Universal gets a little Buzz

Interesting little snippet: Universal has thrown some cash in the direction of Buzznet, although through its Interscope label - which suggests it's a smart move by someone away from the centre of the company rather than a strategy devised by the lumbering giant itself.

It also appears that Buzznet have, through some share-shuffling, taken full ownership of Stereogum. Naturally, the 'gum will declare the link with Universal when writing about Universal artists... won't they?

50 Cent blames clock for flop

The very real possibility that 50 Cent's Curtis album sold underwhelmingly because he's lost whatever the it was that he once had doesn't seem to have occured to him, although he does admit he delivered a pup:

"It was a blockbuster that I lit, and it didn't explode,” the rapper said. “I felt like it should have went a lot further than the results I received.”

We're not quite sure why one would light a blockbuster, or, indeed, if something can be a blockbuster that doesn't explode, and it's clear that Cent is still trying to puzzle out why it didn't work.

“I feel that 50 Cent fans don't believe it was a dud,” he told MTV. “It did have 'I Get Money’, it did have 'Ayo Technology’, 'I'll Still Kill’, 'Follow My Lead' with Robin Thicke.

“These records were hit records, but the timing they came out was wrong.”

Aha. Timing. The record was a blockbuster, it just didn't sell because of time and not because it wasn't very good. And probably because of other people's faults, too:

The rapper admitted that had the record been marketed differently by his record label before its release it would have sold “more millions in sales.”

Yes. If, for example, they'd wrapped it in a sleeve with a picture of Kanye West on, it;d have sold many, many more millions.

Dave Grohl's political corner

So, it turns out that Dave Grohl's support for John Kerry at the last US elections wasn't entirely wholehearted:

During the last election I supported John Kerry on the campaign trail not as the guy from the Foo Fighters but as a citizen concerned about the future of this country. I did it because the Bush campaign was using some of our music at their rallies, and I didn't feel like the songs they were using made sense in the context of the message he was delivering. I couldn't stop them from using them; there's legally nothing really you can do. So I thought, Well, I'll go out and sing those songs at Kerry rallies, where they seem to make more sense -- songs about love and hope and compassion.

Oddly, he doesn't then go on to explain about his motivation behind playing gis in support of campaigners who claimed that HIV and AIDs were unrelated. Perhaps he'd heard some people with actual medical knowledge playing his songs and wanted to counterweigh against that.

Hustler: Laughing in the face of teen pregnancy

We suppose, to be fair, the idea of superimposing Jamie Lynn Spears' face on a promo poster for Juno is mildly diverting, but it's not as funny as Hustler seem to think:

Hustler's Editorial Director Bruce David says, "We just couldn't let this one slip by us! The pregnant 16-year-old sister of Britney Spears, it's too perfect! You can't make this stuff up!"

You can't make this stuff up? Yes you can - look:

Kevin Federline is going to have a baby with Lindsay Lohan

See? You can make this stuff up. It's very easy.

Although the general level of inventiveness at the magazine suggests that maybe they can't. This is the sort of thing they've done:

Kevin Federline, who is accredited as saying, "Even I wouldn't have fucked Jamie Lynn... unless there was some cash in it."

Yeah, she might be Britney Spears' sister, but she's still a sixteen year old girl. Is that really a fair thing to be publishing?

Gahan insists: it was an accidental OD

Apparently Dave Gahan is annoyed that people still put his drugs OD down to a suicide attempt when, really, he just was rubbish at measuring out his drugs:

"I'm painfully aware that was not what I was trying to do. All I was trying to do was disappear for a while, and that became a lost weekend."

Yeah, it must really irritate that people think you took a speedball to kill yourself rather than just because there was nothing on HBO that evening.

Darkness at 3AM: Worst. Headline. Ever. Again.

The Mirror really needs to think about how it publishes the 3AM content online, doesn't it? Somehow, it's managed to generate an article with the headline (and, indeed, only linking material) "Radio 1 DJ Reggie Yates".

