Randomly Musical

Well hey there, internet neighbor. I've been absent from the blogosphere recently but once you see the vast and magical things that have kept me away you will regret sending me those anthrax emails:

• New beers have been drunk (at the Pour Farm)
• Meeting Joey from Anthrax!
• Taking time to be awesome
• Digitizing my DVD collection
• Traveling the countryside
• "Researching" the myFaces
  
• Playing in bands
• Not blogging

That last one was probably the biggest reason for not writing, but it could have been all that time I was being awesome. Either way, times are changing as I'm easing into a full-time research position at my center and contemplating my next life steps. I take small steps, though, so right now its between finishing this blog post and drinking some water.

Lucky for you I've decided to stick this post out and give you a patented (by patented I mean "stolen") uber random post about songs in the 'ol iPod.

1) He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's the Pilot - Grandaddy
I was (digitally) given this album a few years ago and I don't think I've ever listened to the whole thing. From what I've heard (and what I will hear over the next 9 min...wow, that's long) they sound like a pour man's version of The Flaming Lips. I'm 4 minutes in and have detected some Death Cab For Cutie-ness and need for splitting this into at least 3 tracks.


2) Communication Breakdown - Trippin' Blues
Oh dear lord. Back in college I was in a little acoustic trio consisting of no singers (though that didn't stop us) and 3 very amateur musicians. Lucky for us we were quite charming and fun to hang around so we got more gigs than we rightfully deserved (apologies to anyone who went to see us at Uncle John's...every Thursday for the Spring 2002 semester). This song came from, what I like to call, the "Rick Fetters" sessions. He was a regular at the old Hardware Cafe (Marion, MA) open mic and we wrote him the "Rick Fetters Song" which was a rather disturbing but well received tune about Rick taking over as MC at said open mic. You may have noticed how much text I'm writing while listening to this song. The reason being that this song is in fact a 7 min. cover of Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" ripe with harmonica (possibly the best aspect of the old band), cringe-worthy slide leads and awful rhythm...oh good, it's over.

3) Long Way Down - Goo Goo Dolls
Before that horrid "City of Angels" movie totally removed any rockish tendencies from the Goo Goo Dolls they were a pretty awesome rock band. This song is a perfect testament to those tendencies. The album where it resides, A Boy Named Goo, is be best known for the ballad-ish "Name" but should have been remembered as balls to the wall rock album.

4) Strawberry Wine (Live 05/17/2005) - Ryan Adams
Cold Roses had just been released and I was gonna see Ryan Adams play at the Avalon in Boston. As I staked out my spot in the crowd visions of "Magnolia Mountain", "Sweet Illusions" and "Let It Ride" danced in my head. Then the show started with a new tune. Good call, good call, get the crowd settled with a new, peppy song. Then another new song and another and another one still. All told he played 3 songs off of Cold Roses and 8 songs off his yet to be released albums, Jacksonville City Nights and 29. While I didn't complain (much) the one tune that made me less than pleased was this one, which opened up the encore, as it clocked in at over 9 minutes and consisted of just an acoustic guitar and tooooooons of words. Luckily, "Wonderwall" and an awesomely unaccompanied electric version of "I See Monsters" followed to close the show.

5) Stevie's Song - Michael Troy
The pride of Fall River! I don't know how I'd feel about having that moniker but Mr. Troy seems to enjoy it. He's as close to a music legend as you're gonna get in a city who's motto is "We'll Try" (f'realz, it's even on the police badges). I would often run into him at the Narrows Center open mic and his music was always pretty decent...little acoustic diddy's about local life, nothing fancy.

6) Casey Jones (Live @ The Filmore West) - The Grateful Dead
WTF?!?! Can't I get just 2 songs in a row which aren't like 50 minutes long? This tune comes off a 4-Disc set recorded from a set of shows the Dead performed at the Filmore back in the late 60's. Back in High School I used to tutor my friend's little sister in Algebra and her mom got me a Circuit City (R.I.P.) gift certificate for the help. Along with some blank CDs I bought this album and further fueled my High School obsession with jammy, hippie bands. I admit, though, 15 years later this album still has legs...those boys could play.

P.S. The song actually ends with over 3 minutes left. The rest is just some really stoned dude blabbering on about how awesome the Dead are.

7) By My Car - My Morning Jacket
I don't know where I got this from. Oh, sweet lord, it's soooooo freakin' slow. I just want something fast, pleeeeease.

Note to self: When in a specific music mood do not play "Randomly Musical"

P.S. I'm reeeeealllly (italics mean "streeeeesss") bored so I'm enjoying playing with FONTS!!!!

