RS: Supernova - Elimination Week 2

Ok, this is getting stupid.

For the second week in a row, the person putting on the best performance among the bottom three performers - got dumped. Last week it was Matt, this week it was Chris. The SN boys made the argument that he was in the B3 twice in row -- well, if that's a rule JD wouldn't have made it to the end last year. He almost got tossed on the very first show. But I digress.

Let's examine the competition. First we had Jill, who "yesterday" (they actually taped the performance show several days previously) did an incredibly savant like Courtney Love impression without ever actually having seen a Courtney Love performance, right down to the baby-doll wedding dress, combat boots and roses. Coincidence, right? Yeah, sure.

Anyway for her elimination song she choose to sing the same song that Zayra had poodle yapped through last week, Evanescense's "Bring me too life". There are very few songs that I can remember the moment I first heard them - in the case of this song it was about four years ago during a break in the middle of a Sacramento King's Basketball game (probably on KXTV) in Sactown. It was one of those video collages of the the key plays leading up to halftime - you know the ones - and during the slam-dunks and behind the back passes they were playing this song. Me and my wife - both of us are musicians - went "What the hell is that?" We even called up the station to find out. I've been a hardcore fan of Evanescence and Amy Lee's voice ever since. Not quite as hardcore as the two goth kids who literally jumped out of their seats and screamed when the song was first played during an early screening of Daredevil (as described on the Director's Cut DVD) but pretty hard core.

It was bad enough that Zayra fucking butchered this song last week, but this performance by Jill was a real let down. Why, you might be asking yourself? Because she fucking can't sing it. During the entire song she was sharp (overshooting the notes), except for certain notes in the chorus where she was flat (singing just below the proper pitch) - and it was always the same note. Usually on the word "Tooooo" in the last repeat of "Bring me Tooo life" at the end of the chorus. The same note also came up on the word "Night" and she would miss it everytime.

I've been singing for 20-years in hard rock bands (like Planet X and Glitched who are both featured on the radio station linked to this site), and pardon me for getting all technical up in this biatch, but Jill has a vocal problem. That note was a what's called a break point in her voice. Skip past to the next section if you already know what the hell I'm talking about.

If not, read this:

Most people actually have several "voices" that they use in their life and especially in singing. The most common two are the Chest Voice (speaking voice) and the Head Voice (also known as the falsetto, a higher pitch tone created by driving the air through the back of your throat and into your sinus). If you don't quite recognize what I mean yet, Prince made a career out of singing in his Head Voice on songs like "Kiss" - whereas Michael Jackson has weirded people out for years by using his Head Voice as is Speaking Voice. (He's got a lower chest voice too, people like his ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley have said so - he just doesn't use it in public. Yeah, like I said - weird). Ok, here's where we get the meat of the discussion, most people have a "break" between the two voices. As someone sings higher and higher in their chest voice they will eventually reach a litterally stopping point, where they simply can't go any higher without switching into their head voice to hit the next note. Sometimes - well, actually usually - there's a gap between the two voices. It might be one note, it might be two or three notes on the scale depending on the person or their level of vocal training. That's the break point.

Without months and sometimes years or practice, most people simply can't sing those notes, they won't work. They can try, but until their voice matures they always wind up a little below or a little bit above the note. They literally can't hit the notes in between - they vocal chords won't do it. With training and practice singers can build a third voice to bridge the gap called the blend voice which uses part of the both the chest and head voice. It's like being in third and forth gear at the same time and rocking the clutch to maintain control. It takes practice, and if you haven't gotten used to doing it - you come out sounding exactly like Jill did on this performance.

Those "Tooo" notes were right on the edge of Jill's break point - while the notes above it she was attempting to do in blend voice, but she was "slipping the clutch and grinding the gears" between her head and chest voice which forced her to go sharp.

Or to put it another way - it sucked. I mean she wasn't all that far from nailing it, but she didn't nail it, and it's not something she's going to be able to learn how to do by the end of this show. It seems to me that Jill is usually able to cover this weakness up by simply screaming and/or growling which is a different way to created a blended sound in that really tough range. She's simply not used to singing without the growl and it shows. It's a weakness and it will probably come back to bite her later in this competition. Again Jill is good, but she' s no Amy Lee. I'd be perfectly happy if no one attempted this song again, because I expect all of them will fuck it up somehow.

