Vlog 033 - Brett Dennen | Richard Ashcroft | Alice ...

Brett Dennen’s upcoming fourth record may just be the one that wins him the wider audience he so richly deserves. “Loverboy” will be out April 12th, 2011, and if "Sydney (I'll Come Running)" is any indication, he’s got a winner on his hands. Jimmy Kimmel’s outdoor LA audience were clearly appreciative last week, as were the Christmastime crowd at the Wiltern who were treated to his 2006 breakthrough “Ain't No Reason”. Dennen is sporting a clean new look this year – thankfully he’s moved on from the shoeless, thrift store style he was busting on the Craig Ferguson show back in 2009, where he performed the catchy “Make You Crazy”, a song he originally recorded with the Afro Beat bandleader Femi Kuti. You’ve got to give Richard Ashcroft points for perseverance if for nothing else. Despite some mediocre UK reviews for his fourth album “United Nations Of Sound”, the former Verve front man is forging ahead with a big US push this spring and has two songs in the Matt Damon – Emily Blunt thriller “The Adjustment Bureau”. “Future’s Bright” is a new track written expressly for the film, while “Are You Ready” is a hard rocking tune he wrote with Robin Gibb from the Bee Gees. We sample a bit of the latter song, from his March 22nd appearance on Jimmy Fallon. After years of petitioning by online fans, the Alice Cooper group were finally admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 14. The Coop gave a nice shout-out to departed band member Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 and who was the co-writer on classic tunes like “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen”, both of which were performed at the ceremony. Some online commentators felt that “Elected”, from Billion Dollar Babies might have been a better choice, with the substitution of “Inducted” for “Elected”. Rob Zombie’s introduction made mention of Frank Zappa’s early championing of the band, and it was nice to see his son Dweezil drafted in on guitar duty when the band played the Jay Leno show later in the week. “Right Place, Wrong Time” was one of two songs by the ...