Posts By Zara Golden

November 30th, 2012 | 10:24 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Florence Welch Joins The Rolling Stones For “Gimme Shelter”

Last night, as advertised, Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine dropped in on The Rolling Stones to help at their “50 and Counting” anniversary tour stop in London. The pop powerhouse blew new wind to the song the Stones’ half-century old hit, and then blew us and Mick Jagger (who thanked her when it was done, raving also “I loved that!”) away. We’re surprised there weren’t actual sparks flying between she and Jagger when they got into a walk/wail-off at the last round of “It’s just a kiss away’s.” And fortunate for us, some camera-wielding concert goer was kind enough to upload the moment so all the rest of us might also get to enjoy it on this Friday!

The Stones’ “50 and Counting” tour lands stateside next week for shows in Brooklyn and New Jersey.

Watch Florence Welch sing “Gimme Shelter” with The Rolling Stones [CoS]

November 29th, 2012 | 3:19 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Chris Brown Wrote A Really Dark Song About His Missing Lighter

Earlier today, Chris Brown released a new song called called “W.T.F.I.M.L. (Where The F*ck Is My Lighter)” on his website Mechanical Dummy. “Another exclusive for his fans,” the dark and hazy, electro jam is somewhat worrisome at close listen, as this misplaced lighter seems to have Breezy unusually worked up. “I’m tired of all this shit, I want to light up,” he coos through a thick autotune at the chorus, desperate for a way to unwind. This sounds far more serious than a misplaced lighting implement, and so we feel obliged to ask: Everything okay over there, Breezy?

November 29th, 2012 | 1:07 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Does Sia’s “Diamonds” Shine Brighter Than Rihanna’s “Diamonds”?

It’s no real secret that Rihanna doesn’t write her own music, but as Leona Lewis might tell you, just because she can make a song famous does not necessarily mean she always does it best. And so when we first heard “Diamonds,” we noted that Rihanna seemed to be mimicking the song’s author Sia‘s enunciation and vocal quality at times. Sia sounded good on Rihanna, but the eerie verisimilitude got us wondering — if Rihanna’s is this good, just how great could the former You Oughta Know Artist‘s take be?

Sia performed the song at the Norwegian-American Achievement Awards ceremony a few weeks back and — to nobody’s great surprise — it turns out Sia’s version is really, really, very good. Stripped of the glimmering production and 808 thump, her go is interestingly haunted and maybe a bit mournful where Rihanna’s is hopeful and inspiring. Sia’s got a much more expansive vocal range and she was able to open new corners of the her song that’s since become Rihanna’s hit. And because it’s not duplicitous or better but just different, we now have two “Diamonds” to enjoy.

We think that the world is a better place for having both these “Diamonds” out there for out listening pleasure, but what say you: Do you think Sia should have kept “Diamonds” for herself? Or is it better suited for someone so #unapologetic as Rihanna?

Sia Sang ‘Diamonds’! Sia Sang ‘Diamonds’! [Vulture]

November 29th, 2012 | 10:34 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

will.i.am And Britney Spears “Scream & Shout” Video Was Made To Be GIF’d

It’s all eyes on will.i.am (and will.i.am 2.0, and will.i.am 3.0, and…) and Britney Spears (and Britney 2.0, and Britney 3.0, and…), bitch, who get multiplied many times over in the glitz-ed out new video for “Scream & Shout,” the latest single off the Black Eyed Peas frontman’s upcoming solo album #willpower. The video giddily indulges will.i.am’s future fetish; and much like his album was named to be tweeted, it was made to be .GIF-ed.

For example, the song’s titular command:

November 28th, 2012 | 5:19 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Steven Tyler Apologizes To Nicki Minaj, But Insists That He’s Not A Racist

American Idol producers might want to drag another chair up to the judges’ table, because Steven Tyler has landed himself in the drama-fest and the already sure to be explosive season might be more fun yet if they leave him put, don’t you think?

As you’ll recall, Tyler said over the weekend that Nicki Minaj would have sent Bob Dylan “to the cornfield” had he turned up to try out. Nicki of course thinks otherwise, and said as much on Twitter, where she suggested that the comment might have been racially motivated. And almost as soon as she hit send on that last one, Tyler was on television apologizing.

