Last week we ran a post on the people who we thought were rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated lyricists — artists who don’t get the credit they deserve for their writing, either because they’re better known as guitarists/producers/crazy performers, or just because they’re generally underappreciated. We got some great feedback, and some excellent suggestions in the comments section, and all was very congenial. But last week’s post does raise one obvious question: If those were rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated lyricists, who are its most overrated? We’ve taken the plunge and put together a list of the latter. Again, to be clear, this isn’t meant to be any sort of definitive list of worst lyrics or lyricists — Des’ree, your throne is secure — just those who we reckon don’t get enough scrutiny for being either a) not that great or b) not quite as great as people seem to think they are. So, what say you, readers? Are there more names you’d like to nominate? Or do we just need to join the witness protection program?
Lollapalooza celebrated its 20th anniversary over the weekend, turning Chicago’s Grant Park into a musical mecca that saw roughly 100,000 people gather each day in extreme heat and, at least on Sunday evening, torrential rain. In keeping with founder Perry Farrell’s original vision, the festival lineup was thrillingly diverse, featuring everything from hip-hop to dance to stadium rock. Highlights included a blistering set from Muse, a storm-defying performance by the irrepressible Foo Fighters, and a number of the non-headliners we knew you would love, from Tinie Tempah to Fitz & the Tantrums.
Our favorite fresh act to these shores was easily Australia’s Boy & Bear, the antipodean answer to Mumford & Sons, while the most memorable moment came from the full-on chaos of LA-via-Mexico’s Le Butcherettes — a band that channels Karen O via the Kills, only with a lot more screaming and fake blood, and in this case, onstage vomiting with its own theme song. The only real disappointment came from a bizarre set by a spiked and studded Cee-Lo that opened with a Danzig cover and featured numerous Girl Talk-esque breaks for snippets of songs by Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, and Journey. Check out our photo gallery from the fest featuring all those artists and more, including Lykke Li, the Naked and Famous, and Ellie Goulding.
What started out two decades ago as a makeshift traveling musical circus has now become one of Chicago’s biggest annual events. This year’s Lollapalooza includes performances from Muse, Foo Fighters, Kid Cudi, Cee-Lo Green, Bright Eyes, Lykke Li, Crystal Castles, and dozens more — and it also marks your chance to win a VIP trip for two to attend the fest.
We’ve partnered with GUESS to send one winner and a guest out to Chicago’s Grant Park to spend three days basking in music and sunshine, with airfare, accommodation, and VIP festival passes all included. The winners will also attend an exclusive afterparty presented by Flavorpill and GUESS, featuring Tinie Tempah and Young the Giant.
1. Kenneth Mars, a character actor best known for his roles in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein and The Producers (but who will always be remembered by us as the regal voice of Grandpa Longneck from The Land Before Time), died Saturday at the age of 75. [via THR]
2. Glenn Beck believes that Muse was trying to start a revolution with their performance at The Grammys because of where they’re from: “You have to remember these are Europeans…they have had very few glimpses of real freedom. Even when England won the Second World War, they didn’t go into freedom. That’s where the Road to Serfdom came from.” [via Gawker]
3. If the idea of getting married at a McDonald’s sounds appealing to you, then you might need to plan a destination wedding to Hong Kong, where a “McWedding” service launched at select locations back in January. The typical package — which costs $1282 — includes gifts, invitation cards, decor featuring Ronald McDonald and The Hamburglar, and lots and lots of fast food. [via Gothamist]
4. After the city of Detroit refused to provide funding for a 7-foot tall iron statue of Robocop to go up near Michigan Central Station, a Kickstarter project is already over a third of the way toward its $50,000 goal. [via Boing Boing]
5. “I’m 41. I think it gets embarrassing… There’s a lot of things I wanna do. I like making coffee.” – LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy explained why he’s quitting the band on last night’s Colbert Report
1. Ben Affleck is in early negotiations to direct Argo, an adaptation of Joshuah Bearman’s April 2007 Wired magazine article about the Tehran hostage crisis. George Clooney is co-producing the political thriller. [via THR]
2. Ted Williams is planning to auction off the cardboard sign from the YouTube video that launched his 15 minutes of fame, as well as his camouflage jacket. The proceeds from the sale will go toward the Ted Williams Second Chance Foundation, which was created to help talented people who need “a hand up and not a hand out.” [via TMZ]
3. “This year, when the Black Eyed Peas perform, I’m planning on doing my own little ‘Boom Boom Pow’ just to show ‘em that this ol’ cheerleader still has some shake in her.” – Paula Deen’s musings on Super Bowl XLV
4. At the beginning of last night’s episode of The Daily Show, Justin Bieber was in Jon Stewart’s seat because they’d swapped bodies, Freaky Friday-style. Watch the clip — which was apparently a promo for Justin Bieber: Never Say Never — here.
