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
The OneRepublic-vocalist-produced "Karma" by the new boy band NLT seems to be catching a little bit of fire, or at least has a viral-marketing team that knows about the world of pop-music blogs behind its push. The song is an early-'00s-informed bit of pop-radio playlist filler, and the group, which is apparently something of a redemptive product for B2K svengali Chris Stokes, seems to be the Mach 2008 version of the classic boy band. It's made up of four just-shy-of-20 dudes who are just cute enough and just threatening enough, and who have as one member someone named "V." Watching this video, I noted that NLT also carried on important boy-band traditions, as if to honor the boys to men who have traveled in the streaming-girl-strewn path they hope to ride an Escalade down.
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One reason I love Google Trends: It allows me to keep up with Don't Forget The Lyrics while not having to watch the show, thanks to the many searches for strings like "thriller lyrics" and "hit the road jack lyrics" and "movin on up lyrics" (sadly not for the awesome Primal Scream song). No. 7 on the list at this moment is, uh, "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters, a song that I have a probably disproportional affection for thanks for a) the way it's kind of the perfect slow-dance song and b) its introduction to the American populace via Family Ties, which was one of my favorite shows as a young lass and which I actually credit with a few personal musical epiphanies. I mean, do you remember when Nick wanted "Lola" as his wedding song? Once those Raincoats reissues came out I liked to think that he actually wanted their cover of the Kinks song playing, and not the original.
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Latest by sydbarrett05: By the way...Billy Vera wrote one of the greatest songs ever that could be...
"Don't Look Back" by The Remains...
Look for it on the 1'st Nuggets box... more »
So, let's take some inventory for Cobra Starship's latest video for "Guilty Pleasure," which replaces the very cute "home movie" one they made as they continue their quest to crack MTV's 3 a.m. rotation. Zubaz and Zink-covered noses? Check. The most dejected-looking rollerskate dance that I have ever seen in my life? Check! (FYI, I've never seen Starlight Express, so one of its more tragic scenes might beat this. Barely.) A cameo by a DeLorean with a "FLUXED" license plate? Check. Patrick Stump as a perhaps overly cost-conscious manager? Che-eeck! Even if I didn't like the song as much as I do, this video is like Idolator catnip, people. [YouTube]
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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So apparently Nick Cannon "directed" the video for Mariah Carey's "Bye Bye," although it really just seems to intersperse repurposed footage from meet-and-greets and photo shoots (we've all seen that bathing suit before) with some footage of a plane taking off, shots of newly minted lovebirds Mariah and Nick loving it up, and pictures of people who died. (The video-ending photos of Mariah with Luciano Pavarotti and Luther Vandross were the perfect MC touch, in a "trying to be classy, winding up kinda assy" sort of way.) I guess this is how they do a Mariah video "on a budget" in these tough economic times? [YouTube]
Latest by Jay-C: I'm sure having footage of Nick Cannon "loving it up" with Mimi in her new video will quiet the calls of "bullshit" about their marriage... more »
The Rock And Jock-ready stomp of Lloyd's new single, "How We Do It," has grown on me since my first listen two months ago thanks to hearing the track during a couple of car rides, which may be the optimum listening conditions for many a summer jam candidate. So now here's the video, in which Lloyd and Ludacris zip around a conglomeration of American cities that's illustrated in such a way that it resembles a cross between the opening credits of The Surreal Life and Michael Jackson's "Leave Me Alone" video, sans Elizabeth Taylor and Verne Troyer, alas. [WorldStarHipHop via Toya's World]
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Latest by Al Shipley: Interesting that a video for this song is just now dropping, considering that MTV.com just ran a story today that emphasized Lloyd's other new single with Lil Wayne and said there'd be a video for that soon, and generally made more »
Apparently the call-out research on "iDance," Soulja Boy's last new single (you may remember it from, um, Friday), rushed in over the weekend and was overwhelmingly negative, because the tenacious young MC has already put out his next new single, "She Gotta Donk." Soulja Boy seems to be going the "When in doubt, sing about women with nice asses over a really sparse beat" route on his new track, a decision that will no doubt cause a lecture from 50 Cent to be sent his way soon. [OnSmash via ProHipHop]
At 1:40 in this clip of 50 Cent performing in Angola, you can see someone jump on stage and swipe the chain off Curtis' neck. Not shown and possibly imagined: 50 Cent, having his crest stolen, fell to the ground powerless, as The Game ran away laughing, screaming "X THE EEEELIMINATOR!" as he dangled from a rope ladder off a getaway helicopter that read "G-UNOT!" on the side. [YouTube]
"That Green Gentleman" is one of the standouts from Panic At The Disco's Pretty. Odd, and its fussy harmonies and baroqueish stylings are well-matched with this cute clip, which is stuffed with Russian dolls, old-timey bikes, and lots of kids gleefully running around. (Even the product placement is mercifully—and dare I say tastefully?—brief, although I could just be saying that because I'm still suffering PTSD from that Fergie song for Sex And The City.) "Do you think they want to be the Monkees?" a friend of mine asked after I sent him the YouTube of this clip. "Nah," I said. "I think they're aiming in a different direction..."
