WGO with Mel's Girls...

-My latest artist "You Should Know" Mandy Ventrice kicks off my interview series. Expect another interview, this time from the producer duo, on either Thursday or Friday.

-Candy Coated Chaos recently announced that their song "Like That" will be featured (somehow...not sure how just yet) on this week's episode of "America's Best Dance Crew" (or ABDC for the kids in the know) for the Top 6 Crews. I'm dreaming of a dance crew actually dancing to the song, but I'm thinking that's probably hoping for too much. But of course, we shall see. This is no doubt thanks to the girls exposure on MTV's new Soundtrack site, as they were first featured on "The Hills", then "The City." So keep voting for them here, so we can continue to hear their hot tracks on MTV shows. I try to do it everyday. Right now they are sitting pretty, tied at #111. FYI - you can vote once every hour.

-Yesterday, Lady Gaga released a three track EP called "The Cherrytree Sessions" (Robyn did a similar thing a few years ago). The EP features super-remixed cuts of her first three singles ("Just Dance", "Poker Face" and "Eh Eh") but because Gaga is a crazy electro dance artist, she did the opposite of what most regular pop artists do. While regular pop artists speed up and electify their songs as a remix, Gaga released her songs as something completely different entirely -- more of a reimagining than a remix.

-New girl group Sophia Fresh and Keri Hilson will be performing together at a fashion event for Pastry shoes (created by Rev Run of Run-DMC fame's daughters) in Las Vegas on Monday, February 16th at the Fashion Show Mall at 4pm. What? No love for NYC? I'd be there in a second.

-Jordan and Imaj of Dream (or rather Diddy of Dream) have finally unveiled the other two members of Dream, via YouTube postings. Here Dani and Lindsay act predictably goofy (Miley/Mandy, Selena/Demi...we've seen it all before, sweethearts), and here Lindsay, the apparent "dancer" of the group, leads a motely crew of people in a dance she created to Britney's "Womanizer" at Millenium Dance Complex in LA. I'm hardly a dance pro, so I can't complain, but my roommate is, and we can both say we're hardly impressed. We're hoping she made the routine a bit easier so that everyone in that room could catch on quickly...

-On Monday, it was announced that Girls Aloud's Cheryl and Kimberley, along with Alesha Dixon and others, will hike up Mount Kilimanjaro for fan sponsorship. All of the money given will go directly to the Comic Relief fund (if you don't remember or haven't heard, The Saturday's cover of Depeche Freakin' Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" will be this year's single for it).

-New material from Christina Aguilera is finally surfacing, thanks to her soundtrack cut for upcoming film 'The Spirit'. The song is called "Falling In Love Again". The track is a whopping 8 minutes long (or at least, my version is...) and I'm less than impressed. "Keeps Gettin' Better" and "Dynamite" (plus the comparisons to Lady Gaga and Goldfrapp) got me really excited for what Ms. Agi was cooking up for us. This has me less than thrilled. Here's to hoping this was just an artsy imagining for the movie, and not an indicator of her upcoming work.