Quick ‘n’ Dirty Music News: 02.29.08

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 02.29.2008

iTunes is taking over, Maxim & WWE suck ‘cause the Black Crowes & Nas said so, Seven Mary Three reviewed, My favorite Oscar songs, Britney and Amy making news, Christina’s a diva, Ne-Yo vs. The Big Boss Man, plus previews for Alan Jackson and Flogging Molly, chart news and Ashanti is our Piece Of The Week!

Happy Leap Day my beloved mofos! It only comes once every four years, so make sure to do it right. Kind of like your grandpa does.

I'm Mitch Michaels and this is YOUR Quick ‘n' Dirty News. Why do we call it that? Well…

It's quick. It's dirty. It's news.



The Complete Discography Of
Seven Mary Three



Another new feature, one of a few that I'll be rotating out of this lead spot every week. I realized the necessity for this when it hit me that I'd bought no new albums to review this week. Each edition, we'll take a look at the complete discography of a band, which albums are vital, which songs are highlights and so forth. Each album will be assigned a rating. (1: Skip It, 2: For Fans Only, 3: Hear It, 4: Buy It)

Our first band spotlighted will be alt-rockers Seven Mary Three, who recently issued a new album.

American Standard (1995) - The band's debut. I first bought this after hearing an acoustic set by 7M3 at Mountain Stage. Great stuff all around, this is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Song highlights: "Cumbersome", "Water's Edge", "Lame" and "My My".
Rating: 4

RockCrown (1997) - Their sophomore album tried a few more experiments, including more slower tracks. The rock tracks are perhaps louder than even the debut. I bought this during my last days of high school, with that seemingly never ending "Graduation Money" that I wound up blowing my first acoustic guitar on.
Song highlights: "Lucky", "Times Like These", "RockCrown", "Honey Of Generation".
Rating: 4

Orange Ave. (1998) - Picked this up on one of me and my brother's many trips out during my first college summer. This was the band's last album with guitarist Jason Pollock. A little too all over the map, but it had some nice moments.
Song highlights: "Over Your Shoulder", "Each Little Mystery", "Chasing You".
Rating: 3

The Economy Of Sound (2001) - Their last major label release, I never even bought this record. I've heard it and it still doesn't impress me. All rock with few hooks.
Song highlights: "Wait".
Rating: 1

Dis/Location (2004) - This album never got its due, not even from me, as I skipped it as well. Much better than Sound, but there are still too many forgettable tracks. Notable only for its best songs.
Song Highlights: "Without You Feels", "Blue Letter".
Rating: 2

Day&Nightdriving (2008) - Their latest indie release, you can check out my review here. I got a comp of this CD, but I would have bought it otherwise as I've been dying for a 7M3 comeback for years now. A nice departure for the band into more acoustic based material, though there are still plenty of rockers. Their best since RockCrown.
Song highlights: "Last Kiss", "Was A Ghost", "Things I Stole".
Rating: 3

STAND BY…FOR NEWS!

All news items are from 411 Music's newswire:

Good News For People Who Like Bad Bitrates

In a week dominated by real news (ie not gossip), the biggest item to come out was the fact that iTunes has now surpassed both Target and Best Buy, making it the #2 music retailer in the United States. That's big news for the entire world of digital music, as it represents a huge shift in how Americans purchase music. Or so you would think.

Despite iTunes trumpeting its four billion downloads for last year (an impressive number), digital sales still only make up 10% of all music purchases. That's still more than vinyl, but I wouldn't go trumpeting the downfall of the CD just yet.

Of course, that's just me. Other analysts have stated that, given the current trends – including the 50% jump in digital sales from 2006 to 2007, iTunes is set to overtake even the Wal*Mart powerhouse by the end of the year. Studies show that HALF of America's teens didn't purchase a single CD in 2007. Those same studies also show that 70% of American tweens (kids aged 9-14) purchased at least one song from iTunes last year.

Not only does that number bode well for digital sales, it also bodes well for the industry, as iTunes has outpaced all illegal downloading services among tweens. Sounds like good news, but I would question just how many pre-high school kids even have the know how to download illegal music these days. Torrent services also were left out of the report.

