Nov 24 2009
Arguing about indie-punk sensation Jay Reatard has become a popular pastime for music snobs on the Internet.
Seems that with his move to Matador he's become too polished and power-pop for fans committed to his earlier, thrashier teenage punk.
I thought he lived up to the hype in his first-ever Pittsburgh show Monday night at the Brillobox, especially considering that he's still breaking in a new rhythm section.
The 29-year-old Reatard was a ball of energy, with shaggy hair flying everywhere as he negotiated guitar parts both spastic and epic. As promised in the interview he did with the PG, the new trio was up to the task of capturing the up-and-down dynamics of new songs like "I'm Watching You" and the soaring "There is No Sun."
Although there were some words exchanged with the people dancing close to the stage, there were no punch-ups as there have been at some of his shows. Maybe it was a Monday night thing.
Pittsburgh-based opener Kim Phuc came on harder and heavier with a set that kept the threshold at bruising levels.
Nov 23 2009
Normally I would be watching Sunday Night Football, and it looks like I missed a pretty decent game last night.
My TV was stuck on a train wreck: the American Music Awards.
First of all, taking these awards seriously is like betting on the WWE, starting with the absurd categories. For Pop/Rock Favorite Male Artist, the nominees were Eminem, Michael Jackson and T.I.
Huh?
How are Eminem and T.I. pop/rock? And why was Michael Jackson winning all these awards anyway? With all due respect, he did nothing this year except for rehearse for a concert tour and then die. Wasn't there a lifetime achievement award handy?
Taylor Swift, who was kept up way past her bed time in London, won Favorite Female Country Artist over Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood. But then she also won Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist over Beyonce and Lady Gaga.
Can't she be one or the other - preferably pop?
What the AMAs are really about are the mainstream of the mainstream plugging their records with live performances, ranging from bland to shocking.
On the bland side was Janet Jackson, in some kind of baggy Pocahontas get-up, opening the show with a medley of forgettable dance-pop tunes. Green Day was introduced as a longtime band that hadn't lost its edge and then proceeded to demonstrate the opposite with that dreadful "21 Guns" song.
Lady Gaga pushed the shock meter again, not with blood, but fire and broken glass, as she busted into a case with a mike stand to get to her piano. Yes, the Lady can sing and she can play, but her conventional pop doesn't rise to the level of her theatrics, does it?
Adam Lambert climaxed it all by going way over the top in a crude S&M fantasy scene so he'd be the most-talked-about artist today. Unfortunately, the talk is that not only was it rather gross, but the vocals were borderline hysterical.
Fortunately, there were a few performances that hit the meat of the bat. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys were a class act on their new New York anthem "Empire State of Mind," and the Black Eyed Peas rocked yet another party with "Meet Me Halfway," "Boom Boom Pow" and a surprising whiff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
They fared much better than J-Lo, who just went boom boom.
Nov 20 2009
Why would Green Day record a new version of "21 Guns" with the American Idol cast?
That was my first thought when I mis-read this particular piece of news.
What the release really said is that Green Day is in the studio this week recording with the "American Idiot" cast, which has been performing the stage version at Berkeley Rep since early September.
Billie Joe Armstrong is producing the track, which will hit radio at the end of November, with a video to follow.
"21 Guns" is the second single from Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown," which wasn't nearly as good as "American Idiot," imho.
Come to think of it, the concept of a Green Day stage production isn't all that more bizarre than them recording with the American Idol cast.
By the way, Green will be on the American Music Awards Sunday night.
Nov 18 2009
It looks like Nick Jonas is making his move.
The 17-year-old hearthrob from the Jonas Brothers will debut his side project, Nick Jonas & the Administration, on prime-time during the Grammy announcement show on CBS Dec. 2
The Administration features drummer Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella and guitarist David Ryan Harris.
Obviously Jonas to think about a future beyond the JoBros to be more like Justin Timberlake than Nick Carter. He explains it to USA Today like this "I had written five or six songs that were on my heart, things that were just pouring out of me with this new and exciting sound. They weren't necessarily right for the Jonas Brothers, but I thought they could be perfect for something else. It's a cross between my roots in R&B and soul with a kind of rock/pop music behind it."
R&B/soul meets rock/pop -- how exactly is that different than the Jonas Brothers?
Nov 13 2009
When Peter Gabriel strolls to the podium with Genesis to accept his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March -- it's gotta happen, right? -- the singer will have a new album to promote, called "Scratch My Back."
This is an offbeat project for Gabriel, who has been a huge influence on the indie-rock scene in recent years, from TV on the Radio to Vampire Weekend to the Arcade Fire.
"Scratch My Back," reports NME, will be the first in a series of cover albums featuring songs by David Bowie, Pa
ul Simon, the Arcade Fire, Radiohead and more.
It's part of a "song-swap project" so those bands will be covering Gabriel songs as well. The twist is that rather than guitars and drums, he will be backed by orchestral instruments.
Sounds a bit risky, but we can trust Peter, and lord knows he can sing.
