Aidin Vaziri: December 2010

31 December 2010

Pop Quiz: Chris Isaak

Aidin Vaziri | Chris Isaak has a great opening act lined up for his New Year's Eve show at the Fillmore: himself. With plans to jet off to Memphis' famed Sun Studio to record a collection of songs by the likes of Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley, the San Francisco rocker wants to try out some of the new material on his fans. But he also promises to delve into his extensive back catalog, welcoming 2011 with rarities, familiar covers and hits such as "Wicked Game," "Somebody's Crying" and "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing." We caught up with Isaak this month at his San Francisco home.

Chris Isaak
Q: Do you know what song you'll play at midnight?
A: I'll play "Auld Lang Syne."
Q: Really? I thought you would do one of your own songs.
A: I always liked that song. I'm one of the only guys who actually recorded "Auld Lang Syne." I was doing a Christmas album and thought we should stick it on there.
Q: Was that just so you could keep it on the shelf an extra week?
A: That's right. You don't have to put it away right after the holidays. That song is very emotional to me. I'm standing on stage looking at a crowd of people who are partying and happy. And then they all kiss each other and I'm up there by myself singing.
Q: I'm sure you could get a kiss if you really wanted one.
A: If I was really desperate, I guess I could turn around and kiss the drummer.
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A Look To 2011

Bay Area 2011 forecast: pop music: Aidin Vaziri | Not for nothing is the month of January named after the two-headed Roman god Janus. It's a time for looking both forward and back, and in 2011, the arts in the Bay Area and beyond will provide occasion for both.

Noise Pop Festival (Feb. 22-27, various sites)
The beloved and ancient New York indie-rock trio Yo La Tengo, performing at Oakland's Fox Theater, is this year's must-see headliner. But there are also several can't-miss acts: Best Coast, No Age, Ted Leo, Versus and the Stone Foxes.

Girl Talk (March 18, Fox Theater)
Former biomedical engineer Gregg Gillis applies his mind to more worthwhile endeavors these days, such as meticulously pairing samples of popular songs and giving away the results for free on the Internet via his own albums. The latest is called "All Day" and, yes, it features a song that overlaps U2, Aphex Twin and Lady Gaga.
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10 Local Albums You Must Hear

Tamaryn, Magic Bullets, Hunx among year's best: Aidin Vaziri | Looking back on the artistic highlights of 2010, it's clear that this wasn't the year of thinking small.

Tamaryn, "The Waves"
Backed by the wide-screen guitar sounds of Rex John Shelverton (formerly of the Vue), New Zealand expat Tamaryn offers a flashback to the ethereal noise made famous by shoegazers like Curve and the Cocteau Twins.

Weekend, "Sports"
Like early Primal Scream or mid-period Jesus and Mary Chain, this San Francisco band pairs sunny melodies with dark noise. Imagine what that episode of "Baywatch" would have sounded like if it were Joy Division doing the cameo instead of New Order.
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Review: Jamie Foxx, 'Best Night of My Life'

Review: Jamie Foxx, 'Best Night of My Life': Aidin Vaziri | Should Jamie Foxx stick with his day job? The release of the Oscar-winning actor and singer's fourth studio album was delayed for nearly a year as the first single, the runny Justin Timberlake collaboration "Winner," withered on the Billboard Hot 100 while subsequent chart offerings "Living Better Now" and "Fall for Your Type" didn't manage to generate even a fraction of the hype preceding the arrival of famous collaborator Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." Foxx's record company bosses might be scratching their heads, but now that the album is here, the problem is obvious - Foxx is such a good pantomimist, he's virtually unidentifiable among the big-budget producers such as Timbaland, the Smeezingtons, Tricky Stewart, the-Dream and West. Simply changing shape from song to song without necessarily owning any of them, Foxx oohs and aahs his way through the meticulous slow jams and club bangers while guests such as Drake and Ludacris walk away with the actual tunes.

Review: Duran Duran, 'All You Need Is Now'

Review: Duran Duran, 'All You Need Is Now': Aidin Vaziri | When Duran Duran tapped Mark Ronson to produce its 13th studio album, he bluntly dismissed the band's last three decades of recorded output and promised to help deliver the proper follow-up to its 1982 classic, "Rio." Maybe Ronson's time-traveling abilities aren't as powerful as he thinks. "All You Need Is Now" - a nine-track release available as download-only - more accurately reflects the plastic dance-pop sounds the group was mining in the late '90s, replete with expensive electronic fizzes and exceedingly empty lyrics ("Paranoia/ The only valid point of view/ If you know what I'm saying," howls Simon Le Bon). Oddly, Ronson, the man responsible for the robust R&B sound of Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," has failed to draw out Duran Duran's intrinsic funk, settling on fussy flash like "Being Followed" and the utterly ridiculous (and not in a good way) duet with Kelis, "The Man Who Stole a Leopard." Even his attempt at reviving the grand rhythms of "The Chauffeur" for the menacing set closer "Before the Rain" falls flat. All told, not one song here is worth sacrificing "New Moon on Monday."

