The Billboard Music Awards were a thing of beauty this evening. We had Nicki Minaj lap dances, Prince and Miguel going absolutely ape sh*t during his performance. The “Adorn” singer came out to the stage like a ball of fire and was obviously “turnt up” as the kids say. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s easy to bag on Saturday Night Live for their musical guests, but just as the “SNL isn’t as funny as it used to be” argument is played out and incorrect, history often looks kindly at the artists the show books. Take, for instance, last year: yes, there was the Karmin fiasco and One Direction should never have performed on the same stage that Fear once did and Lana Del Rey hadn’t yet thawed out of her accidental ice shell, but otherwise, solid. Radiohead, the Black Keys, Robyn, Kelly Clarkson, Coldplay, Jack White, the Shins, Arcade Fire, Usher, the Rolling Stones — even if you don’t like a lot of those bands (*coughcoldplaycough*), it’s not as if they were unworthy of performing on SNL.
In a year, when we look back at season 38 of SNL, which ended last night, how many miscues will we count? Justin Bieber, definitely, and probably Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and fun.; otherwise, not too shabby. Rarely spectacular, usually good, briefly awful, not unlike SNL itself. Here are seven of the season’s best performances.
Here’s the frontrunner for my favorite sentence of the year: below the jump is Kanye West’s SNL performance of “Black Skinhead” from his new album, Yeezus, featuring a sample of Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People.” Angry Kanye is back, and he and his snarling dogs are pissed that Manson took Antichrist Superstar before he could.
UPDATE: now with extra “New Slaves.” Subtle guy, this Kanye.
Kanye West may not be a God, but he’s at least as important as a chipped-away Coca-Cola logo from the 1940s. This is currently happening in 10 countries around the world.
Tonight, Kanye West has proven himself an innovator in the art of the album launch. He unveiled a new song and video via projections on buildings across the world. Above is what was projected at the corner of Bedford and N. 7 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. According to Rap-Up, the song premiered is called “New Slaves.”
Kanye’s website has posted a map of the world, indicating where actions will take place throughout the night in cities throughout the world. Sixty-six projections are involved in the launch. (Via)
If fire or the Antichrist himself isn’t involved, Ye’s SNL performance tomorrow is going to be a disappointment.
It’s impossible to cover each bit of new music that comes out during the week, so every Friday, we’ll be doing an end of the week music roundup. It’s called Final Track, and we’ll count off a few songs released during the week that are worth giving a listen to. (Banner via)
Today, we’ve got selections from Solange and Kendrick Lamar, Camera Obscura, TV on the Radio, and more.
In what can only be interpreted as a selfless move to help a weary nation recover from the horror of the Kanye/Kim Kardashian pregnancy, Jay-Z and Beyonce are going to have another baby, in the process showing us that some celebrity couples can procreate with style and grace, seemingly immune from internet mockery.
Last time we checked in on the art of Billy the Butcher, he was drawing real-life despots as comic book supervillains and mashing up Marvel comics superheroes with stills from their film adaptations. Now he’s created “The Post-Punk / New Wave Super Friends” to re-cast seven ’80s music icons as comic book superheroes.
The world is slowly realizing how best to use Vine. Gillian Jacobs and Will Sasso have for months, and more recently “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal” broke the Internet in half, but there’s a new Vine pro in town and his name is: Bruce D. To quote College Humor, “A guy by the name of Bruce D has been posting vines that mash up rap (occasionally pop) songs with children’s’ programming — Disney movies, Barney, The Wizard of Oz.”
Here’s some of his best work.
Tangles of flashing electrical cords. A nearly naked man, dressed only in his underwear and tangled hair. Rainbow disco balls. More rainbow disco balls. Probably dead animals buried beneath the lit-up tubes. Yup, it can only mean the Flaming Lips dropped by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where they performed David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
Wayne Coyne is the kind of guy who’d say, “You wish you could swim like dolphins? I’M THE DOLPHIN KING.”
