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TheMusicStalker
Moving to EverythingHeather.com
The Music Stalker is closing up shop and moving! I've started a new site more representative of ALL my interests at EverythingHeather. You can still contact me via email or follow me on Twitter @heatherlarson. If you do marketing/PR for an artist, please email me at hotwords [at] mac [dot] com.
Lady Gaga to headline own tour
I first blogged about Lady Gaga in September and I predicted she'd become a big star. I was right. Of course. If you're tired of "Just Dance," go download another song of hers I really love called "Poker Face."
Over time I began to realize she embodied all the qualities I used to admire in Madonna; dance queen, gawdy style, good stage show, some racy lyrics and videos. What's not to love? Madonna today can watch Gaga and take some notes. (Hey, but at least Madge has A-Rod. That's somethin').
Now Lady Gaga has a Grammy nomination and a #1 song with Colby O'Donis. Her headlining tour, "The Fame Ball," starts in March. Here are her dates:
March 12 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
March 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Avalon
March 14 – San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine
March 16 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox / The Market
March 17 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
March 18 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore Ballroom
March 21 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre
March 23 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Café
March 24 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
March 25 – Pontiac, MI – Crofoot Ballroom
March 26 – Toronto, ON – Elements
March 27 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Center
March 28 – Montreal, QC – Metropolis
March 30 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
March 31 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
April 1 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
April 2 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
April 3 – Richmond, VA – Toad’s Place
April 6 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
April 7 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz
April 8 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
April 9 – Atlanta, GA – Centerstage
March 13 – Los Angeles, CA – Avalon
March 14 – San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine
March 16 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox / The Market
March 17 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
March 18 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore Ballroom
March 21 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre
March 23 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Music Café
March 24 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
March 25 – Pontiac, MI – Crofoot Ballroom
March 26 – Toronto, ON – Elements
March 27 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Center
March 28 – Montreal, QC – Metropolis
March 30 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
March 31 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
April 1 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
April 2 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
April 3 – Richmond, VA – Toad’s Place
April 6 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
April 7 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz
April 8 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
April 9 – Atlanta, GA – Centerstage
Soulja Boy Tellem.TV Mixtape Online
Soulja Boy has a new mixtape online, Tellem.TV, worked on by Shadyville's DJ Woogie.
Check it out here.
From "Wanna See" to "Gotta See!"
I wanted to see Notorious. Now, according to the Hollywood Reporter, I "gotta see" it. We already know the story, and we already knew the soundtrack would be good. But critics' reviews all seem to be raving and confirming the film has good acting from Jamal Woolard. Wondering if this will make Woolard a huge star? That answer to that will come in hindsight, of course. I want to see how well Woolard channels Biggie. It had to be pretty intimidating to play such an icon to begin with, not to mention being afraid of putting off Biggie's millions of fans by doing something even slightly wrong. It looks like critics are embracing his performance, so he must have done a great job being Biggie. I was wondering what Faith Evans thought of the film when I came across an interview with her about just this very thing from Essence.
Notorious is in theatres tomorrow and the cast includes Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Antonique Smith, Naturi Naughton, and Dennis White. I know you remember Naughton from her 3LW days...right?
Happy 50th Anniversary, Motown!
I am doing my part to celebrate Motown's 50th by downloading the Motown 50 podcast of iTunes. I'm listening to it right now as I write this and Smokey Robinson is talking about the birth of Motown and who was there. In the beginning, he says their goal was to make music for all to enjoy. I'd say that was not only accomplished, it holds true to this day. And how about that Motown legacy!? It just may outlive the Detroit automakers.
Ari Herzog blogs Britney Spears' Social Media Assault
Loved Ari Herzog's blog today about how the Britney Spears camp is using social media to death for this girl's comeback. I really hope other people responsible for artist PR are paying attention! Twitter is huge. Get on it. As for YouTube, I can see where Britney gets so many hits off there because she's been on for a while building a subscriber base. I think MySpace is horrendous for artist promotion anymore just because the pages load so slowly and sometimes I can't get the songs to play. But I think you also have to be on it because it's a point of reference as any website would be and it's viral so that the hardcore fans will sit there through slow-loading pages to promote the artist to friends. I was surprised to see Ning in Ari's list because I gave up on it long ago and haven't touched it since. That was when it was first starting out so I probably need to check it out again. I've heard a tiny buzz about it lately but not enough to make me jump online to seek it out.
