Water Cooler Convo

Kris Allen Adds Extra Show In Vegas Dec. 30

2009-12-29T01:53:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen and his band will be performing at B.B. King's Blues Club at the Mirage in Las Vegas a day before their televised New Year's Eve gig at Mandalay Bay. The Wednesday, Dec. 30 "special guest appearance", which was just announced on Monday, will begin at midnight.

Entry will be based on a first come, first-served basis. The B.B. King’s Blues Club will do its last dinner seating at 8:30 pm and will reopen at 11 pm in preparation for the special appearance. The show is a 21-and-older show, and the cover charge is $30. Kris apparently is playing for an hour. I'm feeling really good about getting "Red Guitar"! (ahem, where the heck are you, AOL Sessions?!)

I will be there for this show, so unless they ban cameras, I will bring back some goodies on New Year's Eve!

Speaking of NYE, if anyone (21-and-older) is interested in attending Kris and Allison Iraheta's Billboard New Year's Eve show that will be broadcast on Fox, Seatfiller.com is taking applications for seatfillers.

Kris Allen Disney Christmas Parade Performance

2009-12-27T17:49:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen's performance of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" at the Disney Christmas Parade aired on ABC Christmas morning. A good quality video finally surfaced, courtesy MyLittleYTChannel:

Christmas Deals From Amazon.com

2009-12-25T13:12:00.001-08:00

Amazon.com is pricing some of its music at low prices as people do their after-Christmas shopping. Susan Boyle, who doesn't need any additional help with sales, has her best-selling CD on sale at Amazon mp3s for just $3.99 (too bad most of the people who would buy this has no idea what an mp3 is), and there are a good chunk of mp3 CDs on sale for $5 or $7.99.

They are also offering up a deal that would give you a free $5 mp3 CD if you purchase an mp3 CD worth $7.99 or more. For more details on this, click here.

Some CDs that might be relevant to your Idol interests:

Carrie Underwood - Some Hearts - $7.99

Carrie Underwood - Carnival Ride - $7.99

Brooke White - Songs From the Attic - $5

Michael Johns - Hold Back My Heart - $7.99

Total Dance 2009 (includes remixes of songs by Jordin Sparks, David Archuleta and Jennifer Hudson) - $7.99

Paula Abdul - Greatest Hits - Straight Up! - $5

Randy Jackson's Music Club, Volume One - $5

And some greatest hits CDs that are good deals:

Boyz II Men - Legacy - The Greatest Hits Collection - $7.99

Janet Jackson - Number Ones - $7.99

U2 - The Best Of 1990-2000 - $7.99

Duran Duran - Greatest - $5

Idol Christmas Playlist

2009-12-24T21:51:00.000-08:00

Here's an All-Idol Christmas playlist. Thanks to those of you who tweeted me suggestions!

My Grown-Up Christmas List - Kelly Clarkson

O Holy Night (a cappella) - Kelly Clarkson

This Christmas - Ruben Studdard

Mary Did You Know - Clay Aiken (iTunes | Amazon)

Do You Hear What I Hear - Carrie Underwood (iTunes | Amazon)

Merry Christmas Baby - Bo Bice

I'll Be Home For Christmas - Katharine McPhee (iTunes)

Back Door Santa - Elliott Yamin (iTunes | Amazon)

Christmas Day - Mandisa, w/ Michael W. Smith (iTunes | Amazon)

I'll Be Home For Christmas - Jordin Sparks (iTunes | Amazon)

Jingle Bells - Melinda Doolittle

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - David Cook

Silent Night - David Archuleta (iTunes | Amazon)

White Christmas - Jason Castro

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Kris Allen

The Christmas Song - Kris Allen

And from the two cheesy American Idol Christmas specials back in the day (Ahem. I don't care if it's cheesy. I'd totally watch it. Bring it back!):

Finale Medley - Kelly Clarkson, Tamyra Gray, Christina Christian, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Kimberley Locke

Jesus What A Wonderful Child - Kelly Clarkson/Fantasia Barrino

Christmas Playlist

2009-12-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

Thought I would share a Christmas playlist for anyone looking for Christmas music to listen to the next two days. My taste runs towards the non-traditional, more pop side, so don't expect Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole. I'll leave the standards to Susan Boyle, thank you very much.

So here's my playlist, in chronological order:

1. This Christmas - Donny Hathaway (iTunes | Amazon)

2. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon (iTunes | Amazon)

3. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses (iTunes | Amazon)

4. Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid (iTunes)

5. Last Christmas - Wham! (iTunes | Amazon)

6. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2 (iTunes | Amazon)

7. Let It Snow - Boyz II Men (iTunes | Amazon)

8. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey (iTunes | Amazon)

9. O Holy Night (A Cappella) - N Sync (iTunes | Amazon)

10. Winter Song - Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson (iTunes | Amazon)

Bonus: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Jane Monheit (iTunes | Amazon)

Video Of The Day - Jimmy Fallon & The Muppets Sing The 12 Days Of Christmas

2009-12-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Normally, I kind of hate this song because it's sooo repetitive, but you can't help but smile at the Jimmy Fallon/Muppets version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Because really - the Muppets make everything better. And Fozzie Bear missing his cues is hilarious.

