Yes Puppet is alive, and doing very well, just sometimes life gets in the way of doing things that you want to do and you do what you HAVE to do. Plus I'm having a hard time with "topping" Tarts posts, since she is through in what she does...

Well after noticing her prep work on her future concerts (freakin concert going goody two shoes with extra cash pfffft) it got me to thinking, what was my first concert. Well this says a lot... Dio - Sacred Heart tour, in fact I think I still have the T-shirt somewhere. Well this was my first concert, though some of this information may have been a given to some of you, it was news to me... I got my own education in "concert edict".

First off general admission can suck ass, needless to say lets not bring up "The Who" in that comment. But being we were at the now torn down Toledo Sports arena I was safe from a mob converging on us as we entered into the arena.

Secondly you can sneak about anything into a concert if you try hard enough. We all know there will be some "herb" and some hard liquor making there way into a concert, but the crew that assembled the 5 ft bong before the show... whoa.

Thirdly, don't confuse the devil horns for the international symbol for "I love you" especially at a Dio concert... the man who originally brought you the devil horned salute (though Gene Simmons will tell you otherwise.)

Lastly go to a concert YOU want to go to. As I enjoyed Dio and his previous album ruled, Sacred Heart SUCKED ASS, that's just my humble opinion. I went cause my best friend was a Dio fan, and though it was a great show, I didn't know 3/4 of the songs they played so it was all new to me.

Anyway have some Dio just because, Starting off with a very nice line up of Ronnie James Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stu Hamm, Greg Bissonette, Paul Taylor a definite who's who of 80's rock GODS! doing a tribute to Aerosmith "Dream on", followed up with "Don't Talk to Strangers".

Dream On Ronnie James Dio/Yngwie Malmsteen/Stu Hamm/Greg Bissonette/Paul Taylor - Tribute To Aerosmith: Not The Same Old Song And Dance

Don't Talk to Strangers - Dio Holy Driver

Buy Dio Stuff, cause YOU ROCK

*as a side note, a little while ago I posted up a song "Mr. Crowley" saying it was done by Ronnie James Dio, well thanks to my super sleuthing co-hort it has been deduced that the track was actually Yngwie Malmsteen and Tim "The Ripper" Owens off Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy ...
Mr. Crowley is here for your interests (redo the tag after you get it, just because.)

(somehow you make me find all the covers tart, whats up with that)

As a side note... enjoy as I was looking for devil horn pictures I found this, and sorry, I HAD to laugh.

Well since Ive been tied up on other items, it seems Tart has kept everyone entertained. I decided before I read any of her posts I should probably lay down some stuff so she doesn't yell or throw old discarded fruit at me. So I have been thinking, I need something good to write, hmmm as I am no freelance journalist, and spell check keeps me looking good what can I do as part of the "team". So I got it...

CONFESSIONS DAY - so kids it's time to open your closet and confess your musical skeletons, don't think this an original idea by me, as it was one of Tarts first questions she asked me. So here we go (and in the interest of keeping this "short") my Top 5 musical skeleton confessions and why.

5.) Just about any House/Techno groove song ever made- I grew up rock and roll, metal, and thrash all the way and as I started to grow musically I got a heap of shit from my friends for even thinking of walking down this road. I can't quite explain why I love it, other then a real decent house song can be so sonically layered, and if done properly it can take you places, almost like a soundtrack to life. It can be with or without a singer, though I find myself drawn to some driven song with an obscure singer no ones heard of.
(Link is to - Above and Beyond - Alone Tonight off of Melodic Trance) (2006)

4.) B52's - Planet Clair - Why, well it brings back some old friends. One which I will quickly share cause it goes with the story... A good friend of mine did the frat house in college, and as most frat houses have a sister sorority house. Well of course in this sorority there was a girl named Clair, and she was a rather "robust" woman who rode a scooter around campus (insert big girl scooter joke here) well, the story gets pretty long and out of sorts from here, and it's much better after drinking a few and reminiscing about old times... lets just say... ya I like the song, so there.

3.) Weird Al Yankovic - Confessions part III - The man is a musical hack genius, though I have several reasons to LOVE this song, I will stick to the most obvious. It was the most beautiful spoof of R.Kelly and his confessions series, and the sad thing is there is so much truth in it too. Admit it you peed in your girlfriends sink...

