Follow me on Twitter @thescreendoor

I often get a lot of emails asking me if I am on Twitter and since I don't use my name, just wanted to inform everyone that I am indeed on Twitter.

You can find me at:

@thescreendoor

Or go here and just click "follow"...

Simon Says (American Idol Commentary)

I've never been a fan of American Idol. That being said, it makes for some rather fascinating television and occasionally births a star whose talent is worthy of the attention (see my review of Kelly Clarkson's show from 2009). That being said, I find the premise of the show a tad ludicrous, where they try and find someone with great pipes. My issue with it is that Bob Dylan, Axl Rose, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and dozens of  other acts never would have made it to the first round.

Which brings up a question we all  have to ask:

Do you want to be an artist or a celebrity?

If you truly want to be an artist, go out there, play the coffee houses and clubs and see if you can break through. If you win American Idol it's  unlikely you will choose the path you want, but be a puppet for corporate big wigs.

I guess my annoyance with the season premiere were all these people crying saying "My family needs this!". Look, my family needs it too...but you stand a better chance of winning the lotto than making it all the way to the finals. It just seems to me that instead of singing and finding a way to express yourself has taken a backseat to making a lot of money. While the paydays for American Idol winners isn't bad, it's not long term and it's unlikely to change you unless you really are motivated. With each passing year the shows seems to highlight the surreal and cruel more so than the talent. In the end, no one will remember it a few years from now. Look at Lee DeWyze; he had over 40-million people vote for him and his debut album has barely shifted 100,000 copies. Are you really going to sit there and tell me it's still about the music?

As far the new judge panel. It has no leader. Say what you want about previous seasons or Simon Cowell, but his comments and direction were spot-on. He was the only one who was really qualified to be there and the only one who was honest and whose quotes weren't soundbyted on ridiculous morning shows. Steven Tyler made a mistake here and even J-Lo, while a talented individual, well, they just seem out of place and the chemistry of the original 3 judges can't be replaced.

While the show will continue to make a lot of money, don't expect it to be the commercial force it once was. It appears that once again, Simon Cowell knew when to walk away.

One year ago this week...Butch Walker in Chicago

One year ago, Butch Walker set up shop in Chicago for a four night stand looking to the past and giving a glimpse of the future. It was an astounding set of shows and something you wish every artist would do at some point in their life. These were the ost revealing shows of his career. He did stints on the East and West coast but everything really seemed to come together during the Chicago stand.

I'll re-post the articles in the coming days. Most only ran as partial reviews on the blog with the full reviews running over at antiMusic.

You can go HERE to read and get links from the first three nights.

Butch Walker collaborates on new Avril Lavigne album

It's been 4-years since Avril has had a record out, but she returns on March 8th according to Shockhound.

While it is expected to me a more subdued affair, the helping hand of Butch Walker can never be a bad thing and I for one a excited to see what she has to say after a divorce and some maturity.

More from Shockhound:
While "What the Hell," the album's lead single — which Lavigne debuted over the weekend during her performance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve — is a typically upbeat track along the lines of her previous work, Lavigne has been telling people for awhile that the album as a whole will be a more mellow and reflective outing. 


"This album is different," she told MTV News in November. "I'm older now, so I think that comes across in my music, it's not as pop-rock and it's a little more mellow and it's deep. But my first single is very 'up' and pop-rock. The first single is very much like my older stuff, but the rest of the album is a departure." 
      The official track listing for Goodbye Lullabye is as follows:

1. Black Star
2. What The Hell
3. Push
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Smile
6. Stop Standing There
7. I Love You
8. Everybody Hurts
9. Not Enough
10. 4 Real
11. Darlin
12. Remember When
13. Goodbye
14. Alice (hidden track)


Read the rest here

Reflection Review: John Mellencamp's 'Whenever We Wanted'

John Mellencamp has been in the news as of late sadly for all the wrong reasons. Instead of highlighting the amazing record and tour he had in 2009, the press is focusing on personal issues, which is a shame. He made some amazing music as of late and that is where the focus should be. Here's a sampling of my recent writing on the man.

