New Music Post Over at The Savvy Guyde

Hey guys, I just did a spring special new music post over at my other blog, The Savvy Guyde, where I've suggested some great new springtime tunes for your listening pleasure and a couple tunes to flat out avoid. Go show me and your ear-holes some love. Thanks!

Taking a look at Top 40 music again

It's been quite a while (August maybe?) since I last perused the Billboard music charts to see what passes for popular music these days. As we all well know, I tend to avoid Top 40 radio like Taylor Swift avoids long-term commitments. Occasionally, however, I punish myself by listening in to at least stay somewhat current and feel less like the middle-aged guy who clings to his 80's New Wave with white knuckles.

So, I decided to check the Billboard top 40 chart and see what dreck & drivel the empty suits at the record labels are currently passing off on the masses.
 

Selina Gomez-- Come And Get It
Forever tainted by the evil touch of Satan, ie: Justin Bieber, Gomez has been performing this track on any show that will book her, from the MTV Movie Awards to Ellen to Dancing With The Stars and in pretty much every case she's in some mock Indian sari getup with dancers of various ethnicity decorated with a bindi, because all you need is a red dot on your forehead to make you an authentic Indian in Gomez' world. I'll assume the reason for the pseudo-Indian garb is the bhangra beat to the chorus. The song isn't completely terrible but honestly, if I want Indian I'll go authentic with the 2000 track "Darshan" by B21.Selina, dear, stay away from that Bieber chick. She's trouble.





Feel This Moment-- Pitbull featuring Christina Aguilera
One has no hair, the other has hair like old straw. One wears a tailored suit, the other looks like a leather sausage. This sounds pretty much like the last Pitbull song I heard, the same rap cadence of lines over a remixed sample of a classic song. Last time it was Mickey & Sylvia's "Love Is Strange" and this time the creativity is provided by A-ha's "Take On Me". At least Christina keeps the caterwauling to a minimum and refrains from yodeling vocal runs.



Justin Timberlake--Suit & Tie
Christ, this song is inescapable. On a good day my car radio can pick up five or six Top 40 and/or A/C stations and I swear to Gawd, I heard this on every single one of them in a 30 minute span. I think JT is a decent actor and a very funny guy, and I respect him musically but this new throwback soul style is utter crap. Plus, I detest Jay-Z.



Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko--Stay
There seems to be an unwritten law that says every 90 days there must be a new Rihanna single whether we want one or not. A ballad, damn near a funereal dirge, pretty enough but after a bit it just seems to drag. Never heard of this Ekko fellow before (born John Stephen Sudduth) but his voice is actually a bit higher than hers here. At least she's spending time with a guy who isn't using her as a punching bag...



Psy--Gentleman
Well, we all thought Park Jae-sang, better known as Psy, was going to be a one hit wonder after Gangnam Style took the universe by storm last summer. While not as instantly catchy as his last single, this one's video is just as amusing, with Psy being basically a dick to everyone he meets.



Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz-- Thrift Shop
This song is effing ridonkulous but gets in your head & stays there like a recurring yeast infection on a 2-dollar hooker. A rapping white kid going on about buying second-hand clothes at Goodwill. He does make the valid point about a-holes wearing $50 designer t-shirts thinking they're unique till they see 5 others wearing the same shirt at a club.



Pink featuring Nate Ruess-- Just Give Me a Reason
I've always adored Pink. She's badass. This is one of her finest vocal performances, with help from the guy who sings for the band fun., whom I have previously  been wrong about when I guessed they'd fade into obscurity as quickly as they appeared. However, like all Pink songs, this is getting played ad nauseum, so I'm already bored with it.



Icona Pop--I Love It
I just heard this song for the first time a couple days ago and really liked it. It's great technopop dance music from Sweden and hopefully it won't get ruined by overplay. Finally, something on the Top 40 chart I can get into. I dare you to sit still while listening.



So.....what else SHOULD you be listening to?

Capital Cities-- Safe and Sound
Found this gem by accident listening to Sirius and it was love at first listen. Great beats, catchy hooks, impossible to sit still while listening. This is my new jam for Spring. Even features live trumpet instead of a sample, and it really makes the song. This is just one of several clever videos out there for this song.




The Airborne Toxic Event--Timeless
Another accidental finding on Sirius. A few years back I fell head over heels with their song "Sometime Around Midnight" and even named it one of the best songs of 2008. This one grows on you quickly.



Radioactive/It's Time--Imagine Dragons
Took me awhile to finally get into these guys. I've been let down by so many newer alternative/modern rock bands that I'm reluctant to get into bands that are heavily hyped on alternative radio. Both of these songs are really great.





Tegan & Sara--Closer
Twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin have been around awhile, an indie staple and a closely guarded secret of sorts.  I think I first heard them in 2004 with their song "Where Does The Good Go". This is a great pop track that should break them huge. Catch them opening for fun. this summer.



And, of course, there's new Depeche Mode.....

The new album is called Delta Machine, and while I'm sad that it wasn't close to the glory that was "Violator" there are some good tracks on it, and the new single is in my opinion the best track of the whole CD. Whereas the first single "Heaven" was an austere minimal ballad, "Soothe My Soul" is a dancefloor stomper with a dark, murky, sensual edge, just the way a Depeche Mode song should be. Play it LOUD, friends, and see what a 32-year career as the cutting edge of music brings to the table.







And if you want to read savage and scathing reviews of previous Top 40 offerings, go here, here, here, here, here, and here.

This week in music only half sucks...

Sometimes I’m a bit surprised at how quickly a song can mysteriously hit the top of the Top 40 charts with minimal airplay. I think it may have something to do with this being the digital age of downloads and when a song becomes available it can become #1 damn near instantly. When people want their mediocrity, they want it FAST.

A shining example is this week’s release of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” by elfin pop/country crossover chanteuse Taylor Swift. Billboard said on Wednesday that the infectiously catchy song was already among the 40 most-played tunes on U.S. radio just two days after being released. The song went to the top of iTunes’ Top 25 in the United States just an hour after it was released on Monday, and has since reached No. 1 in Australia, Canada, Brazil, Finland and 20 other nations.

The song itself is typical Swift material, dreamy lamentations that sound like a 13-year old’s diary entries, this time sounding more like Avril Lavigne but without the cheerleader kitsch that Avril seems so fond of. I’ve only heard it three times so far this week, and I think by the fifth I will detest it.

