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Posted 5/17/11 9:02 am ET by MTV in Buzz Bites, Celebrity, Music

Credit: Getty Images
+ Nicki Minaj has reportedly dumped her managers, Diddy and James Cruz, and hired Drake's management team. (XXLMag)
+ Police are investigating the shooting death of Cali Swag District's M-Bone, who was murdered yesterday. (Rapfix)
+ Lady Gaga hit 10 million followers on Twitter -- she's the first person to do so, trumping President Obama and even Justin Bieber. (Huffington Post)
+ Tegan and Sara have spoken out against Tyler, The Creator's profane, often misogynistic and homophobic lyrics. Tyler, The Creator responded in a less-than-scholarly way. (AV Club)
+ Pearl Jam will be celebrating their 20th anniversary at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, with The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, and more acts, before they tour Canada. (Rolling Stone)
+ Um, for anyone who was concerned, Rebecca Black is... not pregnant. Phew. (PopEater)
+ Whoopsies. A racy photo of Miley Cyrus hit the Internet. The photo shows Miley with no shirt on, getting a tattoo on her back. But RELAX. She's holding a shirt over her business, okay? (Aceshowbiz)
+ Damn it. Nick Jonas' rumored new girlfriend, dancer Delta Goodrem, is super pretty. Argh. (Too Fab)
+ Speaking of, the woman Kanye West was seen kissing in Cannes is 18-year-old lingerie model Kate Upton. (NME)
+ Look at Pharrell Williams' yacht. Like, just LOOK at it. (Idolator)
Posted 12/15/10 4:11 pm ET by Chris Ryan in Celebrity, Music
Many a musical talent have called Seattle home. Jimi Hendrix was born there, producer Quincy Jones and bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Death Cab For Cutie have made their name there. Now, with the new online music series, "$5 Cover: Seattle" you're about to meet the next wave of Seattle musical talent.
Directed by acclaimed indie filmmaker Lynn Shelton (Humpday, My Effortless Brilliance), "$5 Cover: Seattle" takes place over one weekend in the lives of 13 up-and-coming Seattle bands, following their trials, tribulations, gigs and practices.
Get to know the new music and musicians of "5 Cover: Seattle" in our complete guide below.
+ Champagne Champagne: MC Pearl Dragon is a native of Seattle who spent some time in Houston before returning home to form the unique hip-hop group. This trio follow the Outkast blueprint of socially conscious funk with a distinctly Emerald City outlook.
+ The Maldives: Fans of Wilco and Drive-By Truckers will feel right at home with The Maldives. Formed by singer/guitarist Jason Dodson, with an evergrowing and rotating cast of musicians, this band has a reputation for being one of Seattle's best live acts.
+ THEESatisfaction: Relatively new to the Seattle scene (they arrived in 2008), this duo, made up of Stasia and Catherine Satisfaction, have been turning heads with their interplanetary, futuristic soul.
+ Sean Nelson: The former singer for alt-rock act Harvey Danger ("Flagpole Sitta"), Nelson is no stranger to the Seattle scene or Shelton's cameras; he starred in her 2008 feature, My Effortless Brilliance.
+ Tea Cozies: Led by singer/guitarist Jessi Reed, Tea Cozies at once pay tribute to the Pacific Northwest's garage rock tradition while also referencing lush '60s pop.
+ Weekend: This electro-pop duo make slinky, minimal soundscapes with girl-group-esque vocals laid on top. Experts at pulling back the veil on Seattle, after dark.
+ The Moondoggies: Calling to mind the pastoral country-rock of The Byrds, The Moondoggies can go from a whisper to a Neil Young-like scream at the drop of a dime.
+ Thee Emergency: Passionate garage-R&B that runs through a fuzzed-out amplifier. Powered by the jaw-dropping vocals of Dita Vox.
+ The Spits: They may hail from present-day Seattle, but this is London calling, circa 1979. The Spits make note-perfect garage punk for the Johnny Rotten in all of us.
+ Whiskey Tango: Every music scene needs their snot-nosed, unrelentingly juvenile unbelievably catchy punk rock band. The long-running Whiskey Tango fills that role for Seattle.
