New CD Releases, Oct. 6: KISS, Backstreet Boys, Michael Buble, Toby Keith, Brandi Carlile, Rosanne Cash, and more
KISS "Sonic Boom" (Universal/Roadrunner)
Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees KISS return with their first new studio album in more than a decade, which band co-founder/vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley produced. Stanley's edict to the group: no outside songwriters, no outside performers.
The result is 11 tracks written and performed by Stanley and fellow KISS co-founder Gene Simmons (bass/vocals), along with Eric Singer (drums/vocals) and Tommy Thayer (guitar/vocals).
"Sonic Boom" marks the first KISS album to feature the combo of Singer (who played and recorded with the band during its non-makeup era) and Thayer, both of whom, in recent years have been touring with KISS clad in the makeup and costumes made famous by original KISS members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, respectively. Each takes a turn on lead vocals on the new album.
Billed as a return to the group's classic, '70s-era sound, "Sonic Boom" features cover art created by Michael Doret, who worked with the band on its landmark 1976 album "Rock and Roll Over." The new set will be available exclusively at Walmart, and packaged with a bonus disc featuring re-recorded hits, as well as a live, six-song DVD recorded earlier this year.
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Backstreet Boys "This is Us" (Jive)
The pop troupe bounces back into action with its seventh studio album. "This is Us" follows 2007's "Unbreakable," which was the group's first new album since original member Kevin Richardson left the fold in 2006.
The 11-track album features new material that the vocal troupe collaborated on alongside songwriters and producers like T-Pain, RedOne and Claude Kelly.
The quartet--which consists of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean--will support "This is Us" with a major world tour. The European portion has already been announced, and North American dates should soon follow.
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Michael Buble "Crazy Love" (Reprise)
The platinum-selling pop vocalist returns with his fourth studio album, and the follow-up to the Grammy-winning "Call Me Irresponsible," which topped The Billboard 200 in 2007.
"Crazy in Love" pulls strongly from the Great American Songbook; 11 of the album's 13 tracks are standards. Selections include "Cry Me A River," "Georgia On My Mind," "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" and "Baby (You've Got What It Takes)." "Crazy in Love" also features two new original compositions.
The first single is "Haven't Met You Yet," which was co-written with Alan Chang and Amy Foster. The album was recorded in LA, Brooklyn and Vancouver with the help of producers David Foster, Bob Rock and Humberto Gatica.
Originally scheduled for release on Oct. 13, the album will now hit stores on Oct. 9.
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Toby Keith "American Ride" (Show Dog Nashville)
The country superstar is set to take fans for an "American Ride," which follows last year's "That Don't Make Me a Bad Guy." "American Ride" is Keith's 14th studio album.
The album's lead single is its title track, which has already topped the charts, becoming Keith's 19th No. 1 hit. The most unexpected number on the set is "Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)." The song is a tribute to the basketball-star-turned-smooth-jazz-artist Wayman Tisdale, who died back in May. "Cryin' For Me (Wayman's Song)" features smooth-jazz players Dave Koz and Marcus Miller.
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Brandi Carlile "Give Up the Ghost" (Sony)
The roots-oriented singer/songwriter, whose bluesy vocal approach has led to numerous comparisons to Bonnie Raitt, is back with her third studio album.
"Give Up the Ghost" follows her breakthrough effort, 2007's "The Story."
She worked with T Bone Burnett on "The Story," and turned to another legendary producer--Rick Rubin--for "Give Up the Ghost." The 11-song set includes the track "Caroline," a collaboration with Elton John.
Carlile is supporting "Give Up the Ghost" on the road during an in-progress tour that is currently set to stretch through an Oct. 24 show in Seattle.
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Rosanne Cash "The List" (Manhattan)
The acclaimed country singer/songwriter receives plenty of help from her famous friends on her latest album. The guests that make "The List" are Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) and Rufus Wainwright.
