Lotta things have been going on while I was down in the basement
cleaning up the wetspots, cussing out mother nature etc etc. That we
lost Edward Kennedy, the outspoken senator and perhaps the best senator
that I've known in this lifetime. The kind of senator that Chuck
Grassley wishes he could be and could if he wasn't so dammed two faced
about this health care. Typical Kennedy, Edward may have been a good
president had he learn the answer the question of why would he make a
good president and he stuttered more than I do, but in essence what he
lacked as a president he made up as a senator and helped many a folk
along the way. We'll never see another person like him again. He was
77.
The DJ AM death is another stunner in the world of rap or
trance or techno. DJ Am was one of the survivors in a plane crash that
involved Travis Barker, the Blink 182 drummer. Appently DJ Am was found
dead in his apartment yesterday and the music world moans his loss.
Didn't know him very well outside of the plane crash. We also lost
Ellie Greenwich, one of the prolific songwriters of the 1960s with
writing songs such as The Boy You Can't Forget, Da Doo Ron Ron, Leader
Of The Pack and much more. She was 68.
Basically this week was a
washout due to the 12 inches of rain and still i'm finding wet spots in
the basement and I'm down on my back and the house reeks of wet papers
and that musty smell that comes from 12 inches of rain and water in the
basement but Madison is a go and will be the final summer getaway till
St Louis and meeting with Nicole aka Passy and showing her the ropes of
music collecting and the way I think about things. For the Mad City
trip, it's going to be a couple days of renting a bike and hitting the
bike trails and see how far I can go till I get stiff as a board from
riding all day. The weather is supposed to be sunny and cool with temps
in the mid 60s. Contrary to rumour they still have a Mr Money
Pawnshop, they just moved it to the Beltline which is why I knew about
it in the first place, by reading a article about it. I rarely go out
on the deathtrap known as the Beltway but a true bargain hunter
researches things and then goes out to find them. Madison remains the
only city that has not disappointed me in terms of finding things and
they still have most of their music stores unlike this place. Moreso
than St Louis. That may change in another year or two when everything
is digital and net availble only but for the most part Madison has seem
to have a good share of CD buyers.
Certainly we have our HP book
store but Madison has two of them and I've known to spend a good hour or
so looking and debating of what to get or not. Always thought be be
very selective but when you have 10,000 cds and albums to choose from
that begs to differ. But I like Madison simply of the fact that it's
easier to get around town than Iowa City, although when first visited,
the roads will lead you nowhere but the trick is to keep driving and
you'll get there eventually. When I do go to Madison I'll be away from
the computer unless there's a motel that has a computer and nobody is
using it. Sameways with St Louis, once the trip begins we're done till I
get back. Just like the old days without the net. It's called getting
away from it all ya kno?
And sometimes it's best just to get away from it all.
On
the subject of Oasis.....They will return, you know about these brother
bands, always have a tift and then they make up later. Such as the
Kinks, Black Crowes, Jesus & Mary Chain....and so on.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Sassy's Radio Daze
I ended up asking the person who
runs the Top 10 everyweek what if I wanted to do a Top 10 that was songs
I like to hear off the radio? Well my answer was, the Top 10 is what
you like to listen to. So I decided to do a twist on the Top 10 for this
week. I don't know the names of the cd's that the songs came from but
if your nice maybe the owner of the Top 10 will be more than happy to
share the names with you. The owner of the Top 10 is also the one and
only Townedger, or as I like to call him sometimes is Crabby. Crabby has
been a great friend for over 9 years now, seen him do the Top 10 for a
long time, gave me great ideas to go check into. Maybe ya'll should get a
hold of him to see what kind of music he might suggest. If it's Kid
Rock and Uncle Kracker on the other hand, might stick with me, I can
give that info out.
Hope ya'll enjoy.
1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
What girl doesn't want to have fun with her girlfriends or friends in general?
2. Smooth - Santana / Rob Thomas
I always liked the music whenever I hear this song. For a long time I didn't know Rob Thomas was on this song as well. Tells you how much I know.
3. Manic Monday - The Bangles
I think this is most of my Mondays. There's only one difference, I don't dream about Valentino. It's either Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly or my other half.
4. Lean On Me - Club Nouveau
I seen this movie with Morgan Freeman, went out and got the cd and ended up liking this song the most. Every time I hear this version it gets cranked up in the car going down the street.
5. Old Time Rock & Roll - Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
I wish there was more good Rock and Roll songs on the radio compared to what I keep hearing. If they could give me one solid hour on the one radio station I listen to on occasions I think I'd have a blast.
6. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
I pretty enjoy any Phil Collins songs. I just like listening to this song a little more.
7. I Can't Dance - Genesis
I always got a charge out of this music video. Every time I hear this song on the radio I think music video and I start cracking up. It's cheap entertainment while driving on the freeways.
8. Freeze Frame - J. Geils Band
This is the one song that I remember hearing growing up. I like it just for the music, especially hearing the camera shutter sounds.
9. I'm Real - Jennifer Lopez / JaRule
One of the few songs I actually like by Jennifer Lopez. But it keeps me from changing the dial on the radio when it comes on.
10. Takin' Care of Business - B.T.O.
Yup, sounds like me Monday through Friday going into work minus me getting on the train to go into work. I can live without the last minute meetings at work though, but if we gotta do them we gotta do them.
Hope ya'll enjoy.
1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
What girl doesn't want to have fun with her girlfriends or friends in general?
2. Smooth - Santana / Rob Thomas
I always liked the music whenever I hear this song. For a long time I didn't know Rob Thomas was on this song as well. Tells you how much I know.
3. Manic Monday - The Bangles
I think this is most of my Mondays. There's only one difference, I don't dream about Valentino. It's either Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly or my other half.
4. Lean On Me - Club Nouveau
I seen this movie with Morgan Freeman, went out and got the cd and ended up liking this song the most. Every time I hear this version it gets cranked up in the car going down the street.
5. Old Time Rock & Roll - Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band
I wish there was more good Rock and Roll songs on the radio compared to what I keep hearing. If they could give me one solid hour on the one radio station I listen to on occasions I think I'd have a blast.
6. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
I pretty enjoy any Phil Collins songs. I just like listening to this song a little more.
7. I Can't Dance - Genesis
I always got a charge out of this music video. Every time I hear this song on the radio I think music video and I start cracking up. It's cheap entertainment while driving on the freeways.
8. Freeze Frame - J. Geils Band
This is the one song that I remember hearing growing up. I like it just for the music, especially hearing the camera shutter sounds.
9. I'm Real - Jennifer Lopez / JaRule
One of the few songs I actually like by Jennifer Lopez. But it keeps me from changing the dial on the radio when it comes on.
10. Takin' Care of Business - B.T.O.
Yup, sounds like me Monday through Friday going into work minus me getting on the train to go into work. I can live without the last minute meetings at work though, but if we gotta do them we gotta do them.
Monday, August 24, 2009
The thought process of a bargain hunter.
Moving towards the end of August and thankless job, it seemed that I waited too long to get to Madison and now it's just in time for football season which means if I went up there getting a motel rool would be out of the question or twice expensive. Used to be going to Madison is spur of the moment but now it's planned out just as much as going to Arizona. It's only a two and half hour drive but seems like I get wore out just thinking about it.
I got tired of the Match.com ads popping up everytime I read or update the blogs so I'm over here. I think this world tries to shove too much at you with the things you detest most. If I really cared I'm sure I would have gotten my very own match.com profile so I can oogle and annoy somebody else. But then again My Space is a dying website, lost it's popularity about two years ago and has become less blogger friendly.
For a music appericationist as myself it's even tougher to chat music with anybody anymore. Thought twitter would be the answer and it was for about a week, now my music followers are moving on to the next big thing. And perhaps I bared my soul a bit too much while chatting with my GF the other night. One emailed me and said I can still follower her tweets but she decided she had enough following me. And we did discuss music from time to time. Maybe twitter isn't the answer either. However I can't seem to block somebody called Adam Mitchell whose compuersleeze continue to fill up my inbox with the Blacktrack bullshit that I don't need nor want but every time I block this adam mitchell, he still comes back. Between him and Match.com it's been a big pain in the ass to discuss musical interests. So I'm thinking of canceling Twitter. Or just creating a twitter just for me and nicole so that we don't offend the easily offended.
And then there's Madison, to hook up with my bargain hunting friends at their Half Priced Books locations to sort through their bargain cds and see what i can find. History has shown that I have found a lot of oddities. And then later in September in St Louis with Nicole. St Louis does have a FYE and couple of bricks n mortar record stores too. Do I really need more CDs? Hell I got five stacks in front of me, I don't need more but continue to buy simply of the fact that I'm used to finding them. It's hard to understand the thought process of the bargain hunter who is myself and the things that I do.
It's been 10 years of the continuation of going to pawnshops, thrift stores, music stores and besty buy and finding more than I can share. The CD era is coming to a close, soon downloading will be the way of the world and the CD/Album music conessisor will have to special order to get a forty dollar vinyl album or Amazon.com for overstocks. I don't agree with MP3s or IPODs, they're not for me even though the masses say that I'm outdated and behind the times. I don't care, past history has shown that what I have found in thrift stores here have surprised me.
But time has a way of changing a person and the things he does. I have said that once I turned 50 that I would quit buying music on a regular basis. I'm sure Madison will survive on its own quite nicely. 10 years ago, the AZ bargain hunts would have not overwhelmed me like they did this summer. The mind is still willing but the body needs time to recover and I'm still recovering from two months ago in AZ.
Things change in life. I thought I'd end up being a loner reclusive. Thought I could continue to blog music and not think about anything else. A couple happened along the way; a cowoker died in May, she was a year older than me. Her liver failed but I think she gave up on life before she died. I had a 30th high school reunion of classmates that made me miss them and wished I could have been more of a outgoing person back then. I have a new GF in Nicole, a woman whose actually been a part of this life for the past decade. A long distance friendship that blossomed into a relationship before my very eyes the past couple weeks.
So I'm looking at things in a whole different perspective.
I got tired of the Match.com ads popping up everytime I read or update the blogs so I'm over here. I think this world tries to shove too much at you with the things you detest most. If I really cared I'm sure I would have gotten my very own match.com profile so I can oogle and annoy somebody else. But then again My Space is a dying website, lost it's popularity about two years ago and has become less blogger friendly.
For a music appericationist as myself it's even tougher to chat music with anybody anymore. Thought twitter would be the answer and it was for about a week, now my music followers are moving on to the next big thing. And perhaps I bared my soul a bit too much while chatting with my GF the other night. One emailed me and said I can still follower her tweets but she decided she had enough following me. And we did discuss music from time to time. Maybe twitter isn't the answer either. However I can't seem to block somebody called Adam Mitchell whose compuersleeze continue to fill up my inbox with the Blacktrack bullshit that I don't need nor want but every time I block this adam mitchell, he still comes back. Between him and Match.com it's been a big pain in the ass to discuss musical interests. So I'm thinking of canceling Twitter. Or just creating a twitter just for me and nicole so that we don't offend the easily offended.
And then there's Madison, to hook up with my bargain hunting friends at their Half Priced Books locations to sort through their bargain cds and see what i can find. History has shown that I have found a lot of oddities. And then later in September in St Louis with Nicole. St Louis does have a FYE and couple of bricks n mortar record stores too. Do I really need more CDs? Hell I got five stacks in front of me, I don't need more but continue to buy simply of the fact that I'm used to finding them. It's hard to understand the thought process of the bargain hunter who is myself and the things that I do.
It's been 10 years of the continuation of going to pawnshops, thrift stores, music stores and besty buy and finding more than I can share. The CD era is coming to a close, soon downloading will be the way of the world and the CD/Album music conessisor will have to special order to get a forty dollar vinyl album or Amazon.com for overstocks. I don't agree with MP3s or IPODs, they're not for me even though the masses say that I'm outdated and behind the times. I don't care, past history has shown that what I have found in thrift stores here have surprised me.
But time has a way of changing a person and the things he does. I have said that once I turned 50 that I would quit buying music on a regular basis. I'm sure Madison will survive on its own quite nicely. 10 years ago, the AZ bargain hunts would have not overwhelmed me like they did this summer. The mind is still willing but the body needs time to recover and I'm still recovering from two months ago in AZ.
Things change in life. I thought I'd end up being a loner reclusive. Thought I could continue to blog music and not think about anything else. A couple happened along the way; a cowoker died in May, she was a year older than me. Her liver failed but I think she gave up on life before she died. I had a 30th high school reunion of classmates that made me miss them and wished I could have been more of a outgoing person back then. I have a new GF in Nicole, a woman whose actually been a part of this life for the past decade. A long distance friendship that blossomed into a relationship before my very eyes the past couple weeks.
So I'm looking at things in a whole different perspective.
Life is a journey and everyday is a new chapter.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
nicole
For everything, there's a beginning....
When it comes to romance I'm the most inept. My past history has shown that. Wasted oppotunites and wrong place at the wrong time. I have laughed at the e harmony ads, puked when i've seen those dammed Match.com models making google eyes and slowing my dialup even down while trying to drive a top ten. It's hard to blog anymore on My Space and besides I don't have a Match.com profile.
I basically gave up looking for love after my last disasterous relationship with Isabella in 2001 and pretty much spent most of the decade searching for music, hanging at music stores and blogging bout it. I didn't buy a computer for finding love but rather continue my music research, hell I was a failure at love in my 40 plus years of living. Unlike my best friend who needed a constant companion, I was perfectly happy to live my life as a loner and come and go as I pleased. When Russ told me about a certain website for singles, I just rolled my eyes and threw up a profile and didn't think much about it later. Oh, I did go into the chat and had a good time chatting with people. But Russ did set me up with a woman calling herself Seaba and we talked for a bit and she mentioned that she was hosting a Mingles party in St Louis later in the year and convinced me to go since the original intent was that she wanted to meet me. Sighing, I decided to go but with the option of going elsewhere if the party turned out to be a bust.
