They *MIGHT* Be Giants

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

Once upon a time, in the frozen tundra of southeastern Idaho, I was force-fed one CD for an entire school year. That CD was Flood by They Might Be Giants. My only roommate that year was this blathering dumbness named “John” who apparently didn’t own any other music at all. Given that this was September of 1990, we didn’t have the convenience of hopping on our dorm’s wireless network and downloading anything from iTunes because there was no iTunes. I don’t even know if they algorithm for compressing audio into a small-form file was a possibility at that point. Given that DOS was still the preferred OS at the time, I highly doubt anyone was sending anything of a 3-5MB size at that point. So I got to wallow in my misery as he constantly pumped out this all-out assault on my ears. I didn’t have a desktop stereo. I didn’t even have a CD player. I was happy to have an alarm clock that would play a tape. That was my good fortune. Thankfully, I *did* own a pair of headphones, so there was that small blessing.

Anyway, I spent my entire freshman year of college racking my brain trying to figure out how anyone could possibly stand these guys. When your opening line to your first (well, second, but first actual) song is “I’m your only friend, I’m not your only friend but I’m a little glowing friend, but really I’m not actually your friend, but I am.” What? What drivel is this? I could poop on a paper and let yaks dance on it. That would produce better lyrics than these.

Musical tastes evolve. As previously mentioned, I’ve actually dabbled with interests in The Sea Hags and UK Subs, so … you know, tastes evolve. Even up until my wife and I got married in 2000, I thought that these guys were just crap. Horrible, boring, stupid crap. I had no interest in hearing them at all.

Then we started watching “Malcolm in the Middle.” We got to the point that we’d sing along with the opening credits. We wondered who sang the theme song. Imagine my surprise when we found out that it was actually They Might Be Giants. I was stunned.

So that was about 10+ years ago. Over the course of those years, I’ve slowly but surely warmed up to them. Now they come on and I don’t cringe. I actually turn it up and enjoy it.

THE Most Listless Crowd EVER

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

Last April, I had floor tix to Muse. My wife was with me, as were two of our good friends. We were all within inches of each other before Muse took the stage. Within moments of Chris pounding his bass, all four of us were swept away with the crowd. Back and forth, left and right, up and down. It was awesome! After two songs, I grew concerned that I couldn’t see my wife. After three, I was really concerned. Midway through the fourth song, I saw her little reddish brown hair bobbing along the front rail. I was about 3 “rows” back, but I muscled my way up, grabbed her shoulder, and we didn’t let go of each other. After the song, we made our way to the side for a break, but we ended up just staying there cuz she was nervous about going back in to the fray.

From before the first song started until the last note faded away, the energy level didn’t abate one joule. I mentioned this in my concert review, but it bears repeating: ALL of us were 100% expended after the show was over. We had nothing left to give! After the show, there was the inevitable parking lot frenzy where nobody moves faster than 5 feet a minute. We were so worn out and so desperate for water that we had to eat snow off the car to re-hydrate.

That was our show.

Check out this show.

Only after about 5 minutes into the video do you see any activity, and that was just from a little pocket of people. WHAT?! Do Seattle-ites just not know how to act at a Muse show?! I highly doubt it. Look at Seattle’s pedigree: Alice in Chains. Soundgarden. Pearl Jam. Nirvana. The music scene that gave birth to grunge. How do you not know how to get up and move it?!

I had to laugh. I even called my wife down to show her this video. Funny enough, there happened to be two Asian guys in the shot when she came down. “Well, honey … they’re obviously in Japan. Look.” and she pointed to the two.

“Honey, this was filmed in Seattle. As in, SEATTLE.”

“Ohhh. Hmm ….” She got a seriously puzzled look on her face, for obvious reasons.

It makes me wonder if the crowd was asked to “behave,” or something. I mean … it’s a pro-shot vid. I don’t know. I’m looking for any excuse I can think of to make sense of this.

Review: Eddy – Start an Uproar

/ / New Music, Opinion, rantings

I have no idea how music finds me. I honestly don’t. Sometimes, I just open my iPod and there’s stuff on there that I’ve never seen before. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not.

Okay, maybe I hyperbolize a hair, but not by much. I’ll give you a good example. Today I downloaded Tenpole Tudor’s and Skyclad’s versions of “Swords of a Thousand Men.” A tad campy by both, but the chorus … “Hear our roar, hear our sound. We’re gonna fight until we have won this town. Hoorah hoorah hoorah yay! Over the hill with the swords of a thousand men.” This is potentially the Buffalo Sabres’ goal-scoring song. Philly, Rangers, Boston … all have goal-scoring songs. We don’t. We need one. This fits the bill perfectly. So I downloaded birth versions to test drive them and see what I think. There’s definitely potential.