After doing really well on the UK charts, Flo Rida brings us what very well may be his first hit single without a guest vocalist, called “Whistle”. Of course, he whistles on it, and the slower tempo and acoustic guitar is interesting for a few seconds, but over all I was bored with it because, of course, deep down it’s pop crap. Of course, it went to #1 immediately.

I often wear enormous gold chains to the beach so that they can weigh me down in the water...

Another one that hit the top five almost overnight was when Katy Perry released what might be the 436^th single from her last album. Seriously; I think she has released the entire effing album as individual singles over the past two years. “Wide Awake” is the eighth single from her 2010 album “Teenage Dream”. It’s a decent song, quite likeable, as is Katy herself when she’s not adding extra syllables into words to lengthen them to fit the beat scheme of a song. However, as is the case with anything on Top 40 pop radio, they play the living crap out of it.

How many different single covers does a song really need?

I had a feeling that the band fun., who brought us “We Are Young” was going to be a one-hit wonder but it seems they are proving me wrong. They did release a second single, “Some Nights”,and as I predicted, I don’t really like it. I can’t exactly put my finger on it as to why. Maybe it sounds too much like Simon & Garfunkel’s 1970 song “Cecilia”, which I never liked either. Or it could be that radio is spinning it every 27 minutes, thus compounding a bad situation.

Back in June, I mentioned the new single from Owl City, called “Shooting Star”, and while I have been scathingly critical of Owl City in the past as being estrogenic, testosterone-free sugar-frosted rubbish, I thought this new song of theirs was pretty good. Of course, I never heard it on the radio, not once. Instead, radio is now playing a song called “Good Time”, a duet between Owl City and ……grrrrrrr…annoying bubbly sugary saccharine-soaked Carly Rae Jepsen, the little waif who tortures me non-stop with that pukefest “Call Me Maybe”. If I were 14 again, and all my freshman friends were jamming to this in the back of mom’s minivan on the way to the mall, I’d still say it sucked and lapse into a sugar coma.

This song sucks and we know it.

Everyone’s favorite in-your-face girl, Pink, returns from a childbirth and mommyhood break with another really fun middle finger salute to life with Blow Me (One Last Kiss). I love Pink. She’s fun, she’s quirky, she’s different, and she has a great voice. And pop radio usually plays each song to death & ruins it for me. I best enjoy it while I can.

Over the years I’ve gotten used to being sorely disappointed by most of what comes out of American Idol. So few of the kids who make the Top 10 from Idol actually A) succeed, B) are worth a damn, C) are relevant 12 months later. After 10 seasons, of the 100 kids from the Top 10 finalists, there’s maybe, what, 5 bonafide stars? And maybe another 10 tops who had a second album or had a charted single? This year’s winner was Philip Phillips (why? Why, parents? Seriously?) and while I liked him as a person, with his shy “aw-shucks” charm, I found his songs to all sound the same on the show; forcibly quirky covers that sounded like he was doing his best Dave Matthews impersonations. It really made me feel the kid, though likeable, was a one-trick pony. At least he has a single out already, only a couple months after winning this year’s competition. I’ve always said that they take way too much time putting out material from the winners and that by the time they get heard from again the fickle, 2-minute-attention-span music audience in America has moved on to the next flavor of the minute and the Idol winner is no longer relevant.

This debut single from Phil² is “Home”, and at first I had no idea it was him. In fact, I’d forgotten completely that he sang it on the season finale when he won. It’s a likeable song, with Phil² channeling his best Mumford & Sons impersonation over what sounds like a Coldplay backing vocal from a lost B-side track. I’m trying my best to not get sick of hearing it, but it’s getting a lot of airplay on multiple station formats and by next week will likely be in the Top 5.

This past week I’ve found a song creeping into regular airplay rotations on pop radio that had been a #1 for a few weeks on the Alternative charts, “Tongue Tied” by the band Grouplove. It’s catchy in the way that “We Are Young” was, and also rides that precarious ledge of being easy to get tired of if heard too often. In fact, the vocals kinda remind me of the singer from fun. (Nate Ruess) singing a Modest Mouse song with some Peter Hook bass riffs from a long-forgotten New Order track in the background, and a bridge in the middle that was borrowed from Paul Oakenfold’s “Starry Eyed Surprise”.

Also getting some regular airplay is “Too Close” by Alex Clare. You’ve been hearing it for months in snippets on the commercials for Internet Explorer and it’s finally taking the world by storm. It’s best when played really loud, a brilliant mix of acoustic guitars and dubstep synth beats, with some rather powerful vocals. This track is getting a lot of plays on my MP3 player and in my car. 

Yes, all that voice comes out of that unassuming guy...

After a bit of a hiatus, No Doubt is back with “Settle Down”, a quirky track with a bit of a reggae feel, not a real stretch considering when they started, No Doubt had serious ska influences. This is the lead single off their first new album in 11 years, and while it struck me as a bit odd at first, it’s quickly become one of my current favorite tracks. Almost 43, and with two kids (with the obligatory silly Hollywood names), and Gwen Stefani is still one of the hottest babes in alternative music. I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

Finally, well over a year after releasing their last single “The Sun” while working on their new album, Shiny Toy Guns finally released a second new single, “Waiting Alone” ahead of the October release of their long-awaited and highly anticipated third album, to be simply called “III”. It follows the tried & true STG formula of back & forth shared vocals between Chad Petree and Carah Faye, and Carah has never sounded better. I’m a huge fan of Shiny Toy Guns and can’t wait for the full album. I’ve loved both of their new songs from the sessions so far.

Another song that finally grew on me is “Give Me Something” by the band Scars on 45. I’ve been hearing it for what feels like months on my local Adult Contemporary station. It sounds rather folk-ish at first but has really nice melodies and harmonies. The acoustic side of indie rock isn’t my usual fare but when regular pop music and most alternative music sucks so badly, one must branch out and broaden one’s horizons. 

Surprisingly, the new one from The Killers hasn’t caught fire with me yet. I’ve been a big fan of the Vegas quartet since their debut single in 2004. Usually their singles grab me & shake me violently to get my attention but so far “Runaways” is still just a few more listens away from really captivating me. Maybe it’s the four-year break since their last album, which was a bit hit or miss with me. The jury is sorta still out on it, so check back with me.

