Top Ten: Zac Maloy Songs
Jun1
Zac Maloy was the singer for the 90s band The Nixons and is now a solo artist, writer, and producer. Here’s a listing of my favorite ten songs Zac’s been involved in.
10. Get It On from Zac’s Saturday is Gone CD.
9. Starkiss from Zac’s Yellow EP.
8. Passion from The Nixons’ Halo and Foma CDs.
7. Used To from Zac’s Saturday is Gone CD and Daughtry’s self-titled CD. Both versions are great. Daughtry’s rendition adds a new bridge that he wrote, so they’re different.. but the same. 
6. Come Back To You from David Cook’s self-titled CD. An absolutely amazing song!
5. 3 Days from Zac’s Saturday is Gone CD.
4. Early Morning Phone Call from Zac’s Life CD. Zac’s first solo hit.. great tune.
3. Perfect Day from Zac’s Life CD.
2. Sister from The Nixons’ Halo and Foma CDs. When thinking about this list, I initially had this song first.
1. Secret from The Nixons’ Six EP. Not as well-known as Sister, Secret is an amazing ballad. I would love Zac to re-record this for a solo album or EP. Zac, if you’re reading — re-record Secret!
Top Ten: Pearl Jam Songs
May0
This is a VERY difficult list to create since every Pearl Jam song is amazing in its own right.. but I’ll give it a go!
10. Brother from Ten (Redux)
9. Satan’s Ben from Vitaliogy.
8. Animal from Vs.
7. Come Back from Pearl Jam.
6. Off He Goes from No Code.
5. Yellow Ledbetter from Lost Dogs.
4. Alive from Ten.
3. Better Man from Vitalogy.
2. Daughter from Vs.
1. Even Flow from Ten.
Interestingly enough, not all albums are represented in the above list. This was very difficult to compile.. there were a lot more songs I wanted to add!
Top Ten: American Idol Contestants
May4
For quite a while now, I’ve been trying to figure out what I wanted to blog about on here since I post the family-types of things over at tomandmonica.com. So I came up with an idea to post ‘top ten’ lists.. about anything. Fun, right? Well, hey.. I think so.
For my inaugural list, I’ve decided to start out with my top ten American Idol contestants.
(10) Brooke White. Best when at the piano. I love the Carly Simon vibe.
(9) George Huff. Good ol George. His happy, genuine performances were enjoyable. I’d love to see him release a cover album of Motown standards.
(8) Jason Castro. Unique style. His recordings of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s ‘Over the Rainbow’ are awesome.
(7) Allison Iraheta. Such a great voice at such a young age. I’m anxious to hear what her album sounds like.
(6) Kris Allen. The newest idol. What I liked about him was that he never swayed from his style. He never overdid his performances.
(5) Blake Lewis. Idol’s original risk taker. His rendition of Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ was amazing.
(4) David Cook. He has that ‘it’ factor. Great voice, great presence. Very likable and humble.
(3) Carrie Underwood. Outstanding country singer with a somewhat cross-over feel to her. I have a feeling she’s going to be in the business for quite a while.
(2) Kelly Clarkson. The original. No list of this nature would be complete without her. It was really a toss-up between Kelly & Carrie, but Kelly won out since she was the first.
(1) Chris Daughtry. Best rocker to appear on the show. Monica and I saw him in Lubbock.. puts on a great show. His debut CD is one of the few CDs I can actually listen through in its entirety without skipping a track.
Yes, I’m a Band Geek
Dec0
I am a band geek.. and there’s definitely no shame in admitting that. I marched a bunch of shows throughout my seven years of marching band.
The below video is from Spring 1997.. my freshmen year at Tech. It happens to be the last light show performed under the direction of Keith Bearden and, at the time of this post’s writing, the last light show performed by the Goin’ Band. The Star Wars/Star Trek light show is one of my top two favorite shows I’ve marched.
Ah, nostalgia..
The Ten Best Songs You’ve (Probably) Never Heard
Oct0
Pearl Jam – Brother : The song that supposedly almost killed Pearl Jam. Apparently during its recording, Stone Gossard ended up not liking the riff and refused to play it causing Jeff Ament to nearly quit the band. This song isn’t commercially available in a completed format. It’s on Lost Dogs but only as an instrumental; however, a polished master found its way on to the internet last year.
Darius Rucker – Something Here : While not technically Darius Rucker’s song, it’s still damn good. It appears on Paul Sanchez’s “Between Friends” CD with guest vocalists. Darius’ vocals are simply amazing on this song. [ iTunes ]
Paulo Nutini – Last Request : Great song from the talented vocalist from Scotland. [ iTunes ]
The Nixons – Secret : Known for their hit song “Sister”, The Nixons were a highly talented band that didn’t gain the staying power they deserved. “Secret” is a ballad from their indie EP release “Six” on the Dragon Street label. The EP is long out of print, but they pop up on eBay quite frequently.
Tim Locke – Many Happy Regrets : Tim Locke is a DFW singer-songwriter extraordinaire; bands include Grand Street Cryers (disbanded), Coma Rally, Calhoun. This is simply a great song from his solo disc “Love Songs For The Very Low” that is sadly out of print.
