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(01/24/08 2:05pm)
I agree the idea of holding a public meeting off-the-record is completely bogus. Meghan O’Sullivan, former deputy national security advisor to President Bush, (and indeed the whole nation) should feel comfortable having civil adult conversations about Iraq in the public sphere. But I’m also certain the IDS would have granted her conditions were only a few unimportant differences in play. In which case, closing the speech seems like hollow victory on semantic grounds that shortchanged the public of an important (if partisan and altogether terribly wrong) side of the debate about Iraq. The Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations Feisal Istrabadi talked to an international relations political science class last year before his public speech, disclosing his personal opinions on the way the U.S. could help Iraq. His experience, combined with his candidness, provided for insights into Iraq provided that class with a unique view of Iraq.\nAt the outset of the speech, he said to everyone that the session was off-the-record. Were his opinions to be set out on-record, he said he would not deliver anything but canned rhetoric. Perhaps I was shirking my journalistic responsibility by not attempting to report on the class (while employed by the IDS), which any member of the public could have attended. Given what I learned that day, I do not see it this way. To me, the size or public nature of the crowd does not matter. If Ms. O’Sullivan had requested an off-the-record meeting with an IDS journalist or two (or three or 10), wouldn’t she be granted that? Even if the meeting was in a public place? Would her speech then be off-the-record if she requested it separately as each person entered the door? Surely IDS policy would be to err on the side of source confidentiality. Or what if President George W. Bush had requested this speech? Surely the IDS would agree to attend and not use the information garnered, as the alternative would be being barred by the Secret Service.\nThat said, keep fighting the good fight.
(06/14/07 4:00am)
Bruce Springsteen is the consummate American musician -- the best under the Stars and Stripes. \n"I believe that the life of a rock 'n' roll band will last as long as you look down into the audience and can see yourself, and your audience looks up at you and can see themselves," the Boss once said. \nSpringsteen looks down and sees us. But he still rides because we look back at him and see everything we hope to have: persevering optimism and humble, working-class family values. Truth be told, he seems to have achieved the sublime perfection we all seek. \nIf you appreciate his music at all, get Live In Dublin now. If you can feel anything, try to stop the hair on the back of your neck from standing on edge during revamped classics like "Highway Patrolman" and "Atlantic City" or Pete Seeger greats like "Mrs. McGrath." \nThrough the originals and covers, Springsteen works through those lofty American values he and Seeger champion: Family is family, no matter what. And sometimes everyone needs a helping hand. \nNo one deserves a lift more than those left for dead in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Whoever said protest is un-American has no music in his heart. Fortunately, though, our friend's got a lot of both. His adaptation of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live" chides our current president:\n"... And what happened to you poor black folks, well it just ain't fair / He took a look around, gave a little pep talk, said 'I'm with you' then he took a little walk / Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?"\nI don't know the answer to the question the song poses, but listening to the Boss is a good start to finding it.
(05/24/07 4:00am)
This album gets an automatic F. Chester Bennington -- the band's emo member who sometimes sports bleached hair and cut-yourself glasses -- is a terrible lyricist. Here's a quick preview: "Put me out of my misery / Put me out of my misery / Put me out of my ... / Put me out of my fucking misery," he screams on the first track (post-intro). Wow. Powerful. Help me, Emo-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope. \nSeriously, Bennington's lyrics make Fall Out Boy look like Rage Against The Machine. The rest of the album basically proceeds in similar fashion, with only one notable exception. \nMike Shinoda actually lays a decent verse or two on "Hands Held High." Now, I'm just as surprised as anyone to be writing this, but despite the terrible − and sacrilegious − chorus, Shinoda has written what I'm pretty sure is a shout-out to Jean-Paul Sartre: "My brother had a book he would hold with pride / A little red cover with a broken spine. / In the back he hand wrote a quote inside, / 'when the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.'"\nImagine that: the dudes from Linkin Park reading Sartre. \nTrue, one song doesn't make up for the MySpace lyrics of the rest of album, nor does it excuse the rehashed, Disturbed-era guitar riffs, themselves overly simplistic faux rock. But that's not to say it doesn't have its own topical appeal. But perhaps this is obvious, given the band's career multi-diamond record sales. \nJust as U2, Paul McCartney and others still make music to remind us how rock can be both appealing and worthless, Linkin Park reminds us that people who buy CDs listen to awful, lowest-common-denominator music. Yet if you don't listen too carefully, the album still has a glimmer of appeal.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