And freshly released is "I Will Wait", the much-anticipated new single from Mumford & Sons, ahead of the album "Babel", coming out next month. I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as a bad song from these guys. Every song is a soaring triumph.

 

And in future music news:

After the understated success and critical acclaim of their single “Winner”, timed to accompany the Olympics and paired up with diverse B-sides like a musical version of Rudyard Kipling’s poem“The Way Through The Woods” and a cover of the Bee Gees’ “I Started a Joke” as a tribute to the late Robin Gibb, Pet Shop Boys will release their eleventh studio album “Elysium” in a couple weeks. 

It looks like an April 2013 release for the new album from Depeche Mode, and the latest news is that there are over 20 songs being worked on, Ben Hillier is producing it, and the legendary Flood is mixing it. There continue to be deeply underground rumors surrounding some sort of collaboration with former Mode member Alan Wilder on the project as well. And I can’t wait to get it.

"I can't find nothin' on the radio..."

"Hey...I can't find nothin' on the radio..."---"Radio Song" by REM, 1989

As I am wont to do every couple of months or so, I have taken another foray into that putrid dumpster of so-called entertainment known as Top-40 Music. At times I wonder why I do this to myself, why I torture myself with this audio misery. I think I do it on occasion, this self-flagellation, to remind myself of why I don’t listen to Top 40 radio and instead still cleave to what few new alternative bands I can stand and to my trusty stable of standby bands that I grew up on.

We kinda got a mixed bag this time around, kids.

Crap Song Of The Week
Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West—"Run This Town"
Kill me now. First Jay guests on Rihanna’s “Umbrella” a couple years ago, and now Rihanna returns the favor, except she’s guesting everywhere these days and is in danger of overexposure. And Kanye, that giant ass, is the Media Whore King of Overexposure and adds really lame cheese-rap to every third song played on the radio these days, like it’s Step 4 of the Formula For A Hit or something. A couple years ago it was Akon and T-Pain, and before that it was Ludacris. Today if it isn’t Lil’ Wayne it’s Kanye, who I think just shows up at random studios and forces his way into the vocal booth like he expects everyone to want his vocals. And the rhymes he lays down as of late truly are craptastic, including these. Then again, Jay-Z’s own rap in this song is so stilted and weak that it makes me wonder how he got huge in the first place.

Flo-Rida, featuring NeYo—"Be On You"
I’ve come to the determination that Flo-Rida can’t do a song without someone else, as every single he’s released thus far has had featured vocals from some guest or other. I can’t take this song seriously, because the sugary chorus sounds to me like he’s singing, “I wanna pee on you…I wanna pee on you.” Otherwise, utterly forgettable.

3OH!3 with Katy Perry—"Starstrukk"
I like the verses of the song, but the semi-falsetto chorus grates on my nerves. These guys are almost trying too hard to be snarky bad boys and come off like a boy-band version of The Bloodhound Gang. I guess having Katy Perry on board for the radio remix adds some street-cred or something.

Priscilla Renea –"Dollhouse"
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCOnX40rf8Q
Acoustic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEVHtR6mUKw
Y’know, at first listen I thought this was throwaway bubblegum, but it’s really catchy and clever pop. I enclosed the video links because the official video is just well done with the effects, without the usual overdone tawdry crap associated with today’s vapid vids. The acoustic clip is there to prove that this young lady can actually sing, and sounds remarkably the same live as she does on CD.

Ke$ha—"Tik Tok"
And then there’s Ke$ha…suburban white girl sugarcoated Bambi-rap from a Taylor Swift lookalike. She’s so white she makes me look thugnificent. Sadly, it’s kinda catchy, like H1N1, and affects kids at about the same rate. And if she sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because she guested on a recent Flo-Rida song, “You Spin My Head Right Round”.

Owl City—"Fireflies"
I was wondering when Emo music was gonna meet synthpop and create Electropussy. It reminds me a little of “Pure” by the Lightning Seeds back in 1990, without the stolen riff from New Order in it. There isn’t a single ounce of testosterone to be found anywhere in the entire 4 minutes and 8 seconds of this syrupy eunuch-fest. I checked a couple other Owl City songs (Sunburn and Ocean Eyes) just to see if they were all basically emasculating, and yes, it’s all pretty much an empty scrotum and enough glucose overload to induce Type 2 diabetes. Sample lyrics: “I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs…” I’m serious.

Black Eyed Peas—"Meet Me Halfway"
Another winner from the Peas. I am really quite impressed by this new album of theirs. Sadly, though, I’ll be thoroughly sick of this song in about 2 or three weeks, the same way I got sick of “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling” after hearing them every 23 minutes on 6 stations at once.

Miley Cyrus--"Party In The USA"
Isn’t this the song that Little Miss Thing pole-danced to on the Disney Channel? And is it me, or does she sound even more nasal than usual here?

Lady GaGa—"Bad Romance"
Interesting that GaGa should release a new single before I managed to get 100% sick of the previous single, Paparazzi, notable unto itself for showing that she can actually sing melodically and not just emit forth dance tracks with gibberish lyrics. This newest song goes back to the original format & formula though of borderline nonsensical words laid over really fat groves. Two weeks from now I’ll want to stab myself in the eye with a shrimp fork every time I hear it.

Jason DeRula—"Whatcha’ Say"
Step One: Sample a fifteen-second clip of “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap.
Step Two: Get a kid who sounds like a knock-off of R. Kelly meets Usher.
Step Three: Have kid sing a couple verses through a box fan, add back beats/samples.
Step Four: Play on radio until vomiting is induced.

Jay Sean—"Down"
Another inescapable track that’s on 6 stations simultaneously 400 times a day. It was catchy enough the first couple times, and then it quickly became unlistenable. Some of that could be due to the warbly vocoder effects in the chorus, kinda like singing…through….a…box…fan…Hey, I detect a pattern here. But hey, we’ve got guest vocals from Lil’ Wayne. Holla!



Sadly, I really don’t have much that I can give you guys this time around as an alternative to the SuckFest on the radio. One of my current favorite bands, Shiny Toy Guns, has covered a couple of 80’s classics for the latest round of Lincoln commercials. They’re the band behind the new versions of “Major Tom (Coming Home)”, originally done by Peter Schilling, and “Burning For You”, originally from Blue Oyster Cult. Both are available out there as downloads.

