"If you could be my punk rock princess,
I would be your heroin"
-Something Corporate
For once I actually agree with Iago Ali (from a few weeks ago), because I don't care for Fabolous either. I originally thought he was a bad parody of a rapper from SNL or Mad TV. You can almost picture some white record producer driving through the hood, seeing Fabolous standing on a corner, and saying, "You'll do. Here, put this costume on."
This week in the X-Factor
1. Opening Track - Where are My Guitar Solos?
2. Top 10 Van Halen Songs of All Time
3. The Song Remains..."The Game of Love" by Santana w/ Michelle Branch
4. Encore - Jon vs. Bruce
OPENING TRACK
Check the site for reviews from yours truly on SR-71, Allister, Finch, and Santana and in next week or so. The Santana album was really good, but the track he did with P.O.D. made me realize something. Where have all the Guitar solos gone? Santana, Eddie Van Halen, Slash...there used to be guitar gods. As soon as you heard the fretwork, you knew who it was. The guitar solos spoke as loudly as the lead vocals, and sometimes even with more passion. These days, all you hear is a few chords playing over and over and over until all the songs start to blur into each other.
Are there even any guitar players out there who can be classified as a "guitar god?"
TOP 10 VAN HALEN SONGS OF ALL TIME
Here's the deal. I had a column planned on Van Halen, their multiple lead singers, and what I think the band should do. Shit happened. I wasn't able to get that column done. But I was still in a VH mood, and I remember my old website voting on the Top 10 Van Halen songs of all time...and the results never found the light of day. Until now. I promise the original VH column next week, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on the band. You know, to make sure I get the story straight:)
And here we go with number...
10. 5150
from the album 5150 (1986)
Always one more, you're never satisfied / Never one for all, only one for me / So why draw the line, meet you half the way / If you don't know what that means
9. Janie's Cryin'
from the album VAN HALEN (1978)
She saw the look in his eyes / and she knew better / He wanted her tonight / And it was now or never / He made her feel so sad
8. Poundcake
from the album FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1991)
It's gettin' hard to find / Guess it ain't hip enough now / You take an average guy / Who can't identify / And there's a short supply / Of the fine, fine stuff
7. Jump
from the album 1984 (1984)
I get up and nothing gets me down. / You got it tough / I've seen the toughest around. / And I know baby just how you feel / You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real
6. Love Comes Walking In
from the album 5150 (1986)
Another world / some other time / You lay your sanity on the line / Familiar faces / familiar sights / Reach back remember with all your might
5. Right Now
from the album FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1991)
Miss the beat / you lose the rhythm, / And nothing falls into place / Only missed by a fraction / Slipped a little off your pace / The more things you get / the more you want, / Just trade in one for the other / Workin so hard / to make it easier / Got to turn/ turn this thing around
4. Ice Cream Man
from the album VAN HALEN (1997)
I got good lemonade, / dixie cups / All flavors and push ups too / I'm your ice cream man, / baby stop me when I'm passin' by / See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy
3. Ain't Talking About Love
from the album VAN HALEN (1977)
I been to the edge / and there I stood and looked down / You know I lost a lot of friends there baby / I got no time to mess around / So if you want it got to bleed for it baby
2. Hot For Teacher
from the album 1984 (1984)
T-T-Teacher stop that screaming, / teacher don't you see ? / Don't wanna be no uptown fool. / Maybe I should go to hell, but I'm doin' well, / teacher needs to see me after school.
1. And the Cradle Will Rock
from the album WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST (1980)
And when some local kid gets down / they try and drum him out of town. / They say, "You coulda least faked it, boy." / At an early age he hits the street / and winds up tied with who he meets, / and he's unemployed / And the cradle will rock.
THE SONG REMIANS..."THE GAME OF LOVE"
This is what I was talking about from a few weeks back. This is the kind of music Michelle Branch needs to be playing. She steered clear of the corny pop in favor for something that sounds more like Carole King and less like Britney Spears...if she ever wrote anything, played an instrument, or didn't lip synch.
Lyrically? Eh, it's a love song. What more do you expect?
This, whatever you make it to be
Sunshine set on this cold lonely sea
So please baby try and use me for what I'm good for
It ain't sayin' goodbye
That's knocking down the door
Of your candy store
It was written and produced by Gregg Alexander (formally of New Radicals) and Rick Nowels (who's worked with Dido and Sporty Spice). Hopefully she gets the two to do her next album with her, because they really did bring out the best.
ENCORE - JON VS. BRUCE
I've grown accustomed to the fact that critics don't like Bon Jovi, but the criticisms about "Bounce" being nothing more than a post 9/11 rip-off of Springsteen's "The Rising" are a bit out of line. Was Bounce influenced by the tragic events? Of course it was - just like everything else has been. But Bon Jovi's album was planned prior to that. They had already announced that the band was working on a new album due out in fall of 2003, and Jon and Richie were in the process of writing and demoing songs for the new album - at Jon's house twenty minutes away from the World Trade Center - when the attacks happened. So of course the songs are going to have a post 9/11 influence.
But it's not like Jon Bon Jovi - sensing that "his country needed him" - ducked into a phone booth and came out with a new album like some kind of rock n' roll superman. If you're going to criticize, that's your right. But let's be fair about it, k?
NEXT WEEK
Van Halen. I sware on my half empty bottle of Cabo Wabo Tequila.
