Sadly, Kanye is not on this year’s WTF Grammy list, which has us wondering, is he taming down or saving his energy for something doubly shocking? Only time will tell. In the meantime, there were plenty of bewildering/confusing/awkward moments to tide us over.

1) No one knows who Bon Iver is. Really? This is like last year’s who the f**k is Arcade Fire moment. Bon Iver won best new artist, though he’s not exactly new on the scene. A new Twitter account has been created in recognition, called Who Is Bonnie Bear?

2) Nicki Minaj’s Grammy ensemble made her usual skin-bearing outfits look conservative. Minaj channeled her religious side, donning a red Versace Catholic-inspired robe. She had a Pope look-a-like escort her and later performed an exorcism on herself — not sure how her date felt about that part. We’re comparing this to Lady Gaga’s egg moment of last year.

3) The most ironic moment of the night goes to the Foo Fighter’s walking off the stage to LMFAO’s “Party Rock” after winning best rock performance. Grohl shouted “long live rock ‘n’ roll” as the electro pop song negated their point.

4) Coldplay got slack for his cracking voice. We all thought Adele was the one to worry about, what with her throat surgery and all, but apparently Chris Martin and Rihanna’s performance was not a favourite. Strangely, a Chipotle commercial aired right after the performance, featuring Coldplay’s music, prompting many to say the commercial represented an actual Coldplay performance. I don’t see the big deal! I don’t think his voice was that bad. Just me? Okay.

5) The Beach Boys reunion underwhelmed audiences. I hate to say it, but it kind of felt like a performance for a Florida retirement home. The California boys shared the stage with Maroon 5 and Foster the People. Foster the People has my vote as best of the three, though the band looked scared out of their minds.

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In Butch Walker and the Black Widows latest music video, People’s Sexiest Man Alive reprises the role that put him on the map – Wooderson from Dazed & Confused.

It has been almost two decades and even though McConaughey has aged, his classic stoner character stays the same age. This collaboration on Butch Walker’s video from his album ‘The Spade’ came out of a health dose of nostalgia.

“When it comes to classic characters, McConaughey’s ‘Wooderson’ took the cake and the high school girls with him,” Walker told Entertainment Weekly.

McConaughey added, “If you loved Dazed and you loved Wooderson, you’ll see this and you’ll probably get the tickle box pretty quick.”

Wooderson stumbles into a club with a handful of LMFAO and Jersey Shore doppelgangers and sets a stark contrast of how pathetic popular culture has changed. Also – keep your eyes peeled for a classy Ron Jeremy cameo.

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Redfoo summed up his Honduras concert perfectly when he tweeted, ”Epic concert tonight!!!! Everybody in Honduras, we set the place on fire!!!!” LMFAO’s concert got cut short last night when the venue caught on fire, and it’s believed this is no accident.

According to local news reports, the fire broke out at the Coliseo Nacional de Ingenieros … towards the end of the LMFAO concert. The group ended early after the stadium filled with smoke.

15 people were treated for smoke inhalation, and it is believed the fire was done on purpose. Redfoo later tweeted, “On a serious note. Hope everybody is safe from the fire tonight! love you Honduras!”

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2011, like any other year, was full of sex, drugs, violence and even some dancing monkeys. Music videos from such artists like Bruno Mars and Britney Spears have kept us entertained from January until December. Here at andPOP, we can’t wrap up a fantastic year without discussing our top ten music videos.

10. Dr. Dre and Eminem – “I Need a Doctor” 

Dr. Dre’s first official single in over a decade and we love how the video walks us through the rapper’s life.

9.  Beyonce – “Countdown”

This video would have been much higher on the list if the song wasn’t so brutal to listen too, not to mention a blatant rip-off of over music videos from the past.

8. Bruno Mars – “The Lazy Song” 

We love how this dance sequence with the monkeys was all done in one shot. It must have taken Bruno and the gang a few tries before getting it perfect.

7. Britney Spears – “Criminal” 

We see Britney in a whole new light with this video. We also see her in some compromising positions with her real-life fiance, Jason Trawick. Hot, hot hot!

6. Cher Lloyd – “With Ur Love” 

This gets placed in sixth for being incredibly cute and PG.

5. LMFAO – “Party Rock Anthem”

What song makes us want to dance out in the streets than this one by LMFAO? They definitely put the ‘party’ in ‘party rock anthem’ with this wild dance video.

4. Lady Gaga – “Marry the Night”

The first video Gaga directed independently may not make much sense but damn, you just can’t take your eyes off of it.

