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The Tuesday Roundup: New Releases 09.05.06
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September 5, 2006
Another Week, Another Pop Diva
 You don't need a crystal ball to know that Beyonce is going to rule the charts this week. First, she's Beyonce. Her last album sold 11 million copies worldwide. Second, because of Labor Day and the shortened week, she has virtually no competition.
Despite all of this, a lot of pundits seemed to be convinced that Ms. Bootylicious has lost her shine, pointing to signs like the "disappointing" performance of the album's first single, "Deja Vu" (it peaked at a measly #4) and the rather bizarre videos for both that song and its followup, "Ring the Alarm." And while it may be true that Beyonce is no longer the omnipresent pop force she once was, you'd still be a fool to bet against her. She'll sell 450,000 copies -- and the pundits will find a way to convince everyone that this constitutes a flop.
Other Movers and Head-Bangers
- Audioslave, Revelations. I keep thinking that hard rock fans will have a true "revelation" and realize that this band is the most boring supergroup ever, with none of the spark of its members' former bands, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. But their last album debuted at number one with 263,000 copies sold and this one probably won't do much worse. Prediction: 220,000 copies.
- Iron Maiden, A Matter of Life and Death. The world's most parody-proof heavy metal band returns with its fourteenth studio album -- and dude, there's skeletons marching next to a tank on the cover! It's timely and totally rad! Prediction: 110,000 copies.
And that's it. Told ya Beyonce didn't have much competition.
Pick o' the Week
 Kinky, Reina. Apparently they're never going to top their mind-boggling debut album, but on their third release, Kinky recapture a little of that disc's genre-hopping magic. Songs like "Una Linea de Luz" and "A Donde Van Los Muertos?" are prime examples of this Mexican quintet's knack for rousing dance-rock anthems that mix Latin percussion, monstrous bass grooves, electronics and even the occasional funky accordion. And they occasionally hit the mark with a more straight-up pop-rock tune, like "Monday Killer," which improbably features guest vocals by Men at Work's Colin Hay. They still haven't quite bottled the energy of their raucous live shows, but they continue to be one of the most unique-sounding bands out there.
The Best of the Rest
- Alice Smith, For Lovers, Dreamers, and Me. This New York pop-soul singer will suffer unfair comparisons to Corinne Bailey Rae, but she's a unique talent in her own right, with a powerful voice and an unexpected knack for vampy jazz-pop songs like "Woodstock" (no, not the Joni Mitchell tune).
- The Hourly Radio, History Will Never Me. Not another band with a U2 complex? Yup, but unlike so many of their peers, these guys actually have some serious songwriting chops to back up all those soaring vocals and reverb-laden guitars.
- Hem, Funnel Cloud. "Lively" is a relative term when discussing these maestros of hushed chamber-folk, but this is probably their liveliest, most engaging set yet.
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Playlist: Some Hip-Hop I Actually Like
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September 4, 2006
I was going to write a long diatribe here about how most mainstream hip-hop sucks right now, but I'll spare you that. After all, what do I know? I'm a white dude raised in the Reagan-era suburbs. I'll just say that it's weird to me that all of these songs would be considered "underground" hip-hop in America, because they're every bit as fun and party-ready as anything that makes it to radio. Maybe even more so.
1. Lyrics Born, "Callin' Out." The San Francisco Bay Area is a hotbed of talented, innovative hip-hop artists, and none is more exciting than this guy, a gravelly-voiced, motormouthed Asian-American rapper who favors a sunny, old-school funk vibe. This track is nearly three years old and it still deserves to be a hit.
2. Mojoe, "3rd Coast Anthem." This San Antonio duo is dropping their debut album this month. From what I've heard, they've got a bluesy, soulful vibe that's pretty unique, and a nice alternative to that sludgy, syrup-sippin' stuff coming out of Houston.
3. Swollen Members, "Too Hot." These guys release their fifth album this month, but you've probably never heard of them before. Why? Well, mainly because they're Canadian, and as a hardcore hip-hop fan from LA once told me decisively, "Canadians can't rap. They're too nice." But if you like witty, leftfield rappers like the Pharcyde, and you can check your anti-Canadian presumptions at the door, this new Swollen Members track will blow you away.
4. k-os, "Crabbuckit." If Swollen Members are Canada's answer to the Pharcyde, then k-os might be its answer to will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Both guys are essentially great pop songwriters masquerading as rappers. Here, k-os borrows the backbeat from "Hit the Road, Jack" and turns it into a pop-rap anthem as undeniably catchy as anything from Monkey Business.
5. Colossus, "Thrupenny Bits (Remix)." Back in the Bay Area, Oakland-based producer-bassist Charlie Tate, a.k.a. Colossus, teams up with British rapper Hylton Smythe and cooks up one of the funkiest hip-hop tracks you'll ever hear anywhere. "Thrupenny Bits," by the way, is cockney rhyming slang for "tits." Just thought you should know.
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Panic! at the Video Awards
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September 1, 2006
Well, another MTV Video Music Awards show has come and gone, and you can bet there's gonna be some fallout, boy. And I'm not just talking about my own terrible puns. I'm talking about the heirs apparent to the eyeliner-sporting, sissy-boy, emo-pop throne -- Panic! at the Disco, who somebody at MTV must be really, really invested in. Not only did the Fall Out Boy proteges get five nominations and a choice performance time slot, they capped off the evening's festivities by taking home the moonman for Video of the Year. Expect to get really sick of hearing "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies," if you're not already.
Other than that, I can't really comment on this year's VMAs, because I spent the evening in the living hell that is Los Angeles International Airport's Bradley Terminal, picking up my girlfriend from a much-delayed flight from London. So I missed them. Oh, well. I hear Al Gore was the highlight. He, Panic! and YouTube will probably the best only people who get any traction as a result of this year's show. Why YouTube? Because after seeing OK Go do their treadmill dance live, about a zillion kids immediately rushed to their computers and started forwarding the YouTube link for the treadmill dance video to all their friends. How great is it that a bunch of dorky white guys with some Napoleon Dynamite-style dance moves stole the show from the slickly choreographed likes of Beyonce and Fergie?
Wait...you mean you really care who won? Okay, fine. Go here for the full list.
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Show Review: Richie Havens
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August 31, 2006
I don't care what anyone says about folkies being a bunch of tree-hugging, chai-sipping wimps -- Richie Havens is a stone-cold badass. He performs dressed like some sensei monk from an old martial arts flick, sporting a long black robe, long white beard, and chunky rings that glitter like brass knuckles as he strums his guitar with the intensity of a man half his age. And speaking of men half his age, when was the last time you saw a 65-year-old folkie finish his set with a leaping high-leg kick? Take that, you young whipper-snappers!
But of course, what really makes Richard P. Havens a total badass is his voice -- a voice that can still, 37 years after he rocked Woodstock, give you chills. In fact, Havens finished his set at the Troubadour last Saturday with the song best remembered from his legendary Woodstock appearance -- "Freedom," an adaptation of the old spiritual "Motherless Child." And it still has the power to make an audience shake, hoot and holler, even when that audience is, like Havens himself, decidedly older and grayer, and doing their hootin' and hollerin' while seated in plastic folding chairs.
Havens isn't afraid to let that Woodstock performance define him, even to this day -- his latest album, Grace of the Sun, includes a cover of Joni Mitchell's era-defining song of the same name, as well as a version of "All Along the Watchtower," the Bob Dylan song that bridged the gap between Greenwich Village folkies like Havens and the psychedelic rock scene of the West Coast when Jimi Hendrix recorded his definitive version of it in 1968. Havens performed both songs in his Troubadour set, and playfully introduced "Watchtower" with a story about two famous of friends of his, whom he never mentioned by name.
"In those days you could ask someone to write down a song for you, and they would do it." (I'm paraphrasing here.) "So this song I'm about to play for you is a song I learned that way. And once another cat heard me play it and said" -- deeper voice -- "'Richie, you gotta give me that song, man.' So I did, and then he went off and recorded it. And he killed it. He nailed it so good none of the rest of us could touch it after that. So for a long time I didn't play this song. But I'm gonna play it for you now." And then he proceeded to -- well, kill it, making "Watchtower" indelibly his own.
Throughout the evening, Havens peppered his performance with between-song chatter, often to stall while he painstakingly retuned his guitar. Havens uses open tunings -- in other words, he always tunes the strings in such a way that he can play a chord without touching the fretboard. He then builds off that basic chord by playing bar chords with his thumb. It's a unique and very effective technique, and one that I have to assume more guitarists would emulate if they had thumbs as massive (and, dare I say, bad-ass) as Havens'.
