If the song “All My Friends” doesn’t become a huge hit this summer, it certainly won’t be from a lack of people trying. Aside from the LCD Soundsystem original, Franz Ferdinand and Velvet Underground alum John Cale also have versions floating around the net.
So let’s get down to it… compare and contrast.
I thought it was just JT speak; but apparently what What Goes Around… really does Comes Around.
After repeatedly having to deal with accusations of plagiarism from people like well ME; I just remembered this afternoon that she’s also gotten a taste of her own medicine.
Putting aside, I’m over the age of ten and actually know who Vanessa Hudgens is; listen to this excerpt and tell me “Come Back To Me” couldn’t just as easily be titled “Complicated”.
Avril Lavigne is fast becoming the Winona Ryder of pop music, she just compulsively steals songs.
First it was her global mega hit “Girlfriend” whose catchy chorus sounds remarkably similar to “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” by the obscure 1970’s pop group The Rubinoos. While, both lyrically and musically the resemblance is uncanny, there’s no way a zygote like Avril Lavigne would have the slightest clue who The Rubinoos were, so you at least wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.
However, now being accused of ripping off the 2003 Peaches song “I’m The Kinda” with a version called “I Don’t Have To Try”; her innocent is a lot less convincing.
Thumbing through the April 13, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, in an interview taken months before this current controversy, Avril herself brings up Peaches; talking about how she first heard her on Marilyn Manson’s tour bus and how Peaches is now “one of my favourite female artists”.
Ok, now given how Avril Lavigne sounds totally lesbian for Peaches’ music; are we honestly supposed to believe she didn’t have “I’m The Kinda” in her head when she was writing her version?
Sorry Avril; it’s really not that “Complicated”.
Anyway, here’s a side by side comparison of the Avril Lavigne and Peaches songs. And you can make up your mind about The Rubinoos song here.
One was married to Kurt Cobain, one was the guitarist for Poison, just don’t ask me which is which. Not to take potshots at Courtney’s looks, but I think Kurt is aging better.
In March, the Red Hot Chili Peppers announced a video competition for their next single, “Charlie“. The band invited their fans to direct their own personal interpretations of the song and send them over. The winning director was presented a couple of days ago on their official YouTube Channel: his name is Omri Cohen, 25, an ex-Israeli who migrated to California a few years back. It appears that Antony Kiedis was so in love with Cohen’s version that he actually started crying while watching it. Must be the age thing.
The winning Charlie video shows a bunch of teenagers driving around the sunny US in a van, meeting a bunch of other teenagers and other weirdos, while basically acting stupid. Yeah, yeah, yeah… it looks like this video was made of several other video scenes - The Smashing Pumpkins‘ 1979 pops to mind, as well as White Zombie’s Thunderkiss 65; even the Pepper’s own Give it Away and Scar Tissue make a tiny appearance in the video - what makes me ponder about the actual reasons for choosing this version. Well, here it is, decide for yourself:
Our favorite version of Charlie is this one - a little bit awkward and twisted, but still unique.
Even before learning Gerald Way was a failed artist and animator before becoming My Chemical Romance’s front man; I assumed he was a comic book fan. I mean their The Black Parade outfits are basically the costume of obscure DC superhero The Ray. So when Dark Horse Comics recently announced that Way would be writing a six-issue series original comic book series entitled “The Umbrella Academy” it wasn’t exactly a shock.
The Umbrella Academy picks up in the lives of seven once child superheroes, after their adapted father, dubiously named “The Monocle”, dies. After they reunited, the seven very different now adults are forced to put aside their various differences after they learn of a plot that threatens the world.
I know, the story seems a little bit too familiar but I can’t fault Gerard Way for his enthusiasm. With comic books apparently his first love, he chose Dark Horse as his publisher because he wanted to draw attention to some of the other great work being produced at a smaller company.
…and this seems guaranteed to draw a whole new audience into comic book shops.
…and the artwork looks great; Brazilian Gabriel Bá adapts a style that’s a cross between Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and a comic book strip.
But the number one reason we should give this comic book a shot is Gerard Way only started working on it after cleaning himself up from his, you know, chemical romance and noticing he had 9 extra hours of free time each day. How’s that for a marketing slogan?
“Buy my comic or I might relapse!”
Anyway, jokes in poor taste aside, Entertainment Weekly just posted an exclusive three page preview of issue number one, so if you’d like to see more of The Umbrella Academy, you can here.
And we couldn’t be prouder. The British “Rehab” singer who has previously had struggled with anorexia, bulimia, alcoholism, and crystal meth, is seen here singing her signature tune for the first time clean and sober. There have however been unexpected side effects as Winehouse has gone from looking like a drag queen to a middle age lesbian, name drops “my friend Madonna” on a much more regular basis, and seemingly develops Tourette’s anytime the name Elizabeth Hasselbeck is brought up.
In these not-so-troubled times when Britney Spears seems to be taking her skinhead carnival to a higher, much positive level [using second hand wigs and fake smiles (plus actually using underwear - now what do you know!)], the NY Post reports that Christina Aguilera is expecting a baby from her candyman of a husband, Jordan Bratman. I’m pretty excited about this, since it proves us that: a. Christina Aguilera is not made of plastic; b. another baby boom (as in: make a baby, go crazy, sheer entertainment boom) is just around the corner, and that’s always fun.
After watching the British singer’s music video for the hit “Grace Kelly”, I couldn’t help but think; man I really hope this guy is gay because even if he’s not, he’s going to have to go through the rest of his life with everyone thinking he is anyway. Sounding like Freddy Mercury, in fact even name dropping him in the song, naming it after a Hollywood princess, and thematically focusing the song on not wanting to be put in a box; Mika seems to be making an artform out of coming out without technically coming out.
Of course Mika’s gay! Straight guys don’t mind being put in a box, not to put to fine a point on it, but being a straight guy is all about liking box!
In fact, Mika’s use of his sexuality in marketing his music borders on bizarre. While he says he doesn’t want to discuss his personal preference; he’s the one talking about how his song “Billy Brown” is about a man leaving his wife for another man… in an interview… in Out Magazine. Mika, if you want to keep it on the DL that’s cool; but dude, if your trying to divert attention from your sexuality why on earth are you posing on the cover of a magazine called “Out”?
(Musicians… not always the brightest group of people.)
Anyway, straight or gay… this is still a great song.
After a well documented battle with cystic fibrosis; Real World: San Diego cast member Frankie Abernathy finally succumbed to the illness; she was 25. As a huge Real World fan I wish I had something more profound to say about her passing but the truth is the main thing I remember about her is she had a life threatening lung and she still was a chain smoker. Yeah I know she also slit open her wrist with a knife that season, but there was something so casually insane about her nicotine habit that sort of stood out more.
I sort of got the impression that initially she was cast as that season’s Pedro Zamora; you know like “the saint who’s dying of AIDS”, Frankie was supposed to be the sympathetic frail victim, but Abernathy never let it be that simple. In an odd sort of way, I felt like “Punk” Frankie never let the disease define her; she was able to make the same mistakes she would have made had she been healthy. Like I’m not going to paint her compulsive cheating on her boyfriend as heroic but there was something refreshing about seeing her repeatedly screwing up. Because that’s what living people do; people still trying to live their lives are going to make mistakes.
And to be clear it was HER life. On a show of exhibitionists with one eye always on the camera; Frankie actually left taping a few episodes early because she thought dealing with her personal life was more important. There are things more important than TV? I’d never cop to it; but it’s nice knowing that someone thinking it was still out there.
Photo thanks to Tuesdays with Frankie