8) Emile's Vietnam in the Sky - Elvis Perkins
Great band, great album, great song. Elvis actually played a gig for my best friend's Computer Music thesis presentation at Brown. I saw him again at the Paradise in Boston last year, maybe longer.

Still a slow song but at least it's less than 3 minutes long.

9) Moby Dick (bootleg) - Led Zeppelin
I have been a Zep-head since I was about 17. This gem (according to the 17-year old newly minted Zep-head me) comes via a bootleg cassette tape I bought at the Raynham Flea Market in High School. Later it got put on an 8 disc collection of Zeppelin rarities and live tracks I made called Hammer of the Gods. This is actually just 4 minutes of Bonham playing around on the drum set.

The 17-year old newly minted Zep-head version of me wasn't the best judge of musical character.

10) Kashmir (Live) - Led Zeppelin
Dear Lord, why hath you forsaken me? This is a 10-minute version of the classic Physical Graffiti track from the early 80's. Here are the list of reasons why this version sounds like utter crap:

1. It's the early 80's so Jimmy Page probably has a needle sticking in his arm the entire song (in fact, he barely does anything on this song)
2. John Paul Jones is making his mark that he's not the least talented one...so he's really loud.
3. Robert Plant is beginning his vocal deterioration.
4. For some reason there is an echo effect on everything Robert Plant sings
5. It just sucks, absolute crap

Well, that wasn't as much fun as I thought it'd be. Better luck next time, for now its time to be physically active.

Who wants to poke a bear with a stick and see how fast it can run?

Obama had the Knights Templar Killed...f'realz

Last night I went to a Brewery Dinner with some friends downtown. The brewery of choice was Ommegang (makers of Three Philosophers, Witt and Hennepin), the food was awesome (shrimp tabbouleh, little necks with chourico) but some of the pairings were off (herb chicken with strong flavored beer and strong alcoholic-y beer with chocolate and vanilla ice cream). All of this, however, pales in comparison to our conversations at the end of the night with a crazy ass, radioactive tomato government conspiracy guy who, for the sake of conversation, we'll call...The Greatest Man To Ever Live (TGMTEL from here on out because acronyms are the shit).

UPDATE: I've created a movie about it...with ROBOTS!!1!!one!!!!



Our conversations began as he was waiting for the bathroom and introduced himself as [scene missing]. After his first thought bomb about "generically [sic] engineered" tomatoes that have a "shelf-life of 6 months due to a tiny dose of radiation", however, he quickly attained the TGMTEL moniker. Before he left us to relieve himself he asked us to think about the origins of two phrases: 1) "Hit the head" and 2) "A little birdie told me..." His explanation of the former was brief but interupted by my desire to know the answer to #2. What followed was a long and magical journey through time and space with no heed to logic or commonsense at any point. The dialog that follows is paraphrased and commented on in ( ) to illuminate key points but is true to what happened and not fabricated because, honestly, I could never dream to be this batshit crazy.

Me: So, where did "A little bird told me..." come from?

TGMTEL: You see the Rothchild family, second generation (this would be the German Jewish banking dynasty beginning in the late 18th century), they had lots of places all over and they were trying to communicate to each other. The Templetons, though, came in and they were looking for the treasure of Israel (annnd you lost me). For a long time they looked in the hills and finally they figured out where it was. What did they find? Who knows, coulda been the covenant or (at this point I have on my thinking cap) it coulda been the 1st bible which was written by the Greeks (f'realz?) but lost over 2,000 years ago.

Me: Templetons? Do you mean the Knights Templar?

TGMTEL: Yes, exactly! (our journey moves to the 12th century!) So they found where it was and the Christian Crusades were a total sham (wasn't there a movie about this?) because the Knights of Templar were then killed on Friday the 13th. The NEXT year, though, the Pope and the King of France were killed on Friday the 13th the next year for retrobution. Which means, now they in charge of all the money! (wait, who?) Why did you think switzerland and portugal were neutral in WWII? (and we're off to the 20th century!) You see, and now that's why you got Obama (to the 21st century, and beyond!) now proliferating the New World Order.

Me: Right, makes sense.

TGMTEL: I wrote a book report on this in 1974 (book = "How the Jews Took Over: One Crazy Ass Story") and a Senate Review Committee looked it over and they said there was definately grounds for a conspiracy investigation.