Cube … you've strayed so far from your roots. Where is the man of my youth who advocated for more riots in L.A. and dropped albums with titles like AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted? And who told him that he could act? That person should be taken out behind the woodshed. How does the idea of Ice Cube being subjected to cheesy Elmer Fudd-like antics draw so many people?\nThe movie starts us off where "Are We There Yet?" left off, but you needn't see the first. Ice Cube takes us through the basics in a monologue, setting up poorly staged antics in a too-small apartment, including the introduction of the two children as well as two more on the way. \nThe cramped quarters lead our hero to provide a real home for his burgeoning family, setting up poorer antics in a beautiful old home infested with every problem a home-owner could face. Crumbling foundation, dry rot, termites, vermin infestations, bats, blown electrical work, no insulation, failing windows and doors … the predictability and implausibility never end, and the laughs never start.\nSorry, but I don't see Cube as a New England countryside dweller who lets John C. McGinley's character swindle him out of $100,000 or so and forgiving him on the notion that the swindling helped build a family. \nThe old Cube should have killed the white devil on the spot. Anyone with a brainstem would have sued such a swindler back into the Jurassic Period, which, for all the budding paleontologists out there, was between 150 million and 200 million years ago.\nAside from that, moviegoers might also find plot holes big enough to drive trucks through, terrible special effects, obvious storylines and weak performances by more seasoned actors than Ice Cube.\nGiven my disillusionment, distaste and the movie's structural problems, you'd be right to expect an 'F' grade. But the aforementioned McGinley saves the film from the f-bomb. \nHis performance reminds of an early Will Ferrell: multifaceted, impervious to his preposterous nature and crazy enough to concoct a character that served as a power-walking alternate in the 1994 Goodwill Games in Russia. \nDon't know who McGinley is? I didn't either. (Enter IMDB.com) He plays Dr. Cox (the show's best character) on the ever-brilliant "Scrubs," or you might remember him as Bob Slidell in "Office Space." \nOther than that, the acting is putrid, as is the setup and plot. It turns out the pleasure really is all on that side of the table, Bob.
(04/05/07 4:00am)
This effeminate singer comes to us by way of London-from-Paris-from-Beruit, and he brings his worldly understanding of music from his days training under a Russian opera master and classical performances at the Royal Opera House of London. \nOdd resume for a future pop-star, I know. Maybe not your standard formula for success, but hear Mika pipe out fun falsetto melodies before you judge.\nThis album pops off from the beginning with a bubblegum sound that is as happily annoying as it is impossible to get out of your head. Songs like "Grace Kelly" and "Relax (Take It Easy)" could make Freddie Mercury or Madonna jealous they're so damn catchy.\nIf you missed Mika so far, I pity you. Somehow his blip on our nation's collective musical radar has been tiny, even with MTV promotions. Life has some singles not to be missed.\nBut hang on just one damn second before you -- the adoring masses who hang off my every review -- bum rush Best Buy for this album like the rabid possum who lives near my back deck bum rushes our trash each night. Down boys and girls, down! \nLife In Cartoon Motion is one of those every-other-song-is-awesome albums. The filler between isn't bad, just not peppy or big enough to keep up the styling's necessary to do the Nelly Furtado-meets-Styx sound. And some of the sounds come off contrived, which isn't all that surprising given the bombastic nature of this straightforward pop.\nThank God above for these Brits, though. I'm looking forward to Mika's second album, given how mature he is already. Be sure to snatch up the singles, if nothing else. After all, there's a reason why Queen's Brian May went to bat for Mika in the media, publicly calling one negative reviewer a "wanker."\nWell, now that mine is through, Mr. May, penny for your thoughts?
