Amplifier
  • • Radiohead's Thom Yorke is seeking 2,000 volunteers "who want to be part of [a] human King Canute type image facing the sea that is visible from space" next Saturday. Don't worry folks -- he's asking people to re-create his "Eraser" artwork, not reenact scenes from "The Human Centipede." [NME]

    • The White Stripes continue to sell us things that are not new music by reissuing their first three albums on vinyl. [Spinner]

    • If you're not watching "Skating With the Stars," you are missing out on ludicrous footage of Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil being ludicrous. [Blabbermouth]

    • Jeweler to the stars Jacob & Co. is suing Courtney Love for close to $114,000 in unreturned loaned earrings and chains. Love says she lost them, but maybe they're just hiding with Kurt Cobain's ashes. [AP]

    • Teddy Riley, the producer who guaranteed that the songs on Michael Jackson's upcoming album "Michael" are indeed the King of Pop's, may not be the most reliable source of "truth." He just implied he believes MJ is

    Read More »from Opening Act: Thom Yorke Making Art, Not Human Centipede
  • The Amp has lamented that Kanye West left "Chain Heavy," one of his best new tracks, off "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." Now Nicki Minaj fans can lodge a similar complaint, because only the deluxe iTunes edition of "Pink Friday" comes with a worthy bonus: "Girls Fall Like Dominoes." As we suspected when we first heard the name of the track, Minaj's song samples "Dominoes" by the Big Pink, the U.K. band's killer 2009 single on which they brag about their powers over the fairer sex. (We liked it so much, we picked it as one of the 10 best songs of the year.)

    Minaj picks up that lyrical thread in her version of "Dominoes" -- which was produced by J.R. Rotem -- rhyming about her special relationship with her female fans. Nicki raps about signing her fans' boobs and stealing Lil Wayne and Drake's girls while shouting out a motley mix of ladies including Kristin Cavallari, the Kardashians, Ciara, Mariah Carey, M.I.A., Mo'Nique, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Donatella Versace, Rihanna, Grace

    Read More »from Nicki Minaj’s M.I.A. Love Affair Continues With Killer Bonus Track
  • Ever since the xx won the U.K.'s esteemed Mercury Prize for their debut album "xx," it seems like artists from all over the musical map have lined up to cover their minimalist R&B songs. Shakira, Taylor Momsen's band the Pretty Reckless, Brooklyn indie rockers the Antlers and new wave heroes OMD have all covered assorted songs by the xx in the past year, and now even Gorillaz busted out the xx's debut single "Crystalised" during a BBC performance this weekend. So did Damon Albarn and his cartoon buddies pull it off?

    Yes!
    • We could listen to Albarn sing anything, from religious psalms to Nickelback covers, so we more than approve of him bringing his hushed vocals to a song by one of our favorite new bands.

    • While Albarn stays faithful to the original rendition, Gorillaz also simultaneously transforms the ballad into an understated album closer similar to Blur's "Battery in Your Leg" or "Optigan 1."

    • Songs from Albarn's multiple projects -- Gorillaz, Blur and The Good, the Bad and the

    Read More »from Your Cover’s Blown: Gorillaz Vs. the xx
  • Remember Tower Records and Virgin Megastore, those enormous music store chains that were driven out of business in the past decade? When Tower filed for bankruptcy in 2006, employees were informed that besides the ailing music industry, the company's biggest problem was Best Buy -- the big box store would always undercut Tower on the week's big new releases. If Tower Records was selling the new U2 album for $11.99, Best Buy would price it $8.99. Sometimes, Best Buy would charge so little for a disc, the store would actually lose money selling it.

    Best Buy knew what it was doing, of course: 1. CD bargains draw people into the store, where consumers hopefully buy a microwave or television or whatever big-ticket item earns Best Buy the biggest bucks; and 2. Rock-bottom prices would knock their competitors, the music stores that relied on big new releases to draw consumers and sell its catalog albums, out of business. In the end, Best Buy weathered the age of slumping CD sales thanks to

    Read More »from Why Is Kanye’s Album Only $3.99 on Amazon?
  • Stevie Nicks' voice is an instrument of enchantment -- haunting, edgy, blessed with an effortless warble. Even when she was still in her twenties, the Fleetwood Mac singer's vocals exuded a weathered knowledge of the mysteries of the world, a simmering maturity. Perhaps that's why when artists under age 21 try to cover her songs or even channel her bewitching ways into their own performances, they fail so miserably. Last night, Miley Cyrus proved the rule at the American Music Awards. Here's how she and two other underage starlets demonstrated they're not quite seasoned enough to be Stevie:

    Miley Cyrus
    Age at Time of Impersonation: 17
    Cyrus did her best (and yet simultaneously worst) Nicks impression while singing "Forgiveness and Love" at the AMAs last night, decking herself out in a long, flowing dress and decorating her stage in moody candles. Vocally, Cyrus came the closest of our three young stars to approximating Nicks' sharp croon, but ultimately her singing was dramatically

