. So we asked a variety of Olympic competitors what song (or playlist of songs) they’ll be grooving to before they compete. We’ll run these throughout the Games. Good luck, Team USA!
Sara Studebaker, Biathlon (on NBC this afternoon)
Taylor Swift “Fearless”
“I like this song because it gets me ready to race while keeping me relaxed and making me feel like I can have a great race, and be fearless!”
After extensive touring on the strength of their top 10 hit “Don’t Trust Me,” electro-rap duo 3OH!3 finally got a chance to start working on a follow-up album last month. “Sean [Foreman] and I went up to the mountains in Colorado for 10 days and wrote, like, 15 songs, super-quick,” co-lead vocalist Nathaniel Motte (pictured, right, with Foreman) tells the Music Mix. Next Motte and Foreman headed to L.A., where they’ve been logging studio hours with producers including Dr. Luke (Ke$ha), Benny Blanco (“Don’t Trust Me”), and Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, The Bird and the Bee). By now they’re about 25 potential tunes and counting into their third full-length, which they hope to release this June. While they’re far from done recording, they have settled on a title for the album: Streets of Gold. “It just felt right and big and epic and happy,” Motte explains. “It’s hopefully timeless.”
This is the first time 3OH!3 has had the luxury of staying in the studio for so long. “We recorded our last CD in, like, three and a half weeks, so it was definitely a lot quicker. There’s definitely an advantage to having this much time to refine our stuff. I think I’ve learned a lot as a producer, as a songwriter, and as a beatmaker. Hopefully this stuff is going to sound a lot bigger and more well-rounded…We’ve been doing some classic straight-up electro songs, and then we’ve also been doing some throwback-sounding stuff, some slower stuff, and then some harder rap stuff.”
One thing 3OH!3 don’t plan to do on Streets of Gold is tone down their lyrical style, which has been widely criticized as sexist. (Sample line from “Don’t Trust Me”: “Shush girl, shut your lips/Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips!”) “No,” Motte says with a chortle. “We’re going full-ahead with the sexism and misogyny. We’re trying to blaze new trails.” He laughs again. “Nah, man. I think we still like to write some things that are definitely tongue in cheek and more based on punchlines, poking fun at relationships and whatever. I dunno. I guess I’d have to go through and see if there’s something offensive in there. I actually would hope that there is. You know, it makes it a little funny.”
Sigh. Are you looking forward to 3OH!3′s Streets of Gold, misogyny and all? Sound off in the comments.
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Sade comes roaring back to top the albums chart
Oscars won’t invite Best Song nominees to perform: Will you miss them?
Olympic Songs of the Day from U.S. Women’s Hockey Team
Jay-Z slams “We Are the World” remake: “Some things are just untouchable”
“We Are the World” remake debuts during Olympics opening ceremony: What did you think?
Photo credit: Pamela Littky
Avril Lavigne’s video for “Alice” (from the upcoming …in Wonderland acid trip movie) hit the internet today. Give it a look-see:
What do you think, Mixers? I for one am awed by Ms. Lavigne’s continued refusal to make facial expressions, and I may have liked this whole concept better when it was called “Paramore’s ‘Brick by Boring Brick,’” but there’s no questioning that this little Canadian still has some world-class pipes. Belt it, Avril! Belt it and run! Run really slowly!
Weigh in with your comments below…
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Abbey Road Studios for sale: Is nothing sacred?
Sade comes roaring back to top the albums chart
Oscars won’t invite Best Song nominees to perform: Will you miss them?
Olympic Songs of the Day from U.S. Women’s Hockey Team
Jay-Z slams “We Are the World” remake: “Some things are just untouchable”
Strange news out of London: EMI Records is selling the legendary Abbey Road Studios, according to a report in the Financial Times (registration required to read; h/t). Apparently the rooms where the Beatles did the vast majority of their recording in the ’60s just aren’t a sound financial investment anymore.
I know times are tough, but come on, EMI! History! In addition to all those amazing Beatles albums, Abbey Road has also been the site of essential recordings by the likes of Radiohead (The Bends) and Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Dark Side of the Moon, etc.). More recently, Abbey Road is where all the Beatles’ albums were lovingly remastered for last fall’s reissue campaign. The Financial Times story implies that its recording facilities have become outdated; does that make it any less of a landmark?
Of course, assuming EMI finds a buyer, there’s a strong chance Abbey Road’s new owners will continue to operate it as a recording studio. Let’s hope so, at least. Anyone else dismayed by the idea of Abbey Road changing hands?
