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holy crap. this was so wrong on so many levels. where to begin? let me back up a bit. Def Leppard made an appearance last night on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars results show. yes, I understand that the show’s got a lock on millions of viewers each and every week. I, myself watch the show for the generous display of ummm… talent. and from a marketing standpoint, a DWTS appearance is highly desirable. But come on, a rock and roll band on a ballroom dancing show???? don’t they have ANY integrity left? the appearance just reeked of desperation. it wasn’t pleasant. OK, OK, this was probably some sort of corporate decision from the higher ups but still- the band could have taken the opportunity to remind the general viewing audience that they can STILL ROCK. unfortunately, Def Leppard took the easy way out and lip synced to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and their new single, “Nine Lives” (from their new album – Songs From The Sparkle Lounge). that’s right children. these old rockers mimed to their studio tracks. and very poorly, I might add. the performance was truly lame. I suppose the purpose of the appearance was to gain fans and sell tickets to their summer shows but I think they actually lost a whole bunch of fans by doing this. I know they lost this one right here.

view Def Leppard’s subpar performance of Pour Some Sugar on Me [via youtube]:

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deep from the depths of the retroblog music vault comes today’s featured song: video killed the radio star. it’s hard to believe the song is nearly 30 years old!! as a testament to the songwriting (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley) and the performance (the Buggles), the song still gets a fair amount of airplay and is still beloved by fans worldwide. You really have to give Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes credit b/c the recording skillfully balances musicianship, humor and sci-fi without becoming overly campy which the song easily could have fallen into.

VKTRS by The Buggles – according to wikipedia, the Buggles’ version isn’t the original. co-writer Bruce Woolley released the very first version of VKTRS on his album English Garden by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards). the Horn/Downes version is still my all time favorite. classic!

VKTRS by Geoff Downes (instrumental version) – often performed by Geoff Downes as a solo piece in concert, here’s a studio version performed by Geoff Downes on piano. another favorite of mine.

VKTRS by Geoff Downes with Glenn Hughes – for some reason, Downes decided to add Glenn Hughes on top of his solo piano version. not the best of decisions in my opinion. the instrumental version is the better of the two.

VKTRS by Ben Folds Five – a faithful cover by Ben Folds. lots of energy and a bit sloppy. it’s a fun listen.

VKTRS by Asia (live) – here’s John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer performing their version of this classic tune. surprisingly Asia’s version is pretty crappy IMO. Palmer plays it a bit too fast with absolutely no groove and Howe just noodles on top of everything. blah.

enjoy the mp3s. if you end up downloading any of these, please be sure to post something in the comment field. thanks!

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also watch : the Buggles’ music video on youtube

oh, and here’s the live footage of the re-united Buggles performing the song at the Trevor Horn tribute in 2004.

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the CDs are available via amazon.com

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you know, I’ve gotten so conditioned to typing things out on the computer that my handwriting has gone to crap. it’s appalling. what was once nice, legible penmanship has sadly evolved into some form of chicken scratch. I can’t even get myself to write mailing addresses on envelopes. It just looks horrible and very unprofessional. thank goodness for customized address stamps available over at vistaprint.com. the vistaprint custom stamps are the auto-inking kind so they’re convenient and always ready to go. the cool thing about creating the stamps online is that you have the option of using one of their pre-existing templates or you can even upload one of your own designs. that is the type of flexibility that makes vistaprint a great service for business owners as well as for the average home consumer. custom stamps come in handy especially when you have a bunch of mail to send out at one time. I always like browsing through VistaPrint.com every once in a while just to get some ideas on time-savers for the office or for the home. the friendly folks over at vistaprint have served over 11 million customers worldwide and they continue to offer the best printing at the best prices. be sure to check them out!

