Say Anything - Say Anything
Record Label: RCA Records
Release Date: November 3, 2009

You can see progression when it happens.

You’re a young student in elementary school, and your teachers are explaining to the class what similes are. You go into middle school using “like” or “as” to draw comparisons between everything you’ve ever imagined, when in sixth grade they hit you with a bomb. Metaphors. Metaphors are comparisons that don’t use “like” or “as”. You are blown away, and now all you can do is spend half of the time allotted to you for essays thinking of the perfect metaphor. You are progressing as a writer.

Say Anything have progressed too. No, not in a way similar to upgrading your rhetorical tools from similes to metaphors, not at all. Really, I just wanted to use metaphors as a metaphor for progression. Max Bemis is no longer that bipolar oddball that we all grew to love with Say Anything’s debut …Is A Real Boy and their follow-up In Defense of the Genre. He has matured, he has married, and he now seems to be a man with a plan. The self-titled third effort from the group has a lot to it. You could easily describe the songs on this album among about seven different genres. Progress, people. “Fed to Death” is a shining introduction to the album, as an excellently arranged piano part takes listeners into first single and everyone’s new cheer-me-up song, “Hate Everyone.” Bemis sings about, um, hating everyone, over a pounding, relentless drum beat to get the listener in the mood to hear what’s next.

“Do Better” and “Less Cute” are a one-two punch of pop prominence. The former showcases Bemis’ vocals while the latter focuses more on the instrumentation, with brass leading you into the song and a driving guitar riff taking you out. After these two, if you’re anything like me, is when you’ll start getting skeptical of Say Anything. “Eloise” starts off with a piano and an acoustic guitar, and as you’re bracing yourself for another future pop hit, the chorus kicks in to reveal one of the most rock-and-roll tracks Say Anything have recorded to date. Following the trend, “Mara and Me” starts off wonderfully upbeat, continues with the listener having a few “did he really just say those lyrics?” moments, and concludes with a chant of “fake players are the ones who play the game/ go to sleep, go to sleep, come on” and a head-banging guitar solo. So, now you’re a bit confused. Is this pop music, is this pop rock, or is this straight rock and roll? Well, don’t expect answers anytime soon. “Crush’d” is the softest, poppiest song on Say Anything. Bemis continues with the heartfelt, gutsy lyrics that again and again inspired this listener to drop his jaw in disbelief. This track may be quickly forgotten though, by listeners who favor Say Anything’s heavier side, as it sets up “She Won’t Follow You.” Calls of “meet me in the back room/I’ll tell you everything, everything whoa-oa-oa” are complemented by a bridge solo that will have you begging to hear it live.

I almost never review every song of an album. I usually try to pick out a few highlights or the tracks that really stick out to me for whatever reason. Well, if I were reviewing basically any other album this year, I would have to include “Cemetery”, with its goosebump-inducing chants of “you’re in my body”; “Property”, where Bemis pays homage to his influences, starting off with 40 seconds of The Beatles before a verse reminiscent of Green Day; “Death for My Birthday”, another seemingly effortless pop masterpiece; and “Young, Dumb, and Stung”, with another load of heartfelt lyrics and an awesome closing breakdown.

However, this is not every other album this year. This is an album that gets comments about all of it songs. This is the best album of the year that isn’t called Mean Everything to Nothing. This is the most all-over-the-place record put out by a band since, um, …Is A Real Boy. Regardless, the four songs most recently discussed are overshadowed by album closer “Ahhh….Men.” While “Young, Dumb, and Stung” sounds like it would be an acceptable album closer, “Ahhh…Men” was written for this position. The song is highlighted by its midpoint onward, where Bemis begins with soft, acoustic strumming and a peaceful plea of “can I lie in you grave?” before he turns those words into a background group chant while yelping over them the last phenomenal set of lyrics found on Say Anything. The record finally comes to a close with nothing other than the listener feeling purely stunned and a burning urge to replay it.

Say Anything have again perfectly pulled off the no-genre approach, and Max Bemis has only confirmed to the scene his rightful place as one of the most creative musicians of our time. With a passion and natural ability for writing songs that is matched by few in this world, Bemis shows us all why Say Anything is one of the most popular bands around and primed and ready for an explosion onto the mainstream, whether fans like it or not.

