Le Monde de Aidin Vaziri: June 2007

Monday, June 25, 2007

Pop Quiz: Mandy Moore

Aidin Vaziri | Mandy Moore may not have sold as many albums as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera when she first fell off the Florida teen-pop conveyer belt, but she's the only one who's managed to stay relatively sane, so there you go. Now 23, the singer-actress is going adult contemporary on her first album of original material in six years, "Wild Hope." Moore also returns to theaters this summer with a pair of motion pictures, "License to Wed" and "Dedication."

Mandy Moore
Q: You're always going on about how your old albums are a bunch of garbage. What about the fans who bought them and their feelings?
A: Let's face it, "Candy" may have been an OK pop song, but everything else on that first record was absolute crap. It really was. I will argue someone to that point.
Q: Even your biggest fan from 2001?
A: Yeah, I will. I don't feel like it was my work. I feel like I was a hired hand to come in and sing these songs. I really had no attachment to them. A lot of the songs I didn't even like to begin with.
Q: How is this album different?
A: Well, they're my words, my experiences. It's the complete opposite direction from anything I've ever done before.
Q: You were suffering from depression last year. How did that affect these songs?
A: I would say 70 percent of the record was written during that time when I was not feeling so swift. But I was past that point by the time I went in the studio. It was like, "OK, let's f -- do this now!"
Q: Whoa! I was totally not expecting you to use that word.
A: Really? I think some people still think I'm 15 or something. I'm a woman. I can say the word.
Q: Yes, but if you were a lady you could not say it.

Review: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams 'Easy Tiger': Aidin Vaziri | After Ryan Adams released just about every dumb idea that popped into his head (seriously, last year he posted 11 albums' worth of rap, punk and screamo on his Web site), it's nice to see him bring back some quality control with his ninth release, "Easy Tiger." The album effectively revisits the bittersweet 3 a.m. roots-rock sound of his former band, Whiskeytown, casting off the pointless noodling that marked his past few outings in favor of a renewed obsession with "Harvest"-era Neil Young that manifests itself in gorgeous, soul-searching ballads such as "Rip Off," The Sun Also Sets" and "Off Broadway." There are a few detours along the way, the most notable of which are the chugging "Halloween Head" and a polished duet with Sheryl Crow on "Two," but overall, Adams seems to have regained some much-needed focus.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Live Review: Keith Urban at the HP Pavilion, 06/16/07

Amid power ballad barrage, Urban asks San Jose crowd if it's got a pulse: Aidin Vaziri | Let's get something straight: Country musicians don't do rehab. They're supposed to drink obscene amounts of alcohol, beat their spouses and die in bizarre tractor accidents. Facing a near-capacity crowd at San Jose's HP Pavilion on Friday, however, Keith Urban clearly had other ideas. Fresh from a three-month stay at the Betty Ford Clinic, the 39-year-old New Zealand transplant seemed more determined than ever to pull away from his Nashville roots. He recruited a sideways-cap-wearing DJ to warm up the crowd with songs by AC/DC and Blur. The musicians backing him, coordinated in the sort of print T-shirts and machine-distressed jeans you might find on the clearance rack at Target, looked like they were on loan from the house band on "Rock Star: Supernova." And the way Urban brandished his guitar during solos suggested he had spent many nights on his tour bus poring over old Lenny Kravitz videos -- which would explain at least one thing he has in common with wife Nicole Kidman. After delivering a rapturous opening shot with "Once in a Lifetime," the first track from his current album, "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing," Urban settled into a gaggle of power ballads from the poodle-haired school of Bon Jovi and Night Ranger. "Friday night, San Jose!" he said. "You're still alive out there?"

Pop Quiz: Bebel Gilberto

Aidin Vaziri | Bebel Gilberto was originally set to play Bimbo's 365 Club last month, but she broke her ankle just before starting her tour. She played a few shows abroad with her leg encased in plaster, and on Monday and Tuesday she returns to San Francisco with her proper set to make up the Bimbo's dates and finally get the word out on her third release, "Momento," which she co-produced with Guy Sigsworth (previous clients include Björk and Madonna). On it, the Grammy-nominated daughter of Brazilian bossa nova icon João Gilberto collaborates with New York hipsters Brazilian Girls and does a cover of her uncle Chico Buarque's "Caçada." But it's the first single, "Bring Back the Love," with a remix EP available on iTunes, that's been tearing up the dance floors. We recently spoke to Gilberto, 41, by phone.

