Archive | April, 2010

Usher: Justin Bieber is a pop craze like The Beatles.

26 Apr

I have spent several minutes this morning wondering if I should even entertain this statement by Usher. In an interview, Usher stated, “You haven’t seen the best of him. He is a pop craze like The Beatles. They started out as pure pop artists and look what they became over the years.” He went on to say that Bieber is a more talented musician than he was when he was a teen performer. I appreciate the honesty Usher. I really do. But, just no. Listen.

Article: http://www.3news.co.nz/Usher-Justin-Bieber-more-talented-than-I-was/tabid/418/articleID/152845/Default.aspx

Since the boy band craze hit the United States in around 1997, there has been a teen idol dependence, much like the one that hit with performers like Frankie Avalon and Fabian in the early 1950’s to mid-1960’s. Bieber is simply another pawn in 12-year-old girls’ game. He is lucky because he is 16. Would I be surprised if Usher’s predication holds some water in 10 years. No, maybe this kid will become something of a Justin Timberlake. But, I doubt it. Timberlake is about as rare as a musician as they come. He changed with the times extraordinarily and has truly thrived in a popular niche. Bieber may grow and be like Timberlake, but, statistics show it is just not very likely. Now, on to my next point.

I understand that Usher was not implying that Bieber was at all better than the Beatles. He just said Bieber is a similar pop craze to the Beatles. Yeah, so was Ricky Martin. The Beatles had staying power. They were exceptionally talented and after their pop stage they moved on to complicated rock n’ roll that maintained an infectiousness that just latched into listeners. They were above and beyond every musician out there and they still are today. So, putting Bieber in the same sentence as John, Paul, George and Ringo, is both asinine and silly. Please Usher, stick with comparisons to Justin Timberlake. He is much more similar.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

E street band guitarist and former Soprano’s star, Ronnie Van Zandt, loves The Rascals. Who can blame him. The pop quartet banged out numerous hits in the 1960’s before dissembling. This past Saturday, for the second time time in 40 years, the Rascals reunited at the Kristen Ann Carr benefit at New York’s Tribeca Grill. The event honored Van Zandt and his wife, Maureen. The Rascals played 14 tracks, highlighted by a performance of “Good Lovin,” that included Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen cannot sit through a show without playing music with someone.

Setlist:
I’ve Been Lonely Too Long
In The Midnight Hour
I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
You Better Run
It’s A Beautiful Morning
Love Is A Beautiful Thing
Groovin’
A Girl Like You
How Can I Be Sure
Come On Up
What Is The Reason
People Got To Be Free
Good Lovin’ (with Bruce Springsteen)

Wow. That sounds like an amazing concert. The Rascals, led by Felix Cavaliere, had enough of a falling out that guitarist Gene Cornish stated, “I speak on behalf of the band when I say all the money offers in the world could not entice the Rascals to reunite,” he said, “but four phone calls from Stevie and without hesitation we enthusiastically and immediately agreed to both support this wonderful cause and honor Stevie and Maureen.”

Article: http://consequenceofsound.net/2010/04/26/the-rascals-reunite-for-charity/

Hear the Concert: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NLHPOWZ4

An Emotional Apocalypse of Sound

25 Apr

Picture yourself driving down a dark road without another car or street lamp in sight. Don’t worry this is not the cliché plot of a horror flick. You are driving, headlights a faded bright yellow illuminating a small stretch of plain road in front of you. Your radio is on and the beginning, haunting arpeggio of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain” starts playing. It repeats without fail as your structured reminder of reality, because, just as you are starting to get lulled into a false sense of security by its comfortable sound, Eddie Hazel begins making his guitar cry. A sharp screech knocks you out of your hypnagogic state and tosses you straight into a dream. A dream of insane sound. A wacky, at times chimerical, dream that involves such a smorgasbord of sound that your car begins to slowly veer off of its straight path, but the soft background keeps you temporarily on line. Hazel’s guitar played through a Fuzzbox and Wah pedal hits you on so many levels that the guitar solo becomes an odd amalgamation of sound; a declarative answer to an unanswerable question. It bemuses you but intrigues you. And, as the guitar fades and the arpeggio dies in sound, you find yourself on the side of the road with your car mangled in a tree, with absolutely no clue how you ended up there.

Yeah, that is what “Maggot Brain” can do to you. I stand by my opinion that “Comfortably Numb” is the greatest guitar solo of all time, but, it is simply a crime that “Maggot Brain” does not get more credit. Hazel’s playing, that legend has it was inspired by funk legend George Clinton telling Hazel to imagine he had been told his mother was dead but it wasn’t true, is a pure masterpiece. It is at times chaotic but always seems to come back together to form this wonderful piece that truly is, as one reviewer called it, “An emotional apocalypse of sound.” It is an amazing song and if you have not listened to it before, please check it out below. It would be a shame if this song continued to go unheard. Sit through the entire song and listen to Hazel’s playing penetrate you. It is certainly worth the adventure. Just don’t listen to it in the car at night.

