As you may recall, Popdose has been lucky enough to secure a weekly segment with Jon Grayson, the host of Overnight America, a wonderfully entertaining syndicated program featuring noteworthy guests, intelligent discussion, and above all, the prodigious talents of Jon Grayson himself. We’ve mostly restricted our promotion of this segment to our Twitter feed, but starting with this week’s call-in, we’re going to be a little less shy about trying to get you to listen to the program.
Each week a different member of the Popdose staff talks with Jon about four stories on the site. Sometimes they’re the most newsworthy, sometimes they’re chosen for their discussion value, and sometimes we just pick ‘em because we like ‘em. This week Rob Smith stepped up for the call, and during his segment he covered:
Jeff Giles’s latest editorial, in which former members of Chicago, Little Feat, and Asia give an inside perspective on what it’s like for an established musician to lose a high-profile gig;
If you aren’t in an Overnight America market, or you missed the show Monday night, good news — it’s all online for you to listen to right now. Click here for Rob’s segment as well as the rest of the show, which includes an interview with They Might Be Giants, an appearance by Wired editor Ted Greenwald, and a call from Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide!
Last month we brought you an exclusive interview with Daryl Hall & John Oates, whose four-disc box set Do What You Want, Be What You Are arrives in nonexistent record stores today. Unfortunately, Oates’s legendary facial hair stayed silent throughout, even as its owner bristled at some of Hall’s answers. Now, in another Popdose exclusive, it breaks that silence (mainly so it can promote its J-Stache website and its videos on Funny or Die, but beggars can’t be choosers).
Is it true that you did both Wilson sisters at the same time but only after you finished a three-day four-way with Bananarama?
Carnie Wilson put a right angle on my dong, dude. No lie — I was north and south while me-will-willy was looking around the corner! I’d do it all over again given the opportunity. In fact, Carnie, call me, love. Let’s get twisted on fried foods, perks, and Arsenio Hall reruns. You know, see what happens. The ladies in Bananarama are into some strange stuff too. I’ve never been able to look at latex or eat oatmeal in the same way since. True story. (We meant Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, but we’ll take any gossip we can get. —Ed.)
Is it true what you sang about Italian girls, or was that just a marketing scheme?
Well, I did write the line “I eat so much pasta pasta, I am so full and yet so lonely.” The autonomy of art, man. Leave it there, homes.
Popdose film critic Lance Berry passed away last week, dying suddenly at his home in Ashburn, Virginia, on Sunday, October 4. He was 43.
Though a site like ours, which has no central office and publishes the work of a far-flung group of writers, doesn’t allow for much in the way of extracurricular bonding, we’re all nonetheless deeply affected by Lance’s death. I invited Lance to join Popdose after getting to know him in the Rotten Tomatoes forums, where I found him to be an uncommonly insightful and intelligent film fan; his work for our site did not disappoint. While I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, I enjoyed reading his film reviews, I was proud to publish them, and I considered him a friend. Please join us in bidding him farewell. —Jeff Giles, Editor-in-Chief
Popdose mourns the unexpected passing of our friend and colleague Lance Berry, from an undisclosed cause. A native New Yorker, Lance began writing for Popdose late last year and quickly impressed us all with his passion and enthusiasm, having maintained his own site for film criticism, Lance Reviews…. The two of us had a good time cowriting a review of last summer’s Star Trek film, the long-running franchise being a touchstone for him. Inspired in part by Star Trek, he wrote The Reign, a series of science fiction novels.
We found out about Lance’s death via an e-mail sent by a relative. I wrote back, expressing the condolences of the Popdose staff in this difficult time, and the response read, “He loved writing for your site. Thank you for recognizing his talent and love of film. He will truly be missed.” —Bob Cashill, Film Editor
Any good label manager would tell you: don’t name your album something a reviewer could turn into a catchy, snarky counterpoint. But as we know far too well, most of the labels are hanging by a thread, the management inside reduced to bean counters versus quality controllers and, heck, if Hollywood keeps naming their movies in blindly self-insulting ways, why can’t the record industry follow suit?
Besides, we’re talking about Kiss here, who have built an iron-clad and insular fanbase that views such flaunting of common sense as an act of rebellion. Who cares if the new album Sonic Boom, the first since 1998’s Psycho Circus, opens itself up to opening paragraphs such as this, begging the question, “Boom or Bust?” What really matters is if the band has spent the decade-long downtime productively or not, and luckily for you, the Popdose staff has gone through the work of sussing it out so you don’t have to. Strap on your steel dragon-face boots, smear on your kabuki greasepaint and shake off your love gun. It’s time to rock and roll.
