Elliott Yamin

The discs released by the 5^th season American Idol contestants have been a mixed bag thus far: Taylor Hicks’ eponymous CD was okay but not especially remarkable and (despite a favorable initial reaction on my part) Katherine McPhee’s collection didn’t hold up on repeated listenings; Chris Daughtry’s record, on the other hand, does easily bear up to repeated plays.

And then there’s the scrappy R&B crooner Elliott Yamin. Elliott Yamin sounds like a lost soul album (complete with tasty mid-tempo grooves, smartly arranged backing vocals, and a prominent role for the keyboards) from the 70’s…from the hitmaking heydays of Yamin’s idols Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway…and that’s, for the most part, a very fine thing.

Yamin is in fine, confident voice throughout this disc and the best tracks…the percolating opener “Movin’ On”, the hopeful “Find a Way” (which slyly quotes Stevie Wonder’s “Heaven Help Us All”), the shimmering self-affirmation/pledge of devotion “I’m the Man”, the dance floor ready “Alright” (complete with the kind of rhythmic handclaps that would make Quincy Jones proud)…soar and delight.

Even on the songs that are lyrically awkward…and there are a few here (some over-written, trying to cram too many lyrics in; some under-written, with goopy sentiments that could have used rewrites)…Yamin works like a champ to try to sell them; he doesn’t always succeed but the sincere effort is definitely appreciated.

The closer, the oft-covered “A Song for You”, features just Yamin’s yearning vocal and a piano and it’s an affecting and undeniably soulful finish to the record.

Elliott Yamin is not a perfect CD…but there’s enough to the good here to make it a fine R&B album that hints at even greater things to come from the irrepressible Mr. Yamin.

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More MKW blogstuff: Bread & Roses

Stax: The 50th Anniversary Celebration

Mercy, mercy, mercy…2 discs, 50 astonishing tracks, more pure funk and soul than should be allowed in one place…Stax: the 50^th Anniversary Celebration is a wondrous overview of the soul music juggernaut that was Stax Records in the 60’s and 70’s.

Back in the day Motown was largely uptown, polished, and pop-oriented, Stax was downtown, raw, funky, and pure rhythm and blues. This collection…which kicks off with Carla Thomas’ sublime “Gee Whiz”…is a fine, fine introduction to the Stax musical treasure trove.

All of the greatest stars from the Stax/Volt family are represented here: the incomparable Otis Redding (“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”, the original “Respect”, “Tramp” [a duet with Carla Thomas], and the immortal “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”), the mighty Staple Singers (“Respect Yourself”, “I’ll Take You There”, “If You’re Ready, Come Go with Me”), Isaac Hayes (the undeniably soulful remakes of “Walk on By” and Never Can Say Goodbye” and, of course, the eternally funky “Theme from Shaft”), Sam & Dave (“Soul Man”, “Hold On I’m Comin’”, “You Don’t Know Like I Know”), Johnnie Taylor (the raucous “Who’s Makin’ Love”, the silky “Cheaper to Keep Her”, “Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone”), the aforementioned Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”, “Let Me Be Good to You”, “I Like What You’re Doing to Me”), Carla’s Dad Rufus Thomas (“Walkin’ the Dog”, “Do the Funky Chicken”) and the amazing Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s (“Green Onions”, “Soul Limbo”, “Time is Tight”.)

And the golden soul flows from even the lesser-known artists like the Dramatics (the irresistible “What You See is What You Get” and the plaintive “In the Rain”), Jean Knight (a one-hit wonder with the grand “Mr. Big Stuff”), the underappreciated Soul Children (“Hearsay”, “I’ll Be the Other Woman”), Linda Lyndell (the original…and superior…version of “What a Man”, a song that was later turned into a big hit by Salt-n-Pepa and En Vogue), William Bell (“You Don’t Miss Your Water” ,“I Forgot to Be Your Lover”, which was remade years later by Billy Idol), Eddie Floyd (“Knock on Wood”), and Mel & Tim (“Starting All Over Again”, later taken back onto the charts by Hall & Oates.)

