popwreckoning

Butch Walker is almost as talented at making music videos as he is at writing songs. Check out Butch and the Black Widows’ new video for “Pretty Melody” off his latest release, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart.

Locksley will head out on the road this spring in support of their March 16, 2010 release, Be In Love.

Their trek begins at Sunfest on April 28, 2010 in West Palm Beach, FL. Then, their spring 2010 tour with Butch Walker kicks off on May 4, 2010 in Omaha, NE.

Locksley features brothers Jesse and Jordan Laz (rhythm guitar and bass respectively), Kai Kennedy (lead guitar) and Sam Bair (drums). Be In Love finds the band exploring their American musical roots with bits of Swing, 50’s Doo-Wop, 60’s Soul and early American-Punk all coming together to create something uniquely and confidently their own.

“We’ve broadened and narrowed our outlook on this album” Jesse remarked. “We added a third vocalist and songwriter in Jordan, which was big and we were listening to and pulling from a larger variety of music than before. At the same time, we cut a lot of fat in our parts and tightened up the arrangements quite a bit so the album ends up feeling more focused than the last one, even though it’s spread out over more voices.”

Butch Walker with Locksley Tour Dates:
May 4 – Waiting Room /  Omaha, Nebraska
May 5 – Firebird / St. Louis, Missouri
May 7 – Fine Line Music Café / Minneapolis, MN
May 8 – Majestic Theatre / Madison, WI
May 9 – House of Blues / Chicago, IL
May 10 – Mill Creek / Appleton, Wisconsin
May 11 – Birdy’s / Indianapolis, IN
May 13 – Mixtape Café / Grand Rapids, Michigan
May 14 – Magic Bag Detroit, MI 8:00PM
May 15 – Southgate House / Newport, KY
May 17 – Beachland Ballroom / Cleveland, OH
May 19 – World Café Live / Philadelphia, PA
May 20 – Webster Hall / New York, NY
May 21 – Recher Theatre / Baltimore, MD
May 23 – Orange Peel /  Asheville, NC
May 25 – Exit/In / Nashville, TN
May 26 – Variety Playhouse / Atlanta, GA

Additional Locksley Dates:
April 28 2010 SunFest (Tire Kingdom Stage) West Palm Beach, FL 5:30PM
June 5 2010 Verge Festival (Main Stage) Milwaukee, WI 2:00PM

There were bits of Panic! at Butch Walker‘s recently when superfan Brendon Urie spent the day at Walker’s after buying the $25,000 pre-sale for his new album. Turns out Butch (or should we say Butcher?) really does like it better when you have no heart.

Watch the “American Psycho” inspired video then pre-order I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. Buying anything but the $25,000 pre-order is a safe bet.

As a general rule, being a diehard fan of an artist makes it much more difficult to offer a balanced review. There’s the problem of drowning in one’s fan knowledge and being completely biased in favor of the artist. Being a diehard Butch Walker fan, this particular review was no different.

I was positively giddy about the release of Butch Walker and the Black Widows’ I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart. I kept an eye out for every piece of news about the record’s release. I shelled out $75 for the preorder. I bought the iTunes single of “Trash Day” and “She Likes Hair Bands.” And then came the day when the stream made it online…

This record did not wow me. I strongly suspect this opinion won’t win me any friends and may even cost me a few.

It’s taken more than a few plays for the record to begin winning me over. Don’t get me wrong. By no stretch of the imagination do I consider this a bad record. If it were anyone else I would probably be content with it. After a week or two in heavy rotation I’d move on to something else. It’s good. But simply good isn’t the first descriptor I think of for Butch.

This record is very much for fans who favor Letters and Sycamore Meadows to Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let’s Go Out Tonights. Everything is much more subdued and picks up more or less where Sycamore Meadows left off. Butch’s melodic acoustic rock gets heavy doses of country and 70’s AM Gold. Odd as it sounds, there are also moments where my mind’s eye sees the Black Widows well-coifed and swaying back and forth in matching Lettermen jackets. To be honest, most every song on the record conjured visions of band motifs, none of them looking like Butch and the boys.

