Five songs, then a lot of blah-blah

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

KKCK:

Backstreet Boys “Straight Through My Heart”
So, Backstreet’s back…again.  The last time they came back, the song that heralded their return was pure boy band mush.  This time, they come back with a song with some zing, and it’s a more welcome comeback.  It’s also a more daring choice, and I’ll give them credit for that.

Lady Gaga “Paparazzi”
In just about a year, Lady Gaga went from being a curiosity to being able to drop a single on us that will do really well no matter what I say.  Rather than just type gibberish, I’d like to thank Lady Gaga for all the material she’s given KKCK music news.  Be it crazy fashion, crazy quotes, or straight up crazy, Lady Gaga has been a gold mine.  I hope she never goes away, or at least doesn’t while I’m doing music news.

Owl City “Fireflies”
This one is starting to make a run at CHR, while also surging on the alternative chart.  I can understand the Top-40 aspirations of the song, but I’m not sure why it’s rising so fast on the alt-chart.  The first time I heard this song it immediately registered as a pop rock song.  It doesn’t sound like anything else we’re playing, which is always a plus in my world.

3OH!3 “Starstrukk”
I really don’t want to like this song.  I don’t care for the lyrics, and even the edited version makes me nervous.  Something about the herky-jerky beat is irresistible to my ears, no matter how I try to remember why I don’t want to like the song.  3OH!3 is coming off a #1 single, so the follow up is almost always a sure thing on the charts, with few exceptions.

Bowling for Soup “My Wena”
In all my years of radio broadcasting, no song has prompted an angrier caller than this one, and that includes “The Bad Touch” and “Birthday Sex”.  The song is as catchy as any other B4S hit, but the band does go a bit far with the lyrics.  I didn’t think this one would cause too many problems, but I might have misjudged the market.  At least now I can say ” ‘my wena’ got me in trouble at work, but I didn’t get fired.”

Pick to click: Lady Gaga

About a year and a half ago, I started using WordPress as a blogging site, while continuing my weekly (kinda) work blog at MySpace (and later mirrored at WP).  Eventually my WP account had swelled to seven blogs, all dealing with different things.  While I wish I had enough time in the day to update them all regularly, there just isn’t a good way to do that.  I don’t want to spend my son’s childhood at work eight hours a day, and at a computer when I’m home and he’s awake.  Nor do I wish to spend every waking second typing and miss out on spending time with my wife, who has been nothing but supportive of my writing endeavors.  About the time I started writing, I started working on a book that fit my mental state at the time.  However, the actual writing process brought me to a place where I couldn’t work on the book I had started.  I bought a small notebook that I could jot other book ideas in, and soon I had filled over fifty pages with ideas for stories, books, and other things I wanted to write about.  One of those ideas was another novel concept, and I started working on that a few months ago.  With my writing time already spread out among other blogs, the work on this new project has been slow.  The other day an old friend posted a link to a humorous article by a book editor, which detailed the best ways to not get your manuscript looked at.  There was a link to another of her works, which was a test on being cut out to be a writer.  I took the mini quiz, and I scored in the range that said I was close, but it was time to get serious. 

If you’re reading this on MySpace, there’s no cause for alarm.  I’ve been doing these weekly new music blogs since 2004, and they won’t stop.  My blogging at russ4life will now be more sporadic, and 52 Cards is going on hiatus.  Cliffhanger Theater 2 may be postponed, and the 13 Shots blog will be largely unaffected, since I rarely post there anyway.  I may delete fanwitch entirely, but I haven’t decided yet.  I get a few views there, but the bulk of my views are still at my MySpace blog.  The time has come to focus the majority of my energy on finishing the big project, and then submitting it.  The odds of anything happening with it are astronomically low, but I at least want to make an effort. 

It’s been a while since I made the sentiment, but I want to thank all the regular readers for being regulars.  It means a lot.

How to go on when the thrill is gone

How to go on…

KKCK:

Miley Cyrus “The Climb”
Well…this is the only new song this week.  By default, it is both the best and words, hottest and coldest, and dopest and illest.  The song is one of those soaring ballads, that starts quiet and sparse but gets loud and full by the end.  Miley’s voice is pushed to the limit (maybe too far) on this one, and that’s how it should be because the song is the lead single from the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack.  So…yeah.  Let’s just wrap this part of the blog up.

