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Thirty Seconds To Mars Fan Makes SPOOKTACULAR Zombie Band Pumpkins!

Posted 10/31/11 5:29 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Must See, Photos

Fall back, boring triangle-eyed, gap-toofed pumpkins. Thirty Seconds To Mars fan @canuhandleme78 skillfully carved not one but THREE full-blown phenomenal pumpkins in the likeness of Tomo, Shannon and Jared, who are about to set a world record, FYI. And these aren't just three Tomo, Shannon and Jared pumpkins. They're 30 Seconds To Mars "zombie night" pumpkins, inspired by the band's Montreal show in May 2011, because you know the band loves a theme night.

This should serve as a friendly reminder that Thirty Seconds To Mars is coming for your brains, if they haven't already destroyed them. Also, Shannon, here's hoping that bloody gash healed up nicely! Happy Halloween!

Tags Thirty Seconds to Mars, video

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Robyn Praises Prince, Teaches Us To Say 'I Love You' In Swedish

Posted 10/31/11 4:03 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Interviews, Music, Must See, Videos

Lil Wayne may have taught us how to love, but Robyn's teaching us how to say the three most meaningful words of all. No, not "your pizza's here." "I love you," silly!

Before tonight's O Music Awards 2, where Robyn will headline the live online award show with one of her otherworldly, intergalactic dance-pop performances -- seriously, if you know of another living artist who can so flawlessly create swirling, swelling electronic dance music about the humanity of lost love that actually mimics the sound of human heartbreak the way Robyn does, then tell us how life is in space, because there's not a soul on this planet who does heartbreak dance music the way Robyn does -- we wanted you to better get to know more about the diminutive Swedish dance floor assassin.

We sat down with Robyn, who taught us a few helpful phrases in her native Swedish. They ended up being extremely helpful phrases -- "I love you" and "yummy" -- since we REALLY love Robyn, and we REALLY love to eat. And, since the O Music Awards are, in part, about celebrating digital music and its influences and inspirations, Robyn shared the early musical influences who shaped her as a fan and an artist -- Prince and fellow Swede Neneh Cherry, who "blew my mind, and she still does" -- and some of her favorite new artists, including Dominican rapper Maluca.

"Prince is always gonna be my No. 1 hero," Robyn said/ "He is something as rare as a male artist who never made me feel like an object as a woman even though he's always been very sexual," Robyn said of Prince.

Watch Robyn teach you Swedish phrases you NEED to know and discuss her musical icons, and don't miss her live performance at the MTV O Music Awards TONIGHT at 11:30 p.m. ET/ 8:30 PT at OMusicAwards.com.

+ ROBYN TEACHES YOU SWEDISH:

Watch more interviews with Robyn after the jump!

Tags O Music Awards, Prince, Robyn, video

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Miley Cyrus' 'Party In The U.S.A.' Video Gets Its Own Pop Up Video!

Posted 10/25/11 4:10 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Music, Must See, Videos

Just when you thought Miley Cyrus' "Party In The U.S.A." video couldn't possibly contain even tiniest possible speck, not even the most high-powered-microscope scoping neutrino, of excellence, VH1 goes ahead and gives Miley's magnum opus the Pop Up Video treatment. And JUST LIKE THAT, "Party In The U.S.A." just got a little more awesome.

I won't spoil all of the secrets of Miley's "Party In The USA" Pop Up Video, but I will reveal that the video gets into the long and short of Miley's underage short shorts and finally solves the age-old question, WHAT THE HELL happened to that giant American flag? And in case you're not already nodding your head like yeah, hopefully this Pop Up image of Miley and not ONE but THREE pop-up Britneys will convince you to watch. God bless America.

+ Watch Miley Cyrus' "Party In The U.S.A" Pop Up video, don't miss "Pop Up Video" on VH1, Wednesdays at noon and 12:30 p.m. ET, and make your own Pop Up Video!

