Archive for 'Exclusive News'
Top Stories: September 5, 2008
5 September 2008• Heart Lash Out at McCain Campaign
• Let There Be Rock: AC/DC Return
• 50 Cent: “I Have to Reinvent the Wheel”
• Weekend Rock List: ’80s Videos
• Jewelry From Diddy, Lil Jon Going To Auction
• VMA News: Slash, Kid Rock, Kanye West
• News Ticker: Alice in Chains, Michael Moore
Top stories from the last three days:
• RATM […]
Talk Show Flashback: Sonic Youth Talk No Wave Down Under
5 September 2008This week’s bizarre collision of talk TV and rock & roll comes to us from Australia, where Sonic Youth visited a morning show hosted by a woman who looks like a methed-up Gwen Stefani on a set that might have been vomited by Timothy Leary. Watching Thurston Moore try to explain “No Wave” and nonchalantly […]
Weekend Rock List: ’80s Videos
5 September 2008This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the MTV Video Music Awards, and to celebrate the occasion, the week’s Rock List features our favorite music videos from the decade where it all began: the 1980s. We’ve spent the last hour digging through YouTube to find our favorites, so now tell us yours. On Monday, if […]
Hip-Hop Jewelry Owned By Diddy, B.I.G., Tupac Going to Auction
5 September 2008Photo: Vasquez/Getty
Jewelry owned by 50 Cent, Notorious B.I.G., Alicia Keys, Tupac Shakur, Diddy, Pharrell and many more will go to auction in what’s being called “Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels.” The auction will feature over 70 pieces of custom-made bling, worth an estimated $3 million and worn by hip-hop’s finest. The Phillips de Pury Company will […]
Comment of the Week: Sarah Palin Gets Some Campaign Advice
5 September 2008Photo: Getty
This week’s Republican National Convention ruffled all sorts of feathers this week, as Rage Against the Machine stirred the pot and the McCain campaign used Heart’s “Barracuda” as a theme song for VP candidate Sarah Palin, much to the chagrin of Nancy Wilson. What Palin should have done was consult the readers of Rock […]
AC/DC Plans Big Comeback With Massive Tour, “Black Ice”
5 September 2008There are only a few sure things in life: Death. Taxes. AC/DC. This fall, the band will drop Black Ice, an album that returns them to their hard rocking roots after flirtations with their bluesier side on their previous two albums. “I was hoping the songs would lend themselves to more of a — ‘pop’ […]
Oprah Winfrey Says Sarah Palin Will Not Be On Her Show Until After Election: Report
5 September 2008‘Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over,’ Winfrey says in statement.
By Jocelyn Vena
Oprah Winfrey
Photo: Steve Granitz/ WireImage
Oprah Winfrey has reportedly denied a Drudge Report item that claims the talk-show host was considering having Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin on her show.
Winfrey issued a statement saying: “The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue. There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show,” according to TMZ.
“At the beginning of this presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates,” the statement continued. “I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.”
The Drudge item quoted an Oprah “insider” as saying: “Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on. Oprah’s Web site is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama.”
Winfrey is a longtime Obama supporter who has campaigned for him. He has appeared twice on her show — in January 2005 and October 2006 — before he announced his candidacy for president.
The Republican National Convention, which featured addresses from Palin on Wednesday night, closed with candidate John McCain’s address on Thursday night. Amid many stories in the past week about Palin, her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy and Bristol’s boyfriend Levi Johnston, late Thursday night the rock band Heart, whose song “Barracuda” was used during the convention in a nod to Palin’s old nickname, leading the band to reportedly issue a cease-and-desist letter to the campaign.
“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission,” says a statement from Heart’s camp, according to TMZ.com. “We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”
Single Minded: T.I., Dr. Dre and the Walkmen
5 September 2008Photo: Getty
T.I. featuring Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne, “Swagger Like Us” [Immukization Remix]
Kanye, Weezy, Jigga and T.I. get crammed inside what sounds like some odd outtake from the TRON soundtrack. Fittingly, this is the only musical environment in which using that aggravating vocoder effect actually makes sense.
Dr. Dre, “85 Live!” [Mixtape]
An hour-long timewarp, […]
John McCain Gets Intimate With RNC Delegates In Nomination Speech, Promises Change
5 September 2008McCain had a tough act to follow after VP candidate Sarah Palin’s blockbuster address.
By Gil Kaufman
John McCain addresses the Republican National Convention on Thursday
Photo: Emmanuel Dundand/ Getty Images
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — After a week when Republicans blasted Democrats for being the same old tax-and-spend liberals and a star was born in the form of GOP vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain had a simple task Thursday night (September 4) on the final night of the Republican National Convention: seal the deal.
Never the first choice of the conservative core of the Republican party, McCain set out to do that in his nearly one-hour speech by stressing his independent streak and inviting delegates to get onboard his express train to a new day for the Grand Old Party.
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“You all know, I’ve been called a maverick, someone who marches to the beat of his own drum,” McCain told the packed house, which gave him a nearly two-minute standing ovation. “Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment, and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”
It was a theme he would return to often during the low-key speech — his drive to rise above party — and while McCain’s address mostly lacked the sparkle and partisan bite of Palin’s crowd-rouser the night before, he took on the slow and steady tone of a man who has learned the importance of carefully measured steps.
“I’m not in the habit of breaking promises to my country, and neither is Governor Palin,” said McCain, who was interrupted twice early on by protesters who were dragged out of the hall to the shouts of “USA! USA!” from the audience. “And when we tell you we’re going to change Washington and stop leaving our country’s problems for some unluckier generation to fix, you can count on it. And we’ve got a record of doing just that and the strength, experience, judgment and backbone to keep our word to you.”
While McCain took a few digs at Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama in the speech, they were mostly in an attempt to show how his policies would be different from his Democratic rival’s, and he steered clear of any personal attacks or questions about Obama’s character. Curiously, for a speech in which he was accepting his party’s nomination, McCain often returned to the theme that he was not beholden to a party, but to the American people and his drive to change the old way things are done in Washington. “But let there be no doubt, my friends, we’re going to win this election,” he said. “And after we’ve won, we’re going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again, and get this country back on the road to prosperity and peace.”
“The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom,” he said. “It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”
McCain, who prefers the intimacy of town-hall-style meetings over large campaign gatherings, was in his element Thursday on a stage that was reshaped to include a ramp that extended out into the Xcel Center floor and put the candidate closer to his constituents.