I applaud this report, which is just another sign that the digital age demands a whole new marketing strategy in the industry. It also proves that our tweens are pretty stupid, as they'd rather go to Wal*Mart, buy an iTunes gift card and then go home and download rather than learn how to use Limewire. Fucking lazy kids. That's the future of our nation people! Too lazy to steal!

It does make me sad that the trend towards iTunes over CD looks to be continuing. Not because I don't think digital services are bad, but because the bitrates are so damn bad, proving that people are getting happier and happier with less quality in their audio and video. Hell, I've had an iTunes gift card sitting on my shelf since Christmas, but I just can't bring myself to use it thanks to those 128 kbps files that just make my ears sad.

There's a weird dichotomy in this culture, as every household has their 40-odd inch HDTVs and Blu Ray players, yet we're content to watch grainy YouTube videos and movies on tiny iPhone screens while listening to less-than-FM quality music.

To Be Fair, The Black Crowes Haven't Made A Good Album In A While

Maxim Magazine had to eat a little…ahem…crow this week, when The Black Crowes called them out for a poor review of their upcoming Warpaint album. The Crowes countered that Maxim couldn't have possibly even heard Warpaint, as no advance copies were released. Maxim promptly replied to its readers, claiming proper action would be taken against the writer (no boobie photo shoots for him this week!). The Black Crowes are still waiting for their own apology.

Torrent sites are saying that Warpaint was added around 2/18, which has me believing that the reviewer wasn't able to even download a copy first. The rep for the magazine stated:

"Sometimes there are big albums that we don't want to ignore that aren't available to hear, which is what happened with the Crowes. It's either an educated guess preview or no coverage at all, so in this case we chose the former."

I like his tone, which implies, "What did you want? No fucking Maxim coverage at all?" Like a strong review in Maxim has ever sold anything. The only people buying Black Crowes albums these days are Black Crowes fans (just check out their declining sales for proof – 2001's Lions didn't even break the 200k mark). That's not to bash the Crowes, it's just to say that people aren't looking to Maxim for their Black Crowes reviews. Maxim simply wanted to have the big bases covered and did it by any means necessary.

Another snafu by the magazine that has been reported on less is their review of Nas' Nigger in the same mag, which Nas claims he hasn't even finished recording yet. This got me to thinking back to the latest WWE Magazine (another bastion of credible journalism), which also curiously reviewed Nas' new record. I raised an eyebrow at this, knowing the disc had yet to be given even a firm street date. It further raised my suspicion when WWE Magazine only mentioned the track name that had been released publicly, "The Fear Of The Black Man's Dick".

I think it's a pretty clear message here that big print monthly magazines just can't keep up with CD reviews in this day and age, and often base their "reviews" on the little bit of information that is out there (press and singles). With illegal filesharing still public enemy #1 in the music industry, labels just refuse to release review copies far in advance, and some of the bigger CDs don't come through until AFTER the street date. This is a death knell for monthly magazines, who have to remain current and maintain tight deadlines. But God forbid they have any journalistic integrity and change their music coverage from "reviews" to "previews".

Not to toot my own horn here, but this is just one reason why 411mania and websites in general will always be the most honest and accurate places to get your reviews. For one thing, we update constantly. For second, we can post a new album review, at worst, on the day it comes out. That's why each Tuesday or Wednesday, you'll find the hottest release of the week covered right here. And finally, 411 isn't controlled by any corporation. We have no one to please but ourselves and our readers. And that's how we maintain our integrity.

You can slam us by saying we post too much gossip, too many pictures of scantily clad women or unpopular opinions, but we do that because it's what we WANT to do and it's what our readers want to see and read. No one will tell us what to do, and if you read a review of an album that has yet to come out, you can bet your ass that we either got an advance or we downloaded it. Through various legal channels of course. Wink wink.

Apparently There Was Some Sort Of Awards Ceremony This Week

The Oscars went off last Sunday, and proved to be the least watched of the 79 prior. Ouch.

You can blame that on a lot of things: Jon Stewart sucks as a host, there's nothing exciting about the show because they're too afraid of the FCC, the dead actors montage didn't include enough big names, the movies up for awards were pieces of shit…hey, what was with all the Bourne Ultimatum love in the technical categories? I knew I loved that flick, but it just never hit me that it was because the sound editing was so amazing.