And a re-issue is coming this week, at least in Europe (the USA has to wait awhile longer) with the 21st Anniversary Edition of Erasure’s 1988 album “The Innocents”. This was a great album, spawning the two megahits “Chains of Love” and “A Little Respect”. They put out a revamped version of the track “Phantom Bride” as a single to coincide with the release, as many fans had always wondered why that track wasn’t a single back in 1988. There just wasn’t enough time, though, to release it back then, as there’d already been “Ship of Fools” in addition to the other two singles already, and at the end of 1988 they had the “Crackers International” EP ready for Christmas release with the epic single “Stop!”, and within a few months the next single & album were out.

As an aside, Erasure just started working on yet another new album of material to come out either in late 2010 or early 2011. I can’t wait!


Erasure are Vince Clarke and Andy Bell

Another foray into the Top 40 wasteland

It’s been a few months since I last brought you the wretchedness that is Top 40 radio in America. There’s a reason that I listen to either talk radio or a select few bands from my younger days; Top 40 pop music sucks, by and large.

So, every so often I take an hour or two, listen to the dreck they pass off on us, and then remind myself of why I don’t listen to this shit in the first place. But don’t take my word for it—go watch/listen for yourself and see that I’m not smoking catnip.


Cash Cash – There’s a Party In Your Bedroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oynjMRofFVk&feature=channel_page

Damn you, MySpace and You Tube. Thanks to you, anyone with a Casio keyboard they picked up at Best Buy can be a star. They look like an emo Jonas Brothers and sound like sugar-coated Daft Punk, with syrupy lyrics and an even more syrupy delivery. Halfway through, you expect the lyrics to segue into Jermaine Stewart’s 80’s crapfest “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off”.



LMFAO – I’m In Miami Trick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysJyFAHwVP8

Just what we needed…an updated equivalent of Trio’s “Da Da Da” for the new millennium; full of tinkertoy electronic blips and meaningless blathering lyrics. Actually, the original, non-radio version has “Bitch” instead of “Trick” as the lyric. Another product of the internet generation of iTunes and MySpace. Around the 2-minute mark, I’m ready to jam a steak knife in my trachea.

Soulja Boy Tell Em – Kiss Me Through The Phone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhwQay4QiOw

The annoying fellow behind that fuck-awful Crank That Soulja Boy (DeAndre Ramone Way) is back with some more repetitive babbling coupled with a bubblegum chorus sung by someone else who actually has a halfway pleasant voice. That still can’t save this song. Should have been called “Annoy Me Through The Radio”.

Lady GaGa – Love Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDwRRZ7eUo

The pride of Yonkers, 23-year old Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta has been inescapable the past few months. This song follows up the hit singles “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”. Excellent basslines and production are the saving grace, because the lyrics really leave you scratching your brain-case, and this song is no exception, with the inane lines “Let’s have some fun; this beat is sick. I wanna take a ride on your disco stick.” She sticks weird glitter chunks to her face, dresses like a cross between a stripper and a flapper, and has a really good voice when she actually sings. Kinda like Madonna 30 years younger and without a petting zoo full of kids and Kaballah.

Jeremih – Birthday Sex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTt4GGqBcc0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkYwtYMlFcs

When the hell did Moet champagne get relabeled Mo-weezy? I included two links to the vids because there seems to be two versions of the song, one a slower ballady mix (the official video) and then the uptempo version I keep hearing on the radio. Jeremih Felton seems to have a bright pop future ahead of him. He reminds me a bit of a young Kanye West without the narcissism. However, the bridge (“Girl you know Iiiiiiiiiiiiii, girl you know Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii”) grates on my nerves really fast, as does the chanting of “Birthday Sex….Birthday Sex….”. Yeah, kid, we get it. We all like to get laid on our birthday, but not too many of us feel we gotta sing about it.


Pitbull – I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2tMV96xULk

I actually kinda like Pitbull. I liked his last single, too, “Krazy” with Lil’ Jon. It’s really bouncy and dancey and clubby, which I like. The only real thing I don’t like about this mix is the “ping” noise in the background that reminds me of submarine sonar. I liked it enough at first but after a few listens it gets old. I wonder how many of my friends in the sub community cringe when they hear that? I’m guilty of not being able to understand the non-English lyrics, but they still sound cool. Pitbull (Armando Christian Rafael Pérez) hails from Miami so I’d assume it’s Spanish, but the beginning of the video shows a hottie wrapped in a Brazilian flag, so it might be Portuguese. I dunno; I speak German. Go figure.


Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2rrxONlLo

The Peas are so far batting a thousand with this new album of theirs, The E.N.D. The first single, Boom Boom Pow, is everywhere on the radio, a great dance track that my buddy Chris said reminded him of the old Miami Bass Wars of the 80’s. You can’t escape the song, which is sad because now I turn the radio off when it comes on. It took less than 4 weeks to ruin it for me. This new rack is a 4:54 long microparty. You can’t help but bounce up & down, even while outside in the yard washing your car…oh, wait; maybe that was just me? This should be the quintessential party track of this summer.


NEWS FLASH:
We interrupt crappy Top 40 radio to bring you an important announcement!

This morning I saw something truly astounding, simultaneously on both MTV and MTV2. They were playing videos… yeah, no shit! I’m used to seeing vids in the morning on VH1, before they start to play non-stop repeats of faux reality bullshit shows at 9AM, but this was new….they were calling the shows AMTV and AMTV2, just a block of morning wakeup videos. I only got to see a couple clips before 9:00 rolled around and the bullshit non-video, non-music, crapfests began anew. The three I remembered:

Sean Kingston – Fire Burning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq77pTi03qQ

Two summers ago, you couldn’t escape this kid’s song “Beautiful Girls”. In fact, I wrote about it. (http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/hour-of-my-life-that-ill-never-get-back.html)
Two summers later, he’s back with another inescapable track full of dancey beats and quasi-reggae deliveries. It gets old fast. The video, however, is a cavalcade of images, each about 2 seconds or less in length, with various energetic young folks doing dance moves that make me miss being 21 again, back when the Earth had just finished cooling and I still had the moves. I’ll probably hate this song in about another week or so.

