I wasn’t bowled over by the performances that much, I mean they were good, but nothing to write home about. I did think Patrice’s original song was good but not a match for the band (now that we know what they sound like). Ryan is doing a good job coming out of his shell as well.
What this episode really is about is Dilana’s meltdown. For weeks she was the clear frontrunner (let me note that I never cottoned on to her). People were creaming themselves over her and Lukas - and all I could think about was Rockstar: INXS and how Jordis was the frontrunner but turned out to be not very nice and actually “not quite right for the band, INXS.” Dilana had the worst week I could think of for a reality TV frontrunner.
First she gives Ryan the most backhanded compliment ever (“the backing band carried you… but you did a nice job!”). Then she does an interview and calls out Lukas as being fake… literally, she said to the reporter, “Lukas is one person one minute and another the next.” Dave Navarro rightly called her on the carpet for both malfeasances… but she pretty much apologized, took responsibility for what she did. (Ryan twisted the knife pretty good by noting that her apology was the nicest thing she had said in weeks… plus it looks like Magni is tired of her condescending attitude as well.) It might be a dead issue… but she came across as a stark raving bitch, and I think some people might want to see her pay for it…
Dilana’s pretty savvy, so I doubt she was cajoled by Burnett’s minions to “say something controversial.” I think she’s really overconfident and is going to get a smackdown now that it’s exposed.
Dilana’s performances at the beginning of the series were good. They’ve been going downhill for a while. Her performance with Supernova was wretched. She made them look like a cheap 80’s hair band or something. It was almost disco in its awfulness. At first I thought it was the track itself, but listening to it again, I realized that the backing track isn’t bad, but her performance just drained the soul out of it. Since then, she’s sucked. Chanting 'Dilana… Dilana…" in 'Every Breath You Take" was not only weird, it was kind of disturbing. That kind of shameless self-promotion while covering someone else’s song is SO ‘diva’ and SO NOT ‘rock star’. Blah.
Plus, her songwriting sucks. Bring your thong and your lotion? Sheesh.
I’m rooting for Ryan or Magni. I like Toby, but I haven’t seen the kind of musical talent from him yet that I’m seeing in Ryan and Magni. Both of them can write great songs, play multiple instruments, and sing like crazy. They deserve the gig.
Dilana’s claim to that thong song is questionable (source:TWOPspoiler thread, which I don’t have time to burrow through right now). It’s almost a duplicate of a song written by a member of her band. She did get a worse smackdown than we saw, same as Josh did. The actual dicussion and bash session about her remarks went on for 30 minutes, leaving her in tears. But it seemed as though she was apologizes for getting busted, not what she eaid. It kinda sucks to be Dilana right now..
Having said that, it’ll be interesting to see if she gets a sympathy edit now for an attitude comeback, ala JD. I was all for Dilana at first, but I have to say that Toby looked and sounded right with the band. The lack of gyrating hootchies didn’t hurt, though. He got to sing a much better song.
Toby sounded fantastic with the band. Too bad Dilana thinks he’s a fake. I’m seriously disappointed in Dilana after last night’s show. I think she’s got a bad case of overconfidence. The things she said about Lukas and Toby were very disrespectful and she was very unprofessional for saying them. Honestly, if she’d said those things to Toby and Lukas to their faces, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But it was the fact that she said it about Lukas behind his back and the reporter told him about it that made me squirm.
She also said some stupid things to Ryan. I think if I were him I would have responded with “Well, let’s see how you do when you finally have the balls to do an original song” when she came out with her “the house band carried you” comment. Dilana has been the frontrunner so far, but I think her songwriting ability (or lack thereof) could sink her in the end.
Toby’s performance with Supernova last night actually got me excited, for the first time, to hear the new band. He did sound great, but it was also a very catchy song. He also kicked butt on his bottom three performance – for the first time, I realized that he would probably work very well as the lead singer for Supernova.
Yeah, I didn’t really see Toby as being “the one” until last night either. After watching Dilana last week and Toby this week in front of the band, I thought Toby looked the part and fit in better than she did. Of course, as has already been noted, Toby’s song was way better than Dilana’s and he didn’t have to deal with the gyrating hoochies.
My original intuition was right: this transcript of an interview given by Magni to Icelandic radio seems to sum it up. The contestants get the feeling that the producers are trying to get the people to fight, ratings and hype are the thing.
Most people enjoy rubbernecking, don’t they?
David’s blog sort of confirms that they pushed Dilana hard. He doesn’t quite apologize, but does suggest that people get off this stuff and focus on the music and the talent onstage.
I quite liked Toby’s arrangement, too. Good way to cover a classic without karaoke-ing.
I think Dilana’s been coasting. She’d been able to ride on first impression a long way, but I wonder when the bottom falls out. She’s really bugged me the last two weeks.
Also, I think Tommy really hated having to cut Patrice. She was one person who made it clear she wasn’t just on the show for exposure, she wanted to front the band, from the beginning, & he liked her original song. But the band has been consistently cutting people who’ve been in the bottom 3 the most, & she’d now been in it half the time.
