I may be alone in my assertion of this, but I have to believe there is a good contingent out there that would second this emotion: old-school Ryan Gosling is better than current-day Ryan Gosling. Hands-down.

My feelings on this matter might be swayed by what is commonly called the “hipsterish” tendency to only like an artist’s early work because one was an early supplicant at the altar of said artist’s greatness.

You see, around 16 years ago I was basically the modern-day equivalent of a Belieber for Gosling. I filled approximately two journals with outpourings of pre-teen adoration for the actor/singer/triple threat — the existence of which I have kept relatively on the DL until now, when they could function as serviceable fodder for an article on an entertainment news site. (Never throw anything away, folks!)

From a brief perusal of said journals, I have pulled together a pretty thorough argument for why Young Gosling is better than this dude.

At least to my 13-year-old self. Because … I mean … abs.

1) He Was On An Excellent Program Called ‘Breaker High’

Gosling played a “nerdy” dude named Sean Hanlon on said show, which was about kids who went to school on a cruise ship — like you do. When the network that broadcast the show in my hometown of Mystic, Connecticut, changed the show’s timeslot to an hour before school was out, I wrote a strongly worded letter. I wish I were kidding.

2) And On ‘Breaker High’ He Had Amazing Hair

It’s hard to believe that Weezer‘s self-titled debut — a.k.a “The Blue Album” — dropped 20 years ago for myriad reasons. 1). That would make me old, as I purchased it upon release. 2). The guys are out with two song snippets that have me just as excited today as I was back in 1994.

The snippets could, perhaps, appear on the band’s upcoming ninth record, produced by Ric Ocasek (who produced that debut record, among others). The band has been sharing cryptic clips from the studio for a while now — the first video came out last month, the second is brand-new.

Check out the new tunes below.

‘The Waste Land’

‘Ain’t Got Nobody’

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.

Pharrell Williams drew some heat Wednesday (June 4) for wearing a Native American headdress on the cover of Elle UK, leading the singer to apologize for what many considered cultural appropriation of a sacred tradition — despite the fact that he is part Native American.

“I respect and honor every kind of race, background and culture,” he said via a rep. “I am genuinely sorry.”

Still, Skateboard P is far from the first celeb to cross cultural lines and ruffle feathers (no pun intended). Gwen Stefani, musician Christina Fallin and a cadre of Victoria’s Secret models have all donned headdresses, as have numerous festival-goers the world over. Hit up any music fest — from Electric Daisy to Pitchfork — and you’re sure to see some sunburned dude in a full war bonnet.

Yup, the trend does not seem to be dissipating — despite outrage — the issue perhaps being that these gleeful feather-wearers are simply uninformed.

In light of Pharrell’s recent apology, and in prep for the long summer festival experience before us, MTV News hit up a series of experts and people in the Native American community to ask them all the questions you’ve ever wanted to pose about headdresses:

1). What Does Wearing A Headdress Mean?

“The headdress is reserved for our revered elders who, through their selflessness and leadership, have earned the right to wear one. It’s a spiritual garb, not just cultural; it’s not merely an addition to one’s attire. Wearing ...

Lana Del Rey is out with the title track from her upcoming record, Ultraviolence, and it’s the spookiest jam we’ve heard this year.

The jam, which references The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” — the song title is quoted in the chorus — tells the tale of a typical Lana Del Rey romantic relationship: broken, failed and painful.

Being a Lana Del Rey song, there also seems to be a literary reference tucked in the lyrics: “Ultraviolence/ I can hear sirens, sirens/ He hit me and it felt like a kiss/ I can hear violins, violins.”

According to Clare Preston-Pollitt, events and marketing officer at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, the word “ultraviolence,” coined in Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange,” could have been inspired by a passage in Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” (a.k.a. one of Del Rey’s biggest inspirations).

“It could be that Burgess had been influenced by a passage in Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ where the narrator examines the word ‘violence’ and notes that the word exists next to the word ‘violet’ and ‘violin’ etc. in the dictionary,” she said.

As you can, Lana mirrors that exploration in her track, showing the close — and sometimes very dangerous — distance between love and pain.

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the ...

Read More →

“Feminism” has been a word perched on the lips of the entertainment set of late, with some, like Shailene Woodley, denying their involvement, and others — many others — grabbing the label and wearing it proudly. Lana Del Rey, on the other hand, prefers to talk about something — anything — else.

Del Rey’s music has evoked almost as much discussion among pundits with regard to feminism as the music itself has among critics, with some that saying the women she represents in her music are weak, powerless and totally reliant on men. She does model herself on Lolita, after all. Others, however, opine that Del Rey is just embracing another kind of sexuality

When asked about her feminist tendencies in a cover story in The Fader, the typically elusive musician was true to form.

“For me, the issue of feminism is just not an interesting concept,” she said. “I’m more interested in, you know, SpaceX and Tesla, what’s going to happen with our intergalactic possibilities. Whenever people bring up feminism, I’m like, god. I’m just not really that interested.”

“My idea of a true feminist is a woman who feels free enough to do whatever she wants,” she added.

She was also candid about the potentially objectionable fact that she’s often being choked in her videos — “I like a little hardcore love” — and the fact that she had an affair with a record executive.

“I had a seven-year relationship with the head of this label, and he was ...

Jonny “Itch” Fox — a.k.a. iTCH — is going “Pleasantville” all over his new video for “Another Man,” off of his debut album, The Deep End.

