80. Andrew W.K., “McLaughlin Groove”
79. Elvis Costello puts his trust in Fall Out Boy
78. Wye Oak, “I Want for Nothing”
77. Nine Inch Nails’ flood of digitally distributed music
76. TV on the Radio, “Golden Age”
75. Journey welcomes the Web 2.0 Era (and a new singer) with open arms
74. Jenny Lewis, “Acid Tongue”
73. Radiohead scores the year’s strangest Top 40 hit
72. The Music Tapes at Athens Popfest, August 2008
71. Kanye, Lily, Pete, and Courtney form their own blogger nation
70. French Kicks, Swimming
69. Soundscan: down for the recount
68. Make It Stop! The Most of Ross Johnson
67. Parry Gripp, “Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)”
66. Okay, Huggable Dust
65. Mariah Carey, “Touch My Body”
64. 360 deals make heads spin
63. Daniel Amos, Darn Floor Big Bite
62. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
61. Solange, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams
60. The Numa Numa Dance revival
59. The Gaslight Anthem, The ‘59 Sound
58. ’90s alt-rock memoirs
57. Larry Norman and Sonseed
56. Sheryl Crow, “Shine Over Babylon”
55. DJ Koze
54. David Cook beats David Archuleta on American Idol
53. T-Pain, Thr33 Ringz
52. Perez Hilton Vs. Sony BMG: slapfight!
51. Justin Moore’s “Back That Thing Up” video
50. Optimo’s mix CDs
49. Extra Golden live at the Caledonia Lounge, Athens, GA, June 2008
48. Jamey Johnson, That Lonesome Song
47. Daveigh Chase sings “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA” on HBO’s Big Love
46. Gnarls Barkley and the Raconteurs race each other to the record store
45. Pete Wentz tries to save the music video with FNMTV
44. R&B’s breakbeat vogue
43. Jobromance!
42. Dennis Wilson, Pacific Ocean Blue (Legacy Edition)
41. Miley Cyrus, “See You Again”
40. Max Martin and Dr. Luke infiltrate rock radio
39. Of Montreal get Skeletal
38. Poplife Presents Poplife Sucks
37. Alec Foege, Right of the Dial and Taylor Clark, Starbucked
36. Major labels fail to kill the single—again
35. Velvet Revolver brings the drama
34. Blake Leyh makes us listen closer to The Wire
33. Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, “Yahhh!”
32. The end of TRL
31. The old-skool rave revival
30. Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
29. Fred Schneider on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
28. CMT’s Can You Duet
27. ’90s reunion fever
26. Estelle makes her way across the ocean
25. John Darnielle’s Master of Reality and Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste
24. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
23. Santogold, “Lights Out”
22. Summer festival glut
21. Monotonix live in Baltimore
20. James Sullivan, The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America
19. Be Your Own Pet, “Becky”
18. Kanye West’s aesthetics
17. “Vinyl is back!”
16. Global reissues bonanza
15. Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
14. Rickrolling rolls on
13. M.I.A., “Paper Planes”
12. Alphabeat get “wonky”
11. The year of the remix
10. R. Kelly goes to court
9. Jarvis Cocker at Pitchfork Festival, Chicago, July 2008
8. The Ron Clark Academy, “You Can Vote However You Like”
7. Portishead, Third
6. Prince at Coachella Festival, April 2008
5. Erykah Badu, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
4. Guitar Hero / Rock Band
3. A very musical Presidential election
2. Lil Wayne: All things to all people
1. Ne-Yo, Year Of The Gentleman

HEARTBREAKS
1. Mamma Mia Misses The Essence Of ABBA (Kate Richardson)
2. The Death of Baltimore Club Music’s Queen, DJ K-Swift (Al Shipley)
3. The blogosphere as the new status quo (Lucas Jensen)
4. Britney Spears on the 2008 MTV VMAs (Molly McAleer)
5. Be Your Own Pet breaks up (Mike Barthel)
6. Everyone in the music business losing their freakin’ jobs (Michaelangelo Matos)
7. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy (Maura Johnston)
8. John Rich shills for the GOP (Chuck Eddy)

