Hope Is What I'm Hoping to Find

It seems like every other week I’m reviewing another, young, female, singer-songwriter. This week’s entry into the “Bring back Lilith Fair” brigade is Hope Partlow. The Tennessee native’s approach is a little different from those that have come before her in that she has infused the genre with a dash of country. There are no banjos, fiddles or yee-ha’s, but you can definitely hear the southern charm in her voice most notably in the slower songs.

Partlow’s debut album, Who We Are, starts off with the title track, a great song for today’s climate that tells us not to take things for granted with lines like, “It doesn’t really matter what care you drive, it’s good to be alive.” The album actually ends with the “Saturday Night Mix.” Granted it sound exactly like the original with just an exaggerated bass line and doesn’t bring anything new to the album like many “remixes” that are thrown in at the end. The only song that ever really sounded different is Babylon on David Gray’s White Ladder.

Elsewhere on the album Don’t Go is a last ditch effort to keep a loved one and when she sing “I believe this is killing me, don’t go” it almost breaks my heart. Crazy Summer Night is a great party song to play when the title suggests. But unfortunately, its starting to dip into the 40’s at night around here so hopefully this song will be brought out next May when it is more appropriate. Unlike many young girls today who like to brag about stealing other girls’ boyfriends, Hope is actually apologetic as heard on Sick Inside explaining, “I’m so sorry about last night,” and saying wish she had more self control. Partlow show a good vocal range on the slow love song Like You Do. And Hope goes in pure Avril mode (but without the pretentious punk thing) on Everywhere but Here where she sing against louder guitars that the rest of the album. Overall, Who We Are, is a solid debut from a girl that can only get better with age and more experience.

Song to Download – Like You Do

Who We Are gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

First Impressions – Reunion

When the fall lineups were announced a couple months ago, Reunion didn’t really catch my eye. It was on at the same time as a perennial favorite of my, Everwood, and even worse, it was on Fox. And since I have morals, I tend to avoid all the Fox channels, the only current exceptions being Rescue Me and Arrested Development. But the more I learned about the show, the more I found it intriguing. The series would take places over twenty year, each episode focusing on a singular year starting with the high school graduation of six friends and culminates at the twentieth reunion which just happens to coincides with of death by one of the six at the hands of another. Another sticking point foe me was the cast included cast members from past shows I liked like the electro-girl from Angel and Meg’s older brother from American Dreams.

But intriguing premises don’t always translate into good shows as seen last year with Jack and Bobby, a show that looked good on paper, but they ruined the show in the very first episode. As for Reunion’s first episode, it started out in the present day funeral of an unknown person and quickly transitioned back to 1986 and graduation. The show quickly built up not one, but two love triangles. This also rapidly sets up motives for murder. But really all the plot twists in the first episodes were extremely predictable.

In the cast, electro-girl and J.J. are joined by the Ugly-Hot Chick that deserved to mocked in Not Another Teen Movie, two no named dudes and, of course, a Token Hot Chick. It became apparent quite early that the actors were cast upon looked because the first episode had some of the worst acting I’ve seen in a long time. The show also must think the viewer is not too bright, which would make sense because it is Fox, so it went to extreme measures to remind us that this was 1986, so there was a constant stream of 80’s music. Also the token hot chick was giving the task of wearing the Madonna gear. Then there was the preppy dude couldn’t decide if he wanted to evoke Don Johnson on Miami Vice or Tom Cruise in Risky Business, so he’d just alternated between the two every other scene. They went seriously overboard with the, “Wham! is the next Beatles” comparison and even took it a step further comparing the dude not named George Michaels to John Lennon. Now when Adam Sandler said, “Get out of my Van Halen t-shirt before you jinx the band and they break up” in The Wedding Singer, that was funny because it was a comedy. Do it in a drama, and it’s just cheesy.

Predictions:
- By the time we hit the 90’s, the two love triangles will have morphed into a love hexagon.
- Even more in jokes including how Vanilla Ice will go down as the greatest rapper ever and how the Red Sox will never win the World Series. The wardrobe will transition into Hammer pants then flannel shirts.
- Who dies: The nerdy virgin
- Who is the murderer: The Token Hot Chick
- Why: Nerdy dude gets too obsessive and the Token Hot Chick kills him in a moment of self defense.

Verdict: Poor acting, predictable plot lines, but considering whenever I’m flipping through channels and come across I Love the 80’s/90’s on VH1, I’ll sit and watch it, I’ll be checking out Reunion every week.

