Rock Music

Cave Olympics-Indie

~ Cave_Guy ~ 4 Comments

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Indie Music – The miscellaneous cool file of Rock since…since… The Smiths?

And the only reason this genre goes back this far is they were added in after the fact.

There was no indie music in the early 80’s-all the cool music was thrown into that big “alternative music” pile and sorted out from there.

Listening to this song now-I can see why the indie crowd wants to claim it as their own.

“Hang the D.J- because he does not play anything good.” Is the basic premise of this uplifting little tune.

To get to indie music you have to go under the surface. Like those old movies when you swim underwater to emerge in a secret cave below the depths; another world that only the cool kids know about.

I think of indie music as the new growth of rock music after the big forest fires of excess wiped out all the old guard. The geezers still pretend to hang around with nostalgia tours featuring 2 original members if you are lucky, but it is a joke. Is just a quick stumble from this to the final walk of fame: selling reverse mortgages and walk-in bath tubs to the last few who still remember.

So as I try to finish out my medals category because the stray dogs of this Olympic site are looking at me with an angry growl-I just run out of bones.

Here we go.

The Bronze:

Arctic Monkeys.Do I wanna Know?

The riff is what makes this work. Psychedelic Led Zeppelin with this great high harmony  “Do I wanna know” in the chorus… this puppy works-this puppy will crawl up to you, sneak on the end of the bed and get comfortable in your rock n roll head.

Infectious and Indie.

The Silver:

Silversun Pickups.The Pit

Good Indie music always has this quiet scream to it. It does not yell at you but instead it keeps nudging and nudging until you find yourself getting swept away with it. Silversun getting the Silver [see what I did there?…Do you hipsters?…course you did-you guys are too smart for me]

The Gold:

Bon Iver.Skinny Love

Bon Iver  is French for “Good winter”- This song is so cool that it is below zero cold just like it is going to be again tonight here at the cave.  I don’t know what the French word is for endless brutal winter but I am hearing a ton of non-french words around here to describe it.

I know I have featured this song before….but damn-it is good.

And one more for the road:

The Black Keys may be indie but I can’t call them that anymore because they are too big.1

You can only be indie for a small amount of time- A time when passion for the craft of music does not always equate to success. A time when you do what you love and let the chips fall as they may-a time when struggle is life and life is struggle but so what-Let’s rock anyway.

Cheers from the cave!

Kiss my Ass

~ Cave_Guy ~ 20 Comments

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I do not like this band -if they never visit Cleveland to claim their place in Rock n’ Roll history; that is fine with me!

I was O.K. with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not allowing them in….

BUT…

I know the names:

Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss

We all know those names and those are the names that the Hall of Fame accepted for induction.

There are a legion of fans still enlisted in the Kiss Army. They made enough records that you could cover an entire ocean and not let the fishes get any light…They are a raging success and deserve to be in no matter what us “serious” rock music fans think.

I mean, was the Ramones hit with Rock and Roll High School really any deeper than Rock and Roll all Nite?… Oh yeah-they were cool but Kiss was all flash.

They were really good flash-with smoke and make up and all the other stuff that made the kids go crazy.

Even the grown up kids. Even now.

But Kiss can’t get it together for the original four to play a couple songs for fans that have made them gods- Fans that have paid the mortgages on mansions and the insurance on fancy sports cars for years and years.

It is one night and a couple tunes- that will allow you guys to take this little carnival of fantasy on the road and laugh all the way to the bank for the rest of your days. It will allow 4 or 5 generations of your heirs to live like kings if they have any sense at all and not waste this wealth that your followers have bestowed on you.

But no—-Wha, wha wha…Gene Simmons wants everybody that ever pretended to be Ace Frehley and Peter Criss to play and be inducted because they are just as much of the Kiss experience.

And it seems that 3 or 4 fake Aces are too many Aces in the deck for the original Ace.

Whatever.

Could you please just give the fans what they want one more time?

Don’t make us haters right.

Cave Olympics -Classic Rock

~ Cave_Guy ~ 4 Comments

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Cave Olympics -Classic Rock

No messing around-nothing fancy- Straight ahead Rock n roll songs that still have plenty of rubber left on the tires.

I am not picking the usual worn out suspects for the cave medals.

Anybody and their un-house trained dog can pick  ‘Back in Black” or “Satisfation” as the top rock songs of all time.

I went with songs I love that still have plenty of juice.

Like a big pack of energizer batteries with an expiration date of “never”.

Here we go

The Bronze:

Lynyrd Skynyrd.Call me the Breeze

J J Cale wrote it and they put it on one of the best sophomore albums of all time and just kicked the dry excrement right out of it. What a song and what an original line up of whoop-ass.

The Silver:

Pretenders.Mystery Achievement

Another great effort by another short lived line up. This first Pretenders record always gets forgotten when we talk of the greats. You can call it punky new wave if you like. I call it straight ahead Rock music with feeling and with conviction.

The Gold:

Rolling Stones.Gimme Shelter

This song has relentless timeless power.

This is rock n roll.