Eric Hutchinson added to Jack's Mannequin Tour
New artist Eric Hutchinson has just landed a spot on the Jack's Mannequin tour. I dig this guy, he kind of reminds me of a cross between Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw. The video for his current single, "Rock & Roll," is embedded below.
Tour dates:
10/14 Atlanta, GA The Loft
10/15 Charlotte, NC Visulite Theatre
10/17 Orlando, FL The Social
10/18 Delray Beach, FL City Limits
10/19 St. Petersburg, FL The State Theatre
10/21 Houston, TX Warehouse Live Studio
10/22 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
10/23 Austin, TX Antone’s
10/26 Tucson, AZ The Rock
10/27 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour
10/30 Santa Barbara, CA UCSB
10/31 San Diego, CA House of Blues
11/2 San Francisco, CA Slim’s
10/15 Charlotte, NC Visulite Theatre
10/17 Orlando, FL The Social
10/18 Delray Beach, FL City Limits
10/19 St. Petersburg, FL The State Theatre
10/21 Houston, TX Warehouse Live Studio
10/22 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
10/23 Austin, TX Antone’s
10/26 Tucson, AZ The Rock
10/27 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour
10/30 Santa Barbara, CA UCSB
10/31 San Diego, CA House of Blues
11/2 San Francisco, CA Slim’s
(Another artist VH1 plays as a "You Oughtta Know" that I can annoy my coworkers with!)
Maybe I'm a little too John Cusack in "High Fidelity?"
There's still no pleasing the coworkers musically in the morning. Today the female coworker whined "Where are my headphones? She's listening to some poppy sh*t!" This was as I had VH1 on during the Jordin Sparks video for "One Step at a Time," a song I love. A also flipped over to CMT expecting some protest but didn't get any. Yesterday I was musing that they only like mainstream stuff. I was wrong; they don't like that either. I'll keep trying. Music used to bring us together earlier in the summer but since shifts have changed, not so much.
On the air tonight!
I'm on the air from 7pm-12am tonight, filling in for our night chick Monica Nelson. (Arizona time). Listen online at 987theppeak.com. I'm going to be talking about a benefit going on tonight at Mesa High to benefit the family in this Today Show piece. Of course, being the eve of the seven year anniversary of 9-11, we should probably send out a good song to the New Yorkers of the Valley.
iTunes 8 Review: Waiting for the Genius to begin
Everyone I follow on Twitter seems to have a complaint today about Genius, the new intuitive addition to iTunes in today's version 8 rollout touted as "artificial intelligence." It's about time Apple tried to compete with Pandora and Last.fm. I've never seen anyone not get hooked on Pandora immediately.
Complaints about Genius so far are that it's not really all that smart or intuitive--not good for a product called "Genius." The software itself promised it would get better over time as I prepared to install it. So we'll wait. Until then...
I play Gavin DeGraw and it comes up with some OK recommendations in Genius like Augustana and Matt Nathanson. But it also recommends the deplorable Ashlee Simpson! Clearly Genius needs some time indeed.
So I pull up Keyshia Cole. Now my recommendations from the Genius are more on point with R&B/hip-hop artists like The Dream, Ne-Yo, Lyfe Jennings, Jennifer Hudson, etc.
Playing Pink brings up chick-pop related artists like Christina Aguilera, A Fine Frenzy, Leona Lewis and Gwen Stefani. I think my Last.fm brought up Gwen Stefani and Leona Lewis on the same playlist yesterday...not sure about how they compliment one another's sound. The song I am currently listening to is actually Pink with the Indigo Girls called Dear Mr. President. The previous artists are not sonic matches to this song at all. They are more like industry matches. Some of the Genius recommendations for Pink that do sort of work are...well, none. I'm actually wondering how Snow Patrol and Rob Thomas got onto this list, unless it's powered by industry parameters like, "Well, if she's a HOT AC artist, so is Thomas and so is Snow Patrol, so throw them on the list." I'd like to know how the developers at Apple worked this out.
These are recommendations on things to buy, so it's not really creating free radio station-style playlists like Pandora and Last.fm do. If you're listening to a song in one of your iTunes playlists, you click the Genius button in the lower right corner and it will create a playlist of music similar to that song for you to listen to. It creates that playlist out of songs you already own in your library. So it's not playing new stuff you've never heard of like Pandora and Last.fm do. But it will give you recommendations on new (to you) stuff you can buy. That's the difference.