As i wrote back in February, i really feel like the new Guns N’ Roses album is coming. I know people have been burned on this for the past 12 years, but i’m holding out faith.
In fact, i got my hands on the latest from Axl and it’s much better than then last single i got from the new album. The new song called “There Was a Time” is pretty good. Sure it’s a little over-produced, but it is great to have Axl back on the scene.
Download the new track HERE (click here)
I recently read the book “Love is a Mix Tape” by Rob Sheffield. It’s a book about Rob and his wife: how they met, how they fell in love, how she died suddenly and how he’s coping with it. They were both rock critics so every step of the way, there’s music and a mix tape. It’s a sad book, but it’s a good book. If you want something to cruise through, and you like music of the 80’s and 90’s i’d recommend it. Some of my favorite passages:
Every time i have a crush on a woman, i have the same fantasy: I imagine the two of us as a synth-pop duo. No matter who she is, or how we meet, the synth-pop duo fantasy has to work, or the crush fizzles out. The girl is up front, swishing her skirt, tossing her hair, a saucy little firecracker. I’m the boy in the back, hidden behind my Roland JP8000 keyboard. She has all the courage and star power I lack. She sings our hit because i would never dare to get up and sing it myself. She moves the crowd while i lurk in the shadows, lavishing all my computer-blue love on her, punching the buttons that shower her in disco bliss and bathe her in the spotlight. I make her a star.
The new wave girl knows what pop dreams are made of. She knows that Debbie Harry was just kidding when she sang, “Dreaming is free.” She knows dreams are something you have to steal. The new wave girl scams on other peoples identities, mixing and matching until she comes up with a style of her own, knowing that nothing belongs to her, that she just gets to wear it until somebody else comes along with faster fingers to snatch it away. She knows pop dreams are a hustle, a deception, a “glamour” in the witchcraft sense of the word. She knows how to bluff and how to scam. She sings about counterfeiting, shoplifting, bootlegging, home taping. She’s in on the hustle – you steal it, it’s yours, it’s legal tender. The new wave girl knows all this, which is why she is dangerous. The new wave boy knows how dangerous she is, which is why he stands behind her. The boy and the girl, together in electric dreams.
Because the book is mostly about his wife’s death, there are quite a few sad parts. Such as…
We drove away with nothing inside us. I talked to Duane a bit, kept repeating to her the line Harvey Keitel says to Tim Roth at the end of Reservoir Dogs: It looks like we’re gonna have to do a little time….Every time i started to cry, i remembered how Renee used to say real life was a bad country song, except bad country songs are believable and real life isn’t. Everybody nows what it’s like to drive while crying; feeling like a bad country song is part of why it sucks.
The book is great to read and i especially like how he interprets Nirvana as a band largely speaking to us about marriage and how Biggie Smalls played a huge part in his mourning process.
I’ve always been a White Stripes fan and i’m also quite a big fan of Michel Gondry. I never thought either of them would sell out and make a Coke ad. But the ad is really pretty cool. The song in the ad is written by Jack White called “Love Is The Truth.” As the song goes, a young woman (who looks like Meg White) walks through a candy-like world where everyone and every animal leaves behind an image of himself or herself. The film is edited by Michel Gondry who i wrote about a few weeks ago (and posted a video of him doing the rubix cube with his feet).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9zgT3WzTVA]
There’s a new band from Scotland called The Fratellis. If you remember the movie, The Goonies, you’ll remember that the bad guys in that movie are the Fratellis. Nobody knows if this is where this band got their name, but i sure hope so.
I like them. They’re catchy and they can rock. To me they are 2007’s version of the 2006 Arctic Monkeys.
I’ve got the album here for you to download (click here). My favorite songs are “Whistle For the Choir” and “Got Ma Nuts From A Hippie”
Enjoy….
I’ve heard a bunch of stuff today about all of EMI’s tracks being available on iTunes without DRM. At first i was really happy, but 2 things kept me from being REALLY impressed.
First, these tracks are not mp3’s. Everyone is assuming they are, but they’re not. They are in a format called “unprotected AAC. ” For those of you who don’t know, AAC is a similar format to mp3 but to-date it is only used by MPEg4 players and Apple (it was partially developed by Apple). The format is understood by iPods and iTunes, but really nothing else. If you buy an unprotected AAC track, you can email it to whoever you want and listen to it on unlimited amount of computers. But, can you listen to it on the an iRiver player, the slick Samsung players or the nice Sandisk Sansa player? NOPE!