Cash, who is the eldest daughter of dearly departed country music legend Johnny Cash, goes the cover-song route with "The List." The tracklisting includes her renditions of songs by The Carter Family ("Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow"), Hank Williams ("Take These Chains From My Heart"), Jimmie Rodgers ("Miss The Mississippi and You"), Hank Cochran/Patsy Cline ("She's Got You"), Merle Haggard ("Silver Wings") and Bob Dylan ("Girl From the North Country," recorded by Dylan and Johnny Cash in 1969).
Grammy-winner John Leventhal (Cash's husband, who also contributes guitar work throughout), produced, arranged and played guitar on "The List."
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More new releases:
Above & Beyond, Anjunabeats 7 (Ultra)
Air, "Love 2" (Astralwerks)
Luke Bryan, "Doin' My Thing" (Capitol)
Built to Spill, "There Is No Enemy" (Reprise)
DJ Tiesto, "Kaleidoscope" (Ultra)
Mike Doughty, "Sad Man Happy Man" (ATO)
Duran Duran, "Live at Hammersmith 82" (Capitol)
Lita Ford, "Wicked Wonderland" (JLRG)
Irish Tenors, "The Irish Tenors Christmas" (Razor & Tie)
Michael Jackson, "In Memory of Michael Jackson: 1958-2009" (IMV)
Relient K, "Forget and Not Slow Down" (Jive)
Tokio Hotel, "Humanoid" (Cherrytree)
Various artists, "WOW Hits 2010" (EMI)
BeBe and CeCe Winans, "Still" (Malaco)
The Couch Potato Report - October 3rd, 2009
This week The Couch Potato Report peels releases that will take us all the way from Victoria Day to Christmas.
Let's get in the wayback machine to start this week's Report, destination 1988.
Specifically Victoria Day 1988 in Toronto.
For Ben Spector, a smart, sensitive hockey playing kid from a Russian immigrant family, the end of school is in sight, and the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers are underway.
Ben runs into a teammate at a concert and lends him five dollars to buy some drugs.
And then...the teammate disappears...and Ben is conflicted because he starts to fall for the missing boy's sister.
VICTORIA DAY is partially based on the book "Natasha and Other Stories" that was part of CBC Radio's Canada Reads back in 2007.
It is a film about three friends, hockey and being a teenager, and while the ending wasn't as strong as the rest of it, this is a good little movie.
If you see it on the shelf at the store, give it a shot.
From a small Canadian film set in Toronto, let me now tell you about a small Hollywood film that is partially set in Montreal.
John Krasinski - who plays Jim on THE OFFICE and Maya Rudolph from Saturday night live star in AWAY WE GO.
They play an expectant couple with no fixed address who decide to travel around North America, visiting family and friends, to try and decide where to live in order to start their family.
Simply put, they are looking for a place to call home.
AWAY WE GO was directed by Sam Mendes - who also gave us the Academy Award winning film American Beauty (1999), along with Road to Perdition (2002) and last year's Revolutionary Road. And in a stroke of genius his supporting cast includes Allison Janney from THE WEST WING, Maggie Gyllenhaal of THE DARK KNIGHT, DUMB AND DUMBER'S Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara, from SCTV.
AWAY WE GO is funny, touching, goofy, poignant, beautiful, filled with interesting characters, and it is a movie about hope. I loved it.
This one might even make my list of the year's Ten Best!
On the other hand...MANAGEMENT will not.
This one is the latest Romantic-Comedy-With-A-Touch-Of-Drama-Thrown-In-For-Good-Measure release starring Jennifer Anniston.
And while it isn't as bad as her most recent release - LOVE HAPPENS - it isn't great either.
In addition to Anniston, MANAGEMENT also stars Steve Zahn, who has appeared over the years in supporting roles in some pretty successful films, like Sahara, Daddy Day Care, You've Got Mail and Out of Sight.
He plays a motel night manager who falls for a traveling art saleswoman.
She sort of falls for him too.
Now, with a different cast, this could have been a very entertaining film. As it is, MANAGEMENT is not awful, but I felt no emotional connection to it, and that is rare when it comes to a Romantic-Comedy-With-A-Touch-Of-Drama-Thrown-In-For-Good-Measure film.
Call this an okay rental, if you like those sorts of films.