With a catalog spanning four decades, it was inevitable that Havens disappoint everyone, including me, by omitting a few classics. To his credit, he did play one request, the hauntingly beautiful song "Follow" off his 1967 debut album, Mixed Bag. His rendition of it was spectacular, and his two accompanying musicians, on lead guitar and cello, played melodic fills and counterpoints without missing a beat. But Havens still seemed almost apologetic when he was done. "I gave it my best shot," he shrugged. He also played his one "hit," a cover of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" that reached the Top 20 in 1971, and a medley of Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" and Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" that was, for me at least, the evening's highlight. Just as Hendrix owns the definitive version of "All Along the Watchtower," Havens plays the definitive version of "Just Like a Woman" -- even if most of the world hasn't heard it.
It's puzzling and more than a little frustrating to me that Havens remains a historical footnote to the Woodstock era and not a more widely recognized performer and songwriter in his own right. Most people my age only know him for "Here Comes the Sun" and a couple of songs he did with British electronica duo Groove Armada -- "Hands of Time" and "Little by Little." At least those Groove Armada tracks are great songs, and Havens is in top form on them, but still, they're hardly representative of his legacy. Most of that legacy, unfortunately, is now out of print -- of his early material, only his 1967 debut, Mixed Bag, is still widely available. I have to remember to ask my mother if she kept his other albums -- they're collector's items at this point. Plus, I really want to go back and listen to them again. Songs like "The Klan," "Run, Shaker Life," a stunning cover of "She's Leaving Home" -- I have to resort to the "forgotten classic" cliche to describe them. And yes, most of Havens' best stuff is available on compilations, but it's a shame those original albums -- not to mention his equally powerful, more recent work -- are so difficult to find.
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Show Review: Gotan Project, Zero 7
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August 30, 2006
 I was already a Zero 7 fan before I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday night, but now I'm a huge fan, if for no other reason than because they're the first band I've ever seen who included a well-stocked bar as part of their stage set-up. What a great idea! Between belting out old favorites like "Destiny" and future set staples like "The Pageant of the Bizarre," Sia was running over to fix cocktails, sometimes for other band members but mostly for herself. And hopefully she was spiking them with Robitussin, because she was sporting a nasty cough, even though she sounded great every time she took the mic.
Zero 7 used to tour with a small army of vocalists, but they've since pared it back to two: Sia and new addition Jose Gonzalez, a reedy-voiced Swedish/Argentinean singer-songwriter whose solo output, like Sia's, is folkier than Zero 7's carefully manicured electro-soul, but just as luminous. His unassuming stage presence and straightforward delivery were a nice complement to the whirling dervish (both physically and vocally) that is Sia, but the absence of chemistry between the two singers gave Zero 7's short, 10-song set the Bowl an oddly disjointed feel, almost like we were watching two different bands.
I was also disappointed by the band's decision to limit Gonzalez's live contributions to just the tracks he sings on Zero 7's latest, The Garden; it would have been interesting to hear him reinterpret some of the great Mozez-sung tracks like "Warm Sound" and "I Have Seen" from the first two albums. He's not a soul singer like Mozez, but he's a great vocalist, and I bet he could pull it off.
LA-based NPR affiliate and hipster tastemaker KCRW hosted the evening's show, and made the odd choice to relegate Zero 7 to opening act -- hence their abbreviated set. The headliner was the equally outstanding but less well-known Gotan Project, a Paris-based music collective led by two producers, Philippe Cohen Solal and Christoph H. Mueller, who add electronic beats and synths to traditional tango music.
Solal and Mueller spent the set hunched over a bank of mixers and effects boxes, providing most of the show's percussion and all of its basslines -- which would have given their set a canned feel had the live musicians not been so outstanding. That group included guitarist and Gotan co-founder Eduardo Markoff, vocalist Cristina Vilallonga, a pianist, a bandoneon player (a small accordion traditional to tango) and a string quartet. All were excellent, but the evening's true showstoppers were their lead violinist -- whose name I unfortunately did not catch -- and Michael Jackson.
Michael Jackson? Yup, Jacko made a cameo appearance of sorts when the Gotan guys mashed up their own best-known song, "Triptico," with the beat from "Billie Jean." It was a fitting end to an evening that was billed as part of KCRW's World Festival -- a live mash-up of South American tango, European electronica and good old-fashioned American pop.
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The Tuesday Roundup: New Releases 08.29.06
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August 29, 2006
For the next six weeks, the music industry is going stark raving bonkers, releasing more new product than fans will be able to keep up with. It might boost sales overall, but it's going to depress sales on a per-title basis, sometimes severely. Which is too bad, because there's actually some great albums in the torrent, starting this week with The Roots' Game Theory.
What this means for your fearless blogger is that I'm going to streamline my weekly new releases update considerably, and focus only on titles that I either really like or that are going to rack up big-time sales figures (or both). You can bet retailers are going to do the exact same thing, which is why this six-week glut of new releases is ultimately not good news for the industry, even if it should provide a short-term lift to the year's sagging profits.
Jessica Strikes Back
 Put it this way: Nick Lachey sold 171,000 copies of his post-Newlyweds album, the woe-is-me What's Left of Me. And who do you think is the bigger star? Even with all the chart competition, Jessica and her much sunnier breakup album, A Public Affair, should move around 250,000 copies and easily grab the #1 spot on the charts this week. [Actual sales: 101,000. Ouch. Somewhere, Nick Lachey is laughing his ass off.]
Other Movers and Shakers
- Young Dro, Best Thang Smokin'. With a #1 rap song in "Shoulder Lean" and an Atlanta pedigree to match other ATL newcomers like Yung Joc, Dro should be the next big "thang" out of the Dirty South. Prediction: 150,000 copies. [Actual sales: 104,000. Boy, I was really off this week.]
- Tego Calderon, The Underdog/El Subestimado. Calderon is arguably the biggest star of reggaeton, which is only going to get bigger. Prediction: 135,000 copies.
- Bob Dylan, Modern Times. In a world of high-tech, high-gloss music and high-tech, cynical politics, Dylan's brand of cantankerous, throwback folk-rock should be in very high demand. Prediction: 130,000 copies. [Actual sales: Talk about high demand! 192,000 copies -- credit that extra 62,000 to those inescapable iTunes commercials.]
- Method Man, 4:21: The Day After. His old Wu-Tang cohort Ghostface moved 110,000 units of his solo set Fishscale earlier this year; Method probably has a bigger following, but the glut of big hip-hop releases this week will hurt his sales. Prediction: 95,000. [Actual sales: 62,000. Guess the hip-hop glut hurt everyone's sales more than I thought.]
- The Roots, Game Theory. It's their best album in years, and their new home, Def Jam, should mean better exposure. But with all the other hip-hop out there (there's also new albums from Too Short and Loon this week, though neither is likely to sell more than maybe 30,000 copies), I doubt this will reach very beyond their core audience. Prediction: 65,000. [Actual sales: 61,000. Whew! I finally nailed one!]
- Pete Yorn, Nightcrawler. I still don't get what the fuss is over this guy, but fans and critics alike gush over him, and his latest album has the most mainstream appeal of anything he's ever done. Bet on Pete having the strongest sales week of his career and this album eventually going gold or even platinum. Prediction: 40,000.
Flop o' the Week
- Beenie Man, Undisputed. Between the rise of reggaeton and the success of dancehall/hip-hop crossover stars like Sean Paul, more traditional reggae/dancehall artists like Beenie Man suddenly sound very outdated. Bringing on heavy hitters like Akon and Janet Jackson will help to stave off a Shaggy-like disaster, but this album will still fall well short of expectations. Prediction: 20,000.
Pick o' the Week
 Persephone's Bees, Notes From the Underworld. Finally! Columbia has been inexplicably sitting on this album for almost a year, but now it finally comes out, and it's still the breath of fresh air it was when I first scored an advance copy of it back in January. Persephone's Bees are sort of a latter-day Blondie, a pop-hook machine with an alluring frontwoman and an endlessly versatile guitarist who gives their catchy pop songs enough twists and turns to keep them interesting even after multiple listens. I fear radio won't know what to make of them and they'll get buried, but I hope I'm proven wrong.
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Playlist: Oldies But Goodies
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August 28, 2006
Thanks to the neverending proliferation of greatest-hits packages, deluxe reissues, box sets and other industry tricks for convincing you to go out and buy the same product more than once, ARTISTdirect is awash in audio streams featuring old favorites and forgotten gems. Here are five that would find a spot in my rotation if I were an oldies DJ -- or if I ever get booked for another cheesy wedding DJ gig.
