Posts Tagged ‘John Mayer’

  
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

CD Review: John Mayer, “Battle Studies”

by Jeff Giles

513p6Hdew9L._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1]One of the earlier “name artist” interviews in my writing career came when I spoke with Peter Cetera about the release of his fourth solo album, World Falling Down. During our talk, he complained about the way he’d been pigeonholed as a soft rocker, and blamed the label for continually releasing ballads as singles when he really wanted to mix things up with more uptempo tracks. It was the fall of 1992, and I think Cetera understood the shift that was taking place in music; he joked about not being on MTV anymore, mused about strapping on his bass and going back on tour, and said he missed the “yuks” of being in a band like Chicago.

As it turned out, World Falling Down was Cetera’s final album for Warner Bros., and when he resurfaced three years later with One Clear Voice, his debut for the short-lived indie label River North, I expected to hear the sound of an artist freed from his corporate shackles — not a rock album, certainly, but something that would reflect more sides of his personality. If you’re one of the few people who’s ever listened to Voice, you know this isn’t the case; it’s as mannered an album as Cetera’s ever released, as is its 2001 follow-up, Another Perfect World. As ambivalent as he might have seemed about his image, Cetera’s either unwilling or unable to break it. For the sake of his emotional well-being, I hope it’s the former — and I can’t help but think of Cetera whenever I listen to John Mayer. (more…)

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Posted in CD Reviews, Music | Comments

Friday, July 10th, 2009

How Bad Can It Be?: “Off the Bus and On the Record”

by Jack Feerick

Rock ‘n’ roll, of course, is all about The Kids. No matter what the makeup of its actual audience — and evidence suggests that it varies widely — there’s an assumption that pop music fans skew overwhelmingly young, and the more commercial the act the younger the presumptive audience. That assumption is sometimes trotted out as a preemptive defense against criticism: This music isn’t made for you, Mr. Critic Man — we’re doin’ it for The Kids!

Now, some of that is just bullshit face-saving — a cynical conflation of the ideas of “broad appeal” and “lowest common denominator” that’s frankly insulting to any audience, no matter how young — but there’s a kernel of truth in it. Youth is a time when, perhaps because our own lives are so small and proscribed, pop culture seems so terribly huge and important; it is life on an epic scale, in which we participate by proxy. In adolescence, especially, our skins are at their thinnest, our nerve endings so close to the surface that the joys and pains of art, of music, can touch us in a way that they never really will again.

And so it’s a good thing, I think, to spend time around young people, to revisit that perspective. The kids at The Rock Star Stories have been disseminating that view since 2001, when the Rich siblings — a quartet of showbiz kids from South Florida — started producing their cheapjack cable access-style weekly half-hour. The production values were strictly Wayne’s World level, but the Riches and their scrappy cohort of Boca Raton high-schoolers were soon landing interviews with national acts. From that grew a nonprofit youth media training organization, a show that airs in nearly 70 national markets, and now a new book. Off the Bus and On the Record transcribes 22 interviews from The Rock Star Stories, along with behind-the-scenes tidbits from the show’s on-air talent and production staff. (more…)

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Posted in Book Reviews, Books, How Bad Can It Be?, Music | Comments

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Unsolicited Career Advice for… Jandek

by Rob Smith

To know the unknowable is one of the great pursuits of sentient beings everywhere.  Has been for as long as there’s been sentient beings.  But to truly know the unknowable (or at least be rendered confused and queasy from it), spend an hour or two listening to and pondering the music of the outsider artist Jandek.  Or, like Uncle Donnie, stumble upon him completely by accident and start writing him harassing memos, offering career advice.  Your call.  – RS

TO: Jandek
FROM: Don Skwatzenschitz
RE: Career Advice

I know who you are, Jandek. Oh, you think you’ve pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, but I know where you are and where you live and where you’ve made all 55 of your records—every last uncomfortably atonal, virtually indecipherable one of ‘em. How, you might ask? I have friends in the Houston suburbs who had me over for dinner last month while I was in town for the John Basedow Abdominal Exercise Seminar and Chili Cookoff. You might know my friends—Carrie and Tom Milkowitz. As in your next door neighbors Carrie and Tom Milkowitz?

As I sipped my Manhattan on their back deck and watched you pick snap peas from your garden, it occurred to me that you could be so much bigger than you are. I mean, I only knew you from Spin magazine and that documentary done about you a few years back. I’ve only recently started making my way through your voluminous discography (I can only do it while my wife Mitzi is out with her canasta group, or when she’s asleep), and there’s some interesting stuff in there. And by interesting stuff, I mean uncomfortably atonal, virtually indecipherable stuff. But it’s all marketable, if you take my advice and try a couple things: (more…)

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Posted in Music, Unsolicited Career Advice | Comments

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Hooks ‘N’ You: Phil Keaggy, “Phil Keaggy and Sunday’s Child”

by Will Harris

hooksnyou.jpg

If you’re a guitar guy, then all I have to do is write the name “Phil Keaggy” and you’re probably already prepared to offer up praise for his abilities. The man’s prowess with the guitar is legendary, so much so that he can’t turn around without someone bringing up the longstanding urban legend that no less an authority than Jimi Hendrix once declared him to be the best guitarist of all time. It’s been pretty well decided that such words never came forth from Hendrix’s lips…or, at least, Keaggy’s pretty sure of it, anyway…but God knows that plenty of other axe men have offered compliments along those lines.

