1.4.13

(Editor’s Note – I kinda fell off my New Year’s Resolution for a bit, but I’m catching up with the listening and am going to definitely catch up on the writing.)

On January 4^th, I listened to The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, The Smiths The Smiths and Two Door Cinema Club Beacon. I guess this was England day, the first of my very loose themed days.

If you remember from my New Year’s manifesto professing 2013 The Year Of Music, I have a deep emotional connection with The Beatles. I also feel like writing about them is a fool’s errand. So, here we go.

I made Magical Mystery Tour the first Beatles album I would listen to this year because BBC America just showed the movie. I watched it like five times, was fucking mesmerized each time and I’m convinced Monty Python stole their ENTIRE shtick from it! The foot race definitely inspired the Twit Olympics. 

Every song on MMT is a masterpiece, but for some reason my favorite has always been “Your Mother Should Know.” I love how they end the movie with it and they couldn't look creepier walking down the stairs… especially John.

I could listen to this album every Sunday for the rest of my life.

Fan fact: Remember the whole Paul is dead thing? I put the album cover upside down because the way The Beatles is spelled out was supposed to be some guy’s phone number you could call and he’d tell you how Paul died. I dunno, maybe. So, punch up the UK dialing code and call 537-1438.

I guess my relationship with The Smiths started in 1987. That Spring I got suspended from High School cause some psycho jumped me in the hallway and all I did was defend myself. So, with three days off I spent one of them driving to Home Of The Hits, Buffalo’s long gone hipster record store, and came home with the The Smith’s Louder Than Bombs on cassette. I would spend the next several years listening to The Smiths and/or Morrissey a lot. I just realized I got into a fight and ran out and bought a Smith’s record. What a pussy.

Speaking of pussies, years later when the little pussy Emo thing was happening around the turn of the century, I came to a realization. While everyone was crying at the Dashboard Confessional show, I remember thinking that I like my emotional singers FA-LAMING with Johnny Marr backing them up.

I’m way off track here. The Smiths The Smiths! I like this record. It’s not my favorite proper album from the Manchester boys, but it does have “What Difference Does It Make,” and “This Charming Fuckin’ Man!” Some of it is too much of a downer, but a solid debut!

My two favorite lines from the album are from “You’ve Got Everything Now,” “No I’ve never had a job, because I never wanted one.” Fucking ridiculous! And “Pretty Girls Make Graves,” “She’s too rough, and I’m too delicate.” Probably one of my all time favorite tracks from the band, and I always thought, “I’d like to meet a rough girl and mess around with gender roles,” which is weird because that then became a line in a James song and it freaked me out. I dunno, maybe.

This is the girl that inspired the “I’m too delicate” line. I'd let her beat the shit out of me!

Two Door Cinema Club kinda fits right in with The Smiths. I remember not really caring for their first one and some guy I know told me to go back and give their second album Beacon a shot. I did. It’s not bad, I liked the single, “Sleep Alone,” and the cover is pretty cool. (I also put it upside down, cause it looks dirtier that way.) Overall, I was washing dishes when I listened to it and it was just kind of there, but I didn't hate it. 

1.3.13

On January 3^rd I listened to Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Hüsker Dü Everything Falls Apart and Deftones Koi No Yokan.

I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying this New Year’s resolution and I truly think I’m going to stick it out all year. I don’t know how much writing I’ll be doing every day, but I’ll be listening to the music for sure! One of my asshole friends in L.A. was giving me some shit for this whole thing by saying that it’s a bit “self-indulgent,” “nobody reads blogs” and “nobody wants to see pictures of me.” It’s my own fault, really. I decided to run with the asshole crowd in college and now I’m stuck with them. F U Fisher (sic)! Roudboy and Marcus backed me up. Although, Bagodonuts didn’t seem to care either way.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreaker’s debut is another album I don’t remember much. I love me some “American Girl” and “Breakdown,” but I did also unearth some gems that I’ll be putting into rotation in my MP3 player. (Has anyone noticed I call my iPod my MP3 player? Cause fuck Apple!)

SIDEBAR – The “Greatest Hits” package ruined Rock N’ Roll. They basically did the same thing the MP3 players and the Spotifies are doing now. There’s probably going to be a hundred albums that I’ll listen to this year for the first time, because I had the radio singles on a greatest hits thing. The Kids In The Hall’s Bruce McCulloch once said, “Greatest Hits album are for housewives and little girls.” So true.

