…I present the following fantastic collaboration for your approval: Mr. Gouldman performing an acoustic version of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love,” accompanied on acoustic guitar and harmony vocals by…wait for it…Neil Finn and Roddy Frame.
Fuck me. That’s quite a trio, innit? Hey, David, I think we’ve found yet another answer to the question, “Name three people I’d like to have a drink with.”
It’s a nineties rock party at minor league baseball stadiums this summer, as Counting Crows, Live and Collective Soul will all tour together. Third Eye Blind will also join them on some of the dates. The tour begins July 22 in Wilmington, Delaware and runs through September 2 in Fargo. For more information, visit www.countingcrows.com.
The self-proclaimed world’s largest music festival is Milwaukee’s Summerfest. At 11 days long and with a ton of A-list talent, it’s hard to argue with that proclamation. Some of the confirmed acts are Wolfmother, O.A.R., John Mayer, Los Lonely Boys, Ben Folds, Peter Frampton, B.B. King, The Fray, Goo Goo Dolls, Sara Evans, Toby Keith, INXS, Weird Al Yankovic, Gym Class Heroes, Papa Roach, Puddle of Mudd, Silversun Pickups, Tool and Blue October. Whew. The festival runs from June 28 to July 8. For more info, go to www.summerfest.com.
311 is working on a new record and plan to return to the studio to record it in the fall. Meanwhile, front man Nick Hexum is talking about testing out some of that new material while the band tours with Matisyahu this summer beginning June 21.
The inaugural Big State Festival will take place October 13 and 14 at the Texas World Speedway in Bryan-College Station. Headlined by Tim McGraw, other acts so far include The Wreckers and Los Lonely Boys. Tickets go on sale June 5 at www.bigstatefestival.com
Bombastic rock band The Mooney Suzuki is gearing up for its summer tour in support of the new album, Have Mercy. Supporting the tour for two separate legs are The Photo Atlas and The Dark Romantics. Here are Continue reading »
Inspired by the ever-interesting Jefitoblog, which has been offering up a lot of love to Squeeze lately (including the first half of his Idiot’s Guide to the band as well as some hard-to-find live MP3s), I thought I’d similarly pay tribute to one of my favorite songs by the band, taken from one of their criminally overlooked albums.
Frank was released in 1989 to a fair amount of critical acclaim, but precious little of that translated into sales for the band. After staging an unexpected commercial comeback with 1987’s Babylon and On, an album which produced two top-40 hits for the band (“Hourglass” and “853-5937”), it was actually rather shocking that Frank didn’t sell very well, but my theory has always been that the band’s label – A&M – had decided to ignore top-40 radio for the album and instead focus on Billboard’s latest and greatest chart: Modern Rock. It made a certain amount of sense, given that Squeeze had always been more college-radio darlings than a full-fledged mainstream success, but, still, to go from having 2 top-40 hits to being dropped by your label altogether within the span of two years…? Somebody screwed up somewhere, and it certainly wasn’t Squeeze.
There are, unfortunately, a lot of great tracks to pick from when it comes to spotlighting the unheralded numbers from Frank, including the Jools Holland piano stomper, “Dr. Jazz,” and Glenn Tilbrook’s ode to a woman’s time of the month (“She Doesn’t Have To Shave”), but my favorite has always been “Love Circles,” which offers Chris Difford the vocal spotlight yet still provides some downright fantabulous harmonies for the chorus. It was released as a single, but it did precisely diddley…but, thanks to the aforementioned Jefitoblog, you can check out the song here.
No one, but no one, made videos that were more fun than Madness’ vids from the early ’80s. Even better, you could tell that they were having just as much fun making them. You can keep the lightning-quick edit fests of today. Give me fun over stylish any day of the week.
Last night’s “American Idol” grand finale had few big surprises, some good performances and a lot of the usual fluff. And of course, Jordin won. Not that the entire world, including the African Children’s Choir, didn’t see that coming.
It started out with Jordin and Blake singing the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There,” which was okay and kind of fitting since Jordin is 17 and the lyrics are about a girl being “just 17.” Then they cut to Gwen Stefani wearing a cream puff and singing her new single while on tour…that was random, and mildly annoying.
Then Kelly Clarkson sang her new single, and it was both angry and great…her raspy growl is in fine form.
Then they started with that “Golden Idol” award crap. The best presentation went to Margaret Fowler, aka Big Bird. It was funny, especially when she kissed Ryan on the lips, but other than that forgettable.
Then the top 6 guys from this season sang “Ooh Baby Baby” and Smoky Robinson came out to sing a medley with them….which was pretty decent.
Then it was a highlight of the show, as Blake came out to beatbox with Barry B. and Doug E. Fresh. Wow, I have no idea how they do that, and that’s what makes it so damn entertaining.
The next Golden Idol Award went to the most original vocal, and it was Sholandric, who I barely remembered from the auditions….yawn.
The 6 female finalists got to sing “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” and welcomed Gladys Knight to perform a medley with them. Tony Bennett was welcomed back after that to perform since he was sick after his mentoring a few months ago.
The Golden Idol award for “Best Buddies” went not to Simon & Ryan, but to Jonathan and Kenneth…..those guys were weird but are so funny to look at. Simon’s reference of Jonathan to a “bush baby” was validated when they showed a photo of an actual bush baby.
Then Melinda got to sing with BB and CC Wynans, who she used to perform with as a backup singer. That was pretty cool. After that, Carrie Underwood came out and sang the Pretenders’ “Stand By You,” which she had performed last month in Africa for “Idol Gives Back.” It was boring, but then Clive Davis came out to present Carrie with an achievement award for selling 6 million albums. He also mentioned that Chris Daugthry’s album has sold 2.5 million. Wow.
Then came the African Children’s Choir, and they were great, but they followed that with Sanjaya singing “You Really Got Me,” complete with Joe Perry on guitar and crying girls in the audience. Green Day then sang John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero,” and it was kind of bland.
Taylor Hicks sang “Heaven Knows,” and it was okay. Are you sensing a pattern here? The whole show had a pretty bland theme.
Jordin and Ruben Studdard sang a duet together, and it was actually pretty good….though Ruben stood five feet away from Jordin for fear of knocking her over.
After that, Bette Midler came out and sang “Wind Beneath My Wings,” one of the sappiest songs of all time. It really wasn’t very good either, and I wish she would have sang “Rachelle Rachelle” instead.
Then came the Sgt. Pepper tribute, with all of the past champs except Fantasia contributing. Where was she anyway? Anyway, it was okay except for Carrie Underwood singing “She’s Leaving Home”….ugh, nothing like butchering a classic.
Finally it was the moment of truth…..the judges all but proclaimed Jordin the champ, and then Ryan made it official. Blake, you just couldn’t measure up with that sappy ballad. And since Jordin’s dad is a former New York Football Giant, I’m hoping her win is a good omen for my G-men this fall. Hey, I had to say it.
Folks, it’s been fun recapping this season with you…..by the time we meet again in January, Melinda will have out-sold both Blake and Jordin and we’ll be saying that it really doesn’t matter who wins this thing. Have a great summer everyone…..
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