Videos To Die For

Posted by John on June 28, 2010
Posted in: videos, youtube. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

– Recently, I had the pleasure of penning a guest post for Brad over at Wacky On the Junk. He got the idea of asking some of his actual and virtual friends to submit five albums or songs that “changed their lives”, and I was flattered to have him ask me to contribute. Since I don’t ever do anything the easy way, I struggled for a week or so to pull together something that made sense to me until Adele’s “Hometown Glory” came up on my iTunes. From there, it was clear that I would be talking about ballads, and I came up with Five Ballads that Left a Mark.

Among the titles on that list is Prince’s “Adore”, which I described as “my favorite song from my favorite album of all time (Sign o’ the Times).” There’s a reason that BET paid homage to Prince on its BET Awards show last night, and that song, although never a single, to this day gets played on any self-respecting “Quiet Storm” show on R&B stations across the country. While it wasn’t my favorite Prince tribute (that honor goes to Janelle Monae, who I will address in the next couple of days), Alicia Keys did a pretty great version of “Adore” complete with piano climbing and some pretty impressive high notes.

– Tomorrow sees the release of the Scissor Sisters’ Night Work, which looks to be a return to form after the brief diversion that was Ta-Dah. Don’t get me wrong…Ta was a good album, but it wasn’t the stellar work that we were spoiled with on their debut. From what I’ve heard, I really like the more grimy and gritty vibe on Night Work, and a highlight so far has been “Any Which Way”. From what I’ve been told, their performance of “Any” at Glastonbury was one to remember, but maybe that’s because Kylie Minogue showed up and tore it up. Personally, I love Ana Matronic channeling Sandra Bernhard on the bridge.

– With all the musical disappointments in the world (the failure of Mini Viva, Xtina’s new album, Katy Perry at #1), we could use a surprise to cheer us up. Enter Sophie Ellis Bextor, who showed up at NYC Pride yesterday and performed for (and with) the hot, sweaty boys on the Pier. Does this mean that she is going to give the US a go when she releases the next full-length album? Or was she just in the neighborhood and thought she’d just hang out with her gay fans? Either way, who woulda thought?

Random Notes – 06-20-10

Posted by John on June 20, 2010
Posted in: new artist, personal, singles, videos, youtube. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

So a few days of downtime to get life and everything that goes with it in order turned into almost 2 weeks away. My 94-year-old grandfather passed away, and while I wasn’t able to get back to see the family right away (that’s coming in July), I have had to take some time and process everything. Life is chaotic but still okay. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads that stuck around and did the right thing. You know who you are…

– Billboard posted an excellent retrospective last week of the 50 biggest hits of Michael Jackson on the Hot 100. These types of reviews are always interesting to me, but when you have all of the chart data at your fingertips, it’s the chart version of catnip to a music dork like me. I was very surprised by the song atop the listing, but once you break it down it makes perfect sense. Here’s a little fact I never knew: Michael recorded “State of Shock” with Freddie Mercury before he teamed up with Mick Jagger.

– PMN favorite Tino Coury is on course to score his first Top 40 pop hit, as “Diary” is poised to move from #45 to #40 on this week’s Pop Radio airplay chart. Final numbers aren’t in quite yet, but this has been a long time coming. The guy has been travelling all over the country, playing shows wherever they will have him, and it seems like that hard work has finally paid off. With several songs ahead of his dropping rapidly, Tino should be able to cover some decent ground in a short amount of time. Here’s a short clip of Tino singing a song I assume will be on his debut album this fall called “Miss America”.

– Speaking of slow-building hits, VV Brown is at #49 as of this evening on iTunes with “Shark in the Water”. I won’t lie…I thought this track was dead in the water, but it has been hanging around and popping up in unusual places. I walked into a fast-food restaurant a few weeks ago, and the video for “Shark” was playing on the in-store TV network. I’m sure that opening for Maroon 5 this summer won’t hurt her profile one bit. Here’s hoping that the trend of talented British artists finding success here in the US continues.

