Two songs from their upcoming CD leaked this morning, and you can find them here. (At least until their label finds out.)
I'm not a huge fan, but i'm willing to give it a listen and see what i've been missing, if anything.
Don't say i never gave ya nothing.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle
Alright, i think we're back in business. I have no idea what happened to my computer, it just decided not to work for a good 3 days, and then all of a sudden, came back to life and acted like nothing was wrong. Weird.
Anyway, i had a fun and musical birthday weekend. Went to some clubs and listened to the DJs intently (turntables are my next purchase), dusted my piano off and even played some guitar. It kind of amazed me how much i remember how to play. Kinda like riding a bike...now just imagine if i actually gave enough of a shit to practice. I think i'd be pretty decent. Anyway, i'm making some moves to get more and more involved with music performance. Once i figure out how to spin, i'm going to get my own night to DJ somewhere and then once i get some more guitar practice, i have an idea for a lounge act that i've always wanted to do. I'm writing this so someone might hold me to it. I don't really have any time to do this stuff but maybe i'll actually follow through on something one of these days.
Anyway, on with the shuffle:
1. King Without a Crown - Matisyahu, off of Live at Stubb's
If you haven't heard of Matisyahu yet, you've probably been in a cave. He's just about the most popular hesidic Jewish rapper/reggae artist around (in history?). And he takes the stage looking like this:
What more do you need? Just listen to him.
2. Kick Out The Jams - Rage Against the Machine, off of Renegades
This is definitely in the top 100 favorite songs of all time i think. It was originally done by MC5 and according to Wikipedia, it has been covered by, "The Presidents of the United States of America on their eponymous debut album in 1995, by hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult on their 1978 live album Some Enchanted Evening, Rage Against the Machine on their album Renegades (2000), Henry Rollins with Bad Brains for the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, Africa Bambaataa, Monster Magnet, Pearl Jam on their 2005 South American tour in Mexico and Brazil, Japanese rockers Guitar Wolf on their debut album Run Wolf Run, Jeff Buckley, whose version was released on his posthumous "legacy edition" of Grace on the bonus CD of unreleased songs, Entombed on the EP Family Favourites and Give Up the Ghost (formerly American Nightmare) on their Year One comp."
This song first made its buzz not because of the song itself but because on the album, lead singer Rob Tyner yelled out, "Kick out the jams MOTHERFUCKER!" and then adamantly refused to let it be edited out of the final print editions. That's so rock and roll...
3. Burning Love - Garth Brooks, off of Ropin' the Wind
There was a time in college where one of my favorite things to do at night was pour a Thirstbuster sized Rum and Coke, fire up NHL Hitz on the Playstation2, pump up some Garth on the stereo and get absolutely rowdy with Danny while yelling and singing and generally howling at the moon until all hours of the night. Our neighbors must have loved us. But seriously, i think i talked about drunken Garth nights about 3 times this last weekend, recounting those exploits. Good times all around...and i don't even like country music. That's the best part i think.
4. 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2) - Tool, off of 10,000 Days
Maynard's (Tool's lead singer) mom had a stroke and was paralyzed and wheel-chair bound for 27 years before her death. 27 years multiplied by 365 days in a year equals roughly 10,000 days.
The song before this on the album is called Wings for Marie. Marie was Maynard's mom's middle name. In this song he talks about his mom as his savior and how despite all of his anti-religious and anti-God philosophies, that his mother always loved him and despite how angry he would get at her unwavering faith, she always stayed true to her belief in God and Jesus. This song basically says that when his mom gets to the gates of heaven that God himself better be there to welcome her because there are few people more deserving of being there than her.
These lyrics are great:
"10000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home...
You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fist at the gates saying,
"I have come home now!
Fetch me the spirit, the son and the father,
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now! My time now! Give me my Give me my wings!"...
You are the light, the way, that they will only read about
Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance
Burden of proof tossed upon non-believers.
You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence, Judith Marie, unconditional one."
5. Cute Without the "E" (Cut from the Team) Acoustic - Taking Back Sunday, off of Punk Goes Acoustic
I loved this song back in the day, and this acoustic version is kinda just OK. A little boring, but OK. Kind of an anticlimactic end to what was a really good shuffle.
Alright kids. More soon.
Anyway, i had a fun and musical birthday weekend. Went to some clubs and listened to the DJs intently (turntables are my next purchase), dusted my piano off and even played some guitar. It kind of amazed me how much i remember how to play. Kinda like riding a bike...now just imagine if i actually gave enough of a shit to practice. I think i'd be pretty decent. Anyway, i'm making some moves to get more and more involved with music performance. Once i figure out how to spin, i'm going to get my own night to DJ somewhere and then once i get some more guitar practice, i have an idea for a lounge act that i've always wanted to do. I'm writing this so someone might hold me to it. I don't really have any time to do this stuff but maybe i'll actually follow through on something one of these days.
Anyway, on with the shuffle:
1. King Without a Crown - Matisyahu, off of Live at Stubb's
If you haven't heard of Matisyahu yet, you've probably been in a cave. He's just about the most popular hesidic Jewish rapper/reggae artist around (in history?). And he takes the stage looking like this:
What more do you need? Just listen to him.
2. Kick Out The Jams - Rage Against the Machine, off of Renegades
This is definitely in the top 100 favorite songs of all time i think. It was originally done by MC5 and according to Wikipedia, it has been covered by, "The Presidents of the United States of America on their eponymous debut album in 1995, by hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult on their 1978 live album Some Enchanted Evening, Rage Against the Machine on their album Renegades (2000), Henry Rollins with Bad Brains for the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, Africa Bambaataa, Monster Magnet, Pearl Jam on their 2005 South American tour in Mexico and Brazil, Japanese rockers Guitar Wolf on their debut album Run Wolf Run, Jeff Buckley, whose version was released on his posthumous "legacy edition" of Grace on the bonus CD of unreleased songs, Entombed on the EP Family Favourites and Give Up the Ghost (formerly American Nightmare) on their Year One comp."
This song first made its buzz not because of the song itself but because on the album, lead singer Rob Tyner yelled out, "Kick out the jams MOTHERFUCKER!" and then adamantly refused to let it be edited out of the final print editions. That's so rock and roll...
3. Burning Love - Garth Brooks, off of Ropin' the Wind
There was a time in college where one of my favorite things to do at night was pour a Thirstbuster sized Rum and Coke, fire up NHL Hitz on the Playstation2, pump up some Garth on the stereo and get absolutely rowdy with Danny while yelling and singing and generally howling at the moon until all hours of the night. Our neighbors must have loved us. But seriously, i think i talked about drunken Garth nights about 3 times this last weekend, recounting those exploits. Good times all around...and i don't even like country music. That's the best part i think.
4. 10,000 Days (Wings Part 2) - Tool, off of 10,000 Days
Maynard's (Tool's lead singer) mom had a stroke and was paralyzed and wheel-chair bound for 27 years before her death. 27 years multiplied by 365 days in a year equals roughly 10,000 days.
The song before this on the album is called Wings for Marie. Marie was Maynard's mom's middle name. In this song he talks about his mom as his savior and how despite all of his anti-religious and anti-God philosophies, that his mother always loved him and despite how angry he would get at her unwavering faith, she always stayed true to her belief in God and Jesus. This song basically says that when his mom gets to the gates of heaven that God himself better be there to welcome her because there are few people more deserving of being there than her.
These lyrics are great:
"10000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home...
You're the only one who can hold your head up high,
Shake your fist at the gates saying,
"I have come home now!
Fetch me the spirit, the son and the father,
Tell them their pillar of faith has ascended.
It's time now! My time now! Give me my Give me my wings!"...
You are the light, the way, that they will only read about
Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance
Burden of proof tossed upon non-believers.
You were my witness, my eyes, my evidence, Judith Marie, unconditional one."
5. Cute Without the "E" (Cut from the Team) Acoustic - Taking Back Sunday, off of Punk Goes Acoustic
I loved this song back in the day, and this acoustic version is kinda just OK. A little boring, but OK. Kind of an anticlimactic end to what was a really good shuffle.
Alright kids. More soon.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Technical Motha F-Ing Difficulties
My computer, after 2.5 years of faithful service, is apparently going to the big laptop case in the sky. I'm doing everything i can to save it, but it may have to be put out of its misery, Old Yeller style.
I'll be back and posting as soon as i possibly can.
Adam
I'll be back and posting as soon as i possibly can.
Adam
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle
Sorry about last week. I was in Vegas all week and had more internet connection on my phone than through my computer and as much as i love the shuffle, i wasn't hammering that thing out on my phone.
So, after a small break, here we go:
1. Military Madness -Stephen Stills Graham Nash, off of Crosby, Stills and Nash Box Set
After seeing the list of protest songs discussed by Kevo and Nole not too long ago, i mentally made my own list. Since they did such a good job, i really didn't feel the need to include my own. (although this is what a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list have looked like:
1. Public Enemy - Fight the Power
2. Crosby, Stills and Nash - Ohio
3. Bruce Springsteen - Maggie's Farm
4. Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival
5. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name)
But this is a great song by Stephen Stills and it feels pretty autobiographical. He sings about military madness killing his country, his dad fighting in the war, moving to Europe to escape it, etc. C, S, N and Y (as in Young, Neil) sang often of the issues of their times including racial issues and war. They were highly controversial at the time but obviously accepted by those in the antiwar movement and now regarded as one of the best bands of their time. (Dixie Chicks anyone?)
The more things change, the more they really stay the same i guess.
2. Who Rocks the House - Jurassic 5
Courtney recently suggested that after getting into De La Soul that she had less respect for what J5 has done over the last 10 years. I wonder if anyone feels this way? I won't take away from what J5 has done because they have never claimed to be this completely original sound and they've always done a great job of paying homage to their influences and predecessors in their songs. Anyone want to take a stab at this?
3. Get By - Talib Kweli, off of Quality
This may be my favorite Kweli song of all time. Just a popping beat, sweet vocals and really moving and inspiring lyrics. My favorite: "We go through episodes too, like Attack of the Clones"
My favorite memory of this song was when it came on in Chris Perry's garage one night in college while we were all playing beer pong. We're dancing, singing, yelling back and forth at each other about the game and, of course, drinking heavily and CP realized that the theme of this song is to "get by" a day without smoking, drinking, using some substance or behavior to artificially alter your reality, etc. Behold the hypocrisy of the suburban white youth right? Oh well.
4. Don't Tell and We Won't Ask - Thrice, off of Artist in The Ambulance
My favorite completely random line of this song: "If you're a smart kid, never work without your gloves. If you're a smart kid, you'll stay the hell away from love." I can just see them on the tour bus writing this...
Dustin: Ok, what rhymes with love....above? shove? Come on guys, help me. How about glove? Can we make that work? Will anyone notice? Do smart kids really work with gloves? Help me damnit!
Still, this was like a defining song of my Sophomore/Junior years of college. And this CD was just so good. And the liner notes were as cool as any CD this side of Tool. So that was good too.
5. Swollen Summer - The Bravery
This song came on my iPod the other day and i consciously remember wondering what i would write if it ever came on the shuffle...
I picked this CD up from the wonderful Suzanne, who let me raid her laptop at Virgo to the tune of about 650 songs. I had heard The Bravery on a video game and i got somewhat annoyed with it over the course of 15,000 listens but it still was one of the better tunes on the game. The CD is equally as poppy and sugary as the song from the video game but it is catchy and does have a decent ring to it. I'm not sure i could ever listen to the whole thing straight through but it's one of those songs that comes on during a shuffle session and i find myself nodding my head and saying, "Man, I should really listen to this whole CD sometime." And i never do. That speaks volumes about their sound and how much i'd like it, i feel.
Alright, back to work. I don't know if anyone uses Microsoft Outlook but it pops up these little task reminders for me and there are like 52 popping up right now. Yikes.
So, after a small break, here we go:
1. Military Madness -
After seeing the list of protest songs discussed by Kevo and Nole not too long ago, i mentally made my own list. Since they did such a good job, i really didn't feel the need to include my own. (although this is what a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head list have looked like:
1. Public Enemy - Fight the Power
2. Crosby, Stills and Nash - Ohio
3. Bruce Springsteen - Maggie's Farm
4. Fortunate Son - Credence Clearwater Revival
5. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name)
But this is a great song by Stephen Stills and it feels pretty autobiographical. He sings about military madness killing his country, his dad fighting in the war, moving to Europe to escape it, etc. C, S, N and Y (as in Young, Neil) sang often of the issues of their times including racial issues and war. They were highly controversial at the time but obviously accepted by those in the antiwar movement and now regarded as one of the best bands of their time. (Dixie Chicks anyone?)
The more things change, the more they really stay the same i guess.
2. Who Rocks the House - Jurassic 5
Courtney recently suggested that after getting into De La Soul that she had less respect for what J5 has done over the last 10 years. I wonder if anyone feels this way? I won't take away from what J5 has done because they have never claimed to be this completely original sound and they've always done a great job of paying homage to their influences and predecessors in their songs. Anyone want to take a stab at this?
3. Get By - Talib Kweli, off of Quality
This may be my favorite Kweli song of all time. Just a popping beat, sweet vocals and really moving and inspiring lyrics. My favorite: "We go through episodes too, like Attack of the Clones"
My favorite memory of this song was when it came on in Chris Perry's garage one night in college while we were all playing beer pong. We're dancing, singing, yelling back and forth at each other about the game and, of course, drinking heavily and CP realized that the theme of this song is to "get by" a day without smoking, drinking, using some substance or behavior to artificially alter your reality, etc. Behold the hypocrisy of the suburban white youth right? Oh well.
4. Don't Tell and We Won't Ask - Thrice, off of Artist in The Ambulance
My favorite completely random line of this song: "If you're a smart kid, never work without your gloves. If you're a smart kid, you'll stay the hell away from love." I can just see them on the tour bus writing this...
Dustin: Ok, what rhymes with love....above? shove? Come on guys, help me. How about glove? Can we make that work? Will anyone notice? Do smart kids really work with gloves? Help me damnit!
Still, this was like a defining song of my Sophomore/Junior years of college. And this CD was just so good. And the liner notes were as cool as any CD this side of Tool. So that was good too.
5. Swollen Summer - The Bravery
This song came on my iPod the other day and i consciously remember wondering what i would write if it ever came on the shuffle...
I picked this CD up from the wonderful Suzanne, who let me raid her laptop at Virgo to the tune of about 650 songs. I had heard The Bravery on a video game and i got somewhat annoyed with it over the course of 15,000 listens but it still was one of the better tunes on the game. The CD is equally as poppy and sugary as the song from the video game but it is catchy and does have a decent ring to it. I'm not sure i could ever listen to the whole thing straight through but it's one of those songs that comes on during a shuffle session and i find myself nodding my head and saying, "Man, I should really listen to this whole CD sometime." And i never do. That speaks volumes about their sound and how much i'd like it, i feel.
Alright, back to work. I don't know if anyone uses Microsoft Outlook but it pops up these little task reminders for me and there are like 52 popping up right now. Yikes.
Friday, March 09, 2007
No, I'm not Dead
Although sometimes, when i get home from 4 days in Vegas, i wish i was.
Sorry about missing the shuffle without any warning. It'll be back Monday.
Sorry about missing the shuffle without any warning. It'll be back Monday.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Monday Morning Shuffle: The Brevity Edition
Alright, i've gotta keep this short. There's a ton of crap going on right now. I hope i don't get carried away.
