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The 'Eclipse' Trailer Should Have Used Kanye West, 30 Seconds To Mars Or Pearl Jam

Posted 4/23/10 5:00 pm EST by in Music


The Internet is abuzz with a 90 second piece of video. No, it isn't the drunk guy trying to get at his flip-flop at Coachella. Rather, it's the new trailer for "Eclipse," the third film in the much-beloved "Twilight" series. The trailer premiered today both on the broadcast of "Oprah" and on the talk show host's Web site. The film once again stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner as a human, a vampire and a werewolf in the middle of a high school love triangle. This time around, they are beset by an oncoming vampire army and must band together to fight them off.

It's by far the most action-packed trailer in the history of the "Twilight" franchise, culminating in a great tease of the showdown between the vampire army and the werewolf/Cullen family tag team. It's intense and action-packed, and "Twilight" fans are on high alert for clues and hints embedded in the trailer.

However, if there's one complaint that could be made, it's that it missed an opportunity with music. The orchestral score that accompanies the trailer is appropriately intense and heavy. But we've been spoiled by the trailer for "Iron Man 2," which was covered wall-to-wall in Black Sabbath and AC/DC songs. The "Twilight" films have both had excellent soundtracks, so why not drop a killer tune into the trailer? Here are five songs we would have attached to the "Eclipse" trailer if we had the keys to the boat.

Kanye West, "Amazing"

This quiet, focused, unnerving track matches the intense tone of the trailer, and lyrics like "I'm a monster/ I'm a killer," match up with the predominant characters perfectly.
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'South Park' Creators Say Censorship Is No Joke: The MTV News Quote Of The Day

Posted 4/23/10 4:00 pm EST by in Television


"In the 14 years we've been doing 'South Park' we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it."

-The official statement put out by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone following Wednesday night's (April 21) airing of "201," the controversial new episode that (once again) revolved around whether or not Muhammad would show up as an animated character on the show. The two-part episode (celebrating the 200th episode of the show) saw a gaggle of celebrities skewered by the program banding together to try to acquire Muhammad's "goo," as they recognized his apparent immunity to the show's cutting satire. (His "immunity" actually comes from the fact that artistic depictions of Muhammad are forbidden.)

Unfortunately, a radical Muslim extremist group responded with thinly veiled death threats. "201" ended up airing with the word "Muhammad" repeatedly bleeped out, and while some thought the whole fiasco was a giant meta-joke commenting on the absurdity of the controversy, Parker and Stone have dismissed that. The pair have been down this road before, as they built an entire episode around the possibility of Muhammad showing up on the show (amidst similar controversy, he did not). However, he has made one barely noticed appearance on the show as a member of the Super-Best Friends, a collective of religious icons who act as super heroes.

What do you think of the "South Park" controversy? Let us know in the comments!

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What Will Crystal Bowersox's Album Sound Like?

Posted 4/23/10 3:00 pm EST by in Music


Whether or not Crystal Bowersox delivered the best performance in "American Idol" history, there is one thing that is clear: She is the obvious frontrunner and the favorite to win. She has rarely had a misstep and manages to step up a notch or two with each passing week. And even if somebody like Lee DeWyze comes up from behind to top her in the final, there's no doubt we will be getting excited about Bowersox's debut album by the time the holidays roll around.

But what will Crystal Bowersox sound like? Her success on "American Idol" is not necessarily unprecedented, as the show has seen the rise of a handful of singer-songwriter types. The most notable corollaries are probably Jason Castro (and not just because of the dreadlocks) and Brooke White. While Bowersox does play the guitar and has a loose, laid-back vibe, her sound doesn't quite match the albums put out by either Castro or White (both of which are excellent, by the way). Obviously, Bowersox won't be making a traditional vocal album (like David Archuleta), a straight-ahead rock album (like Daughtry) or an everything-all-at-once album (like Adam Lambert).

When the time comes to press record with Bowersox in the studio, the result will probably be a combination of the following elements.

Tracy Chapman
It's the easiest corollary in the universe (and again not just because they both have dreadlocks). Chapman's mid-period work (which featured unfussy, rocked-up arrangements of her conversational folk tunes) would be a great template for Bowersox to follow. Pair her with a competent producer who will let her flex a little bit, and you've got a clean, catchy, sure-fire hit. Bowersox even cites Chapman as an influence, so why not hook the two up?

Joan Osborne
Though she never had a hit as massive as "One of Us," Osborne has churned out a career's worth of gritty, blues-based rock that features easy-going melodies and Osborne's deceptively dynamic voice. Read More...

