PLEASE???


Can we PLEASE just have a straight rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at a sporting event, without all the R&B key change and cram-a-thousand-notes-into-a-measure bullshit??? Just one time? Well, if it's not that, it's country singers throwing their heinous twists into it, as well... Drives me up a wall...

I'm not all that particularly gung ho patriotic, but I am an American... and I love (most) sports... so PLEASE stop fucking up the beginning of my sporting experience by offerring up twisted versions of the country's national anthem...

Listening to: Metheny

HAPPY THANKSGIVING
from all of us ("me") to all of you ("all of you").


Listening to: Pat Metheny - "Bright Size Life" (1976)

Durst Bopped in the Face...


Fred Durst needed seven stitches in his face after being hit with an object thrown by someone in the audience at a show in New York City on November 21.

Reportedly, Durst began bleeding heavily and "struggled to get through the last two songs in the set" before he was taken to the hospital for treatment. I'm sure that he was struggling through the first two songs in the set, as well...

Listening to: Jaco Pastorius - "Jaco Pastorius" (1976)

Stone Temple Pilots Say "Thank You" and "Goodbye"


Confirming what everyone basically knew, already, (former) STP guitarist Dean DeLeo had this to say about his (former) band.

"It was time to move on to other things. Life and personalities and brotherhood took its course. Everybody's got cool stuff going on. Scott Weiland is about to embark on a new experience (with Velvet Revolver). It just ran its course, I suppose."

A you sure that he didn't mean the new experience for Scott Weiland was rehab? Oh, yeah... He's been there, before. It's not so new.

Listening to: Frank Zappa - "Broadway the Hard Way"

It Seems Like Something is Being Overlooked


I was watching some coverage of the latest Michael Jackson ordeal on CourtTV before work this morning, and as everyone was talking, I couldn't help but think of something that all these countless reporters and lawyers were seeming to pass over a bit too easily, and it's really quite simple to see:

Okay... After the whole molestation allegations back in '93... parents CONTINUED to let their kids go hang out with him... Hello?!?!?! Anything seem... y'know... ignorant about the whole thing, there?

Well, whatever... he's a pedophile. Hell yeah, I said it... Not an "alleged" pedophile... a freakish pedophile...

Listening to: Stone Temple Pilots - "Thank You" (2003)

Cool Flash Player



CHECK IT OUT

It's pretty cool, I must say...

Listening to: A Perfect Circle - "Thirteenth Step" (2003)

LOL


"Heavy metal legends Metallica released a good album as recently as 1988 and have a good chance at tying Eric Clapton's record for coasting on a reputation based on an artist's first six years' work."
~name withheld upon request~

That's the best music-related quote I've heard in quite a while...

Listening to: Miles Davis - "Hall of Fame" - Disc 3 ("Bluing")

Am I Just Confused, or...


In the last week or so, my site has been getting swamped with people from search engines looking for "Lillix guitar tabs." Do people really need guitar tabs to play Lillix songs? After listening to their album the first time, I was under the impression it was relatively simple stuff... thanks to people like "The Matrix," that write one song and sell it to twenty different artists (Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," Liz Phair's "Why Can't I?," Lillix's "It's About Time," and one other artist's song that is currently eluding me are pretty much carbon copies of eachother - all written by the same people, "The Matrix").

Listening to: King Crimson - "THRAK"

Getting Older... and Sucking


I was watching TV the other day (something I've been known to do) and I saw the umteenth commercial from Cadillac with Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" (my next-to-least favorite song of theirs)... The more I hear it, the more I tend to want to cringe. Yeah, old bands sell their music to big corporations all the time, so that a bunch of young kids that never had a chance to hear them when they meant anything may stop for a millisecond and wonder who they are before dropping another tab of ecstacy and raving to Moby all night. But it got me thinkin'...

I guess you could say that there are a few different types of musicians in the business. First there is the type that gets out of the business after they realize they are no longer viable. Hooray to you.