My point is, there are lots of reasons people didn't watch the Oscars. Minus the 21 million people who did, of course. My personal reason was simple. Let's look at the nominees for Best Original Song:

"Happy Working Song" – from Enchanted, performed by actress Amy Adams (who was pretty cute in Talladega Nights) and is an homage to older Disney musicals.

"So Close" – from Enchanted, performed by pop/rock singer Jon McLaughlin and is a sappy ballad complete with a ballroom dance performance.

"That's How You Know" – from Enchanted, also performed by Amy Adams and acts as an homage to Disney musicals.

It should be noted that all three Enchanted song performances were accompanied by big fruity productions at the Oscar telecast.

"Raise It Up" – from August Rush, performed by a black youth choir and is a big gospel-type number.

"Falling Slowly" – from Once, performed by The Frames' Glen Hansard and singer/songwriter Marketa Irglova, this is a slow piano number.

"Falling Slowly" picked up the Best Original Song Oscar, as it should. I can't deny that the song was moving and the performance sounded nice on the telecast, but the fact that I knew neither the performers or the movie made it less fun. The fact that its competition was so…TONY awards…took the air out of the whole thing. The same thing happened last year when Dreamgirls swept the category and the best performance was by Randy Freakin' Newman. Let's face it: Best Original Song performances sucked this year.

With that said, I've only enjoyed a few Best Original Song winners. Here are some of them:

MY FAVORITE BEST ORIGINAL SONG OSCAR WINNERS
Bob Dylan – "Things Have Changed", from Wonderboys: This song won in 2000, adding Academy Award winner to Dylan's list of credentials. Definitely a groovy song, this is probably Dylan's best non-Time Out Of Mind track in twenty years.

Eminem – "Lose Yourself", from 8 Mile: From 2002. I loved this simply for the shock factor. Em didn't bother showing up to the performances. "Lose Yourself" is without a doubt the most badass Best Original Song winner ever. Right beside "Singin' In The Rain".

Three 6 Mafia – "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp", from Hustle & Flow: This song won in 2006, and pretty much put Three 6 Mafia on the map. I'm not a big fan of the cut, but seeing a hip-hop performance shake up the Oscars really made a fun event.

Phil Collins – "You'll Be In My Heart", from Tarzan: 1999's Best Song, I just love Phil Collins. If you don't have at least his Hits…, you don't know what you're missing.

Bruce Springsteen – "Streets Of Philadelphia", from Philadelphia: What the heck was the Boss doing in a movie about AIDS? Teasing aside, this is a great, emotional song with an enormous video in terms of effect.

Berlin – "Take My Breath Away", from Top Gun: You can laugh, but what was Top Gun without this chick track?

Stevie Wonder – "I Just Called To Say I Love You", from The Woman In Red: It's amazing how some of these songs have long eclipsed their associated movies. One of Stevie's best pure pop moments.

Isaac Hayes – "Theme from ‘Shaft'", from Shaft: One bad mother…

Irving Berlin – "White Christmas", from Holiday Inn: Included for historical sake, as I had no idea this cut was originally from a movie.

Well, seeing as how I'm looking at songs from the 40's now, I think that bit's over.

Diva News

Another quiet week for Ms. Britney Spears, other than the fact that she got to finally visit her kids after being kept away for a month like the loony she is.

The only interesting fact to come out of this was that Britney now has an estimated worth of only $40 million, down pretty far from her $100 million estate which was listed in Forbes just last year.

People are pointing fingers at her wild spending and her various bad choices of people to manage her money, but you have to realize that the woman doesn't have her kids anymore, and they were probably valued around $20 million each.

As for Amy Winehouse, she has seemingly lapsed pretty quickly following her rehab stint and Grammy performance. I think it's funny she had to get clean just to sing a couple of songs via satellite. Friends are begging for an intervention – or at least begging to get their names in the news. Even husband Blake Fielder-Civil is having his issues with Amy. Blake believes Amy is back on cocaine and, after she arrived an hour late for a visit recently, he reportedly told her to not bother coming back. Dude, you're in fucking prison, what else do you have to do but wait?

