American Music Awards: Three reasons to watch, three reasons to avoid

It's hard to imagine that this is finally happening. A music awards show without Kanye West and/or Taylor Swift will go down on Sunday night, and right here in our hometown.

The American Music Awards are set for a live Sunday night broadcast -- tape-delayed for the West Coast. Set to air at 8 p.m. on ABC, expect at least 20 music performances, and the occasional fan-voted award to be handed out at the gala at downtown's Nokia Theatre. 

In a tradition started last year by Pop & Hiss, here's three reasons to tune in, and three reasons one may be better off catching up on those episodes of "The Mentalist" you have on your DVR.

Reasons to watch:

1. Rihanna. Her "Russian Roulette" stands as one of the starkest, bravest, toughest singles to be released in 2009. The fact that it came from one of the world's biggest pop stars, and sounded more fit for a horror soundtrack than a dance floor, only added to its mystique. Even if it's not the song she'll be performing Sunday, it instantly catapulted Rihanna from a singles artist to a serious force to be reckoned with. 

2. Lady Gaga. In terms of unpredictable pop stars, no one, perhaps, can top one Mr. West. But the man who should have been Gaga's touring partner is a bit MIA at the moment, and likely won't grace an awards  show again until the Grammys, if they'll have him. But in the absence of Kanye, Gaga can be counted on for some sort of spectacle, even if her award-show speeches won't be quite as off the cuff. Her recent video for "Bad Romance" was a sci-fi-inspired explosion of arresting images, and her last major TV appearance -- a performance on "Saturday Night Live" -- featured the artist completely breaking down her hits.

3. Because the Bears are on. This doesn't really apply to those of us on the West Coast, where the American Music Awards will air later than the rest of the country, but there won't be anything broadcast on the gala that comes close to the train wreck that is the 2009 Chicago Bears. Heck, you can slap Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood and 50 Cent together for a medley of Broadway hits of the '40s, and the three of them doing the foxtrot would make for more captivating television than the Chicago branch of the National Football League. 

Reasons to skip are after the jump.

Maxwell gets post-Grammy nomination concert

R&B singer Maxwell will perform a concert at downtown's Club Nokia on Dec. 2 after the venue plays host to the unveiling of the nominations for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards. The Maxwell appearance will be open to the public, and proceeds will benefit the next-door Grammy Museum, which will celebrate its first anniversary Dec. 6.

Maxwell will earlier appear on the live CBS broadcast to announce the 2010 Grammy slate, "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! -- Countdown to Music’s Biggest Night.” The latter, which will be tape-delayed for SoCal viewers but air live on the East Coast at 9 p.m., will also feature live performances from Nick Jonas and the Administration, the Black Eyed Peas and Sugarland.

In a switch from last year, however, when the contenders were announced at the larger Nokia Theatre, the Grammy nomination prime-time special will not be open to the public.

Eminem replacing 'Relapse' sequel with 'Refill'

Eminem is rebooting plans for the successor to his first studio album in five years, “Relapse,” which brought the Detroit rapper back to the top of the national sales chart when it was released in May.

He had announced his intention to release “Relapse 2” in December, but now comes word that on Dec. 21,  he and his label, Interscope Records, are putting out “Relapse: Refill,” an expanded version of the first “Relapse” that includes seven bonus tracks. He said he and producer Dr. Dre had to rethink what they had come up with for the follow-up.

“I got back in with Dre and then a few more producers, including Just Blaze, and went in a completely different direction which made me start from scratch,” Eminem states in post on his website. “The new tracks started to sound very different than the tracks I originally intended to be on ‘Relapse 2,’ but I still want the other stuff to be heard."

The bonus material includes “Forever” from the “More Than a Game” soundtrack; “Taking My Ball,” which appeared first in the DJ Hero video game; and five previously unreleased recordings.

"Hopefully, these tracks on 'The Refill' will tide the fans over until we put out 'Relapse 2' next year," Eminem said.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Getty Images

Live review: High on Fire, Converge, Mastodon and Dethklok

The most animated act (think: Adult Swim) grabs the spotlight at a metal mash.

