There hasn’t been an artist this decade that has changed more musically than John Mayer granted he has yet to have a U2 type transformation yet, but the effort is there. Mayer started out his career, to some, as a solo Dave Matthews knock-off. And as much as his major label debut, Room for Squares, was pop perfection, he didn’t rest on his laurels for the follow-up Heavier Things. As the title suggested Mayer moved on from the safe world of pop-rock and made music more in the vain of his guitar idol some of which he even had the chance to play with over the years. To descend even deeper into the blues, Mayer recruited two heavy hitting studio and touring musicians in Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino to form the John Mayer Trio and tour behind a mix of new songs, cover tunes, and even made some of Mayer songs even bluesier.
Now Mayer is back to being a solo artist with the release of Continuum. The album does rehash a couple of the songs that were recorded for the live album the trio made, but Gravity and Vultures sound better now that they are polished up especially the latter which features a more crisper Mayer falsetto. It’s just the Trio again as the cover Jimi Hendrix’s Bold as Love but this studio version sounds a little overproduced and a Hendrix song should never sound overproduced. The band has done killer live version (you can find a version on a music service not named iTunes from the Tsunami Relief Benefit telethon) and may have benefited from putting a live version on the album instead. And just like its predecessor, the latest album Continuum lives up to its name as instead of making another blues album, this latest outing has much more of a soul vibe to it like on I Don’t Trust Myself where Mayer croons over silky horns and a mellow beat.
Aside from his musical growth, Continuum can also point to Mayer’s growth as a person as he deals with many grown up themes including not one, but two song with political commentaries. First up is the album opener and lead single Waiting on the World to Change. In the song Mayer brilliantly sums up the conscience of whatever you want to call the generation born in the late seventies to the early eighties highlighted by the line “It’s not that we don’t care, we just know that the fight ain’t fair.” Later there is Belief, featuring Ben Harper on guitar, where Mayer sums up all the wars in the world, most over religion, in Belief where he sings, “We’re never gonna win the world, we’re never gonna stop the war, we’re never gonna beat this if belief is what we’re fighting for.” Aside from the state of the world, Mayer takes stock of the state of his own life in Stop this Train featuring a dude from Maroon 5 who contributed some acoustic guitars, singing lines like, “So scare of getting older, I’m only good at being young.” I feel ya Johnny, I really hate this whole getting old thing too.
For those who prefer Mayer’s lovelorn songs, just head to the back of the album starting with Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, a song that you will undoubtedly be hitting the back button multiple times until you realized after an hour it would have been easier just to have hit repeat. I’m going to go ahead and call it right now that this song will replace You’re Beautiful from last year (as well as You and Me from two years ago) as the song that every television show plays at some romantic juncture for added effect (just think had Rescue Me played this song at the end of the season finale this year and how much more fitting it would have been). The song also has the potential to be this decade’s token mistake love song (see Crash into Me for the nineties; Every Breathe You Take for the eighties). For all of you that were teenage girls when Mayer first broke and flocked to his shows only to drown out ever word he sang as you shouted over him, prepare to shout, “Do I have to fall asleep with roses in my hand,” (Dreaming with a Broken Heart) and “I’m in repair, I’m not together but I’m getting there,” (In Repair) the next time Mayer visits your town.
Five years ago I was working as driving instructor. Yeah I have plenty of material from that short experience to write a book, but that’s something for another time. Since school was in session in September, I didn’t start until the schools let out around three o’clock. So like many in their early twenties with nothing to get up fore in the morning, I routinely slept in back then. But on this day five years ago, I was awoken by my roommate who knocked on my bedroom door and told me to turn on the TV. When someone tells you to do as much, you know something is up because if it wasn’t important, someone would have to sell you on it like “turn on Sportcenter, they have the top ten goalie fights in NHL history.”
