Okay, so with having Diddy over for lunch (and having, you know, work to do), I haven't had as much time to spend with our new crazily, insanely, no-way-it-can't-cost-that-much expensive stereo as I wanted. All your suggestions were solid, so keep 'em coming. I'm definitely bringing in a bunch of Steely Dan next week. I've listened to a couple of recently remastered Talking Heads discs (Fear of Music and Remain in Light) and the brand new reissue of Beck's Odelay. My mind is pretty much unblown so far, although occasionally a detail will leap out in way I've never heard before. But it's also clear that different albums bring out wildly different things in this system. Stay tuned for more...

Who would have thought that so soon after that crazy clip of Filipino prisoners recreating Jacko's "Thriller" video surfaced, there would be something else to file in the "Asians Reenacting Pop History" folder? This time it's the Japanese, and they're taking on the "We Are the World" video, complete with blackface, thick accents, and one very chubby Stevie Wonder.

Every March, along with the first breath of spring, comes the chance to take what can only be called a "biz-cation" — a debauched combination of work and pleasure set in Austin, TX, at the annual South By Southwest festival, where indie-rock, beer and BBQ fuel four days of non-stop schmoozing and show-going. For years, SXSW has been my preferred music fest, easily beating out my fellow editors' favorite events (Austin Scaggs is partial to Bonnaroo; Brian Hiatt to Coachella), and here's why:

(more...)

P. Diddy's coming for lunch today. Bringing Danity Kane too, and his new vodka, which I guess we are all supposed to try. And to create the right atmosphere, this morning he sent a shipment of flowers for the room. Seriously.

Later today, a visit from Paula Abdul. We've been warned by her publicists that she hugs everyone. Also seriously.

[Photo: Getty]

Unlike a certain coworker, I didn't get all teary-eyed when Christian Siriano won on Project Runway last night. (Stay strong, Andy Greene!) But I did watch, and when that crazy little genius won, it made me think – specifically, it made me think about what I could get for all that prize money. One thing you might want – if you aren't interested in, say, real estate – is sitting in our editorial conference room right now. A publicist who handles super-high-end audio equipment installed a $40,000 stereo yesterday for us to test for the next three months.

(more...)

The argument against him:
• Nearly everything since Play.
• The fact that we had to hear Play shilling everything from Levi's to Bailey's Irish Cream to FIFA 2001.
• His New York cafe Teany doesn't take credit cards.

The defense:
• His condemnation of Eminem's rough treatment of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the 2002 VMAs.
• His devotion to the noble pursuit of blogging.
• This awesome free mix of tracks from his April 1st album Last Night.

The summation:
I'm not just saying this because I'm reviewing the album and have listened to it so many times it's officially interwoven into my short-term memory. This is a super-fun return-to-form record that attempts to recreate the experience of a woozy night out dancing in New York (sadly, it's largely a New York of yesteryear; thanks to crackdowns on clubs, wide-eyed revelers have fewer spots to twirl around a dance floor with random dudes from New Jersey).

(more...)

For some reason (likely because of the recent NBA All-Star festivities), a tiny little album called B-Ball's Best Kept Secret has snuck back into the wilds of the Internet zeitgeist. Released in 1994, B-Ball's Best Kept Secret handed the microphone over to some hoops heroes and let them rap. Because I love both hip-hop and basketball, I procured a copy and have been listening to it non-stop. Some of the performers acquit themselves nicely: Shaquille O'Neal has always been a functional (if not terribly impressive) MC, and former Slam Dunk champ Cedric Ceballos could probably pass as a low-level Dipset member. Sadly, the boobie prize lands in the lap of Malik Sealy, a former journeyman who was tragically killed by a drunk driver in 2000. His song, "Lost in the Sauce," is stilted and awkward, with one of those choruses that sounds like it's trying to coin slang and a saxophone sample that might be a leftover from Wreckx-N-Effect's "Rump Shaker." It's also one of two songs that use the line "Life is a jumpshot" (Sealy says, "Sometimes you're on or sometimes you might be off," while Chris Mills merely rhymes "Sometimes it's not"). It's a bummer.

(more...)

As Peter Travers has noted elswhere on this website, the backlash against Juno was typical and inevitable. I like to think I was ahead of the curve on this, as the first ten minutes of that movie hurt real bad when I saw it at a press screening a few months ago. Though the movie evens out a bit after that first scene, I still thought Diablo Cody's Oscar-winning script was too cloying and occasionally offensive.

But last night I was watching Gilmore Girls on DVD (I am in season one and plan on watching the whole series over the next few months, a project I recently undertook with The X-Files; see how glamorous the life of a rock critic can be?) and I realized something: Juno MacGuff is just Rory Gilmore with different cultural references.

(more...)

Did anyone else find it sort of cool and odd that not only did a Leonard Cohen song get performed on American Idol last night, but that judges Randy and Simon actually knew the song? Do these people secretly have taste?

[Photo: Micelotta/FOX]

Sonny Bono was many things to many people: singer, actor, politician, groomer of fierce push-broom mustache, hip-hop muse. Forget that he’s been name-checked in tracks by everyone from Lil Wayne to Fat Joe to Eminem: he has the honorary distinction of being the only Republican ever to get actual praise from Public Enemy. (Sucks for you, Orrin Hatch!) In the past month alone, two big rap albums have called him out. On the Re-Up Gang’s We Got it For Cheap, Vol. 3: The Spirit of Competition, Malice brags that he's gonna "Sonny Bono the slopes until the reaper call." (Not quite a bid to slalom Lake Tahoe, but still.) And on Ego Trippin', Snoop Dogg claims, "Me and My Money's like Sonny and Cher." Which, technically, means Snoop's influencing Congress while his money enjoys a lucrative music career. Just seems weird that the same guy who co-sponsored the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, which limited rappers' rights to sample certain albums, should be heralded by the same artists it hindered. Still there are three reasons why Sonny Bono makes sense as a hip-hop legend:

A) He wrote ten gold records.

B) He died surrounded by snow. Dude went out like a true coke-rap superstar!

C) His name rhymes with “money.”