Christmas Album #2

#2

Last week we spoke about rare traditions and how They're Not Listening isn't your typical blog. Well this week's album is not your typical music album, let alone Christmas album. It's not everyday that a band headed by the second incarnation of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Black Ranger releases a Christmas album. A pat on the back to the first person to figure out which other Power Ranger has some type of musical career going on in their post ninja karate action careers.

Johnny Yong Bosch (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) heads Eyeshine, an "edge rock" group out of West Hills, California. The group self described "edge rock" as being on the edge of sounding like punk, alt rock or on the edge of sounding like (insert cool band here). Most of the time they say they're "on the edge of sounding good." Maurice Salmin (drums, backing vocals, piano), Crystal Mesina (bass, backing vocals) and Ji Ho "Daniel" Lee (lead guitar, backing vocals) round out the current lineup.

Xmas, the groups 7th studio album since 2008, is a digital only release. And can be found on iTunes, Amazon and Eyeshine's website www.Eyeshine.net.

Similar to She & Him's album (reviewed last week), the eight song album features all cover songs of classic Christmas songs and carols. However there is nothing soft, sweet and cute about any of these tracks.

Eyeshine's description of "edge rock" makes perfect sense when you hear them. They sound kind of like a lot of well known bands. For instance take We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the opening track on the album. It's like they kidnapped Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World and told him to compose, play guitar and do backing vocals on the track.

Or the albums third track, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. You didn't realize Billie Joe Armstrong was a featured artist on this album did you? Well he's not and nobody else from Green Day helped on this track either.

Eyeshine takes some risk, taking traditional Christmas songs and turning them into Alt Rock anthems. They succeed at what many groups before them fail to do, acknowledging that Christmas isn't about being bigger, louder and faster. Christmas is about something more.

They give each song a different feel than ever before, but don't get caught up in making every song sound like them. It's like listening to 8 different groups perform 8 different songs all arranged for the same instrumentation. Jingle Bells and Come All Ye Faithful are great examples of this but Eyeshine is at it's best on Joy To the World.

Xmas is a fresh "edgy" new take on classic songs with tremendous re-listen value. It's good for the whole family and it won't get boring like Twisted Sister's "A Twisted Christmas" or most other rock band Christmas albums for that matter. Not bad at all for a guy who spent his earlier years riding around on a Mastodon Dinozord.

Christmas Songs

It is rare when you come across a blog with such traditions as They're Not Listening. For example not posting anything for months at a time and coming back for a few weeks only to disappear again. Another historical tradition being that nothing said here is ever useful. These are traditions that will never be broken. However for the next few weeks we take a step back from the traditional useless sports commentary and replace it with one of my favorite things...

Today we'll check out a couple tracks from the 2011 release A Very She & Him Christmas.

First of all you can't go wrong with Zooey Deschanel's "nostalgic 1950's, innocent, husky" voice in any song. Whether it's the Winnie the Pooh theme song, an adorable song made up on the spot to deal with an embarrassing moment from her quirky, adorable FOX show "The New Girl" or a very respectful and beautiful take on The National Anthem at the World Series. In Elf she says "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," and then sings an a capella version of Santa Claus is Coming To Town as the townspeople join in.

She & Him combines Zooey's vocals, piano and ukulele skills with M. Ward's guitar and production chops. This is their 3rd studio album, following the aptly named Volume 1 and Volume 2. A Very She & Him Christmas is a 12 track offering of some of the most well known and loved Christmas songs.

Their cover of Little Saint Nick originally recorded by the Beach Boys in 1963 is clever with Zooey providing backing vocals over her own solo. While it doesn't quite match up to Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, it certainly beats Sugar Ray's "carbon copy" of 2001 and the awful attempt Captain and Tenille tried to do a few years back.

Their syncopated take on Sleigh Ride is fun and bouncy for a song that tends to smack you in the face every time you hear it. Like the entire album its mellow and not out of control, a step back from The Ronettes and the Boston Pops version, seriously how many times do we need to hear the trumpet half-valve glissando (no that's not Wikipedia) every year. I still prefer Relient K's version from 2007, that appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba! but this one certainly makes the cut.

