Good Friends & Good Music

Who is the best new artist you’ve discovered?

Wow, as if Scott Bacon read my mind – literally.  Two weeks ago when I was writing the last journal entry on my first musical memories, I thought: “I hope the next journal is to write about a new artist that we listen to.”  In fact, anyone that read my previous entry would already know who I am going to talk about it since I mentioned her several times in it despite the fact she couldn’t be any further from my first musical memory.  On that note, it’s kinda poetic the way (I went to scratch my head just now and accidentally brushed the “mute” button on my headphones which made a perfect stutter effect on a track transition in Trance Around the World…..**shots out like in most the mike jones like way possible** remix!) we went from our first memory to our most recent.  Nice work, professor.  There is beauty in everything.

Ok, so yea, how bout that Ellie Goulding? Welsh, girl singers FTW.  I kinda wanna apologize.  Sometimes I feel like I use music journals and blogs as an excuse to talk about girl singers…..maybe I should just change the name of my blog to “I Want a Girl Singer.”  Clearly, I care a lot more about that than I do good friends and good music.  But, the latter two are a close second and third, respectively.  At any rate, she’s awesome.  I won’t say I know a whole lot about her.  I couldn’t find too much out on the inter-tubes.  The couple blog posts I found about her said she had done some earlier acoustic stuff, none of which I came across.  Her current incarnation is paired with producer Starsmith, who is really cool in his own right.  He makes poppy disco house.  Who is going to argue with that?  Your mom.  Well, I’ll punch your mom in the face if she doesn’t like disco house.  I take my disco very seriously.  Furthermore, he has been doing a lot stuff wih Frankmusik lately which is pretty cool.  I really want to be in the video for Frankmusik’s “3 Little Words.”  It’s just some Frankmusik and some girls dancing around on a giant keyboard. Fun.

So yea^2, back to Ellie.  She has an awesome voice.  It’s really unique and she is super good at singing backup for herself.  Her current tracks are electronic joints without being over electronic…if that makes sense, which it doesn’t to me either.  The production is sparse but really well applied.  There are some awesomely placed stutter and reverse effects which really bring the overall sound together.  I’m having a difficult time coming up with much else to say.  For some reason, I find myself incapable of further describing the sound.  My b.  It’s Monday afternoon and I couldn’t be more burnt out.  I have only been more burnt out once before in my life .  The previous incident was right after junior year of high school.  It coincided with me starting to swear, not that I swore with exceeding frequency, rather I had just never swore at all up until that point. ß run on sentence.  I was a good boy and I still am, of course.  Though, if this past example has taught us anything, it’s that I’m going to do something drastic.  If you have any suggestions of what that something drastic could potentially be, please let me know.  I’m extremely open to suggestions.

In conclusion, please go listen to “starry eyed” by ellie.  It’s the best song I’ve heard since I heard Mylo’s new, unreleased track on Radio 1 back in February.

Honorable mentions to artists I’ve recently come across that I highly recommend:

Dragonette -> Canadian rock band

Shazam -> Australian disco house producer

Leonardus -> Dutch filtered house producer

Good hustle.

What was your first musical memory?

Strictly speaking, the first “music memory” I have is going to see the Boar’s Head when I was but a wee 6’5” redhead.  It’s a yearly Christmas musical they do at my Grandmother’s church.  It was kinda tradition. I don’t really remember much more about it than that which makes for a fairly boring journal if I leave it there.

You know what?  Rather than just draw out some lengthy, forced expose on any one of my first couple musical memories, I’ll just briefly talk about a couple of them.

Alright, music memory number dos: seal - kissed by a rose. on the bus.  in elementary school.  Every. Single. Day….man, I (hate word’s auto-capitalization) hated that song.  It’s pretty much the defining song of the early nineties for me and that’s just wholly depressing.  I don’t want to talk about it anymore……..

The first time I can remember really liking music was when my elementary school colleague learned me on some Dookie by Green Day.  It was awesome, but then again, I’ve already talked about that whole experience in an earlier bit….actually, it was the dusty album review if I recall correctly, so I’ll leave it at that.

This has nothing to do with music memories, but I just found out about a British singer last night named Ellie Goulding.  She is absolutely amazing.  I’m listening to her right now and she rocks!

