Megapost: The last two weeks in a nutshell

Honestly, I turn my back for two seconds and Scouting For Girls go to number one. You lot just can't be trusted by yourselves. Tsk tsk.

Ah well, here's some other musinews and "interesting" links from the last two weeks of blissful inactivity.

:: Thank God for Kelis. Her new single (which actually premiered last November) is a Giorgio Moroder-inspired stone cold classic. It's called a capella, and the video is a triumph. Full marks all round.

Kelis - A Capella


:: Christina Aguilera's new single is called Not Myself Tonight. It's weaker than your nan's tea. (Brightcove)

:: Direct from the 1998 newsroom, reports filter through that Ricky Martin is totally gay for men. (BBC)

:: A novelist reveals the secrets of 24's writing room. Surprisingly, it's not just 12 blokes going "and then Jack punches a guy in the face WITH A HAMMER and everything explodes". But it's close. (New York Times)

:: The Noisettes have done a literally quite good cover version of The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t've) for a Doc Marten anniversary campaign. For some reason, the word "slinky" comes to mind here.

Noisettes - Ever Fallen In Love


:: An insightful, balanced, non-hysterical profile of Lady Gaga of Hitsville. A rare and beautiful thing. (New York Magazine)

:: Another new A-Team trailer was unleashed, featuring gold standard dialogue such as: "I'm B.A. You're going to B.Unconcious" Really? Really?! (Apple)

:: Grammy-nominated R&B artist Janelle Monae has been hovering around on the edges of massive success for a couple of years now. I'd always avoided listening to her because I mistakenly believed she was palefaced West Wing star Janel Maloney (Donna) attempting a godawful music career. Turns out she isn't anything of the sort and her first "proper" single, Tightrope, is good for your ears.

Janelle Monae - Tightrope


:: My interviews with pop warbler Diana Vickers and sensitive troubador Joshua Radin went up on the BBC site while I was away. One was read by 50,000 people, the other by 2,300. Can you guess which was which?

:: Keane have done a song with the teriffic Somalian rap'n'b star K'Naan. The two acts have nothing in common except alphabetical proximity, and the song is… well, put it this way, neither of them looks comfortable in the video. (YouTube)

:: People are still remixing Marina And The Diamonds' I Am Not A Robot and the remixes continue to be brilliant. Expect to hear a lot more, too, because the single's being re-released, properly this time, on 26th April. (Arjan Writes)

:: Mini Viva continued their slow transformation into Mel and Kim (When they were both alive, obviously. Don't be sick.)

Mini Viva - Candy


:: The difference between real 3D (ie Avatar) and cheap 3D (ie everything else) is not being made apparent to cinemagoers forking out £5 extra for their ticket. (The Hollywood Reporter)

:: Popjustice alerts us to the existence of a mysterious new pop duo called Royal Palms, who proclaim "Yacht Rock is back". They have potential. (Popjustice

:: The perils of adapting non-fiction books for the movies (The Washington Post)

:: Break out the keytars! It's only bloody Goldfrapp doing their "massive hit single" Rocket on the telly.

Goldfrapp - Rocket

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Mini Viva: I Wish video

The success of Mini Viva's Left My Heart In Tokyo took a lot of people by surprise. It was by no means a bad song - but Radio 1's unwavering support was unexpected in a year when manufactured pop has been overshadowed by the home-crafted synth odysseys of Little Boots and La Roux.

It doesn't hurt that the duo are managed by Simon "OBEY MY COMMANDS" Fuller, nor that they're releasing Xenomania tracks during Girls Aloud's year off (although, according to Nicola, Left My Heart In Tokyo was an old hand-me-down from the sessions for What Will The Neighbours Say?)

But something about Mini Viva doesn't quite click for me. Like Miss Frank on The X Factor, they don't gel as a band. Take a look at their new video, I Wish (below). Frankee and Britt are in the same room, running through their lines and (largely) moving in the direction they've been told to - but it's like neither of them has noticed the other one is there. In that respect, it's a bit like watching two "actors" struggling through an episode of Hollyoaks.

Luckily, the song is pretty good, a hybrid of Call The Shots and a song that's not Call The Shots but still has that song's trademark melancholia, by a band who could be, but aren't necessarily, Bananarama or (at a push) The Sugababes. That's the first Sugababes, with the ginger one in, who are improbably maybe definitely possibly absolutely not reforming. Not the new Sugababes, who are still together despite general indifference and mental illness, although obviously an 11-piece band consisting of Girls Aloud and all the former and present Sugababes singing a song that mixed Call The Shots with a knock-off of Call The Shots would be pant-shatteringly amazing.

Mini Viva - I Wish

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