By Vanessa White Wolf
Tom Hanks dropped by Conan O'Brien's reinvented "Tonight Show" last night and, maybe as a welcome-to-L.A. tip, he talked up the virtues of In-N-Out Burger. Tom's apparently a huge fan of the fast-food burger chain located mainly on the West Coast.
"It solves every problem ... sometimes you work on a movie and you're there until 3 in the morning — good news is, at midnight, know what's showing up? The In-N-Out Burger mobile," Hanks explained. "So, everyone's happy. You can't get the shake, but you know what? You don't need that much dairy."
So true. Being a New Yorker, I've never actually seen the In-N-Out van, but it's something I dream of. I'm a huge fan of the In-N-Out burger — I'd even say I'm the resident MTV News expert on the cuisine, and I have to get it every time I'm in L.A. Which means that after spending the last out there for the MTV Movie Awards, I needed it to refuel me constantly. (I won't give the exact number of how many times I visited the one right by Universal Studios, for fear of judgment.) Since the chain's been around for over 60 years, I'm a latecomer to the bandwagon, having first heard of the burgers in 1998's "The Big Lebowski." Read more...
By Eric Ditzian
The inevitable has happened: "Britain's Got Talent" sensation Susan Boyle got a makeover. She's ditched the drab dresses for a shiny black jacket, dyed her tangled gray locks a rich brown, donned a trendy plaid scarf.
Should we be concerned that the woman who rocketed to fame because of the unlikely juxtaposition of average-gal frumpiness and chill-inducing vocal chops has been forced to conform to conventional standards of beauty? Or should we instead applaud Ms. Boyle for her larvae-into-butterfly transformation now that she's on the world stage? No doubt half the Boyle-ites will be wringing their hands, while the other half sings (mostly off-key) her praises. Read more...
By Joel Hanek
Chanel, everyone's favorite rapping receptionist, steals the show on "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory." She's always present when the wackiness ensues at the Fantasy Factory, but it seems like she can never get enough screen time. (For those unfamiliar with the show, she's just like the smoke monster on "Lost" but much cuter and she doesn't murder people. OK, bad analogy.)
So to get our Chanel fix, MTV News correspondent Tim Kash caught up with Rob Dyrdek on the red carpet for the premiere of the new Justin Timberlake-produced "The Phone" and asked Rob about the Internet sensation that is Chanel. Rob describes Chanel as a "young, beautiful, talented, sweet girl" who is sometimes just misunderstood. Read more...
Billy Bob Thornton's latest musical venture got derailed over the weekend when the actor's band, the Boxmasters, canceled the rest of their Canadian tour due to a sudden bout of the flu. The announcement was shocking only because it was the second time in less than a few days that the Canadian tour curse had struck an American artist.
Just days earlier, Britney Spears was forced to walk offstage in Vancouver when a cloud of cigarette smoke grew so thick that it impeded the noted smoker's ability to perform.
That was a novel excuse, and much better than the one the Boxmasters offered. They canceled their remaining slots opening for Willie Nelson in Canada just a day after being roundly booed at a Toronto show following a contentious radio interview during which the "Sling Blade" star was evasive and compared Canadian audiences to mashed potatoes with no gravy. The failed sit-down earned the actor an eternal spot in "crazy interview" history, while the halfhearted spin from his camp raised the bar for lame excuses everywhere. Read more...
By Melanie Wolfson
Take one graying former Smashing Pumpkins axman, a Hanson brother-turned-father, a 57-year-old Cheap Trick drummer and the Fountains of Wayne bassist, and what do you have?
Tinted Windows, the music world's latest, relatively head-scratching supergroup.
That's right — James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Taylor Hanson have joined forces as the curiously named Windows. They even have a MySpace page, so it has to be legit.
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By April Richardson
Morrissey, former lead singer of the legendary Smiths, huge influence on bands like the Killers and Fall Out Boy and one of the headliners at this year's Coachella festival, will release his latest single, "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," on February 9. It's a great song, but that's not what I want to address here. What I need to deal with is MORRISSEY BEING NAKED on the inner sleeve artwork.
See the naughty artwork, after the jump!
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By Matt Harper
Sir Paul McCartney and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder are set to take the stage together in New York on April 4, and all at the request of avant-garde film director, David Lynch. Yes, it sounds strange, but the two music legends have signed on to play a benefit for Lynch's Transcendental Meditation foundation.
The concert, taking place at Radio City Music Hall, will help raise money for the Lynch Foundation, which seeks to promote Transcendental Meditation, a practice to which Lynch attributes his creativity.
McCartney's participation is particularly interesting because of the Beatles' embrace of the practice during the heyday of the psychedelic era in 1968, which found them spending weeks in India with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom John Lennon later slammed in his song "Sexy Sadie."
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By Sarah Muller
The Miley Cyrus auction is well on its way to bringing in a nice sum of cash — especially since highest bidder gets to meet her. And the money goes to a worthy cause: the Pappy Cyrus Family Foundation, which helps needy kids. If you could, how much would you pay to meet her? Let us know!
We've heard what Executive VP Megan Jasper considers to be Sub Pop's best albums, but now it's our turn to weigh in. Here's what folks around the newsroom had to say about their personal picks.
Dan "Monty" Montalto — Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary
Undoubtedly one of the most influential indie records of the '90s, Diary is one of the few albums that I have kept in constant rotation over the years. The brand of "emo" that this album represents (and essentially created) made for some of the best punk/indie/emo records of the late '90s (the Get Up Kids, Braid, Piebald, Texas Is the Reason). Any fans of those artists — and all those that followed — owe much to this album. Even lo-fi rockers No Age recently told us that Diary is one of their all-time faves. For a band with a short and frequently troubled lifespan, Sunny Day Real Estate's discography continues to shine 14 years later.
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Sub Pop's Seattle office is plenty nondescript. It's located above a restaurant in a swank part of the city. There's no sign on the door. The concierge of my hotel didn't even know where it was located, and it was directly across the street.
But once inside — up a single elevator to the third floor — you sort of understand why they've got to be discreet. If they flew a flag out front, the place would be inundated by excited music geeks like me.
As the label celebrates its 20th (official) year in business, there's so much history on display here, it's simply mind-boggling. (For a look back at the label's history and a list of 21 quintessential Sub Pop albums, check out this week's Bigger Than the Sound column.) The walls are lined with original mockups for album covers (like Mudhoney's Superfuzz Bigmuff EP and the banned artwork for Tad's 8-Way Santa), early design concepts for Sub Pop's iconic "Loser" T-shirt (complete with handwritten instructions from founder Bruce Pavitt that read, simply, "Make it BIG") and original Charles Peterson photographs of young bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. There are Polaroids of Beck, Greg Dulli and Stephen Malkmus clowning around at the old Sub Pop store. And there are gold and platinum records in the bathrooms.
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