Something Good, A Little Trouble In Your Neighborhood

Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, it is a human nature to fit everything into a nice and easy to explain package. Of course some of the most interesting music comes from musicians that are hard to plug into a specific genre. Take Band of Skulls: sure you can put them in the extremely broad “Alternative” category, but that can mean many different things and is usually not a nice way to call something “not mainstream”. They are almost as hard to compare. The garage rock brings up images of The White Stripes but the trio is much heavier and less riff driven from the duo.

Maybe the way to explain Band of Skulls is a power trio of mellow heavy metal (if that makes any sense). They have that hard rocking trio of sixties bands like Cream mixed with the more melodic heavy metal meets grunge of Alice In Chains. And that power trio of mellow heavy metal sound is back for a second album Sweet Sour - Band of Skulls fills with haunting riffs that will stick with you for days like on the title track, Bruises, and The Devil Takes Care of its Own. Navigate is another standout track where Bassist Emma Richardson takes lead vocals on Navigate, one of the softest songs the band has recorded to date and followed by Hometown that managed to be sweeter that its predecessor.

Song to Download – The Devil Takes Care of His Own

Sweet Sour gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.



Another hard to categorize band is Sleigh Bells. They have hip hop beats, a lone heavy metal guitar and a bubblegum pop voiced singer (though Alexis Krauss looks like the offspring of Joan Jett and came out the womb with a leather jacket on) and the band rarely deviates from that formula. Yeah the Sleigh Bells are a one trick pony, but that one trick is really entertaining and expect a lot of it on their sophomore album Reign of Terror. The opener True Shred Guitar is a love version which will have you looking up when the band will be coming to your town. Crush is clap along fun. But the closest anything on the album comes to the great songs off their debut is Comeback Kid which is quintessential Sleigh Bells.

Song to Download – Comeback Kid

Reign of Terror gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

There's No Need to Fear Underdog Is Here

Even though it ran for three short seasons during the sixties, Underdog was a mainstay of children’s television watching for decades. And now people who grew up with the cartoon can watch the series with their next generation without having to grimace through the live action film with the release of Underdog: The Complete Collector’s Edition. For the uninitiated, Underdog was a canine take on Superman with Underdog taking all the super powers of Superman but the clumsiness of Clark Kent. Oh yeah, and he speaks solely in prose.

The show is rounded out by Sweet Polly Purebred, the Lois Lane of the show, a reporter who finds herself captured by bad guys at a disturbingly high frequency. And what superhero would be without a rouge’s gallery and Underdog’s two main archenemies included Simon Bar Sinister, a mad scientist who would have a new diabolical machine he would create in hopes to rule the world with. Underdog would also have to butt heads with Rift Raft who more of an old time gangster who was content with doing evil the old fashion way, with a gun, and gang of thugs, and a cigar (I do not seeing Rift Raft making his way into a modern cartoon).



The episodes on Underdog: The Complete Collector’s Edition are based on the original NBC airing and featuring two Underdog segments along with a segment of Go Go Gophers and a Commander McBragg short for the first two seasons of Underdog while the third season features segments of Klondike Kat and either Tooter Turtle or The Hunter (for those that grew up with the syndicated version of Underdog and wonder where Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales is, that show is getting its own release next month). The 62 episodes are spread across nine DVD’s with each all three seasons getting its own case. The full breakdown is the first season has 26 episodes on four DVD’s. The second season has 22 episodes on three DVD’s. While the third and final season just had 14 episodes on two DVD’s.

The Collector’s Edition comes with a twenty page booklet that tells the history of Underdog, for those not a big fan of reading, there is a featurette that goes over the same territory with people who helped create the show. Another extra feature included is an interview with Underdog co-creator Joe Harris who explains and narrates a never-before-seen storyboard he created for children he knew. There are also commentaries for ten segments featuring animation historian Mark Arnold talking about the show with co-creator Buck Biggers and Little House on the Prairie’s (and daughter of the voice of Sweet Polly Purebred) Alison Arngrim, while The Jay Leno Show announcer Wally Wingert chats with narrator of Underdog George S. Irving on a couple commentaries. The set also features alternative openings and closings.



Full Disclosure Notice: These DVD’s were given to me by Shout Factory for the purpose of review.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/19/12

Once Upon a Time: When Mr. Gold started beating the owner of Game of Thorns (great name) for contributing to the death of his daughter I thought there was no way they actually killed off Belle. When the Evil Queen talked about how she threw herself out of a tower I thought there was no way they killed of Belle. During Gold and Regina’s discussion in the jail I thought to myself, there is no way they killed off Belle. And just when I thought, well maybe they actually did kill off Belle, Regina started entering a code at the hospital (who puts a secret room behind an emergency exit?) and goes down the mental ward (I assume) wear we see that Belle is in fact alive and well in the real world. It only took half the season, but this was the first great plot twist on the show. Hopefully Regina has more characters down there. And the show really needs to forget about focusing on the battle between Emma and Regina and spend more time on the battle between Regina and Gold.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Greatest wedding toast ever. From now on, you cannot consider it a good wedding toast unless someone pulls a gun on you.

