Thank You Jesus!!!

Like most seasons of Survivor, South Pacific was dominated by one person. But for the first time, the dominate person was not even a contestant and has been dead for almost two thousand years: Jesus H. Christ. If Brandon Hantz and / Benjamin “Coach” Wade would have believe, it was Jesus who guided the ousting of everyone this season before them. And really Coach set up the template of how to vote out religious people on Survivor from here on out, tell them it is God’s will and the leaving contestant will hug you on the way out.

Let me be the last person to say that for all the praying going on this season, God does not care about how you play the game. He is not rooting for anyone because we are all God’s player. Though it may not be a coincidence that the same day Bandon got his torch snuffed that Tim Tebow got trounced on the football field. But when you are asking Jesus’ guidance for a meaningless reality show, it really boils down to either two characteristic inside you and we saw both this season. First you had the delusional Brandon Hantz who used religion to explain away his creepy behavior like how he handled his feelings for Mikayla Wingle. On the other side of the coin there was there was the narcissism of Coach who actually thought God cared more about his well being then everyone around him just because he was religious.

Showing that God really does not care who wins Survivor, neither Brandon or Coach ended up winning Survivor: South Pacific. Instead it actually for the first time in a very long time, the most deserving contestant won the title of Sole Survivor in Sophie Clarke. It was also one of the few tribal councils where I have no idea where any of the votes were going to and in a show that has become extremely predictable, it made for a very entertaining finale especially because the last three seasons where painfully bad to watch.

I actually rolled my eyes harder than Sophie whenever Brandon brought up religion when Jeff announced yet another twist for the next season. Survivor: One World where both tribes will be living on the same beach. One of the most glaring problems with Survivor for a very long time is that post merge, nobody switches tribes and John Cochran showed the very reason why no one has flipped alliances after the merge. With two tribes together, you can actually set extra-tribe alliances and should create a very large amount of blindside. Hopefully One World means the end of Redemption Island which was a massive failure for two seasons. Granted if they bring back Brandon and Russell I definitely will not be watching.

Survivor: South Pacific gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 12/18/11

Once Upon a Time: So we finally learn who the sheriff is only for him to die? What a total Lost move.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

Homeland: I have been waiting for this episode from the beginning and we finally got to see Carrie off her medication and it was awesome. And is the teenage daughter really going to be the person that cracks the case? I have long hoped that they wrapped up the Brody storyline this season and move onto a new terrorist plot next season (because if they do not, it will be like The Killing all over again) but I am beginning to think next season he will be a Hannibal Lecter to Carrie’s Clarice.

Survivor: South Pacific: I never thought anyone would come close to Erik’s stupidity of giving his Immunity Necklace and then promptly getting voted off, but leave it to Brandon and his God to do the exact same thing. The one thing saving Brandon from the top spot is that he could actually come back into the game and plausibly win it. But then again, he could come back into the game and make another dumb move that would put him on top the list of the Dumbest Survivor Contestants Ever.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.




Chuck: Why did they give a gratuitous shot of the driver locking the doors if Ellie and Awesome could just unlock the doors themselves? And the show really goes through too many Big Bads. By the time you get to know one, the blow him up and move onto a bigger one. Had they just stuck to the one Big Bad per season, the last couple seasons would not have seemed so scattered.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 12/17/11

Quote of the Week: Dumb move. (Rick, Survivor)

Song of the Week: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town – Cee-Lo Green (Christmas in Washington)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Chris Paul to LA: To be honest I could care less if Paul ended up on the Lakers of the Clippers as long as he did not end up on the Heat. Not that I really care about basketball in general for the last couple years except for my fantasy team Ehlo’s Revenge.

Free Download of the Week: 25 Days of Free (Amazon MP3): Like it does every year, Amazon is offering up a new holiday song every day in December up until Christmas. Head over to grab the seventeen songs that are already up.