Pick to Click: Miley Cyrus

By the way, comments are always welcome.  However, this week I’m going to ask for them on a few topics:

1.  Is it just me, or is MySpace slowly dying on the vine?  I’m still getting a lot of random blog views, but comments are few and far between.  When I have the notice that I have “new blog posts” to read, almost all of them are singers, bands, or some other blog written by a famous person or whomever writes their blogs for them.  I double post the blog now to one of my wordpress blogs, but it doesn’t get the views that my MySpace blog does.  That’s why the MySpace blog is still my main blog, at least in my mind.  I’ve stopped listing it as my “web site” on places like Twitter, and I gave my russ4life blog as a destination in our Christmas letter (er, I mean Weevil did).  I had Facebook set to import my blogs for a while, but it stopped doing it after a while.  That was fine with me, as it usually just cropped it off and made people click on the link to get back to the original post.  I’ve started posting the new music blog at my Last.fm profile, but I only have one friend there.  I’m not sure of the general rule of thumb for adding/meeting people on that site is.  I should have joined it years ago, because I love some of the features it has.  Speaking of features, would it kill MySpace to add some new features to the blog section?  Should I slowly begin the transition to another home, or just keep pluggin’ away here?

2. Between MySpace, Last.fm, and wordpress I have eight places where I blog.  I thought separatingthem by various topic was a good idea, but I’ve been wondering if condensing them into one or two is a good idea.  I’d probably want to keep fiction and non-fiction writing apart.  Any opinions out there?

3. Animal Collective and TV on the Radio: I’m still wondering what I’m missing here.  I keep hearing how great those two bands are, but every time I try to listen I just don’t enjoy or appreciate it.  Anyone?  Anybody?

Now, back to the part of the blog where I don’t fish for comments (but hey, go nuts if you want…I’m in a comment readin’ mood).

BSG didn’t kill my favorite character…yet.  I get the feeling that at least some of the main characters are going to bite it before the end of the show next month.  I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by speculating that the Galactica herself might not make it to the end.  There was a scene in last week’s ep in the engine room, and a character  noticed what looked like either damage or metal stress fatigue.  Either way, the show has done a mostly good job of showing the Galactica getting more and more beat to hell.  Don’t forget, in the miniseries the Galactica was the oldest ship and was on her way to be decommissioned.  Aside from my favorite character (who I don’t mention anymore to avoid being spoilery) my second favorite would probably be the Galactica herself. 

Then, there’s Knight Rider.  Two episodes to go for the first season.  No word on the second, but I’d be totally shocked.  Granted, stranger renewals (Sledge Hammer comes to mind, since they ended season one with a nuclear explosion because they were so confident there wouldn’t be a second season) have happened.

There was more I wanted to type today, but the muse escaped.  I’ll have to build a better cage next week.

What? He posted on time and for more than 100 words?

On time but still a dollar short.  How did that happen?

KKCK:

White Tie Affair “Candle (sick and tired)”
What, we’re a formal establishment now?  Well then, let me say that the melodious sounds of the White Tie Affair are not of the most exquisite upbringing, but this ragamuffin band of youngsters blend their synthesized beats with a contemporary pop-rock sound that is delightful as music at your more rambunctious tea parties.  Smashing.

Christina Milian “Us Against the World”
When Ms. Milian dropped “AM to PM” I thought she’d be sticking around and having a solid, Pink-esque career.  Instead, she had the minor hit “Dip It Low” (with the slightly odd video of her pouring oil or something on herself) and she went on to star in such…video games as Need for Speed: Undercover.  This song isn’t bad, but it doesn’t stand out from songs of a similar genre. 

The Offspring “Kristy, Are You Doing OK?”
When did the Offspring become a comma band?  They follow up “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid” with this number.  Consider that both have commas and both commas are near words starting with “K”.  Plus, “are” and “far” share two common letters.  The new song has one less letter, but one more contraction that, when removed and replaced with “you are”, brings the total of both songs to nineteen.  Plus, they both employ “are” and “you” but reversed.  The only logical theory I can offer is that Kristy is the kid who went far, and is now having trouble with fame.  True, listening to the lyrics might also solve this riddle, but how can you ignore those patterns?  It’s math people.  Oh, and the song is the closest I can recall the Offspring getting on the charts with something ballad-like

BONUS last week bits

Saving Abel “18 Days”
“Rarr!  Rawk band rock out!  Rawk band sing bout sex.  Rawk band need more airplay.  Me know!  Ballad aimed at top 40!  We play, fans make audience fire.  We get rawk groupies.  RAAWWWWK!”
I can only theorize this is the thought process behind this song.  Granted, maybe they aren’t as Neanderthal-rock as Hinder (because, you know, books are lame and for losers) but they sound enough like them for me to chuck ‘em in that bin.  If you’re into it, enjoy it.  I’m not, so let’s move on.