Boom Pow Surprise

The kickoff to the football season is tonight, and that also means the start of fantasy. The first couple weeks of fantasy football are always tough because they coincide with the start of the playoffs for fantasy baseball. As we go into the playoffs, I have one team sitting on top with my two other teams sitting in third place. Luckily fantasy baseball will be over by the time fantasy hockey rolls around (contact me if you are interested in joining my league). But as for football, I had a draft last night and here’s who will be lacing up for Boom Pow Surprise:

Michael Vick (Atl - QB)
Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)
Eric Moulds (Buf - WR)
Brandon Stokley (Ind - WR)
Shaun Alexander (Sea - RB)
Tatum Bell (Den - RB)
Steve Heiden (Cle - TE)
Paul Edinger (Min - K)
Atlanta Falcons (DEF)

Aaron Brooks (NO - QB)
Kerry Collins (Oak - QB)
Ricky Williams (Mia - RB)
L.J. Smith (Phi - TE)
Amani Toomer (NYG - WR)
Phil Dawson (Cle - K)
Chicago Bears (DEF)

This should be a solid team with three quality QB’s, a top tier RB and another who should benefit from the Broncos system. But what could put me over the top is the 11th round pick up of Ricky Williams. Hopefully Cedric Benson will be a bust during Ricky’s four game suspension and Ricky can return to being the Ricky of old, well, but without the weed.

And like the last few seasons, the kickoff of the football season is being accompanied with a concert. For some reason the NFL felt obligated to let a press release out saying that Kanye West would not be kicked off the bill. Thanks for the memo NFL. Since when does not doing anything warrant a pres release? Of course this stems from Kanye’s comments at last weeks hurricane relief concert on NBC. But there was no way the NFL could boot the only black performer for making an anti-Bush comment when other performers include Green Day, who’s last album, American Idiot, takes shots at the Bush administration, and the Rolling Stone, who recently called Bush a piece of, um, human excrement, on their recent song, Sweet Neo-Con (scroll down to read how much I hate this song). So the NFL were in a no win situation. I’ll be interested in seeing what song Kanye chooses to perform tonight considering Maroon 5 are also on the bill. Keep in mind that on a Kanye’s latest album, he did a duet with the lead singer from Maroon 5 on the song Heard ‘Em Say in which Kanye raps, “And I know the government administered AIDS.”

Oh yeah, and there is a football game tonight too, which happens to be Randy Moss’ debut with the Oakland Raiders playing against the defending Super Bowl Champs, the New England Patriots. With all these tangibles, I wonder how Vegas put the odds on who will make the water cooler moment tomorrow. I think I'll put my money on Randy. As for my predictions for the season, here are mine:

AFC East: Jets
AFC North: Steelers
AFC South: Colts
AFC West: Chargers
AFC Wildcard: Titans, Chiefs
NFC East: Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay
AFC South: Falcons
NFC West: Seahawks
NFC Wildcard: Panthers, Cowboys

AFC title Game: Colts over the Jets
NFC Title Game: Falcons over the Panthers

Super Bowl Champs: Falcons

I Think I Just Made the Biggest Mistake of My Life

After listen to Eric Clapton grow gracefully on his latest album (scroll down for a review), it make the latest Rolling Stones album, A Bigger Bang sound even worse. Granted Clapton has been pumping out great albums for the last couple years whereas The Stones seem to slap some song together just as an excuse to tour. Yet everyone knows they will be playing Jumping Jack Flash over any songs on that album. A Bigger Bang is no exception.

The album title itself sound like a shot at the recent hubbub of Intellectual Design by naming the album after a theory that contradicts it, the Big Bang. And that would usher in a more political Stones most prominently heard on the song that has already come under fire by Fox New, Sweet Neo-Con. If you haven’t heard already, the song rails against Bush calling him a hypocrite and blasting him about prisons without trial and Haliburton. And people said Eminem was late to comment on the elections. At least Mosh was catchy; Sweet Neo-Con is just painful to listen to.

But then again A Bigger Bang could be a sexual reference, this is The Rolling Stones. Even when the boys getting up their in age, they still like their suggestive lyrics, “Once upon a time I was your rooster, now I’m just one of your cocks.” (Rough Justice) It’s nice to see Jagger can still write those double entendres. Wait, no it isn’t, it’s kind of sad he still does. But wait, there’s more, in the appropriately titled Oh No, It’s You Again, Jagger sings that he’s, “staring down your tits.” Ladies, it’s time to lock up your granddaughters.

Elsewhere on the album, there is the Angie rip off, Streets of Love, but it’s not as emotional as the original. The king of the cheesy songs goes to Laugh, I Nearly Died, which could describe anyone who makes it through the whole album. This especially goes for the songs wear they let Keith Richards sings. There are a few, and I mean very few, rays of sunshine on the album, including a funky riff on Rain Fall Down and Back of My Hand has a cool , down home bluesy feel to it, but they never come close to redeeming the set of songs. Hopefully the next time The Rolling Stones get a feeling to tour, some one tells them they can actually do it without having to release an album to do so.

Song to Download – Back of My Hand

A Bigger Bang gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Need to Hear that Sound

Back in middle school, Eric Clapton changed my life. Up until then, I had listened to exclusively hard core gangsta rap. Than a tape trader friend of mine passed me along a copy of Slowhand and I quickly realized why people called him God. Shortly thereafter, Clapton participated in the legendary Unplugged series showing a different side to his already accomplished guitar repertoire. I have picked up every one of his new albums since then. Which lead me to today with the release, Back Home.

The title Back Home can be linked to Clapton returning to more of his 60’s sound of blues rock after his recent affinity for straight blues including last years album of Robert Johnson songs. Listen to the opening track, So Tired, Back Home can also mean being back home with his family, including his three young girls. The song chronicles the life a new dad who can’t seem to take it in but at least, “momma’s a natural.” The song even features a baby screaming at the end.

