Coldplay- Billie Jean (Live Cover)

1. Coldplay has always been a victim of its worldwide mega-stardom and commercial success, one of the last real super bands to be tied down by a record company these days, and sometimes it hinders their artistic creativity. You know these guys are good, they sometimes just don't want to be better.

2. Having gone to a Coldplay show live (I was with a chick mind you!), they used to stick to their rock star formula-schtick, but ever since the experimental and needed change-of-pace Viva La Vida (Or Death and All His Friends) they have decided, "People are going to see us regardless, and they have probably already seen us perform, so lets change it up." And they have on their most recent world tour. Sure, yellow balloons fall from the sky during "Yellow," and the swinging light flies around during "Fix You," but filtered into their newest set is a more intimate experience with the fans.

3. During their last world tour, the encore was a stripped down, acoustic set allowed for a clap-along, jammed out ending with Kingdom Come, and has progressed into a middle-of-the-set walkout into the crowd jam session. One improvised song (in our case, "Billie Jean" from a few days ago," and one mash-up of crowd (and personal) favorite "God Put a Smile on Your Face" and "Talk." It allows the usually by-the-basics band to return to their more acoustic routes, and connect more with the ever-distancing audience in an arena tour.

4. Their "Billie Jean" cover is a great of improvised jamming, strumming, and overall you can tell the band in having a good time paying tribute to the King of Pop. The song lags a a tad bit (as given by parched audience participation) , but the duel guitars of Johnny Buckley and drummer Will Champion provide plenty of Quincey Jones' trademark funk on the track, while Chris Martin rides the falsetto rollercoaster in-and-out of the song. How long will it stay on the arsenal? Probably not long, but a fun change-up to throw at the giant crowds nonetheless.

LOP Track Grade- 7.5

5. The tour-long staple of the mash-up is a great little thing of brilliance however. When a band this large has released so many popular songs, how do you please the fans who come to see the ONE song that touched them more than any other? Mash-ups of course! Usually reserved for a Daft Punk of Justice concert, Champion uses an electronic drum pad to put up the tempo, and bassists Guy Berreyman and Buckley are hooked up wireless-amps to all jam around Martin's piano and produce both songs in back-to-back succession to perfection. It may not be the way the crowd wants to hear both songs, but I guarantee those people at "The George," I'd imagine that would be some silly arena in the middle-of-nowhere in the Dakota's, will be left with a different interpretation of the band's songs on that little perch. Those outfits they've been wearing for 1.5+ years gotta be stank by now though.

LOP Track(s) Grade- 9.0

Amazing Baby- Headress

Not quite sure how I feel about this light-on-the-feet Brooklyn band yet or their single. Its a mix of everything a quintet can throw at the art-rock genre (glam rock, power-pop, experimental stuff) and they even sound larger than they actually are, it's quite ambitious stuff. It's very unsettling at times but the barouque pomp-and-circ. of the whole thing leads me to believe their album will be worth of few spins.
Amazing Baby - Headdress

LOP Track Grade: 7.8

Boys Like Girls- Love Drunk

Dance-pop-rock darlings Boys Like Girls came onto the scene over 2.5 years ago after slowly smoldering on the sidelines. With a small record label budget and a DIY attitude, BLG was one of the great stories to come out of 2007/2008, when the tweens and TRL finally picked up on the working class-routed Boston quartet (even though there album was met with lukewarm reception in the summer of 2006).

Their self-titled debut eventually went has moved over 600,000+ copies to date, thanks to extensive touring and a worthy track-to-track "Soundtrack of the Summer" quality of the record, but was there any indication that these Nor'Eastern dudes had any staying power?

It's cliche to say "A debut takes a lifetime to write. A lifetime of memories, breakups, heartbreaks, etc. That second album? What is there to write about but good times, money and girls?" And yeah sure....BLG was a product of style and genre placement, a cross between Glamour Kills, Hot Topic and Fall Out Boy, something to make the kids dance and sing (but not too hard or loud), just pure power-pop. Producer Matt Squire probably didn't do much help, as he is known to basically just make the music himself and look how well that has turned out for media-darlings Panic! at the Disco.

