Aidin Vaziri: July 2011

21 July 2011

Pop Quiz: Dolly Parton

Aidin Vaziri | Not for the first time, Dolly Parton is here to make it better. The 65-year-old country music superstar, actor and amusement park mogul's latest album, "Better Day" - her 41st studio recording - is a salve for these sour times, full of uplifting tunes and honest Smoky Mountains shenanigans.

Dolly Parton
Q: People outside of Nashville started to take you seriously after the White Stripes covered "Jolene." Why did it take so long?
A: I know I'm a lot to take in. A lot of people think I'm a comedian. They think I'm about boobs and hair - those are the horny ones. But there are also the people who know how I always take my singing and songwriting seriously. I've been around so long I feel like a family member to people. I'm very blessed to have my blue-haired fans and the ones in between and now I have the little ones. I'm hoping I'm around forever.
Q: Do you have any pointers for the drag queens coming to the concert?
A: There are just two things they've got to have - big tits and big wigs. The looks of them, they need to saw their legs off because they're always 3 feet higher than I am. They're all tall boys, and when they wear the heels they look like they're 8 feet tall. But I love it. I expect to have my drag queens in the front row in San Francisco. We're going to have fun.
Read more.

Soundgarden: Screaming Back To Life

Cornell: Soundgarden reunion was a happy accident: Aidin Vaziri | Gulp. Chris Cornell doesn't sound happy. The last time we talked, the hirsute rock god dismissed the idea of getting back together with his old band, the platinum-selling '90s rock mainstays Soundgarden. "That, to me, is similar to playing the back of a Chinese restaurant," he said. It was two years ago, and he was promoting "Scream," his divisive, genre-bending collaboration with hip-hop producer Timbaland, so it was easy to understand his desire to move forward. But when I bring up the quote on the eve of the recently reunited Soundgarden's first tour date in 14 years, Cornell insists his words were taken out of context. "I didn't say that," he huffs, calling from Toronto. "Start over."
Read more.

Review: Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band

Review: Tim Robbins and the Rogues Gallery Band: Aidin Vaziri | Recording this CD shortly after splitting with Susan Sarandon and watching a major film project collapse, Tim Robbins has been accused of making a mid-life crisis album - mainly by himself. But the self-titled debut by the 52-year-old Oscar-winning actor-director and his Rogues Gallery Band is never quite that focused. Produced by Hal Willner and recorded over two days in a London studio with a crack team of musicians that includes keyboardist Roger Eno and multi-instrumentalist Kate St. John, it traipses through blues, folk and rock with an occasional sea shanty thrown in. Robbins' voice evokes mid-period Dylan, but his songs, written and stockpiled over the decades, are all over the place. "Time to Kill" is an unpolished dirge about a soldier who accidentally kills children; "You're My Dare" sounds like an ambling Celtic ballad; and "Lightning Calls" is a rhythm-heavy 3 a.m. meditation on Nelson Mandela. The album has its flaws, but Robbins never sounds less than convincing. Maybe it has to do with his pedigree (his parents were the celebrated folksingers Gil and Mary Robbins) or the genuine heartache leading up to the project. Whatever it is, it should save him from the bargain-bin fate of fellow musical thespians such as Billy Bob Thornton and Kevin Bacon.

Pop Quiz: Scotty McCreery

Aidin Vaziri | Scotty McCreery, the 17-year-old country singer from North Carolina with the big smile, crooned his way to victory on the 10th season of "American Idol." Now comes the real test: taking his aw-shucks act on the road for the annual American Idols Live tour. We caught up with McCreery, whose new single is "Out of Summertime," in Los Angeles just as rehearsals were wrapping up.

