American Idol Finale Part II, running diary!

I'm watching a commercial-free version, so this will be organized by segments. I managed to avoid the internet for the entire day after the finale so that I wouldn't find out who won, so these are truly "live", unbiased thoughts. Going in, I really had no firm idea about who would win Season Eight, making this a coin flip that we haven't seen the likes of since Season 2 (Clay vs Ruben).

1. There were 624 million votes cast this season, 100 million from last night alone. WOW. "The thing for me for you for me" ... ha, it's good to know that they recognize that Randy Jackson is a glorified Speak and Spell and are willing to exploit the humour in that. And why is Randy dressed like Urkel? Those glasses!

It is a somewhat interesting that Paula made an effort to not just be a cheerleader this season, and to be a bit more eloquent this season. Funny how she stepped up her game when Kara joined, because wasn't the plan for Paula to continue being a flake so that Kara could be the insightful one?

The top 13 commit murder against Pink's "So What", this was some serious summer camp talent show singalong material. I see that Jasmine Murray still sucks and can't sing her one line in tune.

2. David Cook belts out a scream-filled power ballad. I hope people download the heck out of it to raise money for cancer research, but unfortunately the song blew, and his voice sounded shaky and strained throughout. At least he screamed at proper moments in the song, and saved his voice for the big, majestic phrases in the chorus. Adam Lambert fans take note. In the meantime, AI found Justin Guarini under a rock and stuck him in the audience!

Now the AI version of toilet humour starts with the first of the silly "awards" segments. This Outstanding Male category is obviously a preamble to a Nick Mitchell appearance. I still think that they hugely missed the boat with this guy, sure he might have broken the show but it takes talent to pull off this psycho vaudeville shtick and unlike Adam Lambert, when Nick screams randomly and goes OTT, he's doing it for laughs.

3. Lil Rounds hits the stage full of fire, showing the kind of energy that made her look like a front runner during the semifinals, but then Queen Latifah, whose totally bland voice is completely unsuited for a song like this, appears and sucks all the life from the stage.

4. Why is Jason Mraz on stage and Kris Allen is not?? Because Kris had to get ready to sing with ... Keith Urban? The bloody hell????

But I have to admit that the two of them have fantastic chemistry onstage. Kris is the real "sing the phone book" contestant because you could basically put him on stage with anybody and he'd fit in. He could credibly guest on an impressive variety of records in a bunch of different genres, unlike Adam who would fit in with My Chemical Romance and that's about it.

5. Allison gets to introduce Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas. I guess this is her consolation prize for being the highest placing girl and being forced to hang with this chorus line of stiffs. Poor Allison.

6. More dumb awards, as Kara gets schooled during the Bikini Girl audition and is put in her place by the other judges for the first (but far from last) time. But what follows are a couple of the most awesome minutes in the history of the show. It starts with BG sauntering out, waving around her new fake tits (and looking unfazed when Ryan gets in a nice zing about them), and acting like the biggest snob who ever snobbed. Seriously, Paris Hilton is home watching this and thinking "what a spoiled little bitch". So BG gets the chance to sing again, acting like this is her second big break and a star-making moment that we're all going to remember, only to have Kara make a surprise walk-on, sing the hell out of "Vision of Love", and rip off her dress to display an even teenier bikini afterward. There's just no way that BG knew this would happen, if she was in on the whole thing then she should probably switch to acting. I'm going to invoke Occam's Razor and assume that she is in fact a completely talentless whore, and therefore she got PWNED, I mean, just watch her trying to sneak in a few notes and reclaim the song from Kara, then, when she realized that was hopeless, listen to her meekly attempting to draw some attention to herself by throwing in some worthless melisma as background vocals, then watch her awkward, shamed face on stage when Ryan comes out at the end, and finally watch her jealously checking out Kara's bikini body like she was a "Jerry Springer" guest who's about to start a catfight with the girl who stole her trailer trash boyfriend. If Kara is really about to be kicked to the Idol curb, then this was a HELL of a way to go out.

7. Allison and Cyndi Lauper seem to have their timing off throughout "Time After Time" (even including the post-song hug) but the spark of greatness is still there.