While I'm on the issue of vocal training, let me also point out that Jason was absolutely correct about what he said to Lukas about crutching on the growl voice too much. He talked about James (Hetfield) who does the same thing, but he didn't mention that after 20+ years of doing it Jason blew his voice out one night and has had been using vocal warm up excersizes to protect his voice for over a decade. Just because Lukas has been doing it for 15 years so far doesn't mean he's not hurting himself by doing it "wrong" - and that one night his vocie just might suddenly disappear just like James'. There really is a wrong way to sing and a right way - one which doesn't damage your vocal chords and create nodes like Stevie Nicks and Jon Bon Jovi have had to deal with. Lukas is headed exactly in that direction unless he changes course.

Zayra - well, Zayra is a mess - but I was actually surprised and impressed by her repeat performance of "You Really Got Me". I also have to say it was pretty damn ballsy to do the exact same song that got her put into the bottom three over again. If you have to convice people that you're better than they believe, how better to do that than to actually get better on the same song? And she may have done just that by actually hit the notes for the first time since she's been on this show. I wasn't sure she even knew how, but I guess that simply shows I don't know everything (which is not really a surprise). This performance was truly much, much better than "last night". She actually seemed to have some command of the stage too, who'da thunk it? No more geeky stage moves. Maybe after seeing Jill embarriss (sp) the crap out of her on "Bring me to life" she finally started to take this contest seriously, and figured that the cat-suit isn't going to help her claw through this contest? Maybe she rehearsed? I don't know, but it wasn't that bad. Jill was still better even with her pitch and voice issues - but then Jill was doing something really difficult so I can understand ignoring it. "You Really Got Me" is a pretty easy song - and for once she didn't fuck it up - but I'd still give points to Jill in comparison. Jill is good with the potential to be great, Zayra is shitty with the potential to be barely tolerable.

And then we come to Chris. Again we had someone doing a song that someone else had done just yesterday, in this case the Tonic song that was performed by Phil and frankly - he kicked the shit out of it. This type of song is tailor made for Chris and Phil's voices, but Chris showed that his tone isbetter and far less affected - and marble-mouthed - than Phil. His stage presence was understated by strong, he hit all the notes, said all the right words - had even had good tone. Of all three bottom performers he did the best job on the song he had, and he wasn't straining himself to do it - he did it easily and with confidence.

Yet in the end, the SN boys choose to let the better performer that night - Chris - leave the show. What the hell is up with that? I wouldn't have liked to see Jill leave so soon - she had loads of potential. And Zayra really shouldn't have gotten on the show in the first place based on everything we've seen so far, yet for some strange reason the SN boys seem really taken with her. Maybe it's the fact she looks hot in the catsuit, maybe it's the creepy way she keeps coming on to the boys -- "Would you teach me?" Ugh, so much like a horny groupie. But what's worse is the fact that they're responding. There's a whole lot a flirting going on at the Mayan, and it demeans everything they're trying to accomplish here. (Just remember to double-wrap boys.)

Funniest moment in the show: The three SN boys doing Rock.Paper.Scissors immediately after the final performance - probably IMO to determine who would be the "Hatchet Man".

At this point I really don't know what to think about what the SN guys are doing. I think Chris showed tonight that he's learned and grown enormously just in a week and that with that type of growth he absolutely could have fronted Supernova, just as did Toby displayed with his encore performance, but if these guys are going to be swayed by a tight-skirt - heaven help them.

Update: From reading the Rock Band Boards, which I don't look at until after I begin writing so that my own view isn't contaminated, there was the argument raised that Zayra's "spunk" and fiestyness is what swayed people. In last nights show she slammed back at SN when Gilby criticized her for "not owning any of their records" by saying "I was in diapers then". Ok, yeah -that's a good comeback, but my view is first and foremost based on Zayra completely ridiculous cringe worthy performance in the recording studio in the first reality show. This girl doesn't have it. She just barely got by this time simply because no one expect her to be able to do what she did - she's benefiting from "the soft bigotry of low expectations" and probably won't survive much longer, so don't even bother getting your hopes up and get off the Z-juice before it starts to curdle. There's a very thin line between fearlessness and cluelessness.

Vyan