pop culture, reviewed

Lennon/McCartney? Nooo……. so much potential for sacrilege and
blasphemy. Just listening to Paula talk about the songs hurt me a little.
Let’s discuss.

Syesha Merkado — “Got to Get You Into My Life.” Bad. BAD. She needs to
go home. (Jake says: “I’m going to count how many people need to go home
after butchering the songs tonight.”) I’m a little worried that this is the
first exposure that the baby is going to have to this song — to a lot of
these songs. I feel guilty. Does Simon have brain damage tonight? It was
AWFUL.

Chikezie — “She’s a Woman.” I always get worried when they talk about
putting “their own flavor” on a song by such songwriters as
Lennon/McCartney, but I give Chikezie huge props for picking a song that the
audience isn’t going to have such an emotional attachment to. If you can’t
sing one of the classics, don’t. WAY better than Syesha, and all in all,
the first time I have been remotely interested in anything that Chikezie has
sung. He was also super cute when he got really excited after hearing that
they all liked it.

Ramiele Mulabay — “In My Life.” Oh, no. No, no, no. I’m not excited to
hear Ramiele sing one of my favorite songs of ALL TIME FOREVER AND EVER AND
EVER. Jake left the room. Overall, I was right not to be excited. It
wasn’t quite as horrendous as Syesha, but it was dullsville all the way and
a totally pointless cover version that I would never listen to by choice.
Bad times.

Jason Castro — “If I Fell.” My initial reaction? Pretty good choice for
him and I’m glad to see that his guitar is back. I think it’s way smart for
them to choose some of the lesser-knowns — less pressure, less potential
for butchering. It wasn’t quite as good as I expected him to be, but all in
all, okay. Not mind-blowing, but nowhere near as bad as Syesha and Ramiele.
I like his song choices overall; I think he and Brooke White have done the
best job so far of picking good songs every week.

Carly Smithson — “Come Together.” I think it was smart of her to choose a
rocker, and it was pretty good. I’m not going to start listening to that
version over the original, of course, but she was probably the best Idol to
do that one and I didn’t mind it at all. So far, she and Chikezie are the
best of the night.

Jason Cook — “Eleanor Rigby.” You know how it was so cool and such a good
idea when he sang “Hello” and made it kind of new rocker? Yeah, NOT a good
idea with “Eleanor Rigby.” BOOOOOO. The way he’s jumping up and down makes
me think that he thinks it was good. NO. And Randy, you’re wrong! Paula,
you’re SO wrong! Simon said it was brilliant? That makes me so
disappointed in Simon. HORRID. HORRID.

Brooke White — “Let It Be.” I like Brooke a lot so I want her to do well,
so I was nervous. I loved that she is playing the piano herself. I think
it’s really appropriate that she usually eschews the band — she is not a
funk house band kind of singer, and that’s good, and it’s good that she
knows it. I really appreciate that she did a totally straightforward
version of the song. Her performance was respectful and convincing. Whew.
I still like her. Good job, Brooke. I also cried a little when she
started crying.

David Hernandez — “I Saw Her Standing There.” Embarrassing. This
performance really reflected poorly on all gay strippers who want to be your
American Idol. As I told Jake, “Tiffany’s version was better.” Jake
replied, “My version in the shower yesterday was also better.” I’m sure
that is also true. David Hernandez and Syesha need to leave the
competition. As far as I am concerned, their journey ends tonight.

Amanda Overmyer — “You Can’t Do That.” I’m kind of over Amanda. She
doesn’t look like she wants to be there a lot of the time, and it’s probably
just because she is nervous and shy. It might have been smart for her to
steer clear of one of the classics, although I think she could have done an
okay job on “Get Back.”

Michael Johns — “Across the Universe.” Okay, this is one of my favorite
Beatles songs ever, and it is one that lends itself to some good covers
(Rufus, Fiona Apple). This version was not as good as those, obviously, but
it was okay. It was a good song choice, and it’s the first time that I have
liked Michael Johns since the Hollywood round. However, Jake made an
excellent point — he had a little Eddie Vedder in his voice at some points,
which means that he probably should have done a wicked “You’ve Got to Hide
Your Love Away.”

