Two icons of the ’90s, Alicia Silverstone and Alanis Morrissette, have teamed up for a cause that affects all of us (especially knowledge-worker types who have extra time on their hands to read blogs): Movies with no discernible purpose other than throwing a bunch of highly bloggable artists on the soundtrack and using those songs to score long stretches of dialogue-free “pondering” about “life.” (Oh, and their cutesy credit sequences give work to animators, I guess.) They teamed up to make a trailer for a movie called MY Mother’s Red Hat (you can already figure out the “plot,” right?), complete with soundtrack almost as long as its script—and Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk” soundtracking the commercial’s requisite “music crazily stopping to portray a crazy scene in the movie” bit. Clip after the jump. More »
During last week’s discussion of Marmite artists–those artists that are so divisive, they force people to take sides, with no one left in the middle–Idolator commenter moomintroll wondered if we shouldn’t try and find more ways to classify popular bands through their analogues to various condiments. Since we figured the safe space in the fridge inhabited by your ketchups, your mustards, and your molding bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch was as good a way to make sense of the current musical landscape as any, we invited her to flesh out her theory for us. It’s after the jump!
Once again, Idolator intern Kate Richardson scours the video sites, looking for the best fan-made music videos. In this installment, she tries to see if Mariah Carey or Bright Eyes can properly underscore the creepiness of people who seriously use “cute” nicknames for their favorite hospital-drama couples.
Perhaps taking a leaf from hip-hop’s diverse business portfolio in troubled times, indie labels including Saddle Creek, Righteous Babe, and Nettwerk have recently become venue moguls as well. More »
Conor Oberst is as introspective as ever on Bright Eyes’ new album, Cassadaga, which was released last week. Right now, it’s sitting at No. 5 on the iTunes Store’s charts and No. 6 on Amazon, but where will it reside when this week’s final sales tallies are counted? More »
(Ed. note: What used to be Idolator’s Record-Review Revue is now The Last Word, a weekly feature in which we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the week’s biggest new-music reviews. More »
Bright Eyes’ “Susan Miller Rag”–a B-side from their forthcoming album, Cassadaga–has been zipping around the web the last few days. The song’s got a little bit of folkie-era T. More »
The new Bright Eyes album, Cassadaga, isn’t out until April 9th, but it’s already sprung a leak, and certain tracks started spilling out on the Internet this morning. More »
– Nelly Furtado is recording a Spanish-language album. Judging by her most recent haircut, might we suggest a cover of “She Bangs”? [MTV News, via the far easier-to-read VH1.com] – Bright Eyes’ next album, tentatively titled Please Don’t Sneeze–I’m So Very, Very Wispy, will be released in April. More »
