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Kanye West, World Cup And Lady Gaga's Tour: This Week's Deep Cuts

Posted 7/2/10 6:00 pm EST by in Deep Cuts


There's a long Independence Day weekend ahead, which means that you should be spending the next few days enjoying the outdoors, taking a road trip, lounging by the pool or watching Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin pound the snot out of each other in Las Vegas. But no matter what you do this three-day weekend, just remember to be safe and enjoy yourself. Before you do any of that, be sure to check out all the awesomeness you might have missed this week on the MTV Newsroom Blog.

» The week began with the BET Awards, which saw Chris Brown weep, Alicia Keys salute Prince and Kanye West return to the stage with an awesome piece of Egyptology bling.

» The MTV World Cup of Rock continues throughout the weekend with the quarterfinal rounds. Who will advance to the semifinals? Only you can decide, so get voting!

» Lady Gaga launched the latest leg of her tour in Montreal, and since she's breaking out even more props and effects on stage, we can expect live naval battles pretty soon.

» Eminem's new album Recovery debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart, cementing himself alongside Jay-Z as one of the most dominant rappers in pop history.

» How did Eminem manage to sell so many copies in one week? One devoted fan offered up his theory.

» How did you celebrate Canada Day? Did you watch a bunch of videos from Justin Bieber, Sarah McLachlan and the rest of our favorite Canadians?
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Celebrate Canada Day With Justin Bieber, Drake And Sarah McLachlan

Posted 7/1/10 11:30 am EST by in Music


Happy Canada Day, everybody! Our neighbors to the north are celebrating the uniting of two British colonies plus a British province into a single country called Canada in 1867. Like Independence Day in the United States, Canada Day celebrates the birth of a new nation with fireworks, barbecues, concerts, parades and copious amounts of eating and drinking (probably Molson). Canada is a remarkable country, as they have delightful socialized medicine, a charming separatist movement in the province of Quebec and loads of excellent musical exports, from legends like Neil Young to one-hit wonders like Snow.

The video playlist below is a salute to some of Canada's finest musical contributions. They include everything from buzz-worthy hip-hop (Toronto-based Drake's "Best I Ever Had") to folk-kissed indie (Feist's "Mushaboom") to sugary teen pop (Justin Bieber's "Eenie Meenie") to good old-fashioned rock (Our Lady Peace's "Somewhere Out There"). There are also divas, both traditional (Celine Dion) and non-traditional (Alanis Morissette). There's also Hole's slick "Celebrity Skin" (former bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur is from Montreal) and Skid Row's jagged "Breakin' Down" (frontman Sebastian Bach grew up outside of Toronto). Of course Avril Lavigne is on that list, as is Barenaked Ladies' "One Week."

But we begin as all things should begin: With Sarah McLachlan. She'll be celebrating Canada Day in her hometown of Vancouver today, as the newly re-launched Lilith Fair makes a stop at Ambleside Park. McLachlan is our favorite Canadian of all time, as she not only creates expertly-crafted pop songs but also made those long skirts really popular for a little while at the end of the '90s. Her "Building a Mystery" remains the song that everybody thinks about when they think about female musicians in the late '90s (well, either that or that one Meredith Brooks tune), and she remains a vital artist (her recently-released Laws of Illusion is charmingly frosty pop). Check out the totally amazing clip for "Building a Mystery" and toast the nation that gave us rabid hockey fandom, poutine and that Tylenol with Codeine in it.

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Justin Bieber Got His Tattoo At A Parlor Owned By An Awesome Canadian Rock Star

Posted 5/20/10 3:20 pm EST by in Music


Earlier in the week, some news and images surfaced that told us that Justin Bieber had gotten a tattoo. As a part of his 16th birthday celebration at the beginning of March, Bieber went to Son of a Gun Tattoo and Barbershop in Toronto with his dad in tow to get an impression of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (a tattoo also possessed by Bieber's dad and his uncle) on his hip. On Tuesday (May 18), MTV News caught up with Son of a Gun co-owner Brian Byrne, who laid out the narrative of the event. It's a great story that inspired us to graft other celebrity tattoos on him.

But the name "Brian Byrne" stuck out and seemed awfully familiar. Then it became clear: Byrne is a rock star himself, having fronted Canadian psychedelic rockers I Mother Earth around the turn of the century. The band first formed in 1991 and had several major hits in Canada, thought their one claim to fame in America was the minor hit "One More Astronaut," which came from their album Scenery and Fish and ended up in the Top 20 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart in 1996. But Byrne didn't sing on that track; he joined the band following the departure of their original lead singer in 1997.

