Blog Posts by Caryn Ganz

The mid-1960s were both a tumultuous time for race relations in the U.S. (Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 and was assassinated five years later) and a landmark period for English rock & roll invading American shores (the Beatles arrived with their famous Ed Sullivan Show performance in 1964). The Guardian reminded us how those two cultural forces often intersected today by bringing our attention to a Fab Four tour rider that is currently on the auction block -- a document that specifies John, Paul, George, and Ringo would not play to a "segregated audience."

The contract and tour rider for a Beatles show at San Francisco's Cow Place is being sold via Nate D. Sanders Auctions. The gig went down August 31, 1965 -- the year before the band ceased touring to focus on studio recordings (and, presumably, protect their hearing from the kind of high-pitched shrieks that can peel paint).

In addition to indicating the Beatles refused to perform to a

For a brief time yesterday, there was reason to believe Real Housewives of DC costar Michaele Salahi -- best known as one-half of the White House Gatecrashers who busted into Barack Obama's 2009 state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh without an invitation -- had been kidnapped in Virginia. That reason was Salahi's husband, Tareq, informed authorities she was kidnapped after she told him she was heading to a hair appointment and never returned. As TMZ reported, Tareq later heard from his wife via phones with unfamiliar numbers and believed her alleged abductors were forcing her to call and lie to him. He then issued a statement with a glaring error that read in part, "We are reaching to the public pleaing [sic] desperately for your help."

The good news: Nobody kidnapped Michaele Salahi.
The bad news (for Tareq Salahi): His wife ran off with another man.
The worse news (for Journey fans): That man is Journey guitarist Neal Schon.

TMZ has confirmed Michaele and Schon had

Neon Indian mastermind Alan Palomo was in utero when the look he sported on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon yesterday was in fashion (he's only 23), but we'll give him a pass because he brought some futuristic visuals for his performance of "Polish Girl," too -- a projection rig built in conjunction with the Creators Project that replicated parts of the song's video. Palomo also sent the host a PAL198X, the custom built synth he developed with Bleep Laps, which is "a triple triangle-wave oscillator noise-making device with interchangeable controls for maximal sonic contortion," he's explained. (Of course, it's all so clear now.) "You can attach knobs, light-reactive photocells, and a variety of other devices for semi-modular capabilities. It can interact with a variety of objects around your house whether electronic in nature or not. It can even interact with your pet. It does not make the same sound twice." It's safe to say the Roots' ?uestlove was impressed. With that in mind, check out

The lyrics to Alice Cooper's "What Baby Wants" are intentionally a little gory (the guy is a shock rocker, after all), but the scariest moment of his new collaboration with Ke$ha arrives at the 2:15 point, when Cooper's first-pumping anthem briefly transforms into his singing partner's "Take It Off," Auto-Tune and all. Welcome 2 My Nightmare, indeed!

In truth, this song (via Idolator) is not bad, and Ke$ha's voice sounds great against the track's dark '80s glam-gore grind. Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Cooper's 26th (!) album, was produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin (Kiss, Pink Floyd) and also includes songs called "I'll Bite Your Face Off" and "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever." It came out yesterday but we somehow forgot to include it in our roundup of awesome indie releases in stores this week. It'll look great on your CD shelf right next to that Das Racist disc!

Who's Number One: Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV is spending a second week on top of the Billboard 200, which should surprise no one. Thanks to an additional 219,000 copies sold per Nielsen SoundScan, Weezy's grand total now stands at 1.2 million.

Why? Tha Carter IV isn't the best-reviewed of the Carter series, but it's been received much more enthusiastically than the rapper's previous two releases, Rebirth and I Am Not a Human Being -- maybe people were just hungry for Wayne.

So That Means: The rest of thee Top 10 is really quite odd -- Adele's 21 is Number Two (121,000), George Strait's Here for a Good Time debuts in third place with 91,000 copies sold, and the Beatles 1 hits the charts in fourth with 60,000. (You did not step into a worm hole: the album, originally released in 2000, hit iTunes for the first time last week and temporarily unseated Lil Wayne on the iTunes chart.) Red Hot Chili Peppers' I'm With You slid to Number Five (58,000), followed by Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch

When an artist has five songs from a single album reach Number One -- tying a record set by Michael Jackson's Bad -- why not go for a sixth? That is clearly the thinking at Capitol Records, who have confirmed the next single from Katy Perry's Teenage Dream will be "The One That Got Away." Greg Thompson, one of the label's executive vice presidents, tells Billboard Perry is particularly fond of this song, which she cowrote with hitmakers Dr. Luke and Max Martin -- the team behind four of the album's five chart-topping hits. The track is one of three on the LP produced by Tricky Stewart.

As a reminder, we have all been living this Dream since May 2010, when first single "California Dreams" dropped. The album itself arrived in August 2010, and it's stayed on the Top 200 all 55 weeks of its release, selling 1.8 million copies. What does that tell us? The album has legs, but it's real traction has truly been in the singles market -- Lil Wayne has sold 1.2 million copies of Tha Carter IV

Texas folk-rock Beck & Cauthen have agreed to hereafter be known as Sons of Fathers after allegedly receiving a polite request from Beck to step off his name. According to a note from the band posted on Hypebot, after receiving a letter from Beck's reps, the group agreed it did not "want to create confusion with Beck, or for that matter Jeff Beck, Glenn Beck, Beck's beer, or any other Beck." Sons of Fathers is conveniently the name of the band's upcoming disc. Considering the group currently has 35 Twitter followers and 144 likes on their Facebook page, it's clear A) Beck didn't really have anything to worry about and B) This has the faint whiff of a publicity stunt.

Cassettes Don't Listen had a similar experience in May when Kevin Spacey sent the band a cease-and-desist letter over the album title Kevinspacey. They responded by titling the disc Evinspacey.

For the record, this is the former Beck & Cauthen. 

See Also:
• Kevin Spacey Would Prefer Bands Don't Name Albums 'Kevinspacey'

Girls' Christopher Owens is the main brain behind one of the year's most anticipated albums, Father, Son, Holy Ghost (which is also conveniently one of the five incredible new LPs that arrived yesterday). Last night, he and his band fleshed out their retro-psych-pop grooves with a pretty incredible trio of backup singers for their television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Watch the song that aired, "Honey Bunny" at Stereogum and the web exclusive "My Ma" right here while pondering how the latter sounds like a blend of Luna and Best Coast (high praise), and how Owens was rocking some serious Kurt Cobain hair/sweater action: