American Idol Season 9

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I had never heard of Sons of Sylvia before, but I thought they looked hilarious. Tall dude in skinny jeans looking like he's having an orgasm while playing a mandolin? Hell yes. Comedy to the 47th degree. Violin out of fucking nowhere? Amazing.

I thought the lead singer looked like the love child between Rob Lowe and C Thomas Howell.

[Kodos]

Thank god we never watch the results shows.

[lordscarlet]

Ugh. What the hell happened to the Clark Brothers? I'm glad they changed their name, because they are not the same band.

[Mustang]

And next week.. Sinatra songs. What, couldn't get clearance for an Andrews Sisters' week?

[Ksyrup]

I kinda wish Andrew Garcia was still around for Sinatra week. He's got that faux-lounge act down pat, would have been entertaining to watch.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

OneRepublic...the Matchbox 20 of the 2010s.

If Matchbox 20 were a one hit wonder band. Yes, I know OneRepublic put out more than one charting song, but they are really defined by the one. I thought the SoS song fell into an anthem type of category. Brainless overly repetitive song that does well as a high energy song live. It's the kind of stuff that area rock bands use all of the time.

I think for some reason AI tends to have the mics set up well for their own contestants, but for some reason when artists come there with much bigger sound the acoustics go to hell. I don't think I've heard a name artist sound good this year.

Big Mike is now the target for vote for the worst even though Aaron has topped their poll the last two times.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Matthean

Big Mike is now the target for vote for the worst even though Aaron has topped their poll the last two times.

Not sure why it should be anyone else but Aaron. Although, I think Aaron will win in the end just because the teen vote.

[Ksyrup]

They chose someone who could possibly go home to make themselves look good when he gets voted off, rather than the least talented person left, becaue they know Aaron has a strong backing. He's getting all of Tim's votes. I suspect he'll make the top 3.

Which is a joke, of course. He's a marginal singer and has absolutely no personality. He's like the zombie clone version of Archuleta.

[Ksyrup]

In order to make the contestants sound as relevant as possible and allow them the maximum opportunity to make Sinatra's songs "their own," contestants (reportedly) won't be allowed to use guitars this week.

Oh, and for the results night FFers, Lady Gaga is performing.

[Ksyrup]

On Tuesday’s American Idol performance episode, the finalists will perform Frank Sinatra songs and be mentored by Harry Connick, Jr., who Fox says “will be the first Idol mentor to arrange the songs, write the orchestrations for the contestants and perform.”

I guess that would explain it. I like Connick, but I'm not really sure I understand what these kinds of performances have to do with shaping an alleged future pop star.

[wade moore]

Yeah, I audibly groaned when I heard it was Sinatra week.

This only makes it that much worse.

[wade moore]

So when the arrangement is bad, etc - who do the judges blame?

[lordscarlet]

Were the contestants really doing most of the arrangements previously? Or is it mostly Ricky Minor?

[Ksyrup]

I think it is/was mostly that man and/or woman who we see a good bit of during Hollywood Week working with the contestants through the group hell night. My guess is most of the contestants might come in with an idea or someone else's remake of a song they choose, but that's about it and the musical directors handle most of it. My guess is very few contestants are like Adam Lambert or Blake Lewis and really call the shots each week.

[Mustang]

I don't think any of these current contestants has really done anything unique. Unless you count Casey saying 'Ok.. last week I stood over there and played my guitar, but THIS week, I'm going to stand over here and play my guitar.'

I'd rather have Lady Gaga do all the arrangements. ("I di-di-di-did it ma-ma-ma-ma-my waaaaaaaay") All you are going to get out of Connick is big band arrangements which is good for him, not this group.

For the most part, I don't care about the technical aspects of singing, I just want them to give me a dose of Maximus and entertain me and this year, there have been almost none of those instances. I very much doubt tomorrow will provide any either.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I think it is/was mostly that man and/or woman who we see a good bit of during Hollywood Week working with the contestants through the group hell night. My guess is most of the contestants might come in with an idea or someone else's remake of a song they choose, but that's about it and the musical directors handle most of it. My guess is very few contestants are like Adam Lambert or Blake Lewis and really call the shots each week.

and yet they get blamed for it all the time.. ugh..