(04/05/07 4:00am)
This young Canadian bunch produced some of this year's most advanced music to date. They fly through hollow synth solos and wade through boastful bass with vocals switching between dramatic sing-alongs and melancholy wanderings, with lyrics telling stories of robots and blogs, as well as the mundane life of us twentysomethings. \nThey evoke Bloc Party, The Killers and The Strokes -- sometimes all at once.\nNot that everything is perfect in Tokyo: Someone tell these boys and girls that songs can go on after the solo! And, to date, the lyrics are a bit shallow. But fans should and can expect their lyrics to become a little more grounded in real life dramas as they mature, much like how The Decemberists have kept their stylings while growing. \nKey track: "Nature Of The Experiment"
(01/19/07 4:45am)
Rifts between students and alumni have the campus talking about "old people" and whether they are seated or standing. \nTensions have run high at Assembly Hall. The house that fiery former men's basketball coach Bob Knight built features scattered student seating, maybe the only of its kind at major programs without large dedicated student cheering blocs. \nThat tension erupted at IU's most recent duo of home games. At home against Purdue and Iowa, students chanted "Stand up, old people," stemming from a scorn for cross-armed, seated alums. Alumni showed only little disdain for the cheers, and have largely followed their juniors' orders.\nSophomore Beau Dunfee says he started the chant with his friends, frustrated that alumni sat during free-throw attempts by the Boilermakers, instead of attempting to disrupt the player's concentration. \n"We want our seats back," he said in a e-mail. " We want to be all the way around the court too, students should be the only people in the bleachers and courtside. Just like Duke."\nBut the chafing for a designated courtside student cheering section -- like that of Michigan State, Illinois, Duke or, really, any major program -- predates current undergrads. Student demands range from reducing prices to overhaul, introducing the idea of merit-based seating. \nMen's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson said Thursday student seating concentrated near the court provides his team a greater advantage. He said a student section was as necessary as wearing a coat in below-freezing weather.\n"I'd like to see the students in a concentrated area, instead of some over here and some over there," he said. "And that's something I'd like to talk to (Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan) and the administrators about when the season's over.\nEven without "krush" or "crazies," fans the world over seem to fear Hoosier hysteria. An ESPN poll showed readers voted IU's students' spirit fourth among all universities, behind only Duke, Kentucky and Kansas, and ahead of Wisconsin and Michigan State. Fellow Hoosier-state schools Butler and Valparaiso made the short list at 13th and 14th, respectively. \nOne reason for opponent fear could be the amount of student seating at each game: 8,000 -- more seats than are given to any other Big Ten school's students. Sampson said students should be thankful for the number of seats. But Alumni complain that students don't arrive to their plethora of seats on time, detracting from the game experience. \nDunfee argues the scattered seating disinterests students. He prescribes changes similar to Sampson's to create what he calls an intimidating atmosphere for opponents.\n"When it comes to a student section it is quality over quantity," he said. "When my friends and I see that we have 10 games in the balcony we don't really want to go to the game, much less show up on time."\nHe calls for a student section that wraps around the basket, at least five rows deep, available on a first-come basis, with coordinated cheers organized by an IU club.\nA student clash with administration over ticketing and seating at basketball games is nothing new at IU. \nA $30 campus-wide athletics fee imposed upon students from 2004 to 2006 stirred the beehive of debt-saddled students. The recent rescinding of that fee was well met, but now complicates student-alumni relations at games. To gain back their $30 each year, students lost 500 student seats at each home basketball contest this year. The administration expects to earn an extra $260,000 on top of the more than-$1 million they collected each year from the fee.\nMany athletic departments around the country rely on student money for support.\nAnd, complicating matters, IU students might be handcuffing the athletics officials. Student ticket prices, though raised this year, don't compete with what alumni pay. The department needs that extra money -- either from alumni tickets or student fees -- because IU football isn't making enough money to erase a decade and a half of losses adding up to $9 million in total debt. Most schools rely primarily on football and somewhat on basketball for all athletics revenue.