I've been to single parties before and they pretty boring if your not into one nighters or getting drunk and showing people why your still single (or been married X amount of times). But I did get there on a thursday and met Seaba and we really didn't have much in common and besides she had her new boyfriend there but I did get to meet a few folks of note. There was talk of a couple more folk from Mingles to show up, but while most of them were either getting drunk and acting silly, I took off to Vintage Vinyl, to spend four hours scouring through the records and cds and then got back to the hotel where I was staying at.
There was a late arrival of some when I got to see some young woman with her mom. She'd come into chat and wouldn't stay too long but she always said Hi when I said hi to her. She was sitting in the hotel lobby with her mom and that's the first time I met Passeygirl aka Nicole. I went up and shook her hand and said "you probably don't know me but I'm the infamous Townedger" and we proceeded to talk most of the night away. She had a boyfriend at the time and I really didn't press the issue, after all I had 17 years on her and that was the last thing she needed, some old 39 year old bullshitter trying to sweettalk his way into her life. People come and go, why should this be different? But I was happy to be a friend of Nicole and we did share some good times and chatting together.
Over the years, our lives were involved with others but we managed to stay in touch with a series of blogging and plesantries thru Mingles. I had a My Space band site and Crabb site and invited her to follow the latest misadventures and top ten weekly songs that I put together. And I did sent some of my music out to her for which she liked a lot. But I never really considered her more than a good friend, an acquitance of talking tunes n life. Sure, I did spend a few times walking down the old bike trail and thinking maybe what if we could be together but then decided that I was too old for her anyway and moved on the next music subject.
But somewhere along the way of life something changed. Diggy Kat, my music buddy out in Cally asked me what I thought about her and if there's a possiblity bout Nicole and me ever dating and I thought and said "if she turns 30 we'll see but I don't think i'm her type anyway". I didn't give it much thought when Nicole emailed me to see about getting more of my music and in the process sent me 20 bucks. But that did raise an eyebrow. I would have given the tunes for her free since she was a big fan.
In terms of life, you meet so many people along the way and only the few that stay remain friends and then somewhere along the way love gives you a second chance. I known Nicole for 9 years just about but somehow, someway I must have came in and swept her off her feet without me knowing it. We were talking thursday about something and she asked if I felt my ears a burning and I told her that actually i got sunburned but what's your point?
And then it stuck me, that Nicole became more closer to me and closer to my heart. That somehow she knew her away from the maze of barriers to my heart. How did she get so close to me without me knowing, or was i just plain blind? Shit, I was never lucky in love or in relationships. Then she mentioned "remember when you said you would date me when I turn thirty? I'm almost 31......
Sometimes things in life change when it doesn't work out. I haven't seen much of Seaba since then and the guy she evenutally married, she divorced and slimmed down next to nothing but I don't care about her. It is Nicole who has been the most reliable and truest of friends that I have known in the 10 years of internet life. I don't give her enuff credit, she has been a inspiration for me the past couple years and have always loved her from a distance. I could learn to love her more as well.
It's a new beginning....
When it comes to romance I'm the most inept. My past history has shown that. Wasted oppotunites and wrong place at the wrong time. I have laughed at the e harmony ads, puked when i've seen those dammed Match.com models making google eyes and slowing my dialup even down while trying to drive a top ten. It's hard to blog anymore on My Space and besides I don't have a Match.com profile.
I basically gave up looking for love after my last disasterous relationship with Isabella in 2001 and pretty much spent most of the decade searching for music, hanging at music stores and blogging bout it. I didn't buy a computer for finding love but rather continue my music research, hell I was a failure at love in my 40 plus years of living. Unlike my best friend who needed a constant companion, I was perfectly happy to live my life as a loner and come and go as I pleased. When Russ told me about a certain website for singles, I just rolled my eyes and threw up a profile and didn't think much about it later. Oh, I did go into the chat and had a good time chatting with people. But Russ did set me up with a woman calling herself Seaba and we talked for a bit and she mentioned that she was hosting a Mingles party in St Louis later in the year and convinced me to go since the original intent was that she wanted to meet me. Sighing, I decided to go but with the option of going elsewhere if the party turned out to be a bust.
I've been to single parties before and they pretty boring if your not into one nighters or getting drunk and showing people why your still single (or been married X amount of times). But I did get there on a thursday and met Seaba and we really didn't have much in common and besides she had her new boyfriend there but I did get to meet a few folks of note. There was talk of a couple more folk from Mingles to show up, but while most of them were either getting drunk and acting silly, I took off to Vintage Vinyl, to spend four hours scouring through the records and cds and then got back to the hotel where I was staying at.
There was a late arrival of some when I got to see some young woman with her mom. She'd come into chat and wouldn't stay too long but she always said Hi when I said hi to her. She was sitting in the hotel lobby with her mom and that's the first time I met Passeygirl aka Nicole. I went up and shook her hand and said "you probably don't know me but I'm the infamous Townedger" and we proceeded to talk most of the night away. She had a boyfriend at the time and I really didn't press the issue, after all I had 17 years on her and that was the last thing she needed, some old 39 year old bullshitter trying to sweettalk his way into her life. People come and go, why should this be different? But I was happy to be a friend of Nicole and we did share some good times and chatting together.
Over the years, our lives were involved with others but we managed to stay in touch with a series of blogging and plesantries thru Mingles. I had a My Space band site and Crabb site and invited her to follow the latest misadventures and top ten weekly songs that I put together. And I did sent some of my music out to her for which she liked a lot. But I never really considered her more than a good friend, an acquitance of talking tunes n life. Sure, I did spend a few times walking down the old bike trail and thinking maybe what if we could be together but then decided that I was too old for her anyway and moved on the next music subject.
But somewhere along the way of life something changed. Diggy Kat, my music buddy out in Cally asked me what I thought about her and if there's a possiblity bout Nicole and me ever dating and I thought and said "if she turns 30 we'll see but I don't think i'm her type anyway". I didn't give it much thought when Nicole emailed me to see about getting more of my music and in the process sent me 20 bucks. But that did raise an eyebrow. I would have given the tunes for her free since she was a big fan.
In terms of life, you meet so many people along the way and only the few that stay remain friends and then somewhere along the way love gives you a second chance. I known Nicole for 9 years just about but somehow, someway I must have came in and swept her off her feet without me knowing it. We were talking thursday about something and she asked if I felt my ears a burning and I told her that actually i got sunburned but what's your point?
And then it stuck me, that Nicole became more closer to me and closer to my heart. That somehow she knew her away from the maze of barriers to my heart. How did she get so close to me without me knowing, or was i just plain blind? Shit, I was never lucky in love or in relationships. Then she mentioned "remember when you said you would date me when I turn thirty? I'm almost 31......
Sometimes things in life change when it doesn't work out. I haven't seen much of Seaba since then and the guy she evenutally married, she divorced and slimmed down next to nothing but I don't care about her. It is Nicole who has been the most reliable and truest of friends that I have known in the 10 years of internet life. I don't give her enuff credit, she has been a inspiration for me the past couple years and have always loved her from a distance. I could learn to love her more as well.
It's a new beginning....
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Up Yours Match Dot Com
As we continue to do the top ten of the week, I am really getting more
and more annoyed of seeing all these Match.com ads all over My Space to
the point that I'm no longer comfortable putting any top tens out here.
Ya think My Space got bought out by Match.com for flying fuck's sake.
My Space has been going down the toilet for the last year and it's
really beginning to show.
Special thanks to Sassygirl for hosting our top ten. I think I taught her well in terms of music and such. I've known her since 2000 and we actually have kept in touch thoughout the years and gotten closer. No thanks to Match.com, give credit to Mingles.com.
Some random thoughts over the week.
Great seeing my classmates of MHS 1979. Tim Henderson made a interesting comment that we should do a get together for sunday afternoon drinks every other month and I'm all for it. I'm sure Alan Heeren agrees too. The power of Facebook is that the class of 1979 have gotten in touch and probably is a better networking site than this site. At least Facebook don't have those fucking Match.com zombies staring at you while you type the top ten of the week.
I'm not that interested in the new Weezer, never gotten into them don't plan to start now. I'm just waiting to see if Best Buy will stock the Status Quo album come september 15th.
I have no idea why My Space is given me spam messages when I try to access TAD's blogspot site of music. perhaps i'll take my business over at Blogspot in the forseeable future but will still keep in touch with what's left of my friends here at My Space if they want to. Anyway I have two weeks to prepare a top ten since SassyPassy took the weight off me last week. We'll see where this leads.
1. Release-Sister Hazel 2009 For a band that peaked with All For You 13 years ago Sister Hazel has continued to carve out a career of alt rock with a side of jamband on the side. They never went away after Universal dropped them but they jammed on and on this album each and every guy in the band writes at least two songs. Major labels may not care but I do.
2. Hello Melinda Goodbye-Five Man Electrical Band 1971 Found their Goodbyes and Butterflies album at Goodwill last weekend looked like the record had a crack in it but it does play. This was the B side to Signs to course gets airplay on the oldies station.
3. Liar-Three Dog Night 1971 It's too bad top forty radio is not like it was back when I was in grade school, I heard plenty of music, in fact more music was played then than all these FM stations today. Like Cable TV we have more channels but less content. Joy To The World is so much overplayed so I went with the lesser played. A cover of the Russ Ballard/Argent song and Three Dog Night could find great songs to cover.
4. If It's Not Love-Rhett Miller 2009 Moving to a Bo Diddley via Buddy Holly beat, Rhett Miller continues to make great albums and good songs that nobody listens to.
5. Maggie-Redbone 1971 Not every song made it to KCRG, I actually heard this on the Peoria Radio station that my Aunt Virginia used to listen to when she was sunbathing bout 40 years ago. I think I learn my music buying expierences from my mom and her sisters although I don't think they went to extremes like I do in finding music. Columbia did a 2 minite edit on this song on Different Strokes, a 19 song sampler that tried to beat K Tel at their own game but pissed me off due to crappy editing.
6. Love Leads To Madness-Nazareth 1982 This did get some airplay in the early 80s but Nazareth is forever linked to Love Hurts and Hair Of The Dog although not too many ppl could take Dan McCaffery vocals.
7. Shame On Me-The Bottlerockets 2009 new song from the new album from Festus Missouri's best known rock band. Grant Alden from No Depression calls the new album uneven but i think I liked it better then he did.
8. Sad And Beautiful World-The Questionaires 1991 Nope, these guys never made it big, they weren't as radical as Jason and the Scorchers and they were about 15 years too early for the Country popper who are ruling country radio. These guys were actually Nashville sessionmen that got to made two albums for EMI a label that knows nothing about promoting music and this is off their lost classic, the wishful thinking Anything Can Happen, a title that Leon Russell thought so much of, he called his 1992 album the same title. And got the same result as The Questionaires did.
9. Get It In The End-Humble Pie 1980 Steve Marriott, oh man his voice was so shot on this 1980 album On To Victory that critics wondered why the hell ATCO even gave them a contract. Poorly produced, the album did yield a top forty hit with Fool For A Pretty Face but I always liked this cut, hidden as track 7 on the cd to which I'm sure most people never went that far into this cd. Sure Humble Pie's flame burned out after Smokin and some of their A n M albums are crap, but at least On To Victory there's a tinge of inspiration.
10. Crazy Circles-Bad Company 1979 and finally a nod to my classmates with this B side to Rock n Roll Fantasy off Desolation Angels, an album that hasn't aged very well last I heard it. But I do find myself singing to this song out in the car and thinking about 30 years ago when we gradurated from HS and was ready to take on the world.
COMMENTS:
The lovely Liz Chaffe from Lizzy Williams writes:
Hi Crabby! Just stopping by to do some reading of your Top 10. I had a Singer in my band who played Guitar for Redbone. Not sure if he did or didn't but he had some things to say.
Ever no a Guy named Raven to be in that Band? He played Guitar for them. Never know whats up in L.A. and I'm gullable sometimes. :)
DIGGY KAT:
omg! Five Man Electrical Band!! lol you know i stumbled across their song Werewolf and that's been the "OMG BEST SONG EVER!" for this month lol (the "omg best song ever" seems to change every month or so though) and under a little more research i didn't realise they had the hit "Signs", knew and loved the song, guess i didn't know who sang it lol however i do remember Tesla's version lol. i just bought FMEB's greatest hits a couple days ago from amazon as well.
Rhett Miller, i have his 2006 cd, wasn't that impressed but i did enjoy Cellular Girl i believe it was called.
Special thanks to Sassygirl for hosting our top ten. I think I taught her well in terms of music and such. I've known her since 2000 and we actually have kept in touch thoughout the years and gotten closer. No thanks to Match.com, give credit to Mingles.com.
Some random thoughts over the week.
Great seeing my classmates of MHS 1979. Tim Henderson made a interesting comment that we should do a get together for sunday afternoon drinks every other month and I'm all for it. I'm sure Alan Heeren agrees too. The power of Facebook is that the class of 1979 have gotten in touch and probably is a better networking site than this site. At least Facebook don't have those fucking Match.com zombies staring at you while you type the top ten of the week.
I'm not that interested in the new Weezer, never gotten into them don't plan to start now. I'm just waiting to see if Best Buy will stock the Status Quo album come september 15th.
I have no idea why My Space is given me spam messages when I try to access TAD's blogspot site of music. perhaps i'll take my business over at Blogspot in the forseeable future but will still keep in touch with what's left of my friends here at My Space if they want to. Anyway I have two weeks to prepare a top ten since SassyPassy took the weight off me last week. We'll see where this leads.
1. Release-Sister Hazel 2009 For a band that peaked with All For You 13 years ago Sister Hazel has continued to carve out a career of alt rock with a side of jamband on the side. They never went away after Universal dropped them but they jammed on and on this album each and every guy in the band writes at least two songs. Major labels may not care but I do.
