The Killers' Brandon Flowers performs at Coachella on Saturday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

INDIO, California — In a recession year, it was only fitting that Coachella would come to an end with a power outage.

And perhaps even more fitting that the Cure continued on for two more songs — with no speakers or lights, just the help of thousands of backup singers (a.k.a. the audience).

Yes, this will be remembered as the year Coachella soldiered on. As the pocket guide put it, "On this 10th Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, take comfort in knowing that for at least 72 hours, we can put aside the woes of the world to revel in it. After all, there's a Beatle here."

There were 129 acts at this year's Coachella — a drop from the planned 131, after Glasvegas and the Clipse canceled at the last minute — but the one that mattered most was the 66-year-old music icon who lived and let die and let it be for a two-and-a-half-hour set that will go down in festival history.

(Check out photos from the Coachella festival here.)

Paul McCartney's show featured a dozen or so Beatles favorites, especially the encores (yes, there were many), along with songs from Wings, his solo material (the recent ukulele jam "Dance Tonight" was a highlight), dedications of fallen Beatles and even tracks from his side project, the Fireman.

Yes, Paul McCartney has a side project — maybe he even has a Twitter account too.

Speaking of micro-blogging artists ... Michael Franti closed his set on Saturday by telling the audience, "See you on Twitter."

It's a new world where bands are updating their fans on their every move, so the ability to make a connection through music has never been more important. McCartney and the Cure did that with ease, as did dozens of others, from the angelic-voiced Jenny Lewis to My Bloody Valentine, who connected via blistering guitar feedback.

And then there were some who struggled. M.I.A., in her first post-childbirth gig, phoned in a seven-song set full of annoying banter, an even more annoying horn sound every few seconds, and a big mess of music not unlike an earlier set from N.A.S.A.

	M.I.A., Killers, More At Coachella 2009

Girl Talk drew one of the dance tent's largest crowds, and as hard as he tried to entertain them with props and dancing on the table, all he really did was push "play" on a laptop.

Zane Lowe has a similar mash-up style and a lesser name, but the live elements (a few machines and scratching) in his show made a huge difference. And then along came DJ AM and Travis Barker, who took it to a whole 'nother level, with one of the most intense, awesome sets of the festival. Again, it was about soldiering on.

On Friday, keeping up with the lineup felt more like navigating a zoo, between Noah and the Whale, Dear and the Headlights, the Bug and Cage the Elephant. The latter band play hip-hop-infused blues rock (Kid Rock meets the White Stripes) and made their mark thanks to frontman Matt Shultz, a rock star-in-the-making.

The Ting Tings' set felt a bit slow, but they were still super fun to dance and sing along to. It was much of the same for Franz Ferdinand, thanks to their collection of party-starters, and Morrissey kept the party vibe in his following slot (as much as Morrissey parties, anyway).

Saturday was more serious, with challenging bands like TV on the Radio and Thievery Corporation (who brought out honorary Coachella mayor Perry Farrell for a song) rocking the Main Stage. Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses did the high-pitched-voice thing back-to-back on the Outdoor Theater.

The Killers wisely opened their headlining set with hits "Human" and "Somebody Told Me," reeling in fans before they could make an early run for the parking lot. It's not easy when Paul McCartney headlined the night before, but Brandon Flowers commands a stage no matter who he's competing with.

On Sunday, while the Cure worked through their catalog, Public Enemy saluted their 21-year-old landmark album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by playing it from beginning to end. Chuck D's "how low can you go" voice is still as powerful as ever, and it felt good to see Flava Flav on a stage instead of a reality show.

On the Main Stage, Peter Bjorn and John showed they are continuing to improve as a live band, especially on their latest singles, "Lay It Down" and "Nothing to Worry About," both candidates for Coachella anthems of the year.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs know a thing or two about anthems and they proved a perfect soundtrack to the beautiful Sunday sunset.

Audrina Patridge from "The Hills" was among those spotted dancing to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Paris and Nikki Hilton hung out during M.I.A.'s performance, and Zac Efron took pictures with fans while waiting for My Bloody Valentine. Emile Hirsch, Tara Reid, Dita Von Teese and Chloë Sevigny were also in attendance.

Outside of the Empire Polo Fields, Kanye West attended the ultra-exclusive Frank Sinatra house party, and Jared Leto was seen dancing onstage at the Music Loves Fashion event at Hotel Riviera. Kid Cudi performed at the URB Magazine pool party, while Doug E. Fresh got on the mic at Viceroy Hotel party.

• M.I.A., The Killers, Lupe Fiasco, More At Coachella 2009

• The Killers
• Public Enemy
• Travis Barker
• DJ AM
• Girl Talk

Snoop Dogg
Photo: Chris Farina/WireImage

While it may seem a little early to be thinking about your 2009 festival plans, next year's first major festival has just released its initial lineup. The sixth annual Langerado Music Festival will be taking place outside Miami from March 6-8. The event has been moved three times in as many years, finding a home this go-around in Bicentennial Park on Biscayne Bay. In the past, the park has been host to the Ultra Music Festival as well as the Warped Tour.

