Saturday, May 27, 2006

Kevin Gilbert

Been trading messages with a fellow Toy Matinee fan on MySpace. Toy Matinee was a very obscure music act in 1991, a one-album wonder with a very minor hit in Last Plane Out. I found that song when I was on WIRX in the early days, bought the album because of it, and still love the album as a top ten fave to this day.

Kevin Gilbert died ten years ago last week (clickity) and I had always heard that there was a big issue between he and Sheryl Crow, but had never heard the story.

Now I know the story, thanks to Allen: (no idea what his source is)

Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born February 11, 1962, in Kennett, MO. Her parents had both performed in swing orchestras, her father on trumpet and her mother as a singer; her mother was also a piano teacher, and ensured that all her daughters learned the instrument starting in grade school. Crow wrote her first song at age 13, and majored in music at the University of Missouri, where she also played keyboards in a cover band called Cashmere.

After graduating, she spent a couple of years in St. Louis working as a music teacher for autistic children. She sang with another cover band, P.M., by night, and also recorded local advertising jingles on the side.

In 1986, Crow packed up and moved to Los Angeles to try her luck in the music business. She was able to land some more jingle-singing assignments, and got her first big break when she successfully auditioned to be a backup singer on Michael Jackson's international Bad tour. In concert, she often sang the female duet part on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," and was inaccurately rumored by the tabloids to have been Jackson's lover.

After spending two years on the road with Jackson, Crow resumed her search for a record deal, but found that record companies were only interested in making her a dance-pop singer, which was not at all to her taste. Frustrated, Crow suffered a bout of severe depression that lasted six months. She revived her career as a session vocalist, however, and performed with the likes of Sting, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Foreigner, Joe Cocker, Sinead O'Connor, and Don Henley, the latter of whom she toured with behind The End of the Innocence.

She also developed her songwriting skills enough to have her compositions recorded by the likes of Wynonna Judd, Celine Dion, and Eric Clapton. Thanks to her session work, she made a connection with producer Hugh Padgham, who got her signed to A&M. Padgham and Crow went into the studio in 1991 to record her debut album, but Padgham's pop leanings resulted in a slick, ballad-laden record that didn't reflect the sound Crow wanted. The album was shelved, and fearing that she'd let her best opportunity slip through her fingers, Crow sank into another near-crippling depression that lingered for nearly a year and a half.

However, thanks to boyfriend Kevin Gilbert, an engineer who'd attempted to remix her ill-fated album, Crow fell in with a loose group of industry pros that included Gilbert, Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, David Ricketts, Brian MacLeod, and Dan Schwartz. Dubbed the Tuesday Night Music Club, this collective met once a week at Bottrell's Pasadena recording studio to drink, jam, and work out material. In this informal, collaborative setting, Crow was able to get her creative juices flowing again, and the group agreed to make its newest member -- the only one with a recording contract -- the focal point.

Crow and the collective worked out enough material for an album, and with Bottrell serving as producer, she recorded her new official debut, titled Tuesday Night Music Club in tribute. The record was released in August 1993 and proved slow to take off. Lead single "Run Baby Run" made little impact, and while "Leaving Las Vegas" attracted some attention through its inclusion in the acclaimed film of the same name, it reached only the lower half of the charts. A&M took one last shot by releasing "All I Wanna Do," a song partly written by poet Wyn Cooper, as a single. With its breezy, carefree outlook, "All I Wanna Do" became one of the biggest summer singles of 1994, falling just one position short of number one.

Suddenly, Tuesday Night Music Club started flying out of stores, and spawned a Top Five follow-up hit in "Strong Enough" (plus another minor single in "Can't Cry Anymore"). Crow was a big winner at the Grammys in early 1995, taking home honors for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Record of the Year (the latter two for "All I Wanna Do"). Her surprising sweep pushed Tuesday Night Music Club into the realm of genuine blockbuster, as its sales swept past the seven million mark. After close to a decade of dues-paying, Crow was a star.

Unfortunately, success came at a price. In 1994, Crow had been invited to perform "Leaving Las Vegas" on Late Night With David Letterman. In a brief interview segment, Letterman asked if the song was autobiographical, and Crow offhandedly agreed that it was. In actuality, the song was mostly written by David Baerwald, based on the book by his good friend John O'Brien (which had also inspired the film).

