Upon its release back in January, my new online buddy Blake used this very website to more or less pan — or, at the very least, damn with imperceptibly faint praise — Lady Antebellum’s white hot sophomore album Need You Now, daring to call it “One Tree Hill with fiddles” and sending that phrase flying like an epithetical slap across Sherry Ann’s beautiful face. (Lest you lose the thread here, Sherry Ann is the free world’s most passionate devotee of that angst-riddled assortment of Tree Hill confidantes and clotheshorses.) He swore a number of times that he didn’t necessarily mean his phrase to disparage or belittle, even though Sherry Ann and I both took it exactly that way, and I repeatedly invited her to tear Blake’s flip, slightly sullen sarcasm to shreds — as only she can, trust me — right cheer on the Buzz. She repeatedly declined each request, but having spent a good measure of time with this quite fine record over the past few months, I feel both compelled and qualified to weigh in with my own two cents.
An insanely busy workweek has come and gone, and I am now charged with composing the longest record store report in Brandon’s Buzz history. Luckily for verbose ol’ me, I feel that I am equal to this challenge. To wit:
Those canny folks at Now! are back on the block with a pair of new singles collections, as Now That’s What I Call Music! 34 compiles a cross-section of recent radio smashes from the likes of, among others, red-hot Lady Antebellum (the wistful “American Honey”), OneRepublic (“All the Right Moves,” so deliciously epic), The Script (“Breakeven,” a worthy breakthrough for this terrific and too-long-ignored band), and Miranda Lambert (the tremendously moving “The House That Built Me,” the most played song at country radio this week); and the crassly manipulative Now That’s What I Call the USA! pulls together a handful of so-called patriotic country tunes, some of which absolutely fit the mold (Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” say, or Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Some Gave All”), and others of which are, for this occasion, only marginally appropriate at best (fine though they certainly are, Eric Church’s “Guys Like Me” and Rascal Flatts’ “Fast Cars and Freedom” don’t exactly fill me with the urge to salute the nearest flag, if you know what I mean). Being, however, from the same group of people who, a few months ago, seemed to believe that The Fray’s incendiary “You Found Me” actually glorifies (as opposed to excoriates) God, I s’pose this scattershot set is right on par.
My best friend on this planet celebrates a birthday today, and though I’ll refrain from telling you how old she is, I can’t resist the temptation to remind her once more that she is one month older than I am, and she always will be.
Much love from your favorite Austin boy, Sherry Ann.
As a massive fan of this song in its original form, I might normally be violently opposed to making such bold-faced fun of it. But quite frankly, the video below is freakin’ hilarious, and in honor of my chat with the incredible Meat Loaf — which airs tonight at 11pm EST on Brandon’s Buzz Radio (and which will be available starting tomorrow as a downloadable podcast from ) — sharing it today somehow seems wholly appropriate.
Comments Off on grammy-winning rock icon meat loaf, plus greg maclennan & henri mazza from the alamo drafthouse’s action pack, on brandon’s buzz! 6/8/10, 11pm edt / 8pm pdt!
One of Sherry Ann’s harem of future husbands helps to kick off June in inimitable style, and had I been using my noodle last weekend, I would have commissioned her to compose the text celebrating that event. Instead, you’re stuck with me, and I s’pose I’ll leave it to you to discern whether or not that’s a good thing:
Give Clay Aiken this much credit: he certainly never backs down from a challenge. Despite several moments of genuine brilliance — laugh if you must, but “Invisible” and “Run to Me” (the standout tracks from his middling 2003 debut Measure of a Man) are both terrific tunes — Daddy Clive’s quest to turn Aiken into the next great pop star was a wholesale failure, and the attempt to refashion him as a baby Barry — replete with Manilow’s maddening penchant for godawfully inappropriate remakes! — fared even worse. And yet, through it all, Aiken has rolled with the punches, displaying an admirable grit and tenacity in the process. And now he’s back, and coming at mainstream success from yet another angle: on his fourth album (and first for new label Decca), Tried and True, Aiken now appears to be channeling his inner Bobby Darin by unleashing upon us an entire collection of big-band-era covers. (To prove he is serious about this, he even dares to tackle “Mack the Knife”!) Now, to be fair, I’ll disclose I haven’t heard as much as a note of this record, and it may well be triumphant from stem to stern, but just from scanning the tracklist, I see the precise same problem that sunk A Thousand Different Ways — Aiken’s ill-fated 2006 project — which is that he has chosen a series of tunes — in this case, titles like “Unchained Melody,” “Suspicious Minds,” and “Crying” (the lattermost of which is presented as a duet with the peerless Linda Eder, whom, one can only surmise, must have been promised the moon in exchange for these precious few moments of her time and talent) — upon whose shattering originals he cannot possibly improve. We shall see.
