earsucker

Poor guy, this version of the song was sucky:

I think he was trying to throw it…can someone suck so much on purpose?

Written for the American Idol Songwriter’s Competition, Scott Krippayne and Jeff Peabody came together to compose this very unique song. To be recorded by the next American Idol, Peabody had this to say:

“I’m looking forward to being able to download one of my songs,” says Peabody, a church pastor who wrote the song with Scott Krippayne, a member of his New Day Church congregation. “It’s just very surreal. Something that was just an idea a few weeks ago has blossomed into this huge thing.”

“This is my now” (Lyrics)

There was a time I packed my dreams away.
Living in a shell, hiding from myself.

There was a time when I was so afraid.
I thought I’d reached the end,
Baby that was then
I am made of more than my yesterdays.

This is my now, and I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts
That was then, this is my now.

Had to decide
was I going to play it safe
or look somewhere deep in inside
try to turn the tide
and find the strength to take that step of faith

This is my now, and I am breathing in the moment.
I look around I can’t believe the love I see.
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts.
That was then, this is my now.

And I have the courage like never before, yeah.
I’ve settled for less but I’m ready for more,
Ready for more.
This is my now

I’m living in the moment
As I look around I can’t believe the love I see.
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts.
That was then, this is my now.

I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around
Can’t believe the love I see
My fears behind me, gone are the shadows and doubts
That was then.
This is my now.
This is my now.

In this mini-series, up until tomorrow night, I’ll be giving my commentary before and after the show. Part One was my thoughts prior to seeing tonight’s show and this part will be my review.

Tonight’s show started off with Blake Lewis doing his rendition of “You give love a bad name” by Bon Jovi. Again, he beatboxed the heck out of it and gave it some true originality.

Following that showing, Jordin Sparks did Christina Aguilera’s popular upbeat track, “Fighter”. She gave it her all and was decent.

Round one went to Blake by everyone’s standards. And was it me or did Paula seem like she was jacked up on some serious painkillers? And what on earth was Randy wearing?!??

Next up, they were tasked with doing one of their favorite songs. Blake started this round off with “She will be loved” by Maroon 5. He didn’t knock this one out of the park, by any means.

Jordin one-upped him with “A broken wing”, which she had previously sung. She killed Blake with this song, hands down. Heck, she should, she’s been singing it since she was twelve.

Round two went to Jordin.

Finally, they both gave their renditions of the song written by the winners of the songwriting competition, “This is my now”. Blake was bland and Simon even suggested that he be judged by his first two performances. Jordin had her way with the song and shined with her vocal style and talent. It was almost as if this song was written for her.

Round three also went to Jordin.

We’ll see what happens, but my guess is that Jordin’s going to win. (Melinda should’ve been in her place!!)

Paula Abdul broke her nose recently, trying not to land on her Chihuahua, Tulip.

Abdul, 44, told syndicated entertainment TV show “Extra” that she tore cartilage in her nose and fractured a toe.

“I took a nasty fall … trying not to hurt my dog. I bruised myself on my arm … my chest, my waist all the way down to my hip. All from my little chubby Tulip,” she said.

I’m of the opinion that she had a nose job and wants to cover that crap up.

Or, was she drunk? Only Paula knows for sure.

Update:She pitched a hissy fit.

I was perusing through TMZ and came upon this article and video, showing Sanjaya Malakar is actually a character made up by an art student named Bill Vendall.

I don’t know if this is a fake or not. It could be a cry for attention, but what if it’s real and this kid actually went through all of the trouble of faking his Sanjaya-ness for an Art grade?

I couldn’t embed the video, so you can check it out here.

Tonight is part one of the American Idol finale. Having Melinda Doolittle out of the way, I can ask this: Does anyone still care? I know I’ll be watching it, just because I have to put my two cents into anything related to music.

But honestly, the American public has already voted off most of the major talent from the show. The end result is that the sixth American Idol is going to be a mediocre kid with half of the real talent of ousted Melinda or Lakisha. Ya gotta know that Melinda was really wanting to win this thing, too, the woman has heart.

So, I’ll tell you what I will be boycotting: the sales of any Blake Lewis or Jordin Sparks music.

