BuzzSugar

Buzz In: What's the Best Concert You've Seen This Summer?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:15:25 -0700

Summer is a great time to hear live music - outdoors, if possible. Here in San Francisco, I'm eagerly looking forward to the inaugural Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival at the end of the month, where Iron and Wine, M. Ward, and Radiohead, among others, will be taking the stage.

I know some of you headed to Lollapalooza, and there have been tons of other major festivals already, from the Pitchfork Music Festival to Bonnaroo to All Points West. Tons of great artists play local clubs and big stadiums on solo tours, too: Ticket seller StubHub released its list of top-selling concert tours recently, and Billy Joel, Dave Matthews Band, and Kenny Chesney were among the big winners. So I'm wondering: If you've been seeing music this Summer, what's the best concert you've seen?

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Buzz In: What's Your Biggest Concert Pet Peeve?

BuzzSugar — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:30:37 -0700

After Kanye West took to his computer keyboard to blame the organizers of the Bonnaroo Music Festival for his extremely tardy appearance (4:25 a.m. - dang!), I got to thinking about other bad concert situations. While the folks who paid good money to see Kanye at that festival clearly were not thrilled with the major delays, diva behavior isn't the only situation that can irritate a concert-goer.

For example, I went to a festival once where the organizers refused to publish a schedule so there was no way to plan the weekend around the acts I most wanted to see. Another peeve: when really tall people have zero perception of their tendency to block the stage from vertically challenged folks (like me!). I'm also often sad when a band won't perform an encore even when the crowd cheers and chants for what seems like an eternity.

Now it's your turn to rant. What are some of your biggest pet peeves at concerts?

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Are Big Music Festivals Worth the Money?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:41:48 -0700

The full lineup for this summer's Lollapalooza festival in Chicago won't come out till Monday, but according to the Chicago Sun-Times, the major acts are biggies: Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, the Raconteurs, Wilco, and Kanye West will headline the main stages. Other acts the Sun-Times confirmed include Gnarls Barkley, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power, and Grizzly Bear.

Though the list of artists has been kept under wraps, tickets have already been on sale for a while - with the current round of three-day passes priced at $190. That's a pile of money, but i's nothing compared to the whopping $269 it'll cost ya for three days at Coachella this month - or even the $225 fee for three days at this year's inaugural Outside Lands festival here in San Francisco.

Sure, you can see a lot of big-time bands for that money, and given the cost of individual concert tickets these days, maybe it's not so bad. But once you factor in travel and lodging, going to a music festival takes a lot of coin. Is it worth it?

Al Gore Lines Up His Friends for Live Earth

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:00:12 -0700

The Earth is getting warmer, but Al Gore just keeps getting cooler, and winning an Oscar certainly didn't hurt. Now, the former vice president is recruiting his cool new friends - including Ludacris, Alicia Keys, Dave Matthews, and The Police - for an earth-shaking concert that will span 24 hours and seven continents called Live Earth.

Yesterday, the organizers revealed a list of performers lined up for the U.S. show, which will be held on July 7 (that's 7-7-07) at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Tickets go on sale next Monday, April 16, at 10 a.m. EDT. Over in London, a separate show will feature equally impressive names, including Madonna and the Beastie Boys. For a list of artists confirmed for the U.S. and U.K. shows, read more

Live Earth U.S. Lineup - Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

AFI
Akon
Alicia Keys
Bon Jovi
Dave Matthews Band
Fall Out Boy
John Mayer
Kanye West
Kelly Clarkson
KT Tunstall
Ludacris
Melissa Etheridge
Rihanna
Roger Waters
Sheryl Crow
Smashing Pumpkins
The Police

Live Earth U.K. Lineup - Wembley Stadium, London

Beastie Boys
Black Eyed Peas
Bloc Party
Corinne Bailey Rae
Damien Rice
David Gray
Duran Duran
Foo Fighters
Genesis
James Blunt
John Legend
Keane
Madonna
Paolo Nutini
Razorlight
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Snow Patrol

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Countdown to Coachella

BuzzSugar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:31:25 -0800

You know a musical festival is good if it inspires thousands of hipsters to camp out for three days in the desert of Southern California, and such is the powerful pull of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Though the event - held April 27 to 29 in Indio, Calif. - is still months away, I am already pretty hyper about the lineup, and tickets go on sale this Saturday, Jan. 27.

For 2007, Coachella is promising two big reunions - Rage Against the Machine and Jesus and Mary Chain - as well as a dizzying array of other awesome artists, including Bjork, the Arcade Fire, Willie Nelson, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, Lily Allen .... and the list just goes on and on. To see the full lineup and for ticket info, read more

Tickets go on sale this Saturday, Jan. 27, at 10 a.m. PST; you can call TicketMaster or buy tickets online. A three-day pass costs $249, and there are also a limited number of single-day tickets for $85 each. For the full lineup, check out the official Coachella poster below.

How Often Do You Go See Live Music?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:52:00 -0800

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Video of Jennifer Lopez's Wind Blown Hair at This Is It Premiere and Ryan Gosling on Stage and NM's Edward and Bella Kiss!