It’s a metaphor, fool.

Recommended If You Like: the no-genre genre, the album that should have followed …Is a Real Boy, Max Bemis’ witty lyricism

Download These First: “Do Better”, “Mara and Me”, “She Won’t Follow You”, “Ahh…Men”

Check out Say Anything on their myspace.

This week the train stops twice as it was delayed last week, so stopping previously at R.Kelly’s “12 Play” it now stops at SWV’s  debut album “It’s About Time”. The album has been certified triple platinum by the RIAA and is one of the few succesful female group LP’s that helped to pioneer the sound that later became known as New Jack Swing. SWV (an acronym for Sisters With Voices) feature’s Cheryl “Coko” Gamble the groups most notable singer, Tamara “Taj” Johnson and Leanne ”Lelee” Lyons ( the groups founder).

Track List

1.Anything
2.I’m So Into You
3.Right Here
4.Weak

В раздаче клип Christina Aguilera на песню Ain’t No Other Man, первый сингл с третьего студийного альбома певицы Back to Basics, вышедшего еще в 2006 году. В клипе Кристина Агилера предстает в образе Baby Jane – певички 20-х годов. Режисером видео выступил Bryan Barber.

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• Ain’t No Other Man
• by Christina Aguilera
• from the albom Back to Basics
• directed by Bryan Barber
• © 2006 RCA Records

 

• Качество: HDTV
• Формат: TS
• Видео кодек: MPEG2 Video
• Аудио кодек: AC3
• Видео: 1920×1080 at 29.970 fps ~ 15.5 Mbps
• Аудио: 48000Hz 2ch 384Kbps
• Размер: 541 Mb

Back in the early 1980’s, I would buy just about any Heavy Metal album that had a cool or scary cover. I also would buy a Heavy Metal album just based on the bands name alone… if it was interesting enough. Usually, I was lucky with my choices, although there were those duds that I picked over the decades, (I won’t lie about that). Buying duds happens to any fan of any music genre, I would surmise. Not listening to an album before buying it was, (and still is), a risky Metal proposition, especially if you never heard the respective band before. Step in… Heaven. This Heavy Metal Band was not a dud.

Heaven, a Heavy Metal Band from Australia, released three studio albums during their brief career, (1982-1985), on a major label being RCA. I used to own one of the three Heaven albums – Where Angels Fear To Tread. I bought this album at a Caldor department store, back in 1983. Caldor had one really fine album/records department for a large retail store. Caldor went belly up years ago, it was a shame to see, especially when it was responsible for my having such an array of Heavy Metal albums back in the ’80’s. I bought this Heaven album without ever hearing a single song from it… the bands name being Heaven, along with the front cover logo and artwork was too good to pass up. Plus, the backside of this album had a very large photo of the band, looking real tough, (Heavy Metal tough). In this photo, lead singer Alan Fryer is shown holding a leash with a black panther attached to it. (That is to the best of my Metal memory when describing this back cover photo, if I am in error in any way, please feel free to comment with a correction).

Back in 1983, this was all I needed to see to make a blind Heavy Metal album purchase. I believe the only Heaven song I ever heard on mainstream radio was on WCCC or WHCN, (on the FM dial in expensive Connecticut), the song was Rock School. Quite honestly, I remember really liking this album, yet it was not the Heavy Metal thunder of a Def Leppard, Krokus, Accept or even Helix from that time period. Nonetheless, Heaven was heavy and good enough for me to even be looking back upon, in 2009. Where Angels Fear To Tread was a Heavy Metal album that fit right in during 1983, still Heaven obviously never caught on with the Metal masses… for reasons that I may never know. Let’s face it, I never bought their first album – Twilight of Mischief/In The Beginning, nor did I buy their third album – Knockin’ On Heavens Door, so my Metal loyalty to Heaven was not up to task back in the early ’80’s. What was I supposed to do? There were literally tons of Heavy Metal Bands coming from all sides back then, from Vintage and Classic Rock bands to the birth of the Thrash, Black and Death Metal genres. Heaven just fell victim to choice, when it came to my album purchasing decisions.