1. John Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Down on the Corner." (1969) I love the fact that John Fogerty, who for years was denied the rights to his own songs by Fantasy Records (he couldn't even get permission to play them live), now gets a greatest hits collection under his own name, featuring both his solo stuff and his best work with CCR. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy, a workaholic who during Creedence's heyday wrote six full albums' worth of timeless roots-rock in just three years. This is one of his, and CCR's, happiest and most underrated songs.
2. Steve Miller Band, "Fly Like an Eagle '73." (1973...duh) I'm usually the first to deride "deluxe reissues" as a cynical attempt by record companies to squeeze a few more bucks out of hardcore fans -- but in the case of Steve Miller's 1976 masterpiece Fly Like an Eagle, a reissue is a nice reminder of what an incredible and overlooked record this is. It's overlooked because most latter-day fans own the Greatest Hits 1974-78 collection instead, which contains half of Fly Like an Eagle's 12 tracks. Cleaned up and remastered for the 30th anniversary reissue, the other half of Fly Like an Eagle is pretty undeniable, too. This track, an earlier, unreleased demo of the title cut, is almost as good as the familiar version.
3. Matthew Sweet, "Girlfriend." (1991) Matthew Sweet had the misfortune to be making classic-sounding power-pop right when the grunge era took off. As a result, songs that should have been massive hit singles, like this one, got limited airplay and quickly sank into cult status.
4. Steely Dan, "Peg." (1977) Steely Dan's Aja is the Titanic of rock albums, a bloated, overproduced, over-budget folly that succeeds in spite of its obvious excesses. And buried amidst the armies of sessions musicians and layers of studio gloss is this little gem of a pop song, with a little whistling keyboard hook that may be one of the most ripped off sounds in history.
5. John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman, "You Are Too Beautiful." (1963) Johnny Hartman was a baritone best known for syrupy orchestral ballads when he went into the studio with legendary saxophonist Coltrane and a piano/bass/drums trio, and recorded an album that captures romantic longing better than maybe any other jazz record before or since. They nailed the classic "Lush Life" even better, but this version of the old Rodgers and Hart chestnut is pretty great, too.
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Hey, Beyonce's Dad! You're Not Helping!
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August 25, 2006
 Hey, did you hear the rumors that Beyonce's new album B'Day was getting pushed to a later release date? How about the one that she has a beef with Rihanna? Or the one about the "Ring the Alarm" ringtone causing seizures?
If you've been out of the Beyonce rumor-mill loop, don't worry. Mathew Knowles, the "Bootylicious" singer's father and manager, has issued a long-winded press release to get you up to speed on these and other rumors, some of which are so obscure that no one had heard them until they read the press release.
"It is apparent," Knowles huffs, "that there is a consistent plan by some to create chaos around Beyonce's B'Day album release on Sept 5."
Among the other dubious rumors Knowles wants to dispel: that the single "Deja Vu" was rushed into early release to compete with ex-Destiny's Child singer LeToya's hit album, and that Beyonce's new album will feature songs sung backwards with hidden, subliminal messages. Oh wait, he was kidding about that last one.
"Unfortunately," Knowles writes, "what it shows is that anyone can go on the internet and create rumors and the media in some cases will pick up these stories and run with them which influence the consumer’s perception."
Knowles does address the one bizarre incident that was more than just a rumor and actually did generate a lot of media attention: A group of Beyonce fans launched an online petition demanding that the video for "Deja Vu" be pulled and reshot -- complaining about, among other things, its "erratic, confusing and alarming" choreography and a rather gratuitous appearance by Beyonce's real-life boyfriend, Jay-Z. The whole thing was pretty clearly meant as a joke, but the media, and Beyonce's people, took it seriously. "Beyonce has sold over a 140 million records," Knowles fumes, noting that the anti-"Deja Vu" petition garnered only 2,500 signatures. "140 million records sold versus 2500 responses about a video. Does that really equate to a major concern? The answer is No!"
Not part of the anti-Beyonce plot, apparently, since Knowles doesn't mention it: a stunt by PETA to confront the singer over her wearing of real fur.
Knowles also doesn't address recent rumors that Beyonce and Jay-Z are planning to tie the knot this fall. Other spokespeople for both Beyonce and Jay-Z, however, have denied that the couple is making wedding plans.
The subtext of all the rumors and hype, of course, is that fans are hoping/fearing that B'Day will presage a massive Beyonce meltdown along the lines of Glitter-era Mariah Carey. There's not really anything about either "Deja Vu" or second single "Ring the Alarm" to suggest that anything so spectacular is going to happen -- but unfortunately, a press release from Daddy Knowles only adds fuel to the fire. Armed with his oddly defensive rant, the rumormongers are going to start reading disaster into every note of every song, every tilt of Beyonce's head in every video.
For example, a blogger in the Village Voice recently wrote, "Beyonce looks like she's clinging onto sanity by the thinnest of threads. She's starting to get that look of glazed alien paranoia in her eye that Diana Ross has had for at least as long as I've been alive." This keen psychological analysis is based entirely on her appearance in the "Ring the Alarm" video. Personally, I take the duller but for more reasonable position that it's just a lousy video for a poorly chosen second single. These are bad career moves, not harbingers of crumbling sanity. When Beyonce starts doing strip teases on TRL, then we'll talk about her mental stability.
Her father, on the other hand, definitely strikes me as a little off. I'm sure the temptation to defend one's daughter from the slings and arrows of mega-celebrity must be great, but he should take a cue from more thick-skinned courters of rumor and controversy like Madonna and Janet Jackson and just let the shit-stirrers have their fun. They're going to, anyway, even if -- especially if -- you put out press releases admonishing them for it.
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Show Reviews: Dear, King, Bees
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August 24, 2006
When I first started this blog, the plan was for me to put up a quick review/recap of every show I went to. Less than three weeks into it and I'm already way behind. I have three shows to tell you about, and believe me, I don't even go out that much. I'm just slackin' on this whole blog thing.
 The first show I have to tell you about took place last Friday at the Getty Center, that famous Italian marble pile of a museum perched on a hilltop overlooking West LA. I'm ashamed to say that there were priceless masterpieces of 19th and early 20th century art less than a hundred yards away from me, and I still spent the whole evening in the courtyard dancing to techno. I'm such a philistine.
Yes, thanks to some unbelievably hip event coordinators at the Getty, and the folks at a very cool website called Flavorpill, you can now go once every month to the finest museum on the West Coast and dance in their courtyard to techno. They call it "Fridays Off the 405," after the parking lot of a freeway that runs past the Getty. Last Friday, they featured two Detroit techno DJs named Ryan Elliott and Matthew Dear, and holy crap were they good. Elliott, the opener, played the sort of crisp, minimal stuff I love but rarely ever hear in a live setting, while Dear, the headliner, tore the roof off -- metaphorically speaking, seeing as we were outside. Dear is one of those DJs who really takes time to craft his set, as opposed to just throwing on pumping anthem after pumping anthem and pummeling the crowd into submission. I counted only one conventional hands-in-the-air build in two hours -- the rest was all just subtly layered percussion, sneaky basslines and funky, glitchy hooks and effects. The sound system was terrific, the crowd danced up a storm, and Dear threw down one of the best DJ sets I've heard all year. As one friend of mine proclaimed, surveying the packed courtyard, "The Getty is off the hook!"
 The following night, I was at a museum again, this time Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art, or MOCA. Two museums, two completely different events -- this time, I was on hand to hear a solo guitarist named Kaki King, whose hushed, atmospheric work is about as far removed from techno as you can get. King was great, from what we could hear -- unfortunately, we couldn't hear much, as the MOCA outdoor stage's little PA system was no match for the buzz of the crowd and the echoey acoustics of their little sunken courtyard. We wandered off and looked at the Robert Rauschenberg "combines" exhibit instead -- so maybe I'm not such a philistine after all.
 Tuesday night, I was back in more familiar concert environs -- at local hipster magnet Spaceland, where I was finally going to get to see one of my favorite new bands of the past year, Persephone's Bees. P's Bees -- as I've heard them called -- are an Oakland, California quartet who play uncategorizable pop-rock, highlighted by the alluring vocals of Angelina Moysov and Tom Ayres' fluid guitar work. Live, Ayres is a guitar ninja, leading the band from jangle-pop to surf-guitar rock to '60s psychedelia, and making it all look easy. They weren't the headliner, so they played a short set, which is too bad because the band felt like they were just starting to loosen up over their last two or three songs, especially the dazzling closer, "City of Love," which drummer Paul Bertolino locked down with a groove straight out of the Stones Roses' "Fool's Gold." You could still tell what a great band they are, though -- and they're got a terrific frontwoman in Moysov, a native of Russia who comes across as a disarming mix of girl next door and Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle. She'll take them far.
