Moving soon…

My two blogs are to be merged together to form one superbeing. Stay tuned.

Together at last.

[photo source]

Rebecca Black’s new hit single, you guys!

It’s here! Rebecca Black’s follow-up single to ‘Friday!’

It looks like Team Black has learned a few things. 1.) Heavier auto-tune! 2.) A step up from what looked like her Aunt Christine’s filming to her Brother Damian Who Went to Film School’s filming. 3.) A visible band pretending to play music instead of your awkward white friends doin’ the ‘Braces’ in the car next to you

4.) Inserting a variety of multi-ethnic super fans 5.) Acting faux-dorky like it’s a cutsie act instead of being actually, terribly dorky. 6.) Peppy dancers who look like they were nabbed from the youth group having their PG-rated movie marathon next to the studio 7.) The video is on her new sparkling YouTube channel that doesn‘t have ‘Friday’ uploaded to it.

Sure, there’s hate to be had. Real critics who actually pay attention to Black as a serious pop act will undoubtedly be enraged that the false fame she gained from being so mockable to the internet is allowing her to make a song called MY MOMENT as though she’s finally getting the attention she deserves as a talented artist. Addressing ‘the haters’ as though they’re just jealous instead of just having a shred of taste is certainly irksome. And the fact that the Ark Music Factory douche who started this all pretended the badness of ‘Friday’ was purposeful. Oh, and I almost forgot about the parental cameo which reminds me that those pageant parent bottom feeders are profiting from this.

In the end, Black is no different from many of the pop stars out there. She could very well continue to gain fame (ie. money) and therefore “talent” (ie. better agents, producers, anything else that can be bought to give the impression of talent.) Because of the internet, she got way too much exposure before learning how to sing and dance to the proper mediocre degree required for a real record label to pick her up. So, what we saw was Timmy’s Social Studies project quality in ‘Friday.’ Now that she’s been given a slightly shinier video, my guess is that this will be Rebecca Black’s moment: the one where she discovers her fame was completely derived from how cruel the internet is.

Japanese pop star revealed to be computer-generated

Again?!

A member of Japanese pop act, AKB48, has been revealed to be a computer-generated composite of the other six ladies of the group. Here’s a look at how they did it:

If there’s anyone who wasn’t aware they’re altering more than just photographs of celebs and those shiny dudes in magazines, here’s your proof. It’s interesting to see the process of combining the girls to make Eguchi Aimi, the Composite. Keen eyes will have noticed the Composite is trying to sell me some kind of juice at the end of the clip, which is slightly disturbing because I assume it’s also a mutant hybrid of fruit, like, chapplemelon or berranange. Maybe I don’t want to eat a fuzzy banana, Japan. Maybe I don’t want to.

Is she supposed to be a combination of all of their girl power group personas?

With an application like this, a group of lesbian friends can find out what their child would look like! This leads us to the obvious question: are there any other stars out there who are actually hybrid combinations?

James Franco’s ghostly other self is in a video

Here’s James Franco’s and Kalup Linzy’s first music video which looks like an amateur film hobbyist from the early 90s made it. Franco has been piling up the eccentric art projects by starring in a daytime soap, making a video installation called “Dicknose in Paris,” invisible art sales, and taping real gang knife fights, to name a few. Vulture says the song isn’t half bad right after claiming there’s nothing particularly of note in the video. Yeah, if you think Franco’s transparent, ghostly visage with a shit-eating grin in the background of a music video that also has a man peeking out of a green screen blanket isn’t interesting. I may never read Vulture again, quite frankly.


[Source] Vulture

Lou Reed is the best, ever, and not at all boring

Lou Reed had an interview with Vulture where he talks about “The Raven”: a graphic novel adaptation based on his same-named album based on his theatre piece based on Edgar Allan Poe’s writings. We’ve reached the snow level here, people. Interestingly, Poe also reached the snow level–as in cocaine.

Reed also takes a dig at The Book of Mormon and its award ceremony success by calling it “the most boring show that anyone did, ever.” We’re talking about multiple derivative projects attempting to rewrite an author’s classic romantic works that have been discussed and analyzed to pieces, but an original show with hilarious songs and dance numbers was boring?

He goes on to claim that the songs he’s recently done with Metallica are “the best thing done by anyone, ever” and that “[they] could create another planetary system.”

That reminds me of a joke. How do you know a song is Metallica’s?

Theeey-yahh sound-ahh juusss like every othaah onnne-ahhhg! Hmm, that doesn’t translate to text well. James Hetfield adds a lot of extra syllables to words, okay?

[Source] Vulture

‘Year Zero’ Miniseries to be written by ‘Fight Club’ screenwriter

My word that’s a bad photoshop.