Next up would be “Whoop There It Is” by the Tag Team.  As a youngster, I was subjected to a lot of music that I had basically no control over.  Not to mention, I had a sister that was three years older who enjoyed bossing me around and forcing me to do things.  She always kinda ran the mainstream, so I’m sure this was one influenced by her.  “Whoop” was the first non-rock song that I liked.  I use to sing it all the time while I was out on the drive way shooting hoops, prob cause “Whoop” almost sounds like “whoosh.”

“Whoop” steam rolled right into “Men in Black.”  At this point, with my sister listening to hip hop and me reciting Will Smith lyrics, it seemed like I was destined to fall into the masses of music mediocrity.  Luckily, around the same time, we moved to NJ.  In fact, I even remember listening to a tape of “Men in Black” on my walkman as we were pulling out of my grandparents’ driveway to make that fateful drive.  Huh, moving is a crazy thing.  Anywho, we made it to jersey, I discovered ska, and the rest is history……….

……delicious, upbeat history.

Holy crap, ellie goulding is soooo good. Definitely go listen to her.

You are in charge of organizing a music festival. What bands do you bring to it?

Taking all of the previous festivals that i’ve either been to or seen the lineup for as the a priori distribution, it would appear that the overwhelming majority of festivals can be classified into one of two categories: a festival to sell out or a festival geared for a specific genre.  A festival to sell out is something like Lollapalooza or Boonaroo or Bamboozle or Coachella or Virgin or really any other of these huge festivals that they throw in gigantic fields or raceways where the whole purpose is to bring in as many people as possible with big name acts and a couple smaller bands who’ve had their music used as the background for a “The Hills” episode you saw a few weeks ago.  On their extremely flashly website, they’ll have a countdown and a whole bunch of crap how it’s festival dedicated to the music and whatnot.  Yet, we all know the real reason they bring in all these artists and have them alternate play on separate stages on the complete opposite side of the field is so that the 50k+ attendees are forced to walk past the  T-Mobile booth in the middle about 2^31 times.  Conversely, the festivals aimed to hit a specific genre or two are more set on just bringing in a bunch of bands that all play the same stuff because they are slightly more about the music.  I’m not going to completely absolve them from selling out because, at the end of the day, no one is going to throw a festival if they are going to lose money on it.  Rather, their profit margins are slightly smaller because they don’t attract as many people. 

To prove how righteous I am, of course, I am going to throw a festival where we only slightly sell out (taco bell, mountain dew, and hershey’s will be the sponsors because they all give away delicious free samples at their booth.  on a related note, my friend and i made it two days at the x games without purchasing a single thing since we were able to sustain ourselves solely on soft tacos and 8oz samples of mountain dew and cookies’n’cream milkshakes.) and pick bands that all play a certain style.

Now, the difficult decision is: which genre?  i would pick ska, but ska is dead so forget that.  none of the bands even play with horn lines anymore, except for Reel Big Fish, but they have recycled the same tired live set the last 4 times I’ve seen them.  Not worth it.  A heads up to bands -> If you don’t care about your own music, no one else will either.  I kinda wanna make a festival that Thursday could play at, but I just don’t like enough other screamo/hardcore bands to warrant making a whole festival just for them.

Ah! I got it. I’ll make a girl singer festival.  Only bands headed by girl singers are allowed to play.  Perfect.  i love it.  So, clearly, Paramore will be the headliner.  They have a big enough name that at least some people would show up.  If possible, I’d also get No Doubt since they are touring again, but I get the feeling they would be super hard to book if you didn’t have a giant venue since they are a pretty big name and in high demand since they recently started touring again (on another related note, paramore is opening for no doubt at the tweeter on june 11th.  it’s gonna be awesome. lawn seats are only $10. you should come.).

there’s a trillion other sweet girl bands I’d get to come as well:

The Sounds cause they are swedish
and
The Hush Sound cause the only time i saw them live they only got 30min
set which blows cause they are waaay better than Panic!
and
Lykke Li cause she is also swedish……i see a trend developing.
and
Ore Ska Band cause they are a bunch of super talented japanese girls
that seem to be the happiest people in the world.  just watching their
music videos makes me exponentially more happy
and
Scandal cause they are also an all girls Japanese band that rocks hard
and
Flyleaf cause they are a sweet band i would’ve brought to the hardcore festival
with thursday but i didn’t originally think of them
and
The Vincent Black Shadow cause i mentally associate them with Flyleaf
since i found out about both bands the same week and that was a great week
and
Zolof and the Rock & Roll Destroyer cause they are super peppy/fun live band
and
finally, i’d try super hard to get Ghost Town Locals back together cause they
are probably my favorite girl fronted band of all time. shame they had to split.
they had so much talent!

yea….good festival.

