Craig's Blog : Music

The Lone Rider on the Storm

craigg75 — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 13:12:00 GMT

Raise your hand, who is sick to death of those Cadillac commercials that play the Led Zeppelin songs. I for one hate them. Face it, Cadillacs are for senior citizens or fat capitalist with small dicks. Adding a very cool classic rock song that was listened to by a very cool generation who drove VW Beetles and muscle cars to a car commercial that the Led Zep generation spoke out against is just wrong. Now they are hitting up the Doors for their treasure trove of tunes to make Cadillac look hip. Finally somehow has stood up against their onslaught of denigration. The drummer from the Doors refuses to sign off on the deal saying their music has integrity and was never about making money. Here's a link on the story - http://www.boingboing.net/2005/10/05/doors_drummer_wont_a.html It's a breathe of fresh air to see that some artists refuse to be whores to the Madison Avenue pimps.

Spamalot

craigg75 — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 17:05:00 GMT

So the Monty Python spoof on their movie Holy Grail, Spamalot won the Tony for best musical. How does that happen? Wow. In any case it'll never make it to St.Louis I'm sure. Would be fun to go see in any case.

Paris Hilton has sex with a hamburger

craigg75 — Wed, 25 May 2005 00:24:00 GMT

I was wondering the internet and came across a “soft porn” ad for Carl's Jr. hamburgers starring the slutty Paris Hilton. Apparently there's been concern that it's too naughty to show on TV. I found the site where you can view the Quicktime version of it -- http://www.chrisapplebaum.com/ It's not that bad but it is interesting how advertisers have really pushed the “sex sells” border in recent years. I still am amazed at the chick eating the Hardees hamburger on a mechanical bull. Very hot but I still hate Hardees hamburgers... haha. So looking around this guys' web site I discovered some music videos he shot. Get this Britney Spears has remade I Love Rock n Roll. Surely a sign of the end times is near. Kid Rock remade Feel Like Making Love, a Bad Company classic. Jessica Simpson has remade Take My Breath Away. Is there any originality left in music? Well there is one original song this guy shot the video for, Stacy's Mom. Nice little rock song with a good riff and a typical teenage theme.