Here is the track list:
Scratch My Back:
01 Heroes (David Bowie cover)
02 The Boy in the Bubble (Paul Simon cover)
03 Mirrorball (Elbow cover)
04 Flume (Bon Iver cover)
05 Listening Wind (Talking Heads cover)
06 The Power of the Heart (Lou Reed cover)
07 My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire cover)
08 The Book of Love (Magnetic Fields cover)
09 I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Randy Newman cover)
10 Après Moi (Regina Spektor cover)
11 Philadelphia (Neil Young cover)
12 Street Spirit (Radiohead cover)
Nov 12 2009
Ever since the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, the Super Bowl halftime has turned into 12 minutes of geezer rock -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- with McCartney, the Stones, Petty, Springsteen, etc.
SI.com reports that next up is the Who, which, of course, is down to two members: Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.
If people thought those other folks look old, wait till they get a look at Townshend trying to do scissor kicks.
I have the utmost respect for The Who, and I'm sure they'll be great, but they wouldn't be my first pick among classic rockers -- in part because they haven't done anything relevant in a long time.
Actually, I was kind of hoping for ZZ Top because they've been a little under the radar the past several years -- having to open for Aerosmith -- and they were a blast this summer and still bring it 100 percent.
Nov 12 2009
You don't go to jail, you get thrown Off the Bus.
And you don't buy Marvin Gardens, you buy Terrapin Station.
It's a concept no one could have dreamed of in the late '60s": Grateful Dead-Opoly.
It will be the board game of choice for the Deadhead in the family this holiday season. It was created for Discovery Bay Games by music industry veteran and longtime Grateful Dead associate Debbie Gold, with artwork by comic book illustrator Timothy Truman. Bob Weir, founding member of the Grateful Dead, and legendary roadie Steve Parish also contributed.
The game play is a tour with the band, with tokens that include a guitar, drum, amp, a tour bus and Bob Weir's dog, Otis, and the properties are Dead albums.
Sounds like a nice low-tech alternative to Beatles Rock Band, something boomers can actually play!
Nov 12 2009
It would be too strong to say that Harper Simon's gorgeous debut album is false advertising for his live shows, but anyone expecting him to sound like the record was probably disappointed Wednesday night at the Andy Warhol Museum.
Simon's debut sounds like a long-lost solo album by his father Paul, with flowing melodies, poetic lyrics and Harper's breezy delivery.
But that polish wasn't there, maybe because the 37-year-old Simon, who came up through punk bands, isn't really interested in it. At the Warhol, his vocals were more mushy and slurred, obscuring some of the lyrics, and he seemed more eager to get through them and on to the Grateful Dead-like jams that ended many of the songs. Unlike his dad, Harper is an adventurous lead player and drove his talented band into some raggedly beautiful jams, not unlike Ryan Adams does.
As a frontman, he didn't do much to endear himself to the crowd of about 60 quiet people. Between songs he kept asking them to take the lights down, to the point where he was almost playing in the dark. He joked that he would love to have a single blue light, like being in a hotel room on meth.
Along with songs from the debut, Harper squeezed in a slow, druggy cover of The Cure's "In Between Days" and then, just when you thought he really wasn't having much fun, he asked the soundboard if he had time for one more song. It ended up being a nod to Warhol, a cool, droning cover of the Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" that the band may have worked up during the soundcheck.
Paul is notorious for being a perfectionist, both in the studio and on stage. Harper showed last night that he didn't get that gene. Then again, at least he's doing his own thing.
Nov 11 2009
The 52st Grammy nominations will be announced on CBS Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 9 p.m. with a broadcast called "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown To Music's Biggest Night."
Former Grammy winners Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and Sugarland will perform live from Club Nokia in LA.
This is the second year the nominations have been announced live. The awards show will be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 31.
So, let's see. Possible Album of the Year selections (based on Grammy taste):
U2
Black Eyed Peas
Jay-Z
Taylor Swift
Michael Buble
Rosanne Cash
Barbra Streisand
Nov 10 2009
As I was clicking onto Pitchfork's top 20 albums of the decade it struck me how obvious No. 1 was going to be.
It was an album that came out just over nine years ago (Oct. 2, 2000): Radiohead's "Kid A."
As someone who wore out his copy of "OK Computer," I remember my initial disappointment in the band's departure from guitar rock into something so dark, blippy and disjointed. It was Thom Yorke saying, "Here, Coldplay, try this!" It was hardly a fun record to listen to, but it did set a sonic tone for the decade and obviously, it was a very intellectual enterprise.
Pitchfork nails down the reasons for the selection, writing that "Kid A" conjures, "Thoughts about millennial techno-dread; fragmentation, broken transmissions, garbled communication; the feeling of helplessness that comes from having access to so much information about the world while not having the power to change any of it; the subtle and dramatic ways that electronics are altering our landscape and our consciousness."
There were a number of albums in the Top 20 that I spent more time listening to than "Kid A" just because they were more enjoyable, like Jay-Z's "The Blueprint," Wilco's "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel," The Strokes' "This is It" and even The Arcade Fire's "Funeral." I loved that one right away -- have no desire to hear it anymore.
My question to you: Are you feeling any of those as the Album of the 00s?
What would be your pick?
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