Throw in some Albert King (the fiery “Born Under a Bad Sign”) and Little Milton (“That’s What Love Will Make You Do”) and the Bar-Kays (“Son of Shaft”), among others and you’ve got yourself some glorious listening.

The 4-disc Stax Story (which came out in 2000) is, of course, more comprehensive but, as I said earlier, Stax: the 50^th Anniversary Celebration, is a grand overview for those who want to enjoy this sweet soul music at a economic price (as of this writing, Amazon.com lists the 2-disc set at only $11.99.)

Pop Culture News and Notes

The force is apparently with the Post Office as they are about to debut mailboxes (400 of them altogether) redesigned to look like feisty droid R2-D2 as part of a promotion for a new Star Wars stamp. The official announcement of the stamp is scheduled for March 28^th. (I will refrain from any jokes about mail put in these boxes ending up in a galaxy far, far away from where it was supposed to be delivered…)

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Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett is apparently signing on to join Harrison Ford in the fourth Indiana Jones movie. The film, which will be directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, is scheduled to be released on May 22, 2008.

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And this just in: Despite any Wikipedia articles to the contrary, actor/comedian Sinbad is still not dead.

Raines

I really like Jeff Goldblum…his rambling, ramshackle charm is apparent in everything he appears in…and so I really wanted to like Raines (which debuted on NBC this week in ER’s Thursday night timeslot)…but, alas, I did not.

Goldblum’s distinctive mannerisms are in full effect…if muted due to the character’s tragic past and seemingly fragile grip on his sanity…but despite his best efforts this show is a plodding, predictable police detective procedural with the added bit of business being Detective Michael Raines’ penchant for interacting with hallucinations of the victims of the murders he’s investigating (they go out of their way to make sure we understand that they are indeed hallucinations…figments of Raines’ imagination…and not ghosts.)

The conceit is too precious by half and, sadly, it’s about the only interesting part of the show. The supporting cast is filled with cop show clichés (the gruff boss with the hidden heart of gold, the beautiful tech geek, etc.) and the twist at the end of the pilot concerning Raines’ injured ex-partner (the remarkable Malik Yoba in a fine turn) was easy to peg from the first time he appeared.

I’m glad to see Goldblum get a regular gig I just wish it was something more worthy of his talents.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

American Idol

And then there were 11.

With Sanjaya being protected from on high for the time being (some are blaming young female American Idol fans besotted with young Mr. Malakar’s “cuteness” factor…some are blaming the impish snarky [and increasingly infamous] “Vote for the Worst” site which has adopted him as their candidate to push as far through the competition as possible), the fact that Brandon Rogers (above) was the first ejected from the top 12 wasn’t really a surprise (it certainly didn’t help that some of Brandon’s performances have had a tepid wedding singer quality to them and that he stumbled over the lyrics of “You Can’t Hurry Love”…)

Because of that the results show was anti-climatic…and not very entertaining (the opening group number was a big hunk of badly choreographed cheese…the contestants' Ford commercial was odd…and Diana Ross’ performance of “More Today Than Yesterday” was, in AI speak, “pitchy” and, “if I’m being honest”, more than a bit “cabaret”.)

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In other “news”, Paula Abdul swears that Simon Cowell is a “really good friend” and that during the show Cowell is like a bratty brother always doing things to try to throw her off. Between that and the “nod, nod, wink, wink, come out of the closet” on-air banter between Cowell and Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday’s show (dutifully rebroadcast at the top of Thursday’s show) I guess it must be one big lovefest there on the AI set.

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Chris Sligh, AI’s favorite (well except apparently when he’s trying to run a Diana Ross song through an ill-fitting Coldplay filter) rockin’ moptop, has a CD out already. Take a Chance on Something Beautiful is by Half Past Forever, a rockin’ band featuring Sligh as lead singer and songwriter. Samples are available on the HPF website (see here) and it’s available on Amazon.

The Riches

FX is arguably the go-to channel for edgy (lots of letters…L, S, V, M…in its onscreen parental advisory) drama on basic cable…be they good (The Shield, Rescue Me, the better episodes of Nip/Tuck) or not so good (the woeful Dirt, the other episodes of Nip/Tuck)…and The Riches, the new series that debuted on the channel this week, certainly fits in on that basis.

