Aidin Vaziri: November 2009

27 November 2009

Adam Lambert: That's Entertainment

Aidin Vaziri | Coming in second on the last season of "American Idol" did little to dampen Adam Lambert's pop ambitions. On Tuesday, the 27-year-old San Diego singer released his first major-label album, "For Your Entertainment." As expected, he has gone all out. From the Glamour Shots-inspired cover picture to the list of top-shelf collaborators in the liner notes, it's a creatively charged effort designed to launch him into the same stratosphere as the show's more notable successes like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

'Idol' runner-up Lambert's 1st major album out
Q: Did you pretty much approach "For Your Entertainment" like it might be the only album you ever make? It has that kitchen-sink quality.
A: Well, you never know. It could be the only album I ever make. I wanted to have an eclectic mix of music on there. I know it's not how albums are done anymore, but it's how I wanted to do it. Read more.

Review: Lady Gaga, 'The Fame Monster'

Review: Lady Gaga, 'The Fame Monster': Aidin Vaziri | Anyone who has recently come across the online video clip of stringy haired singer-songwriter Stefani Joanne Germanotta playing a lumbering set of ballads in a dingy New York club five years ago must be baffled by her transformation into the unstoppable pop juggernaut known as Lady Gaga. On this eight-song set that works both as an expansion of her breakthrough album, "The Fame," and a stand-alone new release, she briefly revisits her pre-sequined past on "Speechless," a string-laden rock song so labored that you'll be glad she finally got her hands on a copy of "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again)." It's a minor transgression as the rest of this EP only highlights Gaga's growing confidence and towering pop instincts, from the pretty, vacant synth hooks of "Dance in the Dark" to the aerobic electro of "Bad Romance." And when Beyoncé enters the picture on the forceful, platinum-scented kiss-off "Telephone," you get the sense that we're going to be seeing those ridiculous outfits for a lot longer than anyone could have possibly anticipated.

Pop Quiz: David Archuleta

Aidin Vaziri | David Archuleta, the doe-eyed runner-up from the seventh season of "American Idol," appears Monday at the Warfield in support of his new album, "Christmas From the Heart." The 18-year-old singer's second release this year features his golden-voiced takes on a handful of seasonal standards such as "The First Noel" and "O Holy Night," as well as a new song called "Melodies of Christmas." He called us last week from his family's home in Murray, Utah, to talk about his career so far, holiday plans and dream about Bob Dylan.

David Archuleta
Q: Your album came out the same day as Bob Dylan's "Christmas in the Heart." Do you think any of your fans accidentally picked up his album and wondered what happened to your voice?
A: I know, they almost have the exact same title, which is pretty funny. I hope not. Bob Dylan was actually in my dream last night.
Q: What was Dylan doing in your dream?
A: I think he was singing Christmas songs. I don't really remember my dream. It was snowing and his Christmas music was going on. I don't know why. I guess he was on the back of my mind yesterday. I should Tweet about that.
Read more.

Backstage Pass With Dan Dion

Visions of Fillmore musicians: Aidin Vaziri | As the house photographer at the Fillmore for the past 15 years, Dan Dion has seen it all. Now he's letting everyone else get a peek at the candid backstage moments and career-defining performances that have passed through his lens with a solo retrospective that opens this week at the Lush Life Gallery. "Putting this show together forced me to go back and look at a whole bunch of stuff - some of which I hadn't seen in years," Dion said. Having gotten his start by putting cameras inside cookie boxes and sneaking them into rock shows, Dion is now represented by Los Angeles' prestigious Fahey/Klein gallery and next year will release "Satiristas" (Harper Collins), a book that explores the lives of comedians. In the meantime, we asked him to tell us about some of his favorite shots from the forthcoming show, which runs through January. Read more.

20 November 2009

Live Review: Chris Brown at the Fillmore

It's a Lovefest for Chris Brown: Aidin Vaziri | Should Chris Brown get a second chance? The people who filled the Fillmore on Thursday for the local stop of his 19-city Fan Appreciation Tour certainly seemed ready to move on. They came bearing banners. They shrieked every time he shed a layer of clothing. They loudly sang along to his hits. They chanted, "We want Chris!" They even bought souvenirs. Just a few months after pleading guilty to felony assault charges for attacking his ex-girlfriend, Rihanna, it appears that the 20-year-old R&B star is walking away from the whole incident relatively unscathed. His new single, "I Can Transform Ya," is climbing the charts; his third major- label release, "Graffiti," is due next month; and he's probably got more name recognition now than ever thanks to the intense media coverage of the case. Brown wasn't at the Fillmore to make amends. "I came here to party!" he said repeatedly. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Aidin Vaziri | Trans-Siberian Orchestra believes holiday music is best served with a generous heaping of lasers and shrieking guitars. For the past decade, the group founded by former members of the also-ran heavy metal outfit Savatage - actually, there are two touring groups dividing their time on opposite ends of the country - has rocked more than 5 million people with its seasonal concerts, moving up from intimate theaters to huge arenas. Next Sunday, Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings songs from its latest release "Night Castle," featuring a new spin on an old classic in the song "Nutrocker," to its traditional seasonal set with back-to-back shows at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. We spoke to lead guitarist Al Pitrelli.

