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Kelly Clarkson – My Life would Suck – SNL

retroDan — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:52:06 +0000

I happened to catch a portion of the SNL repeat that featured Kelly Clarkson as the musical guest. One of my pet peeves is seeing bands on shows miming to backing tapes. I mean, if you’re going to be on broadcast TV, you should be able to prove to America that you’ve got talent and play/sing live. “Dancing with the Stars” is an example of a show that frequently features musical guests lip syncing to pre-recorded tracks. SNL, on the other hand, does a pretty good job in making most of their musical guests perform live except for that train-wreck of an incident years ago with Ashley Simpson of course.

Now, Kelly Clarkson was solid as usual and the band indeed played live but I noticed something odd going on with one of Kelly’s backup singers. One of the girls had a guitar on but it appeared to me that she didn’t know the first thing about the guitar and it probably wasn’t plugged in anyway. I don’t know who’s idea it was but it was pretty distracting and took the focus off of Clarkson. The poor girl looked awkward with it on and her hand positions were a dead-giveaway. She had no business “playing” the guitar on stage. Come on, stuff like this is simply offensive to legit guitar players everywhere. If you’re going to be on stage with a guitar in hand, YOU BETTER know how to play. WTF?

The only plausible theory that I could come up with is that the SNL director demanded that a guitar be strapped on the chubby backup singer to hide her bulge. Why else would she have a guitar in her hands when she obviously doesn’t know how to play? It’s a cruel, cruel world in TV-Land for the *NOT-so-thin and beautiful*. …But then again if my theory were true, why didn’t Kelly have a guitar on her? hhhhmmmmm….

Check out the performance on Hulu -

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Ringo walks away from Live show

Incredibad – The Lonely Island – review

retroDan — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:44:11 +0000

I’ve got mixed feelings about the new comedy album titled Incredibad by The Lonely Island. Like a lot of folks, I’m a huge fan of those SNL digital shorts created by the Lonely Island trio – Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer but since a good portion of the CD is comprised of their past video hits (including “Lazy Sunday”, “Jizz in my Pants” and “Dick in the Box”) the album understandably suffers and feels a bit dated because of this. I suppose the problem stems from the fact that this type of comedy tends to be disposable and due to the short shelf life, there isn’t a lot of “replay value” here. Just think of it as “fast food” comedy where it’s good in short bursts but not so good for the long haul. and although I recognize the creativity that went into the recordings, the “Beastie Boys” retro style rapping overstays its welcome after a couple of spins. Plus it doesn’t help matters when each song contains only one or two punchlines. Some tracks like “I’m on a Boat” or “The Old Saloon” don’t even really have a punchline to speak of. I guess it’s nice for the comedy trio to have “official products” out on the market to sell but their type of humor really works best as online videos or as SNL shorts. and I don’t know about you but I feel like a pimple faced fourteen year old listening to all the toilet-humor on this album. heh.

highlights include: “Who Said We’re Wack?”, “Sax Man”, “Like a Boss”

retroGrade: C+

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Incredibad
artist: The Lonely Island
label: Republic
released: February 2009
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TrackList:
1. Who Said We’re Wack? 1:16
2. Santana DVX (featuring E-40) 2:35
3. Jizz in My Pants 2:31
4. I’m on a Boat (featuring T-Pain) 2:36
5. Sax Man (featuring Jack Black) 2:07
6. Lazy Sunday (featuring Chris Parnell) 2:20
7. Normal Guy (Interlude) 1:04
8. Boombox (featuring Julian Casablancas) 3:13
9. Shrooms (Interlude) 0:34
10. Like a Boss 1:46
11. We Like Sportz 2:03
12. Dreamgirl (featuring Norah Jones) 3:13
13. Ras Trent 2:05
14. Dick in a Box (featuring Justin Timberlake) 2:41
15. The Old Saloon (Interlude) 1:05
16. Punch You in the Jeans 2:46
17. Space Olympics 2:55
18. Natalie’s Rap (featuring Natalie Portman and Chris Parnell) 2:26
19. Incredibad 2:54
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Neil Patrick Harris on SNL

retroDan — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:40:33 +0000

Man, Neil Patrick Harris did a phenomenal job hosting Saturday Night Live. It’s great that he’s finally getting his due for his pitch perfect portrayal of Barney on How I Met Your mother as well as his role in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. kudos to Seth Myers and the writing staff for providing NPH and the cast some good material to work with this week.

Highlights included -
The Today Show Sketch – an overdue slam on Kathy Lee Gifford. for the love of God, please get that self absorbed has been off the air!

the Broadway Sketch – with Taylor Swift as little orphan Annie!!

and Will Forte singing the BCS Song. – Forte is definitely one of my favorites in the cast right now. the man is comedy gold!
here are the lyrics:
I love stepping in dog crap
And I love it when children get sick
I love paper cuts on my corneas and I love the BCS
I love hanging at the DMV and I love finding out I’m adopted
I love eating tacos filled with uncooked chicken
And I love the BCS
Oh yeah, I love the BCS
It’s the best system ever devised
Neck and neck with the electoral college
And if you’ve got some kind of problem with that
I invite you to s my d
S my d, S my d, S my d
BCS S my d
I love the smell of sick people’s farts
And I love George W Bush
I wish he could be my dad and my lover and I love the BCS
I love thinking about Bush with his shirt off
I love taking off his pants with my mind
He’s the lame duck that I really want to f…..
…fudge
Cause, I love the BCS
Oh yeah, I love the BCS
And my hemorrhoids, I love the BCS
Robert Mugabe, I love the BCS!!!

you can view the video clip of the BCS Song on Hulu.

Also check out the SNL Digital Short from this past saturday. It’s a fun little nod to the Nintendo Wii Music video game and NPH’s previous claim to fame, Doogie Howser MD.

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New Taylor Custom SolidBody Guitars

Annuale

retroDan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:38:25 +0000

as with most SNL seasons, the current season has been pretty uneven in terms of comedy gold. but I have to say that the recent Tiny Fey hosted show was pretty strong. I also have to mention the one with Christopher Walken as well. The Annuale commercial spoof in particular featuring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler has to be one of the best things they’ve done in a long while. They’ve shown the Annuale clip a couple of times since the Tina Fey show and it still gets me every time. I can watch it all day long. really. Just in case you haven’t seen the clip OR if you want to see it again (and again like me!), here it is:

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