This year's lineup includes big names and an eclectic collection of supporting acts. Headlining the festival will be Snoop Dogg and Death Cab for Cutie. Additional acts include Dashboard Confessional, Gym Class Heroes, Girl Talk, Chromeo, Tokyo Police Club, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Thievery Corporation, Slightly Stoopid, Flogging Molly, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Mute Math, Black Kids, the Faint, the Pogues, Zac Brown Band, Michael Franti & Spearhead, the Virgins and more. (For more information, head to the Langerado festival's site.)

The festival has grown significantly since it started in 2003. Similar to Bonnaroo in its early years, Langerado mainly focused on jam bands but has recently branched out to include a wider variety of acts, although jam-band-leaning artists, including the Disco Biscuits, Umphrey's McGee and Robert Randolph and the Family Band, will be performing.

Last year, the event was held at Big Cypress Indian Reservation in Florida's Everglades, which was host to Phish's Millenium New Year's Eve concert eight years ago. This year, instead of sharing land with the band, Langerado will be sharing dates: Phish's first reunion shows will take place the same weekend a few hundred miles north in Hampton, Virginia.

In addition to music, Langerado will offer local arts and crafts, food vendors and a variety of festival activities on-site at Bicentennial Park's 30 acres of waterfront.

• Snoop Dogg
• Death Cab For Cutie
• Dashboard Confessional
• Girl Talk
• Gym Class Heroes

Girl Talk at Lollapalooza
Photo: Roger Kisby/ Getty Images

Girl Talk has already created a bit of post-millennial tension with his new album, Feed the Animals, and now he's looking to take things to the next level: post-apocalyptic.

When we caught up with him backstage at Lollapalooza — while we were in the midst of his so-called "Party Patrol," no less — he spilled the beans on plans for his final show, firmly scheduled to take place on December 21, 2012: the end of the Mayan calendar and the date when many are predicting the world might very well explode.

So, you know, it should be a relatively killer show.

"I want this to end when I'm on top. So I'm planning my final show on December 21, 2012. It's when the Mayan calendar ends. It's the day when solids become liquids and liquids become plasmas," GT — a.k.a. mild-mannered Gregg Gillis — laughed. "So I'm building up to that — we've got four years — so maybe there's going to be a couple other small releases in the works. The album just came out, so I have no plans for another release, but I'm constantly starting to work on new stuff, just for the live shows."

And while Gillis is still keeping details of his apocalyptic farewell close to the vest — er, sleeveless T-shirt — he did let us know that he's planning on making it a marathon, not a sprint. After all, this is the End of Days we're talking about here — it's gotta be epic.

"I used to play very short sets, and now I kinda play a standard 45-minute to one-hour set, so I think I wanna do a 24-hour set, [and] I want it to be a stage production, but one where the lines become blurry between reality and complete stage me. I want it to be an endurance test, and I want it to be miserable and equally fantastic. I want the best of both worlds," he explained. "I think [in] too many shows, people are too aimed at pleasing the audience. If you want to do a really great show — which I haven't fully done yet — you have to really make it bad for them for like 20 hours and then you can kill it for four hours, and everyone will be really excited. I think people ignore the dynamics of how you can work with an audience."

Sounds exhausting. But since his farewell gig is still more than four years away, Gillis is focusing most of his time and energy on the business at hand: promoting Animals, which he rush-released to the Net via a "pay what you feel" scheme back in June. While he claims that he and his label, Illegal Art, "don't know" the actual number of people who downloaded the album ("I honestly am not lying ... I wish I knew. I'm sure we'll release a figure at some point. I've literally spoken to the guy who runs the label once since the album came out"), Gillis is already convinced that the plan was a success. After all, the guest list for each show keeps getting more and more surreal.

"Feed the Animals had helped make it a bit bigger, so as the music spreads in general, it's bound to attract a wider variety of people. People from an underground world, people from a more mainstream world. It's just more vague, which is cool to me — I love vague stuff," he smirked. "I had Big Boi from Outkast come out to a show last year. And I talked to Thurston Moore, who was totally unaware of anything I did, but I told him I sampled music on my album, and he was cool with it. So, from there, the only place left to go is retirement, you know?"

• Girl Talk's Feed The Animals, Track By Track

• Girl Talk

Photo: MTV News

• Gnarls Barkley
• Kid Sister
• Cobra Starship
• Fall Out Boy
• Girl Talk

Girl Talk's <i>Feed the Animals</i> album cover
Photo: illegal-art.net

On The Record: Girl Talk Feels Free To Move About The Cabin, Makes A Positively Post-Millennial Album

On Tuesday morning, LL Cool J was on American Airlines Flight 33, heading from New York City to Los Angeles.

He was sitting in first class, bulgy and massive, eyes surveying everyone who boarded. He looked pretty tired (it was 7:45 a.m., and he had probably been up all night doing the kinds of things LL Cool J does at night), but he did manage to crack a few smiles for the ladies, and I could've sworn I saw him lick his lips at least once. I cannot be sure of this, however.

