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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

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

  • Friday Throwback: “State of the Heart”

    I send you off for the weekend with a little Rick Springfield for that ass.

    Rick was one of the first teen idols that I was aware of. My cousin Sharon had a massive crush on him. She would make sure to get home in time to see him play Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital”, and I can distinctly remember going to Kings Plaza Mall in Brooklyn and watching her buy a framed black-and-white photo of Rick in his leather-jacketed glory. I also remember him having very hairy arms in the picture. Interesting the things you retain…

    The Aussie conquered the worlds of both prime-time TV and pop music for a while, scoring hits in the skinny-tie power-pop fashion like “Jessie’s Girl” (which actually beat Bruce Springsteen for a Grammy…I remember this!) and “Don’t Talk to Strangers” (one of my favorites). Synthesizers began to creep into his music over the next couple of years with songs like “Human Touch” and “Bop ’til You Drop”, and he released what I understand to be one of the incredibly all-time bad rock movies with “Hard to Hold”. However, 1985’s “State of the Heart” is a moody midtempo gem that gets overlooked when most people look at Springfield’s string of hits.

    Rick’s vocal is expressive, moreso than his pained facial expressions in the video, and the song has a very cool instrumental motif, with that whacked out synth solo in the middle. This pretty much marked the end of the road for Rick, as he only had one more hit with 1988’s “Rock of Life”. However, he’s still performing today, even in his early Sixties (actually, a quick Wiki check reveals that he just turned 60). Still looks good too…better than most 60 year olds I know. He still makes and puts out albums and also returned to “GH” for a time, too. Anyway, enjoy the video, sorry about the subtitles, and have a great weekend!

  • Fame Kills: GaGa/Kanye Tour Bites the Dust

    From the first time I heard about it, I thought having Kanye West & Lady GaGa co-headline a tour together was sort of strange. I mean, despite the fact that they both aspire to high art, aesthetically speaking…their audiences probably are quite dissimilar. Kanye fans tend to be college students, hipsters and backpacky hip-hoppers, while GaGa’s fans tend to be teenage girls and flaming queens gay men.

    So I can’t say I’m surprised by the fact that this joint tour has been cancelled. I mean, who would conceivably buy a ticket to see both acts? While Kanye’s MTV-sponsored antics are being factored in as a reason the tour was cancelled, I can’t see someone who’s already a Kanye West fan being too bothered by the Taylor Swift incident. I ALSO can’t see someone who’s a Kanye West fan buying a Lady GaGa album or sitting through an hour and a half of GaGa on stage. I think it’s just a case of two well-meaning, reasonably talented artists trying to do something together without realizing that their audiences are oil and water.

  • Chart Chat 10/1/09: All About the Pearl Jam

    Yet another busy week for new releases…and this week’s victor is Pearl Jam. Their “Backspacer” album bows at the top with 189,000 units sold. It’s the first #1 album from the rock legends since “No Code” back in 1997. Something worth noting about this release is that you won’t find it at Wal-Mart or FYE or Best Buy…”Backspacer” is only available through Target, iTunes and independent retailers. Support your local indie record store and keep people who really give a shit about music employed!

    (jumps off soapbox)

    Other notable debuts include rock bands Three Days Grace, Brand New and Five Finger Death Punch at #s 3, 6 and 7, singer/actor Harry Connick Jr. at #8, the David Crowder Band (who?) at #11, Welsh singer/songwriter David Gray at #12, and flamboyant British pop singer Mika at #19.

    Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3” hangs tough at #2 with 134,000 units. In 3 weeks, this album is less than 100,000 units away from Platinum status. Not bad, especially for a veteran clocking nearly 15 years in the biz.

    Epic fail of the week has to go to reggae/pop singer Sean Kingston. After his debut album was a Gold success, and with a hot single “Fire Burning”, that stayed in the Top Ten for most of the summer, all Kingston’s “Tomorrow” could manage was a #37 debut and 13,000 scanned. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt.

    On the singles side of things, there are two noteworthy items, at least from a positive standpoint. Lady GaGa holds at #7 for a second week with “Paparazzi”. It’s the fourth top ten single from her album “The Fame”, making her the first debut artist to reach that designation since Christina Aguilera back in 2000. Meanwhile, Carrie Underwood blasts up the chart with “Cowboy Casanova”. The first single from the country starlet’s third album jumps from #96 to #11, boosted by it’s availability on iTunes.

    Other artists who had songs debut on iTunes last week? Not so lucky. “Make Me”, the first single from Janet Jackson’s upcoming Number Ones album, enters the digital singles chart at a lowly #181. Only six spots above it, at #175, is the first new music in seven years from Creed, one of the biggest selling rock bands of the past decade. Turns out audiences weren’t so overcome by their single “Overcome”. For cpmparison’s sake? The song at #174 is Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, which is 27 years old.

    Next week, it appears to be a horse race between Paramore and Mariah Carey to see who has the week’s top-selling album. Stay tuned to SonicClash to see how it all turns out.

    This Week’s Top Albums on Billboard’s Comprehensive Albums Chart:

    1) “Backspacer” Pearl Jam

    2) “The Blueprint 2” Jay-Z

    3) “Life Starts Now” Three Days Grace

    4) “I Look to You” Whitney Houston

    5) “The Time of Our Lives EP” Miley Cyrus

    6) “Daisy” Brand New

    7) “War is the Answer” Five Finger Death Punch

    8) “Number Ones” Michael Jackson

    9) “Your Songs” Harry Connick Jr.

    10) “So Far Gone EP” Drake

    11) “The Resistance” Muse

    12) “Church Music” David Crowder Band

    13) “Draw the Line” David Gray

    14) “Fearless” Taylor Swift

    15) “Only by the Night” Kings of Leon

    16) “Monsters of Folk” Monsters of Folk

    17) “Abbey Road” The Beatles

    18) “The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)” The Black Eyed Peas

    19) “Man on the Moon: The End of the Day” Kid Cudi

    20) “Foundation” Zac Brown Band