Best of the Week - 3/12/11

Quote of the Week: You’re like the hillbilly whisperer… put you on Oprah. (Art – Justified)

Song of the Week: Sea of Love – Cat Power (Pretty Little Liars)

Big News of the Week: Sheen off the Charlie: Last week’s media blitz was entertaining with all the tiger blood and warlock talk but that wore real quick when Charlie Sheen went from crazy fun to just crazy. I’ve talked more about Two and a Half Men over the past two weekes than the two season before and now it is time to not caring about one of the least funny shows on television.

Free Download of the Week: Childish Gambino EP (iamdonald.com): Last week I brought you the new video from Community’s Donald Glover’s rap alter ego Childish Gambino and you can download that and the rest of the songs on his EP for free on his website.

Deal of the Week: Blu-ray for Under $15 (Kick-Ass, Sin City, 300)

New Album Release of the Week: Scandalous - Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

New DVD Release of the Week: Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Season One, Part Two

Video of the Week: After a decae of making a name for himself on the backs of Beta Males, Judd Apatow’s next film in his production teny will focas on the quintisential Beta Female, the bridesmaid.

Bridesmaids Trailer


Next Week Pick of the Week: March Madness, Starting Thursday at Noon on CBS, TNT, TBS, and TruTV: It’s the most wonderful time of year, Spring, Shamrock Shakes, St. Patrick’s Day and March Madness all happening this Thursday (assuming McDonalds doesn’t run out prematurely like they seem to do every year). Seriously, can we just declare it national holiday because nothing will get done. Or just make next Thursday a half day like we had in grade school? To get geared up, tune into Selection Sunday starting at 5:00 on CBS while ESPN will have a three hour braketology special. And the field gets expanded to 68 teams with the last eight in battle Tuesday and Wednesday during the newly announced First Four round.

Around the Tubes - 3/11/11

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 Ultimate Factories, Fish Warrior, Law and Order: Los Angeles, Big Love, South by Southwest, Tina Fey, CMT's Next Superstar, Peel, TNT premiere dates, Hawthorne, Discovery Channel DVD's.



- Last night Ultimate Factories went inside Jack Daniels and next Thursday they will go into its natural companion Coca-Cola. Below is a preview. As for tonight on the National Geographic Channel, at 8:00 is an episode of Fish Warrior expert angler and conservationist Jakub Vagner goes in search of giant catfish (see above):

Secret Formula of Coca Cola


- NBC has finally announced the return date for Law and Order: Los Angeles which is Monday April 11 at 9:00 for a two hour return before settling down at its usual 10:00 start time the following week.

- Only two more episodes of Big Love left and below is a special retrospective of the show’s title sequences set to God Only Knows performed by the Dixie Chicks.



- For those that cannot make it to Austin this weekend, you can watch South by Southwest live musical performances, exclusive interviews, comedy and more much over on Livestream.

- Fans of Tina Fey will want to check out the March 14 issue of The New Yorker where the comedienne talks about her tenure on Saturday Night Live.

- CMT has announced their new singing competition, appropriately titled CMT’s Next Superstar, will premiere Friday April 8 at 9:00. Like the show on Facebook for cast updates, exclusive extras and more.

- I am not much of a techie, so this kind of goes over my head (the lack of an iPhone / Pad / Touch does not help much), but for those that do may want to check out Peel Personal TV Listings & Remote Control. Take a look below below:



- TNT has recently announced summer premiere date for their show and here they are so you can march your calendars.

Franklin & Bash (New Series) – Wednesday, June 1, at 9:00

Men of a Certain Age – Premiere: Wednesday, June 1, at 10:00

Memphis Beat – Premiere: Tuesday, June 14, at 9:00

HawthoRNe – Premiere: Tuesday, June 14, at 10:00

Falling Skies (New Series) – Two-hour series premiere Sunday, June 19, at 9:00; regular timeslot Sundays at 10:00

Leverage – Premiere: Sunday, June 26, at 9:00

The Closer – Premiere: Monday, July 11, at 9:00

Rizzoli & Isles – Premiere: Monday, July 11, at 10:00

- Speaking of Hawthorne, when it returns the cast will include Marc Anthony as Police Detective Nick Renata, the character he introduced as a guest star in two episodes last season.