Having been burned by the industry already, some of the Tuesday Night Music Club took Crow's comment as a refusal to give proper credit for their contributions. Baerwald in particular felt betrayed, and things only got worse when O'Brien committed suicide not long after Crow's Letterman appearance.

Although O'Brien's family stepped forward to affirm that Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, the rift with Baerwald was already irreparable. Some Club members bitterly charged that Crow's role in the collaborative process was rather small, and that the talent on display actually had little to do with her.

Tragedy struck again in 1996 when Crow's ex-boyfriend, Kevin Gilbert, was found dead of autoerotic asphyxiation. Stung by the charges, Crow set out to prove her legitimacy with her second album when the heavy touring for Tuesday Night Music Club finally ended. Bill Bottrell was originally slated to produce the record, but fell out with Crow very early on, and the singer ended up taking over production duties herself.

Best lines so far...

...in this VH1 Hard Rocker Countdown I'm watching today:

"When we went out on tour together...good god...it was like Pirates On The Road."

- Ozzy on Motley Crue.

"We want to be that band that, if we moved in next door to you, your lawn would die."

- Lemmy from Motorhead

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

I Heart Buffy

While writing and prepping for the much discussed Wonder Woman film project, Joss Whedon has also made plans to return to his roots and reconnect with his fan base by going back to the still very popular Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe. Whedon is writing an all-new comic book mini-series for Dark Horse Comics with the first book due as early as October of this year.

It was one of the stupidest TV Shows ever. But I loved it. Every episode, even the bad ones. The crappy monster costumes. The inane storylines. The incredible annoyance around seasons 4 to 6 when she was getting laid all the time and it screwed up her character completely. The Trio.

Even only in comic form, it will be fun to see where he takes them after the destruction of Sunnydale. And Dark Horse is the perfect house to publish it.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Bentsen dies

News Alert
11:12 a.m. ET Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen Dies


Lloyd Bentsen, 85, former congressman and senator from Texas who served as President Clinton's first Treasury secretary, died Tuesday morning in Houston, his family said. Bentsen was also the Democratic 1988 vice presidential nominee.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com

Bummer.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

You go, slav.

Montenegro has narrowly voted for independence from Serbia, according to initial projected results in the country's referendum.

For more details: http://www.bbcnews.com

Saturday, May 20, 2006

"We're not going anywhere without AJ!!!"

- (quote from Bruce Willis in Armageddon)

I missed it.

Can't complain too loudly. Craigness called me as soon as it happened to let me know about it. And I had a great excuse for not watching the game: I was at Sky's first ever Cub Scout Campout, which was reat (and also my first since 1981).

A.J. is on third, bases loaded, when he makes a break for home on a pop fly that got the first out of the inning. He scores the first run after come-come-come-come-come-coming like a freight train (311) and plowing straight through Barrett, the Cubbies' catcher.

AJ leans into him a bit after he gets up (AJ claims he was trying to walk around him to get to his helmet. Barrett allegedly says "I didn;t even have the ball, bitch" while he arm-hugs him...and then sucker-punches AJ out of nowhere.

Benches clear.

Bullpens clear.

Game delayed for 15 minutes while they sort it out. Two Cubs, Two Sox booted.


AJ was one of them. In essence, it appears he was kicked out of the game for being punched in the face unexpectedly. But it didn't seem to hurt matters much: Sox 7, Cubs 0.

Four of those runs were batted in by Iguchi, two batters after the melee. A Grand Slam that no one will probably remember, given what preceeded it.

Nats won today too, so I'm 2-0 on the day. And Atlanta is getting spanked 13-0 by the Diamondbacks right now. My baseball day could only have been better if Detroit and the YankMees were to lose. I know NYY won, but I haven't heard about the Kitties yet.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Lovely spaaam...wonderful spam spaaaammm...

Among the names found today in my spam inbox:
  • Powowwing T. Redrawing
  • Beck Shoemaker
  • Linesman Q. Chowing
  • Merlin Coffman
  • Cecile C. Hatchet
  • Piebald F. Disqualified

Who the hell generates these, anyway?

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Weird week

Very little sleep. Difficult schedule to nap in. No energy to do much.

Yet, I've been busy. And busy is good, even if it's pointless from time to time.

Watching Edmonton and San Jose in the Cup Playoffs. I heard a rumble that the Canadian National Anthem was booed at the last game, in SJ.

God bless hockey. And the strange rage it brings to the little blue marble of the world.