2.) John Cameron Mitchell - Angry Inch - This song was part of the soundtrack for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". The song, like the movie, is hard to admit you like it if your a straight white male, but damn... I love this freaking movie and soundtrack. For those of you unfamiliar with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, well its a musical journey of a man becoming a woman in musical form, a rather awesome spectacle, that actually has one of the BEST soundtracks around, so yes I suggest you go find a copy of the movie before you ridicule me. Plus I want that hair.

1.) Lazy Town - You are a Pirate - Take a 30something Icelandic gym guy, add a girl with pink hair that every pedophile in town wants to bang while she's in costume (oh please, you know it's true) throw in some unusual puppets and a bad guy and you have a basic kids show.
But why stop there, we need more, what can we do... lets add a technoesque beat with catchy lyrics, there now you have "Lazy Town"

But why the Pirate song, it's techno (see #5) and also because it was probably one of the first ring tones I put on my phone that my daughter loved. Then again I got a kick out of (fine I'm a little kid too) the hacker or "online pirate" (insert arrrgh) undertones, it's not the first time I've been called a pirate. Well not that the song was about that, but you can make any typical song into anything you want to anyway.

So lets hear it folks, skeletons avast ye!

Links to buy the cool stuff above -
Lazy Town
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Weird Al
B-52's
Melodic Trance

1. kept me up way past my bedtime
2. caused Meatpocket (Mrs. Tart) some concern for my well-being -- yes sympathies JC
3. increased the size of my fucktunes library by at least 10 G in the past 3 months, aaack
4. brought me back to the world of live shows, yay!

So, while I bent your ear about the gigs I was missing in lieu of some great sex in September I should, in the interest of full disclosure (and to whet your appetite for upcoming posts to cheer your dreary Monday morning!), give you a picture of shows I do have tickets for. :)

September 6, The Wedding Present
September 12, Holy Fuck
September 19, Magic Slim and the Teardrops
October 4, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
October 10, Ben Folds
October 29, Amy Ray

Wheee! So yeah, some reviews to come! Sorry for bragging, but here's two great tracks from El Rey to give you a giggle, quirky choices I know. But that's the best thing about the Weddoes, they're quintessentially quirky and yet as much as we make fun of pop music we love it deep down, eh?

Soup mp3, The Wedding Present, El Rey.... If you can tell me what this song means I'll send you a cool track of your choice! Honest to god, I'm mystified, but I can't get the chorus out of my head.

Swingers mp3, The Wedding Present, El Rey.... Um, yeah for most people, the question, "Is self control too much to expect?" is a really bad sign. Thankfully Meatpocket and I got that all worked out, 15 years on Tuesday and I finally found a place to purchase the requested (ok, demanded) present, lol!

buy El Rey on MySpace

photo credit: Swansea Photographer

Rol, at Sunset Over Slawit posted last week about a book that is going right on my xmas list this year, Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City. One question that Rol takes from the book, is the mystery of why some girls (and women) actually like metal, or more specifically what Rol calls "glam metal" such as KISS, Poison, Thin Lizzy, Bon Jovi, etc... and I stumbled into the middle of a conversation on whether or not a particular Whitesnake video with a hot female model "having sex with a car" (as Rol describes) was sexist or not. Go see it here. I replied that some of us girls wanted to be the girl on the car, some of us wanted to have the girl on the car, and more importantly some of us knew exactly how to get the metalmen, namely by liking the music they liked regardless of the videos. So, sexist or not, we didn't really care. Scheming bitches aren't we?! Oh and thanks Rol, for a really thought provoking post! I'm not criticizing it in any way hun!

But seriously, what's so mysterious about metal? Or about any genre for that matter? Why divide the world so neatly so that The Carpenters are girly and Ozzy's for the boys? I admit, I started out listening to metal to piss off my parents like all you guys did :p Yeah, it worked for me too. Punk worked even better, I just couldn't do the satanic head trip on my poor christian mother that metal afforded me!

