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Love her or hate her, American Idol Season Five winner Carrie Underwood might be swinging the wrecking ball that brings down the major-label record company business as we know it.

Carrie’s cover of The Pretender’s “I’ll Stand By You” featured on last week’s “Idol Gives Back” program during a video montage showing the country queen interacting with AIDS-affected children in Africa. The single, released exclusively on iTunes with all the proceeds going to the “Idol Gives Back” charity debuted in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

That’s a massive accomplishment not only for Carrie Underwood, but for online music retailers like iTunes. Before this week, the only way to get into the Billboard top 100 was to have a massive record distribution model that included major retail stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Tower Records, Sam Goody and the like. It required a ton of advertising money and an full on radio assault.

But now we have a proof of concept that an exclusive online download can reach the sort of customers that only traditional record sales have reached in the past. Granted the video got played in front of an estimated 30 million viewers on the American Idol broadcast, but the question remains, “Is the day coming when a self-produced single by an unsigned artist can break into the Billboard Top 100?”

I think the answer is a resounding yes.

And you’ll have Carrie Underwood to thank for it.

I have put off posting this review for a while. I’d like to be able to write about the album and not talk about the political commentary and messy situation involved. I’ve determined that it is impossible to extricate the two. This album is acidic, [tag]bold[/tag], forthright, outspoken, and quite frankly, [tag]brilliant[/tag].

Music reflects society and like it or not, celebrities have a unique position in which the masses listen to what they say. It’s not a perfect situation, but one that exists just the same. This album embodies all that is necessary and wonderful about having a soapbox.

So far, this is my best pick of the year. The first single “I’m Not Ready to Make Nice” hits the nail on the head about the tumultuous 2 years the Chicks have had. The crescendo of the string section in the bridge almost makes me burst into tears. How many of us have wanted to say

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have tiime to go round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could?

And they tackle the hate mail and vile rhetoric from fans and the country music world:

It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
and how in the world can the things that I said
send somebody so over the edge
that they would write me a letter
saying that I’d better shut up and sing or
my life will be over?

Amazing.

I fully support the country station’s right to not play the [tag]Dixie Chicks[/tag] music because of their beliefs, no matter how misguided. However, I think we rock and pop junkies need to support The Chicks. This isn’t the country you have come to expect from them.

Key tracks:

• I’m Not Ready to Make Nice
• Easy Silence
• Lullaby
• Baby Hold On

A mix of folk/country and rock from a seasoned middle-aged divorcee from New York that is smart, funny, sad, and catchy. These modern tales of love, life, and punk dreams of dancing with Joey Ramone will warrant multiple spins on your iPod. Think a cross between [tag]Jill Sobule, the Indigo Girls,[/tag] and maybe even the later [tag]Beatles[/tag]’ albums, with tongue in cheek takes on topics like “Needy Men” and the odd situation of becoming friends with your new husband’s ex wife.

How can I pick up where she never left off? We’re like a club of two who have seen him with his clothes off… The trouble with Jeannie is she’s all right, the trouble with Jeannie is she’s so nice, could somebody explain to me this modern life?

Key tracks:
• Like Rasputin
• The Trouble With Jeannie
• Dancing with Joey Ramone

A few weeks ago, I finally got the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands live. You see… I got into [tag]The Pat McGee Band [/tag]several years ago when I first heard “Rebecca” on KFOG here in San Francisco. I’m a sucker for great [tag]harmonies[/tag], intelligent lyrics, and any song where before it’s over I can sing along to the chorus. That’s right, I’m a Pop Junkie(tm). I make no apologies.

Anyway.

After being quite enchanted with the album, Shine, I was quite excited to discover they were going to play a show at Slim’s on September 11, 2001.

So my first thought on that day wasn’t, ‘gee this is awful, those poor people.’ It was, ‘damn, I just know they’re canceling the show tonight.’ [of course I immediately thereafter felt the weight of the events of those days as it related to other people.]

I’m not saying it was the most PC, socially-conscious, or even compassionate thing to think, but as we all know, it IS all about me.

So I waited patiently for PMB to come back to San Francisco… anxiously scanning the fan-site emails for new tour dates, and kicking myself for not living in Nashville anymore.

So fast forward FIVE, yes, count them FIVE long years of downloading live versions of anything I could find from PMB and waiting for them to come back to the left coast.

In the meantime, I picked up many many many cd’s, including one by [tag]Michael Tolcher[/tag] that I love. His voice is amazing, pitch perfect… and while I believe this album is a bit overproduced, and would have been much more powerful with a couple of solo acoustic songs, it is nonetheless wonderful. I caught a live performance of Michael’s last year when he opened for [tag]Everclear[/tag] (who hold the distinction of being only the 2nd band I’ve ever walked out of a show before it was over… before it was even really begun, actually…) MT is great live.

I had purchased the [tag]Stephen Kellogg[/tag] and the Sixers album, and it was buried in my iPod. I knew that a couple of songs stood out and I actually remember thinking that they sounded a bit like PMB, but really I hadn’t given them much thought.

But then.

FINALLY, an announcement that PMB was coming to San Francisco, and they were bringing Stephen Kellogg with them. Great… I immediately got tickets.

A week before the show, I got an email from the Michael Tolcher website, saying he would be opening the show. No. Way. Great news!

Let me just say, despite the fact that PMB brought half his band, this was probably the best live music event I’d ever attended. Michael performed solo acoustic (!) and really showed off his guitar abilities and again, his PERFECT FUCKING PITCH. I got the opportunity to talk to him after his set, he put a new song (which is quite good) on my iPod. I relayed to him my disbelief that his record company hasn’t done more to promote him. He completely agreed with me.

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers are a m a z i n g live. There was so much on stage chemistry and energy that it couldn’t help but boil over into the audience and infect the entire room. I love small venues like The Independent. At one point the band jumped off stage and played an acoustic version of “See You Later, See You Soon” in the middle of the audience. Their show included many cover song segues, an unusual inclusion of random movie quotes during songs, and a bass player who danced in his underwear.

And of course Pat McGee was just as good as I had hoped. I wish the whole band had come along, as the lack of a bass player made some songs that should have had more drive fell slightly short of expectations, but above all their musicianship was evident and provided a different arrangement of songs that I had by now become quite familiar with. They did a fine mix of older songs from Shine, as well as newer songs from Save Me.

Oh yeah, and they ended the show with “Rebecca,” with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers helping out. Fantastic. And it wasn’t just the six manhattans talking.