Kwissypooh's Blog

Thursday, October 13, 2011

8-year-old's Rendition of "Super Bass"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7hTAp6KrGY

“Do you know what you’re singing about?” asks Ellen Degeneres to 8-year-old Sophia Grace Brownlee, a recent YouTube sensation who raps and sings to Nicki Minaj’s hit single, “Super Bass”.

“No,” says Sophia with a smile while sitting next to her cousin and “back-up” dancer 5-year-old Rosie. “We just love pink!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odhUPMYXpX4

Wearing their signature pink tutus and tiara crowns, Sophia croons and hand motions out lyrics that would make Mariah Carey jealous. The audience of “The Ellen Degeneres Show” eat it up as the duo sashays an acappella rendition of “Super Bass”.

With countless hits on YouTube (7.9 million and counting) of the pair dancing and singing in the living-room of their Essex - England home, many concerned parents squeamishly squirm to hearing lewd lyrics, from dealing “coke” to being a “ho”, come out of a child who can’t even recite her times tables.

Technology today filled with iPods, smart phones, and YouTube instant replays has created an evolution of highly accessible music causing the Parents Music Resource Center, a non-profit organization created in 1985 who’s responsible for mandating the Parental Advisory Label on albums deemed “objectionable”, to wave a reluctant white flag.

“It's no surprise that Sophia is doing Super Bass, since it's played on every Top 40 radio station in the country.” Says Kutmaster Spaz, a D.J. mix reporter for Billboard Magazine (www.djspaz.com). And though Minaj’s 2010 hit album “Pink Friday”, which features the song “Super Bass” and showcases the Parental Advisory Label on the cover, Spaz believes children are easily exposed to the music through friends or popular radio stations whom are obligated to play a hit song.

“Songs are popular, but some just don’t realize what the lyrics are about.” Says Jon Balauro, a Los Angeles D.J. who regularly plays hit dance songs that have controversial lyrics. Billboard’s current number three song, “Pumped Up Kicks” is especially concerning for him, which is about “troubled youth with homicidal thoughts.”

Concerned parent, 34-year-old Kristie Kutaka from Kahaluu - Hawai‘i suggests radio stations should “start rating their music”, claiming she as a hard time “monitoring” what her children listen to.

Keala Beyer, mother of three from Portland - Oregon doesn’t believe in sheltering her children from any type of music, however is afraid they will believe the lyrics are “normal” and “acceptable” behavior.

“It’s definitely a sign of the times, and parents just need to use these times as teachable moments,” says Dr. Mia Moody-Ramirez, an assistant professor of journalism at Baylor University who recently conducted an analysis on rap artists’ lyrics. “Young girls especially need to understand the images on TV and the lyrics to songs, it’s mostly about selling records.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9573kGBtuE

Earlier this year Nicki Minaj was quoted by British tabloid “The Sun” saying she “cringes” when she hears little girls singing along to her songs. And after viewing the YouTube video of the tutu wearing duo, she quickly insisted on meeting them, and did so on “Ellen” calling Sophia a “superstar” yet quickly emphasizing to “put your books first, and singing second.”

Friday, October 7, 2011

What's Your Number Review

http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/whats-your-number-poster.jpg

“He recognized my vagina.” Said Ally Darling (Anna Faris), a loved-starved and desperate single gal, describing another failed date through her backwards quest in finding true love. All because “Marie Claire” magazine conducted a “study” revealing “96% of women with twenty or more lovers…can’t find a husband.” As vulnerable as she is impressionable Ally then creates, yet quickly breaks, her celibacy the very next day leaving only to search through past lovers of magicians, gynecologists, and puppeteers galore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9stplJF1ek

Toasting to “better decision making” in the beginning of her quest, the actions she chooses thereafter secede her outlook. “What’s Your Number” exhaustively reinforces Ally’s need to find the “one” in order to be happy. Even the trek up the stairs to her apartment after every bad date, maybe used for artistic reasons, seem to represent her long journey only to be rescued by her devilishly handsome neighbor Colin. Her preoccupation with finding a soul mate trumps and disregards her own self, depicting her character to be appear more naïve than wanted or expected.

