Seriously, WTF? The Hills!? Are they trying to be US Weekly or some other trashy gossip rag? Is this the same magazine that has had John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and every other legendary music artist on its cover? Every once in awhile, Rolling Stone throws some half naked bimbos from a movie or TV show on it’s cover in what must be a cheap ploy to get dudes who are “too cool” for Maxim to buy it and drool over Jessica Alba or Rose McGowan. But this is a new low. Bimbos from a crap, fake reality show? Geez. What’s next? A 24 page cover story on Kim Kardashian? An Annie Leibovitz photo spread on the many looks of that nasty New York chick and Tila Tequila?

Leave the brain-dead crap to People Mag and US Weekly. At least pretend to be better than this.

P.S. Notice right above these chicks dressed in their underwear there is a big headline talking about a $25,000 a night Escort Service? I’m just sayin’.

Wired.com has just posted a 3D version of Bjork’s most recent video, Wanderlust. Click here to check it out.

Here’s a question though. Bjork is not what one would consider a mainstream artist. Her music is sort of an acquired taste and she definitely walks to the beat of her own drummer. And as the years go by, the more esoteric she seems to get. So who is paying for these rather elaborate and expensive videos?

An interesting post from Housequake.com:

Sure, P killed it this weekend at Coachella, if the media and fan reports are to be believed. Who didn’t think he would?

But as he basks in the afterglow of the “Creep” cover, which is sure to become at least semi-legendary, shouldn’t Prince wonder why some of his biggest cultural sensations in recent years (the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame Harrison cover, and now Creep) are coming on others’ songs?

We’re all familiar with the reasons why it’s unreasonable to expect a pop musician to still be a leading innovator 30 years after his or her debut — and that’s not what I’m talking about. But, in my opinion, there’s just no excuse for a song like “Turn Me Loose,” as debuted on Leno last Friday. There’s no poetry in it (something both Creep and WMGGW have). And Prince is capable of poetry (at least pop poetry). He’s still capable of melody and rhythmic virtuosity (if not innovation), as we’ve seen on recent records: think of “The Word” on 3121, or “The One You Wanna See” on Planet Earth. The problem is that both of those songs have powerfully boring lyrics. They’d have been boring even if Prince hadn’t essentially written them several times before (i.e., the undercooked spirituality of the former, or the I’m-so-rich-come on of the latter).

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” - Pearl Jam
• “Corduroy” - Pearl Jam
• “Daughter” - Pearl Jam
• “World Wide Suicide” - Pearl Jam
• “Better Man” - Pearl Jam

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “P***y Time” - Nashville P***y
• “Antichrist Superstar” - Marilyn Manson
• “The Horrible People” - Marilyn Manson
• “Human After All” - Daft Punk
• “Leaving Hope” - NIN

RollingStone.com:

Top acts earn more by releasing music straight to fans

EVAN SERPICK Posted Apr 17, 2008 12:00 AM

When the Smashing Pumpkins recently announced that they were leaving the major-label system, they joined a growing group of musicians who have discovered they can put out music, connect with fans and earn more money while not working with a major record company. “We’re free,” says Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, who plans to distribute songs directly to fans online. “We’re out of purgatory. And we’re excited to take on everybody in the open trench warfare of the new-media world.”

In the past year, artists including Radiohead, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, the Eagles and the Black Crowes have all released — or announced plans to release — music without a major label. The trend signals a shift in thinking among artists and managers: Thanks to digital distribution, sites like MySpace and YouTube, and an ever-expanding array of companies looking to partner with musicians, the labels are less necessary than ever.

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “Come On Come On” - Nashville P***y
• “Wasted Again” - Turbonegro
• “Wildside” - Motley Crue
• “Pullin’ Back The Reigns” - k. d. lang
• “So In Love” - k. d. lang

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “I’m So Tired” - Beatles
• “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” - Beatles
• “Revolution” - Beatles
• “Peace is just a word” - Eurythmics
• “Adrian” - Eurythmics

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “Mr. Brightside” - The Killers
• “Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke Mix)” - The Killers
• “Somebody Told Me” - The Killers
• “When You Were Young” - The Killers
• “Hate On Me” - Jill Scott

It’s been a long and annoying week. I have several articles cooking that I just haven’t found the time to finish. But I will shortly and post them here. Got a lot to say.

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “All These Things That I’ve Done” - The Killers
• “In The Flesh” - Pink Floyd
• “Wish You Were Here” - Pink Floyd
• “Pretty Good Year” - Tori Amos
• “He Lays In The Reins” - Calexico and Iron & Wine

This is part of a series I’m doing on the best and worst albums covers from one particular artist.

The Rolling Stones have been trudging along for a good 45 years at least. In that time they have had probably over 40 chances to do something interesting with the covers of their albums, singles, vids, etc. So it only makes sense that they have had a few great covers and also a few entirely horrid covers as well.

Entertainment Weekly #982 has an article in it called “Pop Culture Throw-down!”. In the article they present a conversation from both sides about 25 pop culture debates in movies and music. Both sides? Nope. There’s only one side, my side. I’m laying down the final word on what’s true and false here. It’s not up for debate, I know what I’m talking about. You may ask what makes my opinion more important than anyone else’s? And the answer is of course absolutely nothing makes my opinion more important than anyone else’s. I suggest if someone wants to weigh in they should get a blog and lay down their final word. But presented here is mine. As far as I’m concerned the debate is over. Here is the truth:

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “I Believe In You” - Sinead O’Conner
• “Goodbye Blue Sky” - Pink Floyd
• “Vera” - Pink Floyd
• “BeatBox” - Art of Noise
• “Come As You Are” - Nirvana

The power of good online karma:

Nine Inch Nails release initial sales figures for ‘Ghosts’

March 13, 2008 11:03 AM
By Tjames Madison
LiveDaily Contributor
Source: Livedaily.com

Nine Inch Nails latest album, the sprawling, 36-track instrumental set “Ghosts I-IV,” has garnered more than 750,000 downloads since being released over the web last week.

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “13 Ghosts II” - NIN
• “22 Ghosts III” - NIN
• “Rez” - Underworld
• “1234″ - Feist
• “Burning Flag” - Marilyn Manson

Nine Inch Nails have just released a new 36 track, 4 part instrumental piece called Ghosts I-IV. It is available right now for download from ghosts.nin.com or at Amazon’s MP3 Store for $5. Trent Reznor had this to say about it on nin.com:

5 songs running through my iPod this week:

• “Gave Up” - NIN
• “The Nobodies” - Marilyn Manson
• “The Creeps (Fedde Le Grand Remix)” - Camille Jones
• “11h30″ - Danger
• “Somewhere Only We Know” - Keane

This is part of a series I’m doing on the best and worst albums covers from one particular artist.

Janet Jackson just released her new CD this week, Discipline. With Janet, image is obviously very important. Her visual presentation with every album has been very key to her success whether it’s the album art, tour presentation, or her many amazing music videos. The album cover is the first impression though for the music. And sometimes it can motivate an ambivalent buyer one way or another, making it extremely important. Let’s take a look at some of Janet’s best and worst album covers.

I am going be starting a new blog series where I take a look at the best and worst album covers from one particular artist spanning their whole career. I’m going to stick to artists with at least 4 albums credited to them, some current, some old. But first I want to talk about CD buying in general here in 2008. There was a recently published newspaper article that said more teenagers are downloading than buying CDs. And the downloading numbers are growing every year and CD sales are diminishing. The future seems pretty clear. So where does something like album art even fit in anymore?

The extremely talented Erykah Badu released her new album Tuesday,
New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War).

Here is what Entertainment Weekly had to say about it: