7th placed American Idol Contestants

Hello,

As today is Friday, that means two things. First, the website goombah.com chooses 15 of their free MP3's to highlight. This week they did a good job, with an emphasis on alternative music. They also have 3 free songs available by a rapper named MC Chris. Now rap music I usually stay far away from. There are some exceptions though like the Beastie Boys and the greatest rap CD of all-time, Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Here is another exception, goombah.com has three free songs available by rapper MC Chris. This is a new kind of rap called nerdcore, I only know this because I read about it in Spin or Blender. The three free songs available are all pretty good and I would definitely reccomend you add them to your collection.

Also amazon.com highlights 5 new MP3 CD's each Friday. Here are the five CD's for this week: 1) "Accelerate"- R.E.M. (I would definitely reccomend you take advantage of this sweet deal.) 2) "Hotel California"- The Eagles 3) The new OneRepublic CD. 4) The debut CD by She and Him. and 5) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead. Also today's drastically reduced MP3 CD is "Attack and Release"- The Black Keys. You definitely need to check out this CD. Before purchasing you can always preview all the tracks with 30 second snippets on either amazon.com or iTunes.

Now on to the 7th place "American Idol" contestants. Season One: Ryan Starr, I haven't heard of anything she has done. Season Two: Kimberly Caldwell, she is doing that "AI" behind the scenes show. Season Three: see below Season Four: Anwar Robinson Season Five: Ace Young Season Six: Sanjaya Malakar (ick!) Other than Sanjaya being the butt of a joke by Jimmy Kimmel on this season's "AI" finale I have not heard anything from those three. Season Seven: The gorgeous Kristy Lee Cook, I think she will be the second most successful of all the 7th place finishers. Upcoming a review of the 6th place finishers and they have had more impact than the 7th place finishers besides Hudson.

Season Three: Jennifer Hudson, obviously she is one of the most successful contestants to ever appear on the show, irregardless of place finished. It didn't just seem right to put her with her much less successful 7th place finishers. Also to show that "American Idol" is only mediocre in predicting the best candidates, here are the "AI" contestants who finished in front of Hudson. Sixth place: John Stevens, Fifth place: George Huff, Fourth Place: Latoya London, Third Place: Jasmine Trias, Second Place: Diana DeGarmo. I am guessing those six contestants, and this is a rough guess, have sold a total of 72 CD's. I can't believe she finished in 7th place, was she too talented? Did she have too good of a voice? Were the producers beginning the hype for David Archuleta early. (This should give you hope Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.) She has that big fantasic voice. Let's review her accomplishments so far. She won the Oscar for best female supporting actress in "Dreamgirls". She is one of the best to ever sing that song, "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going". She is currently starring in last week's #1 movie, Sex and the City". She is currently working on her debut CD, which will be available in September. Also her new single "Spotlight" is available Tuesday. In all likelihood you will be getting my review probably that same day.

Here are some other notes. Comcast has a 1985 concert of R.E.M. on demand from Germany. This is probably a waste of your time. They hadn't written most of their great songs yet, they weren't very good performers and the German audience was lethargic. Also I definitely reccomend you pick up the new Rolling Stone magazine, the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. (Here's a little preview: The number 100 song is "Vicarious" by Tool. That is a song I am not familiar with.) Also I had the chance to watch the good Keira Knightley movie "Atonement" the other night. I reccomend this movie, although it is unbelieveably sad. A few months ago I had started reading the book and I resumed reading it last night. The author, Ian McEwen, is a fantastic writer. So reading the book is well worth your time also.

I am going away for the weekend to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. I am going to try and write tomorrow before we leave. If I am unable to write tomorrow I will definitely post a blog Sunday night. Then after that my next blog will be Tuesday. I hope you have as much this weekend as my wife and I do. themusicaddict