W♥M

R.I.P. Mark Salling (Glee)

Read More Glee Say what you will, but there is no denying how successful Glee television musical show has been for Fox Television and Columbia Records. At the height of their popularity, they had over 10 million ...

Mark Salling (who played “Puck” from the musical television show Glee) has committed suicide by hanging. His body was discovered by police today, January 30th. Salling was 35.

According to TMZ, Salling tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrists in August. Salling’s troubles began after he was arrested for possession of child pornography and was facing four to seven years in prison.

In happier days, Salling was a talented musician, who wrote and sang his own music, under his stage name Jericho. He found fame as a regular cast member for Glee, at least for the first four seasons.

Below are more deaths for the month of January - for the full death list: Musicians who died in 2018.

January (69)

[30 Jan 2018] Mark Salling (American actor and musician for Glee), 35, suicide

[29 Jan 2018] Asmund Bjørken (Norwegian jazz musician), 84

[28 Jan 2018] Neil Harris (British musician for Sham 69), 63, cancer

[28 Jan 2018] Coco Schumann (German jazz musician), 93

[27 Jan 2018] Grant Fell (New Zealand bassist for Headless Chickens), 56, cancer

[27 Jan 2018] David Zard (Italian record producer), 75

[26 Jan 2018] Buzz Clifford (American singer and songwriter), 76, complications of influenza

[26 Jan 2018] Floyd Miles (American blues musician and singer), 74

[26 Jan 2018] Igor Zhukov (Russian pianist), 81

[26 Jan 2018] Francisco Savín (Mexican conductor and composer for Xalapa Symphony Orchestra), 88

[25 Jan 2018] Tommy Banks (Canadian jazz pianist, composer and senator), 81, leukemia

[25 Jan 2018] Lyudmila Senchina (Russian singer), 67

[25 Jan 2018] Sabar Koti (Indian singer), 58

[25 Jan 2018] John Morris (American film composer), 91, respiratory infection

[25 Jan 2018] Cliff White (British music journalist), 72

[24 Jan 2018] Mark E. Smith (English singer and songwriter for The Fall), 60

[24 Jan 2018] Renaud Gagneux (French composer), 70

[23 Jan 2018] Hugh Masekela (South African jazz trumpeter and composer), 78, prostate cancer

[23 Jan 2018] Lari White (American country singer and actress), 52, peritoneal cancer

[22 Jan 2018] Shorty Castro (Puerto Rican comedian, songwriter and entertainer), 89, cancer

[22 Jan 2018] Billy Hancock (American musician), 71

[22 Jan 2018] Preston Shannon (American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist), 70

[21 Jan 2018] Yao Ming (Chinese composer), 69

[20 Jan 2018] Mario Guccio (Belgian singer for Machiavel), 64

[20 Jan 2018] Jim Rodford (English musician for Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies), 76

[20 Jan 2018] Terry Evans (American blues and soul musician), 80

[19 Jan 2018] Fredo Santana (American rapper), 27, kidney failure

[18 Jan 2018] Augusto Polo Campos (Peruvian composer), 85

[17 Jan 2018] Christian Burchard (German musician), 71

[17 Jan 2018] Oldřich Veselý (Czech musician), 69

[17 Jan 2018] Denis Cuspert (German rapper and jihadist), 41, airstrike

[17 Jan 2018] Nathan Jatcko (American keyboardist for Pavlov's Dog), 31, suicide

[16 Jan 2018] Madalena Iglésias (Portuguese actress and singer), 78

[16 Jan 2018] Shammi Akhtar (Bangladeshi playback singer), 60, breast cancer

[15 Jan 2018] Edwin Hawkins (American gospel musician, multiple Grammy winner), 74, pancreatic cancer

[15 Jan 2018] Dolores O'Riordan (Irish musician for The Cranberries), 46

[15 Jan 2018] Anshel Brusilow (American violinist and conductor), 89

[15 Jan 2018] Khadija Abdullahi Daleys (Somali singer), 81

[14 Jan 2018] Paul Lustig Dunkel (American flautist and conductor), 74

[13 Jan 2018] Otoniel Gonzaga (Filipino opera singer), 75

[13 Jan 2018] Tzimis Panousis (Greek musician, comedian and actor), 63, heart attack

[11 Jan 2018] Pierre Pincemaille (French organist), 61

[10 Jan 2018] "Fast" Eddie Clarke ( British guitarist for Motörhead and Fastway), 67, pneumonia

[09 Jan 2018] Alexander Vedernikov (Russian singer and teacher, Bolshoi Theatre soloist, People's Artist of the USSR for 1976), 90

[08 Jan 2018] Denise LaSalle (American blues singer), 78

[08 Jan 2018] Vojtěch Lindaur (Czech radio host for Radio Beat and record producer), 60

[08 Jan 2018] Moriss Taylor (American country and western music entertainer for The Moriss Taylor Show), 93

[07 Jan 2018] France Gall (French singer, Eurovision 1965 winner), 70, cancer

[06 Jan 2018] Walther Dürr (German musicologist), 85

[06 Jan 2018] Chris Tsangarides (British music producer for Black Sabbath, Judas Priest), 61, pneumonia and heart failure

[05 Jan 2018] Jerry Van Dyke (American actor and singer), 86

[05 Jan 2018] Yon Koeswoyo (Indonesian singer), 77

[05 Jan 2018] Mikio "Ko-Gami" Fujioka (Japanese guitarist for Babymetal), 36, complications from a fall

[04 Jan 2018] Ray Thomas (English singer-songwriter for The Moody Blues), 76, prostate cancer

[04 Jan 2018] John Braun (American radio DJ for WBZI), 68

[04 Jan 2018] Rayya Elias (Syrian-born American author and musician), 57, pancreatic cancer

[03 Jan 2018] Lara Kruger (South African disc jockey for Motsweding FM), 30

[03 Jan 2018] Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva (Soviet opera singer and music educator), 87

[03 Jan 2018] Colin Brumby (Australian composer and conductor), 84

[02 Jan 2018] Rick Hall (American record producer, songwriter and recording studio owner of FAME Studios, "Father of Muscle Shoals Music"), 85

[02 Jan 2018] Radha Viswanathan (Indian vocalist), 83, pneumonia

[02 Jan 2018] Tony Calder ( English music promoter and executive for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones), 74

