Name: Adam Bernard Home: Fairfield, Connecticut, United States About Me: Entertainment journalist w/ over a decade of experience. Lover of good music, fringe movies, day baseball & chicken shawarma. Nerdy, but awesome. See my complete profile
The other night I was at the Dinner at the Thompson’s show in Bridgeport, watching FabLive go to town on his MPC, creating insane beats while Lucille Tee melodically sang over them (both pictured above), when I realized how radically my musical tastes have shifted over the past few years. I refuse to use the world evolve, because that would mean my tastes are getting better, which in turn would imply that there was something wrong with them before. I still love all the old music I used to love, I just happen to be in a phase right now where the music I’m enjoying most wavers between good underground hip-hop, which has always been there for me, and electronic based music, whether it be downtempo, or something funky and jazzier. Interestingly, I think I know what’s led to me enjoying so much electronic based music – I’ve been searching for something new because every other genre has been coming up short.
Hip-hop: I’ve always been a huge hip-hop fan, and I still feel that my friends make some of the best music around. That being said, I can’t listen to hip-hop radio stations anymore. There isn’t a single artist they play that I like. Everything in their rotation is terrible, both from lyrical and production standpoints. It wasn’t that long ago that I could cruise down the street with one of the four hip-hop stations I get here blasting from my car’s speakers. Not anymore. In addition to the radio failing me on this front, most of the hip-hop I’m getting from publicists ranges from mediocre to awful, as well. I’d say I can get through, and enjoy, a complete album somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of the time. There’s a glut of hip-hop out there right now, and finding the good stuff is like finding a needle in a haystack. When I find that needle it’s inspiring, but it can also be soul crushing going through that haystack (though big ups to the actual Haystack), and even worse when I hear other writers praise hip-hop I feel is sub-par. So over the past few years hip-hop, with the exception of my friends, has been failing me.
Pop: Pop music is genre I’ve always appreciated for its feel-good nature and instant disposability. I don’t feel the need to own most of my favorite pop albums because their singles stay in rotation on pop radio for so long, and I have five pop radio stations where I live. Album cuts aren't normally impressive on a pop album. I mean, we’re not talking about classic Prince here. So I enjoy pop music for what it is, some mindless fun while I’m in the car or at the gym. It’s not going to be the soundtrack to my nights.
R&B: I loved, I mean loved, R&B in the 90s. Boyz II Men, Mint Condition, Blackstreet, Tony Toni Tone, Babayface, Shai... there were so many great artists putting out fantastic albums back then. Musiq and Usher held the torch for a little while in the early 2000s, but for the most part, with only a few exceptions, the R&B genre has been flatlining over the past half decade. The artists either want to make club hits, work with rappers, or be pop stars. True R&B is hard to find and it rarely shows up in my inbox, or my mailbox.
Rock: I think there are some great rock bands out there right now, but listening to a rock album can be a tiring experience. There’s so much going on and there’s no break from the breakneck speed many rock albums move at. I can appreciate cranking it up to eleven, but I can also appreciate a well crafted album that has musical peaks and valleys. Covering Warped Tour is always one of my favorite days of the summer. I always find a new band to love there, but that’s usually the only place where I find a new band to love. Plus, I’m just not jumping into a lot of mosh pits right now.
Electronic-based Music: So in comes electronic-based music. I’ve always dug this genre a little bit. There’s something about the vibe. It puts me in a chilled out mood. I think this started back in 1998 when I picked up The Cardigans’ Gran Turismo album. Although it’s not technically electronic-based, it shares that same vibe. Fast forward ten years and I’d receive a CD by a group called Shock of Pleasure that was so chill - they dubbed themselves electro-lounge music - that I wanted to spin it all the time. It made my year end top albums list. In 2009 I discovered electro-pop singer Lights while at Warped Tour and instantly fell in love with her music. Just like Shock of Pleasure, she made my year end top albums list. In 2010 I saw Blockhead and Machinedrum live at the Mercury Lounge in NYC and developed even more of an appreciation for artists who can program on the fly. It may initially seem odd to see an artist up on stage with just a MacBook, MPC and turntables, but what the good ones can do with that set of instruments, and yes they really are instruments the way they use them, is amazing. This year I have acts like Dinner at the Thompson’s and Love Inks in heavy rotation, I’m revisiting Portishead (Dummy is a classic, but you already know that), and even finding a few artists I missed the first time around, like Little Boots.
This is the music I want as my soundtrack, at least right now. In some ways it mirrors jazz in that the artist can take it wherever he or she wants to go at any given moment. The albums aren’t necessarily the blueprint for the live show, they can be two totally different things. Both, however, provide the vibe I’m looking for right now. It makes me feel good and its replay value over time doesn’t diminish in the least.
If you're looking to start your weekend with something fast paced and funky, look no further than "Running" by Dinner at the Thompson's. The duo of FabLive and Lucille Tee wowed me with their latest album, Off The Grid, and this highly creative, and fun, video for one of my favorite songs off of that album exemplifies everything I like about them. Enjoy!
Waking up to a beautiful morning in Northern California, West Hartford’s Javier Colon had a concern not a lot of singers have - his golf handicap. This is because after his scheduled show in California he was taking off for Greenville, South Carolina to compete in the BMW Charity Pro-Am. “I used to be like a six handicap,” he says, “now it’s more like a fifteen.” Colon has a pretty good excuse for letting his golf game slide, he’s been busy touring the country and being one of the breakout stars of NBC’s singing competition The Voice.
