Four I tell you…FOUR!

I certainly told me.

KKCK:

Taylor Swift “Fifteen”
After watching her performance on SNL, I have come to realize that Taylor Swift can do no wrong.  It pains me to say it, but I’m pretty sure she’s not going anywhere ever.  This song is…by Taylor Swift, so I am unqualified to bask in its awesomeness.  If I was, I wouldn’t be too into it.  I’m pretty sure a song called “Fifteen” isn’t aimed at a thirtysomething who owns multiple Star Trek DVDs.

Orianthi “According To You”
Her big break was supposed to be playing guitar on Michael Jackson’s comeback tour, but this song might just do the trick as well.  Once it gets well known, I could hear this song being quite popular for a long period of time, especially with females coming out of a bad relationship. 

Jay Sean w/Sean Paul & Lil’ Jon “Do You Remember”
Has there ever been a song like this?  I mean, where the artist’s last name is the first name of the special guest?  That’s crazy.

Daughtry “Life After You”
I had to go back and listen to this one to remember how it sounded.  I didn’t add it blindly (deafly?) but I do have a weak spot for Daughtry songs.  As in, I have a tough time remembering which is which.  Is there a safer rocker that Chris Daughtry?

Pick to click: future president Taylor Swift

I’m not going to lie…this was one of my weakest new song blogs of all time.  Some weeks I have ideas, other weeks I’m just looking at the songs and nothing sparks my fingers to write something that isn’t total pap.

It’s National Novel Writing Month, and a few of my chums are tackling the project head on.  I’ve been working on and off on a novel since March, and my pace has slowed down quite a bit.  I’m not kicking myself too hard about it, since I’m choosing to spend time with Kate and Braeden instead of holing up in my office and typing like a madman.  I was hoping to be done by now, but I’m not even to the midway point.  I think I’ll get there before Thanksgiving, and then I might reassess my spare time in 2010.  If I need to cut out TDS and Colbert, I’ll do it.  I don’t want to be talking about how I’m not finished with it a year from now.  Of course, the fact that I loathe the ending I have in mind might be another factor in my slowed progress.  Anyway, I wish all those banging out a book the best of luck.

While perusing online reviews of the new “V” series, I’m finding a lot of crap about the “political slant” of the show.  Could there be a bias on the part of the writers?  Anything is possible.  Is there?  After watching two episodes, I think it’s just some yokels who want to find things that arent’ there and make a name for themselves by claiming how brilliant they are in seeing the deeper meaning in a SHOW ABOUT LIZARD ALIENS WHO HAVE COME TO DEVOUR US.  Can’t I enjoy my “V” remake in peace without everything having a slant? 

This past weekend I found myself in Rochester rollin’ some dice.  I ran games of TSR’s Marvel and Decipher’s Star Trek, and played in a game of D&D 4.0.  I think I played it too safe in making a D&D character, so he was a bit dull to play.  My original idea was to make a dashing hero type character who secretly heard voices in his head and murdered people in his down time.  Rather, I made a seven-foot tall fighter who doesn’t talk much.  Since my first days of rolling dice, I’ve been moving gradually from someone who enjoys playing a game to someone who enjoys running a game.  My wife’s computer passed the Skype test with flying colors, so maybe I need to get in touch with all my old gaming chums again about doing a game every few weeks over Skype.  I think it would work, and I trust them enough to know they won’t fudge their rolls.  Besides, with our group having things go badly is half the fun.

Since I want to finish this before I go home, I’ll say it’s finished.  Have a swell week y’all.

The power of 3

It’s the power to get done early.

KKCK:

Usher “Papers”
This one is more “Confessions” than “Yeah”.  Songs about the end of a relationship take many forms, but few pull off the emotion and acceptance of the situation that this one does.  As someone who’s never been the biggest Usher fan, I can say this one really impressed me.

