Danse électrique: Tecktonik takes over Paris

Friday's "Column One" (on the front page of the Los Angeles Times) has a nice feature by Paris correspondent Geraldine Baum on Tecktonik (a.k.a. Tektonik), the style of dancing seen all over the Internet (even on Second Life) and popularized by Parisian clubbers and French electro acts such as Yelle, whose video for "A Cause des Garçons" features a bit of Tektonik-style dancing. Check the YouTube video above to see some equally nice moves.

Even though the trend is far from new, it's certainly new to most Americans, who, as a general rule, don't nessesarily excel at dancing to techno (guilty as charged).

-- Charlie Amter

You can tell a lot about a person from their heroes. There are those who cite great statesmen or politicians; others look up to athletes, scientists, philosophers or artists.

For British musician and humorist Neil Innes, it’s Brian Dunkleman, who quit his job co-hosting “American Idol” with Ryan Seacrest because he didn’t like the way contestants were being treated.

Miami is in mourning this week. After record-breaking crowds (buoyed no doubt by the anemic dollar and increasingly strong euro) swarmed South Beach last week for the annual dance music confab known as the Winter Music Conference, Collins Avenue hotels are now back to hosting New Jersey college students flossin on their spring break -- or worse, elderly Canadian couples seeking respite from a still bitter winter.

This past weekend, however, the festival was in full swing, with momentum that hasn't been witnessed at WMC since the late '90s. London dance label owners mixed it up with DJs from Berlin and employees of burgeoning Internet upstarts such as MP3 giant Beatport at swank hotels, i.e., the National and the still-under-construction Gansevoort Miami. In fact, the Gansevoort claimed one of the hottest nights of the fest with an exclusive Paul Oakenfold set. Believe it or not, brazen groups of men actually bum-rushed the velvet rope to get into the new hotel, much to the surprise of the overwhelmed staff.

But for many, the highlight of the week of DJ-centric festivities was surely the massive Ultra Music Festival. Taking place far from South Beach over two days at downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park, Ultra did not disappoint. Sets from Sweden’s Eric Prydz, France’s David Guetta and Underworld defined the Coachella-like gathering (think multiple sweltering tents and scores of seemingly Ecstasy-addled kids bouncing between them to catch their favorite acts), with Underworld getting the biggest response from the 20,000 + strong crowd (per day), despite early technical problems that plagued the English duo responsible for one of the biggest (and unlikeliest) dance hits of the 1990s, “Born Slippy.”

Berlin-based DJ/producer Alex Ridha, better known as Boys Noize, isn't exactly a fan of Miami. Or a fan of cameras, for that matter.

"It's a weird place, honestly," he said backstage before a Scion-sponsored gig Thursday afternoon for WMC. "There are some horrible people going around here."

Regardless, the crowd, most of whom are dance-music industry insiders from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, ate up his set yesterday, which was heavy on material from his lauded 2007 release Oi Oi Oi.

"In Germany the minimal scene is so dominant," he says of his overseas success, which now looks set to cross the Atlantic with shows booked at Coachella and several UK festivals later this spring and summer.

"When I started my [Boysnoize] label three years ago, none of this music was popular," he says. Now that kindred acts such as Justice have broken in the U.S., Boys Noize's hard, dissonant sound is resonating with dance music and indie rock fans.

"I'm more into techno than indie dance stuff," he says. "But I'm happy American fans are discovering me."

After Boys Noize's two-hour set (where he played everything from an updated electro version of Laurie Anderson's "Superman" to Justice), another buzzing German act, Digitalism, took the stage behind the Raleigh Hotel's pool.

The Hamburg duo have already made sizable inroads in the U.S., thanks to their brand of dance music that verges on indie rock. Some have dubbed them the German Daft Punk.

Ridha actually went to college with one of the members of Digitalism in Hamburg, but he considers his Noize different from Digitalism's brand of dance music.

"I would never play Digitalism in my set," he says. "What I do is straight for the clubs ... but I like them."

Spoken like a true Teutonic gentleman.

--post and photograph by Charlie Amter

German artists Boys Noize and Digitalism play the Ultra Music Festival at Winter Music Conference today.

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Neil Innes salute at Mods & Rockers fest

You can tell a lot about a person from their heroes. There are those who cite great statesmen or politicians; others look up to athletes, scientists, philosophers or artists.

For British musician and humorist Neil Innes, it’s Brian Dunkleman, who quit his job co-hosting “American Idol” with Ryan Seacrest because he didn’t like the way contestants were being treated.

Miami is in mourning this week. After record-breaking crowds (buoyed no doubt by the anemic dollar and increasingly strong euro) swarmed South Beach last week for the annual dance music confab known as the Winter Music Conference, Collins Avenue hotels are now back to hosting New Jersey college students flossin on their spring break -- or worse, elderly Canadian couples seeking respite from a still bitter winter.