+ The Lights: This raw indie-garage band calls to mind the early days of British rock, with a sound that references the early days of The Kinks and The Rolling Stones.
+ Corespondents: Mysterious guitar explorations from a mysterious Seattle band. Awkward rhythms and instrumentation that come together at just the right moment.
+ Watch every rocking, funny, dramatic and intimate episode of "$5 Cover: Seattle" right now at fivedollarcover.com.
Posted 1/11/10 12:58 pm ET by Chris Ryan in Celebrity, Music, Videos
New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem can cover a song like it's their job: Live, the emo-goes-classic-rock four-piece have been known to take a shot at Pearl Jam's Singles soundtrack classic, "State Of Love And Trust," and Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," capturing the soul of the original while leaving an indelible stamp of their own making.
On a recent trip to England, as they tirelessly promote their phenomenal 2008 release, The '59 Sound, Gaslight Anthem stopped by BBC Radio One to do an acoustic session. The performance has been trickling out online, and the highlight, by far, is singer/guitarist Brian Fallon's solo take on Kelly Clarkson's "I Do Not Hook Up."
Flipping the gender roles of the Kara DioGuardi co-penned song, Fallon finds the Springsteen-ian soul of Clarkson's girl-power jam. The way he delivers "Oh, sweetheart, put the bottle down/You've got too much talent/I see you through those bloodshot eyes/There's a cure, you've found it" sounds like it could've been ripped from The Boss' classic Nebraska album.
Check out the cover below.
+ Listen to Gaslight Anthem's cover of Kelly Clarkson's "I Do Not Hook Up" here.
Posted 11/13/09 12:43 pm ET by Chris Ryan in Celebrity, Music, Videos
Katy Perry's highly anticipated MTV Unplugged performance will be debuting on MTV and MTV.com this Monday, November 16. Rather than sleeplessly frittering away your weekend, hyperventilating and listening to "Waking Up In Vegas" on repeat, we thought it'd be a good idea to give you an Unplugged refresher course.
Here are some of the best performances of MTV's legendary live show, featuring some obscure performances and some unforgettable ones, with nary an amp in sight.
Nirvana, "Come As You Are" (1993)
For their episode of Unplugged, Nirvana revealed an aching vulnerability to their razor-sharp songs. This was an iconic performance, producing some of the most lasting, indelible imagery of Kurt Cobain.
Paramore, "That's What You Get" (2009)
Audience interaction is one of the best parts of these intimate Unplugged performances. In the case of Paramore, it's more about audience participation, as the crowd helps out Hayley Williams with the "whoa-oh's" of "That's What You Get."
Alicia Keys, "Unbreakable" (2005)
Unplugged puts the artist and their artistry at the forefront. In this 2005 performance, Alicia Keys shows the extent of her capabilities as a performer with a gorgeous rendition of "Unbreakable."
+ Watch more performances after the jump.

You may have seen P.O.S. pull off an astounding one-man-band take on Pearl Jam's "Why Go" earlier this year. It's an interesting look for the Minneapolis producer/MC. At once ingenious and virtuosic, it shows P.O.S. as a dude who owes as much to the god known as Eddie Vedder as he does to the god of Rakim.
P.O.S.'s music is largely a self-produced hodgepodge of abrasive noise and block-rocking beats wrapped up in a thoughtful, idiosyncratic flow that betrays his roots in the backpack/indie rap scene that thrived in the early '00s: P.O.S. releases music through one of that scene's cornerstone labels, Rhymesayers, the home to Atmosphere).
In the video below, P.O.S. declares there's no AutoTune in grunge, but for him, there seem to be no rules, period. He's a beat-juggling, sampler-punching, mic-rocking dynamo. His album, Never Better was released in February, and his video of the same name is coming soon, so be ready. Follow P.O.S. on Twitter at @YEAHRIGHTPOS and check out his Pearl Jam cover and his video for the track, "Purexed" below.
(Credit: Scott Gries)
Are you old enough to remember what a game-changer it was when Nirvana played Unplugged? I am. I swear to you I took s--- from my mother for four years after that, for wearing this moth-eaten mohair cardigan (just like Kurt's!) I found at Salvation Army (after months of looking!). "Daniel!" She'd squawk. "Some poor old lady died in that thing! Pleeease let me throw it out?" No mom. No way.
