Find out what the American Idol top 10 is singing tonight, "Sing The Songs Of The Year You Were Born Night," after the jump (via MJ's Big Blog). Spoilers for the spoilers: Get ready for a reinterpretation of Chris Cornell's reinterpretation of "Billie Jean" and—oh Lord help us—"God Bless The USA."
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The first episode in the competitive portion of American Idol just started on the East Coast, and tonight the top 12 guys are giving their spin to the songs of the 1960s. The above shot is of the young ladies remaining in the competition—in a nice bit of reverse chivalry, they get to kick back and relax a bit while the men go first—but note that there are only 11 of them, thanks to one notable absence: Carly "Hennessy" Smithson, the former MCA signee who's caused quite the firestorm before even stepping on Idol's big stage. The obvious question: Where is she? Was she on a bathroom break? Did her visa expire again? Is she going to come back from the commercial with a huge record contract? Or is there going to be some sort of big, embarrassing announcement at show's end? I'm going to unpause my DVR and find out right now!
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who's contributed to several of those titles—or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he contrasts the Britney Spears cover stories in the new issues of Rolling Stone and Blender:
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Despite its Entertainment Weekly cover-story-garnering, Billboard chart-topping, near-universal acclaim, there are those of you* who, like me, think Stripper! Turned! Writer! and Oscar-nominated Juno uberhack Diablo Cody was sent as an emissary from the quirkiest circle of hell to torture us with her agonizingly overworked slanguage, insufferable hipster manque caricatures, and plot points that are indie movie cliches inbred until they're cross-eyed and unable to walk properly. And those folks will be delighted to learn that Ms. Cody's next feature—a comedy-horror film involving cheerleaders, demons, and more forced, semi-comprehensible sass than one script can withstand—is now rumored to be courting two real-life emo stars to possibly play Nikolai, frontman for the film's "Satanic emo band." Yeah, we know.
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The long-awaited announcement regarding this year's Coachella Festival has finally taken place, and apparently the big name the organizers got this year was ... Roger Waters? Who will be recreating Dark Side Of The Moon on the festival's main stage? Yeah, really. (What was that I said about festivals being totally over in '08 again?) Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. PT; other names on the 125-act bill, via the Los Angeles Times' Soundboard blog and URB, after the jump. (For those of you who think that Roger Waters is a little too old for Coachella: Don't worry, Love and Rockets are on the bill, too!)
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Kevin Bronson at the Los Angeles Times has a sort of update on the heatstroke-inducing desert jam that is Coachella Festival, the lineup of which is being announced next week. According to Bronson, not only is the above poster totally off, My Bloody Valentine will not be one of the "surprising veteran act[s]" on the show's roster—but who cares, because apparently Portishead is going to be there! Maybe I should brave the desert, although I'd need to stock up on some SPF 150 and a gigantic floppy hat before doing so. A list of bands who are, so far, totally definitely 100% rumored to be appearing according to the Internets and blog boards and such after the jump. Can you say "yay, '90s"?
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Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for the music industry, here comes the news that the Grammys—celebrating their 50th anniversary this year—might have quite a bit less starpower. If they happen at all! Yesterday, the Writers' Guild Of America hinted that it will not grant a waiver for the ceremony, which means that if the writers' strike is still going on by Feb. 10, attendees will probably have to cross a picket line before they can get into the Staples Center for the big show. The likelihood of members of the Screen Actors Guild—who are in solidarity with the writers—actually crossing that picket line is nil, and as a result, the talent pool for the show will be pretty depleted.
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Yes, we've been fooled before, but apparently the long-delayed, funeral-themed video for Britney Spears' "Gimme More"—the song that, it should be noted, topped this week's digital-tracks chart with 179,000 downloads—is really for sure going to make its way into the world sometime within the next few days. At least, we think so—the music-video-industry site Video Static has the clip listed as one of the new entries on MTV's playlist for the week of Oct. 8.