When I turned on my television, it was already tuned to NBC so it was The Today Show where I saw a picture of on of the Twin Towers with a pillar of smoke coming out of it. Katie Couric and her colleagues were taking about how this was possibly an accident, but I knew better, pilots just don’t accidentally fly into buildings and I doubted that they were even aloud to fly above New York City for that very reason just in case something went wrong. But Couric built her career on optimism, so it’s only fitting that an accident would be the best case scenario. Then just minutes after turning on my television, all doubt were put to rest as we could see live on our sets that a second plane flew into the other Twin Tower.
For the next five hours I sat in front of my television even though there was very little to report aside from another plane going into the Pentagon and a fourth plane that went down in the middle of Pennsylvania that may or may not have been connected. Of course we know now that it was and I even drove out to Shanksville on the first anniversary to see the memorial which was just a makeshift one. For those five hours I remember flipping through the channels of my television just to see how other channels reported the news. Most cable channels switched over to the broadcast station of their parent company such as MTV and VH1 were airing CBS News, USA and Bravo were showing NBC’s coverage, and so on while other channels just went blank. Even though I had no family or friends who
When if was finally time to go to work, I switched over to a radio station, which also simulated its sister station’s new coverage. When I picked up my first student up from school, we called her mother and I gave them two options, I could drive her home or we could go ahead with her scheduled block of driving. She, as well as my other students I had scheduled for that day, choose to go on with their appointment even the one who had an uncle who worked at the Pentagon. I usually don’t let student to listen to the radio as they drive, but I made an exception that day, and the next couple days so we both would be caught up to date.
If there was something good that came out of the days after September 11th was there was it brought the country together for the first time that I could remember. I was a little too young to remember the Miracle on Ice and of course World War II was well before my time. There was even a sense that the materialism of the vapid late nineties and would give way for people to live more meaningful lives. Of course that hasn’t happen as in the last five years Paris Hilton has somehow been able to release a book and album as well as star in a television show and a movie (well two, one of which you can purchase at Best Buy and one you can’t) and somehow her arrest was the biggest story of last week. Even the togetherness we felt as a nation didn’t last long as way too many people make too much money on this nation being divided and just three years afterwards we had the most bitter presidential election ever that is still being argued about two years after the fact making us more fractured then even before that day. And finally after five years, the powers that be just unveiled the plans for what the new World Trade Center plaza will look like, although maybe that would have gotten more press had they not made it public the same week Paris Hilton got her DUI.
For longtime reader, most of you know that the title of my posts comes from lines of songs or movies (or at least I hope you have figured that out by now). But as easy as this post flowed out of me, it took me a while to come up with a fitting title. But while typing this up, I put on the America: A Tribute to Heroes album. If you remember the Friday after, most every network simulcast a telethon to raise money for the victims then rushed out the CD with royalties also going to the fund. On the broadcast Alicia Keys performed a Donny Hathaway song; Someday We’ll All Be Free. Even though the previous paragraph decried how we as a culture have gotten worse opposed to better, I think there is hope that someday we’ll all be free.
Things don’t look so good for Beyoncé. She started off the summer inundated with rumors of her man’s infidelity with Rihanna who is basically Beyoncé five years ago. Then her latest album B’Day has gotten little buzz as her record label had to rush out a second single after the first failed to make a dent at radio. Of course this may because even the novice listener could tell Déjà vu was a knock off of her first solo hit Crazy in Love except without the great Chi-Lites sample Jay-Z shows us why he should have stayed retired as his flow has gotten anemic (and his verse on Upgrade U isn't much better).
Things don’t get much better for B on the rest of the album which was somewhat inspired by her character for the upcoming Dreamgirls. Keeping with the “heard it all before” theme, the second single Ring the Alarm sounds like a rehash of Kelis’ Caught Out There. Well except Kelis sounded like a woman scorn ready to fight back where Beyoncé just seems made just because some other chick is rockin’ her chinchilla coats (and on that note can someone explain VVS stones to me please). Not to mention Christina Aguilera was more entertaining when she had to “ring the alarm” because Redman was throwing elbows on Dirrty.
Then there is Suga Mama where she uses food as a euphemism for sex, but Adam Sandler did that over a decade ago with Food Innuendo Guy, and at least he was intentionally funny. Then Beyoncé tries to add another word to the vernacular, but I’ve used Bootylicious, Bootylicious is a favorite word of mine, and Feakum Dress, my sir, is no Bootylicious.