Now, this got me thinking, why have all the people in my life, who knew anything at all about music, been men? It's not just that certain genres of music are roped off for women, even musical knowledge is considered "a manly sport." Yeah, I know I lost some of ya there. You can smell a feminist rant coming, right? I'll try and take it easy on ya, I promise I won't go all Camille Paglia here. Just tell me when's the last time you had a real conversation about a band -- not a song, with a woman? When you go to gigs, look around? I was seriously the only woman at the Duke Spirit show the other week not wearing makeup and a low-cut fashionable blouse/dress, and I was one of maybe 5 single women there (probably the only one who wasn't "working" that night, lol!). Yeah, I'm odd that way sometimes, but this was a pretty scuzzy venue. I was there for the music (not that they weren't, of course, of course).

There's an ad in my local coffeehouse for an all women punk rock collective, they do gigs that spotlight local women's music. I usually avoid that crap like the plague. Maybe I just spent too many years in the dyke community, it was a fine place to visit but nobody wants to live in the ghetto, ya know? And yes, I understand that women don't have as much money to spend on entertainment as men, that women don't want to play by the rules of "the system" or "the man" etc... I got it. But I also see how "the industry" funnels us band after band that sounds the same, that has no female voices in the foreground and that sucks too, cause damn I love me some girly punk. Most of all, (and this is what was missing from the whole riot grrl phenomenon, in my memory) I love to see women having FUN with music and FUN with sexuality in music, for a change. Maybe I'll surprise you with a review of that local collective thing one day, who knows? ;)

Blender mp3 Amy Ray from Prom commentary on the industry
Buy it

More Rock More Talk mp3 The Butchies from Population 1975 Amy's queercore backup band for her first two solo projects, and an entity onto themselves, also known as Team Dresch
Buy it

I like Fucking mp3 Bikini Kill from The Singles great song, but honest to god, this doesn't sound like a woman who likes to fuck!
Buy it

Slide mp3 L7 from Bricks are Heavy: not a happy camper either :(
Buy it

O Bondage, Up Yours! X-Ray Spex from: The Rolling Stone Women In Rock Collection [Disc 2] mp3 * now there's a reason this is my all time favorite girly punk song! I'm just so unevolved xoxox
Buy it

*also available on Germ Free Adolescence (2005) expanded version

photo credit: wageslaves

Happy Monday (ok, still Sunday night to us Yanks, don't let's brag about it eh?) Even tho the Tart doesn't have to get up and clock in tomorrow I still have sympathy for all you out there who do. And organizing my music a bit tonight I found this dreamy Elvis Costello tune that just took me back to my youth, to the good days of summer, laying in bed listening to the radio and hoping to hear a track from My Aim Is True. Often late at night I was rewarded with "Welcome to the Working Week", (or with "Wave a White Flag" which to my 13 year old ears was very risque with all that beating and drinking, lol!) Sure the popular tracks like "Watching the Detectives" and "Alison" were easy to hear during the day, but to catch the more obscure ones you had to stay up late. But back to Mondays.... work.... ah right.

Later in life I figured out that working too hard was just not in anyone's best interest really. So no matter what the fucking Yuppies I was surrounded by told me, uh yeah, I was a working class slacker through and through. Of course, it wasn't until much later that I got radical about that, and by then I could afford to be ... ah the typical story of us lefties! Enjoy the tunes, don't work too hard this week, savor what's left of your weekend out there, and let music keep ya sane folks!

And, um, no I don't quite know why someone thought Elvis Costello likes pussy and heroin, he never struck me that way! But I loved this pic when I found it.

Of course no post on slacking would be complete without The Replacements, another band that absolutely formed my musical taste as a young person in the 80s, and I had to beat Puppet Show to the punch by plugging Depeche Mode and stealing one of his own tracks to do it with too! :)

photo credit: (waltzing) matilda

Welcome To The Working Week Elvis Costello from My Aim Is True

Bad Worker mp3The Replacements from Hootenanny

Work Hard mp3 Depeche Mode from Singles, Box 2, 08, Everything Counts

buy Elvis Costello

buy The Replacements

buy Depeche Mode

Well It's been one of those days, just a day when everyone totally erks the heck out of you, I would go into a long diatribe (but my last 2 posts were huge, and sometimes you like a quicky) about the idiot that rode my bumper today in his shiny mid-ninteys cool man black (I swear that's a real color) camaro, but I thought naw... I'll just dedicate this song to him.

