k-os First Week Sales

Fantastic debut week for k-os in the U.S.

Atlantis: Hymns for Disco debuts at #152 after moving 5,700 copies
Source: MTV.com

Not bad at all for a "new" artist who has not received a lot of airplay yet. 152 and rising!

Jenna Jameson...the pictures speak for themself

From thesuperficial.com


http://thesuperficial.com/2007/02/jenna_jameson_looks_like_beef.html

Oh no, I think I like Avril's new song

Oh no, I think I like Avril's new song.

Let me say first, I am incredibly surprised at the lyrics. Avril got married so I expected to hear a more mature sounding Avril on this record, or at least, more age-appropriate lyrics.

Here is a few lines from the song, that sums up the track in case you haven't heard it (it's called "Girlfriend" by the way):

"She's like so whatever
You can do so much better
I think we should get
together now
And that's what everyone's talking about."

Ya.

So back to me liking it… I can't control what sticks in my head. I think I'll get it over it in a few days after I've heard it a few more times, but let the record show that on this day, I liked an Avril Lavigne song and am admitting it.

Like, so, whatever.

Britney Said No, No, No

Best Youtube video of the moment.

Britney Spears, to the tune of Amy Winehouse

Trump and Thai

She’s hot. She’s smart. She’s powerful.

She’s a Trump! (and my new celeb crush)

Ivanka is pure class set atop an unbelievable pair of legs.

“If I were to go off the rails and become this party kid, I would not be able to afford my lifestyle. I’ve never had a sense of entitlement. I saw how hard my father worked for his money and it was always made very clear to me that things wouldn’t just be given to me.”

PS: On an unrelated note---
If you’re in Toronto and looking for a good Thai restaurant— avoid the Golden Thai on Church Street. I’ve been to almost every Thai joint in the city and I consider myself quite the connoisseur. The food is mediocre and the wait staff is much like Paris Hilton attempting long division— slow and attitudy.

Woe is k-os

Kheaven, Kheaven, Kheavan.

You had a huge, important audience last night when you performed on Letterman, and, err, ehhh.

You know how when Avril Lavigne performs "Complicated" now, since she's done so at least a billion times before, she kinda does it half-ass, and we're ok with that, since we understand that she's as sick of the song as we are, and it's also kind of appreciated that she does it half-ass because at least that means it will sound a bit different?

Ya, her attitude is kind of like the one you had last night, except the American audience didn't know your song and thus, did not "get" you.

Did you forget the words in the middle?

K-Os - Sunday Morning, Letterman 2-20-07
Uploaded by HVokp

k-os in the U.S.

Can k-os make it in the U.S.?

Canada's most successful rapper will find out the answer this week.

His latest album, "Atlantis: Hymns for Disco," is being released in the U.S. today. His previous two albums received U.S. releases, but they weren't pushed properly. The material on the albums was far superior than what was being played on radio, but radio just didn't know the material was out there. (If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?)

k-os will be on Letterman tonight, he is in newspapers across the country including USA Today, and the Washington Times gave him an incredible review, calling him "the Mos Def of the north," a combination of "John Legend's musical ingenuity, Lauryn Hill's vocal versatility and the Roots' kinetic and intelligent vibe," and simply "fantastic."

"It seems he's ready to put it all on the line with this one -- in both experimental and confessional senses -- and for listeners, the gamble pays real dividends," the Times writes in the review. "Look out durrty, durrty; an artistic assault is coming from the northland."

The Washington Post also gives it a kick-ass review. As does the New York Post.

The album "has such kick that it deserves to bring his influence to the U.S. with the punch of a Canadian cold front," writes the New York Post.

Not all the comments are glowing.

The Boston Herald reviewed his show with the Gym Class Heroes (k-os is opening for them across the U.S.) and said this: "While his recordings prove he’s the most talented act in the lineup, Toronto rapper K-OS spent a half-hour trudging through the night’s laziest set. Reclined tracks such as “Superstarr” and “EMCEE Murdah” might have worked as closers, but not at 5:30 p.m., when he hit the stage. Beyond his poor song selection, K-OS fumbled in the freestyle department. His weak improvisation was slightly remedied by his fiery “Sunday Morning” encore, but not before the crowd stopped paying attention."

They also called his set a "disappointment."

PopMatters gave the album a 7/10.
The album's first week sales will be out next Tuesday, but don't think the numbers mean anything. If it doesn't make the top 100, it doesn't mean he failed. This is an album that will take time to grow. People need to hear it. As they become familiar with the Toronto artist, they will buy the album. Can he make it? We'll judge that properly in a few months.

Separated at Birth?

Could this be Britney's fa-ja?

Get Better Soon, Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor, one of the best MuchMusic VJs, is in an induced coma after having emergency surgery Thursday morning.

From muchmusic.com:

Early Thursday morning MuchMusic VJ Sarah Taylor underwent emergency surgery at a hospital in Las Vegas to relieve pressure on her brain. Sarah is now in the intensive care unit and is in stable condition. She is in an induced coma to help the recovery process. At this time, it is not known what caused the pressure. Members of Sarah's family and the MuchMusic team are with her in Las Vegas. Sarah was in Las Vegas on assignment for MuchMusic. Further details will be released here as they become available. The thoughts and best wishes of the entire MuchMusic and CHUM family are with Sarah and her family.
-David Kines, VP Music & Youth Services, CHUM Television

Everyone at andPOP wishes her a speedy recovery.

Shut your windows when it snows

This is an actual email I just received.

Can the owner of a silver Pontiac Grand Prix, license# A*****, please contact
security immediately at extension# **** as you have left your passenger side
window open and your car is filling with snow.

I repeat, aside from the **** to block out some info, 100% real email.