In addition to her music, VV also has a series of comics out called The City of Abacus. Being a big fan of comics from an early age, my ears perked up a bit when I heard about it. Check out the video below where she talks about her favorites, as well as the inspiration for the series. For more info, you can check out thecityofabacus.com.

– Upcoming posts will feature reviews of concerts by La Roux, Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu. The summer hasn’t even formally started, and it is already a hot one.

Fyfe Dangerfield Gets Respect

Posted by John on June 7, 2010
Posted in: reviews, videos, youtube. Tagged: , . 5 Comments

One of the disadvantages of being a British pop music fan living in a different country is that sometimes you have to play catch-up with the social context of some chart entries. For example, every year there is at least one novelty charity single where I haven’t heard of someone featured on the track, and yet it’s a top five smash. Such was also the case with Fyfe Dangerfield’s recent Top 10 UK hit “She’s Always a Woman”, featured in a John Lewis TV advert. Besides the fact that I’m not even familiar with the department store, I had never heard of Fyfe, who was also a member of Guillemots, a group whose sole song I knew prior was “Get Over It”.

Despite how much separation there has been of music from mainstream media in the US recently (just look at the pitiful music coverage in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly if you don’t believe it), there are occasionally powerful moments of music and TV meeting that are undeniable. I remember the overwhelming emotion that took me over as I watched the final scene of the final episode of Six Feet Under, or the perfection of using Dirty Vegas’ “Days Go By” for a car commercial shot at night. Such is the power of Fyfe’s version of the Billy Joel classic “She’s Always a Woman”. And before you even think about trashing Mr Joel, please know that I was born and raised in New York State. Respect.

Although “Woman” will always be first and foremost a Billy Joel song, there’s something in Fyfe’s delivery and tone that sounds genuine and authentic to me. To take a song as iconic as “Woman” and to instantly own it is an ability that not many artists can do once, let alone multiple times. If you are wondering if Fyfe is capable of doing it more than once, check out his take on “Call the Shots” from Girls Aloud, which he has been performing live recently.

So he can do covers, but can he carry a whole CD? The answer is absolutely yes. His US debut Fly Yellow Moon is a mix of moody ballads and happy upbeat tracks that draw influences from all over the place. You can hear the 60s in the harmonies on “So Brand New” and the 80s in the drum machine-driven “Any Direction”, which begs the question “does there need to be a musical cohesion to make a solid album”? For me, the answer is “maybe”. While I really enjoy the music on Fly Yellow Moon, I can play it straight through or on shuffle and still feel the same disconnect between tracks. So it’s not Dark Side of the Moon…big deal. The music is solid, and Fyfe has a strong, emotive vocal throughout. I was immediately drawn to “She Needs Me”, as it is very reminiscent of James Morrison, but “When You Walk In the Room” has an irresistible joy to it, and “Barricades” is a gorgeous ballad that reminds me of some classic 70s sound that makes brooding feel appealing. Sadly, “She’s Always a Woman” is not on the US release, but maybe a department store chain in the US can buy the rights for a commercial, and another hit might be born. Whether or not “Woman” see a release, Fyfe deserves a shot at winning over the US.

All Hearts on Deck

Posted by John on June 2, 2010
Posted in: concerts. 6 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, there was some Twitter banter between Robyn and Kelis about a tour occurring, but there weren’t any specific details. Turns out that the tour is actually happening, and it’s coming sooner rather than later. Robyn posted tour dates this morning, and you can even get advanced purchase tickets. Two tickets for the San Francisco show also only cost $5 in service charges for a grand total of $55. For this show, that’s a bargain, so it looks like I am taking a weekend trip to the SFO on July 24th. Here is the full calendar for Robyn’s dates:

