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- Wow, Dave Navarro didn’t compliment Brooke’s looks this week.

- Here we go with the Dilana mess.  I wonder what they’ll air.  Remember, you can watch the whole reality episode, including Dilana’s tantrum where she smashed a glass and it sliced Magni’s head open, in this post.

Wow, I didn’t catch that before...a piece of glass bounced off Magni’s face DIRECTLY under his eye.

To anyone, ANYONE, who is attacking Ryan for his actions - fuck you.  It’s glaringly apparent that he was worried about Magni.

I stand corrected...I said Lukas was helping Toby clean up yesterday.  It was just Toby.

Seems like they cut Newkid’s rant.  See my week 9 reality post for some details on what it was about

Magni is being magnanimous about the glass thing...she could have seriously hurt him.  She deserves to be called out MUCH harder than this, I’m sorry.  What she did was ridiculous and unsafe.

- Performances up next!  Lukas up first with Lithium.  I’m a little scared of what he’s done to it.  :)

By the way, apparently it’s a Canadian thing to mispronounce “Nirvana” as “Nirvaaaana.” How fucking annoying.  It’s not like Canadians can’t make the “von” sound.  It’s one thing to have words that are pronounced differently, it’s another thing to intentionally disrespect someone’s name...but hey, that’s just me.

HA!  Love Lukas trying to fire up the crowd over Brooke’s intro…

Oooh...nice, a piano intro.  Interesting.  He’s actually singing.  Enunciating!

Holy shit this is awesome.  He hates this song?  Holy fuck, what would he do with a song he liked?

Seriously...Lukas redeemed himself for anything he’s been doing onstage for the last few weeks.  From the arrangement to the stutter effect to the vocal to the stage presence, that kicked serious ass!  He simply rocked the shit out of that.  It’s my opinion that his version beats the ever-lovin hell out of Dilana’s, and I *loved* Dilana’s version.  he took that song and made it something that you would expect from Lukas, yet it still sounded like Lithium.  Well done.

He can say Nirvana however the fuck he wants.  I stand in awe.  And I’m a very, very big Nirvana fan (if you couldn’t tell).  So how did the judges feel?

Navarro can’t pull the whole fake-out thing, we all know he thought it rocked.  :) Band loved it, as they should.

- Magni up next with Live’s I Alone.

Heh...love Magni campaigning.  I hope everyone knows he was totally joking.

Am I crazy or does he seem resigned to being bottom three?  He seems like he’s not reALLY 100% into it.  He’s doing well, but like Magni often does...not *spectacular.* Love the high note at the end, love the energy, but it was just good.  Not amazing, not “Oh my God I have to own that track” good.  I would not pay money to own that song.

- Ryan is up next.  Clocks was the fan choice for him.  I don’t know what to expect.

Ouch.  That opening note did not work out

HEY!  That’s a nice piano, watch the feet.  :)

Good vocal so far...a little too high energy in the stage movement maybe?  In places, it seemed manic, not inspired, but then it seemed inspired in other places.

(aside - Hey Producer Dave (not Navarro) - Stop shooting close-ups of your paid hotties.  No one cares you idiot.)

DUDE!  The TJ Hooker slide across the piano was nice.  But the crawling wasn’t.  But the ending note was.  I’m torn on this.  I liked most of it, but the opening notes and the piano crawling were not good.

Jason had a good point about Ryan losing the plot when he’s not behind the piano.  To hell with that fan who gave him shit over it.  He was 100% correct.  Ryan needs a guitar or a piano or something to occupy him when he performs.

CORRECTION - Upon second and third viewing, those opening notes were NOT off, they were in fact exactly the same notes sung by the guy from Coldplay.  I like this performance more on second and third viewing, however I still hate the piano crawl.  It looks forced and awkward and it made his voice do wacky things.  However...I’ll give him a B+ overall.

- Storm up with Bring Me To Life, and have I mentioned how great she looks?  Of course she’s comfortable dressing like that, she does it often on stage.

OK...that’s Storm Large, ladies & gentlemen.  That power, that passion...Toby provided just the right backup, and that fucking rocked.  Storm finally opened up and showed off that power she’s been hiding.  I actually stopped typing and just watched.

And the band says...Gilby didn’t like it.  I disagree.  Jason gave her an A for effort.  EVS.  I hate Supernova’s music anyway.  Fuck them.  She brought it hard.  I will pay money for that track.

Toby up with Rebel Yell.  I really am starting to see Toby as the guy to front SN.  Not a slam against him, I know I just said I hate Supernova’s music.  I’m just saying that he’s the only one that truly fits and isn’t a psycho mess.

OK, he’s bringing this.  Crowd’s totally into it, he looks good on stage.

OK, listen to that room.  Toby fucking owns that place.  Bringing the girls on stage was genius.  He’s a fucking rock star, plain and simple. 

BTW, those girls were not planted.  Many folks at the taping talked about them and how utterly excited they all were.  Well done.  He brought every element together for this one.  While I think Lukas had a better vocal...Toby brought the rock star vibe and had the crowd eating out of his hand.

Wow, Navarro reminded me...Lukas did this.  I totally forgot about Lukas during Toby’s performance.  Speaks volumes for Toby, huh?

- Up next: Dramilana doing Mother Mother.  I totally expect her to kill this song, she’s been performing it for years.

Holy SHIT.  See, that’s the Dilana we wanted.  That’s the Dilana we fell in love with early on.  Power, sensitive to the lyrics, showboating, crazy...it was everything the song called for and then some.

Boy would I have been impressed if she head-butted the mic stand at the end there.  :) No, I’m totally serious, it would have been completely rock & roll.  Picture it..."I miss you.  I love you” then the band strikes that end note and BLAM!  She headbutts the mic and knock it over.  Woulda been awesome.  :)

CORRECTION: When I first watched this, I didn’t realize that;s exactly what she did, but the mic jus’t didn’t fall over.  I thought she was just headbanging, but upon second viewing, she absolutely slammed her head into the mic.  VERY rock.  :)

If she keeps performing like she did this week, then she can be the tempermental bitch (as long as she doesn’t actually hurt anyone).  But she has to keep it up to this level, every time.  This is a song she’s done a million times.  She’s totally comfortable in it and it showed in her stage movements...none of that ‘I’m lost so I’ll wander around” stuff she’s been doing.  Can she keep bringing that each and every performance?  It’s the only way she can bury the while diva bitch thing.  Rock it like that every time.

Wait...I’m pausing before the band speaks.  I predict someone giving her shit about throwing her leg over the guitar player and pushing him, which was a total rock move IMHO.  Unpaused.

Oh...surprised me, they didn’t complain about it.  I wonder what else was said in the actual taping.

Early bottom three prediction - Storm, Magni and Toby even though Toby doesn’t deserve it, and neither does Storm.  The Lukas and Dilana fanbase vote like crazy people, and the Ryan Star Girls vote like obsessed little monkeys.  :) The other Rockers simply suffer from the math.  That’s my prediction for actual bottom three as well.

Ryan and Lukas in the early bottom three?  WTF?  Boy was I wrong.  Guess we’ll see tomorrow night!

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So guess who was all over the reality episode again? Our favorite selfish phony, Dilana (Smith) Robichaux. So she's upset at the beating she took on the show...which she deserved. Poor baby.

Something that really bothered me was at the dinner table, she said that it was "so hard to not be herself." She was talking about this idea that she can no longer speak her mind and be "honest" (which she never was. Honesty does not equal snarky, self-involved bitchiness to the Nth degree).

