Aidin Vaziri: July 2009

24 July 2009

Live Review: La Roux at Cafe Du Nord

Stellar set by La Roux: Aidin Vaziri | Dropping the microphone and stumbling over her words in between songs, La Roux front woman Elly Jackson still navigated through a thrilling 40-minute set that effectively brought back to life the sun-deprived clatter of the primitive keyboard bands that roamed the earth in the years before she was even born, such as Yazoo and the Human League. At times, it was hard to tell which sounded more shrill: Jackson's voice or the bank of vintage synthesizers. But by the time she closed her set with "Bulletproof," the towering melody rose above the icy machinations and everyone in the sardine-packed club was singing along as if it were gospel. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Judas Priest

Aidin Vaziri | It was only a matter of time before the members of Judas Priest came to their senses and took one of the greatest heavy-metal albums ever on the road. This summer, the long-running group is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its breakthrough sixth full-length album, "British Steel," a little early by playing the whole 1980 album on its U.S. tour with Whitesnake. Calling from a Hampton Inn in Minnesota, singer Rob Halford, 57, who returned to the band in 2003 after taking 10 years off to front three other outfits, told us he's having the time of his life.

Rob Halford of Judas Priest
Q: How do you still hit all those high notes?
A: Well, I can't hit all the notes. But my voice is an instrument, and you have to do what you can to take care of it. I quit smoking. I don't drink. I went through the whole rehab thing. I've been screaming my tits off for 38 years now, but it still works and it's in good shape.
Q: Even though you wore S&M gear for years and released albums like "Hell Bent for Leather," people were pretty surprised when you came out during a 1998 MTV interview. Were you surprised that they were surprised?
A: From my own perspective, I never understood the significance. It was an unplanned moment. I was on TV and said, "Speaking as a gay man." I didn't realize until 48 hours later the firestorm it had created. It never crossed my mind that anyone would care because I'd already been accepted. That part of me is a nonissue. We are who we are. I'm still the same person.
Read more.

Sonic Youth: The Essential Playlist

Sonic Youth ages gracefully, noisily: Aidin Vaziri | Having made an unearthly racket for the past 30 years, East Village ambassadors Sonic Youth return to the Bay Area next week with a back catalog of songs that predicted new wave, indie, grunge, nu metal and possibly even Lady Gaga. We pick some of the band's finest in anticipation of their arrival. Read more.

23 July 2009

Review: The Dead Weather, 'Horehound'

The Dead Weather, 'Horehound': Aidin Vaziri | Jack White might be sitting behind the drum kit with his latest side project, but the White Stripes front man doesn't stay in the background for long. On paper, the Dead Weather - which includes the Raconteurs' Jack Lawrence on bass and Queens of the Stone Age's Dean Fertita on guitar - serves as a spotlight for singer Alison Mosshart of the Kills. Except it's White who put the band together, produced the record and hosted everyone in his Nashville studio. He also co-wrote most of the songs, sang on the tracks and released "Horehound" on his own label. But who's complaining? White plays like a madman, and the rest of the band follows suit, creating an impressively fuzzy garage-rock racket on tracks such as "Hang You From the Heavens" and a scratchy cover of Bob Dylan's "New Pony" (their take on Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?" is also well worth hunting down). Mosshart's boozy voice gives everything a heartwarming air of sleaziness, invoking a different strain of the blues than you normally get with the White Stripes. It's only when White inexplicably starts rapping on songs such as "I Cut Like a Buffalo" and "Treat Me Like Your Mother" that the Dead Weather starts sounding like a lo-fi version of Linkin Park - and that's when you wish he would just sit back for a moment.

Pop Quiz: Asher Roth

Aidin Vaziri | Asher Roth keeps it real. On his first album, "Asleep in the Bread Aisle," the 23-year-old suburban Pennsylvania rapper drops rhymes about everyday tragedies such as waking up with hair that makes him look like a Troll doll and forgetting his iPod at home. His big hit "I Love College" celebrates the joys of getting an education outside the classroom by dropping science with lines such as "Time isn't wasted when you're getting wasted." His latest, "Lark on My Go-Kart," focuses on getting lucky in the backseat. Is it any wonder Eminem sounds so paranoid on his new album?

