Idolator, All About the Music... If Only It Were

Live-Blogging The Top 3 Showdown On "American Idol," Because I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

American Idol's top three contenders—Davids Archuleta and Cook, and Syesha Mercado—hold their last sing-off before next week's big sing-off tonight, and we're coming atcha live, as a band that will probably never get its Ryan Seacrest due would say! Dan Fogelberg, Switchfoot, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, and a song from Happy Feet that maybe 0.5% of the ever-shrinking Idol audience will know after... the jump. More »

7:55 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,721 views, 18 comments

leak of the yesterday

New Weezer Song Showcases Rivers Cuomo's Medley-Writing Ambitions (Or Something Like That)

ARTIST: Weezer
TITLE: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations On A Shaker Hymn)"
WEB DEBUT: May 7, 2008 More »

1:30 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
3,494 views, 15 comments

how do rumors get started? they get started by jealous people

Yep, Kanye Might Be Going Completely Insane

We used to have daily "Britney=crazy!" news to fill the blogging day, but her time encamped in the psychiatric bunker has reduced the volume of her news output. I just want to take a second to thank Kanye West for picking up the slack. Crazed rants against Entertainment Weekly? Playing Connect Four with other celebrities? Rumored fights with collaborators? Thank you, Kanye, from the bottom of my bloggo heart. More »

12:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
1,145 views, 9 comments

truthmongerer

Nate Dogg: Not Dead

Like the Timex Social Club, I spend a lot of time lamenting the rumors that surround me every day. How do they get started? And where do they get crazy? In Truthmongerer, I'll try to suss out the kernels of truth in the rumors that are taking up airspace in gossip columns, blogs, and our tips inbox.

THE RUMOR: Nate Dogg passed away over the weekend, according to a MySpace post that was picked up by MediaTakeOut earlier today.

TRUTH THRESHOLD: 0%. Yes, that's right—it's a rumor that's been, shall we say, wholly exaggerated.

More »

6:45 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
268 views, 6 comments

idolator's american idolatry

Why Jeff Archuleta's Backstage Ban Has Pretty Much Sealed The "American Idol" Title For David

There are lots of weird things about American Idol banning David Archuleta's father, Jeff, from rehearsal sessions—the timing (the news was released late Friday, after the three remaining Idol hopefuls had mostly completed their homecoming tours), the source of the leak (did a Fox source tell TMZ about the ban?), and the fact that the producers were citing David's "unfair advantage" of having his own musical arranger now, instead of at the beginning of the semifinals among them. But what's most frustrating about the ban is the way that it's turned the contestant at the center of it into a bulletproof entity, and how the conclusion of American Idol is even more foregone than it was when the Archuleta clan was just beginning its whirlwind tour of Utah's mall parking lots and basketball stadia. The reasons why we're going to definitely see David have his now a week from tomorrow after the jump. More »

3:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
2,336 views, 9 comments

Latest by Jack Fear: @Archiehatersgetalife: Can't tell who wrote this but you really are not that smart. There's a name at the bottom of every post, genius. more »

the last word

Duffy: Your Cleaner, Whiter Retro-Soul Option

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the new full-length by Duffy, Rockferry, which hits stores today: More »

2:30 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
549 views, 13 comments

you, sir, are no diddy

Ben Affleck, How Could You?

Ben Affleck has disavowed his appearance in the legendary video for his then-fiancee's track "Jenny from the Block," saying it nearly ruined his career. Ben, how could you say that? More »

3:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
520 views, 6 comments

idolator's american idolatry

A Few "Idol" Odds & Ends

In preparation for tonight's American Idol liveblog—which starts at 8 ET!—here are some headlines that have crossed the transom...
• Nigel Lythgoe on the Jeff Archuleta issue: "He has been asked not to participate in the choice of music with David or be in the room when David is working out his routines that he wants to sing. He's fine to be in the studio — nothing wrong with that. We just want David to be able to be free like everybody else to get on and do what they want to do." My head is pounding from the number of lines in that statement that I need to read between. [EW]
• As if it wasn't clear enough that the producers are angling for a David-David final, their pick for Syesha Mercado tonight is Gia Farrell's "Hit Me Up." Never heard of it? Well, it was on the Happy Feet soundtrack, and it went to No. 1 in Hungary and No. 8 in Finland. But it didn't chart in the US, save for a two-week stint in the lower reaches of the Top 40 Mainstream chart. Hear it on YouTube, if you want to spoil the channel-change-inspiring surprise that the producers are clearly hoping for. [YouTube]
• Could this be the night that ratings plummet below the 20 million mark? [AP]

5:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
323 views, 7 comments

Latest by NeverEnough: @SimonSays76: Back and to the left... back and to the left... more »

idolator's american idolatry

Jeff Archuleta Banned From "American Idol" Rehearsals; David Archuleta Fans Give World Another Reason To Believe That Journalism Is In A Bad Place Right Now

TMZ first reported it yesterday and now the Associated Press has confirmed it: The American Idol braintrust has banned David Archuleta's father/musical arranger/puppet-string-puller, Jeff, from the show's rehearsals, after months of speculation about his stage-dad tendencies and overbearing presence. The final straw? The cheesy "Beautiful Girls" interpolation into David's performance of "Stand By Me" last Tuesday, which not only made the song's message completely incoherent, it cost the producers an undisclosed amount of licensing money. This raises a host of questions regarding the junior Archuleta's last two weeks in the competition (Will the news, and the apparent fact that Jeff is the first person to be banned from the Idol backstage ever, garner a lot of sympathy votes? Will this be his chance to show the haters that he can, in fact, interpret and arrange music without Daddy pulling the strings, or will he wilt under the pressure on Tuesday night? Is this abortion of a season over yet?) But leave it to the Archie-crazed commenters at rickey.org to ask the important questions regardnig this whole story. More »

2:00 PM on Sat May 10 2008
By Maura Johnston
3,339 views, 9 comments

Latest by Big Gray.: Why do you lead me to Rickey.org, Maura? That site is like the Call of Cthulhu. more »

touch of presumptiousness

Grateful Dead To NPR: You Scratch Our Back, We'll Lightly Pat Yours

Former Sleater-Kinney guitarist/vocalist Carrie Brownstein blogs at NPR, and her latest post has a fully cleared MP3 mix that has tracks by the likes of Pylon and Wire, and is appended with a note: "This mix was supposed to have the Grateful Dead on it, whose music I really love, but they refused unless we promised to do a piece on them on All Things Considered. In addition, we would need to run a feature on The Dead on the site. Here's a sentence I've never written: Someone needs to take a bong hit and chill out. Just a simple 'no thanks' would have sufficed. Are The Dead really in need of publicity? Because I swear there's a dancing bear sticker on every third car I see in Portland." Hey, they're just trying to take blog payola to the next level! Never underestimate those dancing bears' marketing savvy. [Monitor Mix; HT BV]

4:30 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
251 views, 12 comments

Latest by NeverEnough: @Dick Laurent is dead.: I wonder which muppet would be most Bez-like... more »

vengaboys, where are you now?

Scooter Turns Assault On Ears Into British No. 1

It's been a tough chart week for Madonna. First, it looks like Neil Diamond's new full-length is going to knock Hard Candy out of the top spot on the U.S. album chart. Then Scooter shoots past her new album on the British charts. Scooter? The German techno band that seemed to be on every lousy compilation for awhile? Yep. More »

10:15 AM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
279 views, 5 comments

if a two second ad plays and no one hears it, does it make a sale?

Clear Channel Wants You To Know Radio Is Still Awesome

Sure, you're probably assuming that radio is a dying scene for advertisers. Listeners are fleeing to satellite radio, the internet, cans connected with string, etc., while radio conglomerates grasp at straws like cell phones and HD radio to ensure some presence in the media future. You have it wrong, pal. Radio is as vibrantly exciting as ever, and Clear Channel has a flashy Web site to prove it. More »

3:30 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
231 views, 10 comments

the last word

Death Cab For Cutie Will Possess Some Shelf Space

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the new full-length by Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs, which hits stores tomorrow: More »

4:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
923 views, 12 comments

dispatches from the z100 front lines

Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl": The Worst Song Of/Most Fitting Song For 2008

Before you ask: No, Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" is not a cover of Jill Sobule's song, although by the time you get through the first verse of the above clip I bet you'll be missing that 1995 track's relatively subtle charms. No, Perry's song—which I heard on New York's top 40 station, Z100, multiple times while driving around this weekend—is a stomping bit of electrotwaddle that's half "Rock & Roll, Pt. 2" and half rejected Tila Tequila track with a dollop of Orgy, backed by a band who sounds like it got its start as one of those generic school-dance outfits that you see on your second-tier teen comedes. And its lyrics read as if they were scripted by a Girls Gone Wild producer who was feeding post-makeout lines to two reluctanct subjects—and then somehow made less poetic in re-editing. More »

5:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,016 views, 29 comments

Latest by westartedthis: @The Van Buren Boys: OOH MY GOD - is THAT who this is? i'm pretty sure i read about her "transformation" (the CCM album was released as Katy Hudson) something like 4 or 5 years ago. friends, this one's been more »