All I could think was "It's hard for you not to be a raging asshole to everyone? Wow. Way to let people know you aren't cut out to be in a band, sweetheart."

Then, later that day according to the timeline laid out by her saying the photoshoot (we'll get to that) was the very next day, she flips out on a cameraman. Hey Dilana, you frigging rocket scientist you. You're on a fucking reality show. No one would know your frigging name if it weren't for those cameras.

Now, that's bad enough. But her reaction is pure childish selfishness. She smashes a glass on the concrete and a chunk flies up and cuts Magni's head open.

Get this: HER FANS ARE BLAMING LUKAS FOR STIRRING UP SHIT! Fuck that and, for the first time, I'm saying fuck her fans, at least the ones that tried to pin this drama on Lukas. She was the drama queen, she physically injured someone because of her incessant selfishness, and anyone who doesn't see that is simply being a blindly loyal useful idiot.

Lukas was 100% right in everything he said and did on the show. Yes, I know he supported Dilana during the taping of the performance show, but note this: He criticized the fact that the show was reveling in her pain and that they were broadcasting it to millions. He did not defend her ridiculous actions.

The Dilana faithful need to understand that difference.

Apparently, from what we heard from folks who were at the taping, so does Jason Newsted. I don't read spoilers about the tapings, but my wife does, and she read me some non-performance-related stuff about the reality show response. Newkid went off on a profanity-laced tirade about how the reality show was twisting things, and that Supernova knew exactly what went down, blah blah blah. You'll likely never see any of that in TV, as it would be too much of an attack on the show itself and there's no way Mark Burnett will air it.

However.

I take issue with Newkid's point, that the footage we saw wasn't the whole story. I don't care what the whole story is. FACT: She flipped out on a cameraman on the set of a reality show. FACT: She smashed a glass onto the concrete in a tantrum. FACT: A piece of glass actually cut Magni's head open. In fact, if you watch the video, shards fly all over him. A lot of glass bounced off his face, chest and head.

Would Newsted be defending her if that glass had flown in Magni's eye and he lost sight in that eye? Would he be defending her if by some freak chance, the glass shard flew down Magni's throat throat and damaged his vocal chords? Would he be so hot to defend her if she took away Magni's ability to see his baby, or to ever sing again?

For fuck's sake...the woman is a mess, and someone needs to straighten her out with the quickness.

Her behavior was ridiculous. There's no excuse for the tantrum in the first place. There's no excuse for throwing glasses around the pool. In fact, I'd have a rule if it were *my* production that no glass was ever allowed out on the patio within 50 feet of a pool. You especially don't throw glass around other people. But...and this is just more proof of what I said last week:

DILANA IS SELFISH AND HAS NO RESPECT FOR OTHERS.

Her instincts always come out when she's angry or stressed or tired or drunk, and they are always selfish. Not self-motivated, which I applaud...No, she's selfish. She promotes her own feeling-of-the-moment at the expense of others. She can never just be in a moment without being over-dramatic and making everyone focus on her, or tearing someone else down so she's in the spotlight. She has no respect for them as people or as artists.

One thing that bothered me was that she cried and sat alone and then broke down with Storm, but I didn't see her breaking down and telling Magni she screwed up face-to-face without turning it into her own dramatic scene where she's SOBBING in her room. Magni had to come to her to get a half-assed apology. If I cut someone like that, before I worry about MY feelings, before I sob and demand sympathy for myself, I would be checking to see if Magni was hurt or how bad it was. I would not have even considered my own nonsense until I knew he was OK. Instead it was Ryan that was completely concerned about Magni. Also...she couldn't even clean up her own mess? Notice that Toby and Lukas cleaned up the broken glass.

Selfish. Dilana comes first. Always. There are times when self-preservation turns to selfishness. We're witnessing one of those times right now.

How is she going to handle it if she wins and she realizes that she has absolutely no creative input on Supernova at all? Whoever wins this thing is going to be a hired gun. No writing, no tour profits, no publishing, no nothing. They're going to get paid five grand a week while they are in the band. And that is *it*.

Maybe she'll be OK with never having to make a creative decision again. Lord knows she's the worst lyricist I've heard in a long time.

Moving on. They had a big photoshoot at the mansion, and it was interesting watch. Storm of course was a total pro and looked hotter than hot, and the photographer completely captured Lukas. I loved that Toby looked at his photos and said "I don't get it." No worries, mate, I didn't get the whole jump on the couch thing either. Magni's shots didn't go well, and it was clear he was NOT connecting to the photographer in any way. I totally blame the photographer, it's his job to find the right picture, not the musician's. If the idea of the table-top sucked, move on, try something new, like he did when Dilana's shots weren't working. He stood her up and she came to life and looked great.

Song selection this week was "fan choice." Sort of. They gave us a list of three songs that the Rockers had already performed, and then added a "wild card" song that some other Rocker had already performed. Not exactly much of a choice.

I'll say this: Dilana sounded great rehearshing "Mother Mother." Makes Jill Gioia look like an amateur just from the few moments we see in the webisode. I think she's going to redeem herself performance-wise...she's been a little boring lately.

So Lukas isn't a fan of Nirvana, huh? He must have mentioned at least three times that he didn't like Lithium, he even hinted that maybe the fans were trying to get him to "show up Dilana" a little by picking it for him. I actually avoid all performance spoilers so I don't know what he ended up with, but in the webisode he was talking about re-arranging Lithium with horns. My one beef was the stupid way he kept mispronouncing Nirvana. It's pronounced "Nir-von-uh" with the middle syllable sounding like the German word for "of," von. He kept saying "Nir-VAAN-uh" with the middle syllable sounding like the word for a Ford Econoline. His accent doesn't really excuse it...everyone was saying it correctly around him. It's been my experience that when someone intentionally mispronounces something that is extremely well-known and that the people around them are all saying correctly, they're usually insulting it. Kind of weak, IMHO. Just say the friggin' name right. The band has earned it. I doubt he'd appreciate it much if we all started spelling his name "Luke-ass."

I know...a stupid nit to pick, but it annoys the hell out of me.

Can I just say that I hate that word, "webisode?" I don't know why, I usually love geek-created tech words. I might be the only guy on Earth who actually likes the word "blog." "Webisode," though, it just makes my teeth hurt.

Now, because I love you (yes, YOU, not everyone else reading this), here's the entire reality episode in a Flash player so you don't have to deal with Windows Media. (Video removed due to bandwidth concerns, besides it's a week old!)
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- OK, first of all, Brooke said that Supernova was great last week, and Jason was like ‘We crushed it.” I havn’t read more than 10 people even say anything nice about that pice of crap song much less opine that SN “crushed it.” Is Newsted really brainwashed about it?

- Hey, look, here comes the overly-sanitized reality recap.  Why do they even bother showing this shit online if they aren’t going to show all of it during the actual broadcasts?

- PRODUCT SHOT!  Did they have to contractually obligate Storm to say “...on my Verizon Wireless?”

- Storm, in answering why she rolled over on choosing an original, answers exactly the point I was making here:

Storm is that way to everyone on the show though.  She’s always supportive, always diplomatic, always friendly.

