...and the reviews are in, from Rolling Stone ("bandmates seemed charmed by their new old lead singer"), NY Daily News ("David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen got through the show without killing each other"), USA Today ("skintight leather pants and embroidered tunics"), and, well, VanHalenLinks.com ("I'm very thankful I got to see this band... despite thinking, as of 2003, that it would never perform again").

Idolator did you the favor of consolidating them!

P.S. Tickets for the Seattle show sold out in four (4) minutes. Dang.

If you're interested in hearing the new Beyonce-Justin Timberlake remix "collaboration," entitled "Until the End of Time," A Socialite's Life can hook you up (video and glowing testimony to the greatness of these immortal artists included).

Idolator has (a pathway to) a leak of a new Mary J. Blige song. It sounds pretty good to me, but I'm a sucker for Mary, despite the Christianity thing.

Here's what they say:

It's another one of Blige's "I'm happy with my life" songs, and her vocal performance is, in keeping with the song, pretty by-the-numbers cheerful--until the song's absolutely wicked bridge, when she finally lets loose, which allows her to finally bust out beyond the track's simple singsong melody.

Ok, so there's this song. You've heard it a million times or more, on radio, MTV, in advertisements, in films, at ballgames, and sometimes even in your head. You don't know anything about the group that created it, including their name, or indeed, the song's title. Well, fear not, this here blog is here to help:

The song is called "Unbelievable." The band is called href="http://www.emf-theband.com/">EMF. And... they are reuniting to play a single show in London on December 18th.

Carry on.

Victoria Beckham's breasts are under attack.

Though I don't know what business a plastic surgeon has criticizing the female form (other than the business of making people feel bad about their natural selves so they'll spend money on unnecessary surgical procedures that make them look like freaks and then make other gullible people feel like they need to look similarly freakish), I guess it's fair enough to criticize such glaringly unsubtle handiwork.

I hardly know what to say. Let's just not start talking trash about Geri Halliwell or Melanie Brown.

Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, when asked why her band signed with a coffee retailer instead of one of the largest pillars of the entertainment industrial complex, her answer was pithy and, as far as I've been able to observe first hand, true:

Starbucks is less evil than Universal.

By the way, that sex tape circulating around the internet featuring a woman who looks vaguely like Meg White and everyone is all, "ooh, it's a Meg White sex tape"? It's totally not Meg White.

I'm not saying I watched it or anything, but duh.

Complex Magazine blog has photos and a story from the hiphop star preview of Halo 3, including fun with Li'l Jon, Outkast's Big Boi, and many more. (Courtesy of Complex and Golden Fiddle.)

Or you can replay the death from multiple angles and even edit it along side other kills into a sort of greatest hits video, to, again, send to other players as a calling card for the future in store for them. What did Lil’ Jon have to say? “It’s like playing hide and go seek, only with guns.” What can we say, he’s succinct.

Indeed.

By the way, this is what Boy George looks like now, in case you were wondering.

That lucky dog from Anthrax got to watch the rehearsals for Van Halen's certain to be triumphant reunion tour, and the news is: AWESOME!!!

Tickets go on sale tomorrow.

Heart! Heart! She has a huge heart. Justin Timberlake told Oprah Winfrey that he still "has love" for Spears (which is famespeak for "couldn't get a restraining order") but that they haven't spoken in years. He said some other stuff, too.

I hate myself for even noticing.

...of manslaughter, anyway. The judge has told the deadlocked jury that it's murder or nothing in the trial of, well, maybe not the century, but at least the moment.

This might not be super duper exciting to all of you, but I am busting my buttons with excitement over the news that Graham Coxon is very likely going to record once again with Blur.

Though mainly known in America as the band that did the "woo-HOO!" song that's still used on every commercial and at every sporting event or possibly as the band that had a feud with that other mid-'90s britpop band, Oasis, Blur was one of the most interesting, exciting, and consistently all-over-the-place rock groups of the last decade of the rock'n'roll era. Though singer/guitarist Damon Albarn (now of Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad, & The Queen) got most of the attention, Coxon was the band's true wizard, sonic architect, secret weapon, and X-factor, the biggest influence on the way their albums sounded (just check out their two masterpieces, Modern Life is Rubbish and Blur—and ok, Parklife, too—if you wanna see how expansive and supercharged guitar-driven pop rock can be). His solo albums are pretty good, but they ain't Blur, and I, for one, and delighted that the long-rumored/oft-pooh-poohed reunion seems like it might actually happen. (See also here for more details about the band's plan to record for one week and see how it feels.)

I was wondering when my inner music nerd was gonna wake up!!!

No less a pregnant diva with a fading media presence than Jennifer Lopez has declared her desire to perform "on the same stage as the Spice Girls," which, despite being somewhat vague as a declaration (would she care to perform on that stage at the same time as the Spice Girls, errrrrrrrr....?), nonetheless leaves this particular music blog with a great opening to invite you, the readers (yes, YOU), to speculate on what might be a good Spice name for Ms. Lo, should her dream one day come true. Leave your suggestions in the comments, if you think you got it like that.

It's fun, like we're back in the late '90s!

I know this is probably a stupid question, but does anyone feel like an impromptu trip to London to see a bunch of old geezers play my favorite "punk" album of all time?

I thought not, alas. (There’s no point in asking, you’ll get no reply, etc.)

50 Cent cancelling promo dates in Europe probably doesn't mean he's making good on his promise to retire if Kanye West's new album beat his in first week sales. It could just mean that he actually heard his new album and felt embarrassed by how lackluster it is. I mean, it could mean that. He's still super buff, though, which is probably a good feeling.

A: Courtney Love and Pete Doherty hanging out.

The creepiest part is imagining what would happen if they did kiss, like would it make a spark, like some sort of perverse junkie Certs commercial?

For a man who has promised to bring sexy back, Justin Timberlake sort of hits like a girl. Hits paparazzi, that is. Then again, the photographer's response isn't that virile either. What a dismal life.

 

Speaking of crusty old men and buxom young pop stars, here's video of Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera singing together at the Emmys.

 

I'll admit that when I first saw this headline, I got a little worried, but then I realized it wasn't me, it's Willie Nelson. Then I realized that Willie Nelson was going to be writing songs for Jessica Simpson and I found that I didn't know how to feel.