Minnesota has the Little Brown Jug and Rosedale in their trophy case and now hope to get Paul Bunyan's Axe when Wisconsin comes calling. As for Iowa, the for rent sign is now hanging in their trophy case. There'll might be even more room when Nebraska plays them on Black Friday. It wasn't much better in the land of the Cyclone as Kansas whopped Iowa State 34-14, thus putting Paul Rhodes on the hot seat. He may be gone end of the year. Sorry Cy, you can't play Iowa every week. But on a high note for Iowa College Teams, Northern Iowa took out North Dakota State 23-3 at the Uni done Saturday, ending ND state's 33 game winning streak. To which at this point, Northern Iowa is foaming at the mouth for another crack at Iowa. But not this year.
While Iowa is going south, Arizona State continues to defy the odds and win, and this time out, they took advantage of five Notre Dame turnovers and outlasted the Irish 55-31. With a 34 point halftime lead, ASU did coast to victory but not before The Irish made a game of it and came within 10 points, before another pick six sealed the game. Arizona State continues to win and continues to control their own destiny. There's still an outside chance to make the college football playoffs, but that UCLA wipeout has kinda hurt their chances. Next week, the Sun Devils take their act to Oregon State, who lost this week and a depleted but still dangerous Washington State at home. And then, the Cup game vs Arizona.
As I get older, the less I have time for shitty music but thank our lucky stars that Luke Giordano has taken up that job of pointing out sucky music. I think he has his own website of note but I refer to his tumblr account for the latest of shitty music. This week, he takes on Black Veil Brides. http://lukegiordano.tumblr.com/
And I thank him very much, cuz I know I wouldn't make it through ten seconds of the latest crap the major labels puke up with.
We're not that young anymore and for many years I actually managed to try to look younger than I actually am, but ever since turning 50 that time and age are catching up on me. Everybody gets old, that's been the reality ever since the creation of this planet, that once young and vibrant we're now old to the point that we can't do the things we used to do. The slowly erosion of the body, the continuing wrinkles on the face and the graying and losing all kinds of hair to the point of being bald before turning 55. The great practical joke of seeing your hair go south but not staying on top of your head. Nose hair I can do without, so is chest hair and anything down south. I don't see anything golden about the golden years although I have just entered into that part of life now. The dating scene non existent, the idea girl is two decades behind, most of who I know are now grandmothers, or coming to be one. Basically history has shown that I wasn't much of a boyfriend either. Time is passing faster and faster, 15 years ago I went to Portland to meet up with somebody and to see what record stores that they had out there. It was a fun time and wish it could be like that once again. But it never will. Most of the record stores are now gone, with perhaps a Music Millennium or Everyday Music still around. That special somebody eventually came out here before the start of the new millennium and decided a balmy 20 degrees in the shade was more than enough and went back home. Well we stayed in touch for a few more years but by then, she ended up getting married again and having a daughter of her own and trying to keep that together. Even for friendship we had to end it. Even I couldn't cheer her up anymore.
That's the way life is; some people want companionship and another person in their life, others like myself are content to be the lone wolf in life and continue to blog and buy cheap music and thinking that I'm making a difference in the internet age. And trying to find substance in throwaway music. Even in this day and age of thinking I have it all, I do manage to find something in the 2 dollar bins that suggest that I don't have it all. And maybe some of the stuff found will hang around more than a couple plays here and there and back to the donating pile. No shortage of that.
Being in this mind fame, I cannot continue to be forcefed of the same old tired classic rock that THE FOX has continued to bestowed upon us, including multiple plays of 40 year old songs that didn't appeal to me in the first place (Killer Queen, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, Dream On) and hearing Killer Queen twice in a half hour span is just plain fucking stupid. And the reason why Newt Gingrich's baby, The Telecom Act of 1996 (and one of the things Bill Clinton sucked at was to sign this shit into law, paving the way for repetition radio and Cumulus own 4 out of the 5 stations in this area, thus giving us Killer Queen multiple plays in a half hour) that things suck more than they did back twenty years ago. The shrinking of the major labels, and not a spot of variety found anymore in the mundane crap that is music itself, be it the processed beats of top forty or hip hop, or the lameness frat Bro Country crap that Nashville bestowed upon us being autotuned dummies like Luke Bryan or the dumb and dumber tandem of Florida Georgia Line which Luke G managed to smack down on their latest "country" song. I have no time left to invest in dumb stuff anymore, better to leave it to the youngsters and try to live out this life with the least amount of stress, which seems to not be working well for me.