But that’s not why I’m writing, is it? I’m writing to review Eddy’s four-track EP, Start an Uproar. To be honest, I have no idea how I found her. I just did.

OH! HI! I just made the connection. Maybe it’s not that I have no idea how all this great music finds me, but it’s more the fact that I’m just forgetful as hell. I was checking out TUAW’s website on my lunch break, hoping to get some info on the upcoming iPhone 5 (or whatever it’ll be called). Sifting through their news blurbs, I found one about some chick who shot a video using nothing but a bunch of  iPad 2 devices. I haven’t checked out the video yet due to company policy on streaming media (which in all honesty I do stick to since this company was gracious enough to offer me a writing position. I dont’ even use their wi-fi to run my iPhone; it’s all 3G baby!), but I have every intention of checking it when I get home, which will be in a few short hours.

Anyway, this news blurb had a link to Eddy’s website, with whom I was heretofore unfamiliar. Her website had me curious. At first glance, she looks a bit like Maria Brink. The pictures on her site give her a furtive, “Ha ha … I know something you don’t know, and I’m not gonna tell you what it is” look. An air of mystery! Being the sucker for intrigue that I am, I downloaded her four-song EP from iTunes and gave it a listen. Here are my thoughts.

Where has this chick been hiding?! I’d say “the kitchen” solely because it says right on her website that she bakes cupcakes, so I’m not being sexist or funny–she very well may have been hiding behind her culinary expertise. But apparently while she’s been concocting confectionary delights, she’s been dabbling with making some *extremely* catchy tuneage for us to enjoy. The opening track on the EP is “Rise Up,” and I will tell you this much: if you’re sitting down while you’re listening to this, you will want to jump out of your seat and move and shake it like you never have before. It has “dance club remix” potential like nothing I’ve ever heard. Granted, I don’t listen to a lot of dancey music, but this … even *I* want to get up and dance around.

Her voice oscillates between bold and stormy, and wispy … like cirrus clouds on a deep-blue sky sunny day. Strong when the track is up and moving, soft and gentle when

“Beautiful Mistake” opens with a great piano hook that follows up with some synth strings and bass line. We’re treated to a complete shift in vocal dynamics, where she shows hints of channeling Lacey Sturm (of Flyleaf fame).

In short, I don’t know what her future plans are, but her long-term plans are more and more music. If her website is any indication, new music is possibly on the way. The video she shot on the iPad 2 is for her song “Need,” which is *not* on the EP. GOOD! Like I need to mention it, but this gets filed under “shake” with an emphasis on GET UP AND MOVE IT!

Eddy, if you end up reading this, leave the cupcakes. Embrace your inner musician and keep the tunes flowing!

The end.

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

I’ve been doing this list on Facebook for the last 4 days. If you want to as well, copy and paste the text below.

The idea is to share a little bit about yourself by choosing one song a day, for 30 days.  Introspection is required, but it sounds like fun.  Looking at the list, I can tell that some songs will be easy to choose, while others will require a little bit of thought.  See the list below and if you’re up to the challenge, let me know in the comments below.  Let the sharing begin!

The 30 Day Song Challenge

Day 01 – Your favorite song

Day 02 – Your least favorite song

Day 03 – A song that makes you happy

Day 04 – A song that makes you sad

Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone

Day 06 – A song that reminds of you of somewhere

Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to

Day 09 – A song that you can dance to

Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep

Day 11 – A song from your favorite band

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate

Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

Day 15 – A song that describes you

Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate

Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio

Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

Day 19 – A song from your favorite album

Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy

Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad

Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding

Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year

My first 4 songs are:

  • Rush – Lock and Key
  • Los del Rio – The Macarena (that song just pisses me off … I don’t know why, but it gets under my skin and burrows like a tapeworm ulcer and festers until my mind erupts in pustules of putrid loathing and disgust)
  • The Weepies – Be My Honeypie. You cannot listen to that song and not smile uncontrollably. It’s a beautiful feeling!
  • Ugly Kid Joe’s version of “Cat’s in the Cradle. I swear, I want to be the best parent ever, but this song … Jumping Jehosephat on a hot tin roof sundae. I can’t make it through without having to fight the urge to bawl uncontrollably. Maybe it’s because I never had a good, solid father figure growing up, and now that I’m in charge of two kids, it scares the squishy shit out of me because I do not want them to go through what I went through. Don’t get me wrong–my mom was as saintly and wonderful as it gets, and God bless my step dad’s heart … he tried, but how do you dive in with a 14 year old and a 10 year old? That would be so mind-bendingly insane to try to adjust to! I give him credit for trying, but … I don’t know. Gah.

