Why "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" is blink-182's Best Album
I was 10 when blink-182’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket came out. Back then, my mother was still buying me Spice Girls and Aaron Carter CDs. Ready to take the plunge into pop-punk/punk (because what was cooler to a pre-teen girl than rebellion), I borrowed the CD from a neighborhood kid and never gave it back. TOYPAJ has without a doubt molded me into the person I am today and hopefully will be forever. I never put the album down, even now. To this day, they’re still one of my favorite bands, and if it wasn’t for them, I could very well be a total lame who listens to country music or worse (reggae). This album is not only my favorite blink-182 album, it’s their best album.
From start the finish, the record is an ode to adolescence life and rebellion. If you’re anything like me, you were a rebellious young punk too. This era is where the modern day scene started to develop into what it is today. This certified double platinum album set the standard of pop-punk and most importantly, made the genre accessible for anyone who wanted to be "different." I strive to critique music for a living, the alternative scene especially, and this record is the crème de la crème, the pièce de résistance; TOYPAJ is the Great Bambino of blink-182.
The songs “First Date,” “The Rock Show” and “Stay Together For The Kids” were all huge hits. While they weren’t as big as their previous record, Enema of the State, they were more refined and more mature (though, the first two not by much) than their predecessor. With catchier bridges and bolder, cleaner guitars than their previous albums, the trio still bring in hints of this record to some of their newer material.
Join us next week when Geoff shares his reasons on why Dude Ranch is blink-182's best album.
Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" Video is All Kinds of Good
There are very few subjects I can say I'm well versed in, but when I get the opportunity to gush about them you can be sure I'm going to tell you all about it. The venn diagrams of my interests rarely cross over, but now that we've got a Taylor Swift music video featuing all sorts of science fiction nods, I'm not sure what to do with myself. Although the country community felt the sting of when Taylor Swift decided her latest album, 1989, was going to be an all-pop production, and many more felt the loss when she removed her music from Spotify, it's hard to fault her when she's having so much fun in all of her music videos.
This one for her latest single "Bad Blood" (featuring a remix from Kendrick Lamar) tops all of her other craziness so far. Directed by Joseph Kahn (from Detention and that Power/Rangers fan video from a few weeks back) We've got numerous shout outs to sci-fi films like The Fifth Element, Sucker Punch, Mad Max, and awesome cameos from Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Ellie Goulding, Zendaya, Karlie Kloss, Cara Delevingne, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay, and f**king Cindy Crawford.
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I've been a big advocate for wacky music videos all my life. In fact, I think wackier music videos actually saved music artists in the digital age thanks to how much sharing through social media accounts for notoriety now. Taylor Swift just gets that.
Take the video for "Blank Space" (which was one of my Top 10 Pop Songs of 2014) for instance. Such a goofy video for an admittedly generic song helped launch her into several blogs like this one. Although she really doesn't need more attention, she gets it by taking risks. Swift plays around with the visual landscape in order to get your attention (and thus, your all important clicks) because she's got enough pull to do so. She's at the point in her career where she can't really make a bad decision, and can experiment with her brand. It's sort of like how Nicki Minaj gets crazy sexual in each of her videos, yet never quite goes over the line of decency in order to further get her name out there. Nothing the two artists do actually hurt their brand, and if an experiment fails (like Minaj's unfortunate "Nazi" video or Swift's slightly racist "Shake It Off" video) they bounce back.
Where Swift ultimately succeeds is her "pop princess" persona. It sort of brings down the fun in the "Bad Blood" video (it'd be much better if she didn't perform it and just let it all play out), but her "happy go lucky" style really works wonders for how weird she's taking 1989. I can't wait to see what she does next.
[Contest] Meet Yelawolf at Shuga Records (5/19)
Yelawolf is returning to Chicago next Tuesday, May 19th, for a meet and greet at Shuga Records (1272 N. Milwaukee Ave.). However, you'll have to purchase a copy of his latest album, Love Story, to do so. Luckily, we're giving away a pair of wristbands and copies of Love Story to one lucky Yelawolf fan.
To enter, simply follow us on Twitter and RT this tweet:
Win a copy of Love Story and a chance to meet @Yelawolf in Chicago next Tuesday. Details here: http://t.co/WloWV35TmD pic.twitter.com/c1OIvM2YP8
— Ruby Hornet (@RubyHornet) May 15, 2015
We'll select one winner by 11:59pm CT on Monday, May 18th.
To tide you over the weekend, watch Yelawolf's latest video for "Best Friend" with Eminem.