The team are also pushing the Becks not invited to Rooney wedding story that everyone else had a couple of days ago, and the ratings for Britney's How I Met Your Mother ratings, which were published on Thursday. Presumably the idea is that if you read the Mirror these days, you're not exactly going to be in the loop.

They even end the Britney piece:

Well Brit, you did it again.

Which besides being a lazy reference for a Britney Spears article, doesn't even sound like the song title and doesn't really make sense. When did she last add a couple of million viewers to sitcom audience?

Gordon in the morning: The wedding planner

Some hefty backpedaling this morning as Gordon attempts to explain why the French wedding of Coleen and Wayne might not happen, despite having told us it was all planned. It turns out there's rules in France:

[T]he biggest stumbling block is the fact they would need to prove they had been residents in the town where they marry for at least 40 days.

Just in case it does happen, Gordon allows there's a workaround:

The source added: “There are ways round this, like renting a flat in their names for a month or so before the marriage."

And then Gordon's source gives another get out in case it doesn't happen:

“But that can get complicated and, of course, expensive."

This, remember, is a wedding that Gordon was confidently predicting will cost three million quid. Now he's telling us it might be scuppered because Rooney wouldn't spend a couple of hours' wages hiring a one-bedroom flat above a suburban bakery to keep it all on track?

Elsewhere, Gordon has a picture of a young Lily Allen wearing some headphones. It's interest, such as it is, is that it's a picture of a young Lily Allen wearing headphones. In other words, the sort of thing that Keith might find in a shoebox, have a little smile, and then put back in the shoebox. For some reason, though (that reason being 'not actually having very much stuff to put in his column') Gordon decides to run it, and then has to try and think of a reason for publishing it:

Lily Allen's fame was inevitable

LOOKING at this vintage LILY ALLEN snap, it seems she was always going to be famous.

It shows the Smile singer as a child on stage at posh Millfield School in 1996.

The second pic is the star out and about in North London yesterday.

Not much has changed if you ask me...

A snapshot of a child wearing headphones shows "fame was inevitable", does it Gordon? In what way, exactly?

Talking of free downloads

Spaceage heartbreakers Ladytron are punting a free download of Black Cat as a way of drawing you attention to the rather hefty line-up of US dates they've got planned:

May
20 - Edmonton, A.B. @ The Starlite Room
21 - Calgary, A.B. @ The Warehouse
23 - Vancouver, B.C. @ Commodore Ballroom
24 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox
25 - Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
27 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Fillmore
29 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Henry Fonda
30 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Henry Fonda
31 - San Diego, Calif. @ The Belly Up

June
2 - Salt Lake City, Utah @ In The Venue
3 - Denver, Colo. @ The Gothic
5 - Dallas, Texas @ Palladium Ballroom
6 - Austin, Texas @ Stubbs
7 - Houston, Texas @ Meridian
8 - New Orleans, La. @ House Of Blues
10 - Orlando, Fla. @ Club Firestone
11 - Tampa, Fla. @ Czar
12 - Miami, Fla. @ Studio A
13 - Atlanta, Ga. @ Variety Playhouse
15 - Manchester, Tenn. @ Bonnaroo Festival *
16 - St. Louis, Mo. @ The Pageant
17 - Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theater
18 - Detroit, Mich. @ St. Andrews Hall
25 - New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
26 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Theater of Living Arts
27 - Baltimore, Md. @ Sonar
28 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club
30 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise

July
2 - Montreal, Q.C. @ Metropolis (Jazz Fest)
3 - Quebec City, Q.C. @ Theatre Imperial de Quebec (Summer Fest)
4 - Toronto, O.N. @ Harbourfront Centre

New Old things

The Old 97s have been quiet for a while. Stone quiet for four years, in fact. They're back now, though: there's a new album, Blame It On Gravity, and as part of the run-up, a free mp3. We say free: they want your details in return for a free download; sign up for mailings, and you'll get a video for free in a couple of weeks, too.