Colon, who attended Bunnell High School in Stratford and the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, made his first appearance on The Voice on the show’s premier. His acoustic soul rendition of “Time After Time” wowed all of the judges, and the national audience. The latter quickly found Colon online. “I went from having like 400 Twitter followers to now having about 7,000” he says, still slightly in awe of it all. His Facebook fan page recently surpassed 10,000 “likes.”
Support is something Colon’s felt from his home state for quite a while. This is why he wanted to schedule this Thursday’s show at the Ridgefield Playhouse. “They’ve been so behind me and it feels so good, so I just wanted to make sure I did something for the hometown crowd.”
This isn’t Colon’s first time in the limelight. In 2003 he had a hit single, “Crazy,” on Capitol Records, and he thought that the world was about to be his oyster. “I felt when I first signed, I’m like it’s Capitol Records, this is huge, I’m gonna be all set from here on out.” Unfortunately for Colon, “things just didn’t go the way we wanted to.”
His “we” started to grow. Now with a wife and two daughters, some realities about music started to set in. “Towards the last few months here it wasn’t paying the bills like it should.” Then came the audition for The Voice. Colon says the entire process has “breathed new life into what I’m doing.” What Colon’s been doing has breathed excitement into the coaches, most notably Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. “Adam was almost distracting because he was so pumped about what I was doing on stage and he was not afraid to show it. That really drew my attention.” Levine’s reaction played a large part in Colon choosing him as his coach. “On top of the fact that he’s extremely talented, to take that and couple it with how excited he was was why I made my decision to go with him.”
Now with a second chance at being a full time recording artist Colon says he’s going to apply the lessons he learned the first time around. He adds he’s going to do one other thing, as well. “I’m just gonna be myself. I owe that to myself, if I’m gonna have another shot, if I’m fortunate enough, to be myself and see what happens. Hopefully that will be enough.”
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. This is actually a milestone week for us here as this is our 100th weekly dose of pop world musings, so put on a funny hat and party it up! Covering all things pop culture, this week, for our 100th edition, Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from how people want to see Justin Bieber, to which artists we’ll be seeing behind bars, to seeing red, or I guess technically orange, with some sound advice from a 90s one hit wonder, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
If you’ve been anywhere near New York City’s underground hip-hop scene in the past decade and don’t know who Sleepwalkas are... you’re sleepin. The now trio of K. Gaines, Ciph Diggy and DJ M-Tri (pictured Left to Right) have made it a point to be at nearly every show, either on the stage, or in the crowd, that’s in the city. Their latest album is titled Cookie Cutter Cornballs Can’t Cut It, or the 5 C’s for short, and it features a a guest list, from Sadat X to Homeboy Sandman, that exemplifies how much respect the group has in NYC. While their scene is an impressive one, Sleepwalkas are primed and ready to sleepwalk past New York City’s borders and bring their music to the rest of the nation, and the world. This week I caught up with all three members to find out more about the group, the 5 C’s, and why they still prefer face to face networking over the networking of the online variety.
If you’ve never listened to one of my podcasts before... actually, if you’ve never listened to one of my podcasts before I’m hurt. I mean, I thought we had something good going here. Remember the time I shared that piece of apple pie with you? Geez, what a blow to the ego. If you want to make it up to me, listen to this one, because it’s freakin fantastic. I have ten new songs for you plus I both rap and sing during this episode! Also, it’s free, and comes with a money back guarantee. You can’t beat that! Enjoy!
Adeem - Meet Death with a Handshake Ryu Black - Satsui No Hadou Homeboy Sandman - Calm Tornado G.T.P. - Where I’m From iAreConscious w/ Coole High - Don’t Trip 4-Ize & Senor Kaos - Wind Is High Pac Div w/ Marz Lovejoy - Shine Jesse Abraham - Holy Crap Sum - Trans-Am L.I.F.E.Long w/ DJ JS-1 - Veteran
Everyone has already accused Lady Gaga of playing a little Grand Theft Madonna with the title track off of Born This Way. Yes, it’s “Express Yourself,” and yes, we’re over it at this point. On Born This Way Lady Gaga’s penchant for borrowing from artists isn’t limited to Madonna, though, as the seventeen track album wavers between harder dance and dance pop, and Gaga wavers between which artist she wants to emulate next, only occasionally giving us a peek into who she is an artist.
Luckily, or perhaps in a very well planned way, none of the artists Gaga borrows from are likely to be known be her relatively younger fan base. Sure, those of us in our 30s may listen to “Government Hooker,” which is one of the standout songs on the album, and consider it something that’s as close to a pop version of a Sneaker Pimps song as we’ve ever heard, but her audience probably isn’t familiar with the Sneaker Pimps. The same goes for the chorus of “Fashion of His Love,” which sounds very similar to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” How many Gaga fans are old enough to have had Whitney playing at their school dances? I’m guessing very few.
Musically, Born This Way is at its best when it’s pure dance, most notably with songs like “Government Hooker” and “Judas.” If you’re looking for lyrical depth, however, you may want to look elsewhere. On “Bad Kids” she’s happy to concede how one acts to determinism, singing lines like “I’m a bad kid like my mom and dad made me,” and “I’m a bad kid, that’s the way that they made me.” It’s interesting to note that someone so bent on convincing people of her personal uniqueness is so quick to blame others for her faults. Then there’s “Hair.” With lines like “I’m as free as my hair,” and “I am my hair,” I was hoping this was a “wink and a nudge” situation, and that the entire song was done tongue in cheek, like “Just Dance” was, but by the end it kinda made me wish India.Arie, who once famously sang “I Am Not My Hair”, would come into the room and slap some sense into her. The dichotomy is pretty glaring. One artist says she’ll make one aspect of her outward appearance represent who she is and how she's feeling, while the other says she can’t be judged solely based on one aspect of her outward appearance.