In addition to battling the specter of Obama’s big-stage speech in front of 80,000 at Invesco Field a week before, as well as the still-warm afterglow of Palin’s address, McCain faced the further obstacle of convincing the party faithful that his outsider, maverick image as a reformer who sometimes crosses partly lines to get the job done is one that works for the GOP and one that it should embrace. And while the faithful did whoop and cheer for his many red-meat lines, there were quite a few lines — especially ones in which McCain promised to work with Democrats and reach across party lines without a focus on credit-taking — that drew polite, tepid responses. When McCain decried corruption in Washington, including his own party, there was a noticeable silence in the hall.
But again and again, he stressed that he and Palin would make serious changes in Washington. “I’m very proud to have introduced our next vice president to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington,” McCain said. “And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming.”
After months of attacking Obama as too inexperienced to be president, McCain made scant mention of that Thursday night, though Palin and other GOP surrogates have been repeatedly putting out the message that the first-term Alaska governor and former small-town mayor has more executive experience than the Illinois senator. With Palin onboard — and, seemingly with her, the party’s more conservative, evangelical base that had not fully embraced McCain prior to this point — McCain reiterated some of the campaign’s top talking points: increased oil drilling and a strong pro-life stance, as well as a desire to shrink government and put more money in the pockets of average Americans.
McCain will be hard-pressed to beat the numbers put up by Palin, who roped in 37.2 million voters on Wednesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research, crushing the DNC numbers for day-three addresses by former President Bill Clinton and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden by 55 percent. The numbers were so huge for Palin’s national political debut that they almost reached the Super Bowl-worthy ratings put up by Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, whose speech was seen by 38.4 million.
As the campaign has done all week, the speech also focused on McCain’s service to his country as a soldier, an element of his biography that the senator talked about when describing his love of the United States. “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” McCain said. “I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”
Making the case that Obama and three-decade Senate fixture Biden are about politics as usual, McCain, himself a 26-year member of Congress, exhorted his party to rally to his message of change and reform or risk losing more than just the presidency. Less sure of himself on the stage than Obama, McCain, 72, who would be the oldest president ever elected to office for a first term if he wins in November, didn’t try to outperform his more polished Democratic rival, but instead delivered a speech that mixed a number of his tried-and-true stump lines with a sense of the vigor that Palin’s addition to the ticket has injected into his quest.
Following Palin’s speech Wednesday, Obama strategist David Axelrod decried her attacks while speaking to reporters on Obama’s campaign plane, saying that instead of talking about issues such as health care and the economy or the war in Afghanistan, Palin sounded and looked “very much like she’d fit in very well there when you see how she brings these attacks. They all felt very familiar to Americans who are used to this kind of thing from Washington.”
John McCain might not be the candidate all Republican Party stalwarts were hoping for, but the combination of his stirring personal story line and his insistence on running as an outsider within his own party made for great political theater. And when the Vietnam hero exhorted the crowd to “fight with me, fight with me” at the end of the speech, he was drowned out by the thundering ovation as a deluge of red, white and blue confetti and balloons rained down.
Afterward, the mood in the hall was celebratory, though even party die-hards had to admit that McCain didn’t necessarily deliver the kind of signature moment that could seal the speech in history.
John Engle, a 19-year-old convention page from Maui, Hawaii, said that even though McCain was a bit stiff, he loved the speech and praised the Arizona senator for showing respect for Obama and not bashing his rival. “I thought it was an excellent speech and I like his plans for the economy, because I’m scared of a socialized medicine plan that could bankrupt the country.”
“It’s blindingly obvious he give a different kind of speech [than Palin or Obama],” said Eric Peterson, 23, who was gathering up confetti and McCain signs in the stands. “But there’s never been a presidential candidate with the same story and … he’s not as charismatic as Senator Obama, but he has a lot more substance.”
Peterson said that the big difference for him between the Obama and McCain addresses was his sense that McCain’s was more optimistic. “If you listened to the Democrat speeches, you would think this country is down in the dumps and some kind of third-world county,” he said. “But the Republicans see a great future.”
 |
Don’t miss out on the action: MTV News and our Street Team ‘08 will be on the ground at the Republican National Convention to sort through all the speeches, streamers and ceremony and find the information you need to choose our next president. Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election.
Related Photos
John McCain Gets Intimate With RNC Delegates In Nomination Speech, Promises Change
5 September 2008McCain had a tough act to follow after VP candidate Sarah Palin’s blockbuster address.
By Gil Kaufman
John McCain addresses the Republican National Convention on Thursday
Photo: Emmanuel Dundand/ Getty Images
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — After a week when Republicans blasted Democrats for being the same old tax-and-spend liberals and a star was born in the form of GOP vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain had a simple task Thursday night (September 4) on the final night of the Republican National Convention: seal the deal.
Never the first choice of the conservative core of the Republican party, McCain set out to do that in his nearly one-hour speech by stressing his independent streak and inviting delegates to get onboard his express train to a new day for the Grand Old Party.
|
“You all know, I’ve been called a maverick, someone who marches to the beat of his own drum,” McCain told the packed house, which gave him a nearly two-minute standing ovation. “Sometimes it’s meant as a compliment, and sometimes it’s not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don’t work for a party. I don’t work for a special interest. I don’t work for myself. I work for you.”
It was a theme he would return to often during the low-key speech — his drive to rise above party — and while McCain’s address mostly lacked the sparkle and partisan bite of Palin’s crowd-rouser the night before, he took on the slow and steady tone of a man who has learned the importance of carefully measured steps.
“I’m not in the habit of breaking promises to my country, and neither is Governor Palin,” said McCain, who was interrupted twice early on by protesters who were dragged out of the hall to the shouts of “USA! USA!” from the audience. “And when we tell you we’re going to change Washington and stop leaving our country’s problems for some unluckier generation to fix, you can count on it. And we’ve got a record of doing just that and the strength, experience, judgment and backbone to keep our word to you.”
While McCain took a few digs at Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama in the speech, they were mostly in an attempt to show how his policies would be different from his Democratic rival’s, and he steered clear of any personal attacks or questions about Obama’s character. Curiously, for a speech in which he was accepting his party’s nomination, McCain often returned to the theme that he was not beholden to a party, but to the American people and his drive to change the old way things are done in Washington. “But let there be no doubt, my friends, we’re going to win this election,” he said. “And after we’ve won, we’re going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again, and get this country back on the road to prosperity and peace.”
“The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom,” he said. “It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.”
