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Snooki Rings In The New Year In This Week's 'Late Night Lineup'

Posted 1/3/11 9:30 am EST by in Television


It's a new year, which means that the holidays are over and it's time to get a handle on your resolutions. But if one of your goals for 2011 is to get more sleep, there's no help for you here, as all of your favorite talk shows are back from their Christmas breaks and ready to deliver big doses of comedy and celebrity straight to the part of your brain that resists going to bed. It'll be a tough struggle, but you can make it through this.

With everybody back in business, it's sort of impossible to decide where to begin, but "The Late Show With David Letterman" is as good a place as any. The host will welcome the likes of Paula Abdul (Monday, January 3), Shaquille O'Neal and Keri Hilson (Tuesday, January 4), Seth Rogen (Thursday, January 6) and (in a very Jimmy Fallon-esque booking) No Age (Friday, January 7). "The Tonight Show" counters with Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi (Monday), Jamie Foxx (Wednesday, January 5), Hilary Swank (Thursday) and "True Grit" breakout star Hailee Steinfeld (Friday). Snooki will also be making an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Thursday, while Kimmel will also chat with Matt LeBlanc (Tuesday) and "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester (Thursday).

In typical "Late Show" fashion, Jimmy Fallon is heavy on excellent music this week, as his show will feature indie-riffic performances from Best Coast (Monday), the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (Wednesday) and Iron & Wine (Thursday). Fallon will also joke around with Gwyneth Paltrow (Monday), "Jersey Shore" star DJ Pauly D (Tuesday) and "Blue Valentine" actress Michelle Williams.

Meanwhile on cable, Conan O'Brien will ring in the new year by talking to the likes of Christina Aguilera (Monday), the Kardashian sisters (Wednesday) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Thursday). That leaves Janet Jackson (Monday), Denzel Washington (Wednesday) and Jamie Foxx (Thursday) as the highlights of "Lopez Tonight," while Chelsea Handler's "Chelsea Lately" will feature Kevin Spacey (Wednesday) and Tim McGraw (Thursday). And if you really can't get enough Snooki, she'll be on the couch on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Wednesday.

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Swine Flu, Broken Bones And Busted Vocal Cords: The Rock Injury Report

Posted 8/13/09 10:47 am EST by in Music


One of the perks of being in a rock band is the opportunity to travel the world and entertain your fans in exotic locations. Of course, the downside of all that traveling is that you are susceptible to every nasty virus, bug and epidemic the globe has to offer, not to mention exhaustion and a good chance of serious injury.

And so, we give you a shockingly long list of the recent walking wounded.

» Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler: The 61-year-old front man of the veteran hard rockers took a tumble of a stage in South Dakota last week and though no official word has been given on what injuries he sustained, they are rumored to include a broken collarbone.

» Kasabian singer Tom Meighan: The leader of the techno-rocking British band has been quarantined after being diagnosed with swine flu in the midst of the band's current Far East swing.

» Placebo's Brian Molko: The gender-bending singer reportedly fainted onstage at the Summer Sonic show in Japan on Sunday and was carried offstage after suffering from an unexplained virus he picked up on the road.
Read More...

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No Age Overcome Dance-Off Injury In Lollapalooza Set

Posted 8/9/09 4:15 pm EST by in Lollapalooza


CHICAGO -- This is one of the weirdest shows," said an atypically sedentary Randy Randall, one-half of Los Angeles rock duo No Age on Saturday afternoon at Lollapalooza. The normally physically active guitarist had his arm in a sling due to a dislocated shoulder sustained the previous evening at No Age's round-robin tour with Deerhunter and Dan Deacon -- he got hurt during an over-zealous dance-off against Deacon. Fortunately, Dean Spunt seemed to hit the drums twice as hard to compensate, driving fans into a frenzy during the band's daytime set.

The crowd was mostly made up of younger kids seemingly eager to let loose under the hot afternoon sun and from opening the track, "Every Artist Needs a Tragedy," the relatively small audience immediately set to push and shove to the noise raging from the stage. The band really shines when they're playing small, enclosed spaces where the noise can blow out your ears, but they worked surprisingly well outside on one of Lolla's smaller stages.

There was even a crowd surfer or two that went up during "Sleeper Hold" and "Teen Creeps" really seemed to win over new fans standing idly around in the back of the scrum. The boys mostly stuck to tracks from the first two discs, Weirdo Rippers and Nouns, but also played a handful of new ones. The few fresh tracks sounded typical for the duo, but with denser songwriting and more frequent tempo changes. It's nice to hear the guys evolving and growing together and surely a positive sign of things to come. They're about to release a great new four-song EP called Losing Feeling, but are also hard at work on their next LP, due out sometime in 2010.

We went for a ride with the band and they told us what the pros and cons of playing a festival versus a typical club show.

