Backstage Pass

OK, so we knew that the McCain/Palin campaign was going to have a hard time matching the Obama/Biden campaign in terms of musical firepower. But now, the music that they did choose has even become a point of controversy.

Heart sent the McCain campaign a cease-and-desist order yesterday after it started using the band's hit "Barracuda" as VP candidate Sarah Palin's theme song. Yet the campaign still used it last night after McCain's acceptance speech to introduce Palin.

"I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented," Heart's Nancy Wilson told EW.com after the speech. "I feel completely [expletive] over."

In a statement, the band said: "Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women."

Surely, the Republicans could find someone other than Big & Rich who would allow them to use their music.

PHOTO: Heart from www.heart-music.com

Memo to Atlantic Records: This isn't going to work.

Spurred by the weird success of Kid Rock's "Rock and Roll Jesus" album after it decided to pull the single "All Summer Long" from iTunes, they've decided to see how far they can push this program by pulling Estelle's hit "American Boy" from the online retailer as well.

Now, forgive me for stating the obvious, but Kid Rock and Estelle are nowhere near alike. The people who got buffaloed into buying Kid Rock's album are older, richer, less tech-savvy and actually know who he is because he's been a star for a decade now.

Estelle, on the other hand, appeals to a younger crowd. They can ask their friends who bought the MP3 to send them a copy since it's been available for months. They know how to find "American Boy" on the P2P sites. And, most of all, they know a ploy to separate them from their cash when they see it. 

All that great work that Estelle and Atlantic's promotions staff did patiently pushing the song up the charts and establishing her as a hot new artist is at jeopardy now, essentially on a business-side dare.

"American Boy" was poised to crash the Top 10 last week, but because of the stunt -- and the corresponding lack of sales caused by getting yanked from online stores -- it slipped to No. 36 instead. The demand for the song was so strong that a knockoff version of the track, hastily done by Studio All-Stars, but available at iTunes, debuted at No. 85. (Maybe Atlantic likes this phenomenon since the online knockoff version of Kid Rock's song by Hit Masters is at No. 19 this week, six notches higher on the charts than the original.)

Even if this strategy works and convinces a fraction of "American Boy" fans to take a chance on Estelle's album "Shine," it still taints the purchase with the uneasy feeling of getting forced into it – a pity seeing as "Shine" is one of the year’s best albums and is already a finalist for the Britain’s Mercury Prize. If it fails, it cheats Estelle out of a Top 10 hit - or more - for no good reason.

As Barack Obama completed his acceptance speech last night and awaited the fireworks (literally and figuratively), country duo Brooks and Dunn's "Only in America" provided the surprising soundtrack. It was a way to say, "Game on," since the duo played it live for President George W. Bush at his 2004 convention in New York. But symbolically, it means more.

Obama has been using U2's "City of Blinding Lights" since the Iowa caucuses, which was actually an inspired choice. Adding "Only in America," the sound of Red State America, to his campaign is equally inspiring, a song that echoes both the U2 song's theme and the "Only in America, where we dream as big as we want to" theme of Obama's entire presidential bid. It was a Big Tent Moment that will be hard to duplicate. For John McCain to pull off something equivalent, he'd have to pick something from Jay-Z's catalog for his campaign and we know how likely that is.

Our pal and boss Kevin Amorim has a big bundle of stuff in the Newsday about Michael Jackson's 50th birthday tomorrow. So that seemed like a good reason to pull out the video for "Scream," which still often serves as my personal office anthem.

On a related note, the folks at PopEater.com have had some interesting results to their recent poll -- with 71 percent of those responding saying the King of Pop has "not a chance" of a comeback. Um, happy birthday!?

On an unrelated note, they also found that 93 percent of those responding to a separate poll say Madonna and her recent anti-McCain statement will have no impact on who they vote for in the presidential election, a number that seemed terrifying to me. In an election where the economy, health care, wars and future wars are the main issues, there are 7 percent of the people who will be swayed by Madonna's thoughts? Yikes.

Politics aside, the Republicans will have a tough time beating the soundtrack to the Democratic convention next week. Sen. Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency has already inspired much of music's A-list to create tributes to him, many of which are being unveiled this week. (That's not even counting will.i.am's primary boost "Yes We Can.")

Below are a few selections:

Dave Stewart, "American Prayer"

In the middle of convention-mania, there are sure to be some head-scratching combinations of musicians and politicians, but this one will be hard to beat. John McCain and Daddy Yankee? Huh? Obviously, Daddy Yankee was won over by McCain's "Gasolina" policy. (The best part of this video is when the bored crowd behind McCain gets all ZOMG! when Daddy Yankee arrives.)