Some kind of monster

craigg75 — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:15:00 GMT

I just finished watching the widely acclaimed documentary Some Kind of Monster. It's a documentary (or rather the new term is “rockumentary”) on the heavy metal band, Metallica. Before I start off on this review, I will admit I am not a fan of their music. Listening to their music is like listening to somebody yelling at you. There is no melody, no instrumentation, shallow lyrics and all aggression and anger. Perfect for teen angst which is their main audience. The band has already peaked in the late 80's and were living off the residuals in the 90's and on up to today. The lead singer James Hetfield looks like he just stepped out of biker bar, the drummer Lars Ulrich is a little whiny Euro shit that needs to be seriously bitch slapped. If anyone remembers the Napster days, this was jerk that tried to sue them and anyone caught downloading Metallica mp3s. Metallica recieved a massive fan backlash and probably explains their sudden disappearance for 5 years after that incident. The lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett, is probably the only sane one in the group. A seemingly calm guy that just wants to play music. Hetfield and Ulrich are clearly the guys in charge of the band and constantly bicker like an old Jewish couple. To be honest Ulrich needs to lighten up and realize he's not the only one in the universe that can make music. These guys are aging, have families and little kids now. Kids are running around while the dads scream anger into microphones and beat out loud crappy music. It's just so Californian. In fact San Franscisco is where they are from. Hetfield has an alcohol problem and departs the music studio after an argument and checks himself into rehab for like a year. Must be nice when you're a greying rocker with too much money to just say screw it for a year. There's something to be said for musicians who struggle to make ends meet, it does bring out the best. These guys are so far from those days they've forgotten how to even put lyrics together without having to pull it out their ass to just keep the song going. Kind of sad to see that. After a phone call to their manager one of the radio stations threatens to make Metallica look bad unless the band does some promos for them. Hetfield claims so it's now I'll wash your back so you won't stab mine. Bingo! we have a song everyone! Wow. Lot of thought went into that one. It's kind of reminisent of Spinal Tap when these guys try to make rhymes around “I'll wash your back so you won't stab mine”. Hilarious at times especially when they agree on some of the dumbest sentences. Who cares since most fans will never hear them anyway after it's screamed and drowned out with a excruciatingly loud wall of guitar noise. So they hire this travelling therapist they pay $40K a month to help them resolve their differences. This guy is such a fucking loon he needs to check himself into a clinic. Talk about taking money from a couple of fools. When they decide to let him go he actually has the balls to say no you guys still need work. And this is after 2 years of being with them!! What a leech. This guy sells his house in Kansas City to move to SF to be closer to his “work”. Wtf?! Not to bash UIrich again but this guy is a work of art. Speaking of art, he claims he's really taken to art and has painted several large paintings that he hangs on his walls. Total crap. Barely art, much more like massive doodles on a chalkboard. But he thinks his shit don't stink. He decides to “break with the past“ and sell off all his art and start again. So he auctions it off at Christy's in New York. He tells us he doesn't care how much it sells for, he just loves his work. Lars could you please just cut the crap? His paintings end up selling for million of dollars to some vacuous art buyers. I couldn't help but wonder about the economics of such a sale. Anyway he's like a little kid overjoyed people love his art. Cut the crap Lars, you're in love with the money. It was never mentioned that he was giving it to charity, so I assume his bank account just blipped up another few million dollars. One of the better parts of the movie was how these guys struggle to come up with music. After making music for 20 years they resist repeating the same old sound, or as Lars says “it's too stock man“. Stock.. what a dork. But really, their music is artistically dead, it's noise, anger, agression, in your face music to get off on. Sort of like punching a Porche 911 at 150 mph on the Autobahn, it's just a speed buzz, there's not a lot of depth to it.

I give this movie a 2 out of 5 stars. It's way too long and not that very interesting. I'm sure if you're a Metallica fan you'd give it a higher rating because it really does delve into these guy's lives, thoughts, issues they have and how they create their music.

Fall of a peacemaker

craigg75 — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 15:38:00 GMT

I read today that the lead singer of Molly Hatchet died of failing health. I was never a big fan of the group, they had a standard southern rock sound like the Allman Brothers or Lynard Skynard. I did however really like one of their songs which was written somewhat outside their normal theme of whiskey drinking and hell raising southern boys. It was called Fall of the Peacemakers --

A king without a sword
A land without a king
A truth without a voice
One song left to sing
One song to sing

A wise man told me there's something you should know
The way you judge a man is to look into his soul
And you'll soon see everything.

A voice from the past cried "Give peace a chance"
He paid our price now he's free at last
Imagine, we called him a dreamer!
How many times must good men die?
How many tears will the children cry?
'Til they suffer no more sadness
Stop the madness,
Oh, stop the madness.

If ashes are ashes and dust is dust
At our journey's end then return we must
To the sands of the shore
White doves in flight
Peace to all
But tell me why the peacemakers fall
Must we bury anymore?

The hush of the crowd as the horse rode by
A black lace veil hid the tears from her eyes
And we all wept in silence
How many times must good men die?
How many times will the children cry?
'Til they suffer no more sadness
Oh, stop the madness
Oh, stop all the madness.

Grammys

craigg75 — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 14:28:00 GMT

Every year I usually make fun of the Grammy awards, since the judges were so out of touch with the real music scene it was laughable. I've heard rumors that they were attempting to change their ways and get with it before the MTV awards eclipsed them as the big musical award show of the year. I watched this year and was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot of fun watching it, they had some great acts performing and the bands awarded seemed reasonable to me. There's not too many places where you could have Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Allman Brothers and Lynard Skynard do a medly of classic southern rock hits and then after the commercial break have Queen Latifa do a jazz number. Or have Mellisa Etherridge do a breathtaking rendition of Janis Joplin's Piece of my Heart and then have Usher and James Brown sing and dance together. Then have Green Day perform their popular punk rock hit American Idiot. Wow. I've said it in this blog before but why the hell can't we have radio stations that have this much diversity?

