When did the Feeling...

...become Jellyfish?



We have nothing against the Feeling--Lord knows the world is in need to a gayer version of Coldplay--but they've always seemed a little "by the numbers" to us, and have never really wowed us in the way that Keane (shut up) has in the past. So instead of watching that whole 50% Amazing video (it's for the Feeling's new single "Join With Us" by the way), why not watch this 100% Amazing video of Puffy AmiYumi covering "Joining a Fan Club" by Jellyfish. THE THEME OF THIS POST IS THE VERB "TO JOIN", OBVIOUSLY.



That will be all.

We're confused as to how this didn't win Eurovision 2008

Yes, we know the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest is old news (though to our credit, the Eurovision Song Contest is the kind of news that starts becoming old while it's still happening), but we've found ourselves in the throes of a renewed interest in Sébastien Tellier as his album Sexuality is about to be released in America (albeit only in American Apparel stores until October--we don't know either). "Divine" is an amazing, amazing track, and we can't recall who actually won Eurovision, but it probably wasn't as good as the video you just watched. J'accuse, Eurovision. J'ACCUSE.

Is it OK if we don't really like Lady Ga Ga that much?

It pains us to say that we've been so busy at the moment that we haven't heard any good pop music for the past couple of weeks, which is of course immensely depressing. Well not immensely... actually yeah, fuck it, it's immensely depressing. We're really into the Chairlift album, which isn't really pop music per se but we can all pretend it is and call is the Best Album of 2007. We think that would be best for everyone.

We also really like:
1. "Sneakernight" by Vanessa Hudgens
2. "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus (SHE'S JUST BEING MILEY, AFTER ALL)
3. and "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" by Annie.

But you already knew that.

:(

Here's the new CSS video:



Amazing.

:( x 10.

EDIT: THIS CSS SONG IS AMAZING

Oh my, there's a new CSS video out and about

...but is it amazing, amazing, or amazing? ("The answer? Amazing--now back to you in the studio"). We were completely petrified that CSS wold follow in the steps of their, let's face it, shoddy remix work of the past 12 months and make a middle of the road electropop album, but THANK THE GODS they have followed the current trend of people reminiscing about the good parts of the '90s (all three of them) and have made a record that sounds like all those angry ladies that got together and made punk records.

THIS RECORD IS GOING TO BE SO FUCKING GOOD.

Basically, what we're gonna do is listen to this song about 20 times today

Arewefuckingrite?



That was the new Vanessa Hudgens video for her brilliantly titled song "Sneakernight". We've been happily ignorant of the whole High School Musical phenomenon, and after listening to this song we're all like, maybe we were kind of wrong? We dunno, but if all Vanessa's other songs sound anything like "Sneakernight" (probability: 1,000,000:1) we're about to get into her back catalog like whoa (we haven't said "like whoa" since 2003, could someone please bring that back? Do we have to do everything ourselves?). Don't worry, we still think that Radio Disney is a thinly-veiled governmental brainwashing operation (only half joking), but we are about to be the only people to get down to this song in a club when someone plays it out. Like, the only people in the entire club. Wait, here are some numerics:

1. 2thewalls pointed out that "Sneakernight" is basically a Nikka Costa song, which it really, really is. Wikipedia has next to no info on the song, but we highly suspect Nikka had something to do with this. If this becomes some sort of Mylène Farmer/Alizée shit (Google it--French Pop Ed) we will seriously freak out.

2. WHAT IS IT WITH CELL PHONES IN VIDEOS (see: "No Air", that awful new Jennifer Hudson song).

We're tempted to give "Sneakernight" a score of 85% Amazing. Premature? Probably. But rationality has never been our forte (We've noticed--World).

This isn't quite pop music but it will do

It can't be all Kylie and Sophie in here all the time ("Yes it can"--World), and this video is quite good and makes us want to take a nap, not that it's boring us or anything, but it is very nap-worthy...



...don't you think?

Anyway it's for Chairlift's new single called "Planet Health". There are quite a few references to P-IN-THE-VAGEE, if you catch our drift.

Yup. It's a Werid YouTube Rut™

YouTube links are so much easier to come up with than "content" and "interesting things to say", wouldn't you agree, readers?

:(

The Grates have a new video out, and it's pretty brilliant. We've loved the Grates ever since their first little EP The Ouch. The Touch a couple of years ago. Normally we are not really into music recorded in sheds* unless it is Timbaland's shed, but it's a 100% Amazing record.

