When it comes to former Smiths lead singer Morrissey’s attitude towards ailing people nearby, it’s gruesome that someone so handsome should care.
Elder statesman of pop Morrissey is known for a certain blithe attitude towards the public–but the more he ignores them, the closer they get, with an elderly woman collapsing near him on Sunday Read More
Madonna has attempted to explain her reference to President Barack Obama as a “black Muslim in the White House” onstage at a Washington stop on her MDNA Tour. (On her New York stop, the singer had featured a massive “OBAMA” tattoo on her back while singing “Like a Virgin.”) Read More
If there’s one thing all Americans likely understand in some cursory manner about Mitt Romney, beyond the matter of his religion, it’s that something is curious about the way he pays his taxes. Most Americans, for example, don’t have dealings with shell corporations in the Cayman Islands. Also, in the circumstance that they’re asked for their tax returns, most Americans usually don’t have a choice as to whether or not they’re going to produce them. But as of yet, the Republican candidate for the highest office in the land hasn’t exactly seen his tax returns become a matter of interest within pop culture. Until now. Read More
Lady Gaga has announced the title of her new album, due out next year: ARTPOP. (Yes, the caps are meant to be left on–and she’s already tattooed the phrase on her body.) After a period of relative career difficulties–a onetime Grammy and Video Music Awards favorite has been starving for critical and chart attention Read More
Following in the footsteps of recent September cover stars Kate Moss, Halle Berry, and Charlize Theron, pop singer Lady Gaga has reportedly shot the September 2012 Vogue cover. Lady Gaga was previously featured on the magazine in March 2011 (that cover is at left); perhaps, in addition to promoting her new fragrance, she’s Read More
Panic of Girls, Blondie
September 13
The iconic Deborah (not Debbie!) Harry-fronted band is releasing its first album since 2003, and is on-trend with current monster-movie vogues: the first single, “Mother,” came with a video depicting zombies coming to life and taking over a dance club. (Vampires are so 2010.) Could Blondie itself be the band of zombies taking over the dance floor? Well, that presumes they’ll take over in a music scene glutted with a panic of girl-pop queens (Deborah Harry may have influenced Lady Gaga, but it’s the younger diva who runs the world). Whether you see Ms. Harry as a vital part of the pop scene or a reanimated 1980s relic, the nostalgia quotient of putting on this album and pretending the Odeon’s still a thing beats downloading a Jay McInerney novel to your Kindle any day.
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Beyoncé’s fourth album, 4, is to be released in June, and she has thus far begun promoting two singles, fast and slow. This was the same strategy she pursued in fall 2008, promoting her album I am… Sasha Fierce, a double album devoted to the concept that she really loved ballads but excelled at dance Read More
Beyoncé’s 2008 album cycle began with the video for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” a tasteful, pared-down black-and-white Fosse homage whose only special effect was the singer’s nimble dance moves. Soon, she is to begin promoting her next album with the video for the up-with-women anthem “Run the World (Girls),” and has already Read More
It is hard for anyone to be entirely arcane, even if one were to work as hard at being secretive as most would at becoming famous. Carefully designed anonymity, after all, is one way of achieving the latter end. Take the case of WU LYF, an English band that refuses to do interviews or pose Read More
The Strokes
Angles
March 22, RCA
And we thought a career based upon ripping off Television couldn’t last. The saviors of New York rock–or of New York trust-fund-kid hauteur–faded away after their little-loved First Impressions of Earth in 2006. In the interim, Julian Casablancas made a solo record; Albert Hammond Jr. made two; Fabrizio Read More
