Blog Posts by Tiffany Lee

Two sweetly angst-ridden voices, an acoustic guitar and an Earth Day-friendly backdrop is all you need from folk duo The Civil Wars. Made up of California native Joy Williams and Alabaman John Paul White, The Civil Wars' songs have been heard on Grey's Anatomy and even on Taylor Swift's official iTunes playlist. Their debut full-length album Barton Hallow is a jovial mix of cherubic acoustic melodies and raw, foot-stomping barn raisers folded within largely sparse arrangements. The whole album has the intimacy of a hard-fought confession--anything more is unnecessary.

The Civil Wars came together almost instantaneously, initially meeting at a writing camp where songwriters came together to write radio singles for a particular country band. They met their future producer a few months later at their first show. Their second show was released as a free digital album. While this might been seen as haughty for a band to do, like releasing a "Best Of" album after just a few years, it's just

Yes, you heard correctly: "Glee" and "Full House" actor John Stamos and his sultry, brow-furrowing man squint star in Low's latest video for their single "Try To Sleep."

The video--which is mostly Stamos and his lovely companion gently mouthing the words and posing--has an almost hypnotic quality, with Low's lo-fi indie melodies and Stamos's handsomeness lulling viewers to sleep. But don't let those heavy lids miss the video's bittersweet ending. It gives the song's lyrics an entirely new meaning.

While an even odder casting than James Van Der Beek in Ke$ha's "Blow" video, it turns out Stamos is a good friend of Low's producer Matt Beckley. He told EW.com that Beckley "played me some of the record while they were making it. When it came time for them to cast the video, they asked if I'd like to be involved. I liked the concept."

With Stamos forever cemented in my generation's mind as Uncle Jesse, and the generation after us likely as Carl Howell, it's probably best he take whatever

"American Idol" has had its share of unexpected losses, but this past week's results had the whole "Idol" family in shock.

22 year-old contestant Pia Toscano, who has survived the competition thus far on heartbreaking ballads, took the judges' advice this week and performed the up-tempo Ike & Tina Turner hit "River Deep, Mountain High" much to the delight of the panel.

While not seen as the best contestant in the show, it would be hard to find those who felt Toscano was ninth best. When Pia was voted off the show, the news hit the judges hard. A tear-eyed Jennifer Lopez said, "I'm shocked, I'm angry, I don't even know what to say," and Randy and Steven both echoed her sentiments. Instead of trying to make sense of what happened, the judges instead scolded the Idol-voting audience for not picking up the phone.

Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter point out that even celebrities took to their Twitter accounts to share their grief over the decision:

Actress Alyssa Milano said, "What

Don't be deterred by the "electopop" categorization: Fenech-Soler isn't all keyboards and fashion statements (OK, maybe a some metallics and textures for good show, but tame in this blogger's opinion).

Made up of Ross Duffy, Ben Duffy, Daniel Soler, and Andrew Lindsay, the U.K. quartet's name comes from bassist/keyboardist Daniel's full hyphenated last name. I'm surprised it's not the lead singer's name for once. Admittedly, the name calls to mind a rare species of bird, or perhaps a mid-priced wine. These guys look like they would enjoy discussing orinthological oddities over a glass of red, right?

Although they've been lumped into the indie camp built by Friendly Fires and Klaxons, there's a sort of orchestral element to their songs that sets them apart. That and the slightest twinge of MSTRKRFT and Simian Mobile Disco's lighter tracks. With catchy choruses and crescendoes, Fenech-Soler straddles the line between dancefloor tracks and onstage band music, thus giving them a wider

How else can music videos innovate these days? Arcade Fire took you to your childhood home. Craig Wedren offered a first-person 365-degree video experience. Now Death Cab For Cutie are throwing their own hats in the music-video ring with their "You Are A Tourist" experiment. Although they're not pushing boundaries as far as technological advances, they've utilized the power of the Internet to create a video which was streamed live on April 5 in one take--sticking with the result, no edits, no do-overs. I guess the idea is not much different than, say, watching a theater play or seeing a live show, but I nonetheless got nervous watching the countdown clock on broadcast day.

There was a live webcam of the set where the viewer could see assistants, prop guys, and others frantically scurrying around, with people yelling, "Two-minute warning!" and so forth. As the clock counted down to showtime, I braced for the big event, but instead was knocked off course with a pre-taped intro and a

Rebecca Black's omnipresent "Friday" has been dubbed "The Worst Song Ever" by many and is officially the most "disliked" video on YouTube. (With 1.2 million "dislikes," it beats Justin Bieber's "Baby" by almost 80,000.) But all this isn't stopping the man behind the song from speaking out. You see, little 13-year-old Rebecca actually had very little to do with the notorious song or video.

Patrice Wilson, the founder of Ark Music Factory and seemingly random rapper in Rebecca's video, is taking responsibility for this dubious phenomenon in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times. While previously depicted as being "a kind of Suge Knight of the preteen schoolyard" and accused of using young girls' dreams for his own financial advantage, in the L.A. Times article he's described as a "sad-eyed babyface" and "well-mannered, well-traveled, and well-educated."

"'Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards.' I mean, everybody knows that, obviously, but I wanted the song to be

Thursday, March 24, surf brand Hurley threw an opening reception for its collaboration with Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd to benefit H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everywhere) in surf city: Venice, California. The DJs, open bar. and catered hors d'oeurves drew people and puppies into the packed luxury condo-turned-gallery that exhibited Boyd's nautical ink and watercolor illustrations. His pieces are featured on a limited-edition Hurley collection of tees and tanks. A portion of the sales from the collection will be donated to H.O.P.E.

At the event, I stood outside in the smoking area fumbling with my phone and camera, waiting to interject on Boyd's conversation. I took a few style photos for my own blog earlier and scrolling though, I realized one subject was actress Michelle Rodriguez. Whoops, missed that. When I glanced up, I saw a garage door-opener rigged to the ceiling--the draped walls, plush wraparound couch, and cocktail tables were covering up the fact we were in fact

With fashion videos becoming as common as runway shows, LA-based clothing line DimePiece took it a step further and asked colorful up-and-coming rapper Rye Rye to create her latest music video for the song "Hardcore Girls." The track is by The Count & Sinden with Rye Rye as the featured vocalist. The Baltimore native began working with DJ Blaqstarr at the tender age of 15, attracted the attention of M.I.A. and Diplo and was later signed to M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. Recordings label. Widely seen as M.I.A.'s protégé, Rye Rye brings a unique style of club rap, dance and fashion that are bright, eccentric and purely her own. Plus, she happens to nicely complement M.I.A.'s look and sound.

DimePiece designers and co-founders Ashley Jones and Laura Fama got a hold of the 20-year-old rapper through her stylist and their good friend Hoza, who had used DimePiece clothing to dress Rye Rye for performances. The designers had stunning singer Cassie Ventura model for a previous collection, but this is the