If you can go along with the preposterous premise…a family of "Travelers" (roaming con-artists who supposedly traverse the country running scams on “buffers” [the derogatory term they use for non-Travelers]) end up taking over the mansion…and the lives…of an affluent couple (whose surname is Rich) whose deaths they accidentally caused…there is some enjoyment to be found in this show. But that’s a big “if”.

The notion that the dead people…who were strapped into their car and sunk into a swamp…wouldn’t have people who would miss them and find it strange that another family was living in their new house (the dead couple were conveniently moving into a new mansion that they bought on the internet so neither their neighbors nor their realtor had ever met them) and using their names stretches credibility (though one presumes that will addressed as the series…which has a 13-episode first run…continues.)

Minnie Driver is ferociously engaging as the mother of the clan, newly released from prison and hooked on drugs. Eddie Izzard is more subdued, but effective nonetheless, in his role as the ambitious, crafty, slightly sadsack father (who instigates the move into the new situation by stealing money from their fellow Travelers and then taking the personal papers and wallets of the dead couple and letting them lead them to the mansion.)

The other characters…the three children (the oldest son is sullen, the daughter has mommy issues, the youngest son is, for unexplained reasons, fond of wearing female clothes), the other Travelers, the new neighbors…are all sketched out in broad strokes in the pilot (something else that one presumes will be addressed as it goes along.)

I have my doubts that this setup lends itself well to an ongoing show…the previews for upcoming episodes in the series show it trying to be a family drama, a con artist farce, a soap opera, a fish out of water tale, and a crime caper all at once and I don’t think, Driver and Izzard notwithstanding, that it can pull all of that off. If they can, The Riches could turn into an interesting show.

But that’s a big “if”.

Happy Birthday to Me :-)

…you say it’s your birthday,

it’s my birthday too, yeah!...

Today (Tuesday March 13^th) is my birthday…yay! I still love my birthdays!...and it’s also the birthday of one of my favorite actors William H. Macy (above with his wife Felicity Huffman) as well as the birthdays of U2’s bassist Adam Clayton, singer/songwriter/pop icon Neil Sedaka and actresses Deborah Raffin, Dana Delany, and Annabeth Gish.

Happy birthday to all of us happy Pisces people! :-)

"Birthday" words and music by John Lennon & Paul McCartney


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Other MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Captain America

We come not to bury Captain America but to praise him. The brief media firestorm over the “death” of the Star-Spangled Avenger reached its peak when Stephen Colbert did a funny riff on it near the top of the Colbert Report Thursday night.

The media went nuts for a bit (they’ve since moved on.) Speculators are already charging insanely-inflated prices on eBay (buyers being perhaps a bit foolish since Marvel overprinted the issue in question…Captain America #25…and savvy comic book shops should have a new supply next week...hopefully at or near cover price. Baring that Marvel has announced a second printing that will be out at the end of the month...which, as I think of it, will only make the speculators even more happy. In any case, comics hoarded this way will not be a viable longterm "investment" since the supply will end up far outstripping the demand in the long run...especially once the storyline has run its course.)

Personally I’ve been to this particular rodeo too many times to take it at all that seriously.

I've been a comic book fan long enough to know that the death of Captain America is not a permanent thing (unlike here in the real world, death in comics…like death on soap operas…is a decidedly transitional thing…”dead” characters regularly return to “life”…Superman, for example, “died” in similar burst of publicity and he’s back fighting the “never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way” and living happily with his wife Lois Lane…and comic book fans, being the avid “suspension of belief” folks that we are, gripe at bit and then go with the flow.)

The stunt generated momentary media buzz (with outlets as diverse as the venerable New York Times and the aforementioned Colbert Report taking note) and kudos to the folks at Marvel Comics for that. Me, I just hope that there are some interesting stories coming out of all of this.

And Captain America? He’ll be fine…at some point in the relatively near future the "death" will be reversed and he’ll take up his shield and get back out there fighting the good fight again.

So rest in peace, Cap…and we’ll see you later, dude.