So to all the ass wipes that tailgate in camaros this song for you!

Bitchin' Camaro Dead Milkmen Big Lizard in my Backyard

Buy Dead Milkmen

Dear Liela,

First off, thank you so much for a great show last night! I honestly don't know how you maintain all that energy especially at the end of a grueling tour and let me say, you went out with a bang last night. I could tell by your performance that you knew how to handle yourself on a stage with four gentlemen but even more admirably in front of an audience of about 300, comprised of at least 100 pervy and rude men. The way you heckled that heckler was truly inspiring, THANK YOU! Indeed, he would NOT know a babe if he saw one.

photo credit: mediaeater
Now, about your voice; I have to tell you how impressed I was that you were even more raspy-wonderfully-Gidgety (and I mean that as a compliment) than in your recordings. You told us you might need help on the high notes, pfffft. That was false modesty, my dear. You had it GOING ON last night! It's so refreshing to find a voice that's not dreary, cutesy, popstar-like sliding all over the long notes in that Mariah Carey fashion. I mean if you're Mariah do it, but please, if you're somebody else, do your own fucking thing! And you, Liela Moss, you do you own thing wonderfully! There's a certain bit of psychedelia in it, a dash of Grace Slick perhaps? I don't know what you think of all the comparisons to Blondie or to Nico, but I think you're just you: open, raw, out there exposed and bare with lyrics that cut to the quick in a way that none of those artists could do in their time. That, to me, is what indie should be, bravo!

I feel a little embarrassed that we gave you such a small stage... surely you and the boys in The Duke Spirit deserve a much grander space. I could hardly see Olly and had to sneak sideways glances at him before the show, in all his dandy grandeur, yummmmmmmmmm! (Not to mention his performance on "This Ship Was Built To Last") Maybe you could point him towards this blog for me? ;) I would have really loved to see Toby stretch out and hit that bass in the way I know he wanted to last night. God, I love his lines in "Send a Little Love Token" and "The Step and The Walk."
photo credit: richt/tlobf
Now Liela, I need you to do some smoothing over for me, ok? I'm terrible with guitarists, oi! I also was pretty far back from the stage, alas and well, I'm quite short. So who ever did that amazing fret work on "Into the Fold" really deserves a toffee pudding or a pint or whatever they want over there in Prague where you are off to next. So Luke or Daniel ( well both of you, ok?), throw it back, men! Well done! The encore, Neptune's Call was brilliant as well! Thank you.

Please come back and give us another show. I swear I'll buy 50 tickets and make them give you a better venue with excellent sound and more room to romp around and kick and prance and throw your arms about as I know you like to do. Because you all were fucking awesome. And I meant that when I hollered it to you from the street as you were getting into your tour bus. And wow, Liela, thanks SOOOO much for dashing over to me in the street and shaking my hand last night. You ROCK! :)

xoxoxoxo,
a tart - and yeah, like I said, I'm blogging about ya'll today! And thanks for the kind word about Obama, I'm glad you're a fan too!

p.s. Did that guy who climbed on stage at the end actually grope you? OMG, I saw you throw him off and all I can say is wow. If that wasn't an act, where the hell was security when we need it, eh? Don't think all of us in Chicago are animals hun!



Send a Little Love Token mp3
Neptune's Call mp3
Buy the album directly from them
---------------------------------------------------------------------
venue: The Empty Bottle

Opening Bands:
The Pale Gallery
MySpace
Brian Boes: Electric Guitar, Pale Jonny: Electric Bass, Brent Larson: Electric Guitar/Vocals, Jeff Massey: Drums/Vocals. They came on strong and not too loud, confident and for a local band, I'd give them kudos for a good sound. It's kinda like Green Day meets Wheezer.... a good, tight band, Pale Jonny is a good, funky bass player, Bred Larson did a fine guitar solo on "Autograph", but damn they need some work on vocals and "Drop the Deadbeat 4/4" honestly didn't show off the lyrics in my opinion, but tell me what you think. To be fair, the venue did them no favors in terms of acoustics. "Autograph!" was incredibly danceable tho!

