…sorry…? He’s what… Landon…? I’ve been calling him Brandon all this time and nobody said.
Well no wonder he didn’t respond to my tweat.

As you’ve probably seen reported last week (yes yes I am a bit slow to react) young Bran…Landon there made some remarks which appeared in a book in which he accused Derek of being “unprofessional” amongst other things.

This little outburst began in part when the LA Galaxy team were on the road – Beckham’s first away game – and they all went to a restaurant a day before the match. At the end of the meal and because of who he was and how much he was earning, the others were looking, nay expecting old Goldenballs to pick up the tab. But he didn’t.

This apparently was the last straw for Jason Donovan who a few weeks before was the star player in the Galaxy and captain to boot. But then he arrived and in one fell swoop was suddenly shoved out of the spotlight and lost the captains armband to boot.

Then even with Derek in the ranks, they had a disappointing season which AEG and the naïve Alexi Lalas (LA Galaxy’s GM) decided to try an instant fix by throwing money at it in the form of Ruud Gullit (who we all remember for his spectacular time managing Newcastle. Suffice to say it was a unmitigated disaster and eventually both Lalas and Gullit were shown the door.
Viewing all of this and frustrated by the lower quality and very short MLS season in America. Plus with the fear of not being picked for the England team if he wasn’t playing regulary and at a higher standard, it was arranged that Beckham go play for AC Milan in the off season.

Terence Donovan himself tried to engineer a move to a better team when in January 2009 he went to Bayern Munich, but for the second time in his career Landon had failed to make it in the Bundesliga.

With his tail between his legs Donovan McNabb returned to the MLS and prepared and started the new season and then halfway through was included in the (mostly non-MLS playing) USA team for the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

At the beginning of the tournament the United States team performed poorly, but then one day they remembered how to play as a team and got themselves into the semi-final and then beat the previously unbeaten (but very tired) Spain team.

Then in the final the previously misaligned and ignored Donovan Leitch grabbed the world’s…well all right the footballing world’s…. attention again with a stunning goal against Brazil.

Sadly after this the U.S team capitulated and they lost, which didn’t help when Brendan Landon returned home expecting the American media to be all abuzz with his performance. There was some coverage, but still not the headline grabbing sort of thing we see in Blighty.

Only a few weeks later he was pushed back into the shadows again with the return of Beckham and the bad timing of the Beckham Experiment book being published.

Donovan’s own comments are slightly ironic and in itself a bit “unprofessional” too. This little jealous outburst isn’t going to help matters with the team and the teammates. It will be interesting to watch their performance and LA Galaxy’s overall performance over the next few weeks.

This is turning a bit political and moving away from what the objective was – to shower some attention onto the once again ignored Donovan and to let him know that he is still the soccer superstar. That’s what you are. Honestly.

If you follow F&M you know what is coming next...

The singer in one cheezetastic Jess Conrad.   » He has a pink Rolls you know.
Familiar to your parent or grandparents if they’ve been on a cruise. The man who puts the ow ! into lounge singer.

This song was done when Landon was still in shorts… (I mean the junior school-type, not the footballing one) but I believe that if Jess hadn’t created it back then he would have been inspired upon witnessing Donovan and the Galaxy team. It’s as if they were made for each other:

[See post to listen to audio] » Jess Conrad and Tanya Tenola – Soccer Superstar

That orange skin...those teeth.... I can see them from the other side of the room...

For those of you who’ve just joined us:

The light entertainment legend above is the captain and manager of the Showbiz XI soccer team, who you can hire here for your charidee or appeal. Jess has thoughtfully added his mobile number there, so give him a ring.

In 1989/1990 he was responsible for the writing, recording and releasing of not one, but two Showbiz XI albums. First posted by WFMU’s Beware Of The Blog (a very recommended), you can find more about it here. The above song was included on the album.

You are asking yourself now: Why would anybody write and record anything so bad ?
Well you see Jess started out bad and just… stayed there…

In what would be considered to be his “peak” period, Jess released 14 singles between 1960 & 69 with only three of them charting. The biggest hit was his third reaching number 18. All the others failed. » More info.

On the radio in the 70′s the late great Kenny Everett did the “Worlds Worst Record Show” and Jess had the considerable “honour” of being featured three times.

Edit: And I’m glad that someone has carried on the tradition with this blog.

The following example (from 1961) will prove that the above song wasn’t a pisstake or a one off :
[See post to listen to audio] » Jess Conrad – My Pullover

EXTRA TIME:
He’s got a weird clothing (Seriously, What is with all the pink ?) obsession as well as a bit creepy one. – Have a listen to “Black Stockings” on the WFMU’s Beware Of The Blog post.