Deal of the Week: Up to 70% Off Hit Boxed Sets (The Goonies, Austin Powers, Batman)

New Album Release of the Week: The Dreamer, The Believer - Common
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [Box set, Soundtrack] - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (December 27)
Elvis Country (Legacy Edition) [Extra tracks] - Elvis Presley (January 3)

New DVD Release of the Week: Midnight in Paris
Shameless: The Complete First Season (December 27)
Justified: The Complete Second Season (January 3)

Video of the Week: Who better than the Gallagher family of Showtime’s Shameless to speed some holiday cheer this Christmas? And here is Frank and his family, and other assorted friends singing a very new festive song. Shameless returns January 8 followed by the highly anticipated House of Lies. For those that would like to check out the premieres but are too cheap to subscribe to Showtime, you are in luck; the premium channel is having a Free Preview Weekend starting that Friday. I highly recommend setting aside twelve hours to marathon Homeland if the entire season is available On Demand.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor, Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: I guess the best thing that can be said about this season is that it is not as bad as the last one. Clearly going into the finale Sophie is the only person to root for. Coach and Ozzie are baboons who did not even deserve to return, Rick is useless, Albert is too shifty, and Brandon is a psycho.

Around the Tubes - 12/16/11

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 ABC Family's winter lineup, Angry Boys, Luck, Philly Undercover, Best TV of 2011, Rubik’s Cube, Skype, and America's Got Talent.

- ABC Family is kicking off the new year with the premiere of four shows and created the promo to let you know when they air pop up. For those too lazy to press play, Pretty Little Liars will return Monday, January 2 at 8:00 followed by a new episode of The Lying Game. Then on Tuesday, Switched at Birth will finish out its first season on new day and time Tuesday January 3 at 8:00. Then at 9:00 will be new show Jane by Design.



- What better way to ring in the New Year than with a new television show? On New Year’s Day, HBO will be premiering their newest show Angry Boys, from the guy who brought you Summer Heights High, at 10:00. Below is a trailer. And for those that cannot waity, you can head over to the show’s Facebook page to play Hammer Sandwich, a game created for the show.



- In other HBO debut news, Luck from director Michael Mann and writer Davis Milch (Deadwood) starring Dustin Hoffman will be hitting the channel January 29. Here is a look at the poster.



- Another new show coming your way early next year is Philly Undercover on Nat Geo Wild that goes undercover (natch) with a police unit in Philadelphia (double natch) to combat extreme cases of animal cruelty such as dog fighting and cat hoarding. Being that it is being filmed in the city that the Eagles play, no word yet on a Michael Vick cameo. Philly Undercover will premiere at 10:00 after an all new Dog Whisperer.

- Starting Tuesday, I will have a new Best of 2011 list every day until the end of the year, but those that need some yearend list now, TV Guide has released it list of the fifteen best TV shows of the year with Homeland topping the list. Friday Night Lights somehow was only 10.

- The latest Funny or Die video features, you guessed it, a Rubik’s Cube. If you can actually solve one, you can head over to its Facebook page.



- Why send out the same old boring Christmas cards this year when you can have Alice Cooper do it for you? You can get Alice (or if he might scare Granny Smith, Boyz II Men is also available) head over to skype.com to see how you can send customized video music cards for free.

- Howard Stern is the new judge for America’s Got Talent. The nineteen year old version of myself will be very excited by this news.

