¡viva la graham!

Nearly two months after the new Cobra Starship single made the rounds on music blogs (including here), the flashy video has finally been finished. The infectious “(I Make) Good Girls Go Bad,” which features Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester as guest vocalist, has summer guilty pleasure written all over it — perhaps in the same vein as that silly 3OH!3 song with the Helen Keller lyric. Only better! It probably doesn’t hurt that Meester has been in the news lately thanks to a scandalous sex tape she allegedly filmed several years ago…

As far as the promo clip goes, I love that it takes place in a secret club tucked away in the back of an urban grocer. The meat hanging in the door of what appears to be the freezer is an especially nice touch… but the plot twist at the end scores most, as it puts a clever spin on the helpless-good-girls theme. I should have seen it coming!

Check out the spooky new video for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Heads Will Roll,” the second single from the band’s brilliant new electronic-influenced effort, It’s Blitz! The dark clip, which features a blood-thirsty werewolf and a doomed Karen O in another sparkly costume, dropped about a month ago — but somehow I missed it until today. The horror film vibe suits the song’s death-at-the-disco theme quite well.

The New York-based band is working the European festival circuit this summer, including appearances at Glastonbury and T in the Park in the U.K. and Roskilde in Denmark. Fingers crossed a U.S. tour will follow in the autumn…

Up-and-coming dance artist Lauren “Hildy” Hildebrandt made her Music City debut last night at Play dance bar, where she performed four songs from her brand new album, Not Really a Waitress. (Preview and purchase at amazon.com!) She definitely wowed the crowd with her impressive pipes and sex-kitten choreography, especially with lead single “Boyshorts” — which is pretty much tailor-made for the gays. The Californian bottle-blonde even pulled a member of the audience up on stage for the funky, mid-tempo “Mr. Wrong,” a sassy anthem for anyone whose ever been played.

Dressed in a short silver & purple halter dress, Hildy headlined the popular club’s Pride pre-party event. After the energetic set, the down-to-earth diva told ¡viva la graham! that her second single will be “Underneath,” another sweaty, surefire floor-filler, but in the meantime you can check out the cute video for “Boyshorts” below.

The Nashville Pride festival, which features another dance diva by the name of Deborah Cox (”Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here”), takes place today at downtown’s Riverfront Park. Cox will also sing at Play tonight.

Yesterday Mariah Carey debuted her new single, “Obsessed,” a slick hip-pop jam co-written with The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. Though the producers admit the surprisingly aggressive track is directed at someone in particular, they coyly refused to name names. Stream it below:

It’s not hard to figure out her target is Eminem — the rapper has constantly dogged Carey in the press plus the song features the lyric “Will the real M.C. please step to the mic?,” a thinly veiled reference to his mega-hit “The Real Slim Shady.” It’s a tactic that will surely draw enough media attention and airplay to help catapult the track to the top of the charts. Damn, Mimi is one of the smartest crazies on the planet! It doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty damn catchy as well…

Now let’s get to the best part. It was also announced that her forthcoming disc is titled Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, which is right up there with the Emancipation of Mimi as one of the most ridiculous ever. I love it.

PS. Drag queens across the country are already practicing this shit for Saturday night performances. Trust.

The fake news geniuses at The Onion have done it again with this hysterical parody of radical conservatives against gay marriage. Their worry in this scathing segment? Gay men and women could undergo “quick, simple” gender reassignment surgeries to get around the current same-sex marriage bans. I know all of the fags out there just clutched their peens in protest, but considering how clueless some of the crazies seem to be, this doesn’t seem that far-fetched. Ok, maybe it does!!

The outrageous picket signs might be my favorite part…

I love me some Lady GaGa but this shit right here is not flattering. Where to start? The hair, the makeup, the bubbles? I’m happy for her scoring the cover of Rolling Stone, but I can’t help but feel bad because she looks terrible.

On a positive note, latest single “Love Game” is shaping up to be North American hit no. 3 for GaGa. The track recently leaped into the top thirty and looks set to go top twenty in the next few weeks. So despite an unfortunate magazine cover, she must be doing something right.

Royksopp has unveiled the video for smashing new single “The Girl and the Robot,” and it’s just as amazing as I hoped. Robyn looks stunning and plays the lonely housewife part well, the set design is cooly futuristic, and the robot is, well, strange. I especially like the twist at the end, even if it is completely ridiculous…

One random question — I’m wondering when Robyn sings about nodding off in front of MTV, was she watching The Hills?? (Ed. note: Too easy!)

I’ve been playing the hell out of The Ting Tings‘ “That’s Not My Name” recently, which puts me about a year behind the U.K., where it shot to No. 1 last May. Just days ago, completely by chance, a press package arrived containing a disc full of remixes of the infectious track. Bonus! Though it exploded overseas a while back, the single was released in the U.S. earlier this year. It is slowly gaining momentum, though so far it hasn’t been nearly as successful as “Shut Up and Let Me Go.”

My favorite has to be the funky L.A. Riots remix, which cleverly masks the original’s cheerleader charm with a more club-friendly vibe. Rather miraculously, the makeover maintains the album version’s sassy appeal. Download the remix over at TASHED! And if you haven’t seen one of the three videos shot for the track, check out The Ting Tings’ official YouTube page. Which one do you prefer??

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This Was Not My Idea

This is Sweden’s Erik Hassle. He’s a popstar-in-the-making with a stunning first single called “Hurtful” (more on that in a minute). But there’s one thing that his scheming marketing team hopes to hide with these “edgy” black and white promotional photographs — he’s a GINGER!

Not only that — his blinding mop is an out-of-control ‘fro. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! In fact, I usually like red heads (not always). So why the covert operation on the part of Mr. Hassle’s handlers? Let’s not beat around the flaming bush, society has come a long way! We can handle an out-and-proud ginger.

Moving on. Let’s view the slick video for the song I was raving about above (shot in glorious color, thank you very much):

It contains a grandiose chorus, an infectious melody, shuffling drums… In two words, pop perfection. Don’t ruin it all by watching the painfully super-low-budget clip (DON’T DO IT!) that was obviously shot well before any proper record company got hold of Erik Hassle.

On a somber note, and I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think any of this will ever fly in America. Pity.

After swearing off full-length albums nearly two years ago, Ash is back with new single “Return of White Rabbit,” which you can download for free below for a limited time! Just enter your e-mail address and a link will be sent to your inbox.

The aggressive bass-driven track, written by bass guitarist Mark Hamilton (imagine that!), acts as a precursor for their upcoming A-Z project. Beginning in September, the Irish rockers will release a new single for each letter of the alphabet, with a new song available every two weeks. It’s either shamelessly gimmicky or staggeringly brilliant. Perhaps both.