A tipster close to Gnarls Barkley sent along a document claiming that the video for first single "Run" failed the U.K.'s Harding Flash & Pattern Analyzer, which looks at a video frame-by-frame to see if it is at danger for causing epileptic seizures.
"Run," according to the document, scored 52 counts of a violation titled "extended failure." Since the press release arrived after the Harding FPA's business hours, this was unable to be verified, nor was it possible to ask if they were down with Gnarls Barkley using their test as a weird sort of badge of pride.
Here's a closer look at the results:
Don't know exactly what that means? Here's an FAQ to understanding the results, which, at the moment, lacks a section on music biz hype.
Like most everything in 2008, it comes equipped with a Justin Timberlake appearance (but no Timbaland!). It's a nice slice of vintage-inspired soul, and a prime showcase for Cee-Lo's increasingly strong vocals. Gnarls Barkley also hasn't lost its penchant for spooked, dream-like lyricism, with Cee-Lo ordering listeners to run from some unseen and never-described "beast," all while its retro keys play give-and-take with a gleefully weird background chorus of children.
An impressive array of artists are lending their name to NBC's "Heroes" brand, providing a wide swath of musicians to cherry-pick single downloads from.
The March 18 soundtrack has lined up the likes of Wilco, the New Pornographers, Death Cab for Cutie,the Jesus and Mary Chain and Prince-associated Wendy & Lisa, among many others, as reported today (The Playlist via the Hollywood Reporter).
A number of the songs are previously unreleased, such as those from Wilco, Panic! at the Disco, Imogen Heap and the recently-reunited Jesus & Mary Chain. Not too many details on the songs are provided, although Wilco's "Glad It's Over" stems from the band's sessions for "Sky Blue Sky," according to this January 2007 Billboard piece. Previously released songs from the likes of David Bowie and Bob Dylan will round out the album.
The soundtrack will boast the first studio song from the Jesus & Mary Chain in nearly a decade, although it's still unknown why the band has chosen "Heroes" as its grand coming-out party, or if it even foretells more new music, or is simply another "Bam Thwok" on our hands.
Show fans may be disappointed to see it features no music from Hayden Panettiere, although she can be sampled over here.
Here is the full tracklist for NBC's "Heroes" soundtrack:
1. "Heroes Title," Wendy & Lisa 2. "Fire and Regeneration," Wendy & Lisa 3. "He's Frank," Brighton Port Authority featuring Iggy Pop 4. "All for Swinging You Around," New Pornographers 5. "Glad It's Over," Wilco 6. "Weightless," Nada Surf 7. "Nine in the Afternoon," Panic! at the Disco 8. "Chills," My Morning Jacket 9. "Natural Selection," Wendy & Lisa 10. "ABoneCroneDrone 3," Shelia Chandra 11. "Not Now but Soon," Imogen Heap 12. "Jealously Rides With Me," Death Cab for Cutie 13. "All Things Must Pass," The Jesus & Mary Chain 14. "Homecoming," Wendy & Lisa 15. "Man in the Long Black Coat," Bob Dylan 16. "Maya's Theme," Yerba Buena 17. "Keeping My Composure," The Chemical Brothers featuring Spank Rock 18. "Heroes," David Bowie
Janet Jackson's "Discipline" is officially two days old.
Mariah Carey just released a new video, courtesy of a blockbuster Hollywood director. The clip, from "Rush Hour" director Brett Ratner, features "30 Rock's" Jack McBrayer, and effectively stole some of the thunder from Jackson's release.
And next week, Madonnawill get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with a little help from pop star Justin Timberlake.
Nielsen SoundScan figures for Jackson's "Discipline" won't be released until Wednesday, but there are already signs she's falling behind in the diva grand prix of winter/spring 2008.
Witness: Only a few year's ago, Timberlake was around to derail Janet's career as part of The Great Wardrobe Malfunction of 2004, and now here he is, parading Madonna in front of rock 'n' roll's most upper-class citizens. He also happens to be on Madonna's upcoming single "4 Minutes to Save the World," allowing Madonna the opportunity to turn her induction into the Rock Hall as the launch of the marketing campaign for her "Hard Candy," due April 29.