In the meantime, the rockers and the bands of the 60s and 70s are now senior citizens themselves and since the major labels will not commit to the younger bands outside of singles, they go into their archives and rehash greatest hits packages and hope they can sucker the buying public once again, such as the Led Zeppelin 2 CD remasters, The Who Hits 50, or The Essential Kinks or the 2 CD Lola Vs Powerman. And it's really not working, key band members are dead, in the case of Zeppelin, Robert Plant isn't interested of rehashing songs for profit anymore. Only reissue that made sense was The Basement Tapes Complete but that's not going to sell either. Dylan is over 70 now, and even the big songwriters of the past are even hitting 80, the likes of John Mayall and Leonard Cohen. And baby boomers who now spend their money on meds and trying to keep a roof over their heads are not interested in new music anymore. Even a music liberal like me tend to be more selective of the new stuff, and the only band that has any of the passion and energy of the rock era are The Strypes. But even they can't get airplay on the radio. It's reserved for Cumulus approved crap only.
When my Sirius XM subscription ends this November, I will not be renewing it. For the past year I have tried to get into the programs and format that they play but in the end their playlist are no more different than regular FM radio, they have their favorites and they play them to death. Somewhere in Sirius Land Bruce Springsteen has a song playing. And I can only take so much of the boss himself. In the terms of cost effectiveness, satellite radio isn't the salvation that people claim it to be, the merger of Sirius and XM radio once again killed off creativity. I will miss hearing Steve Earle on Country Outlaws or the wonderful Ko Melina (probably misspelled her name) on Underground Garage or Tom Petty's show via Deep Tracks and Bob Dylan. In fact, Dylan and Petty would make wonderful program directors at a eccentric radio station. At least they would skip Killer Queen in favor of something else.
Reviews:
Kentucky Headhunters-Snapshot (Hickory)
The biggest causality of the flood of 2014 was that I lost 100 CDs in the water in the basement, which I said bye bye to King's X, Dio, Jesus And Mary Chain and The Kentucky Headhunters' albums, to which I may have to replace one at a time. Never a country band, The Headhunters were rock and roll through and through despite Dumas Walker being country song of 1989 or 1990, I'm too lazy to look it up. After Pickin On Nashville, Nashville never embraced them and Ricky Lee Phelps left to become a minister. Further lineup chances saw Doug Phelps returning as lead singer and they were bounced between minor labels that didn't give a shit about them. On Audium they rocked harder than before and then went with the blues and soul on the next album till that label went belly up. The CMJ label, to which is part of the revitalized Hickory label, The Headhunters managed to have free rein at the extensive song catalog and made Big Boss Man and Flying Underneath The Radar managed to steal the best of the post Mercury years. They lost their twang when Ricky Lee left but got their grit back when Doug return and this midline priced 10 song sampler captures The Headhunters running through John Hiatt's Sure As I'm Sitting Here with boogie notions, does a blues take on Walkin After Midnight and manages to find some rock and roll value in the Buck Owens throwaway Made In Japan. And turns Hank Williams into the long lost rock and roller inside of that man on Hey Good Lookin and Honky Tonk Blues. In the end, Flying Underneath The Radar is the better buy, the digipak layoff sucks, and there's no recording information or who is playing what. Plus having collectable snapshots of the band is pointless too. The Snapshot series I think is part of a agreement with Wal Mart on something, Gretchen Wilson has her own Snapshot album featuring stuff from her albums on Redneck Records and it sells for 7 dollars. But then again I didn't know anything about the Headhunters CD till I seen it and picked it up for review. Love the Headhunters but can their record label do something more than this cheaply and poorly made compilation?
Grade B
This Week's Playlist:
NY You Got Me Dancing-Andrea True Connection (White Witch)
Rocking Down The Highway-Doobie Brothers/Brad Paisley (Southbound)
I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight-The Fresh Young Fellows (Because We Hate You)
I Don't Wanna Grow Up-Ramones (Adios Amigos)
Shuffleboard Rag-Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant (Stratosphere Boogie)
Sit Yourself Down-Stephen Stills (S/T)
Great Big Kiss-New York Dolls (I'm A Human Being (live))
I Shall Be Released-Bob Dylan & The Band (The Basement Tapes Raw)
Crossfire-Johnny & The Hurricanes (Twangs For The Memory)
I Don't Know What You Got-Little Richard (Best Of The Vee Jay Years Volume 1)
Just in case you wondering, Winter's coming.
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