Posted by
Kat – April 7, 2010
While it took two years to really get the album out and to the public, Usher’s “Raymond v Raymond” album has hit the markets and has proven to be just as exciting and as wanted by the fans as we all hoped. The album, which features hits like “Lil Freak” and “OMG”, has officially bumped
Justin Bieber’s album (oh, thank god and finally, that took long enough) to the number two slot. Now that Usher’s album is at the top of the list with a whopping 329,000 copies sold just in its first week available, it looks like Usher’s fate is secure for this particular album. Even though some critics state that some of his album is very typical, the sound is still fresh and shows an even more sexy player side of Usher than his last album. Granted, his recent divorce probably gave him plenty to come up with for his more girl-crazy aspects of his album, but it has some punch and passion regardless.
To help promote his new album, Usher had been at American Idol last week, as well as the Ellen Degeneres show, where he performed “OMG” on both of the shows. Now, we’re all just waiting to see what the actual chart says to find out just how high “OMG” will debut. Unfortunately for anyone who would like to see Bieber drop further down the charts, his slip to second was buffered by all the Easter sales last week that probably made him an ideal present for parents to give to their kids. With luck, though, Raymond v Raymond will stay on the top of the charts for at least a little while, ensuring that Usher’s newest endeavor is secure. I dunno about you guys, but Lil Freak’s been stuck in my head for days, and it should be stuck in yours, too!
Posted by
Kat – April 4, 2010
Last time I had checked on the front of Erykah Badu’s controversial new music video shoot, where she was walking naked through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, she wasn’t going to be charged. In fact, the Dallas police had stated that because no one actually called in a complaint at the time of the video shoot, they weren’t going to slap a charge on her. But, of course, leave it to someone to take things too far and to whine. A Texas woman has now filed a complaint of indecency with the Dallas police and they will be charging her with disorderly conduct. That means that in the mail, Badu’s about to get a citation for a $500 fine. Now, I have issue with this for more than one reason.
First of all, the video was shot completely in one take, and it involves her actually stripping down until she’s completely nude, where a gunshot then rings out and she crumples to the ground while what looks like blue blood then spills down onto the ground until it forms the word “groupthink.” So, you’re talking about maybe a minute of time where she is actually nude, and it was in one take. One minute, people. In my opinion, that’s guerilla theatre, and this should fall under artistic license. Regardless of if she warned the public of it, given that she didn’t and it was only her and a cameraman, she wasn’t walking around for hours on end with no clothes on shouting “Look at my boobies, children! Look at my boobies!” In fact, I’m more stuned that someone filed an indecency complaint against a woman who bared all in what is a very beautiful and non-sexual way, when it’s not like anyone files complaints against Usher for having a single where he drops the F-bomb throughout the entire chorus.
What does Badu have to say about this? She’s stunned, too. She says she’s been more naked in her lyrics and her words, and that’s where real vulnerability lies.
Posted by
Kat – April 1, 2010
One thing I do love about Linkin Park is that they are certainly in touch with what their audience loves. And sometimes, that means giving the nerds of the world a little love, and in this case, that means a fun little 8-Bit mobile game app that will soon be available for iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads everywhere called “Linkin Park’s 8-Bit Rebellion!” Having already seen a demo of the game, I can tell you that it’s certainly not the greatest strategy game ever created for gamers out there, but it’s a great concept because of what it will be doing. For those who get the game and beat it, they will unlock a new single by the band, “Blackbirds.” This is going to be groundbreaking, because this will be one of the first times that a major artist/band has decided to release an exclusive new track through a game application for mobile phones. It’s groundbreaking and exciting, and not just because the game is apparently going to be a lot of fun.
The new track, “Blackbirds,” is only going to be available through the game. The game is about you, the hero, trying to defeat an ‘evil HD empire’ called PixxelKorp, which has stolen all of Linkin Park’s music and it’s up to you, the hero, to get it back. Each of the different levels is based around one of the band members, and throughout the game you will be able to hear 8-bit versions of several hit songs. I can’t wait to hear the 8-bit versions of “In the End” and “Crawling.” It may make me fall in love with this band all over again.
One thing’s for sure. I’ll be one of those individuals getting the game as soon as I can, because it’s got a pretty awesome incentive.
Posted by
Kat – March 16, 2010
A couple of months ago, I clued you in to the premiere of the newest single off of “Plastic Beach”: Stylo. The Gorillaz have been working hard to do something different, retaining their reputation of being both innovative and cooky. If you haven’t seen the newest music video for Stylo, or the thirty second teaser trailers for the album, then you’ve been missing some awesome music and an even more awesome change to their look: The Gorillaz have gone 3-D.
In the music video for Stylo, a piece that the band has shown a great deal of pride and excitement for, the characters of Murdoc, 2D and Noodle (Who is inexiplicably an android for this video, but who doesn’t love the weirdness that is Noodle?) have been given the 3-D treatment, and it’s a stunning and welcome change. The video itself is an enjoyable ride with a very surprising appearance – Bruce Willis. Willis’s appearance is as an unnamed man chasing after the Gorillaz in their car. To be honest, though, I’ve watched the video over a dozen times and I still can’t help but hope the next video they do directly ties to this one. The video leaves you hanging, but only after sucking you into what you’re watching.
