Pop Shots - Operations

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from John Mayer’s throat surgery, to Nile Rodgers piecing something together with Adam Lambert, to Tone Loc’s recent hospital visit, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.

* John Mayer is recuperating from surgery to correct a granuloma, which is fancy doctor speak for a throat inflammation, just above his vocal cord. For those keeping track, your body is a wonderland, his requires some medical attention.

* Soulja Boy spent some time in handcuffs last week as he was arrested on drug and weapons charges. The drug was only marijuana, but there was enough of it to charge Soulja Boy and his bodyguards with possession with the intent to distribute. Both the Mary Jane and the weapons, which were guns, were found during a traffic stop in Georgia. It’s a shame he was only looking to move pot, had it been crystal meth it really would have added something extra to his hit “Crank That.”

* Evanescence found their way back to the top of Billboard’s albums chart this past week. Their latest self-titled album debuted at number one after moving over 125K copies. The band should have another nice run until Amy Lee sleeps with another member, endures a painful breakup, and then has to find replacements again.

* In “I guess we have to give him the benefit of the doubt because of his track record” news, music legend Nile Rodgers is now working with Adam Lambert. Rodgers, of Chic fame, has a resume that includes producing Diana Ross’ Diana, Madonna’s Like A Virgin and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Lambert is known for his time on American Idol, wearing excessive amounts of guyliner, and releasing some unbelievably catchy songs. Don’t ask me why, but I think this is going to work.

* The city council of Indio, California, has given the OK for two more years of Coachella festivals. This is great news for the Hollywood and music industry elite, who, without the festival, would have had to find some other way to fake being a hippie for a weekend while returning to a five star hotel each night.

* Richard Marx isn’t just holding on to the nights, he’s looking to hold on to the holidays, as well, as the 90s soft rock balladeer is going to be releasing a Christmas EP. Here’s hoping “I saw Mommy stroking Santa’s epic mullet” makes the cut.

* Tone Loc may have been doing a little too much of the “Wild Thing” while on the road. The rapper collapsed during a concert last week in Atlanta. The official word is that he experienced tour fatigue and that he’s fine now. Now that he’s gettin up there in years, though, maybe he should skip being Loc-ed After Dark, and just be Loc-ed up until the early bird special at his local Olive Garden.

* Garbage, a band that’s normally only happy when it rains, is thrilled to be in the studio finishing up their first album in seven years. Due to be released in the Spring of 2012, the album is as of yet untitled. The youth of America, however, plan on referring to it as “the lady from the Terminator TV show has a band?”

* There’s something really hilarious to me about Selena Gomez’s video for “Love You Like A Love Song” and it’s not just the fact that she allows herself to be blindfolded by a wandering mariachi band that features a keytar player and hands her a lightsaber. Nope, all of that is perfectly normal to me. What I find funny is that the vast majority of the visual references in this video are from the 80s, a decade Selena Gomez wasn’t alive in. It’s almost as if someone at the label said “We can throw anything in there and the kids will watch it, but the parents have to watch this, too. Let’s make it interesting for them.” Mission accomplished. Now please get this friggin song out of my head before I catch myself singing it at the gym at an especially inopportune time.


And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.