Are They For Real?
Why MTV's 'The Hills' is the Show You Love to Hate - or Hate to Love• Video: Behind the scenes at the cover shoot• Photos: Behind the scenes at the cover shoot• The Hills Universe: A guide to who's who on TV's hottest showIt's a chilly spring night in Los Angeles when I arrive at Don Antonio's Mexican restaurant to join the End of Western Civilization for nachos and chicken enchiladas. The EOWC, of course, is Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, a.k.a. Speidi, the fabulously toxic power couple of...
Meet the Guys Who Make "The Hills" Rock
The series' music gurus talk breaking bands, that inescapable theme song and whether Heidi's tunes will make the showThough The Hills is synonymous with Lauren and Heidi, it's Joe Cuello and Jon Ernst who really make the show worth watching. Cuello, MTV's Vice President of Music Integration, and Ernst, the series' Music Supervisor, spend each week expertly pairing songs with footage in order to convey love, loss and cheerful vacancy. Here, they talk to Rolling Stone about the show's patron saint Natasha Bedingfield, breaking new bands on the program and whether we can expect a Heidi Montag tune to pop up in an...
The 15 Greatest Music Moments on "The Hills"
LC and Heidi's breakup (set to "Apologize"), plus Frente, Sara Bareilles, James Blunt and moreThe Hills may be the show you love to hate (or hate to love), but there's nothing detestable about the show's soundtrack, which is meticulously selected by Joe Cuello and Jon Ernst, the music gurus who painstakingly combine footage of Lauren, Heidi and Co. with tracks from Carolina Liar, Ashlee Simpson and a thousand other bands you?ve probably never even heard of yet. Here's a countdown of the show's 15 most memorable music moments:
Jazz, Funk, Soul and Hip-Hop: The Best of the Roots
DO YOU WANT MORE?!!!??! [1995]As on their self-released 1993 debut, Organix, the Roots' firstmajor-label album fuses jazzy live jams and rap. Original keyboardistScott Storch's Rhodes organ and ?uestlove's funk drums blend seamlesslywith verses from Black Thought and Malik B. [LISTEN] Key Track: "SweptAway" is a minor-key highlight, featuring silky vocals from CassandraWilson. ...
Emmanuel Jal: Behind the Warchild
Mining his life as a child soldier in Sudan, the MC reveals his unique perspective on battle and 50 CentIn Issue 1052, Evan Serpick profiled Emmanuel Jal, an MC who grew up in Sudan and became a soldier in the country's vicious civil war at age seven. After escaping five years of battle and unimaginable atrocities, he trekked to Kenya, where he began to channel his emotions and experiences into rhymes. Jal, the subject of new documentary War Child, also spoke about African rap battles and his unique perspective on 50 Cent. Watch Jal's video for his album's title track "Warchild" and listen to two...
The Woods: 'Baleen Plate Lullaby'
For their self-titled, debut release, Tallahassee, Fla. band The Woods decided to package all the CDs in the pages of old books. With an initial "pressing" of just 40 discs, the group glued together the pages of used thrift-store books, cut a hole for the CDs and stamped the band's name on the cover with a typesetting machine. It's the same kind of inspired care they took with the music itself. The Woods is an enchanting collection of songs rooted in acoustic folk music, with pleasantly unpredictable turns toward more experimental soundscapes.
Meredith Monk: Of Posterity and 'Impermanence'
Monk has spent four decades challenging audiences and winning awards with her unusual fusion of song, theater, dance and film. Lately, she's begun to consider how her work will last after she's gone. Her latest CD, Impermanence, attempts to address that question.
Kaki King: Guitar Phenom Goes Pop
Two years ago, acclaimed guitarist Kaki King announced that she would tour with a full band. For an artist who made her name as a solo instrumentalist, it marked her move into pop territory. King plays two new songs from her album Dreaming of Revenge in a session with host David Dye.