McCain, who prefers the intimacy of town-hall-style meetings over large campaign gatherings, was in his element Thursday on a stage that was reshaped to include a ramp that extended out into the Xcel Center floor and put the candidate closer to his constituents.
In addition to battling the specter of Obama’s big-stage speech in front of 80,000 at Invesco Field a week before, as well as the still-warm afterglow of Palin’s address, McCain faced the further obstacle of convincing the party faithful that his outsider, maverick image as a reformer who sometimes crosses partly lines to get the job done is one that works for the GOP and one that it should embrace. And while the faithful did whoop and cheer for his many red-meat lines, there were quite a few lines — especially ones in which McCain promised to work with Democrats and reach across party lines without a focus on credit-taking — that drew polite, tepid responses. When McCain decried corruption in Washington, including his own party, there was a noticeable silence in the hall.
But again and again, he stressed that he and Palin would make serious changes in Washington. “I’m very proud to have introduced our next vice president to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington,” McCain said. “And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming.”
After months of attacking Obama as too inexperienced to be president, McCain made scant mention of that Thursday night, though Palin and other GOP surrogates have been repeatedly putting out the message that the first-term Alaska governor and former small-town mayor has more executive experience than the Illinois senator. With Palin onboard — and, seemingly with her, the party’s more conservative, evangelical base that had not fully embraced McCain prior to this point — McCain reiterated some of the campaign’s top talking points: increased oil drilling and a strong pro-life stance, as well as a desire to shrink government and put more money in the pockets of average Americans.
McCain will be hard-pressed to beat the numbers put up by Palin, who roped in 37.2 million voters on Wednesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research, crushing the DNC numbers for day-three addresses by former President Bill Clinton and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden by 55 percent. The numbers were so huge for Palin’s national political debut that they almost reached the Super Bowl-worthy ratings put up by Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, whose speech was seen by 38.4 million.
As the campaign has done all week, the speech also focused on McCain’s service to his country as a soldier, an element of his biography that the senator talked about when describing his love of the United States. “I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” McCain said. “I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”
Making the case that Obama and three-decade Senate fixture Biden are about politics as usual, McCain, himself a 26-year member of Congress, exhorted his party to rally to his message of change and reform or risk losing more than just the presidency. Less sure of himself on the stage than Obama, McCain, 72, who would be the oldest president ever elected to office for a first term if he wins in November, didn’t try to outperform his more polished Democratic rival, but instead delivered a speech that mixed a number of his tried-and-true stump lines with a sense of the vigor that Palin’s addition to the ticket has injected into his quest.
Following Palin’s speech Wednesday, Obama strategist David Axelrod decried her attacks while speaking to reporters on Obama’s campaign plane, saying that instead of talking about issues such as health care and the economy or the war in Afghanistan, Palin sounded and looked “very much like she’d fit in very well there when you see how she brings these attacks. They all felt very familiar to Americans who are used to this kind of thing from Washington.”
John McCain might not be the candidate all Republican Party stalwarts were hoping for, but the combination of his stirring personal story line and his insistence on running as an outsider within his own party made for great political theater. And when the Vietnam hero exhorted the crowd to “fight with me, fight with me” at the end of the speech, he was drowned out by the thundering ovation as a deluge of red, white and blue confetti and balloons rained down.
Afterward, the mood in the hall was celebratory, though even party die-hards had to admit that McCain didn’t necessarily deliver the kind of signature moment that could seal the speech in history.
John Engle, a 19-year-old convention page from Maui, Hawaii, said that even though McCain was a bit stiff, he loved the speech and praised the Arizona senator for showing respect for Obama and not bashing his rival. “I thought it was an excellent speech and I like his plans for the economy, because I’m scared of a socialized medicine plan that could bankrupt the country.”
“It’s blindingly obvious he give a different kind of speech [than Palin or Obama],” said Eric Peterson, 23, who was gathering up confetti and McCain signs in the stands. “But there’s never been a presidential candidate with the same story and … he’s not as charismatic as Senator Obama, but he has a lot more substance.”
Peterson said that the big difference for him between the Obama and McCain addresses was his sense that McCain’s was more optimistic. “If you listened to the Democrat speeches, you would think this country is down in the dumps and some kind of third-world county,” he said. “But the Republicans see a great future.”
|
Don’t miss out on the action: MTV News and our Street Team ‘08 will be on the ground at the Republican National Convention to sort through all the speeches, streamers and ceremony and find the information you need to choose our next president. Head to Choose or Lose for nonstop coverage of the 2008 presidential election.
Related Photos
Lily Allen Says Catfight With Elton John Was The Invention Of ‘Bitter Journos’
5 September 2008Singer takes to MySpace blog to explain that she and GQ Awards co-host were only joking.
By Jocelyn Vena
Lily Allen at The <i>GQ</i> Men Of The Year Awards in London on Tuesday
Photo: Eamonn McCormack/WireImage
The verbal catfight between Lily Allen and Elton John at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London on Tuesday was grossly blown out of proportion, Allen says in her MySpace blog. John’s jabs about the young singer’s drinking, and her quips about the pop icon’s age, were nothing more than onstage banter, she asserts.
“Elton John and I are friends,” she wrote. “I was honoured when Elton asked me to present the GQ Awards with him this year in association with Elton’s AIDS foundation. Not only was it for a good cause, but who would say no to Elton?”
During the show John, 61, reportedly called out the 23-year-old for drinking while co-hosting the celeb filled bash. “I’m not defending my drunkenness because I don’t need to,” Allen says. “I’m 23; it was an awards ceremony; I drank the free champagne. How awful of me.”
She goes on to say the notion that she and John were fighting was really the work of “bitter journos” trying to stir the pot by mischaracterizing their comments. “Trying to create a feud … and trying to make me out as being some rude little girl with a drink problem is just unfair.
“Elton and I exchanged jokes and there were no hard feelings at all,” she continues. “In fact, neither of us gave it a second thought.”
In the blog entry, Allen also airs her feelings about the media and the treatment they’ve given her since the incident. “All these showbiz journalists are just bullies when it comes down to it. I have felt really very bullied this week.”
At Tuesday’s event, The Times of London also reported that Allen blurted out the previously secret news that her brother Alfie was engaged his girlfriend, actress Jaime Winstone. But Allen says this was another exaggeration. “Alfie and Jamie had never been engaged,” she wrote. “Jamie and I are the best of friends, and I was just winding Alfie up. He’s my little brother, and that’s what siblings do.”