As I look back, I really wish I kept Where Angels Fear To Tread, however, it does not appear to be in print on CD. From scoping out the world wide web, it seems that this album is unofficially in print and is referred to as a bootleg version, with five live bonus tracks included. I would be Metal smitten to land a copy of this Heaven album, especially on vinyl once again. Getting ahold of this CD seems to be doable, regardless of any low quality from it being described as a bootleg.

This might sound a tad strange when I state that my favorite song from Where Angels Fear To Tread is the cover song Love Child. Yup, that famous Love Child song originally done by The Supremes. Metal truth be told, Heaven made this song heavy and it Rocked for me back in good ol’ 1983. Aw heck, this entire Heaven album would sound good again for my ears, 26 years after it’s release. It would be interesting to see, with the current Heavy Metal revival ongoing, if Heaven was to resurface in some shape or form. As the old Metal saying goes… you can’t hold onto everything in life, this Heaven album on vinyl is a great example of that, for me anyways.

A quick Metal note: There was another band named Heaven… this particular band goes back to the early 1970’s. From everything I have researched, this Heaven band does not have any association to the Heaven Heavy Metal Band of the early ’80’s. I have never listened to this band, they are categorized as a Rock band and have an album titled: Brass Rock 1, released back in 1971 on Esoteric Records. (See pic of album cover on the left of this paragraph). I found this other Heaven band and Brass Rock 1 album on www.fye.com, yup, it was out of stock. This same Brass Rock 1 album is in stock on www.bestbuy.com, however, Best Buy categorizes this 1971 Heaven band as “Metal”… go figure. This other Heaven band’s Brass Rock 1 CD is priced at $20.99, U.S. dollars, a bit too pricey for me to take a gamble on. Plus neither f.y.e. or Best Buy offer music samples for this other Heaven Band’s CD, Brass Rock 1.

Here is the front cover for Where Angels Fear To Tread, by the early 1980’s Heavy Metal Band – Heaven. This cover does scream early ’80’s Heavy Metal with it’s color and artwork, the Heaven logo I feel was well done. This cover is nothing too fancy, nor is it uncool, in my Metal opinion.

Kelly Clarkson

(PRVegas.com) Kelly Clarkson will perform at the The Joint – Hard Rock tonight, Fri, Nov 6 2009.  Tickets are available at Click2Vegas.com and other ticket outlets.  

Clarkson made her debut under RCA Records after she won the first season of the television series American Idol in 2002.  Clarkson has released four albums to date: her debut album Thankful  (2003), her multi-platinum second album Breakaway (2004), My December (2007), and her latest album All I Ever Wanted (2009). Her first four albums have sold over 10.3 million copies in the United States.

Clarkson has toured extensively worldwide as a solo act. After Clarkson’s appearance on the CMT Crossroads and her duet version of “Because of You” (2007) with Reba McEntire, they co-headlined the 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour (2008).

Remaining concert dates for November 2009 are Phoenix, AZ 11/7, Victoria, Canada 11/18, Calgary, Canada 11/20, Kelowna, Canada 11/22, Seattle, WA 11/24, Reno, NV 11/28, and San Jose, CA 11/28 according to NationalShowTickets.com

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TOP 5 VEGAS SHOWS
Provided by Click2Vegas.com
1 Bette Midler
2 Cher
3 Cirque Du Soleil – O
4 Cirque du Soleil – The Beatles: Love
5 Phantom The Las Vegas Spectacular

Танцевальное видео Ke$ha (правильнее даже сказать Kesha Rose Sebert) на песню TiK ToK с еще не вышедшего дебютного альбома Animal. Популярность к певице пришла совсем недавно, после выхода сингла американского рэпера Flo Rida на песню Right Round, в записи которой она принимала участие. Описание и ссылка приложены.