Clapton also rediscovered his love of reggae on this album, but instead of a Marley cover, he decided to write his own in Revolution. The slowed down song deals with a person who want to start a revolution not necessarily because he feels the cause deep down in his heart but rather because he has nothing better to do. The album does feature a couple cover songs including George Harrison’s Love Comes to Everyone and the Stevie Wonder penned I’m Going Left. And just like B.B. King had Clapton come play with him, Clapton has brought in a few of his disciples to play on the album including John Mayer and the current king of the slide guitar, Robert Randolph. Steve Winwood and Vince Gill, who wrote One Day for the album, also appear along with Billy Preston who contributes on the keys throughout the whole album.

Song to Download – So Tired

Back Home gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

You Gotta Love it Though, Somebody Still Speaks From His Soul

For the last couple years, rap has become very anemic, the same rappers saying the same thing talking about how much ice they have and how many groupies they have scored with. Yawn. Then along came a guy with a backpack and a teddy bear mascot with the vibe of A Tribe Called Quest (by his own admission) and clever wordplay that rivals the Beastie Boys in their prime. Kanye West’s The College Dropout was not just the best rap album of last year but it was easily the best rap album of the last five year. On the album, West pushed the boundaries of rap touching on topics that most rappers found on the radio and MTV including religion and even admitting he was self conscious.

West is now back with his sophomore effort, Late Registration and is pushing the boundaries of rap even further. This is most notable in the addition of Fiona Apple’s producer Jon Brion helping West out on the boards. Brion presence is definitely felt on tracks Touch the Sky with horn the rival those sampled on Crazy in Love, and string section featured in Bring Me Down, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, and Gone. They even bring in full orchestration on Celebration. With Brion by his side, West even stepped up his own game, avoiding the easy way out by copying his signature sound of sped up vocals (not counting the hidden track, Late), and instead created a whole new sound for this album.

Kanye is pushing the boundaries with his choice of topics on this album too. Instead of an ode to Jesus, Late Registration had a song devoted to another subject much ignore subject in rap, his mother on Hey Mama. West saves his best production for this song with a choir of multi-layered la la’s playing throughout the song and Kanye even gives a shot at sing a verse and a chorus.

Late Registration is also more political than most major rap releases in recent years. But Kanye comes off more like Oliver Stone than Public Enemy with accusations like, “And I know the government administered AIDS” (Heard ‘em Say), “How we stop the black panthers? Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer,” and, “Who gave Saddam anthrax? George Bush got the answers” (Crack Music). Kanye also takes on the state of the health care in our country on Roses, but this time no conspiracy theories are needed and he asks a question that needs to be posed to our political leaders: “If Magic Johnson got a cure for A.I.D.'s and all the broke (expletive deleted) past away, you tellin me if my grandma was in the N.B.A. right now she'd be ok?”

Unfortunately, with all that said, Late Registration does not entirely live up to the promise of The College Dropout. One thing that really disappointed me was when the album was being made, Kanye mention that he wasn’t going to any guest except John Mayer and Common. But West decided to bring in more guests some with better results then others. Out is John Mayer, instead we get the new token white accessory to rappers, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 helping out with a soulful performance on Heard ‘em Say. Also Jamie Foxx shows why he got the Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles as I originally though Gold Digger had a sample of Ray’s I Got a Woman, until I realized that it was different lyrics. Other decent appearances include Jay-Z on Diamond from Seirra Leone (Remix) along with Consequence and Cam’Ron on Gone. But on the flip side Brandy can’t carry a tune and lives of to the name of her contribution, Bring Me Down. Lupe Fiasco gives an uninspiring verse on Touch the Sky. The Houston inspired Drive Slow featuring Paul Wall and GLC drags the album down too much. And even though Nas is in my top 5 rappers, his contribution We Major falls flat.

Another major different between Kanye’s two albums is that The College Dropout sounded like a concept album revolving around college with track flowing into each other perfectly. The thoughts on Late Registration sounds more like great songs that are thrown together. For instance, there is a bad transition between Touch the Sky that goes straight into Jamie Foxx’s acapella beginning of Gold Digger. The only thing that barely hold Late Registration together are the four skits throughout the album dealing with a fake fraternity, Broke Phi Broke.

The highlight of this album, much like his last, is Kanye’s quirky wordplay. He doesn’t drop references as obscure as the Beastie Boys, but he’s working on it. But what other rapper would quote John Denver; “I'm going on an airplane, and I don't know if I'll be back again” (Touch the Sky). Tim Hardaway, Gil Scott-Heron, Shirley Bassey, Sam Cooke, Forrest Gump, Nicky Giovanni, The Jeffersons, Gone with the Wind, Anakin Skywalker, and Jennifer Aniston all get namedropped throughout the album. But like his last album, the best line involves Michael Jackson, “She was suppose to buy ya shorty Tyco with ya money. She went to the doctor got lypo with ya money. She walkin around lookin like Michael with ya money” (Gold Digger). But honorable mentions go to “Ask the reverend was the strip club cool if my tips help send a pretty girl through school” (We Major) and “If a stripper named Porscha and u get tips from many men, then your fat friend, her nickname is Minivan” (Diamonds from Sierra Leone).