Scotty McCreery
Q: Are they making you do any of the big group productions?
A: There are a couple of those.
Q: You looked miserable during those things - especially with pop songs. Has it gotten easier?
A: I'm definitely more used to it now. The ones we're doing aren't exactly like that. The stuff I'm singing is the stuff I'm comfortable with and have been singing my whole life.
Q: I'll never forget when they put you in a room with Lady Gaga.
A: You only saw half of what she said to me. That was rough.
Q: What was the best advice you received on the show?
A: I think what Randy said at the beginning: "Stay in your lane and don't change you." I just did me. During the interview, I remember they asked me what makes you different. I said what makes me different is my being normal. My mug shot is not on the Internet. I don't have any crazy tattoos.
Q: Not yet anyway. I'll check back with you after the tour.
A: I'm not planning on it. I don't plan on changing me.
Read more.

Review: Washed Out, 'Within and Without'

Review: Washed Out, 'Within and Without': Aidin Vaziri | The gauzy synthesizers, liquid tempos and fey vocals might conjure visions of Patrick Nagel lithographs and black lacquer panther table lamps. But Washed Out's music is more than a mere throwback to the "Miami Vice" age. On his first proper album, Ernest Greene, the one-man band who until last year was making music in a bedroom at his parents' house in Georgia, offers existential escape. Songs such as "Amor Fati," "Far Away" and "Before" are dreamy and lush, no doubt inspired by the fragrant air of the peach groves surrounding the estate. He channels the Cocteau Twins on the otherworldly "You and I" and shades of Vangelis on the woozy opener, "Eyes Be Closed," without belying that his calming elixir is totally for the here and now.

07 July 2011

Live Review: Rihanna at Oracle Arena

Confident Rihanna seduces with gloss, tight tunes: Aidin Vaziri | Rihanna isn't particularly big on wearing pants. Through four or five costume changes during her sold-out concert at Oracle Arena in Oakland on Thursday night, she managed to get a pair on only once - for about half a song - before they were seductively ripped away by her half-naked backup dancers. The 23-year-old Barbadian pop star spent the rest of the evening frolicking in a beaded bikini, white patent leather bustier, shredded Daisy Duke shorts and a billowing yellow dress that came accompanied with a high-powered fan sitting just beneath it. The skimpy outfits not only gave her a chance to show off her stunningly long legs but the many bruises on her knees. It was perfect. Read more.

Quinn DeVeaux: Kind of Blue

Guitarist Quinn DeVeaux mixes musical genres: Aidin Vaziri | A few weeks ago, San Francisco jazz and blues singer Kim Nalley was raving about a new musical find. "I just discovered this guy named Quinn DeVeaux," she said. "He is a black country guitar singer-songwriter. I heard him once at a private jam session and I attacked him asking where he has been hiding my whole life." The Bay Area club fixture Lavay Smith is so much a fan she loaned DeVeaux her bandleader and boyfriend, piano player Chris Siebert. Meanwhile, the people over at the Berkeley independent concert production firm Another Planet Entertainment tapped the singer and his six-piece band, Blue Beat Review, to play at last year's Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park, sharing a bill with the Strokes and Al Green. DeVeaux doesn't quite know what to make of all the adulation. "I just sit in my room and write songs," he said the other day, killing time at the wondrous Valencia Street antique emporium and music venue Viracocha. "It's just what I do." Read more.

Review: Ledisi, 'Pieces of Me'

Review: Ledisi, 'Pieces of Me': Aidin Vaziri | Stop sobbing over Oprah's disappearing act - Ledisi has got you covered. On her fifth studio album, the Grammy-nominated New Orleans-born, Oakland-bred R&B singer dispenses words of encouragement and empowerment with every breath. The former "Beach Blanket Babylon" regular pushes her fans to "Raise Up" and "Shine," applauding their endeavors with a hearty "Bravo." On the title track, "Pieces of Me," Ledisi bluntly divulges her own shortcomings: "Like every woman I know/ I'm complicated, for sho'," she wails, over a mid-tempo wash of wind chimes and synthesizers. Hitting several octaves, however, is clearly not a problem. The album's persistently laid-back tone is broken up with a guest appearance by Jaheim on the knees-bent duet "Stay Together" and earthy collaborations with John Legend ("I Miss You Now") and KayGee of Naughty By Nature ("Coffee"). Because, well, even Oprah needed Dr. Oz around to keep things interesting.

