Pop Quiz: Maxwell

Pop Quiz: Maxwell

Aidin Vaziri | Like Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo, Maxwell sparked the neo-soul movement just before the turn of the millennium. And just like them, the Brooklyn-born singer who released three platinum studio albums between 1996 and 2001 seemingly vanished. Seven years later, Maxwell returns. He's chopped the Afro and buttoned up the shirt (usually), but that amazing falsetto will still make the hairs on the back of your neck tingle. Maxwell plays Tuesday and Wednesday at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, where he will preview material from his new trilogy, "Black Summers' Night," due early next year.


Maxwell
Q: You were marketed as this kind of sexy lover man. How much of that was really you?
A: You get the photographers. You get the clothes. You get sucked up in the whole experience. Everyone is selling something. In my mind, I don't feel any of that kind of stuff going on. But I think the music makes something happen. Clark Kent becomes something else.
Q: You're looking more and more like Clark Kent these days. Is this the real Maxwell?
A: No. I just changed. I don't know if I could ever stay the same. I never had an Afro before I had an Afro, you know? People who are seeing me now see me as who I used to be before "Urban Hang Suite." It's not always that way. It won't always be this way. Continue reading.

Review: John Legend, 'Evolver'

Review: John Legend, 'Evolver'

John Legend, 'Evolver': Aidin Vaziri | The title must be a joke because John Legend has basically been rewriting the same song over and over since emerging four years ago in a shower of Grammys. The thing is, it's a really good song, so it's hard to begrudge him for rolling out 13 more variations on his third and latest release, "Evolver." He's brought friends such as Kanye West, Andre 3000 and Estelle around to help enliven the mood, but his creamy voice and gauzy grooves still dominate, even through the wafts of cod reggae on "No Other Love" and pseudo club beats of "Green Light." Given the recent work Legend (left at Berkeley's Greek Theatre last year) has done with the Obama campaign, you might have expected his songwriting interests to move beyond 500-thread-count sheets. Not so much. The ladies are still giving him all kinds of problems, mostly, it seems, while horizontal. "You don't love me the way you say you do/ You don't want me the way that I want you," he sings on "Satisfaction" (sadly not a cover of the Stones song), basically summing up not only the thematic thrust of the album but also Legend's entire artistic output. Still, with Smokey Robinson focusing his energies on frozen gumbo and scary contact lenses, it's nice to know that someone is keeping the quiet storm raging on.

Pump Up The Jam Bands

Pump Up The Jam Bands

Aidin Vaziri | Jam bands are great if you want to kick around little leather balls and get off your head to a 20-minute didgeridoo solo, but would you ever actually let one infiltrate your iPod? The latest wave of road warriors actually makes a pretty good case for putting a little jam in your life. Continue reading.

Five Questions for Lance Bass

Five Questions for Lance Bass

Lance Bass on 'Dancing,' eating and Prop. 8: Aidin Vaziri | Lance Bass, a former member of the boy band 'N Sync, is one of the breakout stars in the current season of "Dancing With the Stars." The 29-year-old performer - the first openly gay contestant on the ABC reality show - talks to us about managing the demanding schedule, learning new moves and his preshow eating ritual.

Q: Last week, your former 'N Sync bandmate Chris Kirkpatrick told People magazine you were the worst dancer in the group. What made you want to go on a competitive dancing show?
A: Oh, by far. It's definitely something I'm used to hearing. I just like to challenge myself, like a dummy. I wanted to prove to the guys and everyone else that I could do it and not look like a complete idiot.
Q: As long as Cloris Leachman is around, I think you've got a lot of wiggle room in that department.
A: Very true. She does take a lot of heat away from us. But she's amazing. She's such a hoot backstage. I would love to go to the finals with her. We'll see. Continue reading.

Live Review: Tina Turner at HP Pavilion

Live Review: Tina Turner at HP Pavilion

Still kicking: Aidin Vaziri | As if there was any doubt, the lights blazing above the stage reminded everyone who they were there to see: T-I-N-A. Maybe it was necessary. Eight years ago, Tina Turner officially announced her retirement. At some point, though, she must have realized what a crime it is to keep those legs from doing what they were put on this earth to do. On Sunday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, they seemed to move independently of the 68-year-old singer's miniskirted body - kicking, strutting, shimmying, gliding up and down steep ramps on precarious stilettos and generally behaving as if they were attached to Beyoncé. The legs were really happy to be back. Continue reading.

