glenn gamboa: stuff&nonsense

Spandau Ballet, “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:25:00 -0400

Spandau Ballet, “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)”

In honor of their totally unexpected — but awesome! — reunion tour.

Q-TIP “The Renaissance” (Universal Motown) THE GRADE...

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:17:00 -0500

Q-TIP

“The Renaissance” (Universal Motown)

THE GRADE B

BOTTOM LINE Still a “vivrant” thing.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nine years since Q-Tip’s first - and, technically, only - solo album, “Amplified,” considering how much he has to say and how well he says it. And one spin through “The Renaissance” (Universal Motown) will have everyone wondering how he could have stayed away so long.

He trades rhymes with Amanda Diva over the funk groove of “Manwomanboogie,” showing how the battle of the sexes is counterproductive. With help from Norah Jones, who sounds more like Erykah Badu than her come-away-with-me self, Tip pays tribute to inspiring hip-hoppers on “Life Is Better.” And he teams with D’Angelo on the gorgeous “Believe,” which could jump-start the neo-soul movement all on its own.

Q-Tip works best solo, though. He chooses deep grooves that are interesting enough to be memorable, but not so wild that they detract from his distinctive flow. His unique voice generally rides the beat for the chorus and then bounces over it to deliver his strongest rhymes.

“We can start a clan just like the Kennedys,” he raps in the first single “Gettin’ Up,” which shows him at his most potent. “You respect me like a friend, but love me like your man? No other could contend.”

After all the trouble Tip’s second solo album, “Kamaal the Abstract,” ran into before his former record company ultimately shelved it in 2002, it’s great to see Q-Tip return at the top of his game. “The Renaissance” is real.

Janet Jackson has had a tough year - releasing an...

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:55:00 -0400

Janet Jackson has had a tough year - releasing an underperforming album, “Discipline,” parting ways with her record company, and that’s before her recent well-publicized bouts with vertigo that led to a string of rescheduled concerts. But Jackson seems to be taking it all in stride, happy to be back on the road and for the new chance to connect with her fans.

This year’s class - which includes Public Enemy and LL...

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:02:00 -0400

This year’s class - which includes Public Enemy and LL Cool J - shows how important Long Island was to the development of hip-hop, an influence that was also celebrated last month at VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors, which paid tribute to Amityville’s De La Soul and others with performances from Roosevelt’s Public Enemy, Brentwood’s EPMD and Uniondale’s Busta Rhymes.

Chuck D says Long Island’s hip-hop influence came from its artists’ unique take on the world and a confidence to express it.

“There are a lot of places that ask for people to love them,” he says. “We’ve always had a feeling, especially in my crew, of ‘take it or leave it.’ I think a lot of cats from Brooklyn and Queens or the Bronx were looking for acceptance. What we tried to instill on Long Island, back in the day, was ‘If you don’t like what we got, you can go to hell.’”

Donnie Klang’s rocket ride to stardom has come so fast, he...

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:23:54 -0400

Donnie Klang’s rocket ride to stardom has come so fast, he hasn’t had the time to let it sink in yet.

A little more than a year ago, Klang was working in a warehouse and going to business school, thinking seriously about abandoning his dreams of being a singer after two failed “American Idol” auditions and years of struggling with little to show for it.

He auditioned for Sean Combs’ MTV reality show, “Making the Band 4,” on a lark and was shocked on live television last August when he wasn’t selected to become part of the group assembled, Day26, but instead received a recording contract as a solo artist with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records.

On Tuesday, only a year and a week after his selection, Klang’s debut, “Just a Rolling Stone,” will hit stores and, with Combs’ backing, has a legitimate shot at No. 1.

Her new album “Breakout” (Hollywood), however,...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:10:00 -0400

Her new album “Breakout” (Hollywood), however, captures her awkward in-betweenness and puts it on display. “Breakout” is supposed to be her debut as a “serious” artist, the album that shows she’s ready to match up with the adults. Truth is, she’s not.

For 90 minutes, Yaz turned out everything from gorgeous,...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:14:00 -0400

For 90 minutes, Yaz turned out everything from gorgeous, poignant ballads like “Winter Kills” to full-on disco-stompers like “Situation” using little more than the technology of the cheapest cell phone and Moyet’s amazing voice to make them work.

Let no one ever say Billy Joel isn’t a gracious host. He...

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:18:00 -0400

Let no one ever say Billy Joel isn’t a gracious host. He turned over the final moments of “The Last Play at Shea,” as well as his piano, to McCartney, who sang a spirited “Let It Be,” following a massive singalong of “Piano Man” from the 63,000 fans gathered for the historic event.

PHOTO: Ari Mintz for Newsday

Donna Summer could have taken the easy way out. She could have...

