Teddy Geiger had a great marketing plan; before his first album, Underage Thinking was ever released, he got himself on a re-accruing role on a new show, playing basically himself, a new singer-songwriter looking to break into the business. Unfortunately for Geiger, the show, Love Monkey, was quickly canceled after three shows, a good month before the album was even released.
When I first saw Geiger on Love Monkey, my first thoughts on his character were "Wayne is actually played by a singer, Teddy Geiger, basically a John Mayer rip-off. This is a problem considering not even John Mayer wants to bite his old style." Well after listening to his album, I realized I was wrong on that account, he doesn’t bite John Mayer, he actually more of a Gavin DeGraw clone with more of a piano driven, pseudo-soul sound whereas Mayer is more of a blues retread.
But the main different between DeGraw and Geiger is the songwriting. DeGraw, and Mayer for that matter, can write songs that people of all ages can relate to even if they were written about a certain time in his life. Geiger’s songs on the other hand are very Middle School which will most likely limit his fan base which could grow out of him within years. Nowhere is this more evident than the lamely title track where the sixteen year old dreams of an adult time thus proving the assessment that youth is waited on the young.
Another negative is his voice. Going for the blue-eyed soul like DeGraw, Geiger stretches his voice too far while reaching for notes which is okay for the opening track, These Walls, but it gets old quick and fails even worse when he goes into falsetto later on the album. When he does tone things back, the songs are much better like on Try Too Hard and A Million Years. Hopefully Geiger grows up like he hopes he does by the next time he starts another album.
Song to Download - Try Too Hard
Underage Thinking gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Guarded [BLUE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCbHfExiuXqojow1zxkBUX6j-9BHg9IyrfzqR77jnja2Xq6dbv-7iiqMFzp_UKXGcUF9FyAHqCkNxa5uitXa5Xu2Q1OboN9-TLjsaeI1a2eoGLORU4vkTQ54l1C-_cZyn81QHyQ/s400/small_guarded.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
Well it’s been two days since Veronica Mars was supposed to air, but thanks to LeBron James, I still have to wait. And it isn’t having to wait that makes it bad as I didn’t bother me too much when the show is in repeats, it’s knowing that everyone else has seen it and I haven’t yet. To pass the time until I get to see the latest episode I have a bunch of Veronica Mars news. But first, for anyone interested in participating in my fantasy baseball NL Only league, drop me an e-mail, ScooterKSU@aol.com. We will be having a live draft this coming Tuesday, at 9:00 PM EST. You don’t need to be there to play as a computer will make your picks for you.
Also this Tuesday I’ll be participating in a Teleconference, technology willing, with Rob Thomas and Jason Dohring. I know I didn’t ask for questions when I went on the set, but that’s because I had an overabundance I thought myself, and even though I still have more questions, I will be accepting questions from my readers. Just drop me an e-mail with anything you want to now. But please no dumb question because I prefer the dumb questions to come from my own head. Also if you want to ask something like “How was it like working with Santana” or any other Matchbox Twenty questions, please check this post out - No, Not That Rob Thomas.
Something cool for the Veronica Mars faithful who would like to show their love for the show, here’s a way how that the good people at UPN sent along to me and if you are interested, drop me an e-mail and I’ll send along how you can do this:
If you videotape you and your friends watching Veronica Mars, you may get a chance to see yourself on national TV!
UPN is offering its dedicated Veronica Mars bloggers a great opportunity to have your 15-seconds of fame! Every week, get a group of friends together for a Veronica Mars viewing party and shoot some video of your event. The tape can include anything you want: sound bites of your friends talking about their favorite characters, you saying why you love Veronica Mars, or a group shout-out to your friends and family in your hometown. But keep it clean, because your tape could end up airing on UPN during an episode of Veronica Mars!
Every week starting in April, tune in to Veronica Mars on UPN to see if your party is chosen as the featured party that airs during that week’s episode. Even if your party doesn’t make it on UPN, make sure to check out UPN.com to see if it is online.
Creativity counts and don’t forget to express why you are the biggest Veronica Mars fan. This is an excellent opportunity to convert your friends into Veronica Mars fans!!!!
