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Posts Tagged “Stars”

100 and single

T.I. Sets Perennially Broken Hot 100 Record

Atlanta hip-hop king T.I. vaults 70 places into the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 this week with "Whatever You Like," a sing-songy, smudgy Xerox of his classic 2006 hit "What You Know."

With this move, Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. scores his first No. 1 as a lead artist (he was credited two years ago on Justin Timberlake's chart-topper "My Love") and sets a new Hot 100 record for biggest leap to the top spot. T.I. takes the record away from Maroon 5, who set it just 16 months ago when "Makes Me Wonder" leapt from No. 64 to No. 1 in a single bound. They, in turn, had stolen the record from Kelly Clarkson, whose only No. 1 hit, "A Moment Like This," held the record for about four years, after she leapt from No. 52 to the top in 2002.

Before Clarkson, this record was held for 28 years, by the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" (No. 26-No. 1 in 1964). The fact that a record held for three decades has been broken thrice in the last six years says less about these songs' popularity and more about the quirks of the modern charts and the sometimes dysfunctional relationship between sales and airplay.

And it means T.I. shouldn't gloat for too long—this record's likely to be broken again.

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stars on mp3

A Cover Band Rushes In To Where Kid Rock Refuses To Tread

Kid Rock has refused to put his Warren Zevon/Lynyrd Skynyrd homage "All Summer Long" on the iTunes Store as an a la carte download, and it's paid off for him in a few ways: This week, his album Rock N Roll Jesus (which features the track) hit the double-platinum mark, and he's gotten a ton of promotional mileage out of being a nearly-lone holdout from Steve Jobs' empire. But an act who's profited even more from Kid Rock's tantrum is the fairly anonymous act Hit Masters, who specialize in karaoke and "party" versions of old and new hits. (I can find no other information on this act; if you know of any, feel free to send your tips along.) The band rush-released a version of the song (in straightforward and "karaoke" versions) to the iTunes store and other digital outlets, and it's currently at No. 5 on iTunes' single-song chart. Whether this speaks to the fact that people like Kid Rock's song more than his "artistry" or not, one thing's for sure: the guy who puts together Kidz Bop is kicking himself for not having thought of this first. [via Lefsetz's latest mailbag]

videodrone

Toots & The Maytals Could Never Be A "Let Down"


I was reminded of Toots & the Maytals' take on Radiohead's "Let Down" by the Facebook status line of our very own Michelangelo Matos this morning, of all things. I should send him flowers in thanks. Part of what makes the track so enjoyable (for me, at least) is the circumstance of the song's creation: A reggae remake of OK Computer, especially by the band behind a previous tribute to Dark Side of the Moon seems destined for the cut-out bin. But Radiodread, which is credited to the Easy Star All-Stars and also features Horace Andy and Sugar Minott, is remarkably solid, and worth picking up for this track alone. [Youtube]

like the mercury prize, but without the classical stuff

Polaris Shortlist Reminds Us That Canadian Music Prizes Seem More Adorable, Relevant


The shortlist of nominees for Canada's Polaris Prize was rolled out yesterday; the winner gets a $20,000 check (Canadian, which is like $2.5 million here now, right?), , while bloggers get something to write about during the dog days of July. The nominees—other than the Weakerthans' Reunion Tour, which includes "Civil Twilight" (above)—and as many representative YouTube clips as I could find are below the cut. More »

pointless listmaking

Radiohead Dethrones Nirvana As Kings Of The Modern-Rock List Realm

Radio phoenix WOXY held its yearly countdown of the top 500 songs that are still in its playlist over Memorial Day weekend, and its many quibble-worthy points ("Feel The Pain" makes the cut while "The Wagon" doesn't? Is "Supernova" really the only Liz Phair song that's better than "Are You Gonna Go My Way?") are topped by the fact that heading the list up is Radiohead's "Creep." But I thought people were into Thom Yorke et al for their innovations! Anyhoo, Radiohead placed nine songs on the countdown, which seems to be the biggest single-band total on the list, a feat for which they're tied with R.E.M. Also of note: Hum's 1995 song "Stars" debuted on the list this year, for which they can likely thank Cadillac. The long, long list after the jump. More »

we've got stars directing our fate

Alien Vs. Robbie Williams: Requiem

After a nearly decade of trying to get America to give a shit about him, British superstar Robbie Williams has started claiming his new ambition is hunting UFOs. While a step down from his plans to build a multi-million dollar observatory and start his own cult, he will get to explore his otherworldly interests in a radio documentary titled Journey To The Other Side. I want to believe. More »

the stars seem out of reach

Richie Sambora Courageously Tours After DUI Arrest, Wakes Up Bon Jovi Fans

There is so much wrong with what went down at the Bon Jovi concert in Denver last night. First: Richie Sambora is out on tour less than a week after he was arrested for driving drunk with his daughter in the back seat. Rehab can wait, I guess. Second: Richie got a standing ovation after thanking his fans for their support. Um, yeah. Go you, Richie. Third: The repeated references to standing in this account would imply that people spend most of their time at a Bon Jovi concert sitting down. What's up with that?! More »

counterprogramming

The Jonas Brothers And David Archuleta Fight For The Hearts Of America's People Meter-Equipped Tweens