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Frenchie dance duo Justice may be the perfect act for the current time that we live in, i.e. an era that's full of smug self-referentiality, parties with decent music that are solely populated by people asking where the next party might be, and cults of personality that have voids at their center. The video for "D.A.N.C.E." seems to represent their modus operandi best, really—aesthetically impressive, but stuffed full of statements that dig no deeper than what can be expressed by a T-shirt, and lots of references to some other cultural touchstone that lurks within the recesses of the 18-34 demo's collective memory. As such, it was probably inevitable that they'd move on to the "shocking video stuffed with gratuitous violence" phase of their career, but I figured they'd at least wait until their post-Cross album to do so. "Stress" clip after the jump.
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Last night, Bret Michaels continued his run of TV exposure with an appearance on Don't Forget The Lyrics, a show that, I admit, I would probably completely suck on because I am the queen of making syllables up to fit the words of certain songs. He gave up after being tripped up by the pre-chorus to Slade's "Cum On Feel Tha Noize," a song which he claims he can get right when he's in his car. But can he get the melody right? Because there was a run of pretty rough notes there at the beginning. Cleanse your ears with Kevin DuBrow's interpretation of the track, which is after the jump.
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Lil Mama's VYP: Voice Of The Young People has a lot more drama (and meta) than her previous singles would imply, so it's a good thing that "L.I.F.E." spotlights the side of Lil Mama that can't be appeased with lip gloss. The side of her that dresses up like a pregnant teenager with an abusive thug of a boyfriend and a mom sprawled on the couch with a bottle of Jack! The ballerina may be a bit much, but it's refreshing to see a rap video that doesn't celebrate the joys of yay-slinging. [YouTube]
Maybe it's not fair to Linkin Park to call them has-beens, but it's a little late for them to be releasing a track titled "We've Made It." And Busta Rhymes? Hell, he might need to make it again.
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Fall Out Boy's clip for their cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" does in fact pay homage to old videos by The Gloved One, with Patrick Stump even getting his own "Dirty Diana" moment near the song's end. But while watching the video, in which the boys from the band walk around a seedy neighborhood that is populated solely with Michael Jackson-costumed dudes and watch Tony Hale lead a class in the "sexy" martial arts before getting roped into a throwdown, I was reminded of another clip from MJ-era MTV:
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I'm not even going to type up a full report of this clip, because by the time I finish writing it up Prince will have banished it to the land of "This video is no longer available." purgatory. So get clicking! [YouTube]
Idolator has already reported on Utah Saints' recent run up the British Charts, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no musical micro-genre more welcome for a comeback than Britain's dance music of the early '90s. I have a brightly colored striped shirt and a pacifier just sitting in box waiting to be used!
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Frenchie dance duo Justice may be the perfect act for the current time that we live in, i.e. an era that's full of smug self-referentiality, parties with decent music that are solely populated by people asking where the next party might be, and cults of personality that have voids at their center. The video for "D.A.N.C.E." seems to represent their modus operandi best, really—aesthetically impressive, but stuffed full of statements that dig no deeper than what can be expressed by a T-shirt, and lots of references to some other cultural touchstone that lurks within the recesses of the 18-34 demo's collective memory. As such, it was probably inevitable that they'd move on to the "shocking video stuffed with gratuitous violence" phase of their career, but I figured they'd at least wait until their post-Cross album to do so. "Stress" clip after the jump.
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