Bebel Gilberto
Q: How is your ankle coming along?
A: It's going well. I have some ice on it now.
Q: What happened when you injured it -- jet skiing, skydiving or karate fighting?
A: No, I fell.
Q: That's it?
A: That's it. I was just trying to get a cab, like anyone else.
Q: And you got right back onstage?
A: You have to, right?
Q: How were your first few shows in the cast?
A: It was great. My fans were very supportive. They were very happy. They all have been super great.
Q: Is it hard to resist the urge to samba?
A: No.

Review: The White Stripes, Bon Jovi

The White Stripes 'Icky Thump' and Bon Jovi 'Lost Highway': Aidin Vaziri | It's country week on the pop charts, wherein two formerly sensible rock bands (well, maybe one) decamp to Nashville and come back with albums presumably inspired by vast amounts of beer drinking and banjo playing. First up: the White Stripes (left) who, despite a cover that depicts them sitting in some sort of rodeo pen, have not gone that Nashville at all on "Icky Thump." That's because it's hard to remember the last time Kenny Rogers sounded quite as deranged as Jack White does on the title track, roaring over a full-blown Hendrix racket, "Well, Americans, what, nothin' better to do?/ Why don't you kick yourself out? You're an immigrant, too." That's not the sort of company line you get with Toby Keith, although White does seem to warm up to the theme as the album progresses, breaking through the torrent of raunchy guitars with some nice slide work on "Catch Hell Blues" and even a sweet back-porch melody on "You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You're Told)." Then there's Bon Jovi, no doubt encouraged by the post-Hurricane Katrina success of "Who Says You Can't Go Home" and steadily declining interest from its old acid-washed contingent. Much like the White Stripes' attempt at embracing a culture that is totally foreign to people who grew up in an industrial city in the north, "Lost Highway" is mostly a half-hearted affair made worse by tune-free, cliche-heavy ballads such as "Seat Next to You" and the first single, "American Idol" buzz-killer "(You Want to) Make a Memory." So, really, it's all a bit of business as usual here in Music City, USA. Let us know when Björk arrives.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Live Review: The Pipettes at The Rickshaw Stop, 06/13/07

Getting on a first name basis with the throwback trio: Aidin Vaziri | Somewhere out there, some lunatic record company executive has decided that the best way to counteract dwindling record sales, spiraling piracy and the death of popular culture on the whole is something called is The Pipettes - a trio of girls from Brighton, England specializing in matching polka-dot ensembles, wonky choreography and tunes last heard before Phil Spector started waving guns at people.

Bad for his career, great for providing some cheap entertainment on a boring old week night!

To preview their stateside major label debut, Becki, Rose and Gwenno (first names only, naturally) played a special Popscene event at the Rickshaw Stop on Tuesday showcasing a good dose of attitude, hand jive and harmonies ranging from "ouch!' to "that sounds a bit like Bananarama right there."

The group does have a pair of stellar hits on its hands in "Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me" and "Pull Shapes," plus something like 17 other tunes that are essentially variations of those two, which is good depending on your tolerance for monster-movie themes and screechy, sugary throwbacks to the Ronettes and Marvellettes.

While their general attitude is heart-warming ("To turn back the clock to a time before the Beatles ruined everything") and we liked the fact that they made the guys in the band play with their backs to the audience, the hourlong show could have been cut down by, oh, about 45-minutes without losing all that much.

And not that we're picking favorites but how great would it be if the brunette one launched a solo career tomorrow?

Fiction Plane, Ready For Take Off

Son of Sting: Aidin Vaziri | How did a little-known band land the opening slot on the Police's much-anticipated reunion tour? In Fiction Plane's case, it probably helped that the group's front man and bassist Joe Sumner is Sting's eldest son. But that doesn't necessarily mean the stadium seats are teeming at show time. "We usually start off with five old people sitting down with their arms crossed and a couple of hot dog vendors," Sumner said, calling from a tour stop in Vancouver last week. "It just makes you work a little harder. By the time we finish our set it's pretty much at capacity." The trio is touring in support of "Left Side of the Brain," Fiction Plane's first album since 2003. While the 30-year-old singer may sound like a dead ringer for his famous father on the single "Two Sisters," it was actually another blonde that first inspired him to take to the microphone. "Kurt Cobain was the first pop star I thought was not annoying and cheesy," Sumner said. "I tried to be like him, but that didn't work at all." Fiction Plane has managed to squeeze in a few of its own club shows during the tour. "We get to connect to people a little closer and we get to play for as long as we want," in those shows, Sumner said. But is the band secretly getting the extra practice in the hopes of blowing the headliners off the stage before the end of the tour? "I did think about that once but even if we did blow them away no one is going to let us know that."