[MJ4H]

Not terribly relevant but I just found out my wife is going to get to meet Taylor Hicks tomorrow.

[Danny]

I'm sorry MJ4H, can't win em all.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Not terribly relevant but I just found out my wife is going to get to meet Taylor Hicks tomorrow.

Is he on her celebrity list?

[Mota]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

and yet they get blamed for it all the time.. ugh..

Exactly. They might as well have death metal week and bluegrass week, these are just as relevant to the future pop stars' career as Sinatra. It really only works for the 1 annual crooner in the group (of which there are none this year), and it's incredibly cheesy and pathetic for the rest of them.

[MJ4H]

Yes but it's not laminated so it doesn't count.

[Ksyrup]

PING: MJ4H

Melinda Doolittle: My book, BEYOND ME, comes out tomorrow!
My new book, Beyond Me, is releasing tomorrow!

Beyond Me talks about the behind the scenes of IDOL, but much more than that, it contains life lessons I’ve learned along the way:

I hope you all get a chance to read it. Beyond Me is my journey poured into a book in the hopes that the things I’ve been through can help someone else along their way.

And best of all, if you purchase it from my website, MelindaDoolittle.com, you’ll be making a donation to Malaria No More! (Jordin Sparks wrote the Forward)

[Pumpy Tudors]

Behind the scenes of Idol, huh? Rather than getting some actual dirt from a former contestant (like specifying the song selection process), we'll probably find out what the contestants ate for dinner every night, how Ryan Seacrest dresses off-camera, and a HILARIOUS story about Blake Lewis playing the part of a beatboxing alarm clock when one of the contestants fell asleep between rehearsals.

Can't wait for this book.

[Solecismic]

In an attempt to remain culturally relevant, American Idol decided it would be fun to have Harry Connick Jr. arrange the songs of Frank Sinatra.

And in an attempt to remain competitive, the Oakland Raiders have asked Tom Cable to resurrect the playbooks Knute Rockne used in the 1920s. The idea being this will help JaMarcus Russell compete in a league that now uses the forward pass almost 60% of the time while Jason Campbell gets ready to take over.

Connick, of course, is the southerner who has made a career out of crooning in a world where even women over the age of 75 have IPods and purchase music. I believe Rockne would have liked Connick if he had lived long enough.

As for Idol, I'm not sure the experience was useful. His arrangements were fairly true to the originals, and this has never been a show where crooning truly grabs the voters. Just a wasted week for the most part.

1. Harry Connick Jr. #5 (Lee DeWyze). Lee was the only one to adopt his style to the ancient format. So he won one for the Gipper. Slowing down the song helped him merge his rock sound to the crooning arrangement. It was decent - really the kind of work all five of the finalists should have been doing. Score of 86 (Season average of 77).

2. Harry Connick Jr. #1 (Aaron Kelly). It figures that the poster child for overrated Idol contestants would find a good sound out of an irrelevant genre. Aaron was the baby crooner tonight, and while he had trouble in the more complicated areas of the song, he did quite well with the simple verses that brought out his tone. However, he does have the lowest average score I've ever given to a final-five contestant. Score of 72 (Season average of 61).

3. Harry Connick Jr. # 4 (Michael Lynche). It was a random arrangement, with random sounds coming out of Michael. Very jazzy and not very tuneful. He did all right, especially toward the end, and had the sense not to sing anything in his weak falsetto. I was surprised the judges raved so much. Then again, I'm surprised he has lasted so long after being voted off and resurrected by Simon Saves. Score of 68 (Season average of 72).

4. Harry Connick Jr. #3 (Crystal Bowersox). Last week's mystery was what in the heck Kara was wearing around her neck. This week's? What the heck does Crystal have tattooed on her back? Was it a palm tree? A closeup of the inside of a shark's mouth? No idea, but trying to figure this out was a lot more entertaining than listening to her sing tonight. She wasn't bad, it was an arrangement that simply didn't suit her or show off anything about her voice. Score of 65 (Season average of 82).

