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who charted

Neil Diamond Finds Temporary Shelter Atop The Album Charts

The Rick Rubin-produced Neil Diamond album Home Before Dark took the top spot on this week's album chart, selling 146,000 copies and easily outpacing its competition. Home is somehow the first No. 1 album of Diamond's career, which is probably more a testament to the wacky way the album charts were calibrated back in the day than it is to the fact that he's been reaching out to the MySpace generation. More »

1:30 PM on Wed May 14 2008
By Maura Johnston
272 views, 6 comments

at the count of twee, wake up

Twee Gets Tough Thanks To Barack Obama, Arcade Fire, Iron Man, You?

In Britain, twee involved wispy wimps who loved their jangle and liked to put it on cassettes (so I hear). "Their clothes are asexual, their haircuts are fringes, their colours are pastel. Cuties like Penguin modern classics, sweets, ginger beer, vegetables, and anoraks." Now America has belatedly responded with "tough twee," which finds its form in the Barack Obama campaign, movies with a "big indie heart" like Iron Man, Gwyneth Paltrow having a fugly freakout, and angry bands like the Arcade Fire. "Just look at Owen Wilson, Scarlett Johansson, Claire Danes and Miley Cyrus, all once Twee, now post-Twee." I never thought of it this way, but Tom McGeveran's "American Cutie" captures the evolution of C86 in a way no rational human being ever could. More »

12:30 PM on Wed May 14 2008
By Anthony Miccio
405 views, 11 comments

Latest by slowburn: If this guy thinks these examples are how twee is "toughening up," then I think we need to bring back the draft. more »

idolator's american idolatry

The High School Student, The Actress, Or The Bartender--Who's Going Home From "Idol" Tonight?

In which we try to predict whether or not Randy's dubbing Syesha "No. 3" of the final three American Idol contestants was some sort of astrological prediction written in the star-chart shirt he wore last night—or another piece of the mounting pile of evidence that the producers have been gaming the system for a David/David finale since the night Chikezie was eliminated. For anecdotal purposes, DialIdol ranks the hopefuls Cook-Archuleta-Mercado, while the top Idol-related search term on Google Trends is (ugh) "Switchfoot," at No. 57. America: It can't get enough of that post-millennial grunge! Vote after the jump. More »

8:30 AM on Wed May 14 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,427 views, 8 comments

Latest by CloudCarrier: @Al Shipley: @Chris Molanphy: + Watch video more »

idolator's american idolatry

Live-Blogging The Top 3 Showdown On "American Idol," Because I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

American Idol's top three contenders—Davids Archuleta and Cook, and Syesha Mercado—hold their last sing-off before next week's big sing-off tonight, and we're coming atcha live, as a band that will probably never get its Ryan Seacrest due would say! Dan Fogelberg, Switchfoot, Billy Joel, Roberta Flack, and a song from Happy Feet that maybe 0.5% of the ever-shrinking Idol audience will know after... the jump. More »

7:55 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
2,538 views, 24 comments

truthmongerer

Nate Dogg: Not Dead

Like the Timex Social Club, I spend a lot of time lamenting the rumors that surround me every day. How do they get started? And where do they get crazy? In Truthmongerer, I'll try to suss out the kernels of truth in the rumors that are taking up airspace in gossip columns, blogs, and our tips inbox.

THE RUMOR: Nate Dogg passed away over the weekend, according to a MySpace post that was picked up by MediaTakeOut earlier today.

TRUTH THRESHOLD: 0%. Yes, that's right—it's a rumor that's been, shall we say, wholly exaggerated.

More »

6:45 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
522 views, 6 comments

idolator's american idolatry

A Few "Idol" Odds & Ends

In preparation for tonight's American Idol liveblog—which starts at 8 ET!—here are some headlines that have crossed the transom...
• Nigel Lythgoe on the Jeff Archuleta issue: "He has been asked not to participate in the choice of music with David or be in the room when David is working out his routines that he wants to sing. He's fine to be in the studio — nothing wrong with that. We just want David to be able to be free like everybody else to get on and do what they want to do." My head is pounding from the number of lines in that statement that I need to read between. [EW]
• As if it wasn't clear enough that the producers are angling for a David-David final, their pick for Syesha Mercado tonight is Gia Farrell's "Hit Me Up." Never heard of it? Well, it was on the Happy Feet soundtrack, and it went to No. 1 in Hungary and No. 8 in Finland. But it didn't chart in the US, save for a two-week stint in the lower reaches of the Top 40 Mainstream chart. Hear it on YouTube, if you want to spoil the channel-change-inspiring surprise that the producers are clearly hoping for. [YouTube]
• Could this be the night that ratings plummet below the 20 million mark? [AP]

5:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
485 views, 7 comments

Latest by NeverEnough: @SimonSays76: Back and to the left... back and to the left... more »

the last word

Duffy: Your Cleaner, Whiter Retro-Soul Option

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the new full-length by Duffy, Rockferry, which hits stores today: More »

