MCR's The Black Parade

I’m just going to put this quote out there. No need to discuss it: “…something that we had always wanted but were always missing…it helped us complete the sound we wanted to create.” Wait. Gerard, what are you talking about? Oh, the addition of keyboards on the new album, The Black Parade (Reprise). Excellent!

(J, I’m sorry that I won’t let your emphatic distaste of keyboards in hard rock ever die)

My Chemical Romance released their third album last week. I approached the release of this album very seriously. I purposely tried to stay away from reading any early reviews. This third album is something I have anticipated more than anything this year and it was important to me to not be clouded by other journalists’ opinions. If I listened to anyone it was the band itself who gave us fans a mock press conference in late August/ early September. That was all the information I needed.

As October 24th approached, I would occasionally worry myself about a couple of things. Firstly, I was worried that there would be too much of that Cabaret thing happening. I’m German. I love it. But bands like The Dresden Dolls and Panic! make me want to drown myself in guitar noodling and legends of groupies. My second concern was that this album would be too heavily conceptual for my taste. Not conceptual as in Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads where the collection of songs have a similar theme, but conceptual in that the artist is trying to tell you a story. When artists do this, there’s always a possibility that there could be a handful of good songs and then a handful of shitty songs that were meant to carry the story along. Who wants that?

MCR is no stranger to a concept album. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was loosely conceptual and considered the continuation of the last song on the band’s first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. It had a story, but it could be summed up in one word: Revenge. That’s all that you had to remember when you listened to it. The Black Parade was not to be ‘loosely’ based on a story. Quite the opposite.

What I’m happy to report is that this cd is an excellent rock album, first and foremost. There is certainly a macabre cabaret thing going on and it is conceptual, but you know what, I fucking love it. So, my anxieties aside, let me tell you about my new favorite album, The Black Parade.

The motivation behind this album was the question “what if, when death comes for you, it somehow taps into your subconscious and transforms itself into your strongest, most cherished memory?” On this album you have the main protagonist, The Patient, who dies from cancer. His strongest memory is of a parade his father took him to when he was a child. So, death comes to The Patient in the form of a parade. He follows the parade to his ultimate fate, whatever afterlife there is. Along the way he meets a few characters, i.e., the twins Fear and Regret. It’s simple, relatable (in the ‘everything comes down to dying with me’ kind of way) beautiful, and so very MCR.

Like I said, this is a rock album, so let’s talk about the guitars. There are two guitarists in the band, Ray Toro and Frank Iero. Ray comes from the classic rock guitar side of the house while Frank comes from the punk power chord side of the house. The two mixed together create wonderfully energetic and fast-moving melodies. These two guys have been with the band since the beginning and I think without either one of them MCR would be incomplete. Besides Gerard’s performance, which is in itself something to behold live, it’s the marriage of these two guitar styles that make their music so kickass, in my opinion.

Another kickass element is the message of empowerment in each of their songs. I will tell you that no matter what age you are, you can’t help but be moved by the insistence that you will shine your brightest when you face your greatest fears and disappointments. This is what I loved on Three Cheers, and it’s abundant on the new album.

Let’s talk about the tracklisting. I’ll just discuss the ones that I love the most. Wait. That just happens to be all of them.

1. The End. This is a powerful opening to the album. The Patient welcomes you.

2. Dead! I love the flat line in the beginning. As I was reading the lyrics to this song I came across the lyric “During this operation Found a complication in your heart So long”. This has to be a reference to the operation during which Gerard’s grandma passed away due to complications. This event inspired the song Helena on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, but we already know that.

3. This is How I Disappear. Towards the end of the Revenge tour Gerard developed a fascination with Houdini and the séances his wife would hold after he died. Some of the last pics that were published overseas towards the end of the tour were of the band hanging upside down in straight jackets. Gerard tells you in the liner notes that The Escape Artist is one of the characters the Patient meets on his journey.

4. The Sharpest Lives. There is a Bon Jovi element to this one which I’m really into!

5. Welcome to the Black Parade. I agree with J that the opening of this song could be cut short a little bit. However, once the song starts moving it’s awesome.