8. Danny Gokey sounds pretty good on "Hello", and then stands up to introduce ... Lionel Richie (I was ready to put my money on him singing a duet with his friend Jamar Rogers, but this is obviously a better option). It's just too bad that their version of "All Night Long" is pure cruise ship material (cf. Simon Cowell).

9. A retrospective of "Adam's journey" leads directly into a short rendition of "Beth", dressed up in studded leather, enough eye makeup to blind Cyndi Lauper, and a pair of O_O black wings that even Martin Gore wouldn't have worn on stage for fear of looking ridiculous. Then he introduces the real deal -- Kiss! I take back what I said, he obviously fits in with Kiss, because this is exactly the setting where his excesses don't matter one bit.

10. Carlos Santana with ... Matt Giraud? Before I can throw my shoes at the TV while angrily wondering where they stashed Kris Allen when he could have been onstage singing "Smooth", here come the top 13 (including Kris front and centre) to sing, yep, "Smooth"! Heather Locklear isn't nearly as excited as I am.

11. Steve Martin has a new album out? I keep waiting for the weirdass Inspector Clouseau moment to break out with Michael Sarver and Megan Joy as his jesters in training, but it doesn't happen. This is a pretty sweet song, actually.

12. The guys take a crack at "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy", which is a truly bizarre choice for a group performance, which leads to Rod Stewart sauntering out and gasping his way through "Maggie May".

13. And how could we survive until next season without one last Golden Idol award, this time for "Outstanding Female", but Idol delivers again because we really do need to see Tatiana del Toro again. The season is now complete, no sarcasm. If the AI producers really believed that Tatiana and Nick Mitchell were such jokes then you'd think that they wouldn't waste everyone's time in slotting them into the top 36 (and letting Tatiana into the wildcard round), but hey, it's not my show.

14. Now it's the swan song performance for the final two, dueling each other one last time on "We Are the Champions", and suddenly Queen themselves appear out of a cloud of smoke. Corny choice, but great booking, if you know what I mean. Queen's music is right in Adam's wheelhouse, so this is either his unofficial coronation song, or a sweet bit of irony as he goes down swinging. SO stoked for the results now!

15. YES! IT'S KRIS!! And the moment is ruined with a stupid AI winners trophy?

We can start the post-mortem analysis now, including the conspiracy theories about how Kris actually dominated the voting throughout the season and the producers tried to knock him down a la Clay Aiken to try to forge a real competition out of what might have otherwise been a runaway win. Bring on Season Nine ...

American Idol Finale -- random liveblogging notes!

-- Adam's "Mad World" II doesn't even remotely touch the greatness he showed the first time. He was constantly on the verge of oversinging, and it lost all the vulnerability that made it so wonderful the last time around.
-- useless twat Matt G with his pouty sad face IN THE AUDIENCE. What's this guy's problem? He's pissed that he's not up on stage?
-- Kris kills it with "Ain't No Sunshine", showing more passion and fire than he has all season long. And good on him for not making the safe choice and going with "Heartless" again (hi dere Kat McPhee you sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during the finale in Season 5).
-- "A Change Is Gonna Come"? What an AWFUL choice for Adam, who will surely scream the hell out of it in an attempt to inject his version of "soul" into it, and kill any and all of the sentiment that makes the song so great.
-- See, I told you. Maybe Simon Fuller just wanted to expose Adam as a pantomime freak. They spent all those weeks trying to sabotage Kris' chances, so maybe what goes around comes around.
-- Of course the judges love it, but screw them.
-- Another awesome performance for Kris, which again perfectly displays the best of his talent, although I agree with Randy and Simon's comment about the arrangement being not ideal for the setting. This means Adam won't be singing any rock and roll tonight, which is a mistake.
-- This year's schmaltzy Idol winner's single is at least better than the usual crap they serve up. Kris' best argument for choosing to sing last when he won the coin flip is being justified right here, i.e. you definitely don't want the pimp spot going to Adam Lambert singing a Diane Warren-ish OTT power ballad.
-- Kris sounds hesitant from the first note, and doesn't have the big voice to carry this kind of song. He flubs a note in the first chorus and is clearly praying for it all to be over as soon as possible. His biggest trainwreck of the season, easily. Poor guy, and it's not at all his fault.
-- Of course the judges are living in bizarro world. Randy thinks it's more suitable for his voice than for Adam's. If we're only voting based on the talent they showed over the course of the entire season, then why hold the finale? What's the point of singing these songs if they're not meant to count. Or how about this, what's the point of praising a guy all season for "knowing who he is an an artist" and then forcing him to sing a schmaltzy ballad that is exactly the opposite of who he is as an artist?
-- In all, this felt like a completely superfluous show -- we heard the exact same praises we've been hearing all season long, and nothing occurred that will change anybody's mind about their favourite contestant, so GO KRIS GO!