It's telling that the most orthodox act on one of the season's most anticipated metal package tours was the one composed of cartoon characters. The sprawling quadruple bill of High on Fire, Converge, Mastodon and Dethklok -- the last a Gorillaz-like animated band project for self-aware Hessians -- proved Thursday night at the Hollywood Palladium that while the heaviest strains of rock music are very much thriving, the rule book for what constitutes metal today has been burned at the stake.

Booked at the distinctly un-metal hour of 6:30 p.m., High on Fire's druggy, swaggering and dread-laden metal had to compete with the brutal reality of playing a dinner-time set prefacing a very long night of difficult music. No matter the strength of their bleak grooves and tooth-cracking clatter -- and they're strong indeed -- that's a tall order.

The wonkish post-hardcore act Converge had a slightly easier time of it. The Massachusetts-based band was one of the early adopters of the metalcore genre, in which the speed and ferocity of '80s American punk gets applied to the precision-cut riffs and polyrhythms of thrash. Converge's new album, "Axe to Fall," expertly refuses to put more than one foot in any camp of heavy music -- guitarist Kurt Ballou is equally at home squealing off pinch harmonics in a throwback solo or a sub-sonic churn of contemporary white noise. At times the restless pummel of drums even leans toward something Sun Ra could nod to.

Tonight: Neon Indian at the Echoplex

It’s easy to be skeptical of Neon Indian, the bedroom pop-turned-big-time project of 21-year-old Alan Palomo. For one thing, there’s the name. Neon Indian sounds more appropriate for a hirsute Bombay-born fixture on the Cobrasnake/Cinespace circuit, circa 2006.

Then there was the breathless blog buzz generated from songs called “I Should’ve Taken Acid With You” and “Terminally Chill,” titles that sound straight out of a Hipster Runoff Parody. Plus, this is Palomo’s third new band in two years -- though I’m willing to bet it will be his last.

Since making the aforementioned lysergic anthem for his friend, Neon Indian visual artist Alicia Scardetta, as penance for flaking on a would-be addled afternoon, Palomo’s star has rapidly ascended on the strength of his faded psychedelia. Lumped into the awkwardly named “glo-fi” genre, along with Washed Up, Memory Tapes and Delorean, Neon Indian owned the blogs and influential music magazine Pitchfork all summer long, culminating with the latter garlanding them with a rare Best New Music tag last month.

Green Day to give '21 Guns' a theatrical makeover

Liked Green Day's "21 Guns" but thought it lacked a certain -- how shall we say? -- pizazz?

Then you are in luck, as Green Day will re-release the cut later this month with the cast of Berkeley Rep's "American Idiot." The musical, based on the 2004 Green Day album of the same name, made its debut in the Bay Area earlier this fall, where Times theater critic Charles McNulty found it more positive than negative, writing, " 'American Idiot' translates Green Day's generational angst into a moody theatrical fantasia. If it doesn't spin an entirely satisfying yarn, its roar is still irresistible."

An official release date wasn't given for the newly recorded single, but it will be made available for purchase at all major digital outlets. Green Day will perform this Sunday on the American Music Awards on ABC, and "American Idiot" just finished its run in Berkeley.

The next stop for the musical? Likely Broadway. 

Adam Lambert kicks off rehearsals for American Music Awards

Rehearsals started today for the American Music Awards and the first to test out the mammoth stage at Nokia Theatre was Adam Lambert, the ebony-haired runner-up in last season’s batch of “American Idol” contestants. With his new album, the obsequiously titled “For Your Entertainment,” out vamping the streets this week, Lambert will showcase the Dr. Luke-penned title song for his Sunday night performance at the audience-selected award show.