Back to Mr. Tom Petty! Does anybody remember the It’s Garry Shandling’s Show? There was an episode of the show where Garry was flying somewhere, and Tom Petty was there too, I don’t remember the specifics of the episode maybe Tom was Garry’s neighbor? I dunno. Anyway, they’re all on a flight and the stewardess (You ain’t nothing but a waitress in the sky.) comes by with dinner and says to Tom, “and here’s your Kosher meal, Mr. Petty.” This was like 1987 or so. To this day, I’m not sure if Tom is Jewish or not. But I just remember thinking it was really funny.

“The Wild One, Forever” sounds super familiar to me, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard it in over 25 years! I also love “Anything That’s Rock N’ Roll.” “Strangered In The Night” is fucking weird! I wonder if it couldn’t be called “Strangers In The Night,” because of Frank Sinatra? The song’s about a black guy and a white guy and somebody gets stabbed or shot. I dunno, maybe.

I know I have heard music from Hüsker Dü’s debut Everything Falls Apart, but I don’t remember what. It was a staple on my college radio station for years, I just didn’t play it. The Replacements were MY band and Hüsker Dü, I just didn’t get. Oddly enough, on Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, which was listened to the day before, there’s a song called "Something To Dü," which is a nod to Hüsker.

Falls Apart is definitely an old school lo-fi hardcore album. It’s got some moments and it’s annoying in spots.

Ironically, I thought it was weird the word “fag” was getting thrown around on the track “Blah Blah Blah.” Considering Bob Mould is gay, I’m assuming in his youth he just kept quiet about things like this. His book See A Little Light is next in my reading queue, so hopefully he’ll talk about that in there.

Their cover of “Sunshine Superman,” is odd, to say the least and I did like “Gravity,” but a record like this is tough to get into. Let me explain:

I once had a discussion with a friend of mine about trying to discover old indie rock music. I was playing him Please To Meet Me by The Replacements because he had never heard it. To me the album sounds like a favorite meal or seeing an old friend, to him it sounded like shitty production and songs that meant nothing. The point is… sometimes the brilliance of a song or album can only be recognized in the pocket of time it came out. Back in 1983 Hüsker Dü spoke volumes to people that were looking for something else. It wasn’t on the radio, it didn’t sound like anything, and it was made by guys that weren’t rock stars… just restless young men. It could even be you making a record like this! If you fell in love with it when it was happening, then you took it with you through the years. Sometimes, without that nostalgia it’s a hell of a lot harder to enjoy something like that. Does that make sense?

I have gone back several times to listen to the big albums from Hüsker Dü, Zen Arcade and Warehouse, but they just didn’t speak to me. They’re all going to be featured in 2013 The Year Of Music and I’ll try to listen with an open mind and eagerness to find out what I’ve been missing. I love so much of Bob Mould’s other stuff, I’m looking forward to go back one more time and do the Dü! (NO I DIDN’T!)

Deftones are back! Although a dumb name Koi No Yokan (In Japanese it means, “premonition of love.” Oh brother.) rocks and I love it! Going back to the formula that made their first three records tit sandwiches. (I’m trying to coin new phrases for great. I can’t keep saying “great,” or “awesome.” Tit sandwich works, maybe?) Hopefully, we can all forget about the last three records which were definitely shit sandwiches and nobody took a bite. (Man, I suck.)

Although the formula is almost a little too much like tracks off of Around The Fur and White Pony, I don’t give a shit. I missed the old Deftones too much! Plus the cover just looks like something from their late 90's heyday. “Swerve City” starts the disc off and running and doesn’t falter from there.

Much love and positive thoughts for bass player Chi Cheng, he is still recovering from a coma as a result of a 2008 car accident. Although he’s making great progress he’s still got a long way to go and I hope he plays with the band again someday.

1.2.13

On January 2^nd I listened to The Who My Generation, The Replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash and Soundgarden King Animal.

I have to admit, I don’t think I ever listened to all of My Generation and if I did, it must have been in the 70s! I know the two hits quite well “My Generation” and “The Kids Are Alright,” but the rest of the album was virtually brand new to me.

Basically, it sounds like a young band trying to take their influences, the Blues and some Soul, and find their own voice. It’s funny to hear The Who finding themselves on their first record when yesterday Led Zeppelin just bust out of the gate with their sound all ready to go and an album packed with classics.

When I was a little kid I remember loving the stuttering in “My Generation.” Remember that scene in Forest Gump when he’s dancing around for Elvis? That’s how I would sing and dance around when I heard “People try to put us down. Just because we g-g-g-get around! Things they do look awful c-c-c-cold. Hope I die before I get old.” Based on the strength of that one song, I can see how this album is always listed as one of the best ever recorded.

