Usher’s “cutting you loose via legal document” comeback single “Papers” was pretty awesome, an incendiary throw-down that was right back in Confessions mode. Unfortunately, for the follow-up single, he’s enlisted the knob-twiddler RedOne, who is fresh off assisting in the ruination of the Sugababes—and, well, the results are predictably ugh-worthy. “Rock Band,” which unfortunately does use the ever-stale “rock” as a verb describing his bedroom technique (over and over and over again) feels like a step back to the worst parts of his previous album, the sorta-floppy Here I Stand, with its inert production and cliched lyrics that compare his prowess to the stylings of Jimmy Page (“on the guitar”) and Mick Jagger (“on the mic”). Not to mention—if you’re going to talk about your oral technique in big-name musician terms, shouldn’t you be comparing yourself to Gene Simmons? [RedOne] More »
You think Lil Wayne has just been sitting around worrying about whether or not his upcoming prison term will cost him his hair? Think again. Apparently he has a new mixtape, No Ceilings, set to come out this week; one track that’s leaked from it so far is his freestyle over Jay-Z’s Rihanna/Kanye collab “Run This Town,” which is after the jump. More »
Our look at the closing lines of new music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Sainthood, the sixth studio album by Canadian sister act Tegan & Sara: More »
Miserablist crooner Morrissey collapsed one song in to his Saturday night show in Swindon, England, and was subsequently rushed to a local hospital. (One fan at the show blogged that Moz was clutching his shoulder and wincing during his brief time on stage; another told the BBC, “I didn’t think he looked particularly well but then again, he’s well known as a reclusive character so I sort of thought that was just the way he was when he was on stage.”) He’s now out of the hospital, according to official word, but tonight’s show in Bournemouth, UK, has been postponed on doctor’s orders. (Word on future dates, including tomorrow night’s show at London’s Royal Albert Hall, will presumably come along shortly.) [Morrissey’s MySpace Blog] More »
Saturday night, Prince threw open the gates at Minneapolis’ Paisley Park for what he called “The Last Jam Of 2009.” Tickets were cheap–only $40, and $31.21 for members of his online fan club LotusFlow3r—and there was also a coat and canned-food drive for the Minneapolis area’s less fortunate. Idolator’s Lucas Jensen just happened to be in Minneapolis for the weekend, and so he headed out to the show—and got to see a bunch of Jackson 5 covers, a Sly and the Family Stone tribute set featuring Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, and a ton of the Purple One’s hits. Lucas’ iPhoned-in reactions, and the set list, after the jump.) More »
This week is the 29th running of the CMJ Music Marathon, in which bands and bloggers and media-types and music-biz bees (and even a few people who don’t fall into any of those categories) run around New York in search of free/sponsored beer, late nights, and the chance to say that they saw a band with 45 or so other people in a dank New York club. (A scenario that is often romanticized far out of proportion. But I digress.) Perhaps it’s because my tastes have shifted away from provincial “indie,” or because of the economy’s clamping down on budgets for big trips, or the simple fact that the Internet has so many damn media outlets it’s easier to cocoon into your own news cycle than ever, but news out of the festival seems sorta muted. More »
Parodist, accordionist, and Idolator patron saint “Weird Al” Yankovic turns 50 today, and what better way to celebrate a half-century of his existence than to post a bunch of his videos? End the week laughing, that’s what I say. OK, get ready for the food jokes! More »
“Joss Stone: Did her label make her change her provocative album-cover art?” Entertainment Weekly breathlessly asks about the two images above, one of which was Joss’ “artistic choice” to be the cover for her new album, the other the one that EMI actually sent to stores. Whether or not the former EMI darling’s curdling of her relationship with her label (yes, she wants to be “free” of her paymasters’ clutches, just like Prince) resulted in the left cover being swapped out for the right, I think we all know who loses: The designers of fonts that aren’t Comic Sans-like in their ugliness, and every single one of our eyes. (I’d even go so far as to say that any corrective lenses employed to make said peepers work get an “L” in their column as well.) [EW] More »
How do you combat a nude photo scandal that’s threatening to take over the public’s perception of your still-fledgling entertainment career? If you’re Vanessa Hudgens, you sing about wearing… shoes? More »
Never let it be said that the Teutonic techno-metal outfit Rammstein doesn’t know how to get press: Their new album’s first video, the Jonas Akerlund-directed clip for the subtly titled single “Pussy,” is hailed in press releases as “the first to feature graphic adult content from a major recording artist.” (I guess the Bret Michaels/Pamela Anderson sex tape doesn’t count?) And now comes the news that the deluxe edition of that album, Liebe Ist Für Alle Da, comes in the form of a box set that includes, in addition to the music itself, a bonus CD, a pair of handcuffs, a bottle of lube, and six, uh, personal erotic aids… that are shaped like the band members’ members. Did I mention that they’re bright pink? (I’ll leave the “hotness” of said pink up to you to judge.) The (NSFW, obviously) box, in all its splayed glory, after the jump. More »
