Music Video Review: UPDATE! Kanye West "Paranoid"

Last week I was on Youtube and came across, what I'm assuming, the final cut of Kanye West's "Paranoid" video. It was from the official label Youtube page, so I'm guessing what I reviewed a few weeks ago was a rough version. Kanye typically does release videos with multiple versions ("Jesus Walks", "Heard Em Say", "Flashing Lights"), and this version is superior to the other versions I've seen so far if that is the case. This one really makes sense. Matching the song with images similar to an old fashioned horror flick. Smart. It has a weird Michel Gondry, Tim Burton vibe as well (The video is directed by Nabil Elderkin). Appropriately creepy for a song that's about being creeped out. Plus Kanye's presence is in this far more than the previous version which was basically all Rihanna (I'm not mad at that by the way). I give it high marks, and it another great video in both their already pretty awesome Video-graphies.



I also want to add something I didn't mention before. If you don't have "808's and Heartbreak" (you suck first of all. I Keed! I Keed!)you probably wouldn't notice that the sung vocals on the song are credited to a new Kanye protege Mr Hudson. And He actually has one of my favourite songs right now in "Supernova". His album "Straight No Chaser" (there are actually two other singles from his upcoming album on his imeem page) won't be released until October, and there's still no official video for this single. I'm thinking it's a teaser and something will come along late summer. Anyway point is, I'm checking this guy out and hoping he doesn't suck. I like his style and his whole Dave Gahan phrasing mixed with the Chris Martin whiney vocal thing he has going on. We'll see.

Award Show Review: BET Awards 09

I'm like, really behind as you can tell. The BET Awards were on Sunday and it's now Tuesday morning. Not only haven't I blogged about the awards yet, but I have some work to do because I need to post a Classic Album Review for Michael Jackson, there are a few new albums I need to review and I have to give you the new set of 6 Artists on my Top 25 All Time Artists list. And I want to have it all done by Thursday night (when I leave for Atlanta for the weekend).

So here we go.

The BET Awards 09 was the first televised award ceremony since the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. And although I feel like it's more than appropriate for BET to celebrate him, being that a good 90% of the artists in the building owe so much to Jackson and the fact that BET have been long time supporters of all the Jacksons even when the other video networks betrayed him. And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, they had less than three days to re-arrange the format of the show to make it a fitting and respectful tribute to the Legend.

For the most part, they did a great job. Jamie Foxx was the host and he did a pretty excellent job, his opening monologue included a hilariously funny attempt at Moonwalking and throughout the show he celebrated his love for Jackson and reminded the audience why he was so important.

There were a few performances of Jackson's hits by current artists. Ciara performed "Heal the World", Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo dueted at the end on "I'll Be There", but Ne-Yo provided the best performance (imo) with "Lady in my Life". Ne-Yo connected with the song on an emotional level, and his vocals were the best I ever heard them. Aside from those handful of performances, and testimonies from stars in the audience on how Michael influenced them, there wasn't much else as far as a tribute to MJ. Michael's sister Janet Jackson came out to a standing ovation toward the end to speak for the family and thank the fans for their support.

The rest of the show was pretty typical Award show stuff.

I'm pretty sure Beyoncé won the most with two awards, Ne-Yo won, Weezy won, T.I. and Rihanna won, Lebron James won, Taraji P. Henson won. But this was not an awards show where awards were actually important. In fact, because of the last minute changes the awards alot of the categories were combined and the nominations weren't announced. Just the winners.

Performance wise, it was pretty boring to tell you the truth.

Jamie Foxx did a terribly auto-tuned live rendition of his monster hit "Blame It". It's sad when T-Pain outsings you live, and you have no sense of stage presence or choreography. His performance was a bit of a mess, but still fun enough to appropriatley get the crowd on their feet.

Keri Hilson performed an uptempo medley of her two hits "Turnin Me On" and "Knock You Down" (without Ne-Yo or Kanye). She tried. She really tried. However seems like she missed a few rehearsals, or she was just super nervous. She looked awkward trying to sing live and do the little bit of choreography she was expected to do, though she still wasn't terrible. She pulled it together enough for me not to laugh at her.

