On the one hand, you have Fox's The X Factor, an atrocious, over-hyped reality show that seeks to lavish $5 million on a nobody's recording career, yet can't seem to properly mike its own judges. On the other, you have The Queen Extravaganza, a lesser-known talent search that will offer "shit hot vocalists and musicians" the opportunity to tour with a massive, Cirque de Soleil-esque Queen tribute show. By way of talent, X Factor has thusfar provided us with, uh, this. Extravaganza, on the other hand, has already minted one guaranteed winner, in this startlingly accurate Freddie Mercury sound-alike. His name is Marc Martel, and he's the singer for a Christian rock group from Saskatchewan called downhere. Freddie would probably have taken a perverse pleasure in that fact. [via Reddit]

Poietic Studio is a London firm that describes itself as "a multidisciplinary practice with backgrounds in interactive & spatial design, art & engineering." But after seeing this video of its new Floating Orchestra product—which lets you use your iPhone to conduct 19 levitating spheres, each its own instrument that increases in volume as it physically rises—I'm more inclined to say it's one hell of a badass invention company and just leave it at that. [via BuzzFeed]

A year after Simon Cowell abandoned ship on American Idol to produce an American version of his other popular televised singing competition, he returned to Fox tonight—and reunited with a no-doubt hysterical Paula Abdul—as The X Factor made its stateside debut.

The '90s indie sensation R.E.M., who you haven't thought about since Automatic for the People, has officially broken up. Oh thank God. They had gotten to be like a novelist who lived too long and wrote all these crappy books that sullied the reputation of their sterling early works.

If there's one thing that's been missing from the exhaustive coverage of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, it's the opinion of rapper Rick Ross. Now, thanks to the pioneering journalism of GQ's Devin Friedman (who spent a day and night hanging out with Ross), we've got it:

Shocking and sexually thrilling news comes today that Robert Pattinson, shimmer-skinned vampyr hero of Twilight, is recording an album! Of music! How exciting.

Tot Mom, meet Tit Mom. The 13th season of Dancing with the Stars premiered tonight with a fresh crop of celebrity competitors to break in its brand new set. One of the show's most anticipated moments was the appearance of perpetually angry grief pornographer Nancy Grace. You know, so we could all see how angry she was.

It's been a long, hard Dancing with the Stars-free summer, but tonight, a dozen new celebrity contenders will sashay across the ballroom floor for the judges' score (and our votes) as Season 13 gets officially underway. So why not watch and comment along with everyone else right here in this post!

Before their concert in Kansas City (the Missouri one), the Foo Fighters treated a bunch of Westboro Baptist Church picketers to a free concert that was actually a counter-protest against the church and its hatred of everything and everyone, especially The Gays. For the occasion, the Foos dressed up in the outfits they wear in their "Hot Buns video," in which they supposedly play either stereotypical truck drivers or stereotypical artists from Bushwick.

Well, it's not really a new song, it's "The Lady Is a Tramp," the classic Rogers and Hart standard. Oh, I do love a misleading headline. That's why this lady is a tramp. But Lady Gaga croons the song with Tony Bennett and it's really good!

We all know that Ozzy Osbourne is a mutant freak, and that's why he isn't dead. But did you know his music has the power to find lost children? Well, one lost child, at any rate?

Here's a pro-tip for all you would-be romantics out there: If your girlfriend has taken out a restraining order against you, show up on her doorstep with some friends to play her some Dylan tunes! No, wait—don't. Don't do that.

I'm not exactly sure why Jim Carrey walked into a Lower East Side bar called Arlene's Grocery on Friday night and ended up performing the Radiohead song "Creep"—as you'll see, there appears to be a camera crew with him—but I do know that he's a lot better of a singer than I expected. And given the reaction to his video love letter to Emma Stone, Carrey also scores some points for relativity. [via YouTube]

Paul Simon was supposed to perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at the World Trade Center site today. He did "Sound of Silence" instead, not that we're complaining: NPR's Margot Adler called it "perhaps the most moving moment of the ceremony," and we don't doubt it. (If nothing else, the lyrics to "Sound of Silence" are much better, and arguably more appropriate, at least in the ways that their meanings have changed between 1964 and 2001, and between 2001 and now.)

Aging television presenter Joe Scarborough is so desperate for you to know that he's cool and plays guitar and likes Elvis Costello that he decided to defile the memories of all those who died on 9/11 and in its subsequent wars with this horrible fucking song that will make you crack your teeth open with rage if you listen to it. Serving as a foot soldier for Newt Gingrich and rushing to the defense of an abortion doctor's murderer are no longer the worst things Scarborough has ever done. Playing rock star with dead people is.

Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising has become, as the tenth anniversary of the attacks that inspired it approaches, the closest thing we have to an official soundtrack to 9/11. It is the “soaring musical statement” of that day’s impact on our national psyche, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s music critic. New Yorkers selected it in a poll conducted by WNYC as one of the top three records they want to hear on the radio on the anniversary. High school teachers are using it to evoke the visceral pain and confusion of that day for their clueless students. The problem with this is that The Rising is a terrible, bad, no-good record that cheapens us all.

Today marks the 65th birthday anniversary of legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, and to celebrate the Googles have come up with this animated tribute inspired by the late, great(est) singer's lyrics, whimsical style, and flashy stage costumes.

Hud Morgan, former Gawker staple and Men's Vogue writer known for being a gangster fashionista and getting slapped by Spencer Morgan, has "done it again," so to speak: he appears in this weird video, rapping. Jokey? Semi-joke? Serious-ish? We really can't tell any more.

If there's one thing we can agree on, it's that Bruce Springsteen is a national treasure and all-around awesome human being who everyone loves, except maybe Michele and Marcus Bachmann, because she's an awful person and Marcus is also an awful person who prefers Pet Shop Boys and maybe some early Erasure. Sweet. Glad that's all settled. So here's some video of Bruce just hanging out on Thursday in the Boston Public Gardens, strumming on a guitar he'd borrowed from a local busker. The Boston Herald hypothesizes that Springsteen was in town to drop his son Evan off at Boston College. To which I say "Cool! Bruce! You're the best!" And also: "Hey, guy who keeps talking? Shut the hell up! We're trying to hear Bruce Springsteen play the guitar over here." [bostonherald.com]

Remember the awkward girl in pink who made a memorable appearance dancing next to Rebecca Black in her "Friday" music video? Well, her name is Benni Cinkle, she's a real life friend of Rebecca, and yesterday she released a music video for her debut single, "Can You See Me Now." Here it is in all its auto-tuned, melodramatic, teens-in-crisis glory. [via ONTD]