Archive for the 'Music' category

In The Age Of The Internet, Nothing Dies…

Mar 03 2008 Published by under Craziness, Miscellany, Music, Pop Culture, Rock Music, The Internet

The Internet is an amazing thing. No matter how obscure your tastes in just about everything, you can not only find it, but you can find at least another 100,000 people who are really into it. On the Internet, nothing dies… not even the bad stuff.

Case in point, a conversation I had with my brother James via e-mail on Friday. Back in the early 1980′s, at the height of really cheesy 80s music, a band called Charlie, with visions of one-hit-wonder status, released a song called It’s Inevitable. Accompanying the song’s release was a music video featuring a ridiculous pie fight.

James became a huge fan of the song and forced me to listen to it everywhere we went (he’s six years older, and was the only one of us licensed at the time). While searching for clips related to “Hillary Clinton” and “Inevitable” for a little mashup project I had in mind, I stumbled upon the Charlie video and sent the link to James.

It was bad enough that a song and video that lame live on, but in response to my message, James sent back a link to his favorite band’s MySpace page. The Urine Bombs are a new name for an old stunky turd that used to be called Twilight. Unfortunately, I’m intimately aware of the history of Twilight having shared a roof with their lead singer when he was going through his dreams of rock star grandeur.

If you have ever seen the movie Can’t Hardly Wait, the band Loveburger is a pretty good approximation of their general style, but you would need to throw in copious amounts of weed and acid, and one guy they had to break out of a psychiatric hospital every time they had a gig (No, I’m not making this up.)

Now, thanks to the Internet, a band that would have been relegated to the ash heap of garage band history will live on forever as the Urine Bombs. If you’re curious about the name change, you have to admit that Twilight has a very 80s hair band feel to it. They wanted something that sounded more in tune with the times.

I encourage you to click through to the MySpace page and have a listen to the song. If nothing else, it will goose my brother and his middle-aged band mates, and make them think their time has finally come.

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What Came First? The Music Or The Misery?

Jan 28 2008 Published by under Miscellany, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Pop Music

Thought of the day from the opening scene of the movie High Fidelity:

What came first? The music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns and watching violent videos, we’re scared that some sort of culture of violence is taking them over. But nobody worries about kids listening to thousands — literally thousands — of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss.

Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

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Don Imus Back On the Air?

Oct 03 2007 Published by under Business, Craziness, Marketing, Pop Culture, Race, Radio, Self-Promotion, Stuck On Stupid

Drudge is reporting it, and I have to say I’m not surprised. Don Imus is considering a return to radio on a competitor station to the one he got bounced from last spring. The only question now is whether the PC elite in this country will ratchet up the pressure to keep this hire from happening.

When Imus made his now infamous “nappy headed hos” comment last April, the outcry for his removal was incredible. Unable to withstand the pressure, CBS bailed on the host. Without a show, he also lost his simulcast deal on MSNBC.

If Citadel Broadcasting hires the disgraced jock, I’ll be amazed. If this story doesn’t spark more racial tension, I could wake up tomorrow sewn to the floor and not be more surprised.

It seems unlikely, to say that least, that our “forgive and forget” society will let the guy back on the air after only a couple of months gone. It just seems that 6 months isn’t quite enough time to renounce racism and misogyny.

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O.J and Oh, Britney. The Week In Celebrity Shame

Sep 17 2007 Published by under Cable, Celebrities, Craziness, Crime, Miscellany, Music, Pop Culture, Pop Music, Programming, Rap/Hip-Hop Music, Self-Promotion, Sex, Society, Stuff That Sucks, Television

It’s been a bad week to be sick. With so much celebrity embarrassment on parade, not having the energy to trash them is really troubling.

