The lady on the cover of the Vampire Weekend album Contra is suing Vampire Weekend, XL Recordings and the dude who claims to have taken the photo for $2 million plus any revenue that was generated by her image for using her image without her consent.

Ann Kirsten Kennis was a model back in the 80′s and 90′s when this photo was taken. Photographer Tod Brody claims he shot this at a casting call and it belongs to him, but Kennis says this was probably taken by her mother and neither Brody or Vampire Weekend have any rights to use it.

While I’m all for making sure you have the rights to images before you distribute them, I’m totally bummed about this. Contra sold 377,000 units in the US which means that the band will probably go broke if this lady wins the lawsuit and takes their profits and then I won’t get any more Vampire Weekend awesomeness!! Or, more likely, the record label will pay it out and make Vampire Weekend give up profits from their next albums essentially sucking the life out of the artists as they become slaves to the label (see: Bootsy Collins and Warner Brothers).

Stacey: “Probably taken by her mother”.  Bitch please.  This woman needs to go away.

(source: Vanity Fair)

And to follow that rant of a post up with something that probably only I care about (see, hypocritical), I wanted to share with everyone that my forever boyfriend, Hawksley Workman, has a song in the new Virgin Mobile commercial.  Awesome!  I was reading yesterday while the TV was on and all of a sudden I hear this song on a commercial.  I hadn’t heard the song before, but I would know his voice anywhere.  So excited for him!  The song “Not Your Parents Music” is off his 2nd album out this year, Milk.  Check it out the song here.  Pick it up here.

Actually, it all happened during Love in an Elevator, not Amazing.  But still.

Steven Tyler has done it again.  He fell off the stage.  AGAIN!  But this time it wasn’t really his fault.  He and Joe Perry were performing at the head of the stage and Steven playfully bumped in to Joe then Joe returned the favor.  But I think Joe forgot Steven weighs all of 80 lbs right now and pushed him right off the stage and into the crown.  Luckily he wasn’t hurt this time.  Well, maybe his ego might be a little banged up but other than that he seemed to be ok.

Unfortunately, I can’t get the video, but you can find it here at TMZ.  But just for funsies, here is the video from the last time he fell.  As much as I love Aerosmith and Steve, this is hilarious.

Tanya: Maybe it’s time for Steven Tyler to retire from touring. He’s signed on for sure now to be an American Idol judge so maybe he is going to take a break from falling off stages?

(Pic: www.songpeople.co.uk)

Log this in the “crap that I don’t care about” category.

Apparently, New Kids on the Block and The Backstreet Boys are planning on touring together.

Ummm….why????

A “source” was quoted as saying:

“The idea is to recreate the boy band phenomenon. It will be the ultimate ladies’ night out.”

I don’t understand this.  I also didn’t understand it when NKTOB toured a couple of years ago and they sold out, like, every show.  Do girls still like this music?  Or is it grown ass women who are going to these concerts out of nostalgia?  Look, I listened to the New Kids when I was 7 too, but I have no intention of going to their concerts.  Why?  Because the music sucked then and it still sucks now.

The Backstreet Boys recently came through Calgary and I literally laughed out loud when they announced the concert on the radio.  Laughed because I thought it was sad and pathetic.  But there were people calling in, dying to win tickets to go see them…who are these people?!?!?

Tanya: It’s women 5-10 years older than us that remember how super awesome (<- that’s sarcastic, btw) they were back in the day and want to relive the glory years. Maybe now that these women have grown into adults their crushes will take notice and they might get a wink from one of the boys on stage. That’s my best guess.

“We struggled super hard trying to come up with an album title, trying to find some kind of phrase that summed up the whole aesthetic behind the album: ‘Heavy Mental,’ ‘Smaller Than Life,’” Cuomo says. “I was coming up with all kinds of stuff, but ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’ No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face.”

Stacey: As weird as it is, I totally totally love it.  How awesome is that?  I feel love from that quote. 