from The Pale Gallery EP:
Autograph mp3
Drop the Deadbeat 4/4 mp3
They're not signed yet, here's hoping they are soon!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skybox
MySpace
Tim Ellis: Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Christian Carpenter Fields: Background Vocals, Keys & Lead Guitar, Mike Holtz: Drums, Percussion & Background Vocals,
Dan Ingenthron: Bass Guitar & Background Vocals. Think Jerry Seinfield doing an impression of an Indie Rocker, add Tina Weymouth, bass player for the Talking Heads, and then make it a dream sequence wherein the band does some Sigur Ros songs but in English and you pretty much have the Skybox. Now granted, I am most definitely not an indie rock fan (how do you people dance to this stuff??) In fact, I generally use the term "indiecrap" much like I use the term "fucktunes" to disparage the younger generations' love for all things "wacky" and "fun" grrrr. So when these guys started singing about their relationship with their right hand, especially their thumb, forgive me if I felt it was dumb. The sing-songiness of it all doesn't help me get over the fact that I babysat these brats when I was in my 20's and listening to the really good music of my time. It's as if they never really outgrew Sesame Street, ffs.

However, I have to say, even with the bad acoustics, (did I mention the horrible venue already?) the horrible audio mix and the absolutely rude locals, it was blaringly apparent that these guys have loads of talent and will be huge if indeed they are not already huge (I know little to nothing of the local indie scene). Vocally, Tim Ellis has a terrific falsetto, and a lot of energy. Christian Carpenter Fields is a perfect accoutrement to him, I'd be surprised to learn that the two were NOT long time friends, they seemed so in sync with one another, musically. Mike Holtz gave a very good performance and Dan Ingenthron simply blew me away. I don't often think of Tina Weymouth, few bassists cover the frets the way she does. He saved the night for me, honestly, with this band. They opened with "Various Kitchen Utensils" and I couldn't stop smiling, even as I gritted my teeth. Slower songs like "Gravity Can't Keep Us Down" were lost on the audience which talked through most of it. This is a band that needs a captive audience. The fast songs work well live but the rest don't fill the stage enough to keep the mood going yet. Yes, you indie freaks out there, you will love this band and all their sappy-love-filled harmonies and fun songs and on CD the melancholy stuff is pretty good I'll admit. Go hear them, go buy their CD. Here, taste the love! :)
from Arco Iris:
Various Kitchen Utensils mp3
Gravity Can't Bring Us Down mp3

Buy Skybox's Arco Iris

After yesterdays post on "Fish", I have been playing some of my old Marillion discs and reminiscing to myself. I decided to pour through all my CD's and check out items I haven't heard in a while.

As I have been absent for a few days it doesn't mean I haven't thought of music, or what I would bring to the plate next. So I thought I would drastically change direction of where I have been going and introduce you to (in my personal opinion) one of the best lyricists I have ever heard in my lifetime.

In about 1985 I was introduced to this band by a rather eclectic friend, though he always had decent taste in music, it was a bit out of my taste range during those years (he listened to a decent amount of Rush, Cult, Genesis - while I was listening to Anthrax, Dokken, and Malmsteen ) but my taste was maturing quickly as this was the time in my life I was devouring new sounds and looking a different sounds.

I was asked to listen to "Assassing" by Marrillion off the Fugazi album. It was different, heavy keyboarded very twisting melodies and a singer with a different sound, but the lyrics were deep and meaningful and the sound was luscious. The albums my friend showed me had cover art was incredible and literally had a piece of every song "drawn" right into the art. But unlike most covers of the time it was thought out and put together in a manner that wasn't overkill, it was almost a normal Salvador Dalí painting. All of the art work from the Fish era of Marillion as well as Fish's solo career was done by artist Mark Wilkinson.


"Fish" or Derek Dick (his given name) was the Scotsman lyricist and singer of Marillion. Derek as I understood it in the day, was extremely shy and would paint his face up and use "Fish" as a stage name, almost ala Peter Gabriel of Genesis in his day. Fish also seem to have gotten his deep perspectives writing ability from Jack Kerouac and a good stiff drink which would later give way to the downfall of the greatest progressive rock bands ever. Fish was with Marillion from 1982 to 1990 when there was a decent deal of friction in the band, the years of touring and inter band fighting had worn them thin. Fish was then replaced by Steve Hogarth, and Marillion quickly carried on. I personally think Hogarth mellowed the sound of Marillion out way to much, it was like very watered down 30 year old scotch.


