Category: CD Reviews (Page 259 of 399)

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

American Idol: One More Round of Freaks and Hopefuls

February 7, 2008 / Mike Farley

Last night’s “American Idol” was, thankfully, the last round of the initial auditions before we head to Hollywood. Seven cities in four weeks, and what they did last night was essentially filler–a few great auditions and a few nut jobs from each city that they saved for one episode. Whew. After about two or three of those first shows, I’m begging for them to speed things up and get to Hollywood. Thankfully, we’re there and things usually move quickly at this point.

First, the freaks from last night…

26-year-old Luke was this really large dude in an even larger white T-shirt, and he sang George Michael’s “Faith” horribly out of tune. Simon said something about the “massive T-shirt” being too much, and he pretty much said what I was thinking.

21-year-old Tiffany McCampbell was a church choir singer who just shouted through her entire audition.

Then there was Ashley, 19, along with twin brothers Chris and Corey. Ashley is this cute blond who was dating one brother and then now, the other..I’m still confused by the whole dynamic, and I’m even more confused at why the brothers still like each other. Anyway, they all auditioned. First the brothers, who did some rap (one the beatbox, the other the rapping) about why they were better than last season’s Brittanum twins. If it weren’t for the rapping dude forgetting the lyrics, it wasn’t all that bad, but not good enough for Hollywood. Then Ashley took her turn, after letting Paula and Simon hold her dog (what is she, Paris Hilton?)….Ashley thought she was talented, but as Simon correctly pointed out, it was “excruciating.” Simon added that Ashley is probably used to getting what she wants, and she even agreed. Next..

Jay Smoove, whose real name Continue reading »

Alternative, American Idol, Country, Hip Hop, Pop, Rap, Rock

Man-About-MySpace: Iggy & the…Martians?

February 6, 2008 / Dr. Flucke

Venerable pre-punk maniac Iggy Pop, who started kicking around Detroit almost exactly 40 years ago right now, is still alive and kicking, so writes Travis Hay of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. New tracks he sang with Northwest retro-garage grungies The Boss Martians will soon be flung up on the band’s MySpace page, so the rumors have it.

It also looks like there’s photographic evidence of the Iggster on The Boss Martians’ page, but the guy pictured could also be Neil Young after going through a simlutaneous hunger strike, electrocution, and colonoscopy.

Wait a second. The Neil young scenario is highly unlikely. That’s gotta be Iggy Pop in them thar pictures.

Iggy was insane on stage back in the day, with the Stooges, screaming, sneering, cutting himself, preening, writhing, and in general being what Perry Farrell wished he could be in his prime. Here’s a shot of “TV Eye” live in 1970—the best part of which is the play-by-play announcer trying to make sense of what was going on onstage. Give Iggy props for being, as high tech people like to call it, an “early adopter” of crowd surfing. This is unbelieveable stuff, when you consider it was filmed in 1970.

Alternative, Man about MySpace, Rock, Songs

American Idol: The ATL and Storms

February 6, 2008 / Mike Farley

Last night’s “American Idol” was the Super Tuesday edition, meaning we were probably going to be interrupted by election poll results throughout the show. But not in Tennessee. We were interrupted more by tornado warnings that were very real and very destructive. The reason I’m telling you this is that it cut into “American Idol” a couple of times. I’m pretty sure that I only missed one result, but I could be wrong and may need you, dear readers, to help fill in the blanks.

The auditions were held in Atlanta, hometown of host Ryan Seacrest…and we got to meet Ryan’s parents for the first time….whatever.

On to the freaks…

The first contestant of the night was Josh Jones, a 26-year-old who sang Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” and freaked the judges out by bugging his own eyes out with every note he hit. It was so bad that they made Josh turn around. The thing is, he had a great voice, but then the tornado warning came and I couldn’t tell if he got through. I want to say no, but if anyone knows for sure, please comment below.

JP, who auditioned in Season 4 and said he was two people behind Carrie Underwood in line, really thought he was great. Unfortunately, no one else did. JP sang Rascal Flatts and it was nasally and horrible.

There was then a medley of suck Continue reading »

Alternative, American Idol, Country, Hip Hop, Pop, Rock

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.

Alternative, Artists, Deep Cuts, External Music, Pop, Rock, Songs

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