• The complete John Mellencamp Discography (through 2007) guide is HERE
• My live review of his 11/27 Chicago show is HERE 
• No Better Than This album review HERE

Since last week I've had a lot of traffic on the discography guide, most likely due to the Whenever We Wanted cover. I can only hope that people took a few minutes to read my review of the album. While it's not by any means his best album, it's a damn fine record where he reintroduced the world to the electric guitar. It may not be a definitive record, but it's an important record for him at that moment in time and it houses possibly one of hiss five greatest songs ever, "Now More Than Ever", a song that resonates stronger and stronger with each passing year. Here's what I wrote in the Album Guide from a few years back:


Two weeks after Nirvana's Nevermind landed in record stores and three weeks after Guns N' Roses double-disc opus Use Your Illusion debuted, John Mellencamp was reborn. October 8, 1991 saw the release of Whenever We Wanted, the first album to be released under the last name he would ever use; John Mellencamp. Whenever We Wanted found Mellencamp striving forward and all but abandoning the accordion, fiddle and heartland music he had perfected over his last three albums. Whenever We Wanted showcases the thunderous return of the electric guitar. Not only is it a fine return to form, but he has turned up the volume producing his heaviest record to date. Right from the get go, the storming politically conscious "Love and Happiness" sets the course with thick crunching riffs that would not relent until the disc had spun all ten tunes. While the album is arguably his least adventurous since American Fool, that is not necessarily bad. Mellencamp took the pastoral sounds as far as he could go with Scarecrow, The Lonesome Jubilee and Big Daddy. Here the music is stripped to the bare minimum (or at least I thought it was until the release of Dance Naked). While Lisa Germano's violin is absent from the entire recording, guitarists Mike Wanchic and David Grissom lead the attack with their dueling guitars while drummer Kenny Aronoff and bassist Toby Myers keep the beat as John Cascella fills in colors with his Hammond B-3 organ to the guitar heavy record. The tour in support of the album is viewed by most Mellencamp fans as his defining moment as a live performer.


The album has more in common with American Fool than The Lonesome Jubilee, yet lyrically he was expanding his themes to world views (which he would continue to do with his next few albums) on songs like the epic “Now More Than Ever” (a deserving anthem he should perform regularly), “Last Chance” and “Love and Happiness”. Deep cuts like “Melting Pot” are uneven musically but winds up being a whimsical alternate route while the dreamy and atmospheric “Last Chance” is an homage of sorts to Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison. However, at the end of the day, the delight of the perfect pop tune could still be heard on amorous “Again Tonight” and the jolting “Get A Leg Up” showing that when you least expect it, one can still plug in the guitar and find their way home.

Free EP Download from Michael McDermott

I've written about Michael McDermott a few times here on the blog and over at antiMusic. In fact, Michael had my #1 record of the year in 2009 with Hey La Hey. He also gave one of the most blistering live perfgormances I caught all last year as well.

If you haven't experienced his music yet, now is a mighty fine time to check him out. He has a free EP to be downloaded over at his website.

Go HERE, scroll down a tiny bit to where it says "Free EP" and begin the journey.

Concert Review: Chuck Berry 1-1-11 Chicago, IL @ Congress Theater

Chuck Berry: You Never Can Tell
Congress Theater – Chicago, IL
January 1, 2011
By Anthony Kuzminski
{Photo Credit}

Any way you look at it, without Chuck Berry and his six-string guitar, rock n’ roll as we know it doesn’t exist. He is the man responsible for all that followed including the Beatles and Rolling Stones. This is why, a man who hasn’t had a hit in four decades can sell-out a 3,000 seat theater in the dead of winter. Promoted with grace by the same people who did the Riot fest recently in Chicago, there were no tickets to be had come show time and the crowd skewed much younger than most would imagine (at least half of the audience was under 35-years-old). I was expecting to be among the youngest at the show, but I found that everyone there was to see a legend. Whether they grew up with Berry’s music or discovered it because of Michael J. Fox, they were there to see a slice of rock n’ roll history, and that is just what they saw.