- Time to take a nap, Patrice is singing, and it’s an original.  OK, I was wrong about her in the beginning when i thought she was good but not right for SN. WHAT IS SHE DOING WITH HER MOUTH?  Why does she fake that Cher-mouth accent-thing?  IT’S HORRIBLE.  The song is weak as well.  Unfortunately, if it was spectacular, I’d never be able to get past that goddamned Cher-mouth thing she does.  Every time she sings I hear her singing “I got you babe.” Get off my TV, sweetie.  I’m insanely done with you.

TLee said that Patrice’s song is “slightly happy for us?” After that shitfest last week?  “Yeah Yeah yeah, Yeah!” *clap clap* That’s “slightly happy.” I swear to Christ I lose more interest in SN every week.

- Magni up next with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit.  I don’t think he has the personality to sell this.

Yup.  I was right.  Cold or no cold, screaming the chorus is not all one needs to do.  The scream must actually be *sung*.  Magni’s just screaming.  I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with the cold, but this isn’t good.

OK, Dave Navarro is insane.  Vocally it wasn’t great and that wasn’t angst, it was performing.  And why the fuck is TLee now ragging on Magni for NOT playing guitar?  He’s been bitching every time someone does play guitar.  So ridiculous.  Breaking something on cue only works for Trent Reznor.

- Ryan up with his original “Back of Your Car.” God I know this melody line...it’s killing me.  I know someone else had a hit with this melody line.  Song’s not bad, but we all know Ryan is more the intense brooding type, this high-energy stuff seems forced for SN’s benefit.  As did the guitar-throwing.  Totally forced.  I liked the song though.

Let me state for the record - I don’t believe for a second that Ryan was going to throw his guitar until Tommy said something.

I think Ryan is playing the game to stay in the public eye here.  I don’t think he wants to front this cheesefest.  I think he’s using the show.  And I say more power to him!

- Stormy!  Damn she’s hot.  She’s doing Cryin’ and I don’t care how it sounds...*look* at her.

OK, maybe I care a little how it sounds.  Why is she sticking with this deeper, lower register singing?  Does she think she has to do this to compete with Dilana?  You know what else?  She’s not opening her throat when she sings. 

OH!  Bad falsetto. 

WOAH...she brought the Tyler scream at the end though!

OK, here’s the thing: I KNOW the bitch can sing!  Why isn’t she using her instrument to its full potential here?  What am I missing?  Is this some competition strategy?  I don’t get it.

Damn she looks good.

HA!  “Come over here and take it, bitch!  Storm would kick Dave Navarro’s ass and make him eat that corset.  :)

Dilana and Every Breath You Take...so far, safe and predictable.  OK, that hint of power was nice in the first chorus.  So far pretty good.  Hey, she hit the note!  Nice.  A very nice rendition of this song so far except for what she put her goddamned name into the song.

I like her vocal on this.  Not magic, but it was nice to see that she learned something from Jill’s mistake of relying on one thing (the shtty scream in Jill’s case) too much.  Let’s see what SN has to say.

Jason asked her why she picked this song.  Instead of the story we got in the reality show, that it was her mom’s favorite song so she feels a connection, we get the expanded story that Dilana and her momma are on the outs.  Hey, I haven’t spoken to my mother in years either, someone give me money.  What a calculated move to deflate the “Dilana’s a bitch” vibe that’s building up with so many RS:S viewers.  Fuck that shit. We all got problems, honey.  *sigh*...I was fine with her right up until then.  Right up until she tried to tug on my heartstrings for votes.  Now I have a message for Dilana:

I was cryin’ when I met you.  Now I’m dyin’ to forget you.

- Toby up next with Clapton’s classic Layla.  OK, this week illustrated some weaknesses in Raphael’s guitar playing, both on the Nirvana track and here on layla.

As for this arrangement?  No.  Sorry.  I do not like it at all.  There’s a reason not many people try to cover this song.  Anything you do to it will be bad.  His performance, the stagecraft, was excellent...ladies love a shirtless Toby, and the crowd participation always wins.

I hate that arrangement.  HATE.  However, I know he did well, he sounded good, he worked the crowd, he looked like a rock star.  So he gets major bonus points for that.

THANK YOU GILBY!  He didn’t like the arrangement, appreciated the performance.  I feel vindicated.

- Lukas and All These Things That I’ve Donefrom The Killers to close the show.  Hey!  It’s the Cleavage voice!  Open it up boy! 

Crap.  Did he forget the words again?  Too much slurring.  Too much mushmouth.  What a let-down from that great opening.

This isn’t going well.  Supernova doesn’t seem to have liked it much.  I’m not buying Lukas’ “playing with the band” explanation as to why he turned his back.  I think he forgot the words again.

I’m still convinced Lukas is throwing this competition.  He doesn’t want to win.

Tommy Lee was NOT complimenting Lukas with that “Check please” comment as some have postulated.  No one uses that as a compliment, it’s an insult to signify that the “event” is over and you want to get the hell out of there.  It’s a negative.  I don’t think he liked Lukas bunging up the lyrics and turning his back on the crowd.  I think it’s that simple.

- Bottom three prediction before the break - Patrice, Magni, Storm.  After full voting - Patrice, Magni and Toby, possibly Storm.  After the commercial - Woah, Toby instead of Magni.  O.K.  Maybe bottom three tomorrow will be Storm, Toby & Patrice.  Maybe I’m alone in not loving Magni doing Teen Spirit.

I predict Lukas to sing with the band and Dilana or Toby for the encore.  More than likely Toby.

Here’s to eliminating Patrice tomorrow night!

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-OK, I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Storm looks so tasty tonight I want to eat her with a spoon. That micro-mini with those stockings and boots is *working*

-Brooke is all “You’re treating us to another kickass Supernova song right?” Yeah...unfortunately. Here’s to hoping that it doesn’t suck.

- I have to retract my statement about Ryan throwing his guitar. After seeing *so* many of his friends, bandmates, even his girlfriend said his plan was always to get crazy and throw the guitar, I accept that was his plan. My wife postulated that maybe Dave & Tommy brought it up as a way to sabotage

- Dilana said he would have been nothing without the house band? OK...that’s just total bitch mode. Then she compounds it by being a superbitch about getting votes. Ryan was dead on when he said she needs humility and respect.

- Interesting that they let them online finally.

-Here comes Navarro stirring the shit…

- Oh please tell her off. Dave is taking Dilana to task.

“Obviously this week I’m the big bitch.” Yeah. You are.

He took her down for the “house band” comment too. GOOD. She deserves to be slapped down for that one.

- Ryan has her nailed. “When you’re on top and you talk down to the people below you, it shows a lack of respect.” DILANA HAS NO RESPECT FOR OTHERS AS PERFORMERS. Hence why I love Storm so much - she truly respects others as artists.

Let me repeat that: Dilana is not respecting anyone else as an artist. It shows a distinct lack of character on her part and I would not want someone like that in *my* band, I know that much.

- New track time? I say Lukas, Toby or Ryan to sing. If Lukas sings, Toby gets the encore, if Toby sings, Ryan gets the encore

Re: the sessions footage for “Be yourself” - OK, I guess the band is going to be half re-treaded 80’s crap and half Brit-pop/White Stripes re-treads. Oh boy, can’t wait!

Toby singing the brit-pop track? OK. Maybe. It might work.

Before I push play, can I ask a question of anyone who is honest-to-god fan of Supernova itself? Aren’t you in the least bit disappointed that everything they;ve shown us so far is utterly and completely derivative, and that they’re not doing *anything new or fresh or exciting?

OK...pushing play now.

