Paramore Writes Music For Vampires

I haven't read the Twilight books. I have no interest in them. My running joke is that if you shuffled together pages from a Dawson's Creek screenplay and pages from a Buffy the Vampire Slayer screenplay, you'd wind up with something close to Twilight. I find vindication in the fact that I told that to two of my friends who have read the books and they said I was more or less accurate. But regardless, Hollywood saw fit to adapt the series to film, complete with teen-girl-friendly soundtrack. Earlier this week the first track from said soundtrack, Paramore's "Decode" found its way to the public.

I want to like this song. I really, really do. I love Paramore and after being in love with Riot! I want to see where the band goes next. But "Decode" has something missing. The mood sets the song back to the band's debut All We Know is Falling. The lyrics aren't too bad, mostly basic Paramore. But something about the marriage of the two comes off as something written by Amy Lee. It's not a terrible track be any means, and perhaps with a few more listens I'll warm up to it more (I'm on listen #3 now and it's already growing), but "Decode" doesn't have the immediate draw that anything on Riot! did. The band is said to be doing at least two songs for the Twilight soundtrack, so perhaps this isn't even meant to be the single.

Paramore - Decode

And no, two Paramore songs is not enough to make me purchase anything with Twilight's logo on it.

In Which VLM is Obnoxiously Self-Referential

My web traffic stats tell me that a picture of Hayley Williams I posted way back in November is perpetually the biggest way in which people come across this site. It makes about as much sense to me as it does to you (apparently some google search term keeps drawing up the image). So it seems like a good idea to repost the image. So I will.



Paramore - Born for This [iTunes]

==TJ==

EDIT: Found out why its so popular. A google image search for Paramore would present this as the fourth most relevant image. Brilliant!

Paramore Turns Me Into A Little Fanboy

Skipping ahead to Sunday as I continue my bloggings on Virgin Festival.

As Shudder to Think left the stage, I made my way to the barricade on the south stage to see my favorite too-good-for-Warped band du jour, Paramore. Surprisingly I made it to about 4 rows from the barricade before the crowd gets too thick to pass. Said crowd was made up primarily of girls between the ages of 15 and 18 who clearly have better music taste than to sit at home and watch Hannah Frickin' Montana on TV*, and guys around my age who:

a) Think Paramore is a surprisingly fun band to listen to, despite being a touch juvenile, or
b) Think Hayley Williams is cute/attractive/hot/whathaveyou

I make no illusions about the fact that I fall into the latter category. The folks around me are dying to catch their first glimpse of Hayley Williams, concerned mostly about what color her hair is this week. With prime standing position, I can see other members of the band in the backstage area as they kill time before their start time. Then, in a stroke of luck and a touch of natural selection (I was the tallest in the immediate vicinity), I catch a glimpse of Williams joining the rest of the band backstage. In true fanboy mode, I shout "OHMYGOD THERE SHE IS!!!" and snap as many pics as I can. Eventually the actual music starts.

The thing I've always found about modern punk bands is that they sound great on their albums...but blow out the ass live. Fall Out Boy, The Used, even My Chemical Romance...all do good stuff in a studio, but in a live setting their at best average, at worst atrocious. The live bonus tracks I've heard from Paramore led me to think otherwise, but I was skeptical, as even live bonus tracks carry some production. In short, Paramore wowed me musically. The energy, the fun, and most of all, the quality of their performance comes through as well live as it does on both albums. Hayley Williams is a terrific performer who can work a crowd as well as people twice her age (for bonus points, she waved at me during the opener**). Paramore's set was mostly tracks from the newly platinum-certified Riot!, but as a bone to older fans, "Pressure" and "Here We Go Again" from their debut also popped up. I was hoping they'd play "Emergency", but due to the tween-friendly audience and the PG-13 nature of the song (it's about an abusive relationship), I see why it was passed over.

Paramore - Born For This [iTunes]

My only gripe about the show was as follows; look, I get the appeal of crowdsurfing. It's fun and it shows your enthusiasm. But there's a time and a place for it. The ballad is neither. To good music fans everywhere; pick your moments to crowdsurf wisely. You kill the mood otherwise.

I could go on and on about Paramore and Hayley Williams for pages (and I wouldn't really mind), but I think you get the picture. Paramore is winding down their tour soon and after that they're going in to record their third LP, but if you live in a city where they're slated to play, you'd do right to check them out.

Pics and a setlist are below.

Paramore @ Virgin Music Festival, 8/10/2008
Born For This
That's What You Get
Here We Go Again
Fences
Crushcrushcrush
Let the Flames Begin
When It Rains
Pressure
For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic
Misery Business

Hayley is the one backstage with the striped shirt.

Hayley Williams radiates awesome.

