Your Older Brother's Music Blog

Lust Music Play List

2012-02-17T21:22:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week, in honor of Valentine's Day, I published a "love" playlist on 8Tracks.com. Now that it's the weekend, I figured I'd publish a "lust" music play list. Fairly innocuous, though, just songs with the word "lust" in the title. Go listen. You'll see.

ThURGHsday! #6 - Chelsea

2012-02-16T18:37:00.003-07:00

I did not know that Chelsea was a band at the root of the punk movement (well, according to Wikipedia, they were). Their song "I'm On Fire" is fast, but it's tuneful. They come across as energetic, but not what I might have once thought of as punk.

Singer Gene October sounds more like Paul Weller than Johnny Rotten, and the music isn't as sloppy as the Pistols from that era, but it's definitely repetitive, relying more on brute force than flash to deliver their message.

The video is great, watching the kids pogoing in the nascent mosh pit. Who knows if the crowd shots are from the Chelsea portion of the show, but it's still a fun crowd.

Where URGH! They Now?

Well, I'm not really sure. I tried contacting their management on their website, but now I cant' even find that link. The site hasn't been updated since 2010, however, they do have Facebook and MySpace page. Former member Jeff Piccinini (Geoff Myles) is in a band called The Revenant, which seems to be based out of San Francisco.

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Next ThURGHsday! - Oingo Boingo, "Ain't This The Life"

Love Playlist

2012-02-14T13:29:00.001-07:00

I made a love playlist over on 8Tracks.com today. Just some songs that have meant love to me at different parts in my life. And one kind of silly song, but that's Art Brut for you. :)

I hope you love my love playlist.

ThURGHsday! #5 - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

2012-02-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

(We now return you to ThURGHsday!, already in progress…)

Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark ended up becoming one of my favorite bands of all time. The song they played on URGH was "Enola Gay", a song about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II. It wasn't anything that 12-year-old me was too concerned with, but it became an historical reference point for me later, as I learned more about the war. It was probably one of my first experiences with political commentary in song, at least one of the first that registered with me. But, again, it didn't register with me until later.

What did register with me was that stack of keyboards that Paul Humphreys plays. I don't know why I ended up being such an electronic music fan, but keyboards have always been a big draw for me. It was because of bands like OMD and New Order and Depeche Mode that I started taking piano lessons in high school. I wanted to learn the songs that I liked so much. I probably needed a sequencer just as much as a keyboard in order to play all of those songs, but I didn't know that at the time. I think my subscription to Keyboard magazine taught me the details. (Just going to the site and clicking on some keyboard reviews brought a smile to my face.)

One of my favorite parts of the video now is Andy McCluskey's rockin' 80's dance, that little hips-wiggle to the beat. My friend Geoff did a fun 80's dance that inspired me to steal Andy's moves. I bust out the McCluskey at parties from time to time. It's a big hit.

Where URGH! They Now?

Much to my surprise and joy, Orchestral Manoeuvres re-formed back in 2006 to play their album Architecture & Morality (link is to the live performance from 2007 on iTunes). Who ever knows why groups break up, and why they get back together. I somehow had it in my mind that OMD would *never* get back together, ever. I just didn't expect it.

The shows they played went well enough that they played more over the next few years, and in time they started working on new material, which resulted in History of Modern, released on 100% Records in September of 2010. I absolutely loved the video for the first single "If You Want It".

In 2011 they released Live In Berlin , and I listened to it on Spotify one night while cooking. For some reason, the new songs grabbed me more directly that night, and set alongside their older songs, I felt like I appreciated the new songs more. It was as if they were always there.

OMD recently completed two US tours in 2011 and, according to their website, have started recording for a new album, entitled English Electric. I think they're in a good place now, and I'm glad they're making music again. I've seen OMD live three times:

Crush tour - Nov. 1985 in a big snowstorm - supporting Thompson Twins in Boulder, CO. I know I still have a program from that show, I just don't know where.
The Pacific Age tour - Dec. 1986 at the Paramount in Denver.
Best Of OMD tour - May 1988 at the old McNichols arena in Denver supporting Depeche Mode - that was a dream concert for me at the time. I was really jealous of everyone (like my friend Dale!) who was at the Rose Bowl show on June 18, 1988. That show featured Wire, Thomas Dolby, OMD & Depeche Mode. I listened to live updates about the show on 91X in San Diego, where I was attending freshman orientation for SDSU. So bummed I couldn't be at that show with 99,999 of my closest musical friends.

I hope OMD comes through Denver again. I'd love to see the new show.

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Next ThURGHsday! - Chelsea, "I'm On Fire"

1985 - Best year for music, ever?

2012-02-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

The other day, I found myself wanting to hear some Psychedelic Furs, so I put on Mirror Moves (1984) and I tweeted about it. That led somehow to me listening to The Smiths' Meat Is Murder (1985), which in turn led me to listen to OMD's Crush (1985). Naturally, Listen Like Thieves (1985) by INXS and The Cure's The Head On the Door (1985) followed. And New Order's Low-Life (1985). And then I got curious. What other records were released in 1985? So I consulted Wikipedia and here's the list of really great albums I singled out:

Psychocandy
Cupid & Psyche 85
Big Lizard In My Back Yard
The Dream of the Blue Turtles
Feargal Sharkey
Hunting High and Low
Voices Carry
This Is Big Audio Dynamite
Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
Radio
Fishbone - EP
Dream Into Action
Hounds of Love
Dead Man's Party
Around the World In a Day
Brothers In Arms
Clan of Xymox
Easy Pieces
Flip Your Wig
I Don't Want to Grow Up
King of Rock
Little Creatures
Love
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
No Jacket Required
Oil & Gold
Play Deep
A Secret Wish
Songs from the Big Chair
Stella
Telephone Free Landslide Victory
White City
Youthquake

Amazing records. I believe the first quarter of those are debut albums, no less! (Someone on another forum commented on how they would have liked to have seen the band names along with the album titles. I listed them this way because this is how I saw it in Wikipedia, just the album titles, and I was surprised at how many records I knew - and loved! - just from the titles.)

As a way to somehow impossibly quantify this hypothesis, let's take a look at year that an album was released that changed the path of popular music: 1991, the year Nirvana's Nevermind came out.

We also got: Apocalypse 91...the Enemy Strikes Black, Achtung Baby, Badmotorfinger, Blood, Chorus, De La Soul is Dead, Don't Try This At Home, Electric Bird Digest, Electric Landlady, Flyin' the Flannel, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Girlfriend, The Globe, Our Frank, The Low End Theory, Mama Said, Metallica, Mr. Bad Example, Native Son, Naughty By Nature, Niggaz4Life, Never Loved Elvis, No Pocky For Kitty, Positively Phranc, The Reality of My Surroundings, Ropin' the Wind, Rumor and Sigh, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Screamadelica, The Soul Cages, Trompe le Monde, Use Your Illusion I & II, Why Do Birds Sing?

Pretty good. Don't know if I'd call it great, though.

And now, let's look at another watershed year in music. Initially, I was going to go with 1967, the year The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released, but 1966 was the year that Revolver was released, as was the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. More records included Aftermath, Face to Face, Fifth Dimension, It's a Man's Man's Man's World, Otis Blue, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Lots of jazz released in 66, though. I don't know enough jazz to be able to recognize album titles and suggest that '67 was a good year for jazz. I presume it might be.