(01/05/07 5:32pm)
Jilted former IU men's basketball coach Bob Knight won his historic 880th game Monday, but he remains an outsider at the IU Athletics Hall of Fame.\nThe University's hall includes some of the country's best former college basketball players like Kent Benson and Calbert Cheaney and IU's original championship-winning coach Branch McCracken, among many others. \nThree decades after a perfect season -- the last of its kind in men's college basketball -- Knight may not have even been nominated for induction. \nCoaches are eligible five years after leaving, IU assistant athletics director Kit Klingelhoffer said. Knight, fired in 2000, was eligible for the 2005 and 2006 classes. Knight is the winningest men's basketball coach in IU history with 662 of his 880 wins coming with the Hoosiers. Knight's resume includes three national championships, an NIT crown and an Olympic gold medal. \nBut ever since Knight's firing in 2000 after allegedly grabbing an IU student by the arm, the coach and the University have been wary of each other's mention.\nIU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan said he expects Knight to be inducted into IU's hall, but he did not know if Knight had ever been nominated.\n"I would be shocked if, at some point in time, he was not a member," Greenspan said. "I think he'd have to be nominated just because of the sheer magnitude of what he's done."\nCurrent NCAA and former IU President Myles Brand, who fired Knight, issued a one-sentence statement after Knight passed former North Carolina coach Dean Smith on the all-time men's Div. I basketball wins list. \n"Congratulations to coach Knight, and especially to the many young men who played for him over the years," Brand said.\nIU President Adam Herbert recognized Knight's contributions to IU in a prepared statement after Knight beat New Mexico 70-68 for the historic benchmark.\n"This is truly a remarkable feat," he said. "Indiana University fans have always been proud of the record of team success that Coach Knight achieved here in Bloomington.\n"I wish Coach Knight continued success," he added.\nKnight's Texas Tech Red Raiders (11-4) open Big 12 conference play against Oklahoma on Saturday at home in Lubbock, Texas. \nIU men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, an Oklahoma Sooner himself less than a year ago, said Knight was a presence that coaches could simply feel on the court when playing against him. \n"Coach Knight will win as many as he wants to win," he said. "He's got it going at Texas Tech now, and I don't know how much longer he wants to coach, but he'll put that mark to wherever he wants it. It was an honor to coach against him. \n"The fact you get to live in this era to see a living legend do his business … We're all fortunate to be able to see it."\n-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(12/08/06 7:49pm)
XXL. 4.5 stars. 9.1/10. A.\nI can't say much that hasn't been said about Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury. But I'll keep writing anyway.\nThis is the best rap album since Lord Willin', their last effort. Thank God for Jeezy, Rick Ross and a few others who kept coke-music breathing during Clipse's 4-year layoff. But the games are over. \nThis is Clipse's The Chronic, their Illmatic.\nThe brothers Thorton are purebred coke dealers and it shows. Ross can't leave the hustle of the Miami coke scene and his music suffers from the raw. Jeezy can't leave the music long enough to remember his former struggles. \nClipse left dealing, but dealing can't leave them -- it's in their blood. It's in their music: "Keys Open Doors" is a double entendre, to be interpreted both straight forward and as a tale of using money from kilos (keys) of cocaine to ascend into the world of Tony Montana. The album's simple blasts sweep away the transgressions of, among others, Jay-Z, or, worse, subsequent comparisons of Jay's un-retirement to Michael Jordan's return to basketball. \nThe lyrics innovate and, unlike other rappers, they create without robbing blind their contemporaries. Anyone who turns eenie-meenie-minee-mo into a verb, continually innovate the ghetto standby "ice" and .. well, you'll either get it or you won't: "The black Martha Stewart / let me show you how to do it / break down pies to pieces / make cocaine quiches / money piles high as my nieces." Enough written. Almost.\nThe album burns like uranium is on the tracks: The beats go yard on each song. They alternate between Jupiter and Queens, between spacey backdrops with militant drumming on the side and block-busting beats with bomb ticks and squeals over the top. \nThe Neptunes, rap's millennial-era savior, produce their best beats for this duo, who share a home town, Virginia Beach. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (who make up The Neptunes) give me the chills. Blastin' "Hello New World" or "Trill", I'll "ride around shinin' while I can afford it" with "plenty ice around my neck so I don't get nauseous / float around in the greatest of Porsches / feel like a chuck wagon cuz I'm on 12 horses." \nI couldn't say it better myself. But I'll keep writing anyway.