Also, for those of you just tuning in, i don't pick these songs. I open iTunes, hit shuffle and then click play and i write about the first 5 songs that come on. Some times the songs are awful, or it's a skit or a repeat and i'll skip them but 99% of the time, these are the first 5 songs that i hear on a Monday morning. There seemed to be some confusion about that and i just wanted to clear things up.
1. Ah Me - Griffin House, off of Lost and Found
I think i talked about Griffin House way way back when i first started this blog but i'm just now getting into him. It's all part of that guy and a guitar folky music phase i'm in right now. This CD is awesome and really soothing to listen to. I highly recommend it. And if you need it, just ask. Also, if anyone watches Grey's Anatomy and knows what the name of the song that was playing at the end of last week's episode is, would you please tell me because it's awesome. I've rewatched the end of the show on my DVR 3 times just to hear it. Pretty sure it's Damien Rice but if anyone can confirm that, i'd appreciate it.
2. Your Boyfriend Sucks - The Ataris
You know who else sucks besides your boyfriend? The Ataris.
3. Total Eclipse of the Heart - The Dan Band, off of the Old School Soundtrack
So this was definitely one of the funniest scenes in Old School and i really hoped that the band from the movie was a real band and not just actor's playing in some Hollywood construction. And my wish came true. They're a real band and they cover songs that had female vocalists...pretty hilarious really. I also have a version of them doing Lady by Styx, which isn't a girl lead singer but still awesome.
4. Streets of Laredo - Johnny Cash, off of American IV: The Man Comes Around
I've mentioned Robert Earl Keen in this space a few times and he has a reference to this song in his latest CD that i didn't put together until just now. Weird.
Anyway, this is a great song on a great CD. I recently picked up American III and American V, so my Cash collection is starting to get very respectable. I'm looking forward to the Top 5 Cash songs post. Want to do it first Nole?
(Let the record show that Ben Folds - Rockin the Suburbs came on next and i skipped it because it was on the shuffle last week. The odds of that happening are 1 in 4,652.)
5. Trouble - Alicia Keys, off of Songs in A Minor
Are all of the songs on this CD in A Minor? Any music theory students out there that want to tackle this question? (These are the thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.)
I haven't had a chance to listen to this entire CD yet but to say that it's critically acclaimed would be an understatement.
This would also be a good time to mention that girls who can sing and play the piano are so unbelievably sexy. I once really thought i had a chance with Alicia Keys. I definitely thought we'd get married. Hey, we still might, who knows? She was so good looking in that video she did with Mos Def. And it helped that Mos is absolutely the man. I want to be his friend too. I think he'd be cool to kick it with. (Mos, if you're reading this, call me? And can you give my number to Alicia too? Thanks man, you're the best!)
Sorry for being brief. I got's me too much shit to do. I'll be better next time.
Also, for those of you just tuning in, i don't pick these songs. I open iTunes, hit shuffle and then click play and i write about the first 5 songs that come on. Some times the songs are awful, or it's a skit or a repeat and i'll skip them but 99% of the time, these are the first 5 songs that i hear on a Monday morning. There seemed to be some confusion about that and i just wanted to clear things up.
1. Ah Me - Griffin House, off of Lost and Found
I think i talked about Griffin House way way back when i first started this blog but i'm just now getting into him. It's all part of that guy and a guitar folky music phase i'm in right now. This CD is awesome and really soothing to listen to. I highly recommend it. And if you need it, just ask. Also, if anyone watches Grey's Anatomy and knows what the name of the song that was playing at the end of last week's episode is, would you please tell me because it's awesome. I've rewatched the end of the show on my DVR 3 times just to hear it. Pretty sure it's Damien Rice but if anyone can confirm that, i'd appreciate it.
2. Your Boyfriend Sucks - The Ataris
You know who else sucks besides your boyfriend? The Ataris.
3. Total Eclipse of the Heart - The Dan Band, off of the Old School Soundtrack
So this was definitely one of the funniest scenes in Old School and i really hoped that the band from the movie was a real band and not just actor's playing in some Hollywood construction. And my wish came true. They're a real band and they cover songs that had female vocalists...pretty hilarious really. I also have a version of them doing Lady by Styx, which isn't a girl lead singer but still awesome.
4. Streets of Laredo - Johnny Cash, off of American IV: The Man Comes Around
I've mentioned Robert Earl Keen in this space a few times and he has a reference to this song in his latest CD that i didn't put together until just now. Weird.
Anyway, this is a great song on a great CD. I recently picked up American III and American V, so my Cash collection is starting to get very respectable. I'm looking forward to the Top 5 Cash songs post. Want to do it first Nole?
(Let the record show that Ben Folds - Rockin the Suburbs came on next and i skipped it because it was on the shuffle last week. The odds of that happening are 1 in 4,652.)
5. Trouble - Alicia Keys, off of Songs in A Minor
Are all of the songs on this CD in A Minor? Any music theory students out there that want to tackle this question? (These are the thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.)
I haven't had a chance to listen to this entire CD yet but to say that it's critically acclaimed would be an understatement.
This would also be a good time to mention that girls who can sing and play the piano are so unbelievably sexy. I once really thought i had a chance with Alicia Keys. I definitely thought we'd get married. Hey, we still might, who knows? She was so good looking in that video she did with Mos Def. And it helped that Mos is absolutely the man. I want to be his friend too. I think he'd be cool to kick it with. (Mos, if you're reading this, call me? And can you give my number to Alicia too? Thanks man, you're the best!)
Sorry for being brief. I got's me too much shit to do. I'll be better next time.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Monday (ok, Tuesday) Morning Shuffle: La Guardia Shared Music Edition
Ok, here’s the deal. I’m sitting in La Guardia Airport in NYC after a terrific four days in the cold and exhausting, yet absolutely amazing and exhilarating city of New York. Most of my time was spent with my friend Courtney who, with her girlfriend Sonia, has one of the biggest CD collections I’ve ever seen. I spent a considerable portion of time (and disk space) loading music on my computer that I needed or otherwise didn’t have. I could have really done some damage if I had more time but all in all I loaded over 500 new songs and I’m pretty stoked on it.
Also, I’m sitting at the gate and there are a few other people on their laptops with iTunes open and broadcasting. If you aren’t familiar with this process, you can broadcast your iTunes so that other people with wireless connections can see and listen to your library. They can’t take it from your computer, although I’m sure there’s a way, and I might have to look into that.
So in order to mix things up a bit, I’m borrowing the Monday Morning Shuffle (it is Monday afternoon but I won’t have internet until 1 am Phoenix time, or in about 12 hours, and by then it will be Tuesday)….anyway, I’m borrowing the shuffle from the library of John Hein. I’ve looked through his music and given him a back story and decided that it will make for an interesting shuffle. So here we go.
1. Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind – Yo La Tengo, off of I’m Not Afraid of You, And I Will Kick Your Ass
I don’t have this CD and I’ve never heard this song before, but that’s what is going to make this fun. This song checks in at over 10 minute so I hope our boy John doesn’t get up and go anywhere or turn his computer off. (I wonder if he’s listening to my music too? Weird.) So anyway this song starts off with a super catchy little riff and a nice little guitar section in the beginning and I’m really liking it. I finally fixed my Bose headphones (thanks duct tape!) and everything just sounds so amazing through these. I know they’re expensive but if you like music and you travel or use headphones a lot I highly suggest these. If you turn in some miles you can easily redeem them. They are so choice.
Aww…damn. No sooner did I say I hope John doesn’t turn his computer off then he disappears. Oh well. We’ll start over using my library.
1. The Best Deceptions – Dashboard Confessional
Remember a few weeks ago when I was talking about John Mayer (here) and I said how I was a fan when it was just him and his guitar? Well it’s pretty much the same with Chris Carraba and Dashboard. I just liked them better when it was just him. Throw in the full band and backup singers and it just loses some of its pain and bite and significance.
I liked this song when I was a freshman in college and angry but now…eh.
2. Clean – Incubus, off of Make Yourself
Wow, this must be the freshman in college mix or something. Anyway, I really developed a love for Incubus over my freshman year of college driving back and forth from Boulder to Breckenridge every weekend. I thought Brandon Boyd’s lyrics were terrific (i.e. I need a map of your head/translated into English/so I can learn to not make you frown/I’d feel better if you’d vent/put your frustrations into 4-letter words/and let them all out on mine, the most weathered ears in town.) and I thought the combination of a DJ spinning and rock guitars were really interesting and novel. Then rap-rock came to power and completely blew the originality of that whole sound and Incubus jumped the shark. And that’s all she wrote for me.
3. Castles Made of Sand – Jimi Hendrix, off of The Ultimate Experience
Back in 7th grade when I developed my fascination for classic rock, Jimi was one of my first loves, and how can you not? I mean seriously, what could I possibly say about Hendrix that hasn’t been said. Nothing.
But that won’t stop me from saying that what I remember most about this song is listening to it on the patio of this restaurant in Northern Arizona. We were up near the Grand Canyon doing some fishing below the damn. I was really young and I was hanging out with my uncles and dad who at the time were all infinitely cooler than me and I just thought it was awesome that I got to hang out and listen to Jimi Hendrix with people who could have legitimately seen him in concert.
Well there’s not a ton to do at night in that part of the country so they sat around and drank beers (I had a soda) and we bet on how many cars would pass during a span of time. Someone would call out something like 7 cars over the next 15 minutes, everyone would synchronize watches, throw a few bucks on the under or the over and we’d sit and count. The best fun is the kind you make yourself.
4. The Boy Who Destroyed the World – A.F.I., off of All Hallows E.P.
Random that this song came on because Ron, Nole and I were just talking about it the other day at breakfast in Vegas. I’m not sure how it came up, I think Nole was talking about music he was getting back into and mentioned this EP. Then I mentioned that playing Tony Hawk my sophomore year of college completely ruined this song for me because it just got played over and over. That lead to a discussion of the other music that was on the Tony Hawk 3 soundtrack and a general discussion of great video game music altogether. Then we went and found an awesome $5 single-deck table and won a bunch of money and went to the trade show late. An enjoyable morning all around. Later that night, some of us met Karim Campbell, the pro skater, outside of a strip club near the Hard Rock (we had walked over there to catch a cab instead of waiting in line at the Hard Rock. Promise.) Karim had his own character on the game, and that’s about as intertwined as a day can get.
5. The Watcher – Dr. Dre, off of Chronic 2001
Man I LOVED this CD my senior year of high school. Danny and I used to blast this when we had to pick our little brothers up from marching band practice. I think we just liked the shock value and boy did we have it. As the band kids were coming into the parking lot we were soon surrounded by Ron, Nole, Jack, etc who proceeded to jump on the running boards of my suburban and rock the shit out of it with Danny and me inside. We were ghost riding the whip way before it was cool (wait, is it even cool now???). Anyway, this album reinvented and revitalized Dre, led to the rise and fall of Eminem and will eventually lead either The Game or 50 Cent being killed in a rap feud. Good times!
And in other news, after the Mos Def concert the other night we were feeling really inspired and traveled back into Manhattan to go to a great Jazz club called Garage. We had been there that morning for jazz brunch, which was extremely cool. Mimosas, Bloody Marys, good food and great music. Well anyway, we went back that night to see the Jonathon Batiste Trio (there were 5 of them, go figure). Batiste is a 19-year-old Julliard student from New Orleans who is maybe the best pianist I’ve ever seen. I mean, words can describe it. I love jazz, but I’m not the most skilled listener of it. I really don’t know what to pay attention to and I usually use it more for background music that anything. So I’m sitting there talking to my friends, having some wine and casually listening when I just feel the vibrations in my feet, and then notice as they move up my legs, twist up my spine and shut my mouth. After about 30 minutes, the entire table was silent as we listened to Batiste absolutely rock the piano and his group just slide through solo after solo. He has some albums out and I think I heard that he will be coming out with some more very soon. Keep an eye out for his stuff, and also, support your local jazz club and musicians. Look around your city; there’s gotta be at least one.
Oh yeah, and this dude just sound next to me listening to a tape on a WalkMan….old school brother, old school.
Also, I’m sitting at the gate and there are a few other people on their laptops with iTunes open and broadcasting. If you aren’t familiar with this process, you can broadcast your iTunes so that other people with wireless connections can see and listen to your library. They can’t take it from your computer, although I’m sure there’s a way, and I might have to look into that.
So in order to mix things up a bit, I’m borrowing the Monday Morning Shuffle (it is Monday afternoon but I won’t have internet until 1 am Phoenix time, or in about 12 hours, and by then it will be Tuesday)….anyway, I’m borrowing the shuffle from the library of John Hein. I’ve looked through his music and given him a back story and decided that it will make for an interesting shuffle. So here we go.
1. Pass the Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind – Yo La Tengo, off of I’m Not Afraid of You, And I Will Kick Your Ass
I don’t have this CD and I’ve never heard this song before, but that’s what is going to make this fun. This song checks in at over 10 minute so I hope our boy John doesn’t get up and go anywhere or turn his computer off. (I wonder if he’s listening to my music too? Weird.) So anyway this song starts off with a super catchy little riff and a nice little guitar section in the beginning and I’m really liking it. I finally fixed my Bose headphones (thanks duct tape!) and everything just sounds so amazing through these. I know they’re expensive but if you like music and you travel or use headphones a lot I highly suggest these. If you turn in some miles you can easily redeem them. They are so choice.
Aww…damn. No sooner did I say I hope John doesn’t turn his computer off then he disappears. Oh well. We’ll start over using my library.
1. The Best Deceptions – Dashboard Confessional
Remember a few weeks ago when I was talking about John Mayer (here) and I said how I was a fan when it was just him and his guitar? Well it’s pretty much the same with Chris Carraba and Dashboard. I just liked them better when it was just him. Throw in the full band and backup singers and it just loses some of its pain and bite and significance.
I liked this song when I was a freshman in college and angry but now…eh.
2. Clean – Incubus, off of Make Yourself
Wow, this must be the freshman in college mix or something. Anyway, I really developed a love for Incubus over my freshman year of college driving back and forth from Boulder to Breckenridge every weekend. I thought Brandon Boyd’s lyrics were terrific (i.e. I need a map of your head/translated into English/so I can learn to not make you frown/I’d feel better if you’d vent/put your frustrations into 4-letter words/and let them all out on mine, the most weathered ears in town.) and I thought the combination of a DJ spinning and rock guitars were really interesting and novel. Then rap-rock came to power and completely blew the originality of that whole sound and Incubus jumped the shark. And that’s all she wrote for me.
3. Castles Made of Sand – Jimi Hendrix, off of The Ultimate Experience
Back in 7th grade when I developed my fascination for classic rock, Jimi was one of my first loves, and how can you not? I mean seriously, what could I possibly say about Hendrix that hasn’t been said. Nothing.
But that won’t stop me from saying that what I remember most about this song is listening to it on the patio of this restaurant in Northern Arizona. We were up near the Grand Canyon doing some fishing below the damn. I was really young and I was hanging out with my uncles and dad who at the time were all infinitely cooler than me and I just thought it was awesome that I got to hang out and listen to Jimi Hendrix with people who could have legitimately seen him in concert.
Well there’s not a ton to do at night in that part of the country so they sat around and drank beers (I had a soda) and we bet on how many cars would pass during a span of time. Someone would call out something like 7 cars over the next 15 minutes, everyone would synchronize watches, throw a few bucks on the under or the over and we’d sit and count. The best fun is the kind you make yourself.
