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  • Friday Throwback – Hold On

    Did you know that Jamie Walters is now a firefighter? Nope, he doesn’t throw Donna off the stairs anymore. Actually, Jamie Walters says that being a woman abuser on Beverly Hills, 90210 was a bad move because still, to this day, he receives flack from Donna fans who can’t separate the fact from fiction. Though How Do You Talk To An Angel was the hit song, I still liked this one better.

    (True story. I come from a family of hair stylists and in my senior year of high school, I asked my Aunt Annette to cut my hair like Ray Pruit. For some reason, I liked his hairstyle.)

    • Are those microphones in his room?
    • That guy yelling at the girl in the room was like the Ray Pruitt of the video.
    • If Jamie was a real hero, he’d go save the girl instead of singing a song.
    • How can she hold on to you bruh if you’re singing in the other building?
    • Did the dude just cut his finger trying to open a can?
    • Don’t jump Valerie!

    I think Jamie Walters did actually release two albums which you can probably find in the 99 cent used bin at your local record store. If I saw that dude out on the streets I’d probably ask him why he threw Donna off the stairs.

  • Pazz & Jop: Before We OFFICIALLY Turn The Calendar Over To 2008

    Real quick, though: Interesting potential Grammy performance alert: The Time (of “Jungle Love” and “Purple Rain” film fame for those of you with no soul whatsoever) are reuniting on the Grammy ceremony and performing with Rihanna…which should be pretty goshdang interesting. Are Time members Jam & Lewis delivering a subtle shot to star pupil Janet Jackson for leaving them behind on her upcoming album (which I’ve heard is *very* good)?
    Anyway, what I originally started writing: many of you know the Village Voice as the bastion of the New York City liberal. I *used* to enjoy reading their music reviews (headed by the venerable if occasionally wrongheaded Robert Christgau). Every year, they have a who’s who of music critical intelligentsia vote on their favorite albums and singles of the year, and every year the results are…well, they’re kinda predictable.
    Not to say they’re wrong. Their picks are uniformly solid, although I gotta admit that I don’t *get* the whole big deal about LCD Soundsystem (who came away with the year’s best album in their poll). I also don’t get why everyone salivates over Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” (his album is better than Ghostface’s? And Lupe’s?-which also somehow wound up below Britney Spears-REALLY??) when it’s (to my ears) just as mediocre (in a dependable kinda way) as “Kingdom Come”. The list did, however, remind me that I need to get that Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings record that I’ve walked past for the past four or five months every time I’ve gone into Virgin Megastore.
    Singles list? More of the same. Lots of indie-pop, lots of Winehouse (a little ironic in the Morissette sense that “Rehab” checks in at #1 on their singles poll just as Wino finally heads off to actual rehab!), lots of T-Pain (let’s face it, the guy was *inescapable*).
    I’d write more about the list, but frankly, I’m tired and the words are starting to run together.
    Check out the list and tell me what YOU think:

  • Still Slow, But Moving…

    The music industry is slowly waking up from it’s January slumber. No huge releases are scheduled out this week, but a couple of acts who have modest followings poke their heads out (just like the groundhog…what can I say, I’m early), including Grammy-nominated pop star Natasha Bedingfield. If you don’t know who Bedingfield is, you’ll remember her big hit “Unwritten”, which I believe is a shampoo commercial now? Anyway, her sophomore release, titled N.B. (how imaginative!!) hits stores today despite having been out in Natasha’s native U.K. for something like six months now. Allegedly, the British version is much better, having been sliced and diced to make it more “palatable for American audiences”, which is another way of saying people who do marketing for major American record labels don’t know their asses from their elbows.
    At any rate, there’s also a new covers album from indie darling Cat Power, a brand new CD from alt-country faves The Drive-By Truckers, and a new set from equally mellow Jack Johnson associate Matt Costa…perhaps whetting appetites for Johnson‘s own new set, which arrives in two weeks.
    Let’s take a quick side jaunt around the news for a sec to fill this out, huh?
    A news report quoted the Associated Press as saying that they’ve already created an obituary for Britney Spears. Now, I’m all for the Brit-bashing, but don’t you think that’s a bit creepy??
    The Writers’ Union has stated that they will NOT strike the Grammy Awards, happening in less than three weeks. With the Oscars under threat of being cancelled (and a less-than-stellar list of nominees), this may be the last major award show you see for quite some time. Although considering the list of nominees and scheduled performances (a list that so far only includes the overexposed Beyonce and the predictable Foo Fighters), this could potentially be a snoozefest.
    Finally, in the “this might be worth waiting for” department, George Michael (memba HIM?) is writing his memoirs-for the SECOND time. The pop superstar initially wrote an autobiography called “Bare” back in ’90, which wound up baring little at all. In the time since, he’s lost a lover tragically, fought with various record companies, torpedoed his own career, come out of the closet and gotten busted numerous times for drug or sex-related offenses. If George lets it all hang out, this could be really, REALLY good. Happy Tuesday!!