Sunday Babblin'

(if you haven't gouged eyes out in despair yet, then very well done, you might proceed to read (sorry, can't resist it!)

More randomness and scribbled thoughts for the weekend.

-I can't understand the fascination with the singer/songwriter ladies on the iTunes store these days. Sara Bareilles and A Fine Frenzy are quite good, Colbie Callat is alright, but I'm not sure what to think of Meiko and Ingrid Michaelson. It just feels like some of their songs were written with Grey's Anatomy already in mind. Maybe that's what the average listener needs more of these days - harmless, pretty nice music.

-I'm also fucking tired of the endless crops of NME-type 'The' bands flooding out from the UK every week. Must they all sound the same? Is being able to sing not a cool, credible thing? It's hard to keep track of them all. Normally, these types of bands have only a couple of pretty good tunes each, and I predict most of them will vanish by the end of next year. So why bother?

-You know a hype has reached a new level of insanity when Kate Nash covered a song of a relatively new band on a French show (and did a better job of it). It's funny, when The Black Kids are supposed to ubiquitous, and I wasn't aware of them until I heard Kate's cover (sure, I saw them popping here and there, but I never really noticed). It's just very confusing, with all these bands with 'Black' in their names (Black Dice, Black Lips etc.). So I heard the original afterwards, and guess what, I don't get it. I'd say leave them alone and give them more time to grow.

Kate Nash - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (Black Kids Cover)

And while we're at it, here's her cover of another band that certainly knows a thing or two about blog overhype:

Kate Nash - Flourescent Adolescent (Arctic Monkeys Cover)


Moving on to the poppier side of music...

-Leona Lewis - UK X-Factor winner last year. Never watch the show, so I have no prejudgements. Her cover of Kelly Clarkson's 'A Moment Like This' was a bore. And I almost thought of the same for her new single 'Bleeding Love' until I realized after a few listens: 'Hey, that's not too bad'. It's a nice mid-90s r&b ballad kind of song, like everyone says it is. This also marks the first time a single of a reality show winner in the UK sounds readymade for a US crossover. Her cover of Snow Patrol's 'Run' for BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge is excellent, though. Good move, indie cred gained! Minor interest in the album.

Leona Lewis - Run (Snow Patrol Cover)

-Skye Sweetnam's such a guilty pleasure. She's like the poor Canadian man's version of Avril Lavigne, albeit less pretentious and more interesting. Her sophomore album 'Sound Soldier' is a hot mess, a polarizing effort that's destined to be a commercial disaster. There are two contagious spunky punk pop earworms on it ('Human' & 'Music Is My Boyfriend', though, the rest might need more time.

-Humiliating confession: Today it dawned on me that The Corrs' 'Dreams' is actually a cover of Fleetwood Mac. D'oh!!! Hey I'm young and green and unexperienced etc. Remember when it's considered okay to listen to The Corrs?

TV Watch:
Six episodes into season 2, and I'm so ready to give up on Heroes. Nothing interesting has happened and it has become a borefest. Sylar needs to kill those Mexican twins and their horrendous tears of doom, pronto. They're so annoying. Hiro also needs to stop horsing around in ancient Japan, unless the budget's gone crazy and we can see some amazing huge CGI battle. That Clark Kent wannabe needs to go, too. Thanks goodness that little whiny Molly is now in a coma. Nikki ihas been criminally underused. The world needs to be saved again? Please. All the promising characters they all killed so early (hello, Eden?), maybe it's time to call it an official sophomore slump.

Two of my fave sitcoms, '30 Rock' and 'The Sarah Silverman Program', have also been struggling this season. The laughters are slowly diminishing. Bring back the songs, Sarah (I love the doodie song last week, though).

Update: Since I'm such an obsessive completist, I just had to rip the audio off the Sarah - Laura Silverman duet from the episode 'Doodie' and saved it as an mp3 for, um, digital preservation. So I figured I might as well share it here, too. Very short, but delightful. Notice that Casio keyboard.

Sarah & Laura Silverman - White Dog Poop

I'm gonna end the post with some essential links you have to check, go to Pardon My Freedom for brilliant covers of Britney Spears' 'Toxic' by Yael Naim, Beyoncé's 'Crazy In Love' by The Puppini Sisters, and Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' by Petra Haden. And visit Hi-Fi Heart for The Hoosiers' take on Justin Timberlake's 'LoveStoned' (ballad, with lots of strings). Enjoy your Sunday.