Today's Pick

The potentially controversial new video for Lady Gaga's new single "Judas" has hit the net. This club-banger is the second single from Gaga's forthcoming sophomore album, "Born This Way." The dance song is about falling in love with a backstabbing guy and was inspired by Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ. It's about sometimes not choosing the right choice. But you can't deny that the choice is not a part of you and who you are. The 25-year-old songstress has claimed the biblically-themed video is "not a biblical lesson."
Similar sound to Gaga's previous singles, "Judas" contains three distinct hooks and a break down influenced by house music that speaks of a woman in love with a man who betrays her while simultaneously embodying things that have haunted her in the past, thus representing something that was bad for her – something she could not escape. The 'Poker Face' singer explained that it's also about "honoring your darkness in order to bring yourself into the light. You have to look into what's haunting you and need to learn to forgive yourself in order to move on." Despite the dark lyrics, the song is aimed at clubbers.
Gaga said she didn't intend the song to be a direct interpretation of the New Testament account of Jesus' fallen disciple. "'Judas' is a metaphor and an analogy about forgiveness and betrayal and things that haunt you in your life, and how I believe that it's the darkness in your life that ultimately shines and illuminates the greater light that you have upon you. If you have no shadows then you're not standing in the light. So the song is about washing the feet of both good and evil, and understanding and forgiving the demons from your past in order to move into the greatness of your future."
Gaga filmed the funky, pop-culture-influenced clip in early April with her creative director, Laurieann Gibson, who explained that with this video, "'We've created a new Jerusalem," referring to the setting of the Biblical story. The shock value in the video is purposefully added, but ultimately the story is about oppression; and about following your heart and the glory of being free." It includes a Biblical storyline revolving around a love triangle between Mary Magdalene (Gaga), Judas (Norman Reedus) and Jesus (Rick Gonzalez). The theatrical factor is high on this one, with a crowd of elaborately costumed dancers gyrating as Gaga trains her gun on Judas, then ceremoniously washes Jesus's feet.

The best-selling Pop/Rock outfit Train just released a music video in support of their latest single "Save Me, San Francisco," the fourth single and title track from California rock band's returning-to-roots record. It was their first release for nearly four years. The band consider it's a comeback record. "We just wanted to get back to our roots on this record. We wanted to do things a little more stripped-down like our first album and get back to the whole San Francisco vibe, which is were the band originally came from," frontman Patrick Monahan once said.
"Save Me, San Francisco" is a focused record, centering around the theme of a wandering young rocker who falls in love and wants to settle down. The title track opens with an acoustic guitar playing a variation on the classic progression, a snare kicks in, and Monahan's voice is in prime Bob Seger confessional style. A piano and electric guitars enter on "whooo-hooo-hooo" chorus, and it's near-perfect radio rock.
As a wedding crasher, Monahan is left broken hearted when the girl of his dreams walks down the aisle in this newly-debuted music video. He's barging in on a white veil occasion and tries to get his supposedly love interest to back out of her nuptials. The video starts with a red herring of a text message from Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine: "Can't wait any longer. Getting married. Today," the perfect excuse for Monahan to drive around San Francisco for three-and-change minutes.
To be fair, it's hard not to hear the track "Save Me, San Francisco" as a victory lap. And, to an extent, the video treats the song as such. A cliché, sure, but one that holds true in this case. And while there's a girl (there's always a girl in a Train song), she's more notional than actual; the song is about the city. Which is why the text message is a fake-out, and why the whole video is a riff. Monahan drives Benjamin Braddock's car, runs out of gas, and asks directions. But this bride isn't interested in Monahan in the least. And why not? She's gay, of course! Score another point for San Francisco.