Anyway, there’s the list so far. It’s a fun list!

More New Music

/ / New Music, Opinion, rantings

My machine won’t update my iPhone OS. Every time I try, my phone bricks. Something about the USB ports not having enough power to juice the phone back to life once the iOS install starts. Instead, I’m greeted with some weird screen where I get a picture of an Apple dock cord and the Apple logo. Nice, eh?

The option I exercise is to take my phone to the local Apple store and have them install it for me. Lame, I know, but it’s what I have. Most AT&T stores won’t do it because they don’t want to risk bricking the device. Not the best customer care, as far as I’m concerned, but whatever. Anway, each time I go in, it takes about 15 minutes, which gives me time to peruse the store.

On this particular upgrade last Thursday, I used the time to check out what music was installed on some of the demo devices. I threw on the headphones and listened to the first song that came on. I didn’t jot down the name of the song, but I did take note of the band: Sea of Bees. I was instantly struck by the singer. A blend of Karin Dreijer tuned up an entire octave and Harriet Wheeler. Musically, they’re semi-similar to Cranes, which is *always* a good thing in my book.

Speaking of Cranes and pretty tangential, I had an extra copy of their latest CD sitting around–a self-titled gem. My sister in law’s birthday is tomorrow, and we got together as a family for dinner in honor of her special day. We gave her the CD. She looked really happy to get it. I told her that if she likes it, I have a ton more of their stuff that I’d love to get her hooked on. 🙂 We’ll see.

ANYway, so that was Sea of Bees. Excellent music from a one-woman performance in Julie Ann Bee. Ambient, soulful, folksy, beautiful … it’s fantastic.I picked up a copy of Songs for the Ravens. I’m pretty sure the song I listened to isn’t on it, and I’m okay with that … just means that there’s more of their work to hunt down.

The other band I listened to was The Whitsundays, a Canadian band out of Manitoba. Some further digging around led me to the fact that some of the members are also in LCD Soundsystem, a high-energy electro-pop band with some pretty catchy tunes. Again, not sure what Whitsundays song I heard, but it’s not on the CD I got. More sleuthing and hunting. LOVE it!

A buddy of mine wrote to me the other day and suggested that I check out Lykke Li. This buddy … frick. His musical tastes are just to be accepted as gold. Not once has he ever let me down, this time being no exception. She has a kind of Scarlett Johannsen quality to her music and voice. It’s really soothing, mellow stuff. Check it out!

The Melding of Two Loves

/ / Classical, Opinion, rantings

Outside my family and friends, I have two passions: music, which I think is a given, and the Buffalo Sabres hockey organization. I’m a fan of the sport, but the Sabres are “my” team.

That being said, yes–I’m *extremely* stoked with what Terry Pegula plans to do with the team. He’s already shown his commitment to making the organization a world-class place to play in removing the old locker room carpet and replacing it with new carpet with the logo emblazoned into it. It looks great.

One of the other changes that they’re planning on making is to the theme music of the pre-game show. I don’t know the name of the band who plays the intro to the Sabres broadcast, but it sounds like the Buzzcocks. All distorted guitar, and that’s it. Not a bad version, but … I don’t know. I guess it’s getting stale.

Rumor has it that they’re replacing it with a new song–something more classy. Wanna hear it? I’ll do ya one better. Watch it.

I present to you Vanessa Mae–violinist extraordinaire:

EH?! Yah? See that? Sabres new pre-game them song. Filed under “shiver” for the goosebump-inducing chills.

She has plenty of CDs to pick up. My favorite is her rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. She makes “Winter: Allegro non Molto” sizzle.

Mother Nature and Devestation

/ / Opinion, rantings

Last night, I passed out on our couch watching “Bones.” My wife and I love that show! My intent was to write a post after the show was over, but instead, I fell asleep. Erg.