Song to Download – Hey Mama

Late Registration gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Hate the Way They Portray Us in the Media

“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family and they say we are looting, you see a white family and they say they are looking for food. And, you know, it’s been five days because most of the people ARE black. And even for me to complain, I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I’m calling my business manager right to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine, if I was down there and those are my people down there. If there is anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help about the way America is set up the help the poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. Red Cross is doing as much as they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And now they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

“You gotta love it though, someone still speaks from his soul.” – Diamonds from Sierra Leone

I had planned to put up a review of Kanye West’s latest album, Late Registration, but I haven’t quite finished it, but it looks like I’ll still be writing about Kanye today. Last night on NBC’s telethon to help Hurricane Katrina, Kanye went of scrip to give a passionate speech. People have torn down West for saying it wasn’t the place, but where else to criticize those exploiting hurricane victims than at a relief effort. If you read his statement, all of his initial rants are true. Every time I turn on new reports it’s either human interest stories featuring white people or stories featuring black people looting local stores.

As for West’s assessment that they do have permission to go down and start shooting looters, this is most likely in response to Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco’s statement regarding National Guard returning from Iraq and heading straight to the area,

“They have M-16s, and they're locked and loaded. I have one message for these hoodlums: These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”

Did the Governor seriously advocate killing off her constituents who are trying to provide for the families because the relief efforts were moving so slowly? Now I hate Bob Taft, but at least he has never advocated killing Ohioans. I’ll take a Governor who has a few free rounds of golf over one who want to unload M-16s into her people.

Now, I’ll admit Kanye did go overboard with the last statement about Bush. Bush does not necessarily hate black people, he hate anyone who cannot help him or his cronies, which just happens to include poor black people in New Orleans. Remember back a couple years ago, 2003, when a fire broke out in a Rhode Island club killing 100 people and injuring many more, federal aid was refuse multiple time even though lives were destroyed. It just so happened that this happened to working class people who lived in a “Blue” state. On the flip side, let us not forget last year when Hurricane Charles hit Florida, Bush ordered federal aid two hours after it hit, like he should have responded, it just happened that this Hurricane hit his brother’s state that also happened to be a swing state in the upcoming election. Yet when Hurricane Katrina hit a predominately “Blue” and poor area, the National Guards from other states couldn’t be accessed because the paperwork didn’t get through until Thursday. I’ll have to agree with Bush that this is unacceptable.

Back to Kanye West, if anyone was affected by his statements, NBC should be the one’s to blame for not doing the homework on a guy, who at Live 8, change lyrics to All Falls Down to “Drug dealer buy Jordon’s, crackhead buy crack and George Bush gets paid off of all of that.” He would later in an interview that day with MTV claims the AIDS was planted in Africa to kill black people. NBC should have known what they were getting when signing this guy up. Not too mention his recent political statements about the diamond trade in Sierra Leone (Throw Up Your Diamonds Like You're Bulimic). And don’t expect for Kanye West to lose any album sales as some suggest, because unlike the Dixie Chicks who has a larger conservative country fan base, West fan tend to be more liberal or they just don’t care about politics either way. Keep in mind Green Day sold over 3 million records of an album named American Idiot, so if anything, Kanye's sell will increase due to his speech.

Ironically it was already announced just hours before that Kanye West made his statement, that he will be joining of another Katrina relief special, ReAct Now: Music & Relief, this time to be aired on MTV, VH1, and CMT along side Kelly Clarkson, the Rolling Stones and previously announced Maroon 5, Good Charlotte, Audioslave, Simple Plan, Common, John Mayer, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, Dashboard Confessional, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Melissa Etheridge, Mötley Crüe, Goo Goo Dolls, Staind, Alan Jackson, Trent Reznor, 3 Doors Down, Cash Money's Baby and Lil' Wayne, the Neville Brothers, Marc Broussard, the Radiators, Green Day, Usher, Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Dave Matthews Band, Rob Thomas, David Banner, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and John Mellencamp. This concert will air September 10 starting at 8 EST.

For anyone who wants to donate their money beforehand, please click the Red Cross link at the top of the page.

Oye Mi Canto

Earlier this week after my lengthy MTV Video Music Awards (click here) I received a comment in regards to a small, off the cuff remark of one of the surprise performances:

“- Morbidly Obese Joe presents a medley of Reggaeton artists. That was extremely horrible. This could be to my generation what rap was to my parents and rock and roll was to their parents. I really hate the whole getting old thing.”