Passion Pit -- The Reeling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVstHPhaJ6M

Wow…we just got sucked back to 1986. This is like an electronic Cocteau Twins song, a wall of synth noise and vaguely unintelligible high-pitched vocals. Video looks like some college kid’s art school thesis project. Up and coming Next Big Thing, Passion Pit is a band from Cambridge, Massachusetts (home of Harvard and MIT). They’re currently the darlings of the indie & new music crowd. Sadly, being named the Next Big Thing by the British music press is usually the death knell for anyone. Just say they’re the next Oasis and they’ll be gone inside of a month.


Dave Matthews Band – Funny The Way It Is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew8hmVIGKcM

Wow….Dave chunked up a little in the face…smoked too much weed and got the munchies I think. Looks a lot like Andy Kaufman here, or at least like Jim Carey playing Andy Kaufman. A pleasant enough song, but for me it’s easily forgettable. The video looks like spliced together concepts from Peter Gabriel’s heyday in the late 80’s and early 90’s. All that was missing was two dancing chicken carcasses.

Another week in Maximum Musical Suckage

Another week, another mixed experience in pop radio…not as much crap this time around. Maybe I’m mellowing with the coming of fall…or maybe pop music is entering a less-sucky phase of the moon…nah……I doubt it. But some of the latest round of gobbledygook crappage crawls forth from the muck, mire, of ooze of Maximum Suckage to be somewhat catchy…and you know what I say about catchy. Herpes is catchy too, but you don’t want it.

Jason Mraz—I’m Yours
What is this crap? Usually Mraz is decently listenable, but this syrupy drivel reminds me of that cover of “Over The Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole that everyone raves about. I keep expecting a 700-pound Hawaiian dude with a ukulele to show up.

Britney Spears—Womanizer
One of the catchier offerings this week. Processed vocals that are so many octaves lower than her usual range that it almost doesn’t even sound human, let alone like her. Not exactly the cleverest lyrics and the chorus is borderline silly with it’s semi-stutter delivery. The video serves no real purpose other than to show Spears as naked as possible to show everyone that her hair grew back and her pudginess is gone, putting to bed the train wreck of her MTV VMA’s performance last year.

Christina Agiuilera—Keeps Getting Better
What better way to promote your “greatest hits” album than by combining overly simple lyrics about being a “super bitch” delivered in a pretty convincing attempt at being Gwen Stefani over top of what sounds like a lost demo track to Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”?

The Jonas Brothers—Love Bug
So sweet it makes my teeth hurt. Absolute crap. This has even less balls than Jason Mraz’s song.

Fallout Boy—I Don’t Care
Emo’s answer to Barenaked Ladies seems to have spent 30 seconds listening to Marylin Manson’s cover of “Personal Jesus” and conceived yet another overwrought rock opera.

T-Pain featuring Lil’ Wayne—I Can’t Believe It
I established months ago that T-Pain writes some of the lamest shit this side of a Kanye West guest rap, only he squirts it all out of a vocoder because he can’t sing either.

Akon—Right Now (Na Na)
I’m pretty well sick of Akon. This song is simple to the point of annoyance, and it’s pretty to the point…I wanna make love right now na na….how now brown cow na na na na

TI—Whatever You Like
This song is infectious. I actually like it. Never has a song about being some chick’s sugar daddy been so smooth.

Pitbull featuring Lil’ Jon—Krazy
Let me preface this by saying that Lil’ Jon could sing Happy Birthday and I’d think it was a masterpiece. The guy is a fucking riot. Throw him together with a Cuban-American rapper and hilarity ensues. This song is just plain silliness, a great party track that could make Stephen Hawking get up and dance.

September—Cry For You
Kick-ass synthpop by Swedish singer Petra Marklund, who records under the name September. The track is built around the synth line from Bronski Beat’s 1984 single “Smalltown Boy”. If you like to dance, this track is for you.

And my Pick of the Week:

Mirror, featuring Dave Gahan—Nostalgia
The audio-visual project Mirror enlisted Depeche Mode’s front man Dave Gahan to sing this sweeping, gorgeous soundscape. It’s an incredible vocal by Dave, who seems to just get younger every year now that he’s clean & sober. It’s not quite as brooding as a Depeche Mode track, and almost reminds me of Morrissey’s better ballads, like “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday”.

According to the Autumn Equinox, most Top 40 Music still sucks

Current Music That Sucks (by MojoSteve featuring Tiny and Tater)

Since no one these days seems able to have a top-40 hit without a guest artist “featured” on the song, I figured I’d need a feature to help me do this blog. I’m not quite famous enough to score Timbaland, Ludacris, Ne-Yo, Lil Wayne, WILL.I.AM, or Akon, so I’ll just have to get by. Maybe I’ll get the dogs to help me.

As per the norm, I took a spin through the local Top-40 radio stations for a few songs just to see what the latest round of crap being offered was. This time, however, I’ll at least have some suggestions afterwards as to what I’m listening to these days that won’t suck.

So, without further ado…

M.I.A.--Paper Planes
I first heard M.I.A. a couple years ago through videos on the cable channel IMF/International Music Feed. The song “Bucky Done Gun” was the most repetitively annoying track I’d heard since “My Baby Daddy” by B-Rock & The Bizz, and that’s saying something. Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A, is a British songwriter, record producer, vocalist and visual artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent. Most of her songs that I’ve heard are bhangra-flavored dance tracks that are actually pretty good. The first thing I noticed was that the song is built around a sample of “Straight to Hell” by The Clash, and that caught my attention pretty quick. This song is almost unintelligible, however, and I’m still not quite sure what it’s about. In amongst the gibberish are mentions of skulls & bones, UPS trucks, and taking your money.Your guess is as good as mine.

Estelle featuring Kanye West--American Boy
The song is almost catchy, but then again so is herpes and you don’t want anything to do with that either. Riding on the current Motown Renaissance Wannabe Movement of such acts as Duffy and Amy Winehouse sounding like classic 60’s singers with a modern groove, this is just a mess of childish lyrics coupled with some of the lamest rap I have ever heard. Then again, I think Kanye is a total asshat anyways. The Wiggles carry more street cred than this waste of four minutes.

Secondhand Serenade—Fall For You
Thanks, Chris Carabba. Thanks to you, I get to hear yet another whiny-assed Emo ballad done by a single-guy Dashboard Confessional clone. Any sweeter and I could pour it on pancakes. A bunch of nautical star tattoos, some hair gel, and some teary-eyed songs and anyone can be a star. The same formula gets repeated on the song “Vulnerable”, and the song “Your Call”, and on “Last Time” and anything else this guy (John Vesely) does. A one trick pony that will keep your teenaged daughter weepy all semester.

