From MTV's piece on the upcoming MTV Movie Awards, which will also feature uncool major-label chumps Coldplay: "The Pussycat Dolls... will also hit the stage during the irreverent awards show, broadcast live this year on Sunday, June 1. The girls will grab the mic from host Mike Myers to perform 'When I Grow Up' from their upcoming second album." I'd probably hold off from using words as, um, concrete as "upcoming" when it comes to talking about album releases featuring La Scherz—at least until someone actually pays money for a copy of Her Name Is Nicole. She seems to be a little, shall we say, jinxed in that department. (Maybe Tori Alamaze put a hex on her?) [MTV]
Latest by n/a: Perhaps Iovine will realize that the original balance of power in the music video era was correct: talentless but photogenic women posed with power tools or drove shiny red antique cars in clips -- they weren't given recording contracts and more »
Nicole Scherzinger's 45-slowed-down-to-33 performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" not only features her wearing an outfit that covers her midriff (perhaps that's the cause for the boos at the outset?), it's pretty straight-and-narrow—not to mention relatively in key for an a capella performance. But surely I can't be the only one who thinks that this is step one in her efforts to Kristy Lee Cook it up in a final, last-ditch effort to save her solo album from eternal label purgatory? I can't wait until she wears a red, white, and blue jumpsuit for the Macy's July 4 fireworks display and mashes her way through "God Bless The USA," complete with a posse of Statue of Liberty-dressed Pussycat Dolls behind her. After all, nothing can be worse than her Duran Duran cover, right?
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Undaunted by the eternal shelving of her very expensive solo album, lead Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger is still trying every trick in the book to be taken seriously as An Artist. The latest: A promotion for a Brazil-inspired Caress Body Wash (with passion flower cream and acai oil!) that features La Scherz singing lead on the "Caress Brazilian Mix" of Duran Duran's "Rio," a song that really didn't need to be remade and that certainly didn't need to be remade with her thin vocals and a super-cheesy-sounding "Latin" guitar line. Somehow she hasn't realized yet that the American public can't miss her if she hasn't gone away, although judging by her brand-new stage name, maybe the people running her career are figuring that few people realized she was actually out there making music sans backup Dolls in the first place.
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Latest by n/a: Why did I automatically see the headline to this post as Nicole Scherzinger Shaves Her Rear? more »
Last night while flipping past Girlicious, I noticed that Robin Antin was standing in front of two pieces of oaktag heralding Nicole Scherzinger's Her Name Is Nicole, which, unbeknownst to every industry observer who's had the "pleasure" of watching every single from it tank, is apparently "in stores now." (Click the picture for a fullish-sized screenshot of the poster.) Perhaps this segment of the show was shot on location in CutoutBinLand? [Earlier]
Tonight marks the premiere of the CW series Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, the sequel to The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll that will set out to launch another girl group under the Pussycat Dolls' brand name-slash-marketing deal with Interscope Records. In the New York Daily News' preview of the show, not only do we learn about the Girlicious-branded merchandise that'll soon be lining your local 99-cent stores' aisles (makeup, clothing, a new album incorporating the sounds of TLC and Destiny's Child), we learn that the original Pussycat Doll—Nicole "Her Name Is Nicole" Scherzinger—will be returning to the fishnet-covered arms of the group that spawned her.
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Today Kelefa Sanneh wrote about All $tar, a Nashville rapper who's been the city's "next big thing" for three years now—excxept for the fact that his debut album, Street Ball, has been in limbo since 2005, thanks to his label, Cash Money/Universal, going over the preparation for the album with what seems to be the finest-tooth comb ever. (Sanneh: "...it's not uncommon for rappers to wait months or years while labels try to figure out the right single, the right track selection, the right marketing plan.") What struck me is that I've heard about so many delayed albums lately—from Amerie to All $tar to Nicole Scherzinger—that I can't help but wonder if the music industry is further shooting its sales hopes in the foot by stoking negative buzz around albums by somewhat established stars or high-profile up-and-comers. Especially in the current environment of music, where people seem to have many excuses for ignoring records at the ready. After the jump, a few arguments against pushing release dates, marketing-department-emanating objections be damned.
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Latest by jasonelias: @GovernmentNames: For me most of that article was full of BS, but it was a way to get All $tar's name in the press. But as quickly changeable as rap is, an album from 2005 is going to sound old. more »
I'm starting to wonder if I should create a keyboard macro for the phrase "Nicole Scherzinger's album has been pushed back again," because, well, it's been pushed back again. To June 23. (Recall that its original release date was Oct. 16, 2007.) I wonder how many more people will be laid off at Universal Music Group between now and the time the long-delayed lead balloon actually hits store shelves? [Toya's World]
The latest single to emerge from Timbaland's Shock Value is "Scream," a Nicole Scherzinger/Keri Hilson track filled with bad sex metaphors (cake! pie! designated driving!) that Interscope, no doubt, has released in large part because the label's suits still holding on to hope that someone will eventually give a damn about the lead Pussycat Doll's singing/orgasmic moaning abilities.
