RS: INXS Second Week Discussion Thread

[Cindy]

Week two....Hmmm. Life at the Rock Star mansion is business as usual: Suzie cries. Tara stresses. Ty comments. JD plots. Everyone drinks...

Marty discovers the guitar gifts for the rockers and everyone acts so excited...although some of these people I don't think really play guitar-- (I believe MiG is one--he plays piano/keyboards and I don't think I have ever seen Jessica play guitar or Tara either.) Anyway, the excitement is there and some of these people turn in credible acting performances that this is the greatest thing in the world that could happen.

So next is the style clinic and the first visible appearance of the ubiquitous black nail polish (Dave Navarro is wearing it when he is sitting there in his feather boa.) I like Dave here cause even he admits he feels/looks like a jackass in the getup he is wearing. Peacocking he calls it. hmmm. Tacky is what I call it!! The style clinic provides the source for laughter.... Neal is a funny guy and really hams it up. Brandon has really bad taste. Suzie has no taste and needs help. JD has an attitude. And Jordis is so cool, she blows the whole thing off. I like her candor: "I just don't see anything here that I like....are we here to play dress up or to sing for INXS?"

Then there is song selection. We have no idea what our guy Marty has selected, but there is much ado made out of the lyrical difficulty of MiG's choice of "Walk This Way"; Tara insisting on having "Paranoid"; JD doing his own thing on "Hand in My Pocket" yet having trouble communicating his ideas to the house band; and Deanna struggling with the REM song that no one else seemed to want. Did anyone notice the pissy face that Suzie made when she heard Neal trying to decide which song was melodic? She made that same face last week when Dana was yowling through "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

When rewatching all these shows again, I have discovered that certain people are cooler to me this time around than they were the first time and others that I sorta liked, now annoy me. Suzie falls in this later category now for me. I never noticed how she made those YUCK faces before... is she just being mean or just totally transparent in her expressions? And I seem to like Deanna more. She seems more vulnerable to me now but nice to the others. And now I can see and appreciate Neal's larger than life personality and sense of humor that I mistook as arrogance before.

The performances: Starts off with a bang. Marty does What I Like About You... and busts out of the gate like a thorughbread...leaping from the drum kit, moving all over the stage--just full of energy and working the crowd up in excitement...really fun to watch. He is wearing a cool snakeskin jacket that I believe he acquired from that Rock Star boutique/clinic deal. The band likes his performance and compliments him on his high energy and how he uses the stage.

Other really good performances are Suzie with "Roxanne", MiG with "Walk this Way", Jordis with "The Reason" and yes, JD doing his version of "Hand in My Pocket" is probably my very favorite of all of his performances. It was very very good. But then he had to go and open his mouth and dis the other performers with his "I know the INXS songs while the others are just now learning them." comment.. and it really does him no service because it takes the focus off of his fine performance and on to drama. Plus it really pisses off the other performers and you can't blame them for being upset at JD for it. He comes across as arrogant and cut-throat.

So the elimination episode starts out by focusing on that drama with the rockers all back at the house and JD's comments being the bone of contention with everyone. This is where JD tries to act like he didn't mean anything bad about them all with it, but we hear Marty tell JD that what he said was meant to dis the others because "what you said made me feel a certain way." Marty is no bull when talking to JD...firm but not belligerent and Marty offers that it was bad form for JD to try to build himself up while stepping on everyone else.

Yet it seems the band and Dave Navarro back JD in the skirmish...although Garry nips the whole thing in the bud when he just lets us all know that the drama offstage may be what reality TV is all about...but all they really care about is what happens onstage.

Anyway, the bottom three are Neal, Tara and Jessica... which seems about right and then the elimination performances are nothing spectacular. Neal ,who seems like a funny and great guy but who just can't sing well, is eliminated. No big shock to the viewers, although the rockers all show astonishment at the outcome. Surely they could tell his vocals were subpar...I am thinking they just reacted because he was a house favorite.

[keysunset]

Y'know, I was not that impressed with Marty with his "busts out of the gate like a thoroughbred" performance. I was actually kind of scared of hiim. But I'll bet seeing that in person is a whole 'nother story!