For about five minutes, this reporter was allowed to write notes from a cushy blue chair in the audience during Lambert’s rehearsal, watching as dancers sashayed across the floor in spangly harem pants, leotards with torn tights and in one particular eye-catching costume, leather pants topped off with a few leather suspender-straps and silvery chains on an otherwise bare-chested male dancer. A Lambert performance, we were reminded, is not a place for demure displays of postmodern dance. As for the panther himself, he took a few leisurely leaps to various levels of scaffolding, singing into a phantom mic and writhing with whatever dancer was around. On the top level of the scaffolding, a band of indeterminate numbers played keyboards, a flying V guitar and other gadgets, all of which collude to formulate the glam-rock pyramid that Lambert mightily prays to on a seemingly daily basis.

And then we were kicked out, in the oft-fickle ways of rock star management. And then we waited an hour or so, nibbling Panda Express and text messaging friends. At long last, we got a few words with Lambert himself, who has the dashing good looks of a soap opera villain. His ice-blue eyes were rimmed with kohl, his T-shirt beneath his glittery jacket emblazoned with David Bowie’s heavily made-up visage.

It turns out Lambert is feeling the pressure of, um, outing his new material (speaking of OUT...). “The expectations are high -- the audience's and my own. But I’m really excited to perform live -- it’s what I know the most. It’s what I do best.”

Many have applauded “For Your Entertainment,” while others have deemed it a series of hedged bets. What does he think of the chance-taking on his first studio album? “I think I straddled the line between commercial and esoteric. I think the album’s eclecticism is the big risk I took.”

For all his forays into gothic kingdoms and its neighboring fiefdoms of glam-rock, power balladry and rock-god bombast, Lambert has barely scratched the Champagne-fizzy R&B of some of his peers. Would he ever perform something from the pen of Ne-Yo or Justin Timberlake? “It’s not the style I’m gravitating towards now but I might down the road.”

And who’s Lambert looking forward to seeing Sunday night? His sister in outrageousness, of course: Lady Gaga.

-- Margaret Wappler

Photo of Lambert in rehearsal. Credit: Kevin Winter / Getty Images for DCP

Album review: Adam Lambert's 'For Your Entertainment'

The 'Idol' runner-up goes for it all in his major label debut, with the help of the Hollywood pop A-list. The results are mixed, but never a bummer.

To point out Adam Lambert’s boutique addiction is to reinforce a gay stereotype, but Lambert himself enjoys playing around with preconceived notions, and that includes proudly showing that there's depth and self-awareness beyond those stereotypes. Lambert's other clear goal as a newly minted pop star is to celebrate all aspects of the word "play": pleasure, performance, flirtation, virtuosity, masquerade. That's what he does on this quickly assembled yet purposeful major label debut.

"For Your Entertainment" is a polished affair, but stylistically, it shows Lambert running loose like a kid in a Comme des Garçons store. With the Hollywood pop A-list at his disposal, he chose to go for it all: The only names missing from his list of collaborators are those firmly in the R&B camp (wouldn't it be great if he worked with fellow drama club type Ne-Yo?) The results on "FYE" are inevitably mixed, but never a bummer; Lambert's deft enough to avoid getting stuck in any one of the tropes he explores.

On many tracks, Lambert stretches himself by putting on the style of his more seasoned collaborators. He's pleading and soulful on the Pink co-write, sneering on the song Rivers Cuomo tossed his way, moody when it comes to parsing Muse and appropriately silly on the neo-glam crusher penned for him by Justin Hawkins, formerly of the English band the Darkness. Versatility is Lambert's strategy here, one he might consider changing in the future -- when the material's second-rate, it sinks him a bit. 

Live Review: The Big Pink at the El Rey Theater

 Of all the instruments and sounds in a rock band's arsenal, the most difficult one to use well might be sheer noise. For a band like The Big Pink -- a UK duo that brilliantly grafts the synth textures of Underworld and old rave to druggy, unshowered shoegaze -- the tension between the loveliness of its melodies and its nastier sonic impulses needs a sure pair of studio hands to keep the peace. On the band's debut album "A Brief History of Love," they pull it off gracefully. But at their L.A. debut at the El Rey last night, things got a little overheated.