This past weekend, however, the festival was in full swing, with momentum that hasn't been witnessed at WMC since the late '90s. London dance label owners mixed it up with DJs from Berlin and employees of burgeoning Internet upstarts such as MP3 giant Beatport at swank hotels, i.e., the National and the still-under-construction Gansevoort Miami. In fact, the Gansevoort claimed one of the hottest nights of the fest with an exclusive Paul Oakenfold set. Believe it or not, brazen groups of men actually bum-rushed the velvet rope to get into the new hotel, much to the surprise of the overwhelmed staff.

But for many, the highlight of the week of DJ-centric festivities was surely the massive Ultra Music Festival. Taking place far from South Beach over two days at downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park, Ultra did not disappoint. Sets from Sweden’s Eric Prydz, France’s David Guetta and Underworld defined the Coachella-like gathering (think multiple sweltering tents and scores of seemingly Ecstasy-addled kids bouncing between them to catch their favorite acts), with Underworld getting the biggest response from the 20,000 + strong crowd (per day), despite early technical problems that plagued the English duo responsible for one of the biggest (and unlikeliest) dance hits of the 1990s, “Born Slippy.”

Berlin-based DJ/producer Alex Ridha, better known as Boys Noize, isn't exactly a fan of Miami. Or a fan of cameras, for that matter.

"It's a weird place, honestly," he said backstage before a Scion-sponsored gig Thursday afternoon for WMC. "There are some horrible people going around here."

Regardless, the crowd, most of whom are dance-music industry insiders from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, ate up his set yesterday, which was heavy on material from his lauded 2007 release Oi Oi Oi.

"In Germany the minimal scene is so dominant," he says of his overseas success, which now looks set to cross the Atlantic with shows booked at Coachella and several UK festivals later this spring and summer.

"When I started my [Boysnoize] label three years ago, none of this music was popular," he says. Now that kindred acts such as Justice have broken in the U.S., Boys Noize's hard, dissonant sound is resonating with dance music and indie rock fans.

"I'm more into techno than indie dance stuff," he says. "But I'm happy American fans are discovering me."

After Boys Noize's two-hour set (where he played everything from an updated electro version of Laurie Anderson's "Superman" to Justice), another buzzing German act, Digitalism, took the stage behind the Raleigh Hotel's pool.

The Hamburg duo have already made sizable inroads in the U.S., thanks to their brand of dance music that verges on indie rock. Some have dubbed them the German Daft Punk.

Ridha actually went to college with one of the members of Digitalism in Hamburg, but he considers his Noize different from Digitalism's brand of dance music.

"I would never play Digitalism in my set," he says. "What I do is straight for the clubs ... but I like them."

Spoken like a true Teutonic gentleman.

--post and photograph by Charlie Amter

German artists Boys Noize and Digitalism play the Ultra Music Festival at Winter Music Conference today.

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

WMC: The Hangover Edition. Satisfied?

Miami is in mourning this week. After record-breaking crowds (buoyed no doubt by the anemic dollar and increasingly strong euro) swarmed South Beach last week for the annual dance music confab known as the Winter Music Conference, Collins Avenue hotels are now back to hosting New Jersey college students flossin on their spring break -- or worse, elderly Canadian couples seeking respite from a still bitter winter.

This past weekend, however, the festival was in full swing, with momentum that hasn't been witnessed at WMC since the late '90s. London dance label owners mixed it up with DJs from Berlin and employees of burgeoning Internet upstarts such as MP3 giant Beatport at swank hotels, i.e., the National and the still-under-construction Gansevoort Miami. In fact, the Gansevoort claimed one of the hottest nights of the fest with an exclusive Paul Oakenfold set. Believe it or not, brazen groups of men actually bum-rushed the velvet rope to get into the new hotel, much to the surprise of the overwhelmed staff.

But for many, the highlight of the week of DJ-centric festivities was surely the massive Ultra Music Festival. Taking place far from South Beach over two days at downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park, Ultra did not disappoint. Sets from Sweden’s Eric Prydz, France’s David Guetta and Underworld defined the Coachella-like gathering (think multiple sweltering tents and scores of seemingly Ecstasy-addled kids bouncing between them to catch their favorite acts), with Underworld getting the biggest response from the 20,000 + strong crowd (per day), despite early technical problems that plagued the English duo responsible for one of the biggest (and unlikeliest) dance hits of the 1990s, “Born Slippy.”

Berlin-based DJ/producer Alex Ridha, better known as Boys Noize, isn't exactly a fan of Miami. Or a fan of cameras, for that matter.

"It's a weird place, honestly," he said backstage before a Scion-sponsored gig Thursday afternoon for WMC. "There are some horrible people going around here."

Regardless, the crowd, most of whom are dance-music industry insiders from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, ate up his set yesterday, which was heavy on material from his lauded 2007 release Oi Oi Oi.