Born This Way is an album that shows Gaga is at a bit of a crossroads. She has two forces pulling her in completely different directions - her “Born This Way” ideology, and her love of fashion. If you’re truly embracing being “Born This Way” you love yourself enough to not care what you’re wearing. This pulling in different directions makes for a very mixed message when listening to her music. Here’s the good news, the lyrical content really isn’t that important because the production on Born This Way is insanely good. You’d dance to this even if the lyrics were pure gibberish. Except for the terrible guitar on “Bad Kids” every beat is on point, and in regards to that guitar, if she was going to borrow musical ideas from artists, couldn’t she have slipped a little Roxette in there?
The five song second disc that comes with the special edition of the album dives feet first into the clubs and has an especially great remixes of “Judas” done by DJ White Shadow and “Marry The Night” done by Zedd. The only oddity on it is a country inspired remix of “Born This Way.”
Overall, Born This Way is somewhere in-between The Fame, which was phenomenal, and The Fame Monster, which was, in retrospect, pretty mediocre. The problem I still wrestle with when it comes to Lady Gaga is that I think she’s talented, but I still don’t think she’s created the album she’s capable of creating. It seems like she’s become too wrapped up in all the other BS that comes with being a “superstar” and her music is suffering for it. Yes, it’s still better than the majority of what her peers are putting out, but when you know an artist can do better it’s frustrating. Born This Way is good, but I have this gut feeling Gaga still hasn’t shown us her best yet.
What happens when you put a true artist over a commercially viable beat? He does something to remind you of how much better both the mainstream and the underground could be if they could just get together on a few things. iAreConscious puts some absolutely sick lyrics down on “12’s (Beamer, Benz, or Bentley),” and shows the world that a commercially viable beat doesn’t have to have nonsense lyrics over it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should dig this.
When The Memorials play the Heirloom Arts Theatre in Danbury on Friday, May 20th, there’s a good chance that the crowd will be more familiar with their opening act than they are. “I usually invite bands that we’ve never even heard to come open up for us,” explains drummer Thomas Pridgen, speaking on his cell phone, making sure he gets heard over the sounds of the rushing traffic as the band’s van barrels its way towards their next tour date. “I think it’s cool.”
The band, which met while at Berklee College of Music, also includes guitarist Nick Brewer and vocalist Viveca Hawkins, and they booked these opening acts through Facebook. “We were like ‘any bands in the city want to help promote and play these shows with us?’ And they were like ‘fuck yeah!’ What would we look like to be like ‘nah man, you’re not the Foo Fighters,’ fuck that. That’s corny.”
Pridgen, who is formerly of The Mars Volta, has always done things a little differently. He remembers “growing up I used to skateboard and people used to look at me like I was crazy. Now it’s super popular, and you have skateboard parks in ghettos, but before it was kind of like I was an outcast.”
That outcast feeling is just one of the many emotions that comes through in the music of The Memorials, which is one part rock, one part punk, and one part soul. Hawkins even has a background as a hip-hop singer. “I’ve been doing a lot of hip-hop and R&B stuff my whole life,” she explains, “(now) I’m learning another part of this huge musical dream.”
Pridgen has long embraced diversity in his work. “I’ve always played different genres, or did different thing that were subcultures, and people that aren’t necessarily my color didn’t necessarily understand,” he explains. “(It’s) not that they didn’t do it, or get it, they just didn’t understand it at the time. I think it’s cool. I think it maybe shows other people what they can do. I’m watching people come to the concert and look like a super square and the next time you see them they have like a septum piercing and a big ass afro. I’m watching people change with us.”
All that genre blending has created, in The Memorials, a band that is the next in line in a lineage that includes Fishbone, Living Colour and Bad Brains. Brewer notes that this is something the band doesn’t take lightly. “As far as whether or not we take this shit seriously, we take it real serious.” Whether or not this is the project they’ll do for the rest of their careers, however, is something Brewer can’t answer. “The only thing that’s a final destination is the grave. Everything else is steps.”
The next steps for The Memorials include completing this tour and recording a follow up to their recently released self-titled debut album. They hope to have that sophomore effort out by the end of the summer, but for now, according to Pridgen, they’re enjoying the road. “This shit makes me feel good,” he says with a smile, “it makes us feel better. It’s what we like to do.”
Its name may have been changed to The 1Bar for its last few months of existence, but the faded awning above the entrance of the 1 Elm Street bar in Danbury still read Cousin Larry’s Cafe. It was one of the few places where local hip-hop had a home, thanks in large part to the Ant Farm Affiliates and their monthly Enter The Cypher event, which has been running for over six years. That home is now gone, as when The 1Bar’s owner, Patrick FitzGerald was given an eviction notice, it was an eviction notice for all the acts that once graced the stage there, as well.
Mirroring what’s happened in communities like the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the building’s owner, Joe DaSilva, decided he’d rather rent out the apartments above the bar than have a live music venue. Cousin Larry’s was notorious for being rumored to be closing, though, which is why AFA DJ Mo Niklz says upon hearing the news “my initial reaction was thinking to myself, ‘again?’” This time, however, it was for real.
