Overwhelming.
I don't know any word that better sums up what Sunday night was like. I have almost 20 years' worth of live MTV events — VMAs, New Year's Eves, Grammy preshows, election nights — to treasure. And yet "Total Finale Live" has to rank up there with the best of them. I think that as much as that has to do with the insane roster of celebs that turned up for our big send-off — proof, if you needed any more, of the enduring impact of this pop phenom — it is also a tribute to the countless former co-workers who came back to join us on this night.
Read more...
Other than Chicago or Phoenix, I can't imagine anyplace one would rather be on this historic Election Day than that nucleus of all things political, CNN's Election Center in New York. That's exactly where our MTV News crew was Tuesday afternoon, shooting a segment with correspondent Soledad O'Brien.
MTV News and CNN don't often cross paths, but we are always happy to do so. We recently partnered with the network on our "Night for Vets" concert, and with the youth vote a driving force in what looks to be an unprecedented turnout today, it made sense for us to meet up once more.
I am not sure what I was expecting as we made our way to CNN's fifth-floor newsroom — frantic, frenetic energy, maybe, with the first polls set to close in a few hours? What we got was, you might say, the calm before the storm: a buzz of activity to be sure, but it was controlled, businesslike and, at times, even relaxed.
Read more...
So my smile of the day came with the news that Titus Andronicus — that terrifically tortured band, the pride of Glen Rock, New Jersey — have landed a deal with indie heavyweight XL, the folks who bring you Vampire Weekend, Sigur Rós, and a little album called In Rainbows from Radiohead, among others. XL plans a reissue next month of Titus' album The Airing of Grievances, which was previously released on Jersey's Troubleman Unlimited. Hopefully this means wider attention will be paid to a record that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.
One of my favorite interviews of the year was a summertime sitdown with the Titus guys in a suburban backyard. Hear what they have to say about Shakespeare, Seinfeld, shoegaze and punk — and best of all check out a couple of their rousing tunes. Read more...
As far as I can tell, there have been two water-cooler topics (meaning, of course, the virtual water cooler that is the blog world) surrounding the Killers as they have gradually made their way back into the limelight in advance of the November release of their third album, Day & Age. Last Friday night, in the 15 minutes-plus we got with half the band in a noisy loading-dock hallway backstage at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, I managed to — sort of — bring up both of them with Brandon Flowers, the band's stylish, affable and sometimes-inscrutable frontman. If you think his lyrics are hard to decipher, try getting him to elaborate on something he'd seemingly rather not discuss.
Read more...
I've gotten so used to "New York band" being synonymous with "Brooklyn band" these days that it's almost jarring to meet a group that's kept itself planted in Manhattan.
"I tried to get an apartment in Williamsburg once," admits Virgins frontman Donald Cumming, "but this is home, man."
And unlike so many of those bands that now call Brooklyn home, three-fourths of the Virgins are that rare breed: native New Yorkers. Cumming grew up in the Tribeca neighborhood — before it was Tribeca — guitarist Wade Oates was a West Village kid, bassist Nick Zarin-Ackerman is from the Upper West Side. Only drummer Erik Ratensperger, a Connecticut native, did not grow up in the city.
And as we take a walk through the East Village — their 'hood and mine — they acknowledge how much the area has changed in the past 15 years, washed by a deluge of luxury condos and NYU dorms. And yet the guys still have their favorite hangouts. There's a burger joint (Paul's), a 24-hour diner (Moonstruck), the Chrystie Steps and Lit Lounge, where the Virgins shot their video for "Rich Girls," and where their pal Leo Fitzpatrick (of "Kids" fame) hosts a party.
Read more...
I know that imposing a concept like animal rights on the 19th century — a time when slavery was still alive and women couldn't yet vote — might be a tad unrealistic. But that was the quandary at which I arrived when my producer Andrew Rowe asked my vegan self to be a part of his piece on the steampunk scene and wear authentic steampunk garb when we shot our standups.
Not that I have a problem with playing dress-up: One look at the annals of VMA history will remind anyone that I have never been sartorially shy, and frankly the whole Victorian thing — the stovepipe hats, vests, long coats, pocket watches — is kind of cool, in the right time and place. No one really dresses up any more, so why not?