A four-piece touring concern, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze's project had plenty of options for making sense of the many ephemeral, textured elements of "History" onstage. But they need a certain fidelity to make it all translate, and for whatever the reason -- the in-house mixer, the band's live arrangements -- clarity just wasn't there at the El Rey. I tried standing in every corner of the room: two feet from the stage, in front of the central mixing board, the very back of the theater, but the mix kept me wondering if this is what an errant seagull last hears before it gets sucked into a passing jet engine.

That's not necessarily a bad thing -- I'm a glutton for punishment when the right situation arises -- but The Big Pink's pleasures aren't in volume and tumult alone. They have a soft touch on their record, and as it turns out, it's what makes the whole thing work.

Furze has a marvelous voice for this band -- a leering disaffection tempered by the occasional real sweetness of his lyrics. But it just couldn't compete with the redlining gain of just about everything else around him. Pairing the low-end gut punch of techno with the mids and highs of a rock band is never easy, but save for all but the quietest moments, Cordell's noise gadgets and samples were just filetted into hisses and grumbles.

Live review: Chris Brown at the Avalon

A little singing, a little dancing from the performer in his first local show since his sentencing.

Chris Brown had already pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend Rihanna earlier this year. But Wednesday night at the Avalon, in his first local performance since being sentenced to probation and community service in the February altercation in L.A., Brown still seemed to be offering up character witnesses in an attempt to prove, as he insists in a widely circulated YouTube video, that he's no monster.

First up was Keri Hilson, who appeared not long into Brown's hourlong set and sang her hit "Turnin' Me On." Hilson was followed by Ester Dean, whose song "Drop It Low" features a cameo from Brown. Later, the singer introduced a medley of Michael Jackson covers as a homage to his "homie, friend and loved one." And near the end of the show, during "No Air," Brown even pressed squeaky-clean "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks into service, trading verses with Sparks' recorded voice in a duet that has surely taken on new meaning in Brown's mind over the last nine months of smothering media scrutiny.

If the female-heavy crowd at the Avalon was serving as Brown's jury, the testimonials had their desired effect: This was precisely the sort of adoring audience Brown presumably intended to draw by calling his current trek, which launched last week in Houston, the Fan Appreciation Tour. The singer made no mention of the Rihanna incident; instead, he repeatedly announced that he was in the mood to party.

Music download site BlueBeat hit with a preliminary injunction; site's founder responds

A federal judge in Los Angeles granted Capitol Records’ request for a preliminary injunction today against a San Jose-based website that had put the Beatles catalog online for digital downloading at 25 cents a track, without permission from the band or its record label.

U.S. Central District Court Judge John F. Walter said the defendant in the case, BlueBeat.com and its owner, Hank Risan, had failed to demonstrate that it had not violated Capitol’s copyright because it claimed to be selling “psychoacoustic simulations” of the Beatles catalog, not the actual protected recordings.

“Mr. Risan fails to provide any details or evidence about the ‘technological process’ that defendants contend was used to create the ‘new’ recordings or adequately explain how the ‘new’ recordings differ in any meaningful way from plaintiffs' recordings,” Walter wrote in approving the preliminary injunction.

Walter also got to play music critic for a day, noting that “after listening to the CD attached as Exhibit 1….the court, albeit to its musically untrained ear, was unable to detect or discern any meaningful difference between plaintiffs’ recordings and defendants’ recordings.”

Reached Wednesday, Risan claimed he had received the label’s permission to work with the recordings (The full interview with Risan is at the bottom of this post).

“Had we been able to appear in court,  we can show that we obtained that content lawfully,” Risan said. “If you obtain something lawfully, we have the right do things with it, like perform it, display it. We were paying the statutory royalties on it….We’re not pirates.”

A spokeswoman for EMI, Capitol’s parent firm, said Wednesday that the company declined to comment,  “as it is a matter of litigation.”