While bumming around on YouTube just now, wasting time that would be better spent composing this week’s record store report or editing an episode of my show or finishing that pesky playlist that has been occupying my mind for multiple weeks now, I ran across what continues to stand, from some three decades of daily afternoon viewing, as my all-time favorite soap scene — from One Life to Live, circa June 1992 — and I was compelled to squeal with delight, do the happy dance in more than one room of my house, and let loose an overwhelmingly orgasmic burst of pure ecstatic energy so all-consuming I’m stunned it didn’t tear a hole in my socks. (I’ve probably watched this scene a good three hundred times over the years, and have the audio on my iPod besides, so I have it memorized cold, but it does my heart good somethin’ fierce to understand that someone else holds this scene with the same reverence as I.)
‘Twas a bitch of a week, so all apologies for the record store report’s lateness this week. But better late than never: May comes to a close with a handful of highly-anticipated comebacks, along with a soundtrack that is sure to stand among the year’s most popular. Take a look:
No doubt you, as do I, remember with a peculiar fondness an eerily ethereal smash from the summer of 1992 called “Stay”; the creator of that tune, the miraculous Siobhan Fahey, has just reassembled Shakespear’s Sister, the band who rode the song straight to the top of the charts across the whole damn world, and their brand new album is entitled Songs from the Red Room.
The spectacular soulstress Bettye LaVette turns her rapt attention across the pond to cover the likes of Elton John, Paul McCartney, The Moody Blues, The Who, Pink Floyd, and many others on her latest, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook.
They have broken up and reconciled more times than Victor and Nikki, but those alt-rock icons Stone Temple Pilots are officially flying in the same pack anew, and they’re back with a new eponymous album, their first project as a group since 2001’s terrific Shangri-La-Dee-Da.
Brit-rock heroes Stereophonics return with their seventh studio album, Keep Calm and Carry On.
Beck and Feist are among the folks who stop by to help out electronica guru Jamie Lidell on his latest record, Compass.
In the week in which we pause as a crunchy to coronate the next American Idol, how fitting that we should be treated to the official stateside debut of Will Young, the first winner of Britain’s Pop Idol (the mega-popular program upon which ours is based). Young’s album is called Leave Right Now, the title track from which has been heard as Idol‘s farewell song during each of this season’s elimination montages.
The songs have been available for free download at the band’s website for weeks now, but if you care about ridiculously ornate deluxe packaging (not to mention indecipherably stupid album titles), then Teargarden By Kaleidyscope 1: Songs for a Sailor — the latest project from Smashing Pumpkins — is almost certainly for you.
With contributions from Cyndi Lauper, Dido, and the magnificent Nicholas Rodriguez, not to mention a duet betwixt those golden-throated uber-divas Leona Lewis and Jennifer Hudson, plus a cover of Beyonce’s smash “Single Ladies” which is performed by the one and only Liza Minnelli, the original motion pitcher soundtrack for Sex and the City 2 would seem at first glance to be a big ol’ gay wet dream, agreed? (Other hot soundtracks out this week: True Blood, Vol. 2, a new collection of music from HBO’s white-hot vampire series, featuring songs from Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, and Beck; and the companion album for box office dud MacGruber, with classic tracks from Eddie Money, Mr. Mister, Toto, and Robbie Dupree.)
And finally, one of the finest (and most criminally underappreciated) singer-songwriters in existence — the majestic, magnificent Beth Nielsen Chapman — returns with Back to Love, her first album in three years.
I took my very first trip to New York City last week, and though I was only able to spend three days (and, thus, was barely able to scratch the surface of the metropolis’ myriad tourism options), I saw (and did) some amazing things, and was fortunate enough to capture a great deal of it on film. Below, a sample:
“A lot of my songs are storyline-driven, and you don’t really have that with the very top girls. There’s no competing with GaGa, but sometimes it’s a puzzle to figure out what she means or says. And Ke$ha, you know, she’s always talking about beer.”
