Earlier today, headbanging Idol James Durbin posted a video of himself in the studio with Mick Mars.

Yes, that Mick Mars. From Motley Crue.

I'm not entirely sure what else I can write here, really, that can expound upon the fact that James Durbin, the "American Idol" contestant who begged America to give metal a chance, is working on his Wind-Up Records debut, Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster, with the one-and-only guitar god who played the iconic and awesome riffs on "Livewire," "Looks That Kill," "Too Young To Fall In Love," "Dr. Feelgood," etc.

Wow, first James sang with Zakk Wylde and Judas Priest on "Idol," now he's jamming with Mick Mars. It seems like all of his rock 'n' roll fantasies are coming true.

Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster comes out November 21. And if Mick Mars has anything to do with it, it's gonna rock. Hopefully many metal fans give it a chance.

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As evidenced by the recent season of "The Voice," which featured multiple contestants with professional pasts (including winner Javier Colon, a former Capitol Records artist), many singers who audition for TV talent competitions are not total newbies to the showbiz game. Many of them have tried other, more traditional avenues, with some degree of success, before going the reality route. They're all great talents who somehow slipped through the cracks; all of them had potential, but for sundry sad reasons, their careers were bungled by various powers-that-be or poor life decisions. Now they see shows like "The Voice," "American Idol," "America's Got Talent," and "The X Factor" as their one last hope.

Yes, "The X Factor" is no different: Several of the remaining 32 "X Factor" contestants have serious music business experience. Granted, it's always a problem when shows like these aren't upfront about their contestants' pasts, leaving some viewers feeling disgruntled and duped when they do

This week, "The X Factor USA" announced its top 32 contestants, which is exciting and all...but it's still unlikely that any of those 32 hopefuls will come close to being as awesome as "X Factor U.K." Season 7 contestant Cher Lloyd.

Not only is Cher the only "X Factor" alum, from any country, to ever land on the NME Cool List, and not only is her legendary first, Soulja Boy/Keri Hilson-inspired "X Factor" audition still one of the coolest pop-music moments to air on British television since "Top Of The Pops" got canceled, but the will.i.am-championed teenager just keeps turning her swag on in every music video she makes.

Cher's just-premiered new video, "With Ur Love" featuring Mike Posner (yes, Mike, Cher is cooler than you), is a sherbet-bright, balloon-filled delight, and the song is an unshakeable earwig. And its overall adorableness is just off the charts. Tiah Tolliver and Simone Battle wish they could pull off something like this (although maybe Christa Collins or Tora Woloshin

Thursday night on "The X Factor," the good people were separated from the not-so-good people, as Simon Cowell worded it, as the remaining 100 singers were ruthlessly reduced by more than two-thirds. (This was possibly the biggest reality-TV bloodletting since that "Biggest Loser" season when 50 contestants from 50 states showed up, and Jillian Michaels told all but 14 of them to turn around and go home.) And this elimination process was executed in the most dramatic way possible, of course, since nothing about "The X Factor" is ever subtle. By the episode's end, there were tears (mostly on Paula Abdul's part), tantrums (the biggest one thrown by Simon himself), messed-up lyrics, messy song arrangements...and only 32 singers left standing. And the biggest surprise of the night didn't have anything to do with who those 32 singers were, but with which judges were assigned to mentor them.

But before the real drama commenced, three more groups sang for Simon and company. The standouts from