There are a few important details that may account for my lack of enthusiasm upon hearing this record, so don’t think I’m writing it off all together. First off, Butch who’s usually a solo writer, shares writing duties with Michael Trent from The Films. Since I haven’t been able to get my hands on any credits, just yet it’s hard to say just how much of the record Michael wrote. There are a few undoubtedly Michael Trent moments, namely “Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home” and “Days/Months/Years.” Both songs sound like they would be at home on The Films’ next record and Michael even lends his voice to the former.

It’s quite possible that Michael has something to do with the country tinge on the record, though the record harkens different brands of country. “Don’t You Think Someone Should Take You Home” is a ballad done as if by a pair of country stars taking some over the top production away from a CMA. On the other hand, “Days/Months/Years” has some of the camp I always love in Butch’s lyrics and evokes images of a movie scene in a dive bar down a long dirt road. Coming from yet another angle is “She Likes Hair Bands,” which is very southern rock and sounds like there should be 12 band members on stage, not counting the group of girls on back up doing the choreographed moves in the corner.

Next up on the list of changes for Butch is that this record was recorded in just a few days following the west coast tour in June 09. While he isn’t exactly prone to epic, years long sessions, this is certainly a short time for a project. Something about the record sounds rushed. I can’t help but wonder how much of the record actually was written before the band went into the studio. Every song has a heavy dose of oohs, aahs and las, none of which would be out of the ordinary for Butch. God knows I have a weakness for well-placed oohs, aahs and las, but the preponderance of them just sound unfinished.

The record’s second track, “Pretty Melody” is a stand out and easily my favorite on the record, thanks in part to lines like “You’re such a pretty melody/I’m just another tattooed tragedy.” It opens with sweeping strings that carry over through the rest of the song and sounds like it should be the theme to a yellowed 1970’s flick with a tagline like “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Of course with strings like this, I can’t help but wonder if the next record will be his Wall of Sound era, which I’d love to hear. It would certainly go with my Letterman jacket visions. This also is quite true of “They Don’t Know What We Know.” To be honest, it borders on being Grease-esque. Come on Butch, where’s the choreography to go with your ever present leather jacket?

The closest this record gets to big rocker tracks, of which there are always a few, are “Temporary Title” and “House of Cards.” Of course they still have the aforementioned strings, but also a faster tempo. When I’m listening to “House of Cards,” however, I really wish for a gang of Muppets to pop out of a closet or from behind a couch to sing parts of the chorus like “you know you better run.”

Last on the list of changes in Butch’s MO, the fans barely had heard any of this record before the stream went live. Butch fans are very fortunate to be as spoiled as we are to get to watch the evolution of songs via the countless live videos and demos that find their way online long before the record sees the inside of a record store. A handful of tracks were previewed at his residencies in LA, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta last month with a few videos making it online, but nowhere near what we would normally see.

When all was said and done, I had heard six of the 11 tracks before sitting down to listen to the whole record, most of that only three weeks earlier at his Atlanta residency and all of them exactly as they are on the record. This may seem like a huge preview, but in the case of his previous efforts, fans had heard practically the entire record, with many of the songs as alternate versions long before they bought it on the release date. Is this record off-putting to the diehards since fans haven’t had the luxury of getting well-acquainted with each song before it is finally heard on the record? This could have something to do with my earlier wonderings as to how much of the record was written prior to the band setting foot in the studio, or perhaps Butch simply chose to be more guarded with his art before he was ready for it to be heard. I’ve certainly warmed to the record after many listenings. I suppose I’ll have to wait to see if I will fall for this record the way I have for the rest of his catalog.

Track Listing:
1. Trash Day
2. Pretty Melody
3. Don t You Think Someone
4. Should Take You Home
5. Stripped Down Version
6. Canadian Ten
7. Temporary Title
8. She Likes Hair Bands
9. House of Cards
10. They Don t Know What We Know
11. Days/Months/Years
12. Be Good Until Then

For those of you unfamiliar with Butch Walker, you may recognize him from his recent Grammy performance with muilt-Grammy winner Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks. This, of course, is only one feat from the notorious song-writer and producer who has worked with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Pete Yorn, The Donnas, Weezer, All Time Low, Hot Hot Heat and so many more.