That's because I wasn't sitting near him, but rather, I was stuffed back in coach, between a guy who looked like Peter Fonda (perhaps it was Peter Fonda) and a rather annoyed woman hammering away on her laptop. None of this is particularly relevant to this week's column, I just thought I'd bitch about the fact that I never get to fly business class.

Anyway, here's the point. Sometime around 9 a.m., while LL was no doubt breakfasting upon the finest pastries and thickest bacon imaginable, I was sitting some 225 rows behind him, listening to Girl Talk's new album, Feed the Animals, on my iPod (Peter Fonda was reading a book called "The Annotated Turing"). Song seven on the record is called "Like This," and it features, in addition to a whole lot of other things, two very audible samples of LL's "Mama Said Knock You Out," two samples that Girl Talk did not obtain LL's permission to use, which means that they appear in the song illegally, which means that LL is not getting paid for their usage, which would probably make LL very upset if he had any idea that this was happening.

Yet it most certainly was happening, and in a pressurized tube soaring through the air. And while LL was lapping coffee from a bone-china saucer, I went back and listened to the song again, partially because I was upset that I was flying coach, and partially because I was fascinated by the scenario that was unfurling around me: I was, in some small way, participating in the active bilking of LL Cool J — something he was completely unaware of — and all I had to do to make it stop was walk up to him, give him my iPod and go, "Hey, have you heard this?"

It's an entirely post-millennial dilemma, one that's right up there in the minds of today's music journalists with "If you are talking to Paris Hilton on a red carpet, do you acknowledge the fact that you have seen her naked?" and "Do you tell a band that you've downloaded their new album from LimeWire to prep for this interview?" And it's just part of what makes Girl Talk — né Gregg Gillis, a pasty, white biomedical engineer from Pittsburgh — perhaps the most important, and certainly the most, well, post-millennial artist of the post-millennium.

Because while other so-called mash-up artists have either left the genre behind them (Danger Mouse) or all but disappeared from the face of the earth (the Freelance Hellraiser), Gillis — who, it should be noted, does not consider himself a mash-up artist, despite evidence to the contrary — is still at it, sampling with reckless abandon, releasing albums with "pay what you feel" pricing schemes (as Animals was last week) and using the concept of "fair use" to shield himself from any pesky copyright suits. In a genre where artists hide behind secret identities — even his boss at the Illegal Art label goes by the handle "Philo T. Farnsworth," a name lifted from the inventor of the television — Gillis is, without question, the biggest name. In fact, he's pretty much the only name.

That is why Animals, which can be downloaded through Illegal Art's Web site, is so amazing. It's completely fearless in approach and scope, a record that makes no bones about sampling Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Radiohead, Michael Jackson and Metallica, released by a guy not hiding in any way, shape or form. And while it lacks the breakneck, "Holy sh--, did you hear that?!?" pacing of Gillis' last album, 2006's Night Ripper, it's in a lot of ways a better record. It's Gillis making a statement, whether it's in the caliber of the artists he's jacking (clearly, any of the aforementioned acts possess legal teams that could positively destroy him) or in the meanings behind those jackings.

Take, for example,the two Beastie Boys samples used on the record: the booming drums of "So What'cha Want" (which, to be fair, Beck also sampled on his track "E-Pro") and the hook of "Body Movin'." It might be reading too much into things, but the message to me is clear: The Beasties might have started this whole "mash-up" thing with their '89 opus Paul's Boutique, but now the jackers have become the jackees. ... It's Gillis' game now.

There's also his use of M.I.A.'s "Boys," which to me, is about as clear an example of post-millennial one-upmanship as I can think of: The king of no-samples-cleared samples the queen of the concept. Again, the jacker has become the jackee. It's the sound of the glove being tossed. A ballsy and brave effort that very few artists are capable of making. Oh, and it's awesome to dance to.

But where was I? Oh yeah, LL Cool J. I didn't tell him about the Girl Talk album, in part because I am such a fan of Gillis' work, but also because you could probably fill an airplane with people who have more reason to gripe than LL does. He's only been snippetized on Feed the Animals, whereas anyone in Queen, the Police, Faith No More or Dexy's Midnight Runners would have a, shall we say, much larger bone to pick with Gillis (so would Avril Lavigne, Twisted Sister, Temple of the Dog, the Band, Flo Rida, Lil Mama, Young Jeezy and Fergie, for that matter).

I guess by writing this column, I am opening Gillis up to all sorts of bad things. And I hope that doesn't happen. But I felt the need to do this because his new album is so great, the kind of thing that could not have existed 10 years ago, an audio time capsule of the era in which we live. The kind of thing that can inspire post-millennial dilemmas at 37,000 feet.

I just hope LL doesn't read this.

(For more on Feed the Animals, watch Gillis go track-by-track through the album on the Newsroom blog.)

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Hit me at BTTS@MTVStaff.com.

• Girl Talk
• LL Cool J
• Kanye West
• Lil Wayne

Girl Talk's Gregg Gillis
Photo: Jason Merritt/ FilmMagic.com

If you've been waiting for the follow-up to Girl Talk's genre-bending, copyright-busting, pulse-quickening Night Ripper album — you know, the one that caught Kanye's attention, got a naked dude Tasered in St. Louis and made an unlikely superstar out of biomedical-engineer-turned-DJ-extraordinaire Gregg Gillis — well, you're in luck.