4. The Boy Who Destroyed the World – A.F.I., off of All Hallows E.P.
Random that this song came on because Ron, Nole and I were just talking about it the other day at breakfast in Vegas. I’m not sure how it came up, I think Nole was talking about music he was getting back into and mentioned this EP. Then I mentioned that playing Tony Hawk my sophomore year of college completely ruined this song for me because it just got played over and over. That lead to a discussion of the other music that was on the Tony Hawk 3 soundtrack and a general discussion of great video game music altogether. Then we went and found an awesome $5 single-deck table and won a bunch of money and went to the trade show late. An enjoyable morning all around. Later that night, some of us met Karim Campbell, the pro skater, outside of a strip club near the Hard Rock (we had walked over there to catch a cab instead of waiting in line at the Hard Rock. Promise.) Karim had his own character on the game, and that’s about as intertwined as a day can get.
5. The Watcher – Dr. Dre, off of Chronic 2001
Man I LOVED this CD my senior year of high school. Danny and I used to blast this when we had to pick our little brothers up from marching band practice. I think we just liked the shock value and boy did we have it. As the band kids were coming into the parking lot we were soon surrounded by Ron, Nole, Jack, etc who proceeded to jump on the running boards of my suburban and rock the shit out of it with Danny and me inside. We were ghost riding the whip way before it was cool (wait, is it even cool now???). Anyway, this album reinvented and revitalized Dre, led to the rise and fall of Eminem and will eventually lead either The Game or 50 Cent being killed in a rap feud. Good times!
And in other news, after the Mos Def concert the other night we were feeling really inspired and traveled back into Manhattan to go to a great Jazz club called Garage. We had been there that morning for jazz brunch, which was extremely cool. Mimosas, Bloody Marys, good food and great music. Well anyway, we went back that night to see the Jonathon Batiste Trio (there were 5 of them, go figure). Batiste is a 19-year-old Julliard student from New Orleans who is maybe the best pianist I’ve ever seen. I mean, words can describe it. I love jazz, but I’m not the most skilled listener of it. I really don’t know what to pay attention to and I usually use it more for background music that anything. So I’m sitting there talking to my friends, having some wine and casually listening when I just feel the vibrations in my feet, and then notice as they move up my legs, twist up my spine and shut my mouth. After about 30 minutes, the entire table was silent as we listened to Batiste absolutely rock the piano and his group just slide through solo after solo. He has some albums out and I think I heard that he will be coming out with some more very soon. Keep an eye out for his stuff, and also, support your local jazz club and musicians. Look around your city; there’s gotta be at least one.
Oh yeah, and this dude just sound next to me listening to a tape on a WalkMan….old school brother, old school.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
College Dropout Vs. Late Registration
But first, i had the opportunity last night to attend the Mos Def concert in Brooklyn. When i heard he'd be playing in his home town and i would be nearby i knew i had to go, but i really had no idea what to expect. My friend Mark used a few connections and a few well-placed bribes to get us in and as we made it to our seats, we realized we'd be in the 8th row. A piano player comes on stage and starts playing, then a DJ, then a bassist and guitarist. Three Saxophones come in stage left and a tuba, a souzaphone, and 2 trombones come in stage right. Then a drummer, then three horns and then Mos himself. So to recap, i saw Mos Def in his hometown of Brooklyn at a 500 capacity opera house in the 8th row in front of a 17-piece live band. It would suffice to say that this was one of the best concert experiences of my life. More on that later.
******
Alright, a few weeks back I posted some less than kind words about George Bush’s favorite rapper, Kanye West. Ron took this opportunity to A. ask why I didn’t like Kanye’s second CD as much, and B. to unveil his theory on hiphop which claims that almost every hiphop album is 1/3 good, 1/3 guilty pleasure and 1/3 bad. It would seem that Kanye’s albums fit this philosophy to a T so while on a flight to New York (my plane smells like Cat pee…seriously, don’t fly ATA) I took the opportunity to listen to both of them straight through and make some notes and see if I couldn’t explain why I liked the first CD so much and why I hate the second one. Here goes:
The College Dropout album has a few things that make it great. First, it was a novelty. It was a happy sounding, feel good, non-thug sounding album. I say non-thug because there was no rap feud, no fabricated story about the artist having been shot 9 times, there wasn’t a ton of buzz about it, it came out of nowhere, it was kind of an underdog story. This was especially prevalent when the first single released was Through the Wire. I first caught on to this song because the video told the story of Kanye’s car accident and he actually laid the vocal track down with his jaw wired shut, which you know, is just a little bit impressive.
But the more important thing was that you had an artist wearing LaCoste shirts and sweater vests, rapping about jesus and making fun of the normal rap video, which – and I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way right now – appealed to white people. Now I’m not saying this is the only reason that the CD is good but am I going to identify more with a rapper who at least tried to go to college and dresses a little preppy or Akon? Maybe you don’t want to admit it but I think you know the answer.
OK and now that we have the race issue dealt with we can just talk about the music. The beats on this CD are epic. Spaceship, Get Em High, The New Workout Plan and Breathe In Breath Out are hot. There’s just no other way to explain it. No matter what he’s saying in the lyrics, the beats pop and gets you to nod your head and as Saul Williams says, if you’re nodding your head back and forth that’s the universal sign for “Yes, I agree with this.” And nothing gets the head nodding more than Jesus Walks. I mean, put your head phones on, put this song on and tell me that you’re not walking in stride to this beat and nodding your head to it. I used to pump this song walking from class to class at ASU and it just felt good. There’s something to be said for that. That beat is just epic and that song, no matter your religious affiliations, just feels like something higher.
Also, the College Dropout theme is mentioned in almost every track…I mean, this is as close to a rap theme album as I think we’ve ever had. It pervades the entire album and gives it this kind of cohesiveness that most albums (even rock) don’t have.
In addition to Kanye’s rhymes, which are really, really, really good, he throws in cameos from Jay-Z, Common, Jamie Foxx and Talib Kweli, who, if you don’t know, are some of the hardest hitters in hiphop today.
There was just a passion and cohesion to College Dropout. The whole thing fit and it made sense and it was completely catchy from song to song. And there were some stupid skits but they at least made sense in the theme of the album. (What these skits did to affect the higher education aspirations of thousands of African American students remains to be seen and won’t be discussed here, but it deserves mentioning.)
One of the last tracks, Family Business, almost feels like an extra effort on the CD but it does a decent job of ending on a high and optimistic tone after an album that despite being fun and poppy, actually dealt with some pretty heavy issues. And then Last Call is a little cherry on top with Jay-Z laughing in the studio and my favorite rhyme of the entire frickin album, “I went to the malls and I balled too hard, They said, 'oh my god is that a black card?'/ I turned around and replied why yes/but I prefer the term African American Express. "
Top notch.
Moving on to Late Registration. I have to admit that I was seriously looking forward to this CD and I had such huge expectations for it that maybe there was no way it could satisfy me. But when you hear that first few minutes with another Bernie Mack intro and the super-sick echo of the “Mr. West!” part and it breaks into that beat, well I just thought that maybe lightning had struck twice. But for some reason the first song drags…the beat is really hopping and then the piano comes in and it just slows the whole thing down. I felt like this CD just had to come out rocking track one, side one, and it didn’t. Even Kanye’s lyrics seem to lack enthusiasm on this song. But still, I was willing to keep listening.
So then you hit next and Touch the Sky just flies out of the box and rolls along and it’s almost like this song should have been the first track on the album. He gets Lupe Fiasco (who is awesome) into the mix and everything should be kicking ass. Well it doesn’t. It’s a self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, egotistical, product-placement driven club track. That’s it. And then pulling out the Evil Kneivel reference with Pamela Anderson (and I can’t believe I’m saying this but Pam was the token white girl in the rap video here…Maybe I’m reading too much into it but the video seemed to be saying, I’m the hottest black musician in the world and I’ve got all of your white girls loving me too…I don’t know. Seemed weird at the time.)
So then we move on to Gold Digger which is a great track. Great beat, great hook, tongue-in-cheek subject matter, Jaime Foxx, all the crucial ingredients to another good Kanye track. And I really did like this song but bottom line is that it’s a club track, plain and simple. If this song had some good tracks around it then it would have lasted a lot longer, but it’s carrying the whole album at this point. (Total Guilty pleasure)
One of the worst parts about Late Registration are the skits…they’re absolutely awful and appalling and appealing to the very lowest common denominator. They bug me. Let’s move on.
Let’s see if Ron’s theory holds up here:
Good Songs: Drive Slow (I’m being generous), Touch the Sky, Bring Me Down
Bad Songs: Crack Music, Heard Em Say, All of the skits, My Way Home (sorry Common), Roses, Addiction, We Major, Hey Mama, Celebration, Gone, We Can Make it Better
Guilty Pleasure: Gold Digger, Diamonds From Sierra Leone
So by my count, that’s 3 good songs and 2 guilty pleasure songs out of 21 …sure doesn’t add up to even thirds in my book, but I’m being hyper-critical and I do see where Ron was coming from on this philosophy. I’m interested to take a look at some other albums that I like and see how it applies.
In the end, Late Registration just lacked continuity, took itself too seriously and tried to do too much for my taste. Some of the beats start out great and the some other sound or track gets added in and it messes it up. And it’s not that the subject matter was any lighter in the first CD, because it wasn’t. And I applaud Kanye for tackling topics like the diamond trade (although making a song like this and then having a huge blinged out chain around your neck is more than a little suspect) and Kanye’s sarcasm and facetiousness about topics like gold digging and video ho’s make him endearing. But this CD was just slow and boring for me. Maybe it was out of order a bit but you can’t blame anyone but K. West for that either.
Sophomore albums are tough, especially when your first album was as good as it was. Hopefully Kanye will bounce back in a big way on his 3rd (I’m not holding my breath…I think the success has gone to his head and he may be lost for good.)
******
Alright, a few weeks back I posted some less than kind words about George Bush’s favorite rapper, Kanye West. Ron took this opportunity to A. ask why I didn’t like Kanye’s second CD as much, and B. to unveil his theory on hiphop which claims that almost every hiphop album is 1/3 good, 1/3 guilty pleasure and 1/3 bad. It would seem that Kanye’s albums fit this philosophy to a T so while on a flight to New York (my plane smells like Cat pee…seriously, don’t fly ATA) I took the opportunity to listen to both of them straight through and make some notes and see if I couldn’t explain why I liked the first CD so much and why I hate the second one. Here goes:
The College Dropout album has a few things that make it great. First, it was a novelty. It was a happy sounding, feel good, non-thug sounding album. I say non-thug because there was no rap feud, no fabricated story about the artist having been shot 9 times, there wasn’t a ton of buzz about it, it came out of nowhere, it was kind of an underdog story. This was especially prevalent when the first single released was Through the Wire. I first caught on to this song because the video told the story of Kanye’s car accident and he actually laid the vocal track down with his jaw wired shut, which you know, is just a little bit impressive.
But the more important thing was that you had an artist wearing LaCoste shirts and sweater vests, rapping about jesus and making fun of the normal rap video, which – and I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way right now – appealed to white people. Now I’m not saying this is the only reason that the CD is good but am I going to identify more with a rapper who at least tried to go to college and dresses a little preppy or Akon? Maybe you don’t want to admit it but I think you know the answer.
OK and now that we have the race issue dealt with we can just talk about the music. The beats on this CD are epic. Spaceship, Get Em High, The New Workout Plan and Breathe In Breath Out are hot. There’s just no other way to explain it. No matter what he’s saying in the lyrics, the beats pop and gets you to nod your head and as Saul Williams says, if you’re nodding your head back and forth that’s the universal sign for “Yes, I agree with this.” And nothing gets the head nodding more than Jesus Walks. I mean, put your head phones on, put this song on and tell me that you’re not walking in stride to this beat and nodding your head to it. I used to pump this song walking from class to class at ASU and it just felt good. There’s something to be said for that. That beat is just epic and that song, no matter your religious affiliations, just feels like something higher.
Also, the College Dropout theme is mentioned in almost every track…I mean, this is as close to a rap theme album as I think we’ve ever had. It pervades the entire album and gives it this kind of cohesiveness that most albums (even rock) don’t have.
In addition to Kanye’s rhymes, which are really, really, really good, he throws in cameos from Jay-Z, Common, Jamie Foxx and Talib Kweli, who, if you don’t know, are some of the hardest hitters in hiphop today.
There was just a passion and cohesion to College Dropout. The whole thing fit and it made sense and it was completely catchy from song to song. And there were some stupid skits but they at least made sense in the theme of the album. (What these skits did to affect the higher education aspirations of thousands of African American students remains to be seen and won’t be discussed here, but it deserves mentioning.)
One of the last tracks, Family Business, almost feels like an extra effort on the CD but it does a decent job of ending on a high and optimistic tone after an album that despite being fun and poppy, actually dealt with some pretty heavy issues. And then Last Call is a little cherry on top with Jay-Z laughing in the studio and my favorite rhyme of the entire frickin album, “I went to the malls and I balled too hard, They said, 'oh my god is that a black card?'/ I turned around and replied why yes/but I prefer the term African American Express. "
Top notch.
Moving on to Late Registration. I have to admit that I was seriously looking forward to this CD and I had such huge expectations for it that maybe there was no way it could satisfy me. But when you hear that first few minutes with another Bernie Mack intro and the super-sick echo of the “Mr. West!” part and it breaks into that beat, well I just thought that maybe lightning had struck twice. But for some reason the first song drags…the beat is really hopping and then the piano comes in and it just slows the whole thing down. I felt like this CD just had to come out rocking track one, side one, and it didn’t. Even Kanye’s lyrics seem to lack enthusiasm on this song. But still, I was willing to keep listening.
So then you hit next and Touch the Sky just flies out of the box and rolls along and it’s almost like this song should have been the first track on the album. He gets Lupe Fiasco (who is awesome) into the mix and everything should be kicking ass. Well it doesn’t. It’s a self-congratulatory, self-absorbed, egotistical, product-placement driven club track. That’s it. And then pulling out the Evil Kneivel reference with Pamela Anderson (and I can’t believe I’m saying this but Pam was the token white girl in the rap video here…Maybe I’m reading too much into it but the video seemed to be saying, I’m the hottest black musician in the world and I’ve got all of your white girls loving me too…I don’t know. Seemed weird at the time.)
So then we move on to Gold Digger which is a great track. Great beat, great hook, tongue-in-cheek subject matter, Jaime Foxx, all the crucial ingredients to another good Kanye track. And I really did like this song but bottom line is that it’s a club track, plain and simple. If this song had some good tracks around it then it would have lasted a lot longer, but it’s carrying the whole album at this point. (Total Guilty pleasure)
One of the worst parts about Late Registration are the skits…they’re absolutely awful and appalling and appealing to the very lowest common denominator. They bug me. Let’s move on.
Let’s see if Ron’s theory holds up here:
Good Songs: Drive Slow (I’m being generous), Touch the Sky, Bring Me Down
Bad Songs: Crack Music, Heard Em Say, All of the skits, My Way Home (sorry Common), Roses, Addiction, We Major, Hey Mama, Celebration, Gone, We Can Make it Better
Guilty Pleasure: Gold Digger, Diamonds From Sierra Leone
So by my count, that’s 3 good songs and 2 guilty pleasure songs out of 21 …sure doesn’t add up to even thirds in my book, but I’m being hyper-critical and I do see where Ron was coming from on this philosophy. I’m interested to take a look at some other albums that I like and see how it applies.