Soulja Boy Tell Em (like is that his full name? I thought it was just Soulja Boy) got the crowd all singing along to his hit(?) "Turn my Swag On", which I hadn't heard before and is actually a pretty catchy tune. He, like most rappers, didn't do much performance wise. Just kind of walked back and forth on the stage. It was the crowd that made his performance a winner with Taraji, Keri and Lebron dancing and singing along.

Jay-Z introduced his new single "D.O.A. Death of Auto-Tune" to a live audience and pretty much slayed it. You could tell our boy Jigga was more than happy to be back on stage. Meanwhile his wife slowed it down (and put a bunch to sleep, I have to be honest) with her beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria" where she incorporated Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and went opera on us with the original Spanish version of "Maria". She sounded amazing, but I think everybody was expecting Sasha Fierce to come out.

Speaking of sounding Excellent, Keyshia Cole sang her duet with Monica "Trust". They both looked great, and Keyshia made a vast improvement over her mess of a performance last year. However Monica stole ALL Ms. Cole's shine. She sounded excellent, and like Jigga, was so excited to be back on stage. She'd be smart to release an album real soon.

Maxwell came out and performed his new single "Pretty Wings", a beautiful song sung beautifully but just like Beyoncé Keyshia and Monica, great vocals don't always make for the most memorable performances.

Drake and Lil Wayne's performance was memorable for the wrong reasons. First of all Drake was sitting down the whole time. It wasn't until the after show that I realized he was injured and couldn't move around. So he gets a pass, although I didn't understand why he didn't Sing the sung parts of his hit "Best I Ever Had", but whatever. The most bothersome thing about the perfomance is when Lil Wayne came out with his crew to perform "We Like Her". With all the terribly disgusting and vile comments they made within the song about Women and Sex I was really bothered with the fact they brought out about 5 or 6 under age girls (like 10-12) to stand around and dance to the song. What was he thinking?

Ofcourse there was the annual tribute, this time to The O'Jays. I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd pull Tevin Campbell out to perform for them, but they did. Than Trey Songz, Tyrese and Johnny Gill came and sang a trio of the O'Jays hits as "The Young O'Jays". They sounded good, but I have to say Trey Songz impressed me the most. He has great vocal talent. With the right material he'd be bigger than Chris Brown without a doubt.

I can't think of anything else to say about the show. Masterfully MC'd by Jamie Foxx, and pretty solid performances. I think overall I may just be getting bored of Award shows. However this was a good effort overall for the network. And I think they succeeded in giving Michael a great tribute.

Album Reviews: Black Eyed Peas, Depeche Mode, Electrik Red

I'm back. I had all my finals a couple of weeks ago, and after all of that I've just been very lazy to get on the blog. I'm here now though and I have just a few reviews. I've actually been Re-discovering some cd's from earlier this year (Chris Cornell, I may have to do a retraction review on his album "Scream"), but one of these releases I was really excited for, one was something that intrigued me, and the other was something I have had for a while and haven't listened to up until this past week.

Naturally, I'll start with The Black Eyed Peas who are still #1 on the charts with "Boom Boom Pow" and have a hefty amount of worthy singles to select from on their 5th album "The E.N.D." (releasing today). The Black Eyed Peas have always tried to be all things to everybody, and over the years as their sound has changed dramatically, they still manage to appease most of their fan base. They are still Hip Hop, but manage to incorporate alot of Pop and Dance elements into the mix. And this album follows in that pattern of achieving a very eclectic sounding album. This time they go heavy on the Dance and Electronica genre, at points blatantly ripping off Daft Punk and Stuart Price. Luckily the Black Eyed Peas are blessed with a great producer in Will.I.Am, who actually does a good job imitating the styles of other acts but adding more to it. "Alive" is easily the best song on the album, and although it does sound almost exactly like a Daft Punk (circa "Discovery") track, he does some very interesting and creative things with it. Plus the lyrical content and the vocals add something that wasn't there with the songs that obviously inspired some tracks (other Daft Punk, Les Rhythmes Digitales clones being "Rock Your Body and "Rockin to the Beat").
There are however a bunch of tracks that have a real Will.I.Am stamp on them, songs that are really creative and different like "Simple Little Melody" and the aforementioned "Boom Boom Pow" or the lovely "Imma Be" which are all really roller coaster rides of tracks with something new happening with every verse. "The E.N.D." isn't entirely filled with Dance cuts however. The albums second official single "I Gotta Feeling" is a very lively Pop/Rock type anthem for the summer, "Electric City" is sort of this years "Hey Mama", just with a more laid back Dancehall feel. They even try to go World on "One Tribe" (not a fan of this song by the way) with a positive message about unity. Overall this is a really great, fun, energetic, sing songy, extremely addictive dance album. The only complaint I have is that it goes a little overlong and sometimes it slows down the tempo of the album on the whole. Still those are just maybe 4 or 5 songs out of an album that last well over an hour.