Depeche Mode, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ramat Gan Stadium 10/05/09

In 2006, I followed Depeche Mode halfway around the world to see one of their concerts, and once the show was canceled, I was stuck here for three years while waiting for them to reschedule.

Writing about a DM concert is the toughest writing assignment I could ever have, and as I get older, it's getting harder, not easier. I choke up when trying to summarize the emotion and visceral thrill of seeing the best band ever, performing some of my favourite songs ever. The first concert I ever saw was DM on the "World Violation" tour, so every time I saw them after that, I thought about how Depeche Mode were both the first and last concert I'd seen in my life, bookends for my musical life, oh my how we've all grown and so much has changed. That angle is always there I want to tackle it. But enough corniness for the time being.

This is not at all like writing about a new album or single. The album will still be there tomorrow, and in one year's time. I can change my mind about it whenever I want, and discover new things about it that I like or dislike. But the tour blows through town and is gone the next day. After months of anticipation, the entire experience goes down in a few hours, leaving me bewildered and wondering how it could all be over so soon. it's all about the here and now. I get one shot to make it count. They only tour about once every four years, so it's like the Olympics for me -- come through on that day or else! I've seen them six times now, which seems like a lot, but that's spread over 19 years. 19 years! Depeche Mode concerts are the fence posts of life, forcing me to examine who I am and what I've done in the years since their previous concert ... oh yeah, no corniness. Let's talk about the music.

I can't tell you how happy I am to live in a country where "Enjoy the Silence" is widely considered to be one of the greatest songs ever, where almost every bar is sure to include it on their playlist. All this despite the fact that until last week, Depeche Mode had never played a concert in Israel. During the Second Lebanon War, Depeche Mode fan club members lamented the cancellation of their gig by assembling at the site of the concert and singing "Enjoy the Silence". The nightly news on National Channel 1 actually took time away from showing the ruins of rocketed buildings in order to broadcast this. OK, it was the final story of the evening, right before the top of the hour, at a time when virtually every newscast in every country shows something light and fluffy. But still, I never forgot that moment. Depeche Mode really matter here, I thought.

It turns out that I was somewhat mistakenly, or at the very least, overestimated the solidity of DM fandom in this country. This was more than obvious at the show as well as afterward, when every major news outlet was flooded with reports, photos, and reader comments about this historic gig. Fifty thousand people, many of whom were finally seeing this band for the first time, couldn't sustain their energy through the entire show, or even through half of the show. Some hits received enthusiastic, impassioned reactions. Other hits were greeted with much lesser reactions. The new songs, for the most part, earned almost no reaction, bordering on complete indifference. There were a lot of complaints, and a lot of complainers. I could have sworn that some of these opinions were coming from people who had never seen a concert before. Or is it really that surprising that a band who just released a new album might be playing some songs from it on their tour?

Even the fairly intelligent reviews, such as the one published by ynet, was marked by bizarre fixations on details of dubious relevance. The writer praised the beauty and elegance of the background visuals, but claimed that they were a distraction from the music. Silly me, I thought the whole point of going to a stadium concert was to be overwhelmed by a rush of sound, lights, video displays, and the deafening roar of thousands of screaming people. The writer can rest assured that there will be a tour DVD that may include those videos as bonus material, so that they can be watched at home, free of other aural or visual stimuli.

