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Tag: Carlos Santana

  • American Idol Season 8 Finale – And The Winner Is…

    I’m going to be live blogging this show for SonicClash tonight. I know you East Coasters have already seen the show. You’ll just have to pretend you’re watching it again if you want to following with me.

    Just refresh every five minutes or so.

    Randy is wearing a red bow tie.

    They just showed Kris’ wife in the audience and she has that, “I hope he loses so I don’t have to take half from him in three years,” look on her face.

    Mikalah Gordon drew the short straw and had to go to Arkansas to watch the show with Kris’ hometown fan.

    Carly was able to hang out in her hometown of San Diego to sit with Adam’s hometown fans.

    The top 13 performed some wacky song together and Jasmine Murray nearly puked on stage from struggling to try and hit her high note. Whose idea was it for her to get a solo? Michael Sarver did some good eating while he was away.

    David Cook is singing Permanent. His brother recently passed away. It was a nice performance and they’re putting it on iTunes and giving proceeds to charity.

    They just showed Carrie Underwood’s skeleton in the crowd.

    The Golden Idol Awards are back. I know I was looking forward to this part of the show.

    Nick Mitchell won for Best Male Performance and to give us a treat, he performed And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.

    Lil’ Rounds and Queen Latifah are performing together. I hope it’s U.N.I.T.Y. You have to give it to the Queen. She can rap, act a bit, and sing a little bit. It’s too bad that she doesn’t quite wear a unitard all that well. Latifah’s had it up to here.

    Anoop Doggy Dog and Alexis Grace are singing with Jason Mraz and showing exactly why they got kicked off the show. Way to show us that America wasn’t wrong.

    Kris Allen is singing with Keith Urban. Michael Sarver has to be kicking himself. This is probably a dream of his. I think I just saw him shrug his shoulders and go back to the catering table.

    The girls (Jasmine, Megan, Allison, Alexis, Lil) are doing Fergie’s Glamorous, which was just in introduction to the real Fergie performing Big Girls Don’t Cry.

    Boom, Boom, Pow
    Boom, Boom, Pow
    Both of my kids asked me why Fergie was so ugly. If anyone wondered if they were my kids, you need not worry. They are definitely made of my DNA. By the way, I agree. Fergie’s entire face looks like it was injected with poisonous botox. Her body is 3008, but her face is definitely 2000 and late. Boom, boom, pow.

    No matter what you say about The Black Eyed Peas, you have to give them credit for this one. This song absolutely makes zero sense, but it hits like no one’s business.

    Yay! It’s time for another Golden Idol. I’m not sure what the category was, but Bikini Girl is the winner. Boom, boom, pow.

    They had her perform Vision Of Love for all of about 10 seconds before my wife, Kara DioGuardi Gonzales came out and one upped her. And then she flashed her own bikini. Boom, boom, pow.

    Allison is singing Time After Time with Cyndi Lauper. Isn’t Cyndi old enough to be her grandmother? But I have mad respect for Cyndi. She’s realer than a two dollar bill. She’s got that boom, boom, pow. Ok, that’s enough.

    Danny is singing Hello. Lionel Richie must have an album out. What would’ve been really wrong is if they tried to duplicate the video and had Scott McIntyre mold Danny’s face out of clay. Ok, that was so terrible. If I was Arsenio Hall, I’d have slapped my hand and said, “bad host”.

    There’s Lionel. I knew he had something to sell. I don’t blame Danny for not really knowing the lyrics to Just Go either. Lionel barely knew them. They could’ve given him some classic Lionel to sing, like you know, All Night Long. Hey, that’s just what they did. And Scott McIntyre is on the stage with them dancing his ass off! Ok, that last thing didn’t happen. But everything else did.

    By the way, Lionel was pretty outrageous.

    Adam is wearing some contraption on his shoulders that looks like something out of Michael Jackson’s closet. Or Janet’s. Or Latoya’s. He introduced KISS. Man, even their face paint looks old. I didn’t know face paint could have wrinkles.

    Carlos Santana is on stage and Matt Giraud is singing with him. They started with Black Magic Woman and segued into Smooth. The rest of the top 13 came out and sang for Carlos. Yep, even Jorge. They let him back on stage, but I think he was wearing a media credential around his neck.

    For some reason, Steve Martin is on stage. I think I heard somewhere that he has a band. He’s playing the banjo. Michael Sarver pulled himself away from catering to get on stage with Megan Joy and perform with Steve. Can he still be wild and crazy while playing a banjo and wearing glasses?

    That performance was reminiscent of those Grammy performances where they basically tell you to go use the restroom so you don’t miss the good stuff.

    Oh no, I might have to switch from HD back to regular definition. Rod Stewart just pranced on the stage. Thankfully, the camera director is avoiding the close-ups and sticking to the wider shots. I’m not even going to pretend that I understand this. I’d even settle for Fergie coming back out to frighten my children.

