Of the handful of national articles generated by this week’s annual list of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees, a blog post on Yahoo! Music was the most fun to read. Filled with playful jabs at acts such as Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns ’N Roses, it managed to be entertaining while summing up the lone piece of interesting news: That 1970s female acts Heart and Joan Jett received first-time nominations.
Admittedly, this hinges entirely on your definition of “interesting news.”
The piece, which also maintained that “there’s no national pastime that brings the nation together quite like carping about the Rock Hall’s choices every year,” made the flawed assumption that fans actually care anymore about who gets into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Sure, somebody cares. I mean, inexplicably, Americans also watch awards shows in huge numbers (although I’d argue that they’re lured by celebrity antics and fashion faux pas more than who actually wins that Grammy or Oscar).
But does anyone really want to bicker over who belongs in the Rock Hall at this point? Once it became clear that wildly diverse music genres such as rap, jazz and folk would be heartily welcomed into a shrine supposedly devoted to rock, it stopped making sense to even care.
But, sure, snubbed Rush fan, your band deserves to be in — especially since the Rock Hall feels totally fly by night.
With my music-snob mode fully engaged, now feels like a fine time to revive the argument that bands who replace original singers with copycats should be banned from all stages not located adjacent to expo buildings, ferris wheels and pie-baking contests.
Obviously, this is not a mainstream opinion. Whether it’s the Home-Depot-employee-turned-Brad-Delp-wannabe in Boston or the Filipino Steve Perry-channeler in Journey, it’s clear that fans are happy to open their wallets to partial-karaoke acts.
Or less. Witness the painfully constant parade of tribute groups who stop in Boise. Last weekend, it was Blistered Earth, a Metallica tribute. This weekend it’s Badfish: A Tribute to Sublime.
Not to mention the coming Australian Pink Floyd Show Oct. 9 at the Morrison Center. I admit that I’ve had a soft spot for the Aussie Floyd in the past, but I’m utterly disappointed by the new feature: 3D glasses. That’s an insult to the psychedelic power of Pink Floyd’s music. Like, it’s already in 3D.
Still, in this spirit of tributes, I strongly advise you to open your web browser and check out a new soundalike for Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.
Prepare to scrape your jaw off the floor.
This Christian-rock band guy named Marc Martel has shown up on YouTube sounding so much like Mercury that it’s beyond crazy — assuming that the video, which has had more than 3.4 million views already, is authentic and not lip-synching of some sort. (The singing just looks so effortless.)
Queen drummer Roger Taylor is auditioning singers for a tour that (thankfully) will not call itself Queen, but the Queen Extravaganza. It’s a show paying tribute to the legendary band. Martel has to be the leading candidate — by a mile. Go see the video on my “Words & Deeds” blog.
At press time, there had been no official news about any Michael McDonald make-up concert to appease fans upset by his non-singing performance Sept. 18 at Eagle River Pavilion.
But I have a feeling that something might happen. Keep checking my blog for details about this possibility, which would go a long way in smoothing over fans upset with McDonald’s decision.
If you were wondering how the opening of Pengilly’s Saloon’s new expansion went last week — it was slammed.
Friday and Saturday nights were overflowing at the Downtown Boise bar.
Michael Deeds co-hosts “The Other Studio” at 9 p.m. Sundays on 94.9 FM “The River”; he appears Thursdays on Channel 6 News. Twitter: @IDS_Deeds