I should have gone with '67: Sgt. Pepper, Alice's Restaurant, Gentle on My Mind, Disraeli Gears, Magical Mystery Tour, King and Queen, John Wesley Harding, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Sounds of Silence, Strange Days, Surrealistic Pillow, The Who Sell Out, United, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

So...for me, I think 1985 was possibly the best year for music, ever. (Let's hear it for subjective opinions!) Let me know if you have a different year you'd nominate. Or better still, let me know that you agree with me.

(Most all links on the page are to the album on the iTunes music store)

(More) Bands That Followed Me On Twitter, too

2012-01-20T19:41:00.001-07:00

Today's checkout starts with Disgu!se - Pretty varied electronic music sound - at times reminding me of the simple lyrics of early Depeche Mode ("Listen to Me"), vocal stylings of Heaven 17 ("Storylines") and Joy Division or Interpol ("Heirloom"), and still sounding kind of fresh. "Inside Out Of Love" has blues licks in the middle of electronic beats & strings & piano - that's the fresh I'm talking about. "Camera" starts of like Nitzer Ebb lite and then swings into a funk shuffle for the chorus. Decent stuff here. I'd check 'em out if I were ever down Londontown in Old Blighty.

Aw, man! I had a whole post of this written up and linked and everything and it's gone poof. Oh well, that's ok. I get to revisit these artists again and give an opinion based on a couple of different listens.

Next up - Ryan O'Leary. This is decent hard pop. There's vocoder on some tracks, which I find a little unnecessary. It makes me think of Owl City - not that Owl City is bad, but with Ryan's hard guitars, the vocoder is out of place. To me. Anyway, his album The College Graduate (a cheeky nod to Kanye's records) is up on Spotify, the link goes to iTunes - check it out. Any track.

Tai Chi Swayze is the next band I have here to listen to. I see on their Facebook page that they'll be at SXSW in March if you're so inclined to see them live, which I would be. This reminds me of Placebo - maybe it's just the vocals a little bit. The music makes me think of Kaiser Chiefs and other solid UK pop/rock bands. They just have the single "Stumble Home" on iTunes right now, but you can hear more of their songs on Facebook.

The last band in this segment of bands that followed me on Twitter is Clarence Buffalo. The singer is somewhat reminiscent of Eddie Vedder, circa Bad Radio. Oh! Listening to "3 Shot", he drifted into the lyrics to Blondie's "Call Me". That was kind of cool. "Change" is kind of a jammy shuffle song. The chorus is catchy, almost reminding me of Peter Gabriel now. The songs are loose, very fitting for a bar band, which is what I'm assuming these guys are at this point. I don't see any show info on their website, but they're from Arlington, VA. So, if you're around there, keep an eye out.

All right, I'm gonna save this now and quit while I'm ahead. Join me next time for Bands That Followed Me On Twitter.

SOPA Strike

2012-01-18T09:00:00.001-07:00

I'm very anti-censorship, and always have been. So it's no surprise that I'd like to call your attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act, and why it should be stopped. I'll link to the Tucows website, as they have a good breakdown of what's not good about it. I mean, besides the censorship.

So, I'm all for the SOPA strike today, and I'll say (and link) to what we used to say back in the day:

Tell your congressmen - Fuck censorship. This is America.

3 Perfect Albums?

2012-01-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Poking around on Facebook today, my friend Casey asked "I want to know your 3 perfect albums. Not your personal favorite albums, but 3 albums you think are excellent front to back... Song track order, theme, build..."

I hastily composed my list - perhaps too hastily? - and this is what I came up with:

Big Country - The Crossing
The Beatles - The White Album
Superdrag - Head Trip In Every Key

A decent sampling across decades, I thought. She mentioned that she likes good production & sequencing, and I'm wondering now if I made the right choices. But these are, to me, "all killer, no filler," a statement that will cause many people to disagree with me just over The White Album. I love that record specifically because it is all over the place - it encompassed the past, present, and future of pop music, all on two discs.

The Big Country record I've loved since it was released. I first heard the chiming bagpipe guitars of "In a Big Country" and had to hear more - I may still have the cassette somewhere. I listened to it constantly on my Walkman (along with Rush's Exit...Stage Left and the Police's Ghost In the Machine). When I was working at a small company back in 2003-2004, one of my co-workers happened to be a Big Country fan as well and got me back into their other records. I hadn't given those records much of a listen - I liked the singles "Wonderland" and "Look Away" but for some reason didn't connect with the album tracks until 2003. For the record, I think Stuart Adamson was one of the best rock guitarists, ever. I think I may have already mentioned that in this blog before, but he was.

The Superdrag album I declared the best album of 1998, and I still think so. If you think there's a better album from that year, go listen to Head Trip in Every Key, listen to your album, come back and tell me if you still think your album is better. You might still, but hopefully you'll agree that HTiEK is a great record, too.

So - what would your 3 perfect albums be?

2011 Year End Music Wrap Up

2012-01-02T21:00:00.000-07:00

Here it is the 2nd of January 2012 and I'm just now posting my year-end music list. It's because I'm super persnickety about not posting a year-end list until the year is over. How do I know I'm not going to find something in the last few weeks that's going to captivate me? So don't expect these until December 31st at the earliest.

And now - my favorite parts of the musical year 2011:

Favorite album cover: Sound Kapital by Handsome Furs. And not from some dopey "heh, check it out, naked chick" leer, either. It's the best album cover because it's challenging, but, when you look at the photo and think about it, it's actually not all that challenging. It's an attractive nude woman juxtaposed with the angular industrial background of what looks like street overpasses.

The photo is by Scott Coffey. He and one half of Handsome Furs, Alexi Perry, discuss the photo & the video for "What About Us"in an article on LPWTF? I first learned about the photo from a Handsome Furs retweet about an article in The L Magazine taking indie music publications to taks for their prudish reactions to the photo.

Matthew Neiderhauser is the photographer behind the images of Chinese men in the insert booklet.

The whole CD package is beautifully thought out and assembled. I highly encourage owning this art.

The music? Well, I've loved Handsome Furs for years, and this album forgoes the guitar aspect of their music that I love for a pure synth record. In anyone else's hands I'd be unsure, but from the opening track, you can tell this isn't some retro record. It feels more like a more experimental record than most, but it does sound kind of like some old Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Well, it actually reminds me of the new OMD record as well. Just check it out.

Favorite record: Maritime's - Human Hearts I didn't even find out about this record until I downloaded it from eMusic on the last day of July. Not sure what I was paying attention to between April and then, but what it amounts to is four months I needlessly lived without this album. Does it have heart-wrenching ballads like "Here Comes a Regular"? No. Does it have life-changing skronk-jazz set to rock beats like "The National Anthem"? No. So what makes it special? Just about nothing except for solid songcraft, deft wordplay, catchy tunes, and, best of all, Davey Von Bohlen's sweet, sweet voice. They wrote the poppiest Cure song of the past 10 years ("Paraphernalia"), the theme song for the A.V. Club's 2011 Undercover ("It's Casual"), and the hookiest song with the corniest pun for a title ("Apple of My Irony"), and that's just three of the ten songs on this amazing record. Now, I've got one of the sweetest sugary pop sweet tooths around, and so when I hear an album like this, I know I'm getting cavities from dipping into the candy bowl again and again and again. And I love it.