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Despite the fact that her first solo album remains in release-date limbo thanks to every song that Interscope desperately released as a "first" single bouncing right off the charts, possibly ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger still enjoyed 2007, so much so that she has constructed a free associative poem/ransom note out of stuff she once read on inspirational posters that details her awesome year.
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In the latest attempt to save her increasingly doomed solo album, Nicole Scherzinger is going the "singing about her vagina over a vaguely 'ethnic-sounding' track produced by Akon" route. It's a terrible song, but at least it makes her "I am a very conservative Catholic" claim in the new Entertainment Weekly even more hilarious—except to all the people at Interscope/Geffen who got laid off as a result of "belt-tightening," of course. [Kevipod Music]
Will a breathy, "ethnic"-sounding single with a title that will no doubt inspire a thousand "punani" jokes save Nicole Scherzinger's Her Name Is Nicole? Probably not, but that doesn't mean Jimmy Iovine won't pour wayyyy too much money out of Interscope's coffers in an effort to find out! [Kevipod Music]
So Barry Obama's big benefit shindig coming up next week in California features musical endorsements from Ne-Yo (yay!), the Goo Goo Dolls (uh), Nicole Scherzinger (ack), and will.i.am (dear lord no). Meanwhile, Hilary Clinton has recently ditched Celine Dion's "You And I" (holy shit) as her campaign song in favor of Big Head Todd And The Monsters' "Blue Sky" (could be worse, right?). Forgetting their opinions about, like, stuff salient to running a country, this does not particularly fill us with hope for the future. (Even the Republicans are showing better taste this time out; for instance, did you know Mitt Romney's campaign tune is "I Get Around"*?) So we put it to you, a year or so early, to decide who you would vote for based solely on these less than stellar musical track records.
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Latest by Jfrankparnell: I must abstain. America will not mature as a country until a serious candidate picks the Minutemen's "This Ain't No Picnic" as their theme or a recreational listening choice.
Although I would also vote for a candidate based solely on their more »
Nicole Scherzinger's solo debut Her Name Is Nicole—pushed back from an Oct. 6 release date to a Nov. 6 release date to a Nov. 20 release date—will now come out sometime in 2008, thanks to three singles from the album being released to widespread indifference on the part of pretty much everyone. May we also suggest a reshoot of the album cover? [EW]
Pussycat Dolls leader Nicole Scherzinger's more-doomed-by-the-day Her Name Is Nicole has been pushed back once again, this time from Nov. 6 to Nov. 20. And: One of the new tracks on it features Sting. The odds on this thing completely tanking just shot up faster than you can say Studio 60. [Rap-Up]
Last month, I wondered if Her Name Is Nicole, the forthcoming solo album from former Pussycat Doll leader Nicole Scherzinger, was en route to becoming a flop—the first single, the T.I.-featuring "Whatever U Like," had lousy sales and bad iTunes feedback (it wound up not even cracking the Hot 100) and a second song, "Super Villain," leaked shortly after "Like" tanked. Now, a third song from the album ("Baby Love," featuring will.i.am) has made its way out to the Internet, and for some reason the PR people working the record are gamely calling the song her "first single." Are attention spans in this decade really that short?
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Could Her Name Is Nicole, the awkwardly titled solo album from lead Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger that drops Oct. 16, be even less anticipated than Curtis? The album—the title of which presumably serves to remind viewers that Scherzinger's name is not, in fact, The Skank In Front—had its first single, the T.I.-featuring "Whatever U Like," drop in late July to low sales (it cracked the Hot Digital Tracks' top 100 in its first week of release, selling 13,000 copies, then disappeared from the chart), tepid fan reaction (sample iTunes review: "I rather spend my 99cents on a pack of gum")*, and little radio play. The video for the track, a Beyonce-biting "teaser" of which is above, is supposed to premiere on Aug. 28, which makes last night's leak of the album's second single, "Super Villain," all the more curious. More »
Idolator
From MTV's piece on the upcoming MTV Movie Awards, which will also feature uncool major-label chumps Coldplay: "The Pussycat Dolls... will also hit the stage during the irreverent awards show, broadcast live this year on Sunday, June 1. The girls will grab the mic from host Mike Myers to perform 'When I Grow Up' from their upcoming second album." I'd probably hold off from using words as, um, concrete as "upcoming" when it comes to talking about album releases featuring La Scherz—at least until someone actually pays money for a copy of Her Name Is Nicole. She seems to be a little, shall we say, jinxed in that department. (Maybe Tori Alamaze put a hex on her?) [MTV]
Last night while flipping past Girlicious, I noticed that Robin Antin was standing in front of two pieces of oaktag heralding Nicole Scherzinger's Her Name Is Nicole, which, unbeknownst to every industry observer who's had the "pleasure" of watching every single from it tank, is apparently "in stores now." (Click the picture for a fullish-sized screenshot of the poster.) Perhaps this segment of the show was shot on location in CutoutBinLand? [