Not if there is a glimmer of hope for Beyoncé it comes at the tail end of the album. Irreplaceable is up there with anything she has done, albeit solo or with Destiny’s Child. You can hear the hurt in her voice which cause her to miss a note or two, but that only adds to the mystique of the song. Resentment is also a slow song that starts as an acoustic song that builds making a great capper to an album.
But wait there’s more; there are a few hidden tracks. First Beyoncé talks about how she wants to give her fans a little extra. Well had she not given the “extra” songs the album would have finished at a paltry thirty-eight minutes, so really there should have been a little more anyways. The first song is Listen which from Dreamgirls and is decent even though it definitely has a “musical” feel to it. Then there is an extended mix of Get Me Bodied that somehow manages to be more annoying than the original. Maybe she should have stopped at Resentment.
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 in 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 you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s the return of “Weird Al” Yankovic. Now, unfortunately the video for the song isn’t a direct parody, but I’m sure everyone out there should get a We Are the World vibe. I finally got a look at the track list and you can expect parodies of Chamillionaire’s Ridin’ (who apparently liked White and Nerdy so much he put it on his MySpace page), Green Day’s American Idiot (Canadian Idiot), Usher’s Confessions part II (Confessions part III), Taylor Hick’s Do I Make You Proad (Do I Creep You Out, in a word, yes, that’s Hicks not Weird Al), and R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet (Trapped in the Drive-Thru at ten plus minutes this should be great, hopefully Al will come out with more Chapters and a DVD like Kelly did). And of course there is the prerequisite polka featuring songs by Kanye West, Coldplay and many more. Oh, and even though the song says not to, check out Dontdownloadthissong.com to do just that.
Whoever decided to released Maneater as a single should be fired as it was easily the worst song off of Nelly Furtado’s latest album. But on the bright side the song did produced this extremely cheesy video with its pseudo-vampire theme. The best part is the inexplicable beginning with the dog as if they needed to set up the absurdity that followed because whenever I lose my dog I end up doing a dance off with the undead before I end up finding her.
We all know for as great Lionel Richie is as a singer, he’s as equally as bad a parent. And here those too aspects of his life collide with Nicole showing up in papa’s video. Feel free to insert your own “Nicole’s too skinny” joke here. Speaking of which, Nicole Richie’s first foray into music, Dandelion leaked to the net this week and, well, it’s better than anything by former BFF Paris Hilton. But that’s not saying much, click on her name to give it a listen (warning bad 7th grade poetry ahead). As for daddy dearest, check out for a review of his new album next week.
Speaking of chicks with no redeemable talent to go with their dramatic weight loss, Hilary Duff has a new video out. It’s nice to see she is as bad at dancing as she is at acting, singing, and choosing boyfriends. But to be honest, the song is actually kind of catchy. For those keeping track at home, that’s two songs the Duffster has conned me into liking (the Theme to Laguna Beach being the other). It may be time for an intervention.
I really don’t want to talk too much about the song itself as I will cover that in my album review of Beyonce’s B-Day coming up in the next couple days. But I wonder if the video, especially when she’s being interrogated in the white dress is homage to Basic Instinct, but without the best part. Then there is the hallway scene which is a blatant rip-off of No Doubt’s It’s My Life.
There are a couple of cool contests on the web that I’d like to point out. First I slipped this into my Fall Preview post a couple hours after I originally posted it, so I thought I give it another plug. The newest addition to my Blogs I Read list, Culture Bully, is giving away a free CD for every day in September. So head over to his site to see what three albums you have to choose from today and the complete rules.
Then there is A Yoga Coffee Outlook who is giving away a free iPod Nano. Yes a free iPod, and no you don’t have to buy something else to get it like all the other “get a free iPod” advertisings on their site. There is a bunch of different and easy ways to enter so check out her site to see how.
