Niki N. Phaser

The Pixies have some good news for European fans: they will celebrate Doolitle‘s twentieth birthday with several shows, in UK, Holland, Germany, France and Belgium. The tour starts in octomber. In The Cure-Trilogy tradition, they will play their 1989 album in its entirety. Most dates will be in the UK, since this is the place where they were first embraced, Doolitle charting at number eight here, at the time of its release.

In case you are not that familiar with the tracklisting of said album, don’t worry, you will hear a whole bunch of your favourites, even though Where Is My Mind? might miss, since it was recorded on their first full-length venture. Still, you’ll get to hear Frank Black scream both Tame and Hey, while your more melodic needs will be met by crowd-pleaser Here Comes Your Man or love-song parody La La Love You. For those craving for some raw Kim Deal bass, Debaser and Gouge Away will have your stomach vibrate, be at peace.

One thing is sure: this is a great chance to see a band that becomes more and more comfortable with their legend status and those of you who do attend, be sure to make a lot of noise, cheer like crazy, maybe one of these day they might just decide to drop some new material on us.

THE PIXIES PERFORM Here Comes Your Man LIVE

NME has provided some staggering information about the state of the UK charts. La Roux scored her first number 1 with pop-power track Bulletproof, but that hardly seems important (unfortunately for her) in the light of another artist’s impressive evolution, both in the album and the singles charts. It seems Michael Jackson’s demise has reminded people of the great music he is responsible for. So much that the number one album in UK is his best of collection, entitled Number Ones. Seven of his albums are in the top 75, with five of them reigning in the top 20. On the singles front, the situation is just as legend-in-the-making. His 1988 hit Man in the Mirror is at 11 right now, with other 19 MJ songs in the Top 75, five of them being in the Top 30. This is just one more detail contributing to the legend of Michael Jackson and when they’ll make that biopic that everyone is waiting for, no doubt we’ll see these facts and figures written on the screen, before the end titles. One thing is sure, we should no longer feel inferior to those who were alive when Elvis or John Lennon died. This is pop history and we are right in the middle of it.

If you are a fan of Beyonce or Bow Wow, you probably shouldn’t read this… If you are that kind of fan that has a problem with seeing the truth about their idols. But, you have to be really psycho-stalker material to claim that Beyonce’s Diva is a good song, or, even more, a… song. It seems more like private bet she or her producers made with someone in the lines of “I’ll make some stupid noises and win the charts with them, just you wait and see…One condition, I need to release it as single”. And the rest is history… a lame repetitive sample, vocals that don’t fit the rest of the song and the hope that the “diva is the female version of a hustler” line will be catchy enough. It’s really a shame that Beyonce tainted the album which contains Halo and If I Were a Boy with such experimental… bets. A lot of a singer’s success is based on inertia. Once they are up there, they don’t have to do much to remain there: the flow goes with itself.

Which brings us to our contestant, number two, Bow Wow, formerly known as… something else. I admit I am not too familiar with the music career of this young hope, I have seen some of his movies and Like Mike is quite the guilty pleasure for my inner child. However, a song by the name Marco Polo, signed by our young thespian was once bestowed upon me and I just needed to say it out loud: WTF ? It’s sort of rappy, but not quite. The verses could pass as low-volume musical background for some MTV dating show, but that chorus… man, that’s classic. A legend in the making. Because of those Marco Polo shouts this track could gather a cult-following, like some Ed Wood movie. At least, this one is less annoying than Diva, because these boys, Bow Wow and Soulja Boy Tell’Em (now, that I spelled it, I get it – soldier boy tell them, right), these boys really seem to think they’ve got something here and their naivete is really heartwarming.

BEYONCE Diva vs. BOW WOW Marco Polo