Music Artists, Videos and News

By James Dinh

Adam Lambert has some crazy fans. How crazy? A topless woman rushed at him on stage earlier this year. But beyond those hardcores lie the semi-crazy fans, those are the ones who grouped together in dedication for their favorite “American Idol” runner-up to raise $229,000 for public schools across the country.

DonorsChoose.org, an online charity organization, announced today the winner of a contest launched by the singer where he urged fans to help out for the greater cause. The competition pitted online Lambert communities against each other in a grueling battle to see who could raise the most donations. The winners will be rewarded for their efforts with a special chat session with the idol.

Over the span of four weeks, 1,956 fans fulfilled requests left by teachers at the charity’s website in efforts to gather donations and supplies for music and art-based projects. The ongoing donations were tracked by a “Lambert Leaderboard” at the charity’s website. Adam frequently checked in on the status of the challenge, and by the time the dust settled, a LiveJournal community called ONTD_AI took the top spot, raising a total of $82,700.

“I am unbelievably moved by the generosity and resolve of my fans, who have donated beyond what I could have ever expected to help students around the country,” said the singer.

Besides helping students remain active in music and art programs across the country, fans will be able to celebrate again when Adam releases his debut album on November 24.

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Weezer’s new album Raditude contains a number of songs that represent the latest in a series of departures for the band. On their last album, band members Brian Bell and Pat Wilson were much more involved in the songwriting process, and they even took lead vocals on a few songs. This time around, Rivers opened the doors for a number of people outside the Weezer camp, including members of the All-American Rejects as well as Jermaine Dupri and Lil Wayne on a song called “Can’t Stop Partying.” But there is one person that Cuomo wanted to work with on the album but was undone by timing and logistics.

“One of the things I’m really looking forward to trying is writing a country song,” Cuomo told MTV News on the set of the band’s video shoot for Raditude’s first single “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.” “I reached out to some Nashville writers, and they’re all down, but they all want me to go to Nashville. I’m a big fan of Tim McGraw, so maybe it’ll be some kind of evil spawn of Weezer and Tim McGraw.”

Weezer’s collaborations won’t be ending when the record is released on November 3, as they’re also once again working with the Muppets on an album. According to Cuomo, the band is halfway through recording “The Rainbow Connection” for Muppets Remastered, an album of Muppet-centric tunes set to come out early next year. The band last collaborated with everyone’s favorite foam friends in 2002 on the “Keep Fishin’” video, one of several hits from the band’s fourth album Maladroit.

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This is a blog about Hayley Williams’ tank top. You know, the microscopic, blue “Varsity League” one she wore last night during Paramore’s performance on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.” This one:

This is not meant to be a fashion critique (mostly because, well, that’s me on the right), nor is it some pervy paen to exposed midriffs (honest). No, I’m writing this because I was there when Williams bought the tank top in question last week, at a Franklin, Tennessee, Goodwill shop.

See, Paramore were showing MTV News around their hometown at the time, and they were adamant about taking me and producer Akshay Bhansali to Goodwill, a place where they used to bum around before band practice (and also the place where they purchased most of the stuff you’ll see in the artwork for their Brand New Eyes album, which hits stores today). So, naturally, we obliged them, and after a pretty epic bike ride through downtown Franklin, we found ourselves in the parking lot of Goodwill, and the band wanted to do some shopping.

The only problem? Goodwill wouldn’t let us film inside the store (something about a corporate policy), so we stashed our cameras and went inside with Williams and Co., and watched as they selected a whole bunch of fairly redonkulous junk, including a muscle shirt, an amazingly shiny winter jacket, and, of course, that blue tank top. At the time, Williams said she bought most of her onstage clothes at Goodwill, but, to be honest, we didn’t believe her. After all, she’s a burgeoning rock icon. Surely, her stage gear didn’t come from the recycling bin.

Except when it does. And Paramore’s performance on “The Tonight Show” is proof. Personally, I’ve always thought it was pretty cool when bands strode on stage wearing the same stuff they bummed around in on the tour bus — there’s an air of authenticity to it, or something like that — but I never pegged Paramore as being a band like that. Now I know different. And it makes me like them even more (if that’s even possible). And, on a whole different level, it’s pretty amazing to think that perhaps last night, some kid in Franklin (because, honestly, the tank top in question is so tiny it could’ve only come from a child), tuned into “The Tonight Show,” watched Paramore play, and thought to him- or herself “Wait, that’s my tank top!”

Rock and roll dreams come in all shapes and sizes, after all.

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Birdman’s new album Pricele$$ comes out at the end of October, and he’s already dropped the second video from the album (the Lil Wayne team-up “Money to Blow”). It’s an excellent clip, but it doesn’t match the majesty of their previous collaboration “Always Strapped.” The track is a rock-inflected bounce track that piles on the New Orleans swagger like the vintage Cash Money albums of yore, and since the sound is a bit of a throwback, they must have figured the video should be as well. It utilizes a classic hip-hop video style we like to call “The Arrival,” wherein it seems as though the rappers are making an entrance to a club/party/barbecue/warzone for the entire length of the clip. In between, there are scenes of Weezy rapping in a parking lot, shots of stacks of cash and a cameo by Rick Ross. (Not surprisingly, it’s directed by Lil X, the Hype Williams protégé who is responsible for such over-saturated epics as Usher’s “Yeah!” and Redman’s “I’ll Bee Dat.”)

But there are two key frames from the video that tell the whole story. They both come pretty early in the clip to help establish the vibe of the whole clip. The first is a cool backlit shot of Birdman slowly putting on his sunglasses while standing in a crowd of women. The shot uses that same flare effect that showed up in this summer’s “Star Trek” movie, which suggests that Birdman is actually going to party somewhere on the Enterprise.

The other scene needs no introduction.

Even though Wayne isn’t anywhere to be found in this scene, doesn’t it basically describe everything he’s about? It’s big, colorful, sexy, dangerous, hilarious, wealthy-looking, hardcore and smooth all at the same time. Congratulations, Bird and Wayne — you guys have an early entry in the running for next year’s Video Music Awards.

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By Cara Alwill

It seems like you can’t throw a stone without hitting some kind of supergroup lately. The likes of Chickenfoot (Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ Chad Smith, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony) and the planned Trent Reznor/Gary Numan collaboration have brought together like-minded artists from disparate backgrounds and so far produced some interesting results. The latest marriage of rock royalty sees Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke joining forces with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea, OK Computer producer Nigel Godrich, Beck drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refosco (who has worked with They Might Be Giants and David Byrne). Yorke made the announcement on Radiohead’s website earlier today that the group will make its live debut this Sunday and Monday, October 4 and 5, at Los Angeles’ venerable Orpheum Theatre.

“In the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting a band together for fun to play The Eraser stuff live and the new songs to see if it could work,” Yorke wrote. “We don’t really have a name and the set will not be very long, but come and check it out if you are in the area.”

Though Yorke has spent much of his time recently performing solo, and this new musical alliance should satiate his desire to bring The Eraser to the stage with a full band. Considering Yorke recently called his new song “The Hollow Earth” a “bass monster,” Flea should be able to put his magical touch on that and other songs on the album.

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