5. Harry Connick Jr. #2 (Casey James). Casey also tried to add some Jazz to his song, but it didn't suit his voice at all, and he was missing notes right and left. It was a very strained, odd and precocious performance - everything he wasn't last week. Score of 53 (Season average of 75).

Overall: Connick sounds far too much like Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies to take seriously. It just wasn't a format that works for Idol and made the show rather tedious. Thankfully, TiVo cut the hour down to about 26 minutes.

Expected Bottom Three: Casey, Crystal, Michael.

Who Should Go: Aaron.

Who Will Go: Casey.

[Danny]

other than Lee this week sucked I thought.

[Danny]

Also, I think the judges want Lee to win this as they probably realize he has the best chance of having a big career afterwards.

[Thomkal]

I'm glad one of the judges finally called Casey out on his "lamb-vibrato" He needs to go and should have gone over Siobhan last week. But I'm with Jim-a wasted week overall. The judges pushed this year more than ever to the contestants to sound relevant to today's music, and Frank Sinatra is far far far from today's music. Right now I see Michael making it to the Final 3 with Lee and Crystal and god help us if one of them is knocked out before then.

[Ksyrup]

We had a softball game last night, so by the time we got the kids in bed and were ready to watch TV, it was 8:40. Deadliest Catch started at 9. So we had the choice of watching AI on DVR and recording DC to watch in a day or two, or watching a full hour of DC starting in 20 minutes. We skipped AI.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

[Autumn]

I can't imagine what the producers were thinking with this theme. It was going to be bad no matter what, but having Connick arrange all the songs guaranteed that there would be nothing original or new on the show. Clearly, other than Connick, no one's going to make a career out of doing big band arrangements of Sinatra, so what was even the point? Forcing them to sing songs in an irrelevant fashion and then chide them for it? Lame.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Autumn

Clearly, other than Connick, no one's going to make a career out of doing big band arrangements of Sinatra, so what was even the point?

Michael Buble? Granted he writes his own stuff sometimes, but he's definitely in that same mold. I think if they were able to use more of the current crooner type of material it would have made things easier.

[Ksyrup]

They should have just gone for a totally hammed-up week and brought back John Stevens.

[MJ4H]

OMFG Harry Connick Jr was the best thing that has been on AI since the beginning of the show. He completely owned everything this week. His mentoring was fantastic, his arrangements were brilliant, the band was fantastic, his performance last night was amazing, and he was hysterical.

All I can say is wow. Top notch. He absolutely embarrassed everyone that has ever been on that show before him.

[k0ruptr]

As someone who stopped watching this season long ago, I have a semi serious question:

Is there any chance that any of the remaining contestants (most likely the winner, I guess) will have an actual decent recording career, as far as sales / live shows. Meaning I guess will any of these few idolee's left make it big per say, or at least have a decent amount of album sales when they come out. Or is it a pretty poor group , where no one will really have an affect on the music industry?

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

Is there any chance that any of the remaining contestants (most likely the winner, I guess) will have an actual decent recording career, as far as sales / live shows.

Short answer - No.

Long answer - Noooooooooooooooo.

[MJ4H]

Lee could.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Mustang

Short answer - No.

Long answer - Noooooooooooooooo.

Do you listen to the radio? You may not like his voice, but Lee is a similar style to many who are successful and he actually had a better voice than many of them. If he gets some good songs written for him, he should be successful.

[Matthean]

Lee and Crystal, but they are going to need a lot of songwriter/management support. Lee has albums out, but they are decent and nothing that would really get on the radio. Outside of them you are really looking at people who could at best pull off a song and ride the one hit wonder aspect. I'll still beat the drum that if Katie got developed should could be around for longer than a lot of the others. Depending on her beliefs, she could work the Christian angle. Brown Bannister would be a great producer for her. Even then, you are looking at a niche type market and she has to have great songwriting to support her.

[Danny]

Matthen says it well, Lee doesn't appear to have the songwriting/arrange ability that Daughtry or Cook had while on the show, so he will need some good support as Matthean said.

