Idolator, All About the Music... If Only It Were

Live-Blogging The 2008 Video Music Awards: No Britney, No Peace

Oh HI! It's dickdogfood. I welcome you to Idolator's liveblog of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Now before I became a quasi-anonymous commentator legend, I was known as Michael Daddino. (I still am, in certain obscure circles.) Once, during that long-gone era, I watched 24 hours of MTV and wrote about it on the internet in real-time; thus the concept of the liveblog was forged in the smithy of my soul. And today I return to my old stomping grounds, all Proverbs 26:11-style, to point and laugh at...well, what's it going to be today, kiddies? What's it gonna be? Contrite Britney? Egotasmic Kanye? The JoBros making their inevitable Fleet Foxes move? Nickleodeon crossovers? Candidate cameos? Overrehearsed spontaneity? Underwhelming medleys? Regrettable covers? A smidge of actual entertainment? Yes, we are likely to get them all: the stars will it so. The handwringing and the laughter begin after the jump. More »

7:45 PM on Sun Sep 7 2008
By Dickdogfood
5,636 views, 100 comments

Latest by ext212: MTV is still around? more »

the last word

VMA Wrapups Reveal That This Year's Ceremony Didn't Really Have A Big Watercooler Moment

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. After the jump, we look at other publications' reactions to last night's Video Music Awards, the "meh"-ness of which we are still trying to process. More »

10:00 AM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
465 views, 12 comments

gum and spit dept.

Temporary VMA Comments Thread

While we wait for comments to get fixed, those of you who would like to comment on Mike's fine liveblogging of the night can chat here, at least until we hit 100 posts, at which point I guess we'll go into thread No. 3? I dunno, I'm still sort of experiencing sunstroke from being out in the heat for three hours with no water and not all very many interviews.

By Maura Johnston
791 views, 76 comments

putting the pseudo in pseudo-event

Get Excited: It's The List Of Video Music Awards Winners!

Sure, in the long run, "which artists had to take moonmen home from tonight's Video Music Awards ceremony" is probably a meaningless statistic on the level of, say, "almost-no-hitters in Mets history," but admit it, you want to know if Paramore beat out Fall Out Boy or if both of them got robbed by Linkin Park I MEAN COME ON YOU GUYS—uh, I mean, full list of winners after the jump. More »

By Maura Johnston
316 views, 2 comments

listening station

In Which We Discuss Kanye West's "Love Lockdown"

Kanye West's new single, "Love Lockdown," has some potential to it, with the MC/blogger busting out a bit of quivery-voiced emotion through a classic-sounding R & B vocal line. But being who I am, I do have a few notions as far as what could make the song a bit better: a, a bridge; b, an instrumental progression that would at least add a little bit of tension to the proceedings; c, a vocal by either Ne-Yo or Lloyd. Not that I don't appreciate Kanye's sincerer-than-sincere attempts to break free of the AutoTuned tyranny that characterizes so much pop music today, but they could at least interpret the song so the intensity, you know, built itself up throughout the song, instead of it cresting at moment one. [YouTube]

9:30 AM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
251 views, 4 comments

Latest by Chris Molanphy: I think you're dead-on. The song is totally salvageable -- it only becomes boring when you realize halfway through that he only came up with one melody line. And surprisingly, I don't mind him singing as much as I thought more »

intentional leak of the day

Christina Aguilera Shoots Herself Into Space

ARTIST: Christina Aguilera
TITLE: "Keeps Gettin' Better"
WEB DEBUT: Sept. 5, 2008 More »

rock-critically correct

"Blender"'s Purr Seems A Bit Muted These Days

Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of Blender: More »

3:00 PM on Fri Sep 5 2008
By Anono-Critic
908 views, 2 comments

hey asshole

Canadian Dude Takes Oasis' Penchant For Feuding A Bit Too Seriously

Last night in Toronto, an unidentified man rushed onstage during Oasis' set at the Virgin Festival and body-checked Noel Gallagher, perhaps because he wanted to show the brawl-happy band what happens when you traipse around a country where hockey is the national sport. (Fast-forward to the 1:30 mark to see the pummeling.) After a brief break in the action, the brothers Gallagher and their crew returned to the stage, where they played "Don't Look Back In Anger." Well, it's nice to see that even the prospect of on-stage assaults can't break their sense of humor. [National Post / YouTube; HT AP]

9:45 AM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
127 views, 3 comments

Latest by moomintroll: Aww poor Noel. The guy that attacked him is a giant douche bag. I like Noely-Noely as a "personality" (not so much for the music...) No one deserves to be attacked during a performance. I hope this guy gets in loads more »

Metallica's "Enter Sandman" as sung by adorable kittens: Come on, it has a lot more edge than that picture of James Hetfield on a shoe-shopping expedition. [Cute Overload]

Comment

videodrone

Radical Mormon Cult Financed By Selling Of Bob Dylan Bootlegs

Oh, wait a second—you mean that Bob Dylan's video for the 1997 track "Dreamin' Of You," which stars Harry Dean Stanton as a roving salesman of rare material from the singer, wasn't crafted from footage from the upcoming season of Big Love? My mistake. (The melancholy, piano-tinged dirge is still a pretty good song, though.) [Amazon]

