The 2008 popGeezer 100, # 60-51
As odd a batch of ten tracks as you’ll find in the countdown, this week’s grouping will take us to the mid-point of the 2008 chart:
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60. “Say It Again“, Marie Digby : A really pretty song, and a sharply produced record, from another of the plethora of girl singer/songwriters in the popGeezer 100 - our musical weakness, I suppose. I recently saw Ms. Digby’s music described as Chick-Pop, and I’m okay with that. She’s the You-Tube phenom, thanks to a faux grass-roots campaign known as “astroturfing”, who was really signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records (home of Miley, Jonas Bros, many “High School Musical” drones) the whole time. But the proof is in the grooves (as we said in my day), and this girl can write good music. She can also cover a track with the best of them, since her acoustic take on Rihanna’s “Umbrella” is what caught the public’s attention in the first place. Big in Japan, too, thanks to her Japanese (+ Irish??) heritage.
59. “Love Bug“, Jonas Brothers : The most significant single to date from 2008’s mass-market wonderboys, Jonas Brothers. I honestly don’t know which one’s Nick, Joe or Kevin (thank god), but these moptops make harmless teen pop with just a hint more musicality that most of their contemporaries. I mean, Nick got to interview Elvis Costello for Rolling Stone, so there’s that in the plus column. Anyway, this ditty has got some in-studio intro and outro chatter, an acoustic first verse leading to full-blown pop/rock, and an actual melody.
58. “SuperGirl“, Saving Jane : The latest single from the Ohio-based pop band, featuring lead vocalist Marti Dodson, is synthy, crunchy, confessional but not threatening, and all girl powery but light on the puppies and unicorns. Dodson’s band is the musical equivalent of a gateway drug, bridging the gap between the Cheetah Girls and Alanis Morrisette.
57. “Live Your Life“, T.I. Featuring Rihanna : Rihanna yodels!! What more do you need to make this the #1 song on the Billboard chart as of this writing?? Well, T.I.’s hit also has a little “Hova-esque” chanting, a bouncy flow, and some Naughty By Nature-like “hey, ho”s on the choruses. The rhymes are easily 37.6% more uplifting than the usual hip-hop braggadocio, too.
56. “Bob That Head“, Rascal Flatts : The Country chart-toppers crank up the rocking guitars (and the banjo!) on this foot-stomping, fist pumper. Throwing that “rock on” sign, this was the fourth single pulled off Flatts’ 2007 disc “Still Feels Good”, and the centerpiece of their just-completed 2008 sold-out tour. However, it was just a tad too “rocky” for Country radio, as it was their first single to miss the Country Top 10 (peaked at #15).
55. “Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)“, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss : Bluegrass ingenue meets Rock’s Golden God for an album of modern Americana with the Nutty Professor behind the console? Should it have worked? No way. Did it work? That’s an understatement for this once in a lifetime artistic achievement, covering both the 2007 “Raising Sand” album and 2008 U.S. tour. This cover of an Everly Brothers song won Plant and Krauss a 2008 Pop Collaboration Grammy, helped score a 2009 Album of the Year non, and the track itself is a sonic marvel. A spooky bluegrass-meets-rockabilly vibe drives the track, which highlights the amazing vocal blend Plant and Krauss achieved all through the project.
54. “Never Miss A Beat“, Kasier Chiefs : This may not cause a “Riot”, but the Kaiser Chiefs are back to their quirky, punky, discotequing ways on this first single from their third CD “Off With Their Heads”. A huge act in the U.K., the Chiefs called upon super-producer Mark Ronson (Samantha’s brother, BTW) to help them stitch this catchy one together. Fun.
53. “Give It 2 Me“, Madonna : Madge’s 11th, and final, album for Warner/Sire is the triple-platinum “Hard Candy“. In bringing an end to the quarter-century relationship with the label that made her, Madonna delivered another urban, future-focused dance record. This Pharrell-produced single was a huge hit in Europe and the U.K., but a total stiff in Japan, Australia and here in the U.S. Nevertheless, we like the cardboard box sound on the snare drum, the goofy, loping keyboard baseline, and the classically Neptunes’ spoken-word bridge. She may be old enough to be your grandma, but the girl still seems to wanna go “on and on and on”.
52. “I Don’t Care“, Fall Out Boy : I love Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”. Apparently, so do Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz. “I Don’t Care” is another FOB kiddy-pool headbanger with a shout-along chorus… over what sounds just like the rhythm track from “Personal Jesus”. Still, it’s awfully catchy with a pretty cranking video that features a cameo from the enigmatic Spaghetti Cat.
51. “Real Love“, Lucinda Williams : Proof that there is still real rock and roll out there. Is it Lucinda’s finest hour as a songwriter? No. But it just so ROCKS!!! What more do you need?!?!?
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Halfway done. Next time, we move into more rarefied air, featuring an old-school college rock group returning with a vengeance, more pretty vocalizing, the worst husband in the world, the best backing track of 2008, and Rock’s last auteur dropping his first record in 15 years. Are you thirsty?
Till then geezers, keep your feet on the ground and quit picking at that or it’ll never heal. Mahalo.
