411 Music Fact or Fiction 05.06.10: The Bowsersox Edition

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 05.06.2010

Is Kanye West on the comeback trail following his appearance on The Cleveland Show? Does Britney do “Telephone” better than GaGa? Will Crystal Bowersox win American Idol? Was Michael Jackson gay? 411's Dan Pardalis & David Hayter debate these topics and more in the latest edition of 411 Music Fact or Fiction!


How's it going music freaks? Mitch Michaels here to helm another round of the always intriguing 411 Music Fact or Fiction.

It's a battle of mind and body this week, as album reviewer Dan Pardalis goes one on one with fellow album reviewer David Hayter.

Alright, let's do this!

READY?! FIGHT!!

Round 1
1) The Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee will be the best release of this fall.
Dan Pardalis: FICTION. I think it would be a bit risky to say it will be the absolute best album of the fall at this point. As much as I'm a huge hip hop fan, Beastie Boys for me have mostly been those guys that I'll get down to when I'm drunk at a house party, but don't really get much of a mention in my soberly collated iTunes playlist. They've made some really dope songs in their time, but I feel like their consistency at this age isn't reliable enough to make the claim we're talking about. Based off the song with Nas that I heard early on, it might be a very cool album, but I wouldn't risk saying it'll be the greatest of (f)all time.
David Hayter: FICTION. While I thought To The 5 Boroughs was underrated, The Mix-Up was a disaster, and, let's face it , the Beaties are hardly in a rich vein of form right now. While they are capable, when you actually look at the late 2010 and potential fall releases the competition is too stiff: Arcade Fire, M.I.A, The Strokes, Amy Winehouse, Royksopp, Panda Bear, Andre 300, Kraftwerk, Lil Wayne, Interpol, Battles & Fleet Foxes. Those are just the people who I'd expect to release a better LP than the Beastie Boys. We've also got potential wildcards coming from The Klaxons, My Chemical Romance, Atoms For Peace and a whole host of others. So while I'm looking forward to the Beasties' next album I'd be stunned if it bests the competition.
Score Card: 1 for 1

Round 2
2) After hearing Britney Spears' "Telephone" demo, it's probably best that Lady GaGa did it instead.
Dan Pardalis: FACT. It really does sound like a poor karaoke version. Let's face it, Spears isn't exactly known for being talented anymore, but rather for being marketable and controversial. Meanwhile, Gaga puts the "artist" in "pop artist". Britney Spears is much more a brand these days than anything. Slap her sub-par vocals on an electro track and "oops, you did it again", straight to the Billboard Top 10 – but at the back of our minds, we're all thinking: "what if someone who could actually sing did this track"? Hearing Gaga and Britney's versions side by side just drives that point home and asks it to come up for coffee.
David Hayter: FACT. I love Gaga, and The Fame Monster was one of my favorite pure pop releases of last year. Britney's version of "Telephone" sounds bland and lacks edge. Whatever you think of Gaga, she knows how to bring punch to her tracks. To be fair, Britney released some pretty solid singles last time out, so I think this worked out for the best, although I'd love to hear Gaga attempt "If You Seek Amy".
Score Card: 2 for 2

Round 3
3) You're interested in Trent Reznor's new How To Destroy Angels project.
Dan Pardalis: FICTION. This is fiction probably based more on my ignorance than anything. I never really got into Nine Inch Nails, but I do appreciate Reznor's talent and always hum "Closer" for the rest of the day after hearing it in the background of a TV show. I really doubt if I'll be anticipating an album just based off the fact he's working with his wife with a crazy-ass name. Not to say that it won't be good, but with my knowledge of Reznor at the moment, this piece of news doesn't really pique my interest personally.
David Hayter: FACT. Only because you said interested; if you'd said excited then no. I enjoyed "A Drowning" - it was spacious and chilled, but let's face it, it was also retrospective, unoriginal and dull, with a recycled piano line and even some Foals-eske infusions. There are obvious nods to Massive Attack, Portishead and trip hop in general infused with The Fragile- and Ghosts- era Nine Inch Nails, but sadly there's next to no evidence of original thought. It's still a nice track with a good lead vocal performance, but Trent seems to be on the slide, making good, enjoyable, but largely irrelevant music.
Score Card: 2 for 3

