Looks like Jessica “DD” Simpson won’t be paying tribute to Dolly Parton during an upcoming show. She was slated to perform “9 to 5” but screwed up the words, so the producers of the show gave her a second chance. She wasn’t happy with that one, either, and requested to be dropped from the tribute. Maybe they can make room for someone who can actually sing.
How can things go from bad to worse like this? First Britney dumps K-Fed, and now she’s been voted as “Worst Celebrity Dog Owner.” Jesus, what a tough time Spears is having as of late! But leave it to the readers of “Hollywood Dog” and “New York Dog” to dog the dog.
Oh, how me all miss Bit-Bit, Lacy and Lucky! But Brit-Brit and K-Fed gave them away to friends after two kids fell out of Britney’s torso. And she took better care of those dogs than those kids! At least she wasn’t dropping them and letting them drive. Such a shame. In other news, Oprah won “Best Celebrity Dog Owner.” Bit-Bit 4-EVA!!!
Ah, Lou Reed. This is when Lou was bleached blonde and giving great interviews to the Australian press about how he didn’t take drugs but spent all his money on them. I wish he was still like this. Drugs were good for you, Lou.
The first two entries to my Covers thread involved more recent acts covering older songs (I say more recent, even though both of those bands, Simply Red and the Pet Shop Boys, debuted in 1986), but this time, we’re going the other way. I want old prog to cover the new prog.
Rush made an EP a couple years ago called Feedback. On that EP, they covered songs that made them want to form a band in the first place. Bands like the Who, Blue Cheer, Buffalo Springfield, that kind of thing. To this Rush fan, that is a complete waste of time. I don’t want to hear Rush covering songs that are beneath their abilities: I want to hear them covering “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Silent Lucidity” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (don’t laugh, they’d knock it out of the fucking park), you know?
Well, here is their chance. Muse is Radiohead + Queen, if we’re using “music math,” which means that there are at least two or three songs in their catalog that would fit Rush like an old pair of jeans. Tell me that Alex wouldn’t salivate at the thought of playing the guitar line to “Stockholm Syndrome” (it’d remind him of “The Spirit of Radio”), while Neil bashes his drums to high heaven and Geddy gets to justify playing both bass and keys in a song again. Come on, you know he misses it so.
Watch the vid, and tell me that Rush doesn’t fucking love this song.
Earlier this year, I thought I’d try out Last.FM, which claims to learn what you like by tracking your listening preferences (in iTunes) and uses that information to provide a list of recommended artists. So I downloaded the iTunes plug-in – called the “iScrobbler” – and cued up my “Best of 02-06” playlist (as I was mainly interested in finding new new music).
After a night of recording my tastes, Last.FM provided a series of recommendations, from “popular” to “obscure.” Two of the top recommendations – Belle & Sebastian and the Kooks – jumped out at me, so I gave B&S’ The Life Pursuit and the Kooks’ Inside In/Inside Out a few listens. The result? Both albums are on my Top 10 list for 2006.