Thursday, May 28, 2009
who reads these blogs?
I do, when I'm looking through the archives. But then again, I seem to think I'm the only visitor here anyway, so what does it matter?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-RIP Jay Bennett
With the memorial day weekend it begins the unofficial start of
summer. As well as gas prices going higher. Since the first of the
month, prices have gone from 1.95 to 2.46 a fifty cent increase. Guess
you know what that means if that continues. And the speculators and the
asshole Wall Street jerkoffs pricing it higher and higher. Obama
hasn't made much difference, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Now The Top Ten Of The Week.
1. Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen 1976 Dedicated to the class of 2009 of Marion High School who wanted this as their graduation theme song but the MHS principal vetoed that ideal and went with Imagine by John Lennon. I know if I was in that class, I would have voted for the mini opera just to piss off the stuffshirts there but this is the problem of music today. What does it mean when kids of today would rather have a 30 year old song as a theme rather than the crap on the radio? Kids today don't want a rap song or pop tart American Idol crapola for their moment on the podium getting their degree. They want a memorable song. Of course I am told that they would have chosen Green Day's Time Of Your Life (Good Riddence) as well. But then again that song is 12 years old. None of today's graduates were even born when Queen or John Lennon's song were on the top forty. Sorry kids, you should have grown up in our time. Without IPODs or Cellphones you'd be lost but really, we turned out all right without those things.
2. This Time-Bryan Adams 1983 Geezus Louise a Bryan Adams song can get stuck in your head and you can't get it out. Had his damn Heaven song driving me insane most of the morning yesterday. I never cared much of Bryan the Balladeer, perferred Bryan the hard rocker and he knew how to add the right hooks for his hits. I will dig this song or Kids Wanna Rock, but will never forgive him for the dreadful Everything I Do I Do For You or Heaven. That's why they invented the fast forward button on the cd player.
3. Asshole-Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 1995 Dedicated to Kim Jung II, the dumbass North Korean gook whose too busy building nukes and starving his nation. Too bad in this world, we have to deal with shitheads such as Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and their right wing propaganda crap, the horseface Iranian president who if the damn Iranians can get their head out of their asses get rid of this islamic Cheneywannabe. And then theres Kim Jung (makes me) ill. Nuke the gook and neuter him so that the world don't have to deal with dellusional half pints with a small penis and shit for brains.
4. 51 Beers-Claude King 1952 It was a b side to a forgotten country song that charted in selected markets but it was the true meaning of country music back then. Beer And Pinballs. And the B side paid more homage to more beer and celebrating bars and drunks. Betcha Jason Aldean would never cover this song. Geezus, outlaw the pop rock country that's on KHAK already.
5. I Knew The Bride-Nick Lowe 1978 A long time ago, Nick Lowe hooked up with Dave Edmunds and made me a follower of their music. Which was labeled Pure Pop For Now People but there's a album that came out called Stiffs Live to which Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury did two live numbers on that album and it showcase the pub punk rock that most of America missed out. Nick had a much smoother top ten hit of this song with members of Huey Lewis and The News backing him up but this sweatfest of a track with Dave is pure punk bliss.
6. Reasons To Be Cheeful Part 3-Ian Dury and the Blockheads 1979 Stiff Records was legendary in the UK but in the US distribution sucked. Clive Davis released two Stiff albums via Arista; One the aforementioned Stiffs Live and number 2 was Ian Dury's New Boots And Panties, a album that I did find up at HP Books this weekend. Both records went to the cutout bins and Epic/CBS picked up Stiff product in 1979, and getting a sizable hit with Hold On by Ian Gomm. This was a lesser known 45 released and didn't chart. But it has a nice groove to it and Mr. Dury's cockney accent gives this charm. Alas Ian Dury passed away a few years ago but you can find a copy of Ian's best known songs on a Varese Best of. Worth getting I do believe.
7. Four Strong Winds-Neil Young 1978 Faithful remake of the old Ian and Sylvia song back in the 60s.
8. Tell The Truth-Steve Winwood/Eric Clapton 2009 From the new live album Live At Madison Square Garden, this is actually a shorter version than the Derek And The Dominoes live cut 40 years ago almost. It only last 7 minites instead of the usual 12 minites ;-)
9. The Wait-Titanic Love Affair 1991 Dedicated to Jay Bennett who passed away last week of unknown causes, he was 45. Certainly he was known more for his work in Wilco and infamous in the Wilco movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and was villianfied for that. But Bennett was a part of this long forgotten Champaign/Urbana band that signed to Virgin/Charisma for a illfated first album and an EP. This was the final cut on that album and this is Jay singing it. After Wilco, Bennett would go on to produce an album for Blues Traveler and had a serviceable solo career.
10. Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty-Omar And The Howlers 1987 Despite what people tell you, we're still in the great recession. Unless you're a speculator buying up the oil shares on Wall Street. Which makes you no better than Kim Jung II either.
Now The Top Ten Of The Week.
1. Bohemian Rhapsody-Queen 1976 Dedicated to the class of 2009 of Marion High School who wanted this as their graduation theme song but the MHS principal vetoed that ideal and went with Imagine by John Lennon. I know if I was in that class, I would have voted for the mini opera just to piss off the stuffshirts there but this is the problem of music today. What does it mean when kids of today would rather have a 30 year old song as a theme rather than the crap on the radio? Kids today don't want a rap song or pop tart American Idol crapola for their moment on the podium getting their degree. They want a memorable song. Of course I am told that they would have chosen Green Day's Time Of Your Life (Good Riddence) as well. But then again that song is 12 years old. None of today's graduates were even born when Queen or John Lennon's song were on the top forty. Sorry kids, you should have grown up in our time. Without IPODs or Cellphones you'd be lost but really, we turned out all right without those things.
2. This Time-Bryan Adams 1983 Geezus Louise a Bryan Adams song can get stuck in your head and you can't get it out. Had his damn Heaven song driving me insane most of the morning yesterday. I never cared much of Bryan the Balladeer, perferred Bryan the hard rocker and he knew how to add the right hooks for his hits. I will dig this song or Kids Wanna Rock, but will never forgive him for the dreadful Everything I Do I Do For You or Heaven. That's why they invented the fast forward button on the cd player.
3. Asshole-Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers 1995 Dedicated to Kim Jung II, the dumbass North Korean gook whose too busy building nukes and starving his nation. Too bad in this world, we have to deal with shitheads such as Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and their right wing propaganda crap, the horseface Iranian president who if the damn Iranians can get their head out of their asses get rid of this islamic Cheneywannabe. And then theres Kim Jung (makes me) ill. Nuke the gook and neuter him so that the world don't have to deal with dellusional half pints with a small penis and shit for brains.
4. 51 Beers-Claude King 1952 It was a b side to a forgotten country song that charted in selected markets but it was the true meaning of country music back then. Beer And Pinballs. And the B side paid more homage to more beer and celebrating bars and drunks. Betcha Jason Aldean would never cover this song. Geezus, outlaw the pop rock country that's on KHAK already.
5. I Knew The Bride-Nick Lowe 1978 A long time ago, Nick Lowe hooked up with Dave Edmunds and made me a follower of their music. Which was labeled Pure Pop For Now People but there's a album that came out called Stiffs Live to which Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, Elvis Costello and Ian Dury did two live numbers on that album and it showcase the pub punk rock that most of America missed out. Nick had a much smoother top ten hit of this song with members of Huey Lewis and The News backing him up but this sweatfest of a track with Dave is pure punk bliss.
6. Reasons To Be Cheeful Part 3-Ian Dury and the Blockheads 1979 Stiff Records was legendary in the UK but in the US distribution sucked. Clive Davis released two Stiff albums via Arista; One the aforementioned Stiffs Live and number 2 was Ian Dury's New Boots And Panties, a album that I did find up at HP Books this weekend. Both records went to the cutout bins and Epic/CBS picked up Stiff product in 1979, and getting a sizable hit with Hold On by Ian Gomm. This was a lesser known 45 released and didn't chart. But it has a nice groove to it and Mr. Dury's cockney accent gives this charm. Alas Ian Dury passed away a few years ago but you can find a copy of Ian's best known songs on a Varese Best of. Worth getting I do believe.
7. Four Strong Winds-Neil Young 1978 Faithful remake of the old Ian and Sylvia song back in the 60s.
8. Tell The Truth-Steve Winwood/Eric Clapton 2009 From the new live album Live At Madison Square Garden, this is actually a shorter version than the Derek And The Dominoes live cut 40 years ago almost. It only last 7 minites instead of the usual 12 minites ;-)
9. The Wait-Titanic Love Affair 1991 Dedicated to Jay Bennett who passed away last week of unknown causes, he was 45. Certainly he was known more for his work in Wilco and infamous in the Wilco movie I Am Trying To Break Your Heart and was villianfied for that. But Bennett was a part of this long forgotten Champaign/Urbana band that signed to Virgin/Charisma for a illfated first album and an EP. This was the final cut on that album and this is Jay singing it. After Wilco, Bennett would go on to produce an album for Blues Traveler and had a serviceable solo career.
10. Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty-Omar And The Howlers 1987 Despite what people tell you, we're still in the great recession. Unless you're a speculator buying up the oil shares on Wall Street. Which makes you no better than Kim Jung II either.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Crabb Bits: Adam Lambert,High Gas Prices, Gin Blossoms CD
Some of you have emailed me with the question of why if Bob Lefsetz
is such an ass why do I keep reading his daily blogs. Although I
disagree with him wholeheartly on the streaming issue I do sometimes
agree on some of his other things such as The Allman Brothers if they
come into your town then go see them. And they are better then ever
when Warren Haynes is there. Warren does wonderful things, Gov Mule,
The Phil Lesh project, producing The Bottle Rockets etc. And the
Allmans still rock out even at their age. He also gives a good review
on the Doobie Brothers. So I will high five him on that, but still
smack him upside the head on owning music.