10:30 AM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
102 views, Comment

let me count to 10

Songs About Cars Are Cast Into Music History's Dustbin

Yesterday, the Washington Post looked at the demise of the car song, the rock-anthem archetype that celebrated the open road and turned every ride into a beautiful (or at least functional) lady to ogle and admire. Storied car-song crafter Brian Wilson claims that the demise of the car song is just another segment of the circle of rock life—"They ran their course; they did their thing," he tells Post scribe J. Freedom du Lac—but are there greater societal forces at work? More »

11:30 AM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
71 views, 2 comments

Latest by RaptorAvatar: How come some hipster band hasn't done songs about fixed gear bikes yet? Somebody get either The Teenagers or one of The Smell bands on this. more »

on the blogs

Courtney Love Explains Why She Didn't Brighten Up My Red-Carpet Experience

I was sad that Courtney Love didn't show up to the Video Music Awards' red carpet as promised, because I would have loved to hear her take on some of the "luminaries" in attendance (cough cough, Joe Francis, cough cough). But at least her just-blogged excuse note for the evening makes (relative) sense: "theyre not the "VMAS" and they never will be again - i had ZERO desire to watch let alone go and thats one of my very favourite people ive ever known or had the honour of being friends and fiends with hosting it so i feel horribly rude that my desire not to watch assholes with chastity rings- oh for fucks sake ive had some great conversations but not ONE has ever ended in an Orgasm, y'all need some pussy and some cock and shut the hell up.." Now see, wouldn't she have proven a great foil to Jordin Sparks? More after the jump! More »

12:00 PM on Mon Sep 8 2008
By Maura Johnston
51 views, 3 comments

Latest by Al Shipley: I still can't believe you talked to Cisco Adler. I hope you had disinfectant on hand. more »

100 and single

Strummin' In The Girls' Room: Jason Mraz's Folksy Ditty Climbs The Charts

Last fall and winter, chart fans noted the return to the radio of a style that, until recently, was pretty unfashionable on Billboard's Hot 100: pure-pop female singer-songwriters.

Strummier and sunnier than their Lilith counterparts in the '90s and closer in kinship to California's post-Joni ladies of the '70s, two gals with hard-to-spell names led this '07 boomlet with a pair of Top Five smashes: Colbie Caillat, with "Bubbly," and Sara Bareilles, with "Love Song." The surprise success of American Idol's Brooke White, who seemed every week to be channeling Carole King, only fueled the theory.

Trouble is, neither Caillat nor Bareilles has had an easy time following up those easy-listening hits. Caillat has fared respectably, with a No. 20 followup ("Realize"), but not spectacularly. And Bareilles is completely stalled, with "Love Song" still leading the Adult Contemporary chart but no followup—on the Hot 100, or anywhere—all these months later.

So, new theory: maybe pop fans weren't latching onto these ladies' earthy-girl personas at all, but their sound.

Which brings us to Jason Mraz. He makes a big move into the Top 10 this week and, just in time for fall, proves the bedroom-girlypop sound can still hit big in 2008, even if the act in question possesses an extra Y chromosome.

2:30 PM on Fri Sep 5 2008
By Chris Molanphy
519 views, 15 comments

Anagrams never lie

The Hidden Meanings Of Scott Weiland's Rainwear-Happy Album Title

Scott Weiland hasn't had all that great of a year, but what better way to turn things around than with a solo album—especially one that allows the names "Sheryl Crow" and "Steve Albini" to appear in the same sentence of a press release? Which is why he's releasing Happy In Galoshes, which hits stores Nov. 18. Wait a second. Happy In Galoshes? Is he really that into protecting himself from the elements? Does he eschew slippers for a nice pair of Totes in his off hours? Or is there another meaning lurking inside those letters? We asked the automated oracle known as the Internet Anagram Server for its interpretation of Weiland's album title, and it gave us a few clues as to his post-Velvet Revolver artistic direction. More »

12:00 PM on Fri Sep 5 2008
By Maura Johnston
571 views, 7 comments

Latest by the earl grey: here's a joke:Q: what does george michael have in common with a pair of too-large wellies? A: they both get sucked off in bogs more »

putting the pseudo in pseudo-event

The Video Music Awards: They're Coming! Get Ready!

We have about 52ish hours until Britney Spears trades on her recent notoriety to open the 25th-anniversary installment of MTV's Video Music Awards, and like last year, you are all invited to watch with Idolator as we break down the goings-on—and, maybe, break down—in real time. So do come back at 8 p.m. ET for the pregame show and the live broadcast, which starts at 9! Sadly, I will not be handling live-blogging duties as a) I was only given a red-carpet pass, and not access to watch the broadcast being simulcast; and b) even if I did high-tail it back to my hotel room really really fast, the damn thing doesn't air on the West Coast until 9 p.m. PT. But I've handed over the task to someone who's more than capable: Our own Dickdogfood, who pioneered the art of the MTV liveblog all the way back in 2001, which is like forever ago in Internet time. More »

5:00 PM on Fri Sep 5 2008
By Maura Johnston
622 views, 10 comments

Latest by Rob Murphy: @DocStrange: Word, on every single...word. I think that might be MTV trying to reclaim the mantle of being "hip" and "ironic". more »

Since MTV's Video Music Awards-related Twitter feed has lain dormant for the past seven months, I've decided to pick up the slack—and get you all ready for our liveblog, which starts at 8 p.m. ET— by updating Idolator's account on the microblogging service with notes from the red carpet. Whether or not AT&T's network will look kindly on this experiment in liver-the-liveblogging is up in the air, but hey, that's part of the fun of "experimentation," right? [Twitter]

4 comments