From there, the story grew. There was the comeback album, with requisite Wal-Mart exclusive and “hey, remember our iconography?” cover. There was the sniping from Perry in GQ, whose “I’ve moved on” attitude was epitomized by the quote, “I only know that they’ve been through three guys, and I’ve never heard any of them. I stay away from it, because it’s really none of my business now. We have children together, which are the songs we wrote, but that’s about all.” There was the Rolling Stone piece that claimed Pineda wasn’t adjusting well to being away from the Philippines, and the retraction. There were Arnel-bestowed blessings Etc., etc.

But most of all, there were the fans, whose ability to set comment sections all over the Internet alight like they’re Journey pinball games was unparalleled by pretty much any Internet phenomenon. (Including stupid listicles.) Take this PopWatch post that is still raging, some nine months after the initial post went up. You can spend days getting lost in the thickets of discourse (OK, maybe “discourse” is too highfalutin a word for some of the posts in question), and the twists and turns the online fights take almost eclipse Arnel’s dead-on impersonation of Steve Perry.

80 ‘08 (and Heartbreak)

That desire to revisit the past led Catonsville’s David Warner and four friends to see Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy a few years ago, roughly 20 years after lead singer Phil Lynott had died.

“It was a commemoration,” says the lawyer-turned-grad student. “I didn’t know who the lineup was. It was less about that than about, here was a band who was touring as Thin Lizzy and they’re playing all their songs. [Guitarist/now lead vocalist] John Sykes got it right. He sounds different than Phil, but it didn’t matter. ‘Jailbreak’ is ‘Jailbreak.’ “

Being 30 and reared on ’80s and ’90s pop/rock, I’m not really part of the audience for many of these reunions (though with the whole INXS debacle we’re getting closer), and I suspect a lot of Idolator’s readership is in the same demographic boat. But in ten or fifteen years I still can’t see queuing up for a Pulp tour featuring a 25-year-old Jarvis impersonator the other band members discovered on YouTube, or a reformed Jane’s Addiction fronted by a Staples employee who slogged through some reality TV show. Are there any recent-ish (let’s say the last 15 to 20 years) bands whose songs alone are enticement enough, to the point where you’d pay to see them live with a new frontperson? Or is this concept tied to the repeat-play heyday of “classic rock” and as alien to you as it is to me?

Feels Like The First Time, Sounds A Little Different [Washington Post]

• “I think Journey has hit this one a mile. The music and vocals are spot on. The sound is like a 30 plus year band should sound like, and you can tell Neal being sober has only made him better. There is a difference I cannot explain in his guitar playing, especially some of the solos. Very smooth guitars throughout. Awesome job by all band members. They should be proud today.” [jrnysc]

• “My only complaint is FITH. Why on God’s green earth would you put a shitty song on two albums? Confused Other than that I think I like every song on the album…with WDILYL, NWA, WIN, WITTW, WD and CFTB, really standing out. The 2 ballads…AATY and TDTWT are really, really good. This album is superb. Great packaging, a cool DVD and lyrics as well.” [Saint John]

• “Wow. Holy crap. This is the best Journey record since Frontiers.” [7 Wishes]

• “Completely blown away! I said I’d hold my opinions on Arnel close until I heard the new material and heard him Live 2-3 weeks into the tour but… Journey has hit a complete Home-Run with this guy! This album is packed with some of the best music Schon/Cain have written since the Escape/Frontiers era. EVERYONE sounds amazing (Thanks Caveman!), there is a distinct 80’s vibe running throughout (mostly Cain’s synths) and some of the emotion Arnel and these songs throw at you literally had me teary eyed at times! I know that sounds pretty gay but it happened!” [Carlitto H@kk]

***Forum Members Revelation Reviews*** [MelodicRock]

Clearly, the relationship between Schon and Steve Perry is closer to that of a extended one-night stand that went on for too long, then ended badly, than one between two dudes who happened to be in a band together for a while.

