At the taping of the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards on Wednesday night (November 18), there were a handful of memorable moments that captured both the madcap energy of the show and the envelope-pushing nature of the artists involved. There was the near-nudity of Matt and Kim's backup singers, the curse-happy introduction Mary-Louise Parker gave for the Dead Weather and Asher Roth's stage dive. One of the most head-turning moments of the night came when Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte — otherwise known as 3OH!3 — stepped onto the stage to present the Left Field Woodie (which ended up going to fiercely independent rapper Tech N9ne).
The pair were introduced and appeared on the stage at the Roseland Ballroom wearing two outfits that Lady Gaga wore at the Video Music Awards back in September. Foreman donned the strange white bird's nest outfit, while Motte was wrapped in that full-body red lace stocking (which he described as "a soiled pair of panties" on his face). "We're here to present the Left Field Woodie," said Foreman.
"It honors the artists out there with the balls to make the music that they want to make," Motte added. "To write lyrics that others are afraid to write."
"To dress up with a f---ing bird's nest on your face," Foreman concluded.
The band didn't seem particularly comfortable in the Gaga-inspired threads, though the outfits were definitely an improvement over Foreman's cardigan sweater. You can see the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards in their entirety when the show airs on December 4 at 10 p.m. on MTV, MTV2 and mtvU.
Early this morning, one of Miley Cyrus' tour buses crashed in rural Virginia. The vehicle was carrying several members of Cyrus' production crew but not the singer herself. The driver of the bus is dead and one of the crew members was sent to the hospital.
There are all sorts of tragedies that are inherently tied to rock music (overdoses, car crashes, production accidents and the like), but there have been far too many incidents involving tour buses. It shouldn't be shocking, as they are unruly mammoths forced to push forward (usually in the middle of the night) over all manner of terrain for hours and hours at a time. They're difficult to handle and difficult for other drivers to deal with.
Last week, Canadian singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk updated her MySpace blog to let fans know that her tour bus had run off the road (she blamed the incident on her driver falling asleep). Just a few months ago, Bret Michaels' tour bus was struck by another car (though no injuries were reported on either side). In August, Canadian rockers MercyMe were involved in a crash that killed two people in Indiana. Last fall, Roots' drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson sent a Twitter message from an ambulance after their bus crashed outside of Paris, France. That's five major accidents in just a year, and the list goes on and on.
Of course, the most notorious (and tragic) bus accident in rock history came in September of 1986, when original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died when the band's bus skidded off the road and crashed in Sweden (there's even a memorial stone by the crash site). The driver was awake and alert but undone by black ice in the middle of the night.
The tour bus is typically the best and most cost-effective way for most bands to cross the country (or the continent), but there's clearly a safety issue here. Are there any solutions? It's hard to tell, but something needs to be done.
When Beyoncé took the stage at the O2 Arena on Monday (November 16), she not only brought Kanye West and Jay-Z on stage with her, but also busted out a big concert trope that seems to have gone by the wayside but may be making a comeback. In the middle of "Halo," she ran directly at the crowd and hurled herself onto the outstretched hands of the mass of fans in a stage dive.
Stage diving used to be a common occurrence during the alt-rock era, which saw frontmen like Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain channeled the spirit of Iggy Pop and constantly tossed themselves at the swirling crowds at their shows. But at some point around the turn of the century, stage diving got a bad name. It's possible that Fred Durst sunk the whole concept, as he famously used a piece of the security fence to surf across the hands of thousands of revelers at Woodstock '99 while Limp Bizkit played and women were sexually assaulted. But there's no real event that ended the practice — like the dinosaurs, stage diving died slowly and inexplicably.
But clearly it isn't completely extinct. In addition to Beyoncé's head-first dive, there were plenty of human missiles tossed off the stage at the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards, which were taped this past Wednesday night (November 18). After accepting an award on behalf of Green Day, rapper Asher Roth leaped into the crowd for a brief surf, and the beginning of the show saw Kim Schifino (of Matt and Kim) crawl across the outstretched arms of the people closest to the stage and stand up on top of them in a makeshift pyramid.
So if one of the biggest stars in the world, one of the slickest rappers in the hip-hop game and one of the coolest indie bands about to pop are all hopping off stages and into crowds, it's clearly an equal-opportunity deal. Who would you like to see stage diving? Should Taylor Swift let herself be carried away by fans? Should the boys from Tokio Hotel risk dismemberment in crowd surfing? Make your pleas in the comments!