Lyrics Quiz: Best of 2011

Here are some of my favorite lyrics of the past twelve months. 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. The scars of your love remind me of us. They keep me thinking we almost had had it all. (Rolling in the Deep - Adele; guessed by Rose)
2. Won’t do me no good washing in the river. Can’t no preacher man gonna save my soul.
3. The square root of sixty-nine is eight-something, right? Cause I been trying to work it out. (What's My Name? - Rihanna featuring Drake; guessed by Doug)
4. I know, I know, I know what I am chasing. I know, I know, I know, that this is changing me.
5. Like a shotgun needs outcome. I’m your prostitute.
6. I don’t really care. You knew that’s what I’d say. The only time I miss you is every single day.
7. Can’t you tell that my sample of Adele was so hot I got these hood (expletive deleted) blowing up my cell? (Freaks and Geeks - Childish Gambino; guessed by Rose)
8. The bittersweet between my teeth. Trying to find the in-betweens. Fall back in love eventually. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
9. With that same big loud opinion but nobody listening. Wash up and ranting about the same old bitter things. Drunken, rumbling on about how I can’t sing.
10. I’m proud of my temper, well no, don’t give up on me, I’m doing better.
11. I’m about to lose my mind, you’ve been gone for so long; I’ve been running out of time. (I Need a Doctor - Dr. Dre featuring Eminem and Skylar Grey; guessed by Katie)
12. Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards. I don’t want this weekend to end. (Friday - Rebecca Black; guessed by Katie)
13. Yes, here we go again, give you more, nothing lesser. Back on the mic is the anti-depressor.
14. I’m already fighting me so what’s another one? The mirror is a trigger and your mouth’s a gun. Lucky for me I’m not the only one.
15. And now after some thinking I’d say I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something greater than me.
16. Mama once told me, “you’re already home where you feel love.”
17. You stare out your window at the passing cars and you look at the sky, thank your unlucky stars. No you’re never quite happy right where you are.
18. She says you’re a rambling man. You ain’t never gonna change. You got a gypsy soul to blame and you were born for leaving.
19. I wanna darken the skies, open the floodgates up. I wanna change my mind, I wanna be enough.
20. You watched them handcuff me lady and walk me through my own home. I’ve never been so humiliated. I don’t think I deserve this from you.
21. Trying to grow flowers in your bull (expletive deleted). You’d put out the sun if you got a hold of it.
22. So give me the fevers that just won’t quite. And give me the children you don’t want to raise. And tell me about the cool he sings to in those songs if it’s better than my love.
23. They say I’m crazy, well, I’mma ’bout to go dumb again. They ain’t see me ‘cause I pulled up in my other Benz. Last week I was in my other other Benz. (Otis - The Throne featuring Otis Redding; guessed by Rose)
24. I gotta love that keeps me waiting.
25. Unlike my home they are not foreclosable. Freddy Mac can kiss my (expletive deleted).

I’d Be Such an Angel You’d Think Me and Jesus Was Cool Like That

December is the time of the year where you snuggle up with that special someone and when it is time to switch the soundtrack from tradition Christmas music to something more in the baby making department, well there really has not been any music released recently to fit the bill assuming your lady friend is not fond of music that is degrading to them. Well just in time as the temperature starts to drop is the latest album from Anthony Hamilton Back to Love which increase your chances of adding to your family sometime next August.

There is plenty songs to choose from as the title Back to Love would have you assume when deciding what to want to put on when you are about to get your groove on, the smooth title track, the playful duet with Keri Hilson on Never Let Go, the heartfelt Baby Girl, the falsetto vocals I’ll Wait (To Fall in Love) that are reminiscent of a Prince love song, and the beautiful Who’s Loving You (granted you will have to overlook it is an I want you back song). But when it is time to record some baby making music, you have to go to the source of the producer who caused the most conceptions since Barry White and Babyface is on the disk, helping out with the first single Woo.

Hamilton does deviate a couple times on Back to Love like when he goes to his country roots on Mad with its twangy acoustic guitar and hand claps that are aided by some Stevie Wonder style harmonica. Sucka for You is the rare danceable song from Hamilton (at least of the vertical variety). The album ends nicely with the bluesy Life Has a Way that is emotionally deeper than the rest of the album in the vein of soul singers of the past. As great as the baby making songs are, hopefully his next record is filled with a few more like the one he ended the album with.

Song to Download – Who's Loving You

Back to Love gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Movie Trailers - 12/13/11

Every week or so I like to take a look at new music videos that catch my eye and really do not do the same for movie trailers because interesting ones do not hit the interwebs as frequently as music videos, but a bunch that caught my eye have been released recently and I thought I would share them. I am not sure if this will become a regular feature, but feel free to shout me a holler if you think you can come up with a better title than I did (which should not be too hard).


Cabin in the Woods – April 13



When I first heard about the new Joss Whedon movie Cabin in the Woods my first thought was, that sounded much better when it was called Evil Dead (and to show nothing is sacred anymore, word is we are getting an Evil Dead reboot in the near feature sans Ash; my soul is weeping). But like it says I the trailer, “You think you know the story… Think again” and after watching it I look to be wrong pigeonholing it because from the cabin in the woods setting, there looks to be something entirely different going on a bigger scale. At the very least Cabin in the Woods will be something to hold us over until the inevitable Army of Darkness reboot nobody ask for hits movie theaters.