-- Randy Lewis and Todd Martens

After the jump, a Q&A of Pop & Hiss' brief chat with BlueBeat's Risan:

Deftones, Slash, Pablove lead a weekend of worthy benefit shows

If concert-going is on your docket this weekend, consider steering your ticket budget toward any of three exceedingly worthwhile special fund-raising shows, all of which happen to be at the Avalon in Hollywood. On Thursday and Friday, Deftones will play two shows to raise money for bassist Chi Cheng, who's still in a semiconscious state after a 2008 car crash that left him with huge (and accumulating) medical bills. On Saturday, Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sea Wolf, Shirley Manson and many others play one-off sets to benefit the Pablove Foundation, the childhood cancer research fund of Dangerbird Records founder Jeff Castelaz and his wife, Jo Ann Thrailkill. And on Sunday, Slash joins Ozzy Osbourne, Chester Bennington, Perry Farrell and a motley crew of other hard rockers for a set to fund the Los Angeles Youth Network, a homeless-services charity. Any one of them will be worth your time, money and eardrums this weekend.

-- August Brown

All shows at the Avalon, 1735 Vine St. Tickets available at avalonhollywood.net.

Deftones photo by Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times

Tex-Mex pioneer Doug Sahm, a decade later

Ten years ago today -- on Nov. 18, 1999 -- the pop music world lost a bona-fide original, Tex-Mex innovator Doug Sahm. First as frontman for the Sir Douglas Quintet in the 1960s and 1970s, through his solo work in the '70s and '80s  and then through his musical and spiritual leadership of the Texas Tornados in the '90s, Sahm helped break down walls between rock, country, soul, R&B and norteño music.

Earlier this year, Vanguard Records put out a spirited salute to the San Antonio-based singer, songwriter and guitarist, “Keep Your Soul:  A Tribute to Doug Sahm.” It’s worth seeking out for empathetic versions of his music by admirers including Los Lobos, Dave Alvin, Jimmie Vaughan, Joe “King” Carrasco with surviving members of the Tornados, longtime friend and collaborator Flaco Jimenez, Delbert McClinton, his son, Shawn Sahm, and several others.

He’s best known for the Sir Douglas Quintet’s signature hits “She’s About a Mover” and “Mendocino,” but his legacy extended well beyond those brief encounters with the pop mainstream. Bob Dylan once said he considered Doug Sahm a kindred spirit in his innate understanding of music and his ability to find the heart and soul of a song.

Here’s a clip of Sahm during his Tornados days doing the song that usually springs to my mind first whenever his name is mentioned: “Is Anybody Going to San Antone,”  built on one of his irresistible, border-defying Tex-Mex grooves. He died, far too early, at age 58, apparently of natural causes.

-- Randy Lewis

 

Swell Season survives heartbreak to play on this week at the Wiltern

 

Plenty watched Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova fall in love. On its way to a worldwide box-office gross of more than $20 million, the 2007 film “Once” reflected and fictionalized their lives.

“To this day, people get confused as to where the lines are,” Irglova said. “The lines do blur. I meet people all the time who are like, ‘How’s your daughter?’ And I don’t have a daughter.”

But they do have a very real musical partnership as Swell Season, even if the two are no longer linked romantically.

Swell Sweason recently released "Strict Joy" on Silver Lake-based independent Anti-, a label that had a prior relationship with Hansard through his work in Irish rockers the Frames. If "Once" captured an idealized version of Hansard and Irglova coming together, "Strict Joy" presents a more sobering version of a relationship disintegrating

Grammys embracing Nick Jonas' solo project

Without a hit or even an album, Nick Jonas is getting a prime-time, Grammy-endorsed unveiling for his new band, Nick Jonas and the Administration. Though it won't be nominated for an award at the 2010 edition of the gala, the solo outing from Nick has been added to the Recording Academy's Dec. 2  CBS special, "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! -- Countdown to Music's Biggest Night," in which the 2010 Grammy noms will be revealed.

The teenager will join previously announced performers the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and Sugarland at the taping. The event will be held at downtown's Club Nokia, and will air live (tape-delayed for SoCal viewers) at 9 p.m. EST. Rapper LL Cool J will host the televised press-conference-turned-concert for the second year running.

Nick may be going it alone, but Kevin and Joe won't be completely left out of the taping. The latter two will introduce Nick Jonas and the Administration.

