The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

David Lynch's strange solo album debut
Shakira receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Rapper Heavy D is dead at 44-report

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 05:39 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sometimes it's hard not to think that David Lynch's fixation on transcendental meditation isn't a joke the filmmaker is playing on us. Is there any major artist whose entire body of work has seemed more ominous, more filled with sinister intonations, less meditative? Mantras don't come much scarier than ''fire walk with me.''

Lynch's first solo album, ''Crazy Clown Time,'' doesn't sound very Maharishi-approved, either. If you've ommm-ed your way to a state of higher consciousness, it's just the record to bring yourself back down to earth, though it might overcompensate by taking you to the third or fourth rung of the underworld. Maybe, with all these tense and nerve-racking sounds, Lynch just intends to create more demand for the calming cure that TM is meant to offer.

That said, the album is frequently funny, on top of creepy - not in a just-kidding-about-all-this kind of way, but in that peculiarly Lynchian manner in which a strong streak of absurdism has always offset the unsettling.

The album's only guest vocal is right up front, with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs taking the lead on a breathy ''Pinky's Dream,'' in which she repeatedly implores, ''Please, Pinky, watch the road.'' The song's abrupt ending suggests that he didn't. (Maybe it was their wrecked car that Nic Cage and Laura Dern came upon in ''Wild at Heart''?)

In that opener, as in most of the tracks, Lynch is doing variations on the dark and elementary blues shuffles he and Angelo Badalamenti used to come up with for roadhouse and party scenes in the ''Twin Peaks'' franchise. You get a lot of tremolo guitar, doled out as sparingly as possible, as if Lynch took four bars of an old Ventures song and decided to parcel all those deep, twangy chords out one by one over the course of an entire album.

But this is the first time we've heard much of Lynch singing or ''singing.'' He does more acting on this album than he ever did on-screen, so we don't really hear much of his natural Jimmy-Stewart-on-Mars voice, since even when he's doing spoken-word pieces, he makes some attempt to filter or disguise his vocals.

The title track finds Lynch talking in a high-pitched boy's voice as he describes a backyard bacchanalia. ''Pauley had a red shirt... Suzy had hers off completely Buddy screamed so loud, he spit,'' Lynch nearly whines, against a lurching backdrop of threatening blues, disturbing guitar interruptions, and constant moans. He could almost be a maniac describing a massacre, but more likely, he's an actual kid, cheerfully trying to come to terms with the mysterious goings-on he witnessed at a teenagers' beer bash.

He's definitely playing an adult, and a disturbed one, in ''Football Game'' (''I saw you with another man/You better run, baby, I hope you can''), ''These Are My Friends'' (''I got a prescription for a problem, keeps the hounds at bay''), and ''Speed Roadster'' (''I know you f--ed Al/He's supposed to be my pal I might be stalkin' you'')

These are definitely the white man's blues, with Lynch sounding more like Emo Phillips than Esther Phillips.

It's not all such primal stuff. David does disco a couple of times, including the single, ''Good Day Today,'' where he sings through a heavily processed Vocoder-type device over a techno beat. ''I want to have a good day today,'' he repeats, as poppily as possible, unlikely as it is that this will ever replace Black Eyed Peas' ''I Gotta Feeling'' in the public's celebratory lexicon.

There's a sameness to the musical bed and feeling of a lot of the other tracks, so it's a relief to come upon the album's most oddball number, ''Strange and Unproductive Thinking,'' an all-electronic rant which has Lynch reciting a run-on sentence that lasts for seven and a half amusing minutes.

It's in ''Strange and Unproductive Thinking'' that we may get the best glimpse of the Lynch who is kind of kidding and dead-serious all at once. For most of the stream of consciousness, he's offering theories about higher consciousness and inner peace that sound like they could be right out of a TM handbook. But more than five minutes in, he starts relating all this highfalutin' idealism to dentistry.

The song wraps up with Lynch taking note of ''the idea that plaque could appear upon the surface of the teeth and negative occurrences follow such as the hideous odors emitted from the oral cavity... and the possibility of the breaking of relationships based upon the idea of negative distortion of the mouth, for teeth, while not necessarily considered one of the primary building blocks of happiness, can in fact become a small sore, festering and transferring negative energies to the once quiet and peaceful mind, giving it over to strange and unproductive thinking.''