Okay...it's question time...imagine you are married to a woman and you have a young child together. Then, one morning, she is arrested for murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
How far would you be willing to go, to defend her, or maybe set her free?
How far would you be willing to go for her?
Well, that is the premise of a film from France called POUR ELLE...FOR HER.
FOR HER is a very good movie that allows the viewer to decide what is right and what is wrong in the story because it doesn't always offer up the answers.
This is the type of film that you'll talk about after it is over.
I like those kinds of films!
I also like heist movies!
From A Fish Called Wanda, Die Hard, Reservoir Dogs, Bottle Rocket, Catch Me If You Can and Fun with Dick and Jane to The Great Muppet Caper, Heat, Hudson Hawk, The Italian Job, Jackie Brown and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels I love heist movies.
And I haven't even mentioned, Ocean's Eleven, Quick Change, The Sting, or The Thomas Crown Affair...but I love them too!!
However, not every heist film belongs in a list with those ones.
They are not all good...and that is definitely true with the British film TUESDAY.
I do love to see these films, good and bad, so I have no regrets about sitting through it...but you might want to skip it...unless you love all sorts of heist films as well.
TUESDAY is about four experienced criminals, two beautiful bank clerks and one desperate penniless man nearing retirement who all - by coincidence - decide to rob the same bank on the same day.
And while I like the genre, and the cast of the film itself, the movie has no energy. And for a heist film to have no energy, that is saying something.
What I am saying is that I remain a fan of heist movies, and the day of the week itself, but the film TUESDAY left me cold.
And you know what, so did THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. This is the latest film from Academy Award winning director Steven Soderburgh, a man who gave us a great heist film with his OCEAN'S 11, and if it wasn't for his name on this film, I probably wouldn't have watched it, and - in all honesty - it probably wouldn't even have gotten made.
Sasha Grey - who in her everyday job is an adult film actress - stars in this movie as a high-end call-girl in Manhattan who is trying to meet the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work.
At times, I admit, it is interesting and engaging as the non-linear storyline bounces all around, but in the end, there is no story told in this film. It isn't really even about anything, and it is barely about anyone, despite the fact that it has a large cast.
So, to sum up...THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE is a film that you should skip.
Okay, I have nothing but positive things to say about the final four releases I have for you now. Maestro, a little music if you please!
In June 1979, Pete Townshend gave a solo acoustic performance at Amnesty Internationals Secret Policeman's Ball benefit show in London, inspiring Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Sting, Bob Geldof, Phil Collins and many others to perform for Amnesty over the following years.
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of that historic first show, there is now a one-hour collection of the musical highlights from three decades of Secret Policemans Ball shows.
Pinball Wizard, In the Air Tonight, Running Up That Hill, Imagine performed by Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins, On The Turning Away, I Don't Like Mondays, Message In A Bottle, Won't Get Fooled Again, Biko and I Shall Be Released make SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALLS: THE SECRET POLICEMAN ROCKS! a must have, if you like the music of the 70s and 80s.
This is great stuff!!
Okay, on many, many occasions here on The Couch Potato Report I have pledged my ongoing allegience to and love of Jim Henson and The Muppets.
That is why, last December 17th, I sat in front of my television to watch the holiday special - A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS: LETTERS TO SANTA.
And - as you might expect - I loved it!!
If you like The Muppets, you can't go wrong with this one as the gang try and deliver some late letters to the North Pole on Christmas Eve...if you don't, then A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS: LETTERS TO SANTA isn't for you...and thats okay, because I loved it!!
Hee hee hee!!
In the early 1980s, after the success of The Muppet Show on TV and THE MUPPET MOVIE in theatres, Jim Henson started to branch out and make a couple of different kind of films...and THE DARK CRYSTAL and LABYRINTH are both available on Blu-ray.
Both films have their flaws, but if you follow - or followed Henson's career path they both completely fit within his body of work as he streched the limits of possibilities to see where his imagination could take him...and us.
Especially in THE DARK CRYSTAL.