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Shyne Channels His Inner Walken For 'There Will Be Blood'

Posted 4/23/10 2:00 pm EST by in Music


By Rahman Dukes

Shyne Po has been on a tear since his return to the rap game last Monday. The Brooklyn shotta shook up the world with the gritty track "Messiah," where he proclaims he got the "city on his back." That week, Po released a myriad of freestyles tearing down just about every notable radio banger (including Rihanna's chart-topping "Rude Boy").

On Thursday night (April 22), I was sitting in the lab getting a little NBA action going when I heard bombs dropping as if I were in a battlefield draped in fatigues. War? Never that. Instead, it was the signature sound of Funkmaster Flex giving his rubber stamp of approval on Shyne's track "Messiah." From there, he went into "Unthinkable." I got the feeling New York was on the verge of a resurgence, and Po indeed has the city on his back.

This week, the native Belize lyricist showed no signs of slowing down. Po dropped a number of remixes, including his own stab at Fat Joe and Jeezy's "(Ha Ha) Slow Down," Rihanna's "Rockstar 101" and the scathing diss record aimed at 50 Cent "There Will Be Blood."

In the classic film "King of New York," Christopher Walken is warned, "You think you're gonna live long enough to spend that money, you f---ing hump?" And just as Walken's reaction spoke for itself, Po makes it lyrically clear to a certain wealthy MC that jail bars no longer keep the two New York giants apart.

"Drink some thug juice and some 'whut whut' punch/ Now they apes and gorillas/ F---ing chipmunks," he raps. Shyne even goes as far back dialing in the prestigious Malcom X on the hook: "You don't have a revolution in which you love your enemy. And you don't have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolution overturns system. Revolutions destroys systems. A revolution is bloody."

I've been in touch with Po on a daily basis, and I can assure you he's not going anywhere. Expect to hear more from that man on this platform in the coming weeks.

"You're welcome — you're all welcome!"

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David Archuleta's 'Imagine' Tops The 'American Idol' Performance Poll

Posted 4/23/10 1:05 pm EST by in Music


Though most fanatics would agree that this season of "American Idol" is a little lackluster, it has also sparked more debates than perhaps any season since the show debuted back in 2002. How important are the judges? Has Kara DioGuardi improved? Who should replace Simon Cowell? Was the last season the best of all time? Should the show value quality of performance over stuff like vocal strength and musical accuracy? All of these questions have been tossed around all season.

This week's debate surrounded Crystal Bowersox, the "American Idol" frontrunner whose presence on the show has been surrounded by personal controversy (first involving her health, then the story that she nearly abandoned the show a few weeks back). This week, she delivered a jaw-dropping, emotional performance of "People Get Ready" that tore the house down and lit the Internet on fire. The conversation started: Did Bowersox just deliver the greatest performance in the history of the show? And if she didn't, who actually has?

In the first poll we presented this week, Bowersox won handily, besting performances by eventual winners Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and David Cook. But "American Idol" fans cried foul, saying that our series of nominees came up a bit short. So we rolled out a second poll that featured nominations from fans who had sounded off in the comments section of the blog.

Now that the long and winding road is complete, we can declare the winner of the latest poll. David Archuleta took home the top spot with his rendition of "Imagine," which floored the judges, made the fans swoon and turned Archuleta into a favorite a few years back. He scored a whopping 53 percent of the vote, besting even Bowersox's dominant victory in the earlier poll (this time around, Crystal only mustered one percent). This time around, it was a two man race between Archuleta and the man who finished in second place: Adam Lambert, whose "Mad World" brought in 42 percent of the vote. With 95 percent split up between the top two, the drop-off after Lambert was significant, with only Clay Aiken's "Solitaire" nabbing more than one percent (proof that the Claymates still have some fight in them).

So the challenge is on to the current crop of "American Idol" contestants: Are you better than "Imagine" as sung by David Archuleta? If you are, then stardom awaits.

What do you think of David Archuleta's version of "Imagine"? Is it truly the best "American Idol" performance of all time? Let us know in the comments!

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Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: An Appreciation

Posted 4/23/10 12:00 pm EST by in Music


Today is not only the anniversary of the debut of New Coke, but there are also a handful of musical events that happened today. The Ramones released their self-titled debut album (featuring staples like "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Judy Is a Punk" and "Beat on the Brat") on April 23, 1976, beginning an incredible run of excellent albums, killer live shows and a game-changing approach to American rock music. Many people love Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and cite it as a vital piece of punk rock history (and it is), but the Ramones first album (combined with Leave Home, Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin, all of which hit by 1978) is an incredibly vital piece of rock history whose effects are still being felt.