6. I Don’t Love You. I repeated this song four times when I first heard it. I love Ray’s guitar solo in this one.

7. House of Wolves. I think of Detroit twice. Can you guess why? I LOVE the power chords. Mikey’s bass playing comes through in this song. I’m looking forward to seeing the crowd go apeshit when this song is performed live.

8. Cancer is a song that Ray Toro felt was going to be too honest or literal for people to take (from the liner notes in the limited edition of the cd). This is a beautiful 2-minute ballad. If you have been touched by this disease, as J and I both have been, you will not hear this song easily, but do it. This is fucked up, but I listened to this song while I was putting on my face in preparation to go out. I cried so hard I had to wash my face and start over.

9. Mama. Gerard definitely has a fascination for the Macabre Cabaret of the German persuasion. Gerard sings in different voices in this song. LIZAAAAAAAAAAAAA with a Z makes an appearance on this song. Brilliant.

10. Sleep. Wonderfully ambient in some parts and hard in others. Very nice.

11. Teenagers. This is a very different sound for them. I live for Gerard yelling “AWDAGETHA NOW!!” towards the end. Hilarious.

12. Disenchanted. It took me just a few seconds to realize what I was hearing. When they performed a “new” song called Shut Up and Play during their show at the Pageant in September 2005, I remember thinking “Air Supply”. I liked it, but it was quite a departure. Shortly after that performance, a fellow fan in the UK sent me a shared file of that song performed live overseas. Shut Up and Play was in my larger than life MCR playlist for a long time until one fateful day my laptop crashed and I hadn’t backed up in time (won’t do that again). Anyway, now I have it again but in its finished form and with its new title, Disenchanted. AND it doesn’t sound so Air Supply anymore.

13. Famous Last Words. There’s just a hint of noodling in this song! Great song to end the album with. This song is considered the sister song of Sleep.

There is a track 14, but it’s hidden. Let the cd player play on in its silence for about 1m 30s and you’ll hear an interesting cabaret song that showcases Gerard and his dark humor. Quite the little gem.

For the fans that can afford it, get the special limited edition for the photography and sketches, the commentary, and the written diary.

It’s no secret how much I love this band. The Judakris picture on this website is a sketch of us at the Oasis show in 2005 during which I met Gerard for the first time. K is the one on the right of picture, distracted by the lovely man in black sitting down to her left during most of the show. It was a completely serendipitous and lovely experience that I wrote about in an earlier post entitled “In the Beginning, There Was Oasis…” In that post I also write about the drive back to St. Louis, during which a line of tour buses carrying MCR and a bunch of other bands to our hometown Warped show stayed alongside us much of the way. The memory of that night is one that I will never forget. If, according to this album, death taps into your subconscious and transforms itself into one of your strongest and/or cherished memories then when I’ve reached my end of days, I’ll wait for the line of tour buses to guide me down the highway to see an MCR show for one last time. Well done, boys. I give this one an Unbelievable. XOXO -K

"I'm Going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee"...

Work trip – Heading to one of the frequent cities I visit. How can this get fun? I’m traveling with two folks from work and we decide to take a detour and stop in Memphis on our way to the final destination. While I have driven past Graceland a few times, I have never stopped. We decide to stop there before heading on to Beale Street for a quick lunch and then on we go.

Everyone I know who has ever gone to Graceland has said two things to me. First, the 70’s décor is atrocious. Second, Graceland is much smaller than you expect it to be. In the age of MTV’s Cribs, yes, it is smaller than expected, but back in the day, I am sure it was awesome. I wasn’t so shocked by the décor because it just brought me back to my childhood when my mom used to ask me to rake the long shag carpeting in the living room.

Graceland is a business. It is well-organized and every person is given a headset to listen to a guided tour, which contains sound bites from the man himself. I’m such a nerd tourist that I love this. When I go to a tourist destination, I want someone telling me all about it so I can appreciate it more. There are also various monitors throughout the tour running film of Elvis performances and interviews and I believe for me this was the highlight. Watching his press conference when he returned from military service in Germany, watching Ed Sullivan show clips, and the 1968 comeback special, were highlights of the tour. I loved the newspaper clips in the museum reporting on young men thrown out of high school in the Midwest because of their Elvis haircut. It is all relative, but what was controversial then, sure does make you ponder what is controversial now.

