Way to set an example... Douche.

As someone who didn't personally watch the American Music Awards, I have been recently bombarded with secondhand accounts all of the new awardshow scandals that happened that night.

The talk of who wore what, and who walked down the red carpet with who gets redundant and old after about three seconds, but the shocked reactions to the live performances of the show actually interested me enough to encourage me to look them up.

After hearing from my mother what a disturbing performance American Idol winner Adam Lambert put on, I was needless to say, a bit curious.

I'll admit that while the news coverage of the performance is a bit exaggerated, after seeing it on youtube last night, I can't say that I don't understand what the fuss is about. I really didn't expect to see such things from a winner of a family show, but alas, there he was,  acting out bondage and blow jobs, and making out with boys on stage.

Now don't get me wrong... I'm all for having pride in your chosen team. If you're a guy that's not a huge fan of girls, I don't blame you... I'm not either. Quite frankly, I find a majority of my gender to be extremely irritating. The thing of the matter is though, that if you are in the public eye, the behavior that you chose to use to show your rainbow pride should probably be a little more public appropriate.

It's great that he is comfortable with his sexuality and wants other people to know it, but here's the thing... He is a public figure and should be setting an example for the gay community. In my opinion his little on stage PDA only set back all of the battles that gays are fighting right now. How does he expect the public to become more acclimated to the homosexual life style, and more willing to allow them the rights that they should be given when he's making offensive displays on family television programs?

I just really think that he before he decided to display his sexual preferences all over the AMA stage, he should have thought of the effect that it would have on the public, and the fact that it may or may not just give fuel to the prejudiced assholes that are trying to take rights away from homosexuals left and right, which it very well might.

Also, good luck getting any more performances lined up, dude, I'm sure that no one is going to want him to perform, not knowing if he's going to get all "caught up in the moment".

Fall Out Boy: Believers Never Die- Greatest Hits

Chicago natives, Fall Out Boy released Believers Never Die- Greatest Hits last week after six highly successful studio albums.

This is the band’s first greatest hits compilation and is comprised mostly of songs that have been released as their singles through the years, along with two brand new bonus tracks.

The track list starts out strong with a few old Fall Out Boy favorites. Dead on Arrival which was originally released in 2003 on the bands second studio album, Take This to Your Grave kicks off the album. The memorable vocals of Patrick Stump, along with the impossibly fast guitar riffs (as featured in the game Rock Band) make this a great opening song.

Following Dead on Arrival is one of my personal favorites, Grand Theft Autumn/ Where is Your Boy. This song was also released on Take This to Your Grave, and while it didn’t achieve the top 40 radio success that some of the band’s following singles have, it has become a favorite among fans and definitely deserved a place in the greatest hits album.

Among the typically well known singles such as Dance, Dance and Sugar, We’re Going Down, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the band included their cover of Michael Jackson’s Beat it which features the background guitar of John Mayer. Though it’s hard to improve on a classic, I tend to lead toward this song more than the original. Though the overall integrity of Beat It stays intact, the band adds a rock edge to it that can be described as nothing but awesome.

Alpha Dog is one of the two songs to not be featured on a studio album yet, although it appeared as a demo clip called ALPHAdog and OMEGAlomaniac on the Welcome to the New Administration MixTape, a viral marketing project for Fall Out Boy’s album Folie A Deux. This song mixes a lot of usual Fall Out Boy sounds and follows the typical template of their other songs, with a memorable chorus, an upbeat verse tune, and a slower bridge part, smattered with chanting background lyrics from bassist, Pete Wentz. This song, much like other singles from the band speaks a lot of fame, and their position in the limelight.

While the second new song, From Now On We Are Enemies is almost peppy enough to make you want to get up and punch dance, I feel the only strike against it I feel is the overly high pitched sound. Although Stump excels at high notes, the song is mainly comprised of nothing but. It has the sound of something that has been sped up and turned into a youtube chimpmonk rendition of a previously slower, lower keyed song.
Overall, if you are a Fall Out Boy fan, this album leaves nothing to be desired. The band has included all of their best song from all five of their previous albums, along with a few new tunes that definitely don’t disappoint.

Dashboard Confessional: Alter The Ending

My review for this week. Should be published next Tuesday!