07-16 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
07-17 Detroit, MI – Crofoot Ballroom – Buy Tickets
07-22 Solana Beach – Belly Up Tavern – Buy Tickets
07-23 Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box (w/Kelis)
07-24 San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine (w/Kelis)
07-27 Boston, MA – House of Blues (w/Kelis)
07-30 Toronto, Ontario – Disco Lemonade: Summer Mashup Festival (did someone tell Paul about this?)
07-31 Montreal, Quebec – Osheaga Festival – Buy Tickets
08-02 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club (w/Kelis)
08-03 Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero (w/Kelis)
08-05 New York, NY – Webster Hall (w/Kelis)

Anyone else planning on catching her live? You can always celebrate the announcement of the tour dates by picking up the “Dancing on My Own” single on iTunes. For those of you in the UK, you can pre-order the single, but it won’t be available for download until July 13th.

Talking to GaGa

Posted by John on June 1, 2010
Posted in: interview, videos, youtube. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

It has been more than six months now since Lady GaGa released The Fame Monster upon the world, and it’s clear that her dominance on the pop charts has only been cemented by the diversity of sounds and influences that she incorporates into her ever-expanding palate. While The Fame was primarily a RedOne-driven vibe, Monster is much more sonically diverse, even if lyrically it doesn’t stray too much from the themes of its predecessor. I mean, who would have expected a tribute to Ace of Base on a Lady GaGa record? Then again, who even knows what to expect from GaGa anymore?

So the video for Alejandro will premiere next week, but the Lady will be on Larry King this evening, and reports have her bringing along a clip from the video. Her folks have really done a great job of promoting videos, although I wonder about the need for these clips to promote singles, as they come out well after the singles are ascending the charts. That can only meant that she must actually LIKE making videos, which is refreshing after hearing so many artists talk about videos being a necessary evil. Here’s a preview of tonight’s interview where GaGa talks about the Lupus rumors, as well as what was in the works with Michael Jackson. Gotta love the Larry King tribute outfit.

I haven’t heard anything official about the next single from The Fame Monster, but if I ruled the world, it would be a no-brainer that “Monster” would finally see a formal release. David Fudge, the guy behind the “Party in the F.I.P” video that caused a stir a few months back, put together a pretty impressive clip that has a “Monster” for just about anybody’s taste.

Video Notables – Kylie Minogue

Posted by John on May 31, 2010
Posted in: videos, youtube. Tagged: . 2 Comments

The most anticipated video of the moment (sorry, “Alejandro” fans) is finally here. “All the Lovers” has such an epic sound that I expected to be completely blown away, but sadly, the video is less than the sum of its parts. From a visual perspective, it’s an impressive clip, with the building mound of humanity reaching the height of skyscrapers. There just isn’t a connection with the viewer (or at least THIS viewer), and that’s disappointing. There are also some odd placements in the video (white horse, white elephant) that may not have any meaning to the average fan, and all it does is distract from the central concept of “all the lovers”. I want to be in love with this and I want to rave about it, but to me the video is a bit of a misstep, given the undeniable momentum of the song on its own.

The Plight of the Boyband

Posted by John on May 31, 2010
Posted in: commentary. Tagged: , , , , , . 6 Comments

Ah, JLS. So much promise, so much talent, so much success. Well, in the UK, anyway. While the buzz for their next single “The Club Is Alive” continues to grow over in England, the boys are in the US working on tracks for their second CD along with promoting their current single “Everybody In Love”. Now, “current” is an interesting word to pick, because the song has already peaked in the past two weeks at Top 40 radio, getting as high as #37. That’s got to be a disappointment, given all of the folks that seem to have their back, including Jay-Z. In fact, that’s right about where V Factory peaked last summer with “Love Struck”.

