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The Circle of life and Ramen Noodles

~ Cave_Guy ~ Leave a comment

This story starts in a pub in the middle of summer as I am talking music and getting into a fight with my brothers about the relevance of Rush in rock music and I even got to the point of boldly declaring that Justin Bieber was a better Canadian import than Getty and the boys (hey, he’s from the Toronto projects, the Biebs grew up tough!)

Somewhere in the middle of this- one nameless brother with questionable music taste mentions “Fun” as the band he likes-O.K ..We are Young seems like a happy tune but they have the feel of one quick hit and done at this point. Let’s get back to comparing Justin to John Lennon…yeah, we had a few at this point.

Fast Forward to now –

The video for “Some Nights” is all American Civil War which is interesting because so is the last song I featured “The Night they drove Old Dixie Down” — The Civil War was brother fighting against brother…O.K, maybe in our fight we only spilled trace amounts of Guinness instead of actual blood but you see where I’m going. In an earlier post on this site I mentioned Kiss music as “Ramen noodles rock”-warm with an instant flavor packet and no substance. Fun is on the music label Powered by Ramen…a reference to those very same noodles…Whoa!… The universe is lining up!….and finally this Fun song has a Lion King vibe about it…The Circle of Life…everything is connected.

The moral of this story is my nameless brother was right…Fun is gaining some traction as a great alternative rock band. They are quirky and melodic enough to not have to make excuses about being a rock band…they just get out there and get it done.

Pour some sugar on me

~ Cave_Guy ~ 2 Comments

As I frequently tend to do when out in the world, I will ask this question-“Without thinking about it too much, who is your favorite rock band ever?”-Answers are usually something like- “errr, I don’t know, I like lots of music” -this, in most cases, is an outright lie. Everyone has a few favorites but not everyone will admit to it. I guess that is fine.  You don’t want some part of yourself out in the public highway to be tread on and run over until you are ready. Music can be a deep and personal experience that some won’t share. Who wants to come out as a Def Leppard fan unless they are of the rabid fanatic variety and cannot help themselves? Because then you are going to have to deal with the follow up questions from the newbie self-proclaimed rock music dude on WordPress like- “That is interesting, you got any of those Union Jack sleeveless  tee shirts still in the dark closet you pulled that band name out of?” —yeah…something profound like that, when I should say- “Wow, that is interesting, there must be a story to go with that answer?”…Because there must be a story to go with that answer if out of all the choices of rock bands since the beginning of time Def Leppard is the answer. There has to be a story. It has to be meeting the nice guys from Sheffield who played the best show ever, then stopped the tour bus to help get my cat out of a tree…yes, the bass player climbed up the tree and saved my little fussy paws from certain doom. Def Leppard-Best Band Ever! …you know, a story like that-because the story on the choice is always more interesting than the choice itself.

Comfort music for troubled times

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Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Phillip Phillips…even the names have a comfort level to them. They are all over pop radio with this simple folk sound that echoes the roots of all acoustic music. Ever since someone stretched some strings over a hollow block of wood many moons ago, making stories and feelings come to life by a warm fire; we have been doing this. From the surface stuff I have heard, this is not protest folk music of the 60’s coming back. Pete Seeger is still doing that, even though he must be about 100 years old by now. This is something else. This new roots music does share some of the vibe of old Irish folk music but the angst and isolation is more inclusive as we make our shared way through uncertain waters. This is about people wanting music that makes them feel better instead of worse. This is music that warms the soul instead of starting it on fire.

My Morning Jacket-Hipster dancing and a good scream.

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Nothing like a good scream in a rock song…they just make everyone feel better. And nothing like hipster dancing to give away the location of a hipster band. In the video of “Wordless Chorus” you can see “hipster dancing” going on…hipsters are too cool to let go but they have to move something to let the other hipsters know that they know this is good music. It is sort of a restrained shuffle that is careful not to invade the private space of any around you. A very civilized gentle movement indicating an enjoyment of the proceedings at hand but nothing overboard…I mean you have to be in cool-edgy style while you enjoy cool-edgy style.

This song has a quality rock scream to close it out…it is both surprising and fits in…it also goes through different tones and octave stretching. It contains emotion that spills over to the audience and screams how they would scream if only they could break out of their shells and join in.