Happy Holidays!

Video Of The Day - Kobe, LeBron Puppet Christmas Commercial

2009-12-23T11:03:00.001-08:00

Nike has a new Christmas commercial starring the Kobe Bryant and LeBron James puppets. This long one (over 2 minutes long - and they aired the whole thing last night on ESPN!) looks like a P. Diddy video and has Santa's reindeer talking trash and challenging Santa, Kobe and LeBron to a basketball game. Heh. The best part is when Puppet LeBron posterizes Blitzen the reindeer on a dunk, saying "Merry Christmas, BLITZ!"

Check out the video here:

New Music From Matt Giraud

2009-12-22T23:37:00.000-08:00

Matt Giraud performed at the Marcus Hummon and Friends showcase at The Listening Room Cafe in Nashville Tuesday night and debuted a new song, 4 am, that he co-wrote with JT Harding. Matt also sang "Bless the Broken Road" with Hummon, who wrote the popular Rascal Flatts song, "Georgia On My Mind", "My Funny Valentine" and a few other originals, including the awesome "Miss You Tonight" and "Go On And Sing, Boy"

Matt tweeted that the two highlights of the night were playing "Bless the Broken Road" with Marcus Hummon and playing a private set for two fans who came an hour late and missed his show. Awww. That is awesome.

Here are some of the videos from his show, from bhanktg (more at the link):

4 AM

Bless The Broken Road

Miss You Tonight

Danny Gokey Single Available, Album Cover Revealed

2009-12-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

Danny Gokey is now the fifth Idol from this season to release music in 2009. His new single "My Best Days Are Ahead of Me" is now available to purchase on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Danny's CD My Best Days will be released in March. If you preorder it through his website, you'll receive the CD, autographed jacket cover and an instant download of "My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me." The cover art, along with a video of Danny singing "O Holy Night" was released to USA Today.

RCA Nashville has done a good job of getting Danny some visibility with numerous radio station appearances/performances, and he will be making his Grand Ole Opry debut on Jan. 8. This Sunday, he will sing the national anthem at the Green Bay Packers game.

New York Post's Top 209 Songs Of 2009

2009-12-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

The New York Post published its list of the Top 209 songs of 2009. Five Idols made the cut, led by Kris Allen's "Live Like We're Dying" at No. 44. Also in the Top 209 are songs by Chris Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson, Jordin Sparks and Adam Lambert.

Here's the Top 10, plus the Idols selected:

New York Post's Top 209 Songs From 2009
1. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
2. Be A Bee - Air
3. Laughing With - Regina Spektor
4. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
5. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) - Jay-Z
6. The Pharoahs - Neko Case
7. California - Joey Ryan
8. Fallin' For You - Colbie Caillat
9. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne
10. First Train Home - Imogen Heap

Idols:
44. Live Like We're Dying - Kris Allen
58. Poker Face - Chris Daughtry
69. Already Gone - Kelly Clarkson
107. Emergency (911) - Jordin Sparks
133. For Your Entertainment - Adam Lambert

To see the full list, click here.

Video Of The Day - One Sweet Day A Cappella

2009-12-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Since all I've been tweeting about the last 12 hours or so has been Boyz II Men (thanks, The Sing-Off), I'm going to make today's Video of the Day Boyz II Men/Mariah Carey's a cappella version of "One Sweet Day".

Stay tuned for more 90's R&B gems in the days to come.

Kris Allen AOL Sessions Sneak Peak

2009-12-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen's AOL Sessions will be premiering on Tuesday, Dec. 22. According to the winner of the Every Second Counts contest, who was in attendance at the taping, Kris sang Live Like We're Dying, Red Guitar, O Holy Night, Is It Over and Can't Stay Away. I can't wait for this to premiere! That's a great setlist.

LX New York aired a little preview of it during an interview with Kris. You can hear a little of Live Like We're Dying and Red Guitar during the piece:

Kris Allen - XL'ent Xmas

2009-12-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen performed at the House of Blues in Orlando on Friday night for the WXXL XL'ent Xmas show with The Fray, Leona Lewis and Jason Castro. Kris was the second act in the show and played nine songs.

Here's the setlist for Kris' last live show until New Year's Eve: Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise, Can't Stay Away (with guitar), The Truth, Man In The Mirror, Is It Over, Alright with Me, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song, Live Like We're Dying. So he finished out the year having performed a different setlist for every show he did post-album. Nice.