Next Up, Depeche Mode. So to give you an idea on my background with Depeche Mode... i just heard "Enjoy the Silence" 3 years ago. So I'm pretty much a New fan of this legendary Electronic group. Their 1990 Album "Violator" is generally thought of as a classic and pre-cursor to the Electronic music of today, and put against a lot of those current albums "Violator" still stands out. Their new and now 12th studio album "Sounds of the Universe" was released almost two months ago, and it's a pretty solid album. Okay I listened to it once at work, and didn't really pay all that much attention to it... but I know that I enjoyed the production value on most of the songs. It's definitely within the style they seem to have created, just great to listen to. And everything just seems to work so nicely together, the production is really moody and enjoyable without being too much or even overproduced. And the vocals and lyrical content also works well with these songs. In particular, "Jezzebel" has Dave Gahan sounding the best I've ever heard him. Like I said before though, I've only listened once. With that one listen, I know that I'll give it repeated listens and the album will probably become a favourite by the end of the year.

Lastly, and definitely LEAST is the album I was a bit intrigued by. I don't know what the course of events was but somehow I read about a new girl group Electrik Red. Four black girl singer/dancers produced by Tricky Stewart and The-Dream. And since I love The-Dream, and I generally love Girl Groups I wanted to check out their debut "How To Be A Lady Volume 1". Unfortunately, it plays just like a Dream album. It seems that Electrik Red are to The-Dream what Vanity 6 and Appolonia 6 were to Prince. Just an excuse to write songs in their own style for women. This album is definitely at it's best when they are blatantly ripping off songs in Prince's 80's style ("Friend Lover"). The album average at best when The-Dream gives them songs exactly like his own ("So Good" "Devotion"). And the album definitely is at it's worst when the girls try to force a personality on us("W.F.Y." "Kill Bill").
These girls are really pretty, and definitely have the image needed for a successful Girl Group, unfortunately they lack every thing else. They seem to lack the personality of Spice Girls or TLC, and the vocal prowess of Destiny's Child or Danity Kane. They really are just The-Dreams female puppets. So the search for the next great Girl Group will have to continue because these girls aren't it.

Music Video Review: Kanye West "Paranoid" (Starring Rihanna)

SMART MOVE!!!!
This is a really good look for all parties involved honestly. Let me not get ahead of myself though... okay, so last week L.A. Reid premiered the new Kanye West video at some sort of Def Jam/Island conference. He also played Mariah Carey's possible new single "Hate U", and Youtubers caught a bit of it... but the Kanye video is what had the internet buzzing the following day. And somehow, Rihanna became the star. His video for "Paranoid" is similar to his previous videos for "Stronger", "Flashing Lights" and "Goldigger" where the attention is placed on the female eye candy. And the newly hailed Pop Princess Rihanna is definitley where all the attention is placed in this really awesome video. And to be honest, if it wasn't Rihanna this video would be really boring because literally nothing happens. It's just 3 minutes and 48 seconds of Rihanna doing what she does best, oozing loads of sex appeal and... well... just being Sexy as hell. I mean it's shot very well, I love the camera work and the bit at the beginning with her on the bed was a cool technique. But it's really all about Rihanna and this is, like I said before, a really good look for her. She gets her name out there and her face back on MTV without having to do anything (Although I do hear rumors that she added her vocals to a remix of this song, but I haven't heard anything official). And for Kanye, it's a good look because this will get the buzz behind his Excellent "808's & Heartbreak" album starting back up.