I will walk away from this record with a better understanding of The Who’s sound and two songs I really liked, the soulful “I Don’t Mind” and the roadhouse jam “A Legal Matter.”

I always compared The Replacements debut Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash to the first time I ever encountered somebody on cocaine. He was a hell of a lot of fun, yet his abundance of nervous energy made me not want to turn my back on him. Sorry Ma, is a badass punk spaz attack from what you think are the coolest guys you know.

I’m embarrassed to admit, I never listened to 1981’s Sorry Ma, until probably around 1990 and then it was a borrowed copy. I didn’t own the thing til the 2000s, so every time I hear it, it’s a little familiar and a little new.

“I’m In Trouble” has always been my favorite. “You’re in love and I’m in trouble.” “Customer” and “Shut Up,” are other little faves too, but every track has its moments. I always thought in “Hangin’ Downtown,” when Westerberg yells “anyway I got no place else to go,” was a shout out to the movie An Officer And A Gentlemen. But, I just looked it up and the movie came out after the record? Well that sucks, I must have passed that along as fact like a hundred times.

Some day when we can time travel, I’ll be in the studio drinking beers when they record this album.

I didn’t want to instantly dismiss Soundgarden’s return with King Animal. But, anytime a band goes away for a long time and comes back you have to question the motivation for the new album. When The Pixies got back together they refused to do an album. At some point this year My Bloody Valentine is putting out a new disc and people are actually excited about it! 

When I got this Soundgarden disc, I barely listened to it and I fucking love Soundgarden. Ever since I heard “Big Dumb Sex,” I was sold. Badmotorfinger is something that I’ll be writing about this year and “The Day I Tried To Live” and “Fell On Black Days” are two songs I can listen to over and over and over!

Having said that, I can’t make a decision as to whether or not this album is good, bad, or four rich dudes making a record for shits and giggles. I thought maybe something would have jumped out with a giant hook and sucked me in, but there’s nothing like that. “By Crooked Steps” rocks and is kinda cool. “Bones Of Birds” sounds like “How To Disappear Completely,” and when a band like Soundgarden tries to rip off Radiohead, my head starts to hurt.

I’ll just say I’m disappointed. 

1.1.13

Listening to Led Zeppelin I, The Clash The Clash and The Beastie Boys Licensed To Ill yesterday was invigorating!

I haven’t listened to Led Zep I from front to back since the late 80’s! I forgot what was on it. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is going into heavy rotation on my MP3 player straightaway! By the time I got to “Communication Breakdown,” I re-realized what an embarrassment of riches this fucking record is and then my all time favorite Zeppelin track “How Many More Times” closed it down!

My excitement for something so simple is kind of a funny thing. Fuck me for not listening to an album so good for so long, but on the flip side, the time away really made this record special again. 

As I listened to “You’re Time Is Gonna Come,” I was reminded of all those hacky Classic Rock radio stations that got the Led out every night. By putting Led Zep on such a pedestal and trying to create something special, they sucked the life from it. THEY KILLED IT. But, let him who is without sin among us be the first to throw a stone… I used to host Mandatory Metallica every night at ten o’clock on the radio. I played three songs from a library of twenty songs. After the first month, I hated Metallica.

But enough about me.

There isn’t a room on the planet that doesn’t get like a million times cooler by throwing on The Clash’s self-titled debut album. Put this on in the background of your Nana’s kitchen next time that you’re there and test my theory. 

It was a calculated juxtaposition to listen to The Clash’s working class angst right after Robert Plant and the boys hit me with a symphony of blues, rock and cheatin’ whores!

“White Riot” and “Career Opportunities” were great to hear in the context of their album mates. “Remote Control,” “London’s Burning,” “Police & Thieves” and “Garageland” are all going to be given extra attention from now on. Man, did Weezer rip off the shit outta “Garageland” by the way. “Cheat” gave me my favorite Joe Strummer “fuck ‘em” moment when he sings “If you wanna survive… you better learn how to lie.”

I love the fact that The Beastie Boys’ Licensed Ill starts off with a track that contains samples from Led Zeppelin and The Clash. All I will say about this album is this… I can sing the whole thing. Every fucking word! AND it sounds as fresh today as it did in 1986! Did you know they wanted to call it, Don't Be A Faggot? Columbia Records said "NO!"

I did notice something that I predict will become a theme by listening to classic albums all year. The radio hit. When “Fight For Your Right” came up on Ill, I wanted to just skip it. I don't hate the song, but I've heard it too much and to enjoy I gotta be in the right mood. Most of the time I just tune it completely out. It’s a great irony, without “Fight For Your Right,” Licensed To Ill doesn’t sell 9 million copies and maybe I wouldn’t love it as much, but in the context of the whole album… it sticks out like your mother’s dick.