Live Review: Mika at The Fillmore, 06/09/07

Mika channels his inner Freddie: Aidin Vaziri | There's little doubt that he had been practicing the rock poses and casually choreographed routines that accompanied each song for a long time. For "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)," he pulled up a well-endowed burlesque dancer to rub up against; his legs splayed wide apart and hips jutted to the side as he pounded through the Elton John-ish lament "Any Other World." And easing into mock-operatic "My Interpretation," he announced, "After studying my 'Rufus at the Fillmore' DVD, I get to do it myself." But his main inspiration clearly comes from Freddie Mercury. Appropriating the Queen lead singer's signature moves, arch vocal acrobatics and vaudevillian sense of grandeur, Mika doesn't even pretend to disguise his obsession. On "Grace Kelly," he sings it out loud: "So I try a little Freddie!" And upon closer inspection, "Big Girl" feels a lot like Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls." Like Mercury, Mika also refuses to be pinned down on the topic of sexuality. Look hard enough, and the clues are all in place -- and not just because on "Billy Brown" he sings of a married man who falls in love with another man. "My record company said you can't put a song like that out in the United States," Mika said. "Guess what? We've got 2,000 people singing it back at us." Whatever his logic, it seems to be working. The first few rows at the Fillmore were crammed with preteen girls wearing glow-in-the-dark necklaces and waiting for a quiet a moment to screech, "Mika, I love you!"

Review: Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Gainsbourg '5:55': Aidin Vaziri | Her father inspired an entire generation of men with beautifully tailored suits and perfectly dirty minds to stand behind a microphone, so it only makes sense that a few of them would return the favor now. The members of Air provide the music, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon write the words and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) is behind the producer's desk on the first album in 20 years by Charlotte Gainsbourg -- daughter of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg and singer-actress Jane Birkin. The music is appropriately dark and spacious, each song wafting by like a plume of smoke off a Gitanes. Even though she has spent the past two decades appearing in films ("The Science of Sleep," "Lemmings"), her father's influence has not diminished, particularly on breathy showstoppers like the title track and "The Songs That We Sing."

Monday, June 04, 2007

Live Review: Maroon 5 at Great American Music Hall, 06/01/07

Maroon 5's dedicated fans get close just as band grows bigger than big: Aidin Vaziri | The wolf whistles and squeals started before the members even marked their arrival with the pounding "Harder to Breathe" and continued more than an hour later when they scurried off with the one-two punch of "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love." You would have been hard-pressed to find more than a dozen people in the room who could actually identify any of the hairy men onstage other than nasally singer Adam Levine, but that didn't stop them from furiously elbowing each other out of the way in the hopes of grabbing one of the short-shorts the frontman flung out bearing the band's logo. In between the old favorites came a handful of songs from "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," basically the soul-pop confections of the last disc updated with extra fanfare. The live show still felt a bit like a work in progress, so at times Maroon 5 plodded when it should have been gliding, paying too much mind to its rock past and not enough to its chart-topping present. Fortunately, Levine's tabloid exploits with the likes of Jessica, Lindsay and Paris transformed the heartbroken verses that swept through the first album into pointed kiss-offs on new tunes including "Wake Up Call" and first single "Makes Me Wonder," as in, "And it really makes me wonder/ If I ever gave a f -- about you." Sure, it sounded fine standing just a few inches away. But imagine how really great it will sound in front of 10,000 howling lunatics.

Pop Quiz: Eleni Mandell

Aidin Vaziri | Since 1999, cult Los Angeles singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell has released six albums of slow-burning torch songs. Her latest, "Miracle of Five," includes contributions from Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and X drummer D.J. Bonebrake. It also features typically noirish ruminations like "Salt Truck" and "Make-Out King" that reaffirm her position as the best-kept secret of the public radio set -- although you might recognize her voice from that Carl's Jr. ad starring Paris Hilton in a bikini.

Eleni Mandell
Q: Is "Make-Out King" based on a true story?
A: Indeed, it is.
Q: Can the story be shared in a family newspaper?
A: Yes. It's about my current boyfriend. I was just thinking the other day how funny it was that I thought he was such a ladies' man, which was probably part of the attraction. Like, "Ooh, I'm going to tame that one." He wasn't a ladies' man at all. He was a total nerd.
Q: So how did he earn that title?
A: He would talk a lot about making out with other girls. I think he had his day in the sun, but he said he did that because he was nervous and didn't know what else to talk about. I don't know: the day's events? The weather?
Q: You stuck around even though he would pick you up for a date and just start talking about all the other girls he made out with?
A: That says a lot about me. The whole thing is just ridiculous.
Q: It kind of sounds like you're second-guessing the relationship now.
A: No, we have a great time together. No relationship is perfect.