(12/08/06 5:00am)
XXL. 4.5 stars. 9.1/10. A.\nI can't say much that hasn't been said about Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury. But I'll keep writing anyway.\nThis is the best rap album since Lord Willin', their last effort. Thank God for Jeezy, Rick Ross and a few others who kept coke-music breathing during Clipse's 4-year layoff. But the games are over. \nThis is Clipse's The Chronic, their Illmatic.\nThe brothers Thorton are purebred coke dealers and it shows. Ross can't leave the hustle of the Miami coke scene and his music suffers from the raw. Jeezy can't leave the music long enough to remember his former struggles. \nClipse left dealing, but dealing can't leave them -- it's in their blood. It's in their music: "Keys Open Doors" is a double entendre, to be interpreted both straight forward and as a tale of using money from kilos (keys) of cocaine to ascend into the world of Tony Montana. The album's simple blasts sweep away the transgressions of, among others, Jay-Z, or, worse, subsequent comparisons of Jay's un-retirement to Michael Jordan's return to basketball. \nThe lyrics innovate and, unlike other rappers, they create without robbing blind their contemporaries. Anyone who turns eenie-meenie-minee-mo into a verb, continually innovate the ghetto standby "ice" and .. well, you'll either get it or you won't: "The black Martha Stewart / let me show you how to do it / break down pies to pieces / make cocaine quiches / money piles high as my nieces." Enough written. Almost.\nThe album burns like uranium is on the tracks: The beats go yard on each song. They alternate between Jupiter and Queens, between spacey backdrops with militant drumming on the side and block-busting beats with bomb ticks and squeals over the top. \nThe Neptunes, rap's millennial-era savior, produce their best beats for this duo, who share a home town, Virginia Beach. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (who make up The Neptunes) give me the chills. Blastin' "Hello New World" or "Trill", I'll "ride around shinin' while I can afford it" with "plenty ice around my neck so I don't get nauseous / float around in the greatest of Porsches / feel like a chuck wagon cuz I'm on 12 horses." \nI couldn't say it better myself. But I'll keep writing anyway.
(10/26/06 7:13pm)
Somebody kill me. Or, instead, kill the man who made me cop Diddy's newest, digest it and then vomit this your way.\nThe new 80s music resurgence, marked by extravagant layers and hair band samples, isn't enough to buoy an overrated emcee. \nBeats circling around, drilling down overlaid with horns splashing around overtop -- the formula for success for Justin Timberlake -- explodes like a North Korean A-bomb in Diddy's hands.\nPress Play, self-polished harder and more often than Hasselhoff waxed his K.I.T.T., survives against Diddy's best efforts. Kanye West, Timbaland and Cee-Lo (of Gnarls Barkley fame) shout down some terrible metaphors and boasts for some chill songs. But chillin' to Diddy often takes a special talent I lack: Ignoring the parts he fields alone.\nTimbaland's brilliant borrows from dance-techno pepper the album, continuing to make him the hottest producer of 2006. (And he should remain there until Clipse drops their second album before the year ends.)\nSo, if you must foray into this album, turn the base up to Spinal Tap levels. Be sure to uncheck Diddy's solo efforts in iTunes. Peep the Twista, Big Boi and Nas laced tracks. The beats really might just make some of them tolerable... \n"America, lay back, you can't stop me," he proclaims on the laughable "The Future." This album will surely sell stateside, but, still, I hope he's wrong. Either way, another Diddy album is unlikely, he told interviewers while promoting this steaming pile. \nSo, all will again be right with the world, should I survive hearing singles from Press Play at Kilroy's Sports until I graduate. Maybe they'll read this and just throw on the instrumentals. Please...