2. Hello Melinda Goodbye-Five Man Electrical Band 1971 Found their Goodbyes and Butterflies album at Goodwill last weekend looked like the record had a crack in it but it does play. This was the B side to Signs to course gets airplay on the oldies station.
3. Liar-Three Dog Night 1971 It's too bad top forty radio is not like it was back when I was in grade school, I heard plenty of music, in fact more music was played then than all these FM stations today. Like Cable TV we have more channels but less content. Joy To The World is so much overplayed so I went with the lesser played. A cover of the Russ Ballard/Argent song and Three Dog Night could find great songs to cover.
4. If It's Not Love-Rhett Miller 2009 Moving to a Bo Diddley via Buddy Holly beat, Rhett Miller continues to make great albums and good songs that nobody listens to.
5. Maggie-Redbone 1971 Not every song made it to KCRG, I actually heard this on the Peoria Radio station that my Aunt Virginia used to listen to when she was sunbathing bout 40 years ago. I think I learn my music buying expierences from my mom and her sisters although I don't think they went to extremes like I do in finding music. Columbia did a 2 minite edit on this song on Different Strokes, a 19 song sampler that tried to beat K Tel at their own game but pissed me off due to crappy editing.
6. Love Leads To Madness-Nazareth 1982 This did get some airplay in the early 80s but Nazareth is forever linked to Love Hurts and Hair Of The Dog although not too many ppl could take Dan McCaffery vocals.
7. Shame On Me-The Bottlerockets 2009 new song from the new album from Festus Missouri's best known rock band. Grant Alden from No Depression calls the new album uneven but i think I liked it better then he did.
8. Sad And Beautiful World-The Questionaires 1991 Nope, these guys never made it big, they weren't as radical as Jason and the Scorchers and they were about 15 years too early for the Country popper who are ruling country radio. These guys were actually Nashville sessionmen that got to made two albums for EMI a label that knows nothing about promoting music and this is off their lost classic, the wishful thinking Anything Can Happen, a title that Leon Russell thought so much of, he called his 1992 album the same title. And got the same result as The Questionaires did.
9. Get It In The End-Humble Pie 1980 Steve Marriott, oh man his voice was so shot on this 1980 album On To Victory that critics wondered why the hell ATCO even gave them a contract. Poorly produced, the album did yield a top forty hit with Fool For A Pretty Face but I always liked this cut, hidden as track 7 on the cd to which I'm sure most people never went that far into this cd. Sure Humble Pie's flame burned out after Smokin and some of their A n M albums are crap, but at least On To Victory there's a tinge of inspiration.
10. Crazy Circles-Bad Company 1979 and finally a nod to my classmates with this B side to Rock n Roll Fantasy off Desolation Angels, an album that hasn't aged very well last I heard it. But I do find myself singing to this song out in the car and thinking about 30 years ago when we gradurated from HS and was ready to take on the world.
COMMENTS:
The lovely Liz Chaffe from Lizzy Williams writes:
Hi Crabby! Just stopping by to do some reading of your Top 10. I had a Singer in my band who played Guitar for Redbone. Not sure if he did or didn't but he had some things to say.
Ever no a Guy named Raven to be in that Band? He played Guitar for them. Never know whats up in L.A. and I'm gullable sometimes. :)
DIGGY KAT:
omg! Five Man Electrical Band!! lol you know i stumbled across their song Werewolf and that's been the "OMG BEST SONG EVER!" for this month lol (the "omg best song ever" seems to change every month or so though) and under a little more research i didn't realise they had the hit "Signs", knew and loved the song, guess i didn't know who sang it lol however i do remember Tesla's version lol. i just bought FMEB's greatest hits a couple days ago from amazon as well.
Rhett Miller, i have his 2006 cd, wasn't that impressed but i did enjoy Cellular Girl i believe it was called.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Marion HS 1979 Class Reunion-The Novel
For no shows Jeff Kewley and Russ, my best friend chose not to come.
Maybe they didn't feel like shelling out 30 bucks for another overpriced
dinner at the Country Club. Kinda disappointed but that their
decesion. But for the most part, I got plenty of hugs and plenty of
handshakes from my fellow classmates and got to see Mark Prouty for the
first time in 30 years.
I think with Facebook enabled us to reach out to past classmates to once we weren't that close but became friends due to finding each other via FB. I think I spent the most time with Al Heeren, Steve Fry, Joe Greene and Kevin Herren. But then again usually on reunions I spent the most time with them anyway.
I think the second nite we were still trying to recover from closing down Bill's last night. Traci Gusendorf was a bit more behaved unlike her outrageous self to which Janeen Machen drove her home. Karl Hudson did the acoustic show of the night. Janeen thinks a lot of him, the rest of us pretty much spent most of the time out on the deck. I think Karl could have used a full band.
I can't get over the fact that Al is now a grandpa.
Mark Kloppenstein brought his 1952 Chevy Pickup for those to see around midnight. He mentioned that they had a daughter that just got married and two hours they're putting through ISU in Ames and had to get up early to get them to the dorm. He and the former Cheryl Barker have been married for 25 plus years. I think Steve Willard and Diane have been married 30 years. Cheryl didn't say much to me but she was friendly.
Donna Grant brought her boyfriend David Neu up there, David is handicapped and I think he felt left out since he didn't know anybody there but he did proved to be a good sport about things. Donna and Sara Mellegren took many pictures up there and hopefully some will turn out.
Janeen Machen still looks like she did when I first met her in third grade at Emerson, except her hair more gray than it was but she still remains a tiny girl. She worked her butt off on the Reunion plans but we didn't have that great of a turnout at the Country Club. We had more ppl at Bills than the previous get together.
I think i pretty much talked to everybody that was there except for a few of the stuck up women of HS who still are (they shall remain nameless). But the biggest surprise was seeing Frank White who was one of the most hairyest guys around showed up with a shaved head. I talked to Sherri Clark who sat at the dinner table with me, Lori Miller, Al, Kent Meyer and his wife and Sara. Don't recall much of seeing Sherri at high school but most often caught up with her during the reunion thingy. Cheryl Twachman and Mary Katzmark married much older guys and they were there at the country club. Sherri says she wants to do the next reunion and they would like to rent out a barn and do something farm related instead of the country club thing which was why the turnout was so low. We had 80 folks in our 1999 reunion, but i think it was about 50 this time around.
I didn't take the tour of the jr and sr high schools and perhaps i should have. Frank White said that he didn't remember much of junior high but more of High school once he got though the doors. They said outside of the remodeling of the gym, High school pretty much looks the same. I don't remember much of Junior High either, I remember vagne things of being at Home Room and Mr Harry Schley the 7th grade math teacher who Frank called a asshole. I really didn't think Harry was all that bad, he did impose tough love but was willing to work with you on occasion. I do remember Mr Campbell with Social Studies but I spent most of the time looking out the window and watching the trains go through town. One thing about going to school was trying to cross the tracks before the train came through.
Dave Shindell, who married Lynn Roby remembers that he was in my American Studies Class with Mr Messerli and I think he was. I also think Dave was in my Psychology class with Mr Tesar, one of many classes I got a D minus from. He and Lynn have been married for 20 plus years too. They still look good together.
And like that it's all over. Mark Prouty will return back to Utah, and the rest will jump on a airplane and go home that way. And the rest of us will return back to the mundane life of jobs, family and trying to keep our heads above water in uncertain times. Myself I will return back to bargain hunting, blogging about music and trying to do errands on the weekends. And I'm missing my classmates already.
I can't believe while looking through the old yearbook how much I changed. There's a picture of our final day at school, and here i was, long hair and a big nose and thin as a stick looking at it all. It's funny how going to school we couldn't wait to get the hell out but when the reunion comes around can't wait to see the familar faces, getting older and fatter and more gray or bald.
And we had some interesting times in previous reunions. in 1984, our five year reunion was marked by me having a severe nosebleed. In 1989 we saw Cheryl Comried make a fool out of herself and her husband as she plopped herself on the student athletes at the time. I wore black lether pants that reunion. There wasn't a 15th reunion. 10 years ago we did the reunion at the Country Club, it was the last time that my two best friends Steve Willard And Russ was there. in 2004, it was held at Coe College and I got there at the last minite after saying i wasn't going. Amazingly some ppl took pictures of me there, don't recall how they were done it must have been when I was leaving. And now this time around.
Good times and good people. Now the next objective is to make it to the next one five years from now and then the 40th which might be a bigger reach. But I'll do my best to get to the next one.
And to Steve Fry, didn't you say you weren't coming to this one too? ;-)
Betcha will next time ago bro!
The 30th year HS reunion now in the books I was more surprised of the way Facebook have gotten most of us reconnected. Eversomuch the fact that a few of the FB friends were not people I associated myself with. But it's never too late to gain a friend from the past.
Certainly your going to get the snooty stuck up types with holier than thou attitude (that can't be helped) and I know who they are and they know who they are so you really can't change them but what surprised me is that I did talk with the majority of the 1979 classmates. Still a few ppl would still look the same (Steve O'Neill, and I'm sure Diane look the same as when we gradurated) and some completely changed (Shawn Bolden, Frank White) and some trying to be sexy as they were back then in high school (but time and age kinda did a shock job on them) and not exactly succeeding. Its funny when Steve Fry made this observation that when he took two of the classmates home 20th years ago he would jump into the sack with them but nowadays he'd rather give them a ride and a quick hug and hit the road. Nevertheless it was fun getting hugs and talking bout the old times (if we can remember them) and also seeing Mrs. Moore the PE teacher from Jr High and her actually remembering me (although I couldn't recall her-don't remember much from jr high). We did have a big turnout Friday night but I think about a quarter of them stayed home the next day. Could have been that nobody wanted to pay 30 bucks to get their picture taken and have country club food, which was good actually but not worth that much.
I don't think anybody seen me play live when my band played the OK Lounge. I think Ken Deburkehart or Mark Floyd may been there but since that was 25 years ago I don't think I know who was there either.
I have heard reports that Jim Dickenson, famed producer from Memphis has passed away but yet have to read the wires about it.
I do know that Rasheed Ali, the free jazz drummer who played on the last recordings of John Coltrane passed away at age 76.
No shows at the Reunion: Joe Ickes, Russ, Jeff Kewley and Steve Carter most noted. Steve Willard said he would try to get there on Saturday never did, probably due to not get out of his job.
Once upon a time Shawn Bolden and Joe Greene were a couple, although not married they went steady awhile and I'm sure it's always awkward to see your ex GF at a reunion which thank God I dated the ones a year later. I'm sure it weighs a bit on Joe's mind of what if, but I don't think Joe really has dated all that much since he and shawn went seperate ways. I had grade school GFs that are in the class of 79 and I don't really talk to neither one either. I think I said Hi to Janice Kinchloe and Cheryl Kloppenstein or at least acknowledged their presence but in essence I think I talked more to Mark.
I didn't know Janice Kinchloe smoked. I remember her in school growing up faster bodywise and she was a bit more chunky. In Junior High us boys would go around snapping the girls bras (alongside getting into fights left and right, I think that's how I met the other Janice, Berns that is; me and Chris Cox were scrapping around and I ran into her) and I unhooked her bra with a good snap. Us boys would go smacking other guys under the chin with something called a Tweety and many a time home I come home with a sore red chin. Miss Kinchloe has slimmed down quite a bit since then and is probably considered one of those uppity folk. But I also admit that I didn't know her when I saw her along with Sheri Morgan when we were walking into the country club.
For some reason I kept getting Kim Smith confused with Donna Anderson who was at the bar friday night. Miss Anderson has aged quite a bit, whereas Kim hasn't changed all that much but if Kim had her patented glasses from high school I would have known her right off the start.
Tom Bowler made a comment that he didn't like the way downtown Marion got bulldozed down in favor of that strip mall that they put up. Those buildings that got torn down were places we hung out, The Shoe Horn, Marion TV n Records, the original Town Square Bookstore, Ole's Ham & Egger, the old Salvation Army and some old head shop where hippies would hang out at the beginning of 1970. The things we miss later on in life. The Twixt Town Drive In, Saint Joe's Fun Days, the summer days up downtown when the fair came in. The trains that went through town.
The things I remember about my life in Marion. Hearing the church bells ring at 8, noon and 5 PM. Going to Mays Drugs for the latest albums on sale, or going to Marion TV n Records and checking out the latest singles there. The big deal was going downtown to Woolworth's, that was my version of going to Madison. Walking Cheryl Barker home from school. Hanging out with Russ and Jeff till Jeff and I fought over Cheryl. Russ and me playing basketball, Cheryl and me playing basketball. Collecting beer cans in 8th grade. Working at the old APCO, then Derby. In between working at Applegate's Landing as a lowly dishwasher and having a ex gf being a cook and seeing her taking great delight of giving you dirty dishes to clean up. Learning to drive and then going to Record Realm for the latest.
And in the time we graduated, we grew up and went seperate ways. Going into the service for some, college for others, while I took a couple years to figure out what to do and playing a band and thinking I'm going to make it big. People get married, got divorced and got married again, some stayed married, some never did. It's funny to look at a town that I've lived in and seen the changes. And now some of my classmates are now grandmas and grandpas.
In short reunions are fun but when I think about it, it shows that we all eventually changed into the persons that we were rebelled against. Funny how in 4th grade Russ, Jeff and I would do this No Girls Allowed club and always thought we would be the Big 3 that ran this town of Marion. But then, we all grew up. Reunions are a way that remind us how far we have become and although it was 30 years ago that we gradurated, it only seems like last month we were kids become young men and women.
It was a long time ago but it doesn't seem that long ago......
I think with Facebook enabled us to reach out to past classmates to once we weren't that close but became friends due to finding each other via FB. I think I spent the most time with Al Heeren, Steve Fry, Joe Greene and Kevin Herren. But then again usually on reunions I spent the most time with them anyway.
I think the second nite we were still trying to recover from closing down Bill's last night. Traci Gusendorf was a bit more behaved unlike her outrageous self to which Janeen Machen drove her home. Karl Hudson did the acoustic show of the night. Janeen thinks a lot of him, the rest of us pretty much spent most of the time out on the deck. I think Karl could have used a full band.