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When I first mentioned the sudden popularity of the search term "meg white sex tape" to a friend of mine Sunday night, we had the following exchange:
maura@idolator: so do you think the meg white sex tape is legit
unidentified_lurker: oh my god where did you see that?
unidentified_lurker: i mean i've seen it
maura@idolator: it was on google trends
unidentified_lurker: i'm saying who is purporting it's legit
unidentified_lurker: it's a message board joke
unidentified_lurker: i was thinking about forwarding it to you
unidentified_lurker: as a funny joke
unidentified_lurker: it's great to have a video on the internet for indie rock people to jerk off and pretend it's meg white tho
And we all know how that turned out. Anyway, The Daily Swarm plumbed the archives of the message board Hipinion and found where the clip was born—the mind of a poster named Itsmecraig:
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From the "That's Life In The Inferno Of Postmodernity" files: One of the most popular bands on Google Trends right now is the Atlanta duo Dead Stays Alive, one-half of which "befriended" Lindsay Lohan while the two were in rehab. (Rumors that the two hooked up have been zinging around the gossipsphere; Lohan's rep is, of course, calling those tales "mean.") Tony Allen, the Dead Stays Alive member in question, has even been referred to as "famous" more than once, which I'm going to chalk up to people confusing him with the Tony Allen who played with Fela Kuti and The Good, The Bad, And The Queen, and not the fact that he was spilling his guts about Lindsay on Extra the other night.
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Britney Spears' real comeback single makes its way out to the Internet just in time to beat Kanye West and 50 Cent at the "whose-leak-is-bigger-than-who" game. Good thing someone out there had enough sense to prevent her from popping out another weepy phone-call ballad...
Since 1999, goths, industrial fans, and other members of "Dark Alternative Subculture" have descended on Disneyland every August for Bats Day In The Fun Park, which started as a day-long outing to the amusement park and has since evolved into a three-day event that bills itself as "the premier event on the West Coast, if not the world, for the Gothic and Industrial subculture of all ages." We sent comedy writer Maggie Bandur to this year's installment; her photos and recollections follow.
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A few months after crooning alongside Hugh Grant in Music & Lyrics, Drew Barrymore now has a single of her own: "Cold Hard Truth," a just-released song from the long-delayed soundtrack to Lucky You (easily the Chinese Democracy of Curtis Hanson gambling dramas). Barrymore plays a struggling singer in the movie, and her performance here isn't too bad; you can hear a little bit of Aimee Mann, and a whole lot of vocal coaching:
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Every Tuesday, another barrage of compilations hits the record store shelves (or at least, they would if there were record stores or shelves anymore). From your quickly slapped-together tribute disc to the completely essential, most compilations are intended to make a few bucks, then end up for sale at a truck stop on Highway 84. However, occasionally, a compilation arrives that is so befuddling in concept and execution that you have to wonder: Who, exactly, thought this would be a good idea?
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As you'll no doubt read a zillion times, Britney Spears posted a letter addressing her recent lack of underwear on her website today. However, if you root around on the site's source code and do some Google cache searches, you'll find the original letter, which went up around 3:34 A.M., and was quickly taken down. We couldn't get a screenshot, but a full transcription follows...
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Yesterday, we posted the casting call for VH1's latest bimbos-on-parade show, which advertised the chance to get down and dirty with "one of the '90s HOTTEST ROCKERS." But we've received multiple tips that the frontman in question is actually Bret Michaels of Poison—a band that is not only forever entwined with the '80s, but whose '90s studio output is equivalent to that of Guns N' Roses. Congratulations, VH1—if this is true, you're even more shameless than we thought you were. We can't wait until it's revealed that the show is actually called I Want Action.
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What do you get when you combine obsessive superfans, the ever-slippery concept of "fair use," and way too much free time? The YouTube search-clogging phenomenon known as the fanvid. Juxtaposing movie and TV scenes with popular songs, these clips are filled with literal translations of lyrics, out-of-context romantic scenes, and on-screen bugs. But there's a certain charm in their creators' dedication; we can't imagine how many times people have watched, say, the entire Office oeuvre in order to get the perfect shot of Pam and Jim making googly eyes at each other.
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