Part of the problem can be traced to Shuki Weiss, who nicely acted the part of the scummy local promoter by being widely quoted in assuring people that even though DM were undertaking a world tour in support of a new album, they were naturally not obligated to play any of those new songs here, so fans could be confident that there would be plenty of time devoted to yummy DM smash hits. It was just another example of shady concert promotion in this country, which is one reason why it's difficult to bring bands here. So maybe people were fooled into thinking there'd be a special Tel Aviv-only setlist. Nevertheless, we descend into ridiculousness with the scads of complainers who whined that DM didn't play "the hits". Just to be clear, when they say "the hits" they mean "songs from the 80's" (+ a couple of songs from "Violator"), whether they explicitly say so or not. Oh, and who are "they"? In most cases, they are people under 30 years old who barely remember the 80's and are searching for ways to relive through what they've only seen in pictures and music videos. They know a handful of DM songs, none of them released after 1990. They complain that DM focused on recent songs, even though they played one song from "Ultra", one from "Playing The Angel" and zero from "Exciter". Of course they played seven from the new album, but that's what touring bands do, you don't have to see them in your country in order to know that. The bottom line is this: when the first encore goes "Stripped"/"Master and Servant"/"Strangelove" and you barely react, all while complaining that they didn't play any 80's songs, then the problem is with you, not with the band. So let's dismiss "them" for who they really are -- crybabies who wanted to hear "Just Can't Get Enough" whose opinions are nearly worthless.

Even the 30+ crowd, who could be counted on for losing their shit at the start of "Stripped" just like proper fans should, were mostly muted for the new songs. They missed out, because the new songs sound fantastic live, kicking harder, ballsier, and funkier than the studio versions. "Sounds of the Universe" is turning out to be a real grower or a record, revealing more layers of sound and depth with subsequent listens than other Depeche Mode albums. It's not as immediate as "Playing The Angel" or "Violator", it's not laid back, understated, and groovy in the same way as "Ultra", it's loaded up with vintage synths like the ones they used in the 80's, but it's not epic like "Music For the Masses", or filled with jittery angst and in-your-face eroticism like "Black Celebration". For other DM tours, I was already "sold" on the new album before I saw the concert. I knew the songs and already had my favourites. The concert would simply amplify all my existing preconceptions in a linear fashion. But this time it was completely different -- the show sold me on "Sounds of the Universe". My perceptions of the album have been turned upside down and my old favourites have been replaced by new favourites. I believed that this record was "Exciter Part II", but it's not. Songs on the Exciter tour were fairly mellow when played live, but the "Sounds of the Universe" songs are anything but. "Come Back" assumes a robo-funk groove that would make mid-90's Stereolab feel jealous. The driving, motorik funk of "In Sympathy" has completely transformed the way I think about that song. Everyone who sat on their hands during the new songs missed out on appreciating some great moments by a band that continues to evolve in fascinating and unpredictable ways.

Of course, something needs to be said about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who are just a incredible band right now, who overcame terrible sound quality (apparently nobody bothered to properly mic the band or give them a half-decent mix on the soundboard, or to crank up the volume to stadium-sized levels) to deliver a smartly paced set of classics and soon-to-be classics to a mostly bored crowd who admittedly had many other problems to deal with in the form of scrambling to find their seats in this confusingly labeled stadium, not to mention queue for food and/or beer. I ignored these problems, found a spot in the aisles where people were dancing to "Heads Will Roll", and hung out there until the set was over. "Maps" exactly at sunset = pretty darned cool, actually.

The peak of the show, by the consensus of nearly everyone I'm sure, was "Enjoy the Silence". Excitement levels peaked all around me, but I found myself enjoying a very calm moment, maybe my calmest moments of the show. I didn't expect this reaction at all. I flipped into documentary-making mode, and wanted to take pictures and videos to preserve the moment for myself. I've seen and heard plenty of live clips of the song, and have naturally heard it played live in person a few times, and I always get a little lump in my throat during the build to the last chorus, and to the final and biggest singalong. I had never brought a camera to a Depeche Mode show before, and I wanted to photograph them and film them myself, no matter how silly and amateurish that might sound, that's what I wanted. So I calmly snapped more pictures and took a couple of minutes of video, including that triumphant segment before the final chorus.