But worse: In the latest singles charts released today, Jackson's coldly synthesized "Feedback" isn't gaining much ground. In 9 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100, "Feedback" hasn't risen above No. 51, and this week rests at No. 53.
By comparison? Carey's slight-but-sly "Touch My Body" is at No. 34 -- after only two weeks. The song debuted last week at No. 54. Carey's "E=MC2" won't be released till April 15, but it's on target to be issued with something Janet's album wasn't -- a top-20 (if not higher) single.
After last week's Grammy-inspired sales bump on the pop sales chart,
all is relatively calm this week, as Jack Johnson, Alicia Keys and Amy
Winehouse remain at the top of the tally. Most eyes will be on next
week's chart, when releases from Janet Jackson, Dolly Parton and Erykah
Badu will enter.
There are two newcomers in this week's Top 10, led by the latest in the "Kidz Bop" compilation series. The 13th edition of the franchise, in which popular tunes are remade in
a kid-friendly format, arrives at No. 4 after selling 48,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Meanwhile, Chris Cagle lands at No. 8 with "My Life's Been a Country
Song," which made the Top 10 despite selling a scant 37,000 copies.
In fact, the only album that sold more than 100,000 copies was
Johnson's "Sleep Through the Static," which holds its No. 1 post
despite a 42% sales drop to 105,000 copies.
In its three weeks of release, the title has sold about 660,000 copies.
Taking full advantage of a weak release week is singer-songwriter Sara
Bareilles. Her "Little Voice" jumps up the chart 14 spots to No. 7, on
a 9% sales increase to 37,000 copies. Bareilles is benefiting from a
television commercial for an online music service promoting her
single "Love Song."
Overall, Billboard reported that the most recent week's sales were down 18.5% from the same week last year.
Tickets for the awards, to be held at the Curb Event Center in Nashville, went on sale Feb. 23, from $25 to $100. But like anything the young Cyrus touches, tickets are already sold out, according to the Ticketmaster website. Not saying it's all because of Cyrus, but CMA tickets were available up to two weeks before the November awards.
Other performers at the CMT Awards include Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Toby Keith, but with Cyrus guaranteed plenty of stage time, expect the CMT Awards to be the most in-demand award ticket of 2008. Needless to say, we will be monitoring this site.
The CMT appearance will give the teen Cyrus four consecutive award show appearances, dating back to the American Music Awards in November, the Grammys and the Oscars (pictured) this month. Will she top Beyonce as the artist with the most award show appearances in 2008?
Final nominees for the fan-voted CMTs will be announced on March 6.
Psychedelic rockers the Flaming Lips have been promising a film titled "Christmas on Mars" since 2002.
The fantastical sci-fi film has been postponed from year to year, prompting those on the Flaming Lips' message boards to compare it to Guns 'n' Roses' "Chinese Democracy." Dig around on the Flaming Lips site, and find a page in which the band describes the film as a bit of "The Wizard of Oz," and a bit of "2001: A Space Odyssey," and offers a release date of 2003. When I last interviewed Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne in 2006, he said he hoped for it to be out by the end of the year.
But now it appears the film, created with the help of Bradley Beesley ("Okie Noodling"), will no longer be a myth and will actually see an official release. The Flaming Lips were announced Monday as headliners of the Sasquatch Music Festival in Quincy, Wash., and while the Sasquatch website has no mention of the film, Billboard.com reports that "Christmas on Mars" will premiere at the event, although I won't fully believe it until the film starts rolling.
Jim DeRogatis' 2006 Flaming Lips bio, "Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips," provided further insight into the movie, which is set on a doomed space station on Mars.