For those that think I’m a musical snob, here’s an admission for you: I’m not a Bob Dylan guy. His voice is just an acquired taste I’ve never acquired. I will concede he’s a great songwriter but his songs are always better when performed by others like Jimi Hendrix with All Along the Watchtower, Eric Clapton with Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and The Byrds with Mr. Tambourine Man. But for those that are Dylan guys, then I have the album for you with his just released Modern Times.
The album is a follow up is essentially the third in a trilogy of albums dating back to 1997’s Time out of Mind and also includes 2001’s Love and Theft (which had the unfortunate release date of 9/11) but I think that since I hadn’t heard the previous two, it won’t be like watching Return of the Jedi before the previous Star Wars movies. Modern Times starts off with the great Thunder on the Mountain that inexplicably name drops Alicia Keys multiple times to much effect and the song comes off like a folksy version of Johnny B. Goode. When the Deal Goes Down is a heart touching song which is heighten but the beautiful video with Scarlett Johansson.
In the hands of lesser lyricist, When Levee’s Gonna Break would come off as a cheesy indictment of Katrina, but in Bob’s hand it instead invokes early last century folk songs. Then there is the actual last century folk song, Rollin’ and Tumblin’ that updates to much success (but not as good as Clapton’s version for his MTV Unplugged set). Be warned that the album clocks in at just over an album with only ten song (the shortest song comes in at 4:55), but Dylan is able to craft long song without making them tedious. Now if only Capton will cover some of the songs.
Night is the kick-off of the 2006 NFL season so you know what that means; it’s the return of fantasy football. Being a degenerate gambler, you know I have my team; well actually I have two, but the second one was an auto-pick league and I picked eighteenth out of eighteen with the computer wasting my first two picks on wide receivers. Yeah, I don’t think I have much of a change. As for my other team, the aptly titled Scooter McGavin, here’s is the breakdown o my team:
Even though I also drafted late in this draft, eighth out of ten, I should have a chance as my bench has a potential of having breakout season which could make great trade break to beef up my soft running back tandem (cheesy pun intended). As for actual football, it seems that it gets harder year from year to pick the winner. Aside from the natural parity from the salary cap, it also comes down to how has the least amount of injuries at the end of the season. But here’s my picks for the playoff and feel free to come back and mock me in January:
AFC East: New England North: Pittsburg South: Indianapolis West: Chargers Wild Card: Miami, Kansas City
One of the many reasons why the music industry is crumbling around itself is that all the record labels hold off the big name releases for the fall leaving the other nine months with albums that the labels have no faith in. To that point, the highest selling album of the year so far is the Soundtrack to High School Musical with a dismal just over two million copies (my data is a little old so it may not be totally accurate). Then when the labels get around to releasing all their big names over a three month span hoping to capitalize on the holiday season leading to a few big hits, but even more albums with disappointing sales because the consumer just can’t afford to buy them all. Then of course the record labels don’t blame the slump on their stupidity instead point to downloads as the problem. With that said here are a few albums that I am looking forward (or dreading) to this fall season, many of which you can look forward to me reviewing (click on band name to find music on iTunes, click on the album name to pre-order from Amazon and feel free to tell me what you are looking forward to in the comment section):
September 5thAudioslave - Revelations: I just review this album yesterday, scroll down to check that out. Beyoncé - B-Day: Like I mentioned in my VMA post, it’s not a good sign when you have to rush out a second single before the album drops. Beyoncé and her group were always good for two or three great songs per album, but after the last Destiny’s Child tanked, and two poorly received singles the Beyoncé era may be over. At least her movie Dreamgirls is getting good buzz. Look for a review shortly.
12thJohn Mayer - Continuum: I’ve already heard the album and it features studio versions of a few songs from his live Trio album and a Hendrix cover. Where Heavier Things was his decent into the blues, Continuum is Mayer’s stab at soul music. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds: From the two songs he performed at the VMA’s, it look like this will suck like his previous work. Although Rick Rubin produced one track, the album closer Another Song and that has me intrigued a little bit. (Okay, just heard the album, it's not Paris Hilton bad, but one of the worst I've heard lately, look for a review next week.) Lionel Richie - Coming Home: Richie has always been better at producing hits than child rearing, and from what I’ve heard from the album, he’s back to top form except when lesser producers bring down the album.
