Rock Star: Supernova
 

This starts tonight, 7-830 CST.

Although it surely won't be as original the 2nd time around, I'm really looking forward to this. Not so much for the members of the band (Tommy Lee from Motley Crue, Jason Newsted from Metallica, and Gilby Clark from GNR), but just to see/hear some of the contestants. I'm not a fan of INXS really at all, and I thoroughly enjoyed last summer.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/rock_star2/

Who the hell is Gilby Clark, anyways? Guitarist for GNR, ok...but I'm guessing not for long or something?

Damn... Gilby Clarke still looks the same.

I believe he was brought in during the Illusion Tours to replace Izzy Stradlin (after he left the band).

Clarke was then fired from GNR after the Spagetti Incident.

Only one I've liked so far is the 2nd guy that did Knockin' on Heaven's Door, though I liked his voice more than the song.

These chicks are terrible...and this Alvarez girl was HORRIBLE.

I guess I like 2 of the 5 (Storm and the blonde dude singing acoustic, maybe Ryan). Patrice was a little underwhelming. Magni was a poser.

Liked Josh's voice (though probably not quite a fit for the band), and Jenny's got a nice sounding voice, but doesn't seem to be able to project loudly if the song required it. Couldn't stand Zayra's vocals at all.

Hoffer looked like he was showing up for Monkees Idol. Dilana scared the crap out of me.

Dana had a big husky voice but not much of a melodic quality to it. Phil just flat out stunk up the stage. Jill was too much of a screamer.

Chris was horrific, but Lukas pretty much brought it home.

I liked the punk chick Dilana, from S. Africa originally, that sang "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Top 3 (in no particular order):
Toby - Really liked his voice, will reserve judgment until he does something more uptempo.
Josh - I really like his voice, but I've gotta hear him do more of a rock song before I can see him fitting in with this group.
Lukas - A bit over the top, but he definitely made his point and rocked.

Kind of "meh":
Magni
Ryan
Jenny
Matt
Storm
Patrice

Just plain bad:
Zayra - Scary bad.
Dilana - Just scary.
Dana
Phil
Jill
Chris - How in God's name did he get in the top 15?!

Toby is the clear front runner. He kinda reminded me of Axl's vocals on GNR's cover the Knockin.

Dana (or whoever the chick from Augusta was) really belongs on American Idol and not in the running to front a band with Tommy Lee.

Dilana scared the crap out of me, and while I figured the band would love her, I am not sure why.

I wasn't too thrilled with Zayra's performance either, but she has a really good voice. Check out her vocals on "Come in Closer" and "Into the Ocean" with Blue October. I hope she stays around a little longer to see if she can give a better performance.

I wish Jason Newsted would avoid the heavy metal side of his music. Yeah, he is a great bass player for a heavy metal band, but I think he is much stronger as a pure rock bassist. I thought he rocked when he sat in with Gov't Mule a few times.

I bet Newsted wishes he was in Metallica right now.

I dunno...did you hear their new song? If it wasn't clear they were washed up before, it is now.

There are only really 4 or 5 people that even have a shot at this. The rest are just there to fill the hour for now.

Why did Newsted leave? He have integrity so Lars had to jetison him away?

i'll be the first to say it...

THE HOUSE BAND ROCKS! glad to see it's all the same guys.


Chris was AWFUL. was glad to hear Gilby just flat out say it sucked. it did suck. the arrangement, his vocals, everything except the band.

I agreed with the early bottom three (Chris, Magni, and Phil). At least with Magni and Chris. magni was pompous. and his shuffling around the stage was awful.

who was the chick that sang the nickelback song? her voice was almost too clean. except on the "heart worth breakin'" part where the band stopped playing. she sounded more rock there. most of her performance was liz phair-ish. and hey, i like liz phair, but not for this.

that guy lukas looked reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaallly familiar.

dilana was scary... her voice sounded like an 80-year-old who's been smoking for 78 years... but she was captivating. she was more entertaining just standing there than magni and chris were in their whole performance.

that other dude was freakin' channeling chris robinson. except chris does a better job enunciating, which is hard to believe.

she sang lithium.

so the band isn't picking the songs for them anymore? it sounded like they said that the singers get to pick their own songs... seems like people would be less likely to screw up (well, except for chris).

and how are they going to do the bottom 3? just have them sing another rock song of their choice? I liked how last year, the bottom three had to sing an INXS song.

