Goedendag Mixtapers! Welcome to another stunning, flawless, amazing, SNATCHING THE RECEIPTS FROM YOUR FAVORITE edition of the Majak Mixtape, where pop culture goes when it's still wondering what the hell is going on in Lady GaGa's "Judas" music video.
It's TUNESDAY here in the Majak Kingdom, and there was much rejoicing across the lands as the citizens know this is our day out of the week where we take on the scores of new releases of albums, singles, and music videos that are going to be flooding iTunes and YouTube. Today, we've got a jam-packed edition with a "Glee" star's solo effort, the Lonely Island's new album, another new single from Lady GaGa, Rihanna's latest visuals for her single "California King Bed" and so much more. But, as always, before we can get to the tunes we must first:
First up, The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver have decided to veto the idea of living together after just recently celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary according to sources. Maybe she grew tired of not being able to understand him. Maybe he got sick of all the Kennedys pestering him for tickets to movie premieres. We don't know. In a joint statement, the duo talked about how they plan on working on their marriage while living apart otherwise known as "civility until we get our respective hot shot lawyers to take the other one to the cleaners."
Next, Whitney Houston has recently checked herself into an out-patient drug and alcohol facility according to a report from "People Magazine." At least now we know what she was using that "Million Dollar Bill" for.
Oh Whitney. We are always going to support your off-kilter, currently raspy-voiced self. We sort of had an inclination that you must be hitting up ye olde pipe. How else would you explain you signing on for the "Waiting to Exhale" sequel with Lela "Whatever happened to her" Rechon, Loretta "Two episodes of 'Grey's Anatomy' a season is not enough" Devine and Angela "I've run out of famous Black women to portray" Bassett. At least, that proves the drug problem isn't too serious. Now if you had said you were going to be in the next Tyler Perry film, we would've led that intervention ourself.
In other celeb news, "Clueless" star Alicia Silverstone recently gave birth and decided to throw her black beret into the CRAZY CELEB BABY NAMES Olympics, competing with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin's Apple, Shannyn Sossoman's kid Audio Science, Nicholas Cage's kid Kal-El Coppola, and of course Jason Lee's infamously named child Pilot Inspektor. For her part, Alicia Silverstone has named her kid, of all the things in the world, Bear Blu, thus guranteeing he will always be a virgin who can't even drive.
And lastly, in EVERYBODY WILL HAVE A REALITY SHOW NEWS, Bristol Palin has landed herself a TV show for the Biography Channel. The show is reportedly going to follow her exploits as she moves from Alaska to Los Angeles and lives with friend and former "That's So Raven" star/"Dancing With the Stars" competitor Kyle Massey and works for a charity. Let us get this straight: Bristol Palin is moving with her kid to L.A. to live with some Black guy she met on a reality dance show so she can do charity work? What part of this show ISN'T designed to piss off members of the Tea Party?
And speaking of tea, that was our tea for today! Now join us as we get our Tunesday on!
We kick off this edition of TUNESDAY as we check in with Lady GaGa's continuing one-woman assault on the pop cultural landscape. This weekend saw Lady GaGa premiere the concert film version of her Monsters Ball tour on HBO. We only lasted about an hour of the program because as much as we enjoy Lady GaGa's music, particularly "The Fame Monster," we just couldn't handle the constant YOU'RE A SPECIAL BUTTERFLY NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT YOU patter that Lady GaGa had to indulge in between nearly every song. Seriously. We know Stuart Smalley. We liked Stuart Smalley. And Lady GaGa you're no Stuart Smalley. Plus, wouldn't it have taken just less time to sing a cover of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" and be done with it?
The concert film wasn't the only thing that Lady GaGa debuted recently as her video for her second single "Judas" as directed by Lauriann "Boom Kack" Gibson of "Making the Band" fame(?). On the grand WTF scale that are the recent collection of Lady GaGa videos, "Judas" is less confusing than "Telephone," equally pretentious as "Alejandro" but thankfully better than the stink-fest that was "Born This Way." We're just deeply disappointed that "Judas" didn't come out months ago when UW-L was doing "The Last Days of Judas." They could've used it for a curtain call. Check out the visuals for "Judas."