Apperently this struck a cord in one of my readers who promply relies to my orginal comment, please note that I have taken out the all caps to make it easier to read and made two small changes that I viewed to be spelling error, otherwise the comment was left as is. If you would like to see the unedited version, look under the VMA recap, now on to the coment (also, if anyone no Spanish, if you could translate this for me and leave it in the comment section):

“Este mama bicho! Que coňo te crees tu? Mira cantode cabron! Im gonna explain this only once to you! Im Latino and proud, I been living in South Florida for 6 years now! Im Im gonna say sorry in advance!!! You are a white Anglo-American living in “Ohio” ja, ja, ja... You haven’t experienced Las Discotecas (nightclubs) Latinas, while Im Latino and live surrounded by them! Again I apologize for this. But what do you know of the fastest and biggest minority on the United States of America? (We’ll soon become a majority) By the year 2025 the numbers of Latinos living in the U.S. will be over 50 millions!!! It’s a fact by the time you read this there will be over 35 millions of Latinos changing this country for the better! We are the biggest consumers of products in the present and will continue to influence North America and the entire world!!! You must realize that we are an essential fuel that drives the U.S.A. economy!!! >>>>Now let me tell you about Reggaeton, it a genre of music that combines and blends (while being very original itself) most of the world’s music genres and sounds into (what is it -world music-) a very danceable, singable, likeable, sellable genre of music around the whole globe!So to wrap things up, first you should learn, then take part of the biggest movement in music history (because Reggaeton it’s the futuro of music), and remember its the 21st century so get use to the idea of changes, like Latinos being a majority in this country!!!!!! Chao y visita una discoteca o escucha la radio y oiras Reggaeton donde sea!!!!!"

Elcangriman69

After I read this I was originally going to apologize myself for offending him and his culture, but then realize that, the same review, that I made positive remarks about other Latinos such as Shakira, Eva Longoria, and some chick named Paulina Rubio, not to mention that I brought up my love of the steel drum. And I didn’t even have something bad to say about Ricky Martin’s appearance. And that's no small feat.

So I decided to ask my token Latino friend, whom I like to cart out every once in a while to show that I’m cultured, what is so entertaining about Reggaeton and his response was basically like mine, “What’s that?” So apparently not every Latino is familier with “the futuro of music.” That notion is enforced by your assumption that you “are the biggest consumers of product in the present,” where are all the sales of Reggaeton music, I don’t see them on the top of the Billboard charts.

Aside from my token Latino friend, I am very cultured in the way of my music collection with genres ranging from Rock, Pop, Reggae, Rap, Country (real country, not the hillbilly music that many people mistake for country music today), Jazz, Blues, Afro-Cuban, Soul, some that are by Latinos artist, most prominently Santana.

Now there is a possibility that I am wrong about Reggaeton as I’ve been wrong before about certain music that later has grown on me. Not to mention that at the awards show, MTV didn't give the genre a decent amount of time and I couldn't imagine anything endorsed by Morbidly Obese Joe could sound good. I am more than willing to give it another listen and the next time I’m in South Florida, I’m more than willing to check out a Las Discotecas Latinas, if you are willing to be my guide, Elcangriman69.

Wait, did I really spend all this time responding to a dude with the numbers "69" in his handle?

With a Little Peace, and Some Harmony

Recently, I review the latest Hootie and the Blowfish album (State Your Peace) and was disappointed with how mediocre Lucking for Lucky was, giving it a Terror Alert: Elevated. Granted I may be a little harsh on the band considering they were my favorite band for most of the mid-90’s. The three albums that Hootie released in the 90’s, Cracked Rear View, Fairweather Johnson, and Musical Chairs get massive play from my CD players to this day. In the new millennium, the boys have been spotty, at best, except for Darius Rucker’s solo album, but at least we have their earlier work, in including their debut, Cracked Rear View, which is September’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.

The album starts out with an explosion of sound in Hannah Jane then transitions into the three big hits off the album beginning with the biggest of them all Hold My Hand. I remember hearing them performing the song as an unknown band on Letterman one night and made my way to the local record store the next day. The song, aided by David Crosby on backing vocals, slowly became an anthem for drunk people everywhere, especially frat houses. The song was followed by equally big Let Her Cry, the go to break up song of its time. Hootie got back to the upbeat pop with the next song, Only Wanna Be with You, whose ESPN themed video still remains one of the most entertaining videos of all time. Of course Dan Marino was featured to clear up the line, “I’m such a baby, yeah, the Dolphins make me cry” because crying for men is only socially acceptable when its sports related.

Even beyond the big three, the album is very listenable and doesn’t feature a song that worthy of the skip button. Running from the Devil, with its violin and bongos, give the song a down home feel, and I love how Darius delivers the line “I gave up on you along time a go, but there’s something I want you to know.” Every great pop record isn’t complete without a monosyllabic chanting, and I’m Coming Home delivers that with it’s, “Sha la la, sha la la,” chorus. The song is another good down home sing-along. Look Away starts earnestly enough with, “Saw her standing there,” and continues from there with a mellow look at a failed relationship that shouldn’t be ending.

Being in a pop band, Darius and the boys aren’t afraid to talk about serious topics. Drowning deals with living as a black man in the South and asks the important questions such as, “Why is there a rebel flag hanging from the state house walls?” The song later features a line that has puzzled me for years, “PE’s coming.” I’ve been wondering since I’ve first heard it if PE stands for Public Enemy, another group that talked about the plight of the black man. Time, which I believe was the tenth single off the album, also deals with some tough subjects such as, “Children killing in the street, dying for the color of a rag.”