   The season premiere of “Making the Band 4" last night pushed in one direction, while human nature pulled us all in another one. Diddy wants everyone to know that Donnie Klang’s debut “Just a Rolling Stone” arrives in stores on Sept. 2. The first single is “Take You There” featuring, well, Diddy, and it’s actually the theme song for the season apparently.
    “In case, this is your first time here, we make bands here,” Diddy explains. “They make albums and those albums go to No. 1... Donnie, his album hasn’t come out yet, but it comes out Sept. 2. Hopefully you guys will make it – what? – No. 1, my favorite number.”
    The push for Levittown’s Klang aside, the episode was really about the surprise return of choreographer Laurie Ann Gibson, who had a massive on-camera blowout with Puff, resulting in her leaving the show last season. But she’s back and fiery – in a Debbie Allen in “Fame” way – as she tries to whip Day 26 into shape.
    “How are you guys Brokedown Palace already?” she asks.
    Danity Kane is in rehearsals as well, but nothing as drama-filled as Laurie Ann’s sessions, though Aubrey does get kicked in the face at one point during an errant flip.
    In the end, it’s all a set up to Diddy vs. Laurie Ann, which comes at the end, and they agree to disagree – though in a way that’s meant to portend future drama this season between them.

PHOTO: Donnie Klang has a new album coming out. Photo from MTV.

The best thing about "Escape from Rehab" -- a new minigame promoting the "Disaster Movie" spin-off from the "Scary Movie" parody series -- is that it makes Amy Winehouse look kinda awesome.

Yeah, the underlying "joke" is about her druggie persona and her habit of walking around London looking, um, undone. But in the game, she comes off as a kind of an obscenity-spouting superhero, taking on some of the summer's stars -- the Hulk, Iron Man, a cosmo-carrying Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City" -- throwing various drugs or head-butting them with her trademark beehive, as she struggles to get to her beloved husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

Winehouse has a long road ahead of her, dealing with her addictions and other personal problems. But the game does show her as a force to be reckoned with and, in the end, she does conquer all. Hopefully that will happen in her real life as well. [Below, a reminder of how amazing Winehouse is musically.]

When the folks behind the new Will Ferrell comedy "Step Brothers" wanted to make their upcoming movie seem a bit edgier, they turned to LCD Soundsystem's "North American Scum," one of last year's best, yet undiscovered, songs, as their anthem. When the "Pineapple Express" guys looked to reach a hipper audience for the Seth Rogen film, they picked up M.I.A.'s great "Paper Planes" single for their campaign.

It's a matchmaking trend born from Apple's iPod commercials' successes and the failures of commercial radio and major labels. When big advertising campaigns can generate unexpected hits for the likes of Yael Naim and the Ting Tings, it becomes pretty clear that what those songs (and so many others) needed was exposure for success, not different music. And exposure is supposed to be the one thing major labels can bring to new artists, with the help of their relationships in commercial radio, that the Internet distribution companies can't. Oh. Whoops.

The success of these indie-leaning songs points out an even bigger problem with commercial radio, though. What does it say about their folks who are supposed to be finding great new music for their listeners when it turns out that advertising folks and marketers often have better ears for mainstream hits than them?

"Pineapple Express" trailer (which even has a nod to the gun sounds that MTV made M.I.A. remove from her video)

With all Alison Moyet has going on these days, there wasn’t enough room in yesterday’s article for all her great opinions about the current state of pop music.

    “Music has become so heavily R&B influenced, you know? As a kid, I was listening to soul music by the greats. You just hear those influences filtering their way into every field of pop music to the point where you’ve got these kids doing all the acrobatics and have none of the soul. It really tires me and it tires my ears. And I really hanker for straight melody, so there’s almost a bit of rebellion in what I’ve been doing in the last few years, which is to hold a note... Now you just feel like they’ve missed the point. They’ve lost the finesse. They’ve obliterated melody with acrobatics. They just don’t understand how it’s sourced, where it’s come from. They’re just doing all the embellishments and none of the meat of the song.
    “It’s a very different environment. There are so many who have come out of stage school, which in the ‘80s, in the time of post punk never would have happened. My only complaint with the current crop is that you hear too strongly their education and their influences. While lots of things we did in the ‘80s were rubbish, it was about making your own mistakes. If my hair was rubbish, it’s because I did it. If my clothes were rubbish, it’s because it was all I could afford. There weren’t any stylists then. There was no one designing you for an audience. There’s a lot of talent there, but I find singers more interesting after they’ve had a few years under their belt. That I feel self-conscious about saying, because I have, and I feel like I’m suiting my own argument, but I do genuinely find women more interesting once they’ve past their thirties.
    “You had more room for freaks. When you look at pop stars from the ‘80s, there’s very few that you would classically class as beautiful. More often than not, it wasn’t the beautiful people that became the most interesting people, because they weren’t the ones who were always challenged growing up. That’s where art comes from, subversive and difficult experience.”

