Randomly Yours, Bouffe: American Idol Tour, Houston, Texas, July 15 2007

Monday, July 16, 2007

American Idol Tour, Houston, Texas, July 15 2007

Reviews:

*American Idol, from small screen to Houston stage
http://blogs.chron.com/handstamp/archives/2007/07/american_idols_1.html

"Blake Lewis: The second-place finisher earned louder cheers than winner Sparks and proved a wellspring of inspired electricity.

Lewis recorded and looped his beatboxing live onstage, then accompanied it with vocals and guitar for Maroon 5's She Will be Loved. The tune then morphed into U2's With or Without You--and should have fallen flat. But it soared.

He also worked playful vocal tics into Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name, his definitive Idol moment. Expect his upcoming solo disc to be equally beat-conscious."

* http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Entertainment;jsessionid=B2B2D25CE0B7EF4E68D49F9D77019116?pageId=7.1

*American Idol fivesome talk music, M&Ms, makeup
http://blogs.chron.com/tubular/archives/2007/07/american_idol_f_1.html#more

Blake Lewis

Tour must-haves: "I have two PowerBooks and a desktop. I'm obsessed with Mac. My IPod. My Leica camera. I've got, like, 16,000 pictures. I do a lot of ... '80s-style pop art. I took all the pictures for my (CD cover)."

Lewis describes his upcoming disc as "2000-'80s." He was listening to rough mixes of new tunes on his IPod and graciously offered to--gasp!--let me hear a few.

"I haven't let anybody hear this yet," he said. My hopes were high.

It was an expectedly eclectic, electro-pop mix, ranging from Kylie Minogue-esque club grooves to a quick sample of '80s hit Owner of a Lonely Heart. Killer stuff.

"I try not to be put in a box," he says. "I'm inspired by everything. I've got six tracks done. I've got a track that's very Erasure-sounding, a track that's Sting-meets-Neverending Story and a track that's very electro-poppy Depeche Mode. It's all over the map."