There were a lot of people there on a Tuesday afternoon. I found myself censoring anything critical I might say to my travel partners about anything in the museum or of Elvis for fear that I might offend one of the other visitors. I got the feeling that for some, this experience was like church. I said to the women that I was traveling with that if I would have been a young girl when Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show, I would have been hooked, no doubt.

You may have to be a true fan to pay $22 to tour Graceland, but I felt like it was worth it. Here are a few pics of the infamous jumpsuits and gold records. Maybe because I was prepared for it, I appreciated the over the top décor. Last year I was reading an interview with Krist Novoselic, the bassist for Nirvana. He was being asked to describe his standard of living post-Nirvana and he said that he had a nice house but nothing like the mansions on Cribs. He asked the question, “Why are all the houses on Cribs beige?” Like it or not, Elvis had personal style. I doubt if he were alive today, his house would be beige. --J

Who Wants Cake?

This post will have something to do with music, I promise. I just can’t write about Marie Antoinette and not comment on the movie itself. J and I saw it last night. Once again, as we did when we made the poor decision to see Proof of Life in 2001, we expected that our muffled laughing fits would cause those around us to start throwing things. We couldn’t help it. We just needed to giggle since the movie had the lethargic pace of Lost in Translation. When the end did finally come, I was left wanting to see a car blow up. Or, in this case, a head roll. Nothing like that happens.

The soundtrack is beautiful. Just stunning. Don't expect A Knight's Tale. This movie is actually filled with an interesting combination of period music alongside excellent placements of 80s hits such as Plainsong by The Cure and Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Adam Ant and The Strokes are in there, too. No Falco. I guess that would have been too “obvious”.

Things to note:
J, with her signature quick eye, noticed the Converse All Star Chuck Taylors that show up for a split second.
The kid that was cast to play the 2-year old Dauphin looked like he wanted to break your face. Seriously, he was not happy in any of his scenes.
Marianne Faithfull cast as Kaiserin Maria Theresia.
Rip Torn cast as Louis XV. I could not stop thinking of his hilarious DUI arrest video.
The beautiful and talented Australian actress Rose Byrne cast as the Duchess de Polignac.
Since J and I are both scholars of the Rococo period and have written historical papers on Robespierre, our post-movie commentary on historical facts of the period made us stop and realize what geeks we are.
There was an emphasis on confection as the movie peaks. In my life, I have never hungered for an éclair like I did while watching this movie.
There is one clever, albeit chilling use of symbolic foreshadowing as Marie Antoinette silences the mob about to break into Versailles by bowing her head over her balcony railing.

My final thoughts: I was unmoved. I totally appreciate what Sophia Coppola was trying to achieve in this movie and knew this was not meant to be a documentary-style film. Regardless, I don’t think J and I will ever feel the need to see this movie again. -K

"I got a fever, and the only prescription..."

If I flip on the tv or the radio and it’s financial news, I immediately turn it off. Recently though some financial news got my attention and goddamnit, it is already lowering my quality of life. Google bought YouTube. What does this mean to you and me? Well, nothing if you regularly go to the site to watch videos of someone’s crazy cat. But if you are like me, and rely on this site to watch clips of your favorite musical acts, life is changing. You want to see [insert band name here] perform on [insert television show name here]? Just go to YouTube. But because of copyright infringement, content will change on YouTube and it’s already happening. For example, I was going to send K this video of Kings of Leon on a Japanese television show where they smoked and drank through the entire interview looking completely disinterested in the idea of doing press. It was pretty amusing. Gone! It is as if it never happened! Then just today, as I was formulating the idea for this post, I was going to find the link to one of the all-time best SNL skits and recommend you watch it now because it probably will not be there soon and… it’s already GONE! No longer can you, at a moment’s notice, watch the parody of VH1’s Behind the Music where Blue Oyster Cult was recording the song Don’t Fear the Reaper and Christopher Walken demanded “more cowbell”. Now you have to go buy the Best of Christopher Walken or Will Ferrell on SNL DVD to see it. An era that lasted only a mere eight months is now over. R.I.P. the true YouTube. --J

Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock 'N Roll

I am pleased to invite Joel Orff’s Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock ‘n’ Roll into my library of comics. This piece of work is a sweet collection of stories that Judakris and you, reader, can understand. Do you still remember what song was playing during your first slow dance or when you had a serendipitous encounter with one of your favorite rock stars? Orff has collected these kinds of stories from various people and translated them into loosely-drawn vignettes. He keeps an archive of these comics on his website and invites you to email your story. -K

Hail! Hail! Rock 'N Roll

As I sat at home in my pajamas last night watching the season finale of Project Runway, a most exciting musical event was taking place in St. Louis. Chuck Berry celebrated his 80th birthday with a standing room only performance at Blueberry Hill in University City. Chuck plays once a month at Blueberry Hill. I guess I need to stop taking it for granted that he plays every month and go see him. When I saw that last night’s show was being billed as a birthday celebration, I immediately went to the Rolling Stones website to see where they were playing, anticipating a possible Keith appearance. Keith didn’t make an appearance, but Aerosmith’s Joe Perry did. If you would like to read the local newspaper’s coverage of the event, click here. Also, if you can't get to Blueberry Hill to see Chuck perform in person, a four-disc DVD set of the documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock 'N Roll, was recently released. It is pretty amazing to think that someone who is 80 years old is still putting on one hell of a show. –J

The Joy of Rock Rags

I was in Dierberg’s after work to pick up some mundane and boring things. Dierberg’s has an astonishing amount of cooking, sports, and fashion mags, but the music mags are extremely lacking. Regardless, I have to make a stop at the racks before I leave. There are a number of guitar mags, but as far as stuff I like to read, Hit Parader, Spin, and Rollingstone are my only choices. The latest Hit Parader is a tribute to the 80s hair/metal bands. I think I heard a chorus of angels as I walked towards it. I picked up the issue and read the mag from cover to cover sometimes studiously and sometimes laughing out loud. As I turned the pages of this Hit Parader, I realized that EVERY picture was shockingly familiar. I had seen them all years ago in every rock magazine I ever bought as a teenager. I put the magazine down when I was finished, sated for the evening. So I thought.

In my closet on an overhead shelf, stashed away in a plastic storage bin, I keep a near 20-year old Metal Edge. It is a special edition Best of Metal Edge, January 1987 Vol. 4 No.6. I swear angels sing when I pull that thing out, which is rarely except for tonight. It needs to be boarded and bagged. The pages have all become brown with age. It is truly a time capsule for that scene. Metal Edge was my favorite rock magazine back when I was a young teen. It contained a shitload of information about not only the music, but of the scene. Even back then it wasn’t just about the music for me. I wanted to know who my guys were dating, who they were friends with, what they were working on, how their tours were going or when they would begin. Metal Edge gave me all that.

Here are some things about this magazine that made it so awesome.

Metal Wire – This is AGES before Google Alerts. To us army kids in Germany, it was our sole way of staying in touch with the music scene back in the States. Every other way meant a long delay and even Metal Edge deliveries to the PX bookstore were a little behind. Metal Wire gave you a quick and dirty rundown of the bands’ activities.

“There’s no better time than now to check out the latest video cassettes for your VCR. Don’t miss out on the Ozzy Osbourne – The Ultimate Ozzy, an 80-minute extravaganza on CBS/Fox and if you’re a Mötley fan beware! Your favorite quartet has put together a home video that includes exclusive interviews, backstage peeks and an array of wild concert footage.” The video wasn’t named in the Wire, but all of us kids had rerecorded versions of Mötley Crüe Uncensored soon after, which is the video referenced above. I still have it, along with Kiss Exposed. I got a new tattoo over the last weekend, and I thought of Nikki getting a new “tat” in the video. Ah, Nikki.