The Five Year Engagement – April 27



Comedies are notorious for frontloading trailers with all the funniest bits, but if there are other scenes even half as funny as Bright Abbott singing We Didn’t Start the Fire with past girlfriends and a child shooting people with arrows, The Five Year Engagement will be worth watching. Really, when was the last unfunny movie Judd Apatow (who apparently now goes by “The Producers of Bridesmaids
” for some reason) was apart of? And I swear I heard Annie Edition try to do an English accent in the trailer which may also make the movie worth the price of admission.


Battleship – May 18



The second Battleship trailer has landed, now with 100% more Landry Clarke. But the movie could employ the entire cast of Friday Night Lights and I’d still be a bit worried. Best case scenario is it is Independence Day at seas. Worst case scenario, Transformers at sea.


What to Expect When You’re Expecting – May 11



The trailer work like the longest game of good news (Elizabeth Banks) bad new (Cameron Diaz) good news (Brooklyn Decker) bad news (Brooklyn Decker in a fat suit) good news (Chris Rock) ban news (Jennifer Lopez) good news (Anna Kendrick) bad news (the dude from Gossip Girl) good news (Big Poppa) bad new (the dude from Glee). I think the bad news will win out because the movie looks like He's Just Not That Into You if the all the chicks got knocked up. But seriously, can we please stop these horrible “ensemble” movies that spend too much money on talent and none on actual screenwriting?

I Want My Music Television - 12/12/11

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.


In Your Arms - Kina Grannis



This music video is pretty remarkable by itself in a Fell in Love with a Girl meets Sledgehammer kind of way, but even more show when you check out the Behind the Scenes where you see it took Kina Grannis 22 months and 288,000 jelly beans to make.


Don't Stop (Color On the Walls) - Foster the People



Not so fun fact: I was once a driving instructor in my past life and Foster the People brought back some really bad memories with this video.


Give it All Back - Noah and the Whale



Even though it had been done countless times before, it is hard not to enjoy Younger Versions of the Band type videos and the latest from Noah and the Whale is no exception.


Woo - Anthony Hamilton



Woo is right Anthony Hamilton. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 12/11/11

Once Upon a Time: We finally learn who the blonde is, she turned out to be the daughter of King Midas. Granted when he pulled out his arm out I thought he was Goldfinger who is just as much a fairytale character as King Midas. But I guess mythology opens the show up to a whole bunch of potential characters. And does Ted Mosby’s most annoying girlfriend seriously have the Thriller jacket is a rainbow variety of colors?
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

Homeland: So who is the mole? For the half an episode where Brady was absolved from being the person that passed his captor the razor blade, the thought that Saul did it crossed my mind. And Brady can be blamed for alerting the couple who bought the house near the airport, but someone inside the CIA had to alert Tom Walker about the meet unless the Saudi diplomat tipped him off and essentially became a suicide. Two more episodes left and hopefully the wrap this storyline up and move onto a new one next season.

Pan Am: Every spy show has done it, but I ever understood the steal a list of CIA assets mission before it is sold on the black market because wouldn’t whoever made the list just make another one if it is stolen? But anyway. I am just upset that none of my family friend’s daughters grew up to look like Ashley Greene.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pan Am on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: Wait, what just happened? Did they really switch the narration of the show for the first time in seven seasons with Robin talking to her kids instead of Ted just to be all “Psych” at the end? Huh?
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: I am still disappointed Clay is still alive, but at least they came up with a better reason to keep him around than my prediction that he is hauled off to jail. I did not seeing Machete being CIA. But that twist kept there from being any action in the finale. I was waiting for the dad of the hit and run victim to show up at the end and go on a shooting spree, but I guess they planted that seed for next season. So we were left with a bit of a bore of a season finale, and really season four as a whole felt like a big tease, two cliffhanger deaths that did not end up happening and a big crackdown that got shut down but reval government agencies. It was not as bad as the Ireland season, but they better have plenty of payoffs next season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Revenge: Maybe it is all the repeats recently, but it has seemed it has been way too long since Amy Abbot has destroyed somebody’s life. I want at least one person brought down per every two episodes.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Community: As a straight heterosexual dude, I have naturally never seen an episode of Glee, but after watching Community’s awesome send up of the show I may have to check it out to see if is really that awesome, especially if they have a character like Annie Edison on the show.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Chuck: Please let there be an uncensored version of this episode leaked to the internets in the near future.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 12/10/11