With much relief I found that Dereck went on to do solo material using his moniker of "Fish". Though I never thought that his solo albums reached the level introspectiveness as when he was in Marillion, it was still great, his lyrics were still strong works of art.

Fish is still active in touring and has a huge cult like following just as Marillion still does even in it's new modern "Hogarth" era. Fish's new album 13th Star shows he still can write some master pieces showing the simplicities of life in a complex way. So have a listen, enjoy, and listen to the best lyricist I have known.

*as a side note, I am in no way trying to lay out bands I put up here as me being the all knowing God of information on them. What I write and put up relate to my life and what I knew at the time. Though I am no huge fan of Wikipedia I will say it is a wealth of information, so if you want more info on the artists feel free to go to the artist them self (which is what I do) or feel free to wiki info.. that is all :)


Script for a Jesters Tear - Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear

The Web - Marillion - Script for a Jesters Tear
(An absolute favorite of mine)

A Gentleman's Excuse Me - Fish - Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors

Zöe 25 - Fish - 13th Star

Buy Fish here

Buy Marillion here

So I'm toolin' around the interwebs as normal looking at all the pron I want to download when I receive a message from one of my old friends... he has a package waiting for me to download. So I begin the download.

I wait for 2 days as the download seem to take forever. So while we wait let me take you back, a little over a year ago I found a band that I fell in absolute love with, Murder City Devils. To me it was the kind of music that made you want to go buy a 50's rat rod (or make one, even better) and cruise til the wheels feel off. It was pure rock n roll made from the necture of the gods, raw and powerful. The sad thing I found was that MCD is no longer a band and have been split since "2001" (except a couple of reunited shows in the years after)

So in my sadness I went looking for anything that the members did after leaving MCD. I found front man Spencer Moody and several members of MCD went on to make a short lived attempt at Dead Low Tide that lasted for 9 months. I also found bassist Derek Fudesco went on to make a band... ok this shouldn't be to hard I thought, I quickly located 3 Pretty Girls Make Graves EP's (named for either the Smiths song or a line from Kerouac's The Dharma Bums) I was not sure what to think first on the first listen as I was expecting to have a bit of MCD sound, what I got was punk n roll with a female touch. Front woman Andrea Zollo took control of the mic and wouldn't let it or the song go, I was hooked. So since then I have been spreading the EP's to my friends with the caveat of... they are no longer around folks, split since 2006.

So back to the package, I am now in possession of the PGMG discography, as I type I drool and listen. Do yourself a favor and remember the your modern underground heroes that molds your underground future.

Speakers Push Air - Pretty Girls Make Graves off of Good Health
Buy Pretty Girls Make Graves

Broken Glass - Murder City Devils off of Murder City Devils (self titled)
Buy Murder City Devils

but I am such a sucker for Steve Miller. And today over on The World Forgot, Billy muses about Obama's campaign choice in music. I suggested (with a smirk on my face, I admit) they use this:



And, yeah that song is a real ear worm, isn't it?

But any who.... back to my childhood and the really good music of the seventies! The song that Obama's political campaign should choose is obviously Steve Miller's Don't You Let Nobody Turn You Around recorded in 1970. This song however, is much much older, stemming from a Negro Spiritual and recorded as early as (maybe earlier) 1935 by Blind Willie McTell. Give it a listen and you'll see why no politician but Obama would dare to use it or maybe get away with using it today.

from Steve Miller's Anthology Don't You Let Nobody Turn You Around mp3
and one more that you really should have
from Steve Miller's Greatest Hits Rock 'N Me mp3
buy them both
visit his site

Well, er, ..... welcome to my co-host here on this here blog, LOL. Puppet Show has graciously accepted an invitation to help out and hoist the sails over here. He's got loads of great tunes and a wealth of musical knowledge which almost makes up for his unbearable personality so I hope you enjoy (put up) with him as much as I do!

And yeah, I have no idea what his picture means either. Hopefully he's got some explanation and a few songs for us. In the meantime I'll leave you with this musical image, it's the best I can do with this pic in my sights! And dear reader(s) I do feel for you!