I like this song and I like this band. That means you can basically drop any pretense of hipster-ism away from them. Well…almost. The dancing gives them away.

AC-DC joins iTunes

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This must be the last hold out in the digital revolution. Yes, the war is completely over now. There is no such thing as a few major record labels running the music world with a bunch of little independent labels acting as “training” until bands can hit the big time. There is only one….The Great Machine Apple now runs the entire world. “Welcome my son, welcome to the machine” as Pink Floyd once prophetically said. And really, the war has been over for a while now…The digital generation is running everything. Is that a bad thing?

Spanish Moon- A brief Interpretation

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Shifting through the dirt in the cave and looking around at the destruction that drugs has caused to the history of Rock I found a Little Feat Record “Waiting for Columbus” –this is possibly the best “live” album ever recorded during the great – Double Live Album Era of Rock. I think Peter Frampton started it off with ‘Frampton comes alive” …then it seemed like everyone and their mother joined in to release one. Speaking of mothers…a former member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention is coming at you today.  There is not a weak song on this record and the one I want to shine the cave flashlight on is “Spanish Moon” —on the surface it seems like just a fun song about a seedy little bar on the edge of town.  But listening now and thinking back on that era it seems more like a song on the cycle of addiction.  He knows this place is bad news but like the proverbial “moth to the flame”, he is going back anyway. The beauty of a great song is that it can be interpreted many different ways. 

“Don’t care who you are, you wake up ruined, you can lose it all at the Spanish Moon”

Phish Food and Lowell George

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Since I made the claim that Phish were nothing more than the evil spawn of the Grateful Dead –the music gods seem to be lined up against me.  I keep receiving evidence that disproves that comment. It might be a friend posting a Phish version of “Oh Atlanta” on their wall- -What?, Phish covers Little Feat songs?- Little Feat was/is a great band-Lowell George was one of the great icons of “swamp” rock. There is the argument that he glorified drugs in his music…Yes, he seemed to have a love for cocaine and all its derivatives- and yes he would write about it often- And if you do something like that and die early- they are going to say “another druggie rock star crash and burn”. Let me say that Lowell was a rare special inspired talent – his music had so much life and intensity and humor that it is tough do cover versions. And back to Phish…their version does lack that spark…but Lowell George is an impossible spark to replicate so I can’t hold that against them. Phish also does a great  Spanish Moon that I found by accident this week-the music gods again?

And while driving a couple weeks ago the radio played a cover of the Gorillaz “Clint Eastwood” –I love that song and apparently so does Trey Anastasio because this was his band doing a cover of it. I had not heard this before but if this Trey Dude loves the same music as me-then I can’t be a Phish hater anymore. And lastly, if Trey and band stay alive and healthy long enough to keep going and keep surprising me –they might make a new  fan…I am almost there after completely being the opposite a couple months ago.

Top 5 Rock songs with a whistle involved.

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5. Patience-Guns and Roses-Axel starts with a whistle and a nice melodic whistle at that…”see I am not really a bad guy after all” type of whistle. How many PBR’s do you think have been downed to this song! (PBR=Pabst Blue Ribbon-a quintessential American beer favored by the working man)

4. Jealous Guy-John Lennon- The best time to hear this is on a car radio at 3am driving down a lonely highway in the pouring rain. Lennon at his best had a way of letting you feel his pain as your pain because we all have the same experiences and all do stupid stuff.

3. Pumped up Kicks- Foster the People– Catchy tune about shooting bullets at your mates for play time fun. Only California can produce a band to make this sound so cool.

2.That Smell –Lynyrd Skynyrd – Ronnie Van Zant throws in this great “calling in the dogs” whistle to usher in guitar solos and hounds that will be right on your ass if you keep messing around with illicit substances and take that slow boat out into dark oblivion. It is short but it makes the point that he is used to calling in all the dogs. Lynyrd Skynyrd- great rock band!

1. Dock of the Bay -Otis Redding –You can call this soul if you want and say I’m stretching a bit but..Man!…what a song. He sung his heart out and died young in a plane crash…nothing more Rock n Roll than that. I officially proclaim this an honorary rock song if it wasn’t already.