[01 Jan 2018] Vidwan Mahadevappa (Indian violinist, professor at the Fine Arts College of University of Mysore), 87

[01 Jan 2018] Teddy Edelmann (Danish singer), 76

[01 Jan 2018] Robert Mann (American violinist and composer, founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet), 97

[01 Jan 2018] Konrad Ragossnig (Austrian classical guitarist), 85

[01 Jan 2018] Peter Evans (British musicologist), 88

[01 Jan 2018] Jon Paul Steuer (American actor and musician), 33

[01 Jan 2018] Betty Willis (American soul singer), 76, strangled

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Glee: The Sixth and Final Season

Discography [2009] Glee: The Music, Vol 1: Season 1 [2009] Glee: The Music, Vol 2: Season 1 [2010] Glee: The Music, Vol 3: Showstoppers [2010] Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album [2010] Glee: The Music, Vol 4: Season 2 [2010] Glee: The Music, Vol 5: Season 2 [2010] Glee: The Music, Vol 6: Season 2 [2011] Glee The 3D Concert Movie (Motion Picture Soundtrack) [2011] Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 2 [2011] Glee: The Music, Vol 7: Season 3 [2012] Glee: The Music, The Graduation Album [2012] Glee: The Music, Season 4, Volume 1 [2013] Glee: Sings the Beatles [2012] Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Vol. 3 [2013] Glee: Movin' Out EP (Season 5) [2014] Glee: The Music - Celebrating 100 Episodes Read More Glee Yeah, it's that time of the year again, once again, Glee will be celebrating with a Christmas EP called Glee: The Music The Christmas Album Volume 4. The Christmas album is available digitally on today ... Smash I am wrong; I was under the impression that NBC's "Smash" will stand apart from Fox's "Glee" by having all original songs. Since I have been sent some music from the Smash show, there are definitely some covers along with brand new ...

Say what you will, but there is no denying how successful Glee television musical show has been for Fox Television and Columbia Records. At the height of their popularity, they had over 10 million viewers and sold over thirty-six million digital singles and eleven million albums.

You have to wonder where they would take the show, especially after the actors all graduated from the fictional William McKinley High School after its fourth season, but Fox was able to continue telling the Glee story when they re-located to New York from the original Ohio setting.

After the real-life death of actor Cory Monteith, the show producers announced that Glee Season 6 will be their final season. With that said, the Season 6 premiere kicked off earlier this year (January 9th, 2015) with a two-hour episode ("Loser Like Me" and "Homecoming").

As typical with all Glee digital singles, you can purchase the songs the week that the show air.

Episode 1 & 2: "Loser Like Me"/"Homecoming" (Jan 9, 2015)

"Uninvited" (Alanis Morrissette) - Rachel

"Suddenly Seymour" (from Little Shop of Horrors) - Blaine & Rachel

"Sing" (Ed Shareen) - The Warblers & Blaine

"Dance The Night Away" (Van Halen) - Vocal Adrenaline

"Let It Go" (from Frozen) – Rachel

"Take On Me" (Ah Ha) - Old New Directions

"Tightrope" (Janelle Monae) - Jane & The Warblers

"Mustang Sally" (Wilson Picket) - Roderick

"Home" (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) - Madison & Mason

"Problem" (Ariana Grande) - Santana, Quinn & Brittany

This was a good mix of what's super popular (The Frozen soundtrack), but with some odd choices classic hits like Ah Ha's "Take On Me" and Wilson Picket's "Mustang Sally".

Episode 3: "Jagged Little Tapestry" (Jan 16, 2015)

"It's Too Late" (Carole King) - Blaine & Kurt

"Hand In My Pocket" (Alanis Morissette)/"I Feel The Earth Move" (Carole King) - Santana & Brittany

"Head Over Feet" (Alanis Morissette)/"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Carole King) - Jane & Mason

"So Far Away" (Carole King) – Quinn & Tina

"You Learn" (Alanis Morissette)/ "You've Got a Friend" (Carole King) - Rachel, Kurt with past and present members of The New Directions

The Alanis Morissette cover lover episode, obviously celebrating her album Jagged Little Pill (1995) ... but 'you ought to know' how 'ironic' that her most popular songs were not covered?

Episode 4: "The Hurt Locker, Part One" (Jan 23, 2015)

"Bitch" (Meredith Brooks) - Sue

"Thousand Miles" (Vanessa Carlton) - Rachel & Sam

"Rock Lobster" (B-52's) - Clint & Vocal Adrenaline

"Whip It" (Devo) - Clint & Vocal Adrenaline

Although the episode will air this Friday, January 23rd, the music was digitally released on iTunes. I have to say that I'm so happy to see the B-52's cover. Max George (who plays Clint) doesn't try to do an over-the-top impression of singer Fred Schneider's very unique vocal styling... and that's probably a good thing.

Overall, I have been pretty happy with the music choices for the final season of Glee so far. I suspect since they know it's the final season, they don't really have to play to what is popular and, I hope, they'll continue to covering the more obscure music.

Empire

Since the show is ending, Fox and Columbia may be focused on a new musical drama called Empire (loosely based on William Shakespeare's King Lear and James Goldman's The Lion in Winter and not to be confused with the 1995 Empire Records film). What set this show apart is that it's not looking at pure pop, but more hip hop songs. Although the show only premiered January 7, 2015 (two weeks ago), Fox had already announced a season two for 2016! It's a strong start, and probably much better ratings than NBC's Smash (which was largely seen as a musical television for old people). However, despite critical acclaims (winning a Primetime Emmy Award), NBC ultimately cancelled Smash due to poor ratings.

The other thing that sets Empire apart from Glee is that Empire's music (spearheaded by Timbaland) will have original music for the series (instead of just cover songs).

vu (vu@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Christmas 2014: The Killers, Kate Nash, Glee, Never Shout Never, and Peace

Read More The Killers The Killers - Sawdust; Wait, didn't they just release an album ? I guess Sam's Town was released in October 2006, but funny, it seems like yesterday…

Read more Christmas articles.

THE KILLERS
thekillersmusic.com

"Christmas in L.A." (featuring Dawes) is the eight annual Christmas single by The Killers for (RED). The band has been releasing Christmas-themed singles and videos for Product Red since 2006.

