Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesIt was 35 years ago today, Cheap Trick taught all the other bands to play...or something like that.

It was in 1978 that Rockford, Illinois's finest made rock 'n' roll history with Cheap Trick at Budokan, arguably (or inarguably, in this writer's not-so-humble opinion) the greatest live album of all time. The disc was initially intended to be a Japanese-only release, but once Yanks heard the import, they were understandably blown away by the ball-busting, heart-racing, riot-inciting Cheap Trick live experience.

And thus, the album became an overnight phenomenon in the U.S. as well. And thus, the standard by which all other live albums must be measured was established.

Luke Edgemon gets knocked outThis Tuesday, "The Voice's" controversial Knockout Rounds continued, as did my ongoing frustration with the coaches' puzzling decisions. After Adam Levine and Shakira let go of some truly promising contestants on Monday night, I was hoping Tuesday's Blake Shelton and Usher would make wiser choices…but seriously, some of their choices were even worse.

All around me, my Season 4 favorites were being cast aside like Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green's old wigs. Savannah Berry! Jess Kellner! Luke Edgemon! Grace Askew! All gone, gone, gone--as the winner of a certain other singing competition might say. It was enough to make me curl up in a fetal position in one of those big, comfy red chairs and despondently suck my thumb, wishing all this "Voice" insanity and inanity would just go away--or at least wishing that these Knockout Rounds had Steals. Or Saves. Or Wild Cards. Or something!

On Monday, "The Voice" Season 4 Knockout Rounds began...and my "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield and I sort of got the wind knocked out of our sails, as some of our early favorites (Midas Whale, Tawyna Reynolds, Amy Whitcomb, Warren Stone, Shawna P.) were eliminated as the result of some bizarrely mismatched pairings. Seriously, what were Adam Levine and Shakira thinking?

Sigh. Let's hope that tonight's Knockouts, featuring Teams Blake and Usher, will make a little more sense. In the meantime, come commiserate with me and Matt, as we discuss [read: whine about] last night's "Voice" episode.

photos courtesy of Logo"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 5 is coming to an end--next Monday, us avid Drag-Racers will find out if this year's "best woman" is Alaska, Roxxxy Andrews, or Jinkx Monsoon. [Editor's note: TEAM JINKX FOR THE WIN!] But, as is a time-honored "Drag Race" tradition, the music video starring the top three queens is out now.

photo courtesy of FoxDavid Cook parted ways with BMG last year--after releasing two albums for the label--announcing the split backstage at last season's "American Idol" top four results show. But the Season 7 "Idol" winner, who's now 30 years old and recently relocated to Nashville, is hardly laying low: He's back on "Idol" this week to play this season's top four results show, and today he released his comeback single, ironically titled "Laying Me Low."

Did Midas Whale get knocked out?This week, "The Voice" began its dreaded Knockout Rounds, the awkward and at times unfair process that'd determine which 16 semifinalists (four from each team, as opposed to last season, when it was five per team) would move on to Season 4's Live Playoffs. The contestants all sang solo songs of their own choosing, squaring off against their own team members in sudden-death showdowns, and none of them knew whom they'd be competing against until the very last minute.

I am sure once they found out, however, they were as shocked--or annoyed--as I was.

TV Mania's Nick Rhodes & Warren CuccurulloWay back in 1996, when the Interweb was scarcely more than a jumble of ones and zeroes, visionary Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo, who was Duran Duran's guitarist at the time, started a surprisingly prophetic experimental/electronic side-project called TV Mania. It took 17 long years, but finally TV Mania's first proper album, Bored With Prozac and the Internet?, got an official release this year--and the music's sonics and subject matter resonate even more now than they would have during the 1990s' startup era. A pastiche- and loop-heavy concept album about a pharmaceutical- and video-game-addicted family that "gives away their freedom to scientists in exchange for reality show fame," TV Mania's Bored… is anything but boring, and it sounds shockingly of-the-moment in 2013.

Yahoo! Music is excited to premiere the fascinatingly arty video for TV Mania's "Beautiful Clothes," a song exploring the aforementioned fictional family's daughter's "obsession with

photo: Penny LancasterOn May 7, rock icon Rod Stewart, who experienced a career rebirth in the 1990s and 2000s with his multi-volume Great American Songbook series and other covers albums, will make his return to original music with Time, his first album of self-penned new material in 20 years. And as an early celebration, Rod performed seven of the album's songs live for the first time, for a small gathering of lucky Rod fans (including One Direction's Harry Styles!), at L.A.'s 300-capacity Troubadour on April 25.

The intimate gig, which also featured a handful of classic tunes, was actually Rod's first-ever performance at the legendary nightclub, which has famously played a large part in the careers of his peers like Elton John, the Eagles, the Byrds, Love, Joni Mitchell, and Van Morrison.

While Rod peppered his set with a few classics ("Forever Young," "Rhythm of My Heart," "Have I Told You Lately," and, most thrillingly, "You Wear It Well"), the night was all about showcasing his new, clearly very personal material. (Rod wrote 11 of the 12 cuts on Time.) There was the sad ballad "It's Over,"