A-Train Derailed by Laryngitis

Avril Lavigne, who was set to appear at the Everett Events Center on May 10, has had to postpone that date, as well as a subsequent one in Spokane, due to acute laryngitis. Quoth the A-Train, in a press release: “My sincerest apologies to all of my fans. My intention was to complete the rest of the tour but tonight at sound check in Anaheim I realized this wasn’t possible. Even though I have been resting my voice for days, when I tried to sing nothing came out.”�

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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I'd Do Anything For Loaf (But I Won't Do That)

I didn't begin to fully appreciate Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday) until last year, when I watched a made-for-television movie on VH1 that chronicled Loaf's life from the small theater stages to arenas to the big screen. I had always found his music to be a little too, well, theatrical, dramatic, and over-the-top for my tastes. Every time I heard or saw the music video to "I'd Do Anything For Love," I'd let out a huge laugh at that miserable, ugly-looking man who leered in the dark corner of a castle and chased after the beautiful model through the forest. What was it, exactly, that he wouldn't do? (Calling all kinky minds to hypothesize.) Meat Loaf was like the butt of a joke without a punchline. I never took him or his music seriously.

Anyway, the movie portrayed Meat Loaf more as a person than a persona (with some random actor cast as Meat Loaf), and I suddenly gained more appreciation for the man and how he kind of defied what a pop star could look or sound like. When I found Bat Out Of Hell on vinyl a couple months ago, I didn't hesitate to bring it home with me. Not that the dollar bin where it was found had anything to do with it.

This morning, I received an invitation to attend the red carpet premiere of the new Meat Loaf documentary, Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, where Meat Loaf will be in attendance. Oh man, what an opportunity! I nearly jumped out of my seat with excitement. I've only seen a depiction of Meat Loaf's life played out through actors (for a made-for-TV movie, it was excellent). Now I'm given the chance to see the man, the myth, the meat share his up-and-down life experiences on the big screen, seated in the same room as the subject, and I can't - the premiere is in New York City!

I'd do anything for a lot of things, but I won't fly across the country in the name of Meat Loaf. That's just embarrassing.

Watch the trailer:

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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Nerd Alert: A Question

Many times, music geeks find themselves in conversation with people (sometimes other music geeks), and those people start sizing you up. They say things like "What're your Top 5 favorite bands?" and "You really enjoy Tunnel of Love?"

Recently, I was asked one that caught me off guard, that I'm turning over to you REVERB readers:

"If you could pick one band, alive or dead, to hang out with on the tour bus, who would it be and at what period in their career?"

See, total Nerd City...but a fun one to ponder. Oh, and my answer to the question was "Fuck hanging with a band. I'd rather hang out with Kesey and Pranksters", hence the pic above.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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Total Lunar Eclipse of the Heart

I just got this forward through a local mailing list, and I had to share. I don't know who it originated with, but they're my new hero. Happy birthday, funny person! Holy shiiit...

Dear All:

Please join me in Cal Anderson park on February 20th at 7:01PM to sing Total Eclipse of the Heart karaoke style for the 51 minutes that the eclipse is, in fact, total.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/080207-lunar-eclipse.html

If you want to bring along music to sing along to with your boombox, feel free. If you want to play an instrument, feel free. If you want to bring your whole band, go ahead. I will have a megaphone so that people can take their turn on the top of the hill if they want. If you bring your own megaphone, don't be a dick.

Cal Anderson Park: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?id=3102

Event Start: 6:30P - End: ???
Totality Start: 7:01P - End: 7:52P

We go mobile if it seems like a good idea. It's also my birthday the next day.

Feel free to pass this invitation along to whomever. Ideally, the skies will be clear enough to actually witness the Total Eclipse (of the Heart.)

Dress however you like, I suggest warm, festive, and moisture resistant.
Don't come to take pictures, come to sing! You may wish to bring coffee.

Image: http://www.corprew.org/images/lunacy.jpg

Inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nTwg5NIPM

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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A-Train to Stop in Everett

While Avril Lavigne's 2004 release, Under My Skin, was pop perfection and easily one of the most underrated albums of all time, this year's Best Damn Thing generally blows (amazingly, the worst track of the bunch, "Girlfriend," rates as the #23 single of the year in the Voice's Pazz & Jop poll). That's why I'm not as excited as I might normally be that the A-Train just announced a stop at the Everett Events Center on May 10. But for diehards (i.e., teenage girls), at least this means mom won't have to drive you to Spokane to catch the tour.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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Absorb Up to Two Pints of Flavor

In case you didn't catch Neko Case and Kelly Hogan as a pair of frisky Sirens on Aqua Teen Hunger Force this weekend, you can watch it here

If you aren't aware of how cool the Sunday night Adult Swim lineup has gotten, I encourage to check it out. Live in a cable-free household? Most of the Sunday night line-up is available online at adultswim.com. Here are a few of my favorite highlights. (If you're at work, put your headphones on.....now)

First, from the crazy-ass freaks who thought up

and

I give you.....

