Aidin Vaziri | Interviews, Reviews and More: February 2006

26 February 2006

Pop Quiz: Rick Moranis

Aidin Vaziri | Rick Moranis, 52, had the kind of film career that Ashton Kutcher would kill for: cult hits such as "Strange Brew" and "Spaceballs," blockbusters like "Ghostbusters," even a musical, "Little Shop of Horrors." And who can forget his enduring role as the father in the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" series (it's best to forget him as Barney Rubble in "The Flintstones"). Yet the comic actor gave it all up nearly a decade ago, moved to New York to become a full-time single parent, and unintentionally started a second career as a deadpan country singer. His new independently released disc, "The Agoraphobic Cowboy," features sly tunes like "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "S.O.S.," and is getting rave reviews.

Rick Moranis
Q: Even though you meant to make a comedy album, does it bother you that Toby Keith's music is still funnier than yours?
A: I guess for some people that's true. I was watching the (Country Music Awards) and I don't know who the artist was, but there was some song where the last two lines had to do with, "And now on those paper plates you're eatin'/ You should have thought of that when you were cheatin'." I can't help it. I love that stuff.
Q: It's a little cruel putting a word most country station DJs can't pronounce in the title.
A: Yeah, that's true. The funny thing is, totally by accident, I called it a country album because that's what it is. I guess the proper thing to do with a career like mine would have been to call it a comedy album. But I wasn't thinking like that, and the result was it attracted attention because it just didn't make sense.
Q: Did you consciously scale back the acting so you could do things like this, or did the phone just stop ringing after "The Flintstones"?
A: Oh yeah, I'm a single parent and I just couldn't handle the travel. I didn't want to raise my kids in hotel rooms and airports, so I just decided to take a break, and the break got longer and longer as I decided I wasn't missing what I was doing. So I stopped. I don't know if I'll go back to it or not. I've got one kid in college and another leaving next year, so I may go back to it. I don't really miss it.
Q: I'm sure there are plenty more things that can be shrunk.
A: Yeah, not from this guy.

Review: Without Gravity

Without Gravity "Tenderfoot": Aidin Vaziri | If this is what everyone in Iceland thinks American country music is supposed to sound like, why aren't we all boarding the next 747 to Reykjavik? Owing more to blackheart balladeers like Damien Rice and Iron & Wine than whatever's coming out of Nashville these days, Without Gravity's first album may be built around mandolins and pedal steel guitars but it is also impossibly soothing. "The summertime it gets me high," sings Karl "Kalli" Henry, the frontman and driving force behind the band, in a voice so steeped in sorrow that it suggests he would much prefer hard drugs do the task. "Tenderfoot" is one of those rare albums that works best played from beginning to end with songs such as "Beautiful Son" and "Blue Bird," in particular, that give you that floating feeling.

Pop Quiz: Andrea Bocelli

Aidin Vaziri | Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, 48, just might be the most hated man in the opera world. Then again, having sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, he's also made the most headway in drawing pop fans into the symphony hall. His latest album, "Amore," which features his slick interpretations of heart-tugging European standards and includes big-time guests such as Christina Aguilera, Kenny G and Stevie Wonder, is certain to elevate his status even further. When we caught up with him, Bocelli was in the middle of a TV blitz that climaxes with a live performance of "Because We Believe" at the closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Andrea Bocelli
Q: It looks like you have some good friends helping out on this album.
A: Also, the repertoire is the same repertoire I performed when I was working in the piano bar before I became famous, so many songs are for me sweet memories.
Q: So if I walked into a piano bar in Italy 20 years ago while you were still in law school, I could have heard this whole album?
A: More or less. Especially the Italian repertoire.
Q: I missed out.
A: But probably now the interpretations are better. Also the orchestration because at the time I played the piano and it was not so beautiful.
Q: And maybe you were a little drunk?

Review: Sergio Mendes

Sergio Mendes "Timeless": Aidin Vaziri | This has got to stop. Not every gray-haired musician can have his record company rope in a cross section of trendy musicians to collaborate with and expect a bookshelf full of Grammys. Yes, Sergio Mendes made wonderful Brazilian pop singles in the 1960s, including the Austin Powers-revived hit "Mais Que Nada" and masterful bossa nova interpretations of songs by Burt Bacharach and the Beatles. But on this comeback effort we find him teaming up with Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am to rehash his old songs with hip-hop beats and vocal contributions from the likes of Erykah Badu, Justin Timberlake and, yes, the Black Eyed Peas. The best thing that can be said about the result is that someday one of these songs will make a good soundtrack for a Pizza Hut commercial.