Best show attended: tie - Girl Talk - Ogden Theater & Death Cab for Cutie/Frightened Rabbit at Red Rocks. Ok, fine, so I only went to 3 shows this year, but these were amazing shows. Girl Talk was a present to myself for finishing my master's degree and I couldn't find anyone to go with me. The show was sold out, but a good friend got me a ticket and I got there early enough to see the openers Junk Culture and Max Tundra who were odd but fun. Once Girl Talk started, it was packed, hot, sweaty - exactly the show I wanted it to be. I considered leaving at the encore break because I was so dehydrated and tired from standing & dancing. Amazing. I'm looking forward to my next Girl Talk show, whenever that will be.

I usually try to see one show a year at Red Rocks and, in my estimation, the best show happening this past summer was DCFC & Frightened Rabbit. It was great weather, no rain - just a great night in one of the most picturesque venues in the world. I left before the DCFC encore (tired, work, etc) and on my way out, a girl smacked my ass. Not sure what that was about. But while in the parking lot, I heard the start to "Title and Registration" and realized I shouldn't have left. The next day I saw that the last song was "Transatlanticism" and *knew* I shouldn't have left. Oh well. The 20 songs I did see & hear were amazing. I highly recommend seeing them.

Best blog: Mine! Oh, and Super Deluxe Edition. They way they care about the music really comes across in the pictures and text. I've found a few Super Deluxe Edition releases on their website that I didn't know about and am currently saving my pennies to buy, such as Madness & The Art of Noise.

Biggest kerfuffle: Lulu by Lou Reed & Metallica. It seems to me that people are getting down on them for being who they are. Lou Reed writing oddball poetry and delivering in a slack junkie's tone. Metallica delivering plodding, thunderous metal, which is who they are now more than the speed metal Metallica of the 80's. I've heard worse, much worse. The album might not be what *you* wanted to hear from either of them, but that doesn't make it bad. For some perspective from where they sit, check out the interview with Lou & Lars on the GQ website.

Favorite Podcast: WTF with Marc Maron. Ok, it's not music, but it's still a great listen. Turned on to this by my friend Tom, I spent more time listening to this in the 2nd half of the year than most anything else. I've been a humor nerd for a while, but like the mid-late 90's with music, I kind of fell out of it for a while. Now that my kids are old enough to appreciate great humor, I'm getting back into it. Maron's podcasts with comedians & actors talking about the craft is inspiring.

Favorite Videos: LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" - The twist on the zombie theme is great, and the dancing is insanely good. It's a fun song that ended up being my feel-good song of the summer. I really liked The Pains of Being Pure At Heart's "Heart In Your Heartbreak" a lot as well. "Lotus Flower" by Radiohead gets a mention, for sure. Thom just looks so free. Destroyer - "Kaputt" is fantastically bizarre. And "Aberdeen" by Cage the Elephant breaks my heart.

Favorite Post-Rock: Sky Flying By - What's The Farthest You Can See? I've been listening to a lot of post rock - slow, atmospheric rock typically without singing - while working on all the writing I've been doing lately. I do like the genre, and this is an excellent representation. I've met the guy who makes this music (that's right, just one guy), and he's quiet & unassuming but makes wonderful sounds.

Favorite Band Name with the chops to back it up: Ringo Deathstarr. Their record Colour Trip starts with something that sounds like distorted Atari 2600 sound effects and then whooshes into a song that could have been My Bloody Valentine, had they kept making music. The rest sounds like a wonderful combination of Lush, Darling Buds, with a bit of Jesus and Mary Chain thrown in. What Sleigh Bells would sound like if they had a thing for Shoegaze instead of a fetish for beats.

Band I was going to write about but they appeared on every other year end list: Cut Copy. Zonoscope was released this year and I really like the record. It's not as straight-up dancey as In Ghost Colours, but it's still some of the best dance pop with vocals of the past 10 years. Take everyone's word for it.

Favorite Big Rawk Riff Record: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light. You know, I was all set to wrtite about how I wasn't real big on this album. I remembered downloading it when it came out and knowing it had big riffs. And then I listened to it again before writing this and realized that it's a big, musclebound record. Probably the best straight-up rock record of the year.

Favorite Morrissey-esque Singer whose record came out in 2010: Philip Benson from Magic Bullets. I come at some stuff late, and I hadn't heard of these guys until I saw them in Surfing Magazine. The description sounded interesting, and I finally got around to listening to them this year. I got into a lot of guitar pop recently - These guys, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Surfer Blood. All different, but so fun to listen to. The standout track on this record for me is "They Wrote a Song About You"

Favorite Rap: Theophilus London. Ok, I don't listen to a lot of rap. I'm sure the Kanye/Hova album was great. I haven't heard it. But it's my blog, and it's my best of, and this is the kind of rap that I like. It might be telling to explain that I first heard of Theophilus London from a mini-interview in GQ magazine, showing his style and talking about being a Morrissey fan. Well, that hooked me right there. I listened to his new songs on the Lovers Holiday EP this past summer and really liked the tunefulness of the songs. Listening to "Why Even Try," I was reminded of older songs like Malcom McLaren's "Madam Butterfly," P.M. Dawn's "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss," and, by extension, Spandau Ballet's "True." I made a playlist of those 4 songs, and they all fit great together, and made for great, chilled-out summer listening.

Favorite Band You've Never Heard Of: Boy + Kite - Go Fly. The music really reminds me of good 90's boy/girl indie, like Pixies or Sonic Youth, but also stuff like Seam and early Breeders, with engaging guitar interplay. Try "Neighbors" or "Isometrics", but the whole album is really good.

Just Another Good Record: The War On Drugs - Slave Ambient. Reminds me of Mazzy Star in its heroin haziness. Definitely descended from the The Velvet Underground, some of the songs have that unchanging beat with no fills, but they mix it up with higher tempo tunes ("Your Love Is Calling My Name" and "Baby Missiles" have a little bit of that fast train-shuffle). There are the "ambient" pieces as well, wordless jams and drifting sonic meanderings that are dotted amongst the "proper" songs. But none of the "proper" songs have choruses as such, they're more like poems or stories set to guitar and drums. His voice at times reminds me of Ian McCulloch, at times a intelligible Dylan. Check "I Was There" to see where I got that comparison.

Favorite "We're gettin' the band back together": The Stone Roses - Runner up: The Promise Ring. Are you kidding me? The Stone Roses? This was like the holy grail, the ark of the covenant, the...other stuff that's considered a lost artifact. Is Ian Brown's voice great? Not really - well, not live, anyway (but it's better than John's). But to have John Squire playing guitar again…a dream come true for me. And the vocals on a song like "Fools Gold" aren't really the point, although the lyrics are a great part of that song. I really liked both albums of the Roses, but obviously their first album is their calling card. I don't know if their new music will be as good, but I'm excited to hear it. As for The Promise Ring, I'm just hopeful that they'll play more than just the two shows they have right now.

Best Band Breakup: R.E.M. Classy. Who knows if they stayed around too long - I actually liked their most recent record - but this seems to be a case where they had said what they had to say, and stopped. I wonder if other, older bands will follow suit.