The Walking Dead: After the mid-season finale I was ready to come back with a vengeful Hershel killing off everybody, Shane, Rick, Lori, T-Dog, Andrea, Dale, Carol; he could have mercy on Glen and Daryl if he wishes, but I would like to see most of the main cast brutally murdered. Unfortunately that did not happen (of course there is no way Lori could possibly survive that car crash and if so would be eaten before someone finds her; but I but she manages to avoid death) but at least they finally introduced some interesting characters in the form of Britt from Terriers. Oh wait, they killed him before the end of the episode. I really hate this show.
You can stream recent episodes over at amc.com. You can also download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

House of Lies: Seeing Veronica Mars in her pedestrian clothes again, it is just a reminder how she is wastes wearing pant suits all the time. I may have to start up a Free Ronnie campaign.

How I Met Your Mother: When Robin told Ted that Kumar dumped her I thought, “oh crap, they better not get these two back together” and minutes later Ted tells Robin he loved her. Uggg. If we have to sit through another season of Ted and Robin coupled I may finally have to give up on the show.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Voice: What a bunch of tomato cans all of the constants were this week. I’d be shocked if any of them make it out of the Battle Round. Hopefully the show did not just front load all the great talent for after the Super Bowl because think we still have two more weeks of Blind Auditions.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

2 Broke Girls: Apparently the writers have heard the critique of how often the resort to vagina jokes on the show and actually outted the word as Max’s favorite.

The Lying Game: I realize the problem with the show: not enough red herrings, and by not enough I mean none. Who killed the drug dealer was pretty easy to figure out because it had to be the DA (or someone he hired to do it) because there were no other possibilities but him. Same with the twins parents: it has to be Rebecca and Ted because there is no one else. The show really needs to build a mystery better.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: I do not know what Alexis would not tell her dad of her new internship, he was going to find out the first time they get called in. And as someone who has had to do trunk duty when we could not find enough designated drivers back in college, I doubt the lack of oxygen theory that Beckett had. But there has to be a reason why the trained assassin let them live, I am guessing he turns out to have gone rouge for the greater good.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

The River: The cameraman realizing he had to go underground to retrieve the antidote was the greatest use of censorship since The Osbornes went off the air. But then ending of the tribesmen backing off because someone sacrificed themselves was just absurd. I wonder how long it takes the crew to realize they should listen to the Spanish chick jungle legends before running off on an adventure willy nilly?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The River on iTunes.

Justified: If someone takes out my kidneys, said I need to get twenty grand in four hours or I die and hands be a gun to get the job done, I do not care if I am a wanted fugitive, I am shooting the dude and taking my kidneys to the nearest hospital to be put back in. But God bless Dewey Crowe, not only does he not realize that none of the symptoms the nurse detailed were happening, he is the only person that does not realize that all store clerks keep shotguns under the counter. But it was weird watching the episode considering that it had the same theme as one of the plots of Raylan (see my review: It's a Shame He Wasn't a Wanted Felon so I Could Shoot Him He Resisted) but still changed a bunch of details.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Parenthood: Seriously, someone needs to tell Bob Little, nailing the intern is the number one Cardinal Rule of politics and with, as Michael Bluth would say, “Her?”. But poor Amber, this is the first time she gets some action on the show since the premiere and it gets interrupted by her aunt.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Suburgatory: Tessa trying to sing has to be the funniest thing of the week. I have re-watched that way too many times.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Revenge: There is nothing I hate more in television than episodes that open with a “x amount of time earlier” and Revenge is the first show that I can remember doing it in the first episode with a resolution not coming until later in the series. And now that we have finally seen the series come full circle, I may be more let down that I expected. From the first episode I expected Daniel not to be the dead body and from the moment he stepped on screen I knew the rent boy would be the one that ended up dead even though he looked nothing like Daniel and no one would confuse the two. But it managed to be even more disappointing because the premiere’s first scene just did not seem to sync up well with the most recent episode. Making things worse, the plot they teased in the premiere, Jack killing Daniel, is a much more interesting plot twist than what presumably happened: Amanda killing rent boy and framing Daniel. Or Jack. Actually I am not really sure what was going on. Why did Amanda smear blood on Jack and then drive off to the beach? Did she try to set up two people to make sure no one comes after her? After a really good first ten episodes, the show really fumbled this moment. Hopefully it can get back on track by the finale.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: It is a shame that Leonard did not have as the tie breaker a foot race, because that would have been more entertaining than throwing the ball the highest, although maybe it would have been too much like Sue Heck trying out for Cross Country.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 2/18/12