Al Pitrelli of Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Q: You've gotten so popular that there are two Trans-Siberian Orchestras touring at once. Do you get to pick which coast you tour on?
A: I guess if I really wanted to I could. But all my family and friends live on the East Coast so that's the last place I want to be during the holiday season.
Q: Someone described what you do as a rock show on steroids.
A: That's a good way to put it.
Q: I understand there might be some pyrotechnics involved.
A: This year I think we have 17 semis traveling with us and they're loaded so there isn't a square inch wasted. This started out in 1999 with a couple fog machines and lights. The reaction was so overwhelming it was like, "Oh boy, what can we pull off now?"
Read more.

Review: Adam Lambert, 'For Your Entertainment'

Review: Adam Lambert, 'For Your Entertainment': Aidin Vaziri | There's no way Adam Lambert was going to win "American Idol." For a conformist audience that found even Chris Daughtry too edgy a few seasons back, this year's runner-up must have seemed like a total weirdo: an androgynous 27-year-old from San Diego with jet-black hair and a glass-shattering falsetto who sang songs by Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson with equal, unfettered enthusiasm. Outside of the starmaking competition, however, he has trounced champion Kris Allen, whose album of anemic power ballads arrived with little fanfare. From that glammed-up cover that makes Lady Gaga seem tame to the blaring Giorgio Moroder-style production, everything about Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" feels huge. It's an album powered by bombast and attitude, yes, but it's also so smartly crafted that it doesn't feel as if a note is wasted. Lambert comes on stronger than he did on the show, properly belting out predestined blockbusters such as "Whataya Want From Me" and "Strut." But when he broods on sweeping ballads such as "A Loaded Smile" and the Aerosmith-influenced "Time for Miracles," he's at his best, delivering the future prom ballads with the easy confidence of a real winner.

Pop Quiz: Paul Banks

Aidin Vaziri | Interpol front man Paul Banks has released a solo album under the name Julian Plenti - it's called "Julian Plenti Is ... Skyscraper." So, technically, we don't actually know whom we interviewed, but we got all the important questions about band dynamics, body odor and socks out of the way in advance of his show at the Great American Music Hall.

Paul Banks, a.k.a. Julian Plenti
Q: Did you make a record without Interpol just so you could wear loafers without socks in the promo photos?
A: You know, you're probably right about that. Someone asked me the other day, "What are you trying to do? Bring loafers without socks back?" In my world it never left.
Q: Is Julian Plenti like a Ziggy Stardust thing?
A: It's totally a Ziggy Stardust thing. It's the same person minus some details and plus some exaggerations.
Q: That's a lot of math. Are you worried people are going to confuse your album with Julian Casablancas' solo album since you're both in New York bands that wear ties and, well, the whole Julian thing?
A: You know, no. I've been rolling with the Julian for a long time. It's my middle name. I haven't heard his record yet, but I'm excited. I'm going to give it some time.
Read more.

Girls Gone Wild

Girls grasp the cult of celebrity: Aidin Vaziri | Christopher Owens might not be the only indie-rock star born into a cult, but in the past few weeks he has become the most famous. The doe-eyed San Francisco transplant has been touring across Europe and North America with his band Girls, playing for growing audiences nightly while spending his days recounting how he grew up cut off from the secular world as a member of the itinerant religious clan Children of God. It seems like an odd way to sell a new band, whose first release, "Album," has drawn universal acclaim from tastemakers such as Pitchfork and Spin. Owens doesn't seem to mind, though. "I'm used to being introduced as a weirdo," the singer-songwriter shrugs. Read more.

11 November 2009

Pop Quiz: David Gray

Aidin Vaziri | Nearly a decade after his fourth album, "White Ladder," made him a star and unwitting inspiration for a generation of hand-wringing British troubadours, David Gray returns with his eighth studio album, "Draw the Line." The self-produced set includes powerful duets with Annie Lennox and Jolie Holland, along with a handful of songs exploring emotional turmoil with at least one unexpected lyrical twist.

David Gray
Q: At what point do you think you'll be able to take "Babylon" off the set list?
A: I don't really want to at the moment. I did try to do that for a few years because I had been pounding away at it so hard I couldn't find the emotion and shape of it. But the version we're doing now is very sweet, very soft. The song really blossoms in a different way.
Q: On the title track of the new record you sing, "Here we are, butt naked." Where did that come from?
A: My daughter was at some sort of play date, and I was lost in the swirling mist of creativity. I just sat uncomfortably in the corner writing on my own hand and trousers and biting my lip to remember lines and melodies. It was a song I had been waiting for, and this cascade of ideas came at once. I came home and couldn't sleep that night. We went into the studio the next day, and by the time we got the take I was clinging on with my fingers.
Read more.