Kristy Lee Cook — “Eight Days a Week.” Ouch. When I heard she was going
to “countrify” “Eight Days a Week,” I kept an open mind. I thought that had
potential. Well, it didn’t work. WAY TOO FAST. I mean, WAY WAY WAY TOO
FAST. No reason to speed the tempo up so much; she could have sung it at
its natural tempo and just made it twangy. BAD. I hope that they decide to
vote off some extra people this week.

David Archuleta — “We Can Work It Out.” Oh, my heart hurts. I had such
high hopes. No. It’s Lennon/McCartney week. There is PLENTY of time on
Idol to do PLENTY of Stevie Wonder songs. Not tonight. No. NO. I still
think he is one of the better singers and I like him a lot, but not this
week.

Who was the best: Brooke. Who should go home: Syesha, Ramiele, David
Hernandez, and Kristy. Yeah, all four of them. Let’s just go ahead and get
down to business.

On Friday, I took the train to New York to go to a late-night show at the Bowery Ballroom.  What would inspire me to make a last-minute trip to New York to go to a concert?  You guessed it — though the late show was billed as a band called “Cold Roses, Inc.,” everyone knew it was Ryan Adams and the Cardinals.  I bought my ticket about two minutes after I figured out the show was happening.  (Tickets were $20 but were soon being listed on Craig’s List for four times that.) 

I had to go for several reasons:  (1) I hadn’t seen Ryan play in over a year, (2) it was on a Friday and was within reasonable traveling distance, (3) Molly and Caroline were in New York Friday night anyway, and (4) I knew the show was going to be something special.  Who but the most rabid Ryan fans were even going to know about the show, or be willing to go to a show where doors didn’t even open until 12:30 a.m.?  And why would Ryan even play his second set of the evening (first was at the Arthur Lee benefit concert at the Beacon) if he wasn’t planning on rocking out? 

I was not disappointed.  The concert was worth every dollar it cost, it was worth the train trip to New York, it was worth standing in the rain waiting to get into the Bowery Ballroom for 45 minutes, it was worth another 45 minutes waiting in the Bowery Ballroom bar before getting into the mainstage, it was worth staying out until 4 a.m. … it was all worth it.

Highlights: 

• The like-minded crowd, all of whom seemed pumped to be there.  Those of us waiting to get in started murmuring as members of the band walked in and out of the door in front of us; these were people who were just as excited as I was to see that the Cardinals’ former guitarist, J.P. Bowersock, was in attendance, as was Ryan’s BFF Jesse Malin.  I wasn’t the only one who noticed Ryan’s rumored paramour, Jessica Joffe, as she darted in and out several times (she is adorable).  Then, when we finally got into the main room, the guy waiting in front of me turned around and said, “Who else would we do this for?  Who else would we wait in the rain for, in the middle of the night, and be happy about it?”  The answer for me is clear:  No one.  People were tossing around unreleased song titles like “Born Yesterday” and “Dear Anne,” which was very exciting for me considering that lots of people that I talk to don’t even know who Ryan Adams is. (“What kind of music do you like?”  “Well, I love Ryan Adams…”  “Bryan Adams? ‘Cuts Like a Knife’?”  “Um, no.”) To be surrounded by people who love him as much as I do was pretty exciting.  
• Opening with “Love is Hell,” which I had been hoping to hear.  It wasn’t a surprise that they played it but it was a surprise to hear it first.  An even bigger surprise was hearing “This is It” next.  Everyone was looking around at each other like, “Are you kidding me?  He’s playing Rock’n’Roll?”  And that wasn’t all — he played “Note to Self: Don’t Die” and “Wish You Were Here,” too!  People!  (Incidentally, during “Wish You Were Here,” he changed the line “…And if I had my way, we’d take some drugs…” to “…we’d eat some Cheezits,” lending some credence to the theory that he’s cleaned up his act a little.  Other evidence:  he drank Diet Coke throughout the show instead of red wine, and only smoked one cigarette, during the encore.)  (Also, I’m convinced the R’n’R stuff was for Caroline, who likes the loud stuff as opposed to the “hillbilly” music.)
• “Cherry Lane.”  The crowd went wild, as most of us hadn’t heard it live before.  Don’t worry — it was just as good live as you would expect it to be.  I also heard “Hard Way to Fall” for the first time and it was heartbreaking.  I can’t ever decide whether I prefer Cold Roses or Jacksonville City Nights, but I think that “Hard Way to Fall” is so brilliant that right now I’m leaning toward favoring JCN.  (In addition to “Cherry Lane,” from Cold Roses he played “Let it Ride,” “Magnolia Mountain,” “Cold Roses,” and “Easy Plateau”…. and I might be forgetting something else.  All were excellent.  If the R’n’R songs were for Caroline, the Cold Roses selections were for Molly.)
• “Call Me On Your Way Back Home.”  The only song Ryan played solo, to a totally silent crowd.   Can I just tell you how much it kills me to hear him sing, “Honey, I was just a kid, bubblegum on my shoe, but you loved me, and I loved you”?  It does.  It totally kills me.  I can’t stop listening to this song now — I’ve always liked it fine, but it has never been one of my favorites.  Now, though, I can’t get enough.  That leads me to consider, again, people who criticize Ryan for being too prolific and not editing himself enough —  who’s to say that you have to fall in love with everything at first listen?  On each of his albums there are songs that I loved immediately and some that I don’t connect with until months (or even years) after hearing them for the first time (“I See Monsters,” “Please Do Not Let Me Go,” “Friends,” etc.).  I’m all for quality over quantity, but it’s a real gift to have both, and to continually be able to find treasures in his catalog even when you’ve heard each album a thousand times.
• Everything else — the usual crowdpleasers  (“To Be Young” and “Shakedown”), the much-loved but often omitted “Dear Chicago” (again played to a nearly silent crowd), and of course the classic “Come Pick Me Up.”   (I love “Come Pick Me Up,” but I have heard it so many times and there are so many deep cuts that I love just as much that sometimes I forget just how good it really is.  It’s genius.)
• Having friends good enough that they waited in line with me (in the rain!) and then stayed awake practically all night long (until 4 a.m.!), just to go with me to a show of some temperamental musician that I love.   They didn’t even make fun or complain once.  Thanks, y’all. 

