HEAR new music: Donnie Wahlberg featuring Aubrey O’Day - “I Got It” & Guy Sebastian and Jordin Sparks – “Art Of Love”

New Songs ALERT!
DDub and The Artist Formerly Known As The 'Fro

It’s new music day again, readers! And today we see a New Kid go solo (sort of) and two Idols team up.
Donnie Wahlberg, New Kid On The Block and “star” of the Saw franchise, has released his first (sort of) solo single, 25 years into his music career – that’s if you don’t count “The Right Combination” his amazing 1990 duet with Japanese songbird Seiko.

Anyway, while NKOTB are on a “break” following their successful comeback album and tour (you know, the one they were set to bring to Australia before unceremoniously cancelling), Donnie has teamed up with always controversial former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day (last seen on The ‘Brain trying to destroy Eddie Murphy’s musical legacy) for “I Got It”.

It’s not half bad, neither (it’s also not an update of NKOTB’s “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”), even if I can’t decide if the lyrics (“we can start a family/you can make the band with me” and name checks for Twitter and TMZ) are genius or appalling.

Let's go with genius. Hey, I can't stop listening to it.

Fellow New Kids Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood and Jordan Knight are all also working on new solo material, but I think we have learned that NKOTB’s strength is as a team, as opposed to a gaggle of self-indulgent solo nonsense (Jordan’s brilliant “Give It To You” not withstanding), so hopefully they get to recording a new group album soon (seriously, The Block was great).

Take a listen.


Guy Sebastian, the first ever Australian Idol, has followed up his recent No.1 “Like It Like That” with “Art Of Love”, a duet with American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and – cliché alert! – it has international hit written all over it.

While undoubtedly talented, Guy’s output has been a bit of a mixed bag in the past and has at times suffered from dodgy production and record company whims forcing him in directions that didn’t fit (Record company guy: "Hey Guy, how about you go ROCK?!"). Although it should be noted that while 2007’s covers record The Memphis Album was a typical record company money spinner, the production was brilliant and Guy’s interpretations – with Booker T. & The MG's no less – were spot-on.

That said, as far as R&B pop goes, “Art Of Love” is pretty much amazing.

Sorry readers, that sounded a bit reluctant.

What it should have said was: “Art Of Love” is AMAZING.

From the faux T-Pain “hey-ey” vocals to the soaring chorus, Guy and Jordin’s vocals work perfectly together and the US will have no choice but to jump on the Guy train if they know what’s good for ‘em.

Oh, and Guy’s new album Like It Like That came out yesterday, so do yourself a favour!


BONUS VIDEO ALERT!

Scott Keenan
Wanna know 'bout who you Tweetin' o'clock

New Kids On The Block Cancel Australian Tour

NO Kids On The Block
Full Service FAIL
New Kids On The Block have cancelled their Australian tour.
AND I AM ROPABLE.
Donnie Wahlberg has left a nice blog on their website to explain why.
“Like many of our fans down under we too are saddened,” he writes. “Australia has always, ALWAYS, been one of our favorite places to travel to. And quite honestly we tried very hard to make it work. However we are, in fact, in the middle of a worldwide recession and we just cannot make it work. That is the simple truth.”
He then promises: “We can only assure you that when the recession’s stranglehold on the world’s economies eases up a bit we will find a way to make this work.”

Well, that might be fair enough DDub, but let’s break a few things down:

* Ticket prices for the shows were too high (the average price was $125, up to $175). Their fans are now in their late twenties and early thirties and plenty are pumping out kiddies. I had four (count them!) friends who were eager to go but balked at the price.

* The venues were too big (in Sydney they were set to play Acer Arena, rather than the more sensible Entertainment Centre).
* The group refused to do any promotional interviews. Who launches a massive tour in this day and age and refuses to speak to media? I mean, there are five of them. If they set aside an hour or so each they could have knocked over half the outlets in the country. It's not 1990 any more, bitches – you gotta do promo! Would it have saved the shows? I don’t know, but it seems like a pretty simple thing to do, no?

They also refused to do Australian promo when they released their rather good new album The Block. Why? Needless to say, despite duets with Lady GaGa and the Pussycat Dolls, it didn’t exactly bother the charts.

Klassic Kids: Because Boston teens love to surf

And while you might think they needed big budgets and staging to put on their all-singing, all-dancing spectacular, The Sun’s review of their Manchester gig would suggest otherwise.
“While the likes of Kylie Minogue, Coldplay and Kanye West blow the budget with dazzling audio-visual spectacles … [NKOTB’s] stage was almost barren, with just a raised walkway and rather limp hydraulic platform that the lads gyrated on from time to time.”
As you may be able to tell, I am a little disappointed. It would have been awesome to see the show and while Donnie says differently, I do doubt they’ll make it here again.
BAH!