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[American Idol-izer] Top 2 Perform
After weeks of auditions, pulled sponsorships, label changes, throwing fun contestants under the bus, the final performances are here at last. Thanks to the announcement that American Idol is ending next season, the final two contestants performances are unfortunately under a more rigorous microscope than usual. It's definitely unfair to them, but then again, the show's always been kind of unfair. I'm sure the news will pull in some more viewers than usual this final week, at least. But if last night was indicative of what we could look forward to for the final season, I'm not sure what to do anymore.
At the top of the hour, due to the weird scheduling shenanigans this season (which I hope get fixed next go around), the Top 3 was whittled down to the final two as Jackie "Jax" Cole was eliminated. I considered the fact that Jax might unceremoniously be let go in third place, but I never thought it could actually happen. I was as broken up as she seemed to be, and the thought of yet another interesting contestant going home instead of the plain white dudes hurt so much. Only serving to reinforce how boring this season has been, Jax was sent home without getting to perform her possible coronation song. It's a damn, damn shame and only helps AI's naysayers.
So a very boring final bout between Nick Fradiani and Clark Beckham, we got three songs: Encore of a favorite performance (or "Flashback"), one chosen by series creator Simon Fuller, and the final winner's coronation song. Read on for the recap.
Gonna miss you, Jax.
American Idol Ending After Next Season
It's been a rough few years for American Idol. Thanks to an onslaught of competitors, weird backstage shenanigans leading to a few winners fading into obscurity, and a struggle to catch the right demographic, the show is a shadow of its former superstar making self that helped us find the goddess Kelly Clarkson. If you haven't followed my weekly segment, American Idol-izer, I've been a fan of the show since its inception. I've stuck it out through the good times and bad, and I've noticed quite a few changes over the years. And this season in particular has been through the roughest changes, leading to one of the most boring seasons in series history.
With the writing on the wall, it was a matter of time before the show would come to an end. According to Variety, American Idol is premiering its final season in January 2016 with all of the current judges and showrunners in tow. It kind of makes sense only because I assume the program is hemorrhaging money. Without Coca Cola and the former Interscope records, I'm guessing either the current record studio in charge, Big Machine, nor Fox wanted to pony up the difference. But that's just wild conjecture. I've got some more to say about the show's decline over the next couple of pages.
[via Variety]
[American Idol-izer] Top 3 Perform
American Idol has been particularly rough this season. I'll attribute most of it to growing pains since lots of factors screwed over the programming: Big Machine Records took over for Interscope (and ousted Jimmy Iovine as mentor, replacing him with Scott Borchetta), Coca Cola pulled their sponsorship after a decade of product placement, and Fox forced it to a single night in order to give space to Empire. So I've been sounding like a broken record each week (does that analogy mean anything to the kids?) because I can't help but mention how awkward and terrible this all is for everyone involved. I'll be going over this season in better detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that.
The reason I bring this up is because it's done quite a number on these poor contestants. They've been put through the ringer this season, and with the finale next week, the fatigue is starting to show more and more. This week, the Top 3 contestants had three songs: Scott Borchetta's choice, Hometown Dedications, and Judges' Choice. All four of the remaining Idols sang regardless of whether or not they were going home at the end of the evening. The four of them also got the big homecoming parade they do every year, so it was a bit weird but not as awkward as I expected.
And after weeks of playing "The Comeback Kid," Rayvon's run has finally ended. Going home in a respectable fourth place and even enjoying all sorts of things like the hometown visit and three swan songs, Rayvon ended his run on a falsetto. He fought for his place, and as much criticism as I've given him over the weeks, I can't fault that effort. On the next few pages, I'll get into American Idol XIV's Top 3 night.
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[American Idol-izer] Top 4 Perform
I'll have to admit that with Quentin gone, a little bit of my drive to stick it out with American Idol this year has waned a bit. The remaining contestants are talented for sure, but after the extreme sourness from last week, it's going to take a bit to get me back into the game. But what pulled me back to the most part is how the show was going to handle the elimination this week. Since the show has been reduced to one, two hour, night a week, it's been padding out the performances and leaving the elimination for last. It's gotten past the majority of the awkwardness the last few weeks with the Twitter save, so that each person actually performed before they found out whether or not they were going home, but I really wondered how they'd proceed now.
It was just an overall awkward night for everyone. With two different themes: one from the Judges' hometowns and one that best captured the contestants' "spirit" (really, those are the words they used), Russell Crowe showing up for promote his movie for two seconds (along with a story of riding his bike), a terribly clumsy (and sad) elimination, and now Clark Beckham is the center of attention with yet another big Idol clash with the head honcho Big Machine's Scott Borchetta.
Read on for my impressions of American Idol's Top 4 night.