Favorite Last-Minute Addition: The Head and the Heart. I literally just heard their album on December 29th or 30th and really liked it. Rock with a somewhat folk feel, akin to The Avett Brothers or Okkervil River (damn, that's another band that I meant to write about for this year). Definitely looking forward to hearing more from TH&TH.

So, I think that's probably about it. Happy New (Gregorian calendar) Year, everyone. I'm looking forward to our year in music.

Five-star holiday songs

2011-12-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ok! So, Your Older Brother must be too cool for Christmas music, right? That's just kid stuff. Right?

Wrong! I have a long list of favorite Christmas/holiday/winter songs that's much longer than this, but this is pretty close to my essential list. Most of the links point to the iTunes Music Store for easy purchasing.

I present to you Your Older Brother's Five-Star Christmas music list:

Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid - Sure it's a full-on 80's nostalgia tune, but it still gets to me.
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - BeauSoleil - A wonderful Cajun swing that gives this song a fresh feel.
Happy Holiday (Beef Wellington Remix) - Bing Crosby - I love these remixes.
White Christmas - Bing Crosby- It's not Christmas without Der Bingle.
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town - Bing Crosby
Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth - Bing Crosby & David Bowie - Bing & Bowie. Come on.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Cajun Gold - The accordion really makes these Cajun songs for me.
Ave Maria - Chris Cornell & Eleven - I don't remember ever hearing this song before hearing this version, and it's the standard by which I measure all other versions. There are actually two different music variants, but this is the one I prefer. Chris' soaring vocals & the bombast are amazing together.
White Christmas - Corporal Blossom - Another fun remix, using many different versions of "White Christmas," but probably my favorite part of the song is the sample of the bass & snare from Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". Follow the link to hear the track for free!
Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg - A gorgeous tune with sad, wistful lyrics. Makes me cry just about every time.
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow - Dean Martin - Dean's boozy versions of winter songs are the reason for the season.
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm - Dean Martin
Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley - My parents are from Memphis, so Elvis is naturally in my blood. This album played over and over and over when I was a kid.
White Christmas - Elvis Presley - I just watched the movie "White Christmas" for the first time this year, and I'd imagine that this song was heresy when it came out.
If Every Day Was Like Christmas - Elvis Presley
Santa Bring My Baby Back (To Me) - Elvis Presley
She Won't Be Home - Erasure - Like the Prince song on this list, this song is kind of parenthetically related to Christmas, and isn't all that happy, but that doesn't mean it's not a good song.
Winter Wonderland - Eurythmics - The first Very Special Christmas record was a collection of popular 80's artists. Some tracks were better than others, and this is one of the better ones.
Feliz Navidad - José Feliciano - I remember this from the 70's. Just a happy song.
Iration - Fishbone - Fishbone was one of my favorite bands of the 80's, and when the It's A Wonderful Life EP came out, I bought it immediately and it's been a Christmas staple for me ever since. This is the serious song on the record, and one of their best.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Frank Sinatra - Frank sang a few good Christmas songs, too.
When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter - Gene Autry - One of my favorite Christmas records when I was a kid was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and other Christmas Classics" by Gene Autry. His simple delivery and emotive singing really connects me to the songs. They make me feel like a kid. That's why so many are included here. It doesn't hurt that he also was the owner of the California Angels.
I Wish My Mom Would Marry Santa Claus - Gene Autry
He's a Chubby Little Fellow - Gene Autry
Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) - Gene Autry
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Gene Autry
If It Doesn't Snow On Christmas Day - Gene Autry
The Night Before Christmas Song - Gene Autry
Frosty the Snowman - Gene Autry
Santa, Santa, Santa - Gene Autry
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town - Gene Autry
Everyone's a Child At Christmas - Gene Autry
A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss) - Glasvegas - Great new Scottish band with a tale that turns hopeful.
Winter Wonderland - Harry Connick Jr.- Not on a Christmas record, but a terrific no-vocals version.
When My Heart Finds Christmas - Harry Connick Jr.- I love Harry. Harry has three Christmas albums out. For some reason, the first one is the only one worth a damn.
(It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus - Harry Connick Jr.
Ave Maria - Harry Connick Jr. - The other definitive version of this song for me.
I Pray On Christmas - Harry Connick Jr.
What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? - Harry Connick Jr. - Again, I think this is the first version of this song that I recall hearing, and it's fabulous.
The Christmas Song - Hootie & the Blowfish - Hootie's not a popular band to like amongst the musical tastemakers. This is a pretty good version off the third Very Special Christmas album. I like hearing it.
Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World - I never heard the Wham! version until after I heard this. I love this version most.
Twelve Days of Christmas - John Denver & the Muppets - I was a huge Muppets fan as a child as well. And still am. This record got a lot of play as soon as I got it, sometime soon after it was released in 1979.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - John Denver & the Muppets - Just a simple version, John & Rowlf on piano.
Christmas Is Coming - John Denver & the Muppets
Little Saint Nick - John Denver & the Muppets - Janice starts with California cool on this Beach Boys tune.
Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon & Yoko Ono- Glad we have this song.
It's Christmas In Louisiana - Johnnie Allan - More Cajun Christmas. Just happy music.
Frosty the Snowman - Leon Redbone & Dr. John
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays - Leon Redbone - Leon is always so laid back. This is one of my favorite versions of this song, but this whole record is a classic.
Christmas Island - Leon Redbone
Christmas Ball Blues - Leon Redbone - One of the great Christmas song lyrics: "Christmas comes but once a year/And to me it brings good cheer/And to everyone who likes wine and beer."
Christmas Morning - Loudon Wainwright III - LWIII breaks it down like only he can do.
Just Like Christmas - Low - Another almost anti-Christmas song, couched in all the trappings of a Christmas song. It's tough for me to figure out, but it's a pleasure to listen.
The Christmas Song - Mel Tormé - Gotta dig the Velvet Fog's version, yeah?
O Tannenbaum - Nat "King" Cole- I love hearing Nat rock the German.
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) - Nat "King" Cole - For as great as Torme is, Nat owns this song.
Merry Christmas, Baby - Otis Redding - Otis. 'Nuff said.
Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney - A lot of people write this song off as schlock. And it probably is. But it's happy synthy almost-80's tune, so it gets a pass from me.
Another Lonely Christmas - Prince - "Baby, U promised me U'd never leave/Then U died on the 25th day of December" Way to bring the party down, Prince. Down and funky.
Christmas In Hollis - Run-D.M.C. - I remember a commercial that used to use this for background music. Maybe it was an MTV bumper. But it's a classic rap Christmas tune. Which begs the question - how many rap Christmas songs are there?
Christmastime - Smashing Pumpkins - I've fallen out of love with the Pumpkins the past few years, but this song always delivers.
Gabriel's Message - A Sting - Kind of a spooky version, but typical iconoclast choice for Stingy.
I Saw Three Ships - Sting - As spooky as his previous song was, this one is bouncy and joyful.
Up On The Housetop - The Jambalaya Cajun Band - Fiddle, accordion & Creole. Can't go wrong.
2000 Miles - The Pretenders - This just sounds like a Pretenders song. Which is fine with me.
Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes - You can hear Phil Spector's hands all over this. Ring-a ling-a ling-a ding dong ding, indeed.
Sleigh Ride - The Ventures - Reverb drips from almost every note. Fantastic guitar playing.
Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses - Such a great story delivered with such great music. And that bassline? Fugeddaboudit.
I'll Be Home for Christmas - Tony Bennett - In the same league as Bing, Frank, Mel & Nat. But you knew that.
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2 - This is the first version of this song I heard, and it remains the definitive version for me. I'm sure I'll catch heat from Darlene Love fans.

