Search Posts

Follow Us

  1. Get the latest updatest in your favorite RSS feed reader.

OK, so it's a day early, but we would be remiss if we didn't celebrate Halloween. Originally a Celtic celebration that marked the end of the summer, Halloween means different things for different people. For some — mostly children — it's an excuse to gorge yourself on candy. For others — mostly young, drunk women — it's a reason to wear as little clothing as possible in public under the guise that they're dressing as a "sexy kitty." Still others use it as a justification for mischief, or simply the appropriate time of year to watch all of the films in the "Friday the 13th" series ("Jason Takes Manhattan" is my favorite).

Some people love Halloween so much that they live it year-round. Take Marilyn Manson, who has spent a career bringing together industrial-infused metal, Satan, scary make-up, David Bowie-esque posing and a cheeky sense of humor for a unique stew that frightens parents and keeps kids thinking spooky thoughts. Though Manson's effect has dulled over the years, he's no less a provocateur, and his career collection of music videos is impressive and often genuinely terrifying. "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" casts him as some sort of mythological creature, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" saw him make tutus unnerving and "The Dope Show" put him in the role of a druggy, androgynous alien. But the greatest fear factor in a Manson video comes from "The Man That You Fear," the last song from Antichrist Superstar. There's something about it that just seems wrong — even the hats seem otherworldly. Have a good scare, and if you're still looking to be spooked, check out the list of videos much, much scarier than "Saw VI."

Pink is currently bringing her Funhouse tour through Europe (she has a show in Glasgow tonight), but her mind is also on Halloween. The theatrical singer takes the forthcoming holiday seriously, and she turned to her over 600,000 Twitter followers for suggestions on what she should do for a costume this year. "What should I be for Halloween?" she tweeted. "I have a show that day, so the costume would just be for me, in my hotel room. I'd still go all out though."

She checked back in a little while later to weigh on some of the suggestions. "You are all insane," she tweeted. "A penguin? I like the glowstick one." She also noted that although she likes the idea of being a character from "True Blood," it's not quite what she is looking for. "I bet there will be 10 gazillion Sookie Stackhouses," she wrote. "I don't have that cool gap in my teeth. I wanna be a cheese ball."

It's uncertain whether Pink is simply looking for a costume that is cheesy or if she actually wants to dress up like a round orange snack food. Regardless, here are a few suggestions for Pink's costume dilemma.

» A Volturi Guard: Everybody's wild for vampires — especially the ones from "Twilight." So why not get ahead of the curve on the release of "New Moon" and dress like one of the Volturi? Hollywood Crush even has the complete guide.

» Octomom: Take eight vacuum cleaner hoses, affix them to the front of your mom jeans and voila! An incredibly lazy but funny and topical costume.
Read more...

Ever since Phish announced that they would be hosting their own three-day festival, which will be taking place on October 30 & 31 and November 1 in Indio, California at the same site as the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, speculation launched immediately about what the band would do for their "musical costume." One of the group's many traditions is to cover a classic album in its entirety on Halloween (past costumes include the Velvet Underground's Loaded and the Who's Quadrophenia), and this year will be no different.

As a way to build anticipation for the Halloween show (and the weekend itself, which is simply being called Festival 8), the band's official Web site currently contains a massive gallery of album covers. Each of these covers will be eliminated one-by-one (via a scary animated axe, complete with horror movie blood) until the last record standing gets crowned the victor. (It should be noted that we managed to guess a whole bunch of the potential albums in the above blog posts, and we still think the best idea is Billy Joel's 52nd Street.)

So far, the band has ruled out the following albums: Duran Duran's Rio, Elvis Costello's This Year's Model, Pink Floyd's Meddle, the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Firehose's Flyin' the Flannel, the Who's Who's Next, Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man, David Bowie's Scary Monsters, the White Stripes' Elephant and Peter Gabriel's So, among others. The remaining albums are a mix of the strange (Hall & Oates' Private Eyes, Frank Zappa's Hot Rats), the divine (Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction, Radiohead's Kid A, Love's Forever Changes) and the too-on-the-nose (the Grateful Dead's American Beauty, the Allman Brothers Band's Eat a Peach).

Of the remaining albums, it's probably reasonable to eliminate all of the metal (which means Metallica's Master of Puppets and Black Sabbath's Paranoid can take a walk) and hip-hop (say goodbye to the Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty). Since the newest album the group has ever covered was Talking Heads' Remain in Light, it seems unlikely they'd roll out anything too new (like Radiohead's Kid A, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or MGMT's Oracular Spectacular).

Any of the remaining albums could probably get the nod. The Newsroom's vote? Go ahead and jam on Purple Rain, boys. You've earned it.

"Vampires seem to be the monster that pops up the most frequently, because it's hard to do other ones. It's hard to make a sexy wolf-man. I did see 'Twilight.' It was fine. I had no problems with it. I'm sure I'd enjoy it a lot more if I was a 14-year-old girl!"

-"Halloween II" director and theatrical metalhead Rob Zombie discussing the "Twilight" phenomenon. Zombie, who grew up on horror movies and whose films are about monsters who are very human, has no beef with the current trend of "sexy vampires" and reminded MTV News that it's no different than any other teen sensation. "Everyone's hysterical about everything, aren't they?" he said. Zombie is currently in the middle of his job guest-editing the MTV Movies Blog leading up to Friday's release of "Halloween II," the sequel to his re-imagining of John Carpenter's classic slasher flick. "I just got protective of the series," Zombie told MTV News about his inspiration for going back to the franchise. "I had spent so much time trying to revive the whole thing that it looked like they were just going to go back in and destroy it."

Coldplay's Chris MartinBy Adrienne Day

There's a lot going on in the world that doesn't necessarily get addressed in our Newsroom blog. Here's a look at some top stories making headlines today.

It's Grammy time, and here are our predictions for the winners! (Hint: We're betting heavily on Coldplay.) Also, could M.I.A., Leona Lewis, Rihanna and other female artists up for awards turn the Grammys into ladies' night?

Is Nas' message stronger than his music? We listen to the controversy surrounding the rapper's Untitled, up for a Best Rap Album Grammy.

Day26 clue us in to the mood of their new album — sexy! — and to their dream-team collaborators: "Kanye West, Lil Wayne, T.I., Jeezy, Luda, T-Pain ... we want to work with you."

John Carpenter is back in the director's seat: We hear that the "Halloween" mastermind is set to direct "The Ward," starring Amber Heard, who plays a woman trapped in a haunted mental institution.

Tokio Hotel puffing on candy cigarettes
Yesterday, we got a chance to spend some time with one of everyone's favorite German import bands, Tokio Hotel, who were in New York for the last date of their current U.S. tour. We wanted to spread some Halloween love, American style, to our visitors, so we brought them a boatload of every kind of candy we could think of. Read about and watch Tokio Hotel's first Halloween experience here.

And watch them demonstrate the glories of candy cigarettes after the jump.
Read more...

I grew up in New Jersey, and when driving down the shore, my parents would always try to scare me and my brother with the tale of the Jersey Devil. And it seems that fellow Jersey native Bruce Springsteen was also terrified by the story.

It being Halloween and all, the Boss is giving away more than just fun-sized candy bars: He's offering a new song and video called "A Night With the Jersey Devil."

On his Web site he writes, "Dear Friends and Fans, If you grew up in central or south Jersey, you grew up with the 'Jersey Devil.' Here's a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun! Bruce Springsteen"

In the blues song, Bruce tells the tale of the Jersey Devil. Read more...