What is the worst rock song of all time and why?

Journey - “Don’t Stop Believing”

Because it’s not 1:30 in the morning and I’m not drunk……

Truly, I don’t have a problem with this song in particular.  It’s just the main offender amidst a smattering of rock classics, which include but are not limited to the aforementioned, “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” and “Jessie’s Girl,”  that have been whored out as night closers at bad college bars.  I actually have respect for Journey, so it’s unfortunate that this song had to fall under the guillotine.  But, an example has to be made of something:

Cast:

* Ed Hardy -> He’s a little short but he compensates by spiking his hair slightly.  He’s easily provoked if you bump into him, and you’ll likely see him awkwardly grinding up on some girl if he hasn’t already been kicked out for fighting.

* Affliction -> Dark, collared shirt.  Dark pants.  Chucks.  A phillies hat.  Two top buttons undone.  Class.

* Platinum Blond -> She’s average height but dwarves several of her nearby suitors due to the 4 inch heels she is toting.  Her hair is bleached almost as white as the low-cut shirt that is doubling as a dress.  It’s not slutty though because she has on black tights.  She would talk to people around her but she is sincerely more interested in texting on her blackberry to her best friend who is stuck in Manyunk.

Location:

A moderately large bar that is significantly longer than it is wide with wood trim just about everywhere so that it can pretend to be a pub before 10pm.  A bar rides the length of one of the long walls with several red velvet booths against the other.  The bar hasn’t reached capacity yet, but it’s close.  There’s a 3:2 ratio of guys to girls which is further amplified by the fact that half of the 23 girls in the place are dancing on the bar which makes the ratio on the dance floor about 1000:π.  It’s 1:28am and Lady Gaga “Poker Face” is blaring just loud enough to make it difficult to talk to anyone.  The dj keeps using the siren effect because it’s the ballest thing you can do to your tunes….

<enter scene>

Ed: **sips cranberry vodka from an 8oz cup with a quarter section of some nondescript fruit** Oh shit, I love this song. **attempts to grind on a girl walking past him on her way back from the bathroom.  She scoffs and acts insulted that some guy would have the nerve to try to dance with her at bar.  Just cause she is dressed up and out drinking doesn’t mean she is at all interested in having guys hit on her….**

Aff:  **bouncing around almost to the beat but not quite** This Coors Light rocks.  I’m go get another bucket.  6 for 20 bucks man.  Awesome.

Plat:  mojito pls k thx :)

Aff: No problem babe. **clearly honored to be get a mixed drink for the shorty. He scampers off**

Ed:  **is bumped into so he decides the best course of action is to shove the guy back** Dude, watch it. **Immediately he begins scouting for another girl**

Aff: **Triumphantly returns** This is bullshit.  They wouldn’t give me a bucket cause it’s after eleven.  But, it’s cool.  Bottles of Bud light are only five.  And some tall, redhead kid was trying to order a PBR.  Freak…oh, here’s your drink. **hands over the mojito**

Plat: k thx ;)

The DJ cross fades off the beat from ”Poker Face” to “Don’t Stop Believing.”  Every Who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing without any presents at all.

All: I love this song. **Ed and Aff begin to sandwich grind Plat who is furiously texting to her bff: “Journey!1..:o”**

</end scene>

That is why “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey is the worst rock song ever made.

Make an 80 min mix cd and explain.

I’m not sure if people truly appreciate the art of the mixtape to be honest with you.  At the very least, it commands more than an idle thought.  It’s much, much more than just a random collection of songs.  It’s a feeling, an emotion; a constant stream of ideas that flow together where each one is as important as every other.

There are many themes that could be considered acceptable when constructing said mixtape.  You can shoot for an overal emotion or mood with the choice of lyrics and tunage.  You can explore one particular band or style of music.  And, sometimes, you just need to make one for a hottie (just a note to all the ladies, the quickest way to my heart is a mixtape.  No contest.  A girl that wants to learn me on some music is probably the hottest thing ever.).  Or, in the case of mine, I created it to link from one song to the next so that it follows an overall structure which opens with some bangers, moves to more melodic phrases, a breakdown, and, finally, an epic finish.  Albeit regardless of which way you choose to design your mixtape, extreme care must be taken in selection of the tracks and the arrangement thereof.

