Idolator: when slow news days attack

Hot Chip Has Already Released The Best Album Of 2008, So The Rest Of You Can Just Give Up

Maura Johnston — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:30:05 EDT

Have you recently found yourself pining for year-end lists, those neat little summaries of the year's best music that provide fodder for argument and giggling as the calendar counts down to Dec. 31? Well, then, you'll want to plant a big, wet one on The Grand Rapids Press' Troy Reimink, whose best albums of 2008 (so far) list , topped by Hot Chip's Made In The Dark, went live on his paper's Web site at 7:09 p.m. yesterday. Arguments ahoy! And if you're like me, they'll be tinged with at least a bit of despondency over whether bands featured on blogs really did produce the only good music of this year, or if we're really at a point in pop music where everything's just too fragmented to have any semblance of "coherency" or "a center." Full list after the jump, but here are some preliminary findings.

THE GOOD: Nick Cave's Dig Lazarus Dig is at No. 3; if you really wanna be nitpicky about things the album's release date in the States actually falls in the second quarter (it comes out April 8), but keep in mind that the awesomeness of Nick Cave doesn't really kowtow to such silly things as "the space-time continuum."
THE BAD: The Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely had been available to the public for not even a week when the MLive.com web technicians hit publish, yet the power of Jack White resulted in it already ascending to No. 12 on Reimink's list! Imagine if it had been available two weeks before his deadline?
THE WHAAA? Troy, what if some record that's even better than the Hot Chip album leaks before midnight on Monday? What do you do then? Do you rework the list? Do you demand that it be taken down?

1. Hot Chip, Made In The Dark
2. The Helio Sequence, Keep Your Eyes Ahead
3. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus Dig
4. Destroyer, Trouble In Dreams
5. Why?, Alopecia
6. British Sea Power, Do You Like Rock Music?
7. Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple
8. Vampire Weekend
9. The Magnetic Fields, Distortion
10. Evangelicals, The Evening Descends
11. The Mountain Goats, Heretic Pride
12. The Raconteurs, Consolers Of The Lonely
13. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
14. MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
15. She & Him, Volume One

The best of music 2008: First quarter [MLive.com]

This may be hard to believe, but reports ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:15:41 EDT

This may be hard to believe, but reports have Beyonce being more concerned with not getting her weave wet than with the plight of children who decide to wait out in the rain for hours in hopes of getting an autograph from her. Next thing you're going to tell me is that she also told those kids that Santa Claus doesn't exist! [Rush & Molloy]

Scott Stapp Would Like To Show You His Wicked George W. Bush Impersonation (And His Mad Breakdancing Skills)

mjohnston — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:15:18 EST

It's a day late, but how could I not post this video of Scott Stapp vibing out with the Christmas spirit for the benefit of his fanbase—and our viewership? Especially since it shows him busting a few moves and showing off a piano that he can still apparently afford to house? Those of you who work at radio stations of America that are still playing "Higher" now and again, I ask you to watch this video and ask yourselves if you should maybe be making some playlist-related resolutions for 2008. For real.

Scott Stapp,CREED, " New Crazy Video" [YouTube]

Boy Band Backlash Enters The Web 2.0 Era

mjohnston — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:40:30 EST

What with their ability to make the young girls scream, it would be inevitable that angry teenagers have started to rail against the scourge of the Jonas Brothers. But instead of composing a ditty like "New Kids Got Run Over By A Reindeer" or graffiting "MORE LIKE N SUCK!!!" in their school's ladies' room, members of the Web 2.0 generation have taken their anti-moptop crusade to the Internet. On YouTube, for example, a video that opens with the greeting "Hello. If you are watching this and you are a Jonas Brothers fan you should kill yourself." is rising up the "Most Popular" charts, no doubt in large part because lots of kids have vacation this week. The clip lays out boilerplate anti-boy-band rhetoric while also big-upping Slipknot and ripping the JBs' bulletin board-posting fans for having "no clue of proper grammer and punctuation." (Sigh. Kids today.) And it's garnered 700-plus comments so far, which are so far evenly split between Jonas Brothers fans and ~~their older brothers~~ haters. But I'm pretty impressed by the rebuttals from young laurennmariexo, who composed an 18-point (!) treatise responding to the allegations laid out in the video:

