Nominees for the 61st annual Emmy Awards were announced this morning, and while 30 Rock came away with the highest number of overall mentions, we should probably extend a bit of congratulations to the increasingly multitalented Justin Timberlake, who walked away with three nominations—two songs he contributed lyrics to received Outstanding Original Music honors, and he was also tabbed for a Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series nod in honor of his stint guest-hosting Saturday Night Live. The two songs that Timberlake had a hand in, and some of their competition, after the jump. More »
Sunday night’s installment of the Kiwi-rock comedy Flight Of The Conchords doubled as the premiere of two Michel Gondry-directed music videos, thanks to the Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director getting behind the camera for the episode. Above, the clip for the half-sweet, half-sour “Carol Brown” (which, Vulture notes, borrows a slide-projector motif from one of Gondry’s earlier music-video efforts); after the jump, the ode to dude-filled dance floors “Too Many Dicks,” which somehow has not been mashed up with the Lonely Island’s “Jizz In My Pants” yet despite the two songs sharing a lot of similar DNA. (Uh, no pun intended there.)
Emmy nominations are out, and the folks at Sub Pop are no doubt enjoying the two nods garnered by songs from Flight Of The Conchords (“The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)” and “Inner City Pressure”). More »
Emmy nominations are out, and the folks at Sub Pop are no doubt enjoying the two nods garnered by songs from Flight Of The Conchords (“The Most Beautiful Girl (In The Room)” and “Inner City Pressure”). More »
Plenty of critics have regurgitated press releases to fill up a feature well, but the Seattle Weekly‘s “review” (that’s how the article is tagged) of the new Flight Of The Conchords album consists mostly of interview quotes with Tony Kiewel, the band’s A&R representative at Sub Pop. Kiewel explains how he first heard the group, why he thinks they’re so great and how the band is doing really well, even going gold in New Zealand! Weekly editor Brian Barr concurs, adding that mixture of mockery and genuine musical tribute is what makes them so great. Barr sure sounds like a fan. I bet he’d get a kick out of interviewing the band! Maybe Kiewel could hook that up sometime.
On first glance, the top four occupants of this week’s album chart–Mariah Carey’s E=MC2 (182,000 copies); Leona Lewis’ Spirit (96,000); Flight Of The Conchords (52,000); and Ashlee Simpson’s Bittersweet World (47,000)–are a testament to the importance of television in promoting albums; all four artists had their albums co-promoted on various chat and game shows last week (and, in the case of the mumble-funny Kiwis in Flight, their own HBO series). On second look, their sales totals are further evidence that the bar for a “successful” album is even lower these days, particularly if you count the sales of the No. 5 album, Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold, which sold 36,000 copies last week. When life gives you lemons, indeed.
