Ke$ha

Defend Your Ballot: Rob Sheffield, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Dan Weiss, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

Pazz & Jop: The Confounding, Inexplicable Splendor of Rapper Future

Space is the place

Josh Groban Will Cut You

Read the hatchet job here. See Also: - Charles Mingus' Secret Eggnog Recipe Will Knock You on Your Ass - 30 Facts About Ke$ha Gleaned From Her New Book My Crazy Beautiful Life

30 Facts About Ke$ha Gleaned From Her New Book My Crazy Beautiful Life

If you listen closely to Ke$ha's songs (and is there any other way to listen to Ke$ha?), you already know quite a bit about her. She wakes up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. She uses a bottle of Jack to brush her teeth (which sounds dangerous). Etc. Etc. So on. So forth. ANYWAY, to learn more, ... More >>

Rita Ora

Q&A: The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne On Stephen Colbert, Ke$ha, And An Inadvertent Game Of Telephone With Lightning Bolt

Flaming Lips leader Wayne Coyne dreams weird and hard and big. What often starts of as a whimsical vision might just end up as a new world record (for the most live concerts in 24 hours) or a limited-edition vinyl release infused with the blood of other artists (as was the case for 2011's The Flamin ... More >>

Midyear Report: 12 for '12

A dozen of the best singles from the year so far

This Week in the Voice: OBIES 2012

This week in the Voice, out today, Michael Feingold says in his essay on the OBIES that Broadway kinda sucks: "Sitting through Man and Superman and The Caretaker, after a week that had included Ghost, Don't Dress for Dinner, and Leap of Faith, I realized that I didn't hate theatergoing at all: I jus ... More >>

12 For '12: A Dozen Songs From This Year That You Should Hear Right Now

In this week's Voice I offered up a midseason report of sorts, listing 12 particularly outstanding tracks from this year. Here, for your listening pleasure, are the 12 songs in streamable form (via a combination of YouTube and Soundcloud so as to not lock anyone—or any songs—out). Happy ... More >>

How Not To Write About Female Musicians: A Handy Guide

​Maybe it's all that misguided Year of the Woman chatter that dominated year-end roundups, or the slow, agonizing creep of Fashion Week, or the coming apocalypse, but hoo boy has there been a lot of terrible writing about female musicians in the past few weeks. The latest offender is the New Y ... More >>

HOUSEWARMING

ISSUE Project Room has a new home

Running The Numbers: The Four-Disc, 73-Track Bob Dylan Covers Comp With Miley, Ke$ha, Lenny, And Many Others

​Today Amnesty International releases Chimes Of Freedom, a really, really huge compilation of bob Dylan covers by artists both canonized and obscure. Trying to analyze such a huge undertaking can only be done in one way: Mathematically. Amount of music in this collection: 73 songs on four CD ... More >>

André 3000, Most Valuable Supporting Player

The erstwhile OutKast member has a great year without a single starring role

Ke$ha Works Both Sides Of The Pop Aisle

​This morning brought the release of "Sleazy 2.0 (Get Sleazier)," the all-star remix of Ke$ha's Dr. Luke/Bangladesh banger about men who are a bit too impressed with their wealth "Sleazy"; the new version contains the quietly gut-punching verse that Andre 3000 added to the original remix, as w ... More >>

Study: Fun Kills

Piclol.euKe$ha moment.​Fun will kill you, according to a recently published report. British scientists say that smoking and drinking, along with obesity, greatly accelerate cancer risks -- and their analysis of more than 100,000 patients seems to back up their findings.

Hey, Bono, Here Are Five Songs You Might Want To Consider For This "Song Lyrics Of Literary Excellence" Contest You're Judging

​The New England branch of the literary society PEN has announced that it's bestowing its inaugural award for outstanding achievement in song lyrics in February (hat tip: Dave Bry/Maud Newton). Lyrics from all stripes of popular music can, of course, be utterly banal, but they can also employ ... More >>

Da Capo's Second-Best Music Writing 2011: 112 Of Last Year's Most Notable Music Stories

The 2011 edition of Da Capo's annual anthology Best Music Writing— which this year was guest edited by The New Yorker classical writer and The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross; Daphne Carr has been the series editor since 2006—contains 32 essays and is augmented by a a jumbo-sized "Other N ... More >>

Ke$ha Is Having a Ball

The pop star flips the lap-dance script.

Is It Time To Re-Reconsider The Guilty Pleasure?

