Human after all

Although it may be hard to imagine Dave Navarro as anybody other than the host of Rockstar Supernova these days, he used to actually rock. Admittedly, even for someone who grew up thinking that Navarro was possibly one of the coolest people on the planet, it’s difficult to see past the TV host/rock cliché he’s parading around as now. As executive producer and host of the reality show, he comes off as officious and self-important, offering only the most trite observations and advice for aspiring singers of this season’s manufactured "super" band.

Of course, it’s obvious that no one involved in that show will come out unscathed, but really, it’s only Navarro with something vital to lose. Unlike Jason Newsted and Gilbey Clarke (didn’t he only play with Guns and Roses on "The Spaghetti Incident"?), Navarro played a pivotal guitarist role in the seminal alternative band Jane’s Addiction, whose influence among the succeeding generation of guitar players is equaled only by The Pixies’ Joey Santiago. Unlike Tommy Lee, his band is considered one of the greatest rock bands of all time. (Although I have to admit Motley Crue’s "Shout at the Devil" is one helluva album.) Navarro was a new type of guitar hero — one whose playing combined the brute thuggery of Tommy Iommi, the idiosyncratic pop of Johnny Marr and the orchestral ambition of Jimmy Page. As the 1990s rolled in, he was – along with The Stone Roses’ John Squire – unassailable.

And now, Navarro is a game show host – a has-been. Call it what you want, but ultimately that’s what he’s reduced himself to. What’s worse, he sucks at it. Bob Barker is a class act by comparison. It makes you wish that Navarro just faded away and left us hanging after "Ritual de lo Habitual." It’s truly sad seeing him now like some anachronistic queen – an ugly one, at that.

(Coincidentally, Squire came out with his own solo album. Doing vocal duties, he claimed he had finally found his voice – the rest of us wished he never found it at all.)

How the mighty have fallen.

Perhaps that’s why it’s compulsively watchable.

TV is junk food: it’s best when it’s bad.

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It’s thankful we have a program like MTV Nights that constantly challenges the usual thinking on what the Filipino music aficionado wants to hear and see on the screen. In one episode, I caught the following bands: Cabaret Voltaire, The Go-Betweens, Scott Walker, Trash Can Sinatras, The Pixies and Paul Weller. If that’s not impressive music television, I can’t imagine what is. Credit should go to its programmer, Cyril Yarisantos, for having the balls and vision to put out great music regardless if it’s got lot of "bling" and juggies. (On trampolines, yes. In rap videos, please no.)

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Vote for Radioactive Sago Project’s Gin Pomelo at the upcoming MTV Pilipinas Awards.