So I woke up early and came in to work, hoping to knock out a short Friday. As is my custom, I came in and checked email. I had one from a co-worker whose travelling in Australia, informing us of the earthquake that hit Japan. Wondering what the scope of the earthquake is, I checked out msnbc.com’s website. The pictures have changed, as has the banner news headline, but the message was the same: 8.9 earthquake rocks north east Japan; tsunamis are devestating coastal areas.

The imagery is shocking. Even the Indonesian earthquake from December 2004 didn’t have this much coverage. The advances in technology in those short 6 years have granted us unprecedented coverage of the destruction taking place–many of which looked like they were live feeds from various sister news sites overseas.

As you all know, this blog is supposed to be about music in various and many aspects. Today … no. Today, this post and possibly others are dedicated to two topics: my condolences to any who lose loved ones due to the quake and/or tsunamis; the incredible, awesome power of mother nature.

Now … by “awesome,” I do not mean “wicked cool!” or “Holy shit, did you see that insane earthquake in Japan?!” By “awesome,” I mean the dictionary definition of “awe.” I can’t watch the videos and see the pictures without being completely taken aback by the sheer force and power behind the earthquake and tsunamis. It blows me away that our planet’s crust is a) only about 20 miles thick, b) that crust is made up of plates that shift and roll around–sometimes with extreme violence, as evidenced today.

Google Earth already had the earthquake labeled and iconed, along with about 50+ OTHER earthquakes since the initial 8.9 temblor. Most of those were 6.0 aftershocks. AFTERSHOCKS. AT 6.0 or greater?! Shit … you couldn’t pay me to live there.

As I said, my heart, prayers and thoughts are with those who are being impacted personally by this quake. Loss of life is always hard to hear about. The size of this quake … I’m scared to see what the totals will end up being. My wife and I have friends living in Japan. Thankfully, they got on Facebook and let us all know that they’re safe. That brought a huge amount of relief to me personally … but it doesn’t lessen the impact of the situation. If anything, it sharply puts in focus others’ losses, and it makes me incredibly sad.

And now … the flip-side of the coin. In my building at work, we have a little latino lady who cleans our floor–vacuums, takes out the trash, dusts … and she’s just the friendliest little old lady. Such a sweetheart. So every day that she stops by to empty my trash can, we talk the best we can in her broken English and my mangled Spanish. The other day, I told her about my headaches because she said (again, in her broken English), “You no look so good …” It made me laugh. I tried explaining that I never look good, but I don’t think I got it quite right. ANYway, so today, she stopped by to pick up the garbage. She told me that her father is coming from … somewhere. Not sure where. Not important. She continued on to explain that he’s bringing some cream for pain, and that she’s going to bring some for me. How’s that for a feel-good story?! Here we have all this destruction and death, and in the middle of it all, she takes time out of her day to ask about my back and offers to bring me some pain cream. Damn it all if that isn’t just the nicest thing I’ve heard in a long, long time.

You know what that means? It means I get to pay it forward. Not sure how I’m gonna do it, but by crapola, I am.

I’m completely at a loss. That totally made my day. I’m … I’m floored.

Lunch break over. Getting in at 5:30 am has its perks: early lunch, early leave …

Whatever your personal belief–whether its in a higher power, God, karma, universal power … keep these good people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers. They need it badly right now.

Where Were They Then?

/ / Opinion, rantings, review

Okay, sorry for the ridiculously awful post title, but after you check out the vids, you’ll see why.

We all know Trent Reznor is the driving force behind Nine Inch Nails. Have you heard of Slam Bamboo? No? Don’t worry … not to many people have. So imagine my surprise when a Google search popped up this video.

I almost feel sorry for the guy, ya know? Surrounded by … that? And he’s … he’s Trent Reznor. It just cracks me up. Well, we all have to start somewhere.

Just ask Maynard.

It makes you wonder how these quantum leaps are made. Going from a new wave band to the industrial music king? And how do you transform from a Richard Simmons leotard to Tool?! Cracks me up. Hey … we all have to start somewhere, right?

Sorry for the semi-lame post. I’m still battling a wicked headache/back ache combo that’s kicking my ass from here to Asia. I used to get these with alarming frequency, but they dissipated for about 2 years. This week, they’ve come raging back, and it’s severely pissing me off. No amount of Advil helps. I’m contemplating going to the doctor and getting some heavier help, but I’d rather avoid that if at all possible.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Glad To Be Back

/ / Opinion, rantings

Sorry for the absence the last couple of days. A bit about me: I get *wicked* serious tension headaches and back aches, to the point where they’re actually debilitating. I’ve been hospitalized for these in the past for the most severe cases–twice in about 20 years, but still … having to go to the hospital because of a headache is kind of ridiculous. Fortunately, I’ve discovered some techniques to combat these without having to check myself in at the local emergency room. Yesterday and Thursday though … holy crap. It felt like hundreds of knives were digging into my shoulders, middle back …

and of coures, after that HUGE Sabres win against the Flyers IN PHILLY isn’t helping me any. Too much cheering, jumping, thrashing and celebrating. Okay, maybe not TOO much of any of that cuz hey–how is there too much celebrating when the win is THAT huge?!

Anyway, now you know the reason for being in abesntia for the last couple of days. And now, back to your regularly scheduled post.

So I actually started writing this around 7 am. I was up, I hadn’t written in what seemed like forever, so I thought I’d jump in. The first thing I did was hit my “Stumble” button and see what popped up. This is what greeted me. If you’re a Van Halen fan, this … this may hurt to read. Not in a painful, “Kill me now; my life is over” kind of way … but in a “Dude. Dude …” kind of way. Read it, then come back.

All done? See what I mean? I mean, even if you’re not a VH fan, that’s still tragic. There is hardly a honest to goodness musician who would not tell you that Eddie Van Halen was a virtuoso with the guitar. He innovated some playing techniques that were simply out of this world. He constantly tweaked his sound and tinkered with different ways to get different noises. My favorite was finding out that he used an actual drill on his strings to achieve the sound at the beginning of “Poundcake.”

You’ll notice that the video is from the 1991 MTV awards. This was the opening performance, and did it ever set the tone for the rest of the evening. There were a ridiculous number of amazing performances from just that show. Queensryche performing what I consider to be the best live version of “Silent Lucidity” ever; Guns & Roses performing “Live and Let Die“; Metallica performing “Enter Sandman“; L.L. Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out“; EMF performing “Unbelievable” … of course, there were some “less than” performances too, like Mariah Carey doing some stupid ditty, so it wasn’t all highlights. But man.

Yah, that Queensryche performance was just mind-blowing back then. Even this evening when I watched it for the first time in probably 19-20 years, it floored me how pure and precise Geoff Tate’s voice was then. Even today he can still belt it out. I saw another video of him and a couple of the other band members doing “Killing Words” from an acoustic set in May 2008. NAILED it. As if he had just recorded Rage for Order and decided to do an in-store performance for kicks. There are few voices in music that hold more power than his.


Happy Birthday, Dr. Theodor Geisel

/ / Opinion, rantings

When I was growing up, my mom always got me Dr. Seuss books. I loved reading about Whos and Sneetches, and I was just as afraid of the green pants as anyone. Yertle deserved to be knocked down a few pegs!

Anyone who reads those books now as an adult can clearly see the stories for what they are/were: social messages and commentaries. Look at Yertle the Turtle. The comparison between him and Quadaffi is almost disturbingly parallel. As of this writing, he is still in charge of Libya, though the uprising is getting to the point of insurmountable. The UN is looking to take a stand against him and his regime. Meanwhile, he climbs on the backs of his fellow countrymen and rakes in millions and millions. He is Yertle.

Dr. Seuss’ books were beloved by children for their wackiness and far-out stories. Adults love his books for the still-applicable messages: Yaxes can still learn to work with each other and come to an agreement; and who cares if bellies have “stars upon thars”? We’re all the same, and until we treat each other like we are, we’ll always have some ridiculous stigmatized stereotype. And we’ll pay inordinate amounts of money TO BE THAT SNEETCH. Look at Charlie Sheen. Actually, you know what? Don’t. He’s a poor example of just about everything. 🙂

I know this post isn’t music-related, but Dr. Geisel and his writings transcend music. They transcend music, sports, movies … his writings are not some frivilous pop-schlock to be taken lightly; his were masterfully, perfectly, and geniusly written stories that speak volumes about our culture. By “our,” I mean humanity’s existence–not a particular race, or ethnicity, or whatever. We are humans. We are eternal; all this pain is an illusion.

Ha! There! I tied music into the post. Can anyone guess how? 🙂

Anyway, I’m off to celebrate in a most Seussian way: we’re making green eggs and … well, sausage, since it’s what we have, and the girls love it. Truthfully, I prefer it over ham, too, even though I *love* ham. That should say something about sausage.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Geisel. Thank you for your wonderful stories and your unique vision and ability to create fantastical worlds in which to tell your tales.

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