She & Him take on a bunch of songs written 50-70 years ago and give them an update without making them sound to modern. Where they succeed they also fail, making old songs sound old isn't all that difficult. What can really be done with The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas or Silver Bells? For a pop culture icon who is often described as "adorkable," I would have liked to see She & Him take a few risks maybe with McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime or at least something a little more dorky then the same old classics.

I'm not saying that The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" was in the cards for this group and based on the chemistry lacking take on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" it probably would have never worked. Simply flipping the roles of the guy and the girl does not a great track make.

It's too fast paced and never really makes you feel like they are singing to eachother. What makes this song so fun is the developing story which you get none of in this version. You would be better off listening to Rainn Wilson and Selma Blair's GAP Commercial.

A Very She & Him Christmas is definitely worth the listen, it's calm and collected and very likely to be heard anywhere you go shopping (even though Border's doesn't exist anymore). They released it on Vinyl but I'm listening to electronic downloads, so the vinyl production quality doesn't really show up. If you want to hear new takes on the classics without screeching vocals, weird electric guitar synths or headbanging drumbeats this is your album. However, it's safe and bland at times . Zooey is one of the cutest things on the planet, if you are already a fan this won't change that. But if you aren't it probably won't change that either.

Who gets the ball?

Yesterday on ESPN 850 WKNR, Chris Fedor proposed the question "You're down 1, the shot clock is turned off. Who do you want taking the shot to win you the NCAA title?" My immediate answer was not one that any basketball expert would expect. It's easy to say Jimmer Fredette, he's the leading scorer in the country. It's easy to say Kemba Walker, he has carried his UConn team through 5 straight games in the Big East tournament. Jacob Pullen, Harrison Barnes, Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving, I'll give them to you. But I'm still going to stick with my first answer.

Matt Howard is 16-3 in March (8-3 in NCAA Tourney games, the National Championship game against Duke was played in April). Howard through two 2011 games already has two game winning buckets. In the first game he got an offensive rebound and a putback. In the second game he had to make a free throw.

You can say all you want about those shots but Matt Howard's 89 offensive rebounds accounts for 25% of all of Butler's 2010-2011 totals. It makes sense that he would have been in that position. When you account for the fact he shoots 51% from the field inside the three point line, there really isn't much of a surprise. Meanwhile his free throw percentage is 78% for his career, and he accounted for 30% of the Butler's made free throws this season.

Using John Hollinger's efficiency ratings. Matt Howard ranks 17th, Kemba Walker 15th (Norris Cole is sandwiched in between the two at 16) Hollinger's rating is the overall rating of a player's per-minute statistical production, the average is always 15. Howard stands at 29.44 with Walker .14 points ahead of him.

How about Jimmer Fredette. Hollinger's Efficiency stats has him #7 in the country. Here you can see a comparison of Howard to Walker at statsheet.com. In another statsheet.com comparison, Fredette's offensive rating is actually lower than Walker's and Howard's. The formula for Offensive Rating is shown below.

Meaning that while Fredette may score more points then Walker or Howard, it takes him more possession to do so. While the website shows that Walker and Fredette may be better players in the the clutch the three are very tight in every other category. As pointed out before Howard has started 11 tournament games. Walker has only played in 7. Fredette has started and played in 5. And while they may be a great players, experience counts in the NCAA tourney.

When you look a bit further into a stat called True Shooting percentage, which accounts for, three pointers being worth an extra point as well as free throws. Essentially giving you a points per shooting possession ratio you see that the true shooting percentages of the three players is
61.3% for Howard, 59.7% for Fredette and 54.7% for Walker.

Of course if you are down three, the answer is simple you are going to Jon Diebler. Diebler leads the True Shooting percentage category with a 72.5%, three percentage points higher than the next player with at least 300 FG attempts, that player is Derrick Williams from Arizona.