Related Artists
50 Cent Says Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” Is Just Like “Candy Shop”
5 September 2008Photo: Getty
50 Cent digs Lil Wayne, but he can’t help but notice the similarities between Weezy’s summer smash “Lollipop” and his own 2005 hit “Candy Shop.” “‘Lollipop’” is ‘lick lick lick lick it like a lollipop,’” 50 told Rolling Stone, singing the verse to prove his point. “And ‘Candy Shop’ is ‘I’ll take you to […]
Fall Out Boy Exclusive: Band Previews Folie A Deux Tracks For MTV News
5 September 2008Patrick Stump explains LP’s political edge and how Pete Wentz’s marriage affects the lyrics.
By James Montgomery
Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump (file)
Photo: Matt Sayles/AP Photo
LOS ANGELES — “Hell yes, this record is political. But it’s not ever going to be overt. You have to look beyond that,” Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump said from the studio where he and his bandmates are putting the finishing touches on their Folie à Deux album. “I think this is a very political record, but that gets misunderstood really easily. I think people don’t really care what ‘politics’ even means anymore. If there’s a simple theme that I would want to express through the music, it’s that you really need to think about things.”
Stump is speaking, of course, about the recent reports of the (supposed) political slant on the FOB album that’s due November 4. While his sentiments are probably only going to further confuse fans — and provide ammo to critics — we’ve got to admit that he’s pretty dead-on in his assessment. At least, judging from the tracks we heard.
On Thursday night, MTV News visited Fall Out Boy — who, coincidentally, are nominated for Best Rock Video at the 2008 Video Music Awards — at an L.A. studio to get a sneak peak at a handful of songs from Folie, all of which bore tentative titles (”America’s Sweethearts,” “Never Believe,” “Does Your Husband Know?”) and a healthy dose of political edge. But not of the red state/ blue state variety, mind you.
Rather, the new songs delve deep into the politics of the heart and mind, exploring decaying relationships, moral dilemmas and societal shortcomings. The lyrics — written once again by bassist Pete Wentz, who works through a series of thoroughly detestable characters on the new album — deal heavily with concepts like truth and trust, arrogance and infidelity, responsibility and commitment. It’s a world where there’s not all that much difference between a marriage vow and a campaign speech, in that both are rooted in a promise, one that is easily — and often — corrupted.
“One of the things I wanted to do on this record is — and it was very conscious — but I don’t think enough people give Pete Wentz any credit. … I think he’s awesome, I think he’s a very talented guy,” Stump said. “People only take pictures of him on his way to somewhere. So you just see him with his cup of coffee walking into the studio, but you don’t see him in the studio. He’s in here working a lot. He totally outdid himself on this record. He doesn’t even know how good his lyrics are here. … So I really had to do something to suit that. So I’ve been using musical style as a palette to support his lyrics.”
The best example of this synergy is probably “Husband,” which struts in on a massive drum line and crunching, processed guitars, gets amplified by a four-piece horn section, then falls away to a simple, somber piano line. It’s sexual one minute, heartbreaking the next — the perfect accompaniment for Wentz’s tale of infidelity and deception.
“Swagger is a great way to describe it, because on the song, he’s lyrically adopting a character that has swagger, so I wanted the music to have that swagger. The verse is so confident and funky and forward because the lyric is so full of itself,” Stump explained. “And then everything stops, and there’s a piano breakdown, and it’s very melancholy and sad and theatrical, and the lyric shifts to the doubt that’s behind all that arrogance. And ultimately, I wanted the music — in conjunction with the lyric — to express that arrogance is usually a mask for terrible insecurity.
“What I took out of [the lyrics] was that there was something so compelling about the character in the song. … Like in ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ when Hannibal Lecter is talking about how he doesn’t kill, he covets. … The song is about that — the prowl of chasing a woman,” he continued. “I think it meant, like, this guy is cheating on his girlfriend, but he knows she’s not cheating on him. There’s this total ‘looking into the mirror and trying to convince yourself of absolute lies’ kind of thing. People ask all the time, ‘Oh, Pete got married, how does that affect the record?’ and I think, if anything, he just wanted to point out how lightly people are taking their marriages. No one seems to be worried about what’s going on, they just want to have things.”
And that focus on the failings of society continues on “Never Believe,” which is powered by drummer Andy Hurley’s work — this time a taut marching cadence — and lush, open guitarwork from Joe Trohman. Stump’s voice is loud and clear as he urges the listener to “throw your cameras in the air/ Wave ‘em like you just don’t care.”
” ‘Never Believe’ contains my favorite Fall Out Boy lyric, maybe ever. Because everything we’re trying to say about pop culture, it’s in this song,” Stump said. “The chorus — ‘Change will come, but I will never believe in anything again’ — that’s about the ’90s, when we really cared, [but] then we got into all this awful mess. And I think people stopped believing in the goodwill of man and that you can change the world or do any good. So everything became internalized. The past decade has been totally about ‘me.’ It’s totally about ‘Oh, I’m sad. I want this. I know somebody who knows this person. Me me me me me,’ so that’s what that song is about.”
And while he was at it, Stump decided to dissect the first single from Folie, the strutting “I Don’t Care,” which the band debuted earlier this week on their official site. Seems that it, too, is another attack on the vapidity of the era we currently inhabit, one obsessed with celebrity and the self. It’s an attack you can shout along to, of course. It is a Fall Out Boy song, after all.
“Like the chorus says, ‘I don’t care what you think as long as it’s about me.’ It’s that pop culture thing again, where people don’t care about anything but the superficial, and I think there’s something so tragic about that,” he laughed. “I also thought there was something so ironically anthemic about the chorus, where it’s not something you want to sing along to, because it’s vacuous and empty. So I wanted something really anthemic underneath it, like something you’d hear at sports games or whatever, because I wanted people to hear it and be confronted with how empty that is. I didn’t want anything to be superficial on this record unless the point was to point out superficiality.”
Related Artists
VMA Roundup: Slash Presenting, Kid Rock to Perform With Lil Wayne, Kanye West to Close Show
5 September 2008Photo: Getty
Kid Rock and Lil Wayne had both been announced as performers at this Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, but as it turns out, the two will will perform together. Rock will reportedly play his “All Summer Long” while sharing the stage with Weezy. More details: Depending on which MTV article you read, new addition […]
News Ticker: Alice In Chains, Michael Moore and Metallica
5 September 2008
Alice In Chains plan to enter the studio in October to begin work on their first album of new material with vocalist William DuVall, who replaced the late Layne Staley.