- Discovery Channel has a bunch of DVD’s hitting shelves this month including Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman; Cake Boss Season 3; Best Food Ever; Atlas: Uncovering Earth; Two Weeks in Hell and I Shouldn’t Be Alive 3.

I Know What I am Chasing, I Know that this Is Changing Me

For those of us whose formative years happened during the nineties, Automatic for the People was a seminal album by R.E.M. Released just nineteen short months after Out of Time, which pushed the band into the mainstream after being college rock gods for the previous decade, Automatic for the People hit a major chord with their newfound melodic sound and Michael Stipe’s impassioned lyrics. But in the nineteen years since the release, they have yet to release an album up to that standard which makes you wonder how much drummer Bill Berry, who left the band two albums later when he suffered an aneurysm during the Monster tour, had to do with the greatness of those nineties albums. But at this point I would be happy if the band released an album as good as Monster.

That has not to say the remaining three hasn’t scrapped together a few great songs in their drummer’s absent, but they never have seemed to fill a full album of them. Their fifth post Berry album (fifteenth overall) is their best work since Monster. Collapse Into Now mixes songs that have the energy of their eighties college rock days and melodic songs from the nineties, though definitely leaning more towards the former.

Album opener Discoverer can make any middle-aged remember back to college when they were in some sweaty bar seeing the band for the first time as you shout along with the chorus with one fist in the air. The band prominently breaks out a mandolin for the first time since Losing My Religion for Oh My Heart, the band’s catchiest songs since At My Most Beautiful. While Überlin sounds like a perfect blend of the band’s first two decades. And the boys brings back Patti Smith to close out the album with Blue and the spoken word is reminiscent of their last hook out on E-Bow the Letter.

Song to Download – Oh My Heart

Collapse into Now gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Assessing the Fall 2011 Network Pilots

TV Guide recently ran down the pilots, eighty-two in all, which the networks are considering considering for their fall schedule. It is premature to predict what is going to be good or not since we are still two months away from any of these shows from being picked up and six months before any of them premiere. But they did not called me Premature Scooter in college for no reason so I am going to do some predicting anyway. Here are five shows I would like to make it on their respective schedules.

Wonder Woman (NBC) – Sure the scripted has been ripped to shreds online and David E Kelly doesn’t seem like a good fit guiding the show, I would certainly tune in to see Trya Collette don the red, white, and blue spandex every week.

Once Upon a Time (ABC) – Considering this is being described as “A woman travels to a town where fairy tales are real” we may have to wait until this weekend to see how well Red Riding Hood does at the box office to gauge the chances this show has to getting picked up. Though I would be more confident if a show like this came from someone like Bryan Fuller, it was instead created by two writers from Lost who seemed to do a lot of Hurley-centric episode. And it stars Ginnifer Goodwin (Diane Snyder returns to free TV!) as Snow White. NBC will also have their own fairy tale themed show Grimm from Buffy / Angel writers.

Work It (ABC) – I have waited almost three decades for a Bosom Buddies reboot and this may be as close as it gets with two unemployed car salesmen dress in drag to get jobs a pharmaceutical representative. We will also get the bonus enjoyment figuring out which of the two will go on to be Tom Hanks and the other Peter Scolari.

Two Broke Girls (CBS) – Kat Dennings, who is great with passive aggressive dialogue, staring as a waitress co-written by Whitney Cummings, a standout of recent Comedy Central Roasts. Cumming also has her own starring vehicle for NBC from the creator of My Boys.

