Ask 411 Music 06.15.09: Devo, Macy Gray, and Nickelback

Posted by Joshua George on 06.15.2009

Is Devo coming back? Where has Macy Gray been? Do all of Nickelback's songs sound alike? Find out the answers to these along with another one of Joshua's Top 5 Lists in this week's edition of Ask 411 Music!

Whooooooose hooooooooouse? Ruuuuuunnnnnnn's hooooooouse. If you want to have your questions answered or your reader mail published in the column, all you have to do is SEND THEM IN NOW!

Here come the...

Ask 411 Music Reader Questions

From lucasarts88,

What do you think about the fact that people claim that all Nickelback songs sound alike? Would you also include Hinder and other bands like them in this?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey lucasarts88,

Welcome to 411Mania's Ask 411 Music. It's good to see new questions coming in, and I'm glad to get some new readers. This controversy has been going on since Nickelback came out with their first album and it's a pretty reasonable thing to claim. I'm sure you've heard the comparison of "How You Remind Me" and "Someday":



I feel like this kind of tells the whole story, but then you have to think about the fact that there are a lot of bands out there that get a sound that works, and stick to it. I can't necessarily say that I blame them. This was the same problem that Creed ran into, and yes I would add Hinder to this list. Bands that have this kind of sound usually stick with what they know and what they know works. If you're making money, and people are buying your shit, why change it? The other problem that bands like this have is that the voice of the lead singer are so "unique" and by "unique" i mean it sounds like he gargles with rocks in the morning. When you have a voice that sounds like that, there really isn't much more you can do other than sing the same way for every song. If he could change up his voice, it would probably make songs sound different. Perhaps he could collaborate a little bit more with other people and that would give their sound a bit of a change-up so to speak, but overall, there isn't much "different" that he can do.

I like Nickelback, I used to like Creed back in the day, I like Hinder, but I wouldn't say that I would "fanboy out"over any of them. They're the kind of stuff I like putting on the radio just to take up musical space and I can get behind some of the music even if it is just a few chords and it's the same progression all the time. Think about Finger Eleven. A lot of their songs are just 3 chords for example "One Thing" is possibly the worst song (musically) that I've heard in a while because it has absolutely no variety or change in it. Stone Sour does the same thing in some of their songs and I think really this all links back around to the ultimate "death of rock" which we have discussed several times. It seems these days that you can't get on the radio if your song has more than 3 chords and a person with a voice that doesn't sound like gravel. There's PLENTY of good rock out there that's not getting on the radio, so if the similarity of Nickelback, Hinder and others is getting to you, I would just recommend goin out in search of new groups to listen to. You can find some really good shit out there. Hope you got the answer you were looking for :)

---

Sending a question to me is one of the easiest things to do. You send it, and I answer it... and holy shit -- it's magic! All you have to do to get a question answered is SEND THEM IN NOW! Variety is great in this column, I think we can all agree, so do me a solid and SEND THEM IN NOW!

From 90sluvr,

What ever happened to Macy Gray and where is she now?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey 90sluvr,

Welcome to Ask 411 Music. Macy Gray is a name I haven't heard in quite some time, to be honest. I loved Macy Gray and I'm pretty happy to have the opportunity to answer this question for you because I kinda wondered this myself.

As it turns out, our girl Macy is still plugging away in the music industry. Since 1999 she has been nominated for 17 awards, including winning the awards for International Breakthrough Act, International Female, Best Female Vocal Pop Performance, Best New Artist, and Best Cinematography all in 2000. She's put out 4 studio albums thus far: On How Life Is, The Id, The Trouble With Being Myself, and Big which was released in 2007 despite the fact that we all thought she had just disappeared since her last release in 2003. As it turns out, Ms. Gray has full plans of releasing a new album in 2009 entitled The Gray Life and hopefully it'll be something good to listen to. We need something new and refreshing in that genre right now, so I'm hoping she can be the different sound that we're looking for to spice up the music industry. The odds? Pretty slim, I'm sure considering that her last album only sold 23,000 copies in its first week even with will.i.am and Justin Timberlake putting their names behind it as producers and it peaked at its debut spot on the chart which was 39. There comes a time, unfortunately where you have to wonder if you're making the right decisions about your career and hopefully she's been thinking about that over the last couple years.

The only thing that gives this new album hope is the following quote from her alter ego's website nemesisjaxson.com:

ladies and gentlemen.
boys and girls.
pimps and hos.

my name is macy gray. i have decided to re-enter the real world and make my fifth album. it will be the biggest comeback you've ever seen. bigger than the big lies the american government has been telling us for eight years. not for the money and not for the fame, but friendship. yes. i miss my fairweather friends and the only chance i have of being in their company again is to write more hit songs and start getting my picture taken in trendy restaurants with other people who believe themselves to be stars.

my very first contribution to my up and coming super success is a biographical ditty called: "SLAP A BITCH," written by Myself, Jared Gosselin and Phillip White - also known as Jared and Whitey. They are also the producers of this song. The great Dave Pensada, mixed and mastered. A quote from the song: "when i was 13, i slapped a bitch."

for those of you who download songs for free, i've done you one better. i've made a video for free and it is one of the most entertaining works of art that you will ever see. A Vma winner for sure. If I don't get an award for this video I'm gonna sue. Someone should sue mtv anyway for false and misleading network name.

Anyway. Obama says…yes we can. I say… Boom shaka laka baby.

