Popnography is going offline for the long weekend in honor of the founding of our great country, but before we go we thought we'd share a new online game from our favorite genius pop star performance artist, Lady GaGa. Surely she's exactly the kind of sexy, brazen, outspoken, and fearless creature the forefathers were hoping for when they imaged future generations sprouting from the the blood, sweat, and tears they poured into making this land ring with freedom and liberty and eventually, pop music.
Give GaGa's Lovestick a spin and see where it lands. No matter what -- you're in for some fireworks.
Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, in an interview with AOL, recently had this to say about American Idol's Adam Lambert: "If only the world was not homophobic, but it is. I would be the first one to vote for equal rights for gay women and men, and get the church and the state to stop telling everybody how to lead their lives, but do I think he's killed his career? Oh, in an instant. I hope I'm completely wrong. I hope he becomes the next Beatles and proves me wrong."
Simmons started his rounds of staying-in-the-closet promotion a few days earlier with the interview in the video above where he claimed Adam "should shut up about his sexual preferences." Lambert, who snagged the runner-up spot on the latest season of reality singing competition, stayed in the closet throughout the season, finally announcing his sexuality on the cover of Rolling Stone two weeks ago.
Clearly washed up rockers with reality shows on A&E are the authority on all matters of success, but we think Simmons may be a little misguided on this one. Most stars that have come out in recent years (at least the truly talented ones) have found little trouble continuing their careers -- does Ellen DeGeneres ring a bell? Welcome to 2009, Gene. They gays are here, and they're not about to "shut the f*** up."
> Gray's Anatomy has lost T.R. Knight forever, but it's OK because he's in a better place now -- Broadway. Knight is set to star in a revival of Lend Me a Tenor opening in February 2010, in a role that once earned Victor Garber a Tony nomination. Actor Stanley Tucci will be making his directorial debut with the production, a comedy by Ken Ludwig about a night at the opera gone awry.
> TLC's T-Boz says there's a new TLC album in our future, though details are still sketchy about when it will happen and how the lost recordings of Left Eye will or won't figure in. Until then, we'll always have Shock Dat Monkey.
> Speaking of 1992, R.E.M. is dropping a new EP next Tuesday on iTunes, featuring live versions of four songs that were recorded at Dublin's Olympia Theatre in 2007. It'll be followed this fall by a two-disc album from the same session.
With a mere day until the drop-out Bohemian festival in Rothbury,
Michigan, rebel children from throughout the country are beginning
their Winnebago travels across state borders. A four-day extravaganza
featuring Bob Dylan, The Dead, Man Man, Cold War Kids and Umphrey's
McGee, Rothbury is a unique woodland experience that highlights the
best of electronica and folk alike. A new conception, the concert
promotes a green lifestyle and fills mornings with yoga classes
and environmental lectures. Unlike Bonnaroo, Coachella, and other
seasoned festivals, Rothbury is only in its second year, making it a
less-than-crowded spiritual (or so the drugs might make you believe)
event.
Included in the lineup is the Philadelphia-based band Lotus. Promoters of a dance scene that is defined by an innate awareness of self, Lotus brings together crowds that include beatniks, lacrosse bros and candy ravers. Jesse Miller, the bass musician and sampler of Lotus, discussed the festival and the transformation of the term "jam band" in correlation with the current music scene.
Out: If you were
to define Lotus, would you call it jam band or do you have a better title? Jesse Miller of Lotus: I usually go
with the most generic thing possible and that is “dance rock.” I think the term
"jam band" is kind of tainted. You just think of these long, pointless guitar
solos and we’ve never been about that. Even though Lotus does a lot of
improvising the band doesn’t sound like Phish, the band doesn’t sound like The
Grateful Dead, the forebearers of the scene. And even the contemporary bands
that are put in there like Umphrey’s McGee, Yonder Mountain String Band, all
these bands sound completely different. More than anything it just describes
the atmosphere surrounding the festivals or the shows.
Okay granted, the album is not going to go platinum, and it's certainly not destined for Grammy glory, but Brooke Hogan's sophomore release The Redemption is going to get stuck in your head. The album, led by the current single "Falling," is one of those things (like some kinds of porn) you know you shouldn't probably admit you enjoy, but do, despite how much you despise lyrics like "I want to see you strip."
While not all of us can deal with our parents' very public divorce by releasing an album full of radio-ready, corporate-created tracks, Brooke can -- and does, holding nothing back -- literally starting the album with an intro referencing her mother's 19 year old boyfriend. (Side note to readers: Stop hating on Linda. You know you love 18+ nights.)
Regardless of what Brooke may have wanted the album to be, it's catchy as all get-out. Listen to the second single above, "Hey Yo," and you're going to be hooked. No seriously, don't listen to it if you're not secure in your manhood -- or maybe even womanhood or transhood.
And if you're already a fan of Brooke's show Brooke Knows Best on VH1, check out our interview with Brooke's BFF, Glenn Douglas Packard.
“There is nobody who knew Michael like I did. He was so gifted, it’s
hard for me to picture him gone. There is a whole side to him people
never saw. For instance, people always think of him as talking in that
high, soft voice, but he didn’t really speak like that -- it was a
facade. Still to this day I am not sure why he did it. The Michael I
knew talked like a real man, acted like a real man and shook a hand
like a real man.”
-- David Gest -- another "real man" and ex-husband of Liza Minnelli -- on his memory of Michael Jackson. The two were childhood friends and both later went to the same plastic surgeon.
For more Michael memories, check out our interview with Glenn Douglas Packard who before becoming Brooke Hogan's BFF choreographed Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Concert Special.
What's better than one European pop star? Two European pop stars. And what's better than two European pop stars? Two European pop stars swapping songs -- which is exactly what French chanteuse Yelle and Swede Robyn recently did for a little collaboration they're calling Foreign Exchange.
Here's Yelle covering Robyn's "Who's That Girl" now titled "Qui Est Cette Fille?":
And here's Robyn returning the favor with her version of Yelle's "A Cause des Garcons" now titled "Because of Boys" (with a tasty dab of the Swede's "Cobrastyle"):
Today in total randomness, it's rumored that Amy Winehouse, who's on a kind of perma-vacation in St. Lucia, has signed a deal that would result in a line of greeting cards and wrapping paper themed on her songs of heartbreak and woe. Says the ever-reputable Sun, "The first item in the Winehouse range will be wrapping paper with
the chorus of Rehab emblazoned all over it. The Amy-branded cards are classy too. You Know I’m No Good
is best for heartfelt apologies and Back To Black, with an appropriate
wreath, will be the respectful response to a bereavement."
Obviously the "going (or not going) to rehab" gift market has been heretofore lacking in appropriate paper goods. How good (and by good we mean "not good") would it be to give somebody a failed-intervention consolation bottle of Hennessey all done up in "No, no, no" paper!? This is one of those "news" items that invokes two simultaneous and confusing responses: "This is far too ridiculous to be true," and "OMG, I'd totally buy that."
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