October 3rdThe Killers - Sam’s Town: Lofty expectation considering how lead singer Brandon Flowers brought out the Bruce Springsteen comparison. For the songs I’ve heard so far it sounds like more of the same. Evanescence - The Open Door: Word has it that the departed Ben Moody was the driving force behind the band, so it will interesting where Amy Lee takes the band. By the sound of the new single, it doesn’t sound like the band will deviate from past success. Jet - Shine On: yet another band trying to avoid the sophomore slump after their first disk delivered some of the best rock songs of 2004.
10thRobert Randolph - Colorblind: One of the best guitarists of the current generation looks for his breakout hit. Look for guest spot from Dave Matthews and a decent guitarist in his own right Eric Clapton.
17thSarah McLachlan - Wintersong: One of the few Christmas albums that I’m aware of that will be released this season. Look for Christmas standards like Little Town of Bethlehem and The First Noel as well as John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over). Diddy - Press Play: Diddy says he named the album because it is an album you can press play and never have to skip a song. But after hearing the first single with the chick from the Pussycat Dolls there will be at least one song I’d skip.
24thJohn Legend - Once Again: Legend put out on of the few R&B records of this decade worth listening to. But since then he won the dreaded Best New Artist Grammy. To prepare for the new album, Legend listened to a lot of The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Sufjan Stevens and brought back Kanye West to produce the album along with Will.i.am Raphael Saadiq. Brooke Hogan - Undiscovered: I really hope this is a joke and won’t happen. This will essentially Paris Hilton take 2.
TBANatalie MacMaster - Yours Truely: I really don't know much about this artist, but it comes reccomended by Russ.
November 7thNas - Hip-Hop Is Dead: Although a legend in the rap game, Nas rarely gets the commercial respect he deserves. This may be the album that gets him back on the radar with production by Kanye West Will.i.am and Dr. Dre. Talib Kweli - Ear Drum: An hopefully an album that will prove that rap is actually not dead. Look for for production from Kanye West and Just Blaze as well as an appearence from Grammy winner Norah Jones.
21stSnoop Dogg - Red Carpet Treatment: Snoop is always good for a club banger or two so hopefully this album will have a few
TBA - Maroon 5: The band’s first album was top-heavy with a bunch of hits but the rest was basically filler, will have to wait to see if the band can make a whole album this time.
For all you karaoke fans, this is your season for crappy music as aside from the previously mentioned Aiken, you can expect bland albums from Rubin Studdard (The Return 9/26), Fantasia (TBA 11/7), Taylor Hicks (TBA 11/14), and Katharine McPhee (late November) and even though the band hasn’t even chosen a singer yet, Supernova has a release date of 11/21. And for my readers that have yet to go through puberty yet, there is not one, but two High School Musical alums (Vanessa Ann Hudgens - V 9/26; Ashley Tisdale - TBA) that will be releasing albums in time for Christmas. Start bugging your parents now.
Also for all you music fans out there, the latest edition to my "Blogs I Read" list, Culture Bully is hold a CD giveaway for everyday in September. For those keeping track at home, that thirty CD's up for grabs (but you can only win once), so hop over there to see what albums you can choose from today and the complete rules.
Some television shows have already started but my Fall TV season doesn’t start up until the 14th. Here’s a revised look at what I’ll tentatively be watching this year since some shows have since switched times or days since I last made my schedule, including their premiere date (feel free to tell me what you're watching in the comment section).