Hey he looks right up there with them...oh wait, NO HE DOESN’T. They’re old men compared to him, at least in looks.

The song is just a “The” band re-tread. The Vines, The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, etc. He’s making it work, as much as it can work.

He’s looking good as the frontman though. I’m watching him and not Tommy, which is rare, as watching Tommy play drums is still fun, the dude is crazy on that throne.

Good audience interaction. Toby needs to front a fresh, new, modern alt.rock act. He did as good a job as could be done with that track.

The song itself is fucking monotonous. I don’t like most of this 21st century alt.rock stuff for exactly that reason. Frans Ferdinand is an exception, they took the genre and did something fresh and changed it up. This Supernova song is like a mediocre example of a mediocre band in the “The band” vein.

I liked it better than the first shitty Supernova song, but I will never, ever pay money to hear that no matter who ends up as their singer.

- Back from commercial...so can we eliminate Patrice now? OH! We’re going to the whole media blitz stuff! Please please please call Dilana out for her bullshit that day!

I love Jason stalking the interviewees. :)

That’s right, Lukas said “I don’t want to dog anybody, dude.” See that, Dilana? It’s called fucking CLASS.

Aside - anyone else believe that the producers are doing this because of the online buzz about Dilana’s bullshit?

- OK, Dave’s up, chastizing Dilana. Go Dave.

“What the hell are you thinking?”

Oh Jesus H Christ...Dilana says she’s not a professional person who has done interviews? THAT’S A FUCKING LIE. She’s had a goddamned career and been interviewed many times! Seriously, does this bitch not realize that we have the fucking internet? Her career may not have been huge in the States, but it existed and is documented.

I hate liars.

- Nice to see Lukas taking the high road. “Evs.” And he’s right, he doesn’t need a goddamned mother dove or hen or any other bird. Love Dilana’s “poor me, I’m a victim” response too: “I’m sorry, I just care about you.” Oh please. You know where that comes from? That comes from the same selfish, passive-agressive place as statements like “why do you make me do this to you?”

Say what you will about Dave Navarro, and I say a lot, but he was spot on this week, both here on the show and on his blog (6767.com). He’s no newbie to this business and he’s dealt with big band after big band, ego after ego, and on top of that had some VERY public relationships with all that entails...somehow the man has keopt his sanity. The Rockers would do well to take some of that advice to heart.

- No encore? WTF? They passed up the encore to bash Dilana? Now, I’m all for bashing Dilana’s bitchy behavior. Shit, I’m for someone slapping her in the goddamned mouth after this attitude over the last two weeks. But...it cost me a chance to see someone rock out and it cost a rocker a chance to perform.

- Hey look, my predictions came true! Yeah, like it took any brains to figure out who was going to be the bottom 4, right? :) ELIMINATE PATRICE!

- Can I just say that I *heart* Storm (again)? Throwing up the horns like that is so fucking metal.

- First true botom three-er is: Magni. OK. I totally accept that, I did not love his Nirnava performance. He’s going to try to do Hendrix’s Fire. See, again, you need passion and a big personality for that song, and I just never get “big personality” from Magni. Let’s see how he does…

Remember what Dilana said about Ryan? “You would have been nothing without that House Band.” Umm…

Magni?

Know that I like you when I say this…

The House Band carried your ass.

Seriously. Magni’s guitar playing was uninspired. The vocal was simply adequate. Not bad. It was not bad. But it was not super-sexy-fun the way that song almost has to be.. The House band rocked the shit out of that song, not Magni. You could have plugged any other rocker in there and it would have been just as exciting.

He’s still safe. He’s good, and others deserve elimination first.

- YAY, IT’S ELIMINATING PATRICE TIME! Oh Christ, she re-arranged The Pretenders’ Middle of the Road? EVS I’ll be fair though. From this moment on, I have never heard of Patrice Pike and am judging her solely on this performance alone.

Well...the arrangement isn’t bad. Is there anything that House band *can’t* play? I do not love her vocal. I don’t like her tone, her phrasing, nothing. I don’t like her sort of aimless wandering of the stage either. She has a wierd smile that pops up at inappropriate times during the song.

Not a big Patrice Pike fan. I think maybe she’s the one they should eliminate.

- Before the break...Storm is convinced she’s the next in the bottom three. Look at her! Love that girl’s attitude.

- We’re back...third Rocker at risk is: Toby! WTF? I thought he did better than that. He’s going to do Plush which Magni already did a DAMN good job on...hope he plans on bringing it.

OK, it’s INSANE how good the House Band is. I love this song, and they’re killing it.

(halfway through) You know what? Toby is rocking the shit out of this. He’s fucking crushing it! Nicely done, mate! He looks like a star up there, no doubt, and he sounds great.

OH! Nice bridge! Wow...I’m seeing Toby as a full-on, no-gimmicks-needed Rock Star right now. He killed that song on sheer personality and singing alone. Way to go, Toby...I will pay money to download that track off MSN Music.

- Back from commercial...SEND PATRICE HOME! SEND PATRICE HOME!

Toby obviously saved himself with that killer performance of Plush. Totally agree with that decision.

Tommy-hawk time. “Chop Chop” says Patrice. That’s right. It’s you, baby girl. You’ll do fine being a bar/small club rocker. Classy exit on her part, but I gotta say, I am glad she’s gone.

They’re calling next week “fan selection” which is a bit of a misnomer. You can’t just pick any song, you can only choose from song that they’re previously performed plus one bonus that someone else performed. EVS. ;)

Wow. What a week for RS:S, eh kids? Drama, drama and more drama. Here’s to next week.

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Well...the Rockers were subjected to a media blitz this week, and some interesting personality traits came to the surface.  The most obvious being the fact that Dilana is a raging bitch.  Can’t blame it on editing this week either as she was a bitch over, and over, and over…

Jason Newsted keeps describing these little scenarios so that the events are tests of a person’s mettle, and I think Dilana keeps failing them.  I like how Storm and Magni handled themselves, and I was especially impressed that Lukas didn’t punch the obnoxious cum dumpster from Star 98 point whatever.  Everyone handled themselves well.

Except Dilana.

I’m 180 degrees reversed from my earliest opinions now...I’m not a Dilana fan at all.  From her savaging of fellow Rockers to outing Storm & Toby for hating the Supernova track from last week, she’s a bitch on wheels and it’s not attractve.  It’s not even good gameplay, it’s desperation.  Her career has failed, so she remade herself into this rock chick when the truth is she’s pure Lilith Fair.

Sometimes I think she deserves Supernova.  Did you hear that shit-tastic song from last week?  Oh my dear lord it was awful.  The riff was a ripoff, the lyrics were stupid, the rhymes were juvenile.

Getting away from the reality episode for a moment, one of the idiot producers at Rock Star: Supernova, Dave Goffin, posted this weak-minded diatribe over at the Rockband forums:

Fellow Rockers

I appreciate everyone’s commitment to the show. I appreciate the fans who come to every show, cheer their asses off and, hopefully, have a great time. I appreciate the people who contribute to this forum…the true fans, who love the show, or the rockers, or Brooke, or the band, or just rock and roll on TV, because it is so rare.

We work 7 days a week producing 3 shows a week because we love the music, the rockers, the concept and because it is actually a pretty fun show to work on. No complaints.

Now, I have rarely stated my opinion on this or other forums.

My role has been to give out some information every now and then that I thought you would all like to know to keep you, the most dedicated fans, happy.

