iJango Idaho

Ijango
Registration

For nine weeks now, I've been meaning to write this
column, but I kept getting distracted by stuff like the Keyboard Cat and Pretty
Ricky's latest round of furniture-humping histrionics. And that's somewhat
fitting, given that this column is about Cobra Starship, a band that has turned
messing around on the Internet into an absolute art form.

And I'm not
saying that to be dismissive of their success or because hyperkinetic party
machine/ frontman Gabe Saporta sort of dresses like a blog, but rather, because,
well ... it's true. Cobra Starship are a musical meme, the band equivalent of
every groin shot, epic fail and outrageous bit of bodily harm you've ever
watched YouTube or e-mailed to a million co-workers. Theirs is a brilliance
reserved for the zeitgeist-grabbing Tay Zondays or Chris Crockers of the world.
It's stupid smart. Genius dumb. And this is something to be proud of.

Witness CobraCam.tv, an episodic site they launched nine weeks ago to
promote their upcoming Hot Mess album (due August 11). This is a very clinical
description of it, however, as it is "promotional" only inasmuch as it features
the members of Cobra Starship. More correctly, it's a sort of sketch-comedy
showcase/ pop-culture blender/ "WTF is going on?" bonanza. It's the kind of
thing a million bands (and a billion kids on YouTube) try to do but always fail
miserably at, because they are simply not funny — or stupid or clever or
dedicated — enough to pull it off. Cobra Starship are all those things, and then
some.

Over the course of nine sublimely silly installments, they've
spilled gallons of blood, poked fun at Lil Wayne's prodigious face tattoos,
grown fake beards, harassed their merch guy, assaulted steaks with axes,
attempted to grow breasts (keytarist Vicky Asher won that one by default),
hawked cleaning products and cologne, performed surgery, rode a jackalope and
wore more costumes than Lady Gaga. They've poked fun at the industry, British
people, their fellow bands and, most importantly, themselves. None of it makes
very much sense, and lord knows how we're supposed to be gleaning any
information about Hot Mess, but none of that matters. Because it's all
hilarious. And because, well, it's Cobra Starship. The music is almost
secondary.

And if that last line comes off as harsh, well, I'd be
willing to bet the guys (and gal) in CS would agree with me. With Cobra, the
comedy is the thing. And that's more than evident on CobraCam.

There's a
deft comic touch on display here — truly some of the funniest moments come in
the throwaway lines or the odd cutaway shot — and a fondness for the bizarre
that recalls stuff like "The Kids in the Hall" or the British version of "The
Office" (or even, to blaspheme a bit more, "Monty Python's Flying Circus").
There are smart, subtle references to stuff like "The Big Lebowski" and Vince
Offer and "St. Elsewhere" and Wes Anderson's slo-mo tracking shots (there's even
a nod to "Goodfellas" in episode six, though I'm not sure the band even realizes
it). And, of course, a collegiate dedication to getting wasted: Cobra Starship
are, at the end of a day, a party band.

But here's another one to throw
at you: Cobra Starship are also a comedy troupe. Each member has a role (Saporta
is the boozing lout, Asher the silent straight-woman, etc.), and as is the case
with all great troupes, there is one breakout star. In Cobra's case, it's
guitarist Ryland Blackington, a gangly, rubber-faced combination of "SNL"-era
Chevy Chase and "Kids in the Hall"-era Kevin McDonald who positively carries the
majority of the CobraCam stuff (check episodes two, six and nine for proof). Of
course, bassist Alex Suarez and drummer Nate Novarro are pretty good too. Say
what you will about Cobra Starship, but they definitely have the funniest rhythm
section in the business.

And that's sort of the point of all this, I
suppose. As a band, Cobra Starship are a really great sketch-comedy troupe, and
CobraCam is the proof. Their dedication — and, make no bones about it, to keep
churning out episodes of quality stuff takes dedication — to the stupid, the
insane and the subtle is what sets them apart from their contemporaries, and
it's all on display here. I'm not sure how any of this will help Hot Mess (do
"funny" bands sell records? We Are Scientists sure didn't), though that probably
doesn't matter. Love them or hate them, CS have always been fun-first,
music-second, and that's why kids pack their shows and throw the fangs in the
air. In fact, it's a sort of brilliant niche they've carved out, if you think
about it. They've quietly become the court jesters of pop music. More proof that
you've got to be pretty smart to be this stupid.

ijango oops

Miley Cyrus, riding high on the success of her "Hannah Montana" film
and soundtrack, has announced plans for a 45-date North American tour this fall.
The tour, which features Metro Station as opening act, kicks off September 14 in
Portland, Oregon and wraps up in Miami on December 2.