So you can have your Lottery pick guards to take the shot, but I'm gonna stick with an undersize power forward who I've seen hit way to many tough shots for my liking.

How Did We Do

Yesterday I predicted the BracketBuster match-ups. While I missed out on most of the game times, my success rate was fairly high.

Fri., 2/18	7 p.m.	Virginia Commonwealth at Wichita State	ESPN2
Fri., 2/18	9 p.m.	Kent State at Drexel	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	11 a.m.	Hofstra at Wright State	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	1 p.m.	Austin Peay at Fairfield	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	3 p.m.	Iona at Liberty	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	5 p.m.	Missouri State at Valparaiso	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	5 p.m.	Vermont at College of Charleston	ESPNU
Sat., 2/19	7 p.m.	George Mason at Northern Iowa	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	9 p.m.	No. 21 Utah State at St. Mary’s (CA)	ESPN2
Sat., 2/19	11 p.m.	Montana at Long Beach State	ESPN2
Sun., 2/20	1 p.m.	Cleveland State at Old Dominion	ESPN or ESPN2

The match-ups are shown above. From yesterday's blog we hit 19 of the 22 teams correct. Missing the ball on Austin Peay, Iona and Liberty. Instead replacing those 3 teams with Morehead St, James Madison and the one I left blank.

We also hit 5 of the 11 match-ups spot on, including all three Horizon League squads (as well as Utah St/St Mary's and Montana/Long Beach St). Were it not for the flip-flop of George Mason and VCU, we would be looking at 7 correct. The two late games on Saturday night were as I expected, those were the only two correct game times.

I can't fault the committee for Austin Peay over Morehead St, I in fact discussed that yesterday. Morehead St beat Austin Peay head to head, but overall Austin Peay has a slightly better resume. However, James Madison got shafted. No TV game and a match-up against an 8-12 Miami of Ohio team. They are the #67 team in RPI, have a better record than both Hofstra and Drexel, yet both of those teams got in on TV. Add to the fact that the Dukes have 4 out of conference wins against RPI Top 100 teams, and it leads to a mistake by the committee.

Bracket Busters

Tonight at 6:30 ESPNU will air the "Bracket Buster Selection Show," in which they will announce the 22 teams that will meet up in 11 nationally televised games.

From February 18 -20th, 114 teams from 15 "mid-major" conference will play, for a total of 57 games. While the schedule is subject to change, two games will be played Friday night, eight will be played throughout the day on Saturday. The final game will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Here are my thoughts on the 22 teams that should be seen in one of the featured games on ESPN2 or ESPNU over that weekend.

Friday 7pm -
Missouri St Bears 17-5 (9-2) @ Valparaiso Crusaders 16-6 (8-2)
The Bears fueled by Kyle Weems (16.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg) sit in a tie at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Valparaiso, after beating 2010 NCAA Tourney runner-up Butler on Saturday, are half a game back of Cleveland State in the Horizon League. While the RPIs are 36 and 54, Valpo's 103-102 win in December at Oakland, makes this match-up an intriguing one.

Friday 9pm -
George Mason Patriots 17-5 (9-2) @ Wichita St Shockers18-4 (9-2)
The other team at the top of the MVC is Wichita St. All four of their losses come against RPI Top 100 teams, wins against Evansville (RPI 117) and Indiana St (115) are their only chances at an at-large. A home match-up against the #33 RPI team in the country, could be make or break for them. George Mason could come into this game with the Colonial League title nearly wrapped up as 4 of their next 5 games are against teams in the Top 5 of the conference.

Saturday 11 am -
Kent St Golden Flashes 14-7 (4-2) @ Charleston Cougars 15-7 (8-2)
A bad loss at Davidson on Saturday dropped the Cougars out of the Southern League league and nearly dropped them out of the Top 100 RPI. As high as 74 in the past week, they now sit t 90. Kent St on the other hand has jumped from 96 to 70 after wins against Miami (OH) and Ball St.