Live review: Charlie Haden Family & Friends at Disney Hall

Jazz luminary Charlie Haden took no small amount of perverse joy Tuesday night in bringing the old-time country music with which he started his musical career in the Midwest seven decades ago into the tony surroundings of Walt Disney Concert Hall.

“Man, oh, man,” the 72-year-old bassist said upon taking the stage. “Who would have thought we’d have a country audience at Disney Hall?”

And that’s not the half of it. In less than three weeks, the hall has hosted Steve Martin’s mostly serious-minded venture into bluegrass music, Kris Kristofferson’s solo show and now Haden and a group of stellar Nashville singers and instrumentalists playing what once upon a time was referred to as “hillbilly music.” If this keeps up, people are going to start confusing Disney Hall with Disneyland’s Country Bear Jamboree.

But while this tour takes him back to the music he played with his parents and siblings through the Ozarks and elsewhere before he fell in love with jazz, flew the coop for Los Angeles, met Ornette Coleman and signed on with the saxophonists groundbreaking Liberation Music Orchestra, Haden’s hardly slumming.

The band members he brought with him to Disney Hall, most of whom also played on his inspired 2008 “Rambling Boy” album that spawned the tour, has as much in common with the stereotype of primitive hillbilly music as a $400,000 International Harvester Axial-Flow Combine has with a cast-iron plow.

Sonifi iPhone app lets your fingers remix music

As countless bands release iPhone applications offering little more than a mobile version of their websites, electronic musician BT has a bigger goal. He wants to turn his phone into an instrument.

BT, along with a small team of developers at his company, Sonik Architects, built Sonifi, an iPhone app that lets users very easily manipulate songs on the fly.

Brian Transeau, best known by his stage name BT, scored the soundtracks to "The Fast and the Furious," "Zoolander" and "Go," in addition to gaining a significant underground following for his solo releases. His pioneering stutter sound effect influenced the trance genre.

A standard pop group's iPhone app offers little more than a band site, with music streaming, tour schedules, news and photos. MySpace's iLike built an entire business around it.

So, there's something to be said about a musician with a truly original utility. T-Pain has his Auto-Tune toy; Nine Inch Nails has its location-based Twitter app; and now, BT has Sonifi.

The app, available at the iTunes App Store, comes with just one song -- a dance track. But you can spend hours playing with it.

Doveman flutters gently at Room 5 tonight

The chamber-pop sleeper band Doveman is spearheaded by Thomas Bartlett, a soft-eyed and softer-voiced musician whose pedigree is equally informed by classical training and the kind of introspection that can only be earned by wandering the streets of New York at odd hours, with the rush of taxis zipping by in the rain. A native of Vermont and in his mid-20s, he's disturbingly young for all his polyglot accomplishments, which includes studying piano in London with renowned instructor Maria Curcio, and more familiar to most, recording with an international roster of coolness, including Antony and the Johnsons, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, the Frames, Bebel Gilberto, Arto Lindsay, the National and Yoko Ono.

Jealous yet? So are we. He will play the Room 5 Lounge tonight, and though we're not sure who's touring with him, his fellow ornithologists on record include drummer Dougie Bowne (Iggy Pop, Cassandra Wilson), banjo player Sam Amidon, guitarist Shahzad Ismaily (Rage Against the Machine) and trumpeter Peter Ecklund. We promise to quietly listen and not wrestle Bartlett to the floor to get phone numbers for Ono or Byrne out of his iPhone. Oh, yeah, and here's an odd detail: He has a legally contentious cover of the "Footloose" soundtrack floating around out there.

To stave you off till tonight, here's "The Best Thing," a Doveman song featuring the National's Matt Berninger, from the outfit's third album, "The Conformist," released last month with contributions from Martha Wainwright, Nico Muhly and Norah Jones. This little watercolor of a song is so pretty, it should probably be played only near sunrise with a furry cat in your lap and tea in hand, when you're most open to the world.

Doveman "The Best Thing"

-- Margaret Wappler

Doveman plays tonight with Javier Dunn, Matt Owens, the Golden West and Michael Doman at Room 5 Lounge, 143 N. La Brea, (323) 938-2504.