[Matthean]

And if I haven't posted this, here's the link to Lee's stuff

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LeeDeWyze

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Danny

Do you listen to the radio?

What is this r.a.d.i.o you speak of? Sounds of sorcery and the devil.

[Mustang]

Don't get me wrong, I like Lee and he is my favorite contestant. I just see his sales in the David Cook/Kris Allen area. I don't see him hitting the Underwood/Clarkson/Daughtry level which Korupter was suggest with his impact on the music industry.

What he has working against him is that this season is largely seen as a pretty average group and people are generally Idol'd out not to mention the above mentioned support that he needs. Those are some decent sized hills to climb.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

OMFG Harry Connick Jr was the best thing that has been on AI since the beginning of the show. He completely owned everything this week. His mentoring was fantastic, his arrangements were brilliant, the band was fantastic, his performance last night was amazing, and he was hysterical.

All I can say is wow. Top notch. He absolutely embarrassed everyone that has ever been on that show before him.

This really does a lot to pin down why you and I often differ greatly on our opinions on this show.

[Mota]

At this point in the season I feel like I'm Idol'd out as Mustang said. I've seen enough of all these contestants to believe that I wouldn't buy any of their albums.

I really enjoy watching Crystal but I think she's this year's Taylor Swift. Great to watch, tons of talent, but completely irrelevant in today's music world. Lee has a nice voice but some MAJOR self-confidence issues (the stage just eats that guy up, he has no charisma at all). Casey James I believed was one of the best several weeks ago but lately he's just a cure to anybody's insomnia issues, there's not much beyond what he showed us in the first couple of weeks. Big Mike? I don't see people lining up to buy the album of a 300+ pound guy who sings like a girl.

[Ksyrup]

I thought Connick sounded drunk singing a karaoke version of a Beatles song (at least the 30 seconds I could stand to listen to), but that's just me. I've always liked him, but one of the things I've always hated about singers in that genre is their insistence on singing other people's music. I know he does a ton of original stuff, so why fall back on doing covers AGAIN? That's just lazy.

I still haven't heard this "Lee can sing" thing that you people keep talking about. He's pretty well butchered every song I've heard him sing on AI, it's just that it wouldn't fit the storyline for the season for the judges to point it out like they do the fodder contestants.

[law90026]

Originally Posted by Mota

I really enjoy watching Crystal but I think she's this year's Taylor Swift. Great to watch, tons of talent, but completely irrelevant in today's music world.

I'm not a Taylor Swift fan by any means... but don't you think you're being overly harsh?

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Mota

I really enjoy watching Crystal but I think she's this year's Taylor Swift. Great to watch, tons of talent, but completely irrelevant in today's music world.

Wait, how is Taylor Swift "tons of talent and completely irrelevant in today's music world?" She just about smoked any and all award shows she was a part of outside of the recent CMA's(IIRC) for her last album, and yet she really is an awful live singer and you can even tell she has weak vocals in her studio versions. She simply knows how to write a pop song(yes, I went there). If anything Crystal is her opposite.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I thought Connick sounded drunk singing a karaoke version of a Beatles song (at least the 30 seconds I could stand to listen to), but that's just me. I've always liked him, but one of the things I've always hated about singers in that genre is their insistence on singing other people's music. I know he does a ton of original stuff, so why fall back on doing covers AGAIN? That's just lazy.

Forgot to +1 this. He really looked like a guy who didn't want to be there.

[Ksyrup]

She's not relevant to MY musical world and she's certainly not doing anything revolutionary (other than maybe further mining the country-meets-pop territory plowed by Shania Twain a decade ago, but for a younger audience this time), but how is Taylor Swift NOT relevant to the music scene right now? She's flippin' huge. My kids can't get enough of that crap. That's like saying New Kids on the Block weren't relevant in 1989, just because they sucked.

[Pumpy Tudors]

OK, I was totally cool with this thread until Ksyrup talked shit about New Kids on the Block.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by wade moore

This really does a lot to pin down why you and I often differ greatly on our opinions on this show.

FWIW I already knew why.