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  • MJ To Lip Sync at London Shows?

    The King of Pop may not be singing at his much hyped concerts in London this summer according to a report in ContactMusic.

    The site quote Michael Jackson collaborator Ak0n as saying that Jackson would “perform”, but may not sing.

    The 50 year old pop star turns 51 this August and announced plans earlier this year for fifty concerts in London beginning in July.  The concerts immediately sold out and, according to published reports, could possibly generate enough income to solve the music star’s financial troubles.

    Speculating about MJ on Sonic Clash Radio in March, co-host Double G and his special guest (okay, me) mused about the concerts.  Double G says, “You don’t want the first concert …word to leak out that he doesn’t have it anymore.   That would be the worst thing I can’t imagine he wants anything but praise for that show.”

    Always eager to find something worse, I quickly chime in, “Even more of a threat to MJ than bad reviews…is if he is found to be lip syncing…I think that’s going to destroy any hope he has for musical redemption.”

    But what if a proxy, public red herring, stooge, collaborator like Akon spreads the word first that it’s a performance?  The debate is taking place now in our forum.  Go and be heard.

  • The Top 100 Songs of the ’00s, #95: “S.O.S.”

    rihanna

    It’s amazing what producers and songwriters can do to a blank slate. Rihanna’s debut single, “Pon de Replay”, might get my vote as one of the most annoying songs of this past decade. I remember sneering at the TV every time the video came on VH-1’s top 20. However, just one year later, the Barbadian beauty was well on her way to becoming arguably the best singles artist of the decade (she’s the #2 artist on this list, with three songs on the survey). The song thatsent her on her way was this propulsive, sexy jam. Goosed along by a very prominent sample of ’80s classic “Tainted Love” (by Soft Cell), Rihanna channeled her thin voice into an attitudinal, erotic moan that was good enough to make us forget that we were (at the time) listening to a teenager. The song’s flirty, fun vibe took it to the top of the charts, becoming the first of Rihanna’s five chart-toppers this decade, and established her as one of the preeminent female pop singers of her generation.

    So suck it, “Pon de Replay”. “S.O.S.” marked the beginning of pop superstar Rihanna as we now know her, and for that, we as pop music listenerds (that was a typo, but I left it in, it kinda fits) should be quite appreciative.

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #38: Sanitized By Swisher

    R.E.M.'s "Driver 8" 45 sleeve

    R.E.M.  “Driver 8″  b/w  “Crazy” (I.R.S. Records #52678, 1985)

    Alternative rock became a saleable commodity in the 1990’s, but back in ’85 it was mostly confined to non-commercial college radio stations, dorm-room record-players, frat-house keggers and a string of musky all-ages clubs that stretched from Jacksonville to San Diego.  Acting as a genuine “alternative” to all the Poison, Warrant and Cinderella gumming up the airwaves, down-to-earth acts like The Minutemen, Husker Du and The Replacements provided a much-needed sanctuary for those of us whose favorite Saturday night records were Marquee Moon and Pink Flag, and whose favorite Sunday morning record was The Velvet Underground & Nico.  By simply being themselves, Athens, GA’s R.E.M. rose to become the intelligent, headstrong, always forward-looking and never-reluctant centerpiece of this phenomenon, and their championing of other great bands who influenced them was second to none.  Along with being an R.E.M. fan came the bonus of others’ great music too.  At the time of release, I saw this week’s featured single as a mature talisman from wizened elder-statesmen.  Looking back, I see that it was only just the beginning.

    The back of R.E.M.'s "Driver 8" 45 sleeve

    If you say it fast enough, the title “Driver 8″ could be mistaken for “Gyrate,” which was the name of a popular LP by Athens art-dance-rock pioneers Pylon some five years prior (around the same time as Gang Of Four’s Entertainment! and The B-52’s’ Wild Planet, to put it in context).  And our boys hold very true to that influence in the song itself, which intercuts Michael Stipe’s oblique Southern storytelling with the same kind of terse, jerky, stark rhythms and wiry guitars patented by their new wave Georgian forebears.  And the train conductor says, “Take a break…”

    Watch the video for \”Driver 8\” by R.E.M. on YouTube

    “Driver 8” was the 2nd of two singles pulled from R.E.M.’s third LP, the Joe Boyd-produced Fables Of The Reconstruction (or Reconstruction Of The Fables, depending on which way you hold the record), an album which focused less on the reverberating, ringing jangle of their previous efforts (which nearly ignored the caffeinated agit-prop of their early live shows) and more on the solid, dense rock foundation that was about to bring them worldwide success.  More Tom Verlaine and less Roger McGuinn, one could say.  The house wasn’t fully built yet, but the cornerstones were well in place.

    R.E.M.'s 1985 LP "Fables Of The Reconstruction"

    Side B serves up more Pylon in the form of a straight-up cover of their 1981 single, “Crazy.”  It sounds so good that I wish they’d done a whole album of Pylon covers.  This recording later appeared on R.E.M.’s Dead Letter Office CD (a great collections of B-sides, and also for the longest time the only way you could get their brilliant Chronic Town EP). You can check out a live concert recording from ’89 here, but even cooler is this more recent footage of Pylon themselves performing the song at KFJC Los Altos last November, keeping very true to their original vision.

    Pylon's classic "Gyrate" LP

    I don’t need to tell you what became of Rock & Roll Hall-Of-Famers R.E.M., but Pylon broke up and reunited several times over, releasing three albums-worth of heavenly, danceable, overlooked genius, plus one best-of collection (appropriately titled, “Hits”).  Guitarist/songwriter Randy Bewley died this past February, after suffering a heart attack while driving, sadly putting an end to all things Pylon.

    NEXT WEEK: The farther one travels, the less one knows.