Breaking Benjamin “I Will Not Bow”
Sometimes, a band just doesn’t click with me.  Breaking Benjamin is one of those bands.  They certainly click with a lot of our audience, as their stuff always gets a lot of calls on KARZ or on the occasions we’ve played them on KKCK (“So Cold” for example).  I wasn’t sold on this one crossing over, but I spotted a few other stations that were giving it a shot, so I thought I’d throw the listeners who yearn for a bit more rock a bone.

Uncle Kracker “Smile”
Kid Rock’s old pal has been puttering around the lower reaches of the charts with this one, but lately we’ve had an influx of calls for it.  Uncle Kracker’s songs have always done well for us before, so why not give this one a shot.

Pick to click: Usher

Boy, I sound very “ah why not” with the adds this week.  New single releases are slowing down a bit, and there isn’t much in the top half of the chart that we aren’t already playing.  The next few weeks will be a good time to make any suggestions you might have.

The life and times of Russ are pretty average of late.  Kate is well, Russ 2.0 is well, and the cats are behaving as well as they always do.  I DVR’d the new “V” tonight, but I probably won’t have time to watch it until Wednesday night.

I haven’t felt like sharing as much of my personal life on this blog of late.  Recently, somebody was copying and pasting a few of my tweets (twitter.com/russ4life if you’re wondering) on a radio message board, and at times posing as me.  Another time somebody posed as me, and ran through all the places I’ve worked and exactly how long I’ve worked there.  It was a bit jarring.  I’ve never made this blog private, but sometimes I wonder if that’s the right choice.  The odd thing is that the old me would have never written a public blog.  In college, I clung to any air of mystery about me.  I went from that to where I’m at now, with social networking info up with virtually no filters on who can view my content.

Enough about the paranoia that runs on my mom’s side.  How about some actual music content?  Here are a few quick takes on some CD’s I’ve recently heard/enjoyed.

Tegan and Sara’s Sainthood was very enjoyable, almost to So Jealous levels.  It sounds better as a collection of songs rather than individual tracks, which doesn’t work for how most people listen to music nowadays.

Rammstein’s Liebe Ist Für Alle Da reminds me a lot of their breakthrough release Sehnsucht.  That’s a good thing in my book, but I don’t want to make it sound like I haven’t enjoyed all of their other albums.  Sehnsucht just has that certain something, and this album comes close to recapturing whatever that was.

Electric Six’s Kill is more of what Electric Six fans love.  There aren’t any tracks that specifically grab me, and I don’t think it’s as strong as Flashy.

Bowling for Soup let me down a bit with Sorry for Partyin’.  It was better on a second listen, but it still comes across as their weakest effort to date.  The silver lining is the track “This Song Sounds Like a Dance Song”, which is frakkin’ brilliant.

Dewey recommended Fake Problems and Late of the Pier.  Fake Problems sounded pretty average in my head, but Late of the Pier sounded quite keen.  I might have to dig deeper.

Sonic Boom by Kiss sounds like a really good 1980s Kiss album.  I think I’ll leave it at that.

Regina Spektor’s Far didn’t stand out for me, but on the flip side I finally heard her 11:11 album, and that might be my new favorite Regina album.

I’m sure Muse fans love The Resistance, but I’m indifferent about it.  I still have it on my iPod, which is more than I can say for other Muse albums I’ve heard.

Then there’s Vancouver by Matthew Good.  This is currently near the top in my album of the year rankings.  Yes, it’s that good.

I think I’ll stop there so I can still get this posted on a Tuesday.  Have a good Wednesday.

Three questions on three songs

I don’t normally fish for comments, but please feel free to answer the questions in the comments below.  Extra credit for unique answers.