All of the videos that have come through YouTube feature special guest vocalists. If better footage comes up, I'll replace it:

Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise:

The Truth:

Is It Over:

Alright With Me:

Music Deal Of The Day - John Mayer's Battle Studies For $3.99

2009-12-18T03:16:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for this one - John Mayer's Battle Studies CD is the mp3 deal of the day at Amazon.com and is available today for just $3.99.

To purchase it, click here:
John Mayer - Battle Studies

Allison Iraheta Rocks Jimmy Kimmel

2009-12-18T03:08:00.000-08:00

Allison Iraheta performed her lead single "Friday I'll Be Over U" at Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday night. The show has posted HD video on its YouTube page. Or check it out below:

Kris Allen At Kissmas Office Party In Charlotte

2009-12-18T01:56:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen played a 10-song set at the Kissmas Office Party in Charlotte Thursday evening. Amongst the songs he performed was the live debut of "The Truth" and a re-emergence of "Before We Come Undone", which he hadn't done since his very first show with the band at the Miami Dolphins Tailgate.

The setlist was: Can't Stay Away, Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise, Before We Come Undone, The Truth, Man In The Mirror, Is It Over, Alright With Me, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song and Live Like We're Dying.

Here are some videos, from the amazing tawneej. First two up are Can't Stay Away and The Truth. The verses on The Truth are gorgeous, but they need to work on the sound on the choruses. Ryland is totally drowning Kris' vocals out.

More videos are being processed overnight, so click on the the above link to tawneej's YouTube page to get the latest. Before We Come Undone, Is It Over and an Anoop Desai shoutout are forthcoming.

Can't Stay Away:

The Truth:

The whole set, from a less noisy vantage-point are on the YouTube page of SusanH2016.

Here's Before We Come Undone:

And from the Kiss 95.1 website, Live Like We're Dying:

Kradison Albums On Sale For $7.99 At Amazon.com Today

2009-12-17T06:47:00.001-08:00

The last of Amazon.com's 12 Days of Christmas special deals is today, and it's looking like a very Idol Christmas, with Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta CDs on sale for just $7.99.

Kris Allen - Kris Allen
For Your Entertainment - Adam Lambert
Just Like You - Allison Iraheta

If you want to buy Kris and Allison's CD together, you can get an additional $2 off by entering code CF9PEBTF at checkout. If you want Kris and Adam's CD together, your $2 off coupon is B53Z2NSW.

In conjunction with the deal, Amazon is also having a contest to win a trip to the Season 9 Finale in 2010. To enter the drawing, click here.

Russell Ferguson Is America's Newest Favorite Dancer

2009-12-17T04:10:00.000-08:00

Krumper Russell Ferguson won Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance, defeating a trio of contemporary/jazz dancers and a ballroom couple in the finale to take top prize. Russell, who was the first krumper ever in the Top 20, of course becomes the first to win the show.

And it was a good thing he won because the rest of the show was pretty bad for the guy. He perhaps injured himself during his hip-hop routine with Kevin and Legacy because the next time he came out on stage, he had to be helped out and propped up by fellow finalist Ryan DiLello. He was supposed to have danced in two encore performances (African jazz and hip-hop) but was unable to do so.

Ryan ended up in 6th place, and his wife Ashleigh was 5th. Ellenore Scott placed 4th, and Kathryn McCormick took 3rd place, and as the top female finisher, earned a dancing gig on the Oscars, along with Russell. Jakob Karr was the runner-up.

This season's finale didn't seem as dance-centric as it has in years past, with four musical acts taking the stage. Leona Lewis sang a tuneless and, at times, out of tune version of her new song "I See You" (iTunes | Amazon) from the movie Avatar. Adam Lambert sang "Whataya Want From Me" (iTunes | Amazon) while wearing some dead creature on his shoulder and extra emo eye makeup (see video here). Mary J. Blige performed her new single "I Am" (iTunes | Amazon), and Jennifer Lopez lip-synched even a speaking part in the beginning of her "Louboutins" (on sale next week at Amazon).

Some new, unidentified music was played during the show. If you were wondering what they were, the music played during the audition montage was "Sweet Disposition" by The Temper Trap (iTunes | Amazon) and "Your Guardian Angel" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (iTunes | Amazon). Ellenore's elimination song was "Breathe" by Ryan Star (iTunes | Amazon), and Kathryn's elimination song was "Something Beautiful" by Needtobreathe (iTunes | Amazon).

Kris Allen And Band Have Ugly Christmas Sweater Party On Letterman

2009-12-16T23:53:00.001-08:00

Kris Allen and his band threw an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at the Ed Sullivan Theater Wednesday night while performing on the Late Show with David Letterman. The band had initially planned on having drummer Ryland wear a Santa costume, but that got nixed by production. The Ugly Christmas Sweaters provided more than enough LOLs, though! I was howling with laughter, that's for sure.

