Paramore w/ fun., The Stereo, The Swellers, and This Providence
Terminal 5
Wednesday, September 8

Better than: Getting soaked on the long walk back to the subway.

In one of the many shoutouts Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams directed toward her record label Fueled By Ramen—the emo-pop mainstays whose 15th anniversary provided the occasion for her band's show last night—she pointed out that 15 years is more than half as long as she's been alive. She's 22, and in this scene, that makes her old.

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via paramore.net

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"Monster" is the first fully fleshed track from the outfit Paramore to come out since two of its members left in a huff of authenticity late last year, although the band's most defining aspect—the wail of flame-haired frontwoman Hayley Williams—is still intact. The song, which will appear on the soundtrack to the next Transformers monstrosity, sounds a little bit more introverted than the band's earlier material, with delicate filigrees of guitar and floating-in-space Williams clones providing breathy "oh-oh-oh"s here and there; call it the rainy-day-journal-scribbling flipside to the chunkier, and also movie-tied, "Decode." Listen below.

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Uh, nevermind...

​It wasn't exactly surprising when, over the weekend, Paramore announced that two members--founding guitarist and drummer Josh and Zac Farro--would be leaving the band; if any act seemed vulnerable to a No Doubt-type split and subsequent frontlady solo career, it was Paramore. Hayley Williams is already a star and, like or not, has more charisma in one leopard-printed leg than the rest of her band could ever collectively hope to have. But though the initial announcement made the change seem reasonably amiable ("We want Josh and Zac to do something that makes them happy and if that isn't here with us, then we support them finding happiness elsewhere"), a new blog post from the disgruntled brothers makes it clear that their departure was anything but. Here's just one harrowing passage from the sad revisionist history penned by guitarist Josh Farro:

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​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon show at Bushwick's Shea Stadium, right around the time the Blastoids' drummer poured paint on his kit and started splattering away.

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Z100's Jingle Ball, featuring Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Paramore, Kim Kardashian, and More
Madison Square Garden
Friday, December 10

Better than: That GIF of sparks coming out of Katy Perry's chest from the "Firework" video.

Yes, Katy Perry looked like a human nutcracker at this year's Z100 Jingle Ball. But let the record also show that she did not take the opportunity to make a single "nutcracker" or "jingle ball" joke during her performance. Perhaps this uncharacteristic display of restraint had something to do with the audience. This is the show where MSG replaces the price-gouging Budweiser booths with price-gouging Sugar Daddies stands. It was probably the first-ever concert for many of the pre-teen girls in attendance. And Perry is well aware of this--you don't become the by-the-book pop star of the year and see all three of your singles hit number one without some idea of demographics. She tailored her location-based shout outs accordingly: "What's up Connecticut?! Jersey?! Can't forget good old Long Island!" (Full disclosure: I grew up on Long Island.)

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Young enough to wear leopard print pants, old enough to be the best female singer in rock music today. She's a conundrum, that Hayley Williams.

​The sequel to "Airplanes," the crossover anthem B.o.B and Hayley Williams released last week in Bobby Ray's final gambit to catapult himself out of the rap universe and directly into college dorm-room stardom. And who better than Eminem to reach an entire army of people who don't care about rap except when he makes it? "Airplanes Pt. 2" sports an Em verse far better than what B.o.B probably deserves, and virtually guarantees that a guy who once threatened retirement before he had even released a record will have one of the ten or twenty biggest songs this summer. Somewhere Andre 3000 is shaking his head. [2DopeBoyz]

Methinks at least one person in our office who is not me is gonna be super jazzed about this. Maybe she'll do this at their wedding.

Brian Kloc

Actually not the NFG dude, but would you have known if I didn't tell you?

​Well, because she did this abysmal cover of the "Anyone Else But You" by the Moldy Peaches with her boyfriend, the clown who plays guitar in New Found Glory, for one thing. [What's Eating Gilbert]

Very sweet. Not much to add except a) her (briefly glimpsed) bandmates seem somber because they're aware of their own imminent obsolescence (great band name!), and b) Haley Williams somehow always comes dangerously close to reminding me of Kurt Cobain but then, happily, actually does not.