Quote of the Week: “Say hello to your Aunt Mommy.” No, not adorable: Appalachian. (Mitchell, Modern Family)

Song of the Week: A Horse with No Name – America (as sung by Alt-Man, Suburgatory)

Preview Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: The New GOP Front Runner Is… Rick Santorum?: A couple weeks ago I heard someone compare the then inevitable Republican nominee Mitt Romney to former Democratic nominee for president John Kerry: a Massachusetts political so uninspiring that he could not even beat an incumbent who in no way deserved a second term. But what would that make Rick Santorum, a guy who would lose in a landslide to an incumbent that in no way deserves to be elected? Leave it to the Republican, who looked like they could nominate a ham sandwich a year ago and win, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Free Download of the Week: Lead Me Love - Shelby Lynne (Rolling Stone)

Deal of the Week: Save up to 60% on Select HBO Favorites (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Eastbound and Down)

New Album Release of the Week: Reign of Terror - Sleigh Bells

New DVD Release of the Week: Weeds: Season Seven

Video of the Week: You could not pay me to the last G.I. Joe. It looked like just another example of Hollywood trying to ruin my childhood with another crappy live action movie of toys I used to play with. And from what I heard I was glad to skip it. So I naturally groaned when they announced a sequel. But then the cast The Rock. And Tyra Collette. And Titus Pullo. And Boyd Crowder. And The Rza. And it was written by the guys who wrote Zombieland. So consider me intrigued. Well that was until I learned it was being directed by the dude who did the Justin Bieber movie. Wait, what?



Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor: One World, Wednesday at 8:00 on CBS: I was tentative going into the new season of Survivor after two seasons of the painfully bad Redemption Island to the point I was ready to switch over to watching ABC comedies live on Wednesday and saving Survivor for later in the week. But after one week I am back in, the One World idea is great and segregating the genders is even better. I wonder if next season Survivor will have the cojones to do One World with Blacks, Whites, Asians, and Hispanics.

Around the Tubes - 2/17/12

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Awake, Life's Too Short, Game of Thrones, House of Lies, Memphis, American Weed, Key and Peele, Swamp People, Full Metal Jousting, RuPaul's Drag Race, Life in the Wild, The Franchise, For Better or Worse, Intel, and Hardcore Pawn.

- My sources tell me that Awake was the best Pilot of the 2011-12 season, but who cares what they think. Judge for yourself by watching the full premiere below:

Special Full Episode Preview


- This Sunday HBO is launching its latest new show Life’s Too Short from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant at 10:30 (following the third season premiere of Eastbound and Down). Check out the first season trailer below:



- In other HBO new, they recently released its first poster for the second season of Game of Thrones, take a gander below:



- For those that need to catch up on House of Lies or just need more Kristen Bell in your life are in luck. Next Sunday Showtime will be airing all seven episodes starting at 8:00 this Sunday.

- For Broadway fans that cannot make it to New York City very often will want to mark the calendars for next Friday when PBS will be airing Tony Award winning musical Memphis at 9:00 (check your local listings). This will mark the first time that a Best Musical winner has aired on U.S. national television with its original principals while, at the same time, continuing its Broadway run and national tour.

- New series alert! Premiering naturally on Ash Wednesday at 10:00 on National Geographic Channel is American Weed will be looking at all sides of the issue — from the growers, patients and dispensary owners, to the cops, caregivers and opponents of the newly legal medical marijuana in Colorado.

- Ty Burrell recently did a little moonlighting on Comedy Central’s new sketch comedy show Key and Peele naturally playing a Nazi. I am not sure Phil Dunphy would approve:



- Miss recent episodes of History’s Swamp People and / or Full Metal Jousting. Just click those links to be taken to the full episodes. You can always turn into Swamp People Thursdays at 9:00 and Full Metal Jousting Sundays at 10:00.

- Socialite Life recently sat down with Willam from the most recent season of RuPaul’s Drag Race who talks about how he got into drag (watching the soccer classic Ladybugs naturally).

- Not only is Love in the Wild returning this summer to NBC, it just picked up a new host. Jenny McCartney will be back at bringing couple together for the first time since her Singled Out days. Jenny will be heading out to the Dominican Republic later this month to start filming.

- Showtime recently announced which team it will follow for the next season of The Franchise: the Miami Marlins. Wait, when did they change from Florida? And Miami Marlins sounds like a comic book character.

- Tyler Perry fans should be happy to learn his top rated TBS sitcom For Better or Worse has been renewed for another thirty-five episodes.

- Intel has a new line of ads called Pop Up Theater where a bunch of laptop carrying people pop up flash mob style for a performance. Check out one below:

Ultrabook™ POP-UP THEATER ORCHESTRA


- TruTV not only renewed Hardcore Pawn for another season, they are expanding it into an new series Hardcore Pawn: Fort Bragg. Also look out for more Lizard Lick Towing coming to the cable channel.