ok.
1. you have no fuking life whatsoever.
2.wanting nick to die from diabetes is the WORST thing anyone can say toward anyone. thats just horrible. He didnt do anything wrong to get it, it happens and hes living with it and making it easier for people who have it to cope with it knowing NOT every celebrity is perfect.
3. if you think the jonas brothers' music sucks and you think the background music you put on here is good, you seriously need a hearing aid. The Jonas Brothers actually sing their songs,not scream into the microphone and call it music.
4. The mosh pits probably turn into a riot because want to die after hearing that so called music.
5. its called a backup band for a reason there are 3 people in the backup band not just the drummer and they get their credit.
6. Thier hair is fine. Just because it isnt spiked or have fades in it doesnt mean its bad.
7.STOP FUCKING HATING ON NICK.
8. They all play instruments, not just guitars. Nick can play guitar, drums, and piano/keyboard. Kevin can play guitar. Joseph plays the tambourine and keyboard and guitar.
9. yeah they have 10 year old fans, but they have older ones too. the age range of fans differs for every celebrity, just because jonas fans are more upfront about it doesnt mean anything.
10. jonas fans dont think we're tuff or mean or whatever you were tryin to portray in that picture of what we "think" we look like.
11. the fans or think they are just "hawt" as you put it, arent really fans of the music they just like their face, cant say i blame them, but there is wayy much more to them then their looks.
12. the childish comments come from the young fans who havent yet learned to be a sick asshole.
13. How can you say they dont have talent. Nicholas Jonas was on broadway when he was fucking 6 years old. explain that.
14. while you're explaining things to me, explain how they look like girls?
15. no jonas concert breaks into a mosh pit so i have no clue what you're saying. the closest thing to a mosh pit may be when they are trying to reach the front because they have jumped down in front of the crowd.
16.if you hate them so much stop talking about and live your own life. stop obsessing over them
17. send me hate mail whatever i really dont care. you dont understand how much the jonas brothers do for their fans because they actually care, they didnt jus come out of no where and go platinum (which they did). they worked there way to the top, so they are actually appreciative of what they have
18. what other group/band/singer do you know of that makes youtube videos for their fans, responds back on myspace, does meet and greets whenever possible, sells tickets at a reasonably low price so everyone can get a show? No one does because no one else cares, they know what its like to be on the bottom and what its like to be on the top.

OK, it's not exactly Luther's 95 Theses, but I am hoping for a follow-up video in which this clip's auteur lays out just what, exactly, makes the brothers Jonas look like girls. Or, barring that, maybe some remedial English lessons for everyone?

The Jonas Brothers suck [YouTube]

The "Daily Mirror" Gifts Us With The Greatest Blind Item Ever

mjohnston — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:00:32 EST

Ah, the holidays. When the egg nog is flowing, anticipation is high, and the blind items are vague, yet laugh-out-loud delightful. From the Daily Mirror:

"Which clumsy rocker dropped a ciggie on his manhood while belting out a Beatles' song on the loo? He was left in agony and close to tears..."

"Clumsy," indeed! My first thought was one of Oasis' Gallagher brothers because, well, duh, but I surveyed my buddy list for a few other opinions. They're after the jump.

Jess' first thought: T-Pain. (He's a little obsessed today.) Other answers include:

"Perhaps a Gallagher brother?"
"A Gallagher?"
"hahaha ... please let it be Liam Gallagher"
"Does Gallagher II count as a 'rock star'? Because I can definitely see him being that clumsy. Have you ever seen the way he bobbles that mallet?"

OK, you get the picture. But feel free to leave your guesses below!

Daily Mirror Blind Item [Crazy Days And Nights]