Demi covers a disco classic! (We think). More »
Though our specialty is reviewing music, we’re often distracted from an artist’s tunes by their amazingly awful album cover. In 2011, there were 10 (mostly) high-profile releases with cover art so ridiculous, so badly designed, and just so straight-up weird that we had to share them with all of you. Last year, MGMT nabbed the highest honor here for their hallucinatory surf’s-up-kitty album cover art for Congratulations — but even that hot mess looked like it should be hanging in a museum compared to this year’s entries. Check out our 10 picks for worst cover art for albums and mixtapes released in 2011 (with one exception), and check back tomorrow for a palate cleanser of the year’s 10 best. More »
The Limp Bizkit frontman / budding film director / Twitterholic turns 39 today. Yes, that’s right—only one more year until the poster child for late-20th-century rage hits the big four-oh! Watch as much of this (slightly NSFW) clip of Limp Bizkit’s Woodstock 1999 performance of “Break Stuff” as you can, and take a moment to reflect on how far Fred, me, you, and everyone have come over the past 10 years. I mean, at least the vague sense of embarrassment that the lyric “it’s all about the he said she said bullshit” inspires is felt by more people now than it was then, right? [YouTube / MTV Newsroom] More »
Last week, a jury ordered Boston University grad student Joel Tenenbaum to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $675,000 for sharing 30 songs via KaZaA. That’s $22,500 a song, a figure that the jury decided on because they deduced that Tenenbaum’s copyright infringement had been willful—a finding that they came to in part because Tenenbaum adopted a “fair use” defense for his actions, saying in a FAQ that he thinks “Art is meant to be shared.” Tenenbaum and his legal team are preparing to appeal to the trial judge, but for now, let’s all see what 30 songs Tenenbaum figured were OK for sharing with the old-cruddy-software-using masses. More »
Are you feeling sad that there won’t be a Woodstock ’99 tribute concert? Well, have no fear: Limp Bizkit is heading back in the studio in the next few weeks! I guess the country’s mood got just angry enough for the Red Baseball Cap Of Disadvantaged White Male Rage to be brandished again—and now there are even strange dinosaur-related metaphors involved! More »
Chinese President Hu Jintao thought he was going to Zagreb for a little bit of back-slapping action with his buddies who rule Croatia. Little did he know that thanks to his travel planners picking the hotel that they did, he might have to interrupt his diplomatic plans for some serious (and possibly drunken) Gears Of War 2… or at least a little “Nookie.” [China View / Twitter] More »
The other momentous pop occasion yesterday? Limp Bizkit’s first show in eight years, which the band played in Latvia. This dude apparently spent the whole show with his camera in front of his face, as he has what look to be clips of all 18 songs performed at the tour opener available for streaming via his YouTube account. (Former Idolator contributor / eternal Limp Bizkit expert Anthony Miccio, upon seeing the clips: “Wow, apparently they’re doing songs from Results May Vary. Wes Borland, eatin’ humble pie.”) Above, their reappropriation of George Michael’s Faith, which–along with some major-label dollars–helped push them to national prominence back in the day. Ah, to be reminded of those parts of the ’90s that no one really talks about. [YouTube] More »
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the narrative surrounding the ‘90s alternative rock boom, and how oversimplified it’s become over the years. Too often, we get a simple line like “Nirvana changed everything,” and if we’re lucky, a little follow-up along the lines of “Limp Bizkit ruined everything.” So I decided to identify the scenes, subgenres, and trends that most influenced the Modern Rock charts over the past two decades; I figured I’d come up with a dozen or so. Instead, I ended up with almost 30, which I’ve broken down below. (I’m sure in the comments we can argue about which ones I left out, or which bands shouldn’t have been lumped together.) More »