Kardinal Offishall featuring Akon—Dangerous
You’d swear this was an Akon song with some forgettable rapper uttering barely understandable lyrics in between Akon’s choruses and verses. In fact, a perusal of YouTube finds that pretty much everything Kardinal has done has had a “featuring”. To me that suggests mediocrity in need of assistance.

Leona Lewis—Better in Time
Another well-sung but utterly forgettable ballad that sounds like half Mariah Carey and half Alicia Keys. Play this back to back with her track “Bleeding Love” and cry into your box of white zinfandel over that person who broke your heart. boo hoo hoo

Daughtry—What About Now?
Yet another single off their album that refuses to die. Once upon a time, I thought Chris Daughtry should win American Idol. Instead, he ended up coming in third and took the world by storm and constant overplay has caused me to cringe every time I hear them. This one sounds, remarkably, just like all their others. I’m happy he got successful, but I’m just so sick of hearing him.

David Archuleta—Crush
Well, well, well. We finally hear something from last year’s Idol runner-up. And just as I expected, it’s a trite ballady syrup-fest. I can hear it running down the collective leg of every 13 year old girl in America. Yawn...

David Cook—Time of My Life
This could just as easily be a Daughtry power ballad. Poor kid wins American Idol and is given schmaltzy crap to sing, just like every other Idol winner. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll do when given a longer leash and quits singing cover songs turned into alt-rock. It’ll either be pretty good, or be a Daughtry clone. If he tanks, he can sit with Constantine Maroulis in the Idol audience and make funny lip gestures at the cameras.

Pussycat Dolls—When I Grow Up
What do you get when you mix an okay singer with five wannabe pole-dancers? Another video that looks like Hooters threw up at a strip club. I swear that when Nicole Scherzinger and Company sing that they wanna have groupies, it sounds like they say they wanna have boobies.

Schwayze—Corona & Lime
“You can be my Corona and lime, and I can be your Main Squeeze. And if your brother don’t like my style, we can take it to the street. Take it to the street”. What utterly ridiculous crap. From the trailer parks of Malibu comes Shwayze (Aaron Smith) with his buddy Cisco Adler, son of movie director Lou Adler, combining rap and acoustic rock into something that isn’t quite as cool as “The Bartender Song” by Rehab, but really wishes it were. That song is clever & funny, whereas I would never ask a chick to be my watered-down overpriced Mexican beer with a fruit chunk in it. Dude, pick a real beer. "You can be my Sam Adams Scotch Ale, and I can be your MojoSteve"…there. That works. Much cooler.


Okay. Now that I’ve told you what NOT to listen to, how about I make a few suggestions as to what you maybe SHOULD listen to.

Carolina Liar—I’m Not Over
What do you get when you take a guy from Moncks Corner, South Carolina and team him up with five guys from Sweden? You get a really good band called Carolina Liar. Their breakthrough single, “I’m Not Over” is gaining airplay everywhere and deservedly so. Chad Wolf’s voice reminds me ever so slightly of the best of Better Than Ezra’s songs, only better. Also check out the song “Show Me What I’m Looking For”, or better yet, just go get the whole album. Do not miss this band.

O.A.R.—Shattered (Turn This Car Around)
The best thing to come out of Rockville, Maryland in a long time, I first heard OAR (Of A Revolution) a couple years ago from their track "Love and Memories". This new song reminded me why I liked them. At first I thought it was David Gray, whose single “Babylon” was one of the best songs to come out of late 2000/early 2001. Vocally, singer Marc Roberge sounds a bit like Gray, and musically the song has that soaring buildup that I loved so much from Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars”.

The Ting Tings—Shut Up and Let Me Go
Made popular by being featured in an iPod ad, this track is a cute and catchy blend of precociousness and sass. A bratty British chick pouting over a track that sounds a lot like a 1987 song by The Cure called "Hot Hot Hot". The best breakup song since Katy Perry’s “UR So Gay”. And speaking of Katy Perry…

Katy Perry--Hot & Cold
Hot on the heels of her seriously overplayed yet pretty brilliant single “I Kissed a Girl” comes another excellently-produced and dancey track. Both tracks were produced by Dr. Luke, who has also worked with Kelly Clarkson, Pin, Avril Lavigne, Leona Lewis, Daughtry, and a host of others. About two more weeks and I’ll be sick of it, though.

Shiny Toy Guns--Ricochet!/Frozen Oceans
Two new tracks from the soon to be released second album “Season of Poison”. Featuring the vocals of new singer Sisely Treasure, the songs are as close to polar opposites as you can get. “Ricochet” is all sass and noise, reminding me of a hybrid blend of KMFDM and Lords of Acid. It took several listens to grow on me, but grow it did. At the opposite end of the spectrum is “Frozen Oceans” is an ethereal lush ballad with a soaring soundscape amidst the chorus: “10,000 miles apart, a frozen ocean joins our heart. I can’t wait to meet you when the frozen waves meet ocean floors. You’ll be standing on the shore; I can’t wait to meet you then…”

The Veronicas--Untouched
I should probably hate this song just on principal, but I can’t. This song will be a huge mega-hit for twin sisters Jess and Lisa Origliasso, which means it will become so overplayed that I will no longer be able to stand it, but it’s fast, catchy, really well-produced and full of this angsty nervous energy. I’m really digging the beat and the synth-sampled strings.

Adele--Chasing Pavements
I know that I've talked smack about those Motown-soundalikes that are pervading the airwaves these days, but there's something about this song that I realy like. It's not over-produced like most of the tracks out there, and even though I don't even really like the style of music on the whole, Adele has a really nice voice and the video for the song kinda compels you to listen and watch and enjoy.

Gavin Rossdale--Love Remains The Same
Who would have guessed that Gavin Rossdale, former frontman of the Brit rock band Bush, could actually sing a very pleasant ballad? I hate you, Gavin. You're painfully good-looking, you have a painfully hot wife (he's married to Gwen Stefani), even your kids are good-looking, and now you have to rub it in that you can carry off a power ballad? This is a far cry from Bush songs like "Machinehead" and "Everything Zen", but it's a huge step in a new direction and it's realy quite good.

