Find out what the American Idol top 10 is singing tonight, “Sing The Songs Of The Year You Were Born Night,” after the jump (via MJ’s Big Blog). Spoilers for the spoilers: Get ready for a reinterpretation of Chris Cornell’s reinterpretation of “Billie Jean” and–oh Lord help us–“God Bless The USA.”
The first episode in the competitive portion of American Idol just started on the East Coast, and tonight the top 12 guys are giving their spin to the songs of the 1960s. More »
Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe and Spin are given a once-over by an anonymous writer who’s contributed to several of those titles–or maybe even all of them! After the click-through, he contrasts the Britney Spears cover stories in the new issues of Rolling Stone and Blender:
Despite its Entertainment Weekly cover-story-garnering, Billboard chart-topping, near-universal acclaim, there are those of you* who, like me, think Stripper! Turned! Writer! and Oscar-nominated Juno uberhack Diablo Cody was sent as an emissary from the quirkiest circle of hell to torture us with her agonizingly overworked slanguage, insufferable hipster manque caricatures, and plot points that are indie movie cliches inbred until they’re cross-eyed and unable to walk properly. And those folks will be delighted to learn that Ms. Cody’s next feature–a comedy-horror film involving cheerleaders, demons, and more forced, semi-comprehensible sass than one script can withstand–is now rumored to be courting two real-life emo stars to possibly play Nikolai, frontman for the film’s “Satanic emo band.” Yeah, we know.
The long-awaited announcement regarding this year’s Coachella Festival has finally taken place, and apparently the big name the organizers got this year was … Roger Waters? Who will be recreating Dark Side Of The Moon on the festival’s main stage? Yeah, really. (What was that I said about festivals being totally over in ’08 again?) Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. PT; other names on the 125-act bill, via the Los Angeles Times‘ Soundboard blog and URB, after the jump. (For those of you who think that Roger Waters is a little too old for Coachella: Don’t worry, Love and Rockets are on the bill, too!)
Kevin Bronson at the Los Angeles Times has a sort of update on the heatstroke-inducing desert jam that is Coachella Festival, the lineup of which is being announced next week. According to Bronson, not only is the above poster totally off, My Bloody Valentine will not be one of the “surprising veteran act[s]” on the show’s roster–but who cares, because apparently Portishead is going to be there! Maybe I should brave the desert, although I’d need to stock up on some SPF 150 and a gigantic floppy hat before doing so. A list of bands who are, so far, totally definitely 100% rumored to be appearing according to the Internets and blog boards and such after the jump. Can you say “yay, ’90s”?
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the music industry, here comes the news that the Grammys–celebrating their 50th anniversary this year–might have quite a bit less starpower. If they happen at all! Yesterday, the Writers’ Guild Of America hinted that it will not grant a waiver for the ceremony, which means that if the writers’ strike is still going on by Feb. 10, attendees will probably have to cross a picket line before they can get into the Staples Center for the big show. The likelihood of members of the Screen Actors Guild–who are in solidarity with the writers–actually crossing that picket line is nil, and as a result, the talent pool for the show will be pretty depleted.
Yes, we’ve been fooled before, but apparently the long-delayed, funeral-themed video for Britney Spears’ “Gimme More”–the song that, it should be noted, topped this week’s digital-tracks chart with 179,000 downloads–is really for sure going to make its way into the world sometime within the next… More »
From the “That’s Life In The Inferno Of Postmodernity” files: One of the most popular bands on Google Trends right now is the Atlanta duo Dead Stays Alive, one-half of which “befriended” Lindsay Lohan while the two were in rehab. (Rumors that the two hooked up have been zinging around the gossipsphere; Lohan’s rep is, of course, calling those tales “mean.”) Tony Allen, the Dead Stays Alive member in question, has even been referred to as “famous” more than once, which I’m going to chalk up to people confusing him with the Tony Allen who played with Fela Kuti and The Good, The Bad, And The Queen, and not the fact that he was spilling his guts about Lindsay on Extra the other night.
Britney Spears’ real comeback single makes its way out to the Internet just in time to beat Kanye West and 50 Cent at the “whose-leak-is-bigger-than-who” game. Good thing someone out there had enough sense to prevent her from popping out another weepy phone-call ballad…
ARTIST: Britney Spears
TITLE: “Gimme More”
WEB DEBUT: Aug. 30, 2007