Watching Pearl Jam Unplugged, I didn't take my shirt off and write "PRO-CHOICE" all over my bare body, even though Eddie did. And I didn't break down and cry in public after Lauryn Hill's performance. But I'll admit that I was tempted on both occasions.
I've seen a few preliminary clips of the new season of MTV Unplugged, and I can promise you that its emotional pull is still very much intact. The series launches Monday with a smoking set by Adele. Have you heard this bad mother belt it yet? Oh my god. She can sing like you wouldn't believe. She gives her smoky set of old soul torch songs the acoustic treatment in a performance that's actually kind of reminiscent of Lauryn Hill's!
Because I know I'm totally incapable of waiting until Monday, I'm gonna go ahead and pop a playlist of classic Unplugged performances in the bottom of this post. Relive the show's finest moments and come back Monday to see it reborn!
+ Exclusive photos of Adele's Unplugged performance
+ Classic MTV Unplugged photo flipbook
Posted 5/28/09 10:54 am ET by Daniel in Celebrity, Music, Videos
Most bands come loaded with so many cultural references and spawn so many spin-offs, that they may as well become genres of their own. Think about it. How many Pearl Jams have there been since the '90s (I'm looking at you, Staind)? How many Led Zeppelins have there been since the '70s (ask Jack White)? Can you even count?
The B-52s are a rare exception. By all counts a major mainstream success, they carved their names indelibly into pop culture's skin with off-beat hits like "Rock Lobster" and "Love Shack."
They were also a bunch of middle-aged (bang, bang, bang), Pee Wee's Playhouse-lookin', new wave Athens art weirdos (on the door, BABY!), with a style that's damn hard to identify in any other living band.
Who are the new B-52s? Katy Perry? Never Shout Never? Lady Gaga? Nope. Not at all. What's the modern equivalent of "Love Shack?" Does it even exist? Screw on your thinking caps (hurry up!), watch the classic 1989 Club MTV performance of "Love Shack" below (and bring your!), and do your best to come up with today's popular descendants of The B-52's (jukebox money!). I dare you to find one.
Posted 5/27/09 9:00 am ET by Daniel in Celebrity, Music, Videos
In the same way that it's understood that soap operas will have absurd story lines, people expect music videos to be over-the-top dramatic. Bands are generally in the business of communicating really big feelings, and super evocative music videos certainly help to accomplish that goal. And while a person can only handle so much slo-mo and so many sunset mountainsides, it's those unchecked melodramas that really stick in our minds, spawning everything from torrid one-night stands to Scott Stapp's career.
Last week Cage's "I Never Knew You" reminded us just how much a well-executed video can quicken the pulse. As usual, that got us to thinking... Which other videos reach down your throat, grab you by the heart and hand pump it until you think you're gonna pass out? What are the most compelling videos of all-time? In Buzzworthy's slightly comprehensive list below, you'll find the gut-wrenchingest, unflinchingest (and sometimes cheesiest) videos in recent history, so get close to the Kleenex. This list is not recommended for the infirm or the elderly.
The Cheesiest
+ Creed, "With Arms Wide Open" -- It's hard to believe that this video is actually for real. Watching it again now, I keep expecting a "Wipe that s$#* up" overdub to kick in and relieve the insane self-indulgence. Notoriously wack frontman Scott Stapp literally dodges asteroids at sunset and stands on a mountain with his arms spread, as the cameras circle, as if carried by slow motion eagles.
+ Chicago, "You're The Inspiration" -- Can I get away with describing this video as "difficult to watch?" Handily out-sapping those inscrutable Japanese karaoke videos, it's easier to eat a whole brick of cream cheese than it is to watch this video all the way through. That being said, definitely watch it.
The Saddest
+ Soul Asylum, "Runaway Train" -- The '90s invented that thing where tough-looking dudes enjoy music by standing around looking really sad and tuned out. It's no Toni Braxton "Un-Break My Heart," but this Soul Asylum video does help the grungers get into character with a sad slideshow of missing children.