The Killers, named after a fictitious band portrayed in the music video for the New Order's "Crystal" (which you can see here), was all the hotness since their debut studio album Hot Fuss in 2004 with that number hit single for that year, "Somebody Told Me".

Anyway, this new charity single, which debut December 2nd at www.rollingstone.com, feature a collaboration with the Los Angeles group, Dawes. The song was recorded at The Killers' own Battle Born Studio in Las Vegas with producer Steve Lillywhite. Actor Owen Wilson, along with Harry Dean Stanton, is featured in the music video, directed by Kelly Loosli with animation work from the students of Brigham Young University.

Like previous Killers efforts, all all proceeds from the song's sales will go to the Global Fund to fight AIDS.

Read More Kate Nash Brit Award 2008 Best Female Artist Kate Nash is currently touring in America in support of her latest album Girl Talk. She stopped by First Avenue in Minneapolis, with opener La Sera, on October 30th. …

KATE NASH
katenash.co.uk

Kate Nash's first ever Christmas EP called Have Faith With Kate Nash This Christmas came out last week (November 26th) but will be available December 10th via Dine Alone Records in Canada. The five-track EP features an all-girl three-piece punk band, The Tuts, as they play to Kate Nash's signature style lyrics.

Why the Xmas EP? Simply, Nash loves Christmas, "I just love Christmas and the old fashioned tradition of writing original material for it. I sing “Auld Lang Syne” every New Years and I love it so much, I really like the sensation of a New Year starting. I chose “Silent Night” because my mum always plays hymns around the house and it’s such a beautiful traditional song."

Have Faith With Kate Nash This Christmas Track listing:

1. I Hate You This Christmas
2. Silent Night
3. Christmas Is In The Air (Tuts)
4. Auld Lang Syne
5. Faith

Read More Glee An all-new episode of "Glee" will be airing tomorrow, October 10th. What is cool about this week is that Columbia Records, Fox, and the artist will give 100% of their net proceeds from sales of this episode, "The Quarterback"…

GLEE
gleethemusic.com

Yeah, it's that time of the year again, once again, Glee will be celebrating with a Christmas EP called Glee: The Music The Christmas Album Volume 4. The Christmas album is available digitally on today (Tuesday, December 3rd), and physically at Walmart on December 10.

Since its debut in 2009, Fox's Glee has been redefining the modern music television show by creating multiple music sales records from their anthem hit "Don’t Stop Believin'" to mash-up of Adele's "Rumour Has It" and "Someone Like You." Glee single-handedly sold over 56 million tracks and over 13 million albums worldwide.

Glee: The Music The Christmas Album Volume 4 full track listing:

1. Here Comes Santa Claus, performed by Rachel, Kurt, Santana
2. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, performed by New Directions
3. Mary’s Little Boy Child, performed by Marley, Unique, Tina
4. The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late), performed by Rachel, Kurt, Santana, Cody
5. Love Child, performed by Unique, Marley, Tina
6. Away In A Manger, performed by New Directions feat. Rachel, Kurt Santana

Read More Never Shout Never Never Shout Never is from Missouri, with five full-length album: their latest is called Sunflower, which just came out last week (July 2). …

NEVER SHOUT NEVER
nevershoutnever.com

Never Shout Never is an Indie Rock band from Missouri. Their new Christmas release, The Xmas EP is out now.

The EP features cover songs of John Prine's "Everything Is Cool", John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," the Christmas standard "Winter Wonderland," and a new song, "Under the Mistletoe" (written and recorded with Dia Frampton).

Tour dates:

12/04 Jammin' Java Vienna, VA
12/05 The Note West Chester, PA
12/06 The Studio @ Webster Hall New York, NY
12/07 Brighton Music Hall Boston, MA
12/11 Grog Shop Cleveland Heights, OH
12/12 Subterranean Chicago, IL
12/13 Firebird St Louis, MO
12/14 Outland Ballroom Springfield, MO
12/21 Chain Reaction - Anaheim, CA SOLD OUT!
12/22 Chain Reaction- Anaheim, CA

Read More Wham! Part two of We♥Christmas, it's just Sally picking her favorite Christmas song ever. That's right, Wham!'s "Last Christmas". Ever since the record came out in 1984, it's become the staple Christmas pop tune…

PEACE
peaceforeverever.co.uk

British band Peace recently covered Wham!'s well known "Last Christmas" song. When asked why, singer Harrison Koisser explains, "About a week before its beginning, we realised our approaching UK tour ran straight in to the belly of the Christmas period. Despite our Scrugicidal Tendencies, we found ourselves in a bout of excitement. A miracle perhaps? Anyway, we ended up pit deep in the festive moment & guided by the spiritual production of Blaine Harrison, we recorded a festive cover & shot some video doing it."

Peace is currently on tour in support of their critically acclaimed debut LP In Love (9/10 NME, 10/10 Vice, 9/10 DIY).

Tour dates:

12/03/13 East Village Arts Club, Liverpool
12/05/13 Academy, Oxford
12/06/13 Shepherd Bush Empire, London
12/07/13 Shepherds Bush Empire, London
12/08/13 Pyramid, Portsmou/13
12/10/13 Waterfront, Norwich
12/11/13 Ritz, Manchester
12/12/13 Anson Rooms, Bristol
12/13/13 Academy, Birmingham

Support throughout will come new Sheffield duo, Drenge, with Is Tropical and Troumaca (12/07) and Superfood (12/06 and 12/13).

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com

Sister Acts

Read More Sisters I ended up missing the sisters, Hannah and Colette Thurlow, again. I did technically "see" them in the audience for Widowspeak, who previously toured with 2:54 in June. …

HAIM
haimtheband.com

The numbers are in, and as expected, the Haim sisters (Este, Danielle, and Alana) received the #1 spot in the U.K., and an impressive #6 on the Billboard album charts in the U.S., for their debut album Days Are Gone (released September 30th via Polydor/Columbia).

What's interesting to note is that this band is from California, so why are they so popular in the U.K.? That's because the girls first signed to Polydor Records last year and they've been regionally marketing them to the BBC and NME, and it didn't hurt them when they opened up for Florence + the Machine tour last December.