Today is also the anniversary of the release of another classic album: Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, one of the finest albums of the new century and one that has an incredible back story. The Chicago-based Wilco had been building their sound since the release of their debut album A.M. in 1995. They began as a country-rock crossover act, but through 1996's Being There and 1999's Summerteeth, the group's sound was constantly evolving into something a lot more complex. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot represented a massive leap forward for the band, as it contained elements of rock and country but also prog, metal and several types of electronic music. It was certainly unlike anything else on the musical landscape at the turn of the millennium — in fact, it was so envelope-pushing that Wilco's label refused to release it.

What followed was the stuff of legend. The band bought the record back from the label, turned it into an early Internet sensation (they streamed the entire thing on their website), created a fervor among fans who demanded to hear it and then sold it again to another label that happened to be in the same family as the one that originally rejected it. Along the way, founding member Jay Bennett left the group, frontman Jeff Tweedy struggled with illness and the band very nearly broke up. But after nearly two years of getting built into an urban legend, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was finally released on this day in 2002. But would it live up to the hype and the demand?

In fact it did. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ended up being called one of the best albums of the year and made Wilco into a major player in the rock world. It opens with "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," a staggeringly strange, gorgeous ballad, and keeps hitting high spots from there. "Ashes of American Flags" is a thrilling noise jam, "Heavy Metal Drummer" delves into shambling beat science and "War on War" is a head-shakingly great pop jam.

The whole Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fiasco is captured on the excellent documentary "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco," which follows the band from start to finish. Check out the awesome "Jesus, Etc." from the film, which not only encapsulates the great sound of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but also the look of the movie.

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Green Day Unleash 'Basket Case' At Surprise 'American Idiot' Show

Posted 4/23/10 11:00 am EST by in Music


Green Day's musical "American Idiot" just opened on Broadway, and it is already turning heads and changing the game in the theater world. Following a glowing review in The New York Times, the band had a surprise in store for the audience who attended Thursday night's (April 22) performance of the show. When the final curtain fell and after the game cast took their bows, they were joined on stage by Green Day themselves, who praised the actors and then picked up their instruments for a quick, jumpy reprise of "American Idiot."

But when the song ended, the crowd wouldn't let them leave, which lead to the real highlight of the evening: The band launched into "Basket Case," the breakout hit from their massive 1994 major label debut album Dookie. It's not part of the "American Idiot" musical and is still considered one of the group's live highlights, making it a true treat for the hardcore fans who had come to see the show. MTV News was there following a handful of contest winners who scored tickets to the show and captured the maximum volume, high-energy run through "Basket Case."

It has been a busy few months for the band, who have not only been ushering the musical from its debut in Berkeley to its Broadway premiere this week, but also putting the finishing touches on the upcoming video game "Green Day: Rock Band." They'll head back on the road this summer to play a some high-profile sets at European festivals, a headlining slot at Lollapalooza, some stadium shows in Paris (where Paramore will open for them) and then another tour of the United States. So even if you can't make it to Broadway, they'll be coming to your area shortly.

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Prepare For 'The Losers' With Beck, Poison And P.O.D.

Posted 4/23/10 10:00 am EST by in Music


Last week's action-packed comic book extravaganza was "Kick-Ass," and this week Hollywood brings you "The Losers." Packed with explosions, bon mots, car chases and a scantily-clad Zoe Saldana, "The Losers" follows the lives of a government-funded special forces unit (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba and Columbus Short) that is betrayed by their handler (Jason Patric) and forced to go underground to try to clear their good name and stop some baddies in the process. It's an action-packed adventure directed by Sylvain White ("Stomp the Yard") and written by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt (the team behind "The Rundown," one of the most underrated action flicks of the past decade).

Like any good adrenaline-pumping shoot-'em-up flick, "The Losers" requires a handful of excellent tunes to get you into the mindset of an elite squadron of soldiers running from the American government. Hence the video playlist below, which has plenty of homages to things that go boom (Uh Huh Her's "Explode," P.O.D.'s "Boom," Damageplan's "Explode"), some salutes to action itself (Poison's "I Want Action," Toby Keith's "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action") and a few nods to going rogue ((hed) pe's "Renegade," Halford's "Betrayal").

But the most important tracks on this week's playlist are the paeans to loserdom itself. There's "Loser" by 3 Doors Down, two tracks called "Creep" (one by Radiohead, the other by Stone Temple Pilots) and a new video from Meat Loaf called "Los Angeloser." Of course, you can't have a playlist about "The Losers" without Beck's "Loser," which kicks things off with a bang.