Mondays 8:30 - How I Met Your Mother (9/18 CBS) 9:00 - Heroes (9/25 NBC) 10:00 - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (9/18 NBC)
Tuesdays 9:00 - Veronica Mars (10/3 CW) 9:00 - Kings of Prosperity (10/17 ABC) 11:00 - Ice-T’s Rap School (10/17 VH1 - most likely will catch repeats)
Audioslave was always a band that I was hesitant about. I was a huge fan of Rage Against the Machine fan and the only rap/metal band worth listening to with Zach de la Rocha’s great delivery and Tom Morello’s eccentric guitar as a backdrop. But things reportedly fell apart when bassist Tim Commerford bum rushed the stage at the 2001 Video Music Awards after the band lost out the best rock video to Limp Bizkit embarrassing de la Rocha to the point that he quit the band to work on a yet to be released solo album. The other three members, including drummer Brad Wilk did not rest on the laurels, instead recruited Chris Cornell of Soundgarden to form an entirely new band that luckily didn’t involve Cornell rapping. Instead it sounded exactly what people expected, Soundgarden’s melodies mixed with Rage’s raucous guitars. But I was still hesitant as I still wanted more Rage.
Much of the same can be heard on Audioslave's third album Revelations, that you heard on the first two. But as the band progresses, the more it sounds like dark seventies rock with Morello’s signature guitar licks only coming out during his solos as Cornell channels his inner Robert Plant. This is prevalent right off the bat with the opening title track. Until We Fail plays very similar to I Am the Highway off their self titled debuted but loses its momentum unlike the previous song. Original Fire is an upbeat romp that can be the first song in either band member’s history that calls for you to hand-clap thought the song and has a soul music through a rock filter to it. Broken City is a bluesy song highlighted where Cummerford shines with the bass groove. When the band it at full throttle on Shape of Things to Come, it’s one of the greatest rock sounds in recent times. The album closes with Moth, a haunting song that is the closest the band has gotten to sounding like Soundgarden.
Each of the songs on the album could become a rock radio staple like previous songs but as David Fricke of Rolling Stone put it best calling the band, “a supergroup that keeps making good records that fall shy of great” and Revelations is no exception. And Revelations is the most average of their outings. But then again I’m still holding out for a Rage Against the Machine reunion.
There were high hopes for this year’s MTV Music Video Awards after two years of well below sub-par shows. But in the end this year’s VMA’s were just as bad as the previous one with Jack Black somehow finding a way to be unfunny (and this may be a tipping point for Black after being universally panned for Nacho Libre). What was worse was for a show that has built itself of big stage productions and surprised guest, the performances seemed extremely low-budgets compared to years past and the surprised guests this year were Montel Williams, the little kid from the movie no one but movie snobs saw, and Lou Reed and the dude from ZZ Top who were most likely only there because The Raconteurs invited them. Here are more disappointing moments from the five hours of my life that I’ll never get back:
- Just as worthless as the big show was the hour and a half pre-show this basically was a vehicle for people to promote upcoming albums. Usually they have a world premiere video or exclusive interview, but nothing but two horrible performances.
- The show starts out with the chick from Kids Incorporated performing London Bridge, a song easily a lock for the Worst Songs of 2006 list. Blatant guided vocal track here as she didn’t even bother to even lip-sync half the time.
- Kurt Loder and John Norris must have something on the higher ups at the network because as MTV tries to distance itself from what it used to be (even refusing to even acknowledge it’s 25th anniversary) these two still show up every year at the VMA’s.
- Does the world really need a rock opera from My Chemical Romance? Really the world doesn’t need another album from them let along a concept album. But with the goth Sergeant Pepper garb, the creepy skeleton children’s choir, and the lead singer actually trying to sing with a fake British accent maybe the musical version of Jumping the Shark. Oh as for the premiere of their new song, it is easily a lock for the Worst Songs of 2006 list.
- Can we please end the Diddy era? The dude is now walking around with his own spokesman because he’s too elf important to talk. Really no one has capitalized on the death of someone else. Well except for all the Elvis impersonators.
- We start off the big show with Jay-Z welcoming the show back to New York City from a top of a building. This would have been a lot cooler had they not had the My Chemical Romance performance there earlier.
