Pink Rock Candy-Entertainment

Britney Spears’ new album Blackout came out today, and with all her outrageous antics it is very doubtful many people can review the album without displaying a jaded view. That is what is troubling me. I’ve heard the album, and though I’m not the Chris Crocker super-fan type, I have to be completely honest and say it isn’t that bad.

Don’t judge me yet!

Considering I have never felt Britney was some super diva with the most badass voice any human being has ever been blessed with, I have to judge Blackout against other Britney albums. So, if you’re looking for a Britney album, that’s what you’re going to get. I could say her music has evolved, but it hasn’t. I could go the other route and say she was trashed while recording the entire album and its completely terrible, but there is no way to prove her level of inebriation and the cd isn’t terrible. The album is just pure Britney; go to the club with your girlfriends and dance.

The songs bounce between Britney’s little girl voice and her seemingly seductive voice. The redundant lyrics, dancey beats, and tons of layering and overdubs create a 12-song album that despite your complete disdain for Ms. Spears is bound to get stuck in you head at least until you hear a song with some actual substance.

Overall, I wasn’t disappointed with this Britney album, and even kind of like some of the songs. You can hear my favorite song from Blackout, “Hot as Ice”, below.

Tracklisting:
1. Gimme More
2. Piece of Me
3. Radar
4. Break The Ice
5. Heaven On Earth
6. Get Naked (I Got A Plan)
7. Freakshow
8. Toy Soldier
9. Hot As Ice
10. Ooh Ooh Baby
11. Perfect Lover
12. Why Should I Be Sad

~ Armor For Sleep - Smile for Them
~ Britney Spears - Black Out
~ Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold
~ Backstreet Boys - Unbrekable
~ The Color Fred - Bend the Break
~ Baby Bash - Cyclone
~ Saves the Day - Under the Boards
~ EnderverafteR - Kiss or Kill
~ Queen - Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid
~ The Caribbean - Populations
~ Whitney Houston - The Ultimate Collection
~ Various Artists - I’m Not There [Soundtrack]
~ Larry the Cable Guy - Christmas in Larryland
~ Arrested Development - Since the Last Time
~ Luna Halo - Luna Halo
~ Nicole Atkins & the Sea - Neptune City
~ UnkleJam - UnkleJam
~ BobaFlex - Tales from Dirt Town
~ Will Downing - After Tonight
~ Anna Ternheim - Anna Ternheim [EP]
~ Enter Shakari - Take to the Skies

See the complete list here.

Remember when you were little, and the most interesting books were the pop-up books; it was like television for smart kids who liked to read. Now, Neiman Marcus is giving us fashionistas a way to go back to the wonderful days of nap-time, coloring books, and snacks with their very own pop-up book.

The Neiman Marcus Pop Up Book was created in celebration of Neiman Marcus’ 100 year history. The story follows a “young girl’s journey through Neiman Marcus from past to present”. If the story doesn’t interest you, its always fun to see the gorgeous, movable 3-D images.

You can get your copy of the Neiman Marcus Pop Up Book for $125 on the Neiman Marcus website.

Click to Zoom

- Cobra Starship “Viva La Cobra”
- Say Anything “In Defense of the Genre”
- Ryan Adams and the Cardinals “Follow the Lights” [EP]
- Coheed and Cambria “No World For Tomorrow”
- Relient K “Let It Snow, Baby…Let It Reindeer”
- Carrie Underwood “Carnival Ride”
- Far-Less A Toast to Bad Taste”
- Bizarre (of D-12) “Blue Cheese ‘N’ Coney Island”
- Cassius “15 Again”
- Skindred “Roots Rock Riot”
- The Temptations “Back to Front”
- Dave Gahan (of Depeche Mode) “Hourglass”
- Emmy Rossum (Actress) “Inside Out”
- Seether “Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces”
- Euros Childs “The Miracle Inn”
- The New Rivals The New Rivals
- Holy Fuck “Holy Fuck”
- The Redwalls “The Redwalls”
- Bo Bice “See the Light”
- Neil Young “Chrome Dreams II”
- The Thrills “Teenager”
- Siberian “With Me”
- Lorna Luft “Songs My Mother Taught Me”

See the complete list here.

As a girl with two younger brothers, one being very close to my age, I’ve shopped for guys since I was really young. My mom was always looking for my advice as to what was “cool” for boys my brother’s age to wear. As my brothers grew up, their taste in clothes, and my thoughts about what guys should wear began to vary. No longer was I the best source of “cool” clothes tips for my mom, but that left a void (my brothers don’t like to shop). Finally that void will be filled.

