Music Blog

So, I found out this week that my old friend Jim is a drummer in a band. A CD is coming out soon, while heavy metal isn’t a constant favorite of mine, it was my brother’s favorite and I have a nostalgic appreciation for it so I listen with my brother in mind. While I love Metallica (really only because of hearing then through the wall separating my brother’s room from mine) my brother loved bands like Slayer and Judas Priest. He had this jean jacket with a hand painted album cover of Judas Priest on the back of it. Even after he long outgrew that jacket he would never get rid of it, we had it placed with him when he passed away.

The manager sited no one liked the music I played. It was too heavy…….. Of COURSE I hear Slipnot playing in the background. That is nowhere near as heavy as “Another Brick in the Wall” by Floyd………. Then he tells me that no one likes the “old” music that I play….. At this point “Sweet Home Alabama” is playing on the jukebox. So, I said tell me another one to which he said, “people don’t like old heavy music.” While I am tearing down, I hear two Metallica songs that I play and several other hard rock songs……….. Needless to say that infuriated me more.

Things don’t get banned as often these days, probably because we see murder on the news, and what would have been considered pornography a couple of generations ago on daily soap operas. That’s why I was somewhat surprised when Green Day’s “American Idiot” was not allowed to be sold in Wal-Mart stores. It had nothing to do with bad language, as they sell ’sanitized’ versions of CDs with expletives deleted all the time there. Which can only mean the decision to keep it off the shelves in Wal-Mart had to do with the not altogether complimentary messages it sent about our current world situation in general and US government in particular. And that, my darklings, annoys me much more than banning something because it’s got a couple of rude words or some heavy breathing in it.

He said this after I randomly complemented him and his friend for their coordinated orange inmate costumes and choreographed dancing during Scissor Sisters’ pre-show performance. He looked like Jesse Ventura and he and his circle of friends were all wearing what looked like a piece of broken glass on their foreheads.

During my sophomore year of college, “Party Music” taught me, a fairly well off white kid from Connecticut, a number of valuable lessons. More from The Coup than any other artist, I realized that you should never apologize for your beliefs, and that you really can get a radical message out while making people bob their head, shake their ass, and in a number of cases laugh that ass off (e.g. “Ass-Breath Killers,” a funky, empowering manifesto against everything sycophantic). Boots and his posse are focused on affecting social change from a multi-race, multi-class point of view and sense of humor. Like most of The Coup’s five albums, Pick a Bigger Weapon is not an end-to-end masterpiece, though it contains plenty of unforgettable songs and hints that fifteen years, three corrupt administrations, several US military atrocities, and innumerable P. Diddy/50 Cent/Nelly/etc. albums down the line, The Coup only becoming more focused and more of a force to be reckoned with. Boots and Pam could care less about whether music has the capability to change things anymore. Whatever they’re aiming for, they’re hitting a target on some level.

Jessica Simpson can’t catch a break! First her husband, Nick Lachey, breaks her heart and then tries to take everything else, then come all the pictures and articles about plastic surgery, and now she’s being sued by a clothing company for $100 million - even Nicky isn’t asking for that much.

I just finished watching the Aussie MTV Awards, and the show was pretty average really. I mean, the show can't be taken as a serious awards thing - but, that's a given with the MTV attatchment; but, even the show wasn't very exciting. The Veronicas performance of When It All Falls Apart was sooo shit because of terrible sound problems; still, I'm not discouraged 'bout their gig (which is only 11 days away!) - I'm really looking forward to it. James Blunt gave a very sweet performance of You're Beautiful, staring directly at the camera for most of it, his eyes are so sincere. End Of Fashion gave a solid rendition of O Yeah; making me look forward to their gig even more! Strangely enough, though, the stand-out performance (in my opinion) was from the ceremony's host: Ashlee Simpson - singing Boyfriend and L.O.V.E. She really got the crowd going. Oh, and when The Darkness performed I Believe In A Thing Called Love; that was a good set, too.

Ashlee Simpson? Ok, that shot my theory to hell. Please don’t tell me I look like her? Then I got Katrina Kaif and was like, um who the hell is she? OHHH, a model? Heh, sure. I can sooooooo see the resemblence there! I rock.

i woke up watching mtv. i actually thought i was watching disney because these two were on. and to drive the actually even deeper, coming out of my slumber at first i thought it was hilary duff. So, then, I see the new 50 cent and Olivia video for Best Friend. Is it me or does Olivia have a Ciara type thing going on in the video? I don’t know, there’s something about Olivia that doesn’t make her marketable, like does she have any songs where she can carry herself alone? i haven’t been impressed by her and honestly, I think this is one of them cases where the original is better than the remix.. “Best Friend” is better when it’s 50 alone. and then comes the horrid LL song with J.Lo, *shaking head* i heard a cut off his album featuring Lyfe called Freeze and it’s so much hotter than Control Myself.. but it IS about marketing so what can i say? you’re not going to generate a lot of buzz and make it on TRL with a rough looking guitar playing singer. it’s just that now i have to control myself not to toss my cookies.