Please keep in mind that if your video is broadcast on TV, it will need to be brightly lit and the audio will need to be clear. Also, in order to ensure that we can use it, the video can’t include any copyrighted materials, such as logos on clothing, music or television programming playing in the background, or signage, like posters, paintings, photographs, and etc.
The featured parties will run during a commercial break and UPN’s producers will be editing your footage into an on-air promo, so the tape only needs to be a few minutes long. Finally, depending on your home video camera, VHS, mini-DV or DVD are best.
In order for UPN to be able to use your tape on air or on UPN.com, you and all of your friends at the party need to sign releases and provide a current photograph of each of you so we can identify who everyone is.
Again e-mail me for more information, Now more Veronica Mars news straight from UPN:
Veronica Mars is moving back to Tuesday nights!
We wanted to let you know that UPN announced today that they are moving Veronica Mars back to her original time period on Tuesdays at 9 PM. Starting April 11, tune in to UPN on Tuesday nights to catch all new episodes of Veronica Mars through the season finale on May 9. Repeats will air on Wednesday nights at 9 pm ET/PT for the first couple of weeks.
The hope is that more people will be able to tune-in to Veronica on Tuesdays. So, tell all your friends that there are no excuses now not to watch Veronica Mars!
Okay as egocentric person I am, I’m somewhat weary of this only because it will mess with my weekly Toss Up between Veronica Mars and Lost which is built around the two shows sharing the time slot. Oh well. I will continue this for the reminder of this season and may also tape Veronica Mars and watch it again either before or after Lost to have both shows fresh in my mind when I thin up Toss Up categories and will continue to post the Toss Up on Thursday. And my last Veronica Mars news is the press release for next week’s episode, not that it means much to me considering I haven’t seen last week’s yet:
VERONICA AND WEEVIL WORK TOGETHER TO BRING FELIX’S MURDERER TO JUSTICE, ON "VERONICA MARS," WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5 ON UPN
Recurring Guest Stars Steve Guttenberg ("The Poseidon Adventure")
and Tina Majorino ("Napoleon Dynamite") Return
"Plan B" -- Weevil enlists Veronica's help to finally prove who killed Felix and bring that person to justice, on VERONICA MARS, Wednesday, April 5 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on UPN. John Kretchmer directed the episode from a script written by Dayna Lynne North.
Meanwhile, Logan wins an essay contest and gets to intern with Mayor Woody Goodman (guest star Steve Guttenberg) as his Honorary Deputy. Also, love is in the air at the Sadie Hawkins dance as sparks fly between former couples.
One non-Veronica Mars story, apparently that wasn’t the only thing I missed Wednesday as Kari, the chick in my preseason poll of America’s Next Top Model whom I most wanted to have dirty, dirty sex with, was voted off. Since I didn’t know she was voted off until today, I didn’t get a chance to participate in the weekly teleconference with the most recent castoff to ask if she wanted to hook up sometime. Oh well. Here is my revisionist pick for girl I’d most like to have dirty, dirty sex with, Joanie Dodds (cue up Preacher’s Daughter). Picture courtesy of UPN:
And cue up It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday for one last look at the fallen Kari, picture also courtesy of UPN:
We are almost a week away from opening day so that means it's time for fantasy baseball time and I'm here to help you out with your draft. So keep in mind these rules in mind when ranking the available players.
Rule #1 - The Hellboy Rule - Or the avoid people with big heads rule. With the new steroid testing put into affect, it would not be wise to draft anyone, who in previous season, were drafted based on their power. Their numbers will decrease (or will be suspended). Look what happened to Giambi when he went of the Clear. So I would avoid every one caught up in the recent scandal. The only exceptions to this rule would be Jason Giambi who somwhow recovered last year after everything that went down and Pudge Rodriquez. All catchers put up low numbers anyways so it’s a coin flip on them anyways. Rule #2 - The Ron Artest Rule - Do not draft anyone who could possibly be suspended for the entire season. Unfortunately I did not abide by this rule during my fantasy baseball draft. That was waste of a third round pick. The baseball equivalent of Artest would be Milton Bradley. Granted Bud Selig doesn't have the grapefruits of David Stern so killing a fan might only some one only a half season suspension, but that is still a lot of games to be missing. Rule #3 - Don't Follow Trends - It happens every year, some one takes a catcher early, then the next ten picks end up being catchers. There are only three quality catchers (Lopez, Posada, and Varitek), so if you don't get one of them, wait until the later round and pick whatever is left. No catcher can make much of an impact plus they take a lot of days off. On the opposite side of the spectrum, make sure you get a good closer before they run out. Last year I had to trade some offence to get a closer because I waited too long to draft a quality reliever.