Have I mentioned that popular Top 40 music sucks?

As I’ve said before in the past, I really don’t listen to much pop radio anymore. See, 99% of my listening time is on my commute to & from work, and in the car I’d really much rather listen to news or talk radio to stay awake. Unlike most people, who lapse into a coma about ten minutes into talk radio, I’m the opposite. I find myself staying awake to pay attention to the show, so long as the host is engaging and the subject matter isn’t dry as a crouton. I find most pop music so banal and trite that I can tune it out into white noise that lulls me to a stupor and puts me under.

Sometimes, however, I’m forced to scan the dials and frequencies and am given constant reminders as to why I hate Top 40 radio and instead rely on my old music collection as I search for new tunes that don’t make my colon twitch. Half of these new “artists” out there are simply sampling what I grew up on anyways and acting like it’s fresh.

So without further delay, here’s some of the findings from my latest foray into terrestrial radio. (I really need to renew my XM subscription…)

1. 4 Minutes To Save The World — Madonna (with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, 50 dancers, the entire state of Israel, and a motley passel of children purchased at a Branjelina yard sale)— Oh, Madge, what happened? Last I knew, you told us all you were going to give up the skimpy clothes and act like a proper mommy who writes children’s books, but all I ever see you in is bondage gear. And I won’t even go into the whole rigamarole of thinking you’re British and a Jewish mystic. I was willing to overlook all of that when last year you had two of the most brilliant songs of your career back to back with “Hung Up” and “Sorry”. Those were perhaps the best songs you’d done in years. And now we partner up with Tim & Tim, a black dude on steroids and his skinny white shadow. While Timbaland may be an absolute genius on the mixing board his vocals leave a bit to be desired, and someone needs to tell him that the whole concept of setting a high school marching band to a backbeat was done already, a couple years ago, by Gwen Stefani and Pharell. And that (bleep) was bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s!!!!

2. Bleeding Love — Leona Lewis —Recent winner of a British version of “Idol”, this girl possesses a great voice, great looks, and is singing a rather well-crafted pop power ballad. However, by the time you’ve heard it 50-60 times, you really never want to hear it again. A few too many Mariah Carey-like warbles and runs at the end for my tastes. As an aside, if you can find it, she does a really nice cover of the song “Run” by Snow Patrol. The original is heart-shredding and hers really does it justice.

3. Damaged — Danity Kane —Okayyyyyy… it’s a sugar-coated Pussycat Dolls without a stripper pole. A catchy dance beat, and interchangeable vocalists who all sound alike (not to be confused with actual harmony), but pretty much a throwaway dance track that’ll be forgotten by the end of summer.

4. Mercy — Duffy —I’d heard of Duffy for awhile but never heard her music till this week. It’s very very similar to Amy Winehouse, but a little more nasal and without the dirty beehive, bad tattoos, and heroin problem. Still, it’s a Motown throwback retro thing.

5. Love In This Club — Usher —The only listenable bit is the catchy synthesizer line that starts the song and repeats as the chorus goes “I wanna make love in this club...”. After that, all I can think of is sex in the men’s room of a dance club, and remembering what dance club bathrooms are like at 2AM, you really don’t want to have sex in one. If you do, you really need counseling, and lots of it.

6. Shake It — Metro Station —Cashing in on looking Emo, these guys look like they just stepped off of Good Charlotte’s tour bus…oh, wait…they’re on tour with Good Charlotte. No wonder they look like Emo clones. The song is catchy as hell though, a cute dancey pop track that I find it hard to dislike. So I'll just dislike it on the principle that they look Emo. Emo is the Devil.

7. I Kissed a Girl — Katy Perry —This chick has it all. She’s hot. She’s clever. She’s got a great voice. She’s got a great sense of humor. Following the cult buzz of her track “Ur So Gay”, a kiss off to an Emo ex-boyfriend, this track sounds like Pink discovered a lost Depeche Mode demo track and went wild. The song is about a bit of experimentation on the dance floor, so to speak. You can NOT sit still while listening to it. Not to be confused with an equally clever track of the same name and same basic theme by Jill Sobule. Finally, a winner on pop radio.

8. Realize — Colby Caillat— Hmmmm, seems I reviewed one of her songs the last time I did this type of blog. (Check my archives). Same syrupy sweet delivery, same harmless lyrics, and equally as forgettable.

9. Stop and Stare — One Republic— A perfect followup to their big hit “Apologize”, because it’s just as sweet, just as safe, just as predictable, and just as overplayed, as I heard it 3 times in the same hour.

10. All Summer Long — Kid Rock— Deep Down, I really want to like Bob Ritchie, who goes by Kid Rock. He’s at his cleverest when he’s doing this over the top thrash-rap hybrid thing that made him famous. Bob…this ain’t it, man. Most of the hokey lyrics are delivered over a sampled piano bit stolen from Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London”, and then you segue it into half of “Sweet Home Alabama”, while reminiscing about summertime in northern Michigan. All I can think of is Joe Dirt. Oh wait…you were IN that film…

So…as always, pop radio is a pretty bleak landscape. As a service to you guys, however, I’ll suggest some decent recent music from the realms of “alternative” music:

1. Violet Hill/Viva La Vida — Coldplay —The first single off the new Coldplay disc is a little bit different than what I was expecting. I guess I was waiting for another melodic ballad and instead this churning, almost grungy anthem rolls out. After about three listens, it grew on me and now I really like it. And Viva La Vida, the album’s title track, is my new favorite Coldplay song. It’s being used in the new iTunes commercials, and the full track is this gorgeous sweeping powerful track that sucks you in and leaves you breathless. The CD comes out next week, on the 17th.

2. All You Need Is Me — Morrissey —It seems odd to call Morrissey “the former Smiths frontman”, since Moz was the band’s singer for about 5 years, with 5 studio albums, a couple compilations, and a live album. His solo career, however, has lasted over 20 years, 8 studio albums, umpteen compilations and live albums, and he has an upcoming studio album to be released in September. This track is brand new, just released a couple weeks ago, and is classic Morrissey, all angst and rockabilly and debonair flair.

