Eminem is stuck underground. Royce da 5’9″ is behind bars. Watch as they break free from their pains and rap their way to higher ground; a crooning Bruno Mars is waiting for them with, well, a sky full of lighters. What a beautiful sight.
Category Archives: Entertainment
FX ready to tell ‘American Horror Story’ (poster & teaser inside)
Earlier this summer FX picked up a 13-episode order for its next original drama series. American Horror Story comes from Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy and his Nip/Tuck and Glee collaborator Brad Falchuk. Deadline reports: “Described as a psychosexual thriller, [the show] centers on a therapist and his wife who, dealing with the aftermath of the husband’s adultery, move along with their kids into a new house that seems to know all about their fears and plays on them.” Now check out this all star cast extracted from a press release:
American Horror Story revolves around The Harmons, a family of three who move from Boston to Los Angeles as a means to reconcile past anguish. The All Star cast features Dylan McDermott (The Practice) as “Ben Harmon,” a psychiatrist; Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) as “Vivien Harmon,” Ben’s wife; Taissa Farmiga as “Violet,” the Harmon’s teenage daughter; Jessica Lange (Tootsie, Blue Sky, Grey Gardens) in her first-ever regular series TV role as “Constance,” the Harmon’s neighbor; Evan Peters (One Tree Hill) as “Tate Langdon,” one of Ben’s patients; and Denis O’Hare (The Good Wife) as “Larry Harvey.” Guest stars for the series include Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) and Alexandra Breckenridge (Dirt) as the Harmon’s housekeepers; and Jamie Brewer as Constance’s daughter.
AHS promises to be an extremely chilling TV series with intention to genuinely frighten audiences. Murphy describes it as a “feel-bad” show, as opposed to his “feel-good” show Glee. He and Falchuk were inspired by classic horror films Rosemary’s Baby and Don’t Look Now. Industry members who have seen the pilot were spooked and amazed by its originality.
Says FX president John Landgraf: “We’re thrilled to welcome Ryan and Brad back to their original home. They have shown an uncanny ability to bring original series to the air unlike any that have come before, and to reconcile ’wildly entertaining’ with the ’creatively ambitious.’ Once again, American Horror Story is a wholly unique and original take on its genre with richly drawn characters. The ability to put together a cast of stars such as Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Denis O’Hare, Frances Conroy and Oscar-winner Jessica Lange speaks to the quality of the writing and storytelling. This series is going to blow audiences back in their seats, and we can’t wait to have it on our air.”
Others who have seen the pilot say that it’s filled to the brim with character and plot development. One critic says, “The first episode has more stuff crammed into it than some shows have in their first season.” This may not be such a great thing because viewers typically don’t like to get suffocated by too much in the very beginning. At the TCAs, Murphy admitted that pilot “has like eight cliffhangers” but he went on to reassure potential viewers that he has “an obligation to the audience in the next two [episodes] to explain a lot of those things that are set up.”
Over the summer FX has been running a super creepy yet intriguing marketing campaign to amp anticipation for the series. Short commercials featuring AHS “clues” can be screened at this YouTube channel. This week the cable network finally released a standard teaser clip featuring the main cast in the haunted (?) mansion. What’s up with Denis O’Hare vanishing up in flames and who’s that stalker-ish man (?) in the black latex suit grabbing at Connie Britton? This same question can be asked about the bizarre poster pasted above. The teaser video is after the break.
I will certainly give this show a try, and I think you should too. I trust Murphy and Falchuk’s creative vision and so I expect AHS will find its groove at some point during its first season run. The cast is stacked and the intrigue is there. Tune in to see what American Horror Story is all about when it premieres October 5 at 10PM on FX.