We'll always have a love/hate relationship with the song "Judas" as it comes off like an unyielding amalgamation of two distinctly different GaGa personas with the verses being the darker "The Fame Monster" era with the bubblegum chorus of the tune fitting nicely into GaGa's former "The Fame" pop-will-never-be-low-brow/hair-bow aesthetic. In trying to please all audiences, it turns out that GaGa isn't necessarily pleasing anybody has "Judas" is doing well but not necessarily lighting the Billboard Charts on fire. Some have been quick to label it a flop. Really? Somewhere Ciara and Kelly Rowland are trying to flop their way into a top ten hit. Hell, even Beyonce is struggling with the cluttered mess that is "Girls (Who Run the World)."
Anyway, with "Judas" sort of stalling and the video not being the most buzzworthy of things, the minds behind GaGa have pushed out another promotional single in the form of "The Edge of Glory." The song, which features a saxophone solo from Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band fame, embraces a cheesy 1990s quality; seriously, the saxophone solo would've fit perfectly into a TGIF promo from the mid-1990s.
The song also bares a very strong sonic resemblance to Robyn's song "Call Your Girlfriend" from her "Body Talk" album. Lady GaGa must have the pop music equivalent of a Xerox machine set-up in her studio since "Born This Way" was "Express Yourself," "Judas" is "Bad Romance, Part 2" and now this reworking of Robyn. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE REALNESS.
Next up, Matthew Morrison has decided to release a solo album, capitalizing on his time as Mr. Schuester on the Fox mega-hit "Glee." Sadly, the album is lacking his mad-rapping skills that he showed in performances like "Gold Digger."
Mr. Morrison is aiming squarely towards middle-of-the-road with this collection of tunes that includes a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow because the one thing I need more of in my life are the stunning vocals of Mrs. Chris Martin.
Matthew Morrison is even getting to sing one of his own songs on "Glee" during the season finale according to reports. Morrison will be belting out "Still Got Tonight," a song penned by "American Idol" winner Kris Allen. Look at all that Fox Network incest.
Next up, Rihanna debuted her latest video for her single "California King Bed." We don't mind Rihanna. We actually still obsessively listen to her underrated "Rated R" album and recently just got out of a rehab to treat our addiction to "Only Girl (In the World)."
It's just that Rihanna has this horrible tendency to believe she's something more than a barely compentent vocalist and puts out these slow songs. Admittedly, "California King Bed" is nowhere near as awful as "Unfaithful," a song who was in competition with itself to see which was going to cause us to turn it off first: the stupid metaphors in it or Rihanna's questionable AT BEST vocal performance.
Thankfully, Rihanna has grown into somewhat of a decent singer at least in the studio. Tragically it took five albums to get this point. Maybe in another five she'll find something resembling on-stage charisma. Anyway, here is the video for "California King Bed."
Next up, The Lonely Island have put out an album of music that is way better than a comedy album should be. The album is bursting at the seams with tracks made famous by Digital Sketches on Saturday Night Live including "The Creep"
"I Just Had Sex"
And the most recent edition, "Jack Sparrow" featuring Michael Bolton
The Lonely Island: making people like Akon and Michael Bolton tolerable once sketch a time.
Lastly, former Tony Tone Toni frontman/Lucy Pearl member Raphael Saadiq is back with a new album titled "Stone Rollin." Raphael, like pretty much a large segment of the rhythm and blues community, has gravitated toward creating new songs that sound like dusty old records because if Amy Winehouse and Adele can come cherry-picking the Black sound, we might as well snatch some of it back from them. That's one thing we've never quite understood or liked about the wave of "blue-eye" soul singers of late. Would they be getting nearly as much attention if they weren't fair-skinned? Probably not. That's a shame since their talent shouldn't be based on the simple idea that your race somehow gives you more or less authenticity in a given genre of music or makes your accomplishment better or worse than somebody else. /off soap box.
Anyway, we like Raphael a lot and have loved his solo ventures since he laid down this jam for the horribly short-lived Eddie Murphy animated series "The PJs."
Here is the latest single from Raphael.
And that's just a small sampling of what is out today. As always, we wish you love, peace and downloads! NOW BRING ON A SNEAK PEEK OF TONIGHT'S PROM-TASTIC EPISODE OF "GLEE"!
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