The P's Bees show was sparsely attended, which makes me worry that Columbia Records might have sat on the band's debut album Notes From the Underworld for too long -- local tastemaker radio station KCRW has been playing tracks from it for nearly a year, and the LA hipsters have apparently already moved on to the next trendy thing. Then again, LA hipsters have superhumanly short attention spans, and the rest of the country -- not to mention Europe -- still haven't heard much from Persephone's Bees. So my guess is that their music will find an audience -- it's too good not to.
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The Tuesday Roundup: New Releases 08.22.06
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August 22, 2006
Movers, Shakers, and Noise Makers
 It's been nearly three years since OutKast broke through to mainstream success with their monster "Hey Ya"-driven hit, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Whether they can pick up where they left off with their new album, Idlewild, somewhat depends on the success of the accompanying movie of the same name, which opens this weekend. If the movie's a hit, the album should follow suit, but we won't know until next Monday, and early reviews have been mixed. My guess is that Idlewild will debut strongly enough to seize the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 album chart, but not quite as strongly as many have been hoping. Figure on around 200,000 in first-week sales. [Actual sales: 196,000. Am I good or what?]
Besides Idlewild, there are two other albums bowing this week with great expectations, and one that should turn out to be a bit of a sleeper hit. The sleeper is Danity Kane, the self-titled debut from the girl group that was assembled on the last season of Diddy's Making the Band reality show. Diddy's first prefab group, Da Band, was an industry joke, but they still sold half a million albums, and "DK" appears more than capable of topping that. Sure, they're a shameless imitation of the Pussycat Dolls, but they already have a burgeoning hit in the "Goodies"-like "Show Stopper," and hot chicks singing slickly crafted, rap-infused pop sells units, no matter how obviously prefabricated the whole package may be (PCD, remember, is just as plastic -- the group started as a burlesque show, and only one of its members can actually sing). Look for DK to move around 90,000 units and further solidify Diddy's rep for a Midas touch. [Actual first-week sales: 234,000 copies. Maybe I'm not so good after all. Then again, I don't think expected DK to hit so big so fast.]
The great expectations albums come from a veteran, Kelis, and (technically) a newcomer, Paris Hilton. Both albums are actually pretty good -- yes, even Paris', thanks to the miracle of Pro Tools and another man with a Midas touch, Scott Storch -- but both will fall short of expectations for various reasons. As much as America remains fascinated with Paris Hilton, it also refuses to take her seriously, and this is a sincere grab for pop music stardom, not a collection of novelty hits. Curiosity seekers and genuine Paris fans -- and yes, she has a few -- will propel the album to a solid opening week, but not a great one -- about 65,000 copies is my guess. [Actual sales: 77,000 copies. Go, Paris!] Kelis, she of "Milkshake" fame, isn't really a hit machine -- her pop/funk/R&B music is and always has been defiantly weird, and radio hasn't quite known what to make of "Bossy," the lead single off Kelis Was Here. Fans won't quite know what to make of the new album, either -- it'll sell about 70,000 copies, or possibly less thanks to Jive's strange decision to release it up against the similarly quirky OutKast, on sister label LaFace. [Actual sales: 58,000 copies. Well, I did say "possibly less" than 70k.]
Two other titles worth mentioning: The Casualties' Under Attack and Lamb of God's Sacrament. The Casualties, with their day-glo mohawks and old-school punk rave-ups, garnered a lot of buzz on the Warped Tour, which should translate to solid album sales of around 25,000 units. Lamb of God is one of those death metal bands that can move units without a scrap of radio play, and seems to have a growing fan base; I'd bet on around 40,000 sales for them. [Actual sales: 63,000 copies, their best sales week by a wide margin.]
The Best of the Rest
 My favorite new album this week comes courtesy of a French group called Nouvelle Vague, a one-trick pony with a really great trick: Take classic songs from the punk/new wave era and reinvent them as sultry bossa nova tunes. Bande a Part picks up right where their self-titled debut left off, and it's just as good, offering up barely recognizable versions of old favorites like the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love" and Blondie's "Heart of Glass," plus great obscurities like The Cramps' "Human Fly" (which ends up sounding like Tom Waits doing samba) and Visage's "Fade to Grey." Even when they choose covers that border on the sacrilegious (Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead") or the absurd (Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself"), they pull it off. Trust me -- throw this or Nouvelle Vague's first album on at your next cocktail party and watch the delighted grins slowly appear on your guests' faces.
There are so many other new indie releases this week, I'll have to resort to haiku-like descriptions of them all: catchy, lofi indietronica from Ratatat... debut albums from Eric Bachmann of Crooked Fingers and Archers of Loaf and Amy Millan of Stars, both showing off their somber folkie sides... surprisingly accessible and quirk-free releases from two of countrified indie rock's biggest goofballs, the ever-prolific Kurt Wagner of Lambchop and John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats... yet another talented Scandinavian singer-songwriter in Tobias Froberg, making his U.S. debut on Cheap Lullaby Records... more earnest, anthemic Brit-rock from Starsailor... more angsty, midwestern post-punk from Cursive... a surprisingly upbeat, entertaining release from the usually dour M. Ward... and a disappointing posthumous release from the influential Detroit hip-hop producer Jay Dee a.k.a J Dilla, featuring lots of big-name guests (Busta Rhymes, Common, D'Angelo) but not many definitive beats.
And that, believe it or not, is just the highlights. The record industry is really turning on the firehose over the next several weeks, apparently hoping to make up lost ground after a very disappointing summer.
Oh yeah -- there are also new albums this week from not one, but two of the bands the hyperbolic British press has hailed at one time or another as being The Best Band Ever. The first, Primal Scream, are well past their prime, and seem to be going through the motions a bit on their latest, Riot City Blues. But the younger, upstart Best Band Ever might just be hitting their stride. Razorlight's self-titled sophomore album smacks of a bunch of young men taking themselves way too seriously, but their talent on catchy, anthemic rockers like "In the Morning" and "America" is undeniable. And then again, taking yourself way too seriously seems to be the birthright of British bands, so Razorlight might be just one album away from taking their place in the great Coldplay/Blur/Oasis lineage that Primal Scream, in their heyday, was once part of, too.
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Playlist: Girl Power
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August 21, 2006
Hey, I like falsetto-voiced, nasally guys in my music as much as anyone (well, okay, maybe a little less than most), but given the choice,
give me a sweet siren with a pretty voice any day of the week. There's just something about a female vocalist that
makes good pop music, especially the more leftfield stuff, go down that much smoother.
1. Psapp, "Hi." Galia Durant's smooth, coolly sultry delivery is the perfect complement to her band's crunchy, cluttered, electro-acoustic sound. Plus, in concert, she accompanies herself on goofy props like squeaky toys and wind-up chickens.
2. Juana Molina, "Rio Seco." With a hushed, breathy voice, an acoustic guitar and a jumble of electronic beeps and burrs, Molina conjures up her own little universe. Props to Domino Records for giving a home to both her and the similarly evocative Psapp.
3. Ditty Bops, "Fall Awake." Amanda Barrett and Abby Dewald are best-known for their old-timey, swing-revival stuff, but I think they're even better when they venture into folky dream-pop and let their gorgeously interwoven vocals work their magic.
4. Smoosh, "Find a Way." Even once you get over the fact that sisters Chloe and Asya are barely into their teens, their lo-fi power-pop is still good, infectious fun.
5. Dresden Dolls, "Sing." I still can't even quite put into words how good the Dresden Dolls' latest album Yes, Virginia is. Amanda Palmer is clearly some kind of twisted genius. Watch this space for more of my ravings about the sheer awesomeness of the Dresden Dolls.
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The K-Fed Show, Featuring the Teen Choice Awards
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August 20, 2006
 Okay, Teen Choice Awards: You got me. Like
most normal people, I'm barely even aware of the Teen Choice Awards most
years. It's one of those made-up award shows that's like a bad parody of the
"official" shows, the Oscars, the Grammys and the Emmys. Even the MTV Video
Music Awards are a slick, dignified affair by comparison. Then again,
the Teen Choice producers wisely don't even pretend to it's a normal awards
show. Instead, they hand out surfboards in lieu of trophies and add classy
touches like a gaggle of bikini-clad babes who spend the entire show lounging
around onstage in a hot tub. Mm, sexy. Just imagine how pruny they must have
been by the time Kevin
Federline took the stage.
And that brings me to why the Teen Choice Awards got me this year: K-Fed.
