Pop Talk from Creators Syndicate

Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull Took on Time and Won for 08/25/2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hell has not frozen over — an increasingly unlikely prospect in these harrowing days of global warming — but something nearly as unlikely has happened.

That's right, Jethro Tull, the pioneering English prog-rock band that your parents or grandparents may have rocked out to in the late 1960s and early '70s, has suddenly become cool. Again.

At least it has for the member ...

Updated: Mon Aug 25, 2008

For Guitar Wiz Jennifer Batten, Music is 'all about Stretching your Creativity' for 09/01/2008

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

After spending three years going head-to-head with rock guitar icon Jeff Beck in his band, and a decade as the featured six-string soloist in pop-music legend Michael Jackson's group, Jennifer Batten was ready to downsize.

"I really needed a change," said the guitar wiz.

"After 20 years of living in Los Angeles, I wanted to breathe real air, drink water out of the t ...

Updated: Mon Sep 01, 2008

Limits of Radiohead Vanish as Individuals Come Together for 09/08/2008

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Few bands in or out of rock exceed the sum of their parts as often — or as brilliantly — as Radiohead, whose sold-out concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, Calif., reaffirmed the band's collective power.

Apart from lead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, a classically trained musician and budding film composer, no one in Radiohead qualifies as a vir ...

Updated: Mon Sep 08, 2008

Music Lovers are Going Back to the Future with Vinyl for 09/22/2008

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Step aside, iPod users. Move over, digital downloaders (legal and otherwise). A very cool "new" form of recorded music is growing in popularity with teens, twentysomethings and even their parents: It's called . . . vinyl records?

That's right.

Against all odds in this high-tech age, vinyl albums — those round, 12-inch discs that look like thin Frisbees with a small ...

Updated: Mon Sep 22, 2008

Antonio Sanchez's Jazz is a Beat or Two Ahead of the Pack for 09/29/2008

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's not unusual for famous rock drummers to cite great jazz drummers as their biggest musical inspirations. But jazz drum great Antonio Sanchez reverses that equation by citing a pair of top rock drummers, Neil Peart of Rush and Stewart Copeland of The Police, as two of his biggest inspirations.

"It all started because my mother is a big, big music fan and she used to listen to the ...

Updated: Mon Sep 29, 2008

'I'm Still at the Beginning of What I'm Doing' for 10/13/2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Success is not always what it seems.

Just ask Duffy, the young singer who has been thrust into the international spotlight as both a solo star and a key figure in a growing retro pop-soul movement that also includes fellow United Kingdom vocal sensations Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone and the lone-named Adele and Estelle.

"People talk to me about success as if I know what it is,&q ...

Updated: Mon Oct 13, 2008

Reed's 'Berlin' Challenging, Harrowing, Rewarding for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Few albums have charted a more curiously rocky path — or inspired as much controversy and belated acclaim — as Lou Reed's "Berlin," which has now been reborn as a concert film directed by Julian Schnabel. Originally released in 1973, it is easily the second most misunderstood work in this legendary New York rocker's discography.

The first, of course, was "Metal ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

At Age 62, Neil Young -- Musician, Storyteller, Artist -- Remains a Vital Force for 10/27/2008

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I hope to be around a long time."

Neil Young told the San Diego Union-Tribune that two years ago — not about himself, but about his annual Bridge School benefit concerts at the Shoreline Amphitheatre near San Jose, Calif.

Launched in 1986 to raise money for a special-needs Bay Area school for students with severe speech and physical impairments (including his son, ...

Updated: Mon Oct 27, 2008

'Sticky and Sweet' Tour Sales Might be Slow, but Don't Bet Against Madonna for 11/03/2008

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Sure, the Queen of Pop has been encouraging her audiences to vote for Barack Obama at each stop on the U.S. leg of her ongoing "Sticky and Sweet" world tour. And, yes, she has also been flashing images of John McCain during her nightly performances of "Get Stupid," although not of his running mate. ("Sarah Palin can't come to this party," Madonna told the audience ...

Updated: Mon Nov 03, 2008

Jodi V Turns Heartbreak into Art by 'Doing Music That's Kind of Inspirational' for 11/10/2008

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Getting her heart broken for the first time at the age of 18 was a wrenching experience for Jodi V. It was also the best thing that ever happened to her, musically speaking.

"I actually remember the night that this little punk hurt me," she said of her former boyfriend. "I went right in the house and wrote a poem in my diary, then I wrote the song 'Breaking Down.'"