Let’s set the wayback machine for the VMAs last week. This show had it all – award winners trashing the network that hosts the awards, has-been rockers duking it out over whored out former TV stars, single moms trying to whore themselves out (but nobody was buying), and militant rappers getting peeved that the awards weren’t rigged for them to win. Your entertainment dollar was simply not going to go farther than the 2007 VMAs

Britney was supposed to warm up the audience, but left everyone feeling cold. Blame it on the hair, the lip-synching, the magic act that wasn’t, the drinking, the allergic reaction to eye drops (what?), or any of another 100 oft-repeated excuses for the train wreck we witnessed, the sad reality is we want to see a nubile 20 year-old in skin tight leather dancing like a tramp or tongue kissing Madonna (actually, skip that last part). The fact is, Brit is now a single mom who, with every public appearance, reminds us of the line from Sweet Home Alabama.

Look at you! You have a baby! In a bar!

Here’s some advice Brit. Put on some clothes, write/sing a grown-up song, and stop trying to convince us that you’re the hot little vixen of Baby One More Time. That ship has sailed. You were used up by a douchebag, and the only guy that still wants you is this loser.

Next up… Kid Rock and Tommy Lee. Even with Britney and Kanye melting down at the VMAs, this is probably the most pathetic story of the night. These two guys get into a brawl over a woman who, by her own admission, paid off a poker debt with sex. Yup. That girl is a class act that is worth fighting for. Go get her, guys.

Speaking of Kanye, I don’t think I could sum this one up any better than Joel McHale (host of The Soup). After recapping Kanye’s choice words about his perceived snub at the hands of MTV, McHale said, “Geez. 50 Cent didn’t whine that much when he got shot.” True dat!

In our last glimpse backward at the VMAs, perhaps the one shining moment in the telecast came when Justin Timberlake (surrounded by the vapid cast of The Hills) excoriated MTV for filling its programming with non-stop reality TV and begged them to actually play music occasionally. It seems Timberlake may be one of the few people who owes his soul to MTV, and at the same time feels bad because he’s old enough to remember that MTV used to stand for Music Television.

Finally, back in the present, let’s dip into the overflowing cup of comedy gold that is O.J. Simpson. The same week that his book (If I Did It) comes out, and the world may read his claim that he’s not a criminal (at least not a murderous one), he gets arrested for storming into a sports memorabilia show with armed accomplices and trying to steal pieces of his life. It’s not clear whether he actually owns any of what he tried to steal. And it’s not clear if he was armed, but a tape of the incident clearly demonstrates his anger and rage as he barks out instructions that no one is to be allowed to leave.

Wow, O.J., armed robbery and taking hostages. That’s a hell of a good way to prove you’re not a killer. Maybe next time you could sacrifice a small puppy on national TV and tell people your killing is limited only to the animal kingdom. By the way, aren’t you supposed to be out there trying to catch the real killer?

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America’s Got Talent?

Aug 15 2007 Published by under Music, Programming, Television

Ok, I tried to watch America’s Got Talent last year and couldn’t get into it. It was like watching a really long, tedious version of The Gong Show. It was too painful to become invested in. When it came on again this year, I didn’t start watching until much later, and am glad I did. While the vast majority of the acts are pretty lame, there are actually two that are phenomenal.

I am not at all a fan of the American Idol genre of television programming, though I have commented fairly extensively on my addiction to CBS’ Rock Star series (Where is RockStar:Van Halen?).

When I first tuned into AGT, I had to revisit my opposition to singing competitions because of Cas Haley. This ia a guy who comes across on TV as a generally decent and normal guy. He also happens to be one hell of an entertainer. He would be my choice for the winner with no doubt were it not for the ventriloquist.

Normally, the ventriloquist bit wears thin pretty quick. It has been a long time since anyone with their hand up a puppet’s ass has made me laugh or even smile. The fact is, there are only so many bits you can do with a dummy – and before I saw Terry Fator, I thought they had all been done to death. This guy is phenomenal. He’s a singer, a ventriloquist, and most impressively an impressionist. Not only is he is one of the best vocalists on the show, he does all of his singing in other people’s voices. He has done Roy Orbison, Garth Brooks, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole (and Natalie Cole), Kermit the Frog, and Louis Armstrong.

If you haven’t watched the show, I don’t really blame you. It’s not an easy thing to get into. However, if you have some time to kill tonight, you ought to tune in just to see Cas and Terry perform one last time.

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