==TJ==

*If I ever mention Hannah Montana here again, you all have the right to throw something at me.
**I'm about 95% sure she really did wave at me. And don't crush my dreams by saying she probably didn't. That'd just be mean.

Troubleshooting and Whatnot

I've been fiddling around with iTunes and last.fm a lot in the last few days, trying to stretch its limits in the name of getting cooler content from it which could in turn give cooler stuff to this very blog. Haven't had too much success, but gonna post it anyway and see if someone has a genius solution.

I've been trying to find a way to make iTunes give me a weekly chart; that is, I want iTunes to tell me what songs I played most frequently in the span of a week or a month. It'll tell me my all time most played and it'll tell me what I played in the last week, but I can't get it to combine the two in the way I want it to. Easiest way to do this would in theory be a smart playlist, but the parameters for that are limited and can't do it. Went searching on various forums and the like to see if anyone's figured it out...no luck. The best anyone suggested was last.fm, but their system is at best flawed; it told me I listened to Paramore's version of "My Hero" 11 times in one week, but it failed to acknowledge that 10 of those 11 times were actually in the same 3 minute period and thus was only 1 listen. All the other patches and such haven't worked either.

Paramore - My Hero [iTunes] (via YouSendit)
[and now SaveFile is on the fritz...why is nothing working?]

(One more thing about last.fm: has anyone else noticed that it's not scrobbling everything that gets played? Last night I played through the entire new 3 Doors Down album, but it only scrobbled 4 of the 12 tracks. Anyone else notice this problem?)

I'm also trying to fill in all the blanks for the info on all my songs, ie year, genre, etc. I've gotten all the years down, save for the weird stuff (TV themes, drumline stuff), but I'm finding genre to be an issue because there are too many options. Wondering if anyone has any way to make that job easier.

And lastly because as I type this my brother is IMing me about it, my bro's computer crashed and he's trying to get iTunes to work again. iTunes still thinks that his computer pre-crash is authorized to play stuff, and when he authorizes it now, its counting it as a second computer (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me). I told him to contact Apple and make them fix it, but if whoever reads this knows something we don't, drop a comment and you'd have both our thanks.

Expect a review of that 3 Doors Down album next week, as well as a follow-up on one of my Under the Radar bands.

==TJ==

Paramore Go To Separate Corners, Deny Breakup Reports

(Apologies for the absence this weekend. Your Weekend WTF will now show up on Wednesday, in the interest of alliteration)

Can't say I was too surprised to hear this story. Last week Paramore announced that they were canceling 6 European shows this year due to "internal issues". It was a week before that that Zach Farro issued a long-winded statement that amounted to "Hayley isn't the only member of this band." Of course every music blog worth a damn (except for me, sorry guys) dove on the story and basically played up a breakup announcement that never really came.

Paramore shot back this week, vehemently denying that they were breaking up, and also denying a second rumor that the cancellation was due to Hayley Williams getting pregnant. They maintain that this is just a need to take a break from each other, and they are still on tap to support Jimmy Eat World's US tour on April 1st.

The pregnancy rumors are pretty obviously ridiculous and got blown out of proportion way too quick. The breakup reports aren't as ridiculous, but more likely some overzealous blog (looking at you, Stereogum and Idolator) trying to sound the death knell for another punk band that dared to show their face on the radio. Meanwhile "Misery Business" and "Crushcrushcrush" are still climbing radio charts, with reports of a video being shot in early March (speculation is that the single will be "That's What You Get").

Paramore - Crushcrushcrush
Paramore - That's What You Get

Paramore on iTunes

==TJ==

Top 40 Breakdown: FINALLY Someone Knocks Off "Apologize"

Every Friday from now until whenever I decide to stop, I'm going to provide a breakdown/commentary on the week's Top 40 radio charts (If someone from Pretty Much Amazing wants to throw things at me for snagging an idea they had for awhile, now would be the time). So let's look at this weeks hits:

After 8 seemingly endless weeks atop the list, Timbaland/OneRepublic's "Apologize" saw its reign come to an end this week, slipping to #2. Before you feel bad for either band though, OneRepublic has "Stop and Stare" at #25 and climbing, and Timbaland's name appears a staggering 3 times with "Apologize" (#2), "The Way I Are" (#14), and 50 Cent's "Ayo Technology" (#29) all charting this week.

Replacing "Apologize" is the new Alicia Keys track "No One". Quite frankly I would have rathered another week of "Apologizing" boning the radio, but clearly I'm in the minority here. The rest of the top 10 is pretty lackluster, as Fergie's "Clumsy", Rihanna and Ne-Yo's "Hate That I Love You" and Colbie Caillat's "Bubbly" are still holding strong, as is the intolerable "Low" by Flo Rida. The only bright spots in the top 10 are Finger Eleven at #9 (down from #7 last week) and Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo" rising to #6.