PHOTO: Alison Moyet for Decca Records

OK, so I'm still absorbing the new Girl Talk album, but it reminded me of this mashup of The Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" over the guitar riff from The Smiths' "This Charming Man," resulting in "This Charming Back" (?!)

It's been amusing to watch Coldplay grow into one of the most controversial bands around because there's really no reason for it. Seemingly inspired by equal parts Radiohead, U2 and soft-rock playlists, Chris Martin generally writes nice-rock anthems that sound good in big arenas and dentists' offices. What exactly is wrong with that?

Here's a look at some of their best work:

5. "Fix You" (Live at Live 8)

In deference to last night's wild weather at Jones Beach, R.E.M. opened its show with Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" and its own "So. Central Rain." Michael Stipe said that they thought about doing the lovely "I'll Take the Rain," but "it's seven minutes long and kind of plodding." Aww. They really could have done an entire weather-themed, water-related set and been just fine. Should we talk about the weather? Aye, aye, aye.

Top 5 R.E.M. Water-Related Songs (a.k.a. Some Suggestions for Next Time):

5. "I'll Take the Rain" (Live at 99X)

    So many companies have succeeded in using music downloads to generate buzz and/or sales for everything from sodas to computer hardware that the trend has reached a new frontier: women’s toiletries.
    First, Caress used a free download of head Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger’s version of Duran Duran’s “Rio” to promote its new Brazilian Exotic Oil Infusions Body Wash – a decision that seemed even iffier after people actually heard the breezy, Brazilian version of “Rio” on caressbrazilian.com.
    Now, Degree is taking it one step further. They’re using “High School Musical” star Ashley Tisdale to promote their new Degree Girl anti-perspirant line and they’re hoping to get girls to buy the deodorants to get a code that will let them download music from degreegirl.com. The Tisdale songs available on the site include her versions – recorded exclusively for Degree – of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and Cathy Dennis’s “Too Many Walls.”
    The real draw, though, is Tisdale’s oddly techno take on Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” which could quickly become the target for next-generation “Rickrolling” pranksters. Who knows? With that kind of viral support, Degree may find itself with a hit on its hands.

PHOTO: Ashley Tisdale for Warner Bros. Records.
   

The pics on the left are from Mariah Carey's new video "Bye Bye," shot in March and reportedly the first time she met Nick Cannon. The pic on the right is from this week's People magazine, in stores on Friday, where she confirms to the magazine that the couple got married at her Bahamian home on April 30. Wow.

Now I'm the first to admit that I thought this was some weird, elaborate practical joke/publicity stunt to drum up interest in "Bye Bye," which, frankly, didn't need it. It just seemed out of character for the driven, methodical Mariah to do something so impulsive -- and in the middle of her album rollout, no less. And yet she did it. "I never felt a love like this was in the cards for me," she tells People.

Mimi must really be emancipated now. Good for her.

Check out the "Bye Bye" video, which could pretty much double for their wedding video anyway, below. 

Not to get all psychic, but I'm going to guess that the question on most New Yorkers' minds this weekend will be: "Why on earth is the Empire State Building lit up in lavender, pink and white?"

The answer, of course, is: Mariah Carey.

To celebrate the No. 1 debut of the Greenlawn native's "E=MC2" album this week, the Empire State Building will get all dolled up in the album's lavender, pink and white color scheme from Friday night till Monday morning.

PHOTO: An unlit Empire State Building by the State of New York.

Anyone else wonder where Leona Lewis' British accent goes when she sings about how she keeps bleeding, keeps-keeps bleeding love?

She does too, actually. "I’ve always sang that way," she told me. "My accent is much more prominent when I speak. I was classically trained so the vowels that I sing are much more open because I think it has a better sound."

But she also says it could be that so many of her musical influences -- like Mariah Carey -- were American.

More from my chat with Leona here. 

PHOTO: J Records 

Leona Lewis sets out to conquer America [Newsday] 

By animating it, a few of his characters get to come to life, though the animation he conjures in our heads on songs like "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart" is probably better.