So please forgive me if you feel it is out of my bounds to give some thoughts on this current thread regarding the elimination show, particularly the first performance of Supernova.

And please also know that I am just a TV producer and am not part of the SN management, band or tour.

Here goes:

While I respect everyone’s opinion and will defend their right to express it, I am completely surprised by the overwhelming hatred of the SN song and/or performance.

Now, my first instinct upon reading these posts was an understanding of the context of hearing this first SN song. We have all been waiting since March to hear what this band would song like. A “supergroup”…Guns, Metallica, Motley….Tommy, Gilby, Jason WOW!

And THIS IS IT???

Perhaps it is impossible to meet all potential expectations that we ourselves set up over the spring and summer…think about that present for Christmas you always wanted…when you got it, how good was it? Not as great as in your mind all those months.

This all might be true, or at least part of the truth

BUT I think there is something else going on. And quite frankly, it is part of the reason it is so hard to do Rock and Roll on TV for any length of time…and maybe just why Rock and Roll, the genre of music I love, is really now just a niche genre, and will continue to be.

Here it is:

3 points

1. When did rock music get so serious (and is that the problem)?

2. Give the guys (and Dilana) a break for taking a huge risk.

3. It was better than you think, and you know it.

LAST POINT FIRST: To the people who were THERE, you KNOW what that room felt and sounded like. It was LOUD….the WHOLE TIME. That vibe was real, it was cool, it was rockin and the crowd loved it.

I pay for about 25 good looking people (read: hotties) every week so my cameras have guaranteed eye candy to shoot. I admit that. But today; the faces, the clapping, the jumping, the smiles, the applause and the cheers before, during and after the song was not Hollywood, but real.

Those of you who were there know that. You do. I heard you. I saw you.

I felt you. I usually stay in the control room to produce the show. I left to go to the theater and listen and experience that moment. I watched everything from the balcony. That performance worked.

You watch it back on TV. You saw it and you felt it again…Very little was lost. [We shot in 30p or progressive frame which is a film look and it smoked!]

The other rockers, the competition, were standing up, rocking, singing along and having a great time….wow!

SECOND point: The risk of a new song: I think we cannot forget that you just heard a brand new song, fresh out of the studio from a new group that just played their first live gig with a singer they had barely rehearsed with.

That is the point of the show. That is the real-ness we all like. That is what separates us from Idol. This is the edge of the show in its rawest form. Nothing manufactured….the real deal.

The guys took a HUGE RISK….They did not whine about their reputations on a new song debuting on international TV with a semi-professional singer. They just rocked the shit out of it. Dilana was believable. The band was tight…just one rehearsal day….imagine how good they will sound in 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years.

It WASNT perfect - thank god - it looked under rehearsed, it was sloppy and edgy at the same time.

It was, therefore, rock and roll.

THIRD POINT…and most important…the music we call rock today.

Many of you complained that the song was, “total bar band crap”…the dancers, the lyrics, the simple 3 chord progression and melody.

There were even complaints that it was too bluesy, simplistic, sexy.

Well guess what…..welcome to Rock and Roll.

I have to ask….When did rock get so serious….? For me, as much as I loved it at the time, Alternative rock did it.

I went to see every major band in the 90’s, from Nirvana to Smashing Pumpkins to Radiohead. But at the end of the day, what did Alternative give us?….maybe, almost, the end of rock….CERTAINLY the end of rock as popular music. It has yet to come back in society as pervasive….need evidence?…look at the popularity of this show vs Idol. Done.

Yes, I liked the song SN played. It reminded me of the Rock music I liked before it took itself so seriously. The Rolling Stones, the Who, Bowie, ….later the Black Crows, The Killers. Fun, escapist, catchy rock.

Today: How freakin’ incredible is it that a guy like Jason Newstead, from the MOST serious metal band of all time, is up there rockin’ a MAJOR KEY three chord jam – and playing with all the intensity of a teenager. Gilby’s blues rock roots were in full effect and Tommy was just beating the crap of his drums, smiling the whole ride…

Forget how “big” these guys are….They were having fun with the hope that you were having fun listening.

No one was trying to understand the “human condition”…except by maybe trying to escape from it for 2 minutes and 39 seconds of sexual innuendo. .

And some of the most successful bands of all time, some of which are STILL touring, have been doing that for 40 years.

Need some proof: Listen to Good Times, Bad Times on the first Zep album - 2:25 of classic rock banality - and that song still gets played on the radio and you sing along EVERY time. Nothing wrong with that.

Rock music needs more songs about fun and less songs about woe is me. And fuck EMO!

I say that was a pretty damn intriguing start - let’s see where this takes them - in a few weeks we will should have a pretty good picture of what exactly a “Supernova” sounds like.

Right now it is free…if you still don’t like it in September…don’t buy the CD or the tickets.

Thank you for reading this and allowing me to post it. I expect some anger at my points. I expect some accusations of selfishness, self-promotion, and people calling me (something more than ) a jerk.

But if this show is going to stay on broadcast TV, the only show of its kind, ever, with real rock music, with its expensive songs and production values….we should accept differences in music and what we are trying to do as a healthy experiment for rock fans or all kinds, who can come together with maybe give something for everyone, under the banner of rock and roll, which we all love.

Or we can watch the equivalent of American idol next summer…because that is apparently all the broad public can agree on….least common denominator, non-offensive stuff that works because the only complaint people have about it is….uh…I forget….it puts me to sleep.

Thank you for your time.

Dave?  Can I call you Douchebag?  A little less than a week later and I know you’re regretting this because your bosses are in overdrive trying to do damage control.  You’re an ass.

This was my reply at the time Dave’s idiocy was posted:

To Dave (producerboy, not navarro)

Allow me to retort.

You know what? Dave can suck it. I have ears. I know what I like, and I also know when something sucks donkey ass.

From the complete ripoff of The Georgia Satellites opening riff to the pathetically trite lyrics, that song sucked. IT SUCKED. It wasn’t rock, it wasn’t cool, it didn’t plant it’s feet and crush it.

IT SIMPLY SUCKED, and no amount of whining from the producer is going to change that. It was cooked in wrongsauce. In fact, it was cooked in ass-sauce.

There’s nothing I hate more than some smarmy, self-righteous ass who is going to tell me if I did or didn’t like something. Guess what, Dave? *I* am the goddamned customer here. I’m the fan, I’m the consumer, and I’m telling you I thought it was frigging lame. I’d stand up and tell you, the band and anyone else that to their face: That song sucked out loud. Deal with it.

Back to the reality episode: When Dilana said that Storm hated the lyrics, my opinion of Storm went up.  I imagine that everyone except Dilana hated them.  I know what Ryan, Lukas and Storm write, they clearly know how pathetic that song is.  I think I know what Magni is about, and that’s not it.  I don’t imagine Patrice digs on the whole ridiculous vibe, and we know Toby hated it because Dilana outed him.

That leaves her.  Given how shitty her own lyrics are, even when she’s plagiarizing them, it’s no surprise. 

What, you didn’t know Dilana ripped off her own lyrics for her original song entry a few weeks ago?  Oh yeah, and she never wrote the lyrics in the first place, a guy named Jan Koster wrote them.  It’s a shitfest of a song called “Breakfast in Central park,” and if you have eyes, you can see exactly how similar these two sets of lyrics are.