"If I'm good, people will walk away thinking they saw a movie about an optimistic guy who decides to celebrate Christmas even though the space station is careering toward certain doom, but that's not really what it's about," Coyne is quoted in the book. "To me, there's some abstract quality that you can get in moviemaking where the image and the sound and the music all combine to elevate a moment into something super-emotional. Even when you watch a bad movie, like 'My Dog Skip,' you still wind up crying, because it's that powerful. 'Christmas on Mars' is really about the idea of belief: that if people around you believe in you, it influences what you can do."
So remember when there was that mini-controversy a while back as to whether or not "Falling Slowly" from "Once" would be eligible for an Oscar? Seems like a distant memory, but oh how the Oscars would have suffered had it ruled against the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. The Swell Season performance stood out on the Oscar telecast, as the winning song "Falling Slowly" owns a beautifully simple melody that allows for the emotion in the lyrics to be laid bare. Hansard's acoustic guitar plays give-and-take with Irglova's piano, the pace in the song mirroring the ups-and-downs of a relationship. Without the song in the race, the Oscar telecast largely would have been one big "Enchanted" fest.
Indeed, "Falling Slowly" stood in stark contrast to the others in the Oscar song race -- a small, independent, artist-driven turn going against larger studio songs and productions. The songs from "Enchanted," as nice as they are with a touch of Disney magic, are pure movie creations, and they fell flat on the Oscar stage. And "Raise It Up" from "August Rush" is gospel light, noteworthy more for its 11-year-old singer than for its verses.
The right song won, and hopefully it brings more viewers to "Once," and more listeners to the Swell Season. For all the press and attention "Once" has received, it's still largely a cult hit. The film has brought in only $16 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, compared to the $53 million that the much more maligned "August Rush" has raked in.
The Swell Season catalog is deeper than "Falling Slowly." A glimpse of it can be had later this week for those whose cable/satellite providers provide access to Ovation TV. On Thursday, Feb. 28, the Swell Season will appear on the latest episode of the live concert series the Artist's Den. A spring DVD release will follow.
The performance, enhanced by members of Hansard's band the Frames, not only highlights the passion of the Swell Season's music (the harrowing harmonies of "This Low," or the dizzying piano of the anger-fueled "When Your Mind's Made Up"), but showcases Hansard's storytelling ability. Before singing an acoustic version of the Frames' heartache tale "Lay Me Down," Hansard reveals that the song was inspired by a goth girl he dated as a teenager. The relationship took a tumble after he bought her a Christmas gift he was sure would appeal to her dark sensibilities: an empty grave.
But in the meantime, most will probably be talking about Irglova's Oscar acceptance speech, one of the most memorable moments from last night's awards. She was cut off by the Oscar orchestra, and later brought back on by Jon Stewart. Irglova made use of the moment, as you can see above, by giving a speech about independence and artistry.
And so it ends: After five nights, and about 13 hours of music, Wilco's residency in Chicago came to a close Wednesday night. It did so with a wallop of feedback rather than a celebratory rock 'n' roll bang. Guitar notes howled like freezing winds off Lake Michigan, and violin strings were teased and left to sway like a creaky door in a blizzard.
"There's so much less to this than you think," were the last pre-encore lyrics sung by singer Jeff Tweedy, a humble, almost guilt-ridden bow out of five ambitious nights of music. At 30 or so songs per night, it was one of more than 150 songs Wilco sang over the past week in its hometown. It also completed the band's goal of performing all 81 songs from each of Wilco's six official studio albums.
Live, "Less Than You Think" proved no less self-indulgent as it does on record, a beautiful keyboard-driven lament for about two minutes. Then some agonizing, un-listenable noise for the next 12 minutes. But it was fascinating to watch guitarist Nels Cline file his guitar notes, and see Glenn Kotche lightly decorate each piece of his drum kit while bassist John Stirratt left his instrument to create a dooming bellow.
The message seemed clear. While Wilco may have gone into this residency with a chance to explore its past, it would leave it with a promise to be no less brave in the future. It would have been easy to end the night with concert staples such as "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "A Shot in the Arm," but even in a week meant to celebrate its back-catalog, Wilco would find a way to challenge and test its fans.