I might have been more composed at the time, but when I view my own videos now, everything reverts back to normal. I get that lump in my throat. As it should be.

American Idol: YOUR Top Four!

AI results shows have been fairly predictable since Megan Joy got the boot (she was a bit of a wildcard, seeing as the judges so obviously wanted her to do well even though she sucked something fierce), with the exception of the "save", which was completely wasted on the useless, sad-faced crybaby Matt Giraud. I'd rather they waited a week and given us another week of Anoop (even though he was doomed as well, since the top four was virtually set in stone for weeks).

Allison never really connected with the fans, which is why she ended up in the bottom three a few times despite being awesome week in and week out. If the judges had given her 5% of the push they gave to Megan during the few weeks that she stunk up the show, then maybe she'd be in the top three right now and be considered a favourite. Nobody ever called Allison "different" or "current" or "commercial", or even "beautiful" (not even Paula) -- all of these praises were heaped on Megan, undeservedly, because she was a talentless flake who was exposed as lazy and arrogant and shown the door by the fans when these "qualities" became impossible to ignore. On the other hand, Simon was right in criticizing her personality and the way she came across on camera. It wasn't right for him to remind her of this on a weekly basis while downplaying all of her strengths, but he was right on concept. Like Jason Castro last year, you can only go so far as a bored stoner on "American Idol" because people don't want to vote for someone who appears unmotivated and doesn't care too much about winning or losing.

So it's going to be Adam vs Danny in the final, which is exactly what the show's producers and the four judges have been pimping since Hollywood week. Adam can be great when he doesn't go AYYEYAEYEYAEYOAEYEY without warning in the middle of random verses, and Danny shows flashes of very good-ness when he doesn't sing in his lower register and reigns in his Hicks-ian tendencies (most annoying: the dancing). He's also burned up some of the dead wife-related goodwill that the producers so nicely exploited on his behalf built up for him by being a bit of an arrogant dickhead the last couple of weeks. However, he showed a sense of humour with the fallout from his "Dream On" scream and could laugh along with all the ringtones and animated gifs, so that makes him less of a diva than I thought he was.

I think nothing can stop Adam from steamrolling his way to the title, but Allison and Kris's albums will easily outsell anything Danny or Adam put out (unless Danny goes the Xtian rock route).

I waited nearly 15 years to see Jeff Mills ...

The time flew by and somehow I never got around to seeing Jeff Mills spin. The most memorable near-miss happened in Toronto, in 1997 I believe, when I was locked, loaded and ready to hear him one weekend, only to have my plans derailed by a massive January snowstorm. 99% of the time, I'm not one to be deterred by a bit of bad weather, but it snowed all Saturday long and by the evening, I decided that driving all the way downtown simply wasn't going to happen, seeing how getting the car from the driveway to the end of the street looked like enough of a challenge as it was. The roads were such a mess all over the city that I figured that hardly anybody would be able to reach the club anyway.

The next day, I spoke to a friend who, to my surprise, had not only gone to the club, but had traveled twice as far as I would have needed to. The place was packed like you wouldn't believe, she said. And Mills was awesome. Fucking hell.

It all began with a surprisingly posh crowd in a club, Haoman 17, whose layout is easily predisposed to the instant deification of superstar DJs. The booth is elevated four metres above the dancefloor, a throne from which to look down on cramped clubbers dancing underneath a huge square-shaped chandelier array, facing a facade of LED video screens that flashed hypnotic red and blue ripple patterns all night long. Behind the booth is the main bar area, from which you can get a close look at the DJ masters doing their thing. And of course, Mills hits the hard stuff right from the start. He doesn't bother playing anything else, he never does. Every time is peak time.