Carll's debut is in stores on Tuesday. He plays Bowery Ballroom on May 1.

Watch movie

The one-two punch – “Living Well Is the Best Revenge” and “Man-Sized Wreath” – that opens R.E.M.’s new album “Accelerate” is its most potent in more than a decade, a sure sign that the band is shaking off whatever issues have plagued them on recent albums.

But it doesn’t quite break into the Top 5 openers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers’ impressive history. Here’s a look at the band’s best opening salvos:

5. Reckoning (1984, IRS): “Harborcoat” and “7 Chinese Brothers” helped define what the “college rock” movement of the mid-‘80s would become. They were songs that were as brainy and sentimental as an auditorium filled with English majors, but they also managed to still rock hard enough to hold their own against the tough guys.

She's known as the kid sister of Rufus, but Martha Wainwright is an artist in her own, er, wright. Anyone who saw Rufus's two-day Judy Garland tribute at Carnegie Hall in 2006 will remember how little Martha not only stole the spotlight during her wild, audacious version of "Stormy Weather" but also brought the amazed crowd to its feet.

Now Martha is following her eponymous debut disc with "I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too" (Zoe/Rounder), to be released June 10. (She likes attention-grabbing titles: She once released an EP whose title was merely a string of vulgarities.) The disc is a star-studded affair, featuring Pete Townshend, Donald Fagen, Garth Hudson and, of course, Martha's famous mother and aunt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle.

Check out a new track, "You Cheated Me," up for a limited time at Martha's MySpace page, which also features a live recording of "Stormy Weather."

Local musicians are up in arms about Newsday's coverage of "Kristen," the high-priced prostitute who brought down Eliot Spitzer and who also happens to be an aspiring singer.

Targets of rage include Kristen, Newsday, the mass media and the music industry in general. Here are some sample comments from the Long Island Music Scene message booard on Yahoo!:

"Now we all know how hard it is to get reviewed by Newsday, oddly enough, if you're Eliot Spitzer's call girl, they will promote your music. ...this is a slap in the face to those of us who are busting our ----, to see ourselves passed over, only to see someone on the front page who took the easy way out."

"Contrary to some folks' belief that newspapers exist to serve the public (and that may actually have been true long, long ago), they exist, in reality, to make money... Most of us here do what we do musically because it's who and what we are. We do it for the joy of it all. I refuse to let the stupid stuff that goes on all around it spoil that joy for me."

"All valid points, it's just disheartening as a woman in music...is this how far we've come? It used to be you had to dress or act like a 'ho' to make it in music. These days, I guess you actually have to be one... I'm also disheartened at the sympathy this girl is getting...people forget she's a criminal, she broke the law and belongs in jail, not on the radio or on MTV."

"Unfortunately this is OUR fault! This generation is so caught up with 'celebrity' that untalented people can now make a living by just showing up somewhere for a fee, ala Hilton, Federline, etc... I gave up Newsday about 3 months ago and feel better about myself not supporting a rag that basically ignores the real Long Island Music Scene."

"Just to add insult to injury, AM New York reported that this girl has sold over 2 million copies of her song online in the last week. Unbelievable!!!"

A singer-songwriter, violinist and guitarist, Joan Wasser has been part of New York's indie-rock scene for years. Though initially overshadowed by her relationship with Jeff Buckley -- they were dating at the time of his death in 1997 -- she's since made a name for herself playing with Rufus Wainwright, Joseph Arthur, Antony and The Johnsons and Sparklehorse. Her own band, Joan as Police Woman, is set to release a new album, "To Survive," on Cheap Lullaby Records on June 10.

Wasser earned rave reviews for her previous disc, "Real Life," and her strong-yet-fragile voice should have made her a contender with the Feists and Cat Powers of the world. She may have a shot at the title with this next disc, at least judging by the beautiful, smoky first single, "To Be Loved."

Check out that track at Wasser's MySpace page here, or watch her charmingly odd video for "Eternal Flame," from the previous album, below.

Wasser will play a one-off show May 14 at The Mercury Lounge in Manhattan.

Jeff Buckley, who died in 1997 at the age of 30, is back on the charts this week.

Buckley's song "Hallelujah" entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at No. 1 with 178,000 downloads, according to Billboard.biz, which also noted that his 1994 album "Grace" debuted at No. 10 on the top Pop Catalog Albums chart, selling 7,000 copies.

If Buckley were still with us, he'd have to thank "American Idol." The contestant Jason Castro recently performed the song, originally written and sung by Leonard Cohen, on the show.