I can't get over the fact that Al is now a grandpa.
Mark Kloppenstein brought his 1952 Chevy Pickup for those to see around midnight. He mentioned that they had a daughter that just got married and two hours they're putting through ISU in Ames and had to get up early to get them to the dorm. He and the former Cheryl Barker have been married for 25 plus years. I think Steve Willard and Diane have been married 30 years. Cheryl didn't say much to me but she was friendly.
Donna Grant brought her boyfriend David Neu up there, David is handicapped and I think he felt left out since he didn't know anybody there but he did proved to be a good sport about things. Donna and Sara Mellegren took many pictures up there and hopefully some will turn out.
Janeen Machen still looks like she did when I first met her in third grade at Emerson, except her hair more gray than it was but she still remains a tiny girl. She worked her butt off on the Reunion plans but we didn't have that great of a turnout at the Country Club. We had more ppl at Bills than the previous get together.
I think i pretty much talked to everybody that was there except for a few of the stuck up women of HS who still are (they shall remain nameless). But the biggest surprise was seeing Frank White who was one of the most hairyest guys around showed up with a shaved head. I talked to Sherri Clark who sat at the dinner table with me, Lori Miller, Al, Kent Meyer and his wife and Sara. Don't recall much of seeing Sherri at high school but most often caught up with her during the reunion thingy. Cheryl Twachman and Mary Katzmark married much older guys and they were there at the country club. Sherri says she wants to do the next reunion and they would like to rent out a barn and do something farm related instead of the country club thing which was why the turnout was so low. We had 80 folks in our 1999 reunion, but i think it was about 50 this time around.
I didn't take the tour of the jr and sr high schools and perhaps i should have. Frank White said that he didn't remember much of junior high but more of High school once he got though the doors. They said outside of the remodeling of the gym, High school pretty much looks the same. I don't remember much of Junior High either, I remember vagne things of being at Home Room and Mr Harry Schley the 7th grade math teacher who Frank called a asshole. I really didn't think Harry was all that bad, he did impose tough love but was willing to work with you on occasion. I do remember Mr Campbell with Social Studies but I spent most of the time looking out the window and watching the trains go through town. One thing about going to school was trying to cross the tracks before the train came through.
Dave Shindell, who married Lynn Roby remembers that he was in my American Studies Class with Mr Messerli and I think he was. I also think Dave was in my Psychology class with Mr Tesar, one of many classes I got a D minus from. He and Lynn have been married for 20 plus years too. They still look good together.
And like that it's all over. Mark Prouty will return back to Utah, and the rest will jump on a airplane and go home that way. And the rest of us will return back to the mundane life of jobs, family and trying to keep our heads above water in uncertain times. Myself I will return back to bargain hunting, blogging about music and trying to do errands on the weekends. And I'm missing my classmates already.
I can't believe while looking through the old yearbook how much I changed. There's a picture of our final day at school, and here i was, long hair and a big nose and thin as a stick looking at it all. It's funny how going to school we couldn't wait to get the hell out but when the reunion comes around can't wait to see the familar faces, getting older and fatter and more gray or bald.
And we had some interesting times in previous reunions. in 1984, our five year reunion was marked by me having a severe nosebleed. In 1989 we saw Cheryl Comried make a fool out of herself and her husband as she plopped herself on the student athletes at the time. I wore black lether pants that reunion. There wasn't a 15th reunion. 10 years ago we did the reunion at the Country Club, it was the last time that my two best friends Steve Willard And Russ was there. in 2004, it was held at Coe College and I got there at the last minite after saying i wasn't going. Amazingly some ppl took pictures of me there, don't recall how they were done it must have been when I was leaving. And now this time around.
Good times and good people. Now the next objective is to make it to the next one five years from now and then the 40th which might be a bigger reach. But I'll do my best to get to the next one.
And to Steve Fry, didn't you say you weren't coming to this one too? ;-)
Betcha will next time ago bro!
The 30th year HS reunion now in the books I was more surprised of the way Facebook have gotten most of us reconnected. Eversomuch the fact that a few of the FB friends were not people I associated myself with. But it's never too late to gain a friend from the past.
Certainly your going to get the snooty stuck up types with holier than thou attitude (that can't be helped) and I know who they are and they know who they are so you really can't change them but what surprised me is that I did talk with the majority of the 1979 classmates. Still a few ppl would still look the same (Steve O'Neill, and I'm sure Diane look the same as when we gradurated) and some completely changed (Shawn Bolden, Frank White) and some trying to be sexy as they were back then in high school (but time and age kinda did a shock job on them) and not exactly succeeding. Its funny when Steve Fry made this observation that when he took two of the classmates home 20th years ago he would jump into the sack with them but nowadays he'd rather give them a ride and a quick hug and hit the road. Nevertheless it was fun getting hugs and talking bout the old times (if we can remember them) and also seeing Mrs. Moore the PE teacher from Jr High and her actually remembering me (although I couldn't recall her-don't remember much from jr high). We did have a big turnout Friday night but I think about a quarter of them stayed home the next day. Could have been that nobody wanted to pay 30 bucks to get their picture taken and have country club food, which was good actually but not worth that much.
I don't think anybody seen me play live when my band played the OK Lounge. I think Ken Deburkehart or Mark Floyd may been there but since that was 25 years ago I don't think I know who was there either.
I have heard reports that Jim Dickenson, famed producer from Memphis has passed away but yet have to read the wires about it.
I do know that Rasheed Ali, the free jazz drummer who played on the last recordings of John Coltrane passed away at age 76.
No shows at the Reunion: Joe Ickes, Russ, Jeff Kewley and Steve Carter most noted. Steve Willard said he would try to get there on Saturday never did, probably due to not get out of his job.
Once upon a time Shawn Bolden and Joe Greene were a couple, although not married they went steady awhile and I'm sure it's always awkward to see your ex GF at a reunion which thank God I dated the ones a year later. I'm sure it weighs a bit on Joe's mind of what if, but I don't think Joe really has dated all that much since he and shawn went seperate ways. I had grade school GFs that are in the class of 79 and I don't really talk to neither one either. I think I said Hi to Janice Kinchloe and Cheryl Kloppenstein or at least acknowledged their presence but in essence I think I talked more to Mark.
I didn't know Janice Kinchloe smoked. I remember her in school growing up faster bodywise and she was a bit more chunky. In Junior High us boys would go around snapping the girls bras (alongside getting into fights left and right, I think that's how I met the other Janice, Berns that is; me and Chris Cox were scrapping around and I ran into her) and I unhooked her bra with a good snap. Us boys would go smacking other guys under the chin with something called a Tweety and many a time home I come home with a sore red chin. Miss Kinchloe has slimmed down quite a bit since then and is probably considered one of those uppity folk. But I also admit that I didn't know her when I saw her along with Sheri Morgan when we were walking into the country club.
For some reason I kept getting Kim Smith confused with Donna Anderson who was at the bar friday night. Miss Anderson has aged quite a bit, whereas Kim hasn't changed all that much but if Kim had her patented glasses from high school I would have known her right off the start.
Tom Bowler made a comment that he didn't like the way downtown Marion got bulldozed down in favor of that strip mall that they put up. Those buildings that got torn down were places we hung out, The Shoe Horn, Marion TV n Records, the original Town Square Bookstore, Ole's Ham & Egger, the old Salvation Army and some old head shop where hippies would hang out at the beginning of 1970. The things we miss later on in life. The Twixt Town Drive In, Saint Joe's Fun Days, the summer days up downtown when the fair came in. The trains that went through town.
The things I remember about my life in Marion. Hearing the church bells ring at 8, noon and 5 PM. Going to Mays Drugs for the latest albums on sale, or going to Marion TV n Records and checking out the latest singles there. The big deal was going downtown to Woolworth's, that was my version of going to Madison. Walking Cheryl Barker home from school. Hanging out with Russ and Jeff till Jeff and I fought over Cheryl. Russ and me playing basketball, Cheryl and me playing basketball. Collecting beer cans in 8th grade. Working at the old APCO, then Derby. In between working at Applegate's Landing as a lowly dishwasher and having a ex gf being a cook and seeing her taking great delight of giving you dirty dishes to clean up. Learning to drive and then going to Record Realm for the latest.
And in the time we graduated, we grew up and went seperate ways. Going into the service for some, college for others, while I took a couple years to figure out what to do and playing a band and thinking I'm going to make it big. People get married, got divorced and got married again, some stayed married, some never did. It's funny to look at a town that I've lived in and seen the changes. And now some of my classmates are now grandmas and grandpas.
In short reunions are fun but when I think about it, it shows that we all eventually changed into the persons that we were rebelled against. Funny how in 4th grade Russ, Jeff and I would do this No Girls Allowed club and always thought we would be the Big 3 that ran this town of Marion. But then, we all grew up. Reunions are a way that remind us how far we have become and although it was 30 years ago that we gradurated, it only seems like last month we were kids become young men and women.
It was a long time ago but it doesn't seem that long ago......
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Crabb Bits: Les Paul, 10 Years Of Net Life, Reunions
Today i read with much sadness about the passing the man who gave us the
Les Paul guitar, Les Paul who passed away at age 94. Rock n roll as
you know it today wouldn't be the same had Les not invented the LP which
many many guitarist have used. Kinda like of a end of a era eh?
Now onward to this side of the fence.
This weekend marks an era of sorts. Of course 40 years ago it was Woodstock that became the cultural event of the lifetime, three days of peace and love and music and monsoon storms. It would have been fun to take part of Woodstock but I only 8 years old and I'm sure had we gone, we probably would have to park our cars about 10 miles out and walk there. And I'm sure we would have taken the brown acid and ended up getting sick too but at least we could have watched The Who and on the day goin back home having Jimi Hendrix waking us up to The Star Sprangled Banner.
This weekend comes the 30th HS reunion of Marion High School, the wacky class of 1979. Which seems like a long time ago but it still feels like yesterday that I walked down the grass of Thomas Park Field, trying to hold on to my cap and picking up my diploma. It's amazing that in my four years of hell we call high school that I go back every five or ten years and we all try to remember the good things and the bad things as well. I don't think I've learned all that much during our times, some of the teachers tried but most of them really didn't give a flying fuck about us and I got more d minus grades in the last two semesters from worthless teachers than I could care. The only big highlight was taking over Bangs Bejeckia English class to basically make a bad attempt to become high school senior class president. Kinda reminds me of those old Lyndon LaRouche infocommericals he did way back then. I may have gotten two votes but I didn't become class anything the next year. High school to me was a joke of peer pressuring, trying to avoid drugs, trying to make some basketball team as a reserve and quitting since i didn't like to do exercises and basically never fitting in at any particular spot except for going to the record store afterwards and taking comfort in that. And only going out for dates twice in four years. Thank God I wasn't the class of 1980, then i would have to contend with a couple of them girls who practically drive me to the point of being gay. But nevertheless I do have plenty of friends from my HS school years to which I still keep in contact with (one plays in our band) and I simply go to these things just to let the high snooty fucks that us poor white trash from the other side of the tracks are still alive and doing fine thank you very much. Plus there's a chance that I will see my very good friend Mark Prouty for the first time since 1979. And I'm sure Steve Fry will be there too, he's always been a hoot and I managed to see him at the John Wayne 100th Birthday Bash two years ago. Anything is possible and I'm sure we'll hear the usual stories of classmates being proud parents and Grandparents now (i can't fathom that now we have grandpas and grandmas in my class) but in terms of myself I'm still amazed of the fact that I've stayed the most same since graduation, not by choice but rather habit. So my Friday and Saturday nights will be caught up in that.
Also this weekend will showcase my 10th year of being on the net. It was Aug 16 that I finally went to Computer Renassanice and picked up a POS used computer for the use of music research and of course seeing the wild side of the net. Unfortuly, the computer had too much junk on the harddrive, it kept crashing and a year later I finally had enough and then brought a Gateway for more fun and games. Formatted with the state of the art ME, the fucking thing would disconnect me from IM conversations and I lost many a blog due to that. I can't believe it's been 10 years of me being on the computer, giving y'all a window to the world of what makes my world go around. I think the reason why time flew by so fast was of me being on the net about 10 to 12 hours a day, seeing what Secondspin had for used cds, bidding on EBAY and redoing my drumset every other month and hosting the friday night chat in The Roost and becoming somewhat of a cult artist with my rants and raving and what was playing in my player.
The Crabb Top Ten of the week started on a whim but bascially goes back to 1993 when I would put up my 10 favorite CDs to get while working part part part time at Relics. Basically my job was watching the register while Jerry Scott went for a pee but most of the time I was the dood leaning over the cd section talking tunes with Jerry or Erin or Carol or Bruce. I still remain good friends with Bruce and sometimes go up to Siegels to BS with him but it's a pawnshop and he's usually looking ready to kill somebody so i don't stay long. And Erin and I go back to 1990 and I think she closed her My Space site but she can be found on Twitter or Blogspot so we keep in touch. She owns Alter Ego the Comic Book Store of Marion Iowa. But the Crabb Top Ten Songs remained a everyweek part of netland since 2003 which has been the longest lasting venture that I've done outside of The Townedgers but whereas thats been on hitaus, i've not run out of blog ideas and continue to blog on. Some ppl actually do read them. But for ten years of day to day internet life, everything nowadays comes from the net and the net's not going away anytime soon. I've met and made a few friends, love and lost on the net and continue to probe the net for the long lost single or cd that yet to be found. And still get creeped out by those Match.com ads, (cue Rockwell-Somebody Watching Me) to which Match.com must be sponsering these blogs anymore. I wouldn't say that the internet has made me a celeberity (it hasn't and usualy don't for old cranks pushing 50) but i do have a closet cult following out there. The blogs I write come from what i feel and somedays they can be quite entertaining. I'm sure someday I'll go back and try to compile the best of them before My Space closes down but the archives are waiting to be discovered if one gets too bored with watching You Tube.