Panic! At The Disco released an official music video for alternative rock band duo's second single "Ready To Go (Get Me Out Of My Mind)" on the Fueled By Ramen's YouTube page. The boys can't stop playing dress up. After the retro circus chic in "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and the steampunk styling of "Ballad Of Mona Lisa," Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith are jamming in a 50's-inspired set among other vintage-themed scenes for "Ready To Go," which showcases the boys dancing ability and fits the songs fun and upbeat mood.
"Ready to Go" is the follow-up to the massively popular "Ballad of Mona Lisa," lifted from the duo's latest third studio album "Vices & Virtues," a little musical gem out on March. It is also their first as a duo and will be released on June 6th. The departure of singer Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker left a hole in the Panic! The experience became the catalyst for Urie finding his own voice and the confidence to take over as the band's principal songsmith. As he wrote, Urie started noticing trends in his lyrics. "They dealt with self-deprecation, pride, subversion, manipulation, but some good stuff too: self-expression, honesty," he told Spin magazine.
Panic At the Disco once again worked with director Shane Drake for the new video. "Shane is just so awesome to work with, he is unlike any director we've known. He really pushes us to come up with some crazy ideas and try to work it in with whatever budget we have," Urie once said of reuniting with their longtime collaborator.
Urie time travels to the past with Smith, rocking pompadour hairstyle in this Shane Drake-directed video. Urie notices a glowing music note in the wall and magically pushes open a hidden door which allows the duo to blast back to the past for a neato time in the 50's, before morphing into chimney sweeps leads the boys into a rockabilly type era complete with back-up dancers that should almost certainly audition for the next round of America's Best Dance Crew. Urie back flips into another scene in which he is now crawling into a cannon. With the help of Smith lighting the cannon, Urie gets shot out into cartoon land before landing with an umbrella in the final scene.

There's no stopping Jennifer Lopez these days. The day before dropping her new album, "Love?" on Monday, the comeback kid took to NBC's "Today" show to premiere the video for her Lil Wayne-assisted single "I'm Into You." According to the 41-year-old entertainer and American Idol judge, her favorite male rapper is Lil Wayne, who crops on this track contributing his clever wordplay. She added, "He's just not the normal type of artist. He's just kind of eccentric."
The mid-tempo, island-flavored jam, is the second single from her upcoming seventh studio album, "Love?" which is out today. In the song, Latino pop star sings about being lost in love and her lover's attraction, while Wayne teases with clever wordplay. The club-ready refrain challenges the listener to not sing along. This song is bound for greatness. It's built around a trippy and synth-heavy beat and beachy feel with a club-ready refrain. Although the beat is sparse and the lyrics are borderline simplistic, the melodies and Lopez's warm vocals give this uplifting piece of pop an extra boost.
Head south of the border with the Latina bombshell in the breathtaking visuals. Lopez is featured writing in the water on a sandy beach in Mexico and delightfully descending the steps of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. The Melina Matsoukas-directed video was shot at different locations around a Mayan archaeological site in Mexico. It was based on an old Mayan tale about a snake slithering around the pyramids, so Lopez donned a snake skin flowing dress and slithered around the ruins.
The video is showing the singer on the beach, roll around white sand with her on-screen Latin beau, telenovela star William Levy and rock a short dance number. In one scene, Lopez is sat on the steps of a Mayan pyramid, dressed in a snakeskin outfit with a headwrap, matching bangles, and platform wedge heels. The landscapes, Lopez and her man are all visually stunning, but doesn't see the rap mogul making appearance. Instead, it features Lopez breaking into an unexpected dance routine to her song "Papi."

Always one to add the sunshine to a cloudy day, Michael Franti & Spearhead just premiered the touching video for his new single, "I'll Be Waiting." The anthemic arena-rock ballad is the third single featured on group's latest inspired and inspiring new album "The Sound of Sunshine" as a free download. Known early on for his politically charged messages, the lead vocalist Franti's musical mesh of Hip-Hop, roots reggae and rock helped to launch Spearhead into international success. A veteran vegan and always socially conscious, Franti's reggae soul is truly compassionate.
Franti told Billboard magazine how a certain well-known Irish band inspired this song: "Many years ago, I opened for U2, and I was so impressed by the way they can write something big and yet intimate. Coming out of hip-hop, it was a lesson to me and I started to aspire to blend the eloquence of great hip-hop with the melody and power of great rock. With this song, I wanted to write something that was the kind of powerful anthem that people in an arena could sing. It's a song about being there for other people, ready to catch them when they fall."
The San Francisco-native gives some personal filler on the song describing it on his blog writing as: "an epic and vast song about intensely personal experiences. At it's core it is a love song, but not in the classic sense of the phrase. It is a song of searching, failure, growth and healing. It is a love song between a friend who is addicted to heroin and his lover who is desperately waiting for him to clean up. It is a love song for a single mother who has just seen her teenage daughter run away to the city, only to come home pregnant and alone. It is a love song for an over-demanding father who's son has gone off to war only to come home broken with scars inside and out. It is a love song for a bus driver who spends his whole day helping others only to come home to his wife who is battling cancer."
Michael Franti & Spearhead are always a positive force - whether singing about social responsibility or celebrating the sunshine. In new video, Franti takes us on an emotional rollercoaster telling the story of the song through a number of perspectives, including a tearful homecoming for a soldier. Sunny weather, tearful homecomings, and moments of love and happiness illustrate Franti's ideology on the meaning of life. The video is a sunny, sentimental scenes of everyday people and performance footage mix together for one feelgood mash-up.