National Board of Review Fires Starters Pistol for Hollywood’s Annual Kudos Marathon
The National Board of Review, with their usual calm and decorum, has begun Hollywood’s offical Kudos season with their announcements of the year’s best in Film. They are:
Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Director: David Fincher, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
Actress: Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, “Milk”
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Foreign Language Film: “Mongol”
Documentary: “Man On Wire”
Animated Feature: “Wall-E”
Ensemble Cast: “Doubt”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Viola Davis, “Doubt”
Directorial Debut: Courtney Hunt, “Frozen River”
Original Screenplay: Nick Schenk, “Gran Torino”
Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire” and Eric Roth, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Spotlight Award: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River” and Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
The BVLGARI Award for NBR Freedom of Expression: “Trumbo”
TOP TEN FILMS
- “Burn After Reading”
- “Changeling”
- “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”
- “The Dark Knight”
- “Defiance”
- “Frost/Nixon”
- “Gran Torino”
- “Milk”
- “Wall-E”
- “The Wrestler”
Our Super-Dainty Kate, Doing What She Does Best
Seven weeks and counting…
“Lost” returns to ABC Wendesdays on 1/21/2009.
- Image via Wikipedia
It’s A Greenlight For “Caprica”
The long-gestating prequel to “Battlestar Galactica” - “Caprica”, set 50 years before the events of “BSG” - which deals with the rise of the artificial intellegence fated to become the Cylons, is offically set to go to series on Sci-Fi.
Slated to begin production (a SAG strike notwithstanding) in mid-2009 for a 2010 premier, “Caprica” will feature Eric Stoltz and Esai Morales as the patriarchs of the two families - the Greystones and the Adamas - who will intertwine in this sci-fi soap opera. Morales will play Joe Adama (father of Bill, grandfather of Lee), who’s been discussed in “BSG” lore as something of a legal genius (and mob mouthpiece??). Stolz will play Daniel Graystone, the scientist who will inadvertantly “father” the Cylons due to a terrible tragedy.
Early information refers to the show as “Dallas in sci-fi clothing”, and data from IMDB and the Battlestar Wiki indicate the origins of the religious themes that were at the core of “BSG”’s brilliant mythology may well be at the heart of ”Caprica”.
Other highlights of the show’s casting include familiar faces Polly Walker (”Rome”, Atia), Paula Malcomsen (”Deadwood”, Trixie) and Roger R. Cross (”24″, Curtis Manning), which means the show is much more front-loaded with known faces with solid series work on their resumes than was “Battlestar”. But there were certainly no mistakes made in the casting of those unknowns on “BSG”, was there??
With “BSG” masterminds Ronald Moore and David Eick set as the showrunners, and a stated intention to reassemble as much of their old writing staff as is possible - said to be a key reason for the long gap between greenlight and the announced production start in Vancouver - hopes must run high that we’re looking at another blue ribbon winner in Sci-Fi TV.
TBTIRT: “Thinking Men” Ask to Be Excused, For Just a Minute…
Tina Fey, the intellectual’s pin-up queen, triumphantly blows up the cover of the January ‘09 Vanity Fair.
Photographed by Annie Lebovitz, profiled by Maureen Dowd, and all anybody wants to talk about is the shocking revelation behind the scar.
“You know, when I was your kids’ age, the only really funny chick on TV that was close to hot was Carol Burnett. And, yes, I know that’s why you’re scared to be alone in the house with me…”
BTW, the New Yorker appears to be totally over Tina now. How sad for them.
Destruction of the Innocent: Johns Continues to Remake Superman Legend In His Image
News broke last week at Newsarama about a “Superman: Secret Origins” mini-series coming next spring from DC Comics. Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank will leave “Action Comics” to do this 6 issue series before rebooting “Adventure Comics” later in 2009.
Obviously, the big news comes on the second of the four comic covers merged above.
As I’ve discussed before, the Superboy part of the mythos was erased in the 1986 John Byrne ”Man of Steel” series that followed the “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. Now, as a storyline to follow the (often misguided) “Final Crisis”, the mythos will be revised again… and the Boy of Steel will fly once more.
A critical mistake from DC’s mid-80’s will be fixed, especially in the wake of the now-revitalized “Smallville” on TV’s CW. This realignment will also allow Johns to reknit the massively frayed fabric that is the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Plus, Johns and Frank’s current work in “Action”, featuring a Kent/Kal-El who’s the spitting image of the beloved Christopher Reeve, is just very, very good.
Perhaps this is our first sign that in 2009 DC will find its way out of the creative woods that have marred their 2008.
While Pouting Over “Daisies” Imminent Demise…
… We discovered a neat little site called Den of Geek which pontificates on 17 other TV shows that went too soon.
Check the list out, and you’ll see that Bryan Fuller and Tim Minear are the patron saints of quality dead TV.
That’s TV’s Todd Holland between Fuller and Minear at the 2004 SDCC.
One more note on “Pushing Daisies”, the show started a whopper of a creative comeback with episode five this season. Been running at full power since. Another great pity that it came too late.
Image via Wikipedia
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