Here are two names we didn’t expect to see in the same headline: arena-rock stars Kings of Leon and lo-fi LA punks No Age. We imagine they have somewhere around zero fans in common, but as Marc Hogan at Spin points out, they do kind of share a T-shirt design. In a blog post last night, No Age posted a few photos of a Kings of Leon tee with the caption, “t shirt designs by the kings of originality… looking good.” Indeed, the shirt bears some resemblance to No Age’s signature design, which seems to pre-date KoL’s by a few years: Both feature big, bright, all-caps, multicolored text on a plain, white background. Then again, the T-shirts are also pretty simple, and, as much as we hate to defend Kings of Leon, it’s just as believable to us that their designer came up with the look independently as that he spotted a No Age tee and decided to rip it off. See larger version of both shirts after the jump, and let us know whether you think it’s a copy in the comments.
1. Spike Jonze has reportedly teamed up with Kanye West and Jay-Z to direct the music video for “Otis,” the first official track to be released off of their forthcoming joint LP Watch the Throne. While there aren’t many details to be had, you can check out a photo from the shoot in Los Angeles here.
2. Word is that former Six Feet Under star Lauren Ambrose (and not Glee’s Lea Michele as was previously rumored), is the actress that the producers of the upcoming Broadway revival of Funny Girl want for their leading lady. [via E!]
3. Kings of Leon have canceled the remaining 26 dates on their current US tour in light of that incident last week in Dallas where lead singer Caleb Followill left the stage after telling the crowd that he was going to go vomit, drink a beer, and then come back out and play some more. (He never did.) According to the band’s publicist, he was “suffering from vocal issues and exhaustion.” They will return to the road in late September for a show in Vancouver. [via ArtsBeat]
4. In case you’re curious, here are a few teasers from an upcoming Vanity Fair feature in which J. Lo explains why she split from Marc Anthony.
5. When Breaking Bad comes back for its final season next year, it might not be on AMC thanks to some drama between the network and Sony Television over the episode count. As long as this ends up with us getting to see more of Walter White, we’ll be happy to watch it anywhere. [via Vulture]
We were intrigued to hear the news last week that Radiohead are planning on releasing a series of 12″ remixes of the songs from The King of Limbs, handing over the album tracks to producers like Flying Lotus and Caribou to cut up and reinterpret. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their love of all things electronic, Radiohead have always been enlightened when it comes to having their tracks reworked, so much so that there are a couple of Radiohead remixes out there that arguably improve on the original versions. These got us thinking about other guitar-based or otherwise rock-inflected tracks that have been improved by remixing – they’re surprisingly few and far between, perhaps because writers of rock songs have been loath to let producers deconstruct them over the years. We’ve collected ten of our favorites; additional suggestions are, as ever, welcome.
A band that sells out is never cool. Well, that probably depends on how you define “cool” — swimming in a pool filled with gold coins or leaning back against a chain link fence, cursing at everything that moves. When it comes to the music industry, we tend to be more impressed with the latter, despite how nice doing the backstroke in a pool of money sounds.
From refusing to be a cog in the record company machine wheel to straight-up verbal take-downs of the industries pop-music cash cows, we’ve compiled a brief history of bands who flipped the commercial world and its minions the bird, 1990-present. These guys make Dave Grohl’s refusal to license the Foo Fighters’ music for Glee look like child’s play. (Still, we won’t lie: refusing the glorified Kidz Bop treatment the show’s peddling is undoubtedly a noble decision.) Read More »
Over a beer recently, a friend told us the story of, um, getting busy with a new acquaintance. Apparently, all was going well until the lady in question got up to put a song on the stereo. Her choice? Pink Floyd’s “Mother.” Unsurprisingly, our friend’s mind quickly switched from getting jiggy to getting out of there as quickly as possible, and the whole incident got us thinking about amusingly inappropriate music to soundtrack having sex. So to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here’s 10 of our choices – awkward, hilarious, or just plain wrong.
1. For your consideration: This year’s 2011 Coachella lineup, which features headliners Kanye West, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, and The Strokes.
2. The critics have spoken and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has topped this year’s Village VoicePazz and Jop list, followed by LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You” was voted the best single of the year. [via Prefix Mag]
3. The series premiere of Skins on MTV topped 3 million viewers, but what remains to be seen is how many people were brought in by the special Monday night airing of Jersey Shore. [via EW]
4. Even though it doesn’t hit stands until next week, there’s already a rumor circulating that Mark Salter, John McCain’s closest aide and speechwriter on the 2008 campaign, is the ghostwriter of O, an anonymously written fictional account of President Obama’s campaign for reelection in 2012. [via NYP]
5. Following in the footsteps of the Kardashians, Justin Bieber is planning to open his own store in The Grove in LA where he’ll hawk everything from sneakers to toys. Says a source: “They want to have everything Justin Bieber. They are also trying to find other Island Def Jam artists to be the face of some candy as well.” [via CocoPerez]
1. Kings of Leon will collaborate on a collection of down home jackets, jeans, shirts and accessories with French designers Surface To Air next month in Denmark. [via Xfm]
2. The co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards will be Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin; Martin previously hosted in 2001. [via Awards Daily]
3. James Franco will follow up his current gig on General Hospital with a guest appearance on 30 Rock. He’ll be playing Jenna’s love interest. [via EW]
4. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx (The Shipping News, “Brokeback Mountain”) is donating her diaries and manuscripts to the New York Public Library. [via BBC]
5. Flight of the Conchords may not be coming back for a third season because “it requires so much work.” [via Reuters]
The new video for “Sleep Alone” is the third off of Bat for Lashes’Mercury-nominated Two Suns album. If you can get over the implausibility of the idea of the lurvely Natasha Khan ever sleeping alone, it’s rather entertaining. There are a lot of plastic, light-filled hearts and trapezoids in this dream world, and it seems like Khan’s building a person out of them to keep her company at night. Watch the video after the jump and download her recent Kings of Leon cover here. Read More »