I was disgusted with JD's comment, and not that impressed with him anyway, so this pretty much did JD in for me. I liked the way Marty reacted and that made him more attractive to him. So I was ready to give the guy another chance to not "scare me."

I wasn't surprised that Neal got the boot. Rather predictable really.

[radioclash]

I have to agree with Cindy. I have no idea why, but when rewatching these episodes I am really having different feelings towards certain contestants.

Anyway, my observations -

Reality Show / Clinic:

I missed seeing them get their guitars. They are awesome gifts! I know it is product placement, but its a lot better than free Pepto Bismol.

I never noticed how teary Suzie is during these first episodes. The first time I noticed her penchant was when they had to do their original songs way later in the show. I am officially declaring her the poster woman for estrogen - lol!

The whole clinic is pretty hilarious to me. Does anyone else notice how Marty does a little George Constanza move to get in front of everyone to get the goodies? (Yes I am seriously looking for his bits way too closely this time!)
The Jon / Brandon conversation and then Brandon gets stuck in his shirt and says he feels like a pinata - classic.

Song Selection:
It is very interesting to me how hard certain songs are to sing. I guess I always took it for granted that pretty much anyone with a good voice can sing anything, but we see this is not the case. I love Deanna, but I was annoyed with her. It really is a case of mind over matter re doing "The One I Love".

Performance Show:
Marty - I love how Suzie & Deanna do the little arm movement back to him - awesome!

Not really much else noteworthy except of course JD.

I don't know what INXS is seeing that can make them say that JD wants it more than the others. I don't understand what makes it seem that he's working harder or is more focused. Then of course he drops a bomb on the other contestants (no editing involved here), and acts all surprised when later they are upset, when you know he'd act the most hurt if another contestant said something like that.

It's nonsense - JD should rely on his talent and not waste so much energy on BS.

Elimination:

No big surprises except there was no encore.

[julianah]

radioclash said:

Reality Show / Clinic:

The whole clinic is pretty hilarious to me. Does anyone else notice how Marty does a little George Constanza move to get in front of everyone to get the goodies? (Yes I am seriously looking for his bits way too closely this time!)

I missed that episode, unfortunately. Did you read the leperpop blog? I love Sid F'er's comment on that scene:

"I noticed that Marty seemed to charge after something in the Rock Star boutique like a chick in the Nordstrom's shoe department -- I trust that's a good thing, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure."

Did we ever find out what Marty was charging towards?

[radioclash]

julianah said:

radioclash said:

Reality Show / Clinic:

The whole clinic is pretty hilarious to me. Does anyone else notice how Marty does a little George Constanza move to get in front of everyone to get the goodies? (Yes I am seriously looking for his bits way too closely this time!)

I missed that episode, unfortunately. Did you read the leperpop blog? I love Sid F'er's comment on that scene:

"I noticed that Marty seemed to charge after something in the Rock Star boutique like a chick in the Nordstrom's shoe department -- I trust that's a good thing, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure."

Did we ever find out what Marty was charging towards?

OMG - that is too funny! I love the way that guy described it. It was pretty noticeable.

And no - I haven't a clue what he grabbed.

[chk]

ok i just got my complete DVD set so can jump in hurrah--
It's strange cause I haven't seen these episodes before. I agree that I feel like I am revising my opinions of some of the performers. Suzie is all teary and needy -- it seems like everyone is propping her up.
I never liked Mig -- I find his voice high and nasal, but I thought he'd go far with all the Philippine votes -- and cause he looks like someone off the cover of Tiger Beat.
JD is in fact much more annoying than I realized.
Deana pissed me off cause I love the song she's whining about.
This is not my fave Marty performance, but I loved him charging into the RS Boutique. You can tell he had to fight with big bros and sisters for stuff at the Casey house!
edited to add that at last I know why everyone likes Jordis -- I had only seen her screw up Dream On and give half-hearted performances, but her first few weeks were brilliant.

[DG]

I actually don't remember much from these episodes.

I do remember that prior to the performance show I was rooting for JD as the underdog. This is where I began to barely tolerate him.

