Music 3R’s 02.04.12: Painting The Town Red

Posted by Nick Krenn on 02.04.2012

From Beyonce getting her own monument and Christina Aguilera’s performance accident, to new albums from Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance, Jack White’s solo debut and more, 411's Nick Krenn breaks down the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous from the week in music!

Hello, I'm Nick Krenn, and I'm bringing you the newest edition of the most impolite 411mania column, Music 3R's, where I examine the Right, wRong, and Ridiculous in music, not to be confused with the excellent Love/Hate News Report written by John Downey. John took some shots at my girl Lana Del Rey this week. My shoulder is available if you need one to cry on, Lana. Also, be sure to read Chris Bell's column, 411 Music Ten Deep, where he counts down the ten best songs about guys. I know it's too current, but I'm digging "Andrew In Drag" by Magnetic Fields. Both Chris and John write for Earbuddy.net, a music site that I run outside of 411mania. Be sure to check it out.

When I'm not disparaging the careers of mainstream musicians in this column, I'm writing 411mania's least appreciated column, Major Bands, Minor Labels. I've changed the format up from what I was doing. If you want to download some free tunes, I think you'll appreciate the changes. Oh, and check me out this week's Buy or Sell where many readers seem baffled by my two sentence responses. Some might even say that Nick Krenn = FAIL. Doesn't it just make you angry that I get to write for 411mania, and all you get to do is comment?

Let's look at some R's!




Jack White Announces Solo Album




So after years of performing in side projects as well as his main band, The White Stripes, Jack White has announced his self-titled debut will release on April 24th. The name of the album is an odd one – Blunderbuss. To spark interest for the new album (if the announcement wasn't enough), White has released a single, "Love Interruption", which you can check out below.



I was discussing the new song with my Earbuddy compadres, and we think the song is okay for the most part. However, if this were any other artist than Jack White, we wouldn't really be anticipating this one a whole lot. Still, it's good to see Jack White finally breaking out on his own with what I would think is his definitive project since it only has his name attached to it.

What do you guys think? Is "Love Interruption" as good as White's previous work? Are you excited about the solo debut or do you think it will be a BlunderBUST?



LCD Soundsystem's New Coffee




I'm a big coffee drinker, so the recent news of coffee blends from musicians Bonnie "Prince" Billy and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy makes somewhat curious as to how they taste. Murphy in particular is a coffee addict and has been trained how to make coffee according to recent comments.

I make a lot of coffee. For my birthday, my girlfriend got me a training course with the world champion. That's what I'm going to do when I get back to London. I thought it would be fun. I have beans that I like.

Murphy is meeting with a New York roaster to work on his coffee blend. I'm sure many readers are thinking, ‘COFFEE?! YOU SHOULD BE WORKING ON A NEW ALBUM!' But, hey, the guy gave us three stellar albums. Why not let him go out in style and brew us some coffee?

In other LCD Soundsystem news, the band's documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits is doing quite well at the Sundance Film Festival, earning praise from many critics.






New Albums from Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance




I was a huge Blink 182 in my late high school/early college years, even thinking that their self-titled release was the start of a new amazing chapter for the band. Then they broke up, and we got Angels & Airwaves and +44 and countless Travis Barker side projects. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for with the band. My purchase of Angels & Airwaves' first album made it clear that one of my favorite bands would not be translating into any of the members' side projects, so I gave up and caring about releases from any of them.

Then they reunited and released their first album of new material in eight years, Neighborhoods. The problem with Neighborhoods is that the music world changed during Blink's eight year absence. Many of their fans, including myself, grew up and found other bands that challenged us more than Blink's punk-pop simplicity. Their music was best left in the past. I can say all of this because I purchased Neighborhoods hoping for a nostalgic thrill. Instead, I was embarrassed for the band and how generic and corny the album is.

One person that would disagree with me is Blink 182 member Mark Hoppus who believes that Neighborhoods has some of the best songs in the band's history. Here's what the Blink bassist and vocalist had to say:

We'd been gone for five years, and by the time we put out ‘Neighborhoods' it had been eight years since our last record, so we didn't know if people would care or not. But the response has been great, and people love the record, so I couldn't be happier about it.

People love the record? Any longtime fans care to comment, proclaiming their love for Neighborhoods? And if you do comment, explain why you like it. Don't just call me jaded or an idiot who knows nothing about music. I want to know why you think Neighborhoods is on par with Blink's past work. Give me concrete details.

Hoppus also stated that the band is working on new material.

I've started writing. We haven't, as a band, started getting together and working on new material yet, but we're always writing. I have no idea [of the sound], it's still so new. When Tom and Travis get their hands on it, it changes completely.

It's a bummer that I don't care if Blink 182 puts out another album again. I really liked them, but I'd be happy if I never listened to any of their future releases. Another band working on a new album that I'm skeptical about is My Chemical Romance. MCR's guitarist Frank Iero spoke about recording their new album.