[Via FX; Deadline 1, 2] Continue reading FX ready to tell ‘American Horror Story’ (poster & teaser inside)
Symbolyc One talks about his “Excellence” behind ‘Watch The Throne’ beat
Kanye West called upon producer Symbolyc One (aka S1) to produce the beat behind the second half of Watch The Throne track “Murder To Excellence.” (‘Murder’ was produced by Swizz Beatz.) S1 had previously worked with ‘Ye on the masterful single “Power” off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and most recently he co-produced Beyonce’s hit “Best Thing I Never Had.” S1 traveled to London and Australia with Kanye and Throne collaborator Jay-Z, and it was Done Under where the “dirty” beat for “Excellence” was conceived. He picked the Indiggo sample because he liked the “African, tribal feel to it.” Watch the video to see S1 in the studio and learn more about the inspiration behind the track.
Tour Iceland in this breathtaking Bon Iver music video
Indie rock group Bon Iver teamed with famed director Nabil Elderkin to shoot this gorgeous music video for “Holocene,” a cut off the band’s latest album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. The clip follows a youthful Icelandic boy waking up in the morning and exploring everything that the icy island has to offer. Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon allowed Nabil to run free with it. “[Iceland] is the most magical place in the world,” says Nabil. “It looked like Mars to me, so I always wanted to shoot there. When Bon Iver gave me the reigns on this video, I knew it had to be filmed there.” The final product truly is breathtaking; you get lost in scenic cinematography and the soothing sounds of “Holocene.” See for yourself in the video above.
[Via NatGeo]
Google Music Beta offers up free songs through Magnifier
This week Google launched a new music discovery site called Magnifier for Music Beta users. If you managed to score an invite to Google’s (currently) free music locker in the cloud, you probably noticed the Auto Playlist named Free songs idly sitting there. Well, now we know its intention. Magnifier offers free tracks for people looking to discover new music and expand their library. The portal is split up into three sections. The home page puts front and center a featured artist. This week it’s indie rock band My Morning Jacket. The post includes a write-up about the band, a video interview, and two free tracks (one of which is an exclusive to Magnifier). Click the “Add free music” button and both tracks will instantly fly into your Free songs playlist, ready for you to play. Inside the Song of the Day tab you’ll find “key tracks from the most innovative and exciting artists” handpicked by Googlers. The Antenna tab is home to Google’s Artist of the Week; this week Shabazz Palaces is featured and you can preview their “ghetto sound sprawl” vibe by downloading three free tracks. In addition to these featured artist sections Google also offers Free Song Archives; hundreds of songs are available to download for free and they’re grouped by genre.
So if you’ve found a way into the Music Beta, head on over to Magnifier to get your music discovery on.
[Via GoogleBlog]
Teaser 2: The Woman in Black
Here’s a new look at The Woman in Black, a supernatural thriller starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first theatrical release post-Potter. He plays a young lawyer who travels to a mysterious house to settle the affairs of the spooky mansion’s owner. This trailer is chilling; creepy dolls, an ominous narrator voiced by a young girl, and a lurking ghost known to a small town as The Woman in Black are abound. The film, from director James Watkins (Eden Lake), was adapted from Susan Hill’s 1982 novel of the same name by Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class scribe Jane Goldman.
The Woman in Black hits theatres February 3, 2012. It’s going to be a spooky good time.
Trailer 2: Footloose
Here’s another trailer for the upcoming Footloose reboot from director Craig Brewer. It’s shorter than the original, but this one’s fast-paced and really hooks you in for the ride.
Cut Footloose with new stars Kenny Wormald, Julianne Hough, and Miles Teller this October.
‘Watch The Throne’ debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200, 436,000 copies sold in first week
Jay-Z and Kanye West, arguably the two greatest rappers alive, hung out and created an album together. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that first weeks sales for the collaborative effort Watch The Throne are nothing short of impressive. According to Nielsen SoundScan, 436,000 copies of the album were sold as it debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. This marks the second-largest sales week of the year for an album; Watch The Throne simply couldn’t come close to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way which sold 1.1 million copies when it released in May. Throne accumulated 321,000 legal downloads, marking the second-largest digital week ever; again it trails behind Born This Way (662,000 downloads). In addition, according to various sources Throne managed to break the iTunes first-week sales record by surpassing Coldplay’s 2008 release Viva La Vida (282,000) with a staggering 290,000 downloads.