November 28th, 2012 | 3:24 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Forever Merry, Mariah Carey Rings In The Holiday Season At Rockefeller Center With “All I Want For Christmas Is You”

The lights, the trees, all the other Christmas songs — nothing gets me feeling festive quite like Mariah Carey‘s modern classic “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” a song I enjoy all year round and with particular joy this time of the year. And so Thanksgiving has come and gone, and you all have probably been brimming with holiday joy for almost a week now, but I am only just now beginning because I needed this to happen before I could begin on my festivities:

November 28th, 2012 | 1:21 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels Have Us Yearning For An “Ice Age”

Trent Reznor has launched a new project with Atticus Ross and his wife Mariqueen Maandig called How to Destroy Angels, because Nine Inch Nails‘ maybe new music and his sound tracking or all that award winning has not kept him busy enough. Their new EP, An Omen, received largely positive reviews, Pitchfork heralding it as ‘immaculately pieced together, richly detailed and suitably moody,” while Rolling Stone was left (rightly) wondering: “Nine Inch Nails fronted by a hot femme singer? Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner?” And we were nonetheless pleasantly surprised when we hit “Play” on this new video for their “Ice Age.”

November 28th, 2012 | 10:29 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Unapologetic Lands At The Top Of The Charts, Earning Rihanna Her First No. 1 Album

As her 777 tour wound down last week, “Diamonds” became Rihanna’s 12th chart topping single, making Rihanna the pop star with the most No. 1 singles ever, an unusual honor when you consider that she had yet to put out a chart topping album to match. But this week that’s changed, as Unapologetic lands atop the charts this week, earning the star yet another plaque for her wall and her first ever No. 1 album. Seventh time’s a charm?

The good, bad and definitely about Chris Brown album debuts this week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 238,000 copies sold. Which isn’t an incredible debut week, especially given Taylor Swift‘s insane 1.2 million or Mumford & Sons 600,000 or even Kendrick Lamar‘s none too shabby 242,122 albums sold showings, but it’s good enough to get Rihanna her first No. 1 album and to bring “legit” tears to her eyes. It’s a little bit hard to believe that this is the first time, but Unapologetic is also the first album release that she’s celebrated mid-air with hundreds of fans and journalists — so probably that Rihannairplane has paid itself off?

November 28th, 2012 | 9:30 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Watch Green Day “Scare The Sht Out Of Themselves” In ¡Quatro!* Documentary Sneak Peek

Their numbering system might be slightly off, but bear with us: Before ¡Trés!, the final installment in Green Day‘s ambitious ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, ¡Trés! trilogy drops on December 15th, comes ¡Quatro!, a documentary about their recording process that premieres tonight on VH1. And before we get ¡Quatro!, we get these sneak peeks.

Before embarking on this ambitions run, Green Day returned their act back to the intimate clubs and small venues they technically outgrew decades ago. “Playing clubs is really important to us because it just keeps us energized,” Billie Joe Armstrong explains of the shows that helped them shake of any dust and work out the kinks after so many years of performing together. “We needed to scare the sh*t out of ourselves a little bit.”

November 27th, 2012 | 5:27 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Grace Potter Sees “Stars” On Big Morning Buzz Live

This morning, Grace Potter (sans the Nocturnals) broke from her tour to drop by Big Morning Buzz Live once again to talk share Grace’s new Grace Under Fire chocolate bars and to perform a stripped down and particularly stunning version of “Stars.”

“Stars” is one of The Lion the Beast the Beat‘s more solemn tracks, with a piano line so languid and Potter singing about on of Potter’s childhood idols who “always did take it a little bit too far,” as she recalled during their VH1 Storytellers. It’s the sort of song that sits heavy in the gut, but she insists that the tears it inevitably summons not be she for her sake. “As much as I wrote it for myself about a friend who I lost, one of my favorite things about the song is seeing how other people react to it,” she told Carrie Keagan this morning. “I am glad to get it out their to the world.” And though we might have something in our eye after watching this clip, we too are feeling very glad that she got this song out into the world.