Playboy (NBC) – Let be the last red blooded American boy on the internet to get excited to hear they are doing a Playboy Club themed show (donning the bunny suits will be the absurdly hot Amber Hear and moderately attractive Naturi Naughton and Jenna Dewan) only to be let down to hear it will be on NBC, not HBO.


And as the great philosopher Butt-Head once told his understudy Beavis, “If it weren’t for things that sucked, how would we know if something was awesome?” And this year looks like there is a bunch of crap that hopefully never makes it to your televisions.

Charlie’s Angels (ABC) – Whenever something is successful is on television it spreads like wildflower (seriously, just count the number of three different couples themed shows that have popped up since Modern Family), and that is understandable. But why do networks continue to reboot show considering every single one in the past decade has failed miserably? And as much as I would like to see Lyla Garrity kick bad guy butt in skimpy clothing every week, I just cannot see this being any good and “from the producers of Smallville” doesn’t help.

Home Base (CBS) – Speaking of failed ideas, was NFL player who goes home already failed recently? Executive producer Marky Mark is also a serious red flag.

Touched (Fox) – Seriously, how does Heroes creator Tim Kring keep finding work? Only Lane Kiffin has fallen upwards faster.

Ringer (CBS) – I hate to break it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, Sarah Michelle Gellar cannot act. She is only passable when Joss Whedon is putting words in her mouth, and since he won’t and Supernatural writers will, this will be unwatchable.

Grace (ABC) – Nothing could get me to run further from a show than “from Dancing with the Stars judge” but here’s the catch, this show isn’t some crappy dance themed reality show, it’s a drama. Staring Eric Roberts. Of course it is set in the world of professional dance.

Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea (NBC) – Sure Laura Prepon was surprisingly good as Nikki Heat, but portraying Chelsea Hander (who inexplicably will play he older sister) screams unwatchable.

Partners (ABC) – No description made me laugh harder than, “Two female police detectives are fiercely loyal to one another... because they're also secretly sisters.” Actually, I may have to move this to the please get picked up pile because this may be so bad it’s good.

College Has Been Everything I Ever Imagined it to Be

Back in college, one thing all the graduate assistants I worked with agreed on, do not do graduate work at the same school you did your undergrad. I could not help think of those words of wisdom when watching this season of Greek. Though I did not have any plans of going to grad school after graduating, watching Casey Cartwright this season I could see exactly why everyone suggested not continuing even higher learning at the same school.

Sure hanging out with undergrads you were friends with just three months ago may not seem that band, but how quickly you turn into that old guy at the college bar. And I got that vibe that Greek itself may have stayed one season too long and may have been better if the series would have just ended when Casey and Even Chambers graduated. Instead Casey and Cappie end up riding off into the sunset one semester too late (leaving Evan to wallow by himself yet again).

We even got a steady parade of returning alumni this season with Frannie, Katherine, Ashleigh, and Wade all finding their way back to Cypress Rhoades this season to mixed results but with one common theme, they did so with their tails between their legs. Again, you may be able to go home again, but that doesn’t mean you should. Even Lonegirl15 inexplicably popped up for no apparent reason. Who knew she was still attending CRU? Which begs the question whatever happened to Ben Bennett?

That is not to say season four was a complete waste. Dale, always the series MVP, finally got a major storyline worthy of the spotlight when the former president of USAG (fun fact: Abed from Community was also a founding member) actually rushed a fraternity and taught the guys who only gave a bid to get back at Rusty a thing or two about brotherhood. And his work as the ZBZ hasher was always comedy gold especially whenever Rebecca was involved.

Greek did miss the usual ten years later epilogue you expect at the end of college stories, but at least Dale finally got that kiss from Casey he had been pining for since he first laid eyes on her at his Darwin Lied concert. Here is hoping they do not come back to Cypress Rhoades except for the occational Homecoming weekends.

Greek 4.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Greek the Series gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 3/7/11

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.


