Today in music history: 2000

Today, we go back to 2000, and find:



"Incomplete" by Sisqo.

I would comment on this song, but I was terribly distracted by his bacon pants.  I would like some bacon pants, please!

What did you think of this one?

Previously in 2000:

Bent

Everything You Want

Maria Maria

Today in music history: 1985

Today, we look back to 1985, and find:



"The Power of Love" by Hewey Lewis and the News.

 So I think this is from Back to the Future, but I don't remember it in there.  The song itself it a bit meh, and the video pretty much sucks, it's very boring.

What did you think of this one?

Previously in 1985:

A View to Kill

Don't You(Forget About Me)

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Everything She Wants

Every Time You Go Away
Heaven

Sussudio

We Are The World

Why you shouldn't mess with people's facebook page...

Today in music history: 1987

Today, we go back to 1987, and find:


"Who's That Girl" by Madonna

Well, that was quite possibly the most boring Madonna song I've ever heard.  The backing track was boring, the melody was boring, and the lack of music video didn't help, either.

What did you think of this one?

Previously in 1987:

Alone

Always

Head to Toe

(I just) Died in Your Arms Tonight

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Shakedown

With or Without You

You Keep Me Hangin' On

Today in music history:1993

 Today, we look back to 1993, and find:



"Can't Help Falling in Love With You" by UB40

I vaguely remember this remake of Elvis' classic, and it's pretty fun for a remake. 

A little jazziness, a bit of a Caribbean beat, and this is a solid entry as a number one song.

What did you think?

Previously in 1993:

Informer

That's the Way Love Goes

Weak

AGT:8/15 Youtube Results

Well, that was about as painful as you might expect. 

Let’s get right to this thing, since the inbetween bits were annoying and overly long.

First out were Cast in Bronze, Reverse Order, and Academy of Villains.  This episode was so very anti-climactic that they didn’t even bother to drag out the fact that Academy of Villains are through.

We then moved to 7 in Unison, Bria Kelly, and Rudy Cody. I guess the producers thought this one might be a bit more uncertain, and it was dragged out for a while.  But in the end, Bria Kelly made it through, as expected.

Third, we had The Magic of Puck, Eric Buss, and Melinda Hill.  Again, we had a complete lack of suspense, but that didn’t stop the producers from dragging it out as long as humanly possible.  Of course, Puck made it through in the end, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Finally, we had Clint Carvalho, Drew Erwin, and Romeo Dance Cheetah.  Romeo was sent packing almost immediately, and good riddance.  What an annoying act and person.  He tried to milk his minute of fame, but Nick literally kicked his butt off stage.  With only Clint and Drew left, it was up to the judges.  Howard, after a long and drawn out don’t give up kid speech, gave it to Clint.  And then, so did Sharon, because…animals, maybe?  Whatever the case was that sent Drew packing also borked my shoulds and wills, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

We got a sneak peek at the wildcards, and there were a couple of surprises.  Male soprano guy is back, along with Horse, and the comedy magicians.  Energetic dancer girl will try again along with the dance troop that shall not be named.  I also think I saw the crossbow guy and the dog ventriloquist.  Sebastian and Spencer Horseman also get to try once more. Cristin who fell on his pipes and the gay lounge singer are back, along with one other group that I cannot for the life of me remember.  It should be a decent show next week, with more than four acts that should go on.

Finally, my record for these semis:

My shoulds are at 14/20, while my wills are at 15/20.  I don’t think I have gotten it 100% right in any of the weeks,  but I’m still doing pretty good, I think.

AGT: 8/14 YouTube Episode

Well, that was a thing.  An episode full of horse hooey, with only a bit of goodness thrown in as an afterthought.

None of the acts were really ready to be on the stage like this, they all really could have used a second look before tonight.

But anyway, let’s get on with this thing.

Clint Carvalho and his extreme parrots were laughable.  This guy called his parrot over a walky-talky, and, after the slow assistant finally let the bird out of the cage, it flew to him.  And that was his act.  In my notes, I have “that was lame.”  Really, that’s about all I can say about it.  I’ve seen more impressive birds at the zoo bird show.

Reverse Order, a boy band that thought they could be all punk and whatnot, couldn’t.  They sang Katy Perry for God’s sake!  I’m not really sure if they got the point of the song, either…I Kissed a Girl is not so scandalous when you’re a boy singing middlingly to poorly.  On the plus side, they were decent instrumentalists, so they have that.

If you are going to claim a friendship with Marilyn Manson, as magician Rudy Coby did, you really need to step up the weird, make it crazy.  He did not.  The dancing puppet was cheap looking, the switch was obvious, and the middle section dragged on for approximately ten years, which is amazing considering they get 90 seconds.  If it takes you that long to change costumes, you’re doing it wrong.

7 in Unison is another teen dance crew.  Their routine was boring, small, and too slow for the big stage.  It was also a bit squicky, these girls were dancing “sexily” to Fever, and their bodies were not sexy.  That’s not to say they looked bad, but their bodies were too juvenile for this act to stick.