Anyway here's the video for "Burning Bridges" from the new album.



We think that John should have perhaps given Planned Parenthood a call, in retrospect.

*It was really recorded in a shed.

We were going to post that God-awful Pussycat Dolls video

... and talk about how we clearly mistook the word "groupies" for the word "boobies" in the chorus, but fuck that. Muscles has a video for his new single "The Lake", which is one of the best songs on his 2007 album Guns Babes Lemonade. It's well over 100% Amazing (maybe like, 144% Amazing) and demands your utter attention. Here and now.



Oh and also

Drugs, sex, rock 'n' roll etc etc

So apparently there was a video for "Jesus Doesn't Love Me", the fucking amazing track off of the Dragonette album no one bought but should have because it's the best pop record since at least "Fever". Yeah, we guess the world fucked up on that one. So any way, the band didn't like the video so they shelved it, but someone has put it on YouTube* and it's kind of good. It goes on for a little bit with the whole table-dancing "motif", but then SPOILER ALERT they recreate the Last Supper and you're like "OK, I guess that's cool". It's worth watching.

Video: 70% Amazing.
Song: 1,000,000% Amazing.

*This is probably old news but whatever.

We're desperately searching for the humor in this...

..and we're coming up short. We were never a fan of the New Kids on the Block, by virtue of us being a little too young when they first came out, and of all their songs being completely shit. If we hadn't just eaten a fat ass chicken sandwich we could positively taste the pure desperation etched on the face of each of these men (especially Danny, who has enough face for the five of them).

Not OK.

Oh yay, there's a new Teenagers video out

Our first reaction upon learning that the Teenagers had made a video for "Make It Happen" was:

1. "Oh great, another Teenagers video. Why bother "Love No" is the best song on the album and why aren't they releasing "Sunset Beach" and so on and so forth"

2. "Oh wait this looks like it might be good actually."

3. "OMG IT HAS CREDITS AT THE BEGINNING."

4. "OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG"

5. etc.

We just simply can't find it within ourselves to hate this band.

Surprise: We Are Scientists' new record is good

This is a picture of We Are Scientists' rather good new album, Brain Thrust Mastery that we took with our cell phone:



It look us a while to listen to it because, full disclosure, we kind of got it the first time around, the lead singer went completely grey, Chris shaved off his mustache and the hottest member of the band left--not the recipe for a brilliant "sophomore" release, we're sure you'll agree. So we were kind of like eh, A+ for effort but whatever, THAT IS UNTIL WE SAW THIS:



...which is the video for WAS' AMAZING new single "Chick Lit". It seems like WAS have taken some time off from being the Fall Out Boy of indie and have reinvented themselves as the Every Pop Band From The '80s Ever of indie. The concept behind Brain Thrust Mastery (i.e. young men playing pop music in a tropical setting for older ladies) isn't anything Heaven 17 or ABC haven't done before, but it's amusing and the songs are good so we give WAS 75% on this one.

Good job boys.

Like, two years after the fact...

...Late of the Pier have finally gotten around to releasing a video for their current Best Song Ever™*, "Space and the Woods", and not to be all "we were there" or anything, but we saw them over a year ago and have been telling people to PLAY THIS SONG drunkenly in clubs since before them. We hope they become big (and they have time, since the median age of the band is still approximately 4).

We feel old.

:(

Here's the video. There is a half-naked redhead teenage boy at 0:20--do with that information what you will.



Because we love you so much, we are posting HERE AND NOW the brilliant c90s remix of "Space and the Woods". Yousendit.com or zShare.net: YOUR CHOICE.

Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods (c90s remix) (YSI)

Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods (c90s remix) (zShare)

*You thought we forgot about those, didn't you?

Lolpost

WANT.

EPIC FAIL.

The Annie video was deleted from YouTube but now it's back

...for a limited time only. :(

We're not really that into the microphone in the new Annie video

The new Annie video is really good, it's called "I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me" and it's about women viciously hating each other (kind of like all of En Vogue or something) and that's all fun and games, but there's something we'd like to point out: Annie's microphone is shit and she knows it.



She's pissed.

Next to music and hair, microphone selection is one of the most important tasks a popstar has to undertake, and sometimes, as above, things tend to go horribly awry. Say what you will about the international mega-fiasco that was "2 Hearts", at least it had this:



Now THAT'S a mic.