On a creative note, the appearance of Bobby Womack and Mos Def really show a true collaboration. Womack, who hasn’t really recorded in years and didn’t even know who the Gorillaz were, did the song because his granddaughter likes them. In regards to the recording experience, Womack was given the opportunity to simply brainstorm and sing what he wanted. He got “everything off [his] chest” for the lyrics he sang. Other tracks on this album show just as creative collaborations. Plastic Beach is new, innovative and a bit different from their previous albums in a refreshing way.
Posted by
Kat – March 12, 2010
Fans of both Beyonce and
Lady Gaga have been waiting with bated breath for the new collaboration music video, “Telephone,” to premiere, and it looks like Lady Gaga and her companion certainly didn’t disappoint. The new music video premiered last night at 11:30 PM Eastern Standard Time to a ravenous audience just waiting for the video. For the last two months, fans and critics have been given small, quick glimpses of what was going to be in the video, but nothing could have really, really compared to actually seeing the video. With a long intro of over a minute to set up the storyline – Gaga is a new inmate at a “Prison for Bitches,” and Beyonce is her contact on the outside world who later bails her out – the video just gets better from there.
For one thing, the full frontal nudity (Although censored and blurred out, it’s still quite obvious) and the fantastic costuming, it’s hard to tell where the video’s going to go for the moment, or where exactly it relates to the song itself. As most Lady Gaga fans would know, that last factor is strictly optional. With vivid and outrageous telephone-related costuming, it had marks of Lady Gaga’s style all over it. Then again, as it was directed by Jonas Akerlund, the same director to work with her on Paparazzi, you could see the same high levels of thematic care and stylization that makes Lady Gaga enjoy working with him.
All the fans and not-so-fans of the Kill Bill movies would have gotten a real laugh out of the storyline taking place after Lady Gaga gets out of prison, as Beyonce picks her up on the Pussy Wagon, the same exact truck used as the Bride’s escape vehicle at the beginning of Kill Bill Volume 1. On top of that, there are very Tarantino-esque moments in the video, and as Gaga loves to talk about, she is a fan of androgyny and breaking sexual barriers, and there is a healthy dose of that as well in her videos.
Without giving the ending away, this has to be one of the most complex music videos Lady Gaga or Beyonce have done.
Posted by
Kat – March 9, 2010
Considering I’ve been covering the ongoing circus that has been Lil Wayne’s quest to avoid his sentencing trial, it seemed only right to finally finish that particular tale as yesterday, March 8th, Lil Wayne attended his hearing and was finally sentenced. His term for having pled guilty for attempted criminal possession of a weapon? A year in jail in New York City. It seems more than a little lax, considering he had admitted to having .40-caliber semiautomatic guns that were loaded and on his tour bus, but he was taken away and ordered to begin his sentence immediately. Born with the name Dwayne Carter, he is going to be serving his sentence in city jails, as opposed to a state prison, and with good behavior, he may be out in as soon as eight months.
If you’ve been following this story, then you already know that trying to get Lil Wayne to actually go to his sentencing hearing has been a bit of a pain for all involved. First, it was necessary surgery on his blinged out teeth, and then a fire broke out at the main criminal courthouse in Manhattan. Finally, though, after a very public appearance earlier at
Jay-Z’s concert, Lil Wayne did make his court appearance and hsa now been sentenced.
As for what’s going to happen while he’s in jail, the man has already filmed several music videos that are going to premiere over the next several months while he’ll be in jail. And while he’s behind bars, he plans on continuing to write and work on new numbers by the time he comes back home. On top of that, he’s hoping to be in protective custody while behind bars, so it looks like his next year in jail won’t be the worst it could be.
Posted by
Kat – March 1, 2010
If you’ve grown up listening to music, then chances are you’ve heard the iconic song “You Make My Dreams Come True,” by Hall & Oates. And when you think of that song, of course, you have to think of the bass riff that made that song so catchy. Sadly, Tom “T-Bone” Wolk, the bassist who played with Darryl Hall and John Oates for almost thirty years, passed away on Saturday of what seems to be a heart attack. While the details of his death have not been released, nor have details about his funeral, the death comes as a shock to everyone, especially Hall and Oates. T-Bone had been scheduled to actually perform with Hall and Oates in a special one-year anniversary show for “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.”
At 58 years old, Wolk was a native of Yonkers, New York, and had been a collaborating bassist with several different bands and artists throughout the last thirty years. For
example, Kurtis Blow’s early hit “These are the Breaks” features the bassist’s talent, and then between 1986 and 1992, he was the bassist for the house band on “Saturday Night Live.” Don’t quite remember him? Think of the guy with the black top hat. That was T-Bone Wolk.