Xavier: Renegade Angel
Remember the Saturday morning action cartoons(He-Man, ThunderCats) that came on after Looney Tunes back in the day? Xavier is a take on them by the kids who brought you Wonder Showzen. So basically it's like you're 10 and watching a serial action cartoon after accidentally eating 2 or 3 of your parents pot brownies. Wikipedia provides this plot synopsis:

The show follows Xavier (a Native American-influenced faun-like wanderer/seeker with a snake hand, backwards knees, a beak, heterochromic eyes, and six nipples), who is traveling across America to find out the truth about his mysterious and uncertain origin, and uncover his parents' murderer. Occasional flashbacks to his past show that he himself killed his parents after starting an accidental fire in their home, but on the rare occasions when he is presented with the truth, he subconsciously rejects it.
Each episode begins with Xavier walking through the desert, musing on the themes of that episode, before entering a town, where he will usually meet someone whom he thinks needs his help. His attempts to help, however, are hamstrung by his own abject incompetence, and many episodes are based purely around Xavier trying to limit the damage that he has caused. Most episodes end with him walking back into the desert, thinking that he has managed to do some good, when he usually has not.

Not your cup of tea?

How's about some satire metal?

Metalocalypse

Or some ridiculous sketch humor?

Tim and Eric Awesome Show

Or reflexions on the white-trash life of some hillbilly squids?

Squidbillies

If you didn't laugh at least once during the previous clips, I'm sorry, we can never be friends.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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Filipino Prisoner Thriller Dance

Up until a few minutes ago, I was pretty nonplussed by the recent international wave of amateur "Thriller" mimicry. But after seeing a group of Filipino prisoners do that dance, I'm all for it now (shout out to the blog of Rafe Bartholomew, who penned this week's extraordinary feature on Rosell Ellis' life as a Filipino import hoop star).

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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Avril Lavigne Live at the Roxy

I've been a lonely champion of Avril Lavigne ever since I first heard "Complicated" blast through my Buick's speakers, but lately I've soured a bit on the Canadian princess of proper enunciation. While her most recent album, The Best Damn Thing, features three or four righteous power ballads, it's easily the worst of the A-Train's career — and maybe one of the worst albums of the year, period. Ironically, the A-Train has partnered with MSN to stream a recent live set taped at the Roxy in Hollywood (which includes capable covers of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and Sarah McLachlan's "Adia"). It's renewed my faith in the A-Train, whose sophomore effort, Under My Skin, was nothing short of spectacular. On her next trip to the studio, she needs to recapture that magic, and lose the pink-blonde dye job in the process. The A-Train should also take a nod from Faith Hill and hire a songwriter; there's nothing noble about doing your own songwriting if the lyrics are crap.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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I Heard This: Perfect Blue Buildings at Bubbles

What: "Perfect Blue Buildings" by Counting Crows.
When: 10 a.m., the morning after Thanksgiving.
Where: Bubbles Tea and Coffee on Delridge Way, WEST SEATTLE.

Some coffee shops play super-hip music that only avid listeners of KEXP will be able recognize. Others play bland smooth jazz or endless rotations of Paul McCartney and holiday pap. Still others, like Bubbles, opt for KMTT-esque AOR satellite offerings from the likes of Dave Matthews and Counting Crows, both of whom I heard at Bubbles during a coffee break in between a long, post-gluttony walk and a bus ride into work on this gloriously crisp and sunny Friday morn.

Slam Adam Duritz's overwrought vocal sytlings and angsty, pre-emo (premo?) melodrama all you want, but August and Everything After is a virtually flawless, brilliantly paced album of haunting ballads and poppier, radio-friendly hits like "Rain King" and "Mr. Jones," which got played to death back when the band rose to prominence during Clinton's first term. But elsewhere on the album, you get the likes of "Perfect Blue Buildings," "Raining in Baltimore," "Omaha," "Anna Begins," and "Sullivan Street," all gorgeous, personal, heartfelt slowdowns which reveal Duritz and his mates to be far, far more than a hipster punch line.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures and I Heard This

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A Message To All Steely Dan Detractors

Despite Seth Rogen's assertion in Knocked Up that Steely Dan "gargles balls," there's only one good reason to hate Becker and Fagan, and that's the use of Michael McDonald on backing vocals on a handful of tracks. But for those of you who insist upon hating the definitive dice and cocaine duo of the 70's, I triple dog dare you to pick apart dildo Dan's debut, "Can't Buy A Thrill." Has any album kicked off with two more gloriously divergent singles than "Do It Again" and "Dirty Work" (the latter being my fave Steely track of all time, with "Deacon Blues" ranking a close second)? And in the Dan's vast oeuvre, is there a more underrated song than "Midnight Cruiser," which has been interpreted as a stealthy homage to the scuzzy Harlem jazz and drug scene that's somehow recaptured America's imagination in the here and now? Go ahead, haters, try and pick this album apart. Bet you can't, though.

Topics: Guilty Pleasures

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