MTV News |
- Selena Gomez 'Stoked' To Nab Britney Spears Song
- Clarence Clemons, In Memoriam: The Big Man, In More Ways Than One
- 'Game Of Thrones': What's Next For Dany And Her Dragons?
- David Cook Stays In Bed On 'This Loud Morning'
| Selena Gomez 'Stoked' To Nab Britney Spears Song Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:03 AM PDT 'It's awesome,' the die-hard Brit fan says of getting to record 'Whiplash' for her album.
With her album When the Sun Goes Down set to be released on June 28, and her first big-screen movie "Monte Carlo" hitting theaters on July 1, Selena Gomez has been on a whirlwind promotional tour (her recent hospitalization doesn't seem to have slowed the young starlet one bit). Last week, in the midst of all that, a couple of tracks from her LP hit the Internet, including one co-written by none other than the pop princess herself, Britney Spears.
MTV News caught up with the Disney star on Friday and we asked her about "Whiplash," the uptempo Spears dance tune. Gomez, who is a die-hard Britney fan, said she was excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with one of her idols. "It's awesome," Gomez said of the leaked track. "It was an honor and I'm completely stoked." But when she was initially given "Whiplash," a track that reportedly failed to make Spears' Circus album, the "Wizards of Waverly Place" actress was unaware that Spears had helped to write the song. "I just heard the song; I fell in love with it," Gomez said. "They gave it to me, the producers who worked on it, and I came and sang and saw that she had co-written it, so I was very excited." Yet the ties to Spears don't end there for Gomez. Next month, she hits the road for her first headlining summer tour, and she'll pay homage to the Femme Fatale. "We are working on a few cover songs. We are working on a Britney tribute," Gomez told MTV News earlier this year. "I wanna do a mash-up of all her songs and just go for it ' ... Baby One More Time,' and then I think we're going to try to incorporate 'Toxic' and that phase. And then we might do some of her recent, new stuff." Related Artists |
| Clarence Clemons, In Memoriam: The Big Man, In More Ways Than One Posted: 19 Jun 2011 07:01 AM PDT The iconic sax man for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band (and Lady Gaga) towered over contemporary music for nearly five decades.
Clarence Clemons was affectionately known as "The Big Man," probably because, well, he was a big man. Standing six-feet, four-inches tall -- and nearly just as wide -- he towered over Bruce Springsteen, the E Street Band, and whomever else he shared the stage with during his five-decade career, casting a shadow as formidable as it was striking (it's no wonder Bruce decided to lean on him, like some sort of lamppost, on the cover of 1975's Born To Run).
But his physical size only told part of the story. Because Clemons was also a massive talent, a saxophonist as adept at filing an arena with his booming solos as he was providing a rock-solid backbone to Springsteen's churning, yearning rock. He was the Big Man because everything ran through him, because he was capable of both taking the lead (like on "Jungleland") and laying back in the cut (like on "10th Avenue Freeze Out," where his presence definitely shapes the song, but at no point overshadows its other components), and because of the tones he charmed from his sax ... crisp and clear-eyed, grandiose yet gritty, big yet decidedly blue-collar (just like he was), no one played like Clarence did. And when he died on Saturday at the age of 69 after complications from a stroke he suffered last week, not only did we lose a mountain of a man, but an icon as well. See photos of Clemons throughout his career. Simply put, Clemons was the most prominent sax player in popular music. And as proof, I'll ask you to name any of his contemporaries. Chances are, you can't; not because they don't exist, but because they couldn't begin to approach his stature. He was the go-to guy when the stars needed a session hand (recording with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Twisted Sister, and performing live with everyone from the Grateful Dead to Ringo Starr,) and, more recently, Lady Gaga tapped him to perform on her Born This Way album -- he appears in her new "The Edge Of Glory" video, a move that no doubt introduced his sublime playing to a whole new generation of fans. Shoot, he even appeared on "The Simpsons," "The Wire" and "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," where