Music Artists, Videos and News

I did not get my picture taken with James Van Der Beek.

That probably needs some context, so let me back up. Last week, word came down that James Van Der Beek would be stopping into the MTV Newsroom for an interview. He has a new film coming out called “Formosa Betrayed” and was just introduced as a character on the NBC medical drama “Mercy,” and MTV News pop writer Jocelyn Vena would be sitting down with him for a few minutes on Monday morning.

I immediately got excited, because I’m a gigantic fan of “Dawson’s Creek,” and have always thought of Van Der Beek as the most underrated of all the ’90s teen heartthrobs (mostly for his many TV guest spots, as well as his performance in “The Rules of Attraction”). Even though I wasn’t conducting the interview, I wanted to sit in on it and snap a few photos.

My relationship to “Dawson’s Creek” is multi-layered. I was in the target demographic when the show premiered in 1998. I was about to turn 16 and had read a ton of articles about the buzz surrounding the debut of the show. I was excited: Here was a program that was going to be pitched at teenagers that talked frankly about issues (but mostly about sex) without dumbing down the dialogue.

Naturally, I got hooked. I still have VHS tapes stored at my parents house that contain original broadcast episodes of the first and second seasons of “Creek” (for some reason, I was never home on the night it aired). I followed the escapades of Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen as they navigated the murky waters of high school. It seems utterly sterile now when you compare it to something like “Gossip Girl,” but “Dawson’s Creek” was really edgy at the time, opening up conversations about sexuality and social morays. What was even better? Those conversations were being conducted in the show’s trademark elevated dialogue.

But despite the relationship dramas and soapy plots, the best thing about “Dawson’s Creek” was that, generally, nothing ever happened. And that’s what made it realistic. For most people, high school is just a series of short distractions amidst interminable stretches of boredom until graduation and the liberation of college or adult life. Most people don’t have the intriguing, operatic teen lives of the kids on “The O.C.” or any other teen show of the past decade. Most people just drive around waiting for something to happen while the music is cranked up too loud, and hopefully you get to make out a little bit in between.

“Dawson’s Creek” captured that perfectly. It captured that high school malaise that sets in when you know that there has got to be something better out there, but you have no idea what that something is. It was a show about waiting and hoping and wondering and dreaming (which is why it got a little ridiculous in the fifth and sixth seasons, after the gang graduated from Capeside High).

Even when I graduated college in 2003 (which happened to coincide with the series finale of “Dawson’s Creek”), I managed to find my way back to the Creek: I was a freelance writer living in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, and I spent my mornings watching back-to-back episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” on TBS. (I got through the entire series this way.) Being able to re-experience my favorite episodes (including the all-nighter from the second season, possibly my favorite entry of any television show ever) not only helped me cling to some sort of college-aged juvenilia for a little bit longer, but it also helped remind me that growing up is difficult even if you’re living in a fictional town in Massachusetts and have the Flash for a dad.

So “Dawson’s Creek” meant a lot to me, which is why I was thrilled to shake Van Der Beek’s hand this morning. I didn’t share all this with him, because let’s face it: It’s more than a little off-putting. Even though I told myself I would, I decided not to get my picture taken with him. Because he’ll always be Dawson Leery, and I want to keep him on the other side of the screen, forever in Capeside, forever helping me grow up.

No Comments »

There are very few of us in this world that know what it’s like to be a trend on Google. But “My Life as Liz” star Liz Lee knows exactly what that is like. When her show premiered on MTV last month, the following day she ended up being a top trend on Google. She was even a trending topic on Twitter.

So, what has that been like for Liz, who is otherwise an anonymous art student in New York City? To be blunt, her fame has been kind of insane.

“It’s the most amazing feeling, it really is, to know that you have people on your side now,” she said about finding out that being TV’s newest underdog has made her quite popular with fans. “It’s a complete flip-flop in the best way.”

As for being a Google trend, she added, “It was crazy! On Monday [last month] ‘My Life as Liz’ was the number one Google search for like hours. That was insane. That was the most amazing feeling I think I’ve ever felt to have my producers call me and be like guess what? It just blew me away. It’s so surreal. It still kind of feels like it isn’t happening and we were a trending topic on twitter that was insane. It was so amazing. That’s awesome. I’m really stoked.”

“My Life as Liz” airs Monday nights at 10:30 on MTV. Stay tuned to MTV Newsroom and MTV News for more on Lee and her show!

No Comments »

“There’s not a better job on the planet than judging a f—–g karaoke contest. They’d have to pay me a ton of dough, because I already make a ton of dough. A $100 million to judge a karaoke contest? Yeah, I think I would do that show for $100 million. It would be the best thing that happened to me. What a cush job: $100 million for four months. Who wouldn’t take that?”

-Radio host Howard Stern, talking about the rumors surrounding him being the replacement for Simon Cowell as a judge on “American Idol.” Last week, the New York Post reported that a source said that producers were weighing the idea of bringing in Stern to replace Cowell after this season of “American Idol” wraps up, as Cowell will be exiting the show to focus on bringing “X Factor” to U.S. television. The rumor has some convenient coincidences rolled into it, as Stern’s contract with Sirius/XM expires at the end of this year, and considering the state of satellite radio, it’s doubtful that his new contract would be as lucrative as the one he signed back in 2004.

During his show on Monday morning, Stern addressed the rumors without mentioning whether or not he had actually been contacted by “Idol” producers. “I’m not going to comment about any discussions I might or might not have had,” he said on the air. “I watch ‘American Idol.’ … people seem to think that if I was on it, because I’m such a foul-mouthed, miserable f—, that I would get them thrown off the air. I know how to judge.”

