TOMORROW ON OUTQ: CHRISTMAS SONGS AND LAST MINUTE GIFTS

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning I go on the SiriusXM channel OutQ as a guest on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick (and co-host comedian Keith Price) and talk about music. Well, today was Wednesday and I spent my time on the show talking about the 2011 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tomorrow I will be making a rare Thursday morning appearance to talk about some important stuff. Namely, some new rocking holiday jams!  And speaking of jams, some last minute gifts that may get you out of a jam if you've been procrastinating on your shopping!

First off, and most importantly to me, The Cocktail Slippers. They have a new digital single, "It's Christmas," which is a tribute to the great Wall of Sound Christmas songs (and holds it own next to those classics).  No Expiration readers know that I love this band, their last album, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, was one of my two favorite albums of 2009. They've gone through some lineup changes, but I think this single features the same people who were on St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  Changing members is scary, but I definitely look forward to hearing their new music, it will be one of the albums I most eagerly anticipate in 2011, along with Social D's new one.

It turns out that David Bowie and Bing Crosby's incredibly uncomfortable looking "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" made a big impact on comedians. I have a new version of it by Jack Black and Jason Segel. See a cartoon video here. Meanwhile, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly did a new version for Funny Or Die.

Annie Lennox has a new album called A Christmas Cornucopia. For some reason I can accept this kind of thing more from her than I could from Sting. It's like, she's hard to criticize, and she does a great job on the songs I've heard so far.

I've been a fan of The Indigo Girls forever, but I was surprised for some reason to find out about their new album Happy Holly Days. It's cool.

Shelby Lynne is a great singer, despite winning a weird Grammy a few years ago (Best New Artist, although she'd released a number of albums by then) not a lot of people know about her. Or not enough people. I like her song "Ain't Nothin' Like Christmas" from her new album Merry Christmas (most of the  album is covers, but "Ain't Nothin'" is an original).

Paul Simon just released a new single, "Getting Ready For Christmas Day." It's actually a great song, it reminds me of his upbeat but still very lyrical '70s stuff. It's modern sounding, because it features samples of a gospel preacher recorded decades ago.  It's a great song, and I haven't enjoyed much of his recent material.

If you're a scroogy type, you may love Corey Taylor's single "X-M@$." He's the guy from Slipknot and Stone Sour, but this song sounds more like The Reverend Horton Heat. Watch the video here.

But let's end this on more of a positive note, kind of.  You know I love me some Ms. Sharon Jones. She has a new single, "Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects."  She's just great, and this is a really fun song. Check it out!

Even though Hanukkah is over, I have to give it up to Matisyahu, whose music I don't generally enjoy.  But his Hanukkah single, "Miracle," is fantastic, and so is the video.

ALICE COOPER, TOM WAITS, DR JOHN AND DARLENE LOVE - CONGRATS

Well, congrats to the next class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees:   Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Dr. John and Darlene Love. And Neil Diamond.

I'm glad that Alice Cooper is finally being inducted, and it is the band and not just the man who are being included. It was one of the greatest bands of the early '70s: the late Glen Buxton on guitar, Michael Bruce also on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass and Neal Smith on drums.

Alice (the band) doesn't get enough credit because Alice (the man) kind of "sold out" early on, in the '70s, when it wasn't cool to do so. He did Hollywood Squares, The Muppet Show, etc. and more recently has shilled on commercials for office supply chains. But facts are facts, the original Alice Cooper (the band) influenced everyone. Not just heavy metal and glam rock, and yes, their silly bastard son hair metal. But also punk rock: The Sex Pistols, The New York Dolls and The Ramones, to name a few. Alice (the man) never felt the need to follow the orthodox rules of rock and roll, he also loved show business and decided not to sweat it. Listen to 1971's Love It To Death and Killer, 1972's School's Out and 1973's Billion Dollar Babies, all with the original band, they're amazing. Even Alice's first "solo" album, 1975's Welcome To My Nightmare, is great. I like some songs since then, and I won't front like I don't love the hair metal-ish "Poison" from 1989's Trash. And his recent anthem "Keeping Halloween Alive" is awesome. Alice Cooper would have been my #1 choice on my ballot if I were a voter.