Jaclyn Nesheiwat, former Miss New York declined to give any comment when her husband, former frontman for the rock band, Creed, was arrested Sunday night.

Authorities in Boca Raton said as of Sunday night, Stapp was being held without bond. Jail officials said Stapp was charged with one count of domestic assault with intent to commit a felony.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Paul Miller said no one was injured and no one was taken to the hospital. Miller declined to identify the victim and said he had no information about any physical violence.

What a jerk. Like we can’t assume what happened. He had INTENT to commit a felony…and he was arrested….hmmm…then nobody comments on it? I think he should count himself lucky that Jaclyn is still married to him.

Someone needs to slap the holy bejeezus out of this clown. I still appreciate what Creed has given to the musical community, but, Scott Stapp, I have no respect for.

Even though the media is abuzz about Kelly’s tiff with Clive Davis, I still believe that Kelly is standing her ground in having her new album just the way she wants it.

I have to applaud that, it’s not everyday that you see an artist standing up and saying that they’re sticking to their guns. Get ‘em Kelly. I really like her new song, “Never Again” (video here) in which she gives that angsty performance and revenge-like feel to her ex-boyfriend. That’ll teach you (and you know who you are) to treat Kelly badly.

And did I mention, I love those earrings? Rock on, rocker chick, I’m behind ya…

I read this over at CNN and was kinda baffled:

She was an “amazing talent,” a young singer with a wonderful voice who wrote beautiful songs. But she was no beauty, plus flat-chested and overweight to boot.

Remembering the aspiring star, music executive Jody Gerson still feels terrible about thinking: “She’s never going to get signed, even though she’s fabulous.”

They compared the two great wonders that American Idol ousted, Lakisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle, to the two remaining contestants, Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks. Saying that Lakisha and Melinda were the two real talents of the show was indeed an understatement. Their talent alone should’ve been enough to end them up in the final two, but unfortunately, it appears that their look is not what the music industry is looking for.

I pride myself on oncovering some real talent, here and there, for my own amusement. I don’t care if you’re fat, skinny, or have a third arm. If you have talent, then you’re going to be on my Ipod.

That’s why when Melinda or Lakisha come out with a CD, I’ll be jumping on that. So what if one was compared to Shrek and the other one is picked on for having a gap in her teeth. So what if they don’t fit the industry standard of what’s hot. They fit into my idea of what a real singing competition should be, and that’s talent. I closed my eyes and listened to the entertainers on that stage while they sang their hearts out, and that’s what America should do, too.

Suck it, Avril.

Per Fark, I found these nifty little instrumentals by the Beastie Boys. Are they trying to get out of a contractual obligation or is this something that they intended to put out?

“The Rat Cage” sounds kind of hipster-groovy to me with a seventies-like feel. Have a listen:

And, here we have “Off The Grid”, which sounds like a totally different sound than what we’re used to hearing from the Beasties. Very slow, melodic, and harmonic. It’s music to groove to, as well. I like both, but part of me is still waiting on Mike D to bust out rapping.

Check it out:

I meandered on over to PerezHilton for daily dose of gossip, cuz yeah, I read that hag’s nonsense. It’s funny and sad at the same time about what happened to Britney Spears at her latest appearance:

Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong at Britney Spears’ concert at the House of Blues in Orlando on Saturday night. We all know that Britney does not sing live, but the worst possible thing that could happen to a lipsyncher happened to Britney – her CD with her prerecorded vocals started skipping!!! – multiple sources reveal to PerezHilton.com.

This happened not just once. Not just twice. But four to five times! During her performance of “Do Something”.

“Several people in the audience started booing,” says one of our spies in attendance. “It was not pretty!”

Come one, come all, see the train-wreck in progress! Poor little Britney, who’s going to buy your CDs now. Dumb!

Ladies, what’s wrong with this picture when you’re a celebrity and a half-way decent singer, but you feel the need to sing and dance around in your panties? No class, pure and simple. I’m sure all of her guy fans are all gaga over this crap, but as a woman, I have to say that this move totally and utterly lacks class and shows that she has to distract her fans from her lack of talent.

Poor girl. I used to like Brooke Hogan, too. Brooke, your dead to me.

What a great, twisted video, ya gotta love it. Charlie Drown rocks. Also, in case you missed it, my exclusive Charlie Drown interview.