It's obvious that they tried to rectify their error with a quick mic change near the end of the video:



...but the damage had already been done. Shame.

Video: 100%
Microphone: 0%

NOT AMAZING! NOT AMAZING! NOT AMAZING!

We give up. We fucking GIVE UP.

(Thanks Keane)

Pretty pretty

Robyn is about to embark on her first full U.S. tour!
So get excited for some poptastic times...

US Tour Dates:

04/29 - Boston, MA @ Paradise
04/30 - Philadelphia, PA @ TLA
05/01 - New York, NY @ Virgin Megastore (Union Square)
05/01 - New York, NY @ Late Show w/ David Letterman
05/02 - New York, NY @ Grand Ballroom
05/04 - Montreal, Quebec @ La Tulipe
05/05 - Toronto, Ontario @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
05/07 - Chicago, IL @ Park West
05/13 - Portland, OR @ Berbati's Pan
05/14 - Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
05/16 - San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo's 365 Club
05/17 - Los Angeles, CA @ Wiltern Theatre

Here's the vid for "Who's That Girl?

We have some harsh words for Ms. Minogue :( x 10000000

We try to focus on the positive here in DN-land, and we're sure we are all in agreement that Kylie Minogue is a fairly positive subject. We've always had nothing but the utmost respect for Kylie, and literally had to leave work when she was diagnosed with breast cancer (not joking). So it pains us to type these words, but WHAT. THE. FUCK. Every time we hear "All I See" we become more and more adamant in our thinking that it's really, really Not Good. Not Good At All. The problem presents itself thusly: We assume, as it has been demonstrated by various labels since "Fever" came out all those years back, that Universal/Astralwerks want to break America--something like how Leona Lewis just destroyed every radio format over the past month--and they thought that the quickest way to do so was to release a fluffy, totally harmless R&B ditty to assuage the US masses, as that's all we'll ever really listen to (except country, and somehow a "Kylie: Live in Nashville" album almost seems like a good idea at this point). What whoever chose "All I See" as her lead single in America forgot is heartbreakingly simple: Kylie Minogue is a 40-year-old white woman who can't sing. Again: KYLIE MINOGUE IS A 40-YEAR-OLD WHITE WOMAN WHO CAN'T SING. We love her. We adore her. She is our everything. She is our #1. But it's true. She needs huge, awesome pop production in order to sound like her larger-than-life self, and "All I See" just doesn't deliver in that department. In the above performance (from this morning's "Ellen Degeneres Show"), anyone with ears can hear that Kylie is not in her element: yes, she looks fabulous, yes, the dancers are doing their best to distract from the fact that the song is weak and Kylie surely hasn't gone to a "club" with a "boy" in quite some time (which is FINE), and it all comes off as SO desperate and shallow that it really makes us wonder if it was even worth releasing "X" in America in the first place. Surely a performance like that on a daytime television show geared towards middle-aged women and the lesbians who love them can't be doing a EURO-POP RECORD that much good? We would have been behind any other song (LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE) from "X" being on American TV (imagine the MAJESTY that is "In My Arms" or "Wow" or "Sensitized" or "Heart Beat Rock" in front of a couple hundred thousand viewers!), but not this. In a post-"Umbrella" world, "All I See" is totally useless, whereas "X" grows on us more and more with every listen. Sad.

Just to remind us that Kylie is amazing and can perform amazing songs amazingly, let's all dry our tears, sit down and watch this a few times, together:















:(

Against literally all odds, the new Ne-Yo song is fucking amazing

This is young R&B "crooner" Ne-Yo.



While we're sure we've heard Ne-Yo songs in the past (perhaps while perusing our local drug store, or blasting out of an Escalade at 3AM) we've never quite paid attention to the young man's oeuvre: that is until now. Keeping in mind that everything Ne-Yo has done up to this point is irrevocably shit, we urge you, the DN reader, to turn your attention to "Closer", his new single and possibly the best male R&B single of the year (which makes it, if you've been keeping track, 2008's answer to "Icebox" by Omarion). It's pretty gay, which is what makes it good, though we of course will not comment on Mr. Yo's sexual persuasion. We will, however, comment on the fact that he has a pencil mustache.

We leave you with a YouTube audio/video thing of "Closer", illustrated with "pics" of Ne-Yo looking saucy.



AMAZING.