Updated: Mon Nov 10, 2008

Rodney Crowell's Music Frankly Takes on Issues of the Heartland for 11/17/2008

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

There's a good reason "Sex and Gasoline" ranks as Crowell's most accomplished and satisfying album since 2001's justly acclaimed "The Houston Kid." In both instances, the veteran Texas singer-songwriter completed an entire album, then discarded it and began the whole process anew, only this time in Los Angeles instead of Nashville, Tenn.

"I recorded it, mixed it ...

Updated: Mon Nov 17, 2008

Financial Instruments for 11/24/2008

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Attention shoppers!

If you want to buy "Black Ice," the chart-topping new album by Australian hard-rock legends AC/DC, there are 3,500 stores across the nation where you can get it at the bargain rate of $11.98.

Not coincidentally, all of these stores are part of the Wal-Mart chain. The world's biggest company, with revenues of $374.5 billion last year, Wal-Mart is exclu ...

Updated: Mon Nov 24, 2008

Devout Jonas Brother Devoted Fan of Decidedly Irreverent blink-182 for 12/01/2008

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Jonas Brothers are certifiably the biggest teen-pop band in the land.

The group, which teams devoutly Christian brothers Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas, specializes in upbeat pop-rock songs and wholesome power ballads. Its photogenic members, whose "Camp Rock" is the most viewed TV movie in the history of the Disney Channel on Demand, can set preteen and teenaged hearts aflutter ...

Updated: Mon Dec 01, 2008

Spears' 'Circus' is Just More of the Same Brand: Britney Lite for 12/06/2008

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Quick, somebody call the irony police! Britney Spears is back with a new album, "Circus," and she's apparently still as clueless as ever about the difference between art and artifice, earnest expression and empty ear-candy.

Then again, this MTV-bred teen-sex-doll-turned-adult-train-wreck clearly owes much of her past success precisely to her lack of depth and to her synthetic, ...

Updated: Sat Dec 06, 2008

Jazzed About Joining Forces for 12/08/2008

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Jazz piano legend McCoy Tyner credits the dance classes he took as a teenager in Philadelphia for partly inspiring him to embrace African music on such notable albums as 1970's "Asante" and 1972's "Sahara." But the celebrated pianist, who has recently been collaborating at concerts with young tap master Savion Glover, is an agile dancer in his own right, at least on the keyb ...

Updated: Mon Dec 08, 2008

You Say You Want a Revolution? for 12/15/2008

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Logically speaking, the fact that the record industry started tanking several years before our now-perilous national economy would seem a good reason for expensive CD boxed sets to go the way of wristwatches and vinyl records. Ditto the fact that far fewer people are now buying albums, let alone even more costly boxed sets, in this age of ringtones, downloading (legal and otherwise) and plummet ...

Updated: Mon Dec 15, 2008

Kanye West's Vocal Experiments Hit a Sour Note in '808s & Heartbreak' for 12/20/2008

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Kanye West

"808s & Heartbreak"

Roc-A-Fella

Two stars

Kanye West and Neil Young?

What could this brash, Chicago-bred hip-hop maverick possibly have in common with the legendary Canadian rocker?

More than you might think, as West's daring but dramatically flawed new album, "808s & Heartbreak," demonstrates.

In 19 ...

Updated: Sat Dec 20, 2008

Recession? What Recession? for 12/22/2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Contrary to the concerns of many politicians, economists and, oh, several hundred million Americans, our economy is more robust than ever.

Just ask Britney Spears who could soon replace Warren Buffett as one of our nation's most astute business experts. The simple key to success and sustained financial growth, as Brit knows all so well, is to spend like there's no tomorrow.

Or, to ...

Updated: Mon Dec 22, 2008

His Health-Care Reform Plan: Music Therapy for 12/29/2008

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The frailty of life and the healing powers of music are closely intertwined constants for David Hurley.

By day, this San Diego native works as a trauma unit nurse at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., where he helps care for everyone from gunshot and stabbing wound victims to senior citizens who have fallen and broken a hip or an arm.

By night (and in almost every othe ...

Updated: Mon Dec 29, 2008

Quality was on an Upswing Even as Sales Were Dropping for 01/05/2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The music business is in trouble, but the forecast for music isn't nearly as grim.

That may sound like a contradiction, but only if you have trouble separating music from business.

The record industry is imploding, with album sales down a whopping 21.7 percent from last year for the first week of December alone. And only two albums this year — by Lil Wayne and Coldplay, resp ...

Updated: Mon Jan 05, 2009