Quote of the Week: I suck (expletive deleted) and I love it. Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy. (Saudi Diplomat, Homeland)

Song of the Week: Highway to Hell – AC/DC (How I Met Your Mother)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2012 Inductees Announced: And joining the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year will be Beastie Boys, Guns N' Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The (Small) Faces, Donovan and Laura Nyro. Well that should make for an interesting jam session. Just the GnR induction should make for an interesting performance. I wonder if voters selected them just to see who shows up an actually plays together. Hopefully it does not turn into another Van Halen situation. And since the event will be held in Cleveland this year, I am availavle to cover it if anyone wants to hook me up with tickets.

Free Download of the Week: When the Bells Start Ringing - My Morning Jacket featuring the Head and the Heart

Deal of the Week: 100 Holiday Albums for $5: For those in need of so holiday cheer, Amazon has a buch of Christmas albums for only $5.00 including ones from Frank Sinatra, Twisted Sister, New Edition and Sarah McLaughlin.



New Album Release of the Week: Red (Vinyl) - Dia Frampton

New DVD Release of the Week: Sledge Hammer! The Complete Series

Video of the Week:

Betty White PSA


Next Week Pick of the Week: Big Cat Week, all week on Nat Geo Wild: Feline lovers clear your schedule this week because Nat Geo Wildwill be running its second annual Big Cat Week starting tomorrow at 8:00 with Stalking the Mountain Lion followed by American Cougar at 9:00 with Cat Wars: Lion vs. Cheetah closing out the night at 10:00, and run ever night until concluding Friday. And who better to introduce Big Cat Week than living legend Betty White (see the above Video of the Week).

Around the Tubes - 12/9/11

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 Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy, Snowmageddon, Smash, Jasmine Sagginario, Kara McGraw, MTV, Funniest Commercials of the Year: 2011, Christmas in Washington, Dean Martin, Ink Masters, and Castle.

- Boardwalk Empire is ending its second season this Sunday starting at 9:00 on HBO. Check out a clip below:



- My thoughts of the Sons of Anarchy season finale are coming up this weekend, until then, fans can participate in an action over at fxnetworks.com where you can bid on one of two Ireland Reaper Jackets worn on set by cast members in season three, episode eight. Or you can grab one of five “Chucky’s Chili” t-shirts signed by Chucky himself, Michael Marisi Ornstein. Proceeds of the actions will benefit two charities: Maryvale, which was founded in 1856 by the Daughters of Charity as the first orphanage for Los Angeles, and Operation Homefront, which provides emergency assistance and morale to troops, their families, and wounded warriors when they return home.

- If Snowmageddon is half as awesome as the name suggest, it will definitely be worth tuning into tomorrow at 9:00 on Syfy. Here is the trailer:

Trailer: Syfy Original Movie


- Are you sick of all the Smash commercials NBC has been running lately? No? Well you are in luck because if you become a fan of Smash on Facebook for a limited time you can get a free MP3 of Katherine McPhee singing Beautiful.

- More free music news. Jasmine Sagginario, winner of Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing will be giving away a free download of her new single GYOB (Get Your Own Boyfriend)on Christmas Eve via her Twitter account.

- And for fans of free Christmas music, Kara McGraw recently wrote and recorded a Christmas song to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Irene in Vermont. Head over to her Facebook page for a name your price download and if you choose to pay, the proceeds to small local farmers in Vermont.

- It is that time of year again when Best of the Year lists start pouring (I’ll be starting mine on the 15th with the best lyrics of 2011) and next week MTV is kicking off theirs on Monday at 8:00 when their editors will be debating all week such lists as songs and album and artists of the year. Right now you can head over to MTV.com to vote for MTV’s best live performance of the year.

