Iggy and the Stooges were in cracking form on The Colbert Report last night, making them the latest in a long line of bands who’ve appeared as guests on Stephen Colbert’s long-running satirical chat show. Of all the late-night hosts on TV, Colbert seems to get the most amusing interviews and performances out of musicians; here are a selection of The Colbert Report‘s very best musical moments. You’re more than welcome. … Read More
Alicia Keys
10 Amusing TV Theme Song Covers by Famous Musicians
If you were watching Late Night With Jimmy Fallon the other night, you might have been rather taken aback and amused by special musical guest Alicia Keys’ choice of song. Instead of performing one of her hits, she broke out a cover of the theme song to 1980s Disney TV series Adventures of the Gummi Bears. The bizarre spectacle got us thinking about some of the other covers of TV themes that have surfaced over the years — surprisingly enough, there aren’t that many to choose from, especially once you set aside the inexplicable ’90s/’00s trend of dire punk bands doing self-consciously goofy TV covers for reasons only they can explain. Still, there have been some to buck the trend, so here’s a New Found Glory-less roundup of famous bands doing TV theme songs for your listening pleasure. Did we miss any? … Read More
Watch the Empire State Building Dance to Alicia Keys
If you happened to be gazing at the Empire State Building last night, say around 9pm, then you probably noticed that it looked a bit more lively than it normally does. Don’t worry, you weren’t hallucinating from Cyber Monday-induced stress. What you were seeing was actually the iconic landmark’s first-ever light show — synched to Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” and “Empire State of Mind” — courtesy of the building’s new Philips Color Kinetics LED lighting system. As Mashable reports, “The new system has lighting capabilities from more than 16 million colors, along with effects such as ripples, cross-fades, sparkles, chasers, sweeps, strobes, and bursts.” Sounds impressive, right? Click through to see video footage of the view from across the river in Hoboken, then let us know in the comments: What song would you like to see the Empire State Building dance to next? … Read More
The Best and Worst Bond Themes of All Time
There are plenty of reasons to be excited about Skyfall, the newest installment in the venerable James Bond movie franchise (fifty years and counting): Daniel Craig is back as Bond, Javier Bardem as the new Bond villain, Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes bringing it all together with wit and grace. But our first indication that this one might be something special came a few weeks back, when we got a listen to Adele’s moody, smoky theme song for the film. It’s got a big, brassy sound that immediately recalls Shirley Bassey, who became the signature voice of the Bond movie theme songs (and while she only did three of them, that’s two more than anyone else), and digging up Bassey’s tunes sent us down a YouTube rabbit hole of Bond themes. As you might expect, over the course of fifty years there have been some timeless, immortal songs; there have been others that, to put it charitably, haven’t aged quite so well. After the jump, we’ve picked our five best, four worst, and one in between of the Bond themes thus far. Some controversies may erupt, so by all means, throw in your two cents in the comments. … Read More
25 Great Songwriters on the Art of Songwriting
Thomas Edison’s famous and oft-abused quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is one of the great truisms of our time. But is it actually, y’know, true? How creativity actually works — in terms of the nuts and bolts of actually getting things down on the page/tape/canvas/etc. — is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of art, a process that’s both romanticized and often misunderstood. And in view of this, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our favorite songwriters had to say about how they approach the process of writing. Click through to read opinions from Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Björk, Patti Smith and a whole heap more. We hope they provide some measure of inspiration, interest, or insight. … Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London today on a warrant for sexual assault charges filed by two women in Sweden. He will appear in court later today. Get live updates on the situation here. [via Gawker]
2. Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian, and those other… Read More
Days Later Kim Kardashian Is Still Dead
Earlier this week a slew of celebrities that included Lady Gaga, Ryan Seacrest, Justin Timberlake, and Alicia Keys sacrificed their “digital lives” in honor of World AIDS Day. The idea was that these web-savvy celebs would refrain from making any Facebook or Twitter updates — apparently, outside of incessant reminders to donate — until their collective fan-base had raised $1,000,000 to “buy their lives back.” As of the end of the day on Wednesday, The Daily What noted that with only a little over $100,000 raised, “the shameful ploy to demand cash from fans in exchange for fatuous tweets appears to have bombed in a rather spectacular fashion.” So are they any closer to hitting their goal almost two days later? … Read More
Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” vs. Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”
Ah, Katy Perry: a woman whose mouth is always writing checks her music can’t cash. As Vulture reminds us, the “I Kissed a Girl” promised Rolling Stone that her new song “California Gurls” (which better not be a “September Gurls reference…”) would be Los Angeles’ very own answer to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ instant classic “Empire State of Mind.” Now that a demo version of the song has made its Internet debut, we’re comparing the two songs to see how Perry’s stacks up. Listen to both and follow along after the jump, as we re-ignite the East Coast/West Coast wars. … Read More
The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. Alicia Keys has posted an open call for a “head blogger” to help run her forthcoming girl power site, IAAS.com (I Am A Super Woman). [via TwentyFourBit]
2. How Conan O’Brien went from being a web luddite to picking fights with Justin Bieber on Twitter. [via NYT]
3. Is NBC’s… Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. So this is fun: After they were introduced by mutual friend Alicia Keys, Jack White and Jay-Z have recorded a song together! [via TwentyFourBit]
2. Not at the SXSW Festival? IFC.com is live streaming a ton of panels, interviews, and live performances. [via Pop Candy]
3. Have you read… Read More
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