Back in March, Floyd “Bud” Gaugh and Eric Wilson, the two surviving members of stoner-punk outfit Sublime, played a show with lead singer Rome Ramirez where they ran through some tunes by their former band. Rumors that a tour in which the duties of deceased lead guy Bradley Nowell would be taken on by Ramirez followed, and they were soon confirmed by the announcement that the band would be playing the Cypress Hill-helmed Smokeout Festival (of course) this weekend. The Nowell family, as you might expect, is not all that pleased with this development! A statement they released today: More »
And the award for most harrowingly extended metaphor goes to… More »
This week’s installment in the sorta-halfhearted scuffle between songs that are biding time at the top of the Hot 100 until the Black Eyed Peas return to the No. 1 slot for the kajillionth week this year: Jay Sean’s “Down” reclaimed the top spot after last week’s No. 1, Britney Spears’ Real Dollish “3,” sagged in sales by 33% and fell to No. 5. (It’s gaining in airplay, though, so don’t count her out just yet.) Rounding out the top 5 is a trio of familiar tunes to any chart-watcher: Jason DeRulo’s “Whatcha Say” (No. 2), Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The U.S.A.” (No. 3), and the Jay-Z/Rihanna/Kanye collab “Run This Town” (No. 4). [Billboard] More »
Behind the Sugababes’ latest lineup machinations, which make one wonder if the group is shape-shifting into a sort of female British Menudo, is a trend piece about enough slant histrionics to make Ken Russell films wilt. There’s even something telling in the yearlong break rival girl group Girls Aloud announced in July, following on the heels of some of their strongest offerings yet. If the crown jewels in Britain’s pop tiara are wont to defect so quickly—and leave us with The Saturdays—shouldn’t it be time to reassess the girl group as a business model? Perhaps, with pop going the way of our economy, we probably shouldn’t be turning to something as volatile as singer-stuffed girl groups for a bailout.
Boybands and even male-fronted rock bands seem to enjoy some sense of longevity. But why do their female counterparts seem to have all the reliability of AIG? After the jump, a categorical look at five iconic girlb(r)ands for whom dissolution was all but foretold. More »
Perhaps concerned that upstarts like the American Music Awards and the Kids Choice Awards were infringing on their power-to-the-people award-show turf, the Peoples’ Choice Awards—the O.G. viewer-poll-determined pseudo-event—has decided to throw its nomination process open to the masses, thus allowing their producers to say that they really represent the people. (Or the people who are motivated enough to click through a very long Web ballot in order to honor their favorites, anyway.) They’re even having the unwashed keyboard jockeys out there vote on the trophy design! Who-ho-hoa! The music nominees they’ve “suggested” for fans to choose from are presented to you after the jump. They’re pretty standard (if a bit too kind to the Lonely Island), and I have to say that the possibility of MGMT, Susan Boyle, and Adam Lambert butting heads in the Favorite Breakout Artist category would be kind of awesome. More »
In preparation for his ill-fated “This Is It” run at the O2 arena in London, Michael Jackson apparently remade three of his videos to be played between set changes: “Earth Song,” “Man In The Mirror,” and “Thriller,” which is obviously the big deal in this context because of the original clip’s iconic status. The videos will reportedly be included in Jackson’s posthumous concert doc This Is It, which comes out next week. (No word on if they’ll be played in full, or in part.) Five sinking feelings I experienced upon reading the news that “Thriller” had been updated for the new generation: More »
The British rockists’ bible Q is having its own awards show this Monday, and to whet peoples’ appetite (or, you know, just remind people that they have a whole weekend to get really excited about the prospect of Kings Of Leon being honored by the British guitar-based-music-fan public), the first award was bestowed today: The Classic Song Award, which has been nabbed by Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s early-’80s smash “Relax.” Well, yeah, that’s sort of an undeniable match there. Damn you, Q, for being all snarkproof for once! Those of you who would like to compare the offerings of now to Frankie’s jam can peruse the nominee list in full after the jump. More »
A penis-happy Swede making his bid for jock-jam supremacy by exhuming the already picked-over corpse of a disco band’s sad-sack ballad? What could possibly go wrong? More »
Weezer’s video for the still-insanely-catchy “If You’re Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)” dispenses with their recent Internet obsession and drops the band into an old-timey setting—in a land populated only by dudes of various ages who, curiously, all resemble Weezer’s members to varyingly creepy degrees. But then a woman arrives, and wreaks a predicable amount of bloody havoc. There’s even a scene where somebody gets hit by a car, which I think makes the whole “vehicular injury” motif an official music–video trend? Clip after the jump. More »
