Showing posts with label Linkin Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Linkin Park. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Scooter McGavin's Spring Preview part 1


The first quarter of 2007 was easily the worst quarter ever for the music industry. To put things in perspective, when the soundtrack to Dreamgirls topped the chart in January, it wouldn’t have even cracked the top twenty five years ago. Granted when you don’t release albums people want to buy you should expect some low numbers with only Norah Jones and Fall Out Boy being the only big name acts to release an album in the first three months of the year with the latter certainly not living up to expectations. But the consumer is partially to blame too as Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse both put out great debuts that were widely ignored by the general public. Apparently you have to be featured on crappy television shows before anyone will buy your record these days.

Things may be starting to pick up as record companies are starting to release albums featuring songs that will be the soundtrack of your summer. Here is part one of my spring preview with the second coming later this week. If there is anything I missed feel free to drop me a comment and maybe I’ll add it to the second part, if it is not already there. Keep in mind, release dates are scheduled to change.


April 17
Best Damn Thing - Avril Lavigne: Avril has already perfected the pseudo-punk girl attitude, but after adding a few years, getting married, and putting out a Celine Dion type balled last year, it looks like she is swinging back the other way with the straight out pop song of the first single off the album, Girlfriend. Click her name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve a bonus track.


April 24
Favourite Worst Nightmare - The Arctic Monkeys: One of the biggest buzz bands of last year. Well at least until they actually released an album. They did still land at number 14 of my 50 Best Albums of 2006 list. Click there name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve the video for Brianstorm for free.

One Man Revolution - The Nightwatchman: Rage Against the Machine were legendary, Audioslave were great (at times), now after conquering rap-rock and classic rock, Tom Morello gives the singer-songwriter genre a try with what he calls, “the vibe of Springsteen’s Nebraska, Dylan’s The Times Are a-Changin’ and maybe a pinch of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen.”

Evil Dead: The Musical -2006 Orginal Off-Broadway Cast: I never knew they made a musical of this but if it is a third as good as the movie it will be great. Can we dare hope for an Army of Darkness musical in the future?


May 1
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Miranda Lambert: Think Carrie Underwood if Before He Cheats was considered one of her nicer song. Miranda even has her own karaoke background as the loser of Country Star.


May 8
Strength & Loyalty - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: My boys form just a miles north of my back and hopefully they didn’t bring any Phil Collins samples this time around.

The Boy with No Name - Travis: Remember them? No? Oh, never mind then.


May 15
Minutes to Midnight - Linkin Park: I featured the video to What I’ve Done last week which sounded pretty much like their old sound without the beats or pseudo rap and the guitar turned up fitting into their no rap-rock credo. But with Rick Rubin at the helm, last seen actually making Justin Timberlake not suck, it can’t be too bad. Click there name to pre-order this album on iTunes and recieve two exclusive bonus tracks (one only available for pre-ordered).

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Don't Download These Videos vol. XIII


There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


What I’ve Done - Linkin Park



Do we need a political Linkin Park video? Probably not. But it looks like it may be part of the band’s new make-over as Mike Shinoda gets pushed into the background as it looks like they lived up to their promise to move away from the rap-rock combo that put them on the map. I’m not the biggest Linkin Park fan but I am interested how the rest of the Rick Rubin produced album sounds like when Minutes to Midnight (a doomsday clock reference?) comes out in May.


Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5



Your typical Maroon 5 video: The group plays in front of a wild backdrop while the lead singer, Adam Levine, gets fondled by hot chicks. As for the song, if this is any indication of what we can expect from their upcoming album, it may be a sophomore slump that will make The Killers’ slump look not so bad. There last album was very top heavy with the single being really good while the rest, well, calling them filler would be too nice for most of them. Makes Me Wonder falls somewhere in between.


Put it Down - Redman



As good of a rapper Redman is, it’s his videos are usually more entertaining and his latest doesn’t disappoint. It’s nice to see the dude from Chappelle’s Show actually get work (Redman had a classic cameo on the show) although what’s up with the fat dude. Shouldn’t he be in jail or at the very least being stalked by Chris Hansen?