American Idol Top 12

And then there were 12. Antonella Barba is out, Sanjaya Malakar is in…Sundance is out (started out strong in the prelims but went off the rails during Hollywood week and never really completely righted himself), Jordin is in (too bubbly and cute…in a precociously Amazonian way [it’s admittedly petty but I love the way she makes Seacrest look so small]…to not make the cut.) America has spoken and the 12 American Idol finalists are chosen.

Melinda Doolittle, Stephanie Edwards, Gina Glocksen, Lakisha Jones, Blake Lewis, Sanjaya Malakar, Chris Richardson, Brandon Rogers, Haley Scarnato, Chris Sligh, Jordin Sparks, Phil Stacey…in a few weeks time one of these folks will be “your American Idol!”

Yes, as a group the women in the top 24 pretty much smoked the men during the semi-final rounds but that doesn’t necessarily assure a female winner. There’s a certain rhythm to American Idol seasons: at some point there will be a “shocking!” elimination (maybe Lakisha) and, of course, there will be somebody who skates through for a while even though the online buzz will be full of complaints about how much they don’t deserve to be there (um…maybe Sanjaya this year?)

Who’s gonna win? I don’t know…I’m rubbish at predicting this thing at this point in the competition. I like Melinda, LaKisha, Stephanie, Chris S., and Blake but I don’t have really horse in the race (I stopped voting two seasons ago.)

Game on, kids…and hey good luck with Miss Ross next week :-)

The "Definitive" Top 10

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has released their ranking of the "Definitive 200"…200 albums that, according to them, “every music lover should own.”

Their Top 10:

1) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1967)

2) Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd (1973)

3) Thriller – Michael Jackson (1982)

4) Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin (1971)

5) The Joshua Tree – U2 (1987)

6) Exile on Main Street – The Rolling Stones (1972)

7) Tapestry – Carole King (1971)

8) Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (1965)

9) Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)

10)Nevermind – Nirvana (1996)

The Beatles placed 4 other albums on the list: Abbey Road (#12), The Beatles (aka The White Album - #39), Revolver (#42), and Rubber Soul (#110) along with 1 solo album each by John Lennon (Imagine at #144), Paul McCartney & Wings (Band on the Run at #182), and George Harrison (All Things Must Pass at #69).

8 country albums made the cut, including 3 by the Dixie Chicks (Wide Open Spaces, Home, and Fly), two by Willie Nelson, and 1 each by Johnny Cash, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill.

17 rap albums are included led by 3 from Jay-Z, 2 each from Eminem and 2Pac and discs by Dr. Dre, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Will Smith, Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., 50 Cent, Nelly, LL Cool J, and NWA.

The 4 jazz albums to make the list were: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (#34), John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (#78), Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (#150), and George Benson’s Breezin’ (#177).

The oldest album on the list is 1954’s In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra. The newest discs (4 of them) came out in 2004 (including Green Day’s American Idiot and Usher’s Confessions.)

It’s an eclectic and…interesting…list. Not interesting enough to get me to buy Celine Dion’s Falling into You (#97) or Kenny G’s Breathless (#107) but interesting just the same.

Black Snake Moan Soundtrack

Is there nothing that Samuel L. Jackson can’t do? (Well okay, he couldn’t get tons of folks to buy tickets to see Snakes on a Plane but we’ll cut the brother some slack on that one…there was no way the finished movie was going to live up to the internet hype…)

Here on the soundtrack to Black Snake Moan (I haven’t seen the movie myself…looks like a “wait for Netflix” picture for me) our man Sam holds his own as blues singer (I’m not saying he should quit his day job…dude’s no Muddy Waters or anything…but he acquits himself better than some other actors who decided they needed to be singers…and yes I’m looking at you Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Don Johnson, Russell Crowe, Steven Seagal, and too many others to go into here…)

Jackson’s take on the ominous title song…complete with a compelling spoken word entry…is stark and haunting while the spare “Just Like a Bird without a Feather” is heartfelt and fine. He is in excellent form on the rollicking “Alice Mae” and, especially, on the profane (yep he get to drop the MF bomb a couple of times), darkly comic talking blues of “Stack-O-Lee”.

