We've Moved

Continue to follow the thrilling adventures of Blue Suede Schubert at our new home here.
Why the change? Oh, you know the story.
The new place is closer to my work, the kids have more room to run around, etc. Plus there's a pool. I don't have a pool here.

Blake Lewis Is A Jedi Master

So Blake Lewis, the beat-boxing American Idol runner up, finally has his new album ready to hit the stores. That's the good news. Lewis is a talented artist, and the first cut from the album "Break Anotha" chugs along nicely and shows off his considerable skills. The bad news is that this is the album cover.
Yikes.
Let me be even a bit more to the point: This is the one they approved.
It makes you wonder at how crappy the rejected ones were. It looks like some sort of throwback to a Star Wars movie poster. The good thing is you don't have to look at it, and if your iTunes tries to download it as cover art, you can easily replace it with a picture of your dog.

Listen to Blake Lewis, Break Anotha

What Happened To The Music?

"Michael Jackson gives rare interview, pronounced normal"

That's a real headline from Reuters. Here are a few snippets from the story:

Jackson, 49, appears on the front cover of the African-American magazine "Ebony" to mark the 25th anniversary of "Thriller" -- the world's best-selling studio album that also made him a superstar.
...
The cover photo of the magazine, whose December edition hits newsstands on November 12, is causing almost as much of a stir as the interview, which barely addresses the fallout of the trial. Jackson is pictured dressed all in white, with a glowing peaches-and-cream skin.

Harriette Cole, creative director of Ebony, spent a day and a half with Jackson during the photo shoot and interview and said, "he came across really as kind of normal."

"He's 49. He's a grown-up. If you learn from your challenges, then you become stronger. He certainly seemed like that," Cole told NBC's "Today" show this week. "Honestly ... he was normal."

So, what happened to the music? That's a double-edged question.
First, I'm asking why the big story is that Michael Jackson appears to be normal? His image has become far bigger than his talent at this point in his career (or whatever is left of it). Big whoop. Michael Jackson is normal, so ...ummm... we have to go out and buy his album?

Well, no.

That brings me to the other side of the double-edged question.
What happened to the music? If these two leaked tracks are any indication, Michael Jackson hasn't turned on a radio in years.

In the words of my good friend, and music critic par excellence, Lisa, "The first song with the Fugees, who aren't really even the Fugees anymore is like Gangstas go Broadway. Like the 'Thriller' dance off, but every one keeps flashing up jazz hands at each other.
"The second song sounds like Michael is trapped in 1988. He has lost the magic. He has lost the magic and most of the supporting cartilage in his nose."

Listen for yourself:
Gangsta No Friend

Xcape

What Would You Pay For Paste?

No, not the gooey adhesive made from water and flour that you used in grade school. That stuff is free... and delicious.
I'm talking about Paste, the music magazine that comes with a free CD of tunes with each issue. Like Radiohead, Paste is betting that if readers name their own price for a subscription, they will become long-time subscribers, and maybe even buy the stuff that advertisers promote in their pages (because that's what it's all about anyway). Until November 10 (I think), you can subscribe to Paste at whatever price you want. The only thing is, you have to pay something, even if it's a minimum $1.

And if you pay more than the $19.95 Paste typically offers for a one-year subscription, you will be thanked in print in a future issue of the magazine, on a page that can be torn out and framed. Then you can tell all your friends that you were in Paste, and you wouldn't be lying this time.

Here's the story:
The campaign came about from a casual conversation at the Paste offices discussing the recent Radiohead campaign and the Jim Collins book, Good to Great.
“We were curious to know what our customers thought we were worth. And what better way to find out, than to let them tell us?” explained Paste president and publisher Tim Regan-Porter. “While it’s certainly a bit unconventional, we also see it as a chance to get our product in the hands of people who could become lifelong fans. It’s been our experience that once people become familiar with Paste, they turn into loyal readers.”

Get yer Paste here.

More Tuesday Trivia

Here's the regular Tuesday trivia questions, once again, courtesy of Ken Jennings.

1. What two U.S. states have musical instruments pictured on their state quarters?

2. What unusual distinction is shared by these famous people? Diamond Jim Brady, Rosey Grier, Woody Guthrie, Howlin' Wolf, Ted Lilly, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dwight Yoakam, and Andrew Young.

Tuesday Trivia: The Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz

Rolling Stone has an online "Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz." Some of it is pretty easy, but there are a number of questions that are real stumpers (stumpers?).
Challenge yourself to four decades of the trickiest, weirdest and most off-the-wall trivia questions ever in our fifty-eight question quiz, and tabulate your own rock & roll IQ.

My final score was a 43--"expert level," thank you very much--and looking at the answer key I see that there were a few that I should have gotten right that I didn't. That's pretty good considering I have a memory like a sieve. So, tricky? Yes. Impossible? Not so much.

Friday Fun: The Incomparable Wing!

