Ear on TV: Week of 01.24.11: Motorhead

Motorhead perform on Conan, Wednesday night.

Heavy metal trailblazers Motorhead have been the embodiment of 'Rock n' Roll' now for 35 years, thanks in part to its hard living frontman Ian Fraser Kilmister, best known to the rock world as Lemmy. With two new releases for 2011 (The World is Yours, Motorhead's 20th release; and new one from the side project The Head Cat -- featuring Stray Cats' Slim Jim Phantom -- slated for later this year), and a full-fledged documentary currently running the film festival circuit, Lemmy has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

While Motorhead play Conan this Wednesday in support of their release, it was also announced that VH1 would be debuting the aptly titled documentary Lemmy: 49% Motherf**Ker, 51% Son Of A Bitch, on February 11th, as part of their Emmy winning Rock Doc series. Besides telling the story of the rock icon, the film features interviews with a long list of rock's greats, including Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Slash, Mick Jones (The Clash), Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters), Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and more along with the great Lemmy himself.

Meanwhile, listening to the latest release from Cold War Kids, Mine is Yours, I get the impression that the band's artistic patience has been used up and they're more than ready to play whatever game it takes to push some product. To that end, they hired producer Jacquire King, who's experience in the indie-to-mainstream journey is undeniable, having worked on Modest Mouse's Good News for the People Who Love Bad News and, more relevant in this case, Kings of Leon's Only By The Night. Aside from the angular "Sensitive Kid," there's little here to remind us of the band's promising debut. Instead, when the Long Beach natives play Kimmel on Tuesday, they'll have their new polished mainstream sound on full display with "Louder Than Ever." Here's hoping it helps them pay the bills.

Elsewhere, Conan is welcoming plenty of acts we've previously featured in this space this month, with Iron & Wine on Monday (featured 01/03), Wanda Jackson with Jack White on Tuesday (featured 01/17) and The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger on Thursday (featured 01/03). Is it possible Conan's music booker is reading this weekly post? I've been told somebody out there in the Internet is (you know who you are, and hello!).

Picks for the week
Monday, January 24
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: The Script
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Walkmen (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Dawes
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Local Natives (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Menomena (REPEAT)
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
TBS: Conan: Iron & Wine
Tuesday, January 25
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Keri Hilson
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: The Walkmen (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Escape the Fate
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: White Lies
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Iron & Wine (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Broken Bells (REPEAT)
TBS: Conan: Wanda Jackson
Wednesday, January 26
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cold War Kids
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Cage the Elephant (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Duke Spirit
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Amos Lee
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Two Door Cinema Club (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Two Door Cinema (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: One eskimO
TBS: Conan: Motorhead
Thursday, January 27
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Cage the Elephant
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Damned
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Fitz & the Tantrums (REPEAT)
PALADIA: Purple Rain: Prince, The Time
TBS: Conan: The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger
Friday, January 28
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Greg Allman (REPEAT)
FUEL: The Daily Habit: The Damned (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Neon Trees (REPEAT)
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Matt & Kim (REPEAT)
Saturday, January 29
BBCAMERICA: The Graham Norton Show: Diddy
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Nicki Minaj
PALADIA: V Fest 2010: Passion Pit, Florence & the Machine, Mika, Kings of Leon
PBS: Austin City Limits: Lyle Lovett, Bob Schneider
Sunday, January 30
HDNET: Deep Purple at Montreaux: Deep Purple
OVATION: Lenny Kravitz: Universal Love Tour: Lenny Kravitz

Skins "Cook": The Only Card I Need is...

This is the episode that perhaps best illustrates just why it took so long for the third season to make it to BBC America after it was originally announced. Not only did they have to edit out the language & nudity, but in replacing all the music, they had to re-shoot several scenes because Cook was singing them.

So instead of Cook opening and closing the episode singing Motorhead's "Ace of Spades," we get a reshoot of the same scene, with him instead singing some random song nobody's heard of. Same goes for the pivotal scene (if there can be such a thing here) where Cook sings Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs." It loses a lot (pretty much all) it's charm with what BBC America ends up having to broadcast. While were at it, we might as well throw in the dedication by Johnny White (Mackenzie Crook of BBC's The Office fame) to his daughter Kayliegh, which was backed ironically by Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird."

Honestly, this season has enough problems without adding this headache. Just take a look at the songlist below, and know that the only song to make it across the Atlantic is 101ec6's "Counter Stroke" -- which backed Cook gorging on his birthday cake -- and possibly some score from Fat Segal. But that's it.

Playlist: Skins - Episode 3.02
1. "Ace of Spades" - Motorhead
2. "I Will Follow" - U2
3. "Great Gig in the Sky" - Pink Floyd
4. "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
5. "Counter Stroke" - 101ec6
6. "One of These Days" - Pink Floyd
7. "It's Dead" - Skallywags
8. "Millennium" - Robbie Williams
9. "Tambourine" - Eve
10. "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor
11. "Songbird" - Fleetwood Mac
12. "White Wedding" - Billy Idol
13. "I Write the Songs" - Barry Manilow
14. "Kayleigh" - Marillion
15. "Lake Control" - Fat Segal
16. "Break" - Son Lux

Chuck: Not Quite Awesome

Normally, I'd get my geek on and go on about all the cultural references, but this episode left me mostly 'meh'. I expected more especially after hearing 80's TV stars Morgan Fairchild and Bruce Boxleitner were going to be playing the Awesomes, parents to Devin ("Captain Awesome" - the awesome apple doesn't fall far from the awesome tree). The choice sounded very much like the fun casting that Nip/Tuck pulled off the past couple seasons.

The music choices were great, however, albeit only in the way that the music was good, not necessarily in how it matched up with content. Hearing the frenetic acronym tossing from Norway's Datarock on "New Song" was nice, but the lyrics of "FBI CIA EMI TDK" backing the battle at the GLA kind of takes you out of the scene. Better was the use of "Shake Some Blood," from the somewhat obscure Dave Grohl project Probot. Hearing Lemmy (Motorhead) on vocals during a fight scene is always a worthy choice.

Chuck - Episode 2.09
1. "The New Song" - Datarock
2. "Shake Your Blood" - Probot (featuring Lemmy on vocals, Dave Grohl on drums)
3. "Don't Worry" - Love as Laughter

Here's the cult fave video for Probot's "Shake Some Blood":


Previously: Revenge Fantasy (2.08)