Between Festivals, We Contemplate The Big Questions

Today, I don't know what to be more excited about, the fact that the Hold Steady are going to be opening for Counting Crows a few times this December (take that, hipsters!) or the fact that Britney Spears appears alongside British comic actor Russell Brand in the new ads for MTV's Video Music Awards. It is truly a riveting day in the music business, friends.

Seriously, though, the ads for the VMAs are pretty damn Britney-riffic. Kudos to Brand -- who won over an American audience with his brilliant camp performance as a rock star in Forgetting Sarah Marshall -- for ostensibly ad-libbing Spears into two great twenty second bits. I can only hope this bodes well for how he'll face up to a challenge that has crushed more experienced comedians under the weight of its self-imposed gravitas. Even the mighty Chris Rock himself faltered when he stood up to the VMA beast. And if Brand can knock his portion of the September 7th broadcast out of the park, maybe the VMAs won't suck nearly as bad this year as they have for the past few.

And if Britney shows up? Well, shut up! That would just rule. -- JENNY ELISCU