Playlist

In case anyone noticed: the saggin' story below, which will be on Page 1A of tomorrow's paper, is why I haven't blogged for a couple of days. It's a multifaceted issue to be sure ... and one that isn't all that surprising considering how homophobia permeates hip hop music.

Any news item that starts off:

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway wants urban youths to improve their image by hiking up their pants. But a local hip-hop artist is using homophobia as a tool to get that message across.

... is bound to anger and intrigue. For instance, Dooney da' Priest's new rap song associates low-slug pants with being "on the down-low."

• Read: Gay groups critical of hip-hop song targeting saggin' pants
• Hear: "Pull Your Pants Up"

What do you think about this tactic?

J.Lo last night at American Airlines Center (Rex C. Curry / Special to DMN)

• Read about how designer Roberto Cavalli spilled the beans here.

My deal is: Hopefully the secrecy was about maintaining a modicum of privacy, not because her people were afraid her newly maternal state would be an image-dampener. A) I hope we are well evolved past that, and B) Hello ... is she not still hot or what?

Golden Gate Funeral Home
4155 S. R.L. Thornton Frwy. @ Ann Arbor, Dallas
214-941-7332
• Wake: 6-7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 at the funeral home
• Service: 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 5 at the funeral home

• Obituary

During a long weekend drive I popped some classic gospel quartet music in the changer. Many of you folks won't be surprised, but I must say again that Sam Cooke's gospel output on Specialty Records was superior to anything he recorded afterward.

Cooke replaced the great R. H. Harris and frontman of the Soul Stirrers in the late 1950s. It was controversial. Harris was perhaps the greatest quartet singer ever, and Cooke was only 20 years old.

But Cooke's shifty voice, tremendous phrasing and polished grit made him the most popular gospel singer of his era.

Pick up the complete Soul Stirrers recordings to hear what I'm talking about.

By the way, the other lead on most of the tracks is the irrepressible Paul Foster.

Life Church will be holding its Fall Festival tonight from 6-9. Why should you care? Well, outside of some musical performances and general funitude, the event will feature a drawing for Hannah Montana tickets. That's right -- do no adjust your screen -- I said Hannah Montana tickets. The Church is located at 7850 Davis Blvd in North Richland Hills. For more information, head over to the Life Church Web site at www.lifechurchdfw.com.

Bronx J.Lo, not Brooklyn Jenny! (Rex C. Curry/Special to DMN)

Those of you who attended the concert Tuesday night ... what did you think? Comment below.

We're getting inquiries about Marchel Ivery's funeral info, which we don't have yet. As soon as we can secure some details, we'll put it here. Meanwhile, read the Dallas jazz man's obit here.

UPDATE:
Golden Gate Funeral Home
4155 S. R.L. Thornton Frwy. @ Ann Arbor, Dallas
214-941-7332
• Wake: 6-7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 at the funeral home
• Service: 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 5 at the funeral home

Update: As of 1:30 p.m.: Arrangements expected to be finalized in about another hour.

Update: Looks like Golden Gate Funeral Home is handling services, which are still pending as of noon.

Ivery at Sammons Center for the Arts in '99. (Staff)

• Take a look at his recordings

According to msnbc.com's 'The Scoop':

Jennifer Lopez might have to start looking for a new label if she wants to make another original record. A source close to Epic Records and Epic’s parent company, Sony BMG, says that the label is fed up not only with J.Lo’s paltry album sales, but with the amount of money it’s costing to promote the diva.

Read the story.

Legendary rock group the Eagles have put out their first studio album since 1979. Tell us what you think of the new album and tell us your favorite Eagles song.

Too ... many ... CDs ... to ... listen ... to! Bah!

OK, so national stuff that I got to over the weekend, really quick and in grade form: Say Anything's In Defense of the Genre: a preliminary B (The double CD is too long and too complex to absorb in one listen). Paul Oakenfold's Greatest Hits & Remixes: A- (any self-respecting club kid or casual fan of megahit regurgitations should pick it up). arguably my favorite. Witchcraft's The Alchemist: B- (Swedish stoner prog that's frequently too retro for its own good). Serj Tankian's Elect the Dead: B (The System of a Down formula still works when Daron Malakian's dank pop goofiness is replaced by Mr. Tankian's jazzed- and amped-up activism). The Thrills' Teenager: C- (jeez, I am getting so sick of British acts whose lone goal is to reanimate a young Nick Cave or Ray Davies in the same way that Oasis claimed to have captured the soul of the Beatles).

Now, for short takes on two releases of local interest: Metal act Within Chaos and self-tagged "electro-lounge" act the Shock of Pleasure. See below.

The fine folks at Spin usually include at least one -- but never more than two -- live music reviews in every monthly issue (heck, we surpass that pace on some weekend days!). It pretty much covers the big names and the big festivals in that space, though its online coverage of live shows is much more expansive.

So during this busier-than-a-hive-of-retro-pop-bees concert season, consider how many potential subjects were bypassed by Spin's editors in favor of Midlake, which scored the lone live review slot in the November issue, which should be on newsstands now.