Yes, like everyone else, I spent the whole show eagerly awaiting Kevin
Federline's solo performance debut, the one that was supposed to convince us
all that, no really, "Popozao" was just a big joke and this really was a guy
who had talents besides knocking up Britney Spears. And damn if the
Fed didn't disappoint the crap out of me by going out there and not
sucking. No, he wasn't great -- but he wasn't the train wreck we were all
hoping for, either. His stage show, with the piano and the kiddie
breakdancers and the I-just-shotgunned-a-case-of-Red-Bull DJ, was a little
weird, but K-Fed himself was just kind of earnestly mediocre. And he didn't
lip-sync, which actually puts him ahead of the evening's biggest performance
dud, the distressingly plastic Rihanna. Aren't acts that lip-sync at least supposed to dance well? Or do
a little Ashlee Simpson two-step? Rihanna just strutted around on the
world's longest pair of legs and tried to make sure her fedora didn't fall
off. Once or twice, she spazz danced. If anyone else has a better term for
her epileptic version of the shimmy, please let me know.
What else can I say about the Teen Choice Awards? Not much, except to point
out that it really sucks the suspense out of an awards show when you announce
who's in attendance at the start of the evening, and then, gosh! In every
category they announced, only one nominee was present! Who will win??? I
guess the only way they could convince the likes of Johnny Depp and
Adam Sandler to show up was to assure them they'd be taking home a
surfboard. (And by the way, how unbelievable and slightly creepy was the
teenaged female adoration showered upon Depp when he slouched out on stage
dressed like Kurt Cobain, with greasy hair and a flannel shirt tied around
his waist? They kept cutting to girls in the audience who were practically
weeping for joy at the sight of him. Not even "Choice Hottie" award-winner
Orlando Bloom got that kind of attention.)
My favorite moment, though, had to be when Nick
Lachey accepted the Best Love Song award for "What's Left of Me," a
heart-rending ballad clearly written about his failed relationship with Teen
Choice co-host Jessica Simpson. "I just want to start off by saying: Awkward!" Nick said
as he stood at the podium clutching his surfboard. Jessica, who looked
positively Einsteinian all night next to meatheaded co-host Dane
Cook, kept a safe distance.
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Is Tower About to Topple?
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August 18, 2006
 [Update: Since this blog was originally published, Tower Records has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will attempt to sell off its assets within the next several months. Although the company hopes to find a buyer that will keep it intact, it's likely that, at the very least, it will be forced to shut down most of its 89 retail locations. There's even the possibility that the company will be liquidated altogether, though Tower remains a strong brand name and that scenario seems unlikely. Whatever happens, Tower's days as a retail giant look like they're officially over.]
Tower Records made a really weird
announcement this week. They're going to be sponsoring the main stage at
Seattle's Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival this coming
Labor Day weekend, "the first year of a three year sponsorship," as
proclaimed in an August 15th press release. Bumbershoot is one of a growing
number of regional U.S. music festivals that has adopted -- some would say
improved upon -- the Coachella model: Invite one or two major "tentpole"
acts, a handful of nostalgia acts, and a host of bands with small but rabid
followings and/or loads of tastemaker credibility. Then sit back and watch
the hipsters crawl over each other for tickets. Bumbershoot's main stage
lineup this year includes acts ranging from Blondie and A
Tribe Called Quest to AFI and the New
Pornographers -- plus of course Kanye
West, who now comes standard with any festival lineup.
Now I know what you're thinking -- what's so weird about a major music retail
chain sponsoring the main stage at a music festival? Well, the announcement
comes just days after all four major labels threatened to freeze all
shipments to Tower because the retailer can't pay its debts. Reportedly,
Tower might owe as much as $20 million to Warner/Atlantic distributor WEA
alone. So all this talk of music festival sponsorships sounds a little like
waltzing on the Titanic.
It's no secret that Tower has been in trouble for a long time, but most
industry insiders are convinced that this time, the chain really is toast.
Nobody has a vested interest in watching America's biggest music retailer go
under, so for the labels and their distributors to even threaten cutting off
shipments is really Defcon Five territory. And already, it looks like WEA and
Universal are making good on their threat -- you won't find Atlantic
recording artist Cham's
new album, Ghetto Story, on the Tower Records website, and
new releases from Joanna and Obie
Trice, both on Universal labels, are also conspicuously
absent.
It's hard to explain to a younger generation why they should care about the
demise of Tower Records. I'm sure to most young record shoppers, it's just
another chain, one of many that are swiftly heading towards obsolescence.
But there was a time when Tower Records and its familiar yellow-and-red logo
were the epitome of music cool. Little mall-based chains like Coconuts and
Sam Goody were fine for picking up bestselling releases, but if you wanted to
find the new album from that really cool band that only got played on college
radio, you had to go to Tower to get it. And you had to go into the city --
for the longest time, Tower didn't open stores in the suburbs, which meant
that back in the '80s, me and my friends had drive into Philadelphia and head
down to scary, wonderful South Street, with its vagrants and punks and snotty
art-school kids, to make a pilgrimage to Tower for that new Smiths
or R.E.M.
or Husker
Du record. Even after most of our favorite bands got popular and
were available at Sam Goody's, we went into the city to buy their
records at Tower anyway. It was part of the experience of seeking out good
music.
So here's hoping Tower Records isn't playing pollyanna when it announces a
"three-year sponsorship" of Bumbershoot. But I have a feeling its days are
numbered, and that its closing will be remembered as a milestone in the music
industry's painful and frighteningly fast move from brick-and-mortar to
digital.
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Waffles and Indie Rock: An IM Chat
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August 17, 2006
 Yesterday I got to attend a lunchtime showcase
concert for Barsuk
Records artists The
Long Winters (pictured) and Mates
of State. I was along for the ride with my ARTISTdirect
partner-in-crime Doug Kamin, our content manager and label relations guru.
Instead of writing about the showcase myself, I decided to ask Doug for his
opinion, and to give him a chance to sound off about all his favorite music
of the moment. After all, this blog can't be about me all the time.
ponchoandy: so Doug...what did you think of the show
yesterday?
dougkamin: well andy... im assuming you are IM'ing me about the
wonderful Barsuk
lunchtime showcase with The
Long Winters and Mates
of State.
ponchoandy: why yes I am
ponchoandy: at the lovely Hotel Cafe in beautiful downtown Hollywood
dougkamin: yes yes...fine venue.
dougkamin: okay..here it is:
dougkamin: lunch: Roscoes (chicken and waffles) ...greased us
up ... for the wonderful music stylings of two of my fave bands..yes.
perfect way to spend the day (dont like having to drive crosstown in the
middle of the day...maybe they'd come to us next time?)
ponchoandy: I did enjoy Long Winters quite a bit...but I have
to admit, I still don't get Mates of State
dougkamin: that's cuz you like that doonce-doonce disco
stuff.... and you don't appreciate married life bliss like i do.
ponchoandy: ah you had to drag my love of true electronic music
into this didn't you? well it's true, I do like that better than the lofi
indie version where it's just a drum kit and old keyboards turned up so loud
they distort
dougkamin: but it's passionate/inspired...and ...well, fun.
should be the anthem to a summer blockbuster.
ponchoandy: well, if we were talking about Long Winters, I'd
agree with you... that "Fire Island AK" song is fantastic
dougkamin: they both deserve more attention... but out of the
two ...im more surprised that mates of state isnt a household name yet.