Incomparable is a good word for Wing. Indescribable works too. So does Indecipherable. I've been a fan of this woman since about 2003, but I lost track of her. It's good to know she's still around. Wing is a charming older Asian woman who took up singing as a hobby when she moved to New Zealand. She sings standards and pop songs, all with...ummm... great gusto, and entertains audiences in nursing homes and elsewhere. You have to admire this woman for doing what she does, despite the fact that she doesn't really do it all that well. But listening to her is still quite entertaining. She has a whole bunch of self-produced CDs for sale on her website and via iTunes. She may not be the greatest singer (by a long shot) but she doesn't have to be... she's Wing!

Here she is, doin' it live!

The Police File: Part 1

Since The Police are currently on tour somewhere, cashing in on a wave of nostalgia, and since Andy Summers announced a film of his autobiography (see below), and since Sting was recently named one of the worst songwriters in rock music (more on that later), niccomm has asked me to do this retrospective of the band's music. So here we go.
What can we say about the Police.... three superb musicians, check; three strong personalities, check; three monster egos, double check.
Most everyone knows the story of the band, but if you don’t here's a quick Cliff's Notes version.
Stewart Copeland, drummer for hippie art band Curved Air, sees the exploding punk scene and wants a piece of it. He finds a bass player/singer who goes by the name Sting in a jazz band. They recruit a French guitarist named Henry Padovani who plays with them for a while, but is eventually edged out by the addition of seasoned axe man Andy Summers. The Police are born.
How much of the early Police sound is attributable to Copeland? Quite a lot if you consider what he was up to at the same time the band was forming. While putting together The Police, Copeland was also recording under the name Klark Kent as a one-man band. The music is quite clever, and gained a modest following. But listen to "Don't Care," and "Grandelinquent" and you'll hear early Police.

Listen to Don't Care
Listen to Grandelinquent

Copeland says that A&M Records signed The Police to get Klark Kent. True? Could be. Or it could be his ego talking. If true, that agent had some mixed up priorities. Klark Kent was a vanity project and could never perform live, but The Police were beginning to get some notice. It wasn't long before The Police gained a following in Britain as a live band and was creating a unique sound that would influence music for years to come.
Anyway, on to the music.

Outlandos d'Amour -- 1978
With this album, The Police tried valiantly to capture the essence of punk music. The problem? They were quickly revealed as pseudo punks—seasoned musicians riding the wave of a hot trend, rather than the raw talent evidenced by bands like The Clash or even the Sex Pistols. This first collection of tracks notably does not include "Fall Out," a speed-punkish song that is pure Copeland. It was one of the very first songs the band rehearsed and became their first single release. But it wasn't long before everyone realized whom the real songwriting talent belonged to.
The album opens with "Next to You," a burning rocker that starts at race speed and never lets up. The song became a standard in the band's live set throughout its career. The real key to the Police sound began with the next song, "So Lonely." It's a mix of rock (let's not call it punk) and reggae that became the cornerstone of The Police sound. Perfect for the band's instrumentation--particularly Copeland's unique drum style--and Sting's voice. Sting has said Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry”, influenced the song I consider "Can't Stand Losing you" also from this album to be like a companion song to "So Lonely"--both of them switch between rock and Carribean/latin rhythms. The middle section of "Can't Stand Losing You," sort of a spacey solo by Andy Summers, became the foundation of "Reggatta de Blanc” from the second album. Next up is arguably the band's most famous song, "Roxanne." Originally written with a different feel to it, Copeland introduced the tango rhythm to the song that took it to a new level, and Sting's plaintive wail about a prostitute was a bit of rock poetry that would be recalled in later songs by artists from George Michael to the Arctic Monkeys.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album is pretty forgettable. "Hole In My Life" and "Truth Hits Everybody" were good energetic live songs, but for some reason they flop as studio recordings. “Born In The 50s” and "Be My Girl/Sally"--although it features a pretty funny poem by Andy Summers--are best ignored after the first listen.

Listen to Can't Stand Losing You
Listen to Roxanne

Reggatta de Blanc --1979
I've always counted this as one of the albums I'd want to take with me on a desert island (assuming I'd have a way to play it, that is). It's a true classic, and solidifies the sound that defined The Police. The story is that the band hadn't rehearsed these songs before going into the studio. If true, that means that the recording captures a rare moment when a band breaks through to a different level. Nearly every song is gold, and it showcased a three-piece collaborative band that had locked into each other musically and psychically. Could this have been The Police at their prime? Maybe. The songs float along on solid grooves that take on their own lives, giving each member--particularly Copeland and Andy Summers--the chance to explore different sounds. "The Bed's Too Big Without You' and "Bring On The Night" (a song about the execution of Gary Gilmore) are perfect examples, two exhilarating stand out tracks that push the envelope, threatening to fall apart at any time but always hanging together.
"Walking On The Moon" and "Message In A Bottle" build on the reggae-tinged sound begun on the first album, but which had now reached a sophistication and maturity that made it unmistakably "The Police Sound." But the band was still true to its roots as evidenced by "It's Alright For You" and "No Time This Time," two pure rockers, with no pretense of punk (the band had long been exposed as too old and too talented to be considered as true punks).
At least for this brief shining moment immortalized on vinyl in 1979, The Police were the best band in the world.
They'd have a lot to prove with their next album... (Stay tuned for Part 2)

Listen to It's Alright For You
Listen to Walking on the Moon