Backstage Pass

Continue reading "Intro 11.24.08 (Black Friday Edition featuring Ludacris, Beyonce, Kanye West, Tears for Fears, The Killers, Paramore, Guns N' Roses, David Cook, Fall Out Boy and Britney Spears)" »

Can't wait until Sunday to hear Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy"? Of course, you can. You've waited 14 years already, what's a few more days? But Axl Rose ended the suspense this morning, letting his entire magnum opus stream on the GN'R MySpace page.

“Chinese Democracy” is a good effort and it would’ve seemed even better if it came out in a decent amount of time, say, you know, a decade ago. The hard-hitting title track is potent, but whatever shock value it may have had has been diminished by what has come in the meantime, with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor perfecting that industrial snarl years ago and System of a Down dominating virtuoso metal guitar solos for at least two albums now. “Better” is a stronger song, maybe the album’s best chance for a radio hit with its grand hook and Rose’s impassioned vocals, but even that sounds a little retro.

Sometimes, it sounds like Rose knows he went too far with this album. “It was a long time for you, it was a long time for me,” he sings in the overstuffed “There Was a Time,” with its choirs and elaborate strings parts. “It'd be a long time for anyone, but looks like it's meant to be.”

Tears for Fears, "Memories Fade"

Still making my way through Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak," which, I must say, is way better than I expected. It can't be dismissed as "The AutoTune Album." And it really does have some grand moments despite the simplicity. The biggest surprise has to be his use of Tears for Fears' "Memories Fade" as the core of "Coldest Winter."

On a sort of related note, 'Ye has teamed with imeem to roll out a bunch of remixes. (Playlist below.)

Continue reading "Kanye West and Tears for Fears, together at last!" »

Like Jay-Z, 50 Cent isn't a businessman. He's a business, man.

And when the set-up for his new "Before I Self Destruct" CD didn't look right, he pushed the whole project back from Dec. 16 into early next year. "I decided to push my record back because I have so much more to offer the public as part of my presentation," he told me backstage at the "TRL" finale. "In hip-hop music, the big bang comes the first week. If you set a strong impression up front, then you can actually win big because people know that it’s good enough to actually go out and get it."

In addition to the album, the early pressings of "Before I Self Destruct" will be bundled with a movie of the same name, starring Fitty, and a documentary about Jam Master Jay that he produced.

"R&B records, they can actually take their time to actually grow -- if the company actually believes in the artist in their system, maybe single four on the album will be the one to make you decide, ‘I’m going to actually go and buy this record,’" Fitty said. "Hip-hop artists don’t make it to single four if they’re project isn’t successful. They have to hit with the first record and be in tune with the audience. Hip-hop has a youth-driven audience, people who determine whether it’s a hit have a short attention span."

However, he's happy with the reaction the album's first single "Get Up" is getting. "‘Get Up’ is actually performing better at radio than ‘I Get Money,’ which I felt was a record that was dead right, so I gotta say I’m in a pretty good space," he said. "I’m not going to hurry to put the record out because I want it to be perfect."

Fitty is also focusing on his new MTV reality show, "The Money and The Power," shrugging off criticism from Donald Trump, who claims it's a rip-off of "The Apprentice."

He said he counts Trump as a friend, adding that his show is currently the No. 1 show on MTV.

"I want to talk to him about selling one of my properties," Fitty added. "We all know we’re in a recession. Real estate isn’t one of the best businesses to be in. I think Donald Trump may want to be 50 Cent."

Fitty then busted into an impression of Trump doing "In Da Club" that was, while disturbing, far better than the real thing would ever be. Let's hope the Trumpster doesn't take that piece of advice.

PHOTO: 50 Cent at the "TRL" finale. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

Though industry estimates peg her as a sure-thing No. 1 and run as high as 600,000 for first-week sales of her sophomore album "Fearless," Taylor Swift told me backstage at MTV's "TRL" finale last night that she was worried about its release last week.

"The night before it came out, I stayed up the whole night thinking, ‘Is anyone going to buy it at all?’” she said. "You always have those last-minute jitters."

Nevertheless, she's happy with the way "Fearless" turned out. "If I were to have the No. 1 album next week, I would be so excited," the teen sensation said. "I can’t believe that people have been so wonderful to me and gone out and bought the album. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my life than this album. I wrote every song on it. I co-produced it. So to have people actually go out and buy it? It’s wonderful."

Swift said she isn't sure how she's going to celebrate her first No. 1 album, but "I'm sure it'll involve my mother... or maybe I'll go to dinner with my record label." A good plan considering their massive push for sales.

PHOTO: Taylor Swift by the Associated Press.

    The end of the “TRL” era may have officially come Sunday night, as MTV shutdown production on the countdown show that used to be teenage America’s go-to guide for music, style and fashion. But its influenced started to wane years ago, coinciding with the rise of broadband Internet connections and video-on-demand sites like YouTube, MySpace and MTV.com.
    Carson Daly, longtime host of “TRL” and current host of NBC’s “Last Call With Carson Daly,” said after the show’s finale that no one TV show has that sort of singular power today and there may never be another one like it again.
    Not only has the music mainstream fractured into numerous niches, but it’s getting so that those niches don’t even interact any more. For example, on “TRL,” rockers and popsters and hip-hop heads would check out the show each afternoon to see whose song would come out on top and maybe get introduced to something outside their favorite genre.
    For example, Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump said that Blink-182's “All the Small Things” video “single-handedly changed the trajectory of ‘TRL’,” showing rock could hold its own against pop and hip-hop. “It was a totally democratic thing,” Stump said backstage. “People just voted on the videos.”
    So where are teenagers heading to replace the guidance “TRL” once provided?
    “The Internet – a lot of different places, niche sites online,” Daly said. “They’re not going to one central place, which is the whole 2.0 thing. The world is a different place. Ten years ago, we were that place. We were the hub, the destination spot, the place you had to go. Now you can sit in the back of your classroom and find out the Top 10 videos on your cellphone.”

PHOTO: Carson Daly and Damien Fahey at the "TRL" finale Sunday night. Photo by Peter Kramer for Associated Press.

The managed rollout of Britney Spears' comeback "Circus" continues, with six snippets from the album coming out today through dance powerhouse KTU. Aside from the single "Womanizer" and the apparent follow-up "Kill the Lights," Spears unveils the danceable title track, "If U Seek Amy" and "Unusual You," as well as the ballad "Out From Under."

It's all part of the managed timetable, following the release of the CD cover and her video premieres, as Team Britney counts down the days to the Dec. 2 release date.

"Circus" snippets [KTU.com]

"American Idol" David Cook's debut shows off his considerable promise, even if it does sound a bit uneven, sorta rushed and slightly schizophrenic. Check out the album's impressive middle -- the power ballads “Life on the Moon” and “Mr. Sensitive,” which should prove even more durable than the smash “The Time of My Life,” and the boundary-pushing metallic grinder “Bar-Ba-Sol.”

It's streaming early on ClearChannel's IHeartMusic.com here and is in stores Tuesday.

PHOTO: David Cook by Ron Cadiz for RCA Music Group.