3. Katy Perry – “Last Friday Night”

This music video reminds us of all the cheesy romantic comedies from the ’80s. This is also the only place you’d ever see Katy rockin’ a neck brace and neon spandex.

2. Rihanna – “We Found Love”

We found lots of controversy surrounding this Rihanna video. It’s quite ironic how similar the actor in the video looks to her ex, Chris Brown.

1. Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett – “Body and Soul”

Seeing as it’s the last video we’d ever see from the soul singer, it takes the cake for best video of 2011. Amy’s collaboration with Tony Bennett sounds incredibly beautiful and is a great way to remember her.

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Adele continues to roll in the praise by making Billboard history as the first female singer to top the artist, album and singles list in the same year.

The 23-year-old  Brit beat out Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga in the American magazine’s prestigious Best Artist and No.1 Billboard 200 Album (with ’21′). She fought off the likes of LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem and Katy Perry’s Firework to become top single with ‘Rolling in the Deep’. Although, it’s really a no-brainer.

Tye Corner, editor over at Billboard.com, said that “her success is really inspiring because it shows that there is still room in the music industry for an artist to make it with true, raw talent.

“It’s not necessarily always about the outrageous outfits or flashy videos, but an amazing voice coupled with the right song still has the ability to turn the ears of millions of people and keep them interested.”

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An artist that goes by the name of Mashup-Germany has compiled a wonderful mashup of the most popular songs of 2011.

From Taio Cruz’s “Hangover” to Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” to Rihanna’s “We Found Love” this DJ mixes the best with nothing but the best. It’s an incredible song to play at your next Christmas or New Year’s Eve party!

What are you waiting for? Polish off your dancing shoes and listen to this song over and over again.

The fun video was produced by PANOS T. Check it out below.

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Natalia Kills has been slowly murdering her way through the music industry by working with industry heavyweights (Will.i.am, Akon, LMFAO) and her debut album “Perfectionist” debuted on North American shelves this past Tuesday.

Born Natalia Keery-Fisher, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter was signed onto Interscope’s Cherrytree Records label in 2008, after the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am heard her “Wommanequin” EP. The demo was self-written and produced by Kills, showcasing talent that catapulted her into a promising direction that landed a feature on LMFAO’s single “Champagne Showers” and her debut EP.

Although she may be the best female-singer-you-haven’t-heard-of-yet, her single “Mirrors” has already cracked the top ten in Austria, Germany, Poland and the United States. A change of pace from her past-life as an actress.

Her sound is a pinch of Lady Gaga with a fiercer-punch of Kate Bush, and it has been labeled as ‘revenge-pop’, electropop and ‘synth-pop’, but she describes it as “pop with an opinion”. In other words, she delivers a much needed refreshing dose of attitude that the Christina’s and the Britney’s have faked.

“I’m a perfectionist. It’s the source of all my ambition, desire and drive. But, it’s also what destroys me sometimes.”

Her stage-name “Kills” defines that passion and mentality to commit herself entirely to her music. And as a singer-songwriter, that commitment to her art has drawn inspiration out of every aspect of her life.

“I wrote ["Free"] when I was broke and writing songs in my tiny apartment, trying to figure out how to pay the rent,” says Kills of penning her single, which she also notes as her favourite song to play live. “But, I was still happy. When I went out I felt fabulous and I wanted everyone to know that style is not dictated by how much money you have or where you shop. We should be free from our possessions and not let material things own us or effect our happiness.”

Kills has come a long way from that tiny apartment, going on tour with big names like Bruno Mars, Ke$ha, Black Eyed Peas and will be supporting Katy Perry on her California Dreams Tour later this month.

When we spoke with Kills, the sudden passing of Amy Winehouse was fresh and she felt a strong connection to the pop-singer.

“I’ve always been a huge fan, and not just because I’m English. She’s truly one of the greats, and I relate to all other artists like myself who write about personal afflictions and deeper darker places. I know from experience that when you write about your true pain it has to be because you battle with it. We were lucky to have her, and at least she gets to escape her pain now.”

Her album “The Perfectionist” can be streamed on her website and is also available in stores and on iTunes now.

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LMFAO is number 1 on the Billboard chart. “Party Rock Anthem” has been number 1 for four weeks now. The boys have some pretty tough competition, but they are still holding strong. The compelete list is as follows:
1. LMFAO – “Party Rock Anthem”
2. Katy Perry – “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”
3. Pitbull – “Give Me Everything” ”
4. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”
5. Adele – “Rolling in the Deep
6. Lil Wayne – “How to Love”
7. Hot Chelle Rae – “Tonight Tonight”
8. Lady Gaga – “Edge of Glory
9. “OneRepublic – “Good Life”
10. Bad Meets Evil – “Lighters”

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On the surface people look at LMFAO and they see a couple of dudes singing about partying and picking up girls. And people think there isn’t any substance to the guys or the music. That would be an incorrect judgement as LMFAO knows exactly what they are doing. As we learned when talking to the two gentlemen, these guys know how to write hits, market themselves and are very strategic about their art.