Because it's coming out on Thursday.

That's right: According to his label, Illegal Art, the new Girl Talk disc, Feed the Animals, is finished and will be released in less than 48 hours, barring "any technical issues, or Gregg himself.

"I haven't heard the master yet, but Gregg has it and he's reviewing it right now," Philo T. Farnsworth, the owner of Illegal Art, told MTV News by phone on Tuesday (June 17). "If he decides something is wrong with it, well, then I guess that could hold up the release — either that or resolving some server issues. But it's correct to say that it'll be available on the Illegal Art Web site starting on Thursday ... that's correct as of right now."

As luck would have it, an MTV News crew was actually with Gillis at his Pittsburgh home late Monday when he received the mastered version of Animals — according to our producer, not only does the album sound great (snippets of Kanye, Shawty Lo, Madonna and Heart — to name just a few — are sprinkled throughout), but Gillis seemed so happy with it that he asked us to decide when it should be released to the Net — our producer picked Thursday, and that's the day you'll be able to hear it.

And that's sort of how things happen in the Illegal Art camp. Philo — who was on break from his daytime job when he spoke to us on the phone — admitted that the release of Animals is being done "by the seat of our pants," but that everyone had always intended to get the album out early, with little fanfare, for a variety of reasons (most of which have to do with ducking the whole copyright-infringement thing).

"The plan was always to put it out as quickly as possible — before the physical release in September, for sure — and so that's what we're doing," Philo said. "Gregg didn't want to leak any of it early to the press; he wanted everyone to hear it, and when [the album] goes on the site it will be the first time [virtually] anyone's gonna hear it. I mean, I've heard an unmastered version of it, and a few other people here have, but that's about it. We have all been very cautious about it.

"We actually explored some options that we thought could sidestep some of the legal issues — at one point Gregg was talking about giving all the money [he made from the record] away to charity, we talked a lot about establishing a royalty system and allowing people to vote on how much people should be paid for the samples," Philo continued. "But when we talked to our lawyers, that would get us in more legal trouble because it's implying we don't have the right to be doing what we're doing — it weakened our fair-use defense — so we've decided on a different plan."

And Illegal Art's plan will sound familiar to anyone who's followed Radiohead's in Rainbows or Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-V (or even Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust album): Downloaders can pay what they want for Animals, though Philo said that if they spend, say, $5 or $10, they'll get not only the album, but FLAC files and a physical copy when they're available.

And with that, he said he needed to get off the phone — which was understandable, considering he's about to release the most-anticipated album in his label's history.

"People are throwing around all sorts of numbers for this album, but we don't want to even guess how many people are going to download it," Philo laughed. "We're not as organized as, say, Radiohead's camp, so I actually need to get off the phone with you and secure some more bandwidth."

• Girl Talk

Girl Talk's Gregg Gillis (file)
Photo: MTV News

We're going to assume that Washington University's Gargoyle Club in St. Louis didn't have a "No Moshing" sign with a footnote warning that doing so naked would be punishable by Taser.

But that was the case during Friday night's sold-out Girl Talk show, when a student resisted security's attempts to eject him from the club for being disruptive, according to a police report on the incident. The 22-year-old man, whose name has not been released by authorities, was escorted outside and told to leave, after which he allegedly shoved a security guard and pulled down his own pants and underwear. That's when the cops were called in to deal with the ruckus outside the basement venue, which is booked and run by students.

When cops arrived at around 10:45 p.m., they repeatedly told the man, who the report said appeared intoxicated, to pull up his pants or face arrest. He refused, and when an officer tried to handcuff him, he struggled, prompting the police to threaten him with the Taser if he didn't calm down.

The man continued to resist, according to what one witness told St. Louis' Riverfront Times. "He was Tasered in the a-- for a prolonged period of time," the female witness said. "It was terrible." He was arrested and taken to the hospital — standard procedure following a Tasering — before being booked at the St. Louis County Jail. Police are recommending he be charged with sexual misconduct and resisting or interfering with arrest.

Several people claiming to be eyewitnesses to the incident have posted comments on the Times Web site. "I saw this happen," wrote one commenter. "The guy was definitely high or something, and he had been pushing and threatening people all night. There was one point when several concertgoers chanted to get him out. The bouncers were trying to get him to leave (physically pushing him through the door) when he dropped his pants."

After the incident, the lights in the venue were brought up and concertgoers were instructed to leave, with no explanation. Some shouted, "Don't Tase me, bro!" to police officers standing near the exits, in reference to a University of Florida student who was Tased at a John Kerry speech in September, according to the Times.

Gregg Gillis, the man behind Girl Talk, said he had no idea what was going on either. "It was kinda toward the end of the show, and I didn't see anything," Gillis said Monday (November 12) when asked to re-create the scene. "Every show I do is crazy, and this one was no different. There was a little bit of pushing, and there's always one guy who is drunker than anyone else, but there was no one I noticed who appeared to be more out of control than anything else I've seen. I just wish someone would have told me, so I could have made sense of why I had to bring the show to a close."