"In Germany the minimal scene is so dominant," he says of his overseas success, which now looks set to cross the Atlantic with shows booked at Coachella and several UK festivals later this spring and summer.

"When I started my [Boysnoize] label three years ago, none of this music was popular," he says. Now that kindred acts such as Justice have broken in the U.S., Boys Noize's hard, dissonant sound is resonating with dance music and indie rock fans.

"I'm more into techno than indie dance stuff," he says. "But I'm happy American fans are discovering me."

After Boys Noize's two-hour set (where he played everything from an updated electro version of Laurie Anderson's "Superman" to Justice), another buzzing German act, Digitalism, took the stage behind the Raleigh Hotel's pool.

The Hamburg duo have already made sizable inroads in the U.S., thanks to their brand of dance music that verges on indie rock. Some have dubbed them the German Daft Punk.

Ridha actually went to college with one of the members of Digitalism in Hamburg, but he considers his Noize different from Digitalism's brand of dance music.

"I would never play Digitalism in my set," he says. "What I do is straight for the clubs ... but I like them."

Spoken like a true Teutonic gentleman.

--post and photograph by Charlie Amter

German artists Boys Noize and Digitalism play the Ultra Music Festival at Winter Music Conference today.

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Winter Music Conference: Sets with Boys Noize and Digitalism

Berlin-based DJ/producer Alex Ridha, better known as Boys Noize, isn't exactly a fan of Miami. Or a fan of cameras, for that matter.

"It's a weird place, honestly," he said backstage before a Scion-sponsored gig Thursday afternoon for WMC. "There are some horrible people going around here."

Regardless, the crowd, most of whom are dance-music industry insiders from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, ate up his set yesterday, which was heavy on material from his lauded 2007 release Oi Oi Oi.

"In Germany the minimal scene is so dominant," he says of his overseas success, which now looks set to cross the Atlantic with shows booked at Coachella and several UK festivals later this spring and summer.

"When I started my [Boysnoize] label three years ago, none of this music was popular," he says. Now that kindred acts such as Justice have broken in the U.S., Boys Noize's hard, dissonant sound is resonating with dance music and indie rock fans.

"I'm more into techno than indie dance stuff," he says. "But I'm happy American fans are discovering me."

After Boys Noize's two-hour set (where he played everything from an updated electro version of Laurie Anderson's "Superman" to Justice), another buzzing German act, Digitalism, took the stage behind the Raleigh Hotel's pool.

The Hamburg duo have already made sizable inroads in the U.S., thanks to their brand of dance music that verges on indie rock. Some have dubbed them the German Daft Punk.

Ridha actually went to college with one of the members of Digitalism in Hamburg, but he considers his Noize different from Digitalism's brand of dance music.

"I would never play Digitalism in my set," he says. "What I do is straight for the clubs ... but I like them."

Spoken like a true Teutonic gentleman.

--post and photograph by Charlie Amter

German artists Boys Noize and Digitalism play the Ultra Music Festival at Winter Music Conference today.

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Winter Music Conference: Lady GaGa gears up, strips down

Miami's annual dance music sleaze-a-thon, the Winter Music Conference, is nearly in full swing today, with most attendees wandering Collins Avenue looking for the best DJ events/hotel parties by 2 p.m. No one gets up before noon.

Some of today's best events are at the Raleigh, where New York's Lady GaGa is making her WMC debut at an Armani Exchange-sponsored rooftop terrace soiree.

Interscope has high hopes for the newly signed dance diva, who has already written songs for several artists (including Pussycat Dolls) and is on the verge of signing a publishing contract to augment her label deal.

"Jimmy [Iovine] and I get along great," she says of the Interscope honcho from the rooftop of the Raleigh. "I'm the kind of Italian Brookyln girl he would have liked to take to the prom," she laughs. "He loved me."

The Lady, who's fond of performing in naughty underwear ensembles, chains and stripper heels, got her start playing Brooklyn parties and clubs in Manhattan in 2005 with her equally brazen backup dancers. "I put together a show in New York where we spun beats on vinyl and I played keyboards over the records," she says. "We wore matching bikinis," the Lady giggles, adding that the show was "yummy."

It remains to be seen whether of not the rest of America will find Lady GaGa's musical offerings as delicious as New York does. Her music sounds not unlike a drunken Madonna, Peaches and Kylie Minogue recording session with lots of sticky Champagne spilled on the demos. Lady GaGa's debut disc, made for the "rock and rollers who wanted to listen to pop records," drops this summer. The big Madonna fan's single, "Just Dance," hits next week.

Oh, and Interscope recently moved her into a Hollywood-adjacent apartment, so look out, Angelenos.

--  Post and photo by Charlie Amter

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Steve-O’s journey to sobriety and sanity

It's been quite a month for daredevil wacko and part time rapper Steve-O.