Needless to say, HAIM will be doing a short American tour in support of their debut album:

10/10 Lawrence, KS - The Granada
10/12 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
10/14 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
10/15 San Diego, CA - Casbah
10/16 Los Angeles, CA - Fonda
10/18 Pomona, CA - The Glass House
10/20 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island
10/22 Portland, OR - Mississippi Studios
10/23 Seattle, WA - Neumos
10/27 Las Vegas, NV - Life is Beautiful

Read More Joanna Newsom The Royal Albert Hall was made for Joanna Newsom. Forget anything you think you may know about it's official history. It opened in 1871 and has played host to over 150,000 …

JOANNA GRUESOME
facebook.com

Cardiff-based Joanna Gruesome will be in New York for CMJ (see our CMJ Preview). The full CMJ schedule for Joanna Gruesome is listed below.

The noisepop five-piece will likely play songs from their debut album Weird Sister, released last month on Fortuna POP! (Europe) and Slumberland Records (USA).

Hear "Supercrush" now:



Joanna Gruesome's CMJ Schedule (in New York City and Brooklyn):

10/15 Cameo Gallery (Oh My Rockness/Insound)
10/15 Baby's Alright (Force Field PR showcase)
10/16 Pianos (Kanine Records/SESAC) - 3:30pm
10/16 Pianos (Old Flame Party) 7:45pm
10/17 Cakeshop (Capeshow Presents) 12:00am
10/18 Shea Stadium (Portals Music) 9:00pm
10/18 285 Kent (Pitchfork showcase) 11:15pm
10/19 Rock Shop (Lost Colony party)
10/19 Death By Audio (Agency Group showcase)

Read More Pixies As I have previously mention, the Pixies are discovering a new life in touring and serving their existing aging fans. I don't know if they have a new album out, it's all very cryptic right now. …

THE BREEDERS
thebreederslsxx.com

The Deal sisters (Kim & Kelly) and their band, the Breeders, is taking their last, last, really last splash with the 20th Anniversary Tour. Be on the lookout for the deluxe limited 7xLP vinyl box set, as well as the 3xCD set, for the anniversary edition of Last Splash via 4AD Records.

It sounds like the vinyl box is out of my budget, but this is the only place that you'll find these re-issues of the four 10" EPs (Safari, Cannonball, Divine Hammer, and Head to Toe), the original album (not re-mastered), a live album Stockholm Syndrome album on 12", a 1993 BBC radio session, and original demos from November 1992. Also, you'll get a 24-page book of photos from the Last Splash session and personal tour photos and anecdotes written by the Breeders, Kim Gordon, J Mascis, etc.

LSXX tour:

10/09/13 Miami, FL Grand Central
10/11/13 Guadalajara, Mx Teatro Estudio
10/13/13 Corona Capital Festival
10/26/13 Release The Bats
10/28/13 Newtown, Aus Enmore Theatre
10/29/13 Brisbane, Aus The Tivoli
10/31/13 Perth, Aus Astor Theatre
12/12/13 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue

Read More Glee Fans of "Glee" should pick up the new Christmas album, hitting stores today (December 11th). The incredibly popular musical television series selling strong - both on the physical CD and digital downloads. …

GLEE
gleethemusic.com

An all-new episode of "Glee" will be airing tomorrow, October 10th. What is cool about this week is that Columbia Records, Fox, and the artist will give 100% of their net proceeds from sales of this episode, "The Quarterback", from the U.S. and Canada to Project Limelight.

Project Limelight Society was co-founded by sisters Donalda Weaver and Maureen Webb, to help youths between the age 8 to 15 in the Strathcona (Vancouver) district. The aspiring students will learn skills, techniques and forms of expression, including clowning, creative writing, voice work, movement and improvisation. Eventually, they will take what they learn for performance on a community stage. You can visit projectlimelightsociety.org for more information.

"The Quarterback" Track-List:

"Seasons Of Love" (Rent) - Full cast
"I'll Stand By You" (The Pretenders) - Mercedes
"Fire & Rain" (James Taylor) - Sam & Artie
"If I Die Young" (The Band Perry) - Santana
"No Surrender" (Bruce Springsteen) - Puck
"Make You Feel My Love" (Bob Dylan/Adele) – Rachel

Read More CMJ It's that time of the year again: CMJ Music Marathon in New York! The music festival is taking place this year on October 15th to October 19th! And YES, we are covering it this year! …

CANADIAN BLAST
canadianblast.com

The seventh annual Canadian Blast CMJ Showcase is taking place October 16th at Arlene's Grocery. As I have previously discovered, this is actually not a grocery store, but an actual concert venue.

You can find other Canadian Blast (an initiative of the Canadian Independent Music Association or CIMA) showcases at similar festivals, including SXSW, MIDEM (France), The Great Escape (which we covered), and, of course, CMJ. The showcase will feature Canadian bands, including Courage My Love, a pop/punk rock trio consisting of twin sisters Mercedes (vocals/guitar) & Phoenix (drums/vocals).

Here is a detailed listing of set time:

07pm - Ben Caplan
08pm - Bear Mountain
09pm - Born Gold
10pm - Courage My Love
11pm -The Motorleague

CIMA gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our Canadian partners and sponsors: Audio-Video Licensing Agency Inc. (AVLA), Canadian Music Week (CMW), the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), the Government of Canada (through MEC/Canadian Heritage), Harvard Broadcasting, Music Managers Forum (Canada), the Radio Starmaker Fund, and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). CIMA also acknowledges the support of Musicians’ Rights Organization Canada (MROC) and BreakOut West for Canadian Blast at CMJ 2013.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com

Jonathan C's in Trouble

Read More Jonathan Coulton Everyone that came to see Jonathan Coulton played were hardcore fans, and we're talking about 600+ nerds who knew all of JoCo's songs by heart .…

Again, I should let you know that I don't watch Glee, but if you saw last week's show, "Sadie Hawkins", you might have noticed a blatant rip off of Jonathan Coulton's cover version of "Baby Got Back" (which we mentioned in 2007). I've included a side-by-side wave breakdown below of the first minute (see image below) - they match up almost exactly.

I got a chance to finally listen to the Glee version a few days ago, and it's basically a karaoke version of Coulton's arrangement - down to "Oakland booty" intro, the banjo plucking, and "Johnny C's in trouble" lyrics. Understandably Coulton is really upset about this. Fox's representatives won't credit or even acknowledged using Coulton's music or arrangement.

From Coulton's blog:

… [Fox]'s within their legal rights to do this, and that I should be happy for the exposure (even though they do not credit me, and have not even publicly acknowledged that it’s my version – so you know, it’s kind of SECRET exposure). While they appear not to be legally obligated to do any of these things, they did not apologize, offer to credit me, or offer to pay me, and indicated that this was their general policy in regards to covers of covers.

Glee's "Baby Got Back" is currently on iTunes, making money off of Coulton's work. Coulton is turning this around and putting his original 2007 cover back on iTunes under the title "Baby Got Back (In the Style of Glee)." This is a bit of a joke that he's "covering" Glee, when in fact: it's exactly like his version.

All proceeds from now until the end of February to two charities: The VH1 Save the Music Foundation and The It Gets Better Project.

You know who's really happy about all this? Sir Mix-a-Lot.

Can you tell which song is which?

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Christmas 2012

Read More Mariah Carey Part three of We♥Christmas, the hits keeps on coming. Lara picks her least favorite Christmas song, as well as thrown in some of her favorites: Mariah Carey's "O Holy Night". .....

Christmas time is almost here, so I've been getting a lot of xmas emails lately. If you recall, I started writing about Christmas releases in November (that's because they have to get the product in stores for Black Friday).

Anyway, as usual, I get so much Christmas-related music that I can't really mention them all.

MARIAH CAREY
mariahcarey.com/

Lara previously mentioned how her favorite Christmas album was from Mariah Carey.

So, Carey's Christmas album, Merry Christmas II You, the follow-up to her 1994 Merry Christmas, was released in 2010. Carey decided to re-release Merry Christmas II You this year - as far as I can see, the track listing is the same as the 2010 version. There doesn't seem to be anything new/different in this new version.

The only thing I can think of the re-issue is for the benefit of the Australian audience… where she is playing a few dates.

01/01/13 Gold Coast, Australia Convention & Expo Centre
01/03/13 Sydney, Australia Allphones Arena

Read More Glee With Season 4 just kicked off last month, here are some of the covers: Adele's "Chasing Pavements", Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Imagine Dragons' "It's Time", The Fray's "Never Say Never", mashup of Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga's .....

GLEE
fox.com/glee

Fans of "Glee" should pick up the new Christmas album, hitting stores today (December 11th). The incredibly popular musical television series selling strong - both on the physical CD and digital downloads.

The new album is entitled, Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 3 and should be in most retail stores (including a massive Target section). The album will contain four new songs, recorded exclusively for this album: "Joy To The World", "Silent Night", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "Happy Xmas."

The full track listing for Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Vol. 3 is as follows:

1. Feliz Navidad
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3. Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah
4. White Christmas
5. Jingle Bell Rock
6. The First Noel
7. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
8. Silent Night
9. Joy To The World
10. Happy Xmas

Still can't get enough of Glee? You should pick up Glee: The Music - Season 4 Vol 1, released in November. The thirteen track includes a cover of the popular Psy's "Gangnam Style" song. You can read more about Psy here.

CHRISTMAS IN THE SMOKIES
bluegrasschristmasinsmokies.com

Kicking off tomorrow and continues to December 15th is "Christmas In The Smokies: Bluegrass Festival Announces 2012 Festival."

Bluegrass is not my scene, so looking over their flyer, I didn't really know any of the bands involved. It seems like it's targeted to families and good times.

The Annual Christmas in the Smokies will feature 15 talented artist including: Carolina Road, Your Host Band; Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Marty Raybon, Goldwing Express, Ralph Stanley II, Bobby Osborne & Rocky Top X-Press, Gary Waldrep Band, Jerry Butler & The Blu-J's, Remington, Ryde, Bluegrass Mountaineers, The Larkins, Reno Tradition, Mountain Faith, Hart Brothers and Bluegrass Gentleman.

General admission is as little $23 for one day. Children under 12 are free. See their website for full price breakdowns.

Event will take place at:

Ramada Inn & Smokey Mountain Convention Center 4010 Parkway
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37863

INVISIBLE CHILDREN HOLIDAY BENEFIT SHOW
invisiblechildren.com

Invisible Children announced their Holiday Benefit show at Los Angeles' Troubadour with help from 89.9 KCRW and Chop Shop Music. The show will take place December 15th.

The main band on the bill is DeVotchKa (with a 7-Piece String Ensemble) with White Arrows, The Colourist, Whispertown and more. Not all the guests have been announced.

The proceeds from this year's show go to Invisible Children's holiday campaign, Come Home For the Holidays, an effort to increase HF radio coverage and defection fliers that will encourage LRA combatants to lay down their weapons and return home.

The first 50 people through the door will receive a limited edition show poster designed by Jon Contino (if you are a later arriver, the posters will also be available for purchase at the show.)

Tickets for the show are $25 and can be purchased at the Troubadour's website.

LEFTOVER CUTIES
leftovercuties.com

Christmas Time Is Here is the new holiday EP from Los Angeles' Leftover Cuties.

The band is currently in the studios recording new music for an upcoming album with producer/engineer Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Macy Gray, SherylCrow) - set to be released in Spring 2013.

You can listen to Christmas Time Is Here on Soundcloud.

Catch Leftover Cuties Live:

12/19 – The Mint – Los Angeles, CA
01/14 – City Winery (with Shelby Lynne) – NY
01/15 – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY

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US Television Guide 2013

Once again, the new Fall season for shows are starting up. Like my 2012 Television Guide, these are just television shows that I'm interested or checked out. By no means is this a definitive guide.

So far, these are the shows I have been enjoying:

REVOLUTION
nbc.com/revolution

I have a hard time believing that man could somehow break the laws of nature, but in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, the world loses the ability to produce electricity and power. The world is plunged into chaos.

The show is similar to another program last year called Terra Nova, but that show wasn't very good because it just wasn't believable. I didn't have an issue with man vs dinosaurs, but the basis of the show was about future people vs future people. I didn't care about the rebels or the settlers… so when the show ended, it was almost a relief.

Revolution is fairly simple, a world without electricity and under a martial rule. The first few episodes are about the Charlotte Matheson trying to get her brother, Danny back with the aid of her uncle Miles. There's a lot of walking around and campfire, but no real direction (it just seems like they're wandering and being hunted by the military).

Since the show hint that the blackout was caused by man, it would seem that the endgame to this show is probably to get the power back. But where do you go from there? That's why you almost don't want the power to come back.

