This Day in Music…December 13

The country rocker

I have this theory about Carrie Underwood, the Oklahoma-born Barbie who won American Idol a few years back. Beneath the perfect blond locks and sleeping-beauty smile there lurks a rogue rock chick dying to claw out. Don’t believe me? Her show setlists and iPod playlist are peppered with metal heroes. Her brassy high notes belong in a Heart song, not a hoedown. Her band is well-versed in the Who. And she loves lasers. Loves them. Not enough evidence? Just wait for her encore.

Until she goes Joan Jett on us, Underwood, who performed at the St. Pete Times Forum on Friday, will dutifully play the part of perfectly packaged country star. In the span of just two albums, the 25-year-old has become one of the best-selling artists of the 21st century. She’s cultivated a cute-sexy routine that’s kept her hot with Carrie Nation — that is, the moms and daughters who made up the smallish, but loud local crowd of 7,750.

Castro preps for Garland concert with Patti LaBelle

Rockwall’s Jason Castro is preparing to perform his first full concert back in his own back yard since the end of his run on American Idol. Castro will be the performing with Grammy legend Patti LaBelle in a concert on Saturday night at the Garland Special Events Center. Doors will open for the event at 6:30 p.m. with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m.

His first post-Idol solo performance actually took place in Oklahoma on Nov. 29 at the Flytrap Music Hall, which was also the grand opening for the venue.

“The concert was great,” Castro said in retrospect. “It was so exciting to be doing my own music again! It’s a totally different vibe than the arena shows I did all summer. There’s a connection that’s hard to keep when there’s thousands of people in front of you. At this show, we where so close that I could reach out and touch the people in the first row!”

Unlike the format in American Idol, the new slate of performances gives Castro the opportunity to showcase the music that he actually writes himself.

David Cook on the rise; Kristy Lee Cook…eh, not so much

Two Cook’s go on the highest rated TV show–one is breaking records all over the place, with 11 songs from his first album debuting on Billboard’s Hot 100, while the other was given her second chance on a major label, yet has already been dropped. A harrowing riddle? Nope. Just the unfortunate truth of what can happen once you’ve been on Idol.

According to americanidol.com, David Cook has had the highest number of new entries in a single week by an artist since The Beatles in 1964. His self-titled major-label debut entered the Billboard charts at No. 3, and is currently the No. 1 album on the digital album chart. Kristy Lee Cook, on the other hand, released a single called “15 Minutes Of Shame,” which was eerily accurate in predicting her future. The USA Today blog, Idol Chatter, has the scoop:

Clay Aiken “True Hollywood Story” set to blow the minds of a million crazy cat ladies

In the fickle business of show, there is one sure sign that you’ve either hit the big time, or died tragically and unexpectedly: your very own episode of the E True Hollywood Story.

Thankfully for the newly out Clay Aiken, it’s the former, as his THS will premiere tomorrow night on the E! network. There are some definite eyebrow-raisers in the list of who’s going to dish the dirt wax eloquently about the American Idol runner-up:

This revealing episode features an exclusive interview with former Army Green Beret John Paulus, who claims he was romantically involved with Clay for one night in 2006. There’s also a new interview with Clay’s number-one fan, comedian Kathy Griffin, who explains she was afraid she would run into Clay after joking about him during her act.
Other new interviews include: actor/director Terrence Mann, who directed Clay in regional theater when he was just starting out; Rickey Smith, a finalist with Clay on American Idol, who shares his opinion of Clay’s performance on the show, as well as his reaction to Clay becoming a proud father; Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD) President Neil Guiliano, who comments on Clay’s recent controversial announcement; and several devoted Clay fans at a performance of his Broadway show, Spamalot.

Why I find X Factor excruciating, but wouldn’t miss it for the world

So, tonight’s the night.
The final of The X Factor has become as much of a seasonal landmark as glitter, robins and discounted stacks of Christmas crackers.
By the end of the evening, after two shows spun out over nearly three hours, we will at last know which of the trio of acts has won.
Will it be soul-shouter Alexandra Burke, hairy Smurf Eoghan Quigg or limp boy band JLS?