In the end, Late Registration just lacked continuity, took itself too seriously and tried to do too much for my taste. Some of the beats start out great and the some other sound or track gets added in and it messes it up. And it’s not that the subject matter was any lighter in the first CD, because it wasn’t. And I applaud Kanye for tackling topics like the diamond trade (although making a song like this and then having a huge blinged out chain around your neck is more than a little suspect) and Kanye’s sarcasm and facetiousness about topics like gold digging and video ho’s make him endearing. But this CD was just slow and boring for me. Maybe it was out of order a bit but you can’t blame anyone but K. West for that either.
Sophomore albums are tough, especially when your first album was as good as it was. Hopefully Kanye will bounce back in a big way on his 3rd (I’m not holding my breath…I think the success has gone to his head and he may be lost for good.)
Monday, February 12, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle
First off, the Grammy's sucked as usual. My dad was pissed that the Dixie Chicks won so much because they're commie pinko leftists but really they just had a great CD and a terrific producer and really did deserve to win a bunch. Also, i suggested that if my dad didn't enjoy protest music that he should take every album he has from every Vietnam era band he liked and just go ahead and burn them. Moving on.
Secondly, i really enjoyed the conversation about the Top 5 British Bands of all time. And yes, i missed a big one with Queen. They deserved to be up there in both lists. A great band, very influential and one of my favorites. It was a blinding error and i'm embarrassed for making it. Most of the time, these postings are just crap off the top of my head, but i actually went and did some research on the British Top 5 post and i really thought i had considered everyone who deserved the influential spots. For instance, I had initially written The Clash in at #5 before realizing that The Sex Pistols totally paved the way for The Clash...it would be like saying that Green Day was in my American Punk Top 5 but the Ramones weren't...So yeah, somehow Queen slipped through the cracks but thanks to Nole for bringing it to every one's attention.
Also, my lack of knowledge, experience and appreciation for Radiohead has been very well documented on this blog so i can't really believe that anyone was surprised i left them out. I'd have been a total poser for putting them in at all. It's a problem, i admit it, and i'm working on it, i promise. In the meantime, i would really like someone (Laura, Kate, Courtney i'm looking at you) to do some research and put some thought into just who and what Radiohead has influenced. The other bands we all named paved the way for other bands that followed with a swath as wide as a thousand bulldozers and i'm interested to see what bands or what sounds specifically can be traced back to Radiohead and also why they stop there and can't be traced THROUGH Radiohead to someone else. You have your mission, go forth, wreak havoc.
On with the shuffle:
1. Tunnel of Love - Dire Straits
I like it when the shuffle throws me an 8 minute song right off the bat so i can actually listen to it and type at the same time. It seems like i always get some crazy 2:15 song and i have to pause to finish my commentary about it and it just messes with the flow of the entire shuffle.
Anyway, Dire Straits kicks ass...and now that i think about it, i think they may be in my Brit Band top 5 after all... i originally had them at 6 -8 but now that i'm listening to this song, i might like their body of work overall more than i like The Who, or The Beatles. I'm not saying they were a better or bigger band, i'm just saying that on a song by song basis, i think i'd rather listen to "Money for Nothing" than "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" or "Sgt. Peppers"...i don't know, maybe, that's a pretty bold statement and one that may not be true by this afternoon. We'll see.
Anyway, this song has this rolling feel to it that would make it a good running or driving song. It just keeps flowing over its 8 minutes interspersed with little solos and guitar licks and Mark Knopfler's incredibly cool sounding vocals that sound like he's breathing out a puff of smoke every time he opens his mouth. Talented band, and an underrated one at that. If the depth of your Dire Straits knowledge is Money For Nothing or hearing Romeo and Juliet on the soundtrack of "Can't Hardly Wait" give me a call and i'll get you hooked up.
2. Chicago is So Two Years Ago (acoustic) - Fall Out Boy
I'm not sure where i downloaded this from but the quality is awful. You can barely hear Patrick Stump's vocals over the little scenster kids clapping and singing awfully off key while imagining how the lyrics perfectly apply to their own little broken-heart high school romances. In fact, this is horrible, i'm clicking next.
3. Red Rabbits - The Shins, off of Wincing the Night Away
I'm flying to NYC on Thursday and this CD is at the top of my play list for the 6 hour flight. I'm very excited. In fact, let's do a quick top 5:
Top 5 new (to me) albums i'm most excited about listening to on the way to and from NYC
1. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
2. The Killers - Sam's Town (surprisingly good)
3. Norah Jones - Not Too Late
4. The Beta Band - 3 E.P.s
5. Johnny Cash - American V
Yeah, and just listening to this song for the first time, i can tell i'm going to enjoy it. I hope the rest of the CD is like this. The new Shins strikes me like the perfect album to chill out to on a plane while reading a large chunk of Audacity of Hope (sorry i'm so far behind guys). These guys should call Natalie Portman every damn day and thank her.
4. The Man in Me - Bob Dylan, off of The Big Lebowski Soundtrack
Hilarious song, hilarious movie. They did such a good job on the music in that movie that i can't listen to a single song on the soundtrack without automatically picturing exactly what's happening in the movie. And isn't that what a soundtrack is supposed to be about? Just total symbiosis between the two mediums? That's what i thought.
Anyway, what more can i say about Dylan or the movie? Not a lot i feel. But i will mention this joke from Bill Maher: "Bob Dylan is the voice of our generation and he can't argue with that. We didn't really have a choice in the matter. If we had a choice wouldn't you think we'd pick a better voice than his?"
5. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds, off of Rockin' the Suburbs
It makes sense that i'm going to see Courtney in NYC this weekend and she's the one who introduced me to Ben Folds and to this song. Courtney and I took a class our freshman year in Colorado called U.S. Race And Ethnic Relations...which we both affectionately remember as Race Relations Boot Camp. What an awful semester. Although Courtney and I will both admit that we learned more about race and privilege and our own thoughts and prejudices than at any other time in our lives, it was just an amazing way to be absolutely torn down at your core and be told that everything you've known about your race and your upbringing and your opportunities were just complete false or worse, that you've only had the opportunities you had been given at the expense of someone else. So this song really hit me at the perfect time in life... "Y'all don't know what it's like/being male, middle class and white./Y'all don't know what it's like/being male, middle class and white. It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream/It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream, It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream, 'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yup...that's pretty much exactly what it felt like at the time. Isn't it amazing how music can do that?
Alright, big week this week. Vegas tomorrow with Ron and Nole, then NYC to see Courtney and others. I can't make any promises about more posts this week but i've got a lot of ideas and i'm hoping that i can find a really cool coffee shop to sit in with my laptop and iPod and just be so stereotypical that it hurts. So don't be surprised if you see 3-4 more things this week.
Secondly, i really enjoyed the conversation about the Top 5 British Bands of all time. And yes, i missed a big one with Queen. They deserved to be up there in both lists. A great band, very influential and one of my favorites. It was a blinding error and i'm embarrassed for making it. Most of the time, these postings are just crap off the top of my head, but i actually went and did some research on the British Top 5 post and i really thought i had considered everyone who deserved the influential spots. For instance, I had initially written The Clash in at #5 before realizing that The Sex Pistols totally paved the way for The Clash...it would be like saying that Green Day was in my American Punk Top 5 but the Ramones weren't...So yeah, somehow Queen slipped through the cracks but thanks to Nole for bringing it to every one's attention.
Also, my lack of knowledge, experience and appreciation for Radiohead has been very well documented on this blog so i can't really believe that anyone was surprised i left them out. I'd have been a total poser for putting them in at all. It's a problem, i admit it, and i'm working on it, i promise. In the meantime, i would really like someone (Laura, Kate, Courtney i'm looking at you) to do some research and put some thought into just who and what Radiohead has influenced. The other bands we all named paved the way for other bands that followed with a swath as wide as a thousand bulldozers and i'm interested to see what bands or what sounds specifically can be traced back to Radiohead and also why they stop there and can't be traced THROUGH Radiohead to someone else. You have your mission, go forth, wreak havoc.
On with the shuffle:
1. Tunnel of Love - Dire Straits
I like it when the shuffle throws me an 8 minute song right off the bat so i can actually listen to it and type at the same time. It seems like i always get some crazy 2:15 song and i have to pause to finish my commentary about it and it just messes with the flow of the entire shuffle.
Anyway, Dire Straits kicks ass...and now that i think about it, i think they may be in my Brit Band top 5 after all... i originally had them at 6 -8 but now that i'm listening to this song, i might like their body of work overall more than i like The Who, or The Beatles. I'm not saying they were a better or bigger band, i'm just saying that on a song by song basis, i think i'd rather listen to "Money for Nothing" than "Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy" or "Sgt. Peppers"...i don't know, maybe, that's a pretty bold statement and one that may not be true by this afternoon. We'll see.
Anyway, this song has this rolling feel to it that would make it a good running or driving song. It just keeps flowing over its 8 minutes interspersed with little solos and guitar licks and Mark Knopfler's incredibly cool sounding vocals that sound like he's breathing out a puff of smoke every time he opens his mouth. Talented band, and an underrated one at that. If the depth of your Dire Straits knowledge is Money For Nothing or hearing Romeo and Juliet on the soundtrack of "Can't Hardly Wait" give me a call and i'll get you hooked up.
2. Chicago is So Two Years Ago (acoustic) - Fall Out Boy
I'm not sure where i downloaded this from but the quality is awful. You can barely hear Patrick Stump's vocals over the little scenster kids clapping and singing awfully off key while imagining how the lyrics perfectly apply to their own little broken-heart high school romances. In fact, this is horrible, i'm clicking next.
3. Red Rabbits - The Shins, off of Wincing the Night Away
I'm flying to NYC on Thursday and this CD is at the top of my play list for the 6 hour flight. I'm very excited. In fact, let's do a quick top 5:
Top 5 new (to me) albums i'm most excited about listening to on the way to and from NYC
1. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
2. The Killers - Sam's Town (surprisingly good)
3. Norah Jones - Not Too Late
4. The Beta Band - 3 E.P.s
5. Johnny Cash - American V
Yeah, and just listening to this song for the first time, i can tell i'm going to enjoy it. I hope the rest of the CD is like this. The new Shins strikes me like the perfect album to chill out to on a plane while reading a large chunk of Audacity of Hope (sorry i'm so far behind guys). These guys should call Natalie Portman every damn day and thank her.
4. The Man in Me - Bob Dylan, off of The Big Lebowski Soundtrack
Hilarious song, hilarious movie. They did such a good job on the music in that movie that i can't listen to a single song on the soundtrack without automatically picturing exactly what's happening in the movie. And isn't that what a soundtrack is supposed to be about? Just total symbiosis between the two mediums? That's what i thought.
Anyway, what more can i say about Dylan or the movie? Not a lot i feel. But i will mention this joke from Bill Maher: "Bob Dylan is the voice of our generation and he can't argue with that. We didn't really have a choice in the matter. If we had a choice wouldn't you think we'd pick a better voice than his?"
5. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds, off of Rockin' the Suburbs
It makes sense that i'm going to see Courtney in NYC this weekend and she's the one who introduced me to Ben Folds and to this song. Courtney and I took a class our freshman year in Colorado called U.S. Race And Ethnic Relations...which we both affectionately remember as Race Relations Boot Camp. What an awful semester. Although Courtney and I will both admit that we learned more about race and privilege and our own thoughts and prejudices than at any other time in our lives, it was just an amazing way to be absolutely torn down at your core and be told that everything you've known about your race and your upbringing and your opportunities were just complete false or worse, that you've only had the opportunities you had been given at the expense of someone else. So this song really hit me at the perfect time in life... "Y'all don't know what it's like/being male, middle class and white./Y'all don't know what it's like/being male, middle class and white. It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream/It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream, It gets me real pissed off and i wanna scream, 'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
UUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yup...that's pretty much exactly what it felt like at the time. Isn't it amazing how music can do that?
Alright, big week this week. Vegas tomorrow with Ron and Nole, then NYC to see Courtney and others. I can't make any promises about more posts this week but i've got a lot of ideas and i'm hoping that i can find a really cool coffee shop to sit in with my laptop and iPod and just be so stereotypical that it hurts. So don't be surprised if you see 3-4 more things this week.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Brit Band Top 5
My good friends Kevin and Neil have been meeting for some quality "guy time" every week and talking about music and life and probably a ton more. I haven't been able to meet up with them yet (stupid work) but Kevin has filled me in on a couple of their topics. Here's Kevin's list of Top 5 British bands:
Kevo: "I don't know if you have done this one before but you missed this top five at applebees. Top five british bands.
1.Beatles
2.Radiohead
3. Led Zeplin
4. Coldplay
5.Oasis
Any arguments?"
And to Kevin, i say, "Yes i have arguments. Isn't that what this whole blog thing is about?"
So here we go. First, if you're going to say "Top 5" anything, i've always felt that you need to qualify your criteria a little bit. And usually that criteria can be broken down into two main sections.
1. Are they in the Top 5 because you like them?
Or 2, are they in your Top 5 because they're influential and had an effect on the rest of the musical universe?
These things matter.
So here are my Top 5 British bands, first by larger influence and second by how much i like them.
Top 5 British bands who made an undeniable influence on musical history (With Apologies to Radiohead, Eric Clapton/The Yardbirds, The Who, Jethro Tull):
1. Beatles
2. Led Zeppelin
3. The Cure
4. Pink Floyd
5. The Sex Pistols
And here's The Top 5 based on the British bands i like:
1. Led Zeppelin
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jethro Tull
4. The Who
5. The Beatles
So yeah, in both of my Top 5's, Coldplay, Radiohead and Oasis don't even sniff #5. They'd probably be in the top 10, but that's not what this site is about now is it?
Alright, now it's your turn for arguments. I expect to hear something back this time.
Kevo: "I don't know if you have done this one before but you missed this top five at applebees. Top five british bands.
1.Beatles
2.Radiohead
3. Led Zeplin
4. Coldplay
5.Oasis
Any arguments?"
And to Kevin, i say, "Yes i have arguments. Isn't that what this whole blog thing is about?"
So here we go. First, if you're going to say "Top 5" anything, i've always felt that you need to qualify your criteria a little bit. And usually that criteria can be broken down into two main sections.
1. Are they in the Top 5 because you like them?
Or 2, are they in your Top 5 because they're influential and had an effect on the rest of the musical universe?
These things matter.
So here are my Top 5 British bands, first by larger influence and second by how much i like them.
Top 5 British bands who made an undeniable influence on musical history (With Apologies to Radiohead, Eric Clapton/The Yardbirds, The Who, Jethro Tull):
1. Beatles
2. Led Zeppelin
3. The Cure
4. Pink Floyd
5. The Sex Pistols
And here's The Top 5 based on the British bands i like:
1. Led Zeppelin
2. Eric Clapton
3. Jethro Tull
4. The Who
5. The Beatles
So yeah, in both of my Top 5's, Coldplay, Radiohead and Oasis don't even sniff #5. They'd probably be in the top 10, but that's not what this site is about now is it?
Alright, now it's your turn for arguments. I expect to hear something back this time.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle: The Long Band Name edition
There's a lot to take care of this morning before we actually get to the shuffle.