http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/whats-your-number-poster.jpg

With it’s comparison to Kristen Wiig’s 2011 hit “Bridesmaids”, besides the eerily opening shots of each movie being similar (both Wiig and Faris’s characters put on make-up before their emotionally detached FTF’s wake up), “What’s Your Number” doesn’t quite add up to it’s competition. Though Faris’s fake accents and comedic timing’s are hilarious and endearing, when needed to produce a serious and angry persona, it’s a bit awkward with her whispy voice and haunting flashbacks of her in “Scary Movie” I, II, III and IV.

http://www.blogcdn.com/blog.moviefone.com/media/2006/04/scarymovie4annafaris.jpg

Yet despite the raunchy overworked humor towards male and female genitalia and glimpses of one too many butt cracks, “What’s Your Number” has some quirky tales that will get your girlfriends giggling to the true “numbers” once whispered secretively in the ladies bathroom.

2/4 stars

Friday, September 30, 2011

Local Band Attributes Sound To Chicago Blues Past

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150706364725066&set=a.10150252767120066.534077.96485705065&type=1&theater

Looming sweat dripping off the faces of passers-by in the LandShark Beer Garden were breezily welcomed by the slick, smooth, and sexy music from local Chicago band Train Company. As the audience fills in the garden to hear more of what lured them in, there was no want or need for conversations in between sets. The audience remained seated and silent while they sipped their lemonades and Landshark lagers, and tapped their walking shoes to the beat of the smoother than butter vocals, happy drums and blue-sy contrast of a saxophone.

In 2007, an aspiring singer and songwriter named John Zozzaro attended a jazz session at Northern Illinois University and quickly noticed the stand-out saxophone player, Mark Alletag’s musical talent. Later, the two had drinks and conversations for their love of music, which soon grew into idea concepts for a new band. Bass player Mike DeWitte, drummer Rob Lejman, and earlier this year pianist Samuel Wyatt completed the group soon after and formed the band, Train Company. The four immediately found solace in each other’s taste in the Blues and wanted to show a respectful nod to it’s past within their music.

“Our music is deeply rooted in tradition,” says Mike DeWitte. “We believe in the philosophy that if you don't know where you came from, you're not going anywhere.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlc3uwdIh10&feature=related

And the era they pay respects to collaboratively in both their 2009 “Train Company” and 2010 “Change EP” albums bleed heavily around the realm of the sixties. With every chord played on the songs such as “Forest” or “Do You Really Want To Know”, the band electrifies its honored past with every note and melody strung through. Though Train Company doesn’t draw their inspiration from one band in particular, they appreciate the classic feel good music attributing their ability to cross age-gaps in musical taste.

“There is something to be said about a band now-a-days capturing such a diverse age group.” Said John Zozzaro in a recent interview for Facebook.com. “Too many (groups) are wrapped up in the media or preconceptions, so they limit or confine their potential to whatever someone else portrays them as. We need to bring back playing with soul, and we need to bring back collaboration. The best times in music were when all that was possible.”

Critics have complimented Train Company on creating a fresh take on Blues music. The Traveling Yeti says they are “clean and crisp musical abilities combin(ing) elements of blues and rock and roll that keep up with the traditions of Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.” Terrance Flamm, from the Illinois Entertainer says the band has a “nostalgic feel to the melodic love songs that brings to mind smoke-filled lounges in the early 1960s.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zpD3cvbclU

And though the band has established on to their resume as opener’s for national acts such as Blues Traveler and the Counting Crows this year, Manager Joe Zozzaro finds simple pleasures in the bands success.

“One of the rewarding parts for me comes when the band is booked at a Festival or Venue and the crowd of people there, who may have never heard Train Company's music before, reacts positively to what they are hearing. I am continually amazed at the large demographic of those who really like our music.”

So what’s next for Train Company besides playing local gigs year round and creating new yet old sound tracks for people of all ages?

“I believe Train Company will continue to write music that demonstrates their opinions on how they want their sound to evolve,” says Joe. “While paying homage to those artists who have inspired them.”