Then, I suppose, you have the type of musician that tragically dies before their time, i.e., Hendrix, Shannon Hoon, Layne Staley, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc...

Then you have the type that goes on doing the same thing they always have done, even after they are no longer viable, ending up playing county fairs for the rest of their careers, such as [insert '80s hairband still trying to make a "comeback," here].

Then you have the type that tries to "remain relevant" to the times. Rarely is this successfully pulled off, with notable exceptions like the Eagles, (what remains of) the Who, and Fleetwood Mac, who can still pack pretty hefty arenas.

And this brings us to my final category of aging rock star - "the complete sellout." The first band that comes to mind is KISS, who have marketed everything from chocolate milk to coffins to you name it - they sell it... They were cool for a long time, but now they're just a joke and it's time to get on with ending this eight year-long "farewell tour" thing... Farewell already, guys... You can call Led Zep sellouts if you want for selling a song to Cadillac - I don't, simply because of the fact that they haven't even been a band for about twenty years.
Then you have the sellouts along the line of Rod Stewart who, in my opinion, is pulling of the cardinal sin of sellouts by transforming himself into something totally ridiculous and abominable. Michael Bolton did it first, yeah, but he totally sucked from the get-go. At least Rod had some classic rock hits in the late '60s and '70s (and yeah, the '80s, too). And now he's trying to pass himself off as today's Tony Bennett... Hey Rod, today's Tony Bennett is - well, Tony Bennett... And then to see Rod hawking Suzuki automobiles with "The Way You Look, Tonight" is just ridiculous. We're not talking Cadillac, or BMW, or Lexus, or Infiniti, or Jaguar (which brings to mind another sellout ego-trip, Sting), or Porsche... it's a Suzuki... And it's not like he sold them an old song like "Forever Young" or something like that, it's retreaded crap from his new album...

So, is there a lesson to be learned from all of this? Well, maybe something like "if you suck, just stop for God's sake."

Listening to: "Chris Robinson's New Earth Mud" (2002)

Law Proposes Prison For Music Uploaders


The latest effort from US lawmakers to thwart the uploading of new, unreleased music and movies to peer to peer networks (such as KaZaA) goes like this: The bill, named the Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003 (or ACCOPS) says that if you upload a single file of copyrighted material (i.e., one song), it is a felony. The punishment can be anywhere from a $2,500 fine for first-time offenders to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Also, if you film a movie in a theater (with a HandyCam or something like that - which is blatantly pretty retarded), it is immediately considered a federal offense.

This sounds like a pretty scary law, if it ends up being passed. Here's a simple example that I noticed on the computer I am typing from as we speak:

Windows XP comes with a piece of music from David Byrne (Talking Heads) as an MP3 in the "My Music" folder when you install the software. If this computer is connected to any public network (including, but certainly not limited to, things like KaZaA - which scans your "My Music" folder when it opens), I immediately become a felon, unbeknownst to me - I'm sure that many users don't even know that the song is even on their hard drive.

Another example:

I own many, many CDs. More than a thousand, anyway. I like to listen to some of the music that I own on my Palm Tungsten (which, among many other things, is a portable MP3 player). So, sometimes as I am listening to a CD as I'm surfing around, I'll transfer some music from the CD to the SD (secure digital) card on my Palm. When you do this, it makes a copy of the file(s) in your "My Music" folder. Now, I legally own the license to the music, and I am only transferring the music to a portable player for my own enjoyment... Yet, if my machine is hooked into a public network - again, felon...

So you can see the potential for a law like this to cause some more serious damage to the industry by hooking up countless numbers of people that don't even realize they're doing anything wrong.

As best as I can tell, many of these really goofy-assed, invasive laws are being sponsored by democrats... which I've yet to be able to make much sense of...

Listening to: Big Brother close in on my doorstep...