- Who ever decided the show should start off with a performance of a song that no one has ever heard should be fired. Worst show opening ever. When Justin Timberlake then switched to Worst Song of 2006 nominee SexyBack and brought out Big Head Timberland and a blatant guided vocal track, things didn’t get much better. What’s worse is it seems that the phrase Sexyback is going to overtake the go to phase for the corny old dudes replacing Fiddy (as in Fiddy Cent) after corny old dudes Al Gore and Jared Leto both used it.
- I kept waiting and waiting for the opening Jack Black skit to get funny, but sadly it never did. I think that it may have been the goal with the “everything going wrong” theme, but that’s just too high brow for me. Although I like how the MTV execs were the Douches. And what was with Black kissing everyone’s butt all evening? MTV really need to bring Chris Rock back.
- The first presenter is the straight from jail Lil’ Kim. Seeing her makes me wonder should you lose all the street cred you receive for going to jail but by getting released early for good behavior?
- The first shocker of the night was James Blunt for winning Best Male Video. I have a suspicion that this was a last minute decision to give him the award just to give his girlfriend some airtime.
- The least hip-hop song nominated wins Best Hip-Hop award. And up the irony quotient one of the Black Eyed Peas talked about how there is a place for positive rap as he picks up an award for a song about a woman’s naughty bits.
- Shakira and her Indian themed performance for Hips Don't Lie was probably the best of the night, but that’s not really saying much.
- Can someone please explain the allure of Jackass to me? Am I the moron for not finding naked midgets and dudes hitting each other in the testicles funny?
- Lil’ John is up next and tells everyone to get on the feet, but as the camera scans the place, everyone is as slow to get up as if a hymn started to play at church. But I can’t blame them considering it was just for Ludacris whose set looked like it was on a lower budget than most high school plays. Not a good sign for a song called Moneymaker. And had Ludacris not namedropped them, I would have never known that it was the Pussycat Dolls that came on stage at the end of the song.
- Speaking of the Pussycat Dolls, it’s sad tat we live in a world where they actually won a music award. But it’s nice that they thanked God for winning an award that tells dudes to loosen up their buttons. Classy.
- Jessica Simpson actually used the phrase “Push My Tush” while presenting the awards. I actually can feel my IQ dropping. Oh, and to follow up a story I broke here a couple days ago about her hooking up with John Mayer, just days later, Mayer posted on his blog that he really like the Public Enemy song Don’t Believe the Hype.
- OK Go redid their Here it Goes Again video with the treadmills step for step. What a waste of time. I could see the same exact routine on YouTube whenever I want, why would I want to see it live. The least they could have done was to screw p somewhere to make this performance memorable. Complete waste of time.
- What was on Paris Hilton’s head? But something has to be said that her album has been out more than a week and she has yet to perform a song live once. Even Ashlee Simpson’s people trusted her enough to lip-sync, it’s not a good sign that Paris cannot even be trusted to do that. Luckily she didn’t try doing it tonight instead she was just relegated to present the dude from Smallville and his band.
- Did some backstage dude grab Nicole Richie’s butt as she went onstage? I wonder if Nicole realized that Pink was making fun of her during her acceptance speech. I wonder if Pink realized that no one knew she was trying to be ironic.
- Did anyone else start to feel old when Snoop Dogg was talking about how all the new rappers were in diapers when he started? He then presents the Best Rap Video to Chamillionaire who said the best advice he ever got was to stay humble. Keep in mind this is coming from a guy who then named himself Chamillionaire.
- Guided Vocal Alert! Beyoncé gets no introduction and performs her second single off her new album. It’s never a good sign when a label has to rush out a second single before the album is never a good sign. Maybe we can expect that Destiny’s Child reunion sooner than later.
- T.I. is out next to perform a medley of songs I’ve never heard before and hope to never hear again.
- How funny was it that the dude who won Ringtone of the Year actually brought a list of people to thank? Apparently he didn’t get the memo that’s this was a joke award.
- It’s official, I am now totally sick of Fall Out Boy. And what was with the dude with the cape? The band is out to present Panic! at the Disco, or as I like to call it, a bathroom break. The performance would have been much better had the lead singer would have gotten hit with a bottle early in the song. If you want to see that happen, check out YouTube. Now that was entertaining.
