My new favorite song from The Lumineers…I swear I can feel that cold wind from the North Sea when I hear this and that somehow makes it comforting. I know- both this band and me are a long way from that body of water so this makes no sense. This new folk is good for the soul in troubled times. It takes me back to places locked up and forgotten. Yeah…music has that power.
Rock Music
5FDP Monday song time
Five Finger Death Punch is everything you want in a metal band. They are honest, self-righteous and melodic- as a bonus you can understand the words. They are less interested in changing the world and more about how things are as they see it. You may not like them but at least you know where they stand…it’s refreshing in a hammer to wall kind of way.
What’s wrong with maturity?
Listening to “Snow” on the iPod got my brain working .The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around a long time. The catalog of albums show growth as artists and human beings. This is the exception rather than the rule.
Case in point and coming to a hockey rink or basketball arena near you is the “Midwest Rock N’ Roll Express” featuring R.E.O Speedwagon, STYX and Ted Nugent. I don’t know the exact line-up of each band, but I would guess you are going to get Kevin Cronin from R.E.O, Tommy Shaw from STYX and Terrible Ted himself at a minimum. As rock fans we sometimes don’t want the artists to mature and evolve. We want to hear Cat Scratch Fever and Come Sail Away over and over again. “Roll with the Changes” is a great song and I want to hear it in the cave but I’m not sure I want to hear it without Gary Richrath playing it. The original versions of these bands used to fill stadiums and now it takes all three of them to ¾ fill a hockey rink. This is stardom being sent down to the minors to live off the glory days. This is Spinal Tap in real life. The ugly side of nostalgia; there will not be many young people at these shows. You never want to see your heroes eating day old egg salad sandwiches at the bowling alley late at night when once they were gods. But there you go….get your tickets now or wait ‘till next year when you can catch them opening up for a puppet show at the county fair.
Disclaimer:
I am quite aware of the irony of me, a nobody, taking shots at these guys when I am not qualified to scare wildebeests out of the bush so Ted can take a shot with his machine gun and opening for a puppet show at the fair would qualify as my best day of the year!
Cracker “Happy Birthday to Me”
Coming off a birthday weekend- here is another relic from the cave. I saw this band many moons ago in their natural habitat of a bar. Cracker is kind of “angst in a plaid shirt” for guys that still like stuff like beer and football….And by football; I mean football on both sides of the Atlantic because it is the same type dude that likes whatever version is played in their country. Football hooligans in Europe are close to football nuts that paint themselves in team colors in the U.S.A. (Maybe not exact replicas but definitely falling out of the same fanatical tree). And the guy that yells at the T.V and grumbles about personal moves like he could run the team better is exactly the same in any country. I think in Canada this guy is probably a hockey fan? So here’s to Football, the N.F.L, Cracker and me for my birthday.
A poem inspired by a rant
Using a post of mine and boiling it down to an essence of something different and profound is a cool thing. Thanks!
A game of bingo
In the church basement
Humming “Stairway to Heaven”.
(thanks to waynelaw of “Cave of Fame” for the inspiration)
image above from Leah Alanis in Free Downloads – all kinds of stuff
Midnight Oil- Australian for Rock Music.
Monday song time and we find some miners in Australia fired from their jobs for doing a little underground Harlem Shake… O.K, this isn’t exactly like the Pussy Riot deal in Russia, but then again Australia is not exactly like anywhere else- it is “a land down under where women glow and men plunder”
So really going underground and digging a relic out of the cave this week. I saw this band play live once and they were incredible!!! All conviction and piss and vinegar—amazing band and sorry they are done.
Concrete Blonde
Concrete Blonde for Monday song time and today we have two. I don’t want to say I love this band or this band is cool, but I do and they are. It makes me glad to know they are still out there and working on a Brazil tour as I write this. The first song is the big hit Joey. The second is the first song I ever heard from this band and was hooked right then “True” sums it all up- a word to describe them. They have been a genuine alternative/underground/independent band the entire way. They give you all they have at live shows. I don’t know what else to say about them other than enjoy.
2nd Wonder of Rock-Abbey Road
If there are no serious objections…I have found the second Wonder of rock music….Everyone knows that classic shot of the Beatles crossing the street here. Now I have to build a nice looking page for them.
I’m not a fan of graffiti, no matter how it’s done, but seeing quotes of songs from my all-time favourite band outside Abbey Road studios I was instantly taken. It was a beautiful reminder of just how influential the Beatles were and still are, but it also made me wish I’d been round to witness the Beatlemania 40 years ago.