Now you might be looking at that 436,000 number and think it’s rather low for such an anticipated album release. It all ties back to the way in which Jay & ‘Ye trickled the album to the masses. Throne was made exclusively available through iTunes from Monday August 8 to the 11th, and then it released wide to all digital and physical retailers. If the duo had dropped the album traditionally (by allowing all retailers to sell it on the 8/8 release day) analysts are certain that they would have moved over 500,000 copies. I will keep track of second-week sales and we’ll see if the numbers prove that theory. For an album that wasn’t promoted all that much by the artists and their record labels, Watch The Throne and all its “luxury rap” proved to be a hot commodity this summer.
And if that wasn’t enough, Throne becomes the latest major achievement for the rappers that put it together. The album is Jay-Z’s 12th No. 1 and Kanye’s 5th. Jay-Z maintains the record for the most No. 1 albums in history as a solo act.
[Via Billboard]
Music video: Lady Gaga – “Yoü and I”
Woah, there is so much going on in Gaga’s latest music video. When she posted the link to the video earlier today Mother Monster tweeted, “You must love all + every part of me, as must I, for this complex + incomprehensible force to be true.” In the clip she jumps into a myriad of guises; one moment she’s a cyborg walking along Nebraskan cornfields and the next she’s trapped in a bathtub as a mermaid. There are flashes of her being experimented on, and in a rockin’ dance sequence she’s got an electric blue wig on her crown. The strangest part, though, has to be the scene where a makeup-less Gaga is playing the piano and her male alter ego Jo Calderone grooves to the beat beside her. Yep, that’s Lady Gaga underneath the greasy dangling hair, white tee, and smoking cigarette. And when they embrace, well, that sent a bizarre shiver down my spine.
So what does it all mean? Gaga told a radio station, “The idea that when you’re away from someone you love, it’s torture. I knew I wanted the video to be about me sprinting back and walking hundreds of thousands of miles to get him back.” But that doesn’t explain all the different egos in play here. It’s up to us for interpretation, I reckon. Anyhow, “Yoü and I” is definitely one of the best songs off Born This Way, and the video made for it strikes a fine chord. It’s beautifully shot, and the lyrics hold value. Flick on HD and mash play above.
Childrens Hospital renewed for fourth season
With the healing power of laughter, anything can happen. Childrens Hospital, the web series-turned-TV show from Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, and David Wain, has been renewed for a fourth season. The new season will be comprised of 14 episodes; production begins later this year and it’ll premiere in 2012.
Corddry said this in a press release: “I’m very pleased and honored by this announcement. I’m also very surprised, given that I write this show when I’m very, very drunk. Season 4 promises to be a cry for help.” Stern added, “And people wonder why our economy is a mess.”
The brilliant ensemble cast is expected to return. That includes Corddry, Malin Akerman, Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino, Megan Mullally and Henry Winkler.
Childrens Hospital airs Thursday nights at midnight on Adult Swim.
[Via IGN]
Inside the NYC ‘Watch the Throne’ pop up store (+ album unwrapping)
This weekend I visited the Watch the Throne Retail Experience in the trendy section of Manhattan known as SoHo. To celebrate the release of their collaborative album, Jay-Z and Kanye West decorated Openhouse Gallery (201 Mulberry Street) with all sorts of Throne memorabilia. The outside of the store is dressed in the Riccardo Tisci-designed gold album art; it really pops. Friendly security holds the door open for you and keeps count of the number of people inside the store. When you walk inside the store is organized in two sections: the Maybach and the album listening experience. Jay and ‘Ye thought it’d be neat to show off the über-expensive Maybach they stripped, chopped up, and drove in the laid back “Otis” music video. The luxury car, which will be auctioned with the proceeds going to the East African drought disaster, looks really awesome up close. The doors are torn off, the trunk is home to the grill that’s normally installed on the front of the car, suicide doors stick out in the back and give the car wings, the seats have monitors inside of them, the engine looks mean, and there’s sticker on the bumper that reads “What Would Hova Do.” When I was there the security man allowed salivating attendees to snap as many pictures they could within a six second time frame. What I was able to capture sits in the gallery below.