Contributor Josh Modell describes the Denton quintet's pre-Austin City Limits set at Chicago's Metro on Sept. 12 thusly: "It may be the perfect moment to see Midlake, a band riding a wave of acceptance that could lead either back to obscurity or to Wilco-like slow-burn success." You can picture Mr. Modell puckering up and catching a shiver when describing the single new track that Midlake performed on that night: "Children of the Grounds," to be included on 2008's follow-up to The Trials of Van Occupanther. "[It] grasped both side of Midlake's personality -- brooding atmospherics and guitar-face-rockin' -- but it felt imbued with a concentrated confidence they've never nailed before."

Mmmm, confidence. This nod by a leading national music rag will give Midlake another stout dose of that. Kudos, dudes.

But just when you thought she'd finally embarrassed herself into oblivion, she
comes out with probably the best album of her career, Blackout.

Check out our photo gallery of America's unsinkable pop-dance princess through the years.

By the way ... will you listening to the new Brit CD Tuesday? Or would you rather cut yourself with it instead? Discuss.

(Allposters.com)

(Interscope Records/yfly.com)

I certainly couldn't during the Hives' triumphant opening slot at Saturday's Maroon 5 concert in Fort Worth -- which, by the way, was as ideal a point-counterpoint situation regarding how a band should project live energy as I've come across. Hives = awesome. Maroon 5 = borrr-innng. Read my review here.

Below. Under "Comments". Discuss.

When artists try to do a little bit of everything, one of two things usually happens: utter disaster hits or visionary transcendence materializes. (Or: one wields the mighty broad sword of creativity, and the other falls upon it). Two discs released this week, Ween's La Cucaracha (watch out for some potentially offensive content on Ween's site) and Bo Bice's See the Light, ably represent each result to my ears. First, the good; read below.

Willie Nelson plays Saturday at Smirnoff with some guy named Pat Green.

But first let us know what you're planning to do this weekend!

(Club Dada)

Beard needs you

Deep Ellum loyalists think of John "Beard" Brewer as nothing less than a local music institution. So it's no surprise that they want to help out the longtime Club Dada doorman, who was recently hospitalized and spent some time in ICU after an unexplained seizure. There'll be a "Beard-A-Fit" on Sunday at Dada to assist him with mounting medical bills. Among the acts scheduled to play are the Felons, Brave Combo, Mr. Pink and the Backsliders.

Things start up at 1 p.m. Cover is $10.

I traipsed on over to one of my favorite divey live-music haunts, Double Wide, tonight (er, last night) to see New York-based "New American Traditionalists" Katy Mae at the insistence of its PR rep. It was solid and tuneful, to be sure, but it was also derivative in a modernized Creedence Clearwater Revival-melded-with-Counting Crows way. I've heard 20 bands that sound basically the same.

A well matched local rootsy rock outfit, Slider Pines, opened. And it was much better. Why? Singer-songwriter Joey Shanks heaps five of six chord changes into most song movements instead of three or four, and the resulting meanderings cover a wider sonic canvas; XTC here, Bob Mould there, Tom Petty elsewhere, John Hiatt everywhere. Simply put, the songs were more interesting and covered more ground. (Interested? Its debut CD, Road, Avenue, Railroad, was released last month locally).

My point? Often what separates two acts that aim for the same sonic turf is the acknowledgment, refinement and incorporation of all of its influences. Want to stick out? Sprinkle elements of as many of your heroes as you can without losing the song's melodic and lyrical essence. Easily said, yes. Easily done, rarely.

(Courtesy: Saenz of the Times PR)

On its way to perform at the CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival in New York last week, the band lost its RV to a fire. While on Interstate 81 in far eastern Tennessee, bassist Jim Taylor, who was driving, noticed smoke in the cabin. The other members were all asleep. He pulled over and got the others out, but minutes later, despite extinguisher help by a delivery truck driver and a policeman, the RV was nothing but a twisted metal shell (see above). Fortunately, no one was injured and the band's trailer survived thanks to three fire trucks and a temporary shutdown of the highway. But it did lose several guitars as well as its cash, food, clothes and such.

But: the band did rent a truck the next day and made its CMJ gig. The Red Cross even pitched in for clothes and a hotel after the blaze. Smokin.'

Read today's story: Disney marketers making the most of 'Hannah Montana'

The Bomb. Apparently. (AP)

Well how about that Hannah Montana, aka Miley Cyrus, aka "You mean that's Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter?" Her Forth Worth concert in November has been sold out for some time now, and I just saw video about it that drove me nuts.

Parents are frothing at the mouth and paying ticket prices into the $jillions so their daughters can say they saw Billy Ray Cyrus' offspring and her hair extensions in concert. I mean, stubhub.com's got tickets for the Disney star's concert in LA on sale for over $9,000!

What's wrong with people? I'm sure she's a nice girl, and yes, she's immensely popular with the tween set. But even she seems to have some fiscal prudence: "It’s going to be a good show, but I don’t think it’s worth what it’s going for."

What's your take?

• Video: Hannah Montana tickets: Parents and their need to please
• Story: Hannah Montana: Hardest ticket to score
• Blog post: Even Miley thinks the price is too high

With Radiohead's online self-release of its new studio material, In Rainbows (one word: wow), and Madonna's abandonment of her traditional music label for a multi-album, multi-concert-tour, multi-merch, multi-baby-adoption (er, wait: I'm doublechecking ... OK, nix that last part) deal with Live Nation, the music biz continues its chaotic reformation.

I think of it differently. In my mind, this is the first time in recorded music history that the artists themselves have had a shot at defining, en masse, how their product is presented and offered for mass consumption. Think about it ...