(10/26/06 4:00am)
Somebody kill me. Or, instead, kill the man who made me cop Diddy's newest, digest it and then vomit this your way.\nThe new 80s music resurgence, marked by extravagant layers and hair band samples, isn't enough to buoy an overrated emcee. \nBeats circling around, drilling down overlaid with horns splashing around overtop -- the formula for success for Justin Timberlake -- explodes like a North Korean A-bomb in Diddy's hands.\nPress Play, self-polished harder and more often than Hasselhoff waxed his K.I.T.T., survives against Diddy's best efforts. Kanye West, Timbaland and Cee-Lo (of Gnarls Barkley fame) shout down some terrible metaphors and boasts for some chill songs. But chillin' to Diddy often takes a special talent I lack: Ignoring the parts he fields alone.\nTimbaland's brilliant borrows from dance-techno pepper the album, continuing to make him the hottest producer of 2006. (And he should remain there until Clipse drops their second album before the year ends.)\nSo, if you must foray into this album, turn the base up to Spinal Tap levels. Be sure to uncheck Diddy's solo efforts in iTunes. Peep the Twista, Big Boi and Nas laced tracks. The beats really might just make some of them tolerable... \n"America, lay back, you can't stop me," he proclaims on the laughable "The Future." This album will surely sell stateside, but, still, I hope he's wrong. Either way, another Diddy album is unlikely, he told interviewers while promoting this steaming pile. \nSo, all will again be right with the world, should I survive hearing singles from Press Play at Kilroy's Sports until I graduate. Maybe they'll read this and just throw on the instrumentals. Please...
(10/25/06 3:40am)
The Indiana Supreme Court Tuesday refused to hear the appeal of a lawsuit claiming IU officials met to fire IU basketball coach Bob Knight in a way that violated the Indiana public meeting laws.\nThe lawsuit alleged the board of trustees, IU's governing body, met to discuss firing Knight, constituting a violation of Indiana's Open Door Law. A previous judgement found that then-IU President Myles Brand had full authority to fire Knight, and a later judgment found the trustees met legally. A group of fans, not Knight, brought the case to court.\nThe Court of Appeals of Indiana upheld the decision earlier this year. \nIU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre said he believes the case was rejected based on its merits, but he said he couldn't speak for the state court. A press release from the court offered no explanation, only that the appeal was reviewed and denied.\n"We're pleased that the position we've maintained all along has been upheld," he said. "Hopefully, this brings the case to an end"
(10/24/06 8:50pm)
The Indiana Supreme Court refused to hear a case today claiming IU officials met to fire Bob Knight in a way that violated the state of Indiana's laws about public meetings.\nThe lawsuit alleged the board of trustees, IU's governing body, met to discuss firing Knight, constituting a violation of Indiana's Open Door Law. A judgment from the Clark County court found that then-IU President Myles Brand had full authority to fire Knight, and a later judgment found the trustees had met legally. Fans, not Knight, brought the case to court.\nThe Court of Appeals of Indiana upheld the decision earlier this year. \nIU spokesperson Larry MacIntyre said he believes the case had been rejected based on its merits. But he said he couldn't speak for the state court. A press release from the court offered no explanation, only that the appeal was reviewed and denied.\n"We're pleased that the position we've maintained all along has been upheld," he said. "Hopefully, this brings the case to an end."\nNo one from the court returned calls Tuesday afternoon.
(09/21/06 4:00am)
Justin Timberlake makes hosting successful parties simple. Female attendance lays the groundwork for party host reputations, but retainment relies on grindin'. They've gotta hit the dance floor. FutureSex/LoveSounds, just like JT's last effort, Justified, is the perfect CD to draw and retain party-goers.\nOr, I should say, superproducer Timbaland helps hosts. Nearly every song on the album comes from music's hottest producer, so the beats hit hard, at the same time synth-ing the revamped 1980s sounds. \nBut the album is missing some of the hallmarks that made Justified too hot to handle. Conspicuous is the lack of the Neptunes' spacey magic and the simple Scott Storch stylings, making the album too similar through the middle. And the role of the rap hitter is spotty. \nTimbaland tries to fill in, to the album's detriment, and rapper T.I.'s surprisingly weak performance isn't enough. Three 6 Mafia goes underused, appearing only for a few seconds. And will.i.am graces the album with his post-Fergie styled nonsense. Hopefully, a few artists -- everyone from DJ Danger Mouse to 50 Cent -- pick this album apart and rebuild it, remaking greatness with greatness.\nJT should land The Clipse rap duo for his next album, but he'll be fine in the interim. This is a hot album from front to back. It revels in excessive sexuality -- where the lyrics turn inanely to another topic, one hot backbeat or another takes over the song. \n"My Love" is the album's second single, behind the prolific "SexyBack." The rest of 2006 and 2007 should be dominated by "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows (Interlude)," "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around (Interlude)" and maybe "Chop Me Up."\nThe stylings of this album bend forward pop music, perhaps revamping dreaded disco. But perhaps the slick, wild beats show the influence of populist music from Under the Influence of Giants to The Mars Volta.