2:30 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
708 views, 13 comments

how do rumors get started? they get started by jealous people

Yep, Kanye Might Be Going Completely Insane

We used to have daily "Britney=crazy!" news to fill the blogging day, but her time encamped in the psychiatric bunker has reduced the volume of her news output. I just want to take a second to thank Kanye West for picking up the slack. Crazed rants against Entertainment Weekly? Playing Connect Four with other celebrities? Rumored fights with collaborators? Thank you, Kanye, from the bottom of my bloggo heart. More »

12:00 PM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
1,374 views, 11 comments

lineups

Ozzfest Clipped To One Day In Dallas, Metallica Stuck Atop Its Lineup

Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica will headline this year's Ozzfest, which is slated to be a one-day festival that will also feature Jonathan Davis, The Sword, Serj Tankian, and many other, crappier metal bands. The show is set for Aug. 9 at Dallas' Pizza Hut Park, a setup that is causing fans to revolt in the official announcement's comment section. (Sample comments: "FUCK YOU Sharron!!!!!!! If it wasnt for the thousands of people like me that payed to see Ozzfest and promote music YOU wouldnt have anything....You have made your last dime from me"; "This Suck This is bullshit ozzfest is only going to be a one day show in TX. Well I am gland that all of other summer tour is not like this like warped tour now we got a new summer tour call rockstar mayhem tour I hope it better than ozzfest") Full lineup after the jump. More »

10:30 AM on Tue May 13 2008
By Maura Johnston
340 views, 6 comments

Latest by FionaScrapple: The ungodly suckage of solo-Jonathan Davis is nicely balanced out by Devildriver and !OMG! Rigor Mortis. more »

the last word

Death Cab For Cutie Will Possess Some Shelf Space

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the new full-length by Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs, which hits stores tomorrow: More »

4:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
959 views, 12 comments

idolator's american idolatry

Why Jeff Archuleta's Backstage Ban Has Pretty Much Sealed The "American Idol" Title For David

There are lots of weird things about American Idol banning David Archuleta's father, Jeff, from rehearsal sessions—the timing (the news was released late Friday, after the three remaining Idol hopefuls had mostly completed their homecoming tours), the source of the leak (did a Fox source tell TMZ about the ban?), and the fact that the producers were citing David's "unfair advantage" of having his own musical arranger now, instead of at the beginning of the semifinals among them. But what's most frustrating about the ban is the way that it's turned the contestant at the center of it into a bulletproof entity, and how the conclusion of American Idol is even more foregone than it was when the Archuleta clan was just beginning its whirlwind tour of Utah's mall parking lots and basketball stadia. The reasons why we're going to definitely see David have his now a week from tomorrow after the jump. More »

3:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
2,501 views, 10 comments

Latest by Chris N.: "He deserves to win and he's such a different calliber, it is almost infair for them to have to compete with him." It is infair. It's also injust and unright. more »

killed by hype

You Know Who Doesn't Suck? The Vines!

Poor Vines. All they wanted to do was entertain the good people with some nonsensical rockers and dreamy psychedelic bubblegum, and all they got was shit because Asperger's poster boy Craig Nicholls wasn't the new Kurt Cobain. This article uses them as the prime example of how excessive hype can crush a perfectly charming band (or Gay Dad) almost before they're out of the gate. In a last-ditch attempt to gain some sympathy for the Australian mushmouths, I'm going to compare their plight to a musician who suffered a similar excess of expectation before people wised up to his sillier, but still genuine pleasures: Donovan! More »

2:30 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Anthony Miccio
938 views, 26 comments

Latest by TheMojoPin: These guys tricked me into liking them for about a month. I saw them at the 9:30 Club on their first go-around and they had OK Go opening up for them. That shit isn't fair...booze and OK Go makes ANYTHING more »

clichewatch

You Can't Download An Overused Phrase, But You Sure Can Try To Stomp It Out Of The Lexicon

"You can't download the concert ticket," Panic At The Disco drummer Spencer Smith told MTV News when he was talking about why the band's live experience was how the band really gauged itself. In the era of torrenting and Sendspacing, people who are still hoping to make some sort of profit from music are looking at things that you can't download as a way to bring back the "real" aspects of the artform—but in their quest for tangible objects, and not virtual experiences, they're kind of overusing the whole "you can't download" construction After the jump, a list of items that have fallen victim to this cliche, and probably will continue to until the Internet's backbone gets fat enough to fit things like 12-inch slabs of vinyl or life-size replicas of 3 Doors Down through it or the entire industry collapses, whichever comes first. More »

1:00 PM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
563 views, 4 comments

Latest by Clevertrousers: You can't download STDs. more »

pointless listmaking

This Summer In Concerts: Lists, Lights, And Lots Of Robert Plant And Alison Krauss