Rule #4 - The Ken Griffey Jr. Rule - Do not draft a player who is injury prone. Yet every year some one inevitably drafts Griffey saying he will be healthy and return to his Seattle days type dominance. Sometimes it goes well, but the May, Griffey will come up limp running down to first, and the team who picked him will be unmercifully mocked for the rest of the season.
Rule #5 - Draft Multi-Position Players - This will give you more options if you experience injuries or you can plug more players that are on your bench when some of your other players have off-days. This is especially handy if they are eligible at catcher but is an everyday player somewhere else. Unfortunatly the games best multi-position players, Beltran, Pujols, and A-Rod have lost eligbility and are down to one position each.
For those interested in getting beat like a red-headed stepchild by me playing with me in an NL-only fantasy league, drop me an e-mail (ScooterKSU@aol.com) if you want to join. We will be having a live draft Tuesday, March 28th at 9:00 EST.
As for the weekly Toss-Up between Lost and Veronica Mars that usually appears on Thursday, I still haven't seen this week's VM due to the Cavs game last night. I will have that up as soon as I see it, which will be no later than Sunday. For your Veronica Mars fix until then check out the other Bloggers who got an on the site visit in my sidebar especially Ducky who created the greatest t-shirt since "LeBron's Mom Gave Me a Hummer." And even though I didn't post a picture from the set today, you definately want to check out the latest post on my sister site, Scooter McGavin Takes Pictures. I'm sure Dick would approve of it.
Aside from the Grammy’s, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is the most reliable awards show out there today, sorry VMA’s, it’s time to get Chris Rock back on the phone. This is obviously based on performances by the best of the best that get inducted each year and is very watchable no matter how much VH1 edits the show, chopping out performances and speeches.
Although in recent years I’ve worried about the show when the 80’s bands start becoming eligible, and with it’s twenty-five year eligibly rule, that came last year. But with last year being headlined by U2, this year was the true litmus test on how the Hall would treat the lean years. And without any marquee names releasing their first album in 1981 it looks like they went back and inducted some of the second and third tier acts that got lost in the shuffle the last decade or so. And you know it’s a bad year for the Hall when Bono or Bruce Springsteen don’t show up to induct anyone. Here are some more thoughts on this year’s festivities and inductees.
- The show starts off with a Wilson Pickett tribute led by Solomon Burke, granted not as good as the one at the Grammy’s. I hope this becomes a tradition where they do a medley of songs by any inductee that died that year. That would be more entertaining and better send off than the tradition Grammy’s “Those Have Passed” montage.
- Blondie is the first inducted with Shirley Manson of Garbage doing the duty. Unfortunately VH1 didn’t subtitle her like with Sherman Hemsley because I couldn’t understand a word she said except when she said in their career, Blondie did it with no ridiculous demand. Um, how about Debbie Harry refusing some of the original members from playing. That was extremely shady. Speaking of which, after seeing her perform it was easy to see Harry and her music really hasn’t stood the test of time.
- This year’s “Really? They Weren’t in Already” Award goes to Miles Davis. He should have easily been a first ballot inductee. If you don’t have Bitches Brew, then you just don’t like music. The best part of his induction was when Herbie Hancock told a story about, when backing with Miles, played the wrong not and Miles stopped for a second, then started playing again, turning Herbie’s wrong note into a right one.
- Lars and James of Metallica are next up to induct Black Sabbath including the clichéd “We would be here if it weren’t for…” And for some reason Sabbath themselves didn’t play even though they were all there instead Metallica went threw a couple of their songs including Iron Man. Is it wrong that I thought The Cardigans did a better version?
- Sting then came up to induct Herb Albert and Jerry Moss. Um, okay, next.
- Instead of a proper induction, Jann Wenner instead read the letter John Lydon of the Sex Pistols wrote on his thoughts of the Hall. Funny stuff, but they should have still should have given them an actual induction.