Breakfast In Central Park All the nightbirds gather on Houston & Bleecker Celluar phones, pagers & beepers They go yeah, life’s a party you know So bring your dry martinis your Liz Claiborne specs Your Dolce & Gabbana your buds & your Becks And go yea, lets’s get this show on the road So go up to 57th to Central Park West Put on your skates & a see-through dress Like a Village reject with Manhattan class Now get out of the powder room girl And show me some New York ass! Breakfast in Central Park Loungin’ in the sun be cool just smile Breakfast in Central Park Sidewalk, catwalk, bohemian style Breakfast in Central Park Get a little rollin’ stoned Now they got red, white, blue, green & yellow wigs Pavarotti, chili peppers all in the mix They go yea, Lauren Hill’s queen of club So take the 5 to 57th to Central Park South Get on your boards and let it all hang out Like a SoHo hippie with a lot of cloud Wipe the mace off your face boy And gimme some New York mouth So take the 5 to 57th to Central Park South Just like the 4th of July let it all hang out Is it Jersey smog or jamaican cloud? Baby take a wild, wild guess Ain’t nothin’ like a jumpin’ jack flash Oh it’s gotta be New York it must be that New York grass!

Dilana’s Week 6 original Come on! Pretty boys nasty girls Let’s get together There’s a house on the hill Just south of Sunset Get your Heinies and your Buds your shoes and your shades we’ll be partying on and on leave your bad days behind Cuz LA never sleeps when the sun goes down no matter what the weather we should always be together No LA never sleeps when the sun goes down We’ll be rockin’ till the mornin’ comes Are you ready? C’mon, c’mon party animals you know it’s goin’ down the party rolls fast the wierdos and the freaks Bring your wine and your song Your lotion and your thong We’ll be pumping up the volume till the break of day Cuz LA never sleeps when the sun goes down no matter what the weather we should always be together No LA never sleeps when the sun goes down We’ll be rockin’ till the mornin’ comes hey hey yeah It’s okay if you’re crazy It’s okay if you’re bad the night’ll be twis-ted you know you can’t resist it hey yeah Cuz LA never sleeps when the sun goes down no matter what the weather we should always be together No LA never sleeps when the sun goes down We’ll be rockin’ till the mornin’ comes

Couldn’t she find a good song from which to steal?  And did she think no one would ever notice that her “original” was an awful lot like one of her old songs?  And if they did notice, did she think no one would bother to look up the songwriting credits?

Now, I want you all to know that in order to get the lyrics to Dilana’s week 6 “original,” I watched the video of her singing it over and over and over.  My wife took a few passes and then I took a few more, then we compared and did it together a couple of times until our ears agreed and the words we heard matched what Dilana’s mouth was doing on the screen.  I’m willing to say that these lyrics are 99.9875% accurate.

Do you have any idea what I want to happen to Dilana after hearing that shit-tacular fucking crapfest 20 times?  Can you imagine the suffering I want for her?  I won’t make you imagine it.  I’ll tell you:

I want her to win. 

I said that sometimes I think she deserves this band, and after hearing that abortion of a song 30 or 50 times, yeah...they’re perfect for each other.  If you heard the actual Supernova lyrics to that shitty track they were using in week 6, you know that Supernova and Dilana are a match made in heaven, and I like Lukas, Ryan, Magni, Toby & Storm too much to saddle them with this sad attempt at rekindling the 1980’s “party & pussy” genre.

Hair metal is dead, boys.  Kurt Cobain killed it.  Nostalgia tours do not equal record sales.  Tommy, you can’t write like Nikki Sixx, Jani Lane or even Brett Michaels.  Give it a rest.  When I want shitty, cheesball lyrics about partying and pussy, I’ll throw Smooth Up In Ya on the old iPod, ‘K?  Thanx.  Bye.

Wow.  This has to be the longest post I’ve done on RS:S to date.  Maybe I’m putting too much thought into this show.  :) All I know is, I found some great new music and re-connected with some old music through this show, so I’ll be back for more as long as I never have to hear “no matter what the weather, we should always be together” again as long as I live.

Can’t wait for the performances.  Oh, one other thing: I think I enjoyed it more when Toby got naked.  To close with a positive about Dilana: at least she was willing to do what she made someone else do.

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Something I’ve always wondered about: why are there always these long-ass recaps on shows like this?  Who in hell would be watching the elimination episode of Rock Star: Supernova if they hadn’t seen the performances?  Come on.  30 second recaps, tops.  Moving on.

- Storm watching her own performance - When Patrice displayed that attitude, that not learning from a mistake, people panned her.  Storm needs to watch her performance again without anyone cheerleading in her ear.  It wasn’t good.

- Here comes the band playing together.  Gee, like the Rockers don’t already know who is going to play, eh?  They’ve had to rehearse and whatnot.  :)

- Wow, that rehearsal footage was illuminating.  Toby is lost behind the music.  Magni sounded good, as did Storm.  Lukas was so closed-off and so tense that I saw his entire head vibrate from the physical strain of singing.  I have around 20 or so songs that Lukas Rossi sings on, from his old band Cleavage and his new band Rise Electric.  He does not sing like this.  He’s far less mush-mouthed and he doesn’t constrict so much.  He uses a lot more upper register and sings quite openly at times.  So why is he doing this in front of Supernova, especially when he knows Jason is so attuned to it?

I say there are two possible reasons.  One, he’s nervous and thinks this is “the sound” Supernova wants.  Two?  He’s intentionally throwing the competition because he doesn’t want to be tied down to these part-time bandmates, he just wants to stay around and get attention so when he tries again to get a deal for Rise Electric, he’ll get one easily.

- Dilana gets the original.  What a shocker, eh?  This should be good.  Let’s watch!

Good God that riff is Georgia Satellites!  “I got a little change in my pocket goin’ jing-a-ling-a-ling...”

Umm…

Well…

So…

Yeah.

1. She’s swallowed up by that band visually.  Without the gimmick of the dancing girls and the camera focusing on her, she’d have disappeared into the background.
2. Vocally she did NOT cut through the guitars.  Now, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt because the sound engineers may be asleep at the wheel.  They often are on these live music shows.  However, what *I* heard was a voice that blended into the background during the verses.  Not my fault if that’s a result of the mix, it’s how it came across.  I suspect that Dilana’s lower register and Gilby’s guitars are closely matched, frequency-wise.  That’s not something you can easily fix.
3. There are many points during the performance where she was clearly scared.  I even saw her shake at one point.  she did her usual wander the stage unsure of herself thing that she does.

I did not love that.  I don’t care what Dave Navarro says.

By the way, the song is ass.  I’m not really looking forward to Supernova’s album if this is indicative of their music.

- So Gilby ragged on Jill for doing the sex thing onstage, and then Supernova brings a trio of dancing girls to grind onstage?  Hmm.

- Ryan gets the encore.  No surprises there!  He really nailed this song last night.  *MAN* I love that moment when that drum kicks in.  He’s tearing this up again.  Nicely done.

- Bottom three time.  Zayra, Toby and Patrice at the end of the show, plus Magni and Storm after voting.  Navarro was all about “why is Magni standing?” Well, there aren’t that many damn singers here, and if you do the math, Magni was probably in the middle, exactly where he should have been after that sort of OK performance.

Zayra is in the real bottom three.  Yay!  She’s doing Razor Blade from Blue October.  Her accent is destroying this, I’m sorry.  She’s also off key again.  I’m so done with her she may as well be Patrice.

- And speaking of!  Patrice is the second Rocker in the bottom three.  Here’s hoping for a double hatchet!  To try to save herself she’s going to sing Celebrity Skin.  This is the one Lukas couldn’t remember.  Cute ploy but it’s not gonna work.

Hey look she’s boring me.  And she’s doing that weird Cher thing with her mouth.  There’s no dynamicism (is that a word?) in her performance at all.  Wow, what happened to her?  She was rocking it out much better in the early weeks.  Oh, and she’s so far off key I think she’s singing another song.  Lastly, no one is buying that Dilana-ripoff trick of singing in front of the band.

Eliminate her.

- Last bottom three-er is...Magni.  I can see that for one reason: Storm’s fans rallied to save her and Magni suffered for it in the voting.

- Holy shit he’s taking Lukas on head-to-head by doing Radiohead’s Creep!  Wow.  Ballsy, Lukas really really killed on this song.  Magni, I love ya when you do the quieter, alt-rocky stuff, but this is going to make or break you, brother.  Let’s watch!

He’s doing it faithfully to the Radiohead version, as is the band.  He doesn’t have the passion to kill that chorus...Magni just proved that he’s the middle.  He’s good but not great.  He just proved that being the best musician, the most professional, is not good enough if you don’t have IT.  That special something, that sparkle, that, as Simon Cowell’s show calls it, the X factor.  Magni doesn’t have it, Lukas does.  Going head-to-head was a mistake.

This is totally lacking fire.

Oh!  He blew the note in the build-up.  He hit the big note though, and to be honest, falling on the floor and all that was great, it fits the lyric.  But he proved he doesn’t have the magic.

- Double eliminate!  Patrice and Zayra!  Do it!  [benstiller]Do it.  C’mon.  Do it.[/benstiller]

- Magni is safe.  No surprise.  Bring on the Tommyhawk.

- Man, I gotta watch Patrice again next week.  But the good news is I never have to hear Zayra sing off-key again.  Nice ass, but no thank you.  Hey hey hey, goodbye.

This concludes our broadcast day.  Looking forward to next week…

By the way, if you’re following my ramblings on this show and want to just read these, bookmark my Rock Star: Supernova category.

BONUS

Check out this original from when Storm was with Storm INC.  It’s called ‘Beautiful.” Amazing.  i wish she sang like this on the show.

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(The following post was restored from Google’s cache after the great hard drive crash of August 2006)

Zayra gets to do her original.  Nice song, if this is your thing.  I will say this: If she can’t stay on key even singing her own original song, what good will she ever be live on tour?

Magni singing Bowie’s Starman isn’t going to be great. - Yup, I was right.  It was just there.  Why are they saddling these singers with songs that don’t rock out if all they want is to see them rock out, even on stripped-down-night?

Patrice bores the shit out of me.  I’m sick of writing about her.

Lukas is dressed as a goth priest and sitting in a chair.  Hoo boy.  It’s that Spiderman song Hero.  OK, his vocal performance is great.  I like what he did.  A little mushmouthed, but that’s Lukas.  Here’s my problem - his energy and vocal performance did not match the visual of him sitting in that chair.  And before anyone complains, Jason is absolutely right to stay on Lukas about proper singing technique.  It almost ruined James Hetfield, and Jason himself is an all-growl, all-gravel, all bottom-end singer and he knows of what he speaks.  It was a great vocal though.

Aww, my girl Storm gets stuck with this frigging I Will Survive song.  Can I say that first, Stormy, I miss the red hair.

As for the song.  Well, it’s a damn disco song and what the hell is she supposed to do with it?  She ended up doing almost what I suggested, drums, a bass line, minimal strings, balls-out vocal.  There’s just no way to make this work in this context, and I blame the producers for putting this song out there.  Someone was gonna get screwed by it.  Nice note at the end girl.  Storm did as good as it was possible to do with this stupid song choice.  The band was unfairly harsh to her.

Toby & Gilby up next with Solsbury Hill, one of Peter Gabriel’s best.  Wow, he’s way ahead of the melody.  He’s singing the verse like he’s in a hurry.  Nice to see he picked up the chorus, if you watched the web reality episode he was having trouble with the melody in the chorus.  The bongos were a nice touch, it made him look like part of the band.  Pretty good since this is a hard as hell song to sing.

Ryan is singing In The Air Tonight, one of my all-time favorite songs.  It seems suited to him.  Let’s watch!

Total male Tori Amos.  He’s brilliant...I can’t believe no one has filled this niche in music.  Intense, brooding, but Mr. Sensitive Piano Guy.  It’s his thing and he’s killing it!  I’ll bet money this ends up in his repertoire permanently.  He can do this song great justice.  Nicely done, Ryan.  I was not on board with this guy at first, but now that I get him...he’s insanely talented.

Dilana closes the show with Cat’s in the Cradle.  Spoilers said it was awesome, I avoided watching any spoiler videos.  Let’s see.

Umm…

Y’all know I love me some Dilana, but this wasn’t special.  OH!  She just blew the lyric.  Also, the quickstepping across the stage did not work for me.  It wasn’t bad.  But as for what Navarro said, best performance of the night?  No way.  I’m crazy glad to see her flat-out state that she’s the one though...I don’t go in for this whole “Dilana is stabbing everyone in the back” nonsense.  She wants this job, she needs this job, and she’s putting everyone on notice that she’s after this job.

Ryan had the performance of the night, hands down.  Bottom three prediction for tomorrow: Patrice, Zayra and unfortunately, no fault of hers, but Storm. 

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Before I watched this episode, Donna told me that some of the RS:S message boards were abuzz with anger at Dilana and Jason Newsted because of what they do in this episode.  Whatever.  Nine times out of ten I disagree with the groupthink into which these message boards often devolve.

This was one of those times.  Apparently we were supposed to be pissed at Dilana for pitching herself to Tommy and saying that the rest of the people should go home right now.

Hell, I’m surprised that everyone hasn’t.  In fact, I’m disappointed in those who haven’t.  How bad do you want this?

As for Jason - he expressed disappointment in Toby & Lukas* who got stinking, passed-out drunk at the Vegas party.  He stated that a singer represents the band at all times, and to get stinking drunk to the point where you become a joke, well, it’s emarrasing to everyone else, and you know what?

Jason is right.

A rock band lives and dies by cool.  You can have excellent musicians, but if some segment of the populace doesn’t see them as cool, they will fail.  With this kind of rock band, cool is almost as important as talent.

Getting drunk and having fun is cool.  Passing out on the floor and being the butt of everyone’s jokes is not cool.  It’s just pathetic.  I totally get Jason’s point.

As for the songs coming up this week...this is not going to be anyone’s favorite week, methinks.  It’s stripped-down songs, so I assume that means less instrumentation, potentially acoustic.  Zayra gets to do an original song.  Poor Storm took I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.  They showed her struggling with trying to find an arrangement that would work.  Here’s my idea: Drum.  Bassline, very little keyboard.  Sing the melody as it was written with all the passion and power you can muster.  End of story.

From what I read of the spoilers, no one really killed it this week, but again, I don’t trust anyone’s ears but mine.  What I read has the band complaining a lot, which is stupid since this was Gilby’s idea and it’s not like the Rockers pick their own songs - they get what the producers and Supernova give them.

Guess we’ll see what happens on Tuesday.

*UPDATE*

Apparently Dilana got stupid fall-down drunk and had to be carried out.  She goes on the list of idiots who can’t handle their booze.

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(The following post was restored from Google’s cache after the great hard drive crash of August 2006)

OK, one surprise - Zayra was safe.  WTF?  Her fans vote *so* much.

Encores aren’t a surprise, and after last night, neither was the fact that there were two.  Magni doing the electric was hot, but not as magical as his acoustic solo performance.  Lukas of course is great on Creep, and it might be better than last night.

Hey look, Jill Gioia is stinking up the place up again by committing murder on Aretha Franklin’s Respect.  Jesus CHRIST woman, stop screeching.  Just stop.  You have a voice.  use it for Christ’s sake

Josh is the second in the bottom three.  Not a surprise.  Interesting choice with the Bad Company song Shooting Star.  But that head bob, it’s like he’s got muscle spasms.  It’s disconcerting and annoying.  His vocal is really good though.  He just sang that vocal like he was in Bad Company his damn self.  Paul Rogers would be proud.

Ryan Star is the other member of the bottom three?  W.T.F.???  Patrice sucked!  He’s doing Depech Mode’s Enjoy The Silence to save himself.  Let’s watch.

Wow, nice updated arrangement.  Ryan is good at this, the soulful re-interpretation of different styles.  He looks natural up there this time, like a front man.  First time I’ve ever seen him as someone who could lead a band.  Excellent performance, and the House band rocked it out too.

He’s safe.  So is Josh.  Jill will get booted.  Commercial break!

Ryan is safe.  No surprise.  Tommy, PLEASE axe Jill.  We’ve all had it.

Both eliminated.  That means we can see the top four sooner.  I think I know why...rumor has it that Tommy Lee is supposed to go on a tour, I guess with his solo stuff, on September 5th.  They may not have time to do one a week.

YAY!  No more Jill Gioia!  This will be a much better show now.

Josh & Jill
Were up to kill
They faced elimination
They both got cut
Jill’s mouth got shut
And I’m filled with elation!

*UPDATE*

Gentlemen, and ladies if you swing that way, because I ain’t no fool and the number two search that is leading people to my site right now is “Storm Large,” I present you with somewhat nude photos of Storm Large.  Enjoy. 

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(The following post was restored from Google’s cache after the great hard drive crash of August 2006)

Dilana doing The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again w/gilby - She looks like a rock star.  She sounds like a rock star.  The one flaw in her performance was that when she got rid of the mic stand, she seemed a little lost physically.  She just sort of wandered the stage trying to stay out of Gilby’s way.  Good performance though.  I might have liked her to work out the end more, the random screams were a little odd.  Just a little, though, that isn’t a major complaint.

Jill - Mother Mother.  Mother may I change the channel?  She is off key and sounding like an idiot.  I cannot stand her.  I hate her big-mouthed screechiness.  YOU. ARE. NOT. A. ROCK. SINGER.  At least she looks a little bit rock tonight.  Except for that seizure dancing thing she was doing.  And that end.  It was horrible.

Ryan Star - Paint It Black from the Stones.  Great vocal.  Pretty cheesy theatrics, it came off as very contrived in the beginning, but he kind of took over the song once he laid off the theatrics.  He can really belt it out.

Storm - Queen, We Are The Champions.  She starts out behind the eight ball, anyone who sings this song has two strikes against them because they aren’t freddy mercury.  Storm kinda brought it though.  Good tone, great power.  Nice moment when she gets the crowd to sing with her.  Would it be gauche to comment on how pleasant it was to see her perky rack on display?  I like how she was wearing one of her band’s shirts too.

Zayra - Well.  At least she looks hot in gold lame.  She butchered another vocal performance though, this time it’s Bowie’s All The Young Dudes.  The end was a frigging mess.  Her phrasing, she blew the melody line, she was way out of tune...it was terrible, there’s no way around it.  She’s not cut out for this style of music at all.

What you didn’t see on the television show is that Zayra yelled at the band for at least two minutes about her flat notes.  She blamed the fact that they don’t have in-ear monitors to help keep themselves in tune.

Honey...Z...baby doll - Everyone else sings without the monitors too.  Dave Navarro told her that this is still an audition, and you don’t get to do a soundcheck in an audition, you don’t get monitors, you come in and sing and walk out, you make do with what you have.  He’s right.  You get to throw tantrums after you get the job.

Josh - Interstate Love Song - Weak vocal.  WEAK.  That head bob drives me up a damn wall.  Tommy completely overshadowed him.  Very poor performance vocally.  Bad song choice maybe, maybe nerves because Tommy surprised him by playing drums for him.

Magni - Holy SHIT.  That was amazing.  If you can sing and emote and are male, singing a Live song is a meal ticket in these kinds of shows.  He knocked The Dolphin’s Cry right the hell out of the park.  Magni could be the dark horse to win this thing.  He’s deceptively talented.

Patrice - From the opening note of this mangled version of Instant Karma, I wanted to KHITBASH this woman.  I’ve had enough of her faux-rock Cher-mouth phrasing and weird vocalizing.  Goodbye, Patrice.

Lukas is doing Creep.  How can this be bad?  It’s like this song was made for him.  Lord-a-mercy, that note!  He just crushed it.  Absolutely dominated that song.  Now.  If you taped or TiVo’d this thing, watch Lukas again.  Last line of the song as he sang it was ‘I don’t belong here.” Didja catch the wink?  Lukas doesn’t want this anymore.  The producers have been cutting him to shreds in editing, and they edited his blog and removed any negative things he said...and he said some failrly honest stuff about how Supernova isn’t devoted to this band, each of them is keeping their individual bands.  Supernova is a side project.

Lukas wants to be a rock star, but I don’t think he wants to be one part-time.

Toby - A hard rock version of the Talking Heads classic Burning Down The House.  It really worked...but did it work because of Toby or that amazing, monster band backing him?  Either way that arrangement was killer.  I even dug the bullhorn stuff.

I gotta say, I think Magni might had the single best performance of the night, with Lukas as a close second...so close that you couldn’t slip a snootch-hair in between them.  By the way, how cute was Magni’s kid with the ear protectors on?

Prediction - Bottom three after the vote is closed will be Jill, Zayra and Patrice, just like at the end of the show.  Maybe Josh, but he wasn’t as bad as Patrice, so if some people vote on merit alone...Josh squeaks by again.

*UPDATE*

Gentlemen, and ladies if you swing that way, because I ain’t no fool and the number two search that is leading people to my site right now is “Storm Large,” I present you with somewhat nude photos of Storm Large.  Enjoy.

Comments left on the original post

Posted by Joe R.  on 08/08 at 11:09 PM from an IP address in China

Magni could be the dark horse to win this thing.  He’s deceptively talented.

I’ve been slowly coming around to that thought as well.  I was really colored by the first week’s performances, and his was pretty bland.  I’ve finally overcome my initial biases, so I’m slowly digging Magni.

Note:  haven’t overcome my bias against Josh yet.  Can’t wait for him to be gone.

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Posted by Joe R.  on 08/08 at 11:16 PM from an IP address in China

Speaking of Josh, if I have to continue listening to Wonder Bread fucks like him and Taylor Hicks talk about their “soul” sound, I’m going to go dig up the corpse of Ray Charles and beat them senseless with it.

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Posted by JimK on 08/09 at 10:47 PM from an IP address in United States

Yeah no shit.  I mean the kid has some soulful elements, but real soul?  No.

And I have come to view Taylor Hicks as a total fraud.  He’s a pop singer and he always was.

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