I like to think that it's a wonderful life and who knows. Think I have come a long way from the angry rants of the year of the Flood and this year when my depression came back in june. The one thing I found out is that the drugs really don't work and basically the ideal presciption was 10 days in Arizona although that got cut short by back spams and too many monsoons. But even with a grumpy back I did managed the trip and go to Lake Havasu City and seen the freaks and get a chuckle and then going back to Phoenix. But I've blogged many observations because I know if I don't I will forget it the next day. I think there's many stories yet to be told and ten years really isn't that long of time if you think about it, living in a BZ world. I know time didn't fly so by when I didn't have the net.
So here I am typing on a desk with piles of paper just about covering the screen and piles of cds and albums scattered about waiting to be played. Life i lead isn't perfect but I think I'm comfortible to what I become. Somedays I need to seperate The Crabb from my real persona, sometimes The Crabb is bigger than R Smith himself. I'm not sure what the future will brings and for the first time in a long time I think things might be brighter. And perhaps despite my disgust for those match.com ads, I believe that love can be found on the net and that's where it will lead. Somehow this part of the year seems to bring on a new era of sorts. Who knows, maybe we can live again, perhaps to love again.
The future remains unwritten.
And finally on Saturday, My Mom turns 65. She called up last week and said had Grandma Ambrose would lived she would be 92 years old. Grandma passed away in the darkest of eras 1975 (Grandpa Smith would passed four month later). I remember spending summer vacation over in Lincoln visiting my grandparents although they were not together, we never saw Mr. Ambrose (to this day i cannot call him my grandpa since we had no contact with each other but he passed away about a year ago) but i spend a week at Grandma then over on Decatur Street in Lincoln for Grandpa. Grandma Smith died in 1964 so i faintly remember her, but Grandma Ambrose was the most coolest and Grandpa Smith we spent many afternoons listening to the Cubs and hearing Grandpa Smith cuss out the Radio. But Momma turns 65 this saturday, and Thank God she's still living. We never know how much we miss somebody till their dead and gone. Happy birthday Ma, Crabb luvs ya.
Now onward to this side of the fence.
This weekend marks an era of sorts. Of course 40 years ago it was Woodstock that became the cultural event of the lifetime, three days of peace and love and music and monsoon storms. It would have been fun to take part of Woodstock but I only 8 years old and I'm sure had we gone, we probably would have to park our cars about 10 miles out and walk there. And I'm sure we would have taken the brown acid and ended up getting sick too but at least we could have watched The Who and on the day goin back home having Jimi Hendrix waking us up to The Star Sprangled Banner.
This weekend comes the 30th HS reunion of Marion High School, the wacky class of 1979. Which seems like a long time ago but it still feels like yesterday that I walked down the grass of Thomas Park Field, trying to hold on to my cap and picking up my diploma. It's amazing that in my four years of hell we call high school that I go back every five or ten years and we all try to remember the good things and the bad things as well. I don't think I've learned all that much during our times, some of the teachers tried but most of them really didn't give a flying fuck about us and I got more d minus grades in the last two semesters from worthless teachers than I could care. The only big highlight was taking over Bangs Bejeckia English class to basically make a bad attempt to become high school senior class president. Kinda reminds me of those old Lyndon LaRouche infocommericals he did way back then. I may have gotten two votes but I didn't become class anything the next year. High school to me was a joke of peer pressuring, trying to avoid drugs, trying to make some basketball team as a reserve and quitting since i didn't like to do exercises and basically never fitting in at any particular spot except for going to the record store afterwards and taking comfort in that. And only going out for dates twice in four years. Thank God I wasn't the class of 1980, then i would have to contend with a couple of them girls who practically drive me to the point of being gay. But nevertheless I do have plenty of friends from my HS school years to which I still keep in contact with (one plays in our band) and I simply go to these things just to let the high snooty fucks that us poor white trash from the other side of the tracks are still alive and doing fine thank you very much. Plus there's a chance that I will see my very good friend Mark Prouty for the first time since 1979. And I'm sure Steve Fry will be there too, he's always been a hoot and I managed to see him at the John Wayne 100th Birthday Bash two years ago. Anything is possible and I'm sure we'll hear the usual stories of classmates being proud parents and Grandparents now (i can't fathom that now we have grandpas and grandmas in my class) but in terms of myself I'm still amazed of the fact that I've stayed the most same since graduation, not by choice but rather habit. So my Friday and Saturday nights will be caught up in that.
Also this weekend will showcase my 10th year of being on the net. It was Aug 16 that I finally went to Computer Renassanice and picked up a POS used computer for the use of music research and of course seeing the wild side of the net. Unfortuly, the computer had too much junk on the harddrive, it kept crashing and a year later I finally had enough and then brought a Gateway for more fun and games. Formatted with the state of the art ME, the fucking thing would disconnect me from IM conversations and I lost many a blog due to that. I can't believe it's been 10 years of me being on the computer, giving y'all a window to the world of what makes my world go around. I think the reason why time flew by so fast was of me being on the net about 10 to 12 hours a day, seeing what Secondspin had for used cds, bidding on EBAY and redoing my drumset every other month and hosting the friday night chat in The Roost and becoming somewhat of a cult artist with my rants and raving and what was playing in my player.
The Crabb Top Ten of the week started on a whim but bascially goes back to 1993 when I would put up my 10 favorite CDs to get while working part part part time at Relics. Basically my job was watching the register while Jerry Scott went for a pee but most of the time I was the dood leaning over the cd section talking tunes with Jerry or Erin or Carol or Bruce. I still remain good friends with Bruce and sometimes go up to Siegels to BS with him but it's a pawnshop and he's usually looking ready to kill somebody so i don't stay long. And Erin and I go back to 1990 and I think she closed her My Space site but she can be found on Twitter or Blogspot so we keep in touch. She owns Alter Ego the Comic Book Store of Marion Iowa. But the Crabb Top Ten Songs remained a everyweek part of netland since 2003 which has been the longest lasting venture that I've done outside of The Townedgers but whereas thats been on hitaus, i've not run out of blog ideas and continue to blog on. Some ppl actually do read them. But for ten years of day to day internet life, everything nowadays comes from the net and the net's not going away anytime soon. I've met and made a few friends, love and lost on the net and continue to probe the net for the long lost single or cd that yet to be found. And still get creeped out by those Match.com ads, (cue Rockwell-Somebody Watching Me) to which Match.com must be sponsering these blogs anymore. I wouldn't say that the internet has made me a celeberity (it hasn't and usualy don't for old cranks pushing 50) but i do have a closet cult following out there. The blogs I write come from what i feel and somedays they can be quite entertaining. I'm sure someday I'll go back and try to compile the best of them before My Space closes down but the archives are waiting to be discovered if one gets too bored with watching You Tube.
I like to think that it's a wonderful life and who knows. Think I have come a long way from the angry rants of the year of the Flood and this year when my depression came back in june. The one thing I found out is that the drugs really don't work and basically the ideal presciption was 10 days in Arizona although that got cut short by back spams and too many monsoons. But even with a grumpy back I did managed the trip and go to Lake Havasu City and seen the freaks and get a chuckle and then going back to Phoenix. But I've blogged many observations because I know if I don't I will forget it the next day. I think there's many stories yet to be told and ten years really isn't that long of time if you think about it, living in a BZ world. I know time didn't fly so by when I didn't have the net.
So here I am typing on a desk with piles of paper just about covering the screen and piles of cds and albums scattered about waiting to be played. Life i lead isn't perfect but I think I'm comfortible to what I become. Somedays I need to seperate The Crabb from my real persona, sometimes The Crabb is bigger than R Smith himself. I'm not sure what the future will brings and for the first time in a long time I think things might be brighter. And perhaps despite my disgust for those match.com ads, I believe that love can be found on the net and that's where it will lead. Somehow this part of the year seems to bring on a new era of sorts. Who knows, maybe we can live again, perhaps to love again.
The future remains unwritten.
And finally on Saturday, My Mom turns 65. She called up last week and said had Grandma Ambrose would lived she would be 92 years old. Grandma passed away in the darkest of eras 1975 (Grandpa Smith would passed four month later). I remember spending summer vacation over in Lincoln visiting my grandparents although they were not together, we never saw Mr. Ambrose (to this day i cannot call him my grandpa since we had no contact with each other but he passed away about a year ago) but i spend a week at Grandma then over on Decatur Street in Lincoln for Grandpa. Grandma Smith died in 1964 so i faintly remember her, but Grandma Ambrose was the most coolest and Grandpa Smith we spent many afternoons listening to the Cubs and hearing Grandpa Smith cuss out the Radio. But Momma turns 65 this saturday, and Thank God she's still living. We never know how much we miss somebody till their dead and gone. Happy birthday Ma, Crabb luvs ya.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Sassy Says
This week, we bring to you another guest star to our home of Top Ten
Hits and then some. Couple weeks it was TAD, this week is from Sassy
Passey.
Me and her go about 9 years to which we met in St Louis at a Mingles party and we managed to keep in touch since then. A woman with a keen sense of humour and overall good sport, she has been the most dedicated to the causes of Crabb being in bands and music. She offered up to do a top ten and I took her up on it. Here's the end result coming from the mind of her. The blogs all yours.
I always use to see the commercial on TV selling this dang cd with all these old country songs and this one was the one that always use to keep playing over and over and over again. So what happened? I ended up getting the dang song because I got mad at the TV, go figure. lol At least I can listen to the song whenever I want now.
Me and her go about 9 years to which we met in St Louis at a Mingles party and we managed to keep in touch since then. A woman with a keen sense of humour and overall good sport, she has been the most dedicated to the causes of Crabb being in bands and music. She offered up to do a top ten and I took her up on it. Here's the end result coming from the mind of her. The blogs all yours.
Ok,
I decided to step up the plate and do a Top 10 for my friend Crabby,
but since I got a little carried away, it’s now a Top 20! I think Crabby
deserves an extra week off now.
Since
I get to listen to some tunes at work, I downloaded some songs onto my
little mp3 player. I'm glad I bought that mp3 player because there's
times I wish I was Special Agent Jethro Gibbs from NCIS and 6 co-workers
were Special Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Timothy McGee, but since
I won't hit people I listen to my tunes. I'm glad Mr. Crabby does his
top 10s because I find music I'd like to download to my mp3.
Anyways, here's my list that I've been rockin' out to at work.
1. Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams, CD: So Far So Good - 1993
After the movie that Kevin Costner was in Prince of Theives and Bryan came out with the song Everything I Do, I went out and got the cassette. DiggyKat was nice enough to sell me the cd which I'm surprised I haven't worn out yet. This is my favorite song off the cd. In fact, I'm surprised my head isn't moving up and down when I'm listening to this song at work.
www.bryanadams.com
www.myspace.com/bryanadamshttp://twitter.com/bryanadams
2. I Fall to Pieces - Aaron Neville / Trisha Yearwood CD: Rhythm Country and Blues - 1994
I like Patsy Clines version of I Fall to Pieces, but I love this version better. Trisha & Aaron's soulful voices together. I sometimes even sing to it. No Crabby I'm not joining your band because I'd crack a few windows and you'd probably need your hearing checked afterwards. lolwww.aaronneville.com www.myspace.com/aaronneville504
www.trishayearwood.com www.myspace.com/trishayearwood
3. Lineman For the County (Whicita Lineman) - Dwight Yoakam CD: ?? I don't have any idea, I got it elsewhere
I've heard the version that Glen Campbell does, but quite frankly I don't care for Glen that much. Heck I don't even like any of his other music. If it wasn't for Dwight doing this song I probably wouldn't be listening to it. Dwight seems to add his own little twang to it. And to think I use to do line dances with his moves to them! I don't miss line dancing one bit.www.dwightyoakam.com www.myspace.com/dwightyoakam
4. Hotel California - The Eagles CD: Hell Freezes Over - 1994
I started listening to this song after a girlfriend of mine in high school told me she was from California and that she use to listen to it. So it became one of my favorite Eagles songs, still is to this day. Every time I hear this song I think of hanging out with my girlfriend back in high school and the crap we use to do the last 2 years of being in high school!www.eaglesband.com www.myspace.com/eaglesmusic
5.Drift Away - Uncle Kracker and Dobie Gray CD: Uncle Kracker's No Stranger To Shame - 2002
I do love the original by Dobie and was happy when he came on to do vocals with Matt aka Uncle Kracker. Apparently my Dad knows Uncle Kracker's Dad and brother, how weird is that? I started off liking Kid Rock and started following Uncle Kracker and his music because I can at least sing along to the most of his music. No Crabby, I'm still not joining your band. lol
www.dobiegray.comwww.unclekracker.com www.myspace.com/officialunclekracker
6. I Believe In You - Don Williams CD: Greatest Hits Vol 1 - 1998
I like the words to the song. I mean, how many people actually believe in stuff like they use to 20 years ago. Not very many. To be honest, I'm afraid to see what kind of kids are gonna be runnin' the planet in 20 years from now, I don't even want to think of that either.
www.don-williams.com
7. Blame It - Jamie Foxx CD: I have no clue
Thanks to a co-worker of mine that I worked with earlier this year in a different place, she got me hooked on this song. The gal that I worked with, when she was in high school she was 13 or 14 years old and got to go to ....Paris.... to sing for someone important. So needless to say when we were at work we were able to listen to the radio and since we were the only 2 that would listen to it I said turn on whatever you want I'm flexible. This song would come on at least once a day and she'd be singing to it, so everytime I hear it I think of my co-worker singing and dancing. lolwww.jamiefoxx.com www.myspace.com/jamiefoxx
8. You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth - Meat Loaf CD: Bat Out Of Hell - 1977
Dang, the year before I was born and go figure I listen to Meat Loaf. Of course, I wish he'd do a few more movies. I love the dude as an actor. I just wonder if he could do a Bat out of Hell movie with all his songs it it? www.meatloaf.net www.myspace.com/meatloaf
9. Dang Me - Roger Miller CD: The Very Best of Roger Miller - 2006
I think Roger Miller was always a comedian when he sang, but he always did sing some good songs like Little Toy Train. I wish he was still alive because I would like to see if he would come up with more songs like this song. Of course, I might be a little warped, but who cares. lol
www.rogermiller.com
10. We Will Rock You - Queen CD: Which one do you want? I've seen it on many!
Ok, next time the Detroit Red Wings get to the Stanley Cup and win, ya'll will know why I like this song.www.queenonline.com www.myspace.com/queen
Anyways, here's my list that I've been rockin' out to at work.