Chaka Khan from: The Rolling Stone Women in Rock Collection, Disk 2: I Feel For You mp3
buy it

So, I often run to Wikipedia to help me figure out my music quandaries. What genre should I put My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult in or The B 52s, and is Sting still New Wave if he's no longer with The Police? Yeah most people just follow fucktunes and don't care if Apple determines how their music is organized, but I like to do it myself and I like to know why certain artists fall into genres and sub genres. Perhaps it's because I'm obsessed with history in general, perhaps it's because I like to connect the dots so that when I hear GLU I can go back and listen to Depeche Mode and figure out what they borrowed and where they put it. And it's important to me that even if the sound quality is kinda crappy and the style may sound a bit dated, the music of a band like God Lives Underwater is amazing because it was created in a specific time and place, and that time and place is NOT 2008 with the computer technology that recording artists today enjoy. So, listen to this track and remember it was created sometime between 1999-2001 (?) but not released until 2004.

See it's difficult to know exactly when this album was recorded. And honestly I don't feel like wading through fan forums to find out. All I can tell from either Wiki or the official band site is that the release was delayed as the label went broke, but delayed for how long? And then David Reilly died in 2005 and well.... it all gets murky.

So to Wiki or not to Wiki? See, there's a project over at Wikipedia. Some Wikipedians have formed a project to better organize information in articles related to music. And I've been wondering what role music bloggers have or should or might have in that. I know I use Wiki, do you?

this first one is for bitterandrew who's giving really bad (ok, andrew, omit the adjective!) love advice over on Armagideon Time tonight, lol! This song just sprung to mind.

God Lives Underwater: from Up Off The Floor, Tricked mp3

White Noise mp3 buy it


photo credit: birdfarm

There's some great new music by Trapt coming out. I've been a fan of Trapt for a while now, it's a sound that combines terrific melodies with a good old fashioned head-banging beat and yet doesn't quite drive my lover mad like NIN or Puscifier or Cold does. And the words mean something, full of angst and well just plain old heartbreak, yeah I'm a sucker for that. Plus, it's not the kind of death-dirge sound of Metallica and other bands in that genre that makes me want to take a knife to my tender bits.

The single off their new album, Only Through the Pain, titled "Curiosity Kills" is the best one I've heard so far. And the lyrics made me think of another great song by my favorite all time artist Amy Ray. No, the songs have nothing in common musically. Amy has roots in punk/folk/country music and her solo efforts are in no way comparable to the hard-hitting output of a band like Trapt. But when Amy is cut loose from the Indigo Girls (no offense meant to Emily Sailers of course!) she gets to let go a bit, stretch the lyrics and turn up the amp and well, kinda butch the whole thing up some. And this song, Rural Faggot does that. It's all about how what you don't know will break your heart. But sometimes there's folks along the way to help. And yeah, it's full of angst and pain and that rawness that comes from being different in a world where being the same as everyone else is what matters.

Yeah I know, a corny ending, but hey, it's a beautiful summer Sunday afternoon here!

Trapt: from Only Through the Pain (due out soon), Curiosity Kills mp3
their website

Amy Ray: from Prom Rural Faggot mp3
her website buy it there

photo credit to Freelance Dreamer

First of all, you must go over to !Viva La Mainstream! and read TJ's rant/review on Chris Cornell's latest release (and listen/download four tracks from Scream). It's thoughtful, thought-provoking, and downright fair. And even though I hate what Chris has done I have to agree with TJ, let the man be, he's got every right to evolve as an artist and go where he wants with his music and well, we can just go fuck ourselves! I give him loads of credit for having the balls to do it.

And yeah, if you listen to it enough and squint your eyes a bit and turn your head and just push Soundgarden outta your mind, it's not THAT bad....

Lots of folk thought that Carry On was pretty awful too. Here's a little reminder of how much better it was, in my opinion, (no, I'm not really saying "I told ya so!")

from Carry On
Arms Around Your Love mp3 Chris Cornell
This is maybe the best song about breaking up I've heard in a long while, it's heartfelt, it's ugly and raw and sobering, and I love the way Chris' voice wraps around this tune. The guitar work's not so shabby either.