I actually liked the one that sang Lithium

agree 100% about the house band. I was VERY happy to see them back.

I also agree 100% that only 4 or 5 TOPS have any chance of actually winning this. It'll be a while before we get to the meat of this show.

I was hoping they'd act more like Gilby telling htat guy his song sucked. They seem to be too nice, and thats just not Tommy Lee or Newsted. Felt like they needed to be more honest.

My top 3:

Toby
Lukas
Storm

I really liked Josh, but there's just no way he fronts that band. I also liked (and seems like i'm the only one, pun intended) Dana. But ya, this isn't the show for her.

My bottom 3:

Chris - just awful
Phil - was the worst till Chris went
Zayra - ok, this to me seems like they picked her just because one of those 3 wanted to date her or something.

Lukas was the last one right? I didn't like anybody until him. I disliked Supernova even more than I expected to. I never thought I'd miss INXS.

I have no idea why, but I'll probably continue to watch this show for at least a little bit. I always stop watching AI when they get to the finalists, but for some reason I'm drawn to this show.

I LOVED the show last year and by about show 5, I was a J.D. fanatic. (I went to Vegas in January strictly to see INXS.) I'm not sure anyone this year is going to grab me like that. . .

Storm - Not bad, good voice, but hated her weird expressions.
Ryan - I felt like I was listening to Adam Sandler do one of his music parodies.
Toby - Good voice, promising.
Patrice - OK, voice didn't seem to have too much power. Felt like I was watching Toni Collette.
Magni - Who the heck stops singing in the first line to try to get the audience to sing along? Singing that was way too big a persona to live up to. No charisma.
Zayra - No, I don't think so. . .
Jenny - WEAK voice, and she was off-key several times.
Josh - Not crazy about his lackadaisical, smiley attitude during the song. . .
Matt - I can't figure out who the heck he looks like. . . weak voice, got to see him try something more rock.
Dilana - Intense in a scary way, but she's got presence! Just when I was wondering if she was going to keep standing there like Mrs. Roboto, she broke free!
Dana - GREAT voice, don't see her fronting THIS band.
Phil - Why does everyone sing this song? It doesn't showcase your range, and he has no stage presence.
Jill - Kind of liked her power and spunk.
Chris - Disaster. (Just because J.D. pulled a coup with "California Dreaming" doesn't mean every song can be rearranged successfully.)
Lukas - Weird look, weird hair, but he commanded that song. He has enough personality for a handful of these guys.

Going home: I predict Phil.

Bah. I knew that. See, it doesn't pay to post half asleep.

Why do you dislike supernova? we havne't heard even a note from them yet.

couldnt the band do better than getting Gilby? Geez.

Storm - Solid voice. Overly fake stage persona. Could improve.

Ryan - Lousy singing. Guy's a goner.

Toby - Good voice, pretty boy. A safe choice for the band.

Patrice - Don't really remember. Have to look her up on the website. Oh yeah. This year's Sweet Suzie. Strong voice. Not as affected as it could have been on this song. Good performance.

Magni - That's an unsingable song in this context. It has like three notes. He needs a better song.

Zayra - Bad singing, bad melodrama. Appreciate the latin vibe to the opening but a weak performance over all.

Jenny Gault - Off key warbling. Ghastly.

Josh - Strange voice. Not terrible but a soul/rock song like that needs to ride that line and not go straight into the soul side.

Matt - Seemed like a nice enough guy. I realize "Yellow" isn't a "cool" song but he could have worked it harder and brought out more emotion.

Dilana - I was NOT into this performance. Marty Casey kinda rocked it last year and now she does with weird Broadway Jeckyl/Hyde thing? All you get is a first half that's got no energy and a second half that's flailingy over the top. Yuck.