Basically, BLG got received a ton of cash to make this album, and who knows, with all the touring and corporate tie-ins and commitments they have had to make over the past few years, things might have gotten a little hectic in ol' lead singer Martin's head. Lyrics and innuendo's like "Top down in the summer sun/The day we met was like a hit and run/And I still taste it on my tongue" just won't get it done in the big scheme of things, let alone The Edge wants hit opening riff back and Taking Back Sunday and All Time Low already did the chants with "Sink Into Me" and "Weightless" (again, a Matt Squire productions). (Don't even get me started about the "NaNaNas" at the end, completely pointless.)

With all that said, Martin and the boys still have that knack for blending in simple and subtle electronics into their work, which stands them apart from their peers in using it so well without being overdone. Martin's high notes are a little overdone on the chorus (no doubt he will have a cold when touring, like he did for two years because he can't hit them) and again, the lyrics go from trying to please 12-year old Hot Topic chicks to possibly passing as mature:

"I used to be love drunk/But now I'm hungover....We used to kiss all night/Now it's just a barfight" So that's what they call fucking these days?

It's passable emo at best, but when BLG want to be playing like their lives depended on it (like on their amazing debut). The inter-wove stories of growing up and breaking up mixed with sometimes dark, moody and intense and uplifiting music, and now I guess, well they're stuck on rollercoasters love drunk.



LOP Track Grade: 5.6

Wavves- No Hope Kids

Along with Abe Vigoda, Wavves is bringing lo-fi surf punk slowly into the light. Whether or not these bands retain their "lo-fi" status remains to be seen (and honestly, "No Hope Kids" would be a much better song if they someone behind the boards). Their DIY attitude is shown throughout the video as they embark on their first tour via-San Diego. And clearly, they had a little too much of an awesome time, canceling this tour a few shows in.

Must have been a helluva bender.

LOP Track Grade- 8.2

Jay-Z- D.O.A. (Death of AutoTune)

One of the many many conversations I had with my (sadly, now we're older) college friends on the balcony of our buddies pad overlooking all of Los Angeles (sadly, the bad parts) of course brought the attention of the Michael Jackson passing.

We slowly turned away from talking about Jackson (because of course, it slowly starts to get into the weird stratosphere) and moved into artists and album that we felt reflected our lives, and the levels of excitement they caused.

Surprisingly most of us agreed on Jay-Z's The Black Album as something we actually remember physically purchasing. To hear about one of the supposed "greatest rappers of all time" (certainly the most successful) retiring at the top of his game.

Myself, Nov. 14, 2003 was one of the first days I skipped a class. I was 16, had a truck and was willing to be the first person to blast the opening "Dec. 4th" as loud as the stock F-150 would allow. Best Buy opened first, and my mission was complete. A defining moment in my music fandom.

Well...we all know what happened after that breif retirement, and now Jay-Z brings us the long-awaited Blueprint 3 for LiveNation(?).

Jigga, the day you beat LeBron in streetball is the day I forgive you making me skip class.

LOP Track Grade- 6.5

White Rabbits- Percussion Gun/ It's Frightening

At present, NY-via-Mizzou sextet White Rabbits have more buzz about them than a honey farm (pssst, bees make honey). They’ve got the songs, the looks, the swagger and now the video.

White Rabbits "Percussion Gun" Music Video from White Rabbits on Vimeo.

Their new album, It's Frightening (judging a book by its cover would seem so) is a perfect blend of the sparse punk and multi-instrumentation/genres they displayed on their debut and an added touch of rhythm from Spoon's leader Britt Daniel. Frightening goes from Spoon-style acoustic grooves to menacing crack-hop beats (like "Percussion Gun" above) to Radiohead-esque influences on piano and percussion ("The Company I Keep," "The Salesmen").

Frightening is one of the best "out-there"/indie/non-mainsteam releases so far of this mid-way point of 2009. While it won't make most Top 10s (probably including this one), it is certainly not a sophomore slump, as WR have found a producer (Daniel) that is at the point right now, better at their type of music than themselves.

All they need now is for a major media outlet to give them some exposure, so hopefully someone else will pick this up. (They have: Letterman, posted below)