Christmastime Is Here - Vince Guaraldi - No words needed.
Skating - Vince Guaraldi - I hear this song and think of winter.
Thanks For Christmas - XTC - Another simple Christmas song by a more contemporary band.

Big Rawk Christmas:
I Won't Be Home for Christmas - Blink-182
It's a Wonderful Life (Gonna Have a Good Time) - Fishbone- Listen to the words - he goes over the whole movie. One of my favorite lyrics: "Then I went blind in-a one ear" - talking about George Bailey losing his hearing after saving his brother.
Oi to the World - No Doubt
Father Christmas - the Kinks

Humor:
Deck the Stills - Barenaked Ladies - This is the kind of funny stuff that made me love BNL to start with.
The Twelve Days of Christmas - Bob & Doug McKenzie - More Canadian Christmas humor.
Slick Nick, You Devil You (Vinyl Only) - Fishbone - "You put Mad Dog in my sock/I wanted candy. I wanted candy! I WANTED CANDY!!"
Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy - Garth Brooks - Pretty faithful cover of the Buck Owens tune.

New Classics:
Christmas - Blues Traveler - Heartfelt lyrics that aren't necessarily religious.
Merry Christmas Eve - Better Than Ezra - I usually cry when I hear this song around Christmas time. Seriously.
Christmas Just Does This to Me - Matt Wertz - Matt is one of my favorite discoveries from the past few years. Good songs, great voice, and he sets a wonderful scene here.

Just For Me:
Straight to Hell - The Clash - I got Combat Rock for Christmas one year, and while the whole record kind of reminds me of Christmas, this song does most of all. I mean, nothing says Christmas like tales of suffering.
(Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon - I vividly remember hearing the news, live on the radio on December 8th, 1980, that John Lennon had been shot and killed. I had colored lights up in my room and I heard the news and even at 10 years old, knew the world had lost a very important person. The DJ broke the news and then played this song off John's new record, released not even a month prior. It starts with chimes - it sounds Christmas-like, but they also remind me of his death.

Beatles Christmas singles - My friend Adam is a huge Beatles fan and first introduced me to these Christmas messages from the Fab Four. They start out just sort of goofing around, and then they get weird. This YouTube video has them all strung together for maximum effect, 1963-1969.

And last but not least - one last remix, mixing LMFAO with Brenda Lee - "Party Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree". I listened to LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" so much this year with my kids that this is a natural must-have. :) The other songs on the Santastic Six mashup are of varying quality, but this one stands out.

So that's my list. I hope you enjoy Christmas music as much as I do. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, May your holiday be blessed, Happy Kwanzaa, festive Festivus, Cool Yule, Spectacular Saturnalia, Joyous Solstice, Happy Bodhi Day...and so forth.

This is not a dead blog, thisis nota dead blog!

2011-12-20T11:39:00.001-07:00

(Apologies to John Lydon, who wouldn't care anyway…)

So, yeah. NaNoWriMo took my time and then I got sick and then…it's the holidays. I'm writing this so that next year I remember how much work it is around this time of year to keep a blog going. I have all sorts of posts in the works but (insert excuse here). The main one I want to get posted is one on my favorite holiday songs - and it will be almost outdated when I post it. But! I don't care, I'll post it anyway.

I also found out that the person I was trying to contact about my next URGH segment has left that company, so I'll hopefully have some resolution soon on that front and I'll get back to my weekly posts.

All of this to say like it did on the old Carson Tonight Show: More To Come!

Songs to keep track of + Holiday records

2011-11-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all! I'm back from my self-imposed NaNoWriMo exile. I "won" - which means I wrote 50,000 words of a story. I still need to finish the story, but I met the goal - and then I got sick. Well technically I got sick before I finished it. And I'm still sick. But I had most of this post finished and wanted to get it out there because it's not doing you any good just sitting in my drafts.

So, I program an Internet radio station and I came across "Everyone's Asleep in the House but Me" by Owen and wanted to remember to check it out again. The whole album (Ghost Town) sounded good, actually.

Thomas Dolby's new album A Map of the Floating City sounds eclectic, layered, and fantastic. Featuring Mark Knopfler, Imogen Heap and Regina Spektor (among others) it's a welcome return for an artist I've long had great respect for, well beyond the seeming novelty of "She Blinded Me With Science" and "Hyperactive!".

The holiday albums I want to listen to more: She & Him, Bublé, Biebs, Brushfire's This Warm December, might as well throw Weiland in there too (and I just found out that Bootsy Collins did a Christmas record back in '06!), but most of all I'm excited to hear Matt Wertz's Snow Globe. Wertz is an artist I've dug for years - he's a great songwriter and he's cranked out a couple of holiday type tunes the past couple of years, including "Christmas Just Does This to Me", which is included here. He's got enough integrity and talent (and confidence) to write his own songs in addition to the few standards that he tackles. I've previewed it a bit, but I'm looking forward to diving in now that Thanksgiving has come and gone. (I find it hard to listen to winter holiday songs before then.)

The Promise Ring reunion? Could it be?

2011-11-22T14:28:00.001-07:00

A Promise Ring reunion just a few weeks after the Stone Roses reunion? I don't know if my heart can take it....

My musical thought tonight from #NaNoWriMo

2011-11-17T19:30:00.001-07:00

- So I'm writing the pot smoking scene and "Bone Machine" by Pixies comes on my writing playlist.

It's on.

Quick new release hits - Angels and Airwaves, Noel Gallagher

2011-11-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

So I listened to the new Noel Gallagher self-titled record (Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds) and it was pretty decent. I think bands like Oasis and Pixies are always going to be a "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" sort of thing. Noel is always going to do his thing, and I think he's a good songwriter. He doesn't have the most dynamic voice or stage presence, but he gets by, you know? The song I liked most off the record was "The Good Rebel". I dug the tune & vocals & harmonies. "Dream On" is also a good listen. "AKA...What a Life!" sounds like a lite version of his Chemical Brothers collab. It's not that the songs aren't catchy - I'm not sayin' that. But if you've been paying attention to the Noel-fronted tracks during the Oasis years, I don't think you'll be surprised by anything here, except maybe "The Good Rebel". Whether that's good or bad is a decision for you to make, right?

-------------

The new Angels & Airwaves album is called Love, Pt. 2. The band gave away Love, Pt. 1 last spring in what has been a long run-up to the release of the movie Love. (Part 1 doesn't seem to be available for free anymore) While listening to Pt. 2, it struck me that I wasn't hearing anything that was grabbing me. I really dug the first three AVA albums with all their anthemic bombast. It was especially surprising to hear from one of the Blink-182 brats (and I mean that in the best possible way about them).

Listening today, though, I really like the opening song "Saturday Love". They've really got that U2 "Where the Streets Have No Name" chiming echo guitar effect down.