“Maggot Brain”:

Musician Amalgamation

22 Apr

What do you get when you combine The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Mumford and Sons’ banjo player Winston Marshall, Noah and the Whale’s fiddle player Tom Hobden, Keane’s keyboardist/songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley and bassist Jesse Quin? My best guess would be an odd ode to Indie country music with an electronic twist and a maraschino cherry on top. Seriously, I have absolutely no clue what to expect from this interesting combination of musicians that have collaborated to record an album under the name Mt. Desolation.

Their album will be released sometime this year, but, information outside what has been provided by their official blogspot account has been kept mum. What we do know is that the group will perform at the Luminaire in London on June 4. I am psyched to hear how this combination will sound. I am a fan of each of these individual musicians and their larger projects, and a conglomeration of their talents has potential to be extraordinary and fresh.

Link: http://www.nme.com/news/the-killers/50726 and Blog: http://mtdesolationofficial.blogspot.com/

Deb Tallen and Steve Tallen do not only have similar last names, but, after a chance encounter, they have married and become a fantastic musical group called The Weepies. They are yet another example of musicians combining to form a great band. Of course, they are established. Their fourth studio album is rumored for a May 25 release and my friends and I are excited. Their melodic brand of folk-rock is soothing and just a pleasure to listen to.

Link: http://all-aroundsound.blogspot.com/2010/03/weepies-announce-release-of-new-album.html

Top 25 Guitarists of All Time: #24: Ritchie Blackmore

21 Apr

This section has been on hiatus for a small while so I thought I would resurrect it and talk about guitars today instead of lyricists. Josh will be back on soon. He’s been busy. Whoever says college is not tough is lying. Anyway on to skilled musicians, most of whom never needed to succumb to a specific major. Practice was obviously necessary. But, no physics class.

Biography and Music

Ritchie Blackmore dropped out of school at 15. It was one of the better decisions he ever made. Blackmore took an apprenticeship as a radio mechanic at Heathrow Airport and started receiving guitar lessons by Big Jim Sullivan, one of the most in-demand studio musicians of all time. He performed in more than one thousand charting singles over his career. No big deal or anything.

Blackmore’s first guitar was given to him by his father when he was 11. It came with a threat. His father promised to smash the guitar over Blackmore’s head if he did not learn how to play it correctly. So, a few classical lessons later, Blackmore was introduced to correct finger strokes and other various classical guitar techniques. This only helped him, but was not the reason why he became a true “highway star.” Deep Purple joke. Don’t worry about it.

Blackmore became your classic English guitarist. His upbringing in Middlesex, work for Joe Meek’s (famous English producer) studio, and backing of performers like Heinz, Screaming Lord Sutch and Glenda Collins all contributed to this label. In 1968, Blackmore teamed up with organist Jon Lord and formed Deep Purple. Deep Purple would eventually go down as one of the first hard rock (heavy metal) bands of all time. They, along with bands like Blue Cheer and even Black Sabbath were the predecessors of true hard rock. Blackmore’s playing somewhat spun the process into motion.

Style and Equipment

This section will describe why Blackmore stands on this list and, no, it is not just because “Smoke on the Water.” Blackmore is a very skilled guitarist. He understands the instrument and is able to play it with awesome proficiency. His riffs are catchy and his solos combine blues scales with elegant phrasing and minor scales most similar to classical European music. This interesting combination gives the music a dark but catchy feel. This can be heard in “Highway Star.” Take a listen:

Blackmore is a Fender Stratocaster man as well. His Strat’s have a scalloped fingerboard, which means the frets are almost scooped out to form a U shape. This is usually used by Shred Guitarists. Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen are two examples of guitarists who prefer this expensive process. Blackmore also liked to experiment with various pedals and guitar synthesizers with Deep Purple and his project Rainbow.

An example of a scalloped fretboard. This one is from Yngwie Malmsteen's guitar

His immense catalog of guitar work is just fantastic and his playing never lacks much. He stands as one of the better guitarists of all time because of this skill and his tremendous influence on a changing music population.

SWOD (Song of the Day/Word of the Day) #16: Scapegrace

20 Apr

Today’s Word:

Does not look like much of a scapegrace here

Scapegrace (noun): A reckless, unprincipled person; one who is wild and reckless; a rascal; a scoundrel.

Musical Connection:

Let me start this SWOD with a little disclaimer. It will seem that there is a connection between Charlie Brown (the Peanuts character) and Charlie Brown (the musical scoundrel) in this post. There is not. It has been implied, but it is wrong. Charlie Brown may be a scapegrace in both cases but he is much more so in the song “Charlie Brown” by The Coasters, written by the songwriting duo of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The song tells the story of Charlie Brown who “calls the English teacher, Daddy-O” and who is “always writing on the walls.” He is your classic school scapegrace, responding with a simple “why is everybody always picking on me” when he is called out on his reckless misdeeds. Or, is he getting framed. Da, Da, Da. That wasn’t very effective, was it?

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