Eric R. Danton | Sound Check

Joe Perry suffers agony of Patriots' defeat

As a Boston-area native, it's no surprise that Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is a die-hard New England Patriots fan. As such, he was feeling the sting of the Patriots' loss in Super Bowl XLII when he called Monday to talk about his upcoming semi-solo gig Friday at Foxwoods.

"You look at the numbers, they’re still the best team in the league," Perry said, calling from Florida. "But the bottom line is, they didn’t go home with the trophy. And the other team, being the underdog, they’ve gotta be so [expletive] happy."

Like any long-suffering Boston sports fan (if such a thing still exists after all the Hub championships in recent years), Perry put a philosophical spin on the Pats' 17-14 defeat by the New York Giants.

"There’s always next year," he said. "And after winning the first one, who ever thought they’d win the second one?"

Or, for that matter, the third one. Said Perry: "Yeah."

(Photo by Melissa Mahoney.)

Kina Grannis: So many questions

Of all the Super Bowl commercials that aired last night — fire-breathing beer drinkers, bizarre car ads, millions more dollars flushed away by Tribune Co.'s careerbuilder.com — I was most intrigued by the spot featuring singer and songwriter Kina Grannis.

Might this be an example of how record labels are lining up corporate sponsorship for artists? Grannis appeared in the ad by winning a contest sponsored by Doritos and conducted on MySpace, and in addition to having a video for her song "Message From Your Heart" played in front of 100 million people, the Austin, Texas, transplant scored a record deal with Interscope. (So this is what passes for A&R these days, eh? No wonder record sales keep plummeting ...)

But who paid for the ad? She'd better hope it wasn't Interscope: Promotions expenses are charged back to the artist, and recouping the $2.7 million cost of a 30-second spot would mean shifting a lot of units.

Neko Case collaborates with John Kruk

That's right, former Philly and current ESPN analyst John Kruk bears but one degree of separation from country-noir singer Neko Case.

The pair, along with Case's band mate Kelly Hogan, lent their voices to an episode of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," in which Case and Hogan play sirens who have taken Kruk captive for arcane sexual purposes.

"It's totally disgusting, but it was funny," Case says, laughing, during a phone interview this week.

So, um, how did that come about?

"Your guess is as good as mine on that one," Case says. "I think they heard that we were fans of theirs, and they were fans of ours, so they called us up and said, 'Do you want to be on "Aqua Teen Hunger Force,"' and we said, 'Duh, of course we do.' So Kelly and I went to Atlanta" to record their parts."

Alas, Case and Kruk recorded their parts separately, but Case says, "He was the funniest part of the show." (Watch a clip here, at about the 3:00 mark.)

For more on Case, check out my column Thursday in the CAL section.

Rockies fever: Rocky Mountain News claims credit where none is due

DENVER — In a letter to readers in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News, publisher John Temple chides the Colorado Rockies for attempting to trademark "Rocktober," claiming that RMN columnist Bernie Lincicome "invented the word back in 2005."

He's right, if by "invented" he means "appropriated from radio DJs who have been using the term for years in promotions and on the air."

Rockies madness is in full swing in Denver, with less than four hours to go before Colorado hosts its first World Series game against the Red Sox. The RMN has heralded the game as one of the "top events ever held in Colorado," which seems a tad hyperbolic. But what the hell: Go Rockies!

Accidentally fighting the power

The Associated Press wire this morning moved this item:

MILFORD, Conn. (AP)— Officials at Milford's Jonathan Law High school have apologized for the use of a rap song with racial lyrics over the loudspeakers before a football game.

The lyrics blaring out over the loudspeakers before Friday's game made reference to the Ku Klux Klan and had racial slurs.

The lyrics were from Public Enemy's "Shut 'em Down."

Athletic Director Frank Luysterborghs says a member of the coaching staff played the song from an iPod and the lyrics were contained on a "hidden track" at the end of the rap album, recorded in 1991, and no one knew it was there.

Luysterborghs says all coaches are being instructed to be especially careful when playing music before games, especially rap music.

No one knew it was there? The song is from "Apocalypse 91 ... The Enemy Strikes Back," a platinum-selling album purchased by more than a million people. Surely someone knew it was there.

