8th placed contestants of "AI", Bo Diddley

Hello,

Thanks to my brother, I will going to be seeing the new soul singer Erykah Badu tomorrow night. There will be a review Wednesday morning. I will be honest, before he asked me I don't think I had ever heard any songs she sang. So I have been listening to music on Rhapsody to catch up a little bit. She is pretty good and she has this hilarious song called, "Tyrone". Now you may wonder why I am going to this concert if I don't know any of her music. Two reasons: 1) I can hang out with my brother and 2) I love going to concerts. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel back in November. The last concert I saw before that was about 3-and-a-half years ago. Back in the day I use to go to three or four concerts a year.

American Idol 8th place contestants, again not the most sterling bunch of people. Season One: A.J. Gill: I have not heard anything about him. Season Two: Rickey Smith, same as Gill. Season Three: Jon Peter Lewis, too many names and not very much fame. Season Four: Nadia Turner, same as previous three. All four of these contestants seemed to go away as soon as their "American Idol" journey was over. Season Five: Bucky Covington. Hey he has actually done something. He has had some success on country music radio. If memory serves me correctly, he is on tour right now. Season Six: Haley Scarnato, Gorgeous but talentless. I think her 15 minutes of fame is up. Season Seven: Michael Johns. I think if he sticks to the bluesy rock thing he will be okay and he might have some success. He seems like a decent enough guy so I wish him the best of luck.

Also here the ten artists to watch for 2006 according to Rolling Stone magazine. (I am not trying to mock Rolling Stone, they are the main music I read. So that is why I am always quoting them. That is my favorite music magazine.) Some of these seem laughable, some of these seem right on and some of these are forgettable. This rapper was called the "next 50 cent". His name is Saigon, remember him? Did you even hear of him in 2006? Well now Siagon should change his name to Saigone. The second artist is "The Go! Team", they are a much hyped band on alternative radio. However they still have not broken through, at this point will they? The next artist is Sia, as in Sia later. Then three more bands that haven't done anything noticeable are Yummy Bingham, Matt Pond PA and Giant Drag. Apparantally she is not too yummy, its dirty Pond water and Giant Drag seems to be accurately named. The 7th band on this unimpressive list is a band called Wolf Parade. Again I have heard of them but I haven't heard them. As you probably know, I check out download.com everyday as they have at least 1 song available free each day. Ironically enough the band today was Wolf Parade, they have 3 songs available on download.com for free. I have yet to listen to those songs yet, but I will give you a preview once I do. One cool piece of info about Wolf Parade is they were discovered by Isaac Brock. He is the lead singer for Modest Mouse. So those 7 bands haven't really panned out. If you know any more information I would love to hear it.

So now here are the three bands that have broken out of the 2006 Rolling Stone Top Ten pack. Now the first band is The Magic Numbers, now this band may not be familiar to you, but on a whim I actually bought their first CD about a year ago. I have to tell you they are very good. Their first CD is self-titled. I would highly reccomend that you check it out at least. Nine of the thirteen songs on this CD are pretty good. The two best songs are "Love Me Like You" and "Love is a Game". (Yes there are a lot of relationship songs on this CD)

The next singer is Damian Marley Jr. He had a big hit a couple of years ago, it is called "Welcome To Jamrock". This song was all over the place a couple of summers ago. This is a pretty good CD, although not the kind of music I normally would listen to. I also reccomend you check out this CD. "Welcome to Jamrock" is not the only good song on the CD. Other good songs are "We're Gonna Make It" which is actually my most played song from the whole CD. Other good songs are "Road To Zion" and "All Night".

Then arguably the most famous and successful of the ten is James Blunt. Of course he is most well know for his great song, "You're Beautiful". (Yeah I know you are sick of that song.) That is just a great song. Both of his CD's are pretty good, most of his songs are worth several more listens. His two other best songs are "High" and "Give Me Some Love". If you are the kind of person who likes to listen to mellow music from time to time I definitely reccomend you buy both CDs.

So if I am being charitable they predicted correctly 3 of the 10 bands. I would say that is a good grade. Music is so subjective and it is hard to tell what is going to be great and what is not going to work out. There are a lot of great bands who have never broken out of the unknown. I mean honestly after hearing "Loser" who didn't think Beck was going to be a one hit wonder? He is still going at a pretty high level now. I do have to admit I have never been a big fan though.

Also songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 2) "Rock and Roll (Live)"- Led Zeppelin 3) "Superstar"- The Carpenters This is truly a great song. 4) "Joyride"- Roxette 5) "Warrior"- Scandal 6) "Fighter"- Christina Aguilera. This song kicks butt and her voice is so powerful on this song. 7) "Modern Swinger"- Pink Spiders. 8) "Always Be My Baby"- David Cook 9) "What's A Girl To Do?"- Bat for Lashes 10) "Question of Time"- Depeche Mode 11) "Fire and Rain"- James Taylor 12) "I Owe"- Living Things 13) "Take Me With You"- Prince and the Revolution. This is off one of the best soundtracks of all-time "Purple Rain". 13) "Cool The Engines"- Boston. This song is off the great 80's CD, "Third Stage". 14) "10:00am Automatic"- Black Keys. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were working with Ike Turner on this and other songs before he died. Once he died, the Black Keys finished the song and released them under their own name. Their new CD is a great CD. 15)"Spirit Of Radio"- Rush 16) "Against All Odds"- Ramiele Mulubuy. Yes the singer from Season 7 of "American Idol". I really like her version. 17) "Silent Lucidity"- Queensryche and 18) "We Looked Like Giants"- Death Cab For Cutie.

Two other final quick notes. Blues legend Bo Diddley passed away at age 79 today. Also I previously had listed that the new Weezer CD is going to be out on June 17th. However in this day of rapidly changing release dates, this CD is actually going to be released tomorrow. Again as always contact me with any comments or suggestions. That's it, themusicaddict