Playlist

With all this talk about Alice Cooper lately, what with the mini-buzz he's got going thanks to a new CD, Along Came a Spider, I pulled out my copy of 1989's Trash. For those who don't remember, Trash was the macabre one's last commercial triumph. Released right before grunge and at the cusp of the hair metal movement, Trash is pure fun with just enough creepy play on words to make it sound like good ole Alice. Of course there's "Poison," the sinfully catchy hit single co-written by Desmond Child. In fact, Trash was produced by Mr. Child and his stamp is all over it. Think early Bon Jovi, add a bit more guitar muscle and then Mr. Cooper's eerie sense of humor. The song titles -- "Bed of Nails," "This Maniac's In Love With You" and "I'm Your Gun" -- are quintessential Alice.

Photo: Trash CD cover courtesy of allcdcovers.com.

Alejandro Escovedo was to perform on Aug. 23 at McDavid Studio in Fort Worth. According the press release, the show has been canceled because of "health reasons."

For ticket refunds, call the Bass Performance Hall box office at (817) 212-4280.

Ever since I helped roadie for area indie rockers The New Frontiers (well, sort of; I got to handle up on some drums and cases) at this year's South By Southwest in Austin, I've been rooting for the guys. (OK, that's not totally accurate: ever since I listened to its impressively restrained and refined CD on The Militia Group, Mending, I've been cheering 'em on).

Others are finally listening, it appears. Mending earned a four-star rating in Paste Magazine recently, and now Spin magazine has recognized the band formerly known as Stellamaris as a Buzzcatcher artist on its web site.

Something tells me if the band performs at SXSW 2009, it'll have a more choice location and time slot than the woozy 1 a.m. dregs it played in front of at the Thirsty Nickel in March. And that'd be perfectly proper.

By the way: the band will open for the Honorary Title at the Granada Theater on Aug. 10.

(Photo: Patrick Rutherford)

You'd think that the surviving member of UGK would prefer to play his MySpace Release Show in his home base of Houston, right? Well, that'd be II Trill for sure, but that's not what's happening.

Port Arthur native Bun B will perform the gig tomorrow in Dallas instead. He'll take the stage at Lower Greenville urban lounge Torch (5631 Sears, 214-418-1511) sometime after the doors open to the free gig at 10 p.m. sharp. So to take in Bun B's masterful Dirty South hip hop, you'll have to assume quite the non-hip hop frame of mind and get there early, peeps. There'll be room for only about 700 of you.

Programming note: this marks only the second last-minute MySpace.com gig that's been staged in Dallas (the style has become a very successful marketing tool for the social networking site). Pit Bull threw down a Secret Show here in 2006.

(Photo: Pat Sullivan, AP)

This shouldn't surprise anybody: Miley Cyrus, the most sought-after teen in America, will debut at No. 1 on Billboard's pop albums chart with Breakout, her "grown-up" pop-rock record. The disc sold 371,000 copies its first week in stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan. At No. 2 is country duo Sugarland with the deluxe fan edition of Love On the Inside. That CD sold 314,000 copies during its inaugural seven days at retail outlets. Things could get interesting next week as the regular version of Love On the Inside (meaning minus five bonus tracks) will have its initial week at stores. The sales of the deluxe and regular editions will be combined. This could give Sugarland a chart-topper.

Photo: Breakout album cover courtesy of amazon.com.

Garland-raised country singer LeAnn Rimes performs during a free concert Wednesday, Aug. 13 at Gilley's Dallas, 1135 S. Lamar St. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show is at 9 p.m. The gig is part of the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush, a series of free one-night-only gigs in seven cities that run from late July through mid September. Other artists involved are: Mariah Carey July 31 in Los Angeles; Nelly Aug. 19 in Atlanta; and Nas Aug. 27 in New York. Ms. Rimes, a longtime Samsung spokesperson, will surely be singing tunes from her underrated latest CD, Family. For more info, go to www.samsungsummerkrush.com.

Photo: LeAnn Rimes (David McClister).

The Black Crowes are accusing country singer Gretchen Wilson of copyright infringement, claiming she lifted parts of their '91 hit "Jealous Again" for her new song "Work Hard Play Harder." Sure, there are definite similarities. But considering how heavily the Crowes have borrowed from the Stones and the Allmans' catalogs, maybe they shouldn't be pointing fingers.