My Humps - Alanis Morissette



I assume this was an April Fools Day joke gone horribly wrong. Yet even though I absolutely hate both Alanis Morissette and Fergie, I can’t stop watching this. Yeah, Ben Folds already did the ironic, slow down a rap song and put it against a piano when he reworked Dr. Dre’s classic (Expletive Deleted) Ain’t (Expletive Deleted) to a much better effect, although Folds didn’t have a video to faithfully recreate which just makes My Humps even more disturbingly entertaining. And it is a little ironic that this is the most anyone has talked about Alanis Morissette since, well, Ironic.

Friday, February 10, 2006

We on Award Tour - 2006 Grammy Awards


There is nothing more disturbing than seeing that American Karaoke actually had more viewers. Seriously, people would rather watch amateurs who, if they had any talent at all wouldn’t need a reality show to get a record contract, than see U2 perform? Even the former best karaoker in the land, Kelly Clarkson, performed the first hour. Yeah, America has gone to hell in a hand basket in the past decade, but this has to be one of the saddest indicators yet. But anyways. Here’s my review of the best awards show in recent years, the :

- The show starts up with the much hyped duet between and . Apparently duets these days mean the band plays a song, Madonna shows up at the end, and then quickly goes into her own song sans the cartoons. What a rip off. Plus I really didn’t care to see a 3-D version of the Gorillaz. And weren’t they missing a member? Isn't there an Asian chick in the band? And as much as I railed on the tools that watched American Karaoke, I can understand why anyone would switch the channel after see Madonna in a leotard. Luckily I taped it so I could fast forward.

 Alicia Keys, I'd hit that- , who won my hottest chick of the night award, came out with to give a way too long introduction, but they started to sing Stevie’s song was cool.

- Nicole Kidman was shown in the crowd next to . Interesting post-break up Nicole ends up dating another midget and Tom dates another giant.

- What was with Chris Martin from throwing up the Spock hands during Talk?

- The Grammy’s love to do weird back to back performances and tonights was leading into . Legend did a nice jazzier version of Ordinary People with a full band unlike the record where it’s just him and the piano. I was about to fast forward past Sugarland until I heard someone back stage talking through the speakers. Possibly the funniest part of the night. I wonder how fast that guy got fired.

- Seriously, people would rather watch American Karaoke than ? Someone really needs to explain this to me. Way too much smoke during Vertigo though. It was funny when tried to hold Bono’s hand while he was trying to play guitar. The ending with “Coexist” on the screen was great with the Crescent Moon replacing the “C,” Star of David replacing the “X,” and the cross replacing the “T.”

- Worst dressed of the night had to go to with the white gloves, shirt open to the navel and the glasses.

- Wait, maybe that should go to Ben Rothertdjmtykjytberger with his jacket of Bettis’ Notre Dame jersey and a hat backwards. Why did they even let him the building looking like that?

- Was that the little girl from the video playing piano during ’s performance? It was great after the song and the camera scanned the crowd and she receive a one person standing ovation from the dude from .

- For years, presenters have pulled the “this next performer needs no introduction,” then proceeds to introduce them anyways. Finally Ellen actually says the line and brilliantly walks off stage. And of course needs no introduction. Plus he even dusts off Helter Skelter during his performance.

Kelly Clarkson bigger than Jesus?- Wow, this must have been the most clothes I’ve seen on since the pre-Honey days. But what was with the dude talking from the audience?

- They brought out some dude named who promptly mispronounces “Extraordinary.” Way to waste you only time on primetime TV Michael.

- Kelly Clarkson beats Paul McCartney for best pop album. Using the good old Transitive Property from high school, does this mean Kelly Clarkson is bigger than Jesus?

- More country music up next. Where in the past while watching live, this made for a good bathroom break, but thanks to taping it, I could just fast forward.

Okay, did I really see Sly Stone?- Okay, the next segment was a little hazy, and not sure if this really happened, it was so surreal, but here is the best recollection of what I think I saw. And even though I watched this a couple times to make sure, I can not validate that any of this actually First Dave Chappelle comes out to introduce a tribute possible the only person that makes him look sane these days, . It’s starts off harmless enough with John Legend, and some dude named who were backed by members of the Family Stone (no Rachel McAdams though), Niles Rodgers of and… Randy Jackson? Then came a duet between (how did she win a singing contest) and Devin Lima who I swear was the dude in that didn’t nail Jennifer Love Hewitt (remember Summergirls? Oh never mind). This is the point where I think I was getting a contact high from the TV because Sly’s stash is that potent. Next up was singing with Maroon 5. Um, okay. Then out comes Will.I.Am doing a rap followed the introduction of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry who really don’t do anything. Then out of nowhere Tyler says, “Sly, let’s show them how we do it back in the day.” Then inexplicatively Sly himself, who is making only his second public appearance in my lifetime, come out with a five foot blonde Mohawk. Please read that last second one more time. Sly then plays a couple notes on his keyboard sings “dance to the music” about five times and just leave before the song ends. I doubt there is a better anti-drug campaign better than this segment.