    Read More »from Miley Cyrus Proves the Rule: Nobody Under 21 Should Impersonate Stevie Nicks
  • The very talented Florence and the Machine had the very bad luck of appearing on an episode of "Saturday Night Live" packed with musical moments that landed right on the mark this weekend. In "The Miley Cyrus Show," Vanessa Bayer again nailed the Disney star's loquacious, nasal goofiness ("As y'all probably heard, I'm sexy now") and host Anne Hathaway turned out a genuinely hilarious Katie Holmes impression. During "Weekend Update," Jay Pharoah broke out amazingly dead-on impersonations of Jay-Z, Drake, and the Notorious B.I.G.'s flows. And a commercial for a kids' movie soundtrack called "Horse Play" featured Randy Newman (a marble-mouthed Fred Armisen), the Cranberries (Kristen Wiig yelping, "Don't eat the field, horsie/Oats, oats, oats, oats"), Alanis Morissette (an angsty Hathaway), Robert Smith (Andy Samberg in a feathered black wig), Adam Lambert (Jason Sudeikis in a feathered black wig, yelling), and Cee Lo Green (Kenan Thompson with the perfect horse gag: "Buck You"). Florence

    Read More »from SNL GPA: Florence and the Machine Are Human After All
  • Last night the American Music Awards tried to replace the memory of last year's over-sexed Adam Lambert fiasco with the sweet, innocent face of Justin Bieber. In case you weren't able to set aside three hours for the show, we've broken down what was big into a handy guide:

    The Medley
    Also known as the free advertisement! Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie Part 2" transitioned into "What's My Name" into "Only Girl (In the World)." Enrique Iglesias debuted "Tonight" before bringing out Pitbull for his summer banger "I Like It." Bon Jovi made us listen to a few bars of "What Do You Got" before delivering the goods: "You Give Love a Bad Name" (non-ramen version) and "It's My Life." Ne-Yo attempted to explain the convoluted logic behind his concept album "Libra Scale" by performing way too many of its songs. Taylor Swift sang her own "Back to December" mashed up with OneRepublic's "Apologize." Train did a few strange bars of "Marry Me" before the unavoidable "Hey Soul Sister." Ke$ha blended

    Read More »from The Only 10 Things You Need to Know About the American Music Awards
  • • "Call of Duty" helped the Rolling Stones double sales of "Gimme Shelter," and the video game's creators say there's another Stones-related surprise on the way. If Activision learned anything from their Kurt Cobain snafu, it won't be that Mick Jagger is an unlockable character. [Billboard]

    • Wilco are selling their own branded coffee, which is the perfect punch line to jokes about how their most recent album needed a jolt of energy. [Spinner]

    • T.I. says the drug bust that landed him back in jail -- where he is frankly tried of being -- was the result of a pain pill addiction that began after a dental surgery. [AP]

    • Perhaps Michael Jackson's own struggles with pain medication can explain this loony photo of the King of Pop swigging from a bottle of vodka while two ladies sit on his lap during the "Captain EO" shoot. [ONTD]

    • Janet Jackson may have consulted a numerologist before announcing her next world tour: She's celebrating 35 Number One songs by playing 35 cities and

    Read More »from Opening Act: Why the Rolling Stones Answered the ‘Call of Duty’
  • Here's some strange music and equine news for your Friday afternoon: A German man has been legally banned from tattooing his pony with the Rolling Stones' iconic "Tongue and Lip Design" after a court decided that would pretty much constitute cruelty to animals. The owner of the pony, in an effort to make the foal "more unique and beautiful" and show all neighboring farms who's the biggest Stones fan in the county, hoped to tattoo his horse with the logo, and even went as far as shaving a patch of hair off the pony where the tattoo would have resided (thanks Stuff.co.nz for the mental picture). The tattooing of the pony was the first step in what his owner envisioned as a larger business plan: launching an animal-tattooing service.

    Thankfully, for the pony and the animal kingdom in general, the legal system swooped in to rescue the horse. Germany has strict laws in place preventing people from tattooing "warm-blooded vertebraes," because evidently these kinds of scenarios arise often

    Read More »from Tattoo Phew: Horse Rescued From Rolling Stones-Loving Owner
  • The "Today" show wrapped a week spent exploring the wizardry of viral video with a massive, one-take lip-dub performance of the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" this morning. The taped clip, which begins in the show's studio and spills out into the Rockefeller Center Plaza, features 150 enthusiastic cast and crew members -- from anchors Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira to "Nightly News" host Brian Williams to a crew of producers in feather boas -- all lip-synching and dancing along to the group's 2009 mega-hit (which the show is mistakenly calling "I've Got a Feeling" in an act of divine copy-editing). Because the routine had to be filmed in one take, even the tiniest mistake would have derailed the whole production and forced a re-shoot. As Vieira mused, "I think it was more complicated than I realized."

    One talented Steadicam operator captured all the action -- stylists doing their best Fergie impressions into their hairbrushes, control room operators tossing money in the air, a

    Read More »from ‘Today’ Show Discovers Joys of Lip-Dubbing Black Eyed Peas Song

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