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David Archuleta the runner-up from the seventh season of American Idol has released his first video blog.  He is so adorable!  He spent a lot of time thanking all of his fans.  You can tell that he’s still getting used to being in the spotlight on this scale - too funny.  He talked about his […]

oh my gosh - if you’re around my age (32) you simply must have some level of affection for boy george and culture club - i still remember listening to karma chameleon when i was kid and thinking to myself that lead singer boy george was way cool - next month he’s doing a small club tour here in the states and i bought my tickets awhile ago - i’ll be seeing him play at the el rey theatre on july 15th - the night after i catch coldplay on the first night of their US tour (i am in love with chris martin - and contrary to recent reports the band’s new album viva la vida does not suck) the middle of july is going to be super hot! i just love going to concerts - tomorrow morning i’ll be picking up janet jackson tickets for when she comes to los angeles in september!



the pictures below are from tonight’s opening of the RS lounge club over in london where boy george lent his DJ skills (i just bought a kick-ass technics turntable - finally i can play my vinyl) he actually looks fairly decent (he was never a cute guy - interesting - oh yes - cute….no) he’s had a bunch of super messy incidents over the years but somehow he still manages to pull himself together (as a bonus i’ve included the video for do you really want to hurt me? one of the band’s best songs and he better sing it live in july) popbytes over & out for now…xxoo

PHOTOS | WENN

When we ran Aimee Mann’s video for “Freeway,” we mentioned she was to be admired for not hitting the “hammy guy and girl” as they did various dances and etc., behind her while she tried to perform the song. In the Bobcat Goldthwait-directed (!) video for aforementioned Magnolia-core anthem “31 Today” there’s a similar setup and Mann shows even more restraint. So far she’s leaving the outbursts of profanity to the title of her new album, @#%&! Smilers. Also, that’s not Frank Zappa with her in the picture. It’s Morgan Murphy, a comedian friend of Mann’s. She played the Hanukkah Fairy at the Christmas Shows. Here she throws Aimee a very special birthday party.

Not Macca style, unfortunately. But still, fun! Lil often uses her blog as a portal to her brain via textual whoaversharing, but this photospread (with captions) of a recent day in L.A. — featuring pics of her fleet of paparazzi, her choice in burger, and her lunch date’s boobs — is what internet-fed voyeuristic impulses and dreams of living as a celebrity are made of. You can act like that doesn’t describe you, but it’s the internet — nobody has to know that you clicked.

A little while ago we saw and heard “Three Women,” the brassy lead track from Stereolab’s forthcoming Chemical Chords. The band’s getting ready to hit the road — Synch festival in Greece this weekend — and included the track in a set they played last night. It was their first live show in over two years, a “secret warm-up” that took place at the Windmill, Brixton in the UK for 100 fans, who found out about it via the band’s mailing list. We weren’t there, but Annette Lee was, and she snapped some photos while someone scribbled down the set list, a mix of old favorites and Chemical Chords material.

Herein lies the first listen of the new High Places record. Yesterday we received the “Vision’s The First / Namer” 7″, out now on sturdy UK label, Upset The Rhythm (you maybe remember it most for the super, dare I say, classic No Age “Get Hurt” 12″). Today, Chris at Upset let us know the A-Side “Vision’s The First…” is going to be on HP’s forthcoming self-titled Thrill Jockey debut (out at the end of September), and that the album’s cover is a photo of Mary’s nephew. As far as this 7″, Side B, “Namer,” is a subtle, dreamy, hushed, but swiveling dance track about leaving home (”In those eighteen years and nine months I’ve been living here / I always knew there’d come a day when I’d be leaving here”), taxonomy, and an old dog (”Namer of Names”), that finds Mary and Rob exploring gorgeous new sonic terrain. Complimenting it well, the more upbeat “Vision’s The First…” is a sunny, spiraling, gamelan-tinged song we first heard at our SXSW party. It shows up here in a more crystalline, multi-layered form.

R.E.M.’s doing that national tour with the National and Modest Mouse these days. And there has been a rather awesome development of late. We’ve highlighted some of the rarities spilling from the setlists, but none quite so rare as the mind-and-fret-meld presented by the recent rash of “Fall On Me”s with Johnny Marr on additional guitar duty. Just to put in some temporal perspective, the year in which “Fall On Me” was (barely) charting in the States (#94 in ‘86), “Bigmouth Strikes Again” peaked at #26 in the UK. And now flashforward 22 years.

That was a quick change of character. Can you do a hillbilly accent?

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One day Lindsay and Scott will arm wrestle to settle their ongoing Who Is The Bigger Mr. Show Nutcase feud they didn’t know they were in until just now. Until they go over the top, though, one point goes to Lindsay for not only posting Rogue Wave’s video for the previously loved “Chicago X 12″ — which features Bob Odenkirk as a clueless director — but also for spotting the trend and appending more music videos starring Bob and/or Dave as clueless directors. This includes the likes of YLT’s “Sugarcube” and Superchunk’s “Watery Hands” (but disqualifies the New Pornos’ “Use It” and the Strokes’ “Juicebox“). In the Rogue Wave clip, Bob is a misheard lyric specialist with a predilection for The Karate Kid. Not sure there’s more you need to hear than that. Go watch at Videogum, it’s a cute clip and a fun video spread. I saw the shit out of it!

The tangoing “Dance With Me” comes from countrified Dallas quartet Old 97’s seventh studio album Blame It On Gravity. For the video, the guys send an asthmatic, bowlegged “Level-30 Alchemist” with a “Frack Me” t-shirt into a club in search of his beloved Tricia Helfer, who plays Number Six on Battlestar Galactica. This is where it becomes a Kung Fu flick homage, resulting in some elaborate synchronized fighting, including our hero surfing down the stairs on the back of one of the fallen bouncers. I’ve never watched Battlestar Galactica, but I’m trusting this lady’s worth the fuss. She seems nice enough.