Obsessively blogging about pop music, pop videos, pop stars, and pop culture from inside the MTV headquarters in Times Square. We also have a slight Jonas Brothers problem. And a little fixation with Tokio Hotel.
Introduced by David Cross -- one of the many bearded bros at the Woodie Awards -- Death Cab plows through the song as if it'd been a staple of their live sets for years. I wonder if guitarist Chris Walla was thinking about his favorite Twilight character (Bella's dad!) while he was jamming away there.
Watch the 2009 mtvU Woodies Friday, December 4, at 10 p.m. ET on mtvU, MTV, MTV2, and Palladia.
It should come as no great shock that Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video was a massive undertaking. Directed by uber-stylish feature film director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine), the video has the high-end production value of a blockbuster movie.
In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," you'll see just how significant an endeavor the whole thing was. Francis Lawrence talks about CGI diamonds raining on Gaga, while dancers praise Gaga's relentless work ethic. And the swarthy, gold-face-masked Russian gangster at the center of the video gives some insight into his "character."
It's a fascinating look at what is, arguably, the video of the year.
Lady Gaga doesn't just change outfits a lot, she also changes vocal styles. Take, for instance, "Bad Romance," which features Gaga takes several different emotional stances: from the robotic chanting in the beginning of the song, to the hysterical neediness of the chorus, to the surly fashionista in the break.
For their remix of Gaga's latest smash, neo-disco masterminds Hercules & Love Affair (who put out lush, romantic dance floor lullabies on the DFA label) have added another wrinkle to her performance, assembling a kind of compilation of her various voices from the song.
The effect is beguiling; Gaga sounds disembodied, cut and pasted together over the lovely, stuttering, electro dance track.
It's been a minute (a few minutes, really) since we had a Kid Sister video to enjoy. The Chicago MC broke out two years ago with the Kanye West-assisted "Pro Nails," with a video directed Zombieland auteur Rueben Fleischer.
Now, with her album Ultraviolet finally on shelves and in stores, Kid Sis is back on disc, wax, tape, and, for our purposes here, on screen.
"Right Hand Hi" is a fab piece of J.J. Fad electro-hop, with a half-dozen hooks crammed into a tight, burst of a jam. The video has some flashing lights, some flashy choreography, and a projected Kid Sister doing her thing on building walls.
How do you cure a broken heart? Well, according to this brand new Alicia Keys video for her song, "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart" -- from her upcoming The Element of Freedom album -- you help the less fortunate.
In this Syndrome-directed clip, Keys takes on a rather messianic/martyr pose, healing wounded puppies andzooming around NYC on a motorcycle that shoots out purple, Tron-like exhaust from its pipes.
Can Super Alicia (who can fly in this video, BTW) cure her own relationship woes in the same fashion that she heals ailing canines? You'll have to watch to find out.
The bearded men of Death Cab For Cutie were lucky enough to have the first single from the New Moon soundtrack with "Meet Me On The Equinox." And aside from making them extremely popular with the Twi-hard crowd, it's automatically immersed them in Twilight lore and philosophy.
Chris declares his preference for Bella's unassuming dad out of all the Twilight characters, while Nick drops some knowledge on Twilight's larger appeal, relating it to the current political climate and consumerism.
Nick Harmer then opens a HUGE can of worms by openly speculating on the chances of a Twilight musical. (As opposed to Twilight the Musical, the YouTube parody.) Wonder if Death Cab would be up for scoring that?
Sure, you can meet them on the equinox. But before you head over there, can you pick up some clippers on the way? Death Cab For Cutie, pictured above, were just some of the bearded boys marauding last night's mtvU Woodie Awards. Seriously, Jason McGerr and Ben Gibbard had the Death Cab Starter Beard, but Nick Harmer was rocking the straight-up new-school Colonel Sanders.
As if a don't-shave mandate went out two months prior to last night's Woodies, we saw everything from the "Captain Ahab"/"Robert Shaw from Jaws" (rocked by David Cross) to the "late-period, drugged-out Brian Wilson" -- demonstrated on the face of 3Oh!3's Sean Foreman, who later dressed up like Lady Gaga -- to the awesome evil beard, which Tech N9ne wore so right.
Look who's definitely back in the house. Snoop D-O-Double-G returns with a sneak peek at his new video, "I Wanna Rock," from his upcoming album, Malice, due December 8th.
Snoop has apparently been watching some America's Best Dance Crew or Step Up with his brood (featured in the too-short-lived Snoop Dogg's Father Hood show). This clip features some nice dance-off footage to compliment the "Thriller"-synths and "Drop It Like It's Hot"-esque beat (courtesy of Scoop DeVille).
Watch for Snoop's "I Wanna Rock" video, coming soon.
You can imagine the flutter of hearts felt across London when Hammers fans saw Perry decked out in a claret and blue bustier, thinking to themselves, "Cor blimey, wish my missus would get dolled up like that!" (that was my cockney impersonation, btw).
Well, now your missus (or any other lass) can get their paws on Perry's West Ham lingerie. The club, responding to, "huge demand," have contracted the original designer, Siobhan Dillon, to make a limited run of the outfit, running a measly £300.
West Ham are currently mired in a fight for their Barclay's Premier League survival (that means they're not doing well at playing soccer), so I guess they need all the support they can get (pun, sadly, intended).
Made up of a series of manic, breakneck dolly shots that match the manic, breakneck pace of the track, Vampire Weekend's "Cousins" is the perfect marriage of music video and song. It's primitive, punk, and a total gas.