April Wine and July heat

craigg75 — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 14:18:00 GMT

Last Friday Annette and I went to see another 70's washed up rock band play. This time it was April Wine. They are more of Canadian/Midwest act, not well known on the coasts. Great music in any case, mostly hard rock. I guess their more famous song was a love song called Just Between You and Me. High school dance song in my youth. Dang but these guys are getting old though. The drummer is 65 years old but pulled off a pretty mean drum solo. Of course afterwards he took a much needed break to get his breath back..haha. What a difference 40 years can make eh? Whenever I go to an “oldies” rock concert I often wonder about how these guys are playing to the past. It's nice to reflect and enjoy good memories. Is this just a gig to them or are they deluded? I mean what happened to their creativity, the spark that made making music exciting? Perhaps the allure of the limelight, a little extra cash and an excuse to revel in the past is enough for them now. After the show the guys from April Wine said they would hang out and sign CDs and sit around and chat with everyone until the bar closed. I had a half mad thought about sticking around and posing that question to them, what drives you guys now? What has changed about how you see yourselves as a band? I decided to leave well enough alone. I was just glad that they chose St.Louis as one of the four US cities they added to their tour. I met one couple who flew in from L.A. to see them. Now that's dedication.

So we had our first real hot weekend. Summer has laid seige to St.Louis at last. We had an extended spring through June. Now we live in “bubbles” as my mother says. Sort of like living on Venus. Get in your environmental carrier to get you from one air conditioned dome to the next. Mom also says I'll never have to worry about going to hell, because I already did my time suffering St.Louis summers. They have a weather metric here called a “heat index”. It's basically taking the current temperature and factoring in the humidity to come up with the heat index or what the temperature really feels like. Sort of like no it's just not god awful 96 F it's even hotter, it's 110 F heat index! Burn you tortured souls!!! I have this theory why this country has not adopted the metric system of measurements. The spread of temperatures between the freezing and boiling points of water is 180 degrees Farenheit. In the metric world it's perfect 100 degrees Celsius. 1) 98 F sounds a lot worse than 38 C. Of course on the flip side 0 C sounds worse than 32 F. 2) You can watch the temperature creep from 95 to 98 F before the temperature will change from 37 to 38 C. Isn't it much funner screaming “now it's 96!.... now it's 97! now its 98! oh my god we're going to die from global warming!! Grab the kids we're heading for the artic!!“ Where's the fun in seeing a forecast of a low of 30 C and a high of 38 C. 8 degrees is it? How boring.

KSHE 95

craigg75 — Thu, 06 May 2004 20:52:00 GMT

I grew up listening to my favorite rock station, KSHE 95 in St.Louis. They grew out of the counter-culture of the 1960s and acquired quite a faithful audience over the years. It was known for playing whole albums and of course playing up the drugs part of sex, drugs and rock n roll. They took chances with bands that were begging to be played and eventually made it big (ei. REO Speedwagon, Sammy Hagar, Rush). They were heavily involved with sponsoring large outdoor concerts, namely the Mississippi River Festivals. It was “cool” to listen to KSHE growing up. Like all good things those days are over, they've been usurped by corporate radio and now are just a vanilla top 40 rock station that lives off their heritage as the “first“ rock station and it's colorful history. Somebody wrote a good article on it's history on kuroshin. It's interesting to me how KSHE's popularity disseminated into the other parts of the country. I can remember seeing people filesharing mp3s on Napster and prefacing the titles with (KSHE Classic).

So where does that leave us? Well I'm older now and hopefully wiser. I still listen to a lot of the music I grew up with, some of it I've come to the realization of how shallow and cheap it really was. I've expanded my musical “experience” to classical, big band, country, showtunes, folk and other genres. Unlike the popular XM satellite radio which pidgeon holes you into a certain genre, I'd prefer a radio station that would play a mixture of a lot of genres. I see nothing wrong with playing Beethoven next to Ted Nugent, or Garth Brooks next to Frank Sinatra. To me it would be full immersion, total entertainment. So as result of this I (with the help of my friend Lou) have collected a large set of mp3s (numbering around 8000 in my last count) that I usually play randomly from my hard drive. Its the ideal radio station for me, everything I like, no commercials and at random. Happy happy joy joy!

