Posts Tagged ‘Coldplay’

Best surprise: With song/dance man Hugh Jackman as host, surprise presenters, and funny gag bits, the Oscar’s was one of the most entertaining it’s been in a long time. (Ratings were even up 6 percent from last year’s telecast.)

Worst surprise: Chances are you won your office pool because just about no surprise winners threw off our ballots. “Slumdog Millionaire” cleaned up winning 8 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay as predicted, and Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, and Penélope Cruz won as expected. The biggest upset was Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke, but really we all knew it was between the two anyway.

Worst use of presenting the Best Pictures:  Up until the last ten minutes of the show, you wouldn’t even know which films were nominated for Best Picture, and isn’t this what the night was really all about? Instead of showcasing clips throughout the night like usual, the clips were only shown right before the award was handed out. Even worse, they were intermingled with previous films that have similar themes making the clips confusing and taking attention away from the nominees.

Best presentation of movies: The montages of film genres recapping the best of 2008 were done so in great pop culture fashion. Coldplay’s “Lovers in Japan” played to the great romance flicks, Wall-E the adorable robot found a tape of the best animation movies, and the hilarious James Franco and Seth Rogen reprised their “Pineapple Express” roles as they watched DVDs of the funniest comedies.

Worst use of presenting the Best Songs: The song nominees, which are usually played in their entirety throughout the night, also weren’t given their full due. The two “Slumdog Millionaire” songs and “Wall-E” song were shortened and played one after the other. We all knew “Jai Ho” was going to win, but “Wall-E” should have been given it’s own set piece rather than making John Legend sing with “Slumdog’s” Indian back-up dancers and drummers.

Best use of presenting awards: Rather than randomly presenting awards, the telecast walked the audience through the making of a movie starting with the screenwriting process to art direction to editing. Stars associated with the category was also a nice touch like action hero Will Smith presenting Best Visual Effects and Sound Mixing and “Religious” filmmaker Bill Maher presenting Best Documentary.

Best presenters: Steve Martin and Tina Fey presented the screenplay awards humorously (“Don’t fall in love with me” Martin stoically told a googly eyed Fey) and controversially (poking fun at Hollywood-favorite Scientology). And don’t forget about Ben Stiller who delivered a dead-on impression of Joaquin Phoenix’s bizarre appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” while presenting with Natalie Portman. It would have been even funnier though if it wasn’t just parodied at the previous night’s Independent Spirit Awards.

Best use of presenters: Keeping most of the identities of the presenters top-secret beforehand made for a more exciting show because you never knew who was going to come out next. Hello Will Smith, hello Reese Witherspoon!

Worst use of presenters: While it was fun seeing past winners like Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken, presenting the nominees, it came off too self-congratulatory. Instead of comments like “You really nailed it” and Marion Cotillard clasping her hands together cooing “Thank you” to Winslet, let’s see some clips instead. Most viewers at home haven’t seen all the movies, so it’d be more interesting to see the performances for which they’re nominated. 

Best acceptance speech: Instead of the director or co-stars accepting on his behalf, the acceptance of Heath Ledger’s Oscar by his family was much more touching. “Tonight we are choosing to be happy and celebrate what he has achieved,” his mother, Sally Bell, said.

Funniest acceptance speeches: Where to begin? First there’s Phillipe Petit, the subject of the documentary, “Man on Wire,” who not only balanced the Oscar on his chin, he also made a coin disappear.  Then the Japanese director of the Best Animated Short, “Kunio Kato thanked Mr. Roboto.” Finally, Best Director, Danny Boyle, bounced up and down in homage of Tigger for his children.  

Worst camera shots: Awkward alert… Not only did Jennifer Aniston have to present an award mere feet away from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the camera cut away to Brangelina twice! At least Jolie and Pitt made nice and weren’t giving dirty looks.

Best use of teeny boppers: While baby faced stars like Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Robert Pattinson, and Amanda Seyfried presented and performed on stage to most likely draw in the younger audience, their presence was downplayed and didn’t make the Oscars feel like the Teen Choice Awards.

Best secret talent: Anne Hathaway showed off her really good voice in her pretend-impromptu song and dance number with Jackman. Look out Beyoncé. Maybe you won’t be needed next year.

Here are the winners of the major categories:

Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”

Best Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

The bad news: I haven’t personally had the chance to listen to every album released this year.  The good news: neither has anyone else.  So here’s my take on the best music out in 2008, as I heard it.