I Liked You Better When You Had No Heart is his seventh solo album that you can now stream in its entirety on ThinkIndie. Also, thanks to ThinkIndie and their team of independent music stores, you can buy the album a week early starting February 9th. You can either download the album through ThinkIndie or go down to your local indie store to purchase the 180 gram gatefold vinyl complete with bonus CD and poster. Find a store near you.

While waiting for the new album from Butch Walker this coming February, fans can check out two of the new songs now.

“Trash Day” and “She Likes Hair Bands” from I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart are available on ITunes and other online retailers now. They can also be streamed in advance.

Butch is performing a residence in Atlanta from now until Saturday at the 7 States Theater.

His new album comes out February 9 on vinyl and the February 23 on CD and digital. Butch’s new album can be pre-ordered here.

Sycamore Meadows, the latest release from Butch Walker, is the only album of his that I don’t own. The only one that I did not run out to the store and buy on its release date or pre-order online. I hadn’t even heard anything off of the record other than the lead single, “The Weight of Her” and I had only heard it once. After hearing him play it in its entirety last week, I have come to the conclusion that I am a complete and total fool. It seems with this record, Walker has finally come into his own.

However, I’m not here to review Sycamore Meadows. We’ve already done that. I’m here to tell you how night 3 of Walker’s Wednesday night residency at the Hotel Café went. And it was lovely. Though it was much more mellow than the previous week (Walker himself even compared the last Wednesday to the effects cocaine and the current Wednesday to the effects of heroin), it was still a treat.

The highlight of the night was Butch’s special guest—his doctor. Apparently after a recent check-up, Dr. Stephen Patt mentioned to Walker that he played a few instruments and consequently spent his night onstage accompanying the show on a multitude of stringed instruments including, but not limited to upright bass and lap steel. It seemed as though there was some difficulty getting Dr. Patt properly amplified, but once he was, his little extras made a big difference.

For his weekly cover, Walker chose the lesser known Patsy Cline classic “I’ve Got Your Picture.” After hearing a gentleman known as “The Hardest Working Man in Karaoke” perform this at a West Hollywood karaoke joint the previous week, the song was fresh in my mind. Walker’s rendition was positively heartbreaking. I will forever be touched by the way his voice and facial expressions lead one to believe that he might actually break down in tears during his ballads, and though the song was not his own, he gave it no less feeling.

The upcoming final Wednesday of Butch Walker’s residency is fast approaching, and I have no clue what to expect. Quite honestly, I don’t think he does either. I can only hope that it’s as captivating and exciting as I’ve known his shows to be in the past. As much as I love low-key, subdued Butch, I love high-energy, interactive and silly Butch more. I’d love to hear a few songs off of Left of Self-Centered, the oft forgotten first solo album, as well as a multitude of Marvelous 3 gems. Hopefully on the last night, Butch will also take time to come out and rub elbows with his fans. I’ve always admired the love and respect he’s given those to spend their time and money coming to see him play. However, the last three weeks, I haven’t once seen him emerge from his “Performers Only” green room and mingle with the crowd. But to be quite honest, if that’s the only real complaint he’s getting from me, he’s doing pretty damn well.

Butch Walker: website | myspace | Sycamore Meadows review | interview with | @ grog shop | @ hotel cafe: night 1 | @ hotel cafe: night 2

The second night of Butch Walker’s month-long Wednesday night residency at Hollywood’s Hotel Café was quite a bit of a party. I’ve lived in LA for close to a year now, but I still get excited at celebrity sightings, and Butch’s collection of famous friends did not disappoint me in the slightest. In attendance that night were Jeremy Piven, Derrick Whibley (of Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne-marriage-drama fame), and not in the VIP section but in the crowd with the rest of us plebians, Alex Solowitz, best known for his portrayal of Mickey Parke in the faux MTV boy band 2ge+her. Damn, I love Los Angeles.

Tonight, Butch would be treating the crowd to a live, stripped-down rendition of The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Lets-Go-Out-Tonites. He played the album straight through, no deviations aside from his usual shtick; references to the ‘97 hit “How Bizarre” by OMC, comparing his riffing and soloing to every Led Zeppelin song that ever existed, while consequently singing “baby, baby, baby, baby!” much like Robert Plant does on every other Led Zeppelin song. You know. The usual.

He did make up for missing a song the previous week, treating us to “#1 Summer Jam,” and resolving to not miss a single song from The Rise and Fall… Pausing for a minute in the musical revelry, he talks about the forgiveness that his hardcore fans give him for his wackiness, refers to himself as being compared to Jason Mraz with tattoos, and tells us how sometimes, he wants to be filthy, stinkin’ famous. And then things happen like the YouTube video of him recording his version of “You Belong With Me” from the previous week, and he gets torn the hell up, and he realizes that he likes his little bubble. And he loves his hardcore fans. It’s good to be loved.

Getting close to the end of the album, Butch pulls out his big political song, “Paid to Get Excited,” and flat out admits that he had no idea what he was thinking when he wrote the album. Or why he wrote a political song. After playing through the first two verses and choruses, he also admits, “I don’t even like this last song! So I’m gonna do something different,” and segues into Dramarama’s “Anything, Anything,” which is a KROQ favorite and absolute staple.

In my mind, that was the cover of the night. However, soon after, Walker busts into Pulp’s “Common People,” and I honestly think I was one of five people in the entire audience who knew the song. Still, as great a song as it is, I’m not sure if it was Butch’s best choice for a cover. Shatner did it better.

Finally, the highlight of the entire night was the unintentional encore. As he’s leaving the stage for the night, someone holds up a cake with a candle in it and the crowd begins singing “Happy Birthday,” as Walker’s 40th birthday was on the Saturday to follow. That just set him off in a rockin’ mood and he did not want to stop. Calling up Hotel Café regular, Jim Bianco, the boys jam a little bit more, treating the crowd to the title track off of Jim Bianco’s latest album, Sing. I will totally and completely admit to loudly singing the harmonies from the crowd on that one. Continuing on, the boys bust out into a cover of Prince’s “Kiss” with Ari Gold himself, Jeremy Piven, joining them on the drum set….sans cymbals and with woodwhacks instead of sticks.

I have yet to be disappointed by one of these shows these month. I know that everything says its sold out, but they’ve been selling a small number of tickets at the door. Come on down and join the fun, and GET THERE EARLY!!!!!

Butch Walker: website | myspace | Sycamore Meadows review | interview with | @ grog shop | @ hotel cafe: night 1

We love this Butch Walker cover of Taylor Swift‘s “You Belong with Me” right down to the annotations. This is a video you don’t want to miss.

Butch Walker: website | myspace | Sycamore Meadows review | interview with | @ grog shop | @ hotel cafe

Expecting a return to the days of the Blue album or Pinkerton from Weezer?  Quit living in a world of naivety. Weezer doesn’t want to be that band. They’ve been there; they’ve done that. This new change in direction is due to Rivers Cuomo’s new found flair for pop music , allowing the touch of Butch Walker and a cast of pop/rock masterminds such as Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects. I’m here to pose the question that’s the elephant in the room, and that would be, is that really such a bad thing? Here me out now, Weezer was always at their best with crunchy guitars and geeky hooks and with this album they offer a glimpse into the promise they can have in a new found world of making pop music.

While I prefer the Weezer of old, like I’m sure most of you do, I can’t help but appreciate Rivers and gang for taking a big, big chance with this change in style demonstrated to a T with the incredibly catchy single “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To.” Weezer was never one to add too many things to the melting pot, so with these new found collaborations, one can only imagine the random Rivers has in store for us. I’m referring to those Spinner performances with Kenny G (yes, Kenny G, Chamillionaire and Sara Bareilles which you can see here

While the flair for pop doesn’t always work, I’m looking at you “Can’t Stop Partying,” the pop shines through when they let the whoa’s fly in “The Girl Got Hot.” One gripe I have is that some of the lyrics are a little too tongue in cheek with their references to partying, clubbing and simple premises, but this definitely is their best album in quite some time following the so-so Red album of 2008 and Make Believe of 2005. For those who lost faith, this album could make you a believer again.

Simply put, Weezer just wants to have fun, won’t you join them?

Track listing:
01. (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
02. I’m Your Daddy
03. Girl Got Hot
04. Can’t Stop Partying
05. Put Me Back Together
06. Trippin’ Down the Freeway
07. Love Is the Answer
08. Let It All Hang Out
09. In the Mall
10. I Don’t Want to Let You Go

Weezer: website | myspace | @ maryland heights