Review: Paul McCartney, Perry Farrell

Paul McCartney 'Memory Almost Full': Aidin Vaziri | Paul McCartney is at his best when things are at their worst. Just look at all the pop majesty produced by the metaphorical punch-ups with John and Yoko -- then take a moment to consider the dreadful bile that came once he got his old rival out of his hair and contentment crept in: "Tug of War," "Pipes of Peace" and -- shield your ears! -- "Give My Regards to Broad Street." After two decades of creative floundering, his wife Linda passed away, former Beatles bandmate George Harrison became terminally ill and McCartney once again produced a minor masterpiece in 2001's dark and brooding "Driving Rain." But then he found temporary true love in model Heather Mills and got all cutesy again with 2005's "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard." So every horrible story that has appeared in the tabloids since their relationship went kaput last year has been cause for guilt-ridden celebration. Poor Paul! Hooray us! The payoff is in "Memory Almost Full," a vividly tuneful throwback to the peak of Wings, when McCartney had just discovered his personal freedom and exacted revenge on the world with enormous rainbow-colored melodies. The best songs here are (in no particular order): "Dance Tonight," "Ever Present Past," "See Your Sunshine," "Only Mama Knows," "You Tell Me," "Mr. Bellamy," "Gratitude," "Vintage Clothes," "That Was Me," "Feet in the Clouds," "House of Wax," "The End of the End" and "Nod Your Head." That's right, all of them. Because 40 years since the release of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," McCartney has finally made another album that is listenable from beginning to end (give or take an "Abbey Road"), only now it's not "When I'm 64" but the dramatic song cycle that climaxes with the mournful "The End of the End," in which he anticipates "a journey to a much better place." The rest of the album, including the single "Ever Present Past" already sees him there, sitting in the clouds, surveying the good old days in dreamy, lovingly constructed tunes like "That Was Me" and "You Tell Me." And surely it's no coincidence that if you scramble the letters in the album title you come up with the dedication, "For My Soul Mate LLM, " which would be the initials of none other than Linda Louise McCartney. Does it get any worse -- or better -- than that?

Perry Farrell's Satellite Party 'Ultra Payloaded': Aidin Vaziri | Perry Farrell has spent the past two decades trying to recapture the cheap glitter and hard-luck glamour that swept through the first two albums by his old band Jane's Addiction. But with every new release it seems that rock's beloved kook only falls further away from his original vision. With Satellite Party, the group he formed with Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt on guitar after the latest Jane's reunion floundered three years ago, he makes another run at hammering together heavy metal riffs with belly dance beats and quasi-mystical lyrics. The results border on parody, but when the guest list that could only be on loan from some horrible Hollywood nightclub shows up -- Fergie, Flea, a long-deceased Jim Morrison -- the whole thing turns into a painful "Saturday Night Live" skit.

Pop Quiz: Tori Amos

Aidin Vaziri | Even by Tori Amos' lofty standards, "American Doll Posse" is a strange album. A concept piece about reclaiming the female psyche and taking on the Christian right, it sees the songwriter transforming herself into five different characters based loosely on the Greek pantheon of goddesses -- Isabel, Clyde, Pip, Santa and, er, Tori -- to sing the 23 songs on the disc. Each one of the make-believe friends also maintains a personal blog and takes turns appearing onstage with the singer as she tours the world. We tried to ask Amos to explain the concept, but it only made things worse.

Tori Amos
Q: It seems like a lot of your fans would just like to hear you get behind the piano again and sing about your own life.
A: They're foolish. If they don't see that I'm singing about my life in these songs then they're not as smart as I've taken them to be all these years.
Q: How are these songs about you?
A: The concepts are about me. What's wrong with a good concept? Didn't you like "Ziggy Stardust"? If you really want to play this game, the girl sitting behind the piano is also a concept. That's an image. I do not stay in a box. You stay around because there's still a mystery and you've been able to keep your private life sacred. My husband doesn't know what the songs are about and he doesn't want to know. He does want a date with each one of the posse, though.
Q: Have you granted him that wish?
A: I'm contemplating it.
Q: Haven't you played dress up before?
A: It's not just dressing up. You have to take on board your character. You have to step into it.
Q: So would you feel funny if he slept with one of the characters?
A: I don't know. I would have to get back to you on that.
Q: You would probably feel funny the next day.
A: I might. But on the other hand I might have been a wise woman and understand better Pip than Polly Harvey.
Q: Why, does he want to sleep with her, too?