Photo: Bartlett at a New York apartment show with Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl. Credit: Blake Zidell & Associates

We The People Festival postponed until early 2010

Considering that local hip-hop-heads have waited years for Madvillain to reunite and perform tracks from the much-anticipated "Madvillainy 2," it's only fitting that they'll have to wait a little longer, as representatives from the We the People Festival today announced its postponement until early next year due to "ongoing economic challenges."

Originally scheduled to be held at Los Angeles Center Studios this Saturday, the festival also was to be headlined by Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, Glitch Mob, Pepper, and Flobots. Representatives for the festival did not return e-mails sent today requesting further information, only releasing a prepared statement: "As organizers, we are committed to presenting only the finest event possible for this important movement. Due to ongoing economic challenges, we decided our best option was to move the event to a later date to insure these standards are maintained for the benefit of our important, loyal audience."

All tickets will be refunded at the point of purchase. Presented by Project Sweatshop Inc., the festival's stated mission is to "demonstrate the conscious side of all genres of music as a tool to demolish racial and social boundaries, while presenting a platform for the raw, uncensored views of the underground scene." Last year's performers included Suicidal Tendencies, Tom Morello, Murs, Les Claypool, Dilated Peoples, and EPMD.

-- Jeff Weiss

Beyonce and Lady Gaga 'Video Phone' team-up: a spectacle to behold

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What happens when two of the most ambitious stars in pop music collaborate? Director Hype Williams shoots a video in his trademark electrifying color schemes and high-shine lighting, resulting in a fantastical pop mirage between Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Like meteor showers and the latest Sarah Palin career move, the auspicious pairing of an art-house dance diva and the reigning princess of shimmering R&B shall not go undocumented.

The sleek Beyoncé track “Video Phone,” from her alter-ego exercise “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” doesn’t feature Lady Gaga on record, but after crossing paths several times (including at the 2009 VMA Awards, where each scored nine nods apiece), the two decided to work together on the hush-hush video shot last month in the hipster enclave of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. After stirring up Web gossips for weeks, the video debuted Monday night on MTV and VH-1.

So what’s this alliance between two conquerors like? Well, it’s a kinetic spectacle to behold, with enough guns to make Ted Nugent weep with jealousy and some hot Bettie Page bangs on Beyoncé that should prompt plenty of single ladies to run to the hairdresser. It all kicks off with an unexpected nod to Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” -- several men in suits walk slow-motion in a nondescript alley behind a strutting Beyoncé wearing a Zorro mask. In fact, the whole video has a distinct and not unpleasant ‘90s throwback vibe. After all, that was Williams’ heyday, when he shot videos in his trademark fish-eye lens for such luminaries as Missy Elliott, Nas and the Notorious B.I.G.

Perhaps what’s most notable about “Video Phone” isn’t the formidable tricks on screen -- which are plentiful, including frenetically flickering images of much hair-tossing and hip-popping -- it’s that Lady Gaga sublimates her “Alice in Wonderland”-meets-Grace Jones shtick to blend seamlessly into Beyoncé’s world. Make no mistake -- this is Beyoncé’s show. She gets the outlandish costumes, from sexy military spy to vixen-cupid, while Gaga appears in a white leotard, enthusiastic but fully behaved. The two proceed to execute some wicked moves on two dinette chairs, DayGlo weaponry in tow.

So, what might happen if Beyoncé frolicks in Lady Gaga’s terrain? It’ll be a noteworthy test for Ms. B, whose glittering front-and-center pop persona is just as well versed in spectacle as Gaga’s, but not as conceptually rich. Will she be able to get truly freaky, without seeming like she’s doing it for more credit-enhancing approval? As far as Gaga goes, our MOCA-loving temptress could stand to learn something from Beyoncé -- maybe her ability to deliver earnest, genuine entertainment, the kind that comes from a certain warm look in the eye, that megawatt smile, not a stampede of sometimes-alienating stage stunts.

Either way, this can only foretell good things for both. One element is certain: Beyoncé and Lady Gaga are too ambitious to let any creative difference stand in the way of pop music domination, times two.

-- Margaret Wappler