Miley Cyrus - Pop Up Video

Tags Miley Cyrus, Pop Up Video, video

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New Song: Justin Bieber And Usher, 'The Christmas Song'

Posted 10/24/11 5:00 pm EST by Jenna Hally Rubenstein in Celebrity, Music, Must See, Videos

Credit: Getty Images

Whether you like it or not, it's time to whip out the twinkle lights and nativity scenes, y'all! Thanks to Justin Bieber and his BFF Usher, X-Mas is here in a BIG way. Justin Bieber's Christmas extravaganza album Under The Mistletoe isn't even officially out yet, but it's basically driving the entire world our whole office crazy with anticipation. We've already lost it for Justin's "Mistletoe" video, and today we're completely overcome by holiday cheer thanks to Justin and Usher's duet, "The Christmas Song" (you know, the old-timey ballad about chestnuts and open fires and stuff).

Made famous in 1946 by legend Nat King Cole, "The Christmas Song" has been rerecorded countless times by such greats as Tony Bennett, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. But we have a sneaky suspicion that Justin and Usher's sparkly R&B/pop take on the old standard will become an American insta-classic (or at least No. 1 on iTunes, duh). The song begins with Justin's pitch-perfect vocals adding some impressive riffs to the song's famous opening line: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire/Jack Frost nipping at your nose/Yuletide carols being sung by a choir/And folks dressed up like Eskimos." Usher infuses the pre-chorus with his R&B croon until the two join together in perfect holiday-swag harmony: "And so I'm offering this simple phrase/To kids from one to 92/Although it's been said many times, many ways/Merry Christmas to you." Look, I may be Jewish, but this holiday jam is THA TRUTH!

+ Listen to Justin Bieber and Usher's "The Christmas Song."

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Tags justin bieber, Usher, video

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Beyonce & Jay-Z's Baby Nursery Is Apparently (B)ENORMOUS!!

Posted 10/24/11 4:02 pm EST by Amber Katz in Celebrity, Must See

Credit: Getty

It seems that Destiny's Child's child is to be nurtured and attended to in a nursery so enormous that it rivals the square footage of our parents' house in the suburban Philly. A nursery that measures around 2,200 square feet, in fact. BET.com reports that Jay-Z and Beyoncé are adding a "gargantuan nursery to their New York City home, so the little one can sleep and poop in style." (LOL!) It seems, in the sage words of Jay-Z, there will be some "love, in the heart of the city" for this little tyke, certainly in terms of real estate.

We envision a most Regina George of "Mean Girls" spread for Beyoncé's baby, which is due February 2012. We hope this room alone will spark the creation of a new MTV show called "Baby Cribs" so we can get a tour of the finished area, in all its decked-out glory, Diaper Genie and all! I mean, you wouldn't expect offspring of this caliber to endure tummy time in a pedestrian nursery room, would you? This baby is AMERICAN ROYALTY and requires a suite!

Even at his/her crankiest, Jay-Z and Beyoncé's baby (Baybeyoncé!) may have 99 problems, but a pimped-out chamber surely won't be one. This news effectively answers the age-old question as posed by Beyoncé: Who run the world? JAY-Z AND BEYONCÉ'S BABY. From his or her extremely major infant headquarters.

Tags Beyonce, Jay-Z, We Have To Say Something

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Tony Bennett On Recording His Chart-Topping 'Duets II' Album, Fame & Lady Gaga

Posted 10/21/11 4:49 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Interviews, Must See, Videos

In his decades-long career, Tony Bennett has released more than 70 albums. Considering he just turned 85 in August, that works out to almost one album for each year of his life. But it wasn't until he released his Duets II album, featuring his greatest hits performed with marquee names such as Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Josh Groban and more that he earned his first-ever No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, becoming the oldest living act to reach No. 1. Happy birthday, indeed.

Last month before the release of Duets II, I had the extraordinary opportunity to sit down with Tony Bennett in his art studio overlooking Central Park, where we discussed his experience recording "Body And Soul" with the late Amy Winehouse in the Abbey Road Studios in London just four months before her untimely death.

She was "someone who knows how to intuitively improvise and make it believable and sing with humanity and soul and honesty, no compromising... Amy had that gift," he said. "She was the only one of all of the contemporary artists that I've met through the years... She's the only one that was able to do it."

Sadly, poignantly, "Body And Soul" became a tribute to Amy instead of a tribute to an unabiding jazz torch song. But the 16 other duets on Duets II are a masterful, otherwise celebratory collection of jazz duets once considered pop songs, made timeless by Tony's unparalleled old-school bel canto, made new paired with artists such as Norah Jones and John Mayer.