23 December 2010

The Great Lost Albums of the Year

The best records of 2010 you probably never heard: Aidin Vaziri | There was so much great music that came out this year. The only problem is you probably didn't hear any of it because Kesha and Kanye West sent you screaming to the nearest soundproof bunker. Well, it's time to resurface and discover a dozen worthy albums you may have missed.

Foals: "Total Life Forever" (Sub Pop)
This Oxford indie-rock group's tightly wound first album, "Antidotes," drew a few too many Bloc Party comparisons. No such problems here. "Total Life Forever" takes a great stylistic leap forward, exploding with widescreen melodies and sweaty momentum on tracks like "This Orient" and "After Glow." And with the epic "Spanish Sahara," it offers seven minutes of breathless meditation.
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Pop Quiz: Ronnie Spector

Aidin Vaziri | Christmas wouldn't be the same without Ronnie Spector's soulful voice filling the house. The Ronettes' versions of "Sleigh Ride," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and "Frosty the Snowman" on the classic 1963 LP "A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector" (produced by her ex-husband) rank among the best holiday pop recordings of all time. Now the 67-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee has released a five-track seasonal follow-up, "Ronnie Spector's Best Christmas Ever." She's also one of the main subjects in Keith Richards' autobiography, "Life." We spoke to her by phone from her home in Connecticut.

Ronnie Spector
Q: What Christmas records get the most play in your house?
A: I always play "A Christmas Gift for You." I have no bitterness. No anger. I love my records. Forget the person who made them, if you get my drift.
Q: What took you so long to make a follow-up?
A: My fans said, "You only have three songs. You need to make more." So that's what I did. Let me tell you: I love that I did it. You know what Keith Richards said to me? He said, "I love your new CD so much. Your new stuff is a bitch." That was his compliment to me.
Q: Didn't Richards want to marry you at one point?
A: He gave me his book and on the first page he wrote, "It's a love affair." For 40 years, we've had fun together. He's innocent and I'm innocent. People think he's been on all these drugs and has had all these women. But he's only been with, like, two women. He doesn't do drugs anymore. He has a beer or two. Give him a break. He's so nice. I should have married Keith. Our kids would have had great hair.
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Silent night? If only: Worst new Christmas pop

Silent night? If only: Worst new Christmas pop: Aidin Vaziri | Who's ruining Christmas now? From New Kids on the Block's clearly mislabeled "Funky Funky Christmas" to the White Stripes' homicidal blues stomp "Candy Cane Children," there is a long tradition of pop stars who think the most wonderful time of the year is also the perfect to release the most awful music known to man, mother, child and magi. We rank this season's main offenders.

1. Coldplay, "Christmas Lights"
Bland, plodding, overwrought - this song represents everything people who hate Coldplay think Coldplay actually sounds like. As pianos tinkle and expensive strings swoon, Chris Martin warbles in autopilot, "Christmas night/ Another fight." Let's just hope it's a rejected demo from the next album.
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Pop Quiz: John Lydon

Aidin Vaziri | After a triumphant reunion tour with Public Image Ltd., John Lydon has turned his attention to literature. This month sees the limited-edition release of "Mr. Rotten's Scrapbook," a pricey autobiography made up of original illustrations, hand-scrawled anecdotes and several unseen photographs covering his days as the front man of the Sex Pistols and beyond (each copy also comes with a live PIL vinyl picture disc and personalized note). Calling from his Los Angeles home, Lydon, 54, said he was prompted to put the book together after his father's death and his brother's struggle with cancer. "It got to the point where I had to look at myself," he says. The book is available on his website.

John Lydon
Q: So are these drawings that you just kept in a big box over the years?
A: No, I did them especially for this. When I write, my brain moves faster than my hands so I'm always trying to picture things. So I thought, "Why not put them in a book just as they are, with spelling mistakes all over the place?"
Q: The $600 price tag seems a bit steep. Did it really require that much effort?
A: A hell of a lot. It was a lot of digging up. There were several days where we had to work around the clock, chemical free.
Q: It beats making a Broadway musical of your life.
A: Hello, Green Day. Those guys are nothing but coat hangers for punk jackets. That's what happens when you don't know where you're going in life.
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Holiday Album Roundup 2010

Some great and not so great holiday albums: Aidin Vaziri | Here are our takes on some of this year's noteworthy seasonal releases.

"Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album"
You don't have to watch the television series to appreciate the vocal high jinks on this tie-in compilation - wait, no, actually you do. To the uninitiated, these highly caffeinated takes on yuletide classics like "We Need a Little Christmas" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" basically sound like the Chipmunks playing at the wrong speed, but not quite the right speed.
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22 December 2010

Review: Crystal Bowersox, 'Farmer's Daughter'

Review: Crystal Bowersox, 'Farmer's Daughter': Aidin Vaziri | Having suffered a second-place finish at the hands of yet another unremarkable spiky-haired moaner on the ninth season of "American Idol," Crystal Bowersox makes an unexpected comeback with her first proper album, "Farmer's Daughter." Unexpected because, well, as the title indicates, it's an album of glossy new-country tunes and not the throat-shredding blues stuff she showed such a mastery of on the show. When the Ohio native opens the 12-track set with "Ridin' on the Radio," a tune so cliche-ridden it sounds like the product of that country singer who fell in love with Homer Simpson, it's hard to believe this is the same person who so effectively nailed "Me and Bobby McGee." She follows it up with the least necessary cover ever of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth," where her voice is drowned out by the sound of drum machines mingling with pedal steel guitars. A track called "Lonely Won't Come Around" is most notable for its infernal whistling and weak lyrics such as, "I don't know how but I lost my cool/ Like a kid jacked up on sugar in nursery school." "Hold On," meanwhile, was co-written by Kara Dioguardi and Nickelback's Chad Kroger - and sounds like it. Things pick up briefly with "Holy Toledo," the autobiographical track she premiered on "Idol" and refined on the summer tour, but at that point the listener will be jumping up and down wondering how Simon Cowell let this honky-donk hackery happen.

10 December 2010

Live Review: Roger Waters at Oracle Arena

Roger Waters rebuilds dark spectacle of 'Wall': Aidin Vaziri | Waters' big-budget spectacular goes far beyond Broadway. It's a virtual re-creation of Pink Floyd's original arena rock show from 1980 (the album was released the year before) in its original form, a multimedia concert that practically laid the groundwork for the rock musicals currently hogging New York's theater marquees. On Friday, the unreasonably fit Waters, 67, and a group of veteran backing musicians dressed in uniform black filled the considerable venue with high-end sounds and visual effects, bringing back many of the show's key elements to bolster songs like "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Young Lust." Within the first few minutes, pyrotechnics had ignited onstage, large nightmarish marionettes had appeared from the rafters and World War II warplanes buzzed overhead. Over the course of the two-hour set, in which the four-sided record was played in its entirety, an actual 36-foot cardboard wall was gradually built (and eventually knocked down) in front of the musicians, hiding them completely from view for a good chunk of the program. And, yes, a pig did fly. Read more.

Pop Quiz: Train

Aidin Vaziri | Train scored a surprise comeback hit earlier this year with "Hey, Soul Sister," which is not only the group's biggest chart conquest since 2001{minute}s "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" but also the best-selling song in the United States this year. The success of the ukulele-driven tribute to Burning Man, taken from the former Bay Area band's 2009 album "Save Me, San Francisco," even caught front man Pat Monahan off guard.

Pat Monahan of Train
Q: You didn't really need another hit because every radio station still plays "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" a thousand times a day. But were you relieved to have one anyway with "Hey, Soul Sister"?
A: We needed one if we wanted anyone to care in a bigger way. The world has become much more available to us.
Q: So, basically, all you needed to get another song on the radio was a ukulele.
A: No kidding. Had I known that all this time ... In a lot of ways I feel like "Save Me, San Francisco" is the real follow-up to "Drops of Jupiter." We just happened to make a couple of albums in between.
Q: Well, to be fair, you were probably just a little bit distracted by raising your kids, moving to Los Angeles and getting a divorce.
A: That's right. In a lot of ways, I was using those records to get through those times. Instead of expressing myself in the best way possible, I needed the music to help me.
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Review: Duffy, 'Endlessly'

