Brent Hathaway…in my own words

I am taking a departure from tech talk to discuss the new Lifehouse cd, “Smoke & Mirrors“, which in my opinion, is an extension of the incredible musician-songwriter Jude Cole. Kiefer Sutherland is also connected in all this, which I will get to in a moment.

Jude Cole is known for the 90s hits, “baby it’s tonight”, “house full of reasons”, “compared to nothing”, “believe in you”, “worlds apart”, among others. Jude was always surrounding himself with the best talent, from Jeff Porcaro (Toto, Michael Jackson) to Pat Mastelloto on drums, and guest appearances by Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades and others. The production on his stuff was always great, and his mid-nineties stuff sounds as fresh as anything today, but without the squashed overcompressed sound.  Jude Cole’s most recent release of his own can be checked out here .

Jude’s footprint is seen all over this Lifehouse cd, “Smoke & Mirrors”. Guitars, keys, background vocals, and co-songwriting are all classic Jude, from the Led 7eppelin-like Nerve Damage to the dance rocker All In, it feels like you have blessed with a Jude Cole release. Also, you have Chris Daughtrey co-writing and singing backgrounds on a song “Had Enough” . Jason Wade does a great job, and the band has never sounded better.

So how does Kiefer Sutherland fit in? Jude and Kiefer are best friends, and Kiefer’s Strat always made an appearance on Jude’s stuff, and Kiefer does spoken word on a Jude Cole song called “Joe”. Kiefer named his daughter Sarah Jude.

Once Kiefer started making big bucks with the tv show 24, he partnered on a recording studio with Jude, Ironworks Recording Studio.

It is by far my favorite release for the year.

If nothing else, the sudden changes by NBC have given all the late-night talk show hosts more material for their monologues.

Here is Conan’s  letter to the New York Post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/business/media/12conan.html saying that he doesn’t want to have the Tonight Show moved and ruin the 60 year franchise.

If you want to read about some of the meetings with Conan and NBC, check this out: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/conan-obrien-resigning-tonight-show/

I had also read that Conan gets a big lump payout if NBC ever moved him back beyond 12:05, which is why NBC is considering them each doing a half hour show.

Jimmy Kimmel has gotten into the act and came out to start his show impersonating Jay Leno – silver hair, fake chin and all.

Watch here: http://www.thecelebritytruth.com/jimmy-kimmel-plays-jay-leno-late-night-takeover/0013272
Jimmy has been invited to the Jay Leno show to reprise the role.

This is basically a repeat of what happened with Letterman and Leno. I wouldn’t be surprised if the results are the same.

Jimmy Fallon, who is also getting bumped later,  made a funny comment during his show:
“Thank you, NBC, for announcing that Jay Leno will be moving back to 11:30. It’ll be interesting to see how Jay and Conan do against Dave, and how we do against the Perfect Push-up infomercial.”

Letterman has poked fun at all of this several times, and some of it can be viewed here:

Craig Ferguson had some really funny stuff about it that could be viewed here:

The question I have, is…in 2004 was Jay forced to make the retirement announcment?? It doesn’t seem like he wanted to retire. I have to believe it was a forced announcement.