Without further ado, I present my mixtape as of April 26, 2009:

1. Mylo – I’m Back

The first song is going to literally set the tone for the whole piece so you definitely want to chose something that could lead to almost any other song on the tape.  For my lead off batter, I picked “I’m Back” cause it’s a banger and it’ll get the shorties hoppin’.  It has a nice dance, nu-disco vibe to it that won’t offend any generation but the production value is so high that even hipsters can’t deny how hot this song is.  In addition, it’s really nice to start off with a newly released track as it sparks interest.

2. Barry Manilow – Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed?

Another banger to say the least, Barry Manilow put on his disco hat and brought the house down.  This is one to keep the baby boomers from switching over to a smooth jazz station and it keeps the tempo up from the first track.

3. Kennedy – Karate

A key to the construction of mixtape tracklist is the progression from one song to the next.  In this case, “Karate” falls into a similar nu-disco category as “I’m Back.”  While it rocks at the same tempo as “Who’s Been Sleeping,” it is a bit more laid back to lead us into the next track.

4. La Roux – In for the Kill

Another new classic, “In for the Kill” is a melodic synthpop track which moves away from proceeding energetic dance tracks while setting up for the horn lines we’ll be blaring on the couple tracks.

5. Ghost Town Locals – Ready and Locked

It’s got all kinds of energy to keep the vibe up, but this song is about as ska as you get so it works to move the set away from the electronic/dance section.  Now, we can explore some other genres.

6. Jackson 5 – I Want You Back

This is another song that almost no one can deny.  5-year-old MJ still can get the party rocking.  It also serves as a nice break from a run of newer tracks.

7. The Aquabats – Martial Girl

A peppy, silly track, “Martian Girl” is thrown in just cause it is so damn fun and catchy.  I can’t think of a better follow up to “I Want You Back.”  A+.

8. Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – Utsukushiku Moeru Mori

A slower and even sweeter ska record, this is the first in a foreign import mini set.  If you can find better Japanese ska, you buy it.

9. Wisin y Yandel ft Nelly Furtado - Sexy Movimento [remix]

I know a blond, Swedish girl that will incessantily argue the validty of Nelly Furtado singing in Spanish on a reggaeton track being that she is Canadian and not Latino at all.  Regardless, Nelly Furtado could sing covers of Raffi or metal ballads and I wouldn’t care.  She’s awesome.  This remix is particularly amazing since Wisin y Yandel blow minds by themselves which when paired with nelly turns into (ryan spontaneously combusting)^2.

10. Paris Hilton – Stars are Blind [Luny Tunes Remix]

If there was ever a remix, it would be this one.  Talk about completely destroying a song.  Luny Tunes are hands down the best reggaeton producers around and they knocked this one out of the park.

11. Air - Le Soleil est Pres de Moi

For the last in the foreign import mini set, we go with this chilled out classic from Air.  As it turns out, I like a lot of French musicians.  I’m not sure what that says about me.  This song perfectly sets up the next several tracks which comprise the breakdown of the mix.  Any good mix always have a break down before a big finally.

12. Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes

I aspire to one day to be the proud owner of a boom box.  And, should that day ever come to fruition, I’m sure I’ll probably need to drive my car over to my girl’s house and blare this under her bedroom window while wearing a trench coat and getting soaked in the rain.  She was considering breaking up with me because her father’s nursing home ran into a problem with the feds, but I’m pretty sure this will win her back…….

13. Robert Johnson – Malted Milk

My favorite blues song of all time.  Period.  Of course, the live in San Quentin version of “Nobody Loves Me but My Mother” by BB King is a close second, but I do love me some delta blues.

14. RX Bandits – Taking Chase as the Serpent Slithers

There isn’t a single thing I can say about this song that would do it justice.

15. Bloc Party – This Modern Love

I’m many tracks in and I’ve already written a million words, so yea…..

16. Lykke Li – Breaking It Up

I’m invoking the power of Swedish indie rockers to up my street cred with scene chicks.  Who doesn’t love a good scene chick?

17. Flyleaf – All Around Me

This song brings us out of the breakdown and is the beginning of the final go.  It rocks majorly hard and is an inspiration to all.  And, to all, a good night.

