Ringo Starr has been added to the lineup of next month’s concert benefiting The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education And World Peace, which already had Paul McCartney and Eddie Vedder (and, sigh, Sheryl Crow) on its bill. The meteorologist-slash-director has a goal of teaching one million children to meditate; “In today’s world of fear and uncertainty, every child should have one class period a day to dive within himself and experience the field of silence-bliss-the enormous reservoir of energy and intelligence that is deep within all of us,” he says in a statement on the foundation’s Web site. (Which has me thinking about the boredom/bliss divide that the late David Foster Wallace wanted to probe with his final work of fiction, not to mention how excited I am to be staying in a hotel that doesn’t have TVs in its rooms next week.)
Welcome to Idolator’s liveblog of the 2009 Grammy Awards, a year in which there will be more spectacle and less award-doling than ever. Well, at least it seems that way: The 3 1/2-hour telecast will have no more than 10 brass gramophones handed out during its running time, presumably because the music industry decided that what it really needed to give it a shot in the arm was a slightly more pretentious version of the Video Music Awards. (And yes, that is Paul McCartney being That Guy—or rather, the Bret Michaels-pioneered variation on That Guy who wears a shirt advertising his own projects—above.) Full minute-by-minute coverage after the jump!
Do you have your Grammy office pools all straight? And your face paint? And the big tub of guacamole for the nobody who’s coming to your Grammy party? And by “Grammy party” I mean “watch a few highlights on YouTube while picking pretzel crumbs from your lap”? Well, you’re ready to check out the second installment of Idolator’s Grammy Awards Awards: Laziest Nominee, which recognizes obscene laziness on the part of the artist (“Hey, I can just re-record this song!”) or the nominating committee (“Hey, Radiohead! I recognize their name!”)
Paul McCartney, The Killers, and The Cure are atop the seemingly eternally delayed lineup (OK it was only like a week tops, but still) for the California festival Coachella, which takes place April 17-19. Also on the bill: Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, My Bloody Valentine, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, X, TV On The Radio, and Ida Maria. And Amy Winehouse, for real! Full roster, broken down by day, after the jump.
In past years, there’s been some sort of announcement of the Coachella lineup by now (like last year, when I spent several hours tuning into an internet feed for a Mexican indie rock station), but I haven’t even heard an announcement of an announcement regarding this year’s lineup yet. And there’s been the total silence on Goldenvoice’s blog and nothing on longtime festival sponsor KROQ’s site. Of course, that lack of official word hasn’t stopped one blog or another from “confirming” acts through mysterious anonymous sources. And according to someone on ohnotheydidnt, the Britney Spears appearance that seemed so preposterous a few weeks ago is actually going to happen, with the singer allowing lots of lazy scribes to make “dance tent”/”circus” jokes:
ARTIST: The Fireman (a.k.a. Paul McCartney)
TITLE: “Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight”
WEB DEBUT: Oct. 6, 2008