Jim Uhls, the screenplay writer for Fight Club (and not much else), will write the HBO miniseries based on Nine Inch Nails’s 2007 album “Year Zero.” For those unfamiliar with the band’s fifth studio effort, it is a concept album that imagines a bleak, dystopian 2022 that is the result of policies of the Bush-era. “Year Zero” was always meant to be part of a larger project consisting of the album, a remix version, an alternate reality game, and the television project.

While this series has been delayed and might have seen more hype if it premiered closer to the album’s release date, it is likely to be a much anticipated show for sci-fi and conspiracy fans. Those guys have a bit of a history of holding onto things.

[Source] THR

Morrissey might be addicted to sulking

Morrissey says he wants to find a label before he records his fully conceived new album rather than self-releasing. Releasing your own music is the route bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have taken for their most recent projects with notable success. Fans have the opportunity to pay what they’d like or select from a number of options starting at zero dollars up to pricey deluxe editions.

Pitchfork queried Morrissey on this possibility in an unedited interview.

Pitchfork: Considering you have a significant amount of name recognition, would you consider self-releasing an album a la Radiohead?
M[orrissey]: No. I don’t have any need to be innovative in that way. I am still stuck in the dream of an album that sells well not because of marketing, but because people like the songs.

Wait. What? Wouldn’t choosing to self-release the album be about concentrating on the merits of the music rather than what a label can do for you promotion- and marketing-wise? He continues on in the interview criticizing the way that labels operate these days due to the internet and fixed chart ratings. He’s also irked by the media only referring to him in terms of his Smiths history rather than his work since the band split in 1987. Well, there goes the mental image of Morrissey throwing on “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want” and crying in a corner.

Mexico wants to snuff out ‘Drug Ballads’

Mexico is trying to prohibit narcocorridos music–or drug ballads–that celebrate the glamour of drug trafficking. The music, like gangsta rap, is popular amongst all ages which worries authorities. The music, unlike gangsta rap, features wacky accordions and makes me giggle.

Yahoo! Music explains the legal situation:

While any legal ban would contravene Mexico’s freedom of expression laws, Duarte and Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez both said last month they will withdraw licenses from any bar, radio or store that plays drug ballads. Both want a ban on concerts.

A telephone poll by Mexican daily Excelsior on May 30 found that 64 percent of respondents supported Lopez.

However, YouTube’s emergence as the place to hear the songs and the growing popularity of the genre in the United States suggests Mexico has no hope of pulling the plug on the music.

Basically we’re seeing the classic Scapegoat The Popular Cultures! manoeuvre at work here. Gang violence exists partly because drugs are illegal and U.S. and Mexican governments have long histories of supporting drug traffickers. The focus should be on solving the economic and social conditions of the country that make a gang lifestyle possible and desirable. But, no, let’s worry about these crappy songs on YouTube that are akin to widely available American gangsta rap and movies anyway. Just keep feeding your kid candy coated McDonald’s and then slapping him when he won’t stop chasing the cat.

Parents need to be far more concerned with their children thinking this guy is cool, period:

Is U2 trying to downplay their show spending habits?

(original photo: here)

U2 plays the Glastonbury fest today and WENN.com reports the Irish rockers plan to subdue the “bells and whistles” of their usual elaborate shows. There has been a lot of disagreement over how to accomplish this and which songs to play, according to Larry Mullen Jr., the group’s drummer. Bono’s sunglasses budget alone must be through the roof. In addition, The Globe and Mail is reporting that an anti-capitalist group, Art Uncut, is planning to protest U2’s ‘tax dodging’ of sorts. The activists have been upset with U2 since 2006 for moving their company U2 Ltd. to Holland after a financially troubled Ireland raised the tax rate on royalties up from zero (possibly also because of the U2/Green Day cover of “The Saints Are Coming.”) The band is not being accused of avoiding any personal tax payments.

Because U2 are such anti-poverty crusaders, their behaviour certainly seems hypocritical; yet, it is still their right to run out of whichever country they’d like. Is U2 perhaps planning this stripped down show due to potential protest pressures? I have a feeling that U2 fans won’t care too much about the band’s ethics–they’re not known for having great taste. Boom.

MTV breaks down the references in Britney’s new video

The new Britney Spears video “I Wanna Go” has several pop culture references that MTV has lovingly found for us. The vid has Brit leaving her press conference a la Half Baked and later posing for the paparazzi before smashing their cameras and faces with her microphone a la Gogo from Kill Bill Vol 1.

I always enjoy the self-centred hypocrisy of celebrities biting the hand that feeds them by taking all of the fortune, fame, and perks that come along with being a mega star but simultaneously crying about the constant media attention. Don’t sign up to be a prostitute if you don’t wanna get your feet wet, honey. That’s not a mixed metaphor, I heard that was a thing in Thailand.

I’m not entirely sure how seashells are a pop culture reference, but James seemed to think his symbol interpretation was worth sharing.