Asher Roth
Q: What were you like in college?
A: I wasn't a very good student. I didn't think a lot of stuff I was learning was relevant to my life. There were a couple of good teachers, but most of the teachers would just hand out some dittos. So a lot of teachers I had a beef with. I was real fun loving. Real social. I loved bringing people together.
Q: Did you watch every "Girls Gone Wild" video ever?
A: Nah, I just did the Mardi Gras one.
Q: Is that because you watched it with the volume on?
A: Exactly.
Read more.

16 July 2009

Live Review: Beyoncé at the Oracle Arena

Beyoncé brings the bling, but songs a weak spot: Aidin Vaziri | The wind machines must have arrived on their own tour bus. They were practically everywhere at Beyoncé's Oracle Arena concert on Friday: blowing her flowing blond tresses skyward from the lip of the stage; at the top of the illuminated staircase from which she descended several times; even high above the crowd when the 27-year-old singer magically took flight. She probably doesn't even sit on the can without a gust in her face. Backed once again by a rocking all-female band and countless male dancers who seemed to have forgotten to pack their shirts for the North American leg of "I Am..." world tour, Beyoncé's two-hour concert was as delightfully whizz-klonk crazy as you might expect. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Kenny Chesney

Aidin Vaziri | Kenny Chesney is unstoppable. For the second year in a row, the country music star is bringing 35,000 fans into downtown San Francisco for a headlining show at AT&T Park - seemingly the only artist who can pull off that trick in this economy. He doesn't even have a new album, just a second greatest-hits set featuring the new single "Out Last Night." To make things a little more exciting for the Sun City Carnival Tour, Chesney will be zipping over the audience in a flying chair from the future and, once again, turning the entire stadium into a beery party spot complete with tiki bars, mounted fish and parking-lot hoedowns. And you never know who might show up onstage.

Kenny Chesney
Q: You travel with a 235-pound stuffed blue marlin that you caught. Does Marley get his own seat on the bus?
A: He's got his own road case. He serves no purpose whatsoever. It's just a thing to have out there that reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously. Whenever I get down, I can look up and there's this 235-pound blue marlin at the side of the stage. Why? Just because we can.
Q: I don't think Bono does that.
A: You never know. If he catches one he might.
Read more.

Review: Daughtry, 'Leave This Town'

Daughtry, 'Leave This Town': Aidin Vaziri | Sometimes it feels like the only reason Chris Daughtry exists is to remind people how bad they are at picking "American Idol" winners. Finishing fourth on the season Taylor Hicks took the prize may have been a bitter pill to swallow, but the chrome-domed rocker simply used the setback to thrust forward, coming back with a clutch of huge radio hits and a major-label album that sold more than 5 million copies. Daughtry's second outing is more of a group effort - you can tell because they all posed for the picture on the cover - but with success like that, who would seriously mess with the formula? "Leave This Town" is sensibly built around the same high-end production techniques, catchy melodies and slow-burning growls that made its predecessor so ubiquitous, with just the right balance of hard-rocking bombast and bittersweet power balladry to make it equally inescapable. Adam Lambert has his work cut out.

Photographer Terry O'Neill on Elton and Frank

2 for the ages: Chairman and Knight: Aidin Vaziri | British photographer Terry O'Neill has taken unforgettable pictures of pop culture icons like Audrey Hepburn, the Beatles and David Bowie. But what made him pick two of his more unconventional subjects for the upcoming San Francisco Art Exchange exhibiti, "Chairman of the Board, Knight of the Realm: Photographs of Frank Sinatra & Sir Elton John"? It's easy. "They're two of the hardest-working artists I've ever worked with," says O'Neill, 70, calling from his home in London last week. "There will never be anyone like them again." Read more.

Live Review: Duran Duran at the Fillmore

S.F. festival unveils lineup: Aidin Vaziri | Tickets sold out almost as quickly as they went on sale, some going for as much as $600 through the hands of scalpers. The members of the group, who without a new album to promote probably figured this quick summer tour would be a good way to cover their foie gras expenses for the year, had no idea what they were in for. With just about every 2-by-2 piece of floor space defended with fixed ninja poses and vicious glares, from the stage it must have felt a bit like 1984 all over again - if nothing else for the paint-stripping screams elicited by parachute-pants-era classics like "The Wild Boys," "Notorious" and "Save a Prayer." Read more.