Review: Duffy, 'Endlessly': Aidin Vaziri | Scientific fact: Blasting Duffy's "Well, Well, Well" will send all cats within a 5-mile radius of the stereo scrambling for the Mexico border. Although impressively jaunty and stylishly retro, the first single from the petite Welsh singer's sophomore album doesn't exactly best serve her natural paint-peeling vocal range. Fortunately, the rest of the record does a better job revisiting the smoky, Lulu-inspired soul that helped 2007's "Rockferry" move close to 7 million copies worldwide. Assisted by the Roots' rhythm section and songwriting partner Albert Hammond Sr. (father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., writer of "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"), there's not much room for error here (well, apart from "Well, Well, Well"). The effervescent opener, "My Boy," ups the easy pop charms of her breakthrough hit, "Mercy," while the disc's centerpiece, "Endlessly," sounds like a karaoke bar version of "To Sir With Love" with the wrong lyrics scrolling across the screen.

How To Fix The Grammys

Grammys: 5 suggestions for making awards matter: Aidin Vaziri | Hoping to dust up some much-needed excitement around its annual industry rodeo, a few years back the Recording Academy did away with the idea of boring old news conferences to announce its list of nominees and replaced it with "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! - Countdown to Music's Biggest Night," an hourlong special from the Staples Center in Los Angeles that will air on CBS. The bash might make the process of reading names infinitely more exciting with the promise of double exclamation-mark-worthy performances by the likes of Justin Bieber, B.o.B., Miranda Lambert, Bruno Mars and Katy Perry. But it doesn't address the fundamental problem with the nominations, which as the strictly Top 40 headliners reveal, still favor bobble-headed pop stars designed to sell ring tones and lunchboxes over those who exhibit any kind of actual artistic integrity.
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Pop Quiz: Nick Cave

Aidin Vaziri | With his slicked-back black hair and maniacal growl, Nick Cave has always been a bit of a menacing figure. But in the video for Grinderman's new single, "Heathen Child," the Australian singer, best known for fronting the Bad Seeds and the Birthday Party, takes it to another level: He shoots lasers out of his butt. The song is from his blues-rock side project's latest album, "Grinderman 2." Cave also has a song featured in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which premiered the night before our interview.

Nick Cave of Grinderman
Q: Have you ever seen a shrink?
A: Yeah. I saw a therapist for about maybe six months. He was the most interesting and intelligent man I had ever met. He was not interested in any problems I had whatsoever. I told him I'm depressed. He said, "Oh, good." He basically analyzed my dreams, but I don't think he helped me in any way. I was just really entertained for 45 minutes each week.
Q: Is it fun going through life intimidating people?
A: I don't know. I've always found my fans to be quite gentle and giving and open.
Q: That's because they're totally scared of you.
A: They're scared of me? Is that right? Some of them are, maybe. Some of them scare me, to be honest. The only thing scarier than Nick Cave are Nick Cave's fans.
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Bulletproof Holiday Gift Guide

Nifty gifts for music maniacs who have it all: Aidin Vaziri | How to shop for the music fan in your life, whether they like to watch, listen or look like they've got holes in their head. Read more.

Review: Kanye West, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'

Review: Kanye West, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy': Aidin Vaziri | George Bush doesn't care about black people. Taylor Swift didn't deserve to win. Matt Lauer is a tool. No matter how you feel about his delivery, Kanye West is rarely wrong. So it goes with "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," the rapper's brilliant new studio album, which arrives at a time when he's thoroughly offended almost everyone and everything. But that doesn't diminish the takeaway: Having started out producing hits for the likes of Britney Spears and Alicia Keys, the Chicago-born West has only grown as a formidable studio presence since releasing his first album, 2004's "The College Dropout." His latest finds him operating at peak capacity, employing cameos by everyone from the Black Eyed Peas to bearded indie-rocker Bon Iver. Each track aims for Olympic glory, starting with the epic opener, "Dark Fantasy," in which West raps, "Tell me how do you respawn the students?/ And refresh the page and restart the memory?/ Respark the soul and rebuild the energy?" Following the minimalist "808s and Heartbreak," he zips in the opposite direction here. Elton John provides the elegiac piano interlude that opens the centerpiece, "All of the Lights," an all-guns-blazing anthem that features a hook from Rihanna and backing vocals by a million-dollar choir that includes La Roux, Keys, John Legend, Fergie, Kid Cudi, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson and Tony Williams. Naturally, West is the only one you can really hear. The record's highlight is "Runaway," the track he premiered at the VMAs. Here the song is stretched out to nine-minutes-plus (there's also a 35-minute music video, apparently) and comes with the kicker, "Baby, I got a plan/ Run away fast as you can." No matter how much you want to, West makes it nearly impossible.