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  • Alicia Keys & Jack White Perform For 007: This Could Be Interesting

    I like Alicia Keys. She’s made progressively better albums. She’s certainly good looking. I give her props just for being a contemporary R&B singer who plays an instrument.

    I love Jack White. The White Stripes have one of the most consistent catalogs in rock currently. If you were to pick any band to come of age in the 21st century so far that’s a lock for the rock & roll hall of fame, The White Stripes and Coldplay would probably be it. And I’m willing to forgive that shitty first Raconteurs record (I didn’t even bother with the second one).

    Alicia Keys (photo by Jusez)
    Alicia Keys (photo by Jusez)

    But together? For the theme to the new James Bond movie? Doesn’t that just seem a little…weird?? Well, you’ll get to hear the results of their team-up soon enough. “Another Way To Die”, the theme to the upcoming 007 feature “Quantum of Solace” will hit stores as part of the movie’s soundtrack in late October. Not to say both artists haven’t exercised their collaborative juices before. Keys has worked with everyone from Nas to Christina Aguilera to John Mayer, while White produced Loretta Lynn’s comeback album “Van Lear Rose” and was behind the boards (and behind the guitar) for “Go It Alone”, one of the best songs on Beck’s “Guero” album. I guess soon we’ll see if these two great tastes wind up tasting (sounding) great together.

    OK, Alicia got the pic. Jack, you get the video. Fair?

  • New Music In Stores & Online 7/29/08: Wow, This Is Bad

    In most years, there’s a period from mid-July to mid-August during which NOTHING comes out. As a record buyer, this is frustrating because you’re walking into record stores and not finding a thing that strikes your interest. On the other hand, with the holiday selling season closer than you think, it might be a good idea to save your money for the deluge that awaits.

    Anywhere, here’s my five picks (if I must) out of this week’s releases. How bad is it? I’m actually mentioning one of the same releases this week that I mentioned last week. Thank God for semantics.

    Sugarland “Love on the Inside”-The hottest country duo in the land took an interesting tactic with their new release. It came out last week in a “deluxe” edition, while this week marks the introduction of the presumably less-bells-and-whistles containing (and cheaper) regular version. Ten years ago, if you were to tell me that I’d even be considering buying an album like this, I’d have laughed you into September, but I’ve acquired a fondness for modern-day country. Although I’ve not heard much of Sugarland (aside from the godawful duet with Bon Jovi that I mentioned in last week’s column), I could very well be tempted to check this one out.

    Country duo Sugarland\'s new CD \"Love on the Inside\"

    http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/splash.html

    Rick Springfield “Venus in Overdrive”-Here’s something that just might freak you out. The guy that teenage girls drooled over in the early Eighties (my cousin had a picture of him hanging in her bedroom back in the day) is approaching 60. SIXTY. Nevertheless, the indefatigable Springfield continues playing and touring. This is Rick’s first album of original material in five years. His last album, “The Day After Yesterday” was an interesting collection of covers. I said “interesting”, not good.

    http://rickspringfield.com/

    (more…)

  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #104: “Invincible”

    The Infatueighties Countdown: #104: “Invincible”

    There are exactly three movies I remember seeing in the movie theater during the summer of 1985: “Back to the Future”, “Pale

    Pat Benatar Invincible Cover
    Pat Benatar Invincible Cover

    Rider” (who takes a 9-year old to see a Western??), and a little film called “The Legend of Billie Jean”, which, despite the time period of it’s release, was not about a woman who said Michael Jackson was the father of the kid.

    While I’ll leave the specifics of the plot to the folks at “I Love The 80s” (ahhh…it involved a stolen bike…thanks Wikipedia), I do remember that it starred Helen Slater (of “Supergirl” fame) and a very young Christian Slater (no, the two are not related, although I thought they were for years). Somewhere along the line, Helen (as Billie Jean) chopped off her long tresses in favor of a blond Joan Jett-esque look and started screaming “fair is fair!” at everyone within a 50-foot radius. To support this sudden lunge into badassitude, the writers of the movie needed a badass theme song, and they knew just who to call: Pat Motherfuckin’ Benatar.

    Benatar spends this aggressive rocker emoting like the opera student she once was, snarling lines like “We can’t af-FORD to be innocent! Stand up and FACE the enemy!” with some serious ‘tude. It’s the type of spit-in-the-face-of-authority that attracts every mousy kid who dreams of being a badass. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

    “Invincible” marked the end of a killer run for Benatar. During the years 1980-1985, she sold millions of albums, scored a handful of Top 10 hits (with “Invincible”‘s #10 placing marking the last of those), and won four Grammy Awards (all for Best Female Rock Performance). This song was pretty much the last gasp for her as an icon, and she quickly lost traction to the likes of Madonna, Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson (and Tina Turner, who owned the Female Rock Grammy for the next several years).

    According to Wikipedia (man, I love those guys), “The Legend of Billie Jean” has never been released on DVD. Someone needs to fix that one stat. I’d buy a copy.

    One thing I didn’t realize until I was watching one of VH-1’s 80s retrospectives is that Yeardley Smith plays a fairly major role in this movie. Who’s Yeardley Smith, you may ask? Most folks know her better as the voice of Lisa Simpson.

    Finally, anyone notice that the bridge of this song sounds almost exactly like the beginning of U2’s “Two Hearts Beat As One”?? Check it out for yourself.