So Adam Lambert didn't win American Idol, big fuking deal. It don't make a big deal if Adam didn't win AI, he still gets a recording contract, just like the five finalists. Even William Hung managed to squeeze out a couple albums and people just laughed at him. Does anybody really still give a fuck about any of the past winners and runner ups? Carrie Underwood is as real as a plastic fake tree in my dentist's office. Kelly Clarkson would be easier to take if she wasn't looking in the mirror and trying to be another Whitney Houston. Maybe Adam should do a duet with Carrie and have a BIG HIT that way. KC and CU still get radio play, look at this as them winning the lottery and they got lucky. American Idol is just yet another tv show that you can relive the exciting two seasons over and over again but do you ever play those American Idol CDs? of them doing bad cover versions? Of course you don't that why the bargain bins are full of that crap. The Best of The American Idol Runner ups! Garbage in, garbage out.
Moving on to our most favorite subject of illwill, rising gas prices again. The speculators are coming out of the woodwork to jack the price up again. G'DAMN I would love a stay at home job that way I don't drive 60 miles a day back and forth to work and tell Big Oil and the Speculators to shove it up their ass sideways with a rotting nail board. Since May 1st it has gone up 30 cents a gallon and of course the robot reporters are citing the usual reasons. And i'm sure with hurricane season coming up it'll go up even more. I don't Obama can really do anything to stopping the speculators and Wall Street to fuck the general public all over again. As much we hated GW Bush, it hasn't made any difference with our elected officials in bed with the oil industry. Nancy Pelosi is no different then Trent Lott it seems. Just another crook from the left side of the podium. We shouldn't see 4 dollar gallon gas this year or maybe next but i'm speculating, but I aint making money like those Wall Street Speculating cocksuckers are. Should have let the mutherfuckers go bankrupt. Live in our world fuckheads.
Of course it always goes up on memorial day. That's why I don't go bargain hunting out of state. It's 2.35 now. But I'm sure the slightest excuses it'll go up more.
No band practice this week. Maybe next week. Maybe not.
Outdated Media Review
The Gin Blossoms-Live In Concert (Cleopatra)
For a band that has been around for twenty years, The Gin Bunnies had only made 4 albums and an EP (They have something like 4 best ofs) but I've been following them ever since seeing them live in 92 at Chuy's in Tempe. And the GBs have always been a fun live act although they lost their best songwriter due to too much booze and too much depression. Then they broke up and then got back together again and made a okay reunion album which sold a hair of their A and M albums. Live In Concert shows them playing to a small Ohio crowd but the songs from Major Lodge Victory sound more alive live then on the studio albums and even on bad nights, their hits are the sound of ear candy. They're not a jam band as the 10 minite Super Girl indicates (goes on too long and you had to there to see it), and the record gets docked a notch for fadeouts after the end of songs (the treat of an Gin Blossom show is Robin Wilson doing stage banter between songs). If one's going to pay 15 bucks for a CD at least keep the whole show going without fadeouts. But if you're a fan of the Gin Blossoms like I have been the past 18 it makes a nice conversation piece. It may not make you trade in their Just South Of Nowhere live DVD, but for latter day professional exMTV darlings, I like it just fine. And unlike MTV, I have never abandoned the Gin Boys one bit though Congratulations I'm Sorry remains a chore to listen all the way through.
Grade B
Hits: Idiot Summer, Learning The Hard Way, Rocket Man
So Adam Lambert didn't win American Idol, big fuking deal. It don't make a big deal if Adam didn't win AI, he still gets a recording contract, just like the five finalists. Even William Hung managed to squeeze out a couple albums and people just laughed at him. Does anybody really still give a fuck about any of the past winners and runner ups? Carrie Underwood is as real as a plastic fake tree in my dentist's office. Kelly Clarkson would be easier to take if she wasn't looking in the mirror and trying to be another Whitney Houston. Maybe Adam should do a duet with Carrie and have a BIG HIT that way. KC and CU still get radio play, look at this as them winning the lottery and they got lucky. American Idol is just yet another tv show that you can relive the exciting two seasons over and over again but do you ever play those American Idol CDs? of them doing bad cover versions? Of course you don't that why the bargain bins are full of that crap. The Best of The American Idol Runner ups! Garbage in, garbage out.
Moving on to our most favorite subject of illwill, rising gas prices again. The speculators are coming out of the woodwork to jack the price up again. G'DAMN I would love a stay at home job that way I don't drive 60 miles a day back and forth to work and tell Big Oil and the Speculators to shove it up their ass sideways with a rotting nail board. Since May 1st it has gone up 30 cents a gallon and of course the robot reporters are citing the usual reasons. And i'm sure with hurricane season coming up it'll go up even more. I don't Obama can really do anything to stopping the speculators and Wall Street to fuck the general public all over again. As much we hated GW Bush, it hasn't made any difference with our elected officials in bed with the oil industry. Nancy Pelosi is no different then Trent Lott it seems. Just another crook from the left side of the podium. We shouldn't see 4 dollar gallon gas this year or maybe next but i'm speculating, but I aint making money like those Wall Street Speculating cocksuckers are. Should have let the mutherfuckers go bankrupt. Live in our world fuckheads.
Of course it always goes up on memorial day. That's why I don't go bargain hunting out of state. It's 2.35 now. But I'm sure the slightest excuses it'll go up more.
No band practice this week. Maybe next week. Maybe not.
Outdated Media Review
The Gin Blossoms-Live In Concert (Cleopatra)
For a band that has been around for twenty years, The Gin Bunnies had only made 4 albums and an EP (They have something like 4 best ofs) but I've been following them ever since seeing them live in 92 at Chuy's in Tempe. And the GBs have always been a fun live act although they lost their best songwriter due to too much booze and too much depression. Then they broke up and then got back together again and made a okay reunion album which sold a hair of their A and M albums. Live In Concert shows them playing to a small Ohio crowd but the songs from Major Lodge Victory sound more alive live then on the studio albums and even on bad nights, their hits are the sound of ear candy. They're not a jam band as the 10 minite Super Girl indicates (goes on too long and you had to there to see it), and the record gets docked a notch for fadeouts after the end of songs (the treat of an Gin Blossom show is Robin Wilson doing stage banter between songs). If one's going to pay 15 bucks for a CD at least keep the whole show going without fadeouts. But if you're a fan of the Gin Blossoms like I have been the past 18 it makes a nice conversation piece. It may not make you trade in their Just South Of Nowhere live DVD, but for latter day professional exMTV darlings, I like it just fine. And unlike MTV, I have never abandoned the Gin Boys one bit though Congratulations I'm Sorry remains a chore to listen all the way through.
Grade B
Hits: Idiot Summer, Learning The Hard Way, Rocket Man
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Horrorscope Of The Day
You can talk all you want, dear Aquarius, but it won't do you any
good if no one is listening. There is a good chance that what you say
will go in one ear and out the other. Be aware that even if you say
something to someone that you think is perfectly clear, there is a good
chance that he or she will not understand your message the way you
intended it. If there is a piece of information that is extremely
important, you are better off putting it in writing.
Such as this top ten.
1. Turn Up The Radio-The Rockets 1979 Long forgotten band from Detroit formed from the ashes of Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels, made a few albums on RSO and Elektra, the Elektra albums got reissued as a 2 on 1 via Wounded Bird and now the RSO albums come courtesy of Renaissance Records. Turn Up The Radio was a better album than No Ballads the followup and contained Oh Well, the only top ten The Rockets ever had. This song got released as a forty five and went nowhere.
2. Shut Up-Kelly Osbourne 2002 Dedicated to Bob Lefsetz and his rants against us record collectors. Stream all you want but give me the product so I can read the liner notes and see the artwork. I'm beginning to think that Gene Simmons was right about you.
3. Summer Means Fun-Bruce And Terry 1964 With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it is the unofficial beginning of summer if you can believe that. Makes you wonder where all the time goes by. Of course summer means the usual vacation to the desert and our 30th high school reunion to which I have to go and see the usual suspects. The options of vacation this year is Vegas or Phoenix? To be determined although I have yet to even attempt to look at airplane fares.
4. She Got The Mojo And The Say So-The Blue Band 1993 They remain the party band of Eastern Iowa although without a mom and pop record store around the area, it's hard to know what they got out for music anymore. Sometimes Bob Dorr plays it more for yucks than music but once in a while The Blue Band will come up with a sing along song such as this one. It's summertime and I'm sure Bob Dorr will be in your neighborhood very soon. Check out and enjoy.
5. Cold Chillin-Len featuring Kurtis Blow 1999 One hit wonder group struck it big with Steal My Sunshine to which Z102 doesn't even play anymore (it's too old the reason) the album does have some choice cuts of note but LEN reminds me of the first album from Bloodhound Gang, lots of beat boxes and vinyl cuts and on occasion a punk rock song but this is mostly your typical beat number with original rapper Kurtis Blow talking shit and Shar cooing in the background. Catchy, but don't tell Bob Lefsetz about it or he will puke. (can you tell i'm still pissed bout his catty remark about us cd and record buyers, does it still show?)
6. Lungs-Steve Earle 2009 A radical reworking of a Townes Van Zant song that Steve does with The Nightwatch Man (Tom Morello) on guitar. The Townes tribute album that Earle does is pretty good and it should make you go seek out the original artist.
7. As Tears Go By-Marianne Faithfull 1990 Can't tell you why I'm into Faithfull's music this late in life. Just a change of pace I guess. From her 1990 live Blazing Away album.
8. Trashy Women-Confederate Railroad 1992 Hard to believe these guys were the toast of country radio back in that day but in some ways their first album was that trailer trash fun rock and country that a lotta people liked. But of course they had to be the most heaviest (meaning fattest) band to ever hit the stage since Bachman Turner Overdrive and when they played live they had to use those heavy duty steel stages that wouldn't collaspe and crush the first five rows ;-) I don't think Atlantic ever let this band play on the albums, they ended up using Nashville sessionmen. They did managed to make about five albums for Atlantic regardless and may have been the most successful country band on Atlantic, when Atlantic was into country music. But then again Confederate Railroad didn't have much for competition anyway. John M. Montgomery? Neal McCoy? The Great Divide? Lil Kim?!? KHAK still plays this song sometimes before going to the pop country of Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley and the queen of country music, Miss Carrie Underwood. No wonder country radio is the pits.