All-American Rejects “Gives You Hell”
Ever since “Swing Swing” I’ve been expecting this band to release a single I didn’t like.  The thing is, they don’t.  This song has a great chorus to sing along to when you’re in the mood to sing a song with a certain someone in mind who you aren’t wishing good tidings towards. 

Alter Bridge “Watch Over You”
If ever this band did a song that Creed could do, this one is it.  However, hearing Myles Kennedy sing it instead of Scott Stapp makes me not hate it.  So…I don’t know what else to say.  Awkward.

Pick to click last week: All American Rejects
Pick to click this week: White Tie Affair

I’m currently trying to pick my top 20 albums of 2008.  Much like 2007, there were a lot of good songs, and a lack of good, cohesive, solid front-to-back albums.  There’s always the chance I missed the best album of the year, but I’ll try to stand by my choice in the coming years.  For the readers at wordpress, here’s a look back at my choices over the years:

1992 AC/DC Live
1993 Anthrax [sound of white noise]
1994 Dangerous Toys Pissed
1995 Warrant Ultraphobic
1996 Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow
1997 Megadeth Cryptic Writings
1998 Rob Zombie Hellbilly Deluxe
1999 Marvelous 3 Hey! Album
2000 Sarah Harmer You Were Here
2001 Josie and the Pussycats Josie and the Pussycats: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
2002 Reverend Horton Heat Lucky 7
2003 Evanescence Fallen
2004 The Wildhearts The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed
2005 Fiona Apple Extraordinary Machine
2006 MC Lars The Graduate
2007 Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight

Read into that list what you will. 

Inspiration has been striking me a lot more lately, which sucks because I bruise easily.  I mean blog easily.  I mean I’ve started a new project, sort of.  The picture that inspired this new undertaking can be found at 52cards.wordpress.com.  Like Cliffhanger Theater, this one will be a year long project, but with weekly updates instead of daily ones.  I’m working on the first post, which should be up sometime tomorrow.  My top album of 2008 should be up here a bit later. 

If you don’t stop by later, have a great New Year’s Eve, and a great 2009.  If you do, just scroll down and read this line again.

Godzilla vs. Snot-zilla (oh, and songs too)

Sorry for the title.  With the cold I have I feel like a snot-zilla.  It does beg the question: is “Godzilla” the second best Blue Oyster Cult hit, or does that title go to “Burnin’ for  You”?

Think about it.  Then, think about these.

KKCK:

The Fray “You Found Me”
Am I the only one who finds it funny that ABC is using this song to promote “Lost”?  If you dug the Fray’s piano rock the last time around, this song won’t do much to change your mind.  This song actually sounds like a second album song, as the band’s sound is more…well, just more.  Everything seems bigger this time around, and that’s not uncommon for a young band.  This is probably the most time and money they’ve spent on an album, and the pressure to get it right with a fickle audience has caused many a band to press.  The Fray don’t deviate from their sound, but rather they just make it a bit bigger and more sweeping without totally ruining how they sound.  This should be a big hit, but I’ve been wrong before.

Lesley Roy “Unbeautiful”
This new Irish singer has been a project in the works for a few years, and now Jive is reaping some return.  Her wiki entry links to a Starpulse article that claims her sound is a mix of Avril Lavigne and Melissa Ethridge.  I get more of a Dar Williams with Lucinda Williams, or at least Lucinda’s smoking habit (does she smoke?  her voice tells me yes but really I don’t know).  The song gets points for tripping my spell-check as well, as “unbeautiful” hasn’t made it into the lexicon like “meh” or “truthiness”.  Upon spell-checking, those words aren’t found either.  Get with it wordpress.