Tom Waits is one of the only artists who has gotten weirder as he has gotten older, instead of the other way around. I've said this before, but I think that "weird" is an important part of rock and roll, and Tom Waits brings the "weird" like no one else. Of course there have always been a lot of artists who try and get by on "weird." But the thing about Tom Waits is, he has an incredible catalog of great songs. Artists from Rod Stewart to Sarah McLachlan to Bruce Springsteen recognizes this and has covered his amazing songs. Trends? If he's even aware of any, you wouldn't know it. Although he occasionally works with younger artists (notably kindred spirits Primus, on their classic collab "Tommy The Cat"), he's not really looking for what's hip. He seemed old even when he was young, and only seems to occasionally intersect with rock music. But he is sort of a big part of "alternative rock" in my mind. Not "alternative" in the marketing sense of course. But as an artist who rocks, but is going in a different direction than everyone else. Tom surely would have been on my ballot. A lot of people who love Tom, their favorite album is something from the '70s or '80s. Mine is 1999's Mule Variations. If I were a voter, I would have absolutely voted for Waits, and I would have done it long ago.

New Orleans is always cited as a big influence on early rock and roll, but other than Fats Domino and Allen Toussaint, I don't think there are many New Orleans artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But the good doctor isn't getting in as a token for the proud city. Don't believe it? Start with his debut, Gris-Gris, it is bad ass. He is combining more traditional R&B with psychedelic rock, kind of like a New Orleans version of what so many other rock acts were doing. Younger fans may recognize the song "I Walk On Guilded Splinters," which was sampled by Beck on "Loser." Another great one to check out is 1972's Dr. John's Gumbo, which has one of his more famous songs, "Iko Iko" (like most of the album, it is a cover). The album is a great introduction to New Orleans music, and I imagine that it did, in fact, introduce lots of people to these songs, just like Eric Clapton introduced people to the blues. He still makes great albums: 2008's The City That Care Forgot and this year's Tribal both are rockin'. If I were a voter, I would definitely have thought about voting for Dr. John.

Darlene Love, well that's an interesting one. You hear her a lot these days, because in December you hear lots of Christmas songs, and she sang one of the best ones ever: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (later covered by U2). She was an important part of Phil Spector's "wall of sound," singing on "Da Doo Ron Ron Ron," "He's A Rebel" and "Today I Met The Boy I"m Gonna Marry." Artists love her: she's sang backing vocals for Elvis, Cher and U2. Some people know her best for her acting: she played Danny Glover's wife in all four Lethal Weapon movies. Little Steven loves her, and I'm pretty sure he campaigned for her this time around. Well, good for him and good for her. Artists like her who were around at the beginning don't need to have a huge catalog, but when the songs they did count as much as Darlene's did, I guess that makes them Hall of Fame caliber. I look forward to Little Steven's speech about her!

Neil Diamond? I won't put the guy down, and I don't contest that he belongs in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I just don't think he's rock and roll.  I'm sure Robbie Robertson campaigned for this, and while I really admire Robbie, I don't usually agree with his taste.  Yes, Neil plays guitar and is backed by bass, drums and etc. But for my money, LL Cool J and The Beastie Boys are way more rock and roll, and they should have been voted in. Well, maybe next year.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers should get in next year also, so maybe it will be a rocking ceremony.

PAUL McCARTNEY AT THE APOLLO - AWESOME!

I had the great privilege tonight to see Paul McCartney's amazing concert at Harlem's Apollo Theater. It was an invite-only event put on by SiriusXM in honor of hitting the 20 million subscriber mark (I am an employee of the company, but the event was, rightfully so, for subscribers). (By the way, I didn't take this picture, my friend Jon, who is a subscriber, and won a ticket to the show, took this picture).

It was an incredible show (for a full setlist, check me out on Twitter, I tweeted each song as he played it). Ostensibly, he is promoting the 30th anniversary of what is maybe his greatest post-Beatles work, Wings' Band On The Run, and he played a bunch of songs from the album ("Band On The Run," "Jet," "Let Me Roll It" and "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five"), but the setlist had tons of his songs from when he was fab. The opened with a very muscular version of  "Magical Mystery Tour," followed closely by "Drive My Car," "All My Loving" and even "One After 909."

Paul is one of the greatest songwriters of all time, even his detractors have to admit that. But he is also a great showman, and knows how to write a setlist.  He goes from totally rocking with songs like "Back In The U.S.S.R." to really quiet songs like "Blackbird" (which he said was inspired by the racial injustices in America). He can go from a pretty angry song ("I'm Looking Through You" is one of his meanest, it always seemed a bit out of character to me) and then the very next song was the tender "And I Love Her." And it's all believable.  I don't think he gets enough credit for the diversity of styles he has mastered, both musically and lyrically.

