Archive: June 2011 (1-10 of 101)

Jun 30 2011 05:37 PM ET

Justin Bieber's Google Chrome commercial encourages you to be more like Justin Bieber

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Categories: Justin Bieber
Justin-bieber

Image Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage.com

There were actual tears shed in living rooms across the country when those Google ads first started rolling—especially Google Chrome spot featuring Lady Gaga‘s Brooklyn bridge-running, fan-uniting “Edge of Glory” clip.

Once you’ve scored the services of one of the biggest pop stars in the universe, anybody else is going to be a step down. Unless, of course, you recruit the Biebs.

His version of the Google Chrome ad, starring some very early footage of him singing, playing a keyboard, and banging on drums and moving all the way through his massive arena tour, is after the jump. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 30 2011 03:01 PM ET

Aguilera, Levine, Shelton, and Green return for season two of 'The Voice': Why we're glad

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Categories: The Voice
the-voice

Image Credit: Michael Desmond/NBC

It’s official: Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton will all return to The Voice next season.

And that’s good news, because even though Javier Colon walked away with the MVP title, a hit single, and a bunch of confetti stuck to his head, the show was really all about the judges. This season played like a Wizard of Oz for each team leader.

Adam Levine got a heart. Watch the former Voice bully get a little misty-eyed during Javier’s performance with Stevie Nicks!

Christina Aguilera showed some brains. After her national anthem flub and arrest for public intoxication, it was nice to hear her speaking somewhat knowledgeably about pitch. Or when talking quite didn’t work, opening her mouth and letting that powerhouse, pull-that-microphone-away-from-your-mouth-girl! voice do the talking.

Cee Lo Green got a personality. Sure, his hit song “F— You” was already mega-famous, but middle America didn’t really understand who this country-music-loving, electro-soul-singing Liberace of Pop was until the show premiered and he waved his superfreak flag high above his bald head.

And Blake Shelton got a name. Yes, country fans always knew him well. But now maybe pop fans will stop calling him Mr. Miranda Lambert.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 30 2011 11:58 AM ET

Bruce Springsteen posts full Clarence Clemons eulogy online

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Categories: Bruce Springsteen, In Memoriam, Rock
Clarence-Clemons

Image Credit: Hillery Smith Garrison/AP Images

The passing of legendary E Street Band saxophonist and “The Edge of Glory” guest star Clarence Clemons still cuts deep among his friends, family, colleagues and fans.

To continue his memorial to his friend and sideman, Bruce Springsteen posted a version of his eulogy for Clemons on his official site. As expected, it’s a touching, rousing, heartfelt statement about Clemons life and work.

“From the first time I saw my pal striding out of the shadows of a half empty bar in Asbury Park, a path opening up before him; here comes my brother, here comes my sax man, my inspiration, my partner, my lifelong friend,” Springsteen wrote about his first encounter with Clemons. “Standing next to Clarence was like standing next to the baddest ass on the planet. You were proud, you were strong, you were excited and laughing with what might happen, with what together, you might be able to do. You felt like no matter what the day or the night brought, nothing was going to touch you.”

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 07:53 PM ET

Justin Timberlake's life imitates art as he lands an ownership stake in Myspace

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Categories: Justin Timberlake, Tech, Things On The Internet
justin_timberlake

Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Facebook’s 600 million user base isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Thirty five million users. Er, yeah, that doesn’t really work, but they’re what Justin Timberlake – pop superstar and actor in The Social Network – has to work with now that he’s got an ownership stake in onetime Facebook rival Myspace, which was acquired today by online ad company Specific Media from News Corp. for a reported $35 million.

In the deal, Specific Media announced that Timberlake, along with his ownership stake, would “play a major role in developing the creative direction and strategy for the company moving forward.” In the same release, Timberlake said, “There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect. Myspace has the potential to be that place…. I’m excited to help revitalize Myspace by using its social media platform to bring artists and fans together in one community.”

How Timberlake would accomplish that goal wasn’t clear; Specific Media simply stated he and the company would reveal their plans “in an exclusive press conference later this summer.” One thing is for sure: Timberlake managed to discover a way to make conversations with Mark Zuckerberg even more awkward than they already are.

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Read more:
Myspace changes hands after years of struggle with News Corp.
Justin Timberlake on his music career: ‘I don’t have a single song ready to go’
Justin Timberlake razzes Justin Bieber, himself in unaired ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch

Jun 29 2011 04:20 PM ET

Jill Scott sings herself to first No. 1 album on Billboard 200 chart, Bon Iver also debuts considerably well

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Categories: Bon Iver, Charts, Indie Rock, Jill Scott, R&B
jill_scott

Image Credit: AP Images

R&B songstress Jill Scott earns her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week.