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Attention all Jersey Shore fans, get those fists pumping.  On July 20, MTV and Universal Republic Records are going to release the Jersey Shore Soundtrack, reports MTV News.

The soundtrack will consist of a collection of songs inspired by the hit series.

The first single off of the album is “I Like It,” which is a collaboration between Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull.  The club-ready single will be available on iTunes, May 5.

The album features other artists including: Lil Jon, LMFAO, Taio Cruz and Akon.

“MTV is excited to join forces with Universal Republic Records to bring the Jersey Shore Soundtrack to the show’s fans,” Amy Doyle, executive vice president of music and talent programming strategy,  MTV brands, said.  “From the clubs to the gym, there is going to be a lot of fist pumping and booty shaking going on this summer, and that’s just at my house.”

A deluxe edition of the soundtrack will also be available, which will include a bonus second CD, packed with music inspired by the first season of the “Shore.”

But don’t worry, the fist pumping doesn’t end there.

Fans still have the second season of the show to look forward to.  The show will follow Snooki, the Situation, JWoww, DJ Pauly D and the gang down to Miami’s South Beach before returning to their house in Seaside Heights.

The second season will be premiering on Thursday, July 29 at 10 p.m. on MTV.

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Electro-rap due LMFAO had to shut down a concert Friday at Irving Plaza in New York City because of flooding, reports Perez Hilton.

The fire alarm went off and the sprinkler system began filling the plaza with water part way through the group’s second song.

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With the touch of a button, Nicolas Dresti delivers a shot of adrenaline to the sea of 30 thousand fans. Their screams are met with his quick rhythmic jumping and head bobbing to the beat on-stage. He’s not the main event, heck he’s not even a co-headliner, but he’s still the man orchestrating one of the hottest concerts on the planet – all from a laptop. This may be Lady Gaga’s party, but DJ Space Cowboy is the event’s power source – the battery that keeps the beat alive.

He’s now on top of the world.

On that night Dresti was the European energizer bunny, but now he’s recharging his own batteries at his hotel. It’s hard to believe that he is the key to Lady Gaga’s live performance successes. The man in the neatly-cut dark-suit and sparkling rhinestone skinny-tie seems sophisticated and quiet – the complete opposite of what a Gaga concert is notorious for.

But it’s true. Look at Dresti and his alter ego DJ Space Cowboy like you would Clark Kent and Superman – they’re both the same person, yet totally different at the same time. Put Clark Kent into a phone booth and he’ll become Superman. Well, put Dresti in front of an audio mixer and laptop, and he’ll suddenly transform into the backbone – or backbeat, if you will – as DJ Space Cowboy, Gaga’s DJ and head maestro responsible for explosive energy in any crowd.

His new album Digital Rockstar dropped earlier this week, and it’s one of the rare chances to really hear Superman-like energy harnessed into one CD.

“Raising the energy bar is one my main jobs as a DJ,” Dresti tells andPOP in the martini bar of Toronto’s Pantages Hotel.

Understand though, that he will do it any way possible. This is a man whose sole belief and line of work is to find the party factor in all depths of music. That’s basically the narrowed down version of his job.

“I prefer to do it with the Pop, Rock, Hip/Hop approach, but basically anything to get that killer reaction from an audience. Nothing beats spinning a song, and seeing a crowd go nuts. Nothing.”

Released by Cherrytree Records, the fourth studio project marks Dresti’s first album output with an American record label – a personal milestone for the Paris-born Disc Jockey. On that note, Dresti recalls how much the American DJ scene has evolved over the last few years. “There wasn’t much house music,” says Dresti in a refreshing British accent. “That was the big difference between here and back home.”

Before he got here, Dresti was busy amping up crowds in London’s underground club scene. There, he was a U.K. DJ extraordinaire – the protégé of British DJ legend Fatboy Slim.

But listing his accomplishments is of little interest to him. “Home is home. I was always musically inclined.”

He’s the kind of guy who refuses to mention that his passion led to a handful of singles, which flooded the charts in both the U.K. and the U.S. It was following the remix of Fergie’s Glamorous, which took the No. 2 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Airplay Chart in 2007, that Dresti released Digital Rock (2007) – his third and most valuable released album to-date.