Example:

In conversation, the members of Journey jokingly refer to Steve Perry as “He Who Cannot Be Named,” like the evil wizard in the Harry Potter books. Later, I ask Schon about this, after reading an interview with their former manager in which it is alleged that Journey are somehow legally enjoined from speaking on the record about Perry.

“Oh, y’know,” Schon says. “There’s no legal issue. We just try not to. I mean, I didn’t say anything inflammatory. I didn’t talk about how he still gets paid like a motherfucker even though he shouldn’t be. It’s stuff like that I’m not allowed to talk about. He sorta just bitches and moans and whines about everything. And he just assumes that every time we bring up his name, that we’re sayin’ bad things.”

When Steve Perry’s name comes up, poor Arnel must slink out of the room. Clearly, there’s some emotional baggage lying around the Journey offices. And Journey’s fans are playing the part of the family members who don’t quite understand why the couple broke up.

I ask people to tell me their Journey stories; I ask people what they think of Pineda. I give out my e-mail address. Within minutes, my in-box fills up with e-mails–angry, passionate e-mails.

I hear from a few thick-and-thin super-fans, from plenty of reasonable people ready to give Arnel a fair shake, and even a few early Pineda converts. But I also hear from people frustrated by the band’s -inability to hold on to a lead singer and from people who resent the band for continuing on at all. But mostly, I hear from people who have not stopped believing in Steve Perry. They compare him to Elvis, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and God. They describe the post-Perry band as “a second-class rendition of Journey.” They send me all-caps e-mails–Steve Perry really brings out the caps-lock in people–that begin “IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU ARE LOOKING TO WRIGHT AN ARTICLE ABOUT WHY JOURNEY IS NO LONGER JOURNEY BUT NOTHING MORE THEN A TRIBUTE BAND TO THE BEST SOFT ROCK BAND EVER.” They send me photomosaics of Steve Perry created out of many, many tiny little pictures of Steve Perry.

On the other hand, Perry’s moved on, and clearly doesn’t have time to keep tabs on Schon.

“I only know that they’ve been through three guys,” he says, “and I’ve never heard any of them. I stay away from it, because it’s really none of my business now. We have children together, which are the songs we wrote, but that’s about all.”

Obviously, Schon and Perry should consider hugging out their difficultie–perhaps on a very special episode of Dr. Phil. Until then, however, enjoy “Foolish Heart”. Oh, Neal and Steve, can’t you hear each others’ hearts calling? You’ve been wrong before. Don’t be wrong anymore.

He Didn’t Stop Believin’ [GQ]

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Journey’s first new track with Perry-doppleganger Arnel Pineda fits seamlessly into the band’s body of work; it’s an uptempo rocker with a fairly gigantic guitar hook and lyrics about the power of love. But it’s hard not to think of it as sorta inferior to the band’s other monster hits thanks to its lack of a really big chorus; I kept waiting for Pineda to turn the “never walk awa-ee-yay” in the song’s chorus into a triumphant moment, the sonic confirmation that he knew that love would in fact be staying quite put in the lives of the eloping lovers he’s singing about. It never happened, which makes me think that Mach 2 Journey really needs to have Mutt Lange walk into their lives–otherwise, they’ll just ride out the rest of their career making songs that sound like they’ve been written expressly for retail-therapy montages in Lifetime original movies.

(Also: the song’s closing chord makes me wonder if this track was actually built to be the first jab in a one-two punch encore of their new single and “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Seriously, they’d segue together perfectly.)

WHERE TO FIND IT: Glad you asked:

If the embed doesn’t work, you can always head to the source.

Pineda:

Perry:

Well, he accquits himself pretty well, I think, but fella, I spent many hours playing Joust at the Jamesway shopping center to the strains of Steve Perry. And you are no Steve Perry. But even more than Pineda’s Perry-o-phonic fidelity, the real question might be how the fictional Middle-American residents of fictional South Detroit will take to Journey’s latest addition.

“And is this the 2008 line-up of Journey?” [Melodicrock.com]
The Zoo – “Don’t Stop Believin” [YouTube]
Journey – “Don’t Stop Believin” [YouTube]