Inspired by how Radiohead’s In Rainbows changed the traditional business model, Sicko director Michael Moore will make his new film Slacker Uprising available as a free […]
Heart Object To McCain Campaign’s Use Of ‘Barracuda’ During Republican National Convention
5 September 2008Ann and Nancy Wilson reportedly sent cease-and-desist letter to Republican candidate.
By Chris Harris
Heart’s Nancy Wilson
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
In the past week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin have managed to rile two classic rock outfits, Van Halen and Heart, who both claim the Arizona senator’s campaign didn’t ask their permission to use their songs.
First, on August 29, just minutes before revealing Palin as his running mate, McCain strutted out onto a stage in Dayton, Ohio, as Van Halen’s inspirational 1991 track “Right Now” boomed through the speakers. Hours later, the band’s publicist told MTV News that Van Halen had no idea McCain would be using the track, and “had they asked, permission would not have been granted.”
Now, the candidate has enraged Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, who’ve apparently issued cease-and-desist letters to the McCain/Palin campaign, demanding that their 1977 hit “Barracuda” not be used as Palin’s theme song. The track was used Thursday night, both to introduce Palin and on the heels of McCain’s acceptance speech, at the close of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The song was likely chosen to refer to Palin’s nickname “Sarah Barracuda,” which the Alaska governor earned as a high school basketball star in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission,” says a statement from Heart’s camp, according to TMZ.com. “We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”
“Barracuda” is perhaps Heart’s best-known single, and appears on the band’s third LP, Little Queen.
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Heart Object To McCain Campaign’s Use Of ‘Barracuda’ During Republican National Convention
5 September 2008Ann and Nancy Wilson reportedly sent cease-and-desist letter to Republican candidate.
By Chris Harris
Heart’s Nancy Wilson
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
In the past week, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin have managed to rile two classic rock outfits, Van Halen and Heart, who both claim the Arizona senator’s campaign didn’t ask their permission to use their songs.
First, on August 29, just minutes before revealing Palin as his running mate, McCain strutted out onto a stage in Dayton, Ohio, as Van Halen’s inspirational 1991 track “Right Now” boomed through the speakers. Hours later, the band’s publicist told MTV News that Van Halen had no idea McCain would be using the track, and “had they asked, permission would not have been granted.”
Now, the candidate has enraged Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, who’ve apparently issued cease-and-desist letters to the McCain/Palin campaign, demanding that their 1977 hit “Barracuda” not be used as Palin’s theme song. The track was used Thursday night, both to introduce Palin and on the heels of McCain’s acceptance speech, at the close of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. The song was likely chosen to refer to Palin’s nickname “Sarah Barracuda,” which the Alaska governor earned as a high school basketball star in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission,” says a statement from Heart’s camp, according to TMZ.com. “We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”
“Barracuda” is perhaps Heart’s best-known single, and appears on the band’s third LP, Little Queen.
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Heart Lash Out At McCain Campaign’s Use of “Barracuda”
5 September 2008Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has the nickname “Barracuda,” which inspired the use of the Heart song of the same name during Palin’s speech at the RNC on Wednesday night. Heart sent out a statement Thursday afternoon announcing they had sent a cease-and-desist letter asking the campaign to stop using the song. “The Republican […]
Tokio Hotel ‘Don’t Expect’ To Snag Best New Artist VMA From The Ladies
5 September 2008‘We have no chance,’ frontman Bill Kaulitz says of band’s two nominations.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Kim Stolz
Tokio Hotel’s Bill Kaulitz in the video for “Ready, Set, Go!”
Photo: Universal
Tokio Hotel are the only males to be nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Video Music Awards — they are also the only foreign act contending for the prize. Maybe that will give them the edge, but the guys are quite shy about their chances of snagging a Moonman at Sunday’s big show.
“We don’t expect it, so for us, it’s so cool to be nominated,” frontman Bill Kaulitz told MTV News. “I think it’s really, really special for us — it’s America and it’s our first American award, and that’s so huge.”
The German pop-rockers are up against American pop stars like Jordin Sparks and Miley Cyrus, but back in Germany, the guys are the megastars. They’ve sold millions of records in their home country and scored several #1 hits since they got together in 2001. Being crowned Best New Artist in front of an American audience would only solidify their fame here in the United States.
Just because they’re rock stars back home doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate being nominated for a VMA. “I mean, I still can’t believe it,” Bill said. “Last year we were nominated at the [MTV Europe Music Awards; they won one] and it was the biggest thing we had, and now it is the Video Music Awards.
“It’s really hard to get fans in another country, especially here — America is so, so big, so it’s really hard to get known in this country,” Bill told MTV News back in May. “We are so excited we have fans here at all. In America, we see a fan and it is like, ‘Oh, we are proud! We have a fan in America!’ ”
But with a couple of VMA nominations on their side, it seems that now they have more than just one fan in the States. Guitarist Tom Kaulitz added, “To be nominated at the VMAs, for a German band, I think it’s crazy.”
The guys also have a chance to pick up the Best Pop Video trophy for “Ready, Set, Go!” Of going up against the likes of the Jonas Brothers, Bill modestly said, “We have no chance.” But one thing he does hope he has a chance of doing is meeting Rihanna at the big show on Sunday. “I think it would be so cool to meet Rihanna, ’cause she’s so sexy.”
Now that you’ve helped us pick the nominees for this year’s Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more. Then tune in this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET for MTV News’ “Opening Act” on the red carpet, followed by the big show, live from Hollywood at 9 p.m. ET.
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Can Lil Wayne’s VMA Performance Make Him Into A Global Superstar?
5 September 2008Tha Carter III is 2008’s best-selling album so far, making Weezy’s stage time more important than ever.
By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by MTV News staff
Lil Wayne
Photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage
Lil Wayne fans are Lil Wayne fans to the 10th power: The dude has a fanatical following. At his headlining shows, the audience members can recount the story behind every one of his many tattoos, tell you the number of diamonds in his teeth and, of course, recite his most obscure underground lyrics. They fervently cheer for his every move onstage, even when he sips from one of his red plastic cups.
The hip-hop world has been screaming for years that Weezy is the hottest MC in the game (he even earned that title in our first “Hottest MCs in the Game” competition, although he slipped to #3 this year, possibly due to the delayed release of his latest LP, Tha Carter III), and of course, that album was the first since 2005 to sell a million copies in a single week. But still, Wayne is not a household name along the lines of a Jay, Kanye, 50 or Eminem. Now Weezy gets the chance to bring his charismatic showmanship to arguably the biggest stage of his career: the MTV Video Music Awards.