    Rod ended by saying, “Thank you kindly.” Sheesh.

    The infamous Tatiana won which I think is the last (hopefully) Golden Idol and then she came on stage to sing Whitney. I think it was supposed to be a joke. Or maybe the joke was on her?

    Kris and Adam came out to sing We Are The Champions with Queen. I could make that whole joke about Adam being the next Freddie Mercury, but I won’t even do it. It’d rather make more jokes about how Fergie’s face looks like it was stung by 10 mosquitoes.

    You know, as my punishment for these jokes, one day, I know I’m going to run into Fergie at the airport and then have to lie to her about how much I like her music. Let’s just hope she’s wearing sun glasses on that day. Large ones. That cover her face entirely. Like she was Darth Vader.

    Simon just gave Adam and Kris both props.

    It’s now time for the results. They’re claiming 100 million votes were cast last night. That means every person who watched had to vote at least 3 or 4 times. I’m not sure I buy that, but oh well.

    And the winner is…

    Um, Kris Allen?

    Does Conway, Arkansas really have that many people?

    Kris has to sing the terrible No Boundaries, which he absolutely screwed up last night, again. He gave the front row of females his hand to touch and they nearly pulled his jacket off. He’s going to have to start making deals with that poor wife of his starting tonight.

    You’ll never guess what was one of the last shots before the show went off stage. It was a shot of Justin Guarini clapping like he really meant it, with debris in his hair. That’s your final shot? Did Carrie Underwood’s skeleton leave already?

    Well, he was the underdog. He pulled it off. Kris Allen is your season 8 American Idol.

    Until next year, Seacrest out! Boom, boom, pow.

    Photo of Fergie by paddynapper and shared via creative commons

  • Best You’ve Never Heard: Whatever Happens – Michael Jackson

    It would be up to me to add some Michael Jackson to The Best You’ve Never Heard week, since Money Mike didn’t do it.

    (Don’t worry, he probably would’ve, but I called first dibs. He’s still the biggest MJ fan on the planet.)

    In 2001, Michael Jackson released Invincible, his first album in six years since the HIStory double album. After a few listens, there were some definite conclusions. Firstly, Jackson could still sing as shown on some of the ballads like Break Of Dawn, Heaven Can Wait, and Butterflies. Secondly, he was still capable of making terrible song choices. The Lost Children and Cry were terrible songs. But the thing that many people walked away thinking was that Whatever Happens, featuring Carlos Santana on guitar, was the best song (or Butterflies based on your taste) and was a surefire hit single. But what happened is that Sony didn’t support the album and pushed nothing except the initial single and no one outside of the die hard MJ fans got to hear Whatever Happens.

    He gives another smile, tries to understand her side
    To show that he cares, she can’t stay in the room
    She’s consumed with everything that’s been goin’ on
    She says …
    Whatever happens, don’t let go of my hand

    Viewers of American Idol will be familiar with the song because Mario Vasquez performed it in his audition that was shown before the season. He also sang back up vocals on the original track.

    The song starts with an old fashioned instrumental that you’d hear in Westerns as if to say that MJ and Santana were about to draw on each other and a musical explosion was ready to occur. Just walk ten paces.

    It’s Latin flavored, but not too much. Santana plucks the strings ever so delicately which forces MJ to sing with more emotion than you’d think possible.

    Don’t you let go baby! Don’t you let go!

    Lyrically, the song tells a story about a mysterious relationship between a man and a woman. The woman is scared about what they’re doing. The man is trying to make things right. Perfect even. He doesn’t understand that all she wants is just him and that’s all. The conclusion is that whatever happens, don’t let go of my hand. Forever, forever, forever.

    Even though the finale of the song seems a bit corny with two of the greatest artists of our time thanking each other, especially Michael’s, “Thank you Carlos”, which seems like it took 20 takes, but it’s the perfect finish. They go out guns a blazin’. Well, sort of.

    Whatever Happens is the song that would’ve should’ve could’ve, but didn’t. But thankfully for you, you can now find it because I know it’s the best you’ve never heard.

    Photo shared via creative commons

    More on “The Best You’ve Never Heard” week
    The Best You’ve Never Heard..or Have You?: “Shiver” by Coldplay
    The Best You’ve Never Heard: “Hesitate” by The Mysteries of Life
    The Best You’ve Never Heard: “Must Have Been Crazy” by Chicago
    The Best You’ve Never Heard: “Wheel” by John Mayer
    The Best You’ve Never Heard: Introduction

  • Worth a Second Listen: Special Michael Jackson Birthday Edition: “Invincible”

    Worth a Second Listen: Special Michael Jackson Birthday Edition: “Invincible”

    If you bought into the hype spewed by the mainstream press and Michael Jackson’s detractors, 2001’s “Invincible” was a Invincible Coverflop of colossal proportions. Of course it was no “Thriller” or “Off The Wall”, but it stands as a fairly contemporary, often good, and occasionally awesome album from the King of Pop. Was it a sales bust? Considering only about 20 or so albums a year sell over 2 million copies (with only one so far in 2008), and this one broke that barrier, I would say no.