Dana - I feel like well sung Melissa Etheridge and poorly sung Melissa Etheridge still sort of sound the same. Can't tell which this is. She's boring.

Phil - Really wrong song for him. Needs confident, definitive singing. He just sort of emo-warbled it. Bad karaoke. And Ocean City? hahaha...

Jill - Strong voice, annoying stage presence. Man, so many fake ROCKER moves last night.

Chris - I think he got a little too beat up. It was hardly the worst song of the night but it was still not great. He moved it into his range, which makes sense.

Lukas - Needs work but he's the winner. Live energy, spontaneous presence, less cliche. Nothing embarrasing here. Hell, I even like that they played up the new wave aspect of the song instead of trying to make it more "modern" (a la Roxanne). If Supernova is keeping an eye on Velvet Revolver for style tips then this is their guy.

Overall not terrible but no REAL standouts. No Jordis Unga this year so far, who kicked ass in episode 1. We'll see.

i agree that the guys in supernova were being too nice. but at least the gave a few good tips (like jason commenting on Ryan (and what kind of name is Ryan Star? wasn't she on american idol?) looking down at the chords). having the producer there is also a plus, as he can give some good tips as well. the most useless out of all of them was tommy lee. he said nothing of value.

Chris took an interesting song and made it BORING by "rockin' it up". that arrangement was definitely not interesting in the least.

going back to dilana. i actually would have thought it was cool if she stood there the whole time. i liked that part. the jumping around the stage was too weird for me, though.

so far the only one that's stood out for me is Lukas. and i swear i've seen him before...

Actually... her name is Ryan Starr and she was on AI: Season 1

yeah, thanks. i wish there was a rhetorical question smiley.

Lukas reminds me of a pimped out version of Clint Howard.

Storm - Strong voice but it might be limited to certain types of songs.

Ryan - When they first said the name I thought it was going to be the Ryan Starr from Idol and Surreal Life. That probably would have been more interesting than this guy and his so-so acoustic set.

Toby - An okay performance, but I didn't like this guy's video. Sort of a cheesy "I'm trying to be the fun guy" vibe from it.

Patrice - My favorite among the females. She seems like she would have more diversity than the other women in that she could have an easier time switching between rocking songs and lighter stuff.

Magni - He tried so hard to use crowd interaction and a "wild" persona to prop up a so-so vocal performance but it just didn't work. His interaction with the band seemed lame and forced, especially since the band had just complemented Patrice on it the song before.

Zayra - Sounded really bad when she got to the power parts of the song. I can't imagine they'll have much use for her. Besides she looked like a cross between Juliette Lewis and Penelope Cruz, and I don't like either of them.

Jenny - She's more suited for that sort of 90s girl pop/rock (thinking of stuff like Meredith Brooks).

Josh - Strange. I sort of enjoyed it, but there was a weirdness to his voice there that could get annoying over the course of an album. But it could also stand out in singles.

Matt - I hate Coldplay, so that's an automatic strike. Even on those terms it didn't seem all that great.

Dilana - She's unique, but I can't imagine a lot of diversity there. All their songs will sound like female death metal with her as singer. I do like the fact that her appearance and vocals are completely out of sync, though.

Dana - Seems like a country singer trying to be rock. Sort of a Gretchen Wilson look about her. Cute, but generic as a singer.

Phil - I had to look this guy up just to remember what he sang. Oh yeah, the boring one I got up and went to the bathroom during.

Jill - I liked her. It didn't jump out at me, but I'd like to see more from her.

Chris - Horrible. When I spend the entire performance wishing I was listening to the Police's version, that's not good. I'm all for change, but he dulled the hell out of that song.

Lukas - So far his persona is stronger than his vocals, but he wasn't bad at all.

I believe it was explained in their documentary and basically Jason left because he wanted to tour with Flotsam?, his new band and James told him that he couldn't because he didn't feel that Jason should tour with any band but Metalica, even though Metallica was on hiatus. So Jason left, which shocked all of them.Not to mention, James went into rehab then.

