Gauzy close-ups of Bradford Cox paint the heartbreak of “Helicopter,”‘ a track from the Halcyon Digest LP coming 9/28 via 4AD. Click on Halycon Digest’s Dennis Cooper text to load the film.
The band debuted this song on BBC 6Music a few months back. Here’s that in portable form:
Pavement are no strangers to cool contests, but this latest one definitely beats roaming around IKEA with Bob Nastanovich (no offense Bob/Sweden). Pavement will perform on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 9/23 and one lucky fan will be joining the band on guitar. To enter, upload a video of yourself covering one of the songs listed below by Wednesday 9/8 at 4:35 AM ET. You also have to live in the continental United States, since the winner will be flown out to NY for the occasion. A “panel of qualified judges” will pick five finalists; then we (the Internet) will vote on the winner.
Eminem and Jay-Z (file)
Photo: Getty Images
This Exploding Motor Car-directed video for No Ghost’s second single “Restoration” was shot on location at “the Mataseje Family Farm” in Beamsville, Ontario. The footage of the band at their time-lapse BBQ is pretty standard nature-folk/pop whatever, but once the sun drops they make beautiful use of simple lighting on the surrounding trees, leaves, moths, etc.
Black Mountain brought “Old Fangs” — and most importantly, “Old Fangs”’s sweet organ riff — to Late Night last night. But the best part may be watching the girls in baby doll tops gently nodding their heads behind the band:
Here goes: Cee-Lo’s beloved “Fuck You” has had plenty of homemade, cinematic treatments, but now has itself a shiny official video that matches the playfully pissed track’s sunny vintage pop vibe. (Though can’t believe he didn’t get a cameo from that Jet Blue guy.)
Director Jack Ferry picked up on the best part of morning benders’ “All Day Day Light,” the three claps that punctuate the end of every verse. He also highlights Chris Chu’s lyrics and the band’s seasonal wardrobe, as the seasons go from spring to summer, fall, and winter. The concept is simple, but effective, and it fits with Ferry’s other, band-focused videos (for Magic Kids and Ted Leo). Watch below:
‘Tik Tok’ singer/nominee racked up massive digital downloads, opened for Rihanna and survived ‘SNL’ on road to Video Music Awards.
By James Montgomery
Ke
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ Getty Images
She is, without question, one of the biggest breakout stars of 2010. A slurring, whirling, hard-partying pop oddity (who may also be a genius) with a #1 album and a boatload of hit singles to her name, not to mention more than a few enemies. She even has under her star-spangled belt, her very own, very public WTF debacle in the form of a rather, uh, divisive “Saturday Night Live” performance.
She is Ke, and ever since she came stumbling into our lives last year with “Tik Tok” (we named it one of the Best Songs of 2009, by the way), she’s been nothing if not consistently entertaining, if slightly confounding. She’s always coming back with another massive single or eye-popping video, always saying — or wearing — something outrageous. In the process, she’s made a rather indelible impact on popular culture and, earlier this month, MTV showed its recognition of that fact, rewarding her with multiple Video Music Award nominations, including nods for Best Female Video and Best New Artist.
But how did she go from unknown pop curio to one of the fastest-rising starlets on the planet? Here’s a look back:
In January 2010, “Tik Tok” rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, setting a record for digital downloads in the process. That same month, she was named one of three female Artists to Watch , as part of MTV News’ Pop Week 2010. Buoyed by the success of “Tik Tok,” Ke’s debut album, Animal, opened at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling more than 152,000 copies and ending “Britain’s Got Talent” phenom Susan Boyle’s six-week run at #1. Ke would pay homage to Boyle soon after, declaring to MTV News that the cat-loving singer “knows how to party.”
She followed up “Tik Tok” with “Blah Blah Blah,” another party-ready anthem featuring her pals in 3OH!3. The song cracked the Top 10 and has sold more than 2 million digital downloads to date.