Pop Quiz: Machine Head

Aidin Vaziri | We caught up with Machine Head front man Robb Flynn last week at Green Day's Jingletown Studios, where he was putting the finishing touches on the Grammy-nominated Oakland group's upcoming seventh studio album, "Unto the Locust." There was just one problem. "We can't seem to write a damn song under six minutes," he said. Flynn wasn't kidding: The band's latest single, "Locust," clocks in at over eight. Machine Head, by some estimates the second-biggest heavy metal act in the Bay Area, plays the main stage at the Mayhem Festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre next Sunday.

Robb Flynn of Machine Head
Q: You're recording your seventh album at Green Day's studio. Does Billie Joe Armstrong ever drop by and offer advice?
A: I think he's got better things to do than offer us advice. It's a good studio. We've been in a bunch of corporate spaces with Art Deco couches you can't really sit in. It's cool to be in a place that's world-class but has punk rock posters on the walls and pictures of the Avengers and the Clash and the Beatles. It's also got Martin Luther King's mug shot in the bathroom.
Q: I'm sure Billie Joe would have told you that, at eight minutes, "Locust" is probably six minutes too long to get on the radio.
A: Yeah, we're not exactly trying to reach the Alice crowd with this one. It's got a solo section that's over two minutes long - most pop songs now aren't even that long. We're conditioned that everything needs to be three minutes or it's not going to connect. I think music should take you on a journey. Riding a train is cool, but riding a roller coaster is more fun.
Read more.

Pop Quiz: Natasha Bedingfield

Aidin Vaziri | Natasha Bedingfield gets down to basics on her latest album, "Strip Me." So it makes sense that she's supporting it with a low-key tour called "Less Is More," which stops at Slim's on Tuesday. The 29-year-old British singer is best known for her single "Unwritten," which served as the theme song for the MTV reality series "The Hills" and earned her a Grammy nomination for best female pop vocal performance. Bedingfield also appears as a guest vocalist on rapper Nicki Minaj's debut album, "Pink Friday," as well as recent singles by country trio Rascal Flatts and Canadian pop-punk band Simple Plan.

Natasha Bedingfield
Q: Did you retire the dress that turned transparent in front of the camera flashes on the red carpet in Vienna?
A: I hid my boobs away for seven years, but they finally made an appearance. It was funny because the event I was at was the Life Ball in Vienna, where most of the women were wearing pasties on their breasts and men were wearing hot pants. I thought I was the most covered-up person there, but I guess the girls wanted out.
Q: It must have been Nicki Minaj's influence. How did you end up working with her?
A: She called me up and said, "I'm about to finish my album and would love to have you sing on the final track." I was on tour, and I had like two days to do it. I happened to be passing through Detroit, so I got in Eminem's studio and instead of sleeping I just did the song.
Q: You also worked with Simple Plan and Rascal Flatts. Had you heard of either of them before they approached you?
A: Yes. I've always mingled with a very diverse group of people. My music taste reflects that, too.
Read more.

06 July 2011

Bob Mould Sees The Light

Bob Mould tells his story in 'See a Little Light': Aidin Vaziri | Bob Mould has led a lot of different lives in his first 50 years. In his new autobiography, "See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody," he revisits them without flinching. From his days as the closeted front man for Minneapolis indie rock heroes Hüsker Dü to his current career as a gay dance club DJ, from launching a successful solo career to picking up work as a script writer for World Championship Wrestling, no detail is spared. It took Mould more than three years to organize his ideas and get them on paper, with an assist from author Michael Azerrad, who prominently featured Hüsker Dü in his book "Our Band Could Be Your Life." "Was it the hardest thing I've ever done?" says Mould, who now lives in San Francisco. "I don't know about that. But it was definitely a challenge. Writing a 400-plus-page book dealing with chronology and history and memory and fact takes a lot more work than a three-minute pop song." Read more.