The album closes with a couple of sadder songs starting with my favorite track from the Cracked Rear View, Not Even the Trees. The song deals with the loss of a loved one. The song was very conforming to me as I lost a few friend and family around the release of the album. There were many times I would rewind the song to hear the lyrics, “Does he realize, he came down and took you too soon.” I love hearing this song live as Darius slows this line down to give it an extra impact. The official closing song, Goodbye, is the perfect closing time anthem set against an elegant piano melody. Just a great, cry in your beer type of song that is easily relatable to any college aged person. “So baby while we’re young, lets figure out together.” The album really comes to a close after Darius gives a soulful acapella version of the old standard, Motherless Child.

Over the years, people have drifted away from Hootie and the Blowfish in a case of being too big too fast and a natural backlash came. This was unwarranted as the boys never presented themselves as anything but who they were, a bar band from the South. All of their songs sound better in a bar as the album deals with great college experiences that will eventually happen in your local watering hole. Even though they haven’t put out a quality album lately, the boys can still pull off a great live show as I seen them throw in covers such as Soft Cell’s Tainted Love and Stone Temple Pilots’ Interstate Love Song showing their strengths of a bar band. In fact, their cover album, Scattered, Smothered & Covered, rivals their earlier albums in quality. And then there is the video Summer Camp with Trucks featuring a show circa their major label debut which is also worth checking out if just hearing Darius trying to rap. But it’s Cracked Rear View that has the greatest impact on my life and thus makes it a worthy entrant in the SHoF. I still consider this group of songs as the most perfect pop-rock album ever made.

A Melody Softly Soaring Through My Atmosphere

Usually I’m on the cusp of what’s going on in music; the guy people come to find out what’s good. One band with a lot of buzz I missed out on so far is Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve had heard of the band before, but never took the time to check them out. Without listening, I pegged them a pretentious band with an unfortunate name. But with the release of their major label debut, I figured I should take a listen.

What I found on their latest album, Plans, were lush melodies and soft chords that wouldn’t be out of place on the Garden State Soundtrack. Except Plans, as a whole, is more polished and better put together than most of Zach Braff’s mixtape. You can easily get lost in the music without knowing where you’re time has gone. The lead song, Marching Bands of Manhattan, takes the signature crushing guitars of Coldplay and softens them up with great results. A drum cadence drives Summer Skin almost into a march. Different Names for the Same Place starts off with a bare bones piano track that turns into spacey song half way threw.

I Will Wait for You in the Dark is a stripped down love song with an acoustic guitar accompanying the singer. With lyrics like “If heaven and hell decide, That they both are satisfied, Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs, If there's no one beside you, When your soul embarks, Then I'll follow you into the dark,” This song will send every hopeless romantic to their guitar to try to learn this song so they can serenade a loved on with it. What Sarah Said is a sad song that deals with the unbearable task of sitting in a hospital knowing this is it, “And I'm thinking of what Sarah said, but love is watching someone die.”

The main strength of the album is the verdant lyrics such as: “Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole” (Marching Bands of Manhattan), “I've no words to share with anyone. The boundaries of language are quietly cursed” (Different Names for the Same Place), “Fall fades how it ages when you're away, Spring blooms and you find the love that's true” (Your Heart Is an Empty Room), and what college girl not get swept off her feet by a line like “You're so cute when you're slurring your speech” (Crooked Teeth).

Song to Download – I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Plans gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Who's House Are You Haunting Tonight

I was introduced to OK Go a couple years back when their song Get Over It was featured one of the Madden games. The song was a catchy power pop with a sing along chorus that gave me the impression that they were Midwest’s version of Weezer. But like most songs that are featured in EA Sports games, the song got so overplayed thanks to my hours devoted to the games and would finding myself muting the game because each song sent me into instant spasms.

Getting back to present day, I was intrigued when I heard the band was releasing a new album, sans video game promotion, Oh No. In the first half of the album, they follow the formula of Get Over It with it fast, guitar heavy sound over bratty lyrics. The opening track, Invincible, explodes over the speakers. Then we get Do What You Want another fast one that sounds like a lost song from the Primal Scream’s library.

Whenever the band tries to slow things down, the music really isn’t as good. Songs like Let it Rain and Maybe This Time just don’t stand up to their faster counterparts. Oh Lately it’s So Quiet is the only exception of the slower sect here with the singer trying his hand and falsetto and background singers repeating “Oh no”, throughout the song. But in the end, the band just seems too bratty; the allure of Weezer songs is Rivers Cuomo’s occasional self-loathing. OK Go should learn some of that humility.

Song to Download – Invincible

Oh No gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

We on Award Tour - 2005 Video Music Awards Recap

The MTV Video Music Awards have come and gone this year. A lot of cool thing that happened this year, but much like last year, there was not a defining water cooler moment again granted I was at the water cooler today gushing over the return of Beavis and Butthead. Diddy was your host and he didn’t suck as bad as the Wayans Brothers yet he came no where close to Chris Rock, Dennis Miller or even Arsinio Hall. And why has no one pointed out the Diddy has adopted the name of a cheesy rap song from the early 90’s yet. Am I the only one who remembers that song? “Do the diddy if you won’t do me cause damn I can see that you want me.” But anyways, here are some of my highlights from the show:

Pre-Show
- So there was a car show of the pimpest rides on the pre-show with Green Day’s car from the Holiday video stealing the show. But can we retire the word “pimp” as a positive adjective. Let’s not forget a true pimp is someone who forces women to sell their bodies for money. This is a word that should ever be glorified.