9. Poor Poor Pitiful Me-Warren Zevon 1976 Six years has passed since the passing of Warren Zevon and I donno. I miss his dry wit and witty remakes of Raspberry Beret and Mannish Boy. Linda Ronstandt had a top ten hit with this a year later.
10. See The Light-Green Day 2009 New Green Day, new concept album and it's not as memorable as American Idiot but it does has it moments despite it being 69 minites long. And the album is number one on the Billboard this week. To all the haters out there, Green Day is no longer a fucking punk band, they're a rock and roll band. They moved out of the basement years ago.
....
Such as this top ten.
1. Turn Up The Radio-The Rockets 1979 Long forgotten band from Detroit formed from the ashes of Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels, made a few albums on RSO and Elektra, the Elektra albums got reissued as a 2 on 1 via Wounded Bird and now the RSO albums come courtesy of Renaissance Records. Turn Up The Radio was a better album than No Ballads the followup and contained Oh Well, the only top ten The Rockets ever had. This song got released as a forty five and went nowhere.
2. Shut Up-Kelly Osbourne 2002 Dedicated to Bob Lefsetz and his rants against us record collectors. Stream all you want but give me the product so I can read the liner notes and see the artwork. I'm beginning to think that Gene Simmons was right about you.
3. Summer Means Fun-Bruce And Terry 1964 With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it is the unofficial beginning of summer if you can believe that. Makes you wonder where all the time goes by. Of course summer means the usual vacation to the desert and our 30th high school reunion to which I have to go and see the usual suspects. The options of vacation this year is Vegas or Phoenix? To be determined although I have yet to even attempt to look at airplane fares.
4. She Got The Mojo And The Say So-The Blue Band 1993 They remain the party band of Eastern Iowa although without a mom and pop record store around the area, it's hard to know what they got out for music anymore. Sometimes Bob Dorr plays it more for yucks than music but once in a while The Blue Band will come up with a sing along song such as this one. It's summertime and I'm sure Bob Dorr will be in your neighborhood very soon. Check out and enjoy.
5. Cold Chillin-Len featuring Kurtis Blow 1999 One hit wonder group struck it big with Steal My Sunshine to which Z102 doesn't even play anymore (it's too old the reason) the album does have some choice cuts of note but LEN reminds me of the first album from Bloodhound Gang, lots of beat boxes and vinyl cuts and on occasion a punk rock song but this is mostly your typical beat number with original rapper Kurtis Blow talking shit and Shar cooing in the background. Catchy, but don't tell Bob Lefsetz about it or he will puke. (can you tell i'm still pissed bout his catty remark about us cd and record buyers, does it still show?)
6. Lungs-Steve Earle 2009 A radical reworking of a Townes Van Zant song that Steve does with The Nightwatch Man (Tom Morello) on guitar. The Townes tribute album that Earle does is pretty good and it should make you go seek out the original artist.
7. As Tears Go By-Marianne Faithfull 1990 Can't tell you why I'm into Faithfull's music this late in life. Just a change of pace I guess. From her 1990 live Blazing Away album.
8. Trashy Women-Confederate Railroad 1992 Hard to believe these guys were the toast of country radio back in that day but in some ways their first album was that trailer trash fun rock and country that a lotta people liked. But of course they had to be the most heaviest (meaning fattest) band to ever hit the stage since Bachman Turner Overdrive and when they played live they had to use those heavy duty steel stages that wouldn't collaspe and crush the first five rows ;-) I don't think Atlantic ever let this band play on the albums, they ended up using Nashville sessionmen. They did managed to make about five albums for Atlantic regardless and may have been the most successful country band on Atlantic, when Atlantic was into country music. But then again Confederate Railroad didn't have much for competition anyway. John M. Montgomery? Neal McCoy? The Great Divide? Lil Kim?!? KHAK still plays this song sometimes before going to the pop country of Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley and the queen of country music, Miss Carrie Underwood. No wonder country radio is the pits.
9. Poor Poor Pitiful Me-Warren Zevon 1976 Six years has passed since the passing of Warren Zevon and I donno. I miss his dry wit and witty remakes of Raspberry Beret and Mannish Boy. Linda Ronstandt had a top ten hit with this a year later.
10. See The Light-Green Day 2009 New Green Day, new concept album and it's not as memorable as American Idiot but it does has it moments despite it being 69 minites long. And the album is number one on the Billboard this week. To all the haters out there, Green Day is no longer a fucking punk band, they're a rock and roll band. They moved out of the basement years ago.
....
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
A War Of Words
Hard to believe but Memorial Day Weekend is coming up soon and it
will be the official beginning of summer. Along with the usual gas
price hikes. For vacation plans it's a choice of either Vegas or Mesa
again; I'd really would love to go back out to Seattle and visit
friends there but even in supposed cheaper airfares we still would have
to take about four airplanes through various cities just to get there.
Would love to head to Spokane to see if I can find Isabella's final
resting place and see if the pawnshops would still have those thousands
of bargain cds but it's different now then it was eight years ago.
We're older, grayer and wider than eight years ago.
I commented on an old bandmate Marvin about trying out for my best friend's band IO, but the other guys thought that with him being in Muscatine and us up here it wouldn't be their worth. I'm also sure their song selction of Sheryl Crow and me refusal to doing her crap also figured into the decision.
The RS Bargain Hunter Network has no major road trips coming up right now since the Corsica rusted out, I have no transportation to get me to Mad City or St Louis or anywhere else so we'll keep it here for the time being. My car mechanic has been workin on a replacement car for the past three years and I'll confer with him on the status of that car. If not, I have to put on my bullshit boots and wade through the nearest car dealership to which they might actually give me a good deal on a newer car and maybe I can pay it off with one easy payment. Maybe then Wells Fargo can get off my ass about updating my account. Last time I bought a car was Old Purple and my ex picked that one out but couldn't keep up the payments so it became mine and for 220,000 miles and 12 winters has outlasted every other car I ever had. But then again I have nothing but old junkers and rebuilt wrecks over the years.
I did managed to listen to the new Green Day 21st Century Breakdown and Steve Earle Townes CD over the past couple days though without a working car and discman, couldn't listen to them in the car. Liked American Idiot, the new album is all over the place and goes on too long but it's a decent followup to Idiot. Townes on the other hand is more uneven than what the reviews give it, Lungs is radical and the rest pretty much plays it as Earle covered Townes himself. If you had to choose one of the albums I'd go with the Steve Earle simply of the fact it sounds better. If the major labels wants to win back music buyers they should consider staying the hell away from Chris or Tom Lord Alge's IPOD sounding mixes. Too fucking compressed and too LOUD. Which has been the biggest problem of CDs of this decade. Nevertheless look for Green Day to top the Billboard at number one this week. And of course, yours truly will pick selected songs for the weekly top ten.
Finally I got a note from a cd buyer who bought the Jimmie Spheeris 1976 Ports Of The Heart CD and complained mildly about having to pay 20 bucks to have a copy. And wondered why the price was so Goll Dang high. I mean she did give me a passing grade (4 out of 5) as outstanding in getting the Cd to her. It comes down to supply and demand (the usual bullshit of why gas prices fucking go up every summer) or the cd being simply hard to find since they made so many copies. Normally, used cds go from a dollar to seven dollars (figure in the 3 bucks for shipping and handling Amazon gives us and it's like getting a new cd without all the wrapper and dogbone sticky). OOP CDs can go as high as 50 to 100 dollars (it did at one time with Nancy and Lee's Rhino CD). I priced it at 20 bucks becuz it was hard to find and that it has not been reissued on CD a second time around domestic or import. There are Amazon buyers out there that will buy a cd and then turn around an jack the price up even more (I've seen a couple buyers who bought my cds and done it-right Mr. Softball?). Since I bought the CD from a store a hour's drive from here I figured in a tank of gas just to offset the price and since I've never seen the cd before I'd priced it as that I would never come across it again. And to make a bit of profit too, I don't deny that. Certainly I didn't want to price it at 8 bucks, only to have a amazon record buyer snatched it out and then relist it at inflated price. Techinally that 20 bucks is like buying it at FYE or Sam Goody. Plus I wanted to give my cds good homes.
People like to complain, I should know. And their comments are duly noted. At the same time I figure this: People have the right to pick and choose of what they want in their music and if you really want something, you have to pay the price or wait till a cheaper cd comes along. For 20 bucks, I'll give them a new jewel case, wrap bubble wrap around it twice and send it in the mail and hope it gets there in one piece.
But the supply and demand trick can work for them too. All she has to do is relist it at 20 bucks on Amazon (or even more) and I'm sure somebody will come along and buy it. I think she got a collector's item though. I don't forsee anybody reissing Ports Of The Heart in the US anytime soon. Jimmie Spheeris was a cult artist and the major labels don't reissue cult artists anyway. Unless Wounded Bird or Collectors Choice Music does. Nevertheless, keep the cd in good shape and resell it and you'll get your money back that way.
Have a good day.
Idiot.
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/05/19/best-buynapster5/
Streaming might be a part of your life but I can speak for the majority of bargain hunters that phsyical product still matters. Why the hell Bob can't see it is beyond me.
Good fucking Grief
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/05/19/streaming-vs-ownership/
If I hear one more fucking thing about CDs being history IM GOING TO PUKE. Streaming WILL be a PART of YOUR future, not MINE. What do you do when you have fucking dialup and have no DSL in the rural areas? YOU CANT HEAR THE FUCKING STREAMING ANYWAY.
If I hear one more fucking thing about the real thing being history, I'll give you the finger and fart in your direction. Why is it that there are folk that want to trumpet the end of music as we know it in favor of a virtual jukebox that is like radio if you don't want to hear the damn song. That is why I buy 45s, albums etc. To get to hear the music that I WANT. Great let's us all download and not have to have product in our hands, get a new computer when it crashes and rebuy all over again. What in the MUTHERFUCK?!?