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MTV News Staff Favorites Of 2008: Rya Backer's Top 10 Albums And Singles

Posted 12/30/08 2:31 pm EST by in Best Of, MTV News Staff Favorites '08


We here at MTV News are a pretty diverse bunch, so the views expressed by some in our more official-type year-end lists (like James Montgomery’s Top 25 Albums and Best Songs, and the Mixtape Monday Awards) are not necessarily shared by the rest of the newsroom. So we’re giving everyone else a chance to chime in with their own lists and explain (or defend) their choices. You’ll find the staff faves of 2008 all together here.

By Rya Backer, Production Assistant

I'm actually on vacation right now, and am typing this on a computer that might as well be operated by foot pedal, so no fun webcam plea from me. I don't think I could pick a definitive favorite song from 2008 anyway, not because I didn't especially like anything, but because I liked too many songs! Anyway, here are my favorite albums of 2008:

10. Passion Pit, Chunk of Change EP — These guys have, like, seven songs to their name thus far. Very excited to hear what's next.

9. Neil Young, Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968 — I don't think this counts as a "new" album, per se, but half the bands I've listed would be nothing if it weren't for him. "Birds" and his between-song banter are heartbreaking and heartwarming, respectively.

8. The Streets, Everything Is Borrowed — Hooray! It's more A Grand Don't Come for Free than The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living!

7. Dodos, Visiter — At first, I listened to "Jodi" on repeat, then I realized there were a lot more songs on the album that were just as good.

6. Marnie Stern, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That — Between Marnie Stern's fingerpicking and Zach Hill of my beloved Hella on drums, this album makes me feel untalented and boring; luckily, I need that kind of motivation. Read More...

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No Age Video: Think It's Just Noise? Maybe You Don't Get It, Man ...

Posted 7/7/08 8:00 am EST by in fnmtv, No-Age


By Christopher "CJ" Smith

Since the FNMTV premiere of "Eraser," the lo-fi, high-concept video from Los Angeles skate-punk duo No Age, the comments have been pouring in at MTV.com. Some hate on the gritty lo-fi sound and arguably indecipherable lyrics, while others are reveling in the distortion and walls of noise.

But No Age aren't the only ones these days playing with the lo-fi sound; there's a whole slew of bands revolving around the simple DIY aesthetic, crafting music in their basements, garages and bedrooms across America (we even made a mixtape in order to give you guys a sampling).

So for those who don't quite get the sound — and those who are loving every overblown into-the-red second — take a look at our larger video piece on the scene. It'll tell you everything you need to know about why they did it and where they're coming from. Just be sure to play it loud!

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Smooth Operator Neil Diamond Lands First Ever #1 Album

Posted 5/14/08 12:37 pm EST by in Charts


DiamondCharts

It’s hard to imagine an artist as accomplished and beloved as Neil Diamond (trust us -- your mom digs him) has never, over the course of his more than forty-year career, known the feeling of having an album hit the chart at #1. Hard to imagine, but true.

That's why this week is so sweet for the Solitary Man, because according to the latest SoundScan figures, Diamond’s Rick Rubin-produced Home Before Dark has broken that bad-luck streak, selling close to 146,000 copies to top next week’s chart. This was no doubt made possible by the tremendous boost of having some of his classic tunes featured (and, you know, mostly murdered) on that popular singing contest "American Idol."

Check out some other twists and turns in the chart, after the jump. Read More...

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No Age: Awesome Lo-Fi Rockers, Committed Vegans

Posted 5/8/08 3:52 pm EST by in lifestyle, Music


NoAgeVegan

LA’s No Age are one of the most exciting bands around -- for evidence, look no further than their newly released album Nouns. I’m also happy to say they are committed, resolute vegans, and have been so for years -- Dean Spunt since he was 15, with Randy Randall jumping on board a few years after that.

As a vegan myself, I often tell people that the move from meat-eating to vegetarian is much easier than the one from vegetarian to vegan. If you’re willing to make a steady diet out of pasta and pizza, no matter where you are, you can pretty much avoid meat. Avoiding pasta, cheese, eggs, and all animal products is another matter. It ain’t easy -- especially if you spend much time, oh, say, anywhere between NY’s East Village and Berkeley, CA.

No Age spend much of their time on the road, where dining options often range from McDonald’s to KFC, and somehow manage to stick to a vegan diet all the time. When I spoke to them a few weeks back, they were having none of the bitching about how “difficult” that choice is. Said Dean, “People always ask us, ‘Isn’t it hard to be vegan on the road?’ and we’re always like, ‘No, not at all.’ I mean, sometimes you have to go to a grocery store and buy some fruits and vegetables, but other than that….no.”

As for “cheating” with the occasional bite of cheese, Randy doesn’t stand for it. “I mean, who am I cheating?” he asked. “It’s a choice I made, and it’s something that I enjoy doing and I find value in it.”