Gillis said that about 15 minutes before he was going to wrap things up, the student promoters told him he needed to stop playing immediately. He took that as a five-minute warning and tried to talk to the promoters, but at no point did anyone inform him about the Tasering. "If someone would have said, 'There's a guy out there being Tasered by police, and they need you to stop this,' I would have felt obliged to wrap it up," Gillis said. A spokesperson for the venue referred all calls to the school's administration.

Once it was clear he was going to have the plug yanked, a sweaty Gillis grabbed the mic after the lights went up and yelled, "What the f---, St. Louis? That was a really uncool way to end the show. How late can I play till?" Gillis wrote about the incident on his MySpace page the next day, thanking some campus frat boys for helping him salvage the fiasco. "I haven't played a free afterparty in a year," he later told MTV News. "I asked the audience if there was anywhere we could take the show, and some frat dudes [members of Sigma Alpha Mu] proposed their basement, so we rounded everyone up, and the show moved directly to their basement.

"That [free] show was [better] attended than the real show," Gillis said. "The basement was packed, and there were 200 or 300 people all over the house. There was no shoving, and everyone was having a good time. It was like a classic college scene: No one standing still, people making out with their girlfriends, people shotgunning beers and crowd-surfing, all with the lights on the whole time. I hope someone has video of that show."

Steve Givens, Washington University's associate vice chancellor for public affairs, would not give any more details about the man who was arrested but said he will have to go in front of a judicial administrator and could face sanctions ranging from a warning to possible expulsion.

• Girl Talk

Girl Talk a.ka. Gregg Gillis
Photo: MTV News

MANCHESTER, Tennessee — This might sound odd coming from a guy who's basically made his career out of jacking bits and pieces of other people's beats, but lately, Gregg Gillis — a.k.a. Girl Talk — feels like he's the one who's getting jacked.

Or, more specifically, his style is, by a host of highfalutin rappers and producers who've taken his catch-as-catch-can production ethos (a dab of Neutral Milk Hotel, a touch of Juelz Santana) and made it their own. In fact, there's one track currently making the rounds — Kanye West's "Stronger," which features 'Ye rapping directly over the beat from Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (see "Kanye West's 'Stronger' Video: Japanese Motorcycle Gangs, Mad Scientists — And Cassie") — that's so reminiscent of a Girl Talk song, even Gillis took notice, and he's a tad bit suspicious of the similarities.

"I've opened for Kanye this year in Vegas ... and I'm sure he showed up a second before he had to play and didn't see me or know I was playing, but you have to wonder about [the similarities]," he told MTV News hours before rocking the stage at at Bonnaroo (see "Bonnaroo Recap: White Stripes, Police, Lily Allen Bring Heat To Already Scorching Fest"). "Because no one has gotten back to me with positive support, but I've played in the same building as so many celebrities, and [2006's Night Ripper has] gotten around enough that I'd think you'd probably hear it.

"I think there's a lot more people interacting — DJs and other electronic producers on my level, who are infiltrating that world. It used to be 'suits versus regular people.' You were either an indie band or a major band, and now it's just this blend," he continued. "Because of YouTube and MySpace and all those things, it's like any band can be a huge band, and any producer can be a big producer. So I think that's just making all the mainstream stuff more weirder, and all the underground stuff more mainstream. It's a weird era."

(Watch Girl Talk gab about Kanye West's "Stronger" and more, right here.)

It's been a weird era indeed for Gillis, who burst onto the scene last year with his genre-humping Night Ripper — which gleefully and, perhaps a tad illegally, mashed a boatload of samples to maximum party effect — and has rode the wave to semi-fame, a lot of (sorta) influence and DJ gigs around the world (see "Waiting For A Ying Yang Twins/ ABBA Collabo? Girl Talk Has Your Record").

And, perhaps most importantly, the success has allowed him to quit his day job (he worked as a biomedical engineer in his native Pittsburgh) and focus full-time on making music. But now, he faces a tough choice: Does he look to make a follow-up to Ripper straightaway, or does he acknowledge his burgeoning credibility on the beat-making market and get into the business of slinging tracks for others?

Well, both, actually.

"I have a lot of material, so I think I might try to put together another full-length album now, in the general ballpark of Night Ripper," Gillis said. "Now that I don't have a job, I can pound it out within the year. I'm thinking by fall — October, November — I can get it out there, and, with my stuff, it's very independent, so the day I finish it, it could be out on CD in two weeks.

"But, on the other hand, a lot of major labels are interested in hearing beats now, so I'm dabbling in that. It could be argued, you know, that Night Ripper without the vocals could've been the new 50 Cent record, if he wanted to clear the samples," he continued. "So you could potentially see a Girl Talk-produced track for some sort of major-label artist. But to be honest, it's a lot more important for me to put together a set people might like rather than make some beat for some guy who may or may not be interested in using it for the Pussycat Dolls album."

