My Poproks » Poprok Rants

Weezer Does “Buddy Holly” on Last Call, Semi-Rant

Liz — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:37:20 +0000

OK.

~~I promise this is not going to turn into a rant~~.

I will not be seeing Weezer on their upcoming Blue/Pinkerton BlinkerTour. Why? Because I don’t care anymore. Rivers, I just don’t care. But yes, yes Rivers, Weezer, as it refers to the Weezer that existed pre-My Chemical Romance duets and album titles as clothing line promos (just admit it and stop this charade) and mostly only to Blue and Pinkerton, is the best.

Still, as the band loses nearly all credibility with nearly all of their older fanbase and tries to grapple on with a tour of their material from when they were good and perform songs from said albums on late night television in lieu of tracks from their new, mediocre album (clothing line promo!) that they otherwise should be promoting, and even shrugs off the most hurtful of insults with charming, self-deprecating Twitter updates, I just don’t. Care.

Weezer’s 1994 hit, “Buddy Holly”, as featured on Last Call with Carson Daly last night, above. (AP)

The B.o.B Puppet Show: “Nothin On You” Meant For Lupe Fiasco?

Liz — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:46:00 +0000

So, this quickly turned into a rant.

When I first read some of the negative reviews of B.o.B’s Adventures of Bobby Ray, I strongly disagreed with a lot of the points (and as a fan of his earlier mixtapes, was borderline defensive). Some criticized the album for being unfocused, and B.o.B for being a casualty of the major record label machine. I didn’t see the validity of these claims until yesterday when I saw B.o.B. live for the first time at the Beach Ballyhoo in Santa Monica.

What a mess.

Watching B.o.B live was like watching a puppet whose strings were being pulled in 8 distinctly different directions all at once. First was the hip hop portion, where Bobby Ray played the part of the Atlanta rapper. Then he was strapped with an acoustic guitar to churn out 4 chord radio ballads. Then came the pop/rock segment with its Weezer and Paramore guest vocals, then the hard rock segment, and so on and so forth.

B.o.B was able to keep up through all of the style changes and genre shifts, but it was exhausting to watch. It made me wonder which of the 8 directions was actually B.o.B’s, and if even B.o.B himself knew the answer to that. While I absolutely adore a handful of tracks from his catalog, it dawned on me halfway through the set that it was a very small handful. To top this off, I read today on Nah Right that one of those tracks, “Nothin On You”, was originally intended for Lupe Fiasco.

OK, so what? This kind of thing happens all of the time in hip hop and pop music. A producer or a songwriter has a track that gets passed around until someone’s version makes it to their album. Recently, we saw it with Mark Ronson’s “Letters” by Wale/Rhymefest/Young Chris, and that original Britney Spears demo of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”.

For the most part, it’s understandable. Everyone involved wants to get the song to the artist that will make it the most successful. Even though this original Lupe Fiasco version (below) sounds more like a tester than a legitimate final take (Lupe can do better than this), it’s obvious from the song’s “Superstar” top 40 appeal that it would have fit in well on one of his records.

However, It seems Atlantic (his and B.o.B’s label) not only gave the track to B.o.B instead, but are also delaying Lupe’s album while they promote Bobby Ray. They knew that it was clearly a ‘breakout track’ that would cross over B.o.B just in time for his debut full length. Besides, Lupe has Matthew Santos for his melodic pop choruses.

What’s my point, then? After yesterday’s display, I’m not really shocked to learn that B.o.B’s best track wasn’t originally meant for him. I just hope someone (preferably B.o.B) figures out what is.

Rolling Stone’s Top 25 Best Albums of 2009 Cracks Me Up

Liz — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:36:49 +0000

I’m afraid my gripes with this one go way beyond a comment/Tweet/Facebook status update. Based almost entirely on the top 2, Rolling Stones’s Top 25 Best Albums of 2009 is easily the worst ‘best of’ list the magazine has ever done (counting year end albums lists only, cause Lord knows they’ve made a metric ton of all kinds of terrible lists). I knew their “Best of the Decade” choices (which were actually pretty spot on for the most part) were way wayway way too good to be true. Let’s have a look at the list.

K…

I genuinely love U2. I love old U2. I love new U2. I love all U2, but No Line on the Horizon is not the Album of the Year by any stretch of the imagination.

You could say, “Oh, but they’re going by record sales.” Sure, you could say that, except that’s not the case. If it were, Taylor Swift would be #1. You could even say that this was U2’s big comeback album, or their best album of the decade, or the best album since ___________, but then I’d have to smack you. With the exception of Pop and Zooropa (both of which I actually <3), NLOTH is U2’s weakest album of their career. Don’t know one fan who doesn’t think the same. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable with it appearing on a Top 100.