Saturday 1 pm -
Morehead St Eagles @ Drexel Dragons
Austin Peay and Morehead St are within a game of each other in the Ohio Valley Conference, RPIs at 110 and 114. Choosing between the two who both play away games this year is very tough. However the Eagles knocked off the Governors in the teams most recent meeting. Morehead St also boasts home wins against Kent St and Charleston (the two teams playing right before them) I have them taking on Drexel, the Dragons are an inconsistent team. Beating Lousivlle by 6 and then getting beat by an even more inconsistent Syracuse team by 28. The RPIs aren't a perfect match but with Drexel barely over .500 in a league with 3 teams hovering in the Top 50, they will need this one.

Saturday 3 pm -
Vermont Catamounts 16-5 (7-2) @ James Madison Dukes 17-6 (7-4)
The fans at James Madison will argue that they deserve better but with so good mid-majors skipping the program this year (Harvard, Butler, Gonzaga, Oakland, Coastal Carolina) the picking are slim. JMU had already played Kent St earlier in the year breaking up that match-up. The Catamounts are no slouch though, while their strength of schedule is weak they rebound the hell out of the ball. With a 6'6 freshman forward, averaging 10 per game, the team is 27th in the country in rebounding. James Madison is 116th in the category.

Saturday 5 pm ESPNU
Hofstra Pride 14-8 (8-3) @ Wright St Raiders 14-9 (7-4)
After losing two straight conference games Hofstra will look to bounce back against George Mason on Wednesday the 2nd. But a win at the Wright State's Nutter Center in Dayton might be enough to push them on to the bubble. Charles Jenkins has been lighting up the scoresheet for the Pride, averaging 23.3 a night. Wright St counters with a trio of guards all averaging double digits.

Saturday 5 pm ESPN2
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 18-5 (10-1) @ Northern Iowa Panthers 17-6 (8-3)
A big win against UCLA coupled with a questionable loss to South Florida, makes me wonder what VCU is really made of. They lead the Colonial Athletic Conference and have won nine straight. Northern Iowa has won 7 straight, including two away games at conference leaders Missouri St and Wichita St. the Panthers, last years tournament surprise, would need a win here to even think about an at-large bid, they are without a signature win and rank 290th in points, 332nd in rebounds and 315th in assists.

Saturday 7 pm
Cleveland St Vikings 20-3 (9-2) @ Old Dominion Monarchs 17-5 (8-3
CSU is one of two 20 win teams in the BracketBusters this year. They are another team without a big win, looking for a shot at an at-large in case they don't win the tournament. CSU is the #30 RPI team in the country, Old Dominion is the #31 RPI team in the country. The two have been within 1 or 2 spots of each other for the past 2 weeks. It's a good match-up between the two highest rated mid-major conferences (A-10 and C-USA excluded) in RPI.

Saturday 9pm
Utah St Aggies 20-2 (9-0) @ St. Mary's Gaels 18-4 (6-1)
The argument can be made that both of these teams are already in, and having them play each other doesn't benefit anyone. It does give us a good basketball game between two teams that are very similar in talent. St Mary's is the best home team available while Utah St and Cleveland St would both state strong cases for being the bet away team. Logistically this game makes more sense. You have the WAC leader vs the WCC leader, both in the RPI Top 40

Saturday 11pm
Montana Grizzlies 16-5 (8-1) @ Long Beach St 49ers 13-10 (8-2)
It's unlikely that one of the marquee games would be played at 11 o'clock. So you have a couple teams from out West who are hovering between 95-110 in the RPI match-up against eachother. The two teams lead their respective conference (Big Sky and Big West).

Sunday 1pm
Somebody @ Fairfield Stags 16-4 (9-1)
As I said there are too many good teams skipping out on the BracketBusters, partially because they don't get anything out of it. Which leaves the field slim for good match-ups that don't make people angry. Fairfield belongs here in a televised match-up the only question is who do the people in charge want to throw in there. They might just throw a team in for the sake of viewership.

I'll be back after the announcements with commentary.