Will a memorable performance at the VMAs help catapult Wayne to true superstardom?
“The energy should be his highest ever, now that he’s the #1 dude in the game,” said Datwon Thomas, editor in chief of XXL magazine, which dressed Weezy as an astronaut for its current issue. “It would be kinda cool if he came out in the Moonman suit, like he did for our cover!”
King magazine Editor in Chief Jermaine Hall agreed that the VMAs could be a turning point for Weezy. “[It’s] a huge stage for him. He’s under more pressure because it’s the type of show that speaks directly to the consumers that put him over a million,” he said. “It’s a perfect opportunity to break a third single to his audience, or give the T-Pain song [’Got Money’] some more legs, so I imagine his show will be over the top.”
In 2007, Wayne had just a few days’ notice to write a verse for his appearance with Nicole Scherzinger at the VMA preshow, and he’ll also be teaming up with Kid Rock for a performance during this year’s show.
But the big difference this year could be in his stage presence. Wayne has performed so much in the past year, evolving from the spirited rap stallion who ran around the stage with the Hot Boys to the rock-and-roll wizard of swagger we know today.
New York radio host Miss Info has witnessed that transformation. “The learning curve that Weezy is on in terms of his lyricism from then until now was just unreal,” she said. “Or maybe we all missed the potential, because he hadn’t developed a personality big enough to match it. Now … Weezy is able to communicate a total package to his fans. There’s a voice, a delivery, a style, a look and a larger-than-life, not-of-this-planet personality all working together. It’s like a one-man Team Weezy.”
Wayne’s not afraid to appeal to fans of all genres, mastering the art of crossover. One minute he’ll slay hip-hop purists via spontaneous freestyle as metaphors roll off his tongue with precision and fluidity. Then he’ll pick up the guitar and play a whole song.
“Wayne has a rock-star element to his stage show,” Hall said. “He’s probably one of the few MCs who can rock a song a cappella and [have] the audience feel a connection to him. Not comparing him to [Mick] Jagger or any of those dudes, but those rock dudes can tell the band to chill, and rock a solo, and the audience throws a lighter in the air and enjoys it all the same … old or new song.”
Thomas agreed that Weezy gives something extra with each performance: “He isn’t just rapping to the crowd; he is performing his song for them. Facial expressions, vocal inflections and the like help him convey his outer-space lyrics to us mere mortals.”
Wayne’s otherworldly unpredictability will be key during this year’s VMAs. Everyone will want to know if he can condense his skills into a mini-set that we’ll remember five years from now. Given his diverse arsenal of techniques to kill the crowd, it seems very likely that he can. And let’s not forget, there are so many records on Tha Carter III that a national television audience has never seen him perform, he’ll have plenty of choices — from the frenetic “Phone Home” to the pensive “Tie My Hands.”
No matter what Wayne has planned for the night, some people would like to see him go off script. “There are the iconic [awards show] moments that are meticulously planned and flawlessly executed,” Miss Info said, “and then there are the iconic moments that result from genius and chaos (rest in peace, ODB). The best Lil Wayne moment would be a spontaneous rejection of what has been meticulously planned. Weezy is already booked to perform, and his set has already been planned, so that’s half of the winning formula right there. Can’t wait for showtime.”
Now that you’ve helped us pick the nominees for this year’s Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more. Then tune in this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET for MTV News’ “Opening Act” on the red carpet, followed by the big show, live from Hollywood at 9 p.m. ET.
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Cradle Of Filth Scare Off The Candyman; Plus Red Chord, Soilwork & More News That Rules, In Metal File
5 September 2008‘You couldn’t really dream something up as severe as his tale,’ Dani Filth says of album’s subject, Gilles de Rais.
By Chris Harris
Cradle of Filth
Photo: Roadrunner Records
More than a decade ago, while researching the life of Hungarian blood countess Elizabeth Báthory for his black-metal band’s 1998 concept LP Cruelty and the Beast, Cradle of Filth frontman Dani Filth happened to come across some literature about Gilles de Rais. He took a wealth of notes on the 15th-century French serial killer, sexual deviant and Satanist and, at the time, thought de Rais’ life would make the perfect subject for his band’s next concept release.
Years and years elapsed, and Filth eventually forgot all about his idea to put de Rais’ days and nights to brooding, sonically brutal metal — well, at least until just recently, when Cradle of Filth began recording material for their eighth studio LP, Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder, which lands in stores October 28.
“When we came off of the Viva la Bands Tour last year, we were kind of fired up and went straight back into writing,” Filth explained. “We tried to get as much writing done before we all went our separate ways for Christmas — bearing in mind that we all live all over the place now. And we came up with this material rather quickly. I suddenly sort of went, ‘Oh sh–!’ We’d written the skeletons of five or six tracks, but I was a bit stuck as to the direction I want the lyrics to go. I hadn’t even given it any thought.”
But the feel of the material reminded Filth of Cruelty and the Beast, which inspired him to refer to the copious notes he’d taken 10 years earlier.
“While I was skipping through loads of old books I keep with notes and stuff, I happened upon loads of notes about Gilles de Rais, because when you do a load of research like that, his name cropped up along the way as well,” Filth explained. “I remember thinking at the time that this would be a great thing to undertake, but obviously 10 years ago, and right next to the Cruelty album, it would have been too similar a concept, really.”
Filth began doing more research on de Rais and, in time, found out he was a much better subject for the concept-album treatment.
“I started investigating [him] more, and the more I read about it, the more I thought, ‘Wow, this is even more perfect than the Báthory story, because there’s trial documentation,’ ” Filth recalled of the man who was a onetime brother-in-arms of Joan of Arc. “After her death, everything took a slide for the worse, and in my opinion, it seemed that [de Rais] thought he got as close as he could get to God, bearing in mind that Joan of Arc was perceived to be a messenger for God, and he just went completely in the opposite direction, like a man of many extremes.”
Filth was fascinated by de Rais’ quick conversion to the dark side and how he’d squandered his vast fortune and later employed alchemists to locate the philosopher’s stone so he could turn base metal into gold and replenish his fortunes. “It all just sort of went out of control,” Filth said. “So the album tells his story, from his being a very pious man to mixing it up with the devil and, in the end, seeking clemency for his crimes from the Church, because at one point, he’d been excommunicated, which meant, in that day and age, you couldn’t actually get into the kingdom of heaven, which would have been a bit of a worry back then. You couldn’t really dream something up as severe as his tale.”