- In other Best of 2011 new, the Old Spice guy Isaiah Mustafa will be counting down Funniest Commercials of the Year: 2011 on December 14 at 10:00 on TNT.

- TNT’s Christmas in Washington does not air until next week, but you can already take a look at the setlist:

"This Christmas" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" – Cee Lo Green, Choir
"Mistletoe" – Justin Bieber
"I’ll Be Home For Christmas" – The Band Perry, United States Naval Academy Glee Club
"Winter Wonderland/Let It Snow" – Victoria Justice, Washington Youth Choir
"Do You Hear What I Hear" – Jennifer Hudson, American Family Choir

Closing Medley:
• "Mary, Did You Know?" – The Band Perry, Washington Youth Choir, American Family Choir, USNA Glee Club, AFTRA Choir
• "Away in a Manger" – Justin Bieber, Washington Youth Choir, American Family Choir, USNA Glee Club, AFTRA Choir
• "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" – Victoria Justice, Washington Youth Choir, American Family Choir, USNA Glee Club, AFTRA Choir
• "Silent Night" – Cee Lo Green, Washington Youth Choir, American Family Choir, USNA Glee Club, USNA Glee Club
• "O Holy Night" – Jennifer Hudson, Washington Youth Choir, American Family Choir, USNA Glee Club, AFTRA Choir
• "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" – Cast
• "Joy to the World" – Cast

- For those in need of some more holiday cheer, Dean Martin’s My Kind of Christmas is available now featuring a duet with Scarlett Johansson on I’ll Be Home for Christmas.

- Tattoo enthusiasts will want to check out Spike’s new series Ink Masters premiering Tuesday at 17 at 10:00 with Dave Navarro as host. The show is looking for the top tattoo artist in the country. Check out a sneak peak over at Spike.com.


- Castle’s Tamala Jones recently opened up to blackenterprise.com about her past aneurysm scare.

If There’s a Heaven I Can’t Find a Stairway

Long before Kid Cudi and Kanye West brought ego rap to the mainstream in recent year, The Roots have creating moody rap; songs about the downtrodden for almost two decades now. But last year’s How I Got Over may have been their moodiest album to date, even bring in a bunch of shoe gazing alternative artists they ran into during their day job as the house band of Late Night. So how to you go even darker for the follow up: you create a concept album about the life and death of a street hustler.

undun follows Redford Stevens (named after Sufjan Stevens whose Redford (For Yia-Yia and Pappou) gets sampled on the album) through lots of paranoia, self doubt, anger, and helplessness that is easily felt listening through your speakers. The words on undun are more words from a script than lyrics. But as Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi recently found out with Rome, a soundtrack without a movie just feels incomplete even if The Roots has released more music videos to support their album. And it does not help the album ends with four piano and strings heavy instrumentals across four minutes (as well as starting it off with one also).

But in-between there are plenty of goods songs regardless of how they plug into the greater theme. Make My, featuring Big K.R.I.T. and Dice Raw, may be the smoothest rap song ever made. Despite the heavy material surrounding it, Kool On, with Greg Porn and Truck North, is a club song based upon a great loop. But as a whole, the album is brought down as you spend too much time thinking of how the song fit into the overall album instead of just enjoying individual tracks. Still undun still to be one of the better concept albums in recent memory and shows twenty years later The Roots are the most innovative group in hip-hop.

Song to Download – Kool On

undun gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Have You Ever Felt Like Everybody’s Watching

Nothing like a little rejection to get your creative juices flowing. After a pair of forgettable album released on a major label, Meg & Dia were dropped and turned that rejection into some of the catchiest songs your ears could hear this year for their album Cocoon. The only problem is without a major label to promote the album it just sat there in the ether of the internet. So the singing half of the group Dia Frampton tried out for The Voice and let’s face it, should have won. But her effort landed Dia her second chance at a major label record contract.

With the release of The Broken Ones, it sounded like Dia might be in for a repeat of her first major label with an uninspired song in the vein of the bore of an “original song” Inventing Shadows that was written for The Voice. Fortunately most of the rest of her debut solo album Red sounds more like the direction she took with her band in the last year. The only other forgettable song on the album is the duet she sang and co-wrote with her coach on The Voice Blake Shelton for I Will which sounds like your run of the mill overdramatic sentimental ballad that populates most country albums these days.