First Impressions: Survivor: One World

Just when you thought the idea of Redemption Island was the dumbest idea Survivor ever had, watching the subsequent seasons only proved that it was actually worse than you could have imagined. So last night when Jeff Probst said “Redemption Island…) I screamed at the television, “Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!” thankfully after a too long of a dramatic pause he finished his sentence “will not be in play this season”. Whew. But there is a new twist to the game: One World where both tribes live on one beach. A very interesting twist made even more interesting in that the two tribes set up separate camps very far apart and do not seem keen on sharing anything.

The other big twist is for only the third time in twenty-four season that they are dividing up the tribes and just like the previous two seasons, the guys have started out cocky and the women started out chirping at each other. Interesting enough, in the Amazon, the guys went into the merge with a majority but it was Jenna Morasca who was crowned Sole Survivor while in Vanuatu Chris Daugherty took the title when the women had the numbers. But this season for the first time the men actually won the first immunity challenge but much like Barry Bonds, put an asterisk next to the win because they only won because a woman got hurt (seriously, when Probst tells you to hold your hands to your chest, hold your hands to your chest). Even worse, Probst gave them the option to take the win or continue the challenge and even though they had a two person lead at the time, they still cowardly took the win. I cannot believe the Survivor Gods are going to be too happy by that decision.

Luckily the women were save from having to vote someone out because the woman that got hurt ended up breaking her wrist and was medically removed from the game (if I am not mistaken this was only the second time a challenge was ended due to injury and the player was removed from the game). But the bad news was they still went to Tribal Council giving Probst time to what he does best: stir the pot. And the ingredients inside the pot this time were Christina Cha and Alicia Rosa who pulled out the claws early with a hooded Kat Edorsson hilariously in the middle acting as Mills Lane.

One episode, and I am back in. I love the possibilities that two tribes / one beach provides especially when they are segregating themselves: secret alliances, sabotage, theft. Hopefully these all come to fruition and just may thanks to gay homosexual Colton Cumbie who left no question to his sexuality with his jumping form who may just utilities all three. The other early standout is the very first little person on Survivor (or as Herc from Ain’t it Cool New Say, unless you count the Hantz family) who even got his head petted by Alicia, and if there is one thing I have learned from the little people I know (all two of them), never, under any circumstance, pet them on the head. Yeah Alicia is not making many friends. Oh yeah, and the guy’s tribe includes two guys named Tarzan and Troyzan. Fun times.

Contestant I’d Most Like to Have Dirty, Dirty Sex with Even if She Hasn’t Take a Shower in a Month: Kat Edorsson

Winner: Kim Spradlin

Back Up Choice: Jonas Otsuji

Survivor: Redemption Island airs Wednesdays at 8:00 on CBS. You can stream episodes on CBS.com. You can also download Survivor on iTunes.

Lyrics Quiz: Primative Radio Gods

I rib iTunes Genius feature because it comes up with less genius playlist and more just a group of songs within the same genre. But after plugging in Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand, which landed at number one on my list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 90’s, the first four songs that Genuis came up with were all songs from that list. Seven one hit wonders total from the decade in all showed up in the top twenty-five (and two other from the eighties). Sure I would have been more impressed if How Blue Can You Get? by B.B. King, the songs that is sampled, was on the list. But anyway. So I took those top twenty-five songs and made them into this month’s lyrics quiz. As always leave your guesses, both artist and song title, in the comment section or e-mail me. If you are correct I will un-bold the lyric and give you credit. Please keep in mind the lyrics quiz is for entertainment purposes only so please only use your own meandering mind to guess them.