First off, other music worth mentioning: Flight Of The Conchords’ hilarious self-titled album (can’t wait for the second season in ’09), Kanye West’s brave pop album 808s And Heartbreak, the way overdue but worth-the-wait Pacific Ocean Blue as my favorite re-release of the year and Doomtree’s self-titled debut for keeping things really real.

10. The Bedlam In Goliath – The Mars Volta – Difficult and labrynthine as ever, The Mars Volta continues to make great albums that are quite unlikely to follow anybody’s rules.  This beast of an album is epic and menacing, inspired by an evil Ouija board (no, really).  Careful with it: scary massive stuff.

9. Death Magnetic – Metallica – Death Magnetic may not even be the best metal album released this year (but lucky for Metallica, at least Mastodon didn’t release anything this year).  But it might represent one of the great comebacks in recent music history.  Almost every Metallica fan was convinced they didn’t have any more riffs in them the magnitude of those in Death Magnetic’s Suicide & Redemption, but not only did they bring the thunder, they did it for nine crushing vocal-less minutes.  Maybe the next album should be all instrumental.

8. What Does It All Mean?: 1983-2006 Retrospective – Steinski – It was almost impossible that we’d ever see this release.  Steinski’s collages are everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink affairs, packing as many cultural references into 5 minutes of hip-hop as he could.  The first track alone on this set samples classic funk and disco breaks, Little Richard, The Supremes, tap-dancing instructional records and Humphrey Bogart films.  As a result, it has been difficult for labels to legally release these tracks, but the Illegal Art label has pulled off a miracle.  That deserves recognition.  And the music is a kaleidoscopic journey bursting with head-spinning innovation.  It’s like hearing the future of mash-ups broadcast from the past.

7. One Day As A Lion – One Day As A Lion – This EP is the first official release from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha since 2000.  Knowing that, the in-your-face agitprop is no surprise.  What IS surprising is the lack of guitar textures.  De la Rocha plays a dirty distorted organ on every track, and even sings once in a while.  This is a head-nodding street fight of an EP.  The lyrics are daggers and spiders.  A full album would almost be too intense.

6. Young @ Heart Soundtrack – Senior citizens singing modern pop songs.  That’s all it is.  But anyone who’s seen the movie understands the magic.  The singers are uniformly brave and willing to give ANYTHING a shot (from the wispy weirdness of Sonic Youth’s Schizophrenia to the syncopated soul of Allen Toussaint’s Yes We Can Can).  The performances are wonderfully imperfect.  And their biggest accomplishment is reclaiming some potential sapfests like Nothing Compares 2 U and Coldplay’s Fix You and associating them again with real-life concerns like death, loss and making every moment worth living.

5. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady– Any year in which The Hold Steady releases another album is a good one for rock music.  And it’s another album loaded with new classics like “Constructive Summer,” “Lord, I’m Discouraged,” “Slapped Actress,” and the title track.  This is the music you wish were playing on every bar’s jukebox, along with The Drive-By Truckers (who toured with The Hold Steady this fall).  Powerful singalong stuff.

4. Third – Portishead – And out of nowhere, they were back.  A different sort of comeback as strange and unexpected as Portishead’s music.  Third is an album with jagged edges and deep sorrow.  Some of the jazzier and torchier aspects of their prior albums are replaced with angry electronic drum machines.  But it’s pulled back from the brink by the whimsically lovely “Deep Water” and the most beautiful song they’ve yet written, “The Rip.”

3. Tell Tale Signs – Bob Dylan – This isn’t technically new music, but I don’t care.  It is a new release of older music from The Traveling Salesman himself and the party line is that “his throwaways are more powerful than most band’s entire recorded output.”  Well, it’s true.  “Red River Shore” is worth the price of admission alone, and “Huck’s Tune” is a future classic.  Is this old man the same who once sang Blowin’ In The Wind almost five decades ago?  Maybe, maybe not.

2. Dear Science – TV On The Radio – The ever-improving Brooklyn band’s third full-length is their masterpiece…so far.  Bands like TV On The Radio throw all their influences into a pot and make a gumbo.  But Dear Science succeeds where those other albums fall short: by keeping an emotional connection with the listener through it all.  They’ve out-Becked Beck.  Every song flips you on your head, but nothing seems willy-nilly, it all seems relevant.  Every track on this one is worth hearing; any album that follows the dancefloor Princedom of “Golden Age” with the beautifully honest ballad “Family Tree” (my song of the year) is something special.  This was my pick for album of the year (along with everyone else) until I discovered…

1. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – This being the best album of the year is a revolution slipping in the back door.  There is nothing pop or rock or hip-hop or R&B about this.  In fact, this album could be from 1969.  But song for song, it is the greatest and most sublime collection of songs this year in one place.  I’ve listened to this album more than perhaps all the others on this list combined (and not gotten the slightest bit tired of it), and still have trouble putting its charm into words. 

