Day in Pop Report for 10/08/2014
"They have scraped cancerous tissues four times already," he said. "But whatever." If the "but whatever" isn't telling enough, Morrissey goes on to say that he's not sweating his health problems too much. "If I die, then I die," he explained. "And if I don't, then I don't. Right now I feel good. I am aware that in some of my recent photos I look somewhat unhealthy, but that's what illness can do. I'm not going to worry about that, I'll rest when I'm dead."
However, Helt will likely only serve about four months of that sentence due to credit received after he turned himself in to Polk County Jail in August and the time he served afterward. Helt, 22, accepted Cyrus' award for video of the year at the ceremony for "Wrecking Ball." In his acceptance speech, he spoke about youth homelessness in the United States, an issue Cyrus has brought to light in the past. The two met at a Los Angeles shelter prior to the ceremony. However, following the triumphant moment, Helt was revealed to be wanted in his home state of Oregon on a parole violation after charges of criminal trespassing and mischief in 2010. Read more here.
The actor helmed a cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria," with a backing band including former Eagles guitarist Don Felder, Huey Lewis and Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres - plus fellow actor Damian Lewis. Murray certainly handles the performance with gusto, belting the track for all it's worth as the assembled musicians and crowd scream the refrain of "Gloria!" back at him. Along the way, there's plenty of fantastic Bill Murray trademarked dance moves for your Tuesday afternoon, somewhat in the vein of what we saw when video of last month's "Turn Down for What" danceathon found its way onto YouTube. Watch it here.
Instead of returning it when they came across it, the girls posted pictures of it along with a few of its contents. Luckily for Zayn, he didn't keep anything he wouldn't have want getting out inside of his travel bag. (Maybe this has happened before?) The girls allegedly posted pictures of clothes, including one very plain white t-shirt, drawings, and a menu, according to Billboard. As they point out, a South American fansite got in touch with the girls and reported that they tried to give the bag back but not in a timely enough fashion. Read more here.
"John Anderson, Paul Craft, Tom Douglas and Gretchen Peters represent the best our great songwriting community has to offer," Pat Alger, board chair of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation and a member of the Hall of Fame said. "With long, fruitful careers of memorable songs, they set the highest creative standard for all of us." While Anderson is well known for his career as an artist, Douglas' hits span countless of today's artists including Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me," Lady Antebellum's "I Run to You," "Loves the Only House" and "God's Will" as well as Martina McBride's "Grown Men Don't Cry" and Tim McGraw's "Southern Voice," among others. Read more here.
Blige's inimitable vocals were introduced to an entirely new, younger audience, while Blige's fan base got a taste of Disclosure's smooth but funky take on house music, which is far more soulful than most of what's flown under the EDM banner of late. Blige and Disclosure have also been performing the track live, with the singer joining the duo onstage at this year's Coachella festival, HARD Summer and Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show among the concert collaborations. Blige decamped to England to make her latest album, The London Sessions, and she's teamed up with Disclosure yet again for the album's new single, "Right Now." The duo's smooth, minimalist track paired with Blige's vocals result in another dance floor burner that seamlessly blends the best of both worlds. The video is a moody, black and white affair that showcases Blige and the Lawrence brothers working on the tune in a U.K. recording studio. Watch the video here.
It all kicks off this Thursday at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla. From there he'll hit Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Las Vegas, among others before wrapping up in Boise, Idaho, on Dec. 5. The tour is named after Seen It All, his most recent album. The record, released in September, became his fifth straight No. 1 on Billboard's R&B and Rap Albums charts, plus hit No. 2 on the overall Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 121,000 copies sold. Full tour dates are listed here.
Doing some indiscernible accent (Was it Indian? Middle Eastern? We don't know!) Grande let the audience know she does not like toast, she only wears Ellen Degeneres panties and the kicker, her last name is the size of a drink at Starbucks. When she came out of the bushes, Grande offered the fan a ticket to her upcoming winter tour, which kicks off February 25 in Kansas City, MO. Clearly, Ariana's no diva if she doesn't mind hiding in someone else's bushes. Watch it here.