...yes... everything long winters puts out is fantastic. im just glad someone
else yelled out the request for "Shapes"... i
hate to be that guy...esp in a small room like that. i wanted to ask for "cinnamon"
too...but frankly... i hate when a band is touring on a new record and
fanboys yell out the older tracks the whole time.
ponchoandy: yeah...plus, it was a showcase, so they only did,
what? five songs
dougkamin: yeah... five stellar songs at that. for the life of
me ..i couldnt remember the names of all the old mates of state tracks i
adore. and sadly...i have yet to catch any of their shows over the years. i
always seem to be out of town when they play l.a.
ponchoandy: did they live up to your expectations live?
dougkamin: they did...but really wanted to hear this song
dougkamin: and this song
dougkamin: barsuk has been picking up some of my fave bands
from my little indie pals in chicago: polyvinyl and minty fresh (viva
voce is now on barsuk as well)
ponchoandy: they're a great label...smoosh, jim
noir, and of course they launched death
cab....
ponchoandy: plus, they fed us Roscoe's
Chicken n Waffles...can't beat that
dougkamin: you dont want to mention the beer at lunch, huh?
ponchoandy: beer? what beer? I don't know what you're talkin
about ;-)
ponchoandy: however...yes, that was a fun event and other
labels should do similar lunchtime showcases for all their acts (hint,
hint)
dougkamin: well...yes. but a special shout out of love has to
go to NETTWERK for
starting this trend. ive seen josh
rouse, leigh
nash, the
submarines ...hmm..and others...cant remember (no...not from too many
beers...just too much good music to keep track of)
ponchoandy: so what else is going on? what have you been
obsessively listening to these days?
dougkamin: his
name is alive (still addicted to this record), gram
parsons (rhino boxset... in particular, disc 2: Grievous Angel), i
like the new mosquitos album..even though it's much mellower...i think it'll have lasting
flavor for me (i need gum, actually..), ratatat, catfish haven, kristoffer ragnstam (i guess it's been pushed to '07 now..doh)... and im
anxiously awaiting the open season soundtrack (westerberg..nice)..and the Soft.Lightes EP (formerly the incredible moses leroy) ...what else... i have to pull up my itunes... one
sec
ponchoandy: oh boy...the floodgates have opened....
dougkamin: ahh... jim noir, roman
candle, la
rocca and... tonight at the troubadour: silversun pickups!
dougkamin: (oh..one more... just got the 40th anniversary
edition of ... PET
SOUNDS... ahh...)
ponchoandy: ah yes...you got the vinyl of that didn't you?
dougkamin: and a CDR of it
dougkamin: a promo...not a bootleg, folks.
ponchoandy: dude...you are so hooked up
dougkamin: wait..im not done!
dougkamin: some other '06 faves i recently retired so as to not
play them out:
ponchoandy: oh dear
ponchoandy: okay lay em on me
dougkamin: belle
& sebastian, josh rouse, josh
ritter, isobel campbell/mark lanegan... there's more of course..
dougkamin: but i'm on the phone listening to how my two year
old put rice cheese in my wife's shoes.
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I Owe You an Apology, Rick Ross
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August 16, 2006
 I'm sorry, Rick. I sorely underestimated you last week when I wrote you off as a
"regional favorite" and predicted that your debut album, Port of
Miami, would sell no more than about 20,000 copies in its first week. As
everyone probably knows by now, you actually moved 187,000 copies out of the
gate, enough to give you the #1 spot on the Billboard album chart by a wide
margin.
In my defense, I'm pretty old-school, so I missed the boat on a key factor in
your album's massive breakout success: ringtones. As your label, Island/Def
Jam, proudly reminded me in a triumphant press release this morning, the
ringtone for your song "Hustlin'" sold over a
million copies before your album was even released -- a music industry first.
Me, I do have a ringtone, but it's Herbie Hancock's cheesy '80s hit "Rockit" --
and it's the only one I own. Most of the kids out there now have a dozen or
more ringtones in their phone, different ones for different callers, and lots
of them have evolved on to "mastertones," which I'm told is what you call it
when the ringtone sounds like the actual song instead of a tinny,
Casio-keyboard adaptation of it. So yeah, I'm a little out of the whole
ringtone loop.
Anyway, you've taught me my lesson, Rick, and I won't make the same mistake
again. All my future album sales predictions will take the
ringtone/mastertone market into account. After all, especially in hip-hop,
ringtones sales now are almost as important as radio airplay. They may even
be more important -- "Hustlin'," for all its success on the cellphone
circuit, never cracked the Top 10 anywhere else, not even on the Hip-Hop/Rap
Airplay singles chart, which used to be the best bellwether for future album
sales.
Those leading-edgers at Rolling Stone got it right when they praised
your album for its "synth-soaked, ringtone-ready beats." These days, it's all
about being ringtone-ready, which probably explains why most rap music is
regressing to '80s-style primitivism, when every track was just an 808 drum
loop and a keyboard hook you could play on one finger. Back in those days, it
was still said that any good producer would make sure the songs sounded good
coming out of a crappy old car stereo; nowadays, they probably make sure the
songs sound good coming out of a cellphone. Call me old-school, but I think
music in general, and rap music in particular, is going to suffer for it.
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The Tuesday Roundup: New Releases 08.15.06
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August 15, 2006
Christina to the Rescue!
It's been a pretty dire summer for album sales, which has a lot of Chicken
Littles out there crying that the sky is finally falling. But what's usually
ignored in the various doomsday scenarios making the rounds is the quality of
the music. A lot of really crappy music hit the shelves in June and July, and
the last true superstar act to release a new album was the Dixie
Chicks, nearly three months ago. No one should be surprised that album
sales hit rock bottom during this period, plummeting to a single-week nadir
that marked the slowest sales week since 1996. You can't move units when
you're putting out lousy product.
 The cavalry finally arrives this week
in the form of Christina Aguilera and her new album, Back to Basics. Most of the
pre-release buzz about Basics has focused on the downsides -- it's a
bulky double CD, it's got a more "adult" sound, she's cleaned up her "Dirrty"
image too much. Malarky, I says. Aguilera is as rock-solid as superstars
come, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the girl can
flat-out belt. That, combined with an ability to juggle her style and image
better than any artist since Madonna, is what enabled Aguilera to push an
Aretha Franklin-style, old-school soul jam, "Ain't No Other Man," into the
top 10, and it's what will make Back to Basics the blockbuster this
industry has been jonesing for all summer. Plus, double CDs count as two
units sold, even though most big retailers have Back to Basics priced
as a single CD. So thanks to a little stat-padding, Back to Basics
will sell 650,000 units (i.e. 325,000 copies) -- not enough to silence the
doom-criers, maybe, but enough to make label execs breathe a little
easier. [Actual sales: 342,000 -- counted, as far as I can tell, as a single CD. So I pretty much nailed it.]
The other new release getting a lot of attention this week comes from
ex-Jane's Addiction guitarist and reality TV maven, Dave
Navarro. His new band, Panic Channel, feature Jane's rhythm section Chris Chaney and Stephen
Perkins, plus Some New Guy, a.k.a Steve Isaacs, who must be looking at all
the contestants on the Navarro-hosted Rockstar and thinking to
himself, "Chumps! I got this gig without having to embarrass myself on
national television." Panic Channel has gotten a lot of early attention
thanks to Navarro's high profile and legions of curious Jane's fans, but
whether that will translate to album sales is another matter. The record's
actually pretty darn good, but the milquetoast lead single "Why Cry" was a
big mistake and will scare away a lot of first-week buyers. Figure on about
40,000 copies for (ONe)'s first week, but expect it to hang around on
the charts as harder-edged cuts like "Teahouse of the Spirits" start making
the rounds. [Actual sales: 8,000 copies, not even enough to crack the top 100. Ouch. Either I vastly overestimated Dave Navarro's star power, or vastly underestimated how much old Jane's fans hated that first single. It was also roundly panned by critics, whose opinions do still sometimes count for something, especially in rock.]
Three other albums should have solid debuts this week: country star Trace Adkins' Dangerous Man (country's not my strong suit, but
I'll guess 70,000 copies just to be sporting) [Actual sales: 115,000]; R&B sex kitten quartet Cherish's Unappreciated (45,000, on the strength of a decent hit
single, "Do It To It," and just looking hot) [Actual sales: 91,000 -- apparently they're hotter than I gave them credit for]; and Lyfe
Jennings' The Phoenix. I know -- Lyfe who? This hard-edged
soul man, a ex-convict turned crooner, struck a chord with urban audiences on
his debut album, which offered up an unusually gritty take on modern R&B; the
album eventually went platinum, with little fanfare or radio play. This time
around, urban radio is taking a little more notice, and fans are primed.
He'll sell 90,000 copies his first week and people will finally, maybe, stop
saying, "Lyfe who?" [Actual sales: 136,000. Big ups, Lyfe!]
Oh yeah -- Eminem protege Obie
Trice has a new album out this week, too. Raise you hand if you care.
Yeah, that's what I thought. It'll sell 18,000 copies, mostly to devout Em
fans, and quietly disappear again. [Actual sales: 74,000. Between this and Rick Ross, I'm gonna develop a bad rep for underestimating rap sales.] Thanks almost entirely to novelty value
and a brilliant marketing campaign, the soundtrack to Snakes on a Plane will probably beat out Obie and move 20,000 units. [Actual sales: 19,000. At least I know my cheesy movie soundtracks!]
The Best of the Rest
I got nothin' this week, folks. Seriously. The indie labels must all be on
summer vacation.