Knowing that the days of big band recording sessions are gone, and today much contemporary music is recorded piecemeal, saved onto laptops, emailed and pieced together, enabling artists to record duets without even being in the same city, much less the same recording studio, I asked Tony about the recording process.

Read more and watch Tony Bennett's interview videos after the jump.

Tags Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, video

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Video Premiere: Nervo, Featuring AfroJack & Steve Aoki, 'We're All No One'

Posted 10/21/11 6:02 am EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Music, Must See, Videos

Credit: Dan Monick

Well, it's official. Nervo's Mim and Liv are the coolest girls on the planet. And the luckiest. I want their jobs. All of them. Not only did they spend the summer touring with Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj on the "Femme Fatale" tour -- THEY BREATHED THE SAME HALLOWED AIR AS BRITNEY AND NICKI! -- but they're gorgeous (yes, I'm bitter), and they're multi-talented multi-hyphenates. They WROTE David Guetta's "When Love Takes Over" (oh yeah, that little song), they've written for Ke$ha AND Kylie Minogue, toured with Paul Oakenfold, they're accomplished and acclaimed producers, and they've traveled the world DJing. Oh, and they're models.

And now, after crushing clubs with their own songs ("Irresistible," featuring Ollie James went to No. 1 on the UK Club Charts), they're branching out (where they find the time I have no clue) and creating more of their electro-pop dance music, like their hypnotic, hands-in-the-air new single, "We're All No One," featuring Afrojack and Steve Aoki.

Last week we saw a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of Nervo's "We're All No One" video, and today we've got the finished product, which features the girls and their friends, who've perfected the Cali-casual look, living a perfect school's-out summer day cruising sunny streets in a vintage car, hitting up a convenience store (and getting carded by Steve Aoki) and wasting away the day until night falls, at which point everyone shows off their perfect young bodies by stripping down and jumping in the pool. The whole thing feels like an Urban Outfitters catalog come to life. Free People even. Sigh. Disaffected, louche lifestyle forever.

+ Watch Nervo's "We're All No One" video, featuring Steve Aoki and Afrojack, and after the jump, watch the making of the "We're All No One" video.

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Tags Afrojack, Nervo, Steve Aoki, video

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Honor Society: 'A Tale Of Risky Business Part 2' Album Sneak!

Posted 10/20/11 12:18 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Music, Must See, Videos

Honor Society's following up the 2009 release of their debut album, Fashionably Late, with their second full-length album, A Tale Of Risky Business Part 2, out Oct. 25. Now, dedicated Honor Society fans will recognize the new Adam Blackstone-produced (Maroon 5, Eminem, Jay Z) album's title as a nod to their 2008 EP, A Tale of Risky Business. Well it turns out there was even more risky business to attend to. Seven songs' worth. And we're honored (see what we did there?) to be premiering four of Honor Society's new songs -- "Living A Lie," "One Of A Kind," "Wherever You Are" and "Hurricane" -- on Buzzworthy.

Honor Society's new tracks suggest that the L.A. soul-pop band spent the time between their last album and this one honing their craft and perfecting a more sophisticated -- and more funked-up -- sound. And they reveal the band's willingness to experiment with everything from subtle, nuanced strings and electro textures to amped-up, arena-ready choruses, referencing everyone from Jason Mraz to Maroon 5 to Kanye West.

But let's get down to business, shall we? Listen to four brand-new Honor Society songs, and pre-order A Tale Of Risky Business 2.

+ "LIVING A LIE"

+ "ONE OF A KIND"

Listen to more Honor Society songs after the jump!

Tags Buzzworthy Exclusive, Honor Society, video

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Watch Andrew McMahon Of Jack's Mannequin Perform 'Release Me' Live

Posted 10/14/11 12:25 pm EST by Tamar Anitai in Celebrity, Music, Must See, Videos

Prolific post-punk/emo-pop pioneer and thinking man's piano-pop songwriter Andrew McMahon (the Bruce Springsteen of the piano, if you will) just released People And Things, his third album as Jack's Mannequin.

"My last record, The Glass Passenger, was a pretty heavy record as far as the content. Life and death stuff," he explained when he stopped by MTV to perform a stripped-down version of "Release Me" for "Buzzworthy Live," Buzzworthy's intimate in-house performance series.