Pink “Sober”
Here we have a star lamenting the end of her hard partying ways.  Oddly, it isn’t Britney.  What I really love about Pink is that she’s not afraid to tackle subjects and concepts her contemporaries avoid.  The song isn’t a mover like “So What” but it doesn’t tread into mushy ballad-land either.  It’s a slower pink song, and those tend to do very well.  Here’s hoping Pink sticks around a while.

Pick to click: Pink, just barely over the Fray, who are just barely over Lesley Roy.  This was a good week.

Have you seen this story at CNN about “Tivo Guilt”?  Isn’t it amazing that technology both solves old problems and somehow creates new ones?  I’m totally there as far as Tivo guilt (though technically mine is Moxi guilt).  I’m three weeks behind on “Terminator: TSCC” and Kate asked why I’m still recording it if I’m not into it anymore.  The thing is that show is my second favorite show (“30 Rock” FTW) but I tend to put it off until the weekend, and the last few weekends I’ve been so tired after the Shag I just go to bed.  If I let it slide much longer, I’ll have four episodes in the DVR.  That’s a time commitment akin to watching the first two Terminator movies.  It doesn’t help that I record two shows that are on four nights a week (Daily and Colbert) and two shows that are on five nights a week (“X-Play” and “Late Late Show w/Craig Ferguson”).  The article hits the nail on the head about TV becoming almost a chore because the box only has so much space.  If the hard drive was bigger I have a feeling the problem would only get worse, because the urge to “watch it later” would be stronger.  I have most of the weekend off, and we specifically planned for a weekend where we didn’t have any plans, so hopefully I’ll find out what John, Sarah and Cameron have been up to.

Since Thanksgiving, the only real update on my front is the cold.  Kate does not have it yet, which is really odd.  We’re totally screwing up the order in which illness is being passed around.  I just checked, and Kate is still being an all-star mom.  Braeden is another story.  He cries.  A lot.  A lot lot lot.  Sometimes he’ll be happy giggly baby and then he goes right to screaming his head off.  It has been the cause of some stress and frustration for Kate and I, because all we want to do is make it better, but it seems nothing does.  The doctor thinks it could be acid reflux, so we’re trying some baby-prevacid or something like that.  The kick in the pants is that Kate’s friends who have babies don’t have this problem (seriously…to a person they’re all raising little angels or something).  She needs to hear from some people who raised little banshees.  The real irony here is that I do know of one mother who had a baby who screamed all the time.  My mother was that mother.  For years my mom has told me she could not wait for me to have my own kids, and she laughed a bit maniacally each time she said it.  It turns out I was a lot like Braeden in the crying all the time department, but I’m at work eight hours a day.  Kate is the one who’s getting what I deserve, and that is totally not fair.  Sure, I get a few hours of “wahhhhh!” when I wake up or get home, but it really isn’t right that Kate has to deal with my bad baby karma.  Parents of banshees, help me out.  We can’t be the only ones raising an air raid siren.

I’m contemplating what to do with my blogs in January.  Russ4life isn’t changing, and my MySpace blog isn’t going away (it would be nice if they would add some new freakin’ features…the blog interface is almost the same as it was the day I signed up, and I lost count of how many wordpress updates have happened since I signed up).  Cliffhanger Theater will come to an end in February, as the story will finally be done.  I’ll either start a new one but not a daily one, and the characters will be different.  I might go back to some of the characters someday.  I’ve found myself getting so attached to some of them.  I’ve spent a little time out of each day with them, and now that the story is building to a conclusion I’m having trouble deciding who gets to make it to the ending.  I thought of doing a “Cliffhanger Theater: Director’s Cut” where I go back and actually clean things up, proofread, and fix bad dialogue.  Kate wants me to condense it into something I could try to get published.  One Month in 1984 will probably get one more entry, and then it will probably get rebooted.  I feel I’ve purged my brain of all of my thoughts on my time in New Mexico, and after wrapping it up sometime soon I’ll start the blog over with a new focus and theme, but I’ll keep the URL the same just in case I manage to get back to Farmington someday.  Verbiage Dump has settled into a nice mirror for my MySpace blog, and a place to stick other odds and ends about music.  KKCK Music News is still around until KKCK’s website comes back.  After that, I’m not sure what I’ll do with it, since everything I do there I’ll be doing at the KKCK site.  One blog I have a link to at Russ4life that is inaccessible is 13shots.  That was my original book idea, and I would still like to write it someday.  The problem is that when I started, I was dealing with a lot of sadness that I’ve carried around for a long time.  When I started working on Cliffhanger Theater, the purpose was to get practice writing in hopes of making 13shots better.  Writing on a regular basis has actually brought me out of the cloudy skies, so my head isn’t the right place to write 13shots right now (it will be a very depressing book in spots).  The time may come again someday where I’ll be in the right headspace to work on 13shots, but until then I’ll keep it hidden so I have the basic structure ready to go.  Originally I wanted to do some fanfic, but I’ve had plenty of original ideas since then.  I might use the One Month in 1984 URL for some of that, but I’m still deciding. 

