Recently, the Roots got in trouble for playing Fishbone's "Lying Ass Bitch" as the entrance song for Michelle Bachman when she appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show. Was is it a dick move? Sure. Did she deserve it? Probably not. Was it kinda funny? Fortunately so. Politicians have no sense of humor. Musicians have no sense of politics. Musicians are successful at what they do because
I have to discuss my epic trip to the mini-Record Store Day last weekend because I wanted to wait to talk about it for a band that had a stronger association with the day and the people. Nothing against the Smashing Pumpkins...but the Black Keys are one of the few current bands who are still bonding with the record buying audience. Black Friday was awesome. I honestly think there were more
Adore came out when I was in college. No other album in my collegiate career or for that foreseeable future caused more arguments than this album. With Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins were the unstoppable force who had taken over rock music. After they kicked out the best working drummer of the day, they turned their sound on its head and did the unthinkable...they rejected rock music and put
Here's a little Smashing Pumpkins story for you. It's not enough that we're celebrating the 20th anniversary of these two albums when their releases really only seem like they happened yesterday. But I was trying to explain to a co-worker who the Smashing Pumpkins were. I named songs...which didn't help. I even tried to hum a few of the bars but I'm a terrible singer and probably did more
The post break-up years of the Pumpkins might as well be considered the dark years. Billy has had to endure years of criticism for everything he put out. Zeitgeist was criticized for sounding too much like the original Pumpkins (true story). Teargarden was criticized for being given away for free. I remember reading one review where the writer said that "A Song For A Son" was an
Back in the 90s, Smashing Pumpkins were it. Nirvana had faded since Nevermind and wouldn't perk up again until Kurt died. Pearl Jam was big until No Code...then slipped away quickly. But the Pumpkins kept going strong. Through Mellon Collie in the late 90s, they were the biggest rock band out there. Even when nu-metal rap-rock took over...the Pumpkins stayed relevant. In hindsight, the
It's the last few minutes of Thanksgiving. I hope you're all full of turkey and are ready to hit the mall. Stay tuned for my Black Friday experience. Here are the 11 Best Solo Songs By Chris Cornell: 1. You Know My Name (Carry On) 2. Sunshower (Great Expectations) 3. Can't Change Me (Euphoria Morning) 4. Seasons (Singles) 5. Billie Jean (Carry On) 6. Killing Birds (Carry On) 7.
Every April...us old dudes who still own record players crowd around record stores to pay a lot of money for limited edition colored vinyls with one extra track. But Christmas has come early this year. The wonderful folks at RSD have a new day for us...like a teaser trailer for spring's epic event. Black Friday features a much smaller amount of releases but some exclusive and exciting ones
Why does everyone think that Tim Tebow is such a douche? What has the guy done really except be an uber outspoken Christian? Sure you could fault him for being outspoken. Or a Christian...but is anything that he's saying really that awful...or just annoying? The guy goes to foreign countries and builds houses for poor people. How does that make him a douche? He plays his own style of
There's some sort of adverse reaction I have to live albums. Maybe it's years of buying them and expecting great things...only to listen to them one time and cringe at the thought of ever listening to them again. The only live albums that I have ever really found have repeat listening potential are acoustic albums. Mainly, this is because the songs sound much different than their original
I don't know what it is about Sigur Ros songs but they are always disappearing off my computer. It's the strangest thing. I've bought all the CDs, so I'm merely burning them into my computer. But for some reason, every couple months when I check in to give them a listen...the complete song files are just missing from the computer. The actual folder is missing as if it has been deleted.
There's really only one news story that taken over this week and that's the horrid appall of the Penn State football program. It's a story so vile that it wouldn't even be believable in a horror film. But real life is always stranger than fiction. It's a story so disgusting you want to blame anyone and everyone involved in the situation. And I believe that's what happening. What bothers
I'm continuing on with my catch-up week with the very underrated Mutemath... This has been a busy week with sex scandals. Between Herman Cain's sexual comments, to Bieber's sexual exploits, to the sheer ugliness of Penn State. I mean how lucky are both Cain and Bieber to have their sex scandals break at the same time as Penn State. You hear what Cain and Justin did and your instant reaction
With a slower music week, I decided to go back and hit a couple of releases from the past few weeks I may have missed. First up is Deer Tick's new album out about two weeks ago. When Middle Brother's new album came out a few weeks ago, I did a list for Deer Tick. Now with a new Deer Tick album I figured it's only fair to do a Middle Brother post. With only one album...can't do a best of...so
For an artist who only has one official album, Florence has been a busy artist over the past couple of years. She has four special deluxe versions of her album, each with 4 to 12 bonus tracks. She has three full length live concert albums, plus two concert DVDs and a remix album. She has two live EPs and one regular EP. Plus, she has a song on a Twilight soundtrack. That's a more impressive
Knowing this genre wasn't the most difficult part of making this list. I know this music better than I know the names of the members of my family. The difficult journey in making this list was figuring out what bands belonged. There are some giants of the metal field that have been obviously excluded. Metallica is too metal. AC/DC was too hard rock. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest didn't
For fans of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music...his new collaboration album with metal giants, Metallica, might as well be its mainstream sequel. Lulu seemed like a match made in Bosch's Garden of Delight, where the anticipation was far greater than the actual delivery. But we all knew it was going to be a Monster Truck demolition...we just weren't ready to admit it. That said...is it that
I was turned onto an article by the AV Club referring to something called the five-album test. It's actually an old music cliche that was originally coined by Sting decades ago. I guess some writer thought he could pass it off as his own, hoping his audience wouldn't know about or have forgotten a 30-year-old theory. Basically the five-album test proves true greatness. It basically poses the
Recently Zooey put up some videos of herself singing covers of Patsy Cline and other various traditional songs by herself to a webcam...although one featured a cameo by Parks & Rec's Jean Ralphio, check them out here and here. How many singers could do this? Could Lady Gaga in her undershirt, lack of make-up and a guest spot by a supporting cast from Community not only generate some viral buzz
My Brightest Diamond fans always seem to look exactly the same. They're usually all woman. They're tall but not tall enough to play basketball. Skinny. They like wearing felt trench coats and scarfs even when it's still rather warm out. They usually have black hair or black hair with a red streak down the side. And they always wear that stupid little hat that is a cross between a beret and
The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown
Bison - Quill
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Mr Fogg - Eleven