Yes, Ke$ha's involved in this.​ In general conversation, the guilty pleasure is a simple enough concept: it describes something you might like but, well, feel guilty about liking, presumably because it isn't otherwise up to your standards of taste. Over the past ten or so years, with pop crit ... More >>

Yelawolf Lords Over The VIP Section On "Hard White (Up In The Club)"

​ The fleet-tongued Alabama MC Yelawolf has been making the rounds on the Warped Tour in advance of his major-label debut Radioactive, which comes out next month, and last night that album's first single leaked. "Hard White (Up In The Club)" is a flip of the club-jam with Yela using the settin ... More >>

The Worst Thing About The New Generation Of "Raunch Pop" Is The Way It Makes Sex Utterly Boring

​Rihanna's sex-drenched "S&M" and its brightly hued, LaChappelle-biting video were predictably controversial when they were given the promo push here a few months back, and now it's provoking a storm on the other side of the pond, with the British regulatory agency OFCOM deeming the video too ... More >>

Big-Name Remixes: The Sound Of Labels' Panic Buttons Ringing?

​Britney Spears' "Till The World Ends," the Ke$ha-penned second single from her album Femme Fatale, hasn't been out for very long. (Six weeks, give or take.) But already there's a splashy remix of the tune featuring both Ke$ha and Brit's future tourmate Nicki Minaj, who seems particularly ener ... More >>

Ke$ha

Top 5 Music Videos Featuring Mythical Creatures

In her new clip for the [ahem] Madonna-inspired "Born This Way," Lady Gaga includes a unicorn in the opening shot. While the video only gets weirder (and grosser) from there, that mythical beast captivated our attention so much that we decided to search out the best videos featuring such imaginary/ ... More >>

LADIES' NIGHT

Only female rappers and DJs allowed

Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and the Great Gay-Pander-Off of 2010

Nicki, P!nk, Gaga, and those two other ones taste the rainbow

Week In Review: You Know We Were Kidding About That Best Year Ever Thing, Right?

A thing that happened. Photo by Phil Freeman.​In the week we debated whether 2010 was the best year for music ever (you guys know that was a joke, right?), we pitted Chris Brown against Katy Perry, Titus Andronicus against LCD Soundsystem, Taylor Swift against M.I.A., and house music against h ... More >>

Live: Ben Folds Swears Profusely, Goofs Around, And Covers Ke$ha At Beacon Theatre

Rockin' the suburbs, or at least the Upper West Side. Pics by Nicole Ankowski, more below.​Ben Folds Beacon Theatre Tuesday, December 14 Better Than: Watching The Sing-Off Ben Folds is doing fine, thanks -- onstage with four dudes who all look more or less like Shy Ronnie, doing his trademar ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Throw Taylor Swift In A Well

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! Pay Rich Juzwiak what you owe him, Jay Leno. Twitpic by Dav ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? House Music vs. Hashtag Rap

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! The most important artist of 2010.​Hi everybody! To ... More >>

Our Countdown of the 20 Worst Songs of 2010 Starts Today

TheFABLife​Last December, our F2K series counted down the 50 lousiest songs from the morass of mediocrity that accumulated between 2000 and 2009--and it was no easy task. The 9/11 tie-ins, the mawkish charity singles, the wan covers, Owl City, the continued existence of Nicole Scherzinger ... ... More >>

The Best Of The #beatlesasMP3s Hashtag

So Beatles-on-iTunes day is almost over. We all survived. No sales records were broken -- in fact, Dr. Luke would like to point out that Ke$ha remains atop the charts. And yet the day was a rousing success in terms of Twitter Comedy -- join us now as we survey the best of the #beatlesasMP3s hashta ... More >>

New Venue Report: Get A Fruity Drink, Or A Haircut, Or Just Away From Ke$ha At Blind Barber

​Where two different kinds of magic happen. Pics by Puja.​Traditionally, the neighborhood barbershop serves as a place for a haircut, shave, and some gossip. With the recent opening of the East Village's Blind Barber, you can get a beer and some dancing in while you're at it.

Live: Rye Rye And Ke$ha Elate And Confuse (Respectively) At Roseland Ballroom

It makes total sense to her, probably. Photo by Palika.​Honestly, I'm not quite sure where to begin with last night's Paper magazine event at the Roseland Ballroom, featuring Rye Rye and Ke$ha -- before I get into how immeasurably pissed off I get about having to substitute the "s" in Ke$ha wi ... More >>

Week in Review: Jugga-luh-oh

Run Tila, run! Photo by Nate "Igor" Smith.​In the week one of us went to the Gathering of the Juggalos and came back with what is increasingly looking like Stockholm Syndrome, we witnessed Tila Tequila (and Method Man) battle a pack of angry ICP fans and--shortly after she took her top off--lo ... More >>