Arrested on March 3 and booked for vandalizing his own apartment and possession of a controlled substance (cocaine apparently), the "Jackass" star found himself facing eviction when he returned home. That's when, according to his own MySpace blog, things began to spiral out of control. Or at least, more out of control than usual.

The cyberspace saga commences harmlessly enough with a posting on March 8, in which the 33-year-old announces that he'd been evicted and requests that his "Jackass" costars and friends help him move out the following morning. But the video clips in the following post from March 9 couldn't be more terrifying. The second, "Eviction Party Begins," shows Steve-O hosting a kind of bizzaro MTV Cribs: Half-naked and visibly intoxicated, he wanders around his trashed apartment carrying a hefty revolver, which at one point he uses to play Russian Roulette.

In the following entry, posted March 13, Steve-O announces that he's in "the looney bin" because, the morning after his "Eviction Party Begins" was shot, his "Jackass" costars forced him into a hospital on a "5150," a three-day psychiatric hold, later extended to a "5250," 14-day hold.

That's where things get really interesting.

The entries continue, posted by his assistant Jen Moore, but written by Steve-O from inside the undisclosed treatment center, where he may well have been completely sober for the first time in years. In their own way, these entries are as shocking as the infamous stunt in which Steve-O stapled his scrotum to his leg, because they reveal an intelligent, articulate, well-read and deeply philosophical individual coming to terms with a lifetime of substance abuse and related bipolar issues.

Spiked with moments of epiphany and apology, Steve-O's confessional journey from drug-induced rock-bottom to something approaching health may be a cliche--of course, it's one of the oldest in the Hollywood playbook--but it's still remarkable.

Lots of questions remain: Will Steve-O stay sober or will he fall back into his bad habits? Will he be able to continue his inane stunt career after acknowledging that "the nature of my work almost embraced my addictions," or will he retire? And what exactly are the ramifications of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius he discusses in his March 21 entry?

Time will tell.

--Liam Gowing

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

The re-ascent of bro core

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bad Religion founder Greg Graffin about his band's recent string of L.A.-area dates. Bad Religion's been through several commercial revivals, as wiseacre punks, as an unlikely radio act in the mid-'90s ("You and meee ... have a diseeease ..." ) and most recently as something approximating a hugely successful local band. They play large theaters and festivals and sell decently around the world, but to someone whose experience with rock radio is limited to KROQ, they must seem as big as Linkin Park. I always chalked it up as a Southern California thing, that the '90s varietal of double-time skate punk that came to be called the "Epitaph Sound" put its claws in deep after the Offspring and never let up. All that grindable pavement, the year-long sunshine and the intraversible open space of L.A.'s mutant version of urbanity certainly helped.

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Kindred video spirits: Lil’ Wayne and Silversun Pickups?

When the video for Lil' Wayne's new, so-inane-it-might-be-genius single "Lollipop" began making the rounds, it seemed oddly ... familiar. Not just because its narrative arc of Wayne looking stoked about his money and club-girl harem is well-traversed hip-hop video territory, though. Something in the particular visual kinesis of him driving around Vegas playing guitar out of the sunroof of his stretch Hummer or whatever. Then it hit us --  Silversun Pickups (and director Joaquin Phoenix) made the exact same video for their single "Little Lover's So Polite." Just replace the Pickups' preteen Aryan couple and downtown L.A. with Wayne's video vixens and the Vegas strip. Note the 1:53 mark in "Lollipop" and the 3:06 point in "Little Lover's" where each artist plays their respective butt rock guitar solo. Wayne's guitar face is much more convincing, we think.

-- August Brown

Illustration by August Brown; Lil' Wayne photo by Jonathan Mannion; Silversun Pickups photo by Gail Salmo

Lil' Wayne: "Lollipop"

Silversun Pickups: "Little Lover's So Polite"

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

Winona Ryder engaged to Blake Sennett? Expect six new Ryan Adams albums this week

Your daily six-degrees-of-Rilo Kiley round-up: Women's Wear Daily is reporting that guitarist Blake Sennett has finally passed the penultimate indie-dude coming-of-age ritual and is getting hitched to Winona Ryder. Us Weekly is denying the claim. The two are definitely starring in an upcoming film called "Water Pill." Jenny Lewis is making an album with Elvis Costello and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, whom you heard from last week. We just want some CornNuts. BQ.

-- August Brown

Photo by New World Pictures

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher

The Ferrell and the Foo

We’re not sure exactly why the Foo Fighters are considered rock royalty now (“The Pretender” as a best-record nominee at the Grammys? Well, at least it lives up to its title ...), but Dave Grohl does have an admirable sense of humor. Exhibit A: His deadpan performance of “Leather and Lace” with the always loopy Will Ferrell at a recent L.A. fundraiser:

-- Geoff Boucher