It can't just be a collection of songs. It's never going to be 'Oh, we had these 12 songs so record it real quick and we'll put them out!'. I don't think anyone can really do that these days without some sort of thought or vision behind it. I think the days of just filling the time and putting a disc out is over, and I'm glad, because those are some of my least favorite records.

That's the tough thing doing records in a cycle and you have three or four months where you have to write and record a record and sometimes that's tough. You can take longer, but you always feels like there's something over your head like a time constraint and now we'll have our own place where we can go and make music 24 hours a day.

I wonder if Iero is referring to Danger Days, MCR's last album, being a collection of songs from different recording sessions. It was one of the worst albums from 2010 in my opinion, and the band didn't do themselves any favors having such a long gap between it and The Black Parade. Unlike Blink 182, I'll give My Chemical Romance a pass this time, but if the first single they release is crap, then our band/listener relationship is over.







Miley Buys A New Car




Miley Cyrus is so likable. Just the other day, she bought a brand new 2012 white SL550 convertible for $127,000. While many of us could save a lifetime and never afford such a vehicle, Miley paid for the car up front, and she had her bodyguard drive her old car to her home. You mean she didn't trade in her old car? No, silly. Miley's keeping that one too.

Miley drove her new car off the lot, and it will probably be one of the five times that she drives it before sitting in her spacious garage. If only you would have thought to throw on a wig and sing crappy songs, then you could be a millionaire also.



Beyonce Monument and Black Sabbath Day




Maybe as a species we take our love of musicians and celebrities a little too far. Houston currently has a project in the works to build something honoring Beyonce Knowles. In case you haven't already heard, Beyonce cured cancer earlier this week. Okay, I'm just kidding. The lady knows how to belt a good tune, so her home city thinks they should honor her ($ and maybe collect some tourism dollars in the process $).

Marcus Mitchell, who is working on the project with Steve White, said the following.

Our biggest thing is a lot of people get honored when they die, so our goal is to why not honor people why they're still here? We felt as though it's her time to be honored. We wanted to construct, like, a massive hall so as the doors open, if you donated to the monument, you'll have a separate nameplate. There will be clips of Beyonce with Destiny's Child and wardrobe like a mini museum. We've gotten support from the city of Houston, from the mayor. We're waiting for a very nice letter from the mayor right now.

And while you think a Beyonce monument is undeserved or stupid, let's allow Houston residents to expand on that.

I think that would be great, well deserved for Houston. It would be awesome.

I think it would bring a lot of extra tourists here and with how we're growing the city now; I think it would be something good.

Houstonian, strong woman, just awesome.

Music, dancing.

Single lady.

She is the number 1 entertainer from Houston. She's in the prime of her career, producer, actress; Houston is proud and she comes back to Houston often.

Yes, those are all actual comments in response to Beyonce getting a monument. I think many of them comment on 411mania. If the mayor agrees that Beyonce is monument worthy, it will be unveiled on September 4th, Beyonce's birthday. If that's not enough musician worship for you, a "Black Sabbath Day" could be coming to Birmingham, England if created by the Birmingham City Council. Black Sabbath officially formed in the suburb of Aston in 1969.



Councillor Phillip Parkin said the following about honoring the Sabbath.

Black Sabbath's reunion and their agreement to headline Download Festival in June is an opportunity we should not miss. Early discussions are taking place about how best the city should celebrate this and the council should be supporting any celebrations. Black Sabbath reforming is significant, Black Sabbath are huge and metal is huge. Given this, it is us saying to the council that we need to celebrate the fact these people come from Birmingham. We could hold a civic event and potentially invite the band along to say thank you from Birmingham for the contribution they've made to music in our city.

Who would you guys like to see honored with their own special monument or day?



Nick Carter Kissing A Girl




Far be it from me to determine how suave a member of the Backstreet Boys is, but Nick Carter doesn't seem to understand the mechanics of kissing based on this image. I almost wonder if he should be wearing a helmet.



Christina Aguilera Performs PERIOD

Christina Aguilera doesn't seem to be letting up from appearing like a disaster. Her latest incident occurred at the Etta James Funeral where she performed. No, she didn't mess up the words like the National Anthem. No, she wasn't wearing an offensive dress. She seemed to have another problem, running down her leg.








Many people debated whether the brownish-red liquid running down her leg was the cause of a heavy flow. However, Aguilera's reps cleared the whole thing up…DAYS…after the event and countless speculation that the liquid was the result of a "bad spray tan".

I'll give Aguilera's PR credit. That is a great excuse; however, I just don't know if I believe it. What do you guys think.





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And that does it for this week. If you want to chat about the stories I covered here, follow me on Twitter @earbuddy or leave me some comments below. Let me know where this column falls under the 3R's – meaning for you to rate it as Right, wRong, or Ridiculous. I promise to change nothing. Also, be sure to read my other indie-music oriented column Major Bands, Minor Labels on 411mania. And especially don't forget to check out the great writing at my music site Earbuddy, outside of 411mania for greatindie music reviews. Thank you for reading the Music 3R's.