Quote of the Week and my new Summer Song
First this week's quote:

My buddy Joel and I were at work discussing the current Avril song on the radio when I started prodding my buddy Joel about downloading her music after he said he thought she was good looking. To which Joel replies, "Hey just cause I'd bend her over doesn't mean I like her." I laughed for quite some time after that.



Now the song of the week:

I've been hearing this song on Mix 95.7 by the Los Lonely Boys called "Heaven." Now granted the song is kind of cheesy but damned if it isn't catchy plus they are being called Willie Nelson's favorite band. Well last Friday night I fell asleep on my bed with the tv on. I woke around 4 and saw VH1 was on. I thought, "I didn't turn on VH1" I watched it anyway and it was the VH1 countdown. They showed the Los Lonely Boys video and it was hilarious. It is a bunch of guys with long hair and stereotypical Mexican mustaches singing this semi-ballad....which in the middle they begin singing in Spanish........Oh man I love it
- posted by Brian @ 5/31/2004 04:50:00 PM

 
A long overdue post
First things first--

Todays quote of the night happened on the wya home from Rita's. On WZZO (a rock station) they were playing Lit's new song and letting people vote to Leave It or Shove It. Most of the votes were shove it but someone called and said, "The guys from Lit sound like they should all move to Massachusuetts." It was hilarious.



Now--a month ago or so I went back out to the Ville and visited with some friends. I stayed with Matthias, Criag, and Harry so I want to extend a big thanks to the guys for housing me up and letting me kick off the Wearin' Out My Welcome Tour 2004.I had a good time with the guys when they were around and we had the chance. Friday morning consisted of Matthias and I composing the perfect techno song (it rocked). Then we went and bought ring bologna and cheese and watched Dickie Roberts. After Matthias went home for a wedding. Craig and I went over to visit Karen and her radio show. Then when Criag left for his film shoot, I spent most of Saturday with Harry. It was cool cause I got to hang out with all of them, albeit separately instead of all at once. Also Harry, his "friend", and I sat and drank on their deck for a while. (I should've went to the movies with them =).....I had a blast with the guys and I plan on visiting them again so hopefully they won't decide to lock the doors and laugh at me from the window. Sadly, Harry won't be there so Karen will so it all works out in the end. (Harry said he was going to invite me down to the shore over the summer and I'm gonna hold him to it).

So in conclusion thanks guys I had fun--we gotta do it again sometime
- posted by Brian @ 5/19/2004 06:33:00 PM

 
The State of Rawk Music
(Disclaimer: In this article I will only mention bands that are played on radio. I have a great respect for many indy bands out there but don't know enough about them to individually point them out. Also I don't think indy=good like most people do.)


I don't know about you- my loyal readers- but I am a huge rock fan. But not just rock---I love the pulse pounding, guitar riff blaring, hands in the air, songs about partying and having fun rock. I wish I'd have been around during the heyday of AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin--cause those are all phenomenal bands of their time. In the 80's we had Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, among others. Styx rules the house too.

Where is that music anymore though? On a recent jaunt through the radio I was "blessed" with hearing the curretn crop of rock musicians and am amazed at what passes as rock anymore. Hoobastank's "The Reason"? A Perfect Circle, Three Days Grace, Puddle of Mudd (who released the worst song of the whole movement "She Fucking Hates Me" which is basically that song from Grease--ugh)--holy crap I was ready to rip my radio out of the spot in the dash and then run it over 4 million times. And I thought the Staind, Limp Bizkit fad was bad.

Then the crap of all crap is that god awful band Nickelback. I swear to God those assholes sold their souls to the devil to have any kind of career. There is a website where someone took their songs How You Remind Me and Someday and put them coming out of seperate channels, you know what--it's the same exact fucking song. Check it out here.

Where is the pulse pounding guitar work and drum beats? The only thing these songs do to me is make me want to retch all over the album the next time I see it listed at Best Buy as a "great buy". Hoobastank actually showed promise once but with this song have completely ruined any good will they had with me. And don't try to defend the song to me. I'm all for rock ballads. But they don't need to sound so derivative, and sappy...........Look at "Lady" by Styx, "Mama I'm Coming Home" by Ozzy Osbourne, or even "I'll Be There for You" by Bon Jovi to name a few. They all get the point across without resorting to sappy lyrics and whining like a bitch. In fact, that's what many of the new bands are whiny bitch rock.

Also, all they do is bitch about everything and everyone. Man if you want to rock you NEED to sing about partying, scoring with women, and well anything but whining like a bitch. When the garage scene was hitting two years ago MTV and radio christened it, "The Return of Rock" it wasn't a return really- they were just back to singing upbeat music, not crying about their dad or hating the world. (BTW that fad died as soon as it started- although The White Stripes seemed to survive it, despite not really being garage rock Follow all that?)

There are good bands out there though fair readers. White Stripes of course, Velvet Revolver, which is a mix of Guns and Roses with the lead singer of STP (They've also been getting awesome reviews in concert and te crowd is young so they don't need to rely on the fans in their 30's) Audioslave is on the cusp, and Jet might be the best band out there right now. Their album Get Born is an absolutely awesome effort and they have a stripped down AC/DC sound to them which works perfectly. I hope they stick around forever. And I can't forget the band that I found out about and loved about 6 months before they got popular The Darkness. Thank god the Darkness is showing the world how real 80's anthem rock should sound. Permission to Land is an awesome album as well and you should purchase at least 3 copies.