The tour is the
teen star's first since the highly successful "Best of Both Worlds" trek in
2007-2008. That outing grossed $55,245,879 and sold 994,665 tickets to 70 shows
reported to Billboard Boxscore. Cyrus was named Breakthrough Artist at the 2008
Billboard Touring Awards. The tour was also notable for drawing attention to
issues in the ticketing business,
as Cyrus’ concerts sold out immediately
and tickets were quickly available on secondary ticketing sites, drawing the ire
of parents and the scrutiny of public officials as to the number of tickets
available to the general public and how the tickets end up on the resale market.

Ticketmaster is using the Cyrus tour to rollout its biggest experiment
in paperless ticketing yet in an effort to limit ticket scalping. According to a
press release, "All tickets will be sold exclusively through paperless ticket
delivery which means fans will not receive a physical concert ticket for their
entry into the event." Ticket buyers will be required to bring the credit card
used making the purchase and a photo ID to the concert venue in order to gain
entry. All groups must enter the concerts together, and ushers will issue "seat
locator slips." Information about the paperless ticketing for the tour is
available at ticketmaster.com/mileycyrus.

The 3D concert film of the
tour, "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour," opened
with $31 million last year, ending up with $65 million to become the biggest
concert movie of all time.

This year's tour is presented by Walmart,
which is launching a new apparel line with Cyrus and designer Max Azira in
August.

An American Express presale runs from June 10-12, with tickets
going on sale to the general public beginning Saturday, June 13th at 10:00 AM
local. Ticket prices range from $39.50 – 79.50 plus fees and applicable service
charges.

ijango wendys

cameron sharpe bio:
Mark McGrath, the lead singer of Sugar
Ray and former host of the celebrity news show "Extra," has often employed an
old political tactic for his career: Set expectations low so success seems all
the sweeter.

The self-deprecating attitude served him and his band well.
He has joked about his looks, voice, penis and fleeting fame -- one album was
called "14:59," just short of the 15 minutes Andy Warhol famously described --
while the band's steady stream of reggae-tinged mid-'90s radio hits sold more
than 5 million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and made McGrath a star.

So when the band announced in April that it regrouped in a Los Angeles
recording studio, made a new album ("Music for Cougars") and was ready to head
back out on the road for another turn in the spotlight, McGrath was quick to
acknowledge that many would wonder why. "I know people aren't sitting on the
edge of their seats waiting for a Sugar Ray record," he says. "But that wasn't
the point."

Contrary to popular perception, Sugar Ray never broke up.
The band's original lineup of childhood friends from Newport Beach, California,
moved from rap-punk to power-pop and from broke unknowns to wealthy
platinum-sellers over the course of five albums on Atlantic.

But by
2003, the writing was on the wall for bands like Sugar Ray, and that year the
group's "In the Pursuit of Leisure" album -- an attempted reinvention that
included several songs produced by the Neptunes -- flopped. McGrath took the TV
job, and the rest of the guys went back to the beach. They would reconvene every
year for a few corporate gigs, state-fair-type concerts and an occasional
soundtrack song, but Sugar Ray was on the back burner. Atlantic dropped the act
in 2006.

When McGrath's contract with "Extra" was about to expire, he,
the band and longtime manager Chip Quigley quietly began plotting Sugar Ray's
return. Jason Bernard, a music producer and longtime friend of the band's whose
Pulse Studios encompasses a recording studio, publishing company and record
label with a distribution deal through Fontana, was eager to cut a deal.

"We realized there are bands out there in the world that major labels
were turning their heads on," says Bernard, who last year brought alternative
rock band Filter out of retirement. "We can make world-class records for pennies
on the dollar with our sweat equity."

The resulting "Cougars" marks a
return to the tried-and-true formula that made 1997's "Fly" a radio staple. The
first single, "Boardwalk," is a straight-down-the-center, sunny, unmistakably
Sugar Ray song. Other cuts on the album include the uptempo dance track "She's
Got The ... (Woo-Hoo)," the midtempo romancer "Love Is the Answer" and the
reggae-influenced remake of Eddie Hodges' "(Girls Girls Girls Are) Made to Love"
featuring Collie Buddz.

"We were part of a business where you had a hit
single and you sold 3 million records, but it's different now," Quigley says.
"The real core of our business is the live arena, and for that you need songs on
the radio. So we're really going to try and get the song on radio and go out
there touring this summer and show folks we're still a great live band."

ijango burgerking
go
ijango
ijango tacobell

M.I.A.
protégé and act on her N.E.E.T. label through Interscope, Rye Rye, will go out
on A-Trak's "Hamburger" tour, taking off in Shangai, China on May 28th and
capping off at Hard Festival in Los Angeles, Calif. On August 8th.