- Next up is yet another Jay-Z/Linkin Park mash-up. This was really cool at first but now it’s just getting tired. Well that was until Paul McCartney came out to sing Yesterday. And if there was anything that came close to Sly’s oddness it would be Jay-Z telling Sir Paul to “Take ‘em up top.” I think I may still have been high. Oh and Jay-Z just happened to be wear a John Lennon shirt. Too bad Jay-Z didn't come out during Helter Skelter and did a couple bars of 99 Problems like from the mashed-up The Grey Album. Yesterday not the best song here.

- Interesting after announcing that Sometimes You Can’t Make it on Your Own won Song of the Year they played We Belong Together instead.

Kanye and Jamie bite Ray Charles one more time- He may have been the worst dressed, but Kanye wins performance of the year with his college battle between KW State and JFU at the Grammy Halftime Show. This should have been the Superbowl halftime show because it was much more entertaining. But I really hope this is the last time we see milks memory. Sadly I doubt that will ever happen. It was nice to see the resurrection of Broke Phi Broke too. And how to cap such a great performance, apparently the Gammy’s though a gratuitous shot of James Taylor would do it. Yeah.

- wins Record of the Year. Yawn. They were so last year.

- How did go from the hottest chick on the planet to the trashiest to now looking like drag queen? This is a crime against humanity.

- Even Kanye couldn’t get too made at U2 winning Album of the Year for the second time, the other being The Joshua Tree. Which begs the question, what did Achtung Baby lose to? (Update: Achtung Baby lost to Eric Clapton's Unplugged in 1993. Also up for the award that year - the Beauty and the Beast Soundtrack. I wish I made that last part up. Annie Lennox's Diva and KD Lang's Ingénue rounded out the catergory.)

- For some reason they saved the obligatory old white dude speech for the end. But at least he didn’t whine about music downloads like Michael Green always did.

- I know people won’t like this comment, but I think everyone stopped reading along time ago especially after the Jesus mention, but I’ll say it anyways, Hurricane Katrina was the best thing to happen to . Without it he’d be currently hanging around obscurity but with everyone’s guilt, they feel obligated to drag him out to every major event since then.

- The show ends with a great tribute, even if messed up the second verse.

Monday, November 28, 2005

5% Pleasure, 50% Pain


The Rising Tied - Fort Minor

Most people will know Mike Shinoda as the rapper of multi platinum group , but after spending the most of the time with the rock group Shinoda decided to take a break and get back to his rap roots with he hip-hop troupe, . Then for the album (yeah I know its spelled wrong, but I’m sure there is some deep meaning to it, but it when over my head) he recruited some of his favorite rapper such as and Black Thought of to give some lines as well as singers like and then rounded out the album with having as the executive producer.

Even though it is always refreshing to hear a rap album that doesn’t rely on money, drugs, bling, and ho's, the album fall flat partly because the beats are sub par and Shinoda really doesn’t know what to do with a beat if there was one. Certain songs are saved by the previously mentioned guest stars in addition to the rap due who appear on five track. The best of which is Remember the Name with one of the few beats that I would blare in my car.

But what Shinoda lacks in rap skills, he makes up in content. Where Linkin Park stays neutral in their songs, as Fort Minor, Shinoda isn’t afraid to talk about touchy subjects. On Right Now, featuring Black Thought, the two trade verses about the injustices in the world like, “For the act of freedom right now somebody is stuck in Iraq hoping that he gets shipped back breathing in a war that he’s not really sure of the reasons.” He also takes on racism, but not the usual racism addressed in rap song. On Kenji he raps about how poorly Japanese immigrants were treated during World War II and even though the war ended decades ago, those types of issues still need to be address today substituting Muslims for Japanese.