    After the debacle that was 1995’s “HIStory”, Michael retreated back to the lab to create an album that would focus less on his personal problems and more on just making good music. In the six years between the two albums, he had also seen the entire teen-pop industry build back up on a sound he created. From Sisqo to Usher to Beyonce to Britney to Backstreet & *Nsync…damn near every pop or soul artist coming up owed a big debt to Mike…a trend that’s grown even more prevalent in the seven years since this album’s release.

    The first thing you notice is that Michael the balladeer is back. The man hadn’t whipped out a slow jam since “Bad”‘s “Liberian Girl” in ’87, but “Invincible” finds him bringing sexy back about 5 years before Justin Timberlake. “Break Of Dawn” is a summery song that finds The King Of Lotharios promising to “make sweet love till the break of dawn”. Get the visual out of your head and concentrate on the song’s sweet melody, the calming background arrangement and the effervescent chorus. “Butterflies” is more of the same. Over a thumping groove from neo-soul producers Dre & Vidal, Mike testifies about a girl who makes him ridiculously nervous. This song wouldn’t sound out of place on “Off The Wall”, with it’s deep bottom, airy harmonies, and Michael singing in a casual cadence that’s ever-so-slightly behind the beat. It’s easily Michael’s best performance in years. His vocal is exquisite, especially when he slips into a mind-melting falsetto in the second verse…a vocal even more impressive when you realize the man doesn’t have a nose to sing through.

    “2000 Watts” finds Michael jumping straight into the space age with an energetically jumpy production. The lyrics make no sense, but the high-energy arrangement makes you dance, and Michael brings out his deepest vocal tones for this song. First single “You Rock My World” is sunny and pleasant enough, although it sounds like a watered down version of “Remember The Time” (which, in itself was a watered down “Rock With You”). Nevertheless, the song’s got an addictive chorus and reasonably uncluttered production, not something you’d necessarily associate with the track’s producer, Rodney Jerkins.

    Jackson occasionally finds himself lost amidst the more modern-sounding production. The opening track, “Unbreakable” is a mission statement that favors 1991’s “Jam”, but Michael’s overwhelmed by the bloops and bleeps that come crashing through. It also features a post-mortem verse from the Notorious B.I.G.-one that was lifted from a Shaquille O’Neal album released about 6 months before the rapper’s death. Biggie verses? Generally cool. Exploiting the dead? Not really cool. The album’s title track starts off slow but picks up steam towards the end when the army of Mikes commanding the vocals break it down over a menacing-sounding piano loop and finger snaps. The Timbaland-esque “Heartbreaker” is nice, but much of the production just sounds like the audio equivalent of trying to modernize a classic car with garish paint. Michael doesn’t need all the bells and whistles to make great music. Another demerit agains the album is that, ever since “Dangerous”, Michael has felt the need to fill every last second of a CD’s 79 minute running time with music. It’s not necessary. Give us 10 songs of great music, not 16 songs where we have to skip around to find the 10 good ones!

    “Invincible”s crowning achievement is “Whatever Happens”. For once, Michael stops singing about being persecuted and concentrates on the story of a man and woman’s unconditional love in the face of great odds. This song would have been an inspired choice for a single and could’ve made an awesome video. Its got a slow motion, cinematic feel, Mike’s vocal performance is top-notch, and Carlos Santana pops aboard to add a blistering guitar solo. Classic stuff here.

    On the poppier side of things, “Don’t Walk Away” is a stunningly heartbreaking ballad that The Backstreet Boys would still salivate in their sleep for. It’s by far the best of the easy-listening type things on the album. “You Are My Life” is a goopy ballad which put the final nail in the coffin of the songwriting career of the once-reliable Babyface. Meanwhile, R. Kelly pops in for the world-peace anthem “Cry”, which just sounds like an inferior version of the not-that-good-to-begin-wit “I Believe I Can Fly”.

    “The Lost Children” is unlistenable. Even before the trial, this song was unlistenable. It’s like Michael got kidnapped by Raffi and decided to make a song either about runaway kids or a loosely metaphorical song about folks who have had lost childhoods. Either way, the song is easily one of the 5 worst things he has recorded in his adult life.

    All told, “Invincible” is not the piece of shit most claim it to be. A leaner structure to the album and some more sympathetic production would have resulted in a classic. However, when placed against what passes for pop/R&B these days, “Invincible” holds up better than a lot of the junk on radio waves now.