If you were not a fan of Him Henson's fantasy films when they first came out, these movies might not appeal to you now...although they have continued to grow on me over the years.
I both respect and admire them, and THE BLU-RAY BEACON this week shines on THE DARK CRYSTAL and LABYRINTH, which co-stars David Bowie and a very young Jennifer Connely.
The Jim Henson films LABYRINTH and THE DARK CRYSTAL are both available now in High Definition on Blu-ray, along with THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, MANAGEMENT and AWAY WE GO.
TUESDAY, FOR HER, VICTORIA DAY and SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALLS: THE SECRET POLICEMAN ROCKS! are all available now only on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
It has been seven years since the success of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING and now the latest film from Winnipeg born Nia Vardalos actually takes us to Greece.
We'll head there cinematically and I'll tell you about MY LIFE IN RUINS
Also next week, DEGRASSI GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, and THE BROTHERS BLOOM
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!
Dad's list turns into Rosanne Cash's disc
NEW YORK – Make no mistake, Rosanne Cash fully understands the value of the sheet of yellow lined paper her father handed to her one summer day in 1973. Now she's giving the world a peek.
Back then, she was 18, just graduated from high school, a daughter of divorce eager to spend time with her dad and learn the family business. She tagged along on a concert tour and talked music during the long bus rides. When Johnny Cash grew alarmed at the songs Rosanne didn't know, he sat down with a pad and pen.
What he produced was a syllabus worthy of a master professor: Johnny Cash's list of the "100 Essential Country Songs."
Twelve of those songs make up "The List," Cash's new CD. Her first covers album includes duets with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright.
Cash had put the list away after learning many of the songs. She had her own path to forge. It was forgotten in a box of memorabilia until she happened upon it late in 2005 while writing narrative portions of her "Black Cadillac" stage show. She talked about it during the concerts and fans would inevitably ask when she was going to record the songs. Her husband, music producer and guitarist John Leventhal, no doubt smiled.
"My husband has been telling me for 17 years, `Your voice is really well-suited to these songs,' and I would go, `I'm a songwriter, I'm a songwriter," she said. "Well, it turns out my voice really is well-suited to these songs."
The disc showcases some of the best singing in Cash's career, as she faces the challenge of carrying melodies other than her own and putting her stamp on songs already well known. The often spare arrangements also emphasize Leventhal's guitar.
Cash begins with "Miss the Mississippi and You," which the father of country music, Jimmie Rodgers, recorded in 1932. She ends with the Carter Family's "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow," which always reminds Cash of her step-aunt Helen Carter, who taught her the guitar.
The disc's emotional centerpiece is the heartbreak trio of "Long Black Veil," a duet with Wilco's Tweedy on a prisoner's tale best known through Johnny Cash's version; the Patsy Cline hit "She's Got You"; and Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country," a composition that first intimidated Cash because she remembered her father singing it with Dylan on television.
Recording meant finding the songs' emotional core. "It's like going through tunnels and layers," she said.
The songs are some of the things that connect father and daughter and, Rosanne believed, it was time to claim the legacy.
"I don't have that young person's feeling of trying to get away from my ancestry and parents and what they passed on," she said. "In fact, I want to embrace it, so I can show it and pass it along to my own (five) kids. It's just unseemly at my age (54) to be doing that kind of `chip on your shoulder' rebellion."
Besides the personal connection, it's important to keep the songs alive, she said.
"Can you imagine America without this music?" she said. "It's who we are, culturally. It's as important as the Civil War, these songs. Personally, I would hate to see them become something you just visit at a museum. I think they are living and breathing and part of our cultural legacy."
"The List" is probably part of Cash's grieving process, said Jay Orr, historian for the Country Music Hall of Fame. He recalled the Everly Brothers putting out an album, "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us," during the peak of their success.
"The songs benefit from being dusted off and shared again in new arrangements that are contemporary and appealing," Orr said.
She's often thought about how the list would be different if her father had compiled it closer to his death in 2003. George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today" would probably be on it. He loved Springsteen's "Nebraska" album and would likely have included one of those songs. Her father wasn't so modest as to leave his own material off the list, but you'll have to guess what it is.