The X Factor finalists… in their own words

It’s a competition in which anything can happen. Look at last week, when Diana [Vickers] was voted off. What a shock. The emotion of the moment got the better of me, and when she was singing her farewell song, I rushed out and gave her a hug. I couldn’t hold back the tears. I know a lot of people have called me a cry baby because of it.
But I’m not ashamed of what I did – I was absolutely gutted for her. For me, it was the hardest moment of the X Factor journey.
I know everyone, including Simon Cowell, says we are boyfriend and girlfriend. And we are very good mates. But I don’t want to talk in terms of romance because it’s not something we have discussed and, anyway, I’m concentrating on tonight’s performance.

From fixing frocks with nappy pins to calming tantrums in the small hours… we meet The X Factor’s unsung heroes

Tonight’s the night we have been waiting for – The X Factor grand final. Here, we meet the people coaching the contestants behind the scenes and to the young hopefuls’ anxious parents.

Hallelujah: how Leonard Cohen became an X Factor winner without trying

And the X Factor winner is . . . Leonard Cohen. The mordant songwriter is set for a £1 million windfall after his classic song Hallelujah was chosen as the debut single by tonight’s winner.

The biblical epic, composed in 1984, has survived more than a hundred interpretations from artists including Bob Dylan, k. d. lang and Rufus Wainwright.

The ITV1 show’s three finalists have each recorded their own version of the song, which is expected to become the Christmas No 1, selling one million CDs and downloads. Alexandra Burke, 20, from North London, is the bookies’ favourite, ahead of Eoghan Quigg, 16, from Northern Ireland, and the boyband JLS.

The royalties will be welcomed by Cohen, 74, who returned to the live stage this year after a former manager separated him from his $10 million retirement fund. His first British shows for 15 years were rapturously received and grossed £5 million.

The cover song: The hits (and misses)

TV talent-show wannabes murdering pop classics bring further disgrace on an already dodgy tradition. Andy Gill tells the story of the cover version and lists the good, bad and freakishly odd – and our readers give their views

Once derided as an ersatz copy of the more authentic original, in recent years the cover version has become one of the firmest planks supporting the music industry.

This is due in large part to Simon Cowell, or at least the updated talent-contest culture with which he has become synonymous. In order to arrive at as objective a decision as possible, contest judges – including the viewing audience – have to be able to make comparisons between the contenders, and the easiest way of achieving that is to have them all perform the same few songs. But do we need any more versions of “Unchained Melody” or “Bridge over Troubled Water”?

Until The Beatles came along with their fancy notions of writing their own material, virtually all recorded songs were cover versions. Indeed, the roots of the music industry that we know today lay in the sheet-music sales business that prevailed before the gramophone and television achieved such ubiquity in the postwar years. In those days, folk made their own amusements, typically gathering around the family piano and performing their own versions of the popular hits of the day – which would remain popular for years at a time.

Second date after Blur tickets sell in minutes

Tickets for Blur’s reunion concert sold out within two minutes of going on sale today, organisers said.

The band will now perform a second date at London’s Hyde Park next summer to meet the demand.

Blur said earlier this week that all four members would take to the stage for the first time since 2000 with a concert on 3 July.

Tickets for the 50,000-capacity event went on sale at http://www.livenation.co.uk at 9am but had sold out by 9.02am, a spokesman for Live Nation Music UK said.

Fans can still buy tickets for the new date – Thursday July 2 – which went on sale today.

A spokesman for Live Nation Music UK said: “After an overwhelming run on tickets for the band’s now sold-out show on Friday 3 July, a second date has been added in an attempt to meet demand.