18. Thursday – Understanding in a Car Crash

I already fulfilled the implied requirement for any mixtape compiled by me of including at least one jersey band (Ghost Town), which means that both this song and “Ready and Locked” are so legit that I included them solely because they are awesome…..not because they are by jersey bands.

19. Five Iron Frenzy – On Distant Shores

epic. nuff said.

The dusty album review

i didn’t post any new journal entries last week because we had to due research on an album and write about that instead.  i chose Daft Punk Discovery.  as a result, i’ve been listening to daft punk like crazy over the past week.  anyways, journal entries return:

Listen to an album that you haven’t listened to in the longest time and comment.

Dookie was probably the first album that I ever listened to in its entirety.  This was back in ’94 when I still lived in West PA.  As a fifth grader, this clearly was not an album that (1) I had the money to purchase or (2) that my parents would ever allow me to get a copy of.  But, that’s the reason you go to your friend’s house anyways, not because you like them, because their parents let you do a small subset of the things that your parents don’t allow you to do.  When this is extrapolated out to all of your friends in school and all of your neighborhood chums (some of which you may or may not be friends with but you remain cordial for this very reason), you can pretty much get away with anything you want as long as you know the proper place and time to do it.  And, with all that infinite freedom, I chose to listen to Green Day…….

It’s been a long time since I heard that album for a plethora of reasons.  Like I said before, I didn’t own the album nor did I have money to get a copy as a child.  By the time I was old enough to make money, I was already enjoying the wonders of Audio Galaxy (Napster sucked – Audio Galaxy was the champ) and a 32mb Rio600 mp3 player (it held a solid 8 songs or so and the battery lasted about an hour ((that’s two play throughs!))), so I really never bought CDs.  I kinda skipped the whole music on a physical medium thing.  Furthermore, during that same time, Green Day had hit a lull after Insomniac and I just can’t consciously support the terrible albums they’ve been putting out ever since.  Regardless, I was still a pretty big fan and I had always heard their live shows were awesome, so I decided to check one out…….wow, it was bad.  It ranks number two on my list of worst sets ever right after Tommy Two Tone for a multiple of reasons.  I’ll spare you and sum it up by saying there was a three minute section where Billie Joe mimicked (hopefully, he was mimicking) masturbating on stage while moaning into the microphone.  That’s when I realized that as an 18 year old adolescent I was more mature then many people twice my age (Billie Joe was 32 at the time).

Anywho, that just amplified my already growing fear that Green Day was a solid decade past their prime and I haven’t been a super huge fan ever since…..

After taking another listen to the album, I realized that I had no idea what anything on the album was talking about when I was 9.  That was probably for the best.  I wouldn’t be the charming, young gentlemen that I am today if I had actually taken any of the lyrics on that album to heart.  Even so, that album still rocks.  It is definitely one of the best punk albums of all time.  Of course, every Johnny Rotten out there will instantly cry: “GREEN DAY IS NOT PUNK.”  Then, they’ll immediately attempt to shank me.  After skillfully blocking karate-kid style, I would inform all still conscious enough to comprehend that if you play 1-IV-V power chords and your lead singer sucks: “News flash – you’re a punk band.”

In conclusion, the album rocks, “When I Come Around” will continue to be one of my favorite songs of all time, I can’t wait for the new Major Lazer album to come out, Philadelphia weather sucks, I’m still writing while this is due in 4 minutes, and Green Day should really cease being a band.

headphones!

i finally! found the headphones i want.  the WeSC bag pipe headphones in Mauritius Blue….

or stretch….

i’ll admit. i kinda just want them cause they are pretty.  i’ll prob just end up settling for Technics RPDH1200 cause they are « $150. but then again, if anyone wants to get me a present, these would be delightful.

If a composer from the classical or romantic era, such as Beethoven, were alive today, what would they think of modern music? Would they make music and, if so, what kind of music would they make?

Who am I, a humble college student, to conjecture on the musical preferences of some of the greatest composers to ever hum a melody?  I, simply, am not qualified to say that Haydn would enjoy “Baby Got Back” nor do I know if Mozart would be able to drop a hot beat.  Albeit, like any good researcher, I went off and found a couple LVB quotes to make a hypothesis about how he might bounce in naughts.

What would Beethoven think of modern music?

“Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Translation:  Why is the Flo-rida rapping over “You spin me round” and “Magic”?  I just don’t get it.  And since when does lil wayne play rock?  Seriously, wtf?

Clearly, Beethoven would not understand why so many people make such bad music and would be further frustrated by people that destroy music that was already good.  I’m going to have to agree.

Would Beethoven make music?

“Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Translation: I dropped out of high school so that I could join the Hot Boys.  Eventually, I got signed to Cash Money Records.  I did some solo stuff that was ok.  Then, I started making mixtapes with DJ Drama.  Of course, once I got featured on everyone else’s tunes and Tha Carter III went trip platinum, I sued those mixtape fools cause that game is beat.  Now, my joints are blowin’ up all over the place and I drink about 3 bottles of cough syrup a day.  I think I’m going to try to take over rock music now.  I’m sure that will pan out for me.

Cause Lud Beezy wouldn’t make music?  He says it himself that it’s pretty much the only thing he could do.

What kind of music would Beethoven make?

“Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Translation: I make good soup.

He would probably be something analogous to BT.  BT is pretty much a virtuoso.  He composes stuff, scores films, makes dance albums, makes downtempo albums, etc. He is basically awesome at all music.  I could see lil’Bee doing the same thing.

Then again, there’s always the chance that he would be an amazing romantic composer even now.  Maybe, regardless of the time he was born, he was destined to compose the songs that he did.  Yet, that touches on the topic of fate and free will and all that jazz.  I’m not tryin to start on that.

Regardless of what he ended up making, it’s freaking Bmon€y - of course he’s going to make good soup.

What songs do you want played at your funeral?

What songs do you want played at your funeral?

Given my personal musical history, there are several songs which immediately jump out (all of which are Saves the Day or Streetlight Manifesto related) simply because of their subject/title: Streetlight’s “A Moment of Silence” and “The Saddest Song” and STD’s “Eulogy” and, of course, “At Your Funeral.”  While all these are favorites of mine (with the exception of “Eulogy.” not that it’s bad, but i just have a hard time getting really into anything STD past Stay What You Are), they are wholely depressing.  Surely they’ll never evoke the same emotional response that “Taps” (pray you never have to go to a funeral where Taps is played) or “Gone with the Wind,” as sung by Will Ferrell, do but depressing nonetheless.  and really, what is the fun in that?

I want my funeral to be a dance party.  Ok, I realize that it’s impossible to not be sad when someone passes, but you don’t have to mourn them.  You can celebrate their life and whateve relationship you had with them.  If you can’t, then clearly you were enemies with that person or personified natural entity **shakes his fist at the sun** (what has it done for you lately? If you said, “nothing bad,” then you must be able to tan…..jerk.  just cause you have melanin doesn’t mean you’re cool). Nevertheless, I would hope that my friends and family would have enough good memories with me to raise a pint.  Not to mention, I’ll be chillin’ in Heaven anyways, so everyone should be happy that I don’t have to deal with 76, public transportation not built for 6’5” men, country music, and a whole bunch of harshly evil things.

Everyone can have a lager (or some chocolate milk if they aren’t of age) and taco bell will cater.  It’ll be delicious.  Then, once everyone is buzzin’ and stuffed with CGCs, they can throw on a few choice tunes to get those feet a movin’:

1. Earth, Wind & Fire - “Let’s Groove”

I’m pretty sure it’s illegal in 47 states to not start dancing when this song comes on. Plus, it’s a song that transcends generations.  There is no one that doesn’t like E, W and/or F.

2. Bee Gees - “Night Fever”

I love disco.

3. Nelly Furtado - “Promiscuous”

In life, there are a couple defining moments when your life changes significantly.  All of mine happened between the ages of 10-12: Mom -> “Ryan, I’m pregnant.”, Dad -> “We’re moving to Jersey.”  ABC -> “Catch Brand Spaking New! Doug this saturday.” (as an interesting side note, this use of an exclammation point in a completely inappropriate place predates both The Go! Team and Panic! at the Disco).  Well, there are also moments that completely destroy your notion/preconceptions of music.  Watching the video for this track at the Iacovone’s house at 2 in the morning was one of those moments. I use to be a ska kid.  Well, I’m still a ska kid, but this is the song that opened my eyes to the world of pop.

4. Ghost Town Locals - “Ready and Locked”

It might be my favorite ska song of all time. At the very least, it’s the most peppy. I’m sure at least one person at my funeral will wanna skank a touch.