What colour socks – aka stockings does Landon and his team wear….?

Thanks to 3rd Degree for discovering the following...

The chap above there is Rivers Cuomo (what a great name). He’s the lead singer of Weezer, who some of you will remember for that fantastic video. – More about that coming up.

As the above linked 3rd Degree website found out (via The Offside Rules blog) Rivers is a big soccer footie follower. He’s an LA Galaxy fan and regularly watches the Premier League.

Snippet via his Wikipedia entry:

Cuomo is a big fan of soccer. He can be seen playing in the “Photograph” video and even planned his band’s 2002 “World Cup Tour” around World Cup games. In 2006 he reportedly wrote a song titled “Our Time Will Come” in tribute to the U.S. men’s soccer team.[see below] He claims his favourite player is Landon Donovan, enjoys watching the Premier League and is both a Los Angeles Galaxy and New England Revolution fan. In early 2008 he played in the Mia (Hamm) & Nomar Celebrity Soccer Challenge and scored a goal in the game. His video for “Lover in the Snow” from his Alone album [again see below ] dealt with this game and his love of soccer.

In 2007 he released an album of home demo’s called Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo and then a year later a “sequel” which included the (slightly) renamed track about the US Soccer team:

[See post to listen to audio] » Rivers Cuomo – My Day Is Coming

Excellent tune. I love this. Anybody who manages to get “Carlos Bocanegra” into a song is all right by me.

- As mentioned by 3rd Degree.net is this track (Lover In The Snow) from the first album in which Rivers gives us the back story and why he loves soccer so much:

» Link to video

Extra Time: Another one from his 1st CD and the demo version of a familiar song…

[See post to listen to audio]
» Rivers Cuomo – Buddy Holly

Another great one, never get sick of this track.

So best of luck to the USMNT with their match against Brazil.
And hey… you never know. It’s – as many, including me, have said before – football.

Honestly when you have nearly all the attention because of the uncertainty of where you will be kicking a ball next season, going to the center of all the world’s media is a bit of a silly move. (Like the one he will probably make in a couple of weeks). Or maybe he did it on purpose…

Judging by the what is reported I think Ronaldo likes, even loves the attention and wants more. MORE !

Maybe he wants to be bigger than Derek. He wants to have all the newspaper gossip. Not just on the back pages, but all the pages. He’s lining himself up, media and financially-wise, to be the next Beckham.

But is he there yet ?

Do you think that Ronaldo is now the football star or does Derek still hold that crown ?

- Have a listen to the related music first and then afterwards take the vote…

The track is short and sweet and comes via a Swedish artist who performs under the name of Strawberry Fair.

Strawberry Fair is the stage name of Swedish soul/pop musician Jenny Franzén. Inspired by bands such as The Aislers Set, Shop Assistants and Television Personalities she began writing her own material in the early part of the 21st century. 2003 saw the release of her first two self financed CD-R singles: “Empty Wallets and Greedy Companies” and “Strawberry Fair”. That same year her song “Don’t Take Everything So Seriously” was featured on “Picknick Picks!”, a cassette compilation put together by the Swedish fanzine Picknick and the California based record company Popgun.

» We Heart Music profile
» Last.FM page

[See post to listen to audio]
» Strawberry Fair – Football Star

Poll:

http://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/alexi-lalas-ginger-powerhouse/ http://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/alexi-lalas-ginger-powerhouse/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:07:47 +0000 Webbie @ Football and Music http://www.footballandmusic.co.uk/?p=313 Who’d have thought that a decidedly average defender would eventually be a big cheese in U.S. Soccer.

The most famous ginger footballer, outside of the Premiership of course, went from nowhere to playing in the 1994 World Cup.

The only player I know who before then had never actually played any professional league football and then bang – World Cup Finals.

Before the Finals there wasn’t a professional soccer league in the USA and this was one of the conditions set before FIFA awarded the tournament to the States.

At the tournament Lalas got the world’s attention because of his look back then and because of what he did in his leisure time.

After the World Cup the idea was that the MLS would start up and Alexi join the New England Revolution for the inaugural MLS season. But there was a one year delay and Lalas was loaned out to a then Serie A team Padova.
In 1993 they had finished 4th in Serie B and after winning a playoff, were promoted to Serie A.