See you tomorrow. I dunno, maybe.

“I got the trees on my mirror, so my car won’t smell.” 

WHAT'S AN ALBUM? 2013 IS THE YEAR OF MUSIC!

Something happened to my music listening habits in the last few years. They basically went right down the shitter! Sure, I’m still looking for new stuff, but I get stuck in my “favorites,” and lately my true lust for the medium of music has started to resemble a cold dick… shriveled and ugly. (Yes. I did just say “lust” and “dick” in the same sentence. Calm down.) So, in the spirit of adventure and because I AM NOT AN OLD MAN, I have decided to make 2013 the year of music!

This is not so much of a New Year’s resolution, as it is an opportunity to get back in touch with music I have thoroughly enjoyed. To experience music I never heard and to maybe give a second chance to shit I despised.

How many albums have I wasted HOURS of my life listening to and haven’t touched in years? How many records have passed me by? What about the records and artists I dismissed as awful? Can I learn to love? I used to hate Brussels sprouts when I was a kid, now I can’t eat enough of those fuckers! Toss ‘em with some olive oil, shallots, little salt and pepper and roast that shit UP! What do the Asian broads say? Num num num num!!!!

Regardless of my love of winter vegetables, I have turned my back on what I have always truly loved… music! And in 2013 I’m coming back baby, and this time things are gonna be different. I swear!

I’m not one who enjoys tooting his own horn, but back in my day I really knew my shit. I did the college radio thing in the early 90’s and then hosted a “new music” show on a commercial Alternative station in the late 90’s. I listened to A LOT of fucking records in my time. I have forgot about more records than the average 20-year-old puke will listen to in his or her lifetime! I hate you and your youth! You’re wasting it. (Sorry. I get all worked up.)

Quick History.

When I was a kid in the 80s, I used to listen to the radio and even tape songs off of it. Yeah, cassettes! Can you believe that shit? From this point on there was always an ominous current of popular radio present in my life. That included popular Top 40 type music, Classic Rock and even Oldies.

Then one day I went and saw the movie “Krush Grove.” So I got into first generation rap. LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys and all those other mother fuckers.

Then a friend of mine went to England in around 1985 and came back with tapes of the Jesus & Mary Chain and The Cramps. So, I got started on the path of the “New Wave,” which basically became Alternative and that’s basically my bread and butter.

In my mid to late teens all my friends were in their Classic Rock phase and I spent a lot of time rocking out to all the bigs! Led Zep, Who, Stones, AC/DC and all the rest of those cats. (There is really only one guy on the planet that can use the word “cats” like that and that’s Slash. I am no Slash.)

I have to do a separate side bar for The Beatles. When I was 16 I started dating an 18-year-old… I know right? She was the chick in the story about my first job at Kayak pools? Remember? Whatevs. She had all The Beatles albums on vinyl and I taped them on cassette and would listen to them incessantly! I hold those albums very dear to me. Not only are they brilliant but if I listen to them in the right mood, I can almost remember what it was like to be 16 and have unprotected sex with an 18 year old girl. Do you realize right now, I weigh more than me and the 18-year-old girlfriend combined? Figure we both tipped the scales at 265. Food for thought. Yada yada yada… I fucking love The Beatles and have a very deep relationship with their music. Pun intended.

This is getting long-winded, so to wrap it up at some point in my early 20’s I rejected all that was Classic Rock because I had had enough! I was burnt out on that shit because I had heard it over and over and over. And everything popular just stopped speaking to me. I needed to find myself, my voice, my own shit and I didn’t want everybody else listening to my stuff! I used to relish listening to something in my car and my friends saying, “what the fuck is this?” “This is me, dickheads,” I’d think.

I started working for WBNY, my college radio station, and I simply became an asshole music snob. This went on for a while, but I mellowed and just started liking music for music and not because of some perceived coolness or whatever bullshit they’re still shucking down at Pitchfuck.com.

Recently, I started to think that maybe I was becoming too old for good Indie Rock. That what happened to my parents and their parents was happening to me. That what I thought was “it” was outdated. But then I realized that’s way off fucking base. I’m NOT TOO OLD to get it! It does indeed suck!

“Your honor, I’d like to call in to evidence 2012’s crop of Indie darlings. Grizzly Bear, Sleigh Bells, Best Coast and that bearded twat band without any hooks. All awful, yet they get all the press and they’re in every other God damn TV commercial." (Confession – I used to like a lot of shit when I was a 20-year-old puke. I did, so I get it. But my shit was better than your shit! And I may prove that this year with this stupid New Year’s Resolution!)

