Image Credit: Rich Pilling/Getty Images
Demi Lovato can singggg.
Last night before Game 5 of the 2011 World Series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, the 19-year-old hit a home run with her rendition of the National Anthem.
Looking happy and healthy in a red Texas T-shirt and matching red all-American lips, the raspy-voiced popstar played to her strengths, giving a restrained, ballad-esque performance before the big finish. Cue the fireworks: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty ImagesIs Dr. Dre‘s Detox really coming out next year? Maybe! Here’s one more sign that the long-delayed album is on its way: This morning, Dre announced that he is partnering with the online game Mafia Wars for a promotional campaign.
According to a press release, starting this weekend, Mafia Wars players can watch Dre’s new video for his single “Kush” within the game. They can also play a “Hustlin’ Wit Dre” game-within-a-game that will let them “collect Dr. Dre-inspired, limited edition virtual goods such as headphones, a vintage car, and weapons.” Players will have a chance to win signed headphones from the superproducer’s Beats by Dr. Dre line, as well as signed copies of Detox whenever it comes out…which would certainly suggest that that event is looming on the horizon, no?
What do you think of this news? Does this convince you that Detox will be on sale in the near future?
(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More on the Music Mix:
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg steam up the club in “Kush” video
Dr. Dre tells us what’s up with Detox
Image Credit: MicrosoftHalo: Reach, the latest iteration in the Halo franchise, was released yesterday, and some surprising inclusions to the legions of nerds already playing online are hip-hop artists Snoop Dogg and LL Cool J.
The two filmed a Funnyordie.com video of their game along with Wayne Newton — a.k.a. Mr. Las Vegas — and Chuck actor Zachary Levi, which provided at least one major revelation: Celebrities and seminal gangster rappers are just as infantile while playing video games as the rest of us.
Although Snoop seems to be the better player (he’s got the build of a gamer, after all), LL Cool J utters what probably should have been the tagline of the game: “Halo: Reach: You can’t ‘Reach’ me, baby.” Snoop, who plays under the handle “thedoggfather,”pays him back with an obscene in-game celebratory gesture. Way to keep it classy, Snoop.
Check out their gaming skills in the semi-NSFW video after the jump. READ FULL STORY »
When you turn on a radio, stereo, or jukebox in the new Sims games arriving on Oct. 26, you might find some of your favorite musicians singing in Simlish. Electronic Arts has given the Music Mix an exclusive sneak peek at the artists who have re-recorded their tunes in the popular gaming series’ fictional language, and the list includes some pretty big names.
Selected highlights of the re-recorded Simlish songs in The Sims 3 (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii) include 3OH!3′s “Double Vision,” Flo Rida and Jovi’s “Fresh I Stay,” and School of Seven Bells’ “Dust Devil.” The Sims 3 Late Night expansion pack (for PC and Mac) will feature Simlish versions of Travie McCoy’s “Need You,” My Chemical Romance’s “Na Na Na,” Soulja Boy’s “Speakers Going Hammer,” Kelly Rowland’s “Rose Colored Glasses,” and many more.
Excited for any of those artists to join The Sims? Who else would you like to hear singing in Simlish?
(Follow The Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)
More news from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Kanye West shoots movie in Prague for upcoming album
Miranda Lambert leads CMA nominations: What do you think of the ballot?
Lauryn Hill “getting closer” to releasing new album
Katy Perry’s disappointing first-week album sales: Is she overexposed?
Better get your pretend-scratching skills up to snuff! DJ Hero 2 is coming this October. The sequel to last year’s DJ Hero video game will feature an even broader range of tunes for you to mix and mash on screen, drawing on artists all across the genre map — from Rihanna and Lady Gaga to Jay-Z and Drake to Daft Punk and Tiesto and beyond. It’s an impressive list, and we’re pleased to debut the full details right here on the Music Mix.
Click through to the jump for an exclusive run-down of all the artists whose music appears in DJ Hero 2. Then let us know if you’re looking forward to this game, and whose tunes you’re most psyched to play with. READ FULL STORY »
In 1994, Green Day’s Dookie was in heavy rotation in my elementary-school hallways. I also seem to recall video games being a big deal in my circle of acquaintance at that time. So I’m pretty sure I would have been the king of the fourth grade if I had possessed some sort of video game that involved playing “Longview” and “Basket Case.” Well, as of this summer, all I’ll need is a hot tub time machine to make that scenario come true, because MTV Games is about to drop Green Day: Rock Band, the franchise’s second band-specific game after last year’s awesome The Beatles: Rock Band. I stopped by MTV’s Times Square offices recently to check out the game, which arrives in stores June 8 and was developed by Harmonix, the same company that created the other Rock Bands.
The game boasts 47 playable songs — take a look at the full list after the jump, exclusively at the Music Mix. At its core you’ll notice three albums from Green Day’s discography. “The key to putting it together ended up being [2004's] American Idiot,” Harmonix project director Chris Foster told me. “They’re doing a musical based on the album, which is a story that goes from start to finish. We didn’t want to pick and choose songs from that. So we made the call for the first time in one of our games to have the full album on disc. Then we were like, well, [2009's] 21st Century Breakdown is also meant to be heard that way… So that gave us a second album. And then Alex Rigopulos, our CEO, heard about that, and he was like, ‘Why the hell aren’t you putting Dookie on there?’ To which we were like, ‘Uh, yes sir!’ It was a no-brainer.”