Down on the dance floor, confusion started to set in after maybe half an hour. When Mills began his set, a healthy percentage of the crowd could be labeled as "politely stoked". Happy to be there, always liking a good party, but only passively curious about techno. Jeff Mills eats up these kinds of people. Soon enough, they were wondering "is this all there is?", you could read it on their faces. Yep, it's chest-crushing techno, hour after hour, that's what you signed up for and you didn't even know it. The bass was so loud, I could feel my skin being stretched by the vibrations.

It's great to see that the rise and fall of minimal techno was water off a duck's back for Mills. He hasn't compromised. With him, "minimal" was always about simplicity, it was about loops, it never meant "stripped-down". The perplexed onlookers started to clear out and the dancers took over. Through it all, Mills remained stoic and emotionless in the DJ booth, the prototype of the silent killer. He may have been aware that there was a crowd in attendance, if he did know then he certainly never acknowledged it. But that's expected, because he doesn't even acknowledge his own music -- no swaying to the beat, no head-nodding, he went about his business in his own way.

For his finale, he worked the filters like mad over the long, beatless finish of the final track, only to launch the beats again by switching over to an absolutely punishing track, such a pleasant bit of cruelty for 6:15 AM, and a kiss-off to the DJ who had to close down the club. "Whatever you got, try mixing it into THIS, because I'm outta here."

In the beginning, there was MTV

Everybody remembers that "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video ever played on MTV, but it's interesting to look at which videos filled up the remainder of the first day (hat tip to Idolator). They relied heavily on the output of a small number of artists (Rod Stewart, Styx, and Cliff Richard (huh? really?) are just three of the acts that received multiple plays). They made a concerted effort to represent a good number of female artists and bands fronted by female singers (Pat Benetar, Blondie, the Pretenders). "Thriller" was still a couple of years away, so this playlist is looking a bit white. There are a number of songs (e.g. "Little Suzi's On the Up" by PhD, "Remote Control" by the Silencers) -- that I don't think I've ever heard of in my life (both band and song), although I was just seven years old at the time so it's not so surprising that I wouldn't be familiar with plenty of minor video hits from 1981. I should really play those videos for myself to confirm.

What was the best song played that first day? "Video Killed the Radio Star" is the clear winner for me, followed by "Angel of the Morning" and "Rapture".

First thoughts on Depeche Mode, "Sounds of the Universe"

1. It's "Exciter: The Return"
2. Sounds a bit too much like a collection of album tracks.
3. Seems to come on stronger during side 2. Probably the mellowest Side 1 of their career.
4. "In Chains" should be 15 minutes long.
   

The Susan Boyle phenomenon

As of this writing (and I'd better type quickly before this sentence becomes inaccurate), Susan Boyle's audition from "Britain's Got Talent" has piled up a mind-numbing ~ 70 million Youtube views, spread amongst several different uploads, all of it in less than one week. She's completely dominating Youtube's "most viewed" charts -- it looks like one of those 1964 American pop charts that had the Beatles claiming all of the top spots.

Beyond the rags-to-riches aspect of the story (hopefully you're not too cynical to allow yourself at least a morsel of enjoyment out of it, and can find a way to temporarily detach yourself emotionally from the Cowellized stink of reality show pop culture in 2009. It's the story of dreams coming true and you get to watch someone transform herself from anonymous nobody into a huge star in matter of seconds. If you can't appreciate that just a little bit, then fuck you), most of the analysis has centred on whether all of this was staged. Depending on what story you want to believe, either the judges were in on the stunt, Boyle herself is a plant, or both, or none of the above. This looks set to become the Survivor Series 1997 of reality show controversies, as the debate over who knew what and when might very well stretch on for years, depending on the scale of Boyle's future success. But I simply don't understand any argument (on the part of the producers of BGT) for letting the judges know in advance, because in this sort of situation you'll never get a staged reaction that's any better than the one you'd get from legitimately surprising them. Besides, why go through that trouble to coax a specific reaction from the judges when it wasn't their reaction that would make the segment, it was the audience's?