Innocence and peace and wonder and dust motes in sunlight.  Sadness like losing a dog with the happiness of knowing that it will always be somewhere close.  Realizing there are good things in the future and bad things you can live with.  The influences in the music flow by gently: the psychedelic harmonies of Smile-era Beach Boys, the deep rootsy Americana of The Band, the open-heart melodies of The Shins, soul like Motown, timeless, inspiring, fresh, the Best Album Of 2008.

The Grammy nominations were announced Wednesday in a new live concert format. Performers included Christina Aguilera, Foo Fighters, and John Mayer with B.B. King. The leading Grammy nominee this year is Lil’ Wayne with eight nominations. (I know what you’re thinking: Lil’ Wayne?!?! The rapper?) Yep.

Wayne’s album, Tha Carter III is this year’s biggest selling album and fittingly, the second biggest sellers, Coldplay, had the next most nominations with seven. The album of the year category looks like this: Weezy (Wayne) with “Tha Carter III;” Coldplay with “Viva la Vida;” Radiohead with “In Rainbows;” Ne-Yo with “Year of the Gentleman;” and Robert Plant/Alison Krauss with “Raising Sand.”

My pick for album of the year is Coldplay’s “La Vida” but knowing the Grammy’s, don’t be surprised to see Robert Plant and Alison Krauss win with an album nobody wants to hear. Sue me for that last comment.

The awards will be announced February 8 on CBS. Go Weezy!

U2 lead singer Bono launched a new music download service this week, and for just $5 a month, fans get lots and lots of great new music.  But forget about that.

Proceeds from redwire.com go toward fighting preventable disease in Africa, diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.  Bono has long been associated with charitable acts on behalf of the African people, but this may be his most revolutionary move.

The music is distributed weekly: a track from a major artist like Jay-Z, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., Cat Power, Ziggy Marley, John Legend, or Bob Dylan, and a track from an up and coming artist.  Subscribers also get a bonus video, perhaps someone reading poetry or telling a story.  And subscribers get updates on the direct positive effect their money is having for Africa.

The first artist to contribute a song is U2, of course, covering a Christmas tune called “(I Believe In) Father Christmas.”  The launch site red.msn.com features a video for the song.

At a time when some download services still restrict the use of their music even when it has been purchased, redwire.com allows fans to OWN the music and do whatever they want with it: share it, burn it to CD, or put it on any portable player. 

But that’s not the important part.

It’s no secret that Coldplay aspires to be the “next U2.” They are certainly on the right path. “Viva La Vida” is the kind of album any band would like on their resume. It’s brilliant rock music and the fourth straight solid album of their career.

So when you are the biggest rock band of the moment what’s your next move? In Coldplay’s case it is an eight song EP entitled “Prospekts March” which comes packaged with the “La Vida album,” a maneuver that is sure to infuriate and alienate their core fan base. This move defies logic; if you are the best selling rock band of the moment wouldn’t you want to deliver an EP for a low cost separate from the LP ten million fans have already delightfully purchased?

I don’t understand this marketing strategy from Coldplay. Nobody in their right mind would want to purchase the same album twice just to get an eight song EP, of which only half of the material is decent. The highlight of “Prospekts March” is Coldplay’s duet with Jay Z on Lost! A track that might be just enough to convert some hip hop heads into Coldplay fans.

But then, even most Jay Z fans would shy away from the notion of buying a full length Coldplay LP along with an EP which would suffice on its own. So wake up, Coldplay, before you lose your title of World’s Greatest Rock Band.

Coldplay is putting a smile on their fans’ faces.

During a BBC interview on August 30, lead singer (and Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow) Chris Martin said the UK band has plans to release an EP entitled Prospekt’s March on December 26^th.  The EP will consist of songs recorded during sessions for their June album Viva La Vida, as of now the biggest selling rock album of this year.

The only track that is suspected so far for the EP is a song the band recorded with Kylie Minogue called “Luna.”

Martin went on to say that Coldplay are also “gonna have another record ready by November 2009 to end the decade.”  The last album’s sessions had been described as “incredibly fruitful” so perhaps it’s no surprise that the band needs a place to put some more songs.

And that holiday season is just around the corner…