There's a few things worth mentioning, at least, even though none of them is
really my cup of tea. Atlantic, home to the ubiquitous Sean Paul, is hoping
lightning will strike twice with their latest dancehall/hip-hop crossover
artist, Cham
, whose album Ghetto Story features guest spots by Alicia
Keys, Akon, and Rihanna. Geffen debuts a new pop-rock songstress, Joanna, who sounds talented but a little over-molded and will probably
follow other 21st century pop-rock songstresses like Sierra Swan and Carina
Round into the bargain bins. And Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer fame releases a solo album full of
sleepy folk-pop that might please fans of Sarah McLachlan but probably not
anyone who thought Sixpence's finest hour was "Kiss Me."
And I have it on good authority that San Francisco house DJ Mark
Farina's latest mix album, Sessions, comes out domestically
this week, though we still don't the domestic version listed on our site. If
you like your house music less thumpy-thumpy and more skippy-skippy, Farina's
your guy. He puts a real sense of swing into his beats that keeps his mixes
fresh and interesting, even over a double-disc set.
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Give the Boy a Break!
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August 14, 2006
 For a full-blown media feeding frenzy, nothing
chums the water better than a once-flamboyant celebrity eating a bit fat
slice of humble pie. And I must admit, I was gloating as much as anyone at
the thought of Boy
George playing garbage man for the New York City Sanitation
Department. None of us likes the idea of famous people getting treated
differently than the rest of us, so we tend to relish it on those rare
occasions when they're actually brought back down to earth a little.
But of course, famous people are different than the rest of us. When
you or I perform our humiliating community service tasks as punishment for
drug possession, for example, we don't do it with a gazillion photographers
and camera crews pointing their lenses at us. We're left to sweep the street
in peace and contemplate the error of our ways.
Fortunately for Boy George, after the above photo was taken -- and after he
did what any normal person would do and shouted at them, "You think you're
better than me? Go home!" -- someone made the wise decision to move him
inside a gated parking lot, where he could continue sweeping up litter away
from the prying eyes of the media. Just like you or I would. What a concept.
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Playlist: Remix Mania
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August 14, 2006
Yes, remixes are done to death these days, but that doesn't mean there aren't
still a few out there that are as good or better than the originals. This
week's playlist features a few of my current faves.
1. Herb Alpert, "Whipped Cream (Anthony Marinelli Remix, feat.
Ozomatli)." Yes, remixes of old jazz and easy listening standards
are a dime a dozen these days, but this one is pretty great -- plus, it
rescues what was always a great tune from the land of kitsch and makes it
sound almost hip again.
2. Feist, "Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix)." If you don't
know Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist, you should. She's what Joni Mitchell would've sounded like
during her Blue period if she'd taken some Prozac and started
listening to Burt Bacharach -- not that she should have (or could have --
Prozac wasn't invented yet), but you know what I mean. The "Such Great
Heights" boys add a nice layer of skittery electronics and emotional drama to
one of her best ditties.
3. Radiohead, "Everything in Its Right Place (Josh Wink
Remix)." Philly techno meets British art-rock and gives it a
much-needed kick in the arse.
4. Bloc Party, "Banquet (Phones Disco Edit)." I didn't know
I liked Bloc Party until I heard their remix album. To me, their spiky
rhythms sound better on synthesizers than they do on guitars.
5. Gorillaz, "Dare (DFA Remix)." The DFA -- better known as
LCD
Soundsystem's James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy -- are the kings of
the "Bolero"-style remix. They take a track, strip it down to its barest
components, then slowly add layer upon layer of percussion and synthesizers
until, about 8 minutes into the mix, you feel like someone stuck a disco-punk
firehose in your ear. And yes, it usually takes the about 8 minutes to get
there. Trust me, it's worth the wait.
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Videos That Don't Suck #1: "Smiley Faces"
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August 11, 2006
 I work for a music website, so I'm not supposed to
say this out loud, but c'mon, we all know it's true: Most new music videos --
about 98% of them, give or take -- totally suck. But occasionally, one
manages to escape into the world that actually has some genuine entertainment
value and artistic merit. When that happens, I promise to tell you about
it.
First up: the video for Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces,",
featuring a Zelig-like montage of the duo appearing at
critical moments throughout pop culture history -- with commentary by Dennis
Hopper, no less! Another great song from Gnarls and one of those rare videos
that actually holds your attention from beginning to end. Enjoy.
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What's That Song Selling "Chocolate"?
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August 10, 2006
 "Everybody Loves Chocolate," proclaims
Verizon's memorably luscious new ads for their LG "Chocolate" cellphone/MP3
player. And soon, I suspect many Americans will finally fall in love with the
band behind the slinky music that accompanies the ad: Goldfrapp.
Goldfrapp are already huge in their native England, and commercial music
supervisors love them, too -- just the song in the Verizon ad, "Strict
Machine," has also been used to sex up a Game Boy, an Armani fragrance,
and another cell phone company called Xelibri (in a clip directed by David
Fincher). But they haven't been able to get beyond cult status in the
States, despite their penchant for catchy, catwalky synth-pop that sound
something like Eurythmics meets Cocteau Twins. But the Verizon
Chocolate ads are so pervasive and so well-done that they might actually be
the trigger that launches Goldfrapp into more mainstream success.
(And yes, I know, in my last blog, I ranted about Bryan Ferry becoming a
menswear model. But I have nothing against relatively unknown bands using
commercials as a way of getting their music heard, especially these days when
radio is too timid to play anything that doesn't fit their rigid
formatting.)
By the way, check out the amazing video for "Strict Machine",
directed by Jonas Odell, which actually predates the strikingly similar video
for Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" by a good two years.
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The Gentrification of Rock
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August 9, 2006
 It's bad enough that New York City's most famous
club, CBGB, is going the way of the dodo (and even worse that its
owner, Hilly Kristal, is vowing to moving the famously seedy punk club,
urinals and all, to a new
location in Vegas). Now, in what is surely a sign of the times,
another rock 'n' roll landmark is being converted into condos. That's right
-- beginning in early 2007, you too can own a piece of the former home of the
once-proud Hit Factory recording studios in Manhattan's Hells Kitchen.
And thanks to the wonders of gentrification, for the privilege of owning
1/27th of this musical landmark in the heart of a once blighted neighborhood,
you'll have to pony up at least $1.1 million.
To be fair, despite its address, the Hit Factory was never really the
embodiment of rock 'n' roll sleaze. A lot of famous and very big-budget
records were recorded there over the years, including Stevie Wonder's
Songs in the Key of Life, John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double
Fantasy, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, and Paul
Simon's Graceland. Nobody who played CBGB ever cut a record at the
Hit Factory.
Still, there's some appropriate symbolism in turning a building that was once
synonymous with great rock and pop music into a giant habitrail for yuppies. For at least two decades now,
rock 'n' roll, like Hell's Kitchen, has been undergoing a slow process of
gentrification, and there are signs all around us that the process is nearly
complete.
For example, another seemingly innocuous item in today's news comes from our
friends across the Atlantic, in England. There, another rock 'n' roll icon,
this one in the human form of former Roxy
Music singer Bryan
Ferry, is undergoing another form of gentrification. He's becoming
the new model for department store Marks & Spencer's men's clothing line.
"The clothes are fantastic," Ferry beamed in an official statement about his
new role. "They're slim and look really sharp." Kate Moss couldn't have said
it any better.
Again, to be fair, Bryan Ferry is B-list rock royalty, definitely somewhere
up there in the pantheon but hardly on the same level as Mick Jagger
or David Bowie or even Bono. And he's always cultivated a
carefully tailored image, in stark contrast to his average-joe-looking former
partner in Roxy Music, Brian Eno. Still, there's something unnerving
about the guy who sang "Love is the
Drug" and "Editions of
You" pimping himself as a mannequin for the British equivalent of
Nieman Marcus.
Or maybe I'm crazy and there's nothing unnerving about it at all. Maybe Bryan
Ferry modeling men's clothing is nothing to bat an eye at in a world where
Led Zeppelin's "Rock 'n' Roll" sells Cadillacs and U2 have a
branded iPod and Bob Dylan did those incredibly creepy Victoria's
Secret ads a few years back. And maybe all of this just proves that I'm
right: the gentrification of rock is nearly complete.
Did I mention that they're leaving the gold and platinum records up in the
lobby of the new Hit Factory Condominiums?
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The Tuesday Roundup: New Releases 08.08.06
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August 8, 2006
Movers, Shakers and Noise Makers
 Brea
king Benjamin is one of those modern hard rock bands that not a
single music critic or industry insider admits to liking...so actually, you
won't hear anything about them, this week. Next week, however, they'll have
the #1 album in the country, and everyone will finally acknowledge their
existence, mostly by bitching about the persistent popularity of awful
post-grunge bands like Nickelback, Staind, and these guys. I'll spare you my
bitching, and just note that when this chest-thumping nonsense sells 150,000
copies in its first week, I'll feel just a teensy bit deader inside.