Based on both of these failures, I have been wondering what it would take for a boyband to break out here in the US. V Factory fits one of the boyband prototypes, with white boys of varying looks, while JLS falls into the Boyz II Men model with tight harmonies and handsome guys. Neither song is bad, and there’s also a variety between ballad and jam. So what’s missing? Do we really need to go in the direction of vocoder production? One of the tenets of boybands is that, even though they may not be Pavarotti, they still have to have tight harmonies and at least one member that can knock the vocal out of the park (see: New Kids on the Block).

So what if we create a supergroup built out of pieces that are successful in one form or another? Would that work? Here’s what I’m thinking:

– Jason DeRulo – Dude’s got a hit formula going for singles, but it isn’t translating into album sales. Maybe that has something to do with Beluga Heights being tagged on almost every track on his CD, or that there isn’t as much diversity sonically in his music to sustain the listener’s attention for 10 tracks. He’s got the songwriting skills, and we know he can tear it up live (as he proved on Idol back in March). Maybe giving him a chance to shine surrounded by a couple of other like-minded and talented guys would help push it over the edge.

– Jay Sean – Jay will always hold a special place in my heart because it was he who knocked the Black Eyed Peas out of the #1 spot last summer with “Down”, but his efforts to replicate that success only got him a brief Top 10 with “Do You Remember”, and the album fared even worse than DeRulo’s, only getting to #37 in the US. Would Jay even consider this concept? Probably not…he’s done quite well for himself, even releasing independently before getting signed by Cash Money for distribution in the US, where he promptly blew up. He’s currently on the charts again with Kevin Rudolph on “I Made It”, but I don’t think they have even announced a third single to be released. Does that mean he’s already done? Hopefully not, but if that’s a case, maybe being part of a songwriting powerhouse with Jason would be one way to take these first steps and capitalize on them.

Travis Garland – I’m probably going to catch some flak on this one, but here goes…you can take the boy out of the boyband, but it’s rare that you can take the boyband out of the boy. Such may be the case with Travis Garland, who has shown some serious promise since the dissolution of NLT in 2009. Perez Hilton has even gone so far as to say that Travis’s version of “Dead and Gone” is better than Justin Timberlake’s. Good luck selling that, but then again, I have a serious bias against Mr. Hilton. So I watched Travis perform “Believe” on Idol, and while the song is good, the production was a mess, and I fear that Travis is losing his window because a rookie like Perez Hilton is at the wheel. So what if we free him from that business model and put him in with a seriously talented crew of singers and songwriters? Could it work?

– Alex Gardner – Plenty of folks have already talked about Alex and his over before it starts attempt at hitting the pop charts in the UK. To me, it seems that working with Xenomania has now become the kiss of death (as the ladies of Mini Viva can now attest to). So what’s a talented young guy with a great voice and pin-up looks to do? Perhaps he joins forces with three other talented vocalists and attempts to conquer the music charts in that form. I don’t know if it would work, but my brain goes in odd directions at times. It’s safe to say that he’s going to need a back-up gig if his next single isn’t an out-of-the-box smash.

Life in a Kylie Town

Posted by John on May 28, 2010
Posted in: videos, youtube. Tagged: . 3 Comments

I have been a fan of mashups as long as I have known that they existed. One of my all-time favorites is a mix of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” with Ludacris’s “What’s Your Fantasy”, which fits perfectly despite the mismatch that it sounds like. There were mashups long before amateurs were able to do their own mixing, though. Pop stars performing their own songs regularly drop other songs into the middle of a performance to mix things up and get a response from their audience.

Yesterday I got an IM from Canadian singer/songwriter and Pop Culture Maven Will-W. that he had a little something for me to listen to, and I honestly couldn’t stop listening once I started. He recorded the instrumental track for Kylie’s “All the Lovers”, and then recorded vocals over the track from the Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town”, with a little bit of “Lovers” on the chorus and bridge. Brilliant stuff, I tell ya. He’s put it up on YouTube this morning, so check it out, and also check out his blog if you want to keep up with all that’s new and worthy in pop culture.

