Rock Charts Update

Albums:

Surprisingly, Rush's Snakes And Arrows was the top rock album of the week, debuting at #3. Did I fall asleep and wake up in 1977 or something?

Avril fell from #1 down to #4.

Tori Amos debuted at #5 with American Doll Posse, the latest album in her career-killing downward spiral. Really, it's not very good. I won't be buying her next album until she bounces back.

Feist debuted at #16 with The Reminder, a remarkable feat considering that it's much better than Broken Social Scene's ever done on the charts.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Baby 81 debuted at #46. A promising start that will hopefully get better as the brilliant "Weapon Of Choice" leaks out onto rock radio stations.

Also debuting this week was the comeback album from Dinosaur Jr., Beyond, which started out slowly at #69.


Modern Rock:

Linkin Park stayed at #1. Sadly, I'm sure I"ll be saying that a lot in the near future.

Plain White T's "Hey, Delilah" moved up from #6 to #3, making it the top-ranked "good" song of the week.

The White Stripes "Icky Thump" jumps all the way from #24 to #7 to debut in the top 20. Not the best Stripes song, but how freakin' awesome is it for a band this good to become this popular without selling out in a U2 sort of way?

Also debuting in the top 20:

The Almost "Say This Sooner" at #18.

Sick Puppies "All The Same" at #20.



Mainstream Rock:

Linkin Park was also #1 on Mainstream. They were also on Saturday Night Live this week and their new album is sure to debut at #1 next week. Surrender, Dorothy, it's over. There is no refuge from the shitty rap metal bullshit phalanx.

Nothing else really significant this week though Red "Breathe Into Me" did debut at #17.

May 2007 Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees

May 2007 saw seven bands inducted into my rock n roll hall of fame:

Stone Temple Pilots
Elvis Presley
Elvis Costello
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Metallica
Neil Young
The Ramones

For more details, click here.

New Shit Tuesday

New CDs:

After being spoiled by the one-per-week pace of cd releases over the past few months, this week is pretty tame. There isn't a single CD that I'm rushing out to buy, but there's plenty of stuff worth a listen:

Travis - The Boy With No Name - The aging Brit-pop band that never quite made it in America, Travis is still a decent band.

Elliott Smith - New Moon - Yet another "lost songs" album from Smith, who died years ago, officially making him the Tupac Shakur of indie rock.

New discs by The Clientele, Electrelane and The View - Basically a bunch of sink or swim discs that depend on personal taste.

Bjork - Volta - Well, Yoko Ono just released a disc a few weeks back, so short of having them together in the same room at the same time, this is the closest we'll get to having actual proof that they're not the same person.

VERDICT: Run away, quickly.

DVDs:

Again, a mediocre week for new DVDs. There aren't any I would personally buy, but aside from a slew of chick flicks there is one movie that's of great interest to me.


Deliver Us From Evil: This Academy Award nominated documentary examines the child molestation scandal within the Catholic Church and the cover-up within the church. The reviews say that it pulls no punches and gets right to the core of the issue by interviewing one of the head priests involved in the scandal.

VERDICT: Rent it ASAP.


The Painted Veil: Edward Norton is one of my favorite actors at the moment and while this period piece seems dull and uneventful, it's probably still worth a peek.

VERDICT: Rent it.


Fur: Word has it that this bio pic starring Nicole Kidman is just plain awful, but I'm still interested in seeing it.

VERDICT: Rent it.


Music and Lyrics, Because I Said So, Catch And Release - And here we have the three movie estrogen dump of the week. Each movie has maybe one thing going for it (respectively Hugh Grant, Lauren Graham and Kevin Smith), but that's not nearly enough to recommend any of them to anyone with taste similar to mine.

VERDICT: Avoid it.


Well, there you have it... In a word: Mediocre. Hopefully, next week will be better.

Modern Rock Monday

2007 Modern Rock Archive

Amy Winehouse - Rehab - A
The best song off of her new album, "Rehab" is a fun R&B song with a top-notch beat.

Guster - Satellite - A
A slow but entrancing indie rock song with a fantastic chorus and hook.

Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces - A
A smooth and cool indie rock R&B song from the masters of that rare genre.

Autovein - Save Me - A-
The best Foo Fighters song released in 2007 so far, this song is quite good, but has trouble getting past it's obvious influence.

Black Sabbath - The Devil Cried - B
Over the top, heavy, goofy and all in all the most Dio-tastic song of the year.

Anberlin - Godspeed - B
An interesting song that doesn't take off, but is certainly above average.

Fu Manchu - Hung Out To Dry - B
A good, but not great stoner rock song.