Mother Love Bone – Man of Golden Words : Amazing song by the seminal Seattle grunge band. The song contains, in my opinion, some of Andrew Wood’s most powerful lyrics. [ iTunes ]
Slash’s Snakepit – Beggars and Hangers-On : The best song from Slash’s band. [ iTunes ]
Freddy – Defying Gravity : Made famous on Kidd Kraddick In The Morning; guy’s been through a lot professionally. Supposedly a new album is in the can awaiting a distribution deal. [ iTunes ]
Eddie Vedder – Croon Spoon : Soundtrack tune featuring a duet between Vedder and Susan Sarandon — no, really.. It’s a fun tune. [ iTunes ]
Zac Maloy – Perfect Day : My favorite song of his first solo album. Great hook and lyrics. [ iTunes ]
Cover Me
Jul4
There’s just *something* I like about cover songs and artists paying tribute to another artists. Many times cover songs are inferior versions of the originals. But here is my list of cover songs that I feel are just as good if not better than the originals:
- Garth Brooks – Fishin’ In The Dark. Orignially recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Garth’s version adds a level of enthusiasm not found on the original.
- Carrie Underwood – I’ll Stand By You. Originally recorded by The Pretenders. Carrie’s version adds emotion and a country twang to an already amazing song.
- Chris Cornell and David Cook – Bille Jean. Orginally recorded by Michael Jackson. Chris did an amazing arrangement and recording while David took Chris’s version and took it to the next level.
- Daughtry – Used To. Originally recorded by Zac Maloy. Daughtry’s version changes the original up a bit and adds a new bridge/version. I honestly cannot decide which I like better, so we’ll just call this one a tie.
- Green Day – I Fought The Law. Originally recorded by Sonny Curtis and The Crickets. Green Day’s version is simply amazing as is The Clash’s version of the song.
- Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Over The Rainbow. Originally recorded by Judy Garland. “Bruddah Iz” adds his signature Hawaiian twist to the song and does a remarkable job.
- Pearl Jam – Rockin’ In the Free World. Orignally recorded by Neil Young. Pearl Jam routinely covers this song in their live show; it can be found on many of their official bootlegs.
- Pat Green & Cory Morrow – Stuck In The Middle With You. Originally recorded by Stealers Wheel. Pat & Cory’s duet recording of this song adds a great country feel to the song.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster. Orginally recorded by The Ohio Players. RHCP’s version of the song is a thousand times better than the original.
- U2 – Instant Karma. Originally recorded by John Lennon. I’ll not say that U2’s version exceeds the original, but it’s definitely a great recording.
- David Cook – Eleanor Rigby. Originally recorded by The Beatles. David’s version (I’m not going to get into the whole Doxology stuff) is a great recording that takes the song to a new level.
- Disturbed – Land Of Confusion. Originally recorded by Genesis. Disturbed’s version transforms the song into a great rock tune.
- Boyz II Men – In The Still of The Night. Originally recorded by the Five Satins. Boyz II Men’s version is very smooth and adds a new dimension to the song due to their great harmony.
- Alanis Morissette – My Humps. Originally recorded by the Black Eyed Peas. I’m just throwing this in here because Alanis’ version is quite funny. Supposedly it was recorded as an April Fool’s Day joke in 2007. Video is available on YouTube.
American Idol > President?
May0
Supposedly, over 100 million votes were placed last night for American Idol. That’s ridiculous.
Why?
That’s almost as many votes that were cast in the 2004 US presidential election. According to Wikipedia, 122,267,553 votes were cast for president.
On another note, it’s now obvious who the judges and producers want to win this year. Archuleta sang well last night for the most part. But so did Cook.
I feel the judges were very unfair in their assessments of David Cook. For example, all along the judges have stressed being original, making songs their own, and essentially “thinking outside the box”. Apparently this doesn’t apply to the crappy winner’s song. His performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For was amazing, but I would tend to agree that he should have chose a different song than The World I Know. He performed it well, but I would have rather seen something bigger and better. I loved his little dig against Archuleta though about performing something new.
David Archuleta did exactly what he has been doing all season — he sang slow, sappy ballads. He has shown absolutely no originality, improvement, or versatility. Is that not the point of having theme weeks?
David Archuleta, if crowned the winner, will falter just like all of the other male American Idol winners. David Cook will excel and follow in Chris Daughtry’s footsteps.
Maybe Idol producers will fix the show in time for season eight.
Fixing American Idol
May3
No, I am not saying American Idol is fixed. There are so many conspiracy theories out there concerning the outcome of American Idol, and this is not going to be one of them. What this will be, however, is my thoughts on how to “fix” the show and regain the ratings it has lost this year.
- Limit the number of votes from a single source. In other words, one telephone vote per phone number and one text message vote per mobile phone. Once the lines close, rank the contestants in numerical order based on the totals.
- Make Simon, Randy, and Paula part of the rankings. In my opinion, Randy and Simon are usually spot-on with their evaluations. Paula is, well, Paula. Require each judge to rank the contestants each week.
- Selling the studio recordings on iTunes this year was genius. Take those sales into account. Again, rank each contestant based on sales. This would require more than 24 hours between the performance and results shows. Additionally, it would require the studio singles being released immediately following the performance show. Why do this? Simple. The ‘tweens’ texting 42,983 times for their favorite contestant will not necessarily translate to album sales. Incorporating sales figures will provide an actual indicator of which contestants truly are selling records.
- Theme weeks can be killer. You can’t make a rock singer sing great Broadway or Mariah Carey. Sure, David Cook somehow pulled it off and truly showed his versatility. That is not the norm though. The goal of American Idol is to find the ‘next big star’ — and there is no way David Cook would attempt to put out an album of Broadway hits. This week’s theme though (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) was perfect. It allowed the contestants to pick, from a wide variety of songs, two songs that ideally fit them. Eliminating the superfluous themes will better allow the public to see the true artist and what kind of album they would record.
There is one final change that would legitimize the show again — publish all rankings, vote totals, sales figures, etc.
As for this year’s show, it will definitely be a David vs. David finale. Let’s just hope that David Cook is victorious.