Random Notes 05-25-10

Posted by John on May 25, 2010
Posted in: american idol, free download, videos, youtube. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

– If you’re not on board the Marina and the Diamonds bandwagon yet, here’s your chance: “I Am Not a Robot” is the iTunes Single of the Week here in the US. The full-length is also released today, so if you haven’t checked it out, now’s a great time to.

– Tonight is the season finale for American Idol season 9, and you can hear the collective yawn around the country from people who really don’t care. I have gotten pulled in this past week based on Lee DeWyze’s version of “Hallelujah”, which by all rights should be retired and put out to pasture, but he does a great version of it. He’s definitely got a David Cook vibe, although I gather he will be a bit more like Dave Matthews in his own musical style. If you like the live version, I strongly recommend the studio version as well.

– June is going to be an amazing music month, with full-lengths from Robyn, Scissor Sisters, Crowded House, Christina Agui…oh, wait. No one seems to care about that one anymore. Anyway, my most anticipated release for the month is not anything current, but the 20th Anniversary reissue of the Cure’s Disintegration. I was convinced back in 1990 that I was “deep” because of my love of this record. I now know that it was more the vibe than the sentiment that I really related to, but that CD was played on more than a few late-night road trips. To celebrate, why don’t we take a look at what used to be one of their lesser known singles here in the US until it became a go-to track for Hewlett Packard, “Pictures of You”.

So Won’t You Dance

Posted by John on May 21, 2010
Posted in: playlist, videos, youtube. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments

To keep the music rolling, here’s the second batch of tracks that are making my Spring mix a must-hear. There isn’t a ballad in the bunch.

– Wonder Girls “Two Different Tears” – After “Nobody” peaked at #76 here in the US, I figured that the Girls would not get a second chance, but it looks like JYP had some extra cash laying around to put together another English video for “Two Different Tears”. Now, remember what I said about Bobby Lee in a video being a good thing? Not so much here, but at this point, the only thing I care about is the music, and these ladies are two for two on their US-geared tracks. I doubt it will be a hit, but stranger things have happened, like the Girls touring the US and stopping in Denver. Oh, wait. That actually is going to happen.

– Robyn “Dancing On My Own” – How often do you get excited about a preview clip for a video? When it’s a stylish as the one Robyn posted for “Dancing On My Own”, you might as well just give in. I’m a bit confused by the behind the scenes clip, though. Robyn is definitely not a slouch in the looks department, but there is something about her in black and white that is stunning. I could handle a black and white world with that kind of beauty. Does the final product in color deliver? Absolutely. Now here’s hoping the tour with Kelis is a) a reality, and b) coming to Denver.

– Kelly Rowland “On and On” – Trust me when I say that I am a huge fan. She was heading in the right direction with Miss Kelly, but “When Love Takes Over” took what she started on “Work” and multiplied it by 10. Now she’s getting ready to drop a new album on Universal Motown in September, and while “Commander” is the official single, a Brian Kennedy-produced track called “On and On” leaked, and it’s just as good as any other dance-pop track you have heard this year. Brian also produced “Crash and Burn” for Jesse McCartney last year, which ended up on my Top Pop Singles at #11 last year. Unfortunately, Universal has done a killer job of yanking the YouTube clips of “On and On”, so instead, here’s the still-worthy “Commander”. To check out “On and On”, head on over to Idolator.

– Kylie Minogue “All the Lovers” – Everyone’s heard it, everyone loves it, but I have to do my thing and show some love. Every time I hear the song on satellite radio or check out the video clip before, I just kind of get lost in the vibe for the next 3.5 minutes. Kylie’s in her element here, and it’s a great return to form after the disaster that was “Two Hearts”, her first single from X. The collaborations on the album sound promising, and they are going to release the record worldwide at the same time, including the US, which I believe is a first. To top it off, I feel a more personal connection to the track, so it doesn’t really matter how good it is. To get that AND a great track is just bonus.