Hello Goodbye - Here In Your Arms - B-
A weird but interesting Death Cab meets Daft Punk indie song.

H.I.M. - Join Me - C
A pleasant sounding song with goofy lyrics.

Good Charlotte - The River - C
Not a bad song for Good Charlotte, but it would be a disappointment from a better band.

Ghost Machine - Siesta Loca - C
very confused song that shifts midway through from ripping off Tool to ripping off Slipknot. In the future, pick one successful artist steal from and stick with it.

A Change Of Pace - Shoot From The Hip - C
Yet another timid Fall Out Boy knock-off. Very boring with a lousy chorus.

Hellyeah - You Wouldn't Know - D+
Sludgy noise metal with no redeeming qualities.

Hinder - Better Than Me - D-
The best thing I can say about this song is that it's not as radio friendly as "Lips Of An Angel", so at least I won't have to listen to it on infinite repeat. Crappy lyrics, lousy vocals and a terrible chorus. Yikes. Radio can do much better than you as well.

Godsmack - The Enemy - D-
More dull shit from Godsmack. Honestly, I think they've given up on good music and just record the same song over and over again, just to see if anyone notices.

New Releases This Weekend

There were only 2 new releases this weekend, one of them huge and widely anticipated to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time, the other one Spider-Man 3.


Spider-man 3: The official kickoff of the summer movie season arrives with this sequel to one of the most successful franchises of all-time. Word on the street is that there's way too much plot in this movie and it's the weakest of the three, but that's not going to stop me or anyone else from seeing it the first chance I get.

VERDICT: See it, ASAP.


Lucky You: So your movie's been on the shelf for 2 years despite having a first-rate director, a legendary actor, Drew Barrymore and an actor who at the time seemed like he was on his way to the A-list and now it's finally opening... against Spider-Man 3. Good luck.

VERDICT: Skip it.

Billboard Rock Charts Review

Albums:

Avril Lavigne's new album stayed at #1 for some reason while NIN slipped from #2 to #3. Debuting at #7 is the second major album from The Arctic Monkeys: "Favourite Worst Nightmare". Also debuting in the top 100: "Fear of a Black Planet" by Porcupine Tree at #59 and "Twelve" by Patti Smith at #60.


Modern Rock:

Linkin Park was #1 again with "What I've Done". Debuting this week at #18 is Finger Eleven's Franz Ferdinand ripoff "Paralyzer", which has been on the mainstream charts for months.


Mainstream Rock:

All your bases are belong to Linkin Park as they take over the #1 spot on both rock charts for the first time in a couple years. Debuting this week is yet another song from Saliva called "Broken Sunday".

New Shit Tuesday

CDs:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81 - One of the best underground bands in indie rock makes a play for a mainstream audience with this fantastic new disc. If you like the Jesus and Mary Chain, you'll like BRMC.

Verdict: Buy it ASAP.


Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond - The reunion disc for legendary 80s indie band Dinosaur Jr. is a fantastic return to form from a great band that's been overlooked.

Verdict: Buy it.


Tori Amos - American Doll Posse - Tori's still pretty reliable, but she's been in a major slump as of late. This disc doesn't pull her out of said slump.

Verdict: Borrow it.


Feist - The Reminder - This Broken Social Scene spin-off is good, but not to my particular tastes.

Verdict: Buy it if you like BSS, otherwise, skip it.


DVDs:

Little Children - Todd Field's follow-up to In The Bedroom is an obscure, but supposedly brilliant look at the dark lives lived in quiet suburbs. I plan to rent it the first chance I get, but it's not quite on my buy list.

Verdict: Rent it ASAP.


Dreamgirls - The movie that Best Picture forgot is an interesting, but middle-of-the-road musical that tracks the history of rock n roll from Motown through disco through the eyes of artists who are absolutely not based on The Supremes and James Brown.

Verdict: Rent it.


Alpha Dog - I haven't seen it, but I've heard that the movie is actually surprisingly good.

Verdict: Rent it.


The Hitcher - At some point Hollywood decided that instead of coming up with new ideas for trashy slasher pics it would be easier to just re-make the slasher pics of last generation and market them as though they'll be interesting now. The original Hitcher was one of the classiest and creepiest suspense movies of the 80s. From what I've heard, the re-make doesn't touch the original in any way, which is typical of this type of film. Is it really that hard to make a slasher film? All you need is a killer with a mask and a bunch of teenagers... Do you really need to steal someone else's ideas to come up with that?

Verdict: Skip it.


All in all, a decent week for new releases. 2 top shelf CD releases and a trio of movies worth renting make for the best week in a good while.