This soundtrack is a rough and tumble, down and dirty journey through the delta blues in many of its myriad incarnations: thick swampy rock and roll (The Black Keys’ muscular “When the Lights Go Out”, the slow lope of John Doe’s “The Losing Kind”), down home tales of woe and redemption told with rough hewn vocal and simple but effective chord progressions (Jessie Mae Hemphill’s quietly-wrenching “Standing in my Doorway Crying”, Bobby Rush’s randy tribute to his woman and her cooking “Chicken Heads”), and country folk blues (Precious Bryant’s wistful “Morning Train”).

Not everything works…Outrageous Cherry’s sonic attack on “Lord Have Mercy on Me” is powerful but the vocals don’t have the soulful heft of the blues and so the tune ends up sounding tepid despite the big tangle of aggressive electric guitars.

Scott B. Bomar’s short instrumental interludes interspersed throughout the disc all ring with authentic blues flavor as, of course, do the two brief spoken word tributes to the blues by Son House.

The CD ends with bluesmen old and young: the late, great R.L. Burnside bringing soulful gravitas to “Old Black Mattie” and the North Mississippi Allstars bringing the proceedings to a rocking, engaging conclusion with “Mean Ol’ Wind Died Down”.

Black Snake Moan probably won’t bring delta blues into the musical mainstream but it is a very tasty sampler just the same.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Michael Jackson in Japan

Amid rumors of a possible Las Vegas show (ala Celine Dion and Elton John) and a new record in the works (I guess there might be some folks who are still waiting for that all-star Hurricane Katrina benefit song you were supposedly working on, Mike), Michael Jackson has surfaced in Tokyo for two relatively high profile events.

The first, a VIP party scheduled for Thursday, will feature guests…who have to pony up $3,500 each…mingling with Jacko and, according to the organizers of the shindig, getting “thirty seconds to one minute” of exclusive face time with MJ (be still, my heart.)

The next day Jackson will host a fan art contest for folks who don’t have a spare $3,500 to spend on a minute of quality time with a faded (no pun intended) pop star...admission to this goes for the bargain basement price of $130. Jackson will pick 3 winners and those fan artists will get to have brunch with him.

No word on how much of the dough from the VIP party is going to Jackson but one has to assume that he ain’t doing it for free.

Pop Culture News and Notes

J.J. Abrams, co-creator of Lost and Alias and the director of Mission: Impossible 3, will direct and co-produce Star Trek XI (a working title that I’m sure they’ll change at some point), the attempt to resurrect the movie franchise. Following in the footsteps of Batman Begins, this Trek film will reboot the series by (apparently) going back to the days when the young Kirk and Spock were still cadets in Starfleet Academy (which, I presume, leaves Shatner and Nimoy out of the running to play the parts this time :-) The movie, which will go into production later this year, is scheduled to be released on Christmas Day of 2008.

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Vincent (“Big Pussy” from The Sopranos) Pastore has pulled out of Dancing with the Stars. The 60-year-old actor was overwhelmed by the physical demands of learning the dances after a week of practice and elected to withdraw and allow someone else to participate (Vincent should have called Master P before agreeing to do the show…he would have given him the “411” on how hard it was.) ABC will announce his replacement shortly.

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Announcing his gubernatorial on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno worked for Arnold so Senator John McCain decided to make the anticlimactic announcement that he was officially running for President on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night (announcing on your website, like Hillary Clinton did, being so passé…)

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Fox’s lawyers have made former American Idol contestant Matt Buckstein stop calling his online Idol shadow performances (see story here) “The Lost Idol.” Buckstein soldiers on having changed the name of his endeavor to “The Lost Country Singer”.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

The Black Donnellys

Man, that Martin Scorsese is something else. One day he’s finally winning that elusive Oscar and the next day he’s presenting a new TV series on NBC. The Black Donnellys has all of those classic touches you’d expect from a gritty crime drama by Marty: the wiseguy narrator (complete with the…um…”cool” nickname of “Joey Ice Cream”), the freeze-frame cuts into and out of flashbacks, the hustling thugs trying to make a living on the mean streets, the tough guy dialogue (“What did you do with the body?” “You don’t wanna know”), the lovingly atmospheric cinematography that makes the hardscrabble streets look nostalgically inviting and only vaguely threatening, the staccato bursts of violence (lots of bullets and baseball bats and kicking…gotta have the kicking), the soundtrack featuring a blend of classical/operatic music and pop music (interesting choice to replace some of the classic rock Marty usually favors with the kind of emo pop that would feel comfortable on any given episode of Grey’s Anatomy…that Marty is a flexible guy, I guess.)