First thing, after my Kanye Sucks post last week, i found this video today with Common's new single featuring, of course, Kanye:
I really like it when these two work together (The Food off of Common's Be album was the shit.) and this song is really no different. I definitely feel it and i can't wait for Common's new CD, even if Kanye is going to manhandle and take over every song he's on. Common balances him out pretty well i'd say. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Also, i found a record store in Flagstaff this weekend that was going out of business and had a bunch of music on sale for 20%-25% off and of course i went nuts. I always feel justified in buying a ton of music at once because usually i'm just stealing it and i feel like i'm all square with the recording industry by buying 5 CDs a year. So here's what i picked up and i'm really excited to load them all onto the iPod and dive in.
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.S (and if you don't recognize the significance of me buying this CD in a local indie record store and talking about it on this blog then you need to go rent High Fidelity right now and watch it until you get it.)
Johnny Cash - Super Hits (This isn't an official Cash album, just one of those random compilations. It had some good songs on it and some that i haven't heard before so i picked it up.)
Johnny Cash - American V (Nole recommended this CD a long time ago and since i stole American IV i thought it was the least i could do for Johnny's estate.)
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes (I'm a big fan of Plans, but my overall Death Cab knowledge and context is lacking, so i picked it up.)
Thrice - Vheissu (I know, i'm really late on this one but the Dustin Kensrue solo CD has me digging back into Thrice a bit. I already listened to it on the way home from Flag, and i like it so far.) And here is Dustin's performance on Letterman the other night, just for fun:
Talib Kweli - Quality (On VINYL bitches. Yeah, beat that. I already have this CD but the chance to have it on wax for 25% off was just too good to pass up. And yes, having this album makes me cooler than you. Now all i need is a record player and i'll be good to go.)
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Yes, i missed this by about 7 years but so what? I've recently gotten back into the Fugees -- and all of their spin offs -- and knew that i really needed to give this CD a lot of attention. Why hasn't she done anything else recently? Come on Lauryn, come back, we need you.)
Let me know if you want me to send you any of these albums for your own collection. I'm hoping to start posting a weekly wish list for music and hopefully we can all start sharing and not buying as much (To kick the wish list off, i heard the new Andrew Bird album leaked last week. Someone get their hands on it and send it to me eh?)
Also, the new Fall Out Boy is streaming on Myspace, if anyone is interested.
On with the shuffle:
1. Plush (acoustic) - Stone Temple Pilots
Between stints in rehab and time spent with former members of G&R, Scott Weiland made some damn good music. This is one of my favorite songs of the grunge 90s, right next to Pearl Jam - Jeremy. It has a really catchy chorus and i just help but sing along. The acoustic version here is really nice. Just one guitar and Scott, whose voice sounds better here than it did on the actual album version.
2. Suzie Q - Credence Clearwater Revival
Ahhhhh the Credence. They just remind me of Big Lebowski no matter what and there's nothing wrong with that. This song has a kind of Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog feel to it for me. It's like, i like it once i'm listening to it, but if i don't get passed the first couple seconds then i'm just never going to listen to it. It has a cool sound to it, and it's a fun song when in the presence of people named Suzie, but that's about it. Upon closer inspection, i really do like the beat and the guitar in this song. I'm actually surprised that no rapper has sampled the drums yet. It would be a pretty mellow track. This is why i need to become a DJ.
3. Mess - Ben Folds Five, off of The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
This was my first Ben Folds song. My good friend Courtney gave me this CD freshman year of college because she said it reminded her of me. Which is interesting seeing as though this is easily Ben Folds' most depressed CD. I guess i was a little more sad and Emo at that point of life, which is too bad, but hey, i'm still here and it seems that i made it through OK.
This song really did catch my ear because at the time, i was a complete Mess. It fit, and the sound and feel of the song is one of those that just affects your heart when you hear it. I think my most poignant memory of this song is being really damn drunk on a vacation back in Phoenix and Erika had to drive me home in my own car (how she got home, i can't remember) and i just remember being effected by this song and yeah. Deep semi-painful memories there. Let's just move on.
4. On My Own - Black Eyed Peas, off of Bridging the Gaps
Imagine a time before London Bridges, before My Humps, before that cracked out little whore Fergie forsook her Kids Incorporated upbringing and began teaching completely inappropriate lyrics to every kid in America between 8 and 17. Can you picture that time? Yes it existed, and once upon that time a hip-hop group called the Black-Eyed Peas made an album so socially conscious and thought-provoking that their label wouldn't even release it. My God, how they've fallen.
Bridging the Gaps is a bad-ass album from a group that used to tour with Ozomatli and J5. This song includes vocals from Les Nubians and Mos Def. Do you think Mos would be caught dead on a Black-eyed Peas album now? Let's hope not.
It really makes me sad what's become of this band. They used to be awesome, now, well...we know what they are now.
5. Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers, off of Stadium Arcadium
This song reminds me so much of Californication that it's almost disheartening. It's almost as if they have a formula for writing title tracks or something. It starts with some mournful, yet catchy, guitar riff, in comes the drums, then Keidis' voice with some profound and obscure lyric. They really are quite similar and i just noticed that today for the first time.
Well i won't let one little realization ruin this song for me. It's no secret that i really like this album and the title track here really does fit the whole ebb and flow of the entire 2-disk set. Another thing i really find myself enjoying about this song is the harmonies in the chorus. Flea's voice actually adds a ton of texture to this song (and on Make You Feel Better, another good song on the album) and it really sounds like the whole band is singing and believing in what the song and the band is about. I like it. A lot. Now, a little variety would be good for next time.
More this week. Promise this time. I've been saving up some good topics for a while. Keep an eye out.
(I didn't realize this until now but 4 of 5 bands in the shuffle today have 3-word names, and the 5th band has a 4-word name. Weird. We know not the insanity of the shuffle button.)
First thing, after my Kanye Sucks post last week, i found this video today with Common's new single featuring, of course, Kanye:
I really like it when these two work together (The Food off of Common's Be album was the shit.) and this song is really no different. I definitely feel it and i can't wait for Common's new CD, even if Kanye is going to manhandle and take over every song he's on. Common balances him out pretty well i'd say. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Also, i found a record store in Flagstaff this weekend that was going out of business and had a bunch of music on sale for 20%-25% off and of course i went nuts. I always feel justified in buying a ton of music at once because usually i'm just stealing it and i feel like i'm all square with the recording industry by buying 5 CDs a year. So here's what i picked up and i'm really excited to load them all onto the iPod and dive in.
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.S (and if you don't recognize the significance of me buying this CD in a local indie record store and talking about it on this blog then you need to go rent High Fidelity right now and watch it until you get it.)
Johnny Cash - Super Hits (This isn't an official Cash album, just one of those random compilations. It had some good songs on it and some that i haven't heard before so i picked it up.)
Johnny Cash - American V (Nole recommended this CD a long time ago and since i stole American IV i thought it was the least i could do for Johnny's estate.)
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes (I'm a big fan of Plans, but my overall Death Cab knowledge and context is lacking, so i picked it up.)
Thrice - Vheissu (I know, i'm really late on this one but the Dustin Kensrue solo CD has me digging back into Thrice a bit. I already listened to it on the way home from Flag, and i like it so far.) And here is Dustin's performance on Letterman the other night, just for fun:
Talib Kweli - Quality (On VINYL bitches. Yeah, beat that. I already have this CD but the chance to have it on wax for 25% off was just too good to pass up. And yes, having this album makes me cooler than you. Now all i need is a record player and i'll be good to go.)
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Yes, i missed this by about 7 years but so what? I've recently gotten back into the Fugees -- and all of their spin offs -- and knew that i really needed to give this CD a lot of attention. Why hasn't she done anything else recently? Come on Lauryn, come back, we need you.)
Let me know if you want me to send you any of these albums for your own collection. I'm hoping to start posting a weekly wish list for music and hopefully we can all start sharing and not buying as much (To kick the wish list off, i heard the new Andrew Bird album leaked last week. Someone get their hands on it and send it to me eh?)
Also, the new Fall Out Boy is streaming on Myspace, if anyone is interested.
On with the shuffle:
1. Plush (acoustic) - Stone Temple Pilots
Between stints in rehab and time spent with former members of G&R, Scott Weiland made some damn good music. This is one of my favorite songs of the grunge 90s, right next to Pearl Jam - Jeremy. It has a really catchy chorus and i just help but sing along. The acoustic version here is really nice. Just one guitar and Scott, whose voice sounds better here than it did on the actual album version.
2. Suzie Q - Credence Clearwater Revival
Ahhhhh the Credence. They just remind me of Big Lebowski no matter what and there's nothing wrong with that. This song has a kind of Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog feel to it for me. It's like, i like it once i'm listening to it, but if i don't get passed the first couple seconds then i'm just never going to listen to it. It has a cool sound to it, and it's a fun song when in the presence of people named Suzie, but that's about it. Upon closer inspection, i really do like the beat and the guitar in this song. I'm actually surprised that no rapper has sampled the drums yet. It would be a pretty mellow track. This is why i need to become a DJ.
3. Mess - Ben Folds Five, off of The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
This was my first Ben Folds song. My good friend Courtney gave me this CD freshman year of college because she said it reminded her of me. Which is interesting seeing as though this is easily Ben Folds' most depressed CD. I guess i was a little more sad and Emo at that point of life, which is too bad, but hey, i'm still here and it seems that i made it through OK.
This song really did catch my ear because at the time, i was a complete Mess. It fit, and the sound and feel of the song is one of those that just affects your heart when you hear it. I think my most poignant memory of this song is being really damn drunk on a vacation back in Phoenix and Erika had to drive me home in my own car (how she got home, i can't remember) and i just remember being effected by this song and yeah. Deep semi-painful memories there. Let's just move on.
4. On My Own - Black Eyed Peas, off of Bridging the Gaps
Imagine a time before London Bridges, before My Humps, before that cracked out little whore Fergie forsook her Kids Incorporated upbringing and began teaching completely inappropriate lyrics to every kid in America between 8 and 17. Can you picture that time? Yes it existed, and once upon that time a hip-hop group called the Black-Eyed Peas made an album so socially conscious and thought-provoking that their label wouldn't even release it. My God, how they've fallen.
Bridging the Gaps is a bad-ass album from a group that used to tour with Ozomatli and J5. This song includes vocals from Les Nubians and Mos Def. Do you think Mos would be caught dead on a Black-eyed Peas album now? Let's hope not.
It really makes me sad what's become of this band. They used to be awesome, now, well...we know what they are now.
5. Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers, off of Stadium Arcadium
This song reminds me so much of Californication that it's almost disheartening. It's almost as if they have a formula for writing title tracks or something. It starts with some mournful, yet catchy, guitar riff, in comes the drums, then Keidis' voice with some profound and obscure lyric. They really are quite similar and i just noticed that today for the first time.
Well i won't let one little realization ruin this song for me. It's no secret that i really like this album and the title track here really does fit the whole ebb and flow of the entire 2-disk set. Another thing i really find myself enjoying about this song is the harmonies in the chorus. Flea's voice actually adds a ton of texture to this song (and on Make You Feel Better, another good song on the album) and it really sounds like the whole band is singing and believing in what the song and the band is about. I like it. A lot. Now, a little variety would be good for next time.
More this week. Promise this time. I've been saving up some good topics for a while. Keep an eye out.
(I didn't realize this until now but 4 of 5 bands in the shuffle today have 3-word names, and the 5th band has a 4-word name. Weird. We know not the insanity of the shuffle button.)
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Kanye West Sucks
I loved his first CD, i despised his second. I love his "George Bush hates Black people" freak out, i hate this video.
Pop-up video happened when? 8 years ago? 10? Jeebus, this is a tired gig. Just proves that nobody has any new ideas anymore.
Thanks for playing Kanye, you can now go back to obscurity.
Pop-up video happened when? 8 years ago? 10? Jeebus, this is a tired gig. Just proves that nobody has any new ideas anymore.
Thanks for playing Kanye, you can now go back to obscurity.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle: HHS Edition
I can stop making excuses why i'm not posting this before noon, right? Will anyone hold it against me? I didn't think so.
1. 6 to 8 - AFI, off of The Art of Drowning
I once saw an AFI concert in a hockey rink in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They melted the ice, set up a stage and played. It was cool because it was the first time i'd ever been in a moshpit that had boards around it...you know, as in you could check someone into the boards while moshing. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty great. Also, Nicole Lombardi got kicked in the head and had a concussion during the show (eventually this head inury caused her to dump Mike Lisi and date me for a while, but that's neither here nor there. ha ha ha.) and i got to go on stage after the concert because i won the slopestyle competition earlier that day. Shaun White, eat your heart out.
This song has an great chorus:
What new friends will the day bring? One for one thousand acquainted.
What new home will the night bring? When it all comes down you just throw the bones.
Bones meaning dice because when you're Davey Havoc, it's all a gamble, even your choice of eyeliner, or your choice to leave a proven punk label (Nitro) for a mainstream label, completely selling-out your bandmates, your fans and yourself.
2. Solid Gold Telephone - Head Automatica, off of Decadence
Man, i loved this album. What happened to these guys? Kinda makes a guy sad.
I think my favorite song is "I Shot William H. Macy" because William H. Macy is great. Moving on.
3. Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin, off of Led Zeppelin IV
First, how cool is it that Led Zep didn't really name all their CDs but just called them 1-4. I think that is the balls.
This song is also another one of Zep's references to Lord of the Rings, because Bilbo went on his adventure in The Hobbit to the Misty Mountains and i'm a nerd.
This definitely isn't one of my favorite Led Zep songs (as you can see in my Top 5), there's just something about the keyboard and guitar harmony and way the vocals are spaced out that bugs me...and you won't hear me say that about many Led Zeppelin songs.
4. Whip It - Devo
Uh yeah. This is one of the best shuffle's in recent memory. Just consistently good tracks, a little old, a little new, a little retro, a lotta hilarious.
And since this song makes no sense at all, other than the sexual connotations of whipping it, whipping it good, i'll just tell a story about Ron, because that's always a good time.
I think it was our junior year, (or was it senior? i'm totally forgetting the details. Bonus points if you remember.) but the homecoming theme at Horizon High School that year was a trip through the decades of the 1900s (it being the year 2000, i guess we all felt nostalgic that it was the last year we could have done that). Well anyway, Monday was the 50s, Tuesday the 60s, etc. which made Thursday 80s day. And being children of the 80s, we all pulled out our leg warmers and side-ponytails and during lunch a band played 80s songs. Well i don't remember who was all in it, but i do remember Ben Sinclair on bass and Ron as the lead singer (which must have been like the 3rd greatest moment in your life right Ron? 1. Getting married. 2. Playing at the Whiskey in Hollywood 3. Being the lead singer of an 80s cover band in high school. Is that about right?) Whoever played drums (Greg Frasetti? Nole? I can't remember but double bonus points if you can tell me in the comments.) had an electronic drum set, which was about the sickest thing to ever enter the hallowed walls of Horizon High School and the whole band just rocked songs all through lunch. I ditched Mr. Bach's 5th hour just to stay out and have fun (must have been senior year then). They played Blue Monday, Billy Idol-White Wedding, and a whole bunch of other great 80s songs (actually, it was definitely junior year because i rocked out next to Crazy Kate the entire time and she was a year older than me.) Good times had by all. Who would have thought i'd be looking back on high school with such fondness? Ha ha.
