Category: Artists (Page 188 of 262)

First Impression: The Killers, Sam’s Town

October 2, 2006 / David Medsker

In all the, um, hot fuss over the Killers, no one ever seemed to acknowledge the one thing that stuck out at me from the very beginning: they are wildly, wildly overrated. This is not to say that they suck, because they don’t. But they never deserved the Next Great Rock Band status that was immediately bestowed upon them, and singer Brandon Flowers actually earned some big points with me last summer when the organizers of London’s Live 8 show wanted them to be a headliner, and he refused, choosing to play earlier in the day instead. Smart man.

So now we have their new one, Sam’s Town, and it’s…well, it just isn’t that good. There is nothing along the lines of “Smile Like You Mean It” or “All These Things That I Have Done.” And what’s with the mix job? I expected better from Alan Moulder and Flood, but the recording is way too “hot,” to use engineer lingo.

I’m not quite sure about this whole Killers-Springsteen angle everyone keeps mentioning, except for that one progression in “When You Were Young” that sounds like “Born to Run.” But the Boss has nothing to worry about at this point. I had hoped for the Killers to surprise me this time around, like Franz Ferdinand did with their second record. Instead, they only confirmed my original assessment of the band. Pity, really. I had really hoped they would prove me wrong.

Alternative, Artists, CD Reviews, Rock

Lost Bands: Gunbunnies

September 29, 2006 / Will Harris

Like so many disaffected teens with a jones for new music, I spent some time working in music retail…and one of the many bands I discovered during this era (1989 – 1994, with some time off to attend college) was the Gunbunnies. Signed to Virgin Records back in the days when the label was flooding stores with promotional copies of albums by their new artists, we scored both cassette and CD promos of their debut album, Paw Paw Patch, and it’s clear Virgin had high hopes for these guys.

Their single, “Stranded,” was picking up quite a bit of college radio airplay, and the critics were loving the fact that the album was produced by the legendary Jim Dickinson (Big Star, the Rolling Stones, the Replacements). Plus, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, Chris Maxwell, had put together 10 songs that could hold their own with bands like Guadalcanal Diary, House of Freaks, and the like…and although he had a highly competent band behind him, Maxwell was practically a one-man band; he played guitar, harmonica, trumpet, and electric sitar on the album!

Poised for success…? Yeah, not so much.

The Gunbunnies disappeared after Paw Paw Patch…and I mean really disappeared. Not only was there no follow-up album on Virgin, there was no follow-up, period. Maxwell didn’t even go solo; he just vanished.

Well, okay, he didn’t vanish vanish; if AllMusic.com can be trusted (and they usually can), he left music altogether for about five years, then returned to play bass for They Might Be Giants and to do some production work for artists like the Lunachicks…but, of course, that’s if this is the same Chris Maxwell. Can anyone confirm or deny…?

Artists, External Music, Lost Bands, Rock

File under: Evil and very, very wrong

September 27, 2006 / Deb Medsker

VH1’s Best Week Ever brings us this clip from GorillaMask Media of …”Muppets With Attitude.”

That’s right: Kermit and the gang deliver a hard-hitting cover (well, okay: a surprisingly well lip-synched mash-up) of NWA’s “F@#k the Police.”

Enjoy. And then pray for your soul.

Artists, Rap, Videos

Aaron Carter is available again, ladies!

September 26, 2006 / Captain Capm

That’s right! Aaron Carter has called off his recent engagement to Kari Ann Paniche. Paniche, no stranger to the Carter clan, was actually Nick Carter’s girlfriend at one point. She was also a Playboy Playmate. Poor girl just can’t catch a Carter break! When asked about the sitch, Aaron said,

“I got caught up in the moment and proposed…I then realized it was a hasty thing to do and I am not ready for marriage quite yet.”

Not ready for marriage, but certainly ready for reality TV. Aaron and Nick will be featuring in their family’s TV debacles on “House of Carters,” coming in October on E!

Artists, News

BBC dicks around with Sparks

September 25, 2006 / Deb Medsker

Look: Another album cover with kitties!!

Sparks, the quirky team best known in the U.S. for their duet with Jane Wiedlin on “Cool Places” back in 1983, has run into a spot of trouble with the BBC. Though Sparks has enjoyed a reasonable level of success throughout Europe for the past two decades, the BBC is refusing to play their new single because of its naughty, naughty title — “Dick Around:”

Despite the fact that Ron and Russell were invited into the studio as guests of the Breakfast Show on BBC London 94.9FM, the host Jono Coleman was banned from playing the single ‘Dick Around’. Jono and his co-host Jo good were obviously embarrassed – particularly as they quite clearly knew that the term means wasting time. The Maels were upset that they had been asked to be interviewed live in the studio, and then not have their single played.

Ron Mael this morning raged: “the BBC has officially killed off our new single ‘Dick Around’, ostensibly through rather childish objections to the title, an innocent reference to the idle life. That a piece of music can be condemned purely by its title without the ‘decision makers’ even having the decency to open the CD case is a travesty and an insult to both us as the creators of the music and to the listeners of the BBC.”

Ahhh, those beloved, misguided, uptight Brits: Always trying to protect their children from the perverse influences of popular culture. But since they’re the ones who gave the world “Trainspotting”…are they really entitled to be quite so judgmental?

Artists, News, Pop, Radio, Songs