I presume that the result…an admixture of Goodfellas and (a low rent) Entourage with a heaping helping of the Irish-American vibe from the old soap opera Ryan’s Hope thrown in for good measure…is still a work in progress (the characters are all one-note ciphers thus far, for example, and the overall feeling is a bit more soapy than I expect from a good Marty crime drama) but I’m sure that Scorsese will…huh? What’s that? Marty didn’t do this? The guys who wrote Crash and Million Dollar Baby are responsible for it?

Oh.

Allrighty then.

Nevermind. (Sorry, Marty.)

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

The 79th Annual Academy Awards

Well that show was…something, wasn’t it…yikes…

(Every red state fear about Hollywood was confirmed as Al Gore…I kept expecting the crowd to break out into a chant of “Gore ‘08! Gore ‘08!” at any moment…got thanked [and lionized] more often than God did :-)

The show started off slowly…the cutesy self-congratulatory opening film…some tepid jokes from Ellen DeGeneres…the gospel choir bit that would have worked well on Ellen’s talk show but seemed more than a bit forced and out of place here…the first Oscar of the night for art direction (??) followed by a recap of the tech awards…and that was all before the first commercial break.

And things didn’t really go anywhere interesting from there. Certainly the only mildly amusing production number about comedy’s lack of representation in the Academy Awards didn’t help (no matter how hard Will Farrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly worked to try to sell it.) By the time the special effects “choir” hit the stage my eyes were glazing over.

The show was poorly paced…too many montages, too many shadow dancer things, too many Ellen bits that went nowhere near funny (she and her pantsuits tried hard, bless her heart, but it was only sporadically funny)…and something of a slog to get through.

Kudos to Martin Scorsese for finally getting one of the little golden guys (we can put that particular story to rest now) as well as to Melissa Etheridge and the Dreamgirls cast for breathing a little musical life into the proceedings.

The 79^th annual Academy Awards show was not a winner…hopefully they’ll get their act together for the 80^th and hit higher notes.

Pop Culture News and Notes

Despite Axl Rose’s promises late last year, Chinese Democracy, the eagerly (?) awaited Guns ‘n Roses CD (10+ years in the making!) will NOT be out on March 6^th (and in other news: water is wet.)

A new release date has not been set.

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Hey kids! If you’re 12 to 15 years old and want to be a performer (and someone who loves you is willing to pony up about 3,000 bucks), you too can attend American Idol Summer Camp! Idol Camp, a performing arts summer program sponsored by the production company that created American Idol, will feature classes in singing, dancing, and acting taught by entertainment industry professionals (including former American Idol contestants.) Each session of the camp, which will be held in Massachusetts, will run 10 days (the $2,900 tuition includes room, board, classes, and souvenirs.)

Idol campers, who are not required to audition to attend (if your check clears, kid, you’re in) will not be given any special advantage should they choose to tryout for Idol when they reach the proper age to do so (currently you have to be 16-28 to be allowed to take a chance to become the next American Idol.)

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Meanwhile, on the Idol mothership: the field was narrowed to 20 as Rudy Cardenas, Amy Krebs, Nicole Tranquillo, and barefoot Paul Kim (and his lucky underwear) were all sent packing. The women were, as a group, stronger than the men during this first week but it's still early in the process.

(And every time I start to think that Ryan Seacrest can’t possibly get any more insufferable, he goes and proves me wrong…)

This year’s star mentors will include Tony Bennett, Jon Bon Jovi, Barry Gibb, Jennifer Lopez, Martina McBride, Diana Ross, Gwen Stefani, and Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits (a band I’m sure all of the contestants know intimately…I hope there’s not too much struggle over who gets to sing “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” on the show…)

City Beach

From the opening infectious lope of “Lazy Girls” to the wistful closing of “Disconnection” (featuring harmony vocals by the incomparable Emmylou Harris), Jill Cunniff’s solo debut is an engaging blend of tasty guitar picking, tropical and electronica beats, intriguing samples, shimmering, sweetly soaring harmonies, and, most importantly, her own luminous voice.