It’s the “enjoy doing” part that meat eaters have a huge problem wrapping their heads around. I constantly encounter the assumption that I must be miserable not eating meat, since I am “denying myself” so much gastronomic pleasure. “Right,” Randy agreed, “like you’re depriving yourself of something. And it’s like, ‘No, I’m actually enjoying the best parts of food...’”

And honestly, Dean said, often it’s non-animal consumers who are more adventurous. “When I decided to go vegan, food opened up a whole new world,” he told me. “It was like, Thai food, Ethiopian food, Indian food -- I didn’t even know about those things before, you know?”

“The choices in food being vegan are so much more infinite than being a close-minded, suburban meat eater,” Randy chimed in. “Leaving fast food behind and exploring new cultures in food was a lot more interesting.”

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Our Lo-Fi Punk Mixtape: No Age, Jay Reatard, Times New Viking, Vivian Girls & More

Posted 5/6/08 4:11 pm EST by in Music


noage

This in from MTV News producer (and lo-fi punk born-again) CJ Smith:

We just put up a special piece (like a Christmas special?) on the wave of punk bands doing it lo-fi these days. What can I say? It was a flimsy excuse to hang with LA's No Age, Columbus' Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horses***, Memphis' Jay Reatard, and Detroit's Tyvek. But there was so much more I wished we could have included from even more locales -- from Portland's awesome up-and-comers Eat Skull, France's barrier-breaking Cheveu, Brooklyn's beautiful Vivian Girls, and many others.

This just goes to show how strong this movement really is: once I got into it, it consumed me and changed my perception to the point where I don't really want to listen to much else. [Ed: There is a pill for that.]

So I've got something for you: a very cool mixtape using the awesome music site Muxtape -- which is probably one of the most amazing sites for music sharing (in this case, mixtape-sharing) to come along in quite some time. You simply upload music to your computer, set the track order, and bang! You've got your very own mixtape and web address that you can send to others to rock out.

So here's my attempt at doing our lo-fi punk piece justice, in mixtape form. Just please make sure to listen as directed. The instructions are sooooo complicated.

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Lo-Fi Punk: Is Columbus, Ohio, the New Brooklyn?

Posted 5/6/08 1:59 pm EST by in Music, New Music Update



When you see MTV News producer CJ Smith’s report on the burgeoning lo-fi punk movement (clip above), you’ll notice that the phenom is spreading out around the country. From LA’s No Age and The Smell, to Portland’s Eat Skull and Little Claw, to Memphis’s Jay Reatard, the artists are from all over the place. But key to the movement -- in fact, it wouldn’t be the same without it -- is a zone in the USA known as the Rust Belt. That’s right, the same Rust Belt that Barack and Hillary have been courting in recent weeks, whose economy is largely in the dumps, is home to some of our most exciting music.

From Philadelphia’s Clockcleaner and the venerable Siltbreeze label, all the way west to Lafayette, Indiana’s TV Ghost, I-70 seems to be ground zero for lo-fi punk. The unexpected ground zero seems to be Ohio’s capital, Columbus. That city’s home to the most prominent of these bands, Times New Viking, whose two-minute-long offerings of fuzzed-out pop punk, on full display on this year’s “Rip It Off,” earn them frequent comparisons to those other Ohio icons, Dayton’s Guided By Voices. “We definitely came of age with that kind of stuff,” said Beth Murphy.

Less fuzzy but no less rowdy and raucous, is fellow Columbus band Psychedelic Horses***. They’re also a trio that doesn’t shy away from button-pushing -- take for example what they had to say about a much-lauded Brooklyn band that inspired their song “New Wave Hippies.” “It’s about Yeasayer,” said Matt Whitehurst. “These bands aren’t pushing boundaries, they’re not passionate, not original, and aren’t saying anything to their audience. They’re wasting their talent.”

Head north from Columbus and you hit Toledo, and beyond that Detroit -- both hometowns to members of urgent band, Detroit-based Tyvek, who told us that it could be the perpetually struggling economies of the Rust Belt states that contribute to a sound that is so raw and relentless. As Kevin Boyer told us, “People have given up on trying to get a real job in Michigan. Everyone’s like, ‘Let’s just start a band.’”

So as Clinton and Obama wrestle for votes in their next battleground, Indiana, spare a thought for how hard times make for good music. That seems to be the case right now in the lo-fi punk hotbed of the Rust Belt.

Now let’s figure out a way to let Michigan’s voice be counted, please?

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For The Record: No Age, Whitney, The Silver Jews & More

Posted 4/22/08 3:05 pm EST by in For The Record


NoAgeFTR

· No Age, Yeasayer, !!!, and Mudhoney play gigs to support indie radio.

· Looks like Whitney Houston has gotten over Bobby Brown.

· Apparently, this amazing ad for Budweiser was shot by Harmony Korine (??) and features at least one member of the Silver Jews. Maybe.

· Against Me! has posted a new PSA for Rock the Vote that features an peek at their new video for "Stop!"

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