Son Volt covers the Beatles

Son Volt recorded a version of the Beatles' "Hello Goodbye" for an ESPN commercial heralding the arrival of soccer star David Beckham in Los Angeles.

The clip aired for a week starting July 9 (yeah, I'm late on this), but you can watch it here. Pretty cool.

Here's how it happened: ESPN has a licensing deal with Sony (which owns a 50 percent interest in the Beatles catalog; Michael Jackson owns the other half). The deal stipulates that although the sports station can license Beatles tunes, it cannot use original Beatles recordings or sound-alike versions. Other cover versions are fine, though, which worked well in this case: The network's advertising agency wanted the song to have an alt-country/Americana flavor, and who does alt-country better than Jay Farrar and Son Volt?

(Thank you, Dan, for chasing down that information.)

UPDATE (8/14/07): The tune is now available for download via digital music stores like iTunes.

Looking for the cornhole champion

Americans love competition, and if we can drink while we compete, well that's even better. Beer-league softball, darts, billiards and trivia night at the local bar are all standard booze-friendly face-offs. Now there's another game competing with those forms of competition: Cornhole.

It's not what you think, you pervert, though today's Wall Street Journal  drily notes, "The game's name, which is also slang for a sex act, may be part of its allure in the bar scene ..."

Also called Baggo (meh), the game involves tossing 1-pound cloth bags filled with corn through a hole cut in a slanted board. You earn points for accuracy — three points for tossing the beanbag into the hole, one point for landing it on the board — and the first two-person team to reach 21 points wins. There's even an American Cornhole Association with 20,000 non-dues paying members and, naturally, a competing group, the American Cornhole Organization, with 500 dues-paying members.

The Journal's story (which includes video) is datelined Chicago, where cornhole has become popular enough to sustain leagues and a city-wide tournament, the Windy City Cornhole Classic, sponsored in part by the Chicago Tribune. You have to wonder whether the marketing folks at the Trib knew about the other meaning. Either way, it inspires several excellent new slogans for the newspaper ...

Willie, Dice-K and the Duke

There are, on occasion, baseball players who fancy themselves musicians: Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson "Brandon" Arroyo plays in a band, for example, and retired  Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams does more than just dabble in classical guitar.

Red Sox big-money pitching phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka (or "Dice-K" for the phonetically challenged) does neither, but that's never stopped a celebrity from releasing an album. So here goes: The Japanese pitcher releases "Music From the Mound" July 17 on EMI. It's a compilation of Matsuzaka's "favorite and inspirational" songs from English, American and Japanese artists.

There's also a new song, "Gyro Ball," featuring guest performances by former J. Geils' harmonica player Magic Dick, former Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and Red Sox TV announcers Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy.

Prince and the Super Bowl

First off, why is Prince's hair done up like he's selling maple syrup?

Second, never mind the "wardrobe malfunction" from a few years ago -- Prince's silhouetted guitar solo on "Purple Rain" is way more suggestive. And the raw, gritty tone is the nastiest thing I've ever heard, and one of the most fantastic.

The Super Bowl is a super-cheesy milieu, but Prince actually sounds good. The marching band is a nice touch, and his song selection is a total surprise: "Proud Mary"? "All Along the Watchtower?" "Best of You" by the Foo Fighters? Well struck, O Purple One.

The Rolling Stones were good last year, but Prince's creativity and unpredictability make his performance this year the best Super Bowl halftime show I've seen yet.

Ready for some football

I didn't get around to watching NBC's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast (I was reviewing a concert by Electric Six), but a friend this morning described the intro song by Pink as "absolutely cringe-worthy" and wondered whether she was induced to record it by someone in possession of sexually incriminating photographs of her.

He's right, the song is pretty bad. And if it sounds familiar, that's because it's essentially lifted from Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself for Loving You," which is a strange message to send to football fans. Then again, maybe not: "Al and John make you crank up the sound," Pink sings at one point, and I'd sure hate myself if that were true.

Nice try, NBC, but Hank Williams Jr. and all his rowdy friends (this week including ?uestlove, Little Steven, Bootsy Collins and Little Richard) still reign supreme.