- What's with bringing out the ten-year-old girl to the sounds of Rick James Superfreak. That is just totally wrong.
- I know that people like to make fun of past scandals but when your scandal is that you are horrible parents, it’s not a good idea to parody that sediment like Britney and her baby daddy did. Someone please send that tape to child services.
- Christina Aguilera for some reason to performed a balled. The massive guns she was showing off didn’t help with those drag queen comparisons.
- I thought they took out Michael Jackson from the Video Vangard award. Granted they have been sporatic giving it out lately. Hype Williams wins. It's sad that the rap cliches his videos created over a decade ago are still being used today.
- So AFI wins Best Rock Video and they were the only one all night who brings up the voting. This was something I was really wondering about, in the press release for the nominees, it mentioned that there was voting on the website, but I never heard anything about it after that. Nor did anything mention what the votes meant or if they meant why there was still a Viewer’s Choice Award. This is really bugging me.
- During one of their many mini-songs The Raconteurs changed the lyrics of historic song to “internet killed the video star.” Clever. Although this is about a year after I declared Podcasts Killed the Video Star.
- Worst Dressed of the night goes to Jennifer Lopez and her gypsy outfit. Seriously, who brought her out of obscurity? Can we quickly send her back there before she makes more crappy music? She appropriately presents Video of the Year to Panic! at the Disco, a crappy song to top off the crappy year.
- The night ends with The Killers. As the song ends they go to the nosebleed camera and just when you think they are setting up for something special, they cut back to Jack Black who ends the show.
I fully believe that had Brian Wilson would have been gunned down in New York back in 1980 instead of John Lennon and Eddie Vedder had put the shotgun in his mouth instead of Kurt Cobain, The Beach Boys would have been regarded as the most influential band ever while The Beatles would be arguing over the name throughout the nineties and Vedder would have been the voice of a generation while Nirvana would be putting out it’s comeback record this year. Yes, there is no better marketing strategy than dieing before your time from James Dean to Tupac (although that doesn’t seem work anymore as Aaliyah and TLC have wondered into obscurity).
We may never know if that was is the case for this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, Sublime with their self-titled break out album that was released just weeks after lead singer’s Bradley Nowell fatal overdose. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a hit without the sob story surrounding the release, but then again, maybe the ska tinged band would have had continued success like fellow So-Cal band that made similar music, No Doubt granted I would like to think that Nowell wouldn’t have recorded a solo album featuring a song that made every girl in Middle School across the nation curse while singing along. But anyways.
The album is anchored by the three big hits from the album starting with the one that started it all for those who did have a radio station cool enough to play the Date Rape song off their previous album was the life is good anthem What I Got. There were two versions of the song on the album, and actually I’ll even take the Reprise version over the original. Then there was Santeria, a great sing-a-long for when you’re drunk. Then there was Wrong Way, which is the most similar track on the disk to Date Rape with it’s upbeat sound and sarcastic lyrics about a guy who can’t get any but in this case decides to pay for it as opposed to forcing himself on a girl.
But as great as the singles were, by no means was this album top heavy. Each song intertwines between ska, reggae, dub, and punk without watering down that genre. Even April 29, 1992 (Miami) has a twinge of hip-hop in it. Under My Voodoo is more of a straight ahead rock song with obvious shades of Jimi Hendrix. Paddle Out could have been a mosh pit anthem had it had a chance to be played live and Pawn Shop could have been a great live staple too with its jam band like groove to it.
I also had a chance to listen to the two disk tenth anniversary version of this album. The first disk is essentially the same album but it starts off with a cover of Trenchtown Rock and has a different sequencing than the orginal. Before any purist start complaining, my sources tell me that the new track list is closer to the one that Bradly Nowell wanted before his death. The second disk is just a hodgepodge of remixes (including five different ones of Doin’ Time) as well as a few other rarities. For those who enjoyed the short career of Sublime, may I suggest checking out the Long Beach Dub All-Stars comprised of the surviving members of Sublime as well as some other artists the band regularly collaborated with.
![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
![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 Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my 