Another Award Show Down The Drain

Alright, so the Black Eyed Peas (led by Fergie) won a Grammy for their 'song' "My Humps." This to me says a few things: a) The world is most likely going to come to a swift end as hell has indeed frozen over. b) These awards are a complete and utter joke. c) Today's youth has zero taste

Disagree? Please help me understand the artistic merit in the following:

"I met a girl down at the disco. She said hey, hey, hey yea let's go. I could be your baby, you can be my honey. Let's spend time not money. And mix your milk wit my cocoa puff, Milky, milky cocoa puff, Mix your milk with my cocoa puff, milky, milky riiiiiiight."

Seriously.
I’m very curious to know how one justifies listening to this.

Behind the Scenes: Junos nominations

Junos! I have no intro to this blog entry, other than to say I was at the Junos nominations press conference on Tuesday and would have liked to see more food. I'm half kidding. Don’t you hate when journalists complain about such petty things? Seriously though, those mini hot dogs go a long way at a two-hour event that runs until 6 p.m.

I will blog more about the choices for each category at a later date, because I have a lot to say. The Junos get better and better every year. The decision for who gets nominated gets worse. k-os got five nominations but he should have easily been nominated for a ton more.

The Mod Club was not the ideal place to hold the Junos nominations press conference for a few reasons (and for the record, the Mod Club is one of the best venues for a concert in Toronto, just not for large press events). First problem is parking. After 4 p.m. (which is when the press conference began), parking on the main streets becomes illegal, and with no parking lots nearby, it meant trying to find a spot on the side streets. Luckily, I found one spot a block away, but for the reason of parking alone, Mod Club was a bad place for this event. Second, space. They had all the media set up on the side, which was raised about one foot or two feet off the ground, but it was very cramped. Each media outlet had a sign that said where they were supposed to stand, and if people stuck to their spots, there would have been no room for any artists to walk through and we would have been interviewing ourselves and that would have been weird and pointless and we'd have a bunch of quotes that aren't usable.

Events like these are good because the media are calm. There were quite a few outlets, but since there was not that one "get," (that one big name) everyone was patient. If k-os, Nelly or Billy Talent happened to be there, there would surely been more of a struggle to get time with the artists. But since all the artists were willing to speak until everyone was happy, everyone left with exactly what they wanted and needed. (And one media member who will go unnamed got about 10 times as much as this media member wanted.)

Some more observations:
-Canadian Idol Melissa O'Neil was holding a purse that weighed about 10 pounds. She had come from a writing session and brought all of her notebooks with her. She said she "hopes" to record a second album but there are no guarantees. I hope they give her a chance to do another album.
-Canadian Idol Eva Avila is hilarious. Great person to interview.
-I swapped glasses with Jacksoul and we have very similar prescriptions. His frames probably cost more though.
-Kudos to R&B singer Deesha for her R&B/Soul Recording nomination. She's an independent artist who just released an album and she came to the press conference with no idea what to expect. Without a publicist, she kindly introduced herself to me, and I hope all the other media outlets took time to speak with her as well. The girl has charisma and spunk. Check her out at deesha.com.
-Kyle Riabko performed two songs and killed it as usual.
-I'm no Stabilo expert but I was sure I have been hearing their music on the airwaves for at least three years now. And it's true. I have had their album Cupid since 2004. So how do they get nominated for Best New Group??? As one of the members joked with me after the announcements, he hopes they get the same nomination next year too.-Am I the only one who thinks Canadian music kinda sucked in 2006? Look at this year's list of nominees compared to last year's and it probably would have been best just to skip the Junos this year. "Sorry guys, nothing too impressive this year, see you in 2008! (Have good mosh peeting)"

Check out our coverage and watch the video

NBA Player Comes Out

So if you haven't heard, former mediocre NBA player John Amaechi has decided to tell the world that he is gay.

Here is Philadelphia 76ers forward Shavlik Randolph's reaction, when asked what he thought about what it would be like to have a gay teammate:

"As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine."

Behind the Scenes: Borat's Ken Davitian

If you haven't seen Borat, I'm not talking to you.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of something 'er other was the funniest movie of 2006, and I'm going to predict now that no movie in 2007 tops it.

When I found out Azamat Bagatov, the "producer" of Borat (in the movie, not the actual film) was not real but rather an American actor, I was surprised. I assumed he was an actor but I also assumed he had an accent of some kind. Nope, he's Ken Davitian, an American actor who has appeared in many shows and movies.

During our 25-minute phone interview, Ken shared the secrets of Borat, his Golden Globes experience and much more. We started the interview with him leaving his house in L.A. and it ended with him sitting in the parking lot somewhere, ready to walk into an audition.

This is a man who has been an actor for 30 years, but a celebrity now for just a few months. That's a huge difference. He had a plethora of roles under his belt, but no fame. Now he is "inside the bubble" of Hollywood, not outside, as he explained in the interview. He is genuinely so humbled by the experience and so excited to see what is next in his career.

An interesting thing to take note of, he had been promoting Borat for months but had to remain in character. Only now can he do interviews as himself and can finally show people that he's a real actor.

Another note I will share is that after the interview, he had to call me back because he couldn't remember someone's name he had referred to. So he called me back with the name and then said to make sure I tell the Smashing Pumpkins he wants to be in another of their music videos. As you'll read in the interview, he played a very weird character in one of their videos a few years ago, and he was surprised to learn that the band was getting back together.

I know we have not seen the last of Ken Davitian and it will be interesting to see what his next role will be.

Read the interview at andPOP.

Out-of-Towners, Out-of-my-mind

A few nights ago, I watch watching "The Out-of-Towners," the 1999 film starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn.

I fell asleep midway through and woke up two hours later and "The Out-of-Towners" was on but this time, it was the 1970 version starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.

Why did that movie channel have to scare me like that? I thought I had gone back in time.