Remember these guys? Because they don’t. Watch the “My First Kiss” video after the jump, or do yourself a favor and don’t — shit’s depressing. In it, 3OH!3 (with help from parental nightmare/endearing self-parody Ke$ha) wear “cool” clothes, ride an aggro-yet-Gaga-esque electro beat and generally evoke the moment in blink-182′s career when dudes realized they had to follow up a surprise hit album with a non-surprise hit album and gave themselves a PG rating. It’s a far cry from the band I saw on a side stage at Bamboozle Left just two years ago, the duo that dressed in Winnie the Pooh and Hamburglar outfits (pictured, awesomely) and spilled out f-bombs like BP oil. At the time, 3OH!3 reminded me of a young Beastie Boys — snarling, funny and intensely charismatic. Is this subversion of the highest order or just selling out? Either way, I can’t totally begrudge them the move toward pop stupidity — that new pool’s not going to pay for itself. Read the rest of this entry »
Justin Timberlake has been curiously silent since 2006′s pop landmark FutureSex/LoveSounds, and it’s as if he’s been mustering all of his strength for this few minutes. As a vocalist, he’s never been better — an obvious must on a song where he’s competing with with the ghost of “Hallelujah’s” most famous renderer, Jeff Buckley, but the former *NSYNC singer’s performance is nevertheless shockingly great. A must-watch. Here’s to hoping he won’t forget about his seemingly newfound sensitivity in favor of another “Dick in a Box” sequel (though I wouldn’t turn one down) when it comes time for LP3. (Donate to Haiti relief via Hope For Haiti Now)
Uma, Oprah? Say what you will about Ke$ha, she’s done one thing Uffie hasn’t been able to do in five years of Cobra Snake-documented hipster queenhood: record a full-length album. (Well, and have a hit single.) Nevertheless, in the interest of public service, it’s important to note it’s Uffie who deserves the credit for Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” — a track whose verse melody and cadence straight-up rips off the Uffster’s shining moment, her Justice collaboration, “The Party.” (Also important to note: “The Party” is totally a clever, subtle brush-off to an ex rather than a hedonism-for-sorority-sisterhood’s-sake club banger.) Go on, compare ‘em after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe it’s just because I’m hearing David Cook‘s “The Time of My Life” with fresh, mostly Idol-free ears, but dude’s playing on “The View” right now (I’m at work, the TV’s on, I love Whoopi, alright) and this song is totally (superior) 1998 sensitive rocker jam “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain (no relation, I’m sure). What the hell, America? Compare ‘em after the jump. [Continue reading...]
Man, this song is so awful. Tim’s New Age-y beat has as much color and heft as a big, puffy cloud, but it’s Cornell who really embarrasses himself here with a weird Maroon 5 meets R. Kelly vocal take. There’s a reason Eddie’s still in Pearl Jam, dude.
The new Avril Lavigne song, “Girlfriend,” is kind of amazing. Embracing her role as a newly blond pop star, Lavigne combines her trademark “punk” guitar riffs with a “Hollaback Girl” cheerleader beat — and it works! The “hey hey you you” chorus couldn’t be catchier and, at least on the version on her MySpace, it doesn’t sound too overproduced. If the rest of the album’s as enthusiastic as this, it might — might — knock off Let Go as her crowning achievement.
But what’s really noteworthy (and hilarious) about the song is that it sounds like it was written for the Laguna Beach soundtrack:
She’s like, so whatever You could do so much better I think we should get together, now And that’s what everyone’s talking about
Granted, Paul McCartney’s rhyming couplets from the pre-Rubber Soul years weren’t exactly Wordsworth material, but c’mon, America. Why does our cultural consensus have to revolve around ditsy, vengeful Southern California blondes?
(Hear “Girlfriend” at MySpace; The Best Damn Thing is due out April 17)
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Pop, Obv.is a column about the star-maker machinery behind the popular song. For more installments, click below.
Oh man, T.I. I’m still trying to get up to steam on the hip-hop canon — finally got around to Only Built 4 Cuban Linx this week, for example — so I haven’t been weighing in on a lot of 2006 releases. I just picked up King, though, and it is wrecking my shit. As far as above-ground hip-hop goes this year, I’ll stick with the Ghostface album, but some of these songs are just monsters.
“What You Know” takes a lot of things I traditionally never liked about hip-hop — chain-link drums straight off of “Back That Ass Up,” Diddy-esque melodramatic flourishes — and puts them in the service of T.I.’s grinning, refridgerator-cool flow. The anthem chorus doesn’t hurt, either. I wish dude had done all the guest verses on Timberlake’s album. Sorry if you’ve already heard this song a million times already, but indie kids don’t listen to the radio, right?
Uma, Oprah? Say what you will about Ke$ha, she’s done one thing Uffie hasn’t been able to do in five years of Cobra Snake-documented hipster queenhood: record a full-length album. (Well, and have a hit single.) Nevertheless, in the interest of public service, it’s important to note it’s Uffie who deserves the credit for Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” — a track whose verse melody and cadence straight-up rips off the Uffster’s shining moment, her Justice collaboration, “The Party.” (Also important to note: “The Party” is totally a clever, subtle brush-off to an ex rather than a hedonism-for-sorority-sisterhood’s-sake club banger.) Go on, compare ‘em after the jump. 
