Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Drake's Tour Made Up Of Artists 'On Top Of Their Game'


Drake
The Bay got quite the treat on Monday night when Drake rolled into Concord, California's Sleep Train Pavilion for the latest leg of his Club Paradise Tour. It was a memorable kickoff for not only Drizzy, but his some of his tourmates, too, as 2 Chainz, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill and French Montana joined him.

Coachella, Bluesfest, PITCH Fest, OSHEAGA, Lollapalooza, OVO fest. Damn. The Weeknd has amassed a pretty impressive line up of concerts and impending performances in a relatively short time, and to add to that, Abel + band will now be opening at select performances by Florence + The Machine. Having developed such a cult-following before even stepping on stage, selling out shows has appeared to be The Weeknd’s forte.

And all this while busy re-mastering his trilogy of mixtapes for re-release. Well, although his mix engineers and producers are undoubtedly shouldering the brunt of the work, there is good possibility he’s present during the process – it’s his voice, after all.

Hard work. Dedication. And according to reviews, an improving stage show, which is going to be very important, especially when performing in such large-scale venues and as a supporting performer for Florence + The Machine. There’s only one way to truly know, and that’s by attending one of the shows – if you can still get tickets.

"I tried to put together a tour that consisted of ... everybody that you hear in your spare time," Drake told MTV News while on the set of 2 Chainz's "No Lie" video in L.A. just before the tour. "These are the guys that are currently on the top of the game, so I tried to bring 'em all out [for] one night. And that's why the tour's called Club Paradise, because I want it to feel like you're gonna hear every song that you wait to hear in the club."

The Young Money star had a number of surprises. For starters, he brought out his buddy the Weeknd to perform their collabo "Crew Love," and then he made way for his mentor, Lil Wayne. Together they rocked their Bay-inspired jam "The Motto" — twice.

The current leg of the Club Paradise Tour will run through June and will take Drake to some of his favorite cities, including Houston, Atlanta and Las Vegas (or "Houstatlantavegas" as he so affectionately referred to the trio of party towns on his 2009 breakout So Far Gone mixtape). Those stops are special for him although, Drizzy told us he doesn't get to spend as much time visiting them as he'd like to.

"It's sad because I love those places, so I wanted to bring something real special and I've got all these guys looking amazing onstage and set changes for everybody," Drake said. "It's gonna be really great."

As focused as he is on the task at hand, however, the Toronto rapper can't help but look forward to his upcoming third his annual OVO Fest. Last July, Drake brought Stevie Wonder, Weezy, Rick Ross and Nas to perform at yearly hometown concert in Toronto; the year before that he welcomed Jay-Z and Eminem. He isn't ready to announce the 2012 lineup just yet, but the "Headlines" MC promises a well-rounded mix of musical guests.

"The lineup this year is kinda a mash-up of everybody," Drake said, hinting that some of his Club Paradise collaborators will be in attendance, as well as the Weeknd. "That's the most important show of the year to me, OVO Fest, so I'm hoping that we really make it special this year.

"The premise of OVO Fest is you never know who you gonna see," he teased.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Spidey Fans: Another Trailer For "The Amazing Spider-Man" Has Arrived!


The Amazing Spider-Man
Holy web-slingers, Spidey fans: Another trailer for "The Amazing Spider-Man" has arrived! While there are several familiar scenes from the first two epic teasers weaved into this exciting new two-and-a-half minutes, director Marc Webb has introduced a bunch of intriguing new elements into the new footage.

Here are five key scenes from the latest trailer:

Lonely Boy
Webb told us previously that the fact that Peter Parker is an orphan will play heavily into the story of this film, which is very much exemplified by the multiple "lonely boy" shots of Parker standing atop various buildings or walking by himself through the city streets with a forlorn look on his face. Not to mention Andrew Garfield's voice-over: "This life is not an easy one. I've made enemies, powerful enemies. I've put people I love in danger, but the one thing that has haunted me my entire life is finding the truth about my parents ... "

"I think there's a real emotional consequence to someone who's left by their parents when they're 7 or 8 years old," Webb has said. "And that contributes to sort of this trickster, chip-on-his-shoulder attitude."

Other Mischief May Come
Speaking of Parker's trickster side, we get another glimpse of his comedic and sarcastic sensibilities during his encounter with a carjacker, as shown in the previous trailer. What's new and fun this time around is Parker taunting the guy: "You found my weakness!" Parker says to the carjacker sarcastically. "It's small knives!"

The other intriguing and very possibly mischievous element in play here is the quick shot we see of Parker looking up at the impossibly tall and menacing Oscorp skyscraper. Yes, we know Parker is interested in the building because of its ties to his father and that Oscorp ID card he holds onto, but we can't help but feel a little bit of foreshadowing is at play in knowing what plays out with one Norman Osborn.

Lizard in a Lab Coat
Behold, the recently transformed, very dangerous-looking Lizard crumpled on the floor and bursting out of his lab coat — or the lab coat of his former self, Dr. Curt Connors (played by Rhys Ifans). We've seen some very quick shots of the film's central villain before, but this trailer offers us multiple glimpses at the before-and-after of Dr. Connors. And he is not at all a nice guy in his hulking green lizardy form ("Avengers" pun un-intended). We see the Lizard hurling innocent people around and later in heated pursuit of our heroic web-slinger.

Mystery Man With Intel
Speaking of the pre-reptilian Dr. Connors, there is a very brief, but intriguing interrogation-like scene in the trailer between Connors and an unidentified older gentleman. The gentleman looks to have long-ish white hair and is shown in a sort of shadowy silhouette asking the good doctor a very pointed question about Peter Parker and his parents. "Did you tell the boy about his father?" he says to Connors. We don't get to hear the Doc's response during this brief exchange, but the worried-but-stubborn look on Connors' face says the man is definitely withholding some key information that will undoubtedly prove to be of major importance to Parker down the line.

Action, Action and More Action
And just like all great superheroic trailers before it, Webb spends the last minute or so of his new trailer impressing us with tons of action. We see Parker-as-Spider-Man's extraordinary athleticism in some scenes of good old-fashioned chasery: He dodges police officers, carjackers and the Lizard, not to mention one impressive feat wherein he appears to be holding a burning car from plunging into a river — which, by the way, totally reminds us of a scene from Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man," whether that was intended or not; we'll have to see the finished film to decide. There is also more demonstration of Spidey's fancy web-slingers as he masters his skills with swinging from buil