American Idle

The newly blonde Katharine McPhee sang atop the Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage float this morning during the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

Singing her new single “Had It All” from her new album “Unbroken,” it’s pretty obvious that whoever produced this album wanted to give her a rougher edge.

She sounds somewhat like Kellie Pickler in this song, and maybe that was the intention. Not sure what I think of her new hairdo; she was a knockout before her change, but what the hey. Listen to the performance below:

Not to be outdone, we had another former American Idol on the parade this morning in Syesha Mercado.

Syesha’s musical career has been lackluster at best, but she is now appearing with the national touring company on the Broadway hit “Dreamgirls.”

She also performed at the parade and it is below:

Adam Lambert made his first appearance this morning on the CBS Early Show since he performed his infamous simulated sex act on the American Music Awards.

CBS booked Lambert after ABC’s Good Morning America canceled his performance scheduled for today.

After Lambert put his infamous mark on the American Music Awards and made history, in a matter of speaking, he has generated a fair amount of controversy.

Lambert admits he got “carried away” and the “impromptu” simulated male-to-male kiss was not planned, in any way, shape or form. He did admit in today’s interview, that he divided fans and has since American Idol.

“I’m not a babysitter, I’m a performer,” he said in the interview. Toward the end of the interview, Lambert was defensive, even though the interviewer was throwing some hard questions at him.

“I hope people don’t put me in a box,” he said in a message to parents and then he performed two songs, both of which were not like the one he performed at the AMA’s. What, people don’t want sex with their morning coffee?

Here’s the Early Show interview in its entirety:

I don’t know if I’ve ever been more surprised in my life than when I heard Jason Castro is finally going on tour.

Well, place an asterisk next to that statement because it’s not an arena tour, by any stretch of the imagination.

It is good that Castro has finally graduated from playing shopping malls, though, because they can get a tad monotonous. Or so I have heard.

Anyway, Castro will now play small nightclubs in an attempt, I believe, to resurrect the dying embers of his music career and possibly stoke the flame of one in acting. Or, playing on Broadway.

Not knowing what Castro is doing one minute from the next is the story of his career, a planned (or not) sequence of mishaps by management (or his mom) that literally suck the life out of any joyous comeback.

Here’s Castro’s upcoming tour schedule:

January 20: Jack Rabbits (Jacksonville, Fla.)
January 22: The Evening Muse (Charlotte, N.C.)
January 23: Local 506 (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
January 25: Jammin’ Java (Vienna, Va.)
January 26: World Café Live (Philadelphia)
January 27: Joe’s Pub (New York)
January 28: Café 939 at Berklee (Boston)
January 29: Club Café (Pittsburgh)
January 31: Beachland Ballroom & Tavern (Cleveland)
February 1: The Basement (Columbus, Ohio)
February 3: The Ark (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
February 4: Schubas Tavern (Chicago)
February 5: Der Rathskeller/Univ. of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.)
February 6: 7th Street Entry (Minneapolis, Minn.)
February 8: The Bottleneck (Lawrence, Kans.)
February 9: The Soiled Dove Underground (Denver)
February 11: Reef Boise (Boise, Idaho)

Pre-order Castro’s album here, because it may actually come out.

Adam Lambert is definitely one for stirring up controversy in different places. Rolling Stone was one, and last night at the American Music Awards was no exception.

Lambert went out like a thrift-store David Bowie, pulling the crotches of several band members toward his member during his performance of his new single, “For Your Entertainment.”

Wow, watching it all over again gives one the same feeling of despair. And shock. And some admiration, because there aren’t many performers who go over the top like this.

To make matters more interesting, portions of Lambert’s live feed were edited on the West Coast, and Lambert threw a hissy fit about the whole thing. Supposedly, his live feed wasn’t edited in all sections of the country.

Here’s what Lambert told Access Hollywood:

“If it’s edited, that’s discrimination,” Adam said. “I will be a little disappointed because there is a little bit of discrimination going in this country. There’s a big double standard, female pop artists have been doing things provocative like that for years, and the fact that I’m a male, and I’ll be edited and discriminated against could be a problem.”
Adam said he’s only trying to add a little shock to his show - something many before him have done.
“Shock is fun, shock rock is like something that existed, for example, like in the 70’s, Alice Cooper…David Bowie, you had artists that liked to push the envelope and that’s what made them so fresh,” he explained. “Prince for example, wore a**less chaps one year…I think that surprise is part of entertainment. I think that it keeps people watching its fun, it makes you laugh and it should be that way. And if it made you uncomfortable, maybe I’m not for you.”

Danny Gokey has received some unfair criticism for his latest single “It’s Only” off of his album, but after getting some feedback it’s obvious that not everybody knows what they’re talking about.

Gokey is already drawing a sizeable following for his debut album and so the listeners at K-BULL 93 FM Radio in Salt Lake City, David Archuleta’s stomping ground and mine, were treated to something new.

