Posts By Zara Golden

July 27th, 2012 | 2:26 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Covers to Catch: Lana Del Rey Does Nirvana, Kelly Clarkson Does Katy Perry

It’s Friday, and the internet has so kindly graced us with two worthy covers to drive us into the weekend:

Last night in Sydney, Lana Del Rey gave Nirvana‘s “Heart Shaped Box” a stormy and orchestral cover. Nirvana has come to be considered sacred territory, just ask Miley Cyrus, who took serious flack for her “Smells Like Teen Spirit” cover, but Lana’s haunting voice makes for an interesting tribute. Her obsession with fame is not without understanding of Kurt Cobain’s obsession with escaping fame, and her belts of “Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint” feel almost as tortured as Kurt’s devastating originals, and she somehow managed to make the brutal “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black” line sound feminine and delicate. This was a risk, but it seemed to work.

Kelly Clarkson‘s cover of Katy Perry‘s “Wide Awake” was far less of a stretch, and great nonetheless. Read more…

July 27th, 2012 | 11:49 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Matchbox Twenty Risk Third-Degree Burns For That “She’s So Mean” Girl

Though Rob Thomas and Paul Doucette have been doing this for years now, it’s still not easy. VH1 News caught up with the boys from Matchbox 20 on the set of the video for the first single off of their fourth studio album, North, and Thomas confessed that he still “feels silly” sometimes. “She’s So Mean” is the classic pop-song ode to a guilty-pleasure girl, the kind who invites you to the club than leaves with her friends, who “makes you so blind but you don’t mind.” Like “a drug,” Thomas says. “Everybody’s been in that relationship.”

Not everybody, though, would risk actual third-degree burns for it, like the guys did for their fiery new video. “Psh-sha, forget that, we’re just going to set him right on fire,” Thomas joked of their fire marshal mandated fire retardant gear. “I’m just going to take a Bic to his leg and light him up.” They sure don’t call them matchbox for nothing!

Watch the full interview above, and check out the racy “She’s So Mean” lyric video below. North is out September 4th. Read more…

July 27th, 2012 | 10:07 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Tuned In: No Doubt Shake Up Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

Steady on the comeback, No Doubt returned to late night last night with a stop on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and not that he ever seems otherwise, but Jimmy seemed extra excited to have them. The band’s return has so far been amazing in that they haven’t seemed to age a bit — their energy is still high and they miraculously all look exactly as they did the last time they had new music to promote ten years ago. Last night’s performance of “Settle Down” was more of the same — Gwen’s 90′s mall-swag was especially turned-up, her studded harem pants tucked into her patent leather Docs — except for the fact that they all wore blazers, because they are adults now. They aren’t buttoned-up, though, and everyone looked and sounded great as they spun around the stage. Comebacks are never easy and not often successful, but it seems evident that No Doubt’s return was a great idea. We can’t wait to hear what else they’ve got when Push And Shove drops out on September 25th.

Last Lap: Green Day Wrote A Song About Amy Winehouse

GREEN DAY PAY MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO AMY WINEHOUSE IN NEW SONG
The track will close their upcoming album ¡Dos! And appropriately so, according to Billie Joe Armstrong, who feels connected to the fallen star though they never met. “It’s interesting because if you think about ¡Dos!, it’s a party record, and so at the end of it ‘Amy’ kind of comes across as the consequences of the party,” he says. Intriguing! [NME] Read more…

July 26th, 2012 | 4:39 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Madonna Is Now Defending Her Use Of Nazi Imagery On MDNA Tour

Madonna is the queen of scandal, to be sure, but nipples and tears past pale in comparison to this latest MDNA tour controversy. Despite the criticism and legal threats drawn, Madonna refuses to remove the swastikas — including one superimposed onto French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen (as seen at 1:05) — or Hitler imagery from the video projection that accompanies her “Nobody Knows Me” tour performance. Rather, she’s defending the offending footage. As Madge explained in an interview with Brazil’s Fantastico, the American Life track is about “how much we judge people before knowing them,” and she therefore feels that the inclusion of controversial imagery fits her message about “the intolerance that we human beings have for one another.” “Music should be about ideas, right? Ideas inspire music, right?” she said. That’s a slippery slope of logic. Do you think she’s has taken it too far this time?