- Also part of the car show was Ludacris who drove in a custom Louis Vuittan car. Did I miss something; I thought LV was for chicks. Any guy I see with LV gets mocked thoroughly.

- The Game also rolled up in his car. Although the commentator called him just Game. So what is it, “The Game” or just “Game?” Did he drop the "The" like Diddy dropped the "P?" I’m just a corny old white dude; I need help figuring these things out.

- MTV apparently has a new fashion consultant, Coltrane. Just what MTV needs, their very on Joan Rivers critiquing clothes.

- During the pre-show, they were hawking a new Madonna concert DVD. Is there anyone who would actually spend money to see a 40 year old lip-sync?

- Okay, it seems that Houston is the new hot rap city, but after hearing the medley of Houston rappers perform, I think it may be time to move to the next city. Topeka anyone?

- Yes, those were Ice-T’s wife’s nipples you saw. Brings back fond memories of Rose McGowan.

- John Norris was heard asking everyone who is going to win the big prize but would always interject, “A lot of people say Kanye will take home the big one.” John, actually you were the only one who was saying it.

The Main Show
- Odd choice with a Green Day performing a relatively low key Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Not quite as good as my suggestion.

- Yes that was a teleprompter you saw in Diddy opening “performance.” He comes out to Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax, Diddy is the only one who loves the 80’s more than VH1. And for those keeping track, that’s the second gay anthem that Diddy has associated himself with, Diana Ross’ I'm Coming Out.

- The opening itself was cool, but reminded me too much as a mini version of the Olympics ceremony. The water theme was also cool, especially how they transitioned the video nominees.

- Winning the Carrie Fisher Award for hot chick that has fallen the quickest goes to Lindsay Lohan. She just gets uglier and uglier. Someone buy her a Big Mac please.

- Interesting to mix up the Best Male and Female Videos together. Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson win, okay mash-up artist, it’s time to give that a try. Behind These Gold Digging Eyes anyone?

- Big Daddy Butthead and fire loving Beavis are back. Now where exactly can I vote for them to get back on MTV?

- I have a theory that Ciara is the black Britney Spears. Marginally attractive but shows a lot of skin – check. Limited vocal range – check. Attaches herself to an equally talent less boyfriend – check. Focuses more time on her dancing than singing – check. Make music that makes my ears bleed – check.

- Now I’m a sucker for steel drum, but I was still disappointed there was no Mike Myers during Ludacris’ performance, instead we get some dude named Bobby Valentino.

- Did Diddy really call Orlando Bloom the prettiest person in the world?

- It was nice to see Grandmaster Flash. Too bad it was ruined with a dance off between Diddy and Omarion. Which then led to the biggest surprise of the night, an appearance by Hammer? Hey, anything can happen. And yes, I still know every word to U Can'T Touch This. And thinking about it, I know Hammer wasn't a one hit wonder, but can anyone name another one of his songs?

- Worst outfit award goes to Jessica Simpson weird backless, yet still wearing a bra, French Maid ensemble. She also takes home worst hair award.

- Am I mistaken, or did Alicia Keys wear the same unfavorable, form fitting, dress as last year?

- What was with the dude with Shakira and his guitar? He only strummed it about two times; it was like members of N’Sync performing with microphone. I wonder if the dude was carrying it because he needed to hides something.

- Umm, should I know what clowning or crumping is? My spell check doesn’t even know what the crumping is.

- Missy Elliot wins Best Dance Video. Shouldn’t this award go to a song you could actually dance to?

- Holy Eric Roberts sighting! Nice plug for his step-son’s, Keaton Simons, album and website. Now how exactly do I go about getting my refund that he offered?

- Now typically I rip anyone who lip-syncs, but I’ll let R. Kelly slid on account they he gave the most entertaining performance o the night. And just when I thought nothing could top Chapters 1-5 videos for Trapped in the Closet, Kelly goes and tops himself with a one man show debuting Chapter 6. I can’t wait for Chapters 7-12. Kelly was also seen on the red, oops, white carpet wearing an “I’m Rick James’ Bitch” shirt. I’m sorry to hear that and I sure hope your crack-pipe burns have healed by now R.

- Did we really need to see a naked Sean Combs? Although Kunta Combs was funny. It was nice to see Diddy take a pot shot at half the country when he brought up his Vote or Die campaign. Which reminds me, when is Diddy going to get around to killing Paris Hilton, she didn’t even register to vote.

- Diddy announces that Hilary Duff and Joel Madden are the Jay-Z and Beyoncé of rock. Well except Jay-Z waited for Beyoncé to be well past 18 before they started dating. Now Joel may be the Roman Polanski of pseudo-punk, that might be a better comparison. I wonder what the age of consent is in Florida.

- The Killers are remote from some hotel. Very Miami Vice setting, fitting for the band’s love for the 80’s is only trumped by Diddy.