Buckley, the son of the troubled troubadour Tim Buckley, who also died prematurely at the age of 28, was a singular presence in the grunge-based rock scene of the 1990s. With his haunting, almost almost feminine voice and a penchant for wild electric guitar solos, Buckley became a cult item who seemed poised -- but not fated -- to break into the mainstream. His version of Cohen's "Hallelujah," which he often stretched into a 10-minute-plus epic in concert, became the definitive version of the song for a generation.

Buckley may well maintain his posthumous chart success next week. When Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, the Irish singer Damien Rice performed yet another version of "Hallelujah."

See the video for the song here, or visit the Buckley site, apparently still maintained by Columbia Records, here.

After news leaked that Fox Searchlight chose 27-year-old Jamal Woolard, known as Gravy on the mixtape circuit, to play The Notorious B.I.G. in its upcoming biopic, I decided to hunt him down on MySpace.

There appear to be two heavy-set rappers named Gravy listed -- what are the odds? -- but I am pretty sure I found the right one, given that he's labeled his head-shot with the Biggie-like slogan "Still Ready To Die." Check it out:

http://www.myspace.com/freigo

Is his flow good enough to play Biggie? You be the judge.

Billboard.com asked more than a dozen artists to pick the best music of 2007 and got some fairly typical answers -- all the indie bands love each other, it seems -- but some of the responses were surprising.

Who knew, for instance, that Jessica Simpson likes the ethereal Icelandic composers Sigur Ros and the hipster electro-rock band Mute Math? "American Idol" runner-up Katharine McPhee put Radiohead's spacey latest, "In Rainbows," at the top of her list. Ozzy Osbourne voted for Paul McCartney's mellow "Memory Almost Full" (along with Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" and The White Stripes' "Icky Thump.") And what were the baby-faced Jonas Brothers doing at a Genesis concert, which made their top three?

Other artists' lists come off as suspiciously "eclectic." The classical pianist Lang Lang, for instance, cited Pavarotti, Bocelli, Chris Botti, Norah Jones -- and Kanye West. By contrast, Babyface didn't even try to stretch: He chose Colbie Callait, Maroon 5, Chrisette Michele and Amy Winehouse.

PHOTO: Billboard.com 

Here in the New York area, radio stations switched to the ever-popular holiday format around Thanksgiving. You wouldn't think people wanted to hear "Jingle Bell Rock" over and over and over, but in fact they love it. Stations say their holiday format invariably boosts ratings, which means it's popular with advertisers, too.

Billboard first started tracking the holiday chart back in 2001, not long after radio stations invented the format, and it recently released the latest numbers. Despite a few obvious chart-toppers, like Burl Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas," there are a couple of surprises.

One is the complete absence of anything by Josh Groban in the Top 30, despite a No. 1 Christmas album, "Noel."  Could it be that even carol-humming housewives have gotten sick of him? Another shocker is that Wham! UK's "Last Christmas" didn't make the Top Ten, despite being, like, the best holiday track ever. Also, if you're sick of hearing Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" every year, you are mostly alone -- it's at No. 13.

Here are the top ten songs on the Billboard Hot Holiday Songs chart:

1.  Brenda Lee, "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" (MCA)

2. Bobby Helms, "Jingle Bell Rock" (Decca)

3. John Lennon and Yoko Ono, "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" (Capitol)

4. Burl Ives, "A Holly Jolly Christmas" (MCA)

5. Mariah Carey, "All I Want for Christmas is You" (Columbia)

6. Nat King Cole, "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)" (Capitol)

7. Eagles, "Please Come Home For Christmas" (Asylum)

8. Jose Feliciano, "Feliz Navidad" (RCA)

9. Bing Crosby, "White Christmas" (MCA)

10. Andy Williams, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" (Columbia)

And just in case you've forgotten how good it really is:

An enjoyable way to pass the time is Liam Finn's Lightning Game, a cute, almost emo-style video game in which the object is to keep the stars in the sky -- awww. But you do run the risk of being electrocuted to death.

It's basically a promotional Web gimmick for Finn (son of Neil Finn, of Split Enz and Crowded House), who's been drawing rave reviews for his one-man, multi-instrumental shows. His album, "I'll Be Lightning" has only been released in Australia (where he was born) and New Zealand (where he was raised), but is scheduled to come out in the U.S. on Jan 22 through Yep Roc Records.

Check out the Lightning Game, whilst listening to Finn's music, of course, here.

PHOTO: Shore Fire Media