If you don't get it (and apparently a bunch of, um, fans of other people don't or choose not to), Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties are intentionally funny and kitschy. And they're also really popular around the holidays (Vancouver's annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, which pretty much started the whole trend). So come on, now. Stop being humorless. John Mayer did it on Ellen, with red pants, even!

So who wins the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest? TOUGH CALL. The arms on Cale's sweater were hilariously too short (check out this Facebook post talking about it lol). Torres had a green (?) Santa sweater paired with a candy cane stripe turtleneck. Ryland had a matching sparkly hat to go along with his sparkly shirt. Kris' cardigan had music notes on the shoulders and beaded things on the sleeve. Andrew's reindeer sweater was actually relatively decent, so he's the big loser amongst the group.

Here's the video of the performance, from CowboysForever81:

And in case you missed it because you were still laughing, Letterman made a great great little remark at the end of the show: "And this is the first of many CDs. It's called Kris Allen."

Video Of The Day - Stephen Colbert's Empire State Of Mind

2009-12-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

Alicia Keys performed "Empire State of Mind" on The Colbert Report last night, and host Stephen Colbert joined in mid-song with more appropriate lyrics for himself. Hilarious!

Kris Allen On The Bonnie Hunt Show Monday

2009-12-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this on Monday, and the Bonnie Hunt Show has already aired in your area, fret not. They had the video of Kris Allen's performance of "The Christmas Song" posted on their website - BonnieHunt.com - around midnight Pacific time. (That last falsetto note is to die for!)

And if you haven't yet missed it on your TV, check your local listings for airtimes. In LA, it's on at 3 pm on NBC.

Also doing the talk-show thing on Monday are David Archuleta on CBS' Early Show (7-9 am) and Adam Lambert on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (11:35 pm, NBC)

Kris Allen, Jason Castro WPST Concert

2009-12-13T17:39:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen and Jason Castro teamed up for an acoustic concert for radio station WPST in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. Also joining the two Idols was Joshua Radin for his third show with Kris this month. Before the show, Jason tweeted the picture to the left of the two of them.

Kris sang eight songs, his longest set so far. His setlist was as follows: Man In The Mirror, Can't Stay Away, Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise, Alright With Me, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song, Live Like We're Dying and, for an encore, Is It Over.

He also mentioned that he sang Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Feliz Navidad with Allison Iraheta last night at a party for Cumulus Radio in Atlanta. Hoping for videos to surface of that.

Here are some of the videos from Philadelphia that are trickling in, from lunchboxangel, Peanutttty, and justicelvr:

Man In The Mirror

Can't Stay Away

Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise

Alright With Me

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

The Christmas Song

Live Like We're Dying

Is It Over (plus banter about Justin Bieber)

Amongst the songs Jason sang were Let's Just Fall In Love Again, Hallelujah and Feliz Navidad. Here are videos of the first two:

Let's Just Fall In Love Again

Hallelujah

Adam Lambert Sings National Anthem

2009-12-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

Adam Lambert sang the national anthem at Wednesday's ADL Annual Benefit, honoring Steven Spielberg. Video has finally surfaced from that, courtesy thekidswantacamel:

Adam also sang a little a capella Whataya Want From Me last night at Y100's Jingle Ball when he was out on stage introducing LMFAO. Here's the video, from myfriendhelenc:

John Mayer Introduces Kris Allen's Single

2009-12-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

This has got to be surreal for Kris Allen. One of his favorite musicians - John Mayer - introduced his single on the Sirius Hits 1 Weekend Countdown this weekend. Mayer joked about stalking Kris' house. LOL!

"Live Like We're Dying" moved up 11 spots to #26 on the countdown. It debuted last week at #37. And in other LLWD news, it is currently at #26 on the iTunes charts, its highest position to date.

Thanks to tawneej for the audio clip.

Z-100 Jingle Ball - Videos

2009-12-11T17:41:00.000-08:00

Kris Allen performed a three-song, 10-minute set in front of about 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden for Z-100's Jingle Ball Friday night. He sang "Can't Stay Away", "Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise" and "Live Like We're Dying". Allison Iraheta introduced him.

Click here to watch video from a live stream (thank you, kmc8500 for streaming and gracefulally for tweeting the link!).

Kris sounded great from that video. And the screaming! Whoah. Most impressive, though, was the audience singing along. And this wasn't a crowd that was there only for Kris. This was a random sampling of people singing KRIS' song at the top of their lungs. Unreal. I really hope he was able to hear that from the stage. I can't even imagine how incredible of a feeling that had to have been for him.

And whoever continues to say Kris can't play big venues after watching that Live Like We're Dying video needs to GTFO and STFU. Sorry.

Here are some videos from Peanutttty and LiteraryNut:

Can't Stay Away

Heartless/Gangsta's Paradise

Live Like We're Dying