Twostepcublog

Phil Collins . That's all I get when I think of drummers of great bands that were, for better or worse, able to shed the Spinal Tap-like stigma and forge a career beyond the band's that are not Dave Grohl. In fact, without being blasphemous, I think Grohl's Foo Fighters are just as vital as Nirvana. Instead of reatreading Nirvana's primitive grunge experimentalism, Foo Fighters took the grunge grit and applied it to a melodic hard rock song structure, paving the way for bands like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin . What began as a solo project, with his all-self-performed Foo Fighters album, Grohl has now racked up five platinum albums, overpassing the number of studio albums from his former group. The fifth, In Your Honor , is a big affair, two CDs and 20 songs, with a "hard" disc and a "soft" disc. That's a lot of music, especially now in the days of I-Tunes cherry-picking and padded single discs. Fortunately, the band makes the list...

If her "Hips Don't Lie", does that mean Shakira's talking out of her ass?

I'll be back tonight with more from the Foo Fighters, Q-Tip and Dusty Springfield, but till then head on over to Crooks & Liars to watch this classic Jon Stewart segment from last night. The money shot from Samantha Bee...."Joe, we don't wanna go out with you any more!"

hattip to Tom Tomorrow's site for this. At least something from the Republican party can be used for good. The victory of Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary is a welcome lesson in the power of regular home-grown politics. Lamont won not because of any gimmicks, slogans, or scare tactics, but simply stating his platform and winning the state over. I mean coming from a 15 % to winning with 52 against an incumbent is incredible. As for Lieberman, if he would have won I would have supported him as the rightful winner of the primary. As it stands now, he is a disgrace. A disgrace not only to himself, but to the democratic process. Do you see him lamenting the defeat of Cynthia McKinney in Georgia? Asshole. (sorry for the language, he just burns me...)

Hey boys and girls, it's time again for my tunes of the week. As usual you can click on the name of the artist to hop on over to their website (you can right-click to bring up in a new window). Rodney Atkins spends a second week at the top, but Gnarls Barkley and Christina Aguilera are close behind. Big moves are seen for Panic At The Disco, Faith Hill, and Three Days Grace, while dropping off are songs by Depeche Mode and Better Than Ezra . This Wk Song/Artist (Last Week's position in parentheses) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. If You're Going Through Hell - Rodney Atkins (1) 2. Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers (2) 3. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley (4) 4. Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera (9) 5. What's Left Of Me - Nick Lachey (5) 6. Black Horse & The Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall (6) 7. The World - Brad Paisley (3) 8. Get Together - Madonna (8) 9....

Ah, Faith. The "Jan Brady" in the triumverate of country-pop crossover sirens in the 90's (with Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes ), Faith Hill suffered the same fate,seeing her country radio presence greatly diminished. After her smash album Breathe , Hill saw her next six consecutive singles miss the country top-10, which is quite a change - before that she's only missed the top 10 twice before with fourth singles from different albums. Meanwhile, in adult contemporary (read "doctor's office") radio she was still gangbusters. Her last album, Cry , was more an nod to the Sheryl Crow audience than the Reba McEntire one. It still went to #1, but more upon name recognition and new converts than her previous audience that put her in the stratosphere of female country singer sales. So does Faith continue on the soft-rock route, or opt to try to woo the country market back? Well taking more guidance from the youngest prodigy (LeAnn) than the oldest (Shania), ...

Y'know, getting a dance mix compilation without hearing it first is like a crap shoot. You don't know if you're getting a dud or a keeper till you listen a couple times, and you can't tell the longevity of what you're getting till way later. I bought The Best Of NYC Afterhours "Feel The Drums" Volume 2 for one reason: to get one song. One friggin' song. "What A Feeling" by Global Deejays to be exact. At the time the song was in the top 5 dance chart but for the life of me I couldn't find it anywhere. Needless to say, I DID find the single for it later, so now I have the album. Was it worth it? Can I listen to this a year after it was put out? Well.... For some inexplicable reason, the CD starts with a mini-mix of all the songs already mixed on here. WTF? Apparently on this series this is a standard, but for what purpose other then to appease the ADD market I have no idea. Then comes the strange "straight-dance-club" yelling int...