Activision, the same gaming company that drew fire in September for its off-brand use of a virtual Kurt Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero, are now drawing equal ire from ska-pop superstars No Doubt—and a real-life lawsuit, per a story on the L.A. Times blog.
According to papers filed today in a Los Angeles court, the brand-new Band Hero has unlawfully “transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act,” singing some 60 songs neither belonging to the group nor approved by them for use in the game, including the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman.”
“While No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones,” the complaint states, “the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.”
“Activision has deceived and confused the public into believing that No Doubt authorized the use of its name and likeness for the Character Manipulation Feature of Band Hero and that No Doubt approves and endorses the appearance of its members individually performing songs that are wholly inappropriate and out of character for No Doubt,” the complaint continues, and also states that Activision executives deemed disabling the feature “too expensive.”
What do you think, readers—is all this sound and fury misplaced on what is, essentially, just silly entertainment? Or does No Doubt have the right to retain full control over an image they’ve now worked to create for more than two decades?
More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Taylor Swift on ‘SNL’: Let the Kanye yukks begin
Allison Iraheta exclusive: Songwriting and production credits for her debut album
‘This Is It’: Michael Jackson soundtrack tops the albums chart in a busy week
Muse: Watch new video here
‘Say Anything’ turns 20: Cameron Crowe’s crazy story behind ‘In Your Eyes’
Ellie Goulding: The Music Mix recommends
Tomorrow sees the release of Band Hero, the next evolutionary step from the same people who brought the world the ridiculously successful Guitar Hero series. As you might guess, band hero is Guitar Hero plus the rest of the band: vocals, drums and bass. No groupie avatar option yet.
Chicago pop-punk veterans Fall Out Boy are featured prominently on the game, with “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and “Thnks fr th Mmrs,” and bassist Pete Wentz appears in an upcoming Brett Ratner-directed commercial for the game inspired by a certain ’80s film classic, alongside Blink 182′s Travis Barker, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, and (yes) Taylor Swift.
Wentz took some time to talk to EW about Band Hero, what kind of music he listens to around the house with wife Ashlee Simpson and their one-year-old son, and the bet-related revenge he hopes to get on Cobra Starship‘s frontman.
EW: So in the commercial for Band Hero, you reenact that famous scene from Risky Business with Tom Cruise dancing to that Bob Seger song. Are you a fan of the movie?
PW: Oh, definitely a fan of Risky Business. Those are like the movies I grew up with, you know, the car going through the garage in Ferris Bueller and all that.
EW: Did you do any trial runs of the Tom Cruise underwear/sock sliding scene growing up?
PW: I’ve done that, but I do it more onstage when it rains. I’ll try to do it onstage and it will not end up so good generally. It’s not the easiest thing to do, in the way that you have to land on a beat, and depending on how much they would Lysol the floor [for the commercial shoot], you would go faster or slower. And you’re in your underwear, and there was three of us, me, Travis [Barker of Blink-182] and Rivers [Cuomo of Weezer]. And we had Taylor [Swift] in there, too.
EW: What was Taylor Swift like?
Rock Band is coming to the iPhone! EW’s Margaret Lyons reveals in the pages of our latest issue, on stands this Friday, that EA, MTV Games, and Harmonix will release an iPhone/iPod Touch version of the popular rhythm game next week. Much like a miniature version of regular Rock Band, the app will involve tapping four spots on the iPhone screen in time with guitar, bass, drum, and vocal parts.
We also have a list of the 20 core songs that will come with the app. See them all after the jump.
Does this sound like something you’d buy, iPhone users? What do you think of the tracklist? Tap out your answer in the comments section below.
This evening, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic released an official statement in response to the open use of a Kurt Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5, in which the late grunge icon can be made to perform any song by any artist in the GH catalog.
Said the pair: “We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.
While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.
It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”
Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has already threatened to sue the parent company Activision; she tweeted today: “wait til you see what MY lovely lawyer has cooked up, i never ever signed off on this … btw we get NO money for this, travesty, Frances gets NO money for the rape.” Activision responded: “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”
Watch the pixelated Cobain, in his trademark fuzzy green cardigan, perform snippets of Public Enemy and Billy Idol below before busting into songs that are the antithesis of his sound — namely, Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name,” Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and Bush’s “Comedown” — and tell us if you agree. Is it blasphemous, or all in good fun?
More from EW’s Music Mix:‘
No Beatles, but Norah Jones plays new song ‘Young Blood’ at Apple event
Guilty Pleasures, Round Three: Follow all the matchups here!
True Blood’’s Alexander Skarsgard: TV vampire, sexy Swede… guest DJ?
‘The Beatles: Rock Band’ is out today: Harmonix boss Alex Rigopulos gives us the scoop on working with Sir Paul and NOT being given hell by Yoko
