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Why is Shakira going wild in the streets of Barcelona? Originally she planned to shoot another glittery production for "Loca," her new duet with British rapper Dizzee Rascal, but then did something a little crazy and let Dizzee direct.

OK, Jaume de Laiguana is the official man in charge of this fun run, yet Dizzee does quite a bit of the handheld camera work for "Loca" (and you can tell because he occasionally points the camera at himself). The "Loca" video's urban locale is a little grittier than what you've seen from the Colombian superstar, with her skating through traffic and gawking fans in Spain's famed city.

"Loca," as Dizzee described it, is on a bit of a "merengue tip," punctuated by bouncy horn stabs and the rapper's skittering rhymes. Be sure to look out for moments when Shakira lies her bare stomach down on the sidewalk and then rinses off by dancing in front of a crowd in Barcelona's Pla de Palau.

Tags Dizzee Rascal, Shakira, video

Linkin Park has said that the band's new release, A Thousand Suns, would be a concept album, but only dropped occasional hints of what that concept would be. And the lyrics to the first single, "The Catalyst," sketch a pretty dark picture about what it may be.

"We will burn inside the fires of a thousand suns," sings Chester Bennington over a dense layer of ominous synths and sustained guitars. Joe Hahn, Linkin Park's DJ and sampler, directed the "The Catalyst" video (which will premiere on August 26 on MTV). Hahn name-checks Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, and the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture, when explaining the inspiration for the song and its video.

“When coming up with the idea of the visual piece to accompany the song, I thought of the end," Hahn says. “What would it look like and feel like if someone pushed the button to decide our fate? What would it feel like if we accepted our fate in the moment of devastation? If we had a final moment to celebrate our final living moments, how would that feel?"

Heavy enough for you? Check out some of the first stills to appear from Linkin Park's "The Catalyst" video and don't miss the a 30-second preview on Monday, August 23, here on Buzzworthy.

+ See more stills from Linkin Park's "The Catalyst" video after the jump.

Read more...

Tags linkin park

If we're to believe the tabloids, relationships have been difficult for Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5. So perhaps that's why all of his songs explore the drama and pain of love. "It's good therapy to write about them," Levine recently told MTV News.

Ah, but it's even better therapy (or at least more fun) to act out that romantic angst with spine-cracking stunts and a domineering blonde! In the video for the band's bubbly new single, "Misery," (the first off the group's new album, Hands All Over) Levine stumbles off a building, crashes through plate glass and gets smacked around by supermodel Anne Vyalitsyna. "We decided to focus on violence instead of sex this time around," joked bassist Mickey Madden.

Tags Adam Levine, Anne Vyalitsyna, Maroon 5, Misery, Video Premiere

Jared Leto his been keeping us up to date on all of 30 Seconds To Mars' travels, sightseeing and pit stops. And we've got another update right here. 30 Seconds To Mars has been playing gigs throughout the U.S. with Mute Math on the Into The Wild Tour. Here's another grab bag of 30 Seconds To Mars photos, thoughts and videos from the road. 

By Jared Leto

First off, thank you all so very very much. What an amazing and epic adventure this has been.  A dozen beautiful sunsets, a few delicate sunrises, bizarre happenings and tons of fun, chaos, madness and secrets we can never spill. It really has been the tour of a lifetime. So many magical moments and wonderful memories so far. The last leg is Oregon, Washington state, our home state of California and finishing up in Phoenix. It's the final stretch of the Into the Wild North America tour, and we have had an experience we will never forget.

Cool Hotel in Portland ... The Ace

The insatiable Bart Cubbins has been hard at work with the editors. Long days and nights on the 'Edit Bus' (home to five editors for a month). Keep your eyes out because we've got some things coming very soon.

Brothers.

Blue Skies.

An amazing "day off" in Northern California. It's one of the most beautiful places around. Redwood.

The path less trod upon.

The choir from Santa Barbara High School. They joined us on stage for "Kings & Queens" and "Hurricane."

At The Greek before the show.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us at our hometown show at the beautiful Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. It was a magical night.

My old friend Danny took this at The Greek. What a night! Thanks to everyone who came.

Blast from the past! My friend and director Andrew Niccol sent this pic to me from 2004. I was writing for "A Beautiful Life."

Mirrors.

For those that have joined us for the Into the Wild Tour, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. This has been the journey of a lifetime, and thank you all for that. For those that didn't make it this time ... we'll see you on the next one!

+ Plus: Watch 30 Seconds to Mars in Toronto and Washington, D.C., below

(Click here to read more 30 Seconds To Mars tour diaries written by Jared Leto.)

Tags 30 Seconds To Mars, Jared Leto, video

As 30 Seconds to Mars prepares to return to the U.S. to tour, Jared Leto sent us pieces from his tour diary while in London:

Here we are back in London town again having just wrapped up six weeks of unforgettable and incredible touring in Europe. It was an insane and amazing adventure, and it now continues with our return, at long last, to our home turf for the North American leg of the "Into the Wild" Tour!!!

My good friend Lina Osterman made this jacket for the tour.

+ See more about the 30 Seconds to Mars Tour below.

Read more...

Tags 30 Seconds To Mars, Jared Leto

Most bands start in the middle of nowhere, and if they're lucky they move to the big city. If they're even luckier, they get a major label contract. Neon Trees did things their way. The core of the band, singer Tyler Glen and guitarist Chris Allen, first met in Southern California. When Chris decided to move to Provost, Utah, for school, Tyler followed. So why would anyone want to live in Provost or Utah? Neon Trees share seven things you need to know about Utah.