Once out of the top 10, things get good. "Misery Business" by Paramore rose to #13 this week, but with a gain of only 5 plays nationwide, I don't think that'll get much higher. Daughtry's newest pop/rock crossover "Over You" is holding at #12, and rounding out the top half is Linkin Park's "Shadow of the Day", up one spot from last week. Also in there are a bunch of songs left over from the summer, with the aforementioned "The Way I Are" and Kanye West's "Stronger" (#17) just refusing to lay down and die. At 29 weeks, "The Way I Are" is the longest charting song on the Top 40 right now.

Once out of the top 20, the rest of the list is made up of songs either on their way in or on their way out. After "Everything" failed to make a dent on the radio, Buckcherry's "Sorry" is making a run for the top, currently sitting at #22. The positively generic "Never Too Late" by Three Days Grace follows close behind, while Boys Like Girls and Chris Brown's "With You" also saw chart increases this week. On the way out is the indefensibly bad Soulja Boy, who starting next week will most likely enter the recurrent chart, along with Maroon 5 and 50 Cent. At the tail end of the list is "Calling You" by Blue October, released on the re-issue of 2006's Foiled (the original version was released in 2003). The song has bottomed out the chart for the last two weeks, but I'm personally hoping for a boost in the coming weeks.

My expectations for next week: With no song immediately poised to take down "No One", expect it to remain for another week or two, unless "Tattoo" can make a huge jump quickly. A bunch of songs will probably fall off the charts next week into the recurrent section, which might pave the way for "Calling You" to rise, and Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" to crack into the crossover list. That's the best I can offer this week, perhaps as I keep looking we'll see something more.

The Highlight Reel
Timbaland feat. OneRepublic - Apologize
Finger Eleven - Paralyzer
Paramore - Misery Business
Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day
Buckcherry - Sorry
Boys Like Girls - Hero/Heroine
Blue October - Calling You

Source: http://www.radioandrecords.com/Formats/Charts/CHR_Top40_Chart.asp

Current Music: Our Lady Peace - Made of Steel (DRMed...sorry guys)

==TJ==

A RIOT! Breaks Out On The Best Of '07 List

OK, so I have no idea why the iTunes widget isn't registering anything, but it is mistaken to think I haven't had any activity lately. Whatever.

Over the weekend I picked up Riot!, the breakthrough album from Paramore. I've already mentioned my love for Paramore (and Hayley Williams) on this very blog, and ever since I've been eager to hear the full album.

Every review of Paramore and Riot! tends to center around frontwoman Hayley Williams. It's true the the 18-year-old is a phenomenal talent (and pretty damned attractive too). Her lyrics are a near-perfect balance between girlish boy-inspired musings and the ravings of a pissed-off beeyotch not to be messed with. Comparisons to Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne are totally justified, as are comparisons to Kelly Clarkson's recent work. But let's get one thing straight; Paramore is more than just Hayley Williams and her pipes. The instrumentals on Riot! are as tight as any band in the pop/punk genre. Drummer Zac Farro is no Travis Barker, but he helps keep things moving and headbobbingly fun. Likewise, brother Josh shreds one hell of a hook on tracks like first single "Misery Business" and "Hallelujah", but when matched with Fueled By Ramen labelmates Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco, nothing terribly trailblazing is happening.

But at the same time, Paramore doesn't try to pretend that they are. Everyone in the band seems well aware of the fact that Williams is groundbreaking enough; in a year where female artists produced primarily bubblegum dreck ("Girlfriend" and "The Sweet Escape" come to mind), Paramore and their balls-to-the-wall brand of rock is proof of what both FBR and pop/punk in general are capable of. The live tracks on the reissue make it perfectly clear that despite the remarkable production work, Paramore knows how to play live, and aren't afraid to crank it up to 11 for a live audience. Look for Paramore to be around for awhile, and you can expect Riot! to show up on more than a couple of best-of lists this year.

Ruling on the Field: 9/10
Highlight Reel:
Paramore - Hallelujah
Paramore - Misery Business (acoustic)

Which brings me to Viva La Mainstream!'s Best of 2007 list. It was a really good year for the rock world, which makes the job of coming up with the Best Album and Best Song lists incredibly tough. The following list is just a small taste of what the Album list could look like, and there's still a month left to go (this is in no particular order):

Paramore, Riot!
Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace
Jimmy Eat World, Chase This Light
Linkin Park, Minutes to Midnight
Kanye West, Graduation
Bright Eyes, Cassadaga
Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero
Soundtrack, Across the Universe
Fall Out Boy, Infinity On High
Bruce Springsteen, Magic

And that leaves out potential dark horses like Boys Like Girls, OneRepublic, and less obvious picks like Dashboard, Finger Eleven, Timbaland...the list goes on. Look for more on my Best Of as we get closer to 2008. As always, your suggestions are welcome.