Revolution airs on NBC on Monday at 10pm.

THE BIG BANG THEORY
cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory

I came to The Big Bang Theory fairly late in the game. I was given season one on DVD and instantly watched every episode back to back. Fast-forward five years later and the show is one of the most popular comedies on CBS.

The show does have some barriers, for one, it's centered around "very smart" physicists and technicians. Strangely, instead of spending their time at work or saving the world, they collect comics and watch sci-fi movies. The only "dumb" cast member is also "the hot girl" Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress. Also, they're all white, except the one Indian who can't speak to women.

To sum it up: this is a show about dudes and their man-caves. The only girl is the sex appeal next door.

Leave that all behind, and this is a pretty funny show. Season five just started recently and, like all their shows, was too short and not very memorable. I saw episode one, but for the life of me, cannot tell you what it was all about it. I remember Howard in space with a beard and he's "skyping" with Bernadette and I thought that doesn't seem very believable to get that kind of bandwidth in space….

The Big Bang Theory is airing on CBS on Thursday at 8pm.

ELEMENTARY
cbs.com/shows/elementary

CBS's re-imagined Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stars Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr Watson.

Right off the bat: I hate it. I just don't understand why Sherlock Holmes is such a hot property right now with the recent film versions starring Robert Downey, Jr. and BBC's Sherlock series.

CBS's Elementary is a modernday remake of the Holmes character, but with an extreme makeover: Holmes as a recovering drug junkie and Dr Watson is now an Asian woman. When the two met, there was this slight nod to a sexual tension, which I instantly hated. Plus, the whole Holmes as an ex-junkie seemed pretty far-fetched, considering that he's way too smart to get into mind-altering drugs.

Set in a police procedural/crime drama, Holmes has this "super power" of deductive reasoning. Also, the character comes to these outrageous conclusions that are just unbelievable. You cannot predict a baseball game's score based on x and y, I don't buy it.

It should be interesting to see where this goes, but if there is a love story between Watson and Holmes, I definitely will tune out. There are just some mysteries that Sherlock Holmes shouldn't solve.

Elementary premiered on CBS on September 27, 2012, and airs on Thursday.

2 BROKE GIRLS
cbs.com/shows/2_broke_girls

2 Broke Girls is an American television sitcom that debuted on CBS last year.

You don't need to watch the series back to back to follow the struggles of Max & Caroline, but the overall plot is that Caroline is the daughter of a Bernie Madoff-type. The two odd couple roommates is what makes it work for me, one New Jersey street-smart brunette Max and the fall-from-grace classy pampered girl Caroline personality.

Although I have no problems with the generalization of stereotype characters (the greasy Ukrainian/sleazy pervert Oleg, the short Korean/asexual owner Han, the old black cashier Earl, and the "milf" outrageously dressed Polish cleaner lady), I can see why people might be offended by the racist connotation. Most of the critics have issues with the "racist jokes."

With Season 2 just started, the producers are sticking with what made their show a hit: using the same typical race and sex jokes in the support cast. The first episode finally introduced Caroline's dad. We heard about him in the first season but never actually saw him. I hope Caroline's dad isn't a reoccurring character, I would rather see more of Caroline's horse than her father.

The three 2012 Emmy Awards-nominee series is currently on CBS on Monday at 9pm.

FRINGE
fox.com/fringe/

Fringe is currently my favorite show. It was created by the minds of J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Fringe returns in its fifth (and final season). While I would hate to see it go away, I find that I am losing interest in the show. Personally, I think it was better if we didn't know anything about the alternate Earth. To me, why the show works is the weirdness and mysteries from the other world. I like the idea of the "mystery of the week", but the show has moved well beyond its original concept.

The fifth season is all about the "future". The world is taken over by the observers and Olivia and Peter and Walter Bishop are trying to save the world. I don't understand why the observers are no longer observing but… partaking in changing and owning the world. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

If you like the X-Files and the more 1995 version of the Outer Limits, you might really like Fringe. I hate to see Fringe go away, but everything must end. I will be watching it in anticipation to see how it all wraps up.

Fringe's fifth and final season airs on Fox on Friday at 9pm.

THE MOB DOCTOR
fox.com/the-mob-doctor

I caught this The Mob Doctor on Hulu out of randomness and I have to say, I liked what I saw. It is about a doctor who ends up working for the Mafia to save her brother. So far, from the first two episodes, the show is painting her brother as a no-good character with no redeeming value - so it's hard for me to understand why his sister tries so hard to save him. I wish the writers would throw the guy a bone/show why his family loves him instead of just showing what a horrible person he is. No one wants to see this. Where does he even fit in this drama?

Anyway, I don't know where this is heading, but at the moment, Dr Grace has to help (or kill?) people on orders from the Mob boss. Since you have no idea how deep her brother's debts goes, you have no idea how long this will go on.

It's interesting enough, but I fear without a solid direction, I might lose interest in this show.

The Mob Doctor is on Fox on Monday. I don't know the time because it's on demand on Hulu.

GLEE
fox.com/glee

Let me be clear, I have tried to get into Glee again and again but I have never liked the television show. I can't relate to any of the high school glee club members. That's not to say that the show is bad, it's just not for me. What they have going for them is their studio-recording of cover songs. The majority of covers are sung by the actual cast members, but once in a while they do have special music guests.

With Season 4 just kicked off last month, here are some of the covers: Adele's "Chasing Pavements", Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe", Imagine Dragons' "It's Time", The Fray's "Never Say Never", mashup of Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga's "Dance Again"/"Americano", Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", Hole's "Celebrity Skin", "The Way You Look Tonight"/"You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" (mashup of Jerome Kern and from the musical Annie), and Sheryl Crow's "A Change Would Do You Good."

There was a special all Britney Spears special episode called Britney 2.0 and featured eight of her songs: "Hold It Against Me", "Gimme More", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Boys"/"Boyfriend" (mashup with Justin Bieber), "3", "Everytime", and "(You Drive Me) Crazy"/"U Drive Me Crazy"/"Crazy" (mashup with Aerosmith).

Airing on October 4th will include these covers: Duncan Sheik's "Barely Breathing", No Doubt's "Don't Speak", Coldplay's "The Scientist", Demi Lovato's "Give Your Heart a Break", Taylor Swift's "Mine", and Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream."

