Nashville Sweep

And we're coming to the end of The Next Great American Band. When push came to shove, the kids in Light of Doom just weren't as good as the other bands. No real surprise there, unless you subscribed to my "there are only so many votes in Nashville to go around" theory from last time.

Interesting format this week, in that two of three songs were chosen for the bands, and one of those by one of the judges. "September" is a horn-section band staple, and contrary to Dicko's claim, is not disco, coming from the rather fertile period of R&B that immediately preceded it. I actually would have liked to see Johnny Rzeznik give the Clark Brothers a Goo Goo Dolls song, just to see what they would do with it. And Dicko totally throws down the gauntlet with Steely Dan. Great song, but kind of a cruel choice, as the Dan is not easy to pull off, but Sixwire handled it. And contrary to Johnny Rzeznik's claim, that's not progressive rock.

It would have been interesting to see what songs were chosen for Light of Doom had they advanced, mostly because they would have likely crashed and burned.

And I'm finding it more and more fascinating watching Dicko, the one actual A&R guy, give his notes to the bands. On the one hand, he's pretty clearly trying to cross them over to be rock bands, or at least to appeal to a rock audience. That seems odd to me, since rock has been taking on water for years, but I guess that's just who the guy is. On the other hand, he then turned around and explicitly told Denver and the Mile High Orchestra to protect their sound from music business people who will try to meddle with it. Irony!

Right now I'm pretty sure it'll be either Sixwire or The Clark Brothers. I'd like to see The Clark Brothers win it, just because they bring such passion and conviction, along with chops to burn. Sixwire is really, really good, but in very conventional ways.