Michel Gondry, the French-born director of acclaimed offbeat movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, has also directed numerous groundbreaking videos for the likes of Björk and the White Stripes.

Unlike the crappy music list that EW published as part of their 1000 issues celebration, this list is a really good selection of videos, complete with links to the actual videos on YouTube. 

Full Story at Entertainment Weekly

Some crappy American Idol tie in toy at McDonalds happens to be a spitting image of the Devo group, and they are none too flattered to be associated with either organization.

Full story at Pitchfork Media

In case you've ever wondered why I've never started a "one hit wonder" or "two hit wonder" section on amIright it's because I despise the term.  I see it usually applied to groups and performers that may not have had a lot of chart success but still managed to make a huge impact in the pop world such as Devo or Thomas Dolby. I've even seen it applied to groups like Men Without Hats that had more than one top ten twenty hit!

In the following article Suzanne Vega discusses her experiences with writing Luka and being labeled as a two hit wonder.  It's a fantastic read. I've got most of her albums, so maybe I'm biased because I realize she's done so much fantastic music in the past twenty years.

Full Story at NY Times

... in order to list drugs and prostitutes.  Employees and artists don't seem to care for the new head of EMI much, and I guess this is just one more thing to add to the list.

Now, having got rid of most of EMI's senior managers and revealed embarrassing details of their spending habits (£200,000 a year went on sundries euphemistically referred to in the music business as ?fruit and flowers?).

Silicon Valley Insider

Amy Winehouse just can't stay out of the paper lately.  This time she's getting paid a ridiculous sum for a private performance and she shows up a mess as usual.

In bad shape as usual, the singer took the stage two hours late, sans underwear. When you're making $2 million for one wasted show, why not go commando?

Full Story at Wired Listening Post

Drunkin' Donuts (as I call them) has several ads that have been penned by the guys in "They Might Be Giants".  Here's a couple videos of the commercials, which are nowhere near as annoying as seeing the Rachel Ray ads.

Full Story at StereoGum

Here's an interesting list of the various iPod killers that have come along to try and challenge the iPod only to fail.

Full story at Conde Nest

Ok this one is pretty amazing, when you hear this guy sing, you can't believe it's coming from the person playing the guitar.  He was inspired to try singing like the Man in Black after seeing the movie "Walk the Line"

Discovered singing on a Seattle street, Vince Mira, 15, is a somewhat shy kid who looks uncomfortable during a TV interview. But when he steps up to the microphone to sing Johnny Cash's classic "Ring of Fire," the result is downright spooky.

Full Story at Katu

There's been a lot of "ironic" bluegrass country covers of pop songs, but this takes it to a new level.

He tells OK! magazine, "I went to the CMT Music Awards and I got into the spirit of wanting to do something different.
"I've been smoking so much green grass I wanted to do a bluegrass album."

Full Story at Contact Music

Why oh why would anyone want this for their kid?

...former Bush frontman Rossdale is excited about their unusual decorating plans.

He tells Britain's OK! magazine, "We don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Plus we are going to put him in a black room. It'll be a goth baby so it doesn't matter if it is a boy or a girl."

Full story at Star Pulse

Why does it seem odd to think of Madonna crying?  I guess that tough outer image is what makes it had to picture for me.

The N.E.R.D man admitted he had been quite nasty to Madonna, but said he had no plans to make their scrap public until the singer spoke about it herself. "I just said some really nasty stuff, I guess. And yeah, she cried for a really long time actually," he said.

Full Story at New Musical Express

The word asshole is somehow not vulgar enough to be bleeped out, but the words God-damned and piss are?  I could see bleeping the f-word, since it's considered the all might mother of all swear words, but if you're going to air a song where a vulgar word is the title and repeated throughout, you might as well go all out.

Video on YouTube

To celebrate the fact that there will be two Guitar Hero performances on the main stage at this year?s Isle of Wight Festival, Activision has re-branded the bronze statue of Hendrix that sits in the grounds of the island?s Dimbola Lodge, turning Jimi?s guitar into the aforementioned video game peripheral.

Sounds less like celebration and more like cashing in.  Probably a bigger insult than seeing Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner in an advertisement.  It would be one thing if it was a Photoshop contest or a prank by those whimsical MIT hackers, but this just smacks of advertising and seems cheap and tacky as a result.

Full Story at Music Radar

Asked if downloads are killing his business, John got a little worked up, "Anybody who legally downloads music is an idiot! You can get it for free, why pay for it? Download it illegally, who's going to catch you? Legal or illegal, they sound the same."

Ah, but the CD or LP, that's way better, so if you're going to pay, you might as well buy the physical version. Maybe get some nice cover art or booklet. Makes sense to me. John quipped, "If I was a kid I'd be downloading music, but if you ask me I think the music business blew it by charging too much for CDs."

I couldn't agree more!

Full story at CNet

Playing the Building is Byrne's latest sonic innovation, and morphs the century-old Battery Maritime Building into a clanging, vibrating sound sculpture. In this installation, the former Talking Heads co-founder blurs the boundaries between the creators and consumers of culture.

Video at Boing Boing TV

Last week Metallica issued a statement about allowing people to download exclusive content from their new album on the Internet. This almost makes them seem like they were starting to come to grips with the whole music on the web thing. 

Then they held a listening party for some music journalists, and the band's lawyers respond to the reviews they wrote with take down notices.  Way to go Lars!  The new album should probably be called Hypocrisy.

Full story at Stereogum

What is good for the goose, is good for the gander I suppose.  Gnarls Barkley covered "Gone Daddy Gone" for their first album, and now the Violent Femmes are going to cover "Crazy" from that album.  The Femmes really make it into a creepy song.

According to the band's website it's Like a Morricone-style dirge recorded by The Mamas and The Papas, Violent Femmes' cover of Gnarls Barkley's infamous "Crazy" is like nothing you've heard from the legendary alt-rock trio before. Their oft-imitated folk-punk sound is flavored with surf-rock guitar and Theremin, creating a tranquility that is somber and otherworldly.

Full story at StereoGum

I've never been a fan of opera before, and this sure isn't going to change my mind anytime soon.

Replete with doomed love affairs, failed bids for fame and an early tragic death, Anna Nicole Smith's life story is the stuff of opera. At least that's the way it seems to Richard Thomas, the British writer and composer who also created Jerry Springer ? The Opera.

Full Story at CBC News

Memo to pop star, Amy Winehouse is not a role model.

The 23-year-old pop star had to be carried out of London?s exclusive Berkeley Square in the early hours of this morning after partying up a storm at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards.

Full Story (with pictures) at The Daily Mail

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's ashes have been stolen, according to his troubled widow Courtney Love. The legendary singer's ashes were reportedly swiped during a robbery at Love's Los Angeles home recently. Love had kept the grunge musician's ashes in a pink bear-shaped bag, along with a strand of his golden locks.

Wait, a pink bear-shaped bag?  Yesh, couldn't she find something a little less tacky for the remains of her former husband?

Full Story at New Zealand Herald

Just to make you feel a little older today, here's news that the youngest of the Hanson brothers is now a father.

Zac Hanson, 22, and his brothers Isaac, 27, and Taylor, 25, make up Hanson, best known for its 1997 hit "MMMBop."

Full story at Yahoo news