For all of Simon Cowell's faults, there's no doubt that he appreciates the value of pop music in creating memorable moments, and to that end, he is usually quite good at spotting star power. It's the way he tries to artificially create these moments, or tries to manipulate them into $$$ that makes people hate what he's done to the music business. Watch Simon's face during that clip, and there can be little doubt that he knew that he was part of a genuine moment, and that's something that can't be faked.

Sort of a shame that Simon didn't offer up his "I've always said that it's not just about the voice" criticism (e.g. Clay Aiken, Taylor Hicks, many more) afterward ...

Phil Spector: murderer

If there is a positive element of this tragic story, it's the way that the case proceeded with a reasonable amount of dignity, without being swallowed up by a ridiculous media circus. This verdict has been six years in the making, and even though Phil Spector is hardly an A-list celebrity these days, the details of the case (B-movie starlet vs the cocaine-snorting gun-wielding former Tycoon of Teen) could have provided years worth of tabloid-worthy fodder. Hey, it's not like Robert Blake meant anything before he decided to murder somebody.

I suppose I should feel sadness or pity or anger about all of this, but I don't really feel anything at all. We've always known that Spector was nuts, so how does today's guilty verdict change anything? We're not talking about a beloved hero persona like OJ Simpson or Chris Benoit who woke up one day and caused our perceptions of them to change forever. Tales of Christmas cards laced with cocaine and of holding musicians hostage in studios at gunpoint might make for good rock and roll stories, but here in the real world, we know that a guy like that is nothing but a raging asshole bully who was lucky to have not been in serious trouble with the law a long time ago. When I first heard that Phil Spector was accused of murder, I wasn't the least bit surprised, and now that he's been found guilty (assuming we've heard the last of the story, and who the hell knows at this point) I'm also not the least bit surprised. Had he been acquitted I wouldn't have been too surprised either, and it still wouldn't have changed my perception of Spector too much. Rather than live out his life as a recluse in a big, gated, impenetrable mansion fortress, he'll live it out as a recluse in a big, gated, impenetrable jail. Again, has anything really changed?

But there's more to it than just, ahem, living up to expectations. Everyone knew that Kurt Cobain was a suicidal gun-toting lunatic, but his suicide was shocking all the same. Except that Cobain was an extremely public figure -- even if he didn't want to be -- and the truly shocking thing wasn't that he pulled the trigger (or was capable of such an act), it was that one of the world's most famous rock stars was able to simply disappear for days before ultimately killing himself. Spector's life has been led behind airtight doors for so long, it's almost like him and everyone around him ceases to be a real human being, instead they're all like characters in a movie, and we're absolved from having normal feelings about anything that happens to them.

Blender's most overrated

Blender is ceasing publication, but at least they're going out with a few interesting lists! I'm sure you're thinking, "no, not another boring best/worst list", but this one is pretty cool -- Blender's 33 most overrated in rock.

Choices like "texting from concerts to say 'I'M AT A CONCERT!!1!1!'" and "winning American Idol" haven't been around long enough to become boring and/or overrated and/or hopelessly cliche. It's annoying when people who used to be into music as a teenager (but not now, or simply buy new music from the same bands they liked as teenagers) claim that music just isn't as good these days, but those people are fairly easily dismissed because even they know that they're ignorant about what's being recorded these days and are therefore not well suited to properly contextualize (although they probably won't admit that). But "the music from before you were born" might be the most overrated, because not only has this practice been around forever, but it's hardcore music fans who are most guilty of this (and I'm not exonerating myself by any means). Being hardcore fans, we're easily obsessed with the bands and scenes that we never had the chance to experience, and we try to make up for it by immersing ourselves in that band/scene to the extent that we convince ourselves that we know what it was like to have really been there, and proceed to bore/annoy all our friends with our enthusiasm for this.

I'm even getting bored with all the endless reissues from random proto-[fill in genre name] bands, because isn't this just another type of "before our birth" fetishism?

The Steve Angello-Paris Hilton fiasco seems both underrated and overrated. This sort of thing almost never happens, at least not this spectacularly, and certainly not involving someone as stupid and dislikeable as Paris, so in that sense it's underrated. But turning it into a running joke and elevating Angello to deity-DJ status feels like a bit much.