So, here we are! I was walking down the street and Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks” pops on my MP3 player. I fucking loved every second of it and I came to an epiphany… I have ignored too much shit for too long, and I have become a bad music fan. Although on the plus side, I have given so much stuff such a long rest, it sounds April fresh to my hairy man ears!

My Resolution.

In the year of our Lord, L. Ron Hubbard, 2013 I have resolved to listen to three full length albums everyday. No more random songs, I’m listening to the LP! (LP stands for Long Player. EP means Extended Player. Just throwing that out there.) One album will probably be a Classic Rock record, but I wouldn’t exclude classic R&B, Top 40 or Oldies. One album will be a classic Alternative record from one of many genres. The third album will be brand new or just a few years old. Some days have a theme, but it's mostly random. I also wanted to make January about some great bands' first album, but some debuts just plain stink.

I will break these rules often and everything is up for debate. Plus, the order that I listen to these albums has nothing to do with rank of greatness or poorness. If you’ll notice, I’m breaking the rules on New Year’s Day. Three classics! MCA, I miss you much.

I would ask you to join me and let’s listen to some God damn music! And I’ll probably be writing a lot about what I hear.

JANUARY 2013 ALBUM LISTENING PARTY

1st
Led Zeppelin - I
The Clash – The Clash
Beastie Boys- License To Ill

2nd
The Who – My Generation
The Replacements – Sorry Ma, I Forgot To Take Out The Trash
Soundgarden – King Animal

3rd
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Husker Du – Everything Falls Apart
Deftones – Koi No Yokan

4th
The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour
The Smiths – The Smiths
Two Door Cinema Club – Beacon

5th
Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones
The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys
Tame Impala – Lonerism

6th
AC/DC – High Voltage
Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell
Hives – Lex Hives

7th
The Doors – The Doors
Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking
Silversun Pickups – Neck Of The Woods

8th
Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac 75
Fugazi – Steady Diet Of Nothing
Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

9th
Def Leppard – Pyromania
Blur – Leisure
The Vaccines – Come Of Age

10th
Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols
The Stooges – The Stooges
The Adicts – All The Young Droogs

11th
Van Halen – Van Halen
Dino Jr – You’re Living All Over Me
The xx – Coexist

12th
Genesis – Selling England By The Pound
Pixies – Doolittle
Muse – 2nd Law

13th
Talking Heads - 77
Primus – Frizzle Fry
Beach House – Bloom

14th
The Kinks – The Kinks
Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
The Maccabees – Given To The Wild

15th
David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World
NIN – Pretty Hate Machine
The Big Pink – Future This

16th
Queen – Queen
Nirvana – Bleach
Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral

17th
Rush – Rush
Tool - Undertow
The Mars Volta – Noctourniquet

18th
U2 – Boy
New Order – Movement
Howler – America Give Up

19th
Patti Smith – Horses
REM – Murmur
Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Cause Fiona Is A Fucking Douche

20th
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
Pavement – Slanted And Enchanted
Metz - Metz

21st
Pink Floyd – Meddle
Run – D.M.C. – Run-D.M.C.
Swearin’ – Swearin’

22nd
Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath
Metallica – Kill ‘Em All
Ministry – The Land Of Rape And Honey

23rd
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band – Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ
Dead Milkmen – Big Lizard In My Backyard
Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory

24th
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Public Enemy – Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Japandroids – Celebration Rock

25th
Janis Joplin – Big Brother And The Holding Company
Liz Phair – Exile In Guyville
Grimes – Visions

26th
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced
Buffalo Tom – Birdbrain
Green Day – Uno

27th
Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare
Butthole Surfers – Locust Abortion Technician
Green Day – Dos

28th
Kiss – Destroyer
EPMD – Strictly Business
Green Day – Tres

29th
Frank Zappa – The Mother’s Of Invention – Freak Out!
Slayer – Reign In Blood
Carly Rae Jepsen – Kiss

30th
Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True
Jesus And Mary Chain – Psychocandy
Cat Power – Sun

31st
Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground & Nico
Sonic Youth – EVOL
Passion Pit – Gossamer

I will observe Black History Month in February with at least one Black artist a day.

FEBRUARY 2013 ALBUM LISTENING PARTY


1ST


Michael Jackson – Thriller
Rev. Al Green – Let’s Stay Together
Jay Z – Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life

I dunno maybe.

Brad Maybe's Blodeo #0029 Europe II Part I

"Two Dorks On An Escalator" - St. Moritz, Switzerland