And than maybe they'll go on tour together again.

Well that's probably my wishful thinking... anyway, check out the Mad Sexy Rihanna with her Mad Crazy Sex Appeal on this Sexy video. (say "sexy" again...)

Flashback Video of the Week: Green Day "When I Come Around"

Saw Green Day on "The Colbert Report" this week, and as I was getting ready to listen to their new album "21st Century Breakdown", I decided to go back and listen to some of their earlier hits... as well as "American Idiot", which I've never heard other than it's singles. So for the Flashback Video I picked the first Green Day song and video I really liked "When I Come Around". I also remember seeing this video and being a proud Bay Area-n (?). I was like "Whoa That's BART... a video with BART is on MTV!!!"

Album Reviews: Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Phoenix, The Crystal Method, The Living Things

"Guess Who's Back, Back Again. Shady's Back, Tell a Friend" Yes, just when no one was wondering where he was or when he was going to come back (if at all), Eminem releases his first album in almost 6 years "Relapse" (released officially today). He left us with the 2003 release "Encore", which was pretty much officially dubbed his Worst album by fans and critics alike. Even though it really wasn't all that bad. Shortly thereafter in 2005 he somewhat announced his retirement coinciding with the release of his first Greatest Hits album "Curtain Call", though he did manage to make a few collabo's where he "murdered" fellow rappers "on their own shit" (see "Touchdown" by T.I., or the "Lean Back remix" by Fat Joe). I guess the hardcore Em "Stans" have been anticipating this release for a while now. Me? Not so much. And having listened to "Relapse" (the rappers 6th studio album) I realize why. In 2000, "The Marshall Mathers LP" really impressed me. The genius lyricism and delivery of "Stan", the intensity of "Kim", the fun of "The Real Slim Shady". It was pretty much a perfect album that truly displayed what made him so popular with his debut album. The 2002 follow up "The Eminem Show" was also a bonafied Hip Hop Classic and actually had Em being a little more creative. The problem with 2003's "Encore" and now "Relapse", is there is really no evolution with his music. There's really nothing on this new album that truly stood out because it feels like we've heard it all before. From the albums intro I thought this might be a pretty interesting concept album, about a former addict trying to Avoid a relapse. Unfortunately what we get is Eminem talking about Pop celebrities, drugs, and his mom AGAIN. He hasn't lost any of his skills in delivery or flow, which actually helps to save the album along with the Dr. Dre production, but I'm a little disappointed because I did expect more from him with this album. Again, this isn't a bad album... I'd say "Hello" "Crack a Bottle" "Beautiful" and "Medicine Ball" are a few of the memorable tracks. He's supposed to be releasing "Relapse 2" sometime next year, maybe he'll dig deeper with that one.


A little less disappointing is Busta Rhymes' 8th album "Back on My B.S." (set to be released May 19th). Last year with "Throw Da Water on Em" and "We Made It" on the charts, I was really amped up for Busta's album. Not to mention the fact that 2006's "The Big Bang" album was actually ALOT better than I expected. Unfortunatley a new album never came out last year, and those two songs are Absent from this album ("We Made It", his collabo with Linkin Park, is going to be available on iTunes as a iTunes bonus track). Fortunatley he has great stuff to fill the voids. This album by no means is his best, there are some obvious duds ("Hustlers Anthem" with T-Pain sounds dated, "Don't Believe Em" featuring Akon and T.I. copies way too much from T.I.'s own "Live Your Life", and there are a few tracks that are just missing a great hook) but there are some seriously Great Moments on this album. The current single "Respect my Conglomerate" with Jadakiss and Weezy, "Shoot for the Moon", "We Want In" ("if 2 dollars is getting made, We want in, If a stock is getting trade, We want in" -- I can relate Lol). "Kill Dem" with Pharrell is easily one of the best songs with Busta riding the dancehall beat like a pro. Busta is one of the more underrated (imo) rappers alive, and on this album he shows that he can still be relevant (check out "World Go Round" with Estelle. A perfect mash up of Dance, Electronica and Hip Hop. Flo Rida WHO?), and he can still be creative and give us the unexpected.