— pop star Katy Perry, breaking down the competition amongst her so-called peers while previewing her forthcoming sophomore album in Billboard.
A is sure to be pleased as punch that the next collection of tunes from his current favorite television series is on tap this week, while I’m about to take a moment or two to tell you about one of the finest, most brilliant women in the whole history of women. Keep reading:
When a television series pounds and drills its way so thoroughly into the acceptable mainstream that even my flat-screen-fearing boyfriend knows (and can recite on demand) such pertinent data as on which network and in which timeslot the program airs, you know it must be white hot, and so it has come to pass with Fox’s utterly deranged gem Glee, which has, in stunningly stealth fashion, morphed into a ratings powerhouse this spring while riding American Idol‘s considerable coattails. Counting last month’s Madonna-themed EP, the series has already thrown off three smash companion albums, and this week, the fourth one becomes available when Glee, The Music: Showstoppers arrives in stores. As with the previous collections, the quality of these interpretations veers wildly and unpredictably between hit and miss — which means for every joyously awesome redo (Lea Michele’s terrific take on All-American Rejects’ “Gives You Hell,” say), there’s a jarringly atrocious one waiting right behind it (the less said about these kids’ wickedly miscalculated stab at remaking “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” the better) — but the fact that this record contains not one but two Lady GaGa covers pretty much ensures that A is gonna hop on board this crazy train with both feet.
Five years ago this very night, on a crowded streetcorner outside a bustling coffeehouse in downtown Austin, Texas, I met the sweetest, smartest, sexiest, most frustrating, most amazing, most incredible and interesting man. He scoffs when I say it, as though it couldn’t possibly be true, but I was smitten with him at once as we took a two-hour walk and chatted about our lives, our work, our dreams, and, of all things, our diametrically opposed opinions on country music. (For those who wouldn’t know, I’m a fan and he wasn’t, although I have managed to convert him somewhat over time and painstaking effort.)
To be able to spend an evening in the company of a man like this is a privilege. To be able to build a relationship and a home and a connection and a life with such a man, that’s something altogether miraculous.
These five years haven’t all been chocolate and roses, of course, but they have been without question the best ones of my entire life, and I would trade not a moment of any of it for whatever tempting treats may lie behind doors number two, three, or twenty-seven.
You’re still the one I love, A. Happy anniversary.
names dropped with reckless abandon: A, David Gray
The entire Bon Jovi discography makes its way back to record stores this week via a series of special deluxe edition reissues, and Sherry Ann, A, and myself all wait with bated breath as three of our all-time favorite performers step up to the plate with new projects. Take a looksee:
Because she loves them with a ferocity that could bend steel, I happily turn over the lead paragraph of this week’s record store report to the ever-eloquent Sherry Ann, who reports the following: The National‘s lyricist and lead singer Matt Berninger has a voice that you’ll never forget once you hear it. At first, it’s a bit creepy, but with repeated listens the raspy baritone becomes the perfect complement to the brilliance of the lyrics it conveys. Although relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, the band have been the critics’ darlings since their 2005 release Alligator, and their music has been featured on several television shows, including, most prominently, my beloved One Tree Hill. (One of my favorite-ever Nathan/Haley moments, set to The National’s “Daughters of the Soho Riots,” can be viewed here.) This week, they return with their fifth studio album, High Violet; in my opinion, the standout tracks are the ballad “Runaway” and the up-tempo “Conversation 16,” and with guest appearances by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens, this is definitely an album worth checking out.
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, their first project as a group since 2001’s terrific Shangri-La-Dee-Da. 
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, the title track from which has been heard as Idol‘s farewell song during each of this season’s elimination montages. 
— the latest project from Smashing Pumpkins — is almost certainly for you.
would seem at first glance to be a big ol’ gay wet dream, agreed? (Other hot soundtracks out this week: 
, a new collection of music from HBO’s white-hot vampire series, featuring songs from Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, and Beck; and the companion album for box office dud 
, with classic tracks from Eddie Money, 
, 
makes its way back to record stores this week via a series of special deluxe edition reissues, and Sherry Ann, A, and myself all wait with bated breath as three of our all-time favorite performers step up to the plate with new projects. Take a looksee:
