Category: music

*”Killing is my Business”

*”God Hates us All”

And about 10,000 male ponytails, backward baseball caps and a surprising number of women.

Realize that if you go to a Rush concert (and my cohorts Merlin, Greg, Albert, Jish and Leslie agree), you are attending a gathering of the misfits. Few of us have friends or family that share our appreciation for the pretentious Canadian rockers. They say Geddy Lee’s voice is shrieky and thin, Neil Peart is an amazing drummer who writes ponderous, soupy lyrics and the guitaring of Alex Liefson, while virtuouso, is in the service of pointless musicial wankering.

Merlin put it best. Rush will not get you laid. It will not give you hipster cred or a reason to storm the barriciades of the establishment. It might only make you think, which is not a very sexy reason to hitch your wagon to three middleaged prog-ers from Toronto.

Maybe. It’s the only explanation I have for why I’ve loved this band for nearly 20 years, because they make me, make me imagine things I wouldn’t otherwise. They inspire me.

So yesterday I decided to grab a carpool to Concord at the last minute and go. It was my 4th concert and nothing all that different from previous shows. What made it unique was driving to Concord, listening to Rush, and giggling and babbling incessantly about the band no one gets and we haven’t really since we were 15. But we stay on anyway, having a great time and wondering why.

My friend Tim’m West has a new solo album out called “Songs From Red Dirt” which is sitting on my desk as I write this. Since I’ve got a deadline this afternoon, listening will commence this evening.

I just found out (via Scott Andrew) that, due to poor ticket sales, Lollapalooza will be cancelling all its tour dates.

Well that’s a fine howdoyoudo. I was all set to attend at least one day of the two day festival, immensely proud of myself for not only recognizing but actually owning albums by several of the bands on the bill (The Flaming Lips, The Polyphonic Spree, The Coup). The same can not be said of the original incarnations of the festival where, by the time I had heard of many of the headliners, they had broken up, died, formed other bands or begun acting careers.

This year, the theme appeared to be “Music for fans old enough to remember the first Lollapalooza.” Tattoos, body piercings and flannel have been replaced by Neo-Beach Boy Harmonies, Fanticiful Electicism from Oaklahoma, and 28-Member Musical Group Hugs.

A friendlier, sweeter place this ‘Palooza would have been and I was all set for it. It wasn’t “indy”, it wasn’t “alternative.” It just looked like a ton of great music. Perhaps the idea of an entire day of sun, mud and rock doesn’t wear well into your thirties, no doubt about the average age of fans for these artists. I don’t know. It’s sad that we were all willing to throw our bodies into a giant glorious mess for hours on end ten years ago and can barely commit to a tickets worth of listening now.

I didn’t buy mine in time either. I have only myself to blame.

I love the song “The Laws Have Changed” by the New Pornographers particularly this line…

“We are shocked to be here in the face of the meantime”

I would love to be able to use it in conversation but fundamentally have no idea what it means. Do you?

I agree with my buddy Scott. This is the best musician’s ad I’ve ever seen.

Taken from the Summer 2003 issue of Jest magazine. My personal favorites…

“Slanted and Enchanted” by Pavement: “Everyone in this room is an asshole except me. And yes, I know my T-shirt is too snug.

“Crossroads” by Eric Clapton: “I have to swing by JCPenney and Suncoast Video so why don’t we just meet up in the food court?”

“8 Mile Soundtrack” by Eminem: “Well, no, I don’t actually “hang out” with black people. But I get it. You know, their whole deal.

“Crash” by Dave Matthews Band: “I know sororities are lame, but I’m still probably going to rush. You know, just like a goof. Because I am sooo not a dumb sorority girl. Right? Right?

I never thought I’d say this but good for Gavin Newsom. This takes guts. Should these long lines and lousy weather continue, I’m going to volunteer to help out somehow. Maybe serving breakfast or something.

I think my friend Scott has an excellent point when he talks about how fundamentally silly the premise of the new Pepsi/iTunes ads. I also think that I am a complete sucker.

Yes, there’s absolutely nothing subversive about Apple and Pepsi getting in bed with one another to give away 100 million free songs (when you buy a bottle of Pepsi of course) as the commercial would indicate. Ballsy sure. But about as subversive as a mutual fund. The RIAA is probably dancing in circles with joy that a bunch of stupid kids think they’re sticking to the man by buying Pepsi to get free songs that have been paid for already.

I am one of those stupid kids.

I think the add is effective as all get out. I’ve watched it 50 times. I spedn yesterday on my bus ride home hunting around for lose Pepsi caps.

But I am not a musician. I am an IPod slut in the midst of a musicial metamorphisis. Free music without the intermidable “More Sources Needed” warnings at Kazaa to me is like crack.

But fundamentally it’s nonsense, bold clever nonsense yes, but still nonsense.

This is a great parody (via Boing Boing). Also if your music tastes skew towards independent, smaller labels, painfully underrepresented on iTunes, consider Tune Recycler, which allows you to swap your Pepsi cap numbers for independent music, though I don’t quite understand how.

Would someone like to explain that one? I’m still humming “I Found the Law.”

In my quest for new musical horizons, I started using Launch.com and quickly fell in love. Not only does it program your favorite artists but then makes suggestions based on those you give them. I’ve already bought several songs from the Apple Music Store based on their ideas.

Now I find out that Launch refuses to work on a Macintosh system even if you follow all of their requirements to the letter (WMP 7.0 or above, IE 5.5. Any Mac OS above 8.0 but lower than X. What’s next? A tuning fork jammed in your printer port?). I have a beautiful new iBook G4 that I bought with my book advance and I use at work. I figured Launch would be a great way to listen to music while sorting through the day’s mundane tasks. Instead, it sticks its tongue out.

Just what do they think they’re doing? Macs may be a small market share but iTunes and the Apple Music Store are rapidly pulling away from the pack. If people increasingly use their computers as juteboxes, Launch will leave itself out in the cold. Based on their attitude, its exactly what they deserve.

Is their an answer to this? Another program like Launch, for Mac People?

Update: I’ve posted to Lazyweb asking the same question. Who has designed (or will design) a plug-in to allow Launch.com to work on a Mac OS X system? Who knows an alternative program to use in the meantime?

I had a brief, unremarkable career in college as a DJ on WHSR, Hopkins Student Radio. I hosted two shows, one called “The Grand Illusion” which was all 80’s pop and another with my friend Jeremy called “Access All Areas” where I would play bad 70s arena schlock and he would play Wierd Al B-Sides. It lasted one semester and the station only reached to the buildings on campus. Often we were locked out of the station because the student monitor didn’t show up to let us in. Our show was Friday night, 10-12.

So I was pretty happy to hear than Hopkins Radio had been put out of its mercy in 2000 and reborn this year as hopkinsradio.com, streaming live over the Internet. The shows seem more diverse then in my day (it was the early 90s and disgruntled “alternative” was everywhere) and I only hope that online broadcasting has eliminated some of the silly hurdles we had back then.

I’m going to listen and see.