And anything less from this band of alt-country rockers-turned-pop-experimentalists-turned-soulful-explorers would have been a disappointment.
Earlier in the week, I reviewed the first two nights of Wilco's residency. For the final three, I put down the notepad (after all, I was watching the shows on vacation rather than work), and here are five final observations from this week-of-Wilco:
-- "Showbiz should be more honest:" Watching a band work through its catalog -- some songs of which it hasn't performed live in nearly 10 years -- is watching one unafraid to show its warts. But Wilco also isn't too self-important to laugh away its faults. When introducing "I Thought I Held You," from Wilco's 1995 debut "A.M.," Tweedy pleaded with the crowd to go to the restroom. Referring to the overly-earnest country song as a term that isn't fit to print here, Tweedy said, "I got to be honest with you, this song is [expletive]."
But when he finished, Tweedy noted that "showbiz should be more honest." Such openness came easy to Wilco over the five nights. On Monday, the group launched into "Kamera," a staple of its "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" days, full of keyboard loops and soaring guitars. But the version here was loose, and nearly fell apart, with Tweedy asking, "Was that my fault?" He then admitted he had forgotten how to play the tune.
-- John Stirratt is under-appreciated no more: The Wilco bassist, and sole original member alongside Tweedy, is sometimes overshadowed by the band's more flashy, relatively recent additions -- a guitar scorcher in Cline or a rhythmic whiz in Kotche. With all of Wilco's lineup shifts, it's easy to overlook Stirratt's understated bass lines, which are the melodic foundation in each of Wilco's six records.
The band's hometown crowd seemed hip to this, and turned Stirratt into a star Wednesday night. Stirratt took over the vocals on "A.M." cut "It's Just That Simple," the one non-Tweedy voiced song in the Wilco canon. Stirratt proved well-suited for the plaintive country plea, and it was the second time in five nights Stirratt was allowed to sing it.
The crowd cheered the first time it was played on Saturday, but went nuts on Wednesday, giving Stirratt an extended standing ovation. Tweedy embraced his bassist, and the front-man encouraged the crowd to keep cheering. Stirratt visibly struggled to hold back the smiles and play it cool.
It was a touching moment of the residency, and a welcomed one. With a revolving cast of musicians, Wilco has sometimes been wrongly categorized as a Tweedy solo project. But that's never really appeared to be the case. Wilco is more an ever-evolving band, as each Wilco album reflects the strengths and weaknesses of that particular lineup. But more important, each Wilco lineup has been more than capable, and its members are always given the opportunity to flex their muscle.
-- A look ahead: When Wilco's 2007 album "Sky Blue Sky" was released, it represented a move away from some of the electro-pop flirtations of "Summerteeth" and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," and offered a bit less of the prog-rock tones of "A Ghost is Born." With strands of country again popping up in Wilco's music, it was viewed as a bit of a return to Wilco's roots. But side-by-side with early albums such as 1995's "A.M." and 1996's "Being There," the songs were far more intricate and nuanced than anything Wilco pulled off a decade ago.
The "Being There" lineup with drummer Ken Coomer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett was apt at roughing-up-the-edges of a mid-tempo Southern rocker such as "Say You Miss Me," but the current Wilco incarnation slogged through it. The Wilco of 2008 was better at handling the "Being There" songs with more space to them, such as "Misunderstood" and "Sunken Treasure." The latter, in fact, received two slightly altered versions this week, and an eerily bare version of the song opened Wednesday's show.
Of the songs that were performed four or five nights, a number were from "Sky Blue Sky," including "Impossible Germany" and "Hate it Here." Both represent relatively new strains to Wilco's repertoire.
While "Hate it Here" is a fun if slight song on record, live it turns into a full crowd sing-along, and features some of Tweedy's strongest, most impassioned soul singer vocals to date. "Impossible Germany," meanwhile, represents Wilco as a three-headed guitar monster, with multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone joining Tweedy to offer counter-melodies to the solo sketches of Cline.