Artists I Should Have Been Raving About A LONG Time Ago...

In my ongoing quest to be the universe's most educated music listener, I've recently come across a bunch of artists that I find I should have known some time ago, but only just now loving. I now present my recent musical discoveries to you.

Paramore
With Britney Spears going batshit crazy at every corner, Avril Lavigne making people want to gouge their ears out, and Amy Lee on the road to becoming the next Axl Rose, rock music needs another "nice girl" for the reviewers to adore and the rocker dudes to drool over. That's where Paramore, fronted by 18-year-old Hayley Williams, come in. Their second album Riot! is climbing the iTunes charts, and singles "Misery Business" and "Crushcrushcrush" are making bloggers and DJs alike go crazy. The lyrics are totally true to William's 18-year-old girl demeanor, and the band delivers them with all the pop-punk fury that was absent from recent efforts from Good Charlotte and Yellowcard, and Hayler Williams has a set of pipes that put the likes of Amy Lee and Avril to shame. And oh yeah, have you seen Hayley Williams?




Yeah, I said it.

Paramore - Crushcrushcrush
Paramore on iTunes

Oh, and as long as I mentioned her, I might as well issue my (and by default, this blog's) official position on the perpetual media event that is the "artist" formerly known as Britney Spears. Seriously, who gives a fuck anymore? On one level, she's more fun when she's batshit crazy, because you honestly don't know what the hell she's gonna do next. And her album? Psh. Yeah its getting decent reviews, but you know that's all the work of the bazillion producers and stuff who are writing her music and making it sound good amidst her drunken escapades and attempts at singing the way she did 10 years ago. And with that, I hope to never have to utter her name ever again on this blog.

Chris Brown
Like I've said, the more I listen to Top 40 R&B, the more I like it. My first real experience with Chris Brown was in the "Umbrella" remix I posted last week (I had heard "Run It!" in the past at high school dances and the like, but didn't recognize it as him/didn't care enough to really listen). After hearing his awesome contribution to that track, I downloaded "Run It!" and his new one "Kiss Kiss". Both are fun, upbeat, and all the things I want out of Hip-Hop and R&B. And in case you somehow didn't know this, Chris Brown is 18 years old. Watch the clip of "Run It!" and listen to "Kiss Kiss" and maybe you'll see why I'm impressed.

Chris Brown - Kiss Kiss (feat. T-Pain)
Chris Brown - Run It! [Youtube]
Chris Brown on iTunes

I think that's it for now. The radio show is most likely going on an indefinite hiatus due to some personal stuff (mostly just I don't have time), but keep your eyes peeled in case that changes.

==TJ==

PS Oh and in honor of Guy Fawkes Day, I know I posted the original version of this song last time out, but it seems appropriate to hand you a cover, given the occasion.

Stone Temple Pilots - Revolution (Beatles Cover)
STP on iTunes

New Song from The Killers, Maroon 5 tries to be Sting

OK, so couple of bits coming out today:

-The Killers' have officially released their cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay", which will appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming Joy Division biopic as well as The Killers' rarities and B-Sides album Sawdust. The track is available on iTunes and Ruckus, I will make it available here ASAP.

-Yesterday Maroon 5 debuted the video for their third single off It Won't Be Soon Before Long, "Won't Go Home Without You". It's one of the better songs off the rather overwhelmingly average album, though it definitely reeks of "She Will Be Loved". Two things come to mind as I hear the song/video:

1. Does any other band have a member that looks more out of place than the guitarist (guy on the far right in the video) from Maroon 5? He looks like a cross between Kurt Cobain and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters' drummer), whereas Adam Levine looks like a perpetually angry Justin Timberlake.

2. After watching the video, I realized how not-so-nice the song is. Could this song be this decade's answer to "Every Breath You Take"? Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.



-The Fray put the Reason EP on iTunes today. Reason was a set of 7 songs (including "Vienna" which eventually made it onto How To Save A Life) written and recorded before their debut album was released. Most fans of The Fray have already gotten this EP through illicit means, but at least now the band is trying to capitalize off it.

-I know this has been out for awhile, but I only just heard it a few days ago:

Paramore - My Hero (Foo Fighters cover)

I've been looking to hear some of Paramore's music, but hadn't found a way in til this track. Awesome cover, definitely worth the listen.

Listen for all this stuff and more on the radio show today at 4.

Maroon 5 - Won't Go Home Without You
The Fray - Without Reason

==TJ==