Nemesis Alpha of d_Cyphernauts, and co-host of Enter The Cypher with his fellow d_Cyphernauts member Othello, says he was “not shocked, but saddened” by the news of the closing. What’s even sadder is the fact that they had to find out about the closing on their own. According to Othello, “we never got a phone call or anything from anyone representing the bar.”
Dirt E. Dutch notes that ever since Tony Yacobellis moved the Sub Rosa events out of Cousin Larry’s, and took the soundman with him, things had been going downhill. “Tony was the glue that held the place together as far as show booking and promotion.” If Tony was the glue, the AFA and Enter The Cypher were the nails that secured hip-hop’s voice there.
The stage at Larry’s not only, according to Sketch The Cataclysm, “helped unite the original Waterbury Ant Farm folks and the Danbury/NY heads,” it also gave birth to a lot of careers. Mo Niklz goes as far as saying his own career was born there. “The venue really gave me a reason to practice and try and work on my craft,” he explains. “I’ve made almost all my connections from doing shows at Larry’s and the rest are a direct result from somebody who I met at Larry’s.” Mo Niklz even met his current roommate there.
Another artist whose career was given a tremendous boost by performing at Cousin Larry’s is Pruven. Dirt E. Dutch notes “Pruven has rocked the mic at Larry’s probably more than even the hosts of Enter The Cypher. He has always made an effort to show up and get his time on the mic to spit a few new written verses, freestyles, or songs off his latest release.”
There was something special about vibe at Larry’s. Sketch says “it was always a room where I could just get loose - walk on tables, grind on an audience member, act out a crying fit - while performing. I am definitely going to miss that.” He’s not alone. Nemesis Alpha seconds Sketch’s feelings, adding “you could just go there, relax and be immersed in a true hip-hop experience without fear, hassle, or stress.”
Enter The Cypher didn’t just bring hip-hop to Cousin Larry’s, though, it also brought heart. Cousin Larry’s hosted numerous benefit shows and Enter The Cypher conceived of a few of their own, including benefits for the family of Matikhan the Great after he lost his battle with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and one for Dirt E. Dutch’s little brother, Baby Bus, who was struck by lung cancer. The latter was an especially deep moment for Dutch, who says “I have to say my favorite Larry’s moment was seeing my younger brother perform at his own cancer benefit, along with his group the Hot Shots. It is a bittersweet memory, as he passed away a month later, but it is one that will never fade.”
According to Nemesis Alpha, “we tried to be a force for good in CT. I think we succeeded for the most part.”
With Cousin Larry’s / The 1Bar now a thing of the past, Sketch says “it’s definitely left a void” in the Connecticut hip-hop scene. Othello points out “there is no venue in lower Connecticut that does a consistent monthly hip-hop show anymore.” Dirt E. Dutch is confident it won’t be long before Enter The Cypher is back on its feet, though, calling the closing of Larry’s “a kink in the chain,” and adding it’s “only a short term setback for live hip-hop in the Danbury area.”
Othello can guarantee one thing, fans haven’t seen the last of Enter The Cypher. “We love that event too much to just let it die in a whisper,” he says confidently, “there will be, at the very least, one more Enter The Cypher.” The only question now is - where?
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from Adele’s fight with her ex, to Jennifer Lopez’s fight with a microphone, to my brain’s fight with a Selena Gomez song, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
How does a group go from penning an ode to a porn star to making the claim their the latest album is “from a Christian’s point of view?” Was it a born again moment for the Foreign Legion duo of Prozack Turner (pictured on handlebars) and Mark Stretch, or an internet marketing ploy? I caught up with both men to find out. I also learned what you should never call their hometown of Oakland, why it’s taken them three years to release something new, and what Mark Stretch has a license to do that most of us would get in trouble for.
Fox has become the runaway bride of network television. It lets us get really invested in great shows only to leave us at the altar by canceling those shows once we’ve fallen in love with them. Personally, I’m starting to think they get off on disappointing people. They make so much money from American Idol, Glee and the NFL that inside their offices their big hobby is seeing how many people they can upset while still making millions. After last week’s announcement that they’re dropping one of my favorite shows, Human Target, along with fellow dramas Lie to Me and The Chicago Code, I’m officially done with the disappointment. I don’t care how good a show looks, if it’s on Fox I’m not going to watch it. According to TV Tropes this is something called The Firefly Effect, and looking at Fox’s recent, and not so recent, history, there’s ample reason to feel this way about the network
Fox has never really had a grip on what people like. They rely too much on Nielsen ratings. While those ratings are the only concrete way a network can attempt to figure out how many people are watching a given program, there’s nothing saying those ratings are coming from the right houses. A quick scan of the internet, however, will tell you which shows are being talked about, and which have the most passionate fans. Combining both Nielsen ratings and personal research would give a more accurate reading of which shows are actually successful, but that requires work, and something tells me higher ups would rather have something easy that they can refer to than actually digging into what’s actually drawing viewer interest. I will admit, it’s also hard to sell ad time based on anything other than a number.
Oddly, Fox doesn’t seem to look at DVR ratings. If they did they’d notice shows like Dollhouse, which I loved and feel was cancelled far too soon, was extremely popular with people who didn’t happen to be home when it was on.
Dollhouse was originally my “last straw” with Fox. I was extremely upset when they cancelled the Joss Whedon show. Human Target, however, drew me back in. Earlier in the year I wrote about how I thought Fox’s ridiculous scheduling of the show made it look like they were trying to kill it rather than save it. Not surprisingly, they killed it.