he played, fittingly enough, one of the Three Most Important People in the World. Remember Clemons with us on Facebook. In passing, he leaves behind a catalog that's nearly as massive as his frame: not only his notable guest appearances, but several solo albums (and records he cut with backing bands like the Temple of Soul and the Red Bank Rockers) and, of course, the myriad of albums he cut with Springsteen and the E Street Band. And it's on those recordings -- starting with 1973's Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and continuing right on through 2009's Working on a Dream and last year's reissue The Promise -- where Clemons not only shone the brightest, but also showcased the reason why he earned his "Big Man" nickname. Sure, he burns on songs like "Badlands" and "Born To Run," but listen to his work on songs like "Prove It All Night" and "Dancing in the Dark" (to name six dozen) ... the times where he proves to be the Bigger Man, letting his fellow bandmates get their share, too. Rarely has there been a player so soulful and selfless ... one so secure in his own status that he was willing to let others shine. It's why Clarence Clemons will forever be known as "The Big Man," and why, even in death, he still casts a formidable shadow over popular music and popular culture. He was the sax man's sax man. To paraphrase Springsteen on "Freeze Out," not only was the change was made uptown when the Big Man joined the band, but the mould was broken, too. Related Photos Related Artists |
| 'Game Of Thrones': What's Next For Dany And Her Dragons? Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:03 AM PDT 'You see the relationship that Dany has with her eggs, and you see that grow and grow,' Emilia Clarke tells MTV News of 'Fire and Blood' reveal.
For the "Game of Thrones" fans out there who thought this season's shock and awe would culminate with the "heroic" death of beloved Ned Stark (and departure of equally well-liked actor Sean Bean, for that matter), you might be rethinking that stance after watching Sunday night's epic season finale.
For those who haven't yet watched "Fire and Blood" (or read George R.R. Martin's brilliant books on which the series is based), do not read any further. Major spoilers ahead! Once again, there was a lot going on in the episode, too much to address fully with one story. But the big reveal of the evening was all about that final scene with Daenerys Targaryen and the fiery reveal of her "children," i.e. three baby dragons. Talk about cliffhangers. So now what? What can fans expect in the future from Dany and the three future fire-breathers? MTV News asked actress Emilia Clarke for some inside scoop on what she knows about what will happen next for her character. "I have had a dialogue with George [R.R. Martin], so kind of all of the things that I've been inquisitive about he's sort of answered in a way," Clarke said of having already gleaned a lot of top-secret info from her character's creator. "There's this wicked thing that he kind of hinted about," she teased, stopping herself short from revealing too much. "Just the stuff that he's saying, it just goes from awesome to awesome," Clarke said about Dany's future. "It doesn't get bad with her. It just gets so much better, so much more exciting." With regard to the dragons, Clarke reflected back on how that story line is expertly teased throughout the season, ahead of the finale's big reveal. "You see the relationship that Dany has with her eggs, and you see that grow and grow and grow and kind of the intuitive connection she has with them, you see that develop really beautifully," she explained. "And then the end is the end," she said with a knowing smile, speaking to that crazy final shot of her with her dragons, surrounded by flame. "That [was] pretty awesome too." Clarke added that she hopes the second season will be equally awesome as the first. "I get to play with some more dragons!" she said. |
| David Cook Stays In Bed On 'This Loud Morning' Posted: 19 Jun 2011 08:53 AM PDT 'There were mornings where I woke up and it was just like, 'OK, I just need to stay in bed and try again tomorrow,' ' he tells MTV News.
David Cook is not a morning person. Throughout his new album, This Loud Morning, available everywhere June 28, there are numerous references to falling skies, suns and stars. The "night keeps calling" him. On the nearly six-minute closer "Rapid Eye Movement," he hoarsely sings his desire to "kill the blinding lights of day."
