Be the first to comment In case you couldn’t keep up with all of the week’s music news headlines, we’ve rounded up some of the highlights from around the web, including stories on stars who are dead, undead (really!), controversial and just plain awesome.
Find out what made headlines this week: Continue reading »
Lady GaGa + Halloween = GaGaWeen « Written on the WindHalloween is only a few days away! Are you ready?
If you don’t have a costume yet, don’t worry: We’ve got 10 easy, inexpensive costume ideas for you—all with a music theme.
Whether you’re looking for something funny, sexy, silly, or offensive—we’ve got you covered.
TOP 10 Easy Halloween Costumes–with a Music Theme: Continue reading »
Today’s premise is simple enough: in honor of today’s unique date–09/09/09–we’re posting the top 9 bands and songs with 9s in them.
Did we forget your favorite 9?
Tell us about it in the comments section! Continue reading »
EricaAugust 29, 2009 is the day Michael Jackson would have celebrated his 51st birthday. We all know that the King of Pop passed away June 25, but that won’t stop his devoted fans from gathering together this weekend to celebrate the star and his music.
Keep reading to find out about the weekend’s best MJ tributes: dance contests, sing-alongs, lookalike contest, and more.
Whether you’re looking for a weekend party in the park with Spike Lee or free PBR and Michael Jackson karaoke in Brooklyn, we’ve got it covered!
Top 10 Michael Jackson Birthday Party Events This Weekend : Continue reading »
chris brown "forever" (Official Music Video) (HQThe Fourth of July Weekend is finally here! Take a minute to reflect on our nation’s past (check out some fun facts about Independence Day here) and celebrate by sharing the fun with friends and family.
Whether you’re heading to the beach or a backyard barbeque, you’ll need some great music to get the party started!
Check out our ten favorite free Fourth of July music downloads, and tons of other great free music downloads, too! Get lots of other great free July 4th mp3 music downloads here.
Top 10 Free 4th of July Songs
1.Born in the USA—Bruce Springsteen
2.America—Neil Diamond
3.ROCK in the USA—John Cougar Mellencamp
4.God Bless the USA—Lee Greenwood
5.National Anthem The Star Spangled Banner
6.America the Beautiful
7.This Land is Your Land
8.Yankee Doodle
9.Dixie
10.Stars and Stripes Forever
How will you celebrate the 4th of July? Fireworks? Hotdogs? Dance Party? Leave a comment and tell us all about it!
The movie Step Up 2 has been heavily advertised in the weeks leading up to its Valentine’s Day release.
A movie centered around extreme dance moves, it boasts a soundtrack featuring hits from artists such as Flo Rida.
Is it just us, or is this one of the dopiest rap aliases ever? Seriously.
Of course, Rida isn’t the only rapper with a stupid stage name. Join us as we take a look at the best of the worst rap aliases around.
Worst Rapper Names
10. Flo Rida—“Low”
The man who inspired today’s article is Florida-born rapper Tramar Dillard, AKA, Flo Rida. Yeah, we know it’s pronounced so that it sounds like “Flow Rider,” but, c’mon, it’s Florida and we all know it. And that makes us think of Disney World and Spring Break skanks, not hip hop.
9. Ol’ Dirty Bastard
While there is something to be said for truth in advertising, we still feel kinda sorry for Russell Jones for choosing this as his stage name. Then again, he later changed his name to Big Baby Jesus, so maybe this one wasn’t so bad after all…
8. Big Pun
Big Punisher’s nickname is bad on so many levels. Puns are always annoying, and it makes us think of Big Fun, the crappy band from the ‘80s teen flick Heathers (starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater).
7. Chamillionaire—“Not A Criminal”
He may have mouth full of gem-studded grillz, but Chamillionaire’s silly stage name always makes us think of that smarmy little Geiko lizard, sitting around, counting his cash. Yeah, he’s a gecko, not a chameleon, but we don’t care.
6. Vanilla Ice—“Ice Ice Baby”
Considering the fact that this Surreal Life star’s real name is Robert Van Winkle, maybe changing his name to Vanilla Ice was a lateral move. And he did star in Cool as Ice— one of our favorite Worst Movies Starring Rappers.
5. Snoop Doggy Dogg
Is there anything less tough/cool than a nickname that immediately conjures images of Charlie Brown’s dog? Probably not. Snoop probably has a sense of humor about it though, after all, he did recently propose opening a line of grocery stores called “snoopermarkets.”
4. Snow—“Informer”
This one-hit rapper from Canada for some reason felt it was necessary to call himself Snow—as though the fact that he was a rapper from Canada wasn’t all the info we needed.
3. Fabolous
If you’re going to spell your name wrong to be cool, then spell it wrong enough that it seems like it was done on purpose rather than as a typo. Fabbolouz, maybe? Or maybe not…
2. Sean Combs
It is hard to keep up with Combs’ various aliases, but suffice to say, none of them are cool. He’s been known as Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Diddy, but we still think the name his mama gave him is the most fitting.