Cradle of Filth, who will tour the States early next year with Septicflesh and Satyricon, embraced Filth’s concept but wanted the effort to be cohesive and coherent. So the band enlisted American actor Tony Todd, who is perhaps best known for his title role in the 1992 thrasher flick “Candyman.” Filth wanted Todd to come into their studio to narrate de Rais’ story, using actual court transcripts he’d found through his intensive research.
“The narration of de Rais comes from the original transcripts, as he’d voiced it in court before his judges and peers, and it’s interspersed throughout the record to give it a moving narrative,” Filth said. But, a few lines in to reading de Rais’ words, Todd bailed on the project, forcing the band to call on an old friend to fill in: Douglas Bradley.
Bradley, who will always be known to horror fans as Cenobite Pinhead, had worked with COF before, providing narration on three of the band’s previous efforts: 2000’s Midian, 2004’s Nymphetamine and 2006’s Thornography. Looking back, Filth said he wished he had some time to explain to Todd just what he’d gotten himself into — problem was, dude just took off and never turned back.
“There was an issue with him in the fact that, when he came into the studio, he just read a bit of what de Rais had said and suddenly walked out,” Filth explained. “The thing was, he wasn’t actually filled in on what it was all about. He’d obviously heard the band’s name and knew that we were a black-metal band and all the horror stories that sort of surround that thing. But when he read some of Gilles’ words, he probably thought, ‘Oh my God — what is this band advocating?’ He wasn’t told that this is an in-depth, well-researched record and that we’re not glorifying anything. It’s just a dark fairy tale. He started reading stuff about beheading children and probably thought that we were advocating that.”
The rest of the week’s metal news:
Swedish metallers Soilwork have tapped Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun as support acts on their upcoming North American tour, which kicks off January 30 in Rochester, New York. Dates for that trek are booked through March 22 in Baltimore. …
It appears those rumors about From a Second Story Window’s demise are actually true. The band, which formed in 2002, said in a statement, “With this changing musical market and its inhabitants, it is simply our time to step aside and let the flow continue on without us. It is time for us to venture down new avenues of creativity and to find new things to enrich our lives fully. From a Second Story Window was something that gave us all hope and pride in our small part of the musical world, but with economical woes pulling us down, and changes in attitude towards the entire movement of ‘heavy’ music, it just seems right to call it quits and move on in our own ways.” …
Bury Your Dead have officially parted ways with guitarist Eric Ellis, claiming in a press release that his departure was due to “medical reasons and personality differences.” The band went on to explain that “when a person’s attitude and lifestyle change for the worse, there comes a time to let go and move on. A team is only as strong as its weakest link.” … Don’t believe the hype. Dillinger Escape Plan apparently aren’t looking for a new drummer. Guitarist Ben Weinman has, in his own way, denied recent rumors that kitman Gil Sharone had left the band to return to his former band, Stolen Babies. Weinman told Kerrang! that Sharone “didn’t leave and we didn’t kick him out. He will be busy, though, working with his other band a lot over the next year, so I am talking to other dudes, both for Dillinger possibilities and just for me to play with, on other creative projects. We still may be touring and writing with Gil, though. Kinda in the air. No big drama though or anything.” Now we’re even more confused. …
It looks as though the Red Chord have dismissed guitarist Mike Keller. While the move hasn’t been confirmed by the band, Keller, in a statement to Lambgoat said he received a phone call a few days ago “informing me [the band] made a mutual decision to become a four-piece. They offered little in ways of explanation, but I can admit that in the past few tours, I had grown apart from the rest of the band, both personally and musically.” While “things ended abruptly, unexpectedly and weirdly,” Keller said he’s cool with going out on his own. He said he plans to release a solo project called Meek Is Murder in the not-so-distant future. …
A tentative October 14 release date has been set for Dimmu Borgir’s forthcoming live effort, The Invaluable Darkness. The set features two DVDs and one live CD. … Long-dormant, highly influential hardcore outfit Far are planning two reunion shows — both on the West Coast. They’ll be playing under the moniker Hot Little Pony on October 15 in Pomona, California, and October 16 in Los Angeles. It’s shows like this that make me wish I lived in California. … Young Widows will be playing a slew of gigs next month — the first on October 14 in Detroit. They have gigs booked through November 16 in Indianapolis. The band’s new LP, Old Wounds, hits stores next week.
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Thursday Frontman’s United Nations Side Project Might Not Make It To Stores
5 September 2008Copyright issues surrounding cover art could keep debut — which Geoff Rickly calls ‘a mirror to show people how stupid they look’ — off the shelves.
By Chris Harris
Thursday’s Geoff Rickly
Photo: Getty Images/ Paul McConnell
When the long-promised, self-titled debut from grindcore supergroup United Nations is released September 9, chances are you won’t be able to buy it. That’s because no stores are willing to carry it, according to one of the band’s members, Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly.
“We’ve gotten some cease-and-desists,” he explained. “We worked [on the cover art] with this British anarchist artist named James Cauty, and he did all this great stuff. But it had some copyright issues, and that’s why all the distributors and stores refuse to carry it. We have 1,000 copies of this album sitting around with artwork that has been banned and we’re trying to figure out what to do with those.”
So what was so problematic about Cauty’s cover image? It’s the same one from the Beatles’ 1969 classic Abbey Road, only in his version, the Beatles are all entirely engulfed in flames. The band will likely face similar copyright issues when they attempt to release their forthcoming 7-inch, Never Mind the Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures, as that record’s cover art — by Australian artist Ben Frost — is strikingly similar to that of the Sex Pistols’ sole studio LP, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.
Believe it or not, that’s not the only legal snafu United Nations will be dealing with — at this point, Rickly is the only member of this side project who is not under contract. That will soon change, as Rickly claims Thursday is weeks away from inking a new deal. He would not reveal which label the band would be signing with but did say they’ve already started working on the follow-up to 2006’s A City by the Light Divided with producer Dave Fridmann. That album should be in stores this coming spring.
“Officially, we can’t use any names, except for mine,” he said. The band also features one former member of the Number Twelve Looks Like You and one current member of Head Automatica. “This band is so possible because none of us gives a sh– what happens to it. We’ve all got our other stuff and this is just for us to say, ‘F— it — we can do whatever we want here.’ ”
While Rickly has been talking about the United Nations project for three years, the band certainly spent its time in the studio well. Rickly said they already have enough material for their sophomore album, which could be released early next year.