5. Forever for Tonight - Blessid Union of Souls, off of Home
Wow, three high school references and two Nicole Lombardi references in the same shuffle? What are the odds? And yes, if you have no idea who or what i'm talking about, you can probably just stop reading, but i'll try to explain. This song was our prom theme senior year and Nicole was my date to that prom. This song really reminds me of CP and his never-ending devotion and adoration for BUOS, and for having the balls to theme a high school prom after a deep cut on a CD that only he had and that nobody in our school would know. And, in case you were wondering, he completely pulled it off.
This song also reminds me of Cody Kimmel playing it on his guitar and doing an amazing job of singing it during the prom fashion show a few nights before the dance. At the last minute i had to step in for someone (Tim Brooks) who didn't show up for the event and i ended up on stage standing with someone (Lauren Teets) and standing right behind Kimmel as he sang this. It was one of those Wonder Years/Saved by the Bell/90210 moments where you're just standing there and everything comes together in that moment and you can hear Kevin Cooper's little voice in your head doing the voice over and talking about Winnie. Top notch all the way around.
And just to see how many more names i can drop from high school in the same shuffle, Nicole wanted to dance with me during this song because it really did have some meaning for us at the time and for some reason she was dancing with Keegan Zagami when it came on. She didn't recognize it but i did and had to pull her away from Keegan right in the middle of their dance. Sorry Keegs.
And in related BUOS information, a bunch of us went to the Chandler Ostrich Festival (do they even have this anymore?!?) that year because Blessid was actually going to play there. It may have been their first and only show west of the Mississippi of the last 15-20 years, but damnit we weren't going to miss it. And the lead singer wore a pink mesh shirt and sang "I Believe" twice in the same show. ha ha. I think that might have been the night that CP's Blessid fetish died.
Update #1- Tommy Schmidt played drums.
Update #2 - Nicole was punched in the head (i'm assuming it was an accident), not kicked.
Update #3 - See Ron's comments below for the full band line-up.
Update #4 - It was definitely my junior year, and it would have been in the fall, so i guess the year was actually 1999.
1. 6 to 8 - AFI, off of The Art of Drowning
I once saw an AFI concert in a hockey rink in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They melted the ice, set up a stage and played. It was cool because it was the first time i'd ever been in a moshpit that had boards around it...you know, as in you could check someone into the boards while moshing. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty great. Also, Nicole Lombardi got kicked in the head and had a concussion during the show (eventually this head inury caused her to dump Mike Lisi and date me for a while, but that's neither here nor there. ha ha ha.) and i got to go on stage after the concert because i won the slopestyle competition earlier that day. Shaun White, eat your heart out.
This song has an great chorus:
What new friends will the day bring? One for one thousand acquainted.
What new home will the night bring? When it all comes down you just throw the bones.
Bones meaning dice because when you're Davey Havoc, it's all a gamble, even your choice of eyeliner, or your choice to leave a proven punk label (Nitro) for a mainstream label, completely selling-out your bandmates, your fans and yourself.
2. Solid Gold Telephone - Head Automatica, off of Decadence
Man, i loved this album. What happened to these guys? Kinda makes a guy sad.
I think my favorite song is "I Shot William H. Macy" because William H. Macy is great. Moving on.
3. Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin, off of Led Zeppelin IV
First, how cool is it that Led Zep didn't really name all their CDs but just called them 1-4. I think that is the balls.
This song is also another one of Zep's references to Lord of the Rings, because Bilbo went on his adventure in The Hobbit to the Misty Mountains and i'm a nerd.
This definitely isn't one of my favorite Led Zep songs (as you can see in my Top 5), there's just something about the keyboard and guitar harmony and way the vocals are spaced out that bugs me...and you won't hear me say that about many Led Zeppelin songs.
4. Whip It - Devo
Uh yeah. This is one of the best shuffle's in recent memory. Just consistently good tracks, a little old, a little new, a little retro, a lotta hilarious.
And since this song makes no sense at all, other than the sexual connotations of whipping it, whipping it good, i'll just tell a story about Ron, because that's always a good time.
I think it was our junior year, (or was it senior? i'm totally forgetting the details. Bonus points if you remember.) but the homecoming theme at Horizon High School that year was a trip through the decades of the 1900s (it being the year 2000, i guess we all felt nostalgic that it was the last year we could have done that). Well anyway, Monday was the 50s, Tuesday the 60s, etc. which made Thursday 80s day. And being children of the 80s, we all pulled out our leg warmers and side-ponytails and during lunch a band played 80s songs. Well i don't remember who was all in it, but i do remember Ben Sinclair on bass and Ron as the lead singer (which must have been like the 3rd greatest moment in your life right Ron? 1. Getting married. 2. Playing at the Whiskey in Hollywood 3. Being the lead singer of an 80s cover band in high school. Is that about right?) Whoever played drums (Greg Frasetti? Nole? I can't remember but double bonus points if you can tell me in the comments.) had an electronic drum set, which was about the sickest thing to ever enter the hallowed walls of Horizon High School and the whole band just rocked songs all through lunch. I ditched Mr. Bach's 5th hour just to stay out and have fun (must have been senior year then). They played Blue Monday, Billy Idol-White Wedding, and a whole bunch of other great 80s songs (actually, it was definitely junior year because i rocked out next to Crazy Kate the entire time and she was a year older than me.) Good times had by all. Who would have thought i'd be looking back on high school with such fondness? Ha ha.
5. Forever for Tonight - Blessid Union of Souls, off of Home
Wow, three high school references and two Nicole Lombardi references in the same shuffle? What are the odds? And yes, if you have no idea who or what i'm talking about, you can probably just stop reading, but i'll try to explain. This song was our prom theme senior year and Nicole was my date to that prom. This song really reminds me of CP and his never-ending devotion and adoration for BUOS, and for having the balls to theme a high school prom after a deep cut on a CD that only he had and that nobody in our school would know. And, in case you were wondering, he completely pulled it off.
This song also reminds me of Cody Kimmel playing it on his guitar and doing an amazing job of singing it during the prom fashion show a few nights before the dance. At the last minute i had to step in for someone (Tim Brooks) who didn't show up for the event and i ended up on stage standing with someone (Lauren Teets) and standing right behind Kimmel as he sang this. It was one of those Wonder Years/Saved by the Bell/90210 moments where you're just standing there and everything comes together in that moment and you can hear Kevin Cooper's little voice in your head doing the voice over and talking about Winnie. Top notch all the way around.
And just to see how many more names i can drop from high school in the same shuffle, Nicole wanted to dance with me during this song because it really did have some meaning for us at the time and for some reason she was dancing with Keegan Zagami when it came on. She didn't recognize it but i did and had to pull her away from Keegan right in the middle of their dance. Sorry Keegs.
And in related BUOS information, a bunch of us went to the Chandler Ostrich Festival (do they even have this anymore?!?) that year because Blessid was actually going to play there. It may have been their first and only show west of the Mississippi of the last 15-20 years, but damnit we weren't going to miss it. And the lead singer wore a pink mesh shirt and sang "I Believe" twice in the same show. ha ha. I think that might have been the night that CP's Blessid fetish died.
Update #1- Tommy Schmidt played drums.
Update #2 - Nicole was punched in the head (i'm assuming it was an accident), not kicked.
Update #3 - See Ron's comments below for the full band line-up.
Update #4 - It was definitely my junior year, and it would have been in the fall, so i guess the year was actually 1999.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The Coachella Lineup
Here it is kids:
Tickets go on sale Saturday. I've already talked to CP about going and we're thinking about putting together an RV and getting a bunch of people to fill it out and road trip it down there. Who wants to go with us? Let me know in the comments if you're interested.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle
First off, who wants to go to Coachella with me this year? Now, read this. NOW, who wants to go to Coachella with me? That's what i thought. How excited are you on a scale of 1-10? (1 being Laura, and 10 being Ron)
1. Love You More Than Life - Neutral Milk Hotel
When i mentioned a while back that i didn't really care for certain bands (or more accurately, certain sounds), my friend Courtney suggested quite a few bands for me to listen to. Most of these have the same exact sound that i was complaining about but still, i took Courtney's word for it. Courtney has always liked music like this and has been stone-cold emo before they even invented the term for it. So i downloaded a ton of this stuff and tried to put it all in order and see if anything checked out well. And of all the bands she suggested, i've probably listened to Neutral Milk Hotel the least, so i'm not really comfortable passing judgement on it just yet. This recording sounds like he recorded it in his living room in 1984. It's really unclear and sounds a lot like a demo version, and maybe i downloaded the demo version, there's no way of knowing until someone sends me the actual CD. So i'll reserve total judgement on it but yeah, this is exactly the type of band i normally complain about. Kinda slow, kinda meandering without a real purpose and the recording/guys voice has this grainy, bored, Iron & Wine-like quality about it, which i'm a huge fan of...not.
Let's move on.
2. Here Comes my Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
I've already told a few Tom Petty stories here (both on December 11th, which you'll find here) so i'll spare you another one even though there really isn't a ton to talk about with this song. It's the prototypical Tom Petty song. And if you don't know what that means, check out the 4 minute mark in this clip:
3. Carnival Town - Norah Jones, off of Feels Like Home
So far the shuffle is o for 3 in songs that get me up and ready to go on a Monday Morning. This really doesn't bode well.
Until Norah comes out with her 3rd CD and hopefully redeems herself, I can't really say anything new about her. So this is what i said about her last time: "Her voice is a warm blanket, or hot chocolate, or a fire in the fireplace or a second glass of red wine or a Crown and water. Ok, maybe the last one’s just for me but seriously, you know what I’m saying. Norah is that warm tingly feeling in your belly. And that’s all I have to say about that."
4. Jurass Finish First - Jurassic 5
I just realized that i've been doing the shuffle since September and this is the first time we've had J5 on it since October 16th. Man time really flies. This song is one of my favorite J5 songs. It just has a good beat and that classic Jurassic sound. And i think my favorite part is when the song is over and they have answering machine recordings of one of the guy's parents talking about his career choice. His dad comes on and says that his kid was always stealing his Al Green records and singing and dancing in his room and he's really proud of his son and the guys he's in the band with and that he always knew he'd do something with music. And then his mom comes on and says, "Where are you boy? You out rapping? That's all you do. Rappin, rappin, rappin. You need to go out and get you a job, boy." HAHA. High comedy.
5. Pictures of Me - Eliot Smith, off of Either/Or
Man, the first 4 of 5 songs on this Monday morning have been depressing enough to make me want to stab myself in the chest with a kitchen knife... (too soon?)
This is actually the most upbeat Smith song i've ever heard, and i actually even like it a little bit. Wow, who would have thought?
Alright, i'm towing this rusty thing off to the garage. Sorry about the lack of quality today, but hey, don't blame me, blame iTunes.
In honor of the Dustin Kensrue CD coming out tomorrow (despite the fact that i've been listening to it and loving it for over a month now. Thanks CP!) i think i'm going to write a review of it for Wednesday. So look for more than one post this week for the first time in a while. Hope everyone has a good Monday.
1. Love You More Than Life - Neutral Milk Hotel
When i mentioned a while back that i didn't really care for certain bands (or more accurately, certain sounds), my friend Courtney suggested quite a few bands for me to listen to. Most of these have the same exact sound that i was complaining about but still, i took Courtney's word for it. Courtney has always liked music like this and has been stone-cold emo before they even invented the term for it. So i downloaded a ton of this stuff and tried to put it all in order and see if anything checked out well. And of all the bands she suggested, i've probably listened to Neutral Milk Hotel the least, so i'm not really comfortable passing judgement on it just yet. This recording sounds like he recorded it in his living room in 1984. It's really unclear and sounds a lot like a demo version, and maybe i downloaded the demo version, there's no way of knowing until someone sends me the actual CD. So i'll reserve total judgement on it but yeah, this is exactly the type of band i normally complain about. Kinda slow, kinda meandering without a real purpose and the recording/guys voice has this grainy, bored, Iron & Wine-like quality about it, which i'm a huge fan of...not.
Let's move on.
2. Here Comes my Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
I've already told a few Tom Petty stories here (both on December 11th, which you'll find here) so i'll spare you another one even though there really isn't a ton to talk about with this song. It's the prototypical Tom Petty song. And if you don't know what that means, check out the 4 minute mark in this clip:
3. Carnival Town - Norah Jones, off of Feels Like Home
So far the shuffle is o for 3 in songs that get me up and ready to go on a Monday Morning. This really doesn't bode well.
Until Norah comes out with her 3rd CD and hopefully redeems herself, I can't really say anything new about her. So this is what i said about her last time: "Her voice is a warm blanket, or hot chocolate, or a fire in the fireplace or a second glass of red wine or a Crown and water. Ok, maybe the last one’s just for me but seriously, you know what I’m saying. Norah is that warm tingly feeling in your belly. And that’s all I have to say about that."
4. Jurass Finish First - Jurassic 5
I just realized that i've been doing the shuffle since September and this is the first time we've had J5 on it since October 16th. Man time really flies. This song is one of my favorite J5 songs. It just has a good beat and that classic Jurassic sound. And i think my favorite part is when the song is over and they have answering machine recordings of one of the guy's parents talking about his career choice. His dad comes on and says that his kid was always stealing his Al Green records and singing and dancing in his room and he's really proud of his son and the guys he's in the band with and that he always knew he'd do something with music. And then his mom comes on and says, "Where are you boy? You out rapping? That's all you do. Rappin, rappin, rappin. You need to go out and get you a job, boy." HAHA. High comedy.
5. Pictures of Me - Eliot Smith, off of Either/Or
Man, the first 4 of 5 songs on this Monday morning have been depressing enough to make me want to stab myself in the chest with a kitchen knife... (too soon?)
This is actually the most upbeat Smith song i've ever heard, and i actually even like it a little bit. Wow, who would have thought?
Alright, i'm towing this rusty thing off to the garage. Sorry about the lack of quality today, but hey, don't blame me, blame iTunes.
In honor of the Dustin Kensrue CD coming out tomorrow (despite the fact that i've been listening to it and loving it for over a month now. Thanks CP!) i think i'm going to write a review of it for Wednesday. So look for more than one post this week for the first time in a while. Hope everyone has a good Monday.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Post-Marathon Monday Morning Shuffle
Alright, so i haven't mentioned it in a long time but i did, in fact, run (well, some of the time) the PF Changs Rock And Roll half-marathon yesterday. I had a blast and was kicking myself the entire time for not training harder for it. A combination of shin-splints, knee issues and general chaos/laziness prevented me from really getting into a strict training regimen. Fortunately for me i spend 20-30 hours a week walking briskly around a concrete-floored restaurant serving Italian food so i wasn't completely unprepared, actually i felt great the entire time. And a day later, i feel pretty damn good all things considered. I'm definitely doing it again next year and if i can actually commit to training maybe i'll do the full 26.2. We'll see. But i highly recommend the event to all of you. The organizers really do a great job, everyone is out and having fun, and for a guy who really doesn't get caught up in too many moments, i'll admit that i got caught up in all of yesterday's activities. Crossing the starting line at 8am and crossing that finish line at 11am really were two highlights of my 2007 so far. It was a ton of fun. And you don't really even need to run the whole thing to enjoy it. A quick walk can get you around the course in 3 to 3.5 hours and it really is fun for the whole family. Get a group together and do it next year. Seriously.