Love Enters Not Guilty Plea


Courtney Love entered a plea of not guilty to two felony counts of illegal drug posession in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. Her preliminary hearing is set for December 11.

Love is also scheduled to be arraigned on Friday for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

It's a possibility that she will be eligible for "diversion," in which she can participate in drug counseling for two years and have the charges against her dismissed upon completion of the program.

I really enjoyed what she had to say about it last week:

"I want to make one thing clear right now, I do not take narcotics. I have taken prescription pills, and I went to rehab once. I take Xanax that is prescribed to me, but practically everybody does that nowadays. But I do not take street narcotics."

Soooooo.... if Xanax is not a "street narcotic," what the fuck is, you retarded hag? So what if they're prescribed for you? I come from Portsmouth, Ohio - the pillhead capital of the known universe - featured on shows like 20/20, Dateline & 48 Hours for it's rampant prescription abuse and such... a place where no less than six doctors have had to surrender their licenses in the past couple years for writing massive amounts of illegal prescriptions for things like Lorcet, Percodan, OxyContin & Xanax... all of which are easily classified as "street narcotics," available from about a thousand dealers in Portsmouth, alone... "...practically everybody does that nowadays..." Oh, yeah... I see... Good excuse... not... Yeah, you went to rehab once, and if you can make it through this "diversion" bullshit (gotta love that star treatment), that'll be twice... You deserve to be in jail, but you probably won't, 'cause you're all special... whatever, y'skanky burnout nutcase...

Listening to: Sevendust - "Seasons" (2003)

Links Added


I added links today for MusicLegalForms.com and MusicContracts.com. I know a lot of bands that don't cover their asses when they play out, and end up owing more than they make some nights... There's tons of contracts you can buy at each place (they are roughly the same service), covering everything from band agreements to record company contracts and about everything in between... If you play out, maybe you should check into it... The band-related package at MusicLegalForms.com is only about 40 bucks and has eleven different contracts to suit a lot of needs... worth it, in my estimation...

Listening to: Prince - "Emancipation" (1996)

How Do I Let Myself Get Dragged Into Stupid "Discussions?"


I managed to get into an arguement today with someone over guitar players... I fucking hate that! The worst part is that it was with someone that not only doesn't play a guitar, but they are basically one of those "groupie-types" that are everywhere that think they know all there is to know about basically shitty bands.

I do not like Joe Satriani. I liked his first two albums back in, like, '87, but everything since then has been shit to the point where I won't listen to anything of his that comes out (so maybe he's put out something great recently - it doesn't matter, I'm not going to listen to it because he sucked for so long...). There's nothing that anyone on this earth could say that would get me to change my mind about the fact that I don't like him. I explain this to people, but it doesn't seem to stop them from trying. They sit there and try to explain to me that I am "wrong" for thinking he's boring and soulless... Yeah... I'm wrong... I'm wrong about a lot of stuff, but not about how I feel about music, and especially not how I feel about guitar players... I loved having to sit there and hear someone tell me that I was "wrong" about how I personally felt... good stuff...

What bugged me the worst about it was how I said "I don't wanna argue about stupid shit," and all they wanted to do from that point on was argue about stupid shit... argh... to the point that when I brought up someone I liked, they would only say bad things about them... at that point, I figured it was time to end the discussion.

I am one of the more "de-evolved" players I know... and I mean that I sat around for years and years trying to see how many notes I could cram into a "solo." One day, I got tired of all the Paul Gilbert and Steve Vai wannabes out there and I disconnected my effects processors, took my whammy bar off my guitar, quit writing guitar solos into songs, and plugged my guitar straight into my amp and started playing chords, again... :) I couldn't have made a better move, ever in my long playing career. It gave me a whole new perspective into playing - yet it wasn't that "new" - it was going back to things I enjoyed when I first started playing guitar when I was eleven... When I want to, I can still burn... I just don't want to that much, anymore. But having to sit there and listen to someone that doesn't even play try to tell me about guitar players was just not worth it... it gave me gas.