As the former frontman of U.K. ukulele punk rock band The King Blues, iTCH knows a thing or two about melding and mixing genres. “Another Man” — directed by Frank Borin — is yet another of his musical/visual melting pots.

The video kicks off with iTCH falling asleep in front of the TV, on which a black and white late night show is playing. After dozing off, the musician is sucked into the TV, where a chorus of women are singing — ala The Supremes — about how they’ve found another man, “And he ain’t nothing like you.”

“You,” apparently, is iTCH, as he enters a musical battle with the singers, rapping and turning everything in the room to color with a touch of his hand. Finally, though, it seems the black and white women win out, as iTCH is rendered newspaper print-colored once again, waking up on the couch still devoid of color.

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on ...

Read More →

What’s black and white and … black and white? Brooklyn band Parquet Courts‘ new city symphony of a video for “Black And White.”

For those who have not yet discovered the glory that is Parquet Courts, the band is out with their third album, Sunbathing Animal, Tuesday (June 3) on What’s Your Rupture?/Mom+Pop. The followup to 2012′s critically acclaimed LP Light Up Gold — and crasher of an EP, 2013′s Tally All the Things That You Broke — the new album has been weaving its way through the Web and TV for a while now. “Black And White,” for one, premiered on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” with the entire album streaming on NPR.

Now, that ominous, finger-snapping, jittering track has some visuals, courtesy of directors Austin Brown and Johann Rashid and inspired by the experimental films of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

It’s a simple video — featuring a black and white stroll through lead singer Andrew Savage’s Brooklyn neighborhood, ending with that image projected on a wall in an empty room — but it’s meant to capture all the life and living inherent in a mere walk through the city.

Think of that next time you amble to the corner store and back.

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and ...

Read More →

What’s black and white and … black and white? Brooklyn band Parquet Courts‘ new city symphony of a video for “Black And White.”

For those who have not yet discovered the glory that is Parquet Courts, the band is out with their third album, Sunbathing Animal, Tuesday (June 3) on What’s Your Rupture?/Mom+Pop. The followup to 2012′s critically acclaimed LP Light Up Gold — and crasher of an EP, 2013′s Tally All the Things That You Broke — the new album has been weaving its way through the Web and TV for a while now. “Black And White,” for one, premiered on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” with the entire album streaming on NPR.

Now, that ominous, finger-snapping, jittering track has some visuals, courtesy of directors Austin Brown and Johann Rashid and inspired by the experimental films of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.

It’s a simple video — featuring a black and white stroll through lead singer Andrew Savage’s Brooklyn neighborhood, ending with that image projected on a wall in an empty room — but it’s meant to capture all the life and living inherent in a mere walk through the city.

Think of that next time you amble to the corner store and back.

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and ...

Read More →

Nat Wolff is a huge fan of John Green’s “The Fault In Our Stars.” Not only does he co-star in the cinematic adaptation — and deserve some of the credit for making the movie manifest after sharing the book with director Josh Boone — he also wrote a song inspired by the YA classic.

Nat & Alex Wolff — previously The Naked Brothers Band — are out with that jam, “Last Station,” today, along with another single that they’ve exclusively shared with MTV News titled “Rules.”

So how did a tear-jearker of epic proportions make its way to the band’s guitar strings? Well, after finishing Green’s book — about a pair of teens who meet in a cancer support group — Nat was inspired, to say the least.

“I had the idea of coming to the end of something early,” he told MTV News. “You know, coming to the end of life but living, even if it makes it sadder to know that it’s over so early. I can’t pinpoint what exactly what it was about it, what gets me inspired by the book, but something about it inspired me.”

The result was “Last Station,” a clear-as-a-bell lost love song that Nat says is about “a combination of girls I went to high school with and grew up with.” With a mournful, singalong of a chorus — “Follow your train to its last station/ follow, follow, follow” — and a collection of verses like faded photos, this soft, folky song easily fits into the ...

Chicago punks The Orwells’ sophomore record, Disgraceland, is out Tuesday and if you don’t already have the anticipation shakes, well, we’re here to help induce them.

There are a lot of up-and-coming garage and punk acts out there as of late — and always, because remember rock never died — but we’re seriously vibing on The Orwells this week. From frontman Mario Cuomo’s onstage, full-body fits to their Tales-From-The-Crypt-Come-Doo-Wop sound, every jam from this band is a must-listen.

But don’t take the preceding paltry collection of words for it, we’ve got 11 perfectly good reasons to nab their next disc below:

1). This Brand-New Music Video

Feeling cooped-up ‘n’ crazy this Monday? Well, fix your eyes on this new video from the Orwells, in which they do all manner of bad things around their hometown of Chicago. One order of vicarious-carnage — coming up.

2). This ‘Letterman’ Performance

It’s probably no coincidence that Letterman announced his retirement soon after the Orwells took his stage. There’s really no topping this performance.

3). This Claymation Version Of That ‘Letterman’ Performance

Unless, of course, you bust out a claymation version of the aforementioned career-topping gig.

4). This Assertion

According to frontman Mario Cuomo, the guys don’t just bring it out for late-night. They try to make every performance as fit-inducing as possible.

“I learned that a good show or whatever — a good show or song or album — is a lot more important to other people,” he told MTV News. “Even if you’re not feeling it one night or some ...