• Bonnaroo Blitz: Lily Allen, White Stripes, Franz

• Bonnaroo 2007 Performances

• Girl Talk
• Kanye West
• 50 Cent

Flavor Flav performs at SXSW on Friday
Photo: John Shearer/ Wire Image

AUSTIN, Texas — Every March, the music industry throws on a pair of shorts, slathers on the SPF 45 and heads on down to Austin for South by Southwest, a weeklong celebration of bands, BBQ and (sometimes free!) beer. It's a brutal bacchanal and music marathon powered by thousands of acts playing in hundreds of venues — at all hours — plus an unreal number of open bar tabs and fancy private parties.

Sleep is not exactly a top priority, so MTV News has dispatched three of its most tireless reporters into the fray. They'll be filing reports a few times each day (scroll down for the evening report), which will chiefly serve as a way of keeping you up to speed about what's going on deep in the heart of Texas, but also double as a convenient way — for us, anyway — of making sure everyone's still alive.

The Day

James Montgomery, MTV News writer: Another afternoon, another 36 Kool-Aid-colored wristbands to weigh down my wrists. At every day party I attend, my wrist gets slapped with a brightly colored piece of plastic (or, as is the case at the Levi's/Fader fort, two pieces), which — in theory — are supposed to keep the unwashed masses from gate-crashing and allow me preferred access to VIP areas and/or free booze. But the only thing they're really good for is snagging on clothing and making me look like this guy.

I know, I know ... cry me a river. But after only three days at SXSW, I'm totally starting to feel the inner Andy Rooney in me come to life (and he loves Robyn Hitchcock). Maybe it's the fact that every dude here is wearing a tank top, or the fact that every girl looks she's Karen O's stunt double. Who knows? ...

OK ... deep breath. Spent the afternoon at the SPIN party, where there was free popcorn, free ice cream, free cigarettes and, of course, more free wristbands! There was also a middling set from New Orleans funk act Galactic featuring cameos by a who's who of rappers that no one cares about (Lyrics Born, the Coup's Boots Reilly), a Kirsten Dunst sighting and a truly awesome early evening performance from the Kings of Leon, who rock nearly as hard as their pants are tight (and that's very).

Off now to get some dinner ... then hopefully catch a sweaty, late-night set from Girl Talk. Oh, also, my buddy in Beirut just invited me on a four-hour "BBQ excursion" set for Saturday afternoon. Wristbands or no, things are lookin' up, indeed!

John Norris, MTV News correspondent: By and large, the consensus in the local media and among people I have talked to seems to be that while the significance of SXSW has changed — I mean, we all know where music is "broken" in 2007, and it ain't at one gig at one festival — the festival still plays a vital role. As a one-stop shop for those who don't have bands rolling through their town every week, and for artists to get their music seen and heard by those in and out of the mainstream biz.

Among the bands, at varying levels of notoriety, that have introduced themselves to me on the streets of Austin and gotten their music into my hands in the past couple of days: Aloke, the GoStation, Locksley, New Year's Day, the Animators, the Stock Market Crash and some pretty cool garage girls from Atlanta who go by the lovely name the Coathangers (who count in their arsenal a fairly demure jam called "Nestle in My Boobies").

Finally, I have been avoiding going on a vegan rant for the last few days and just sucked it up and dealt with foraging around town to find non-animal-product dining. When in Rome ... yeah, yeah. Well, I'm sure as hell not gonna start eating flesh slathered in barbecue sauce, that's for sure. I'm often in situations like this — it means repeated trips to Asian places, which at least know what tofu is — so I've been twice to P.F. Chang's and once to Veggie Heaven. But then you slip and eat cheese sometimes. At last year's SXSW, even Chrissie Hynde — as much an icon of animal rights as a goddess of rock — told me she occasionally will eat cheese and she's been vegan for more than 30 years. Really, I love longhorns. To look at. Or pet. Not to eat, sit on or wear. End of screed.

Gil Kaufman, MTV News writer: I'm going to announce a moratorium on the bad-name thing, though Chicago's Flosstradamus get an honorable mention. Let me just say this now: If Australia's Youth Group don't become the next U2, something is seriously amiss. These guys have the kind of swaying, epic songs — like "Shadowland" — that fill up a dingy daytime bar show and make it feel like a stadium.

The pressure to melt down in public for new hot messes like Amy Winehouse must be intense, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down the hottest mess on everyone's tongue this week, Atlanta's notorious Black Lips. More than six years into their career, the band still knows how to shock, or revolt, as when guitarist Cole Alexander lost his lunch mid-solo just two songs into the band's set. Pro that he is, he never missed a lick, though the crowd did take a step back.

Note to the dude walking down the street with earplugs in: Bro, yeah, it's loud in the venues sometimes, but you can take them out on the way to lunch.

One of the reasons rock stars love South By (that's what the cool kids call it, for real) is they can just blend in, because every hipster doofus worth his salt has rats-nest hair, too-tight jeans and an expensive-looking ripped shirt. So, if you walk down the street and see Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore hanging on the corner, or Joan Jett waiting for a cab outside your hotel, yeah, it's them.