You can hear Byrne's rugged, expressive voice on two I Mother Earth Albums: 1999's Blue, Green, Orange and 2003's awesomely proggy The Quicksilver Meat Dream. While the group had initially dabbled in psychedelia and jam aesthetics, the Byrne version of I Mother Earth dove deeper into prog, metal, industrial sounds and electronic instrumentation. The Quicksilver Meat Dream is especially impressive, especially for the hard-charging "Choke."

The band broke up in 2003, and Byrne has put out two solo albums since then (2006's Tuesdays, Thursdays and If It Rains and 2007's Tailor Made). But he has himself a new slice of notoriety as the guy who owns the place where Canada's newest pop sensation got his first taste of ink. If you love Justin Bieber and you love tattoos, you owe it to yourself to seek out some I Mother Earth.

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With Betty White Out Of The Way, What's The Next Facebook Group To Score A Win?

Posted 5/10/10 6:00 pm EST by in Music


Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this past weekend's episode of "Saturday Night Live" was not that the 88-year-old Betty White appeared in every single sketch on the show or that it appears as though even Jay-Z thinks "Young Forever" is sort of flat (though it was charming that he dedicated the tune to the host). No, it was the fact that said episode of the show was made possible by an online campaign that started on Facebook. Following White's attention-grabbing performance in a Super Bowl ad, the petition went forth requesting that White appear as the host of the show. Millions of people spread the idea around and wrote about it, and apparently the virtual shouting was loud enough for "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels to hear, as he booked White for the show and the rest is history.

But now that the people behind White have scored their victory, what's next? Knowing that the power of a Facebook campaign can actually influence how things operate in the real world, let's take a look at some ongoing Facebook petitions and see if we can spot another surefire hit.

Petition For DJ Khaled To Limit "We The Best" Usage
Goal: The administrator would like producer and mixtape master DJ Khaled to cut down on shouting "We the best!" on his tracks. Not stop, mind you — just limit.
Odds: Slim. Even if the group gets enough supporters, it's unlikely Khaled will slow down with his catch phrase. After all, Diddy is still yelling "Bad Boy," and it's been 15 years.

The Petition For Season 4!
Goal: Fans of the FX show "Damages" want a fourth season of the show.
Odds: Moderate. According to an Entertainment Weekly report, the critically-acclaimed bur ratings-challenged (and expensive) series, which stars Glenn Close as lawyer Patty Hewes, may be getting another go-round on DirecTV.

Canada Is The Best Of The U.S. And U.K. Worlds
Goal: The (presumably Canadian) author simply wants acknowledgment that his home nation is actually the best aspects of the United States and the United Kingdom combined.
Odds: Non-existent. Read More...

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The 'Miracle On Ice' Puts U.S. Hockey In The Record Books: Wake-Up Video

Posted 2/22/10 9:00 am EST by in Wake-Up Video


It's a great morning for the United States hockey program, as they walked away from their match-up with Canada with a 5-3 victory on Sunday (February 21). Goalie Ryan Miller played an improbably stellar game, and the U.S. now has a bye into the quarterfinal round of the tournament. They'll have to see how the rest of the seeding shakes out, but for now the U.S. is the top seed in an already topsy-turvy Olympic tournament in Vancouver.

It's appropriate that the United States got the win a mere 24 hours before the anniversary of the biggest upset in the history of Olympic hockey. On this day in 1980, the underdog United States team defeated the Soviet Union by a score of 4-3 in the semifinals of the Olympic tournament in Lake Placid, New York. The game was a freestanding metaphor for the height of the Cold War: The Soviet Union team consisted of more experienced, state-sponsored athletes, while the U.S. was made up of mostly college players and true amateurs. The grit and tenacity of the American squad — along with some deft coaching care of hockey legend Herb Brooks — overcame the streamlined efficiency of the Soviets, and the U.S. outlasted them in one of the most stunning upsets in sports history. Two days later, the United States went on to win the gold medal following a win over Finland.

The victory over the Soviet Union became known as the "Miracle on Ice" (after play-by-play announcer Al Michaels jubilantly shouted "Do you believe in miracles?" following the final buzzer at the end of the game). While Sunday night's win over Canada doesn't quite hold the same cultural caché as the win in 1980, it's still a huge upset and could mean big things for the U.S. squad (which hasn't won a medal since 2002 and hasn't scored gold since 1980). Maybe it's time for another run. Maybe it's "Time for Miracles" (thanks, Adam Lambert).

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Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony: The Highlights

Posted 2/13/10 6:29 am EST by in Sports


On Friday night, the eyes of the world were on Vancouver's BC Place, as the games of the XXI Winter Olympics got underway with a lavish, joyous opening ceremony that had soul, showmanship and plenty of Wayne Gretzky.