Molly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:35:00 -0700

Jennifer Lopez had a bit of a hair emergency thanks to the wind at last night's This Is It premiere in LA - check out the funny video. Also, we attended Ryan Gosling's SF Dead Man's Bones concert and have some super sexy footage of him up on stage and laughing off some inappropriate girls in the crowd. Plus, new New Moon clips show Edward and Bella's kisses as well as the scoop on Nick Jonas's new solo venture and a peek at Jimmy Choo for H&M. Watch PopSugar Rush now!

An Education: A Wonderful, World Weary Coming of Age Tale

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

There's very little time left for Carey Mulligan to be an unknown. She plays the central character in An Education, and it's a mesmerizing, star-making turn.

Nick Hornby is behind the screenplay, which follows 16-year-old schoolgirl Jenny as she navigates her strict school-minded parents and the affections of a man twice her age in '60s London. Though some might be turned off by the Lolita-esque premise, this isn't a movie about a May-December romance but the story of Jenny's discovery of the world and adulthood.

To see what I liked about the movie, just read more.

Peter Sarsgaard is the older man, whom he plays with the seductive blandness the role calls for. It's not Sarsgaard's character, David, who tempts Jenny; it's the idea of him. Before David shows up, Jenny has a path set forth by her parents and her English teacher: Oxford.

When David enters the picture by chance, Jenny suddenly has a choice: Oxford or the glamorous life David exposes her to that doesn't require a college degree. She declares her first date with David as the best night of her life. It's easy to see why: fabulous dinners and concerts in London with David's friends, played by Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper. Pike is really too worldly looking to be playing such a dim bulb, but she's luminous as a representation of Jenny's possible future.

Jenny soon learns that David’s seemingly easy life may not be what she truly wants, and she finds herself at a crossroads. The movie does an excellent job at making you live the conflict too - it's not obvious what life Jenny will choose, even though a traditional Hollywood movie would make it clear what the "right" thing to do is. Instead, you find yourself in Jenny's shoes thanks to the engrossing performance of Mulligan, whose angelic face and throaty voice shift easily from dedicated student to London sophisticate.

Mulligan's likability is matched only by her Oxford-pushing father, played by Alfred Molina. Some of the most entertaining scenes are those in which Molina is either brusquely insulting one of Jenny's suitors or being entranced by David himself. At first I wondered why Jenny's parents would let her go off so easily with David when I watched the trailer, but it plays out plainly: David is irresistible. Like a snake-oil salesman, that is. He feeds Jenny and her parents what they want to hear, and when things go awry, Jenny angrily confronts her father about how he could have been so seduced by David. This is one of the lessons Jenny learns from her affair with David; that despite education, maturity, and age, authority figures are fallible.

The other authority figures of this movie are compelling as well: Olivia Williams plays Jenny's encouraging teacher (whose radiance can't be hidden by a pair of horn-rimmed glasses) and Emma Thompson has a cameo as a rigid headmistress who seems to take pleasure in threatening Jenny about her future.

However, no one shines brighter than Mulligan. Her Jenny is a strong, bright young woman who never completely loses her way, despite the situation she gets caught up in. It's her performance in An Education you'll be talking about when you leave the theater - and maybe in a few months when awards season begins.

Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures

Buzz In: Which Song Covers Do You Like Better Than the Original?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:30:40 -0700

Cover songs typically get a bad rap, but every once and a while a remake of a catchy track comes along that's worthy of its predecessor. (Just take Sinead O'Connor's version of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," for instance).

Kelly Clarkson did her own renditions of The White Stripes's "Seven Nation Army" and Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" in concert earlier this week, and her samplings weren't half bad. (Check 'em out here). It got me thinking about the other great remakes out there - I'm a big fan of Cat Powers's cover albums, Sia's "Gimme More," and even some of the takes on Rihanna's "Umbrella" that ran rampant two years ago, like Mandy Moore's.

How about you? Do you have a cover song that you like even better than the original?

Leave it in the comments, or just pop over to BuzzSugar Community's Music Review Group to discuss anything music-related!

Link Time!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:30:03 -0700

Please, Tracy Morgan, join Twitter! Check out the public plea, all you 30 Rock fans - Best Week Ever
Emma Stone talks about shooting zombies - Rotten Tomatoes
A list of the 13 best South Park episodes (with clips!) - TV.com
Alas, another Simpsons movie looks unlikely. Sigh . . . - Moviefone
A Mike Tyson biopic? It'll happen if Jamie Foxx gets his way - MTV Movies Blog
David Bowie and Iggy Pop get Lego'd - Stereogum
Bored to Death gets picked up for a second season on HBO - The Futon Critic
Concert video of Kelly Clarkson covering The White Stripes, Alanis Morissette, and Kings of Leon - Rolling Stone
Take this tech quiz on last night's episode of The Hills - GeekSugar
Mariah Carey dishes on her new album . . . and wearing Nick's clothes?! - HitFix