“Alice Cooper may stage a comeback: the veteran performer has a new tune out in the Paramount flick Friday the 13th part IV (He’s Back: Jason Lives)…”

“…You may have been surprised to find Stephen Pearcy in the pages of Playgirl this past summer, but the Ratt sensation explains, “It was done in good taste. I do not believe in over exposure and I do not want it to be a sleaze thing.” HA!

“Jesters of Destiny have released Fun at the Funeral.” Who?

“Lita Ford says she’s ‘dying to get out there and play,’ but that it’s on hold until she wraps up her LP The Bride Wore Black, held up due to production difficulties…”

“Mötley’s Mick Mars has a new tattoo,…” and so on.


Metal Directory – The Metal Directory was a list of bands, their record companies and/or fan clubs and addresses where you could send correspondence. And, yes, if you sent correspondence you were more than likely to get a response back. Don’t ask me how I know that.

PANTERA Fan Club
2210 Raper Blvd.
Arlington, TX 760113

VENOM
MEGADETH
THRASHER
EXODUS
THE RODS
TKO
EXCITER
SWEET PAIN
TALAS
c/o Combat Records
149-03 Guy R. Brewer Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11434

Live Concert Photos Section – This section is pretty self-explanatory. The photos were in black and white and always very favorable for the artists. There was usually a huge caption that read something like “METAL MADMEN IN ACTION!” or “MASTERS OF METAL, LIVE & IN CONCERT!”

Pictures – Looking at these pictures as a 30-something I can’t help but giggle. It was always about the swagger and the pose. Not all rockers could pull off the “look”, i.e., Ron Keel, but what he lacked in face Sebastian Bach, Jon Bon Jovi, or Yngwie Malmsteen made up for in the total look. In the candid shots, you often saw open mouth SURPRISE! expressions and lots of pointing or thumbs up gestures. These expressions gave us kids the fantasy that this was THE life. We had no idea what was really going on until a little show called Behind the Music demystified the dream. Anyway, below is a sampling of the kinds of pics you would find.



HAHAHAHA!

Behind the Scenes - This was the predecessor to “[band] Makes a Video” on MTV.

19 years later and my sources have changed from magazines that come to me a month late to myriad websites, dozens of different magazines, blogs, and tons of digital cable channels. The pictures I collect mostly come from photobuckets, fotkis, and buzznet sites and are maintained on my online photobucket rather than being tacked up on my wall (well, except for the random pics of Ville or Gerard that somehow make it up on my fridge). No matter how much information is now available at my fingertips from different countries and sources, I still eagerly drive to my local bookstore to check out the new issues of Metal Edge, Hit Parader, and Metal Hammer. J and I both regularly head to the bookstore with this purpose in mind. Coffee in hand, we peruse the racks and discuss each article or picture that strikes a fancy. There’s something about holding the magazine in hand…

Coincidentally, Metal Edge is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. -K

Congratulations Jeffrey!

Judakris congratulates Jeffrey Sebelia, winner of Project Runway Season 3. Here is part of his bio from BRAVOtv.com:

“What I hope to create are clothes for those who relate to freedom, rebellion, creation, and self-expression. What it might look like if the world were dressed in slightly mind-bending colors and shapes, smartly designed prêt-a-porter and then experienced an apocalypse.”

“Music is in my blood, as well as art and fashion,” says Jeffrey Sebelia, 36, the founder and designer behind clothing label Cosa Nostra. At age 16, Jeff left home to live in a garage with his punk band where he fell into a life of music, art and fast times, all supported by a mild criminal habit. It was, according to Jeff, “A lifestyle of freedom, rebellion and self-expression. Working for little money and ‘trade.’ ”

Jeffrey brought a bit of rawk and drama to this season. His Fashion Week line was inspired by Japanese ghost stories. -K

October Surprise

Rollingstone, I don’t know what I was thinking when I assumed that this country couldn’t celebrate mediocrity any more than it does. Thank you for proving me wrong by gracing your October issue [1011] with the prolific and enigmatic Fergie and then inviting me, the reader, into an engaging story that barely fills TWO whole pages. I have to wonder how much Jägermeister the writer had to consume to produce even that much.