5. Five Iron Frenzy - “Every New Day”

It’s not necessarily dancy, yet it’s prob my favorite song of all time.  Furthermore, it’s inspiring.

What was the worst rock concert you’ve ever been to?

The first show I ever went to Philadelphia was not the worst show overall that I’ve ever been to (that honor would go to Green Day ((do you really need to mimic masturbating on stage, Billy Joel?  does that make you cool?  oh wait, play “American Idiot” one more time…the kids will love it))), but I did witness what had to be the most pathetic set ever in the history of the world.

Back when Ryan was just a small 6’3” Ryan, I went to see Less Than Jake with Jammer at the Electric Factory.  I’d been to a festival a few years back and about a million local shows since I pretty much followed around my friend’s ska band, Jackson 170 (they were named after a lawn mower), but this was new and exciting cause we were driving up to the big, bad city.  Less Than Jake (named after a dog, Jake) was all the rage for us at the time.  We showed up right when doors opened because we were too naïve at the time to realize that that is pretty much the least ballin’ thing you can do at a show.  The first band that played was some no name.  I think they were called Fall Out Boy if I remember correctly.  They actually had a super crazy set…I wonder if they ever made it **sarcastically ponders**.  After them was the one and only Tommy Tutone.  At this point,

You: “That name sounds kinda familiar.”

I: “You definitely know them.”

You: “Do I?  Maybe…..I can’t remember.”

I: “8-6-7-5-3-oh-9-e-ine-e-ine”

You: **slap yourself in forehead**

“867-5309/Jenny” peaked at #4 in 1982.  Let me emphasize —> 1982.  This concert was in 2003.  That’s a solid two decades after they were even remotely considered a respectable band.  Nevertheless, let’s see how they did.

The four piece came out to unenthusiastic applause.  Of note, the bald lead singer had on a denim shirt and a pair of (for the purposes of making them sound bad) fake ray-bans, the bass player was sporting snugly-fit, leather pants, and the guitarist clearly had a barber who specialized in the “vintage”1987 look.  Then, it began.  They opened with “Jenny”, they did a (for lack of anything better to call it) re-imagining of Jenny about 50 minutes in (which unfortunately marked the half way point of the set), and then closed on “Jenny”.  Now, I could maybe see, though I never have, a band playing a song twice if they had some sort of crazy reprise/medley thing going on (btw, medleys suck. If the song is good enough to be in a medley, it should be good enough to play in its entirety.), but three times is just dumb.  I suppose they figured their hour and thirty minute set was long enough to justify playing the song multiple times as surely the audience was bound to forget that the song was already played at the beginning of the set which was about a million years ago.  I’m definitely not exaggerating either.  Forty five minutes worth of uninspired, generic 80s rock can certainly feel like a million years without breaking a sweat.  Speaking of breaking a sweat, in between songs, the lead singer would take off his glasses, wipe his baldness down with a towel, and then take another swig of what most assuredly was a harshly warm bud light.  Beautiful.  It’s alright.  This gave the bass player time to reattach the strap on his bass, which he was (not) destroying on.  During the middle of one of their sick tracks, his strap broke and his bass crashed to the stage.  My guess is that it slipped off of his insanely cool leather pants.  The drummer did nothing of note and the guitarist was just happy to be there.  Some people clapped when they left the stage.  This was probably just because they were happy they were done and LTJ was next.

LTJ came out and brought the house down.  Before they were all soundly in their thirties, they had some awesome shows.  Actually, I saw them two years ago, and they actually had a pretty decent set.  Unfortunately, it is my opinion that all ska bands should hang it up once they hit thirty.  It’s a genre for the kids.  No one in the pit has a 401k so why should the band?  The real tragedy of the whole show was that LTJ only got an hour and a quarter which means Tommy and his Tutones had the longest set of the night.  Frustrating.

Despite it’s (numerous) shortcomings, in retrospect, it’s hysterical that I was at a show where Fall Out Boy opened for Tommy Two Tone who opened for Less Than Jake.  Less Than Jake probably never reached a tenth of the popularity of Tommy Tutone who never reached a tenth of the popularity of Fall Out Boy.  I guess the lineup was completely dependent on the decade in which you saw it and in 2003 LTJ beat’em all.  Ridiculous.