No, I've never DVR'ed The Two Coreys, that A&E series featuring newly-estranged former child actors Coey Feldman and Corey Haim, and I've never been more than a casual fan of either one of them, but when the former separately discussed their split in the Aug. 4 edition of People magazine, I was struck by what he revealed about Michael Jackson and how the singer's past has indeed impacted the present...

"It wasn't Michael Jackson who molested me, but he did do real damage in my overall life. I was a 12-year-old boy who was hurt by his family and ignored by people at school. Michael would sit and talk to me for hours and he would listen. Then he would get bored. The biggest thing that Michael's done to children is befriending the ones who are in need and then abandoning them. 'Hey, I love you, I'm here for you, anything you need, you call me, I will be there for you.' Then the very next day, the number's been changed. As a 12-year-old kid, that's a pretty hard one to comprehend. That's the karma he's paying off now."

Today, MTV (TRL) and BET (106 & Park) premiered the Lil Wayne video "Got Money," a song (and video) featuring the ever-present T-Pain.

Dallas' own Play-N-Skillz produced the track. Not ones to ever be outdone, they're appearing in the video, too.

(Photo by Matt Sonzala)

Wondering what all the fuss was about at the 2008 Cuervo Black U.S. Air Guitar Championships that recently came to Dallas' House of Blues? I could tell you (oh, I already have; see other blog posts), but there's nothing like sights and sounds, along with some more (much more) to read.

(Photo of Karen Adamson of Richardson, aka "Rita Ford" by G.J. MCCARTHY/Staff Photographer)

If your taste in country leans to Buck Owens, not Bucky Covington, you'll probably appreciate the King Bucks. The newish Dallas band plays old-school country the way Buck and Ray Price intended it. Made up of members of the Drams and Sorta -- not to mention ex-Polyphonic Spree pedal steel player Joe Butcher -- the King Bucks play free show Monday at Adair's Saloon.

I'm not a gambling man. But I would actually bet money that the next Nashville Star will be either Arlington's Melissa Lawson or Lytle's Gabe Garcia. That means the winner will be a Texan either way. Both are extremely talented, and both represent something important to the future growth of country music. Ms. Lawson proves that a wife, a mother of five children and a not-ready-for-the-runway lady can make it on sheer heart and soul. In other words, the real woman not only gets a shot, but she takes it to the pinnacle. She is inspirational. Then we have Mr. Garcia, whose Hispanic heritage puts him in a very small group of country successes - namely Freddy Fender, Johnny Rodriguez and Rick Trevino. In a rapidly multi-cultural nation where Hispanics are quickly becoming part of the majority, not the minority, he brings the ideal amount of ethnicity to a genre that continues to appeal to a wider, more varied audience.

Good luck to both of you!

Photo: Melissa Lawson (Courtesy of nbc.com).

America voted Coffey off Nashville Star, leaving Arlington's Melissa Lawson, Lytle, Texas' Gabe Garcia and Iowa's Shawn Mayer as the final three. That, folks, is as it should be. Coffey was just all wrong for this, from the ear-splitting vibrato to his mostly non-country song choices. Judge John Rich said it best when he told Coffey that he's got the makings of a star, just not a Nashville star. Anyway, the finale is Aug. 4 at 9 p.m. instead of the usual 8 p.m. The competition is really heated now, since Ms. Lawson, Mr. Garcia and Ms. Mayer all performed exceptionally well tonight. Particularly good: Ms. Mayer's lovely rendition of Garth Brooks' "The Dance." She sang it without histrionics, just a poignant, reflective delivery.

Photo: Coffey (Courtesy of nbc.com)

I had only so much space to write my concert review of the Journey/Heart/Cheap Trick gig last night at Superpages.com Center. And I wanted to mention a few things about Heart's hour-long stage stint. They went on right before Journey's headlining show. Anyway, what's on everybody's mind is can Ann Wilson still hit the high notes? She can, but they just aren't as smooth as before, especially on the big ballad "Alone." She still has plenty of lung power though and nuance. That came through on "Magic Man," my all-time favorite Heart tune. Oh, one more thing: I love hearing Nancy Wilson sing "These Dreams" and play the mandolin during the lovely ballad. There's something so soothing about her performing that No. 1 hit.

Photo: Ann and Nancy Wilson in a 2004 pix (PRNewsFoto).

I knew times were hard all over, but a few singers have found a new revenue stream. Chris Brown, Ne-Yo and Julianne Hough are lending their voices to remixes of familiar jingles for Wrigley's. Chris Brown does the (cough) honors for Doublemint; Ne-Yo gets to tackle Big Red (another cough); and Ms. Hough sings about (coughing fit) Juicy Fruit.

