The Savage Animal 07.28.10: Music Couples With Separate Projects

Posted by Mikey MiGo on 07.28.2010

They will do anything for love, but they WON’T do that. And by ‘that’, I mean ‘ruin their career by letter their spouse run it’. In this Savage Animal, Mikey MiGo takes a look at a few couples in music who don’t feel a need to get into each other’s work. From Jay Z and Beyonce to Gwen and Gavin!

How come most of my personal "religious moments" come in the form of the breakdowns and interludes of songs by "The Doors"?

Last week I mentioned how I was planning on releasing matches from my old independent no-budget wrestling promotion, Maniak Enterprise Wrestling on my current production company's website. In the form of "Maniak Moments", a new web series, I'll be posting five random matches a week from the company's short four year history. I managed to get the first batch up this past week. There's some mild entertainment in there somewhere, some good, some bad, some funny, some horrible, and just a lot of commotion. Looking back it's not as bad I thought when it comes to match quality, but still not on par with what's "in" today. A lot of fun was had by the people in the seats and by the boys in the back. And in this case, the term "boys" isn't from that pretentious wrestling worker type of lingo. Most of us were either in our late teens or very early 20's during MEW.

Here is a taste of the matches to come:

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Music Couples With Separate Projects
7 Musician Couples Who Do Their Own Thing.It's common for people within the same profession to end up having a fling, casually dating, going out, and in some cases even marrying. The "celebrity" world is no different as we're used to seeing celebrities hook up and in result the tabloids, media, and celebophiles stalking them and harassing them. There's been plenty and the entertainment world is currently breeding and adopting a future Hollywood Army that's going to take over the world "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" style.

There are also those in the world of music who has hooked up. Some of the bigger ones, for better or for worse, include John and Yoko, Rihanna and Chris Brown, Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, Whitney and Bobby, and many more. All of which who are no longer together for their own reasons be it death, fighting, or something else. Despite us making it our business of them flaunting it for press coverage, this stuff is, has never been, and never will be ANYONE'S business.

Then there are the times when they make it our business by sprinkling their personal relationships into the arts. Of course people still say "Yoko ended the Beatles" and all that, but it's a good example of what I'm talking about. Recently Trent Reznor ended Nine Inch Nails and then a few months later he releases an EP with his new non-famous wife as "How To Destroy Angels". Isn't it kind of indulgent to do something like this? It could result in great music, but in the end it feels cheap no matter how organic of the creative process. Everyone has that thought in the back of their heads of a fame craving-gold digging whiney wife going up to the famous rock star and screeching out with, "Why don't you make music with meeee?" It's shitty and completely unfair because like I said earlier a celebrity's personal life is, has never been, and never will be anyone's business… but the thought is still there.

Thankfully, there are couples in music who don't feel the need to share in their creative process. They do their own thing and you have to respect that. There are going to be people on this list that you don't like and that I personally would rather never expose my ears to again, but the point is that they're not "shitting where they eat" or some other synonymous metaphor that isn't so broad.

Jay Z & Beyonce
Jay Z is one of the most successful lyricist and moguls in all of hip hop history. He's torn down doors with his huge hit singles like "Big Pimpin'" or "99 Problems", he is part owner of the New Jersey Nets, and he is pretty much the face of hip hop. Beyonce made it huge with the R&B pop group "Destiny's Child" and went on to release some monster albums and smash singles. These two being together is like if Superman hooked up with Wonder Woman only with more style and 50% less spandex.

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Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith
"The Fresh Prince" is one of the most bankable actors of all time and at least once a year we are faced with his image on a movie poster. It's easy to forget he's mainly a celebrity to begin with because of his musical endeavors with DJ Jazzy Jeff and beyond. He sells albums with ease. His beautiful wife, Jada Pinkett Smith got her claim to fame in her acting. She rocked movies like "Menace II Society", "Madagascar", and of course 2/3rds of "The Matrix" trilogy. But she's also gotten out there on the road, including Ozzfest, as the lead singer for metal band "Wicked Wisdom".