Gokey sang “Tiny Life,” for the Johnson & Johnson morning show. It is not an original Gokey tune, because it was actually written by Jeffery Steele and Marv Green and first performed in 2005.

Listen to Gokey’s new single below:

So enjoy some more Danny Gokey! I’m sure we’ll hear soon about the release date for his album. In the meantime, look for a digital release of some Gokey singles in December.

Allison Iraheta’s new album, Just Like You, is coming out in just a few weeks (December 1 to be exact) but if this single, “Don’t Waste The Pretty” is part (which it is, BTW) then we’re all in for some great music.

The buzz on Iraheta is that they’re comparing her to a female Daughtry. Considering Daughtry goes by one name and has arguably been the most successful crossover artist from any Idol season, that’s high praise.

I would even go one step further and say that Iraheta reminds one of Janis Joplin and Debbie Harry. Dang.

The other scary part about this performance that you can see below is that Iraheta is even trying, really. This is an acoustic performance, but if you can sing, you can SANG.

She can sang, folks. No doubt about that. The control is unreal, it’s audible, which isn’t always the case with these shows, and it’s at a radio station.

Without further adieu, Iraheta killing it at Hot 99.5 studios in Maryland, and coming soon to an arena near you.

Not a whole heckuva lot going on from the David Cook camp of late, but one interesting side note is that Cook played his entire album from beginning to end for a few fortunate concert goers in Hammond, Indiana last night.

It marked the first anniversary of his record. Way to go, Cook!

For the second song, called “Life On The Moon,” we actually get to see Cook and his band play the tune, amid the Cookeys freaking out and threatening to do things to Cook that are unspeakable, you know, the usual. LOL

After you’ve heard a few “Ow!” and “Yeah, baby, I can do it any way you want,” anything is fair game, right? The Cook fans are out of control, in a respectable way. Right? Right?!? All I’m hearing are crickets.

The nice thing about that is that Cook played several songs which don’t get a lot of airplay, including his single “Avalanche.”

It’s a tad dark for my taste (I mean, the lighting) but it’s the song we wanna hear, right? Here it is below:

Kris Allen continued his publicity tour for his new album on the Regis & Kathie Lee show this morning and had an interesting interview. See it below:

Allen talked about his new band mates. most of whom he met about a month ago. Allen also talked about going to the Empire State Building, and hitting the road for a tour starting in February.

Then he performed his new single “Live Like We’re Dying,” which you can see below as well. Not a talkative guy, kinda guarded, but he gave a few tidbits of information here and there, I suppose.

One of the things about Allen that people like, though, is his sincerity and his willingness to go against the grain, so to speak, which is what people thought Adam Lambert would do.

In fact, it’s been quite the opposite. Allen has been the guy staying away from A-list events and Lambert has been to all of them, bought the T-shirt, did the mega giltzy photo shoots and created all the controversy.

I do think Allen needs more face time with his audience, though, and perhaps that will come later on once the tour has started. As I recall, Daughtry started slow also.

The music, as you can see, is solid. You can also buy his new album here.

Adam Lambert has already generated his fair share of controversy this year, and he has decided to end 2009 with a bang!

First off, he has now released his old album, entitled “Take One,” which is a recording of his early work.

The track list includes the following songs:

1. First Light
2. Climb
3. December
4. Fields
5. Did you need it
6. More Than
7. Wonderful
8. Castleman
9. Hour Glass
10. Light Falls
11. Bonus Tracks-Remixes: Want, Spotlight, & On With the Show

Ah, there’s “Want” and “On With The Show.” Hmmm, weren’t these the recordings that had Idol producers in a tizzy? Why, yes they were! LOL

Funny they came out now, with his new album “For Your Entertainment” not doing as well as some had hoped. Putting out “Take One” may be a ploy to get more record sales for Lambert, who knows?

But wait, there’s more. Lambert also announced his new band mates, which usually means there’s a tour coming up. And the list is pretty formidable. First, he snagged Yellowcard’s drummer, not an easy task, as well as a female keyboardist named Lisa (she’s in the nattily clad duds there).

All I can say is look forward to some very interesting music coming to a place near you.

Buy “Take One” Here

Well, it’s official; Kellie Pickler has now performed as a redhead. Dunno if I like the look as much as her blonde hairdo, but everything takes some getting used to, right?

Here she is performing at the Country Music Hall of Fame last week, clad in a hat and a snug top.

Listen to it below:

Whoa, nelly, it’s acoustic! Actually, despite my overall objection to her new look, the song itself is good.

A little twangy, and overpowered by her background players, but good. Also somewhat goofy is an interview superimposed in parts over the performance, which is like listening to a wall of noise.

At any rate, Pickler has embraced her new look and she’ll probably be more sassy and sexy, than before. Guys can only hope.  But she likes to still be herself, apparently, enjoying laying down in bed. Heh.