Nominees for the 2009 Country Music Association Awards, which will be given out on Nov. 11 in Nashville: MORE »
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everybody's a winner
2009 Country Music Association Awards Nominees
the last word
Cobra Starship Very Unsubtly Touch Down
Our look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Hot Mess, the new album by Cobra Starship: MORE »
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Das Racist Get Lost In Yum Brands’ Supermarket
What is “Combination Pizza Hut And Taco Bell,” which has already been tipped as one of the possible jams of the summer by MTV’s James Montgomery, been termed “the track we, as a culture, need right now, or the track we, as a culture, deserve—or both” by Village Voice music editor Rob Harvilla, and been remixed in such a way that it snagged Pitchfork’s coveted Best New Music tag? The plot of the song is simple: The two dudes who comprise the Brooklyn hip-hop duo Das Racist are trying to find each other in one of those slightly horrifying hybrid fast-food joints that Yum! Brands–the company responsible for bringing KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s, and A & W to this country’s blighted thoroughfares and food courts–have crafted in a response to ever-rising real estate costs, or wanting to flood the zone with different types of bad-for-you combinations of cheese and tomatoes, or (more likely) both. “Combination” is the sort of deceptively idiotic song that will either inspire repeated listenings or you throwing whatever is playing the music across the room; the Pitchfork-kudosed remix by Wallpaper, which turns the song into something that could very easily be called “Daft Punk Is Playing At My Fast-Food Place,” is after the jump. MORE »
the last word
Britney Spears Causes Reporters To Wear Out Their Computers’ “S,” “E,” “X,” And “Y” Keys
Our look at the closing lines to the biggest music reviews continues today with a roundup of reactions to the opening night of Britney Spears‘ comeback tour, a circus-themed production that kicked off last night at the New Orleans Arena: MORE »
everybody's a winner
The Academy Of Country Music Loves Brad Paisley
The Academy Of Country Music Awards are essentially the American Music Awards to the Country Music Association Awards’ Grammys: Both came along a little later, and both seem to lack the prestige of their mainstream competitor. Still, even putting aside their very similar acronyms, the ACMs aren’t terribly distinctive from the CMAs. Both gave their prestige awards (Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist and Song of the Year) to the same people last year. While we wonder if there’s a point to the ACMs that doesn’t involve allowing Nashville types an excuse to hang out in Vegas for a weekend, feel free to peruse this year’s nominees. Brad Paisley, who took home two ACM Awards last year, led this year’s field, picking up six nods. And in something of a surprise, former Trick Pony frontwoman Heidi Newfield nabbed five nominations. MORE »
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Pepsi Vs. Coke In The World Series Of Pop
There are two reasons that I’m glad I kept putting off my treatise on the very unfortunate Bob Dylan vs. will.i.am smackdown in honor of Pepsi: First, MTV News’ James Montgomery pretty much summed up my thoughts on the overall “the present is kinda crappy, let’s just OD on sugar” feel of the ad; and second, I found out that the Coca-Cola-sponsored collaboration between Cee-Lo, Patrick Stump, Janelle Monae, Brendon Urie, Travis McCoy, and Butch Walker had debuted online today. Guess which one is about 50 million times more pleasurable to these ears? I’ll give you a hint: It’s the one without Shrek in its attached video. Embeds of both tracks after the jump. MORE »
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Where Were You The Last Time Guns N’ Roses Released A New Album?
Yesterday while wandering around New York City I saw a bunch of wheatpasted posters for Chinese Democracy, the latest sign that the seemingly apocryphal Guns N’ Roses album is, indeed, coming to a Best Buy near you (and me!) in six days. MTV News’ James Montgomery took the occasion to go back in time and remember what the world was like back on Sept. 17, 1991–the last date that an all-new studio release from GNR, the twin-disc Use Your Illusion, hit stores. George H.W. Bush was President of the U.S.; Color Me Badd had the No. 1 single; Britney Spears was nine years old; Emily Valentine was just arriving at West Beverly High. There are many more tidbits in Montgomery’s piece (including a nod to the hotness of Sonic The Hedgehog, which, uh, some of us still are trying to finish, albeit on a different system), but I figured I’d take the reminiscing in a more personal direction. Join me, won’t you? MORE »
Soulja Boy: Is The Joke On Us?
The whole “Soulja Boy loves the slavemasters” controversy continued this week, when Toure–who elicited the controversial quote from the YouTube sensation/Segway fan, responded to SB’s allegations that he was just trying to bring the lulz when he was thanking those men for paving the way toward his sparkly jewelry and body art. Toure told HipHopDX, “Let me be clear: I was looking into Soulja Boy’s eyes when he said, ‘Shout out to the slave masters. Without them we wouldn’t be here to get this ice and tattoos.’ He wasn’t joking. That said, if he thinks shouting out the slave masters who owned, whipped, and raped our ancestors is funny, then that’s even more alarming. Either way he’s clearly not mature enough for a serious conversation.” But one writer wonders if the “not-joking” stance Soulja Boy put on is actually a manifestation of the fact that, thanks in part to his catchphrase-stuffed singles and self-congratulatory YouTube videos, he’s a performance artist of sorts, acting out the worst impulses of every nouveau riche teen as a commentary of sorts on the last gasps of the nu-gilded age. MORE »
everybody's a winner
The CMA Awards Nominees: Kenny Chesney Is Still Pretty Entertaining
Kenny Chesney’s penchant for soaking his fans in booze and good times was no doubt a factor in him picking up yet another Entertainer Of The Year nomination from the Country Music Assocation Awards, where he’s the current holder of that title. The CMA Awards committee also bestowed six more nods on him at this morning’s nomination announcement. (Said press conference was also the scene of the ick-inducing clutch between Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox and Taylor Swift at left, which took place when Swift was announced as one of the Female Vocalist Of The Year nominees.) Other nominees of note: the Eagles in Vocal Group of the Year; the AWOL-from-Zep Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in Musical Event of the Year; and Miranda Lambert’s excellent “Gunpowder & Lead” in Single of the Year. Full list of nominees after the jump. MORE »
100 and single
Because She Got High: M.I.A.’s “Plane” Takes The “Express” Route To The Hot 100
For more than three years now, Interscope has tried a range of well-worn tactics to make singer/rapper/agitprop icon M.I.A. a best-seller in America: single releases with high-profile remixes; ads proclaiming her across-the-board rock-critic and blogger love; mixtape tracks; eye-catching and at times controversial music videos; and teaming her up with Timbaland for what turned out to be the weakest track on her latest album, Kala.
This week, seemingly out of nowhere and thanks to none of the above efforts, M.I.A. has her first hit on Billboard’s Hot 100, “Paper Planes,” which makes its debut all the way up at No. 55.
M.I.A. can credit the House Of Apatow for her sudden chart fortunes, as trailers and ads for the forthcoming Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy Pineapple Express prominently feature the track.
I think M.I.A. fans knew last summer that this song was destined to become her crossover hit, and if it goes no further than this, it will have already fulfilled its destiny. Except it’s going to do better because, somewhat improbably, M.I.A. is apparently connecting with one of the most loyal music-buying audiences in history: stoners. MORE »
