» The thing on the left looks a bit like a symbol you might expect to find on the 'care label' on an expensive jumper which, when deciphered, means something like 'don't machine wash, don't hand wash, don't dry clean, don't let within twelve metres of water and/or anything that will help clean the garment, wear once then throw away'.
» Top marks for the various points of symmetry within this logo.
» Our favourite letter is the 'n'.
» The 'viv' bit looks a bit like a man in a volcano. IS THIS A WARNING. IS SOMETHING ABOUT TO HAPPEN RE A MAN IN A VOLCANO. IS THE WORLD DOOMED. IS THIS THE NOSTRADAMUS OF THE POP WORLD.
» No.
Idea for pop group:
Nostradamus & Pliers. One major hit then a second one that doesn't do very well. "I can't believe we've been dropped," Pliers says. "I could have told you that would happen," says Nostradamus. "This isn't quite as funny as it might have been is it," Pliers says. "I told you it would b(That's enough of that - Ed)
We were recently sent a link for a pop video in which a woman collapses in a public toilet and begins to bleed from her nether regions. In the video that follows the band responsible for the song in question are 'born' - as fully grown men - and perform the song covered in blood and General Birth Debris. As the video ends, the band's two members fall asleep in their mother's arms. YET EVEN THAT is not as horrific and stomach-turning as this.
If this is what he's like at an arena full (as in '20% full') of people, imagine what he does when he thinks nobody is watching. :(
Where were you when you heard the news? Do you remember the sights, the sounds, the smells? Who were you with; who did you want to be with? Will you ever forget it: that precise moment when you heard that a new major label girlgroup played croquet on a rubbish dump in their first ever video? The last two weeks have passed so quickly, yet it still seems like yesterday.
Great tunes, lovely girl. Deserves to be doing loads better than she's currently doing. This isn't even a dig at the singer - it's the Standard.
Just stop for a moment.
Take a deep breath.
POP ICON.
Actually, thinking about it, perhaps the Standard aren't entirely to blame, and PERHAPS one shouldn't necessarily criticise them for attempting to convince their readers that they've pulled in a pop icon to model clothes for a feature. The VV Brown awareness campaign has, in fact, been quite clever in an increasingly demented sort of way, in that while artists like Leona Lewis and even La Roux have made a fairly good name for themselves by saying no to anything that didn't totally fit their image, VV Brown has made a sort-of career out of seeming to say no to precisely nothing.
This means that her name - like the dreaded phrase "...and Hot Chip DJs" - seems ubiquitous in press releases we are sent about all manner corporate launches and heavily branded festivals. She is constantly voxpopped and interviewed and photographed. This promotion she did for Orange probably sums things up best of all. Perhaps, in the Standard's defence (although it's really no defence at all in journalistic terms), if you base your entire life on reading press releases and don't actually look outside the window, this constant drip-feed of profile-building public appearances could actually mean that VV Brown does seem a bit like a 'POP ICON'.
Hopefully it'll all pay off with some sniff of a hit record before Vanessa drops dead from exhaustion.
This new Dizzee single 'Holiday' - another Calvin Harris production with another Chrome guest vocal, which debuted on Radio One last night - is an unselfconsciously big pop record with lots of nice portions and a little bit of a nod to Madge.
Here's the song inside a BBC player thing we nicked off Hattie C's blog.
Notes:
1. It well and truly goes off towards the end. 2. "I know that my Spanish is so-so, but let's try and keep that on the low-low" - amazing.
Did we mention the holiday we tried to have last week? The bloody King Of Pop died. NOT THINKING ABOUT POP FOR A WEEK FAIL.
Here, apparently, is the Peter Rauhofer mix of WHITNEY BLOODY HOUSTON's new single 'I Didn't Know My Own Strength'.
It is very obviously unlistenable but, as the chap who uploaded it to YouTube notes, "Sorry For The Terrible Sound Quality BTW Excuse Me I Was Drunk & Excited To Hear Whitney". And if you look deep inside your heart, who can stand up and say that at some point in their lives they haven't been drunk and excited to hear Whitney?
Today is the birthday of beautiful warbling pop sensation Cheryl Cole and, by way of tribute, Popjustice viewer Ailbhe has drawn a very special picture.
If you would like to draw a special birthday picture for Cheryl, or compose a poem, or write a short story (NO PERVY MURDER BLOGS PLEASE THANKS) to celebrate this special day, chuck your stuff over to
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and we'll add them to this post during the day.
Imagine if nobody sends any pictures or poems, and imagine if Cheryl sees this post without anything added to it. Imagine her crying face when she sees that nobody cares. JUST IMAGINE.
The time for tastemaker buzzzzzz remixes of interest to somewhere in the region of 184 people in London was probably this time last year. Literally twelve months ago. Has there been some sort of costcutting exercise in which 2008's wall planners have somehow been re-used for 2009, leading to this mistake? It's fine, though - nobody really seems to have noticed, so you probably have time to commission some proper remixes before the single comes out.
BACKGROUND DETAIL
Just to clear things up, Little Boots says things like:
"I just think that london can get in this bubble
of thought and be super concerned about being in Vice magazine and
getting on blogs ... I
don't give a shit about being cool like that..."
And:
"I love [Kylie], my mum and I have tickets to go watch the new tour. I have her calendar on my wall right now."
And:
"I'm not going to apologise for making a pop song seeing as making pop songs is what I said I wanted to do right at the start."
It's funny really, because while Victoria won't apologise sometimes it seems that Little Boots' label aren't quite so hesitant when it comes to distancing themselves from the pop. Sometimes - perhaps this is just us - it even seems like they're embarrassed. Perhaps, more likely, they just weren't expecting the girl they signed as one member of Dead Disco (IMAGINE A GIRLGROUP BUT COOL AND WITH INSTRUMENTS!!!) to actually be an artist with sometimes leftfield but at the same time very pure pop aspirations. The Rusko remix of 'Remedy', for example, is brilliant in a 'super concerned about getting on blogs' sort of way, but one has to wonder whether Victoria and her mum would really get tickets to go and see this.
The Kaskade mix is sort of along the right lines - we'll probably do that for Song OF The Day tomorrow so you can have a listen.
POPJUSTICE'S THOUGHT OF THE DAY
It is often interesting how people like to create the impression that
they are 'into' pop or 'get' pop when, in fact, they're just using
'pop' as a kind of buzzword and when it comes down to it all they really want
to do is listen to Vampire Weekend.