Her The Light of the Sun starts off moving 135,000 units. Though she’s a reputable voice and critically acclaimed, it took her four albums to get to the top of the list.

Next up is folk rock group Bon Iver, whose stellar self-titled sophomore set opens selling 104,000. Frontman Justin Vernon and his crew appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Colbert Report, and a host of other TV looks ahead of the release, as well as in countless magazine profiles.

That exposure, along with Kanye West promotional  assistance he received while working on West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy led to this being his highest-charting set and best sales week ever. Vernon’s previous high came from the Blood Bank EP, which debuted at No. 16 (selling 23,000 during week one) in 2009.

Rounding out the top three is Adele’s 21, moving 101,000 albums and pushing its grand total to just shy of 2.5 million.

Check out the rest out the top 10 after the jump.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 04:08 PM ET

James Franco stars in music video, continues path toward world domination

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Categories: Singers with SAG cards, Strange Bedfellows, Things On The Internet

Is there any hobby James Franco hasn’t turned into a meme?

Acting with the aid of a mustache, painting portraits of NASA rockets, assassinating soap opera stars… And now, hovering around in another man’s psychedelic vision, at times even smiling as if he’d never hosted the Oscars.

Yes, that’s Franco’s head floating through the new video for “Rising” by Kalup & Franco, the experimental electronic group he formed recently with drag performer and fellow General Hospital alum Kalup Linzy.

Co-produced by DJ /rupture, the track (which appears on the EP Turn It Up) finds Kalup singing acid-washed R&B while Franco drifts through some kind of double-rainbow dream the background: READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 02:04 PM ET

Wilco announce release date for new CD, 'The Whole Love'

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Categories: Country, Y'all!, Indie Rock, Music, Rock, Stage, Tours, Wilco

the_whole_love_wilco

Wilco will release their new CD, The Whole Love, on September 27. The album will feature a dozen new songs, including the recently released single “I Might,” which you can check out below, and the twelve-minute “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend).”

The Whole Love is Wilco’s eighth studio album and the first to be released on the band’s dBpm Records label. Jeff Tweedy and crew have also announced a string of dates, which kicks off at the Murat Theatre, Indianapolis, IN., on September 13. Legendary singer-songwriter and silver fox Nick Lowe will be the support at all the shows.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 01:29 PM ET

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Smashing Pumpkins pitchman? Watch the video here

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Categories: Attack of the '90s, New Stuff, Rock, Smashing Pumpkins, Strange Bedfellows, Things On The Internet

As his trip to Bonnaroo this year proved, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar loves him some alternative music. In fact, he’s so excited about the forthcoming Smashing Pumpkins album Oceania that he grabbed enough air to dunk a pumpkin.

In what must be one of the most unusual album promos of all time, Abdul-Jabbar palms a gourd before slamming it through a basketball hoop and letting it smash on the ground. (Get it?)

He then reminds the world that Billy Corgan’s band has a new album coming out soon. Check out the clip here: READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 12:36 PM ET

Tom Petty asks Michele Bachmann to stop using 'American Girl,' joins long list of rockers unhappy with politicians

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Categories: Legal Troubles, Rock, Rock n' Roll Politics, Things That Really Could Have Been Avoided, Things That Were Inevitable, Tom Petty
Tom-Petty

Image Credit: Richard Shotwell/PR Photos

You know election season must be in full swing when rock stars are issuing public statements getting candidates to stop using their songs at rallies, speeches and events.

The inaugural music-related strike of the 2012 presidential race comes from Tom Petty, who issued a cease and desist letter to Michele Bachmann’s campaign to get her to stop using Petty’s 1977 hit “American Girl.”

This isn’t even the first time Petty has bristled at the idea that somebody from the right borrowed one of his tunes—he issued a similar letter in 2004 when George W. Bush used Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” as one of his campaign themes (like Bachmann, Bush complied).

Ever since Bruce Springsteen took umbrage with Ronald Reagan’s use of “Born in the U.S.A.” during his re-election campaign in 1984, it has become something of a tradition for rock musicians (many of whom, you may have noticed, have views that tend to skew to the left) to publicly disassociate themselves from right-wing candidates who borrow their music. READ FULL STORY »

Jun 29 2011 11:35 AM ET

Coldplay's 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall' video: Watch it here!

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Categories: Coldplay, Music Videos, New Stuff, Rock, Things That Are British

This fall, Coldplay will be releasing one of the most high-profile and hotly-anticipated albums of the year. But they’ve already got a head start making noise.

The band just released the EP Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall, a three-song collection that features the title track (which also serves as the first single from the forthcoming album) as well as two other new songs, “Major Minus” and “Moving to Mars.”

Now comes their latest video, for “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall,” and like most of the group’s clips, it’s colorful, jubilant and more than a little trippy. Check it out after the jump. READ FULL STORY »

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