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• TiK ToK
• by Ke$ha
• from the albom Animal
• © 2009 RCA Records/Jive Records

 

• Качество: Promo
• Формат: VOB
• Видео кодек: MPEG2 Video
• Аудио кодек: PCM
• Видео: 720×480 at 29.970 fps ~ 7012 Kbps
• Аудио: 48000Hz 2ch 1536Kbps
• Размер: 179 Mb

Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Germany
Label: RCA Records
Length: 48:14
Tracklist:
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01. Hard Attack
02. Crossroads
03. Making Me Scream
04. Digging In The Dirt
05. Lay It Down
06. It Ain't Over Yet
07. Predator
08. Crucified
09. Take Out The Crime
10. Don't Give A Damn
11. Run Through The Night
12. Primitive

Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Germany
Label: RCA Records
Length: 71:18
Tracklist:
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01. Death Row
02. Sodom & Gomorra
03. The Beast Inside
04. Dead On!
05. Guns 'R' Us
06. Like A Loaded Gun
07. What Else
08. Stone Evil
09. Bad Habits Die Hard
10. Prejudice
11. Bad Religion
12. Generation Clash II
13. Writing On The Wall
14. Drifting Apart
15. Pomp And Circumstance

Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Germany
Label: RCA Records
Length: 47:57
Tracklist:
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01. Objection Overruled
02. I Don't Wanna Be Like You
03. Protectors Of Terror
04. Slaves To Metal
05. All Or Nothing
06. Bulletproof
07. Amamos La Vida
08. Sick, Dirty And Mean
09. Donation
10. Just By My Own
11. This One's For You
12. Rich & Famous

Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Germany
Label: RCA Records
Length: 1:39:13
Tracklist:
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DISC 1:
01. Metal Heart
02. Breaker
03. Screaming For A Love-Bite
04. Up To The Limit
05. Living For Tonight
06. Princess Of The Dawn
07. Neon Nights
08. Burning

DISC 2:
01. Head Over Heels
02. Guitar Solo Wolf
03. Restless And Wild
04. Son Of A Bitch
05. London Leatherboys
06. Love Child
07. Flash Rockin' Man
08. Rock On Leads
09. Fast As A Shark
10. Balls To The Wall
11. Outro (Bound To Fail)

Genre: Heavy Metal
Origin: Germany
Label: RCA Records
Length: 62:22
Tracklist:
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01. X-T-C
02. Generation Clash
03. Chain Reaction
04. Love Sensation
05. Turn The Wheel
06. Hellhammer
07. Prisoner
08. I Can't Believe In You
09. Mistreated
10. Stand 4 What U R 
11. Break The Ice
12. D-Train

Album Cover

Landon Pigg

“The Boy Who Never”

September 2009; RCA Records

By Emily J Ramey

Landon Pigg is the archetype of good singer/songwriter, folksy and eloquent, sentimental and warm.  And his second full-length album, The Boy Who Never, is the perfect soundtrack for a cool, wind-whipped, burnt orange autumn, which to me, always seems an ideal time for introspection and wit.

The Boy Who Never, as a title, projects fairy-tale fantasy, youth, and playfulness onto Pigg’s new music.  On the album, Pigg starts out carefree and whimsical, breezing through his best-known song “Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop,” and into a few more fresh and upbeat tunes.  Then, the 26-year-old songwriter becomes somber and hushed, fading the album out with delicate grace and poignant weight.  The feeling of the project as a whole is of seasons changing, fall diminishing into frosty, quiet winter.  The Boy Who Never lacks climax or revelation, Landon Pigg clearly trading shocking revelations for subtle discoveries.

A few of the most memorable tracks include the crisp, cheery opening tune, “This Far;” the smooth and brassy tune, “A Ghost;” the golden, enchanting single “Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop” with its gentle, lofty vocals and sugary, sentimental lyrics; the sweet, eager “Take a Chance” about taking risks in relationships with witty lyrics like, “I didn’t wanna be tied down/But now I see/Not being tied down/Ain’t the same as being free;” the steady, clever “Speak to the Keys” with its catchy, imaginatively musical chorus; and “Look So Tired,” a hushed and feathery ballad, with lovely, soft piano accompaniment by Landon himself.

Landon Pigg seems to be maturing as a songwriter before our very eyes.  He undoubtedly knows how to write a charmingly love-stricken hit for national fame, but I don’t think he’s lost an understanding of the importance of writing as himself.  The down-to-earth, silver-tongued Nashville native is growing up, regardless of the deceiving title of his album.  I feel comfortable speaking for Music City when I say, we’re proud of him and where he’s headed.

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