I wrote earlier this year that NLOTH is an over-hyped, unsatisfying let-down. So yeah, still feel that way.

In an interview in the new issue, The Edge tells RS that he believes U2 is still capable of making their best record, and “It’s not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us.” I dunno, Edge. Your band has 9 or 10 of the best rock albums ever recorded, and I find this statement even harder to believe after hearing NLOTR, which is mediocre by any standard. As a believer that How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is actually one of their best, I’d say that I would have believed this statement a year ago. But hey, what do I know? They just made the Album of the Year!

It’s all a matter of opinion, I know. But really, whose opinion is this other than Interscope’s checkbook? (I said it).

As for Bruce, you can copy and paste my last few paragraphs here, replacing the words “No Line on the Horizon” with “Working on a Dream.” Anyone who’s ever seen a year-end Rolling Stone list knows full well that if Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen release an album, you can look for it around the top 5. Yes, Bob Dylan’s recent albums have been incredible, but Bruce Springsteen’s Magic and Working on a Dream have not (like, really really not), and have both mysteriously placed at #2. RS gets a lot of criticism for favoring older rock acts regardless of how good the albums actually are, and here’s some more of that. They ask for it with this stuff.

Then there’s the Jay-Z thing. Well, maybe this one is based on album sales. On the strength of a handful of really strong (and great) singles, the album has sold over 1.3 million copies. But as bumpin’ as Blueprint III is in spots, it’s one, if not the only Jay-Z album that doesn’t deserve to be on this list. Also, Blueprint III is ranked 20+ spots higher than Raekwon’s Cuban Linx II, which doesn’t make much sense if you take into account that Blueprint III got the usual 3 stars and a not so favoring write-up earlier this year, while Cuban Linx received a much rarer 4 star nod. It’s hardly the first time something like that has happened, and it won’t be the last.

There’s validity in a lot of the albums the magazine picked, but absolutely no method to the order they were put in. It’s nice/weird/confusing to see The xx and Neko Case mixed in that Top 10, as if Rolling Stone’s actual Top Albums of 2009 list got mixed in with someone else’s (like someone who actually knows something). I’ll take it, but if you’re going to mix in token ‘indie’ releases, at least have the good sense to know they are better than 21st Century Breakdown. On second thought, at least have the decency not to include them on such a horrible list at all. Horrible. Oh, and there’s Veckatimest in the 20’s.

Horrible. Rolling Stone cracks me up.

Original Pirate Material Guardian’s Album of the Decade, Wrong But OK

Liz — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:00:48 +0000

Fact: Every music publication that doesn’t name Radiohead’s Kid A as the album of the decade is only doing so for the shock value (Paste, would love to give you Illinois, I just can’t), but I have to give some blogkudos to the Guardian for their #1 choice of The Streets’ Original Pirate Material.

Even though it’s yet another overall nonsensical, Brit-centric list from the UK, if there’s one British album I can accept as a shock value stand in, it’s this one (let’s face it, the Guardian wasn’t about to pick Wilco or Arcade Fire over a Brit). Based on the criteria that the album “could not conceivably have been made in any other 10-year period, and that it should be impossible to imagine how that decade might have sounded without it,” I’d say…well, I’d still say Kid A fits that bill better than Pirate Material (which, like many other albums on many of these lists, likely wouldn’t exist without 2000’s Kid A).

I’ll never forget how I felt the first time I heard the rising synths of opener, “Turn the Page,” as an ostensibly thick, Brummie English accent spit rhymes like, “You can’t do half, my crew laughs at your rhubarb and custard verses.” It was indeed produced using only his bare wit, and the results were a genre defining record that put UK garage on the proverbial map. Though most favor the album’s follow-up, 2004’s A Grand Don’t Come For Free, nothing will ever replace those first few moments for me. It shattered what the possibilities for hip hop and indie music in general had been up until that point. I had never heard anything like it. It was like discovering life on Mars.

Original Pirate Material is a masterpiece. Its a bold, admirable choice for Album of the Decade. But, it’s still wrong.

Battle Studies is a Douchebag: John Mayer’s Worst Album, And Then Some

Liz — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:56:05 +0000

Remember the guy from Sex and the City that hung around his dead wife’s grave, flashing pictures of her in his wallet and crying at the mention of her name to get girls to think he was emotional so they would sleep with him? That’s John Mayer. Remember how Charlotte totally fell for it, and then showed up to the memorial ceremony to find that there were a bunch of other women doing the exact same thing? That’s us.