Hey, two long blogs two weeks in a row.  How ’bout that?

How come concession speeches don’t have concession stands?

How about a blog with almost nothing about the election?

KKCK:

Kanye West “Love Lockdown”
When I heard that Kanye’s next CD was going to be almost all vocoder singing, and no rapping, I was really worried that it would be like another Medullaby Bjork (an album that gets away from what the artist does well).  Then, it dawned on me that while my initial reaction to that CD was bad, I’ve really grown to like it.  Then I heard this song, and my worries were gone.  That drum beat is crazy-intense-groovy-good, and the vocals work in a weird way.  Now I just have to wait for 808s and Heartbreaks, and maybe wait long enough to get a free copy, unlike the last album (I bought it Tuesday, free copy arrived Wednesday).

Brandy “Right Here (Departed)”
Where have you been Brandy?  Your TV star ballad cred got a work over with the herky-jerky “What About Us”, then you kinda vanished.  I thought your comeback would be more along the lines of “Almost Doesn’t Count” or the forgettable “The Boy is Mine (with Monica)” (hey, what happened to Monica?).  Instead, you try to woo us back with a song that has the radio appeal of your ballads but with an uptempo beat.  Well played Brandy.  I’ve never been a huge fan, but this song should be just what you need to pad your chart stats.

Anberlin “The Feel Good Drag”
This week’s songs break into three camps.  The “duhs”, the “huhs” and the “hurrs?”.  This would be the middle “hurr?” song.  Anberlin is a band I thought would crack CHR eventually, but this wasn’t the song I thought would do it.  Anberlin give this number a more timeless hard rock sound, and it’s a song that could have been a rock success pretty much every year since 1992.  The only slants that show are a slightly “emo” rock vocal and an almost metal riff that proves to be a mental sticky note, or series of notes.

Slightly Stoopid “2 AM”
Reggae inspired folky rock that tries to channel mellower Sublime with vocals that almost remind me of Akon?  Uh, okay.  The lyric content of this one could be trouble, since the word “weed” didn’t get edited, and it pops up a fair amount.  The band also didn’t provide a decent edit for time, and it clocks in at close to five minutes, with the last two minutes being music w/o lyrics.  If the song keeps moving upward, I’m sure a shorter (and maybe more edited) version will float our way.  I’ve never been into songs like this, but the curiosity calls that came in tell me some listeners are, and it was as clear as sending “smoke” signals.

Guns n’ Roses “Chinese Democracy”
The second “huh” add of the week isn’t that much of a huh, really.  Regardless of how many CHRs are playing the song, KKCK has never shied away from playing G’n'R in the past, and the release of Chinese Democracymay be a once in a lifetime album release event, in that no other album has gestated this long with people still waiting.  We can argue all day and night about whether this song sounds like G’n'R or not, but at worst the song is catchy, new, and the guitar riff at the beginning makes the song stand out on a CHR station.  Axl, we stand with you.

Pick to click: Kanye West

No more election commercials!  w00t!  Now, I can get back to reading about things like Knight Rider (still getting better) and Battlestar Galactica (the end begins in January) and 30 Rock (ratings are up but they still aren’t as good as they should be) and Transformers Animated (seriously, when are we getting new episodes).  Oh, and music, movies and other stuff that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.  Plus, now I get to share all my nerd-dom with Braeden.  Will he rebel and like NASCAR, NFL, and country music?  Or, will he embrace the sci-fi, the D&D, the toy collecting, Spooncat, They Might Be Giants, and baseball?

Ask again in a few years.