Independent music: A rough trade gets rougher

First Woolies, then the collapse of distributor Pinnacle; could it get any worse for the music industry? Yes, it could; many small labels and indie shops now face ruin. By Jerome Taylor

Britain’s struggling independent music industry is used to dealing with hard times. Bitter competition from corporate labels, the rise of digital music stores and internet piracy have all taken their toll, leaving a trail of bankrupt indie record-stores and labels in their wake.

But the news last week that one of the Britain’s largest independent distributors had filed for bankruptcy sent shock waves through an already battle-hardened community.

For the smaller independent record labels, Pinnacle Entertainment was the company that made sure your albums were seen in stores and got into the hands of fans. For the independent record shops, it was one of the few remaining distributors that could keep shelves stocked with less mainstream records, giving you an edge over the high-street chains. But all that came crashing down last week when administrators were called in.

The fallout has been enormous. Hundreds of indie labels, many of them small and financially vulnerable, lost millions of pounds and are struggling to reclaim an estimated 10 million albums sitting in one of Pinnacle’s four nationwide warehouses. Indie stores, meanwhile, have seen one of their main suppliers wiped off the map, and their stocks are running dry.

Old bands never die (they just get back together for the money)

Are The Smiths about to reform? Well, they wouldn’t be the first. Jonathan Brown reports

Pink Floyd did it, so did The Police. Last week it was the Specials, this week it was Blur’s turn, and even the mighty Led Zeppelin got back together last year. But one act has remained the unrealised holy grail for rock reformers everywhere – The Smiths. Hopes that Morrissey and the guitarist Johnny Marr might bury their much-publicised and long-held differences have resurfaced with something approaching metronomic regularity.

Yet still Manchester’s finest band of the 1980s, some might say ever, have stubbornly refused to convene on the same stage at the same time – even turning down a reported £40m to do so – much to the chagrin of their army of diehard fans across the globe. Now, as relations between the 49-year-old singer and Marr, 45, are said to have thawed to the extent that they are once again on speaking terms, excitement is mounting that this time the dream could be realised.

It comes amid something approaching an orgy of kissing and making-up going on in the popular music world in recent days. Blur said on Tuesday that they were to rekindle the spirit of Britpop at a Hyde Park gig this summer, while Robbie Williams signalled yesterday that he was game on for returning to Take That. But even these announcements pale into insignificance compared to the blossoming detente among the former chief Smiths. According to one record business source this week: “The very fact that they are talking again is the most hopeful thing in years. The industry has been buoyant with talk of them getting back together.” It is, of course, true that the music industry would like nothing better than the prospect of a revival of one of the most popular bands of recent decades, and one perfect opportunity would be afforded by Morrissey’s 50th birthday bash at Manchester’s Apollo in May.

Robbie and Damon get back with their bands
As Take That, Blur and even Morrissey and Marr bury their respective hatchets, is any group immune from the call of the reunion?

All is forgiven. Robbie Williams and Take That are bestest chums, infighting in Blur is but a distant memory and even Morrissey and Johnny Marr are reportedly speaking again. Our musical heroes of yesteryear are patching up their differences in droves.

Relationships within bands are renowned for turning sour and breaking under the strain of success. The volatile combination of youth, vast amounts of money and gargantuan egos is enough to test even the strongest playground friendship.

Yet over the last few years, many bands have been forced to swallow their promises of “never again”.

So why the change of heart? The obvious answer is “money”. Successful reunions typically mean lots of it, and an empty bank account can provide quite an incentive for musicians to put aside the past.

On top of this, there can be little more grating than being bettered by your erstwhile bandmates: is it only coincidence that just as Take That’s The Circus is announced as the fastest-selling album of 2008, Robbie chooses to air his desire for a reconciliation?

The debts factor

SIMON COWELL has warned it is crunch time on The X Factor — as cutbacks mean the runners-up may not get recording contracts.
The music mogul last night admitted the top prize £1million deal could be all that is on offer this year, adding to the pressure on the finalists to win.
Simon, 49, said: “In the current economic climate it is more important to win the show this year than any other. Like every other business, the record industry is tougher than it was a year ago.”