He added that nobody would have more credibility as the new “Idol” judge. “If I do say so myself, I can’t imagine anyone else but me replacing [Cowell],” Stern said. “I mean, how else are they going to make that show work? Who knows how to broadcast and who knows how to be interesting? And who’s not afraid to speak their mind?”

No Comments »

By Eric Ditzian

When it comes to pure shock value, David Letterman and Jay Leno’s Super Bowl get-together beat out even Peyton Manning’s championship-blowing fourth quarter interception. The 15-second commercial — in which Dave complained about his lame Super Bowl party, Jay admitted he was the reason why and Oprah Winfrey hoped everyone could just get along — became the only spot people were still talking about by game’s end.

“I think everybody wanted to do it just because they all knew it would get attention and they all just wanted to do something funny,” “Late Show” exec producer Rob Burnett told the New York Times about shooting the commercial.

No doubt it was a PR victory for both hosts, but one not without its share of frustrations for those who have followed the late night wars of 2010. Letterman has spent the last few weeks mercilessly going after Leno with the type of venomous barbs that can only result from decades of bottled-up disdain. Conan O’Brien’s studio is still warm with the energy of his “Free Bird”-assisted finale and Letterman, with his Super Bowl spot, declares the late night beef over. To which I want to say: Too soon! I thought we were all still on Team Coco?

Of course, that’s taking the whole thing far too seriously. The commercial is an example of the comedian’s code: All’s fair in love, war and the ceaseless desire to say funny things that make people laugh. If you have an opportunity to get giggles — and to attract eyeballs in the process — you better damn well take it.

Which brings us to Leno, whose first TV appearance with Oprah didn’t accomplish the image rehabilitation he so desperately needs as he wraps up his primetime show this week and looks to re-launch “The Tonight Show.” And so the commercial had more than a whiff of desperation about it.

But again, that’s taking a 15-second promotion far too seriously. Though Leno hasn’t been at his joke-telling finest these past weeks, he’s at heart a comedian willing to do anything for a laugh. And if that laugh also helps foster a positive association about Leno in viewers’ mind, then that’s a double win for a guy on a serious losing streak.

Then there’s Conan. Would it not have been brilliant if, during the Super Bowl spot, the camera had paned out even further to reveal the displaced “Tonight Show” host also hanging out. Either Conan was busy, was never asked, or had no interest in taking part. But his absence had me thinking fondly back to last year’s big game. In a Bud Light commercial that channeled the classic “Sprockets” bit from “SNL,” Conan donned bunny ears, crawled across a white fur rug and ended up with perhaps the Bowl’s funniest commercial. Coco, we miss you, buddy. Come back to us soon!

No Comments »

Hot Chip would make a pretty killer rock band. They just need to work on their set list a bit. Sure, you can play some of the new stuff, but you’ve also got to sprinkle in the hits. You can totally do an encore, but you’ve got to have one bombastic number left in the bag. After all, the kids need something to buzz about as they make their way to the exits.

All of that was abundantly clear on Friday night (February 5) at New York’s Highline Ballroom, as Hot Chip returned to the stage after a brief hiatus for a MySpace Secret Show in support of their brand-new album One Life Stand. It was a rather excellent rock show, with epic light design, massive backbeats and even the occasional guitar thrown in for good measure, but the guys could probably learn a thing or two about pacing.

Opening with a pair of rather jittery songs from Stand — “Thieves in the Night” and “Hand Me Down Your Love” — Hot Chip filled the Highline with warbling synths and pealing organs, the room bathed in a noirish purple haze. Frontman Alexis Taylor, dressed in a long purple shirt and yellow pants (the former of which he’d eventually shed to reveal a pretty excellent Wendy’s tank top), unfurled his impressively lithe pipes, crooning lines like “Baby I’ve lost you here in the crowd/Open your arms, I want to be found” while heads bopped and a million tiny smart phones were held aloft.

From there, the band switched into “Boy From School” (turning the song into a Culture Club-esque exercise in synth balladry) and “One Pure Thought” (which showed off some of Al Doyle’s jangly guitar and threatened to lift the temperature of the room by several degrees Celsius).

Things shifted down from there, with another Stand track, the downright dour “Alley Cats,” and then old favorite “Ready For The Floor,” which was given a majestic, down-tempo makeover on this night.

But then we got hot, the band bobbing heads and going five-synths wide on “Over and Over,” which roiled on electro and guitars and built to a thumping climax, with the guys stop-starting on a dime as lights blinked on and off in perfect unison. The Stand highlight “We Have Love” kept things boiling: A massive, booming club track featuring piston-like backbeats and Taylor’s sexualized singing (”We haaaave loooove,” slinkily done over the pounding). Then the set wrapped with “Hold On,” and the kids in the crowd cheered wildly. An encore was sure to be next, and the place threatened to go bonkers.

Only it didn’t. When they returned to the stage, Hot Chip made the executive decision to pull things down several dozen pegs, wrapping the set with a trio of new songs, one of which (the pretty aptly titled “Slush”) was a pretty limp jazz number — complete with mournful trumpet solo. The closed with “Take It In,” which tried its best to resuscitate the room with twisting electro growls and spy-movie synth lines. But it was pretty much in vain.

And that’s the thing: Hot Chip are a great band. They turn their perceived weaknesses (truckloads of keyboards, five dudes who look like CERN scientists) into strengths. The backbeat is metronomically precise, the heads all move in perfectly synced time, the electronics coo and whir and take you places you never thought possible. The only problem is, the guys can’t do a set list to save their lives, as the soul-sucking encore to Friday’s show can certain attest to. You’d think they would’ve researched this by now, perhaps tested a few hypothesizes or something. They do look like pretty smart guys.

No Comments »