My highlight of the night, though, was his cover of Marvin Gaye's "Hitchhike." He did it as a tribute to all the great performers who had played at the Apollo.  It was a bit messed up, the sound on the vocals went out during the song ("now you know it's a live radio broadcast," he joked afterwards) and he had to start over.  But it was a great performance and it featured go-go dancers, rocking it '60s style (if I had to guess, I would say Maureen Van Zandt, wife of Steven, was the choreographer). There were other guests - a children's choir - on "Wonderful Chrismastime," one of my least favorite Paul songs, but it was sweet. I loved when Paul put on the mandolin for his semi-recent classic "Dance Tonight." Another great moment was "A Day In The Life" which went into John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance." And, finally, the ending medley of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" which went into "The End."

Like Bob Dylan and Ozzy Osbourne, Paul couldn't do it without an incredible band.  These guys love Paul, and they love and respect his music. Keyboardist Wix has been with Paul since 1989 (the first tour I saw Paul on, Flowers In The Dirt), the other three guys have been with him since 2001: guitarist Rusty Anderson, guitarist/bassist Brian Ray and especially drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., who is not just a monster behind the kit, but also has a charisma and sense of humor that everyone love (especially, it seems, Paul). It doesn't just come off as the Paul McCartney review, these guys really make it rock and come off like a band.  Paul ended the night saying "See you next time," and I can't wait until "next time" comes around. At 67, the guy rocked for two hours, if you ever have the chance to see him, you should definitely go! He really works it: besides playing his main instrument, bass, he also switched to electric and acoustic guitar, piano and even mandolin. All these years later, he still rocks.

Oh and by the way, "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" was a hell of a lot of fun, I know people make fun of that song, but get over it!

CHECK OUT: ELIZABETH COOK - WELDER

Readers of No Expiration know that I'm not really the blogger writing about tons of artists that no one has heard of. I'm not trying to one-up everyone with my knowledge of obscure music! But I realize that not a lot of people know who Elizabeth Cook is. That's got to change, people!  Maybe it is changing: I read that both Paste and Rolling Stone named Elizabeth's Welder as one of their top albums of the 2010. I gotta represent and do my part, so I'm here to tell you that it's in my top 20 also (I'm still working on the whole list, but Welder is a lock, yo).

I discovered Elizabeth via SiriusXM's Outlaw Country (full disclosure, I work for the company).  Outlaw Country happens to be one of the reasons I subscribed to SIRIUS, before I worked there. I advise you to check it out, if you don't totally suck.  Anyway, Elizabeth's music gets played on the channel, but she's also the weekday morning DJ, and she's just awesome to listen to. Some musicians have a great personality, but it doesn't translate to their records, somehow.  That isn't the case with Elizabeth, Welder is great. She is one of the greatest country singers of our era.  She definitely belongs on Outlaw Country, which means that she's not mainstream Nashville, which means she's a bit harder to promote than the big country music stars you always hear about.  I don't knock them: I just think she's better. Her music rings truer. I don't know if all of her songs are about her, or if some are about her, it doesn't matter.  They all sound like they are about her when she's singing them.

On one hand, she's hilarious.  In "El Camino," she sings "if I wake up married, I'll have to annul it/right now my hands are in his mullet" and then there's "Yes To Booty," ("It's common knowledge 'round hree, when you say yes to beer, you say no to booty"). On the other, "Heroin Addict Sister" and "Mama's Funeral" are as sad as they sound, and you feel the hurt. But isn't that how life is?  There's fun, there's sex and there's also death.  She tackles all of it and doesn't flinch. She's a sexy chick who takes on life's less sexy realities.  And the songs are all tuneful (it's not just about the lyrics). She reminds me a bit of Loretta Lynn. She's funny, but her music also cuts really deep.

Not to make too big a deal of this, but Don Was produced the album. It sounds like he just backed off and let Elizabeth and the other musicians do their thing, that's what a good producer does sometimes.  But the guy has produced The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop and Willie Nelson to name a few, he knows his way around a great album. There are a few guests on the album - Buddy Miller (one of my favorite artists of the '00s), Dwight Yoakam and Rodney Crowell all show up as backing singers.