As far as the music goes, well i have to say i was kind of disappointed. It's not that the bands weren't good, because they were (highlights include the country-bluegrass band at mile 5, the guy who just backed his truck up to the course, plugged into an amp and started ripping off huge guitar solos on mile 2 -- even though i don't think he was one of the official bands --, and to the steel-drum orchestra that literally had no fewer than 30 people on a single stage around mile 10) but on the half-marathon course there was about 1 band per mile and you just cruise right by them in about 4 seconds so there's really no way of telling whether they're good or not, you can't really listen to an entire song and there's really no way of getting charged up to keep running unless they are, by total chance, playing your favorite song right as you happen to walk by. So the Rock and Roll part of it was really minimal.
Also, since i had my dad with me and we walked about 9 of the 13 miles (albeit a brisk walk, somewhere in the range of a 12-14 minute mile), we talked most of the time. So i didn't even listen to my iPod.
I thought music was going to be a huge part of this thing, and it wasn't. I'm not disappointed by any means, it's just not that relevant of a topic to discuss on this blog anymore, especially after i slept through the Gin Blossoms concert last night. Oh well, on with the shuffle.
1. Neon - John Mayer
Kind of an out of character choice for my iTunes, but let me attempt to justify it. I picked up on John Mayer my freshman year of college in 2001. Way before he was linked to Jessica Simpson, way before he had a full band, way before he even had a full length album out. I even went and saw him in concert at the Fillmore in Denver. The ladies didn't even throw their panties on stage. It was just this really talented guitarist with a decent voice singing songs about love and life and doing fun cover songs and making some pretty decent jokes on stage. It was just a nice laid-back show all around. I was, admittedly, a fan. And i was downloading his songs off of Kazaa (or maybe it was even still Napster then, i can't remember) and everything i found was exactly like the concert. Just a guy and his guitar, the way i like it. The guy even had the balls to do his own version of Radiohead-Kid A, which you won't be surprised to hear that i liked a lot, before i even heard the real version on Kid A (don't beat me up Laura, please.) And then for some reason he released a full-length CD of all the songs i had downloaded acoustic, but with drums and bass and electric guitars and keyboards and he just entirely fucked it all up. This song, Neon, was the biggest disappointment of the post-acoustic John Mayer era because it really is a catchy song with a tremendous guitar part that was even more impressive when played on an acoustic, AND he could sing a long while playing this super-hard part. So anyway, i still listen to some of his early acoustic stuff with a touch of sadness at his then-inevitable sellout. If you can find this song acoustic, it's a good one that hasn't gotten old yet.
2. Rock And Roll - Mos Def, off of Black on Both Sides
I was hoping we'd get some Mighty Mos Def on the shuffle today because this was the weekend of Mos for me. Danny came into town Saturday night and hooked me up with Mos' new album, True Magic (which, if the first song is any indication, is going to be REALLY good) and i watched 16 Blocks on HBO last night, which i really liked in theaters and thought Mos did a great job in. So anyway, this was my least favorite Mos CD but this is one of the tracks i liked. It's a really simple track with a really good beat and very few rhymes. Mos is talking about the history of music and calls out some of the most popular artists as being fakers in the history of rock and roll and giving -- how do the kids say it? -- "props" to the people he thinks are real. For example, "Elvis Presley ain't got no soul/ Chuck Berry is rock and roll/ you may dig on the Rolling Stones but they didn't come up with that shit on their own." or my favorite, "Kenny G ain't got no soul/John Coltrane is rock and roll."
And then at the end of the song, following in line with the whole "Rock and Roll" theme of the album, it just goes all metal and there's some hardcore drums and screaming and yeah. They did this a lot on the album and i liked the concept, it just didn't work for me. Too much LinkinPark/JayZ collaboration for me.
3. A Long December - Counting Crows, off of Films About Ghosts
Originally this was one of my all-time favorite Counting Crows songs but it has kind of faded on me. It's not bad, i'm just used to it and the Nah-nah-nah-nah's wear on me now instead of inspiring me to sing a long. I don't know why this happens. I can sing to the nah-nah-nah's on Journey's Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' all day.
That being said, i think the Counting Crows are one of the most underrated bands of my middle/high school years. They really were great and Adam Duritz really sealed the deal by having the hottest girlfriends in the world despite the fact that he was, without a doubt, heinous. If an ugly lead singer banging Courtney Cox doesn't signify the power of music, well i just don't know what does (although i guess now that she's married to David Arquette we can completely say that she has zero taste in men.) Moving on.
4. Ruby Falls - Guster, off of Ganging Up on The Sun
Once again, Guster has put together an album that i can't stop listening to. The other morning at work (i wear my iPod when i'm opening the restaurant because i'm anti-social) i listened to it 2 times in a row. I've talked about them before but they are really underrated in my book. They got railroaded into that college, frat-boy rock genre and perhaps it's their own fault but on every CD i've heard, they consistently put together thought-provoking and profound lyrics and sing them using different styles and harmonies over some pretty innovative melodies and musical ideas. They bring in a lot of different styles, instruments and influences and it really keeps things fresh. My only criticism would be that their CDs, upon first listen, all sound the same, but when you dig a little deeper there are some intricacies that the casual (read: college frat-boy) would definitely miss. And, if nothing else, there has to be something to say about consistency right?
This song in particular starts off in your typical, straight-forward rock fashion but then around minute 4 it breaks down into this psychedelic sounding melody with a muted-trumpet solo over it. It's not some fascinatingly groundbreaking move, but it's different and interesting and innovative and completely pleasant to listen to.
5. Blackbird - Crosby, Stills and Nash
This is a Beatles cover sung by Stephen Stills off of their greatest hits album. CSN was a great band and their tight, high harmonies are absolutely responsible for many of the harmonies you hear today (I'm looking at you AFI). They really were talented musicians and if you've been too busy restricting your classic-rock listening to Led Zeppelin or The Who, i highly suggest you take a crack at CSN. It's kind of amazing how their protest songs about Vietnam ring true today. The song Ohio is about US Soldiers shooting students at Kent State College during a Vietnam protest...could you imagine the shit that would hit the fan if that happened today? And we barely remember it even happened. What a country.
Alright, that's enough for today. Check some of this music out and let me know what you think.
As far as the music goes, well i have to say i was kind of disappointed. It's not that the bands weren't good, because they were (highlights include the country-bluegrass band at mile 5, the guy who just backed his truck up to the course, plugged into an amp and started ripping off huge guitar solos on mile 2 -- even though i don't think he was one of the official bands --, and to the steel-drum orchestra that literally had no fewer than 30 people on a single stage around mile 10) but on the half-marathon course there was about 1 band per mile and you just cruise right by them in about 4 seconds so there's really no way of telling whether they're good or not, you can't really listen to an entire song and there's really no way of getting charged up to keep running unless they are, by total chance, playing your favorite song right as you happen to walk by. So the Rock and Roll part of it was really minimal.
Also, since i had my dad with me and we walked about 9 of the 13 miles (albeit a brisk walk, somewhere in the range of a 12-14 minute mile), we talked most of the time. So i didn't even listen to my iPod.
I thought music was going to be a huge part of this thing, and it wasn't. I'm not disappointed by any means, it's just not that relevant of a topic to discuss on this blog anymore, especially after i slept through the Gin Blossoms concert last night. Oh well, on with the shuffle.
1. Neon - John Mayer
Kind of an out of character choice for my iTunes, but let me attempt to justify it. I picked up on John Mayer my freshman year of college in 2001. Way before he was linked to Jessica Simpson, way before he had a full band, way before he even had a full length album out. I even went and saw him in concert at the Fillmore in Denver. The ladies didn't even throw their panties on stage. It was just this really talented guitarist with a decent voice singing songs about love and life and doing fun cover songs and making some pretty decent jokes on stage. It was just a nice laid-back show all around. I was, admittedly, a fan. And i was downloading his songs off of Kazaa (or maybe it was even still Napster then, i can't remember) and everything i found was exactly like the concert. Just a guy and his guitar, the way i like it. The guy even had the balls to do his own version of Radiohead-Kid A, which you won't be surprised to hear that i liked a lot, before i even heard the real version on Kid A (don't beat me up Laura, please.) And then for some reason he released a full-length CD of all the songs i had downloaded acoustic, but with drums and bass and electric guitars and keyboards and he just entirely fucked it all up. This song, Neon, was the biggest disappointment of the post-acoustic John Mayer era because it really is a catchy song with a tremendous guitar part that was even more impressive when played on an acoustic, AND he could sing a long while playing this super-hard part. So anyway, i still listen to some of his early acoustic stuff with a touch of sadness at his then-inevitable sellout. If you can find this song acoustic, it's a good one that hasn't gotten old yet.
2. Rock And Roll - Mos Def, off of Black on Both Sides
I was hoping we'd get some Mighty Mos Def on the shuffle today because this was the weekend of Mos for me. Danny came into town Saturday night and hooked me up with Mos' new album, True Magic (which, if the first song is any indication, is going to be REALLY good) and i watched 16 Blocks on HBO last night, which i really liked in theaters and thought Mos did a great job in. So anyway, this was my least favorite Mos CD but this is one of the tracks i liked. It's a really simple track with a really good beat and very few rhymes. Mos is talking about the history of music and calls out some of the most popular artists as being fakers in the history of rock and roll and giving -- how do the kids say it? -- "props" to the people he thinks are real. For example, "Elvis Presley ain't got no soul/ Chuck Berry is rock and roll/ you may dig on the Rolling Stones but they didn't come up with that shit on their own." or my favorite, "Kenny G ain't got no soul/John Coltrane is rock and roll."
And then at the end of the song, following in line with the whole "Rock and Roll" theme of the album, it just goes all metal and there's some hardcore drums and screaming and yeah. They did this a lot on the album and i liked the concept, it just didn't work for me. Too much LinkinPark/JayZ collaboration for me.
3. A Long December - Counting Crows, off of Films About Ghosts
Originally this was one of my all-time favorite Counting Crows songs but it has kind of faded on me. It's not bad, i'm just used to it and the Nah-nah-nah-nah's wear on me now instead of inspiring me to sing a long. I don't know why this happens. I can sing to the nah-nah-nah's on Journey's Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' all day.
That being said, i think the Counting Crows are one of the most underrated bands of my middle/high school years. They really were great and Adam Duritz really sealed the deal by having the hottest girlfriends in the world despite the fact that he was, without a doubt, heinous. If an ugly lead singer banging Courtney Cox doesn't signify the power of music, well i just don't know what does (although i guess now that she's married to David Arquette we can completely say that she has zero taste in men.) Moving on.
4. Ruby Falls - Guster, off of Ganging Up on The Sun
Once again, Guster has put together an album that i can't stop listening to. The other morning at work (i wear my iPod when i'm opening the restaurant because i'm anti-social) i listened to it 2 times in a row. I've talked about them before but they are really underrated in my book. They got railroaded into that college, frat-boy rock genre and perhaps it's their own fault but on every CD i've heard, they consistently put together thought-provoking and profound lyrics and sing them using different styles and harmonies over some pretty innovative melodies and musical ideas. They bring in a lot of different styles, instruments and influences and it really keeps things fresh. My only criticism would be that their CDs, upon first listen, all sound the same, but when you dig a little deeper there are some intricacies that the casual (read: college frat-boy) would definitely miss. And, if nothing else, there has to be something to say about consistency right?
This song in particular starts off in your typical, straight-forward rock fashion but then around minute 4 it breaks down into this psychedelic sounding melody with a muted-trumpet solo over it. It's not some fascinatingly groundbreaking move, but it's different and interesting and innovative and completely pleasant to listen to.
5. Blackbird - Crosby, Stills and Nash
This is a Beatles cover sung by Stephen Stills off of their greatest hits album. CSN was a great band and their tight, high harmonies are absolutely responsible for many of the harmonies you hear today (I'm looking at you AFI). They really were talented musicians and if you've been too busy restricting your classic-rock listening to Led Zeppelin or The Who, i highly suggest you take a crack at CSN. It's kind of amazing how their protest songs about Vietnam ring true today. The song Ohio is about US Soldiers shooting students at Kent State College during a Vietnam protest...could you imagine the shit that would hit the fan if that happened today? And we barely remember it even happened. What a country.
Alright, that's enough for today. Check some of this music out and let me know what you think.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Monday Morning Shuffle "The HSIM Version"
So sorry for the hiatus. Christmas was on a Monday, New Years Day was on a Monday so i just took those days as vacation and then i went out of town for a week. Not a lot of time to blog or even think about blogging, so when i'm lying on my couch dreading each passing minute as signifying one minute closer to the hell i call "waiting tables" it occurs to me that it's Monday. Holy Shit It's Monday, or, HSIM.
It's good to be back, on with the shuffle:
1. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd, off of The Best of Pink Floyd
This song has a distinct Beatles, early The Who feeling to it, which is different than i'm used to from Floyd. It, of course, still has the requisite psychedelic sound to it. And since i have nothing else to say, i'll recount this story for you.
When we were 20 and drinking on fake IDs, one of our favorite shitty little bars was called the Horse and Hound, on Broadway in Tempe. They had tons of specials, pretty decent food, a lot of video games, TVs, off-track betting and of course a jukebox full of random music. The jukebox had a lot of good classic rock and some decent modern stuff and it also had a ton of the obligatory white trash bullshit that one would associate with a bar such as this. (ie. Kid Rock, Linkin Park, etc.) Well anyway, when the place was packed on a Friday night our good friend Adam Pierce would go to the jukebox and select Echos by Pink Floyd. If you've never heard Echoes then you won't get it but it's basically a 16 minute song full of random noises and, well, echoes. After about the 8 minute mark people would start looking around to see what the hell was going on with the jukebox and trying to identify the person in the bar who thought that would be a good bar song....high comedy. Guess you had to be there.
2. By My Side - Ben Harper, off of Fight For Your Mind
Ben Harper is good. Really good. This song is a little on the unremarkable side so there's not a ton to say other than, if you're not listening to Ben Harper, you're way the fuck behind.
3. You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins, off of Hits
Oh dear god. This is awful. Normally i'd skip it and get to something good but i'm in a hurry today and we haven't had anything this bad on the Shuffle in so long, that it almost feels good to talk about something i hate. This is a cover or a song i've never liked and Phil isn't really helping the situation. And usually i like Phil Collins just like i like Peter Gabriel and Genesis. "In The Air Tonight", despite being used as the intro for every Fox nighttime sporting event, is a great song and "Another Day in Paradise" is a great sounding song with tremendously poignant lyrics. Seems weird that he'd include an awful, cheesy cover like this on an album called Hits. Although, i've often felt that when a band does a greatest hits CD, they're pretty much mailing it in anyway.
4. The Light & The Glass (acoustic) - Coheed & Cambria
I don't know where i bootlegged the acoustic version from but it's pretty good. This is one of my favorite Coheed songs and if forced at gunpoint to say whether i liked the acoustic version or the album version better, i'd have to say the album version. For some reason Claudio uses this weird effect on his voice when he does acoustic stuff. It sounds like he's harmonizing with himself but the high harmony is sang through a kazoo. It's weird and it doesn't help. It actually hurts. He does it on a lot of stuff and i don't know why. The guitar parts really stand up acoustically which i'm always happy to be able to say. Guitars have always been a Co& Ca strong point and usually Claudio's vocals compete neck and neck, but not on this recording. Occasionally throughout this song they turn the effect off and it sounds great. Bummer they couldn't just do the whole thing like that. In other news, Coheed did a 5 track acoustic LP that was available on iTunes for a while. They didn't use the vocal effect in those tracks and it's awesome. They do a super slo-mo version of A Favor House Atlantic and a souped up version of The Final Cut which is just some of the best air-guitar material i've ever listened to. Let me know if you want it.