Listening to: Black Crowes - "Three Snakes and One Charm" (1996)

Huh???


I was flipping through some music news on my Palm Tungsten today while waiting for dinner and I came across an article about the Offspring - and their new drummer - A Perfect Circle's Josh Freese... Now I know he is an insane studio whore (playing on about everybody's albums, nowadays), but this article made reference to him a couple times as "ex-A Perfect Circle..." Surely to Maynard he hasn't quit one of the coolest bands on the planet to play full-time with one of the suckier ones??? Surely not...

please?

Listening to: The Mars Volta - "De-loused in the Comatorium" (2003)

False Advertizing...


I was flipping through some stuff on the Billboard website, and I came across the headline:

"Sting, No Doubt to Rock Billboard Awards"

Ummm... okay... It is apparent that Billboard hasn't figured out that neither of the two acts mentioned, in fact, rock... Sting hasn't rocked since he was with that one band he always seems to talk shit about... and No Doubt hasn't rocked since before they got famous... so, don't plan on much "rockin'" at the ol' Billboard Awards...

Listening to: The Mars Volta - "Tremulant EP"

What the Fuck is That?


Okay I know I said in an earlier post that Metallica "couldn't make me listen to their new album even if they wrote a song called 'Tony Phillips, You Rule' (and meant it), packed the CD in a box of 24k gold bricks and had it delivered in my brand new Ferrari by Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Connally..." Well, none of that stuff happened, but after hearing how bad the song "St. Anger" sounded, I wanted to give myself a chance to hear the rest of it... and it is, singlehandedly, the worst-sounding piece of dog shit of an excuse for music I have EVER heard in my entire life. The songs are horrible, the music is horrible, the lyrics are horrible, the mix job sounds like it was done by a deaf guy... all the drum "punch-ins" (the act of placing bits of extra instrumentation in certain places in the music) are just totally ridiculous... for some reason, someone told Lars that punching in a kick drum under every crash cymbal would be a good idea... they were way off on that one...

Anyhow, all the pieheads who think that Metallica has been worth anything since after ...and Justice For All have already jizzed all over their copies of St. Anger, but anyone who has been contemplating buying it and hasn't, yet - do yourself a favor and just dont... Buy anything else, instead. Hell, pay someone the fifteen bucks you would have spent on that garbage to stick a steel bucket over your head and pummel it with drumsticks for an hour... it will sound better and you will be more fulfilled... I promise...

...and to Metallica... you guys have pretty much sucked donkeys since that Black Album crap (ehhhhxit liyeeef... ehhhhnterrr niyeeet... taaaaaaaake mah hayunnnnd... we're off to nevah-nevah land... GAY)... but you SUPER-SUCK, nowadays...

(... something else that is also funny is how Metallica doesn't allow any of their CDs to be discounted (like the "buy one, get 80% off everything else" promotions) at Columbia House or BMG - because they are lame, penny-scrounging assholes)

Listening to: Black Sabbath - "Paranoid"

FYE Pulls Rolling Stones From Shelves in Protest


Supposedly, all 1,000 FYE stores removed all music by the Rolling Stones from their shelves in late October as a sign of protest over the Stones signing an exclusive deal to distribute the Forty Licks DVD boxed set at Best Buy...

"This wasn't a decision we took lightly," says Fred Fox, executive vice president of merchandise and marketing for Trans World, which has stopped selling Rolling Stones albums at its 1,000 FYE stores. "This company has supported Stones titles that don't even earn their shelf space, and yet we're not given an opportunity to sell a hot item like this DVD box set during the busiest time of year."

Funny, but I was in FYE last night (note: not late October), and they had at least twenty-five different Rolling Stones albums on their shelves... It seems the folks at Trans World don't know what they're talking about... or they just don't keep good tabs on all their stores...