Uncharted - Sara Bareilles



I thought this was going to be another one of those fan made video until I went, “wait, isn't that Pharrell? And Josh Groban singing into a banana? Turns out Sara Bareilles got all her singer-songwriters friends to film videos of them lip-syncing her new song. Apparently no one in Maroon 5 has been on YouTube because their camera is too high quality and do not ham it up enough.


From the Clouds – Jack Johnson



Leave it to naturist Jack Johnson to shoot a beautiful video featuring the ocean. This screams view me in HD. And for anyone who would like to download this song for free (and more important legally) head over to Jack Johnson Music to do just that. The catch though is you have to post the link on your Facebook page or Twitter it to get the download. But for me free is free.


Uberlin – R.E.M.



At least the new R.E.M. video is less seizure inducing than their last one.


Freaks and Geeks – Childish Gambino



Yes that is the dude from Community (Childish Gambino is what a Wu-Tang Clan name generator gave him back in college; for those wondering, mine is Illmaster Assasin). I keep on going back and forth on if I actually like the song. Dude’s got wordplay skill, but the nasally delivery puts me off. But bonus points for including a shotout to time slot rival and fellow LaVar Burton fan, The Big Bang Theory.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 3/6/11

Shameless: Who would have guessed Frank would be more annoying sober than drunk?

Chuck: Holy Pierre Chang sighting! With both arms in tack! You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Wow, that may have been the worst karaoke performance I have ever heard that I do not think was intentionally supposed to be bad. At lead they did something for her hair because the previous cut was even worse than her singing. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Greek: Is there really only one episode left? You would seem like there would be some sense of urgency, but it seems like this season has been the same old episodes we have seen in the past, not something leading somewhere. Hopefully they have something big for tomorrow. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Castle: There were three times I yelled at the television: 1) Shoot at the fans to stop them while in the freezer, 2) For the dude from Heroes to shoot the terrorist when he drew his gun in the interrogation room, 3) For someone to just start pulling wires when they were out of option in front of the bomb. At least they listened to me once. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Parenthood: Wow, that sure was a heartbreaking episode. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Lights Out: Those were some pretty big scars on the trainer. I guess it is a good thing I have never tried to slit my wrists because I would have cut across the hand, not all the way up from the wrist to the elbow. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Lights Out on iTunes.

Survivor: Redemption Island: I was a little worried that Russell was yet again going to benefit from one of the dumbest moves in Survivor history, because if the firelady had switch and Ralph got voted out, Ralph would have shot to number two dumbest Survivors ever for not going, “hey, forget this risky split the votes, Russell doesn’t have the Idol because I do so let’s just all vote for him.” Luckily things worked out for him. Here’s hoping that Boston Rob joins Russell on Redemption Island next week. But I do not understand why let four contestant observe Redemption Island. This would be the only season where contestants wouldn’t know what they were getting into and now they completely ruined that. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Mr. Sunshine: Since I also have a pretty bad time at remembering names, I will have to remember not to try to learn names but creating nasty names for their initials. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mr. Sunshine on iTunes.

Justified: I have no recollection of the business guy Raylan visited this week. I used to be able to rattle off the littlest detail on Lost that most of the creators seemed to forget, and now I cannot even remember a guest star on a show nowadays. Getting old sucks. Speaking of Lost, it is weird seeing Daniel Faraday playing a moron. I keep waiting for him to outsmatrt someone, but I do not think it is ever going to happen. And which member of the Gibbons family had something to do with his limp? This season is only getting better, now if only I can remember the recurring characters. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 2/5/11

Quote of the Week: How much of a bad guy is her brother-in-law? Heads in a duffel bag or just an (expletive deleted)? (Raylan, Justified)

Song of the Week: I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor (as sung by the Gallagher Family, Shameless)

Big News of the Week: Charlie Sheen is a Bi-Winner: Charlie Sheen was in rare air this week, he haven’t seen a public meltdown this big since Britney Spears circa 2007. But Sheen is much bigger, he is like Spears, Mel Gibson, and Lindsay Lohan all mixed in one bag of tiger blood and Adonis DNA. The next question is what network ponies up three million dollars for a Charlie Sheen reality show with his goddesses? And will that give up are inevitable first on screen reality death?