Check out this video:

I’ve been listening to Charlie Drown all morning long, get thy butt to iTunes and pick up these tracks, it’s definitely worth it. “Love Dragons” and “Painkiller Lullaby” are my favorites. She just has an awesome, powerful voice. Backed by some wicked guitar licks and rockin’ beats, it’s the best bang for your bucks. If you don’t believe me, check out their myspace page.

There isn’t an official video for this song yet, but someone has taken the reins and uploaded it to you YouTube anyways. I’m listening to it right now as I write this and I must say, “What?”

Is Madonna tone deaf? This is not generally her style, but I guess she doesn’t need to do it for the money. Thank God she’s donating some of the proceeds for this to charity, I’d just hope that people actually download this crap, for the cause (ONLY).

I guess this is what happens when megastars think they can do whatever the heck they want. They get all creative-crazy and come out with BS like this.

Enjoy, because I sure didn’t!

American Idol has the formula down for making you want to watch that nonsense. Recently, they sent home Melinda Doolittle, who has a gargantuan amount of talent, in lieu of two younger, less-talented kids, Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks.

Melinda Doolittle gave it her all on last week’s show and blew them both away, but American Idol can’t turn it’s back on their younger, more popular, audience base: 12-30 year-olds. The 12-year old girls like Blake Lewis and the rest of them think that Jordin Sparks is SO talented. Just shoot me, really let’s get down to the reality of the matter.

Check this out:

Truth to tell, though, this has not been a good year on the most popular reality TV show in the world, and there are signs that its stranglehold on North American youth is loosening. Early in the season critics complained that Fox Television, which produces and broadcasts the show in the U.S., had sunk to a new low when it aired the embarrassing audition footage of a young man who appeared to be mentally handicapped. This spring, the performance segments used to winnow down the top singers were notable not for the stellar talent but rather for a running battle between the notoriously nasty British judge Simon Cowell and the sweet but musically incompetent Sanjaya Malakar.

You see the formula here? They pick the less talented people to give us that wonderful entertainment of seeing Simon rip them to shreds on national television. We all like the bad guy, so we watch. We watch to see what the Sanjayas are going to do next and what the judges will say. We watch to see how drunk Paula acts and to hear how snarky Simon gets.

Is it centered around real talent? No, it’s centered around who will give Fox the most entertainment bang for their buck.

Opie and Anthony had a guest caller on their show, who called and talked with them about raping the Secretary of State, the First Lady, and the Queen of England.

Have a listen here. (Warning: NSFW at all, turn your speakers down low or wear headphones)

Now, my point of all of this is to say that this just pales in comparison to the “nappy headed hoes” comment by Don Imus.

Honestly, dude got fired from CBS radio and here comes Opie & Anthony raping all these high-profile chicks and they only get a thirty day suspension?!? I’m not saying that they should be fired as well, I’m saying that CBS was unjust to Don Imus in firing him. He got on the radio and apologized, jeezus, the guy went to the college and apologized to the “hoes” in person.

If we’re going to have free speech, then give us free speech all the way around! Give us Don Imus and Opie & Anthony and the whole kit and kaboodle…..Don’t censor the hoes but not the rapings.

I hope Don Imus’ lawyer has a field day with this nonsense.

Just my two cents. Where is Al Sharpton now? Sharpton is a hypocrite, plain and simple. He doesn’t come out of the woodwork because it’s two white ladies and one black one?

(Getting off of my soapbox now….back to your regularly scheduled nonsense…)

I just noticed that someone recently submitted my posting for the top 5 funniest music video parodies, to Netscape. This was a list that I enjoyed putting together as it gave me and many others a good laugh.

Please feel free to head on over there and vote for it. I think there is nothing better than bringing comedy to people through music, so I hope all of you enjoyed that post.

I read over at Blabbermouth that Def Leppard’s working title for their newest album is “Sparkle Lounge”.

Say what? I guess I heard that right the first time. Clearly I was expecting something along the lines of Hysteria, Pyromania, or Euphoria. If they name their new album Sparkle Lounge, I’m going to have to clown them for the rest of eternity.

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with Def Leppard. Pyromania was one of the first tapes I ever owned (and I still have it.) If they go all crazy insane and title their new album “Sparkle Lounge”, I’m going to lose a degree of respect for them as artists.