And Wrigley's will introduce them all with a free concert in NYC tomorrow. I can't take it any more, read it here.

(Chris Brown by RICHARD DREW/Associated Press)

The final round went by very, very quickly. We were very happy with the score of 5.7 that we gave "The Guardian," even though it seemed our compatriots thought he was clearly the best. (Could it have been the drinks?)

Anyhoo, they say they'll be back in a couple of minutes with the name of the winner. And after that, they want everyone to stay for an all-star jam. And the winner is ...

5. Hardcore Hershey Highway
4. Johnny V.
3. Deviled Elvis
2. Rocko Collins

The Guardian won. We still think Rocko was the best. Ah, well. We had lots of fun, and I hope they invite us back next year.

It turns out that we were the Russian judges. But every judging pair was going in for the zingers. We had a guy in an Elvis cape, a guy in sparkly purple skintight everything and a blushing bride-to-be who threw her veil (and her modesty, it seems ... it's called a belt) to the crowd.

So, it's after 11 and the scores are being tallied for round 2. The top 5 move on to the compulsory round, where the organizers pick the song. The emcee looked a little bored, bless his heart. I thought the crowd might revolt when he pointed out "the lady in the A&M orange."

Well, it's official. We were hard on the contestants. Someone, from somewhere out in the crowd, threw something at us. Probably because for some reason, and I'm not calling any names, we were always the first team to comment and score. Whatever, man. This is America, land of the free and opinionated. Check yourself.

We just got briefed by the organizers. It seems there are 11 competitors, each getting 60 seconds to do their thing. No. Props. Allowed. That's instant disqualification. Ray asks, "Are we going to be the Russian judges," no doubt alluding to Olympics of old when those judges always gave the lowest scores.

We're judging on three things: technical merit, stage presence and airness. We get to use a scale of 4 to 6. They brought us more Sprite, and Hot Lixx Hulahan, the 2007 national champion took the microphone (wearing tails, no less). Be back soon ...

So, we're here at the Dallas regional for the U.S. AIr Guitar Championships. My significant other, who drives me everywhere (bless his heart), is going to help me judge. It's six judges tonight, so they're pairing us off. We're trying to think of a cool tandem name, but right now we'll go with the obvious: Dawn and Ray.

We're thinking that we're gonna like this gig. There's a guy in charge of getting us drinks (cold Sprites are us). And we let the organizers know that the Houston championships were in the countdown on ESPN's Sportscenter, of all places. It's dark, hot and the restaurant patrons, I'm sure, don't know what hit them. (There's a girl in the audience who I'm calling Lucy, you know, like from the Cartoon Network series Lucy, Daughter of the Devil? She's wearing red, blinking devil horns, very appropriate, I'm sure.) Oh, what a night this is going to be. Stay tuned ...

Thor's written a story about how some people forget that two-thirds of the Houston-formed band ZZ Top are actually from the Dallas area, born and raised (find the story online here late Sunday night/early Monday, or in the Sunday paper). Dusty Hill and Frank Beard are pretty proud of their Dallas roots and have played at all sorts of venues in the area — the big ones, the legendary ones that aren't around anymore, the sketchy underground ones.

Have you ever seen the band play in the area? Tell us where, when and how it went. If you haven't, what's their best album or song?

(Photo: The band's recently-released DVD, Live from Texas, recorded in concert last year at Nokia Theater/Superpages.com Center)

Texan Trent Willmon sings, writes songs, records albums. He can host a TV reality competition for cowboys, act in a Western movie ... and now he has a computer game. Trent Willmon's Cold Beer and a Fishin' Pole Fishing Game is a casual, interactive game created by PlanetCazmo.com. It ties into the Amarillo native's latest single, "Cold Beer and a Fishin' Pole" from his criminally underrated new album, Broken In. Anyway, to play go to either www.countryweekly.com, www.compadrerecords.com or www.trentwillmon.com.

And isn't that cartoon version of Trent Willmon too clever?!

Photo: Cartoon Trent (Courtesy of PlanetCazmo.com).

Last year, Disney and Wal-Mart teamed up to give kids back-to-school wake-up calls from High School Musical characters. This year, they're partnering again for free pre-recorded wake-up calls or activity reminders from Hannah Montana. Through Sept. 15, parents can log in here to sign up.

Did you go? I want to know who rocked, what sucked, if you had a good time or what. Look for the review here.

Didn't get your metal fix last night? There's always the Mayhem Festival tonight.