I will not be a part of the future cuz my time won't allow me to experience it full dead on before they get the kinks out and elimate cds and whatnot. If we are so goddammed gung ho on perserving the music we grew up with, will we get to hear Neal Ford's 45s on the net? Soul Brothers Six? The Godz (Both ESP Disk and Casablanca?) or Neil Frederick I Belong To You? Bill Amesbury? The Brains? Give me the definite answers so I can trade ALL of my music for the virtual jukebox of endless music at my fingertips. Give me a site that I can hear ALL of The Townedgers mutherfukker and I'll sell everything and embrace this so called wave of the future.
Till then, piss off. We're not going to get everything that is promised. The future is bright indeed Bob. Quit staring at the bright future, it's making you go blind.
And bob sez
If you can hear everything you want whenever you want, why do you need to own it?
I say
Becuz the net doesn't have EVERYTHING I want to hear. Townedgers! Paraphernalia! Bill Amesbury! Which is why we got to own it to hear it dumbass. It's not all going to be out there. Which is why the bargainhunter goes find the forgotten song. Till then, prove me wrong. The net will be a way of life in our next lives should we return to this cesspool we call Earth or streaming will be a way of life.
Glad to know you're on the up and coming. Leave me with the tried and true.
I commented on an old bandmate Marvin about trying out for my best friend's band IO, but the other guys thought that with him being in Muscatine and us up here it wouldn't be their worth. I'm also sure their song selction of Sheryl Crow and me refusal to doing her crap also figured into the decision.
The RS Bargain Hunter Network has no major road trips coming up right now since the Corsica rusted out, I have no transportation to get me to Mad City or St Louis or anywhere else so we'll keep it here for the time being. My car mechanic has been workin on a replacement car for the past three years and I'll confer with him on the status of that car. If not, I have to put on my bullshit boots and wade through the nearest car dealership to which they might actually give me a good deal on a newer car and maybe I can pay it off with one easy payment. Maybe then Wells Fargo can get off my ass about updating my account. Last time I bought a car was Old Purple and my ex picked that one out but couldn't keep up the payments so it became mine and for 220,000 miles and 12 winters has outlasted every other car I ever had. But then again I have nothing but old junkers and rebuilt wrecks over the years.
I did managed to listen to the new Green Day 21st Century Breakdown and Steve Earle Townes CD over the past couple days though without a working car and discman, couldn't listen to them in the car. Liked American Idiot, the new album is all over the place and goes on too long but it's a decent followup to Idiot. Townes on the other hand is more uneven than what the reviews give it, Lungs is radical and the rest pretty much plays it as Earle covered Townes himself. If you had to choose one of the albums I'd go with the Steve Earle simply of the fact it sounds better. If the major labels wants to win back music buyers they should consider staying the hell away from Chris or Tom Lord Alge's IPOD sounding mixes. Too fucking compressed and too LOUD. Which has been the biggest problem of CDs of this decade. Nevertheless look for Green Day to top the Billboard at number one this week. And of course, yours truly will pick selected songs for the weekly top ten.
Finally I got a note from a cd buyer who bought the Jimmie Spheeris 1976 Ports Of The Heart CD and complained mildly about having to pay 20 bucks to have a copy. And wondered why the price was so Goll Dang high. I mean she did give me a passing grade (4 out of 5) as outstanding in getting the Cd to her. It comes down to supply and demand (the usual bullshit of why gas prices fucking go up every summer) or the cd being simply hard to find since they made so many copies. Normally, used cds go from a dollar to seven dollars (figure in the 3 bucks for shipping and handling Amazon gives us and it's like getting a new cd without all the wrapper and dogbone sticky). OOP CDs can go as high as 50 to 100 dollars (it did at one time with Nancy and Lee's Rhino CD). I priced it at 20 bucks becuz it was hard to find and that it has not been reissued on CD a second time around domestic or import. There are Amazon buyers out there that will buy a cd and then turn around an jack the price up even more (I've seen a couple buyers who bought my cds and done it-right Mr. Softball?). Since I bought the CD from a store a hour's drive from here I figured in a tank of gas just to offset the price and since I've never seen the cd before I'd priced it as that I would never come across it again. And to make a bit of profit too, I don't deny that. Certainly I didn't want to price it at 8 bucks, only to have a amazon record buyer snatched it out and then relist it at inflated price. Techinally that 20 bucks is like buying it at FYE or Sam Goody. Plus I wanted to give my cds good homes.
People like to complain, I should know. And their comments are duly noted. At the same time I figure this: People have the right to pick and choose of what they want in their music and if you really want something, you have to pay the price or wait till a cheaper cd comes along. For 20 bucks, I'll give them a new jewel case, wrap bubble wrap around it twice and send it in the mail and hope it gets there in one piece.
But the supply and demand trick can work for them too. All she has to do is relist it at 20 bucks on Amazon (or even more) and I'm sure somebody will come along and buy it. I think she got a collector's item though. I don't forsee anybody reissing Ports Of The Heart in the US anytime soon. Jimmie Spheeris was a cult artist and the major labels don't reissue cult artists anyway. Unless Wounded Bird or Collectors Choice Music does. Nevertheless, keep the cd in good shape and resell it and you'll get your money back that way.
Have a good day.
Idiot.
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/05/19/best-buynapster5/
Streaming might be a part of your life but I can speak for the majority of bargain hunters that phsyical product still matters. Why the hell Bob can't see it is beyond me.
Good fucking Grief
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/05/19/streaming-vs-ownership/
If I hear one more fucking thing about CDs being history IM GOING TO PUKE. Streaming WILL be a PART of YOUR future, not MINE. What do you do when you have fucking dialup and have no DSL in the rural areas? YOU CANT HEAR THE FUCKING STREAMING ANYWAY.
If I hear one more fucking thing about the real thing being history, I'll give you the finger and fart in your direction. Why is it that there are folk that want to trumpet the end of music as we know it in favor of a virtual jukebox that is like radio if you don't want to hear the damn song. That is why I buy 45s, albums etc. To get to hear the music that I WANT. Great let's us all download and not have to have product in our hands, get a new computer when it crashes and rebuy all over again. What in the MUTHERFUCK?!?
I will not be a part of the future cuz my time won't allow me to experience it full dead on before they get the kinks out and elimate cds and whatnot. If we are so goddammed gung ho on perserving the music we grew up with, will we get to hear Neal Ford's 45s on the net? Soul Brothers Six? The Godz (Both ESP Disk and Casablanca?) or Neil Frederick I Belong To You? Bill Amesbury? The Brains? Give me the definite answers so I can trade ALL of my music for the virtual jukebox of endless music at my fingertips. Give me a site that I can hear ALL of The Townedgers mutherfukker and I'll sell everything and embrace this so called wave of the future.
Till then, piss off. We're not going to get everything that is promised. The future is bright indeed Bob. Quit staring at the bright future, it's making you go blind.
And bob sez
If you can hear everything you want whenever you want, why do you need to own it?
I say
Becuz the net doesn't have EVERYTHING I want to hear. Townedgers! Paraphernalia! Bill Amesbury! Which is why we got to own it to hear it dumbass. It's not all going to be out there. Which is why the bargainhunter goes find the forgotten song. Till then, prove me wrong. The net will be a way of life in our next lives should we return to this cesspool we call Earth or streaming will be a way of life.
Glad to know you're on the up and coming. Leave me with the tried and true.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Crabb Bits: Wayman Tisdale, Boston, Radio Crap
Wayman Tisdale, great OU basketball player who later became a excellent
jazz bass player died of Cancer and he was 44 years old. Wayman was a
original who went from one profession to another, going from sports to
music. It is hard to tell when your time is up, here I am bitching at
each and every thing in the world and I should have been dead years ago
from either a stroke or heart attack but here I am. But when I read
about people such as Wayman or somebody younger passing on, I sometimes
wonder what their life was all about or their families. I've been living
in a fog for so long that even I don't know what I have done the past
couple years. I guess that's why I blog a lot. It helps me remember
things I would have forgotten years ago.
Dave White is the About.com classic rock host and he's been on a tirade against Tom Scholtz of Boston about the legacy of Boston and how other ex band members are trying to mosy in on his creation. In fact that overplayed first album remains perhaps one of the greatest creations of do it yourself music. Music from the basement and basically it was Tom's baby from the get go. I used to have an admiration for Barry Gordeau, the other guitarist. The more I read about him the more it becomes clearer that Barry tends to want more of the pie than he contributed. His 1980 S/T album was probably a good Boston tribute album since he got John Boylan to co produce it and got Brad Delp to sing on it as well as Fran Cosmo. And the first three songs from the RTZ album of 1990 was classic too. But you can hear the difference between Barry's part of the band (Baby Let Me Take You Home Tonight) and the rest of Tom's vision and songs. For the most part of his career Tom has had to fend off many lawsuits from the likes of Barry and Sib Hasian, the drummer . The big logic is that Boston IS Tom Scholz, has always been, has will be. As much as flawed the albums were beginning with Third Stage, Walk On and Corporate America those records remain Boston because Tom did most of the work and music. There's always going to be some disgruntled ex band mate that will probably bitch and moan and sue Tom once again and we'll may never see another Boston album in our lifetime (although 2011 is the target date for the next Boston record-supposedly). The voice of Boston was stilled back in 2007 when Brad Delp chose to take his life. Unless Barry Gordeau or Sib Hasian can sing like Brad they should just shut the fuck up and take their royalties like good little workers should. As for Dave White, he's entitled to his opinion and the people that he made mad theirs. But it's not whining and crying as Dave tells it, it's Tom himself trying to tell his side of the story and basically his story is more believable. UPDATE: since Dave White is no longer part of about. com, the link became obsolete. Also something about being a attack site, so I deleted the link.
Look For A Black Eye For Boston or something other like that. I'm sure Dave is entitled to his opinion and not going to slam him for his views. But Boston remains Tom Scholtz and if Barry and Sib can't handle it, that's their tough cookie. Back to the bars y'all.
And had Barry decided to let Tom play on his S/T 1980, it could have been the third Boston album, instead it turned out to be a very good tribute album instead. As for Orion The Hunter or RTZ.......or Eddie And The Automatics.