SWITCH

Round 4
4) Kanye West's appearance on "The Cleveland Show" will be the beginning of a successful comeback from the whole Taylor Swift thing.
David Hayter: FICTION. Oh this is tough. I enjoyed seeing Kanye on "The Cleveland Show", but I really don't think it's a turning point or a first step; it seems pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that truly matters is the music. If Kanye drops another "Heartless", "Flashing Lights" or "Jesus Walks", is anyone really going to care if he hurt poor old Taylor Swift's feelings? Of course not. I'd be stunned if anyone remembers Taylor Swift in five years time, let alone this incident.
Dan Pardalis: FICTION. I'm going to say this is a fiction on a technicality. The Taylor Swift fiasco was the start of Mr. West's successful comeback. Coming from the viewpoint that all publicity is good publicity, everyone won in that situation. Kanye was mentioned on nearly every major news outlet and turned into an internet meme, Taylor Swift played the sympathetic victim to a tee, and Beyonce came off as the graciously apologetic adult. The amount of exposure alone for those three after this awardus-interruptus was phenomenal. We hadn't heard that much from Yeezy since Graduation, he needed to get back into the spotlight one way or another. And basically, if you hated Kanye before, you hated him even more. If you liked him, it probably wasn't a big enough deal to get you to delete his tracks off your iPod. And if you didn't know who he was, you probably typed his name into Google, found some of his songs, and said "hey, he's a douchebag but he makes good music!". While his appearance on "The Cleveland Show" is cool, I don't think it's going to make that/ much of an impact - his new album is most likely going to be successful regardless.
Score Card: 3 for 4

Round 5
5) Crystal Bowersox will be the winner of this year's "American Idol".
David Hayter: FACT. Okay, I don't have a clue. I don't watch "X-Factor" in the UK, so there's no way I'd watch "American Idol". After consulting with my good friend YouTube, I see that she's a competent singer, who brutally over sings every track stripping any sense of honesty and true emotion from her work, but that comes with the "American Idol" territory. I've gone for fact purely because her name comes up first on the predictive auto-complete list when you type "Crystal" - that's got to be a good sign right?
Dan Pardalis: FACT. Sure, why not! To be honest I only managed to catch a couple episodes of "American Idol" early on, but it was basically a 5 minute flick through of each act in the top 12: I wasn't impressed enough to keep watching. The problem with having so many seasons of "Idol "is that eventually, they were going to get to the bottom of the barrel, and I think they're definitely on their way at this point. But, considering I'm at work where I can't even check her out on YouTube to refresh myself, I can't comment on her actual ability - knowing what I know about the top 12 though, it wouldn't be hard to be a standout. What I can say: well, her name has come up in Fact Or Fiction so she must have done something right, and secondly that name is definitely marketable - she literally sounds like an "Idol" winner. Or a Super Mario Bros boss.
Score Card: 4 for 5

Round 6
6) Michael Jackson was gay.
David Hayter: FICTION. Who cares if he was, really? Well, millions of people apparently. If he was, good for him, but I'm guessing he was bi. If he was gay, he'd have co-written much much much better ballads.
Dan Pardalis: FACT. We all knew there was at least something different about Mikey, and that very well could have been it. I'll say Fact mostly because it would explain a lot about this man's bizarro life. I would really not be surprised if we found out his autopsy had revealed he was actually an alien the whole time. And I'm still 90% sure that Prince is one, too. An alien, I mean.
Score Card: 4 for 6

Anything you agree with? Disagree with? Sound off in the comment section.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!