You’ve heard “We Are Young” all over the place, now check out what we think about fun.’s new album.
The Idiot Box: Community: “Regional Holiday Music”
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece on my Tumblr about NBC’s Community and how, more than anything, it’s about people living in relation with other people, overcoming their differences to establish a sense of togetherness and discover value, joy, and fellowship in one another. In that piece (some of which Todd VanDerWerff’s latest review seems to reaffirm, by the way), I cited “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”—the stop-motion Christmas episode from last season—as being the best episode of the series thus […]
The Popblerd Chart Report 9/29/11: Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A…
By debuting at #1 with Duets II, legendary crooner Tony Bennett sets a record-becoming the oldest living artist to score a number one album on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. At age 85, it’s hard to imagine anyone eclipsing that record anytime soon. Somewhat surprisingly, Duets II is also Bennett’s first-ever Number One album. You gotta love not only Bennett’s staying power, but also the fact that an artist like him, with no MTV or radio support, no publicity scandal or […]
Chart Stalker: Gaga Goes for a Mil
Pop star Lady Gaga leads this week’s Billboard album chart with her new album, Born This Way. It moves a jaw dropping 1.1 million units in it’s first week. It’s the biggest first week for any album since 50 Cent’s The Massacre dropped in 2005, and it’s the biggest first week for a female artist ever. Of course, Gaga’s achievement will come with an asterisk, as well over 400,000 copies of that were purchased from amazon.com during a promotion on […]
New Release Report 5/23/11: A Day Early for Gaga
It’s here, ladies and gentlemen. The anticipation has been building up since the beginning of the year, and now Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is available for you to take home. The music industry has been so hot to get this album out that they’ve pushed all releases for the week (which would normally be on Tuesday May 24th) to Monday the 23rd. Yup, folks, you can begin your work week with Stefani Germanotta and all of her dance-pop anthemry […]
The New Blerd Radio Episode 4: Sex & Violence
Girls-they run the world!! So Beyonce says, and Episode 4 of Blerd Radio puts that theory to the test. With five people talking in one room, things get a little interesting-aside from Blerd and Jesse, we are joined by Mrs. Jesse, Jesse’s BFF *sniff* Matt Cameron, bass player for Jack Burton vs. David Lo Pan and Matt’s wife, Liz. The girls lead us through a feisty few rounds of Fuck, Kill, Marry, we discuss the new releases of the week, Jesse gets a massive industrial hard-on, […]
New Release Report 5/10/11: Turtleneck, Chain & CDs
Spring is in full flower, y’all…and there’s another wide-ranging set of new music coming to you this week. A little bit of everything-from comedy to classic R&B to indie rock to Eighties icons-occasionally all on the same set. Here are the highlights from the May 10th release schedule. Raphael Saadiq–Stone Rollin‘: Following the critically acclaimed The Way I See It, former Tony Toni Tone/Lucy Pearl frontman Raphael Saadiq continues to mine the depths of classic R&B on this, his fourth […]
Chart Stalker 4/27/11: Easter Treats
Can we wrap up the Grammy Album of the Year category now? Adele’s 21 has been virtually carrying the music industry this year, and it returns to #1 this week. Sales of the British vocalist’s sophomore album increase 65% this week to an impressive 153,000 copies. For an album that’s already been out for over two months, that’s a pretty solid number. Adele’s total is almost double the quantity sold of the #2 album. The latest album from the “Glee” […]
New Release Report 4/19/11: Another Quiet Week, Another Not-Snappy Headline
A busy week followed by a quiet week. That seems to be the way things go in the music industry go these days. After a plethora of notable new albums hit the stores last week, things have chilled out majorly this week-as only a few moderately anticipated albums are going to show up on shelves. First and foremost (AKA the only album that will probably make chart noise in a week’s time) is yet another new Glee album. Glee: The […]
Mr. Schuester Goes Into the Recording Studio…
One reason I dislike “Glee” is because I feel as though it helps promote not-entirely-helpful stereotypes, most notably with the sassy overweight black girl character and the unnecessarily queeny gay kid. The preponderance of those types of characters in the media leads to expectations that every sista is gonna be a neck-snappin’ shoulder-swivelin’ loud type, and that every gay guy is gonna be an effeminate, shoulder bag-toting wimp. Simply not so, folks. Of course, in truly hypocritical fashion, the only […]