Last week’s episode of “Gossip Girl,” the CW’s televised homage to headbands and madras, ended with a cliffhanger: Serena told best frenemy Blair that she’d murdered someone, OMG! My theory is that she drove someone to suicide with one of her previous dalliances — I’m not seeing a pistol to the gut on the CW. Anyway, tonight’s episode should give us a bigger, sordid reveal on this whole murder thing, along with a cameo from Lisa Loeb, the ’90s bespectacled siren of the one-hit wonder “Stay (I Missed You)”! Occasional Soundboard contributer Enid Portuguez fills us in on the details of Loeb’s appearance here. Expect at least one pair of tortoise shell glasses amid “Gossip Girl’s” unusually high quota of leggings and sparkle.
If the acronym GTA IV means anything to you, then today is a very special day. A few folks have probably called in sick already because they waited outside their local Gamestop until midnight to pick up the latest in the much-maligned video game franchise. Then, of course, said parties went home and engaged in virtual bedlam all night. There’s a reason parents fear this game. Still, it gets an A+ rating in today’s Times.
The new version of “Grand Theft” isn’t just a boost for the gaming world, however. With this edition, the game’s creators are partnering with Amazon.com to help zap some life into music sales.
As with previous GTA titles, music plays a central role in the chaos, as the CGI character swerves in various automobiles and car jacks different vehicles. Just like real life, what’s playing on the radio is significant. For the gamer, in fact, it’s a selling point.
Grand Theft Auto IV is expected to do killer business — somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 million its first week.
Normally, we trust Perez Hilton about as far as we can throw him (0.3 meter at last attempt), but the rumors that beard aficionado Devendra Banhart (who we used to run into at the Little Joy every other weekend a few years back) is putting the freak in freak folk with Padmé Amidala seem pretty reasonable. We personally think it’s a giant step down from Gael García Bernal, but then again, we can’t wait until Devendra picks a fight with Wes Anderson over this.
If you happened to be at Glendale’s Moonlight Rollerway on Sunday night, you’d have been treated to the sight of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, a.k.a. Flight of the Conchords, wobbling unsteadily around the rink as the crowd of hard-core regular skaters zipped past them. No, neither Conchord was celebrating a birthday — the duo was on wheels in preparation for a video they’ll be shooting this week for the song “Ladies of the World.”
We suggest they also watch this clip from “Xanadu” for inspiration:
Next month, FOTC will roll out on a national tour in support of their self-titled SubPop album, with the final show at the Orpheum Theatre on May 30.
My smarty-pal Karen Tongson is not only a first-class scholar and theorist who rocks the classroom at USC, but she also knows how to throw a party, complete with umbrella cocktails and a karaoke machine. Tongson’s part of a new wave of pop-loving academics uncovering alternate histories in the corners where mass culture meets the underground — I’ve seen her wax profound (and hilarious) on topics ranging from queer East L.A. to “straight boy emo” to “Make It Real,” the 1980s hit by Tongan family band the Jets. She and her fellow “Ph Divas” Christine Bacareza Balance and Alexandra Vasquez dish the deep thoughts at my daily read, Oh! Industry, and Karen also maintains Inland Emperor, a chronicle of her explorations of queer suburban identity, which she’ll eventually publish in book form.
The suburbs are the subject this evening, when Karen hosts a listening party at L.A.C.E., co-sponsored by the Popular Music Project at the Norman Lear Center at USC. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’ll bet it enlightens me about what’s really happening in the malls and backyards of Riverside.
And the TV rooms: On her blog, Karen offers some tantalizing clips from the crazy ’80s variety show “Solid Gold” as a preview. Elvis Costello! Expose! So come and wallow in the New Wave.
–Ann Powers
Suburbs: A Listening Party, at L.A.C.E., 6522 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 957-1777. 7 p.m. today. $5.
A country for starlets: I love the Coen brothers, but their shruggish acceptance speeches unfortunately defined what felt like one of the most perfunctory Oscars in years — with one notable exception: Marion Cotillard, who played Edith Piaf to brilliant, mind-blowing, shape-shifting perfection in “La Vie en Rose.” You might think I’m grossly overselling it, but the frothy adjectives apply. See it now, if you haven’t already.
Homeward bound: We’re heathens around these parts but we were sad to hear about Larry Norman’s death Sunday.
Oscar week got off to an early start Wednesday night with a music-themed party honoring (we think) our beloved planet Earth. The 5th annual Global Green Pre-Oscar Party featured performances by Michelle Branch, Damien Rice, Oscar-nominated duo Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from “Once” and Michael Franti.
Branch’s performance proved the highlight of the evening, with a set heavy on new material, including “Long Goodbye,” her song with Dwight Yoakam from her forthcoming full-length. Branch, wearing a white silk dress, also offered up a nice rendition of Tom Petty’s “You Wreck Me” for the crowd, which seemed heavy on agents (or just guys who could afford the tickets) and their much younger dates. And Adrian Grenier was there too, lest you think only agents care about the environment.
A hearty endorsement to our friends at the Top of the Ticket blog. They have a nice item about how Boston, the arena rockers, have asked Mike Huckabee’s campaign to cease and desist from playing “More Than a Feeling.”
Last night, In Style magazine and the Recording Academy celebrated musicians-turned-designers such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jessica Simpson and Justin Timberlake. Of course, none of them were actually there, but models with jutting hip bones showed off their wares in a quick fashion show united by a love of Skittles- colored tights and extroverted pop attitude. There was free champagne. Rihanna, in red glassy lips and her latest hairstyle (will it give rise to the tiny backhawk?), closed the show with a flawlessly confidant performance, one that made it hard to believe she’s only 19. But did I mention there was free champagne?
If you’re of a certain age, you can sing the Super Mario Brothers and/or Zelda theme songs on command. So, it’s no surprise that musician Laromlab (a.k.a. Brandon Harrod) has turned to chiptunes to craft his blippy, “chasing a mushroom on level three” compositions. What are chiptunes? They’re songs composed in a format whereby all the sounds are synthesized in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of a sample-based synthesis. Check him out tonight at Motion Lab, where he is likely to break out his chiptune versions of Daft Punk classics such as “Around the World.” It sounds like the Super Mario Brothers commanding the decks at Paris’ Respect. Stream his upcoming self-titled album here.
Last week’s episode of “Gossip Girl,” the CW’s televised homage to headbands and madras, ended with a cliffhanger: Serena told best frenemy Blair that she’d murdered someone, OMG! My theory is that she drove someone to suicide with one of her previous dalliances — I’m not seeing a pistol to the gut on the CW. Anyway, tonight’s episode should give us a bigger, sordid reveal on this whole murder thing, along with a cameo from Lisa Loeb, the ’90s bespectacled siren of the one-hit wonder “Stay (I Missed You)”! Occasional Soundboard contributer Enid Portuguez fills us in on the details of Loeb’s appearance here. Expect at least one pair of tortoise shell glasses amid “Gossip Girl’s” unusually high quota of leggings and sparkle.