Speaking of which, I was on the phone in the elevator and I see a guy walk in with a huge clock around his neck and a bunch of dookie chains and my first thought is, "What kind of a bozo thinks he can cop that look from Flavor Flav in 2007?" Oh, my bad, it was Flavor Flav! We chatted, I wished him luck on his show Friday night (March 16) and when the doors opened, he gave me a knuckle pound and zoomed out into the lobby on his wheelies.

Here's what I missed today but heard about from people who were better line-jumpers than me: Pete Townshend jamming on "The Seeker" with the Fratellis, and Vietnam — or "those dudes with the giant beards," as one patron described them.

The Evening

James Montgomery: If you like slightly tubby guys with super scraggly beards, rare, out-of-print Boredoms 7-inches and uttering the phrase "They're still playing the same song?!" then the Ecstatic Peace Records and Tapes showcase was the place to be Friday night. Owned and operated by Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, Ecstatic Peace releases records (actual records; like, on vinyl and everything) by a whole lot of erudite, experimental bands that you've never heard of, many of which — including the ethereal Gown, the drone-y Black Helicopter and the unpronounceable Charalambides — were on display tonight.

Of course, doe-eyed dreamboat Michael Pitt's little grunge outfit, Pagoda was there too, but I spotted John digging them pretty hard, so I'll leave it to him to document their set. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to get my fill of avant instrumentalism, and I was quickly out the door. But not before snagging a copy of the free Ecstatic Peace 'zine for my reading leisure. Thanks, Thurston!

Then it was off to Stubb's, where a little of the old "I'm with MTV News ... my camera crew is inside, and I need to get to them now!" routine (note: professional!) got me to the front of the line and into the much-hyped gig by Damon Albarn's new project, the Good, the Bad and the Queen. I'd been hearing a lot about how the whole thing was some sort of semi-conceptual play, a sort of time-skipping portrayal of life in London throughout the 20th Century, and I was anxious to check it out myself.

Sadly, all I got out of the performance a whole lot of former Clash bassist Paul Simonon's booming, bubbly low-end (I mean, seriously, dude was loud) and a few pictures of Albarn in a top hat. Playing on a stage littered with streamers and Union Jacks, in front of an impressionistic portrait of London, the atmosphere was right, but the music — all percolating, dubby basslines and three-quarter-speed guitars — wasn't. Truth be told, the whole thing was a complete snoozer. And if it was come sort of concept, I wasn't getting it. Maybe, on this night, I just wasn't smart enough for any of it. Not sleeping and existing solely on ribs and cigarettes tends to do that to a person.

John Norris: While I didn't stick around at Stubb's long enough to check out the Good, the Bad and the Queen, there was still plenty of the Snide, the grungy and the unexpected to go around.

Began my travels at Buffalo Billiards, where you rack 'em up downstairs and upstairs you hear music — cool music on this night, in the form of Nashville's Clem Snide, the band fronted and really embodied by one of the dryer, wittier guys in indie music, Eef Barzelay. He led his two backing players through a 40-minute set full of Clem Snide's trademark tunes that build and build ... and suddenly end. Eef's sarcasm was in abundance as well, in songs like "Girls Don't Care" and in his between-song patter, like when he told the SXSW crowd "You quench me. Your applause is like calamine lotion on my mosquito-bitten skin." Oh and he even busted out a bit of Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable."

Three encounters making my way down a packed 6th Street: former MTV VJ and walking musical encyclopedia Matt Pinfield, shooting a show for DirectTV; my old pals Taylor and Zack Hanson, being interviewed for another video outlet; and Damaris Drummond, a performance artist who is planning to cover herself with vintage Atari joysticks on Saturday and ask people to choose one to play with. Where in Austin will this happen? "Wherever they will let me," says Damaris. I am not kidding.

Nor am I kidding when I say that Michael Pitt rocks. Pitt may be the easy-on-the-eyes actor who starred in "The Dreamers" and "Last Days," but he has apparently put acting on the backburner indefinitely to concentrate on his neo-grunge band Pagoda, who played outdoors at the Mohawk. With Pitt on guitar and wailing vocals (playing a Cobain-like character has clearly had an impact on him), plus bass, drums and cello (!) the band ripped through one impassioned song after another, and you might have thought it was 1993 all over again. Only one beef though: say something, dude. I get it, you want to downplay the "movie star as frontman" thing; who wouldn't? But apart from "Thanks Thurston" and "This is our last song," Pitt was totally mute ... and he tended to overdo the whole back-to-the-crowd thing. Mike — you can play guitar, you can sing and scream, your band is good. Lighten up.

Plenty light and comfortable is Mancunian troubadour Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy. Although large open-air Stubb's may not have been the best setting for his sound, Gough lit up the night with his peppy alt pop, including the winning title track from his most recent release, Born in the U.K. Plus, he's a dead ringer for my MTV News buddy Aaron Pinkston, who was watching the show with me. There could be a sitcom in here. Couple of bearded, longhaired, beanie-wearing dudes from opposite sides of the Atlantic. It could work ...