Here are some interesting factoids that you learn about this truly enigmatic superstar.

1. She makes up words, i.e., resiculous. This means that something is sick and ridiculous as in “Fergie popularity is sick and ridiculous.”

2. Fergie’s real name is Stacy Ferguson. Get it- ‘Fergie’ is a play on ‘Ferguson’.

3. She is mysterious and "uncategorizable" as in she’s a tomboy sometimes and girly at other times, depending on her mood.

4. Fergie loves to imitate instruments. When you can’t understand what she is saying during a song, it’s because she’s deliberately distorting it to make it sound like an instrument. Pronouncing, I mean pronunciating, the word correctly would destroy the effect.

5. A whole paragraph is dedicated to describing her struggle to be good at lunch and not order a meal with brown butter.

6. The infamous picture that showed up on celebrity blogs where she seemed to have pissed her pants was caused by her having pissed her pants.

7. She is a recovering crystal meth addict. How many times do we have to read about this?

8. She mentions a song on the new album called “Pedestal” in which she fires back at all those people who spend their time dissing her on the internet. HAHA. Resiculous, yo!

Might I suggest a Pete Doherty cover and retrospective? If you're going to publish this kind of shit, then the least you could do is provide us with something sensertaining. -K

Everything Old is New

I totally agree with K on the new JET CD. The Raconteurs’ Broken Boy Soldiers is also very familiar. I have been listening to it quite a bit this week and I think it sounds a lot like Jefferson Airplane. Both albums are good but not great.

Judakris saw JET open for Oasis in June of 2005. They sounded terrific and it was a fun show. Even though neither of these albums would make my top ten for the year, I would go see either band if they made an STL appearance. --J

Sam's Town

Here’s my two cents on Sam’s Town. I was more of a Hot Fuss fan than K was. There was a time when I played those first five songs off that CD over and over again. Last year I had made my sister-in-law a mix CD that included a remixed version of Somebody Told Me. She told me that when she put it on the first time, my six year old nephew S broke out into the robot. That’s undeniable power!

If I had to choose between the two, I’d go with Hot Fuss. After months of dismissing it, I do love When You Were Young and I have had For Reasons Unknown on infinite loop this week. The rest of the CD falls kind of flat for me. In a recent interview in Blender, Brandon Flowers compared Sam’s Town to U2’s Achtung Baby or Radiohead’s OK Computer. I appreciate the bravado, but Achtung Baby it ain’t. Now there’s a record where a band took a different approach and ended up with unbelievable results.

I don’t like what’s happening with their stage performance with this record either. I saw them a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live and it’s as if Brandon Flowers isn’t quite sure what to do with himself. That’s why he needs the keyboards that were used more heavily on Hot Fuss so he doesn’t have to think about body movement. Yes, I am pushing for keyboards! --J

Jet's 'Shine On' Good, not Great

Jet’s sophomore effort Shine On is good, but it’s not a standout piece this fall. It’s an incredibly safe and predictably retro-sounding release on which you’ll often hear the band doing Oasis doing The Beatles.

Not Unfortunate, but not Unexpected either. -K

K's favorites:
Eleanor
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Shine On
Shiny Magazine

The Rolling Stones Mystique

For those of you as intrigued as I am by The Rolling Stones of the late 60’s/early 70’s there are a few things you may want to check out. I just watched a movie last night called Stoned, which is a loosely factual story of Brian Jones’ last days. Was he murdered as his model girlfriend at the time claims? Was there a deathbed confession by the murderer? We will never know I suppose, but the possibility is brought to life in this film. It reminded me quite a bit of The Talented Mr. Ripley with a lot more drugs and full frontal nudity. Don’t see it though if you are looking for a Rolling Stones biopic. The rest of the band is barely in it. The only truly clichéd soundtrack moment in the film is when Brian is dropping acid with Anita Pallenberg to Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit. Is there a law that says that if someone is taking acid on a movie screen, it must be done to this song?