1. I wanna hold the hand inside you. I wanna take a breath that’s true. I look to you and I see nothing. I look to you to see the truth.
2. What if I were Romeo in black jeans?
3. And you just don’t get it, keep it copasetic, and you learn to accept it, and no, you’re so pathetic.
4. I don’t mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows. I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes.
5. Nothing so loud than hearing when we lie. Truth is not kind but you say neither am I. (All I Want - Toad the Wet Sproket; guessed by Rebekah)
6. She spent her twenties between the sheets. Life limped along at sub-sonic speeds.
7. I’m not expecting to grow flowers in the desert but I can look and breathe and see the sun in winter time.
8. Seems like everybody’s got a plan. It’s kinda like Nashville, with a tan. (Lullaby - Shawn Mullin; guessed by Rebekah)
9. When I want something and I don’t wanna pay for it: I just walk right through the door.
10. I’m turning to the horoscope and looking for the funnies when I’m feeling someone watching and so I turn my head. (Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega; guessed by Rebekah)
11. Pulling out jives and jamboree hand outs, two turn tables and a microphone.
12. We don’t even care to shake these zipper blues. We don’t know just where these bones will rest. To dust I guess.
13. Well I’ve never prayed but tonight I’m on my knees, yeah. I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me yeah.
14. It’s not a habit, it’s cool, I feel alive, if you don’t have it you’re on the other side.
15. You cook so well, all nice and French, you do yo. Brain surgery too mama with your monkey wrench.
16. Hold this string as I walk away. Watch me unravel; I’ll soon be naked, lying on the floor. (Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer; guessed by Rebekah)
17. Philosophy, it’s the talk on a cereal box. Religion is a smile on a dog. (What I Am - Edie Brickell; guessed by Rebekah)
18. If I seem to be confused I didn’t mean to be with you. And when you said I scared you well I guess you scared me too. (Joey - Concrete Blonde; guessed by Rebekah)
19. And I will be the one to hold you down, kiss you so hard. I’ll take your breath away. And after I will wipe your tears away. Just close your eyes dear. (Possession - Sarah McLachlan; guessed by Rebekah)
20. I want a girl who gets up early. I want a girl who stays up late. I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity who uses a machete to cut through red tape.
21. Well you know just what you do to me. The way you move soft and slippery. Cut the night just like a razor. Rarely talk and that’s the danger.
22. It is the way we move your hand and it’s the way you understand. That’s the reason that I’m asking. That’s the reason I want to know.
23. I rushed the ladies’ room, took the water from the toilet, washed her feet and blessed her name.
24. That’s great it starts with earthquake, bird and snakes and aeroplanes. Lenny Bruce is not afraid. (It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.; guessed by Rebekah)
25. World was on fire, no one could save me but you. Strange word desire, make people do. (Wicked Game - Chris Isaak; guessed by Rebekah)

I Want My Music Television - 2/14/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Safe and Sound - Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars

Taylor Swift - Safe & Sound - Music - More Music Videos

I am not sure what this whole Hunger Games thing is or what the video has to do with it, but Taylor Swift should seriously consider hiring The Civil Wars as her permanent backing band.


(Expletive Deleted) in Paris - The Throne



Note to self: next time a video comes with an epilepsy warning, do not watch it. I am going to be seeing a kaleidoscope version of The Throne every time I close my eyes for the next couple days.


Get Burned – Sleeper Agent



Also stuck in my brain: giant molesting bunnies. Thanks Sleeper Agent.


We Take Care of Our Own - Bruce Springsteen



It is weird that the older Bruce Springsteen gets, the more he morphs into looking like the love child of Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash.

We on Award Tour: 2012 Grammy Awards

It seems like the Grammys always get a major chunk of their awards wrong, but in 2011 there was no denying Adele and even with the Grammys track record, it is still no surprised that she hauled in the most awards this year. Here are some other thoughts on the night:

- I am a little shocked that Bruce Springsteen went with the new song that most people won’t even remember by next year instead of a song that highlighted a Clarence Clemmons sax solo.

- Can’t say I was ever a Whitney Houston fan (a grand total of two songs made it on my iPod), but it is also sad to see someone go that quickly and unexpectedly. But once again it shows, just like Whitney said it was: crack is wack. Another example as to never start using the stuff and if you do, it is time to get yourself help.

- Why even bring in LL Cool J as host if his entire monologue consists of a prayer and then shouting out people in the front row?

- It is never a good sign when they mentioned Bruno Mars is up for Album of the Year and I completely forgot he was. Granted the category was always Adele and the four other people since they announced the nominees.

- I can’t believe they actually brought Chris Brown back to the Grammys considering the last time the two were in the same sentence he had to cancel an appearance after brutally beating Rihanna. What’s worse (aside from not even bother to sing) was that he totally ripped off Rihanna’s We Found Love for the song he lip-synced.

- It is nice to see after sporting bad mom hair for the last couple months, Kelly Clarkson decided to actually do something with her hair tonight. Unfortunately she passed on her bad hair to Taylor Swift.

- Couldn’t they just give an entire half an hour block to The Beach Boys? That just did not seem long enough.

- Paul McCartney, Diana Krall and… Joe Walsh?

- It was enough that they were snubbed for Best New Artist, which they should have won, but only sixty seconds for The Civil Wars?

- It is ironic that Taylor Swift performed Mean on the Grammys considering the song was inspired by the critics who had some mean things to say following her performance with Stevie Nicks on the show a couple years ago.

- Katy Perry fooled me; I thought she pulled an Ashlee Simpson, although maybe she should have lip synced because it was pretty poor performance.

- After a year of hearing everyone butchering the song, it is weird hearing a great performance of Rolling in the Deep.

- Bon Iver, your Best New Artist of 2009.

- Roy Orbison’s widow gets mentions in the In Memoriam package but not Jani Lane?

- You really have to be high to enjoy electronic music.

- Can we please end the Nicki Minaj era please? Seriously, did she really work Oh Come All Ye Faithful into her abomination of a performance?