Review: Echo and the Bunnymen, 'The Fountain'

Review: Echo and the Bunnymen, 'The Fountain': Aidin Vaziri | Echo and the Bunnymen are on tour performing their classic 1984 album "Ocean Rain" from start to finish. But for many fans an unexpected highlight of the concerts has been watching the band return for the encore, break free from the past and charge into its vibrant new material. "The Fountain" is the raincoat-clad Liverpool band's most electrifying set of music in ages, with the opening track "Think I Need It Too" reviving much of the vintage swagger of front man Ian McCulloch (pictured above) and guitarist Will Sergeant's ability to peel off grand riffs on the spot. "Do You Know Who I Am?" sees the singer insouciantly offering a playback of his own career, "Read it/ Wrote it/ Heard it/ Spoke it/ Made it/ Broke it." Meanwhile, producer John McLaughlin, best known for his work with short-lived British boy-band Busted, gives songs like "Everlasting Neverendless" and "Drivetime" remarkable pop luster. Who knows? In 20 years, this album could perhaps warrant its own orchestra-abetted outing.

02 November 2009

Movie Review: 'Michael Jackson's This Is It'

What Is It?: Aidin Vaziri | There's a simple disclaimer at the beginning of "Michael Jackson's This Is It." It reads, "For the fans." It shouldn't be ignored. Those who stuck with the troubled pop icon after his universe shifted from the charts to the tabloids probably will find equal measures of inspiration and heartbreak in the documentary. For everyone else, it's a strange offering. Pieced together using a reported 120 hours of rehearsal footage shot at Los Angeles' Staples Center just before Jackson's death on June 25, it's a concert film without an audience. There's no discernible beginning or end. It's padded with mind-numbing scenes of dancers learning their moves. And the star, whose name appears in the title, seems completely unaware that he's on camera. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Devo

Aidin Vaziri | There are few bands that have released classic albums worth taking on the road and playing from start to finish. Devo has two. At the Regency Ballroom on Friday and Saturday, the new wave pioneers will once again don their energy domes and re-create 1978's "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" and 1980's "Freedom of Choice," respectively. Even though the band members have kept busy producing commercials and songs for television shows, Jerry Casale told us that, after this tour, they will release an album of new Devo material. In the meantime, he filled us in on the forthcoming shows.

Jerry Casale of Devo
Q: Is your next record going to sound like your old records?
A: I don't think we could on purpose channel the past beyond the point of being who we are. We're not dragging it up front on purpose. Devolution isn't a weird, shocking idea any more. We're kind of like the friendly house band on the Titanic. We're just reclaiming some territory. We're that familiar face as you're going down.
Q: That's the weirdest way I've ever heard anyone sell a record.
A: We would never know how to do that anyway.
Read more.

Chuck Prophet Looks Back

S.F. songwriter Chuck Prophet looks back: Aidin Vaziri |Chuck Prophet isn't in a reflective mood today. It's early Wednesday morning and the San Francisco singer-songwriter has just returned from a hectic European tour in support of his latest album, "Let Freedom Ring." In just a few days, he'll launch the American leg. "I don't know why you want to talk to me, I'm totally brain dead," he says by way of greeting. "I've gotten about three hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. There's actually drool running down the front of my shirt." The former Green on Red front man, who plays at the Great American Music Hall next Sunday, is nearly two decades into his celebrated solo career and still taking huge risks. "Let Freedom Ring" was recorded in Mexico City with co-producer Greg Leisz this year just as the swine flu pandemic hit. "Our timing couldn't have been worse," Prophet says. "Within three days of arriving, the city shut down. So we put on our blue masks and got to work."
Read more.

Review: Julian Casablancas, 'Phrazes for the Young'

Review: Julian Casablancas, 'Phrazes for the Young': Aidin Vaziri | Nothing on Julian Casablancas' first solo album reminds you that he's the lead singer of skinny-tie wearing New York rockers the Strokes. OK, his bleary voice - less processed, more confident - is familiar, but its surroundings mark a far cry from the efficient, propulsive clatter of his group's signature tune, "Last Nite." Half-inflated mariachi horns wrap around the slow-moving "Tourist," shrill synthesizers punch the air on the Tubeway Army-inspired "Glass" and "4 Chords of the Apocalypse" isn't quite the distortion-drenched guitar freak out you hope for, but rather a wobbly piano ballad set to amateurish laptop beats. Casablancas' desire to experiment is fine, but barring the buoyant opening track, "Out of the Blue," this mainly serves to heighten the anticipation of his inevitable return to the day job.

Scene Report: West Fest Celebrates Woodstock

West Fest long on vibe, hazy on record attempt
: Aidin Vaziri | An attempt to top the Guinness world record for largest guitar ensemble, with 3,000 players performing Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" at Sunday's West Fest concert in Golden Gate Park, fell short by about 2,950 participants - and some of those may have been playing ukuleles. The ragtag guitar ensemble led by Bay Area producer and musician Narada Michael Walden and featuring Hendrix's brother, Leon, kicked off the free event in Speedway Meadow, planned as a 40th anniversary celebration of Woodstock. It may have been two months late and in the wrong state, but many musicians and fans who remembered or attended the original music festival came out anyway hoping to recapture the spirit of peace and love. If you took a deep breath and squinted hard enough, it really felt like you were having a flashback, and some attendees probably were. Read more.