Madonna Defends Her Use of Nazi Symbol [ArtsBeat]

July 26th, 2012 | 1:53 pm by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Katy Perry Probably Should Date John Mayer

The ink on her divorce papers has only just dried, and rumors of a relationship with Florence + The Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd have already come and gone. And now, word is it that Katy Perry has taken-up with John Mayer. According to reports, the two were all handhold-y at the Soho House on July 19th, just three days after Perry’s split from Russell Brand was made official. It could all be nothing, or just an experiment in what could have been, but — with apologies to Mayer, and if we’re not too terrible to say — we sort of hope that there is something to these rumors. Read more…

July 26th, 2012 | 11:42 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Jay-Z Gets A Call From “B” In His New Duracell Commerical

If we promise to buy all of the Duracell Powermats, could we get a call from Beyonce, too? A new ad for the wireless phone charging station features not only Jay-Z‘s “Run This Town,” but also a rare cameo from the man and Duracell spokesman himself. The short spot stars a busy New Yorker who uses a Powermat to keep his phone at 100 percent charge all day so that, at the club at end of the night, his phone still in the green, he can pick up a ringing phone that he’s mistaken as his own. “B” is calling, and he’s not sure who that is until a hand — Jay’s hand — reaches in from above. “Yeah,” he nods as the guy hands it over. When Jay signed-up for the gig in January, he suggested that he believes Duracell and their Powermats are “providing the solutions for the future.” Which, sure! Why not. What we here at Tuner believe in, though, is a world where Jay’s got Beyonce saved as just “B” in his phone, and a future where we might all have the same! Where do we get one of these Powermats?

Beyonce Gives Jay-Z A Call In Duracell Powermat Commercial [RapFix]

Got To Collect ‘Em All: KISS Are Revealing Monster One Piece At A Time, Here’s Number 4

Attention KISS fans! Your hard-rocking, face-painted heroes are unleashing their 20th studio album, Monster, this fall, and they need you to help unveil its cover art. Cut up like a puzzle, the legendary rockers are leaking one piece of the Monster cover at a time, scavenger hunt style so that fans can be a part of the big reveal. Mashable has one, as does NoiseCreep. We’ve got piece number four to share, and check that Gene Simmons tongue! We do believe this an important one.

Clicking on the piece below will redirect you to the band’s official Facebook page, where you’ll collect all seven pieces to — voila! — build a full picture. The hunt for Monster is on!

UPDATE: Our friends over at the O Music Awards got their hands on another piece of the KISS puzzle, too! Check out it, KISS Army.

July 26th, 2012 | 10:24 am by Zara Golden (@zaragolden)

Tuned In: The Lumineers Say “Ho Hey” To Leno

Last night, The Lumineers stopped by the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to perform their ever joyous “Ho Hey!” The VH1 You Oughta Know artists, as Jay introduces them, have kept busy this summer “Ho Hey”-ing through our studios, in the streets and up the charts. And last night on the sort of bucolic stage, set with a sunflower banner and trees that look borrowed from a Waiting for Godot production, they did it again. Their usual three members swelled to five, with an added mandolin and bass guitar, and sure enough those four extra feet were put to work in what might have been the most fun rendering of the song we’ve seen so far. “Ho Hey” was built around good energy and toe tapping. That energy seems to be mounting with The Lumineers’ quick ascent. And that toe tapping? We don’t doubt that they left televisions rattling last night.

The Killers Hit The Road In New “Runaways” Video

The Killers are only just back and running away already. In the moody new video for their The Boss-cribbing new single, “Runaways,” Brandon Flowers and company return from their two year absence to a great abyss. For a song so big, they really kept the visuals spare. There are stormy skies above, and an empty road passing behind that recalls the flying fret in the Guitar Hero video games. And all the while, the darkness hangs around them like the far reaches of the arenas they’ll soon be filling if the rest of their forthcoming album, Battle Born, is so big as this first single.
Read more…