Killing Birds mp3 Chris Cornell
I chose this one for you because it's got a totally different sound to it and yet that VOICE, omg, it just sucks you in. Sure, the lyrics are a little forced, but still catchy. I'd like a better drumline on this, it's mechanical and unimaginative, but hey, it's a pop song, it's o.k. Again, the guitar solo doesn't suck :p
Buy Carry On

from BBC Sessions
Orignial Fire mp3 Chris Cornell
Just Chris and a guitar, and sometimes that's all you need.

Redemption Song mp3 Chris Cornell
Bare bones and well, what do we expect from our aging rock gods folks? Honestly, yes, like the Stones, they are CAPABLE of belting it out well into their 60s but some of them may not want to, so why should we demand them to? Let them rock when they wish, mellow when they wish, and god-smite-me for saying this, but even go mainstream on us if they will, eeek!

Have a great weekend!
photo credit to f_day

I love music of all sorts and this blog will soon show, if it hasn't already, how wide my taste ranges. I think my number one pet peeve in music blogs today is how narrow minded they are. Do you music bloggers really only listen to the music you blog about? Or perhaps you only blog about a specific genre in order to create a theme to your output? Maybe it's a function of age, I certainly listen to much more variety now than I did in my late 20s and early 30s. I have a lot more patience for music and for new forms of music.

But, one thing has always stuck with me, and for that I blame my formative years, as they were firmly footed in the late 70s, funk's heyday. I just have a natural affinity for funk music, I can't help it.

What follows might be a mysterious incarnation of funk music to you, but not to me. Listen carefully, it's in there. And enjoy this little lounge act of 1991.

A Martini Built for 2 mp3 My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult Sexplosion!

The International Sin Set mp3
go to their myspace page
buy Sexplosion

Over at Licorice Pizza I've been enjoying the "Ultimate Led Zeppelin Session Disks" which are a Zeppelin lover's delight. Some are just re-takes, some are session recordings, all are another glimpse into the genius of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in their heyday. No one that knows me understands why I get glassy eyed listening to this stuff. It's nice to realize that all two or three readers here might appreciate it :)

And as I'm quite partial to crazy covers, I'll post my all-time favorite one for you. Now, I'm not into all covers. For me the perfect cover has to fulfill three goals

1. the original song as to have been a major hit and still be quite recognizable - no esoterica allowed
2. the cover artist has to be well known, you shouldn't have to look at the label to know who's covering what
3. it can't sound too much like the original, whoever is covering it should give the cover their own flavor, style or hue

This cover far exceeds my three goals, it is perfection! And it makes me giggle every single time I play it. I hope it does the same for you. Aikin, I really hope you've never heard this one before :)

Stairway to Heaven mp3 Dolly Parton Halos and Horns

buy it off of Dolly's website

and you really can't describe what you've seen for perhaps a week or two. Yeah, that happened to me. Honestly. I just thought I was going to see Billy Bragg. You pretty much know what you're gonna get at a Billy Bragg concert: good tunes, tunes you've heard for years, some new stuff off his latest album, (which I quite like, by the way), some political rants, (which I also quite like, by the way), a lot of warm fuzzies, a roomful of middle aged to aging middle class folks like me. What can I really tell you? Billy Bragg always does it for me.

But, WHAM, right before his set this crazy looking guy waltzes out on stage with giant geek-glasses, goofy wrinkled geek-buttoned down shirt, baggy but not too baggy geek-nondescript pants and shoes, but wearing a red keytar. He whips out a harmonica and starts making these odd hip-hop beat noises with his mouth into the microphone and this middle-aged white woman stifles a laugh, claps her hand over her mouth for the next 40 minutes and is amazed at what comes out of this, er, spectacle on stage.


Here, I give you a taste of C. R. Avery folks. He's part performance artist, part one-man band, part genius and part slam poet. I think he's brilliant and he needs you.

Like right now.

Hell Of A Hotel Of Harm mp3 C.R. Avery Magic Hour Sailor Songs

The Ballad of Charlie Parker and Patsy Cline mp3 C.R. Avery Magic Hour Sailor Songs

The Boxer Who Just Returned From London mp3 C.R. Avery Magic Hour Sailor Songs


go to his MySpace site to buy it!