Now on to something completely different, The Crystal Method released their latest "Divided by Night" this month. Basically there's Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Armand Van Helden than the Prodigy or the Chemical Brothers, maybe Paul Oakenfold or Fatboy Slim... bottom line, The Crystal Method were never close to being my favourite electronic group. But, with all those other guys out of commission lately (although Basement Jaxx WILL be releasing a new album this year. YES!) I turned to this album to fill the Electronica void. And, now I know why these guys aren't my favourite. This album is only 12 tracks and it's a bit of a task to get through it all. A lot of the songs like the title track or "Slipstream" just seem to go on and on and on, with nothing really exciting enough to keep your attention. A good majority of it sounds like old Daft Punk, especially the title track which (imo) does a terribly uninspired job of copying "Robot Rock". There are a few high points, "Falling Hard" with Meiko being one of the best. Also the single "Drown in the Now" featuring Matisyahu, "Blunts and Robots" featuring Peter Hook or "Black Rainbows" with Stefanie King Warfield. Still the overall feel for the album to me was "Been there. Done that. No need to listen again"

The same can be said for rock group The Living Things' album "Habeas Corpus". When I heard "Let it Rain" on VH1, I was really excited to hear their full album. That track is actually one of the best produced, written and vocally performed songs I've heard in a while. At the very least of the year. On top of that it's catchy enough to rival some of the Pop songs out. Actually, this album sounds more like a Pop album than Rock or Alternative. It's like harder edged Max Martin productions, but I won't take points away for that. What I will say is the album starts off with a huge bang in "Brass Knuckles" and keeps that momentum going through to a great potential chart topper "Oxygen". However it hits a rough patch halfway through and the album kind of dies out after that. "Island in Your Heart" is a terrible attempt at hybridizing Rock and Country music, "Post Millennium Extinction" tries hard to Rock but just lacks something in the verses. The saving grace on the bottom half of the album is another potential hit "Shake Your Shimmy", which has an insanely addictive hook. All in all, I do think this album has enough to justify repeated listens. Who knows, It might just grow on me.

Lastly is my biggest surprise of the week. The new album from a French Pop/Rock group Phoenix entitled "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" (the album hits stores in the US on May 26th, but is already available on iTunes). Now this shows how LATE I am. I'm listening to the album and loving it. Literally every minute of it, and I'm thinking I'm listening to a New group. I look on iTunes and this is the groups 4th album since 2000. I will have to listen to their prior albums to get some perspective on their music. For now, this is my favourite album of 2009. The production on this album is the main sell, this group is a weird mix of Electronica, Rock and Pop. And the backing music seems to combine the three sounds into a perfect harmony. The mostly instrumental "Love like a Sunset" is the albums peak. And it really is the best way to describe the style of the album. It's almost as if Daft Punk remixed The Beatles mid-60's "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" era music, with a little inspiration vocally and lyrically from The Killers. Other insta-classics are "Lasso" "Girlfriend" and "Fences". Every song here is great though, and with only 10 tracks this album will easily get repeated plays.

Flashback Video of the Week: Ini Kamoze "Here Come The Hotstepper"

So really, I wanted this to be Skee-Lo "I Wish", that songs hook "I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, I wish I had a girl who looked good, I would call her" has been popping up in my brain for weeks. It just totally puts me back to 9th Grade at Brewer. Unfortunately, there was no embed code available for the actual video. So I quickly thought of another song that reminds me of my last year in Jr. High. Ini Kamoze's "Here Come The Hotstepper". This song was crazy popular at the end of 1994, and that's really no surprise since it's really one of the most insanely addictive songs of that year.

