It’s now been 26 weeks since the Black Eyed Peas first reached the summit of Billboard‘s Hot 100 with “Boom Boom Pow,” which had a 12-week run at the top of the charts before being relieved by the group’s follow-up single “I Gotta Feeling.” 26 weeks! That’s half a year! At least the band’s April ascent to the top means that they won’t rule the entirety of this year’s Daylight Savings stretch, but still, yeesh. More »
In what’s shaking up to be a battle of the butterfles, the bean-counters at industry rag Hits are claiming that brand new eyes from the Hayley Williams-led Tennessee outfit Paramore is, after its first day of official availability, on pace to outsell Mariah Carey’s Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel this week by a margin of about 20,000 copies; Paramore’s projected sales are in the 180k-190k range, while Mariah’s are around 160-170k. And as if that wasn’t enough to rile up the chart-obsessed lambs, turns out that Barbra Streisand’s Love Is The Answer is projected to sell between 150,000 and 160,000 copies! Hits‘ one-day projections for this week’s biggest debuts after the jump. More »
Yesterday was a long day for the Tennessee rock outfit Paramore, who celebrated the release of their new album brand new eyes with an early-morning gig at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, a signing in Chino, and a show at the Fox Theater in Pomona, Calif. That last bit of celebrating proved to be too much for the pipes of lead singer Hayley Williams, who left the stage 11 songs into the band’s set; after about five minutes passed, guitarist Josh Farro came out and told the crowd, “We have a slight issue. Hayley’s voice is shot, completely gone. She’s upset — she feels like she let you guys down. But we’re gonna play some music for you and you guys can sing.” The band then burst into its breakthrough hit “Misery Business” without Williams at the helm—and the crowd filled in ably, if a bit chaotically. Clip after the jump. More »
Tomorrow’s release-date schedule is pretty glutted with albums that—gasp!—might get people to actually spend money on music, from Madonna’s latest greatest-hits collection to new albums by the spunky likes of Miranda Lambert and Paramore. In order to help you navigate through this week, might I suggest a friendly game of Buy/Download/Kill, in which each album receives one of the three fates outlined by the game’s title? My personal preferences after the jump. More »
Our continuing look at the closing lines of the week’s biggest new-music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to brand new eyes, the new full-length by the fiery Tennessee pop-punk act Paramore: More »
Following this morning’s post featuring Paramore covering Kings Of Leon, here are the Tennessee pop-punkers covering Phoenix’s 2006 track “Long Distance Call” in London. Apparently the band had just learned this track for an upcoming appearance in France; I like its nervous energy, although I think as far as Paramore covers that I’ve found today go, I think I prefer the Kings Of Leon track. (Hey, there are nine words that I never thought I’d say in order!) The original version of the song after the jump. More »
Continuing the theme of Pretty Good Covers You Might Have Missed While Keeping Away From Your Computer This Weekend, Paramore visited Radio One’s Live Lounge on Friday and performed an unplugged version of Kings Of Leon’s slow-building Top Five hit “Use Somebody.” Lead singer Hayley Williams’ voice is what makes the cover; it’s rich with longing and makes me wonder just what tricks the band will pull out on the can’t-get-here-soon-enough brand new eyes. Clip after the jump. More »
The folks at industry rag Hits have a handy chart of the albums coming out in the last months of the year, which, who knows, may be the last one in which a chart like this is even necessary! But even though we’re a long way from the days of 50 Cent and Kanye West squaring off on the anniversary of 9/11, it’s still sort of fun to see what CDs will be landing at America’s retailers on the same day. After the jump, five of the best battles that could arise from the coming release-date schedule. (Marketing departments, get your beef stew recipes ready!) More »
Paramore’s video for “Ignorance,” the punchy first single from their forthcoming album Brand New Eyes, is a pretty straightforward affair with an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia; the band’s stuck in a closet with only a lightbulb brandished by lead singer Hayley Williams to guide them, while in other shots Williams sports some very Gwen Stefani-esque bondage gear while being confined by what looks like a giant test-tube. The song is a bit darker than most of the fare from the band’s previous full-length Riot!, and I’m pretty amped to hear where the group will do with its unbridled energy and Williams’ unabashed love for the Twilight-sanitized version of this world’s “dark side.” Clip after the jump. More »
Hayley Williams’ solo contribution to the soundtrack for Jennifer’s Body has led some outlets to engage in a bit of speculation over whether the Paramore singer would be embarking on a solo career anytime soon. But in a post to the band’s Livejournal, she’s pretty adamant over the fact that her solo track is a one-off, and that even though she admires her tourmate Gwen Stefani, she won’t be following in Stefani’s uncomfortably shod solo-career footsteps anytime soon: More »