Cash has also recorded a couple of extras: a duet with Neko Case on Porter Wagoner's "Satisfied Mind" will be available on iTunes. Mickey Newbury's "Sweet Memories" is another promotional item.
That makes 14. She noted "This Land is Your Land" is on the list, revealing a song that she didn't want to record because it's so well known.
So what about the other 85?
Sorry.
How much has she been offered to reveal it? "A lot," Cash said with a laugh. She's already thinking about a second volume of "The List." Why give anyone the chance to beat her to it?
"I like having it as my own," she said. "It's like a martial arts secret."
Suspect's lawyer says Letterman 'manipulates'
NEW YORK – The defense lawyer for the CBS News producer charged with trying to extort $2 million from David Letterman is calling the talk-show host "a master at manipulating audiences."
Attorney Gerald Shargel defended Robert J. "Joe" Halderman on Monday during a round of interviews on network television morning shows.
Shargel says the charge against his client is "so obviously out of character to the point of not making any sense."
He says that Letterman manipulates audiences for a living and that to think he "gave the entire story and there's nothing more to be said is simply wrong."
Halderman is a producer for the true-crime show "48 Hours Mystery." He pleaded not guilty Friday in Manhattan to attempted first-degree grand larceny.
Shargel says he's looking forward to cross-examining Letterman.
Tarantino to 'Kill Bill' again
Quentin Tarantino has thrilled fans by announcing a third instalment of his Kill Bill series is due in 2014.
The filmmaker's hit movies Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, starring Uma Thurman, were released in 2003 and 2004, earning more than $332 million worldwide and leaving fans clamouring for more.
The director declared a follow-up is in the pipeline, with an expected release date of 2014, on Saturday while appearing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico.
The proposed Kill Bill: Vol. 3 will be set 10 years after the last instalment to allow Thurman's character, The Bride, to "have a break" from her bloody revenge mission.
New Winnie-the-Pooh book goes on sale
LONDON (AFP) – A new book of Winnie-the-Pooh stories -- the first to be published in 81 years -- went on sale on Monday, featuring a new character alongside the absent-minded, honey-loving bear.
"Return to the Hundred Acre Wood" is a collection of 10 new stories featuring Pooh and his three friends Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore, and is the first to be published since 1928 when "The House At Pooh Corner" was released.
The tales of Winnie-the-Pooh, which were originally created by British author A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard, have been translated into 50 languages around the world.
The characters have also featured in Disney cartoons and a wide range of spin-off merchandising for children.
The characters were based on toys owned by Milne's son, Christopher Robin, and the stories take place in the Hundred Acre Wood, which was based on a forest near the author's home in East Sussex, southern England.
Written by author David Benedictus and illustrator Mark Burgess, the new book was approved by the Trustees of the Pooh Properties and is published by Egremont.
Pooh's new friend Lottie the Otter is described by the publishers as "a feisty character who is bound to cause a stir in the Hundred Acre Wood."
"Lottie has her own very definite ideas about how things should be done. She believes that one must always follow the correct etiquette," said Benedictus, who says she embodies Pooh's values of "friendship and adventure."
"Arrested Development" movie script in works
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Narrator: Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything ... and just may get some of it back.
"Arrested Development" creator Mitchell Hurwitz and his co-executive producer James Vallely are working on a screenplay for the long-debated feature version of their short-lived Fox series. Even as they prep a new Fox comedy series with "Arrested" star Will Arnett, the writers are spinning more bizarre encounters for the eccentric, spoiled Bluth clan for possible feature production in the spring.
Hurwitz would also direct the Fox Searchlight feature.
Hurwitz had said that he wouldn't start writing a film unless all the main actors, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Portia de Rossi and Jeffrey Tambor, were committed. Scheduling might be difficult, however, as several -- Bateman, Cera and Arnett -- have seen their careers bloom since the series began its three-season run in 2003.
Hurwitz and Vallely won Emmys for their writing on "Arrested Development." They work together on the animated Fox comedy "Sit Down, Shut Up."