I like John Mayer. I wish I didn’t, but really, I do. Well, I did. He’s great, in a cheese-ball-guitar-solo-face-adult-contemporary kind of way. His first two records were full of endearing singer-songwriter acoustic pop that was a little too easy to love. On Continuum, he incorporated more of his Jazz influence and expanded the subject matter of his songwriting beyond his Perpetually Pouty, Sensitive, Broken-hearted Boy act, and I liked it. A lot. Having said that (anyone sick of this yet?), I couldn’t even make it all the way through Battle Studies.

I shut the record off halfway through “Perfectly Lonely.” I had already thought about it a few times, but when Mayer sang, “I’m perfectly lonely/Cause I don’t belong to nobody/and nobody belongs to me,” I had had enough. Lyrically, more so than ever, Mayer is blatantly and shamelessly pandering to his young, female audience to the point of insult, and doing so with the most exhausted of lines. Rarely does a record make me go back and re-examine my favorable opinion of an artist’s older work, but this one does. It makes me question whether it’s always been this bad. It makes me question my judgment, frankly.

With the exception of his stab at Cream’s version of “Crossroads” (which is more unnecessary than anything else), and the only glimmer of sincerity on “Who Says,” Battle Studies is a bit too contrived, even for Mayer. It’s “Your Body is a Wonderland” on steroids. It’s Perpetually Pouty, Sensitive, Broken-hearted Boy to an unacceptable degree. It’s that really cute puppy-dog eyed guy in college that was so “open” and “in touch with his feelings” until he got you into bed – and then he never called you again. It’s Feel Bad For Me Jennifer Aniston Totally Broke My Heart Even Though I Enjoyed Spending More Time With My Twitter Account. Battle Studies is a douchebag.

As always, Mayer is channeling the classic songwriting of the Claptons and the McCartneys, but, for the first time in his career, falls embarrassingly short. There are a few toe-tappers here, and, well, that’s because it’s John Mayer. Dude has more Grammy nominations than Glen Ballard. He knows how to write solid pop melodies, record perfectly polished tracks, and, truth be told, plays a mean guitar. I could even forgive his increasing use of recycled, overdone arrangements (a part of me will always be rolling my eyes at “Say”. Yawn.), but I simply can’t stomach 45 minutes of this record’s overly cliched, saturated lyrical mushiness.

“I love you more than songs can say/But i can’t keep running after yesterday/Why you wanna break my heart again/Why am I gonna let you try/When all we ever do is say goodbye.” Yes, really, and that isn’t even the worst of it. “Half of My Heart” with Taylor Swift (yes, that Taylor Swift) laments, “Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you that I can’t keep lovin’ you with half of my heart.” Seriously, John? I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.

“Disappointment has a name. It’s heartbreak.” LOL. IRL.

The Fiery Furnaces Are Idiots

Liz — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:09:16 +0000

Some background on why The Fiery Furnaces are idiots:

The New York City indie band, whilst trying to create a buzz that never wuzz for their summer 2009 release, I’m Going Away (OK, perhaps there was a mini-buzz), have taken to familiar tactics amongst music world douchebags by nonsensically (or possibly sarcastically or ironically?) trashing Radiohead in interviews. Fiery Fungi’s lead singer, Matt Whoever was quoted yesterday calling “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” (Radiohead’s recent one-off fundraising tribute to the last surviving British soldier of World War I) a “bogus” attempt at “brazenly and arbitrarily associating yourself with things that you know people consider cool.” Huh? Someone sounds confused.

Another comment in the interview has Friedberger (AKA Matt Whoever) asking if the new Radiohead song is “48 notes to the octave.” This would imply that he mistakenly (or intentionally mistakenly) thought that Radiohead wrote a song about American composer Harry PaRtch, and not World War I veteran Harry Patch. Cause yeah, nothing is more brazenly and arbitrarily hip than World War I veterans. Seemingly not knowing what he was going on about, Friedberger continued, “That’s a put-on. That’s a branding technique and Radiohead have their brand that they’re popular and intelligent.” Not even going to touch that one.

After the music world quickly branded Friedberger as unpopular and stupid, the band released a 200+ word drivel fest trying to cover their tracks. The aimless prattle of a statement is heavy on the satire and tries to pass off the insulting Radiohead comments as completely facetious. The opening line is both a bold attempt at verifying yesterday’s “JK” cred and a thinly veiled admission of fandom and/or jealousy; “Like most creative musicians, Matt Friedberger is not a fan of Radiohead and their various chartbusters.” I’ll give you a little LOL for that one.