Good moments but they're not Boston. I did take the time to check out the songs from The My Space site of Eddie And The Automatics which features ex Boston, RTZ and Orion The Hunter members, namely Barry Gourdeau and Sib Hashian plus the saxophone player from The Beaver Brown Band and find them to be a good blues band although what I heard won't prompt me to go seek their album out. And so it goes.
http://www.cmt.com/news/1611430/nashville-skyline-music-industrys-future-parallels-that-of-newspapers/
Another article about the demise of radio and newspapers and other things that are associated with the Great Depression 2. Again The Telecom act of 1996 has killed media as we know it and spawned the hated Clear Channel and the dreaded Cumulus Corp that owns four of the stations in the area (namely KHAK and KDAT). I'm not saying that music is dead, but nothing that has come out new gets promoted anymore. What you hear on the radio is total shit. Top forty Radio is shit, country radio here is shit and most of the new rock stations are shit. The RIAA looks after the best interest of the Big 4 and the Big 4 don't give a fuck for music anymore. They'd rather sue the file-traders and put up those "home taping is killing music" propaganda shit that makes people quit buying new music anymore. At some point, you give up in trying to find worthwhile music since none of the new acts have any staying power and the top forty pop tarts suck and the rap that dominates top forty sucks even more. Seems like everytime Jenna at work plays that fucking Z102.9 I just want to bash her upside the head with the radio. Why continue to torture your coworkers with this shit when you can be better off listening to it with your earplugs? Led Zeppelin remains classic but if KRNA rather plays something from 40 years ago or Nirvana from 18, it doesn't bode well for an honest rock band out there, not playing to the suits and bean-counters at the labels or radio. Black Stone Cherry remains perhaps the only new rock band that I like to hear. But we have way too many Nickleback wannabes, or Linkin Park wannabes and no original bands with original music since radio won't play them. Radio sucked ten years ago but it's worse today. You don't need to waterboard a terrorist, just play them the crappy top forty radio station and they'll cave in.
I still believe in the power of rock and roll and a good song but it's time for me to clean out my closet and get rid of the overplayed songs on scratchy 45s. I don't see the need of Sweet Home Alabama anymore, nor Take The Money And Run. Nostalgia can only go for so long before like anything else, clogs up the house and takes up valuable space. Once TX weekend passes, think I'll do that. Keep a eye out at the local Marion Salvation Army for the useless shit I don't need anymore.
And I haven't made any comments on the local band news cuz there's nothing to report. Maybe next week or the week after that.
Dave White is the About.com classic rock host and he's been on a tirade against Tom Scholtz of Boston about the legacy of Boston and how other ex band members are trying to mosy in on his creation. In fact that overplayed first album remains perhaps one of the greatest creations of do it yourself music. Music from the basement and basically it was Tom's baby from the get go. I used to have an admiration for Barry Gordeau, the other guitarist. The more I read about him the more it becomes clearer that Barry tends to want more of the pie than he contributed. His 1980 S/T album was probably a good Boston tribute album since he got John Boylan to co produce it and got Brad Delp to sing on it as well as Fran Cosmo. And the first three songs from the RTZ album of 1990 was classic too. But you can hear the difference between Barry's part of the band (Baby Let Me Take You Home Tonight) and the rest of Tom's vision and songs. For the most part of his career Tom has had to fend off many lawsuits from the likes of Barry and Sib Hasian, the drummer . The big logic is that Boston IS Tom Scholz, has always been, has will be. As much as flawed the albums were beginning with Third Stage, Walk On and Corporate America those records remain Boston because Tom did most of the work and music. There's always going to be some disgruntled ex band mate that will probably bitch and moan and sue Tom once again and we'll may never see another Boston album in our lifetime (although 2011 is the target date for the next Boston record-supposedly). The voice of Boston was stilled back in 2007 when Brad Delp chose to take his life. Unless Barry Gordeau or Sib Hasian can sing like Brad they should just shut the fuck up and take their royalties like good little workers should. As for Dave White, he's entitled to his opinion and the people that he made mad theirs. But it's not whining and crying as Dave tells it, it's Tom himself trying to tell his side of the story and basically his story is more believable. UPDATE: since Dave White is no longer part of about. com, the link became obsolete. Also something about being a attack site, so I deleted the link.
Look For A Black Eye For Boston or something other like that. I'm sure Dave is entitled to his opinion and not going to slam him for his views. But Boston remains Tom Scholtz and if Barry and Sib can't handle it, that's their tough cookie. Back to the bars y'all.
And had Barry decided to let Tom play on his S/T 1980, it could have been the third Boston album, instead it turned out to be a very good tribute album instead. As for Orion The Hunter or RTZ.......or Eddie And The Automatics.
Good moments but they're not Boston. I did take the time to check out the songs from The My Space site of Eddie And The Automatics which features ex Boston, RTZ and Orion The Hunter members, namely Barry Gourdeau and Sib Hashian plus the saxophone player from The Beaver Brown Band and find them to be a good blues band although what I heard won't prompt me to go seek their album out. And so it goes.
http://www.cmt.com/news/1611430/nashville-skyline-music-industrys-future-parallels-that-of-newspapers/
Another article about the demise of radio and newspapers and other things that are associated with the Great Depression 2. Again The Telecom act of 1996 has killed media as we know it and spawned the hated Clear Channel and the dreaded Cumulus Corp that owns four of the stations in the area (namely KHAK and KDAT). I'm not saying that music is dead, but nothing that has come out new gets promoted anymore. What you hear on the radio is total shit. Top forty Radio is shit, country radio here is shit and most of the new rock stations are shit. The RIAA looks after the best interest of the Big 4 and the Big 4 don't give a fuck for music anymore. They'd rather sue the file-traders and put up those "home taping is killing music" propaganda shit that makes people quit buying new music anymore. At some point, you give up in trying to find worthwhile music since none of the new acts have any staying power and the top forty pop tarts suck and the rap that dominates top forty sucks even more. Seems like everytime Jenna at work plays that fucking Z102.9 I just want to bash her upside the head with the radio. Why continue to torture your coworkers with this shit when you can be better off listening to it with your earplugs? Led Zeppelin remains classic but if KRNA rather plays something from 40 years ago or Nirvana from 18, it doesn't bode well for an honest rock band out there, not playing to the suits and bean-counters at the labels or radio. Black Stone Cherry remains perhaps the only new rock band that I like to hear. But we have way too many Nickleback wannabes, or Linkin Park wannabes and no original bands with original music since radio won't play them. Radio sucked ten years ago but it's worse today. You don't need to waterboard a terrorist, just play them the crappy top forty radio station and they'll cave in.
I still believe in the power of rock and roll and a good song but it's time for me to clean out my closet and get rid of the overplayed songs on scratchy 45s. I don't see the need of Sweet Home Alabama anymore, nor Take The Money And Run. Nostalgia can only go for so long before like anything else, clogs up the house and takes up valuable space. Once TX weekend passes, think I'll do that. Keep a eye out at the local Marion Salvation Army for the useless shit I don't need anymore.
And I haven't made any comments on the local band news cuz there's nothing to report. Maybe next week or the week after that.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Crabb Radio
Hopefully I didn't scare everybody off with the last top ten and
tirades. This usually is the most intense time of year with the
manatory texas weekend coming up and the shitty weather and the shitty
storms but thankfully the shitty storms hasn't been as bad as last years
historic ones.
This was supposed to be my year of things getting better. The year that things would improve. So far it hasn't. Old Purple, the trusty Corsica of the past ten years, one of the areas has rusted out to the point that the shock absorber broke and slashed my tired in the process. And I ripped my pants as well. Happy Mothers Day. So tell me when things are going to get better?
Looking at the ratings here in Crabbland, it's not going to be in here it seems.
Top forty radio is my version of Waterboarding. Fucking Z102 played the same rap song three times in a hour span and I'm bout ready to throw the damn radio across the workplace. I don't need to hear the radio at work, and I certainly don't need to hear fucking Mr Mister's 1985 crapfest Broken Wings anymore in this life time thank you very much. No wonder people don't listen to the radio or at work feel like they're being held hostage with shitty music. You think The FOX could play any Black Sabbath besides Paranoid or Iron Man? You think for once KDAT or MIX 96 could look beyond Broken Wings or Kelly Clarkston or Taylor Swift? You think KHAcK can play something other than Carrie (i wanna be the white whitney houston) Underwood or Lonestar? The worst stations are KZIA and KHAK in that order and KDAT, Rock 108 and Mix 96 in that order. Even the wonderous Beaker Street on the net is annoying me by Evanescence. I'm sure there's other great song closers besides Anywhere. Perhaps later in the year I'll put together the best of this decade but I'm sure it's a short list and whoever I put up, you probabaly don't know anything about. Repetition sucks. And everytime when The FOX plays something by Skynyrd besides Sweet Home Alabama I want to call them up and said they messed up.
Thank God I don't mess up in my choice of tunes.
1. Never Bad-The Beacon Hillbillies 1996 I'm sure THE FOX or Mix 96.5 or KHAK would never dare putting a bluegrass number starting out the top ten but I do things differently. Jimmy Ryan was part of the famed Blood Oranges and made three albums with this bluegrass offshoot to which you can find copies on the net for 3 bucks (including shipping and handling). I know we shouldn't be remembering this song but it's catchy and it's fun to sing along with.
2. Brainstorm-Hawkwind 1972 There should be a law probhibiting jam bands to do 20 minites songs using the same three chords over and over again but that's the fun of Hawkwind. They were space rock before the term and on this track featuring somebody named Ian Kilmeister on bass who would be later kicked out of the band to form a little rock and roll band called Motorhead. Thank God for imports, the EMI reissue of Doremi Fasol Latido has better sound and more bonus tracks than the One Way issue that is now out of print. I'm still waiting for the copy of In Search Of Space to get here since Collector's Choice Music was out of stock.
3. Looking Out For Number One-UFO 1978 Did you read the article about Phil Mogg making a dig at Status Quo for being around music for 40 years? And that Mogg wasn't going to do a 40th anniversity of UFO. Could it be that he doesn't get along with Mike Schneiker? Or that Phil Mogg simply can't sing anymore. I'm guessing the latter judging by the last three UFO albums sounded. Even though Andy Parker remains the UFO drummer, Jason Bonham played better drums on You Are Here than Parker did on The Monkey Puzzle. Hell, last decent album UFO had out was Sharks, but that was when Mr. Schneiker was playing guitar and even then Phil Mogg couldn't sing very well either. Will I review the next UFO? Nope. Good to see Phil keeping the UFO group going although their expiration date has long since passed.