"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is out in theaters now, and is already breaking records and attracting all sorts of fervor about the ending, whether it's better than the first film and what the possibilities are for "Eclipse" (which is set to release in June of 2010 but is already being buzzed about in the "Twilight" fan community). The "New Moon" soundtrack has also been tearing up the Billboard album chart, selling half a million copies in only five weeks of release on the back of Death Cab for Cutie's excellent, moody new single "Meet Me on the Equinox." The rock-centric soundtrack also features tunes by Muse, Thom Yorke, the Killers, OK Go, Editors, Band of Skulls and Grizzly Bear. It's an excellent batch of songs that compliments the film about as well as a soundtrack can, making it the perfect companion piece.
But here in the MTV Newsroom, we like things to be just a little bit louder, which is why we've put together a "New Moon" video playlist that packs a little extra adrenaline and gives the werewolf and vampire love story an added bit of punch. AC/DC's "If You Want Blood (You Got It)" provides a little bit of blood-sucking thump, while the squall of Mudhoney's "Suck You Dry" will psych you up for your next vampire baseball game. Ozzy Osbourne is there, of course, because he likes to "Bark at the Moon." And what song better describes the eternal Edward Cullen than Bruce Springsteen's "Dead Man Walkin'"?
Check out the complete video playlist below, starting with Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly," which sums up the spirit of "New Moon" about as well as an '80s metal star could.
Right now, this very second, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is playing at a theater near you. Perhaps you're going to see it tonight. Perhaps you're taking the afternoon off to see it. Perhaps you're a true devotee and you've seen it already. Twice. No matter what your level of enthusiasm is, one thing is for certain: The story of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan has captured the imaginations of millions, and the hunger for the continuation of the films is real. It's telling that one of the most searched-for items on the Internet this morning had to do with the release date of "Eclipse," the already-completed third film in the "Twilight" series (for those curious, it's June 30, 2010, so feel free to get in line now).
The anticipation over "New Moon" has hit a fever pitch this week, with stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner making the rounds on talk shows and late night programs all week. In fact, all three of them will be on tonight's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Also appearing on tonight's episode? Death Cab for Cutie, who are fresh off their excellent performance at Wednesday night's Woodie Awards taping. Their new single "Meet Me on the Equinox" is the lead track from the soundtrack to "New Moon." Sadly, after all the anticipation over where the song would appear in the film, it only runs over the credits). Still, the video is a delightfully moody piece, full of neo-goth foreboding that perfectly matches the song's dreamy melody.
Picking out a key scene from "Cousins," the just-premiered-today video from Vampire Weekend, is something of a mistake. After all, the spastic new clip is all about kinetic energy. The entirety of its three minutes takes place in an alley and features frontman Ezra Koenig rolling backwards and forwards on a track set up in the middle of the street. The clip mixes in a lot of low-fi cuts and funny visual gags, but one thing stays the same: It never stops moving. It's a perfect marriage of visuals to music, as the tune is a prototypical Vampire Weekend workout, full of spastic guitar twitches and rhythms that keep threatening to run away from the track entirely.
However, there is one shot that perfectly melds together just about everything that is brilliant about Vampire Weekend. During the second verse, Koenig is dressed in a tuxedo, and he holds a martini glass full of green liquid that he then throws behind him. Suddenly, his right arm becomes that of a gorilla, and he rips it off at the shoulder, dumping a series of Superballs (apparently that's what keeps Koenig springy) onto the ground. It's simultaneously funny, violent and absurd, not unlike the music on Vampire Weekend's forthcoming album Contra.
Vampire Weekend scored immediate buzz when their self-titled debut became a source of obsession for bloggers, NPR listeners and stoned college students alike. They found a permanent home in people's hearts with jumpy, Peter Gabriel-inspired workouts like "Oxford Comma" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." Their second album, the hotly-anticipated Contra, will hit the streets on January 12. Stay tuned to MTV News for much more on the band — including a complete track-by-track rundown of Contra — in the coming weeks
Last week, Paramore wrapped up a triumphant North American tour at the Palladium in Hollywood, California. This Sunday, they launch a European tour that will begin in Finland and will take them across the continent (including a show at London's Wembley Arena). That left a little over one week to decompress and catch up on whatever the group might have missed while they were on the road. For frontwoman Hayley Williams, that meant indulging in a handful of video games, television shows and movies that kept her occupied and helped her unwind between tour dates.
Williams has been keeping her fans abreast of her taste via her Twitter. On November 17, she wrote, "Can't stop playing 'Left 4 Dead 2,'" referencing the cricitally acclaimed zombie-hunting video game for XBox 360. "Still haven't come across the clown zombie as pictured on the back cover. He is my worst nightmare."
Two days earlier, she indulged in some cinema. "Got the German/zombie/awesome film 'Dead Snow' from a fan at meet and greet in Los Angeles last week," she wrote. "Watching it now! Opening scene rules." Clearly, she's got a taste for zombies.