Some 60,000 people packed inside the arena (this was, after all, the first indoor opening ceremony), and, unfortunately, I was not one of them. But I was next door, at the Molson Canadian Hockey House, a raucous viewing party/concert/celebration of all things Canuck that featured plenty of beer, ladies clad in skin-tight hockey dresses, and a piano painted with the maple leaf. It was a pretty excellent time, so I started to write an impromptu LiveTweet of the entire event -- and, by proxy, the opening ceremonies -- over on the @MTVNews Twitter account.

And since you probably weren't glued to your computer during the ceremony, I figured I'd recap some of the highlights on the Newsroom blog. Also, let's just say the entire MTV News crew enjoyed themselves a bit too much last night, and this is a pretty easy thing to knock off first-thing Saturday morning. So, come with me as we relive the best moments from the opening ceremony ... like the time I mistook Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean for comedienne Wanda Sykes. Yeah, it was that kind of night. On to the Tweets!

**Trying to make it to Molson ... security has the streets locked down. Scalpers selling tix for 700 Canadian pesos. That's like $20,000 U.S. or something.

**We made it!!! Only 20 minutes late!!! #olympiclivetweetfail

**It's officially the "Indigenous Persons" portion of the opening ceremonies, BTW. Followed, of course, by athlete intro time!!!

**Albania and Algeria have one athlete each. The Algerian dude looks like Paolo Nutini.

Read more culturally insensitive jokes after the jump. Read More...

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Justin Bieber Returns Home To Serenade Fans For The Holidays

Posted 12/23/09 11:47 am EST by in Music


Justin Bieber may currently reside in Atlanta (not too far from Asher Roth), but he grew up in tiny Stratford, Ontario, Canada, a town with only a few hundred people. But through the power of the Internet, Bieber managed to catch the attention of the right people and went from singing in local competitions to having a top 10 album and singing for President Obama.

On Tuesday, Bieber went home for the holidays. He paid a visit to the MuchMusic studio in Toronto to perform live and interact with some fans. "Canada!" he tweeted. "I'm back." Following an interview and a performance, Bieber gave some flowers to a grateful fan.

While in Toronto, Bieber was also surprised with his first platinum plaque for My World, and next week, MuchMusic will air "Leave it to Bieber," a special documentary about the 15-year-old singer's rise to fame. It'll be a great way to kick off 2010, a year that will see Bieber release the second part of My World.

In the meantime, there are still "golden tickets" available in copies of My World. Anybody who finds one will get either a cameo in a Bieber video or a free personal concert. The singer continues to tweet about the tickets and encourages his fans to seek them out (he notes on his Twitter that there might be golden tickets sitting under Christmas trees right now).

(Check out more photos of Justin Bieber's visit to MuchMusic!)

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Celebrate Canada Day With These One-Hit Wonders From The Great White North

Posted 7/1/09 2:12 pm EST by in Music


Today is Canada Day, which celebrates the establishment of our fine neighbors to the north. We've been celebrating all day today at MTV News: We had donuts at this morning's meeting (Canada consumes the most donuts of any country) and Hollywood Crush is tipping its hat to some of Canda's finest male exports.

They've given the world a number of other fine products besides swoon-worthy men: Poutine, universal health care, a fierce devotion to hockey and boundary-pushing one-hit wonders. Here are the five finest flashes-in-the-pan from the Great White North.

Men Without Hats, "The Safety Dance"
Montreal's Men Without Hats had their moment in the sun in 1982 with a single that had three things going for it: It was from Canada, it was an international hit and it was about a series of dance moves. Like many of the groups on this list, Men Without Hats managed to have other hits in Canada after their U.S. exposure had faded — including a great song called "Pop Goes the World."
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A Canuck Weighs In On New All-Canadian Record Label From Kiss' Gene Simmons

Posted 1/30/09 12:26 pm EST by in Canada, gene-simmons


By Matt Harper

Gene Simmons: rock god, legendary lothario, reality TV "star" ... and now, savior of the Canadian music scene? Yep, in a somewhat baffling move, the Kiss bassist has partnered with Universal Canada to (re-)form Simmons Records: an all-Canadian imprint hoping to search out and recruit unsigned Canuck music acts.

Now, as a Canadian (who's lived in New York for about three years), this news made me feel fairly conflicted. On one hand, who am I to criticize someone aiming to pump money into the Canadian economy, especially by supporting an arts and culture scene that is 100 percent worthy. On the other hand, there is an air of condescension surrounding this whole venture. In a recent impassioned response to an Idolator post, Simmons bluntly stated his reasons for coming to the rescue of the hard-working but apparently overlooked Canadian musicians: "Why here? Because you DO have the talent. And now, you have a WAY. ME."

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