This concludes the music blog for the week.  I wanted to write about politics, but I know that tensions among some are still high after last night.  I love talking (and to some extent arguing) about politics, but if you’re sick of ‘em, here’s the deal.  I’ll write that blog later and post it separately (for the Verbiage Dump readers, it will be here and here).  So, if you are sick of reading about it or don’t want to read about it, just skip the next one. 

Disclaimer out.

400 Posts and 1,200 songs? Well, not really…

[I tend to double post my MySpace weekly music blog here, but I've only been doing that for a few months.  That blog just hit post #400, and my inner comic book geek still feels the need to do something when I hit a big, round number.  So, most of the blog won't make sense here.  I've chopped off the nostalgia content, but if you want to read it anyway just click on over.]

KKCK:

Jason Mraz “I’m Yours”
Signed, sealed, delivered, he’s…not doing that song.  Every single time I see the title, I think he’s covering that song.  Couldn’t you hear Jason doing that song, and totally nailing it?  I think his voice would fit it very well.  That being said, this song isn’t too bad, and it’s nice to have Mr. Mraz back on the air.  He’s a tireless worker, and to see someone with his persistence chart CHR again is a welcome sight.  That, and I never need to hear “The Remedy (I won’t worry)” ever again. 

The Ting Tings “Shut Up and Let Me Go”
We jumped on the Ting Ting craze a bit early, and with a different song.  I’ve heard a lot of hype about this band, but don’t expect another single.  I’ve listened to the album a few times, and I’m not hearing another song that will do as well as this one.  This song is plenty catchy, and it both makes me want to crank it to rock out and crank it to dance around very badly.  Not many songs can do that to my old bones lately.

Colbie Caillat “The Little Things”
It’s the little things that kill?  Colbie isn’t covering the Bush song, and I think that’s a good thing.  I’m not sure she’s the right person to do that nugget from Sixteen Stone.  It’s also not the new Danny Elfman song, that should be a much bigger hit than it currently is.  That song has a great riff and a killer hook, but since he’s the Oingo Boingo guy who scores movies, nobody is giving it a chance.  Getting back to Bush, there are a lot of Bush songs that still get a spin or two, but “Little Things” isn’t one of them.  It suffers from “second single syndrome” since it came between “Everything Zen” and “Comedown”.  Anyway, this is Colbie’s third single, which makes “Realize” her “Little Things” but not her “Little Things”.  Right?

Lenka “The Show”
Lenka is new to these parts, and her song is so new I had not even heard it until the call came in that it was going in.  She has one of those sounds that kindareminds you of someone else at first, but the more you listen to it the less you can think of who she sounds like.  The song has some 70s sweep to it, along with some horns and what sounds like generous use of the triangle, compared to other songs.  I wish her luck with her first foray into the American CHR world.

Pick to *CLICK*: Ting Tings

The rest is all MySpace blog stuff. Read it here, or just check back next week for a new song list and whatever else comes to mind.

Six songs? What is this, an EP?

This just in…it is not an EP.

KKCK:

Flo Rida w/will.i.am “In the Ayer”
Finally, a song about Sir Alfred “A.J.” Ayer, noted British philosopher.    I wasn’t sure Flo Rida was the right choice to tackle a subject like this, but like me he must be a fan of the book Language, Truth and Logic and Mr. Rida must share my (and others) beliefs in the verification principle of logical positivism.  Bringing in will.i.am to take the side of Carl Hempel and his viewswas a stroke of genius.  In the end, the song has nothing to do with the stuff I found by searching wikipedia and google but hey, it has a catchy beat.  I can logically verify I have no dancing skills when it comes on.

We the Kings! “Check Yes Juliet”
This is one of those songs that took forever to get to the CHR chart, but hopefully it was worth the wait.  It might be a bit to rock to make a dent like “Hey There Delilah” but I think the chorus has the punch to get it into the top ten.  Target has the album on sale for under ten bucks, and after listening to it, I can tell you it’s worth that sale price.

One Block Radius “You Got Me”
I had no idea of the story behind this group, but my preliminary research has me feeling good.  They’re an alt-hip hop group from SoCal, and their recipe takes pop music, hip hop production, and lyrics about life, love and other things that aren’t what most radio hip-hop goes in to.  In a way, they sound like the R&B breakdown of a rap song without the rap song.  I’ve heard of worse ideas.  The song sounds like it has what it takes to be a smash everywhere.