Amy is also still being dogged by a 2007 drug bust in Norway, where she and Blake (plus a friend) paid a light fine for marijuana possession. That is, until they realized that paying the fine resulted in admitting guilt, which results in a crimp on Amy's international travel. Winehouse is now appealing the claim, saying that police didn't follow procedure. A current hearing was delayed because Amy said she hadn't received an official letter. Man, when is Norway gonna get its shit together?

Finally, Winehouse is rumored to be launching a new fashion line, which will feature make-up and clothes for her fans to emulate Amy's style. Fake bruises and track marks are currently in production, too. Hopefully, they won't be using this picture in advertising. You too can look like a lost crack whore:


I apologize to everyone for bringing that photo back to our minds. Hopefully Ashish won't use it on the front page for this.

And finally, Christina Aguilera, mom or not, was cited for diva-like behavior this week, when she fired her publicist, manager and assistant after her People Magazine cover resulted in low sales. No comment here, but I just wanted to include a hot Christina pic to cleanse our pallets.


Damn…so good it hurts. Here's another.


All better?

Everything Else

Don't forget about new projects by R.E.M. (Accelerate, out soon), Gary Louris and Mark Olson of The Jayhawks (new album), Prince (new hip), Augustana (new album), Steve Winwood (new album), Rolling Stones (documentary and soundtrack) and Stone Temple Pilots (reunion tour).

Rapper Ne-Yo was arrested a few days back for reckless driving without a license in Cobb County, Georgia. He was sentenced to one Bossman Slam, but did not serve hard time.

Eric Clapton was the first western artist ever asked to play North Korea in a continuing effort for that country to appear less hostile. Reminds me of when Plankton learned how to have fun from Spongebob. Of course, then he went right back to being a dick.

The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame announced its presenters, and Justin Timberlake is one of them. Something so wrong about that. For something so right, check out the first class of 411's Music Hall Of Fame. And quit bitching about Nirvana people.


NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 4, 2008

WHAT EVERYONE WILL BUY:

Alan Jackson - Good Time - It's back to back Jacksons, as Janet was the big release this week and Alan will be the top one for next week. Alan's only released two albums that weren't certified platinum, and they both reached gold. This includes his last CD, Like Red On A Rose, which, while it was an amazing album, represented a departure for Alan. This new one, he returns to producer Keith Stegall, and the first single, "Small Town Southern Man", is already a big country hit.

WHAT WILL BE NUMBER ONE:

Well, Jack Johnson held on to #1 this week as expected, still managing to move over 100 copies. In all those slow sales, Amy Winehouse didn't fall back as quickly as I thought she would, though Herbie Hancock proved to have a short surge. I overlooked two debuts this week, though one was unintentional. Kidz Bop 13 grabbed the #4 spot and, if I'd realized it was coming, I would've called that one easy, as Kidz Bop only pales to Now in terms of raw series power. Chris Cagle also debuted in the Top 10 for the first time ever, a feat which I didn't figure he'd be able to do. You can say slow sales helped, but that doesn't negate that My Life's Been a Country Song is Cagle's second #1 Country album.

This week, we should finally see Jack Johnson fall from his prolonged stay at #1. Despite the fact that it's not very good, Janet Jackson's Discipline still has Janet's name on it, which is enough to put her at the top of the charts in this climate. Erykah Badu's last record reached the Top 10, but that was five years ago. Still, she should also benefit from soft sales in this week's Top 10.

WHAT YOU SHOULD BUY:

There's always something worth buying in the New Release section. Here are my picks:

Alan Jackson - Good Time - Like I said, Alan's last album was stellar, and he's yet to release a disc that is bad. If you love traditional country, this is worth lining up for.

The Black Crowes - Warpaint - I haven't heard this yet (har har), but I've always dug the Black Crowes mix of jamming and blues rock. Hopefully it will be as good as their earlier stuff, as I felt Lions just didn't have "it".

Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers - It must be a good time for chick country singers. Kathleen is a bit overlooked, but I've yet to hear a bad single from this girl, who is much more Steve Earle than Faith Hill.

Flogging Molly - Float - Gotta love your Irish rock people! I'll have a review of this up soon.

Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac: Deluxe Edition - As much as I can't stand Ryan Adams, his old band Whiskeytown made some great music. This is the only Whiskeytown record I've never heard, and the fact that there are loads of extra outtakes here makes it worth picking up.

WHAT'S HOT ON THE DIAL?

Billboard has about a million charts, so each week I'm gonna round up the #1s from each format. That way, no matter WHAT station you flip to when not using your presets, you'll be aware of what you might hear. Newly crowned #1s are in bold:

CHART	SINGLE	WEEKS
POP
HOT 100	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	18
HOT 100 AIRPLAY	Chris Brown – "With You"	12
POP 100	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	17
POP 100 AIRPLAY	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	17
HOT SINGLES SALES	The White Stripes – "Conquest"	3
BUBBLING UNDER HOT 100 SINGLES	Raheem DeVaughn – "Woman"	6
DIGITAL
HOT DIGITAL SONGS	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	16
HOT DIGITAL TRACKS	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low (Album Version)"	16
HOT RINGTONES	Grupo Montez de Durango – "Adios Amor Te Vas"	49
R&B/HIP HOP
HOT R&B/HIP HOP SONGS	Keyshia Cole – "I Remember"	17
HOT R&B/HIP HOP AIRPLAY	Keyshia Cole – "I Remember"	17
HOT ADULT R&B AIRPLAY	Alicia Keys – "Like You'll Never See Me Again"	16
HOT RAP TRACKS	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	23
RHYTHMIC TOP 40	Chris Brown – "With You"	N/A
HOT R&B/HIP HOP SINGLES SALES	Emmanuel – "Swagga"	12
COUNTRY
HOT COUNTRY SONGS	Rodney Atkins – "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)"	23
ROCK
HOT MODERN ROCK TRACKS	Foo Fighters – "Long Road To Ruin"	18
HOT MAINSTREAM ROCK TRACKS	Puddle Of Mudd – "Psycho"	21
ADULT CONTEMPORARY
HOT ADULT TOP 40 TRACKS	Timbaland feat. OneRepublic – "Apologize"	21
HOT ADULT CONTEMPORARY TRACKS	Colby Caillat – "Bubbly"	30
CHRISTIAN
HOT CHRISTIAN SONGS	Matthew West – "You Are Everything"	20
HOT CHRISTIAN ADULT CONTEMPORARY	MercyMe – "God With Us"	21
DANCE
HOT DANCE CLUB PLAY	Britney Spears – "Piece Of Me"	7
HOT DANCE AIRPLAY	Ida Corr – "Let Me Think About It"	17
HOT DANCE SINGLES SALES	Tanika Turner – "It's Right Here"	2
INTERNATIONAL
HOT LATIN SONGS	Enrique Iglesias – "Donde Estan Corazon"	3
EUROPEAN HOT 100 SINGLES	Leona Lewis – "Bleeding Love"	18
EURO DIGITAL SONGS	Duffy – "Mercy"	2
CANADIAN HOT 100	Flo Rida feat. T-Pain – "Low"	15
RECURRENTS
HOT 100 RECURRENT AIRPLAY	Pink – "Who Knew"	2
HOT SINGLES RECURRENTS	Kanye West – "Stronger"	4
HOT R&B/HIP HOP RECURRENT AIRPLAY	Robin Thicke – "Lost Without U"	14
HOT R&B/HIP HOP RECURRENTS	Robin Thicke – "Lost Without U"	14
HOT COUNTRY RECURRENTS	Taylor Swift – "Our Song"	4
HOT ADULT CONTEMPORARY RECURRENTS	Bon Jovi – "(You Want To) Make A Memory"	8

MUSICAL PIECE OF THE WEEK

Well, it's the final day of Black History Month, which has seen us honor some of our finer darker skinned vocalists as Pieces of the Week. This week's honoree was inspired by a dream I had last night which also involved Avril Lavigne. Don't you wish you could fucking record dreams? Anyway, here this chick is the Nurse Betty we all want to make us feel better, the Baby we all wanna Rock Wit, Ashanti is our Quick ‘n' Dirty Piece Of The Week.













THE END

Hope you all had fun. Be sure to drop me a line on what you liked, didn't, etc.

Keep your ears to the ground.