1. Eminem—“Lose Yourself”
Sure, his name is Marshall Mathers, which makes his initials M&M, but that does not make the fact that his stage name makes us think of stale vending machine candy and obnoxious CGI commercial characters any less ridiculous. Now, Reese’s Pieces on the other hand…
Which rapper do you think has the worst name? How about the best name?
Leave a comment and tell us what you think!
We’re not sure why bands think it is cool or cute or otherwise appealing when they misspell their names, but a lot of them do it.
And it’s not cool. Nor is it kool, nor kewl.
So, in an effort to draw attention to this terrible trend, and hopefully put an end to it, we’ve put together a list of some of the most obnoxious band names we could find (we did try to stick with somewhat popular groups, although MySpace Music is a goldmine for this garbage).
Worst Band Names: Misspelled Names Edition
10. Lynryd Skynyrd—“Sweet Home Alabama”
Jokingly named after gym teacher named Leonard Skinner, these Southern rockers decided to invent their own odd spelling for the still lame band name.
9. Stryper
These boys were rocking big hair, striped spandex and cheesy hair metal for Jesus. Hopefully, they scored better in Sunday school than in spelling class.
8. Megadeth—“Symphony of Destruction”
Is “deth” supposed to be scarier than “death”? This thrash group sure seemed to think so. The fact that founder Dave Mustaine got his start in the similarly spelling-challenged Metallica may help explain things.
7. Enuff Z’nuff
This hippie/glam/pop group has been a peripheral music fixture since the ‘80s. But even a few minor hits (“Fly High Michelle”) couldn’t make up for the awful rhyming moniker adopted by Chip Znuff and his bandmates.
6. Green Jelly—“Three Little Pigs”
This group was known for its silly songs and costumes in the ‘90s. Back then, they were called Green Jello, but a lawsuit prompted a spelling change (but the group somehow insisted that the “y” in “jelly” was actually supposed to be pronounced as an “o”). Uh-huh.
5. Y Kant Tori Read
Hey kids, remember Tori Amos? Before becoming an icon of singer/songwriter nuttiness, the red haired piano nut was in an ’80s band with future Guns’n’Roses drummer Matt Sorum. And, it seems to us that the name should’ve been Y Kant Tori Spell?
4. Black Crowes
It’s just wrong in a subtle, yet annoying way.
3. Phish
Unfortunately, the dumb name wasn’t the most annoying thing about this jam band.
2. Limp Bizkit—“Rollin’”
An awful, awful band on so many levels.
1. Monkees
You can keep your Beatles, thank you very much. We love the Monkees, but thanks to this super-cute misspelling, we always think “monkeys” looks odd when it is spelled correctly.
Today is finally Valentine’s Day—which means it’s almost over!
Thank goodness.
Couples can stop wasting money on candy hearts and flowers, and singles can stop explaining why it’s ok to be single on this Hallmark holiday.
Of course, Easter is just around the corner, so you might have to buy your sweetie a stuffed bunny and some chocolate eggs or marshmallow peeps—but after that you’re safe from the holidays for a while…Well, unless you have some odd ritual for the 4th of July.
10 Reasons Valentine’s Day Sucks
10. Cupid
Chubby naked baby flying around shooting people with love arrows? No thanks, creepy.
9. Bad poetry
Oh, you found a Rumi book at Barnes and Noble. Yeah, so did everybody else.
8. Cheesy greeting cards
Drawing a picture of a heart on a Post It note is much sweeter than most of these lame-o photos of flowers and those creepy little cupids. Even your grandma knows how dorky this stuff is.
7. Sympathy for singles
There’s nothing wrong with being single, but you wouldn’t know it in February.
6. Roses
Bringing home flowers “just because” says, “I love you.”
Bringing home flowers on Valentine’s Day says, “I just spent a ton of cash on these stupid flowers. I hope you’re happy. And please tell your mom I did something nice.”
5. Fancy Dinner
See explanation above.
4. Get out your wallet.
Between the flowers, candy, dinner and gifts, this day can get pretty expensive. However, while TV commercials want you to believe that girls all want expensive gifts and trinkets, the truth is, most of them would rather have a quiet/normal night at home and get a sweet love note (no, email doesn’t count). A recent story on Yahoo! Reported that we spend an average of $17 billion on this, er, holiday (that comes out to about $123 per person).
3. Candy Hearts
Even kids won’t eat these chalky rocks—and kids will eat sugar out of a bag if you let them.
2. Gross Chocolate
Chocolate is very yummy. Period. Yet, for some reason, at Valentine’s Day the chocolate makers of the world unite to stuff otherwise decent chocolate with all kinds of gross filling—from orange and raspberry to the always mysterious nougat.
1. Lame love songs.
Seriously, does anybody really want to hear Celine Dion or Whitney Houston ever again? No. A thousand times, no.