This is the same network that killed Firefly, hence the name The Firefly Effect, Tru Calling, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Arrested Development, The Ben Stiller Show, Brimstone, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and The O.C., far too quickly. It’s also the network that gave Futurama and Family Guy the boot, not realizing the mistake they made until Cartoon Network started airing old episodes and drawing a huge following, and huge praise, for doing so. The success of the X-Files and 24 on Fox were aberrations.
Ironically, the network that gives most shows their walking papers far too soon has let The Simpsons sit in their Sunday night schedule for far too long. Yes, I understand that The Simpsons basically saved Fox, giving them something to hang their hat on when they were so far in fourth place among the big four networks that it was embarrassing. That being said, the show’s time passed years ago. What was once cutting edge is now considered family fare as it basically lost all relevancy once South Park became a hit.
Fox doesn’t care what I think, though. I am not a Nielsen family, therefore I don’t count in their eyes. I’m simply a guy who likes good television. Television that has dynamic, well rounded, characters and well written plotlines both within each episode and that continue from one episode to the next.
I am now officially done with Fox as a network. Because I’m a football fan I have no choice but to watch my Giants on Fox, but I refuse to watch any episodic show on the network until the higher ups change the way they do business. I refuse to be left at the altar again.
There have been a plethora of New York anthems written over the years. Everyone from Frank Sinatra to Jay-Z has penned an ode to the city. G.T.P. is the latest act to write about the city that never sleeps, but unlike most of the previous songs about NYC they’ve done so with a flair for the real. When listening to “Where I’m From” it’s obvious that the members of G.T.P. have spent their entire lives in the city and know its streets like the back of their hands. The song makes “Empire State of Mind” sound like it was written by a tourist. It even has the sound and feel of the city. It’s the perfect New York song.
Have you ever come across a movie that you really wanted to love, but no matter how hard you tried you just couldn’t? This is how I felt after watching Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated.
The concept behind Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated is really creative and cool. Over 100 artists with varying styles that ranged from animation to puppetry tried their hand at recreating the timeless classic Night of the Living Dead and pieces of those 100+ different versions of the film were strung together to “reanimate” the movie. The first problem came with the choice of animators. Were they all creative? Yes. Were they all good? Not so much so. At times I was wondering if the producers had just put an ad on CraigsList asking “who wants to do their own version of Night of the Living Dead?” The animation process also led to another major problem I had with the film.
For Night of the Living Dead one of the most important aspects of the horror involved is the human emotion displayed by the characters. This is almost entirely lost in the animation process. I’m not saying it’s impossible to create human emotion with an animated character, but the artists who worked on this movie didn’t make it happen. There was little to no reason to feel invested in the characters’ lives, and due to all the cutting from one type of animation to another, one never really gets much of an idea of who’s who.
The terror of being in a zombie infested world, having to rely on people you don’t know, and frantically searching for a radio station that may have someone broadcasting so you can get news on what’s happening should be felt when watching night of the Living Dead, but with Reanimated much of this is lost, and those are the things that made the classic so great.
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated deserves an A for effort and creativity, as, artistically, it’s fairly remarkable, but as a movie, unfortunately, it just doesn’t work.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on everything from an onscreen romance being rekindled, to Beyonce going back to school, to Michael Bolton’s latest, very awesome, collaboration, and since it’s Pop Shots you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
In the early and mid 2000s Chingy was one of the biggest stars in hip-hop. His music was on every radio station, even crossing over into the pop world. The St. Louis native hasn’t been heard from for a number of years, though, which is why I caught up with him to find out what he’s been up to. What I learned is he’s been through some tragedies, started his own label, Full Dekk Music Group, and is ready to work his way back into the limelight.
As is always the case, I’ve been listening to a lot of albums, most of which have been pure crap. The good news is I always find some needles of greatness in the haystack of mediocrity. The following are five of those great needles... I mean albums. Two of the five I expected to be good - Chaz Kangas and Zion I & The Grouch. Two are from artists I hadn’t heard of until their albums came across my desk - Eliza Doolittle and Dinner at the Thompson’s. Then there’s The Pretty Reckless, which surprised me, in a good way, for a second time.
Eliza Doolittle Eliza Doolittle
The UK has been sending a plethora of talented acts to the US this year and Eliza Doolittle is one of the artists that’s leading the way. The diminutive beauty has a sweet voice. It’s so sweet, in fact, she could sing about downright horrible things and it would still make you smile. Her sound is pop, but with soul sensibilities thrown in, which, when you listen to her, makes sense because she has what a lot of pop artists today lack - personality. You can easily envision the look on her face when you’re listening to her music, whether it’s playful, seductive, or serious. Doolittle’s music is truly refreshing and there’s so much going on in each song, from the instrumentation to the melodies, that it garners repeat listens. Although in her lyrics she claims she’s fine with being a “Nobody” and doesn’t want what’s in your “Moneybox,” something tells me she’s going to be a somebody and might stack a few dollars in the process of becoming one.