Anyway, if you trust me - and when have I led you wrong? - check out Welder, I bet you'll like it. I recently had the good fortune to be able to film her when she stopped by SiriusXM's Road Dog Trucking studio, here's her performance of "Heroin Addict Sister." It was moving to be there. I still don't know if it is actually about her sister, but if felt like it was.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: CEE LO GREEN, KANYE WEST AND MORE

For those of you who are new to No Expiration: every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET (ish), I contribute to the SiriusXM OutQ show The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick, where I talk about music. This week, I will discuss some of the last releases of 2010, also known as "Q4" records.  These are often albums that record labels have huge commercial hopes for.

First off is Cee Lo Green's The Lady Killer, his first solo album since forming Gnarls Barkley with Danger Mouse. I think there were high expectations for this album, based on the popularity of Gnarls, and also the huge success of the first single, "Fuck You," a huge viral hit over the summer. It doesn't seem to be doing that well, unfortunately.  I like it, but don't love it - there certainly aren't any songs as catchy as "Fuck You," and that song obviously isn't an easy hit.  Although it was nominated for a bunch of Grammys.  One great song on the album other than the single: his cover of Band Of Horses' "No One's Gonna Love You." That was one of my favorite songs of the '00s, but Cee Lo owns it now.

I wish I liked Cee Lo's album as much as Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  Kanye's album is one of the best things I've heard this year. It is an incredible album. 

Also on the list for tomorrow: new albums by Kid Rock, Rihanna, Shakira, My Chemical Romance, Black Eyed Peas, Robyn and The Zac Brown Band.

KANYE WEST MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY

It's a great album, period. 

I recently tweeted that it's easy enough to ignore Kanye West's interviews and public outbursts, just enjoy the music. Besides his own records, he's produced great music for John Legend (who he pretty much helped to become a big star), Common, Mos Def and a bunch of other people. That's the way I feel.

I don't like the way he acts - I actually had my own run-in with him before his debut album came out. But it doesn't take away from his music. At the same time, his great music doens't excuse (to me) his lesser efforts.  On my Kanye scorecard, I really like his first two albums, 2004's The College Dropout and 2005's Late Registration. 2007's Graduation was ambitious and I really liked some of it, but overall, it didn't do it for me. And I just couldn't get into 2008's 808s & Heartbreak. Going into this album, I really dug the King Crimson-sampling single "Power," and didn't really like "Runaway." So I figured there was a 50/50 chance that I would like it or not. But I definitely really like it.

The opening track, "Dark Fantasy," produced by The RZA, pretty much announces that this isn't another synthy, autotuney 808s type album. But I think the second track is where it takes off: "Gorgeous," featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon (who are both great, but the song would stand without their verses). It's a song that a rock band should re-work.  It features a cool sample of The Byrds' "You Showed Me." "Power," like I've said, is amazing. "All Of The Lights" is pretty wild, it features a ton of guest vocalists, including Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Elton John, John Legend and Fergie, among others.  

The centerpiece of the album, to me, is "Monster," a classic collab track, featuring Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj and... Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Minaj kind of steals the show with a classic verse, but the real star is Kanye's track, he produced it. Another rocking track is "Hell Of A Life" which borrows liberally from Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" (and in fact gives Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward songwriting credits). There aren't really any weak points on the entire album, and there are just so many highlights.  Yes, Kanye's attitude gets annoying, but it doesn't really ruin anything.

And by the way, even after listening to "Runaway" (the one that toasts "the douchebags and the assholes") I realized that it's actually a really good song (and would have fit in better on 808s).

OZZY OSBOURNE 12-3-2010 : HAPPY 62ND OZZY!

Last night I went to see Ozzy Osbourne with Rob Halford at New Jersey’s Izod Center, hosted by SIRIUS XM Liquid Metal dude Jose Mangin (a friend of mine, I work there also). It was a special occasion – other than the fact that two of the most timeless icons of heavy metal were performing, it was also Ozzy’s 62nd birthday. What a great time.

The last concert I went to was Bob Dylan at Terminal 5, and in some weird way, last night’s show reminded me of that one. Here’s why. Bob Dylan, who was never a great singer in the classic sense of the word, has a voice that takes some getting used to. Some would say it hasn’t aged well. The Wall Street Journal, a respected publication in the world of the arts, suggested that Bob’s recent shows haven’t been very good (although their recent Bob article ends with someone blown away by the same Terminal 5 shows that I went to). Do I think Bob’s singing voice sounds great? No. But it’s what he sounds like at 69. The reason his shows are great, other than his ridiculous catalog of timeless songs, is that he happens to have a band that loves that catalog and does it justice.