as a middle-aged music blogger, I tend to overlook some of the bands that are popular among the younger demographic. and if you’re a frequent visitor here on retroblog, you know that I tend to slant toward dinosaur rock i.e. Journey, Genesis, Todd Rundgren, Asia, etc. so with that said, I have to mention a young band that I’ve been rockin’ out to this week in the old SUV stereo system. it’s pop/emo/rock band Paramore. yes, I know I’m pretty late in the game in terms of blogging about the group and their album Riot! has been out for over a year but I just thought i’d post about them here just in case there are some other folks like me out there that aren’t that familiar with the band. the album is a fun listen with tons of energy and melodies galore. yes- they sound like Avril clones, yes- I hear some use of the dreaded “autotune” on Hayley Williams’ vocals, yes- some of the songs are formulaic and the pseudo-metal guitar sound gets a bit old and YES – it’s a bit weird liking these kids that are probably half my age… but, the larger than life hooks, their great sense of melody and their enthusiastic playing override all the negatives in this case. they’ve got a big thumbs up from this old man! a guilty pleasure? hell yeah. rock on!

personal favorites off of Riot! include: For a Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic, Thats What You Get, Misery Business and When It Rains

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with mother’s day coming up, I’ve been trying to decide what to get for my wife. I’m leaning heavily toward one of these luxury watches over at TheWatchery.com. I usually get the wife a nice bouquet of flowers on mother’s day but I wanted to do something a bit more special this time around especially when I realize more and more every day how much she does for me and the kids. I thought getting a nice timepiece like one of these Movado watches would not only be a great mother’s day gift but also will be something that can be useful as well as fashionable. The Movado brand of watches have been around since 1881 and have always been synonymous with beauty, class and elegance. another thing about watches is that they are akin to jewelry in that different watches can be worn for different occasions. So there’s no worrying about if your loved one already has a watch or not. these watches are fashionable and can be worn at different times. oh and browsing through the TheWatchery.com site, I see that it’s the perfect time to purchase from them. they’re currently offering a free watch with each purchase. so, essentially I’m getting a bonus watch for myself out of this purchase for the wife. that’s sounds like a great deal to me!

I’m not totally convinced there’s a need for yet another social networking site but I thought I’d give this new site a mention since it’s focused around the 70′s and 80′s. the site is called Get Back and it’s primarily for people over 35 that enjoy movies, music and TV shows from their youth. sorta like VH1′s I love the 80′s but in web form. it seems the content is being pulled from various sources like Hulu, All Media Guide and from record companies like Universal and Warner Music Group. I signed up this morning and already I’ve noticed some bugs and some features that are still under construction. hhhmmmmm. well, they’re still in Beta so it’s a work in progress I guess. I’ll continue to check it out over the next couple months to see if the site catches on…

you’ve probably already seen the commercial on TV about protecting your identity with a service called lifelock. you know the one where the CEO of the company drives around town in a white truck with his social security number printed on the side for the whole world to see. normally that would be the absolute worst thing you can do in regards to keeping your identity safe but CEO Todd Davis is THAT confident his identity is secure using his company’s protection plan. the service monitors all credit bureaus for any fraud alerts, automatically retrieves your credit reports on a routine basis and removes your name off of all the “pre-approved credit card” mailing lists. but the best thing about the service is that if your identity does get stolen while using LifeLock, they’ll do the work in getting your credit record corrected. they’ve got you covered for up to a million dollars. nowadays when an identity is stolen every three seconds, using a service like LifeLock is a must!