13 February 2006

Pop Quiz: Sia

Aidin Vaziri | Two years ago, Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, who thankfully performs using just her first name, couldn't find anyone in America to put out her second full-length album, "Colour the Small One." But thanks to the appearance of her song "Breathe Me" in the final episode of the HBO series "Six Feet Under" last year, all the major labels came knocking -- even the one that originally dropped her. Out now on Astralwerks, the disc (recorded shortly after her lover died in a car accident) has made the Australian musician -- who previously worked with Zero 7, Beck, Jamiroquai and Massive Attack -- one of the most buzzed-about artists of the new year.

Sia
Q: What do you think you would be doing right now if ...
A: If "Breathe Me" hadn't been on "Six Feet Under"?
Q: Well, yes.
A: This is just one part of what's going on. I am still doing other stuff on the side. I've done an animated pop project. I've been working on my next solo album. And I finished the next Zero 7 album, which is coming out in April. So I guess if this hadn't happened I would have slightly more time for all of those things.
Q: So you weren't exactly sitting around the food court at the mall filling out Pottery Barn applications?
A: No, although I did seriously consider a career in dog breeding.
Q: How did that happen?
A: Well, I've become a bit of a dog lady. I never had a pet in my entire life, but I fostered a dog about two years ago, and I got the bug bad.
Q: I think I've seen a picture of you with a dog.
A: That was Rosey, she's a pit bull terrier. She was in a difficult place at that time. I fostered her for a couple weeks and she was not house-trained, she had pneumonia and she was dog aggressive. I didn't know any of that. Well, I knew she was s -- the floor, but I didn't know she was going to bite the face off her new owner's other pet. I paid $1,000 to have her schooled by the pet whisperer.
Q: As seen on TV?
A: There's two. There's Cesar Millan, who's got the TV show. This guy is called Brandon, and he's got a movie coming out. He's the pet whisperer as well. For $1,000 he puts her through doggie boot camp. I don't know what he does, but when I got there I felt like lying down and rolling over. There's something about him where when I met him I thought I better sit. I felt like submitting right away.
Q: Well, you have been through some hard times yourself -- except for the part about crapping on the floor.

Review: Ray Davies

Ray Davies "Other Peoples' Lives": Aidin Vaziri | Ray Davies sat out most of the past decade, spending time traveling the Mississippi and starting a new life in New Orleans, where he was promptly mugged and shot. Then came the floods. On his first proper solo album, the former Kinks front man sings songs like "After the Fall" (about bouncing back from a breakdown) and "The Tourist" (about rich white people slumming it in his adoptive U.S. city), both of which he claims were written years before the aforementioned tragedies but now seem somewhat prescient. Then again, Davies has always been ahead of his time. It was only a few years ago that the Kinks started getting mentioned in the same breath as their old rivals the Beatles and the Who. And it might take a few more for people to actually appreciate the slightly over-produced seasick blues, warped country and drunken sing-alongs of this release.

Live Review: Jeff Tweedy

Jeff Tweedy in San Francisco: Aidin Vaziri | Tweedy has a bit of a reputation as a live performer. Just a few nights earlier he had told off a chatty Portland audience, "Can you shut up for once in your f -- life?" And it seemed like the news had spread to San Francisco. No one said a word as the singer strummed through nearly a half-dozen hushed tunes before finally looking up: "I have a question for the bartenders." Uh-oh. "When we're getting rid of the beer bottles can we cradle them into the trash?" he said. "Ease them in as if they were your children and you were putting them to bed?" Pause. "No? OK." Just as it felt as if we were watching a dramatic re-enactment of Dylan's infamous Judas concert, Tweedy broke into a huge smile and the audience erupted with him. Like that, Tweedy cast aside his status as a furrow-browed, overly intellectual songwriter with a serious Faulkner fixation. Actually, the description still fits, but he's also so much more: part comedian, part literary satirist, all showman. Without an album or any other specific piece of merchandise to promote (Wilco is setting off on a proper tour in the spring behind its recent live release, "Kicking Television"), this solo acoustic show, the first of two, was all about the music. Tweedy delighted in transforming song after song from his band's wildly experimental back catalog into a stripped-down folk ballad, baring every ironic twist and barbed emotion. He seemed to take equal pleasure in trying out bad one-liners on a captive audience: "I can't see you, but you're beautiful. Just like the Internet."