Also, I read an excerpt from a new book in Rolling Stone last month. It’s called Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield. From what I read in the excerpt and a review, it's the behind the music filled with drama, drugs, and sex. I can’t wait to read it! --J

Cheetah!

October 1st, and I am heading to the Fabulous Fox Theatre, to take A. and her best friend to see Everlife/Hannah Montana/The Cheetah Girls. I joked with a friend that I was going to take some knitting with me. I should have.

The tickets were A’s birthday present from us. The most bittersweet thing about the show was that I would finally get to see something at the Fox Theatre. Last year I had to give up my ticket to see the White Stripes with K at that beautiful venue due to a business trip and I’m still holding a grudge. I thought it would be a good first concert experience for A., since there was no chance of simulated sex or anyone yelling “fuck” at a Disney show.

For those of you who do not have a “tween” girl, I’ll give you some background. I don’t know much about Everlife except that the Christian band is made up of three sisters and a guy drummer. They did sing “Real Wild Child”, the only song I recognized, which brings to mind Jerry Lee Lewis or Iggy Pop, not Christian pop.

The big draw for A. and her friend was the second act, Hannah Montana. Hannah Montana is not a real person, but a television character from the Disney show of the same name. In the show, Miley Stuart is your average teenage girl living in Southern California, who unbeknownst to her friends, is also a mega-popular singing star that they all adore. How does she keep up this double life? It is of course all possible because her alter-ego has blonde hair and at school Miley is a brunette. Hannah is played by Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray’s teenage daughter. If you have to stomach a Disney sitcom, this one is palatable, mostly because Billy Ray plays Miley’s father on the show and regularly makes fun of his past musical past. Even on the show, Billy Ray is a former country heartthrob with a killer mullet. I know it is way confusing, father and daughter in real life and father and daughter on television.

On Sunday, the crowd went wild when Hannah took the stage. The poor thing was having a bout of stomach flu and had to leave the stage a few times but got through her set.

The concert was sold out, with a venue capacity of 4,500. When I looked around the crowd, I truly think I could have counted about twenty or twenty-five dads, and no other male attendees. I don’t think I have ever been in a room with that many females in all of my life. Who said The Lillith Fair is dead?

Finally, the main attraction, The Cheetah Girls took the stage. It was a high energy performance with lots of choreography, but I couldn’t get past the fact that both Hannah Montana and The Cheetah Girls’ sets were both void of any musicians with real instruments. Instead, they sang to a music track and what sounded like a vocal track was included as well. But by the audience's high-pitched squeals at an unimaginable volume, I must have been the only one concerned by this.

After the show, A. and her friend wanted to try and meet their idols so we waited around. A. and her friend got to shake Miley Cyrus’ hand. The Cheetah Girls were too busy to come out. The legion of fans waiting at the stage door was pretty daunting. It would have taken them forever to sign all of the autographs, etc. Standing with fans after a show, this was the most aggressive group I have ever encountered. Forget the kids, the moms were going to demand attention for their girls. One of the moms said sternly, “They better come out! They’re only popular because we buy all of their stuff!” That attitude made me want to leave. A.and her friend had a wonderful time, but I know that A. is more excited about the Panic! at the Disco show I’ll be taking her to next month with cousin D. I probably won’t be tempted to check my email through that show. --J

Mischa

Check out the corpse paint on my family’s latest addition, Mischa.


I can’t help but think of this dude called Abbath from the Norwegian Black Metal band Immortal. He's the guy on the left...


Sing metal, Olaf.
-K

Sam's Town- The Killers

I saw The Killers perform at Mississippi Nights when I first moved to St. Louis in 2004. I saw them again at The Pageant last year because J and co. were into seeing them and I thought it would be a fun night out. I am not a hardcore fan and never have been. Hot Fuss was good fun, but unless there’s an emotional tie-in for me (ok, and sometimes if the lead singer is exceptionally hot) I don’t stay around that long before something else grabs my attention. The band and their cd didn’t meet the criteria (though Brandon’s voice is incredibly sexy) so as the band achieved worldwide acclaim from fans and critics I took note but didn’t save the articles for my scrapbook.

