Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Depeche ModeEarlier this week, venerable synthpop gods Depeche Mode announced their plan to make their first-ever appearance at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, the music portion of which kicks off next Tuesday. This was cause for black celebration indeed, but there was just one issue: The legendary group's Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Andy Fletcher were only scheduled to take part in a public Q&A, with no official concert on the SXSW calendar. Rumors immediately began swirling that the Mode would play a "secret" show at SXSW, but now it's not a secret anymore: Yahoo! Music is thrilled to exclusively reveal that Depeche will indeed be playing at SXSW--and their showcase will be presented by Yahoo!

Yes, Depeche Mode will perform an exclusive Yahoo! show at Austin's shiny new venue Brazos Hall on Friday, March 15, taking the stage at 10pm. Doors will open at 7pm, with the other acts on the bill including psychedelic dream-pop combo Feathers, L.A. indie buzz band the

When it was announced that "American Idol" Season 12's first live results show, on which the top 10 finalists would be revealed, would be a full 90 minutes long, I assumed that meant there'd be some wiggle-room for a few Wild Card performances. I mean, how else was Nigel Lythgoe going to pad an entire hour and a half?

Oh, but I should not have doubted Fox's ability to find new ways to make a process that could have been completed in five minutes feel like five hours. No, people, there were no Wild Cards on this Thursday's semifinals results show. There was, in fact, just a top 10. And every single one of the top 10, upon hearing their good news, did a victory song. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

And then each contestant was critiqued by the judges, just to kill more time--except the singers weren't really critiqued, since having Nicki Minaj say, "That wasn't it, ladybug," or Randy Jackson exclaim, "Dawg, that was a mess!" probably would've sucked the wind right out of the contestants'

Last night, the "American Idol" top 10 boys competed for spots in the overall top 10 finals, and while my icy-hearted "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield (the bad cop to my good cop, obviously) was unmoved by poor Charlie Askew's emotional display, I was deeply saddened to see the kid hurting so badly on national TV. There's a part of me that hopes he makes it through tonight, because I like him and don't want to see his dreams get crushed, but there's another part of me that worries what will happen to this fragile, sensitive boy if he continues on the show.

But you know made me just as sad--and made Matt as sad as well? How boring last night's ballad-heavy show was. Filled with treacle  by R. Kelly, Boyz II Men, and even Perry Como, not much about the episode felt current or cool. Now it's pretty hard to predict which of these boys will make it to the top 10, or which will have any chance of prevailing over the girls once they do.

Sarah in the kitchen [photo: Justin Goode]Season 10 alum and cool food blogger Sarah Sellers has been posting her viewing-party snack recipes in Reality Rocks for two "Idol" seasons now, and she's back this year to get your mouth watering every night of Season 12.

Tonight, this season's top 10 finalists will finally be revealed, so for tonight's viewing, Sarah is serving up dessert. It's the perfect way to top off the third of this week's three "Idol" semifinals shows.

When quirky, jazz-handy ginger Charlie Askew first appeared on “American Idol” this season, he was depicted as a merry misfit, an adorkable urchin who happily marched to the beat of his own hippy-dippy drum. But when he performed on “Idol” Season 12’s live show this Wednesday, he revealed the startling darkness behind his sparkly manic-pixie-boy persona, when he suffered a minor meltdown after receiving his first (overly) harsh critiques of the season.

Last night, the "American Idol" top 10 girls competed on the first entirely live episode of Season 12, and of course, chaos ensued. Yup, you gotta love live TV. From Nicki Minaj's weird remarks to the ladies (she called Kree Harrison her "wife" and complimented Tenna Torres's "boobs") to Zoanette Johnson's bizarre (even by Zoanette standards) opening performance, there was plenty of unscripted silliness. But when it came to the other nine performances, it really was just typical "Idol" fare: lots of good singing, but not a lot of personality.

Still, there were more than enough girls (at least seven) who gave performances worthy of advancing to the overall top 10...so it'll be interesting to see which five make the cut, in the first public vote of the season. Check out the latest "The Day After" chatfest below, in which me and my esteemed Yahoo! colleague Matt Whitfield dish about all 10 Tuesday performances and try to predict which girls will get through on Thursday's big live results show.

photo: FoxBritney Spears was a one-and-done judge last season on “The X Factor,” L.A. Reid jumped off the show’s sinking ship last year, and rumors are still running rampant that co-host-without-the-most Khloe Kardashian won’t be coming back for Season 3. But at least there’s some stability in Simon Cowell’s topsy-turvy TV world, since—according to a radio interview he conducted Wednesday morning with his old “American Idol” crony, Ryan Seacrest—judge Demi Lovato and her fabulous topknot/stenciled eyebrows will likely be returning to the show this fall.

They say anything can happen on live television, and never was that old adage more apt than it was this Tuesday—and not just because judge Nicki Minaj complimented busty contestant Tenna Torres’s cleavage on the air (a bold move that would make even flirty old man Steven Tyler blanch), or because she told the viewing public that another contestant, Kree Harrison, was her "wife." No, the most unpredictable part of “American Idol’s” first live episode of the season actually came during its first five minutes, courtesy of—who else?—zany Zoanette Johnson.

Tuesday’s top 10 girls show opened with Zoanette, the wild lion queen of Season 12, so of course it was time to expect the unexpected, no matter what. But c'mon, even with that being said, I had at least expected Zoanette to remember her lyrics.