According to reports from FoxNews, John Mayer and Jessica Simpson have split up:

Mayer and Simpson very recently split up, and sources told PerezHilton.com that is was Mayer who broke up with Simpson.

“They officially called it quits this past weekend,” a source told the site. “They’d been having problems for a while now and just decided it’d be better to end things.”

So, no more “Fugs and Jugs” comments from PerezHilton…hmmm?

So, ladies, John Mayer is now a free agent, so to speak….now that he finally realized that Jessica Simpson is a flake…haha

And before I forget, you just have to check out VoodooJive. Billychic has resurrected her song of the day and this one is Curtis Mayfield. I had never heard the song she’s spotlighting today, “Pusherman”, but I’m listening to it now.

It’s a bluesy track and it reminds me of the 70′s in a sort of cool type of way. Check it out.

I also just checked out her mother’s day post, her mom is a total movie star. That rocks! Happy belated Mother’s Day to Ann Wedgeworth from everyone here at Earsucker.

The blues is just one genre of music that I plan to cover in the future. For now, we’ll leave it to Billychic. Rock on!

PS. If you wish to purchase the album by Curtis Mayfield, please use her link.

If you are ever in the mood for a darker sort of music, head on over to DarkDose. Their site is a delightful mix of melancholy and musical darkness. I visit there quite frequently and was really glad that I stumbled across this page recently.

I thought it would be a nice change for visitors of my site to have a dose of the dark musical reviews and commentary that flourishes over there.

They are currently showcasing a band by the name of Ion. This is a band that I’d previously never heard of, but clicked on the “Anathema Amaranatha” link at the bottom for a sample of the music. This is not an actual download, but you can listen to the track via QuickTime.

Upon listening to this song, I was greeted by a slow bit of piano playing and a melodic sort of dark sound. Slowly meandering her way in, the vocalist, Emily Saaen, treated us to words echoed beautifully in Russian. Slow pauses are played out nicely and the way that Emily injects herself into the music is a nice welcome.

This is slow and very well put together. You can purchase the CD via this link.

Oh how I love to find new music.

Adam over at AxPlay has a good post about easy songs to learn to play on the guitar.

I remember learning to play and the first song I learned was “Iron man” by Black Sabbath. After that was “Smoke on the water” by Deep Purple and then, the easiest song I’ve ever learned was “Come as you are” by Nirvana. Check out his post on that for more easier to play songs.

One of the more fun bands I tried to imitate was early Metallica. Learning “Fade to black” and “One” was pretty cool. I felt like a rock star…which is strange because if you saw me, you’d say I resemble a mild-mannered mother of two (but nowhere near a soccer mom). Maybe I was just a rock star in my own mind, or just in the car, as I sing along to my Journey or Survivor songs. I couldn’t carry a tune if I had a bucket, but when you’re in your car, it’s your stage, right?

One band I would’ve loved to shred would’ve been Megadeth, but Dave Mustaine is just too talented for me to mock. I’ll settle for jamming that in my car as loud as I possibly can.

Per a post at Reuters, the sharp-tongued judge stated plainly that he cannot predict who the next American Idol will be:

“I can’t call it at this stage,” Cowell told reporters on a conference call. “For Blake, he’s a brilliant entertainer, but the negative is he’s not a fantastic singer. The advantage for Jordin is she is a great singer and the negative is she hasn’t done one performance yet which I can remember as a ‘wow.’”

Simon Cowell has always been known for his truthfulness and his snarky charm. He really gives the contestants honest comments, and I usually agree with him. On Tuesday’s show when he said that if anyone should be awarded a finalist spot, it should be Melinda Doolittle, I completely agreed with him. Melinda has a certain talent and stage presence that is not matched by Jordin Sparks or Blake Lewis. She will definitely go far and I can imagine that she will outsell both of the two finalists.

Chris Daughtry did it, and Melinda Doolittle will do it in the same vein. Some record label out there is going to pick her up and sell tons of records. She had pizazz and soul, something that both of the remaining contestants lack. Bad move, America, getting rid of Melinda when it should have been Blake to go.

I’m done rambling about this for now, but know this, when Melinda puts out her first record, she’s going to make Blake Lewis look stupid.