At this point none of us could wrap our heads around what just happened. TGMTEL wondered away to the otherside of the table where someone asked him what he did for a living. He gave no specifics, or even non-specifics, as he basically just threw down two government contractor IDs and babbled about lord knows what.

All in all, best bar night ever.

15 Albums that Changed My Life

Ah, such is the Facebook life. I was sucked into a note from Golenium this morning and was compelled to compile my own list.

Since music reminds me of times in my life more than anything else I'm gonna be more of a story-teller than a list-maker today...deal.

Life-Changers:
1) Gold - Ryan Adams
RA is my favorite artist of all-time and this album started it all. After getting through just the 1st 9 tunes (right after "Nobody Girl") I was compelled to call my best friend and tell him he had to go buy it...right now. This album is the reason I play guitar the way I do.

2) Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Blind Melon will forever be my favorite band with my favorite album (this one) and favorite song ("Change", #6 on Blind Melon). This album has been the soundtrack to my life since I was 14.

Influential Obsessions:
3) Purple - Stone Temple Pilots
The first CD I ever owned (Christmas gift in 7th grade). I knew all the singles from Core, but this album put STP on the top of my favorite band list with Live. This is not their best nor my favorite STP album (that would be Tiny Music...) but this album was my first digital obsession. Oh, and "Silvergun Superman" is just badass.

4) Throwing Copper - Live
Ah, my first analog obsession. I must have listened to this tape (pirated on those old Maxell tapes) 50 million times in middle school. Their best album, by far, I still get amped listening to "I Alone" and "Shit Towne".

5) I - Led Zeppelin
The heaviest album they, or anyone, ever recorded (heavy != loud || heavy != distortion)

6) The Complete Recordings - Robert Johnson
I was obsessed with the stories behind the songs when I got into the blues in college and, I'll be honest, I almost went to a cemetery in North Dartmouth one night in college to play some Robert Johnson tunes on the 'ol guitar...worked for the Allmans, right? Everything me and you learned about the blues we got from Robert Johnson (and his derivatives).

7) Rubber Factory - The Black Keys
Speaking of the blues, how 'bout them Black Keys? Their first two albums were dirty, messy and awesome. Their 3rd album, however, was concentrated rhythmic heaven as you can't help but bop (yes, bop) the entire listen. "10 AM Automatic" and "Girl is on My Mind" taught me that awesome solos really can be that easy.

Moments in Time:
8) Sea Change - Beck
The ultimate album of sadness. Whenever I'm down, broken and feeling uber sad I spin this album...and get sadder! Something about this horribly sad album (recorded after he ended a 9 year relationship) makes me feel worse but, by the end, I'm feeling a much better.

9) Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Pink Floyd
In college I went through a huge Floyd kick and came to one conclusion: Syd Barrett was Pink Floyd. Post Barrett-ian Floyd was awesome (Wish You Were Here is one of my all-time favorite albums) but they were a different band. Listen back to Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Piper..., and you'll hear an experimental band that was fantastically out there.

Change of Taste:
10) Trouble Is... - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
My first real blues album...from a kid only a tad older than me. Along with Blind Melon this album was always in the CD binder for most of high school.

11) Come Away with Me - Norah Jones
Before discovering this album (by discover I mean "be alive in 2002") I was never really into female vocalists. Of course, this was mainly due to my only exposure being Salt-N-Pepa, TLC and Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries). Me and Dr. Momentum were thoroughly obsessed with this album during my sophomore year of college. These songs ultimately led me to some of my favorite artists (male or female), Missy Higgins, Ollabelle, Lucinda Williams, Brandi Carlile, Janiva Magness and the like.

12) Pneumonia - Whiskeytown
Reason I started listening to Whiskeytown? Ryan Adams, of course. While this isn't super country-fied and, on his own, RA has twanged it up way more I consider this my first true foray into (albeit, alt.)country land. It broke me out of that "country music is crap" mantra I had since I was a kid. Now my mantra is "country music on 98.1 WCTK Country is crap."

Guitar Stuff:
13) Wildflowers - Tom Petty
Honestly, for the first couple years I played guitar this was my blueprint.

14) BBC Sessions - Led Zeppelin
It's ok to solo for 15 minutes? Awesome! While I apologize to all of you who listened to my bands around this time, this is how I learned to play rock music.

Just Because:
15) Lucy - Candlebox
This album was awesome but not super influential, excepting for what it represents to me. This was the last album I ever purchased on cassette tape, signifying the end of my analog music days. I don't ever long to go back to analog mix tapes, but sitting alone in my room for hours on the weekend making a good mix tape will always be one of my fondest memories.