Who is your favorite band and why?

i’ve decided to post of my music journal for music 338 - American pop, which i’m taking this term.  it makes it slightly more worth doing the homework if i get to post it online. it’ll probably be about one a week.  i doubt they’ll all be as long as their first one though……..it’s just what happens when i start talking about RXB:

Who is your favorite band and why?

Of course, that is the million dollar question.  There are a lot of really amazing bands and to pick just one is extremely difficult when considering the range across everyone who has ever made music.  How is it possible to say Mylo, a dance producer, is better than Saves the Day, an emo band?  Why would Thursday, a hardcore band, have dominance over a hip hop group like Gym Class Heroes?  It’s not about who is better since you can’t really compare bands that don’t share a similar style of music.  Of course, there are general categories in which you could compare across genres such as originality, impact, musical prowess, etc, but to say that one is better or, even further, to say that one is better than all the rest would be quite a ridiculous statement to make: I proclaim strawberries are better than sun.  While the previous statement is entirely true, it still fails to meet any of the requirements of general logic.

The other big problem with naming a favorite band is that you are (in)advertantly linking yourself to whateve style of music the band happens to play as well.  It is, of course, possible that your favorite artist of all time is Nas, but you might hate all other forms of rap.  Unfortunately for you, amazon will continue to recommend you also check out Young Jeezy’s new joint, The Recession, everytime you try to buy a textbook while your friends incessantly assert to you how much more dope JayZ is.

Eh, semantics……..my favorite band is RX Bandits.

RXB started out in the aftermath of the California Ska boom (No Doubt and Sublime being are the prime examples if you, like many, are unfamiliar with possibly the most underrated and underappreciated genre in the span of music history) as the Pharmaceutical Bandits.  They were the default teenage band kids turned ska band at the time, which was why I initially started listening to them.  As a 16 year old in Jersey, who was I to deny some sweet, sweet horn lines.  They weren’t my favorite at the time, but they were definitely something sweet to listen to.  After a couple lineup changes and a couple years, they released The Resignation which was almost a full departure from the third wave ska vibe they had been rocking since their inception.  The ska roots were still there but the band was venturing into other genres such as progressive rock and reggae.   18 year-old Ryan was highly upset about the sparse brass usage.  I quickly dismissed while riding home from best buy in my friend’s pickup truck.  Apparently, when you live in jersey, you buy music from best buy and ride around in pickup trucks.  In retrospect, I’ve changed a nice bit in the past 5 years.

It wasn’t until their latest album, …And the Battle Begun, came out in 2006 that I gave them another solid try and fell in love.  Allow me to enumerate:

1. Chris Tsagakis is the best drummer I’ve ever heard or seen.  The man is a machine.
2. They have fantastic dynamics in their music.  Songs go from energetic and complex to soft and melodic with all kinds of awesome beats (see also #1).  This is actually the same reason I like Beethoven.  I feel like dynamics are lost on a lot of musicians.  Metallica is loud and overcompressed while you probably couldn’t make out the piano on a Norah Jones record if you were the only one at Starbucks.  Not that everyone is one or the other, but it seems very few are able to master a mix of the two.  When you do, it makes the tunes that much more powerful.
3. The lyrics aren’t cheesy.  Well, I’ll say they got exponentially less cheesy with each album.  I don’t think it’s possible to write a non-cheesy ska song if you are less than 20 years old.  It just can’t happen.  On their new albums, their lyrics are absolutely fantastic.  None of them seem forced at all in the sense that when you hear the song, it’s as if the words were always there.
4. Live Shows
   1. They actively support people getting into the music but they are equally against rowdy behavior in the form of pushing, slamming, surfing, or any other type of action that might impede a fellow concert patron’s ability to enjoy the show.  I can dig that.  Standing at a solid 77 inches, I’ve had my night end poorly more than once from a misplaced foot bashing me in the head.
   2. They don’t bullshit.  It’s almost constant music.  More often than not, they will play the majority of their set before saying anything at all, and when they do say something it’s usually something as simple as “We’re RX Bandits. Thanks for coming.”  Awesome – let the music speak for you.
   3. They played one of my favorite shows ever.  It was the 2007 Lehigh University spring concert.  We crashed it.  It was great.
5. Everyone else in the band, besides C.Gak, is also fantastic at the instrument(s) they play.
6. Most importantly, they aren’t sellouts.

That’s all.