Gil Kaufman: If there's anyone who loves the Ramones more than me, it's Japanese punk bands. Which is why the Japan Night showcase is always at the top of my list. This year was no disappointment, with a killer set from Osaka's The50Kaitenz, a power trio who rocked a blistering set of Ramones-inspired rockabilly while wearing matching black suits with Colonel Sanders-style black string ties. They were followed by the equally off-the-charts Pistol Valve, a 10-woman collective with eight horn players, an electric violinist and DJ, all combining forces (like Voltron!) to create a truly unique brand of Afro-Cuban-funk-jazz-hip-hop-a--go-go, all while wearing fedoras and varying stages of lingerie.

After flashing my badge, dropping some names, pretending to call my nonexistent cameraman and using every slimy excuse I could think of to jump in front of the two-block long line, I finally got in to see hot not-mess Brazilian funk carioca trio Bonde do Role. The group — really just two MC's and a DJ — mash up party-ready Bailefunk rhythms with hip-hop and samples that range from classic rock to Brazilian dance and snatches of the "Grease" soundtrack, and they had the packed house bouncing off the walls. They got even the most jaded hipsters to throw down.

Can James snag himself a nap? Are there more Beyoncé covers in John's future? Will Gil's line-cutting come back to haunt him? Check back all weekend for our SXSW coverage!

Earlier this week:

· "Tom Morello's SXSW Gig Turns Into Raucous All-Star Jam With Slash, Perry Farrell"

· "Amy Winehouse Raises Eyebrows, Bloc Party Draw A Mob As SXSW Wakes Up"

· "Pete Wentz Clones Descend, Lily Allen Warbles As SXSW Gets Under Way"

For more sights and stories from concerts around the country, check out MTV News Tour Reports.

[This story was originally published on 3.16.2007 at 8:45 p.m.]

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Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk
Photo: Illegal Art

When Gregg Gillis was 22 years old, he had an epiphany. Tired of making avant-garde glitch pop, he decided to ditch all that bloop-bleep and "make a straight-up awesome party record."

Less than two years later, Gillis — working under his nom de disc, Girl Talk — may very well have surpassed his goal. His frantic, no-samples-cleared disc, Night Ripper, mashes together booty-shaking rap (the Ying Yang Twins, the 69 Boyz), iconic indie rock (Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth) and, uh, ABBA, with little concern for cohesion or copyright law.

"It's a record that reflects my own personal music tastes, but there are a lot of people who listen to it who like top 40 rap, and then all of a sudden there's a Boredoms sample in there, and their minds are sort of blown," Gillis laughed. "It's a celebration of the sources — never some ironic thing. I like a lot of traditionally corny music — Hall & Oates are one of my favorite groups ever — and I was worried that people were going to think that it was ironic. But what I'm really trying to do is pay tribute to all the sources and then combine them into one great pop tornado."

And what a tornado it is: Though the Night Ripper liner notes thank 164 artists, Gillis claims he sampled closer to 300 different songs for the album, though even he can't be certain of the total amount. "It's difficult for me to identify each sample, 'cause so many of them are cut up and reworked over and over," he said.

One song, "Minute by Minute," combines elements from the Ying Yang Twins' "Badd," LL Cool J's "Around the Way Girl," Warren G's "Regulate," Juelz Santana's "There It Go (The Whistle Song)" and Neutral Milk Hotel's "Holland, 1945" and throws them over beats by Missy Elliott, Jefferson Airplane and Better Than Ezra. It's a display of beat-mashing skillz that puts Gillis head-and-shoulders above his plundering pals, though he's quick to distance himself from the burgeoning mash-up scene.

"Mash-ups sort of have a bad rep, just because they hit really big and then there's a backlash," he said. "To be honest, I'm not even a big fan of them. I've never really considered myself a part of that movement. I'm just trying to make my own music out of pop music. To me, there's not really a definition for it — it's just new pop music."

In May, Night Ripper was released through Illegal Art, initially available only via download from the label's Web site (IllegalArt.net). But due to the overwhelmingly positive response the album received (it quickly became the most blogged-about album on the Net), Illegal Art released the record to select stores, an unusual step because it only serves to raise the profile of the project. And given the questionable legality of the album, that might not be a good thing for Gillis or Illegal Art.

Neither artist nor label would speak on the record about the threat of legal action from artists, record labels or the Recording Industry Association of America, though a spokesperson for Illegal Art did e-mail MTV a statement that reads, "We're such a small label that we don't really pose a threat to the market of the sampled artists." Gillis said he's yet to hear from a single sampled artist.

To be honest, he'd rather talk about other things. Like his booming tour schedule — which is severely hampered by his 9-to-5 job in his native Pittsburgh — or the e-mail he recently received from one of his heroes, Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan. And though he insists he's happy with his newfound fame, he'll begrudgingly admit that it's put a serious damper on his social life. But so it goes with a suddenly somewhat famous superstar DJ.

"I'd like to think of myself as a real weekend warrior, but in reality a lot of my friends go out all the time, and I chill at home because I have to work in the morning," he said. "I try to make it a point to go out on Friday and Saturday, but a lot of times I have to make the call to not go out to the club so I can stay home and make party music, which is kind of ridiculous."

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