Despite being mentored by the country superstar, there isn’t much country influence on Red unless you count Isabella with its banjos and foot stomping beat, but even that song sound more like the folksy Mumford & Sons filtered through a pop prism than a tradition country song. But much like on the show when she transitioned from the Colbie Caillat to Kanye West to R.E.M. to Tom Petty, there is plenty of genre skipping throughout Red. Aside from the previously mentioned trips into folk rock and country, you can also hear elements of adult contemporary (The Broken Ones), acoustic singer-songwriter (Daniel), alternative rock (Bullseye), and even hip-hop (Don’t Kick the Chair which features a verse from Kid Cudi).

Dia was marketed as the “indie pop” artist on The Voice and she certainly kept that theme for Red bringing in some top flight “indie pop” producers like Greg Kurstin of The Bird and the Bee (Don’t Kick the Chair), Mark Foster and Isom Innis of Foster the People (Billy the Kid), and Isabella Summers who is the Machine in Florence + The Machine (Bullseye). The influence of Foster the People spreads to other songs on Red. Aside from Billy the Kid, which sounds like it could have been a leftover from their album rerecorded with Dia’s vocals with its plucky bass line and vocal effects that accompany the spaghetti western style lyrics, there is Walk Away, a whistle heavy song with a bass line that sounds like a slowed down version of Pumped Up Kicks and also features a chorus about bullets.

And apparently there were an over abundance of catchy tunes because there are a couple of bonus tracks worth hunting down (and could have replaced the sappier I Will and / or The Broken Ones) including Hearts Out to Dry on iTunes which is more adventurous than anything on Red with her spooky vocals and would have rivaled the heartfelt delivery of Trapeze for the best vocals on the album. While over at Walmart there is the exclusive track Love Can Come From Anywhere which could have battled for the best track on Red with its absurdly catchy chorus. With Red, With the release of Red Dia Frampton is living proof that second chances are worth giving out.

Song to Download – Trapeze

Red gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Got a Love that Keeps Me Waiting

It is a shame that rock and roll as a genre is dying out just as The Black Keys are hitting their stride with three amazing albums over the past four. Whereas others bands of the past decade have gone whiney like My Chemical Romance or anthemic like Coldplay, in hopes of breaking into the mainstream, The Black Keys less is more, blues rock routine has slowly forced the mainstream to come to them with their last album Brothers cracking the top five of the Albums chart while lead single Tighten Up dominated the rock and alternative singles charts, netted themselves three Grammys last year (they even beat out Album of the Year winner Arcade Fire for Best Alternative Album) and even nabbed themselves an MTV Video Music Award (even if the trophy actually read Black Eyed Peas).

For their latest album El Camino, The Black Keys have reteamed with Danger Mouse who produced the band’s 2008 Attack and Release and as good as The Black Keys sound when it is just the two inside the booth, Danger Mouse manages to fill the duo’s sound out and gets them more focused. It is not clear if Danger Mouse or Dan and Pat choose this direction, but most of El Camino is actually danceable. No, it is not The Rolling Stones going disco and they are definitely not jumping on the Eurotrash trend that is polluting pop radio these days but you can definitely get your groove on during tracks like Gold on the Ceiling, Money Maker, Run Right Back, Stop Stop and of course first single Lonely Boy which features a dancing security guard channeling a dance style that was someone in-between Vincent Vega and Carlton Banks.



Even with all the dancing that can be had throughout the album, the boys keep their musical styles stuck clearly in the sixties with their mix of garage rock, RnB and soul, but it when the duo skips a decade and wonders into the seventies for the arena rock of Little Black Submarines. In the middle of all these dance rock tracks, The Black Keys go full Led Zeppelin half way through the song (and are able to do it with just two people) turning a mellow acoustic tale into a rock anthem on the turn of a dime. The Black Keys better make a music video for Little Black Submarines quick just so the just resurrected other pair of rock aficionados Beavis and Butt-Head can comment on it because if anyone can bring rock music back to the masses it is the dimwitted duo who managed to turn Rob Zombie into a household name.