Thompson Square, composed of husband and wife Keifer Thompson and Shawna Thompson, is back with their new video for their latest single "I Got You," the follow up to the husband-and-wife duo's debut hit single "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not?" The song is taken from their self-titled debut album, which is scheduled to be released May 9.
Thompson Square rocked the country scene with their debut hit, "Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not," and it looks like they've got another hit on their hands with "I Got You." The fun and uptempo track oozes with summer love, is about how one thing needs another in order to work - including the guy and girl in the song. "I Got You" recently named "the best new song to fall in love to" by Entertainment Weekly, has been shipped to country radio. The duo has just nominated for the CMT Music Awards, will be handed out June 8 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The video, which takes place on the set of a variety show in the 1970's, definitely showed a more serious side of the duo, while "I Got You" is letting fans see a little of their quirky and humorous side. Each half of the husband and wife duo play multiple characters in this throw back to the Sonny and Cher days. It's absolutely adorable, and they definitely got me. "When Keifer was writing the song, 'I Got You,' it reminded us of the Sonny & Cher's 'I Got You Babe,' says Shawna. "We thought that if we ever got the chance to do a video on this song, it would be cool to do a sort of spoof on the whole variety-show thing."
Thompson Square make sure married life stays a little less boring by dressing up like pop legends and former variety TV show hosts Sonny & Cher in the new video. Oddly enough, they stop short of covering the duo's famous song of nearly the same name, instead performing a new composition. It's pretty bold of the band to invite comparisons to one of the more beloved records of the pop era, and obviously this pleasant-enough, upbeat little love song isn't on that legendary level. But if you look at it as a lark, and a fun way for the band to throw on some retro clothes for a video shoot, then, mission accomplished.

Christina Perri has just released a gravity defying epic video for her single, "Arms," the lead single from Philadelphia-born singer-songwriter's upcoming debut album, "Lovestrong" will be released on May 10. Last July, a struggling Perri was asked to perform a song she had written, a defiant break-up anthem called "Jar of Hearts," on the Fox show "So You Think You Can Dance." Her performance catapulted the 24-year-old Philadelphia native into the public eye, her song went on to sell a million downloads and she landed a deal with Atlantic Records.
And here she is again, follow-up her successful of the heartbreaking debut single "Jar of Hearts," "Arms," is another beautiful ballad and a great uptempo pop/rock song and built around a piano melody. Perri explained "'Arms' is about the fight between your heart and your mind. Your heart wants to be loved but your head is always telling you reasons not to be with him or her, or how you are not worth the love. It's about the struggle and finally giving in when you're wrapped in their arms. Then you get it. Then you feel loved and love wins." The song speaks to me of love and appreciation, and Perri's distinctive voice this time wrapped around a more upbeat point of view.
Conceptually, the Budding star's dream-sequence video is a winner - Perri's narrator wanders restlessly across air, sea, and land, and only finds peace beside her love. Not bad for a song about faith in love ultimately overcoming an urge to flee born of insecurity and fear! But while Perri's arms communicate plenty about what's changed, framing the shots identically would have been particularly potent. The execution is similarly spotty throughout. When Perri floats into the air, wrapped in her sheet, the sequence seems neither real nor dream-unreal enough. But once she plunges underwater and is rescued by her band, the video regains momentum.
The rain doesn't hurt, but it doesn't seem particularly necessary either. Perri and band can communicate the song's emotions powerfully without high-concept trappings, so even when the visuals are effective, they're ancillary. And when they're not effective, they're really distracting. The video was shot over a two-day period that Perri described as "a two-day shoot that kicked my ass so hard." Perri had co-written the video treatment herself. Speaking of the concept of the video, Perri stated that she took a physical pummeling as she played a super-hero during the shoot, where she jokingly added "I don't know why I think I'm an action hero."