Of all the covers, I have to say that I really enjoyed "Oops!" and "The Scientist". I've always liked the Coldplay song, so it's kind of impossible to mess up on the cover.

Glee is currently on Thursday on Fox.

QUICKLY: Tried to get into new season of Once Upon a Time, could not do it. The problem? Too many characters to keep track of. Plus the whole supernatural element and fairy dusts and magic, well it's all too confusing to me.

Could not get into season one of Revenge, tried premiere of season two with same disinterest. I just didn't care why they want to kill her.

666 Park Avenue had same feeling about this. 666 is based on the novel of the same name, and like any adaptation it seems very slow-moving. Nothing happened in the first episode.

Person of Interest season two is going well. The two main characters are separated and I'm interested. Can't wait for the next episode.

Grimm season two is the opposite. I don't like how the main character's sidekick can now also see the supernatural characters. Also: why are there more grimm characters than actual "humans"?

Dexter's final season just started. I don't like where this is heading. My speculation is that they will capture and put Dexter in prison, and it's something that I don't want to see. I'll watch to the end though.

Homeland season two also started: I like the first season, it could have ended there and I would've been completely happy at its ending. Don't know where they can go with season two, because I don't like the Brody character, even though they try and paint this sympathetic character portrait.

Doctor Who 2005 is in its seventh season. Tried to get into this: I just don't "get" British humor and style. The Who character has been around for ages, I have never ever been interested in the various "Doctors" (what kind of doctor is he anyway?), so this new season doesn't really interest me at all.

vu () ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ podcast.weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic ♥ +W♥M

Site Update (April 2012) - Blogsy

NOTE: The entire post was composed and created using Blogsy on the iPad.

W♥M on iPad..

I have been searching for an app like this, because the iPhone TypePad application needs a lot of work. One of the main thing I need the application to do is to insert images, along with my text, and there just wasn't a way for you to do this via iOS. Unfortunately, TypePad currently does not offer iOS Safari support (this is terribly frustrating for mobile bloggers).

Unless you know the name (Blogsy), it's hard to find this application in the iTunes store. Searching for "TypePad" or Blog Editor doesn't exactly return Blogsy. There isn't a demo version, so I had to pay $5 to basically test out the application.

I'll admit that I haven't played around with it enough, but one thing I wasn't sure about is how do you save things in draft? I understand that you can save it to TypePad in draft mode, but I want to save it in draft locally on the iPad. Then it turns out that it was automatically saving it locally when I accidentally clicked on the "+" icon and panicked because I thought I had deleted my entry.

The other thing I didn't care for is the way they implement inserting images. You have to "upload" it to your TypePad image icon and then you can insert it into your article. That's a minor complaint, it's just not obvious to me. Even accessing your photo gallery is a pain because you have to allow the application to access location services. Since I automatically disable location, I had to go into my settings to allow this application access.

Some improvements I wish Blogsy had:

(1) Autocorrect and dictionary/spellcheck. iOS offer access to its dictionary throughout its system... yet it sometime works and sometime it doesn't work (this is evident when you flip back and forth to HTML). (2) A better image inserting system. I've used application that has "insert" and then you just select images from your gallery and voila, it's done. (3) Remove certain icons from the dock (could not figure out how to remove these icons).

(4) Once you insert an image, moving it around is not obvious. I had to delete it and then re-insert the image at a different location. I'm sure there is a way to move it around, but I just couldn't figure it out. (5) Allow better HTML editing option. I tried to add some CSS style to the image (adding a 1 pixel border), but Blogsy just stripped it out. (6) Changing the post date to a future date doesn't work - it will publish your article anyway.

Anyway, those are really tiny little complaints. I'm sure 99% of users don't really care about these things because I'm sure they're all WYSIWYG users.

My last mo-blogging misadventure was last year in Canada, so I can tell you it was a lot of work to get around the restriction. Compared to working with Blogsy, it's definitely a lot easier. I am looking forward to a future articles via my iPad.

To end this, I'll test out the video embedding option.

 

 

W♥M128: Must Hear TV

W♥M128 (42 mins) Read More Glee Glee is charming in how, through their music selection, they have a little something for everybody….

W♥M Radio is available on iTunes, please subscription!

Lara is this week's guest. There are two parts of this show, the first is about live shows we've recently seen and the second part is all about music shows on television.

PART ONE:

Song of the Lara is "Lara Croft - a Love Song"

One million Brooklyn bands can't be wrong. Also, newsflash: Williamsburg is more than one block.

The impossible to search, 1,2,3 band. Their live show at 7th Street Entry.

Matthew Caw, from Nada Surf, looking fit at First Avenue

The origin of the term "Sissy music"

Icelandic people are hot. Lay Low and Of Monsters and Men came to Fine Line Cafe.

PART TWO:

NBC's The Voice explained. Lara is addicted.

Smash show, who is it for?

Fox's Glee domination in popular music! Read all the crazy numbers.

Speaking of numbers: song of the show is 1,2,3's "Just Like Heaven (Is Gone)", from their album New Heaven.

BONUS: Brooklyn Vegan.

ABOUT THE VOICE
The competition heats up as the top twenty-four artists from Teams Adam, Blake, CeeLo and Christina get set to compete for America’s votes as the live performance phase kicks off Mondays beginning April 2 (8-10 p.m. ET) followed by an hour-long live results show on Tuesdays beginning April 3 (9-10 p.m. ET). The live shows will culminate in a two-hour season finale on Tuesday, May 8 (8-10 p.m. ET)

[ Read more on news.weheartmusic.com ]

ABOUT SMASH
13 tracks from SMASH will be available as an album, available everywhere on May 1st. The album will feature stars Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty, and various cast members performing the original Broadway-type music for "the musical-within-a-musical" show.

[ Read more on news.weheartmusic.com ]

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Archive of this show at archive.org. More information on podomatic.com

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US Television Guide 2012

Apologies to people outside of the USA, but here is a guide to some semi-current television shows (and their theme music). With the exception of "Justified" (which I only discovered recently), these shows debut in late 2011 or early 2012. They are also shows that I'm interested in, which are crime, science fiction or music-related.

ALCATRAZ
www.fox.com

It goes without saying that since Lost and Fringe, I’ve been hooked on JJ Abrahams television shows. The man is a true genius, not only able to create and juggle and produce some of the best TV programming, but did you know he is also a music composer? He wrote the Alcatraz theme song.

