"I Like My Sugar Sweet"

I really need a day job, because let's face it: there's nothing worth watching on TV during the day.

Well, okay, I watched an episode of Juniper Lee on Cartoon Network, and it strikes me as something akin to the anime Devil Hunter Yohko, which is always a good thing. I mean, the episode I caught was a wonderful send-up of sci-fi/comic/anime conventions. It's actually a pretty damn funny show, and I like the sense of style.

But it also meant I had to watch commercials, and in doing so I noticed a few things. First of all, those Kidz Bop CDs are a sign of the apocalypse. They have to be. The sort of songs they've got those kids singing is entirely inapporpriate. Why in the hell would kids need to be singing Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"? Sure, it's a great song, but it's also downright depressing, and you've got little kids singing it in this lilting, sing-songy manner that totally doesn't fit the song. It's like whoever's in charge of this attrocity of an idea (Kidz Bop in general...and what the hell is with spelling it 'kidz'? Are we that desparate to sound hip and edgy? 'Cause that's a sure sign that you aren't) didn't actually look at the words to any of these songs before they got a bunch of kids together to sing them.

I also witnessed a couple of commercials that make use of rap and hip-hop--not particular rap songs, mind, but that style of music--to sell things like Spaghetti-O's. I think that's when you know you've entered the mainstream: they start using your music to hock microwavable pseudo-pasta. There was another commercial, similar in feel and purpose, that also also used hip-hop music. I think it's a sign of how those genres are becoming more mainstream, more acceptable to (at least the younger generations of) middle America. Of course, it could also just be misguided efforts by advertising firms to seem 'hip' and 'cool' and appeal to a target demographic.

In music news involving decent music, there's a lot of new CDs coming out (or that have just come out) that I'd really like to get my hands on. Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan both released new albums last week: Clapton issued the album Back Home while Dylan issued the seventh installment of the Bootleg Series, the soundtrack to his new biography No Direction Home. The Rolling Stones have finally decided to release a new studio album after eight years (yeah, the last time they put out a studio album of new material, I was in high school. Actually went to see them on that tour, too) tomorrow called A Bigger Bang. Early reports are quite positive, calling it the best Stones record in about twenty years (not a hard trick to manage, mind you, considering that's only a comparison with about five or six other albums).

Next week, though, is gonna be a good one, too: new albums from Paul McCartney and David Gray. Dunno how the McCartney album will turn out, though it's supposedly a kindred spirit with such homemade albums as McCartney I and II. The David Gray album I'll be curious about, too, because I honestly have no idea what direction he's going to go in after his last couple of albums. The synthesis of folk-rock and quasi-techno beats he'd been working with was interesting, but I'm not sure how far he could take it before it became self-parody. Guess I'll find out.

Ryan Adams also supposedly has a new album coming out later this month (his second of three proposed albums this year), though I've heard next to nothing about what it'll sound like (given the variety of genres and styles he's tried over the last three albums alone, it's anyone's guess what this one will sound like). What I think annoys me most about all these albums coming out--and yes, there is an element of annoyance here--is that they all had to wait until I was broke and not receiving paychecks. I mean, for the great majority of the summer, nothing worthwhile was coming out. From May to August, maybe five albums came out that I felt were worth any attention. But now that I'm poor(er), we've got five or six records coming out in rapid succession...not to mention a new Terry Pratchett novel next week and a new Neil Gaiman novel at the end of the month. Eesh. When it rains, as they say, it pours.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Mark Knoplfer, "Speedway at Nazareth"