PS: I just got slagged by crazy NKOTB fans on Twitter for tweeting “Lazy, selfish @nkotb can bite my ass for cancelling their Australian tour. You heard me ddub! BITE IT!”
Apparently “true fans” are mindless zombies who just write gushy tweets to Jon Knight and aren’t allowed to question their idols. A bit like Nazis, but with scrunch perms. Hey, I have the NKOTB dolls blockheads, back off!
Also, I would have written “arse”, but I was concerned Donnie wouldn’t understand.

Scott Keenan
Them Dirty Dawgs o’clock

Music Mayhem! Jordin Sparks set to take over the world*, uh-huh, it’s a-ha!

*with apologies to Pat Benetar

Jordin Sparks – “Battlefield”
What do you do when it turns out you recorded your biggest ever hit with an alleged woman basher*? You record a song that is likely to be a much, much bigger hit of course!
And so Jordin Sparks has delivered the epic “Battlefield”. Already it is my favourite song of the year and in five short days I have managed to hammer it, according to iTunes, 27 times.
The song was written by Ryan Tedder, who since he struck gold with his band One Republic’s “Apologize” has become quite the hit maker. First was Leona Lewis’ omnipresent “Bleeding Love” and then there was the could-have-been-good-but-was-recorded-by-Beyoncé “Halo” (apparently she was going for “understated” on this one. I appreciate that, but surely you can be understated and in key?).
Not-so-subtly borrowing its title from Pat Benetar’s awesome “Love Is A Battlefield”, with production inspired by Jim Steinman and Mutt Lange, the song is a slow build of power drums and not many lyrics culminating in an amazing chant of “Better go and getcha armour”!
It’s melodramatic pop at its best, complete with amazingly ridiculous metaphors and OTT backing vocals – eat your heart out Bonnie Tyler!
No, they don’t make songs like this any more, kids. Aside from, you know, right now.



* Who could have dreamed when “No Air” was released that Chris Brown would “allegedly” try to choke someone?

a-ha – “Foot Of The Mountain”I love me some a-ha. And not in some retro “Ohmygod they’re playing ‘Take On Me’!” way (everybody knows “The Sun Always Shines On TV” is far superior, anyway), but in an, “Ohmygod they still make music that is so relevant to me in my hectic 2009-paced life” way. (Almost)
A-ha’s new single “Foot Of The Mountain”, their first material since 2005’s brilliant Analogue (which the warring members recorded in shifts so as to avoid one another), is more a-ha brilliance.



Proving that sometimes he is a very wise man indeed, Chris Martin has admitted that a-ha is to this day one of his biggest inspirations, and if you listen to Coldplay’s albums you can tell.
“I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha's first record on,” Chris tittered in 2005. “I just remembered how much I loved it. It's incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we've been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up – the first band I ever loved was a-ha.”
But we shouldn’t hold this against the lovable Norweigan trio – they’re really quite awesome.

Oh look it's Chris and Mags doing "Hunting High And Low"!


Chris’s love of my Scandanavian pals has left me feeling all warm inside, so why don’t you go download Coldplay's new live album LeftRightLeftRightLeft for free from their website. Shyeah, it’s all legal and stuff!

Looking smugWhile we’re giving away albums (or linking to them, anyway) former Savage Gardener Darren Hayes and his collaborator Robert Conley (who has produced Axle Whitehead’s album and is half of Brian McFadden’s new duo Wall Of Soundz) have launched a side project called We Are Smug. Somewhat crazily they are giving away their album We Are Smug… for nix on their website! Think electro pop with kooky Hayes lyrics (and even a few Beach Boys-style harmonies). Think Darren's The Disassociatives. For free. Insanity!

NKOTB In Da HouseThe re-formed New Kids On The Block have announced they will be touring Australia in August, and to say I am piss my pants excited is a completely ridiculous understatement.
You better believe I will be Step By Steping and Hangin' Tough like a 12 year old. Damn I'm a big saddo.
I'm also quite a fan of their newest album The Block, even if some of their single choices have been deeply questionable - their song with New Edition "Full Service" is one of the best things ever recorded ever (or so says I).

Vale BudLast week we lost much-loved Australian acting icon Charles “Bud” Tingwell, star of films The Castle and Innocence, as well as classic TV shows like Neighbours and Homicide.
Of course one of his best roles was in The Late Show’s hilarious Charlie The Wonder Dog alongside the Pissweak Kids. Check it out and remember a true legend.

Scott Keenan
Charlie We Love You O'Clock