glenn gamboa: stuff&nonsense

Wow. Somehow, I merited becoming a “Topic” in the New York Daily News. And! They called me a “journalist” too, so it must be true.

The trappings surrounding Coldplay’s fourth album, “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” (Capitol), telegraph the driving emotion behind it.

Its title isn’t actually a title, but a choice between two possible titles. There are two different versions of a song called “Lost” - one boldly rhythmic, another mildly acoustic. And the most believable line from the album is when Chris Martin sings “I used to rule the world” in “Viva La Vida” and then talks about becoming a street-sweeper.

For lesser bands, such indecision would spell disaster. For Coldplay, it’s simply a minor setback that they sometimes overcome by owning up to the uncertainty. After all, the magnificent “Viva La Vida” has already become the band’s biggest hit single - not just because it’s the group’s catchiest song or because it’s also in an iPod commercial, but because it covers lyrical ground Martin clearly relates to, while the band tries its hand at new things.

The spareness of “Viva La Vida’s” musical backdrop, along with help from producers Brian Eno and Markus Dravs, was supposed to hail the birth of a new, more experimental band. However, those working orders arrive and depart quickly - sometimes in the middle of a song, leading to uneven pairings like the familiar, if bland, “Yes” with the thrilling, early-U2ish “Chinese Sleep Chant,” and mixed messages about the need for their midtempo rock and its big, anthem-like choruses, brainy verses and falsetto flourishes.

Guitar Hero is moving out of the basements and into the bars.

After all, what good is playing the Activision video game enough to reach Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast” if you can’t show off your shredding skills in front of your friends and a bar full of strangers?

“It’s the new hit, especially with the younger kids, the 21-to-25 crowd,” says Anthony Tartaglia, manager of The Nutty Irishman in Bay Shore. “We’ve been doing it a few months, and the crowd really seems to like it.”

Part of the success comes from familiarity. Since it debuted in 2005, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold more than 14 million copies, with revenue already topping $1 billion. When Guitar Hero 3 went on sale in October, it netted $115 million in sales in its first week and quickly became 2007’s biggest-seller, even though it was only available for the last two months of the year.

Maybe more important, though, taking their Guitar Hero moves to the bars adds another level of fantasy to the game. “We put them on the stage,” Tartaglia says. “We get the smoke machine going. We get the lights going. They get to see it all on a 10-foot screen. It’s a big deal.”

After all that, can Guitar Hero groupies really be that far behind?

Duran Duran @ Rumsey Playfield 

Duran Duran @ Rumsey Playfield 

Cyndi Lauper doesn’t stop trying until she gets what she wants.

That applies to music, especially her new album of dance music, “Bring Ya to the Brink” (Epic). And it applies to her work on social issues, especially her push, through fundraising on the True Colors Tour, to get equal rights for the gay community.

[Also ran in Arizona Republic, Nanaimo Daily News]