Blog Posts by Tiffany Lee

U2 have announced plans to sell "the claw" - the innovative four-legged structure at the center of their record-shattering 360 Tour - as a permanent venue following the conclusion of the tour this summer. The band had three of the 29,000-square-foot steel structures built for the two-year-long jaunt and are in discussions with various promoters about installing each at different spots around the world.

U2 Photos: Three Decades of the World's Biggest Band, Onstage and Backstage

"It's certainly our intention to see these things recycled into permanent and usable ventures," U2 tour director Craig Evans told Billboard. Evans would not get into specifics about potential buyers but said that discussions typically involve converting the structures into full interior pavilions and amphitheaters. "They're something you can put up on a waterfront and become an instant skyline icon."

Photos: U2 360 in Italy

The "claw," which is the largest stage rig ever constructed for a concert tour, includes

What do Sheryl Crow, Barry Manilow, and Foster The People lead singer Mark Foster have in common? They all started out writing commercial jingles--who would've guessed?

L.A.-based trio Foster The People's contagious brand of light-hearted indie-pop has been getting a lot of buzz since their debut single "Pumped Up Kicks" dropped last year. There have been a lot of comparisons to fellow indie band MGMT--which Foster is flattered by--although I personally think "Kicks" echoes the gentle '60s-tinged sound of Peter, Bjorn & John's hit single "Young Folks."

Lead by multi-instrumentalist and jingle veteran Mark Foster, the band is rounded out by Mark Pontius on drums and Cubbie Fink on bass and backing vocals. Initially the band was called "Foster & The People," a simple namecheck to Mark. But after enough mishearings and misspellings, the band acquiesced to their current, kind-of-political-sounding current name. 

Foster The People recently played their first Glastonbury Festival this past

Swarming the music headlines this week, political funnyman Stephen Colbert debuted a musical collaboration produced by the hardestworking man in music, Jack White. With the fanfare surrounding his new song "Charlene II (I'm Over You)," the sequel to "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)," lurking as his black-suited backing band stood the Black Belles. Not to be confused as just being Colbert's band, the Black Belles are their own band--and a darn good one.

Demonstrating real business savvy, it was a smart move on White's part to recruit the stylish but fledgling band from his own label to thrust into the national spotlight. When introducing the band on "The Colbert Report" this week, White called the band just "the Black Belles," twice, leaving the host to remind the audience "and Stephen Colbert!" The band is technically called "Stephen Colbert with the  Black Belles." And it worked: Here I am, frantically writing about my new obsession, a band that touches right to the black heart of my

A return to their signature bittersweet ballads, Coldplay's latest track "Moving To Mars" finishes the trilogy of songs from their "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" EP, which includes the title track and "Major Minus." An easy comparison, "Mars" evokes David Bowie's "Life On Mars?" not just in subject matter but a bit in style as well. While Bowie observes injustice here on Earth, Martin observes the wreckage of a civilization already lost, a Mars-bound last resort. In a way, Coldplay are picking up where Bowie left off with their post-apocalyptic story.

Some of Coldplay's most moving songs are when lead singer Chris Martin sings alone with a piano. Bowie's 1971 Mars song starts the same way--a powerful tool for musicians. But as both songs build from the piano, they go in opposing directions. Bowie transitions into a balance of almost euphoric protest and disillusioned pessimism. Coldplay falls into a glittering abyss of acquiescence, like a weary warrior laying down his sword--sad,

Shifting from the optimistic, synth-laden elements of their first single, Coldplay gets dark and wary with their song, "Major Minus," which debuted on their YouTube channel this afternoon. Coming off the "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" EP, the band balances rock riffs with a beautifully ethereal interlude for the cautionary tale.

With acoustic guitars taking the helm accompanied by straight-forward lyrics like "Be careful who it is you're talking to," "Major Minus" provides the flip side (perhaps literally for the vinyl release) to the laissez-faire, life-affirming "Teardrop." Like a cinematic omen, I can just imagine Chris Martin playing the acoustic guitar in a deserted Western town right before everything hits the fan, our perhaps protagonist taking in the consequences of a literal or figurative hurricane. The sudden "chugga-chugga" guitar chords are a welcomed snap-to-reality from this stark perspective. Either way, the message for the brooding song is that someone's always

Weird Al Yankovic making fun of Lady Gaga's eccentric wardrobe is a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black. But even the funnyman, who has never been shy about looking and acting strange, decided that maybe at the respectable age of 51, he isn't in the best shape for Gaga's revealing outfits. In his latest parody video "Perform This Way," Weird Al instead opted to CGI his face onto a woman's body, making for an even freakier parody of Gaga's outlandish looks.

Wearing versions of Lady Gaga's more buzzed about looks, Yankovic and the unknown female body included the meat dress, caution tape outfit, flying nun habit and alien pod, along with some outfit predictions made of swiss cheese and live bees. Weird Al probably did Gaga a favor by using a fit body double in the parody of "Born This Way." But still, part of me would've found Al's true self awkwardly squashed into the various dresses and bikinis absolutely hilarious (maybe the caution tape one would be a bit

Well, sort of. Lady Gaga's "Edge Of Glory" video, which debuted online this week, features her cavorting around in an all-vintage Versace outfit. Turns out, Donatella Versace, a big Gaga fan, opened up the Versace archives just for the pop star, making Gaga the first outsider to touch those pieces in more than 10 years. The outfit Gaga wears in the video is from the collections of Versace founder and designer Gianni Versace, who was tragically murdered in 1997.

Known for insanely stylized, groundbreaking videos, Gaga's latest clip continues the shock trend--but this time it's shocking because of its simplicity. After parting way with initial director Joseph Kahn, who did Gaga's relatively demure "LoveGame" and "Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" videos, Gaga took the helm (the video is now credited to "The Haus Of Gaga"). I was pleased to see E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons as the only other featured character in the video, a fitting tribute since he was hospitalized just this

Baltimore rapper Rye Rye has been overshadowing her musical mentor M.I.A. as of late, collaborating with rising high-fashion designer Prabal Gurung for a fashion video featuring his 2012 Resort collection. While this is not her first fashion video, it seems the lively, awesomely coiffed rapper is moving up the fashion muse ranks.

Featuring her song "New Thing"--which presumably will be on her yet-to-be-released studio Go! Pop! Bang!­--Rye Rye dances it out in Gurung's sequined, polka-dotted and button-down pieces backed up by similarly dressed and tress'd dancers. Upon first watch, it feels a bit contrived ("Everything new / 'cause I'm just cool"), but once you block out the fact she's hocking Gurung's designs, it feels like real and straightforward music video. And the designer giving Rye Rye top billing was a nice touch.

Gurung, who just last week won a CFDA award for his womenswear (kind of like a Grammy for fashion), is known for his edgy twists on chic classics and counts First