“It’s been really crazy — the response has been insane,” Rickly said. “We got a message from MySpace. … We were one of the bands on the front page, but so was Snoop Dogg and this hot R&B chick, and they told us not only were we the most listened-to band that week but that the second one behind us had only half as many listens. I think it was 186,000 listens in the first 12 hours. So, for me, it’s a little weird. I don’t know what I was expecting would happen with this band, but it wasn’t this.”
According to Rickly, the idea behind United Nations is to get people pissed off again and to stir the musical pot a touch.
“To me, it’s like we’re living in 1984 again, and there’s no Dead Kennedys,” he said. “To me, it was like, maybe speaking sincerely about things isn’t enough to make people pay attention. Maybe you have to make fun of people — and be a mirror — to show them how stupid they look, to get their attention. That’s the idea. Punk is just way too safe these days, so we’re hoping by making some audacious claims and doing some strange things and breaking a few laws, we can get people to think at least. It’s the idea that you need to embrace the absurdity or it will f—ing kill you. The world doesn’t make sense, and trying to make sense of it is a fool’s errand.”
But the record is a tongue-in-cheek affair. One track on United Nations is about the Beatles and their plot to blow up the world so they can all live in the yellow submarine. Another is about a toy-company lobbyist who is obsessed with yo-yos.
“There has been so much great, really aggressive music in the last couple of years, whereas around 2003, I was wondering if heavy music was dying on itself,” Rickly said. “Everything became so predictable and formulaic, and in the last couple of years, bands like Young Widows, Ceremony and Cursed have come along, and they’ve been electric and awesome. This is basically us trying to kick that [heaviness and attitude] back into gear and remind bands that if they do anything safe, it just sucks.”
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MTV Street Teamer Among Hundreds Arrested During RNC Protests
5 September 2008Charlie Berens, like many others, got swept up in mass arrests.
Photo: Max Whittaker/ Getty Images
‘Twilight’ Author Stephenie Meyer Tries To Drown Jack’s Mannequin In ‘Resolution’ Video
5 September 2008The imaginative writer turns to mermaids and dramatic landscapes for directorial debut.
By Jennifer Vineyard
Jack’s Mannequin’s Andrew McMahon on “The Resolution” set in Malibu
Photo: Luke Burke/ MTV News
MALIBU, California — “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer has a love/hate relationship with the sun as she makes her way around the set of the new video for Jack’s Mannequin. It could be part of her thing for vampires. On the other hand, it’s more likely her propensity to burn that has the writer ducking into a car, then under a tent, finally seeking shelter under a parasol someone else holds up for her, as if she were royalty.
But right now, Meyer desperately needs the sun — no matter how blazing — because she has only this one day to direct the clip for “The Resolution” the first single from Mannequin’s upcoming album The Glass Passenger. And after 14 hours of shooting, she’s losing the light. “The schedule is pretty tight now,” she said.
Three set pieces are required for the video — the ocean, the desert and a mountaintop — so this spot in Malibu — just off Pacific Coast Highway on a road you might never notice otherwise — is ideal. Below the hill is the beach. Up the hill is a flat, sandy sagebrush-strewn area, which an assistant is sweeping to make it look like it hasn’t been driven on by the nearby flatbed truck carrying a piano. And then at the top of the hill is a breathtaking view of the coast.
“It’s all about what could you get to realistically in one day,” Meyer said of the location, “so you have the sense of traveling without really traveling. That was the tricky part.”
Meyer came up with the concept for the video after ruminating on the lyrics: “I can hear the sound of your voice still ringing in my ear/ I’m going underground but you find me anywhere I fear.” So, as singer/songwriter Andrew McMahon performs “The Resolution,” he’s lured into the ocean by the siren song of a mermaid with fire-red hair who wants him to be hers. He tries to resist, but he ends up ditching the piano for “a dip in the Pacific in all my clothes,” McMahon laughed.
“It’s sort of a fable,” Meyer said. “This mermaid doesn’t take no for an answer. The more he tries to get away from her, the greater lengths she goes to be able to reach him, and so that ends up meaning a lot of water climbing things. He’s running from the water. Even if he climbs a mountain, it still comes after him.”
“Essentially, the tide is rising and keeps following us,” McMahon said.
“To me, it references a relationship that was not healthy for one person, [but] that didn’t matter to the other person,” Meyer said. “They still wanted what they wanted, and I thought this was an interesting way of interpreting that. It’s really just normal relationship angst, and adding the supernatural element is just a way of making it a little more visual. Because, really, a couple not getting along is not as visual as an ocean stalking a person.”
After Meyer came up with the concept, she met up with a couple of friends to revisit music videos she loved, “just to get a sense of the style.” The viewing party included OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again” (the treadmill dance is “just quirky excellence,” she said), Brand New’s “Sic Transit Gloria … Glory Fades” and My Chemical Romance’s “Helena” (Meyer’s “personal favorite of all time, because it’s the first time interpretative dance really meant something”). The work of prolific video director Marc Webb features prominently in that mix, but Meyer doesn’t even begin to dream of being a director on his level.
“I don’t know much about directing,” she admitted. “It’s a total fluke. I’m just doing it because it’s fun and an experience I never had, and I didn’t want to turn it down. I certainly wouldn’t say I’m going to be a music director now! I don’t even know how to work the camera, and they won’t let me. They don’t want me to break things. I think ‘creative consultant’ is a much better word [for what I’m doing]. I’m just making sure the vision looks right.”
So don’t expect future music videos — even if she were to win a VMA down the road for this one. “I haven’t even thought about any of that!” Meyer said. “I would love to see it do well for Jack’s Mannequin. Anything good for them, I would love to see.”
But all she wants for herself is a chance to avoid the spotlight, even more than the California sun, if only for a little while. After months spent doing publicity for the “Twilight” movie and her latest book, “Breaking Dawn,” and in the aftermath of the leaked manuscript of the “Twilight” companion piece “Midnight Sun,” Meyer needs a break.
“I would like to spend some time being a hermit,” she said. “I look forward to doing that.”
Every Tuesday is “Twilight” Tuesday here at MTV News! Check back here each and every week for the hottest scoop on the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s beloved vampire series, and we’ll still bring you breaking “Twilight” news throughout the rest of the week. And make sure you check out the MTV Movies Blog for our ongoing “Twilight” discussions each and every day.
Check out everything we’ve got on “Twilight.”
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New Kanye Album Due By Year’s End?
5 September 2008In addition to crafting tracks for Jay-Z’s upcoming album, “Blueprint III,” Kanye West is plotting the release of his own as-yet-untitled Def Jam album, according to his management.