Chaz Kangas A Personal Reference
Not a lot of rappers would think to rap over the theme music from The Critic, which was George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue,” but Chaz Kangas isn’t your typical emcee. A Personal Reference is a complete collaboration between Chaz and producer Good Goose and through all the fun, and insane amount of pop culture references, both of which are trademarks of Chaz’s music, there are some very real topics being thrown out there for listeners to think about. “Scrambled Eggs,” which features Mac Lethal (who’s mom, I’m sure, is still a thug), and “Truth ‘N’ Stuffz,” which features Alaska of Hangar 18) are two standout songs, the latter, which takes on conspiracy theorists, truly showcases Chaz’s songwriting abilities. The song “Best Vomit Ever” showcases a completely different kind of songwriting ability. Only Chaz would graphically describe puking incident to a beat that features a sample of Enya’s “Sail Away.” It’s that combination of being able to be insightful and hilarious on the same album, and sometimes on the same song, that makes Chaz so great.
Dinner at the Thompson’s Off The Grid
Cool. That’s the perfect description for Dinner at the Thompson’s, which is the duo of French producer FabLive and US singer Lucille Tee. By mixing jazz, funk, soul and hip-hop the music of Dinner at the Thompson’s has a fresh, new, vibe to it while still somehow giving the feeling that you’re listening to something you’ve known forever. Can something be both brand new and retro? With Dinner at the Thompson’s the answer to that question is a resounding yes. Their album, Off The Grid, is the type of album I’ve been searching a long time for. If you were ever into Groove Theory, Digable Planets, or similar groups (and if you weren’t, what’s wrong with you!), Dinner at the Thompson’s is what you’ve been searching for, too. I wish this could be the soundtrack to the majority of my nights out. I feel like it’s impossible not to feel good when Off The Grid is on.
The Pretty Reckless Light Me Up
If you listen to the gossip blogs we’re all supposed to hate Taylor Momsen. She’s supposed to be the enemy; an oversexed, underdressed, teenager who has no business fronting a rock band. There’s a little problem with that, though. With her band of older musicians, the Gossip Girl actress has put together a pretty damned good album. I remember being surprised at how good she sounded at Warped Tour last year and Light Me Up continues in that vein. Right off the bat “My Medicine” sets the tone beautifully. As soon as you hear it you know this is going to be a ROCK album. Momsen’s voice is deep for a woman, and whoever she’s working with knows how to write for, and use, it correctly. “Zombie” is another standout. The fact of the matter is, I’ve played this album front to back a number of times, so I gotta give credit where credit is due. The Pretty Reckless are pretty darn good.
Zion I & The Grouch Heroes in the Healing of the Nation
Zion I & The Grouch are Heroes in the Healing of the Nation isn’t the first time these two hip-hop heavyweights have teamed up. Their 2006 collaboration Heroes in the City of Dope was fantastic. Five years later they’ve only gotten better. Brother Ali’s powerful voice opens the album, and track two, “Leader,” sets the vibe for the what’s to come with it’s chorus of “I’m a leader, I don’t want to be a follower.” This is revolutionary music that can make you move your ass (or as Sketch tha Cataclysm might describe it, party music for pissed off people). “I Used To Be A Vegan,” which has a chorus that features the line “you can’t be a foodie if you only drink smoothies,” is another standout track, as is “Be A Father To Your Child.” It takes a lot of talent to take on such topics and not sound preachy. Zion I and The Grouch have that talent.
Navegante's music is going to move you. Their electro-rock sound, that has a smidgen of inspiration from Depeche Mode thrown in, is pulsating, head nodding, and just straight up dope. You probably haven't heard anything quite like it before, so let "All In Ur Head" be your introduction to this fantastic duo. Navegante is one of the true originals in music today.
Nepotism is an ugly word. It’s been known to cripple, and sometimes destroy, businesses and sports franchises. It’s what puts inept people in positions of power, sometimes even in our own government. It's also no way to start a rap career, which is why despite being the son of Rakim, who is hailed by many as one of the greatest emcees of all-time, Tahmell would rather blaze his own path than dive into his father’s long list of industry contacts. According to Tahmell, their relationship hasn’t been hurt by this at all. In fact, he says, it’s been strengthened by it. “I try to do my own thing and he sees and respects that.”
Born in Central Islip, but having spent most of his years in Stamford, CT, which is where he still resides, Tahmell didn’t even initially tell his father about his aspirations to be an emcee. He explains “it was really just getting down to a point where if I really want to do this I really need to buckle down and grind hard to show him that I’m serious instead of just going to him and telling him. Words are one thing, but actions are another.”
For Tahmell, his actions started early. He remembers rhyming when he was as young as five years old, but notes he didn’t get serious about it until after high school. “In high school I was playing football,” he explains, “so I was focused on that. I had more time to really focus and sit and write after high school.” This is doubly interesting because not only do a lot of emcees count high school cafeteria cyphers as places where they honed their skills, but Tahmell went to Westhill High School, where d_Cyphernauts emcees Othello and Nemesis Alpha teach. Tahmell never had a class taught by either of them, but says he spoke with both of the Ant Farm Affiliates’ elder statesmen a number of times.
Even though his graduation was all the way back in 2006, Tahmell just recently released his first project, a mix-CD titled The After Effect, which is available as a free download on his site, tahmell.com. He says the long wait to release music was on purpose; he wanted to take his time with his craft. “You can’t just put something out there,” he says, explaining that doing so would be akin to “building a car and instead of test driving it, giving it to the factory and saying ‘here, this is fresh, it’s a new car, sell it.’”
Nearly five full years in the making, Tahmell says The After Effect will give listeners an idea of “what I’m about, what kind of music I like, (and) what I bring.” He hopes the end result will be a record deal. “Hopefully this one will make an after effect. That’s why I named it that.”