1. Summer of 69 - Bryan Adams, CD: So Far So Good - 1993
After the movie that Kevin Costner was in Prince of Theives and Bryan came out with the song Everything I Do, I went out and got the cassette. DiggyKat was nice enough to sell me the cd which I'm surprised I haven't worn out yet. This is my favorite song off the cd. In fact, I'm surprised my head isn't moving up and down when I'm listening to this song at work.
www.bryanadams.com
www.myspace.com/bryanadamshttp://twitter.com/bryanadams
2. I Fall to Pieces - Aaron Neville / Trisha Yearwood CD: Rhythm Country and Blues - 1994
I like Patsy Clines version of I Fall to Pieces, but I love this version better. Trisha & Aaron's soulful voices together. I sometimes even sing to it. No Crabby I'm not joining your band because I'd crack a few windows and you'd probably need your hearing checked afterwards. lolwww.aaronneville.com www.myspace.com/aaronneville504
www.trishayearwood.com www.myspace.com/trishayearwood
3. Lineman For the County (Whicita Lineman) - Dwight Yoakam CD: ?? I don't have any idea, I got it elsewhere
I've heard the version that Glen Campbell does, but quite frankly I don't care for Glen that much. Heck I don't even like any of his other music. If it wasn't for Dwight doing this song I probably wouldn't be listening to it. Dwight seems to add his own little twang to it. And to think I use to do line dances with his moves to them! I don't miss line dancing one bit.www.dwightyoakam.com www.myspace.com/dwightyoakam
4. Hotel California - The Eagles CD: Hell Freezes Over - 1994
I started listening to this song after a girlfriend of mine in high school told me she was from California and that she use to listen to it. So it became one of my favorite Eagles songs, still is to this day. Every time I hear this song I think of hanging out with my girlfriend back in high school and the crap we use to do the last 2 years of being in high school!www.eaglesband.com www.myspace.com/eaglesmusic
5.Drift Away - Uncle Kracker and Dobie Gray CD: Uncle Kracker's No Stranger To Shame - 2002
I do love the original by Dobie and was happy when he came on to do vocals with Matt aka Uncle Kracker. Apparently my Dad knows Uncle Kracker's Dad and brother, how weird is that? I started off liking Kid Rock and started following Uncle Kracker and his music because I can at least sing along to the most of his music. No Crabby, I'm still not joining your band. lol
www.dobiegray.comwww.unclekracker.com www.myspace.com/officialunclekracker
6. I Believe In You - Don Williams CD: Greatest Hits Vol 1 - 1998
I like the words to the song. I mean, how many people actually believe in stuff like they use to 20 years ago. Not very many. To be honest, I'm afraid to see what kind of kids are gonna be runnin' the planet in 20 years from now, I don't even want to think of that either.
www.don-williams.com
7. Blame It - Jamie Foxx CD: I have no clue
Thanks to a co-worker of mine that I worked with earlier this year in a different place, she got me hooked on this song. The gal that I worked with, when she was in high school she was 13 or 14 years old and got to go to ....Paris.... to sing for someone important. So needless to say when we were at work we were able to listen to the radio and since we were the only 2 that would listen to it I said turn on whatever you want I'm flexible. This song would come on at least once a day and she'd be singing to it, so everytime I hear it I think of my co-worker singing and dancing. lolwww.jamiefoxx.com www.myspace.com/jamiefoxx
8. You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth - Meat Loaf CD: Bat Out Of Hell - 1977
Dang, the year before I was born and go figure I listen to Meat Loaf. Of course, I wish he'd do a few more movies. I love the dude as an actor. I just wonder if he could do a Bat out of Hell movie with all his songs it it? www.meatloaf.net www.myspace.com/meatloaf
9. Dang Me - Roger Miller CD: The Very Best of Roger Miller - 2006
I think Roger Miller was always a comedian when he sang, but he always did sing some good songs like Little Toy Train. I wish he was still alive because I would like to see if he would come up with more songs like this song. Of course, I might be a little warped, but who cares. lol
www.rogermiller.com
10. We Will Rock You - Queen CD: Which one do you want? I've seen it on many!
Ok, next time the Detroit Red Wings get to the Stanley Cup and win, ya'll will know why I like this song.www.queenonline.com www.myspace.com/queen
11. Free Falling – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers CD: Full Moon Fever – 1989
This
is just another song that I like rockin’ too. I don’t own it but listen
to it whenever I get the chance. Of course, whenever it does come on I
do turn the radio up or I’ll turn the speakers up on the computer.
12. Crazy – Aerosmith CD: Big Ones – 1994
Ok,
I first learned about Aerosmith compliments of Steve Tyler’s daughter
Liv being in his music videos so I blame her for me liking Aerosmith. I
do like Liv though, I think she’s done some good movies. This is another song I don’t own but I like listening too.
13. Get This Party Started – Pink CD: Missundaztood – 2001
I
think everytime I hear this song I start moving a foot or my head. I
know I downloaded this song, legally of course, but I know I need to own
this chickie’s cd’s because I do really enjoy listening to her music.
www.pinkspage.com www.myspace.com/pinkspage
14. Only God Knows Why – Kid RockI
started listening to Kid Rock in the early part of 2001 and got to see
him in concert. When I did see him in concert it was a couple months or
so after Waylon Jennings passed away and right in the middle of his song
he starts singing Waylon’s song “I’m a Good Ole’ Boy” sang
the whole song then finished his song. I think I had tears in my eyes
because I missed Waylon really bad and I was just happy to hear the song
again, but I heard it live. This song though, it’s the truth, and I
probably listen to it the most.
15. Underground – David Bowie CD: Soundtrack to Labyrinth with of course David Bowie
If
you ask me, I think you can put on any David Bowie song from this movie
and I’d listen to it. I think it’s time to watch that movie again, I’m
glad I own it. I think I need to buy the soundtrack though so I can rock
out to just the music.
16. Courtesy of the Red White & Blue – Toby Keith CD: I dunno, I know I own it but I forgot (Pull My Chain)
I’ve
always liked Toby Keith and when he came out with this song, lemme tell
ya I had to have it like asap. I gotta say between this song and
American Soldier, these two are my favorite Toby songs.
17.In This Town – The Townedgers CD: Ok Crabby I forgot, I know I own it though
Ok, I have a thing for the Townedgers.
18. I’m A Survivor – Reba McEntire CD: I have no clue, never knew
I
know my cousin Dawn is gonna box my ears for not knowing this since
she’s the biggest Reba fan. I agree with the title of the song, I know I
am a Survivor. I know I survived a lot of crap in my life, I know I’m
gonna go through more.
19. I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash CD: I Walk The Line – 2004
I
heard a rumor somewhere that Johnny Cash wrote this song when June
Carter Cash told him to pretty much straighten up and fly right. If
that’s the truth I wish that most of the men would do what this song
says, Walk the Line. And of course fly right that is…… lol
20. Luckenbach, Texas – Waylon Jennings with Willie Nelson at the end CD: I dunno! (Oi' Waylon)
I always use to see the commercial on TV selling this dang cd with all these old country songs and this one was the one that always use to keep playing over and over and over again. So what happened? I ended up getting the dang song because I got mad at the TV, go figure. lol At least I can listen to the song whenever I want now.
www.waylon.com www.myspace.com/waylonhossjennings
Bonus
21. Ok, I know this is a Top 20, but go check out my friend DiggyKat’s bands, who knows you might enjoy his music:
21. Ok, I know this is a Top 20, but go check out my friend DiggyKat’s bands, who knows you might enjoy his music:
www.myspace.com/wasteddayspunx
Monday, August 10, 2009
Archives: Dubuque Blues, Brooks And Dunn, RIAA BS
Heard that I was missed......Saturday I spent the day going up to
Dubuque to search for more cheap vinyl and cds that I needed to have.
Originally I wanted to go to Madison for a couple days of bike riding
but the weather fucking sucked, it rained three of the four days there
and Sunday was a washout. No point of going up to a place where it's
going to rain most of the weekend so I wanted to go somewhere. I
thought about going to Ames but that was too far away and they only have
Hastings and Taco Time. Iowa City has way too many stop lights and I
got no patience for that anymore. So if you wanted to go to a place
which wasn't too far from home and they have decent music stores, why
not go to Dubuque instead? And so I did.
I found the back-way to Highway 20 from highway 151 which is Military Road which snakes through the countryside until you take a road that leads you into Key West, which is a suburb. It's on a forgotten four lane highway and Key West doesn't have much for downtown, in fact most of the stores are on 151 which consists of a Dollar General Store, A Tru Value, A Dairy Queen and Fast Food City (taco johns, McDonalds, couple others). but the road into downtown Key West then leads you back on a curvy hill which becomes Kelly Lane. Make a left at the T section and the road leads you to JFK Blvd to which is the main drag of western Dubuque. Moondog Music, sits behind Shop Ko, next to ColdStone Ice Cream. However, if you continue to drive down JFK, it leads you to another shopping center and another strip mall to which CDs 4 Change is next to Four Seasons' Chinese Buffet. CDs 4 Change actually has more records than CDs, and the owner says that he sells more vinyl than cds anyway. I noticed that since the CD shelf space was cut in half in favor of new vinyl and the budget vinyl that had albums for 3 bucks a record and i managed to find something like 10 albums. And the vinyl turnover is unbelievable since the last time i was there in March.
Driving down Asbury Street leads out to the edge of town and the Goodwill store on the Arterial which is a multitude of stores (hy Vee, Sam's Club,Bed Bath Beyond etc). I seldom find anything at Goodwill in Dubuque, they have records but most of them are the usual 60s crap nobody listens to anymore and somehow they were lucky enuff to have no less than five copies of Herb Alpert's What Now My Love album. I did come across a copy of Tuff Darts!, the 1978 punk band's Sire one and done. I used to have that album but then again the more I thought about it the more i remembered that album wasn't that great to begin with (they had a minor hit with All For The Love Of Rock N Roll and Here Comes Suzy got some airplay and maybe Billy Idol covered it). Had way too much crap songs such as Your Love Is Like Nuclear Waste or most of side two was godawful so I didn't see the need to rebuy it.
There was this loud ass sound system coming in and next door to Goodwill was a outdoor sports bar called Champions that had some rappers and soundsystem and they were yukking it up and they had a skateboard ramp for the bikers and skateboarders to jump it. Since I was done shopping anyway, i decided to hang back and see the skateboard punks jump the ramps in their own X Games. And I've seen a few skateboards go flying off in one direction and their boards the other direction. Some punk did a 180 pretzel turn and cracked his back bigtime. Three more failed attempts and he threw a fit and broke his skateboard in two. I'm sure he went to the ER later, i think he cracked a vertebrate or two in his back. Another ska8tor Boi, wearing a Rolling Stone Lip T shirt, was terrible, he jump the ramp and fall on his ass about 10 times. I think by then he had bruises on bruises but on the 12th time he managed to jump the ramp and awkwardly stay on the board and not fall on his ass. So we gave him a standing ovation and the dood, happy that he succeeded for once, retired to a can of Red Bull and a Icy Hot Patch.
Basically that was Dubuque in a nut shell. I didn't go down to the river or downtown to the pawnshops, basically those places are so damn dirty you need a tenitus shot after you leave the place. But in two weeks I read that the Gin Blossoms will be making an outdoors concert on the 22nd and maybe I might go pay them a visit. If not, this bargain hunt trip saved me from going to Madison till next month. Maybe then, we'll get three straight days of sunshine and maybe i can do some bike riding along with the habits of buying out the music stores.
...
Brooks and Dunn have decided that their time together is over and will do a final tour in 2010 and then kick back and watch their royalties come in. They'll be forever dammed by Boot Scoot Boogie although they did make some listenable songs later on.
I found the back-way to Highway 20 from highway 151 which is Military Road which snakes through the countryside until you take a road that leads you into Key West, which is a suburb. It's on a forgotten four lane highway and Key West doesn't have much for downtown, in fact most of the stores are on 151 which consists of a Dollar General Store, A Tru Value, A Dairy Queen and Fast Food City (taco johns, McDonalds, couple others). but the road into downtown Key West then leads you back on a curvy hill which becomes Kelly Lane. Make a left at the T section and the road leads you to JFK Blvd to which is the main drag of western Dubuque. Moondog Music, sits behind Shop Ko, next to ColdStone Ice Cream. However, if you continue to drive down JFK, it leads you to another shopping center and another strip mall to which CDs 4 Change is next to Four Seasons' Chinese Buffet. CDs 4 Change actually has more records than CDs, and the owner says that he sells more vinyl than cds anyway. I noticed that since the CD shelf space was cut in half in favor of new vinyl and the budget vinyl that had albums for 3 bucks a record and i managed to find something like 10 albums. And the vinyl turnover is unbelievable since the last time i was there in March.
Driving down Asbury Street leads out to the edge of town and the Goodwill store on the Arterial which is a multitude of stores (hy Vee, Sam's Club,Bed Bath Beyond etc). I seldom find anything at Goodwill in Dubuque, they have records but most of them are the usual 60s crap nobody listens to anymore and somehow they were lucky enuff to have no less than five copies of Herb Alpert's What Now My Love album. I did come across a copy of Tuff Darts!, the 1978 punk band's Sire one and done. I used to have that album but then again the more I thought about it the more i remembered that album wasn't that great to begin with (they had a minor hit with All For The Love Of Rock N Roll and Here Comes Suzy got some airplay and maybe Billy Idol covered it). Had way too much crap songs such as Your Love Is Like Nuclear Waste or most of side two was godawful so I didn't see the need to rebuy it.