Drew Erwin was a very smiley boy.  Too bad he sang Torn, which is not a song you should sing while grinning the whole time. “I’m cold and I am shamed, lying naked on the floor” does not make me think of puppies and rainbows, is what I’m saying.  His voice was decent to good, but he did the cardinal sin of gender changing the lyrics.  I HATE HATE HATE it when people do that.  If you are so uncomfortable with the original version of the song, maybe you shouldn’t be singing it in the first place.

Melinda Hill had a good start.  Her first couple of jokes were good, even with the terribly stilted delivery.  But it all went downhill from there.  The stiltedness became even more pronounced, and she was snickering at her own jokes, which tells me she didn’t have someone look over it for her, helping her with the editing and whatnot, which was clearly needed.

Next, we had a kids show performer, Eric Buss.  He set off snakes in a can to classical music in tails.  It was about as dumb as it sounds.  I don’t actually know if he is a kid’s show performer, but that’s probably where he should go, if he’s not there already.

Romeo Dance Cheetah…no.  just no.

Puck is a cruise ship magician, and it shows.  He did an intimate act that I’m sure plays well on a ship, but it was really too small for the AGT stage.  He was the first glimmer tonight, though, and the trick was neat, if slightly obvious.

Bria Kelly sang to the audience that I know puts through most of the votes. She sang a country song, and really got overpowered by the production.  The flashing lights and moving band really took the attention off of her, which was too bad, because I think her voice was decent.

Cast in Bronze is a kook, plain and simple.  He played bells, poorly, and in a crazy shroud/mask combo that was really off-putting.  I still haven’t figured out why he went with Christmas music in August, that was the fourth or fifth strangest thing about his act.

Finally, we had Academy of Villains, who performed well, comparatively speaking.  Assuming they get through, they will be crying for a different reason in the semi’s, when they are thoroughly stomped by the five or six other dance crews that are superior to them.

And that was the whole show, a lot of cannon fodder for the semi-finals, which none of the four acts through tonight are making it past.  Next week we have judge’s choice, so probably another week full of acts that have no right moving on again.  Lame.

My shoulds and wills are the same this week, so I’ll just list them out together:

Academy of Villains

Bria Kelly

Puck

Drew Erwin

Tune in tomorrow to see how I did!

Today in music history: 1992

Today, we look back to 1992, and find:



"End of the Road" by Boyz II Men

Oh man, I loved Boyz II Men.  This is a fantastic representation of their style.  Really smooth, nice harmonies, and random sing talking in the middle of it.

What do you remember about this one?


Previously in 1992:

Baby Got Back

I'll Be There

Jump Jump

Bunheads(S1E9)-No One Takes Khaleesi's Dragons!

Before we get into the recap proper, a quick video recap of the two missed episodes:

And now, the recap proper:

So we open on Michelle waiting in a line, which we soon discover is for coffee.  The barista had apparently been off winning contests instead of, you know, running a business, and thus that is the reason Michelle had yet to hear of him. 

Anyway, we get to the counter, and it’s KURT!  Looking fairly ridiculous in a goatee/soulpatch hybrid that makes it look like a caterpillar is trying to swallow his chin whole.  He’s a terribly pretentious barista, taking upwards of ten minutes to make one cup of coffee…even J. Arthur’s does better than that.

Now Michelle has her coffee place, and we can move on, because that seriously took like, five minutes of show time, and I am over the coffee guy already.

Sasha is still in her little rebellious thing, and has joined the cheer squad with their ugly orange uniforms and mediocrity to achieve uniformity.  Oh, the analogies I could pull if this were a political post…

Due to Sasha’s abrupt temper tantrum/storm off, Fanny has to find new leads for all her shows, and is running every single dancer ragged…for one lesson, and then Fanny disappears from the episode.

Boo is practicing with Carl on their Ginger Rogers/Fred Astair dance, until they find out that the supermarket opening it was for has been cancelled due to overzealous zoning technicalities.  Michelle can’t have this, and goes around tricking the entire town into coming to a town meeting(yes, they went there) in order to overturn the zoning decision.

Of course, Michelle, being Michelle, insults just about everyone in the room, and the supermarket stays closed down.  This is immediately followed by awkward sexual tension between Michelle and Oyster Bar Godot, which Michelle shoots down right away.  It was terribly creepy and gross, but they appear to be continuing it in the next episode, and I have to say, Godot is no Luke, that is for sure.

And then:  Boo and Carl kiss.  Carl, her too-sort dance partner that the other two have been teasing for the last two episodes.  Carl, that Boo likes, and then completely dissed when the other two came into the room and starting talking about Charlie, Boo’s former crush, and Ginny’s current crush.  Carl stalks out of the room when Boo goes on about how Ginny can’t date the guy she likes.  Present.  It was about as subtle as it sounds.

So, to end the episode, Michelle talks to Sasha, and tells her not to make a huge mistake, ie, quitting dance.  They then make fun of cheerleading again, some more. “Did they learn to jump in an incredibly short room?”

Finally, Michelle gets a coffee maker, as a gift sitting on her porch.  Why she couldn’t have gotten one herself earlier, and saved the trouble of the weird Sean Gunn character, we’ll never know.  But I think the show if finally getting around to what we expected from the first episode, which is really about five or six episodes too long.

Anyway, it was a fun episode, even if the story was very strange.  Next week, we have the summer finale, so hopefully we get some movement on the story front there.

Nice!