+ R.E.M., "Everybody Hurts" -- Hold on! Stop! Everybody hit your breaks! Get up! Get out of your cars! Come on! Put on your little hats! Come on, do it! Dooo it! Come onnn! Little hats! Put your hands over your hearts! Sad break! Saaad break! Awww! (See also: Radiohead's amazing "Just").
The Scariest
+ Depeche Mode, "Wrong" -- Chicago will clog your arteries, but Depeche Mode will stop your heart. This terrifying video combines the edgy uncertainty of Radiohead's "Karma Police" with the supernatural creepiness of UNKLE's "Rabbit In Your Headlights," and comes out with one of the most disturbing videos I've ever seen.
+ The Fray, "Never Say Never" -- An everyday urban cityscape becomes a furious war-zone in The Fray's metaphorical new video. The violence of the uprising represents -- wait for it, wait for it -- the pain of a break-up! DRAMA!
The Darkest
+ Pearl Jam, "Jeremy" -- If you've been taking your MTV regularly like you're supposed to, you know that Pearl Jam recently released a never-before-seen director's cut of "Jeremy," with a much more explicit finish. See what all of Eddie Vedder's diabolical glares were really leading up to in one of grunge's darkest anthems.
+ Kanye West, "Flashing Lights" -- Don't be fooled by the muscle car, the thong-clad bikini girl or the Miami sunset. Don't be fooled by the cheery title, either. In this dead-serious drama, former Playboy playmate, Rita G, isn't stroking Kanye's ego... She's dispatching it to hell.
The Sexiest / Most Cinematic
Read more...
Posted 5/5/09 2:40 pm ET by Daniel in Celebrity, Music, Videos
Is it possible that, despite what history and everyday logic would tell you, that Soul Asylum invented the Seattle sound... in Minneapolis? Dave Pirner and co started seasoning Neil Young loner folk with country twang and punk aggression back in 1981, the same year Kurt Cobain was picking out Cars covers on his first guitar at 14.
The sound they came up with was definitely grunge. Whether or not Soul Asylum was the first band to play it doesn't really matter. It's usually impossible to attribute the origins of musical styles to single artists, anyway.
But the fact that Soul Asylum didn't come out of the '90s as notorious as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins did, is a little bit surprising -- I mean come on. Look at Dave Pirner! He was like Meg Ryan with dreadlocks! And that scratchy crybaby voice... Man. Sweetest dude ever. No wonder Winona Ryder was so wild for him. Now you can't even find a decent photo of him on the internet. WEIRD.
In the Unplugged performance below, Soul Asylum go easy on their classic Grave Dancers Union opener, "Somebody To Shove," fleshing it out with an orchestra. Watch the video, and tell me that song's not just as good as "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."
Posted 4/30/09 1:35 pm ET by Travis in Buzz Bites, Celebrity, Music
+ Former Danity Kane member D. Woods provides some terribly blunt revelations about Making The Band and just exactly how real "reality" television is. We applaud her candor. We do not, however, support her new haircut. (Singersroom)
+ Now that Pete Doherty is a Sober Sally, the absolute LAST thing he needs is to be infected with the Swine Flu. NOW GO OUT AND BUY SOME HOG! THE INDUSTRY'S A SUFF'RIN! (Holy Moly)
+ You need to see the trailer for Eminem's new video "3 A.M." It looks like Silent Hill meets a Rob Zombie movie. Pretty creepy (and of course, Em is shirtless). (Rap-Up)
+ As if you needed another reason to head to Austin, TX this year, Pearl Jam and Beastie Boys (along with Dave Matthews Band - meh) are headlining the Austin City Limits Music Festival in October (tix are only $185 for three days.. pretty good for a recesh budgie). Other notables include Lily Allen and John Legend.
+ And here you have it, "the face of digital energy," the official album cover for Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D." It's supposed to be a blend of all four band members' faces, but I think it just looks like Fergie after a hard night of drinking, which could explain where her wig went. (Rap-Up)
+ If you're in the market for a creepy Patrick Swayze wax figure (that looks nothing like him but claims to "sport his famous flowing 1980's hairstyle" from Road House), then you have come to the right place! (Live Auctioneers)
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Posted 2/14/12
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Posted 2/14/12