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/12/12

Shameless: I totally missed that Karen said she was pregnant last week. Not only did I miss it last week, I even missed it this week during the “previously on” segment. It was not until they started discussing it during the episode and wondered why they brought it up flippidly and had to go back to the “previously on” package to go, yeah, totally missed that.

Pretty Little Liars: When the first introduced the step sister last season I thought she would be a great foil for Hanna and was a bit disappointed last week when she played the shy, fish out of water card but I was just awe struck at how evil her plan was when it was revealed she was the one who sent out the naked picture of herself. Spencer said uit best that doing so would have gotten her arch-nemesis in major trouble, made all the girls pity her and all the guys lust after her. Brilliant. Almost, because if you have a massive birthmark on one side, how about instead of airbrushing it, how about taking a picture from the other side?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Voice: Who would have guessed after one week Christina Aguilera would be sitting in the pole position after one week? Her team was so embarrassingly bad last season, if the teams went head to head last year instead battled with your own team (which would have made for a much more interesting show) Christina may not have had anyone in the top ten. I would have guessed anyone who watched last season would instantly choose Blake Shelton who was clearly the best coach last season, yet he is sitting with the worst team so far (maybe a little karma from his horrible Footloose cover). I wonder if people went for Christina knows her team might be so bad that they could easily make it to the finals?

Last season when Dia Frampton trotted on stage she looked familiar and when the scanned to sister in the friend and family room, I was like, oh yeah, that’s Meg & Dia, I have them on my iPod. And that actually happened to me three times this year (and we are just one week in) including Angel Taylor, Juliet Simms of Automatic Loveletter and not only so I have songs by Tony Lucca, I own an entire album by the guy. And let’s not forget that his version of Devil Town was the soundtrack to not one, but two scenes in the first season of Friday Night Lights.

So once again The Voice is filled with semi-professional singers (and is better show than the other amateurish singing competition because of it), but the biggest standout of the first week was the rare novice on the show Lindsey Pavao who gave a weird coffee house performance of Trey Songz ’ Say Aah which was so bizarre it worked (unlike the Alicia Keys backup singer who went with Avril Lavigne’s Complicated as his auction song) and was the only audition so far to crack the iTunes Top 25. She became the cornerstone of Christina’s team along with early frontrunner Jesse Campbell (him and Lucca are currently 1 and 1a) a well as The Line who put in a solid performance of American Girl which it a pretty idiot proof song (unlike a dude singing Complicated). Though I feel bad because it is clear he is into her more that she is into him, and with his partner and Christina, dude will stuck between a wall of cleavage all season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice on iTunes (see widget at left).



How I Met Your Mother: The three rooms was a novel concept, but if you are going to go room by room, stay in the room, do not slide into another for a couple seconds and go back.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The River: Even if ABC had not pounded it into our heads for the past month, it is pretty clear that it was from the same guy who did Paranormal Activity: you had your found footage and had to pay close attention for something creepy to happen, but nothing particularly scary happens until the end and the guys are extremely dumb and do not know when to put the camera down and run. Seriously, the one dude just heard the story about hanging up dolls to appease the spirit only to take one down and then wonder why things started to happen. Then you had the cameraman who taunted one spirit, watch it kill his coworker, then decided to taunt yet another spirit the next day. How are these guys still alive? Seriously, when the Spanish chick says you’re going to some place that is “Untranslatable” it is time to turn around guys. Untranslatable is never good. How are these guys still alive? But having made it through two of the eight episodes, Eloise Mumford’s (and sons) tank top should help me get through the final six.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The River on iTunes.

Justified: Holy Loretta McCready sighting! I knew Raylan would eventually come and save her from Tim Allen. I know the previews make it look dire, but I hope Dewey survives the operation because I am really hoping for a hillbilly Oz type spinoff featuring Dewey and Dickie in prison. But the best of the episode was yet another classic Raylan showdown, and this time he did not even brandish his gun, instead ran a dude over. Twice. Awesome. But let’s pour some out for poor old Herc. He gets out of his wheelchair just to be double crossed by another dude in a wheelchair.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Modern Family: Doesn’t Saturday Night Live have a recurring skit like the Greg Kinnear gag that stopped being funny around the second time they did it? They should have spent more time with Hayley’s Little Sister, there probably would have been a lot funnier in that storyline.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Revenge: The show continued its weekly Holy Frack moment, but after it was revealed to Charlotte that her father was not really her father (by the dad at that) I realized, well, we already knew that so really it was not that exciting reveal. Hopefully the engagement party provides some fireworks (and not the ones in the sky), but I have a feeling that it will not be Daniel that Jack kills but instead will be whoever RSVP in Emily’s revenge stash, I am guessing will be the gay man whore even though he looks nothing like Daniel. They better play this right because they are skirting on a Jump the Shark situation.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes: It is a little disturbing that all these contestants could get pop culture questions right but not who assassinated Kennedy. I guess we should be happy that Paula actual guessed someone who assassinated a president. Oh yeah, and she was the one who won. But seriously, more spelling and history questions in the future.
You can stream recent episodes over at mtv.com. You can also download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I like how other television shows are taking pot shots at Lost. It really deserves to be ridiculed.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 2/11/12