Love/Hate: Lady Gaga

Every Celebrity who has reached some public notoriety has their Fans and their Haters. If this Celebrity has undeniable talent, there are still people who find something wrong with them. And if the Celebrity has obviously gotten famous without any actual skill, there are still people who praise them. Every Celebrity suffers from the "Love Them or Hate Them" thing, or "Either you get it or you don't". So what I wanted to start on this blog is periodically showing opposing views of Artists and Celebrities like this.

And since her music is on the radio constantly this year, I think it would be very appropriate to begin with Lady Gaga who is having quite a successful breakthrough year. I recruited a friend from IMDB to come and give her "LOVE" side of the argument, because I'm definitely on the side of "I don't get it" when it comes to Gaga.

"LOVE" by LibraRhapsody

Has there been a female as daring or as commercially successful so early on in their careers since Madonna and Mariah? Yes. Two words for you. Lady GaGa. Lady Gaga, the outrageous fashionista, it would be suprising if you were unaware of her, but just in case, think 80's influenced heavy dance tracks, flirty electronic beats and lyrics like "I wanna take a ride of your disco stick". Think Gwen Stefani meets Christina Aguilera , with a hint of Grace Jones thrown in. Her first two monster pop singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" (worldwide #1's) are wild, retro, sexy and intentionally ridiculous (like their music videos, from her hand movements to the giant dogs). Gaga is as original as she is daring. Unapologetic about her sexuality for sure when she declares shes "bluffin with her muffin" or "dont think too much just bust that stick". On her Top 10 Album "The Fame" she focuses on the glamour of celebrity, which she says, is about how anyone can feel like a celebrity. As well as being commercial and feel good Gaga has depth take "Paper Gangsta" or "Sommerboy" the slower tracks that don’t get lost on her hard hitting LOUD album. And she shows fragility in "Brown Eyes" when Gaga recalls "in your brown eyes, I was feeling low, got some brown eyes, but I saw her face, I knew that it was wrong, in your brown eyes".

Gaga is a breath of fresh air to music, the music industry now seems to ignore talent over image. Its not about vocals and lyrics anymore its about beats and sales. Sad but true. That’s where Gaga blends talent and substance with the relevant factors of a good beat and commercial hook. She plays the piano, writes and produces her own material and can direct a music video. She is taking the music industry by storm, giving hilarious and bizarre interviews and being nominated for awards. She's well on her way to becoming the next big Pop Icon.

"HATE" by ME

Hate might not be the best word to describe my feelings for Lady Gaga or her music. Upon reading about her I actually do respect her hustle. She was signed and dropped years before her recent breakthrough. She than began writing for other artists before she got her big break in hooking up with Akon who signed her to his Kon Live label. The result is the debut "The Fame", which is filled with catchy dance songs -- catchy dance songs that are poorly written, and have very unoriginal concepts. There in lies my problem with Lady Gaga, or maybe I should say Gaga fans. They seem to think her music is so revolutionary, so unique, so new. And I would say, look back just 5 years ago when Gwen Stefani released her "Love.Angel.Music.Baby" album. Upbeat dance ready songs concerning Fame and Riches with addictive hooks and juvenile lyricism. And let's just assume you're too young to remember that. Let's go back just 3 years ago when Fergie put out practically the same album. It's crazy to me that Gwen and Fergie's albums were panned for not having any substance, yet here we are today seeing people actually say that Lady Gaga is innovative?? I think not.
She is cute though, I mean her videos for "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" are captivating. And there are a select few songs from her (overrated) album that are worth checking out... the best being the title track. But there's no way in hell I'm buying that Lady Gaga is the new Madonna. She's not even the new Britney Spears. Not yet at least. I think she makes up for her lack of apparent talent (by the way I've never seen her perform live) or songwriting prowess with great imagery. Avant-Garde outfits that get her on the fashion wrap up lists, which undoubtedly get her name out there. She's become quite a Celebrity this year, but is she the Flavor of the Moment (like Katy Perry last year) or will she truly become the Star her fans seem to think she already is?