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:24:00 -0400

Donna Summer could have taken the easy way out. She could have hopped on the nostalgia train and trotted out “Hot Stuff” to a backing tape at every high-priced disco revival night and sat home and counted all the cash. Instead, Summer pushed to come up with something new for “Crayons” (Burgundy/Sony), expanding her musical boundaries far beyond disco and her worldview well past the dance floor. Calling from her Nashville home, Summer laughs because, yes, even now, the Queen of Disco still works hard for the money.

Of all the things that separate Nas from pretty much every ...

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Of all the things that separate Nas from pretty much every other rapper around, the most important one isn’t his great flow or even his legendary rhymes. It’s his sense of purpose.

Nas isn’t a firestarter, despite the recent dust-up over the title of his new album - now called “Untitled” (Def Jam) instead of the unprintable racial epithet he wanted - or the way he tackles the weighty topics of race and class. He doesn’t say outrageous things because he feels like it, the way 50 Cent and so many others do. He says them because he’s outraged. (“Only Foxx that I love was the Redd one/Only black man that Fox loves is in jail or a dead one,” he raps in “Sly Fox,” his seething attack on the Fox Network.)

When Nas boasts, as he does in the new single “Hero,” it’s mainly to give more weight to his opinions. “Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel, they can’t sing what’s in their soul,” he argues, claiming rappers don’t get the same artistic freedoms as their rock counterparts.

As he was on the underappreciated “Hip-Hop Is Dead,” Nas is just as meticulous in lining up collaborators and beats for “Untitled” as he is with his rhymes. The Last Poets provide gravitas. Chris Brown and Keri Hilson provide hitmaking potential.

Throw in Nas’ considerable firepower and it all adds up to a classic album that will be dissected for years, with or without a title.

Billy Joel doesn’t pause after hearing how tickets to his...

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:31:00 -0400

Billy Joel doesn’t pause after hearing how tickets to his upcoming Shea Stadium shows - “The Last Play at Shea” - were being resold online for several thousand dollars apiece, with some being priced at nearly $100,000.

“Yeah, I can tell you right now, I’m not worth that,” he says, calling from his Sag Harbor home. “Maybe if The Beatles could somehow get back together or if Jimi Hendrix came back from the dead, I would pay $1,000. But if you pay that much for me, you’re not going to be happy. I’m not worth more than the face value of the ticket.”

Wow. Somehow, I merited becoming a “Topic” in the...

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:45:41 -0400

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,...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

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....

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400

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

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:19:00 -0400

Duran Duran @ Rumsey Playfield

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:17:00 -0400

Duran Duran @ Rumsey Playfield

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

Wed, 28 May 2008 20:46:00 -0400

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]

Ryan Bingham was a bull-rider on the rodeo circuit, not even 20...

Thu, 22 May 2008 17:33:00 -0400

Ryan Bingham was a bull-rider on the rodeo circuit, not even 20 years old yet, when he wrote a world-weary song about death, being a West Texas desperado and praying for change.

“I was still rodeoing, living in this trailer house with a couple of roommates, sitting in the living room one afternoon and kind of just reflecting on my life a little bit and the song came out,” said Bingham, now 26, calling from his home in Topanga, Calif., adding that he was just as surprised as anyone that “Southside of Heaven,” one of the standout tracks from last year’s underappreciated “Mescalito” (Lost Highway) album, turned out as well as it did.

[Also ran in the Miami Herald, Denver Post, Albany Times-Union]

Jesse McCartney DEPARTURE Hollywood Risk and pop music hardly...

Tue, 20 May 2008 01:54:00 -0400

Jesse McCartney

DEPARTURE

Hollywood

Risk and pop music hardly ever go together. Why take a chance when there’s money to be made?

That’s what makes Jesse McCartney’s new album, “Departure” (Hollywood), so remarkable. The first single “Leavin’” is an irresistible smash, with the reggae-and- R&B tinges and the cell-phone bleeps making the big pop chorus that much more memorable. But that’s only the beginning of

“Departure’s” wild ride.

Working with a who’s who of hot producers, McCartney zooms all over the musical map with reckless abandon, seemingly willing to try anything except the pretty “Beautiful Soul” pop that he was previously known for. Sometimes it works. Sean Garrett’s “How Do You Sleep?” is an update of those unstoppable boy band hits of a decade ago, while “Runnin’,” from up-and-comers The Clutch, gives McCartney a stylish R&B beat tailor-made for today’s radio playlists.

But even when it doesn’t quite work - in the crazy-eyed hip-hop of “Rock You” or the in-your-face R&B of “Freaky” - McCartney’s delivery and the slick production still keep it entertaining.

After co-writing Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” and voicing Theodore in “Alvin and the Chipmunks” and its surprisingly popular soundtrack, McCartney has already had quite a big year behind the scenes. With “Departure,” McCartney shows that sometimes all these chances pay off. (Grade: B)

“Idol” thoughts in USA Today today…

Tue, 20 May 2008 00:30:00 -0400

“Idol” thoughts in USA Today today…