- Holy Lil' Kim sighting! Shouldn’t she be in jail by now, wasn’t she convicted a couple months ago. Oh, I forgot, she’s famous (relatively), she can show up to jail whenever she want. It’s odd that all the famous guys get off yet the famous females get jail time.

- We are then treated to by an appearance by Big Daddy Poseidon and the Roman God of feces and manure. Seriously, where can I vote to get Beavis and Butthead back on the air?

- Nice tribute to Biggie although it was surprising that they went with lesser known Juicy and Warning instead of smashes like Big Poppa or Hypnotize. And they even censored the line “blow up like the World Trade,” I’m not sure that was needed. He wasn’t even alive for reason they bleeped it for. And as the ten year anniversaries of their deaths creep closer, I’m starting to begin to think that maybe Biggie and Tupac are really dead, not hanging out in Hawaii with Elvis as I previously thought.

- The classiest and least classy people, Common and Johnny Knoxville present together. I shouldn’t have to specify which is which.

- Morbidly Obese Joe presents a medley of Reggaeton artists. That was extremely horrible. This could be to my generation what rap was to my parents and rock and roll was to their parents. I really hate the whole getting old thing.

- Missy Elliot defies conventional wisdom again by winning Best Hip Hop. But then again, this category hasn’t had any credibility since Jennifer Lopez won it.

- Worst Bling of the night goes to Pharrell. This is saying a lot with all the mouth bling the Houston rappers were sporting.

- I wonder why Coldplay is now putting MTF on its piano. I’m not sure many people realized that it stands for maketradefair.com. It was nice to see Chris Martin run up to the cheap seats and get surrounded by a bunch of drunken people.

- Should I know who B5 is? And all they do is present other presenter. Was that really needed?

- Kelly Clarkson wins best pop and walks through the fountain of water to accept the award. I love the gratuitous Gwen Stefani shots after she losses. It almost like MTV was jabbing at her for threatening to not show up is they didn’t let her perform. They didn’t even show any of the Moonmen she won on the big show.

- Not since Andrew Dice Clay has MTV given a comedian air time at the VMA’s for some stand up, and this year they give time to… Dane Cook? Should I know who he is? Actually the guy was pretty funny, especially the part about putting a detonator in your kid. Maybe they should get this dude to host next year.

- The Killers win Best New Artist and for the first time ever, and drummer actually gives the acceptance speech.

- Stefani win best Diddy’s best dressed challenge even though she’s wearing some leopard spot dress out of the Soprano’s wardrobe. Obviously the female population voted for this as is it was judged by dudes Eva Longoria would have won by a landslide.

- Guided Vocal Alert! As I predicted, Mariah Carey’s performance made for a good bathroom break and her little midget showed to move around like an idiot. And if The Lox ever want to get some street cred, maybe they should stop showing up on J-Lo and Mariah songs.

- I don’t know who Paulina Rubio is, but I’m glad she wore that dress. And I like how she kept trying to say the Gorillaz couldn’t be their as the cartoon’s acceptance speech ran behind her.

- Remember when 50 Cent had credibility? His guided vocal performance was quite boring, and then brings out Mobb Deep, who just became hype men. Then come out the winner of the Macy Gray Award for lamest self promotion, Tony Yayo to perform the worst song of the medley. But thing were almost salvaged as 50 went on a tirade against Morbidly Obese Joe with plenty of obscenities making it on air. For those of those not paying attention 50 said, “Fat Joe is a…” um, as Naughty by Nature put it, “It’s another why to call a cat or kitten, there’s five letters missing here.”

- More reasons why My Chemical Romance suck, they are Diddy favorite band. I recently read in Rolling Stone that the group members are pushing thirty. That’s kind of creepy considering that their fan base is moody 14 year olds. Granted Eminem is on the wrong side of thirty and his fan base are 16 year old brats. And on the subject of MCR, is it wrong that I think the dead chick in their video is hot?

- Can anyone explain why Lil Bow Wow and Paris Hilton are still around? This did lead to the funniest awkward moment and Lil and Billy Joe could figure out if they should shake hands, hug, or give a chest bump.

- Did Michelle from Destiny's Child really just quote Fall Out Boy?

- Green Day wins Video of the Year and gets much love from Hammer on their way to accept the award. That should be award enough.

- As for a wet Kelly Clarkson and you shall receive a wet Kelly Clarkson. I wonder if anyone let the audience know they were going to be drench because I saw a few unhappy faces in the crowd. And some one should have told Kelly that when she performs in the rain, she may not want to go barefoot, but then had they done so, we wouldn’t have seen her slip in a puddle.

And then that was it. The surprise performances were Hammer and My Chemical Romance. That can’t be a good sign for an awards show. Also, no one got shot, unless you count Suge Knight who was shot at a pre show. But he was not critically injured and neither Lohan nor Hilton got caught in the cross-fire. For those who missed the show, it’s MTV, they will repeat it constantly for a month. And in response to getting panned over AOL’s coverage over Live8, for those with Broadband, you can see the whole show, plus extras, on MTV’s Overdrive internet channel.

My final tally:

3 of 21 (.143) thought should have won.
8 of 21 (.381) I predicted correctly.