“Matt naturally thought it would be interesting to pretend that they wrote a song about the celebrated American composer with a similar sounding name, hence his joking in the interview about Radiohead composing a song with something like 48 notes to an octave.” Naturally.

Matt, what are you talking about and what are you talking about? You wouldn’t have to release statements to clarify unfunny jokes about other bands if you didn’t make them in the first place. Even if you were kidding, is it really appropriate to use a tribute to a veteran as the platform for your ever so perceptive wit? Unless, of course, you take into account the plethora of free press your band has received for a couple of insults, this seems like an all around unnecessary risk. You’ll be lucky not to lose half of your indie rock Brooklyn based fan club with Radiohead bashing (whether it’s sarcastic or not), and everyone else is just going to think you’re an insensitive prick.

I think you’re trying too hard, Fungus. I think you’re an idiot.

JK!

<3Poproks

Weezer “Can’t Stop Partying” feat. Lil Wayne, But I Wish You Would [Stop]

Liz — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:27:04 +0000

Why bother? It’s gonna hurt me.

Yup, it’s Weezer and Weezy, but even Lil Wayne can’t save the Polow da Don produced Raditude track, “Can’t Stop Partying.” Raditude. Worst. Dwayne Carter could freestyle over microwave buzz and still kill it hard, but even his mediocre verse is wasted on this boring, poorly written embarrassment of a Weezer song.

Rivers Cuomo waxes completely un-poetically (as he often does of late) about things that would be better left articulated by those who have actual talent for articulating such things. Not that I haven’t cringed at a Weezer song before, but I think this one has a 10:1 cringe:non-cringe ratio. “I gotta have the cars/I gotta have the jewels/and if you was me, honey, you would do it too.” Jewels? Ugh, Rivers. This is worse than “Beverly Hills.”

I often ask myself, “How does Rivers get away with this stuff?” “Why does he write stupid songs that suck?” The answer, I realized, is because we let him. We’ve been letting him. Weezer was a big part of my life for a very long time when I was younger, and I think that’s a reason why a lot of us have had trouble seeing this for what it really is. I could throw a dart at the last page of the Village Voice local music listings and hit a better band than Weezer has been for the past 5 years. If their first two albums didn’t exist, would anyone be giving them the time of day? If “El Scorcho” falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The truth is, they aren’t even trying anymore. And why should they? I have friends back in New York who are planning to spend their Halloween at a $60 Weezer show at Hammerstein Ballroom. Why? Do they love Weezer’s new music? Do they even own their last album, [insert color here]? No. They’re going because they’re hoping to hear as much old material as possible and rock out to “The Good Life” in their Halloween costumes. Sounds like fun to me, but this is why we end up with songs like “Can’t Stop Partying.” How many years of slack can you cut someone, even if they did write Pinkerton? It’s time to say enough is enough.

It’s over, kids. It’s been over.

Download audio file (1-04-can_t-stop-partying-_ft-lil_-wayne_.mp3)

“Can’t Stop Partying” by Weezer feat. Lil Wayne

I Guess I Have to Buy The New Moon Soundtrack

Liz — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:38:13 +0000

Bon Iver/St. Vincent duets? New music from Thom Yorke and Grizzly Bear? No, it’s not a second Dark Was the Night compilation, and it’s not Pitchfork’s Best New Music posts for the next month. It’s um, the soundtrack to the new Twlight sequel.

Eek.

When I first skimmed the tracklisting this afternoon, I saw Death Cab, The Killers, and Muse on the list and I thought, “OK, that’s cool. Good for them.” Another look revealed songs by Lykke Li and Editors that I’ve never heard of, new music from Thom Yorke and Grizzly Bear, and did I mention new music from THOM YORKE and GRIZZLY BEAR? I remember hearing rumors that Thom was involved with the soundtrack, but, for my own selfish reasons, ignored when it was pretty much confirmed.

I hold no real issue with extremely talented artists getting much deserved commercial recognition for their work, and am vehemently against the term “sellout” and all that it stands for, but (everyone’s got a big ‘but’) something about this whole New Moon thing doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t say (confidently) that the movies are bad, because I haven’t seen them. However, if either trailer and some clips are any indication, these people are lucky that Thom Yorke even picked up the phone. He won’t even score Chuck Palahniuk movies!