“I was just trying to show the whole aspect of being a DJ and a rock-star at the same time,” explains Dresti about the term Digital Rock.

“Then, when I combined it with technology, guitars and synthesizers, it just all turned into this Digital Rock age which was a pretty important stage in my life.”

The album is the reason why he was presented with a signing deal to U.S. label Cherrytree Records – an Interscope Records imprint, which focuses on new artists – and the ergo-step to eventually meeting an up-and-coming artist from New York, who was also signed with the label, by the name of Lady Gaga.

“The label said I should meet with this girl, listen to her songs,” says Dresti.

He even recalls their first conversation.

“We actually spoke on New Years Eve. I was in London and she was in Los Angeles, and we just began talking about all our experiences

“We got along so well right away.”

You could say the two were speaking the same language, with conversation topics including sequins, disco balls, Prince, David Bowie and body paint. The U.K. man then flew to L.A. to help Gaga record the single Starstruck – which featured Flo Rida – on her debut album The Fame (2008).

“After we got to know each other better, she invited me to come on tour with her,” says Dresti.

And so he began mastering the sound beds for Gaga’s Fame Ball Tour, which kicked off last March. At that point, Dresti had already had years of experience fueling parties to know the true meaning of peak energy.

Or so he thought.

While working with Gaga, the DJ – who had previously worked and remixed with a variety of iconic artists from The Darkness to Sir Paul McCartney – witnessed energy being set to a new level.

“A unique thing about her,” begins Dresti, “is that whether you’re playing in a stairwell or a stadium, it always has to be the same energy. There’s no excuse, she’ll do whatever it takes. She’ll come to me five minutes before we go on stage and tell me she wants to switch this song in the set, and cut that verse out, and add this in…

“It’s enough to make you go crazy, but in a good way. She always sets the standards high.”

As the audiences grew bigger for each passing show, Dresti came to realize that he was on the most colossal tour of the year. Cities were being booked for two-a-night performances due to the high demand for tickets. The DJ found that with the rising popularity of the tour, so did his pressure to get more creative behind the laptop.

“I definitely had to sit down and start putting together some new sounds,” recalls Dresti. “For example, she (Gaga) would ask me for a song to dance to for two minutes on stage to represent something sad. So I would then try to incorporate other instruments like an organ or violin to find the right sound. Stuff like that.”

And when time would allow it while on the tour bus, Dresti would work on his own passion project, Digital Rockstar. He says it’s taken around a year to complete, and he can’t wait for it to hit the shelves. Shining brightly are songs like I Came 2 Party featuring Cinema Bizarre, Falling Down featuring Chelsea Korka from The Paradisco Girls and then a remixed version featuring LMFAO.

Simply put, it’s dance meets rock, meets party like a digital rockstar.

“Definitely a lot of work,” he says after a deep breath, smirking as he looks back on the experience. “I’m glad that’s finally all put together; looking forward to the reception.

“But then again, I’m also so glad that I got those artists to help me out.”

He seems a bit tired; maybe from the performance in Vegas the night before, or the North American solo tour that he’s been doing since the end of July. Luckily he now has a month break before the real fun begins.

There might not be a more perfect situation for his post-release promo-trip: LMFAO’s Party Rock Tour – 31 shows squeezed into a month and a half on the road from November 5 until December 20. A bunch of artists jumping up and down on stage, singing about partying, drinking and having a good time. It’s Dresti’s utopia.

“That truly, is going to be really exciting,” says the DJ who will be joined by the Far East Movement, Shwayze and the Paradiso Girls. “I love those guys and their work. A lot of DJs opt to play stuff by David Geutta or Black Eye Peas’ I Got A Feeling. It’s pretty big right now, but I like spinning with LMFAO a lot.”

Ideally he would love to work with David Bowie or even Kings of Leon, but as he gets up, he readjusts his rhinestone tie and parts with some insight. “I don’t always believe in going with the No. 1 charted song. That’s too easy.  Sometimes in order to get a crazy reaction, you’ve got to dig deep and pull off something unique. You’ve got to find a song that not everyone would really expect, but then show them the party factor.”

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New video for LMFAO!!! Funny per usual.

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Officially one of the funniest interviews of the year. I mean what else could it be when a group renames the interviewer “DJ BJ”. Really fun guys with some interesting stories about being on the road and being surrounded by ladies. We do apologize for the shaky camera work for Jenn’s intro that was also out of focus. We think our camera man was drunk or high when this was filmed.

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