Pop Quiz: Patti Smith

Pop Quiz: Patti Smith

Aidin Vaziri | Patti Smith doesn't have a new album to plug. She just likes San Francisco, and since it's Arthur Rimbaud's birthday Monday and everything, the New York punk icon thought she would stop by to say hello on her way back home from an international tour. "We'll play whatever people want," says Smith, 61. "I'll ask people waiting outside what they want to hear. We'll do songs from 'Horses.' We'll improvise. We'll make the night." Although, if you're really interested in finding out more about the singer who served as a major source of inspiration for U2, R.E.M., Jeff Buckley, 10,000 Maniacs and KT Tunstall, there is a new documentary, "Patti Smith: Dream of Life." Smith plays Monday at the Warfield.

Patti Smith
Q: Do you like hearing what other people do to your songs?
A: I'd rather see people do their own work. The best thing about that is I get very good royalties. It was great when 10,000 Maniacs did "Because the Night" and I got that check, but I was equally excited when a teenage Chinese punk band did "Rock 'n' Roll N-" and I got 14 cents.
Q: I hope you cashed that check.
A: The best thing is to motivate people to do their own work. I'm not opposed to making money. But I started to play rock 'n' roll to motivate others, to shake things up, wake people up and to let other skinny, pimply marginalized weirdos know they're not alone.
Q: You were the last person to play at CBGB's. What do you miss about it?
A: Nothing. I remember going to Europe and everyone would come up to me and tell me how great they thought CBGB's was. I remember thinking, "Don't be intimidated by it. It's just a little bar that smells like urine. Go build your own. You can have your own little bar that smells of urine." Continue reading.

Review: Keane, 'Perfect Symmetry'

Review: Keane, 'Perfect Symmetry'

Keane, 'Perfect Symmetry': Aidin Vaziri | As far as reinventions go, it's not exactly up there with Radiohead's "OK Computer." But in other ways "Perfect Symmetry" does signal a great leap forward for British piano-rock trio Keane. With singer Tom Chaplin recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, the band best known for the minor-key hit "Somewhere Only We Know" sounds uncharacteristically energized on its third album. Opening track and first single "Spiralling" is all choppy verses and whooping choruses; "Better Than This" reveals a newfound love of Duran Duran-style hand claps and synth effects; and "Black Burning Heart" sounds like one of the band's old-school ballads painted with large swaths of neon pink. The group hasn't entirely walked out of the darkness - feel free to skip "You Don't See Me" and "Love Is the End" if you're feeling particularly suicidal - but at least it's beginning to see the light.

Pop Quiz: Duffy

Pop Quiz: Duffy

Aidin Vaziri | At first people thought Aimee Duffy was a bit like Amy Winehouse, only without all the interesting tattoos and bloody clothes. But with her first album, "Rockferry," the petite singer from a remote Welsh village (who goes by her last name) has become Britain's best-selling artist of the year while handily conquering America with torchy, retro-soul singles such as "Mercy" and "Warwick Avenue." She's already been on the cover of Spin, a musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" and a regular on VH1's weekly video countdown.


Duffy
Q: You're always wearing short dresses. Are there any good revealing pictures of you on the Internet?
A: Lucky for me, that hasn't happened. I was in a photo shoot and I was lying in bed and the assistant photographer was prettying up the sheets around me and he pulled the sheets down and they got way more than I wanted. So there could be some emerging.
Q: That's great news.
A: I don't think my mom will be happy.
Q: Is your mom generally concerned about your dress length?
A: No, she's terrible. She's worse than me. She tells me to go more sexy. In the beginning, I was quite nervous and I was quite prudish. She would say, "You know, you're dressing like a Sunday-school teacher. Go out and show those good legs of yours!" My skirts have gotten shorter with confidence. I hope they don't go any shorter now because I feel I'm at a good point of confidence. She's quite pleased that I'm acting my age. I sometimes can act a little older than I am. When my sister would go out and buy a leather jacket, I would go out and buy a woolen cardigan. Continue reading.