At 9:30, a 3-piece backing band took to the stage and then from the back, in a sparkling red shirt, white hat, black trousers and a Gibson guitar, Chuck Berry emerged to a swell of audience rapport. Commencing the festivities with “Roll Over Beethoven”, Berry seemed to be in a jovial and festive mood at first. Much can be said of his performing style, but even at 84-years-old, the way he plays the guitar is unlike any other. Part sly, part subtle and part blistering, there’s no one like him. With four musicians on-stage, no one else can create so much with what seems like so little. He alone performs all guitar duties and over the first few numbers, you can clearly see where Keith Richards stole every riff from.

The stage set-up wasn’t that different from what it would have been 55-years ago. Instruments and amplifiers were all the jazz Berry needed. Or at least we thought. Throughout history, Berry has been known for always being a wild card when it comes down to live performances. He travels solo and often doesn’t meet the backing band until he is about to go on-stage. On this nippy New Year’s evening, this seemed to be the case. While Berry appeared to be in fine vocal and performance form, he struggled to congeal with the backing band. Throughout the show, few songs were completed without interruption. “Sweet Little Sixteen” shook the crowd, but Berry’s laid back demeanor found him performing a mostly solo rendition of “Everyday I Have the Blues”. “School Days” had the crowd shaking but “Let It Rock” proved to be a show stopper, literally. As Berry was shredding on the guitar, he stopped midway through, took off his guitar and sat behind the keyboard to finish the song. Despite reports from various media sources, I can without question say that when Berry sat behind that keyboard, his hands came alive the same way as they do when he is grasping a guitar. Known for his legendary guitar riffs, he showed the sold-out crowd there was more than meets the eye when it comes to Chuck Berry. He performed the song on piano (mostly solo) with zeal. He may not be Johnnie Johnson, but he could give quite a few a run for their money.

The remainder of the evening featured a number of broken performances. “My Ding A Ling” and “Johnny B. Goode” had the crowd singing along, but both songs were indecipherable until the choruses kicked in. After a dispirited “Reelin' and Rockin'”, Berry once again banished the keyboard player to the side and sat behind the keys. This is where reports are appearing to vary. From my viewpoint, at no point did I see him collapse. He may have been ill but to my eyes he seemed dispirited and broken. While I would never yearn to back Berry up, I am not sure if the backing musicians for this performance were ready to take on Berry. This is a man whom Keith Richard and the E Street Band couldn’t tame and it’s highly unlikely any local musicians could even try. After sitting behind the keyboard, a number of personnel came to the stage, surrounded him and whisked him away. The crowd was appreciative and applauded and then announcement came that the bars would remain open and that DJ’s would provide music for the rest of the evening. Then 10-minutes later, Berry reemerged from the backstage, slid his guitar on and made his way to the front of the stage. He struggled with getting his guitar in tune (something that had been an issue most of the evening) and after a few minutes, he was whisked away once again. An announcement was made to stick around for 15-minutes as Chuck Berry would be checked by a doctor backstage. The crowd cheerfully waited and 15-minutes later, Berry emerged for the final time without an instrument in tow. He came out to apologize to the crowd and explained he had been backstage being checked on by doctors. He wished the crowd a good evening and then proceeded to do his infamous “duck walk” and like that, he was gone.

One should never expect Chuck Berry to play it straight or to immediately gel with a backing band. It would almost be like marrying Charlie Sheen and expecting to never to encounter the police, hookers or blow. Berry is a one-of-a-kind a musical pioneer. I can’t say his Congress Theater performance was legendary, not by a long shot, but without question it was memorable. Regardless of what one felt about the performance, for the younger crowd, they’ll show their children Back to the Future one day and will gladly tell them about the night they saw the man who invented rock n’ roll.

Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com and can be followed on Twitter