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Ashlee Simpson-Wentz & Pete Wentz
Ashlee Simpson came out during that whole "punky popster" time. Basically people saw that Avril was awesome and decided that they wanted to do the same thing. With Jessica Simpson already having success and fame, it was easy to sneak her little sister into a corner of the spotlight. Then there's Petey Wentz. I normally stretch my tastes to enjoy something Chicago-born, but I just can't with this guy. As a member of Good Char… wait.. no… Sum 4… wait, no… yeah, "Fall Out Boy", it's hard enough to respect the guy. None the less, I don't wish any ill will towards the other guys in the band, but Wentz just took those extra steps in being annoying. A lip syncer and a douche. In these kinds of situations you have to be happy that these two are together and not ruining anyone else. It's like a quarantine of sucking.

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Josh Homme & Brody Dalle
These two have been married since 2007, have a kid, and no media drama noticeably at all. Josh Homme is currently on top of the world in three very awesome projects "Them Crooked Vultures", "Eagles of Death Metal", and of course "Queens of the Stone Age". Brody was the vulgar and dirty punk girl of old in "The Distillers" and chilled out a bit in her new project "Spinnerette". These two DO collaborate though. There is no definitive wall between their creative outlets as Brody has done some guest appearance work on a recent "Queens of the Stone Age" AND "Eagles of Death Metal". But I think this is something we can let slide. It's not too invasive and is done just about right.

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Gerard Way & Lyn-Z
Gerard Way once almost ran me over while in a golf cart backstage at an outside show a few years ago. If that wasn't enough to infuriate someone, I already hated his music. "My Chemical Romance" makes music that pisses on ones ear drums. A lot of insecure and easy target teenagers eat that kind of music up with a spoon, but the only substance is the faux relating lyrics placed on it by the listeners. It's commercial as commercial can be and pillages the styles of much better then they. So, yeah… not a fan at all. Then on the other hand, I used to love me some "Mindless Self Indulgence". At a time, I had them in my "Top 3 bands of all time" list and went to every show I could, bought imports, and supported the band as much as possible. One of the many reasons is the bassist is bad ass. The awesome Lyn-Z owns the stage, has more intensity then most metal players I've seen, and is hot in a scary kind of way. While on tour, the same tour Way almost ran me over, in 2007 the two would get married.

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Nick Cannon & Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is one of the most successful singers of all time. She has more number one hits than most bands have total songs. He is a spokesman for a teenager aimed Nickelodeon channel, a TV host, and a part time actor. I know this one is a mild stretch, but Nick Cannon gets in purely because of that "I'm a Giggalo" track he did with R Kelly a few years ago. I don't care who you are, I will shun your soul if you talk smack about that classic.

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Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale
This is a cool couple. Gwen carved a niche out with her work in No Doubt. It's really not too crazy to say that Gwen's one of the top ten or maybe even five female rock vocalists of the modern era, now is it? She then went from there and rocked a very solid and money making pop solo career. Then she hooks up with the lead singer of "Bush". It was like the TRL 90's B-Team decided to melt together. Gavin, like Gwen, left his normal claim to fame in "Bush" and attempted a solo career but to way less lovely results. They have your once in awhile tabloid story, but nothing that's really harmed their relationship as far as we know. They've been together for awhile and seem happy building a family together, but thankfully not a bad. I'd not want to rule out a Bush/No Doubt tour though. It's a weird combo if you think about it but at least I'd enjoy it.

What is your favorite separate project couple in music?