7. The best new band in the world lives there: us!
6. Utah is home of the original KFC.
5. "Troll 2" was filmed in Utah.
4. There are actually Democrats in Utah. You just have to seek them out.
3. A ton of Winter Olympians relocate to Utah to train and live -- Apolo Ohno being one of them.
2. Gary Coleman is currently residing there.
1. "Footloose" was filmed there.

And if that's not enough of a good reason, Utah is apparently a good source of musical inspiration. Check out Neon Trees' video for their single "Animal," which was actually shot in Arizona. (Maybe the next one will be in Utah.)

+ Plus: Watch Neon Trees reveal their band romance in this MTV Buzzworthy Blog interview.

Tags Neon Trees, video

Shaun White

Getting massive air requires major riffs. If you look closely at a tape of Shaun White's gold medal–winning run at the Vancouver Olympics, you'll see he's wearing headphones, as many snowboarders do, to get musical inspiration for halfpipe-bending twists and flips. Wondering how he gets big air? It must be a side product of the classic rock licks. During his recent run to introduce the spellbinding Double McTwist 1260 trick he was cranking Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City."

After hearing that, we asked for Shaun's list of his favorite songs for shredding. In the midst of promoting the Team USA Soundtrack he gave us a top 10 list that includes Razorlight's "In the City," The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire." While the Team USA Soundtrack (available at ITunes) doesn't have those tracks, it does include a couple of numbers by Honor Societyand Mariah Carey.

Here, in no particular order, are the rest of his board-bangers.

Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love"

Read more...

Tags Celebrity Playlist, Double McTwist 1260, Led Zeppelin, Olympics, Shaun White, Snowboarding

Miike Snow (Andrew Wyatt is on the far right)

When The Buried Life boys were rushing to the hospital to help deliver a baby in a recent episode, the stark and melodic synth beats of Miike Snow were playing in the background. Now, if you think there was a typo in Miike, rest assured; there are two i's in the name and, actually, three people in the band—American singer-songwriter Andrew Wyatt and two Swedes, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, who are also known as the production team of Bloodshy & Avant. While Miike Snow's music often favor the epic minimalism of well-placed, sustained piano chords and smooth harmonies, Bloodshy & Avant have a resume of lavish production credits, including collaborations with Madonna and Kelis and Britney Spears' Grammy-winning "Toxic."

Miike Snow formed while Karlsson and Winnberg were working on a job for another artist and met Wyatt. The three weren't envisioning a big pop career—let alone getting a track of theirs, "Animal," played on TV. (The tune appeared on Gossip Girl last year). As Wyatt sees it, they there just three people who wanted to make music together.

"In all of the songs, basically, whatever we did in the first half hour to hour [of playing], ended up being the song," explains Wyatt. "Sometimes it's one line—or a whole verse."

Now Miike Snow has made the leap from the Upper East Side to The Buried Life and Wyatt, for one, is happy to be a part of the show. "I think anything that helps people do what they really want to do, without hurting anyone else, is good."

So what's on Wyatt's bucket list? "Have kids, have grandkids, maybe [go] wing-suit jumping." But before that happens, Miike Snow has quite a few gigs to play. Check to see if the band will be playing your neck of the woods by hoofing over to the band's website for a complete tour rundown.

Tags Britney Spears, Gossip Girl, Kelis, Madonna, miike snow, synth pop, The Buried Life

If you were going to cover Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams," how would you do it? Would you: 1.) Use a similar arrangement because there's no beating perfection, 2.) chock it full of auto-tune and techno beats because if you can't top Beyonce's vocal, you might as well be distinctive, or 3.) keep it mellow and groovy by breaking out the acoustic guitar and conga drum.

The folks at OurStage are holding a "Sweet Dreams" cover contest and the winning artist gets a weekend trip to Vegas—where Beyonce just happened to film her recent concert video "I Am Yours...". New Jersey's identical-twin duo HelenMaria are currently in second place, having opted for door number 3 and, dare we say, kind of showed up Sasha Fierce a scoch. You can head over to OurStage to see who's number one and vote for your favorite. Of course, if you enter, we want to know about it. Drop a link to your video in the comments.

Tags Beyonce, HelenMaria, OurStage

When "The Buried Life" boys head down to South Central for a Krump competition, a piece of Aurora, IL, accompanies them: a track by Maker (a.k.a Marco Jacobo). Maker made his name in the late-'90s Chicago underground hip-hop scene by finding hard, natural drum breaks and splicing them together into funky, laid-back tracks, the type that would later serve as the backdrop for rhymes by MC Qwel and Grayskul.

On "The Buried Life," however, you hear Maker matching his wits with samples from Now-Again's catalog of rare dark soul, psych-rock and funk reissues. The resulting tune, appropriately named "Maker vs. Now Again," will have even the most learned crate-digger stumped. Maker is thrilled to be a part of "The Buried Life" soundtrack: "I think the concept is really interesting. It's a thought everyone has at some point in their life -- What do I want to do before I die? -- I know I have."

What's on this Aurora DJ's bucket list? A few interesting possibilities: 1. Learn how to sail and go get lost for a while. 2. See the pyramids in Egypt. 3. Play poker with Michael Jordan. (Number three is probably on the bucket list of many guys from Chi-town.)

Having just finished up a tour with Grayskul to support the collaboration "Graymaker," Maker is focused on a new album with MC Qwel and another solo project. If you can't get enough of him, you can also track down his beats on the second season of "This American Life" and the horror movie, "Trick 'r Treat." (How can you go wrong with a tagline like: "Poison, Drowning, Claw, Or Knife. So Many Ways To Take A Life"?)

Tags maker, Now-Again, Peanut Butter Wolf, The Buried Life