There's hardly a doubt he knows how funny this is - well, for a certain sense of humor - or that it's also a serious theory he's given weight to. So if he can marry mental and dental health, maybe combining meditation with sinister themes isn't so contradictory after all.

If you're a fan - and, quite honestly, probably only if you're already a fan - then the album offers an empire of the mind that's more worth the trip than, you know, ''Inland Empire.'' But, having gotten this intriguing oddity out of his system, could he please make another, possibly rabbit-free film now?

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Shakira receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 05:35 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Shakira became the first Colombian artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, joining Latin stars Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera on the famed street.

"I would like to dedicate this to the Latin community in the U.S., a community that restlessly works and dreams and dreams and works everyday to make this a better country," said the singer to fans gathered on the iconic Hollywood Blvd. sidewalk to see the singer unveil her star.

Shakira, 34, rose to fame in Latin America in the 1990s with her album "Pies Descalzos" and singles such as "Donde Estas Corazon" and "Estoy Aqui." Her second official album, "Donde Estan Los Ladrones?" garnered international success with singles such as "No Creo" and the Arab-inspired "Ojos Asi."

The Latin singer then produced an English crossover album, "Laundry Service," following in the footsteps of bilingual artists like Enrique Iglesias and Martin, who also recorded in Spanish and English.

Her single "Whenever, Wherever," topped charts in many European counties and the Spanish version of the single won a Latin Grammy award.

"When I was seven years-old, I came to Los Angeles for the first time and I passed by the Walk of Fame with my mother," reminisced Shakira. "I remember that my mom told me, 'Shaki, one day you are going to have your name on this place.'"

The singer has won two Grammys and was nominated for her collaborations with Beyonce on the single "Beautiful Liar" and Wyclef Jean on "Hips Don't Lie."

Shakira's latest album, "Sale el Sol" is nominated at the upcoming 2011 Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas on Nov. 10.

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Rapper Heavy D is dead at 44-report

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 03:51 PM PST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Heavy D, who scored hit singles such as "Now That We Found Love", died on Tuesday after falling at his Beverly Hills home, according to media reports. He was 44.

Celebrity news website TMZ.com said the rapper, whose real name is Dwight Errington Myers, was found on a walkway and an ambulance was called. When emergency workers arrived he was conscious and speaking but died later at a nearby hospital.

Beverly Hills police confirmed the basic information, but declined to release a name pending family notification. Police Lt. Mark Rosen said a man was found on a walkway at 11:25 a.m. PST, conscious and talking, but having difficulty breathing. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died on Tuesday afternoon.

Further details were undisclosed pending an investigation, but Rosen said there were no signs of foul play.

The singer's New York-based agent was not immediately available for comment.

Rotund rapper Heavy D was born in Jamaica and moved to Mt. Vernon, New York as a child. He enjoyed hip hop music as a kid and formed his first group, the Boyz, with high school friends who took the stage names DJ Eddie F, Trouble T-Roy and G-Wiz.

The group became Heavy D & The Boyz and released their first album in 1987, which included singles "Mr. Big Stuff" and "The Overweight Lover's in the House." Their breakout album came with 1989's "Big Tyme," which included the hits "Somebody for Me" and "We Got Our Own Thang."

The band met with tragedy in 1990 when Trouble T-Roy died in an accident. One year later, they scored their biggest hit with the album "Peaceful Journey" and single "Now That We Found Love," which reached the top five on R&B charts and crossed over to mainstream pop audiences.

A string of hits followed in the 1990s. The band sang the theme song for popular TV show "In Living Color," and Heavy D's 1999 CD "Heavy" became his seventh album to chart among the R&B top 10.

During those years, the rapper also began acting, working in small roles on film and TV before landing a role in high-school TV drama "Boston Public". His film work included parts in "The Cider House Rules," "Step Up" and "Big Trouble."

Heavy D performed at the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards and at the Michael Jackson tribute show in Cardiff, Wales, both in October.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Rabu, 9 November 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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