The producers of Dancing With The Stars are still smarting from getting trounced in the ratings last week by American Idol, so for tonight's broadcast they decided to bring out the synergistic big guns: Disney's own Jonas Brothers will perform a couple of songs, a sneaky bit of counterprogramming that seems designed to entice the preteens who love David Archuleta into changing the channel and engaging in extended arguments over which Jonas is cuter. Alas, this probably won't entice enough of the creepy old ladies who are crafting in Archie's name to also switch channels and "forget" to vote for their lip-smacking sweetie, but we can dream, right? More »

Among the "celebrities" who will be hoofing it up during the sixth season of Dancing With The Stars: R & B singer Mario, who's apparently going the "any port in a storm" route as far as promoting his long-pushed-back album Go!, which has sold about 200,000 copies in the two months since its release. ("Look, everybody! You can tango to this track!") [EW / Photo: AP]

Val Kilmer is "quietly" shopping an album, Val Kilmer: Sessions With Mick, around to labels. Sample lyrics: "I'm alone with my rhyming in an unknown town. Alone with poetry, and foreign football on hotel television. A text message from a troubled kept woman, and I bend and I bend and I bend and I'm a-bendin'." Well, if this can't save the record industry... [NYO]

Apparently Dancing With the Stars' viewers were as flummoxed by Jennie Garth's Fall Out Boy tango as we were; she got sent home on last night's results show. Although if the commenters on this post are to be believed, secret Mormon conspiracies are really at the root of Garth's exit. Oh, America. [rickey.org]

wtf

Who Knew That You Could Tango To Fall Out Boy?

I'll admit that I'm pretty much unaware of Dancing With The Stars beyond the fact that it pulls in boatloads of viewers, although this clip—in which Jennie Garth and Derek Hough do, indeed, engage in a rigorous tango to the strains of "The Take Over, The Break's Over"—is making me think that it's for the best. More »

idolator at cmj

The Best (And Worst) Of Day Five

75% of the bands we saw this week couldn't really write a song with a million-dollar recording contract to their heads—hardly a big surprise in the world of "indie" music—but some bands pulled off the atmospheric shtick better than others. On the last day of CMJ we saw a swoon-inducing British "metal" group whose full-body riffs made sure you were never less than entranced. We also saw one more noodly underground rock act than our already taxed brains could handle—which at least made us realize that the lost spirit of audience participation needs to make a swift and brutal comeback. More »

spend, spend, spend

Canadians React To Free-Music Epidemic By Making Their Music Way More Expensive

The Guardian points us to the Thurston Revival, a sleepy indiepop Canadian outfit that's responding to the trend of free music by offering its debut single, "Somewhere There's An Angel," as a £100, limited-to-100-copies 12-inch record, complete with your choice of artwork by 10 different artists. (Pictures here; MySpace login required.) The single comes out Aug. 28, and Guardian writer Eamonn Forde is hailing the move as "a necessary antidote to an age when complete albums are being given away free with your Sunday newspaper."
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A publishing industry insider says that the price for a Keith Richards autobiography has reached "Bill Clinton money," with HarperCollins and Little, Brown tossing around millions of dollars for the Glimmer Twin's life story. I dunno, $7 million seems a small price to pay for what will likely be the first comprehensible things Richards has said in decades. [New York Business via The Daily Swarm]

dead rock stars

Cee-Lo May Or May Not Have Some Hendrix To Play With

The problem with anything involving Jimi Hendrix and lawyers is that you never know if it's good news or bad news. The latest good news would seem to be that Cee-Lo's label has acquired the right to license the pre-Experience Hendrix recordings, and plans on using them as the basis of "an as-yet-titled project featuring contemporary producers, likely to include Cee-Lo himself and other Atlanta based hip-hop producers like OutKast and Goodie Mob." Awesome! Except the story doesn't make clear exactly what recordings they have the rights to, nor whether they will actually able to be approve any uses themselves. More »

A contrarian take on Stars' decision to digitally distribute its album In Our Bedroom After The War two months before its physical release date. Related: Bedroom scanned 2,700 copies in the U.S. and 1,500 copies in Canada during its first week of release. [Coolfer]

stopping leaks before they start

Record Label Actually Makes Smart Move Regarding Piracy

The Montreal indiepop outfit Stars' forthcoming album, In Our Bedroom After The War, may have atrocious cover art, but that fact probably wouldn't stop leak-happy downloaders from trying to snag the album from some enterprising member of the media who decided to share his pre-release copy with his friends. So the band and its label, Arts & Crafts, decided to pre-empt the OiNK faithful with a legit digital release yesterday—four days after the album's completion, and almost two and a half months before physical copies of the album will go on sale. From the band's official site: More »