But, before Saturday Night Live, it was his work with Hall and Oates that really defined him. He started with the album “Private Eyes” in 1981, then continued all the way through until recent times. And he wasn’t just the bassist, either. Wolk was also a co-producer for many of the different Hall and Oates projects over the years and also worked with Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Jewel, Rosanne Cash and Cyndi Lauper. The work that T-Bone Wolk left as his legacy will certainly be remembered, and I for one, will miss the bassist with the black top hat.
Posted by
Kat – February 24, 2010
Season 8 of American Idol was the season that brought Kris Allen into the official spotlight as the champion. But it seems that now, he is taking some of the notoriety and fame he has gained to put it to a good cause. After the simply devastating earthquake that has all but destroyed Haiti, Kris Allen, like so many other celebrities and musicians recently, made a trip out to the country to see first-hand the pain inflicted upon the people and to help find ways that he could assist in helping the country rebuild. The result? The “Idol Gives Back” Concept that originally popped up after the disaster will be revisited on Thursday as Allen will reappear on Idol during the episode to help bring awareness and humanitarianism to the front of everyone’s focus.
Kris Allen’s performance will be a major change for him, given that the last time he was on the stage for Idol was to finish the competition and claim victory. But, before he was an Idol competitor, he had done missionary work, and for Allen, it only seemed natural to go out to Haiti to help now. He was there under the United Nations and spent his time helping people at the temporary shelters, visiting and talking and even singing “Amazing Grace” for some of the people. He also handed out bags of rice whenever he could, and spent his time there gathering footage to show people what was really happening there and how they were rebuilding.
Allen’s performance on Idol will be a rendition of “Let It Be” by the Beatles, and footage, as well as his personal thoughts on his trip. He’ll be encouraging donations by text and providing people a much-needed first-hand account of how the relief effort is going in the torn country. For Allen, though, he is grateful and glad to be of help.
Posted by
Kat – February 20, 2010
It isn’t often that I hear the words “Avril Lavigne” and “haunting” in the same sentence and it actually be a positive comment on her work. But, the compliment is really there and with good reason, as the contribution to the Alice In Wonderland soundtrack for Burton’s much-anticipated movie by Avril is just that, hauntingly beautiful. Instead of going with her Sk8r Boi roots and doing something punk rock and flashy, Avril tried for something much more gothic and ethereal than we’ve seen in the past. And it worked. Her video of “Alice” has been touted as a gothic fall into the rabbit hole that perfectly compliments Burton’s movie, and the music shows a truly desired contribution to the movie’s soundtrack.
The actual video was shot back in January and only took two days to film. At the Arborteum in Los Angeles, Avril and her director spent their two days in rainstorms talking in detail about ideas both of them had for the music video. Avril had ideas floating around and the director had a plan but wanted her input to create the video until they had the right kind of product. And while you know that Burton wasn’t actually there to be involved with the concept of the video, those who have seen the video have stated outright that it seems to be directly from Burton himself, as if in music form. With its very haunting and gothic tunes, Avril’s song and the video to go with it have really stunned critics everywhere and music fans.
And here’s the funniest part. Tim Burton has been so secretive about the video that no one has been allowed to see it until recently, which meant that the two artists had not seen the movie to even come up with their plans. It turns out, though, that after the fact, the director of the music video Dave Meyers was given a chance to see the film and said that it was incredibly exciting to see. The video fit the movie even more after that and even Burton was able to give his seal of approval on the video. So it looks like a job well done from the unexpected source of Avril.
Posted by
Kat – February 18, 2010
For those of you who aren’t fans of the movie “Lucky Number Slevin,” you might not know what a Kansas City shuffle is, but it’s basically when everyone looks left so you can go right. AKA, you distract and run. And it looks like for the fans of this season of American Idol, that’s exactly what’s happened here. The twenty four semi-finalists were finally shown just yesterday, but it was a little bit of a quick switch. With nary a word to the viewers, Chris Golightly was supposed to be one of the Top 24 for Wednesday’s episode, yet suddenly, instead of Golightly, we saw Tim Urban show up, although his actual entry wasn’t shown. Instead, we saw his face and his name at the end of the episode, and that was about it.
So what the heck happened and why was there such a big and quick switch, the big wigs at American Idol’s Fox headquarters won’t specifically come out and say why they swapped out Golightly for Urban. It was a quick switch and all they said was that it had been determined that Golightly was disqualified and it had been determined that he was not eligible for the competition. It’s kind of funny, though, because Tweets flew all over as people tried to figure out what was going on. And it was a response by Ryan Seacrest via Twitter that was vague but implied that the major ways to get disqualified from the competition is to break a rule or have a music deal somewhere else without telling the network.
As we’ve hit the tenth season of this show, you would think that the judges would have some sort of checks and balances in place BEFORE choosing semi-finalists to determine that someone is ineligible, especially when it comes to recording deals like that. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and it looks like different sources that works closely on the show have stated that Golightly had a deal with a different company and were supposed to tell the network way before it got this far.