I’m not exactly sure what the allure is for hollywood actors to try to crossover into the music biz but the streets of Tinseltown are lined with garbage bins full of failed attempts by the likes of Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Steven Seagal, Leonard Nimoy and Eddie Murphy. but even with the grim track record of her predecessors, actress Zooey Deschanel is bound and determined to make her own mark with her new album titled Volume One. wisely, Deschanel brought in some help to record her songs by way of producer/musician M. Ward. With this project being such a collaborative effort, Deschanel and Ward decided to forego the marketability of her own name stamped on the album cover and went with naming the duo as She & Him. interestingly, the spotlight still weighs heavily on Deschanel with her vocals (as well as her compositions) being the central focus on the album. Ward does come forward singing a duet with Deschanel on “You Really Got a Hold On Me” but otherwise he remains in the background. the resulting album recalls the retro-60′s from the rough and loose sounding band to the quirky girl-group sound on songs like “Sweet Darlin’” and “I Was Made for You”. overall Deschanel sounds a bit too cute for my tastes and the material (all penned by Deschanel except for the Smokey Robinson cover, a Beatles cover and the traditional “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”), a tad too amateurish and superficial. now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the record. I like Zooey as an actress and her foray into singing/songwriting got me intrigued but as the saying goes – “don’t quit your day job”. the material isn’t vocally demanding but it’s obvious that Deschanel has a limited vocal range. on songs that require the higher reaches of her range like “Sentimental Heart” and “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, there are some unpleasant moments for sensitive ears. when she sticks to her lower register as in the songs “Change is Hard” and “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today”, things get more listenable. so for all you Zooey Deschanel fans out there, Volume One is a must. for the rest of you that are simply intrigued by the collaboration between Deschanel and M. Ward, beware – your mileage may vary (YMMV).

watch She & Him performing “This is Not a Test” at the SXSW (Mar08):

TrackList:
1 Sentimental Heart (Deschanel) 2:36
2 Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? (Deschanel) 2:30
3 This Is Not a Test (Deschanel) 3:30
4 Change Is Hard (Deschanel) 3:03
5 I Thought I Saw Your Face Today (Deschanel) 2:50
6 Take It Back (Deschanel) 2:37
7 I Was Made for You (Deschanel) 2:30
8 You Really Got a Hold on Me (Robinson) 3:59
9 Black Hole (Deschanel) 2:12
10 Got Me Deschanel 2:45
11 I Should Have Known Better (Lennon, McCartney) 3:38
12 Sweet Darlin’ (Deschanel, Schwartzman) 2:40
13 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Traditional) 1:36

you know, I enjoy blogging here at retroblog but like most bloggers, I’ve got other things in my life that take priority over this like my full time job, wife, kids, yard work, bills and yes, even more bills. so, usually I don’t have time to do the things I need to do here on the website until late at night after the kids are in bed, the dishes are done and the bills are paid. and as you can probably guess, sometimes, I end up being too tired to blog. and neglecting your blog is a big no-no in the unforgiving blogosphere. your visitor traffic will most definitely take a hit if you don’t update your blog on a regular basis. readers are a bit fickled here in the blogging world and will quickly and easily move on to other sites if you don’t have something new and interesting for them to look at. thankfully there’s a new product out that can help us late night bloggers boost our energy levels when we’re feeling a bit low. they’re called MAXXED Energy Pops. these lollipops are a great idea. no longer will we have to rely on coffee and Red Bulls for a late night boost especially when those drinks tend to make us take multiple trips to the bathroom afterwards. just pop one in your mouth and you’re ready to do what you gotta do without the constant distraction of grabbing for the cup of coffee every so often. MAXXED Energy Pops contain ginseng, taurine, guarana and caffeine so that you can keep your focus, stay alert and feel re-energized. oh and the neat thing about these energy pops is that it actually comes in a CAN. not only does the can make the lollipop unique but it keeps it fresh right until the moment you need it. be sure to head on over to the MAXXED energy pop website to learn more.

Frontiers Records recently sent out their press release concerning the upcoming album by legendary rock group Journey. Frontiers Records will be releasing the new album Revelation in Europe on June 6th. As mentioned previously, the U.S. release date will be June 3rd via Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. here’s the official tracklist for the upcoming album:
Never Walk Away
Like A Sunshower
Change For The Better
Wildest Dream
Faith In The Heartland
After All These Years
Where Did I Lose Your Love
What I Needed
What It Takes To Win
Turn Down The World Tonight
The Journey (Revelation)

hhmmm, I’m not so sure about the song title – Like a Sunshower. since I haven’t heard the album, I won’t totally dismiss the track just yet. but still… Sunshower? on a rock album? also, isn’t Faith in th Heartland a song off their previous album, Generations? well.. even so, I can’t wait to hear the new album.

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