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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

music-news-from-breakups-to-the-lastest-buzz

  • Hangin’ Tough…Again!!

    I am a child of the late Eighties and early Nineties. It’s when I became a teenager and really started to develop my musical taste. Somewhere in between getting caught up in the golden age of hip-hop and digging bands like R.E.M., Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I also developed a soft spot for the pop music of the day. So a perusal of my record collection will unveil names like C&C Music Factory, Rick Astley (I don’t care what you say…that boy could sing) and, yes, New Kids on the Block. I wasn’t a super-fan (trust me, I’d admit if I was), but I remember going to The Wiz on Fulton Street in Brooklyn and buying my copy of “Step By Step” (on cassette) the week it came out. I own (still) every album they put out on CD (except for the Christmas album, which I believe costs a small fortune nowadays). I even own several solo albums by Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre (and I owned the Danny Wood solo album at one point, which wasn’t that bad!).
    At any rate, this leads up to people.com’s report that NKOTB is reforming to tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Hangin’ Tough” (has it been that long? I’m…feeling…really…fucking…old). If you log on to nkotb.com, you’ll also hear what sounds like new music, which leads me to believe that a new album is either being worked on or it’s completed (which, truthfully, excites me way more than a tour does). Either way, for all you New Kids fans out there (and the response I’ve gotten from many of my friends leads me to believe that there are WAY more of you out there than you’re willing to readily admit), be prepared to relive your childhoods. NKOTB is back!!!
    (By the way, I just read that Danny Wood said on his MySpace page that there are no current plans for a reunion tour…although that is quite obviously new music on the group’s site. It could mean that the boys are staying mum, and it could mean that there will be a new album and/or a one-off performance…who knows?)
    I swear I have never seen this video before:
    Low-budget as hell.

  • Pazz & Jop: Before We OFFICIALLY Turn The Calendar Over To 2008

    Real quick, though: Interesting potential Grammy performance alert: The Time (of “Jungle Love” and “Purple Rain” film fame for those of you with no soul whatsoever) are reuniting on the Grammy ceremony and performing with Rihanna…which should be pretty goshdang interesting. Are Time members Jam & Lewis delivering a subtle shot to star pupil Janet Jackson for leaving them behind on her upcoming album (which I’ve heard is *very* good)?
    Anyway, what I originally started writing: many of you know the Village Voice as the bastion of the New York City liberal. I *used* to enjoy reading their music reviews (headed by the venerable if occasionally wrongheaded Robert Christgau). Every year, they have a who’s who of music critical intelligentsia vote on their favorite albums and singles of the year, and every year the results are…well, they’re kinda predictable.
    Not to say they’re wrong. Their picks are uniformly solid, although I gotta admit that I don’t *get* the whole big deal about LCD Soundsystem (who came away with the year’s best album in their poll). I also don’t get why everyone salivates over Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” (his album is better than Ghostface’s? And Lupe’s?-which also somehow wound up below Britney Spears-REALLY??) when it’s (to my ears) just as mediocre (in a dependable kinda way) as “Kingdom Come”. The list did, however, remind me that I need to get that Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings record that I’ve walked past for the past four or five months every time I’ve gone into Virgin Megastore.
    Singles list? More of the same. Lots of indie-pop, lots of Winehouse (a little ironic in the Morissette sense that “Rehab” checks in at #1 on their singles poll just as Wino finally heads off to actual rehab!), lots of T-Pain (let’s face it, the guy was *inescapable*).
    I’d write more about the list, but frankly, I’m tired and the words are starting to run together.
    Check out the list and tell me what YOU think:

  • "Here, My Dear": Revisited (An Appreciation)

    There have been many great breakup albums over the years. Most are not specifically related to the end of a relationship, but sound good when the lights are off and you’re sitting alone in your apartment with a bottle of Jack (see: White Ladder by David Gray). However, occasionally you’ll hear an album by an artist reeling from a breakup who has decided to put all his or her energies into documenting the end of a relationship and it’s aftermath. Examples of that would be Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love and Beck’s Sea Change.
    …And then there’s Marvin Gaye’s 1979 masterpiece Here, My Dear, an album that will leave you slack-jawed at it’s beauty as much as it will leave you scratching your head at it’s weirdness.
    A little backstory for you. Marvin’s first wife was Anna Gordy, the sister of Motown Records’ founder Berry. Their marriage ended acrimoniously in 1976, at which point Marvin was already dating the woman who would go on to be Mrs. Gaye #2, Janis Hunter. As part of the divorce settlement, Marvin was asked to record an album and donate a significant portion of the royalties to his soon-to-be ex-wife.
    I’m pretty sure Anna Gordy expected nothing like Here, which is essentially a musical document of their courtship, marriage and breakup. As such, it is one of the most lyrically forthright (and disturbing), honest albums ever recorded. Musically, it’s the equal of any album released by Marvin that decade (and if you’re reading this, I’m sure that you’re aware of how highly What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On figure in the lineup of classic albums).
    It’s disturbing to hear Marvin’s heavy inhaling and exhaling during the funky yet tortured “Anger”, even more so to hear him hear him ask “what I don’t understand/is if you loved me/how come you turned me in to the police?” in the jazzy suite “When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You?”. In between, Marvin grumbles about having to pay his ex’s attorney fees and not being allowed to see his child. He shouts out the year of the couple’s marriage and divorce in the middle of one song like a deranged carnival barker. He then dedicates a love song to Anna, practically howling her name with a mixture of desire and disappointment. By the album’s end, he’s “Falling In Love Again”, but after hearing him audibly go insane over the course of the album, you wonder if he’s just fooling himself, and if you know anything about Marvin’s tragic end less than six years after this album was recorded, you’ve gotta imagine that he probably was.
    Here, My Dear gets the deluxe two-disc tribute treatment from the folks at Hip-O Records tomorrow (1/15), with alternate takes and a second disc which assigns contemporary producers like Prince Paul and ?uestlove to the songs on this album. This album was excellent enough that I will be purchasing it for the THIRD time. Whether you’re a Marvin fan, an aficionado of soul music or someone who just loves artists that are unafraid to be honest in their work, I advise you to do the same.
    Here’s a Youtube clip of “Anger”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything with Marvin singing anything live from the album, so this will have to do: