Scott Weiland.   Dave Navarro.   Too much hotness.

I like Facebook a lot better than MySpace; I appreciate the privacy settings (Block!!   Block!!   Block!!) & the emphasis on communication & conversation.   I try not to add people who don’t actually like/know/talk to me with the exception of Mafia Wars & Restaurant City players.   Sometimes I do end up with folks who, although we are on good terms as far as I know, have nothing in common & nothing to talk about.   But I try.

Oh come on, there are ‘NSync & Backstreet Boys songs that I like.   I like “This I Promise You.”   I really like Take That’s “Back For Good” (Robbie Williams; I love him.   Seriously.   LOVE HIM.).   While we’re on the subject, there are a few Britney Spears songs that I like although I probably can’t tell you the names, I think Christina Aguilera & Mandy Moore have skillz, & I think Ricky Martin is cute.

I’ve posted before about a certain amount of narrow-mindedness that I indulge in when it comes to music.   I’d like to think that anyone who loves music of any kind indulges in this — it’s called “preference,” “liking.”   We prefer certain things.   We like certain things.   We dislike other things.  But it’s very easy to look at what a person likes & think that it defines them when it doesn’t.

I love Jane’s Addiction & Jonatha Brooke; this doesn’t automatically mean that I eschew the Backstreet Boys.   I don’t dislike a band or artist just because of their music genre.   I don’t even dislike entire music genres (ok, except for Jawaiian, but there’s a good reason for that which correlates the philosophical principle I will be explaining after this).

I’m sure there are people out there who are that black & white.   They like X, therefore they hate Y.   For me, it’s just not that simple, & I guess it made me sad that my friend Del, although having nothing in common with me & not much to talk about, still thought, from a distance, that I was this narrow-minded.

I like music.   Period.   There is music that thrills me, & music that bores me.   I love accuracy in music – I love hearing well done tone, correct pitch, correct phrasing.   I love it when a musician is skillful – when they can create a pleasing sound that they intend, & reach me with it.   I love creativity & color in music.

I dislike the opposite of this.   This doesn’t mean that I dislike discordance – Jonatha Brooke & Chris Cornell are both masters of harnessing discordance to color their songs.   In The Story’s song “Fatso,” Brooke & Kimball actually sing verse a half step off key but perfectly in harmony.   That takes skill, & it’s utterly charming.

I dislike music that isn’t there for the sake of music.   A lot of rap falls under this description for me.   I like rock music but I’ve heard the music made by “rockers” like Tila Tequila & Daisy de la Hoya & frankly the only thing that made it bearable was their breasts.   Here is music created not for the sake of courting the ear but seducing the eye.   I admit there’s an art to it, but it’s not music & I’m not buying the cd.   Maybe only the desktop wallpaper.

And I think it’s stupid when people cry about bands becoming mainstream.   Metallica, the B52s, Pearl Jam.   You guys are so pathetic; do you really think that Unpopular=Good?   No, you idiots.   When a band is good, sometimes they become popular.   Are they still good?   Quite possibly!   But you screaming about how they suck because now everyone likes them is as stupid as liking a band just because your friend likes them.   It’s the same thing.   I don’t believe that a band or artist’s ability to evolve is a bad thing, unless they evolved for non-musical reasons.   Music evolves.   It’s still music.    Dislike it if it doesn’t fit your preference any more but don’t try to say it’s not music any more.

In the case of Jawaiian music, which is basically normal music which is dumbed down, I think one can assume that the standards of any kind of skill are automatically lowered.   It is an actual characteristic of the genre.   The entire genre.   It’s like speaking slowly for a retard.   Sure, the retard loves it.   But I’m not a retard & I’d prefer you just speak normally.   Thank you.

So, I don’t really care if it’s a boy band.   If it’s Wham!’s “Last Christmas” I can sing along.   I like music… if there’s music in it.   Good sounding music.   That’s all.   Their hair has nothing to do with it.

This all started with Twitter. A macrobiotics enthusiast was suggesting that the meat industry had influenced society to stop saying “Swine Flu” & instead use “the very abstract” name H1N1. And in my head I could hear the clipped guitar & someone singing “‘Cuz there’s a red, under my bed…” I wonder if there is scientific evidence to show the effects of not eating enough meat on human mental health.

But I can turn anything into a musical experience. I jumped on YouTube & found this rather intriguing live performance.

The original recording gets cut in by the end of the first line. The camera pans to the bass player for the guitar riffs in the 3rd verse, which made me laugh.

Anyway, do you think…

1. They were playing onsite to an original recording, Britney Spears style? Does this mean then that the audience was listening to live & recorded drums at the same time? That must have sucked.

2. Or, were they so precise that an engineer could take their live performance & dub the original onto it? If so, that’s pretty awesome.

3. Do you think Ray Davies’ facial expression (eyes flipping up to the right) when the original recording cuts in on the first line is because they were dubbing the original in onsite & he was either surprised or embarrassed? He’s so quirky I can’t tell.

4. Do you think Ray Davies ate a lot of brown rice?

Met a girl called Lola and I took her back to my place
Feelin’ guilty, feelin’ scared, hidden cameras everywhere
Stop! Hold on. Stay in control

Paranoia, the destroyer
(And it goes like this.)

At one of my East Side Grill gigs, we performed “Send Her My Love,” & then I announced that we would be doing “one more from Journey” before we launched into “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.”   My sister’s boyfriend turned to her in surprise because he thought “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” was written by a local band (notice how this local band’s fan doesn’t even know the correct lyrics to the song).

KK described this as being as bad as thinking that Jodeci wrote “Lately.”   And although my sister denies it, I swear I remember her thinking, when she was in high school, that Keali’i Reichel had written “In My Life.”   When I told her that it was by The Beatles, she had said, “Who are The Beatles??”

Now, my sister was born in 1980, & her boyfriend around then.   Neither of them are musicians or even music enthusiasts.   They have pretty good reasons for not knowing stuff like this.   And really, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing what was written by who.    Frankly the 70s saw so many covers of songs between contemporaries, along with writers like Kenny Loggins & Carly Simon, writing for others as well as themselves — it was like Music Compositions: The Trading Card Game.

I also don’t have a problem with local artists covering classics written by successful bands.   I once heard a cover of Journey’s “Open Arms” by a local artist, slowed down & with just the voice & a piano, & I thought it was very nice.   No kudos to her for writing ability, obviously, but it was pleasant to listen to &, I thought, a nice interpretation of the original.

What I do have a problem with is local bands that, lacking the ability to write material as well as instrumental performance skills, take a song that was originally great & then dumb it down into something shittier, less intelligent-sounding, or sloppy.   Take, for instance, Ten Feet’s rip off of The Damn Yankees’ “High Enough.”   Ten Feet took the laid back, mellow verses from the song, & replaced the driving pre-chorus & chorus of the song with a sappy chorus of “I’m the only one for you, you’re the only one for me” that is on such a different level of songwriting melodically & lyrically that one can only assume that they put it in there because they were incapable of playing the original parts & so took 5 minutes to come up with some kind of throw away filler.

I have no problem with bands that cover songs & do it justice.   Sure, it’s copying, but it’s a cover.   I have a problem when it’s copying & degradation.   I weep for the works of art that are taken by local bands & made into works of rubbish.   “This is what The Little River Band would sound like if they were stoned… well, ok, if they were stoned & shitty musicians.”

“But when Bob Marley did it, it was art,” KK said.   Well, Bob Marley wrote his own damn songs.   Also, Reggae was a real music genre which actually identified a musical kind of sound, whereas Jawaiian identifies a lower level of musical sophistication.   And the lazy, stoner upbeat strumming wasn’t en epidemic in Bob Marley’s time.   Not every damn hit anyone ever had was being translated into ganjaspeak.   And like I said, he was writing original songs.

The thing is, Ten Feet does have a couple of originals.   And I actually like them.   KK & I tried to think of local bands that actually write their own music, & came up with Na Leo Pilimehana.   “Yeah, but all their songs sound the same,” KK said.   True.   But still.   They’re real musicians.   Hey — I can’t tell the difference between a lot of Gloria Estefan’s ballads.   Even Def Leppard got pretty monotonous in Adrenalize.   Since they have 2 originals that I know of, do I consider Ten Feet real musicians?   I guess.   But they’re also scum in my book.   How DARE you do that to “Cool Change.”   DIAF motherfuckers.

Maybe T & I will come up with an alternate setlist for gigs in venues full of people who listen primarily to local music.   We’ll play nothing but songs that have been covered by local bands… except we’ll just play the originals.   I wonder if we’ll be criticized for it:

“Eh brah, dat not how da song sound.”

When I wrote about Chris Cornell’s Euphoria Morning over a year ago, I thought I was done discovering it.   Apparently I’m not.

For the time being I’ve given up burning compilation CDs of my favorite songs or flavors of the week to listen to in my car because for whatever reason (I suspect a sound quality issue, although you wouldn’t expect that from car audio listening — there is no such thing as good sound quality in a car.   Hm.), I get tired of them after a week or so & then I have to burn another one.    However, original copy CDs seem to stay in my car forever.   It’s just something I noticed, & since I’ve begun listening only to actual albums I’ve actually thrown out a stack of blank Mitsui Golds because they were old.

Currently I think I have CDs from Soundgarden, Robbie Williams, Jane’s Addiction, JR Richards, & Toad The Wet Sprocket in my car.   And, of course, Euphoria Morning, which has been in constant play for over a month now.   I just can’t get tired of it, even in spite of the fact that I can still hear it playing in my head when I’m not in my car.

Most recently I’ve been fixated on “Sweet Euphoria,” an acoustic work of just Mr. Cornell & a guitar.   How could I not get into this song before?   Cornell’s voice is sad, lazy & soothing, cradled by the very full sound of the steel strings.   And yes, I did try to figure it out but only got as far as the first few lines before my SAS (short attention span) kicked in.

It sounds like this song is in standard tuning down a step, so that the D opening is fingered as an E, with the first line in A.

But I digress.

Believe it or not, the song that originally drew me to this album, “Preaching The End Of The World,” while still fitting as my personal anthem, has paled in comparison with my new loves – “Disappearing One” & “When I’m Down,” which latter song I really DID sit down to figure out, effectively crippling myself for a few days.

I did find that there was a song I didn’t really care for on this album: “Mission.”   I actually really enjoy the discordant rock arpeggios & the sexy melody of the first verse, but for some reason the bluntness of the chorus just turns me off.   It’s so barbaric that it’s boring.   I even enjoy the guitar solo.   I just don’t care for that chorus.

Anyway, I guess that having nothing new to write about doesn’t mean there isn’t something there.    I do think that a good album will court its listener forever, & Euphoria Morning is definitely one of those.

Please have a listen.

I went in to work after a really crappy night.  Just totally in a foul mood.  There’s isn’t a lot of things that could turn my frown upside-down.  So imagine my delight when I fired up the computer and saw the words “NEW WEEZER TRACK LEAKED”.  Let the awesomeness begin…
Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

Came across this image by accident.   Sorry Bob.   Debunked.

Thank God for VH-1’s penchant for airing countdown shows from different eras.  They always have these 5 part shows like The 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs or The 100 Greatest Hair Metal Songs that remind you of songs that get lost in your head.

I remember being drawn to this song because the video was so cutting edge at the time.  Real top notch 80’s video technology, up there with Take On Me by A-Ha and Money For Nothing by Dire Straits.  After it landed on VH-1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders list, I took the time to re-examine the song.  It’s just a potent cocktail of homesickness and hope, shaken over that wonderful 80’s sound (saxophone solo,bitches!).  And to me, the video still holds up.  Here’s Wouldn’t It Be Good by Nik Kershaw.