Apparently this past weekend was "National Run Your Listicle-ish Summer Concert Preview" for many of this nation's finer newspapers, as my RSS feed was stuffed with "top five" and "top 10" lists of tours and festivals from newspapers around the country. While they're distinct in their regional biases (the Seattle Times rundown is festival-heavy; the USA Today one sticks with nation-storming stalwarts) the writers share one thing in common: they really really like Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Or at least want to sort of feel like they're at a Led Zeppelin show. Highlights of five summer show previews after the jump. More »

11:45 AM on Mon May 12 2008
By Maura Johnston
472 views, 6 comments

Latest by Clevertrousers: Can I just say that Chicago puts on some of the best free shows in the county? As a New Yorker this vexes me greatly. Big up to Mike Orlove! more »

idolator's american idolatry

Jeff Archuleta Banned From "American Idol" Rehearsals; David Archuleta Fans Give World Another Reason To Believe That Journalism Is In A Bad Place Right Now

TMZ first reported it yesterday and now the Associated Press has confirmed it: The American Idol braintrust has banned David Archuleta's father/musical arranger/puppet-string-puller, Jeff, from the show's rehearsals, after months of speculation about his stage-dad tendencies and overbearing presence. The final straw? The cheesy "Beautiful Girls" interpolation into David's performance of "Stand By Me" last Tuesday, which not only made the song's message completely incoherent, it cost the producers an undisclosed amount of licensing money. This raises a host of questions regarding the junior Archuleta's last two weeks in the competition (Will the news, and the apparent fact that Jeff is the first person to be banned from the Idol backstage ever, garner a lot of sympathy votes? Will this be his chance to show the haters that he can, in fact, interpret and arrange music without Daddy pulling the strings, or will he wilt under the pressure on Tuesday night? Is this abortion of a season over yet?) But leave it to the Archie-crazed commenters at rickey.org to ask the important questions regardnig this whole story. More »

2:00 PM on Sat May 10 2008
By Maura Johnston
3,486 views, 9 comments

Latest by Big Gray.: Why do you lead me to Rickey.org, Maura? That site is like the Call of Cthulhu. more »

idolator's american idolatry

OMG! What Are The "American Idol" Finalists Doing Right Now?

The three remaining American Idol contestants are currently enjoying their homecoming days, and the Fox affiliates in their largest-populated hometowns (Salt Lake City, Kansas City, and Tampa) are going all-out with coverage, employing streaming video, blogging, and third-party chat-room technology to make sure that people can spend their Fridays slacking off to David Archuleta's overly licked lips, David Cook's unending grunge homages, and Syesha Mercado's inflated sense of importance. A guide to the proceedings—including pointers to the not-really-live webcam feeds that are claiming to follow the hopefuls all day, but have also provided somewhat terrifying glimpses into the rest of the country's local news offerings—after the jump. More »

2:00 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,386 views, 10 comments

Latest by Maura Johnston: @punkybunky: Hey man, that jacket is for Members Only!! more »

they come in threes

A Few Albums That I Am Really Digging Right Now

As a companion to Dan's open thread Tuesday, which I still need to dig through and fully suss out, and as a way to liven up a dreary Friday, I am going to use this space to tip you off to three (well, four, actually) records that I've been listening to in the spaces between Mets games recently. Hey, the best time to flout the "music-recommendation posts get low pageviews" maxim is the hours before the weekend begins, right? Israeli funk, recently excavated '90s indie, and UK R & B after the jump! More »

12:40 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Maura Johnston
1,196 views, 9 comments

Latest by SAMIDAE: I hate to start this but... I took a road trip and made myself listen to all three of the Dueling Divas' albums (Madge, Le Mariah & Jan Jan the dancin' robot). Somehow between the redundant electrobeats, I discovered that Jan's more »

100 and single

Jesse McCartney: The Unlikely Heir To Justin Timberlake's Throne?

Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:

The upper reaches of this week's Billboard Hot 100 are a little sleepy—two songs sneak into the bottom rungs of the Top 10, and every song above them either holds position or moves at most a spot or two.

But one of the Top 10 entrants boasts an unusual pair of credits: he has his first Top 10 hit as a recording act in the same week that he's enjoying his first chart-topper as a songwriter. Making it somewhat more unusual, at least among multi-hyphenate types: he just turned 21 about a month ago.

We're talking about former boy bander, former small-screen star, and TRL mainstay Jesse McCartney. The song he co-wrote—Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love," penned with OneRepublic schlock-meister Ryan Tedder—is actually in its fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 1. The newer hit is his own: "Leavin'," which leaps four spots to No. 10 after a huge, iTunes-fueled debut last week.

Throw in the fact that he did a voice for the March blockbuster Horton Hears A Who! and this kid's having an awfully good spring.

More »

12:00 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Chris Molanphy
542 views, 5 comments

Neil Diamond Finds Temporary Shelter Atop The Album Charts

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