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.
With the underground success of Diplo and Switch's Major Lazer project, the line between electronic dance and reggae has never been more blurred. And now Terry Lynn is here to make it even blurrier.
Lynn, a Waterhouse, Kingston, Jamaica singer, has teamed up with the Last Gang label (home to MSTRKRFT) to make stunning dancehall, with an emphasis on dance. Where most contemporary reggae relies on the skittering beat of dancehall rhythms or the slow, soulful pace of more traditional reggae forms, Lynn employs a powerful, Daft Punk-like thump and wallop behind her toasting.
Check out her incredible video for the Daft-Punk-referencing jam "Kingstonlogic," off her Kingstonlogic 2.0 album. It's a clip that both embraces her local culture while backed by a sound that reaches across borders and blurs lines. And stay tuned for the premiere of Terry Lynn's "Jamaican Girls" video this Thursday on mtvU.
In preparation for what will no doubt be a sumptuous main course of a video, we humbly offer this appetizer to Rise Against's video for their third single from their Appeal To Reason album, "Savior." Little can be gathered from this brief glimpse. The video, directed by alt-rock auteur Kevin Kerslake (Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins) is divided into two parts: a performance by Rise Against lit merely by flares, and sub-plot featuring someone dressed as a polar bear.
We can only hope that the video culminates with the polar bear man meeting up with the guy dressed as the disco mutt from Daft Punk's "Da Funk" video. The full video for "Savior" premieres Monday.
Today's "The 5" video interview is with "French" band Phoenix, and it leads one to one of two conclusions about these not-quite French guys: Either they have a dry, cheeky sense of humor, or they truly need hugs. Is it just that pertinent for Phoenix fans to know that they're not friends, and no, the Paris suburb where the band started was not fun? I mean, they're basically kidding and throwing some Euro deadpan at us... Right?
Cryptic joking and stoic attitude aside, Phoenix's Air-meets-Daft Punk style of pop-rock is totally the type of stuff you earn cool points for listening to. Frontman Thomas Mars' piercing vocals paired with the off-kilter, perhaps lost-in-translation, lyrics is the among the group's most magnetic appeal. Phoenix's fourth album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, needs some addressing, though: The first single, "Lisztomania" (as I understand it), references both the Hungarian composer, as well as the '70s musical comedy of the same name. Not in your DVD collection? Apparently you're missing out on Nazi vampires and giant vaginas.
As of late, Phoenix performed its new single, "1901," on Saturday Night Live in April, and even more recently, on It's On With Alexa Chung -- check out the video, and find out why Phoenix isn't really friends. Or fully French.
+ Fresh off the plane from her recent visit to Australia, Taylor Swift just posted a homecoming video on her MySpace page, and it's so sweet it'll have you slipping off into a sugar coma. Picture it: She's holding a koala bear like it's a baby ready to be burped, and, it pulls her in for a closer hug because, you know, she's THAT sweet. (MySpace Music)
+ Just because she's sweet, however, does NOT mean that Taylor Swift wants to talk about sex. (People)
+ Hot off the heels of last fall's collabo with Eminem, Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 are lacing one of the tracks off the rapper's upcoming album titled Relapse. (Blogamole)
+ Is Fantastic Four actor Chris Evans finally getting serious about his career? (MTV Movies Blog)
+ Please God will someone cut off both of Heidi Montag's hands at the wrist so that she can't put a set of headphones on in a recording studio ever again. (Hollywood Tuna)
+ If you ever wondered what Zac Efron looks like covered in mud (you know, if you were ever just bored with nothing to do except wonder about things), Interview magazine's got your back. Oh. and Happy St Patty's Day. (Interview)