4. Dazed And Confused-Led Zeppelin 1969 What does it mean when KRNA continues to play a forty year old song that sounds more up to date than half the crap real rock bands that they play on that station? Originality I gather although I have yet to hear the original version done by Jake Holmes. But then again Jake Holmes blew his wad when he co wrote The Genuine Imitation Gazette with the 4 Seasons. Led Zeppelin remains the big band that I followed in my grade school years but I don't add many LZ songs since they're overplayed on the radio and somewhere along the great world there's a Get The Led Out block going on right now.
5. Death Cab For Cutie-Bonzo Dog Band 1967 Funny how one of well known alt bands on a major label took their name from a Bonzo Dog song years ago. Of course I don't think Death Cab For Cutie (the band that is) is as radical as the Bonzos were but nobody was back then. The Bonzos were the forefathers of the British humor that would span Monty Python and were years ahead of their time. Don't look for THE FOX to play anything from the Bonzos. It's not The FOX's idea of overkill.
6. Time To Shine-Paul Rodgers + Queen 2008 On a related note, Paul Rodgers has said that his time with Queen has come to an end and that there won't be anymore new Queen albums forthcoming, unless it's some concert with the old standbys in the can that will be reissued. Perhaps it's better that way. Rodgers' blues stylings never did fit with the radical rock of Brian May and company. Plus you can't replace Freddie Mercury anyway.
7. Another Fine Day-Golden Smog 2006 One of those albums that came out that nobody noticed but I play once in a while. I'm beginning to have more respect in Gary Louris' projects since I met Gary and think he's one of the more down to earth musicians that I have ever met.
8. Let Her Dance-Bobby Fuller Four 1965 Next to Buddy Holly, one of the most talented rockers whose death prevented him from being one of the legends of rock music. I consider him a legend myself. One of very few songs that I could play over and over and not get sick of hearing it.
9. Without Love-Tilted Windows 2009 That super powerpop group that you have heard and actually makes a pretty good album even with Taylor Hanson doing vocals. Yup the same Hanson that gave the world MMMBOP he's grown up to sound a bit like Shaun Cassidy and Rick Springfield. It shouldn't have worked on this album but it does.
10. Reached Out-Stone 1988 And finally this is Spinal Tap metal from Finland. They made a hilarious funny S/T album (or tongue in cheek) that smacked the hair spray out of the hair pop metal bands of that era. Too bad the world didn't get to hear this. It was so under the radar that it didn't get those PA stickers for F bombs. Metallica wasn't never this funny but Anthrax came close. To quote them, "this is our music and if you don't like our music....pick up your boots and fuck off and die (repeat four times).
That's classic rock!
This was supposed to be my year of things getting better. The year that things would improve. So far it hasn't. Old Purple, the trusty Corsica of the past ten years, one of the areas has rusted out to the point that the shock absorber broke and slashed my tired in the process. And I ripped my pants as well. Happy Mothers Day. So tell me when things are going to get better?
Looking at the ratings here in Crabbland, it's not going to be in here it seems.
Top forty radio is my version of Waterboarding. Fucking Z102 played the same rap song three times in a hour span and I'm bout ready to throw the damn radio across the workplace. I don't need to hear the radio at work, and I certainly don't need to hear fucking Mr Mister's 1985 crapfest Broken Wings anymore in this life time thank you very much. No wonder people don't listen to the radio or at work feel like they're being held hostage with shitty music. You think The FOX could play any Black Sabbath besides Paranoid or Iron Man? You think for once KDAT or MIX 96 could look beyond Broken Wings or Kelly Clarkston or Taylor Swift? You think KHAcK can play something other than Carrie (i wanna be the white whitney houston) Underwood or Lonestar? The worst stations are KZIA and KHAK in that order and KDAT, Rock 108 and Mix 96 in that order. Even the wonderous Beaker Street on the net is annoying me by Evanescence. I'm sure there's other great song closers besides Anywhere. Perhaps later in the year I'll put together the best of this decade but I'm sure it's a short list and whoever I put up, you probabaly don't know anything about. Repetition sucks. And everytime when The FOX plays something by Skynyrd besides Sweet Home Alabama I want to call them up and said they messed up.
Thank God I don't mess up in my choice of tunes.
1. Never Bad-The Beacon Hillbillies 1996 I'm sure THE FOX or Mix 96.5 or KHAK would never dare putting a bluegrass number starting out the top ten but I do things differently. Jimmy Ryan was part of the famed Blood Oranges and made three albums with this bluegrass offshoot to which you can find copies on the net for 3 bucks (including shipping and handling). I know we shouldn't be remembering this song but it's catchy and it's fun to sing along with.
2. Brainstorm-Hawkwind 1972 There should be a law probhibiting jam bands to do 20 minites songs using the same three chords over and over again but that's the fun of Hawkwind. They were space rock before the term and on this track featuring somebody named Ian Kilmeister on bass who would be later kicked out of the band to form a little rock and roll band called Motorhead. Thank God for imports, the EMI reissue of Doremi Fasol Latido has better sound and more bonus tracks than the One Way issue that is now out of print. I'm still waiting for the copy of In Search Of Space to get here since Collector's Choice Music was out of stock.
3. Looking Out For Number One-UFO 1978 Did you read the article about Phil Mogg making a dig at Status Quo for being around music for 40 years? And that Mogg wasn't going to do a 40th anniversity of UFO. Could it be that he doesn't get along with Mike Schneiker? Or that Phil Mogg simply can't sing anymore. I'm guessing the latter judging by the last three UFO albums sounded. Even though Andy Parker remains the UFO drummer, Jason Bonham played better drums on You Are Here than Parker did on The Monkey Puzzle. Hell, last decent album UFO had out was Sharks, but that was when Mr. Schneiker was playing guitar and even then Phil Mogg couldn't sing very well either. Will I review the next UFO? Nope. Good to see Phil keeping the UFO group going although their expiration date has long since passed.
4. Dazed And Confused-Led Zeppelin 1969 What does it mean when KRNA continues to play a forty year old song that sounds more up to date than half the crap real rock bands that they play on that station? Originality I gather although I have yet to hear the original version done by Jake Holmes. But then again Jake Holmes blew his wad when he co wrote The Genuine Imitation Gazette with the 4 Seasons. Led Zeppelin remains the big band that I followed in my grade school years but I don't add many LZ songs since they're overplayed on the radio and somewhere along the great world there's a Get The Led Out block going on right now.
5. Death Cab For Cutie-Bonzo Dog Band 1967 Funny how one of well known alt bands on a major label took their name from a Bonzo Dog song years ago. Of course I don't think Death Cab For Cutie (the band that is) is as radical as the Bonzos were but nobody was back then. The Bonzos were the forefathers of the British humor that would span Monty Python and were years ahead of their time. Don't look for THE FOX to play anything from the Bonzos. It's not The FOX's idea of overkill.
6. Time To Shine-Paul Rodgers + Queen 2008 On a related note, Paul Rodgers has said that his time with Queen has come to an end and that there won't be anymore new Queen albums forthcoming, unless it's some concert with the old standbys in the can that will be reissued. Perhaps it's better that way. Rodgers' blues stylings never did fit with the radical rock of Brian May and company. Plus you can't replace Freddie Mercury anyway.
7. Another Fine Day-Golden Smog 2006 One of those albums that came out that nobody noticed but I play once in a while. I'm beginning to have more respect in Gary Louris' projects since I met Gary and think he's one of the more down to earth musicians that I have ever met.
8. Let Her Dance-Bobby Fuller Four 1965 Next to Buddy Holly, one of the most talented rockers whose death prevented him from being one of the legends of rock music. I consider him a legend myself. One of very few songs that I could play over and over and not get sick of hearing it.
9. Without Love-Tilted Windows 2009 That super powerpop group that you have heard and actually makes a pretty good album even with Taylor Hanson doing vocals. Yup the same Hanson that gave the world MMMBOP he's grown up to sound a bit like Shaun Cassidy and Rick Springfield. It shouldn't have worked on this album but it does.
10. Reached Out-Stone 1988 And finally this is Spinal Tap metal from Finland. They made a hilarious funny S/T album (or tongue in cheek) that smacked the hair spray out of the hair pop metal bands of that era. Too bad the world didn't get to hear this. It was so under the radar that it didn't get those PA stickers for F bombs. Metallica wasn't never this funny but Anthrax came close. To quote them, "this is our music and if you don't like our music....pick up your boots and fuck off and die (repeat four times).
That's classic rock!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Rock N Roll and Paraphernalia Blues
I don't post as much over here as I do at My Space or Multiply. In fact I have no less then four other blogs to choose from and have yet to try out the MSN. But then again I'm pissed at them for closing their MSN Groups to which a lotta of my archival stuff is now cyberhistory. I have a Townedger website to chronicle the happenings of my band and other band that I'm in called IO. IO is the reunion of me and my best friend in a band for the first time in 25 years. And I can see the reason why I put off reuniting with my best friend for so long.
Best friends sometimes don't make good bandmates. A few factors come into mind; jobs, family, different tastes in music and the mental capability of can I do this or can I put up with them or can they put up with me? In our heyday back in the early 1980s, we were one of many hungry bands that wanted that rock n roll lifestyle of fame, fortune and getting laid and to some of the others more booze and drugs. To this day, the first band is known as Paraphernalia, a catchy sounding name that would get us noticed but the other guys would change over to some other name that was wasn't so druggy. For country we chose Open Highway, which actually sounds good if you think about it. Safe and easier to take, whereas for rock and roll it was decided that we would be known as Tyrus. Had to do with some name meaning God of thunder but I always hated that name and on the recordings that were availble, renamed it Paraphernalia.