Who could blame him for wanting to escape reality? In the year that preceded the studio sessions for This Loud Morning, Cook experienced new highs of a successful post-"American Idol" world tour and crushing lows after losing older brother Adam to cancer. "The world around me got a little loud, so there were mornings where I woke up and it was just like, 'OK, I just need to stay in bed and try again tomorrow,' " Cook recently told MTV News. David stayed in bed, so to speak, by crafting a dozen ditties that each feature subtle dreamlike studio flourishes. Songs blend into one another. Melodies and themes reappear. This Loud Morning is not a "concept album," per se, but it's the most focused and complete artistic statement an "Idol" winner has created since Kelly Clarkson's personal My December from 2007. (Incidentally, both were released by 19 Recordings/ RCA Records.) "The last thing I wanna do is make a record where it's like, 'Here's the first song, and that ends; three-second break. Here's the next song, that ends; three-second break.' I don't want to make a collection of songs; I want to make an album. That's the goal. I feel like with this album, I really outdid my prior endeavor," Cook said. To achieve David's dream-inspired vision, he and executive producer Matt Serletic spent 18 months adding music boxes, echo-y strings, boys' choirs, Theremins and sitars to Cook's grungy guitars and pop-metal melodies. Some instruments are easier to pick out than others. David promises "headphone nuggets" on repeated listens. (Four spins in, I still couldn't find a Theremin if my life depended on it.) As "arty" as that might sound, fans will be pleased to hear that This Loud Morning is populated with enough massive choruses to put a Monster Ballads compilation CD to shame. Every single track erupts with an arena-ready midtempo sing-along, tailor-made for lighters above heads. There are guitar solos straight out of Bryan Adams' '90s oeuvre. Guitarist Neal Tiemann channels U2's The Edge on "We Believe," an anthem about blind faith. Later, "Paper Heart" bursts at the seams thanks to an earworm of a lick that Coldplay members wish they thought of first. Tiemann and bandmate Andy Skib deliver the album's biggest surprise, co-writing (with Cook) the spacious and timeless ballad "Goodbye to the Girl." David gently croons over "Golden Slumbers"-esque chords, "When did all the gold around us rust, turning all the love we had to dust/ It took the best of you." It's a side of his voice fans haven't heard since he belted Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night" on "Idol." Eventually, the track builds with swirling rock organs, strings and a doozy of a chorus that you swear Journey's Steve Perry is singing. The topic of love dominates the majority of Cook's new songs. The sweeping power-waltz "Fade Into Me" — co-written by David, Jamie Houston and Better Than Ezra's Kevin Griffin — finds the rocker tapping into his sensual side. "Fade into me, fade into you/ The two of us melting together until we become something new," goes the chorus. Pretty sure he's not talking about a conjoined twin. Ahem. Two tracks later, his lover has grown distant. David pleads, "Give me one more try before we say goodbye," but then, the song's called "Take Me As I Am," so one can only assume that Cook himself isn't willing to change. Eventually he accepts his relationship's "doomed" status on kickoff single "The Last Goodbye," co-penned with OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder. Lyrically, This Loud Morning never explicitly references Adam's death, but knowing Cook's history may give certain songs a deeper meaning. "Time marches on without you," David sighs at the end of "Time Marches On," just as a funereal vocal arrangement takes over your speakers. What exactly are he and his partner-in-crime hoping to run away from in "Right Here, With You?" Time? No matter what the universe has in store for them, David finishes each heavy chorus with a quiet refrain, as if it's a bedside lullaby. "I'm on your side." Cook takes things further on the piano-driven shuffle "Hard to Believe." "When did you lose any sense? And when did you find that you can't hold on?" he asks. Three minutes later, the song has swelled and David repeats, "Just stay with me!" Romantic or otherwise, this is a relationship Cook does not want to see go away. Maybe the overarching theme of This Loud Morning isn't love or dreams, but rather inevitability. Whether you like it or not, all things must come to an end, be it a day, a dream, a relationship or a life. This Loud Morning concludes with the same haunting music-box melody that begins the opening track, "Circadian." The bookended structure begs the listener to hit "replay" the same way we all smack the "snooze" button on those dreaded mornings where we don't want to face the day. David Cook invites you to stay in bed and dream a little longer. You can always try again tomorrow. If you can't wait until June 28 to hear This Loud Morning, AOL will be streaming it on Monday. Are you excited for David Cook's sophomore major-label release? Sound off in the comments below! |
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