Classic Album Review: The Rolling Stones "Aftermath"

Just a short preface before I get into the review. For the past year I've really been trying to use my iPod not just for entertainment, but as an educational tool of sorts. Pretty much every current album is available to you with just a few key strokes, So I started to look back and discover some of the Classic music that paved the way for the crap we listen to today. And it's been a real eye-opening journey through the past. So much so that I got an idea for yet another creative writing project. But anyway...

What I've learned from my self-educating is that the 60's is the decade with my favourite music. I'd even go as far as saying the 1960's was truly the Peak of recorded music when you think about Diversity and Creativity. The 60's really started out where the 50's left off, with short sweet and fun radio friendly hits. Towards the mid-60's, with all that was going on in the country and the British Invasion in full swing, things started to change into more experimental, socially conscious, and racially diverse material. There are a few artists that remained staples throughout the whole decade. Motown, and it's artists The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and The Supremes stayed really consistent. And The Beatles held their British flag up high through most of the decade.
Today I'm going to talk about The Beatles' "competitors" in US domination, and clearly that would be The Rolling Stones. I don't think there is anybody on the planet that hasn't heard of this group, but I'll admit I wasn't very familiar with their music until about 6 or 7 years ago when I bought their most recent compilation album "Forty Licks". It's a pretty comprehensive set, but as I've discovered more music from the group I realize it only scratches the surface. If you want to get a feel for The Rolling Stones and want to familiarize yourself with their style I might recommend "Hot Rocks 1964-1971". Than again, if you really just want a taste of what makes them one of the most Awesome bands to ever live, check out "Aftermath", which to me is one of their very best albums. It also seems like it was a bit of a breakthrough for them. In 1965, the group officially became Stars with the release of their still most popular single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" which was available on the US release of "Out of Our Heads", "Aftermath" was released the year after and was the first of their albums with songs written exclusively by the founding members Keith Richards and lead singer Mick Jagger. And really this album tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the Rolling Stones... their style, their attitudes, their personalities, and is also a good peak into their future recordings.
"Aftermath" is one of the most fun albums you will ever listen to. The bulk of the album is very upbeat and infectious from the popular hit "Under my Thumb" to "Stupid Girl" (those two songs go hand in hand, "Thumb" talks about the girl who "once pushed me around" and now has basically turned into his Groupie... and "Stupid" seems to talk about that same vapid materialistic girl "The way she talks about someone else, That she don't even know herself, She's the sickest thing in this world, Well, look at that stupid girl") "Think", "Its' Not Easy" and "Flight 505", songs that are extremely catchy and addictive but also have actual substance to their lyrics matched with very energetic vocals by Jagger, which make them all great sing-alongs.
This album displays other sides of The Stones' recording style, for instance their love for mock-Country songs like "High and Dry" and "Dontcha Bother Me". Using heavy harmonica and Country strings, and Jagger doing his best (or maybe purposely comical) American Country singer voice and phrasing. This is the type of stuff they used later in their careers during their famous 4 album streak (1968's "Beggars Banquet" 69's "Let it Bleed", 71's "Sticky Fingers" and 72's "Exile on Main St") of Critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums. And finally this album showed how experimental the group was in using non-traditional instruments and arrangements on classics like "I Am Waiting" "Lady Jane" and the immensely popular "Paint It, Black".
"Aftermath" is a must-have album if your looking to learn more about The Stones. It gives you a great taste of who they are and who they were becoming. And they haven't really derived far from the format of this album yet. A Classic album by a Legendary Group.

Beyoncé = Diva!

I was trying to think of an excuse to post this pic... but do I really need a reason? This Pic is beyond Awesome.

Beyoncé is in the midst of her "I Am... Tour", which comes State side in June. July 10th in Oakland. And her final 4 shows will be "special" performances at Las Vegas' Wynn Hotel with "special" pricing packages, they are like $500 plus you HAVE to get a room package with it. And the venue was allegedly designed just for her, but it only seats 1500 people. This is actually a promotional picture for those Las Vegas shows. Additionally the Las Vegas shows will be taped for the "I Am... Tour" DVD.