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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music

  • American Idol Season 8 – Playing For 2nd Place

    Kris and Danny are playing for second place right?

    Paula isn’t sitting with the rest of the judges. Is she performing again? Ok, there she is. She must be dressed up as an empty chair.

    Katy Perry at YouTube Live
    Katy Perry at YouTube Live
    Jordin Sparks and Katy Perry are performing tonight.

    Cause you’re hot then you’re cold
    You’re yes then you’re no

    Right now Perry is hot. But I have a feeling that she is going to be cold very soon in this fickle music landscape.

    Noah is singing I’m The World’s Greatest. Who is Noah? I’m not sure, but Alicia Keys introduced him after talking about donating money to Africa. Is it really good to be having young kids perform R. Kelly songs these days? Yes, Noah is male. I guess that makes it better.

    Do you think that Kris Allen wishes he wasn’t quite so married these days? I think it will be great for his marriage when he doesn’t win this.

    Jordin Sparks is out singing her new single, Battlefield. It’s an ok song and is more dramatic than anything on her bubble gum rookie album. It’s what you’d expect her first single off her sophomore album to be. Thankfully she’s singing here because she needs some publicity badly. No, not like Cassie and Rihanna. You’ll see naked pictures of Adam Lambert before you’ll ever see pictures of Jordin Sparks. Ok, maybe that was a bad example.

    Before we find out who is eliminated, Katy Perry is singing Waking Up In Vegas. She’s wearing an Adam Lambert cape.

    Perry is neck and neck with Anne Hathaway in the contest to determine who the pastiest celebrity on earth is.

    And the first person who will compete next week for all the marbles is Kris Allen. His wife has to be upset.

    And the person who will compete next week against Kris Allen is Adam Lambert.

    This might be the hardest “Home Sweet Home” ever to watch. Danny dude, you walked tall.

    Photo of Katy Perry by thomascrenshaw and shared via creative commons

  • Birthday Props for Stevie

    stevie

    No disrespect to Bob Dylan (or Smokey Robinson, who Dylan thinks is America’s greatest living poet), but no one writes songs better than Stevie Wonder, and that crown was sewn up back in 1976, when he was the biggest thing since sliced bread. In the thirty-plus years since “Songs in the Key of Life”, his run of classics has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped: “Lately”, “All I Do”, “That Girl”, “Overjoyed” and “These Three Words” are just a handful of the lyrical and vocal masterpieces that have come from a post-Seventies Stevie.

    I won’t even get into the stuff he made before then. Let’s just say that “Talking Book”, “Innervisions” and “Songs in the Key of Life” are albums every human that’s into music should own (and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale, trippy as it is, isn’t a slouch, either). It’s an achievement to make one classic album; Stevie made a DECADE’s worth of them. No wonder the man has won more Grammy Awards than any other pop, rock or R&B performer in history.

    One way you can judge a great song is by how many times it’s remade, and you could fill a box set with nothing but Stevie covers: everyone from Barbra Streisand to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to 2Pac to Wayne Brady has covered (or heavily sampled) Stevie. He has to be, apart from Dylan, the most covered songwriter of the rock era.

    Those too young to remember Stevie in his Grammy-winning, slimmer phase and want to know who the dude with the sunglasses was that performed with the Jonas Brothers was definitely need to be schooled. His music, for the excellent lyricism, pioneering musicianship, stellar vocals (every R&B singer that doesn’t sound like Marvin or Michael sounds like Stevie) and positive message, is as relevant now as it was when it was first out.

    I was fortunate enough to see Stevie live about 18 months ago, and with no light show and no choreography, blew the roof off of Madison Square Garden. I’ve been going to concerts fairly regularly for 15 years now, and I have never seen a better show.

    In 1980, Stevie wrote and recorded a song called “Happy Birthday” in dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Stevie was one of the most responsible forces for getting King’s birthday recognized as a national holiday). The song has also become a standard of sorts-go to a black birthday party and I guarantee someone’s gonna break into Stevie’s song either right before, during, or right after the candles are blown out!

    Here are two of my favorite songs by him. One from his golden era (the lyrics to this song are among the best-and yet simplest-ever written), one from more recently.

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #35: Ass Burgers

    Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"

    RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE  “Bullet In The Head”  b/w  “Darkness” (Epic Records #35-74927 promotional single, 1993)

    Now-legendary L.A. alterna-agit-punk-rap-funk-metal-core alchemists Rage Against The Machine rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the eternally-youthful (and forever broke) late-’80’s Revelation Records leftist hardcore scene in ’92, signed to Epic Records, released a stellar multi-platinum debut LP, took their face-melting show on the road with Perry Farrell’s first Lollapalooza tour and never looked back.  Critics balked.  How could de la Rocha, Morello & Co. hold the machine in contempt, much less rage against it, while simultaneously massaging the giant American corporate schlong to wargasm by selling their souls to a major?

    One word:  Platform.  The little toupeed, four-eyed midget spouting misinformed Biblical shit at the top of his lungs every Saturday from the town square sidewalk won’t get heard by anyone.  But the giant, towering behemoth on the big stage with the loud PA system and the pummelling electric guitar and thunderous bass will be heard by all.  At a time when students shelled out $20 for Che Guevara T-shirts, the RATM boys knew all too well that revolution sells.  Not only will it be televised, the networks will shuck for ad space.  The time was right.  Let’s get the word out.

    Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut LP

    Married to Japanese corporate giant Sony, Epic Records (who over a decade earlier had begrudgingly released The Clash’s budget-priced 3-LP Socialist manifesto, Sandinista!) squeezed out this little promo 45 in ’93, probably to fan the flames of RATM’s blazing Lolla showcase.  Side A is their notorious smackdown, “Bullet In The Head” from ’92’s eponymous debut LP.  According to the sleeve art, the track clocks in at 4:67.  Very cute, guys.  Just close your eyes & smell the mosh pit.

    Play \”Bullet In The Head\” by Rage Against The Machine

    I probably should’ve warned you…these clips are full of F-Bombs.  But you knew that already, so hopefully you covered Junior’s ears.  (He hears nastier stuff daily on the playground, I assure you.)  Anyway, as great as “Bullet…” is, side B holds the real gem here with the non-LP “Darkness” (also known as “Darkness Of Greed”).  This soft/LOUD/soft showstopper later became widely available on a rarities comp, but for a brief and shining moment, I wore the crown of Mixtape King through mere possession of this promo.  Get your crowd-surf on…NOW!

    Play \”Darkness\” by Rage Against The Machine

    Since the days of this earth-shattering debut, RATM released more stunning LPs (including one of covers), got banned from this and censored from that, and broke up and reformed several times.  Tom Morello took his guitar pyrotechnics to the very successful Audioslave (as well as projects such as The Nightwatchman and Street Sweeper Social Club), while Zach de la Rocha’s long-talked-about collabs with ?uestlove and El-P never fully materialized.  But their style, sound, intensity and hands-on activism still remains as a heavy influence to today’s youngsters.  So I’m warning you, always keep one eye glued to the RATM website, ’cause you never know when or where they’ll turn up, amps cranked and fists raised.  And you won’t want to miss it.

    NEXT WEEK: I cry tears in my coffee.