Dashboard Confessional, advocates of teen angst and defenders of the right to cry in a dark corner released their sixth studio album, Alter the Ending last week, giving misunderstood adolescents everywhere reason to rejoice.
Chris Carrabba returns to the mic with his voice that has been known known to make 14 year old girls dissolve to tears belting out 12 emo anthems that sound like a happy medium of their earlier, peppier albums, and the mellow sounds of their last studio album, In the Shade of Poison Trees.
The album gets off to a rocky start with the first track, Get Me Right which was a three minute and sixteen second train wreck of repetitive subpar lyrics with an almost irritating verse tune. Overall, the song sounds less like the work of well seasoned professionals, and more like something one would expect from a garage band at a frat party.
Until Morning picked up the pace a bit and was more reminiscent of Dashboard’s earlier work on A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar. Overall though, I felt that track three, Everybody Learns from Disaster marked a definite upswing in the album as a whole. This stereotypical ‘runaway together’ song is one of the longer ones on the album, but unlike the first track, isn’t almost painful to listen to in its entirety.
The title song of the album, Alter the Ending is by far my favorite track. The song mixes a lot of the old Dashboard signatures, such as simple but memorable guitar parts, and the almost impossible high notes of Carrabba’s vocals. While the familiarity of the music makes this song worth listening to, I think the vocals and overall catchy tune definitely put it in the running to go on the “Top 25 most played” list of my iTunes.
Another candidate for overplaying on my personal playlists is The Motions. This song adds a surprising new sound to the album, with its light electric vibe. The song’s lyrics are quirky, mostly consisting of scientific terms of nerves and frontal lobes, with the repeated line “This is chemical.”
Overall, Alter the Ending is pretty much what could have been expected from a Dashboard Confessional album, standing up to the stereotypical emo sound that they have been associated with from the beginning, with a side of upbeat and fun.
You can find Alter the Ending in stores now.

Glee: The Music, Volume 1

This will be my first official review for the Sagebrush. It'll be published next Tuesday!


After catching onto the popularity of the hit TV show, “Glee,” Fox and Columbia Records released the first installment of “Glee: The Music” last week, which features favorite songs from the show, performed entirely by the cast. It makes it hard to not jump out of your seat and sing along while listening.
The show itself takes viewers back to high school with the social struggles and worries of fictional William McKinley High’s Glee Club, along with  those of their instructor, Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison, “Hairspray”).
“Glee” follows the members of the Glee Club as they battle to fit in and make friends, and Schuester fights to bring the club out of the dumps and back into the limelight. Difficulties arise when cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch, “Julie & Julia”) fights to keep the Glee Club down and her “Cheerios” on top.
Though the plot is entertaining and the characters are lovable and hilarious, the show is successful due to its collection of stellar voices and the musical numbers by the cast.
The track list of “Glee: The Music” includes covers of songs that span numerous genres, from the hip-hop hit “Gold Digger,” originally by Kanye West, to a stylish rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
The album starts out strong with one of my personal favorite songs from the show, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which was featured in the first episode. Although it seems unlikely that anyone could improve on the classic Journey song, I find myself loving this cover almost as much as the original. The mix of the familiar guitar solos and great background harmonies add a very “Glee” touch to the song, and the leading vocals of Lea Michele as Rachel Berry and Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson definitely don’t disappoint.
Another favorite from the list is easily Heart’s ‘80s ballad “Alone.” This song was the first in the series to showcase the lead vocals of Morrison and also features Kristen Chenoweth (“Wicked”). The duet is one of the few songs on the album not done by the whole chorus; however, the two-part harmonies and nearly glass-shattering high notes show the Broadway training of the two and leave nothing to be desired.
The last half of the album, I feel, falls a bit short. Although the vocals continue to amaze throughout the CD, the first half of the album contains more of the upbeat and recognizable tunes, whereas the closing numbers are the slower, more obscure ones.
“Dancing with Myself,” originally performed by Generation X, showed that perhaps it is possible for the “Glee” cast to do a less-than-fantastic cover of a song. The melancholy rendition by Kevin McHale,  who plays Archie, is less like the upbeat original and more reminiscent of the woe-is-me song, “Mr. Cellophane,” from the musical “Chicago.”
All in all, “Glee: The Music” delivers exactly what it promises in the form of audience favorites from the show, along with a fresh new take on loved songs, both old and new.
Glee can be seen on Fox at 9 p.m. Wednesdays.

As a new reviewer on the Nevada Sagebrush A&E team...

I'll probably start posting my reviews here...

Just FYI.

Enjoy!!

<3