The reference to the almighty is an intentional one. Although Keaggy started in the more traditional rock world as a member of the band Glass Harp, he’s been a staple of the Contemporary Christian music industry since the early 1970s. But, c’mon, don’t freak out, okay? I’ve always been mystified about how music fans can be totally psyched to hear about an album, only to dismiss it because there were lyrical references to religious beliefs. It’s music, people. No-one’s saying you have to embrace the lyrical content as the truth…but you can certainly enjoy the tunes.

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My buddy Chris Commander is the person who was responsible for introducing me to the music of Phil Keaggy. This was in the early ’90s, when the members of my circle of friends were…you’ll forgive the expression…worshiping at the altar of Jellyfish and Crowded House. Chris said, “Dude, you’ve got to check out the album,” and he handed me a copy of Phil Keaggy and Sunday’s Child. I’m sure he mentioned that Keaggy was a Christian recording artist, but that’s not the sort of thing that would’ve turned me off, anyway, and, besides, I knew Chris’s tastes and he knew mine, so if he thought I’d like it, he didn’t have to tell me twice. And, of course, he was absolutely on the money. From the Beatles homage on the cover art to the plethora of pop hooks, this was very much my kind of album.

(more…)

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Posted in Hooks 'N' You, Music, Popdose, Popdose Interviews | Comments

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Mix Six: “Hey, That Sounds Like …”

by Ted Asregadoo

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

One morning, Joe Satriani woke up to 40 text messages on his cell phone.  After scrolling through 40 variations of “holy schet u got ripped off,” Joe texted back his good friend (whose Internet name is Fuzzyslippers621) the following reply: “wot d feck R U talkin bout?”  This went back and forth for about 15 minutes until Joe realized his cell phone was actually a phone.  So he called Fuzzyslippers621 and asked in regular English, “What the fuck are you talking about?”  To which his friend replied, “Haven’t you heard the new Coldplay song?”  He had not, but after launching his Limewire program, he downloaded an illegal copy, waited for his iTunes player to play it, and lathered up his head for his morning shave.

The opening strains of the song were interesting, but he had no idea what all this “ripping off” business was, until …

He was stunned. There it was.  An unabashedly plagiarized portion of a song he wrote years before.  “How could this be?” He wondered as he carefully glided the Gillete “Fusion” razor over his grizzled pate.  The more his listened to “Viva La Vida,” the angrier he got.  Beads of shaving cream-infused sweat started rolling off his head. Furiously, he texted his lawyer the following message:  “I wnt 2 sue.”

And so began the story of one artist’s quest to right the wrongs that had, uh, wronged … him. Right.

Joe Satriani’s claim may have merit, but if he does win in court, lawyers for artists whose work has been the inspiration for other songs that sound uncannily like the original are going to have work after listening to this mix.

My Popdose colleague Matthew Bolin started a back and forth about Satriani’s lawsuit against Coldplay, and me being the opportunist I am, decided to float a Mix Six idea I had been thinking about for a few weeks. Jeff Giles, Scott Malchus and Michael Fortes all contributed suggestions to this mix, so with that, let’s get started! (more…)

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Monday, June 30th, 2008

Freshly Unwrapped: New Music Releases, 6/30/08

by Jeff Giles

Alkaline Trio, Agony & Irony (Epic)
purchase this album (Amazon)

These Chicago-bred emo pioneers have been gradually sanding down the rough edges of their sound for years — and with their Epic debut, a glossy sheen is officially all that remains. Longtime fans are already grousing about Agony & Irony, but the album’s FM-ready sound is already yielding dividends for the band: Alkaline Trio was featured on an episode of The Hills in May. That won’t be of much comfort to those pissed-off purists, but it should give a pretty big boost to the band members’ bank statements. By their next album, their transformation into the emo version of the Goo Goo Dolls should be complete; in the meantime, they should get a semi-credible hit or two out of Lit-esque tracks like “Love Love Kiss Kiss.” (MySpace)

James Brown, Gravity (Volcano)
purchase this album (Amazon)

Not James’ finest hour, to be certain — but it does contain his last major Top 40 hit, the Rocky IV soundtrack anthem “Living in America,” and it probably represents his last more or less consistent album. It’s hard to decide which is more surprising: That Gravity was out of print, or that Volcano — the imprint that once was Scotti Brothers — is still in business. Those Survivor and “Weird Al” Yankovic royalties must be more lucrative than anyone could have imagined…

John Coltrane, Dakar (Prestige)
purchase this album (Amazon)

One of Coltrane’s earliest albums gets the Prestige reissue treatment here — no bonus tracks, but it’s remastered, and considering that these sessions were recorded in 1957, the difference is probably noticeable, to say the least. Coltrane’s foils for Dakar are Cecil Payne, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor — and though Adams and Waldron contribute some solid songs, this isn’t one of Coltrane’s essential releases (check out the way his solo trips and falls down a flight of stairs on “Witches’ Pit”). For completists and jazz fanatics only. (more…)

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Posted in Freshly Unwrapped, Music | Comments