the new M5 album, that is. I got sick of it in less than a week - so disappointing. There are a couple of still-sorta-fresh tracks (Hey Ya-ripoff "Little of Your Time", "If I Never See Your Face Again", "Nothing Lasts Forever" (aka new take on "Heard 'Em Say"), but those are going to go stale too I fear, way before they ever even get inevitably overplayed on the radio. It's just so bubblegum lame, even (especially?) Adam Levine's oversexed lyrics.
Bummer.
SUMMERSTAGE: Nickel Creek & Fiona Apple teaming up... love em both. And I'm imagining Nickel Creek will force Fiona to stay a bit more melodic live, while still featuring lots of improv (her live shows can at times feature so much spontaneity (and angst) that they can become a little too cacophonous). Check out BrooklynVegan's recent post for an awesome youtube of Fiona, Jon Brion, and Chris Thile doing "Fast As You Can" together.
Yes! The illustrious sociologist/network theorist Duncan Watts wrote an Op/Ed in yesterday's NYTimes about the Eurovision song contest! I too experienced my first Eurovision contest party this past May 12th, courtesy of my friend Arik who is a true veteran enthusiast of the contest, complete with a book on the contest's history (I had no idea that it's been around since 1956, and launched the careers of ABBA, Julio Iglesias, and Celine Dion!). Well... I guess it used to truly be a talent competition, but post-cold war with lots of little countries like Moldova & Slovenia having as much voting power as the UK & France... voting (much like voting for American Idol, only you can't vote for the contestant from your own country, and each country has the same number of "electoral votes" to award in total)...has become all about politics: European politics & the politics of sexuality!! Like Duncan Watts, I found the voting process FASCINATING!!!
But watching the song entries is silly, often campy, fun too. For example, check out the runner-up in this year's competition, Verka Seduchka from the Ukraine. Per Arik's report, this "Ukrainian space-age transgender telletubby is number 28 in the UK chart this week, based on downloads alone. Just wait until the physical single hit the stores. Danzen!":
The actual winner of the competition was what Arik would call the "Serbian KD Lang", Marija Serifovic. I actually thought she had the best voice in the competition, so given that Lordi (the monster metal band from Finland) won last year, I think someone with a good voice winning (rather than someone with just a major gimmick) is good news for the future of Eurovision. But he'd say she is BORING. You decide:
ok, my initial resistance to change/their full embrace of radio friendliness is wearing off, and I'm now letting myself go in enjoying the danceability of these new songs...
Arik, I have a feeling you're going to love this album.
I love Savion Glover. I love Robin Williams. I love animated penguins who can talk and sing and DANCE. Make sure you watch the clip long enough to see the big dance scene.
My friends Emily & Peter like him, but I thought the judges were overly kind to him tonight. He had pitch problems in all 3 songs - not awful awful pitch problems, but the bottom line is that his voice is not as good as those of the ladies. And btw his rendition of This Love was a total "copycat" performance, and Adam Levine also has a much better voice than he does. That's actually really not an easy song to sing - his version was ok, but felt like a good karaoke version to me. Between the other two, I'm kind of torn for the first time in a few weeks. Jordin sang well tonight, but her song choices were a little weird -- her last song was def her best. Melinda was smack on every song tonight - her Whitney song was not as good as the judges said, but she can hold her own. Her last two songs were great - and she was totally sparkling tonight in terms of her energy & confidence. It was great to see!
I just saw Stephen Marley (feat. Damian too) at Jazzfest, so in reading Jon Pareles' review of their recent NYC show in today's NYTimes, I was really surprised to read that Stephen did so many of his father's songs at the Nokia theater show too. (he did the same thing at the N.O. fairgrounds, but I thought that was b/c the audience there would be more likely to come see him based on his last name than his whole name...) I agree that, as much as I love the elder Marley, he really doesn't need to play as much from Legend as he does. His own sound (esp. combined with his songs from his brother's stuff) can more than make for a great show on its own.
BTW, Damian has the longest dreads I've ever seen in my life. They're like down to his knees. Crazy cool.
And at jazzfest, they had an adorable little kid dancing around with a flag onstage (maybe one of Stephen's sons?), and I also loved that the band included some elder Rastafarians. I'm a sucker for seeing multiple generations on stage. That's actually very common to see in New Orleans in general... I wish it were more common more broady.
Geoff, that means you! ;)
Seriously, "The People" is really good. I can't wait for the whole album. Julianne told me I'm gonna love it, including (especially) a track feat. Lily Allen... ooh, can't wait!
For a track-by-track preview, see The Fader .