Read more...
It is a weird thing to me that the single most pursued, watched and written-about celebrity within the "thirty-mile zone" of Los Angeles continues to be a young woman whose most commercially viable days as a pop musician seem to have come and gone. On the other hand, Britney Spears could always make a real musical comeback. God knows unlikelier things have happened in the long, strange journey that has already been her life, and things lately seem to be looking up.
Will Britney show up at the VMAs? Will she perform? Present? Even speak? How will she look? What will she wear? Who will she be with? A rapt nation will have to wait a few more days for those answers. Meantime, I can't help but recall, as I often do every time that she is back on the public's radar, the first time I met Britney — and the entire Spears clan — in the town she put on the map: Kentwood, Louisiana. Read more...
"The location is pretty great — look at that view," said Brian Weitz, a.k.a. Geologist from Animal Collective, gazing out across the expanse of Liberty State Park at the skyline of Lower Manhattan. Indeed, the first thing you notice on stepping off the ferry and turning to look behind you is a cityscape that is hard to match anywhere in the world. It was day two of All Points West, the so-called "boutique" festival (meaning it accommodates 30,000 instead of 70,000) that at long last brought a weekend-long major music event to the Northeast. Saturday was the only sellout of the three-day weekend, and for good reason: Apart from the godlike Radiohead on top of the bill, there was a pretty exceptional supporting cast that included, on three stages, the Roots, Kings of Leon, Metric, the Black Angels, the Virgins, Chromeo, K'Naan and Sia.
But I began my day by speaking with one of my favorites, the Collective. A few hours before they brought their clanging, charging, joyful noise to the masses, we talked on the VIP bleachers overlooking the grounds. How great is the idea of Kings or Radiohead fans discovering Animal Collective? "That's the main reason, I think, you do festivals," said Weitz. The guys are not doing a lot of fests this summer — they're concentrating on mixing and finishing their ninth album, due out in January — but they were pleased to be at All Points West, in part because they were playing the main stage. While there is no doubt AC's sound is big enough to fill a large setting, Noah Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear, is not a big fan of outdoor fests. Apparently, he and the sun "don't agree."
Read more...
Getting to cover summer music festivals can sometimes be a mixed blessing. Unless you have an especially large crew (as we did two weeks ago at Lollapalooza), you end up spending a lot of time shooting interviews and writing or shooting standup segments, and not a lot of time actually seeing live music. Such was the case this past weekend New York's All Points West festival. (check out some of the bands we talked with right here). I did, however, manage to catch sets by two of my favorite bands, neither of which is playing many U.S. dates this summer.
Kings of Leon are the sort of dependable rock band that almost effortlessly delivers a good show — and while a colleague of mine thought they could have used a little more effort in Saturday's set, I thought they delivered solid renditions of fuzzed-out, whiskey-soaked songs that just do not get old: "Taper Jean Girl," "The Bucket" and "On Call" and definitely got the late-afternoon crowd going. Every time I see the Kings live I'm reminded of just how many great hooks and melodies these guys they've crammed into three albums — which makes it all the more amazing they're bigger in this country (they're massive in England). On Saturday, we were also treated to "Sex on Fire" — the first single (and one of the more hard-charging songs) from Only By the Night, the band's fourth LP, set for release September 23.
Read more...
The All Points West festival in New Jersey's Liberty State Park had a lot going for it — mostly beautiful weather, a decent (if not through-the-roof) lineup, a fine setting, a cool way to get there — a ferry ride — and a daylong view of the greatest skyline on Earth. What more could you ask for?
Oh, I don't know. How about, enjoying a beer while watching the concert? Here's the deal: You arrive at APW and soon discover that in order to drink, you must get your ID checked, then pass into a closed-off, fenced-in area — from which you cannot see the stage — to pay $7 for a Bud or Bud Light. You get a yellow plastic bracelet on which there are five tabs, one for each beer you are allowed. Each time you order, a tab is removed. And to indicate that you have been issued a bracelet (they're one step ahead of you, these beer police) they put a big Sharpie "X" on your hand. Read more...