There was this loud ass sound system coming in and next door to Goodwill was a outdoor sports bar called Champions that had some rappers and soundsystem and they were yukking it up and they had a skateboard ramp for the bikers and skateboarders to jump it. Since I was done shopping anyway, i decided to hang back and see the skateboard punks jump the ramps in their own X Games. And I've seen a few skateboards go flying off in one direction and their boards the other direction. Some punk did a 180 pretzel turn and cracked his back bigtime. Three more failed attempts and he threw a fit and broke his skateboard in two. I'm sure he went to the ER later, i think he cracked a vertebrate or two in his back. Another ska8tor Boi, wearing a Rolling Stone Lip T shirt, was terrible, he jump the ramp and fall on his ass about 10 times. I think by then he had bruises on bruises but on the 12th time he managed to jump the ramp and awkwardly stay on the board and not fall on his ass. So we gave him a standing ovation and the dood, happy that he succeeded for once, retired to a can of Red Bull and a Icy Hot Patch.
Basically that was Dubuque in a nut shell. I didn't go down to the river or downtown to the pawnshops, basically those places are so damn dirty you need a tenitus shot after you leave the place. But in two weeks I read that the Gin Blossoms will be making an outdoors concert on the 22nd and maybe I might go pay them a visit. If not, this bargain hunt trip saved me from going to Madison till next month. Maybe then, we'll get three straight days of sunshine and maybe i can do some bike riding along with the habits of buying out the music stores.
...
Brooks and Dunn have decided that their time together is over and will do a final tour in 2010 and then kick back and watch their royalties come in. They'll be forever dammed by Boot Scoot Boogie although they did make some listenable songs later on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/opinion/l08blow.html
Among this is the RIAA's response to the demise of music as we know it today. But to all that matters, the best response comes from M.Simon
I grew up when the arrival of LPs made a tremendous range of high-quality recordings available at home. The advent of noise-free CDs in the 1980s brought tears to my eyes. Anyone who has listened to downloads of digital music with a high-quality sound reproduction system and compared I grew up when the arrival of LPs made a tremendous range of high-quality recordings available at home. The advent of noise-free CDs in the 1980s brought tears to my eyes. Anyone who has listened to downloads of digital music with a high-quality sound reproduction system and compared them with the recording available on a CD has noticed the degradation of sound quality resulting from audio compression.
Among this is the RIAA's response to the demise of music as we know it today. But to all that matters, the best response comes from M.Simon
I grew up when the arrival of LPs made a tremendous range of high-quality recordings available at home. The advent of noise-free CDs in the 1980s brought tears to my eyes. Anyone who has listened to downloads of digital music with a high-quality sound reproduction system and compared I grew up when the arrival of LPs made a tremendous range of high-quality recordings available at home. The advent of noise-free CDs in the 1980s brought tears to my eyes. Anyone who has listened to downloads of digital music with a high-quality sound reproduction system and compared them with the recording available on a CD has noticed the degradation of sound quality resulting from audio compression.
If only digital downloads remain, we shall lose the availability of high-quality recorded music in the home.
Thank you Mr. Simon for addressing the situation to which I've been screaming about for the past five years. As for Mitch Boiwol and his RIAA double talk bullshit, fuck off. The major labels lack of promoting a decent band has been nonexistant for the past 15 years. Bands out there today don't want to sign with a major label since the major label only put out product that gets stale faster than homemade bread. To which I stated 30 years ago that record mergers don't do shit for the artist. Just implode and get it over with anyway.
Us music audiophiles have to resort to getting our music used since there's hardly any record stores are within driving distance anymore. Give HP Books and Goodwill credit, otherwise I would be reading books instead.
Once upon a time you could buy a song that you wanted, I believe it was called a 45....
From Euro Traveler....
One of the reasons people invested in LP or CD collections was because they wanted to listen to the music for years to come; I doubt, however, that fans of today's bands assume they'll want to hear their music even a year from now. Instead, the music has become as disposable as most other things in today's culture.
Sad but true, when's the last time you played Fall Out Boy? When was the last time I played Fall Out Boy? Gawd cant remember and that was their last album.....
New Music today is crap surmises another reader and she may be right. This year I can't tell you what's out there to get. But I keep trying. The reason why we turn back to the reliables is that they got melody and music that you remember. Most new music goes over my head. I"ve seen some good songs from the likes of Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban but for good country, it's still Waylon or Willie or Johnny. Those songs spoke to me, unlike whatever passes for country on GAC.
And people are put off by the RIAA lawsuits so they quit buying. Piss enuff people off and the RIAA has found out that since 1999, the buyers had enuff of that. We're in a recession and ppl don't want to spend 15 to 20 bucks on a new CD with two decent songs and 12 shitty numbers and shitty over-compressed sound.
I donno about y'all but i have drawn a line at what i review now. Learn to live with the times RIAA or it will be a pleasure to watch you starve yourself from within from greed.
Thank you Mr. Simon for addressing the situation to which I've been screaming about for the past five years. As for Mitch Boiwol and his RIAA double talk bullshit, fuck off. The major labels lack of promoting a decent band has been nonexistant for the past 15 years. Bands out there today don't want to sign with a major label since the major label only put out product that gets stale faster than homemade bread. To which I stated 30 years ago that record mergers don't do shit for the artist. Just implode and get it over with anyway.
Us music audiophiles have to resort to getting our music used since there's hardly any record stores are within driving distance anymore. Give HP Books and Goodwill credit, otherwise I would be reading books instead.
Once upon a time you could buy a song that you wanted, I believe it was called a 45....
From Euro Traveler....
One of the reasons people invested in LP or CD collections was because they wanted to listen to the music for years to come; I doubt, however, that fans of today's bands assume they'll want to hear their music even a year from now. Instead, the music has become as disposable as most other things in today's culture.
Sad but true, when's the last time you played Fall Out Boy? When was the last time I played Fall Out Boy? Gawd cant remember and that was their last album.....
New Music today is crap surmises another reader and she may be right. This year I can't tell you what's out there to get. But I keep trying. The reason why we turn back to the reliables is that they got melody and music that you remember. Most new music goes over my head. I"ve seen some good songs from the likes of Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban but for good country, it's still Waylon or Willie or Johnny. Those songs spoke to me, unlike whatever passes for country on GAC.
And people are put off by the RIAA lawsuits so they quit buying. Piss enuff people off and the RIAA has found out that since 1999, the buyers had enuff of that. We're in a recession and ppl don't want to spend 15 to 20 bucks on a new CD with two decent songs and 12 shitty numbers and shitty over-compressed sound.
I donno about y'all but i have drawn a line at what i review now. Learn to live with the times RIAA or it will be a pleasure to watch you starve yourself from within from greed.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Top Ten Of The Week-Venus Chases The Moon
I'm looking out the window and seeing Venus chasing the moon to the
other side of the sky. I love full moon nights to which I like to base
my bargain hunts on road trips. Plus it's easier to see the road.
As it stands I'll doubt if I will hit the 61 Drive In this year. Summer has actually slipped away faster than originally thought. I'm trying to cut back on miles driving every which way since I average sixty miles every day of going to work and back. I haven't been to Davenport since Thanksgiving of 07, and if all they offer is CO OP records and tapes, then why go? Waste of time since last CDs I bought there were scratched up. Scratched up 8 dollar cds are a burr in my ass and pisses me off more than the fucking red lights on the Marion Bypass. Ames and Madison are on the menu of going places but going to Des Moines, nah. Sorry Maura (but then again I doubt if Maura reads any of our blogs anymore). People move on in life I guess with family but unless you're into top tens and have no life, you're more than welcome to hang around for the next installment of Tunes R Us. And thank TAD for a great top ten last week.
The Songs Of The Week.
1. It's A Long Way There-The Little River Band (1975) But was a minor hit in 1976 and the first of many from this Aussie band. I finally got around the hear the 8 minite album cut the other day and I'm surprise THE FOX never played it. But unless your name is Zeppelin or The Who or if you dabbed in MOR music THE FOX ignores you.
2. Beautiful Future-Primal Scream (2009) You know we waited forever to get the latest Primal Scream album to which Best Buy didn't have it and Wal Mart? Bwahahahaha! It's tough to follow your favorite bands when the Four Monopoly Record companies hold back product or give us worthless shit such as Lil Wayne or Britney Spears. Finally got the album, where you ask? Half Priced Books of course.
3. Yesterday When I Was Young-Roy Clark (1968) One of many 45s that I bought my Dad when Town Square Books would sold the old jukebox records. Roy Clark was the Brad Paisley of his time, excellent guitar player but loved to do banal ballads that ruined his reputation more did Hee Haw. But Hee Haw, gave us country artists of the past and present when it was on the air and it was fun to see Roy and Buck pick and grin with the bad jokes. However this bittersweet lament to lost youth is a reminder that no matter what you do, time flies and the young get old and bypassed if not careful. Clark would once in a while would do a album with the late Clarence Gatemouth Brown and leave the sappy ballads behind. But I'll give Roy credit for coming up with Thank God And Greyhound You're Gone. And forgive him for coming up with the Lawrence Welk/Hee Haw Counter Revolutionary Polka.
4. Run Myself Out Of Town-George Thorogood And The Destroyers (2009) What the hell is George still doing on a major label? Ain't he washed up and thrown to the casino and fair crowds? Piss off punks, this is the new King Of Boogie so show some respect for the rock n roll elders. Certainly your not going get that thinking man's stuff from Radiohead or Mars Volta, just the good stuff I grew up with. Rock on!
5. Lessons-Rush (1976) 2112 was that album that everybody had in their collection during my high school years and although I was NOT a Rush fan back then (sorry russ), I did have this album in my collection (although I think I gave my copy to Russ, I know I gave him Permament Waves). One of the few straight 4/4 numbers that Peart and company did and I enjoy the beginning of the guitar riffs and neil follows in. Could have a top 40 hit had Mercury decided to go for it but this is one of my top 5 all time Rush songs.
6. Wasting Time-Collective Soul (1993) I've heard horror stories of teenagers rediscoveing Third Eye Blind and to each their own. Third Eye Blind never did much for me but I did follow Collective Soul throughout their Atlantic period and the one thing Ed Roland is good at is making decent and catchy chorus lines. Kinda of wish that today's generation would go after Collective Soul rather than Stephen Jenkins and 3EB but it could be lots worse. Again that falls under Britney and the Autotune gang.
7. The Curse Of Neglect-The New Westerns (2008) Taken from a ZIA's compliation of new bands this one captured my attention by the way they sounded a bit like Giant Sand and the Sand Rubies put together. But then again y'all probably don't know who I'm talking about so let's move on to the next item on the list.
8. My Mountain Dew-Willie Nelson (1972) A failed hit for Willie on RCA to which at that time RCA gave up and showed Willie the door but he did a few more sessions which would hint of the outlaw movement that he and Waylon would start up. But then again what other top ten would you come across which would have Roy Clark, Rush, Collective Soul and The New Westerns in it? If you can come across another one on the net besides mine, let me know and soon please.
9. The Red And The Black-Blue Oyster Cult (1973) Classic guitar rock and roll. The original BOC blew everybody away in terms of rock/metal. Originally done as I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep on their first album. Recorded loud even in 1973 standards. In your face mutherfucka.
10. Will The Be Enough Water-The Dead Weather (2009) New project from Jack White and this might be even better than the Rancontuers or even the last White Stripes album. Get your copy now before they run out, or you can wait till HP Books brings in a shipment of overstocked imports. I have concluded my nights activites a couple times with this brooding number and dark too. Dark and brooding, my kind of music.
As it stands I'll doubt if I will hit the 61 Drive In this year. Summer has actually slipped away faster than originally thought. I'm trying to cut back on miles driving every which way since I average sixty miles every day of going to work and back. I haven't been to Davenport since Thanksgiving of 07, and if all they offer is CO OP records and tapes, then why go? Waste of time since last CDs I bought there were scratched up. Scratched up 8 dollar cds are a burr in my ass and pisses me off more than the fucking red lights on the Marion Bypass. Ames and Madison are on the menu of going places but going to Des Moines, nah. Sorry Maura (but then again I doubt if Maura reads any of our blogs anymore). People move on in life I guess with family but unless you're into top tens and have no life, you're more than welcome to hang around for the next installment of Tunes R Us. And thank TAD for a great top ten last week.
The Songs Of The Week.
1. It's A Long Way There-The Little River Band (1975) But was a minor hit in 1976 and the first of many from this Aussie band. I finally got around the hear the 8 minite album cut the other day and I'm surprise THE FOX never played it. But unless your name is Zeppelin or The Who or if you dabbed in MOR music THE FOX ignores you.
2. Beautiful Future-Primal Scream (2009) You know we waited forever to get the latest Primal Scream album to which Best Buy didn't have it and Wal Mart? Bwahahahaha! It's tough to follow your favorite bands when the Four Monopoly Record companies hold back product or give us worthless shit such as Lil Wayne or Britney Spears. Finally got the album, where you ask? Half Priced Books of course.
3. Yesterday When I Was Young-Roy Clark (1968) One of many 45s that I bought my Dad when Town Square Books would sold the old jukebox records. Roy Clark was the Brad Paisley of his time, excellent guitar player but loved to do banal ballads that ruined his reputation more did Hee Haw. But Hee Haw, gave us country artists of the past and present when it was on the air and it was fun to see Roy and Buck pick and grin with the bad jokes. However this bittersweet lament to lost youth is a reminder that no matter what you do, time flies and the young get old and bypassed if not careful. Clark would once in a while would do a album with the late Clarence Gatemouth Brown and leave the sappy ballads behind. But I'll give Roy credit for coming up with Thank God And Greyhound You're Gone. And forgive him for coming up with the Lawrence Welk/Hee Haw Counter Revolutionary Polka.