5. Hey Hey - Eric Clapton, off of Unplugged
Everyone knows this CD for the acoustic of Layla and of course the heart-wrenching Tears in Heaven, but this whole thing is extremely kick-ass. And despite the downbeats and minor chords of the aforementioned songs, it actually seems like Clapton had a great time during this recording and was laughing and jamming happily through most of it. Good stuff, and if you don't have this you're way the fuck behind; again.
Alright that's it for me. I'm off to hell. I've got some new things to post in the next few weeks, including a follow up on some of those bands i didn't quite get to in 2006 but have had the chance to listen to in the meantime.
It's good to be back, on with the shuffle:
1. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd, off of The Best of Pink Floyd
This song has a distinct Beatles, early The Who feeling to it, which is different than i'm used to from Floyd. It, of course, still has the requisite psychedelic sound to it. And since i have nothing else to say, i'll recount this story for you.
When we were 20 and drinking on fake IDs, one of our favorite shitty little bars was called the Horse and Hound, on Broadway in Tempe. They had tons of specials, pretty decent food, a lot of video games, TVs, off-track betting and of course a jukebox full of random music. The jukebox had a lot of good classic rock and some decent modern stuff and it also had a ton of the obligatory white trash bullshit that one would associate with a bar such as this. (ie. Kid Rock, Linkin Park, etc.) Well anyway, when the place was packed on a Friday night our good friend Adam Pierce would go to the jukebox and select Echos by Pink Floyd. If you've never heard Echoes then you won't get it but it's basically a 16 minute song full of random noises and, well, echoes. After about the 8 minute mark people would start looking around to see what the hell was going on with the jukebox and trying to identify the person in the bar who thought that would be a good bar song....high comedy. Guess you had to be there.
2. By My Side - Ben Harper, off of Fight For Your Mind
Ben Harper is good. Really good. This song is a little on the unremarkable side so there's not a ton to say other than, if you're not listening to Ben Harper, you're way the fuck behind.
3. You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins, off of Hits
Oh dear god. This is awful. Normally i'd skip it and get to something good but i'm in a hurry today and we haven't had anything this bad on the Shuffle in so long, that it almost feels good to talk about something i hate. This is a cover or a song i've never liked and Phil isn't really helping the situation. And usually i like Phil Collins just like i like Peter Gabriel and Genesis. "In The Air Tonight", despite being used as the intro for every Fox nighttime sporting event, is a great song and "Another Day in Paradise" is a great sounding song with tremendously poignant lyrics. Seems weird that he'd include an awful, cheesy cover like this on an album called Hits. Although, i've often felt that when a band does a greatest hits CD, they're pretty much mailing it in anyway.
4. The Light & The Glass (acoustic) - Coheed & Cambria
I don't know where i bootlegged the acoustic version from but it's pretty good. This is one of my favorite Coheed songs and if forced at gunpoint to say whether i liked the acoustic version or the album version better, i'd have to say the album version. For some reason Claudio uses this weird effect on his voice when he does acoustic stuff. It sounds like he's harmonizing with himself but the high harmony is sang through a kazoo. It's weird and it doesn't help. It actually hurts. He does it on a lot of stuff and i don't know why. The guitar parts really stand up acoustically which i'm always happy to be able to say. Guitars have always been a Co& Ca strong point and usually Claudio's vocals compete neck and neck, but not on this recording. Occasionally throughout this song they turn the effect off and it sounds great. Bummer they couldn't just do the whole thing like that. In other news, Coheed did a 5 track acoustic LP that was available on iTunes for a while. They didn't use the vocal effect in those tracks and it's awesome. They do a super slo-mo version of A Favor House Atlantic and a souped up version of The Final Cut which is just some of the best air-guitar material i've ever listened to. Let me know if you want it.
5. Hey Hey - Eric Clapton, off of Unplugged
Everyone knows this CD for the acoustic of Layla and of course the heart-wrenching Tears in Heaven, but this whole thing is extremely kick-ass. And despite the downbeats and minor chords of the aforementioned songs, it actually seems like Clapton had a great time during this recording and was laughing and jamming happily through most of it. Good stuff, and if you don't have this you're way the fuck behind; again.
Alright that's it for me. I'm off to hell. I've got some new things to post in the next few weeks, including a follow up on some of those bands i didn't quite get to in 2006 but have had the chance to listen to in the meantime.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Commit This To Memory
This isn't a best of 2006 as much as i want it to be. I'm not that current and i don't apologize for that. Music, like wine, needs to age and i'm glad there are people out there that agree (specifically thanks to Kevo). Some people are completely on top of everything new. I'm not one of them and i'm OK with that.
Top 3 Radio Songs of 2006 (knowing that i've listened to the radio a total of 8 minutes all year):
3. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2. Chamillionaire - Riding Dirty
1. Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
Top 6 Bands/Albums I'm Looking Forward to Digging Into in 2007:
6. The Killers - Sam's Town
5. Radiohead (for real this time)
4. The Roots - Game Theory
3. Johnny Cash
2. Jurassic 5 - Feedback
1. The Decemberists
Top Bands That I Need a New Album from in 2007:
6. Jimmy Eat World
5. Coheed & Cambria
4. Common
3. BlackStar
2. Counting Crows
1. The Fugees
The Kanye West Award, in honor of Sophomore Albums that will inevitably suck:
Panic! at the Disco
The Pixies Award for Most Unique of the Year:
Tie between Matisyahu and Joanna Newsom
The Rocky Balboa Comeback Album of the Year:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
Most Critically Acclaimed Album That My Mom Suggested:
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
The Prom Night Award for Biggest Let Down of The Year:
Thursday - A City by The Light Divided
Top 10 New (to me) Albums of 2006:
10. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
9. Fivespeed - Morning Over Midnight
8. Doves - Some Cities
7. Matt Costa - Songs We Sing
6. Robert Earl Keen - What I Really Mean
5. OAR - Stories of a Stranger
4. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
3. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison
2. Tool - 10,000 Days
1. Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
Imogen was a tough call at number 1, but it did get a lot of "love at first listen" points. When i first put her CD on i had no idea what to even expect and really only turned it on as background music. When i heard Hide and Seek, i stopped everything i was doing to listen to it. Then i started to CD over just to pay attention to what i had missed. I just like the depth of this CD and i like all the different influences on her music. And her voice just seals the whole deal. So i'm calling it for her. The Tool CD was mind blowing when there were actually songs, but every other track is some kind of ambient noise and that just irritates me and kills the flow of the album. The Snow Patrol album should be higher but i really haven't had a chance to listen to it very well so that's why it's low. I was really impressed with OARs CD especially since its their 8th full-length album but it sounds like its the first one where all their talent finally came together. The Doves CD is super good but it's not anything that new or that special, just an enjoyable album.
So that's that. 2006 is on it's way out, and 2007 will be over too before i've gotten used to signing it on my checks. That's just the way it goes. But the music will be here and so will this blog and the many others that have popped up. I'm looking forward to another year of great music and sharing my thoughts on it with all of you.
Top 3 Radio Songs of 2006 (knowing that i've listened to the radio a total of 8 minutes all year):
3. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2. Chamillionaire - Riding Dirty
1. Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
Top 6 Bands/Albums I'm Looking Forward to Digging Into in 2007:
6. The Killers - Sam's Town
5. Radiohead (for real this time)
4. The Roots - Game Theory
3. Johnny Cash
2. Jurassic 5 - Feedback
1. The Decemberists
Top Bands That I Need a New Album from in 2007:
6. Jimmy Eat World
5. Coheed & Cambria
4. Common
3. BlackStar
2. Counting Crows
1. The Fugees
The Kanye West Award, in honor of Sophomore Albums that will inevitably suck:
Panic! at the Disco
The Pixies Award for Most Unique of the Year:
Tie between Matisyahu and Joanna Newsom
The Rocky Balboa Comeback Album of the Year:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
Most Critically Acclaimed Album That My Mom Suggested:
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
The Prom Night Award for Biggest Let Down of The Year:
Thursday - A City by The Light Divided
Top 10 New (to me) Albums of 2006:
10. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
9. Fivespeed - Morning Over Midnight
8. Doves - Some Cities
7. Matt Costa - Songs We Sing
6. Robert Earl Keen - What I Really Mean
5. OAR - Stories of a Stranger
4. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
3. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison
2. Tool - 10,000 Days
1. Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
Imogen was a tough call at number 1, but it did get a lot of "love at first listen" points. When i first put her CD on i had no idea what to even expect and really only turned it on as background music. When i heard Hide and Seek, i stopped everything i was doing to listen to it. Then i started to CD over just to pay attention to what i had missed. I just like the depth of this CD and i like all the different influences on her music. And her voice just seals the whole deal. So i'm calling it for her. The Tool CD was mind blowing when there were actually songs, but every other track is some kind of ambient noise and that just irritates me and kills the flow of the album. The Snow Patrol album should be higher but i really haven't had a chance to listen to it very well so that's why it's low. I was really impressed with OARs CD especially since its their 8th full-length album but it sounds like its the first one where all their talent finally came together. The Doves CD is super good but it's not anything that new or that special, just an enjoyable album.
So that's that. 2006 is on it's way out, and 2007 will be over too before i've gotten used to signing it on my checks. That's just the way it goes. But the music will be here and so will this blog and the many others that have popped up. I'm looking forward to another year of great music and sharing my thoughts on it with all of you.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Monday Morning Shuffle
Feeling pretty basic and tired on this Monday morning so i'm hoping the shuffle cooperates...we'll see.
1. Mellow My Man - The Roots, off of The Roots Come Alive
My freshman year of college we had 2 kids named Matt that lived on my floor in the dorms. One was like 6'2'' and one was like 5'4'', so naturally they became "Big Matt" and "Little Matt" respectively. Little Matt was from LA, babysat for Samuel L. Jackson, lived in the Hills, and loved hip hop, so much so that he was like the only short, white Jewish kid to attend the Watts Riot benefit concert with De La Soul, Rebels of Rhythm (Jurassic 5's former group) and other classic hip hop groups. This CD always reminds me of him. We listened to it straight through on the way to the mountains and and back and on the night before i moved, we sat in my room with a few people and listened to it while the party raged on outside. Good times. Good CD. The Roots are fantastic, if you didn't know.
2. Liar - Built To Spill, off of You in Reverse
My verdict is still out on Built to Spill. I really like this song but then i'll not like the next one i hear. I'm not really sure and i haven't spent enough time listening to this song to really comment on it. This song usually doesn't pass my iPod ADD test though, which means that while i'm driving, i'm constantly clicking forward on my iPod searching for the perfect song for that drive. And i'll listen to the first 30 seconds of 20 songs instead of listening to 5 songs straight through. I have ADD and unless a song really fits my mood, i'll probably just skip right past it. This song, and other Built to Spill songs, get skipped. If i practiced what i preached and actually listened to the entire CD in order, i'd probably like them a lot more.
3. Well As Well - Before Braille, off of Tired of Not Being Away from Here
I've talked about B4B a lot so i won't go back through all of it, but i will say that Rajiv, their amazing guitarist, is back from Peru and i'm really excited to see what he'll do in the next few months musically. I'm sure the South American influence will really be apparent in his new music. Here's hoping that he gets to it soon. This scene is really really lame. I can't tell you the last time i went to a local show. Oh yeah, probably since i don't have any friends in local bands anymore (good work guys, see you this weekend at Shelly and Mia's wedding...)
4. Lights - Journey, off of Journey's Greatest Hits
My iTunes loves Journey, and as we've said before, what's not to love?
5. Bullet Holes - Dispatch, off of Gut the Van
I'm really, really pissed that they broke up without me ever having the chance to see them live. From all accounts they were just an amazing live band and they're concerts were just good-times all around. Bullet Holes is one of my favorite songs from them, it starts off all slow with this cool vocal intro and harmony and then it runs off into this cool double time action. Dispatch has that college rock kinda feel to them and you can pretty much take that as a description of their music. It's not deep, it's not experimental, it won't change your life, but they do incorporate some cool keyboards, a ton of percussion (they have done entire CDs and albums without a drum set) and very cool vocal harmonies. For a road trip sing-a-long you really couldn't ask for anything better.
Well i wanted simple, and that's pretty much what i got. And even though i said i wouldn't, i'm working on a year in review type post so be sure to check that out later this week/weekend.
1. Mellow My Man - The Roots, off of The Roots Come Alive
My freshman year of college we had 2 kids named Matt that lived on my floor in the dorms. One was like 6'2'' and one was like 5'4'', so naturally they became "Big Matt" and "Little Matt" respectively. Little Matt was from LA, babysat for Samuel L. Jackson, lived in the Hills, and loved hip hop, so much so that he was like the only short, white Jewish kid to attend the Watts Riot benefit concert with De La Soul, Rebels of Rhythm (Jurassic 5's former group) and other classic hip hop groups. This CD always reminds me of him. We listened to it straight through on the way to the mountains and and back and on the night before i moved, we sat in my room with a few people and listened to it while the party raged on outside. Good times. Good CD. The Roots are fantastic, if you didn't know.
2. Liar - Built To Spill, off of You in Reverse
My verdict is still out on Built to Spill. I really like this song but then i'll not like the next one i hear. I'm not really sure and i haven't spent enough time listening to this song to really comment on it. This song usually doesn't pass my iPod ADD test though, which means that while i'm driving, i'm constantly clicking forward on my iPod searching for the perfect song for that drive. And i'll listen to the first 30 seconds of 20 songs instead of listening to 5 songs straight through. I have ADD and unless a song really fits my mood, i'll probably just skip right past it. This song, and other Built to Spill songs, get skipped. If i practiced what i preached and actually listened to the entire CD in order, i'd probably like them a lot more.
3. Well As Well - Before Braille, off of Tired of Not Being Away from Here
I've talked about B4B a lot so i won't go back through all of it, but i will say that Rajiv, their amazing guitarist, is back from Peru and i'm really excited to see what he'll do in the next few months musically. I'm sure the South American influence will really be apparent in his new music. Here's hoping that he gets to it soon. This scene is really really lame. I can't tell you the last time i went to a local show. Oh yeah, probably since i don't have any friends in local bands anymore (good work guys, see you this weekend at Shelly and Mia's wedding...)
4. Lights - Journey, off of Journey's Greatest Hits
My iTunes loves Journey, and as we've said before, what's not to love?
5. Bullet Holes - Dispatch, off of Gut the Van
I'm really, really pissed that they broke up without me ever having the chance to see them live. From all accounts they were just an amazing live band and they're concerts were just good-times all around. Bullet Holes is one of my favorite songs from them, it starts off all slow with this cool vocal intro and harmony and then it runs off into this cool double time action. Dispatch has that college rock kinda feel to them and you can pretty much take that as a description of their music. It's not deep, it's not experimental, it won't change your life, but they do incorporate some cool keyboards, a ton of percussion (they have done entire CDs and albums without a drum set) and very cool vocal harmonies. For a road trip sing-a-long you really couldn't ask for anything better.
Well i wanted simple, and that's pretty much what i got. And even though i said i wouldn't, i'm working on a year in review type post so be sure to check that out later this week/weekend.
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