Cunniff, founding member (and lead singer) of Luscious Jackson (who have a new greatest hits collection out), has crafted a record that is sunny without being cloying (the throbbing “Love is a Luxury”, for example, is witty love song that artfully steps around love song conventions while the equally-compelling “Exclusive” is a heartfelt plea for monogamy)…a collection of songs that makes you sway your hips and move your feet without neglecting the kind of lyrical content that makes you think…makes you smile…makes you nod knowingly.

(And if your head isn’t bobbing during the propulsive, horn and guitar driven, “Future Call” you might want to make sure you still have a pulse J )

City Beach is, quite simply, a dreamy, delightful, rapturous pop record that washes over you like a cool, bracing breeze on a soft summer’s afternoon.

Jill Cunniff's MySpace is here

Luscious Jackson's MySpace is here

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More MKW blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Dancing with the Stars 2007

Paul McCartney’s estranged wife, activist Heather Mills (above), is one of the contestants on next edition of Dancing with the Stars (which debuts on ABC on March 19th.) Mills, who lost part of one of her legs in a motorcycle accident, will try to put her increasingly messy divorce proceedings with Sir Paul (who apparently never heard the term “pre-nup”) on the back burner while she learns to do the tango and the other dances. Dancing producers say that she will be judged exactly the same as the other contestants despite her artificial limb.

The other contestants are:

Muhammad Ali’s daughter, boxer Laila Ali

Country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus

Former NBA star Clyde Drexler

Actor and former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone

Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey

Former Entertainment Tonight co-host Leeza Gibbons

Olympic gold medal winning ice skater Apolo Ohno

Actor Vincent Pastore (who is, perhaps to his chagrin, best known as “Big Pussy” from The Sopranos)

Model Paulina Porizkova

And Beverly Hills 90210 actor Ian Ziering

The Amazing Race All-Stars

The 11^th time is apparently not the charm for me. I used to really enjoy The Amazing Race…it was fun and it breezed through exotic locales (and past mostly perplexed and/or patiently bemused citizens of the various countries the game barreled through) but watching the first episode of the “all-star” edition left me feeling an undeniable sensation of déjà vu (and not in a good way.)

Contestants running through airports and parking lots? Check. Contestants making snarky comments about each other while proclaiming themselves as the team to beat? Check. Contestants speaking pidgin English to non-English speaking taxi drivers and other bystanders? Check. Competitions built on silly (and somewhat condescending) twists on some aspect of the host country’s culture? Check. “Wacky” scenes of contestants getting lost on highways or in the wilderness? Check. Teammates snapping at and getting exasperated with each other? Check. Host Phil Keoghan standing inscrutably at the rest stop next to some one in colorful native garb? Check.

Been there, done that…and the return of former contestants really doesn’t make it any fresher (how many times do we really need to see professional reality show contestants Rob and Amber again?) or any more interesting. I’m probably not going to watch any more of The Amazing Race All-Stars but, acknowledging the good times from the past, I wish them well.

Pop Culture News and Notes

The murder trial of rock 'n' roll producer Phil Spector (and, presumably, his hair-see above) will be televised, a judge ordered on February 16th, saying it is time for the justice system to get beyond the O.J. Simpson trial. “We have to get by that case,” said Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler. “There's going to come a time that it will be commonplace to televise trials. If it had not been for Simpson, we'd be there now.”

Spector, the legendary producer of such immortal rock & roll hits as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers and “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, is on trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson four years ago. Jury selection, which begins March 19^th, is the only part of the trial that will not be televised…we presume that Court TV will be there for everything else.

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Matt Buckstein, an American Idol aspirant who made it to Hollywood (but no further) for the past two years (including his memorable performance as one of the “Brokenote Cowboys”...see below...during the Hollywood round and at the AI finale last year), has decided to run his own shadow competition on his MySpace page. As the “Lost Idol”, Buckstein will tape himself performing a song based on the weekly themes of American Idol at karaoke bar in his hometown of Denver and post the video on his MySpace page and on YouTube…he will use feedback to the performances as a gauge of if he should move on to the next week. If the reaction is sufficiently positive, he will continue…if not, he’ll stop just as if he had been voted off on the show.