SFJAZZ Unveils Fall Lineup

S.F. festival unveils lineup: Aidin Vaziri | The lineup for the SFJAZZ fall season could once again pass for a U.N. attendance sheet, boasting artists from all corners of the globe. Kicking off on Oct. 10 with an all-star celebration of Thelonious Monk's birthday with pianist Eric Reed, the 27th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival will bring musicians such as Brazil's Gal Costa, Israel's Yasmin Levy and Cuba's Alfredo Rodriguez to the Bay Area. There will also be plenty of familiar faces, such as Ornette Coleman (Nov. 8 at Davies Symphony Hall), Melody Gardot (Oct. 23 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre) and Milton Nascimento (Nov. 7 at Nob Hill Masonic Center). Read more.

15 July 2009

Review: 'The Bluegrass Tribute to the Goo Goo Dolls'

'The Bluegrass Tribute to the Goo Goo Dolls': Aidin Vaziri | On some days, it feels as if the music industry actually wants to die. In this case, that might just be wishful thinking. I would certainly prefer to believe intentional sabotage was at work rather than admit things had come down to this: "A Boy Named Blue: The Bluegrass Tribute to the Goo Goo Dolls." Performed by a band of faceless studio musicians going by the name Iron Horse, the disc follows similar packages honoring Guns N' Roses, the Offspring and Blink-182. It takes a vaguely remembered '90s rock band's material and repurposes it with added twang - just barely. The bluegrass label is misleading because this actually sounds more like amateur night in any Nashville dive bar. But that's the least of this album's problems. How many Goo Goo Dolls fans are left? Were there any in the first place? Did a single one think, "You know, 'Iris' is great but it would sound so much better if a bunch of dudes in Dockers did it"? That the Goo Goo Dolls' actual drummer Mike Mallinin found enough time in his schedule to actually write the liner notes and sit in on several of the songs should provide some answers.

07 July 2009

Duran Duran: A Real Head Trip

A hairy history: Aidin Vaziri | People often accuse Duran Duran of going through nearly as many lineup changes as hairstyles in the past 30 years. We wanted scientific proof. So using our minimal MacPaint skills and the better part of what we're sure was an otherwise really nice weekend, we unearthed our cassette copy of "Seven and the Ragged Tiger," did extensive research through back issues of Star Hits and watched the video for "Girls on Film" no less than 2,107 times before coming up with the conclusive evidence, organized here in a chronological order for your convenience. Continue reading.

Pop Quiz: Rancid

Aidin Vaziri | After six years of doing everything but making a new Rancid album, the members of the long-running Bay Area punk group are back in action with "Let the Dominoes Fall." Recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound Studio with Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, along with the usual guitar blasts the new album features a couple of ballads and guest Booker T on Hammond B3 organ. No surprise, really, considering the members spent the years leading up to it working on a variety of projects. We spoke with front man Tim Armstrong and guitarist Lars Frederiksen just before Rancid set off on its current co-headlining tour with Rise Against.

Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen of Rancid
Q: Do you think your fans will ever forgive Tim for working with Pink and Gwen Stefani?
Armstrong: That's a good question. You got to look at the people that love Rancid. I instinctively knew when I worked with Pink the people that love Rancid, love us as a family member. They're going to be with us through good and bad. Even if they might be mad at us they still love us. They're not going to abandon us.
Frederiksen: We never really follow a script or rulebook or anything like that. As a songwriter, what else is Tim going to do? Whether it's for Pink or Rancid, I think people understand that. We do everything on our gut instinct. We've always done things on our own terms anyway. That's how we live life. That's what punk rock is. If you're going to confine yourself in a 12 by 12 box, it's called a cell. Read more.

Review: Maxwell, 'Blacksummers' Night'

Maxwell, 'Blacksummers' Night': Aidin Vaziri | With his towering Afro and silk shirts unbuttoned to the navel, Maxwell was the natural pinup of the '90s neo-soul movement. But like his closest rival, D'Angelo, the 36-year-old Brooklyn native has spent most of the current decade lost in the wilderness, taking only tentative steps back into the spotlight last year with a handful of live shows. This week, the freshly shorn R&B star officially resurfaces with his long-in-the-making fourth studio album, "BLACKsummers' Night," the first in a proposed trilogy of releases. Despite reports of ongoing creative struggles with his record label, the music isn't all that dissimilar to that of his previous release, 2001's chart-topping "Now." Maxwell's falsetto sounds a little rougher here, but his brand of mellow hot-tub funk still pulsates with sensual bass lines, well-mannered horn blasts and quasi-spiritual lyrics about getting it on. It's the songwriting that wobbles, with the dainty first single, "Pretty Wings," floating above the modest soul of more typical album cuts such as "Bad Habits" and "Love You."