M.I.A. “Paper Planes”
The radio edit of the song mutes the gunshot sound effects to the point I almost don’t enjoy the song as much.  Note the fact I said “almost”.  It still has the catchy parts that don’t have the sound effects, and it has more radio appeal than most M.I.A. songs (and we played “Bucky Dun Gun” back in the day).  The add is bittersweet, as she announced she’s retiring from music.  The only hope is that retirements from music are rarely permanent, like with Ozzy, Tina Turner, etc…

Pink “So What”
All attitude, all catchy, all the freakin’ time.  I didn’t think Pink would have the staying power that she does, but I’m totally fine with her continuing to make music, as every album has a fun song.  She also gets major points for not taking herself seriously, and for not going too far outside her boundaries.  I’d like to hear her away from major label meddling.  That would be very, very interesting.  This song does it for me, and the video only adds to her resume.

Anna Maria “Join the Party”
Remember Sarai?  Anna Maria is no Sarai, but she’s trying really hard.  We’ll give her a chance to grow into the role.

Pick to click: Pink/M.I.A. tie (hey, with six songs, I think I can have a tie)

Hey, I have severe weather moving in.  Looks like I’ll have to wrap it up early.  Stay classy blogville.

3 isn’t inspiring any subject material

So let’s get to it.

KKCK:

Estelle w/Kanye West “American Boy”
Once in a while a song comes along.  This song stands out from others by the unique ability to make me want to do things, unspeakable things.  I believe the proper term is “dancing” but nothing I do resembles such an activity.  Yet, the beat and music behind Estelle’s unique voice cause my so-called “booty” to “move”.  It is a phenomenon that is hard to control, and for the most part I’ve experienced without witnesses, not counting cats.  This might explain the cat vomit clean ups so far this week.

Saving Abel “Addicted”
We’re playing the “amended lyrics” version, so it went from borderline PG-13/R to mostly PG.  It’s like seeing a movie on TV when you’re a kid, and you know there are swears and scenes cut out.  Then, you get older and rent the film on VHS or DVD, and realize you weren’t missing much, and the movie wasn’t that good anyway.  If this song was an action film aimed at a male demographic, it would be a Spike original film written by one of the better writers of SciFi original movies, and would star somebody you swore you remembered from some show that was cancelled pretty quickly.  SciFi keeps making stuff like “Mansqito”, so if you’re in that percentile, enjoy the song.  I’ll pass if that’s cool with you.

Lifehouse “Broken”
Sometimes, a song title will remind me of another song.  Gavin DeGraw’s “In Love with a Girl” always makes me think of “Fell in Love With a Girl” by the White Stripes.  I dig the White Stripes, but I’m pretty noncommittal about Gavin DeGraw.  I thought that was as bad as it would get.  That is, until “Broken” by Lifehouse.  Everytime I see it, “I’m Broken” by Pantera rockets into my head.  “Broken” isn’t quite the anti-”I’m Broken” but it might be in the same general area.  The Lifehouse song is one that the ladies usually call for, or the guys call it in for them.  At least that’s what I tell myself when deep voiced dudes call for Miley Cyrus.  *shudder*

Pick to click: Estelle w/Kanye West

My shoulder feels like Mr. Spock gave me the Vulcan neck pinch for a good six hours.  Once in a while I sleep on my arm/shoulder/neck funny, and this is the result I live with for a good week or so.  What always gets me is that I never sleep that differently, so I have no idea why it happens when it happens. 

Thank goodness Mythbusters has new episodes starting next week.  It might wash the taste of “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” out of my head.  That show had a neat idea, and parts of the show are quite good.  I’m not sure if this is a problem with other reality shows (since I rarely watch any) but it is now to the point where none of the contestants left are really even likeable.  I think there’s one left named Bilenda or something like that, and she inspires “meh” while the rest are just annoying and spiteful.  The two hour finale is next week, and I’m very okay with that.  Thank goodness for DVR, as we now just fast forward all the interviews and just watch the Japanese game show elements.

Speaking of game shows, the new GSN series “Catch 21″ isn’t too bad.  The host is Alfonso Ribeiro, who you may remember as Carlton from “Fresh Prince of Bell Air”.  I never would have thought of him as a game show host, but he does a really good job.  It isn’t quite a show worth DVRing, but if it’s on and nothing else is, you could do worse.  If you don’t like product placement, be warned. 