Don’t expect to be inundated by a plethora of mixtapes from Tahmell as he works towards that goal of a record deal, though. He’s not a big fan of the mixtape scene. “It’s making money, but it’s not making the money you could be making,” he explains. “I just want to do these albums and do them the right way and put together these song ideas, these topics, and really put my everything into these tracks.”
Enfield’s Big Stat, who has been one of the few Connecticut emcees to tour the country on a consistent basis, has been working with Tahmell for a while and sees good things in his future. “Tah is a beast. He’s one of the few people I know that is extremely hungry, focused, energetic, and at the same time very humble.”
Big Stat is among a select group of artists Tahmell is currently collaborating with. Others include New London producer G-Whiz, Atrocity of Saigon’s crew Abandoned Nation, and Tahmell’s own brother, Bars, and cousin, Nellz.
Currently, Tahmell is working on an official full length album, but much like when he was preparing his mix-CD, he’s taking his time with it. “I have roughly seven tracks officially done,” he says, adding “I’m collecting beats from everywhere so I can have that good music, that good all around music that has that good feel.”
There’s another goal Tahmell is working on, as well. “I want to run my own label. I want to recruit my own artists. I kind of want to do this like 50 Cent, but times ten.”
When he does eventually accomplish those goals he’ll take extra pride in knowing that he will have made all those after effects happen on his own.
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with thoughts on the latest addition to the reality singing competition genre–The Voice. Originally I was skeptical about the prospect of another reality singing competition. All of the others have used, for the most part, the American Idol format, and even American Idol has become a stale product. I was also skeptical about the idea of a competition that involved artists that had previously released music with a major label. Seeing the first episode, however (the deadline for this column was before the second episode aired), completely swayed me.
Hip-hop shows are notorious for starting late, so maybe it’s apropos that Coalmine Records, which has released albums by, among others, El Da Sensei and Bekay, is celebrating its fifth anniversary in this, its sixth, year. “I should have done it last year,” Coalmine Records found Matt Diamond says, “but truthfully I just didn’t have nearly as many things going on.” Now he has a lot going on, including the just released Coalmine retrospective compilation album Can You Dig It?. I caught up with Diamond to find out more about Can You Dig It?, and all of his other projects, as well as what went into the founding Coalmine Records, and how he’s managed to make it grow during a time when most labels are struggling to stay afloat.
Television watchers may recognize Charlene Amoia from her litany of guest appearances on nearly every hit show, from Glee to NCIS: Los Angeles, but what she’s known most for right now is her recurring role on How I Met Your Mother as Wendy the Waitress. As Wendy she serves up drinks, laughs, and, at one point, a behind the bar fling with Neil Patrick Harris’ character, Barney Stinson. Originally from Buffalo, Amoia has lived in Las Vegas and now resides in LA. I caught up with her to find out more about her career, and also learned about her time working at a truck stop in Vegas, how she accidentally wound up in living a racy part of LA, and where her fake hook up with Neil Patrick Harris ranks on her fantasy scale. Amoia also revealed her close ties to the mob, so you might want to consider really liking this interview.
Adam Bernard: Your last name is really interesting. What’s your ethnic background? Charlene Amoia: My last name’s Italian and I’m Italian and Spanish. My mother’s at least half Spanish, but I identify a little bit more with the Italian, I think. I’ve been around a lot of Italians my whole life.
Adam Bernard: Are there any horrible Italian stereotypes you’d like to dispel right now? Charlene Amoia: {laughs} No, I like them, actually. All ethnicities have their stereotypes and I’m OK with the Italian ones. We have The Godfather and some great movies, so it’s all good.
Adam Bernard: So you have three brothers that are in the mob and if anyone tries to mess with you... done. Charlene Amoia: {joking} Yeah, actually it’s more my ancestry. My great grandfather was in the mob. There’s a lot more power there. Anybody who’s ever dated me has been put in check pretty quickly. It’s just the way it goes. So I’ve never really had my heart broken. Just kidding.
Adam Bernard: You’ve never had your heart broken, but some guys have had their legs broken. Charlene Amoia: {laughs} Exactly. Those are the ones that are still able to talk.
Adam Bernard: The cliche is actors come to Hollywood to chase their dream but end up waiting tables. You currently have a role on the hit television show How I Met Your Mother... waiting tables. Is this cruel irony, or deep poetry? Charlene Amoia: I’m going with the poetic side of that. I haven't waited tables so much in LA, but when I was in college I did wait tables at a truck stop for four years. Now I’m not at a truck stop, I’m at a cool bar on a cool show, so it feels much more poetic to me, and the fact that I haven’t had to do it as I’ve sustained this career has been a good thing. If I was actually waiting tables in addition to doing it on a show I think that would have been a little bit harder to deal with.
Adam Bernard: Where did you go to school? Where was this truck stop where you were waiting tables? Charlene Amoia: I went to college in Las Vegas at UNLV.
Adam Bernard: Whoa, you saw some stuff. What were some of the strangest things that came through that restaurant? Charlene Amoia: Well, I got that job when I was like 16 or 17. I was pretty young and VERY innocent and I heard some of the crudest remarks I’ve ever heard in my life at that truck stop. I remember the first time someone said something really crude to me. My face turned bright red and I went to the back and the other waitresses were just like “you’re gonna toughen up, honey. You’ll toughen up.” I have a dirty sense of humor now, and it’s all words and none of it is serious, so I think it did toughen me up to some degree because I can tolerate it, I’ve been with the worst of the worst.