05 February 2006

Pop Quiz: Teddy Geiger

Aidin Vaziri | If he could only figure out what to rent at the local video store, then Teddy Geiger would be totally set. The photogenic 17-year-old singer-songwriter's premiere album, "Underage Thinking," doesn't even come out until next month but he's already toured arenas with Hilary Duff, conquered the teen magazines and got himself a recurring role on the critically acclaimed CBS music-industry series, "Love Monkey."

Teddy Geiger
Q: You've probably never seen your name in the newspaper as much as you have this week.
A: Not really. I try not to read that much, though.
Q: Why, because you get tired of people saying how you're just like John Mayer without the phone sex addiction?
A: Maybe.
Q: Actually, they are writing nice things about you. You know you're doing something right when you get in the teen magazines and crusty TV critics praise you.
A: Yeah, I read some stuff and it seemed pretty cool. I'm pretty excited about it.
Q: And to think, six months ago you were just another boring kid in high school.
A: Definitely. It's very surreal. I'm just taking it as it comes and seeing what happens.
Q: When I was 17 the biggest challenge I faced was picking out which doughnut to eat for lunch.
A: That is still one of the biggest challenges I do face. The other one is when I'm trying to find a movie at Blockbuster.
Q: Well, that's understandable. You don't want to end up with "Police Academy 4."

Cheat Sheet: Morningwood

N.Y. band melds sexy shtick with an '80s aesthetic: Aidin Vaziri | Morningwood is a A New York quartet led by voluptuous 23-year-old singer Chantal Claret and rounded out by a group of music industry veterans, including bassist Pedro Yanowitz (former drummer for the Wallflowers and Natalie Merchant), drummer Japa Keenon (formerly of Cibo Matto) and guitarist Richard Steel (formerly of Spacehog). The group's self-titled debut album was produced by Gil Norton (Foo Fighters). Does the name Morningwood have anything to do with lumber? Er, only metaphorically. So what does it sound like? Morningwood takes most of its musical cues from '80s rockers like Joan Jett and the Cars (with just a touch of the Pixies), while the lyrics to songs such as "Babysitter" and "Body 21" are largely delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. Meanwhile, the single "Nth Degree," in which Claret simply spells out the band's name over and over, has been elbowing Green Day and Nine Inch Nails out of the way for regular airplay on Live 105. Does the song "Take Off Your Clothes" inspire lots of nudity at its shows? Absolutely. The last time Morningwood played San Francisco, at the indie-rock nightclub Popscene, Claret pulled a girl out of the crowd and persuaded her to remove her top. Remarkable? Not really. Claret does it all the time, usually with added straddling and simulated sex. "It's fun," she says. "And educational."

Pop Quiz: Train

Aidin Vaziri | Pat Monahan may have sung "I won't give up if you don't give up," on Train's latest hit single, the sweeping commitment hymn "Calling All Angels." But he obviously wasn't that adamant about it. The Grammy-winning multiplatinum San Francisco rock band's fourth album, "For Me, It's You," was written while the front man was in the throes of divorce and the lineup of his group was going through a major shakeup. That shouldn't stop the new single "Cab" from repeating the success of songs like "Meet Virginia" and "Drops of Jupiter."

Pat Monahan of Train
Q: Did you leave anything in the Bay Area that might make you come back, like old shoes or a sweater?
A: Yeah, I have a home there. But I'm going through a divorce and that home will soon become hers.
Q: Then you won't have anything in the Bay Area.
A: Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah, you said it.
Q: I hope that's not because you met the woman of your dreams before you decided to get a divorce.
A: I didn't. I'm a guy who plays by the rules. The decision to leave a marriage and everything is a very difficult one to make when you have children. You've got to be pretty miserable to do that. Even after you make that decision you don't know if it's the right one. I knew it was the right one, but it was not easy. And a month later I met this girl, at the last point in my life that I would be interested in meeting anyone.
Q: At least you got a good record out of the whole ordeal.
A: Thanks. I went through a lot of feelings, so I paid the price for some of the songs I feel proud of.
Q: Your life may be in shambles, but at least you'll have platinum albums to hang on your wall.
A: You know, my life right now is actually wonderful. I couldn't be happier. I can't emphasize enough how wonderful this woman is that I've met. It's nothing that I've ever gone through. I hope all people get to feel like I feel.
Q: Everyone should get a divorce!