Beyond the Maybach section of the store and down a very short flight of stairs the “Otis” music video plays on a giant wall in silence; a sound system loops the album throughout the store at a comfortable level. The listening experience section is very big; just a handful of people and I stood in the center of the large space and watched “Otis” on a loop. All around the space hefty projectors beam images from the album on the surrounding walls; the album art, the “Otis” American flag artwork, and other imagery that’s stuffed inside the deluxe version of the album are displayed. To the right an attractive woman sells the deluxe copies at $15 a pop. The small retail section consists of a table with the Riccardo Tisci artwork folded open to reveal the aforementioned album imagery. There is also a listing of the album’s tracks and production credits for attendees to glance at. On my way out I noticed DJ equipment set up in the left corner. This must have been used opening night when the pop up store was packed with celebrities like Swizz Beatz, Memphis Bleek, Beyonce, and Jay-Z himself. The store is scheduled to close its doors today at 6PM. I highly recommend you check it out before the limited run is over. On a more general note, I have to say that I love the idea of a pop up store. Openhouse Gallery is a great space in a prime location; hopefully more artists and companies choose to use it when they plan to release anticipated products.
Underneath the pop up store gallery you’ll find a collection of pictures I took while unwrapping the Watch the Throne deluxe album. The duo did a great job putting it together, and it’s no secret that Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy had a big hand in the creative direction. The packaging folds open in a cross-like shape; four of the five panels feature the same embossed pattern and the center one is unique. On the reverse side there are five unique images on each panel: the American flag image of the “Otis” single artwork, dark images of Jay and Kanye with giant fangs, an image of a winged angel with a star pasted on her face, and in the center (the sleeve that holds the CD) is a shiny visual that evokes a slab of wood. The CD is a special edition black colored disc and its face matches the wooden pattern that it’s stored within. Under the angelic imagery lives an 18-panel poster; on one side is colorful artwork that takes design cues from the H.A.M single artwork, and the reverse side spells out the production credits and lyrics for every track. What’s neat is that the lyrics specify when Jay-Z and Kanye rap in each song with the markings JZ and KW. Overall, the packaging manages to elicit what Jay and ‘Ye were originally going for with Watch the Throne: grandiose rap. Tisci successfully channel his aesthetic touch that consists of symmetry, lightness, darkness, sharpness, and 3D. If you’re going to buy a physical copy of the album (and you should!) it’s definitely worth the extra pennies to go deluxe.
Music video: Kid Cudi – “No One Believes Me”
Cudder fans, here’s a nice treat.
On June 1 Kid Cudi dropped the debut single from his Dot Da Genius-assisted rock band 2 Be Continuum, “Perfect Is The Word.” Since then, Cudder’s been spending his summer on the Cud Life Tour and shooting episodes for the HBO series How To Make It In America. Somewhere in between all this he was able to finalize the track “No One Believes Me,” a song featured on the soundtrack for the upcoming vampire flick Fright Night. Instead of just releasing the song to fans, Cud went the extra mile and teamed with Fright Night helmer Craig Gillespie to make a spook-tacular music video that perfectly embodies the ominous track. Witness a paranoiac and fanged Kid Cudi haunt a quaint suburban town in the clip embedded above; I bet you won’t see the surprise ending coming.
Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, hits theatres August 19; “No One Believes Me” will play during the end credits. The soundtrack releases days before on August 16.
Update: Kid Cudi talks to MTV about his inspiration behind the video after the break.
Update 2: The song is now available on iTunes.
Continue reading Music video: Kid Cudi — “No One Believes Me”