KKCK:

Rihanna “Russian Roulette”
1.  The guitar at the start of the song is
(a) cool (b) a bad fit (c) too long (d) “play some Skynyrd man!
2. Opening a new album with this as the first single is
(a) brilliant (b) ballsy (c) not the best idea (d) curious
3. This particular song is the best song called “Russian Roulette” since
(a) like, EVER! (b)  pre=”">Southgang’s “Russian Roulette” (c) that GSN game show ‘Russian Roulette’ (d) other [please specify]

Timbaland with Nelly Furtado “Morning After Dark”
1. Timbaland should totally have a producer-off with
(a) Robert John “Mutt” Lange (b) Rick Rubin (c) Butch Vig (d) other [please specify]
2. Nelly Futado also dropped a new CD recently.  How is it?
(a) great! (b) meh (c) average (d) I don’t know Spanish, so I don’t know
3. Timbaland’s last CD produced a few #1 hits.  Does this one have what it takes to pull that off?
(a) Yes! (b) No! (c) Maybe? (d) needs a remix version

Boys Like Girls with Taylor Swift “Two is Better than One”
1. BLG’s last ballad, “Thunder”, didn’t do so hot.  Is this song better?
(a) hells yes! (b) yes? (c) not quite (d) uh, “Thunder” was the shiznit  yo
2. The band campaigned to have Taylor Swift appear on the CD.  Is this because
(a) they’re huge fans of her music (b) she’s kinda hot (c) adding her to their album means a for-sure hit single (d) no really, it’s c
3. If BLG had gotten Kanye instead, this song would have been
(a) a lot different (b) confusing? (c) best song OF ALL TIME (d) perfect for a PG remake of Judgement Night.

Pick to click: Rihanna

BTW, my answers are c, c, b, a, d, c, c, c, d.  There’s extra credit if anyone remembers the Judgement Night soundtrack without looking it up.

The new music blog is a day late due to a trip to Sioux Falls to see a neurologist.  I don’t remember her name, but she was quite possibly one of the best doctors I’ve ever seen my wife see.  She was able to get Kate back on a good migraine medication, and hopefully that combined with a highly recommended herbal supplement will mean the end of the headaches in Kate’s life.  Granted, I’m still married to her, so she still has that to deal with. 

I was going to write some more, but I might save that for another day.  Have a great Halloween everyone!

 

Four songs that don’t need my help

Seriously.

KKCK:

Jay-Z & Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind”
One of the best rappers in the game AND Alicia Keys?  The only thing that might slow this down is that “Run This Town” is still going up.

Kris Allen “Live Like We’re Dying”
As the reigning American Idol, airplay is pretty much a given (although it wasn’t on KKCK for Taylor or Fantasia).

Shakira w/Lil’ Wayne “Give It Up to Me”
Seriously, these two would do well on their own, but for them to team up AND let Timbaland produce it?  That doesn’t even seem fair.

Lady Gaga “Bad Romance”
Everything she drops turns to platinum.  Game over.

Pick to click: Lady Gaga

After one listen, I’m let down by the new Bowling for Soup album.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s the first one of their albums that didn’t grab me out of the gate.  I’ve been listening to Steve Martin’s bluegrass album on and off while doing dishes.  I’m no big bluegrass fan, but I can appreciate Mr. Martin’s mad banjo skills.  In the next week I’m hoping to hear the new albums from Electric Six, Weezer, and Tegan and Sara.  Something tells me Tegan and Sara will be the belle of that ball. 

Meanwhile on the non-music part of my life, things are going pretty smoothly.  Braeden is now in his “throw everything at everything” phase, so there’s that.  It’s hard to remember those parts of the day, as my mind chooses to think about the times I get him from his crib when he wakes up, because it’s so obvious how  happy he is to see me.  I hope I can still remember that when I’m waking up a surly teen to get his butt to school.  Kate has been outstanding as always, but I’m starting to think she did some kind of spell or something to me in regards to headaches.  I’ve been getting them more than her in the past few weeks, which hasn’t given me cause for concern yet. 

It isn’t much, but it’s a bit more than last week, right?

Four songs at four words each

Why?  It’s late and I’m pretty spent for the day.

KKCK:

Ke$ha “TiK ToK”
Tarty.  Poppy.  Spunky.  Auto-tuned.

