The Next Great American Band: Only One Goes Home & It's A Shocker Episode 5 Recap by Gayl Killough
November 19, 2007
The pace of The Next Great American Band slows down a bit this week. Only one band is eliminated this week, but it is a shocker, or at least should have been a shocker. Only time for a cover song this week, no originals this week. There is time for a little bit of filler and the bands are asked what their roles are within the band. Oddly enough I like the filler more for the bands than I do on American Idol because it gives me a chance to see the members of the band interact with each other.
The songwriters for this week are Jerry Lieber & Mike Stoller. They wrote many of the early rock-n-roll classics, including many for Elvis Presley. Their songs have charted on several charts including rock, R & B, and country.
First band announced safe was Light of Doom, the 12 and 13 years old metal band, although they play more of a rock-n-roll style this week with Jailhouse Rock. According to the introduction, Mitchell has the role of 80s metal head, Lucas is the hippie who likes velvet jackets and secretly is good scat style singer, Dillon is considered the poser and spends time on his hair, and Erik is funny when he gets mad.
They are really hard to judge, but somehow as much as I would like to be harsh on them, they are very entertaining. They don't sound bad either when I am only listening to them. Judge John said that it must have been difficult to relate to a song that was at least 40 years before they were born. Judge Sheila thought it was incredible and tells the drummer that she can not even play that fast, but she warns them not to swear. That reminds me, I forgot to mention that during the conference call with Judge Dicko, he mentioned that Sheila is deeply religious and that she keeps a swear box that he and Judge John are regular contributors to. He joked that she parted ways with Prince because she was too expensive for him to keep with her swear box. Judge Dicko is still uncomfortable with the gimmick aspect and thinks it wind in tears recording wise, but finds them more watchable each week. He only somewhat jokes that the song is appropriate because it likely that at least one of them one will spend a night in a jailhouse if they stay together for 10 years as a rock band.
Second band announced safe was The Clark Brothers, the heritage music group that seem to have musical roots deeper than the current musical classification system, although they would qualify for the country music scene by today's standards. Tonight they sang more in the gospel genre and this may be the best genre for them. My instincts tells me that based on their background, the reason for their richness and musical diversity is because they have a connection to the heritage music that gave birth to the modern musical genres, but it is also possible that they have picked up sounds along the way from more modern forms of music too. In terms of roles, Adam says it his role to not listen and be really slow. Someone at some point termed him Grandpa. Austin thinks he's almost the babysitter and is cut and dried. If they need to be somewhere at 5, he tells them 4:30 and then they will be ready by 5. Ashley thinks that his brothers secretly want him to lead them. Ashley says what makes them work is they balance each other.
Part of my enjoyment in watching reality shows is reading what others say about the shows or about people on the shows. I like that there are really widespread opinions when it comes to musical taste. However, I was absolutely shocked when I read a particular comment from other reviewer who usually makes sense to me, so I feel obligated to consider it seriously. The comment was that Sixwire and The Clark Brothers sounded exactly alike last week, but Sixwire sounded better because they were more polished. I did not expect anyone to share my nostalgia for The Clark Brother's performance last week, nor did I expect everyone to like it either, but sound just like Sixwire was a comment that just knocked me off my feet when I read it. Looking back, they did have a similar tempo of a song, but that would be about it for me. As for sound, The Clark Brothers and Sixwire represent opposite ends of the country genre, and fit in the same genre based only a technicality that they don't really fit anywhere else better by today's standards. This comment would be comparable to saying that Elvis Presley and Coldplay sound alike on a song because both can be found in the rock section of the music store. The Clark Brothers and Sixwire honestly sound nothing alike to me.
However, since country music has moved.....
About Gayl Killough
Gayl considers herself a jack of all trades and has too many interests. Gayl writes environmental legal documents for a living and hopes people find this commentary to be more interesting. Gayl likes to believe that being born on B.B. King's birthday means she was born to love the blues.
You can contact Gayl at gkilloug@yahoo.com.
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