Daniel Peres, the editor-in-chief and the other great editors of Details have written a fashion book for men called the Details Men’s Style Manual. The book gives tips on everything from how to dress for work to how to pick the right pair of underwear. It also includes my favorite part from the magazine the “Rules of Style” section where different notable fashion icons like Tommy Hilfiger, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Giorgio Armani, and Michael Kors, give their 5 rules of style.

The Details Men’s Style Manual is published by Gotham Books. You can get a copy for yourself, or ladies, for your guy, at bookstores nationwide starting today, October 18th, 2007 for $30.00, but the hope this book will give to those of us who hate seeing guys in pants 8 sizes too big is priceless.

Recently one of our readers sent me an email about a band they really like called Your 33 Black Angels. Apparently they first heard about Y33BA by a friend and thought they were awesome. So, I headed to Y33BA’s myspace page to take a listen and they really are great!

Your 33 Black Angels is made up of Benji Kast, Tim Mumford, John O’Callaghan, Stevie Stapleton, and Josh Westfal. In their words:

“Y33BA was born in Brooklyn, but dreamed in a West Harlem flophouse. There was a bottle of Wild Turkey, grown men in boxers, and far too much bachata music going around. We were not fond of ’shoegazer’ sensibilities or requisite visits to tatoo parlors; we wanted to sing about the basics: cold merciless women, irresponsible philosophy and violence.”

Y33BA has remain pretty underground, though they independently released a cd called Lonely Street, earlier this year. Luckily for them the LP fell into the hands of the Senior Editor of Rolling Stone, David Fricke, and he gave them a glowing review saying Lonely Street was “one of this year’s treasures.” To me their sound is often reminiscent of the days when blues and rock were one, but I do agree with Fricke when he says, “The LP is worth the hunt for its pop-wise rattle (Pavement with a case of the Strokes) and singer Josh Westfal’s resemblance, in dry, frank voice and cautious optimism, to another local institution: Lou Reed on the Velvet Underground’s fourth album, Loaded.”

You can score Lonely Street on the bands myspace page (make sure to listen to “Sue,” its my favorite song), but you can hear their song “Psycho on You Side” right here!

- Jimmy Eat World “Chase This Light”
- The Jimmi Hendrix Experience “Live at Monterey”
- Santana “Ultimate Santana”
- Streophonics “Pull the Pin”
- The Cake Sale “The Cake Sale”
- Kenna “Make Sure They See My Face”
- Angie Stone “The Art of Love & War”
- Aretha Franklin “Rare and Unreleased Recordings from the Golden Reign of the Queen of Soul”
- Thrice “The Alchemy Index: Vils I & II-Fire & Water”
- Ben Forrest Davis “Roughs”
- Racing Cars “Second Wind”
- Moros Eros “Jealous Me Was Killed By Curiosity”
- Ryan Cohan “One Sky”
- The Busy Signals “The Busy Signals”
- The Blakes “The Blakes”
- The Makes Nice “This Time Tomorrow”
- Nate Schierman “Risk”
- Gabrielle “Always”
- To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie “The Patron”
- The Capstan Shafts “Environ Maiden”
- The Most Serene Republic “Population”
- Gov’t Mule “Mighty High”
- Sick City “Night Life”
- Neil Young “Chrome Dreams II”
- Toby Keith “A Classic Christmas”
- Various Artists “A Disney Channel Holiday”

The new Radiohead album In Rainbows came out yesterday, yes, yesterday, a Wednesday. That sort of ruins our list of new Tuesday releases, but Radiohead is still loved. So, why was the album able to come out on Wednesday instead of the normal Tuesday release day?

It seems, these days Radiohead is flying solo. By that I mean they have no record company to tell them what to do, and they like it that way. They were able to put out In Rainbows on whatever day they wanted, and they even allowed their fans to decide how much they thought the record was worth, at least for the downloadable MP3 version. They are also putting out a “diskbox” on December 3rd which contains physical copies including a vinyl version, a hard cover book, and additional tracks is £40 (about $80). They are also aiming to put out a cd version in January 2008.

Some people are whispering music revolution, but is it really possible to get rid of the middle man we called the record company and just let things go back to the days of the troubadour? Maybe, but I can’t help thinking, even though it is “about the music”, even if people only decide to pay $1 for In Rainbows the guys of Radiohead are bound to make more money than they would make if they were just getting a cut from the record companies profit.

If anything I think this is a great social experiment. Letting fans determine the price of an album really lets our voice be heard. For example I would probably pay a dime for the new Backstreet Boys cd or Soulja Boy’s cd, but if, let’s say, Led Zeppelin made a new cd I’d give my first born (do you think I could put that on my card?).

So, I have a few questions:
1) Did you download In Rainbows?
2) If so, how much did you think it was worth, and what did you think about it? (I paid the equivalent of about $10)
3) If Radiohead doesn’t happen to be your favorite artist, how much would you pay for your all time favorite artists new cd?