"With this record, I realized there was a lot of stuff I'd overlooked during the last album. I got married -- I've been married five years now -- and a lot of this record ended up being about that experience of those first few years and acclimating into a house with two people when you're used to being a satellite and doing your own thing. It's about figuring out a relationship that's that deep and that constant."

If The Glass Passenger was about his anxiety, acceptance and fearlessness in the face of his acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosis, treatment and recovery, People And Things, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Alternative Albums Chart, is the Jack's Mannequin album about growing up, settling down, reflecting back and moving ahead, which is particularly evident on "Release Me."

"'Release Me" was the last song I wrote for People And Things. It's very much about my experience doing what I do for a living and how long I've been doing it. You get to these moments at the end of records where you want them to come out already, you want people to hear it... it's about the place I was in my life when I was wrapping the album up and feeling a little exhausted."

In his "Buzzworthy Live" version of "Release Me" -- yes, Something Corporate/Jack's and "Twilight" fans, Andrew's just as kind in person as you've always heard -- he transforms the sunny yet deceptively dark song into a charmingly lo-fi take on professional and personal pressure, replete with his cautiously sanguine outlook on what the future holds.

+ Watch Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin's "Buzzworthy Live" performance of "Release Me."

Tags Andrew McMahon, Buzzworthy Exclusive, Buzzworthy Live, Jack's Mannequin, video

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Why Rihanna's The Ultimate Hustler: An Examination Of Her Total Chart Domination

Posted 10/13/11 4:37 pm EST by Sam Lansky in Celebrity, Music, Must See

Hey, y'all! My name is Sam Lansky, and I think, write and tweet compulsively about pop music. See, while normal people are out enjoying their lives, I'm analyzing why things in Taylor Swift songs always seem to happen on Tuesdays. I'm trying to figure out whether Cassie would look hotter if she shaved the right side of her head rather than the left. I'm feverishly typing out 4,000-word essays about Britney Spears' mental health. (No, really -- I did that.)

And now I'll be channeling my neurosis into my weekly Buzzworthy column, "Pop Think," where I solemnly swear to leave no chart flop undefended, no inexplicable lyric unanalyzed, and no wig theft unexamined. And I'll do it all in the name of pop.

You're welcome.

Credit: Getty Images

Rihanna recently announced that the title of her upcoming sixth studio album will be Talk That Talk; I think a more apropos title would be I Don't Know How She Does It. (Just kidding -- that's the title of a Sarah Jessica Parker movie that I never made time to watch.) But really, how does Rihanna do it? I ask this question not as a Rihanna Stan -- although I love her, I'm not quite as fevered in my admiration as card-carrying members of the Rihanna Navy -- but more from the perspective of an awestruck civilian. (My truest pop fanboy devotion will always belong to JoJo. Love you, girl.)

Backing up a minute, in case you missed it, after Rihanna's new Calvin Harris-assisted single "We Found Love" charted at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week, the Bajan banger, as she's affectionately known around my apartment, scored her 20th Top 10 single. Chart geeks know, though, that this isn't even the full story: Rihanna nabbed 20 Top 10 hits over a span of six years and four months, hitting this milestone quicker than any other solo artist in chart history and eclipsing previous record-holder Madonna. The only act to do it faster was the Beatles (!!!). Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard, told me: "When 'Pon de Replay' came out in 2005, there could have been no one, not even Jay-Z, who truly thought that this woman would go on to have 10 No. 1s and 20 Top 10 singles -- and be mentioned, at least in terms of chart success, in the same breath as Madonna, the Supremes and Mariah Carey."

The moral of this story? Rihanna’s got mad hustle, y'all. Maybe this sounds obvious -- it goes without saying that the demands of being an international superstar require superhuman ambition, military-grade endurance and the pain threshold necessary to stagger around in skyscraper-high Louboutins for 16 hours a day -- but RiRi's game is even slicker than your average diva. That’s not to say it's complicated, because it's not -- it's just stupid impressive, the triple punch of ferocious singles, a constantly shifting image and rapid-fire releases.
Read more about Rihanna's chart domination after the jump!

Tags Pop Think, Rihanna

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