Anyone else get a Charlie/Driveshaft vibe when Toby sang/talked?

I was a huge fan of this show last year but so far I found the Top 15 this year to be pretty lackluster. Most of the people I thought "They made the Top 15?" while I watched and I don't even remember them already.

I did think Lukas was the best, and so must the producers since he got the pimp slot. He is really weird looking though. He kind of reminds me of the lead singer of the group Supergrass. Not quite ugly, not quite handsome, but definitely strange looking.

That Dilana chick was just so odd. I cracked up my husband when she was performing because I suddenly yelled "Two dollars! I want my two dollars!" It made her performance more enjoyable to imagine her as the the paperboy from Better Off Dead, since she had the menacing glare and the hooded sweatshirt and all. My husband also remarked that she had a Great Cornholio vibe as well.

I laughed at that guy being named Ryan Star. He should change it to Tiffany Montgomery instead. (Lord help me, I must watch way too much reality shows if I actually know Ryan Starr's real name!)

They need to be booting off 2 wannabe's per week for about 4 weeks.

Bottom 3: Chris (of course), Phil, and Matt.

Chris sings in the wrong key, and his voice can't really provide what the songs need.

Phil reminds me of drunk college guys on karoake rock night.

Matt just works too much for the vocals he puts out, and none of it is all that pleasing to the ears.

Tiffany Montgomery actually sounds better but they both sound kind of porny...

so matt gets the boot. no one in the bottom 3 was very good last night. but after supernova was harping on the fact that song selection is key, matt chooses to sing duran duran.

hey, i like duran duran, and it would have been cool if he rocked it up some more (he really didn't rock it up much). but i agree. i couldn't see that guy fronting a band with the personalities in supernova. he just wasn't right for the band. but damn, that's harder to say than it was last year, because we actually know what INXS sounds like. we have no idea what supernova will sound like.

i do not see how chris made it on the show. i just don't. one of the world's best singers? puh-leeeeeze.

but i did get to answer one of my own questions. the singers don't get to pick any song they want (except for the bottom 3 performances, apparently). they still have to choose from a set list of songs.

Did Brooke say that the "reality/song selection" shows are going to be online this season? The 3-episode format was tedious last time, but got really awful when they moved it to VH1.

Yes, online. I think starting Monday.

I think that's my problem with this particular season. We have no idea what Supernova sounds like ....yet the show continues to "hype" them as the "hottest new rock band" :hscratch:

I mean ... I know how each member sounds individually, but I wonder if their styles will work as a cohesive unit.

the reality epsiodes will be on rockstar.msn.com

yeah, candyrocket, that is a huge question. we know what they sound like with their other bands. BUT they've also said that they're going to have a fresh, new sound. what the hell does that mean?

but i'd still rather watch this over shows like American Idol any day of the week, if only for the house band. not only are they awesome musicians, but they interact with the singers VERY well (when the singers attempt to interact with them). 2 episodes in, and no one on the show has mentioned them yet. punks!


oh, and wanted to add that lukas came off as a huge prick. but so did JD last season. all canadians must be assholes. :)

And I was so annoyed with JD last season because of all that stuff he said. However, last night, I kinda appreciated it when Lukas said the same type of things. :scratch2: Maybe it's the eye shadow.

Ugh. I didn't care that they got rid of Matt, but I wish they would've taken out Chris as well. I HATE Chris. He is not only one of the worst vocalists on the show - completely bland as a singer - but his attitude is ridiculous. He has such an unwarranted arogance about him. "We're the best 15 vocalists in the country... blah blah" Come on!

How short is Lukas? He looks like he has little people facial features.

Well, i think i can skip hte next 2 weeks since Ryan and Chris will be removed then.

Didn't INXS do a couple weeks (or just one) where they got rid of 2 people? They need to do that here. Both those guys are worthless.

I actually thought that matt, allbeit no shot at winning, sounded WAY better than those 2.