-
Quirky Ukulele Music
For some reason I have really been into quirky ukulele music lately. First it was YouTuber Molly Lewis. She has some awesome videos on YouTube, and has even played with Jonathan Coulton. She has an album on iTunes, and it is definitely worth the $6.93.
Then today Motion City Soundtrack’s blog introduced me to the greatness that is Garfunkel and Oats. You can listen to all their songs and watch a bunch of videos on their website. It was another easy iTunes purchase for me.
-
Green Day
Nirvana’s album Nevermind changed my life. That one album single-handedly got me listening to tons of amazing lesser known bands. One of those bands was Green Day. Back in 1992 I picked up Kerplunk and was blown away. How could an album this good not get any radio play. That’s when I gave up on the radio. Since that Green Day album was so great I started listening to other bands on Lookout! Records. Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Squirtgun, and Mr. T Experience all suddenly became my favorite bands. Then I got into bands on Epitaph, and Fat Wreck Chords. Such great music, yet mostly unheard of.
I never got a chance to see Nirvana live, but I did see Green Day back in 2002. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, but it lacked anything from Kerplunk. Tonight Green Day is playing in Fargo. I can’t wait to see them, and will be hoping for some music off of Kerplunk, but I doubt they will play any of it. They have so many great songs, and most people probably don’t know much from Kerplunk.
I have checked their setlists and they do vary a little from concert to concert, but no Kerplunk songs. I am still hoping they play some “Christie Road” though. It’s one of my all time favorite Green Day songs.
I know they aren’t going to play anything older than Kerplunk, but how awesome would it be if they played “Paper Lanterns”?
Or maybe “80”?
Or even “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?”.
I am sure the concert will be great, but I kind of wish I would have seen them back in ‘92 or ‘93 to see them play my favorite songs.
-
Dinosaur Jr. “Over It”
I was a huge Dinosaur Jr. fan in the early 90s, but wasn’t much of a fan of their last album they released in 2007. I just watched the video for their new song, “Over It”, that is off their new album coming out next Tuesday. I really liked the new song. It sounds like the old Dinosaur Jr. that I use to know and love, just with more gray hairs now. Here’s the video. It brought me right back in 1993.
-
“Weird Al” Yankovic “Craigslist”
I have been a “Weird Al” Yankovic fan since first hearing “Eat It” in forth grade. I have pretty much liked everything he had done since. I’m not a big fan of his latest song “Craigslist” though, but it’s not his fault. It’s a parody of the Doors, and I can’t stand the Doors. I can’t get over the crappy sound of the Doors to like the song. It’s a pretty cool video directed by Liam Lynch though.
-
10th Anniversary of Napster
I first experienced downloading MP3s back in 1994. Back then it was easy to find copyright infringing MP3s right on the web. The problem was they took forever to download, and took up so much space. Back then a 1 GB hard drive was huge, so 3 and 4 MB files started to add up. I didn’t download too many MP3s back then. CD burners were way to costly, so you pretty much had to sit at your computer to listen to them.
Eventually the RIAA and record companies discovered MP3 and started cracking down on them. When that happened I starting download music from FTP sites. I would sit in IRC rooms that would announce different FTP sites, and I would check to see what they had. It was a long and tedious process to find anything I wanted. That’s when I really started to download music though. It’s not that I wanted to steal it, I just wanted to hear it before I bought it. I discovered many bands that way, which lead me too more CD, concert ticket, and t-shirt purchases.
Then in 1999 Napster came around and changed everything. Suddenly anybody could download music, not just geeks. This month is the 10 year anniversary of Napster. Once Napster came out it was much easier to search for anything you want and find it. It was at that time also that I first got broadband, and a CD burner. It was becoming too easy to steal anything you wanted. I admit I download my fare share. There was no way to purchase song online, so we really had no choice.
Napster was shut down, but many other similar file sharing networks popped up. It was still easier to steal music online than to buy it. iTunes would eventually start selling music, but it contained DRM, so I refused to buy any of it. I don’t want my digital music to be locked down to anything. Once Amazon launched their MP3 store I finally had a place to buy music online, and now that iTunes is DRM free I even buy from there too.