I liked how Marty handled the situation, but I wanted someone to punch JD

Rockstar Boutique:
All I can say is, Brandon bless your heart.

I liked how Jordis was kind of "whatever" about the whole thing and Suzy was super overkill.

Performances-
I liked Jordis.

JD annoyed the daylights out of me with the peace sign up for the whole song. After this I noticed lots of annoying gestures from lots of performers (Jessica mostly)


Elimination-
No surprises

Reflection after the fact-

Was this the week that they complimented Jessica on her interaction w/ the band or was that later? I realized rewatching episodes that Marty did interact some with them in the 2nd performance of week 1.

I can't stand to hear "Don't Change" sung by anyone other than classic INXS or Marty Casey.

[DG]

radioclash said:

julianah said:

I missed that episode, unfortunately. Did you read the leperpop blog? I love Sid F'er's comment on that scene:

"I noticed that Marty seemed to charge after something in the Rock Star boutique like a chick in the Nordstrom's shoe department -- I trust that's a good thing, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out for sure."

Did we ever find out what Marty was charging towards?

OMG - that is too funny! I love the way that guy described it. It was pretty noticeable.

And no - I haven't a clue what he grabbed.

There are several pictures of him looking at all the wristbands later.

[Cindy]

I just assummed it was the snakeskin jacket that he was wearing during this performance.... but I don't know that for sure. (the one in your current avatar, dramagirl).

[DG]

I hadn't even noticed the jacket. You should be impressed that I didn't use this forum to discuss fashion choices. (Slightly embarrassed that Cindy noted her slightly snarky av)

[greeneyes]

Ah – the guitars… after seeing this, I thought the Rockers would be getting a prize every week. LOL

What we learned from the Style Clinic: Ty loves dressing up, Jordis doesn’t, Suzie had no style and Brandon is a mountain man.

Performance show ( I came in late on this show… I used to have a life before this show)
1. Marty – I missed this (so up until this point, I still had not seen Marty perform)
2. Daphna – I missed this
3. Ty – I missed this
4. Suzie – beautiful voice
5. Mig – I liked Mig… glad he didn’t screw up the lyrics but his lisp was predominant in this song.
6. Neal – eh
7. Heather – I loved her on this song.
8. J.D. – loved what he did with the song. The peace sign was a little overdone. Oh, and the infamous comment… I don’t think JD was so much dissing the other Rockers as he was expressing his enthusiasm. He needed to phrase it with a little more sensitivity. Hand in Pocket? Foot in Mouth.
9. Tara- Well, she really wanted this song so I was happy for her that she got it. Why did she want it again? Oh yeah, to prove she can rock. Eh. I think Tara is beautiful but based on this performance, I would have never known she was an experienced singer. I thought the wide leg stance was awful and she sang with a Mary Poppins face.
10. Deanna – She really shouldn’t have complained so much about her song. It made her seem a little high-maintenance. She could have done so much better.
11. Jordis – I know everyone loved her but I don’t even remember this. I must have gone to the bathroom.
12. Jessica – I didn’t really form an opinion, other than I knew INXS wasn’t picking her.
13. Brandon – You can’t screw up “Sweet Home Alabama” even if you’re drunk.

So I still hadn’t seen Marty perform… didn’t have a favorite yet obviously. I thought Heather was unique enough to pull for.

Elimination: I was surprised to see Neal go. Going into this show, I assumed INXS would ultimately choose a dark-haired guy. One dark-haired guy down…

[keysunset]

I got into Leper Pop long after it had started, so along with reading this thread, I'm trying to go back and match it up with Moist and Sid's comments. Hilarious.

Even though I'm not re-watching the shows, this is fun!

[chanvre]

The Performance:

I loved his intensity for this performance! He totally exploded all over the place.

You know, his facial expressions kill me dead. He's just soooo into the music, like he's in a trance or something, but at the same time you can see a little piece of his soul through those eyes. I can't describe it clearly, never mind. Anyway, I also dug his clothes..although, damn he has some skinny legs.

[barbara123]

Thanks to Cindy for a terrific recap. I have now the full set of dvds from Marco, but I find that I am still relying on the info at rockstar.msn.com for a refresher. By week 2 we are getting to better know the rockers, and everyone is choosing favorites. This is a good thing.