"I
was out one day and [DJ] Blaqstarr called me saying I should come to the studio
because somebody wanted to meet me," Rye Rye, born Ryeisha Berrain, told
Billboard earlier this year about teaming up with M.I.A. "It was M.I.A. and
Diplo, and [M.I.A.] was like, 'I've been looking for you!' I was looking at her
like, 'Who is this lady?' "

Rye Rye's already completed an international
tour while working on her debut album, which is due this year. Tracks on the
album include the club track "Bang;" "Older Man," about being in love with
someone twice your age; "Quit Swinging" and "Shake It To Ground" - the track
that initially caught M.I.A.'s attention -- will all appear on the set.

cameron b sharpe
ijango dairy
queen:
If you're still shaking the glitter from your hair from last
month's "American Idol" finale, which crowned soft-spoken Arkansas strummer Kris
Allen as the show's eighth champ, time's up. Less than a month after the lights
went down on one of the most exciting finales in "Idol" history, the star-making
machinery is about to be cranked up again.

Auditions for season nine of
"Idol" will begin on June 14 at Gillette Stadium in Boston before moving on to
Atlanta's Georgia Dome on June 18. The show will spend three days in each city,
with the first two devoted to registration and the third to auditions. For the
Boston date, wristbands will be distributed from 7 a.m. on June 12 until 8 a.m.
on the 14th, with auditioners asked to return to the stadium by 5 a.m. that day.
No camping out is permitted.

The show will try to find talent in Los
Angeles again beginning June 30 at the Rose Bowl before moving on to Orlando,
Florida's Amway Arena on July 9 and Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High on July
14. Also on tap as audition cities are Dallas and Chicago, though information
and dates for those stops have not yet been announced.

There has been
much speculation about whether female judges Paula Abdul and newbie Kara
DioGuardi will be back for season nine, as both women's contracts were up after
the end of the most recent season. DioGuardi, whose first year on the show
provided mixed results — and included some awkward spats with fellow judge Simon
Cowell, as well as shows that ran over due to the new four-judge format — told
the ladies of "The View" last week that she didn't know if she was going to be
back for an encore.

Ijango Blog

"Behind the Beats" will return next week, homies. We got
some producers who have worked with all the big boys. Just wait. Today, we are
going to respond directly to you with a new section, "Voice of the People." We
appreciate you sending us comments on all our stories. And while we don't always
see eye-to-eye with the readers (Lord knows they don't always see eye-to-eye
with us ... LOL), we definitely love you taking time to check us out.

We
brought Soulja Boy Tell'em in recently to holla back about a comment from reader
Whozdat02, who on May 12 gave an opinion about the teen moneymaker's dreams of
getting Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne for his next album, The DeAndre Way.

"Wayne and Kanye can probably do the album, but Jay wouldn't work," the
commenter wrote in. "The people that listen to Soulja Boy, for some reason,
think Jay is wack or, as DonDelVita, puts it 'he's lame.' And for that reason,
doing a record with Soulja Boy would be pointless, because the younger
generation don't respect him."

Wow, harsh comments about the man the MTV
News Hip-Hop Brain Trust voted the Greatest MC of All Time a few years ago.
Soulja Boy — like us — disagreed with his fan's assessment.

"Jay-Z, I
always respected him," Soulja told us. "Always. But I didn't always like his
music. I guess because I was too young, and I couldn't understand what he was
saying. ... I got signed when I was 16 years old. Before I got signed, I heard
the song, and I was like, 'That's Jay-Z.' My favorite song from him was 'Dirt
Off Your Shoulder.' I guess I liked the beat or the way he was flowing on there.
Any other song I used to hear, I ain't really vibe with it like that. I used to
listen to a lot of Down South artists like Three 6 Mafia or Gucci Mane. But
recently, since I'm older now and I grew up, I like Jay-Z now. I'm a fan of his
music. At first, I used to just respect him because he was Jay-Z; now I'm a fan
of his music and I wanna work with him.

"In the car ride over here, we
was listening to 'Brooklyn Go Hard,' " he added. "He said, 'I'm Jackie Robinson
— I jack, I rob, I sin.' I didn't know he was snapping like that. Back then, I
couldn't understand none of what he was saying."

The Streets Is Talking:
News & Notes From The Underground

Soulja Boy has a few things in the
works with DJ Drama. "Me and Soulja Boy working," Dram told us. "It's coming
along. The tape is called Follow Me: The Gangsta Grillz Twitter Edition."

The potent Southern duo will release the mixtape on Twitter first in the
coming weeks.

"Me and Soulja Boy are two guys people look to for
inspiration to move things forward," Dram added. "So for all of the people who
counted Soulja Boy out, that counted me out, why not? We all know how powerful
Twitter is right now. Besides Soulja, look for that Drama and Gucci Mane, Drama
and R. Kelly, Drama and Willie Da Kid, and possibly a DJ Drama and Fabolous
mixtape."