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New Coke Debuts, Ruins Everything: Wake-Up Video

Posted 4/23/10 9:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


Soda tends to be a fairly non-controversial topic, but on this day in 1985, the Coca-Cola company turned the entire carbonated beverages world on its ear when it debuted New Coke. Facing growing market competition, an expanding menu of options and the surge of Pepsi, Coke decided to reinvent its formula — one that it had been using for decades. New Coke (which actually didn't have an official name until the tail end of its run, when it was called Coke II for a brief time) was a slightly less carbonated, infinitely sweeter version of the old Coke. In fact, it tasted quite familiar to any regular soda drinkers out there.

It tasted almost exactly like Pepsi.

Never in the history of business marketing has the number one product rejiggered itself so that it could be more like the number two product. It was a staggering decision, though one that initially seemed like it would pay off. Early market testing was positive, though a backlash quickly replaced any sort of positive feelings people had about Coke. Apparently, people were quite attached to the old Coke flavor — especially people in the South, who felt Coke was a part of regional identity (not surprising, considering Coke was born in Atlanta). Since it was the pre-Internet era, the uprising was organic, as Coca-Cola fielded hundreds of thousands of angry phone calls and had to deal with letter-writing campaigns and even a handful of makeshift PR groups angling to get them to change back the formula.

And just like the "Betty White on 'SNL'" campaign, the angry mob got their wish. Only three months after the introduction of New Coke, the company announced the creation of Coca-Cola Classic, which reverted to the old formula and quickly became the best-selling soda on the market. Coke II stuck around for a few more years as a secondary product but was ultimately phased out by 1993. It joins the pantheon of high-profile failed soda experiments like Crystal Pepsi (a "clear cola" that was actually just birch beer), Pepsi A.M. (an extra-caffeinated version of the soda meant to be consumed in the morning instead of coffee), Surge (an "extreme soda" that probably arrived a few years ahead of its time) and 7-Up Gold (a bizarre apple-cinnamon flavored drink that was truly miserable). In a roundabout way, New Coke ended up breathing new life into the Coke brand by facilitating the introduction of Coca-Cola Classic (which is why the conspiracy theory is that New Coke was just an elaborate marketing ploy that was designed to fail), which is why we present Damageplan's "Breathing New Life."

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Gorillaz Bring Their Monkey Business To The MTV Newsroom

Posted 4/22/10 6:00 pm EST by in Music


If you were to explain Gorillaz to somebody who wasn't familiar with them, there is no way that person would take them seriously. They're a loose collective of musicians and visual artists who create trippy, sprawling pop tunes and pair them with stories about homicidal monkeys and evil cartoon overlords. It's pretty ridiculous when you try to describe it, but when you actually spin any of their albums (including the most recent opus Plastic Beach) or watch any of their videos (especially their latest clip "Stylo"), you realize that they have somehow pulled it off. The sharpness of the music and the goofy charm of the peripheral elements have somehow made Gorillaz into a staple band for anybody who is into genre-bending pop experiments.

The two main members of Gorillaz found their way to the MTV Newsroom today. They were not holograms or cartoon avatars, but a pair of Brits — Blur frotnman Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett — who were actually flesh and blood. They sat with MTV News' James Montgomery to talk about the current story lines going on in the Gorillaz universe, reality TV, Justin Bieber and whatever other bees happened to be in Albarn's bonnet today. He talked about celebrity culture, his aversion to technology ("People on Twitter are going to have arthritic thumbs in a few years") and the massive amount of music they went through to get to Plastic Beach (they had 80 songs to choose from and selected 15).

Albarn has always been the cantankerous sort (his battles public battles with the Gallagher brothers as a member of Blur in the '90s are legendary), and though he has mellowed with time, his dander is still up. Case in point: Even though his latest album is the most "pop" record Albarn has ever worked on, he still doesn't care very much for the genre. "I love pop music. I just love a certain kind of it — the kind that may not look nice, but still reminds me of the stuff I used to listen to growing up," he said. "Lady Gaga works very, very hard, and so does Beyoncé, to be very, very popular. That seems to be all they care about in life, and that's fine, you know? It won't last forever, and if it does, you'll turn into Madonna, and if you want to turn into Madonna, that's great — for you. Not for me."

Stay tuned to MTV News for more from Gorillaz, including Albarn's thoughts on "American Idol" and a particular basic cable network.

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