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: The Beat Goes On - Beady Eye (iTunes): The Gallagher brother from Oasis that was the singer but didn’t do the song writing has finally after decades of fighting has left his big brother behind for a new band featuring two other Oasis vets. Grab their first single for free.

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5 Each: This month you can pick up albums from Beastie Boys, Counting Crows, R.E.M., Eisley and more.



New Album Release of the Week: Collapse Into Now - R.E.M.

New DVD Release of the Week: The Walking Dead: Season One

Video of the Week: As I mentioned earlier this week, Breakout Kings premieres tomorrow on A&E and you can check out the trailer for the show below:

Breakout Kings - Theatrical Trailer


Next Week Pick of the Week: The Event, Monday at 8:00 on NBC: It has been over three months since that last episode of The Event so hopefully there will be a lengthy recap before the first of two episode on Monday because I only have vague recollections of what happened in the first ten. I guess it may not matter as the promo for the show’s returns seems to have a couple of big spoilers, like what will The Event be? Bad Promo Monkeys.

Around the Tubes - 3/4/11

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 Beast Hunter, Ultimate Factories, Saturday Night Live, the 50 Best Music Scenes in Movies, Army Wives, Breakout Kings, Big Love, Greeting Cards, Esperanza Spaulding, INXS, and Showtime renewals and premiere dates.


- New show alert: Beast Hunter on the National Geographic Channel staring Pat Spain. In each episode Spain goes in search of bizarre creatures that are a thing of legends. Tonight he will be on the hunt for the man ape of Sumatra. In future episodes Pat will be on the lookout for the nightmare of the Amazon, the Swamp Monster of the Congo, the Sea Serpent of the North, and the Mongolian Death Worm. Check out a preview below:

On Orang Pendek’s Path


- The National Geographic Channel recently also send me the greatest (and worst) bit of swag ever: a bottle of Jack Daniels in honor of the product being featured on Thursday’s installment of Ultimate Factories which will be followed the week after (3/17) with Jack’s natural companion Coca Cola. So be sure to tune in so more people are compelled to send me alcohol. Although I may regret that considering my track record with drinking Jack Daniels.

- Miley Cyrus is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend and here’s hoping she doesn’t ruin the best skit of the season, The Miley Cyrus Show. Check out a promo below where she uses her alter ego’s catchphrase.

SNL Promo: Miley Cyrus


- Moviefone recently released its list, and accompanying video, of the 50 Best Music Scenes in Movies and no need to discuses number one because it is obvious (if you need to look to figure that out, I am not sure we can be friends), but there are plenty of spots worth debated. Like how is Sister Christian from Boogie Nights only #25; that is a top 5 lock. And the song at the end of The Wedding Singer isn’t even the best Adam Sandler musical moment (that would be him serenading the old Asian lady in Happy Gilmore) or even the best in the movie (Love Stinks, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me).

- Army Wives returns this Sunday for its fifth season at 9:00 on Lifetime, here is a sneak peak:

Army Wives Season 5 Exclusive Sneak Peek


- In a story I broke yesterday, Breakout Kings premieres Sunday and A&E has launch a new Catch a Con contest to celebrate. If you live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Chicago, there are people in orange jumpsuits roaming your cities and to “catch” them and win up to $5000, all you have to do is download GoldRun app on your iPhone and once you spot a con, take a picture and share it on Facebook for a chance to win.

- With only three episodes left, here is a tease of the next episode of Big Love:



- Who better than Gaddafi to tell that special someone how you feel. Head over to voiceyourfeelings.com where you can have the dictator say things like “Live from Libya …Wish you were here! No, really, I could use some help” for a greeting card that will be sent to anyone you want.