Ladies and gentlemen
Men and women
Winners and losers,

SLAP A BITCH. BY MACY GRAY. COMING SOON. VERY SOON.


That's pretty interesting... are you ready for this?


I actually think we might see a comeback, based on this and the current music industry and to be honest, I say welcome back Macy.

As for what she's been doing, from 2000 - 2006 she was in 11 movies, on 8 Television shows, and did the music for 11 movie soundtracks. She's also been pretty busy taking care of her 3 children (ages 15, 13, and 12ish) and being an avid supporter of Barack Obama. These things are all answers to your question so have a great day!

---

I need more questions! If you don't send yours, who will? If you want to have your questions answered, it's easy. The best way to do it is to SEND YOUR QUESTIONS IN NOW!

From micromachineman,

Is Devo ever going to come out with another CD? If they are, when can I expect it?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey micromachineman!

Just like the two before you, welcome to Ask411 Music. Devo is one of those bands that has been in the background for-pretty-much-ever since of course "Whip It" which was (what the majority of Americans consider) their only hit. The good news, my friend is that Devo IS indeed scheduled to come out with a new album in 2010. They pushed back a release date from fall of this year due to some changes that they wanted to make in the sound. As of now they haven't chosen a producer to take care of this album, but they have been contacted by a couple VERY important people such as Snoop Dogg and Fatboy Slim. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of Snoop producing a new Devo album, but then again, I'm amazed to find that the new album entitled Fresh is going to be their NINTH STUDIO ALBUM! Are you kidding me?! Who's been funding all of these albums? Anyway, that should give you an answer to your question. Expect a new, Fresh, set of 12-17 songs including "Don't Shoot (I'm A Man)", "What We Do", and "Fresh" some time in 2010 and I wouldn't overlook it until of course you hear it. Comeback? You be the judge:

---

I'm getting more and more reader questions, so don't be left out! Let's get some more questions from you, the readers. I like to have reader mail and things to post, so all you have to do is SEND YOUR QUESTIONS IN NOW!

---

It's time for...


Joshua's Top 5

This week, we'll visit my top 5 songs for wallowing in self-pity. I'm sure we've all had one of those days, and if you have, listen to this 5-song-set and I bet you'll be ready to just let it all out.

5. Evanescence - "Hello": When you hear this song you'll definitely get chills and there's just something "consuming" about this song. I'm not sure if it's the clarity of her voice or what, but there's just something that makes you feel hollow when you hear this song.


4. Stabbing Westward - "Save Yourself": Once you put this song in, you start feeling a little better because of the hard sound that it puts out, but once you start listening to the lyrics, you realize that you're just as fucked as anyone else, and who are you to help anyone when you can't even save yourself?


3. R.E.M. - "Everybody Hurts": I feel like I don't have to say much about this one. We all know we've spent some time wallowing in this song.


2. James Blunt - "Goodbye My Lover": I'm not a big James Blunt fan on the regular basis, but when you're missing someone, or when you went after that girl that was WAY out of your fat league and struck out... this song will definitely do it.


1. Gary Jules - "Mad World": This was originally done by Tears for Fears, but nowhere NEAR as depressing. Just close your eyes, turn off the lights and listen...


And that's it! Let me know what your top 5 is in the comments section. Also, if you want me to listen to something feel free to hit us up with a youtube link either at my e-mail address, or in the comments section!

Would you like me to reply to your e-mail in the column? Do you have a rant on a certain music related topic that you'd like to share? All you have to do is Send your shit to me NOW!

---

Who wants to hear something new???


Things You Should Hear

Let's move in a different direction after that depressing Top 5, shall we?

1. Let's start with Weird Al Yankovic's parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" entitled "Trapped in the Drive-Thru":


2. A new song from his self-titled CD which you can BUY NOW called "Little Adolf" by Bo Burnham:


3. And now on to our friend Stephen Lynch who sings a song entitled "If I Were Gay":


4. Some a cappella music for you by a group called Club for Five. They put out a pretty decent rendition of "Roxanne":


5. Let's keep the same song, but a different feel. Here's a little tango from the movie Moulin Rouge:


6. And we can even end up with a little love song to make everyone smile. We'll keep it from the same movie and just play the "Elephant Love Medley":


If you'd like me to post your band or a band that you particularly love, all you have to do is Send me the YouTube link NOW! I'd like to start including some of your personal bands clips, or other bands that you think people should be hearing.

---

So who wants to get pimped? If you have a website that your band hosts, or something that you think the general public would enjoy checking out, please send me a link and a SHORT description and I may include it in the pimping section of next week's column!

The StumbleUpon Link of the Week is Shoot It! and it is SFW.

Make sure you check out my reviews. You can see my profile with my blog and all of my reviews/columns here.

Also I'm a co-host and co-founder of a professional wrestling podcast. My friend and I have been running this show and our website for a little over three years now, and we'd love to have more listeners and since I get my own column now, I feel good about pimping it out. If you want to listen to the most recent show, you can usually find it (along with the most recent news which we get from a variety of other sites MOST NOTABLY the amazing 411Mania Wrestling News Section) at www.pinfallrecall.com. If you'd like to spend your days on our forums talking about how this Extreme Rules PPV is basically a repackaged One Night Stand, like all of us, you can do that on The Pinfall Recall Forums.

Don't forget, if you want to have YOUR questions answered in this column, all you have to do is SEND THEM IN NOW!

Peace!