There's definitely a mood of stretching themselves it feels like, though. Tracks like "Moon As My Witness" feel different somehow. There are a more atmospheric outros/intros, but I suppose there have been those on other albums as well. This record is similar, but different. I'm sure that's helpful.

I'd recommend the other three AVA records before this one (We Don't Need to Whisper, I-Empire and Love, Pt. 1), and highly. But this one's not bad, just not quite as inspired.

I *am* looking forward to seeing the movie, though. It sounds like a cool concept.

ThePunkSite.com has my favorite interview with AVA, where the interviewer zeros in on the progression of the themes of the first three albums. I think it's really cool when there's a connection between a fan and artist like that.

NaNoWriMo and ThURGHsday

2011-11-03T21:16:00.002-06:00

Hi all, just wanted to post a quick update. Hopefully ThURGHsday will continue next week. I'm hopeful anyway. And I think it'll be worth the wait!

In the meantime, I've started NaNoWriMo and that will probably be taking some of my time this month that I would otherwise be dedicating here. I was going to have one of my characters named Jerry and be a race car driver, but I accidentally named him Rick.

I have started creating a playlist that is helping me write - the songs fit the mood of the story a bit. So far it has a-ha, American Hi-Fi, Amos Lee, Angels & Airwaves, Billy Bragg, Dinosaur Jr., Garth Brooks, Matt Wertz & Talk Talk. 107 songs so far. There will be more, as you can tell I barely got out of the B's.

So the posts here might be these short stabs as I write between the swells of NaNoWriMo. But good things are coming! And the more disciplined I get as a writer, the better off we'll all be, don't you think?

We can be heroes

2011-11-01T20:33:00.004-06:00

This article first appeared in Three Hundred Sixty Degrees, a fanzine I wrote for while living in San Diego, in 1993. The magazine was published by Jeff Motch. I thought I'd repost it here as it was just brought to my attention that Girlfriend has just reached its 20 year anniversary. I'll blab more at the end.

matthew sweet

Mecca. Jerusalem. The Coach House. People make pilgrimages at crucial times in their lives, and mine was to the latter to meet Matthew Sweet. Mohammed. Christ. The hyperbole may weigh heavy upon his shoulders, but he will always be sort of a savior to me. About one and a half years ago I had musical differences with the band I was in (read: I got kicked out) and I started to wonder about my abilities and talents. Maybe some people don't care about how well they might do what they do, but I was kind of let down. "Evangeline" was the song that kicked off my gospel - I heard it on KCR. In reading the liner notes, I found that Matthew played nearly every guitar on the album, bass included, and wrote and sang every song. The idea that I could be like that, almost a one man band, appealed to me in my feelin' sorry state.

As a result, I sat in my apartment a lot, trying to write something slightly cohesive, while experimenting with guitar leads over the Richard Lloyd/Robert Quine lead guitar on "Girlfriend," Sweet's breakthrough album. I learned how to play guitar much better, more or less, thanks to that album. I then acquired the "Girlfriend" CD-5 and "Goodfriend," a promotional CD that showed more of Sweet's talent - home versions of songs with him playing drums as well as lead guitar. Mix his so-depressing-they're-uplifting lyrics with some personal problems I was having at the time, and yeah, I basically thought the guy walked on water. I even thought of writing a letter to him, but didn't, thinking "Why would he care what I had to say?"

So then I heard a new album was in the making. I called Zoo to see if I could get an interview, and they were pretty warm about the idea. Almost five months later, after attempting to get something together, after the release of his album and two videos, after much patience from the people at Zoo, after thinking that it would never happen, I found out he would be playing the Coach House, the closest he would get to San Diego for a long time. I set the interview up, showed up for the post-soundcheck chat and sat down with a personal hero.

"Why aren't I reading _his_ words, then?" you ask. "Why all the hero worship? I mean, that's so uncool, you geek." Yeah, I know. But in the mad, zany, kooky world of karma, I must have made fun of a retarded kid or smiled when I heard somebody I didn't like died, because the pause switch on my tape recorder was on for most of the interview. Justice had been done, and I felt like King Geek Boy in front of someone who healed my lovesick mind more than a few times. He couldn't have been nicer, telling me to have his record company reschedule another interview, but the steam had been taken out of me. Most people would jump at the chance to talk to their hero again, but I felt that there wasn't any point. (I really want to stress the fact that I'm completely rational about these things, I mean I never expected him to invite me on-stage or anything, but those are the things you dream about, and I don't think I would've felt happy with anything less. You could say I have unusually high hopes.)

Things I did learn about him (mostly from memory and a bit of taped stuff, so don't sue me):

He was interested in Mitch Easter, the producer of "Radio Free Europe," not necessarily R.E.M., when he met them after a show in Nebraska.
He met Lloyd Cole through Fred Maher, his longtime friend/collaborator. Lloyd suggested doing a one-night Beatles cover band.
MTV didn't really like his video for "Ugly Truth Rock," which was a tribute to a movie I can't remember. He ended up directing the video after arguing with the co-director.
The strange organ-like sound on the Sweet Relief benefit album is a backwards and sped-up steel slide guitar.
His song on the No Alternative album is "Superdeformed," the B-side to "Girlfriend." And speaking of that, he did meet the "Teenage Female" girl once, although she no longer writes.
Some of the tracks on the album version of "Someone to Pull the Trigger" were recorded at the BBC session that appears on "Goodfriend."
An actual quote? Okay.

Is the stuff you write really as personal as it sounds?
"Well, it's personal, but it's not technically personal, so you can't think each thing was happening to me in my relationship. But the feeling in the song is personal. It's kind of a hard thing to describe to people, the difference. I'm not saying it's not personal, but it's not autobiographical. Except emotionally."

He didn't seem to have a clue as to what was happening with how the record company was releasing his singles off Altered Beast. Not that he's stupid, he just didn't know what song they would release next, nor could he confirm or deny rumors of a box to hold the five singles from the album, color coded to match the five different CD covers. It seemed like he still doesn't have much control of what's happening around him regardless of the fact that he's the sole creative force.

So what does it all mean? Well, I don't think people should "kill their heroes." Then we'd have nothing to aspire to. I learned that heroes are people, too, and as dippy as it sounds, I guess what I mean to say is that I think musicians go from being excited that other people like their music, over a media-hype publicity edge, to a place where they know these kids look up to them, but they're people after all, and can't they have a few minutes to themselves? I think if he had known how I felt going into the interview, Matthew might have told me to settle down a bit, that he doesn't like all the attention, that he's a very shy person from Nebraska who happened to get lucky. Very lucky. And that it may happen for me someday, but it may not. It may not happen for him any more, but that might be okay. And that while a savior can help, he can't cure all that ails you, so don't expect him to.

Yeah, I'd still like to play with him someday, but on equal terms. Which means either he's comin' down

or I'm goin' up.

---------------------

The Aforementioned "More Blab":

I don't think I've looked up to people in the same way since then. I might admire someone's talent, but I don't really have any "heroes" per se.

"4 : an object of extreme admiration and devotion : IDOL"

That's pretty hefty to lay on someone. As to why it's sports figures and musicians and actors a lot in our society, I don't know. They're the ones we see all the time. But I think it takes some growing up to see that everyone's fallible. Like that episode where Bobby Brady idolizes Jesse James and then has a dream where Jesse kills the whole Brady family. Jesse went from Bobby's object of admiration to...just another guy, doing what he was doing to get by.