Rob Smith: I mentioned in my Overnight America Popdose segment a couple weeks ago that I cannot name a single Kiss studio album that’s great from start to finish (I hate “Beth,” so suck it all you Destroyer fans). After listening to Sonic Boom, I can still say I cannot name a single Kiss studio album that’s great from start to finish.
That said, I like “Never Enough” a lot, though the verses remind me of Poison’s “Nothin’ But a Good Time” a little TOO much. Â Wasn’t Paul Stanley supposed to produce that album, too? (more…)
Clips of some of the finest television to be aired in the last 12 months, a room full of beautiful people, and Neil Patrick Harris — what more could a TV fan ask for, right? It’s time for the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards!
To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’re bringing out our trusty live chatroom, where we’ll be waiting to take in all the red carpet splendor — and dish about who won, who didn’t, and where Kanye might or might not be lurking at any given moment. Just choose a nickname and hit “Connect” to join us. See you there!
Powered By Wordpress Mibbit AJAX Chat Plugin Created By Keiran Smith
We all bag on MTV for the way it’s steadily turned away from music videos over the years — heck, it happens here at Popdose at least a dozen times annually — but at least we can still count on the network living up to its name at least one night a year, right?
Yeah, no, not really. But what we can count on is an unfunny host (that would be Russell “how did I get here?” Brand), a bunch of future has-beens gathered together in an auditorium, and a lot of trophies given away to celebrate videos you had to squint to see between repeat airings of The Hills and My Super Sweet 16. It’s an occasion worth…well, not celebrating, exactly, but getting together to discuss it seemed like a fun idea, so we’ve installed a live chat plugin, and we’re testing it out tonight during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Stop on by and join us for what will surely end up being a drunken discussion about everything that’s wrong with the music industry!
To join in, all you need to do is pick a nickname and enter the chatroom. That’s it — no muss, no fuss. See you there!
Powered By Wordpress Mibbit AJAX Chat Plugin Created By Keiran Smith
Well, it’s (almost) the end of Beatles Week, and by now, it’s clear that many of you were just as excited about the remasters and video game as we were — Popdose has broken its own single-day traffic records twice this week — and as sad as we are to see the celebration end, we knew we had to finish our Fab Four tribute in style. And what better way, we ask you, than with a Friday Mixtape of Beatles songs — not the originals, mind you, and not the remasters, but covers done by other artists?
What we didn’t realize when we started assembling our little treat was just how many Beatles covers there are. In the course of a single afternoon, the Popdose staff put its hard drives together and came up with an even 100, and that’s just scratching the surface — but it does make for a pretty damn cool Friday afternoon playlist, doesn’t it?
Because none of us was willing to sit in front of a screen for several hours and build 100 links, we’ve done a couple of things to ease the burden: One, we’ve bundled up the whole compilation into a giant zip file; two, we’ve laid out the whole list here, and randomly selected 18 “singles” that you can grab a la carte.
Take a look, folks. More Beatles covers than you can shake a stick at, and some rather unexpected ones to boot. Enjoy — but be forewarned: in the interest of preserving our servers’ sanity, that big ol’ zip file won’t stay up for long. Get it while you can! (more…)
Let me say this at the outset: if you think that the release of 14 remastered Beatles albums is some sort of marketing gimmick, think again. If you can’t hear the difference in sound quality, you’ve either never heard the original versions or you should be visiting an audiologist soon. This set of stereo remasters instantly takes its place as the holy grail of Beatles music. Nothing that has come before can possibly do for the true fan anymore.
The Popdose staff split up the duties on this project, and I was lucky enough to have first choice of what I wanted to cover. I took the first Beatles album, Please Please Me (Yes, it was the first Beatles album EMI released in England. In the U.S. the album was originally released on VeeJay Records, and was the second one that we got), the last Beatles album, Abbey Road (Yes, it was recorded last despite the fact that Let It Be was released last), and one in the middle, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, that remains a landmark recording in the history of pop music.