Review: Beyoncé, '4'

Review: Beyoncé, '4': Aidin Vaziri | By revealing a split personality on her previous album, 2008's hot and cold "I Am ... Sasha Fierce," Beyoncé left fans divided. There will be no such problem with the follow-up, "4," a straightforward collection of sleek R&B ballads dealing exclusively with heartbreak, underachieving men and the unbreakable women who fall for them. Beyoncé, whose marriage to Jay-Z is in reality just fine, is out to impress that she has grown up, ditching her domineering father and moving beyond VIP rooms, which means the record opens with the purposeful lighter lifter "1+1" and is rounded out with a genuine Diane Warren lament, "I Was Here." There are some sparks in the form of the skittish electropop single "Run the World (Girls)," epic "Countdown" and the Kanye West-produced "Party," an easy-grooving jam that features OutKast rapper Andre 3000. But for the most part, this is Beyoncé slipping on the silk robe, grabbing her copy of "State of Wonder" off the shelf and settling in for the night.

Pop Quiz: Matt Nathanson

Aidin Vaziri | Matt Nathanson set out to make a great big rock record with his latest release, "Modern Love." But in the end, the San Francisco singer-songwriter couldn't help making a record that sounds, well, a lot like him - sweet, endearing and a bit weird. Having just returned from a tour with country-pop duo Sugarland, Nathanson is about to embark on a long trek as the opening act on the Maroon 5 and Train co-headlining North American tour, giving him plenty of opportunity to play his new single, "Faster," to empty bleachers across the country.

Matt Nathanson
Q: You are going to be opening for Train and Maroon 5 during the summer. Are you doing this of your own free will?
A: Yeah. I've known Pat Monahan and the Train guys since we used to play together at the Sweetwater and Paradise Lounge.
Q: Are you planning on having a soundproof pod backstage that you can hide inside?
A: No, I'm not. It will be fun.
Q: Have you watched Adam Levine on the reality show "The Voice"?
A: I can't bring myself to watch it.
Q: What I'm trying to do here is get you in trouble before the tour even starts.
A: I know. I know you very well.
Read more.

Review: Bon Iver, 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver'

Review: Bon Iver, 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver': Aidin Vaziri | Five years ago, a heartbroken Justin Vernon retreated to a hunting cabin in the Wisconsin woods. He emerged several months later with a raw, deeply moving record called "For Emma, Forever Ago." Its unnervingly quiet songs and weird falsetto flights seemed designed exclusively for empathetic loners with beards. Instead, Vernon's songs found unlikely fans in the producers of the "Twilight" movies, Peter Gabriel and multiplatinum rapper Kanye West, who tapped him as a prominent guest on his latest album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." There was a surreal scene at this year's Coachella festival, where Vernon, a tall, scraggly man in a white T-shirt, was placed on a platform to perform alongside West's entourage of glittery dancers. But it turns out it was all a temporary diversion. On his second album as Bon Iver (he also released an album under the name Volcano Choir), Vernon returns to his low-key, folksy roots. This one wasn't recorded in a log cabin, but the emotional weight of the songs makes it sound as if it were. Sonically, it's more experimental than its predecessor, with military drums thumping in the distance on the opener, "Perth"; a child's bicycle bell chiming in "Michicant"; and synths burbling through "Lisbon, OH." But mostly, the album is built around solitary piano lines and that devastating falsetto, which feels no more secure for all the accolades. The music feels as if it's suspended in air, as if getting a taste of mainstream pop only confirmed Vernon's desire to make music that sets a mood but doesn't require motion. The naive charm of the first album has dissipated a bit, but "Bon Iver, Bon Iver" still feels like a shot of integrity in a world of fake.

Peter Murphy: 'So I'm a Goth.'

Peter Murphy: 'So I'm a Goth. That's fine by me.': Aidin Vaziri | Peter Murphy has been the living embodiment of rock's dark side for more than three decades - from his early days as the slithering, fire-breathing baritone in Bauhaus singing "Bela Legosi's Dead" to his recent cameo as one of the original vampires in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." With the release of his first new solo album in seven years, the self-explanatorily titled "Ninth," the 53-year-old British singer discusses working without a label, why Bauhaus will never get back together and how he hates being typecast. Read more.