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RANDOM VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Music Makes Me Feel Older Everyday
"Glycerine" by Bush (MTV Spring Break 96)
Sometimes one single performance can win you over for life. For me, I was won over by this 1996 MTV Spring Break performance by Bush or rather Gavin Rossdale himself. The story goes that it started to rain and MTV was iffy about letting the band play. The rest of the band sat it out as the rain came down, but Gavin took the stage by himself and performed "Glycerine". He didn't just perform it, but the dude left it all on the stage in easily the best performance I've seen Gavin have. I was never a huge Bush fan. I had "Razorblade Suitcase" on cassette and ended up having and losing a few of their CDs over the years. Over time my appreciation for Bush has grown more and more. I'm not going to go out and buy a Bush CD or anything, but I'll let the radio play it and enjoy it most of the time. I remember a time when people mocked others for liking Bush, but compared to today's landscape there is MUCH more substance here than with anything My Chemical Romance or Lil Wayne has ever released.

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RANDOM MOVIE REVIEW
"BOOKIES"
I caught this movie on IFC this past week. It looked decent enough. I like most of the main cast, it's a comedy, and the content seemed fun. The story takes us to a college where three friends decide to start their own sports gambling racket. It's from the director who brought us "Happy Texas". That was a fun movie so this HAD to be fun too, right? Nope. I understand the blood, sweat, tears, and pain that go into making a movie so I always try to be positive about the lower budget independent movies. To me, a great indie will always be better than a great blockbuster. Give me "Clerks" or "Rivers Edge" or "Little Miss Sunshine" or "Thumbsucker" or any good indie flick over something like "Avatar" all day every day. I have too many issues with "Bookies" to give it a full suggestion. The three friends, Nick Stahl, Johnny Galecki, and Lukas Haas have dialogue that seems really forced and unnatural. Their character development is pretty bag. Stahl is the good guy who hooks up with the good girl (Rachael Leigh Cook), Johnny Galecki is the one who goes crazy on drugs, extravagance, and excess, and Haas is the nerd that's just kind of there. This movie served one purpose for me. It made me realize that Nick Stahl is one of my least favorite actors. Outside of "Disturbing Behavior", he just annoys me when on screen. Galecki puts in a pretty awesome performance and shows a side of him that I've not seen anywhere else. He's a lone bright spot. Haas typically does well and did fine here, it's just it felt as if his character was kind of useless after they got their computer system in place. He's missing from all the drama and it feels like a huge waste of his skill and time. Of course, they end up getting in over their head. The mafia starts to get on them about shutting down their operation. It's been done before and much better. The direction is kind of boring. It featured all the fast forward-slow down a-typical indie movie shots and editing. I guess in form of "craft", it's well done but it's trying to be something it's obviously not. The scary part about this movie is that it was written by the guy who penned the upcoming "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". I was looking forward to that movie and it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Writer Michael Bacall has acted in A LOT of cool movies so I'd like to assume he's got good taste and is an alright guy. Sadly though, now that I know the same guy who wrote "Bookies" is behind the script I'm A LOT less thrilled about this Michael Cera joint. If there is one thing about an independent movie that'll tear me away is cliché. This movie was all cliché and would of served better with a PG-Rated script, female leads, and being put on Lifetime as a Movie of the Week. Don't waste your time unless you're REALLY interested in seeing Johnny Galecki rock the house in a bad movie.

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CHECK THIS OUT! [CHEAP PLUGS]
Things I do while not writing this column.

Nocturnal Emissions : Episode 3- "Airdate: May 1985"

Oh by the way, we'll call this the "Four Year Anniversary" of The Savage Animal. I think I missed the official date by like two weeks. Ah well. I don't write for milestones, but rather just the fun and enjoyment of weekly expression on an art form I could not live without. No, not porn but rather music. A few weeks ago, we had a few days of power outage in my area. During that time I had no television and had to rely on a hand cranked radio for my form of entertainment and sanity. During that hellacious time, I ended up coming up with about a half dozen topics to share and rant about. Sadly, that list is all used up so I have no idea at all what next week's column will bring. It is about time for another "First Impressions", but we'll see. Until next time… Have a Great Week!