Dec 062010
 

Last night VH1 Divas Salute the Troops aired on – you guessed it – VH1. It featured an endless stream of female pop stars, including Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Sugarland, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Whether any of these women are really divas is questionable (Perry, maybe), but it’s hard to focus on semantics amidst this much glitter. Perry parachuted in, Minaj wore a vampire-clown-meets-Alice-from-Dilbert wig, and everyone changed costumes about every thirty seconds.

Mostly the stars pimped their current singles (though sadly no “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”-relevant “I Kissed a Girl”), but a few covers worked their way in. Props to Perry, Keri Hilson, and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland for turning the Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” into a full USO-worthy production. Less props to Perry and Minaj for covering “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Hey ladies, I’m pretty sure the focus is supposed to be the soldiers, not yourselves. Still, with Katy Perry, one out of two songs not being entirely self-serving is better than normal. Continue reading »

Oct 012010
 

When you think “culturally relevant,” one name leaps to mind: the Buggles. Okay, maybe not. But relevant or not, their trademark sense of humor hasn’t aged. At Tuesday night’s London reunion gig, the band played their debut album The Age of Plastic in full. This includes their mega-hit/first-video-on-MTV “Video Killed the Radio Star.” They played it; people went nuts (I assume); they finished the album. Nothing surprising there.

For the encore, they began playing “Video” again. Cue eye-roll. But wait…this isn’t “Video Killed the Radio Star.” No, it’s “Check It Out,” the brand-new single by the Black Eyed Peas‘ will.i.am and Nicki Minaj, which heavily samples “Video.” It’s about as well performed as you’d expect (not very). It’s also as fun as you’d expect (extremely). “This beat is banging,” indeed. Check it out (heh) below. (via Slicing Up Eyeballs) Continue reading »