My best friend and I started this band in 1980 and we couldn't play our instruments at all. Yeah I have had drumsets but basically used them to take my frustrations from the world out on them. And toy drumsets do not last. But I did managed to work up getting a Zickos clear drum set and my best friend got a MusicMan bass and we would mess around in the basement. But he went into the Marines and the only time we ever played in the first three years was when he was home from leave. Finally he got out in 1983 and we made plans to get the band going full tilt.
And for the next year, we floundered. We had a revolving door of guitar players (only Dennis remain the one constant) and our lead singer was moonlighting in other bands and my best friend had reunited with his soon to be first wife. His work ethic wasn't that great either, last to show, first to leave. So for most of that year it was me and Dennis jamming away wondering if we can get dedicated musicians to the cause. And most of them were looking for a working band and didn't offer much and if they did, their egos made it impossible to put up with them. One guitarist was so awful that when we did play live one night, he turn the amp up to 10 and after five songs we got shut down by the law and complaining neighbors. Another live gig, our lead singer between jokes and more jokes went on a anti Ronald Reagan tirade that we got thrown out of the Legion Post where we were playing at and almost didn't get our instruments back. Our final show was at the OK Lounge on Dec 7, 1984 to which we got a hired hand to play guitar, only to have him play whammy bar though the gig and still ended up getting a blow job from the girl who was taking band pictures. I never did seen the pictures myself.
Everybody moved on and I started writing and playing in my own band, doing my own originals and keeping a low profile except for maybe one or two apperances at Jam Night at Nancy's. My best friend returned from the Marines in 1989 and since then, he's always suggested that we get the band going again and I pretty much blew him off not because I was being an idiot but knowing that he didn't care of doing the music that I like doing. I did relent and we attempted something in 1990 but the usual would come up and I just say forget it and move on to something else and let him go seek employment elsewhere.
There were times that we did jam in the past 20 years after the demise of Paraphernalia that we did sound great when we played. In 2002 what was left of Paraphernalia got back together and we had a good couple hours before my best friend had to leave and it was like old times again. In 2006 we got together with some guy named John and we all had a blast and perhaps that soften me into thinking why not. When my BFF said that he was forming a band with two chick singers and a guitarist from his workplace I told him I'll be happy to help out till you get a permenant drummer. So I went to Music Go Round, purchased a practice set and then got ready only to find out that the female keyboard player had a baby and couldn't do it and the other girl singer remains a mystery.
So here we are again. The guitar player he talked about was a beginner and my best friend again talking about doing Rush songs left and right. We did get a good guitar player into the fold Brian but the problem is that he doesn't want to sing all the songs, I could sing some of my own but then again my best friend made this slight comment that I wasn't a very good singer but then again Ringo Starr wasn't a great singer bla bla but he made the most of what he does bla bla. And it occured to me why my best friend wasn't a part of the bands beyond Paraphernalia. Being delicate isn't one of his traits. I still love him like a brother, he makes a good IO bandmate but never could fit in with my own band.
There's not much of a market for 48 year old musicians playing 80s type of music. At this point in life, we do it for the fun and for the joy of playing again. Will this band succeed? I'm guessing no. Too much going on in my life and job and love of buying and listening to the forgotten. I did give them songs to consider doing and if they want to do them fine, if not oh well. At this point somebody else may have to sing them since my voice isn't fit for IO.
I've had a long and fruitful career with my own band, even though it hasn't gotten me to quit my job, I managed to make some decent sounding records. But I'm 48, I know what works for me and if my best friend and the rest of the guys in IO want to replace me with somebody who can keep a beat and sing better, I won't hold it against them, I'll support them whatever I can.
But it's not like it was 25 years ago. Somewhere along the way I discovered there's life after being a average bar band whose biggest payday was 40 bucks after our final show. It's not a mansion on a hill but at least I can smile I made some kind of money doing what I loved most next to being in a record store.
My history is set in stone.
Best friends sometimes don't make good bandmates. A few factors come into mind; jobs, family, different tastes in music and the mental capability of can I do this or can I put up with them or can they put up with me? In our heyday back in the early 1980s, we were one of many hungry bands that wanted that rock n roll lifestyle of fame, fortune and getting laid and to some of the others more booze and drugs. To this day, the first band is known as Paraphernalia, a catchy sounding name that would get us noticed but the other guys would change over to some other name that was wasn't so druggy. For country we chose Open Highway, which actually sounds good if you think about it. Safe and easier to take, whereas for rock and roll it was decided that we would be known as Tyrus. Had to do with some name meaning God of thunder but I always hated that name and on the recordings that were availble, renamed it Paraphernalia.
My best friend and I started this band in 1980 and we couldn't play our instruments at all. Yeah I have had drumsets but basically used them to take my frustrations from the world out on them. And toy drumsets do not last. But I did managed to work up getting a Zickos clear drum set and my best friend got a MusicMan bass and we would mess around in the basement. But he went into the Marines and the only time we ever played in the first three years was when he was home from leave. Finally he got out in 1983 and we made plans to get the band going full tilt.
And for the next year, we floundered. We had a revolving door of guitar players (only Dennis remain the one constant) and our lead singer was moonlighting in other bands and my best friend had reunited with his soon to be first wife. His work ethic wasn't that great either, last to show, first to leave. So for most of that year it was me and Dennis jamming away wondering if we can get dedicated musicians to the cause. And most of them were looking for a working band and didn't offer much and if they did, their egos made it impossible to put up with them. One guitarist was so awful that when we did play live one night, he turn the amp up to 10 and after five songs we got shut down by the law and complaining neighbors. Another live gig, our lead singer between jokes and more jokes went on a anti Ronald Reagan tirade that we got thrown out of the Legion Post where we were playing at and almost didn't get our instruments back. Our final show was at the OK Lounge on Dec 7, 1984 to which we got a hired hand to play guitar, only to have him play whammy bar though the gig and still ended up getting a blow job from the girl who was taking band pictures. I never did seen the pictures myself.
Everybody moved on and I started writing and playing in my own band, doing my own originals and keeping a low profile except for maybe one or two apperances at Jam Night at Nancy's. My best friend returned from the Marines in 1989 and since then, he's always suggested that we get the band going again and I pretty much blew him off not because I was being an idiot but knowing that he didn't care of doing the music that I like doing. I did relent and we attempted something in 1990 but the usual would come up and I just say forget it and move on to something else and let him go seek employment elsewhere.
There were times that we did jam in the past 20 years after the demise of Paraphernalia that we did sound great when we played. In 2002 what was left of Paraphernalia got back together and we had a good couple hours before my best friend had to leave and it was like old times again. In 2006 we got together with some guy named John and we all had a blast and perhaps that soften me into thinking why not. When my BFF said that he was forming a band with two chick singers and a guitarist from his workplace I told him I'll be happy to help out till you get a permenant drummer. So I went to Music Go Round, purchased a practice set and then got ready only to find out that the female keyboard player had a baby and couldn't do it and the other girl singer remains a mystery.
So here we are again. The guitar player he talked about was a beginner and my best friend again talking about doing Rush songs left and right. We did get a good guitar player into the fold Brian but the problem is that he doesn't want to sing all the songs, I could sing some of my own but then again my best friend made this slight comment that I wasn't a very good singer but then again Ringo Starr wasn't a great singer bla bla but he made the most of what he does bla bla. And it occured to me why my best friend wasn't a part of the bands beyond Paraphernalia. Being delicate isn't one of his traits. I still love him like a brother, he makes a good IO bandmate but never could fit in with my own band.
There's not much of a market for 48 year old musicians playing 80s type of music. At this point in life, we do it for the fun and for the joy of playing again. Will this band succeed? I'm guessing no. Too much going on in my life and job and love of buying and listening to the forgotten. I did give them songs to consider doing and if they want to do them fine, if not oh well. At this point somebody else may have to sing them since my voice isn't fit for IO.
I've had a long and fruitful career with my own band, even though it hasn't gotten me to quit my job, I managed to make some decent sounding records. But I'm 48, I know what works for me and if my best friend and the rest of the guys in IO want to replace me with somebody who can keep a beat and sing better, I won't hold it against them, I'll support them whatever I can.
But it's not like it was 25 years ago. Somewhere along the way I discovered there's life after being a average bar band whose biggest payday was 40 bucks after our final show. It's not a mansion on a hill but at least I can smile I made some kind of money doing what I loved most next to being in a record store.
My history is set in stone.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Crabb Bits: Purple POS, Steven Bruton RIP, Wanda Sykes
Hey, I'm
still around. Unfortunely Old Purple may have ran it's last course.
Coming home from work, the car was so rusted out that the shock broke
through and killed one of my tires, the one that I got from Wisconsin.
267K, old Purple has lasted longer twice longer than any other car that I
ever had. Of course my brother thinks that it can be welded for more
miles but I think it's time. I've spend many an hour and many a cd
jamming to the tunes in there. It's not something I want to drive any
potential girlfriend around (not that will happened anytime soon), 15
rough winters rusted the hell out of it. Of course it's always the
wrong time for something to die, Texas weekend is coming up and I'll be
working both saturday and sunday again. Don't know about going to the
desert this year. Maybe never. I've been having some massive headaches
and may have to go get checked out. May have to put band projects on
hold if the headaches keep persissting.
Ain't it amazing when things go to pot everybody comes out in droves? When Old Purple broke down and waiting for my brother to help this helpless fool to revive it, I noticed a whole bunch of gawkers and their SUVs sticking their necks out watching. To which I place a curse and hope the same thing happen to them in the future. But I thank the kind folks at The Longbranch hotel for letting me use the phone. The fucking pay phone by Michaels was on the fritz again. Yeh, I know I should get with the times and get a cellphone but I still remain old school. I may have to go check out whose got the best deals and not out to pop me in the ass like most of them do.
As always I'll be back with more observations and the top ten later in the week, but gotta get back to Farmtown and waste a couple more hours. Schwanzlutscher; a good word for Mr. Cheney and Rush Dimbulb.
RIP Steven Bruton, Austin songwriter and producer at age 60 from cancer.
and bonus Crabb points to Wandy Sykes for this witty comment.
I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.