On November 14, she took in an instant holiday classic. "'A Christmas Carol' warmed my soul," she wrote. "Jim Carrey, you are a legend."
Over the course of the week, Williams also saw the sci-fi movie "The Fourth Kind," played the "Saw" video game, discussed the UFC, experimented with writing one word tweets for a full day, saw "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Broadway in New York and promoted the new video from New Found Glory (boyfriend Chad Gilbert's band). But it wasn't all rest and recreation — in fact, she kept tabs on the post-production of the video for Paramore's "Brick by Boring Brick." We wish the band luck on their European tour and hope that Williams will continue to keep everybody updated on what the most awesome parts of Helsinki are and where she likes to hang out in Paris.
Last night's taping of the 2009 mtvU Woodie Awards (which went down at Roseland Ballroom in New York City) featured a handful of excellent performances, a few dozen very welcome stage divers, some almost nude people and a bunch of potty language that will certainly have to be edited for when the show airs at 10 p.m. on December 4 on MTV. One thing that certainly sets the Woodies apart from other award shows is the fashion. Because the Woodies celebrate college music and independent scenes on the fringe, it's a pretty casual affair. Comparatively speaking, it makes the Video Music Awards look like a black tie affair. Certain guests — like Mary-Louise Parker (who introduced the Dead Weather) and Zooey Deschanel (who presented the award for Breaking Woodie to Never Shout Never) — couldn't help but look glamorous, but for the most part everybody kept their threads dorm-friendly.
This was especially true of the folks who chose to wear hideous sweaters to the show. This was especially true of comedian David Cross, Christofer Ingle (also known as Never Shout Never) and Sean Foreman of 3OH!3, all of whom were wearing the kind of duds that would make Bill Cosby blush.
Still, some people managed to combine both slick and casual, including Diplo (whose suit was water-repellent), Friendly Fires (each of whom was wearing a dapper throwback suit; they sort of looked like they were on their way to a meeting with Don Draper) and Cam'Ron (who can't not look fly, no matter where he is). Check out the rest of the Woodies red carpet fashion here, including Death Cab for Cutie, Matt and Kim, Pete Wentz and Nick Cannon!
Considering how many chart-topping albums he has had and the number of smash singles he has released, it's amazing to think that Jay-Z has never had a song top the Billboard Hot 100, the definitive pop songs chart. That changed this morning, as his "Empire State of Mind" took the top spot in its tenth week of release. The track, which of course features a memorable hook care of Alicia Keys, picked up a ton of radio airplay in the wake of the New York Yankees' World Series win (the team ended up adopting it as a victory anthem). Meanwhile, "Run This Town," the first single from The Blueprint 3, remains in the top 20.
While it does mark the first time Jigga has had one of his own songs at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, it's not the first time his name has been associated with the top spot. He has been a guest on three other number one tunes: Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker," Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love" and Rihanna's "Umbrella." Keys is no stranger to the summit of the pop mountain either, as she has had two of her own songs hit the top spot ("Fallin'" and "No One") as well as another collaboration ("My Boo," with Usher).
Elsewhere on this week's Hot 100, Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" jumped seven spots up the chart to #11, which suggests that it should bust into the top 10 the same week that her The Fame Monster gets its official release. Other big gainers included 50 Cent's "Baby by Me" and the version of "Defying Gravity" as performed by Chris Colfer and Lea Michele from "Glee."
When the 1980s came to a close, there were a handful of artists who had established themselves as definitive contributors to the decade's musical palette. Names like Bruce Springsteen, Prince and Michael Jackson became synonymous with changing the direction of popular music in the decade of decadence. A strong late bloomer (but still a powerful contender), U2 were also mentioned alongside those greats. Their '80s output (especially 1987's The Joshua Tree) cemented them as not only a group who could fill stadiums with their soaring anthems but who were also pushing the envelope musically and socially. Of all the great groups from the '80s, U2 managed to evolve both the fastest and the best, and they proved it on this day in 1991 when they released Achtung Baby. The 12 song collection was recorded at least partially in Berlin, Germany, in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and blew out U2's sound to include elements of dance music, industrial rock and the glowing, humming ambient tones of co-producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. While it seemed like U2 were on top of the world, Achtung Baby elevated them to new heights, inspired the massive "Zoo TV" stadium tour and helped usher in the era of alternative rock. (U2 don't get enough credit for making arty experimentation seem like pop music.)
Though the rest of the '90s were not nearly as triumphant for U2 (they battled both fans and critics on the even-further-reaching albums Zooropa and Pop), they remain one of the great shape-shifting international rock bands, and despite having 30 years of experience under their collective belt, they still feel vital today. Break out your copy of Achtung Baby and marvel at how well it has aged. Start with "Even Better Than the Real Thing."