We the Kings “Heaven Can Wait”
Ballad. Sweeping.  Guitary.  Okay.

Jordin Sparks “S.O.S. (Let the Music Play)”
Dancy.  Uptempo.  Fun.  Shannon?

Quietdrive “Jessica”
Rocky.  Not-poppy.  Upcoming.  Show.

Pick to click: Ke$ha

I’m sorry the music part of the blog is a bit shorter than usual.  Between a busy day at work, talking to my mom on the phone, spending QT with the wifey and Mythbusters doing an hour about duct tape, my blogging time is a bit limited.

I did want to get this one in just before midnight, as this is my last blog at my current age.  Thursday I flip over another year on the personal odometer.  A friend of mine was going off about how the best years of our lives are behind us.  I told him the best was yet to come.

He said I was on crack.

We’ll see.

4 again? Would it kill me to go with 3 or 5?

It might.

KKCK:

Britney Spears “3″
If this song was about most anything else, it probably would hit the top ten, then quickly drop and be forgotten.  However, the risky nature of the lyrics might be good enough to get this song to top five territory.  I was a bit excited to hear she was working with Max Martin again, but the result isn’t quite what I had in mind.  Maybe it’ll grow on me?

Shinedown “If You Only Knew”
I’m sorry, the only song with “If”, “Only”, and “Knew” in the title that will live forever is [Embedding disabled by request].  It’s really too bad, since the Shinedown song is one of those rare songs that works as well on rock radio as pop radio.

Jesse McCartney w/T-Pain “Body Language”
T-Pain doesn’t get you out of being the poor woman’s Justin Timberlake.  Actually, Justin Timberlake not releasing anything lately has left a void you’ve filled pretty well.  Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ not-Paul McCartney.

Phoenix “1901″
It looks like the little French band that could is finally getting a bump, so I’ll give them a go in the light category.  The song actually doesn’t sound too bad alongside other KKCK songs, which is a great sign for French alt-rock bands on the rise.

Pick to click: Britney Spears (not a stretch, it already hit #1 on our Hot 9 last night)

I don’t have a lot on my mind today, but I know the following five things to be true:

1.  The Twins/Tigers one game playoff will go down as one of the best baseball games of the year, decade, and perhaps even the new century.

2.  I’m curious to listen to my copy of the new KISS album, but I’m downright stoked to hear Matthew Good’s Vancouver.

3.  New Mythbusters episodes are way overdue (but new ones start tonight).

4.  Kate is still the best mom I know, and Braeden has yet to stop making me smile (I put them at 4 because 4 is my favorite number)

5.  I want some nachos.

Well, in honesty, 5 is true almost every day of the year.

4 songs and several years ago…

I can’t believe I didn’t use that one sooner.

KKCK:

Leona Lewis “Happy”
Surprise!  That leaked song of hers with Justin Timberlake isn’t the first single from her new album.  It reminds me of “I Will Be” in spots, but not enough for a direct comparison.  If you’ve liked Leona’s other stuff, there’s nothing about this song that will make you like her any less.

Foo Fighters “Wheels”
I’m a bit surprised more stations aren’t jumping on this track.  This is about as radio-friendly of a song I’ve ever heard from the Foo Fighters.  I like it more every time I hear it, which is good.  If pop radio gives this song a chance, we’ll be hearing it a lot.

Nickelback “Never Gonna Be Alone”
When “Mutt” Lange produces a power ballad, he makes sure you know he produced it.  I hear bits and pieces of this song that remind me of songs like “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” by Def Leppard, “Do I Have to Say the Words” by Bryan Adams, and “Still the One” by Shania Twain.  If “Mutt” Lange was a football coach, he’d be that guy who moved from job to job with the exact same playbook that always worked, regardless of the players on the team.  By the way, if you dislike Maroon 5 you might want to look into going deaf, as Mr. Lange’s next CD is their next one.

David Guetta w/Akon “Sexy Chick”
It sounds like Akon got in a fight with a drunken Daft Punk and it was a draw, but I mean that in the best way possible.