Now days you can check out bands on Myspace, and then buy their music on Amazon or iTunes with just a few clicks. I can finally preview the music before I buy it, and I can buy it in my underwear in the comfort of my own home. Things have sure changed, and I am glad it’s getting easier and easier to support the bands I love. I never wanted to steal, I just wanted the convenience, and now I am getting it.
-
Sing It Loud
Sing it loud are an up and coming Minneapolis band. I have seem them, and they put on a pretty good show. Here they are doing an acoustic version of one of my favorite Jimmy Eat World songs.
-
Green Day
I don’t know what it is, but I still like to buy CDs. I couldn’t tell you the last time that I actually put one in a CD player and played it though. Now days, they just get ripped and put in the closet. Today the piece of plastic I bought was the new Green Day CD. My Green Day tickets also came in the mail today. I have seen them once before, and it was the best concert ever. I had tickets last time they were suppose to place Fargo, but they canceled. They will be here in July, and I can’t wait.
I have been a Green Day fan forever. They along with Nirvana were my gateway bands. they got me listening to a lot of great music. Back when Green Day were on Lookout! Records there were so many other great bands on Lookout!. I would pick up CD just based on the record label, and I was never disappointed. Now days with the Internet any MySpace it’s not really the same. Long gone are the days of picking up a CD and not know what it’s going to sound like. I don’t know if it’s better or worse, it’s just different. I don’t know if it’s that I am getting older, but I find myself listening to music less and less. I still go out of my way to find good music, and seldom like anything on the radio though.
-
Where is the Good Music
Maybe I am just getting old or something, but music lately has really sucked. I haven’t really found anything good lately. The Forever the Sickest Kids album was pretty good. I like the new Sing it Loud, Jack’s Mannequin, and Punchline albums, but I haven’t found anything super amazing is quite some time.
The one amazing album that I have discover the past year has been Amanda Palmer’s Who Killed Amanda Palmer. For some strange reason I didn’t check it out right when it came out. I wasn’t a huge Dresden Dolls fan, so I didn’t think I would care for her much. Boy was I wrong. I can’t get enough of Amanda Palmer and am starting to get into the Dresden Dolls now.
The cool thing about Amanda is that she blogs regularly, is on twitter @amandapalmer, and even uses TwitPic from time to time. Last week she even showed us her cool undies. She had a blog post a couple weeks ago with a bunch of her videos in it. So go and watch them and enjoy the greatness that is Amanda Palmer.
-
What Happened to Good Music
Today would have been Kurt Cobain’s 42nd birthday. It’s crazy that he has been dead for 15 years already.During my junior year of high school this album with a naked baby on it came out. A lot of people didn’t understand it, but I totally got it. It was something different. I totally related to it and it changed my life. That tape was pretty much glued into my tape deck. Not a bad song on it. There isn’t even a mediocre song on it. All were and still are great in my eyes. That alum opened my eyes to so much great music that wasn’t very popular. Many of those unknown bands would eventually get big and played on the radio. In the mid 90s the radio stations were playing music that I actually liked. Not so much now days.
Maybe I am getting old, but music now days seems watered down. Even the lesser known stuff that I listen too isn’t nearly as good. With the Internet and MySpace anybody with a computer and a guitar can be a band. To find good music now days you have to wade though much more crap. It’s no wonder the radio doesn’t play anything worth listening too. I still find and listen to good stuff, just nothing nearly as good as some of those 90s albums. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins Sonic Youth, and many other bands all had killer albums in the 90s. There have been only a handful of great albums since.
Or, maybe I am just OLD.
-
Grammys Suck
I am a big music fan, but most of the stuff I listen to isn’t all that popular. I am kind of clueless when it comes to “mainstream” music. I never listen to music on the radio because most of it is crap. I found out on Twitter that the Grammys were on last night. I couldn’t care less to see them. First of all I hate all awards show, and second, I probably don’t know much about anybody involved in the awards anyway.
On another musical note, I have had this damn song stuck in my head all weekend. I don’t really know who Taylor Swift is, but the Forever The Sickest Kids version is so much better.