As for the other guest artist, John Legend is sadly relegated to the chorus and some chopstick type chords on the piano on High Road where Shinoda rags on all his haters even though he says he’s taking the high road, but obviously with all the smack talk he isn’t. Common ads some class on Back Home with a decent verse despite the lame beat, but he was used to those before he hooked up with . And Holley Brook is a star in the making with her addition to Where’d You Go and makes me wish that they would have dropped the aggravated drum loop and Shinoda’s rap and focused the song around her instead. In the end, this is a side project that should have stayed on the sidelines.

Song to Download – Remember the Name

The Rising Tied get a Terror Alert Level: Guarded [BLUE] on my Terror Alert Scale.


Saturday, July 09, 2005

Ask and You Shall Receive


There were a lot of complaints last week of MTV/VH1’s coverage of the concerts as they cut from performance to performance, sometime cutting off an artist in mid-song. Well today, they did an alright job of righting their pervious wrong as both channels show five hours of uninterrupted and commercial free performances. It still wasn’t perfect as they didn’t give full performances of some artist like and . Not too mention the laundry list of performances that were left off that I pointed out in my original Live 8 post (World Keep on Turning, Cause it Won’t Be Too Long), none of those artist were given a slot today. So, alas, the best place to see the concerts until the DVD comes out is at . Here are some additions of interest that I saw on today’s broadcast that I didn’t mention in my last Live 8 review:

- What was with all the gratuitous Gwyneth and Apple shots during the performance? Although I have to admit that Apple gun-range type ear plugs the cutest thing.

- Even more questionable gratuitous shot was of Paula Abdul during Stevie Wonder’s performance. Seriously why?

- MTV and VH1 repeated many of the same performances like , Coldplay, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Robbie Williams, The Who, Pink Floyd, and Paul McCartney. Let’s play a little game of “Which One of These is Not Like the Others?” If you guessed Robbie Williams, go get yourself a cookie. Very few people on this side of the pond could even name one of songs. But at least MTV showed his performance of Angels, unlike VH1. And for anyone who thinks that’s a Jessica Simpson song, please do yourself a favor and download the original Williams version.

- Did I seriously hear start to sing Steve Miller Band’s The Joker in the middle of 3 AM? Worst placement of a song ever.

- Now I the biggest fan out there but I MTV didn’t show his performance because all they did was edit out every third word. It got unbearable to watch even for me. As I was flipping through the channels until Snoop was over I happened upon the WNBA All-Star Game. I didn’t even now they started their season yet, let alone are halfway through it.

- VH1 actually showed a performance from Johannesburg while MTV showed the same performance and a second one to boot. Yet nothing from Rome, Barrie, Paris, or Moscow.

- I wonder why only got one song. And how did get four songs plus an extra three song with ? Do people really need that long of a bathroom break?

- During my last post (Money, It's a Crime), I wondered if there was some sort of hug at the end of their performance and it turned out there was. I’m really beginning to think there will be a full reunion show (yes show, not tour) in the near future.

It was also telling what each channel chose as their post-concert programming. MTV showed a MTV News report dedicated to Live 8 that included many of the segments that were showed multiple times during last week’s show. It also included a segment featuring the detractors of Live 8 who made counterpoint, many of which I agree with. While VH1 decided to show a mini marathon of their Fabulous Life Of… series. Nothing better to follow up five hours devoted to eliminate poverty in Africa than having a show devoted to the life of excess. Do we really need to know that has about eight cars that cost a total of approximately two million dollars? Hey but at least he snapped his fingers in the One commercial. Way to contribute JT.

Also it was announce recently that the leaders of G8 have pledged to give $50 billion by 2010. A great step in the right direction, but one major obstacle is that many of the African countries are lead by ruthless dictators. There needs to be regime changes in these countries as some of the economist pointed out during the counterpoint in the MTV special. And unlike Iraq, a change in government would not be met with such opposition as the African people have nothing to lose and everything to gain by such a change. Yes Saddam was as horrible as his African counterparts, but Iraqi’s, for the most part were well off under Saddam (sans the Kurds), just as long as they didn’t cross him or his regime. So the Iraqis had much to lose by an invasion and met it with much resistance. This would not be the case in Africa, as it was not the case in Afghanistan either. So once these oppressive regimes are changed and a true democracy is put in place, then, and only then, will the dream of making poverty history will be achieved.