Wilco seems comfortable and taken with both, and the guitar assault of "Impossible Germany" and modern soul of "Hate it Here" would be welcome areas for the band to further explore. -- More to come: After completing its encore Wednesday night, the crowd was only willing to budge after Tweedy reassured its fans that it would be staging a winter residency in Chicago in 2009. "We'll do this again next year," Tweedy pleaded. Earlier, Tweedy promised that the band would further explore its B-sides and non-album cuts next time around.
For those in other cities, expect Wilco to trot out more and more of its older songs as it hits the road. The band is taking requests on its website, and spent Wednesday night playing what Tweedy said were the songs it had the most fun with over the residency. Hopefully that means much more of the mini-symphony of "Pieholden Suite," an absolute gem of a song from "Summerteeth." Other repeats Wednesday night included "Casino Queen," "War On War," "Box Full of Letters" and "Pot Kettle Black." -- Wilco is a dude's band: Even as the band's recent "Sky Blue Sky" has taken a turn toward soul romanticism, Wilco remains a band for the boys. Each night when the venue's doors were opened, the line to get in the Riviera was split down the sexes. Of the hundreds who lined up early, about two dozen were females. As the temperature dropped below 6 degrees Monday, and the female line dwindled to nil, one male fan asked, "You think I could pass for a woman?"
Photo: Wilco in Los Angeles, Richard Hartog /Los Angeles Times
Winning a Grammy Award still means quite a bit, at least when it comes to record sales. This week's chart sees a number of Grammy winners/performers zooming up the U.S. pop chart.
-- Herbie Hancock's album of the year-winning "River: The Joni Letters" enters the top 10 this week, soaring up to No. 5 after being docked at No. 159 last week. "River" sold 54,000 copies this week, and had previously peaked at No. 118, according to Billboard.
-- Further down, Kanye West jumps up the chart from 64 to 40, and the Foo Fighters move to 22 from 65, according to Billboard. Elsewhere, Alicia Keys, John Legend and Rihanna all see sales increase of at least 30% due to the Grammys.
-- But the artist who was long-rumored to appear on the Grammys but didn't make it, Michael Jackson, also makes a major impact on this week's charts. The 25th anniversary of his "Thriller" sold 166,000 copies, according to Billboard, and would have kept Winehouse out of the No. 2 post, except it only qualifies for the catalog charts. The "Thriller" re-issue would have fallen second to Jack Johnson, whose "Sleep Through the Static" sold 180,000 copies to hold at No. 1 for a second week. But the Jackson family will be well-represented on the U.S. pop charts soon enough, as Janet will release her "Discipline" on Feb. 26.
With a number of major Oscar parties having been given the ax (heartbreaking, I know), DJ Jason Bentley may have a bit more of a captive audience than usual at the academy's official Governor's Ball after-party. Bentley, who spins almost nightly on Santa Monica-based KCRW, has two sets planned, one of which will largely feature movie-related music.
So just what soundtracks can the upper-class, black tie-sporting crowd expect to hear with their catered meals?
Oscar nominees will likely hear plenty of music from "Once" and "Juno," Bentley says, but also a bit of JonnyGreenwood's score to "There Will Be Blood," which had been deemed ineligible for an Oscar. Bentley cites the "Blood" score as one of the more exciting pieces of cinematic music in 2007.
The songs Oscar attendees are likely to hear -- and the 2007 films they were associated with -- mixed in to the Bentley set are as follows:
The Swell Season's "Falling Slowly," from "Once" The Kinks' "A Well Respected Man," from "Juno" Bono's "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," from "Across the Universe" Anthony Hamilton's "Stone Cold," from "American Gangster" Jay-Z's "American Dreamin,'" from his "American Gangster" (album of the same name) Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose," from "La Vie En Rose" The Velvet Underground's "Pale Blue Eyes," from "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Those interested in hearing Bentley's Oscar-nominated mix will be able to download the set online on the morning of Feb. 25 at KCRW's site.
Here's an odd bit of PR: 