- Last in this year was Lynyrd Skynyrd, inducted by Kid Rock, thankfully sans Scott Stapp. The Hall really missed a golden opportunity by not have Neil Young, a multiple inductee and has inducted his fair share of artists, do the honors. With the induction of Lynyrd Skynyrd, it begs the question; can anyone above the Mason-Dixon Line name three of their songs? I have their Greatest Hits album, been two of their shows, and I can’t. Speaking of their live shows, either VH1 cut it down, or that was the shortest version of Free Bird ever at just over ten minutes. Usually that song clocks in at forty minutes in concert.
- Lastly, in lieu of the usual all star jam, at the end, there was the prerequisite New Orleans tribute that no award show could go without this time headed by Elvis Costello and Alan Toussaint. I like how Elvis saying he would not make an ant-war speech, actually made one. A nice Mardi Gras touch was added when the weird dude started throwing stuff into the audience. And the child of the 80’s cynic would ask why did they cover the song from Rain Man, but much like Costello, I won’t go there.
Just a quick programming note about the 9th Green, my usual Thursday Toss Up between Lost and Veronica Mars will be postponed due to my local UPN station showing the Cavs vs. the Bobcats game. Seriously, the Bobcats, it’s not like they are playing the Pistons or Kobe. But anyways. I’ll have my Toss Up as soon as I see the new Veronica Mars which will be no later than Sunday.
In the midst of the HBO free preview and watching the first two episodes of Big Love (scroll down for a review), I forgot all about the return of the guiltiest of pleasures on television Sunday, The Surreal Life. But luckily it is on VH1 so it’s been own about ten times since it premiered and will most likely be on another twenty-five time before the next new episode. Now in its sixth incarnation, this season is shaping up to be the best. And that says a lot considering the last two seasons included the Omarosa vs. Janice debacle and the all time greatest television moment, Mini Me, buck naked, on his scooter, peeing in the corner.
This season’s cast sports arguably the biggest star in the show’s history, token washed up actor Sherman Hemsley
that everyone remembers as George Jefferson. Well everyone except token Playboy model Andrea Lowell who had to ask who the tanned guy was. Then there are possibly the most volatile cast mates in former Whitesnake hood ornament Tawny Kitaen and the transgender member of the Arquette clan Alexis. I was on the floor when the doorman asked her/him how it’s like to have Cox in the family.
Filling out the cast are token washed up rocker C.C. Deville of Poison and the Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth. Also Carol Brady will be dropping by everyday as the house therapist. And as a twist, this season’s token reality star was chosen via a man pageant by the other cast mates. The most notable of the group was former karaoker and Paula Abdul boy toy Corey Clark. I’m actually surprised that with his notoriety VH1 didn’t just put him in the house as no one else was nearly as famous as he was. There was a Big Brother and Survivor alum, neither of which I’ve heard of even though I’ve seen all the Survivors. Then there was Ace of The Real World: Paris. But he was beat out by Tough Enough champion Maven Huffman, who was recently released from his WWE contract that he won on the show.
The first episode was your usual pleasantries of most shows of this type where they chose their roommates and get to know each other, so the claws usually don’t come out until the second episode, and judging by the preview of the upcoming weeks, there will be many claws out this season. Hopefully everyone learns soon to hide Tawny’s shoes from her, just ask Chuck Finley about that. That’s not to say there weren’t any entertain parts of the first episode. In a page out of The Osbournes page book, Hemsley’s stuttering is so bad they had to subtitle him and eventually do it grammatically for an extra laugh. And what could be an interesting development, I’m not entirely sure Maven realized yet that Alexis has the same parts as him yet. And on that note, Alexis propositioning Andrea for the “last ride” before his/her operation was one of the funniest moments on television so far this year.
Verdict: Much like a crack addict, I just can’t stop. Plus I think we are getting closer and closer to our first reality death, whether it be homicide or overdose (who wants to bet either C.C., Steve, or Tawny fall off the wagon during the show, I not all three?) and I don’t want to miss that.
Thanks to the HBO free weekend, I got to check out the first two episodes of their latest series, Big Love which follows a rouge polygamist living in secret with his three wives and seven children. The show stars Bill Paxton (Twister) as Bill, a guy who grew among a polygamist compound but was kicked out as a kid and forced to fend for himself. But instead of going far away from those that booted him, Paxton gets himself three wives who live in consecutive houses and whose backyard is starting to look a lot like the compound he left.