Listening to: Steve Vai - "Mystery Tracks - Archives, Vol. 3" (2003)

Welcome Back to The Romantics


Yeah, you heard me... The Romantics are back... It's been a looooooooong time since "What I Like About You," "When I Look In Your Eyes" or "Talking In Your Sleep" have been in major-airway heavy rotation (pardon the Lilix cover of "What I Like About You..." please)... but they've returned to the scene with 61/49... eighteen years after disappearing with a thud from the music scene.

The best way to describe 61/49 is "more fun than you should probably have with three chords (give or take a few)..." Placed in their nicely are covers from Pretty Things and The Kinks... It's cool to see them battle back into the mainstream after playing for poot with shit bands like the Go-gos trying to stay alive through legal battle after battle to regain the rights to their publishing...

Expect to hear more from these Detroit boys in the near future... probably from yours truly.

Listening to: "The Family Guy" on TV behind me...

New Village People Lineup Finalized


Fred Durst has announce the final lineup of his new tribute to his favorite band - the Village People. Members include Durst as "the gay rock star," P. Diddy as "tha faux-philanthropic wannabe thug," Courtney Love as "the angelic drug-infested whore," and Vanilla Ice as himself...



A CD and world tour are in the works...

Listening to:

Beauty




This was such a good episode... and yes, particularly because of my issues with the "Christian Rock" world. I was happy to see someone take my side and present Christian Rock for what it is - crap on a stick.

Listening to: Mushroomhead - "XIII" (2003)

Evanescence Guitarist Walks Out... For Good???


Co-founder Ben Moody has left Evanescence... Reportedly, he flew home without telling anyone during a day off from the band's European tour... Vocalist Amy Lee says that he has done this before, causing them to cancel tour plans... but she said this time they would go on touring without him...

Listening to: King Crimson - "The Power to Believe" (2003)

Hooray For P. Diddy... (not)


As I have stated in earlier postings, P. Diddy is an asshole. Yeah, he ran in the New York Marathon today and raised money for kids... big fucking deal... Granted, I couldn't raise that kind of money for kids. I've never been able to do more than raise a few hundred bucks in a walk-a-thon when I was, like, ten... but the money that he donated didn't include a penny of his own. He raised something like two million dollars. He has paintings in his house that cost more than two milion dollars. He has a fleet of gangsta-proof cars that cost more than that. He has a clothing line that (while employing underage kids at fourteen cents an hour) makes more than that in a few days. Hell, he had corporate backings for this marathon shit from companies that clear ten million dollars a day.

Yeah, that two million dollars, none of which was his, will go to help some kids that need it, for sure. Considering the pull he has, not to mention the fortune, I would have thought that something around ten million would be something to take note of... If he had put ten thousand bucks or so of his own money, it would have been more impressive (although, considering how much money he has, not very impressive at all, yet more impressive than what he did do). But the fact remains that he's still an asshole that is just trying to make himself look good to people by spending other people's money on a noble cause.

P... um, Mr. Diddy, you suck... and you're not very talented at all... unh... unh... Bad Boys fuh life... unh...

Listening to: Mushroomhead - "XIII" (2003)

Weiland Ordered to Live-in Rehab


In the latest from the Weiland Files, Scott has been ordered to a live-in detox program followed by a six month stint at a residential rehab center... The action follows his arrest for DUI (again) on Monday (his 36th birthday).

All I can say is, he needs to be somewhere where he can't get into any more trouble... and maybe this could be it?

Listening to: The Who

Pantera Members Form Damageplan


Brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinny Paul from Pantera have formed a band called Damageplan. Their debut release, New Found Power, is scheduled to be released February 11 on Elektra Records. The other members of the band include former Diesel Machine members Patrick Lachman and Bobzilla.

Representatives for the band insist that Pantera has not broken up, but is only on hiatus...

Guests on the album include Zakk Wylde and Corey Taylor...

Well, it's not Pantera, but at least it's something...

Listening to: The Who - "Tommy (Deluxe Edition)"