Ke then took to Twitter, where she flirted with John Mayer and then drew the ire of both Britney Spears and Justin Bieber fans, after she (sorta) swiped at Britney in a demo of an old tune (”Styrofoam”) and called Biebus “a tiny little baby.” In both instances, she apologized … though, not before Perez Hilton weighed in, calling her a “trash-talking trainwreck.”
In April, she was announced as the opening act on Rihanna’s Last Girl On Earth Tour, and then got to work on another video, this one for “Your Love Is My Drug”. That month, clad in a bizarre bodysuit (and later, nothing but glow-in-the-dark bodypaint), she performed a pair of songs on “SNL,” a debacle which was described by some as “the worst [’SNL’ performance] ever.” Never one to back away from a good brawl, Ke responded thusly: “F— the cynics.”
In May came the premiere of the “Drug” video — a bonanza of beards, boulders, Beatles and bodypaint — and the pop singer quickly followed that up with a cameo on 3OH!3’s “My First Kiss” and yet another Animal video, this one for “Take It Off.”
Later that summer, she hit the road with Rihanna, and described the dynamic duo’s backstage relationship as “We braid each other’s hair … naked.” She then began discussing plans for a follow-up to Animal, saying she could foresee getting into country music but would definitely stay away from jazz. She also began laying the groundwork for her very own headlining tour. Oh, and of course, she revealed she’s planning a fashion line, too, featuring capes and haberdashery made out of “roadkill … and recycled feathers.”
Seems strangely fitting, if you ask us.
The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, September 12, at 9 p.m. ET. Fans can go to VMA.MTV.com (or text VMA to 97979 if they are Verizon subscribers) to vote for the winners in general categories, including Best New Artist, from now through September 12.
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Vedder, Smith, and Depp were in Little Rock, Arkansas last night for a benefit for the West Memphis 3, the three now-adults convicted of killing three children in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993, though most evidence (including recent DNA evidence) points elsewhere. Other performers included Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, and Ben Harper. Depp and Vedder –both on guitar — joined Smith for “Dancing Barefoot,” from her 1979 album Wave. Then Harper and Maines returned to the stage to do Smith’s “People Have The Power.” Appropriate:
Young Money’s Mack Maine says a quick album turnaround ‘makes sense’ for Drizzy, in Mixtape Daily.
By Shaheem Reid
Drake
Photo: Shareif Ziyadat/ Getty Images
The O.D.: A Mixtape Daily Exclusive
It was spring 1998. DMX was the hottest cat in hip-hop and released his SoundScan-murdering debut LP It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot. That winter, X came right back with another scorcher, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood.
OK, speed up 12 years. We all know about Drake’s popularity. His debut, Thank Me Later, came out this past spring, and believe it or not, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Drizzy could come right back with another album just in time for Christmas.
“Drake’s crazy,” Young Money president Mack Maine told MTV News last week. “He’s doing a mixtape right now. He called me one night, like 2 in the morning. He has the intro done for the new album. We was discussing dates where he should come back. That’ll be soon. And this mixtape, he’s gonna put that out quick. His formula is crazy. He works fast. I can’t give the secret away to the formula. He’s a musical genius. The way he and [producer] 40 put things together is crazy.”
When we asked Mack if Drake was putting out another LP before next summer, he simply said, “Real possible! What we discussed, definitely, what me and him discussed.”
Such a quick turnaround between Thank Me Later and its follow-up is a simple case of supply and demand.
“It makes sense,” Mack said. “Like DMX and those guys [at Def Jam]. They dropped two in one year. I think 50 [Cent] did two in one year. If it wasn’t a year, it was right around that time. [Drake’s] hot like that. Why not? Give them what they want.”
When asked if Drizzy would have an album in the marketplace in time for it to be a stocking stuffer around the holidays, Mack Mizzle smiled and advised us to “expect the unexpected.”
Regardless of when the new LP comes out, all signs point toward Drake’s R&B mixtape, It’s Never Enough, to come this year. There has been a smattering of Drake records popping up randomly on the Internet recently, such as “What If I Kissed You.”
For other artists featured in Mixtape Daily, check out Mixtape Daily Headlines.
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