For me, JD's Hand In My Pocket was outstanding and I liked his hand up giving the peace sign. Please remember that I'm a #1 JD fan and #2 Marty fan. I respect all the rockers, I just have my favorite. I thought Jordis' The Reason was well sung. I was still at this time not particularily a Marty fan, although I thought he was cute. I didn't really like his "What I Like About You" (his time to shine for me is coming up). Of the other rockers some were good such as Suzie, Ty, and Mig. Others were not so good. The elimation of Neal was sad because he was so well liked. But, I just didn't care for his type of singing. I have been picking my top three rockers in these discussions just for the fun. Here goes:

1) JD -- Hand In My Pocket
2) Jordis -- The Reason
3) Suzie -- Roxanne

BTW: I've already peeked at Week 3 and my #1 choice there is Marty's Lithium.

[pines]

notes at the mansion :
- loved Marty in the clip where everybody was singing with Brandon (Sweet Home Alabama) and he's silently... lovingly strummin' and strokin' his guitar while bobbing his head... sigh!
- gotta love rocker Neal... "What's melodic, I don't even know what that means!" That made me laugh! Liked how Marty sang along when they sang "The One I Love"
- did notice how Suzie reacted to this singing... thought her reaction was funny ... although I must say I believe she's reacting to Neal's voice and not Marty's

performance notes:

- when Marty came out, i thought, what's with the hair??? but i did love his performance, full of crazy energy!!!
- liked daphna's song, thought she looked pretty but didn't like the way she walked on the stage
- really was turned off by tara's paranoid...
- thought JD's arrangement was ok, but was not blown away by his performance.

I did admire how Marty handled JD on his remark... cool, but strong.

elimination notes :
- wasn't really surprised but I personally picked Tara to go home this week. Thought Neal was better at being a rocker on stage.

[amp26]

Tara - no, no, NO! You do not butcher a classic! And if you're gonna dance with one of the guitarist please, for the love of God don't just stand there and shake like a whale on a washing machine - DANCE! And Please, please, please never ever show me your vulva AGAIN! But i must say i LOVED your outfit even though with that hair and make up you looked like Sharon Osbourne in drag.

Marty - sweaty and energetic. But sadly tonight you were another example of why white guys shouldn't dance.

JD - he was all right, nothing special.

Daphna - love the song, you did good.

MiG- good for a tongue twister.

Jessica - we all know you aint that great so thats why you got out the mini top tonight.

Jordis - fantastic as usual.

I Dont really remember everyone else's performance. They just werent that exciting. Except Brandon - i remember he sucked like usual.

[Cindy]

Guys

With the holidays and family obligations...and a laptop that blew up on me this week..... my time online since Sat. night has been severely impacted. I promise we will start Week 3 in a day or so....

Cindy

[jomarti]

Ok, I'm a little late, but have been busy since the Aragon trying to catch up with the holidays. I just sat down and rewatched the second week.

Marty is always great, of course. But this performance seemed really short...it was gone in a flash.

Marty handled the whole JD thing really well. He is always so dead on with his comments. Mig was sorta of a weeny when he said his comments offended some people (he didn't say "it offended me) and then Mig said well maybe we took JD's comments the wrong way (really weeny) and Marty said no, I don't think I took it the wrong way. Then Marty said JD is trying to climb up by making a stab at everyone else - that's JD's way of trying to win, but that's not his(Marty's) methodology to win. Marty is such an upstanding guy - nice, but not a weeny.

I thought JD's performance was good. I thought the peace sign was a little overblown thru the entire song, but I'd so much rather have that than the hand spaz and the slithering sickening crotch moves. JD has a very good voice, I just can't stand his stage performance.

Jordis has always been my second favorite and she did well on her performance.

I'm off to watch the next show - so great to have a day off from work and do nothing!

[typodi]

I know this is late but hope to join the discussion in a more timely fashion in the future. Enjoy everyone's take on the show.

The rockers mourn Wil’s bye-bye by chugging large quantities of booze. Then it that wasn’t the best, the producers threw in Gibson guitars for everyone. It turned into a Sweet Alabama hoe-down and I expected to see a dosey-do or two.