OH, JE$US

Our patience is running as thin as her sobriety

Surveying the Dr. Luke Moment: A Critical Look At Lazers, Glitter, and the Un-Sexing of America's Pop Stars

On May 7, Katy Perry debuted "California Gurls," the first single from her forthcoming album, Teenage Dream. It was a cleverly-engineered, synchronized piece of pop craft--a classic no-chances move--and it had to be: there were things riding on this song. Things like the viability of Perry as a bo ... More >>

On Katy Perry's "California Gurls," Featuring Snoop Dogg, And Why Not

No, David Lee Roth has nothing to worry about, but if you can stomach the spectacle of Ms. Perry cooing, "Sipping on gin 'n' juice" and so forth while Snoop drawls stuff like "these are the girls I love the most," this is not at all unenjoyable. "So, listening to a little Ke$ha to start your day!" ... More >>

Regarding That One Time Diddy Rapped with Anna Wintour and Oprah

​Anna Wintour, Diddy, and Oprah got their rap on like it was 1998. MTV's Jersey Shore is being sued for profiting off of... being Jersey Shore. Letterman's extortionist is off to the hoosegow. The SexFraggle now known as Ke$ha played a Bat Mitzvah at Cipriani. These are Wednesday's Gossip Folk ... More >>

Live From the Bamboozle, Where the Most Emo Act Was A Rapper, and the Only Grownups in Sight Were the Five Kids in Paramore

The Bamboozle Meadowlands Parking Lot Saturday, May 1 The Bamboozle is the circus-themed mainstream punk/pop/whatever blowout where the line for Mrs. Field's ice cream and cookies dwarfs the one for $10 Miller Lites. It's the sunburn factory with a kid sporting an irony-free Snapple tattoo. A mor ... More >>

Ke$ha on SNL: "Does Anyone Ever Stop to Think Maybe We Are the Aliens?"

So, um, Uffie's back. Four years later her album, Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans, has a release date and in an interesting twist of events, her new song "ADD SUV" features Pharrell Williams, in what seems like a mainstream reward, or at least consolation prize, for partially pioneering the style that ... More >>

Week in Review: I Didn't Fill Out My Census

Definitely didn't fill out his census. Also has no idea about that Icelandic volcano.​In the week a gigantic cloud of ash and smoke and snow grounded flights all across Europe and wreaked havoc on a delicately balanced Coachella lineup, we rejoiced (for once) at being stuck in New York and, by ... More >>

"100 And Single," Chris Molanphy's Rad Column About The Billboard Hot 100, Has Returned

A fine addition to Idolator's music-industry coverage back in the halcyon days of Maura (who's doing her own weekly chart wrap for us these days), the freshly resurrected "101 and Single" is an in-depth look at the Hot 100, this week headlined by the "Ke$ha beats 'We Are the World 2.0'" storyline ... More >>

Live: Ed Banger Records Celebrates Its Seventh Anniversary with Justice, Uffie, Busy P, and DJ Mehdi at Terminal 5

Ed Banger Records Seventh Anniversary Terminal 5 Friday, February 12 Those of us that remember when "Pop the Glock" came out--all the way back in 2006-- were eagerly awaiting some sort of Ke$ha-themed diatribe from Uffie last Friday night. The Parisian rapper was one of the "surprise guests" at t ... More >>

It's Official, World: Vampire Weekend's Contra Is America's #1 Record

​Certainly a victory for something or other, one would sort of have to think. Contra sold 120,000 copies on its way to topping the charts, only the 12th time a nominally indie-distributed record has gone #1 since 1991, according to Billboard. (Sorry Ke$ha. Your reign on the top was short like ... More >>

Vampire Weekend May Very Well Have the #1 Album In The Country Next Week

​So says Billboard, who we consider credible on this topic. Maura notes that a January release date surely helps, and just now Ke$ha did the grunt work of knocking off Susan Boyle. But still: Vampire Weekend. #1. In a land beyond the Internet. Haters intent on preventing this had better go buy ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Vampire Weekend, Ke$ha, MC Paul Barman, Rosanne Cash, and More

The cast of Survivor: Upper West Side. Photo by Soren Solkaer Starbird​In this week's Village Voice, Rob Harvilla wrestles with Vampire Weekend's vastly ambitious, vastly improved Contra, Ben Westhoff hangs out in MOMA's outdoor sculpture garden with MC Paul Barman, Ryan Dombal chronicles the ... More >>

Ke$ha's Glitter Invasion

The latest brash, lascivious femme-pop upstart is also quite possibly the weirdest

'Z100's Jingle Ball 2009'