Which reminds me: as show prep for the Morning Drive tomorrow (so I can sound like I know what I'm talking about)...I watched American Idol tonight. We always talk about it on the morning show...because our audience cares about it.

Some thoughts:
  • It's an hour-long commercial.
  • None of these people can sing all that well.
  • Paula Abdul is either drunk, stoned, or a sophisticated sex robot made from recycled plastic.
  • By not watching America's TV Crack...I am missing...NOTHING.
  • I will now assume the role (for these last few episodes) of Person Who Hates It For A Better Reason. SHould make for good phones.
  • I will not be acting in that role. At all.

Gonna try and sleep now. I finally dove back into the novel after more than three weeks. Fixed C10 to my satisfaction, progress can resume, and C10 is finished.

The cable guy spent 5 hours fixing our service tonight. That's right. Five.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Mighty Pete, Painful Feet

It would be great to see him come back from the proceedures and be twice the player he was this season. And it would be sweeter if he were still an Av. But I can root for him in Philly. The flyers are the only team in that city that doesn't annoy the living crap out of me. And Pete will always be my favorite player, period.

But...damn:

"Not only do they have to tighten the tendons," Forsberg said, "my feet are crooked and they'll have to go in and crack the bones in my feet."

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's navy says at least 45 people died when Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a naval convoy, and government forces are retaliating.

For more details:
http://www.bbcnews.com

Yipe.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Heh.

(from The Dark Lord's Engine site)


The Mynah Birds, 1966

Doing some research for the show, and stumbled across this nugget.

It seems impossible to believe, but it really happened: for a short time in early 1966, Rick James and Neil Young were in the same band. The group, called the Mynah Birds, also included bassist Bruce Palmer, who, with Young, would go on to Buffalo Springfield shortly after the Mynah Birds split. It is difficult to determine exactly what the Mynah Birds might have sounded like, though, because although they did an album's worth of material for Motown, nothing from those sessions has ever been released.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

And don't forget folks...

...that's what you get folks...for makin' Whoopi.

This is actually a brilliant idea. She'd be perfect to kick up female numbers, so long as she was handled properly and treated well.

(AllAccess.com)


Whoopi Gets Morning Show From CC, Premiere
Whoopi
Radio is an area I have always wanted to play in
What's radio's way to reach women? CLEAR CHANNEL and PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS think it's WHOOPI GOLDBERG, and they've announced that the actress/comic will host "WAKE UP WITH WHOOPI," a new weekday morning show, starting JULY 31. The 5-9a show is being targeted at AC stations and will allow stations to insert locally-programmed music. No affiliates have been announced for the show yet.

"Radio is an area I have always wanted to play in," GOLDBERG said in a press release. "There aren't many women helming their own show. I'm thrilled to add my name to that small list because I believe that we have something to add to the morning groove."

GOLDBERG has no prior radio experience but CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO Pres./CEO JOHN HOGAN is undaunted, asserting that "WHOOPI is one of those rare artists whose appeal crosses all demographics– and she's a natural on radio. It should be no surprise that her demos have been outstanding– she's an incredibly accomplished actor, writer, producer and humanitarian. WHOOPI makes you laugh, think, question and celebrate all at the same time. She's exactly what adult contemporary radio needs for the morning drive– and we're incredibly fortunate to welcome her."

Monday, May 08, 2006

2 in :21

One of the most bizarre 3rd Periods I've seen in 16 or so years of watching Hockey.

New Jersey and Carolina, knotted at one, headed for OT. Nope. With :20.7 to go, Gomez scores for the Devs. 2-1! Wow! What incredible timing! And the energy gets yanked out of the 'Canes Faithful in the RBC Center.

:03 to go. The Hurricanes score, too. Staal with all the space in the world at the tip of the paint. It's suddenly 2-2, headed for OT. Unreal.

Why can't Colorado get back into this groove? Play with this kind of fire? WAKE UP YOU BASTARDS!!! YOU'RE PLAYING A FUCKING DISNEY MOVIE AND THEY OWN YOU!!!

And the 'Canes just won it in OT. Rasputin is alive and well...

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Nats FINALLY have a freaking owner

News Alert 12:21 p.m. ET Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Lerner Group Chosen as New Nationals Owner Formal introduction of Bethesda developer and his family as team's new owners to come today; D.C. steps up pressure on Comcast to air games.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com

Great Earthquake hits Tonga

Near the island, anyway. Tsunami Alerts in NZ and Fiji. Plus a Watch in Hawaii.