3. Supernatural Superserious — REM —The past few REM cd’s have been kinda hit or miss experiments with a couple great songs, and they pretty much fizzled out after a couple weeks of buzz. It’s a shame though; the track “Leaving New York” from their last album, “Around the Sun”, was brilliantly beautiful, and spawned the line "It's easier to leave than to be left behind." That's deep. This new song, the first release from the new CD “Accelerate” is a fine return to form for the boys from Athens, GA. Jangly guitars, and words that you can pretty much completely understand. Overall, a winner.

4. Handlebars — Flobots —I want to hate this song for reasons of, well, lots of reasons. It’s like Cake meets Eminem in a back alley and comes up with the bastard stepbrother of the Bloodhound Gang. However, the song is reallllly catchy whether you want it to be or not, and it really makes you concentrate on the clever lyrics and think about them a bit. Unfortunately these guys are a also a bit of a one-trick-pony deal, where all the songs I’ve heard from them are about the same. Should white kids from the suburbs rap?

5. The Only One — The Cure —Yes, The Cure are still alive and still making music. In fact, they’re on tour right now and their new CD, their 13th studio release in a career that’s almost 30 years old at this point, comes out on September 13th. You either love The Cure or hate The Cure. There are very few casual fans of Robert Smith and company. They’re releasing a single a month on the 13th of each month leading up to the album release. The next song comes out this weekend, and will be called “Freakshow”. And for the record, I love The Cure.

An hour of my life that I'll never get back...

People often ask me why I listen to the music that I do. I don’t really listen to a lot of new bands, and by “new” I mean bands who have surfaced in say the past 5 years, such as Coldplay or Snow Patrol. I mostly listen to music from bands I’ve listened to for 20+ years who are still producing excellent music. Bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure, and The Cure. Trust me when I say when given the choice between listening to 99% of today’s Top-40 gobshite and say, the 1982 Depeche Mode song “The Sun & The Rainfall”, I’ll gladly take a trip 25 years down memory lane. The classic Smiths’ song “What Difference Does It Make?” still sounds better-crafted and more relevant than today’s pre-programmed, polished & shiny dreck, and it was released 23 years ago.

So, every so often, I donate an hour of my life to Purgatory and listen to Top-40 radio just to remind myself why I generally listen to talk radio instead. Some people waste life-span by smoking crack, some waste it in strip clubs… and me, I waste it listening to pointless crap in hopes of finding something that’s pretty good. Sometimes I even succeed.

So…here’s the results from another hour of my life that I’ll never get back.

1.Bubbly, by Colbie Caillat. This sounds to me like the perfect chick-song accompaniment to that overplayed “You Had a Bad Day” , by Daniel Powter, that was plastered all over American Idol’s loser send-offs. Sugary to the point of insulin shock. My teeth hurt when I hear her whisper-croon about crinkling her nose, etc.

2.Thnks fr th mmrs, by Fall Out Boy. We’re so cool that we can leave out the vowels in our song titles. Less emo than previous outings, and still by far less pretentious than those dickheads from Panic! At The Disco.

3.Bartender, by T-Pain. Sounds way too much like his other song, “Buy You a Drank”, with vocal processing stolen from Cher’s “Believe”. Sounds like he spends too much time in bars. How can you argue with brilliance in lyrics like “She made us drinks to drink, we drunk ‘em, got drunk.”? I mean, that’s fucking poetry, man.

4.Rehab, by Amy Winehouse. The Brits think this chick walks on water. Me, I think she merely floats because she doesn’t weigh enough to sink. I saw an old picture of her & she was well-fed & had a nice frame & face. Now she’s loaded down with very big tattoos, this giant beehive on her head, and she has that scrawny emaciated heroin-addict look . It’s like watching Mariah Carey morph into Nicole Ritchie overnight. How fitting that the song is about rehab. The jazzy 60’s Motown backing music is great, but American audiences aren’t used to hearing something without a hip-hop beat anymore, so the new radio-remix has some guy tossing a hastily-recorded rap over the top of the bridge that adds NOTHING to the song other than dumbing it down to pander to American ears. Click the picture above for a better view.....

5.Beautiful Girls, by Sean Kingston. This song is unescapable. It’s everywhere, from car radios to public toilets. The production, much like Winehouse’s song, is great, stealing its backing music from Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”. Without the slick production, neither song would be worth a damn on their own. I find it hard to not laugh when he sings the line “It was back in ’99, watching movies all the time, when I went away for doing my first crime…” Hey, boyo, you’re barely 18. So, they sent you away at age 10? Fut the whuck?

6.Party Like a Rockstar, by Shop Boys. Aside from the annoyingly repetitive chorus, I really can’t understand 90% of anything these fucks are saying. Possibly the most repetitive thing I’ve heard since that Laffy Taffy crap from last summer. Totally, dude.

7.Potential Breakup Song, by Aly & AJ. More catchy than a case of crabs off a truck-stop toilet seat, this song has decently produced music mixed with some of the most bubblegum-simple lyrics since Avril Lavigne’s “Skater Boi”. They have nice voices, but something tells me their Hello Kitty shit wears thin by song 4 on a full cd.

8.When You’re Gone, by Avril Lavigne. Speaking of Avril, here she is with another ballad that sounds just like her other ballads. Oddly enough, her fast songs all sound about the same too. Instead of the faux cheerleader bop of “Girlfriend”, now it’s a somber and sad ballad from the all grown-up and newly-married Avril. Nice song, but ditch the raccoon eye makeup. It’s hard to take you seriously with that much eyeliner on.

9.4 In The Morning, by Gwen Stefani. I love her to death. She could use a couple pounds on her, but I still love her to death. I like her stuff more so without her No Doubt bandmates as of late. She’s got great pop sensibility and a great voice to boot. Not exactly manly-man music, but we’re all allowed an occasional guilty pleasure.

10.A Bay Bay, by Hurricane Chris. Okay, I take back what I said earlier; THIS is the most repetitive pile of goat shit I’ve heard since Laffy Taffy. By the end of the first 30 seconds I wanted to slit my elbows.

11. I Don’t Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem), by Good Charlotte. These guys keep surprising me by re-inventing themselves each time they get played out. This is a great song. A good mix of rock swagger and synth riffs that gives me hope for Top 40 music to not suck so much. Poppy punk with a safe feel.

So, an hour of my life gone, and like I figured, most of it wasn’t worth the listening. I think I’ll go and listen to some Erasure or Depeche Mode now to soothe the pain in my soul. I urge you to do the same.