So in conclusion---speak out against the whiny bitches like Hoobastank, Nickelback, and the like. Speak out by turning them off the next time you hear one of their songs come on the radio. Tell people that like them they're idiots (its ok this once) and turn them onto something good- whether it be one of the bands I listed or another band you love. But we need to bring back the real RAWK MUSIC.


P.S. Use the comment sections and I'll talk rock with you and give my opinions on any band you have I haven't mentioned
- posted by Brian @ 5/17/2004 05:00:00 PM

 
I can't tell if people are being bitch-ass punks or punk-ass bitches
Today we had some problems with the radio at work. Now here's the situation:

There are six of us that work in one area and one radio to share. Some of the people that work in the area (3) like hip hop and rap music. The other three (me included) does not. So one day a few weeks ago after we had been listening to WMGK (Philly's classic rock station) and WMMR (A mix of current and classic rock) this incident occurred as recounted by my friend Joel

The other day Dahmer at work had a minor temper tantrum. We had been listening to WMMR (rock, classic rock) and WMGK (Classic Rock) for teh most part the last week or so. Before break dahmer changed the station to the dreaded Q102, so after break it got changed to WMGK. Well a few minutes into the post break strecth he pulls the plug on the radio and says, " If we can't share, no one gets to listen to the radio".

So after this happened we went back and forth with one station and then Dahmer changing to his station of Q 102. Now a note about Q 102......Q 102 is a hits station. It plays songs that are in the top 40 and it plays them ad nauseum. I'm not exaggerating when I say this. In a four hour span they played My Immortal by Evanescene, and Naughty Girl by Beyonce 3 times. In addition they played Yeah by Usher 4 times, and Jessica Simpson's Take My Breath Away an astounding 5 times. Our problem with the station is not that we hate the music but that it repeats the same songs all day, so it is enjoyable to listen to. (As a not the stations we like have no repeat work days).

So Joel and I went to Dahmer and said, "What can we all listen to so that we don't fight over the radio?" Dahmer said, "Oldies or Sunny 104.5 (a station that plays stuff from the 60's, 70's, and 80's---and has a no repeat DAY!) So we said ok--Sunny isn't really what we want to lsiten to but if we can all agree on it its fine. That worked for two and a half days until Michelle decided to turn Q 102 on again (Waiting until everyone left for lunch to change stations) So I said to Joel it's on now. So when we arrived at work this morning I put on WXTU (The Country Music Station), which I was sure would not make them happy making her realize not to break a truce.So her and Perry the ther guy at the end of the line proceeded to yell "Yee-haw", and "You a hillbilly" while my music was playing. Also Dahmer said, "They should get your paretns for child abuse for making you listen to this as a kid." So again I said "What can we all listen to? We don't like hip hop and you don't like Sunny, so what can we agree on?" So Michelle says, "96.5, 98.9 or 103.9 (all rap and hip hop stations--completely acting asinine) They said one day we should listen to our music and then one day you cna listen to ours, "I said that's dumb cause I don't want to make you listen to music you hate for 8 hours just so I can listen to music I hate for 8 hours....it doesn't make sense, Plus I don't think that's right. I don't make people listen to country music, even though I love it, cause I know most people don't like it. Eventually they agreed upon listening to music for 8 hours at a time with 11 am being the switch over (One day is Q 102 from 11-3 and then the next morning from 7-11---then it switches). I eventually pulled myself from all radio discussions.

Now the part that pisses me off is they said I acted childish and siad we can only listen to music as long as I like it, plus they made me out to be the bad guy in it and said I cried til I got my way. Even though I tried to find a station we could all listen to, even suggesting one that would've worked perfectly) and told them later just change the station I don't care.


The question for you my loyal readers is this- Was I being the childish one in all of this? Yes I said I don't want to listen to hip hop but they said they didn't want to listen to rock. Also they bitched about the radio choice even mocking the music and me (something I don't do--I bitch about the station and laugh at Dahmer dancing). Then they complained about the radio until our side relented and agreed to the deal even though it meant listening to music we hate and specifically asked them not to play. The last thing to keep in mind in this story is Michelle is like 32 years old and Dahmer is 34...Just thought I'd throw that in. So what's the verdict---was I being irrational, or were they the childish ones?
- posted by Brian @ 5/13/2004 06:56:00 PM

 
Feels Like the First Time
So last night Karen yelled at me (well not yelled but she told me) to update my blog again. Seeing as I hadn't updated in like 3 weeks it seemed like a good time.

So the reason I haven't updated recently is because I've got nothing to say really. My lif ehas been beyond boring lately and I'm not happy with a lot of things. In fact, for the first time in my life in about 5 years I feel a sort of depression and feel like my path is out of my hands. I don't really want to go into it any further than that.

The one good thing going right now is my friend Mark asked me if I wanted to help himm coach baseball so we are coaching Babe Ruth baseball (junior highg aged kids). It rules cause I always felt like I had something to offer and was never happy that an arm injury caused me to stop playing. So now I can pass some knowledge onto other kids. We've gotten off to a bad start though cause the guy in charge of the league has been screwing us over in some matters but hopefully this week will help us get back on track.

So besides working at this shitty job just to pay the bills (which is the worst reason for working) I also go to the fitness center every Saturday and work on the treadmill for an hour to help myself get into shape. I go and watch Lizzie McGuire and That's So Raven while I workout since nothing else is on. Also the past few weeks this girl---very cute has been there-- and if it keeps up I'll be forced to introduce myself.

Other than that I might be playing hockey this summer---finally-- I'm tired of just watching, and thats the other positive thing.....other than that everything sucks so goodbye
- posted by Brian @ 5/09/2004 06:33:00 PM