Song to Download – Little Black Submarines

El Camino gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 12/5/11

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.

Ours – Taylor Swift



We now know what Matt Sarasen has been up to since Friday Night Lights closed up show and I do not think Julie will be happy to learn that he has been passing notes with Taylor Swift.


The Cowboys’ Christmas Ball – The Killers



It is that time of year again: a weird Christmas song and video from The Killers. This year’s installment goes for the western them in moth music and visuals. Usually I find anything Christmas media without snow an epic fail, but a dancing robot makes up for the lack of the white stuff.


How Come You Never Go There - Feist




Wow, that is a lot of hair Feist is sporting these days. And it is nice to see the Smoke Monster from Lost can still find work after the show ended.


Say You Like Me – We the Kings



Sure the latest video from We the Kings is not as creative or entertaining as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but their video game inspired video is still fairly amusing.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 12/4/11

Once Upon a Time: I am not sure what made me laugh harder: Jiminy managing to grab onto Ted Mosby’s worst girlfriend with his umbrella even though there is no way his umbrella is really that long (or has a good enough grip) or learning that his real world last name is Hopper.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

The Walking Dead: So we spent six whole episodes looking for Sophia, a character we barely saw in the first six episodes, two other characters get shot while looking for her and another eaten (R.I.P. Otis) and six weeks later she turns up (un) dead. What the frack? It seemed like even before it premiered, AMC was already unhappy with the show and was ready to cancel it except that it did so well in the rating, beating many network shows that there was no way they could possibly cancel it. Now the channel looks like it is trying to sabotage the show with everything that went on behind the scenes between the seasons and with this episode it looks like the writers are in on the sabotage now. Just when you think the characters could not get any more unlikeable, Shane opens up the zombie barn then everyone opens fire on Hershel’s family right in front of him. Sure they needed to be put down, but you do not massacre a man’s family while he is watching. The second half of the season can open next year with Hershel killing everyone else in revenge and I could care less because they really do need to purge the whole cast. And the writers. Basically everyone involved with the show but the makeup artists. If I were to list every show I am currently watching right now in a row, The Walking Dead would rank dead last. And I am still watching Last Man Standing.
You can stream recent episodes over at amc.com. You can also download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Homeland: I guess the biggest question coming out of this episode was who was actually responsible for the bombing: the United States or did Abu Nazir plan it to get Brady on his side? Both are equally plausible. But the show really has been slowing down these last couple episodes. Maybe it is time to get Carrie off her meds.

The Sing Off: What is it whenever America is left to vote for something, be it a meaningless award show or lame reality series; they almost always get it wrong. It is befuddling to me that Antoine Merriweather did not get one hundred percent of the vote. I would suggest he get into the Republican primary, but I am sure Americans will still stupidly nominate Mitt Romney instead. Almost as disappointing as his loss was that Antoine did not also pull the attractive redhead from Delilah onstage during Paradise By the Dashboard Light. If I am lucky the two will join forces for a super group next season. If they need a ringer for the whistling part in an acapella version of Patience, hopefully they will shout me a holla.



You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Sing-Off on iTunes.

Parenthood: We moved move step closer to my dream scenario of Julia letting the coffee girl move and raise her baby as one big happy family. And is it just me or were Haddie and Drew getting a little too close during the ED commercial than cousins should be?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: From the moment after I realized that the bullet went into Clay’s shoulder I knew they would manage to keep him alive now I fear that they will keep him alive another season by carting him off to jail out of the way from Jax. If Jax does not kill Clay this season, we may be in for another Ireland type cumbersome season next year.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: South Pacific: Cochran talking about the other tribe mates as a cult brought back bad flashbacks from last season when the six were a legitimate cult. Hopefully things turn out differently this time around, but since they got rid of Cochran first it looks like we may be in for another long final month.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Beavis and Butt-Head: I was all for the Beavis and Butt-Head movie reviews up until they actually started to show footage from Human Centipede, there are good reasons I have avoided the film and just those clips gave me nightmares. But it was nice to finally see Principal McVicker and Coach Buzzcut.
You can stream recent episodes over at mtv.com. You can also download Beavis and Butt-Head on iTunes.