More Top Stories: Katy Perry, Phish, Allison Iraheta

Tweet

Katy Perry to Perform on 'SNL'
Katy Perry will make her first Saturday Night Live appearance when she performs on the show's season premiere. Former SNL cast member Amy Poehler will host the show, which airs September 25th. [ Entertainment Weekly ]

Phish Ready 'Coral Sky' DVD
Coral Sky, a 2-DVD set being released through the Phish's JEMP Records on October 19th, documents the band's November 2nd, 1996 concert at the Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida. Santana percussionist Karl Perazzo and the Allman Brothers' Butch Trucks accompanied the band at this show. [Phish.com]

The xx Win Mercury Prize
Indie-rock band the xx have been awarded the Mercury Prize — which designates the best British album of the year — for their debut, xx. The duo beat out artists like Paul Weller and Dizzee Rascal for the award. [Barclaycard Mercury Prize]

Allison Iraheta leaves Jive Records
Less than two years after finishing fourth on American Idol, and about nine months since releasing her debut on Jive, Allison Iraheta has parted ways with the label. The split is most likely a result of Idol's decision to break from Sony, Jive's parent company, to release their artists on Universal Music. [ Entertainment Weekly ]

Hip-Hop Birthplace Saved By Loan
The building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York, where DJ Kool Herc first laid the groundwork for hip hop by playing records at house parties, will be maintained as affordable housing for its current tenants. The federal government fronted a $5.4 million loan to prevent the building from being sold and redeveloped. [All Hip Hop]

Justin Bieber: Twitter King
How popular is Justin Bieber on Twitter? Three percent of the company's servers are entirely dedicated to processing Tweets that include his name. [Gizmodo]

XTC to Reissue 'Skylarking'
XTC will reissue their 1986 album Skylarking on double-vinyl, with its original artwork (which was originally rejected by the record label) restored and "30 percent better sound." No release date has been set. [Slicing Up Eyeballs]

Plus: Brad Pitt may star in Jerry Lee Lewis biopic, Howard Stern ponders his future and more.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter