List Of The Day

  • Heavy Metal, the music so hard it hurts, has had over thirty-two thousand bands attempt to define its style over the past 47 years. Yet, only a chosen few have proven the stamina necessary to achieve total dominance and unrivaled excellence in their field.

    Plenty of un-metal people have tried to unlock the code, but all have failed, miserably. As Y! Music's Senior MetaList, I was called upon to make the final decision. I consulted with my dozens of heavy metal albums to determine who should attain the rank of greatness.

    Here are the results. In the end, it could not have gone any other way.

    Thy greatness speaks its name.

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  • As anyone who knows this blog can tell you, what can be done once can be done again and again until this blogger gets tired. Having just moved my things into the Yahoo! Corporate Auxiliary Veranda #6 where I'm supposed to "keep it up, dude!" according to the I-think-he's-being-sarcastic blogger across from me who keeps holding sealed CDs up to his ear in hopes of divine inspiration when it appears to me that turning down the Complete Works of Spirit might be the first step in the right direction, I stare at my brand new wall and think about how I've done one and two-hit wonders and that three must be next. I check the number line near the accounting department and confirm that I am correct. Hooray for me. It will be a good day.

    Here are the folks who have had three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Pop Charts!

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  • [Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella]Welcome, everyone, to the summer of 2013! No summer is complete without standing in long lines for bathrooms and bottled water while braving a sudden summer shower all in the quest for the perfect chord! The idea is to do this while checking out as many bands as humanly possible! Those of us in northern climes sit around the hot stove all winter just waiting for these days when we can stand around outside without most of our clothes!

    While every one of us would be a better person if we found our way to Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2, most of us aren't mentally or physically equipped to deal with the endurance-test qualities of this desert ritual. But for those who are, well, there's another one for you.

    The rest of us can stick with the following, in roughly chronological order:

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  • Photos:Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Delta Air Lines)After reading through the thousands of emails from readers just like you, all telling me how much you enjoyed that first 'Experiment In Sound' where we put up three songs that sounded quite a bit like three other ones, I realized that there was a 'sincere hunger' for more items like this. If you enjoyed checking out three soundalikes, you'll really love checking out five soundalikes! Because five is more than three!

    I went back into the Y! Music vault and there between the data telling me where everyone who works here lives and the data telling me how much my co-workers are paid and which part of the Yahoo! compound they are legally entitled to when they turn 65, I found the information regarding every song ever recorded. I spent the new few weeks listening to every song in the database and discovered just how much I like The Incredible String Band and 1980s-era Rod Stewart.

    In the meantime, these songs came screaming to my door. Thy name might not be ripoff, per se, but the results are uncomfortably familiar.

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  • Michelle Shocked [Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Images]Michelle Shocked went out of her way the other night at Yoshi's in San Francisco to destroy what was left of her career with remarks against homosexuality that sounded more like the sentiments of Freddie Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church than that of an alternative folk singer who many in the audience assumed was gay.

    Well, don't assume anything, folks. Gigs have been canceled, aside from perhaps a new career playing for…the Westboro Baptist Church. Of course, Shocked would be best served in therapy where she could work out where this self-destructive behavior took root.

    In the meantime, rushing to delete Michele Shocked songs from your playlists is likely on your agenda, lest her "Anchorage" song suddenly pop up during a party and ruin it with heavy discussions about the meaning of life and who's Michelle Shocked. ("Anchorage" is the only song I know of hers.)

    Let's find five artists to replace Michelle Shocked on your playlists.

    5) Trixie Whitley -- "Breathe You In

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  • After I looked up the one-hit wonders, I went out looking for those who fared twice as well on the pop charts, the two-hit wonders. That's a 100% increase over the "One Hit Wonders'!

    Once again a "hit" is defined as a song that landed into the Billboard Top 40, not the alterna-rock charts, not the country charts, not the radio playlists, the POP charts.

    Granted, this is not the perfect measure of an artist's worth. Album-Oriented-Rock was just that and cared much less about singles and these days nearly every decent musician barely skims the charts if at all.

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  • [Photo: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images]On March 3, 2013, Robyn Hitchcock will turn 60 years old and his new album Love From London will be two days away from being officially released. Though most of the living, breathing world barely knows of him, if at all, the hardcore musical elite, who honor such things as creativity, silliness, pop songs, British accents and mediocre record sales, consider Mr. Hitchcock to be an artist of considerable greatness.