This is very clever strategic move by Apple. They have 2 objectives in mind by only offering AAC: 1) Get out of the legislation trouble they’re having in Europe which is asking them to open up thier DRM technology so other people can make iPod-like devices. 2) Try to keep the iPod as the go-to device for music. If they sold mp3’s they would solve problem 1 but then any player could be used with iTunes music. By making the tracks AAC, none of the competing players in the market today will work. Of course, new players can add AAC format compatibility in the future. But they have to license it. From who? – you guessed it: Apple!
The second thing that struck me as strange is that unprotected music is more expensive than
protected. This is dumb. Sooner or later the labels will realize that people want convenience and value. There is a group of people who use the iTunes store. By making the unprotected tracks more expensive you’ll earn a few extra dollars from those users (and only those users) as they will prefer to have un-tethered music. But they won’t get the P2P fanatics. They won’t get anyone under the age of 25 to go to iTunes and buy a track. I’m not sure if 99 cents is low enough for an mp3, but i know that $1.30 is too expensive. It’s a shame. Sooner or later they’ll realize they aren’t going far enough, they aren’t getting new users with this model.
All this being said, it’s a step in the right direction and i can’t wait to see what the other labels do when they see that EMI unprotected tracks are MUCH more popular than the regular iTunes tracks.
Check out this reviewer on Amazon.com: (link for him is here)
He’s a picky guy and loves Great White, Motley Crue and other 80’s rockers. And while i don’t exactly agree with him, dammit do i respect him.
The group The Band is legendary. For over a decade (1965-75) they produced some timeless and influential music. In fact, Rolling Stone ranked them #50 in the list of 100 Top Artists All-Time.
Recently a new album came out called Endless Highway where some of today’s most talented and popular artists covered their best tracks. The album contains performances from Jack Johnson, My Morning Jacket, Death Cab for Cutie, Widespead Panic, Jakob Dylan (son of bob), Gomez and more. Some of the tracks are truly great, while others are just lame covers.
My favorites are Gomez’s Up on Cripple Creek, Stage Fright, Death Cab’s Rocking Chair, Jack Johnson’s I Shall Be Released, Josh Turner’s When I Paint My Masterpiece, and MMJ’s Makes No Difference.
I’ve zipped up the entire album for you to download. Click to here do so. Have a listen and let me know what you think of it
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Ok, this is just funny. I love that people have time to do this. Reminds me of Job’s friend Franklin.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxafl6-WQwo&mode=related&search=]
Let’s start by saying this: there is a lack of ROCK in the world today. It’s become a hiphop and country world, and this world has kicked good ol fashioned rock n’ roll to the f’ing curb. There are about 3 rock bands in the mainstream right now: Daughtry, Nickelback, and Hinder. I only know Nickelback and think all 3 pretty much suck. It should be noted that they’re selling records like hotcakes. Why? Because there are no other choices if you want to rock. But it’s good to see that there are people like me – people who still care and want to crank some tunes and rock out.
Imagine my happiness when i discovered the Band Bang Camaro. Here’s a band that just turns it up to 11 and then just rocks! I went to their MySpace page (here) and put on Pleasure Pleasure. I dare you to try to not nod your head to the rock. I’ve also included the mp3 (here) of Push, Push (Lady Lightning). It’s no old school GnR. It’s probably more like an early Def Leppard, but at it is something.
I’m trying to make a point to blog about books i’ve read, so here goes….
Over the weekend i read “The Real Animal House” by Chris Miller. He’s the same guy who co-wrote the movie Animal House which went on to be come the largest grossing comedy of all time. Chris also went to dartmouth (like me) and was a brother in the Alpha Delta fraternity (like me).
The book was interesting for two main reasons:
First, it was really interesting to see what college life was like in the early 1960’s because of the emergence of rock n’ roll and the absence and importing of women at/to the school. Chris was really into rock and roll, which was new on the scene. Rock and roll at the time was played exclusively by African Americans and was not universally listened to. When rushing a frat, he remarked that most of the frats didn’t even know about Rock at all. AD back then fully embraced it and most of his stories either revolved around the music or at least discussed what what music was playing. The management of women at colleges in the 60’s is amazing. Women would train up to dartmouth for a weekend and be paired with a date for the entire time which would transform the entire campus. For the guys, it was like going on a 2-3 day blind date. As someone who’s been on a bunch of blind dates, i can see how this would be painful (both for the men and the women) and could lead to some social madness. I can also see why there was so much alcohol involved. Further discussion with my parents about this time has shown that travelling to schools and finding the right guy/girl was one of the main mechanisms provided at the time to find a suitable husband. Keep in mind that no sex before marriage was believed to be normal and there weren’t many options for birth control. After reading this, i’m very happy that i came through 40 years later when women were on campus and many of the dating conventions have been changed.
Continue reading “The Real Animal House”