Back to Ozzy. Ozzy also has never been a great singer in the traditional sense, and really, who cares. I don’t want to hear some opera trained metal show-offy singer doing those classic Black Sabbath songs (I hated hearing most of the post-Ozzy Sabbath singers doing his songs, no disrespect), or the songs from Blizzard Of Oz or Diary Of A Madman. Ozzy is the perfect singer for those songs, and for my money, they are some of the greatest songs of all time. As I said on TV – on Bio’s Black Sabbath documentary – Sabbath’s “War Pigs” is as good a protest song as anything Dylan did (credit goes to Geezer Butler, who wrote the lyrics). Another way Ozzy reminds me of Dylan is that, OK, his voice isn’t as strong as it used to be. But back off, he just turned 62! I appreciate and respect the fact that he’s singing live, not using autotune, etc. My seats last night were so good, I was watching carefully to see if anything wasn’t kosher. Ozzy didn’t hit everything perfectly, but he had a lot of heart, that’s what *I* care about. And he wasn’t faking it.

The last way I’ll compare Ozzy’s show to Bob’s is the backing band. Like I said, Dylan’s band loves his songs and they kind of carry the show. Dylan mostly stands behind his electric piano for most of the night. Ozzy does more heavy lifting, so to speak, but his band reveres him, and the material, just the way Dylan’s band does with Bob’s songs. Gus G. is a great guitarist, albeit not totally my style: he is totally a lightning fretboard pointy guitar guy. I’m glad he used a Les Paul for the Sabbath songs! I have to give it to him, he was great. Blasko (formerly of Rob Zombie’s band) has been with Ozzy the longest, and he is a badass bass player. The “new guy” is drummer Tommy Clufetos, who was an absolute demon on the drums. He also used to play with Zombie, as well as Alice Cooper. He looks like a young Bill Ward and is just a sick player. The band is rounded out by Adam Wakeman (son of Yes’ Rick Wakeman, and he also plays in Yes these days) on keyboards and guitar. The band love Ozzy, and they love his songs and bring real power to the performances.

The performances were great. I haven’t seen a solo Ozzy performance in years, I think it was Ozzfest 2000 (featuring another great band: Zakk Wylde, a pre-Metallica Rob Trujilio and Faith No More’s Mike Bordin), but he was way more intense last night. I think he is healthier than he has been in a long time. He opened with one of my favorites, “Bark At The Moon,” and the crowd was going crazy from the first few notes. He only played one song from the new album, Scream, the title track. I actually would have loved to have heard “Let It Die,” which opens the album, and maybe another song also. I was surprised that he skipped the new album, especially since it wasn’t an all “greatest hits” type set: he played some unexpected things, like “Fire In The Sky” and “Killer Of Giants” (both of which I could have done without – I also wish he played some more stuff from Diary Of A Madman), I would have loved to hear something from Black Rain and I also really dig “Gets Me Through,” which is one of my favorite Ozzy tracks. Of course for me, the highlights were the Sabbath songs, and I’m always interested to hear how Ozzy’s band interprets them. Since Gus G. put down the pointy guitar for the Sab tunes, I was cool with it – plus, they did some stuff I was surprised to hear: “N.I.B.,” “Fairies Wear Boots” and “Into The Void.” As well as “War Pigs” and “Iron Man.” It was a great show.

I have to mention Rob Halford, who opened with his band Halford. Last time I saw Halford, it was kind of Rob’s return to classic metal after the more modern metal sound of Fight and the techno-y sound of Two. Halford were playing his classic Judas Priest songs. But since Priest is now back together, Rob avoided any original Priest songs – sticking with Halford material, plus two songs that Priest have covered: Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust” and the original Fleetwood Mac’s “The Green Manalishi.” It was a great performance, and Rob’s voice hasn’t lost any of its range or power. By the way, I know I sometimes criticize operatic metal singers, but Rob is a different deal. Yes, he probably could sing for the opera if he wanted to, but he sounds so scary when he sings, it appeals to me, where many other technically proficient metal singers don’t. He was the perfect opener for Ozzy, I had a blast.