I thought Dilana kind of got snowballed last night. She didn’t really saying anything that bad. It just seemed like the whole interview thing was kind of contrived. They set them up with questions just to see if they would trash anybody and then acted all shocked about it when she made a couply of vaguely critical comments. Navarro’s attitude kind of pissed me off, actually. Gilby doesn’t have much room to speak either. His last singer, Axl Rose, was the KING of trash-talk interviews. I get the feeling that the band wants to make sure that they’re going to hire a good little robot who will never say anything interesting or truthful in interviews.
She was right about Josh too, by the way, and she shouldn’t have apologized for it. She was also right that the idea to share her spot in the band with him was retarded. (would Axl do that? Would Mick Jagger?) I really think Dilana should have told the band that she had nothing to apologize for and they could take her as she is or hire somebody else. For a band that talks a lot about wanting a singer with swagger and rock and roll attitudes, they sure are frauds when it comes to controlling their press.
The Supernova songs SUCK, by the way. There, I said it. The song last week was a bog-standard blues shuffle with a vaguely Poison-esque feel to it. That thing last night was a boring, monotonous walk-down riff with no hook and a title that wasn’t nearly as clever as they though and ironic in a way they never intended. I’m not exaggerating when I say they sound like a million amateur bands I’ve heard at any rehearsal space. You walk down the hall and you hear those same uninspired riffs and tuneless vocal lines. I’m actually starting to think that Dilana might be better off without them. There’s a bit of an elephant in the room in the astonishing mediocrity of Supernova’s songwriting.
That does strike me as being Dilana’s weakest point. Her songwriting is pathetic-- if one assumes that the bubble-gum pop song she presented as her own is really one of her best. For this reason alone, Ryan would be a better choice.
Like you, Diogenes, I’m beginning to think that a few of those singers, I mean most of those singers would do better without Supernova.
I’m definitely NOT a Dilana fan. She has exactly one thing going for her - she’s got captivating stage presence. Great performer. But before you get to do the live performance, you actually have to have songs people want to hear. And that’s the big weak link of Supernova - their songwriting is incredibly bad. I think their first two songs absolutely blew chunks. Their lyrics are insipid, the songs had no hooks or memorable playing.
You can see the Rockstar contestant’s attempt to write an original song for that first track on the Rockstar site. And here’s the interesting thing - EVERY ONE of them, save Dilana’s, was better than Supernova’s own attempt. In a couple of cases, MUCH better. Listen to Josh Logan sing his own composition to that first Supernova track. Much better.
I think the problem is that Supernova only has rhythm players. They’ve got a rythm guitar player, a bass player, and a drummer. They don’t just need a singer - they need someone who can play lead guitar, who can write songs, and perform them. They need the whole package, or this band will suck.
So which contestants in the group have those skills? Ryan and Magni are both skilled guitar players, good song writers, and good singers. If I were Supernova, I’d be looking long and hard at those two. Toby’s a good songwriter, but so far all we’ve seen him play is bongos. Lukas and Storm might also fit. Dilana may in fact be the weakest of all those left, if you look at the entire package and not just the stage presence.
If you want to see all the original songs the rockers made for that first track it’s here: Full original songs to Supernova Track.
I agree. Even Zayra’s original was better than either of the Supernova songs we’ve heard. I’ve been kind of stunned at how flat – how amateurish – the SN songs have been.
Again, I agree the band needs a songwriter. None of the established stars have ever been anything but sidemen in their most successful bands and it shows. Jason is really a great bassist (I used to be a huge Metallica fan) but he didn’t write very much and James Hetfield has always been the real creative force in that band. I think Tommy Lee wrote “Home Sweet Home” (or at least came up with the piano riff it’s based on) but Nikki Sixx was the primary songwriter for Motley Crue. I was almost completely unfamiliar with Gilby Clark’s work before this show. I knew he had replaced Izzy in Guns 'n Roses but I’d never actually heard him play much and didn’t know if he could write. My take after hearing him play a few times is that he’s a solid player but not an especially creative one (a rhyhm player, in other words). If those are his riffs we’ve been hearing, he’s not exactly knocking me out. I actually think I’d rather hear Dave Navarro jam with the band a little bit.
They don’t just need a singer, they need a creative font. Magni has been impressing me more every week, as has Toby. I was on the Dilana train for a while but as time goes on, I think I’m leaning more and more towards one of those guys. I think Josh has some potential in his own right, but I think his forte is doing that moody piano stuff. I don’t think he’s a fit for these guys.
I think you must be confusing Ryan with Josh. Josh went home a couple of weeks ago with Jill; Ryan is the piano guy.
Otherwise yeah, I pretty much agree with what everyone is saying here. I definitely think Magni, Toby, or Ryan (maybe Storm?) are best suited for the band at this point. I hate to say it, but I think Lukas is too big of a risk and difficult to work with. Who knows when his voice will give out from all that abuse he’s heaped on it? And as I said before, I think Dilana’s lack of songwriting skills will be her downfall in the next few weeks. They really do need someone who can write and although I love her singing, she’s just not right for them.