4. Run Myself Out Of Town-George Thorogood And The Destroyers (2009) What the hell is George still doing on a major label? Ain't he washed up and thrown to the casino and fair crowds? Piss off punks, this is the new King Of Boogie so show some respect for the rock n roll elders. Certainly your not going get that thinking man's stuff from Radiohead or Mars Volta, just the good stuff I grew up with. Rock on!
5. Lessons-Rush (1976) 2112 was that album that everybody had in their collection during my high school years and although I was NOT a Rush fan back then (sorry russ), I did have this album in my collection (although I think I gave my copy to Russ, I know I gave him Permament Waves). One of the few straight 4/4 numbers that Peart and company did and I enjoy the beginning of the guitar riffs and neil follows in. Could have a top 40 hit had Mercury decided to go for it but this is one of my top 5 all time Rush songs.
6. Wasting Time-Collective Soul (1993) I've heard horror stories of teenagers rediscoveing Third Eye Blind and to each their own. Third Eye Blind never did much for me but I did follow Collective Soul throughout their Atlantic period and the one thing Ed Roland is good at is making decent and catchy chorus lines. Kinda of wish that today's generation would go after Collective Soul rather than Stephen Jenkins and 3EB but it could be lots worse. Again that falls under Britney and the Autotune gang.
7. The Curse Of Neglect-The New Westerns (2008) Taken from a ZIA's compliation of new bands this one captured my attention by the way they sounded a bit like Giant Sand and the Sand Rubies put together. But then again y'all probably don't know who I'm talking about so let's move on to the next item on the list.
8. My Mountain Dew-Willie Nelson (1972) A failed hit for Willie on RCA to which at that time RCA gave up and showed Willie the door but he did a few more sessions which would hint of the outlaw movement that he and Waylon would start up. But then again what other top ten would you come across which would have Roy Clark, Rush, Collective Soul and The New Westerns in it? If you can come across another one on the net besides mine, let me know and soon please.
9. The Red And The Black-Blue Oyster Cult (1973) Classic guitar rock and roll. The original BOC blew everybody away in terms of rock/metal. Originally done as I'm On the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep on their first album. Recorded loud even in 1973 standards. In your face mutherfucka.
10. Will The Be Enough Water-The Dead Weather (2009) New project from Jack White and this might be even better than the Rancontuers or even the last White Stripes album. Get your copy now before they run out, or you can wait till HP Books brings in a shipment of overstocked imports. I have concluded my nights activites a couple times with this brooding number and dark too. Dark and brooding, my kind of music.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Crabb Bits: Poncheros, Reviews, Beach Boys
Another round applause to TAD for this week's top ten and thank you for
taking the time and effort to put it together. Perhaps had Fleetwood
Mac added Sliver Springs to Rumours that record would scored a perfect A
Plus. Clearly I think the best angry love and loss song that Stevie
Nicks ever wrote.
On the subject of The Beach Boys, 20/20 may have been a throwaway odds and sods album but with Cabinessence and Do It Again included I believe that record is a lost classic. I didn't start getting into the Beach Boys untill BJ Records had a lot of their Reprise and Capitol albums in the bargain bins and I pretty much snapped most of them up. Donno what would have happened had Brian Wilson issued Smile back in 69 but from what I heard on the 2005 Nonesuch Brian Wilson Presents Smile, that album was way ahead of it's time. Mike Love can't do a fucking thing with them, but Brian wilson made them what they are.
On the Q of Tangerine Dream being a prog rock band.....I have to say yes they were when Peter Bauman joined up for their mid 70s Virgin albums. Again, i may have to get the remastered Rubycon CD eventually.
Anyway, the highlight of Twitter was when I lambasted Pancheros for burning their steak the last time I ate there and called Hot Harrys Burritos the place to go but appently that didn't set too well with Reid from Coralville who left this little note in the Tweeter.
I'm sorry you're disappointed in the meat. Does it reassure you to know we don't serve crab? ;)
And this.
We're very crab friendly, don't you worry.
One thing about Pancheros is that they take their food very seriously enough to go call out The Crabb and tell him to have another go at it. To which I did, and got a Steak Burrito over at Edgewood Rd and To Reid at Pancheros I must say y'all cooked up the pefect burrito. Cooked nicely and tightly wrapped but not too tight that it didn't drip all over the place. And full of flavor too. So y'all back into my good graces once again. So here's some shameless promotion for Iowa's very own Panchero's. And maybe I'll take you up on the Carnitas on the next trip.
But while Pancheros gets my approval, I can't say the same for Taco Bell on 33rd which has fucked up my last order for the last time. If you can't cook a decent Quasidalla (fuck I can't spell y'all know that), then you have no business being in business. Get somebody that knows how to cook and knows how to cook rice. The last bowl of rice I ordered were hard as bullets. No wonder that fucking place is empty. Sonic is kicking your ass all over the place and they been sucking over there too.
On the subject of Courtney Love on Twitter, why do I follow her? She's interesting, happy now?
On the subject of Madison....maybe next week I might take two days and spend it up there biking if my back holds up. But I have two sessions with the back therpy specialist at St Lukes so I may have to just bargain hunt. As if I need anymore outdated media storage as Doowop likes to say.
some micro reviews of CDs now and then.
Mike Farris & The Roseland Rhythm Revue Featuring The McCrary Sisters-Shout Live (INO) This is gospel soul from the former Screaming Cheetah Wheelies lead singer whose born again but don't let that stop you from checking out this throwback to good old Rhythm Gospel Soul. They tear up old gospel chestnuts as Will The Circle Be Unbroken and Precious Lord Take My Hand. The McCrary Sisters even do their own number which moves the soul, and you also get a tamborine solo. Praise the Lord indeed. Grade A minus
Rush-Signals (Mercury) 1982 Some people consider this the last true classic Rush album before they went all gloss and Peter Collins dammed near ruined them but this is actually more fuller sounding then Moving Pictures but in all honesty I shake my head at the way Russ gawks over most of their albums. 27 years ago, I wouldn't bought this but today I've come to like their stuff that i hated years ago. Geddy Lee doesn't shrieks all that much on this album which is a good sign and the lesser known stuff does pack a punch (Losing it, Countdown). But I did buy their single New World Man, which ranks as one of my top three fave Rush tunes. Just don't tell Russ otherwise he'll play them to death and I'll start hating them all over again. Grade B
54-40 Northern Soul (True North) The latest from one of the longer lasting Canadian Americana bands out there. Dave Gann replaces Phil Comparelli on guitar and they don't miss a beat. Neil Osborne still sounds like Murray Attaway and the songs have more radio friendly beat than Goodbye Flatland but nobody knows what I'm talking about since 54-40 doesn't get airplay in the US. Best cuts remain Snap and The Scare Of Meaning Less which sounds a bit like Joshua Tree U2 without the pomp. Digipak, which means a point taken away. Grade B
Styx-The Wooden Nickel Albums (Hip O) Say what you want about Styx their Wooden Nickel albums lies somewhere between Kansas prog rock, and REO Speedwagon boogie before Kevin Cronin took them to ballad land to which Dennis DeYoung took notes and made Styx less likeable Children Of The Land, B side to Lady is typical midwest boogie but I found myself playing that song more than I did the hit. And You Need Love was a fine followup although like Lady was released two years after the album came out. So they were late bloomers but The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings showed that Sytx were rock and roll all the way through, but with prog rock leanings toward ELP or Kansas or Yes. Long time ago, the FM underground station played Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart to which I heard the song but imagine that Styx actually did it (in fact, I though the DJ called the band STICKS which has a 45 out on Signpost around that time), so in essence Quick Is the Beat Of My Heart is a piece of the rock and roll puzzle songs that I've been desiring to get in my collection. Styx 2 might be the best of the 4 albums but Witch Wolf and Rock And Roll feeling are glorious rockers in their own right. After the success with Lady, Styx would sign up with A and M records to record their last classic album Equinox to which yes I gave it a A (wot's it to ya?) and call it one of my albums that i got through high school with. Unfortuly, the secret weapon John Curulewski would leave after that album and Tommy Shaw would join up and Styx made the flop Crystal Ball. Trading Curulewski's rock savvy for Shaw's pop pomp would make me lose interest in this band. The Wooden Nickel recordings makes me forget about the band that gave us Kilroy Was Here or Babe.
Grade B plus.
On the subject of The Beach Boys, 20/20 may have been a throwaway odds and sods album but with Cabinessence and Do It Again included I believe that record is a lost classic. I didn't start getting into the Beach Boys untill BJ Records had a lot of their Reprise and Capitol albums in the bargain bins and I pretty much snapped most of them up. Donno what would have happened had Brian Wilson issued Smile back in 69 but from what I heard on the 2005 Nonesuch Brian Wilson Presents Smile, that album was way ahead of it's time. Mike Love can't do a fucking thing with them, but Brian wilson made them what they are.
On the Q of Tangerine Dream being a prog rock band.....I have to say yes they were when Peter Bauman joined up for their mid 70s Virgin albums. Again, i may have to get the remastered Rubycon CD eventually.
Anyway, the highlight of Twitter was when I lambasted Pancheros for burning their steak the last time I ate there and called Hot Harrys Burritos the place to go but appently that didn't set too well with Reid from Coralville who left this little note in the Tweeter.
I'm sorry you're disappointed in the meat. Does it reassure you to know we don't serve crab? ;)
And this.
We're very crab friendly, don't you worry.
One thing about Pancheros is that they take their food very seriously enough to go call out The Crabb and tell him to have another go at it. To which I did, and got a Steak Burrito over at Edgewood Rd and To Reid at Pancheros I must say y'all cooked up the pefect burrito. Cooked nicely and tightly wrapped but not too tight that it didn't drip all over the place. And full of flavor too. So y'all back into my good graces once again. So here's some shameless promotion for Iowa's very own Panchero's. And maybe I'll take you up on the Carnitas on the next trip.
But while Pancheros gets my approval, I can't say the same for Taco Bell on 33rd which has fucked up my last order for the last time. If you can't cook a decent Quasidalla (fuck I can't spell y'all know that), then you have no business being in business. Get somebody that knows how to cook and knows how to cook rice. The last bowl of rice I ordered were hard as bullets. No wonder that fucking place is empty. Sonic is kicking your ass all over the place and they been sucking over there too.
On the subject of Courtney Love on Twitter, why do I follow her? She's interesting, happy now?
On the subject of Madison....maybe next week I might take two days and spend it up there biking if my back holds up. But I have two sessions with the back therpy specialist at St Lukes so I may have to just bargain hunt. As if I need anymore outdated media storage as Doowop likes to say.
some micro reviews of CDs now and then.
Mike Farris & The Roseland Rhythm Revue Featuring The McCrary Sisters-Shout Live (INO) This is gospel soul from the former Screaming Cheetah Wheelies lead singer whose born again but don't let that stop you from checking out this throwback to good old Rhythm Gospel Soul. They tear up old gospel chestnuts as Will The Circle Be Unbroken and Precious Lord Take My Hand. The McCrary Sisters even do their own number which moves the soul, and you also get a tamborine solo. Praise the Lord indeed. Grade A minus
Rush-Signals (Mercury) 1982 Some people consider this the last true classic Rush album before they went all gloss and Peter Collins dammed near ruined them but this is actually more fuller sounding then Moving Pictures but in all honesty I shake my head at the way Russ gawks over most of their albums. 27 years ago, I wouldn't bought this but today I've come to like their stuff that i hated years ago. Geddy Lee doesn't shrieks all that much on this album which is a good sign and the lesser known stuff does pack a punch (Losing it, Countdown). But I did buy their single New World Man, which ranks as one of my top three fave Rush tunes. Just don't tell Russ otherwise he'll play them to death and I'll start hating them all over again. Grade B
54-40 Northern Soul (True North) The latest from one of the longer lasting Canadian Americana bands out there. Dave Gann replaces Phil Comparelli on guitar and they don't miss a beat. Neil Osborne still sounds like Murray Attaway and the songs have more radio friendly beat than Goodbye Flatland but nobody knows what I'm talking about since 54-40 doesn't get airplay in the US. Best cuts remain Snap and The Scare Of Meaning Less which sounds a bit like Joshua Tree U2 without the pomp. Digipak, which means a point taken away. Grade B
Styx-The Wooden Nickel Albums (Hip O) Say what you want about Styx their Wooden Nickel albums lies somewhere between Kansas prog rock, and REO Speedwagon boogie before Kevin Cronin took them to ballad land to which Dennis DeYoung took notes and made Styx less likeable Children Of The Land, B side to Lady is typical midwest boogie but I found myself playing that song more than I did the hit. And You Need Love was a fine followup although like Lady was released two years after the album came out. So they were late bloomers but The Complete Wooden Nickel Recordings showed that Sytx were rock and roll all the way through, but with prog rock leanings toward ELP or Kansas or Yes. Long time ago, the FM underground station played Quick Is The Beat Of My Heart to which I heard the song but imagine that Styx actually did it (in fact, I though the DJ called the band STICKS which has a 45 out on Signpost around that time), so in essence Quick Is the Beat Of My Heart is a piece of the rock and roll puzzle songs that I've been desiring to get in my collection. Styx 2 might be the best of the 4 albums but Witch Wolf and Rock And Roll feeling are glorious rockers in their own right. After the success with Lady, Styx would sign up with A and M records to record their last classic album Equinox to which yes I gave it a A (wot's it to ya?) and call it one of my albums that i got through high school with. Unfortuly, the secret weapon John Curulewski would leave after that album and Tommy Shaw would join up and Styx made the flop Crystal Ball. Trading Curulewski's rock savvy for Shaw's pop pomp would make me lose interest in this band. The Wooden Nickel recordings makes me forget about the band that gave us Kilroy Was Here or Babe.
Grade B plus.
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