Adam Bernard: And I think if the worst thing that happens to you if you’re a 16 year old innocent girl in Las Vegas is a couple dirty things were said to you, you won. Charlene Amoia: {laughs} That’s true. That’s very true. I did win. I’m winning. Thank you.
Adam Bernard: If you were working there at 16 you were living in Vegas before college. Did your family move there because they had a glorious stage show to do? Charlene Amoia: Oh no, the whole mob had relocated so we didn’t really have a choice. {laughs}
Adam Bernard: That makes sense. Going back to HIMYM, your future husband was recently revealed on the show and it wasn’t Ted. Were you upset at all when you read that script and found out you weren’t going to be the mother? Charlene Amoia: Does it make for a better story if I said I was? No, I thought it was cool. I don’t even know if they know who the mom is. I never even thought I would be seriously considered. I had sex with Barney behind the bar on the show and I also made out with Ted’s dad, so the likelihood of this character being the mom, I thought, was pretty small anyway, but the fact that fans were rooting for me was awesome, it was exciting.
Adam Bernard: Since you mentioned your fling with Barney, what was it like fake hooking up with Neil Patrick Harris? Charlene Amoia: It was probably the best fake hook up of my life.
Adam Bernard: Women everywhere are going to be disappointed now, even more so. Charlene Amoia: {laughs} How do I put this? I think a gay man probably understands women a lot better than a straight man, so being able to experience a full hook up in pretend land, all of my fantasies most certainly came true that day.
Adam Bernard: In addition to HIMYM, you’ve also had roles on Glee, House, Dexter, 90210, NCIS: Los Angeles, Criminal Minds, and a host of other high profile shows. Your IMDB page is a veritable what’s what of pop culture. What’s your personal pop culture radar tuned in to right now? Charlene Amoia: You know, when I’m not working I really try to do things outside of pop culture, so I immerse myself in nature, whether it’s hiking, or running, or traveling, those kinds of things, hanging out with good friends. When I get invested in my characters I go all the way with them and I do a lot of research, watch other films and read books that could help with that, but outside of that I really have to try to keep a balance that is away from it.
Adam Bernard: If a show were to be created for you to be the lead in, which genre would you want it to lean towards? Charlene Amoia: I really really enjoy comedy. I love the drama, too, but the comedy, it just makes me happy. The stakes are higher and you get to do the most ridiculous things and I really enjoy doing that.
Adam Bernard: Are there any roles you refuse to do? Charlene Amoia: The only roles that I’ve refused are ones that have involved nudity. I’m very careful about what gets out there. With the internet, and everything else, if things aren’t done tastefully it can really change your career path and I want to stay open to all kinds of roles. I gravitate towards things that are a little bit quirkier, characters that are a little bit more offbeat, and I think if I did something nude it could hurt the chances of doing those roles that I find really really fun.
Adam Bernard: You have a few soap operas in your background–Port Charles and The Young and the Restless. Is the death of the soap opera a sad thing for you? Charlene Amoia: Soaps are cool. Soaps are a completely different thing. Any time I’ve been on them it’s been kind of like a one take thing. You get your script, you’re on set, you do one take and if you stumble over your lines, as long as it’s somewhat intelligible it’s going on the air. There’s an aspect of that that really keeps you on your feet, like anything you would improvise, because you have to go with it. That’s the good thing about soaps. I’m still at the stage of the game where I don’t have a job consistently, I still have to win each opportunity, so I’m always excited to work whether it’s a soap, or a one hour, or a half hour, or a feature film. The goal this year is to get more opportunities with the feature films, big screen stuff.
Adam Bernard: Other than simply comedy, what kind of big screen roles are you looking for? Charlene Amoia: My agent and I have been seeing what’s out there. I think with the feature films there’s a lot of name recognition that goes into the choices so I just have to see what’s available after that. I’m looking for something that’s with my sensibility. I don’t know what that’s gonna be, but anything quirky, or that’s a risk. Things that other people don’t want to do I generally do, so I’m kind of just waiting and seeing what happens.
Adam Bernard: You keep mentioning quirky. What about you do you think is quirky? Charlene Amoia: I always root for underdogs. I end up gravitating towards people who are not the center of attention, people that there’s something odd about. I just find them much more interesting. Probably growing up I always had a sense of feeling different than other people, so I like to explore other human beings that have something that is a little different about them. I don’t know what it is, exactly, about me.
Adam Bernard: Finally, has anything that even qualifies as strange in your book happened to you since you moved to LA, or did you see it all in Vegas? Charlene Amoia: I’ve seen a lot, that’s for sure. When I first moved to LA I didn’t know anybody here so I just randomly picked up an apartment guide and moved into Van Nuys not knowing that was like the porn capital of the world. I called the police station at the time and I asked them, “I’m looking at an apartment, these are my cross streets, is this a dangerous place to live,” and they said the only thing that really happens around there is the occasional break in of a vehicle. I moved in. My first apartment had a bed that came out of the wall. I kind of came out here with just my clothes and my radio and my computer. I had a big stereo system back then. I didn’t stay there too long. I think it was six months before I got out, but nothing really surprises me, I’m a pretty tough cookie. I don’t even know where that would be on the meter as far as what I’ve seen through Vegas... and all the mob stuff. You know what I’m sayin? {laughs}
B-Listers are a select group of artists that were featured in my Artist Of The Week series that ran every Monday from April of '06 to April of '11. All of these artists have two things in common; extreme talent, and a flight path far too under the radar for my liking. They took on the title of B-Listers as they embraced being featured by me, Adam B. Check out the AOTW Archives for all the interviews.
