Category: Artists (Page 125 of 262)

WTF?! Flashback – Garth Brooks

February 7, 2008 / Captain Capm

The Life of Chris Gaines

By 1999, pop country superstar Garth Brooks had done it all in terms of CD sales, hit singles, sold out concerts, and achieving a massive fanbase who thought their icon could do no wrong. Indeed, even Brooks thought himself that he could do no wrong, and decided to “branch out” as it were, with little fears that his legions of faithful would support him in his new endeavor. That endeavor you ask? Certainly you haven’t forgotten already. Yes, I’m talking about the giant goose egg alter ego Brooks created in his monster lab known as “Chris Gaines.”

You see, Garth wanted to be a pop star just as much as a pop country star, but possibly felt like his fans would abandon him if he was actually ballsy enough to just say, “Hey, I wanna try to gain some new fans, so I’m going to release a pop album” and not do it under some goofy facade. Jazz artists do it all the time by going the pop route. Pop and rock artists go country occasionally as well. So what the hell was Brooks thinking? It may have actually just been a case of his ego finally taking over his creativity.

A “Behind The Music” special was created for fake artist Gaines, and he also appeared as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” the week Brooks hosted. The resulting album Garth Brooks in…the Life of Chris Gaines was intended as a precursor to a feature-length film entitled “The Lamb” that would star Brooks as Gaines and really get the wheels rolling on the project. Yeah…it doesn’t take much foresight to see how oddball this whole idea was, and the Chris Gaines album quickly became a resounding dud, even though it peaked at #2 on the Billboard album chart and actually scored Brooks with his only Top 40 pop hit “Lost in You.”

But the fans were wary and didn’t embrace the character in the long run. The movie studios also took note of this and “The Lamb” was forever shelved. After all this, Brooks’ career was never quite the same as pre-Gaines, though he still retained the rabid fans. He has gone into a semi-retirement, recently appearing again to do a limited series of shows. Like “From Justin to Kelly,” “Cool as Ice,” and the film version of “Magical Mystery Tour,” The Life of Chris Gaines will forever be the WTF blight on Garth Brooks’ career.

Artists, Country

Deep Cuts: The Clash

February 6, 2008 / David Medsker

(Written by Una Persson)

For a band that was together for only 10 years, The Clash looms large in rock music history. They were one of the most successful bands to come out of the original wave of British punk rock in the late ‘70s, stand as icons for the entire punk rock movement (along with the Sex Pistols, of course), and, unlike most of their punk peers, could actually play their instruments. They also eschewed the nihilism and anarchy of many of their contemporaries for a more politicized, highly charged left-wing lyrical and ideological stance. Their seminal London Calling makes rock critics and Top Whatever list makers swoon. They only struck gold in America toward the end, with “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and “Rock the Casbah,” but from the outset, The Clash infused their brand of punk with a variety of other musical styles, from ska, reggae and dub to rockabilly, jazz, dance and anything else they thought would fit their punky musical stew. In fact, this edition of Deep Cuts takes a deep dive into one of those musical styles: The Clash, reggae-stylee.

“Police & Thieves” – The Clash
Junior Murvin and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s mid-‘70s international club hit was recorded almost as an afterthought when The Clash were recording their first album (the band used to fool around with it in rehearsals), but it stands as one of the first instances of a rock band integrating reggae into their mix (the very first being Eric Clapton’s version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” in 1974). Lots of first-wave British punks loved reggae and dub; The Clash were one of the few bands who actually incorporated it into their repertoire (one of the few bands of that era that had the musical chops to pull it off, most likely).

“(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” – The Clash
First released as a single, and only included on the US version of The Clash’s debut album, Joe Strummer’s commentary on multi-culturalism, violence, race relations, class distinctions and other state-of-Britain affairs showed the band to be already head-and-shoulders above their punk brethren both musically and politically. The slow reggae burn throughout most of the song is decidedly different fodder than their early fans had already gotten used to from the band.

Give ‘Em Enough Rope
A decent album, not their worst (Cut the Crap holds that distinction) but far from their best, marred as it is with heavy-handed production and mixing. But, sorry, nothing even remotely reggae-sounding on any of the tracks.

“Wrong ‘Em Boyo” – London Calling
A revisiting of the Stagger Lee myth set to a rollicking ska beat.

“The Guns of Brixton” – London Calling
A sick dread skank, and the band’s first real experiment with dub (a reggae offshoot that overemphasizes the bass and drums, and blends in myriad other sounds and production and engineering techniques not part of a reggae song that evinces punk’s political violence.

To view the rest of the Clash deep cuts, click here.

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WTF?! Flashback – Enigma

February 5, 2008 / Captain Capm

MCMXC A.D.

Face it: you knew someone who owned or has owned this album. You yourself may fall into one of those categories as well. Basically, anyone who merely had a passing interest in dance music in 1990 undoubtedly got down to some Enigma, particularly the smash single “Sadeness Part 1.” Musical alchemist Michael Cretu managed to mix New Age downbeat boogie with Gregorian monk chants and turned everyone on to the tune of millions of cha-chings! Yep, even I fell for it more due to a sheep mentality than an actual like for the stuff, and somewhere my cassette copy is languishing in a basement collecting dust.

MCMCXC A.D. was successful enough that new CDs of just chants alone were becoming hot sellers. Cretu had created a monster, one that was crossing boundaries from the dance floor and VH-1 to car stereos and – perhaps more importantly – bedrooms of listeners who used the disc as part of their sex play. However, it’s hard to imagine that the plain Jane chant CDs themselves got as much attention once the hip factor of going back to the source sans beats wore off (and I have a feeling for most that probably wore off after the first minute of play).

To my ears, the album is now even more of a goofy curio than it was originally. It’s a complete style over substance recording, but the legions of Enigma fans still swear by it, as well as the followup album The Cross of Changes, which went in a slightly different, but no less flighty direction. Indeed, Cretu has managed to keep the Enigma name going all these years, with varying results. But it’s MCMCXC A.D. that will forever be the biggie of the catalogue. But then again, it was the same year that everyone was throwing tons of money and attention at Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, so anything was truly possible in 1990.

Alternative, Artists, Electronica, Pop

Less Talk, More Music: Deacon Blue on “The Heaven and Earth Show”

February 5, 2008 / Will Harris

Despite several US releases, Deacon Blue ended up having their name added to that great list of bands who never managed to make the translation from the UK charts, but they’re a really great group. I think Americans just didn’t know what to make of a band who blended pop, rock, and folk like they did…and even if they’d started to, they were no doubt completely flummoxed when the group teamed up with Steve Osborne and Paul Oakenfold to produce their fourth album, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.

This performance of “Dignity” – a song which comes from the band’s 1987 debut, Raintown – was performed in 2006 for the BBC’s now-defunct “Heaven and Earth Show,” a Sunday morning religious program. I’m trying to come up with any American religious program short of a Billy Graham affair that would have someone so cool as a musical guest…and I’m failing miserably.

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Video Vault – Sleeper

February 2, 2008 / Captain Capm

You may recall Sleeper as having the semi-hits “Delicious” and “Inbetweener” from their debut album Smart here in the States. They were always a great band, but didn’t really get their due over here, while remaining huge in the UK. So do check their music out and enhjoy “She’s a Good Girl” from their final album Pleased to Meet You.

Artists, Rock, Songs, Videos