- Esperanza Spaulding is a better person than I am because she made a very elegant response to the backlash to winning the Best New Artist last month on The Gayle King Show. I would have said, hey all you annoying twelve year old Justin Beiber fan: shut the frack up. The twerp didn’t even deserve to be nominated, so back into your little hole until the next award show to let stupid people vote on the awards. (And Mumford and Sons are the ones that deserved the award anyway.)

- Fans of INXS will want to head over to AOL’s Music’s Listening Party where you can stream their new album Orginal Sin where artist Ben Harper, Rob Thomas, Pat Monahan perform the band’s classics with the band.

- NBC just cannot find any sort of luck. Just as they were announcing her as a mentor on their new singing competition The Voice, Christina Aguilera get busted for public intoxication (insert your own Not Myself Tonight jokes here). That’s not what we call winning. Hopefully fellow coaches Cee-Lo Green and Adam Levine can stay out of the drunktank before the April 26 premiere.

- Showtime recently announced that both Shameless and Episodes have been picked up for a second season. Also here are the released the dates for its Spring and Summer premieres. Here they are:

Nurse Jackie – March 28 at 10:00

United States of Tara – March 28 at 10:00

The Borgias – April 3 at 9:00 (2 hour premiere, new episodes starting the following week will begin at 10:00)

Secret Diary of a Call Girl – April 7 at 10:30

Gigolos – April 7 at 11:00

The Real L Word – June 5 at 10:00

Weeds – June 27 at 10:00

The Big C – June 27 at 10:30

Web Therapy – July 19 at 11:00


Comedy Specials:

Caroline Rhea and Friends – March 5 at 9:00

Fierce Funny Women – March 10 at 8:30

Aries Spears: Hollywood, Look I’m Smiling – April 16 at 9:00

Jon Lovitz Presents – April 23 at 9:00


Documentaries:

Ahead of Time – March 3 at 8:30

Behin the Burly Q – March 31 at 8:00

Previewing Breakout Kings

Who would be better at catching someone who has broken out of prison better than someone who has actually done so themselves? Not that any correctional facility would let a criminal that has already escape leave it premises to do such a thing. Luckily television is restrained by such this as reality so we can get a show like Breakout Kings that has such a premise.

The show features two federal marshals who are tasked at apprehend a convicted murder who has broke out from prison. Laz Alonso (Leprechaun: Back 2 the Hood) is the straight laced former desk jockey eager to show he has the chops to be out in the field. While Domenick Lombardo (The Wire) is the shoot from the hip fed with a drastic idea of utilizing convicts that he previously hunted down after their successful breakouts from their respective prisons.

The crooks include Jimmi Simpson (Herbie: Fully Loaded), the mastermind of the group, a former professor that deals in psychoanalysis. Malcolm Goodwin (Leatherheads) is the street smarts. They are rounded out with some muscle and a former beauty queen turned con artist but do not get too attached to the characters because one doesn’t even make it to the end of the Pilot while the other doesn’t show up in the second episode (A&E send along the first and third episodes so I do not know if it is explained why the character is not asked back on the team.

Showing up starting the second episode is Serinda Swan (Smallville’s Zatanna) as an expert tracker who learned the skill from her bounty hunter father and has extra motivation to help out because she has a daughter at home and her baby daddy doesn’t always get her to visitation time. The carrot at the end of the stick is for every escape they help capture is an extra month they get knock off their sentence at country club prison, but if one of them cuts and runs, they all get their jail time doubled at a maximum security prison.

Rounding out the cast, and bringing up the cop to con ratio to even, is Brooke Nevin (The Comebacks) the information guru who is find sitting behind a desk, and not so much anywhere else, which of course Simpson loves to psychoanalyze. Also be on a look out for Billy Riggins who show up in the third episode as the convict of the week.

