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  • A Mocha Latte And A Case of You

    Paul mcCartney on stage

    I guess these two interesting things are sort of related…
    Well, folks, in a lead up to iTunes’ most popular holdouts-The Beatles-finally allowing their music to appear for purchase on the site (my spidey sense tells me that it’ll happen right before the lucrative holiday season), John Lennon’s solo work is now available. This follows Paul McCartney’s Apple/Capitol work being made available earlier this summer. The countdown to being able to download “Hey Jude” (and make Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson a LOT more money) begins now…

    Joni Mitchell

    Speaking of Paul, there was quite a hubbub earlier this year when Paul jumped from Capitol, which had (aside from a stint with Columbia in the early/mid Eighties) been his recording home for 40+ years to Starbucks’ Hear Music imprint. It proved to be a smart move for Macca, as his latest album, “Memory Almost Full” has, in about 10 weeks, almost outsold what his previous albvum, “Chaos & Creation in the Backyard” has sold in two years. Of course, where one starts, others follow, and fellow legendary artists Joni Mitchell and James Taylor are now both signed to Hear Music, after lengthy stays with Warner/Reprise and Columbia, respectively. This should be an interesting litmus test, especially with a notoriously prickly artist like Joni (it strikes me as kind of strange that she would align herself with a company like Starbucks, but then again, despite her grande dame singer/songwriter status, she has complained long and hard about her treatment in the record industry). At any rate, while JT could probably sign to any label in existence and sell hundreds of thousands of albums to his fervent (and record-buying) fan base (which includes me), I scratch my head wondering whether Joni will do the promotional work that would be needed to make her album a success.
    These three career artists jumping ship (along with the rumor that Madonna will be parting with Warner Brothers after a quarter century) makes me wonder who the next artist to move to Starbucks will be. And with McCartney’s success still fresh, will other companies follow suit? Is it too farfetched to think of McDonald’s or Radio Shack forming record companies and selling CDs? Who knows??

  • The Year Of The Comeback (With More To Come)

    2007 has been chock full of comebacks and reunions (The Police?? Genesis?? The Spice Girls!!). Now, it looks like two more are headed towards us this fall.

    New Kids On The Block

    The Backstreet Boys (remember them?) have a new single hitting radio at the end of the month. It’s pretty ballsy of BSB to return at a time when they’re essentially the last boy band standing. Also hard to believe that it’s been a decade since they exploded onto American airwaves with “Quit Playing Games With My Heart” and “As Long As You Love Me”. Not sure where they fit in today’s pop environment, not sure how they’ll do as a quartet (Kevin Richardson has split from the band), and REALLY not sure, based on one publicity photo I’ve seen, how their imagery is gonna work. Do the little girls who bought their alGarth Brooksbum ten years ago and are now young women still care? I guess we’ll see!!

    More interesting, in my opinion, is a series of rumors that suggests that Garth Brooks will officially be returning to the scene after a five-year hiatus. A new Garth release is sure to breathe some new life into the music industry-after all, he was the biggest selling artist of the Nineties. I’m sure country radio will welcome him back with open arms, as will any label he decides to sign to…if he chooses to go that route. A couple years back, Garth released a set of B-sides and unreleased tracks via a deal with Wal-Mart, and there are rumors that Garth might be distributing this one himself. Hell, it’s not like he needs the money, right?
    Makes me wonder what other reunions or comebacks could be in the offing…

  • Friday Throwback – (I Know I Got) Skillz

    I have to tell you a story about a man named Eddy Zucko. Right around the time, Shaq O’neal came into the NBA this man named Eddy Zucko decided that he loved the man’s free, fun spirit. He loved it enough that when Shaq decided to drop rhymes on an album called Shaq Diesel, young Eddy bought it. When Shaq came back for more with Shaq-Fu: Da Return, Eddy bought it again. He loved both albums so much that I’d hear him reciting lines and calling himself the Ken Dogg. I think he may still hold both albums in a special place in his heart.

    (I Know I Got) Skillz is the first Shaq single, though he was first heard on the Fu-Schnickens song What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock?). He’d also do verses on Michael Jackson’s 2 Bad and Quincy Jones’ Stomp. Does anyone remember TWISM?

    • Shaq will do you like Spielberg and you’ll get jurrasic’d in the park.
    • I wonder if anyone ever calls Shaq ET still. Extra Tallums?
    • Look at that, it’s Def Jeff with the Shaq attack.
    • I wonder how much leather it took to make Shaq’s vest and pants?
    • Nah, nah, let him continue.
    • Best line ever: “Built like Chevy Impala/ Shaq’s a smooth baller/ But what about rhymes? /I can hold my own/ Knick knack Shaq attack, give a dog a bone”
    • How you like him now? He drops bombs.
    • Shaq gives a shout out to his cousin Ron, and his other cousin Ron.

    How many of you know that Shaq dropped 5 albums? And what’s more impressive than that (or at least impressive because a label kept putting out Shaq records), is that his first record went double platinum and his second went platinum. Though I don’t think I’ve ever seen a copy of Presents His Superfriends, Vol. 1 and highly doubt we’ll ever get Vol. 2.