Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

In the grand tradition of Christmas-themed claymation videos, Kate Bush has unveiled "Mistraldespair," a new video that captures the best 145 seconds of her 13-minute-long epic "Misty." The song, which describes a fleeting love affair between a woman and an actual snowman, is one of the many highlights on Bush's "stunning" and "beguiling" new album '50 Words for Snow'. Keeping true to the song's message, 'Mistraldespair' finds a clay lady and her carrot-nosed lover engaging in a one-night stand, because the passionate evening literally makes the snowman melt. It's part-claymation classic 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', part-'Basic Instinct', and completely awesome.

Here's some more animation from Bush, an excerpt from her Yeti tale "Wild Man":

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.comIt was revealed this weekend that David Bowie's music would get the 'Mamma Mia!' treatment for a new musical set to premiere next year in London. "Jukebox musicals" -- shows featuring an artists' music to tell an original story, like 'Jersey Boys' or 'American Idiot' -- are the current theater craze like music biopics is a Hollywood obsession, and 'Heroes: The Musical' was to feature roughly 20 of Bowie's best songs to tell the fictional story of Bowie famed protagonist Major Tom.

Since Bowie has technically retired from performing, the musical would be the only opportunity to hear his music live and on stage. "We could not really believe it when they gave us permission," Deep Singh, the writer of the musical, told The Observer. "His people had warned us that it was very unlikely that he would be interested and that he had been asked many times before." Not so fast, Deep, there's a reason why you shouldn't believe that Bowie gave you permission: It's because he hasn't.

Paul Natkin/WireImage.comThere's nothing like a good list to spark a little debate among music fans. Today, Rolling Stone unveiled their newest 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list, and while there should be no complaints about who's Number One, the ranking of the other 99 can be disputed. Rolling Stone's list — which was compiled by votes from RS editors as well as bona fide ax-men like Tom Morello, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Aerosmith's Joe Perry, and many more — measured guitarists by prowess, influence, and innovation.

Rolling Stone did a similar list in 2003, and on both, Jimi Hendrix is Number One, as it should be. In the past eight years, no one has emerged even worthy enough to stand in Hendrix's shadow, so his ranking shouldn't change, ever. He's the G.O.A.T., like Michael Jordan, Nirvana's 'Nevermind', and Dwight Gooden's 1985 season. However, The Amp has some issues with the rest of the rankings, as some guitarists didn't get the recognition they deserved, and others were placed ahead of other rockers who were perhaps more deserving. Here's the mag's Top 10:

Take CareWho's Number One? "If we talkin' bout the numbers, man, it look like 700, they know," Drake rapped at the American Music Awards, adding a brief line about the sales projections for his new album 'Take Care'. He was close, but he aimed a little high: The rapper's sophomore disc did take the top spot on the Billboard 200, but it only sold 631,000 copies in its debut week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A little lower than the 650-700K estimates, but still enough to help Drizzy secure the third-best debut of 2011 behind Lady Gaga's asterisk-earning 'Born This Way' and Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter IV'. 'Take Care' also improved on the first week totals for Drake's rookie LP 'Thank Me Later', which entered the charts at Number One and 447,000 copies last year.

Jeff Kravitz/AMA2011/FilmMagic.comRappers, like Hollywood, love sequels: Jay-Z's 'In My Lifetime' and 'The Blueprint' trilogies, Lil Wayne's diminishing 'Tha Carter' series, Raekwon's 'Only Built for Cuban Linx' duo, etc. Now add Nicki Minaj to the list after she announced some new album details last night on Twitter. "Pink Friday: ROMAN RELOADED will be released on Valentines Day, 2012. Heeeee's baaaacccckkkkk," Minaj told her fans on the one-year (and three days) anniversary of the 'Pink Friday' release. "Its not called Roman Reloaded. Its called PINK FRIDAY: ROMAN RELOADED!!!!!! 4 WORDS!!!!" Oh good, a sequel, and so early in Minaj's career. Sequels are always superior to the originals, just ask Francis Ford Coppola. Even better, a sequel that's similar in name to an awful 'Matrix' installment from 2003.

50 Words for SnowEveryone better hold off on writing those Best Albums of 2011 lists, because a last-minute disc has swooped in and stolen the hearts of music critics everywhere: Kate Bush's '50 Words for Snow', the British singer's first album of original music since her equally well-received 'Aerial' in 2005. There isn't a single negative review for the album on Metacritic, as '50 Words for Snow' has garnered every praiseworthy, multi-syllabic  adjective imaginable. (Seriously, reading reviews for this album is like studying for the SATs.) As Bush sings on title track, there are 50 words for snow in the Eskimo-Aleut language, so here are 50 words, from the keyboards of music critics, to describe '50 Words for Snow':

Caution: The above video features everyone's least favorite Canadian rockers using some NSFW language, but that's understandable since the entire city of Detroit does not want Nickelback performing during halftime of the Lions' Thanksgiving game. While Nickelback remained resilient when threatened with a big bad online petition, in this new Funny or Die clip, the band attempts to win back their Motor City fans by either Motownizing their band name or masquerading as Detroit's most beloved inhabitants: Magnum P.I., Robocop, and Michigan's own Dave Coulier. Also, 'The League' isn't on this Thursday -- damn Thanksgiving! -- so this video gives us our weekly fix of comedian Paul Scheer. While this won't turn anyone into a Nickelback fan or make their music any less terrible, respect must be given when bands are able to mock themselves.

London CallingThere are so many rock biopics currently loitering in the Hollywood studio system that it's almost impossible to keep track. Currently, in various forms of production and pre-production, reside biopics for Michael Jackson, Elton John, Keith Richards, Ol' Dirty Bastard, B.B. King, James Brown, Janis Joplin, the Beatles' Apple Corps., plus two Jeff Buckley biopics, a Brian Wilson film and a Dennis Wilson film on top of that 'Mamma Mia'-style Beach Boys movie. We're probably forgetting two or a dozen. Essentially, anyone who ever recorded a note has Hollywood eager to produce their life story. With so much going on, here are updates on three such music biopics.