Cave Olympics- Prog-Rock

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Progressive rock– the arty, pompous and always a tad snobby weird cousin of rock music. Those who like him will affectionately refer to him as a bit eccentric and an acquired taste. Those who don’t like him will call him an overblown pompous ass wallowing in mindless self reflection that is all too full of codswallop*.

*pick your favorite word here to describe senseless drivel – I always liked this one

But I digress and getting back to the music-

Both are correct descriptions.

Bands like Rush, early Genesis, and Yes- I do not like and will use the bad definition to explain why.

Bands like Pink Floyd, Supertramp and solo Peter Gabriel I like and will refer to the good definition.

Many fans will be the opposite or simply hate all of these groups for being way too much over the artsy ledge.

I am cool with that

But the winter games are still going on at the Cave and we need some medal winners

 The Bronze:

Arcade Fire.Afterlife

Before I get all my 8 or 9 readers to band together and tell me this not prog….Here is the test.

Is it artsy? Check

Is it self-important drivel and over the top in a way that angers some music fans? Check

Would you have thrown this band in with all the other progressive bands if it came out thirty years ago?

Again-Check.

And I love this song and it is my website-Just a regular guy in a regular virtual cave-so there and let’s go to silver.

The Silver:

Frank Zappa.Watermelon in Easter Hay.

Frank was a talented and thoughtful musician known for a too grotesque sense of humor. He would be a mega star today. It was nothing more outrageous than Eminem.

And the dude could play guitar.

If you got a chance to see him live then you got a chance to see something like the massive migrations of buffalo across the Great Plains before they were all gone. You got to witness something special that was normal for the time but fading fast. You got to be part of history.

I now feel like I am history! (that is good, right?)

The Gold:

Pink Floyd.Shine On You Crazy Diamond

I could write a book on what this song means to me. (maybe someday)

My favorite Pink Floyd song from my favorite Floyd record-Wish You Were Here.

This is the ultimate bromance ditty-One guy writing a song about a friend that has lost his mind but will never be considered lost. It is song of hope and a song about love and respect. Friendship is a deep and mysterious thing that this song is not afraid to expose to the light. Madness is another dark depth that few pieces of music will dare to set sail for. Just for those two reasons this song is beautiful and this version is unforgettable.

Next I will go for the “Classics” and Cheers from the Cave!

Cave Olympics – Pop

~ Cave_Guy ~ 6 Comments

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The Bronze:

A truly great pop song will weave itself into the fabric of society.

Sir Elton John.Rocket Man

Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote some great pop songs-this is my favorite. Their collaboration represents a high-water mark for Top 40 radio and raised all boats to a new level of  quality.

This man was not knighted because of Knomio and Juliet or that Circle of Life thing in Lion King.

Not only do we have a fantastic song by Captain Fantastic-We also have this sequel to Bowie’s Space Oddity and a Ray Bradbury Sci-Fi vibe going on. It was like realizing that the space age is not something that should freak us out anymore-this is where we live now.

He brought the whole thing down to earth so that we could all go on the trip and get back home safely.

The best art always takes you on a journey and lets you return to solid ground.

It makes me think of this video which is worth a look because it brings this thing full circle.

http://www.space.com/19907-astronaut-plays-peter-gabriel-for-peter-gabriel-video.html

Like the song says-Being a rock star or an astronaut is a job- getting up and putting on the flashy suit to punch the clock and do the best you can for the day. You do not always have to like it and you don’t always have to be completely swept up in the emotion of the experience us mere mortals take as living like a god. In fact, if you approach it the right way- you just might stay on top and have people care for a “long , long time”.

The Silver:

Lady GaGa.Bad Romance

“I’m a free bitch, baby”

This line makes me laugh when I hear it yelled in the background-it also evokes strength and power when it returns later in the song as a cold statement of fact.

I love Lady Gaga- She always knocks over the big milk cans of society and does not care who gets splashed. She is bigger than life; riding a wave of controversy with flair and artistry. She just goes for it every single time.

She has been accused of being everything bad in this world-she has even been labeled as being a man?

This man thing kind of confuses me- It is a weird kind of redneck feminist fear about her being too powerful to be a woman. That same fear would turn into a life-threatening blood rush of excitement if she posed in one of her costumes with a bow and stood over the carcass of a fresh killed 8 point buck.

We live in strange times and she is our hero.

I am not a little monster but we created this phenomenon known as Lady Gaga.

And she says more about us than we do about her.

The Gold:

Micheal Jackson.Billie Jean

“Billie Jean is not my lover, she’s just the girl who claims that I am the one”

A  good ol’paternity lawsuit will give you a little street cred, especially when you are trying to break through and become the “King of Pop”.

Or a song about it is close enough to send Michael Jackson into the stratosphere of musical stardom; he would not find his way back to earth.

Bob Dylan once said that everyone had a copy of the “Thriller” album. The record was a big deal-it broke the color barrier on MTV….who would have guessed that MTV would break the stupid barrier a few years after this and never look back?