Pick to click: Nickelback

Since last week, things have been going incredibly well.  The only real downside to life of late is a lack of sleep, but that’s due to just not being able to stay asleep.  I wish I could roll on just five or six hours of sleep like I did in college, but those days are way gone.  Also gone are my days of being able to sleep past 10 AM.  This has taught me both that there’s very little that’s watchable in the morning, and that DVR might be the best invention of my lifetime.

I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with the new Marvel “Super Hero Squad Show” on Cartoon Network.  It’s aimed at little kids, much of the humor is quite childish, and most of the time the show tries to hard to be funny.  However, the theme song is stuck in my head, sometimes the show floats a joke only adults will pick up on, and the show has a great grasp of the possibilities of humor with the characters (Hulk being stupid, Thor being vain, Cap being a senile old man, Silver Surfer being a surfer ‘dude’, etc…).  This show is not for everybody, but if you’re looking to laugh with Marvel when they’re laughing at themselves, check it out.

After hankering down on my new writing project, I’ve reached the point where the rough draft is 3/8ths done.  I know that’s an odd fraction, but that’s based on word count.  I know, I know…word count is a horrible way to track progress on a book.  I feel the need for benchmarks and a way to track my progress, and that seems like the best way.  I’ve heard that once a book is done, the real work begins.  I’m trying to keep that out of my mind, because if I don’t get it done I’ll never have to worry about the next part.  I am concerned about my ending…or lack thereof.  I have an ending in mind, but I really don’t like it.  I keep thinking that if I just keep writing, the ending will come to me.  To quote a William Shatner song, “It hasn’t happened yet”.

I’d write more, but I have a few other irons in the fire that need my attention.  September was a pretty spiffy month, so I’m hoping for more in October.  That isn’t too much to ask, is it?

Talkin’ about four songs from the home office

It’s Russ 2.0’s first birthday, so I’m home today.  I’m writing some during naps, and the rest after he’s in bed.

KKCK:

Alicia Keys “Doesn’t Mean Anything”
I’m not sure how long it’s been since Ms. Keys’ last CD, but for me it was too long.  This song reminds me a bit of “No One” but only slightly.

Iyaz “Replay”
It’s a rare occasion when I have absolutely no opinion about a song, but this song pulls that off.  It hit #40 on Monday, and it’s the only song in the top 40 we weren’t playing.  So, I thought I’d give it a go.  Sometimes the process is really that uninteresting.

Mariah Carey “I Want to Know What Love Is”
Until I heard Mariah sing this, I never thought of this old Foreigner song as one that would sound like a song Mariah Carey would sing.  Mariah uses her entire vocal range on this track, and she does her best to own it.  The only knocks are that she’s not had the best luck remaking rock songs (her Def Lep cover was pretty bad) and the original was one of VH1’s “awesomely bad love songs” or some other such nonsense.

Death Cab for Cutie “Meet Me on the Equinox”
Look, I’ll be frank here.  This is a shameless attempt to cash in on all the New Moon hype.  Sure, it gives us an excuse to play DC4C again, but the song hasn’t grown on me yet.  It does sound better with each listen, so if I wrote these after more distance from the add date my write-up would probably be different.

Pick to click: Alicia Keys

A few quick notes about a few albums.

Cobra Starship’s Hot Mess is going in one ear and out the other.  All their albums do, but for some reason I keep buying them.  Perhaps my subconscious is a big fan.

Laughin’ and Cryin’ with the Reverend Horton Heat might be the best RHH album I’ve heard since Lucky 7.  Granted, since then there have only been two.  Still, this might be the second best album I’ve ever heard from the Reverend Horton Heat.  I highly recommend it if you like punk-a-billy in the least.

Endgame by Megadeth has gotten rave reviews, and after listening I wonder if I didn’t read too many.  I was ready for an album that had gotten some comparisons to Rust in Peace, but this album just didn’t grab my attention like I thought it would.  I’m not ready to give up on it, but as of right now I think I liked their last two (United Abominations and The System Has Failed better).