Padova brought in the in-limbo Lalas on loan but they still struggled and at the end of their first season back in the top flight, were in a relegation playoff with Genoa. They actually won that game and stayed in Serie A for one more season but Lalas had to leave in Feb 1996 because the MLS was finally about to begin.

After his return to the Revolution he had a couple of average seasons before they loaned him Ecuadorian First Division Club Emelec for a month. When he came back Lalas found out he had been traded and for a few more years became a journeyman footballer in the MLS.

He announced his retirement only to un-retire a year later and play for the LA Galaxy.

During his sabbatical Lalas followed the usual route of becoming a laughable TV pundit before finally hanging up his boots and getting a job as the GM at the San Jose Earthquakes.

Eventually he transfered around the company (AEG own a number of clubs, as well as Derek’s contract) until he finally got the General Manager’s position at the media whoring LA Galaxy.

–
To his “lee-shure” activities then…

Lalas has always had musical aspirations and a few years ago was in a band called the Gypsies.

This band were, like his footballing career, slightly successful and released two albums as well as opening a few shows for Hootie & The Blowfish on their 1998 European tour.

A couple of years later Alexi released an album called…wait for it…
Ginger and one single from it. Don’t know if either the single or album charted.

According to his MySpace page (where there are some new songs) Lalas still plays and his brother Greg is the bass guitar in his band.

–

Your audio samples today come courtesy of carrascus and his Blogin’ in the wind blog – Lalas did a cover version of The Primitives “Crash” :

[See post to listen to audio]
» Alexi Lalas – Crash

… and a randomly selected track from his album, chosen because the title could be footie related:

[See post to listen to audio] » Alexi Lalas – Half A Chance

But there are some leagues that are still playing and in the middle of their season.

- Such as the Faroe Islands, who’s current leading team EB/Streymur play Man City next Thursday in a UEFA Cup qualifying match.

– Plus there’s a Sunday League over in America known as the MLS…

Over the next few posts I’ll be featuring some American born soccer kickball players who have, as you may have guessed, combined music and football. Some songs by them and about them.

- – -

I want to begin by giving a shout out to South Bronx FC, who despite their name are actually based in Atlanta, Georgia.

South Bronx are somebody who really do combine footie and music. As they say in their About Me:
“…Just a bunch of mc’s, dj’s and various other folks from the Atlanta hiphop scene…trying to put a round ball into a net repeatedly. ….without having a heart attack first. ”

As well as playing the beautiful game they try to stage monthly musical events. I would love to see that.

I like the approach – I think this combination works. If the American soccer associations want to get people to take up playing football then I would suggest to them to follow South Bronx FC’s way of doing it. The way footie is in the UK …despite all the expensive imports… it is still grassroots.

Pub teams play, social clubs play, youth clubs, work teams and all local villages and towns play football. In the USA if there were more setups like South Bronx, which I see as the modern American equivalent of English grassroots football [they may disagree with this observation, this is the impression I get from their site] then more would take it up.

Grassroots is exactly where today’s featured player started. Clint Dempsey wasn’t a child of privilege, he and his family went through so much before he made it in the MLS and eventually to the Premier League with Fulham (or MLS London as I call them – they’ve had the most Americans at their club than any other).

Last season Clint (a midfielder) was Fulham’s highest goal scorer – with 6 goals. Which is one of the reasons why they skirted with relegation. His fellow American Brian McBride had an injury plagued season and has now left the club and might sign for MLS team Chicago Fire.

Clint was in the U.S National team playing in the finals of the 2006 World Cup and he appeared in a Nikesoccer.com promotional video in which Dempsey rapped…

Hey where are you going ?! Don’t worry this isn’t an Anfield or Arsenal-type debacle. He’s actually quite good.

From his Wikipedia page:

One of Dempsey’s passions outside of soccer is hip hop music. Using the alias “Deuce”, he, along with fellow Texas rappers XO and the late Houston rapper Big Hawk from the Screwed Up Click, are featured rapping the song “Don’t Tread” in a Nike football advertising campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup intended to showcase both the sport’s working-class roots and the United States team ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The song’s video is dedicated to his sister Jennifer and at Dempsey’s request, it ends with a shot of him placing a flower at her grave.

Video:

Audio:
[See post to listen to audio]
» Deuce featuring Big Hawk & XO – Don’t Tread

- Before I forget I want to give another shout out to the newly formed Atlanta FC playing in the NPSL.
It was where whoever runs their MySpace page posted a link to F&M on South Bronx FC's Myspace page, where I found the Clint Dempsey video. So thanks to the both of you. I wish you every success in your future footballing (and musical) endeavours.