Quote of the Week: You know what they say: getting old ain’t for pussies. (Raylan, Justified)

Song of the Week: Burnin' for You – Blue Öyster Cult (How I Met Your Mother)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Super Bowl XLVI: Darn you New York Giants, for the second time in five years you just had to win the game late, but still leaving enough time for a potential last second drive. Remember the good old days when the Super Bowl would be a blowout and you could just sit back, relax and enjoy the party and commercials? Oh well, at least they still ended up beating Bill Belechicken and his merry band of cheater so us Patriot haters can still hang our hats on that they have yet to win a championship since Spygate.

As for those previously mention commercials: yawn (except of course all the ones that featured Adriana Lima). A week later an none really stick out to me except the Clint Eastwood one (and of course Adriana Lima) which was stupidly decried as pro-Obama. The ad was pro-America and anyone who thought it was pro-Obama or even anti-Obama as other talking heads insisted need to leave America. But as un memorable the ads were once again this year, at least none of them features some fifty year old pretending that she was still in her twenties. No one needs to see that.

Free Download of the Week: Celebrity - The Escape Club (Amazon MP3): Remember two hit wonder The Escape Club. You know Wild Wild West; “Heading for the nineties living in the eighties” and those weird arms / legs things in the video? Well they are still together and surprisingly this song is not bad. You got to feel bad for two hit wonders, not enough hits to be remembered in the annuls of time and one hit too many for the novelty of being a one hit wonder.

Deal of the Week: Blu Rays Under $10 (Forrest Gump, Batman Begins, Groundhog Day)

New Album Release of the Week: As The Crow Flies - Amos Lee

New DVD Release of the Week: Beavis & Butthead: Volume 4

Video of the Week: As lackluster as the ads during the Super Bowl were, the best one actually came after the big game when Betty White congratulated the New York Giants before teling America who will be lifting the Lombardi Trophy in 2013. I have lived through the Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Blown Save, The Decision, and an inferior city stealing our football team only to win the Super Bowl four years later so I have been content that I would never see a championship in Cleveland in my lifetime. But now that we have the backing of Belly White, not only to I know I see one in my life time, I believe Betty will see one in her lifetime. Mark it down: Josh Cribbs will be your Super Bowl XLVII MVP. (Please note that I will delete this post and deny I ever typed it when the Brown picks up Donovan McNabb in free agency.)



Next Week Pick of the Week: Grammy Awards, Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: It is the biggest night in music tomorrow and once again they are giving us quite a few great collaborations including Coldplay and Rihanna, Tony Bennett and Carrie Underwood, Glen Campbell with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton, Alicia Keys is teaming up with Bonnie Raitt to honor Etta James, and the reunited The Beach Boys with fellow Southern Californians Maroon 5 and Foster the People. Plus the return of Adele to live performing and the first performance of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band since the passing of longtime saxophonist Clarence Clemmons. They may even pass out an award or two (I am going to go out on a very short limb and say they all go to Adele).

Around the Tubes - 2/10/12

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Full Metal Jousting, The Voice, The Loving Story, Bunheads, The Man Who Can Fly, Gotye, Spotify, Ringo Starr, ESPN Home Court, Benny Marchant, Hardcore Pawn, Pawngo, and NBC.

- New Series Alert! This Sunday History will be jumping on the modern jouster bandwagon with Full Metal Jousting premiering this Sunday at 10:00. In preparation for the show, you can head over to history.com to find bios for the contestants and a History of Jousting article. You can also head over to History’s Twitter page (@HistoryChannel) where the host of the show Shane Adams will be posting interesting tips and facts about the competition throughout the premiere.



- Want to be the fifth judge on The Voice? There’s an app for that on Facebook. Build your own team of artists, make coaching decisions and complete against friends and other users and you can win an all expenses trip to LA where you will have a meet and greet with the Season 2 winner. There will also be weekly prizes of Voice merchandise.

- A new HBO documentary called The Loving Story naturally is premiering Valentine’s Day (that’s Tuesday for those that have not ordered their flowers yet) about a half black / half native American and white dude whose marriage was declared illegal in 1958. Their case ended up going all the way o the Supreme Count and here is a preview:



- Last week ABC Family announced they were picking up new shows Baby Daddy and Beverly Hills Nanny and this week they announced yet another new show Bunheads. The show will be executive produced by Amy Sherman-Palladino who did the same for Gilmore Girls and will feature Tony Award winning actor Sutton Foster as a Las Vegas showgirl who impulsively gets married and moves to his sleepy coastal town and gets a job at her new mother-in-law’s dance school. All three new series will begin production this spring.