Sunday, July 03, 2005

World Keep on Turning, Cause it Won't Be Too Long


Amazing day yesterday as I spent over ten hours glued to either my TV screen or computer screen watching the concerts. I was a little disappointed in the MTV/VH1/ABC coverage as I was under the impression that MTV and VH1 would be doing two separate broadcasts with maybe one focusing on the Philadelphia concert and the other focusing in on the London concert. Instead we got one solo show just showed on two separate channels. What a waste of airtime. And being that it was MTV, what we got was small snippets of some the performances instead of full one or even full songs in most case. They rarely went outside of London of Philadelphia stopping into Paris once (Shakira), Berlin three times (twice for Green Day, once for Audioslave), Japan once (Good Charlotte), Canada twice (Jet, Simple Plan), Africa twice and they never went to Rome once. And there is a good list of great performers that didn’t even make it to TV:

Sarah McLachlan (with some dude named Josh Groban on Angel)
Brian Wilson
Snow Patrol
Ms. Dynamite
The Cure
Sheryl Crow
Crosby, Stills and Nash
Duran Duran
Barenaked Ladies
Byran Adams
Pet Shop Boys
P. Diddy
Lauryn Hill
Neil Young
Rob Thomas (Well that wasn’t much of a loss actually)

And the song selection was poor sometimes too. We had to sit threw Will Smith’s Switch when they could have let us see the classic Summertime or the cheesily entertaining Theme to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. So I found myself watching more and more from my computer thanks to
AOLMusic.com. Here are some of my highlights.

Goosebumps moments:
- Paul McCartney with U2 in doing
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band live for the first time ever with some faux Beatles in Pepper outfits playing french horns
-
U2’s set including their version of Unchained Melody
- Coldplay bringing out Richard Ashcroft to sing Bittersweet Symphony
- Black Eyed Peas with Stephan and Rita Marley to sing Get up Stand Up
-
Kanye West backed by a Sting section
- Dido joined by Youssou N'Dour during Thank You
- The opening to Dave Matthews Band's
Dreamgirl
- Robbie Williams singing Angels they way it supposed to - without Jessica Simpson
- Green Day covering Queen’s
We Are the Champions
- Stevie Wonder and Adam Levane of Maroon 5 doing a duet on
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours
-
Pink Floyd whole set, extra Goosebumps at the beginning of each song
- Maroon 5 covering Neil Young’s Rockin in the Free World
-
Alicia Keys’ tribute to Luther Vandross
- Jay-Z backed by Linkin Park who did a faithful
Public Service Announcement

Tear Jerkers:
- Bob Geldolf bring out an African Girl who, at the time of Live Aid, was only given ten seconds to live
-
Annie Lennox playing Why over a montage of AIDS victims
- The finale in London with everyone singing Hey Jude with Paul McCartney

Other interesting tidbits:
-
Snoop Dogg was able to get 5 F-bombs pass the MTV censors (and the N-word once). Granted he mumbles some and they weren’t part of the song. The bigger slip was they Pink Floyd let the blatant word in Pink Floyd’s Money or maybe they let it slip because it Floyd.
-
Beyoncé wore a skirt that was as short as it could have been without showing off her Kootchiepop.
- I was a little disappointed that no one pulled a
Phil Collins this year.
- The only American acts in Rome -
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill?
-
UB40 were introduced saying they were going to perform a medley of their hits. Shouldn’t it been a medley of other people’s hits?
- Who invited Randy Jackson? I had to laugh when I spotted him playing a tiny keyboard when
Mariah Carey already had two keyboarders on stage with two large keyboards themselves.
- What was up with Stevie Wonder’s moustache/beard thing around his mouth? Who let him out of the house like that?
- There were a lot of lyric changes to reflect the festivities including U2, Sting but my favorite was Kanye West switch the line in Jesus Walks into, “And George Bush gets paid off of all of that.”
- When I saw you could download
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club from the concert on iTunes, I thought the whole concert would be available, but alas the only other song available (for now hopefully) was The Long and Winding Road. Click on the links to get them for yourselves.

If you missed the concert,
AOLMusic.com is still streaming Paris, Canada, and Philadelphia. London was stopped sometime during the 1st rebroadcast and Berlin was taken offline sometime last night. Hopefully there is a comprehensive DVD coming because, even after all I watch, there is still a lot I missed.