Suggested Anti-Valentine’s Day Music:
“I Hate Myself for Loving You”—Joan Jett
“Love Bites”—Def Leppard
“Love Hurts”—Nazareth
“Hate That I Love You”—Rihanna
Valentine’s Day: Love it or hate it?
Leave a comment and let us know!
Every year, shopping malls and radio stations bombard listeners with the same awful Christmas songs. By the time New Year’s rolls around, you’ll have heard “Frosty the Snowman” about 40 zillion times, not to mention all the awful holiday goo being spewed by Celine Dion and Josh Groban.
But, this holiday season, instead of complaining about the songs you do hear, maybe you should be thankful for the songs you don’t have to hear.
For further proof, check out today’s list:
Top 10 Most Unnecessary Christmas Records EVER
10. Ringo Starr—I Wanna Be Santa Claus
Wow, 12 Christmas songs with Ringo? Even Starr’s family doesn’t want to spend this much time with him at Christmas.
9. NSYNC—Home for Christmas
Hey ladies, here’s your chance to spend Christmas with Justin Timberlake…and some other guys. Mistletoe sold separately.
8. 98 degress—This Christmas
In case NSYNC is too cool for you, here’s the poor man’s boyband, Cincinnati’s 98 degrees. Sorry, no gift receipt.
7. George Thorogood and the Destroyers—Rock and Roll Christmas
Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone,” except when Santa is looking.
6. Carnie and Wendy Wilson—Hey Santa
This boring Christmas album featuring 2/3 of Wilson Philips is even more embarrassing when you remember that their father is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys—a band that released some classic rock albums, along with a couple of fairly tolerable holiday discs. Thanks, kids. From now on, you’re getting coal. And Beach Boys records.
5. White Stripes—Candy Cane Children
Merry Christmas, indie-rock fans: Gather ‘round and uncle Jack White’s gonna read you some of the gospel and aunt Meg’s gonna mumble her way through a creepy version of “Silent Night.” Next year, just get us socks instead.
4. Cyndi Lauper—Merry Christmas, Have a Nice Life
She’s recorded many Christmas songs over the years, but the whole disaster can be summed up in two words: “Christmas Conga.”
3. Bryan Adams—Reggae Christmas
You probably never thought Bryan Adams could write something that would actually make you wish we were listening to “Summer of ‘69” instead, but, well, here it is. Let’s call it a Christmas miracle.
2. AC/DC—Mistress for Christmas
AC/DC usually writes songs like “Highway to Hell” and “Hell’s Bells,” so hearing rock’n’roll’s favorite hell-raisers singing for Santa seems a little strange. Until you listen to the lyrics and find out the boys really want. Classy.
1. Billy Idol—A Very Special Christmas Album
Finally, folks can hear the “White Wedding” howler belt out a version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The title says it all: This album is very, very special.
Today at auction, a lock of John Lennon’s hair sold for $48,000.
That’s a much as a new car (or two, if you’re thrifty). Or, about 320 iPod nanos.
That’s insane. Seriously.
So, in honor of crazy holiday shoppers everywhere, I’ve put together a list of what might be the silliest, most expensive things collectors have ever bought at music memorabilia auctions.
Of course, most of this stuff was purchased by ultra wealthy collectors who treat this stuff like stock investments instead of rock’n’roll treasures… Oh well.
Top 10 Most Absurdly Expensive Music Memorabilia Ever Auctioned
10. John Lennon’s Hair in an autographed copy of A Spaniard in the Works was auctioned this week for $48k. That just might be the most expensive haircut ever.
9. Poems handwritten by Bob Dylan in 1960 sold for $78k in November 2005 at Christie’s.
8. A poster for the Beatles’ 1966 concert at Shea Stadium sold for $132k in 2004 through the rock’n’roll memorabilia auction company, It’s Only Rock’n’Roll
7. A fan paid nearly $168,000 for a pair of tickets to Led Zeppelin’s reunion concert in December 2007. Hope he had good seats!
6. Music memorabilia book author/collector Peter Blecha paid $497,500 for “Brownie,” the guitar Eric Clapton used to record the hit song, “Layla.”
5. Someone paid $550,000 George Harrison guitar at a Christie’s auction in 2004. 4. Another one of Eric Clapton’s guitars, “Blackie,” sold for $959,000 to Guitar Center. The Fender Stratocaster was Slowhand’s main axe from 1970-1985. 3. John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “All You Need is Love” sold for $1million in July 2005.
2. George Michael paid the second highest music auction price when he spent $ 2.1 million in 1990 for the piano Lennon used to write the song “Imagine.” Guess he made a LOT of money with the video for “Faith.”
And the winner, er, loser is:
1. John Lennon’s psychedelic 1965 Phantom V Rolls-Royce sold for $2.3 million at auction in 1982.
Would you spend this much cash on someone’s old guitar or car? Leave me a comment and tell me what’s on your music shopping list!