[Actual first week sales: 125,000]
Already, the new albums getting the most ink this week appear to be debuts,
by pop/R&B sex kitten Cassie and massive (at least physically -- he's 300 lbs) Miami rapper
Rick
Ross. Cassie's only had one hit, but it's a big one, the slithery "Me
& U," and being the top priority of Diddy's Bad Boy label won't hurt
either. Figure on her moving about 100,000 units and landing somewhere in the
top five [actual first week sales: 100,000. Chart position: #4. Nailed
it!]. Ross is a regional favorite, but hasn't quite been able to
break
onto the national stage, despite boatloads of hype from Def Jam. Plus, it's
been a terrible year for debut rap albums (Yung Joc aside), so I'm guessing
Ross won't move more than about 20,000 copies of Port of Miami.
[Actual sales: 187,000. You can read me eating crow over this here.]
That leaves the veteran acts, and I'm betting they'll do quite well. Sure,
Slayer missed the 6/6/06 boat, but no one was gonna buy Christ
Illusion because of its release date anyway. The diehard fans -- and they
remain legion -- will snap up new Slayer no matter when it comes out. Ani
DiFranco, meanwhile, has one of the most doggedly loyal fan bases of
any indie artist in history -- she churns out a new album every year and they
reliably rack up good sales. Bet on 35,000 units for Slayer and 20,000 for
Ani. [Actual sales: 62,000 for Slayer; 18,000 for
Ani.]
The Best of the Rest
 Barsuk, the label that
brought you Death Cab for Cutie, is finally giving one of 2006's great albums
a U.S. release.
Jim Noir's Tower of Love is an understated little gem of a
folk-pop record, all sunshiny melodies and child-like lyrics that are by
turns amusing and startlingly dark.
Imagine if Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett had made an album together and you
get a sense of just how weird, baroque and downright catchy this record
is.
Beyond that, the only other new album this week that's found a home in my CD
player is Kaki
King's Until We Felt Red. King, best known as a virtuoso
jazz/folk acoustic guitarist, branches out here with more elaborate
arrangements, and adds her waifish voice for the first time to several
tracks. Often, when instrumental artists try this, the results are
embarrassing, but King wisely doesn't overdo it, and it works.
Also this week: Carl Barat reminds us all that the Libertines were a
two-headed monster, but also that he was the less monstrous head; the debut
from his new band Dirty Pretty Things is pretty tame stuff compared to the "Fuck Forever"
antics of Pete Doherty and Babyshambles…. Hellogoodbye releases a sturdy pop-punk debut LP that doesn't quite live
up its title -- but
then again, who can live up to a title like Zombies! Aliens! Vampires!
Dinosaurs! ....ex-Veruca Salt member Nina
Gordon sounds more like Liz Phair than Liz Phair does…. La
Rocca sound more American than most Americans do (they're Irish, but
apparently hail from the town of McAsbury Park)...and Hyper sounds uncannily like the Prodigy, which is only surprising until
you find out that two of the guys in the band used to be in the Prodigy.
Oh yeah... there's also a new Gin
Blossoms record out this week. Remember them? Apparently they got the
same memo that told the Spin Doctors and Soul Asylum that it was time to
reunite and put out a new record. I haven't heard the record yet, but
considering the band's best songwriter, Doug
Hopkins, killed himself after their first record, I can't say I have
any desire to. [Update: I have since listened to the new Gin Blossoms
record and actually, it's not bad. There's not an "Until I Fall Away" or even
a "Hey Jealousy," but it's a solid set of countrified rock. I still think
it's bad karma for them to keep using the name Gin Blossoms, though.]
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Playlist: Five for Summer
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August 7, 2006
This week's Top Five tunes offer up a nice, sunny, summertime vibe, I think.
Nothing says summer like songs about breaking garden gnomes and cruising the
city streets with Iggy Pop.
1. Jim Noir, Eanie
Meany. I'm like the last blogger on earth to jump on the Jim
Noir bandwagon, but what the hell. His album finally comes out in the States
this week, and it's still freakin' great. Be sure to listen to the lyrics --
it's such a happy, mellow tune, but it's really about an angry footballer
threatening his neighbor with a bat.
2. Scissor Sisters, I
Don't Feel Like Dancin.' Oh, those sassy Scissor Sisters, making
an irresistibly catchy dance tune about not wanting to dance. Sing along
while you shake your groove thang -- now that's irony.
3. Kinky, Una Linea de
Luz. Two words: more cowbell! These guys had one of the best
albums of 2002 with their Latin-electro-pop-funk debut, then dropped a dud by
trying to be a conventional rock band on their followup, Atlas. Their
forthcoming third album, Reina, sounds like a return to form.
4. G. Love, Hot
Cookin.' I'll always have a soft spot for the man who gave the
world "Cold Beverage." His new album has a southern-fried rock 'n' soul thing
going on that suits his laid-back style perfectly.
5. Teddybears, Punkrocker (feat. Iggy
Pop). How great is it to have Iggy Pop singing a completely
non-punk-rock anthem about what a punk rocker he is? How even greater is it
that the song was done by a bunch of beat-programmers from Sweden?
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Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself...
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August 6, 2006
I'm a man of -- well, not much wealth, but hopefully of some taste. You
decide.
I've been writing about music and obsessively collecting it for about 10
years or so. I like to think this gives me a nice vantage point somewhere
halfway between casual listeners who rarely dig deeper than what they can
hear on the radio, and those insufferable hipster critics who claim to have
discovered the Pixies while they were still in the womb.
I like the Kills not the Killers, the Stone Roses not Guns N' Roses, Danger
Mouse not Modest Mouse, the Velvet Underground not Velvet Revolver, the
Dresden Dolls not the Pussycat Dolls, Zap Mama not Papa Roach, punk not
crunk, and Eno not emo. I like the Arctic Monkeys and the Cowboy Junkies,
the Black Keys and the Black Eyed Peas, Crowded House and funky house, Led
Zeppelin IV and Chicago V, James Brown and Jack White, John
Coltrane and Kurt Cobain. And yes, I just spent way too much time thinking up
that list.
So what can you, gentle readers, expect from this blog? Well, like most
blogs, probably a lot of random, self-indulgent crap...but hopefully some
stuff along these lines, too:
- Playlists. Every Monday, I'll post five of my current favorite
songs over there in the right-hand column, all linked up so you can listen to
them while I tell you what's so damn great about them.
- New releases. Every Tuesday, I'll post a few obligatory words
about the big new albums everyone will be talking about, followed by a few
under-the-radar picks.
- Music news. Yeah, ARTISTdirect already has a news page for that,
but if it's some little blip of a story that's too trivial for in-depth
coverage but too ridiculous to pass up, you'll find it here.
- Concert reviews. I'm an old crank, so I don't go out as much as I
used to, but when I do, I'll describe every guitar solo, every trip to the
bathroom, and the back of every head I'm stuck staring at. I know, I can't
wait, either.
- Songs in commercials. Most TV commercials these days use music
that they can license cheaply from bands you never heard of (except, of
course, big brands like Cadillac and Carnival Cruise Lines, who piss all over
our fondest rock 'n' roll memories by licensing Led Zeppelin and Iggy Pop).
When they license something that's actually really good, I'll fill you in on
what it is.
- Music videos that don't suck. Cuz let's face it, most of them do.
Once or twice a month, I'll pick the ones that are actually worth watching
all the way through -- for reasons other than showing lots of writhing flesh.
Not that I dislike writhing flesh, but those videos you can find pretty
easily all by yourselves.
- IM chats with movers and shakers. Occasionally, when I run out of
things to say, I'll try to rope some of my industry colleagues and contacts
into having an online discussion that I'll then post here, typos, smileys and
all. Because even I get sick of listening to myself pontificate every once in
awhile.
- Witty analyses, blindingly brilliant insights, casual
observations, and half-assed critiques of every industry trend, musical fad
and cultural boondoggle I happen to notice.
So pull up a chair and dig in...the banquet is served.
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1. Lyrics Born, Callin' Out
2. Mojoe, 3rd Coast Anthem
3. Swollen Members, Too Hot
4. k-os, Crabbuckit
5. Colossus, Thrupenny Bits (Remix)
About the Blogger
Name: Andy
Location: Los Angeles, California
When not blogging, Andy updates site content for ARTISTdirect, dreams of
being a superstar DJ, and interviews artists he secretly doesn't care about.
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