I, like so many others, am a sucker for a flaky piece of pop-culture stupidity. I read gossip and men's interest blogs (which is great because I am a man, you know!) and peruse the internet for style tips (which I ignore) and music tips (which I usually don't depending on the source) so it comes as a bit of a surprise that any pop-culture blogs are saying something that, at its core, makes me angry: Zooey Deschanel ( right , of [...]
Il 20 luglio è uscito in "Radio:Active", il quarto album di McFly . Per chi non li conoscesse sono un gruppo pop punk che si posiziona a metà tra le credibilità dei Green Day e una qualsiasi giovane band che suona la chitarra mostrando il bel faccino con pezzi facili come il gioco dei puntini numerati. Bravi, però. Il singolo di esordio è "One for the Radio", brano che potete ascoltare sul loro Myspace o live nel video che vi mostriamo nel seguito del post. Checché se ne dica, sta di fatto [...]
The McFly giveaway has worked some magic for the Mail On Sunday , which sold an extra 300,000 copies on the back of the free record this weekend. Although, oddly, not in London: "That is probably indicative of people moving over the week with the school holidays," [Mail on Sunday managing director Stephen] Miron said. Y-e-es. We did hear that last weekend London was virtually empty, save for one woman from Camden who had been asked to feed 798,000 cats and water somewhere over six million pot plants. Of course, it's debatable if [...]

McFly - Corrupted "So good you've got to abuse it" More pop today, though with a rockier edge. McFly have just released their new album for free in the UK as part of a newspaper promotion. It's not as flawless as their excellent Motion In The Ocean was two years ago, but it's still another piece of work that proves that these guys are the preeminent force in [...]

Reverend And The Makers is the latest addition to the forthcoming T4 On The Beach e vent. Also just added are the Sugabebes , The Script , Cage The Elephant and Basshunter. All the new additions join previously announced acts The Zutons , The Pigeon Detectives , The Feeling , Sam Sparro , McFly , The Hoosiers , Black Kids , Scouting For Girls , Lightspeed Champion and many more. The event, which is set to take place in Weston-Super-Mare [...]

Last week the world was introduced to a spider named Neil Young. Jason Bond, a biologist at East Carolina University, discovered a new species of trapdoor spider and chose to name it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi after the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter. The article notes that earlier this year a whirligig beetle was named after Roy Orbison, which naturally got me thinking cover songs... I remember Harrison Ford had something named after him (two, it turns out: Calponia harrisonfordi , a spider, and Pheidole harrisonfordi , an ant) so I figured there would [...]
1. Cinnamon Girl-Smashing Pumpkins (live). A nasal growl is covered by a nasal snarl. 2. Cinnamon Girl-Mark Lanegan (live) 3. Cinnamon Girl-Backyard Tire Fire. A great underground alt-country rock band. 4. Cinnamon Girl-Brian Polenazi 5. Cinnamon Girl-Mother Hips. 6. Cinnamon Girl-Radiohead 7. Cinnamon Girl-Dream Syndicate 8. Cinnamon Girl-Toad the Wet Sprocket. [...]
MY MORNING JACKET-Evil Urges. No, they ain't indie no more. But they still have the indie sound. And I have a real weakness for this band. Z is one of my favorite albums of the last 10 years.
Paris Falls are a Houston-based husband-and-wife team who have self-released two CD volumes of their own compositions (available for cheap at their myspace page). They show remarkable range, from catchy pop ("Walk Away") to edgier jam-rock ("Shallow"), and much in between. Even the "Untitled" instrumental from Volume 2 is good. Rock instrumentals [...]
Their first album was one of the great pop/rock albums in recent history. Their second . . . Not so much. Because they asked to be taken seriously, there, as songwriters. (An acoustic song about a junkie uncle? From the authors of the lyric "You had a boyfriend who looked a [...]
David Bowie's Queen Bitch , from his classic 1971 album Hunky Dory , experienced a revival of sorts when it was featured in the trailer for Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic in 2004, which is admittedly when I first heard and fell in love with the song. I've definitely noticed a heightened exposure to the song in the past couple years, whether it's heard as pre-show music before a concert, an influx of covers, or its inclusion in last year's Rock Band as a downloadable track. Not since ELO's Mr. Blue Sky can I [...]

Saturday gets off to the worst start possible. And not just because the first band we see are McFly . No, I'm talking about the shadow hanging over the site. A big, grey, miserable sky lingers overhead all day. It threatens storms but delivers only an occasional shower of light rain. Things could be worse we think. Then we step into the JJB tent and come face to face with the aforementioned act. A glorified boy band with guitars. The tent is packed but you get the impression it's more from a purely ironic stance [...]
10. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade Another surprise entrance into my list, MCR managed to create something that, while not straying completely from their sound, loosened them up and freed them from the confines of a screamo stereotype. I'm a sucker for rock operas, and MCR's is right up there with recent efforts from Green Day and the Killers. Surprising in its scope, The Black Parade finds the band at their undisputed pinnacle. Album Track: Disenchanted - A more [...]

The Daily Record makes McFly at GAY sound more interesting than it actually was: The last time they played the venue they performed a striptease, now they've decided to dress in girls clothes. Dougie wore green tights and his pals even applied his make-up for him on the night. But, Misguided Reveries was there , and clearly there wasn't much attempt at passing: Cue much bemusement as McFly get on stage and 'drag up' one of their number. He didn't look [...]

Nylon, who are huge back in home in Iceland, are forced to slog it round the UK supporting McFly. And while clearly they could rip McFly's heads off and have their blood made into cheese at the drop of a hat, they're happy to play along with the boys' new (ever-so-slightly) edgy image by pretending they were afraid of McFly's naked japes . Emilia says there's not be so much as a hint of an uncovered cock yet, though: "We saw the pictures and we were a bit scared that we might meet them [...]

Part two of the McFly special today, starting with the two songs from their last (double A-side) single from Wonderland , one song from American album Just My Luck , and the two songs from their most recent single. I know there's a good chance most people know these songs already, but it's part of my goal to introduce great songs to people who've just discovered the world or part of the world of pop (I only "discovered" pop not released in the U.S. nine months ago, so I know what it's like to have to catch [...]

An introduction to amazing UK band McFly today--no rarities, but just a "you need to hear these McFly songs" post, focused around the singles. I've decided, though, that there's no way I can sum up McFly in one post (in took me two to get through the Click Five, and they only have one album!). I'll cover Room On The Third Floor and part of Wonderland today and then, either tomorrow or in the near future, go into the rest of Wonderland , their American album and their most recent single. For [...]

I am so done with this week. In celebration of the approaching weekend (which cannot get here soon enough), here are some weekend-themed songs. Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter released a solo album, Now Or Never , in 2002, after the release of Black and Blue . Now Or Never has more rock influence than any of the BSB albums did up to that point, though it's still definitely pop. It didn't do too well (at least compared to expectations), which is a shame, [...]

I did intend to post about Gregory Lemarchal today, but events in the world of pop interfered; I'll probably get to him at some point (maybe tomorrow or maybe if I ever do a Fame Academy special), but for now, a conglomeration of random happenings: Thanks to the incredibly in the know Split Chick , I now know that McFly's new logo has been revealed. This is it. You can see the less than enthusiastic reactions over at the Popjustice boards or mixed reactions at the [...]