Matthew Sweet had no idea what he meant to me then, nor what he means to me now. He's just a guy, doing what he does in order to get by.

Final thought: I think everyone needs to work on themselves, and if possible, to be a hero to themselves. Looking outside yourself won't work. It can provide a guide, but everyone ultimately needs to stand on their own.

Bands that are following me on Twitter

2011-10-27T21:24:00.002-06:00

Sorry, no ThURGHsday again this week, hoping that situation resolves itself soon. I'm doing what I can. :)

So, I write about music on my blog (duh), but I also have a Twitter account, a last.fm account where you can see what I'm listening to all the time - probably some other accounts somewhere, but I can't think where right now.

Anyway, bands follow me on Twitter, and I've started marking when those follow e-mails come in so I can go back and listen to them. Today is the day when I listen and start writing about them!

* * *

First up is the latest band to follow me, the Treading Lemmings. Kind of a cute name, maybe a little too clever, but what the hell do I know? I would have said "Pixies" was a crap band name if you'd asked. :)

The first song I listened to on their site was "Prostitution With A Twist". On their web page they say they're "American Brit-pop" but that song didn't seem to fit that bill for me. However, the next song "All She Wrote", does sound a bit like Pulp in the vocals & music. Good melody. I like it.

Song 3 - "All At Sea" - Definitely not American Brit-pop. I know Brit-pop good sir, and you are not it. Neither is song 4 "Tempest in a Trousseau", which sounds more like Men At Work than anything.

My advice? Lose the "American Brit Pop" tag. The songs are decent enough without trying to tie into a movement that didn't have a specific sound per se, but I associate the songs with good old fashioned power pop, like Badfinger, Rick Springfield, Material Issue, Fountains of Wayne. Stuff like that. Check out "Comeuppance", you'll hear what I'm talking about.

Treading Lemmings hails from Maryland, so look for them if you're in that area!

* * *

Next band is Deadsleep. The first song, "Chant" is definitely metal, kind of screamo sounding stuff which I'll admit I'm probably not the best judge of. The description on the bandcamp page says he's playing (programming?) all of the instruments & singing and it sounds pretty good. Talented metal guitar. The vocal melodies are pretty good, too.

Moving on to the second song, "Again", he's definitely passionate about what he's singing about, I'll give him that. I'm not being snide or snarky, it's pretty good. Kind of sounds Layne Staley in parts, which is a plus for me, I really like Alice In Chains.

Probably the best song to my ears is song 3, "To Your Soul". I would definitely keep an eye/ear out for this guy. Deadsleep, from Long Island. Check it out.

* * *

Last band for tonight is Tommy Marz Band from Detroit, Michigan. (Is there another Detroit I should be aware of? It just feels natural to say "Detroit, Michigan" and not just "Detroit".) "Destiny" kind of sounds like a nasal Kid Rock laid-back track. Not great, but not, you know, *horrible* or anything.

Second track is "Only Human" and has a cheesy programmed drum track. Eh. Sorry, Tommy. Not my thing. But you keep on, man. If you dig it, that's all that matters. Seriously. Good luck.

* * *

Ok, I'll try to do this from time to time, as long as bands keep following me on twitter. Hopefully they don't get mad if I don't like their music, but - you spins the wheel, you takes your chances.

What was your first favorite band?

2011-10-25T22:00:00.000-06:00

I always like finding out who was someone's first favorite band. It doesn't tell me anything about them, really, and I don't use it as some sort of indie yardstick or whatever. I just like hearing how people have awakened to being a music fan, as opposed to someone who just hears music.

I have memories of a lot of different bands before my first favorite band. I recall hearing songs like "Wig-Wam Bam" and "Little Willy" by Sweet on FM radio in the Los Angeles area as a kid, but I never knew who sang the songs, just that they were catchy. Same with "Roxanne" by The Police (who I discovered with zeal as the 80's waxed).

1977 was kind of a watershed year for me, developmentally. I mean, I only turned 7 that year, but that's the year that Star Wars (Ep. IV) came out. At some point that year, I received the soundtrack, and also Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, the climax of which was featured in the movie The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training. So I had a bit of an ear for classical, which is probably why the song "Livin' Thing" by Electric Light Orchestra resonated with me. Orchestral strings in a pop song? That just wasn't done! Well, it wasn't something my 7-year-old ears knew of, anyway. That sound was different and special. There were lots of strings being used in disco, I suppose, but this wasn't a dance beat, it was decidedly rock. So when ELO released Out of the Blue in October of '77, I was sold. This was my favorite band. They had spaceships on their album cover!

I mostly only listened to Side 1 ("Turn to Stone", "It's Over", "Sweet Talkin' Woman", "Across the Border"), "Jungle" off side 2, and "Mr. Blue Sky" at the end of side 3. (Little trivia - the vocoder voice at the end of "Mr. Blue Sky" is actually saying "Please Turn Me Over", signaling the end of that side of the record)

It was around that age anyway that you start laying claim to things being favorite. You had a best friend, a favorite glass to use for milk & cookies, a favorite shirt, probably favorite shoes. I had a favorite band, and so my passion for music deepened.

A couple of years later, ELO released a Greatest Hits record which, as I recall, I received for my 10th birthday. This record had a few songs from Out of the Blue, but most of the eleven tracks were from earlier albums. Funny, though, to this day, I still hear them as songs from 1980 even though most were from before 1977.

The memories I have of the songs on that record are varied, but I like them all. "Can't Get It Out of My Head" has somehow stayed with me as a love song, but I don't know that there's anything in the lyrics to support that. Maybe the "ocean's daughter" line and the "old world is gone for dead". I do know that in pining away for some girl I listened to this song and "Telephone Line" over and over and over again. The sadness conveyed in both songs - along with the vague lyrics - allowed me to mold them to my situation. I was fucking sad, man! Girls! Sadness! These guys understand me!

Note to self, though: Don't read any more ELO lyrics. Just read through "Strange Magic" and it's probably more ambiguous than "Can't Get It Out Of My Head".

I was excited when the next couple of ELO song was released - "Don't Bring Me Down". I remember my then next-door-neighbor taunting his dog - whose name was Snoose - when singing the "grrroooosss" part of the chorus. Big laughs, that. But it's big rock intros like this one & "Ma-Ma-Ma Belle" and later on "Hold On Tight" that draw you in to the songs.

I suppose that I liked some of the Xanadu soundtrack as well, but didn't latch onto them like I did the earlier songs. I don't think it was any sort of "sellout" thing - I was 10, for crying out loud - but I did recognize that Xanadu was a very commercial effort for them.

"Hold On Tight" was their next big single, but it had a definite Jerry Lee Lewis boogie-piano throwback that didn't sound quite as fresh as some of their earlier songs did. I do also sort of remember "Rock and Roll Is King", which was pretty retro-sounding as well. "Calling America", their last US hit, is somewhat familiar as well and has the production value I would come to recognize as Jeff Lynne's stamp that's evident on a couple of Tom Petty albums from the late 80's, as well as the Traveling Wilburys first record.