    In honor of his continuing life, I though it would be touching to round up his ten best albums. It beats writing a blog about Michael Bolton!

    As always, the order could be thrown together differently in another hour. Certain choices could be moved for others at another time of year. I avoided live albums. And if you're wondering what got cut at the last minute: Respect (1993).

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  • The rule for inclusion is simple: one (1) Top 40 Pop Hit. No Alternative hits, no Adult Contemporary charts, no Country, no Jazz, no R&B, no Anglo-Saxon Hardcore, no Canadian charts. No #67 hit single, which is essentially "Big In Japan." No hits with five other supergroups where you stood in the background and made faces for the camera.

    I also don't care if you've had ten albums hit #1 on the Album Charts. That's a different level of success.

    Most importantly? No second Top 40 hit that cancels out your One-Hit Wonder Status!

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  • [Photos: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images]Anyone who's ever tried to write a song has come up against that feeling that someone else has already written it. Decades into this 'rock 'n' roll era and beyond' and it's gotten harder and harder to not snatch a melody from someone else. There are twelve notes in pop music and only four or five worth thinking about. After awhile, you rip off yourself.

    There are still plenty more examples where these came from (who knows what the future holds here at the wild and wonderful Y! Music) and I even avoided songs sampled into other songs. Now be sure to listen to these tunes and see if you can hear where the subconscious lift or outright rip-off occurs. And be sure to list your own favorite tunes that ripoff one another in the generous space provided below…

    Here's three to get us started!

    Cat Stevens may have retired the 'Cat' brand, but it doesn't stop his people from confronting other artists who infringe on one of his melodies. Eventually these folks came to terms, but I

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  • Nancy Wilson and Ann Wilson of Heart (Photo by Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic)Pardon my distinct lack of enthusiasm here, but while I understand the political reason for letting Heart into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (look -- women!), I can't get my mind around the fact that they're supremely average and if Foreigner aren't going into the Hall with their radio-friendly hits -- and the Cars have been overlooked with their better than average pop songs -- I don't see any reason to let these pleasant people in either. If it's women the Hall seeks, couldn't they go for the Runaways? And then tap Poly Styrene?

    Now, of course, I believe everyone should be in the Hall. Your band? Yep! So, it's up to me to find a couple different songs that make the argument for inclusion. I've done my job and listened through the catalog and I wrote down the ten songs they're likely most remembered for and in technical terms the music is 'eh.'

    I am not counting their performance of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," which is just fine for what it is, but covers of other people's famous songs don't make much of a case for anything but your potential gig at the corner bar.

    Read More »

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News for You

  • Woman on Trump: 'Somebody had to stand up to him'

    CHICAGO (AP) — An 87-year-old woman who alleges Donald Trump cheated her in a skyscraper-condo sale told jurors Monday she had qualms about suing the real estate mogul and TV celebrity. But, she quickly added, "Somebody had to stand up to him."

  • Germans blame euro zone crisis for Eurovision debacle

    BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans lamented their unexpectedly poor showing at the Eurovision Song Contest, blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough stance in the euro zone crisis for their failure to win any points from 34 of the 39 countries voting. Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won the event, watched by around 125 million people across Europe, with 281 points while German act Cascada was 21st out of 26 countries, getting just 18 points from Austria, Israel, Spain, Albania and Switzerland. ...

  • NY Cuomo letter warns Kardashian over T-shirt logo

    ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's sent a letter to Khloe Kardashian's (KLOH'-ee kar-DASH'-ee-uhnz) informing the reality star the logo on her T-shirt line may be violating copyright law.

  • OJ Simpson lawyers say he is closer to freedom

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — The latest high-stakes court hearing for O.J. Simpson in the glitzy capital of big gambles has come to a close with the former football star's defense team feeling confident that their client is closer to getting out of prison.

  • Swift leads, Miguel hurts fans at Billboard Awards

    Taylor Swift is red hot.

  • Prince reigns over own music releases in new deal

    LONDON (Reuters) - Singer Prince has signed a new deal with Kobalt Music Group to market and distribute his future work without giving up control over his rights, the company said on Monday. The singer-songwriter, who is famed for changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in a wrangle over musical rights, will release his own work as well as a slate of new music by other artists that he produces, Kobalt said. ...

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