Wife number one, Barb, or boss lady as the others like to call her, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Waterworld), is the most stable one in the family, someone that everyone looks up to, so it’s pretty clear she will have a mental breakdown by the end of the season. Then there’s Nicki, number two played by Chloë Sevigny (The Brown Bunny), who, even though she seems to be the most Mormon of the bunch, is addicted to shopping. The latest wife, who seemed to be straight from a sorority house, Margene as played by Ginnifer Goodwin whom I will always remember as Diane Snyder on Ed and seems to get more and more attractive on everything she does.
As for the children, the only one of note is Amanda Seyfried, better know as the late Lilly Kane, as the eldest Hendrickson who doesn’t seem to fond of her living situation with the two extra moms. And she isn’t the only Veronica Mars alum to show up either as she quickly befriend new co-worker played by computer nerd Mac who morphs herself Mormon nerd. Then there’s Beaver, who may be sporting an “I (Heart) Dick” shirt on the show in later episodes because I sensed a in the closet gay vibe from his character as Lilly’s brother’s friend.
And the cast just keeps expanding, as the name of the show suggests, as we also get to meet Bill’s eccentric mom and half dead father who has been poisoned with arsenic. Both Bill and pa finger mom, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it was done by compound prophet Roman (Harry Dean Stanton) who just also happens to Nicki’s father. And to add to the creepy factor, Roman, who’s pushing sixty, has just married a chick who just reached her teenage years played appropriately enough by the creepy chick from The Ring.
Now the thought of a polygamist family would make for good television as it would be three times the laugh, but here is the big problem with Big Love, it’s still a Mormon family. Mormons are really known for being all that interesting. I don’t mean that in a bad way as Mormons are the nicest people I have never met but nice doesn’t make for the best TV. If fact the most interesting part of the show is totally stolen from it’s lead in, The Sopranos, with the Roman extorting his son-in-law out of 15% of all the money he makes. But having The Beach Boys God Only Knows as a theme song is pretty cool.
Verdict: It’s interesting, especially with all the Veronica Mars connections, and Goodwin is captivating, but Big Love is definitely not worth the subscription to HBO to see, but definitely worth checking out the DVD is, or when, it comes out if you don’t already subscribe.
A couple months ago I reviewed Rev Run’s first solo album (see the review - Your Momma's Favorite Rapper), and now it’s time for the other living half of the seminal rap group, Darryl “DMC” McDaniel, to throw his hat back in the game with his first solo outing Checks, Thugs and Rock N Roll. Whereas Run took the safe route, veering not very far from his previous sound, taking the minimalist approach coming in just over a half an hour with no guest appearances, DMC is more adventuress and packs in multiple singers and rappers to help him out clocking in just under an hour.
The album starts off with one of the most disturbing samples in which Puffy wasn’t involved when DMC brings in the dude from Buckcherry and the less glamorous members of Aerosmith to rework Jimmy Hendrix All Along the Watchtower. And if that isn’t weird enough for you, later he brings in Sarah McLachlan to recreate the Harry Chapin classic Cats in the Cradle and renames it Just Like Me. The song must be heard to be believed especially when they go over the top by bringing in the kids choir.
But that’s it for the unnecessary samples even though Freaky Chick sounds a lot like Tone Loc’s Wild Thing. But the guest parade doesn’t stop there though. Kid Rock shows up on the life after death song Find My Way which is dedicated to Jam Master Jay and Joe C. Old school legend Doug E. Fresh shows up on Lovey Dover and new school go to hook singer Ciara lends her “talents” on What’s Wrong. Even though it sounds a lot like Eve rapping on Cold, it’s really Ms. Jade. And his old buddy Rev Run even spits a verse on Come 2gether that doesn’t really congers up images of the good ol’ days.
But the major problem with the album is that DMC’s voice has change dramatically since he last put his rhymes on wax. In the classics days, he had a smooth baritone delivery but here his voice is higher and more nasally. The content is deeper though as if DMC has spent his down time listing to Public Enemy and watching CNN as there more than a few songs dealing with the world today including the many wars that are raging. Unfortunately it’s hard to get past the voice to listen to the message.
Song to Download - Just Like Me
Checks, Thugs and Rock N Roll gets a on Terror Alert Scale.