The inevitable letdown after seeing a Ryan concert was eased somewhat with the knowledge that in the next month, I’ll get to see him three more times — in Baltimore, Norfolk, and Atlanta.  (And until my next report, you can check out the official setlist and some pictures of the man himself in his Batman t-shirt over at Stereogum.) 

Please, I want to know — tell me who is making music right now that’s better than Ryan, because I want to check them out.  I still listen to plenty of other stuff, but everything pales.  I promise you, I’m trying to find other things but nothing even comes close.  No one is doing what Ryan does.   (My husband in particular would thank you kindly if someone could turn my head to something else.)  

The bad news is, we did not get picked to be one of the final ten teams on VH1’s World Series of Popular Culture.

The good news is, now we won’t be able to embarrass any of y’all on national television. 

Thanks for rooting for us, anyway. 

I’m just as surprised and sad as the rest of y’all that Mandisa was the one voted off last night (though I was gratified that Paris Bennett was in the bottom three, because seriously, she’s still on my last nerve), but at least we had one good song choice this week.  I think you all know what I’m talking about — sweet Kellie Pickler knew that the one country song that needed to be sung was "Fancy."  For one brief moment, I was reminded of what Idol used to be like, back when the contestants picked good songs instead of songs that (a) no one has ever heard before, (b) songs that people have heard too much, or (c) songs that are just plain boring.  What AI had been missing this season, folks, was a song about a mama whoring out her daughter and her daughter thanking her for it.  Good times. 

(Meanwhile, Caroline and Molly and I remain on pins and needles, anxiously wondering our own fate after our recent New York adventure.  Here’s our one chance, Fancies.  I hope we don’t let you down.)

A little late, but here are some short snippet reviews of a few albums I picked up from Tower last week.  Emilie’s more interesting Golden Globe post is right below this one:

Morningwood - Morningwood - 5/10.  Total pop radio fluff, but very fun pop radio fluff.  Loses an extra point for self-censorship on "Jetsettermusicletter" (which is an otherwise good song).  Listen here.

Apollo Sunshine - Apollo Sunshine - 9/10 - An out-of-left-field surprise.  Recommended highly if you like new Wilco.  "Today is the Day" is a fantastic alt-country song (even if alt-country seems to be past its prime right now).  Listen here.

We are Scientists - With Love and Squalor - 7/10 - Solid work.  Danceable indie in the Killers/Franz Ferdinand vein.  Honestly, hasn’t gotten as many listens from me as Morningwood and Apollo Sunshine have.  Listen here.