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Sade comes roaring back to top the albums chart
Oscars won’t invite Best Song nominees to perform: Will you miss them?
Olympic Songs of the Day from U.S. Women’s Hockey Team
Jay-Z slams “We Are the World” remake: “Some things are just untouchable”
“We Are the World” remake debuts during Olympics opening ceremony: What did you think?
Looks like Sade (the band)’s commercial appeal is every bit as timeless as Sade (the lead singer)’s voice: Soldier of Love, the soul act’s first album since 2000, sold a whopping 502,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That’s more than enough to secure Sade the top spot on the new Billboard 200 albums chart — indeed, it’s the strongest debut anyone has managed since Susan Boyle notched 701,000 last fall. Lady Antebellum, for instance, bowed with a bit less (481,000) last month; this week their Need You Now sold 208,000, falling for the first time to No. 2.
R&B crooner Jaheim scored a No. 3 debut with a very nice 112,000 copies sold of his Another Round. Speaking of rounds, something tells me the next few are on Jaheim! (Sorry, that was a very lame joke.)
Country’s Josh Turner might not know who Rick Astley is, but that shocking fact didn’t stop 85,000 people from buying his Haywire, enough for a No. 5 finish. Turner’s hit single “Why Don’t We Just Dance” no doubt helped boost those sales.
During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, EW.com wanted to find out what music is inspiring US athletes. So we asked a variety of Olympic competitors what song (or playlist of songs) they’ll be grooving to before they compete. We’ll run these throughout the Games. Good luck, Team USA!
Chad Hedrick, Speed Skating (on NBC tonight)
“Glory Defined” by Building 429
“It talks about my journey to Christianity and the direction of my new life with God.”
Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The ’90s revival rolls on with the musical return of one Ms. Courtney Love, most recently known for her train-wreckish exploits and last seen in this space losing custody of Frances Bean, her daughter with Kurt Cobain. After five years, Love has finally found a home for a new album from the reanimated corpse of Hole, which includes no original members (much to the displeasure of long-time guitarist and songwriter Eric Erlandson): According to SPIN, Nobody’s Daughter will be released April 27 by Mercury/Island Def Jam.
As a huge fan of Hole’s first two albums — oh, anger issues, how you opened musical doors! — and someone who tentatively came around to embrace both 1998′s glassy-eyed Celebrity Skin as well as Love’s flirtation with Hollywood glamour, I am of two minds about this. I’d like to see Love succeed (grunge needs more happy endings), and I can’t help but feel that a segment of the younger female population would benefit from her hard-worn perspective. But while her February performance of new track “Samantha” on the BBC’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was by no means an utter destruction of the Hole legacy — watch it after the jump; her wrecked voice has, if anything, just gotten more interesting in the last 10 years — I’m not sure that song is much more than a retread of old material. The increasingly pained lyrical repetition is there, but it’s no “I made my bed I’ll lie in it/I made my bed I’ll die in it.” Much like I have a hard time with her old pal Billy Corgan and his stubborn insistence on calling any group of nearby musicians “Smashing Pumpkins” (let’s not address the Guns N’ Roses issue), it’s tough to embrace an Erlandson-free lineup. Then again, best-known Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was herself a replacement, after Kristen Pfaff died of an apparent overdose following the release of Live Through This. See what I mean about this story needing more happy endings?
What do you think, Mixers? Are you prepared to open your tortured hearts to the new Hole?
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Oscars won’t invite Best Song nominees to perform: Will you miss them?
Olympic Songs of the Day from U.S. Women’s Hockey Team
Jay-Z slams “We Are the World” remake: “Some things are just untouchable”
“We Are the World” remake debuts during Olympics opening ceremony: What did you think?
‘My Sharona’: the real Sharona remembers late Knack singer Doug Fieger
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During the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, EW.com wanted to find out what music is inspiring US athletes. So we asked a variety of Olympic competitors what song (or playlist of songs) they’ll be grooving to before they compete. We’ll run these throughout the Games. Good luck, Team USA!
Today we have a special list of songs from many members of the US Women’s Hockey Team, which got off to a great start with a 12-1 defeat of China on Tuesday. The team plays Russia today (live on MSNBC at 5:30 p.m. ET).
Natalie Darwitz, Team Captain of the Women’s US Hockey Team
“Hard” by Rihanna
“It’s a don’t-mess-with-me kind of song, gets me going!”
(keep reading for song selections from more members of the team after the jump)