The next AM, they were all summoned to the library were the sight of D.N. aka Freddy Mercury caused a few hangover headaches to pound with a new beat. They all find out that it’s style, style, style. The door opens and inside the boutique is Jon Farriss and Ellie May. At first it was scary ‘cause I thought she was Ellie May Clampett all growd up. But “Whew” - different Ellie. By the end of the clinic, I think Ellie is Clampett and working under her married name.

Taking a look at the next batch of songs reveal that there is a veritable cornucopia of awesomeness. There’s a tug of war between Tara and Deanna with Tara beating her out with threat of a hunger strike. MiG’s song is a worrisome verbosity of syllables. Will he pull it off?

SHOWTIME

Kicking off things is Marty, who’s performing The Romantics’ “What I Like About You.” Marty’s brought back his frenetic energy and robotic, nearly-spastic dance moves working both the audience and his hair into a frenzy.

Daphna performs Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself For Lovin’ You,” cranking it out in her “power voice,” some slithery dancin’ and a kick into the air.

Ty, performing The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me,” ends with a carefully-planned, dramatic collapse to the stage. By the time INXS review his performance as too hammy, Ty looks like a Killer himself - fierce glare.

Big thumbs up to Suzie’s “Roxanne.” But the massive ring looks like Mafia issue so don’t make her mad either.

MiG’s obviously been practicing tongue twisters as he doesn’t miss a syllable of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

Now for Neal who openly admitted he didn’t know what the word “melodic” meant. Performing Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69.” Neal proves he should have spent some time delving into a dictionary. He thinks he has knocked it out of the ballpark but DN and INXS know he has struck out.

Heather’s up with The Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll.” Heather has shoveled down her throat and the gravelly results are rather exquisite.

J.D.’s does his own arrangement of Alanis Morrisette’s “Hand in My Pocket” He does a good job of not grabbing anyone in the audience, probably because he’s got one hand in his pocket . . . and the other one’s flashing a peace sign. *groan* At review time, JD brown noses the panel and the other contestants can only see green.

Tara, a makeup disciple of Ozzie Osbourne is up, singing Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”

Deanna, Who gave up the song (afraid of what?) sings R.E.M.’s “The One I Love,” Not feeling it but OK vocals. Gotta get fierce, girlfriend.

Now it’s Jordis’ turn, and she’s looking to continue her string of successes. Her song choice is “The Reason” by Hoobastinks. She succeeds turning a piece of power ballad trash into something.

Jessica’s on stage with the Jimi Hendrix classic “Purple Haze.” This week was all about rock star fashion, yet Jessica is again wearing next to nothing.

Last but not least Barefoot Brandon closes out the night with his rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama.” Great job.

ELIMI"MATE"

Last night INXS praised JD and thought he was the most focused. Okay. Then JD turns up the heat in the studio with his response that while the other’s are learning the INXS songs, he knew them because he loved them. Ouch! That was a back-handed bitch slap. This went over with the other contestants so well that MiG couldn’t eat and it made Marty feel, well--- “a certain way.” I’m afraid diplomacy like that will sail over JD’s greasy forelock.

The sucked lemons trio: Tara, Jessica and Neal. They get to strut their stuff with INXS songs.

Tim Farriss goes over what was good and what was bad.

Tara: sang well but could’ve used the stage better.
Neal: the opposite. Used the stage great, but voice sounded rough.
Jessica: started off rough, but it improved greatly during the performance.

Tara gets the save. It wasn’t metal, it was INXS and she sang it well. Jessica gets the nod too. There’s no rose at this ceremony for Neal and with “Yourse just not roight for our bayand INXS” Neal is off to his preggy wife.

[klly]

Okay, so I just got the season on DVD and I agree that I am liking some of the people that I just ignored last time?

Of course Marty was my favorite all along. However, I must say.....

How could I have overlooked the awesomeness of Neal? This guy is so bad that he is outstanding. I love when he talks about how he is all "sex" and struts around the stage with no shirt on!!! And that rendition of summer of 69? There is no better television than that.

Bring back Neal!

He He