And, yes, he's been accused of being a bit corny (Gap commercial) / reportedly has carried a notebook that proclaims "God Is Love" to his hosted listening sessions... but I gotta tell you... I could be accused of being inspired at times:
Jon Pareles of the NYTimes was as disappointed in Amy Winehouse-as-"performer" this week as I was back in March. But his causal attribution differs from mine. In explaining her odd persona live, Pareles points mainly to her Britishness (and its removal from the origins of soul, e.g., African-American church choir) & her age (growing up on "hip-hop's version of R&B"). I don't know... those factors might be (small?) pieces of the puzzle, but I don't think you have to be American, African-American, or Aretha's age to have soul - to show deep emotional connection with your songs - on-stage. Corinne Bailey Rae is just one example in a long list. She's British, half-white, did not get her start singing in a gospel church (it was a much more conventional brethren church choir) and is only 4 years older. Her songs are more neo-soul than retro, of course -- but having recently seen her live, let me tell you, the woman feels her music on-stage...
I just think that Amy Winehouse's performance issues have much more to do with being Amy Winehouse, specifically, than they do with the circumstances of her nationality or her age.
He pretty much said everything I said, right after I said it last night.We saw a lot of great shows, and, to be honest, I thought the songwriting on her album as a whole was inconsistent & could get boring... but, live in person, Corinne Bailey Rae was *incredible*. She plays her voice like a master instrumentalist -- she's got this seemingly intuitive, amazing control and timing. She also has a lot more power than you would guess from hearing her radio hits. In the studio recordings, her voice can sound maybe a little too precious. Live, it is more raw and complex. She plays around with her vocal timbre -- sounding sweet for moments, yes, but many notes are complemented by this raspy finish that lingers in its reluctant release of your chest. In a good way.
And the other cool thing about her as a performer is that her whole being smiles throughout her show. Not only her mouth, but her eyes twinkle, her skin glows... and it's actually not weird. You know those people that never stop smiling, even when what they're saying isn't worthy of this big grin - those awkward smiley people? That is not what I'm talking about. The way she smiles -- you get the sense that it's completely authentic - that it's the result of just completely surrendering to the inherent beauty in all *real* human emotion & experiences-- even the complicated and not-all-sunny ones.
You don't have to have the range of Mariah to be worthy of divahood.
If you ever have a chance, please see this woman live.
Here's a preview - not from our show at Tipitina's, but from an earlier show at Webster Hall:
So Rich and I were wandering aimlessly around the French Quarter late this afternoon when we heard a trio of Brits talking/walking behind us. A girl and two guys. They were butchering the pronunciations of the streets, and the girl was lamenting her bad sense of direction. Rich was endearingly smirking at their accents. I took pity on them, being known for both a bad sense of direction myself as well as a compulsive tendency to try to help any people I can. I turned around and said "Decatur Street is that way" to the girl behind me. She laughed, put her hand on my shoulder warmly and said in her smoky voice, "oh thank you so much! ha - I wasn't even saying it right. Cheers, thanks again, cheers!" I turned back around and as we walked away, it hit me why she looked so familiar: it was Joss Stone! She was -- somewhat surprisingly to me -- really down-to-earth and lovely. And also, like just about every celebrity I've ever met/seen, incredibly normal in real life. I mean, yes, there's the slightly purple dark hair (i think the dirty blonde looks better on her) and multiple? nose rings, and she was wearing pants with huge hearts all over them ... but she had acne "just like US", and her hair was frizzing along with mine in the NO humidity, etc. etc. Hahaha - we should have told her that one of her songs was featured on our wedding save-the-date CD...
I kind of felt badly that I was criticizing her songwriting on this blog just days ago... I do love her voice though.
In a more "local" sighting, we walked by guitarist Ian Neville (Art Neville's son; Aaron Neville's nephew) who was standing outside of Port Of Call - he still looks about five years younger than he is (I think he's like 25 now?) Hopefully he'll pop on stage at some point tonight at the Howlin' Wolf.
If you don't know Pela, check them out. They're a rock band - their debut album, Anytown Graffiti was just released last month. I like 'em.
Vote for Jordin; that song kicked her ass tonight, but she shouldn't get kicked off this week. Chris actually did not sound too nasal this week - wow!, but I still don't like him. And I love Justin Timberlake, so it has nothing to do with his "style" - the problem is he doesn't sing that well generally, and he doesn't really have style. JT definitely does. No comparison whatsoever, people. Phil Stacey is still creepy and not cool enough OR uncool enough for me to ever buy a record of his. LaKisha was better than she's been in weeks, but I still don't want her to win. Blake's "big risk" was pretty decent; he didn't annoy me too badly this week. And Melinda showed more style/personality than she has in weeks. I loved the whole "I don't know how to rock" shtick. A new fresh spin on the old stale modesty thang. Nice.