Drenched in rain with hurricane-like winds surrounding him, Paisley sings the ballad as photos of women slowly fly past the screen, often getting stuck on his wet T-shirt and guitar. The video, which was directed by Jim Shea, features Paisley's familiar guitar parts as he sings of how his girl "destroys me in that T-shirt." In a video clip released Sunday (Oct. 5) on Twitter, Paisley gave fans a hint of what was to come. "Thanks so much for submitting your photos for the video," he said. "I stood in the pouring rain and sang this song over and over in slow motion for you. I hope you love it. I'm really happy with it. I love the video." Read more here.
The cultural callbacks are rich here. In terms of setting, it recalls the infamous dance scene in Silver Linings Playbook. Of course, every manner of ballroom dance, for a certain generation, offers a look back to Dirty Dancing. Most prevalently, however, is that feel of Dancing with the Stars (or, for citizens of the UK, Strictly Come Dancing), in which a celebrity is paired with a professional dance partner and either hilarity ensues or the audience is wowed. In this case, it's a toss up. Sheeran cuts a dashing figure in his vest and shiny shoes, looking strangely naked without his ever present guitar, but it's disconcerting to see him in such a foreign setting (and without a hoodie). "'Thinking Out Loud' is one of my favorite tracks on the album, if not my favorite," Sheeran said in a press release about the video. "It's a great one to perform live and means a lot to me. I wanted the video to be a little different, so I opted for ballroom dancing. I had lessons for five hours a day when I was on my U.S. tour last month." Watch the video here.
Wearing headgear and pigtails, will.i.am is only turning down for selfies and texting in this EDM track that has him complaining about all the things that make him go "ew." Some of those things include duck lips, reclining selfies and big booties. Like Sir Mix-A-Lot, will.i.am thinks silicone parts are made for toys. We should mention, while Fallon plays his teenage character Sara, who is rapping this time around, this Black Eyed Pea, naturally, is playing "mir.i.am." You win, will.i.am, you win. Check it out here.
For a new video filmed in conjunction with Neff Headwear, the "Neon Icon" grabs a pair of tennis rackets and two tennis balls to show off that not only can he rock the microphone with the most bizarre metaphors this side of Lil Wayne, but he's quite the ace on the tennis courts. Fans are already debating on YouTube if the clip is the real deal or just the result of some digital CGI trickery, with a lot of attention paid to the shadows cast by the tennis balls. Watch it above and decide for yourself. While many are already decrying the clip as a well-crafted fake reminiscent of Nike's notorious viral video featuring Kobe Bryant (not really) jumping over a speeding Aston Martin, there's really no reason not to believe that Riff Raff is secretly an ambidextrous tennis master, is there? Watch the video here.
Unsurprisingly, it's Pharrell on the hook in "Paperwork," contributing a soulful vocal on the slow-burning jam. "Don't do no business until you check his paperwork," he sings on the bouncing melody. Meanwhile, T.I. raps about drinking Shirley Temples back in the day, detailing his time "back in '85" with his uncle, who was arrested on drug and weapon charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison ("Later we learn someone ratted him out / For that reason 10 years he won't be around." "Paperwork" represents the cyclical nature of the rapper's life in Atlanta, from seeing his uncle selling - and later jailed for selling - drugs and then later getting into the game himself. Check out the song here.
This event seems to have revolved around Dawn Richard punching Aubrey O'Day in the back of the head after a recording session, for murky reasons that definitely had something to do with the inescapable tensions of trying to "put the band back together" almost 10 years after Making the Band 3. "Certain choices were made that I am not proud of," wrote Richards. "However, I will not be disrespected." Regardless, they are moving forward with the album release, and they've shared a new track. "Tell Me" is a smooth, crisp piece of modern R&B. The three singers' harmonies give no indication of tension beneath the song's limpid surface - which makes sense, of course, since it was likely recorded prior to the tension boiled over. Listen here.
Now we can finally hear the result. Monday night (Oct. 6), Staples shared the EP, making it available on iTunes and Spotify. He's already released two standout tracks from the project: the keening, urgent "Blue Suede" and the rumbling, angry murk of "Hands Up." The rest of the tracks here display a wide-ranging ear for production: the metallic clank of "Fire," and the languid, jazzy horn-driven bounce of "65 Hunnid" are particularly diverse. And then there's "Limo", an oozing collaboration with G.O.O.D. Music's Teyana Taylor, in which the vocalist and rapper explore the texture of a fractured relationship over precise, layered R&B melodies. We've never heard anything like this from Staples. "It's a process," he explained. "I now have more access to certain things." Stream Vince Staples' Hell Can Wait EP here.