5. Lady Gaga has already confirmed that she will premiere her new single “Born This Way” at this year’s Grammy Awards, but now there’s a rumor floating around she’ll do a duet with Muse as well. (PS: Check out her out on the cover of the March issue of Vogue above.) [via Digital Spy]
Good news for Team Jacob lovers and Team Edward fans alike: Just for today, the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack is available for streaming for all to hear and swoon over with each passing note. Whether you’re pro-vamp or merely pro-indie rock, it’s sure to win you over. After the jump, we give a full rundown of each and every tune streaming over on the pre-order site for the soundtrack, which will be available for purchase June 8th. Oh, and for the record, we’re totally Team Jacob.
Every March, Austin, Texas puts its money where its mouth is to back up its self-proclaimed status as the “live music capital of the world.” As the SXSW Music fest takes over the city for four days and nights of nonstop live acts in every venue and location possible, thousands of musicians, fans, and industry types descend from around the world to transform it into a veritable music metropolis.
Our Texan odyssey this year was filled with the usual sonic information overload, but in between catching phenomenal performances by Marina and the Diamonds, Nneka, Free Energy, Muse, Metric, and a host of fresh acts, we also found ourselves taken by the plethora of strangely costumed characters we found around town.
Muse began their filled-to-the-rafters show at Madison Square Garden with a bang: elevated on towering platforms that were lit up like Christmas trees, the band tore into “Uprising,” the first single from their latest album, The Resistance. A Muse show is much like a rock opera — you get all the theatrics, but the music is loud enough to thrum in your chest. And, like a proper rock opera, there followed fist pumps and head banging, but without any hardcore crowd surfing.
1. Conan O’Brien has joined Twitter, but he has only tweeted once so far: “Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody help me.”
2. Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux are working on a script for Zoolander 2. Theroux will direct and Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play the villain. [via Deadline]
3. Have you seen the video for Tracy Morgan and Jimmy Kimmel‘s new rap track, “Impregn8ed“? [via Pop Candy]
4. Salman Rushdie is planning to write a book about the decade he spent hiding because of the fatwa. [via Guardian]
5. Opera star Renée Fleming‘s upcoming album Dark Hope will cover pieces by indie rock bands including Muse, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, and Death Cab For Cutie. [via LAT]
Sure, there’s something to be said for pushing boundaries, constantly seeking out strange new sounds, and generally compiling the ephemera of the musical universe. But if there’s one thing any music fan with a taste for hooks knows, it’s that the folks at Pitchfork have a habit of often missing the forest for the trees. While the online indie-music kings at the site spend their days approaching music from a nigh-on scientific standpoint, some of the year’s best music can end up getting the shaft, simply because it isn’t weird or progressive enough. So, we weren’t all that surprised to see that a lot of our favorite albums of 2009 were omitted from Pitchfork’s top 10 albums of the year list. However, the fact that many of them not only also failed to appear in the site’s top 50, but even the honorable mentions, was a little too much to let slide.
. A Muse show is much like a rock opera — you get all the theatrics, but the music is loud enough to thrum in your chest. And, like a proper rock opera, there followed fist pumps and head banging, but without any hardcore crowd surfing.