So, Alcatraz’s premise is in its start narrative:

On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz officially closed. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that's not what happened. Not at all.

The prisoners (and guards) all disappeared on that date and they suddenly started appearing in 2012, at the same age that they vanished. Although that sounds like there are some supernatural forces - the show suggests there is actually some sort of weird science behind the disappearance.

The show is about a cop, an FBI agent, and a comic book writer, and they go after a “prisoner of the week”.

Several things I have issues with the show: 1) Why do these ex-prisoners, once freed, go back to a life of crime? and 2) If they disappeared originally with prison outfits, wouldn’t it make sense that they reappear in the same garments ? and 3) How come these returning prisoners don’t have 1963 slangs and why aren’t they in awe of today’s technology - like an iPhone? If I were a time traveler, seeing a device like that would just blow my mind.

Anyway, I’m loving the show so far, mostly excited to see Sam Neill back in action, the man is a bit of a legend, having played Damiem in The Omen 3, Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, and the scientist who created the Event Horizon spaceship.

Alcatraz is playing on Monday evenings on Fox, check your local time and listing.

SMASH nbc.com/smash Let’s be frank, "Smash" is NBC’s answer to the highly successful Fox’s Glee series. Unlike Glee’s cover-lover songs every week, Smash’s music is of the Broadway musical big band numbers - no covers. It's strictly original music by composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. The most interesting thing is that it’s a win-win situation for Columbia Record, who has rights to distribute both Glee and Smash music. I did end up watching the pilot episode of Smash and can't say that I was impress. The show is basically about the birth of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe and its two lead singers. Glee, on the other hand, continues to be quite popular with music fans. What's interesting to note is that they have a good mixture of music genre in their covers this week: alternative rock (Young The Giant's "Cough Syrup"), British/Irish boy band (The Wanted's "Glad You Came"), hip-hop (Nicki Minaj's "Fly"), R&B (R.Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly"), funk (Lenny Kravitz's "Stand"), hard-rock (Halestorm's "Here's To Us") and countrypop (Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You"). Music from the "On My Way" episode will be available tomorrow on iTunes.

TOUCH fox.com Did you miss the premiere pilot episode of Touch? Well, you can catch it again as a free download on Amazon and PS3 and iTunes and Hulu and Xbox, under the “Free TV” section. Fox really want to get the pilot on people’s television, which, personally, I believe is the best way of promoting a new show (instead of spending thousands of dollars to buy advertisements). If you were expecting the main character, played by Kiefer Southerland, to be as aggressive and in your face as 24, you may be in for a disappointment. That’s not a bad thing; Southerland is a solid actor, playing a concern father trying to understand his mute-math-child. It is a great pilot, start, middle and end, and everything wrapped up neatly. The biggest problem I have is: where does the show go from here? It seems like everything is solved at the end of the pilot, do I need to come back for more? Music, as credited on the show, is by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, or better known as Wendy and Lisa. We reviewed their White Flags of Winter Chimneys: "you can hear the growth of two artists who have been making music together for over twenty years and who are very comfortable in who they are and the kind of music they create."

PRIME SUSPECT nbc.com Okay, here’s an odd one. The premise is taken from the UK’s cop drama of the same name. I have not seen the UK Prime Suspect (on account that BBC’s iPlayer still won’t let people outside of the UK to view its programming), but I think I get the gist of it - a “tough as nail” girl homicide detective in a male police environment. Again, I haven’t seen the UK version, but the US version, taking place in a large metropolitan area (presumably New York) and it works really well in this setting. One thing is for sure, everyone, cops and robbers, are all jerks! It’s what makes them human, and I personally like (and hate) all the characters. Only 13 episodes were ordered, NBC hasn’t announced that they will be renewing it, but seeing as the show hasn’t exactly taken off... I don’t think there will be a season two. And it’s really too bad, because I was starting to warm up to the other homicide detectives. Even in their dumb ways, they manage to solve the crime in the end. Theme song for the show is by Extreme Music, a music production company. I believe the song is entitled "Glorious". It sounds like a cross between U2 and Nickleback with violins.

JUSTIFIED fxnetworks.com Let me tell you: I love Westerns, particularly Italian Westerns, so I was blown away at this very modern take on the classic Western genre in a serialized television program. Justified is on its third season and brings back the same convicts and Marshalls from the previous seasons; even though I could have sworn some of them should have died with multiple gun shots! In its third season, the main gunslinger, Raylan, finds himself wounded from the previous finale. He can’t shoot straight - yet somehow manages to outsmart and outshoot criminals! I love it. Apparently Justified was based on Elmore Leonard’s western novels, so if you’re not into cowboys and outlaws, this really isn’t the show for you. The theme song is the most colorful and memorable of all these new shows - it’s a bit like rap music set to a bluegrass folky music. That probably best describe the band Gangstagrass, who was nominated for 2010 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Best Title Theme song for the Justified theme song, “Long Hard Times To Come”.

RINGER cwtv.com Don’t you miss Buffy? I missed Faith, then I saw Dollhouse, and boy, I didn’t miss five-by-five after that disaster of a show. So, Ringer is the new show starring ex-Buffy star Michelle Sarah Gellar. She plays both Bridget and Siobhan (pronounced "sho-van"). Bridget is running away from the mob, so she takes over her sister's rich/successful life after she finds out that Siobhan committed suicide. The show isn't that good; I find it hard to believe that the FBI (and all the characters, including her BFF) can’t figure out that it is Bridget, not Siobhan. The drama really is about a cat and mouse game of Gellar trying to conceal her big secret. Theme music for Ringer is by Gabriel Mann, who also plays in a band called The Rescues.

PERSON OF INTEREST cbs.com Again, another JJ production. This show had a great start, but as the show goes on and you find out more about the two main characters, it got a bit stale. I guess sometime you just want it to be a mystery, you know? If you don’t know, the show is about a smart man, Mr. Finch, who built a computer that tracks and predicts terrorists. Finch hires Reese to help him prevent crimes based on the computer’s output. As I mentioned before, I got kind of bored of this show - there just wasn’t any real “threat” to the duo. However, things are starting to get better, on the latest episode; we’re introduced to a hacker Root, who is giving them a hard time. Once again, main theme is written by JJ Abrahams.

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