What does the future hold? XM Radio? Internet radio? Good question. Something the music industry is spending a large amount of time, money and energy trying to decide for us. As the old Cheap Trick song went -- “you can't stop the music“...

As a side note, when I lived in Cincinnati they had a popular rock station that had some history too. I don't remember the call letters but they referred to themselves as “the Frog”. Like KSHE it fell from grace and now just pump out tape loops of AC/DC and the Doors.

Rod Stewart concert

craigg75 — Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:31:00 GMT

Last Friday Annette and I and her sister and fiance went to see Rod Stewart in concert. Second row tickets, right in the middle, best seats I've ever had for a concert. Rod although in his 60th year has still got it. His voice, while not ever the best, still has that same gravely rasp that we've all grown to appreciate. He was for the most part right on with his songs. He still dilly dallies around on stage, strutting his stuff, trying to conjure up those wild years. Being that close to the stage really was a interesting experience for me because you can see the expressions on the performers face so well. I could tell that Rod has matured and is gracefully entering his senior years. Whenever he put a move on the crowd (mostly female) like shaking his butt or dancing sexy I could tell he had a smirk like “ok I'll give you what you came for but I'm not going to do this the whole show, I'm too damn old for this“. He's somehow pulled off something astonishing though. He made an album entirely of old 1940's classic songs and somehow managed to sell 10 million of them. So after the intermission the stage was redone to look like a 1940's big band look and feel. Even his backup singers and musicians changed costumes to look like they stepped out of Casablanca. I've always been a fan of the old big band / swooners of that era so I enjoyed the 4 or 5 songs he did. Most of the crowd yawned though or took pee breaks. Interesting choice on his part. If I were him I would have booked small venues and billed it as 1940's music only. Leave it out of the arena concerts. Anyway he finished off with some of his disco and 70's love song classics. Overall it was a lot of fun.

The Battle of Epping Forest

craigg75 — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 18:23:00 GMT

I'm a big fan of Genesis (the rock group, not the biblical concept). My favorite album by them is Selling England By the Pound. I've been listening to it since college, great progressive rock in it's prime. Anyway I've often wondered what the song The Battle of Epping Forest was all about. I did a lyrics search and found them. For the love of Mary and Joseph what a confusing song! It's like a schizophrenic wrote it, basically it's word salad. Please tell me these guys were stoned when they put these lyrics together...

Shania Twain concert

craigg75 — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:04:00 GMT

I got the chance to see Shania Twain in concert last Friday. Annette bought me a ticket as a xmas present. We ended up going with most of her family, sort of a family night out. Lots of fun, even little Kenzie went along although she got tired and curled up in her seat and tried to sleep. It was an indoor concert, haven't been to one of those in quite sometime. One of the added benefits of being indoors is there's more opportunity for a “show”. Shania had fireworks and glitter blown all over to excite everyone. Sure you can do that outside but it's a bigger impact when everyone is squeezed together under a dome. When Shania came out on stage I noticed everyone had brought their cameras. Apparently some artists don't have issues with cameras at their concerts. Cool. I wish I would have checked into it and brought mine . I could have drooled over my own Shania Twain pictures . She is sooooo hot. She wore these tight jeans as her first outfit.. lordy it took my breath away. I would give anything to touch her hair. Is that perverted? Probably.. but I'm sticking with it :-) Anyway the concert didn't blow my socks off, it was good, she covered a lot of her hits inside of 2 hours. I expected more from her in the way of costumes and theatrics. I guess when you get right down to it, touring must suck for her. She's a mom now, very rich, has no need to tour anymore, probably misses her quiet life in Switzerland, so she's not going to pull out all of the stops. She likes making music but I expect her to pull back a lot on the touring, maybe become more like a European and only play a few select big US cities.