Why is it that Rush can say he hopes American fails and continue to make 30 million a year for such rhetorc and when Wanda Sykes lays it into him she gets censored. Hmm talk about the NWO. Hell I'd hire Wanda for her observations since they're more dead on then the big fat Oxycoding snaffing idiot. Class dimissed.
Ain't it amazing when things go to pot everybody comes out in droves? When Old Purple broke down and waiting for my brother to help this helpless fool to revive it, I noticed a whole bunch of gawkers and their SUVs sticking their necks out watching. To which I place a curse and hope the same thing happen to them in the future. But I thank the kind folks at The Longbranch hotel for letting me use the phone. The fucking pay phone by Michaels was on the fritz again. Yeh, I know I should get with the times and get a cellphone but I still remain old school. I may have to go check out whose got the best deals and not out to pop me in the ass like most of them do.
As always I'll be back with more observations and the top ten later in the week, but gotta get back to Farmtown and waste a couple more hours. Schwanzlutscher; a good word for Mr. Cheney and Rush Dimbulb.
RIP Steven Bruton, Austin songwriter and producer at age 60 from cancer.
and bonus Crabb points to Wandy Sykes for this witty comment.
I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.
Why is it that Rush can say he hopes American fails and continue to make 30 million a year for such rhetorc and when Wanda Sykes lays it into him she gets censored. Hmm talk about the NWO. Hell I'd hire Wanda for her observations since they're more dead on then the big fat Oxycoding snaffing idiot. Class dimissed.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-LOST & The Age Of Ignorance
You can tell when summer comes around, the gas prices is now 2.09 a
gallon. Of course the reason is the report that gas suppiles are down.
Yeh and where the fuck is all this surplus of oil that was floating on
100,000 tankers in the ocean at? Was this made up? So much oil they
couldn't store it on land so they store it on sea. It all disappeared I
guess.
The the folks at L.O.S.T who promoted this one cent option tax after we defeated it back in February can celebrate now that the Tax was passed Tuesday, which means every place in Linn County, you'll have to pay another penny to the dollar. Stupidity runs supreme around here it seems, you tell them no option tax, they bring it to the ballot every other month till they get it passed. Fucking CR passed it and they got their property taxes raised just the same. Bullshit wins out in the end, you got what you wanted L.O.S.T, now shove it up your ass sideways and quit bothering me with your lies. 11 months after the big flood, nothing is still done, get it together before we torch this town.
Top Ten Of The Week.
1. Aggravation-The Kinks 1989 They were finished by the time they recorded UK Jive and this was their final effort for MCA and Ray Davies was halfassed on most of this recording but it starts out fine with this track which pretty much sums up things in my life. We're all option taxed out anyway.
2. World Wide Suicide-Pearl Jam 2006 They outlasted all of their Seattle cronies but you know I really never paid much attention to their albums after Vitalogy due to their crappy digipaks but I did buy their 2006 one off for Clive Davis and it starts out great and then the wheels fall apart after track six. Pearl Jam is redoing their back catalog but I don't see the need to rebuy everything again. Just make a decent new album that's all I ask.
3. Working Class Hero-Marianne Faithful 1979 Yeah, the band I'm helping out is learning this song but they're doing the Green Day version. I'd do this version myself but I can't sing so nevermind. And don't mind my territorial bitchings, it's that time of month for me. Don't like it, take two pills of blowme and push off. Next.
4. Celebration Florida-Chumbawamba 2000 They made their money and 5 minites of fame with Tubthumper, but their high moment was the followup WYSIWYG which was a concept album about America and their ignorance and the forthcoming of Carrie Underwood or Lindsay Lohan. Celebs and manufactured singers that like their ass kissed. This album remains of the best of Y2K and I still like it fine 9 years later. Chumbawamba saw the future and wrote about it and it all came true. Much to my disgust.
5. Beyond The Sun-The Townedgers 2008 Dedicated to Sassy who knows better and more than you.
6. Reverend Wrinkle-Black Stone Cherry 2008 Face it, new rock sucks. I can't tell a Theory from a Nickelback but BSC remains one of the few bright spots in rock and roll today. They owe more to the hard rock of the 70s rather than whatever passes for modern rock and they got bloodlines from The Kentucky Headhunters with a lead singer that is more Chris Cornell sounding than Chris himself. Bob Marlette made them more radio ready than Kevin Shirley did and although I like the debut more than their latest, I find myself listening to Forklore and Superstition and liking it more than I originally did. Here's hoping that Roadrunner doesn't fuck with them and turn them into Nickelback 2. Of course not, Black Stone Cherry is harder rocking. Thank God for that.
7. Shining Light-Neil Young 2007 Goodness five songs from this decade. Hard to figure eh? Neil has been churning them out this decade but most haven't stick very well on the ears till Chrome Dreams 2 which gave us a 18 minute Ordinary People to which I enjoy and the track that proceeds it which is this one. Not as a throwaway as they would like you to believe.
8. I Am The One You Warned Me Of-Blue Oyster Cult 1988 Hooray for American Beat Records for reissuing Imaginos but damn them for omitting the original liner notes to set the story of Imaginos. Good fucking grief no wonder people quit buying cds. Should have kept my old Columbia CD, but thankfully I have the vinyl Columbia album to read the original liner notes. CD reissue companies. What are you going to do with them.
9. The Breakup Song (they don't make them like that anymore)-Greg Kihn Band 1980 Greg didn't offer much for albums they were kinda blah but once in a while he would score up a catchy 45 such as this song. Brings back some wonderful memories at Skate Country when I was rollerskating on bargain night Wed. Back when I used to roller skate. Back when I was younger. And more attractive.
10. It's Too Late-Foghat 1973 I missed the American Idol rock and roll show last night and I heard somebody covered Slow Ride to which I'm sure Lonesome Dave is turning over in his grave. Their 2nd album (the rock/roll album) remains probaly my favorite Foghat album with good boogie music and good ballads such as this. It's too late to change your mind/we can't turn back the hands of time. A good summary of life itself and how we got here but can't go back ever again. I long for the old days.
The the folks at L.O.S.T who promoted this one cent option tax after we defeated it back in February can celebrate now that the Tax was passed Tuesday, which means every place in Linn County, you'll have to pay another penny to the dollar. Stupidity runs supreme around here it seems, you tell them no option tax, they bring it to the ballot every other month till they get it passed. Fucking CR passed it and they got their property taxes raised just the same. Bullshit wins out in the end, you got what you wanted L.O.S.T, now shove it up your ass sideways and quit bothering me with your lies. 11 months after the big flood, nothing is still done, get it together before we torch this town.
Top Ten Of The Week.
1. Aggravation-The Kinks 1989 They were finished by the time they recorded UK Jive and this was their final effort for MCA and Ray Davies was halfassed on most of this recording but it starts out fine with this track which pretty much sums up things in my life. We're all option taxed out anyway.
2. World Wide Suicide-Pearl Jam 2006 They outlasted all of their Seattle cronies but you know I really never paid much attention to their albums after Vitalogy due to their crappy digipaks but I did buy their 2006 one off for Clive Davis and it starts out great and then the wheels fall apart after track six. Pearl Jam is redoing their back catalog but I don't see the need to rebuy everything again. Just make a decent new album that's all I ask.
3. Working Class Hero-Marianne Faithful 1979 Yeah, the band I'm helping out is learning this song but they're doing the Green Day version. I'd do this version myself but I can't sing so nevermind. And don't mind my territorial bitchings, it's that time of month for me. Don't like it, take two pills of blowme and push off. Next.
4. Celebration Florida-Chumbawamba 2000 They made their money and 5 minites of fame with Tubthumper, but their high moment was the followup WYSIWYG which was a concept album about America and their ignorance and the forthcoming of Carrie Underwood or Lindsay Lohan. Celebs and manufactured singers that like their ass kissed. This album remains of the best of Y2K and I still like it fine 9 years later. Chumbawamba saw the future and wrote about it and it all came true. Much to my disgust.
5. Beyond The Sun-The Townedgers 2008 Dedicated to Sassy who knows better and more than you.
6. Reverend Wrinkle-Black Stone Cherry 2008 Face it, new rock sucks. I can't tell a Theory from a Nickelback but BSC remains one of the few bright spots in rock and roll today. They owe more to the hard rock of the 70s rather than whatever passes for modern rock and they got bloodlines from The Kentucky Headhunters with a lead singer that is more Chris Cornell sounding than Chris himself. Bob Marlette made them more radio ready than Kevin Shirley did and although I like the debut more than their latest, I find myself listening to Forklore and Superstition and liking it more than I originally did. Here's hoping that Roadrunner doesn't fuck with them and turn them into Nickelback 2. Of course not, Black Stone Cherry is harder rocking. Thank God for that.
7. Shining Light-Neil Young 2007 Goodness five songs from this decade. Hard to figure eh? Neil has been churning them out this decade but most haven't stick very well on the ears till Chrome Dreams 2 which gave us a 18 minute Ordinary People to which I enjoy and the track that proceeds it which is this one. Not as a throwaway as they would like you to believe.
8. I Am The One You Warned Me Of-Blue Oyster Cult 1988 Hooray for American Beat Records for reissuing Imaginos but damn them for omitting the original liner notes to set the story of Imaginos. Good fucking grief no wonder people quit buying cds. Should have kept my old Columbia CD, but thankfully I have the vinyl Columbia album to read the original liner notes. CD reissue companies. What are you going to do with them.
9. The Breakup Song (they don't make them like that anymore)-Greg Kihn Band 1980 Greg didn't offer much for albums they were kinda blah but once in a while he would score up a catchy 45 such as this song. Brings back some wonderful memories at Skate Country when I was rollerskating on bargain night Wed. Back when I used to roller skate. Back when I was younger. And more attractive.
10. It's Too Late-Foghat 1973 I missed the American Idol rock and roll show last night and I heard somebody covered Slow Ride to which I'm sure Lonesome Dave is turning over in his grave. Their 2nd album (the rock/roll album) remains probaly my favorite Foghat album with good boogie music and good ballads such as this. It's too late to change your mind/we can't turn back the hands of time. A good summary of life itself and how we got here but can't go back ever again. I long for the old days.
"Do you know what really burns me up? Flame that high" Dom Deluise RIP
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