(09/21/06 3:05am)
Justin Timberlake makes hosting successful parties simple. Female attendance lays the groundwork for party host reputations, but retainment relies on grindin'. They've gotta hit the dance floor. FutureSex/LoveSounds, just like JT's last effort, Justified, is the perfect CD to draw and retain party-goers.\nOr, I should say, superproducer Timbaland helps hosts. Nearly every song on the album comes from music's hottest producer, so the beats hit hard, at the same time synth-ing the revamped 1980s sounds. \nBut the album is missing some of the hallmarks that made Justified too hot to handle. Conspicuous is the lack of the Neptunes' spacey magic and the simple Scott Storch stylings, making the album too similar through the middle. And the role of the rap hitter is spotty. \nTimbaland tries to fill in, to the album's detriment, and rapper T.I.'s surprisingly weak performance isn't enough. Three 6 Mafia goes underused, appearing only for a few seconds. And will.i.am graces the album with his post-Fergie styled nonsense. Hopefully, a few artists -- everyone from DJ Danger Mouse to 50 Cent -- pick this album apart and rebuild it, remaking greatness with greatness.\nJT should land The Clipse rap duo for his next album, but he'll be fine in the interim. This is a hot album from front to back. It revels in excessive sexuality -- where the lyrics turn inanely to another topic, one hot backbeat or another takes over the song. \n"My Love" is the album's second single, behind the prolific "SexyBack." The rest of 2006 and 2007 should be dominated by "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows (Interlude)," "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around (Interlude)" and maybe "Chop Me Up."\nThe stylings of this album bend forward pop music, perhaps revamping dreaded disco. But perhaps the slick, wild beats show the influence of populist music from Under the Influence of Giants to The Mars Volta.
(09/14/06 4:00am)
Audioslave and Jadakiss should cut one massive, tepid album together. They'd have plenty of common ground: both talents reel in critical acclaim for obvious skill, yet neither artist has dropped discs to match that skill. The Rage Against The Machine-meets-Soundgarden mash-up wails on both vocals and guitars, but none of the new tracks on Revelations raises my pulse.\nChris Cornell's lyrics sweep across bland self-denial as usual, but for the first time, he touches the political river of fire that was Zach de la Roche's lyrics. Cornell should throw himself at that third rail, that electric political activism that lights up Rage albums. Mixed with his distinct rough-shot voice, socio-politics could give him the fire necessary to slay Audioslave's doldrums.\nGuitar solos lick off at the lightening pace Tom Morello fans know, but the verses and choruses bore compared to albums past. Still, he's an upper echelon guitarist, a true talent for the ages. Bass player Tim Commerford provides subtle highlights when he diverges from Morello, just like on the band's previous cut, Out of Exile. I hope he gets a chance to shine more individually before the band nosedives into the supergroup death spiral.\nThe hope I held that Audioslave would emerge as something new and interesting is waning at a quickening pace. Still I'm glad I have the album, since pure rock is rare right now. Sure, Sufjan Stevens rules, but I still need some screaming hard rock sometimes.\nIf you loved the past efforts, this disk is worth $10. Intrigued, but not impressed before now? Leave this on the shelf ... or in the supercomputer at iTunes headquarters .. or just don't take the time to steal it.