I guess I had stopped paying attention to Electric Light Orchestra by the time "Rock and Roll Is King" hit radio, but I was intrigued by "Video!", Jeff Lynne's song from the movie Electric Dreams. The Police were my favorite band by that time, and I was also listening to Rush. Big Country's The Crossing came out the month after ELO's Secret Messages and I was captivated by the fresh sound of Stuart Adamson's guitar. There were other, more exotic sounds that were catching my ear.

ELO broke up in the mid-late 80's. I guess Jeff Lynne had moved on to other projects, too.

But you don't forget your first, do you? There's still a bit of a nostalgic rush when you hear the songs. You remember how you felt back then, how you felt every word in earnest. Your first favorite will always be special.

So, good reader - who was your first favorite band? Please leave a comment and tell me the story. I'd love to hear it.

Animoog Madness!

2011-10-21T22:42:00.001-06:00

My friend Michael told me the other day to stop writing about music and to start creating some. So I did.

"Animoog mmmadness" was created using Moog Music's Animoog app for iPad and GarageBand for the Mac.

Animoog is only 99¢ for a limited time, so go grab it and play!

EDIT: I see that some people are finding this page when searching for Animoog & GarageBand, so I thought I'd include a picture so people can see what I'm talking about for the iPad-computer connection:

That's not the cable I used, but the connectors are the same. I mentioned "computer" instead of Mac above because it should work for any system running Windows or Linux as well, as long as the CPU has an audio in jack.

Have fun!

Photo linking & no ThURGHsday! today

2011-10-20T20:41:00.000-06:00

First - there's no ThURGHsday post today because I'm working on what I hope will be a big splash for the next post & band in the movie. I'm really excited about it and, if it comes through, will hopefully give the series a lift.

Second - you'll notice that there are no pictures or video attached to this post. I've been doing a lot of reading today, mostly about the use of images on blogs. That reading has led me to begin work on a mission statement for this blog. Statement of purpose. What this blog and I are all about. So you have that to look forward to.

This bout of introspection was brought on by a Google+ post by one of Your Older Brother's friends, Bryan Jones, who has had some of his fantastic photos used on other blogs without permission or attribution. He posted about the transgression and I pointed out that I had given the photographer credit on my Smiths & Stone Roses posts. I have to admit, I felt pretty self-righteous. I was doing The Right Thing.

Thankfully, what came next was a couple of Bryan's friends pointing out that "Attribution does not release you from copyright infringement - or from permission." and "Especially when they post advertising on their page and clearly make money with it." I took both of these comments to be about me and what I've done here on Your Older Brother. I felt upbraided, and rightly so. I humbly asked what bloggers should do, and was pointed to using photos which are available under Creative Commons license; one person linked to a CC photo search tool.

Each person quoted above responded that they were talking about the original non-attributer/non-linker, not me, and had stories about their viewpoints ("It's a delicate balance though -- as do I let my work be seen -- or do I hide it all in a box and let no one look at it without getting paid.") - one person even had their pictures of university sports offered for sale by a sports website without his permission.

The main article I read was over on Design Sponge (titled Photo Usage) and had a list of good practices for bloggers when using the photographic artwork of others. (There's another good article that touches on photo usage titled Online Etiquette & Ethics, Part 1)

One thing I aim to do on this site is provide links to locations where the music can be obtained legally and will hopefully result in the musicians getting paid for their music. (And yes, through ads and affiliate links, money for me as well.) As someone who was in a band who was trying to make a living as a musician, I feel strongly that artists should be compensated for their work, whatever form that should take. I strive for integrity, and for me that includes identifying, attributing & linking to any photographs I use on this site that are not my own.

I was glad to have learned this lesson, and I'm thankful to Bryan and his friends for teaching me. The Internet is very "wild west" at times, and while I'm not perfect, I try to be as honest as possible. I have downloaded music illegally. Not proud of it, but it's happened. But I also had a subscription to eMusic for a couple of years and that showed me how easy, enjoyable and inexpensive it can be to get digital music legally. Some of my favorite bands of the past couple of years - Surfer Blood, Best Coast, The Hold Steady, Magic Bullets, Boy + Kite and many many others - were purchased and downloaded from eMusic. Usually two albums a month and I had plenty to explore and listen to. I also enjoy the free use of services like Slacker and Spotify to help introduce me to new music. Some bands like the Fornicorns and Maritime have their albums up on services like bandcamp & Soundcloud for free listening & purchase through the site.

So from here on out, I will try as hard as I can to get permission beforehand when I use someone else's pictures, and I will keep attributing & linking to the photographer or original site. If I publish a post and hear back afterward and am asked to remove the picture, I'll comply with the artist's wishes.

Photography plays a large part in enjoying music - it does for me, at least - and I want to keep spreading the word about good art, whatever form it takes. Because your older brother has good taste about all that stuff, right?

Stone Roses reunion update - it's real!

2011-10-18T09:08:00.000-06:00

I love this picture:

(Photo by Pennie Smith)

First gigs in Manchester in June of 2012 - as it should be! Also reports of new music and a world tour. Coachella 2013 anyone?

More details at Consequence of Sound.

UPDATE: Here's some video of the band at the press conference:

And the new official Stone Roses website.

Stone Roses reunion rumors...again

2011-10-17T11:06:00.003-06:00

Last Friday there were rumors swirling around that The Stone Roses might re-form and play some gigs.

I don't really play the "will they/won't they" game too much. If they do, they do, if they don't, they don't. These rumors pop up every year or so, and they never amount to anything.

I also don't know that I ever really had an opportunity to see the Stone Roses live, like I have with other classic bands from the early 90's - save Ride, I suppose. I saw Pixies on one of their reunion tours, and saw Oasis, blur, Pulp, and Teenage Fanclub back in The Day.

But I'll tell you this - If they do, and I have even an outside chance of getting to see the Stone Roses live, I'll be in line with the rest of the geezers to plunk down my cash because, for my money, John Squire is one of the best guitarists & artists of my or any other generation.

Ohio University + Party Rock Anthem = LMFAO f'real

2011-10-14T20:59:00.001-06:00

So, earlier this year I came across a video that's become one of my favorites ever, LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem":

I love the zombie theme & the dancing is incredible. Just a lot of good, clean fun.

Today, I found a video of Ohio University Marching 110 doing "Party Rock Anthem". It's a great marching band version of the song and a lot of fun to watch them play & dance:

I love clever stuff like this. I hope they're all having as much fun playing & performing the song as I'm having watching & listening.

New Maritime Daytrotter session!

2011-10-13T20:54:00.001-06:00

I've been muchly loving the new Maritime record Human Hearts. Every song is really good, they get in my brain and won't leave it alone until I listen to the album again. And again.

Daytrotter is a cool website that has lots of artist sessions, 4 songs a shot. They've hosted Maritime quite a few times and the latest was just posted today with songs from Human Hearts. Check it out. Free downloads of 128k mp3 versions of the songs, or a buck a song for lossless!

Maritime is Davey von Bohlen & Dan Didier from The Promise Ring, with Justin Klug (bass) & Dan Hinz (guitar) filling out the lineup. I hope they come to Denver soon.

I bought the album a month or so ago but just now found out that it was released back in April! I can't believe I slept on it so long. I also found out that they posted a bunch of b-sides on Soundcloud for free. All the tracks that have "Download" next to the "Save to Favorites" are the ones, and they're pretty darn good, too. Go get 'em! And buy the album. Preferably from the link above. (winky smiley here)