Review: Jon McLaughlin, 'OK Now'

Review: Jon McLaughlin, 'OK Now'

Jon McLaughlin, 'OK Now': Aidin Vaziri | The morning after Jon McLaughlin performed a song from the Disney movie "Enchanted" at the Oscars, sales of his first album, "Indiana," jumped 1,514 percent on Amazon.com. Determined not to lose any of those 1,514 newfound fans, the pinup-worthy Midwesterner has recruited a can't-miss list of producers and co-writers to help out with his follow-up release, including Jason Reeves (Colbie Callait's "Bubbly"), Brett James (Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel") and Tricky and The-Dream (Rihanna's "Umbrella"). Predictably, "OK Now" sounds scientifically engineered for maximum play - not just on the radio and VH1, but in nightclubs, shoe stores, car washes, everywhere. Is it any wonder that the first time you hear tracks such as "Beating My Heart" and "You Can Never Go Back" it actually feels like the millionth?

Review: Oasis, 'Dig Out Your Soul'

Review: Oasis, 'Dig Out Your Soul'

Oasis, 'Dig Out Your Soul': Aidin Vaziri | With expectations amply lowered over the years, any decent Oasis release now seems like a good one. The difference with the group's seventh studio album, "Dig Out Your Soul," and all the disappointment that came between it and the first two, is that it really is kind of good. The Gallagher brothers don't look up from their classic-rock rule book that often, but there's a definite experimental streak that runs through the standard-issue Beatlemania, especially on blurry Noel-penned, Chemical Brothers-influenced tracks such as "The Shock of the Lightning" and "Falling Down." The rest of the disc, featuring contributions from a still-sneering Liam and secondary members Andy Bell and Gem Archer, is predictably spotty, with fresh lyrical atrocities around every corner. But, hey, that's nothing new.

Pop Quiz: Sarah McLachlan

Pop Quiz: Sarah McLachlan

Aidin Vaziri | After taking a few years off to focus on building a family, Sarah McLachlan returns this week with a greatest-hits CD. Featuring two new songs, "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan," also rounds up all the singles that helped the Canadian singer-songwriter sell more than 40 million albums worldwide, including "Adia" and "I Will Remember You." Although McLachlan, 40, prefers spending time with her daughters, 6-year-old India Ann Sushil and 13-month-old Taja Summer, to touring these days, she will make a special appearance at Neil Young's Bridge School benefit concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre.

Q: If you type your name into YouTube, you'll find that people use your songs for everything from funerals to puppy baths.
A: This is why I don't go on YouTube.
Q: Did you ever go into the studio thinking, "I'm going to write a wedding song today"?
A: No. I don't have any expectations when I'm writing. That something that I created can touch people's lives that I don't even know, that's such an amazing gift.
Q: Did you ever wish you could sing like someone else?
A: I wished sometimes that I could sing a little harder, that I could just get a little more edge to my voice.
Q: Have you tried cigarettes and alcohol? Continue reading.

Review: Pussycat Dolls, 'Doll Domination'

Review: Pussycat Dolls, 'Doll Domination'

Pussycat Dolls, 'Doll Domination': Aidin Vaziri | The songs are probably great, or whatever, if you're passed out in a club, but look at what Nicole Scherzinger is wearing on the CD cover. While three-fifths of the other Dolls have sensibly worn leather jackets over their tight-fitting bustiers in order to ride their hogs, Scherzinger, as the only recognizable member of the group, has carelessly left the house wearing nothing but a turquoise bra. She has also neglected to put on a helmet, yet somehow found time to slip on a pair of enormous star-shaped dangling earrings. Doesn't she know you could put an eye out with those things? When you're planning a trip to all those places painted on the road - Los Angeles, Cairo, New York, London and so on - you should probably lay out a sensible outfit on the bed the night before. Some are pretty far away, and you could easily get bugs in your teeth without the proper head gear. What sort of message does she think she's sending out to all those impressionable young girls?

Five Questions for the Presets

Five Questions for the Presets

Five Questions for the Presets:
Aidin Vaziri | The Presets kept the scantily clad throngs moving at the Folsom Street Fair over the weekend, playing songs from their dark-hued second album, "Apocalypso." On Sunday, the Australian electro duo returns to the Mezzanine for a sold-out show. Kim Moyes, who founded the group nearly five years ago with Julian Hamilton, told us what to expect.

Q: Do people typically bite each other at your shows?
A: I've seen people projectile vomit. In Minneapolis there was a guy dressed in head-to-toe in green Lycra. You know when people crowd surf and the crowd get bored and just drop them? This guy was passed around the whole crowd like he was some kind of god.
Q: On a scale of 1 to 1,000, how insane was touring Australia with Daft Punk?
A: It was really good. The show was huge. Our single "My People" had just come out and it was a real big stepping stone for us in our career. It was sweet. But, to be honest, I haven't been able to listen to Daft Punk since.Continue reading.