Like "Monster," "Break The Rules" relies on a gorgeous, inviting flute synth, soaring above the rattling hi-hats. Future's in full-on mush-mouth Auto-Tune grumbling mode, staying low to the ground rather than soaring to the stars. The persona he's been exploring in advance of his Monster mixtape release is substantially different from the starry-eyed robot lover and astral explorer of his earlier work. His concerns are less romantic than practical, and mercenary. "Never talk back to cops / Comin' up with scenarios," he raps. "A dope sale open plenty doors / Fish scale with the odor / I'm servin' up Lamar Odom / F**kin' b***hes look like Kardashians." Listen here.
That's how many songs West has finished, according an interview at Rolling Stone with Malik Yusef, who's signed to Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music label and often collaborates with him. Even though some of the songs are apparently mosh-able, Yusef also revealed that West's next album won't be as abrasive as the icy synth- and drums-driven Yeezus. If you're a fan of backpack Kanye circa Late Registration, there will be something for you on his next album. "This album is different. It's like a pair of Timberlands; like how Timberlands are not quite leather and not quite suede," Yusef explained. "It's not the smooth, slick Chicago music sound we have right now and it's not the ruggedness of just 'hip-hop hip-hop hip-hop.' We're still working like a motherf**ker. We've been all around the world [recording]." As for what exactly a pair of Timberlands sound like, it could be what producer Evian Christ revealed he was working on for Kanye, back in April. "I've got to get home and write an Otis Redding-style beat for him," Christ said in his cover story for Self-Titled. "[West] emailed last night. He wants something that sounds a bit like Otis Redding, a bit like Mobb Deep." Read more here.
Utilizing the yearning vocals of Sam Martin (who also sang on Guetta's last single, "Lovers on the Sun"), the track is a more straight-ahead pop affair, with sweeping strings, arpeggiated synthesizers and a disco beat reminiscent of the sounds heard on Daft Punk's GRAMMY-winning album Random Access Memories. The track is taken from Listen, Guetta's upcoming studio album that's scheduled for release on Nov. 24. The album will include a last-minute collaboration with British vocalist Emeli Sande, which the pair recorded during an 11th-hour studio session before Guetta finished the full-length. Watch the video here.
The new version was recorded to celebrate the launch of BBC Music ("an ambitious wave of new programmes, innovative partnerships and ground-breaking music initiatives that amount to the BBC's strongest commitment to music in 30 years," via The Guardian), with sales benefiting the BBC charity Children in Need. "All of the artists did such a beautiful job I can't thank them enough," Wilson told The Guardian. "I'm just honored that 'God Only Knows' was chosen. 'God Only Knows' is a very special song. An extremely spiritual song and one of the best I've ever written." Also on hand to contribute to the charity single: Jake Bugg, Emeli Sand�, Kylie Minogue, Paloma Faith, Florence Welch, Chrissie Hynde, Brian May, Alison Balsom, Martin James Bartlett, Danielle de Niese, Nicola Benedetti, Eliza Carthy, Baaba Maal, Jamie Cullum and Jaz Dhami. BBC DJs Zane Lowe, Lauren Laverne, Katie Derham, Gareth Malone and Jools Holland are also on the track, joined by the Tees Valley Youth Choir and the BBC Concert Orchestra. See all of the superstar cameos in the splashy music video for the remake here.
Specifically, we were fishing for predictions of who might win this time around. Though it has not yet premiered, participants have been announced for the show's 2014/2015 season (dubbed Celebrity Apprentice 7 or The Apprentice 14, depending on whom you ask). They include comedian Gilbert Gottfried, singer Kevin Jonas, actress Vivica A. Fox, NFL player Terrell Owens, reality TV stars Brandi Glanville and Kate Gosselin, and Geraldo Rivera. Rich initially admitted that he doesn't even "know the entire cast yet." But while he isn't ready to lay down any money, it turns out he does have some early thoughts on the lineup, based on his own experience on the program. "I think with guys like Geraldo and Gilbert Gotfried on there it's going to be insanely interesting to watch," Rich said. Big Kenny agreed: "It's probably going to be quite entertaining also." As far as who might make it to the finale, Rich is leaning toward Rivera. Read more here.
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