Breakout Kings is really two shows, the marshals are your typically cop drama with Alonso and Lombardo (who is holding onto a big secret) playing up the good cop / bad cop dichotomy and Nevin dealing with deep issues of her own. While the crooks bring the comic relief reminiscent of conmen and women of Leverage and are never ones to turn down a good quip or good natured shot at their coworkers. That changes a little when Swan gets added to the cast as she is more serious that her handlers. But Simpson is clearly the breakout star (no pun intended, okay, maybe a little intended) of the show. His attention to detail and mommy issues (the cons get a cell phone while on the job which he uses to check in with his to humorous consequences) is the perfect mix of Sheldon Cooper and Howard Wolowitz but with a gambling problem.

Breakout Kings airs Sundays at 10:00 on A&E. You can download a sneak peak (and presumably future episodes) of Breakout Kings on iTunes.

Look at My Sisters, Brilliant Like Fireflies up in Their Bedroom

Major labels can be very helpful to a career because they have the money to get your music into the ears of potential fans, but sometime getting releasing the chains the bind from big corporations can be very liberating for a band. The first full length album from Eisley under Warner Bros. gave focus to their independently released EP’s but never sadly caught with a larger audience, then came their sophomore slump with Combinations which was kind of a dud.

Now free of the confines of a major label, the band sounds rejuvenated with the release of The Valley off the independent Equal Vision Records Label. When the band sings “I’m smarter than you think” during Smarter you cannot help but wonder if it is about its former label, but either way it is fun to sing along with. With the crunching guitar, the song also sets a rougher tone for the album.

With that tougher sound come more mature lyrics, gone are mythical themes of albums past replaced by songs based on relationships, some rocky (the band has been a few failed marriages and engagements in the four years since their last album) and you can hear them take those themes right on with songs like Watch it Die, Sad, and Please. But the music still swells with big orchestras, piano and guitars that adds to the weight to the growth of the band.

Song to Download – Smarter

The Valley gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Would Rather Starve than Eat Your Bread

It seemed the less Pearl Jam wanted the spotlight, the more popular the band got. They refused to make anymore videos after Jeremy off their first album and their second Vs. had the biggest first week sales to date. Then they canceled their 1994 tour in protest of Ticketmaster’s service charges and their third album Vitalogy went on to be the second fastest album at the time after behind Vs. and like Vs. is being inducted into the Scooter Hall of Fame. Those two albums that chronicle the band’s tenuous rise of fame will rereleased as a three CD set later this month. Or if you have money to burn, you can also pick up the limited edition five LPs, four CDs, one cassette, an 80-page composition notebook and a memorabilia-filled envelope set. Vinyl hounds will have to trek down to your favorite independent record store when they will be sold exclusively.

Much like its predecessor, Vitalogy starts off with a one-two punch of guitar infused aggression with Last Exit and Spin the Black Circle, an ode to vinyl. I have a theory that the band loves vinyl that they made a CD that is guaranteed to scratch the CD. But in a time when the band was anti-music videos, they came up with some interesting packaging with the medical book theme of Vitalogy (which is the study of life) and the collector cards that were packaged with No Code.

In an age when the band wasn’t keen on self promotion, Better Man was still a commercial success despite never actually being released as a single and is up there with Black as one of the band’s best melancholy songs to date. But my favorite song on the album is Corduroy, a driving song that has an edge to it but remains as catchy as any pop song at the time.

Vitalogy also saw that band go into the bizarre musically whether it be Eddie Vedder singing about bugs around a poorly played accordion or the singer just repeatedly spelling privacy over and over again for a minute, or the vitrally wordless Spanish tinged Aye Davanita that just fades out as it did in. But it didn’t get any weirder than the album closer Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me which saw more repeated phrases, this time about spanking. But the highs of Vitalogy helped Pearl Jam complete one of the best trio of first albums by any rock band.