Buckstein’s MySpace has some of his music…including “We’ll See”, a charming, heartfelt love song that he wrote…available for listening.

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Anna Nicole Smith has been embalmed but not buried. She joins James Brown in dead celebrity limbo…both of them unburied while their would-be heirs and keepers of their flames sue and counter-sue and make an avaricious mockery of their lives (of course, both of them could have avoided a lot of the lunacy by having their affairs in better order but like a lot of people I guess they both thought they had plenty of time to do that…turns out they didn’t.)

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

American Idol '07 Semi-Finalists

After spending so much time on the audition rounds, American Idol blew through the Hollywood round (reducing the field from nearly 200 to 24) in two fast-paced hours. The judges culled through the would-be Idols and came up with the semi-finalists who will start competing for the votes of viewers starting on February 20^th.

The gentlemen: Chris Sligh (28, Greenville, SC); Sanjaya Malakar (17, Federal Way, WA); Brandon Rogers (29, Los Angeles); Philip Stacy (29, Jacksonville, FL).; Blake Lewis (25, Bothell, WA); Rudy Cardenas ( 28, Los Angeles); Paul Kim (25, Saratoga, CA); A.J. Tabaldo ( 22, Santa Maria, CA); Nicholas Pedro (25, Taunton, MA).; Chris Richardson (22, Chesapeake, VA); Jared Cotter (25, West Orange, NJ), and Jason "Sundance" Head (28, Porter, Texas.)

The ladies: Melinda Doolittle (29, Brentwood, TN); Gina Glocksen (22, Naperville, IL); Haley Scarnato (24, San Antonio, TX); Jordin Sparks (17, Glendale, AZ); Stephanie Edwards (19, Savannah, GA); Leslie Hunt (24, Chicago); Alaina Alexander (24, West Hollywood, CA); Sabrina Sloan (27, Los Angeles); Lakisha Jones (27, Flint, MI); Nicole Tranquillo (20, Philadelphia); Amy Krebs (22, Federal Way, WA)., and Antonella Barba (20, Point Pleasant, NJ).

Some fans are grumbling about the capricious way the judges made their picks and indeed some people who seemed to be struggling through what little they showed us of the Hollywood round made it through while others who appeared to be ready for the show were cut…but these things are always subjective and I guess we’ll see how it shakes out.

The list of semi-finalists is interesting for a couple of other reasons. First, only 3 teenagers made it through (9 of the 12 men are age 25 or older.) And even though all 5 of the previous winners hailed from the South only 7 of the 24 semi-finalists come from the region (10 come from Western states…including 6 from California.)

What does it all mean? I dunno. Viewers won’t get a real look at how good most of these people are until the semi-final performance shows begin next week and the cream hopefully rises to the top as America picks the final 12. Game on, American Idol fans, game on.

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More MKW Blogstuff: Bread and Roses

Pop Culture News and Notes

This year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model is, as you can see, Beyonce. She's wearing a bikini designed by the House of Dereon, the fashion label created by the Dreamgirl and her mom. SI says that Ms. Knowles is the first Swimsuit Issue covergirl who is neither a professional model nor an athlete.

The annual Swimsuit Issue also doubles as the Music Issue and it features models posing with Aerosmith, Kenny Chesney, Gnarls Barkley, Panic! at the Disco, and Kanye West.

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Man, that Robyn Troup (above performing at the Grammy Awards with Justin Timberlake and T.I.) is...well...a trooper. The 19-year-old Texan got bounced from the American Idol competition (as seen during February 13th's Hollywood round broadcast) but she picked herself up and went out and won the "Grammy Moment" competition to perform before millions during the show.

(Not good enough for Randy, Paula [who has been quoted as saying she's "never been drunk"] , and Simon but good enough for Justin? I'm not sure what that means...but hey, it worked out for everybody so it's all good.)

More MKW blogstuff: Bread and Roses