(source: Spinner.ca)

Looking for something awesome to do on a Tuesday night? Check out Chromeo at Flames Central! The new Chromeo album ‘Business Casual’ comes out next week in September and here’s a vid for the new single “Don’t Turn the Lights On”

Don’t Turn The Lights On from Chromeo1 on Vimeo.

(Pic: Just Jared)

Its true.  We give Megan Fox a hard time here.  Why?  Well, for one, because she says the dumbest things sometimes.  And really, to this point, she hasn’t demonstrated the she has any talent other than her surgically enhanced body and face, one of which, she has gone too far on recently.

But, I will give credit where credit is due.  Recently Megan was cast, along with Dominic Monaghan, in Eminem’s new music video with Rihanna for Love The Way You Lie.  Have you heard it?  It is a great song that finally feels like the old Eminem that actually made good music rather than his music in the last few years that was campy and silly.  But that is beside the point.

The point is that the song deals with the tough subject of domestic abuse and the video is said to show Megan and Dominic going through the various stages.  What is cool about this is that Megan donated the fee that she would have received for the video to the Sojourn House, which is a charity that provides shelter for women and children that have left abusive homes and need a place of safety.  Very cool Megan.

Maybe there is some hope for this young lady after all.

Tanya: Awesome! Props to Megan for this one for sure!

(Pic: 2.bp.blogspot.com)

So our resident Heidi Klum doppelganger, my dear friend Joy, is headed to Las Vegas this weekend with her hubby to see her favorite band of all time, Aerosmith, who are playing there tonight! 

Funny enough, Lainey mentioned Aerosmith being in Vegas as well:

Am looking forward to watching drunk rocker babes throw down on the Strip this weekend.

Ahem.  We are looking at you, Joy

Luckily I was able to mention this because there is some other Aerosmith related news circulating this morning.  Apparently, Steven Tyler is in talks to become a judge on American Idol.  Cool.  Random but cool.  Also rumored to be on the new season is Jennifer Lopez.  Can you imagine these two together?  Please.  There won’t be enough room for both their egos.  And what the heck does J-Lo know about singing anyways?  Should be entertaining though.

Tanya: Funny you mention this because just this morning when I saw that Jennifer Lopez was going to be a judge I thought to myself ” who cares who judges this crap?” I guess I have my answer.

Want to hear Juliette Lewis rock out? Tonight is your chance! Juliette Lewis and her band (not sure who she’s touring with right now) will be playing in Calgary tonight at the Republik. Doors are at 8:30pm and tickets are $25, you can get them online here.

FYI – Juliette Lewis is also doing an animated flick called Metropiawith Alexander Skarsgard. As tempted as I was to post a pic of Juliette Lewis with blue hair and being all crazy, the pic was Askars won out.

Stacey: Juliette Lewis is awesome.  Totally insane, but also totally awesome.  Did you know that she dated Brad Pitt.  Ya, seems weird right?

PS.  Is this also a photo for The Case Against Alex Skarsgard?

(pic: JustJared)

Well, peeps.  Its that time of the year for the Calgary Stampede.  Time for everyone to throw their morals to the wind, drink their faces off, eat way too many pancake breakfasts, and take in the fun entertainment that is brought in. 

Every year, there is normally a few good bands that you can check out on the Coca Cola Stage.  And some good bands usually come to the Saddledome.  For example, this year Bon Jovi is playing.  For me, that’s a big fat “meh”. 

But who I am going to see tonight has me so excited I am literally almost peeing my pants.  LYNYRD FREAKIN’ SKYNYRD!  Woohoo!  I pretty much grew up listening to this band.  And while the original singer and 3 other band members died in a plane crash in 1977, they reformed in 1991 with Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny Van Zant as the singer and have been together, releasing albums, and touring ever since. 

So in honor of how freaking awesome they are, I thought I would post one of their most famous songs, Freebird.  Which, interstingly enough was the 2nd most radio played song of the 70′s, only behind Stairway to Heavan.