I’m not disappointed, I’m merely surprised, and I guess I’m having a little trouble wrapping my head around why some of the most sophisticated musical artists of this decade would want to be associated with a tween vampire film sequel. But, this is me reserving judgment. How am I doing?

Moving beyond that point, I’ve been trying to understand how this soundtrack and film compliment each other in any way, and keep coming around to the same conclusion that they really really don’t. I’d say the Muse track would be the exception, but “I Belong to You” is easily the most upbeat song I’ve heard by the band…well, ever.

I’m not quite sure what the music director is going for with these selections, but it doesn’t add up to me. I’d just rather the world made sense and this was one big original score by Amy Lee and the dude from Seether. Teenage vampire romance + angsty, orchestral nu-metal = sense. Teenage vampire romance + experimental indie pop = confused Liz.

Anyway, I guess I have to buy this.

EW Names “All You Need is Love” The Worst Beatles Song, Makes Me Scratch My Eyes Out

Liz — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:09:15 +0000

Why?
Why Why?
Why?

Right, so Beatlemania 2009 is hitting, which is awesome (I really enjoyed Beatlemania 1995, which if you remember featured the 9 hour Anthology documentary, 2 new songs, and my life changing forever). Beatles Rock Band games, reissues, and magazine covers? All great things. But Entertainment Weekly’s special Beatles issue thingy? All around FAIL.

There’s a lot going on in the new EW (including George and Ringo missing from the cover. More why?), but the only thing I feel like squawking about at the moment is this whole “Worst Beatles Songs” list…thing. First, I’d say “Least Bestest Beatles Song” would be a more appropriate name for such foolishness. While tracks like “Wild Honey Pie” and “Flying” are solid choices (why is that song stuck in my head?), my gripe is with the appalling #1 choice of……”All You Need is Love.” LOLOLOL.

What?

A couple of years ago, my roommate and I started a Top 5 book for our coffee table. Everyone that came over could add on to our lists or create a new one (i highly recommend doing this, it has supplied the entertainment for many a party). The first page of the book was “Top 5 Beatles Songs.” I spent weeks working on mine. I listed dozens of songs. I Youtubed Anthology clips for hours. I listened to Past Masters II on repeat. My #1 is “All You Need is Love”… and by DOT DOT DOT I mean WTF.

Let’s talk about “All You Need is Love.” The recording on Magical Mystery Tour was taped live on television for the first global broadcast ever. The only thing that was re-recorded for the official single were John’s vocals. It’s easily one of the most influential, complex, intricately constructed pop songs ever written, and was performed live for the first time in front half a billion viewers with absolutely no missteps. It basically united the world for 4 minutes in time with a positive message of peace. Words can’t describe the shameless whoring involved in naming this the worst Beatles song.

It’s only the best song ever written, fools.

500 Days of Summer Adorable Indie Music Video. I Knew This Was Coming.

Liz — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Did 500 Days of Summer just become even more indie and adorable? Unbelievable.

I guess though, when taking into account the many kinda cool, unpretentious musical references in the movie, and the fact that it actually stars Zooey Deschanel, a 500 Days of Summer themed music video set to She & Him’s “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” isn’t really all that shocking. The Smiths headphones/iTunes incidents, karaoke to The Pixies (which I thought only happened in Brooklyn), and not one, but two Joy Division t-shirts were more than enough to establish the film’s indie cred without a completely adorable indie music video set to one of the star’s indie songs with M. Ward.

I always find it somewhat unsettling when musical artists of any kind are referenced directly in a film, especially in a quirky, limited-release romantic comedy that’s kinda cool, unpretentious, and completely adorable. No particular reason really, it just makes me uncomfortable. Like, the record store scene, where you know someone’s going to hold up a record and show it to the other person and make a comment about it. Regardless of the record or the comment, It makes me all tense. I guess I’m just worried that it will somehow devalue the music. Or be tacky.

Well, after 5 minutes of this movie I knew that wasn’t going to be the case. If Zooey Deschanel walked into an elevator with me and started singing along to “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” playing on my headphones, I’d fall in love too. The fact that The Smiths take up about 25 minutes of the soundtrack is actually perfectly acceptable. They pulled it all off quite nicely. My only issue is that the karoake bar had “Here Comes Your Man” and not “Born to Run.” Doubt it. Maybe in indie movie dreamworld!

So, whether you saw 500 Days of Summer or not, this is going to melt your indie movie heart. It’s basically 3 minutes of Levitt and Deschanel proving that they’re the cutest people in the world circa now, and solidifying insurmountable amounts of indie cred.