- This Sunday at 8:00, the National Geographic Channel will premiere a new special The Man Who Can Fly featuring adventurer Dean Potter. He is one of the world’s most renowned rock climbers and when he is done climbing, he doesn’t just repel down, he leaps off the cliffs and mountains while wearing a special “wingsuit” that helps him sour before he deploys his parachute. Check out the trailer below:

The Man Who Can Fly – Trailer

- Goyte may not be a household name just hear stateside, but there is a good chance you have already heard his Somebody I Used to Know by now, and if you have not, there is a good chance you will sooner than later. Wall Street Journal recently sat down with Australian Wally De Backer, the singer / songwriter behind Goyte about breaking into American marker for their new “Off Duty” YouTube channel.

Gotye -- Australian Music Star -- A WSJ Exclusive Interview


- Sure it is not as good as my playlist of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of 90’s, but Barack Obama has recently created his own official Obama 2012 Spotify Playlist with everyone from Raphael Saadiq to the Zac Brown Band to the new Bruce Springsteen single on it.

- Ringo Starr recently announced his 13th All Starr Band, which will launch June 14, 2012 from Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario and conclude July 21, 2012 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California. New to the All Starrs are Steve Lukather (Toto) and Gregg Rolie (Santana & Journey) who will join All Starr alumni Richard Page, Todd Rundgren, Mark Rivera, and Gregg Bissonette.

- Fans of music and college basketball should be happy to learn that ESPN will start highlighting musical acts during game telecasts starting January 21. You can vote for your favorite original song on ESPN Home Court’s Facebook page.

- Benny Marchant is a rising talent in the rock and songwriter scene with his first EP, “Missed Conversations.” If you live in New York City of Baltimore, Benny will be coming to you soon to the Rockwood Music Hall and The 8x10 respectively. Head over to his Facebook page for days and time.

- Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the mid-season finale of Hardcore Pawn airs Tuesday at 9:00 on TruTV. Maybe Les Gold has an engagement ring you can buy.

- Sure it was a bad pass, but Pawngo, the first online pawn shop still delivered a 900 pound gift of Nestle Butterfingers to Wes Welker in Boston earlier this week in the center of Copley Square in Boston.

- Finally, for those that missed it during the Super Bowl, here is NBC’s Brotherhood of Man including, le sigh, Annie Edison. Please come back to television soon Annie.

When Was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time

For people of my age, Van Halen with David Lee Roth is almost a mythical figure. We were just about creating our first memories by the time Jump and Hot for Teacher were getting airplay, but just at their height of success, Roth decided to instead make crappy music by himself. Really my generation remembers Van Hager much more vividly than the original lineup. Then as teenagers, Sammy Hager got kicked out of the group and everyone got excited for the good old days, even if we did not remember much of them, when the Van Halen brothers brought back Roth back into the fold to record some new songs for a greatest hits package and then promptly got the boot again after a embarrassingly bad appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards and replaced him with the dude from Extreme.

Then over the past decade, Hager was brought back for a tour and was kicked out again, this time along with longtime bassist Michael Anthony, while Roth came back in for a third stint. But this time around, David Lee Roth is less rock god that we thought him to be in the eighties and more embarrassing grandpa who tries to be cool in front of your friends. But here we are, fourteen years since Van Halen, with any singer, has released new music. For comparison, the heavily mocked Guns N' Roses took fifteen years.

Is A Different Kind of Truth worth the wait? Much like Chinese Democracy: of course not. Both long awaited albums sound stuck in a long ago era. And there is very good reason why the songs sound stuck in the past as Sammy Hager accuses that many, if not all of the songs were based off of demo from before even he was in the band. Fans were quick to point out the first single Tattoo sounds much like Down in Flames, a rare track the band played a few times in the seventies.

So for fans of nostalgia, there is plenty to get your motor running. Songs like She’s the Woman, Chinatown and As If would fit anywhere on the original lineup’s album but unfortunately none are as good as anything you will find on the greatest hits album. But there just is something missing and his name is Michael Anthony. Not only is the bass is the backbone of any band, but he was also battling The Edge as the greatest backing vocal in the history of rock and roll and the twelve year old they hired to replace him just in just not up to the task.

You would think the youngster would add something new to the band or at some point in his life would say, hey dad you should check out this new band. But no new influences are introduced on the album lending to Hager’s accusation that Dave and Eddie did no new writing for the album. And if that is the case, the music buying public is getting bamboozled with the band repackaging outtakes as a new album and not as the collector’s items as they are on a boxed set or reissue.

Song to Download – She's the Woman

A Different Kind of Truth gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.