(09/14/06 3:03am)
Audioslave and Jadakiss should cut one massive, tepid album together. They'd have plenty of common ground: both talents reel in critical acclaim for obvious skill, yet neither artist has dropped discs to match that skill. The Rage Against The Machine-meets-Soundgarden mash-up wails on both vocals and guitars, but none of the new tracks on Revelations raises my pulse.\nChris Cornell's lyrics sweep across bland self-denial as usual, but for the first time, he touches the political river of fire that was Zach de la Roche's lyrics. Cornell should throw himself at that third rail, that electric political activism that lights up Rage albums. Mixed with his distinct rough-shot voice, socio-politics could give him the fire necessary to slay Audioslave's doldrums.\nGuitar solos lick off at the lightening pace Tom Morello fans know, but the verses and choruses bore compared to albums past. Still, he's an upper echelon guitarist, a true talent for the ages. Bass player Tim Commerford provides subtle highlights when he diverges from Morello, just like on the band's previous cut, Out of Exile. I hope he gets a chance to shine more individually before the band nosedives into the supergroup death spiral.\nThe hope I held that Audioslave would emerge as something new and interesting is waning at a quickening pace. Still I'm glad I have the album, since pure rock is rare right now. Sure, Sufjan Stevens rules, but I still need some screaming hard rock sometimes.\nIf you loved the past efforts, this disk is worth $10. Intrigued, but not impressed before now? Leave this on the shelf ... or in the supercomputer at iTunes headquarters .. or just don't take the time to steal it.
(08/24/06 4:00am)
Whoever said rock music's supergroups never reach their potential missed The Yardbirds. The rough and sloppy blues of their Five Live Yardbirds connects the dots between Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones.\nThe group earns the term "super" with one-time members Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, though all three were never in the band at the same time.\nClapton would soon be replaced by Beck (who would later invite and be fired by Page), but not before recording Five Live. He wasn't "slow hands" yet, thankfully; his later song-writing tendencies had yet to take full shape. With Clapton romping through the set, the band tears through mostly short songs for a long, frenetic album.\nThe band plays like bees trapped in a glass box filling with smoke -- no one has any idea where they are going, but they are sure as shit going to knock themselves out trying. Is this pop? Blues? Rock? Folk? Who cares? They are burning down the walls of traditional music, exploring instrumentation that would become Led Zeppelin and so many others. \nThe recording quality is so-so and the production value is zero. Five Live is a raw blues-turning-to-rock album that doesn't let up. Crying-in-your-liquor wails that sully so many other blues albums can't be found.\nClapton didn't do pop, and psychedelic rock was a few years off. Instead, singer Keith Relf leads them somewhere between instead, pulled toward screaming, simple rock riffs. The 'Birds' passion rattles that part of a person's soul made to dance and celebrate.\nAnd even though The Yardbirds "borrowed" much of their material (just like Led Zeppelin would), few greater live discs exist, especially from that era.\nHow their name isn't synonymous with rock in the vein of the Rolling Stones, I'll never know. But as the world's fashion turns back to Luke Skywalker haircuts, gray and black trilbies and turncoats, it will need a simple, posh, energetic soundtrack to match.\nFive Live Yardbirds could fill that role nicely.
(08/24/06 2:45am)
Whoever said rock music's supergroups never reach their potential missed The Yardbirds. The rough and sloppy blues of their Five Live Yardbirds connects the dots between Muddy Waters and the Rolling Stones.\nThe group earns the term "super" with one-time members Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, though all three were never in the band at the same time.\nClapton would soon be replaced by Beck (who would later invite and be fired by Page), but not before recording Five Live. He wasn't "slow hands" yet, thankfully; his later song-writing tendencies had yet to take full shape. With Clapton romping through the set, the band tears through mostly short songs for a long, frenetic album.\nThe band plays like bees trapped in a glass box filling with smoke -- no one has any idea where they are going, but they are sure as shit going to knock themselves out trying. Is this pop? Blues? Rock? Folk? Who cares? They are burning down the walls of traditional music, exploring instrumentation that would become Led Zeppelin and so many others. \nThe recording quality is so-so and the production value is zero. Five Live is a raw blues-turning-to-rock album that doesn't let up. Crying-in-your-liquor wails that sully so many other blues albums can't be found.\nClapton didn't do pop, and psychedelic rock was a few years off. Instead, singer Keith Relf leads them somewhere between instead, pulled toward screaming, simple rock riffs. The 'Birds' passion rattles that part of a person's soul made to dance and celebrate.\nAnd even though The Yardbirds "borrowed" much of their material (just like Led Zeppelin would), few greater live discs exist, especially from that era.\nHow their name isn't synonymous with rock in the vein of the Rolling Stones, I'll never know. But as the world's fashion turns back to Luke Skywalker haircuts, gray and black trilbies and turncoats, it will need a simple, posh, energetic soundtrack to match.\nFive Live Yardbirds could fill that role nicely.