Sick of Sarah’s self titled debut is very enjoyable female alt-pop-rock.  There are a few moments on the album where I’m reminded of the dearly departed Sleater-Kinney, but I wouldn’t say they sound a lot like Sleater-Kinney.  This could be my dark horse candidate for album of the year.

After reading MTV’s James Montgomery rave about how great it was, I gave The Fame by Lady Gaga a listen.  Near the end I was reminded of his glowing recommendation of Animal Collective, which I just couldn’t get into at all (one of the few albums I deleted from my iTunes library).  I still give Mr. Montgomery’s opinions some consideration because without him I wouldn’t have given Against Me a chance, and now they’re one of my favorite bands.

Also, “CNR” might be the best song/video “Weird Al” has done since “Amish Paradise”.  No foolin’.  It’s on the new Internet Leaks EP, and it is by far the highlight.

I’m off to continue the celebration of Braeden turning one.  It doesn’t seem like a year already, but calendars don’t lie.

3 songs Kanye won’t interrupt

After all, he’s in one of them.

KKCK:

Push Play “Midnight Romeo”
I’m not sure what to make of this song.  They’re on Wind-Up records, but they sound like a band I’d hear on a station like ours, or something more AC like Q102 in Willmar.  I’ve never thought of Wind-Up as being a home for pop radio friendly artists, but it might just be one of those songs that is misleading about how the rest of the album sounds.  Also, they sound young.  Really young.  “Like Jo-Bro” young.

Drake w/Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne, and Eminem “Forever”
This song might have too much star-power.  There seems to be a line in the hip-hop world where just enough guests will ensure a big hit, but too many guests dooms the song to a quick rise and a quicker fall.  Worse, the line seems to vary by year and artist.  Drake is still new to the game, but one wonders how a song with Kanye, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem in it can fail.  If star power was all that mattered, the first Travelling Wilburys album should have been the biggest selling album of all time.

Sick of Sarah “Bittersweet”
After a month of spins on the Shag, I thought these Minneapolis gals would sound just fine against the rest of the music.  I don’t know if the music biz is in the right spot for a tight sounding female alt-rock band, but one can hope.  A good sign for hope is that on the Shag I gave away nine of their CDs, and each winner was from a different town.

Pick to click:  Drake and the other guys

I hate to blog and run, but business is pickin’ up.  Have a good rest of the week.

3 is it?

Yeah, we took it easy on Labor Day.

KKCK:

Pink “Funhouse”
If I’m not mistaken, this might be the most fun  yet lyrically dark song of 2009.  It gets my vote.

Ester Dean “Drop It Low”
This one will test your bass.  After that, it makes a nice ringtone.  A year later, we’ll see if anyone remembers it.

Muse “Uprising”
I have a few friends who love Muse, but I’ve never really been able to get into them.  I like this song a lot more than other Muse songs I’ve heard, and since we have a small history of playing hot Muse songs, I thought what the heck.  Some of the synth parts sounded very 80s, which I liked (and some Muse fans probably find it insulting I thought that).

Pink to click: Pink

One of my favorite MySpace bloggers is thinking about deleting her account.  I double post everything at MySpace and WordPress, but I’m not planning on deleting either.  If you’re somebody who reads this, who used to post on MySpace, drop me a comment or a note to where you’re posting now, if that’s something you’d like to share.  One of my favorite pastimes back in the mid 2000s was checking all the new MySpace blogs that I had to read each day, and now I’m lucky if there’s one or two from non-bands to read.  I have a folder of bookmarks for blogs, and I’m always looking for a few more to read.

Today hasn’t been the best day, so I’m not feeling overly communicative.  There’s always next week, so I’ll spend the next six days thinking of what to write next Wednesday.  The week after that the new music blog will go up either Tuesday or Thursday, as Wednesday is Braeden’s 1st birthday, so I’ll be away from the computer almost all day.