Abbey Road, London
The Devil’s Music
Imagine yourself as a struggling bluesman in the 1930’s going from town to town, playing little juke joints and street corners in the rural south. Maybe you get in trouble with women and whiskey, maybe you catch some grief for playing evil music…I’m just guessing here. You may even wonder if playing this type of music is a good or bad thing. There would not be much fame or money—Rock stars don’t exist yet because you are going to be the first one.
So at a point in your life when you wonder just what the hell you are doing…you meet a white man at the crossroads (because he won’t go into town at night) and sign a record deal that probably makes him a lot more money than you- this seals the deal and makes you devote your life (there won’t be much of it left) playing the devil’s music.
Yeah, I made that up…
The actual legend has the young Robert Johnson meeting the devil at a crossroads at midnight and selling his soul in order to play guitar like no one ever played it before. The devil wouldn’t take too long to collect on this bargain as Robert Johnson would die at the age of 27 by means of poison; either a jealous woman or angry man? (the details are sketchy at best) There is little doubt that he got real talent so quick that people were looking for a story. There is also no doubt that stories fly fast and furious when you leave this earth by tangled means.
When his records were re-released many years later in England…they had a profound influence on musicians like Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling stones. If blues is the cornerstone of rock music, it is not too much of a stretch to say that a lot of the weight and grit in that first heavy brick can be traced back to this man. Rock music owes its substance to him.
I have taken shots at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they got it right by putting him in with the first nominees.
So as I am starting a page called “The of 7 Wonders of Rock Music” with a crossroads in Mississippi- There is a marker at the intersection of U.S. Routes 61 and 49 in Clarksdale. This is the one that is tagged as the tourist place of this legend… But to complete this wonder, I would also go with any deserted crossroads in the State of Mississippi at Midnight (full moon optional) as a pure rock n roll alternative.
We have the first of the seven wonders of Rock music…6 more to go…get your comments in now to help find the others.
5 Greatest Geek Rock Acts
I don’t think of myself as a geek-but I do watch the science channel and history channel more than the others and if they ever come out with a Stephen Hawking action figure; I may be tempted to add it to my collection. The cold hard fact is that when I think of any scenario and how a geek would act compared to a regular well-adjusted person…….aaahhhhhhh….I would take the geek way—Ergo I must be a geek. So here is music about my people for my people… Forgive me this is difficult….kind of like when Luke finds out Darth Vader is his Dad…aaaahhhh…I did it again.
Note: Most of this is written from outside the geek world as I have just “come out” and have not be officially welcomed by other geeks as one of their own. I mean no disrespect to my new brethren. This is still new to me. Enjoy!
5. Gwar
For the militant geek..You know that guy…if someone takes his seat in math class -he will laugh about it and then not let it go. This guy is in serious need of an outlet. A show by this band is just what the doctor ordered to let him have a bit of fun-(while getting sprayed with all manner of fake bodily fluids) and get all that rage out. Shock Rock dressed like game characters that rail against the evil system sounds like militant geek to me…think of them as a more unlikeable Kiss…I know… did not think it was possible to be more unlikeable than Gene Simmons? It is!!..Rage on geeks…rage on.
4.Weird Al Yankovic
He has taken the art of parody and turned it into science. He is the no-one that becomes everyone. Awkward at first glance- brilliant under the surface. The frog that says to the princess that tries to kiss him…”Whatever sweetie…got look for someone else to smooch…I am weird Al and I will rain my fury upon the entire music industry” White and Nerdy is geek brilliance shining so bright, it is almost cool.
I once found myself at the acclaimed bastion of geekness called R.P.I in order to find the room that these guys were playing in. Two guys that make a lot of noise in order to elevate the words of wonder that spill out from them as they preach to the converted followers of quirkiness. I love a band that relentlessly follows their vision through the hits and misses. You don’t have to suffer from full blown nerdness to enjoy them, but you do require some part of that disease running through your veins.
2.Devo
These guys started the revolution. They gave all geeks, nerds and social rejects a place to rally to. You can like computers and learn more than a few opening moves of chess(you never know when a surprise chess smack-down can happen) and still be O.K. It is alright to come out of the closet and admit that making your brain do some work might be some benefit to you and the world around you. And these dudes with the red plastic hats are laying down some funky beats…we can dance geeks…we can dance! Oh the joy and celebration! You think the iPhone would have been invented without the surge that these guys gave to the geek community? No way!
1.Weezer
The hard days of the geek revolution are in the past. Technology runs the world and those that control and maintain this technology are living on the good side of the good towns. Basically…the geeks are running the world. So here is the emerged butterfly band of geekness flapping its wings in the bright sunshine of this new age. Put some of this music on as you lean back in the soft recliner and kick off those expensive slippers and bask in the delight that you have created. Take a drink of whatever you guys drink and enjoy it. We all call you Sir Geeks now!
Cave of Fame 