This was 1982 when MTV and vinyl records still ruled the earth…I know…it does seem possible, almost as relevant as dinosaurs to a generation today-but it did happen.

Just like with Lady Gaga- Michael Jackson gives us all these weird dichotomies- Woman or man “He is trying to look like Elizabeth Taylor” Black or White “He is getting skin lightning treatments”-  Kid or  Adult…I don’t know where to start with this one.

And that is just a hint of the circus that followed “His One-Glovedness” around.

This song is as good as pop music gets and we have a moon walk on top of the podium.

Next –we take on Progressive—and as always-Cheers from the cave!

The Cave Olympics – Metal

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The Cave Olympics – Metal

Metal is not my thing, I like some of it but I am not in the club. I am not submerged in this murky subculture – I needed some help from metal heads I know in real life and in the blogging world.

To me- metal is a light and humorous distraction from my other music. I think of it as Van Halen and The Scorpions. (Cartoony with a flair for the over dramatic)

No!! To metal people this is not right.

Just like real drinkers like their liquor aged and neat. Real metal heads like their music black and evil with no touch of water …if you please and thank you.

There is the famous story of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil in order to play guitar like no one before him (the genesis of rock n roll). It may be myth but it fuels this whole thing. https://caveoffame.com/2013/02/20/the-devils-music/

On the other side we have stories of Black Sabbath painting rooms black and doing witchcraft…all while figuring out the small tonal shift on guitar that would forge a new evil sound.

They did not make just make a deal with the devil-they are invited over to the Lucifer Mansion for the Thursday night poker games!

Again-is this myth or reality-is this just for show or are we true believers-it really does not matter- it just matters that this “vibe of hell” is what the passionate of this genre like to blindly follow.

It is the zip in this trip.

So I give you my medal winners of this very scary genre of which I have a new found fear.

The Bronze- Opeth.Blackwater Park

Death Metal is to Sweden like those little funky knives with everything are to Switzerland. It is a factory for this music. And before a “speed metal” or “black metal” freak flames some angry comment about Opeth being really a “progressive metal band with a death metal start that kind of draw influences from everywhere.” Let me say that they are a “progressive metal band with a death metal start that kind of draw influences from everywhere.” And let me also say that the only thing scarier than metal music is any comment thread on a metal website-join in at your own risk!

The Silver-Metallica.Master of Puppets

The vocals are clean and the guitar is fast. You could call this a nice drinkable American blend. Thanks to http://1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com/ for this suggestion!

The Gold-Black Sabbath.Paranoid

There is no argument from metal lovers of all kinds that these guys are the original. I know the song Black Sabbath is considered the first example of the genre but I did want something a little lighter for the gold medal….you know something that is a hit and that the kids can dance to!

Thanks to :

http://mikeladano.com/

http://heavymetaloverload.com/

another couple of metal aficionadas that helped lead me to this gold.

And as always, Cheers from the cave!

Pete Seeger

~ Cave_Guy ~ 1 Comment

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So long Pete,

You loved everyone-A true man of the people-you lived long enough that we kind of forgot about you-that is our fault.

I never was a fan of your music but I am a big fan of a life filled with conviction.

And you lived on my river.

In fact, you really loved the Hudson River and fought to get it clean.

We have lost a consistent voice for freedom and the river has lost a friend.

The world is not better without you.

Thank you

Do you ever yearn?

~ Cave_Guy ~ 10 Comments

Do you ever yearn?

Yearn: to have a strong desire for somebody or something, especially when the desire is tinged with sadness.

That is really what all these unrequited love songs are about.

Maybe it is all this rain gently washing away the January snow that has me in this yearning funk.

I don’t know… but the best way to deal with it-is to find some great songs and let them rain in on my soul.

There is something always pure about something that is unattainable-if you can’t get it then it follows that you can never diminish it. It stands there in all its glory and remains just out of reach.

Mix it with talent and music and magic happens.

These songs are all great and I am just scratching the surface.

Howard Jones. No one is to blame

Bonnie Raitt I can’t make you love me

Cake. The Distance

James Blunt.You’re Beautiful

And for George and his constant craving:

Violent Femmes

~ Cave_Guy ~ 5 Comments

The Violent Femmes always warm me up.

It has been cold up here near the Cave-Some of this below zero crazy cold!

The Violent Femmes probably don’t think of themselves as a nice cup of hot chocolate or even a healthy dose of 12 year old scotch to ward off the winter freeze-but they always do that to this one ancient rock guy.

These guys always bring me back. If ever my allegiance to rock music starts to waiver-their songs always sound fresh—-like someone just cooked up the music right in front of you.

And not  prepackaged “assemble a sandwich in front of you and call it fresh” like Subway—-I mean like one of those Japanese restaurant deals with the flames going and the knives slashing!!!

Fresh-Dangerous-and I am going back for some more.

I don’t know what the name means and I really don’t care—-It is ironic and it was coined in a time when Femme was a bad thing and Violence was a good thing.

What it means today is anybody’s guess.

This band always brings me back.

This is what music should do.

Warm you up on a cold day.