This summer there was a lot of buzz about the sophomore effort that was to be released in the fall of 2006. You could not escape the “Bruce Springsteen influence” references in each and every early article or review. This seemed like such an unexpected influence that I admit I was curious. Then, after hearing “When You Were Young” and the revelation that I WAS IN LOVE WITH THIS SONG, I admitted to myself that I would purchase this album as soon as I could. Sam's Town was released this week and I indeed purchased it.

Make no mistake there is a heavy Bruce Springsteen influence on this cd. But, instead of a blatant rip-off, they do it right by borrowing the spirit of singing about open roads and hopeful hearts while (mostly) maintaining their own familiar sound. Besides hearing familiar E Street Band instrumental and choral arrangements, you hear a lead singer who has captured Bruce’s ability to be fragile without sounding like it. It’s evident on this cd that some life has been lived and I am so on board with that. Well done, boys.

I can’t believe I’m listening to The Killers again and enjoying it on such a different level. For this, I give it an UNEXPECTED. -K

P.S.
Incidentally, Sam’s Town is an off-strip casino/hotel in Vegas.

To me, the top half of the cd hits the ground running. The rest I came to like after a few more listens.

K’s favorites:
Sam’s Town
When You Were Young
For Reasons Unknown (probably my favorite right now)
Read My Mind
Why Do I Keep Counting?

Veruca Salt at Pop's - September 25, 2006

Judakris headed across the Mighty Missisip to see Veruca Salt Monday night at Pop’s. I haven’t listened to them in awhile but was a fan of Eight Arms to Hold You, and American Thighs. The ticket price was right—five bucks. K initially didn’t want to go but agreed to attend in the end. A couple of non-musical reasons also prompted us. Louise Post is from St. Louis and after the Living Things debacle, we were curious to see another hometown hero take the stage. Also, this is the chick that inspired Dave Grohl to write Everlong? Yes, I had to see her. It’s gonna be increasingly ironic that I’m going to check out a girl as this post continues…

So we walk into Pop’s after the first band, Bitch Slap Barbie, has performed. Almost immediately I’m getting a vibe in the club. Now Pop’s always reminds me of the bar in the Patrick Swayze classic, Road House (classic for how bad it is). When I walk in to Pop’s, I’m always expecting to see a bunch of rednecks with big hair and Dalton the bouncer keepin’ the peace. This of course never is the case, but I was especially taken off guard by the crowd on Monday. There were a lot of lesbian couples, A LOT. Of course there were a good number of straight guys standing around as well. As we were standing there listening to the second band, two attractive gals were heavy making out. K leaned over and said, “Don’t you know these straight guys are going ‘Hell yeah!’”. Hahaha It was unexpected.

Next up after Bitch Slap Barbie, The Strays took the stage. They were okay, but I did not see anything there that separated them from the pack. They were trying to be The Clash and their look, especially the hair, seemed very important. The third band, Agent Sparks, made us angry. One of the singers was female with this STUPID outfit on. It was one of those bands that you just know only white college kids would like because they’re “different”. Yuck! I could go on and on but I won’t. We had to just walk away after awhile because they were pissing us off.

As for Veruca Salt, they put on an awesome show. Louise was glad to be home with her mom and other friends and family in the audience. They played some songs off of their new album, IV, but also played all of the hits off of the early records. I know in the past I’ve been critical of the female performer but I walked away with nothing but respect for a woman who does it right. She is feminine but you also kinda get the impression that if she had a few, she’d probably kick your ass. I was curious how they would be without Nina Gordon, one of the other founding members, but they didn’t miss a beat. It was unexpected how much I enjoyed this show. --J

Here’s the setlist with some of my favorites highlighted:

So Weird
Don't Make Me Prove It
Centipede
Spiderman '79
Volcano Girls
Innocent
Shutterbug
Save You
Born Entertainer
Blissful Queen
Victrola
Closer
Straight
Sick As Your Secrets

Encore:
One Last Time
Seether
Hellraiser