I’ve read a lot of negativity towards the new X-Files movie, and the friend I went to it with called it “the worst movie of the year, worse than Space Chimps” (which prompted the response “you saw Space Chimps?).  I enjoyed the movie, which is odd since I’ve seen all of three or four episodes of the show.  The few episodes I’ve seen I enjoyed, but I watched them midway through the run, and I was so hopelessly out of the loop I decided to just wait and watch them all on DVD someday when I’m retired.  I enjoyed David Duchovny’s dry delivery and Gillian Anderson’s conflicted storyline, along with what little bit of Mitch Pileggi’s Skinner that made it into the movie.  Fans of the show probably have more of a beef with the movie, but I enjoyed the first X-Files movie without watching the show, so as a fan of X-Files movies, I wasn’t let down. 

The ol’ homestead is almost ready for the new tenant, a.k.a. the baby.  Kate has the living room nearly baby-proofed, and if he/she (I’m holding out hope the ultrasound tech goofed up) was to arrive now, we’d have everything we need, and almost everything we want.  Everyone says that the nine months go by fast, and Kate would agree.  I actually don’t think they did.  For me at least, time seemed to go slower.  Does this mean I lose my “make fun of Kate having no patience” cred?

This Saturday the Spooncat-ish group The Radio Specialists take to Phillips avenue for the annual steak-out, and I hope to be there to enjoy some tunes, and maybe this year some steak.  I need to get in touch with the guys and ask exactly how one does that. 

Until next time…

2 in a room, and one won’t wiggle it even a little bit

As…it…grooves?

KKCK:

Leona Lewis “Better in Time”
“Leona dear, the international society of one hit wonders is calling again.”
“Just hang up.  I’m not returning their calls.”
Seriously, “Bleeding Love” may never be topped, but this Brit might be the Kelly Clarkson equivalent, and we all know a pound beats a dollar.  This song does little to mess with a formula that should serve Ms. Lewis well.

O.A.R. “Shattered (Turn the Car Around)”
The new album is out, and the new song crosses over from…whatever format was big into O.A.R. (AAA?  Alt?  Hot AC?).  We’ve toyed around with this band before, but this song should keep them in the CHR mindset for a time.  The baffling thing is that they had a song that was used heavily by ESPN for the College World Series, but this isn’t it.  Maybe everybody is sick of that one?  The NCAA and ESPN probably hope so.

Pick to click: Leona Lewis

Ugh, it’s another busy day and I don’t have as much time to scribble, but in a business sense that’s a good thing.  It doesn’t help that my temporary music news site takes a while to update, as my studio computer isn’t a big fan of wordpress.  I put some pictures from my South Dakota trip up here if you want to see ‘em.  Kate has a bunch more on her facebook profile, so if you’re her friend there check ‘em out.

I hate to say more later, since I rarely post more later.

So, more later but probably not.

Two songs not just for Sister Sarah

Don’t want no short short blog?

KKCK:

Jordin Sparks “One Step at a Time”
Why Jordin Sparks fans will like it: The song has a bit more bounce than “Tattoo”, which showcases her ability to handle a good dance song.
Why casual Jordin Sparks fans won’t like it: No Chris Brown.
Why Jack Johnson won’t like it: The sound of heels clacking clearly indicates shoes.

Mariah Carey “I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time”
Why Mariah Carey fans will like it: It’s Mariah.
Why non-fans of Mariah Carey will hate it: Well…it is Mariah Carey.
Teachers most likely to not like the song: English and/or Grammar teachers

Pick to click: it’s a tough call with both songs being third singles, and both supported by the Clock King, but I’ll pick Jordin Sparks.

If you like checking my music news links at the KKCK website (or even if you’ve never check them) I must report they are moving for a while.  The KKCK website is getting a face-lift, and won’t be able to work for a few weeks or months.  So, I’ve set up a temporary home for my music news links, KKCK playlists and Shag playlists, along with progress updates on our website (as I get them).

I don’t know my internet situation for the rest of the week, and due to the trip, I don’t have much time today, as I’ll be leaving for South Dakota in a few hours.  Check here or here for possible trip updates, and possible pictures from my personal favorite state in the union.

Have a great rest of the week!