So let’s start from the beginning. Please Please Me features three songs that are stone cold Beatle classics, the leadoff track “I Saw Her Standing There,” the closing track “Twist and Shout,” and the title track. These are early days for the band, but they’ve put the craziness of the Hamburg days behind them, and the insanity of Beatlemania looms. If anyone tells you the Beatles weren’t really a rock band, this is as good a place to point them as any. Please Please Me finds the band with a lot of their raw energy intact.
The sound of the remastered album is revelatory. The chance to hear George’s Harrison’s guitar playing in all its crystalline beauty alone is worth the price of admission. Add the crisp sound of Ringo Starr’s drums, the rugged chugging of John Lennon’s rhythm guitar, and the vocal interplay between John and Paul McCartney, and you have an album well worth hearing. The key thing about Please Please Me though is that if you want to fully assess the Beatles as a band, charting the development of their songwriting and playing, this is where you have to start. –Ken Shane(more…)
After eight long years of pondering what the title of his next album would be, R&B star Maxwell returned to the charts in July with BLACKsummers’night, the first in a planned trilogy, with blackSUMMERS’night set to debut next year and blacksummers’NIGHT to follow in 2011.
He also returned to the road this SUMMER, performing concerts at NIGHT and probably even dressing in BLACK at some of them. If you live in the Boston area, and you enjoy Maxwell’s music as much as you enjoy capital letters, then Popdose has a contest for YOU!
On Wednesday, September 2, the soulful crooner is performing at Boston’s House of Blues as part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush concert series. Maxwell wants to spend a temporary nite with you, girl!
All you need to do to win two free Priority Access tickets is answer the following trivia question: What’s Maxwell’s connection to English singer Kate Bush?
Click below to find out more about the Summer Krush series!
Oh, Darius. Now that you’re a bona fide country star, I guess we can forgive you for that surreal Burger King “TenderCrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch” commercial. After all, you’re the first solo African American artist to chart a Number One country hit since Charley Pride in 1983. That’s gotta count for something. The truth is, you’ve got a great voice, you put on a good show, and you love Popdose. In fact, we could hardly believe it when you called us up and said you wanted to give away two PRIORITY ACCESS tickets to Popdose readers for your show on August 24th at the legendary Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, courtesy of Samsung and AT&T.*
Hootie Darius is performing as part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush Series, and we do indeed have two totally free PRIORITY ACCESS tickets for you! Winning ‘em is a snap, too. Here’s how. All you have to do is tell us: What’s the name of the dude that founded Samsung in 1938?
To enter, just send an e-mail to Jason Hare with the answer. We’ll pick a winner on Saturday, August 22. And don’t enter if you can’t make the show. If you do, we’ll send the other guys from the Blowfish after you. And you know those guys are angry.
We’ll be offering tickets to one more Samsung AT&T Summer Krush show featuring the sexiest artist of all, Maxwell, so check back soon! And click below to find out more about the Summer Krush series!
*Note: Darius Rucker did not call us up, and as far as we know, has no idea who we are.
As you may recall, Popdose has been lucky enough to secure a weekly segment with Jon Grayson, the host of Overnight America, a wonderfully entertaining syndicated program featuring noteworthy guests, intelligent discussion, and above all, the prodigious talents of Jon Grayson himself. We’ve mostly restricted our promotion of this segment to our Twitter feed, but starting with this week’s call-in, we’re going to be a little less shy about trying to get you to listen to the program.
Last month we brought you 
Any good label manager would tell you: don’t name your album something a reviewer could turn into a catchy, snarky counterpoint. But as we know far too well, most of the labels are hanging by a thread, the management inside reduced to bean counters versus quality controllers and, heck, if Hollywood keeps naming their movies in blindly self-insulting ways, why can’t the record industry follow suit?
, opens itself up to opening paragraphs such as this, begging the question, “Boom or Bust?” What really matters is if the band has spent the decade-long downtime productively or not, and luckily for you, the Popdose staff has gone through the work of sussing it out so you don’t have to. Strap on your steel dragon-face boots, smear on your kabuki greasepaint and shake off your love gun. It’s time to rock and roll.
fans). After listening to Sonic Boom, I can still say I cannot name a single Kiss studio album that’s great from start to finish.![2009+emmy+awards+nominations+nominees[1]](http://popdose.com/wp-content/uploads/2009+emmy+awards+nominations+nominees1.jpg "2009+emmy+awards+nominations+nominees[1]")
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This one’s for the ladies. And the men who enjoy dressing up like ladies.
